[X] My Assistant

[ornot]

The first and most important thing you would need to do to approach Ghost in the Shell would be to reduce both monetary and essential costs of Cyberlimbs and customisation, as well as reducing the availability on some items. Then you create a full body replacement package. You might want to remove IP enhancements. I don't think the Major or Batou are acting all that much faster than other characters.

You want to add something like "humanish looks" to a copy of the Renraku Manservant, tear out the fluff about them not being dangerous and put a Fuzzy Logic in each and every one. This is the basis for your widespread humanlike drones. You also need to refluff and rename half the weapons.

I'm pretty sure that the Major would count as a Jarhead (Cyborg). You'd have to drop a lot of the restrictions on playing Jarheads, although I don't think restrictions are an issue; Section 9 is a government department, so resources are pretty much a non-issue. As for the body, it's blatently what the Otomo is based on, so no need to mess with the Renraku Manservant. Incidentally, the mod you're looking for is Mimic, and exists in Arsenal.

Personally I'd be inclined to use a different system than SR4, since you don't need to deal with Magic, and the Matrix rules don't fit GitS either.

[Stahlseele]

They don't?
in the series, the Tachikoma do some serious netrunning and faking and the such, going as far as complaining about firewalls and the such, or am i misremembering something here?

[ornot]

A big factor is brain hacking, which is not supported in SR. You could make it work, but tbh, I'm not a fan of the SR4 matrix rules, and use Frank's system.

[Heath Robinson]

I'm pretty sure that the Major would count as a Jarhead (Cyborg). You'd have to drop a lot of the restrictions on playing Jarheads, although I don't think restrictions are an issue; Section 9 is a government department, so resources are pretty much a non-issue. As for the body, it's blatently what the Otomo is based on, so no need to mess with the Renraku Manservant. Incidentally, the mod you're looking for is Mimic, and exists in Arsenal.

It's clear that there are people who don't have the equivalent of Jarheading, but still have extensive enough replacement that they've replaced every possible limb. To that end the package described is necessary. You'd certainly have to make Jarheading significantly cheaper, because even Togusa has a cyberbrain, and is thus capable of moving his brain to a completely different body. See: Episode 1, SAC Season 1 for supporting material about cyberbrain swapping.


Mimic implies vat-grown humanoid skin and hundreds of actuators to allow expression. The drone operators don't emote much at all, and they'd likely be using a rubber or polymer covering that demands far less maintenance. Whilst, yes, Section 9 has an experienced maintenance team, the decisions on procurement are made from an organisation-wide perspective and would choose minimal maintenance over looking more human. Especially since they're considered full expendable.

I should have made it more clear that I was referring to the drone operators and their domestic equivalents in that second paragraph. You need to give them stats and make them capable of performing the tasks we see them doing. They demonstrate the capacity to understand the situation and react accordingly, which essentially means they either have a really good Pilot and Autosoft loadout, or they come with Fuzzy Logic. You represent basic think-tanks in the same way.

[ornot]

I've always considered that a cyberbrain is just another name for commlink. The only character you see changing bodies is the Major, but virtually all of Section 9 have cyber brains. I think you can probably get away with the essence costs as is, and as I said, resources are not an issue for Section 9, so prices don't need to change.

I didn't realise you were talking about the operators. Sure, they could be based on the manservant. Tbh I'd not bother changing rules for them a great deal, since they don't tend to play a very large role in the action, but if you really wanted to, your changes seem good.

[hobgoblin]

the thing about jarhead vs all cyber is that the jarhead way is not detailed enough to really tweak it to the max like i did a while back to see what kind of performance i could get out of a full body cyberlimb suite...

specifically i focused on some of the jumping ability seen in gits:sac, i would say that with red lining it comes close (tho the dice mess up the reliability of it all).

with a jarhead there is no info on what one can do with the walker abilities, and there is no info on the capacity of the arms (tho the books say you can use cyberlimb mods in them). basically, a whole lot of detail is missing on the jarhead side of things. and i do not think it will be cleared up any time soon.

[ravensmuse]

I was always a fan of the (playstation) video game version of the Tachi's myself.

