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From: jaco...@cs.brandeis.edu (Jacob Bara-Skowronek)
Subject: Re: Space Gods (was Re: Demographics)
Message-ID: <jacobbs.761002898@cs.brandeis.edu>
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Organization: Brandeis University
References: <gatemail1.1b382146218829@cool>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 21:41:38 GMT
Lines: 74

Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim) <jo...@aoc.nrao.edu> writes:

>dave writes:

>> bad call (and noy just because i was playing him)
>> if a character willing enters what he knows to be a pure zone, then he
>> should get whats coming to him, i agree.  but it is very easy to just find
>> oneself in a low tech pure zone (we magically apeared in cairo after the
>> chalice trilogy in your game, and and one usually just drops in on the lb
>> unannounced), and it is unfogivable to kill a charater for something they
>> didnt do willfully.

>Since most characters aren't going to be cybered to the point of dying right
>away it shouldn't be much of a problem.  If they are cybered to the point that
>they cannot survive without their cyberware functioning, tough titty if they
>die in the Land Below; they accepted that risk when they had their heart and
>lungs ripped out and replaced with cyberware, even if they weren't expecting
>to go anywhere that would kill them.
> 

>> yes, low tech areas should be a hinderance to cybered characters.  but
>> instant (or even near instant) death is NOT the way to do it.
>> (even for the totally bogus tharkold infiltrator...)
>> 
>> and from an artistic point of view, it is much more dramatic to draw out
>> their suffering then just eliminate them quickly

Actually, in my campaign we've found that it IS appropriate to use
InstaWounds in low-tech-zones for heavily cybered characters.  We
have a Race cyborg-priest who is so heavily cybered that it shudders
my mind when I think of his un-Cyberharmonied cybervalue (it's over
100 right now - b/c of enablers).  He is an extraordinarily powerful
character (the muscle of the party), but he has always had one
limitation which the other two of us have not - low-tech-pure-zones.
As a result, he has fewer possibilities than we do (in general) but
usually on uses them to initiate reality bubbles.  If he does not, he
starts to die - taking one wound each round as his cyberorgans begin
to shut down and fail.  

When our GM first instituted the rule, the player argued vehemently
against it (to no avail), but now that's it's been in use for a number
of adventures, we've found that it's a good limitation to the
character.  In one sense, he 'bought' a pulp power which gave him
access to incresing amounts of cyberware (due to the unique
cyberpsyche skill), but along with it came a limited death flaw which
doesn't give him possibilities.  It may seem rather harsh, but if
one's going to play a cyborg (or the equivalent), the benefits of
almost unlimited cyberware counterbalance the risk of dying in pure
zones (or InstaDeath due to transformation).  In fact, in many ways,
they more than counterbalance the risks.

It has also been very interesting to see his reaction when he is faced
with a reality which cannot support his very existence.  For a priest
of the Race - God's a cyborg, why can't we be one too? - it's
disturbing to be faced with the realization that a cosm cannot suffer
him to live.  He always ends up going a bit wacko during those
periods.

Jacob Bara-Skowronek
jaco...@cs.brandeis.edu

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