I was watching Read or Die, and had an idea. Someone is collecting DNA to clone people who were the best at each of the 8 stats, in order to gene-engineer a super clone. I was wondering which historical (in 2060's or so) figures' clones would be the exemplar of each of the 8 stats.
Body: Rasputin?
Agility: a thief or gymnast?
Reaction: a driver or pilot? Maybe one of the Tuskeegee Airmen?
Strength: A sprinter or weight lifter? The existence of trolls probably means modern human achievements aren't much, but that would apply to body as well. Historical is more fun.
Charisma: Maybe a Lenin-type figure (speech-giver)? Frank Abagnale?
Intuition: An artist, so maybe Maria Mercurial (to tie-in to Shadowrun, and her DNA would be more easily available than some long-dead person).
Logic: A programmer or inventor? Tesla?
Will: a survivalist or stubborn person. Someone who has gone through the psychological version of Rasputin?
Any suggestions?
Full Version: Historical Exceptional Attributes
Serpentor approves this message.
I'd limit the examples to pure humanity. Exceptional attributes on top of race modifiers make it difficult to compare.
Rasputin's story is very exaggerated. The dude was probably already dead when he was shot in the head and dumped into the river. His murderer just felt the need to aggrandize himself.
Could be an example for Body if you go by the legend
In the same vein, Tesla is a giant manchild. He's a savvy investor and has good charisma, as well as a solid foundation in his field, but he's not a Tony Stark who does all the work himself.
My take would be the following:
Body: Difficult to say. Either one of those Ironman winners if you go by endurance, or André Roussimof (the Giant), if you go by physique.
Strength: Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, aka the Mountain. Dude is the current record holder of strongest man alive (and iirc, ever as far as documented)
Agility: Could be either a legendary gymnast, or a legendary shooter: I'd go for Nadia Comaneci or Ljudmila Michailowna Pawlitschenko.
Reaction: The Stig, obviously. On a more serious note: Are there famous fighter jet pilots? One of those, I'd say. If pressed I'd have to name a F1 pilot, let's say Niki Lauda.
Willpower:: Mahatma Ghandi, no competition.
Charisma: First instinct would be a famous politician, but at closer consideration those successes were often due to underhanded deals and not personal charisma. For this reason I propose an actress: Meryl Streep. But Maria Mercurial is better in the context. I'm not quite sure why you listed her for intuition
Intuition: I'm a bit stumped here, as this is hard to quantify. Someone very observant? Maybe another sniper, like Simo Häyhä. But I'm not at all sure here and would prefer someone from a different field.
Logic: David Gavilan / Damien Knight, hands down. Apart from his personal achievements, he played chess with a Great Dragon, without embarrassing himself.
Rasputin's story is very exaggerated. The dude was probably already dead when he was shot in the head and dumped into the river. His murderer just felt the need to aggrandize himself.
Could be an example for Body if you go by the legend
[ Spoiler ]
In the same vein, Tesla is a giant manchild. He's a savvy investor and has good charisma, as well as a solid foundation in his field, but he's not a Tony Stark who does all the work himself.
My take would be the following:
Body: Difficult to say. Either one of those Ironman winners if you go by endurance, or André Roussimof (the Giant), if you go by physique.
Strength: Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, aka the Mountain. Dude is the current record holder of strongest man alive (and iirc, ever as far as documented)
Agility: Could be either a legendary gymnast, or a legendary shooter: I'd go for Nadia Comaneci or Ljudmila Michailowna Pawlitschenko.
Reaction: The Stig, obviously. On a more serious note: Are there famous fighter jet pilots? One of those, I'd say. If pressed I'd have to name a F1 pilot, let's say Niki Lauda.
Willpower:: Mahatma Ghandi, no competition.
Charisma: First instinct would be a famous politician, but at closer consideration those successes were often due to underhanded deals and not personal charisma. For this reason I propose an actress: Meryl Streep. But Maria Mercurial is better in the context. I'm not quite sure why you listed her for intuition
Intuition: I'm a bit stumped here, as this is hard to quantify. Someone very observant? Maybe another sniper, like Simo Häyhä. But I'm not at all sure here and would prefer someone from a different field.
Logic: David Gavilan / Damien Knight, hands down. Apart from his personal achievements, he played chess with a Great Dragon, without embarrassing himself.
Charisma : Joan of Arc. A sixteen years old girl, illiterate and without any military training, that convince the king to give her an army, bolster the soldiers by turning the war into a religious war, and effectively contribute that way to a string of victories without any peculiar tactical prowess.
But finding DNA is going to be challenging.
But finding DNA is going to be challenging.
Not bad, but how sure are we that she wasn't just a figurehead or a magician using mob mind? 
QUOTE (bannockburn @ Jul 23 2019, 02:14 AM) 
Charisma: First instinct would be a famous politician, but at closer consideration those successes were often due to underhanded deals and not personal charisma. For this reason I propose an actress: Meryl Streep. But Maria Mercurial is better in the context. I'm not quite sure why you listed her for intuition
I originally assumed acting is charisma, but noticed that disguise and artisan are intuition skills. Which is probably good, because "perceptive person" might be a bit difficult to quantify.
Good suggestions as well.
Artisan is, IMO, too much of a catchall skill.
With good intuition and a good skill level you're an equally great painter as you're a carpenter, or - for that matter - an actor. Even with a specialization (which most house rules actually require), you're just two dice worse than your main area of expertise. It should work like an exotic skill, requiring a specialization and with fitting attributes depending on the actual field. Granted, SR is not meant to simulate trade skills in this matter, but eh, there you have the reason why I wouldn't count artisan.
Disguise being Int-based is weird for different reasons, but for this thought experiment I'll simply ask: How many actors do their own makeup?
Other Int-based skills include: Navigation, Tracking, Shadowing. Maybe we can find our candidate in these areas?
With good intuition and a good skill level you're an equally great painter as you're a carpenter, or - for that matter - an actor. Even with a specialization (which most house rules actually require), you're just two dice worse than your main area of expertise. It should work like an exotic skill, requiring a specialization and with fitting attributes depending on the actual field. Granted, SR is not meant to simulate trade skills in this matter, but eh, there you have the reason why I wouldn't count artisan.
Disguise being Int-based is weird for different reasons, but for this thought experiment I'll simply ask: How many actors do their own makeup?
Other Int-based skills include: Navigation, Tracking, Shadowing. Maybe we can find our candidate in these areas?
QUOTE (bannockburn @ Jul 23 2019, 09:19 AM)
Disguise being Int-based is weird for different reasons, but for this thought experiment I'll simply ask: How many actors do their own makeup?
Now we have to find Lon Chaney's remains to give our clones some good disguise abilities. 
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.