"We're covered in battle scars and racking up experience points! We're gonna get a promotion!"
"Promotion! Promotion! Promotion!"

Just one big row of bright red tachi's cheering. It warms the heart.

Shadowrun is what you make of it. Like someone demonstrated above, tweak as you see fit and the game's yours. Section 9 is the brand of people you throw at your players when they start laughing off Red Samurai...

[Heath Robinson]

I've always considered that a cyberbrain is just another name for commlink. The only character you see changing bodies is the Major, but virtually all of Section 9 have cyber brains. I think you can probably get away with the essence costs as is, and as I said, resources are not an issue for Section 9, so prices don't need to change.

I didn't realise you were talking about the operators. Sure, they could be based on the manservant. Tbh I'd not bother changing rules for them a great deal, since they don't tend to play a very large role in the action, but if you really wanted to, your changes seem good.

Like I said, see Episode 1 of Ghost in the Shell : Stand Alone Complex (Series 1). You can unplug and replace a cyberbrain pretty much at will. It is Jarheading.


With regards to the operators - giving them stats means that you at least have an answer when someone says "I hide behind them". I also realised that the best way to represent nonsentient think-tanks is to give them the same upgrades towards the end of my second post.

the thing about jarhead vs all cyber is that the jarhead way is not detailed enough to really tweak it to the max like i did a while back to see what kind of performance i could get out of a full body cyberlimb suite...

specifically i focused on some of the jumping ability seen in gits:sac, i would say that with red lining it comes close (tho the dice mess up the reliability of it all).

with a jarhead there is no info on what one can do with the walker abilities, and there is no info on the capacity of the arms (tho the books say you can use cyberlimb mods in them). basically, a whole lot of detail is missing on the jarhead side of things. and i do not think it will be cleared up any time soon.

Most people in Ghost in the Shell are jarheads, but they only own the flesh body they started with. Their original bodies are fitted with a Computer-Nerve link that allows a computer to keep the flesh alive without the brain, and also relay orders from a rigger.

Most people in Ghost in the Shell are rigging their meat bodies 24/7. For security reasons they only allow wire connection access to most of the biodrone meat bodies. All those people you see passing the Major and Batou are actually biodrones being rigged by jarheads, which are just coincidentally the brains that were originally inside said bodies. This way you mix up normal cyberware with jarheading and the complete unknown of biodrones. It's fun.

Writing this post gave me a whole new appreciation of the anticybernetic militants from the first season of SAC.

[hobgoblin]

something tells me the upcoming catalyst game eclipse phase, or maybe the gurps based transhuman space, is a better base for gits then current shadowrun.

still, there could be some interesting stuff in running wild, or whatever the title will be...

[blindfox]

i picked up SR1 back in '94 and found GiTS about the same time. to me they melded together in such a way that often times i find that my game and character concepts were virtually interchangable. i couldnt really relate all the different ways in which their inspiration have bled over into the other. im a devoted fan of most anything by shirow, and still to this day i still drop SR lingo in my everyday language (which, since nobody i've hung around with for the last 8 years has any knowledge of makes me look like some kind of babbling madman).
one of the most apparent ways in which GiTS influenced my SR campaigns is the addition of nerfed landmate-esque systems sometimes used by corp heavy hitters and other times by shadowy well-funded merc groups. some of the other cyber tech shown sometimes finds its way into my SR character builds, at least in concept, if in no other way.

[Wesley Street]

GiTS is the quintessentially perfect science-fiction anime franchise. Beautifully detailed, thought provoking characters, deep philosophical questions that few films or television series attempt to grapple, and plausible yet visually engaging scenes of violence.

Why would you want this in Shadowrun? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Shirow's original manga series is a different animal entirely. It's much more goofy, meta-mystical and satirical in nature (as reflected in his earlier works such as Tank Police) which feels, to me, like a more natural SR influence.

[ravensmuse]

Tank Police or, alternatively, Dirty Pair (not a Shirow manga, but fills kind of the same area as TP) is what Shadowrun comes down to for a lot of players.

Right down to the pseudolesbians.

((IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) )

In the vein of GitS and Shadowrun, you should watch this (slightly NFSW). This is how rigging looks in my head.