Characters

The player's characters in the CCITI Life role-playing game (CLRPG) are humans who have discovered exceptional means to access the CCITI, and CCITI Life. They wield power in the CCITI that is on par with the software and hardware that coordinate and automate the entire system. The use of this power comes at a cost though, their actions have repercussions in the World that can change relationships, destroy financial assets, or even erase entire sections of reality.

Origins

Characters in CLRPG can come from any background in the World, whether rich or poor, charismatic or stigmatized, people from all walks of life have entered the CCITI. The World of CLRPG is an uncomfortable place to live with most of humanity forced to live in, or near, large arcology project housing. Arable and usable land outside the city zones is expensive and highly sought.

People in the arcologies have turned to CCITI Life to make their lives more tolerable and enjoyable. The characters in CLRPG are people who have gained a burning desire to get closer to the CCITI, and CCITI Life. They each have their own reasons and motivations, but at the core they all share a drive that has pushed them to transcend the boundaries of their reality. Having made the journey of transcension they must now reconcile with the newfound world they have awakened to, and the powers and responsibilities thrust upon them.

Transcending into the CCITI

One thing common to all player characters in CLRPG is their transcension into the CCITI. This is a process whereby the character is inspired and driven to build a device for interfacing with the CCITI. They then use that device to fully lift themselves into the digital world. During the course of their first transcendence, each character forms a bond with the CCITI that births a new virtual world to which the character becomes linked.

Home World

Each player character begins the game with a unique virtual home world in the CCITI. A character's home world feels like the most solid place within the CCITI, it is a refuge and safe house where the maelstrom of digital life can be avoided, for a time. Home worlds can also vary greatly in appearance and capabilities, growing with depth and strength as the character grows. Although their appearance can change over time, they will always bear hallmarks of the original birth of the world.

Root Avatar

All inhabitants of the CCITI display some sort of avatar. For most people these outfits are similar to articles of clothing that can be purchased and worn at will. Underneath all CCITI Life inhabitants is a root avatar, for most users this is a set of default options and a unique identifier set when they first entered. The transcended are different, their root avatars can take nearly any shape and form, and are created through their transcension. Although transcended character may wear many different avatars throughout their travels, their root avatar will never change. These are their most powerful calling cards and identifiers to each other.

Essences

Essences are the primary attributes of transcended characters, and they represent the abilities and powers that can be wielded to perceive and change the CCITI. They are grouped into four specific categories which define the different functions and scopes of uses. Essences are used to take action in the CCITI, they provide a means for heightened perceptions, and for fantastic forces that can have lasting effect on the digital substance of the CCITI.

In game terms essences are represented by numerical values. These numbers are relative to the other player's characters and non-player characters of the game that is being run. The numbers are used to help direct the resolution of conflicts when multiple parties are involved, with higher numbers being associated with more accumulated power.

Essences have several uses, some are active in nature and others more passive. During play, players will spend essence tokens to utilize their essences in active ways, while no expenditure is required for passive uses. For more information about the token mechanics, please see Playing the Game.

Destruction

The Destruction essence represents a character's power to degrade and breakdown the elements of the CCITI. It is the ability to block, decompile, dissipate, or similarly mangle data and energy flows. When characters wish to confront something with violent force or oppose chaotic conflict, it is usually covered by Destruction.

Passive uses include:

Looking for structural weaknesses in physical and energy forms such as buildings, vehicles, armor, data and energy transmissions, and other similarly observable phenomenon.
Innate resistance to the powers of Destruction, toughness to shrug off damaging blows and forces.

Active uses include:

Breaking or destroying physical forms such as buildings, vehicles, people, automata, and other similarly observable entities.
Blocking or impeding the flow of data and energy by imposing oneself to absorb or dissipate the source.
Erecting shields and barriers to the powers of Destruction of other sources of damage.

Influence

The Influence essence speaks to a character's power to change and modify forms and patterns that exist within the CCITI. It is the ability to mutate, transform, or similarly alter data and energy flows. When characters wish to change the way something appears or behaves, detect the effects of such a change, or attempt to filter the information around them it is most likely covered by Influence.

Passive uses include:

Searching data and information within the vicinity to locate specific patterns and forms.
Observing data and energy to determine metadata about its type, nature, strength, and other qualities.
Detecting manipulated data and information, and altered forms.

