 Free sprite buddy, How would I do this? |
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 Dec 12 2006, 03:58 PM
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#1
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Genuine Artificial Intelligence  Group: Members Posts: 4,019 Joined: 12-June 03 Member No.: 4,715  |
Here's the situation. One of my players is making a street sam. As part of his background, he wants to be an ex-technomancer. Because of too much cyber, his Resonance is 0 and all technomancer abilities have been lost.
I am not going to charge him any BP for the ex-technomancer quality, or for his technomancer skills that he can no longer use. BUT, I thought it would be kind of neat if there was something like a free sprite that followed him around. AFAIK, free sprites aren't canon yet, but it's not that much of a stretch, and I'm pretty sure they'll be canon eventually. Alternately, I could explain it as some tiny scrap of ability he has left and he's just continually reregistering it subconsciously; I don't really care. Should I charge it as a positive quality? How many BP? Anyone see any potential problems, or see anything potentially cool I could do with this? Thanks. |
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Dec 12 2006, 04:11 PM
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#2
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Dragon Group: Members Posts: 4,718 Joined: 14-September 02 Member No.: 3,263 |
Likely 5BP Quality, along the lines of Spirit Pack. Force 3 so he doesn't get snuffed straight out, but isn't an overpowering influence on the game. Maybe even cut him down to Force 2.
'Cool' being a subjective thing, what's the player think of the idea? Who'd be running the sprite? If you put him totally under perview of the player he is more likely to be come just another piece of gear. Total NPC? If he could be a handy occational plot aid. But it could also drain a lot of your time having to worry about the sprite. *shrug* Just like any henchman. |
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Dec 12 2006, 04:16 PM
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#3
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Genuine Artificial Intelligence Group: Members Posts: 4,019 Joined: 12-June 03 Member No.: 4,715 |
"Cool" is definitely subjective.
It would be subject to player approval. This is chargen, afterall. It would likely be totally GM controlled. Like you said, an occasional plot aid, with maybe a useful ability he could sometimes call on. As for draining my time, if it's doing much of that then it's probably more useful than I want it to be. :-) Plus, it's not like he can control it, if I don't want to deal with it I can say the thing is elsewhere. |
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Dec 12 2006, 04:45 PM
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#4
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Dragon Group: Members Posts: 4,718 Joined: 14-September 02 Member No.: 3,263 |
Good point.
So a minor benefit with only ocassional use. In that case I'd said definately no more than 5BP then. But it definately could be cool as say a Crack Sprite that has a tendancy to toss gremlins into the opponent's (and occationally the team's) equipment, or come up with wierd, offbeat, yet timely interesting info and data bits that it has gathered in it's meandering travels. Like a Kender pulling pieces of string, copper coins born of foriegn lands, the cleric's holy symbol :mad:, and the occational pearl out of his pockets.....with accompanying annoying jibber-jabber or NOT. ;) |
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Dec 12 2006, 04:47 PM
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#5
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Target Group: Members Posts: 93 Joined: 9-December 03 From: Greenville, SC Member No.: 5,889 |
Sounds like a Contact to me. |
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Dec 12 2006, 04:58 PM
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#6
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Genuine Artificial Intelligence Group: Members Posts: 4,019 Joined: 12-June 03 Member No.: 4,715 |
Blakkie: Looks like you've definitely got the idea of where I'm going with this. What type do you think would be best? You mention crack sprite, but machine sprites are the ones with gremlins. That what you meant?
Mal-2: Yeah, that'd be a good way to handle it, too. Connection = Resonance, Loyalty = Loyalty? |
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Dec 12 2006, 05:09 PM
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#7
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 777 Joined: 22-November 06 Member No.: 9,934 |
it would be most balanced to run him as a contact loyalty 6, Connection 1.
and use a hacker as the contact persona. maybe the sammy doesn't know the "hacker" in real life, and only talks to him via matrix, it's a AI sprite that took a liking to him, and now feels pity for him having to undergo so much cyber and lose his resonance just to survive... |
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Dec 12 2006, 05:24 PM
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#8
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Genuine Artificial Intelligence Group: Members Posts: 4,019 Joined: 12-June 03 Member No.: 4,715 |
Hmmm, maybe. Loyalty 6 might be higher than I was envisioning.
