TEXT: ®
  An e23 Sourcebook for GURPS
  ®
  STEVE JACKSON GAMES
  Stock #37-6706
  Version 1.0 – September 2009
  Written by PHIL MASTERS
  Edited by JASON “PK” LEVINE and NIKOLA VRTIS
  Illustrated by PAUL DALY, DOUG SHULER and DAN SMITH
  SCHOOL DAYS 2100
  TM
  TM
  
  Playtesters: Leonardo de Moraes Holschuh
  GURPS, Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Transhuman Space, Personnel Files, School Days 2100,
  Pyramid, e23, and the names of all  products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used
  under license. Transhuman Space: Personnel Files 5 – School Days 2100 is copyright © 2009 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. All rights reserved.
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   INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  About the Author. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN. . . . . 4
  KÖNIGSBERG-KALININGRAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  RUNNING THE CAMPAIGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Credibility Complications (Or Not). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Concepts and References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Sample Scenario: Field Trip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Wealth, Status, Equipment, and Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Further Scenario Seeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
  THE ENGLISH-SCHOOL STUDENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
  Catherine Moltby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
  Catherine’s AIs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  AI Allies and Duty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  Denise Walsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
  Denise’s AI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
  Mike Harris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
  Mike’s AI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  Dave Sheckley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  Dave’s AI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
  Ian Chakrabarti. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
  INDEX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
  CONTENTS
  2
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  Our
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  The 
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  for 
  Transhuman Space: Personnel Files 5 – School
  Days 2100 can be found at www.sjgames.com/
  transhuman/personnel5.
  Bibliographies. Many of our books have extensive
  bibliographies, and we’re putting them online – with
  links to let you buy the resources that interest you! Go
  to each book’s web page and look for the “Bibliogra-
  phy” link.
  Errata. Everyone makes mistakes, including us –
  but we do our best to fix our errors. Up-to-date errata
  pages for all GURPS releases, including this book, are
  available on our website – see above.
  Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for
  the GURPS Basic Set, Fourth Edition. Page references
  that begin with B refer to that book, not this one.
  About GURPS
  GURPS System Design ❚ STEVE JACKSON
  GURPS Line Editor ❚ SEAN PUNCH
  Transhuman Space Line Editor ❚ PHIL MASTERS
  e23 Manager ❚ STEVEN MARSH
  Page Design ❚ PHIL REED and JUSTIN DE WITT
  Managing Editor ❚ PHILIP REED
  Art Director ❚ WILL SCHOONOVER
  Production Artist & Indexer ❚ NIKOLA VRTIS
  Prepress Checker ❚ WILL SCHOONOVER
  Marketing Director ❚ PAUL CHAPMAN
  Director of Sales ❚ ROSS JEPSON
  Errata Coordinator ❚ WARREN 
  MacLAUCHLAN McKENZIE
  GURPS FAQ Maintainer ❚ –––––––
  VICKY “MOLOKH” KOLENKO
  About 
  Transhuman Space
  The Transhuman Space series presents a unique
  hard-science and high-biotech universe for roleplay-
  ing. Set in the Solar System in the year 2100, it is a set-
  ting rich in adventure, mystery, and exploration of the
  possibilities of existence. The core book in the line is
  Transhuman Space, written by the series creator,
  David Pulver.
  CONTENTS
  
  INTRODUCTION
  3
  It’s sometimes said that Transhuman Space provides a
  wonderfully detailed world, but it’s hard to decide on and
  define an actual campaign to run there. The Personnel Files
  line is intended to provide an answer to this, and to demon-
  strate what PCs for the setting might look like. These charac-
  ters can also be used as NPCs, as antagonists, allies, patrons,
  or background color.
  Each supplement in the Transhuman Space: Personnel
  Files line describes the outline of a campaign set in the world
  of Transhuman Space, complete with background, brief sce-
  nario suggestions, and notes for the GM. The material also
  provides a set of characters suitable to act as PCs in this same
  campaign. These characters are detailed using GURPS Fourth
  Edition, with templates and other details drawn from
  Transhuman Space: Changing Times (and Transhuman
  Space: Shell-Tech in a few cases), which are also available
  from e23. Personnel Files 5: School Days 2100 introduces a
  group of teenagers attending school in circumstances unusual
  for their day – they meet in person.
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  Phil Masters is the author of Transhuman Space:
  Changing 
  Times,
  Transhuman 
  Space: 
  Shell-Tech,
  Transhuman Space: Personnel Files 1-4, and a chapter in
  Transhuman Space: High Frontier. He has also worked on
  countless other GURPS products, including GURPS Castle
  Falkenstein, The Discworld Roleplaying Game, and GURPS
  Y2K, and on products for other companies. He was born and
  educated in the U.K., but he doesn’t recognize himself in any
  of these characters.
   INTRODUCTION
  And what shall be
  their education? Can we
  find a better than the
  traditional sort? And 
  this has two divisions,
  gymnastic for the body,
  and music for the soul.
  – Plato, 
  The Republic
  
  The free city of Königsberg-Kaliningrad is an independent
  city-state on the Baltic coast, lying on the border between
  Lithuania and Poland. Technically speaking, “Kaliningrad” is
  the name of the city itself, while “Königsberg” is the entire
  microstate, which includes an area of surrounding country-
  side. Even so, most people are casual about the distinction.
  It isn’t a member of any big power bloc. Rather, it has
  close ties to the E.U. and maintains good relations with
  Russia, acting as a meeting point for trade between the two
  powers. It is also the site of the eastern headquarters of the
  Genetic Regulatory Agency. All of this has helped make it one
  of the fastest-growing cities in Europe. Law and commercial
  regulation haven’t always kept up with this growth, though,
  and local society is at least slightly corrupt. It has a Control
  Rating of 1, lower than most of Europe, although that may
  reflect practical realities more than the letter of the local law.
  GEOGRAPHY
  Kaliningrad lies at the mouth of the Pregolya River, where
  it empties into the freshwater Vistula Lagoon. The hinterland
  of Königsberg (what was once the Kaliningrad Oblast when it
  was part of Russia) is 5,800 square miles in area, with a scat-
  tering of small towns and villages in addition to the city. 
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  4
  The characters detailed in this supplement are a bunch of
  school kids. But school kids in the world of Transhuman Space
  can be strange and impressive beings, and this group is in a
  slightly unusual situation, even by the standards of the setting.
  In fact, a “kids” campaign has a lot of potential in
  Transhuman Space. In a world of broad possibilities and con-
  siderable wealth, kids continue to suffer specific restrictions
  and limited resources. Despite being in a setting with many
  radical or subtle differences from the 21st century, they are still
  learning their way around and finding a place. The situation of
  a Fifth Wave youngster in 2100 – probably uncertain, perhaps
  confused, but with immense potential – in many ways resem-
  bles that of a player character just starting out in the
  Transhuman Space setting. Such a character can logically be
  given exactly the sort of advice and hand-holding guidance – by
  parents, teachers, and AIs – that the GM may wish to offer PCs
  to keep a game moving.
  However, there are complications with the idea. To start
  with, most Fifth Wave youngsters receive their education on the
  Web and do much of their socializing online. Well-off families
  in the setting can provide their offspring with effective protec-
  tion from danger, in the form of companion AIs with the smarts
  and initiative to yell for help whenever things start getting inter-
  esting. Nonetheless, the worst worries from the 21st century
  about overprotected kids who are never allowed outside to play,
  and juvenile couch potatoes who never run outside at all if they
  can help it, have been resolved in this future. Then again, a
  campaign entirely about school-age kids interacting and adven-
  turing through the Web would almost certainly be too limited.
  Although one solution might be to set the campaign in a Fourth
  or even Third Wave area, the PCs wouldn’t have much access to
  interesting Fifth Wave resources. Hence, this supplement places
  its protagonists in a slightly unusual situation for the offspring
  of the advanced world.
  Specifically, it assumes that the PCs’ parents have decided
  to give them a slightly “old-fashioned” education, sending
  them to a real, physical school where they have to attend in
  person and interact with all their fellow students in the flesh,
  while somewhat restricting their access to AI resources in
  school hours (though by no means eliminating it). There are
  plenty of arguments for such arrangements, for parents of a
  certain cast of mind. The objective might be to ensure that
  the kids are fully and flexibly socialized, or that they don’t
  grow too dependent on Web resources. The parents might
  want to enable their children to work in places and situations
  where they have to think for themselves and fall back on their
  own capabilities.
  The supplement also sets the campaign in a “borderline”
  location. Specifically, it takes place in the free city of
  Königsberg-Kaliningrad, where Russia and the European
  Union meet and interact, and where there’s enough crime and
  shady activity to power plenty of game plots.
  THE FIFTH
  WAVE SCHOOL
  CAMPAIGN
  KÖNIGSBERG-KALININGRAD
  
