Ultra-Tech – Mailanka's Musing

Trader Cybernetics 1: Musculo-Skeletal Cybernetics

Just as before, we begin with the limbs, spine skeletal reinforcement. I found, as I worked on Trader Cybernetics, that I am quickly exhausting the design space. There are only so many variations of DR, ST and DX one can fiddle with before it starts looking the same. You can, of course, create the same thing over and over again as long as it has different associations, but it’s less satisfying. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I’ll be able to create many more cybertech sets before I start running out of ideas or they start getting really weird (which is fine, at least for Wyrmwerks).

For Traders, I wanted to focus on a few distinct concepts. First, I wanted fragility but precision: low ST, low DR and high DX. This somewhat resembled Grand Federal, but less pretty. I also wanted to focus more intently on multiplicity: lots of limbs, lots of attacks, high coordination. I wanted them to have an insectile theme: crawling up walls with their excess limbs, joined by their additional, insectile machines. I’ve always liked the idea of Traders as the sort of aliens one could spin horrifying tales of and genuinely fear, but once you got to know them the weren’t so bad. Further, I wanted to explore more concepts of distributed computing, which is, when there are additional nodes one can offload ones computations on, one can have additional power. I like this or a few reasons: it supports the idea of the swarm, it means that Traders fight better on their “home turf” and it creates a sort of feedback cycle where the swarm is strong, but once it starts to break down, it becomes dramatically weaker. Finally, I wanted to emphasize, like House Kain, the idea of unique and ancient technologies that make them better, but most Traders have lost: heirloom technologies. Taken together, I like to think this captures the spirit of Trader technology: fragile, precise, alien, heirlooms of a better era, and unique.

Trader tech should be isolated from the rest of the galaxy. It is, after all, Cutting Edge technology, and while Traders associate with other races and factions, their technology is uniquely their own. So rather than integrate with the galactic standard module, Traders would isolate into their own system, and that means Modifications over Modules. Like House Kain, Traders have specific modifications and customizations. Their standard tech is… fine, probably more comparable to Stellar Dynamics, or a cut below Syntech, until you start layering on modifications, at which point they start to get genuinely impressive, especially with Heirloom Tech modifications. The two worth drawing attention to are the Exofield Reinforcement and Responsive structure, the latter of which is inspired by their responsive structures in their ships. Like House Kain, they have a (very soft cap) limit on how many such advanced technologies they can have, and the result is that Trader effectiveness with cyberware depends on how much you are willing to invest. Non-Traders can gain these technologies too, but they tend to have an inferior effect, or they apply more Chrome, as they’re not built for non-Trader physiology. Only a few have been limited to Traders only, and these mostly depend on numerous neural connections.

Of course, Traders like to trade, and they like to borrow other people’s technology. They want to sell cyberware to Ranathim and Asrathi, and they would like to integrate into the broader technologies of the galaxy at least a little. To this end, I introduced Reinforced modifications, which dump a lot of the complexities of Trader cyberware in favor of something more robust and that would integrate better with non-Trader physiology. They also have the option of buying into the Modular system, but with a cost and a limitation.

This is, as always, a first step, and there will inevitably be feedback and revisions, but hopefully, it’s a reasonable first step. Here is the current state of the entire document, presented as is.

Let’s Build Meta-Tech: Bloodshot Armor

Christopher Rice has been very kind to me and knows of my interest in his Meta-Tech rules, so managed to get me into the playtest. It was a disaster though: I was unprepared for the sheer speed of the playtest, and the format/design of it (I never got the mailing group working correctly, and there was no onboarding process that I could find), so I never sat down to write up some Meta-Tech ideas I had, or really dig into the whole system, as this would have taken me more time than the entire playtest had. But I still want to make some Meta-Tech, and so I thought I’d make the Meta-Tech I had wanted to make then, now.

“Wytchwerks” is a bit of a joke term I use, though the more I play with it, the more I like the idea. The premise is that, in the Psi-Wars galaxy, a certain company, Wyrmwerks, set up a short-lived division in the Umbral Rim, and made psychotronic technology based on the physiology and powers of the aliens in that part of the Galaxy. I have the Zodiac armor for Vithanni, and I wanted to create Bloodshot Armor for the Ranathim.

