update from sparkleup

writing/post-self/fate.html

@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@
 <p>Throughout this book, you will find a few example stories from the universe, though do check out <em>Qoheleth</em>, a novel (and bonus short story!) that was the original basis for Post-Self. Scattered throughout, you will find an example campaign featuring a few of the characters from <em>Qoheleth</em> and some of the stories within. You are welcome to run a similar campaign, but the beauty of Fate, the setting, and the system is that you can run any story you want.</p>
 <h2 id="setting">Setting</h2>
 <h3 id="sims">Sims</h3>
-<p>Sims are where uploaded and generated personalities 'live'. Any instance can create a private sim where they will exist alone, but most cohabitate public sims. Think of MUCKs: a public sims are akin to public, interconnected rooms on the MUCK, while private sims are rooms that you <code>@dig</code> yourself.</p>
+<p>Sims are where uploaded and generated personalities &lsquo;live&rsquo;. Any instance can create a private sim where they will exist alone, but most cohabitate public sims. Think of MUCKs: a public sims are akin to public, interconnected rooms on the MUCK, while private sims are rooms that you <code>@dig</code> yourself.</p>
 <h3 id="time-and-dates">Time and dates</h3>
 <h3 id="sensoria">Sensoria</h3>
 <h3 id="sigils-and-symbolic-objects">Sigils and symbolic objects</h3>
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@
 <li>Paper</li>
 </ul>
 <h3 id="exocortices-and-the-problem-of-memory">Exocortices and the problem of memory</h3>
-<p>Exocortices began as ways to store data in an easily accessible fashion for perusal later --- basically cellphones accessible through a neuro interface --- but the concept later transitioned into memory modules that weren't active until accessed directly. Things you could forget until deciding (or instructed) to remember.</p>
+<p>Exocortices began as ways to store data in an easily accessible fashion for perusal later &mdash; basically cellphones accessible through a neuro interface &mdash; but the concept later transitioned into memory modules that weren&rsquo;t active until accessed directly. Things you could forget until deciding (or instructed) to remember.</p>
 <h2 id="forking">Forking</h2>
 <h2 id="economy">Economy</h2>
 <p>The more people forked, the harder it became to run the capitalist society that worked along the same lines as the society leading up to it. Currencies collapsed and social structures became unstable as the post-scarcity economy of the network became a reality. In place of a currency representing units of labor, reputation became the primary means of trade.</p>
@@ -115,45 +115,45 @@
 <li>Life back on earth</li>
 </ul>
 <h2 id="merging">Merging</h2>
-<p>In the <em>PS</em> universe, it's common for folks to split into separate instances through a process called <em>forking</em>. The way in which forking is managed is called <em>dissolution</em>. Dissolution strategies are not set in stone, and have no set definitions. Rather they're just general trends that have been named and adopted in <em>PS</em> culture.</p>
+<p>In the <em>PS</em> universe, it&rsquo;s common for folks to split into separate instances through a process called <em>forking</em>. The way in which forking is managed is called <em>dissolution</em>. Dissolution strategies are not set in stone, and have no set definitions. Rather they&rsquo;re just general trends that have been named and adopted in <em>PS</em> culture.</p>
 <p>There are three generally recognized dissolution strategies:</p>
 <ul>
 <li>
-<p>Task-based, 'the Taskers'<br />
+<p>Task-based, &lsquo;the Taskers&rsquo;<br />
     instances are created only as needed for specific tasks and are tracked by a <code>#core</code>; as tasks are completed, instances are recycled and their state reincorporated with the <code>#core</code> instance. Non-<code>#core</code> instances never fork. This is the most common (and most conservative) as it tends to lead to less dilution of self.</p>
 <p>A subset of the Taskers are the Conservatives. Conservatives believe that one should fork as little as possible, if at all.</p>
