| From: | Paul Jonathan Adam <Paul@********.DEMON.CO.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Unusual Player Characters |
| Date: | Mon, 6 Mar 1995 01:38:19 GMT |
> Animals of Europe came out, and Ogres and Minotaurs were in there. Giants I
> decided were too open to abuse by munchkinous players, and so they went by
> the byline.
My wife and I both play leopard shapeshifters as PCs. Very interesting - totally
different mindset, real surgery and medical problems (we rewrote the rules so
that getting hurt was much dangerous to shapeshifers, and try fitting cyberware)
and generally lots of roleplaying challenges. I did run into a minotaur PC
once, but he was basically munchkinning it so he could carry bigger guns.
> > and another thing, a animal"s body with rigger control!
>
> Hunh? Do you mean an animal which is remote controlled by a rigger? (That's
> what it sounds like to me). Kinda wierd (the interface for the rigger would
> be hellish).
My wife's PC is a leopard/human shapeshifter with a Vehicle Control Rig III -
and she's a fighter pilot of some incredible skill. I don't think you could
run a sentient being through a rig unless you had some sort of implanted
control mechanism. Like skillwires? I don't think the interface would be
that bad - if the rig can make a vehicle seem normal, merely a different meat
body should be easy.
An animal with a rig is another matter (apart from special cases like
shapeshifters) - one of my PCs used a Transform spell on a helicopter pilot
to turn him into a Rigged-III frog! Okay, he was the best frog pilot in history
but frogs don't really understand power curves, cyclic controls or the
mission they're there to achieve.
We did once throw around the "EMERGENCY" skillchip for characters with skill-
wires. It monitors your body functions and if your conscious mind goes out
of operation (unconscious or 'dead') it walks to the nearest hospital
and demands medical attention... Of course it went into the bin next to
the non-metallic concealable ICBM-firing holdout pistol, but the idea has
merit...how about someone killed by a headshot whose skillwires won't give
up the fight? There's an interesting proposition. Drop him with a mana bolt?
He's already dead! Could be useful.
Remember also an idea I got from an Iain Banks novel - someone had an exo-
skeleton which was taken over by someone else. Now, if you did that to a PC,
and had some evil rigger remote-controlling his skillwires... (Nasty or what?
But I never liked skillwires anyway :-) )
--
When you have shot and killed a man, you have defined your attitude towards
him. You have offered a definite answer to a definite problem. For better or
for worse, you have acted decisively.
In fact, the next move is up to him.
Paul J. Adam paul@********.demon.co.uk
