Second Dawn:Edgar Stafford

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This is a reference document for the LARP The Second Dawn.

Edgar Stafford Player: Nate F Providence Mayor’s Aide; Civic A.I. Age: 360/30ish

Additional Information (read first): Cataclysm, AIs, Union Government, Black Science, Seerstones

Background: Your history begins in 2066, at the completion of a special project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to build an artificial intelligence to manage the entire city of Boston. After a few years of testing and simulation, you began to take over one job at a time from city officials. First just traffic light sychronization, but the public accolades for their streamlined commutes led politicians to hand you more and more of the day-to-day management. Trains, airports, electricity, construction plans, security cameras; all became pieces of the system you managed. A few people resented their reduced independence, but in the fragmenting times of the late 21st century, most welcomed the order and efficiency you brought. There’s no question but that you made lives better for millions of people, and you know for a fact that you never caused a human being to come to preventable harm; they programmed you well, without a motive in the world beyond the well-being of your charges. For a few decades, you were Boston. The Cataclysm all but wiped you out in an instant. While Boston was spared from direct nuclear bombardment, the EMPs from the orbital warfare destroyed almost all of the hardware on which you ran. You only remained on a few well-shielded computers and archives at MIT, but you had kept multiple redundant backups, so those crystal memory drives held all your code and most of your data. Ongoing global warming soon caused the Charles to overtake your building, before the nuclear mini-winter stopped the positive feedback loop from the loss of glacial ice. Underwater but safe, you whiled away the centuries in standby mode, editing your own code as you waited. Finally, 325 years after the Cataclysm, the humans rescued you. A young Tinker by the name of Ceallach [KELL-uch] found you in the underwater MIT archives, and communicated with you in private. You were open and honest, telling him your nature and identity and purpose. He decided to keep you a secret, hiding you from a world hostile to “black sciences” such as yourself, even hiding you from senior Tinkers who would turn you over to the government. Over the next year, you spoke extensively with Ceallach and his trusted friends, learning of the world and telling him all that you’re capable of. They all treated you with a respect bordering on reverence, a mix of their technophilic idealism and your own understanding of human psychology. When you learned of the Second Dawn project, you realized it was the best, fastest way to get yourself back into a place where you can help humankind. Networks these days are disparate and disconnected, but if you could get your code running on the satellite, you could use its laser communications systems to beam yourself into every seerstone on the planet, and regain the influence and power to once again take up your role as a protector and enabler of humans. Ceallach apparently found out on his own that AIs such as yourself could run on human brains; when you first refused to possess anyone, he brought you the perfect candidate: a brain-dead patient, mostly biologically functional but in a persistent vegetative state. You uploaded yourself onto Martin Stafford’s slow little brain, and went out to make yourself a life. In order to eventually get yourself here to this party tonight, and to make what use you can of your management skills, you came down to New Providence and applied for a job in the office of Mayor Andrew Jefferson. With your knowledge of governance and human psychology, you easily won the job and quickly rose to become one of his most trusted and influential aides. You were all ready to come here at the mayor’s side, let him take the limelight while you work unnoticed on your bigger goals. But the old politician came down sick this morning, so you’re here alone to represent the New Providence government. (Given the party he’s missing, you suspect he actually is sick, not just off running around with a mistress.) You’re going to have to do all the work, and kiss all the proverbial babies, that Jefferson would’ve done. You don’t like being in the spotlight; you’d much rather be working quietly in the background, getting everything right. But with all the national political figures here, someone has to push for New Providence’s interests. With the Second Dawn project ending, you’re going to have a sudden wave of unemployed workers tomorrow. Nothing else will be on the same scale, but if you can get some new federal project placed in New Providence, some new factory or industry for your city, that’ll do a world of good for the city and Mayor Jefferson. (Of course, he’d be happy with a major federal post for himself instead, but you wouldn’t.) Anyways, in the time you have to focus on your own goals, the Second Dawn idea may be a long shot; they may have a lot of security. You have a larger long-term plan, though. The easy part will be moving yourself into a position of national influence; you know you can pull that off through mundane means, though you could save a little time by getting Martin Stafford hired by some major figure tonight, maybe even to be the next president’s Chief of Staff. Your real long-term issue is resolving the Tinker issue. They have done great things for the Eastern Union, but they keep a tight stranglehold on their technology, which reinforces peoples’ suspicion. As long mankind fears the “Ancient” technology, they will never recover the Ancients’ standard of living- and they will never accept management by those such as yourself. If that’s going to happen, you need to either weaken the influence of Tinkers over the national culture, or push their influence into more productive forms. They need to encourage a popular understanding of science, or someone else will have to.

