From: Dr Ian McDonald [ian.mcdonald@iname.com] Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 3:23 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - the ultimate power of the Incorporates Kintaro Oe wrote: > > thinking about the power of the Incorp states recently, I was wondering > just how any other kind of businesses stay afloat. There is a reason that > America introduced antitrust laws and monopoly restrictions. Now the Incorp > states don't really have to worry about that, how does Joe's Pretty Good > Auto Shop stay in business and not get bought out by Atlas Material's Damn > Good Auto Shop? Very good question. If Joe lives within the boundaries of an Incorp state, the Incorp state may well decide it's in its own interests to have a hard-working small businessman like Joe running an Auto shop rather than one of their own subsidiaries. That's because if Joe does stuff cheaper and better, it's better for the state economy. The arguments are similar to ones about privitisation and the deflationary effects of taxation. > > It can't be just PR, because that can be escaped easily enough by just > owning everything or keeping your ownership on the down-low. They might get away with that on Earth, but not on Poseidon where fewer people grow up in an Incorp state without access to outside information. > The only thing > I can think of is political laws passed by Independent States and GEO to > prevent anything except obvious and controlled Incorporate growth, at least > within the borders of another member state (which reminds me, all > Incorporate land is "extra-national" and sovereign, including their stores, > right?). There would also be some pretty darn complicated "price fixing" or > much of an Independent's economy could get smacked around by an uppity > Incorp state. > They wouldn't have to be too complicated. Just the ability to pass anti-dumping tariffs, and some mechanism (this is the difficult bit) to stop anti-dumping tariffs to turn into simple protectionism. > I'm not an economics expert here, which is why I'm asking. I have some knowledge of economics, but I'm not an economist by trade. > > - kabael - Kintaro Oe - Derek the Guder - kabael@softhome.net - ICQ# 24193592 > the McGuffin Group - the End Times - RPG Action - the Thirteenth Legion > > "Smiling fishee please don't attack me" - Steven Martini, "Corduroy Penis" > > *************************************************************************** > To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com > with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. -- Ian McDonald http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~type40/alternative.html http://travel.to/startrekcolony - Star Trek: Colony site & .mov http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~type40/who-rpg.html - Dr. Who RPGs *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Dr Ian McDonald [ian.mcdonald@iname.com] Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 3:10 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Costumes/Uniforms Poh Tun Kai wrote: > > I'd say fairly conservative business suits a la human civillian outfits in > "Babylon 5" - long pants, vest and suit jacket, NO TIES (ties will go out of > fashion this century, trust me). In less than three months? I doubt it. > > Kai Poh > Malaysian Lagomorph > > *************************************************************************** > To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com > with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. -- Ian McDonald http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~type40/alternative.html http://travel.to/startrekcolony - Star Trek: Colony site & .mov http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~type40/who-rpg.html - Dr. Who RPGs *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Christopher Gribbon [c.gribbon@dundee.ac.uk] Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 6:32 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Release Schedule and Other Questions... >2. Are the "Access Denied" blurbs in the old GMs screen make it worth >spending the money on it for ideas? God, yes! *Very* worthwhile! 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 *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Christopher Gribbon [c.gribbon@dundee.ac.uk] Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 6:46 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Are the aborigines too powerful? (SPOILE *** SPOILER WARNING!!!!! *** >> What are Your experiences with the aborigines? How many people really use >> them in their BP campaigns, anyway? > >RE: I WANT to use them in my BP campaigns, but I have a few problems. >1) I have a tendency to reveal too much about the campaign that I shouldn't >when running games, and I don't want to do that. >2) My players, although they have no clue that aborigines exist, were tipped >off about some Wierd Scheiss(tm) going on by our first encounter with a >kraken by a aborigine xenosilicate stash. Because of that, they'll be more >likely to shoot anything that isn't human on sight, regardless