Talinz and Crime 2: Support (Part 1)

Police work in the current situation is a demanding and often thankless task. While petty crime has changed little, and carries with it many of the same struggles as the modern day, cybercrime is on the increase, and organised crime has revolutionised its command structures to make use of robotic personnel. To combat these changes, alterations to existing police structures were required, and two specialist divisions have risen to prominence in many nations. In addition, a new section of Interpol specifically dedicated to Talinz related crime has proven key in combatting international threats in an ever more connected world.

The Talinz Corruption and Misuse Bureau

In the wake of the Avogadro Incident, the two officers that lead the investigation, Gaston Lambert – a French Interpol agent – and Sara Abbasov – a local Azerbaijani expert – put forth a joint proposal to Interpol. To employ a number of new, specialist agents to deal with international incidents of Talinz related crime.  This division would co-opt members from the existing white-collar, computer and smuggling crime divisions, to track all angles of potential disturbance, from corruption at the company level to the distribution of illicit modules.

Aiding in managing this huge amount of data is ARTHUR, an unintelligent supercomputer network. Cyber-crime divisions across the world report to the gigantic database automatically, all related criminal records and files being uploaded and provided to all other terminals. Some claim sharing all this information with other governments is too great an infringement of personal privacy, others regard the decision as necessary to track the global nature of these crimes, when a file on the internet can be as dangerous as a bullet in a gun.

One of the major roles currently of the Talinz Corruption and Misuse Bureau is the issuing and distribution of ‘Grey Notices’, an Interpol Notice informing relevant countries that police have sufficient evidence to assume that an individual that may be crossing borders is robotic in nature, and thereby an illegal Talinz unit. The receiver of the Grey Notice has full control over their response to such a warrant, and the effort that is placed in capturing such a Talinz unit varies remarkably from country to country. In common parlance of liberated Talinz communities, however, the Grey Notice has gained a level of infamy akin to the Black Spot.

Most police officers will rarely meet an agent from the Talinz Corruption and Misuse Bureau in person, as a majority of interactions with regular law-enforcement personnel occurs through a secure network, allowing agents to observe moving data and provide remote assistance from the ARTHUR Institute in Lyon. However, response teams and individual agents are regularly dispatched to deal with crimes of significantly large magnitude to support local law enforcement. In this capacity, they often act as specialists in a law enforcement team that lacks them, or lacks those of a high enough proficiency to tackle to current threat. 

Talinz Heavy Support

When dealing with Talinz units, some police departments have taken the ruling that there is no overkill. As a unit can lose all limbs and still function, provided there is no damage to the central processing unit, armed response teams have taken to using electromagnetic weaponry to deal with these threats. Most criminal syndicates move the hard drive processing unit to an unexpected and frequently random part of the body to prevent incapacitation of the unit by a simple firing drill. In response to public outcry at rising officer fatality rates, many police departments set up specialist Talinz Heavy Support units. Beyond an armed response team, these units are generally only called in under very specific circumstances, and are often unavailable to officers fighting in more urban areas.

The main reason for this is that heavy support is a grav tank. Most police departments share one between districts. Most police departments only need one. Most never use them.

Large and bulky, grav tanks were an innovation early in the Talinz War, using tilt-rotor technology to navigate uneven surfaces and ‘fly’ though they cannot achieve a lift beyond a few cm, due to the weight of the machine. However, these heavily armed units are often equipped with powerful ion cannons. Provided the police department is fine with shutting out all electrical communication in a mile cubed of the incident area for around 2 or 3 hours, and informs all potential aircraft to plot a route above or around the shot-site, such weaponry can prove remarkably effective. To counter such methods, many criminal syndicates have started to supplement Talinz units with humans carrying night vision goggles, to be deployed when the lights go out.

Talinz and Crime 1: Structure and equipment of the Police Force

After the Baku treaty ended the war, decommissioned military Talinz flooded the black market. Military units that had avoided deactivation and repurposing were a major problem to the police service. The immediate reaction of most world governments was to fight fire with fire: creating new Talinz units optimised to being physically robust investigators and disaster management robots, allowing them to be used in place of stretched police forces, and without the potential mortality of human officers at robotic hands.

