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ShadowDragon8685
So I got this idea while playing with HW: C.

What if some unscrupulous corp (Cough Azzies Cough) developed and subsequently lost control of a bio-mechanical weapon.

A virus that can infect people, turning them into it's puppets. It has a hivemind, and completely subsumes infected people. The real catch is that it's very quick to latch onto anyone with cyber - the Beast is bio-mechanical, and it can infect vehicles, too. It works best when it has a mixture of biological and synthetic stuff to work on - abandoned vehicles may be passed over entirely, as may mundanes, but if you're a Wizard, you somehow attract it like a magnet, but if you've got cyber, you're even more of a magnet.

I'd say you need to make a BOD test Vs. TN... Mmmmm, 5, to start off.

If you're a wizard, your Magic stat is applied as a penalty to the TN.

For every point of Essance lost (round up, in the case of partial loss,) to cyberware, you add +1 to the TN.

If you have a blood filter installed, apply it's bonus to resistance tests, but the essense lost to it is still counted as a penalty. Other filters don't help.

Dual-natured Paracritters stand no chance of resisting the infestation of the Beast, though Dragons and Greater Dragons may resist, albiet at any penalties that apply.

Those without any Magic or Cyberware get a -2 bonus to the TN.

All penalties (and bonuses) are culmative. Bioware seems to be no draw to the Beast, and any Bioware that shields one from other forms of infection also applies. (Likewise, any penalties to resisting disease or poisons that arise from bioware index exceeding your Essense index will also apply.)


What do you think? It's certainly a way to give slaughtering sammies, riggers, and mages a run for their money. I haven't thought of all the details yet. I do know this could be nasty, and is almost certainly not something to use lightly.
Ancient History
No, see, the nanite plague has already happened. Everyone is infested with the things, which alter our sensory signals so we just edit out things we're not supposed to see, as controlled by the Hidden Masters. The world we know is a gigantic Virtual Machine we can't penetrate.

Magic doesn't really exist, they're just reality hackers whose programs alter the Virtual World, and the nanites reflect those changes so no one ever knows the difference.

Deckers and otaku don't jack into the Matrix, the temporarily disconnect from this reality and enter another virtual machine.

It's all a lie man! All of it!
ShadowDragon8685
Whoops. I forgot to write up exactly what happens when the Beast catches you. I suppose I could leave it up to the individual GMs and DMs...


Mmmmm... I don't want to make it too complicated, and I'd personally like it to be something to scare slaughtering Sammies crapless with. I think I'd make it behave much like it does in HW: C. So, I'll write it up like this.

If you survive the first attack of the Beast, you're immunized against that strain, forever. (About a week's time until the strain mutates, or if you encounter a strain from another place.)

If you don't, however, it's... Bad.

The Beast subsumes the person it infects. After 1 combat round, they're no longer in control of their body, and they're probably screaming in unspeakable pain as the Beast mutates them, adapting their body to it's own. By the second round, infection is visible, and the person is always writhing on the floor, no longer coherant. By the third round, the person you knew who once inhabited that meatbod is no more. They're another part of the Beast. The beast has access to all of a person's skills. (One tiny silver lining; an Infected mage cannot use sorcery like the mage once did. Also, any summoned spirits that were active at the time of infection will attack the infected mage's body, regardless of whether or not they owed them any more services.)
Once the Beast has someone, increase their BOD by 6 + (original value *.5). Increase STR by a flat 6, DEX by 4. The Beast originally has an INT and WIL value of 1/3rd it's host's body, but the Beast is a hive-minded creature. For each node within range, (range is 20 meters +2 meters per infected creature of humanoid size, +10 meters for everything the size of a car, and +100 for anything truely significantly larger,) the totals are culmative. CHA is locked at 1.

The good news: Most of the Beast must touch a new target. Not so in some unfortunate cases. Anything or anyone that was armed with a laser is now shooting an infection beam from it's laser weapon - the weapon does no damage, but exposes the target to infection.