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  5
  The Vistula Lagoon is separated from the Baltic by the long, nar-
  row Vistula Spit, the eastern end of which is part of Königsberg,
  while the rest is Polish. Likewise, the Curonian Lagoon, north of
  the city, is partly in Königsberg, partly in Lithuania.
  HISTORY
  This city was founded, as Königsberg, in the 13th century
  by the Teutonic Knights. For centuries, it stood as an outpost
  of imperial German power in eastern Europe, despite occa-
  sional local revolts and Russian invasions. It held a military
  garrison and a university, and it was one of the most important
  ports on the Baltic. It therefore suffered heavily from Allied
  bombing in WWII. Late in the war, as Russian armies
  advanced on the city, many of the German-speaking popula-
  tion fled. In the aftermath of the war, Russia in effect claimed
  it as the spoils of what had been for them a costly war. They
  deported the last remnants of the German-speaking popula-
  tion, and renamed it Kaliningrad.
  During the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia was deter-
  mined to retain control of the city, for its reliably ice-free har-
  bor and as a forward base for its armed forces. However, when
  Lithuania gained independence, Kaliningrad found itself cut
  off from the main part of Russia – especially when both Poland
  and Lithuania joined NATO and the E.U.. Still, the Russians
  held on. Even at this time, there were suggestions that it could
  do well as a free port, but nothing came of them. Kaliningrad
  became rather rundown, with few natural resources, patchy
  industrial development, and not enough income from the
  remaining Russian military bases.
  Over the next few decades, the situation gradually improved.
  As Poland and Lithuania prospered, local entrepreneurs 
  developed Kaliningrad as a transfer point or exploited its status
  as an outpost of Russian commercial law within E.U. territory
  – complete with an administrative system that was sometimes
  more flexible and occasionally downright corruptible, depend-
  ing on Moscow’s policies. By the 2050s, the city was moderately
  prosperous. As Russia slipped toward civil war in that decade,
  with outlying regions contemplating secession, the local gover-
  nors began to consider their options.
  The civil war of 2057-2063 generally saw Russia reassert
  central control over outlying regions. However, the E.U. was
  naturally unwilling to see military force projected over its ter-
  ritory. It made this fact clear to Moscow, while canny local
  politicians and businessmen in Kaliningrad spoke, not of
  independence, but of “special commercial status.” Distracted
  by larger concerns elsewhere, and persuaded by skilled E.U.
  diplomacy, Moscow acquiesced. Even in 2100, Russia still
  tends to refer to the city as a “special territory” rather than 
  an independent nation-state, but the rest of the world thinks
  otherwise – although diplomats are, of course, diplomatic on
  the subject.
  While Kaliningrad is run as a democracy, all its major polit-
  ical factions are closely linked to one commercial clique or
  another. Some of them emphasize historical and ethnic rela-
  tionships with Russia. Others are more associated with the
  E.U., pointing to the realities of geography and economics. All
  successful local politicians learn to play off different interests
  to get what they want. Many are also thought or assumed to
  have shady (if not downright criminal) connections, but the
  system isn’t so corrupt that they can afford to acknowledge this
  – especially given the importance of the GRA to the local econ-
  omy. Overall, the citizenry tends to be “E.U. by principles,
  Russian by sentiment.”
  RUNNING THE CAMPAIGN
  The campaign implied here is based around a small age-
  band/class in a small school that’s known simply as the English
  School, Kaliningrad. This provides a syllabus consistent with
  the rules and requirements of U.K. education, because
  Königsberg-Kaliningrad, with its close relationship with the
  E.U., has quite a few U.K. citizens in residence. (In fact, all of
  these PCs are English-speaking U.K. citizens.) Note that
  schools as such aren’t universal in Fifth Wave 2100; the basis
  of most education is the use of “kindercomps,” usually at
  home. However, parents who are concerned about their chil-
  dren’s socialization, and who want to avoid overreliance on
  computers, can still opt for a formal school system. This estab-
  lishment is very informal by older standards, but it does organ-
  ize pupils into age-based classes for convenience.
  The school is also small, so that the five PCs given here can
  form the entirety of their age-band/class. Nevertheless, nothing
  stops the GM or players from bringing in other pupil charac-
  ters, perhaps of slightly different ages, maybe even establishing
  a rotating cast, with different players running different charac-
  ters for each scenario. This could make it hard to logically keep
  the number of characters present for some important incidents
  down to manageable levels, but GMs who are prepared to deal
  with this somehow are welcome to run the school as the basis
  of a big soap-operatic ongoing drama – perhaps with a few fre-
  quently appearing “star” figures.
  This campaign could be played on an episodic basis. Every
  week (or so), the PCs encounter some kind of puzzle, mystery,
  or problem that they have to deal with, for whatever reason.
  By the end of the week, they’ve solved the problem, possibly
  handing off crucial evidence of wrongdoing to an adult law
  enforcement agency to wrap things up and deal with the
  annoying paperwork.
  Most of these incidents should involve little or no physical
  violence, when the PCs are present. They’re not especially well-
  trained in combat. Certainly, armed combat in the setting can
  easily become very dangerous indeed. If these PCs get into
  actual firefights in which the opposition resort to lethal
  weapons, they will quickly die. Nonetheless, some opponents
  may, for good reasons of their own, opt for less-than lethal
  weapons (electrolasers, tangler rounds, etc.). For example,
  security guards at what appears on the outside to be a legiti-
  mate factory may well use such weapons to deal with annoying
  intruders, rather than risk the closer investigation and bad PR
  that would come from killing them – even if the factory is actu-
  ally a criminal enterprise secretly doing something illegal.
  Likewise, the occasional low-key brawl isn’t out of the ques-
  tion, and some of the PCs have self-defense training or useful
  cybershell allies that can handle such incidents. Also, while
  actual fighting might be unwise, running away and hiding can
  be quite exciting enough.
  
  This campaign can feature a certain number of continuing
  plots, some of them less about mysteries than about soap
  opera. Teenagers are notoriously prone to friendships, tran-
  sient enmities, passing fads and obsessions, and social game-
  playing, as they learn to make their way in the world. They
  have to put up with each other, even if they fall out – part of the
  point of this school arrangement is to teach the pupils how to
  handle such things. They can also suffer a range of adolescent
  traumas, misfortunes, and learning experiences, including
  family rows and break-ups. They may or may not choose to
  support each other at such times. Some players like soap opera
  in their games more than others, but for those who want it, a
  school campaign offers endless possibilities.
  Mystery plots can involve continuing, linking threads,
  which perhaps only appear gradually as the campaign contin-
  ues. Königsberg-Kaliningrad has its share of secrets, mysteries,
  organized crime, and espionage. The PCs may stumble over
  more than one manifestation of such things, or pursue a string
  of clues back to some source over a period of weeks. However,
  the PCs will almost certainly come to the attention of danger-
  ous adult opponents as a recurrent, serious problem. While a
  plotter may consider a bunch of random “meddling kids” as a
  one-off incident, not worth the risks of seeking revenge and
  best forgotten about as soon as possible, a persistent threat
  might be another matter, meriting ruthless elimination. GMs
  should balance such plots carefully, making sure that the
  heroes are aware of the risks and are prepared to duck, dodge,
  and hide. GMs also need to make more capable resources
  available to call on by the time that the plotter would logically
  choose to move against them.
  CREDIBILITY
  COMPLICATIONS (OR NOT)
  This campaign idea may strain credibility with its group of
  fairly ordinary young teens forever stumbling over mysteries,
  one per scenario. Although some might accept this as a matter
  of dramatic convention, this specific setting and group of PCs
  are designed to provide a solution to some of this problem. The
  setting is a moderately corrupt “frontier free city,” where crim-
  inal schemes and conflicting factions are a part of the back-
  ground; crimes and mysteries are pretty much expected.
  Additionally, some of the characters are connected to law
  enforcement and security work through their families. Most of
  them can be treated as having a healthy dose of nosy-teenager
  curiosity, and will surely follow up any interesting discoveries.
  Some good reasons certainly exist to use curious juvenile
  amateurs as the protagonists of a Transhuman Space mys-
  tery campaign, rather than professional adult cops or detec-
  tives. Apart from the fact that they aren’t required to “follow
  procedure” or report to restrictive supervisors through TL10
  communication and management systems, the fact that their
  forensic resources are inherently limited can be a large advan-
  tage for the GM. Tech level 10 investigative equipment can be
  expected to be almost unthinkably sensitive and precise.
  Consider what contemporary, TL8 chemical and DNA tests
  are capable of, and then add 90+ years of advances, with
  cyberswarms, pervasive communication networks, and nigh-
  universal wearable or implanted computers. A professional
  detective who encounters a mystery, and who can apply
  department-level resources and standard police legal privi-
  leges, will almost always solve it in hours if not minutes.
  Teenage amateurs, however, will have to resort to improvisa-
  tion, ingenuity, instinct, and a dose of bluff – which generally
  makes for a more interesting and interactive adventure.
  Of course, the teenagers may be tempted to hand problems
  over to the professionals, as many adults will tell them they
  should. Nevertheless, in a city where some of the authorities –
  including the cops – may be corrupt, where shady factions may
  have control of many communications and media channels,
  and where the local authorities may sometimes be in conflict
  with other nations (including those of which the PCs are citi-
  zens), turning to local law may not always be a real option. The
  danger is that the PCs may end up in serious conflict with
  those local powers-that-be. Nevertheless, they have their own
  “patrons,” primarily their parents and, to a lesser extent, their
  school. These resources may not be much help at first, but they
  can be useful once the youngsters have collected enough evi-
  dence to convince those in authority to take a case seriously.
  CONCEPTS AND REFERENCES
  Several reference points exist for GMs running a “School
  Days 2100” campaign. On one level, it can lie somewhere
  between a less goofy Scooby-Doo and a lower-lethality Buffy the
  Vampire Slayer, with high-tech gadgetry and the problems of a
  part-transhuman society replacing the supernatural or pseudo-
  supernatural elements. On another, it may owe a lot to the long
  traditions of the “school-age detective” subgenre, from the
  Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew to Brick and Veronica Mars, with
  the science-fiction elements as an extra twist. From different
  point of view, it can be seen as a modern approach to the “SF
  juvenile” subgenre, as developed by the likes of Robert
  Heinlein, with his “young citizen of the future” protagonists.
  Equally, popular teen/school soaps can inspire soap-opera ele-
  ments. The GM and players will have to determine how much
  to emphasize any particular element – though the emphasis
  can shift from scenario to scenario.
  In addition to the Transhuman Space line, some other
  GURPS supplements may be helpful to GMs running such a
  campaign. GURPS Ultra-Tech and GURPS Bio-Tech are
  always useful as sources for equipment and other technologi-
  cal details. GURPS Mysteries, meanwhile, provides an exten-
  sive guide to the art of running mystery plots; it even includes
  specific notes on science fiction mysteries (on pp. 74-79).
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  6
  My dad used to have this expression about roots and wings. Give your children
  roots and wings. You know, a good basis and the freedom to use it. 
  – Dr. Donna Chen, Danger Bay #4.4
  
