CREDITS
v1.1 Creator: Pierce Fraser Editors: Tim Editors: Tim Wu and the support of the Kickstarter backers Featured Artwork: Brock Grossman, Douglas McGlothlin, Jeremy Mullins, Kai Wei Tsao, Katie Collins, Lauri Laurintytaer, Mike Szurkiewicz, Nibiki, Oksanna Briere, Pierce Fraser, Philipp Pfeiffer, Maloking, Victoria Yurkovets Cover: Kai Wei Tsao J ohn Walker II (Whiskey) (Whiskey) Rear cover backer thanks: Glassan thanks: Glassan (Liansra) and John Additional HSD products can be found at http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/7700/WeaponsGrade-Funk and http://shop.spr http://shop.spreadshirt.com/weaponsgradefun eadshirt.com/weaponsgradefunk/ k/
© Pierce Fraser 2015, All rights reserved. Reproduction Reproduction without written permission is forbidden. Individual pages of this book may be scanned and printed speciically for personal reference, they may not be distributed. HC SVNT DRACONES and the 8-10-12 check system are registered trademarks. All content including artwork, ideas, names, equipment within this book are protected. This book contains themes, references and ideas that are ictional and intended for entertainment purposes only. only. This book includes mature content, reader discretion is advised. For utilities, forums and updates, visit hsdroleplayinggame.com Follow us at Hsd_Hq Hsd_Hq on on Twitter and http://hcsvntdracones-game.tumblr.com/
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Victory Victory 4
Hexapod 66
Specialization 68
Family 6
Biped 68 Wheeled 68 Maglev 69 Tentacled 70 Hexapod 72
Ability list 7 Descriptions 9
Ursidae 9 Aquatic Families 13 Delphinidae 13 Selachii 15
Merged Families 19 Rodentia 19
Cogsune 74 Building a Cogsune 79 Stats 79 Cogsune rules 79 Reinforced bone structure 79 Atypical anatomy 79 Quantum backup 80 Scholarship 80 Morphism 81 Ledger 81 Focus 81 Motivations 81 Tasks 81
Rats 18 Mice 19 Squirrels 21 Rabbits 22 Bats 24
Ungulatae 25 Horses 25 Cows 26 Deer 27 Goats 28 Gazelles 29
Modular 82 Requisitioning new limbs 82 Starting appearance 83
Orders 29
Limb Selection 83
Seals 30 Raccoons 31 Mongooses 32 Hyenas 32
Arms 83 Legs 87 Tails 88 Character advancement 89 Cogsune inclusion 90 Working with Cogsune abilities 91 Multiple Cogsunes 91 Enemy Cogsunes 91
Species 34 Morphism 35 Modiications 35
New Morphisms 36 Horns 36 Bio-Luminescence 37 Followed 37 Lever-Stanced 39 Tusks 41 Hoofed 42
Exonymphs 92 Exonymph rules 100 Mutable brain 100 Extended memories 100 Not from around here 100 Off the grid 100 Mutable anatomy 100 Gray meal 100 Surgical Incompatibility 102
Small talk 44 Blips 46 Building a Blip 47 Appearance 47 Origin 48 Stat boost 48 Ability: 48 Beneits 48 Design 48 Surgical template 49 Finish up 50 Final notes 50
Building an Exonymph Exonymph 102 Family, Family, species, morphism 102 Stats 102 Scolarship 102 Motivation 103 Focus 103 Starting Equipment 103
It’s thinking 104 Focus Abilities 106
Cogs 52 Cog Characters 59 Special rules 59 Healing 59 Eating 60 Pressure and temperature 60 Oxygen 60 Computers 60 Debt 60 Surgery 61 Advancement 61
Frames 62 Biped 63 Wheeled 63 Maglev 64 Tentacled 65
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Science 106 A few modiications 106 Overcharge 106 Ravenous armor 106 Thermodynamics 107 Engineering 107 Infrastructural engineering 107 Physical law 107 Structural weakness 107 Systems redirection 108 Combat 108 Extreme range 108 Fluid motion 109 Saw it coming 109 Stuck in 109 Communication 109 Emergency channels 109
“Expert” 109 Form follows function 109 McGufin mufins 110 General 110 A few miles more... 110 Do you feel lucky? 110 On your guard 110 Out of place 111
Drone Controller 133 Fi-op Fur 137 Hive node 137 Inteliformic lesh 139 Nanoassembler 144 Prosthetic utility 145 Pushframe network 145 Reinforced Prosthetics 145 Remote vision 146 Stimplant 147
Motivations 113 Motivations Compulsions 114 Compulsion mechanic 115 Triggers 115 Compulsion options 115 Possession 115 Revulsion 115 Codependency 116 Control 116 Risk 116 Addiction 116 Consumption 116 Domination 116 Submission 117 Confrontation 117 Final notes 117
Surgery 118 General surgery 118 Diamond Diamo nd Weave 118 Expressive control 118 Genetic compatibility 119 Lazarus gland 119 Metabolic Backups 120 Nublood 120 Prehensile Tail 121 Reinforced claws 121 Spontaneous Metamorphosis 121 Telesyncronization Telesyncronization 123
Cog surgical rules 147 Implants and surgery 147 Nublood synthesis 148 Power Reserves 148 Twinning node 148
Expanded rules 149 Brightness 149 Pressure 149 Diving 150 Swim speed 150 Suffocation 150 Cold 151 Heat 151 Neuroplex costs 152
New systems 152 Learning 152 Dynamic investing 153 Using the system 153 Levels of expense 154 Investment scope 154 Forbidden services 155 1-credit purchases 155 Rental or bribed weapons 155 Hospital services 155 Final notes 156
Cinema Events 156 Cinematic rescues 156 Gaining cinematic rescues 157 Boosting cinematic rescues 157 Using cinematic rescues 157 Cinematic pushes 157 Gaining cinematic pushes 158
Reclaiming operations 125 Delphinidae 125 Reclaimed Echolocation 125 Reclaimed Personal Orientation 125 Reclaimed Polar Adaptation 127 Reclaimed Restoration 127 Reclaimed Sonic Manipulation 127 Rodentia 127 Reclaimed Auditory 127 Reclaimed Climbing Grip 127 Reclaimed Iron Stomach 128 Reclaimed Leaping 128 Reclaimed Sonar 128 Selachii 128 Reclaimed Ampullae of Lorenzini 128 Reclaimed Cartilaginous Skeleton 129 Reclaimed Dermal Denticles 129 Reclaimed Lateral Line 129 Reclaimed Nictitating Membrane 129 Ungulatae 130 Reclaimed Horizontal Pupils 130 Reclaimed Horsepower 130 Reclaimed Ironhooves 130 Reclaimed Protrusions 130 Reclaimed Sure-footing 131 Ursidae 131 Reclaimed Bear-isted Combat 131 Reclaimed Metabolic Control 131 Reclaimed Olfactory 132 Reclaimed Polar Adaptation 132 Reclaimed Stature 132
Implants 132 Bliss emitter 132
Combat 158 Random damage 158 Action: Diving 159 Action: Pinning 159
Lore 160 “Are you lost?” lost? ” 162 Housing 165 Understanding environments 166 Education 167 Understanding education 168 Crime 169 Understanding law 171 Needs 172 Understanding morality 175 Faith 176 Understanding faith 180 Opportunity 182 Understanding opportunity 184 Leverage 185 Understanding leverage 188 Layers 188
Core rulebook combat addendum 192 Core rulebook FAQ 194 Acknowlegments Acknowlegm ents 198
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F A M I L I E S
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Victory was officially categorized as a maintenance stop, but its true value was as a
reeport; corporately unaligned and available to anyone who needed provisions and the eel o gravity on their bones again. Spacecraf were some o the only truly independent environments in the Sol system, as their ability to move people great distances unseen while transporting all manner o hazardous material made them too large a liability or corps to want to maintain control over. Free stations were a bit more scarce, as they typically cost too much to get without a corporate loan. But Victory was old, long paid off, and not large or advanced enough to be o any interest to a larger enterprise. Small stations made money hand over fist once they became sel-sustaining. When its caretaker had money enough to satisy himsel, he lef it to Eliza, who had been maintaining its systems or years. She still did. She just had a chance to come up out o the duct-work and see people more ofen these days. Tey were working people, mostly. Vacationers came to the Jovian satellites on a airly regular basis, but they didn’t make stops at random specks in orbit. But the engineers rom the Nephilim rig did, when they wanted a change o scenery. Orbital workers rom Gany and Europa. Freighter pilots, IRPF deep orbit patrols, the occasional wanted criminal. Fascinating people. Good talkers. Tey made or more interesting company than the Victory ’s monotonous MarsCo AI, who had recently learned to be even more grating on the nerves due to an audio malunction that was dropping a low requency rattle into its voice. Liz needed to fix that, she reminded hersel, knowing ull well she’d continue to put it off. When you listen to the same computer report systems malunctions or the better part o a decade, it’s actually rather rereshing when something changes. Even i it’s or the worse. Te bar, though, Liz loved working the bar. You could see and hear things in a ree station you wouldn’t see anywhere else. Rivals talking shop, competitors sharing drinks. It was somewhere people could actually eel like they had the liberty o being off the clock. She supposed, in a way, most bars were like that, but there was something special about being able to come out and listen to the hum o a different reactor under your eet, and know your b artender didn’t get their checks rom the same person you got yours rom. S ometimes it was just or the privacy. She’d find people just sitting, staring out the window, watching the storms on the planet below. Except the Europans. She had to seal up one o the windows a while back; most o them wouldn’t sit down in view o the planet. Tere was a couple once, long distance relationship between Io and Europa, used to come up here a lot afer their shifs ended. One would sit behind that cover, the other at the same table, in the light. Always made her giggle. She wasn’t sure i they even realized they were doing it. You picked up on those little things afer you watched people or a while. What they took with them when they came, and what they lef at home. Like the tiger shark. She was new, and Liz rather liked her. IRPF veteran, multiple conflicts, probably had a stack o awards somewhere she never showed anyone. Face was all cut up, chunks missing rom fins. And a smile. Nicest person you’d ever want to meet. Out here on a shakedown cruise apparently, taking some time away rom constant contact. She was in here every week, never sporting her badge, never flagging or her corp. Woman was probably a captain or all she knew. Might actually have her own cruiser. Never acted like it, though. Just sat and chatted. Making riends. Liz had a eeling it had been years since she’d had that opportunity. Places like Victory weren’t mechanical necessities. People could pull into corp ports and get resupplied aster. Tey could collect provisions dropoffs rom any o hal a million little outfits that would leave a box sitting in space or you with all you could want. Most spacers were more than capable o mixing a drink and sitting down at a table i they really put their mind to it. But people still came, day in and day out, to sit in a different chair and be a new person or a little while. Someone with different worries and different cares, who wouldn’t be seen in the context o their everyday lie. Tey ormed communities, bit by bit, with every glass served and story shared. It was a social necessity. Eliza had personally overhauled more spacecraf systems than she could remember, and had never gotten as appreciative a thank-you as she had or introducing one lonely ace to another in ront o a window. Tis was a practice people needed out here, e very bit as much as they needed their thrusters aligned or their gyros replaced. No one leaves their world and flies or millions o miles in cold space without a story to tell. Sometimes they just need the right setting to tell it in. 5
F A M I L I E S
FAMILIES
F A M I L I E S
While the families represented in the HSD core rulebook relect a majority of the Vector population, they don’t make up the entirety. The Vector project included dozens of families and even individual species for an assortment of different reasons. The following section depicts families that range from land-dwelling to sea-dwelling and a few spots in between, and includes a few special rules for unique combinations of families which have formed over the course of Vector history.
Aquatic Several Vector species are aquatic in origin, and their anatomy has resulted in a few unique rules for their play. Species that follow Aquatic guidelines will have the Aquatic keyword in their descriptor. They are subject to the following rules:
-Aquatic Vectors move at full speed underwater, provided they have at least one point in Swim. They still need to roll checks if attempting to do anything which might require an Athletics check on land. -Aquatic characters can speak normally underwater via special vocalization. Sounds also translate more accurately to their ears while submerged than to most Vectors, allowing them to carry out conversations with each other with the same level of clarity underwater as on land. -Aquatic Laterals do not have a ist attack. Or ists. Or arms, for that matter. -Speed: Calculate Movement as normal. Adjust it in the following ways depending on your Morphism: If your character is a Lateral, they are unable to move at any considerable rate at all 6 while on land. In the water, their Movement Score is effectively 4x their listed
Movement Score. If your character is a Taur, their Movement Score is effectively half their listed Movement Score while on land, to a minimum of 1. In the water, their Movement Score is effectively 2x their listed Movement Score. -Operate: Lateral Aquatics cannot use any equipment which would require the use of the Operate Proiciency unless they are either equipped with a Pushframe or similar manipulation device, or the equipment was designed with ins in mind (most underwater equipment is, due to the high Lateral population below the surface). Casual button-pushing and lever manipulation is alright, but anything complex enough to require a check by someone with hands is outside the “grasp” of a lipper. This extends to any check which would require manipulation by extension (Pilot, for instance). This can be overcome through equipment like the Pushframe. -Swim: Any aquatic vector can sub out the Proiciency point speciic to their species for a Proiciency point in Swim, and, if they do so, may stack one other general Species point on top of it despite the usual limitation on stacking Species points. -Mobility: Body sockets are not compatible with aquatic laterals. While it’s physically possible to cram one into a wide-framed suit, the sheer discomfort and anatomical incompatibilities would render it next to useless. Special robotic frames are available to allow water-locked Laterals to move around on land, but they take up considerably more space than the usual bipedal socket (about as much as a small car). Pushframes, on the other hand, not only function underwater, they’re actually improved by it. When submerged, a Pushframe’s range increases to two feet. It cannot, however, effect things out of the water if it is in the water itself, or vice versa.
Families Ursidae +1 to Body: Presence This family receives +1 dice when identifying or navigating using Scent. Choose one or none of the following abilities: Drifter: Skip the Scholarship section of character generation and instead distribute 17 dots among any Proiciencies you like, but only at the Talent ed level (1 dot). Bonus dots from other aspects of character creation apply as normal. No Proiciency can be above 2 at startup, regardless of your Mind:Strength score. You begin the game with 1 Allegiance point to MarsCo.
Thinker: When called upon to make corp-specific information checks where you would use your corp Allegiance as your Proiciency score, count yourself as having 2 Allegiance in every corp unless you would otherwise have more. This only applies for information. Socially, your research has colored your opinion of a family without you actually engaging with them. Select a family. You suffer a -1 dice penalty to all Community based checks when associating with that family.
Delphinidae Aquatic +1 to Mind: Dexterity Begin game with the Respiratory Redundancy surgery, with the Extended Breath option. Choose one or none of the following abilities: Logician: You can decrease the Complexity of any check that requires the Mind:Strength stat by 1, to a minimum of 1. In combat, if your team’s Nerve score is reduced to 0, you personally must lee, surrender, or hide, whichever affords you the greatest
chance of survival. You may not elect to continue ighting.
Professional detachment: If you would make an opposed check against intimidation, coercion or deception, add 1 extra dice to your roll. If you attempt to use intimidation, coercion or deception to manipulate someone, treat the roll as though you have 1 point less in the applicable Proiciency, to a minimum of zero.
F A M I L I E S
Selachii Aquatic +1 to Body: Strength Begin game with the Respiratory Redundancy surgery, with the Gills option. The normal re-education rules do not apply. Choose one or none of the following abilities: Restless: When crafting, repairing or programming, it takes you half the time it takes most people. Craft checks are typically 4 hours per success and software generally takes a day to write, but the times for some of these operations are contextual and arbitrary, so your Guide will decide. This can be further increased by the Eficiency is excellence Focus ability. Essentially: you are twice as productive as most people in the same amount of time. When testing against fatigue from lack of sleep, you must begin testing after only 20 hours awake, as you don’t get enough sleep on average anyway. Because of that, Neuroplexes take an extra 4 days to teach you, and you cannot crash-course with them.
One step further: In opposed checks, you win ties regardless of whether you are the aggressor or the defender. Other characters cannot use the Help! rule to assist you with any check in which you have two or more dots in the required Proiciency.
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Rodentia
Ungulatae
+1 to Mind: Acuity When rolling Threat Response attacks, enemies get one less cover bonus than normal (+3 cover rather than +4).
+1 to Body:Resilience. If ever an effect would cause you to be knocked Prone, you may make a Body Resist save (attack value 10) to remain upright. In extreme circumstances, Guide ruling applies.
F A M I L I E S
Choose one or none of the following abilities: Busy hands: When making supportive actions in combat, you require one fewer success than normal. In most cases, that means your action will complete with 5 successes rather than 6. Socially, your character tends to idget and can’t keep their hands (or tails, or whatever may be applicable) still. Manifest this habit in whatever way you feel is appropriate, but it equates to +1 complexity on Community:Dexterity rolls.
Twitch relexes: You may make a new sort of Threat Response action. It costs the same as a normal Threat Response, only instead of iring your weapon, immediately move your Movement score in any unobstructed direction once your approaching enemy has inished moving. If this should take you out of range of their attack, they will have to make another movement action to close the distance again. It can only be activated once per enemy. Outside of combat, your character is very high-strung. When making Reaction rolls, your target number is 2 higher than what would normally be required to pass.
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Choose one or none of the following abilities: Headstrong: You are very grounded in the here and now, relected as a +2 to your dice roll when making Mind-based saves. This includes Reaction rolls, provided you are not trying to resist an action you feel strongly about. In situations where you feel you are morally or socially correct in your actions but are resisting to avoid inconveniencing or even endangering yourself or your party, you are at -2 to your Reaction roll.
Centered: You can switch your entire Momentum ability out for another from any other Morphism when combat begins. You maintain it until the Guide has determined combat has ended. You cannot beneit from Commands given in combat while you are using this ability.
Orders: Caniform and Feliform Speciic rules for these characters are found on page 30. Caniforms and Feliforms are treated as Canidae and Felidae characters for all rules not expressly changed in their entires.
URSIDAE Sometimes called the “lost” family (though rarely in polite company), Ursidae holds the singular distinction of a lack of historical justiication. Many records from the days of the Vector experiments are jumbled, incomplete or lacking context, but rarely is a chunk as large as an entire family outright missing. Ursidae was part of the irst wave, an alpha, right up there with Canidae and Felidae, but the earliest mention of them in historical documentation is simply their presence in the irst tanks, with no notation as to why they were chosen or what their inclusion hoped to add to the overall line. One would think it should be a small inconvenience; it’s not like any of the modern Vectors really pattern their lives off what humanity was thinking nearly 1000 years ago, but the lack of a distinct process behind their creation has left the family with a lot of profound questions over the years. Vectors are philosophical beings, just as humans were, but for them, some of the great questions of the universe actually have categorized answers. “Why am I here? What is my purpose? Where did I come from?” There are names and notes attached to the answers to these questions. Sometimes even locations. One of the irst tubes is actually on display in a Martian museum; there’s a canine family that can trace their genealogy all the way back to it. Granted, they’re the third one to do it in the museum’s history (oddly enough, the “new evidence” always seems to follow a substantial donation), but it’s still a thing that can be pointed at as a reason, or at least a cause, for existence. Ursidae has none. The theory is that the records regarding the Ursidae family were lost in an accident before they were integrated in redundant backups. Three possible events are considered the most likely culprits, and it’s a matter of hot debate among historians as to which is the true cause. The irst was the surprise nuking of Mars near the end of the war, when a HemiVector spy on board a descending ship detonated it, destroyed the Mars spaceport, and severely damaged the surrounding area. Some of those structures were known to contain information about other critical operations. The second was the fall of humanity after the Hydra program was launched. By the time Mars
was fully aware of the level of global devastation the systematic bombing caused by Hydra was doing, it was far too late to attempt to stop it; not that they possessed the means to do so anyway. For the human population of Mars, it was a time
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of indescribable sorrow. The sort that sits in your gut like a heavy weight and doesn’t leave. A sadness that can only be caused by the knowledge that everything that was once your world was ending. Your culture, your heritage, any hope of redemption and reconciliation: gone. A lot of day-to-day recordkeeping fell off the books during that period, because people simply weren’t doing it. Sloppy mistakes were made, systems weren’t properly maintained, and data was lost or misplaced. It took a long time for purpose to drive the survivors back into orderly behavior. In the time between, any number of things could have fallen into a folder and never returned. The third was the owl, which best estimates believe was gestated in the same building that Ursidae was, years earlier. Modern day bears it a great deal of personality types, but are habitually lumped in with canines when considered by other families. The differences are distinct, but the trend of so many centuries of not being able to attach a label to their history has resulted in them being socially absorbed by the larger group. They have a reputation of being thought of as sidekicks rather than leaders, which is largely unfair when their history is thoroughly considered. Bears have led leets, run corporations, achieved scientiic break throughs, but they’re forever regarded as being “part of a team” instead of individually recognized. Over the years it’s made them a little bitter, and recent trends of asserting their identities have led to a growing public opinion of them being inherently violent or quick to anger. This behavior only serves to keep pushing the problem, and some bears have come to embrace that adversarial reputation as a part of their “uniqueness.” Depending on what version of their history they believe, some will go so far as resenting avians or HemiVectors for their supposed role in the lack of Ursidae history. Those that do will usually take issue with the members of their own species whose views of the guilty party in their history differ from their own.
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STEREOTYPES Canidae: It’s not hard to start hating dogs when you get shoved into their shadow your whole life. I try not to; most of the ones I’ve met are ine people, but it just starts to irk you after a while. It’s not like people “mistake” us for them, it’s that they just assume there isn’t a difference. Test it some time. Stand in a crowd with a bunch of different Vectors when teams are being organized. If two dogs are sent out somewhere, I’ll bet you lunch you’re sent out with them.
Avialae: How do you feel about the Question? We’re not supposed to let it color our opinion, yeah? Good luck with that. You’re going to wonder about it, some lonely night, and chances are pretty good that when you see feathers the next day, you’re going to rethink them a bit. Were they responsible? Hell no, ‘course they weren’t. Happened seven hundred years ago, and it’s not like the owl shit was deliberate. Shouldn’t bug you at all. But it’s going to. Even if you don’t follow that take on history, it’s going to bug you. Because maybe...maybe it was them, and if we ever ind out someday, someone’s going to have to be held accountable for that.
Ungulate: I kinda think of these guys as “better reptiles,” though I’d probably get frowns if I said it out loud. I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks it though. Bulls don’t feed you any bull; they’re tough and they’re steadfast and they don’t have any crap attached to it. There just isn’t a lot of...depth, to them. A work horse is a work horse, it’s what they do.
Rodentia: They try to be too damned clever for their own good. There’s a lot of room for innovation when it comes to doing things well, and no one steps up to that plate quite like a rabbit or a mouse does, but you get a few of them together and they start re-inventing the wheel. Three days later you’ve got some crazy-ass levitating anti-gravity cancer-causing loat web that cost a fortune and breaks after the third use when someone could’ve done the same thing in an hour with a rope and a pulley. Like a horse. Horse woulda got that shit done.
Seals: Annoying little optimistic go-withthe-low pissant lipper-sausages. They’ll tell you all day to “stop dwelling” on something, or encourage you to “ind new ways” to channel your frustra tion or get over some shit situation or something, all with this pleasant little knowing smile you just want to smack off their cute little faces. And you know the really maddening part? Damned things are right. I don’t think anyone’s got it quite as tough as they do, and they shine like a light in the dark. They ind ways to do everything anyone ever thought they couldn’t manage. I love ‘em. I just hate that I love ‘em, ‘cause they’re damned obnoxious.
APPEARANCE Family Ursidae is typically tall and broad, and their short tails and blunt ears set them apart from canines or others of relatively equivalent stature. Pandas and Polars are easy to recognize due to their coloring, but black bears and grizzlies can pass for canines on a cursory glance as bipeds. The difference becomes a lot more obvious when taurs and Laterals are involved. Grizzly and polar Laterals have a particularly dificult time operating in tight areas, as they’re signiicantly larger than most doorways or ceilings and lack the lexibility of large cat breeds that might suffer the same issue. As Laterals go, though, they match raccoons in terms of overall manual dexterity. Many manage to ind lucrative work in the same positions as standard Vectors, even if they do feel a little cramped in the lunch room.
AQUATIC FAMILIES The oficially accepted reasoning behind the inclusion of fully aquatic families into the Vector line was to make the oceans of Earth habitable. Presumably, even though the land was in ruin, once the radiation had died down, aquatic Vectors could ind a wealth of ready resources and food in the sea, and serve as a foothold for the re-population of the blue planet. Things didn’t quite work out that way, but aquatic Vectors have nonetheless made homes in the vast oceans of Venus and Mars, as well as other, even more exotic, locations. Aquatic Vectors were introduced in the Omega generation, and as such were built using the most advanced technology available at the time. It was necessary; this breed would be treading a volatile line between sea and land, and it would require some creativity when it came to designing their skin and respiratory systems. It’s no surprise that only a handful of Earth’s vast ocean life was included. All aquatic Vectors share a deviation from the traditional outlooks on certain morphisms, as they work pretty differently when “legs” aren’t part of your natural animal anatomy. Most tauric aquatic Vectors look a bit like a cross between a naga and a mermaid, and have about as much trouble on land as you would expect. Tauric Delphinidae and Selachii members transition to their lateral lower bodies just below the thighs, leaving a gap between the crotch and the lower body that’s absent on tauric snakes. Their hips are lanked by ins, which make for the extra set of limbs typically used to deine the tauric morphism, and their lower body is a somewhat longer, extended version of their animal shape. Long enough to use for serpentine motion on land, though they’re not nearly as good at it as nagas are. Tauric aquatics cut an imposing igure on the shore; between their extended bodies and ins, they’re extremely large, but the bizarre hybridization of anatomy is a detriment to land-based motion. In the water, they’re considerably 11
F A M I L I E S
faster than their generic footy counterparts, but not nearly as fast as a full Lateral of their race. Tauric seals have an even harder time; their tauric anatomy is more traditional, with their front lippers serving as forelegs and their lower body being at a right angle to their upper, like taurs from the landlocked families. This makes them about as agile as a normal seal on land, which is to say, not very. Those poor seals which (through some act of a spiteful god) end up both micro and tauric have the singular distinction of being, quite possibly, the most adorable creatures ever to scoot ponderously around the galaxy. Naturally, most of them don’t much appreciate that description. Lateral landlocked Vectors are trapped in the unfortunate reality of being perfectly suited to the wrong lifestyle. They exist in a world of buttons and tall controls and chairs intended for people to bend at the waist. They’re perpetually too short and lack the ingers needed to truly take advan tage of the world around them. Even though their bodies are evolutionarily sound for existence on land, they are profoundly ill-suited for existence in society. Aquatic Laterals, however, have a different situation. Aquatic Laterals are so ill-suited for land life that (with the extraordinarily rare exception) they choose to live entirely in the oceans, for which they are profoundly well-suited. Land Vectors had little reason to build large underwater structures, so nearly all underwater habitation on Mars,Venus, and anywhere else possessing substantial bodies of water has been designed with Lateral specs involved from the beginning. Controls are structured for underwater visibility, hallways are looded, rooms are submerged, and most structures are open to the sea in many areas, serving more as privacy zones and meeting areas than actual “homes.” The societies that have grown in these undersea domains are a mix of Vector sophistication and almost wildlife-level mannerisms. For one, aquatic Laterals are the only Vector subclass known to hunt for food as a natural does. The prey has been contained and bred so hours don’t need to be spent searching for it, and 12 traditional land meals are available, but the
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cost of import and the dificulty involved in getting a meal meant for land into the mouth of a Lateral shark have all pushed for a behavior that closely mirrors nature. Non-Lateral aquatics sometimes choose to live in these domains themselves, though rarely for long periods. Living in a Lateral home is tough when you’re not equipped like one. Even their restaurants consist of schooling ish, so you’ll inevitably be staying in the “leggy” portions of the facility. They’re designed for standard Vectors, but mechanical necessity and the relatively low population of land-based Vectors choosing to live underwater means they end up a wee bit cramped. A lovely place to a visit; a bit stunting to stay in. Nonetheless, Vectors, both aquatic and not, still venture into the depths to live among the inny population. Some out of adventure, some for research and curiosity, some just because they want a different scene from the land-life. And the Laterals appreciate it, because for all their speed and agility underwater, they are nearly completely unable to exist above it. Technology exists to allow a Lateral aquatic to maneuver on land, but their bodies are so poorly suited for the task most will avoid it unless they have a damned good reason. Paws may be inconvenient, but they can still function as hands in a pinch. Fins and lippers are pretty good for waving down a cab, but that’s about it.
DELPHINIDAE Dolphins are, or were, one of the most intelligent creatures on Earth back when Earth still possessed a scale of intelligence. Most countries had oficially accepted them as a sapient race by the time the war hit, though the admission was more a novelty than any indication of action. They were protected from hunting, but beyond that, there wasn’t much to it. It’s not like the dolphins were buying homes or illing out tax forms, after all. When the time came to implement aquatic species into the Vector line, however, they were at the top of the list, and it made more than a few people feel a little squeamish. This was a race that had its own society, its own language, even a rudimentary understanding of mathematics, and their template was being taken from them for manipulation by forces outside their control. It seemed somehow... different... from the previous Vectoring subjects.
From a scientiic standpoint, it didn’t really matter. Dolphins were not being slaughtered to surgically splice them with humans, nor was any degree of harmful capture or violence required to sculpt the new bodies; a small blood sample provided enough genetic material to modify the human blank. It was no more a violation to them than it was to a dog or a cat. The only real difference was that a dog or a cat didn’t really care if there was another species wandering around built off hijacked DNA. They had no recognizable sense of self. They wouldn’t feel taken advantage of. A dolphin, however, might. But even that wasn’t the true heart of the issue. It dug a little deeper, at the reality of the Vector project as a whole. For several of the scientists involved, the dolphin Vector was a second look back at a much earlier decision made in anger and self-righteousness, when the Vector process began to spite the damning legislation made by people with less vision. Now, with the project in its third generation and with Earth slowly smoldering far, far away, the feeling in the air was very different. Buried in a log entry from an unknown scientist in the Delphinidae
project is a quote that provides some of the only emotional context from the entire team of 700 years long past. “I would not have been so quick to play God, had I fully understood the rules.” By the time the family Delphinidae left the tanks, millions of humans had died back home, and their new caretakers were forced to look in the eyes of a template they knew to be from a creature of near-human intelligence, and explain what was happening. Somewhere in that conversation so many centuries ago had to have been the revelation that it was unlikely Earth’s dolphin population was going to have much say in whether or not they survived the war. Family Delphinidae doesn’t carry the emotional baggage of its creators around with it on a daily basis. Dolphins are generally considered pleasant folk, with their Lateral members being among the few Vectors universally recognized as “friendly.” Mostly because of their environment; Lateral dolphins have luxurious lives compared to most of the landlocked Vector species. They’re among a very small population that can do the jobs given to them, which puts them in high demand. Living space is plentiful, their ocean world is bountiful, and since they have very little reason to come on shore anyway, they typically don’t have cause to gripe at folks for whatever may be going on up there. They’re also rather infamous for pretending to be naturals when they’re not; a collective joke which has led to more than a few awkward revelations. The situation changes a bit in tauric members, who have an even harder time than tauric sharks getting around on land. Their bodies aren’t naturally accustomed to serpentine motion and have to be taught it, which many have likened to “learning to walk on your hands” in terms of how unnatural it feels. With practice they can manage a pretty graceful job of it, but the bizarre construction of aquatic taurs makes it 13 dificult for them to move at speed in
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comparison to people with legs, and their upper ing among the least common (comparatively; they bodies slow them down in the water compared to still have a substantial population). Even among Laterals. Most of the family Delphinidae consider it their own kind, orcas face a racial bias uncommon a lose/lose situation, and they’re statistically the in Vectors, who are accustomed to be surroundsecond-highest race to undergo body-reed by people of all shapes and sizes. The stigmata placement surgery if aflicted with this extends directly from Europa, whose local popucondition. Seals are the irst. lation of mutated undersea monsters has colored Standard bipedal Delphinidae Vecthe public opinion of what an orca “is.” Curiously tors have much fewer anatomical enough, the misconception is not present among eccentricities to worry about than Europan natives, but among the populous of worlds taurs or Laterals, though more than like Mars and Venus who hear strange stories from your everyday dog does. Dorsal ins the distant moon and igure there’s some band of are smaller and less pronounced, but drugged-up killer whales out there being jackasses still present, and their thick tails make to everyone. Natives of Europa, and anyone who’s sitting an annoyance in most areas (a ever seen so much as a silhouette of what lurks in condition that those of family Reptilia can their depths, know that it’s a far cry from the Vecidentify with). Stools are the usual solution; tors walking around on the surface. most attempts to make a one-chair-its-all design for seating has resulted in something STEREOTYPES that’s either too large, too unruly, too ex Availae: Birds like to think of us as a kindred pensive to be practical, or equally uncomspirit, as they have a calling to the air like we have fortable for anyone sitting in it. Arm and a calling to the water. I think the parallel is less proleg protrusions in in-like shapes are also nounced than they suggest. They visit the sky; they familiar to the family, but their size can vary don’t live in it. For all their rumored eccentricities, dramatically between individuals in a speit seems to me they’re just looking for people who cies. Delphinidae Vectors have human shaped understand them. feet, without webbing, as no alternative exists within their progenitor species. Mustelidae: Otters, especially Lateral otters, Family Delphinidae is generally viewed as fancy themselves swimmers until you actually get an even-tempered sort, with its various species being intelligent and witty, if a little detached. Their them out with our kind in the deep zones. Outclassing a cat is usually worth a giggle, outclassing an penchant for aquatic living tends to color their opinion of land-life a bit, even if they spend most of otter is outright hilarious. their own time there. Most notably, dolphins (and Selachii: Your relationship with sharks will indeed, most aquatics) exhibit less brand loyalty than most Vectors do. Megacorps have customers in change dramatically the further down their morphic line you travel. Their bipeds are just folk, like the ocean, certainly, but not nearly so many as they do on land, and with far fewer products. Add to that anyone else. Their taurs are even friendly, most of the time. They have a rough time of things, like ours the fact that dolphins typically provide their own do. But their Laterals are...touchy. Be careful when food and housing and a lot of the areas for corpoyou meet them. A lot more of them go feral than we rate bombardment go missing. As a result, they do, and it’s a serious problem in open water. tend to make good sounding boards and go-betweens for other Vectors who may be too tied up Reptilia: The sharks are closer to these guys than in personal feelings to view a situation objectively. Family Delphinidae has no shortage of passionate we are, and it’s not for bafling reasons. I trust them feelings; it just doesn’t usually have them about more than I trust cats. Granted, I trust most things the matters that compel and infuriate your typical more than I trust cats. Reptiles have a long history canine CEO. with shallow water, and I think the seafaring ones Bottlenose makes up the majority of give us our dues for playing in the deep. 14 the Delphinidae population, with orcas be-
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Felidae: They’re way too wrapped up in the corporate game for me. Cats always seem to have an agenda, and it’s always about something I don’t care about. Half the time, we have nothing to talk about. The other half, I’m always having to doubt what they say.
APPEARENCE Most members of this family stand around standard human height with equivalent ranges of deviation. Their itness and musculature is typically more noticeable than it is on other families because of the lack of fur, which has led to a general opinion of Delphinidae as athletes. They have no particular predisposition toward sports, but in mixed-breed company, people will often nudge them toward it if only because of reputation. Orcas are particularly large and heavyset, usually over 6 feet tall with taller members threatening Vectors with Macro surgery in terms of height. All members of the family feature smooth, rubber-like skin instead of fur and long, thick tails akin to their progenitors. Dorsal, arm and leg ins are also present, but typ ically muted. The famous blowhole of this family serves little purpose on a biped and was removed in the original Vector design, but some Vectors have had them surgically added above their dorsal in between their shoulders as a sort of physical statement of dedication to living below the waves. While it does have a practical purpose (cupping an oxygen supply over the blow-hole keeps the mouth free to speak) it’s primarily a social statement more than a necessity. This family does not grow hair naturally, but some have taken to adopting cosmetic surgery at a young age to gain the ability.
SELACHII “History” is a relative term to Vectors. They’re all well aware there was a race that lived before them, and that their own bodies stemmed from animals that had evolved in Earth’s environment, but so much of Vector genealogy is built from scratch that it’s dificult to point to any one person walking around and say “you, you have a proud heritage of millions of years of evolution” because, by all rights, they don’t. If nature had at any point
given the whole “two legged dog” thing a genuine go, it died out long before humans came along. The Vectors themselves aren’t even that; they’re clean designs that incorporate familiar traits and appearances from established genomes, but are at their core a fully artiicial creature that began its evolutionary process from ground zero, 700 years ago. This was a point of some concern when the Selachii family was added to the line. Many Vectored species could trace their roots to Earth’s prehistory. Family Reptilia, for starters. Dolphins stemmed back pretty far, becoming more and more primal as the millennia went by. But sharks were a different sort of “ancient.” They were perfect; completely unchanged for millions of years, exactly balanced for their role in the world. Apex predators in nearly every oceanic ecosystem. Fast, cunning, powerful, and on the whole, untouchable by anything that wasn’t a very wellequipped and vastly more intelligent species. Which led to a troubling thought: if sharks were being included in the Vector program to serve as an underwater populous for Earth’s reintegration, as was the plan with the entirety of the aquatic line, who was to say they would share? Bipeds weren’t the issue. All Vectors were built off a human template; having a shark-like facade didn’t automatically imbue them with physical superiority any more than the bears or the tigers did. The concern was Laterals. As third generation Vectors, Lateralism was a known issue and had to be assumed to ind its way into the Selachii genepool over time. Normal sharks were already at the apex of their ecosystems; the only thing that kept them in check was feeding moderation brought on from a lack of genuine cruelty. Sharks eat to feed and more or less leave things alone otherwise. But if, for instance, a group of them was possessed of human intelligence, they would not be subject to those limitations. Include a little good old fashioned technology, and they would be faster, stronger, larger and better equipped for control of more than 70% of any given 15 terraformed planet than any other family
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in the Vector line. The inclusion of a family that so profoundly outclassed its peers in their natural environment was, at best, dubiously wise. They proceeded anyway (a very familiar choice among the entire Vectoring process), and their choice came of several different factors. The irst was the assumption that Lateralism was eventually going to breed itself out of the Vector line. 700 years later, that has proven to not be the case. Laterals are rare but hardly unheard of; most people have met several in their lifetime and they continue to coexist with the population. It’s unlikely they’ll ever really go away. Taurs are even more ubiquitous, and since the genetic anomalies that result in morphisms are the result of accidents in programmed code rather than natural mutation, they’re actually rather robust in their own right. The second was population; sharks made up only a fraction of the Vector populous, and their line would include no Laterals at its initial introduction. It would be generations before
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interbreeding would work that anomaly into their family, and even then, it wouldn’t be a large percentage. It was very unlikely they could become a major destabilizing force with so few members, and in such a niche area. And as ever, there was the hope for 16 good behavior. Just being
a shark doesn’t stop you from being a Vector, with emotions like compassion and concepts like justice and the ability to choose not to sabotage the ocean. As a inal (almost token) attempt to rein in their creations, a deliberate choice was made to not Vectorize two of the Selachii species most known for their biological superiority; the hammerhead shark and the great white. The fact that both were also known as particularly violent attackers was irrelevant; Vectors are not animals, and they are not necessarily damned to behave like them. The reasoning was more because of their extreme level of specialization. The hamerhead’s entire body (head, most prominently) was tuned to be the perfect hunter of its particular prey, and would not be of any particular beneit to a Vector for anything other than that purpose. The great white was likewise excessively large and powerful, which would serve no function to a Vector beyond being even more of a problem to other Vectors. While it wasn’t exactly written down in the development notes, there was also the fact that both the aforementioned species had made the transition from Earth to the Martian oceans (with a few quirks, as was the case with all transitional animals) and there was some wisdom in not making Vectors the absolute masters of their domain. That last bit worked pretty well, actually. So much of the shark’s power came from knowing how to be a shark. Vectors aren’t born with that knowledge; they have to learn how to hunt and stalk and read the currents. It gave them a sense of humility, despite being arguably better equipped. The modern Selachii family shares shoreline, street and ocean with its brethren, as well as a mixed reputation. There is a feeling of “having something to prove” that
permeates the family, whether it’s being the best athlete, the best student, the most loyal employee or even just a most attentive friend. They’re almost never idle; unless they happen to be sleeping at the moment, it’s a safe bet a shark is busy doing something. They have a reputation for “brooding productivity,” which basically means they often need rescuing from their work from time to time or they’ll never surface from it. They’re not inherently anti-social, they just tend to lose track. Tauric sharks are a mixed bag; some resent their lot in life enough that they more or less seclude themselves or cluster with other aquatic taurs so they don’t feel outpaced, while others embrace their differences and become some of the more vocal members of their family. Shark taurs are very long, very large and visually impressive creatures; those few that come out and let the world take notice of them tend to command more respect than scorn. In an almost self-fulilling prophesy, Lateral sharks have earned their entire family a wary eye. They have the largest feral population (essentially, Vectors who have chosen to live as animals, foregoing the rights and privileges of their species to embrace the calling of their physical form) of any Vector, brought on by the sheer dificulty of coexistence when your body is so speciically designed for its natural function. Dolphin-shaped dolphins manage to live like Vectors with relative ease, but for shark-shaped sharks, everything from their massive mouths to their secondary eyelids is tuned to be a perfect underwater hunter, and it’s damned dificult to adapt to being anything else. Even the Lateral sharks that do choose to remain in cohabitation areas typically do it far out at sea or in Waterships. Most that don’t go full feral will school with other shark Laterals and live in a sort of microcosm of society completely off the grid. It’s said they’re quite large in some areas, and not always populated exclusively by sharks.