The Avogadro incident changed all that. Avogadro Industries was a large Talinz manufacturing corporation that had acquired defence contracts to supply units to the Russian, Uzbek, Azerbaijani and Turkmen police forces. Armenian police forces, which had invested little in Talinz policing, found vast quantities of illegal weaponry being shipped across the Azerbaijan-Armenia border and the surrounding regions from storehouses in the Caspian Sea, apparently right under the noses of the security forces there. Avogadro was making profits from black market dealings, having installed modules into their Talinz units that prevented them, or their pilots, from perceiving any suspicious dealings, and invoked sub-routines that destroyed related evidence if ever police came too close to uncovering the conspiracy. Since then, police forces have abandoned the idea of using Talinz units in law enforcement, and all currently produced models were decommissioned.

This, however, hasn’t stopped criminals from employing Talinz units. Talinz model weaponry is still produced for the sporting market, and military plans from before the Baku treaty still exist, many of which have been widely disseminated among organised criminal elements. Such units are useful for a number of functions, as heavies and bodyguards, to proxies for dealing in illicit substances. Human police officers frequently find themselves confronting robust Talinz units piloted by the real culprits from remote locations.

This has presented a considerable challenge to the armed response services of modern police forces, though police force structure varies from country to country. Some countries, such as the UK, where stringent legislation in the use of weaponry in amateur Talinz matches has stymied any possible trade in Talinz projectile weaponry, for example, still utilise specific armed response teams. Meanwhile, in the United States, the average beat cop is likely to be armed in the same fashion as a British Armed Response Officer. The lowest tier of armament for a police officer in the modern day, which is seen in the average member of the British police force, Irish Garda, or a similarly structured force, is a truncheon and a shock glove. A shock glove is special issue equipment that has the ability to deliver a sharp, non-lethal electric shock on contact to apprehend Talinz units if necessary.

Armed response services tend to be armed with a combination of traditional slug projectile weaponry and specific anti-Talinz devices. These range from strong EMP grenades and spike-like pulse emitters to shock guns that launch small needles to discharge a high voltage to the target on contact. All these can easily disable Talinz units for a short amount of time by triggering surge protection protocols that stop the unit from being rendered completely useless. These EM pulses work at a great cost however, breaking a number of the important fragile components within the Talinz unit, sometimes wiping data, and potentially evidence, from their disks. There is a chance, if the weapon was particularly successful, that the subroutine in which they were engaging is wiped from their memory, rendering the unit dazed and incapable of interacting with the rest of the firefight even after the soft reboot that occurs as part of the surge protection framework of a Talinz unit. However, many Talinz units will fight on until completely incapacitated by slug throwing weaponry otherwise. This is a balanced judgement often left up to the call of the leader of the response team. For this reason, also, the slug throwing weaponry born by these teams lacks any of the electrical registration or targeting technology used more frequently by more typical armed forces within the world, as it would be disabled by the usage of anti-Talinz weaponry. Similarly, it prevents a number of individuals from joining these armed response services. Those with robotic prosthetics or pacemakers might find their devices rendered incapable by these pulse weapons.

Anti Talinz Equipment in your games

Playing a police game might require your players to utilise many of the pieces of Anti-Talinz equipment spoken about today. When it comes to adding these to a PC’s character sheet, they are quite simple. Anti-Talinz equipment can be divided into ‘Shock’ equipment and ‘EMP’ equipment. Shock equipment is also useful on organic targets, whereas EMP equipment is not. If a player has one of these equipment pieces as a Gear Aspect, they can spend a Fate point to invoke the benefits, but they must also abide by the restrictions of the gear type. Shock weaponry tends to also be capable of inflicting damage, either by solid penetration, or by electrical surges, whereas EMP weaponry tends to only affect internal systems and electrical components.

Shock: When invoked, Shock equipment will apply the temporary ‘Disabled’ tag to any electrical equipment (Including Talinz) in the target area, with a free invoke. A Talinz inflicted with the ‘Disabled’ tag in this manner also loses one piece of information that was useful to the PCs (GM’s discretion). If you succeed with style on the attack roll, you may inflict an additional, appropriate mild consequence on the target.   

EMP: EMP equipment has no effect on organic beings unless they possess inorganic aids. When invoked, an EMP will apply the temporary ‘Disabled’ tag to any electrical equipment (Including Talinz) in the target area, with a free invoke. A Talinz inflicted with the ‘Disabled’ tag in this manner also loses one piece of information that was useful to the PCs (GM’s discretion). If you succeed with style on the attack roll, the target’s surge protocol executed in time, and no important information was lost.

