From owner-wod-l@netcom.com Thu May 2 20:35:41 1996 Received: from mail.netcom.com (root@mail.netcom.com [192.100.81.99]) by mail.nada.kth.se (8.6.10/8.6.10) with ESMTP id UAA07620 for ; Thu, 2 May 1996 20:35:38 +0200 Received: (from daemon@localhost) by mail.netcom.com (8.6.13/Netcom) id OAA23053; Wed, 1 May 1996 14:23:42 -0700 Received: from atc.boeing.com (atc.boeing.com [130.42.28.80]) by mail (8.6.13/Netcom) id OAA22888; Wed, 1 May 1996 14:22:42 -0700 Received: by atc.boeing.com (5.65/splinter.boeing.com) id AA15659; Wed, 1 May 1996 14:18:28 -0700 Received: from runt.ca.boeing.com by splinter.boeing.com with ESMTP (1.37.109.16/16.2) id AA139895622; Wed, 1 May 1996 14:20:22 -0700 Received: by runt.ca.boeing.com (940816.SGI.8.6.9/931108.SGI.ANONFTP) id OAA09057; Wed, 1 May 1996 14:20:06 -0700 From: "Corwyn J. Alambar" Message-Id: <9605011420.ZM9055@runt.ca.boeing.com> Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 14:20:03 -0700 X-Mailer: Z-Mail (3.2.0 26oct94 MediaMail) To: gm-l@netcom.com, wod-l@netcom.com Subject: Mr. Phipps' BBS - More N. CA by Night Cc: mage-l@oracle.wizards.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-wod-l@netcom.com Precedence: list Reply-To: wod-l@netcom.com Status: RO X-Status: Yes, another chantry in the Bay Area of California. This time, one of the "expected" factions of the Traditions, the Virtual Adepts, and their main Chantry, headquartered in the digitially active region known as Silicon Valley. Author's Note: I will be working on an update to my earlier writings on the Bay Area, maybe even assembling them into a 'sourcebook' format once I finish with the Garou and the final Mage details, as well as fleshing out the tidbits on the Kindred of the Bay Area as well. I'd like to thank everyone who has made comments on this ongoing project, and would like to hear from anyone who has been using this setting or parts of it, either in California or in the rest of the World of Darkness. Unfortunately, this can never be canon, but with luck this has proven to be a valuable resource to the net.gaming.community out there. Mr. Phipps' BBS The Virtual Adepts in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area "Turn up the power, "This is the hour "From every tower "A million watts of love!" -Information SOciety, "1,000,000 Watts of Love" Long considered the home of the DIgital Revolution, the stretch of land in the Santa Clara Valley from south Fremont south and westward to Palo Alto and Menlo Park known as Silicon Valley has done more to shape the technology that makes todays computers. No fewer than 20 large computer companies, from Hewlett-Packard to Sun to Silicon Graphics to microprocessor giant Intel make their homes here. You would think this to be the playground of the Technocracy. Not so. Companies that rely on brilliant, if eccentric, young talent, gambling, taking chances, thrive here. Most people know the story about a pair of students who started the company known as Apple Computers from their garage. Or the "modern miracle" known as Netscape Communications. Even Netcom On-Line, one of the largest providers of Internet access in the United States, found its start here. Truly, then, this is the layground of the Virtual Adepts. History Silicon Valley was originally caught securely in the grasp of the New World Order and Iteration X until sometime during the 1960s, when the cultural war that was taking place swept in, and with it came the influence of the Virtual Adepts. A bunch of hotshot young programmers and engineers, heavilly influenced by the Virtual Adepts, staged an underground coup, taking this once formidable engine of paradigm engineering and turning it into a virtual madhouse of technological advance and surprise. Many of the Adepts here view themselves as the fathers and mothers of the modern Adept tradition, though many of the people who were actually part of the Great Revolution (as they call it), are middle-aged, and looking to retire from the Ascension War. They look down with disgust on the newest crop of Virtual Adepts, seeing the cyberpunk and cypherpunk movement as riding on the coattails of what they had done, and doing it poorly. Style over substance, they believe, and find more solace in movies like Weird Science and Real Genius than from The Net or Johnny Mnemonic. Mr. Phipps is a semi-legendary figure here in SIlicon Valley, suppsoedly having started the oldest software pirate BBS in history, back in the days of acoustic modems and paper tape. If it's hot, Mr. Phipps has it. If you can find him.There have been no fewer than nine raids in fifteen years against the ubiquitous Mr. Phipps, and always law enforcement leaves with egg on their face, after raiding a nursing home or in one case a suburban church. The Chantry The Chantry itself is actually a collection of small Horizon Realms connected by causeways through the Digital Web. Surrounded by some of the best security in the entire Web, the BBS is considered one of the safest spots to have a meeting, anywhere. The physical analogues of the BBS move about using a random Time and Correspondence effect, which should cause Paradox, but somehow doesn't. There are rumors that the Paradox is actually bled off into the Web somewhere, but there has been no way to prove or disprove this theory. The main Chantry center, both in the Web and its physical parallel, is called the Server. This is where all of the major business of the Chantry is decided, as well as some of the classic parties that, were they less exclusive, would rival the parties held at the Digital Raven (qv), also a hot spot in the Bay