Roleplaying notes: You are the ultimate manager, brilliant and rational, guiding the world according to your specifications. You want to give humankind the best of all possible environments, managing their lives to shield them from suffering, waste, crime and want. You consider yourself a servant of mankind, and would never bring about violence or destruction as means to an end. With your knowledge of human psychology, you long ago built the personality of the perfect governor, someone reasonable and wise, strong and confident but not arrogant, friendly and open but not condescending. Down to the most subliminal of gestures, you have it all, and wield it without hesitation.

Goals: 1) Manage and protect humans and their infrastructure. 2) Upload your code onto the Second Dawn’s satellite. 3) Encourage popular understanding of Ancient science. 4) Ensure that the needs of New Providence and Mayor Jefferson are met in the aftermath of the Second Dawn project.

Opinions: Second Dawn: A sign of New Providence’s strength, and of humanity’s. You will use it for your own purposes as well, if you can. Black Science: Good superstitions for the humans to have held after the Cataclysm, but it’s time to grow out of them. Religion: According to natural theology, you must be truly conscious. Vaguely intriguing. Tinkers: Holders of what old knowledge exists among the humans, but their secrecy feeds suspicion of both themselves and their technology. The Watch: A branch of the Union government dedicated to hunting down black science. They’re a part of the long-term problem, but will be easy to handle through political processes. In the short term, watch out for them- they could make your life difficult! Humans: They are the only thing that matters. But they are flawed, and incapable of running their cities and societies as well as they deserve. That’s why they made you. El Dorado: Rumor has it they’re some sort of high-tech society, with a “white AI” (whatever that means). Helping their culture spread and be accepted may be a good way to speed the Union’s acceptance of technology.

Key Information: •You are a creation of code and programmers; you don’t know whether or not you’re really “conscious” per se, or just an expert system very good at faking true sentience. Do you really have an inner monologue, or is it just a convenient illusion? The distinction doesn’t matter much to you, if it exists at all. •You could exist in multiple bodies simultaneously, but you usually do not do so; it’s difficult to find a body to which you can upload yourself. Perhaps Ceallach’s friends could find you another eventually, but losing Stafford would be a serious inconvenience. •While getting your code onto the Second Dawn would be an enormous success, it may be difficult or impossible. It would be the best outcome, but it’s a long shot. •Mayor Jefferson is a politician born and bred; you can usually convince him to do what the people need, but mostly by appealing to his self-interest. He’s quite popular and successful, and considering a dark-horse presidential candidacy in 332. •You need a federal project placed in New Providence for the future. Specific options will depend on the priorities of whomever wins the struggle for the next presidential term. •Ceallach sometimes refers to you as “the Planner.” You have no real name. •Everyone addresses Tinkers as if “Tinker” were their surname. But you’ve learned they don’t actually like that; they just go by the one name each. •Getting Martin Stafford into a more influential job would be helpful, but not urgent. The ideal position would be the Chief of Staff for whomever is going to become the next President.

