Anybody have any ideas for a physad based on Neo from the matrix? My group's playing a power game and my friend wants to play a physad based on Neo, but he doesn't really know where to start for powers other than enhanced stats, and he lacks computer skills so here I am asking. I figured maybe astral perception to equate Neo's "Matrix Vision", any other thoughts would be appreciated. I swear in the future basic computer use should be a required subject in schools...*goes off ranting*

Physad? I think a 'Neo' would be Otaku, characterised by amazingly high matrix skills, Spike Resistance and a lot of martial-art skill-softs...

My first suggestion was Otaku, but he's going more for Neo inside the matrix, with the powers and abilities he shows there, ported over to the shadowrun "real world".

I think the implication is that the PhysAd in question will derive his powers from a belief that he is inside a virtual reality that can be manipulated, a la Neo...

That is, magically impressionable child watched "The Matrix" one too many times.

Or, possibly, the PhysAd doesn't want to buy into Neo's "Matrix" premise at all, and just wants to mimic Keanu Reeves' Wire Fu using Shadowrun game mechanics.

Which is it?

EDIT-- My Wire Fu is lacking; I am too slow.

The first premise you mentioned was basically his idea for a backstory as well, awakened guy figures we live in a virtual world. As for game mechanics of wire fu without the wires, I don't really know where to start. I figured maybe one of the many Jumping powers out there combined with the Adhesion power, but that's about all I got so far.

Great Leap and Freefall, Improved Skill (Athletics ('specially if using the CC optional rule allowing athletics tests to give Dodge dice), MA), maybe some knacks if you use those. Imp Initiative. Maybe Traceless Walk. I'm sure there's more but I'm just brainstorming randomly.

Quick Strike for sure.

Are there any powers that allow Flight for physads out there? Also, thanks for the cool suggestions.

Don't forget to take the "Looking Cool" skill (Ettiquette?) as a linked skill for centering

(actually: If you're basing it on the last movie too then he might want to take something like "Looking Puzzled" or "Acting Badly" for centering)

Don't forget the "Abandoned Subplots" knowledge skill

I'd figure he'd have to be a magical adept in order to get everything Neo has. Levitation quickened for flight, Bullet Barrier spell or somesuch for blocking bullets, etc.

Not to mention Fashion for the cassock

If you want to go the adept or Magicians Way route, just get the GM to agree that Improved Ability can be applied to skills other than combat or physical skills. Give them a datajack, max out Computers at six and then add five levels of Improved Ability (Computers) for a final skill of eleven. You've got a starting character that can rival most of the top flight deckers at least in raw skill.

Of course, since you're going to have to pay for both being a magician and the large amounts of cash needed for a deck and programmes, your attributes and skill range are going to be a bit spread thin to begin with. Which means a fairly weak character in some respects to begin with and a large investment of cash and karma to follow.

I'd think he'd be rather disappointed regardless of the route he attempted to take of physad. Or even some sort of mage adept.

As some have pointed out, the char could probably mimic stuff like bullet barrier and even flight to a degree like Neo. But he's not going to have bullet time, or wire-fu or twirling around doing cartwheels with guns, any more than your more conventional physad or cybered/bioware'd up samurai would.

As also suggested, there were some possible spells that could be adapted to provide wire-fu like stuff. But really, until the SR world allows for time-type spells that boost you WELL beyond the ranges of wired reflexes, its probably not going to be as satisfying to the player who wants to be Neo.

Unless he incorporates some sort of illusion based displacement effect.

IMHO with the exception of the flying and stopping bullets in mid air, everything from the first and second films can be accomplished with generous amounts of great leap, Feather fall, Imp atheltics and wired reflexes (with some extra strength).

So a physad with a couple of grades then.....

Yeah. When people first saw the original film, we could point to bullet time effects and say, "That's what Wired Reflexes makes the world look like." So, that's no big deal.

Imp. Athletics, Great Leap, Combat Sense, Imp. Reflexes, Missle Parry, Mystic Armor, Counter Strike and Quick Strike would round it out pretty well. Maybe one level of Magical Power just to cast a Levitate and Barrier once in a while.

Well: If your Neo guy moves fast enough then he should be able to dodge fairly well. Improved athletics 6 with a base skill of 6 and Aptitude:Athletics gives you around 8 extra combat pool for dodging per complex action. Add whatever modifiers you want to the attacker's test, not forgetting the +2 for a running target and +4 for partial cover (behind exploding pillars), and he should be able to do a Neo (centering against the dodge penalties for autofire).

Perhaps make an adept power that changes it from a Complex action to a Simple Action to use athletics for dodging? I think an extremely high initiative rating is a must-have for this guy... The more actions you get the more times you get to roll athletics.

they didnt as mutch move faster as react faster to what happens. a fly watches the world at a higher framerate then we do, therefor its able to dodge our attacks most of the time.

the reason that they moved faster in a sense was that theyre brains had more info to go on, therefor could move the "body" to its full potential. in fact you can move quite fast but as speeds goes up you need more info faster to keep it stable and under control. this is why drivers of fast vehicles describe a sense of slowdown when the adrenalin rush hits them. the brain stats to prosess info at a insane rate, therefor the world looks a bit slower...

in fact, the brain is extremly good at paralell prosessing, you can walk and talk at the same time without missing a beat. the reason is that most tasks it does you dont know about. the slowdown effect comes from, i think, the effect of moveing more stuff to the subconcious part of the brain, therefor freeing prosessing time you basicly get cycles to spare so to speak that you become aware of...

I've discovered that killing flies with a battleaxe tends to weird people out.....

I've discovered that blatant lies make you look stupid.

P.S. And not from personal experience of lying.

Waaaa! Some twit on the Internet thinks I'm lying! I'm crushed. Absolutely crushed.

(WTF would I lie about something like that, anyway?)

Actually: Flies also have parts of their eyes dedicated to identifying items coming closer to them quickly (in-fact: even you have a similar mechanism in your eye). Obviously there are limits (car moving at 60MPH for example) but these "incoming" detectors are effectively hardwired into dodging reflexes. As flys are capible of moving fast, this usually results in the fly being able to escape the object (yes, ossibly with a helpful push from the air disturbance caused by the fast-moving object).

Also - the compound eyes that flies (and most insects) have are highly specialized to detect movement. It's not necessarily that their visual-image-processing centers detect faster than ours (Tho, they might do it faster than 60Hz, I wouldn't be surprised). And as Lilt pointed out, their dodge-reflexes are pretty much hardwired into the detection of movement. Because for a fly, just about anything that moves could very well be a threat to them.

But mainly, it's the compound eyes.
In fact, I think I saw a compound eye in the bioware list that did something similar -- a bonus to reaction or something, though I bet at a penalty to perception. Been a while since I even saw M&M.

What the hell are you guys talking about?!? Everyone knows that flies are able to dodge incomming hands/newspapers/fly swatters on account of them being hardwired into the GFDSN (Global Fly Defensive Sattelite Network) when you attack a fly, your thought waves are captured by their ever watchful sattelites and instantly transmitted to the Fly mothership where a team of crack Fly strategists analize the attack angle and weapon and immediately transmit defensive flight directions to the endangered fly.

I mean really, weird eyes and wind?!? You guys crack me up.

Kong

they only dodge like that if you have not been using my patented fly selection program...

Get a cat who hunts fly's. the ones that survive are the ones that don't move when something gets near them. they selectively breed for stationary flys. then, go around and smack then at your leisure, as they won't dodge, cause all the fly's that would have dodged got eaten by the cat...

the scary part is that this is the state of my house IRL... teach me to wonder about evolution...

-Mike R

umm...insightful...?