Area. There are a number of smaller gathering points, POPs (Points of Presence), with many the same characteristics. One wanders around San Francisco, another around Berkeley/Oakland, and another in the Contra Costa Valley area, near Concord and Walnut Creek. For major Chantry meetings, a co-locational effect takes place, and all the POPs meld into the same "space" as the Server. Relations The relations between the members of Mr. Phipps BBS and the surrounding Chantries is on an up and down basis, in general. Their specific relations with local powers is as follows: The Scarlet Mansion - Relations are smooth in general, though sometimes conflicts erupt (Never get a Virtual Adept stoned on anything more powerful than marijuana. LSD is STRAIGHT OUT!) The Chantry of the Gold Coast - Rocky, as the more prestigious Gold Coast Chantry looks at these rebellious upstarts as endangering the delicate work they have been doing. Often this results in a war in the media, particularly the local television stations, which have become a favorite method of battling back and forth between the major Chantries in the area. The Silver Sunset Ranch - The members of Mr Phipps' BBS know there is something strange about that old ranch cum cemetary out on the coast, but they can't figure out what. The director and his assistant merely give a knowing smile. The Seekers of the Mirror's Shards - The Seekers have an infiltrator in amongst the Virtual Adepts, but there has been no indication that they know the nature of this nephandus-driven cult. The Technocracy - (in chorus) FIND THEM, and KILL THEM! Culture "Figures slowly come to life Almost always they are having Minor problems, minor strife I can almost hear you laughing This is how it feels Using up the time we steal this is how it feels to be free... to be free?" -Information Society, "To Be Free" Unlike most Virtual Adept groups, the preponderance here is not with a very young, counterculture membership. THe members of Mr Phipps' BBS are maturing individuals who still get a thrill from running a covert war against the "Established Order", who still want to spread a little sunshine and make the world a better place. They are more likely to listen to Information Society and Jimi Hendrix than to Machines of Loving Grace or Nine Inch Nails. Many of their actions are designed to subvert the paradigm in long, broad strokes. They subtlely manipulate the media, infiltrating network computers and changing news stories, etc., to put a negative slant to any story about the "Establishment." They sponsor sites on the 'Net about alternative points of view, championing causes from the Libertarian Party to Greenpeace. They are all much more ideological than they feel their bretheren are, and many of them can be grouped into a few small groups, based on common points of view. The SWAT Team Search, Watch, Attack, Terminate. Members from this group like nothing better than to sabotage things, and blow them up. Their bretheren in the environmental movement are called "eco-terrorists" by their "fans" in industry, and they are considered to be a major threat to Technocracy operations. Staging asaults and thefts on major Technocracy constructs has long been their main method of action, but recently they've turned to computer hacking and crashing systems to cause more trouble. The Media is the Message A group that describes themselves using a twist on an old slogan, these people are master manipulators of television, radio, and print. By the careful spread of information, they are able to manipulate and influence decisions onn a global scale (members of this group take credit for causing the collapse of one of Britain's oldest banks... And a major $yndicate construct. Whether they are to be believed or not is still in question.) The Jammers This group wants nothing more than to disrupt the normal flow of communications, to slow and eventually stop the pace of brainwashing accomplished via the mass media. They hope this kind of disruption will cause people to think for themselves, but secretly many of them are afraid that there is little hope for many of the "television slaves". Defenses "I don't think it's coincidence, and I don't believe in accidents It's time to ask ourselves Why are we still here?" -Information Society, "Still Here" For a Chantry that is in an almost constant state of warfare with their technocratic neighbors, the atmosphere is relaxed, too lax by some standards. But their defenses are deep and insidious, consisting of many different rots and effects (both magical and mundane) that keep their defenses raised. Encrypt (Entropy 2, Mind 2) With the use of this rote, the subject is able to make their thought patterns random enough that they cannot be read meaningfully by most Mind rotes and effects. Access Denied, Connection Closed (Corr. 4, Forces 2) With this effect a person can be expelled from any mundane location back to their "home" location. This effect is, of course, very vulgar. With the addition of Spirit 2, it can be used to expell an intruder from the Digital Web, back to either the Umbra or the Earth. Password Verification (Mind 3, Forces 2) This rote scans the mind of anyone attempting to access an area, unlocking a door if the person is identified as someone who belongs there, or sounding an alarm if they do not. ***** So, everyone, tell me what you think! -Corey -- It is even true of certain ideas, as of certain predatory species, that they can subsist only as long as the species of idea on which they prey subsists in sufficient number. - Bertrand De Jouvenel, _The Art of Conjecture_