What do you mean by using a hacker as the contact persona? You mean the PC thinks it's actually a person? Definitely not, I plan on having this be a sprite that he created before he lost his abilities, he'll know darn well what it is. That would be a good idea to do to someone else who thinks they have a hacker as a contact, though. :-) |
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Dec 12 2006, 06:02 PM
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#9
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Dragon Group: Members Posts: 4,718 Joined: 14-September 02 Member No.: 3,263 |
I ment small 'g', not the Gremlins power itself. Think a Crack sprite with Spoof. Or maybe with Scan for looking for that pay data I mentioned and just using matrix combat to knock around the insides of machines. Handling the pricing as a Contact could work. So running with the Resonance 3 I mentioned that'd bring the Loyalty out to a 2. If I read Moon-Hawk right the Loyalty description seems a bit off, but I think it works out because Moon-Hawk is going to have a bit tigher control on availability. *shrug* Or call it Loyalty 3 for a 6 BP cost. Plus through in the Technomancer background for free. That seems fair to me. |
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Dec 12 2006, 06:21 PM
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#10
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Genuine Artificial Intelligence Group: Members Posts: 4,019 Joined: 12-June 03 Member No.: 4,715 |
I see. Between your small 'g' gremlins, Gremlins the sprite power, and Gremlins the negative quality I got confused. :-)
I'm leaning towards resonance 3 because that's the optional power point. A crack sprite with spoof would be cool. I was also thinking machine sprite, but at some point a machine sprite would end up in a drone and then it's taking way more attention than I want. I do kind of like the contact idea. Loyalty 2 is definitely too low. Probably 3. I could see it going even higher, but since it is pretty limited I don't want the cost getting out of hand. |
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Dec 12 2006, 07:00 PM
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#11
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Genuine Artificial Intelligence Group: Members Posts: 4,019 Joined: 12-June 03 Member No.: 4,715 |
Thanks for the feedback, everybody.
So I was thinking of the sprite as a contact, and thinking about loyalty. Normally, one of the goals that players have is to increase the loyalty ratings of their contacts. How does one increase the loyalty of a free sprite? What do they want? |
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Dec 12 2006, 07:08 PM
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#12
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Target Group: Members Posts: 93 Joined: 9-December 03 From: Greenville, SC Member No.: 5,889 |
If they're like free spirits, it varies from sprite to sprite. Karma is one answer, assuming free sprites increase their force by spending other people's karma the way free spirits do. Other ideas: Physical wealth, in the form of access to exotic databases or mainframes with lots of processing power. Raw nuyen may work too. Political power, possibly including recognition as a sentient being, the right to vote, or run for office. Any physical task that the sprite can't accomplish on its own. Sprites can do some things by possessing drones, but there's a lot of things they can't do without a metahuman to do it for them. |
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Dec 12 2006, 07:49 PM
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#13
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Genuine Artificial Intelligence Group: Members Posts: 4,019 Joined: 12-June 03 Member No.: 4,715 |
That's an interesting question. How do they improve? It could be karma.
Should they get any special abilities or considerations, other than not having a time limit? Would you allow it to come back if crashed in cybercombat? |
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Dec 12 2006, 07:56 PM
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#14
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Dragon Group: Members Posts: 4,718 Joined: 14-September 02 Member No.: 3,263 |
CPU cycles?
CPU cycles? Submerging is how TM's raise their Resonance. Perhaps this is the way of free sprites as well? So secure them a reservation at a nice Resonance/Disonance Pool. Or at least a buy them a nice bleeding-edge box for them to feel at home in. |
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Dec 12 2006, 09:47 PM
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#15
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 668 Joined: 4-September 06 Member No.: 9,304 |
I would probably go with Resonnance 3, Loyalty 4.
As for what it would want, well, an anthroform drone for itself, under it's full control could be one. This would allow it to do all kinds of things in the mundane world that it can't right now. Perhaps a few secure data storage areas. |
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Dec 13 2006, 05:22 PM
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#16
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Genuine Artificial Intelligence Group: Members Posts: 4,019 Joined: 12-June 03 Member No.: 4,715 |
Can a sprite or agent be in multiple nodes like a hacker can?
A hacker is always running on their link, but can spawn multiple copies of their persona in different nodes. An agent, similarly, is always running on hardware somewhere, but can they then project their persona into different nodes and still have their attributes dependent on the one node that is actually running them? If so, and if a sprite is crashed in one of those nodes, is it any less destroyed than if it's crashed in the node running it? Thanks. |
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