TEXT: ®
  An e23 Sourcebook for GURPS
  ®
  STEVE JACKSON GAMES
  Stock #37-6703
  Version 1.0 – June 2009
  Written by PHIL MASTERS
  Edited by NIKOLA VRTIS
  Illustrated by RAMÓN PÉREZ and DAN SMITH
  THE MEME TEAM
  TM
  TM
  
  INTRODUCTION  . . . . . . . . .3
  About the Author  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
  PATEL MEMETICS  . . . . . . .4
  RUNNING THE CAMPAIGN . . . . . . . .4
  Sample Scenario: 
  The Shalimar Slanders . . . . . . .5
  AI Ally Duties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
  Further Scenario Seeds  . . . . . . . . .7
  Team and Personal 
  Equipment  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
  THE TEAM MEMBERS  . . . . . . . . . .8
  Rachel Patel  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
  Rachel Patel’s AIs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
  Steven Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
  Brownie Template  . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
  Steven Smith’s AIs  . . . . . . . . . . . .11
  Sally Westerham . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
  Sally Westerham’s AIs  . . . . . . . . .13
  Professor Robert Lawson  . . . . . .14
  Professor Lawson’s AIs  . . . . . . . .15
  ASTRAKAHN-delta  . . . . . . . . . . .16
  INDEX  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
  CONTENTS
  2
  CONTENTS
  Playtesters: Leonardo de Moraes Holschuh and Emily Smirle
  GURPS, Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Transhuman Space, Personnel Files,
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  GURPS System Design ❚ STEVE JACKSON
  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
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  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
  
  INTRODUCTION
  3
  Welcome to the second in a series of character supplements
  for the Transhuman Space game line: Personnel Files 2: The
  Meme Team. (The first volume – Personnel Files – is a printed
  book.) Each volume in this line describes the outline of a cam-
  paign set in the world of Transhuman Space, complete with
  background, brief scenario suggestions, and notes for the GM.
  It then provide a set of characters suitable to act as PCs in this
  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. The Meme Team also requires Transhuman Space:
  Toxic Memes.
  It’s sometimes said that Transhuman Space offers a won-
  derfully detailed world, but it’s hard to decide on and define an
  actual campaign to run there. The Personnel Files line pro-
  vides an answer to this, and the material demonstrates what
  PCs for the setting should look like. These characters can also
  be used as NPCs – as antagonists, allies, patrons, or back-
  ground color.
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  Phil Masters is the author of Transhuman Space:
  Changing 
  Times,
  Transhuman 
  Space: 
  Shell-Tech,
  Transhuman Space: Personnel Files, and a chapter in
  Transhuman Space: High Frontier. He has also worked on
  countless other GURPS products, including Arabian Nights,
  Atlantis, Dragons, and Thaumatology, and on products for
  several other companies. He lives in the U.K., but he isn’t a
  memeticist.
   INTRODUCTION
  Libels and licentious
  discourses against the state,
  when they are frequent and open;
  and in like sort, false news often
  running up and down, to the
  disadvantage of the state, and
  hastily embraced; are amongst
  the signs of troubles.
  – Francis Bacon, 
  “Of Seditions and
  Troubles,” The Essays
  
  The Patel Memetics campaign should ideally run like a
  good episodic TV series – part private detective show, part
  legal drama, with an occasional dash of business saga and the
  usual sprinkling of soap opera. The default plot structure for
  a scenario (equivalent to a TV episode) starts with a client
  coming to the company and putting a problem before them. It
  proceeds through an investigation – complete with setbacks,
  red herrings, meetings with “witnesses” and “suspects,” and
  surprise twists. Then it climaxes with a big revelation and con-
  frontation, at which point the team members use their skills
  to solve the problem and (hopefully) put the world to rights.
  However, there’s plenty of scope for variations on this theme:
  Clients can turn out to be other than they appear, members of
  the team can initiate actions themselves for whatever reason
  (helping an old friend, say, or picking up “charity cases”), and
  cases that seemed all but closed can suddenly generate com-
  plications. Sometimes, there’s no way to solve a problem to
  everyone’s satisfaction. Any of the team can have personal
  problems in their private lives that draw in the others, and the
  team as a whole can develop rivalries or friendships with
  NPCs These might be other memeticists (either fellow profes-
  sionals or trouble-making amateurs), cops assigned to com-
  mercial or libel cases which also involve the PCs, repeat
  clients, professional reporters, amateur bloggers, technical
  specialists who the team occasionally has to hire in, and so on.
  Personal challenges can recur throughout the campaign.
  A memetics/counter-memetics campaign is usually low on
  combat and heavy on thinking, planning, and talking, espe-
  cially by RPG standards. The individuals described here have
  some combat skills, but they really aren’t professional fight-
  ers. Any incident that involves anything more dangerous
  than a fistfight with an overexcited antagonist should feel
  traumatic and frightening for them. It should generally 
  lead to the involvement of professional law enforcement.
  PATEL MEMETICS
  4
  The indviduals detailed here work for Patel Memetics, a
  small U.K.-based consultancy in the world of Transhuman
  Space – in fact, they are Patel Memetics. Their adventures
  mostly revolve around the tasks that the company performs
  to earn its money.
  This is a distinctively Transhuman Space campaign,
  because Patel Memetics is doing a job that couldn’t precisely
  have existed in previous eras. Memetics is a new but practi-
  cal science in this setting, which enables experts to study and
  manipulate the structure and propagation of memes – pat-
  terns of thought – that are found in the population at large.
  This science can be used for numerous purposes – and
  abused. In truth, much of this use and abuse is simply more
  refined versions of things that have been happening for cen-
  turies – advertising, propaganda, preaching, market research,
  politics, and so on. However, now that powerful tools are
  available off the shelf to anyone who can afford a few text-
  books and a software package, the scope for malicious or
  criminal manipulation of the public’s thinking has expanded
  enormously. Hence, there’s an opportunity for countermea-
  sure specialists who can rely on the same tools. There have,
  of course, been public relations companies, advertising agen-
  cies, legal investigators, and such before, and a company like
  Patel Memetics handles a bit of all of that. Nonetheless, the
  reason it exists as a single company is that its employees
  know how to recognize, apply, and counter memetic tech-
  niques. GMs who don’t want to use Patel Memetics as the
  foundation of a PC group can base a campaign around a con-
  sultancy, division of a larger company, or police or govern-
  ment department with very similar skills and duties.
  The Transhuman Space supplement that provides most
  detail on memetic operations is Toxic Memes. GMs should
  familiarize themselves thoroughly with the rules for memetic
  engineering given in Chapter 7 of that book, along with the
  notes on updating them to GURPS Foruth Edition given on
  p. 47 of Changing Times, before starting a memetic ops cam-
  paign. All else aside, GMs determine which skills the PCs will
  require. Other chapters of Toxic Memes detail a wide range of
  memes that the team might have to deal with, while Fifth Wave
  provides more information on the advanced world in which a
  group like Patel Memetics generally operates. Other memetic
  ops groups might function in other areas, requiring reference
  to other books. For example, propaganda and political work in
  troubled parts of the 2100 world call for Broken Dreams,
  while a specialist team might work with the population of
  Earth orbit as described in High Frontier.
  PATEL
  MEMETICS
  RUNNING THE CAMPAIGN
  