Ranathim, as sexy psychic vampires with energy reserves they can use for psychics powers or physical extra effort, are already really good melee fighters and have entire traditions and armor sets built around this. I figured Wytchwerks, being a human-driven (and Mogwai-driven?) endeavor, would be more interested in ranged attacks, and that technology that made Ranathim better at ranged attacks would be unique. Plus, I have players constantly asking for Extra Effort for skill, which is just not allowed; but, of course, we can offer an attack bonus advantage, make it cost fatigue, and treat it as psychotronics! Integrate the idea of the psychotronics of the armor interfacing with the wearer’s natural psychic vampirism, and we have the core idea of the Bloodshot Armor.

So, how would I build it, using GURPS Meta-Tech?

Cyber-Armor

I think DR costs too much. I certainly think this is true in GURPS RAW, but even with the reduced cost of DR in Psi-Wars, I still find it costs too much. I struggle to justify the cost of, for example, 20 DR on a cybernetic arm. You quickly get to super-hero levels of cost that totally blow away your point budget while other people buy, you know, Gun. Even with the reduced cost, I struggle to give allies or robots sufficient DR to suit their role in the setting, and this certainly is true of cyborgs, whom we might expect to be particularly tough, shrugging off blaster fire as they charge at the enemy. The sort of DR one needs to stand up to even light blaster fire in Psi-Wars is 40 to 60 DR, which even at reduced costs, is still pretty expensive. Is it even worth it?

I pondered how to resolve the issue of the affordable, but heavily armored cyborg, and I realized you could resolve it the same way you could resolve the low DR Combat Android problem: put them in armor. See, you can take the “Cannot Wear Armor” limitation to make the armor even cheaper, and this is a good alternative when designing a character whose DR is armor, or replaces their use of armor, and it’s a contentious limitation (for good reason). But if we’re not using it, we can just put a cyborg in armor. This is, after all, how House Kain works. Those beam-adaptive DR 20 arms are encased in centimeters of diamondoid, creating a truly unbeatable combination. But armor provides its own problems: certain cybernetics, like the cyberholster or the red rocket, rely on ready access to the character’s limbs, and that limb is shrouded in armor, one cannot reach in, or let hot plasma thrusters get out.

Then it occurred to me: Cybernetics are made of metal, or other inorganic parts. They can endure a lot more punishment and manipulation than organic parts. This is partly where all that DR comes from. But they can also mount attachment points that allows one to attach more metal directly to the limb in a way that one cannot do with organic body parts: if I want to armor, for example, just a single knuckle or the tip of my thumb, or just my sternum (for some reason), that’s a very challenging task for an organic thumb: you’d need some sort of strap arrangement that, through pressure or suction, keeps the bit of armor attached to this weirdly arbitrary body part. But if that body part was made of metal, I could attach the armor with a magnet, or onto catches designed to accept armor, or bolt it straight on via an attachment point. This sounds like a strange thing to want, I’m sure, but if I can attach an arbitrary metal plate to any body part or any section of a body part, I can attack armor to my entire body in arbitrarily small plates, which means they can armor around gaps and joints in novel ways, and your armor plates can be designed to move with the armor, so when your cyberholster jumps open, your armor jumps with it.

Can all bionics carry armor? Well, under the surface, I’ve been using the Living Better with Cybernetics pricing update. Grand Federal is styled and fragile. Kain is styled and expensive. Syntech is expensive. Startrodder is Cheap and Robust, and Redjack is robust. These adjusted the prices. But what does robust even mean? What does fragile mean? Well, by default, it means that the part has more or less HT, but we use our own HT for simplicity. I could introduce special rules saying this armor provides a bonus or a penalty, and I actually do (the Startrodder and Redjack Spines both give HT bonuses to resist some or all cybernetic hazards), but if this isn’t applied in a universal way, this gets complicated: -1 HT to the arm, but +2 HT to the legs? So I didn’t bother with it. But we could apply it to what cyber-armor one can wear! This means Grand Federal can’t wear cyberarmor (but it can wear normal armor) while Startrodder and Redjack can max out their armor.

I designed the armor in a piecemeal fashion (because the armor is, by its nature, piecemeal) and applies a flat -20% to the weight of the armor, to reflect maximum “fitting” as it’s hard to get a better fit than bolting armor directly onto the body. This explains why a cyborg might favor cyber-armor over other options, because it’s lighter than normal armor.

