Roger Burton West  wrote: On Sun, Sep 24, 2006 at 12:13:48PM -0500, Aaron Deskins wrote:

>Wouldn't Cyberpunk (or a slew of modern/hard sci-fi settings) fall into into a similar category?

I don't believe so. There are lots of things in Cyberpunk that aren't
general knowledge; they're only known by a few people, but when the PCs
discover them and spread the news a bit they don't really make a huge
difference because most people never hear about them (corporate media
stamps on the story, and so on).

But THS has _really good communications_; as soon as more than a few
people know a secret, the entire world is talking about it, and changes
shape to accommodate it.


Perhaps I don't know THS that well. I own the book, but have never played it.

I'll be honest, the premise that everyone (or the importants) knows something once it's 'out of the bag', seems a little far-fetched to me. I believe this totally ignores social and psychological factors. Just because information is available, doesn't mean everyone cares about it, or everyone has time to follow that information, or everyone has a need to divulge that information. If the premise of THS is that every move everyone makes is monitored, and everybody else follows those movements, then I agree. That would be a very difficult (and probably boring) game to play. 



To me, THS is what Cyberpunk wants to be when it gets out of its teenage
"big guns, black, loud music and chopping off your arms to shock your
parents" years. No offence intended, and I realise there are good
Cyberpunk games out there, but that's the way it tends to go.

No offence taken. I'm not a Cyberpunk guru, but based my comparison of THS with Cyberpunk on the feel of the games. Dark, dreary future where interaction with technology is a predominant part of everyone's lives. 




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