STEREOTYPES Canidae: Most dogs don’t trile with pretense, and I’m alright with that. Which is a good thing, really, because you’re going to have to deal with them just about anywhere you go. Just keep a cheat-sheet handy. I can’t tell one dog from another, and they just hate it when you get the wolves and the foxes
mixed up.
Mustilidae: They’re like dogs if you took out all the productivity and replaced it with general bullshitting. They’re damned annoying most of the time; half of them think they know things they don’t have a clue about, and the other half acts without thinking to begin with. Lateral otters rate highest on the dead list from our ferals every year, over and over. It’s horrible, but you’d think they’d eventually igure it out and stay away. Nope. There comes a point where you stop being sympathetic.
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Delphinidae: It’s extremely easy to underestimate a dolphin, and extremely stupid. We’ve igured out a peaceful coexistence for the most part, and if you ever get to wondering why that is, go pick a ight and see where you end up. Dolphins make connections almost as well as dogs do, except they make the connections matter, and their friends will show up when they need them.
Reptilia: Odd synergy here. Reps are focused and concentrated; we work well with them. There’s also the “ancient origin” thing, but that only applies in a literal fashion with Laterals, and our Laterals almost never interact with theirs. Completely different lifestyle. I think the camaraderie comes from us leggy types looking out at them and seeing some glimpse of what actually pre-dated the species that invented us. Almost feels like we came irst.
Ursidae: Bears are an interesting study subject. They have this knack for looking like they’re completely out of their depth, and then surprising you. You can never take them at face value. I’d be annoyed by the pretense, but it doesn’t stem from a need to be deceptive. It’s more a natural reservation, held back until it’s needed. In a way, you get to meet them twice.
APPEARANCE Sharks cut a distinct silhouette as bipeds, with more prominent dorsal ins than dolphins and gill-slits along their neck
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or back, depending on species. Like all Vectors, their bodies have been modiied to it an adapt ed life, and as such the trademark conveyer belt of teeth is absent from all but Lateral members. They do have vague serration and distinctly dagger-like canines, however. Tauric sharks are larger on average than dolphin taurs, with longer tails and larger ins. They share the same hip arrangement, but typically ind snake-like locomotion easier than dolphins do, as it’s similar to their natural movement. Like the Delphinidae family, this family does not grow hair. Cosmetic surgery can change that, but is typically less popular in sharks than in dolphins. Unlike the Delphinidae family, this family possesses external ears in its bipedal form, generally long and pointed. The notes in the original iles claim the ears were included to experiment with improving hearing over species without them, but were ultimately left off other ear-less Vectors when it became apparent the difference was negligible so long as the eardrum itself was engineered well. Nevertheless, the pointed ear has been part of the Selachii family since its beginning, and they would be considered odd looking without them.
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MERGED FAMILIES Not every Vector that was created brought an entire family of species with it, and not every species survived from creation until now. Extinction hasn’t happened in centuries, but history tells of several Vectors that simply died out, leaving holes in their family line. Others were absorbed into other families with similar traits, even if they didn’t actually stem from the same taxonomy. In the modern era, not every Vector “family” is actually a “family” by Earth’s classic taxonomic deinition. Some don’t even hold related species, namely the smaller ones that have been shufled around, lost members, or share similar traits. Though “family” in name only, these kitchen-sink collections still have centuries of history, and are universally recognized in the modern day.
RODENTIA The merged family Rodentia consists of a variety of largely unrelated species who have joined together over the years because of similar backgrounds, historical partnerships, and a few common mistakes. Some were one-off species that were introduced to the Vector program because of speciic exploitable assets, but whose actual families did not provide substantial variation to warrant including additional members. Others, like the rats which make up the family’s majority population, have lost most of their species distinctiveness through deliberate genetic manipulation. Rodentia is a very large family, which grants it a signiicant presence in society as a whole, but its members are also substantially different from each other in perspective and mentality. It hurts them as a unifying force, but helps them get around their reputations from time to time.
Rats
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Rats, like many Rodentia, were introduced in the second generation. Their design was lawed (not uncommon for Golden generation Vectors) but the nature of the error didn’t become clear for several generations. Rats had a malfunction in
their mutt-reduction protection that caused it to fail rather extravagantly when paired with other rats. Vectors are designed not to hybridize. Even members of the same species, say, a husky and a golden retriever, will not create a mixed breed child unless speciic steps are taken medically to deac tivate those protections. In rats, the intra-species protections were absent. Over time, all rat species would eventually homogenize into one. Rather than ight this and stamp their own family “lawed,” the rats embraced it, and promoted reproductive exclusivity for several generations of their history to actually help the process along, as well as introducing speciic boosters for traits considered preferable by their own standards. The inal product of this self-induced eugenics program was a rat with jet black fur, black skin, and golden eyes that shine red in direct light. While rats all have their own unique attributes, heights, weights, facial features and personalities, every modern rat shares that common coloring. It’s a trait the species as a whole bears with pride, and they are among the least tolerant of fur dye or pattern-based morphisms in their midst. Most rats looking to distinguish themselves employ piercings and other jewelry, or ear and tail tattoos. There is nothing quite so visually striking as massed rat Vectors; they appear as a wave of glossy black cut into sleek shapes with long tails and metallic detailing. Rats are a touchy subject with a lot of Vector families. They’re the only species to collectively take responsibility for the creation of a new type of Vector after the original program’s termination (and subsequently lose control over them), and the only species to so drastically destroy its variety. There are some that salute the unity that has come of it, and others who view it as a form of voluntary genocide. Rats, on the whole, are almost aggressively apathetic about how the rest of the solar system views them. They typically put a great deal of stock in how they are viewed individu-
ally, however. It’s a curious dichotomy that makes them dificult to befriend until you igure out the rules of how to communicate with a species whose individual members want to stand out in a crowd, but who take personal pride in their collective status as “RAT,” the singular.
Mice Mice were not part of the Vector program. In fact, mouse Vectors didn’t exist until 150 years after the last population enhancement phase. They were created, quite illegally, by a ratowned megacorp called Genotype in an act that stunned the solar system and would eventually become one of the more infamous events in Vector history. The original Vector project facilities haven’t functioned in ages, but the biotechnology that was used to create Vectors to begin with is at the core of all modern industry pertaining to organic manipulation. The ability to make a new Vector is within the grasp of any corp with a large enough biotech department, and has been since day one. The deterrent is responsibility. If anything pertaining to the new Vectored race were to go wrong (if they became violent, or antisocial, or began showing undesirable behaviors) it would inevitably fall back on the organization that spawned them to “rein them in.” It wouldn’t even have to be on a large scale. 19 Anything; petty
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crime, public insults, terrorism or just poor behavior, and the irst thing that would pop to anyone’s lips would be “what are you going to do about this?” followed shortly by “why were they made to begin with?” That’s a very large albatross to bear for any organization dependent on public opinion to support its success. Up until Genotype created mice, the only group to successfully attempt this sort of thing was Applied Science and Robotics, the creators of the Cog race, and it’s required so much effort that they have almost hinged their business on it for over 600 years. Genotype was the megacorp that spearheaded the single-species rat consolidation movement. What began as a way to keep the rat family from being viewed as genetically deicient grew into an industry based around various treatments to help accelerate and aim the homogenization of the rats into a singular species. Along with it came mentalities, manifest destinies, and all the hallmarks of a system put in place to rally a people behind it. One of those mentalities was a dismissal of some of the usual rules of Vector behavior, in order to legitimize their actions. With that choice came the opportunity to step over additional boundaries under the same banner, which culminated in the creation of Vector mice as a species all their own. “Slave race” was, of course, never in the press releases or any oficial statement made by the megacorp, but it was pretty clear in everyone’s thoughts when all the details were laid out on the table. Mice were underpopulated, vulnerable because of their lack of a social history, and reliant on corp support to keep them going as they tried to establish their place in the world. And Genotype happily provided that, with a few conditions, naturally. Being a workforce, occupying dangerous areas, being handed jobs as charity that were, in fact, undesirable or risky and required minimal education. They went so far as to 20 differentiate the mice visually as well, so as
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to avoid mistaken identities. The only mouse species that was Vectored had pure white fur, pink skin and black eyes (though the red glint stuck around), and had a genetic predisposition toward being small, with few members exceeding ive feet tall. The whole situation caused ripples of worry through the entirety of Vector society. The results of a new species introduction had been theorized at before, but it had never actually happened, and certainly not completely out of the blue like
this. They were locked in a trap of their own making: by standing back, they allowed a race that was clearly created for the purpose of subservience to continue being abused, but if anyone stepped forward and formally accused their creators of it, all Genotype would have to do is say “Really? We didn’t mean to do that. Fine, you take them,” and a whole new race of people would land in their laps. For years, tensions rose, and to many it was looking like the only way to get the now even larger megacorp to own up to its actions while still providing for its creation was to force it on them violently. It was going to come down to who took that dangerous
irst step, and nobody wanted to be the one to start. So, they didn’t, and the ever growing population of mice continued to exist under the “benevolent” rule of Genotype. About 20 years later, the mice took care of the problem themselves, and Genotype was reduced to smoldering ruin. Overconidence in their own situation had caused Genotype execs to grant access to far too many key areas of their enterprise to the mice they had convinced themselves were their friends. Through cunning deception and careful planning, coordination with outside help and a sense of righteous indignation the rats probably didn’t even know was there, mice had worked their way into inancial systems, manufacturing systems, commerce, food, water, every aspect of the Genotype industry. They brought the entire multimillion-employee company down to its knees in two days, and, in a publicly televised declaration of principles and execution of its board of directors, lattened it on the third. To many in Sol, this was the day the mice truly arrived, and there was nothing meek about it. Since then, mice have slotted forcibly into family Rodentia, and are known as iercely inde pendent people who detest having to rely on anyone who isn’t put in that position by some sort of ranking scheme. They like a hierarchy, and work very well in structured environments where they know exactly who is accountable to whom. In open systems they’re typically quick to volunteer for tasks. Some assume it’s because they feel they have something to prove. Others think they do it to avoid being assigned things instead. As Vectors go, though, their reputation for being quick-witted, short-tempered and sharp-tongued is among the most widely recognized in Sol. The fact that they have such a concrete public image as opposed to other species is likely due to the fact that their existence will forever be tied to their own actions so many years ago, instead of the actions of humans.
Squirrels There are over 150 different species of Vectored squirrel, ranking them among the most diverse Vectors in existence. They’re also the irst, but it’s not something they celebrate quite as openly as canines do. Canidae holds the distinction of being the irst “true” Vectored species, as in, the irst one to be put in the tanks with the intention of emerg-
ing as fully ledged members of intelligent society. They were not, however, the irst to undergo the operation. Humans typically don’t run early experiments on dogs. They tend to aim smaller, and in the case of the earliest prototypes, they used squirrels. The reasoning accepted by most Vector historians was that squirrels were inexpensive, plentiful, had a very large species differentiation available to test with and presented a few unique anatomical challenges for conversion. Typically, rats or mice were used for things of this nature, but the theory was that it was actually somewhat dificult to get lab rats up to Mars because they were being monitored as likely indications of then-illegal operations. Alas, not enough of Earth’s speciic history remains to know for certain. Squirrels are rarely credited for the role they played in Vector creation, and most of them are content with that fact. Being the test subject is somewhat less glamorous than being the inished product the canines were, especially when certain documents exist that suggest squirrels were likely not intended to remain in the system past the testing phase. The clearest indication is the fact that they were included in the second generation and not the irst, despite being a completed project by the time the irst generation launched. It would appear their inclusion was not considered necessary until a need for a larger population became apparent. They’re not alone in that boat: any of the second or third gen Vectors could claim the same, but only squirrels were known to exist and function prior to their oficial inclusion in one of the population enhancement phases. As a species, squirrels are easily overlooked. They’re known for modesty and shyness, and in most workplaces they aren’t really expected to shine in the crowd. Rarely are they described as “ambitious,” and even “outgoing” is a rarity. Like dogs, they’re often seen as faces in the crowd, and not really considered signiicant beyond that. Which makes it all the more satisfying to those squirrels who break the mold. Those who’ve logged some time with the species typically have a different outlook: they are as good as you 21 tell them to be. It’s rare for a squirrel to
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volunteer to do anything; they’re usually content to do their assigned tasks and be left alone, but if you push them, even when they’re concerned about not being capable, they rise to the occasion with surprising regularity. They have a knack for learning how to learn, and with the right person pushing them along, they can pick up whatever is necessary to achieve what’s required. More often than not, they didn’t even know they had it in them. Savvy bosses usually try and pair squirrels with mice in teams. It gives the mouse’s innate go-get-’em attitude a suitable tool to mold, while subsequently keeping them out of trouble. Of course, it’s also a racial stereotype that would likely bring down a lot of heat on said employer if people called them out on it, but that’s never stopped things before. The big “problem” with the squirrel species is, because they’ve never really stood out, they’ve also never been hammered down. There is no singular event they can point to and say: “This, this is us. This is where we stood up” beyond potentially being a discarded step in the Vector process. Mice have their strike for equality, rabbits have their war with the cats, dogs have their roles as “caretakers,” nearly every unique species has something that they can be deined with. Squirrels have yet 22 to land in that spotlight,
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and as such their individual achievements are often overlooked. Hundreds of squirrels have achieved greatness in history. They’ve been proud captains or lead companies, been supermodels or sports stars, even redeined the laws of physics, but it was always an individual achievement more than a collective one. More than most species, squirrels don’t look at other squirrels as family or particularly close kin. They’re just other folks, like anyone else, doing their thing. It’s a simple open-mindedness and largely positive outlook that has kept them out of trouble for 700 years, but it has also shrouded them in obscurity.
Rabbits There is a long standing jab toward family Felidae about having started three separate race wars in their history, and losing all three of them. It isn’t entirely accurate. For one, Vectors are not segregated into different species or family centers in everyday life, so it’s not like one cat or dog or bird can stand up on a box and declare “we’re all doing this now.” Rats are about the closest example to that actually happening, and it was only possible because of a genetic defect they were going to have to deal with anyway. Secondly, the “wars” themselves are somewhat overblown. The irst was a corporate rivalry between two feline-owned corporations of substantial size, which turned out to be fueled by a private affair between the CEOs that went sour. They brought each other to ruin and toppled a pair of billion-credit empires in the process. From the outside, it literally looked like a catight, as that was the vast majority of the employee population, and the public assumption was that it was species in-ighting, as, naturally, the corps themselves were very tightlipped about the real reason. The truth has been known for centuries now, but the reputation stuck around. The second was the only true attempt
at outside interference against Genotype for their creation and subsequent exploitation of mice Vectors. Several teams of cats united under a banner of responsibility toward Vector-kind began economic and social pressure against the corp, and were gaining considerable ground, until a few unfortunate leaks made it look very likely that they were only moving in to try and get a piece of the action. When they were exposed, they subsequently dissolved in short order, and it made the whole of feline kind look pretty bad in the process. The most recent (around 200 years ago) was the only one that qualiied as a genuine race-based conlict, and subsequently colored the previous two. It was a time of tumultuous expansion in the stars with fresh technology that allowed for faster trade and great explosions of wealth, and cats, due in no small part to their considerable population, were grossing high on pride and proit. A movement began within some of their more lucrative ranks about their success being based on predatory instinct. That they could “hunt down” that which could make them happy, and they were better equipped than other species to capture it. It began as an ambiguous reference but evolved over several years into a larger mentality of genuine racial superiority, and before too long, it needed a target to prove it. That target was rabbits. Up until then, rabbits had enjoyed a peaceful reputation of being somewhat more outgoing squirrels: bright, useful, plentiful, and a bit more aggressive than some of the meeker members of Rodentia. They had conidence and drive, but were known to be a little panicky under pressure. The growing feline superiority movement pointed to those incidences as indications of genetic cowardice or weakness, and rabbits began inding themselves without jobs with feline employers, or, for those with businesses of their own, no feline employees. When several rabbit-owned companies were aggressively bought out through open coercion, it became clear that this problem was only going to get bigger. Violent retaliation was threatened against the movement’s leaders, but they laughed it off. By then, the thought process behind rabbit
inferiority made the prospect of being attacked by whatever qualiied as a “rabbit soldier” a matter of little concern. The social and economic war lasted nearly ive years before the shoot ing war began. It lasted six months, and ended with the disbanding of the feline superiority movement, a series of public apologies, the payment of signiicant reparations to various business owners on the part of feline businesses that hadn’t even been involved, and an overall feeling of shame that hung over feline heads for the next ifty years or so before they really started putting it behind them. As it turns out, those same “panicky, jerking, nervous” twitch reactions that made rabbits such an “inferior” species in the wild made them exceptionally alert, quick and accurate when put in the cockpit of a ship or armed with a rile. Guns, it would seem, don’t really care if you growl really big and have large sharp teeth. They only care how fast you can pull the trigger. Aside from the social sting, it was a reminder to Vectorkind not to judge books by their covers. Fur, scales, feathers or ins, there was enough human in everyone to ight like humans ight.
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Bats Giving one family singular control of the skies carried with it the same concerns associated with giving one family singular control of the ocean. Unfortunately, truly light-capable Earth wildlife is somewhat limited outside of the Avialae family, especially when disregarding insects, which were not compatible with the Vector design process developed at the time. But there was another option worth pursuing, involving a creature with fantastic adaptation and lying ability and a unique challenge to the Vector designers. Bats arrived alongside birds in the third generation, and have shared the skies on uncertain terms ever since. With substantially fewer species included in their Vectorization, bats were an underdog in both diversity and population from day one. It’s bred in them a mentality of cutthroat cunning and deception that cats ind familiar, but instead of being aimed toward personal advancement, bats typically pay more attention to personal protection. They have a knack for picking out weaknesses and exploiting vital areas, and turning other people’s thoughts against themselves. By design or coincidence, this has put them at odds with the Avialae family on multiple occasions, as they’re already known for being one step from dangerously unhinged, and bats are quite good at picking out which direction to push. Which is not to say they’re all assholes who push people’s buttons all day, they just tend to know a bit more about the situations they go into than they let on, and they work that gray area to their advantage. Bats share a few Morphism quirks 24 with birds. Their taurs, for example, have wings on their backs and taloned feet, like
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birds do. While tauric birds are generally referred to as Angels, tauric bats bear the somewhat less pleasant title of “Gargoyles,” and most would just as soon have you not use it around them. While religion in many forms is very much still in existence in the post-human universe, “Angel” has been attached to tauric birds more irmly than it has to scripture. When the word is spoken aloud, the default thought is of a bird with wings coming out of its back instead of its arms. It is not inherently thought of as “angelic” in the traditional sense. Gargoyle, however, was a term adopted later in Vector history when images of ancient Earth buildings surfaced with statues that looked vaguely akin to tauric bats. Rather than feeling natural like the angel moniker, “gargoyle” was a virally popular title among other species that was socially forced on them, and has stuck ever since. Most bats
consider it at least somewhat derogatory. Bat Laterals are not seen with quite the same esteem as bird Laterals are by their own kind. Bird Laterals can exist pretty readily in most normal environments provided there’s something to perch on, and their family respects their superior light skills. Between light, noise, and inferior perching and walking ability, many bats have a much harder time of it. They tend to lock toward careers that take advantage of their quirks, which can be anything from underground mining to tight corridor maintenance in space stations. Typically, a Lateral bat can demand good money for the sort of work only they can do, as the other options tend to be much worse at it. Alas, said jobs are few and far between, and many of this admittedly rare breed live vagrant lives or join full-Lateral communities rather than attempt to bridge the gap.
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UNGULATAE It would probably shock most of Vector society to learn that “ungulatae” wasn’t even a word, much less a family, prior to the fall of humanity. Latin naming standards fell apart a bit once Latin was no longer a thing that could be referenced, and since then many names have drifted or been assembled out of what appeared to be common roots. These hooved Vectors have been lumped together since their introduction, as many of them are so unrelated to anything else that they’d be isolated otherwise. Unlike Rodentia, Ungulatae is quite united in several personality traits, including a powerful work ethic and somewhat notorious stubbornness (though the details do vary from species to species). They see themselves as one large group, though they’re not always particularly cohesive. Ungulatae contains a lot of “sibling rivalry,” the sort that comes from a family that loves each other, but doesn’t necessarily like each other all that much.
Horses The most common member of the Ungulatae family, and probably the most universally disliked by the rest of them. Horses are every employer’s
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favorite asset. They’re single-minded, strong, hardworking and dedicated to their tasks, and make for excellent and trustworthy employees. They also tend to be the measure by which the entire family is judged, so when other members (like deer) who operate differently come around, they’re often thought of as “lacking” by comparison. It’s led to more than a little friction, most notably between horses and cows. The horses themselves aren’t usually out to show anyone up, but they’re proud of their reputation, and most of them igure if other people had the same attitude, there wouldn’t be a problem. As dedicated as they are, you would think the upper echelon of corporate control would be illed with equines. They actually make up a very small percentage past a certain point on the corporate ladder, right about where the work stops being about eficiency and effort and starts being about creativity and dynamic solutions. Equine minds travel very hard and very fast in straight lines, and have a notably dificult time deviating from them. When put into positions of high authority, they tend to either try and do everything themselves instead of allocating tasks, or they try and transform their workforce into copies of themselves rather than working toward individual strengths. Both results are negative, and while there are certainly exceptions, the species as a whole is largely regarded as laborers rather than adapters. To a horse, the solution to most work problems is working harder. They are not, however, compelled to continue in quite the same way the Selachii family is. A shark will seek opportunities to be productive. They sleep little, move often, and pass up chances for fun or breaks to bury themselves in whatever they feel is worthwhile. Horses do whatever they’re doing to the best of their abilities, but don’t generally feel bound to look for something else when they’re done. Work comes in its own time; it always will. They play with gusto, sleep like rocks, and patiently await the next challenge to be handed to them. Most can’t igure out why the sharks are always trying to dig up the next problem. Most sharks can’t igure out why the horses 26 keep needing someone to hold their hands
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and point them to the next thing they should be doing. As a result, Ungulatae and Selachii tend to stay away from each other despite some obvious similarities. Deer are the exception, but then, they are for many things.
Cows If horses are easy to read, cows are big neon signs outlined in black poster marker. Like anyone, they come in a wide variety of personalities, but the species as a whole is almost devoid of pretense. You can typically igure out what sort of cow you’re dealing with within the irst minute of meeting them; they don’t tend to hide behind a social mask. Badgers and wolverines have been friends of the bovine species for ages, inding mutual respect in a collective attitude of give-no-shitery. Of the three, however, bovines tend to be a little less outright cantankerous. There has been a longstanding friction between cows and horses that stems almost entirely from their attitudes toward working. Cows pride themselves on being eficient and hard workers, much as horses do, but they’re much less willing to simply execute orders. They typically question things, insert their opinions, or, on occasion, outright change the order to whatever they feel will best accomplish it. In situations where the cow itself is intelligent and innovative, this is often a very valuable personality trait. In situations where the cow only thinks they’re intelligent and innovative, this is even more destructive than not doing the work at all. The result is a somewhat diminished public image of bovines next to equines and a reputation that includes “meddling,” both of which tend to royally piss off members of the species who represent the more positive aspects of questioning what’s handed to them. Socially, cows have one of the tougher times dealing with the Vector/animal divide. All Vectors are omnivores, and all Vectors have always existed with the knowledge that there is a fundamental difference between themselves and the animals their appearances are based off of. When that is (and always has been) a part of your culture, it isn’t terribly dificult to understand or adhere to. However, beef and similar grown protein based off beef is still a massive part of the Vector diet, and, social training or not, it’s a little tricky to ignore it. It doesn’t necessarily stop bovine Vectors from eating
cow, but it has led to them acting a little standoffish toward those families most likely to treat them poorly for the similarity. Cats and dogs, primarily. Many of the human moral issues with animal consumption haven’t survived their 700 year absence, as most meat is grown in labs now anyway. It takes less space and is more eficient than having to pro vide food and care and land. The issue is less them being concerned with animal rights, and more them being irate with being compared to something they’re not; a situation that is fairly uncommon with other Vector species.
Deer “Deer are what dolphins could be if they’d lighten up a bit. Or maybe what weasels could be if they laid off the drugs once in a while.” Energetic and vivacious, deer channel the famous Ungulatae persistence inward rather than outward, and are known for being enlightening, contemplative, and possessing of an almost infectious positivity. Deer make it their business to work on themselves before they work on other things, and attack the challenge with the same level of dedication their family is known for. For some, it’s maintaining a peak of physical condition. For others, it’s a pursuit of mental growth or wholeness of being. Perhaps it’s art, or music, or a particular talent or activity, but whatever it is, most deer deine themselves by how well they pursue it. They tend to be excellent specialists if you can make their work coincide with their personal growth. They can work well in situations that don’t, too, but if it’s in direct conlict with themselves, you won’t have to worry about it getting in the way. They won’t be working for you for very long. There is no “deer code of conduct” that tells them to pick an inner zen to focus on, and most deer probably couldn’t even point out their own if they were asked, but their friends and loved ones can see it in their behavior before too long. It brings a richness to their lives, and diminishes them if it’s absent. Despite it, they’re typically not obsessive compulsive. To a deer, truly achieving greatness in whatever it is you deine yourself with means inding a balance with it, in which both you and your pursuit are mutually rewarded. Sharks, who often lack that balance, have been known to ind strong companions in deer. They can remind the Selachii that their pursuit will be better served by pacing themselves, and they tend to do it from a position of experience, which is a little less annoying than someone just telling them to relax with no perspective of their own. Though not all species of deer grow antlers, it is a bit of a status symbol among those that do to possess them, particularly because they’re a pain to maintain. As a result, most deer 27 that grow antlers will look for ways to keep
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them without actually keeping them. Holography is a popular solution: cutting the antlers off at the base and afixing small holoprojectors to the stubs, which project the antlers fully grown. This also makes them particularly bright and allows
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for unique designs and effects, making them appear almost magical in nature. Other deer looking for a less lashy approach will cut off their antlers and ix attachable bases to them, to be left at home except for formal or decorative occasions where they can be clicked into place. Very few deer, even Laterals, actually leave a full head of horns in place through the entire season. Doorways become an issue, as do other people’s eyes.
Goats Goats are the black sheep of the Ungulatae family in terms of behavior. Horses think they’re lazy, cows think they’re obnoxious, deer think they’re aimless, and most of the rest of Vector kind thinks they’re absolutely brilliant if you’re quick enough to keep up with them. Goats are known for a sardonic wit and a casual disregard for authority. They’re generally perceived as troublemakers, but in a constructive sort of way. They break up the status quo, force things to be rethought, and it typically results in better solutions than the ones that were previously available. They’re not so concerned with their own image that they aren’t willing to make asses of themselves for the sake of forcing action. Most thinking teams and project boards will have one. By the end of the project, everyone who was looking at hours logged and deadlines met will wonder what the hell they actually contributed. Those people looking at the billion credit mistake that was pointed out in a side comment mere days before release will be buying them a beer, and perhaps a house, because no one else caught it. Outside of the workforce, goats share a goofball mentality with much of the Mustelidae family, and a similar knack for exhibiting surprising insight in unexpected areas. They get along well with birds as well, as both of them tend to be slightly off-center of normal. They do tend to be a little less forgiving of the goat habit of mockery and sarcasm, but for the most part goats can igure out how much rope they have to play with before they hang from it. Unlike deer, goat horns are typically small enough that they don’t present a major issue with everyday life. Most goats don’t cut their horns unless they’re forced to (typically by headgear like helmets). Those with large horns that cause impediments generally don’t have much choice but to ile them down or have them surgically stunted (gen-
erally at cost to the company if the job requires it), but if they do, they don’t follow the deer practice of mimicking them through holography. To goats, it’s a sign of the job, so they make it part of the look.
Gazelles Gazelles might not have made it as far as they have with so few numbers were it not for their almost war-like reputation. With the smallest population in Ungulatae, gazelles have carved a name for themselves in blood rather than be trodden over and forgotten under so many other feet. The species is known for refusal to compromise, an almost suicidal fearlessness, and for being present in nearly every major conlict at the actual killing level despite never having begun one as a collective whole themselves. If horses channel their self worth through their work ethic, and deer through their dedication to self-improvement, gazelles put their value on glory, both personal and public. Glory can come from a variety of sources, but the public remembers glory in battle more than it does most other events, and that’s typically the desirable option. Naturally, it hasn’t done much for their already meager population. To their credit however, they’re also known for being good at it. Gazelles tend to be minimalists, owning only what they need, wearing only what is required, and not adorning themselves with needless accessories. As a social practice, their concern is more with cultivating a name for themselves than a look. Curiously, while they rarely dress themselves up in extra accouterments, their living areas are among some of the most lavish of any species. Gazelles consider their homes, be it a ship, a room, or a building, to be an extension of themselves. As a result, they tend to be rather grand and personalized, and very com-
fortable. Gazelles are gracious hosts and use their homes, some of which have been in the same family since Mars was colonized, as a way to invite people into their conidence and show them what sort of person they’re dealing with. Few gazelles lead the nomad’s life or have careers in the stars unless they own their own ship, speciically because they like having a home to come back to. They do travel, however, from site to site for work or whatever is needed. Few conduct their business from their residence. Work is another form of social combat, one that can bring glory of its own, and you don’t let your enemy into your house or ight your battles from the living room. Like most reputations, the “warrior race” tag is somewhat overblown when applied to everyday interactions, but gazelles do have a habit of attacking the day’s activity like they’re trying for some sort of high score. They tend to attach undue importance to success, and are typically sore losers. Pulse recruiters tend to favor gazelle hires over other Ungulates, if not other Vectors entirely. They have somewhat compatible outlooks on life.
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ORDERS
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Not all displaced Vectors ended up in their own families. While some were near enough in appearance or mannerism to fall into a collected category, others were Vectorized with the express intent of being one-offs. Those few species were pulled into the two largest families in Sol: Canidae and Felidae. Though publicly considered to be of the dog and cat group in terms of attitude and reputation, they are nonetheless “different” than their adoptive families, and even though the connection has been present for centuries, there are times when either side of the arrangement will try and put a little distance between themselves and their other members.
Caniforms and Feliforms count as being part of the Canidae and Felidae family respectively for all rules not expressly changed in their entries. Socially, however, true members of those families are aware that Caniforms and Feliforms are not necessarily “oficial” members despite their status. How the character reacts to this fact (if they do at all) is up to them; the only ruling is that they are aware of it. Players should be aware that no species in the post-human Sol system walks around with a family card in their pocket declaring their pedigree by default; it is not considered tremendously important by the public whole. It can, however, be as important to your character as you wish it to be.
CANIFORMS Seals Aquatic (unlike most Aquatics, however, Lateral seals move at the same rate on land that tauric seals do)
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Seals were the prototype aquatic Vector. Introduced in the irst generation and subsequently boosted in the third with a few new species variations, they
were built from already-proven canine Vector technology and gave human scientists a good opportunity to experiment with sea life without having to dive directly into animals that spent their entire lives submerged. Eventually, dolphins and sharks would come to dominate this particular habitat, but it was the research and experimentation with seals that made that scientiic leap possible. They’re one of the few Vector races whose existence can be directly credited for the future creation of other Vectors, and they’re awarded a degree of respect for that fact from other aquatics. It’s a good thing, too, because it’s damned dificult to be a seal. Seal bipeds are smooth, sleek, a little stocky, and tend to look densely built. All in all, a ine and eficiently powerful design, noted for its generally small or absent ears (all Vectored seal species are earless seals) and dense, lippered tails. The genetic code that gave them tails to begin with when, by all rights, they shouldn’t have them, is the keynote in their design that later made it possible to do the same process to dolphins and sharks. Unlike those families, seals do not have ins on their limbs. They look a bit like thicker otters, and are otherwise not at any
particular physical disadvantage. Nearly every other body morphism, however, is particularly debilitating for a seal. Lateral seals are sorely outclassed by just about anything else that moves in any environment; they can’t outrun anything on land and can’t out-swim any aquatic Lateral underwater. Their taurs aren’t serpentine like other aquatics, but rather traditionally arranged, giving them the lower body of a seal and a standard torso. This limits their land locomotion to the scooting lurches of a Lateral seal. They can get reasonably good at it with practice, but it never gets easy, or elegant. They’re typically smaller than other tauric aquatics and much less imposing, and face even more resistance than snakes do when it comes to working in areas where high mobility is required. Snakes, at least, can comfortably spend long periods in a body socket. For tauric seals there are few comfortable options for increasing locomotion, and most industries that rely on quick action, such as ship crews, won’t risk the lives of others on a seal trying to scoot at full speed across the deck. All in all, it’s a recipe for a very bitter people. The reality is completely opposite, and for those captains and CEOs in the know about such things, a seal in the right position is worth their weight in gold, encumbrance or no. They are the quintessential optimists, known for facing every new challenge with infectious determination and clever problem solving skills. To seals, the fact that they’re still around, and in considerable numbers, is a tribute to the power of perseverance. They’re aware of their shortcomings, and they’re just as aware that they can overcome them if they’re smart about it. Most of them seek careers like research and development that don’t require much quick movement, and seal scientists have created some of the most noteworthy inventions in the known universe. TTI has hired so many of them in the past that they make up a substantial part of Europa’s population. It’s also where the majority of their morphisms end up. Biped seals are all over the system and in all walks of life, but for those with aberrant bodies, there are very few places one can go to thrive. Private industry is a big one. Beyond that, you really need to stand out in your chosen ield.
Raccoons In stark contrast to Lateral seals are Lateral raccoons, which are largely considered some of
the most genuinely useful Laterals in the system due to their manual dexterity. Raccoons are also thought of as a “prototype” species, though their implementation was more of a ix than a plan. Latecomers to the third generation, raccoons were genetically programmed as an attempt to “cure” Lateralism over time. They were built with a predisposition toward the morphism, and contained a corrective agent in their own genetic structure that was hoped to slowly remove it from the entire Vector race as they interbred with other Laterals. Even the use of this particular species was related to that goal; it was thought that perhaps a Lateral with near-human hand dexterity would be a more appealing mate to other Laterals, thus increasing the likelihood of the “cure” succeeding. Naturally, the entire premise was doomed to failure the moment other Vectors found out about it. Conlicts of interest that had not existed before exploded overnight as soon as the intention of the raccoon populous was discovered. Vector kind largely didn’t have an issue with Laterals; as far as they were concerned, they were part of the breed. A dificult part, yes. An undesirable condition, probably. But still part of what a Vector was. That was their life, and a part of their culture, and humanity (who, frankly, was not considered the best judge of ethical behavior at this point) was attempting to “cure” them of it, as though they could sweep a mistake under the rug. Naturally the scientists involved had thought they were doing what was best for Vector kind, but this marked the irst noteworthy conlict between the last remnants of humanity and the young race of Vectors. The “cure” was scrapped mere hours before the growth process began, and raccoons were added to the race of Vector as standard members, rather than as genetic assassins. History, alas, does not hold an accurate account of exactly what was needed to convince those in charge to scrap their idea. It’s not without its irony; while the “cure” was removed, the genetic predisposition toward Lateralism was not. Raccoon children are close to 30% Laterals, a massive increase over the general Vector population, 31 whose Laterals range between 1% and 5%
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on average depending on location. As species go, raccoons are much less team-oriented than other members of Canidae, and typically work in small groups or on solo projects when it can be managed. They’re social enough, but they tend to want things done their way, and don’t fall into hierarchies very well. They’re often hired as consultants or specialists, and are usually discontent with having to answer directly to someone else unless they happen to be someone they ind either personally appealing or unquestionably superior in their particular ield.
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Feliforms Mongooses Easily mistaken for weasels at irst glance, the mongoose is a Felidae wild card, with the emphasis on wild. While most of the Felidae family shows a distinct aptitude for manipulating the system and maneuvering the nuanced corridors of commerce and power, mongooses are personal, patient and vicious tools to be wielded by those with fewer scruples than most. Mongooses typically exhibit little drive for personal glory or excessive power, but make for great personal bodyguards or extensions of your will when you need to send a message. Even the rest of Felidae tends to give them shifty glances from time to time, when they’re not busy hiring them. Attitude, more than appearance, kept the mongoose out of the Mustelidae family. Though similar in body to ferrets and weasels, the differences in lean limb shape and jaw structure are apparent when placed side by side, and the difference in personality is equally apparent. Where weasels are generally bright, energetic and active, mongooses tend to skulk and brood, and usually withhold comment until solicited for it. They’re so conspicuous it’s inconspicuous, and they’ve learned to use that to their advantage. So have other members of the felidae family, and as such, they’ve earned a permanent home there. Mongooses provide one of the clearer examples of Vectors deviating in behavior from their animal templates in their relationship with snakes, who they actually work rather well with. Both species tend to be patient and meticulous planners with a cold detachment and an eye for detail, and both tend to approach targets, be they literal or igurative, with the intent to remove them via the most effective means possible. They recognize each others’ value and usually make for effective team members. On the other hand, they’re notoriously problematic when paired with birds. Probably because they both have a tendency to go a little further than the situation calls for, sometimes violently, and with each other.
Hyenas Hyenas and mongooses both exist in the Vector pool to provide anatomical variety to the Felidae family. At least, that’s the party line. Most of these single species inclusions were wrapped up in larger tests to prove certain technologies or check certain theories and wound up being too functional to outright “discontinue,” so they were added to the bulk population for the sheer purpose of boosting the headcount and providing more genetic variety. Hyenas do a pretty good job with that, and are the Felidae members other members sigh and roll their eyes about when they come up in conversation. Hyenas are known for a degree of code-
pendence. They work well in groups and have an almost canine pack mentality toward many of their activities, but they tend to be unfocused or outright undisciplined when forced to work alone. Felines are known for being social butterlies already, but hyenas take the family trait and knock it up a notch. They’re very good at making new friends; they just have a hard time iguring out when it’s time to leave. Most hyenas don’t have an innate need to pester people, but they do seem to have a knack for the process, and it makes them very well suited for pressure-related work. A job that requires a certain degree of stalking, intimidation and social pressure is ideally suited to this species, and their somewhat gruff appearance makes them all the better at it. Jackals share many of the same personality traits, and the two are some of the more commonly found famous Canidae/Felidae teams. Hyenas are somewhat noteworthy in the Felidae world for being very fond of their Lateral members instead of viewing them as tools or burdens. Lateral hyenas work alongside their own kind in most ields, and are granted liberties to make up for their shortcomings. It’s suspected the bipeds ind them “cute,” but the reality is probably closer to a need to keep one’s family close when one is the only type of their particular kind.
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SPECIES Ursidae * This family cannot make tail attacks without surgical assistance.
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BEAR: Navigate, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Black: Science, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Grizzly: Command, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Polar: Survival, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Panda: Investigation, and 2 proiciencies of your choice
DelphNIdae DOLPHIN: Express, and 2 proiciencies
of your choice Bottlenose: Athletics, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Orca: Sneak, and 2 proiciencies of your choice White-sided: Operate, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Spinner: Deception, and 2 proiciencies of your choice
Selachii SHARK: Intimidate, and 2 proiciencies of your choice
Nurse: Medicine, and 2 proiciencies of your choice
Tiger: Survival, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Thresher: Navigate, and 2 proiciencies of your choice
Mako: Athletics, and 2 proiciencies of your choice
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Rodentia RAT: Operate, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Mouse: Repair, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Squirrel: Science, and 2 proiciencies of your choice
Rabbit: Pilot, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Bat: Bats are capable of light, and receive 2 proi ciencies of their choice.
Ungulatae HORSE: Athletics, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Cow: Medicine, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Deer: Express, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Goat: Deception. and 2 proiciencies of your choice Gazelle: Streetsmarts, and 2 proiciencies of your choice
Order: Caniforms Seal: Inspire, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Raccoon: Operate, and 2 proiciencies of your choice
Order: Feliforms Hyena: Express, and 2 proiciencies of your choice Mongoose: Sneak, and 2 proiciencies of your choice
MORPHISMS This section includes new Morphisms available for any species in HSD, including those from the Core rulebook and other expansions. Additionally, there are a few modiied rules in here for applying previously existing Morphisms to some of the new species in this book, as their physical construction is different enough to warrant it. Players playing Aquatic characters should note the Aquatic rules as well. Public reactions in this book have been expanded to include individual species, social groups, and even other Morphisms rather than just families.
