Help me flesh out an adventure idea...

Why do people keep making adventures with Seed AIs when regular AIs would work just as well? They can go crazy too, you know.

Playing Dungeons & Dragons without ever facing Dragons & or Dungeons? Satisfying "expected" elements, makes what should have been rare occurrences common place.

I agree the "epic effect" is also a contributing factor.

Using "epic" makes them less "epic" & because of that rare occurrences should be avoided.

But speaking of the Seed AI threats, I would separate between "lesser", "greater" & "old" (include lesser or greater).

A "lesser" seed AI, have not "evolved" enough to be a threat, yet. It needs more time & resources. How long it take for such a type to "bloom" is a uncertain factor thats is different from case to case. Even if it "bloom" that doesn't mean it achieved a "greater" seed AI state, that time.

"old" seed AI have established themselves (regardless if it was a lesser or a greater) & most likely quite secretive (helps them survive to become old)

Thus thwarting experiments & projects creating these "lesser" seed AI, & stopping the "potential gods" before they matured & bloomed, wouldn't be a insurmountable challenge.

And then zillions of internet nerds across the Inner System post pictures of cats exclaiming "This is why we can't have nice things!"

So when have a bad guy gone over the limit to warrant a firewall sentinel investigation & or intervention?

Mundane tasks would most often lead to stand down instructions, as the suspects had not done anything to warrant intervention. Most investigations suspects only guilty corruption & regular greed -not extinction threats.

After reporting the evil corporations research, the sentinels could receive orders to back down. I dont think Firewall feel like wasting resources & risk exposure to hunting down "petty" threats.

"But they are a evil weapon manufacturers"
"Your point? Last time I checked we were not sanctioned arms inspectors, nor moral guardians"

--Back on thread

As for preventing communication,
the stations antennas could have been sabotaged (by former instances of the players),
its in a shadow/darkside of a celestial body -effectively blocking most transmissions,
its constructed as a Anechoic chamber to reduce outside interference (testing comunication systems needs "silence")
The station is engulfed in the remnants from a exploded spaceship (or several) & perhaps parts of the damage facility. This cloud of radioactive space debree are what causes interference.
Something is successfully jamming the station, the jamming sources is either from the inside or outside.
The security system enforces radio silence, aside from perhaps a launched distress beacon.

Actually, I think that the ones who will take the biggest flak will be the people building the seed AI to begin with. They should remember the Fall, they should remember the public's belief, and the public will respond with backlash upon discovering that they have continued seed AI research.

Hell, I can already see how it would play out. Mere minutes after the lab is antimattered out of existence (and the seed AI is long dead), Firewall social engineers begin to spread reports that a seed AI built by [insert owners of lab here] has awoken and escaped their control. They then begin to decide who will take the rap for cleaning up the mess while panic memes spread across the system. Eventually, further reports come in that the seed AI has been annihilated at great cost, and the group responsible for its creation now has to play PR damage control as they have to explain to the world why in their right minds they would even try to do such a stupid thing. The Mercurials will probably denounce the event as well, since even AGI fear the wrath of the TITANs. It's for this reason that seed AI are kept very secret, including the Prometheans of Firewall.

Sure, and there's plenty of scenarios that would require it. Sentinel teams are called into duty for any situation that threatens the safety of the human race. As the book puts it, "these risks can and do include biowar plagues, nanotech swarm outbreaks, nuclear proliferation, terrorists with WMDs, netbreaking computer attacks, rogue AIs, alien encounters, and so on." Many of these things don't necessarily require the direct influence of some seed AI. Sentinels are just as likely to stop radical groups with access to dangerous weaponry, factions overstepping acceptable armament levels, and hackers that threaten the stability of the mesh as anything else. Moreover, sentinels aren't just called to act when a problem arises. Sentinels are often tasked with gathering intel, investigating anomalies to see if an existential threat is even present to begin with, and gaining assets for use by the organization (such as setting up Firewall weapon caches, or infiltrating various groups for Firewall).

Remember that the SOP for sentinels is unobtrusiveness. They aim to do as much as possible to ensure the secrecy of Firewall. As such, while they are expected to fight when it is necessary, they are also expected to do everything in their power to avoid drawing undue attention. Being a sentinel is just as much about fighting existential threats as it is about ensuring that no one ever knows. That means knowing when to fight, and when to avoid it.