The ugly news: Essense stat does not matter to the Beast. Because of this, and worse, because it understands cyberware is beneficial to it, it can install cyberware in any biological nodes it possesses. It is automatically capable of installing any cyber that any of it's nodes possesses in any other node - to do this, all it needs are the materials. Usually, this means finding the 'ware in a warehouse, but if it oncievably subsumes someone with enough knowledge of cyberware, all it would need is the raw ores and other materials, and time.

The worse news: It's skills are culmative. Take the highest value of any given skill represented amongst it's nodes, and consider every node to have that skill at that value. (Just to make matters even more interesting, the Beast can expand it's knowledge the old-fasioned way. This should be a slow process, but it can happen.)
Ancient History
Didnae Marvel already do the technorganic virus idea to death, and then go back to rape its corpse?
ShadowDragon8685
I dunno. I don't read Marvel comics. Seriously, what do you think?
ShadowDragon8685
Hmmmmm...

I don't think I detailed exactly what happens when the Beast subsumes a vehicle or something like that.

I'd say you should give it rigger-like control of whatever it infects. Maybe start it off at the effect of having a VCR-1, and an operations skill of 6, unless if absorbs people along with the infected thing (vehicle, or maybe even building.) If it absorbs people, use the highest value one of them have, if any - (the beast has to have at least some bio-matter to form the control networks from,) and if any of them have a VCR, use it's rating.

For anything truely huge - like say, a T-bird - you should make it's network link a few kilometers - for something gargantuan in scale, like a supertanker, make it like 50 Km. For something absoloutely insanely huge, like an oil refinery, or a whole city, make it pretty much however far you want it to be. (Remember, that it can relay. So with strategically-placed holdings [and yes, the Beast can think and act strategically],) it could theoretically stretch it's control network over the planet and beyond.
ShadowDragon8685
Here's something interesting I just wrote. I started asking myself, what would an early briefing about the Beast sound like?

"Okay ladies, listen up. You know I don't like repeating myself, so I'm only gonna say this once.

Seventy-six hours ago, a bio-weapon was released from an Azzie lab. We've codenamed it The Beast.

The Beast, ladies, is an infectious bio-mechanical virus. It infects fast and hard, and almost nobody has been seen to fight it off. I could spend all day yammering about that, but I think this video will serve."

The loud soldier pressed a button on his remote control, and a trid unit sprung to life. On it a small unit of soldiers, in Aztland uniform, most with obvious cyberlimbs, on what appeared to be a ship's deck, were combating what appeared to be civilians - at first glance. They were wearing the remains of civilian garb, but they were obviously no longer human - most of them were covered in red splotches, a few of them had advanced red veins, growths on their body, twisting around the trunks of their torsos and faces. One man had an obvious cyberleg, which was discolored red in a splotch pattern, and a sickening red light pulsed inside it. The soldiers pumped fire into them, but most of them kept coming.

"As you can, the Beast enhances the metabolism of people's bodies, making them far more resistant to damage - or maybe it just dosen't need all the vital stuff we need to live. It's not important right now, though we can confirm that it dosen't need air, at least.

"These poor bastards you see attacking our soldiers were the crew of the freighter Qxlicon - don't bother trying to pronounce the name, it's not important. This footage came from a drone over the scene, the battle is taking place seventy hours ago. Please observe what happens next. It's pretty gruesome, but better to watch it now than experiance it.

As the soldiers watched, a crewwoman of the freighter reached a soldier, and lunged forward, grabbing his cyberarm. Almost immideately, he stopped firing, and started shaking. Within three seconds, he was screaming in terror and pain. Another three seconds, and he had visibly started to discolor, falling to the deck and writhing on the ground. After nine seconds, he rose from the ground, with his weapon in his hands, and started firing on the other soldiers.

"To the best of our knowledge, the crew of the freighter had no firearms training. Please observe."

