SF Module Question & Discussion Thread

[Elliot Kane]

Please post all questions & suggestions/thoughts for the new SF Module for my online RPG system in this thread.

I hope it won't be too complicated, but this thread should come in useful if it is

[Hand-E-Food]

Looks good.

Comparing fantasy to sci-fi, having a force-field instead of a shield frees up one of your hands alowing anyone to use a two-handed weapons, including ranged weapons. Perhaps a forcefield can be the sci-fi equivilent of a magical cloak and inexpensive shields (made from modern polymers and alloys) are also available.

Should cybernetic internal organs reduce your humanity by so little? Regardless of there being no visible deformities, altering your body's chemical behaviour would seriously stuff around with your emotional state. Having advanced adrenal glands would start to cause anger management problems. Pain killers and muscle relaxants would dope you out. The loss of humanity should be proportional to the benefit you gain, as should the side effects.

[Elliot Kane]

Agreed on Cybernetics, HEF. The rule is absolutely that the more it does, the more the Humanity loss. But I don't want to put costs on an artificial heart that just does what a heart is supposed to. That might be something a player could add for role play purposes.

I like the shield idea, too. May items will doubtless be added into the game in play

[Hand-E-Food]

That's fair on the artificaial heart. So replacement organs have next-to-none side-effect and Humanity loss, but advanced organs will cause more issues. In that case, I sugest each simple replacement should have at least have -1 Humanity. You want to encourage people not to get in fatal situations. That way idiot (low intelligence) and cybernetic characters need to watch that they don't over-estimate their physical abilities. It's the price of resurection.

Could an idiot, yet completely natural human (no cybernetics), lose their Humanity through means that you suggested above? I guess it's plausable.

I also had a thought on skills and idiots. If a character had an Intelligence of 1, but 5 ranks of Electronic Engineering, is this allowable? The only justification I can come up with is Forrest Gump. He can assemble a rifle in 10 seconds, because he has been trained to, but wouldn't know which piece of a jigsaw puzzle to eat first. Could ranks be training but without inspiration? Could our idiot savant assemble any electrical device he has the plans for, but never design one himself? Or perhaps that's his gift, that he can simply see the solution without needing to think about it in great depth.

Yay for rambling!

[Elliot Kane]

Any of that would be fine

I like a nice simple system that encourages role playing, so I try to avoid more complications than needed. This system should also be quite easy for people who have never role played. It's not very realistic, but it isn't really intended to be.

The framework needs to be there, IMO, else the game suffers. But too much number crunching just bores everyone.

There will be lots of things in the game that can reduce Humanity - either temporarily or permanently. A drug that inhibits Intellect will also temporarily drop Humanity, for example...

[SilvaShado]

Will wanted to know which skill can be used to build weapons/armor, or is this a seperate skill?

Just to clarify, I wanted to know if cybernetics permanently reduced Humanity, or if it regenerates back over time?

Just to make sure, each character gets 24 points for stats and then 24 points for skills?

[Elliot Kane]

Cybernetics permanently reduces Humanity, yes.

Skill & point allocations remain the same.

Weapons & armour get built using things like engineering, electronic engineering and things like that in combination. As usual, a creative player can justify a great deal with the right combos

[SilvaShado]

Thanks for answering.

Next question is, what if a character doesn't want to get into cybernetics, but is intelligent. Can the humanity points be used to buy skill points? Maybe some sort of ratio, like 3 humanity points for 1 skill point.

The rationalization is that someone has given up their life in pursuit of a particular avenue of study. It explains how they've lost some of thier humanity. And like cybernetics, they can't get the points back. And it should only be applicable to skills that rely on intelligence.

[Elliot Kane]

Nice idea, but no. If you don't go the Cybernetics route you will have a far better chance to resist attack types that temporarily drain Humanity, though. Many drugs and other experimental substances target the Int of the victim.

Someone who has very little Humanity left may have awesome combat potential or other useful abilities, but there is a downside. And that's without the social negatives, of course. People in general will react better to a human than to a machine-wo/man.

As an aside, if you want to get some of the technically obsolete medieval style skills that's fine as long as you can justify having them in your background... No magic though, of course

[Will (Property of Silva)]

Alright, that sounds reasonable. Now I noticed there was no medical skill. Would that fall under cybernetics or non electronic machines? I think it's called Mechanical Enginer.

[Elliot Kane]

First Aid stays the same.

And welcome back, Will

(Unsubtle note to Will & Sarah: if your old group can't gather regularly OFFline, there's always ONline, right? )

[SilvaShado]

I suggested it to our friends, but they didn't seem that open to signing up onto another board. I haven't broached the subject again.

I'm looking forward to this game since Will and I have DSL, we can both be on at the same time.

[Elliot Kane]

Cool

[Will (Property of Silva)]

Okay, designed a character that is through and through an engineer. As such he's given up part of his body (namely his left arm) for his profession. Here's how I describe the arm. I guess I'd like to know how allowable is it.

Cybernetic Arm
Basic tools for an advanced engineer. Includes:
Scanner- To identify different elemental compounds, energy levels, radiation, magnetism, temperature, and different types of pressures. Housed in forearm, has a 3 ft cable for hard wiring, otherwise uses a wireless scanning system. Also doubles as a isolated computer interface.
Lazer Torch- meant for delicate electronic soldering and minor welding. Located in index finger.
Utility Driver- Multipurpose screw driver, ratchet, and drill. Primarily used for minipulating bolts. Found in ring finger.
Minipulator Claw- A tiny claw concealed in a finger tip that is used for handling the smallest wires and circutry. Middle finger.
Side of the hand (where pinky is located) is reinforced and doubles as a hammer. Pinky can be adjusted to become a more precise hammer.
Utility light- Small light found in the thumb.
Bicep houses a portable jack. Can be wedged in between an area 1/2 cm wide and expands out to 15 cm.
The false skin is a tough synthetic and flame retardent.
The bicep also has room for a small storage space. Aprox. the size of a can of soda.

[Elliot Kane]

Nice! Works for me, Will

[Hand-E-Food]

admin said:

Coercion: Mental Domination. This one is very powerful, and likely to drain points fast if used. Implanting a thought costs ten points (And won't work on telepaths or other coercers). Dominating another person completely take 10x their Int score - in other words you overwhelm their humanity with your own. Control once established is total for the next ten minutes...

Just as a thought, how about:

... Control once established is total for the next ten minutes plus one minute per point thereafter.

[Elliot Kane]

We'll test it in play as is. If it doesn't work, we'll extend it in the way you suggest, HEF.

A lot easier to make a power better in play than to make it worse, I find. Players object if they suddenly lose abilities ;D

[Hand-E-Food]

Fair call.

[Hand-E-Food]

Just looking at Combat Attacks & Damage, there's no mention of fist-fighting. I'd suggest unarmed combat is 2 attacks with no damage bonus (relies entirely on Strength.)

If a character wanted to be a martial artist, perhaps the Use Unarmed Combat skill could provide +3 damage per level instead of the +2 for other weapon types.

[Elliot Kane]

Martial Arts is a pain because of holds & throws. As such, I am pretending it does not exist... for now

It's just more trouble than it's currently worth, and neither the original fantasy setting nor the new SF one really requires it.

I'll not say never - just 'not yet'.