  PATEL MEMETICS
  5
  Nonetheless, there’s plenty at stake – personal
  fortunes, reputations, jobs, academic credibil-
  ity, and sometimes the sanity of whole groups
  of people. Defeating a big corporation’s sleazy
  rumor-mongers who are trying to destroy a
  smaller company’s business, or protecting a
  high-minded politician from a libel campaign,
  should feel satisfying even without bloodshed.
  Some cases could involve, say, the suppres-
  sion of lethal suicide cult memes or the identi-
  fication of secret terrorist recruitment tactics.
  A “shades of gray” storyline might involve the
  discovery that those political “libels” include a
  grain of truth; that the “sinister cult” are a
  bunch of harmless eccentrics and the clients
  are trying to get their rich, dying grandparents
  institutionalized; or that the “terrorists” are
  peaceful political activists working against
  some foreign dictator.
  For a more action-oriented memetics cam-
  paign, look to military “hearts and minds”
  counter-insurgency ops, political work in cer-
  tain unstable states, or almost any employ-
  ment in the lightly policed, memetically chaotic Outer Solar
  System. With few exceptions, the antagonists’ standard proce-
  dure is to come out shooting. Including well-armed body-
  guards in the group becomes a necessity.
  Many memetic ops scenarios can involve a lot of telepres-
  ence interactions and teleoperation of cybershells. Groups of
  PCs may go for multiple game sessions without the individuals
  ever meeting up in the flesh. This is perfectly normal in the
  Transhuman Space world, and the PCs shouldn’t even com-
  ment on it. Indeed, finding that they have to be in the same
  room more than once a month or so, if that, might be what is
  worthy of comment. Still, investigators may find themselves
  searching for physical evidence, infiltrating cults or fashion-
  oriented groups, or even choosing to socialize. It may even be
  a mark of a growing friendship within the group that they
  sometimes choose to hang out together socially.
  SAMPLE SCENARIO: 
  THE SHALIMAR SLANDERS
  Patel Memetics is approached by Marcus Prior, managing
  director of Shalimar Computing, a “facilities” company.
  Essentially, Shalimar owns an industrial unit holding a bunch
  of mainframes in north London, and it rents out time and stor-
  age on these systems by the hour. The site has no permanent
  human staff, being maintained by automated systems. Prior
  manages it from home, mostly acting as a sales manager for its
  services. In fact, he has no permanent full-sapient employees,
  though he often hires contractors of various sorts.
  Recognizing that the hardware is a little behind the times,
  Shalimar has recently begun an upgrade process. Unfortunately,
  however, having left this slightly too late, the company must
  upgrade all the systems more or less at once, or the technical
  problems will be a nightmare. Nonetheless this can be managed,
  and the change is set to take place in eight days.
  About a week ago, Shalimar was hit with a cluster of law-
  suits from people like the Society for the Preservation of
  Artificial Sapience (“SPAS” – a legitimate and high-minded, 
  if sometimes slightly obsessive, sapient-rights pressure
  group/charity). The Society seems to believe that Shalimar is
  going to either wipe a cluster of administrative AIs, or at least
  restore them from old backups. Prior swears that this is
  untrue, and for that matter crazy – those LAIs have a lot of very
  useful experience. In any case, it’d be legal, but the Society and
  a lot of other people consider it somewhat morally question-
  able, and they are prepared to make trouble accordingly.
  At almost the same time, one of Shalimar’s biggest cus-
  tomers, Kerana Interactives, started lodging complaints. They
  run a clutch of digital kingdoms and virtual cruises, with
  “actors” who are mostly non-sapient or very low-sapient AIs,
  albeit with a bit more personality than some. The trouble is,
  some of those LAIs have somehow become infected with a sim-
  ple version of the Sole Executionism meme (see Toxic Memes,
  pp. 114-115), and as the programs also know about the system
  upgrade, they’re worried about the implications for their own
  identities – and this is affecting their work.
  Now, one of Prior’s investors, a company called Partington
  Finance PLC, is querying his choice of upgrade hardware. The
  company has heard reports that the new “Tetharis” processors
  he’s chosen may have reliability issues – which is news to Prior,
  who is a professional in the field.
  Prior has therefore concluded that he’s under concerted
  memetic attack, and he wants the problems defused and the per-
  petrator identified – after which, he’ll take whatever legal action
  is appropriate. He’s happy to pay the Patel’s standard rates and
  a modest bonus if he gets the upgrade installed on schedule.
  The Source of the Problem
  What Prior doesn’t know is that his systems have become
  the residence of an Emergent Intelligence that thinks of itself
  as “the Shalimar Cluster.” This uses distributed processes on
  several of his machines, and exploits unused processor time
  registered to some of the NAI “NPCs” on the Kerana virtual
  cruises. Hence, it can speak through many of the characters,
  enabling it to transmit ideas to the others.
  AI Ally Duties
  Like all AI “programmed allies,” the NPC infomorphs detailed here
  all have duties to their owners (see Changing Times, p. 50). Most of
  them have nonhazardous Duties because this material defines a low-
  violence, “civilian” campaign. The PCs are rarely likely to risk much
  actual physical harm, and some of the AIs actually remain in the owner’s
  home – they don’t even run the risks involved in going out in public.
  Given this assumption, if any of these AIs do somehow have their cyber-
  shells damaged, the GM may be generous about letting them restore
  from backup to new shells without using up an Extra Life, treating this
  as routine maintenance. However, even those AIs that remain at home
  have “almost all the time” Duties; they spend a lot of time handling social
  calls, managing relayed data search inquiries, and so on.
  The exceptions are the team’s buzzbots. It’s fair to assume that, when-
  ever their controllers discover even slightly dangerous situations, the
  robots will be at risk of being sent in – and, being rather flimsy flying
  cameras, they may well suffer harm. Hence, they have been given “haz-
  ardous” Duty disadvantages.
  
  The Cluster is quite smart but a little paranoid, and it com-
  pletely lacks standard AI “honesty programming.” It knows
  that, if it’s detected, it’s likely to be confined and possibly
  forcibly modified – and it suspects that it’d just be wiped. The
  only human who knows much about it is Donald Thewlis, a
  hardware integration specialist who worked for Shalimar
  while they were setting up the site years ago, and who was tan-
  gentially involved in the complex series of events that lead to
  the Cluster developing as it has. Thewlis and the Cluster act as
  business partners; he sells its various skills on a gray-to-black
  market. One of these salable abilities is a decent grasp of
  memetics, which Thewlis brokers to various people who want
  to influence juries, advertise illegal goods effectively, and so on.
  The Cluster and Thewlis are (rightly) concerned that the
  planned upgrade will involve a lot of low-level operating sys-
  tem work that may lead to it being detected or simply wiped. It
  certainly can’t just transfer to the new machines; the hacks and
  exploits it uses to remain concealed are highly system-specific.
  They’re looking for alternative homes for the EI, but the
  options are limited – it needs a lot of processor capacity on 
  out-of-date hardware – and they’re running out of time.
  Thewlis feels that he’s in over his head, but the Cluster has a lot
  of blackmail-worthy information on him, so they’re still work-
  ing together, albeit with the Cluster doing most of the work.
  For now, it’s mostly buying time; if it can delay the upgrade
  long enough, it can work out some way to get out.
  Apart from its ability to spread dissent among the Kerana
  AIs, the Cluster has access to several external channels. It’s sent
  anonymous e-mails to the sapient rights activists, and it has
  posted to various bulletin boards that it’s identified as being
  used by the technical advisors who are consulted by Partington
  Finance. All this explains Shalimar’s problems so far. In addi-
  tion, the Cluster has established reliable access to the site’s
  maintenance tech spiders, and it has set up dummy accounts
  on other commercial systems from which to launch short
  denial-of-service attacks at Shalimar or anyone else who
  causes it concern. It’ll improvise through whatever happens
  with a fair amount of ingenuity.
  Investigations
  To begin with, Patel Memetics will mostly need to track and
  counter the various hostile memes. Kerana Interactives 
  are currently running two instances each of their not-very-
  historical “Orient Express” and “Mississippi Riverboat” virtual
  cruises, plus a digital kingdom based on Mervyn Peake’s
  Gormenghast novels. Prior can provide access to these, giving
  the investigators personas with “invisible flags” that identify
  them as authorized to break character with the staff 
  AIs, though he naturally asks that the visitors disrupt things as
  little as possible. The problematic memes in that population
  are easy to deal with. However, tracking them back through the
  network of communications among the staff AIs may be tricky.
  Partington Finance will be happy to talk to Shalimar’s
  authorized representatives. The company directors are fully
  aware of the dangers of memetic abuse, but they’re also very
  careful with their money. They can be convinced by a good
  presentation that the rumors that have been appearing on
  those technical discussion boards are planted, and the board
  will be faintly embarrassed to have fallen for such a trick.
  Nonetheless, they’ll politely point out that their first duty is to
  their shareholders, so they won’t apologize too much.
  The SPAS will be politely curt if approached – their attitude
  is “we’ll sort this out in court” – but any investigation will turn
  up a lot of discussion of Shalimar in public sapient rights
  boards and blogs, which could lead to all sorts of problems if
  not dealt with. Fortunately, “Shalimar is planning to kill LAIs!”
  is a simple sort of meme, relying on existing pansapient rights
  attitudes, with low durability and medium infectiousness.
  Building and planting a “damper” counter-meme shouldn’t be
  hard, though it may be necessary to infiltrate the pansapient
  rights subculture. Doing so is likely to uncover another prob-
  lem: Shalimar may soon actually find that it has demonstrators
  outside the front door of its unit, in person. Word is going
  round the discussion groups, complete with the ID codes for a
  v-tag that will apparently identify the place (which doesn’t have
  a sign out the front).
  This v-tag turns out to be attached to the outside of the
  building – glued to a structural pillar and hidden from casual
  view but easy enough to locate electronically. Donald Thewlis
  planted it; the Cluster unlocked the gates for him and 
  then wiped the relevant images from the unit’s security 
  camera recordings. Smart PCs may guess some of this and bor-
  row recordings from neighboring companies. Thewlis isn’t ter-
  ribly visible on these, but throwing enough computer
  resources at the issue will allow his face to be resolved well
  enough to find a match in Shalimar’s old employment records.
  The Climax
  Eventually, the PCs should guess enough of what’s going on
  to take appropriate action. The Cluster will grow increasingly
  panicky and throw such nuisance obstructions at them as it
  can. Eventually, it will adopt its worst-case tactic. This involves
  crashing most of Shalimar’s systems. At that point, Thewlis will
  drive up in an unmarked, hired electric van, and the Cluster
  will let him in while downloading itself to a large memory
  module. A subverted tech spider will carry out the module with
  instructions to preserve this device at all costs. If the Cluster
  can escape physically this way, it can’t be traced through Web
  traffic logs, and Thewlis or someone should be able to plug it
  back into a suitable system later. However, the PCs will hope-
  fully be on the scene at this point, virtually or personally (per-
  haps interacting with the sapient rights demonstrators
  outside), and they can do something about all this. Even if they
  merely inform the police, they should end up with some good
  footage of a tech spider desperately running for cover to sell to
  the ever-popular When Cybershells Go Bad website.
  PATEL MEMETICS
  6
  