  SAMPLE SCENARIO: 
  FIELD TRIP
  On a fine Monday morning in May, the protagonists are
  informed by the English School’s head teacher, Dr. Leonard
  Simmons, that they are scheduled for a visit to an example of
  ecological restoration work. They’ll be under the supervision of
  a trusted LAI, but the point of this exercise is for them to
  research the topic for themselves and prepare InVid essays on
  the nature and status of the project. (All this is pretty much
  commonplace stuff in the English School.) Specifically, the
  location to which they’re being sent is on the Vistula Spit;
  they’ll be taking a minibus ride to the coastal town of Baltiysk,
  then a short boat trip to the spit.
  The school minibus has enough processor space installed
  to run the party’s supervisor, VICTOR-2, a reasonably smart
  AI with whom the PCs are very familiar. They mainly know it
  for its habit of repeating the last word it said while pondering
  problems, which it does a lot. It will transfer to the rented
  boat in Baltiysk.
  With little else to do on the run to Baltiysk harbor, they
  review the assigned subject as the group sets out.
  Background
  VICTOR-2 has been given a package of relevant informa-
  tion, which it will happily download to the pupils’ personal sys-
  tems or display on the screens of the minibus. Some of the
  students may know some of these facts already, of course. The
  story begins with some background information: The only nat-
  ural entrance to the Vistula Lagoon is the Strait of Baltiysk, at
  the northeastern end of the Vistula Spit, adjacent to the town
  of Baltiysk. This previously put all access to the lagoon under
  the jurisdiction of whoever controlled Kaliningrad. Back in the
  2030s, uncertain about relations with Russia, the E.U. financed
  the construction of a canal through the Polish section of the
  spit, reactivating the Polish port of Elblag. (Those who know
  their regional history may recall that the canal was controver-
  sial in its time – the Russians weren’t pleased to lose their
  strategic monopoly – but that’s all in the past now.) This had
  long been proposed, but previously, worries about environ-
  mental effects (such as problems for wildlife migrations along
  the spit and salt-water surges into the freshwater lagoon),
  along with the cost, had prevented any action. A solution for
  one of these problems included dynamic management of
  surges through the canal. Unfortunately, this didn’t work as
  well as planned in the face of global warming-reinforced tides.
  Over the years, the lagoon has become increasingly brackish –
  yet another of the past century’s many ecological mess-ups.
  Now, the E.U. is financing attempts to repair the damage.
  As part of this ongoing project, an automated research and
  monitoring station has been set up near the northern end of the
  Vistula Spit, on Königsberg territory. Its job is to track salinity
  levels in the lagoon, as well as wildlife activity in the water and
  on the spit. The site used for this is an old Soviet-era airfield,
  which was abandoned and left to decay nearly 100 years ago. As
  abandoned wasteland, and still government property, it seemed
  like an ideal choice. The project may eventually lead to the con-
  struction of a movable barrage across the lagoon entrance to
  control saline tidal surges; managed wildlife restocking; and per-
  haps some kind of microbot-based environmental management.
  So far, things are still at the information-gathering stage.
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  7
  These PCs combine high Status – typical of the citizens
  of Fifth Wave areas – with low wealth levels, as they are
  teenage students with no significant full-time employment.
  Normally this would lead to problems meeting cost of liv-
  ing requirements, but these characters can be considered
  to have “jobs” as legal minors living with their parents, who
  cover their living costs at their Status levels. The starting
  cash they receive for their wealth levels represents the
  spending money they’re given and the resources they can
  command directly, without having to ask their parent
  Patrons. Some of this has already been spent on minor
  items of equipment or software; the latter is listed with the
  AI system on which it’s usually installed.
  Each of the characters has a certain amount of accessi-
  ble cash listed, which represents cash in hand (mostly held
  in easily accessible online accounts), after paying for any
  listed software or special equipment. Remember that, if
  they want to spend this money on “adventuring” gear, they
  are legal minors. They’re even more restricted by equip-
  ment legality than most civilians. Some items (such as
  motor vehicles, tools with possible criminal applications,
  and alcohol, minor brainbugs, or other mind-altering sub-
  stances) are restricted for them despite being more or less
  freely available to adults. In any case, they obviously have
  to find somewhere which has what they want to buy in
  stock – the Web can help a lot here, but there are always
  limits. Furthermore, legal minors found in unauthorized
  possession of lethal weapons, even in a CR1 region such as
  Kaliningrad, are generally in for a world of trouble. Acquir-
  ing useful software, however, is generally pretty straight-
  forward (aside from obvious special cases such as military
  targeting systems or criminal skill sets); it can usually be
  downloaded through the Web in minutes.
  Of course, these characters’ parents may be induced to
  buy or lend them equipment that they can claim to need
  for school projects, but getting hold of anything really
  interesting this way should be a roleplaying exercise in
  itself. Another possibility is to borrow some types of equip-
  ment from the school, which may mean persuading rather
  dim but sometimes stubborn supervisor AIs.
  As usual, it’s possible for richer PCs to loan cash or gear
  to their poorer associates. However, overusing this option
  is not only an abuse of the spirit of the wealth rules, it’s also
  poor roleplaying. Rich kids may help out less-rich kids
  from time to time, but they should be grudging or unhappy
  with providing such aid, and the recipients should feel
  embarrassed or patronized. If the characters get carried
  away, their parents may discover what’s happened, perhaps
  notified by domestic accounting software systems, and ask
  difficult questions about intentions and motives.
  Wealth, Status, Equipment, and Software
  
  Characters who know their local politics recognize this as a
  pretty typical well-meaning, well-financed, probably quite sen-
  sible scheme. Cynics will guess that less idealistic elements will
  have at least tried to lay claim to some of the money.
  Approach and Arrival
  GMs who like to pay attention to such details can invoke the
  rules for motion sickness (p. B144 and p. B436) when the PCs
  are on the boat; its own NAI system will dispense helpful med-
  ications (reroll any sickness results with +3 to HT) if asked.
  Otherwise, the journey passes without incident.
  On arrival, VICTOR-2 discovers that, due to compatibility
  and security issues, it’s going to have to remain in the boat’s
  computer, albeit in radio contact with the students as they visit
  the site. (Anyone who queries this closely enough will realize
  that the site evidently has tight computer security.) Not to
  worry, though – lots of helpful systems are on the site, and they
  can provide the kids with any guidance they need, speaking
  through their communicators and the Web.
  The site turns out to be completely automated. No other
  humans are around, and even the AIs prove to be low-sapient
  at best. The station is also largely buried, leaving the site with
  the bleak and unprepossessing air of, well, a long-abandoned
  airfield. Still, the automated systems are more than happy to
  act as guides. The students get to see lots of cybershell bays on
  the waterfront, adjacent to the jetty where their boat is
  moored, with autonomous shells swimming in and out. They
  are then directed to some automated laboratories in the care-
  fully landscaped, half-buried buildings, all run by static com-
  puters with no personalities whatsoever. There are lots of
  opportunities to take pictures – and even more opportunities to
  become rather bored.
  Mysteries
  The first hint of something curious comes when any of the
  visitors look at the site from the surface while listening to 
  the tour guide. Plainly, six landscaped-in buildings squat in the
  area, but the guide refers to numbers one through four. If chal-
  lenged, it declares that “additional fully automated facilities are
  of no interest to visitors.” If pushed further, it says that “facili-
  ties include maintenance and storage space and scope for
  expansion,” and simply ignores attempts to discuss the topic
  further. However, some online research can show that even
  high-level project documents only mention four buildings.
  Once the main tour is completed, the students are given some
  free time in which to wander around the site and “appreciate the
  aesthetically embellished landscaping.” As they do so, some of
  them spot something else unexpected: a large dog, running hard
  and being pursued by a couple of spider-configuration cyber-
  shells. Closer attention may determine that the dog has the
  enlarged skull of a genetic uplift, and that the cybershells are
  probably cheap “securibot” types (see Changing Times, p. 58).
  The spiders are focused on “herding” the near-exhausted dog
  into a position where they can stop it with tangler weapons, then
  tranquilize it with the hypo-injectors they’re carrying. If the stu-
  dents intervene, it becomes clear that the cybershells have basic
  NAI software installed and aren’t inclined to be conversational.
  They’ll ignore humans for as long as possible, but they will use
  their tangler rounds however is necessary to get their job done.
  They probably won’t use the injectors on humans – they don’t
  know for sure what the effects would be. If they capture the dog,
  they’ll cart it away; entangled humans will be left where they
  were hit. The dog is tired and scared, but if any PCs get close
  enough to it to talk before it collapses, it gasps out, “Tell Mr.
  Przenskala – I’ve been captured. Tell him – they may be after
  him! Tell him I did my best!”
  GM’s Background
  The kids have in fact blundered into an illegal Russian
  mafiskiya operation, which has previously relied on some
  manipulation of public data resources and the general compla-
  cency of anyone who did visit this rather uninteresting site. Of
  course, even this unusually nosy bunch of students might well
  not have blown the cover of the operation if it hadn’t have been
  for the escaped uplifted dog.
  Specifically, the criminal organization subverted the con-
  struction of the ecological facilities, using a front company to
  bid for the contract at a minimal price and then quietly incor-
  porating some extra laboratory and computer facilities into the
  layout. These are now being used for assorted custom cloning
  and biogenesis commissions, including the creation of unli-
  censed K-10A guard dogs. The products of the lab are then
  smuggled into Poland and elsewhere on unmanned sub-
  mersibles operating out of the station’s cybershell bays. This
  dog was being trained in a VR simulator when it awoke due to
  an anesthetic dose miscalculation, and it escaped. The LAI
  managing the secret operation, which can override all other
  systems on the installation, is now going into damage-limita-
  tion mode. Fortuitously for it, the site is designed to act as a
  Web node for everyone in the area, so it can monitor and
  restrict all communications on and off the site.
  To start with, it will route all messages to emergency serv-
  ices to a paid-off police supervisor, who’ll stonewall. It will also
  throw in a lot of “transient communications failures,” and
  inform the AIs on the visitors’ boat that, due to “temporary
  local maritime traffic management problems,” the boat can’t
  leave just yet. If it decides that the operation is compromised,
  as it probably will, it’ll also move its most valuable assets
  through a tunnel to the underwater dock holding its two sub-
  mersible transports, and eventually send them away.
  Unfortunately, these are rather large (25’ long), and so its
  claims that they are “salinity measuring probes” rings hollow
  with anyone who see them, given that the probes they were
  shown on their site tour were all 4’ long.
  The AI isn’t likely to cause serious harm to stray bystanders
  such as the students if it can easily avoid it – that simply leads to
  more trouble later, and this is supposed to be a subtle operation.
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  8
  Oh, talk not to me of a name great
  in story;
  The days of our youth are the days
  of our glory . . .
  – Lord Byron, “Stanzas Written
  on the Road Between
  Florence and Pisa”
  