Active uses include:

Changing data or energy to appear in a different form or with altered metadata.
Hiding objects and people from perception by others or automata.
Communicating with other people over extended indirect distances.
Reprogramming or reconfiguring autonomous processes for temporary durations.

Enigma

The Enigma essence represents a character's ability to harness the chaotic nature of the CCITI to create new forms and patterns. It is the ability to draw out order from the chaos and entropy that exists within data and energy flows. When new information gleaned from esoteric sources or the mysterious forces of the CCITI are drawn forth, Enigma is the most commonly used essence.

Passive uses include:

Perceiving the use of essences and flow of essence related power.
Sensing hidden places and data, and detecting obfuscated items within view.
Gleaning order from chaos through observing the random processes of the deep CCITI cores.

Active uses include:

Encrypting and decrypting data and information.
Creating new forms and patterns from raw energy, crafting items out of digital material.
Resisting being a target of, or perceived by, Enigma.

Redundancy

The Redundancy essence measures a character's raw endurance and resiliency within the CCITI, but it also speaks to the exercise of rapid data movement and migration. It is the capacity to resist, outlast, and overcome the drains of exertion and also the ability to sense pathways for rapid movement and the usage of those paths. When a character's endurance is tested or they wish to perform actions around rapid out-of-sight movement forms, Redundancy is the essence most commonly used.

Passive uses include:

Perceiving the movement of data and energy within the CCITI, gaining an understanding of the pathways and networks in the area.
Sizing up opponents to gauge their endurance and strength.
Innate toughness and capacity for receiving damage within the CCITI.

Active uses include:

Hardening defenses such as deploying armor skin, and creating active elemental protections.
Teleporting to backup locations previously stored or saved, or returning to one's home virtual world.
Creating transit routes for short and long distance movement within the CCITI.
Absorbing energy blasts and conduits, concentrating capacity to endure continuous damage from forces the CCITI.

Fetters

Fetters are the character's ties to the World and are the wellspring of power for their essences. They represent different aspects of the character's lives that keep them connected to the reality of the World, and are batteries of reserve power in times of great need. Each character has unique fetters which are made up of the people, places, things, and relationships that make up their support networks. Fetters may come and go over time, and are most prominent when a character is role-playing outside the CCITI.

In game terms, fetters are descriptive phrases that each player creates for their characters. They describe individual ties that the character has to support mechanisms in the World. They may describe safe places where the player has friendly connections, groups of people that would be willing to sacrifice for the character, or even special items that the character owns which make life tolerable.

Fetters can become damaged or destroyed by a character's actions in the CCITI. When in dire need, a character can reach deeply into their fetter to draw forth more power. And occasionally characters can be hurt so badly in the CCITI that it damages their fetters in the World. These concepts are discussed further in the Playing the Game section.

Example Fetters

The old missile silo in rural Kansas where I live with my over protective father.
Well connected with the San Francisco arcology mafia, I am a known CCITI hacker for them.
Antique clockwork shop in the New York arcology, I have an eclectic assortment of patrons.

Daemons

Daemons are autonomous agents created by characters to perform specific actions when triggered by certain conditions and events. Daemons are highly contextual and require very precise instructions to perform as expected. The actions which they can perform are rooted in the Essences of their creators. The triggers which set them into motion must be specified very accurately by person, place, time, and circumstances to ensure that maximum power is delivered to the Daemon's actions.

Daemons have several required pieces of information:

Target: the area of influence that a Daemon will cover and affect during its functioning.
Trigger: the who, what, where, why, when of how this Daemon will come to life.
Action: a precise set of instructions describing what the Daemon will do once it has awoken.
Essence: the Essence attribute used to forge the Daemon and its point value at the time of creation or update.

Daemon creation is a laborious process and can take anywhere from one day to an entire week or more depending on the complexity of the Daemon. In addition, once a Daemon is created it will run continuously with the CCITI. This means that the Daemon will roam freely around its target areas unless a character provides instructions about where it should be. As Daemons exist more or less as autonomous entities within the CCITI they are subject to all the forces that any of agent of the system are subject. They can be detected, interrogated, decompiled, and captured by all manner of automation within the CCITI.