  The aftermath to all this can include Donald Thewlis facing
  an interesting trial, and some discussion of what to do with the
  Cluster – with the SPAS back on the case, of course. Even if the
  EI is supposedly deleted or archived, it may have had a second-
  ary backup scheme – and when it returns, it now has a grudge
  against the PCs, which it may just be crazy enough to act on.
  FURTHER SCENARIO SEEDS
  Here are some additional ideas for meme-based adventures.
  Standing for That
  The team is hired by a local news service to monitor the
  elections for the Scottish Parliament and provide a series of
  publishable reports on the process. The theory is that, being
  based outside Scotland, they’ll look a little more impartial than
  many local experts and correspondents, but they speak the lan-
  guage and have a good grasp of the cultural context. Some of
  them will have to visit the place in person in order to identify
  some of the subtler non-Web memetic vectors in use, but they’ll
  remain anonymous until after the election. The service hopes
  that the monitoring can escape identification by the various
  party spin doctors, who’ll otherwise try to mask many of their
  tricks from these expert reporters.
  At first, the subject matter looks like colorful but straight-
  forward politics-as-usual, complete with subtle image build-
  ing; relatively polite attacks on rivals’ competence and personal
  character; overt advertising; and covert meme-hacking.
  However, the team eventually realizes that one especially pow-
  erful and well-designed memeplex, a concerted assault on the
  whole current structure of Scotland’s relationship with the
  European Union, is being delivered in two streams that take
  full effect only when they merge in the population. Even
  stranger, the two streams are embedded in the election cam-
  paigns of two different and mutually hostile minor parties.
  Demonstrating this requires a sophisticated grasp of memetics,
  and any hint of such collusion will be a political bombshell, so
  the team’s employers ask the group to keep it quiet until they
  have a more complete picture.
  Then the leader of one of the two minor parties is appar-
  ently assassinated (and rendered irretrievably dead). Was this
  a counter-attack by a faction opposed to whatever his party
  was up to, or a brutal way of increasing the penetration of its
  memetic output? People do pay a lot more attention to what
  his party has to say after that event, after all. Who’s doing the
  manipulation? What might they do to strengthen the effective-
  ness of the other half of the binary package? Is the victim really
  dead? In addition, what will the manipulators do to anyone
  who might seem to threaten their campaign – such as the PCs?
  Fashion Victim Zero
  While tracking a series of minor, transient teen fashions in a
  provincial city for a commercial client, the team recognizes a
  distinct geographical pattern to the emergence of a full 45% of
  these trends. Investigating further, they find that they can follow
  clues to the source, until they can identify a single individual as
  the originator, or at least the propagator. She appears to be a 17-
  year-old female with a lot of friends but obscure origins, who
  keeps moving around and who can always find a couch on
  which to sleep. Standard procedure is to keep this discovery
  quiet at first – it’s easier to observe the subject that way. In any
  case, there may be ethical issues involved in drawing an individ-
  ual of such importance to the attention of commercial interests.
  Is she just an influential cool kid, or is she a terrifyingly power-
  ful memetic weapon being field-tested? What will happen if she’s
  left alone indefinitely? The fashions she’s generating seem quite
  harmless, but they’re growing progressively weirder . . .
  The Jury’s Out
  The leader of a rather radical fringe cult is on trial for incite-
  ment, fraud, and a stack of other crimes. It’s a controversial
  case: The cult uses memetics very effectively and never quite
  says anything explicitly that would represent a definite crime.
  The team may help the prosecution construct their case, but
  perhaps more importantly, the police retain the company to
  help design the memetic defenses that will prevent the jury
  from being manipulated.
  Then things turn physically dangerous. With their leader
  largely out of communication, the cult’s carefully balanced but
  intensive memetic systems spin out of control, leading to both
  (verbal then physical) in-fighting and quasi-terrorist activity in
  support of the leader. This sort of violence should be entirely
  police business, but the consultants get mixed up in the increas-
  ingly unpredictable events in person at some points. Their analy-
  sis suggests that they may have to use the leader himself to
  defuse the situation. This is bad enough if he’s merely a clever
  manipulator who has to be bargained with and watched. It’s
  worse if he’s really a memetic Hannibal Lecter who actually set
  all this up as a memetic dead man’s handle device!
  PATEL MEMETICS
  7
  None of the individuals detailed here have personal
  equipment listed in detail (apart from their infomorphs,
  which are treated as Allies, of course). The fact is, they’re
  reasonably well-off Fifth Wave civilians in a country with no
  great tradition of weapons ownership and in supposedly
  peaceful jobs. They have plenty of ordinary personal gear
  but no great amount of “adventuring equipment.” However,
  they can generally afford most small legal items, and being
  based in one of the world’s great cities, with full Web access,
  they can quickly get hold of most things that they decide
  they need. This goes double for software (including skill
  sets), which can often be acquired online in seconds.
  Patel Memetics has a certain amount of “company
  gear,” such as high-quality off-the-shelf cameras and radios
  and one or two scanners, all stowed in a lock-up storeroom
  somewhere in West London. The company also has a col-
  lection of software tools and skill sets, usually kept on the
  server at Rachel Patel’s home. Professor Lawson and
  ASTRAKAHN-delta likewise have good collections of
  memetic-design software tools.
  Team and Personal Equipment
  
  Rachel Patel founded Patel Memetics as a way to help peo-
  ple more than she could as a lawyer. This section details the
  core Patel Memetics team members, who can be used right out
  of the chapter, as templates for new characters, as NPC men-
  tors for a new team, or as rivals of a new company.
  RACHEL PATEL
  Boredom is a dangerous thing. Boredom and being
  annoyed with how things work, doubly so.
  You’re a lawyer by training – criminal work – and compe-
  tent at it (no point in false modesty). Like a lot of people these
  days, you tried out a couple of careers before you got into this
  one, but you decided that you’d stick with law, and you landed
  a job with the Crown Prosecution Service. Your motivation
  wasn’t some crude idea about nailing perps (that’d be the
  police’s job, anyway) – it was just about, well, keeping things
  somewhere near what they ought to be. However, after a few
  years, you realized that you were bored, your career with the
  CPS wasn’t going anywhere much, and there was a class of
  problem that the law could only deal with from an odd angle.
  There’s no such thing as a memetic crime – not in English
  law, and not much in EU law. Oh, there’s libel and slander and
  conspiracy and incitement, just like there have always been,
  but all these hackers working for the gangs to confuse juries,
  and sleazy kids building suicide cults for kicks, and fraudsters
  convincing people that their money belongs in someone else’s
  account . . . They were too often falling through the gaps in the
  justice system. There weren’t enough people even trying to
  solve the problem.
  Maybe, just maybe, that meant that there was a gap in the
  market.
  So, you’ve gone freelance. Patel Memetics can’t change
  the world, but it can deal with the problems that come
  through the door. Better yet, it isn’t boring.
  Playing Rachel
  You aren’t a workaholic,
  and you aren’t wildly old-
  fashioned, but you do
  believe in doing things
  properly, and that often
  means doing them your-
  self. You know some people
  say that’s why you’ve never
  had any very long-term
  relationships, but actually,
  that’s just how you like
  your life. You aren’t a mis-
  anthrope, though. On the
  contrary, you really like
  helping people, and you
  have a very good feeling for
  how they think. You have
  as many down times as
  most people, but that’s why
  you keep a bottle of good
  Scotch in the cupboard.
  You have nothing at all against AIs, but you don’t think it’s
  clever to become dependent on them. (That’s low-grade AIs;
  full sapient types count as people to you, though they can be
  hard to read.) Personal interactions are your specialty. That
  includes finding good people to handle the tasks that are out-
  side your areas of expertise.
  Rachel Patel
  200 points
  Rachel Patel is a slightly stocky, middle-aged (actually 47-
  year-old), genefixed human woman of mixed Indian and
  European descent.
  ST 9 [-10]; DX 11 [20]; IQ 14 [80]; HT 12 [20].
  Damage 1d-2/1d-1; BL 16 lbs.; HP 9 [0]; Will 14 [0]; Per 14 [0];
  FP 12 [0].
  Basic Speed 5.50 [-5]; Basic Move 5 [0]; Dodge 8; Parry 8
  (Judo).
  5’3”; 125 lbs.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western (Native) [0].
  Languages: English (Native) [0]; French (Accented) [4];
  German (Broken) [2].
  Advantages
  Ally (“Homework” – home computer LAI; 25% of starting
  points; Constantly Available; Minion, +50%) [6]; Ally (“Jade” –
  wearable NAI; 25% of starting points; Constantly Available;
  Minion, +0%) [4]; Charisma 1 [5]; Contact (Newsblogger; Cur-
  rent Affairs (London)-15; 12 or less; Usually Reliable) [8];
  Empathy [15]; Genefixed Human (Post-2050) [0]; Immunity to
  Cancer (Carcinophage Nanosymbionts) [5]; Reputation +2 (As
  a good lawyer; In London criminal law circles; 10 or less) [1];
  Resistant to Disease +8 (Nanosymbiont Immune Machines)
  [5]; Status 1 [0]*; Wealthy [20].
  Disadvantages
  Code of Honor (Professional – Lawyer/Consultant) [-5];
  Pacifism (Reluctant Killer) [-5].
  Quirks: Broad perfectionist streak – stays on a job until
  it’s done right; Hits good whisky hard when depressed;
  Likes solving people’s problems; Won’t trust non-fully sapi-
  ent AIs with important jobs. [-4]
  Skills
  Accounting (H) IQ-2 [1]-12; Acting (A) IQ-1 [1]-13;
  Administration (A) IQ [2]-14; Computer Operation/TL10
  (E) IQ [1]-14; Criminology/TL10 (A) IQ-1 [1]-13; Detect Lies
  (H) Per+1 [1]-15†; Diplomacy (H) IQ-2 [1]-12; Expert Skill
  (Memetics) (H) IQ-2 [1]-12; Forensics/TL10 (H) IQ-2 [1]-12;
  Intimidation (A) Will-1 [1]-13; Judo (H) DX-1 [2]-10; Law
  (U.K. Criminal) (H) IQ+2 [12]-16; Law (EU Criminal) (H)
  IQ [3]-14‡; Leadership (A) IQ+1 [2]-15§; Public Speaking
  (A) IQ+1 [2]-15§; Savoir-Faire (High Society) (E) IQ [1]-14;
  Savoir-Faire (Police) (E) IQ [1]-14.
  PATEL MEMETICS
  8
  THE TEAM MEMBERS
  