  Nonetheless, this is a professional criminal enterprise, a fair
  amount is at stake here, and the AI has no Honesty program-
  ming. Fortunately, the secret base’s systems are mostly designed
  to recapture stray products, not to conduct shoot-outs. Still,
  they may have some dangerous assets, at the GM’s option.
  Investigations and Developments
  Obviously, the teenagers should soon come to realize that
  there’s something odd going on, and their communications with
  the outside world are compromised. They can conduct Web
  searches and so on, but other, personal communications to any-
  one who might help keep mysteriously failing to get through.
  VICTOR-2 isn’t a lot of help – it’s inclined to believe what it’s
  told by the “trusted” research station systems – but it may be
  persuaded or finessed to do something not obviously danger-
  ous, with some effort.
  One name that the PCs may choose to investigate online is
  “Mr. Przenskala.” This is a moderately common Polish name,
  but a little research will turn up one individual who sounds
  relevant – a wealthy and somewhat reclusive industrialist
  named Melchior Przenskala. A little more investigation might
  suggest that he is suspected of somewhat legally questionable
  activities, but nothing has ever been proved. Attempts to con-
  tact him, though, will bounce off NAI “idiot filters.” Actually,
  the K-10A hadn’t started working for him; it was being
  trained in VR, but it didn’t know that, and the simulation was
  good. Really strenuous attempts to contact Przenskala will at
  most alert him to the fact that the people who were selling
  him his new, illegal guard dog have somehow messed up and
  let his name get out, to his considerable annoyance.
  Bypassing the station systems and contacting the outside
  world isn’t impossible, but it requires some ingenuity. The plan
  may need direct access to the station’s radio antennae, which
  in turn may mean some trespassing into unauthorized areas
  and crawling through access spaces. Another option, given a
  moderately powerful communications unit, is to link up
  directly to a receiver across the lagoon. This may require a bit
  of tree-climbing or similar, for height, and some constructive
  use of Electronics and Computer Operation skills.
  The students may gain access to the “nonexistent” areas of
  the station through the ever-popular hidden ventilation shafts,
  and see enough to get some idea of what’s going on. Eventually,
  the caretaker LAI will notice something and send in a securi-
  bot or two to “restrain these overexcitable youths.”
  Lastly, the PCs might just try to leave. They could head
  cross-country, but that would be a long, boring walk across
  trackless ground, possibly pursued by security robots.
  Alternatively, they could hack past their boat’s obstinate NAI
  pilot, preferably with the aid of VICTOR-2. There are some
  safety overrides that would make this feasible, and the vehicle
  operating procedures, including a 2-point Boating skill set, are
  stored in its system memories.
  Resolutions
  Eventually, the protagonists get some kind of message to
  the outside world. At minimum, they are rescued and taken
  home, and the school and their parents will complain about
  the bizarre behavior of the station’s systems. How the PCs
  themselves are received depends on what they say and some
  reaction rolls. Assuming that they present some kind of evi-
  dence of something sinister, they might get an investigation
  moving. Unfortunately, they might first discover that elements
  of the Kaliningrad police are being bought off – but others are
  honest, and if anyone can get solid evidence to, say, the GRA,
  things will really start moving.
  Alternatively, the students get away in their boat. They
  might choose to pursue one of the departing submersible
  transports. The boat has a small sonar system that makes this
  perfectly feasible; the transport’s sonar IFF system persistently
  identifies it as a research probe. This chase eventually leads the
  pursuers into Polish territorial waters, and automated border
  scanners will interrogate their onboard systems. However, no
  problems occur with passport control – they can identify them-
  selves as E.U. citizens, and they have full legal right of entry.
  (The system will thoughtfully download a 500-page guide to
  customs procedures to their computers.)
  If the teenagers track the sub far enough, they determine
  that the transport will dock at a facility owned by a company
  that ultimately belongs to Mr. Przenskala. Visitors are politely
  but firmly warned off by armed guards, but this is all evidence
  for various police forces to follow up.
  In extreme cases, the PCs might choose to keep things quiet
  but sneak back to the station later, in their own time, probably
  in a rented boat. This gives them lots of options. Their best bets
  will involve a lot of information-gathering, calls to the right
  places, and a hasty or stealthy departure. It also runs the risk
  of discovering that the station’s illicit security now includes a
  few human goons with guns and less cautious attitudes than
  the caretaker LAI, of course. Hopefully, though, whatever they
  do will lead to a raid, very possibly lead by the GRA (an organ-
  ization that, for all its attempts to look friendly and low-key,
  certainly owns at least a few helicopters that it can’t resist
  painting black). If the students are around for the wrap-up,
  they can even hear the caretaker LAI complaining that its mis-
  sion would have been accomplished were it not for the inter-
  ference of certain inconvenient young persons, before it deletes
  itself and trashes its own memory units.
  FURTHER SCENARIO SEEDS
  Here are some additional ideas for adventure ideas for this
  campaign.
  Blackmail Is a Dirty Word
  The PCs are approached by a younger pupil at the school –
  a 10-year-old whose mother is the assistant British consul in
  Kaliningrad. He’s heard that they have a reputation for solving
  problems without involving adults too much, and he’s wor-
  ried. His mother has been acting strangely lately, and she
  seems distracted. A few things that he’s overheard suggest that
  she has some kind of frightening personal secret, and that
  she’s doing something at work that could get her into trouble.
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  9
  Tim Jones: “He’s 16. His body
  is 73% hormones.”
  – John Allison, 
  Scary Go Round
  
  He’s smart enough to guess that she may be being blackmailed.
  He also understand that, if so, going to anyone official with this
  could make things worse for her – but he also realizes that she
  may get caught, which would be equally bad. He hopes that the
  PCs can help him resolve the problem somehow.
  Of course, one possibility is that he’s got everything wrong,
  and the problem is completely different – trouble in his par-
  ents’ marriage involving a work colleague, perhaps, which
  they’re trying to keep from him. However, assuming that things
  are as he’s guessed, can the PCs discover enough to help resolve
  the situation, perhaps turning the blackmailers’ own secrets
  against them?
  New Kid in Town
  The PCs’ age-band acquires a temporary member – a new,
  “young” SAI, developing its personality from basic principles
  rather than using a lot of “legacy code” characteristics. It isn’t
  really much like a young human, but in order to integrate
  effectively with human society, it’s trying to experience multi-
  ple aspects of human life, including the adolescent-stage learn-
  ing processes that apparently do so much to shape human
  adults. The school has agreed to accept it as a pupil for a few
  weeks, partly as an experiment, partly to provide human pupils
  with valuable experience in interacting with advanced AIs, and
  partly because this seems like a good cause. Moreover, the AI’s
  guardians’ money is good for the fees. It’s teleoperating a low-
  end cyberdoll-style shell that enables it to function in human
  society fairly comfortably.
  This scenario can at least start out as a basic comedy of
  manners. The AI is simultaneously bright, quick, and hope-
  lessly naïve. It’s prone to asking bizarre questions about basic
  human functions at the least appropriate moments. It experi-
  ments with all sorts of social interaction modes, from the too-
  friendly to the deeply annoying. It even tries to learn about
  deeper human emotions that are difficult enough for adoles-
  cents at the best of times (lust, wild enthusiasm, hatred, emo-
  tional cruelty . . .). However, it’s a quick learner, and it’s too
  sensible to want to be disliked all of the time.
  Bigger problems turn out to be related to its origins. At the
  very least, several groups seem to be claiming to have developed
  its core processes, some of them in jurisdictions where this
  implies strong property rights – and there may be hints that the
  thing is actually an emergent intelligence, which would be
  socially difficult. When agents of several factions and govern-
  ment groups show up with uncertain intent, where’s the kid to
  turn but to its new classmates?
  Personal Delivery
  A new memeplex is spreading through the English-speak-
  ing teenagers of the world, and especially those with a
  British cultural background – a fashion/dance subculture
  with a peculiar taste for hierarchy and regimentation. One
  oddity about this fashion is that it only ever seems to be
  transmitted by direct personal contact and word of mouth –
  it really doesn’t propagate effectively over the Web. Despite
  this feature, it’s cropped up in enough places to show up in
  several well-informed discussions of memetics. Theorists
  generally assume it to be a deliberate construct – that’s the
  standard assumption in 2100, after all – but if so, its purpose
  is unclear. One plausible guess is that it’s a rather scary
  socio-political tool; the whole thing has a rather nasty fascis-
  tic edge, and it’s possible that a manipulator with the right
  memetic “keys” could transform any group of devotees into
  a personal cult with political potential. However, there are
  more questions than answers at this point.
  Now, it’s shown up in Königsberg. This is interesting,
  because it needs a “carrier,” but no one has yet been identi-
  fied as having introduced it. The other intriguing aspect is
  that the memeplex seems to key onto the effects of isolation
  from actual personal contact among heavy Web users, induc-
  ing and exploiting a reactive desire for group contact. Hence,
  the pupils at the English School, with their regular experi-
  ence of personal contact, seem to be relatively well immu-
  nized. This makes them potentially useful as investigators
  and data collectors, either on their own initiative or as agents
  of the authorities. The only snag is that it’s just possible that
  this is going to get dangerous. Someone may have put a lot of
  effort in building a sleeper fascist personality cult, and that
  person won’t want it to be subverted.
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  10
  THE ENGLISH-SCHOOL STUDENTS
  This group of kids have two things in common: They all
  attend the same school, and they are all in the same age range.
  They can be played as player characters, as another group in
  the same age-band at the school, or as NPCs encountered by
  other children or adults living or working in the same city.
  CATHERINE MOLTBY
  Mum and Dad are in business together, troubleshooting
  cybershell goods-transport systems. This sounds like a guaran-
  teed way to have to move around a lot – in person, even. 
  Look, I don’t want to bother anyone, but has any of you seen this
  stuff in the high-metaverse chatspaces this morning?
  – Catherine Moltby
  
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  11
  They say that the customers like it when one of them actually
  turns up on site, rather than teleoperating some cheap, impre-
  cise, rented cybershell. They managed to fit having you into
  their schedules somehow, but it didn’t slow them down much.
  Thus, despite the fact that they’re both from the U.K., you’ve
  barely spent six months living in any one place in your life.
  Until this last year or so, anyway – then, they hooked up this
  long-term contract here in Königsberg-Kaliningrad. They even
  said something about giving you a chance to take a straight run
  at some exams in a school environment. Up until then, they’d
  just fitted you out with a lot of teacher AIs and cybershells and
  nanosymbionts and stuff, and left you alone a lot of the time.
  You liked it that way.
  Playing Catherine
  You’re not that sure of yourself
  around people – well, people who
  you don’t know, anyhow. You’re okay
  with people you do know – Mum and
  Dad and a few online friends, some
  AIs and such. Mum had you checked
  over by a memetic therapist a while
  back. He said something about self-
  confidence “issues,” and he got the
  medic systems to prescribe you
  some brainbugs, which have made
  you less jumpy. (You’re supposed to
  come off them by easy stages, even-
  tually.) Even so, the first months at
  the English School were excruciating,
  though you’ve just about got used to things now.
  It’s not like you don’t try. Someone suggested that it might be
  easier if you took an interest in stuff that other kids would like,
  so you sat down and learned your way around what the house
  AI thought was cool – VR arts, music, what’s new from
  Bollywood. You even traded in one of your old AIs for a fashion-
  able new Medusa ’shell that is coded to provide fashion advice.
  Then you found that the other kids weren’t actually that into this
  stuff. That was weird, because a lot of it is pretty interesting. You
  ended up picking up a bit about formal memetics to see how it
  all works, how the studios put it all together. Maybe the AIs even
  tricked you into learning “useful” stuff – or maybe it’s just you.
  You tend to focus onto things quite well. Like, a while back,
  Mum and Dad decided that if you were going to be going out
  on your own more, you ought to be able to defend yourself.
  They fixed you up with some VR/sim judo training. You ended
  up insisting on taking some follow-up courses too. After all,
  what’s the point of stuff if you don’t carry it through? Don’t peo-
  ple see that?
  In addition to the equipment and software listed below, you
  have easy access to about $1,800 cash.
  Catherine Moltby
  75 points
  A skinny, rather nervous-looking, but immaculately, fash-
  ionably dressed 14-year-old Alpha Upgrade with a high-tech
  “Medusa hairstyle.”
  ST 7 [-30]; DX 11 [0]*; IQ 10 [0]; HT 11 [0]*.
  Damage 1d-3/1d-2; BL 9.8 lbs.; HP 7 [0]; Will 12 [10]; Per 12
  [10]; FP 11 [0].
  Basic Speed 5.50 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0]; Dodge 8; Parry 9
  (Judo).
  5’2”; 80 lbs.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western (Native) [0].
  Languages: English (Native) [0]; German (Accented) [4];
  Spanish (Broken/None) [1].
  Advantages
  Ally (Medusa cybershell with “Gorgon II” software package;
  Built on 100%; Constantly Available; Minion, +0%) [20]; Ally
  (NAI in Virtual Interface Implant; Built on
  25%; Constantly Available; Minion, +0%)
  [4]; 
  Alpha 
  Upgrade 
  [41]; 
  Patron
  (Currently Available Parent; Powerful
  Individual; 
  12 
  or 
  less; 
  Minimal
  Intervention, -50%) [10]; Pop Culture
  Maven 2 [10]; Status 1 [5].
  Perks: Sanitized Metabolism (Multiple
  nanosymbiont treatments). [1]
  Disadvantages
  Fearfulness 2 (Mitigator, Weekly treat-
  ment with nanosymbionts, -65%)† [-1];
  Pacifism (Reluctant Killer) [-5]; Reputa-
  tion -1 (Spoiled bubblehead; To the local
  Anglophone community; 10 or less) [-1];
  Shyness (Mild) [-5]; Skinny [-5]; Social
  Stigma (Minor) [-5]; Struggling [-10].
  Quirks: Attentive; Code of Honor (Stands by her “friends”
  and associates); Dislikes Aesthetic Minimalism (Thinks it’s
  creepy and lonely). [-3]
  Skills
  Connoisseur (Music) (A) IQ [2]-10; Connoisseur (Virtual
  Reality Arts) (A) IQ+3 [4]-13‡; Current Affairs/TL10 (Popular
  Culture) (E) IQ+3 [2]-13‡; Dancing (A) DX [2]-11; Expert Skill
  (Memetics) (H) IQ+1 [2]-11‡; Judo (H) DX+1 [8]-12;
  Makeup/TL10 (E) IQ [1]-10; Savoir-Faire (Dojo) (E) IQ-1
  [1]-9§; Stealth (A) DX [2]-11.
  * From Alpha Upgrade template.
  † Fearfulness 2 would normally reduce your Fright Check
  rolls from your Will roll of 12 to 10, but, so long as you keep up
  the weekly nanosymbiont treatment, this penalty is eliminated.
  ‡ Includes +2 from Pop Culture Maven.
  § Includes -1 from Shyness.
  Catherine’s Views of the Others
  The other four in your age-band at the English School aren’t
  so bad, really, now you’ve got used to them. They take you seri-
  ously some of the time, at least.
  Denise Walsh is smart and creative, full of ideas, probably
  because her parents got her one of those Metanoia genetic
  upgrades, which sometimes means that she, too, has trouble
  with people – but she doesn’t seem to care. You envy her that;
  people can call her a geek to her face and she shrugs. Her folks
  move around a lot too; she spent years up on Islandia Station,
  which must be downright weird.
  
