Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Mike Elkins <MikeE@*********.COM>
Subject: Meat Drones
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 18:51:31 -0500
The idea of removing the frontal cortex from some sad victim and replacing it with
rigger control gear is probably more technically feasible in 2057 tech than
constructing an actual android. It does, however, open the proverbial
can-of-many-worms.

If enough of your frontal brain is removed, you loose your personality, your social
skills, you cease to be the person your friends know. Theologians may argue, but
in my humble opinion, your soul is either departed, destroyed, or unable to
communicate with your body, depending on your religious beliefs. It is quite
possible to live in this state, most often in a "persistant vegitative state".
Occasionally, you can even be conscious but very very bland, although perhaps
the damage wasn't quite complete and a bit of your soul is left. Anyway, it seems
to me that a true frontal lobotomy means instant essence = 0. People can last for
decades in this state (although they wouldn't make interesting PCs, or NPCs
even). What happens if you add more chrome, either pre- or post- lobotomy?
Does cybermancy become necessary? According to the rules, yes, according to
my common sense, no. On the other hand, I do see a need for maintianing game
balance here. Suggestions?

The telepresence and vehicle control gear would be pretty hefty, in size and
nuyen. Might show, unless the zombie wears a hat. Heh, I like that. Have the
PCs freak out anytime someone wearing a hat walks in the room. Never know
whos under control of the evil rigger!

The reaction/initiative of the meat drone would be the lesser of the victims' and the
riggers with a penalty for incomplete telepresence. Penalize perception rolls too.
The only physical skills you could use might be via skillwires.

Actually, if the victim had very fast reflexes, it might be quite unreliable to rig him.
If he rolls higher than the decker, his reflexes take over, appropriate or not...

Double-Domed Mike
Message no. 2
From: "Steven A. Tinner" <bluewizard@*****.COM>
Subject: Re: Meat Drones
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 21:29:02 -0800
I have used such a drone in my campaign.
She basically was simply fitted with a variant of the rigger control
gear used by a vehicle.
I just modified the cost, turned an otherwise normal 17 year old girl
into a remote controlled killing machine. :-)

I did rule that this mod definately involved cybermancy, esp. since I
also fitted her with enough cyberware to kill an elephant . . .or at
least a certain overpowered Orc Decker. :-)

An offshoot of this NPC was the development of a new cyber arm accessory
I call the "Thunder Punch".
Essentially this system, opens a tunnel through the arm, from palm to
elbow.
This opening contains a miniaturized jet engine/turbine.
When activated, it throws the arm forward in a preprogrammed flight
path/punch controlled by smartlink tech.

Basically it allows the user to throw a mega punch, staging the already
appreciable damage even higher. :-)

Steven A. Tinner
Message no. 3
From: The Jestyr <jestyr@*******.DIALIX.COM.AU>
Subject: Re: Meat Drones
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 14:16:42 +1100
> If enough of your frontal brain is removed, you loose your personality, your social
> skills, you cease to be the person your friends know. Theologians may argue, but
> in my humble opinion, your soul is either departed, destroyed, or unable to
> communicate with your body, depending on your religious beliefs. It is quite
> possible to live in this state, most often in a "persistant vegitative
state".
> Occasionally, you can even be conscious but very very bland, although perhaps
> the damage wasn't quite complete and a bit of your soul is left. Anyway, it seems
> to me that a true frontal lobotomy means instant essence = 0. People can last for
> decades in this state (although they wouldn't make interesting PCs, or NPCs
> even). What happens if you add more chrome, either pre- or post- lobotomy?
> Does cybermancy become necessary? According to the rules, yes, according to
> my common sense, no. On the other hand, I do see a need for maintianing game
> balance here. Suggestions?

Hmmm... what about a pre-frontal lobotomy, where just the PFC is removed?
A lot of the social behaviour is removed, but so is the long-term planning
capability, which is why lobotomies used to be treatment of choice for
sociopaths (since their PFC was prolly damaged anyway to *make* them
sociopaths).


Lady Jestyr

--------------------------------------------------
A titanic intellect... in a world full of icebergs
--------------------------------------------------
Elle Holmes jestyr@*******.dialix.oz.au
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1503
--------------------------------------------------
Message no. 4
From: Anders Ljung <Anders.Ljung@*******.SWIPNET.SE>
Subject: Re: Meat Drones
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 21:21:43 +0100
At 18:51 1996-11-13 -0500, you wrote:
>The idea of removing the frontal cortex from some sad victim and replacing
it with
>rigger control gear is probably more technically feasible in 2057 tech than
>constructing an actual android. It does, however, open the proverbial
>can-of-many-worms.
>
>If enough of your frontal brain is removed, you loose your personality,
your social
>skills, you cease to be the person your friends know. Theologians may
argue, but
>in my humble opinion, your soul is either departed, destroyed, or unable to
>communicate with your body, depending on your religious beliefs. It is quite
>possible to live in this state, most often in a "persistant vegitative
state".
>Occasionally, you can even be conscious but very very bland, although perhaps
>the damage wasn't quite complete and a bit of your soul is left. Anyway,
it seems
>to me that a true frontal lobotomy means instant essence = 0. People can
last for
>decades in this state (although they wouldn't make interesting PCs, or NPCs
>even). What happens if you add more chrome, either pre- or post- lobotomy?
>Does cybermancy become necessary? According to the rules, yes, according to
>my common sense, no. On the other hand, I do see a need for maintianing game
>balance here. Suggestions?
>
>The telepresence and vehicle control gear would be pretty hefty, in size and
>nuyen. Might show, unless the zombie wears a hat. Heh, I like that.
Have the
>PCs freak out anytime someone wearing a hat walks in the room. Never know
>whos under control of the evil rigger!
>
>The reaction/initiative of the meat drone would be the lesser of the
victims' and the
>riggers with a penalty for incomplete telepresence. Penalize perception
rolls too.
>The only physical skills you could use might be via skillwires.
>
>Actually, if the victim had very fast reflexes, it might be quite
unreliable to rig him.
>If he rolls higher than the decker, his reflexes take over, appropriate or
not...
>
>Double-Domed Mike
>
>
One idea is to mount a Simsense rig and some integrated control gear so the
rigger actually
gets inside (no, not physically) of the body and will be able to control it.
Message no. 5
From: Anders Ljung <Anders.Ljung@*******.SWIPNET.SE>
Subject: Re: Meat Drones
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 21:30:00 +0100
I wrote.
>One idea is to mount a Simsense rig and some integrated control gear so
the rigger actually
>gets inside (no, not physically) of the body and will be able to control it.

Anybody who has read Neuromancer will remember that Case used a simsense to
plug into molly to be able to see the things she saw. If molly would have
been fitted with a control rig of some sort instead of her brain...

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Meat Drones, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!