The former crewwoman reached into the soldier's hip holster, withdrawing his pistol, and opened fire alongside him. She was in a perfect Aztland-trained pistol firing stance, and her fire was quite accurate. As the soldiers started trying to shoot on two fronts, they were overwhelmed. Within a minute, all save one who died to the gunfire was a Beast. The drone zoomed it's image out. "Watch carefully. We've prepared side-by-sides. The drone was observing the freighter for about an hour before the soldiers landed on it."

The first image, on the left, appeared to be an ordinary freighter, a little red with rust - nothing not to be expected from an Azzie ship. In the second image, with the dead soldier visible on the deck, and the others aiming towards the drone, frozen in time, the ship was much redder, and the bridge windows bulged slightly, mostly opaqued by the mass of red lining the insides, and some of the outsides. A thick red line ran down the starboard side of the ship, from stern to bow.

"They shot the drone down, after that. The next image was taken twelve hours after the engagement."

This image appeared to be taken from a long-range electronic imaging unit, much higher up than the last drone. The freighter was mostly covered in red veins now, most of which glittered slightly metallically. On the deck, where the soldier had fallen, was now a vaugely person-shaped outline, a pulsating mass of biomatter.

"By this time, the ship was going full-steam ahead. I hope it's clear to you that once it infects someone, the Beast has their skills, and it can communicate them to the rest of it's nodes. The captain of the Qxlicon was an ex-navy puke, he skippered a destroyer about the size of his freighter. The ship avoided the Azzie navy long enough to run itself aground on a small Carribian Leauge island.

Another drone image this time, high above an island. The beached freighter was quite visible on the beach. By now, it was more than half Beast. "It didn't seem very inclined to finish the process. Theories' best guesses are that it had spread enough to control the ship entirely, and didn't need to do any more. This image is about an hour before the Azzies landed a force on the island to deal with the problem. The results weren't pretty."

The image changed again. This time, some of the flora nearest the ship had become obviously infected, though not much, and not far in. "It dosen't grow very fast in flora, after it starts. It never got more than twelve trees into the forest, over the course of the past three days. It does, however, seem to infect animals and especially paranimals, as well as people and machines. Observe."

The drone was now flying high over a villiage. Mostly it looked like a ghost town, but the one synthetic structure in town, at the centre of the town, was starting to show the same obvious signs of infection as the freighter. As well, there were guard dogs wandering the town, clearly subsumed by the Beast. "The people were nowhere in sight. Beast-infected organisms are hard to find on sensors, it's thermal signature changes to match it's surroundings, within about two degrees, give or take. Worse, it dosen't seem to be Astrally active. Magicians searching for the Beast could almost never find it. They said it appeared to have less of an astral signature than your mundane, everyday rock."

As the group watched, a large force of soldiers landed via helicoptor on the outskirts of town. They swept into the town. "The soldiers were just reporting that everything looked deserted, apart from the dogs, when this happened."

Gunfire erupted from every nook and cranny, most of it the kind you'd expect from a hunting rifle. The ambush was perfect, and soon the soldiers were going down. That's when the rest of the attack dogs erupted from the shadows, grabbing hold. It was a complete wipe. "This is where the most interesting thing happened."

Infected creatures, as one, made a dash for the choppers, which had stopped their rotors. "Bad tactics on the Azzie's part. Watch." While a fair number of them went down under the assualt of the chopper's rotors, the tide was turning against the Aztlan soldiers, as the Beast infected people made it to the choppers, grabbing on. Infection was very fast, spreading quickly into the door gunners and the pilots. "Within ten minutes, this was what happened."

The trid image changed, showing the choppers, now infected with red, pulsing veins, and splotched red. "No veins formed on any of the flight surfaces. On either chopper - this can't be a coincidence. If you zoom in, you can see one of the dead men in the copilot's seat. Nobody's manning the guns, but they're active, as you can see." The dead soldiers in the copilot's seats appeared to be integrating themselves into the chopper, as did the pilots. "Now, it looks like the pilots are being integrated in the same way as the poor bastards, but they're not. They're linked in, but the shrouding around them slides off... Like so."