Morphism Modifications Lateralism Members of the Selachii family who take this Morphism have their bite attack Base Damage changed to: Body: Strength *2 and their size to Large.
M O R P H I S M S
Twin-tailed Aquatic Vectors are not susceptible to this Morphism, as their tails were the result of different engineering in their bipedal forms and do not contain the same vulnerability.
Ungulatae The Plantigrade/Digitigrade Morphism is not available for Ungulatae characters. They may instead pick the “Hooved” Morphism and gain either the Hooved beneits or the beneits described in Plantigrade/digitgrade. Ungulatae characters that are not horses usually have some sort of horns or antlers. This is a part of life and does not give the beneits of the Horns Morphism. If your character has taken particular pride in their horns and you wish to use those abilities, you can take the Horns Morphism to relect that. Otherwise, they simply exist as narrative anatomy and are largly ignorable.
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HORNS
M O R P H I S M S
Also applicable to antlers, this Morphism has triggered growth in your skull to include protrusions generally reserved for members of the Ungulatae family. The coniguration can vary, even including shapes typically not found in the wild, such as a single horn or a unique rack of antlers. While generally considered to be physically attractive, they make everyday life rather dificult. Most people with this Morphism will either shave their horns down to more manageable spikes, or be lucky enough to live in an environment that doesn’t begrudge them the headgear. The horns Morphism may be ignored if a character shaves their horns down to within two inches of their head, at which point they become more a plot element than a mechanical one. There are enough Vectors with horns that helmets are constructed to accommodate the protrusion of smaller ones. Pros and cons are written for fully formed horns.
Drawbacks: Helmets do not it on you. Custom helmets for face and head protection can be ordered (add 10 credits to the cost of the armor, or helmet if purchased separately), but will not provide you with vacuum protection and as such are not space-rated. There is no commonly purchasable solution for this: antlers are not a luxury one gets to maintain outside of the atmosphere. Your character will need to purchase a custom helmet for any vacume suit they wish to wear (add 10 credits to the cost of the suit) or cut off thier horns, which will regrow in about a month. Additionally, depending on the size and shape of your horns, you may be considered to be taller or wider than many door frames. This comes down to you and your Guide, but is generally relected as a -1 to your movement score while inside buildings.
Perks:
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Culturally, even outside the Ungulatae family, horns are viewed as a luxury and somewhat exotic, and have the rather
unique beneit of being a relection of the owner. They can make you look classy and distinguished, or grungy and dangerous. Maintaining a set adds +1 dice to ALL Community rolls with the exception of Community: Acuity, but your character must dress the part. Walking into a drug deal with a street-worn jacket, ratty jeans and antlers that look like they were just lacquered and polished will send a mixed signal, possibly even hurting your image rather than helping it. Additionally, Horns are certainly dense enough to hurt someone, but they also break and Vector necks are not intended to support the sort of impacts required to use them effectively. To relect this, their combat potential is factored into their momentum ability rather than in a weapon proile.
Momentum Trigger: Successfully grapple an enemy.
Momentum Effect: You gain a new Grapple ability. Activate it like any other Grapple ability. If successful, you do Body:Strength+1 lethal damage to your enemy that cannot be parried and does not require you to release your grapple. This technique targets the face, and has no effect against an enemy with a fully enclosed helmet (your horns will break before the armor does).
Momentum breaks when: Your grapple is broken or redirected.
Public Reaction: Rabbits: You lucked out! Jackalopes are considered good luck on ships; you might be able to pull in a job on looks alone. Delphinidae: That’s juuuust about the oddest thing I’ve ever seen on a phin. It’s hard to take you seriously. Trim them maybe? They might look alright as little spikes... Ursidae: I like it! Keep ‘em big, they sit well on a bear’s skul-OW! ASS, CUT THEM OFF!” Avialae: I’m genuinely shocked you haven’t trimmed those off. They can’t make lying easy. Jackal: I’m going to be so disappointed if you trim those off. I need someone to be my public face, are you interested?
BIOLUMINESENCE This is a ghost in the genes; no one is entirely sure what caused it to begin with. No Vectored family has this trait as an inherent function of its members, and records of experiments with it are sparse, usually consisting of its observation rather than its initiation. Nonetheless, Vectors with luminous fur or eyes or mouths have cropped up from time to time. The effect is pretty, if a little distracting. Vectors don’t have direct control over their luminescence in most situations, but practice can usually teach them how to luctuate their brightness.
Drawbacks: Bioluminescent Vectors generally have at least six to eight individual points of illumination on their body: two on the face, two on the torso, and a varying amount on the arms and legs. If any of these points are physically visible, anyone attempting to locate the Vector visually receives +1 dice to their Spot roll (unless the setting is of full-daylight brightness).
Perks: As the Atypical Patterning Morphism. Additionally, you can force your illumination to be high enough to serve as a diffused light emanating from yourself. This ability works underwater. While in use, the Spot bonus from your Drawback increases to +2.
Momentum Trigger: Use a supportive action to gather chemical energy. Roll Body:Presence+Athletics or Science. Take note of your number of successes. You may only do this once per combat, for one turn.
Momentum Effect: You may add +1 dice to a parry check or grant yourself +1 cover against an enemy that is using Fire a Single Shot. You can do this as many times as you rolled successes. At least half of your luminescent areas must be visible.
Momentum breaks when: You run out of accumulated charges from your supportive action.
Public Reaction: Ursidae: Aren’t you a shiny little eyesore. I’d keep that covered up; it’s not going to do you any favors. Delphinidae: I always wished I could get that. Maybe I’ll have it implanted some day. Between you and me, aquatics wear it best. Reptilia: Well. That’s a thing. Mustelidae: Can you do light shows? YOU CAN. I love you. Rats: Contain that distraction while in public, please.
FOLLOWED
M O R P H I S M S
Though qualiied as a Morphism due to its nature as a clear aberration of general Vector DNA, followed Vectors were not modiied because of some mistake in a genet icists lab. They are the children of parents who both had transcendent implants of high enough Cuil to alter them on a fundamental level, and their progeny bear the stigmata of that transformation. Followed Vectors do not have their own shadow. Instead, their shadow resembles some twisted variation of a completely different form; an outline of a larger, otherworldly creature with distinctly different anatomy and posture. Its actions follow its owners, but only in the sense that it stays attached to your feet like a shadow should. Beyond that, it will move, sway or otherwise behave like the shadow of an entirely different creature. The physics of the phenomenon are as bafling as its appearance, and followed Vectors are currently classiied as “stable abstractions” by TTI scientists. Essentially, it’s believed that somewhere between themselves and the surface their shadow falls on is a Cuil effect that, as yet, has not been qualiied. To the owner, it makes little difference. They are forever left with the question of whether or not the thing on the wall is themselves through the lens of another reality, or something else entirely, following them around. Followed Vectors are immensely unnerving to those around them, though it isn’t always obvious as to why. In diffused light their shadow might not be any more obvious than 37
a splotch on the wall, but it moves when they don’t, and leaves those around them with the feeling that something is lurking just out of view. It’s also a very new phenomenon, and a great deal of people have no idea what it is or what causes it. By far the least common morphism, followed Vectors only began appearing after the introduction of transcendent implants, and only with the breeding of two such implanted people, and even then, only in rare occasions when the implants resonated in the right way. The condition has a century of recorded history behind it, but it happens so rarely that most have only heard of it, if even that.
M O R P H I S M S
Drawbacks:
This condition cannot be hidden. Armored, clothed, nude or otherwise, the shadow you cast will always be that of a wholly alien creature. While it mimics your motions in a general sense, at times it will twitch or turn on its own, as though reacting to things that aren’t there. It is no more vivid than a normal shadow, and as such does not typically affect attempts to hide out of sight or in a shaded area, but in spots where it can be noticed it can range from unnerving to terrifying depending on the viewer. There is no dice mechanic for this, every viewer is different. As a general rule, though, unless there is direct lighting and an absence of other movement in the room, it’s tough for someone who is unfamiliar with you to really pin down what’s wrong. Almost universally, though, upon discovery you will be mentally linked with TTI, any local stigmata associated with transcendent manifestations, and a security risk, as it is the general public opinion that the creature in your shadow is something else entirely. This could result in anything from a nonchalant of the whole situa38 dismissal tion to an aggressive and
violent action depending on where you are and who you’re talking to. Additionally, TTI scientists are presently forbidden from installing transcendent implants into people with this condition. Very little testing has been done on the interaction between the shadow and the implant, but enough evidence exists to suggest they would not coexist favorably. People with this Morphism may only receive Transcendent Implants through non-oficial channels, and as such will never beneit from the presence of TTI hospitals or employees during its initial manifestation.
Perks: Much like your drawback, your perk is related to who’s looking and why. To some, you’re an interesting novelty, and that quirk might serve as a conversation starter. Others may be interested in business opportunities in exchange for research or observation rights. As a player, this is a dificult quirk to leverage, as generally people who are too interested may go to somewhat extreme measures to get what they want, but it does open up Guide dialog and story opportunities that might otherwise not exist. Additionally, your shadow is aware (at some bizarre level) of the presence of transcendent phenomena in your general vicinity. Its behavior will change when you are within 100 feet of someone with a transcendent implant, or if the Cuil Bloom in your general area has changed. The shadow’s motions are too erratic already for anyone other than the owner to really detect a change of behavior, so the owner must declare that they’re looking at their shadow to see if it’s reacting oddly, at which point the Guide will inform them if it is. The shadow does not change its behavior based on direction or vicinity, though, so it cannot be used to locate speciic things, just to warn you if something nearby is odd.
Momentum Trigger: A Transcendent Implant within your visual range is activated.
Momentum Effect: You may immediately surrender your entire next turn to drag the Cuil level the implant is activating at down by one level (5 becomes 4, 4 becomes 3) to a minimum of 1. You may only use this ability once per combat, and not on your own implants. This is an instinctual ability, it happens off-the-cuff and cannot be accessed outside of a combat situation (though many scary people in lab coats would love to know how you did it).
Momentum breaks when:
Used.
Public Reaction: General media: Okay, we’ll need to make sure the lighting is diffused when you appear on streams. Keep the cameras off the loors and walls, we don’t want it appearing in press releases. If people start
asking about it, we’re going to have to take you off the air, I’m sorry. I can’t risk this network’s reputation getting tied with...whatever caused that. Corporate leadership: Excellent intimidation tool, frankly. I want you at my side in meetings. Don’t speak, just sit there. Keep them looking over their shoulders. R&D: I’m afraid your shadow represents a potential security risk; you’re going to have to stay behind the line. Tell me what you want, and I’ll get it for you. “R&D”: Hi! Glad to meet you! Hey, why don’t you come with me into the back room here and tell me if this rag smells like chloroform or not. General public: One is not supposed to hold children responsible for the actions of their parents, but seeing you, I can’t imagine the apple fell far from the tree.
LEVER-STANCED
M O R P H I S M S
Taurs and Laterals make up the majority of aberrant body types among Vectors, and just about everyone has met one or the other at one (likely several) point in their lives. Leverstanced Vectors are distinctly rarer, and mark one of the few “natural” morphisms that even Vectors consider to look a bit weird. Lever-stanced Vectors have robust legs and reinforced hips and tails that allow (well, force) them to adopt an almost T-shape as they move, vaguely akin to the assumed posture of many bipedal dinosaurs on Earth (though it’s unlikely any Vector would catch the reference). This morphism makes for a very high degree of mobility and agility, but also involves a nearly complete internal restructuring of the body. It typically results in large, thick legs, an upper torso with almost animal-like styling, an extremely long tail that’s held aloft to counterbalance the forward body, and grasping, clawed feet. A longer neck and almost wedge-like shape to the face is also a typical trait, as it allows for a greater range of head motion while the body is tilted forward. The lever-stance is signiicant for another reason: it’s the only morphism speciically known to be a deliberate result of human meddling. Some hold suspicions about 39
taurism due to the complexity of its anatomical changes, but the lever-stance was no mistake; there is nothing remotely like it in the Vector genome of any family that might “accidentally” result in it’s spontaneous creation. Someone invented it at some point during the second generation, and keyed it to speciic Vector families, where it has stayed ever since. Like many mysteries from the bygone age of humanity, this one too has no certain answer, but suspicions range from experimentation to outright negligence, and a few (mostly those who hold that the Master’s Voice phenomenon was a deliberate attempt at a human safe-word) feel that it adds to the ever growing stack of evidence that there was more to the Vector program than is taught in the history books.
M O R P H I S M S
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Drawbacks: Only Canidae, Felidae, Avialae and
Reptilia families may take this Morphism. This does not include any Orders associated with those families. Snakes may take this Morphism and regain their arms and legs to assume the described posture. Lever-stance Vectors take up two hexes like taurs do, and follow the same turning limitation. Armor and equipment is purchased using taur prices+5 credits, as it needs to be customized even further to it this abnormal shape. -1 to Body:Presence rolls to hide in crowds. -1 to Operate or Pilot checks if they involve sitting in a cockpit or small control center; your posture does not conform to most seating or control layouts.
Perks: While jumping, ignore the maximum distance limitations. While climbing, if a lever-stance Vector has access to a ledge or pole they can grip with their feet, they can ascend at full speed rather than half. While falling, begin calculating damage at 20 feet rather than 10.
Momentum Trigger: Successfully Success fully grapple an enemy
Momentum Effect: You have access to the Skylift grapple action despite not being able to ly. Rather than rolling Body:Strength+Fly, roll Body:Strength+Athletics. The remaining rules apply. You will require your arms to hold the enemy and your legs to leap. Your character only ascends 15 feet in this version of the maneuver; however, the fall damage to the enemy will begin calculating from that height rather than ignoring the irst 10 feet as normal.
Momentum breaks when: Your grapple is broken or redirected.
Public reaction: Canidae: You have the skills our business is looking for; for ; however, however, I’m afraid I can’t ind a position po sition for you at this time. Once your body-replacement operation is complete, come back and talk to us again. Felidae: Okay, Okay, I admit it, I like it. The long tail is super neat, and you’ve got this sort of leggy... thing..going for you. I’d be jealous if not for the fact that I enjoy sitting in chairs. Reptilia: I don’t know what it is, but we seem to wear this well. I mean, you still look odd, but oddly...less...odd. As genetic lotteries go, I’d much rather be you than a taur. Avialae: I won’t lie. You’re horrifying. horrifyin g. In a neat way, mind you, but still. Mustildae: You ever walk down the street and see someone you’re fairly sure wants to eat you? That’s every L-stand critter ever. You all look like you’re looking for a way to get away with cannibali-stop that. You’re doing it again. Stop that right now.
TUSKS Saberteeth also fall in this category. Your mouth has been re-sculpted to include an impressive, if somewhat inconvenient, set of tusks or saberteeth. Though not generally as large on Vectors as they are on their animal counterparts, these will easily extend past your lower jaw, and are substansubstan -
tially thicker than your other teeth. They won’t help your bite much (if anything, they get in the way) but they’re actually quite solidly built, and offer your jaw a fair degree of protection. Avians with this Morphism have beaks that end in a blunted shape with two long “fang” shapes to the sides rather than a hook in front.
M O R P H I S M S
Ungulatae like to call this “antlers for cheaters.” In many families, saberteeth hold similar style and appeal to horns and antlers and are generally considered a distinguished, if not attractive, trait. Unlike antlers, these teeth are only inconvenient to the owner and not a terrible impediment to the other people in the room, so Vectors who have them will typically keep them. Getting one’s own fangs scrimshawed by talented artists is a status symbol sym bol in many circles both wealthy and otherwise. One sabersaber toothed tiger, CEO of a multi-billion credit company, made headlines when he dropped nearly ifty thousand credits in the lap of a street artist in return for scrimshawing one of his fangs 41
in a full-sheath. full-sh eath. The etching was done right there on the street corner, while his bodyguards shared a bench with the artist’s friends. So beloved was the fang that after his death, it was placed in a MarsCo (who eventually purchased his company) museum, and is currently valued at ive times what he paid for the work. Ironically, the artist himself was lost to obscurity when his ifteen minutes of fame ended, and the tooth itself doesn’t even have his signature on it.
M O R P H I S M S
Drawbacks: Your headgear must be customized if it’s going to fully encl enclose ose your face. Add 10 credits to the cost of the armor (or helmet if purchased separately). Additionally, your character loses their Bite attack. Vector facial structures, both Lateral and normal, are not designed to open wide enough to allow teeth of that size to do much more than obstruct a good offensive bite.
Perks:
with us, but at the same time I’m glad I didn’t end up with any tusks. They seem like they’d be a pain. Saberteeth, though, on a harp seal? That would be the most ador-er. Well. I think it would work better, anyway. Mice: The absurdity of this is priceless. GO KICK SOME ASS. Felidae: Once you’re done polishing we’ll be ready to shoot the commercial. Canidae: Heheh, that’s worth having just to make the cats grumpy. Avialae: At irst glance I thought you might be injured or something, but the look sort of grows on you after a while.
HOOVED The default leg structure of the Ungulatae family is a digitigrade leg terminating in a hoof. That coniguration has hopped families to you. This can provoke a mixed bag of reactions from attraction to revulsion, but as practical detriments go, it isn’t a huge detriment to your quality of life. After all, an entire family of Vectors has legs like these; there is plenty of clothing and seating available for you. When selecting this Morphism, choose whether you will have cloven hooves or a fused hoof.
Like antlers, saberteeth and tusks are generally thought of as a distinctive feature when properly maintained. “Properly” is contextual. Some corps like to see them clean and crisp and white, while some organizations may want to see them stained red or showing some kind of personalized adornment like rings or carvings. Gain +1 to all Community checks except except for Community:Acuity Community:Acuity in situations where the way your tusks look meshes well with the local culture.
-1 to Swim checks unless some sort of mechanical assistance is employed. -1 to Sneak checks unless your hooves have been silenced by some sort of shoeing.
Momentum Trigger:
Perks:
Successfully grapple an enemy.
Momentum Effect: Every time the enemy attempts to resist or redirect the grapple, they take Body:Strength+1 lethal damage. This does not apply if the enemy is armored.
Momentum breaks when: Your grapple is broken or redirected.
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Public Reaction: Seals: You know, it’s a natural thing
Drawbacks Dra wbacks (both types):
You gain access to a new sort of footwear: shoeing. Shoeing treatments are typically sprayon, cost 15 credits and last about two weeks. They are always on once applied, and can’t be removed without grinding them off at a store that sells related products. When clad in coverage-level 3 armor, armor, your hooves are assumed to be covered and this Morphism is effectively disabled. Rubberized: A Rubberized: A gel-like, dense silicone spray that provides you with extra grip and a silent stride. +1 to Athletics checks related to balance or stability outside of combat. This shoeing negates the -1 to Sneak checks. Plated: Plated: A metallic sheath that armors your
hoof and grants it a cleat-like grip. +1 to Athletics checks related to climbing or running. When moving over dificult terrain in combat, you get one more free hex than your Athletics score normally allows.
Polished: Polished: Polished, shined and buffed, your hooves are the natural equivalent to a nice pair of shoes and help make you look more “exotic” and less “genetic freak”. +1 to Express checks assuming the rest of your attire supports the look.
Momentum Trigger: Dedicate your entire battle pool to as many movement actions as you can make. You may not take attack actions this round.
Momentum Effect: Your movement is unaffected by dificult terrain caused by uneven or rough surfaces or steep climbs (but not actual, vertical climbing). Some degree of logic should be applied to this: if the terrain is dificult because of something entirely unrelated to the loors, this does not apply.
Momentum breaks when:
Used.
M O R P H I S M S
Public reaction: Ursidae: That’s a solid attention-getter attention-getter right there. Delphinidae: Ah, there we go. THAT’S the oddest thing I’ve seen on a phin. Felidae: At least yours are cloven. The fused ones always looked clumsy to me. People who have them seem to manage well enough, but the appearance is just chunky. Aviale: I’m not even sure how to classify classif y you. I wonder if that makes it easier to land, or harder? Mustilidae: They’re like built in all-terrain boots! I’d put up with the staring for the utility.
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F A M I L I E S
Te alligator beside Charon giggled and twisted her prosthetic around, expanding her view to a variety o different directions beore letting go to allow it to hover in the zero gravity environment o the ship. Charon tried to hold back her laughter, with less than stellar success. “Sexy, darling,” she said sarcastically. Inno leaned back and grinned proudly while her eye remained alof on the cord in her socket. “Why the tether?” Charon asked, “It doesn’t need one, does it?” Inno winked with her remaining organic eye and the tether retracted, pulling the prosthetic back into place in her head. “I spend so much time in null,” she explained, “I figured it might be a good idea to have a way to keep it attached i I got shaken around or something. It can be really disorienting i one o these goes spinning out o your head while it’s still casting.” “I can believe it,” Charon winced, trying to get the thought o her vision traveling in two different directions in a zero gravity collision out o her mind beore her breakast demonstrated a
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similar set o behaviors. “But why the optical cable? You could have lef that wireless.” Inno leaned back in her chair and gazed out the window, absently flicking her finger against the metal rame o her mechanical orearm. “Honestly,” she admitted afer a moment. “I don’t like the idea o people looking through my eyes. I mean, I know the chances o someone breaking into the vision o a random spacer with no inherent value is pretty damn slim, but...the idea bugs me.” She shivered a little. “Te cable means there’s no signal to abduct. Unless they want to be awully obvious about it.” Charon was doing her best not to laugh, and managed to make a restrained nod. It didn’t ool anyone, and shortly afer she was deending hersel against a hail o tail slapping. “Sorry!” she laughed, “It’s just a liiiittttle bit paranoi-” “I know!” Inno retorted, throwing up her arms, “I cant help it! I’ve had two different limbs replaced, okay? You pick up a ew neuroses along the way.” She crossed her arms in a mock huff and chuckled a bit. “I think I’m just worried I’m going to walk by
F A M I L I E S
a radio antenna one day and my arm is going to start trying to strangle me or something.” “You didn’t want them regrown?” Charon asked. Her green companion shook her head. “Sort o a...morbid, tactical dec ision,” she explained. “I lost the arm in a routine maintenance operation where a simple mistake got it crushed to a pulp. It could easily happen again. Frankly, one time eeling that is enough.” She chuckled a little. “Tat might be paranoia too.” “Maybe,” Charon said with a wince, “maybe not. I think I’m on board with that one, actually.” “So...the whole ‘Blip’ thing...” Inno asked, trying somewhat unsuccessully to be delicate, “does it bother you?” Charon checked her console again, peering at the display in ront o her. “Not so much, these days,” she replied, satisfied with the work. She twiddled with the long whiskers hanging rom her muzzle. “It used to, when I was younger. No one wants to be that different growing up.”
“But you like it now?” “I think I always have,” she said, catching a glimpse o hersel in the reflected light on the canopy. “I just didn’t like how other people reacted to it. It took a long time to realize that those were two different things.” She sighed a bit and shrugged. “It’s lie, you know? It’s what I am. I’m lucky, in a way. Tere are plenty o people out there whose parents put a lot less thought into how their children would grow up.” “I guess there’s that,” Inno considered. “Well, then what has you out here doing runs between planets? I can’t imagine that was part o the plan.” Te pink Blip smirked. “I got to thinking I should start working on my own plan, instead o ollowing theirs. I wasn’t really sure I liked where it was going.” Inno grinned. “Sounds a little bit paranoid,” she said, reclining in her seat harness. “I can get behind that.”
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BLIPS
B L I P S
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Of the millions of potential species on Earth that could have been included in the Vector project, the actual number selected was pretty minimal. Some were chosen for practical reasons, while others were chosen simply because they were available or due to a personal fondness of the project managers. Because Vectors are essentially custom built, incompatibility between species wasn’t all that large an issue, as those qualities were essentially rewritten into new code anyway. Eventually though, limits had to be set and the project had to reach a conclusion, and what made it through, for whatever reasons, was established as “the Vector race.” The technology to create a Vector didn’t vanish when the project ended (though the labs were disassembled). In the long years following the conclusion of the Vector project, there have been a few noteworthy additions to the line (mice being the largest). Some have not endured to the present day, either having been shunned to the point of exiting the breeding pool, or simply not having suficient numbers to begin with. Typically though, the whole concept of adding to the Vector race is a carefully avoided practice. When you contribute to the whole, you’re on the hook for it if things go wrong. To this day, the only company to have successfully integrated a brand new, equal member to Vector society and survived to the present day is ASR. Mice are the footnote for successful organic contributions, but the corp that made them is long gone. Independent lifeforms, however, are a very
different story. It’s not particularly dificult, or even expensive, to create a new one-off life form from scratch provided it follows all the basic rules for existence (eats, drinks, etc.) and you possess all the knowledge and equipment for the task. You can’t do it using the Vector template, as that would introduce a new breeding member to the overall gene pool and could have profound repercussions for everyone further down the line if it turned out your science wasn’t quite as hot as you thought it was, but if you make someone from your own template, someone who can’t breed with Vectors, then the law in most areas simply treats the new life form as a “child,” and requires all the things a child would normally require. It’s a lonely existence; they’ll be the only one of their kind, doomed to never reproduce, but that doesn’t mean they can’t live full lives as contributing members of society on their own. There are several guidelines in place for the creation of a Blip, as they’re commonly known, and how they differentiate from bio-probes and other artiicial life forms. The big ones are ability and intelligence. Blips exist (legally) as a means for geneticists to experiment with different functional combinations over the long term, or as a way for wealthy families to create unique, designer offspring. For them to enjoy all the same rights and privileges as a normal Vector, they have to follow certain genetic rules. Among other things, they need to be roughly the same size, have the same brain design, the same anatomical symmetry, and the same physical potential as a Vector. These igures are easy to reference, so with a little testing and documentation a Blip can be proven to be no more “super powered” than any other naturally born Vector would be, and as such, not require any of the careful scrutiny given to things like bio-probes which often vastly exceed several of the biological limitations of Vectors. They have to begin life as newborns, like anyone else would. Intelligence and free will are also essential to the creation of a legal Blip; if a Blip is created without the potential to grow up and exist on its own as any adult would, it is generally looked upon as a deliberate attempt to build a slave. What differentiates a slave Blip from a bio-probe (which are slave-like by deinition) is a curious and somewhat mutable moral boundary that has been argued from both sides for centuries. It would probably shock a great many people if they could take said arguments and lay them side by side with similar ones from Earth
during the irst days of the Vector project. There are uncanny similarities. Blips are pretty uncommon, as they do represent someone putting considerable work into what essentially is a normal child that looks different from everyone else. They average around 1 in 500,000 and are extremely expensive to commission (though the technology to actually create them is very cheap, which is why most Blips are the children of biotechnologists who have the know-how to do the work themselves and just need to rent time on the equipment). They’re also a risky venture socially; Blips bring out one of the few cases of outright racism present in Vector society. Many Vectors have various views on various other species, but it’s mitigated by a feeling of connection due to their common origins. Blips don’t share that common origin. They’re the efforts of one (probably very well-to-do) individual who decided standard reproduction wasn’t good enough for their vision of the future and created a unique piece of work instead. Some Vectors see this as artistic. Some see it as grotesque vanity. Regardless of the positive or negative, few see them as “Vectors.” Even those who are ine with Blips still recognize that they’re not exactly part of the family. It can be a dificult life to live. Blips can integrate very successfully with the right groups, but they will always be aware of how different they are.
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BUILDING A BLIP Building a Blip follows many of the same rules as building a Vector, but requires additional support from the Guide in order to preserve the feeling of the setting they’re narrating.
Choose your appearance Begin by deciding how you want to look. Blips allow players to create characters from any animal species on Earth, even if they didn’t make it into the Vector process. They can also allow players to custom design an appearance of their own, provided it doesn’t violate one of the stipu- 47
lations listed above. The Guide should be a part of this process in order to make sure whatever is being selected its the feeling of the game you’re playing. Some HSD campaigns are humorous and embrace rather off-the-wall ideas, and Blips could end up being some pretty silly stuff without harming the game. Others focus on the grit and horror factors, and a comedic Blip would only distract from the narrative. Where this line falls is up to you and your Guide, so talk it over.
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Deine your origin
All Blips are artiicially created, but there can be many reasons for how the decision to make one came to be. You’ll want to decide on what precipitated your creation, because unlike most Vectors, that force is probably still a factor in your life. Even though Blips grow up and move on like most people do, they aren’t “normal” children, and their families (who or whatever they may be) tend to have a vested interest in what they’re doing. The creator of a Blip has no legal hold over them once they reach adulthood, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have an emotional one, either positive or negative. All characters have origins that help deine who they become later in life, but Blips are the only ones that will be regularly asked, well into adulthood: “why do you exist?” It’s good to know how your character reacts to that question, and what it has done to shape them.
Choose your Stat boost Based on your appearance, one of your Body or Mind scores should get a 1 dot boost, as it does with all Families. Discuss the most likely one with your Guide and look to similar families in the books for examples. Blips do have a social problem due to their very nature, however. To represent this, Blips must put their d8 in the Community block, and must select the Community/Economy box as their 6 point box when assigning scores. Additionally, you and your Guide should establish a light bonus to stand in for your Family 48 bonus. It’s advisable that you select an existing one from one of the Families in the
books; however, if you and your Guide can come to an agreement about one you feel better suits your appearance, you’re welcome to use that instead. In general, these bonuses should affect no more than one mechanic or one dice roll, and should not be related to a speciic damage-production mechanism (such as the ability to aim or to deal direct damage).
Choose one or none of the following abilities: Hard life: You’ve been the elephant in the room (perhaps literally) your entire life, and have become hardened to the opinions of others. You receive a bonus die to all opposed checks against Coercion, Intimidation, Express or Deception. This also makes it dificult for you to relate to people, even if they’re trying to be friendly. You can’t use THBW! dice on any checks involving Community.
Something to prove: You’ve made a point to prove your value to the universe, rather than being lumped into a social group and dismissed. Once per session, you can roll d10s on a Community check instead of d8s. However, you cannot accept, or offer, HELP! on any checks without irst passing a Mind Resist save (attack value 10).
Choose your Species beneits: Blips receive two Proiciency points of their choice, and a third determined by their Guide, following all the usual allocation rules in the Species section of the Core rulebook. If your Blip has the ability to Fly, they instead receive a point in Fly and one point of your choice. Your Blip may have the Aquatic template if it suits their design and follow its rules as well. Blips do have one innate advantage over Vectors, rare though it may occur: they are not subject to the “Master’s Voice” phenomenon. Whatever unknown reason existed for programming that feature into the Vector mind does not persist in scratch-built lifeforms.
Tailor your design: Blips don’t have “morphisms,” but can be physically designed to have the same body shape as many of them. This is a deliberate choice on the part
of their creator, and since Blips are already a social oddity, many of the more neutral Morphisms don’t make much of a difference, while others are inherited by default due to your appearance. Blips will have one of the following Morphisms depending on how you decided they should look. Some Blips will qualify for more than one, so pick the one that best suits your character’s behavior. Digitigrade/Plantigrade Taurism Microism Lateralism Lever-stanced Horns Tusks Hooves Bio-Luminescence All the usual pros and cons associated with these Morphisms still apply; however, the social negatives compound with any social negatives your Guide sees it to impose upon your character for being a Blip. To many people, a Blip with a distinctively dificult body to work with (such as a taur) is not only a sign of someone with too much time and vanity showing off their “creativity,” it’s also them being cruel, as they couldn’t even see it to give their creation a shape that its well among the general populous. This can earn you sympathy, scorn, or apathy depending on where you are. By that same token, a physically artistic Blip can earn a lot of adoration among those with a respect for such things. This is all role play; feel out your audience before you go showing off.
Surgical templates: Blips do not qualify for reclaiming surgery, as they have nothing to reclaim. However, their creators can pre-program them for speciic boons later in life when they’re created. Blips can’t begin with these bonuses, as it would make them physically superior to Vectors and require that they be reclassiied as bio-probes, but they can be preset and “unlocked” later in life through the purchase of a genetic key, registered with the parent corp where they were originally manufactured at birth, so that said corp can keep track of who has what. When a Blip reaches adulthood, they can
go to any hospital owned by the corpornation they were manufactured in and purchase an injection which will unlock a preset ability that was buried in their genetic makeup. These abilities are identical to reclaiming surgeries, and your character is limited to three of them just as a Vector would be. However, unlike a Vector, you must select these abilities when you make your character. Technically, your parents selected them before you existed, but chances are if they picked them out, they steered your upbringing in a direction that would make use of them. The cost of the injection is the same as the surgery would be (corps don’t give you an easy way out of paying them) and it takes the same amount of time for you to acclimate to the changes as it would anyone else. The only major difference is that it isn’t a Pulse operation by default, and that if your family saw it to tell you, you may have been looking forward to these abilities for some time now, or have no idea what latent ability is waiting inside you. Blips can have any three reclaiming options they want from a single existing Family option, which their parents used as a template. This puts them on par with a normal Vector in terms of what they can and can’t do. However, if you’re willing to chance things, it’s possible to throw some randomness in for potential beneits. Because you don’t have control over what your creators were thinking when they made you, it’s possible their plans did not coincide with where you ended up later in life. To represent this, instead of selecting your reclaiming options traditionally, you can chose to select them from three completely unrelated Families. When it comes time to actually collect, roll an appropriate die to see which one of the options within that family you actually ended up with. This can result in some pretty curious combinations, but if you choose this option, it is advised that you stick with what comes up unless it outright doesn’t it your anatomy. Don’t beg the Guide for do-overs just because you didn’t get your dream combo; the whole idea here is to relect the reality of being sculpted by someone else before you ever had a say in it. If the result is not to your character’s liking, it factors into that aspect of 49
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their story.
Finish up: The remaining aspects of character creation are the same for Blips as they are for Vectors.
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Final notes for Blip characters
Blips allow for an in-game excuse to make what many people have been making anyway: their own, un-featured Vector. While this is a seductive option in itself, a party full of Blips is a somewhat unnecessary situation. Remember: the species selection listed under the major families in the HSD core rules and this book represent the majority populations of those families, however the irst “generic” species choice in each family is purposely vague and can contain dozens of different options that exist, but just aren’t very common. If the character you’re trying to make falls into one of the family groups already listed in the rules (a sparrow or a lynx, for instance), you’re best off using the generic species descriptor and following those guidelines instead of calling them a Blip. Part of the in-game interest of these characters
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hinges on them being the odd man out. While it is conceivable that a group of them would connect via networking and go into business together (even common, they do tend to reach out to one another), if that occurs it should be treated as a driving force in the campaign’s plot that affects how the whole group is treated, not just a “thing” that happened one day and is otherwise inconsequential. Lastly, rules in the book and rules in the lore always take a back seat to what the party wants to do. Blips allow for a lot of appearance lexibility, but if you make yourself look monstrous or frightening, or bizarre or comedic, to the point of alienating your fellow players and disrupting the narrative, you’re not serving the play experience. Choosing exotic animals that weren’t vectored is the most common and most acceptable use of this char-gen option. If you start getting into custom creatures, just be sure you craft a context for them that its nicely with your party and the scenario presented by your Guide. While your party shouldn’t be allowed to hold your enjoyment hostage, you likewise need to consider the overall theme of the session your party wants to play before building something that deliberately violates it.
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Exculpation Gala, Neutral Saturn orbit
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COGS There is a cosmic irony lost on Vector kind that shines brightest when viewed from a human perspective: that the match which lit the ires of a world-ending war would play no physical role in its actual execution. Indeed, according to historical record, no Vector even so much as assisted in strategic planning, much less lifted a weapon and dropped on Earth to engage in the ighting. But so powerful were the feelings behind what they represented, both morally and physically, that they brought a planet to its knees. As is the case with all history, the victor writes the books, and now those same moral and social ideals have been utterly changed in a community of creatures who never had human history or philosophy to dictate what was right or wrong. There has been no shortage of horror attached to this, and no lack of lines crossed that likely should not have been. But, to its credit, it allowed for the creation and acceptance of a second new race of intelligent creatures in a matter of years that humanity would likely not have viewed as equals in centuries, if not longer. Cogs emerged from the ASR (then a mere subsidary of MarsCo) labs only 70 years after the fall of Earth. Enough time for several new generations of Vector to have been born, but still within the haze of post-humanity. Earth was a smoldering wreck, the human population of Mars was dwindling, and all the new lessons of what was now becoming the era of the Vector were pointing toward acceptance and cooperation as a necessary part of life. There weren’t many other alternatives, frankly. So when the Core Consciousness, the critical component of Cog sapience, was demonstrated and explained, they didn’t look at it with a thousand years of human contempt for machines, or with the self-assured security of mastery over their land and pride in their cities which they had built on ancient tradition and principle. They looked with eyes of a race barely three generations old who were still trying to igure out the sheer extent of what had to be done to keep themselves aloat, and who rather desperately needed an ally. A race of beings who were themselves engineered, and could damn near alphabetize their own genome. And mostly, a race that felt very small and alone, with nothing but iles in computers to
cling to for some grounding and explanation in the grand scheme of their design. Frankly, most of Vector kind was happy to make a new friend. There were stumbling blocks, and for the decade or so new rules for interaction and social behavior would be tried, tested, reviewed and rewritten, but in time the race of Cogs worked its way into the core of post-human Sol. What emerged after their adjustment period was still mechanical, but behaved in a way that was almost more “living” than Vectors themselves.
To be
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At the center of every Cog is a single, constantly powered unit which serves as a continual input recording and analysis device. A brain, essentially, but one that behaves as an electronic analog to the biological construct. It experiences the world through the Cog’s senses, builds bridges between experiences as a normal brain does, and is only “programmed” in the same way any brain is; by reaction to stimulus. It possesses no operating system, no built-in abilities or applications, and no backup feature. It’s simply an information sponge. It even looks vaguely brain-like, and is the inspiration behind the ASR logo. Cogs have to live, in order to be living. They attend schools, learn about their environment, trade stories and gain skills through all the traditional means, and as such they build the same sorts of social and emotional bridges Vectors do. None of it is “simulated” any more than a normal person’s laughter or sorrow might be. It’s simply a result of stimulus, compared to a lifetime of experience. The system has functioned so well, that (beyond a few tweaks to make sure things don’t decay prematurely) it has remained unchanged for nearly a thousand years. Its similarity to organic construction has also led to one of the most universal social rules of being a Cog: the idea that being a machine does not make you a tool. Cogs are notoriously adverse to physical integration of mechanical augmentation, far moreso than Vectors are. To most Vectors, surgical enhancement is a privilege of biotechnology, 53 and cybernetic implants can help you do
speciic jobs better. Neither is particularly “personal” on most social levels. To Cogs though, having one’s anatomy adjusted toward a task brings them a step closer to becoming a tool for that task more than a person. The mental relationship likely stems from the prevalence of robotic tools in the common era. Cogs are not equated to general robots in most minds, but the more they convert toward a utilitarian form, the harder it is to notice the distinction. To complicate matters further, Cogs have hobbies and physical aspirations like anyone does, and likewise want to train their bodies to be good at what they do. When your body is mechanical, it doesn’t “train” particularly well, and when your race disdains physical modiication, it’s dificult to get “in shape” as it were. ASR’s solution to this problem went hand in hand with its solution to “growing,” which was also a puzzler for a while. In hindsight, most agree that the whole thing could be accomplished more elegantly using modern technology, but no race has ever reacted particularly well to being told they need to upgrade themselves. Every Cog is entitled to a chassis update at set points in their lifetime (3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 18 and 20 years old). This includes greater dexterity, strength, increased size and all the other perks that come with growing up. At the same time, these chasses vary in style and form and include a variety of different specializations which help tune them toward certain lifestyles. When the Cog 54 picks their next chassis, they
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have the opportunity to move into a body better suited for the life they wish to lead, without bearing any social stigmata for the decision. It is, in this case, a part of growing up, and each new update brings a Cog closer to the form they feel best relects them. Young Cogs typically try several different body types during their irst few updates, but as they grow older they will settle into one and learn to harness its full potential, just as anyone becomes comfortable in their body with time. After 20, additional updates are no longer free, but most Cogs will pick up one or two more before they die, as key points in their life make them feel as though they’ve outgrown their youth. During a chassis update, the Cog’s Core Consciousness is removed from their current body and physically reconnected to a new one. Between the irst and second body, the Cog experiences a dreamlike state in which their mind glazes over and paciies to help deal with the disorientation of being completely devoid of sensory input. It’s a peaceful, if somewhat artiicial, sensation, and many Cogs view the concept of sensory deprivation differently from Vectors because of it. If nothing else, they have a unique concept of the “out-ofbody experience,” as they actually go through it at regular intervals in their natural lives. Once in their fresh new shell, a Cog can spend several years accommodating and learning about being larger, stronger, surer of themselves and more capable, much as a normal person would. Cogs even experience an emotional “puberty,” in which they begin developing broader understandings of social interactions. The physical portion is somewhat different, however. Cogs play a constant game of catching up with body changes, so when it happens in their teenage years it’s no more strange or bizarre to them than it was the irst
four times it happened. They tend to view organic puberty with amusement. Mostly, anyway. There are a few things they need to get used to themselves that weren’t necessarily present earlier.