  Mike Harris is much more of a ground-hugger. His dad does
  some kind of security work, and Mike tags along with that,
  which seems a bit desperate. “Adolescent revolt” may be a dated
  sort of meme, but shouldn’t he try a bit harder to be himself?
  Still, he’s more mature than Dave Sheckley, who’s about your
  age but doesn’t act it. His mother works for the Genetic
  Regulatory Agency, which has a major office here in
  Kaliningrad. Dave parrots the Preservationist line – he even
  gives your Medusa funny looks, though it’s just a cybershell,
  not actually any more extreme than that cyberdog that tags
  around with him everywhere.
  At least he rubs Ian Chakrabarti the wrong way sometimes
  – Ian’s one of those oh-so-competitive Ishtar upgrades, and he
  doesn’t let anyone forget it. It makes him really cute, of course,
  and he acts all thoughtful, but that may just be a bit of crude
  memetic groundwork. Like Denise says, the great romance of
  his life is Ian Chakrabarti.
  CATHERINE’S AIS
  You aren’t big on AI assistants – actually, your parents
  don’t want you leaning too much on software to handle your
  life – but you do actually run two low-end systems, though
  only one of them has much training beyond what it came
  with. “Spot” is loaded in your virtual interface implant. It is
  a general-purpose but well-trained Web access utility, lin-
  guistic translator, and entertainment player. Your Medusa
  cybershell runs a trained NAI-4. Normally, a Medusa would
  use skill-set software, but this one is a slightly more expen-
  sive model with integral training for the very basic stuff you
  ask it to handle.
  Spot
  18 points
  ST 0 [0]*; DX 10 [0]; IQ 10 [20]†; HT 14 [0]*.
  Damage N/A; BL N/A; HP 1 [0]*; Will 9 [-5]; Per 9 [-5]; FP N/A.
  Basic Speed 6.00 [0]; Basic Move N/A; Dodge N/A; Parry N/A.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western (Native) [0].
  Languages: English (Native) [0]; French (Native) [6];
  German (Native) [6]; Spanish (Native) [6].
  Advantages
  Modular Abilities 3 (Computer Brain: 4, 4, 2) (Limited
  Integration, -20%; Skills and Languages Only, -10%) [41];
  NAI-5 [49].
  Disadvantages
  Duty (To owner; 15 or less) [-15]; Virtual Interface Implant
  [-100].
  Skills
  Computer Operation/TL10 (E) IQ+3 [0]-13†; Diagno-
  sis/TL10 (User) (A) IQ+1 [4]-11; Electronics Opera-
  tion/TL10 (Communications) (A) IQ [2]-10; Merchant
  (A) IQ-1 [1]-9; Research/TL10 (A) IQ+2 [8]-12.
  Additional Software
  Mugshot (Complexity 4); 3D Social Telepresence
  (Complexity 4); Full Sensorium Neural VR (Complexity
  4); Custom Virtual Avatar (For Catherine); Off-the-Shelf
  Virtual Avatar (For NAI); Skill Set: Accented
  Lithuanian, Spoken and Written (4 points; Complexity
  4); Skill Set: Accented Polish, Spoken and Written (4
  points; Complexity 4); Skill Set: Accented Russian,
  Spoken and Written (4 points; Complexity 4); Skill Set:
  Area Knowledge (Kaliningrad) at IQ+2 (4 points;
  Complexity 4); Skill Set: Law (Königsberg Police) at IQ
  (4 points; Complexity 4).
  * From Virtual Interface Implant template.
  † From NAI-5 template.
  Medusa “Hairstyle” Cybershell
  75 points
  ST 1 [0]*; DX 10 [0]; IQ 8 [0]†; HT 12 [0]*.
  Damage N/A*; BL 0.2 lb.; HP 1 [0]; Will 8 [0]; Per 8 [0];
  FP N/A.
  Basic Speed 5.50 [0]; Basic Move N/A; Dodge N/A; Parry N/A.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western (Native) [0].
  Languages: English (Native) [0].
  Advantages
  Fashion Sense [5]; Medusa Cybershell [18]; Modular
  Abilities 
  3 
  (Computer 
  Brain: 
  2, 
  2, 
  2) 
  (Limited
  Integration, -20%; Skills and Languages Only, -10%) [30];
  NAI-4 [29].
  Disadvantages
  Duty (To owner; 15 or less) [-15].
  Skills
  Acting (Snake-Hair Behavior) (E) IQ+2 [4]-10; Computer
  Operation/TL10 (E) IQ+3 [0]-11†; Professional Skill
  (Hairstylist) (A) DX+1‡ [4]-11.
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  12
  AI Allies and Duty
  These characters’ AI Allies have all been given Duty (To
  owner) at 15 or less, worth -15 points. Strictly, this implies that
  the AIs are not only “on duty” virtually all the time (which is
  generally appropriate for these sorts of AI personal aides), but
  also that the duty is inherently somewhat dangerous. This may
  well be true in a version of the campaign that involves even
  moderate levels of peril for the PCs: Humans have little com-
  punction about taking NAI or LAI assistants into dangerous sit-
  uations with them and even sacrificing them to cover a retreat
  or achieve a very important objective. Opponents will have even
  fewer qualms about harming such objects. However, in a low-
  combat, more soap-operatic “school days” campaign, this disad-
  vantage might strictly be considered more than the AI’s
  experiences can justify. In that case, make these duties Nonhaz-
  ardous, and find another -5 points of disadvantages for each AI
  from somewhere – perhaps in the form of minor programmed-
  in or acquired personality foibles, turning the AIs into comic
  foils for the soap-operatic human juveniles.
  
  * From Medusa Cybershell template (see Shell-Tech, p. 14).
  † From NAI-4 template.
  ‡ This AI’s Professional Skill (Hairstylist) is based on DX
  rather than IQ because it is more concerned with arranging a
  standard or carefully defined style just so than with creative
  style design. In fact, the cybershell’s High Manual Dexterity 3
  will often apply to this.
  DENISE WALSH
  Your mums tell you that you were born because they manage
  their careers so well. They met through work – they’re both in
  financial management, consulting for a bunch of British compa-
  nies and the E.U. civil service – and they managed to synchro-
  nize things for years, long enough to have you engineered.
  They merged their DNA, and while they were having the work
  done, they got you a Metanoia-series upgrade, which is sup-
  posed to make you smarter, more focused, and healthier than
  average. They wouldn’t tell you which one of them carried you,
  but eventually you worked out that it must have been Mum-Pila.
  Well, maybe. Anyway, you were born on Earth, but for
  most of your life that you can remember, you were living with
  them on Islandia, the biggest space colony in the solar system
  (not counting Mars or its moons, of course), up at L4. The
  Metanoia focus kicked in on schedule, according to your
  kindercomps’ reports, partly as an interest in math and math-
  ematical sciences, but mostly . . . You discovered the visual
  arts a while back, and then you found that you could get good
  at them. You think that your mums may be a bit disappointed
  – they’d probably like you to have followed them into their
  sort of business – but they hide it all right. Anyhow, who
  cares? You’re good at things like jewelry and photography,
  and there’s so much you can do with them.
  Then a year or so back,
  Mum-Annette got an offer of
  a contract that meant relocat-
  ing back down to Earth, to
  Kaliningrad. The pair of them
  spent days looking serious
  together before they decided
  that she should go (fine), 
  and that she should take you
  so that you could “get the
  hang of life in a planetary
  community” (hmm). The fact
  that the English-speaking
  community in Kaliningrad is
  tiny compared to the one up
  on Islandia doesn’t seem to
  have crossed their minds, but
  your curiosity did kick in, you
  admit. (The weirdness of wide open spaces with horizons
  didn’t occur to you until you experienced them in reality.)
  Unfortunately, life on Earth has brought you into personal
  contact with dumb memes like “Radical Preservationism,”
  which can’t survive on a high-tech community like Islandia –
  to be fair, the Genetic Regulatory Agency does have an HQ in
  this city. You’ve also met some plain stupid individuals here;
  some even get weirded out about you having two biological
  mothers and no father, like this was a new idea or something.
  Still, at least there are a lot of interesting things, people, and
  places to photograph.
  Playing Denise
  You see yourself as a normal, grounded sort of person, and
  in many ways you are. However, your background is unusual,
  even by the standards of your era, and you don’t always realize
  how much your assumptions may startle other people. You’re
  also significantly bright and creative, largely thanks to your
  genetic upgrade. In fact, people say that you’re full of ideas –
  and that they aren’t always good. Well, so what? It’s better than
  not having any ideas at all. You may grow up into a talented
  artist . . . or a scientist . . . or even both. The unifying factor is
  that you’re good at observing the world and then acting on
  those observations.
  In addition to the equipment and software listed below, you
  have easy access to about $230 cash.
  Denise Walsh
  75 points
  A thoughtful-looking 15-year-old girl (actually a Metanoia
  Upgrade) with a taste for baggy but well-made clothes, often
  carrying a camera.
  ST 8 [-20]; DX 10 [0]; IQ 12 [20]*; HT 11 [0]*.
  Damage 1d-3/1d-2; BL 13 lbs.; HP 8 [0]; Will 12 [0]; Per 12 [0];
  FP 11 [0].
  Basic Speed 5.25 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0]; Dodge 8; Parry 8
  (unarmed).
  5’5”; 130 lbs.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western (Native) [0].
  Languages: English (Native) [0]; French (Broken) [2].
  Advantages
  Ally (NAI in Wearable Interface; Built on 25%; Constantly
  Available; Minion, +0%) [4]; Gifted Artist 2 [0]*; Metanoia-
  Series Upgrade [51]; Patron (Currently Available Parent;
  Powerful Individual; 15 or less; Minimal Intervention, -50%)
  [15]; Regeneration (DNA Repair Nanosymbionts; Slow;
  Radiation Only, 10 rads/12 hours, -60%) [4]; Status 1 [5].
  Perks: No Degeneration in Zero-G (Microgravity biochem-
  istry nanosymbiont). [1]
  Disadvantages
  Curious (12) [-5]; Pacifism (Reluctant Killer) [-5]; Social
  Stigma (Minor) [-5]; Struggling [-10].
  Quirks: Overtly disdainful of Radical Preservationism;
  Slightly Agoraphobic (Avoids wide open spaces as much as pos-
  sible, occasional -1 penalties when forced into the open). [-2]
  Skills
  Area Knowledge (L4) (E) IQ [1]-12; Artist (Drawing) (H)
  IQ [1]-12†; Artist (Painting) (H) IQ [1]-12†; Astronomy/TL10
  (H) IQ-2 [1]-10; Bicycling (E) DX [1]-10; Chemistry/TL10 (H)
  IQ-2 [1]-10; Electronics Operation/TL10 (Media) (A) IQ
  [2]-12; Free Fall (A) DX [2]-10; Jeweler/TL10 (H) IQ+1
  [2]-13†; Mathematics/TL10 (Applied) (H) IQ-2 [1]-10; Mathe-
  matics/TL10 (Statistics) (H) IQ-2 [1]-10; Observation (A) Per
  [2]-12; Photography/TL10 (A) IQ+2 [2]-14†; Physics/TL10
  (VH) IQ-3 [1]-9; Vacc Suit/TL10 (A) DX-1 [1]-9.
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  13
  
