Computer Networks

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## **Computer Networks by PL**

The various PL levels and examples of the kinds of computer networks available are presented below.

### **PL 4 or Lower**

There is no computer network worth mentioning in a normal PL 4 or lower campaign. However, as much as it’s possible to allow cybernetic devices to have a PL higher than the base for the campaign, it’s possible to run a lower PL game with devices acting the part of computer networks. For example, the GM for a steampunk game set in 1880 might determine that Babbage’s difference engines can communicate by harmonic telegraph thanks to the work of Alexander Graham Bell and are as good as functioning computers. This Babbage-Bell Grid would use the standard rules for computers in the d20 Sci-Fi Role-playing Game, though the Computer Use skill might be called Babbage Engineering, and the smallest size a computing device could be is a large room or small house. Similarly, a lower PL game that allows magic might have a network of crystal balls that follow the same rules as the VRNet, though nodes become known as mirrors, and noderunners are called mirror-runners. The same rules and abilities apply to this strange Looking-Glass Net; only the trappings and the fact that it’s run by magic set it apart.

### **PL 5 to 6**

From PL 5 through much of PL 6, computer nets are simply computers directly linked to share information. Initially designed to help military compounds communicate and expanded to allow easy communication between scholars and researchers, the computer networks eventually develop into the modern Internet. The rules for using the Internet are already a part of the standard d20 Sci-Fi Role-playing Game rules and are not expanded upon here.

### **PL 6 to 7**

Around the end of PL 6 and the beginning of PL 7, researchers seek to expand the usefulness of the global communications network by making it a social, interactive experience, like being at the shopping center or traveling the streets of a major city, and the Internet slowly evolves into the Virtual Reality Network, or VRNet. Though the concept has been around since PL 5, until now true virtual worlds have been impossibilities due to the limitations on hardware and the exorbitant interface cost. The breakthrough comes on two fronts: affordable interaction hardware and highly efficient VR software. For the first time, the tools for creating virtual worlds are simple and flexible enough that almost anyone can create vivid and realistic settings in mere minutes. Eventually, this software becomes a universally recognized standard that spawns the creation of the first VR nodes. Over time, computer hardware comes with built-in VR node interpreters, allowing users to access any computer system through virtual reality. Eventually the VRNet replaces the traditional global information network and the domains of text and flat images are converted into three-dimensional nodes that represent the information in new and interesting visual ways. By the late Information Age, all computer systems come equipped with VR-compatible hardware and software. Though many computer systems are not linked to the VRNet itself (preventing external tampering by malicious hackers), the VRNet is still a massive sprawl of millions upon millions of nodes (virtual reality locations). Each of these nodes is an adventuring locale in its own right—a place where heroes can interact with other characters or clash with enemies on a virtual battleground. As humanity spreads into the stars, the VRNet spreads as well to encompass not only all of Earth, but also other worlds and colonies as well. The VRNet needs a slew of special rules, which are provided in this chapter. Some additional implants also apply to the VRNet; these can be found in Chapter Two.

### **PL 7 to 8**

A technological descendant of the VRNet, the Hyper Immersion Network, or HINet) comes into existence around the end of PL 7 and the beginning of PL 8. Unlike its predecessor, which only emulates images and occasionally textures through the interface hardware, the HINet is a completely realistic virtual world that is indistinguishable from the real world. Accessing the HINet requires a cybernetic implant, in the form of a neural interface. It completely immerses the senses of its users—they lose all awareness of real world. People on the HINet are unable to tell the difference between the virtual world and their own reality, since every sensation, every smell, and every texture is perfectly rendered in virtual space.