Information Measurement

Actually, there are two kinds of information measurement: the one this page is about (essentially "quantity of data"), and the amount gotten via Perception Check/Detective skill check/Gadgetry skill check/trying to use the Charisma skill on a target.

The latter group are figured on a chart the GM has on the GM Screen.

When you just want to know the quantity of data accessed or stored or hacked, you need a measurement in APs of the total volume of data. The GM will make on-the-fly adjustments for modern technology, but here's the baseline:

0 APs of Information is about the equivalent of a paragraph.

1 AP of Information is about the equivalent of a typed page, single spaced, normal margins.

2 APs of Information is twice as much, ergo two typed pages.

3 APs of Information is approximately 1000 words.

4 APs of Information is a chapter from a book. Probably not a Robert B. Parker book. Probably a normal-size chapter.

5 APs of Information roughly equals a term paper.

6 APs of Information is a short story. Not a Drabble. Now wait a minute, Jennie's written short stories that're less Information than a term paper!

7 APs of Information is the equivalent of 64K of computer memory. I've got more than that on my thumb drive.

8 APs of Information is a novella.

9 APs of Information is about a paperback novel. Even one of Robert B. Parker's novels. (They just have a LOT of chapters.)

10 APs of Information is about equivalent to an elementary textbook.

11 APs of Information is 1 megabyte of memory. ONE!

12 APs of Information would just cover Tolstoy's War and Peace. Or one hundred twenty-eight term papers about Tolstoy's War and Peace.

15 APs of Information would cover 1 year of DC Comics, as estimated around 1993.

16 APs of Information gets you a printed set of encyclopedias. Not Wikipedia. Certainly not TVTropes.

17 APs of Information equals the Oxford English Dictionary. Apparently that's bigger than a set of encyclopedias?