So, with my design notes out of the way, I present: Cyber-Armor.

Grand Federal Cybernetics 2 — Modules

Grand Federal didn’t change much in this new iteration, though I’ve integrated the “fragility” of Grand Federal Cybernetics, and adjusted the spine slightly, to make it thematically the opposite of Startrodder.

For Modules, I’ve included a variation of the House Kain spine customization as a spine module. That’s because I thought some non-Kainians might like access to some of those mechanics. I’m not sure if that cheapens House Kain, but they have plenty of neat tricks. Beyond that, I think it has some fairly straightforward and common modules that everyone will find interesting.

I’ve had some commentary about whether or not it’s a good idea that all modules are compatible with all cybernetics, and I think that’s aimed primarily at Grand Federal. Should Grand Federal bionics be allowed to access the Defiant or Steel Guard modules? I suppose we could limit it on the same basis that we limit from accessing cyber-armor, but I also don’t mind the idea of a Grand Federal Cyborg secretly having unusually strong cybernetics. Why not? I’m not sure there’s real value in gatekeeping Grand Federal away from some of the “tougher” cybernetics.

Startrodder Cybernetics 2 — Modules

Startrodder is the cybernetic set most changed in this second iteration. In addition to changes for the modules, Startrodder cybernetics can now be detached by tools, and in keeping with the rough and practical themes of Startrodder, that means one can swap out a hand for tools or a clasper of a cannon. I’ve also adjusted the spine; instead of making it disadvantage the cyborg, it now lacks the option to slot anything based on a Reflex Booster, which means there is still a “slowness” to the spine even if it doesn’t make the character slower. Finally, I’ve integrated some combat options to keep it from being totally overshadowed by Redjack.

Stellar Dynamics Cybernetics 2: Modules

Stellar Dynamics remains the corporation in whom I entrust only the most generic of cybernetics. Their modules represent fairly standard, middle of the road options that I expect to be inherently generic. When I shared the preview over on the Inner Temple, I got the question of if these were intended to be shared across cybernetics. They certainly are, and I think that’s most obviously true when dealing with Stellar Dynamics, as they have several “workhorse” modules that I expect most people will want to access at least to some degree. Not the coolest or most amazing ideas, but sometimes you want something fairly straight forward.

Cybernetic Framework Iteration 2: Modules

I’ve made a lot of progress on Cybernetics, so I have quite some material to share with you, and I’m rather excited, so I’m going to do it early. You may notice, dear reader, as you go over much of this material, that you’ve read much of it before. That’s because I got quite some feedback on the past set, so I’ve gone ahead and revised that material to accommodate the notes. But I’ve also integrated some new concepts, which means there is, in fact, more new material here. So, instead of telling you the next part of the story, I’m showing you the refined version of the previous story I’ve already told you. We advance, but incrementally, while also revisiting previous material.

The big change this time around are modules. The inspiration for this cycle is how Shadowrun and Cyberpunk include “slots” in arms and legs that one can fill with modifications. But I wanted to expand this concept. I wanted to have cool powers comparable to the effects that space knights and satemo can enjoy. I wanted interesting concepts that cyborg players could really sink their teeth into. To my surprise, I found very little material in most RPGs I perused; most RPGs seem to treat cybernetics as generic: one gets a cybernetic arm or something, and that is sufficient detail for most RPGs. The slot systems I describe mostly involve adding some minor customizations (more strength, more speed) or a weapon or two, but not much in the way of unique powers. I ended up drawing more inspiration from video games and anime. I’ve tried to put something interesting into every cybernetic set that you can tinker with, and tried to replicate some of the “inventory slotting” approach of may CRPGs.

I’ve also gone ahead and allowed the Spine to contain a module. Now, most spines have either a Pain Damper (High Pain Threshold) or a Reflex Booster (+1.00 Basic Speed with Cerebral Stress) or, most often, both. But they also have the room for a greatly expanded reflex booster or pain damper.

Together, I hope this makes for a more interesting cybernetic experience: you can get, for example, a bionic arm, but you can also augment it and personalize it to some degree, and decide how you want it it to interact with your other bionics, as you invest more and more deeply.