The pilots got out of the chopper, walking swiftly to the infected building. "This building was the villiage's medical center, and it was equipped for cybering. After the relief force retook the island, they found it deserted. And cleaned out - they took everything. Including the cyberware, which we're pretty certain they installed. To the last - this raises interesting, and disturbing, questions. The island in question, by the way, was eventually scoured with napalm and other pleasent incindiaries. Fire kills the Beast off well enough, as much as it would kill whatever was infected. It worked on the trees, for example, but not the boat. They scoured it's surfaces clean, but it was useless, the stuff kept growing back... However, here's the interesting part. When they burnt off the poor bastard who was on the deck, everything in the boat stopped operating quite as efficiently. Like cutting the head off a chicken - we think it converts biological matter into a neural control structure - a brain. That's why it integrated the dead men in the choppers, presumably to control them and their guns. And when they blew the freighter up with missiles, it didn't grow back."

"Okay ladies. What does this tell us? Johnson?"

"It's... Inteligent, sir. It seems to act almost like... Like a hive-mind."

"Right. It's inteligent, smart, and hostile. And the more people it infects, the more it learns. Hot money's on that it can also learn from databanks, too."

"How do we fight it?"

"Fire seems to be the best bet. Fire and explosive rounds. From what we've seen, it can infect vehicles, and it infects through material. So no armor will make you safe from the stuff, so far as we can tell. Remember, ladies. Once it grabs hold of you, it's lights out. If you can still think through the pain... You might be better off shooting yourself. If anyone else gets hit, don't take chances. You'll be doing yourself, the rest of you, and them a favor."

"So where is it now?"

"We don't know. The choppers were caught and killed, but there appears to have been only the co-pilot seat control networks in them. Decoys. There were no boats left on the island, ecept the one we were looking for, the freighter."

"So it's..."

"Spreading. Deliberately."
Edward
Unless the beast lacks a concept of subtlety it can not be beaten. And the way you described it, it will have consumed sufficient tactical intelligence and disguise skill to expand carefully for some time.

It is far to difficult to resist to be very workable. Especially if it gains knowledge of its own strains and uses them intelligently. Maybe 25% of people will resist a single strain attack.

You said that cyber is a stronger target than magic but your rules make the average mage more susceptible that the average cybered security guard.

Once it reaches a critical size the average soldier can be considered expendable and remains a very hard target to kill, this is not a good combination. And in order to wipe it out you have to kill and sterilize each and every possessed entity you did not give it a central vulnerable position.

It has the ability to use ranged means to spared buy infecting laser weapons. Dose it have to be a weapon grade laser or will a laser sight work. If so then there advance will be that much faster. If not it has the knowledge skill and intelligence to acquire or produce laser weapons as a priority.

To my mind it doesn’t suite SR even if my other objections are not valid. Its to monolithic, I just don’t see it fitting. Not to mention that the party attrition rate will be impossibly high.

I would relegate this kind of threat to first person shooter computer games.

Edward
ShadowDragon8685
GOOD questions, ed.

[quote]Unless the beast lacks a concept of subtlety it can not be beaten. And the way you described it, it will have consumed sufficient tactical intelligence and disguise skill to expand carefully for some time.[/quote]

True. This idea is probably best for a down-to-the-wire, finish-this-thing-off-within-a-week-or-you're-dead game.

[quote]It is far to difficult to resist to be very workable. Especially if it gains knowledge of its own strains and uses them intelligently. Maybe 25% of people will resist a single strain attack.[/quote]

To be a little fair, I'd just say that that's not possible. Any strain that's in connection with another strain is considered to be the same strain.

[quote]You said that cyber is a stronger target than magic but your rules make the average mage more susceptible that the average cybered security guard.[/quote]

This is a good, I admit. Perhaps it would be best to say that while mages succumb more easily, the Beast prioritizes people with cyber as targets.