  * From Metanoia-Series Upgrade template.
  † Includes +2 from Gifted Artist.
  Equipment
  Denise often carries a “portacam” – a small professional-
  quality movie camera with audio and 3D capability; 1,000 TB
  internal capacity; datachip slot and computer interfaces; 16¥
  parabolic audio magnification; 64¥ optical magnification; and
  Night Vision 9, all weighing 4 lbs.
  Denise’s Views of the Others
  Sending you to an old-style school for “socialization” was
  all Mum-Annette’s idea. The other people of around your own
  age who you’ve got to know as a result are a pretty varied lot,
  even though they don’t represent the full diversity of Earth.
  You’re still trying to get your head around some of their
  memetic weirdnesses, in truth, though they’re quite interest-
  ing sometimes.
  For example, Catherine Moltby has a reputation as a bit of
  an airhead, and she certainly doesn’t have much to say for her-
  self. But you get the feeling that she’s not quite as stupid as peo-
  ple think, even if her cybernetic hairstyle is often more
  expressive than she is. Maybe she needs to not let people get to
  her so much; she comes across as all thin and jumpy.
  Mike Harris seems to do the strong, quiet thing quite natu-
  rally. Once or twice, when he’s looked at your artwork, you’ve
  got the impression that he’s got a pretty good eye. Some people
  think he’s tiresomely blunt, so maybe he’s learned to keep quiet
  to avoid giving offense.
  Dave Sheckley is a brash, naïve kid. His mother works for
  the GRA, and he’s obviously picked up a lot of Preservationist
  attitudes from them – all at the moderate end of the scale, for-
  tunately, but he won’t shut up about them, and they’re boring.
  It’d be nice if he started thinking for himself and stopped lean-
  ing so much on Mummy and that blasted robot dog that trails
  round after him.
  Fortunately, Ian Chakrabarti is less annoying than that, even
  if his boosted self-confidence (thanks to his Ishtar upgrade –
  and people make remarks about Metanoias!) means that he’s
  sysadmin of his own fan community. He at least tries to bal-
  ance things by being polite (he’s never used the word “geek” in
  your hearing, unlike some), and he is at least a bit cute.
  DENISE’S AI
  Denise uses a standard-model sunglasses-style wearable
  computer with a cheap-and-cheerful Complexity 4 processor
  and AI installed. Its virtual avatar is an elderly man with a
  bland expression, dressed in a “classical” tunic.
  Isaac
  18 points
  ST 0 [0]*; DX 10 [0]; IQ 8 [0]†; HT 12 [0]*.
  Damage N/A; BL N/A; HP 1 [0]*; Will 10 [0]; Per 10 [0]; FP N/A.
  Basic Speed 5.50 [0]; Basic Move N/A; Dodge N/A; Parry N/A.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western (Native) [0].
  Languages: English (Native) [0].
  Advantages
  Modular Abilities 3 (Computer Brain: 4, 2, 2) (Limited
  Integration, -20%; Skills and Languages Only, -10%) [35];
  NAI-4 [29].
  Disadvantages
  Duty (To owner; 15 or less) [-15]; Wearable Virtual Interface
  [-42].
  Skills
  Computer Operation/TL10 (E) IQ+3 [0]-11†; Electronics
  Operation/TL10 (Communications) (A) IQ [2]-8; Electronics
  Operation/TL10 (Media) (A) IQ-1 [1]-7; Research/TL10 (A)
  IQ+2 [8]-10.
  Additional Software
  Mugshot (Complexity 4); 2D Social Telepresence
  (Complexity 3); Basic VR (Complexity 3); Custom Virtual
  Avatar (For Denise); Off-the-Shelf Virtual Avatar (For NAI);
  Skill Set: Accented German, Spoken and Written (4 points;
  Complexity 4); Skill Set: Accented Polish, Spoken and Written
  (4 points; Complexity 4); Skill Set: Accented Russian, Spoken
  and Written (4 points; Complexity 4); Skill Set: Area
  Knowledge (Kaliningrad) at IQ+1 (2 points; Complexity 3).
  * From Wearable Virtual Interface template.
  † From NAI-4 template.
  MIKE HARRIS
  Your parents got divorced when you were eight, and Alan
  – your dad – ended up looking after you, partly because he
  has the most reliable income. Unfortunately, to further
  improve your circumstances, he needed to take a job that
  not many other people wanted, largely because it involved
  physical relocation. That’s how you ended up growing up
  mostly as one of the small English-speaking communities in
  Kaliningrad.
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  14
  He may photograph fine, but I lost interest in that story when he
  opened his mouth. I’ve got better things to do with my time than listen to
  back-to-the-caves ranting.
  – Denise Walsh
  
  Alan used to be in the police. Now, he’s a security consult-
  ant, on a retainer from the British consulate and contracting
  with a lot of English-speaking companies who set up offices
  here. He’s been good to you, if sometimes busy. You’ve learned
  a lot from him – you’re seriously considering following him
  into the police as your own first career. You’ve
  also got to know some of his pals on the Web,
  especially JUVE, an AI based in Paris that
  does coordination work for the E.U. and
  Interpol. It really knows its way around the
  law enforcement business. AIs aren’t always
  big on emotions, but you think that JUVE sees
  you as a friend; he’s certainly willing to teach
  you a bit.
  You don’t get all of your education from
  computers. Alan always says that he’s in the
  business of dealing with people and that you
  need to learn about this – so he sends you to
  the English School. This is kind of weird at
  times, but you can hack it. When you don’t
  have classes, you like to walk, so you know
  the city quite well. You’ve recently had some
  lessons on a motorcycle simulator, so you’re
  hoping to explore further afield when you
  can get hold of a ro-ped or something.
  Playing Mike
  Some people see you as old before your time. Indeed, you
  may sometimes overemphasize your maturity and your willing-
  ness to learn from your father. But you actually have a real if
  rather pragmatic interest in the world around you, and a capac-
  ity for enthusiasm that matches your age. You’re extremely
  straightforward, and you just shrug off anyone who finds that
  dull. You also tend to judge people, sometimes harshly, because
  you’re always trying to grasp the situation quickly. You don’t
  automatically try to take control in difficult situations, but that’s
  mostly because you often find it easier to solve problems single-
  handed. You don’t bother concealing your skills, although you
  don’t generally boast about them either.
  In addition to the equipment and software listed below, you
  have easy access to about $80 cash.
  Mike Harris
  75 points
  A quiet, slightly stocky but clearly fit 15-year-old, with a
  taste for practical clothes.
  ST 10 [0]; DX 10 [0]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 11 [10].
  Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 9 [-2]; Will 11 [0]; Per 14 [15];
  FP 11 [0].
  Basic Speed 5.25 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0]; Dodge 8; Parry 8
  (Brawling).
  5’9”; 145 lbs.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western (Native) [0].
  Languages: English (Native) [0]; French (Broken/Accented)
  [3]; German (Broken/Accented) [3]; Russian (Accented) [4].
  Advantages
  Acute Vision 1 [2]; Ally (NAI in Wearable Interface; Built on
  25%; Constantly Available; Minion, +0%) [4]; Contact (JUVE –
  Interpol/E.U. Police Coordination Computer; Criminology-18;
  9 or less; Completely Reliable) [9]; Fit [5]; Genefixed Human,
  post-2050 [0]; Patron (Father; Powerful
  Individual; 15 or less; Minimal 
  Intervention, -50%) [15]; Resistant to
  Disease 
  +3 
  (Immune 
  Machine
  Nanosymbionts) [3].
  Disadvantages
  Honesty 
  (12) 
  [-10]; 
  Pacifism
  (Reluctant Killer) [-5]; Poor [-15];
  Social 
  Stigma 
  (Minor) 
  [-5];
  Truthfulness (15) [-2].
  Quirks: Intolerant of addicts and
  addictive 
  personalities; 
  Slightly
  humorless (Doesn’t laugh much; -1
  reactions from “jovial” company). [-2]
  Skills
  Area Knowledge (Kaliningrad) (E)
  IQ+2 [4]-13; Brawling (E) DX [1]-10;
  Criminology/TL10 (A) IQ [2]-11; Driving/TL10 (Motorcycle) (A)
  DX [2]-10; Forensics/TL10 (H) IQ-1 [2]-10; Observation (A) Per
  [1]-13; Running (A) HT [2]-11; Savoir-Faire (Police) (E) IQ+1
  [2]-12; Search (A) Per [2]-14; Smuggling (A) IQ-1 [1]-10;
  Stealth (A) DX+1 [4]-11.
  Equipment
  Mike owns a pair of electro-optical binoculars, which give
  Night Vision 9 and 128¥ magnification; these also incorporate a
  HUD, laser rangefinder, and digital camera, and weigh 0.6 lbs.
  Mike’s Views of the Others
  The school brings a diverse bunch into contact with each
  other. Unfortunately, a lot of them are diplomat’s brats or the
  clone-kids of rich business types who prefer to keep on the
  move. They’re wrapped up in their own little worlds; most of
  them can’t even find their way around the city without a soft-
  ware guide, even after living here for years. Still, some of them
  are okay, though your age-band is maybe a bit too diverse.
  To start with, Catherine Moltby is the school’s resident air-
  head. Well, maybe she’s not quite as far gone as people seem to
  think – among other things, she’s quite a hard worker when she
  puts her mind to something – but she wastes what brains she
  has on trivial stuff. She’s mentioned taking some self-defense
  classes once, which sounds a bit unlike her, but you don’t
  expect that any of that stuck; she doesn’t exactly have an ath-
  letic build (unless she became a sprinter).
  Denise Walsh is definitely smart – well, she has some kind
  of genetic upgrade, which may help. (Two mothers, no father
  – all so very posthuman.) Scores well in math, apparently, but
  spends most of her time wandering around with a camera or
  a sketchpad, snapping and drawing. She gets some nice pic-
  tures and not all of her bright ideas are daft; maybe she’s okay
  for an arty type.
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  15
  