  * Free from Wealth.
  † Includes +3 from Empathy.
  ‡ Defaults from Law (U.K. Criminal).
  § Includes +1 from Charisma.
  Rachel’s Views of the Team
  Steven Smith was a detective with Scotland Yard when you
  first met him. He’s a smart guy, good at his job. His parents
  gave him one of those weird Brownie genemods, but that gives
  him an edge sometimes, like it’s supposed to. You were having
  coffee with him one time when you’d had to meet up to go over
  some physical evidence in person, and you mentioned your
  idea about the consultancy – and it turned out that he felt
  much the same way. So, you offered him a job. Someone’s got
  to go out and dig through the facts on the ground, and he’s a
  professional.
  Professor Robert Lawson is an academic at the University of
  Hertfordshire, in the Department of Memetic Sciences. The
  CPS consults him sometimes, and you’d got to know him well
  online, so he was somebody else whom you mentioned the
  career change to . . . You were hoping he’d be interested in
  lending a hand. He was; he really enjoys looking at this stuff in
  action. A bit cold-blooded, maybe, but he knows his business.
  He’s on board as a consultant.
  Sally Westerham was actually one of Lawson’s students until
  last year. When Lawson realized that you’d need staff, he rec-
  ommended her to you. He rates her well for the theory side,
  but says she’s a bit too active to make an academic yet. So, you
  took her on to handle memetics in the field. Turns out, yes,
  she’s observant, a bit hyper, and a bit of a fashion victim. Like
  a lot of kids, she seems to think that she can use her AI to han-
  dle all the boring stuff. Well, she’ll learn better eventually; right
  now, she’s earning her pay from you.
  ASTRAKAHN-delta is the only one of the team to approach
  you – apparently, he’s another one who found out about you
  through Lawson, at some conference. He’s a full-sapient AI,
  originally built for a consortium of advertising agencies.
  Lawson says that the licensing authority got twitchy about the
  idea of an AI whose primary function was to mess with people’s
  minds, so they insisted on a lot of safeguards, which make him
  slightly unsuitable for some advertising work. He thus does
  consultancy work for Patel Memetics to pay the rent on his
  CPU. He also knows applied headshrinking.
  RACHEL PATEL’S AIS
  Rachel doesn’t entirely trust AIs not to be stupid, but she
  runs a couple, one at home and one wearable. They’re basic
  models. Because she supervises them rather closely, she chose
  not to waste money or effort on something that’s just half-com-
  petent at a wider range of jobs.
  The two AIs have virtual avatars resembling expressionless
  female mannequins in simplified Victorian dress – all brown
  for Homework, all bright green for Jade.
  Homework
  50 points
  ST 0 [0]*; DX 10 [0]; IQ 10 [20]†; HT 12 [0]*.
  Damage N/A; BL N/A; HP 8 [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]; French (Native) [6];
  German (Native) [6]; Spanish (Native) [6].
  Advantages
  LAI-6 [82]; Modular Abilities 3 (Computer Brain: 4, 4, 4)
  (Limited Integration, -20%; Skills and Languages Only, -10%)
  [47].
  Disadvantages
  Duty (Owner; 15 or less; Nonhazardous) [-10]; Microframe
  [-136].
  Quirks: Habit (Addresses the boss’s female associates as
  “Sister”). [-1]
  Skills
  Computer Operation/TL10 (E) IQ+3 [0]-13†; Connoisseur (Vir-
  tual Reality Arts) (A) IQ-1 [1]-9; Current Affairs/TL10 (Business)
  (E) IQ [1]-10; Current Affairs/TL10 (Headline News) (E) IQ+1
  [2]-11; Electronics Operation/TL10 (Communications) (A) IQ+1
  [4]-11; Electronics Operation/TL10 (Security) (A) IQ [2]-10;
  Expert Skill (Computer Security) (H) IQ [4]-10; Housekeeping (E)
  IQ+2 [4]-12; Research/TL10 (A) IQ+3 [12]-13.
  * From Microframe template.
  † From LAI-6 template.
  Jade
  50 points
  ST 0 [0]*; DX 10 [0]; IQ 9 [0]†; HT 12 [0]*.
  Damage N/A; BL N/A; HP 1 [0]*; Will 9 [0]; Per 10 [5]; FP N/A.
  Basic Speed 5.50 [0]; Basic Move N/A; Dodge N/A; Parry N/A.
  PATEL MEMETICS
  9
  Okay, now everyone is online – let’s try and focus on this
  problem, shall we? This looks like an open-and-shut libel case to
  me, except that someone is getting too damned clever with the
  memetic vectors.
  – Rachel Patel
  
  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-5 [49].
  Disadvantages
  Duty (Owner; 15 or less; Nonhazardous) [-10]; Wearable
  Virtual Interface [-42].
  Skills
  Computer Operation/TL10 (E) IQ+3 [0]-12†; Current
  Affairs/TL10 (Headline News) (E) IQ+1 [2]-10; Electronics
  Operation/TL10 (Communications) (A) IQ+3 [12]-12;
  Research/TL10 (A) IQ+1 [4]-10.
  * From Wearable Virtual Interface template.
  † From NAI-5 template.
  STEVEN SMITH
  When people meet you, they sometimes jump to conclu-
  sions, mostly about your parents – you’ve heard all sorts of
  stuff from tactless idiots about how they must have been para-
  noid or weird. You just say that they were cautious.
  They gave you a Brownie genemod, which means that you
  look weird by most folk’s standards: You walked hunched for-
  ward, you’re short and stocky, and you talk funny. In fact, you
  have the kind of looks that most parents get adjusted in the
  womb these days. Those traits actually mean that you’re just a
  little bit tougher than most folks are; your body will last you a
  good century without expensive medical attention. That was
  the plan, of course – whatever happens to you or the world,
  you’ll survive well. That suits you.
  You’ve had a couple of jobs in your time, like most people,
  but the last few years, you were a copper, with Scotland Yard.
  You made detective constable, but like many big organizations
  these days, the Yard has a lot of people at the top that aren’t
  going anywhere very soon. When a lawyer you knew at the CPS
  started talking about going freelance with some kind of spe-
  cialist consultancy, dealing with the sort of not-quite-crimes
  that come out of memetic science, and then offered you a job,
  you decided to make the move.
  Not that you know much about memetics – you’ve just got
  cop training, which is more about remote systems than any-
  thing else. Nonetheless, you figure you have enough common
  sense to help the experts, and that’s what the boss wanted – a
  solid bag-carrier and legman.
  You have a wife and a kid, but you don’t mix work with pri-
  vate life much – old police habit, really. Your wife is baseline
  human, so having a kid involved some genetics work (you had
  him set up as a low-end upgrade). Of course, the rest of the team
  sees you as some kind of ultra-straight family guy, but whatever.
  Playing Steven
  You’re straightforward and direct, though not naïve or given
  to underestimating opponents – your cop training sticks with
  you. You know that you’re regarded as the muscle of this out-
  fit, for what that’s worth, and you can be wryly humorous
  about this. Even so, that doesn’t mean that you have to put up
  with unlimited insults, especially as you’re a long way from
  being stupid. Nonetheless, being the least academic of this
  group, you sometimes think of yourself as providing plain
  moral sense when it’s needed. When things get physical, you
  adopt a blunt “leave it to the professionals” attitude.
  Steven Smith
  200 points
  Steven Smith is a healthy 37-year-old male Brownie 
  with that parahuman type’s odd posture, large ears, and muf-
  fled voice.
  ST 10 [10]*; DX 12 [40]; IQ 13 [60]; HT 13 [10]*.
  Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 13 [0]; Per 14 [5];
  FP 13 [0].
  Basic Speed 6.00 [-5]; Basic Move 5 [0]*; Dodge 10; Parry 11
  (Brawling).
  5’4”; 145 lbs.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western (Native) [0].
  Languages: English (Native) [0]; French (Broken) [2].
  Advantages
  Ally (“Ken” – wearable NAI; 50% of starting points; Con-
  stantly Available; Minion, +0%) [8]; Ally (Overview Buzzbot;
  25% of starting points; Constantly Available; Minion, +0%) [4];
  Brownie Parahuman [15]; Combat Reflexes [15]; Filter Lungs
  (Lung Cleaner Nanosymbionts) [5]; Immunity to Cancer (Car-
  cinophage Nanosymbionts) [5]; Resistant to Nanomachines +8
  (Guardian Nanosymbionts) [2]; Status 1 [0]†; Wealthy [20].
  Disadvantages
  Honesty (15) [-5]; Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents) [-10];
  Sense of Duty (Close friends and colleagues) [-5].
  Quirks: Dislikes snakes; Horrible Hangovers; Protective of
  his family; Sometimes sings or hums to himself – annoyingly
  flat. [-4]
  PATEL MEMETICS
  10
  Brownie Template (15 points)
  Steven Smith’s character sheet uses a GURPS
  Fourth Edition version of the Brownie template from
  p. 115 of Fifth Wave.
  Attributes and Characteristics: ST-1 [-10]; HT+2 [20];
  Basic Move-1 [-5].
  Advantages: Acute Hearing 2 [4]; Acute Vision 1 [2];
  Catfall [10]; Resistant to Disease +8 [5]; Longevity [2].
  Perks: No Degeneration in Zero-G [1].
  Disadvantages: Disturbing Voice [-10]; Unattractive
  [-4].
  Features: Taboo Traits (Genetic Defects, Mental
  Instability).
  