Thus, this cycle won’t really involve much in the way of new bionics, so much as a refinement of the bionics that already existed, and how to augment them. Next time we’ll get into the bionics of the torso and the head.

Just as this post will touch on the same Cybernetic Notes that released on the first day of my previous cycle of cybernetics, this week we’ll touch on the same bionic sets, now revised, that we did last cycle. I know I promised Syntech, Redjack and Kain, but… I have them too! But I’m going to drop them this week as backer previews, as a thank you to everyone for supporting this. However, they are previews; they will drop to everyone eventually and hit the wiki once all of this is done.

The schedule for this iteration will be:

Sunday: Cybernetic Notes 2.0
Monday: Stellar Dynamics 2.0, with Syntech as a Backer Post
Tuesday: Startrodder 2.0, with Redjack as a Backer Post
Wednesday: Grand Federal 2.0, with House Kain Cybernetics as a Backer Post
Thursday: Cyber-Armor

Cybernetic Notes 2.0 — Preamble

Before I go into the notes themselves, this is certainly an unfinished set, but it’s expanded and slightly revised. It occurred to me as I wrote this, especially cyber-diseases, that I will need to unify cybernetics with robotics, both for how cyber-diseases and hacking works, and how robotics and modules interact with one another. But I didn’t concern myself too much with it this cycle. I’ll do at least one more iteration, after all.

And now, onto the post.

Basic Psi-Wars Cybernetics: the Grand Federal Framework

When I originally wrote my cybernetics set, I assumed some people would just want the minimum possible cybernetics: if you lost an arm, you might just want an arm back, so with no additional ST or DR, and mostly resembled a human arm, and thus used Mannequin biomorphics. While I’ve seen interest in the set, I’ve never seen anyone actually use it, and I think I know why. Most GMs are brutally lopping off limbs, so there’s little call for minimal cybernetics. Furthermore, Psi-Wars is a very CP-focused game, as opposed to, for example, a typical GURPS Cyberpunk game or Transhuman Space, where you can just buy whatever upgrade you want, and thus a player character only has cybernetics if the player really wants cybernetics. So, most players seem to gravitate towards the more heroic cybernetics and have no time for a 0 point cybernetic part.

Whence the interest, then? Well, some people like the idea of “pretty” cybernetics. Startrodder gave us the hulking brute with the trashcan jaws and steel gorilla arms, great for a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk goon, but what about the delicate corporate attache who has replaced all of her legs and arms with cybernetics, but still looks fabulous? I think there’s a market for player characters who are cybernetic, but fashionably so, without necessarily being members of House Kain.

I struggled a little with this set, because I had a bunch of fun ideas on how to build the set, but they violated the “minimal cybernetics” rule. So I’ve discarded that idea; it’s the first “controversial” idea of the set, though I suspect I won’t get many complaints. I gave them +2 ST and 2 DR because most cyberware sets I’ve seen depict his as minimal; I suspect you could realistically go weaker, but I like the idea that even your most delicate and refined cyborg is still stronger than a fully organic human: a machine, after all, is still a machine.

I also focused on DX over ST, which means I’ve used the dread Arm DX. I like the idea of an unstable DX, that the arms are possibly faster and more precise than a human can handle without proper anchoring. It’s not strictly necessary, but allows a benefit for a fully integrated cyborg, one that focuses more on grace than on Strength. I also ran into a second problem with the Spine, though the opposite of the Startrodder problem: I had too many good ideas. I wanted to integrate Flexible into the full build and originally wanted to offer +1 DX, reflecting a sort of improved neural structure that allowed for finer control, but I felt like +2 DX for the total package was excessive. Perfect Balance allowed me to reflect their dancer-like precision and perfect equilibrioperception, but it feels like something that belongs more in an ear upgrade, so I’m curious what people think of it, and how they would feel instead about an additional +1 DX.

The final issue is that people will look at that Arm DX and get very excited, except it doesn’t apply to combat rolls. I suspect some people will waive that rule. I’m pondering if I can include a more concrete way to make them apply under specific circumstances, but if so, I don’t think it would be available by default on these cybernetics, as they are clearly “civilian” cybernetics. But we can always visit a Redjack technician and tinker with them aftermarket, no?