  Dave Sheckley is just a kid. He may not be much younger than
  you, but he hangs around like, well, an annoying kid brother. His
  mother’s in police work of a sort – she works at the big Genetic
  Regulatory Agency office here in the city, and he’s picked 
  up the Preservationist party line that they all tend to spout. 
  (Alan says that GRA agents all think that they save the world
  once a week and twice at Christmas, and they expect to be
  treated accordingly, whereas in fact they only save the world
  once a year or so.)
  Ian Chakrabarti has parents in the E.U. bureaucracy –
  memetics consultants, apparently – who must’ve thrown
  money at getting his genes tweaked. He’s a pretty boy with a
  real nice voice and the sort of pushy attitude that’s going to get
  him smacked down hard someday by someone who doesn’t
  make allowances. Still, he can manage a kind of surface polite-
  ness, he pulls back from being too snarky most of the time, and
  he puts his effort where his mouth is and tries to prove he can
  handle things without AI support, which verges on masochism.
  MIKE’S AI
  Mike uses a cheap off-the-shelf nonsapient AI, running on a
  “sunglasses” wearable, albeit with a little bit of personalized
  training by now. Its virtual avatar is an orange and blue “man-
  nequin” figure.
  Grade
  18 points
  ST 0 [0]*; DX 10 [0]; IQ 8 [0]†; HT 12 [0]*.
  Damage N/A; BL N/A; HP 1 [0]*; Will 8 [0]; Per 8 [0]; FP N/A.
  Basic Speed 5.50 [0]; Basic Move N/A; Dodge N/A; Parry N/A.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western (Native) [0].
  Languages: English (Native) [0].
  Advantages
  Modular Abilities 3 (Computer Brain: 2, 2, 2) (Limited
  Integration, -20%; Skills and Languages Only, -10%) [30];
  NAI-4 [29].
  Disadvantages
  Duty (To owner; 15 or less [-15]; Wearable Virtual Interface
  [-42].
  Skills
  Computer Operation/TL10 (E) IQ+3 [0]-11†; Elec-
  tronics Operation/TL10 (Communications) (A) IQ [2]-8; 
  Navigation/TL10 (Land) (A) IQ+3 [2]-11‡; Research/TL10 (A)
  IQ+3 [12]-11.
  Additional Software
  Mugshot (Complexity 4); 2D Social Telepresence (Complex-
  ity 3); Basic VR (Complexity 3); Custom Virtual Avatar 
  (For Mike); Off-the-Shelf Virtual Avatar (For Grade); Skill Set:
  Broken Latvian, Spoken and Written (2 points; Complexity 3);
  Skill Set: Broken Lithuanian, Spoken and Written (2 points;
  Complexity 3); Skill Set: Broken Polish, Spoken and Written (2
  points; Complexity 3); Skill Set: Area Knowledge (Königsberg
  Oblast) at IQ+1 (2 points; Complexity 3).
  * From Wearable Virtual Interface template.
  † From NAI-4 template.
  ‡ Includes +3 for built-in Absolute Direction (which
  depends on a GPS signal).
  DAVE SHECKLEY
  You’re in Kaliningrad, the main city of the Königsberg
  enclave, because Mum’s job brings her here. Unlike the parents
  of a lot of the kids at the English School, though, she isn’t some
  kind of big-money business consultant. Like she says, her job
  is more important than that. She works for the Genetic
  Regulatory Agency, which has a big office here. She helps track
  down rogue gene-hackers and bioterrorists and people who
  make kinky botched bioroids. It keeps her busy, but the way
  she explains it, it’s a job that someone has to do.
  Not that you have to buy everything that Mum and her col-
  leagues say, of course – some of the stuff that gets in the news
  about the GRA slowing down medical research is bad for the
  look of the thing. Even Mum admits that one or two of the peo-
  ple she works with made some funny remarks when they heard
  that she’d bought you some defensive nanosymbionts and a
  liver upgrade biomod. But like Mum says, those are proven
  technologies, all very stable and safe. It’s not like dumping
  experimental smart-sharks in the Pacific, or making bioroid
  slaves, or rebuilding the genes for the human brain into some-
  thing 10% faster and 50% crazier. What you’ve got is protection
  against bad biotech and nanotech.
  With Mum and Dad having split up years ago, and the so-so
  pay of the GRA, your house only has a little automation.
  (Besides, Mum isn’t that keen on more self-aware AI.) You’ve
  learned to look after yourself and the house without much pro-
  grammed help.
  You’ve done decently at school, which has been online a lot
  of the time. A couple of years back, though, Mum decided that
  you needed more experience of people your own age, and
  signed you up for the English School.
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  16
  I think I know what sort of people we’re dealing with here. Bunch of
  low-end data crackers, pulling black soft off the TSA Web.
  – Mike Harris
  
  Your mother gave you Charlie, your infomorph assistant,
  around then. He’s a low-end nonsapient AI installed in a
  “cyberdog” shell. Mum tells you never to forget that he’s just
  a machine, but he is a pretty versatile machine. People say
  that mothers worry about their kids going out alone, and
  Charlie is presumably Mum’s way of protecting you. Even so,
  he’s a cool thing to have, really, though his software is basic.
  Mum also paid for you to have an implant radio, mostly so you
  can keep in touch with Charlie.
  Playing Dave
  You’re stuck with being the kid of this group, and you can’t
  forget this, although you’ve learned to live with it. However,
  you’re not stupid, and you have a definite sense of right and
  wrong, which you don’t try to hide.
  The fact is, you don’t try to hide much. Some people find your
  brashness annoying, although others accept you for what you
  are. You certainly don’t set out to bother anyone. Indeed, you
  often try hard to help. Your impulsiveness is a large part of your
  personality; unfortunately, it can lead you into situations which
  will leave you shaken. Still, you have the robustness of youth.
  In addition to the equipment and software listed below, you
  have easy access to about $400 cash.
  Dave Sheckley
  75 points
  Sharp-featured and eager-to-please 14-year-old, usually
  plainly dressed and accompanied by what appears to be a large
  but unremarkable dog.
  ST 8 [-20]; DX 10 [0]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 11
  [10].
  Damage 1d-3/1d-2; BL 13 lbs.; HP 8 [0];
  Will 11 [0]; Per 12 [5]; FP 11 [0].
  Basic Speed 5.25 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0];
  Dodge 8; Parry 8 (unarmed).
  5’3”; 120 lbs.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western (Native) [0].
  Languages:
  English (Native) [0];
  German (Broken) [2]; Russian (Broken)
  [2].
  Advantages
  Ally (Cyberdog NAI Companion; Built on 200%; Constantly
  Available; Minion, +0%) [60]; Genefixed Human, post-2050 [0];
  Patron (Mother; Powerful Individual; 12 or less) [20]; Resistant
  to Disease +8 (Immune Machine Nanosymbionts) [5]; Resist-
  ant to Ingested Poison +8 (Liver Upgrade Biomod) [5]; Resist-
  ant to Nanomachines +8 (Guardian Nanosymbionts) [2];
  Status 1 [5]; Telecommunication (Implant Communicator;
  Radio; Reduced Range ¥1/10, -30%; Temporary Disadvantage,
  Electrical, -20%) [5].
  Perks: Alcohol Tolerance (Liver Upgrade Biomod). [1]
  Disadvantages
  Easy to Read [-10]; Honesty (15) [-5]; Impulsiveness (15)
  [-5]; Pacifism (Reluctant Killer) [-5]; Poor [-15]; Post-Combat
  Shakes (12) [-5]; Social Stigma (Minor) [-5].
  Quirks: Brash and naïve; Preservationist true believer. [-2]
  Skills
  Cooking (A) IQ [2]-11; First Aid/TL10 (Human) (E) IQ+1
  [2]-12; Housekeeping (E) IQ [1]-11.
  Dave’s Views of the Others
  You sometimes feel overwhelmed by the other people at the
  school, though some of them aren’t so bad when you get to
  know them. Like that joke says, though, it’s getting to know
  them that’s difficult. They’re kind of mixed, and not always
  friendly – and some of them have been a bit snarky about
  Mum’s job.
  To start with, Catherine Moltby is one of those people who
  think that they’re cool because their parents are rich; she
  stands off from everyone. She’s all skinny and well-dressed,
  with a cybernetic Medusa hairstyle. All she
  thinks about is music and VR art and stuff.
  She’s had one of the minor genetic upgrades,
  which is supposed to make her guaranteed
  sane – not that you’re sure it worked.
  Denise Walsh is less cocky, so far as you can
  see, but she’s full of odd ideas. She’s got two
  mothers but no father – they had their genet-
  ics combined in a lab, and then added one of
  the more fancy upgrades that’s supposed to
  make her smart and healthy. It’s nothing
  Mum’s office would have to worry about, but
  it sounds pretty bizarre to you, without any
  stability guarantee. Denise does seem to be
  quite bright, admittedly, and acts all “artistic,”
  forever pointing a high-end camera at things.
  Mike Harris is a pretty straightforward guy
  compared to those two, and you rather like
  him. His dad’s an ex-cop and sounds like a nice
  bloke. Mike knows the city better than anyone else you know –
  he’s worth talking to and hanging out with.
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  17
  I’ve heard that there’s a lot of weird stuff happening in places like that.
  Charlie, pull all Mum’s reports for the last six weeks that reference
  Romania in the summaries off the home server.
  – Dave Sheckley
  