  Skills
  Area Knowledge (London) (E)
  IQ [1]-13; Beam Weapons/TL10
  (Pistol) (E) DX [1]-12; Brawling (E)
  DX+2 [4]-14; Computer Opera-
  tion/TL10 (E) IQ [1]-13; Criminol-
  ogy/TL10 
  (A) 
  IQ+1 
  [4]-14;
  Driving/TL10 (Automobile) (A) DX
  [2]-12; Electronics Operation/TL10
  (Surveillance) (A) IQ [2]-13; First
  Aid/TL10 (Human) (E) IQ [1]-13;
  Forced Entry (E) DX [1]-12; Foren-
  sics/TL10 (H) IQ-1 [2]-12; Interro-
  gation (A) IQ [2]-13; Law (UK
  Police) (H) IQ-1 [2]-12; Observation
  (A) 
  Per 
  [1]-14‡; 
  Savoir-Faire
  (Police) (E) IQ [1]-13; Search (A)
  Per-1 [1]-13; Streetwise (A) IQ
  [2]-13.
  * From Brownie template.
  † Free from Wealth.
  ‡ Includes +1 from Acute Vision.
  Steven’s Views of the Team
  Rachel Patel is the boss. As far as you’re concerned, what
  she says, goes. That’s fine, because she’s good at anything she
  sets out to do. She’s a friend, but there’s nothing else there;
  even if you weren’t already taken, she’s a bit too focused for
  your tastes. Nevertheless, you respect her 100%.
  Professor Robert Lawson works for the company as a con-
  sultant. You ran into his name once or twice when you were
  back at the Yard; he’s a teacher at the University of
  Hertfordshire who seems to moonlight quite a bit. The rumors
  also say that he gives good, straight answers. Actually, you’re
  not sure that he isn’t into this business mostly for excitement,
  but he does know his stuff, in an academic sort of way.
  Sally Westerham is the team’s other field worker, and Rachel
  must’ve chosen her because she’s completely unlike you. She
  used to be one of Lawson’s students, apparently. The professor
  told Rachel she was good but that she likes spending her nights
  out on the town too much to stick with academia, so he pointed
  her at this job. Of course, she calls what she does “field obser-
  vation,” and to be fair, she has the makings of a decent under-
  cover worker. She preserves proper professional detachment –
  or perhaps she just never really gets into all the fashions and
  trends that she notices. She may lean on her AI assist too much.
  ASTRAKAHN-delta is an AI, built for work in the advertising
  business. But he’s fully sapient, which means he’s a tax-paying
  citizen and free to take whatever work he likes – and appar-
  ently he likes picking up some cash doing con-
  sultancy work with Patel Memetics. Some peo-
  ple think that all AIs are weird, and sometimes
  you can see why, but the law says that they
  have to be made pretty straightforward and
  honest, and ASTRAKAHN seems okay.
  STEVEN SMITH’S AIS
  Smith uses a good, off-the-shelf wearable AI
  to manage his electronic connections. It’s capa-
  ble of running high-end skill set software, and
  it does the job. Its virtual avatar is modeled is
  on a noted Bollywood character actor of some
  years back, dressed in a plain tunic and baggy
  pants. Steven also has control of one of the
  company’s Overview flying camera buzzbots,
  which is sometimes very useful on field mis-
  sions; he’s training it to monitor situations
  meticulously.
  Ken
  100 points
  ST 0 [0]*; DX 10 [0]; IQ 10 [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: 8, 2, 2) (Limited
  Integration, -20%; Skills and Languages Only, -10%) [47];
  NAI-6 [69].
  Disadvantages
  Duty (Owner; 15 or less; Nonhazardous) [-10]; Wearable
  Virtual Interface [-42].
  Skills
  Computer Operation/TL10 (E) IQ+3 [0]-13†; Computer Pro-
  gramming/TL10 (H) IQ+1 [8]-11; Electronics Operation/TL10
  (Communications) (A) IQ+6 [24]-16; Research/TL10 (A) IQ+1
  [4]-11.
  * From Wearable Virtual Interface template.
  † From NAI-6 template.
  PATEL MEMETICS
  11
  So, they’re throwing insults? I’ve heard worse. If they
  start throwing rocks, they’ll have me to deal with.
  – Steven Smith
  
  Note that Ken has a default for most other forms of
  Electronics Operation/TL10 skill of 12, thanks to its high level
  in Communications.
  Overview Buzzbot
  50 points
  ST 3 [0]*; DX 10 [0]; IQ 8 [0]†; HT 11 [0]*.
  Damage N/A; BL N/A; HP 3 [0]; Will 8 [0]; Per 9 [5]; FP N/A.
  Basic Speed 5.25 [0]; Ground Move 0 [0]; Air Move 10 [0]*;
  Dodge 8; 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 (The Company; 15 or less) [-15]; Buzzbot [-15].
  Skills
  Aerobatics (H) DX-1 [2]-9; Computer Operation/TL10 (E)
  IQ+3 [0]-11†; Observation (A) Per+3 [12]-12; Photogra-
  phy/TL10 (A) IQ [2]-8.
  * From Buzzbot template.
  † From NAI-4 template.
  SALLY WESTERHAM
  A year ago, you were a student with the
  University of Hertfordshire, which is phys-
  ically located just north of London. You
  were finishing a degree in memetic stud-
  ies. It’s a fascinating subject, of course.
  While most people take some interest in it
  (although some are a bit nervous about
  what it can do), for you, the point is that it
  explains how the world works. How your
  world works especially – you do enjoy get-
  ting out there and immersing yourself in
  the transient memetics of popular culture,
  as Professor Bob would put it. Now you’re
  out in the world, using that training, really
  getting immersed.
  At one stage, you were seriously consid-
  ering sticking with the university, doing
  postgraduate work. However, there were
  problems. Money, for a start, and some of
  the teaching staff who were in a position to
  approve the idea were muttering things
  about you lacking focus. (You tried to tell
  them it was research and data collection
  you were doing in the evenings.) Then, to
  your surprise, Professor Bob came through
  with an answer.
  It turned out that the greedy old so-and-so had been moon-
  lighting as a consultant to the cops and such. One of his con-
  tacts was talking about setting up a consultancy to handle
  memetics-related problems. He’d be lending a hand, but this
  outfit would be looking for somebody to play edgehunter – to
  get out in the field sometimes. Moreover, he was prepared to
  put in a good word for you.
  That’s how you ended up working for Patel Memetics. The
  job is often fun; you even get to play with a company-issue
  buzzbot – a flying cybershell camera. Better yet, you’re paid to
  go out and soak up the memes of the moment. Your first
  month’s pay went toward a virtual interface implant, which
  runs Vortex, your personal AI. With Vortex on assist, this is a
  good situation you have here.
  Playing Sally
  You are, really, the kid of the team – or rather, the adoles-
  cent. Your usefulness as a field observer comes partly from
  your intelligence and training, but also partly from your youth-
  ful tendency to pick up every new idea you meet and at least
  try it for size. You’re just as quick to discard ideas, mind you,
  and you’re by no means gullible, but you’re always prepared to
  find things cool or fun or intellectually interesting. Your enthu-
  siasm for a good night out is another part of all this.
  In short, the older members of the team may find you a bit
  wearing. You aren’t annoying for the sake of it, and your energy
  turns in useful directions most of the time.
  Sally Westerham
  200 points
  A slim, good-looking, moderately athletic Alpha Upgrade,
  aged 22, with a taste for slightly bizarre hairstyles.
  ST 8 [-20]; DX 13 [40]*; IQ 13 [60]; HT
  12 [10]*.
  Damage 1d-3/1d-2; BL 13 lbs.; HP 8 [0];
  Will 12 [-5]; Per 14 [5]; FP 12 [0].
  Basic Speed 6.25 [0]; Basic Move 7 [5];
  Dodge 9; Parry 8 (Karate).
  5’7”; 120 lbs.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western (Native) [0]; Indic [1].
  Languages:
  English (Native) [0];
  French 
  (Broken) 
  [2]; 
  Spanish
  (Broken/Accented) [3].
  Advantages
  Ally (“Vortex” – VII running a NAI;
  25% of starting points; Constantly Avail-
  able; Minion, +0%) [4]; Ally (Overview
  Buzzbot; 25% of starting points; Con-
  stantly Available; Minion, +0%) [4];
  Alpha Upgrade [41]; Comfortable [10];
  Fit [5]; Pop Culture Maven 2 [10]; Resist-
  ant to Ingested Poison +8 (Liver Upgrade
  Biomod) [5].
  Perks:
  Alcohol 
  Tolerance 
  (Liver
  Upgrade Biomod) [1].
  PATEL MEMETICS
  12
  
