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Ghost in the Shell resources?


Dauntless

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I did a quick search for ghost in the shell on the forums here, but didn't see anything that stood out.

 

Anyone know of any GITS resources? Not just web-related, but stuff beyond the actual episodes?

 

I'm actually not so much interested in doing a conversion as I am in getting material for brainstorming a similar kind of world. So any resources that feels like GITS would also be appreciated.

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Re: Ghost in the Shell resources?

 

Ghost in the Shell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_shell

 

Black Magic M-66

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Magic_M-66

 

Appleseed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appleseed

 

Akira (film)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_%28film%29

 

Silent Möbius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Mobius

 

Striker/Spriggan (manga)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spriggan_%28manga%29

 

Battle Angel Alita

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Angel

 

Blue Sonnet

http://www.fortunecity.com/rivendell/barbarian/305/shrine/akbs.html

 

Surbrook's Stuff (Thanks Susano) - The Quintesential Anime/Manga Cyberpunk Hero Resources

http://surbrook.devermore.net/index/worldbooks.html

 

Cyberpunk - Where to start?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk

 

 

Cheers

 

QM

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Re: Ghost in the Shell resources?

 

Ghost in the Shell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_shell

 

Black Magic M-66

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Magic_M-66

 

Appleseed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appleseed

 

Akira (film)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_%28film%29

 

Silent Möbius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Mobius

 

KAZEI-5, Silent Möbius, etc... (Thanks Susano) - The Quintesential Anime/Manga Cyberpunk Hero Resources

http://surbrook.devermore.net/index/worldbooks.html

 

Cyberpunk - Where to start?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk

 

Well, if you're going to be that way...

 

Characters from Appleseed

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsanime/animechar.html#APPLE

 

Characters from Silent Mobius (overdo for revision)

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsanime/animechar.html#SM

 

Characters from Striker/Spriggan

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsanime/animechar.html#STRIKE

 

Battle Angel

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsanime/battleangel.html

 

Genki (BGC)

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsanime/genki.html

 

M-66 (Black Magic)

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsanime/m66.html

 

Sonnet Barjie (Blue Sonnet)

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsanime/bluesonnet.html

 

Tetsuo Shima (Akira)

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsanime/tetsuo.html

 

Friday Baldwin (Friday)

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsbook/friday.html

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Re: Ghost in the Shell resources?

 

I would highly recommend Transhuman Space, which is a GURPS setting by Steve Jackson Games. (http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/transhuman/) Ghost in the SHell was one of the inspirations for THS. It is a hard-science SF setting set around the year 2100. I was rather blown away by future shock the first time I read it, and had to put it down half way through. I like it because it represents a serious attempt to extrapolate what life might be like 100 years from now. It isn't meant to be as dark as cyberpunk (though you could play it that way), but neither is it entirely optimistic either. It also doesn't assume (like much space opera) that people will essentially be the same culturally in the future. In fact perhaps the most mindblowing aspect of THS is when you begin to understand just how very different people can be in 2100.

 

Some random things you will find in THS:

 

bioroids

uplifted animals

memetic engineers

AI (at different levels such as NAI, LAI, and SAI)

infosocialism

space travel in the solar system

beanstalk being build in Kenya

US colony on Titan

Gypsy Angels

Duncanites

Preservationists

 

Some things you won't find in THS:

 

FTL travel

Anti-gravity

 

 

Sorry, I'm not doing THS justice with this!

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Re: Ghost in the Shell resources?

 

Transhuman Space author David L. Pulver is a resident of Victoria, BC. (Same Province as ME! ;) )

 

I asked David for and recieved a list of Links for GURPS Transhuman Space.

 

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dunes/8426/high/high.html

http://matrix.dumpshock.com/tzeentch/Transhuman/Resources.htm

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/transhumanspace/

http://www.qraid.addr.com/GURPS/TSGM.html

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/5493/THSNZ/

 

Also, Teralogos News http://www.sjgames.com/transhuman/teralogos/

 

http://www.worldchanging.com/ is a good online futurist magazine

and one of the editors is a THS author

 

You can find lots of others by asking at the Yahoo group, of course.

