Richard's Index

Cool Regime Change -- Session Log 8/24/03

"Welcome to Earth"

Game Master: Richard McCluney

The characters are in Tisa's workspace, a kind of office in the alien base which sprouted like a mushroom out of the impact crater created by a projectile fired from the habitable ring which now surrounds the Earth in geosynchronous orbit. Harmony has stayed overnight with Tisa, teaching English and learning a little bit of the aliens' language. Charles provides refreshments for the other humans (Harmony reports that the aliens' food isn't safe for humans to eat) and surruptitiously makes notes on the alien's control panels, which use some kind of holographic symbolism made up of colored, three-dimensional shapes. Ginger keeps an eye on the others and secretly records everything.

Jerry asks Harmony if she's found out why the aliens are here. Harmony says it has something to do with the vehicles they used to teleport into the base. Benny says maybe it's a supply base. Harmony suggests they ask Tisa. A question-and-answer session will help them learn each others' languages. Benny asks Tisa what her measurements are. Tisa doesn't understand what he wants her to measure. Jerry asks Tisa if the base is a supply base. After Harmony and Tisa work out a translation [this goes on throughout the conversation; I won't mention it further] Tisa says that they will move supplies through the base.

The PCs asks what the aliens' name for their race is. Harmony says they call themselves Grimmans, which means 'gray ones' in their language. The PCs ask if the Grimmans know of other intelligent races -- they do. Benny asks if the Grimmans here are all from one part of their world or from many different parts. Tisa says they're from all over Grimmon. Grimmon is the name of their world. Grimmans vary in skin color from very light to very dark, with patterns like different kinds of stone or metal. Benny asks what their world is like. Tisa says it's a lot like Earth but not as quiet. The PCs ask if Grimmon is noisy because of all the people. Tisa says the weather changes a lot faster than on Earth, and the ground moves a lot more.

Benny asks how they cope with such an unstable world. Tisa says their buildings can't be as thin as the humans'. The PCs ask if many worlds are that unstable. Tisa says most are quiet like the Earth. The Grimmans often settle on the unstable ones because the other races aren't comfortable there, while the Grimmans are used to it. Benny asks how long it took to get to Earth. Tisa says a few seconds.

Benny asks who the Grimmans' leader is. He says Jerry's people elect a President to lead them. Tisa says the Grimmans have a Diplomatic Guild to maintain relations with other races. The PCs ask how the Grimmans make decisions. Tisa says by feeling the needs of the people. She describes a process of resonance between nervous systems which sounds like Empathy and Telepathy. She says some of the races the Grimmans know of don't have this, and they know humans don't.

Benny asks what the rules are for dealing with other races, especially those without Telepathy. Tisa says Grimmans don't resonate well with humans and it will take a while before they learn to read beyond humans' emotions and surface thoughts. Jerry says he has a lot of thoughts he'd be embarrassed for other people to know about, and he's seen some things that would gross most other people out. Tisa doesn't understand either "embarrassed" or "grossed out." Benny says many humans have secrets -- things they don't want other people to know. Tisa thinks this is very strange. Benny says humans sometimes have rude or mean thoughts. Tisa says everybody does. Tisa realizes that humans aren't used having others see their rude, mean thoughts.

Benny says human leaders keep secrets, especially when dealing with foes. And some humans are just suspicious and untrusting. Tisa asks Jerry if his leader, the President, decides what people need, since the people themselves are keeping secrets. Jerry explains it's more complicated than that. Congress passes laws and the judicial system interprets the laws. Tisa asks why Congress doesn't just pass laws that the people can interpret for themselves. The PCs explain that humans can interpret things in different ways. Sometimes people bend the rules to benefit themselves at the expense of others.

Tisa asks if that's something humans keep secret. Benny says sometimes yes, sometimes no. Tisa asks why the others don't stop it when it's not secret. The PCs say that's when they need the justices to interpret the rules. They say not all humans are selfish; some try to help others, running charity organizations, etc. Tisa asks why humans need charity. The PCs explain there is uneven distribution of resources. Tisa asks if this is because the leaders bend the rules to benefit themselves. The PCs say the leaders aren't the only ones. Tisa says all this seems very inefficient. Benny says, "Welcome to Earth."

The PCs explain how the interpretation of laws changes because of the rapid development of society and technology. Tisa notes that humans tend to release technology before it's fully tested, causing problems. CFCs, for example. Tisa says that causing problems for other people without their informed consent is considered very, very rude by her people and most of the other races they deal with.

This gets them on the subject of the manner of the Grimmans' arrival. Tisa notes that some humans seem to think the Grimmans are foes. The attempted attacks on some of the Grimmans' bases are mentioned. Benny says the Grimmans' arrival seemed like an attack to many humans. Some humans jumped out windows, thinking it was the end of the world. Tisa thinks this is bizarre. The PCs mention how many of the humans' electrical machines stopped working. Tisa is puzzled by this. Their method of travel uses another force that shouldn't have affected electrical devices. She promises to ask the engineers about it.

The PCs try to explain about national territories, a concept the Grimmans seem to have a lot of trouble understanding. Tisa says humans don't produce enough energy to be able to control the ground. The PCs add that some humans are just destructive. Tisa predicts that humans will become less destructive after dealing with alien societies for a few thousand years. Benny asks how long the Grimmans have had space travel. Tisa says they're new to the interplanetary community -- they've only had space travel for about 10,000 years. Benny asks how long Grimmans live. Tisa says usually about 240 years. Harmony notes that the Grimmans' day and year are exactly the same length as Earth's. Benny says humans are lucky to live 100 years. Tisa says that's typical for Level III societies.

The PCs ask if she means technological advancement. Tisa says the level of a society determines the level of technology it can use successfully. She says human technology is ahead of their level and they're getting close to the point where Level III societies usually destroy themselves. Tisa says she expects humans to reach Level IV in about 10,000 years. Jerry is depressed because it will take so long. Tisa says that's actually fairly rapid, because of humans' short life cycle and adaptability. Benny offers Tisa a candy bar. Tisa says it's good. Her people don't have chocolate. Benny says humans often share food with their friends. Tisa says food-sharing is common in sapient, social races.

Benny asks if humans can develop Telepathy. Tisa says they would need brain modifications. Benny volunteers. Tisa says they would need to study human brain structure first. Benny volunteers. Tisa asks him if he's sure, because they don't know how to clone humans either. Benny offers to recruit some of his students instead. Jerry asks about the Grimmans' medical technology. Tisa says they use machines to heal people. Before that, they would put tiny machines inside people to heal them. The machines can rebuild people from a genetic sample via cloning. She says neural states have to be recorded separately, and most Level IV races keep backups of their neural states. She says the neural state data can be loaded into a program to run on computers, and that many beings continue functioning that way when they can no longer function biologically.

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