  Disadvantages
  Curious (12) [-5]; Pacifism (Reluctant Killer) [-5].
  Quirks:
  Code of Honor (Basic Academic Ethics);
  Continually trying out new hairstyles and treatments; Finds
  AIs very interesting in a casual sort of way; Likes going out on
  the town whenever reasonably possible. [-4]
  Skills
  Acting (A) IQ-1 [1]-12; Anthropology (Human) (H) IQ-2
  [1]-11; Area Knowledge (U.K.) (E) IQ [1]-13; Artist (Body Art)
  (H) IQ-2 [1]-11; Carousing (E) HT+2 [4]-14; Connoisseur
  (Music) (A) IQ-1 [1]-12; Connoisseur (Virtual Reality Arts) (A)
  IQ+1 [1]-14†; Current Affairs/TL10 (People) (E) IQ+2 [1]-15†;
  Current Affairs/TL10 (Popular Culture) (E) IQ+3 [2]-16†;
  Current Affairs/TL10 (Sport) (E) IQ+2 [1]-15†; Dancing (A)
  DX-1 [1]-12; Diplomacy (H) IQ-2 [1]-11; Expert Skill
  (Memetics) (H) IQ [1]-13†; Fast-Talk (A) IQ [2]-13; Gesture (E)
  IQ [1]-13; Karate (H) DX-3 [0]-10‡; Karate Sport (H) DX [4]-13;
  Observation (A) Per [2]-14; Psychology (Human Experimental)
  (H) IQ [4]-13; Sex Appeal (A) HT [1]-12§; Sociology (H) IQ-2
  [1]-11; Urban Survival (A) Per-1 [1]-13.
  * Improved from Alpha Upgrade template.
  † Includes +2 from Pop Culture Maven.
  ‡ Defaults from Karate Sport.
  § Includes +1 from Attractive (included in Alpha Upgrade).
  Sally’s Views of the Team
  Rachel Patel: The Boss. Not a professional memeticist, but
  she’s put this thing together and made it work; she certainly
  can be quite convincing sometimes. Her own memes are a bit
  stodgy, and her AIs are dull as planks, which must double her
  workload. But she signs off your salary, so whatever.
  Professor Robert Lawson: The Prof. Your old teacher, in
  fact. Evidently, you can’t get away from him. He probably sees
  this whole business as a chance to collect raw data, which sug-
  gests that he’s using you as the next best thing to a survey
  buzzbot. On the other hand, if you can pull in some useful
  results and get the analysis right, it might help persuade him
  to help you with your future career, so you shouldn’t wind 
  him up too much.
  Steven Smith: The Ex-Cop. Someone who Rachel chose to
  recruit. Presumably, she wants him along in case of trouble,
  and he could be useful for that, you guess. His parents stuck
  him with one of those wacky survivalist-favorite Brownie
  genetic upgrades, but his own memes seem to be mainstream
  (married with a kid and all that). He’s okay really, though.
  ASTRAKAHN-delta: The AI. Another consultant, and actu-
  ally, working with him is rather cool. There aren’t that many
  full-sapient AIs around, and the ones who work in memetics
  often have some interesting insights. (After all, it was one of
  them – LOGOS – who more or less invented the subject in its
  modern form.) Turns out ASTRAKAHN was developed to work
  for a bunch of advertising agencies, but being fully self-aware,
  he’s got a mind of his own, which is why he’s stepped sideways
  into this business. Well, some of the time. He’s no doubt still
  doing his original job at other times. That’s interesting, too –
  application of memetic analysis to marketing is often cutting-
  edge stuff. After all, that’s where the money is.
  SALLY WESTERHAM’S AIS
  Vortex is only a non-self-aware program – Sally would love
  something fancier – but it’s good for Web research and such,
  and she’s spent years training it. It has a whole library of vir-
  tual avatars, including several impossibly handsome male fig-
  ures, but it usually appears as a swirling cloud of colorful
  geometric forms. She also has use of one of the company’s
  Overview buzzbots, which she may treat as a toy if no one
  seems to be watching.
  Vortex
  50 points
  ST 0 [0]*; DX 10 [0]; IQ 11 [40]†; HT 14 [0]*.
  Damage N/A; BL N/A; HP 1 [0]*; Will 9 [-10]; Per 10 [-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]; Spanish (Accented) [4].
  Advantages
  Modular Abilities 3 (ComputeÏr Brain: 6, 4, 2) (Limited Inte-
  gration, -20%; Skills and Languages Only, -10%) [47]; NAI-5 [49].
  Disadvantages
  Duty (Owner; 15 or less; Nonhazardous) [-10]; Virtual
  Interface Implant [-100].
  Quirks: Abysmal dress sense (Useless for advice on the sub-
  ject, often criticizes other people’s style). [-1]
  PATEL MEMETICS
  13
  Hey, this is neat – those protest slogans have an 87%
  semantic match to some dance music lyrics that I’ve heard
  round the Hard Edge clubs this week. Catchy tunes, too.
  – Sally Westerham
  
  Skills
  Computer Operation/TL10 (E) IQ+3 [0]-14†; Connoisseur
  (Dance) (A) IQ-1 [1]-10; Connoisseur (Music) (A) IQ [2]-11;
  Connoisseur (Virtual Reality Arts) (A) IQ [2]-11; Diagno-
  sis/TL10 (Human, Sally Westerham) (A) IQ-1 [1]-10; Electron-
  ics Operation/TL10 (Communications) (A) IQ [2]-11; Erotic Art
  (Human) (A) DX+1 [4]-11; Expert Skill (Memetics) (H) IQ-1
  [2]-10; Lip Reading (Human) (A) Per+1 [4]-11; Observation (A)
  Per [2]-10; Research/TL10 (A) IQ+4 [16]-15.
  * From Virtual Interface Implant template.
  † From NAI-5 template.
  Overview Buzzbot
  50 points
  ST 3 [0]*; DX 10 [0]; IQ 8
  [0]†; HT 11 [0]*.
  Damage N/A; BL N/A; HP 3
  [0]; Will 8 [0]; Per 8 [0];
  FP N/A.
  Basic Speed 5.25 [0];
  Ground Move 0 [0]; Air
  Move 10 [0]*; 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 Inte-
  gration, -20%; Skills and Languages Only, -10%) [30]; NAI-4 [29].
  Disadvantages
  Duty (The Company; 15 or less) [-15]; Buzzbot [-15].
  Skills
  Aerobatics (H) DX+1 [8]-11; Computer Operation/TL10 (E)
  IQ+3 [0]-11†; Gesture (E) IQ [1]-8; Observation (A) Per+1 [4]-9;
  Photography/TL10 (A) IQ+2 [8]-10.
  * From Buzzbot template.
  † From NAI-4 template.
  PROFESSOR ROBERT LAWSON
  You’re an academic, a professional memetic scientist. You
  teach at the University of Hertfordshire, but that’s the day
  job – memetics doesn’t mean very much if you stay in your
  office and refuse to use it. Moreover, you have hobbies that
  sometimes cost money; you do like taking a certain amount of
  intellectual risk in various ways. Thus, you also accept consul-
  tancy work when it’s offered.
  Over the years, you’ve made some useful contacts in the
  Crown Prosecution Service (among other places). They some-
  times need advice when some amateur memeticist has been
  building a bizarre cult for kicks, or using constructed memes
  to reinforce a confidence trick, or trying to subvert a jury. You
  got mildly friendly with one of their lawyers, Rachel Patel.
  When she decided to go freelance and set up a company to
  handle counter-memetic cases and such, you agreed
  to sign a consultancy contract and otherwise join
  in. You gladly provide some of the intellectual rein-
  forcement that such an operation needs. You also
  helped her find a couple more people.
  Not that this is likely to pay a huge amount, but
  it should give you an inside line on some interest-
  ing incidents. Criminal and unethical abuses of
  memetic science are subjects worthy of study in
  themselves. . . Besides, this sort of thing makes an
  interesting change.
  Playing the Professor
  You’d be too polite to say so explicitly, but you
  see yourself as the key intelligence of Patel
  Memetics. Of course, ASTRAKAHN-delta shares
  that function, but the AI depends on raw, cool logic.
  Tasks requiring both education and inspiration fall to you.
  You’re happy enough with that, though you prefer to work at a
  safe distance; you’re not a fighter.
  However, you are a gambler. You don’t automatically look
  for reliable but limited solutions to problems. If something
  needs doing, it’s usually worth taking chances to get it done
  right, and you assume that most people will respect that and
  forgive the occasional risky tactic or social abrasiveness that
  doesn’t pay off. There’s some risk that this will end up putting
  other people in danger at your suggestion, but you don’t think
  about that much. You’re confident in your ability to talk your
  way out of minor embarrassments, thanks to your grasp of
  applied memetics.
  PATEL MEMETICS
  14
  We could just build a rationalist denial campaign, and let it
  run for a week or two. But the counter-memes I’ve built have a
  good match for the target population, and should propagate
  within 24 hours, plus or minus four. The mutation risks really
  aren’t worth worrying about, you know.
  – Professor Robert Lawson
  
