Ghost in the Shell, film to game question Options

[AlienStoneDog]

Hi there everyone, new to the game and setting and hope you can help me.

I'm coming from a World of Darkness rpg background and find the Shadowrun rules intuitive and flowing. I'm currently 3/4 of the way through the core rule book (20th anniversary edition, finally got but oh no, NOT from amazon [rant for another time...]) and loving it.

My question comes from Riggers and jumping in. The game seems to lend itself wonderfully to introducing elements from Ghost in the Shell anime. I was wondering if there are any rules/books I should be looking at to run a game where the characters can effectively jump in to robotic, human shaped "shells" (as drones). - taking this further I was thinking of having a character (perhaps a pc) that found their consciousness severed from reality and exists only in the matrix - thus relying on drones (and hopefully android type drones) to exist in reality)



If anyone has done this or something like this, or if it is covered in one of the books and you can let me know, it would be very much appreciated.

thanks

[remmus]

first I would suggest you get the Arsenal and Augmentation books, the first has the price and stats for human like cyborg bodies and the second gives deep insight into how these full body Cyborgs work in the Shadowrun world, it should be noted the method is expensive, rare and makes you stick out as a soar thumb if you plan to put your characters on brain in a cyborg body. As for jumping in that´s no real problem as the drone mentioned in the Arsenal book can be moded to be a jump into rig drone.


As for the second option the closest thing to that is playing a technomancer since they basicly transmit there own soul threw the matrix but making the rules for someone sole living there is just to much of a mess of house rules to do as your first SR experience, it works better as the concept for a NPC rather then a PC.

fun side note: I was watching a episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG as I notice this thread :3

[ravensmuse]

There are playable AI rules in Runner's Companion too, if you want to go for that "trapped in the Matrix" feel.

For someone like the Major, look for Otomo drones - they're the closest you'll get to humanoid looking drones, and you can mod them up all pretty like. There are fan created Tachi's somewhere here on Dumpshock too, if you do a search.

[X-Kalibur]

Nooooo! No more Tachikomas!

[remmus]

There are fan created Tachi's somewhere here on Dumpshock too, if you do a search.

well there is this thread talking how one might mod a Shadowrun vehicle to make it a think tank

[ravensmuse]

Nooooo! No more Tachikomas!

I wish I wasn't at work or I'd pull this up on youtube, but if you're a tachi fan, you have to watch the videos from the Playstation game. Each time you tried to beat the training mission, depending on how well you did and how far you got, you'd get a different video. My favorite one is a group of tachi's with streamers falling down around them, dancing, while one shouts, "we're covered in battlescars and racking up experience points that we've acquired!" another shouts, "we're going to get promotions!" and then they all start in with "promotions! Promotions! Promotions!"

I'd play that game sometimes just to watch those videos.

[AlienStoneDog]

Thanks that's awesome news, I know what my next purchase will be.

[Sengir]

There are two things which I think come close to what you want:

1.) AIs. An AI could easily make a drone its home node and go to town, and there are AIs who at least believe (whether this is true or not is another queston) that they are the conciousness of a human trapped online.

2.) Real Cyborgs. However there are no rules for using them as PCs and IMO the whole idea as presented in Augmentation is just badly done. Instead of simply allowing a rigger with full immersion lifestyle to put his meat body, minus a few useless limps, in a life support cocoon inside his favourity drone, they went for crazy stuff like cutting child brains from their bodies and letting them grow up as cyborgs...

[ravensmuse]

...which, if you think about it, is following up a really old plotline from way back in the 30s with Doc Halberstrom, the Matrix Born Project, Halberstrom's Babies...

I like brains in jars, myself. The tech will get better. Stronger. Faster. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Phatom]

So they would work great for a PC based off the Major then? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smokin.gif)

[Stahlseele]

Nooooo! No more Tachikomas!

The Tachikoma are the best part of GITS O.o
Well, aside for teh Majors Cyberbody and Batous big Guns . .

[Kagetenshi]

I wish I wasn't at work or I'd pull this up on youtube, but if you're a tachi fan, you have to watch the videos from the Playstation game. Each time you tried to beat the training mission, depending on how well you did and how far you got, you'd get a different video. My favorite one is a group of tachi's with streamers falling down around them, dancing, while one shouts, "we're covered in battlescars and racking up experience points that we've acquired!" another shouts, "we're going to get promotions!" and then they all start in with "promotions! Promotions! Promotions!"

