Sample Character w/ Cyberlimb?, Did I miss one? Options

[WhiskeyMac]

Demerzel, if you saw my post above as a personal attack against you, then I apologize. I didn't mean to come off that way with such a sweeping accusation. I just find it hard to sort through all the posts that praise people with 15+ dice pools and x bioware versus y cyberware and espouse the "benefits" of playing a magical character versus a cybered one without feeling that there are several people (not saying you directly) here who only feel that magic and bioware are the way to go. Period. Anything else is not an "optimized" build.

While we don't know if he came up with the stats and then created the backstory, it still works. Sure, it's not a perfect build, but for what he's done it's very good. Yeah, with an abusive player it could probably become a GM Carp-slapping Bovine-Dropping session but if he sat down with his GM and discussed how he wanted to play the character, the GM could make a very good campaign, or two, off just his backstory.

Again, I apologize if you felt I was attacking you personally. I didn't mean to do that. :rotate:

[pbangarth]

Here's the order of thinking that went into creating Sept de Neuf:

1) I mused: I've never played a cyberlimbed character, I wonder what it's like? Why would anyone do that to themselves, rather than the less obvious and scary implants?

2) Answer: because only replacement would work. What circumstances would require that? Disease or genetics or something like it that wouldn't allow things like muscle replacement or augmentation, as those things would either be infected themselves, or have nothing to augment. This state would require full replacement of the limbs. It is true I never really thought about partial replacement, in part because I wanted to try the whole shebang, and in part because the disease thing made sense. At this point I got the idea for her name while watching Star Trek Voyager -- Seven of Nine was just the kind of lost soul with huge potential I wanted to play. And she is smart AND strong. Could I do that here?

3) What would bring such a character into the shadows? If she or her family had the money to do such expensive replacement, why would she need such a job? Fun-- slumming? Maybe, but that is a weak reason to be risking your life.

4) So, they didn't have the money, and somebody else payed for it. Why would they do that? That's how I came to the whole Ares - make old tech profitable - build an agent - she gets burned - they get cost effective and want the parts back - she cuts and runs story.

5) That's when I started building her. So her body is weak, but Ares wants her because her mental abilities are exceptional. Otherwise, why pay the money for a stupid agent? So I built all the mental traits to 5, and had 40 BP left. In any role playing game, I like to put as much into the base stats as I can. That is my 'numbers' addiction, for anyone looking to pick on my method. I had two versions of her - one with speed/initiative enhancement and one with intelligence enhancement. I tended to like the latter because I like McGuyver type characters. (And Seven of Nine.) At this point I hoped to have a fair number of skills for her, maybe all at lower level, but widespread.

6) I put in some negative qualities to represent the story elements - burned in several ways in a Hacking run, SINner because she was a corp employee (but not an official criminal yet), weak immune system because she's sick and she's gone through horrendous transformations. She was on the lam in Denver (building her for Missions) from Quebec, so: few contacts but a low level fixer and a street doc she sought out before she ran, not much equipment because she had to get out fast, a low lifestyle because she can't afford more. She has to find work soon, really soon. It's about here that I figured she would be in real trouble if she couldn't get a network of co-runners/contacts going. There was no corp anymore to care for her if she got hurt. That's why I made one contact a street doc.

7) That's when I found out to my surprise how many skills she could have. I went for a wide spread of low-level skill groups as well as individual skills. Couple the skill spread with good all around Attributes, and she turned out to be quite a useful character. None of her skills were at the level some PCs get in their specialty, but she could apply herself to any situation. Which is just what I imagined Ares would have wanted her to be -- drop her in and let her figure/fight/hack/charm her way out. I still had not decided which version of her I liked better.

8) At this point the discussion on Dumpshock had begun, particularly the early thread about healing that really made me think about Sept's Attributes. I had a look at the 40 BP for physical Attributes, and settled on 20 in BOD and 20 in REA for the intelligence enhanced version of Sept, using some reaction enhancement to bring that trait up to par with the rest. (Yes, the other version had all 40 BP in REA, leaving the other physical Attributes at the minimum.) 2 points more in BOD makes infinitely more sense, and doesn't wreck the 'McGuyver' idea. At this point, too, numbers and their effect guided the character creation, not the other way around.

So I went from idea to numbers to idea to numbers, with some feedback. It really wasn't one over the other, it was a combined process. There you go.