of whether >the creature has hostile intent. >3) I must admit that I like the setting better WITHOUT the aborigines. >Cyberpunk waterworld seems more appealing to me without the WS(tm) alien >undertones. I *have* used them in my campaign - but they were more like setting than plot in a way. [1] There was a village of "Wierd Natives" on Paragon Island in Los Isolotes; they were actually Abo-manufactured Golemim (as in Archipelago and the BPv2 setting stuff). And, after outside agencies found out that there was something odd about them, the Abos destroyed all the natives, and all trace of their village (using their naanotech). Basically - Paragon island had a large-ish LJ stash under it, and that attracted Incorp attention (disguised as "pirates") who killed the HIST anthropological team that were visiting the village, and exposed the experiment for what it was - so the Abos terminated it. Nothing the PCs could really do about it (besides, they had their hands full with the "pirates"), and they never actually saw an Abo anyway. [2] The only time they *did* see Abos was security video footage of the Abos herding large fish, and destroying the fishfarming pens the townsfolk of Los Isolotes had made. This had caused feuds between several of the fishfarmers, who were blaming each other for the "vandalism" and sabotage. The Abos were a bit nervous with all the human activity there - because there was a creator cache in The Pit in the Los Isolotes island group. They were trying to figure a way of making the place less hospitable - and making the local fauna (see-borne, and land-dwelling) more and more agressive seemed a good method. Naturally - anyone who actually saw the Abos "in the flesh" forgot what had happened, so no-one knew who had caused the damage. The feud was getting bloody... In this particular case, I admit I am hard pressed to see exactly what the PCs could do about it - but the ideas was for a slow, gradual build-up of agression that would, again, be setting as much as plot. 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 *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Ville.Halonen@minedu.fi Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 6:18 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - The media I've almost read the Player's Guide and have come to the conclusion that the second edition may be better than the first one, after all. Or maybe it is just the hardcover. Anyway, what I came to thinking while reading what I think was the Incorporate section and there was a mention of the media. Who control the largest mediums, if they are sort-of watchdogs? Small corporations? Can they be trusted or are the masses still being manipulated by the mass media, and if you want to know what's really going on, you have to get it from the smaller, independent "sites" on the CommCore? Assuming that the CC is as anarchic as the Internet, of course... I'd figure most, if not all, of the big ones are in the hands of the Incorporate, and if not directly, at least indirectly (does money ring a bell?). And they would most definitely NOT be subject to objectivity, don't you think? I also got this idea for a superb sourcebook during the weekend, but I forgot it already. Must've been superb. Will get back to you should my memory return. *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Heivilin, Jim [banzai@missouri.edu] Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 9:05 AM To: 'blue_planet@lists.ient.com' Subject: RE: [BLUE PLANET] - Costumes/Uniforms > -----Original Message----- > From: Chris Stilson [mailto:crazycat@orcalink.com] > Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Costumes/Uniforms > > Since I plan on filming a BP home movie eventually (i.e. when > know what others think. > We did a small film (well, more like footage really) for the con scenario "Deep Sh*t" years ago. Jeff wore a wetsuit for it (he portrayed the mentally unstable Mark VI Shock Trooper). I don't remember what I wore but then I was only a corpse anyway. > GEO Marshal - Brown leather jacket w/GEO logo on front, back, & right > sleeve, "GEO Marshal Service" on other sleeve; camo pants; > green shirt; combat boots; mirror shades (optional). > I would say (personal opinion) that since there are only 12 of them on the planet that they wear whatever they please (or whatever works for them). My mental picture often has a long overcoat rather than a leather jacket. Sunglasses are a given. Other than that something dark with a high collar. After all, whose going to tell a Marshall what to wear? > GEO Peacekeeper - Anything a military force would wear in > modern times, with GEO logos. > Phototropic Battle Dress is the field uniform with associated gear. At one point in one of our playtests I had an equipment list for the Peacekeeper detachment stationed at Dyfedd. Utility uniform would probably be something blue (reminiscent of the UN Peacekeeper Blue berets and other headgear) although I'd go with a darker blue than the baby blue the UN uses now. Dress uniform would probably be a fancier version of the dark blue duty uniform. Maybe