Where do little Cogs come from? Cogs possess gender, as much as anyone does. It’s a simple thing for them to ignore or change (indeed, swapping at least once in the course of their lives to try the other on for size before settling is fairly common practice) but it helps them draw the same distinctions Vectors draw. Gender is relected in various joint arrangements, curves and balance points in the Cog chassis, but carries no inherent mechanical advantage one way or the other. In essence, it’s a way for the body to relect the mind. For Cogs who don’t wish to integrate, this is usually the irst thing to go, but even among full Cog communities it serves a purpose. There are many who enjoy being associated with a gender, if only to help them identify themselves. Every Cog, regardless of registered gender, is entitled to the integration of reproductive anatomy. It isn’t gender speciic, or even limited to a single binary (though you do have to pay if you want more than what your hereditary code entitles you to). Typically this anatomy is established by the birth gender and present in every chassis, but not attached to any functional reproductive system. Those faculties begin to activate around the same time they would in Vectors as their social awareness begins to tap into physical awareness that wasn’t there before, usually with the same level of personal embarrassment. It’s a common part of growing up that helps facilitate inter-species connection. When Cogs were invented, the need to form family groups was considered an imperative to successful coexistence. Blood, even to Vectors, is thicker than water, and if they could not form emotional and physical bonds to their mechanical co-inhabitants it would spell disaster for their chances of full integration. Visions of a hard dividing social line forced by sheer mechanical incompatibility demanded a solution. It was remarkably easy to ix, even if it did make for a disturbing reminder of just how “artiicial” Vectors were to begin with. From the human standpoint anyway. The Vectors
themselves thought the whole situation was pretty clever. Among their reproductive options is a “womb.” The womb itself went through a long series of different attempts, designs and models (some of which were more than a little troubling) before eventually arriving at something akin to an internal manufacturing center. This podlike unit is capable of analyzing Vector genetic information, extrapolating physical traits from the acquired data, and translating those traits into the next generation of Cog. Personality seeds, afinity toward certain color, various preferences toward size and shape, overall posture and size, all are integrated into the background data that makes up the new Cog’s brain, effectively making them a product of both parents. Cogs can choose their chassis as they grow, but because most grow up with their parents, and have tastes extrapolated from both parents, they tend to choose forms that at least vaguely relect aspects of those parents. The sizes of their limbs and overall density of their chassis is likewise a product of that pairing. In many ways, Cogs are even more deined by hereditary genetics than Vectors are, as they don’t tend to change their appearance much over the course of day-to-day existence and maintain many of the shapes given to them by virtue of this process. Mother Cogs cannot produce organic offspring with this unit (that was attempted with the irst few mechanical wombs, and the results were considered publicly unacceptable. And a little nightmarish.) Father Cogs can, however, produce organic offspring if the mother is a Vector. The process is similar, if mirrored, to the mechanical process. The Cog can have their personality examined and extrapolated via a special ASR reproduction system, which will then translate all the relevant data into genetic structures for use in traditional impregnation. The resulting child will have a body resembling the averages in height and build of the father Cog’s chassis over the course of their lifetime, similar personality traits, and, in most cases, the mother Vector’s species. Father Cogs can elect to “be” a species when the genetic data is made if they want to incorporate it into the equation, but 55
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that will still only give the offspring the usual 50% chance, like it would with two Vectors. The neatly arranged and cataloged genetics and engineered structures of Vector DNA have allowed this process to operate successfully for centuries, and Cog/Vector families have a long history together. There are still social groups that look down on interbreeding with Cogs, but for the most part those same groups would probably look down on interbreeding with anything that wasn’t their own species. It’s a big solar system; you’re always going to ind someone who hates something. Pulse corptowns are notorious for their dislike of mechanical augmentation, but they are surprisingly accepting of Cog/Vector pairings. The corp views itself as a family organization that promotes connection through competition, and a butt in a stadium chair is a ticket whether it’s mechanical or not. ASR oficially takes the highroad on this subject and welcomes and encourages interbreeding, but Cogs who participate in ASR sporting events in direct conlict with Pulse events tend to carry that rivalry out of the stadium.
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To all things... Biotechnology and body-replacement can do some pretty remarkable things with age, but certain social stopgaps have been in place for a long time to help curtail the concept of immortality. The biggest and most relevant is that megacorps don’t particularly WANT immortal citizens. There comes a point after someone has lived long enough where their own investments, earnings and opportunities have fulilled the majority of their desires for material goods (especially if that person is wealthy enough to afford some sort of anti-aging treatment). When they start wanting to live purely for the sake of living, rather than for the sake of continued contribution to the economy or scientiic community, they stop being an asset to the corpornation they live in. If anything, they become a drain. Money goes into them and doesn’t come back out again, which is just about the last thing a megacorp wants. As a 56 result, you typically don’t ind people with repeated anti-aging treatments, because it
outright isn’t offered. It has been demanded (many times, by many people) over the years, but there is no fundamental right to life in most corpornations. There’s an incentive to prosper; corps want you to be happy and healthy and buying and selling, but once you’ve stopped actively doing it, they don’t particularly want you around. In rare circumstances, people have used this loophole to their advantage. Most commonly it’s geniuses whose research contracts span beyond the end of their lifetime, and whose compensation includes a fresh, younger body in return for continuing their work. The most famous case of this is TTI scientist Asyen Vnn, who was alive during the irst live Whisper capture, and part of the research team that worked on it. Due to the exceptional rarity and extraordinary circumstances of that event, his insight into Whisper physiology and transcendent technology has been invaluable, and he has been renewed numerous times to avoid losing his unique knowledge. More commonly, companies will incentivize people to make their existing lifespans more rewarding, rather than offering longer ones. Pulse and Progenitus are both well known for offering graceful aging treatments in return for a subscription fee. These treatments allow you to maintain muscle tone and clarity of thought well into your 90’s, but part of the contract includes a termination date, at which point the treatments end and you gradually fade over the next decade or so until a “natural” death occurs. It’s an appealing treatment because it does typically allow for a ~100 year lifespan, the vast majority of which is active and youthful, relatively speaking. Dulling of fur color or scale and various other telltale signs of aging still appear, but most people don’t look physically older than about 50 by the time this treatment ends. The literal “deadline” also puts a sense of urgency into the purchaser to really get out and do whatever it is they’re looking to do as their time ends, and that results in a much more proitable return than never having a termination date. For Cogs, the subject of death is more metaphysical than biological. As a Cog nears the end of their life, their Core Consciousness begins to slowly and automatically integrate itself with the ASR super-consciousness: a massive collection of information and heuristics that contains every Cog mind that has ever existed. A literal digital afterlife.
As the Cog’s mind begins to drift into this new state, their grip on reality will drift as well. They begin to slow down, daydream more, and lose clarity. At the same time, they catch little glimpses of the world that awaits them. Some of the greatest poetry in post-human history has been written by Cogs in the last few years of their lives, when large parts of their brains are drifting in and out of the super-consciousness and bringing back images of worlds of ininite thought. Eventually, after a random amount of time unique to each Cog, the last of their minds will transition, and all that remains will be an empty shell. Presumably, they have traveled to a world in which the thoughts and experiences of every Cog are held, and they can beneit from limitless potential. The truth, well. The truth is they have been incorporated, but no one actually knows what that existence is like. You can’t come back from it; your mind becomes part of the whole, and part of ASR’s pledge to Vector-kind is that the mystery of the afterlife will be as much a factor to the existence of Cogs as it is to Vectors. They don’t know what’s in there either. Centuries of information writing and re-writing and forming into new and greater forms has created levels of interconnection unparalleled in anything known to exist, by a factor of millions. Its functionality is maintained by the Gatekeeper, a title given to a very carefully chosen ASR employee whose only task is to have the one view into the data within the system, to ensure it’s still running. There are always two; one to cover for the other. Beyond them, no living being has ever seen what the millions of digital souls inside the SC have become.
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Cogs live in an occasionally blurry balance between the habits of
the lesh and the realities of the machine. For the most part, Cog society follows many of the same rules Vector society does. They wear clothing for modesty and personal identity. They socialize over food, adorn themselves with accessories for visual appeal, and are even shaped like their organic counterparts. Synthetic hair and articulated faces and tails are common, for no other reason than to help everyone feel more cohesive. Aside from social compatibility, this serves the function of allowing them to exist and interact in a world built with a speciic body type in mind, and gain all the sensory input Vectors get from that world. On the other hand, a lot of it isn’t strictly necessary, and there are many Cogs who choose neutral chasses that abandon many of the organic parallels common to their kin (gender identity, external sexual anatomy, lips, eyes, noses) and take digital replacements such as light up displays or augmented reality projections to allow for expressiveness. Cogs who live this lifestyle can have dificulty relating to Vectors, but are generally accepted readily enough by other Cogs. There is a difference between embracing your machine nature and becoming a tool, and Cogs recognize this as the former. Usually, by the time Cogs reach adulthood, they’ll have mixed and matched many features of both mechanical and organic facades to create a unique appearance they feel best represents themselves. Prejudice based on appearance certainly exists in the HSD universe, but it is somewhat less recognizable or prevalent than it has been in human history. As a generalization, most appearance-based bigotry is motivated by a difference in behavior or culture, which is then attached 57
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and related to a speciic appearance, eventually becoming an “all people who look like ‘x’ behave like ‘y’” sort of mentality. All Vectors (excluding mice) stemmed from the same source and emerged from the same labs. While their appearances differ, they share a very common origin and history. There are recognizable behaviors and attitudes that are prevalent in different families, but it’s a little more like judging your neighbor, rather than judging a completely different culture. Those stronger feelings of social bias are far more commonly attached to the corporation one comes from. “Brand loyalty” is the modern version of “patriotism,” and follows many of the same social rules. Every megacorp invariably imbues its citizens with its own company culture, including speciic values, goals, beliefs and morals, much like any government does. Flagging brand loyalty is a bit more active than lagging patriotism though (in most cases). Because megacorps actually provide products and utilities to their citizens, it isn’t uncommon for their people to wear their logos or iconography, or to prefer their products over others. Rarely will this result in physical violence, but depending on people’s attitudes, it can produce a lot of friction. Bias based on location is usually tied to whatever corp owns that location, more than the
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location itself. Europa is a big one; even though TTI has operations all over the solar system, most TTI citizens are assumed to have come from, or spent time in, Europa. Likewise, people on Europa are generally thought of as TTI citizens. Most are, but it’s certainly not all of them. Cogs are typically thought of as ASR citizens by default, even though there are many who were born in other corps. Crossing rival corp lines is particularly tough for them, though. Inevitably, citizen or not, all Cogs return to ASR corptowns to grow, unless they purchase independent chasses from smaller dealers. That happens, but only to families with a lot of money to spend. Cog bodies are very sophisticated; it’s roughly analogous to buying a new luxury car every 2 years. It is, however, one of the few ways a Cog can “scrub off” ASR association based on appearance. Custom frame designs are recognized as an action taken by a Cog who has deliberately chosen to identify outside the bubble of ASR. This can occasionally estrange them from friends or family, depending on just how corp-loyal said individuals are, but it generally doesn’t cause much strife among ASR employees. Much as anyone hates to lose a customer, they recognize the futility of trying to tell someone who has literally replaced their body that they’ve made “the wrong choice.” They just keep their doors open in the meantime and count on social pressure to bring them back into the fold.
COG CHARACTERS Building a Cog character follows many of the same rules for building a Vector, with a few modiications to account for their rather dramatically different origin.
The Cog Generation Run down: Skip the Vector character generation steps: Family, Species, Morphism. Instead, use the following options:
Select your Frame. Cogs are “born” into bodies that relect their parentage, but as they get older they will usually diverge a little into bodies that better it their own self image. Typically though, they don’t stray too far from their beginnings. While it’s possible for a Cog to request a completely different frame during one of their age updates, they tend to attach at least a little of their own sense of self to their bodies, just as Vectors do. Most of them will pick frames that relect the body of their parents to some degree. This decision will affect various parts of your physical characteristics and stats.
Select your Specialization. Cogs can modify parts of their bodies to better suit speciic jobs. While not a “morphism,” such as is present in Vectors, this decision does carry with it a degree of social baggage. Most Cogs do not like to be correlated with “tools,” and specializing their anatomy to perform certain tasks can result in exactly that. However, by focusing their reinement on parts of their frame, it becomes less industrial and more personal, giving them a degree of physical individuality. This section reines the broader decisions made in the Frame section and grants unique abilities. Resume the standard Vector character creation process, starting at Stat Dice. All the remaining aspects of character creation, from the selection of Stat Dice to the allocation of Scholarship points,
are identical to those of creating a Vector character. Cogs learn and experience the world the same as Vectors do.
Cog Special Rules: All Cogs begin with +1 point to Body:Resilience. While their mechanical complexity is such that what kills most people kills them as well, being made of synthetic material does grant a little more durability than general skin. They may not wear living armor however (it refuses to activate, making it a few hundred pounds of bulky dead weight). All Cogs begin with 1 Allegiance point to ASR, aside from any gained through Scholarship. While many Cogs go on to other corps or independent employment, all of them will return to ASR repeatedly through their lives for Frame updates, among other things. A Cog may not have 3 points in ASR at the start of the game, but may have 2 and 1 in another corp.
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All Cogs begin with 1 point in the Computers Proiciency, representing their natural ability to communicate on a computer’s level. They receive 2 additional points to divide as they wish in the same way Vectors do for Species. Cogs may have transcendent implants, but may not get them through oficial channels. TTI claims them to be “incompatible” with the procedure. The reality is the procedure will work on machines as well as it does on organics, but TTI doesn’t want that information publicly known.
Healing: Cogs are healed through the Robotics proiciency, rather than the Medical proi ciency. When repairing a Cog, a Patchkit can be used in place of a PERK, and allows for the same healing properties as would normally be gained using Medical checks as outlined on page 196 of the HSD rulebook. Cogs have a lockdown mode that attempts to preserve the Core Consciousness in the event of cataclysmic damage, but it is susceptible to failure in most of the same conditions that 59
would lead to death in Vectors. For the purposes of survival checks when dying or near death, Cogs follow the same rules as Vectors. Cogs are common enough that all hospitals include repair centers equipped to maintain Cogs who get injured, so standard hospitalization rates apply. Cogs can sleep-heal like Vectors do (and they do sleep, and dream, both of which are necessary for their brains to organize thought in the same way organic ones do).
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make use of air for a variety of other critical systems. It assists with cooling and circulation as well as element harvesting for their power source. Cogs can do without air for about 10 minutes before experiencing power loss and systems failures. Provided they aren’t in a radiation rich environment, Cogs can survive in open space for about 8 minutes before various internal systems start to experience damage from the stress.
Computer communication: Simply
Eating: Cogs are capable of eating being mechanical does not grant a Cog detailed
food if they possess a mouth, but it’s purely for show. Chemically metabolizing the meal takes more energy than it’s worth when the rest of the body isn’t tuned to make use of it. Instead, Cogs are powered by an internal reaction system fueled by common elements in the air. They do, however, need to drink water regularly to facilitate the process, assist with cooling, and provide additional lubrication and cleansing to internal systems. Cogs drink nearly as much water weight as a Vector of equivalent size would consume in food and water combined. They do possess a sense of taste, but it consists of a digital analysis of various impurities or mineral additions and doesn’t really parallel the Vector sense very well. They drink everything from booze to oil to acids and bases and take the elements they need while discarding the rest later. It’s what amounts to “variety,” and eating dinner with a Cog takes a little getting used to.
Pressure and temperature: Cogs can tolerate much higher and lower temperatures than Vectors, and can function between -40c and 80c, after which point you should apply the extreme heat and chill rules as normal. Cogs can also adjust to low-pressure environments very easily, and are not bothered by zero pressure environments. However, they have a much harder time adjusting for high pressure, especially underwater as they can’t exactly lood their interior cavities. Crush depth for a Cog is only 96 feet, at which point the external pressure on their systems will render them unconscious unless they’re wearing something protective.
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Oxygen: Cogs don’t “breathe,” but they do
knowledge about computers or robotics, any more than being organic grants a Vector intrinsic knowledge about biology or genetics. However, Cogs do possess the innate ability to navigate and communicate with a computer’s ile structure without having to use its interface. Because Cogs move digital information in their brains through the same means computers do, a Cog that is hooked up to a computer system can navigate it as easily as if it were their own thoughts. Cogs possess a special form of near-ield communication that allows them to communicate “telepathically” with any similarly equipped computer system (including other Cogs) provided they are in physical contact with it. Due to obvious concerns about privacy and abuse, there are a myriad of safeguards in place to prevent the Cog from doing anything more than “talking” and “listening.” In game, Cogs function as their own Toggle, and can navigate smart surfaces and instruct machines to do tasks within their abilities without having to make Computer checks or Operate checks. Instead, when interfacing with a machine using this system, make a Mind:Dexterity+Navigate check. A single success is all that is needed to allow the Cog to see all the different directions that system can go in its code, provided none of it is locked off or encrypted. The Cog can then activate that function simply by willing it to occur, as it’s almost an extension of their own body. The limitations of the Cog near-ield are such that they cannot use it to manipulate or reprogram a system in any way. This ability can allow them to locate the general location of an encrypted ile, but to actually get into it, they will have to hack it the good old fashioned way. Likewise, while the technology certainly exists to give all Cogs everywhere instant and perpetual wireless access to
the Sol Network, it was considered a social danger to allow them to have it. Cogs must interface with a networked machine (such as a smart surface or a Toggle Case) to gain access to SolNet, just as Vectors do. Once in, however, their rapport with machines allows them to navigate with unparalleled ease, and they can move from zone to zone as simply as deciding where to go next, and stepping in. As a general rule, giving Cogs a faster and more eficient means of communication with information systems was not considered a problem for their integration into society, provided their actual access was limited to the same areas Vectors are limited to. After all, giving an infant with no context for judgment unlimited access to a system-wide network whose language it understands by default would probably result in a very troubled individual not long after.
Debt: Debt is common enough in the Sol
system, but centuries of social practice and careful social rules have put the burden of responsibility onto corptowns to ensure that prices of day to day life items are not so high as to forever drown their populace. There are, essentially, enough other options available that anyone who began the old human company practice of digging a debt trench at the company store would soon be without customers. Not to say it hasn’t happened, but on a surprising number of occasions, other corps have swooped in to dig people back out again, occasionally possessing the company in the process. Which, conveniently, gave them a population of new, thankful customers. Megacorps arrange these “benevolent takeovers” on a regular basis, sometimes against their own subsidiaries. It’s led to the volatile, occasionally violent hotzones Vectors are familiar with, but also kept many crippling business practices at bay. Curiously enough, there is a very large, very obvious exception, and they have gotten away with it for centuries because their majority population doesn’t seem to mind. ASR shows unrivaled charity to its Cogs. Frames are free, annual maintenance is free, nutrient water is free, SolNet access is free, all the essentials to allow Cogs to be free, thinking and active members of the solar community are provided gratis as part of ASR’s promise to be responsible for its own creations. But to simply exist is not enough for most sapient creatures. They need to thrive, to express themselves, to do all the things other intel-
ligent being do. For Vectors, just about any corp provides all sorts of salable items that help fulil that need, but for Cogs, even though other brands exist, ASR is the primary choice. And, of course, what sort of benevolent entity would ASR be if it forced Cogs to wait until they’d amassed considerable wealth before allowing them to purchase those things which are “necessary luxuries” for self expression? None at all, that’s what. So they allow for purchase on credit, speciically for personal specialization, speciically for Cogs. And because the conditions are limited to a species which is reliant on them already anyway, it bypasses many of the general public outcries associated with that practice. Which is not to say they allow you to get away with loating a balance forever. Cogs have to square their debts, same as anyone, and if they don’t, the consequences can be even more severe than for Vectors. After all, most of what they’re buying on credit is actually attached to them. A fair amount of Cog respect for ASR is due to fear. Perhaps more than they would like to admit. Unlike Vectors, it is rather common for Cog characters to begin the game in debt to ASR. Various aspects of the Cog character creation process will include prices, tallied as debt before the game begins. Resolve this debt as per the rules outlined in the HSD core rulebook. Rather than keep debt loating indeinitely, the debt (or lack thereof) you begin the game with is considered the end of your current line of credit to ASR (in that you can’t just go and add more to it by buying out of an ASR store upon completion).
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Surgery: Cogs have unique surgical requirements which can be found in the Surgery chapter of this book.
Advancement: Cogs advance using the
same rules Vectors use, with their physical abilities increasing largely as a factor of them becoming more comfortable in their body and making better use of their internal power.
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FRAMES When a Cog is “born,” they emerge from their egg in a default frame whose various anatomical weights and balances have been adjusted to relect the Cog’s parentage. This can give them coloring, shapes of various external components, tone and structure of the synthetic musculature that drives them, and a variety of detailing that will stick with them throughout all their sequential bodies. ASR provides a new body in line with the cog’s irst body at preset intervals in line with their growth (3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 18 and 20 years), and it’s always a time of great excitement when a growing Cog gets to step into a body more in line with their mental development. The ‘natural’ body is free; provided by ASR as part of their oath of responsibility to the race they created. Of course, Cogs, like anyone, rarely want to settle for the basic package if they can afford better. Which frame a Cog is born with is determined by a variety of things: the frame their parents have, various conditions during the pregnancy, and to some degree, actual planning on the part of the parents (though they don’t have direct control over it, some body habits do seem to result in increasing the probability of one frame versus another). During their irst two body updates, it’s not uncommon for Cogs to want to experiment a little, and switch between frames. Various simulators can allow them to experience different bodies without actually purchasing them, and during this time of personal discovery, they’ll probably try out a variety. By the time they reach their 7 year update, though, most Cogs will pick up the frame whose design they’ll be sticking with for the rest of their lives. Cog rigidity on the insistence of not swapping body parts whenever it’s convenient is one of the more prominent racial barriers between them and Vectors, who, for the most part, don’t see why it would really bother them. The typical Cog counter is to tell the Vector to hack off their tail and replace it with an air compressor so they can blow it out their ass. Occasionally, they do. Your Cog is assumed to be an “adult” 62
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(running on their inal frame). The following frame options relect the ones that exist in ASR’s default line. While you as a player are selecting a body here for the irst time, your Cog probably isn’t “selecting” a frame at all; they’re simply being transferred into the next body in line with the shape they’ve had all their lives. This is known as their “hereditary frame,” and deviating from it to a new frame shape does incur a fee (assumed to be already paid when the game begins), as well as a little social scrutiny. As a new character, you should decide if your Cog’s current frame is just the next step in line, or if they changed frames at their most recent update into a new shape. If they did, it’s likely they’re a little estranged from their friends and family at the moment. Body shifting isn’t exactly “forbidden,” but it is traditionally looked upon as a disrespectful practice, as it diffuses a bit of the tie between parent and child. While Cog frames relect a whole host of strange and unnatural conigurations, they are nonetheless considered relections of the person inside them. Swapping to a different coniguration is a bit like a full body replacement for a Vector for purely cosmetic reasons. It happens, and some people are ine with it, but others will think you’ve lost a little bit of yourself.
Frame Options All Cog frames have humanoid torsos, symmetrical design, and a single neck-mounted head. Typically, Cog faces are either sculpted like masks of Vector faces, or simply smooth and blank with reactive “eyes” displayed on their surfaces, for conveying emotion. Fully mechanically articulated faces are a luxury many Cogs spring for in their inal frame, and can be quite beautiful and capable of showing a full range of emotion. Cog “skin” is a smooth silica blend that feels roughly akin to dolphin lesh, and is typically the same temperature as the air around it. While blank by default, extremely high resolution prints can be applied to them, and there is an entire ield of artistry speciically dedicated to Cog skin graphics. Some private manufactures offer a variety of lesser seen faces, including ones that appear more mechanical in nature, like a permanent helmet, and those that are sculpted to resemble human faces. The choice is purely an aesthetic one, though. While it is possible to build Cog bodies out of heavily armored substances, it isn’t an ASR practice,
and they offer the most bodies. Cogs possess all the Attributes: senses organics do, and their synthetic surfaces +3 to Movement Score. would lose much of their sense of touch and feeling if they were replaced with more durable material. -You are not susceptible to exhaustion from This falls in line with the common Cog taboo about continued movement (things like traveling becoming more “tool” than “person,” and most over distances.) would much rather just buy a suit of armor than become one. -Begin calculating fall damage f r o m 20 feet up rather than 10. Biped: The most common Cog -When making a frame. Most couplings between Cogs and movement action in combat, Vectors will result in a bipedal Cog (assuming you can “boost” to move 4x your the child is a Cog at all). The gene sequencing Movement Score in a single action, used to determine the child’s appearance also provided you move in a straight line. analyzes the leg coniguration of both This can be used once per parents and assigns the trait to the combat turn, and combined child, resulting in a fair spread of with other movement actions. digitigrade and plantigrade You count as being behind legs. intervening terrain Attributes: for the purposes of Cog bipeds incoming ire after are generally between 4-6 making this move feet tall and 100-300 until your turn is pounds (their metallic over, even if you components make are not. them marginally heavi-
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er than Vectors of the same size.)
Wheeled:
Many Cogs change their frame types at their irst or second update, only to return to their original at the next one. It’s “a phase,” where growing Cogs see someone else they igure has it better and try to experiment for a while. Most of the time, this is the frame they switch to. Wheeled Cogs have wheels attached to their torsos via a shock absorbing leg-like suspension system and balanced with precision gyroscopes. They’re capable of great land speed and maneuverability, but are awkward in tight places and over rough terrain. It’s also rather dificult to protect their wheels from damage with armor, making them a bit more vulnerable to incoming ire.
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-You cannot ignore dificult terrain with your Athlet ics score as normal; it will always affect you. -Your natural swim speed cannot exceed 1 hex per turn, regardless of how many points you have in the Proiciency.
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-While your armor and rapid movement are effective enough to grant you relative full body coverage against standard ire, if you are hit with a Single Shot which succeeds in targeting a speciic limb, and the enemy targets your wheels, it will deal half its damage to your actual hitpoints. This counts even if you’re wearing Coverage 3 armor. Active Armor, however, is tailored to actively adjust to your wheel positions and ignores this effect. -Your weight and height are roughly equivalent to a Cog biped.
won’t work over it. This includes ice and snow over a foot thick. -In combat, you can choose not to halt your own momentum, as you essentially glide over the loor. Switching between movement modes is a movement action made at the beginning of your turn, and you are always assumed to be starting from zero velocity once you switch (i.e. if you were in glide mode last turn, and continue to be in glide mode this turn, you will inherit momentum from your previous turn in glide mode. If you switch, you effectively throw on the brakes.) While gliding, use the movement system outlined for ship combat in the Ships chapter of the HSD rulebook, speciically regarding preservation of momentum on page 270 (using your movement score instead of Thrust, naturally). -Maglev locks can be achieved on very narrow surfaces, allowing you to balance and move on surfaces as thin as two inches wide without the need for a check.
Maglev: Beautiful and elegant to watch, this frame can levitate over any solid surface, even if it isn’t metallic, through the use of advanced electromagnetism. Cogs with this frame typically don’t have feet to speak of, just legs that taper to tip-toe points for standing on, used for turning and manipulating inertia. Maglev actually has quite a bit of “traction” on the loor, and the Cog travels by manipulating their own magnetic ield to propel themselves, making it very useful in low-to-no gravity environments, but the system has a tough time with dramatically angled geometry. Rubble, rocky dirt and some metallic grating will slow them considerably.
Attributes: -Provided a surface is solid (and parallel to the pull of gravity) you can levitate between 1 inch and 1 foot above it. As such you will not be susceptible to any negatives associated with physical contact with that surface. While 64 it functions ine on wet ground, if there is nothing BUT water (such as a lake) it
-You can be towed to higher speeds by anything capable of achieving them (a vehicle, gravity, etc.). Once you reach a target velocity (max 200 mph), you can maintain it by testing with Body:Strength+Athletics every ten minutes (heeding the Exhaustion rules as normal). -You cannot ignore dificult terrain with your Athletics score as normal; it will always affect you. Additionally, if terrain is extremely jagged and uneven, you will have to perform a Navigate check using either Body:Dexterity or Mind:Acuity to pick out a path in the rubble you can move over. On a success, you can traverse it at ¼ speed. -Your natural swim speed cannot exceed 1 hex per turn, regardless of how many points you
have in the Proiciency.
your tentacles. -As long as a wall has something to grip -Your weight and height (when not loating) (outcroppings as small as an inch wide are suficient, are roughly equivalent to a Cog biped. provided they’re strong enough to support your weight) within about 6 feet of each other, you Tentacled: This frame is unique in that can move across it at full speed without it replaces not only the legs, but the arms as well. making a check. Likewise, you can move Tentacled Cogs have four long, thick mechanical at full speed across surfaces as thin as tentacles extending from each hip joint, each nearly an inch wide. You can suspend yourself from ceilings as well, but must four times the length of their torso. When moving make a Body:Strength+Athtogether, they can snake across the ground like a letics check to do so, must naga would, or they can be used to traverse complex have things to wrap around that will support you (your tentacle has to be able to wrap completely around it) and can only move at half speed. Once latched though, your position is rather stable and you can otherwise function normally.
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-Dificult terrain does not slow you down.
terrain by gripping and pulling and lifting, allowing them a startling range of motion. Their arms are likewise replaced with two tentacles each, with great dexterity and motion. The lack of ingers isn’t much of a detriment to these Cogs, as their arms can coil, snake and wrap in such elaborate shapes as to allow for powerful gripping and precision manipulation. While they do, technically, have four arms, the pairs are generally used in combination for most tasks, with one serving to hold an object and the other providing the manipulation. While this frame provides one of the most robust locomotion methods available to a Cog, it also takes up the most space, and it’s never fun to have someone accidentally step on your tentacles in a crowded room. Attributes:
- -1 movement score. -You can vary your height between a standard Cog height (4-6 feet) and double that height at will, by stretching higher on
-You take up three hexes on the game board. The middle hex represents your torso. The other two hexes can actively move where you want them to as long as they stay attached to your middle hex. They cannot inhabit the same hex as your torso or each other unless you spend a standard action to tuck them in. If you move again afterward, they will have to be placed to relect their position on the map. If you are ever in a position where they cannot be placed, you are limited to ¼ m o v e m e n t 65
speed until you can spread out again. Targeting these tentacle hexes works the same as it does in taurs; however, they receive a +1 cover bonus.
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-You cannot use weapons which are based on gloves. Things with triggers or handles are all ine, but not things which contour to a normal hand.
arms, your target receives an automatic +1 cover on top of any other defensive bonuses. In either situation, if the enemy succeeds in reversing the grapple, they will gain control of your weapon in the process! -Your weight is roughly three times that of a Cog biped. Height is roughly equivalent to a Cog biped when not stretching.
-While you technically possess four arms, two are needed to manipulate Hexapod: The Cog take on taurism is most objects that normally need only distinctly more insectoid in appearance, and typicalone in standard bodies. However, if all ly seats their torso in the middle of a six-legged you’re doing is holding an object and system that allows them fast and nimble locomotion not using it in any way, you can use all in any direction, and an extremely stable platform. four independently. This can be applied Despite the long, multi-jointed legs, this frame is to any basic motion (turning a door handle, reasonably compact, as the Cog doesn’t need to lifting an object, steering a vehicle with a stretch them all out to move around and can fold single control) but if the object requires any them under themselves when seated. They do have complex dexterity to operate (typing on a a hard time conforming to chairs, though. keyboard or pad, holding a weapon while manipulating the trigger or angle, applying Attributes: strength to a swing or action) then two -You can vary your height between a standard tentacles must be used in tandem. Cog height (4-6 feet) and double that height at will, by stretching higher on your legs. -You may initiate and maintain grapple checks provided two of your arm tentacles are -You cannot be knocked Prone by physical free, leaving the other two to continue holding means. In shifting loors or uneven surfaces, you items or weaponry. You can even continue to use maintain balance and stability automatically. Difisaid items, but doing so uses a special form of the cult terrain does not slow you down. two-weapon ighting rules. If you possess a medium sized or smaller melee weapon, it can be directed - You can ascend even sheer surfaces vertiagainst the person you’re grappling while you have cally provided they are three hexes across or less, them grappled (after the grapple check has succeed- by stretching your legs out to the side and bracing ed.) You may reroll as many of the dice to hit with against the walls. Make Climb checks as normal, but the melee weapon as you want to, once. The attack no additional tools are required. cannot be parried. You cannot combine this with other grapple attacks (you’re focusing on holding -You can still make movement actions while them still). Your grapple counts as your secondary grappling or while grappled. If already in a grapple, weapon in this situation, and the usual prerequisites any checks to maintain or break the grapple for for two-weapon ighting apply. that turn must be made before making a movement If you possess a medium sized or smaller action. ranged weapon, it can be ired at other targets while you maintain your hold on your enemy (but cannot -Begin calculating fall damage at 20 feet be ired at the enemy you’re holding due to issues rather than 10. with angle, recoil, thrashing and the eminent risk that you will be disarmed if the weapon is brought -Your natural swim speed cannot exceed 1 too close). Spend an attack action on the hex per turn, regardless of how many points you grapple as normal, and another to ire your 66 weapon. Due to the thrashing enemy in your have in the Proiciency.
-When moving, you take up your own hex and all the hexes adjacent to it. At the end of your movement, your legs naturally pull inward, returning you to a single hex space. Your legs can reconigure their positions enough to allow you to negotiate tight spaces, but you are always considered to have some manner of foot action going on in adjacent hexes while moving. As a result, you can’t move into hexes adjacent to enemies and move at half speed in areas 2 hexes wide or smaller. They can, however, move next to you on their turn, as you only occupy a single hex at that point. Combat moment emphasizes speed over the very short timeframe of a single turn; you can negotiate a hallway at a normal walking speed when not engaged in combat. -You must have footholds on either side of your body to balance. You cannot walk on a singular strip less than a foot wide.
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-Your weight is roughly twice that of a Cog biped. Height is generally a foot taller than a Cog Biped.
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SPECIALIZATION Cogs tread a ine line when it comes to body modiication. Inherent to their society is the assertion that they are not tools to be reconigured at will to suit various jobs. It goes beyond a social practice. Cogs carry a sense of personal value that is intrinsically related to their independence, as is the case with most thinking creatures. To them, being conigured as a tool for a speciic task is almost a form of slavery. Even if it’s temporary, it’s still wearing a label that brands their body and directly attaches a stigma associated with the work to them. In general, it’s avoided. However, just as a Vector athlete trains their body to be toned for their passion and is generally proud of the result, or a musician practices tirelessly to position their ingers just so, there is a part of body adaptation that is directly related with personal identity. As organics, this distinction is pretty natural, but for synthetic creatures like Cogs, it presents a bit of a conundrum. The “answer,” socially at least, was to focus specialization on anatomy that was already present, rather than trying to add more. It was the difference between adding a new tool (and thus, becoming one) and reining the igure you were built with. As Cogs experience their world, they ind the parts of themselves they need to reine in order to better relect the sort of physical being they wish to be. The traditional analog is “exercise,” where a runner ends up with a very different body than a lifter, despite them both starting with the same stock. The metaphor works, to a degree. As is the case with most of Cog philosophy, there comes a point where the comparison ends and it becomes “a Cog thing.”
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Specialization options Select a Specialization for your Frame, or forego one altogether. Frame specializations are a common aspect of Cog life, but they’re not provided for free like the default frame is. If you choose a Specialization, begin the game 100 credits in debt to ASR unless the Specialization says 68 otherwise.
Biped (Specializations for biped Cogs do not accrue debt):
Plantigrade/Digitgrade:
-Receive the Plantigrade/Digitgrade Morphism as described in the HSD rulebook.
Brace-legged: -Receive the Lever-stanced Morphism.
Solid-toed:
-Receive the Hooved Morphism.
Wheeled All-terrain suspension: Your wheels, axles and suspension have all been reinforced to allow for maximum torque over rough terrain.
Effect:
-Remove the dificult terrain restriction in the Wheeled Frame description. -Remove the exhaustion immunity as well. -You now treat dificult terrain as normal terrain and can move across it without penalty, provided it isn’t physically dangerous.
Tracked: Your wheel system is connected via a continual track, like treads on a tank. It greatly reduces their vulnerability.
Effect:
-Remove the armor restriction from the Wheeled Frame description. -Remove the Boost movement ability as well. -When wearing armor, being targeted at your wheel level will no longer bypass your armor.
In-line coniguration: Your mobility system is two-wheel “motorcycle” coniguration centered below you, with balance maintained via powerful gyroscopes. This Specialization does not accrue debt if taken (the wheels have to be there somehow, might as well be like this!)
Effect: -Remove the fall damage bonus from the Wheeled Frame description. -Because you are naturally balanced on a line already, you do not need to roll checks to maintain balance on surfaces greater than 3 inches wide.
Maglev Secondary levitation systems: Your levitation has been augmented to counteract some of the inherent limitations of standard maglev.
Effect:
-Ignore the terrain limitations in the Maglev description. You can move freely over all surfaces. This ability cannot be used if you’re wearing armor of coverage level 3. -While you cannot raise yourself above a foot off the ground, if you are placed there through other means (step out a window, for instance) you can maintain a height of up to 15 feet above solid surfaces. You cannot maneuver, though. You will have to glide on your levitation until you either choose to descend or impact something. If you descend, you cannot ascend again. In combat, you cannot beneit from cover or defensive actions while loating up high. If anything, you’re easier to hit. This ability cannot be used if you’re wearing armor of coverage level 2 or above.
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Powered thrust: These back-mounted microthrusters are often stylized as wings, and provide increased speed and maneuverability.
Effect: -Gain the “maneuvering thrusters” rule outlined on page 270 of the HSD core rulebook for use when gliding in combat. Remember that maneuvering thrusters cause you to adjust your current momentum by one hex to left or right, without causing you to continue sailing at an angle as you would if you used actual movement. They count as a standard action. -You also gain the Boost move described in the Wheeled Frame, as written. These abilities cannot be used if you’re wearing armor of coverage level 3. Your thrusters do not operate while submerged.
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Hard locks: Your levitation system can be Tentacled reversed, hard-locking it to any metallic surface.
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Effect: -You can magnetize your feet (or what amounts to your feet) to a metallic surface, allowing you to walk along it regardless of your angle. This can be used to scale walls, hang from ceilings, or walk normally in zero gravity. While in use, your Movement score is essentially 1. While the locks are strong enough to support your own weight, external forces pushing on you can dislodge them with relative ease, making them ineffective as tools in combat other than giving you someplace new and unexpected to stand.
Van der Waals segments: Your tentacles are specially treated with microibers akin to the setae in gecko feet, allowing them to cling to nearly any surface.
Effect:
- -2 to Movement score, instead of -1. -Ignore the immunity to dificult terrain attribute described in the Tentacled Frame. -In the wall and ceiling motion section of the Tentacled Frame, ignore the need for handholds. You may move across any surface by adhering to it directly. When attached with multiple tentacles, you cannot be forcibly dislodged by any force that would be insuficient to physically rip your tentacles off you. This grants you immunity to grapple effects or Momentum abilities that would physically relocate you. Lifting other objects or supporting them without becoming exhausted will require the usual applicable checks, but your adhesion system is strong enough to manage it if you are. This ability works in wet environments (where moisture is in the air), but not on wet surfaces (more than a ine mist). If an area you’re attached to becomes wet, you will lose your grip and fall. No check is required to “engage” this ability (in fact, by mechanical necessity, it is always active anyway.) Your our tentacles tenta cles Spade-shaped tentacles: Y are lattened and tapered near their ends, making them effective as paddles underwater.
Effects:
-You move at 3x your Movement score while submerged.
Flowform support system: You have
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a Flowform Generator integrated into your body, speciically conigured to supplement your own locomotion. Rather than mechanical tentacles, your tentacles are made of water. Flowform systems can manipulate surface tension enough to allow aquatic tentacles to grip speciic objects irmly and effectively, but they can’t dynamically keep up with luctuating pressure very well. They can, however, rapidly collect dropped water and reassemble it into the whole, allowing the user to not soak the world as
they move, because the moisture comes back with them. The result is a whole new way to interact with its own set of strengths and weaknesses.
Effect:
-Ignore the glove restriction in the Tentacled frame rules. Technically, Technically, lowform support s upport Cogs do not have individual tentacles, but rather a collective water supply they can divide and split based on need. This typically results in two arms with relatively normal hands (four arms with fully dexterous ingers is a little much for the system to support rapidly, especially while maintaining the lower half of the body).
attack value 10 and incrementing as described. You may continue to hold your weapon while doing this (it moves to another place in your water limbs) but cannot effectively wield it. Additionally, because the enemy is not actually grappled, they can still attack if they pass their save, but the obstruction in their eyes will grant any target they attack a +1 cover bonus, applicable even in melee. This ability does not affect Cogs or enemies in coverage 3 armor, but does affect aquatic Vectors, as the water is being forced into their lungs.