Talinz and the Arts 2: Dance, Literature and Art

The second part of this series is going to examine the role and achievements of Talinz units in 3 more major areas of the arts, to explore the cultural impact of these robots on society.

Dance

Dance, like music, is an area where Talinz units have had a highly significant impact. A few years ago, in Miami, a prominent ballet choreographer advertised a ‘brand new performance’ that would ‘challenge boundaries’. A number of critics attended, and what they saw was all around a fairly average performance of the Nutcracker. The ballet itself was solid, yet unremarkable, and the dancers were the technically exquisite individuals they were used to seeing with the company.

However, as the performers took their bows after the culmination of the final act, they removed their faces, revealing the Talinz units underneath. The real dancers began the standing ovation from the audience. Some others joined. Some were frustrated at the thought that they had been hoodwinked, tricked into watching robots perform under the belief they were human. Specially built modules from Texlinz, using the same technology that allows their Talinz frames to corral fish, formed an integrated, perceptive, aware dance company, capable of playing off the actions of other members with perfect timing and sharp intuition. Reviews were mixed and polarising. Some acclaimed the bravery and style of the performance, others derided the show as poorly choreographed and directed.

Since then, other choreographers have considered using Talinz in their performances, either to support prime cast members or in attempts to ‘enhance the clarity of their auteur vision’ by granting them total control. In popular music, individuals might often purchase a group of backing Talinz dancers, especially if human dancers might prove to be too much of an expense to the performer or tour manager. In many of these cases, however, the presence or existence of Talinz units in the piece is often concealed or withheld via false identities unless the choreographer is explicitly trying to emphasise ‘Talinz-ness’ as an aspect of the piece, or attempting to make a political statement. Performances that openly use such units on average receive lower ratings than those that do not.

Literature

Talinz impact in literature and poetry, however, has been notably underwhelming. Attempts have been made by Talinz authors to publish under pseudonyms, but large publishing houses employ ever more stringent background checks to ensure that these manuscripts rarely, if ever, see the light of day. Books and poetry about Talinz, or using Talinz characters, rarely challenges the status quo, and though some might explore societally taboo topics, such as the possibility of relationships between humans and Talinz, these very often find themselves either unpublished, or consigned to ‘niche’ interest regions of shops.

Rumour has it that the underground of Liberated Talinz has caused a grass roots movement of revolutionary poetry and prose by Talinz and Talinz-sympathetic authors, both from more and less extreme ends of the spectrum. Some countries have cracked down on this ‘extremist propaganda’ under state security laws, but conviction rates are low. In regions where such literature is a prosecutable offence, Talinz often employ complex cryptographic methods of disguising the art as something seemingly innocuous, such that to a human observer no offence could possibly be caused, and likely little sense made of the statement in the first place.

Art

In art, Talinz have found an interesting niche. A growing movement of life-realist artists, referring to themselves as ‘Cyber Realists’, have attempted to revive the ‘Social Realism’ movement of the early 20^th Century, focusing on the plight and oppression of Talinz units, often in contrast and comparison to the current working class. Descriptive and critical, it highlights differences in working conditions and societal treatment of these individuals, with key important pieces including depictions of Talinz gathered together in poorly constructed shed ‘dormitories’ and abandoned units wandering through poorer sections of cities, often partially broken or disabled.

Though originally formed by humans, the movement has gained traction with some liberated Talinz units taking up the brush, also. Though they often submit their work through human friends and allies to avoid the critical eye of a gallery owner, such pieces frequently bear the signature of the artist – often a serial number – imprinted somewhere on the painting or sculpture. Considering the Talinz-oriented subject matter of these pieces, serial numbers are often overlooked. In some circles, possession of the number of a known Talinz artist can greatly increase the value of the piece in comparison to those of the artist who originally submitted the work, though in others the value might drop greatly.

Talinz and the Arts 1: Drama and Music

Whilst a personalised Talinz robot might be the top priority accessory on the arm of most modern celebrities, their impact on human arts has been questionable, minimal and, where applied, controversial. Much of this is due to a singular question, which many have suggested is one of the key defining moments of the age:

Does a Talinz unit have a real personality?