[quote]Once it reaches a critical size the average soldier can be considered expendable and remains a very hard target to kill, this is not a good combination. And in order to wipe it out you have to kill and sterilize each and every possessed entity you did not give it a central vulnerable position.[/quote]

He's not THAT hard to kill. True, ordinary bullets won't have much effect, but the insane damage some physads can put out, as well as interesting flavors of ammunition, not to mention incindiary materials and worse, napalm, will do them easily.

[quote[It has the ability to use ranged means to spared by infecting laser weapons. Dose it have to be a weapon grade laser or will a laser sight work. If so then there advance will be that much faster. If not it has the knowledge skill and intelligence to acquire or produce laser weapons as a priority.[/quote]

Weapons-grade only. The beam has to charge itself first with the infection, then lances out. It's a burst attack, not a constant beam.

[quote]To my mind it doesn’t suite SR even if my other objections are not valid. Its to monolithic, I just don’t see it fitting. Not to mention that the party attrition rate will be impossibly high.[/quote]

Well, that is kind of a drag, yes. It might still work, though. You'd need good snipers and mages who specialize in physica spells. And riggers with aircraft with missiles. smile.gif

[quote]I would relegate this kind of threat to first person shooter computer games.[/quote]

Came from a real time strategy, actually.
ShadowDragon8685
About the subtelty - the Beast cannot disguise itself. It infects through and over clothing, through and over vehicle's hulls. It can try to pass for human on things like radios, but unless it absorbs a true master of bluffing, it won't work. Remember that it is an alien inteligence to humans. It's likely to give itself away by talking slowly, as it has to process the speech to make sure it's not saying anything really good for giving itself away. Like calling people "parts", and referring to anything that stores data as a brain, for example.
Edward
A phisad is not going to fight one of these things, the chance of exposure would be exceedingly high and the chance of infection is close to absolute.

The logical tactic against it is to lob wide aria ordinance at it. Things like napalm arte the way to go but not usually within the scope of SR. if I was a runner that saw this I would go to the biggest military power under threat and tell them everything. They will realize I was telling the truth quickly enough and ether carpet bomb the affected aria or erect a Chicago style containment zone.

Physical combat spells are close to useless against these things, there body is too high. If there not still alive a mage will be limited to defensive magic’s. and probably finish up being hit with a “laser”

While there still small scale (limited to a few blocks) my preferred strategy would be to enlist the help of spirits, pay free spirits and summon all you can to go in and kill them, the beast as you called it has no aggressive astral presence beyond any FAB 3 it was able to obtain and accompanying astral mages will be able to defeat that in the traditional manner. Spirits don’t seem to risk falling to the beast so they will be able to perform lightning strikes from the astral with impunity.

There inability to engage in infiltration is an advantage that will slow down there advance but if they take smugglers (acquiring the knowledge skill smuggler routs) they will be able to spread, only one individual needs to break a cordon to take the infection beyond a city, and it would be wise for the beast to send out small seed parties early in its growth (sewers being the easiest means of dissemination although massed high speed drones also work well)

Having it start on an of shore facility actually makes things worse unless it misses the obvious or cant take aquatic liforms as part of itself. Consider this addendum to your little story. Immediately after the drone was destroyed one of the solders that was injured before being infected jumps of the side of the ship, still bleeding. Assorted fish take a nibble but before long a shark shows up on the seen to enjoy the promised morsel. The shark wont notes anything to be wary of and will take a bite, immediately succumbing to the control of the beast, at witch point it and any other fish that where in contact swim off carrying the beast’s contagion. The team is successful in destroying the first wave but a week latter an infected fishing boat is discovered. And incidents of that type quickly escalate, within a month every ship is infected and the navies of the world (both military and merchant) are under the control of the beast, the ocean full of infected fish gives global communication to the beast hive mind as well as an unassailable fallback position.

A similar result can be achieved on land buy the infection of rodents.

Edward
ShadowDragon8685
Small hitch, Edward.

If it only infects animals, it has animal inteligence, and little more. It's sentient on it's own, but it needs inteligent hosts to reason and plan. Remember, if it loses contact with a part, it loses everything that part knew. If it infects a marksman, every humanoid part it has becomes a master sniper. But if you kill the original sniper, they lose the sniping skills.

