On 7/26/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The odd thing is? In trying to mesh GURPS 4e with GURPS CYBERPUNK, I sought a means for calculating the character point cost for cyberlimbs etc - and even turned to my GURPS CHARACTER ASSISTANT to determine what the cyberlimb modifiers might be. Sadly? The only cybernetic's limitations/enhancements I could find in GCA - there those relating to Mind Reading ONLY.
It was dissatisfying, but if you want to take a point-based approach to cybernetics, you need to build them yourselves. On some reflection, it should become clear that this is because there's no one set of limitations and enhancements appropriate for all cybernetics. How many points or how much money they're worth depends on what, exactly, you want them to do. Don't think "my character has a cybernetic spleen, and therefore spends x points/$y." Rather, think "my character has this set of advantages and limitations worth x points, which I'm rationalizing as the result of having a cybernetic spleen." For example, maybe relatively low-tech cybernetics have poor sensory equipment, can short out, need frequent recharge, be obviously artificial, and so on. That'd ultimately be worth some disadvantage points (the Electrical metatrait, for a start). However, higher-tech cybernetics might give you sensory input equivalent to a real arm, be well-sealed against environmental hazards, have nano-tech self-repair systems and long-lasting batteries, all of which makes them, in game terms, indistinguishable from a real arm. For something like that, the cybernetic nature of a limb might simply be a special effect justifying the purchase of Arm ST, Super Jumping, and other advantages. Such was the approach I took for my Pyramid article on the subject, anyway. Which distantly reminds me: did you see the mention in the Campaigns book that purchaseable advantages can be bought with cash instead of CP for, I think, $1000/point?
That leads to the next question, one that may be answered in GURPS ULTRA TECH for 4e...
Or perhaps in Bio-Tech.
Example: A man who has a cyberhand to replace his missing crippled hand, he takes the disdavantage "crippled" with the modifier of "correctable". If he takes bionic eyes, he must also take blind as a disadvantage with "correctable" as a modifier. Problem is? If the eyes have better capabilities than the original "Meat" version - why is not the character penalized in character points?
This isn't a new problem, nor one unique to cybernetics, though the problem of what are essentially easily-purchased advantages exacerbates the problem. If your cyberpunk character buys some cybernetics and effectively ends up lots of CP ahead, that's much like when my fantasy characters kill a dragon and suddenly find themselves with a lot of money (arguably giving them higher Wealth) and notariety (arguably giving them Reputation). What you're looking at a difference between what you do on character creation (where your point total is the sum total of what you've got at that particular moment in time) and tracking points afterwards. I prefer the answer which is official for cybernetics-heavy THS and at least looked on favorably for 4e (though I've been doing it since 1e): after character creation, you don't worry about point totals. In a world with easily purchased cybernetics, it's believable and realistic for a character's CP total to fluctuate wildly, not follow a slow progression based on how fast the GM wants to dole them out. If a character happens to do something clever which nets him an advantage, he gets the advantage without the universe slapping him down with arbitrary new, compensating disads. In this case, then, a character created as "blind" but with super cybernetic eyes probably wouldn't be blind, in GURPS terms. On character creation, he'd be a guy with whatever abilities his eyes gave him and would spend points accordingly. His blindness before he got his eyes would be a special effect or bit of character background, but the character creation rules don't care how you got to where you are. They only concern themselves with your current situation. Someone with removeable "eyes" (thinking of Geordi LaForge in ST:NextGen) might, though, be Blind with a Mitigator, just like a nearsighted character would have Bad Sight with a Mitigator. If that chararacter replaced his own non-functioning eyes with cybernetic eyes that worked all the time, I'd make him pay a $ cost appropriate to buying off his disad (the Blindness - Mitigator), plus any enhancements he added in. And if a blind-on-creation character bought cybernetic eyes, I'd make him pay a $ cost equivalent to paying off Blindness. -- My wife's food blog is quite interesting: http://thehappysorceress.blogspot.com _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
