Welcome the new age: The Synthetic, New Character Archtype for Review. Options

[Rifleman]

After looking over Augmentation, I've begun a project including a series of new archtypes. The Synthetic is a character grown from birth to be a corper, is raised and taught and culled until they are 'fit' for the corporations special programs. I just want to know what people think, if my math is right, so on so forth. All Bio/Cyber bonuses are denoted after the '+'

Synthetic:
“Everyone thinks we’re special. That someone like me, created in a tube and designed from the ground up, can’t end up here in the shadows. Given what they say, you’d think that from the day we’re born we get treated like kings, given the finest education and the best day care with only the company for parents. A special project like that doesn’t get canceled, they say.
But what happens, chum, when those special projects do get shut down? Or what happens when a corporation has about two dozen of me who have been specially trained for a task that doesn’t even exist anymore? The lucky ones get reassigned to different projects or adopted by families. Others like me have to hit the ground running. Me, I heard they were sending us to a ‘processing center’. Couldn’t escape fast enough.
Course, there are others like me out there. Escapees during the crash, kids liberated by runners, and some that were tossed out on the streets. We might be tube kids, but we still gotta live like everyone else.
Besides, with what we were taught, we are a natural at this. We grew up as part of the corporation, learned what the corporations wanted us to learn, and taught us how things worked. Who better to tear them apart?

Synopsis:
Clone farms around the world raise small armies of identical clones to serve as the new generation of elites in the corporate structure. Whether or not these are doomed to failure is yet to be seen, but already flaws have appeared in the process. There are rebels, dissident voices, and wayward children even amidst the select, and the costs associated from birth makes for an inefficient process at best. Thus many, both current and past, have been sent to the genetic scrapyard. More than anyone wants to admit have ended up on the streets.
Raised to be part of the corporation from before they were born, the synthetic makes for the perfect infiltrator into the organization. They were taught to move, think, and react as a corp peon from birth, training most faces would kill for. Add to this a variety of technical and mechanical skills, the Synthetic makes a great addition to any infiltration team.
As a side bonus, the Synthetic was also designed from birth to be the eyes and ears of the machine, training that allows them to absorb more in a glance that many can in an hour of study. But be warned- Most synthetics never reach the street. Usually it is they who are hunting you.


B: 2
A: 3 +2
R: 3
S: 2
C: 5 +3
I: 5 +1
L: 5 +3
W: 3

Edge: 3

Influence: 3
Electronics: 2
Industrial Mechanics: 2
Dodge: 3
Pistol: 1
Perception/Visual: 6/8

Forensics: 5
Corporate Politics: 1
Corporate Policies: 3
Accounting: 3
Physics: 2
Chemistry: 2

English: N
Japanease: 3
Chinease: 3
Spanish: 3
Russian: 2
Sioux: 2

Contacts:
Bartender: 1 / 2
Street Doc: 3 / 2


Edges:
Type O System
Genecrafted

Flaws:
Mania: Nature (Uncommon, Moderate)
Low Pain Tolerance
Incompetence: Automatics


Gear:
Leather Jacket
Urban Explorer Jumpsuit
Fichetti Security 600
+30 rounds
Defiance EX Shocker
+20 darts
Helmet

Thermographic/ Magnification Glasses:


Hermes Ikon
Novatech Navi

Analyze 4
Browse 4
Command 4
Edit 4
Encrypt 4
Reality Filter 4
Scan 4

Datasofts Rating 6:
-Genetics by Design: Making the Man
-History Incorperated: The Rise of Shiawase
-The History of North America
-Modern Botany
-Governments and their people
Datasofts Rating 5:
-Surviving Seattle on fifty nuyen a day
-Business 306: Hostile Takeovers
-Accountants Guidebook: Fiscal year 2071
-Janes Army Vehicles 2065-2070
-Understanding UCAS Law
-Without bounds: The reality of Magic
-Taking back the homeland: The CAS/Aztlan conflict
-Where men fear to tread: The Dunkelzan conspiracy
-Tribal Politics Volume 3: Sioux and the Shidle Sadie
-Living within the dome: Realities of the Megaplex
Datasofts Rating 4:
-Living the Adventure: Amazonia
-Famous Shadowrunners:
-The Day truth Died: The Second Crash
-The Tragedy of Art Dankwalter
-Surged: From the cats own lips

DNA Masking: Shuffle and Masque
PuSHeD: +1 log
Qualia: +1 int
Synch: +1 perception/Combat tests
Soft Nanite Immunization

Cerebral Booster 2
Mnemonic Enhance 2
Muscle Toner 2
Tailored Pheromones 3

Attention Co-processor 3
Math SPU
Cybereyes Rating 2
Vision Enhancement 3
Low Light
Flare Comp
Data Jack

Essence 3.3

1 Month Middle Lifestyle

4D6 x 100 + 1100

[Fortune]

I like the Datasofts. :)

[Adarael]

The skill selection and datasofts are where this archetype really shines, I have to admit. Also of special note are the smattering of languages at 3, the software package for the commlink and attention co-processor. I really dig it.