So if it infects a shark, it knows... What a shark knows. Which is to swim and eat. And little else. It won't be able to reason and plan without a formerly inteligent host within range of the shark.

Also, when the infected host dies - whether it's a vehicle who's damage condition reaches overflow, or a person host that does the same - then that part is dead, and rapidly decays. It can't re-infect from that.
ShadowDragon8685
And remember, while it can spread from a single host, if that host loses contact with any other hosts, it 'forgets' what the other host knew. Granted, it is smart enough to pre-plan and send a copy of the plan with each infected host in the form of headware memory, or even a map, but that's not the same as the intimate knowledge that came from having the skill.
Edward
So the plan only works if the human lives and goes with the aquatic team. Or it takes some dolphins (dunkie thinks there smart enough to deserve data jacks). In light of that limitation and the listed fact that formally air breathing creatures no longer need air after the shark is taken another human jumps off and rides on the back of the shark to another boat (or better sub) witch they take buy contact with the bottom of its hull, the taken crew of this boat form the core intelligence of the undersea part of the beast.

In a land bound operation the rodents will hve to maintain a relay line to stay in contact with the base but should be imprintable with a purpose they can comprehend in cast the chain breaks. This purpose will be to attack humans (simple enough for a rat to understand) allowing for new colonies to come forth if the starting point is destroyed.

In the absence of the imprints the relay must be maintained until the lines reach a population center where they will coordinate a mass emergence from the sewers to take a new town. If the line breaks then a section of the beast will run on animal intelligence until chance exposure to a sentient. A worthwhile survival tactic to my mind.

Maybe I am just being pessimistic but you had better hope this beast of yours doesn’t take somebody like me.

Edward
hermit
QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685)
I dunno. I don't read Marvel comics. Seriously, what do you think?

And then they dug it out again for a nice round of necrophilia, but they love that, they do this with Apocalypse anually after all.

And SD8685, this doesn't scream Aztech, Aztech cuts out your heart and eats it for lunch, then rapes your corpse and has it inhabited by a blood spirit masterfully grafted from your soul and such things, a nanotech world-control tool is not their style, they're too magical for that. And ruthless corps are ruthless, but not dumb. What good would such a weapon be in any war? If it's not containable?

This screams 'Deus', and guess who the hive mind's center is? Also, the virus makes your retina glow in three flashy colours, depending on your role in the hive.
weblife
QUOTE
Also, the virus makes your retina glow in three flashy colours, depending on your role in the hive.


Deus learned to hide those eyes in his stealth units.

Anyway, my biggest beef with this, is the ultrashort incubation time. Basically the nanites have to have a powersource, in order to multiply so quickly.

A Nanite Hive is needed in each seed, in order to produce nanites. It would make more sense if infection was slower, that the infection is a small colony of nanites that first spends time buidling a nanite hive from local cyberware and internal organs.

Victims will feel an urge to eat foods with high amounts of minerals, perhaps even breaking and consuming glass and plastiques. The more building materials available, the faster the turning will procede.

Once the Nanite Hive is operational, it will begin converting the host, remotely recieving insctructions for nanite design that will build implants desired. - If out of reach of the Hivemind, the new drone will operate individually, infecting and building a local "nest" where data can be stored. Once it has analysed enough implants, it can begin to reproduce them in its drones.

Basically, slow it the hell down.
hermit
Well yeah, but when he takes over the world, there's no need for energy-consuming hiding and stuff.
KarmaInferno
Here's a scary thought.

If it's that infectious, why not create infection rounds for any guns it aquires? Replace the normal round with a hard slug of infected bio-mech, and it can aquire dozens of new bodies with just a couple of sprays of autofire.

I do thing the infection time is too short to be a viable game plot, though.

Given even the tech of SR 2060s, there is almost no way that this Beast could be effectively stopped. I would give it maybe 72 hours and it could aquire most of the major cities, maybe a week to get the rest of the world.