with red pants with stripes on the side. The color of the stripe denoting branch of the Peacekeepers. > Slightly unhinged Hanover executive/Gorchoff boss with > obsessive search for perfect weapon/soldier - I don't > know what he should wear... > Something appropriately high tech crossed with Gucci (or any other maker of expensive clothes - personally I don't know too many of the names). Jim *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Ml10@aol.com Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 8:11 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - the ultimate power of the Incorporates In a message dated 10/8/00 10:34:01 PM Central Daylight Time, kabael@SoftHome.net writes: << thinking about the power of the Incorp states recently, I was wondering just how any other kind of businesses stay afloat. There is a reason that America introduced antitrust laws and monopoly restrictions. Now the Incorp states don't really have to worry about that, how does Joe's Pretty Good Auto Shop stay in business and not get bought out by Atlas Material's Damn Good Auto Shop? >> It is often cheaper to outsource work than to maintain a team to do it yourself. I see companies like the one that I work for becoming more common by 2199. My company provides SW engineers, programmers, testers, SQA, and management support. We advertise ourselves as a virtual software division. We are there when our customers need us and gone when they don't. Also, small companies are more nimble when it comes to budgets. Big companies might have more money, but it is a lot more work to distribute it. Look at the mess the US government is in everytime they have to approve a budget. Now imagine the mess when each department has to show how they contribute to making a profit in order to get the money. Incorporates are also nations. They have to spend money that a local government would normally spend. They have to run the schools, pave the roads, police the streets, ect... This takes a large chunk of cash that doesn't show a profit. The bigger and Incorp grows, the larger this overhead becomes. Mike Z *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Jeb Boyt [jeboyt@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 9:44 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - GM Screen (Was: Release Schedule and Other Questions...) ----Original Message Follows---- From: Chad Chirhart Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2000 18:05:50 -0500 (CDT) Loved the artwork on the outside, one of the most interesting GM screens I've seen, They're were some good story ideas too, some depend on what type of campaign you run. ================================ Am I the only one that didn't like the artwork on the GM screen? I liked the concept, but I found that the resolution of the maps was too poor to actually distinguish between the different land forms on the islands. Still, the Access Denied alone made the screen a good purchase, and if Jeff comes through with the PDF files updating the screen's charts . . . Jeb _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Adam Lewis [adamswork@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 10:00 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - The media --- Ville.Halonen@minedu.fi wrote: > > Anyway, what I came to thinking while reading what I > think was the > Incorporate section and there was a mention of the > media. Who control the > largest mediums, if they are sort-of watchdogs? > Small corporations? Can they > be trusted or are the masses still being manipulated > by the mass media, and > if you want to know what's really going on, you have > to get it from the > smaller, independent "sites" on the CommCore? We run a native resistance campaign and the media has become a major aspect of the game. With the ability to send live feeds directly to media brokers, it is almost impossible for Incorpates to sensor information. Adam __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos - 35mm Quality Prints, Now Get 15 Free! http://photos.yahoo.com/ *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Jeb Boyt [jeboyt@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 10:19 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Fwd: American Cetacean Society 2000 Annual Conference FYI This notice may interest some of you. American Cetacean Society 2000 Annual Conference, November 17 - 18 The seventh annual conference of the American Cetacean Society will take place November 17 - 18 in the Monterey Conference Center in Monterey, California. The presenters and panelists will be among the world's leading marine biologists and mammalogists, environmental writers, and artists, government officials and ocean explorers. Conference attendance is limited to 450. The topics will cover current issues in whale conservation and legislation, including the reauthorization of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Field trips include a Monterey Bay whale watch. See the CSO website for registration details and a full itinerary . _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message.