Clones, Adepts and Ritual Magic Options

[nemafow]

So I have this character idea and I'm a little unsure about a few things...

1) If my character is a clone (has the escaped clone quality) can I be be an adept?

2) If I was one of many of these clones and I escaped (hence the 'escaped clone' quality) would my 'owners' be able to do ritual sorcery on me to locate/burn me to a crisp, from my DNA/biological material they have, without harming the other clones? Ie, am I safe from this kind of thing if they were willing to destroy me, without destroying their other clones. Or would they have to stick to conventional methods like a hit team or sending a team of runners after me.

3) If I wanted to be cat-like (ie have very obvious features of a cat and their nimblness) whats the best approach to this? I havent really delved into the additional books very much, so I'm sure there is a perfect way to do this.. But I don't know where to look. Pretty much the idea is a clone with spliced in cat/feline DNA.

[Hagga]

Yes, although you'd probably be even more hunted. "WHAT. AWAKENED CLONE. WANT. MUST CLONE ARMY OF ADEPTS.". As I read it, clones are almost never actually Awakened and you'd be a freak amongst freaks and with a dollar value through the roof.

No.

Try some transgenic alterations from augmentation.

[Elfenlied]

So I have this character idea and I'm a little unsure about a few things...

1) If my character is a clone (has the escaped clone quality) can I be be an adept?

Yes, I believe you can. Awakened/Emergence is coded into your genes, scientists just haven't been able to isolate it yet.

2) If I was one of many of these clones and I escaped (hence the 'escaped clone' quality) would my 'owners' be able to do ritual sorcery on me to locate/burn me to a crisp, from my DNA/biological material they have, without harming the other clones? Ie, am I safe from this kind of thing if they were willing to destroy me, without destroying their other clones. Or would they have to stick to conventional methods like a hit team or sending a team of runners after me.

Ritual Spellcasting would have an equal chance of hitting any one of the clones, e.g. if there are four of you, there's a 25% chance it'll hit you.

3) If I wanted to be cat-like (ie have very obvious features of a cat and their nimblness) whats the best approach to this? I havent really delved into the additional books very much, so I'm sure there is a perfect way to do this.. But I don't know where to look. Pretty much the idea is a clone with spliced in cat/feline DNA.

From the same book where the "Escaped Clone" quality is from: SURGE. Balance Tail for the cat tail, Unusual hair for the fur, Unusual Eyes for Cat Eyes, Retractable Claws for the paws, and the quality catlike.

[Inpu]

Yes, I believe you can. Awakened/Emergence is coded into your genes, scientists just haven't been able to isolate it yet.

Not necessarily: it is very strongly suggested it is coded into the soul rather than the genes, as it specifically mentions clones do not Awaken even when the original subject is Awakened. It is completely hit or miss.

I personally always thought that that part that could not be easily measured (in this case, the soul, anima, aura, whatever you wish to call it) at some point undergoes something that shifts the natural flow of energy. The body may change with it, but it is not apparently something you can just clone and get with any accuracy.

Ritual Spellcasting would have an equal chance of hitting any one of the clones, e.g. if there are four of you, there's a 25% chance it'll hit you.

I agree here. The other clones would have sympathy to the character, and thus good enough for a ritual. It can make for an interesting long term goal, though.

[Sengir]

Shouldn't a material link be more about the target's aura or some other sort of magical "identifier"? Because otherwise using a brick for ritual spellcasting against a building, which is one of the examples in SM, would be extremely pointless...

But even identical twins do not have exactly the same DNA, while the difference is so small that genetic sampling will not detect it (because it does only checks a few selected sections) the difference is there.

[Inpu]

A clone is a bit different from a twin, isn't it? A clone is an exact genetic duplicate.

One could potentially say that a ritual might not hit a clone because you need something specifically from that individual clone, rather than another one. I think it falls on the GM to decide there: it can really go any way. If a player justified that to me as a GM, then I would likely accept it.

[Elfenlied]

Well, I can't really speak for the awakened, but as far as technomancers are concerned, Unwired mentions somewhere that identical twins will both be technomancers if one of them emerges.

[Inpu]

Now for Emerged that can be very interesting. What page was that on?

[nemafow]

Thank you for all the replies so far, I really appreciate it.

Is the following qualities good for this character concept (from it being half cat point of view):

Cat-like 10 BP
Class III Surge 15 BP
Positive Metagenic: Claws (Retractable), Fangs, Functional Tail (Balance), Keen-Eared, Low-Light Vision
Negetive Metagenic: Nocturnal, Unusual hair


The closest I could find to make the character look more 'catty' (ears, whiskers ect) was Metahuman traits, could anyone else offer something better?

Edit: Spelling

[Inpu]

You might be able to tweak the unusual hair to include whiskers and whatnot. Thematically, there is no reason to not just specify character appearance. I think you did a fine job duplicating a half cat with this setup. Just avoid runs in Egypt and you'll be fine.

[pbangarth]

A clone is a bit different from a twin, isn't it? A clone is an exact genetic duplicate.

One could potentially say that a ritual might not hit a clone because you need something specifically from that individual clone, rather than another one. I think it falls on the GM to decide there: it can really go any way. If a player justified that to me as a GM, then I would likely accept it.

I don't know how cloning works in 2072, but currently (See HERE) it involves inserting a new nucleus into an enucleated cell, so the nuclear DNA is the same, but mitochondrial DNA would be different. If a brick can be used to target a building, I should think this DNA difference would not be enough to cause a targeting problem, but multiple clones should.

[Sengir]

Well, I can't really speak for the awakened, but as far as technomancers are concerned, Unwired mentions somewhere that identical twins will both be technomancers if one of them emerges.

IIRC Unwired also mentions that this observation is only based on only two known cases of identical twins.

I'd say it works kinda like sexual orientation of twins - statistically an identical twin is more likely than the average population to be homosexual if his sibling is, but for a single individual it's still impossible to tell what his preferences will be, because we are talking about probability and not automatisms (and of course, correlation != causation).