Jumpgate Keys

Discussion on game mastering Fading Suns. May contain spoilers; caution is recommended!
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Aurin
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Jumpgate Keys

Postby Aurin » Fri Dec 23, 2011 4:52 pm

Can anyone point me to a description of a jumpgate key? Even better, can someone point out a picture that shows one?

From memory, I remember them being long, thin, futuristic looking skeleton keys that are basically cylinder. Thoughts?

Tadeus
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Re: Jumpgate Keys

Postby Tadeus » Fri Dec 23, 2011 5:50 pm


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Angelman
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Re: Jumpgate Keys

Postby Angelman » Fri Dec 23, 2011 7:17 pm

Most Charioteer characters depicted in FS art carries jumpkeys. They kind of looks like slender lightsaber hilts or something.

The gall on the cover of Merchants of the Jumpweb carries three jumpkeys in a ring in her belt.
http://www.amazon.com/Merchants-Jumpweb ... 188890609X

But, these things are not mass produced, so they com ein a variety of styles, sometimes designed by the Charioteers to please the aesthetics of the customer's culture.
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Re: Jumpgate Keys

Postby azogouhl » Sat Dec 24, 2011 4:37 pm

I've gotta thank you Angelman on your timing. I've been looking for a decently priced good copy of that book for ages. Now it's on it's way to my house and I don't have to get on my computer to flip through it's pages any longer.

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Re: Jumpgate Keys

Postby Angelman » Sat Dec 24, 2011 6:53 pm

Huzzah! That was totally by accident :) I was just looking for a pic of the book's cover. Very cool, that you found yourself a copy :thumbup:
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Re: Jumpgate Keys

Postby Calvin » Sun Dec 25, 2011 5:52 pm

The looks are limited by available tech. Republican keys could be made much smaller and sleeker than new keys, which have to be made blockier and thicker in order to be as robust as the high-tech Republican material. They are data storage devices, so they will need some sort of port for transfer of information.

The keys are one of the few items produced centrally, so new keys might well be uniform in look. I believe they use custom software (no Suprema or Turing!) based on code derived from the gates and are made with somewhat standard interfaces.

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Re: Jumpgate Keys

Postby Aurin » Mon Dec 26, 2011 9:56 pm

Many keys have been around for thousands of years, but those of less sophisticated design were subject to 'drift' and have therefore been rendered useless over time. So the keys made during the height of the second republic are likely still up and kicking, but keys from other eras are likely obsolete. New keys of standard space lanes are currently manufactured centrally, as Calvin stated, and would be uniform in look. Keys could be subject to personal modification (similarly how people put stylized cases on their iPhones). Jump keys containing non-standard routes or night roads would likely be from the second republic.

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Re: Jumpgate Keys

Postby Calvin » Tue Dec 27, 2011 1:19 pm

They key is basically a data storage device. The electronics and the copyright protection inside are TL 7-8. Hacking a key is very hard but not impossible. Marking the casing with crests, commissioning key pouches, adding gems and precious metal filigree to the exterior... All are possible at relatively low-tech methods. It doesn't need to be that short staff either, go with a Republican key designed as an ergonomic blob if you want.

We're not sure what the key does. We only know that the key contains information needed to activate the gate and form a wormhole to another gate. Keys often function two-ways, letting the user access the same route from both gates. A single key can store several coordinates. That data could in theory be held on any other computer or storage device with sufficient space.

I believe the keys aren't calculating anything themselves. They are data storage devices carrying a code or program for interacting with the gate. A part of every jump engine includes the necessary comms systems to transmit data to the gates. The program contained in the key is likely written in a custom code based off discoveries of the gates. Even a TL 8 computer expert would find them hard to comprehend, the codes are utterly alien and bordering on TL 9. To use a key, you connect the device to a designated computer on the jump engine which then uses whatever communications and sensor devices you have to communicate an order to the gate. Most people don't understand what happens next, sometimes you are put on hold for a few weeks, sometimes the gate dials up minutes later...

Just got an idea on how to haxx the keys. The key itself is darn hard to pierce. But it still needs an I/O system to communicate with the gate. Could you pick up the signal the key transmit? If it just transmits a static code, it might work. A bit less so if it requires confirmation from the gate, or uses an adaptive program.

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Re: Jumpgate Keys

Postby Sir Marco » Fri Jan 06, 2012 12:24 pm

For some reason I have the vision of a key with "Tom Tom" or "Magellan" stamped on the side. "Now with free drift updates!"

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Re: Jumpgate Keys

Postby El_phantasmo » Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:20 am

I had to describe one in an online PBP game once; I basically described them as USB-like devices that store such a colossal amount of information that even at the height of technology they were still the size of Smarties tubes (Goggle Smarties if for some reason you've no idea what they are!). After the decline they got bigger as tech skill reduced so that now they can be considerably larger.

Shape/colouration etc depends on manufacturer ... and yes, I've had a corrupt key in a game, was infected with a virus of sorts. Messed the nav computer up and wasn't a good jump. I believe they found a lost road IIRC and quickly found they wanted it to stay lost though I'm damned if I can recall where it was from/too. Think it was from Vau space into Symbiont space. .... though that could be my memory failing me.


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