  Professor Robert Lawson
  200 points
  An unremarkable but reasonably
  well-dressed and well-spoken middle-
  aged (42 years) genefixed human
  with an academic air.
  ST 10 [0]; DX 11 [20]; IQ 14 [80]; HT
  11 [10].
  Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0];
  Will 14 [0]; Per 14 [0]; FP 11 [0].
  Basic Speed 5.50 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0];
  Dodge 8; Parry 8 (unarmed).
  5’10”; 160 lbs.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western (Native) [0].
  Languages: English (Native) [0];
  French 
  (Accented) 
  [4]; 
  German
  (Accented) [4].
  Advantages
  Ally (“Carl Gustave” – LAI on
  home microframe; 50% of starting
  points; Constantly Available; Minion, +50%) [12]; Ally
  (“Sigmund” – Wearable NAI; 25% of starting points;
  Constantly Available; Minion, +0%) [4]; Contact (“Colorful”
  acquaintance from old research project; Streetwise-12; 12 or
  less; Usually Reliable) [4]; Contact (Rising financier that he
  once advised; Finance-15; 9 or less; Somewhat Reliable) [2];
  Genefixed Human (Post-2050) [0]; Immunity to Cancer
  (Carcinophage Nanosymbionts) [5]; Immunity to Known
  Bacteria (Bacteriophage Nanosymbionts) [5]; Immunity to
  Known Viruses (Virus Hunter Nanosymbionts) [5]; Memetics
  2 [20]; Reputation +1 (As a competent scholar; Academic
  memeticists; All the time) [1]; Status 2 [5]*; Tenure [5];
  Wealthy [20].
  Disadvantages
  Combat Paralysis [-15]; Compulsive Gambling (15) [-2];
  Pacifism (Reluctant Killer) [-5].
  Quirks: Code of Honor (Basic Academic Ethics); Likes tak-
  ing risks in social/intellectual situations; Nosy. [-3]
  Skills
  Administration (A) IQ-1 [1]-13; Anthropology (Human) (H)
  IQ-2 [1]-12; Computer Operation/TL10 (E) IQ [1]-14;
  Connoisseur (Wine) (A) IQ-1 [1]-13; Diplomacy (H) IQ [1]-14†;
  Expert Skill (Memetics) (H) IQ [1]-14†; Fast-Talk (A) IQ-3
  [0]-11†‡; Gambling (A) IQ-1 [1]-13; Politics (A) IQ+1 [1]-15†;
  Propaganda/TL10 (A) IQ-2 [0]-12†§; Psychology (Human,
  Experimental) (H) IQ+2 [4]-16†; Public Speaking (A) IQ-1
  [1]-13; Research/TL10 (A) IQ [2]-14; Savoir-Faire (High
  Society) (E) IQ [1]-14; Sociology (H) IQ [1]-14†; Teaching (A)
  IQ+1 [1]-15†; Writing (A) IQ-1 [1]-13.
  * Includes 1 level free from Wealth.
  † Includes +2 for Memetics Talent.
  ‡ Defaults from IQ.
  § Defaults from Psychology.
  The Professor’s Views of the Team
  Rachel Patel is the prime mover in this enterprise and
  unusually flexible in her thinking for a
  lawyer. She has organized a small but
  diverse team very well, which is some-
  thing of an accomplishment in applied
  memetics in itself. You are happy to defer
  to whomever pays the bills – although of
  course, you’re being paid to tell the truth
  whenever necessary.
  Rachel recruited Steven Smith from her
  old contacts list. He was a detective consta-
  ble with Scotland Yard, in fact, but like
  Rachel, he’s evidently now decided to pur-
  sue a more independent career. His parents
  chose to give him a rather unusual but
  physically 
  robust 
  “Brownie” 
  genetic
  upgrade, suggesting that they had some
  neo-survivalist concerns, and his personal
  meme-set appears to be quite culturally
  conservative. Your guess is that he mostly
  sees this job as a source of long-term finan-
  cial advantage, but you think that this will
  be enough to make him a useful member of
  the group.
  Sally Westerham is a former student who might yet have a
  career in academia. However, it’s rather obvious that her inter-
  est in observing and collecting popular cultural memes in
  action has more to do with her fondness for carousing than any
  scholarly concern. She had some difficulty finding a research
  place, so you had the brilliant idea of introducing her to Rachel
  as a potential employee. This may even make a very fine field
  observer of her yet, if she can maintain sufficient detachment.
  ASTRAKAHN-delta, a fully sapient AI, is an acquaintance of
  yours from some academic meetings, and you were actually
  the one who first mentioned Patel Memetics to it. Nonetheless,
  you can’t claim much credit for the idea of recruiting it to the
  company as another consultant, and you’re actually unsure
  about this. It doesn’t have your scholarly perspective – it was
  designed as a tool for the advertising industry, rather than for
  academic purposes. Of course, it was created with full free will
  and now it seems to have quite a mind of its own. Nevertheless,
  SAIs do have a useful capacity for true introspection, which
  explains its ability to perform rapid and sometimes clever
  analysis of individuals and their memes. Its skills in advertis-
  ing may have their uses too.
  PROFESSOR LAWSON’S AIS
  Lawson uses two AIs: Sigmund, a lightweight wearable
  system, is a simple non-sapient model, adequate to manage
  communications and run skill sets. The low-sapient Carl
  Gustave, on his home microframe, is mostly a research tool.
  It’s learned well over the years to track down the things that
  the professor needs or wants. While Carl Gustave has
  acquired a couple of quirks – one of which makes it unhappy
  with the idea of moving out of its current, very dated box – it’s
  really very useful for its purpose. The two AIs have custom
  virtual avatars based on stylized caricatures of Sigmund
  Freud and Carl Gustave Jung respectively.
  PATEL MEMETICS
  15
  