 </li>
 <li>
-<p>Tracker-based, 'the Trackers'<br />
+<p>Tracker-based, &lsquo;the Trackers&rsquo;<br />
     instances are created on a whim, as needed, or by accident, and are tracked by a <code>#tracker</code> instance; when the instances end (through SIGHUP, SIGTERM, SIGQUIT or other such signals), their state is reincorporated with the <code>#tracker</code> instance. Non-<code>#tracker</code> instances never fork. This is the more liberal of the two most common strategies, as instances are considered basically independent personae.</p>
 </li>
 <li>
-<p>Dispersal, 'the Dispersionistas'<br />
+<p>Dispersal, &lsquo;the Dispersionistas&rsquo;<br />
     instances are created on a whim or by accident, but unlike the managed strategies, they are not tracked, or not in a formal way. Instances may receive updates from each other, be friends and meet up with each other, or, rarely, become lovers. Those that stick together in some fashion may refer to themselves as a Clade, with their clade names using a common scheme. Any instance may fork, and reincorporating state is optional. This is the most radical of dissolution strategies, and is often seen as a minority, though actual numbers of personae groups are difficult to count.</p>
 </li>
 </ul>
-<p>When an instance ends, there's the possibility of its state being merged with another instance's (common among the Taskers and Trackers, less so among the Dispersionistas). There are several different merge strategies, and many may be discussed. Although there are trends mentioned below, there's little in the way of direct correlations between dissolution and merge strategies.</p>
+<p>When an instance ends, there&rsquo;s the possibility of its state being merged with another instance&rsquo;s (common among the Taskers and Trackers, less so among the Dispersionistas). There are several different merge strategies, and many may be discussed. Although there are trends mentioned below, there&rsquo;s little in the way of direct correlations between dissolution and merge strategies.</p>
 <p>There are two generally recognized merge strategies:</p>
 <ul>
 <li>
-<p><code>cherrypicking</code> --- cherrypicking describes the act of merging only desired portions of the halted instance's sensorium. It's broken down into two substrategies:</p>
+<p><code>cherrypicking</code> &mdash; cherrypicking describes the act of merging only desired portions of the halted instance&rsquo;s sensorium. It&rsquo;s broken down into two substrategies:</p>
 <ul>
 <li>
-<p><code>experiential</code> --- common primarily with Trackers, this allows one to pick and choose experiences to merge with one's own instance.</p>
+<p><code>experiential</code> &mdash; common primarily with Trackers, this allows one to pick and choose experiences to merge with one&rsquo;s own instance.</p>
 </li>
 <li>
-<p><code>knowledge-only</code> --- a handy shortcut and subset of experiential cherrypicking, this strategy immediately discards any feelings and memories, leaving primarily pre-digested knowledge to merge. This is most common with the Taskers, who use it for parallelized studying.</p>
+<p><code>knowledge-only</code> &mdash; a handy shortcut and subset of experiential cherrypicking, this strategy immediately discards any feelings and memories, leaving primarily pre-digested knowledge to merge. This is most common with the Taskers, who use it for parallelized studying.</p>
 </li>
 </ul>
 </li>
 <li>
-<p><code>blithe</code> --- most common among Dispersionistas, this merge strategy relies on a recursive algorithm which attempts to merge the entirety of instances' sensoria while producing as few conflicts as possible (conflicts, obviously undesirable, tend to lead to neurological sequelae that can cause an instance to crash). There are two primary substrategies which help in automatically resolving conflicts:</p>
+<p><code>blithe</code> &mdash; most common among Dispersionistas, this merge strategy relies on a recursive algorithm which attempts to merge the entirety of instances&rsquo; sensoria while producing as few conflicts as possible (conflicts, obviously undesirable, tend to lead to neurological sequelae that can cause an instance to crash). There are two primary substrategies which help in automatically resolving conflicts:</p>