Although each Daemon is associated with a different Essence depending on its intended actions, the process of creating Daemons is heavily associated with the Enigma Essence.

Automata

Automata are similar to Daemons in that they are purpose-built agents constructed by characters, with the major difference being that Automata have intelligence and agency to act on their own. When automata are created they are given a purpose, e.g. "find me information about Evil Corp", that drives their existence. Automata have Essences like characters do and will use them to accomplish their goals.

Unlike Daemons, Automata can be created in real time by characters as they adventure in the CCITI. By spending permanent points from their our Essence pools, characters can will a new Automata into existence. Once created, the Automata cannot be re-absorbed by the character, but they can be re-assigned to other tasks or purposes.

Characters interact with Automata in a similar manner as any other character in the CCITI. They do not necessarily have special powers to communicate over distance, or instantly teleport from one place to another without spending Essence to do so.

Creating Characters

The character creation process in CLRPG involves creating a concept and origin story, spending points between Essences and Daemons, creating a few Fetters, and then reviewing with the Gamemaster before the first play session with the character.

Concept and Origin Story

The first questions to ask are about who this character is in the World, who were they before their first experiences in the CCITI, what is their family history.

Questions to think about while writing the character's origin:

Where does the character come from geographically?
Who were they before coming to the CCITI?
What is their existence in the World like?
Do they have family and friends, who or what is their support mechanism?
Where do they live, and how do they support it?
What do they look like, how do they dress?

As part of the origin story, players should also describe how their character first pierced the boundary between the World and the CCITI, how they continue to maintain that lifestyle, and what are their home world and root avatar like.

Questions to think about while writing about how the character accesses the CCITI:

How did the character first discover the boundary?
What happened when they first transcended fully?
Where is their "rig" now, what does it look like when they are using it?
What does their home world look like?
What elements of their root avatar are they willing to share?
What does their common CCITI Life avatar look like, does it have a reputation?

Essences

Essences are acquired using experience points, when building new characters for CLRPG the default assumption is for the character to start with one hundred points. Points for essences may be spent one-for-one to gain a score in a specific essence (for example spend 10 points to get a Destruction of 10).

Daemons should also be bought from the same point pool as essences. They should be bought individually based on the costs in the following section.

Fetters

Beginning characters have three fetters connecting them to the World. Players should create these using brief descriptive phrases to describe their scope and give inspiration for role-playing scenarios. Work with the gamemaster to create strong fetters that will be effective in play.

Daemons

Daemons cost between three and fifteen points at their creation time, at a minimum. More points can be invested to crease the potency of the Daemon while it is being constructed, or at a later date to update its power.

In general, Daemons have three qualities to define their point cost; target, trigger, and effect. Each one of these qualities has a scale of one, three, or five points to define broad categories of definition. A Daemon's general power and strength are determined by its total point cost.

Target

Point Cost	Description
1	Single person or specific thing, narrow scope.
3	Small group, area or things, not much larger than a few meters radius.
5	Large group, area, or collections, up to a few tens of meters radius.

Trigger

Point Cost	Description
1	Single specific action, well defined and narrow in scope.
3	A short series of connected actions or filters on conditions.
5	A broader search of actions and conditions, allowing a more regular expression.

Effect

Point Cost	Description
1	A single, small, change or action with a brief limit on time expended.
3	A moderate size change, or series of small changes or actions with a window of time for response.
5	A large window of time for change and action on a more intricate level.

Automata

Automata have the four Essences as attributes. Characters must invest at least one point into each of the Essences, and may spend as many as they desire. The Automata essentially becomes an extension of the character that can perform independent tasks and report back. They may use their Essences to affect the CCITI, but have limited creativity and will attempt to perform their tasks to the best of their abilities while being mindful of self preservation.

Each Automata should be named and have its purpose recorded when it is created. Automata may be updated later by spending points during character advancement. They may not be absorbed back into the character's pool of points.

Advancing Characters

Advancement in CLRPG happens by spending experience points to increase a character's power, and also by role-playing to restore and grow fetters. Experience is earned after each session, and usually totals between three and five points depending on the session. Fetters are recovered and created through play and discourse with the gamemaster. Fetters are important for fueling the token economy of each character, for more information see Playing the Game.