 

Plus the Pyramid and Steve Jackson Games Forums for THS.

 

Oh yeah these too.

 

Clarke's Third Law as basis for fantasy campaign

http://herogames.com/forums/showthre...r#pos t521985

 

[Character] Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto

http://herogames.com/forums/showthre...ght=Replicants

 

Blade Runner Resources

 

BRmovie.com - The Home of Blade Runner

http://www.brmovie.com/

 

Blade Runner (1982)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/

 

RPG-SoundMixer - The new PnP RPG Experience

http://www.rpgsoundmixer.com/soundmi...s.php?cd_id=10

 

Blade Runner - The Replicant Site

http://www.blade-runner.it/index-e.asp?page=/author-e.html

 

Off-World: City-speak

http://scribble.com/cgi-bin/colloquy...ange=1876-1889

 

Google Images Search - Blade Runner

http://images.google.ca/images?q=Bla... imgsz=xxlarge

 

Blade Runner - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner

 

Replicants - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicant

 

Spinner - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinner_%28Blade_Runner%29

 

Conspiracy X HERO

http://herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19120

 

Cyberpunk 2020 Hero (by Lord Laiden)

http://herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29816

 

Grimjack HERO

http://herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14127

 

Matrix HERO

http://herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10155

 

Shadowrun HERO

http://www.starherofandom.com/h_shadowrun/index.php

 

Transhuman Space HERO

http://herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1064

http://herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6078

 

Related Links

http://herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24564

 

Other RPGs converted to HERO System (Thanks Lord Laiden)

http://herogames.com/forums/showthre...+HERO+System

 

 

Cheers

 

QM

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Re: Ghost in the Shell resources?

 

BTW, I already have all the Transhuman Space books, which are excellent excellent books for thinking about how technology can impact society. I do wish the setting was a bit more precarious or chaotic. I don't think it pushed as close to the singularity envelope as I would have liked. But then again, that's why I'm looking for more brainstorming material.

 

I've already decided in my world though that there won't be consciousness downloadings. So the whole mystery of the "Ghost in the Shell" is what piques my interest.

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Re: Ghost in the Shell resources?

 

I've already decided in my world though that there won't be consciousness downloadings. So the whole mystery of the "Ghost in the Shell" is what piques my interest.

 

GITS uses what they call "cyber-brains," which are secondary processors in the brain. They also have the idea of prosthetic bodies, in which one places the brain. The brain is in a shell, and placed in the body -- this does allow bodies to be swapped by simply switching the brain out.

 

See pic below:

cyborg.jpg

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Re: Ghost in the Shell resources?

 

BTW, I already have all the Transhuman Space books, which are excellent excellent books for thinking about how technology can impact society. I do wish the setting was a bit more precarious or chaotic. I don't think it pushed as close to the singularity envelope as I would have liked. But then again, that's why I'm looking for more brainstorming material.

 

I've already decided in my world though that there won't be consciousness downloadings. So the whole mystery of the "Ghost in the Shell" is what piques my interest.

 

 

Fair enough, sounds like THS is a little different than what you are looking for.

 

You wrote "I do wish the setting was a bit more precarious or chaotic.". One of the characteristics of THS is that technology has advanced to the point where everything can be much more orderly, predictable and "locked-down". This is a bit of a limitation to running THS, where do you fit in the sort of rambunctious characters that people sometimes want to play? To get away from that you have to get to "the edges", ie nonFifthWave countries, asteroid belt, outer solar system, virtualspace, etc.

 

ntb

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Re: Ghost in the Shell resources?

 

Brain transplants I don't mind...it's consciousness transplants that I'm leery of. Though the whole cyber-brain thing did confuse me. I wasn't sure if they were augmented brains or AI brains or a combination of the two.

 

I actually found an interesting non-game related site called http://www.kurzweilai.net after Ray Kurzweil, a technologist whose written a few books. Some interesting stuff, but I personally think he's a bit too optimistic not just about timelines, but about capabilities as well. Then again, I'm just a beginning grad student in Computer Science, so he probably knows more than I do....but I'm still doubtful.

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Re: Ghost in the Shell resources?