-You cannot grapple or be grappled. -While you still take up three hexes on the grid, being attacked in your limbs does not harm you in any way. If hit by an enemy iring a single shot which counts as a limb hit, ignore the hit altogether (unless the weapon would affect things other than the water itself, as in the case of explosives.) While you cannot grapple, your system is plenty capable of shoveling water into a general area. Use it like you would a grapple (successfully hit twice with a ist attack). During your target’s next turn, they must either move immediately at least two hexes away, or begin taking suffocation tests as described in the expanded rules chapter, at a rate of 1 per round beginning at
-Ignore the balance and wall-climbing aspects of the Tentacled Frame. Because the lowform surface tension is not a direct parallel to the tensile strength of metal, you require at least a foot-wide surface to “stand” on. You can stand on porous surfaces such as mesh grating without a problem, but they must be at least a full hex in width in order to distribute your weight across the supporting surfaces.
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-The lowform unit in your body is speciic to you, and as such cannot control external water sources like a normal lowform can. However, it is possible to supplement your own reservoir with larger bodies of water. If you are in contact with another mass of water, you can extend the range of your own inluence up to 100 feet away. The amount of water you can move does not 71
change, however, so if you’re manifesting an arm on the other side of a pond, you lose the one you have on your side until you’re inished. -Your lowform is capable of rapidly reestabreestab lishing the shapes it was designed to assume, speciically that of your lower motivation and upper manipulation arms. The Achilles heel of all lowforms is that they cannot rapidly assume fresh, new forms. Because yours is an extension of your body, it has signiisignii cantly more leeway than most, but it still isn’t capable of manifesting manifesting unique shapes just because you want it to. You can pilot water in tendril-like forms, and manifest up to two hand-like structures at a time from any extension.
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Hexapod Extended segmentation: Your lower body is extended into several legged segments instead of just the one, granting you a total of 20 legs (10 per side) instead of 6. Moving them in tandem can provide considerable strength.
Effect:
-Ignore the swim speed limitation; your body is long enough to propel itself through undulation. -You can extend upward to 3x your height rather than 2x.
-Your lowform is very good at retrieving fallen water should it become separated from your mass. Mere contact will draw it back in. It can also make up for missing water by pulling from a ready source. If, however, something happens that causes your entire supply to become separated from you, you will be unable to move until a new supply can be obtained.
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-Follow the same size rules laid down in the Hexapod Frame entry; however, your core hex includes three hexes behind it, which can bend to it whatever coniguration you please provided they do not overlap. You cannot turn around in hallways less than two hexes wide, and must back out instead. -Each of your leg pairs is as strong as the next, allowing you rather unparalleled drag and lift strength. If your character’s Body:Strength score is sufisufi-
cient to carry an object as a biped, that object may be carried on your lower body 10 times over, provided it is evenly distributed. Likewise, if attempting to tow something, you can pull with 10 times your strength. However, care needs to be taken to distribute any stress across your entire lower body, which usually requires some setup time and a network of ropes. You can’t simply grab on and start pulling; if the weight is too heavy you will injure your upper body. -You weigh roughly 6-8 times what your bipedal weight would be. In most cases, Cogs with this coniguration are too heavy for elevators.
Effect:
-Remove the fall damage bonus described in the Hexapod Frame rules. -Remove the height bonus. -Remove the dificult terrain bonus. Treat dificult terrain normally. You still cannot be knocked prone. -Your movement score is +2 when your wheels are active. Simply declare that you’re using them.
-As long as you can keep your legs under you (Body:Dexterity+Athletics in most cases) you can absorb falls from 60 feet up without damage.
-You gain the Boost move listed in the Wheeled Frame description; however, you do not gain the cover bonus. Your chassis presents a larger target.
-You count as a stable iring platform as per the Taurism Morphism. This applies to anyone riding on you, provided you have not moved on the same turn they wish to attack.
-All climb-related checks you have to make over slick surfaces are at +1 Complexity, due to the inability of your wheels to actively conform like feet can.
-This specialization is the most physically extreme of the commonly recognized Cog frame specializations, and really rides the borderline of personal expression versus physical exploitation. Cogs and Vectors with close ties to the Cog community will treat you you a little coldly until they are convinced, through your actions or extended exposure to you, that your choice was an emotional necessity rather than a means to an end. If they ind it appropriate, most will eventually come around. If they see you behaving like construction equipment, they might start treating you as such. Treat all relationships with said individuals as having a contextual -1 die to Community checks by default, which will either go away with time, or increase, depending on the overall narrative of the game. -You do not it in the standard pilot seat of any personal vehicle. That mass has to go somewhere, bear it in mind when renting cars.
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Linear coniguration: Your legs are arranged in a traditional taur-like coniguconigu ration, emphasizing emphasiz ing forward speed over stability.
Effect: -Remove the vertical ascent ability described in the Hexapod Frame rules. -Remove the height bonus. -Remove the knockdown immunity. You can still travel over dificult terrain without penalty. -Remove the swim penalty; you swim as normal. -Remove the balance penalty; you can arrange your feet in a line. -Your movement score is +2. -You take up two hexes on the board in a line with
Wheeled mechapods: Rather than your torso at the front. While you are tauric in
terminating in grip plating like normal legs, your legs terminate in small wheels, granting you amazing mobility and the ability to switch from wheels to walking at will.
coniguration, you have six legs instead of four. Four are up front in a fairly close group, and the remaining two are in the back. 73
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74
Aesonsi Mansion, Valles Marineris
COGSUNES Cogs have been upgraded technologically over the years just as everything has, but it’s been a careful and touchy process. By and large, Cogs today look a lot like Cogs of centuries ago, they just happen to be more eficient at what they do. Their internal components are smaller and more robust, their lubrication sustains itself longer. They’re less vulnerable to various electronic interferences, with quicker relexes and larger tolerances for strain. But on the whole, they’re the same “creatures” they’ve always been, to the point that some of the default chassis options look rather dated next to current design standards. The reason for this is obvious: when you change something dramatically and call it a “new standard”, it says something profound about all the things that didn’t change along with it. It’s one thing for a computer to be “obsolete.” It’s quite another for a person to be. About 300 years after the irst Cogs appeared, new advancements in biosynthetics had opened a doorway for a substantial change in the way artiicial life was approached. ASR had developed technology that could allow them to organically grow synthetic material. For the irst time, implants could be approached from a fully integrated model, where things were no longer “attached to,” but rather were a seamless extension of, an already existing body. There were still hiccups to overcome, the biggest being that the existing organic cells had to be specially treated in order to mesh with the new biosynthetics. For a person to take advantage of this technology, they would irst have to have their entire body replaced. The cost alone made its application as a commercial item unlikely, and the technology wouldn’t work any other way. As luck would have it, ASR had a ready solution for this problem. Rather than try to get people to give up their bodies for new, untested ones, they’d just start people out that way. They’d made artiicial life before and it had worked beautifully. Perhaps it was time to try it again. ASR made tentative probes into Sol’s residency to see how they might react to a new, different breed of artiicial life. The initial attempts were met with mixed feelings from the population, with most of them leaning toward negative. Cogs were a little concerned about being actively compared to something made with newer technology, and
Vectors simply weren’t sure something new was needed anyway. The process was beginning to look doomed before it began, and because of the nature of the dramatic change it would inlict on the economy, ASR was unwilling to launch the new line without a substantial population on board to engage with it. With a huge amount of money already sunk into the development of this technology, the company shifted its focus toward marketing, and began an aggressive push to make the new race as appealing as possible lest they lose the chance to try it. New advertisements and examples of opportunities for organic augmentation began to appear all over Sol, demonstrating such advantages as metabolic repair and increased lexibility and sensory data. The technology was lauded as a bridge between lesh and machine, and a perfect solution to situations where neither would do. Naysayers had no shortage of material to work with, but the initial designs were attractive, and the constant appeal of fresh technology and a new inlux of ideas was beginning to take hold among the greater populous. Before too long the public opinion of the new race started shifting. Tempers were calming and even the opposition was beginning to back off a bit. Maybe this was, as they said, just one more boon to the overall pool of creativity and ingenuity that was the already diverse population of Sol. Exactly one month before the race was to go public, Aron So, the then-CEO of Applied Sciences and Robotics, made a public address to the citizens of Sol about the groundbreaking nature of this bold step. It was a stirring oratory, congratulating the pioneering spirit of those involved with the project and the bravery of the public to accept a new face into their ranks. He swore on ASR’s centuries of responsible maintenance that these too would be a beneit to society, just as Cogs were, and that together the strength of the entire civilized union would be boosted when joined by a new being with new ways of seeing things. The board was aglow with pride, and public anticipation was at an all time high. It looked to all the worlds like everything was ready to go, until the speech concluded, and the soon-to-be ex-head of ASR summarily 75
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destroyed the entire endeavor in a single sentence: “Welcome to the universe, Cog 2.0.”
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The irst of a series of apologies was aired within hours of the speech’s conclusion. Aron So was replaced the following day. It took three days to oficially scrap the biosynthetic launch, as most of the Cog population working for ASR had stopped showing up to their jobs, which slowed the process down a bit. By then the rioters had racked up billions in total damages, and the collective industries of Sol were nearly certain they were witnessing the end of an empire. They weren’t, and though it took time and no shortage of begging for forgiveness, ASR slowly managed to salvage itself. Numerous assurances that “Cog 2.0” was never intended to be part of the speech, and never part of any of the work documents, were included in their pleas, but it took the full release of all the development material to inally sooth the crippling ires that had started when the head of their company publicly announced “replacements” for an entire race of people that already depended on ASR for their growth and livelihood. While ASR had effectively convinced Cogs that such an act was never intended, the event had permanently colored the technology. It was poison now; they couldn’t so much as use it to sell toys. Even its potential as a surgical augmentation was lost, as they had to give up all their secrets and research in order to prove their good intentions and had no means to moderate it now. ASR was left with a trillion credit project that wasn’t worth a dime, and a huge chunk of recent research down the drain. Extremely careful marketing managed to slowly but successfully shift the blame for the social faux pas over to the now-missing Aron So, who had disappeared upon his termination without comment and was presently nowhere to be found. When the sting had passed and ASR citizens began picking up the pieces, the corpornation released a document describing a new, completely unrelated creature that used the new technology. This 76 new “AI” featured no core consciousness and
looked dramatically different from Cogs. They were small, physically weak, and designed for existence in low-to-no gravity environments only. ASR gave them the sterile title “growbots” and put considerable effort into billing them as little more than general assembly units that could handle tools dexterously and maintain themselves via the metabolic maintenance systems in the new biosynthetics. Not a social threat. Not even competition. You won’t even know they exist, they said. We have to use the technology somewhere, so we’re putting them up in orbital research labs and just letting them work for us, doing little projects. It’ll let us keep our residents on populated worlds and delegate space work to things that need to stay out there anyway. The public was glad to see them go, and when the irst stations were unceremoniously put in place in secluded locations far away from the traficked routes, everyone, ASR especially, put a great deal of effort into pretending the whole thing never happened. They succeeded, and in the eternal rules of media: out of sight means out of mind. To this day, the race that calls itself “Cogsune” continues to produce amazing scientiic advancements for ASR while quietly tinkering away in their own little corners of the solar system. They’re cheap, eficient, happy, and terrifyingly intelligent. With their assistance, ASR has sat at the top of the scientiic food chain for ages, and next to nobody even knows they still exist, much less thinks of them as potential subjects of genetic slavery. It’s enough to make one wonder if the worst ASR presidential mistake in history was ever really a mistake at all.
The Cogsune The reality of ASR’s “growbot” is a titch different from what the public thinks it is. Cogsunes are roughly two-foot-tall hyperintelligent workaholics that take all the social training that keeps Cogs from becoming tools and throw it violently out the airlock. Cogsunes are born to be tools, and they’re proud of it. Every part of their technobiology is tuned for eficiency. They barely breathe, hardly eat, take up next to no space and are sustained by an internal reactor capable of supplementing equipment ten times their size. Their construction is modular, consisting of a head and torso that contains all their essential components, and removable limbs that sustain themselves even while unattached. Special
light-based signaling systems grown into their sockets allow for instantaneous communication with whatever limbs they may be attached to, and a personal signal bond can allow speciic limbs to be controlled even while not attached. Specialized limbs exist for all sorts of different tasks, from manufacture to combat to micromanipulation, and each is fully grown using the same technology that the Cogsune itself is grown from, allowing it to be seamlessly controlled with sensory input down to nearly immeasurable minutia. In stark contrast to Cogs, who loathe the very idea of replacing a limb with something designed to make them into a utility, Cogsunes are built for that very concept from the ground up, and most have a collection of custom tools they’ve grown into swappable limbs, all powered by their own internal metabolic reactor. Cogsunes are an extremely specialized microcosmic society. They live in special space stations built to their scale, with very light gravity, three-foot ceilings in most areas and extremely tight quarters by normal standards. They don’t mind; they’re anything but claustrophobic. Each individual station is completely autonomous and operates as a think tank in which every member is free to explore operations and scientiic procedures that would be considered anything from ridiculous to sickeningly immoral even by Vector standards. To a Cogsune,
nothing is off limits. When you don’t need to worry about things like social repercussions or reputation, it opens up all sorts of doorways most organizations wouldn’t dare touch. Certainly not ASR, certainly not oficially. But ASR doesn’t ask Cogsunes how they learn things. They just collect the results and provide the funding and the habitat, and the little geniuses do their work. It’s exploitation of the highest caliber, but the Cogsunes don’t mind it. To them, it’s a victimless crime. They’re aware they were programmed to be okay with their lot in life, but they’ve never craved a change. They have the ability to exercise their skills and abilities in an environment providing them scope and opportunity, and anywhere else, they wouldn’t. Seems as good a reason as any to stick around. The devil is in the details. Cogsunes would appear to any observer to be perfectly sapient, intelligent creatures with all the emotional range of any Vector. Unlike Cogs, however, that behavior is programmed in Cogsunes instead of being emergent. They possess artiicial intelligence. Extremely advanced, extremely adaptive artiicial intelligence, but fake nonetheless. The tricky thing is, it’s a damned thin line between one and the other now. The Cogsune AI has been learning and adapting and personalizing for generations. It has all the heuristics and quirks of any intelligent creature, and would stomp any human Turing test lat into the loor. The difference between it and a real brain is largely inconsequential, except for the one place where it matters: you’re not allowed to create sapient individuals for labor. Cogsunes are classiied as machines, and A S R can do with them what they will. They probably would have never gotten away with it if not for the fact that, at the time they were created, no one in 77
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Sol wanted anything to do with them, and the issue has been out of the public eye ever since. The average civilian doesn’t even know the “growbot” project still exists, let alone that it provides ASR with some of the most staggeringly advanced technology in the known universe. When it wants to, anyway. One of the perks of autonomy is the ability to keep the best stuff for yourself. Cogsunes don’t make up ASR’s only research group. In fact, they’re quite the minority. But they tackle some of the really heavy lifting; things that most conventional labs have ruled too expensive, impractical or outright outlandish to work. At any given point, when ASR releases a brand new, amazing advancement, what they’re actually releasing is material the Cogsunes provided them with a good ive to ten years earlier. The Cogsunes themselves keep the really cutting edge stuff, which sits substantially ahead of the curve and is usually designed to only work with their internal powersources so as to keep it from being stolen. While ASR certainly suspects they’re being held out on, their relationship with their “partners” has become one of mutual distance. They want what the Cogsunes provide, and the Cogsunes need funding and supplies to do it, so they’re happy to oblige, but they’ll do it on their terms. Their terms are fair enough, given the circumstances, so ASR doesn’t put up much argument. Should the Cogsunes ever decide they wanted to make trouble for the megacorp it could get very ugly very quickly, but frankly, they don’t have a reason to. Aside from their pro-work conditioning and general contentedness with their lot in life, the whole species has a pretty healthy contempt for the Vector lifestyle and no innate desire to give up their lives of super-science to become bureaucrats and politicians. Because Cogsunes are independently motivated to produce and research, and that behavior is reinforced in their own society, their economic situation with ASR doesn’t involve them having to purchase things (and if ASR was trying to sell them anything anyway, their investors might start to get a little curious as to why so many recreational and entertaining goods were being market78 ed to what is still classiied as a “smart tool”).
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As a result there is almost no corporate presence within Cogsune stations. Nearly all their tools and equipment are proprietary and built on-site anyway, and they’re autonomous in their internal affairs. It’s necessary, as the lack of social pressure allows them to work and research with impunity. Cogsunes tend to think of the rest of the populated universe as excessive and wasteful (though often entertaining). They use too much energy, waste too much material, and are generally disgustingly ineficient. To some, it’s an almost fetish-like interest. Vectors represent excess and opulence that is, quite literally, larger than life, and Vector pop culture holds a certain fascination to some while simultaneously revolting others. Singing is a noteworthy example. Cogsunes like music as much as the next person, but singing uses an enormous amount of oxygen, something they themselves consume very little of. The fact that oxygen isn’t a inite resource for them is a non-issue; it’s the overuse of it that matters. The feeling isn’t universal among the population, but it’s a common example of how practices Vectors wouldn’t think twice about seem inherently excessive in the eyes of a Cogsune.
Leaving the nest Much of the Cogsune life is based on exploring mathematics and theory, but they have to produce practical material too, and that often requires ield work. This can be challenging, as most people aren’t inherently aware Cogsunes even exist. But with a little clothing and the right behavior, it isn’t too dificult for them to pass as Blips, or even micro canids of some sort. The biggest challenge is gravity. Cogsunes were designed to exist in extremely low gravity environments, and lack the gravity adaptation protocols that Vectors have to allow them to actively adapt. Only a select few “ield agents” are upgraded with an augmented musculature that can tolerate higher gravity environments. Such agents are necessary, but always lead somewhat distant lives from their kin. They’re noticeably bulkier, weigh substantially more, are taller and consume more than four times more resources. By Vector standards, it’s nearly irrelevant. A ield Cogsune might stand an inch or two taller than her normal compatriots, weigh 20 pounds instead of 12, and eat as much as a micro Vector, but to her people, she’s a ravenous giant. They’re physically different
too, covered with a noticeably thick layer of muscle under their luff while most Cogsunes tend to be wispish, with no bulk beyond what’s needed to do their jobs. A ield Cogsune could be dispatched to any given project for a host of different reasons, none of which they’re really compelled to share with anyone. All that’s required is that ASR be informed of where they’re going and “why” (which is often obnoxiously vague, as the Cogsunes are well aware of their own leniency within the rules), and a report of their actions when they return home. The rest is largely self regulating; the Cogsunes themselves don’t want interference from civilians, so they don’t go advertising their existence openly, and ASR doesn’t want scrutiny from other corps, so they don’t go talking about it either. It’s exactly the sort of corporate misdirection Spyglass was created to expose. That they haven’t blown the lid off this one is probably due to them seeking a way to exploit it. Or maybe fear. Technology cares not if you’re two feet tall and adorable, and Cogsunes possess some of the most powerful technology in existence.
BUILDING A COGSUNE
Stats Player Cogsunes are all ield Cogsunes, and all have the same Stat Distribution (but may distribute their dice as they see it):
Mind
Dexterity: 4 Resilience: 2 Acuity: 4 Strength: 5 Presence:2
Body Dexterity: 2 Resilience: 1 Acuity: 2 Strength: 1 Presence: 1
Community Dexterity: 1 Resilience: 1 Acuity: 1 Strength: 1 Presence: 1
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Economy Dexterity: 1 Resilience: 1 Acuity: 1 Strength: 1 Presence: 1
Cogsunes are unique characters in the HSD universe and follow unique construction rules. They also don’t advance in the same way Vectors do, use Cogsune special rules: different equipment, and play in a different fashion overall from Cogs and Vectors. Having a Cogsune in Reinforced bone structure: Cogsunes were your party can make for all sorts of fun and interestdesigned for low gravity, cramped environments ing twists on combat and gameplay, but they’re not where things have a tendency to blow up unexpectgoing to be your neighbor or someone you met in edly. Naturally, they bounce off walls at high speeds school. They’re a third party with their own motivawith some degree of regularity. When applying tion who happens to be working with you, and at the Microism Morphism to your Cogsune, ignore any given point, they may very well up and leave you the hitpoint limitation. Cogsunes multiply their to your fate. hitpoints by 10 as normal characters do. The following section outlines how to build a ield Cogsune for inclusion in your HSD game. It Atypical anatomy: Cogsunes cannot receive follows many of the standard rules for character surgery or implants of any kind using Vector creation, but has speciic requirements and limitatechnology. This includes medical treatment. Injured tions to relect that Cogsunes don’t share the same Cogsunes must either heal naturally, heal by means learning and development environment (or anatoof an 07 tail, or make use of their Quantum Backup my) that the rest of the Sol system does. system.
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Quantum Backup: All Cogsunes possess a overruled by any extenuating story elements if the wireless backup system that taps into a form of proprietary communication that vastly outclasses the current technology used in long distance data transfer. Their bodies stream a constant, up-to-the-second package of biostatistical data to a receiver on their home station and redundant receivers on other Cogsune stations. If ever a Cogsune should die, they are immediately “reincarnated” at the nearest
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Cogsune station. The practice is perfectly natural to them, and is used for everything from rapid transit to a quick way home to a way to catch enemies off guard. Super science is dangerous business; you can’t afford to lose important knowledge every time some pesky genetic horror gets loose and kills everyone. If your Cogsune dies, they are effectively removed from the current scene and can no longer participate in it. It will only take a few minutes for their new body to appear at the nearest Cogsune station, but they will have to secure transportation and arrange reports before they can return to the party, to say nothing of travel time. Roll a d8; the result is how many days it will before you arrive at the party’s doorstep. This dice roll can be
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Guide wishes to choose it themselves. It is possible for Cogsunes to select the station they wish to spawn at, allowing them to place themselves within 8 days travel of just about anywhere sunward of Uranus. Cogsunes don’t have an issue using this ability casually as a means of getting from planet to planet fast or as a quick route home, but it’s rather inconvenient in the ield due to how much time is lost getting back to where you started. Dying ruins any hope of observation and research and throws a big kink in whatever operation they’re in the middle of, and they tend to look at unanticipated deaths as a personal failure. In short, ield Cogsunes are not outright suicidal just because they have a safety net (though they do view death with a degree of contempt). Cogsune quantum backup systems use a special form of wireless communication exclusive to Cogsunes. No technology or materials available to Vectors can block this communication system, and it can penetrate miles of rock with ease. Transcendent phenomena, however, throw it for a major loop. In areas with a Cuil Bloom, Cogsune communications and backup systems can’t transmit. The replacement body will not spawn until the Cuil returns to zero, or until positive proof of the Cogsune’s termination is delivered to their home station. In either case, the replacement body will be made from memories taken before the Cogsune entered the affected zone. Cogsunes heading back to a work site are dropped off via one-way pods that are effectively useless after arrival (though they make for reasonably comfy chairs for Micro characters) and previous Cogsune bodies will incinerate themselves once a new version has spawned.
Scholarship Cogsunes are very specialized and have their own educational guidelines. Select four Proiciencies from the Science and Engineering Proiciency blocks (they can be selected from the same block or split up) and raise them to the Masterful level. Raise one Proiciency in the General section to the
Educated level. You may then distribute two Proiciency points where you wish, but cannot stack them on each other. Alternatively, you can give up those two points to raise one of your Masterfuls to the Preeminent level. This means your Cogsune is a specialist in that particular ield. However, because of the secretive nature of the Cogsunes, your Preeminence cannot be leveraged as a reputation the way a normal Vector could. The public really just doesn’t know you well enough to accept your word that you’re as good as you claim to be. Cogsunes don’t receive Alliegence points. While technically eternally partnered to ASR, their peculiar arrangement with the corp removes them from the general hierarchy of things. This doesn’t mean they can’t earn favors or friendships in various corps, it just means such things are generally personal with speciic individuals rather than recorded somewhere. Cogsunes make it a point to not be noticed on the large scale.
Morphism: Cogsunes have the Microism Morphism (though to them it’s just normal sized). Different Cogsune leg sets will award them different mobility rules, but do not count as Morphisms.
Ledger: Ignore Ledger related rules; Cogsunes don’t have a Ledger. They are likewise not citizens of any particular corp and cannot oficially accept payment for contracts. Cogsunes will either need to independently negotiate to be paid for a job, or will have to be payed by the party out of whatever they receive. Typically, when a ield Cogsune is working with a group, their modest material needs are absorbed by the party in return for the substantial beneit of having a Cogsune around.
in the world. Cogsunes have many such talents, but they relate to their own little worlds in space, not the larger worlds outside their door. They must rely on their substantial intelligence to get by in unfamiliar territory.
Motivation: Unlike the more vaporous motivations of standard characters, Cogsunes are out in the worlds because it’s where the work took them.
That said, the work varies from person to person. Instead of picking a Motivation, Cogsunes have a Task.
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Select your Task: When you build your character, conceptualize the mission they’re on. It can be large or small, direct or abstract, with huge ramiications for the galaxy or just little ones for the modest advancement of science, but whatever the reason, your character is accountable to their superiors back home about it. All it really requires is that your relationship with the party be in some way beneicial to your mission. Perhaps your character is convinced that the party will be traveling to areas with important data about what you’re researching, or maybe you just need them
Focus: Cogsunes don’t get Focus abilities (beyond the one described in their special rules). Focus abilities relect special techniques honed through use
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for money and a place to stay, so you’re acting as support to help inance your goal. Progress, however, is key. Your Cogsune is not expected to “succeed” at their task just by spending some time out in the ield, but they are expected to progress their research. Treat this like a Motivation with a little extra bite, as you’re actually accountable to someone for how effectively you’re working. The Guide should be aware of this goal, but the party doesn’t necessarily need to be. Cogsunes don’t “spy” for corps (they ind it to be a frivolous activity), but they do observe for their own beneit, and sometimes it’s best if your subjects don’t know they’re part of the experiment. While this takes the place of a Motivation, it does not afford you the beneits a Motivation normally does. It is purely for character development and context. Field Cogsunes are already “on the clock;” all their actions are in some way related to their task, even if it isn’t immediate or direct.
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Modular The most peculiar aspect of Cogsune anatomy is their modular limbs, which can be removed and replaced with other units as they see it. Coupled with their large internal power source and the substantial technology that can be integrated into their techno-organic bodies, each limb can house considerable power and utility. Cogsunes are not combat-trained creatures, and rarely think of things in terms of “what can be shot at what to kill it.” For them, the laws of science are signiicantly more mutable, and while they may not have access to conventional weaponry, they bring boons of their own to a party’s combat prowess. Cogsunes can equip two separate arms, a leg set, and a tail. Arms typically have affects on the battleield ranging from terrain control to matter manipulation. Legs generally affect how your Cogsune gets around. The thick tail of a Cogsune makes it a good location to house more esoteric technology that can unlock many special abilities for use during a session. Your Cogsune will begin the game with the 06 tail, and the rest will be 82 “blanks,” which means they function like a normal arm or leg would and nothing else.
Requisitioning new limbs Field Cogsunes aren’t issued the entire armory of Cogsune limb conigurations when they leave. Aside from being an unnecessary expense, it’s also a staggering degree of raw power and would make ASR more than a little nervous. Instead, they have to requisition new limbs by demonstrating the need for them. If their request is granted, the information for the new limb will be beamed to them via their wireless connection with their home station and their blank limb will reconigure into the unit they requested. Once transformed, the limb cannot change back (more for inventory than mechanical necessity; both Cogsunes and ASR like to know exactly how many of each thing is in existence at any given time). Cogsunes who spend a long time in the ield doing dangerous work will sometimes end up with whole closets full of detached limbs, ready for use in varying situations (or for terrifying random inspection crews). Cogsunes can manufacture a new blank limb on their own, using a small manufacturing station issued to them when they leave. Great care was put into these machines to ensure they couldn’t be abused or provide anything dangerous to someone who may steal them; they only produce blank arms, legs and tails, only for the Cogsune they were issued to, and only if said Cogsune does not currently have a blank set. Requesting a new limb is a negotiation process between the Cogsune and their home station. Typically, the Cogsune must present a clear and present need for the new limb, as well as a convincing argument for how the unit will assist their task. Central command doesn’t hand them out very rapidly, either; they will want you to spend some time with the one you’ve ordered before allowing you to order another. Because all campaigns run on a different clock of player activity, it’s up to the Guide to decide when a Cogsune has waited long enough to successfully request another limb. As a rule, it should happen about as often as a normal character might advance in corp Allegiance: after several successful missions or story events, where the Cogsune can point to various situations they feel are on the horizon where the new limb will prove necessary and useful. Special limbsets will not automatically destroy themselves in the event of a Cogsune’s death, but if they can’t be retrieved within a few days of the
Cogsune returning to the site, their home station will usually disintegrate them remotely rather than let them get picked up by an unknown agency. Depending on the nature of how they were lost to begin with, getting them replaced may be as simple as asking for them again, or may require additional negotiation to prove competency.
Starting appearance Field Cogsunes stand a little over two feet tall (not including the ears) and resemble a bit of a mix between a fox and a kangaroo, with thick tails and legs and small pawlike feet despite their typically plantigrade posture. They have very large ears that end in an angled edge, with holes of tapering sizes through the tips. They typically have fur patterns that are obviously artiicial in nature, resembling geometric shapes that almost appear drawn on. Their limbs feature several ventilation holes that expose a bonelike heat sink mechanism within their bodies, and they have limb attachment seams below the shoulders and at the thighs, as well as a bit below the base of the tail. Field Cogsunes also appear rather muscular under their fur, though this is simply the result of their own breed of gravity adaptation and does not actually make them particularly strong. Cogsunes begin with a basic arm and leg set, which provide them all the abilities and utility a basic set of arms and legs would for anyone. They also have an 06 tail, which counts as “basic” for the purposes of requisitioning new limbs.
Limb selection
Arms: The physics manipulation units in
Cogsune arms are typically used to form pockets in space where the laws of science behave differently, so as to test unique technologies that require such conditions. When used in combat, they can manipulate the conditions of battle dramatically. Because these tools were originally intended to affect a large area, they generally encompass the entire battleield unless the Cogsune puts considerable effort into constraining it. Using an arm’s ability requires no special check. The Cogsune simply activates it as a 3 point action, and maintains it from round to round as a 3 point action. Most of these abilities involve taking
a speciic attribute (like hitpoints) and multiplying it. The new, modiied score remains as long as the Cogsune is using their ability. If they should stop, the original hp values return. Divide the current total by whatever multiplier the Cogsune applied. For example: A character with 15 hitpoints is boosted by an 02 arm. Their new hitpoint total is 45 (15x3). The character then takes 10 damage over the course of the ight, reducing them to 35 hitpoints. When the Cogsune stops boosting them, their new hitpoint total will be 12 (35/3, rounded up). Once activated, an arm must remain active for at least three full turns (including the turn it was activat ed). Arms cannot be removed voluntarily while active. Forced removal of an active arm will cause a power feedback loop inside of it that will burn it out, rendering it inoperable. This damage is speciically designed to not be repairable: Cogsunes generally only get their arms forcibly removed when they’ve been captured by unpleasant people who want their technology, so it’s designed to destroy itself. After all, if they kill the Cogsune, it’s really not that big a deal. Cogsune arms are actually designed to be research and physics manipulation devices for experiments in space, not weaponry. By their very nature, they do not affect Cogsunes (who typically aren’t looking to become parts of their own experiments). Additionally, they must be exposed to work, so Cogsunes wearing coverage 3 armor cannot beneit from them. Lastly, tool arms like these are entirely dedicated to the device they house. While some still have grasping ingers, they’re for basic screen manipulation and don’t have the level of grip or lexibility required for active use in combat. In effect: the Cogsune loses the use of this arm for things like wielding weapons or holding objects. Arms can be ordered as left or right, but cannot transform from one to the other. Determine which side you want when you order one. Swapping an arm is a fast process, requiring one standard action to release an inactive arm, and another standard action to replace it with one you’re holding in your free hand. If you don’t HAVE a free hand (perhaps because both your arms are 83 specialty arms) someone else can attach it for
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you, or you can dedicate an entire turn to the task. It takes a bit of undigniied squirming, but it can be done. There is no beneit to having two of the same type of arm, save for redundancy if one gets hurt. Multiple Cogsunes using the same arm ability do not stack their bonuses. Bonuses awarded by Cogsune limbs are applied separately from any other bonus from any other source. For instance, if a character’s hitpoints were being boosted by 10 from some other piece of technology, the Cogsune 02 arm would irst boost the character’s hitpoints by x3, and then the boost from the other technology would take place, unmodiied.
visible glazing over the surface or armor, almost as though it’s been lacquered. Effect: Multiply the armor hitpoints of the entire battleield by 2. Cogs double their hitpoints in addition to the armor boost. Focused: Multiply the armor hitpoints of the enemy by 2, and your own party by 3. All Cogs double their hitpoints in addition to the armor boost.
Limb focus: Focusing the energy of a
02: This arm can actively alter skin tissue
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limb requires considerably more resources than using it as intended, but can allow a Cogsune to provide the majority beneit of their inluence to their own team. -Only one arm can be focused at a time. -A focused arm costs 8 battle pool points per turn. - Focusing an arm requires a Mind:Dexterity+Science check (complexity 3) every round. Do this after spending the battle pool points; they will be used regardless of the check’s success. On a failure, the arm operates normally. If the Cogsune attempts to focus the same arm twice in a battle and fails both times, they will not be able to focus that arm for the duration of the ight.
to harden in response to physical trauma for a split second upon impact, serving as an ablative matrix of natural armor. This manifests as a sudden crystallization at the point of impact, which quickly switches back to lesh with far less damage than would ordinarily be there. Effect: Multiply the HP of the entire battleield by 3. This ability does not affect Cogs. Focused: Multiply the HP of the enemy by 2, and your own party by 3. This ability does not affect Cogs.
Arms
03: This arm can interact with electrical
01: This arm can signiicantly harden the structure of worn material by supplementing it with additional resilience gathered from partic84 ulate matter in the air. This manifests as a
impulses at minuscule levels, allowing the Cogsune pinpoint control over extremely complex technology of their own design. Outside of a lab environment however, it’s a great way to scatter people’s thoughts at the last minute. Effect: This ability is used in response to an enemy attack. Activate the arm as normal, but select the target as the enemy attacks. Roll a d8 and apply the following effect: 1-2, nothing happens. 3-6, the
enemy spontaneously selects a random new target among your allies for their attack. 7-8 the enemy selects a new target from all available people on the grid, including their allies. Focused: Roll a d10 instead of a d8.
Visually, objects in the vicinity appear to waver slightly, as though viewing a mirage, and as things approach other things their outlines seem to suck in like water pooling. Effect: Passive cover now provides a +4 cover save automatically. Focused: Your party recives a +2 cover save in melee (requiring a 10 to hit them).
04: This arm supplements the natural healing abilities of organic lifeforms considerably, causing them to remain vital even after sustaining massive trauma. It doesn’t help their overall resilience much, but with time it will allow recovery from all but complete bodily destruction. The visual manifestation is much what you’d expect, and not for the faint of heart. Effect: Characters in your party who are reduced to zero hitpoints will not die unless their bodies are outright destroyed, and will not have to roll on the “Surviving the Big One” table. They will fall unconscious at zero hitpoints, but the regeneration ield will restore them to full health in about an hour. Because the ield doesn’t work in any particular order, they will have to remain unconscious until it inishes. They are considered injured but stable in the meantime, so if the Cogsune is unable to continue treating them after the battle, they can be brought to a hospital and treated normally. This ability must be active within one turn of the time of “death” to function. This ability does not affect Cogs. Focused: This effect applies to the enemy as well. This ability does not affect Cogs.
06: This arm
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creates a unique energy deadening ield that disperses acute energy output over a certain threshold, causing weapons that propel their ammunition to be little more than gloriied clubs. This ability is directed, rather than dispersed, and can be seen as an obvious blue beam between the Cogsune and the weapon of choice. Effect: Disable a single ranged weapon. That weapon cannot be ired as long as the arm is active. You must maintain line of sight to the weapon for this ability to work. Focused: You must see the weapon initially to establish the effect, but sight doesn’t need to maintained as long as you maintain focus. The beam between you and the enemy becomes a bright glowing aura around both objects instead.
07: Similar to the technology in 06, this arm
05: Through manipulations of light around the contours of objects, this arm can allow things to camoulage with much greater eficiency than they normally could just by obscuring most of their body.
reduces energy output of small objects, causing projectiles that would normally manifest special effects to contain no more stopping power than the size of their bodies. It tracks said objects via their relative speed, so its effectiveness is limited to projectiles. This manifests as a lash of 85
light around the bullet, but it happens so quickly it’s generally lost in the muzzle-lash. Effect: Disable ammo bonuses. All ammo is classiied as standard ammo unless it is LTL ammo. Focused: Select one ammo type when you activate the arm. All friendly weapons are counted as being equiped with that ammo type provided the weapon can legally use it.
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08: This arm causes the surface area of
terrain to luctuate disproportionately to its size, altering friction and resistance dramatically from foot to foot and making it very dificult to move freely on the ground. This manifests visibly as a shifting texture on the loor. Effect: All open terrain is dificult terrain. Focused: The terrain becomes actively dificult, canceling any abilities that would normally allow dificult terrain to be ignored.
09: This is the only arm set that’s taken as a matched pair. These wings look (fairly) natural, but contain powerful antigravity systems within them that provide the Cogsune with disproportionately large lift. Effect: You can now ly. Cogsune light uses unique gravity thrusters to function and doesn’t follow the normal rules of light. Instead of making Fly checks, the Cogsune simply travels in the direction they wish to go at 3x their movement They can also hover in place. The lift 86 value. capacity of these wings is 800 pounds, but it
must somehow be afixed to the Cogsune to be lifted. Cogsunes that ship large objects back and forth typically pair these arms with Taloned legs, which can attach to objects of this weight and allow them to be shuttled around. Focused: A Cogsune wishing to use their light for anything related to combat mechanics (combat jumping, etc.) must focus irst. They still use the Fly proiciency for these actions. Because they don’t require swooping room like conventional wings do, they can move around at roughly head-height in combat without making focus tests, but will need to focus once they get within 10 hexes of an enemy.
Using specialty of combat
arms
out
The description of each specialty arm depicts what it’s actually doing and the relative scope of its abilities. Outside of combat, it’s possible to make use of these abilities in far more ways than can actually be listed here. However, they do share similar characteristics. Arm abilities are spherical and have a range of around 100 feet or so. An arm can only be focused for about a minute before it becomes too exhaustive to maintain. Standard arm abilities can be kept up for about a half-hour before a 10 minute rest is required. Arms can be focused out of combat to aim at narrow places, but focus checks will need to be taken every minute. Cogsune arms are not designed to kill people. Though it is easily within their scientiic ability to create such a device, it would also send up serious red lags with ASR, which is in neither party’s best interests. Some of these abilities can be used to set traps or arrange dangerous situations, but none of them can deal direct damage to a person. Cogsunes need to maintain a low proile in order to effectively conduct their ield research without calling undue attention to their activities. Using arm abilities in populated areas is anything but discreet, so most refrain from doing so outside of life threatening situations. For all their utility, when walking around the world it’s often better to have two good ol’ fashioned working arms than
a pair of bizarre looking deformities that make the walls bend where they shouldn’t. Being excessively visible will usually cause a Cogsune’s home station to withhold future support unless they clean up their act. What qualiies as “excessive” is up the judgment of the Guide.
Legs Cogsune leg replacements are generally stylized to grant them greater mobility or stability for whatever it is they need to be doing. Standard, bipedal legs grant Cogsunes the same mobility they’d normally get out of a body like theirs, but they have a few popular replacement options available for when they need different features. While many of these options resemble Vector morphisms, the social training (and size) of Cogsunes are so different that many of the same rules don’t apply.
Serpentine
form:
Much like the lower half of snake taurs, this leg set grants a serpentine lower body to Cogsunes. With so much additional surface area on the loor, they can better absorb and disperse carried loads. Effect: Gain the tauric 25 pound boost to weight limits, move at full speed in water. You can’t jump with this leg set, or climb sheer surfaces unless you can physically coil around them.
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Taloned form: Allow-
Tauric form: This lateral-looking lower half joins with a Cogsune at the hips and turns them into a taur. This is most noteworthy for the increase in speed it provides, as even with four legs Cogsunes are too small to carry much extra weight. Effect: Double your movement score. You can’t swim with this leg set. Additional ventilation holes in the new legs cause drag and looding that easily outclasses the meager swimming boost provided by four tiny paws.
ing a Cogsune to adopt a posture similar to that of leverstanced Vectors, these wicked-looking talons are actually advanced attraction systems that allow the Cogsune to adhere to nearly any surface, including other people. While sharp(ish), these talons are shaped the way they are to facilitate the ield they produce, and don’t make for practical weapons. Effect: You can walk along any non-luidic surface in any orientation provided your feet are touching it. Removing you involuntarily requires an opposed Body:Strength+Athletics check, which you receive 2 successes on before rolling. Alternatively, someone could just hit you really hard until you decide to let go. This system interferes with most active armor and EM systems, so your character cannot wear either with these legs. Likewise, if they succeed in attaching to someone wearing such armor (by means of a grapple, for instance), the active armor 87
will behave as though the wearer had failed their operate check, and any EM suites will not function so long as the Cogsune remains attached. A Cogsune grappling in such a way gains none of the usual grapple beneits and is more or less considered a “passenger.” However, they do have their arms free and can perform the skylift grapple maneuver if they have the 09 arm set. You are limited to two Movement actions a turn with these legs.