I'd play that game sometimes just to watch those videos.

There is nothing in the playstation game about "Tachikoma". It features Fuchikoma alone, as it should.

~J

[ravensmuse]

Sorry, I used tachi as the short hand, thinking that that was the common thread between the two!

*fails his knowledge check.

[X-Kalibur]

The Tachikoma are the best part of GITS O.o
Well, aside for teh Majors Cyberbody and Batous big Guns . .

I think more specifically you mean GitS: SAC

I liked SAC alright, it was nice that it had more of a detective noir feel to it, but it lost some of the postmodernism/transhumanism.

Also, I always liked the tank in GitS, the name of which eludes me.

[Stahlseele]

ONly thing i hate about SAC is the fact that the Tachikomas allways die at the end <.<
Poor little buggers ._.
I still get weepy McEmo-Pants when i hear the Suicide Song ;_;

[McCummhail]

Also, I always liked the tank in GitS, the name of which eludes me.

Would you be referring to the Fuchikoma mentioned above?

ONly thing i hate about SAC is the fact that the Tachikomas allways die at the end <.<
Poor little buggers ._.
I still get weepy McEmo-Pants when i hear the Suicide Song ;_;

(ToT) But learning the meaning of death teaches them to be 'human'
and teaches mecha-taku how to cry! (T_T)

[AlienStoneDog]

well I know I'm talking about recreating the Major for Shadowrun as a PC...

[AlienStoneDog]

well I know I'm talking about recreating the Major for Shadowrun as a PC...

[or is the idea of a "sexy robot" a bad idea...]

[Stahlseele]

Sexy Robot is not a bad idea . . well, at least not in my book . .
but be carefull http://th09.deviantart.net/fs14/300W/i/200...s_by_Zapinc.png
Also, you won't have too much fun with that. complete cyber replacement is still a dead end pretty much.

[Kagetenshi]

Would you be referring to the Fuchikoma mentioned above?

Probably the Think Tank from the end of the movie.

Pardon me while I go stab whoever decided to strip nested quotes.

~J

[ravensmuse]

Robot girls are sexy, and by the 70s, are probably more "more human than human", if you catch my drift.

(You may want to mark that NSFW Stahl, if the title is anything to go by)

I had an idea awhile back for a brothel that was staffed entirely by Otomos, all rigged by one guy with some weird tastes.

[AlienStoneDog]

Sexy Robot is not a bad idea . . well, at least not in my book . .
but be carefull http://th09.deviantart.net/fs14/300W/i/200...s_by_Zapinc.png
Also, you won't have too much fun with that. complete cyber replacement is still a dead end pretty much.

lol
That's too funny
[or as my friend has just said..."well I'd rather lose my fingers than..."]

seriously though, can you make a major type character?

[Stahlseele]

Robot girls are sexy, and by the 70s, are probably more "more human than human", if you catch my drift.

(You may want to mark that NSFW Stahl, if the title is anything to go by)

I had an idea awhile back for a brothel that was staffed entirely by Otomos, all rigged by one guy with some weird tastes.

hey, you know me ^^

lol
That's too funny
[or as my friend has just said..."well I'd rather lose my fingers than..."]

*bows deep*
thank you, thank you, thank you very much!

seriously though, can you make a major type character?

Yes, We Can!

But it's a dead end type of character that can't do anything well.
Mostly take some damage, but even that is kinda iffy with SR4 converting Physical to Stun if Armor is bigger than Damage.

[brennanhawkwood]

seriously though, can you make a major type character?

Assuming I remember the character correctly, I suspect that given enough (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) there are several different ways that you could build a character that captures various aspects of the Major. I am not sure you could build an exact 'copy' since Shadowrun doesn't generally take advantage of the full-conversion cyborg concept.

[Sixgun_Sage]

The Major is, essentially, an incredibly elite combat hacker. The major point of differance between GITS and any shadowrun character based on her would be the ability to body jump, other than that her physical abilities are pretty well in line with what someone with a delta grade setup of cyberlimbs,torso, and skull would be capable off. In fact with some of the stuff in augmentation one could create a body with far greater performance.