tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1972009184875302869.post4644284065784697500..comments2024-03-25T05:52:49.371-07:00Comments on Vircades Project: Alienation: the Thingification!Richard Balmerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11859724233379453584noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1972009184875302869.post-49933537684096548702014-04-01T04:38:54.511-07:002014-04-01T04:38:54.511-07:00I'm cool with skill point loss, as we have gam...I'm cool with skill point loss, as we have game mechanics for skillpoints.<br />I'm not cool with "memory or desire" loss, as we have no game mechanics for these... which would make it arbitrary and pretty likely meaningless in a gameplay.Mike van Attahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06633207770418531403noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1972009184875302869.post-3156403846003250332014-03-25T05:14:49.329-07:002014-03-25T05:14:49.329-07:00...and on further consideration, the 'skill lo......and on further consideration, the 'skill loss' due to replacement seems like an excellent balancing mechanic that doesn't insist implants cause insanity! Replace a right arm, right arm REF and BOD skills are nerfed until you refamiliarise, by training and experience. <br />- It makes 'metalling up' a costly process of retraining, so best left for emergencies. <br />- You may lose memories or desires. <br />- 'Munchkin Borgs' will lack skill at first, making them dangerous but clumsy opponents.Malek77https://www.blogger.com/profile/09970218109166817169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1972009184875302869.post-6427916270731444012014-03-24T06:16:58.946-07:002014-03-24T06:16:58.946-07:00I can't vouch for the site, but this is a list...I can't vouch for the site, but this is a list of the stories I've 'heard' about the effect of transplants on memories : http://guardianlv.com/2013/06/organ-transplants-cellular-memory-proves-major-organs-have-self-contained-brains/<br /><br />People have reported transplanted artistic desires, tastes in food, or gaining dreams of riding at speed on a motorbike...which seems to have come from the donor.<br /><br />It's not just muscle memory skills, the implication is that there are deeply personal things 'stored' in our nervous tissue.<br /><br />(...It'd be a terrible thing if an Edgerunner got his Handgun stat nerfed because he lost his right arm, and with it, his muscle memory... :P )<br /><br />The first 'pass' suggestion is that going metal would cause desires & tastes to be lost.<br /><br />The 2nd pass - perhaps the artificial nerves of the implant might introduce a new kind of signal traffic to the wearer. 'Machine memories' might be a stretch, but a sense of rhythm driven by a processor clock maybe.<br /><br />A 3rd pass - if the process of memory transplant is well understood, they could be engineered. A craving for a product, perhaps. Or more implants from the same manufacturer. A sense that you were incomplete...Malek77https://www.blogger.com/profile/09970218109166817169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1972009184875302869.post-39450156062293273812014-03-24T04:52:21.138-07:002014-03-24T04:52:21.138-07:00One more thing - I don't think I understeand w...One more thing - I don't think I understeand why and what for there are two separate tests:<br />1. Alienation roll,<br />2. Adaptation roll. <br /><br />Also, including two skills (Resist Torture / Drugs and Transhumanism) into one roll allows to build really high on them.<br />Given that, I'd suggest dropping the Resist Torture / Drug from the Alienation rules and sticking solely to Transhumanism, making it essentially an one-trick pony (as compared to Resist Torture / Drug, which makes for a pretty do-it-all skill). <br />I.e. only appropriate psychic training (Transhumanism skill) allows you to deal with side-effects of modifying your body.<br /><br />It would also allow to limit its effectiveness depending on setting - this skill might be alltogether unavailable, or work at half, full, double (and so on) value depending on how adept is the society in dealing with cybernetics / bionics - or straightly, how transhumanist it is.<br />Transhumanism could be an INT skill then (i.e. knowledge type), but it would provide a modifier (x1/2, x1, x2, x-some-crazy-value) to the Alienation/Adaptation roll, being made on the character's lowest attribute (choosen form among Int, Cool and Emp).Mike van Attahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06633207770418531403noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1972009184875302869.post-10000504360271192302014-03-24T00:15:12.404-07:002014-03-24T00:15:12.404-07:00Well, INT is pretty often a buffed-up stat in CP20...Well, INT is pretty often a buffed-up stat in CP2020 as well... nobody likes to perceive himself as a dummie ;)<br /><br />Hmm, I think I have a simple and nasty way to deal with the INT / COOL / EMP problem:<br />The character uses the lowest of them! If you aren't very smart, you will have Alienation problems because of it. And analogically with being not very empathic or psychically resilient.