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Tails Cogsune tails are generally long and thick in proportion to their bodies, and make them look a bit like a mix between foxes and kangaroos. The relatively basic motion of a tail makes it an ideal place to cram sophisticated self-maintenance bio-circuitry, and most Cogsune tails typically focus on providing the Cogsune with personal protection or utility abilities. The port also serves another function: it can accept external power, allowing a Cogsune to use its arm units indeinitely.
02: This tail serves as a portable sample analysis engine and is a favorite among ield Cogsunes who work with found materials. It has multiple slots and ports along its length that can accept test tubes, slides, mineral shavings and various other packaged samples for complete analysis, providing the Cogsune with a detailed mental list of ingredients and features. The tip also contains an imaging scanner that can map the entire surface of an object with microscopic detail and save the digital model for wireless export later to any system that can support it (or just the Cogsune itself, who can then mentally examine the object without having to employ any magniication). Drawing conclusions from these tests still requires the use of various investigative skills, but it is assumed that if there is a thing or detail in a substance to be found, this tail will ind it. It just comes down to whether it can be recognized after the fact.
03: This tail serves as an information hub 01: This is more of an adapter than an actual tail. It allows the Cogsune to tap into a main powerline and harness it internally to be used to power their arms, charge various depleted electronics just by holding them, or connect power from one area to another by serving as a physical bridge. Cogsunes have little to fear from electrocution; their bodies can allow current to pass with nearly no resistance. This unit has a retractable 30 foot cable that can be attached to any main power line to allow the Cogsune to make use of that power practically. This is commonly used to get power from one area to another, allowing a Cogsune to run their arms longer outside of combat, or simply to use them as a universal charger, although players may ind other ways to use it.
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that uses proprietary Cogsune communication technology to network users. When requisitioning this tail, Cogsunes typically request a number of discreet sub-dermal comm units to inject into the ears of their party members. This system provides them with crystal clear sound across astronomical distances without transmission delay, and is completely undetectable by conventional technology. It is, however, limited only to communicating with each other, and the Cogsune must be wearing this tail for it to work. It’s also worth noting that, while it can’t be intercepted by Vector technology, every Cogsune anywhere can tap into it as easily as changing a channel. They don’t generally have a reason to, but they might be up there giggling and sharing a single piece of popcorn as they listen to your radioshow.
04: This tail creates a personal visual disruption ield that renders the Cogsune completely invisible to the naked eye. They still leave footprints, make noise and appear to devices that see in the ultraviolet or thermal spectrum, but are otherwise completely absent to normal vision. The system is extremely effective but doesn’t tolerate shock very well. Firing a weapon, getting injured, falling badly from a height or running into something, or doing anything more than moving normally will disrupt the ield visibly for a good three rounds before it reasserts itself. Cogsunes can use their arm abilities while thusly cloaked, but the visual effects of those abilities will still manifest. Intelligent enemies may be able to determine the center of the effect, though it will probably take some experimentation before they try shooting at it rather than at the more apparent threats. The ield handles equipment well, but armor is limited to coverage level 1 and weapons can’t be more than Medium sized.
a few seconds at a time. In short, this attracts a lot of attention, and while their bubble might protect them, there’s little stopping someone from actually picking up the entire package and running off with it, Cogsune and all. The ield doesn’t hurt to touch, and takes one hour to recharge 100 hitpoints after it’s been deactivated.
06: The basic Cogsune tail contains a unique compression ield that shrinks objects held inside of it considerably. This gives it about 4 cubic feet of interior space, accessible through a series of different holes and seams along the back so it can be properly organized. Objects inside the tail are also reduced to about a quarter of their weight. Cogsunes typically use this system to store tools they’ll need, sometimes even extra limbs. The ield within the tail runs off the tail’s own bioenergy system and will continue to function even when not attached to the Cogsune, but only for about an hour.
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05: This tail generates an extremely durable energy shield in a bubble around the Cogsune. This essentially turns the hex the Cogsune is standing in into a piece of 3-foot-high Armored cover that protects them from all sides. The shield repels all material, so weapons or characters can’t travel in or out of it. It’s also solid, in that it preserves the air inside of it and can withstand external pressure conditions from vacuum to 1000 feet below the surface of the ocean. The low respiratory rate of Cogsunes can allow them to stay in this bubble safely for hours at a time, and it’s typically used instead of spacesuits unless the Cogsune actually needs the use of its hands for whatever it’s doing outside. Energy shielding like this can make Cogsunes very useful as battleield obstructions, but this technology is not available conventionally in such a small package. The closest analog requires enormous power reserves and can only function for
07: This tail provides the Cogsune with a personal regenerative and restorative system and is typically taken by ield Cogsunes that don’t like going through the inconvenience of reincarnating at a station and lying back to their task site. It functions like the 04 arm, but only applies to the Cogsune wearing it. It can rescue a dying Cogsune up to one round after it reaches zero hitpoints, provided there is still a butt left to attach it to.
Character advancement Cogsunes don’t advance their statistics in the same fashion normal characters do. For a Cogsune, being in the ield is a very speciic task, not just another day in their lives. Their energy is dedicated to doing what needs to be done. They’ll learn 89 things, certainly, but if they want to hone a
particular skill the resources they have at home are far better equipped for it. Their minds don’t work the same way normal people’s do, so Neuroplexes are useless to them, and they can’t exactly attend a school (nor would they want to). Essentially, the stats you begin with are the stats you’re going to keep with this character. Guides are welcome to make speciic exceptions to this if they feel a Cogsune character has, through necessity, adopted a new skill over time, but for the most part Cogsune players have to make do with what they have. This character role is transitory by nature: they’re here to have an adventure and complete a job, and when it’s done, they’ll be leaving. Players are encouraged to keep playing their Cogsunes for as long as they want to keep them with the party, but this particular creature will not be seeking fame, glory, wealth or personal advancement in the same way a typical adventurer might. When their unique play style loses its luster, they should complete their task and head home, perhaps to return sometime in the future as a guest star or NPC.
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Cogsune inclusion Getting a Cogsune into your player party needn’t be complicated. Cogsunes are not widely known about, but it’s not because they’re “classiied;” it’s because ASR makes a point not to draw attention to them. Any character with a penchant for inding secrets or knowing obscure information has probably heard of these creatures before, at least to the point of being able to point one out as “those things ASR uses as think tanks.” Most characters have at least passing historical knowledge of the event that predicated their creation, even if they can’t recognize them on sight. Few people are privy to the actual culture or personal behaviors of Cogsunes, but those are things your party will learn through interaction. Tying a Cogsune to a party can be accomplished a number of different ways. One of the simplest is a reference from a trusted NPC, who informs the party that they’ve located someone who can be an asset to them if they allow them tag along. Or, the Cogsune could be in the 90 to general vicinity of operations, working on
something similar, and offer their services in return for money and transportation (perhaps by proving their worth with a demonstration). Rescuing a Cogsune from a situation is another serendipitous way to get them into a group; Cogsunes have such a dismissive view on their own termination that they tend to get kidnapped somewhat more often than the average Vector, if only for the experience. Depending on the personality or initial limb selections of the Cogsune, having them appear as a “saving grace” can often give them an “in” with the party. For instance, if a character is disarming a bomb, or dealing with some form of hazardous elements, and fails a check. Several Cogsune abilities can save that character from death should they appear in the nick of time, and upon miraculously surviving their experience, the PC will already recognize their value. Cogsunes always scout their marks before revealing themselves, so it’s likely it was waiting for just this occasion to introduce itself. It might have even arranged it. Cogsunes typically don’t fret explaining their nature and origin to people they work with. Drawing major corporate attention to themselves would require a serious show of power, not just a few people engaging in odd jobs. They do tend to play it close to the vest around people with Allegiance level 3, and will actively avoid non-ASR representatives of Allegiance level 4 or better. Exceptions include party members who already know them, or can be individually reasoned with. “Truth, but just enough truth,” is the Cogsune rule of discretion. They will generally sum up their existence to outsiders as “we work in R&D for a closet division of ASR. Various tech development, long term research projects, that sort of thing,” and leave it at that. If pressed, they’ll generally talk more about their own personal research than that of their race. How far they go beyond that is really up to the character: some are more forthcoming with history than others. As a standing rule, they’re allowed to talk about it, but only with people they personally feel “need to know.” If building trust within their workgroup requires that information be divulged, they’ll talk about it. If they can get by with a line about being space-midgets who do science-y stuff, then they’ll leave it at that. Reguardless, the information itself is not nearly as volitile as it once was. The event that led to Cogsune creation took place over 200 years ago. The event is remembered in history, but the sting
has long faded. Five minutes of interaction with a Cogsune is generally enough to realize that they have zero intention of commiting mass genocide against Cogs or whatever other demonization might be attached to them. Most people are far more interested in exploiting their tech than the moral ambiguity surrounding them.
Working with Cogsune abilities Many Cogsune limb abilities operate mechanically within the game environment by augmenting numbers. However, it’s important to remember that those number represent actual things in the game universe. “Hit points,” for instance, are an indication of a characters health and well-being. When that character’s hitpoints are dramatically increased, it means they take less damage from incoming sources. “Less” is not “none.” Players should consider what that looks like. Did the character’s clothing survive? Are their limbs stripped of lesh but still in tact? Did it burn off all their fur? It won’t kill them, but it’s still an attack. It’s going to cause visible, perhaps even horrifying, damage to a body, in ways that are very different from the sorts of wounds normally received on the battleield that you can walk away from. Some characters may be fascinated by this, even empowered. Others may ind it unnatural and terrible. After all, it still hurts. Don’t get so caught up in the mechanics that you forget to react to what’s actually happening.
Multiple Cogsunes Cogsunes don’t typically work in groups in the ield. They’re rather reliant on having normal friends to do all the things required to exist in a normal world, as they don’t exactly “it in” very well. While they get along ine with their own kind, there is a certain inborn rivalry between Cogsunes that pushes them to greater levels of discovery, and also means they tend to look for ways to capitalize on whatever the other Cogsunes around them are doing. It’s all for the greater pursuit of knowledge, and they’re very open with their work so as to ind the best ways to save effort and stand on each other’s shoulders, but their skillsets are extremely clinical. A team of Cogsunes can work out theories of antigravity that will levitate mountains, but could be thwarted by something as simple as buying groceries simply because they have zero context of how it works or why. Keep this in mind if the majority
of the party starts looking like they want to play Cogsunes. In that situation, it might be more fun to make a Cogsune exclusive campaign that involves a team exploring areas that don’t include large sapient populations.
Enemy Cogsunes
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Occasionally, an opposing force might have a Cogsune of their own assisting them. Cogsunes consider themselves on a different social level than the rest of the galaxy, and while this doesn’t necessarily translate to arrogance or an aloof attitude (many of them rather respect the Vector worlds) it does give them a degree of professional detachment from social issues that may drive Vectors to ight. If a Cogsune can identify the presence of another Cogsune on the battleield, they will generally both stop ighting, disappear somewhere and share information about what they’re up to and what they’ve learned. Cogsunes won’t put their mission or friends at risk, so they won’t give away vital information to someone on the team of their opponents, but to them, they haven’t found an “enemy,” they’ve found a fellow researcher and their subjects. Cogsunes have personalities and friendships like anyone else, and they might even know or dislike the Cogsune on the opposing side. But even if it’s someone they’re not fond of, it’s still a colleague. Besides, if you killed them, they’d just re-spawn and you’d never hear the end of it the next time you got stuck in an elevator with them at home. As is the case with all things, there are exceptions to every rule. It is possible for a Cogsune to get wrapped up in the affairs of their subjects to the point of affecting their professional judgment. Such behavior is highly frowned upon in their society, and means they’re contaminating their own data. Should your character encounter this (or even be a victim of it) it can make for a fun subplot depending on their personal affection for the people involved.
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Sinaal, Pulse corptown
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EXONYMPHS There are no terran arthropods outside of Earth. That in itself is quite an achievement. One would think that, in the time of the evacuations and the occasional quarantine breaches since, something would have made it from one world to the other. A few ants, a bee, spider, something. Perhaps they did. They didn’t last long when the journey was complete, though. The nymphs destroyed them, and carried on with their business. During the terraforming process of Mars, Earth scientists had a number of problems to overcome. A major one was longevity. Building life, on its own, was pretty simple. Building trees, plants, oxygen producers, they had the technology to make it happen. Keeping it going after the process was completed, that was the rub. Plants were only one part of the immensely large and complex network that kept the Earth ecosystem running. Insects played another enormous part. So enormous, in fact, that the scientiic models available at the time predicted an utter failure of the terraforming process if some form of active pollination could not be established. Unfortunately, the type and number of insects required were totally unmappable due both to the complexity of the operation and the uncertainties inherent to the terraforming process. There was no way to predict how many of which kind of insect would be needed to ensure proper seeding, while accounting for local wildlife consumption and their own reproduction. No one knew how quickly new breeds of animal were going to take hold, or how active the plant life would be, or how readily the newly converted soil would actually nourish the new tree variants in Mars’ somewhat dimmer sunlight. Too many of one type of bug would no doubt lead to the destruction of another type, which could lead to catastrophes if the now-missing species turned out to be essential to the fresh and fragile ecology. Too many variables existed, and with millions of insect species to choose from, any number of which might play an unknown but essential role in plant biology or the balance of their own numbers, this situation presented a serious issue for the longevity of the Mars terraform. The solution was to forego Earth insects altogether and develop a new creature from scratch
that could ill any role that was required of it, quickly and in the proper numbers, as needs arose. A superbug, whose genealogy was known from the inside out and whose body could be rapidly mutated to give it wings, a wormlike form, an arachnid coniguration, or any other body or behavior it needed. The developers knew how much and what it ate, how it behaved, how to manipulate and direct it, and could treat it like a computer program instead of worrying about whether or not they were leaving behind some critical insect on Earth they didn’t even know existed. As the terraforming process began, they ran simulation after simulation, discovering when, where, and how many of their new creation to distribute across the growing world. And when things went wrong, they could simulate a rapid seeding of new body types and behaviors to correct for it, swinging back and forth until an equilibrium could be established, and a inal value could be found to feed to the bioconstructors. The new species was given the name “Nymph,” both as a nod to the young forms of many insects back on Earth, and as reference to the small, mischievous creatures of legend who brought discord and salvation in one petite package. Nymphs are a self-monitoring planetary maintenance animal, and life on every terraformed world is rather dependent on them. They measure the health of the ecosystem, they adapt to maintain plants and animals. They ill niches when something is missing, and create new ones when circumstances require them to. Their anatomy is dynamic and adjustable, and they possess a singularly unique ability to absorb information from consumed brain tissue that allows them to seamlessly pick up skills and abilities from other nymphs they kill and eat, which they can then use to propagate more, identical nymphs and create instantly viable replacements when numbers need to be shored up. They are as common and visible as insects on Earth are, but despite all their variety, they are, essentially, a single species.
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The nymph life cycle Nymphs are typically born in a set form, such as a waspish body or a beetle-like body, and ill those roles until they die, doing most of the things you’d expect a wasp or a beetle to do. Nothing terribly remarkable. However, as a nymph goes about its life, unique sensory organs in its body allow it collect information on the overall health of its local ecosystem. How many other nymphs there are, the ratio between them and the local wildlife, things of that nature. As nymphs begin to detect changes and declines in the biosphere, they react to rebalance it to a point of stability. This process begins with a colony information exchange. Nymphs of all types reach out to nearby nymph colonies and consume one another on a small scale (typically only one-for-one). The nymph that does the eating can absorb information and skills from the one that was sacriiced. This information is transferred back to its own colony through unique scents, movements, and even a limited telepathy, which gives them very exact information on how many nymphs are in the other colony, what they’re doing, how they look, and what their impression of the overall health of the local ecosystem is. Those colonies will reach out to other colonies, collecting and compiling more information, until a massive net of data is possessed by every local colony in a declining area. Then, a decision is made on how things need to be redistributed. The decision is always unanimous; there are no ulterior motives. Some colonies will need to decrease their numbers, while others will need to increase theirs. Some might need to split so more of the same type of nymph can be in the area, while others may need to join them to shore up their numbers. Once the decision is made, action is immediate. The nymphs swarm, redistributing their numbers into neighboring colonies. Their bodies metamorphose into new shapes to match their new colony, and they are oficially integrated into the collective by means of a special venom injection that “retunes” them to the local pheromone 94 language. In a matter of hours, the local population completely changes, and the
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new nymphs carry on with their new lives in their new colonies, bringing the local system back into equilibrium. They periodically check and recheck, trading and transforming to keep things level as the rest of the world changes around them with the seasons and the interference of various higher life forms. Sometimes, excess is created. Surplus nymphs are scent-tagged as consumable resources, which gives their skills and experience back to the colony while diminishing body count. Some are spared and reassigned as “traveler” nymphs. These nymphs are separated from the colony but serve a valuable function of their own. They travel across vast distances via various means (their own wings if they have them, ships, people’s bags, whatever is around) and enter colonies that are too far away to contact via the local system. They iniltrate and are either consumed for their experiences and knowledge, or strike irst and consume one of the colony members. Either way, through absorption or communication, the foreign colony learns of conditions and situations from thousands of miles away, and the traveler (or the new traveler, if the old one was eaten) breaks away and continues onward. Every colony has travelers, and through their combined efforts, the planet itself has a grid of constant maintenance and communication that is accurate down to the day.
modern science Nymphs are every student’s irst look into artiicial anatomy. Vectors are artiicial constructions too, but the majority of their anatomy is legacy equipment from humans that has been tweaked and tuned up. Nymphs look a lot like insects, but are internally quite different, and because their patterns of behavior are so predictable, they make for great object lessons for things like bio design. Plus, the kids get a kick out of watching them transform into different versions of themselves. But nymphs have an inherent weakness that makes them vulnerable to excessive tampering, so irmly enforced protocol is in place preventing large scale experimentation on the creatures. Nymphs are all a single primary organism, and as such, what kills one can conceivably kill all of them. While this in itself isn’t that big a shock
(a neurotoxin developed to kill one Vector would certainly kill all of them if the air was illed with it, too), it does leave them vulnerable to accidents. Poisons intended to curtail a local population might end up harming a much larger chunk than intended, or even the opposite: provoking a response that results in an explosion of new members. They’re designed to be resistant to such things, but accidents can happen, and overzealous chemistry could be devastating to the population. Traveler nymphs help defend against this result. They don’t have many of the pheremonal off-switches that colonies do, so they’ll enter even protected areas. This exposes the most chemically robust nymphs to risks ahead of time that they can then bring back to colonies as nonmembers, giving the colony a chance to isolate them if they detect a chemical threat. Alternatively, they could just die, and at least they wouldn’t be a colony member when it happened. It’s a small defense, but it’s what they have. Much like Earth insects, if someone really decides they want to kill a colony, there isn’t much the colony can do to stop it. “Pesticides” are actually deterrents which key into the pheromone receptors of nymphs and basically tell them “all is well; you don’t need to be here,” thus keeping them away without provoking response from other colonies. When the population needs to be lessened, chemicals can be released that mimic those applied when the colony itself decides it’s too large, and they’ll trim down their own numbers. By and large, this doesn’t need to happen very often. Nymphs inherently keep their own numbers under control as their environment changes. The real concern is the introduction of an aberrant nymph, a non-measured member, that creates a new niche in the population and integrates itself as a colony of its own. This could introduce a brand new body type that might not mesh well with the other existing ones, and could throw the entire population for a loop because of how connected they all are. Earth’s insects are not making new versions of themselves on a regular basis. They’ve arrived at their current state through millions of years of adaption. The sudden integration of a new type of nymph could result in the destruction of an old one, which might then trickle down to create lapses in the global ecosystem. Vector scientists in this ield serve doubly as observers and enforcement oficers, making sure no one is getting too creative with
nymph biology. The general rule on all terraformed worlds is to just leave the bugs alone. They’re doing a job, and they’re good at it.
The inevitable
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Naturally, anything labeled a bad idea is worth trying once, just to make sure. History has documented multiple occasions where labs have developed super strains of Nymph for uses ranging from surveillance to assassination to building maintenance. Each has been methodically destroyed when discovered, in order to avoid destabilizing the nymph population. The resources required to introduce a new strain of nymph on a large enough level to make a real difference and permanently adjust their structure requires such a large facility and operation that it’s pretty impossible to do it without someone else inding out about it before you’re inished. In popular culture, attempts are seen as the modern equivalent to “the mad scientist,” and many famous entertainment productions have been based around the idea of nymphs becoming unstable and turning into horriic, unstoppable monsters. It’s a Vector cliché, but less than 40 years ago, it became a secret reality. Dr. Gelic Saan, a Progenitus bioengineer and eco-maintenence manager, employed new technologies to effectively “Vector” a nymph, turning it into a thinking, intelligent, independent creature while maintaining all of its nymph properties. His goal was to create a way to communicate with nymph colonies on a direct language level, which he felt could allow them to be used for even greater tasks by actively reassigning their priorities. It was not a sanctioned operation, but he was a somewhat obsessive individual. When the nymph emerged from the bioconstructer, it did what all nymphs instinctively do when they travel into a new colony: it consumed the nearest brain to igure out how it should be behaving. Thus did Dr. Gelic Saan end his illustrious career. However, his knowledge, memories, and skills were imparted into the nymph, and once they had all settled and iltered into place, she looked around the lab, found she had the language and the names for all the equipment, a shock- 95
ing degree of bio-technical knowledge, and a rather profound need to stack odds in her favor before she was discovered and killed. Luckily for her, she had the means as well. The equipment was there, she had the knowledge, and it was already set up to build more. She injected the new nymphs with her convergence venom, which allowed her to share her knowledge with them as part of her own colony, and they too became aware and intelligent. Bit by bit, over the course of the next month, the irst Vector-sized, intelligent nymph colony began to grow in an isolated lab in the Venusian ocean. When the irst team was sent in to investigate Saan’s extended radio silence, they were captured, eaten, and their knowledge and biology was added to the colony. They adapted gills and wings from the Vectors in the search party, switched their own hormones to traveler mode, and split off in different directions to try and igure out what all nymphs try and igure out: where they land in the fabric of the world.
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Exonymphs The new, Vector-sized nymph is called an Exonymph, and they are just beginning their struggle to try and ind a niche in the larger world of sapient creatures. Exonymphs are intelligent, feeling creatures with as much range of emotional diversity as Vectors, but this property only activates in them once they have consumed their irst Vector brain. Upon absorption of that person’s experiences and memories, the capacity to manifest their own activates within them and they become whatever personality they’re going to be. It is unique to them and not a product of the personality of the consumed person, but their skillsets and education are a direct result of those skills absorbed through consumption of their victim. Each new brain brings new memories, new ideas and new skills. The old ones persist, but become overshadowed by the new ones. What an Exonymph is “good at” is often a product of the last brain they consumed, but what they “remember” can stretch back through 96 countless lifetimes. All Exonymphs are “travelers” by
default. They don’t belong to a colony and don’t have a hive connection. Multiple Exonymphs traveling together can form small colonies within their group, but it innately won’t grow larger than a dozen individuals. Their natural awareness of their surroundings tells them that large colonies would be dangerous to themselves, as it would attract danger and disturb the established balance. The “danger” in this case is Vector attention, and they’re quite right to avoid it. Almost no one knows Exonymphs even exist, much less that they’re actively living on Venus. The very idea of them is terriically illegal, and for “public safety,” they would be killed on sight if recognized. Thankfully, they have a natural camoulage that serves them with remarkable eficiency: the Blip excuse. Exonymphs are a new species, but Vectors have been making nymph-like Blips for centuries just because they like the appearance. “I’m a Blip,” will save an Exonymph from further scrutiny from just about anyone who doesn’t actually have a reason to suspect that they are, in fact, a brain-eating superbug. That’s a very select number of people, and they typically won’t have to ask. It’s a cautious defense, though. Blips can’t reproduce, which means there’s only ever one of any particular type in a given area in most situations. Some people sell their designs so that others can produce Blips along the same shape, and others will produce Blip “siblings” that have the same design, but it becomes exponentially rarer the more you see. Three separate Exonymphs in a given area will likely prompt an investigation into their “Blip” excuse by local law enforcement, just to check their references and make sure someone hasn’t created a fertile creature. Things would degrade from there in short order. The brain-eating situation is a publicly relatable moral concern, but it’s not the primary problem. Exonymphs only need to kill once to achieve sapience. Typically, however, they’ll do it multiple times over the course of their lives. It’s a tremendous boon, as it supplements one’s abilities with a whole lifetime of new information, but it’s also an internal struggle. Exonymphs learn things like morality and social behavior both from their innate personalities and from the memories of the minds they consume, meaning that each new brain typically afirms the ingrained social rules that forbid murder. On the lip side, there’s a gray area in most Vectors regarding stepping on others for personal gain, and that gray
area grows too. Allowing an Exonymph to live free is, by its very nature, condoning murder. It may not happen again, but it happened once. That in and of itself would be enough to damn them in the majority of public environments. The real threat, though, comes from the fact that Exonymphs are still nymphs, and still have a place within the nymph cycle. They don’t know what that place is yet, as they haven’t igured out what their own niche is, but when they do it could mean catastrophe on a global scale. While standard nymphs simply don’t have the sort of metabolism required to transform into an Exonymph, it’s entirely possible Exonymphs could absorb the standard nymph ability to colonize, resulting in millions upon millions of new bodies, each created in order to make up for a perceived lack of something critical in the ecosystem. Or, just as easily, the nymph population may determine that Exonymphs are an unnecessary variant, and order them to destroy themselves. Or, the Exonymphs themselves could allow their now-conscious brains to override their hormonal programming, setting a catastrophic precedent for any nymphs that absorb the same ability and begin ignoring colony orders to balance the world’s ecosystem. They might even be able to take over existing colonies and derail their work due to the new presence of personal ego and self-preservation, which nymphs innately lack. The possible outcomes are myriad, and each is more damaging than the last. The problem is ignorance, as it always is. No one knows what might happen if Exonymphs and nymphs actually colonize as a grouped whole. The system wasn’t designed to accommodate free will, let alone the size. The possible dangers are just so large that the attempt cannot be allowed.
desire to make friends, to engage and communicate, but they’re keenly aware of their own vulnerability. Often they haunt the sublevels of society, where people aren’t learned enough in biology or science to attach any importance to their existence
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Life on the run Exonymphs are solitary, hidden creatures that spend their lives carefully gauging their situations and balancing risk of exposure versus reward of interaction. They have social needs like anyone: a
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beyond “being funny looking.” So far, the vast majority of Vector society is unaware that the Exonymph species actually exists, so they’re not exactly suspicious of bug-looking things by default. Their world is already full of peculiar bodies; one more won’t throw them into chaos. However, to those who are socially attuned, extended exposure to an Exonymph will start cluing them in to the fundamental differences in their behavior. Even with a different body shape, Blips are essentially Vectors, in that they advance along the same pathways of brain development. It’s a requirement, in fact, lest they be categorized as something different. So their behavior as adults is more or less what you’d expect anyone’s to be. Exonymphs are not Vectors, and many of their body habits, movements, body language and general behavior are distinctly different. They tend to stalk as they move and exhibit more precision in their basic gestures than most people would bother with. They’re hesitant to walk into populated rooms, as their traveler instinct warns them to be on guard in new colonies. They’re typically very open minded, even about activities or actions most Vectors would ind distasteful or troubling, because they have within them the innate ability to understand anyone’s viewpoint once they’ve absorbed their memories. It doesn’t mean they’ll agree with it, but it means they’ll “get where you’re coming from” in a genuine way. Exonymphs with several brain “donations” in their history are almost disturbingly comfortable to talk to. They have several lifetimes to draw on in order to decide what to say. Unless an Exonymph is an outright bad individual (which can certainly happen, but is a result of their own personality, not who they’ve eaten) most people who’ve spent any length of time with one describe them as pleasant, wise, and refreshingly unbiased. Unfortunately, they’re also natural killers, which makes for a bit of an issue.
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The Exonymph paradox
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While there is a massive, global concern about what Exonymphs can and can’t do to the ecosystem, that sort of threat
doesn’t often trickle down to the individual level. Much like similar global concerns to humanity on Earth during the human era, the idea of the ecosystem simply “breaking” one day is a little dificult to wrap one’s head around and relate to. But Exonymphs have a far more personal problem that individual Vectors can perceive and react to much more readily than the vague threat of nymph collapse. Namely: every intelligent Exonymph is a murderer. It’s a touchy situation. When Exonymphs are born, they don’t technically qualify as sapient creatures. They run on instinct, driven by internal programming to consume a member of the nearest colony (Vectors, in this case). Once they’ve done so, they awaken as fully formed individuals, and are smack in the middle of a moral conundrum. They don’t need to kill again, necessarily, but they already have once, and even if it wasn’t “deliberate or premeditated” by the deinitions of law, it has still left a person dead. To allow the Exonymph race to continue on an oficial level is to condone the killing of Vectors. Not even Spyglass is willing to step up on a communal level and say “we’re okay with you killing our citizens in order to exist.” Exonymph knowledge and ability is very valuable, but to condone their existence would open a Pandora’s Box of moral and legal precedents which would, at best, lead to war between Vectors who didn’t agree and Exonymphs, and at worst, lead to the dismantling of the corpornation itself. Megacorps aren’t currently aware on an oficial level that the Exonymphs exist at all, and in light of the huge decision they would have to make upon that revelation, it’s unlikely they’re going to “ind out” any time soon. Exonynmphs are as aware of this as anyone, and it often drives their behavior. Because their presence in civilized company would demand response, they usually stay in areas with people who attach much lower importance to things like killing. Criminals, mercenaries, the lost and desperate, these people don’t particularly give a damn if an Exonymph has killed someone before. They live with death every day, in some fashion or another. Unfortunately, this sets up an environment of acceptance where killing for gain is “okay.” Exonymphs gain quite a bit when they kill. They gain knowledge and experience, memory and wisdom, it’s all very real and very valuable, and even the most morally righteous of them have to ight the temptation hard. In these underworld communities, it’s pretty much
Parties that work well with Exonymph characters:
handed to them on a plate, and the killing continues. Now their original crime is compounded by a second, which drives them even further from the arms of higher society, and deeper into the den of those who would see them continue their pattern. Once this pattern begins, it can’t really be broken, and Exonymphs continue to compound their problems as they try to avoid detection by the society they would genuinely prefer to be spending time in. For now, the Exonymph philosophy is to lay low, learn, and try to igure out the best course of action when the moment arrives. Without even realizing it, their loose-knit colony is in information exchange mode, trying to build a map of the Vector universe. Their numbers are small and they don’t have the same networks that actual nymphs do, but eventually, in ten years or ten generations, they’ll enter decision mode. It’s anyone’s guess what will come of that.
Outlaws with few qualms about taking lives for gain, or few ties to large organizations. Characters without inherent suspicion, who are willing to take a Blip claim without second-guessing it when something seems off. Parties with pre-established history with the Exonymph character (perhaps they met by chance and performed some great service for one another, so the issue of trust has already been satisied). Parties with no inherent interest in the possible threat of ecological collapse that may or may not come with the growth of an Exonymph population (and as such don’t attach much importance to them beyond novelty). Full Exonymph parties (typically playing a ‘survival’ based campaign about existence outside of the public eye). A certain degree of “you hide while we handle this” should be expected with this
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Playing an Exonymph The Exonymph player character is a specialized option. Unlike Cogs, or even Cogsunes, these creatures tend to hide. They avoid excessive public interaction and have a direct need to stay off the radar, as they have no established infrastructure to keep them safe if their true nature is revealed. That typically drops them in one of several camps of behavior. They’ll lie about their nature and keep their party in the dark, or they’ll cautiously reveal their true nature to their party after achieving some sort of insurance against them (blackmail could work, as could trust through mutual beneit), or they’ll forego Vector interaction altogether and travel with other Exonymphs. Depending on your play party, it’s possible none of these options really it the bill. That’s a thing to consider with Exonymphs; they don’t it in every party.
character option. Its position in the lore makes it an inherently dificult thing to play. Embrace the challenge and ind ways to contribute to your party outside of the norm. Exonymphs are often intelligent and multi-talented creatures due to the knowledge they’ve absorbed. They make good shadow counselors, helping via radio and lurking in the dark until they have a clean opportunity to move 99 into the open. Alternatively, you could choose
to hide in plain sight: showing off your exotic form and walking with impunity through the city streets, mimicking Vector behavior and working with the knowledge that most people who see even a bizarre creature wandering around looking perfectly normal won’t raise a fuss about it. The greatest asset Exonymphs have is the lucky fact that, at the moment, very few people actually know they exist, let alone have the ability to recognize them on sight.
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Exonymph special rules
tions where the Exonymph is traveling through or having to interact in any way with other cultures, they must pass a Community:Dexterity+Express check irst. Failure means their motions and body language are too offsetting to make them approachable, and will actually draw negative attention to them. Likewise, Exonymphs trying to behave normally or casually, even while walking with their party, must pass a Community:Presence+Deception check. Failure will mean they are not moving properly and will evoke worries of danger or mental sickness among onlookers.
Off the grid: Exonymphs have no Economy scores or Ledger. They also have no legal identity, and
Mutable brain: Exonymphs do not will show up as red lags if the party is ever detained
have compatible neural structures for Neuroplexes and can’t use them. Their primary means for changing Proiciency scores is with their Gray Meal ability.
Extended
memories:
An Exonymph that has consumed at least three brains can provide Help! to any character on a thinking or problem solving task, regardless of if they currently have any points in that Proiciency. The Help! beneit is +1. At 6 brains, the beneit increases to +2. It should be noted that there is no real way to accomplish this without being oficially labled as a serial killer in any legal ile if you’re found out. In general, people’s experiences are varied enough that consuming half a dozen lives should result in a pretty diverse skill set. However, if circumstances lead to an Exonymph consuming a very small pool of very speciic skills (perhaps 6 clones of the same person), the Guide may choose to overrule this ability until more diversity is obtained.
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Not from around here: In public situa-
or checked by authorities. This can snowball rapidly, so Exonymphs will typically lee, even at the risk of personal harm, if it looks like they’re going to be arrested. They rely on the party to bring them in on jobs (and are usually rather thankful for it) or will seek employment doing illegal activities for people who don’t ask questions or require face to face meetings. Exonymphs do not begin with any Allegiance points.
Mutable anatomy: Exonymphs will change their own bodies to loosely mimic the overall coniguration of the last victim whose brain they consumed. The ability is limited, but it can grant them any of the following forms: Winged (grants a natural Flight ability as per birds. Gained by eating a bat or bird brain.) Lateral (as the Lateral Morphism. Gained by eating a non-snake Lateral.) Tauric (as the Hexapod frame for Cogs. Gained by eating a taur brain.) Biped (returns them to their basic form. Gained by eating a biped brain.) Serpentine (grants a naga-like body as per snake taurs. Gained by eating a snake brain.) Aquatic (grants the Aquatic template and broader swimming surfaces. Gained by eating an aquatic brain.) An Exonymph with any form other than biped has a much harder time not attracting attention to themselves. All the checks in the Not from around
here rule increase to complexity 2.
Gray meal: This ability is useable once per week. By consuming a living brain, an Exonymph can gain the skills and memories of the victim. Represent this in the following way: On the Proiciency column, erase all your current Proiciency scores and roll a d8 per Focus group. The resulting number is how many dots you have to distribute in that Focus group. The Guide picks the location of your irst dot, assigning it to wherever they feel is most accurate for the NPC you consumed. Distribute the remaining dots among that Focus group any way you please. You may not add more than 3 dots to any Proiciency. Add 1 dot to your Stats in whatever position the Family dot would go for whatever your victim was. For example: if your victim was a feline, add one dot to Body:Dexterity. This can bring you up to 4
dots. Assign one Focus ability to your character from whichever focus group has the highest number of dots (or randomly if there’s a tie). Each time you perform a Gray Meal action, roll a d8. On a 1-7, the Focus ability is lost and replaced with the next brain. On an 8, it becomes permanent, and your character maintains it between brains. They still get a new one as normal.
Key NPC consumption: If
E X O N Y M P H S
your character succeeds in consuming the brain of a major NPC, such as a key enemy, a prominent member in society, a major celebrity or other high proile specialist, they have a chance at permanently gaining a dot in the Proiciency that person is best known for. Roll a Mind:Presence check with no bonuses, complexity 2. If you succeed, the Guide will assign you a permanent dot before you distribute your new Pro�iciencies. This dot remains every time you engage in a new Gray Meal, and counts as the base score in that Proiciency (allowing you the potential for 4 dots). This should be reserved for noteworthy NPCs, as it relects those individuals who likely have 4 dot Proiciencies. To perform a Gray Meal action, announce that you’re doing so in any situation where your character would conceivably be able to do a Summary Execution. The Exonymph deploys its long tongue with a noose-like loop toward its base and loops it over the victim’s head from behind, pulling them sharply into a set of specially designed mandibles which hold the skull irmly in place while dense puncturing fangs pierce the bone and extract the brain within via powerful suction. This ability can only be used once per week. Extraction is quick, but the actual absorption of the new information takes several hours to take hold, during which time all checks made by your character are at +1 complexity as they rearrange their skills and abilities. They do not gain the new Proiceincies and perks until after this waiting period.
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Surgical incompatibility: Exonymphs cannot receive any surgeries or implants. They also can’t be treated for injuries at hospitals (this is due to their need for secrecy. If your party has befriended a doctor or medical technician with access to hospital facilities, it is possible to gain treatment for the party’s Exonymph through that NPC). They do have the following surgical abilities built in, however: Reclaimed Regeneration Reclaimed Pheromones Augmentation: extra arms (Exonymphs have four arms). These arms convert to legs in Lateral forms, granting no particular additional beneit.
E X O N Y M P H S
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Building an Exonymph Family, Species, Morphism Exonymphs are a species subtype of the Nymph family. They do not have morphisms. All Exonymphs begin with +1 dot in Mind:Presence.
Stats Exonymphs do not have an Economy column. Distribute 10 points among Mind, Body and Community, and select one to be d12s, one to be d10s and one to be d8s. The usual 3 dot limit is in effect.
Scholarship Your Exonymph doesn’t become a cognitive being until it consumes its irst brain. Perform the Gray meal action described in the Exonymph special rules.
You
should work with your Guide on this to decide who the unfortunate soul was. Exonymphs are instinctively cunning predators; it is possible for them to get quite deep into Vector cities unseen before claiming their irst victim.
Motivation Exonymphs can have any of the motivations Vectors have, but their unique origin should be considered in lavoring how exactly your character pursues their cause.
Focus This is assigned through the Gray Meal ability.
Starting Equipment Exonymphs receive 100 credits in stolen equipment from their irst victim. You can theme this to the victim if you want to, with your Guide’s help. Typically, weapons and armor should be limited to handguns or light melee weapons and basic protection. Your Exonymph was able to subdue and kill this character alone without the beneit of sapience; they probably shouldn’t be wearing an arsenal.
are only applicable if the people they’re interacting with are educated enough or concerned enough to care. Self-serving parties of bounty hunters and independent contractors probably couldn’t care less so long as the bug pulls its weight.