Any runner casing a joint should be worried about them.

[Marwynn]

It's a unique take on what could easily have been some crazed Rigger. Nicely done Rifleman.

[Sterling]

Yeah, that's a really nice writeup!!

I did a similar thing when bioware first hit the scene, back in the day, but not nearly as well thought out or fleshed out as what you've provided here.

The synthetic seems like it needs a subtemplate, since you could (in theory.. or in vitro) shuffle points around so he or she would have fives in body, agility, and reaction. The mods to the charisma, intuition, and logic still boost the synthetic to near max, but now (with some skill and flaw shuffling) you'd have a synthetic security guard who would be completely loyal and not bad in combat... who is also very very good at detecting people in stealth suits, concealed weapons, etc.

If it makes sense to do so, maybe you could restat one as a 'base' and add templates for different areas? What you've created is a stunningly good corp middle manager or data gatherer, but when push comes to shove they're not going to be able to resist attempts at extraction, and I'm sure every corp is dying to collect a set of these synthetics. Each one is a walking patent office, and with a little effort I'm sure you could reverse engineer the methods and means that say, Aztechnology used to make their synthetic so good at behavior X, etc. This also means that several models would have cranial bombs or the bioware or genetech equivalents.. if you don't give the Renraku synthetic his morning cup of Renraku Neokaf 3x, the system starts slowly shutting down, maybe increasing the degradation for consecutive days missed. Of course a model here or there would be able to escape, because how do you test to see if a cranial bomb will work? How can you make sure the quality control is there without pushing the button? "Ah, welcome to your new office, Mr. Smith, and if you think you can escape from our employ, this button will activate your new cranial bomb! Let me demonstr... aw crap. And this was a new jacket!"

Even if you don't fix it (because it surely is not broken) the template as is allows a GM to do a little modding of their own as needed. Kudos again for a really creative idea presented so well!

[Kyoto Kid]

...I have to get my hands on the PDF.

[Pendaric]

Cool idea.
As an addem, all those clones that have been created through out the years for medical donation. What if some of them where released instead? An attempt to isolate specific gene related behaviour patterns or metagenes for example. You could prehapes 'run' into your synthetic twin.

Edit: Perhapes too Jega Fett

[Particle_Beam]

The problem is, most of those medical grown clones have been force-grown so that their brains are just not match for the complexity of their body.

[Rifleman]

[hobgoblin]

corp is mother, corp is father...

[Particle_Beam]

Those aren't clones grown for medical limb donation, however. :cyber:

Organ-donors don't have needs for brains.

[Rifleman]

[Particle_Beam]

@Rifleman: I'm responding to Pendaric's posting about medical donation clones, not your original thread opener. :)

[Rifleman]

[Wakshaani]

Hey, Rifleman? For the love of Pete, could you do something about teh spoiler tag in your sig?

My OCD is clicking it like CRAZY and all it does is move the screen a few inches. Could you, I dunno, either put something in it or take it away? Just making it a *thing* is going to keep me awake for about three days.

Bad chemistry ... not my friend.






As for the Synthetic, the basics are faboo, but, an entire line of clones is a bit ... financially unsound. You can just go grab kids from the Barrens for basicly free, so why grow one, other than "Because we can"? There's gotta be a bottom line in there somewhere.

That, or a Greater Purpose.

Individuals who were "Just given an edge" by their parents, in hopes that their child, when born, wouldn't just be defect-free (That's a given!) but would be a step ahead of all the other little CorpKids, to have an "It factor" that would mark them as special. THAT'S a good use of resources. Churning out data entry folks for a few hundred thousand is a bad investment.

But very, very cool. :)

-- Wak, who had a "Theresa Rose", aka T' Rosa, aka Tabula Rosa, a blank slate clone of an Ares Veep that was set free by the "Clone Liberation Army" (Handful of college kids) and let loose into teh mean streets. Amazing what kind of legs this kind of char can have!

[Ravor]

For some reason the board only opens the "spoiler tag" in the person's first post on any given page, that is why the board seems to be "jumping" but not displaying any text.

[Sma]

[Wakshaani]

Bless you both. I'll be able to sleep tonight after all.

-- Wak, was worried for a minute there.