If they do, if they can think and feel just like a human does, then there should be no reason that the art composed, choreographed, created or performed by them should be any lesser than a human work. But a Talinz still has a ‘personality’ that is chosen, constructed by its owner, to be wiped and reconstructed as they see fit. Are their feelings merely emulations, pre-programmed reactions to certain stimuli?

The current popular view is that they are. Many humans turn their nose up at the idea of enjoying a mechanically produced piece. Talinz-created art is a minor, niche market currently – though it is growing in ways that few realise.  

Drama

Talinz actors are almost unheard of. In roles where a unit might be required, they are generally constructed, built for purpose to play the role they are intended for, and then discarded, like sets or props. Some of these units are auctioned off after filming, and enthusiasts have been known to pay grand amounts to possess them. Alternatively, sometimes actors particularly attached to a unit they have acted across from adopt the unit after production is finished, though many become gradually more unnerved by the realisation that the Talinz unit was not acting, and truly is the character they were assigned to play within the performance.

Behind the scenes, Talinz have proved much more useful, however. Lighting, costume and make up managers have been enjoying focusing more on the design and concept of their work, allowing Talinz units to take over much of the actual business of application, doing so in a more rapid, accurate and failsafe fashion than a human might. The shift in the industry is one that many young individuals have been extremely critical of. Without junior positions in make-up, costume, lighting and set design, they claim, these industries will merely grow older and more insular. The counter argument is that, though they are substantially more competitive, many of these make up and lighting managers take on apprentices to remedy this issue.

Music

In music, the impact of Talinz is more varied. Although a majority of the population of humans would refuse, or see little merit, in listening to a Talinz performer, a fair portion of corporate popular music is actually Talinz-written. Musicologists realised early on in Talinz development that computing tracks of popular music en masse for humans to perform was a great way of creating low-effort income for the industry. In addition, with the capability to build audio receptors greater than most human ears, many Talinz units are used to assist in production and sound balancing within the studio to optimise a track to appeal to the largest demographic possible by satisfying particular audio criteria. The reality of this process is kept relatively under wraps. Although most music-lovers are aware of it, the media rarely brings it to the attention of the wider populace. Most who do know just view the industry as utilising new tools and technology, and reject the idea that the music is truly Talinz-created.

However, Talinz performers, whilst certainly a niche interest product, have been packaged, particularly in Japan, where they originated. Many of these use advanced skin polymers and personality covers based on targeting a key demographic, and combine these with existing vocal synthesiser technology to create ‘Robotic Idols’. These units are often sold commercially, where songs can be downloaded on to a unit to perform, or composed by the owner. These composed tracks are then uploaded to the shared database to be downloaded for a nominal charge, of which the original composer obtains a small royalty. This has effectively formed a musical franchise system, in which owners will put on small performances of their unit for an entrance fee, where a portion of the profit from ticket sales is then returned to the company that constructed the Talinz unit.

There are rumours that some liberated Talinz units have an underground music scene, complete with bands composed entirely of Talinz, jokingly dubbed Talinz-punk. This genre, however, is snubbed by the general media, and generally considered the province of off-the-rail youngsters, especially considering the frequent police raids that occur on clubs found to be housing liberated units.

‘How to GM’ sections. Why are they written, who are they written for and why is it so hard to do right?

When I first ploughed into RPGs – the first game I ever ran was an absolutely awful venture into the Clone Wars using the Star Wars d20 revised rules the year Attack of the Clones came out – I was convinced that you could sit back and the system would work itself out. I didn’t know anybody else who played RPGs, but I knew that with enough effort I could round up a group of people. I decided that I wanted the party to be a mix of Jedi and their Padawans; it was the Clone Wars after all, right? So, looking through the Jedi class rules, I decided that I should set out character creation rules to include two players at level 15, and two players at level 3. It was a new planet, so I created my own ‘super-cool’ unique alien race to inhabit it, and a new piece of technology they used that could replicate other tech it came into contact with.

As I am sure every person reading this is now groaning and screaming in their heads, I will stop there, and ensure you that it was indeed the travesty you are imagining. Now, some of this is just down to the poor narrative choices made by an overexcited boy (Indeed, I ran the main plotline – minus the ‘super cool’ natives, their tech, and the weird starting set up many years later and it hangs together quite nicely). But, part of this was also due to my lack of reading a good ‘How to GM’ section.