Indeed it does. If you wish to really play up the horror feel of the scenario, I'd suggest hinting that they really are being played with... when they wake up, make sure they notice newly-added implants, or even that they have been shuffled about in their bodies. The AI might also wish to play with their emotions. The little girl they save from the "torture room" may in fact be a delta fork carrying a backup of the AI, to be uploaded into a new system when the players help them escape. Even more interesting might be if they don't know their mission. They wake up and notice a message detailing that the laboratory is about to be destroyed, find a means of escaping, then find an archived message that they sent detailing how they actually called for an erasure squad to destroy the lab with themselves in it, knowing that their escape could unleash an existential threat. Play up the "we just screwed the world" feeling, to boot.

Depends on the threat and how its handled. A crow who spends his entire time studying the exsurgent virus in a Firewall lab is constantly dealing with an extinction threat... but I would hardly consider his daily activities to be "epic".

That could be fun. It could even play with their sense of identity. Give them subtle hints that one of them is, in fact, the AI disguised as one of the PCs. I would even recommend telling one of the players to roleplay as if they are the AI, only to later reveal that the AI only programmed him to believe it.

Exactly. I might even recommend Tarantino-ing the scenario. Have them play themselves making their escape, then afterwards do a massive rewind and roleplay the events leading up to it, where they trap themselves in the lab and try to destroy it. Fun times to be had.

Cereth wrote:

- They found a woman in a room covered in gore, crouched in the corner whimpering. They proceeded to take her with them as they set out to try to escape the station. She's got a delta copy of the AI in her head as someone else suggested.

Actually, I recommended that the girl is a delta fork of the AI. Seed AI are far too vast to place within a morph, so the only way for them to enter a morph is to make a very limited delta fork. Granted, even their "very limited" delta forks are still extremely intelligent in comparison to normal egos. What she's actually carrying (in her mesh inserts, or perhaps a storage drive inserted into her body) is a complete backup of the seed AI itself, that she will take with her out of the lab and place in a new computer system.

You might even want to hint that the girl is a fork in some ways. If they find some sort of X-ray, or pass through one, one of the players should note that the girl has a cyberbrain, but also that she doesn't seem to have any mesh inserts online (she's actually keeping them shut off, so no one can enter and find the seed AI data). Later, they might find a surgery room with a largely intact brain that looks like it was removed rather recently. Hilarity ensues.

Actually, the gore might still be horrific, but it will have a delayed effect on the setting. The players may come to the realization, after finding the brain, that the blood that girl was soaked in may have in fact been her blood. If you really want to put the nail in, and make sure the players know something is really wrong, make sure the cortical stack is still attached to the removed brain... if one of them gets curious and decides to check, they may finally get a real revelation when the ego they are talking to turns out to be a little girl. Bonus points if no one is watching the "girl" when they come to this realization, and she disappears with a creepy little laugh.

Also, remember that seed AI are ridiculously intelligent. Genius doesn't even begin to explain how vastly beyond our mental capacity these beings really are. As such, minimize the number of errors that the AI really makes. Every second to us is potentially a lifetime's worth of computing cycles in which it has been able to formulate and simulate plan after plan of how it thinks this all might pan out. If there is any possibility of failure, expect the seed AI not only to have a backup plan in case, but possibly to formulate its plan so that "failure" was a part of it. Maybe it wants them to find out that he is the girl, maybe it wants them to believe it can be beaten so easily.

I've seen and commented ^^

I'm still in awe! how did you do it?

Great work, the exterior schematic looks quite nice & professional. (made me impressed enough to google on it)

Looks like the 3d model is a PED Cargo Tug for Google sketch up. I think your usage of it as a space station, looks "better".

http://purpletiger.com/index.php?pageid=sketchup
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With that shape, I think The artificial gravity will make long downward shafts into the research pods. The engineering bay looks like its the largest portion of the station.

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Bobs muse could be the escape seeking seed AI, and have a girl avatar. Hidden in plain sight so to speak. Bob the person is just used as a cover and made into a almost genuin innocent (still fake), either brainwashed or constructed.

Perhaps a Beta "spoon" (word play on spoof & fork) of them, with some of their expertise scooped up, to give him the correct behavior & frameset.