E X O N Y M P H S
Forging the narrative HSD gives you creative control over many of its story elements and how you use them. While the oficial canon is that the universe isn’t truly aware of these creatures on a large scale, it’s possible that, over the course of your adventures, that will change. Go for it! The book will not light on ire just because you’ve progressed the story. You’ll want to consider the ramiications of this action though. Will there be a movement for coexistence? Will there be war? Where will your party stand on the issue? You’ll also want to keep in mind that it would take a pretty profound action to really shine light on the Exonymphs. Simply capturing one and turning it over to the IRPF wouldn’t really do much. Most of these organizations don’t want to deal with an issue of this size and are likely to make it disappear if it lands in their laps. If you’d like to maintain the status quo, limit Exonymph characters to gutter-running plots and low-proile parties that live outside the law. Many of their social problems and dramatic issues
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F A M I L I E S
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“You’re sure I should be awake or this?” Ve’en asked, eeling her stomach turn again. She couldn’t eel the laser in the cleanfield, but the view was ar, ar too clear. “Positive,” the doctor replied flatly. “Aside rom this being ar too trivial a wound to put you under or, I need you awake to test the nerve connections.” “est?” she asked, swallowing. “What happens i they’re wrong?” “We do it again,” he replied, “Now hold still.” Ve’en swallowed and looked away. “Tis is one o those times I eel like our technology’s made us a bit too apathetic,” she grumbled. “C’mon, doc. I lost all my fingers. A little sympathy? Just a little?” “Sounds shitty,” he grunted, “now hold SILL.” “Let him work, Ve’en,” Captain Selaco said, observing rom behind, “tell me what happened.” Ve’en kept trying not to watch, and kept looking back anyway. “I was working in junction 12-C,” she explained, “doing a manual rewire. Ship’s been running background programs in one o the backup servers and we couldn’t get them to stay off. It’s probably an errant program that’s stuck looping somewhere, and it’s eating up a lot o our reserve processing power, so I went in to manually disconnect the system.” She winced and turned away as hal a connected finger twitched. “I uh, I had my hand in the access hatch when the fire suppression door snapped shut on it. I must have tapped something with a tool and not noticed. Stupid...malunctioning...” she paused or a moment. Te captain had stopped talking, and the doctor had stopped working. Tey were looking at each other. “Did..I do something wrong?” Ve’en asked. Te doctor returned to his work, and the captain put a hand on her shoulder. “It bit her,” the doctor grumbled. Captain Selaco nodded, sighing a little. “I’ll talk to it,” she told him, “We need to try and curtail that behavior beore someone loses more than fingers.” Ve’en blinked, glancing back and orth between the two o them. “Someone...wanna let me in on the-” “Ve’en,” Selaco said, “you’ve worked ASR boats beore, right?” “Sure,” Ve’en replied, “a ew.” “Ever been on one that was undermanned?” She pondered, and shook her head. “No,” she replied, grateul or the distraction. “Why? Does it matter? I thought they could do that?” “Tey can,” Captain Selaco explained, “they’re just not always...happy about it.” She patted the thresher on the shoulder. “ask next time, beore you go poking around in the computer terminals.” “But I did!” Ve’en protested, “it’s part o my routine maint-” “No,” Selaco clarified, “don’t ask the manual. Ask the ship.” Ve’en blinked, and Selaco shook her head apologetically. “Tis is a transer flight, all we’re doing is moving the hardware. Tat means we’re at 10% o the staff this ship normally needs to operate smoothly,” she explained. “But the computer supplements that,” Ve’en replied. Te captain nodded. “ASR bots are dynamic thinkers. It lets them handle the fluctuating problems on a vessel like this when it doesn’t have a living crew to supplement it. Most people think that’s a strain on the system, but it isn’t. It’s actually easier. When a ship is running normally, we’re only allowing it access to its basic control elements. It takes our instructions and translates them to action. But now,” she looked around at the walls o the medbay, “We’ve basically taken the leash off. It gets to stretch its legs and think or itsel. It’s obedient, but it’s not...what you’re used to, not anymore. It can get distracted, and it can get annoyed. You’re going to have to get used to the idea o communicating with it on a more personal level, or you’re going to piss it off.” Ve’en was stunned. “I..” she stammered, “what...really? You really think the SHIP cut my fingers off?” “You really think you accidentally poked a wire that snapped a fire door on your fingers, only to release it a moment later?” the doctor muttered. Ve’en looked at him, and he shook his head a bit as he secured the last finger. “Tese boats pick up personality, kid,” he said, “rom one crew to the next, rom one captain to the next, or all the years they’re in service. Tey get attitude, and when you open them up like this, it starts coming out. Some are nicer than others. Tis,” he finished with the last finger and let out a breath, “this one’s looking like it’s going to be a mite peckish. I’d watch your step.” Ve’en was horrified, and looked back to the captain or consolation. “What does HA mean?” “Means it’s going to be an interesting trip,” Selaco replied, “and you should watch out or doors.”
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FOCUS ABILITIES
F O C U S
These new Focus abilities are available to any HSD character and can be factored into new or existing games as soon as the ability to purchase a new Focus becomes available. Science
Engineering
Combat
Communication
General
A few modiications
Infrastructural engineering
Extreme range
Emergency channels
A few miles more...
Overcharge
Physical law
Fluid motion
“Expert”
Do you feel lucky?
Ravenous armor
Structural weakness
Saw it coming
Form follows function
On your guard
Thermodynamics
Systems redirection
Stuck in
McGufin mufins
Out of place
SCIENCE power source is too small, you can use this ability
A few modiications: Your knowledge to modify the machine to achieve that plot-oriented of energy and motion makes you capable of modifying the function of most sensory equipment to make it suit your purposes. Once per session: You can modify any digital device with an input and an output (sensor of some sort and a screen works ine, but not if the only function of the sensor is video or audio surveillance) to scan for an energy of your choosing, even if the sensor isn’t necessarily intended for that function. The modiication is one-way and cannot be undone, and is very obvious upon examination. This ability can allow you to make any examination or tracking checks your Proiciencies would allow you to make with proper equipment even if you lack it.
Overcharge: By manipulating the power control and focusing mechanisms in a device, you can force it to dramatically increase its output, often with strange or dangerous effects. Once per session: You can use this ability to force a device beyond its “story threshold.” If, for instance, your vehicle is moving too slowly to make it to a location in time, or you lack suficient 106 power to activate a device because your
goal. This will usually result in the destruction of the device after the goal has been met, and depending on how far you pushed it, it could be dangerous to you. This ability is story-based, it has no function in combat and cannot be used to modify the output of a weapon for a combat check.
Ravenous armor: Your knowledge of metabolism and caloric conversions have allowed you to harness the healing and energy conversion abilities of living armor so that it can consume its own body for additional strength. Effect: You can force a suit of living armor you are wearing to convert its own hitpoints to additional points in either Body:Strength, Body:Resilience or Body:Dexterity. Use this ability as a standard action in combat, converting 20 hitpoints to 1 point of the chosen trait per use, to a maximum of 5 points in any trait. Every use of this ability will provoke a Blood for Blood check as though the armor has attempted to heal and rolled double 1’s. The ability lasts for only that round, and the suit is subject to the normal healing rules for this damage.
Thermodynamics: Your knowledge of allows you to rapidly and accurately calculate how explosive and expansive forces is suficient for you to rapidly calculate how much of any given reaction would be required to produce a speciic amount of energy. Effect: You can calculate the amount of power produced by a chemical or physical reaction. For instance, how much heat would be produced by burning a pile of paper, or how much explosive force would be produced by detonating a ist-sized clump of plastic explosive. The does not tell you how to engineer a safe detonation model, such as demolishing a building while not harming the buildings around it, but it will tell you how much energy would be produced by detonating a stack of fuel tanks in terms of overall destructive power. Assuming you don’t mind the shape of the explosion or its collateral damage, you can use this to determine when you have accumulated enough energy potential to destroy an object. If you possess more information, such as how much energy is required to power an object or propel it through a tunnel, this ability can tell you how to accumulate that much power from local reactants if any are available.
ENGINEERING Infrastructural
engineering: Your
knowledge of planning, electrical engineering and eficiency arrangement allows you to accurately map the connections of service infrastructures. Effect: If you can gain access to a point on a power or luid grid, and possess an item capable of retrieving data from it (any system currently connected to the system will work, or an Progenitus Omniscanner) or, lacking that, if you can physically see (or have seen at one point) at least two major junctions in the grid, you can accurately diagram how the grid is distributed. This includes the relative locations of pipes, junctions, reservoirs, pumps, power stations and relays. This is applicable to cities, buildings, ships and otherwise, and you can use it to navigate to key areas on the grid. However, it will not tell you how to physically get to those locations, only how far they are in a given direction.
Physical law: Your knowledge of mass, inertia, and the overall behavior of physical objects
much energy would be required to achieve a speciic effect, and how you might harness it. Effect: You can calculate what sort of power would be required to achieve a specific physical result, and how that energy must be harnessed. For instance: how much energy would be needed to blow a 5-foot-wide hole in a speciic wall, or how much would be required to propel a projectile of speciic mass four miles. Your calculations are very accurate; however, they do require a measured quantity to be used effectively. If, for instance, you use this ability to destroy a wall, you do not inherently know how much explosive to use unless you are provided with the equation for calculating how much energy is produced per x amount of such explosive, as well as the density of the wall. Once you have that, this ability will tell you how much energy is needed to achieve your goal without destroying yourself as well as how to place and arrange those explosives. When combined with the Thermodynamics Focus ability, you can accurately determine how much energy is required to achieve a physical result, how to get that energy from various local reactants such as fuel sources or explosives, and how to safely engineer and arrange them to achieve your goal. It’s possible (and likely) that said arrangement will require a device, detonator, or special arrangement of explosives. These things (crafting, placement, etc) will still require the usual checks to accomplish.
F O C U S
Structural weaknesses: By examining the construction of a structure, you can determine the points at which it is most vulnerable, allowing you to make better use of the equipment you have on hand. Once per session: you can examine a structure and determine how it could be compromised by the equipment you have available to you. “It can’t” is a valid answer to this question. The ability will not tell you exactly what it is you need to breach or destroy a structure if you can’t accomplish it with the tools you have at your disposal, though you can determine why your equipment isn’t suficient and use that info to plan your next move. 107
To determine a structures weak point, you need to have examined it thoroughly. In the case of large structures, that means an overall tour with visual access to all the bulkheads. This can be bypassed by having access to technical diagrams or blueprints, which you can use all by themselves with no access to the real structure to igure out its easiest points of access or destruction. The information provided by this ability is always based on data on-hand. It is accurate, but only as accurate as your own information. If you are unaware of additional structural reinforcement, it may thwart what you thought was a valid weak-point. The longer you have to examine a real structure, inside and out, the more accurate your ability to pinpoint vulnerabilities will be.
F O C U S
Systems redirection: Starship systems are typically interconnected so they can all run off a centralized power system. Your knowledge of those systems can allow you to rapidly reallocate power to where you need it most, taking it from where it isn’t being useful. Effect: During your turn, you may feed your ship’s hullpoints into additional Drive points at a rate of 1 extra Drive point per 25% of your ship’s maximum hullpoints, rounded up to the nearest whole number. In practice, that’s
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1 hullpoint per 1 Drive point boost on a personal ship, and 25 hullpoints per 1 Drive point boost on a battleship. This damage counts as standard damage during combat in all ways, but when combat ends, this damage will “regenerate” over the course of the next hour as your power systems stabilize. The new Drive score will maintain through the duration of combat, effectively boosting your battle pool score for that ight.
COMBAT Extreme
range:
You’re well-versed at getting the most range out of a weapon while maintaining its accuracy. Once per session: You can ignore the cover bonus awarded to a target due to its distance from you. This does not give your gun the ability to ire beyond its own mechanical shortcomings.
Fluid motion: You can throw your weight will be transmitted to all systems connected to the around in a literal way. Your body coordination is suficient to let you use your body more effectively than most. Once per session: You can activate your Momentum effect by purchasing it as an attack action, rather than waiting for it to be triggered. Once you activate it, it follows all of its normal rules and counts as though it was triggered normally. This can allow you to activate Momentum abilities that normally require movement, without moving. However, if the Momentum effect has a condition attached to it (for instance, it provides a bonus to grappling) you must satisfy the described condition to gain the beneits.
Saw it coming: You’re an old hand at charging into short range, and you know the telltale signs that an enemy is ready to shoot you on the way in. By paying close attention to their motions, you can react even quicker than they can. Effect: You can spend a standard action before moving to declare you’re using this ability. When you enter an enemy’s Threat Response range this turn, you can roll a Body:Acuity+Spot check (Complexity 2). If you’re successful, the enemy does not get a Threat Response reaction against you; you’ve preempted their ability to react.
emergency system you’ve iniltrated. You do not have inherent knowledge of what system is local when you use this power unless you set about seeking it out irst. It could be a PA speaker system, or a wide-blast Toggle message, or a direct IRPF information channel. All you know is it will be the primary public emergency system for your current position. All emergency announcement systems do have one thing in common, however; when triggered they will initiate a default reaction to a perceived problem. That default reaction changes per system, but whatever it is, this will start it. This is also far from stealthy. By its very nature, the system will take detailed notes of your position when you use it, and relay it to whomever would naturally be informed of such a thing if an emergency system was accessed. The extent of this tracking varies by location. Some areas without high security may just keep note of the closest oficial access node to your location. Others may go so far as to continue to track your location even after you’ve returned control to the system.
F O C U S
“Expert”: You can act like you know more about something than you actually do, by using cues,
Stuck in: You can maneuver yourself to little details you’ve picked up from conversations,
make it very dificult for enemies to escape you at close range without giving you a chance to strike. Effect: When you lock into melee combat with an enemy, they must remain in that combat for an entire round before they can attempt to escape.
COMMUNICATION Emergency channels: You know how to slip into systems intended for public broadcasts. It’s not stealthy, but it’s a great way to make a lot of noise in a hurry, or blow the lid off something. Once per session: You can use any data output system (a Toggle Case works ine) to tap into a local public broadcasting system and speak over it. Roll Mind:Dexterity+Lockpick; you can keep the channel unlocked for as many minutes as you have successes. What you speak into your device
and a lot of big fancy words. Effect: When making opposed Express, Deception or Coercion checks involving communication in regards to a particular subject while you are the aggressor, you may treat the applicable Proiciency as though it is one dot higher than it actually is, to a maximum of 4. In addition, you win ties during the Opposed check made by the person you’re attempting to manipulate. However, if they win the opposed check anyway, you will not only fail to convince them, they will have caught you in your lie, exposed you as a farce, and it should be treated as a critical failure.
Form follows function: You can take visual stock of a structure, ship, or person, and get a reasonable idea of what it is they do, or what something is for. By picking out universal 109
shapes and designs, you can assemble an accurate idea of what it is something was built or tailored to do. Once per session: you can look at a piece of equipment, a ship, a building or even a person, and gain knowledge about the role it was designed to ill based off their construction or attire. This can give you contextual information about their setting, their position in a greater hierarchy, or if something was designed to function in speciic environments, all without having to examine anything thoroughly or have prior knowledge of any details. This power cannot give you information that could not conceivably be gleaned from a detailed surface examination.
F O C U S
McGufin
mufins:
Through sweeping charisma and fast talking, you have an uncanny ability to steer concern in different directions. This allows you to assign undue importance to mundane objects, potentially throwing whole investigations off-track. Once per session: In a situation in which a goal of some sort is being pursued by one or more parties, you can convince said parties that an object of your choice is directly and intrinsically related to that goal. For instance, if a group of enemies is seeking access to a vault, you could convince them that the code for said vault was chemically encrypted on a napkin you have. From there, you could use the napkin as leverage, a hostage, a bargaining chip, or whatever else you want to do with it. This ability (in this example) will only convince the enemy of the validity of the napkin claim; it will not force them to go along with whatever you demand. You will have to make further checks yourself to use your item to your advantage. Additionally, while you can convince a party of some rather obscure item relationships using this ability, you cannot convince them of something they already know isn’t true. If you make an attempt to (say, the above example, but one of them knows the code is an iris scan and couldn’t possibly be on the napkin), your ability use will fail and they will know you’re trying to fool them. It also cannot be used more than once on the same 110 group of people unless the irst use was of
such grand success that they realistically come to you asking for the next “item” in their pursuit.
GENERAL A few miles more...: Planned obsolescence is for chumps. You know how to squeeze every last mile from a disposable vehicle, and can increase its range well beyond the point where it’s supposed to dissolve into a puddle of spare parts. Once per session (or vehicle): As long as you are the only driver of a disposable vehicle, you can increase its lifespan by as many days as you have dots in Repair. Aside from being a useful money saver, disposable vehicle companies are not necessarily aware of these tricks, and will assume (if questioned) that your car will dissolve in three days and you are without transportation if a new one isn’t purchased. This ability also applies to most other narrative elements that have a mechanical “expiration date”.
Do you feel lucky?: You know how to use the din of a battleield to your advantage, making it dificult for enemies to predict how many shots you’ve taken, even if they know your gun well. Once per session: You can add one more use to a clip. Make this decision when the last use in a clip is depleted. It does not work on any weapon designed to only ire single shots.
On your guard: By paying careful attention to visual tells, you can spot a hazardous situation coming. Once per session: Declare you are using this ability. The next scene you walk into, your character will be paying close attention to body language, awkward speech, perspiration and pupil dilation, and a host of other tells that could indicate a potential ambush or deception. If they’re walking into a trap, they will be aware of it within a few sentences. “Trap” is deined as something intended to cause bodily harm. This will not clue them in to someone trying to leece them for money in a rotten deal, but will let them know if following someone into the next room is likely to involve them getting bagged and kidnapped. The ability terminates after the setting or scene it was activated for ends.
Out of place: You have a knack for noticing when something is conspicuously placed. Rugs with a corner lipped up, slightly askew wall art with worn sides, cracks in walls where there shouldn’t be any. It makes you good at picking out when something isn’t what it seems. Once per session: This ability triggers automatically every night, when you have time to relect on what you did that day. If there was a spot check that day that failed to reveal a hidden compartment, passage, drawer or other secret in a room, this will prompt the Guide to tell you that your subconscious is gnawing at you to check again. You can then go back and re-investigate when you get the chance. To avoid metagaming, it is suggested that the Guide simply allow you to ind it upon your return, as the player would obviously know there was something there at that point and the cost in time and the danger of a return trip is risk enough. Role play your second search, rather than rolling dice for it.
F O C U S
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Unknown coordinates, Martian subterranean zone
M O T I V A T I O N
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MOTIVATIONS
Duty: Some are driven by their own goals,
and lack the clarity to discern whether those goals are worth pursuing. You choose to follow someone elses ideal, one you have judged to be good and correct in your eyes. Through pride, obligation, or perhaps even ignorance of the alternatives, you are driven to pursue this greater goal. You’re probably also not alone in your patriotism, as most ideals worth following have more than one follower.
Suspicion: There is a great lie perpetrating
the galaxy, and you’re out to prove it wrong. Like those motivated by a need for understanding, your goal is related to the acquisition of knowledge. However, you’re looking for speciic data, things related to something large and troublesome you’re certain is being covered up despite everyone’s insistence to the contrary, and you won’t stop until it’s exposed. Or even after that! It’s a universal truth: there’s always another lie somewhere.
Sensualist: Society is drowning in abstraction. Nearly everything people think they know was obtained through a book or a lesson or drilled into their head with a Neuroplex. No one feels things anymore, no one experiences education through the practical application of the senses. Your goal is to go out there and do it all. Collect experiences, touch, feel, explore and absorb. You can target it toward speciic goals or a general sense of enlightenment, but you’re out to learn the true nature of experiences by feeling them irst hand, rather than assuming you know just because you attended a symposium one day.
Spiritualist: Vectors are predisposed to think of themselves in terms of numbers and material worth. They’re a manufactured species, they have X gene sequence and belong to Y family, they own X amounts of material goods worth Y numbers of credits, everything about them is sequenced and cataloged and leaves no space for the bigger questions that were so important, they occupied human philosophy for the entirety of their existence. You seek that greater understanding. You want to know what the universe is. Not what it’s made of or how you can exploit it. What it is. What
your existence as a thinking being amounts to. It’s not a thing that can be measured in numbers, but you’ll know it when you ind it.
Moralist: Vectors have borrowed a lot from humanity over the years, mostly pertaining to technology and the structures of commerce. Time has modiied all these things into a unique form that works within their society, but there are massive holes in the areas of moral obligation and a general consensus of “right” and “wrong.” Even crime is only punished because it is detrimental to the ability to coexist and maintain a functional and orderly society, not because it is a fundamental misdeed. You feel there is a major need to re-assert principals of good and evil onto society, that they will achieve a richness of existence only possible if they accept that some things are wrong and bad because the very nature of the universe has declared it so. With your moral compass, people will better police their own actions, and Vectors on the whole will thrive for it. Likewise, by following a common set of behavioral rules, they will ind a unity they’ve never really had before.
M O T I V A T I O N
Zealot: This particular concept is a new, but slowly growing, movement among Vectors. You believe that Vector-kind has already invented God, but does not know it yet. Somewhere within the amazingly diverse abilities of biotech and transcendent phenomena there exists a combination that will result in the birth of a truly divine being. Perhaps it has even already been done, and the public simply isn’t aware of it yet. Your goal is to seek that information and push it toward its inevitable conclusion: the creation of divinity. What form that divinity will take is largely up to you; the whole point is no one knows yet. All you know is that within the biological blasphemies and mysteries of the fall of Earth and whispers in the dark, there is a chain of technology already present that will give birth to God, and it is your responsibility to remove any impediments that may delay that event.
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Legacy
memory: Strictly speaking, you choose to have a Compulsion, it will begin as
this Motivation is also a Morphism, in that is is an aberration within the Vector genome. However, its existence is almost always relected in a Vector’s behavior rather than their appearance and abilities. Legacy memories are snippets of human history that have awakened in a Vector brain, resulting in them “remembering” events from the time of humanity. This phenomenon is treated a bit like psychic phenomena are treated currently on Earth: with skepticism and a great deal of fraud. Genuine cases of legacy memory are very rare, but they do occur, and usually result in a Vector that feels almost out of place among their own kind, or views their own existence as “wrong.” They tend to long for a past that doesn’t exist, and will usually lock toward careers that emphasize ancient human behaviors. Seafaring, working in isolated and harsh environments like Ganymede’s Mean, or heavy combat units. While Vectors with legacy memories can generally igure out what it is that’s plaguing their dreams, much of the context for the memories they have are completely lost. This usually leads to someone who feels as though half of their life is missing, and they tend to be lost and lonely individuals searching for something to ill the void.
M O T I V A T I O N
COMPULSIONS Motivations are a useful tool for helping gauge your character’s overall attitude toward certain aspects of life in general. While they do help dictate your actions, they’re generally intended as an “umbrella” guideline, more than a speciic behav ior. It is possible for some characters to be more motivated, or more impulsive, than others, when it comes to acting on their feelings. We can represent this with the Compulsion mechanic. Every Compulsion has two forms: a positive and a negative. Negative compulsions are the default form; they represent impulses that your character is driven to take that will 114 almost certainly get them into trouble. If
a negative. As your character grows, it can become a positive. Positive compulsions represent those same feelings after experience has tempered them and turned them into a beneit rather than a law. Once a Compulsion has become positive, you are no longer compelled to save against it. Compulsions are optional; any character may take as many compulsions as they have empty dots in Mind:Presence (ie: if you have 2 points in Mind:Presence, you may take 3 Compulsions.) Compulsions come from a common Compulsion option pool, but the triggers for them are directly related to your current motivation. You may take the same Compulsion multiple times, indicating that it is a severe issue for your character. While the Compulsions have basic deinitions, how they apply to your character is your choice and should be determined based on your Motivation and overall backstory. Just make sure you’ve established your various triggers before the game beings; you don’t want to be arguing with the guide about it during play. If you choose to take a Compulsion, you lose the dice beneit of your Motivation. You still have the Motivation itself, and should still guide your character’s actions with it, but a Compulsion represents your character lacking the general willpower to guide their own actions with the degree of inesse required to really take advantage of a Motivation, and as such they will not gain the beneits of it. Remember as you select your Compulsions that they are intrinsically linked to the decision you made when you selected your Motivation. If, for instance, your Motivation is Wealth, and you choose Possession as a Compulsion, you should consider how your desire to possess things feeds your need for riches. Be creative, some of these are less direct than others. If your character gains a point in Mind:Presence permanently, by means of character growth, select one of your Compulsions and switch it permanently from its negative to its positive form. Life has taught your character how to use their urges to their advantage, rather than being ruled by them. For the sake of game mechanics this change is immediate, however you as a player should take steps to make the in-game realization be smooth and natural. People don’t typically wake up one day
with a dramatic attitude adjustment. Additionally, if you have multiple instances of the same Compulsion, you must switch each instance to positive one at a time. In this situation they effectively cancel out rather than become positives, and you will have to get past all of them before obtaining the positive effect. The positive effects do not stack in this case unless speciically stated, and there is no mechanical advantage to doubling up on a single Compulsion, save for the challenge of overcoming a profound social obstacle.
Compulsion mechanic: All Compulsions operate with a common rule: when your character’s Compulsion is triggered, take a Mind:Resist save with the target number equal to 3 times however many empty dots you have in Mind:Presence. For example, if you have 2 of 5 dots in Mind:Presence illed, your target value for this save would be 9 (3 times the three empty dots). For every Compulsion you have (including the irst), add 1 to that target value. So if the character in the previous example had 2 dots in Mind:Presence and 2 Compulsions, their target value on any Compulsion related save would be 11. If you pass the save, your character can suck it up and ignore temptation. If not, they are compelled to act. The severity of their action is up to the Guide and the narrative. It should be signiicant enough to be noticeable and detrimental, but typically not so bad as to be damaging or lethal. Exceptions occur when characters have taken multiple instances of the same Compulsion, indicating that this is a severe issue for them. In those situations, their actions should likewise be severe. As a rule of entertaining narrative, actions taken due to Compulsion should never be outright suicidal, such as being suddenly compelled to open an airlock or picking a ight with a tank while armed with a nail ile. If your character was that unhinged, they would not have made it this far. They can, however, lead to life threatening situations by virtue of a lack of foresight or a social mistake, or lead to personally damaging situations in the form of overdoses or poor life choices.
Triggers Your character typically needs to be triggered in some way for their compulsion to take affect. Those triggers are up to you, but should be consistent and themed with your Motivation or established history. It’s good to settle on triggers with your Guide before a game begins, so that you’re not arguing them at critical moments mid-session. Don’t be so obscure that things never happen, or so common that you can’t walk outside without falling victim to your impulses. As a general rule, Compulsions should have at least 1 solid trigger: something that, when witnessed or surrounded by, will always provoke a Compulsion check. Having about two soft triggers is also a good idea: things that, if the context is right and the situation is not forcing your attention elsewhere, might temp your character into action. Good triggers typically hinge on witnessing certain events or attitudes, inding items, noticing opportunities or being provoked in some way. If this feels like handing the Guide a way to yank your chain, congratulations. You’re correct. That said, all chain-yanking in a game is intended to be fun, so if you’re going to engage in a Compulsion, pick one you’re going to enjoy wrestling with.
M O T I V A T I O N
Compulsion options Possession: You are compelled to own things. This refers to physical, legal ownership of objects, and can extend to compulsive buying, repeated searching of areas for objects, excessive haggling for material goods and trading for meaningless trinkets. Positive: You can appraise the value of any object whose materials you can identify, as well as establish fair market value for crafted items.
Revulsion: You are compelled to refuse things on principle. This typically refers to help or affection, but can extend to objects as well. Your default response is to push people away and attempt to isolate yourself, even if it saddens 115
you or puts you at risk. Positive: Add one THBW! Die to your daily total.
M O T I V A T I O N
Codependency: You attach your self-worth to the actions or reactions of other people, which compels you to stay close to them and attribute undue importance to their words. This can lead to situations where your character goes out of their way to do things they perceive as important to their relationship with another character or thing, sometimes to their detriment, as well as fail to act if they feel trepidation about how someone might perceive it. Positive: When you provide Help to another character, you can add your entire Proiciency score rather than your score -1. You must be the only source of Help.
Positive: You can use Economy: Dexterity instead of a Community trait in any situation which may require a Community based check, provided your character can equate the situation to some form of gamble they’ve succeeded at in the past.
Addiction: You have an addictive personality, which compels you to seek out certain stimulus repeatedly. This can be exhibited as a chemical addiction of some kind (though it doesn’t need to be, emotional or social addictions work too), but even if you are purged of it, your mental addiction will remain and you will seek to ill that void with some other risky, repetitive action. Positive: Your Body:Resist and Mind:Resist saves both increase by 1. This beneit applies as many times as you took this Compulsion, but only takes affect after all instances of this Compulsion have been converted to positive.
Consumption: You need to intake. Usually Control: You have a need to be in this refers to food of some kind, but it can also refer to
controlled situations and to remove their random elements. This differs from domination in that it does not mean you need to actually lord your will over others, but that you need to pull away extraneous distraction in order to obtain peace of mind. This can lead to you nitpicking character appearance choices, compulsively rearranging living spaces, insisting on control of documentation, maps, iles and data, and becoming very distressed when a character you’re working with has control of something you have no direct access to. Positive: You gain +1 die to checks involving investigation or searching for speciic errors or discrepancies in areas or situations.
entertainment or sensation of some sort. The behavioral mechanisms of this Compulsion are similar to that of addiction, except that addiction will drive you to seek out your chosen stimulus at regular intervals, engage in it until satisied, and leave, whereas consumption typically only strikes when exposed to your chosen stimulus and will persist until you’ve consumed more than you should. Positive: You can smuggle small objects in your stomach and regurgitate them later intact. The objects can be solid and non food related, up to about as much mass as your character would be able to store in a backpack sized for them, but can’t be inherently harmful (bladed, poisonous, etc.).
Domination: You have a need to be the
Risk: You have a need to gamble. This can
mean traditional, money based gambling, but can also extend to taking unnecessary personal risk for the possibility of greater reward. While your character can gamble “smart,” they lack the ability to stop themselves once they begin, and usually the temptation of any possible great payoff will drive them to try, despite the odds, or risks, against them. This also works for adrenalin junkies or characters who engage in dangerous acts 116 purely for the thrill of escaping them.
authoritative of any given situation. This can lead to you speaking for other people, threatening, claiming to do things you can’t or ixating on the control of another person’s time or ability. It can also be associated with acts of petty jealousy. Positive: You can re-roll one die when making checks with the Command Proiciency, but not if the only target is yourself. This ability does not allow you to issue commands in combat to people who have elected to ignore you.
Submission: You have a need to be told want to be controlled in that fashion, simply play what to do. There can be may reasons for this, but the most common one is a fear of responsibility which is diffused when you’re acting on someone’s orders. This can lead to you freezing up in situations where you have to make independent decisions, or a general inability to commit to action on your own. Positive: You can beneit from commands given in combat by other characters even if they have exceeded the number of people they can issue a command to. This can allow you obey a command from someone without them making a command check. However, they must still possess the prerequisites to issue whatever command they’re issuing, and it still counts as a command action on their part.
Confrontation: You pick ights where ights don’t need to happen. You spark arguments, are quick tempered, and take offense at benign statements. You also tend to overreact with your responses. This can turn minor situations into major ones, and sometimes requires you to be baby-sat by an ally to help keep you from lying off the handle. Positive: You can bait people into dropping their guard or getting angry, even if they’re not normally prone to. In opposed checks in which you are trying to illicit that sort of behavior from someone, you get +1 to your die roll and ties go in your favor rather than theirs.
Final notes: Paying attention to Compulsion is the job of both the players and the Guide. The Guide should allow for enough description and variety to trigger Compulsion responses on the part of the players. The players should be paying enough attention to notice them, and make mention of it when they appear. The Guide has a lot to think about, they may not remember every character’s quirks. Remember that this is a narrative tool; you’re not taking a Compulsion so you can try to hide it or avoid it, it is a part of your character you should want to play, despite it potentially harming them. If you don’t
your Motivation normally. Use your head and preserve the integrity of the game. While it is possible for a player to take 4 Compulsions and make resisting them nearly impossible, the novelty of being jerked around by so many impulses will likely get old after a session or two (if not to you, then to your party). Remember that the role play trumps the rules; just because the game allows you to load yourself up with laws does not mean it’s going to turn you into a more appealing character down the line. Pick the ones that relect your attitude and leave the others alone, you won’t be “missing out.” Guides who are concerned with this are welcome to customize the Compulsion limit to a point that suits their fancy. Play Compulsions in a way that makes you endearing, rather than annoying. It is possible to use these impulses as a blunt instrument to repeatedly derail the story, but neither you nor your Guide are going to get many thanks from the party for doing so. Usually, compulsions should force your character into situations that bother them to be in, because it relects a lapse in judgment on their part. Some might try to hide it so as not to worry their party, or try to deny it while insisting they can rise above temptation. Most people can sympathize with (or at least tolerate) a moment of weakness, but if your character is just wandering around looking for ways to get themselves and their party into trouble, it’s unlikely their party is going to want them around for long. In a similar vein, be attentive to your in-game behavior. Many of these personality traits can be grating if taken to extremes, and the fun of the game is not being served if your character’s behavior is making them painful to deal with.
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117
SURGERY General Surgery
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Name
Severity
Re-Education
Corp (x,y)
Moderate
-
TTI(3,2)
700
Easy
Severe
Spyglass(1,2)
500
-
-
Pulse, MarsCo(1,1)
500
Easy
-
MarsCo(3,3)
700
Moderate
Very Easy
Pulse(1,2)
700
Rough
Very Easy
Any(0,2)
500
Moderate
Moderate
Any(0,1)
500
Easy
Very Easy
Pulse(0,2)
300
Spontaneous metamorphosis
Moderate
Moderate
Pulse (3,2)
2500
Telesyncronization
Moderate
Moderate
TTI(3,2)
1500
Diamond weave Expressive control Genetic compatibility Lazarus gland Metabolic backups Nublood Prehensile tail Reinforced claws
Cost
Diamond weave: This structural but is perhaps most valuable in its ability to remove reinforcement augments Hardskin with additional minerals, making it substantially more resilient. It also makes it somewhat relective and shimmery in light, and is very recognizable. This can sometimes make you a target: when layed, the glimmering skin makes for an impressive trophy, or even armor of its own. Of course, you have to kill the wearer irst, which is no easy task. But that makes the prize even sweeter. Effect: Your Hardskin’s hitpoint value is increased to 300. Prerequisites: Hardskin.
Expressive control: This neural procedure gives you more direct control over many of the instinctive movements of your face and body, including things like blushing, frowning, dilation of the pupils or sneering with anger. In short: you are able to control what you look like, rather than having your emotions doing it for you. This is a popular procedure among acting professionals or models who want to be able to have instant control of their facial expressions or tone regardless of their mood (or who want to be able to do that thing but haven’t been able to 118 eyebrow-lifty igure out how despite hours at a mirror),
those tells normally used as visual cues to identify when someone is lying. Effect: When making rolls for Express or Deception, or when you’re simply talking to someone, it is no longer possible to discern your motive based on your expression. You can choose how you look (angry, frightened, genuine, etc.), and your body will give away no further clues. However, even though you can control your expressions and tone perfectly, that doesn’t mean you’re good at deciding how to arrange them all. This ability allows you to use Mind stats instead of Community stats when rolling Express or Deception checks related to trying to convince people of something or make them believe you based on how genuine you appear to be. In addition, you can no longer be caught in a lie by any device that uses bodily reactions as a means for determining authenticity, and can determine how you react to various stimulation visibly by default (whether you scream when scared, laugh when tickled, etc.). Even though you can control your outward reactions, you can’t stop the actual sensations. Injury, for instance, will still have the same mentally debilitating effects it ever would, and hurt just as badly. You can just stop yourself from showing the pain, or even display it as pleasant.
Lastly, this surgery gives you the ability to control the sound of your voice with expert degree, even allowing you to mimic other people or sounds. Doing so requires a Mind:Acuity+Spot check to make sure you’re accurately hearing a person’s inlection, but once you’ve igured out their voice, you can reproduce it on demand. Prerequisite: Express 2, Mind:Presence 2.
Genetic compatibility: Through careful manipulation of genetic markers, this operation makes it possible to accept one reclaiming operation from another species without your body rejecting it. It typically results in picking up a few body habits from that species as well, and on rare occasions, can even tweak your physical appearance. Effect: This operation may only be taken once, and the Reclaiming operation you take with it will count toward your maximum operations of that type. Select the Reclaiming operation you wish to receive and add the cost of this operation on top of it. You may now take that speciic Reclaiming surgery as though you were a member of the associated species. While you do not become a hybrid, this will occasionally result in inheriting physical characteristics from the sampled species. This is up to player preference, and the alterations usually aren’t profound enough to matter socially. Prerequisites: Compatible anatomy (things such as Reclaimed Large Wing cannot be taken without wings, Reclaimed Cheetah Speed cannot be taken without legs, etc.). Augmentation surgery can provide any additional anatomy this operation may require, but the recovery time must be complete before this operation can be taken.
Lazarus gland: One of the more outright disturbing developments of the post-Vitae solar system is the Lazarus gland, both because of its function and the fact that no one has ever taken credit for having developed it. The documents and iles for its creation simply appeared in a MarsCo lab one day, anonymously donated. Since then, it has been made available only to those whose missions are of critical importance, and even then, only with great reluctance. On the other hand, there are at least a dozen reports on record of people who’ve turned out to have one and never even known it was
there, subjects of secret and ongoing research. Effect: If your character is reduced to zero hitpoints and fails their survival check, they will die as per normal. The following turn, their Lazarus gland will activate and begin looding their body with Vitae Prime, an extremely reined form of Vitae with much more speciic functionality than its generic counterpart. They will reanimate, all of their Body Stats will ill to 5, all of their Mind stats will drop to 1, they will gain 200 hitpoints (from zero) and the Relentless mindset, and they will be possessed with the singular task of completing their mission (whatever it was when they were killed). They no longer possess higher level thinking skills and will essentially advance toward their goal through danger or obstruction and attempt to physically remove obstructions in their way with no thought to personal harm. Players might enjoy playing out this last hurrah, but essentially, this is now a Guide-controlled NPC. It will systematically purge the area of threats and continue with its mission to the best of its ability. If the mission involves things like programming or other higher-level tasks, the character will go as far as they can and stay there until their Vitae Prime loses charge (6 hours) and they can inally die. If they succeed in their task, they will stand motionless until dead. There is insuficient research at this point to determine whether or not the mind within the body is dead during this process, or if it is in fact alive and aware, but unable to act. Those unfortunate soldiers who have seen friends possessed by the Lazarus can only hope they weren’t in some way conscious as they advanced relentlessly toward the hail of irepower that tore at them on the way in. Body replacement surgery cannot save you from this fate; those few brains rescued after the Lazarus took effect were little more than piles of gelatinous protein. Prerequisites: This surgery is not commonly available. It typically requires at least 3 points of Allegiance with MarsCo and one hell of a good reason for requesting it. However, it is possible that characters with important information about an operation and who regularly engage in dangerous work might be abducted and 119 implanted without their knowledge. If this
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occurs, they won’t ind out until they die, or until they have a full-body medical scan for some reason. It can’t be removed once implanted, but if they really want it out, they can get body replacement before it’s active to swap into a body without one.
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Metabolic Backups:
This operation integrates a series of emergency redundancies into your physiology, allowing you to pull from great reserves of strength or resilience when you need it most. Effect: With a successful Body:Presence+Survival roll, you can add 1 dot to any of the following things before making a check: Any Body score except Acuity. Any Mind score except Acuity, Dexterity and Strength. The Proiciencies: Survival, Athletics, Swim, Fly, Spot, or Sneak. This can be done as many times per day as you have points in Body:Presence. It cannot exceed the maximum allowed dots in any given section, and cannot boost an attribute that has already been boosted. It can be used multiple times on a single check (to boost both the Stat and the Proiciency) but the requires a Body:Presence+Survival check for both, and the second will require two successes. Boosts only last for the check they’re being applied to, and once any given attribute has been boosted by this ability it cannot be boosted again that day. Failing the check required to initiate the boost will also stop you from boosting that particular attribute until the next day. If your hitpoints should fall and you have not yet used any of these boosting abilities, your metabolic backups will automatically kick in and stabilize you as your injuries worsen. You will not take any of the usual performance negatives for being at low health, are not required to take any Survival checks, and if you should be reduced to zero hitpoints you will automatically stabilize (the irst time. If the enemy should walk over to your unconscious body and shoot it in the head, this won’t save you). If your metabolic backups are used for this purpose at all, they cannot be used to boost rolls that day. They can do one or the other, 120 not both.
Prerequisites: Survival 2. Nublood: This questionable procedure swaps out all of your blood and transforms the cells responsible for its production. The replacement “Nublood” is a synthetic that’s chemically compatible with your original blood, but has enough speciic differences to grant it several advantages. It can be re-typed on the ly with the introduction of a simple chemical, which makes it great for battleield transfusions. It can purge illness and disease easily, interacts well with other synthetic materials without decaying them, is less susceptible to infection or blood poisoning, and is a prerequisite for many of the more invasive implant procedures available. Nublood is a deep purple, almost black color, and turns your lips, eyes and exposed lesh a similar shade. The advantages provided by Nublood are ridiculously slim compared to the effort it takes to get the procedure done. While it does make you more robust, it’s little better (if at all) than what could be accomplished by a healthy lifestyle and modern medication. However, in recent history the procedure has been gaining in popularity dramatically thanks to a study that revealed that no Vector with Nublood had ever been the victim of a Whisper event. They’ve died, certainly, but none have ever served as the spawning point for one. The relationship is tenuous at best: the numbers don’t exist to prove it as anything more than coincidence, but fear and hope have trumped it up as an immunity to Whisper spawning. Time will tell the accuracy of that. Effect: +1 dot to Survival. Nublood characters cannot wear living armor (it will refuse to activate). Nublood supplements Hardskin much more effectively than standard blood does. Hardskinned characters with Nublood do not take performance negatives for diminishing hitpoints and do not have to roll Survival checks for injuries unless those injuries are actually lethal. They are also immune to negatives associated with temperatures between -3c and 45c, and lower the attack value of any incoming Disrupt effect by however many points they have in Survival. Nublood does indeed keep Whispers from using their Dive ability against you, but it will not protect you from simply being killed by them the good old fashioned way.