The problem with this is systemic in the industry. I’ve looked back through RPGs over the years and the first book that really gave me an idea of what to actually do as a GM was Feng Shui, which holds a very special place in my heart partially because of that (and also partially because of high kicking Hong Kong action). Some more recent games seem to have a handle on it too. Vincent Baker’s sections in Apocalypse World (the guidelines introduced therein spread across the *W games) and Dogs in the Vineyard seem to show a definite idea of role and technique. But in many games, even now, it is almost assumed that the GM knows what they are doing and will suss it out for themselves. On the contrary, when games are very prescriptive about what GMs should and shouldn’t do, like in the above, they often become the target of criticism from folks who ‘don’t like being told what to do’, or indeed feel they are being told that their personal style of GMing is ‘wrong’.

So, why is this?

I think the reasoning lies in that early inability of RPGs to actually define what to do in them, what they are, and what the GM’s goal should be. Practise has clearly formed many good GMs; but it is certainly not a solid method for doing so - evidence for this can be found in the ubiquity of the ‘Bad GM’ stereotype: speak to anyone who has played with more than about 5 groups in their time and they will likely have at least one story to share, sadly. Most good GMs I know picked up traits from others, both good and bad, and have developed skills through a mix of experience and pseudo-apprenticeship. It has formed a culture around this system that is perhaps somewhat resistant to change. In this culture, the new ones picking up an RPG for the first time will learn from another they know, or from searching the internet for specific guides, rather than from that first book. That extra effort might turn off some, or not occur to others (Indeed, I quake in terror every time I ponder somebody’s first game being not unlike my own attempt, and a group of players once more being subjected to such a thing). Similarly, the boogeyman of the bad GM can be blown away by properly training and teaching a GM to be good at what they do with this particular game: many make honest mistakes and can benefit from good advice. I am sure I do and have myself on many occasions.

A clear, well-written, well thought out GMing section in a core book as a function of design can make the game substantially better. For starters, a designer that is able to write one can form a much better idea of what their game is about and their design goals. That leads into and informs choices made in other sections of the piece. In addition, not every game is the same, especially these days, where the RPG market has exploded. Whilst I may steal techniques from both games to use in the other, it is generally not a good idea to attempt to run, say, Psi*Run as if it were Dungeons and Dragons. Both are enjoyable games in their own right, but both require a different approach, structure, and directorial angle from the GM.

Some games, especially more recent indie press titles, warp, alter or share the role traditionally taken by a GM figure, and these require not only greater understanding and communication on the part of the author (by assuming that the audience will be individuals unfamiliar with your construction, whether or not they are familiar with RPGs in general as a medium), but also a different angle of approach from all players at the table.

What was difficult for me to learn, and certainly a hurdle to cross that resulted in becoming a better gamer, is that different games warrant different styles of GM. With that comes an acceptance that some games you may love to play you may not have a handle on running yet. Tonally, for example, I can’t bring myself to run anything in the 40K universe without overly focusing on its roots in parody, whereas the enjoyment of the universe for players largely stems from being aware of the joke, but their characters not being in on it. When it comes to game design, I find it very difficult to run Exalted, to pick a good example, as the number of moving parts within the game severely affects my enjoyment of it as a GM. Despite this, I can greatly enjoy taking part in such games as a player, and might at some point work out quite how I could run those games to a decent proficiency.

So, a good GM section should be:

-          Accessible for a new player

-          Convey the designer’s plans and concepts not just for the game’s world and their design goals in writing the game, but how a normal session should run.

-          Introduce or suggest techniques that reinforce the second point within a game session.

-          Be consistent with the mechanics of the game.

An explanation, and a hiatus

Hallo, readers!

You may have noticed it has been almost a month and no Talinz Project! Sadly, some real life deadlines have had to take priority over the blog, and I am very sorry I didn't write this post sooner. Aforementioned priorities, which folks who know me will know all about, are also set to continue, rather grimly, for a bit longer too.

WIth this in mind, I think it is a fair idea to put the Talinz project on an official temporary hiatus. The project WILL return on the 28th of May. I shall try and cook up something really nice and special to thank you for being patient with me on my foot-dragging, too.

Until then!