Apophenia Evolved

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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

How the Digital World Works, Part 1

An important part of a story is how the world works, especially if the story is a mystery. So before I actually started I wanted to get a few ground rules down about how the Digital World Works.

I do want to take my players opinions into account and get there opinions about how they think the world should work. However there needed to be some core setting assumptions, a few of which are listed below.

Rule 1: Digital Actions Leave Evidence



Hacking into a system leaves evidence that can later be found. All digital actions leave about as much evidence as their physical counterparts and can be similarly investigated. All digital actions follow Locard’s Exchange Principle.

Rule 10: Digital Actions Can Not Kill



People can not be killed directly by the visual and audio caused by the augmented world. The only exception is for rare cases like people who suffer from seizures.

Rule 11: Digital Information Takes Form In Cyberspace



All data not in local storage, takes a form in Cyberspace. This means the data can then be passed around or stolen. Example: A digital book would appear as book when not in storage.

Explanations, Why These Rules



Rule 1 was invented to make sure a mystery story could actually exist. Since the rule ensures that there will always be evidence of digital tampering to can provide clues and evidence for the players

Rule 10 was so that the players have an understanding of the limits of the digital world. They need to know the dangers of the digital world and if it can be the cause of death. I made the decision I did because that was the type of story I felt was most applicable and deaths must still have personal dangerous action by an individual to pull off.

Rule 11 is more of a general rule about how everything works and is more of an ecstatic choice then anything else. My inspiration for this decision is from the Dennou Coil anime.

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