Perhaps require at least 3-6 hours of exposure to begin infection, and a full 12 hours before the process is irreversable? Be a bit more workable as a RPG scenario, plus you can have sub-plots to rescue captured folks.


-karma
Critias
We are Fastjack of Borg. Resistance is futile.
Rev
I think it is fine to run a world wrecking offshoot campaign where the charachters almost certainly can't win.
Trax
Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
Nyxll
sorry I joined the discussion late,

I really really like this idea but I think you need to put some limitations onto the virus.

for balance,

I would make the nanites transferable only by host contact, or injection.
make the nanites mainly affect people with cyberware. (they need the metals and raw materials in order to replicate.) The nanites will effectively upgrade the host with lowlight vision, flare comp, min boosted 1 or 2, sounds enhancement and dampners, and some kind of energy weapon that can be discharged after 48 hours of infection.

The nanites severe parts of the cerebral cortex, and begin controlling from there after a day of almost undetectable infection, (other than some redness and numbness around cyberware.)

Characters with magic would be less appealing. (don't worry, hit them with a magical plague later)

Groups of infectants within 10 meters of each other can communicate and get tactical bonuses as if each of them was using a tactical computer(rating equal to the number of grouped members).

Have one central hub, the network army has created a number of rebroadcasting repeater towers, similar to celltowers from strategic buildings, The creator was some insane arachist that wanted to destroy cyberware, got infected himself and is part of the network.
Shadow
QUOTE (Trax @ Jul 19 2005, 08:41 AM)
Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

I'm sorry, but Trax is just a grunt, no offense, he can't make these kinds of decisions.
ShadowDragon8685
Guys. They're not nanites! x.x NOT nanites! x.x

Maybe I didn't make that clear enough...

Nyxll has some good points, except there's some small problems. I don't know what a tac computer does, as it's in a book I don't have.

And trax is about right. If you don't catch and kill it very quickly, you're pretty much in a losing scenario.
Nyxll
The battle tac is in man and machine. page 44. Basically everyone that is hooked up can freely exchance various type of data, like map positioning, enermy positions, current status, (ie would levels) targeting data, video and audio information, tactical request and commands. Any information that is known to one is known to all instantly. They can compute indirect fire, move to intercept and remove surprise.

They add dice to small unit tactics skill = rating (page 47.), boost initiative, allow indirect fire, and share info. sharing info requires a simple action, (is push technology not polling)

I would also rule that a tactical computer would probably be created by the nanite network.

Although the virus idea is super cool, it can be purged by a spell. Nanites make it tougher to get at.

BTW ... I am going to use this. (nanite version anyhow)

The nanites will increase the healing of the host, lower the effectiveness of toxins and pathogens, as well as increase physical stats by 1. I would lower mental stats by at least 1.
weblife
For that classical need to really kill them, add the natural effect of a Trauma Dampener to all infected.

That way, if they take a Deadly, they drop but arent finished. They'll have 9 phys boxes filled and 1 Stun box.

Add ability to heal quickly, unaided, say fully in a few hours, then they are plenty scary.
Nyxll
a cybernetic version of the pain editor would be practical, and cool.


The problem with the trauma damper is that it is bioware... which would need to be cultured first. The pain shutoff could be manufactured easier.

I wonder what infected people would eat? Maybe another sign would be major cravings for dirt and sources of iron/chromium.
weblife
Usually a PC will mow down one NPC pr. Simple Action, definately pr. Pass. So ignore pain will not have as much effect as a Trauma Dampener.

But, your game. smile.gif
Nyxll
Add some dermal plating, maybe some armor. I agree with you... I would like to put in a damper ... just trying to think of what nanites would do. Grow a new organ or sever the pain sensors.
ShadowDragon8685
NOT nanites! x.x!

The Beast is NOT NANITES!
Herald of Verjigorm
Unfortunately, what you decribed in the first post is a nanite. A virus-like infection that can use and make cyberware even easier than manipulating organic material.

