Genetic Augments, Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! Options

[Voran]

I have always been interested in the genetic supermen of fiction. I blame Star Trek for the most part, Bladerunner of course, and more recently the Nieztschean race from the Andromeda series. Dark Angel, Etc etc.

Over the years I've fiddled with ways to bring such into an SR setting, as Anime and scifi seems to suggest they'd make a decent match for it. Most recently I've been reviewing Becks 2 stuff, rather like the alternate character generation rules they have.

So I've got a couple ideas I'd appreciate feedback/tweaks on. Looking to balance it into the game, appropriate costs for the proposed abilities, etc.

I had 2 approaches. The first was sorta a genetic/bio-adept. They'd pay some karma for the Metatype of "Genetic Augment, Augmented Human, whatever" (I never did come up with a good name, honestly I just wanted to steal the Nieztchean template, boneblades and all).

Approach 1: Probably a bit more high end powerwise.

Race: Augment. Karma Cost: Something like 40.
What you get with that package: 7 or 8 Bonus attribute points to distribute (hadn't decided which). No more than +2 in any one attribute. I wanted to reflect different "batches" or genetic experiment groups. Some may have more uniform across the board enhancements, others more specialized in a particular attribute, but not so much that you end up with really skewed results. Racial and Attribute Maxes would reflect adjusted attributes. Metatype also includes low light vision.

Magic: (Not really magic, but was the most equivalent heading) 75 karma. As the additional abilities were kinda adept-like.

Basically it gave you 4 to 6 points (again I hadn't decided exactly how much) to spend on Bioware type augmentations. These reflected additional 'in the tube' genetic augmentations that individual specimins recieved. This was not true bioware, so while it mirrored the effect of the various pieces, it did not necessarially follow the mechanics/material requirements. So basically it let you ignore any descriptions of synthetic materials to get the effect. Cost of augmentations were straight from the bioware body index costs. Staight basic costs, could not get 'cultured' type bioindex reductions, at least for the purpose of these purchases.

So for example, you could be bred with the effects of a trauma dampener, bioware type accelerated reflexes, orthoskin, whatever.

These effects could be later augmented some more with additional/conventional bioware additions to your body. You could 'add' effectively 1 more level of augmentation beyond what you had. So even though in the books, bioware reaction enhancers only had 2 levels, if you took 2 levels of enhancement as your 'breed' you could take 1 more level. So you'd have a total of +3d6 init, for example. In cases where the item only had 1 level, and where doubling the overall effect would be too much, increase it by +1. So a boosted trauma dampener effect by having a trauma damp + breed bonus trauma damp effect, would give you a -3 mod to TN to resist pain stuff, and would subtract something like 2 phys and add 1 stun, or reduce stun dmg by 2 boxes.

To help balance this, I said you'd have to have the additional bioware to be 'cultured' if you wanted to put it in and have decent effect. In this case, you'd pay the cost of cultured bioware but wouldn't get the bioindex reduction benefit of the cultured effect. So you'd really have to be willing to sink cash into stuff if you wanted to extend your breed bonuses with bioware.



I'll just post this first version for now, as I'm getting a bit beat and probably going to head off for the evening. I'll check back later and add the 2nd, less powerful version.

Comments are appreciated. Also, I'd appreciate some devil's advocate kinda stuff, please feel free to try and min/max, powermunchkin a character based off the design stuff given. I hadn't really put too much time into trying to break the design and come up with superspecialized powerrangers. I had a feeling it might be possible, which is why I was thinking between 4 to 6 'bioware' power points. With 4 I came up with some decent effects, but nothing too overpowered in my opinion. But as I've mentioned, other opinions are appreciated.