| From: | Alfredo B Alves <dghost@****.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Cybersystems Theory (long) |
| Date: | Wed, 3 Jun 1998 21:53:35 -0500 |
On Thu, 4 Jun 1998 01:38:50 +0200 Cobra <wgallas@*****.fr> writes:
>> Ok ... I was thinking about cyberware and essence loss and and
>> cyberpsychosis and had an idea ... this just an idea, not really
>> something I'm planning on implementing, but I thought I'd share it and
>> see what you think ... It's basicly still in the brainstorm stage:
>The best stage... :)
Heh heh ... but I meant was that it'll probably never really leave that
stage :)
>> "Essence" & "Body Index" are broken up into three
seperate stats:
>>
>> Aura: A measure of the strength of one's aura as well as its
integrity.
>> This is the stat from which the Magic Attribute is determined. When
this
>> hits the negative numbers, Cybermancy is needed.
>Ok. Why don't you think the aura suffers the same loss than the body
>from cyberware? IMO, it makes sense that an arm does the same damage
>to your body than to your aura. In both cases you lose 1 sixth (very
>approximately) of your body/aura.
>I'm not against the idea, I only would to know what's behind.
The very original idea was splitting essence into "essence" (or whatever)
and interface (renamed Mental Stability) ... But part of the reason I
split it was that 1) I don't like how SR's stat system has stats that
represent multiple things that are similar but not neccissarily the same
(ie Quickness represent speed, agility, grace, etc ... and if you want to
know fast someone runs you have to look at their Quickness /AND/ reaction
...) also, 2) this stat IMO represents somethings better than straight
Essence (like Essence Drain ... no percentage of your body is loss there
...)
It's not that they're not related but rather they are seperate and are
affected by different things ...
>> Body Index (for lack of a better name): A measure of the percentage of
>> one's body that has been altered/replaced unnaturally (for these
purposes
>> clonal replacement is consider natural )
>Remember that the cyberware has a different size for a different
>body. IMO, FASA made an error by assigning fixed costs for bioware
>and variable body indexes. Why would an orc have more enhancments.
>Sure, he's bigger than a human but he also needs more modifications...
That's why I made this a measure of the *Percentage* of the body replaced
by cyberware/bioware ...
>> Mental Stability: I measure of one's sanity. A low Mental Stability
will
>> manifest as mental disorders and possibly as target number modifiers
at
>> the GM's descretion (ie A low Mental Stability due to heavy reaction
>> Enhancement may result in hyeractive uneasiness and large mods to
>> anything that requires patience)
>I'm not too cyberpsychosis oriented but this attribute could be used
>to introduce some fear factors in SR. This could apply to bugs for
>exemple. It seems a good idea.
Well, this was partly because a lot of people on the list were saying how
they wish SR had something like CRS (Cyberware Rejection Syndrome,
prounounced "Curse"), and cyberpsychosis ... The idea for this was as
your Mental Stability goes to 0, you become more and more "on edge",
irratable, withdrawn, whatever and once you drop below 0, you get write
certifiable on all your bussiness cards ... This stat is IMO the most
interesting of these 3 since you could easily rationalize different
people having different starting Mental Stability stats (perhaps average
of Mental increased/decreased with edges/flaws) as well as getting
Therapy (shrink and/or drugs) to restore (and possibly increase above the
starting stat) ... of course this last bit would require IC: lots of
roleplaying and OOC: lots of Karma, time (as in years, not months and
especially not weeks), and cash (those shrinks are expensive ... and so
are the drugs ... especially the good stuff ;)
>> Cyberware would then have these stats (given seperate names to be more
>> descriptive):
>>
>> Corruption: How damaging the Cyberware is to the Aura.
The reason for this stat was that I was thinking there might be a way to
make a Cyberlimb that was less damaging to the aura but still takes up
the same amount of space ...
Also I was thinking something like Move-By-Wire would have Very high
Corruption and Interface stats and a low Mass stat (I think it just
replaces a segment of the spine/base of the brain based on the artist's
rendition and that Synaptic Accelerators level 1 can be combined with a
Move-By-Wire system ...)
>> Mass: How much of the implantee's Body it Replaces/Displaces
>Well... See above.
Seen and I don't see the problem :)
>> Interface: How alien the interface and/or how much it affects normal
>> thought process.
>I like this one.
>> Each of theses would have to be reduced seperately and not all of them
>> CAN be reduced (ie a Delta Grade cyberarm still takes up the same
space,
>> and the epileptic seizures induced by Move-by-wire systems are going
to
>> muck up your head no matter what grade you get) ... This would also
make
>> it easier to blur the distinction between cyber & bioware (ie Bioware
>> would just have lower mass & interface stats and probably a much lower
>> corruption stat)
>They could already have made bioware as very low essence cost... I
>don't think they easily fit into your system but with some work, why
>not.
Bioware, IMO, would have very low Corruption, and Mass stats, then low to
mid Interface stats (balanced with high costs and low performance
[compare an Encephalon level 1 to Cerbral Boosters Level 1 ... 15k versus
50k for one point of Intelligence and no Task Bonus...])
>> Just a thought ... What are yours?
>You could simplify your work by keeping Essence as is and adding your
>interface factor which seems adapted to the SR stuff (remember
>Hatchetman writing about his first cybereyes).
Ya know ... I hadn't made the connection to Hatchetman, but you're right
... :)
You may be right but I kind of like the Aura stat ... I'll have to look
up Corruption to see if it gels with this easily or not... :)
> -
>Cobra.
<SNIP Sig and Crap ... what the hell was that (I left some before your
sig for reference)>
--------- End forwarded message ----------
Cobra You're going to get two copies of this one from me and "from the
lst" ... If Paul gettle hadn't Pointed out that your reply field was
overriding the list's I wouldn't have caught it ... :(
D.Ghost
(aka Pixel, Tantrum, and RuPixel)
"Let he who is without SIN cast the first stone"
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