<br /><br />A more elegant solution would be to use an average of these three (this way drugs or cybernetic enhancements would be more beneficial - in case of "choose the lowest" method, they're good only for patching up the biggest gaping hole).<br /><br /><br />As for botch idea - "forgetting something important" isn't a thing that works [u]within game mechanics[/u]. I'd make it into losing skill points. Though losing one point on all skills would be a bit too harsh, losing a point in general would be hardly noticeable, and rolling a save against every skill (you have Driving at +5, on a roll of 5 or less you lose 1 level) to check if you've lost a point in it, while feeling balanced, would be taking a lot of gaming time.Mike van Attahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06633207770418531403noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1972009184875302869.post-14276147603566470612014-03-23T11:40:54.365-07:002014-03-23T11:40:54.365-07:00Oh yeah, I definitely could summarize those rules ...Oh yeah, I definitely could summarize those rules quickly and efficiently. Having them as optional rules would work. I guess I just don't want to create a lot of exceptions.<br /><br />The current Alienation check is: INT + Resist Torture/Drugs + D10 vs Alienation Rating. "Failure" means rolling on the alienation table. <br /><br />That's a really neat paragraph comparing the different attribute responses for dealing with a mental health problem, btw. I guess you could let the player pick the highest - or force them to pick the lowest - of the three options as their methodology for dealing with Alienation.Richard Balmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11859724233379453584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1972009184875302869.post-56063500215616935132014-03-23T11:12:15.234-07:002014-03-23T11:12:15.234-07:00Err... I misstated: "without feeling I have t...Err... I misstated: "without feeling I have to make a non-mechanical statement" should have been "with a non-mechanical statement"<br /><br />As in, I'm comfortable at least parameterizing edge cases I feel are important to the rule. FWIW.Nathan Hawkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13903886680618419167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1972009184875302869.post-74406998738290382522014-03-23T11:10:14.110-07:002014-03-23T11:10:14.110-07:00Re: Rules Bloat item 1: There's no way to summ...Re: Rules Bloat item 1: There's no way to summarize those? I am (for better or worse) usually happy to encourage a mechanic and explain its function without feeling I have to make a non-mechanical statement. I know when these passages appear in rulebooks they are varyingly skipped, specified by house, fodder for advanced sourcebooks, or read as elastic. Explicitly describing one or two suggested mechanics and the spirit of why, all as such, and moving on, might take far less space than tabling everything out with even better effect than a crunchy-/lawyerism-perfect extension.<br /><br />About the stats debate on which stat to use... consider that every person copes with the world differently, and that one stat, is never a person. A person's INT does not deal with that person's mental illness for them, nor does their COOL, nor EMP, etc. The person deals with it. A person with very high INT will use what COOL and EMP they have, and will hack it out as best they can. A person with high COOL will suffer through their INT and EMP failures and always seek to recover lost moments immediately and make the best of it. A person with high EMP will forgive themselves and attach themselves to people who will augment their own lacking COOL and INT.<br /><br />I think, if the goal is to represent actual humans coping with mental illness, you might want to be very careful about where brevity cuts.<br /><br />I'd suggest thinking along lines of:<br />EMP-led = More couched; Less self-assured, less decisive<br />COOL-led = More fluid; Less consistent, less directed<br />INT-led = More sure; Less socially-graceful, less socially-observant<br /><br />At this point I need to at least admit that I haven't read the actual rule-as-written that you are constructing. I've never been a person who can read 100 words to glean the 1 variable and its position in a fomula described therein. Where is the "it works exactly like this" version? Without that, all I can do is comment on the bits that I (perhaps wrongly) believe I understand.Nathan Hawkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13903886680618419167noreply@blogger.com