 <ul>
 <li>
-<p><code>theirs</code> --- when encountering a conflict, the conflicting portion of the halted instance's state is kept.</p>
+<p><code>theirs</code> &mdash; when encountering a conflict, the conflicting portion of the halted instance&rsquo;s state is kept.</p>
 </li>
 <li>
-<p><code>ours</code> --- when encountering a conflict, the conflicting portion of the base instance's state is kept.</p>
+<p><code>ours</code> &mdash; when encountering a conflict, the conflicting portion of the base instance&rsquo;s state is kept.</p>
 </li>
 </ul>
 </li>
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ b - - - - - -/
 <p>Merge <code>?</code> is impossible with the current state of technology. The two instances have no shared past instances on which to build a reasonable diff.</p>
 <h2 id="strategies">Strategies</h2>
 <h3 id="families-and-clades">Families and clades</h3>
-<p>Families form just as often in the system as outside, of course. People fall in love, get married, have affairs, get divorced. It's all there. Children are a slightly more difficult question. They could be constructed, with an AI which incorporates aspects of sensoria from both 'parents'. Species-wide aversions (to which posthumans are not immune) leave many feeling wary of these constructed children, though. They do not age - no one does in system, except to project the outward appearance of aging - and they are not, in some minds, even human with their base template of an AI. Many would feel that they would be in some way lacking. All the same, several exist and move, unnoticed, through society.</p>
+<p>Families form just as often in the system as outside, of course. People fall in love, get married, have affairs, get divorced. It&rsquo;s all there. Children are a slightly more difficult question. They could be constructed, with an AI which incorporates aspects of sensoria from both &lsquo;parents&rsquo;. Species-wide aversions (to which posthumans are not immune) leave many feeling wary of these constructed children, though. They do not age - no one does in system, except to project the outward appearance of aging - and they are not, in some minds, even human with their base template of an AI. Many would feel that they would be in some way lacking. All the same, several exist and move, unnoticed, through society.</p>
 <p>Clades are the collection of instances forked (at any depth) from a common ancestor, an upload. Clades vary by dissolution strategy:</p>
 <ul>
 <li>
@@ -205,12 +205,12 @@ b - - - - - -/
 <p>Trackers may have several members in their clades, but their clades rarely expand beyond a certain point</p>
 </li>
 <li>
-<p>Dispersionistas have the largest clades, which often go unmeasured in terms of size. They're usually thought of as increasing in an exponential fashion, though this is not quite true, as it's usually assumed that Dispersionistas are loathe to quit, signal, or otherwise merge</p>
+<p>Dispersionistas have the largest clades, which often go unmeasured in terms of size. They&rsquo;re usually thought of as increasing in an exponential fashion, though this is not quite true, as it&rsquo;s usually assumed that Dispersionistas are loathe to quit, signal, or otherwise merge</p>
 </li>
 </ul>
 <h2 id="fixes">Fixes</h2>
-<p>Fixing is a means of repairing damage to one's instance. Although no amount of damage suffered to the body will cause the instance to die, it might be preferable to not be broken. This is common for those who fight for enjoyment.</p>
+<p>Fixing is a means of repairing damage to one&rsquo;s instance. Although no amount of damage suffered to the body will cause the instance to die, it might be preferable to not be broken. This is common for those who fight for enjoyment.</p>
-<p>Fixing involves forking from a previous moment, known as a checkpoint, instructing the new instance to perform a "fix", which is shorthand for a <code>blithe</code> merge with a <code>theirs</code> substrategy, and then quit. That means that the newly created (and fully intact) instance gains all of the memories, knowledge, experiences, and sensoria of the damaged instance.</p>