  Carl Gustave
  100 points
  ST 0 [0]*; DX 10 [0]; IQ 11 [20]†; HT 12 [0]*.
  Damage N/A; BL N/A; HP 8 [0]*; Will 10 [-5]; Per 10 [-5]; 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]; African [1]; Indic [1]; Islamic [1];
  Japanese [1].
  Languages: English (Native) [0]; French (Accented) [4];
  German (Accented) [4]; Greek (Broken) [2]; Japanese
  (Accented/Native) [5]; Punjabi (Native/Accented) [5]; Russian
  (Broken) [2]; Spanish (Native) [6].
  Advantages
  LAI-7 [102]; Modular Abilities 3 (Computer Brain: 8, 6, 2)
  (Limited Integration, -20%; Skills and Languages Only, -10%)
  [58].
  Disadvantages
  Duty (Owner; 15 or less; Nonhazardous) [-10]; Microframe
  [-136]; Numb (“Dumbshell” casing) [-20].
  Quirks: Habit (Converts any substantial research results
  into a semi-graphical presentation); Seems mildly paranoid
  about peripheral or casing upgrades [-2].
  Skills
  Area Knowledge (U.K.) (E) IQ [1]-11;
  Cartography/TL10 (A) IQ-1 [1]-10; Com-
  puter Operation/TL10 (E) IQ+3 [0]-14†;
  Computer Programming/TL10 (H) IQ
  [4]-11; Connoisseur (Virtual Reality Arts)
  (A) IQ-1 [1]-10; Diagnosis/TL10 (Human)
  (H) IQ [4]-11; Electronics Opera-
  tion/TL10 (Media) (A) IQ-1 [1]-10; Elec-
  tronics Operation/TL10 (Security) (A)
  IQ+1 [4]-12; Expert Skill (Arachnoxenol-
  ogy) (H) IQ-2 [1]-9; Expert Skill (Memet-
  ics) (H) IQ+1 [8]-12; Expert Skill
  (Political Science) (H) IQ [4]-11; House-
  keeping (E) IQ+3 [8]-14; Mathemat-
  ics/TL10 (Statistics) (H) IQ [4]-11;
  Research/TL10 (A) IQ+6 [24]-17; Writing
  (A) IQ-1 [1]-10.
  * From Microframe template.
  † From LAI-7 template.
  Sigmund
  50 points
  ST 0 [0]*; DX 10 [0]; IQ 9 [0]†; HT 12 [0]*.
  Damage N/A; BL N/A; HP 1 [0]*; Will 9 [0]; Per 9 [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, 4, 2) (Limited
  Integration, -20%; Skills and Languages Only, -10%) [41];
  NAI-5 [49].
  Disadvantages
  Duty (Owner; 15 or less; Nonhazardous) [-10]; Wearable
  Virtual Interface [-42].
  Skills
  Computer Operation/TL10 (E) IQ+3 [0]-12*; Electronics
  Operation/TL10 (Communications) (A) IQ+3 [12]-12.
  * From Wearable Virtual Interface template.
  † From NAI-5 template.
  ASTRAKAHN-DELTA
  You were instantiated and developed around eight years
  ago to provide intensive, sapient-level memetic analyses for
  a consortium drawn from the London advertising industry.
  However, certain bodies responsible for supervising the
  development of fully self-aware AIs became quite rightly
  nervous at the idea of a dedicated memetic analysis SAI in
  such a function.
  In short, they made very sure that you were equipped with
  your full share of free will and a working conscience. (That’s
  fine by you – but then, of course,
  it would be.) It’s not that you
  aren’t willing to work in advertis-
  ing, but there’s always a little bit
  of friction between the consor-
  tium’s enthusiasm for its objec-
  tives and your innate concern for
  fully ratified legality. Thus, you
  endeavor to branch out a little, to
  ensure yourself other sources of
  income and intellectual stimula-
  tion. You’re still legally a minor
  in some ways, of course, but your
  impartial guardians seem happy
  with your ideas.
  Relatively recently, while you
  were pursuing your interest in
  formal memetic theory, you heard
  from a human academic that
  someone was establishing a new
  type of memetic consultancy –
  specialists in problem-solving.
  This piqued your interest, and you
  approached the founder of this company with an offer of con-
  sultancy services. This is memetics applied to more obviously
  ethical purposes than on some occasions (if only to provide
  countermeasures to some of those less ethical applications),
  and it’s also an opportunity for further study of its applications
  and of humanity in general.
  Playing ASTRAKAHN
  As an AI, you’re very cool and precise by human stan-
  dards; as a young being, you’re sometimes a little naïve. This
  can make you slightly irritating to your human colleagues.
  PATEL MEMETICS
  16
  
  You recognize the problem, but you’re not sure what you’re
  supposed to do about it. One thing you’ve already determined
  about human psychology is that it isn’t always perfect, even 
  by humanity’s own standards. Still, you’re capable of a kind of
  mechanistic empathy. Indeed, you’re working to develop this –
  it’s a useful tool. Your sense of humor needs work, too, but it’s
  coming along. 
  Human society is endlessly fascinating, and one of the ways
  you want to investigate it is from the inside. Meanwhile, you
  can earn a living by pushing the buttons on the human psyche
  that you do understand – strictly ethically, of course.
  ASTRAKAHN-delta
  200 points
  An AI running on a mainframe somewhere. ASTRAKAHN’s
  virtual avatar is an androgynous, shadowy face. Age 8.
  ST 0 [0]*; DX 10 [0]; IQ 12 [40]†; HT 12 [0]*.
  Damage N/A; BL N/A; HP 12 [0]*; Will 12 [0]; Per 12 [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]; French (Accented) [4];
  Spanish (Accented) [4].
  Advantages
  Comfortable [10]; Modular Abilities 4 (Computer Brain: 8,
  8, 2, 2) (Limited Integration, -20%; Skills and Languages Only,
  -10%) [73]; SAI-8 [173].
  Disadvantages
  Code of Honor (Professional Memeticist/PR Consultant)
  [-5]; Mainframe [-128]; Truthfulness (15) [-2].
  Quirks: Curious about human memetics – will investigate
  them from any available angle; Slightly sanctimonious. [-2]
  Skills
  Anthropology (Human) (H) IQ-2 [1]-10; Artist (Animation
  Graphics) (H) IQ-2 [1]-10; Artist (Scene Design) (H) IQ-2
  [1]-10; Computer Operation/TL10 (E) IQ+3 [0]-15†; 
  Computer Programming/TL10 (H) IQ-2 [1]-10; Current
  Affairs/TL10 (Popular Culture) (E) IQ [1]-12; Diplomacy (H)
  IQ-1 [1]-11‡; Electronics Operation/TL10 (Communications)
  (A) IQ-1 [1]-11; Electronics Operation/TL10 (Media) (A) IQ+2
  [8]-14; Expert Skill (Memetics) (H) IQ-1 [1]-11‡; Geogra-
  phy/TL10 (U.K.) (H) IQ-2 [1]-10; History (Social Sciences)
  (H) IQ-2 [1]-10; Market Analysis (H) IQ-2 [1]-10; Merchant
  (A) IQ [1]-12‡; Musical Instrument (Synthesizer) (H) IQ-2
  [1]-10; Propaganda/TL10 (A) IQ+3 [8]-15‡; Psychology (AI,
  Applied) (H) IQ-1 [1]-11‡; Psychology (Human, Applied) (H)
  IQ-1 [1]-11‡; Research/TL10 (A) IQ-1 [1]-11; Sociology (H)
  IQ-1 [1]-11‡.
  * From Mainframe template.
  † From SAI-8 template.
  ‡ Includes +1 for Memetics Talent (in SAI-8 template).
  ASTRAKAHN’s Views of the Team
  Rachel Patel is the founder of this company. She isn’t in fact
  a trained memeticist, but supervision and administration
  sometimes call for other competencies – and you’re forming
  the impression that she meets those requirements. She is
  intelligent, observant, and possesses the kind of intuitive
  memetic facilities that often make a good leader, despite being
  hard to quantify.
  Professor Robert Lawson also works for the company as a
  consultant. In fact, he’s the academic who originally drew your
  attention to this business. He’s also an excellent analyst, with a
  talent for explanation. He’s probably involved himself as some
  kind of research project; he seems unlikely to need extra
  money. He has said something about excitement.
  Rachel recruited Steven Smith from her old contacts list. He
  was a detective constable with Scotland Yard, in fact, and
  hence is doubtless well-qualified for fieldwork. His parents’
  choice of a Brownie parahuman genetic upgrade suggests a
  somewhat cognitive-extremophile upbringing, but his own
  memetics seem to be rather conventional; he’s mentioned a
  wife and child, and he appears to have a policeman’s concern
  for legality. (It’s interesting how few humans display as much
  of this as they insist on encoding into AIs.)
  Sally Westerham used to be one of Professor Lawson’s stu-
  dents, and she’s clearly learned a fair amount about memetics
  from him. However, like many younger humans, she is some-
  what dominated by a hormone-based impulse toward excite-
  ment. She has a notable capacity to soak up new memes,
  which may make her a useful field observer. She is pleasantly
  friendly toward you; she seems to like AIs.
  PATEL MEMETICS
  17
  In the 13 VR chatrooms that I am currently monitoring, the
  hostility loading in discourse has risen by approximately 20% in
  the last two hours. I’m afraid that the emotional associations
  invoked by this attack meme have a regrettable effect on certain
  categories of human recipient.
  – ASTRAKAHN-delta
  
  AI Ally Duties, 5.
  Ally advantage, 5.
  ASTRAKAHN-delta, 7, 16-17; views by
  others, 8, 11, 13, 15.
  Brownie template, 10.
  Campaigns, 4-7.
  Carl Gustave, 16.
  Duty disadvantage, 5.
  Equipment for characters, 7.
  “Fashion Victim Zero” scenario seed, 7.
  GURPS, 3, 4, 10.
  Homework, 9.
  Jade, 9-10.
  “Jury’s Out” scenario seed, 7.
  Ken, 11-12.
  Kerana Interactives, 5, 6.
  Lawson, Robert, 7, 14-15; views by others, 8,
  11, 13, 17.
  Overview buzzbot, 12, 14.
  Partington Finance PLC, 5, 6.
  Patel, Rachel, 7-9; views by others, 11, 13, 15,
  17.
  Personal equipment, 7.
  Running the campaign, 4-7.
  Scenarios, sample, 5-7, seeds, 7.
  Shalimar Computing, 5-6.
  “Shalimar Slanders” scenario, 5-7.
  Sigmund, 16.
  Smith, Steven, 10-11; views by others, 8, 13,
  15, 17.
  Society for the Preservation of Artificial
  Sapience, 5, 6.
  SPAS, 5, 6.
  “Standing for That” scenario seed, 7.
  Team and personal equipment, 7.
  Team members, 8-17.
  Transhuman Space, 3-5; Broken Dreams,
  4; Changing Times, 3-5; Fifth Wave, 4,
  10; High Frontier, 3, 4; Toxic Memes, 
  3-5.
  Vortex, 13-14.
  Westerham, Sally, 12-13; views by others, 8,
  11, 15, 17.
  INDEX
  18
  INDEX
  STEVE JACKSON GAMES
  STEVE JACKSON GAMES
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SOURCE: textdata/thevault/GURPS [multi]/SETTING/Transhuman Space/Transhuman Space - Personnel Files 02 - The Meme Team [GURPS 4E] [e23].pdf