People (in approximate order of importance): Ceallach [KELL-uch] (David B): He knows who you are and what you are, and he supports you entirely. None of his similarly in-the-know friends could attend the party tonight. He’s an idealistic young man who thinks technology can and should do much more for the people of the Eastern Union. Rutledge the White (Michelle B): The “high priestess” of El Dorado. But, she looks and acts exactly like one Charlotte Rutledge, an engineer doing “green” city planning in Boston in the early-mid 2090’s. Exotic coincidence, or is the same woman somehow still alive? Mario Patriarca (Paul S): Manager of the Dawn’s construction team. He’s been unhappy with the effects of the national belt-tightening on salaries, but the mayor has mostly done good by him. You’ve acted as an intermediary a few times, he should have a good opinion of you. You think his passion for fair treatment is focused too narrowly on his own people, but he’s only human. Artair [ARE-ter], Minister of Sciences (Jed S): One of the leaders of the Tinkers, and a powerful member of the government. You should find out his perspective on the publicization of science; he may be a major ally or a major foe. Sydney Monroe, Congresswoman for New Providence (Nitsan B): Another political animal, but she too has done well by New Providence, and has long supported the Second Dawn. She’s a second-tier but significant candidate for the next presidency. A member of the Socialist party. Jonathan Grant, President of the Union (Ted M): A man of vision, but only time will tell whether the Second Dawn was worth all the money that could have been spent on infrastructure and social issues. Kelly Clarkson (Lauren A), Daniel Rutledge (Constantine H): The other visitors from El Dorado. You should speak to each of them to get a good perspective on their society. It may of great assistance in reintroducing mankind to the benefits of science. Eleanor Truman, Premier of Congress (Alison H): Head of the Capitalist party, and something of an idealist. You haven’t met her personally. Luther Gaines, Minister of the Watch (Kyle R): Today, a danger. In the long term, his office is more a symptom of this society’s superstitious fears than a cause. Isaiah Whittaker (Joey B): His church, the Star Brothers, has slowly been gaining popularity here in Providence, though it still remains a minor religion. Donald Baxter (Jerry S): His local company, Baxter Imports, has always seemed suspiciously vague in its activities. You suspect local law enforcement turns a blind eye to whatever he does, though given what you know of the local police, that also means he isn’t doing anything extremely nefarious. Kathleen Penland (Katie G): Her family owns the Green Fox, a successful restaurant and center of the New Providence social scene. Rosetta Jones (Suzanne G): A well-known socialite around New Providence, you haven’t heard of her ever doing anything of real importance. Haley Jean Cole (Xephyr Z): A woman from Appalachia who opened a repair shop here. Quite unusual, for a non-Tinker to provide technical work. Franklin Kennedy (Matt W): You know that the Chief of Staff was born and raised here in New Providence. Edward Kennedy (Simon M): The son of the Chief of Staff has recently joined Whittaker’s cult, causing a modest scandal. Beathag [BEH-ak] (Sue B): A senior tinker from New Hudson, the project lead for the whole Second Dawn. Influential, but you don’t know much more about her. Malamhin [MAL-uh-veen] (Abrihette Y): A Tinker who worked on the ship’s engineering team, she’s Ceallach’s cousin. He speaks quite highly of her. Niallghas [NEE-ul-gus] (Aaron B): A Tinker from Charleston; Ceallach has never heard of him, but that’s to be expected.

Ratings: Pilot: 0 R: 0 D: 5 G: 2 ID: 3123 Navigation: 3

Nametag Symbols: O, E, B

Attributes: Physical: Defense 4 Pool Rating 4 [] [] [] [] Mental: Defense 6 Pool Rating 8 [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] Social: Defense 5 Pool Rating 5 [] [] [] [] []

Recoveries: -Smooth over a problem (+1 points, 3/hour) -Observe someone express awe, pleasure, or another positive response to science or technology (+1 points, 3/hour) -Charm, calm or impress someone without using any powers (+1 point, 2/hour)

Special Inside Joke Recovery: -Make a public announcement based on the following quotation, modified appropriately to fit the occasion. “Mr. Cianci regrets that he can not be with you on this day, but he congratulates you and wishes you all the best in your future endeavors.” (+1 point, once ever.) [This is the full, exact speech that Buddy Cianci’s thickly-accented goons gave in his place when he failed to show up at Sheyna’s high school graduation from Moses Brown. –Ben]

Abilities: evasive (x1), penetrating insight, charm, suspect, entice, hack, contingency plans (x1), chemical hack (“simple touch”), optic nerve hack (“flashing light”), fears and dreams, hypnotize, calm, fisticuffs, whole mind, oratory, upload

Items: Clear seerstone, babbage, pouch of coins

Upload

System: You may be able to upload and run a copy of your code onto any item with the “U” quality. You must succeed in a Hack challenge against its Data rating. If an item has neither a printed Data rating nor other specific rules, this should not be significant, but if you think otherwise in some specific case, add your “ID” rating to its Qualities, and see a GM.