 

Brain transplants I don't mind...it's consciousness transplants that I'm leery of. Though the whole cyber-brain thing did confuse me. I wasn't sure if they were augmented brains or AI brains or a combination of the two.

As I understand it the cyber-brain is a sort of middle-man. It is a computer that receives neural impulses from the brain. The body-control software then translates this into a form used to control the prosthetic body. The cyber-brain also receives all the inputs from the prosthetic body's senses and converts those signals into a form the brain can understand.

 

This is why someone's cyber-brain can be hacked. If you take control of the cyber-brain you can control what the brain perceives and you can wrest control of the prosthetic body from its "occupant."

 

I can see how this would cause a lot of psychological hang-ups. How can you be sure that what you are experiencing is real and not a virtural reality controlled by someone who has hacked your cyber-brain.

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Re: Ghost in the Shell resources?

 

I do wish the setting was a bit more precarious or chaotic. I don't think it pushed as close to the singularity envelope as I would have liked. But then again' date=' that's why I'm looking for more brainstorming material.[/quote']

 

Have you read Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling? Far out stuff, and no there's "consciousness downloading." Although serious physical reconfiguration is presented, the mind is still an integral part of one's physical being. It's from 1980's but it's still pretty durn good.

 

Google and Amazon can help you out if you want more.

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Re: Ghost in the Shell resources?

 

As I understand it the cyber-brain is a sort of middle-man.

 

I think of a cyberbrain as the union of one's flesh brain plus the case, nutrient systems and I/O devices that support and protect it. Basically the whole package you see in that picture being inserted into the cyborg body.

 

In the first episode, some minister's cyberbrain is physically kidnapped by removing it from the cyborg (then faking his death with a substitute (i.e., some else's) cyberbrain), then smuggling it out in a piece of luggage. Also, I think there's a real brain in there because whenever someone gets killed by being shot through the head, there's lots of blood involved. Whereas when someone shoots a pure robot or "doll", they just sorta go Zzzzt and spit electricity.

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Re: Ghost in the Shell resources?

 

I would highly recommend Transhuman Space, which is a GURPS setting by Steve Jackson Games. (http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/transhuman/) Ghost in the SHell was one of the inspirations for THS.

.

.

.

Sorry, I'm not doing THS justice with this!

 

Here is a much better intro to THS:

 

http://joesplace.typepad.com/THSintro.pdf

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Re: Ghost in the Shell resources?

 

I found out there's a DVD/log book combo about the GITS:SAC series up through episode 18. It seems the neat stuff is in the log book. I've already been spending way too much money lately, but maybe I'll get this so I can understand the GITS world better.

 

The other thing I like about GITS is the whole political intrigue on top of the question of what really constitutes consciousness.

 

I've been slowly tackling some Quantum Computation material (some of the math is still beyond me, like Hilbert Spaces, and my abstract algebra is feeble) but it's implications in terms of brain/mind simulation are fascinating. The standard trope in most Cyberpunk settings is to allow some sort of "consciousness" or memory downloaded. But the fact is, we can't even find much less prove that memories are stored in our brain.

 

To make it short and sweet, our mind(consciousness) is not our brain. As I saw it analogized, our brain is much like a radio. It intercepts and interprets sensory signals. We think that because if part of the brain is destroyed that our memories and consciousness must reside there is like saying that because my radio is broken and I can't get music anymore, the music must have been in the radio.

 

I think following this line of scientific thought has more interesting game setting ramifications than the consciousness/memory downloading and non-QM computers with strong AI. And GITS I think follows this line of thought with a bit more mystery (at least in the two movies....in SAC, it's like the Major's "death" never happened...though in GITS:Innocence, the Major's survival of her "ghost" is never fully explained, leaving the mystery intact).

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Re: Ghost in the Shell resources?

 

And GITS I think follows this line of thought with a bit more mystery (at least in the two movies....in SAC' date=' it's like the Major's "death" never happened...though in GITS:Innocence, the Major's survival of her "ghost" is never fully explained, leaving the mystery intact).[/quote']

 

I think SAC is a prequel series to the first movie. Innocence takes place after.

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