[gurps] Cyberpunk & 4e

[Matt Riggsby]

On 7/26/06, hal at buffnet.net <hal at buffnet.net> 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.





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