So where to put the prettiest cybernetics? ARC, of course, but ARC handles Kain. Syntech too, but I expect Syntech cybernetics to be better than these. But I had conjured up a no defunct corporation, Grand Federal, which had created some of the more elegant ships during the Federation era. Why not give it to them? So that was my solution.

Basic Psi-Wars Cybernetics: the Startrodder Framework

I don’t talk about Startrodder much. They started as my housing for WW2-inspired technology, and I imagined them as an old Westerly group focused on planetary defense with relatively cheap and effective weapons, but were noticeably out of date. I had some plans for animal-inspired robots who were relatively unintelligent, which gave us our robo-horse, and I have ideas for a “Gonk”-style power-bot, a birdlike scout-bot, and a dog-like EOD robot, but I haven’t got around to them. I Intended to locate them in the Phoenix cluster, and the Kaipokai got them as a result of the poll, which I have mixed feelings about, but they are a very conservative Westerly tribe, so I suppose it tracks.

Once I realized I needed more than “Basic” cybernetics, I added “heavy” cybernetics, which were sturdier, more “heroic” cybernetics. These seem to be the most popular of the cybernetics not specifically associated with one unique group, which is to say, they were used at all. However, I’ve always struggled with them. On the one hand, we definitely need heroic, super-powered cybernetics that are better than the rest. On the other hand, there’s also a need for clunky, clumsy, “brutish” cybernetics that a post-apocalyptic punk might sport. I struggled with where to fit both. Fortunately, the new paradigm allows both! Startrodder becomes the home for the “brutish” cybernetics, while we have other corporations to handle the more heroic “elite” cybernetics.

This one was a difficult set, because it involved more trade-offs than the rest: it’s a very physically powerful set, but a clumsier one, which leaves you worse off in some ways than having an organic part. It breaks my rule of “no disads” with the single bionic leg package, and the Spine was a real struggle. The result might be too complicated, but I like it. A fully tricked out Startrodder cyborg is very tough and very aggressive, but also slow and clumsy.

Oh, based on feedback, I increased the size of the modules. This is not unique to Startrodder; Stellar Dynamics will get the same benefit.

Basic Psi-Wars Cybernetics: Stellar Dynamics Framework

One of the problems with iterating through material is that you end up repeating a lot of it as you review the material, find your feet, and decide if what you liked or disliked about the original material. The first thing I needed to do as I revised cybernetics was to revisit the basic, generic cybernetics I already had. This new framework associated cybernetics with corporations, so what corporations would house the “generic” cybernetics? Why Stellar Dynamics, of course, the Generic corporation of Psi-Wars.

So this cybernetic set should be quite familiar to anyone who has played around with cybernetics, though based on what I’ve seen, almost nobody takes these cybernetics, and I don’t expect that to change. This establishes a baseline against which we can compare all other cybernetics. We need to establish what a basic cybernetics package looks like before we expand out to more heroic or superhuman cybernetics. I’ve noticed that most cyborgs in Psi-Wars tend to be either members of House Kain or Traders, and neither use much of the generic cybernetics, but they are still valuable for working out what a generic cyborg might look like.

I have adjusted a few things with this cybernetic set. Living Better with Cybernetics establishes +2 ST as the cap for supported ST, but allows higher levels of “hidden” ST, which I’m sure is a reference to when we start to see Unnatural Features, but I’m going to allow a bonus to supported ST, and I’ll allow it for several reasons. First, Psi-Wars is much more generous with ST than the rest of GURPS is. Second, a basic Android has ST 14, I would expect a basic cyborg to have the same ST. Thus, Stellar Dynamics cybernetics will focus on ST 14 as its target. I’ve also adjusted how I handle legs, making them at least a little more interesting, especially if you only have one.

As noted in yesterday’s post, this set will cover all four limbs, the skeleton and the spine. This is because GURPS tends to distribute ST in cybernetics as Arm ST, Lifting/Striking ST and HP, and spreads them across these three types of cybernetics (arms, legs and bones). Thus, by focusing on this set, I can work out the specifics of how a cyborg’s parts interacts with their ST. We’ll focus on skin, internal organs, the head and generic implants later.

As noted yesterday, I’ve upgraded the Bionic Spine in general. In addition to providing mechanical support to the arms and DR to the spine, it also covers the neural uprgrades, so that a bionic spine is an advantage, rather than a disadvantage.

As always, these are a draft and subject to change.