If you are arguing that it isn't a nanite because it's "bio-mechanical" then either it is too large to in any way resemble a virus (having discrete machinery and discrete organic compotents) or it is a partially organic (instead of purely metallic) nanite.

Nanite just means tiny machine (for most purposes), it does not in any way actually define the materials used for the machine. A utility nanite built around a nerve cell and a radio antenna is probably the best start to extrapolate such a thing. When it gets a host, it cannibalizes material to build more of itself around the host's nervous system (if present), and eventually turns part of the spinal column into a high powered antenna. Other changes as deemed neccessary by the combined creativity of all hosts in current communication.
Completely inorganic hosts would require killing and feeding off ambient bacteria and resorting to cellular division to establish the neccessary mind for useful control.
ShadowDragon8685
Can you just call it the Beast, and not call it nanites? You can technically classify humans as an ape, but most humans will get mighty pissed if you call them one.
Herald of Verjigorm
"Beast" is overused in fiction as a name for things that are supposed to be scary. For all I care, you can call it a lightly fried turnip, but your description is of a nanotech machine and that is a proper term to convey useful meaning when discussing it.

When a host to this "beast" you bring up shows up and tells me it prefers that term, I will accept it as the preferred title to the species. Since that won't happen unless there's something really advanced being worked on right now that everyone else isn't aware of, I will call it what I want.
Apathy
*looks up in horror*
Oh my God! It's a lightly fried TURNIP!
*screams and runs away*
hyzmarca
I must point out the the infection laser idea is pretty cheesy. Back&white sci-fi serial cheesy; Barbarella cheesy.

Lasers fire a beam of light. Unless they are made of light a laser shouldn't be able to transmit them.

A physical projectile is far more ideal. Make it so that the plauge create launchable spike-like protrusions on its hosts. These protrusions can be stabbed into a target and broken off at close range or launched some distance. The weapon breaks down shortly after being launched its componet viruses enter the target through the wound. This could be used to give a character a initiative pass after injury from one of these beasts to dislodge the weapon and remain uninfected.


Increasing the incubation time would make it more viable to fight, as well. As it is, it seems more llike an excuse to slaughter PCs than it is something horrifying. Look at Bottled Demon. In that adventure, magicians who were corrupted by the talisman enjoyed great power for some time and had a chance to appreciate their slow and unavoidable spirals into maddness and death.

HIV is scarry because you can have it and not know untill it is too late. Anyone can have it and not know.

Also, consider the long and agonizing wait as the Sammie waits for his Street Doc to call him with his blood test results after he was bitten by a ghoul.
Now, imagine the anguish of a Beast-infected Adept as he feels the machines inside him re-structure his body and mind over a period of hours or days. Imagine his anxiety as he tries to hide his condition from his so-called friends while desperatly hoping for a cure.
A slow infection has the potential to be played up for some great results. It would also increase PC longevity without using some bad plot device to immunize them. Realisticly, most PCs will get infected by this thing.
weblife
Actually, what if this thiing, doesn't take control of the host?

It can give suggestions, and modify behaviour somewhat, but each drone remains selfaware to a degree.

If a drone is removed from the collective, it will enjoy greater individuality, as its on its own. It may miss the hive and try to establish one for itself.

Reuse the general idea that each drone sired by another is naturally more susceptible to control by the sire, but ultimately its down to willpower.

This opens up for the hive having nodes that are stronger, and rise up in hierachy through sheer force of will. It also increases the horror, as the drones understand what they are, and may enjoy the benefits. Suffering from an urge to spread, to dominate, will make sure the uninfected wants them dead.

It also opens up another plotdevice. The selfsacrificing Mage with WIL 9 lets himself be consumed in an effort to save his friends. Hopefully he can overtake the local nodes and disrupt them long enough to be destroyed. - Now, he's on a timer, because eventually even his will can be eroded by the desire to grow, the illusion of conrol and power.

This is more over in the Zerg inspired direction though.
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