Myst Reinterperted Rules - continued

Don’t let me forget that the D’Ni are godly. This is a rule that I have a hard time abiding by, because it’s difficult to correctly enforce, but it is important to the game. If I appear too constricting, remind me of this rule and maybe repost with a better explanation of why whatever technology is reasonable.

Essentially, there is no limitation to technology in the game, save for those imposed by books themselves. In other words, no machine, no matter how advanced, can use linking books or in any other way travel from one Age to another. Living entities are required for that. This also means that remote surveillance cannot work across the Age lines.

Other than that, technology can do a lot. But players must observe the following guidelines:

You might be able to build a village from nothing, or learn vast quantities of information, or teleport, or become invisible, or fly, or anything that you have ever read in any science fiction or fantasy book, but all things take time. The technology that does these wonders is difficult to build, or acquire, and often requires sacrifices in order to gain. Either Impose sufficent sacrifices on your own character, or tag the gamemaster to think them up for you. If you’re unsure, just tag the gamemaster anyway, and see if what he says is fair.

Even the D’Ni are at the whim of the laws of physics. While any given D’Ni can understand the vast majority of the physical laws, and the civilization as a whole understands them all (except those pertaining to books wherein research still continues), all D’Ni use causes to create effects, not the other way around.

The vast majority of all technology that already exists is likely not designed to accomplish a specific purpose, but is designed to accomplish a general goal, and can be used (sometimes stretched greatly) to do whatever is needed. This means that a device that decodes a quantum locking mechanism, a specific kind of lock that requires specialized means to bypass, is likely not going to exist already. However, if a set of machines exist to perform general information gathering and object manipulation operations quickly, perhaps at the expense of a few days these machines can be modified to crack the quantum lock, and once perfected be able to perform the crack in a matter of seconds. In such a case, it is not likely that the exact machine that is perfect for the job already exists. When it comes down to it, the exact machine that is perfect for the job almost never exists just because no one can conceive of all possible situations and build perfect machines for them. Think up something close, and then make do with it.

I will, from time to time, impose side effects on technology which I believe to be too powerful, too rashly used, or just plain unnecessary. For instance, at one time, a character used a machine to find and steal a linking book to an Age. Carelessly, he did not specify which linking book he desired. Consequently, the spider stole from a different, uninvolved party, who happened to be a powerful D’Ni guildmaster, and who promptly offered his full services to the careless character’s current foe.

On the other hand, if you’re playing a stupid character and you know it (sometimes stupid characters are the most fun), then abusing technology is definitely a characteristically stupid thing you can have your character do.

This section is empty.

It is a great and gaping void, wide as the Star Fissure and with as many possibilities.

I will not sit down and spend the time and creativity to think up the background for the entire story. It would be time-consuming, boring for me, and steal the fun of it from you. Go ahead, and make it up as you go along. It’s about the only thing I let you make up as you go along, so enjoy it as much as you can. Want it to be just like the Cyan D’Ni history? Cool. Want it to be totally different? Cool. You’ll have to run everything by me, of course, so I can make sure that none of it contradicts whatever else there is, but I’ll do my best to make it blend.

There is one exception to this: No Earth cultures or cultural foci. Period. There are billions of worlds, and the meaning of the game is that something different than what we’re used to is the norm. Now don’t get me wrong: a lot of things that are present in our culture will have modified parallels in others. For instance, all cultures will likely have drugs, and those that have mastered electricity will probably have something like a telephone that they use, or maybe even holograms. But the drugs won’t be cocaine and marijuana and the telephones won’t work off of four-wire CAT3 cables with RJ-9 jacks, and they probably won’t dial anywhere near the same way ours do. What am I saying? Different cultures do different things differently. When your culture develops something vaguely like a telephone, it’s going to need a lot more explanation than the word "telephone" and it’s going to need to fit the circumstances of the culture that developed it, not the culture that is predominant in the northwestern quadrant of Earth.