From:	Atti2dboy@aol.com
Sent:	Tuesday, January 11, 2000 3:42 PM
To:	blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com
Subject:	Re: [BLUE PLANET] - skills in dataspikes (was "frontier etiquet

c.gribbon@dundee.ac.uk (Christopher Gribbon) wrote:

>Also, there'd certainly be a maximum amount of information 
>that any one dataspike package
>could contain (so someone with 60 in a skill already would 
>probably not get any benefit from using them).

60 sounds like a reasonable cut-off for benefitting from a
reference program. Depends on the GM. Also newer updated
programs could have information the PC doesn't know.

>The higher-level "advice"-type programs may just add a 
>standard 1-level bonus no matter 
>what your rating (2 heads being theoretically better than one,
>after all...)

Since the Interactive Access Chips in the rule book provide
a 2 level bonus, I'd be willing to allow that the better
programs can do so as well (even if it is on a broader topic).

=Rich
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From:	Christopher Gribbon [c.gribbon@dundee.ac.uk]
Sent:	Tuesday, January 11, 2000 5:23 AM
To:	blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com
Subject:	Re: [BLUE PLANET] - skills in dataspikes (was "frontier etiquet

>There are all sorts of reference programs that
>would be highly beneficial to the would-be Poseidon colonist: agriculture,
>construction, electronics, sciences, mechanics and medicine. The high-end
>software would be an expert system that offers limited advice rather than
>just retrieving information.
>
>How would it work for a character who did not have a skill or skill group,
>but was using a reference program? It should be of some benefit to them, but
>not so useful as to replace having a skill. Other wise characters would run
>around with pockets overflowing with dataspikes.  :-)
>Maybe a skill of 10, like an Interactive Access Chip? Maybe as high as a 20
>for the high-end programs.

I suppose it'd be a bit like having a load of technical knowledge, but no hands-on 
experience. A bit like a student's first job after graduating.
And for certain types of know-how, like mechanics, science and medicine, stuff would have 
to be updated yearly, or even more often.
Also, there'd certainly be a maximum amount of information that any one dataspike package 
could contain (so someone with 60 in a skill already would probably not get any benefit from 
using them).
The higher-level "advice"-type programs may just add a standard 1-level bonus no matter 
what your rating (2 heads being theoretically better than one, after all...)

Christopher Gribbon
Vision Research Laboratories
Medical Sciences Institute
University of Dundee
Dundee DD1 5EH
UK

(01382) 344 229
____________________________________________________________________

"A scientist is meant to be disinterested, pure; his ambition merely to
descry the cement of the universe.
He isn't meant to use it to start laying his own patio!"

- WILL SELF, The Quantity Theory of Insanity
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