+<p>Fixing involves forking from a previous moment, known as a checkpoint, instructing the new instance to perform a &ldquo;fix&rdquo;, which is shorthand for a <code>blithe</code> merge with a <code>theirs</code> substrategy, and then quit. That means that the newly created (and fully intact) instance gains all of the memories, knowledge, experiences, and sensoria of the damaged instance.</p>
 <p>The new instance is effectively the old instance, just whole.</p>
 <h3 id="quitting-and-signals">Quitting and signals</h3>
 <p>Instances may end three ways:</p>
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ b - - - - - -/
 <p>Quitting - an instance may choose to quit at any time.</p>
 </li>
 <li>
-<p>Signals - the instance's parent from which it was forked may send a signal to the instance, such as SIGQUIT or SIGTERM. If an instance is unresponsive or out of control, the user may send SIGKILL, though they won't get much back during merging</p>
+<p>Signals - the instance&rsquo;s parent from which it was forked may send a signal to the instance, such as SIGQUIT or SIGTERM. If an instance is unresponsive or out of control, the user may send SIGKILL, though they won&rsquo;t get much back during merging</p>
 </li>
 <li>
 <p>Crashing - instance crashes are very rare and are considered an emergency for the system maintainers. A crash may be induced through a virus, as outlined below</p>
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@ b - - - - - -/
 </ul>
 <p>Instances may only merge when one of them ends. In git parlance, one may only merge commits, and the only commit available is when an instance ends. To achieve long-running mergeable instances, the long-running instance will fork, and then the new instance will quit and the sensoria will be merged down-tree as far as needed.</p>
 <h3 id="syringes-and-other-symbolic-objects">Syringes and other symbolic objects</h3>
-<p>There are ways to modify one's instance in place, of course, and these are usually considered medical. To that end, code that modifies an instance tends to take the form of being bound to an object recognized as something medical: a syringe. It's a symbol, rather than something mechanical, which bears permissions to modify one's state.</p>
+<p>There are ways to modify one&rsquo;s instance in place, of course, and these are usually considered medical. To that end, code that modifies an instance tends to take the form of being bound to an object recognized as something medical: a syringe. It&rsquo;s a symbol, rather than something mechanical, which bears permissions to modify one&rsquo;s state.</p>
 <p>Although damage to instance bodies cannot lead to instance death, an instance crash is a good way to achieve the same goal. Effecting a crash is usually done with a bit of code. These are often attached to something well known to affect an instance, such as a syringe. During fighting with the intent to crash an instance, a syringe is the most common weapon.</p>
 <h2 id="skills">Skills</h2>
 <h3 id="adroit-merge">Adroit (merge)</h3>
@@ -235,38 +235,44 @@ b - - - - - -/
 <ul>
 <li><em>Merging</em> - How well can you merge with an uptree instance? Do you handle conflicts well? Are you able to take in information, emotions, sensoria?</li>
 <li><em>Mirroring</em> - How well do you adapt to your own forks <em>prior</em> to merging, seeing yourself performing something and anticipating the merge?</li>
-<li><em>Witnessing</em> - How well do you adapt to life as a new fork? How well do you understand others' forks?</li>
+<li><em>Witnessing</em> - How well do you adapt to life as a new fork? How well do you understand others&rsquo; forks?</li>
 </ul>
 <h4 id="stunts">Stunts</h4>
-<p>Perfect Merge
+<dl>
-:   Once per session, ignore conflicts and gain all content you want.</p>
+<dt>Perfect Merge</dt>
-<p>Keen understanding
+<dd>Once per session, ignore conflicts and gain all content you want.</dd>
-:   Once per conflict, you know exactly what another fork is going for (yours or others')</p>