  That’s  more than you can say about Ian
  Chakrabarti,
  who’s 
  another 
  genetic
  upgrade and almost as bad about it as
  Catherine – dead pushy, though he insists
  that the tweaks don’t affect his brain. (He’s
  quite loud about that, especially if anyone
  hints that’s where his good marks come
  from.) At least he tries to be reasonable
  and to talk to people, even if he keeps sug-
  gesting competitions and stuff and getting
  sulky if he loses.
  DAVE’S AI
  “Charlie” is installed in an effective
  cybershell, albeit with the limitations of its
  shape – and being nonsapient, the control-
  ling AI has even more limitations.
  Although that AI is Complexity 4, its shell
  has a Complexity 5 processor, potentially enabling it to run
  some powerful software. The shell resembles some kind of
  dark-brown Labrador; its virtual avatar is simply a representa-
  tion of its physical body.
  Should the PCs become involved in any sort of violence,
  check the full set of advantages included in the Cyberdog
  template (Claws, Teeth, Enhanced Move, DR, etc.). Its
  “pseudo-canine” senses may also be useful in all sorts of
  investigations.
  Charlie
  150 points
  ST 10 [0]; DX 12 [0]*; IQ 8 [0]†; HT 12 [0]*.
  Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 8 [0]*; Will 8 [0]; Per 8 [0]; FP
  N/A.
  Basic Speed 6.00 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Dodge 10; Parry N/A.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western (Native) [0].
  Languages: English (Native) [0].
  Advantages
  Cyberdog [95]; Modular Abilities 2 (Computer Brain: 4, 4)
  (Limited Integration, -20%; Skills and Languages Only, -10%)
  [31]; NAI-4 [29].
  Disadvantages
  Duty (To owner; 15 or less) [-15].
  Skills
  Area Knowledge (Kaliningrad) (E) IQ+1 [2]-9; Computer
  Operation/TL10 (E) IQ+3 [0]-11†; Research/TL10 (A) IQ+2
  [8]-10.
  Additional Software
  Mugshot (Complexity 4); Skill Set: Accented French, Spo-
  ken and Written (4 points; Complexity 4); Skill Set: Accented
  German, Spoken and Written (4 points; Complexity 4); 
  Skill Set: Accented Lithuanian, Spoken and Written (4 points;
  Complexity 4); Skill Set: Accented Polish,
  Spoken and Written (4 points; Complexity
  4); Skill Set: Accented Russian, Spoken
  and Written (4 points; Complexity 4); Skill
  Set: Area Knowledge (Kaliningrad) at
  IQ+2 (4 points; Complexity 4); Skill Set:
  Law (Königsberg Police) at IQ (4 points;
  Complexity 4).
  * From Cyberdog template (see Shell-
  Tech, pp. 12-13).
  † From NAI-4 template.
  IAN CHAKRABARTI
  You’ve been lucky in your life so far –
  no denying it. Your parents – both con-
  sultants working for the E.U. – could
  afford to get you an Ishtar genetic
  upgrade, which makes you deft, healthy, and
  self-confident, with small but useful details like a good voice.
  (You’ve seen comments about the Ishtar sequences producing
  “arrogance,” but that’s just an apathetic person’s word for
  motivation.) They also made sure that you had an education
  to match – mostly using teaching software, of course, but not
  solely. In fact, you’ve come to understand that computers are
  best kept slightly at arm’s length. You know how to use them,
  of course, but you employ household and school systems,
  rather than letting a wearable or an implant control your life
  like some people.
  All this growing up hasn’t been too badly disrupted since
  Mum was asked to handle on-the-ground memetics assess-
  ment for E.U. diplomatic dealings with the free city of
  Kaliningrad-Königsberg, and Dad swung some adjustments to
  his own contract that allowed him to come with her (and bring
  you), but they did decide that you should get some “socializa-
  tion” by sending you to the local English-language school. That
  has been kind of . . . interesting.
  Your surroundings haven’t influenced you too much, you
  think, but changes do group together. You always want to do
  well, naturally, and you’d previously spent a while learning
  your way around competitive gymnastics. However, that 
  wasn’t proving a profitable use of your time, and the move
  gave you a chance to drop out of the sport. These days, you’re
  thinking about a career of your own in memetics, or perhaps
  politics. You’ve been doing some reading, finding out about
  the original infosocialist theories that supposedly lie behind
  the thuggish “nanosocialist” regimes of the Trans-Pacific
  Socialist Alliance. You’ve been surprised to discover that Kyle
  Porters, the founder of that field, may have been onto some-
  thing. Treating ideas like physical property is no way to run a
  society, or an economy. Proper infosocialism may indeed be
  the way of the future. Not that infosocialism is any route to
  success in European politics, thanks to the TSA. Oh well – at
  least you can master the basic tools of the political trade –
  public speaking, for instance.
  Playing Ian
  You’d like to think of yourself as leadership material –
  not that this is anything to do with “Ishtar arrogance.” 
  You have a strong sense of loyalty to those near you.
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  18
  
  Loyalty is the basis of ethics, so far as you can see. (Your par-
  ents explained this to you originally, but as a hypothetical idea;
  your practical grasp of the principle is entirely your own.) You
  don’t actually like rubbing people up the wrong way, even if
  they do naturally dislike being outcompeted.
  You really, honestly don’t see yourself as arrogant – so you
  say, anyway. Something may eventually chip away at your deep-
  seated self-confidence, but it certainly hasn’t happened yet.
  You demonstrably are smart and good at most things you try.
  You quite enjoy demonstrating the fact, often by suggesting
  tests or contests. Maybe you need to work on learning from the
  times you lose, though. You don’t think of your normal reaction
  as sulking – just withdrawing to assess what happened.
  Your age-band at the school consists of the people against
  whom you measure yourself, and who are best placed to assess
  you. That ensures that you feel some concern for them, even
  when they don’t fully appreciate you. If they feel condescended
  to, that’s not your worry.
  In addition to the equipment and software listed below, you
  have easy access to about $2,900 cash.
  Ian Chakrabarti
  75 points
  A strikingly handsome, moderately athletic 15-year-old
  Ishtar Upgrade (with the standard Ishtar “elfin” looks), well
  but conventionally dressed.
  ST 8 [-10]*; DX 12 [20]*; IQ 11 [20]; HT 11 [0]*.
  Damage 1d-3/1d-2; BL 13 lbs.; HP 8 [0]; Will 10 [-5]; Per 11 [0];
  FP 11 [0].
  Basic Speed 6.00 [5]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Dodge 9; Parry 9.
  5’6”; 125 lbs.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western (Native) [0].
  Languages: English (Native) [0]; French (Native) [6];
  German (Accented) [4].
  Advantages
  Ishtar Upgrade [33]; Patron (Currently Available Parent;
  Powerful Individual; 9 or less) [10]; Status 1 [5].
  Disadvantages
  Odious Personal Habit (Competitive) [0]*; Pacifism
  (Reluctant Killer) [-5]; Selfish (9) [-2]*; Sense of Duty (Friends
  and family) [-5]; Social Stigma (Minor) [-5]; Struggling [-10].
  Quirks: Delusion (“I’m too smart to be manipulated by my
  parents or the memetics experts; my Sense of Duty is my own
  idea!”); Describes himself loudly as an infosocialist but not a
  nanosocialist; Personality Change (Gains Bad Temper when
  physically exhausted); Regards use of personal AI assistants
  with ironic amusement. [-4]
  Skills
  Acrobatics (H) DX [4]-12; Computer Operation/TL10 (E)
  IQ+2 [4]-13; Connoisseur (Music) (A) IQ-1 [1]-10; Current
  Affairs/TL10 (Politics) (E) IQ [1]-11; Games (Competitive
  Gymnastics Rules) (E) IQ [1]-11; History (21st-Century
  Political) (H) IQ-1 [2]-10; Literature (H) IQ-2 [1]-9; Public
  Speaking (Debate) (E) IQ+3 [2]-14†; Savoir-Faire (High
  Society) (E) IQ [1]-11; Sociology (H) IQ-2 [1]-9.
  * From Ishtar Upgrade template, which includes Odious
  Personal Habit (Competitive) [-5] and Selfish (12) [-5].
  † Includes +2 from Voice.
  Equipment
  As he doesn’t have a wearable computer, Ian usually carries
  a medium-range communicator – a palm-sized radio/phone
  with a built-in video screen and a 25-mile range.
  Ian’s Views of the Others
  Your sense of duty toward your classmates is serious, but
  you have to admit to yourself, some of them make things more
  complicated than others. Catherine Moltby at least isn’t any sort
  of serious problem, though anyone who wanders around with
  one AI inside her own head and the other one acting as her
  hairstyle is obviously missing something. Still, she’s quite polite
  to you, in her way.
  Conversely, Denise Walsh is smart – she’s a Metanoia
  genetic upgrade, and that lot are built for brains – but you
  really think that’s all she is. Metanoias tend to focus on some-
  thing, and with her it’s either art or math (which seems a bit
  indecisive). She’s always on about her latest “creative” idea.
  That means that she’s no problem to you when it matters. Let
  her rack up scores in that stuff; it doesn’t impress the people
  who count.
  Mike Harris pulls off a slightly annoying pose of maturity.
  He’s academically unremarkable, but his air of pseudo-adult-
  hood sometimes impresses the gullible – including some of the
  others in the age group. Still, your best chance might be to
  bring him onto your side.
  The same goes for Dave Sheckley, in a sense – though he’s
  more of a natural follower. His memetics are all screwed up –
  he’s picked up a Preservationist complex from his mother – but
  with a bit of effort, he might turn out useful. If he doesn’t drive
  you up the wall first.
  THE FIFTH WAVE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
  19
  Look, I gave you a start, and you still only just won, so don’t get
  cocky about it. Anyway, we’re here now – so why don’t you check out the
  radio reception while I look for signs of life?
  – Ian Chakrabarti
  
  INDEX
  20
  AI Allies and Duty, 12.
  Ally advantage, 12.
  “Blackmail Is a Dirty Word”
  scenario seed, 9-10.
  Chakrabarti, Ian, 18-19; views by
  others, 12, 14, 16, 18.
  Charlie, 18.
  Credibility complications, 6.
  Duty disadvantage, 12.
  Equipment of PCs, 7.
  European Union, 4, 5, 7.
  “Field Trip” scenario, 7.
  Genetic Regulatory Agency
  (GRA), 4, 5, 9, 13, 16.
  Grade, 16.
  GURPS, 3, 6; Bio-Tech, 6;
  Mysteries, 6; Ultra-Tech, 6.
  Harris, Mike, 14-16; views by
  others, 12, 14, 17, 19.
  Infosocialism, 18.
  Isaac, 14.
  Islandia, 13.
  JUVE, 15.
  K-10A dogs, 8.
  Kaliningrad, 4-5.
  Kids as PCs, 4.
  Königsberg-Kaliningrad, 4-5.
  Medusa “Hairstyle” cybershell,
  12-13.
  Moltby, Catherine, 10-12; views
  by others, 14, 15, 17, 19.
  Motion sickness, 8.
  Nanosocialism, 18.
  “New Kid in Town” scenario
  seed, 10.
  “Personal Delivery” scenario
  seed, 10.
  Porters, Kyle, 18.
  Przenskala, 8, 9.
  References for campaigns, 6.
  Research and monitoring station
  near Baltiysk, 7, 8.
  Running the campaign, 5-10.
  Russia, 4, 5, 7.
  Scenario, sample, 7-9; seeds, 9-10.
  Sheckley, Dave, 16-18; views by
  others, 12, 14, 16, 19 .
  Simmons, Dr., 7.
  Spot, 12.
  Status of PCs, 7.
  Student PCs, 10-19.
  Transhuman Space, 3, 4, 6;
  Changing Times, 3, 8; 
  Shell-Tech, 3, 13, 18.
  VICTOR-2, 7-9.
  Violence in campaigns, 5.
  Walsh, Denise, 13-14; views by
  others, 11, 15, 17, 18.
  Wealth of PCs, 7.
  INDEX
  STEVE JACKSON GAMES
  STEVE JACKSON GAMES
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SOURCE: textdata/thevault/GURPS [multi]/SETTING/Transhuman Space/Transhuman Space (Gurps 4e)/GURPS 4e - Transhuman Space - Personnel Files 5 - School days 2100.pdf