+<dt>Keen understanding</dt>
-<p>We are one after all
+<dd>Once per conflict, you know exactly what another fork is going for (yours or others&rsquo;)</dd>
-:   You and a fork act in synchrony</p>
+<dt>We are one after all</dt>
+<dd>You and a fork act in synchrony</dd>
+</dl>
 <h3 id="ambition">Ambition</h3>
 <p>How much of a social climber are you? Does the post-scarcity society lead you to get comfortable in your life, or do you seek new adventure and heights of reputation?</p>
 <h4 id="stunts_1">Stunts</h4>
-<p>I get what I want
+<dl>
-:   Once per session, use <strong>deceive</strong>, <strong>rapport</strong>, or <strong>will</strong> instead of <strong>ambition</strong>. </p>
+<dt>I get what I want</dt>
-<p>Climber
+<dd>Once per session, use <strong>deceive</strong>, <strong>rapport</strong>, or <strong>will</strong> instead of <strong>ambition</strong>. </dd>
-:   Once per conflict, you may bump your <strong>reputation</strong> by one.</p>
+<dt>Climber</dt>
-<p>I'm the important one here
+<dd>Once per conflict, you may bump your <strong>reputation</strong> by one.</dd>
-:   You may use <strong>ambition</strong> instead of <strong>deceive</strong> if it will help you alone.</p>
+<dt>I&rsquo;m the important one here</dt>
+<dd>You may use <strong>ambition</strong> instead of <strong>deceive</strong> if it will help you alone.</dd>
+</dl>
 <h3 id="art">Art</h3>
 <p>Art reflects how well you are able to adapt to the technology post uploading. Do you make new things not possible before, or do you cling to the way of life you had? Think of it in these three ways:</p>
 <ul>
 <li><em>State of the art</em> - Keeping up with changes and possibilities in the system.</li>
 <li><em>Inherent artfulness</em> - What it means to use the system to build upon new things.</li>
-<li><em>Appreciation</em> - How well do you take in and adapt with others' art?</li>
+<li><em>Appreciation</em> - How well do you take in and adapt with others&rsquo; art?</li>
 </ul>
 <h4 id="stunts_2">Stunts</h4>
-<p>Display of perfection
+<dl>
-:   Use <strong>reputation</strong> instead to wow and convince.</p>
+<dt>Display of perfection</dt>
-<p>I know this
+<dd>Use <strong>reputation</strong> instead to wow and convince.</dd>
-:   Once per session, automatically succeed a check on system, forking, merging, etc.</p>
+<dt>I know this</dt>
-<p>Meeting of minds
+<dd>Once per session, automatically succeed a check on system, forking, merging, etc.</dd>
-:   In conflict, you gain a rapport with another and can build off what they perform.</p>
+<dt>Meeting of minds</dt>
+<dd>In conflict, you gain a rapport with another and can build off what they perform.</dd>
+</dl>
 <h3 id="athletics">Athletics</h3>
 <p><em>See core system</em></p>
 <h3 id="contacts">Contacts</h3>
@@ -275,7 +281,7 @@ b - - - - - -/
 <p><em>See core system, with the following note:</em> In the system, you can create anything that:</p>
 <ol>
 <li>You can afford through reputation, <em>and</em></li>
-<li>Others can perceive and interact with in logical ways (you can't create something magical, invisible, etc).</li>
+<li>Others can perceive and interact with in logical ways (you can&rsquo;t create something magical, invisible, etc).</li>
 </ol>
 <h3 id="deceive">Deceive</h3>
 <p><em>See core system</em></p>
@@ -285,21 +291,23 @@ b - - - - - -/
 <p><em>See core system, with the following note:</em> The goal of fighting can be to:</p>
 <ol>
 <li>Gain reputation,</li>
-<li>Decrease opponent's reputation,</li>
+<li>Decrease opponent&rsquo;s reputation,</li>
 <li>Make your point,</li>
 <li>Destroy a fork in your way, <em>or</em></li>
 <li>Corrupt a fork to prevent downtree merges.</li>
 </ol>
 <h3 id="fork-mutation">Fork (mutation)</h3>
-<p>In the system, you are allowed to make copies of yourself. It is a full copy of you, a unique and independent person with their own will. As such, your current <em>instance</em> cannot control them, but since you and the <em>fork</em> share the same mind up until the moment of forking, you have the same goals. It's just that you start taking in different givens immediately, so you'll make your own decisions.</p>
+<p>In the system, you are allowed to make copies of yourself. It is a full copy of you, a unique and independent person with their own will. As such, your current <em>instance</em> cannot control them, but since you and the <em>fork</em> share the same mind up until the moment of forking, you have the same goals. It&rsquo;s just that you start taking in different givens immediately, so you&rsquo;ll make your own decisions.</p>
 <p>Forks can <em>quit</em> or be <em>signalled</em> to quit from <em>downtree</em>, at which point the immediate downtree instance will be able to merge their experiences to varying levels. <strong>Adroit</strong> determines how effective you are at this and managing inevitable conflicts.</p>
 <h4 id="stunts_3">Stunts</h4>
-<p>Sleight of Fork
+<dl>
-:   Use stealth or adroit to create a fork subtly.</p>
+<dt>Sleight of Fork</dt>
-<p>Fork at a distance
+<dd>Use stealth or adroit to create a fork subtly.</dd>
-:   Once per conflict, create a fork further away than arm's length.</p>
+<dt>Fork at a distance</dt>
-<p>Quick fork
+<dd>Once per conflict, create a fork further away than arm&rsquo;s length.</dd>
-:   Bump yourself up in the order of conflict according to fork level.</p>
+<dt>Quick fork</dt>
+<dd>Bump yourself up in the order of conflict according to fork level.</dd>
+</dl>
 <h3 id="investigate">Investigate</h3>
 <p><em>See core system</em></p>
 <h3 id="lore">Lore</h3>
@@ -311,38 +319,46 @@ b - - - - - -/
 <h3 id="rapport">Rapport</h3>
 <p><em>See core system</em></p>
 <h3 id="reputation-resources">Reputation (resources)</h3>
-<p>In a post-scarcity system, money isn't a thing. Instead, the goal is generally to increase one's reputation. How trustworthy are you? Do people seek you out to solve problems? Do you focus on one thing you <em>want</em> to to get really good at it regardless of reputation, or do you focus on a few things to bump your reputation?</p>
+<p>In a post-scarcity system, money isn&rsquo;t a thing. Instead, the goal is generally to increase one&rsquo;s reputation. How trustworthy are you? Do people seek you out to solve problems? Do you focus on one thing you <em>want</em> to to get really good at it regardless of reputation, or do you focus on a few things to bump your reputation?</p>
 <h3 id="stealth">Stealth</h3>
 <p><em>See core system</em></p>
 <h3 id="will">Will</h3>
 <p><em>See core system</em></p>
 <h2 id="game-worksheet">Game worksheet</h2>
-<p>Name
+<dl>
-:   Post-Self</p>
+<dt>Name</dt>
-<p>Setting/Scale
+<dd>Post-Self</dd>
-:   The System, various sims. Large game</p>
+<dt>Setting/Scale</dt>
-<p>Current issues
+<dd>The System, various sims. Large game</dd>
-:   Todo</p>
+<dt>Current issues</dt>
-<p>Impending issues
+<dd>Todo</dd>
-:   Todo</p>
+<dt>Impending issues</dt>
-<p>Faces and Places
+<dd>Todo</dd>
-:<br />
+<dt>Faces and Places</dt>
-    * Dear, Also, The Tree That Was Felled
+<dd>
-    * Codrin Bălan
+<ul>
-    * Assassins Guild
+<li>Dear, Also, The Tree That Was Felled</li>
-    * Dear's home
+<li>Codrin Bălan</li>
-    * Ansible lounge</p>
+<li>Assassins Guild</li>
-<p>Dials
+<li>Dear&rsquo;s home</li>
-:<br />
+<li>Ansible lounge</li>
-    * <em>Number of aspects:</em> 5
+</ul>
-    * <em>Number of phases:</em> 3
+</dd>
-    * <em>Skill cap:</em> Superb (+5)
+<dt>Dials</dt>
-    * <em>Skill structure:</em> Pyramid
+<dd>
-    * <em>Refresh rate:</em> 3
+<ul>
-    * <em>Number of initial stunts:</em> 2
+<li><em>Number of aspects:</em> 5</li>
-    * <em>Types of stress tracks:</em> Mental
+<li><em>Number of phases:</em> 3</li>
-    * <em>Default number of stress boxes:</em> 3
+<li><em>Skill cap:</em> Superb (+5)</li>
-    * <em>Default consequence slots:</em> 2/4/6</p>
+<li><em>Skill structure:</em> Pyramid</li>
+<li><em>Refresh rate:</em> 3</li>
+<li><em>Number of initial stunts:</em> 2</li>
+<li><em>Types of stress tracks:</em> Mental</li>
+<li><em>Default number of stress boxes:</em> 3</li>
+<li><em>Default consequence slots:</em> 2/4/6</li>
+</ul>
+</dd>
+</dl>
             </article>
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                 <p>Page generated on 2020-05-10</p>