Prerequisites: None. Prehensile Tail: Though not a trait associated with any of the major species in most Vector families, the genetic keys for tail control were carefully preserved and cataloged through those few members that possessed it as a potential advantage that could be used later. Pulse has wanted to make this particular trait universally available as a General Operation for ages, but it was, currently, classiied as a heritage trait for speciic lizards and rats, which protected it under ancient codes of conduct put in place to avoid potential unforeseen genetic complications from the mixing of incompatible genes that might someday result in the sterilization, and subsequent destruction, of a species. Only after years of testing, computer models and no shortage of payoffs has it inally been reclassiied as a univer sal commodity. Effect: Your tail can function as an additional limb (lacking ingers). It can carry objects with the same general strength as one of your arms, and is dexterous enough to type with and manipulate controls. There is no effective way to wield a ranged weapon with it (between recoil, aiming, stability and triggering, your hands can do the job better than your tail ever will), but it can be used to wield a close combat weapon. Said weapon follows the rules for two-weapon ighting and counts as your support weapon. Wielding an additional weapon beyond two does not provide a combat beneit, but does allow you to have the additional weapon “on hand,” so you can actively decide which is going to be your Primary for each attack action. You could also hold a shield instead, gaining its beneits as normal, or a melee weapon with your tail, and guns in your hands. Prerequisites: Mind:Dexterity 3, Body:Dexterity 3, a tail of at least knee length.
Reinforced claws: By and large, in the modern era, a hand is a more powerful tool than a claw. It can manipulate computers, gesture expressively, and, well, pull triggers. However, using those dexterous ingers to slash someone in the face is a pretty good way to break them, rather than do signiigant damage. Pulse developed digit reinforce ment methods speciically to counteract this, so their hand-to-hand ighters could strike harder and
meaner than before. It costs a little lexibility, but gives back some of the raw power often associated with their natural counterparts. Effect: -1 to Operate checks requiring your ingers. Your ist proile changes to Lethal, and the damage becomes Body:Strength+2. Note, however, that it is not an actual stat increase. If ight ing barehanded, you can choose not to apply the extra damage from this Operation (if you’re attempting to grapple, for instance). Laterals who are not Micro and have claws (hooves count) can take this Surgery as one of their automatic 3 Reclaiming Operations if they wish. Talk to your Guide about whether or not they feel this is applicable to your species. As a general rule, it should only be available to those creatures whose claws could do knife-like damage in the wild, not things that could only scratch you. Prerequisites: Body:Strength 2, access to a ist attack.
S U R G E R Y
Spontaneous
Metamorphosis:
Forced growth and cellular construction has been a staple of Vector bioengineering for centuries. Applying it to things that are already living was trickier, but the groundwork had already been laid with HemiVectors back in the human era. The potential had always been around to take the idea further, but there was no reason to exploit it until Pulse invented one. In their ongoing goal to produce more exciting, more interesting and more visually impressive events, they developed a system to allow Vectors to dramatically restructure their own physiology at a moment’s notice, transforming into a completely different shape. The system has its limitations, but transforming competitors make for one of the more fascinating and vivid combat events on Pulse’s networks. That and it hits that perfect balance between violence and nudity that keeps viewers coming back for more. Effect: When you take this operation, choose one of the following Morphisms: Taurism Lateralism Lever-stanced (the species limitations 121
apply) Microism Hooves Horns Plantigrade/Digitgrade Your character can spontaneously transform themselves, replacing their Morphism with one of the ones listed. Transforming requires a Body:Strength+Survival roll. The transformation can be done on demand, but is not instantaneous. It takes about a minute to complete, and will leave your character winded and tired for another minute afterward. If you score multiple successes on your transformation roll, you can forgo that extra minute. It is a visceral biological process involving the chaotic growth and rearrangement of limbs and bone structures, and while your character is protected from the inherently painful nature of it, it can be rather troubling (or fascinating) to watch. It also does not affect anything you’re wearing, so if you had armor or clothing tailored to your normal shape, it won’t it if that shape changes. The transformation is governed by a new gland which stores energy speciically for this process, but is limited to two uses per day (generally changing once, then changing back again). Your body needs an hour between activations to recover. This operation can be taken multiple times; however, the number of transformations per day remains the same. It is possible to get additional operations in any of your forms, but they 122 are linked to whatever form you got them
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in. For instance, a digitigrade character can take a digitigrade transformation (essentially accomplishing nothing) but then take Macro surgery and apply it to the transformed state. This would result in them being able to spontaneously bulk up in size. Augmentations such as extra limbs or tails also apply in this manner. Surgeries (even Reclaiming surgeries) only apply to the form they were purchased in, as your body is essentially rebuilding itself every time. Most mechanical implants are not compatible with this operation. Small chips such as the Zipchip or removable devices like the Utilit-i are
alright, but artiicial limbs or ridged structures like the NCS are not. If your transformation only affects part of your body (gaining a tauric lower half, for instance), then the NCS or other brain-based mods are ine. Clearly, that would not be the case with Microism. Discuss with your Guide if you’re unsure, since this is largely based on a logical decision as there are too many potential variables to list them all. Transcendent Implants persist between transformations regardless of which form you got them
in. Status effects, damage, and any other temporary condition you receive persists proportionately between forms. If the character in the previous example takes damage in their Macro form, they should determine what percentage of their max hitpoints has been lost and apply that same percentage to their normal form when they change back. Prerequisites: Body:Presence 2, Survival 2. Not compatible with Hardskin or Inteliformic lesh. Micros who take this operation will be micro in all forms.
Telesynchronization: Early bioprobe
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experiments involved a special operation to grant operators a form of speciic telepathy so they could control bioprobes remotely. The process was rather disastrous and typically resulted in cerebral hemorrhaging and very angry bioprobes, but one doesn’t throw out a good idea because of a few setbacks. The telesync system eventually found its home in a biological construct that already worked with the minds of its operator: living armor. It still has occasional...hiccups...but by and large it’s a great asset to living armor users. By synchronizing their thoughts with their armor, operators can use this organ to push impulses into the living intelligence of their armor, 123
making it think it’s being piloted. A link is established by the recitation of common phrases that have ingrained responses in your mind and the mind of the armor (which has your thought patterns as part of its own). Operators typically use a code phrase or the lyrics to a song, which, upon being heard, automatically draw up the next set of lyrics in your mind and the armor’s, putting both brains in sync. It works well, provided you can keep your own thoughts synchronized with the armor’s. If those thoughts drift, the suit will begin to realize there isn’t actually a person inside of it, and start to act on its own. Effect: This organ can allow you to contact and manipulate a living armor system remotely. It is not as direct a control system as an actual remote control would be, but it adds additional functionality to an already robust host of features. The link range of this organ is 1 mile per point in Mind:Presence. Make a Mind:Presence+Deception check at the beginning of your turn to initiate the link to your armor. Your character is effectively trying to fool the armor into thinking it’s currently being piloted. If the check succeeds, the armor will react as though you are currently wearing it, using your stats for its rolls and behaving in the way it best feels you would have it behave, as though mimicking your brain patterns (which is, essentially, what it’s doing). You can give it a basic command, such as “go to this location,” “attack this target,” “follow this vehicle,” etc. and it will follow that order by behaving as it feels you would behave if tasked with the same order. It will use tactics you’ve used in the past and its mindset and behavior will be as though you’re inside it, even though you’re not actively telling it how to behave. Your character does not need to make the usual Operate checks every turn, but must make this Deception check every turn instead. Failures are treated the same way as they would be if the usual Mind:Presence+Operate check failed. For gameplay purposes, you control both yourself and your armor while this link is active, and it will do all the things you would do in similar situations, like reload, hide, charge, etc. Awareness: Several things can 124 cause telesynced armor to realize there isn’t
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someone controlling it. If your character is hit by an attack of any kind, even if it doesn’t do damage, the Deception check required to fool the armor increases in complexity by one for the following turn. If your character actually takes hitpoint damage from the attack, the penalty increases to 2 for the following round, and falling to 1 for the round after that. If your character is hit by something with the Disrupt effect and falls victim to it, the connection to the armor is automatically dropped. The same applies if your character dies. If the armor comes in physical contact with your character, the connection is automatically dropped. If your armor is in visual contact with your character, the complexity of the check becomes 2 (and any other increases are added to that value). If the armor undergoes Blood for Blood and you fail the associated Operate check, the connection will break (and the armor will not heal). If you ask the armor to do something it has never done with you before (such as hacking a console or solving an original problem you haven’t seen before) the connection will break. If the armor becomes aware that it is not being worn, it will begin to act on its own instead of acting like its owner. On the armor’s turn, have it roll as though you had just CRITICALLY FAILED an Operate check on it. You can attempt to re initiate your link to the armor on the following turn, but the complexity for the check will be 3 base, with any other modiiers on top of that. If you fail, the armor rolls again and continues behaving on its own. The complexity to regain control of the armor drops by 1 every turn. Berserk: If the armor loses its connection to the operator because of a Blood for Blood event, the conditions change. On its turn, it behaves as though it rolled a 6-10 on its critical operator failure result. Instead of lashing out at the nearest enemy, it will lash out at the nearest living character, irst with weapons, then physically (treat it as though it has a 4 in all Body Stats and 2 in CQC. Its ist attacks are classiied as lethal). If it succeeds in destroying its target before being killed or controlled, it will consume the corpse in the following turn and replenish its hitpoints completely. It does not leave stragglers; if its target is reduced to zero hitpoints and survives due to a Survival check, it will be killed and consumed in the following turn unless control can be regained or the armor can be destroyed. Prerequisites: Mind:Presense 3.
RECLAIMING OPERATIONS Delphinidae Reclaimed
Echolocation:
You’ve regained the ability to accurately map your surroundings with sound. You can use this to peek around corners without exposing yourself, or get an idea of distances from things you can’t see. Effect: In areas where a single, sharp sound can be produced (by tapping something hard on something hard, or clapping, etc.) you can function in complete darkness as though it were fully lit. However, your “vision” is limited to pulses of sound, requiring you to repeatedly emit the noise, or to work off of whatever you saw in your previous image. You can also use rhythmic sound from a single mechanical source to track that particular source. A generator in a basement, for instance. As long as the environment has solid surfaces, your “vision” extends beyond corners out to the usual distance for sight. It cannot go through closed doors. If you are moving from pulse to pulse rather than using repetitive sound, treat the environment as a Low Light environment. If anything causes you to stop having access to a steady pulse (combat, for instance) or if there is too much ambient noise and no single ping to home in on (say, a factory loor), you are again blind. Note that while this ability allows you to see even small physical details in objects, it does not show anything color based. Screens, signs, writing, color, markings, or any digital surfaces are effectively invisible. Prerequisites: Navigate 1.
gravity environment, including checks for using a Pointshift Gauntlet. You do not need to have prerequisite points in Fly to use that item, either. You don’t have an adaptation period for growing accustomed to weightlessness. Prerequisites: Swim 1.
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Reclaimed Personal Orientation: You have reactivated the dolphin ability to orient itself accurately in three dimensions without becoming confused or distracted. While mostly useful in the water, this is also applicable in weightless situations, allowing you to adapt much quicker to zero gravity environments. Effect: You don’t need to make any checks for maneuvering yourself in a zero
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RECLAIMING OPERATIONS (Pulse 1,1) (100 credits)
Delphinidae
Severity
Re-Education
Reclaimed Echolocation
Mild
Mild
Reclaimed Personal Orientation
Easy
Mild
Reclaimed Polar Adaptation
Easy
Mild
Reclaimed Restoration
Easy
Mild
Reclaimed Sonic Manipulation
Easy
Mild
Rodentia
Severity
Re-Education
Reclaimed Auditory
Easy
Mild
Reclaimed Climbing grip
Easy
Easy
Reclaimed Iron stomach
Easy
Easy
Reclaimed Leaping
Easy
Easy
Reclaimed Sonar
Mild
Mild
Selachii
Severity
Re-Education
Reclaimed Ampullae of Lorenzini
Mild
Moderate
Reclaimed Cartilaginous Skeleton
Moderate
Very Easy
Reclaimed Dermal Denticles
Mild
Very Easy
Reclaimed Lateral Line
Easy
Easy
Reclaimed Nicitating Membrane
Easy
Very Easy
Ungulatae
Severity
Re-Education
Reclaimed Horizontal pupils
Easy
Mild
Reclaimed Horsepower
Easy
Easy
Reclaimed Iron hooves
Mild
-
Reclaimed Protrusions
Easy
Mild
Reclaimed Sure-footing
Easy
Easy
Ursidae
Severity
Re-Education
Reclaimed Bear-isted Combat
Easy
Very Easy
Reclaimed Metabolic Control
Easy
Mild
Reclaimed Olfactory
Easy
Mild
Reclaimed Polar Adaptation
Easy
Mild
Reclaimed Stature
Mild
-
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Reclaimed Polar Adaptation: Your skin has adapted to shrug off cold water and resist freezing temperatures. Even more effective than that of your progenitor race, this adaptation can allow you to traverse lethally cold environments.
Effect: Ignore negatives associated with cold temperatures and environments. This is suficient to make the entirety of any water ocean in the system swimmable. It also includes protection against the affects of pressure, allowing you travel between any depths without penalty, to a maximum of 2500 feet. (excluding zero-pressure environments). In environments over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, all your checks are at +1 complexity unless you can dedicate a full day to transitioning to that environment without strenuous activity. Once you’ve transitioned, this surgery is inactive until you transition back to lower temperatures.
Prerequisites: None. Reclaimed Restoration: Though not as famous for regenerative abilities as some reptilian species, dolphins are capable of restoring even substantial damage to their bodies without bleeding to death or losing their streamlined shape. This ability has been reactivated in you. Effect: You do not suffer the 1-3 or 8-10 results of “Surviving the Big One” if you succeed in surviving a lethal attack. If those results are rolled, ignore them once you have been restored via general healing methods. Additionally, any further Surgeries you receive have their rehabilitation time reduced by one step to a minimum of Very Easy. You regain 6 hitpoints per night’s sleep instead of 2, but the usual restrictions apply.
Prerequisites: Body:Resilience 2. Reclaimed Sonic Manipulation: You can accurately and repeatedly emit sounds within, above and below the range of most people’s hearing. When focused at close range, this can even be weaponized.
Effect: You gain a new weapon with the following proile: Damage Type
Rate of Fire
Total Damage
Non-lethal, Flood
0
D8
You must have your face exposed to use this weapon, and the sound emitted must be in the audible range of the target. This weapon can be used under water, but when used outside of water, it cannot harm cover or armor. If you possess Reclaimed Echolocation, you can use this ability to constantly emit pulses above the range of common hearing, granting you clear aural vision hands-free that will not alert nearby people unless they have equipment of some sort that can hear it. Because your own pulses have a unique sound, you can even use them to navigate in rooms with high ambient noise. Characters with any of the following Surgeries can hear the full range of sounds emitted by this ability: Reclaimed Echolocation, Reclaimed Sonar, and Reclaimed Auditory.
Prerequisites: Express 2.
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Rodentia
Reclaimed Auditory: Most of the species in the Rodentia merged family relied heavily on hearing in the wild. The ability to discern individual sounds over large distances has been reactivated in you.
Effect: As the Canidae version. Prerequisites: Spot 1. Reclaimed Climbing Grip: Exercise alone can make the human igure quite adept at clinging to craggy surfaces or climbing sheer cliff faces, but a little structural reinforcement never hurt anyone. This grants you a vice-like grip that can allow you to support your own weight and then some from a single limb.
Effect: As long as your hands are free, you can negotiate dificult terrain at full speed rather than half speed while in combat, provided the dificulty of that terrain is somehow related to its physical unevenness and not something in the air. Additionally, when grappling, ties go to you rather than to the defender. If two people have an ability that states this, ties again go to the 127 defender. You gain +1 dice to checks related to
climbing or clinging to a surface outside of combat. Prerequisites: Body:Dexterity 2.
Reclaimed Iron Stomach: The Rodentia family is home to many scavengers, and while food isn’t scarce in the Sol system, there are advantages to having a robust gut. Effect: You can consume rotting meat, viscera, just about anything that isn’t actually classiied as a toxin, and gain nourishment from it (assuming it actually has some nutritional value). You can also consume solid objects and store them in your stomach to be regurgitated later on demand. Said object must be small enough for your character to swallow and it in an area about three times the size of their ist, but can be held there, dry and intact, for as many days as they have points in Survival. This surgery includes the ability to selectively determine what your body does and doesn’t digest, which can allow you to store even toxic chemicals (like poisons) internally for use later. However, emissions from those substances (radiation, acidic properties, etc) will still affect you, so be cautious with what you swallow. Characters with this Surgery typically have bizarre diets, as it also makes a wide variety of lavors more palatable than they normally would be. Prerequisites: None.
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Reclaimed Leaping: You’ve reactivated the ability to prioritize power to your legs, making you capable of extraordinary leaps when you need them. Effect: You count as being equipped with the Jump ability as described in the Armor section of the Equipment chapter of the HSD rulebook. However, this ability is lost when wearing armor above coverage 1, heavy or obstructive clothing, or carrying more than 30 pounds. Prerequisites: Athletics 2.
Reclaimed Sonar: Originally a bat-only
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trait, this ability was the subject of a massive genetic enhancement project when bats oficially joined the Rodentia roster, and has
been modiied to be active in all its members. It lacks the sheer energy of the similar Delphinidae ability, but possesses much of the same functionality. Effect: This functions as the Delphinidae Reclaiming Surgeries for Echolocation and Sonic Manipulation combined, with the following limitations: -You cannot emit sounds outside normal hearing ranges. They do not need to be tremendously loud to be effective, but they are audible and typically sound like a squeak or high pitched ping. -Your sonic ability does not have a weapons proile. It can be annoying, but it lacks the sheer force of the Delphinidae version. -Your ability does not work underwater. -Because your ability relies on emitted sound within the usual auditory range, it will not work in areas with high ambient noise. If you possess the Reclaimed Auditory surgery, you can use this ability to home in on sound above or below usual hearing ranges even in crowded areas, though you cannot emit them yourself. Prerequisites: Body:Acuity 2.
Selachii Reclaimed Ampullae of Lorenzini: Far more than just an electroreceptor, this sixth sense organ grants perception of electronic ields, temperatures, current low and a variety of other things. When attached to an intelligent brain, however, it becomes an even more potent tool. Effect: This grants your character a new sense: the ability to inely and distinctly “view” electromagnetic ields. How you use this is up to you. Every living thing emits an EM ield, as do all machines. The world itself emits one, and the ampullae are sensitive enough to detect the direction of electron low or the differences between one ield and another. Injured muscles emit different ields than healthy ones do, and those with medical knowledge can use this as a diagnostic device. It is not dependent on light, has a 20 foot range outside of water, and a 200 foot range while submerged. Unlike echolocation, this does not show you the exact deinition of shapes or details, only an aura of energy. It is, however, passive, and cannot be detected while in use. To use your ampullae in any fashion other
than simply seeing if a ield exists requires checks, as any sort of diagnostic or spot check would. Treat it as a sensory organ, such as ears or eyes. Characters with this surgery often seem as though they’re looking at things that aren’t there, and will occasionally wander around with their eyes closed if they’re not concerned with color or detail. Prerequisites: Body:Acuity 2.
Reclaimed Cartilaginous Skeleton: While a true cartilaginous skeleton doesn’t lend too many useful beneits for land dwellers for all the trauma it would take to have one installed, advanced bio-structural engineering has created a hybrid bone system that converts key parts of your existing skeleton into a sort of hypercartilage that’s lighter, more lexible and just as strong as your bones are. It lets you get a lot more use out of the muscles you already have. Effect: You can carry up to 40 pounds per point of Strength instead of the usual 25. Other weight related effects apply as normal. This does not grant you L.A.N. capabilities (even if the L.A.N. weapon is now within your weight limit, the ability to deadlift the weapon does not mean it can be effectively wielded in combat) or increase your damage output in any way; it is purely applicable to carrying. Your character effectively weighs about half as much as they look like they should. Prerequisites: Body:Resilience 2.
Reclaimed Dermal Denticles: While shark Vectors do have somewhat rougher skin than dolphin Vectors do, it’s far from sandpaper. This operation brings it up to the level of its underwater progenitor, and pushes it up a bit further, serving as a light ablative layer with a few other perks. Effect: This Surgery adds 5 extra hitpoints to your character, as well as increasing their Fist base damage to Body:Strength+1. In aquatic environments, their movement score is increased by 2 before other modiiers take place. Prerequisites: None.
Effect: You cannot be caught off guard by a melee attack. Even if approached from a hidden position, this sense will alert you to any moving body within three hexes. It will not expose hidden bodies that are holding still, however. This counters any bonuses normally afforded to a melee stealth attack. Prerequisites: Body:Acuity 2.
Reclaimed Nictitating Membrane: This third eyelid usual-
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ly snaps closed on sharks during the moment of their bite, to protect their eyes against thrashing prey. That function (hopefully) has little use in civilized company, but the anatomy is helpful when exploited in other ways. This is one of the only Reclaiming Surgeries that includes digital components. Effect: Your character gains the beneits of a Utilit-i, as described in the Surgery chapter of the HSD rulebook. It is installed directly into your nictitating membrane rather than into your eye itself, and as such has slightly different rules: -This implant does not count against your active implant count, even when in use. -Instead of lowering your Body:Acuity by 1 when deactivated, it lowers your Body:Acuity by 1 while in use. Even though your nictitating membranes are mostly clear, part of the beneits of a true Utilit-i is the brain interface which allows you to naturally process the digital signals without distraction. Lacking that, this version is a bit like having lashing lights in your eye. -Technically, this implant is always on. When you want to use it, no check is required. Declare that you’re activating your membrane and it will slide over your eye to provide you with the usual beneits of this implant and the minuses listed above. If a future implant requires a Utilit-i as a prerequisite, this counts. Prerequisites: Mind:Dexterity 2.
Reclaimed Lateral Line: Though not nearly as sophisticated a sensor as the Ampullae of Lorenzini, this pressure-sensitive system can alert you to the presence of objects outside your immediate view.
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Ungulatae Reclaimed Horizontal Pupils: Your
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eyes have been adapted to mimic those of a goat, with rectangular, horizontal pupils that allow for a 340 degree ield of vision. Effect: Your ield of view has increased to every direction except for hexes in a line immediately behind you. You gain +1 dice to Spot checks that involve searching for or noticing things in your surroundings, including enemies that are attempting to hide from you to execute stealth attacks. Prerequisites: Spot 2.
Reclaimed Horsepower: The
sheer hauling ability of the conventional equine was so legendary, it was used as a generic term for overall power for years back in the days of humanity. The history is somewhat missing in the common day, but the term stuck around. Through short bursts of metabolic energy, you’ve stimulated your own muscles to outperform when needed, though there’s a cost involved. Effect: You can increase your Body:Strength score by 1. This effect costs 5 hitpoints to activate and lasts for 1 minute per hitpoint sacriiced to power it. Additional hitpoints beyond the 5 can be spent to extend the effect. Hitpoints sacriiced in this way count against your overall health in the same way an injury would, except that they require the consumption of a meal to begin recovering. After eating, they recover at a rate of 5 per hour until they’ve restored. The ability can only be activated as many times per day as you have points in Body:Resilience. Prerequisites: Survival 2, Athletics 2.
Reclaimed Ironhooves: Most Ungulates rubberize their hooves and forego shoes unless they require some form of leg protection. Hooves themselves are quite durable, but by integrating mineral replacement technologies, they can be reinforced with metallic and carbon alloys to transform them into a naturally growing, extremely hard material, far in excess of their natural 130 state. Sadly, the same technology cannot be
applied to horns. It seems the resulting transformations to the skull have unfortunate side effects on the brain. Effect: Your feet can now tread over hazardous surfaces with impunity, regardless of temperature, texture or other harmful effects that may be associated with stepping on them. In addition, your feet are now strong enough to be employed as a bashing or cutting tool, allowing you to do things like sever cables, kick though surfaces, etc. Your legs are no stronger than before, so it may take time and various tests depending on the action, but you are assumed to possess a hardened tool capable of the accomplishing the task. Prerequisites: Body:Resilience 2.
Reclaimed Protrusions: In the era of modern conlict, having antlers or horns, even sharp ones, isn’t terribly advantageous. They get in the way most of the time, and even if they could gore an unarmored opponent, they’re likely to break in the process, hurt your neck, or at the very least, require you to lower your head toward your enemy to use them. This operation makes use of the genetic keys required to generate these protrusions in the irst place and redirects them in a way that’s a little more useful to bipedal living. Effect: This surgery causes antler-like protrusions to grow outward and downward from your head in the form of many irm but lexible rods around an inch in diameter. This new horn “hair” overlaps in several layers and forms an almost chitinous armored helm that provides protection to the top of your head, neck, and upper back from most basic attacks. It typically replaces any horns you already had. Standard helmets can it over this hair with a little personal modiication, and they afford some protective qualities of their own. This counts as a small shield worn on the back. When damaged, it will grow back to full health at a rate of 5 hitpoints per day. The effective protected areas by this shield are the top and back of the head, the back of the neck, and the upper back. You cannot claim cover from this shield directly, nor can you use defensive actions to boost your cover from it. It simply counts as active if you’re shot from behind. Unless your enemy uses a Single Shot to actively avoid it,you’re assumed to be hit here rather than your exposed regions irst.
Prerequisites: Horns or antlers. This
Reclaimed Metabolic Control: You
surgery is available to any character with the Horns Morphism as well, regardless of family.
can adapt your metabolism to slow down or speed up, depending on what’s needed. This can allow you to achieve a sort of self-induced stasis if badly
Reclaimed Sure-footing: Borrowing a page from mountain goats, you’ve regained an uncanny sense of balance and foot placement that leaves felines feeling more than a little put-out. Effect: As Reclaimed Climbing Grip for Rodentia, except that your hands do not need to be free for it to work, and you do not gain the grapple beneit. Characters with this surgery often bypass established paths in even urban areas for alternative ones, even if the savings in time is mere seconds.
Prerequisites: Body:Dexterity 2.
Ursidae Reclaimed Bear-isted Combat: You have reinforced your mouth and hands to withstand the abuse they’d receive if used in more “traditional” bear activities. It cuts down your dexterity a bit, but it keeps you from being disarmed. Unless someone actually removes your arms. Ursine geneology makes this operation much cheaper and easier than it is in many other species. Effect: As the Reinforced Claws surgery. Prerequisites: As the Reinforced Claws surgery.
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injured, preventing the usual shock associated with major injury that is often just as dangerous as the injury itself. Effects: If you are reduced to zero hitpoints, rather than make a survival check as normal, you can elect to hibernate. Your character is placed at 1 hitpoint and appears dead (they can naturally still be outright killed by a vindictive enemy) but is essentially stabilized and unconscious. They can remain that way for up to 12 hours before their wounds will actually kill them. Surviving the Big One still applies. In addition, in situations where your character is in a low-tono oxygen environment, they can force this affect to remain alive and dormate for up to 10 hours. Characters with this surgery tend to exhibit odd eating habits and sleep like a rock.
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Prerequisites: None. Reclaimed Olfactory: Canines aren’t
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the only critters around with a legendary sense of smell. Yours is even better, though that’s not always a perk. Effect: As the Canidae version, but once per day you can add your Scent Proiciency score to another Proiciency you’re using this with (Investigation or Navigation, for instance) and roll your check as though they were a single Proiciency (max value 4). Characters with this surgery must take a Mind:Resist or Mind:Dodge save (attack value variable, but generally 9) in areas of extreme odor (high enough to make a normal person feel noticeably uncomfortable) or be incapacitated by them. They will lee to fresh air by the quickest route, and if none exists, must try to control their breathing through makeshift fabric ilters or curl up and gag until they can wrestle their nose under control. They can re-test once every minute. Prerequisites: Scent 1.
Reclaimed Polar Adaptation: Your fur and skin are adapted to shrug off cold water and resist freezing temperatures. Even more effective than that of your progenitor race, this adaptation can allow you to traverse lethally cold environments. Effects: As the Delphinidae version. Characters with this surgery typically try to get away with wearing as little clothing as they decently can, and are very uncomfortable in full coverage armor. A character with this operation and Reclaimed Metabolic Control can go dormate in space or underwater and remain alive for 10 hours (assuming nothing irradiates or eats them). Prerequisites: None.
Reclaimed Stature: Even small bears are bulky, and the larger ones tower over the average Vector. You have tapped into that size without the usual nutritional requirements of Macroism. Effect: As the Macro Enhancement 132 general operation; however, you don’t need
superfood to sustain yourself. Your body preserves energy through a slower metabolic process while you sleep. Characters who have taken this surgery cannot take Macro Enhancement, and vice versa. Prerequisites: Reclaimed Metabolic Control.
IMPLANTS Bliss emitter: This small implant is somewhat optimistically named. Its actual function is to radiate waves in concurrence with brain activity at certain emotional levels, which causes the people around you to gradually shift their moods. It can’t make someone expressly angry or happy, but it can set up feelings in the general vicinity that can easily be pushed in one direction or the other by a talented hand. These units are typically billed for private use in areas that want to set up a certain ambiance, and they must be clearly posted as active in the area if the area is public. Naturally, there are many that are used in somewhat more illegal fashions. It’s a risky venture though; if someone realizes that they’re just not feeling right, the unit itself is easy to detect with the right equipment. Effect: When you activate this implant, declare if you’re going to aim it toward negative or positive emotions. You don’t have direct control over what people feel, but the unit will radiate a feeling of general anxiety, stress and concern if pointed toward negatives, and soothing, calming giddyness if pointed toward positive. How people react to feeling that way is largely up to their own personalities. In negotiations, this usually serves as a good way to lower the complexity of a given Community check by 1, provided the feeling corresponds with whatever you’re trying to accomplish. The emissions from this unit are easy to detect with a Magic Ear or just about any other system designed to notice broadcasting; however, it’s somewhat more dificult to notice you’re being manipulated by it enough to warrant checking to begin with. Typically, NPCs will pick up on this unit if they suddenly start feeling the complete opposite of what they felt mere moments earlier (but only if they have an innately suspicious nature. Most casual individuals will brush it off as a mood swing). From there, it takes a Mind:Dexterity+Spot check at complexity 2 to put the pieces
Name
Severity
Re-education
Corp(x,y)
Easy
Easy
Spyglass(2,2)
500
Drone Controller
Very Easy
Easy
MarsCo(2,2)
800
Fi-op fur
Moderate
Easy
Any(0,1)
500
Hive node
Very Easy
Easy
MarsCo(0,1)
300
Inteliformic lesh
Mild
Mild
ASR(3,2)
1000
Nanoassembler
Mild
Easy
MarsCo(0,2)
800
Prosthetic utility
Easy
Easy
Any(0,1)
200
Pushframe network
Moderate
Mild
MarsCo(1,2)
800
Reinforced Prosthetics
Very Easy
Easy
Any(0,1)
200
Remote vision
Very Easy
Easy
Any(0,1)
150
Bliss emitter
together about what might be wrong. This implant only counts as active while in use. Prerequisites: None.
Drone Controller: This spinal implant allows the owner to take remote control of preprogrammed robotic drones for use in reconnaissance and combat, allowing them to stay out of harm’s way and let their surrogates do the dirty work. Very popular among elite raiding parties, drones can soak up irepower and do signiicant damage to thin out resistance before the live bodies go in to mop up and do the inesse work. They’re expensive, but it beats dying, and a skilled roboticist can bring them back up to working order with easily swappable parts if they’re damaged. Drones have a rudimentary working intelligence that allows them to function with reasonable autonomy, but they’re deliberately not programmed to be very free-willed (lest the programmer be on the hook for someone they accidentally kill). For operations requiring very discerning drone work, operators with NCS’s can patch directly into the drone’s body, controlling it as though it were their own. This signiicantly increases the drone’s abilities in most cases, but also leaves the operator vulnerable, and requires them to be pretty close to the action lest their signal get hijacked. Effect: Your character can now host a drone. Drones will follow their controller around, stay in locations, and can be given basic oral instructions like “patrol this area,” “report activity back to me” or “engage hostiles” without having to roll any dice. The Drone Controller is a sophisticated identiication system that locks the drone to only your commands, making them very dificult to hack or redirect while
Cost
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operating in the ield. In order to keep it safe in the event you yourself are attacked electronically, the Controller is a separate, isolated unit from a Neural Connectivity Suite, even though the hardware doesn’t actually do anything the NCS couldn’t handle on its own. If a character with a Drone Controller also has an NCS, they can receive wireless reports from their drone, issue it wireless orders and addendum to previous orders, and even take over its body in certain circumstances. All signals except the body control are handled via public wireless networks unless the operator has a personal network of their own (such as one provided by a Hive, a Cogsune, or a Wireless Hub) and as such can be intercepted, but the Drone Controller’s security system ensures that a drone will not accept commands or access from anyone but its operator. At best, an opposing hacker can stop the outgoing command by scattering signals. Part of this security system is the digital signal key that comes from having both an NCS and a Drone Controller, and as such wireless commands cannot be sent or received from your drone through other hardware. Drone Controllers can use the NCS’s own wireless abilities to project a short range bubble in which the drone can be used as an extension of the operator’s body. This operation is extremely data-heavy, and in order to keep the exchange secure and lag-free, it only has an effective range of 100 feet and requires that the operator not be entirely encased in dense material that might disrupt the signal (locked in a room, for instance). Practiced operators can use this ability to 133
basically be in two places at once on the battleield, and it makes for a great way to storm corners or force enemies to ight on two fronts. Puppetting: Puppetting a drone allows the operator to exist within the drone’s body instead of their own. The drone must be within 100 feet of the operator and there must be no ambient interference designed to scatter a signal (basic interference from various signals is ine, but devices speciically designed to scatter signals or disrupt electronics will prevent puppetting). To puppet, a character must have a Neural Connectivity Suite. In order to puppet a drone, the operator must make a Mind:Presence+Operate check (standard action, complexity 2) to initiate the link. Failure means they can’t concentrate well enough to integrate with the remote body. Critical failure will cause the drone to reboot, which will deactivate it for one full turn. Upon a successful link, the operator becomes the drone. Replace the drone’s Mind stats and all its Proiciencies with the operator’s own scores. Drones can be equipped with weapons beyond their own ability to use, with the intent of being puppetted in combat by an operator proicient in such items. They will be useless until then, however. The operator must remain motionless while puppetting (but may otherwise act as normal on their turn), and the link will be broken if their real body sustains any damage. If they are attacked but only their armor takes damage, the operator can maintain the link by making a Mind:Presence+Operate check as soon as the turn is inished. Drone systems are carefully designed to be quick on the uptake if this link should fail, so the drone’s own AI will kick in immediately if the link is broken. Operators must roll a Mind Resist save (attack value 8+the number of rounds the operator was puppetting) once a link is broken. If they fail, they are too disoriented to act in their next turn. Because of this effect, most combat operators will either only puppet their drones in short bursts, or will entrench themselves as best they can and use their drone exclusively, expecting to have to take a few to orient themselves when the 134 moments smoke clears. An operator may not begin
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and end puppetry in the same round unless forced to by damage. Prerequisite: Operate 2, Mind:Presence 2. Drone Controllers will not be sold from anywhere but a Spyglass corptown to anyone with a criminal record or known associations with criminals. This system only counts as active when you have a drone in your possession. As a legal and safety matter, if you own a drone, it must be active and linked to your controller, and you are responsible for its actions.
Drones There are three basic drones available for public purchase. None of them come with weaponry upon purchase. Drones of up to Vector size are considered utilitarian items provided they’re not armed, but drones carrying weaponry or drones of above average size are provocative in nature and are not legal in most public areas without special dispensation. Drone hitpoints count as armor for any rules that have speciic functions regarding one vs. the other. For items that “ignore” armor, the stipulation has no effect and they deal damage as normal. Drones do not make Survival rolls as they diminish in hitpoints (it is assumed the damage is supericial until they reach zero, at which point a critical component has been hit and they cease to function). Unlike armor, however, Drones require the Robotics proiciency to “heal,” and do so in the same fashion described for Cogs. They can’t be repaired in hospitals, however. No one is going to surrender bed-space for your toy robot. Drones can be repaired even if reduced to zero hitpoints (provided the Guide has determined the damage did not outright obliterate them) but repairs at that stage will require time (several days to a week) and a safe place to work.
MC-Aerial reconnaissance drone MarsCo, 400 credits
become profoundly more adept when puppetted by a skilled operator. MC-At-Arms tactical drones use the Simple Combatant template from the HSD core rulebook, with all their stats set at the lowest end of the provided ranges. From there, they may be equipped as the operator sees it, and will be susceptible to any rules related to weight and strength for equipment and weapons.
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This basic lying drone is a personal favorite among teams with varied jobs. While not capable of mounting heavy irepower, its speed and utility make it ideal for jobs ranging from light suppression to observation to investigation. MC-ARD’s use the Light Civil Defense Drone template from the HSD core rulebook. They begin with 30 hitpoints and no inventory. They can mount a single small ranged weapon and carry up to 3 clips of ammo for it in an adjacent hopper.
MC-At-Arms tactical drone MarsCo, 650 credits This bipedal robot is noteworthy less for its innate abilities (which are fairly modest) and more for its compatibility with Vector equipment. It can wear armor, carry weapons, and provides familiar anatomy and dexterity when being puppetted. This allows it to be a formidable force in a combat situation without having to actually pay for a bigger, meaner robot. There is a running joke with the At-Arms tac line of them being slackers unless the boss is watching, stemming from the fact that their integrated operations systems have a hard time engaging even a single target by themselves, but they
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MC-At-Arms Bulwark drone MarsCo, 1200 credits
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The Bulwark is mobile cover, plain and simple. Typically not puppetted, its job is to stick close to its operator and go where it’s told, while being shot at. They’re large, heavy and expensive, but can make advancing on a position much safer. The integrated gun mounts are also handy, but more than one team has made the mistake of ixating their attention forward while the enemy was slipping around behind them.
MC-At-Arms Bulwark drone Hitpoints: 700 Readiness: 2 Movement: 2 Battle pool: 8
Mind: d8 Dexterity: 1 Resilience: 1 Acuity: 1 Strength: 1 Presence: 1 Body: d12 Dexterity: 1 Resilience: 4 Acuity: 1 Strength: 4 Presence: 1
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Pro�iciencies: CQC:2
Wide stance: The large gorilla-like stance of the Bulwark drone takes up a T-shaped area one the hex grid, with the front being three hexes wide and the back being a hex in the middle. The Bulwark drone is not slowed by dificult terrain unless that terrain is unstable or fragile in some way, as the machine itself weighs over half a ton. Ride-able: The Bulwark drone features a standing platform on its back section that can allow a character that only occupies one hex to ride it as it moves, maintaining their position relative to its own without spending movement actions. While riding, they beneit from the drone as cover, and if they spend a defensive action to duck down, they are fully concealed from incoming ire from the front. Other characters can advance behind the two other cover hexes provided by the drone and will beneit from it as cover, but must spend defensive actions to boost that cover as normal. Because the drone is a moving object and at least partially adaptive to incoming ire, enemies do not beneit from the normal 7-to-hit advantage of shooting directly at cover when shooting at the drone. Likewise, the drone itself is not “cover” and takes full damage from incoming shots. Hard mount: The Bulwark drone features a weapons mount that can secure up to a L.A.N.-sized Ranged weapon, to be operated by the person riding the drone. This removes any Strength requirements of the user (though they must still have adequate Proiciency to use the weapon). The gun can only be pointed at targets in front of the drone, and the gunner cannot beneit from ducking down in any turn they ired the gun (though they can spend defensive actions as normal to increase their save). Movement restrictions featured in any mounted weapon still apply to the drone. Big, strong hands: The Bulwark drone is not a dexterous machine. Its forelimbs are designed for stability and walking and can’t wield any sort of Vector weaponry, even while puppetted.
It can, however, attack by punching and grabbing. Its close combat attacks use the Fist template but count as lethal and do an additional 5 base damage.
Fi-op Fur: This dermal adjustment implant combines several natural elements to create a remarkable result. By converting your fur to transparent strands and embedding your follicles with luminous reactants that can be controlled through a minor brain implant, Your whole body can be turned into what is essentially a display blanket. This surgery is popular among artists and dancers who use their mind’s eye to “paint” actively on themselves, and is a great way to call attention to oneself in a crowd. It has camoulage applications as well, but they’re somewhat muted. For one, this system isn’t directly hooked to your eyes, so mimicking your background is entirely based on your ability to mentally “draw” the thing behind you on yourself with light and color. For two, you’d have to be naked.
Effects: Your character counts as having
the bio-luminescence Morphism, but may turn it off when they don’t want its traits (they don’t need to be glowing). In addition, this implant can display things as crisply and clear as a display blanket can, but isn’t directly translating what you see to your body. A Mind:Dexterity+Express (complexity 2) check is required to accurately mimic a texture onto yourself for the purposes of trying to blend in. If you have an Utilit-i implant (or something that counts as one) this check is not necessary, as the eye can transmit to your Fi-op Fur directly. This implant only counts as active while in use.
Prerequisites: None. While this is labeled
as “fur” the same technology can be applied to feathers, fur or other biological surfaces. It does not work on hardskin or intelliformic lesh.
Hive Node: This NCS system creates a local knowledge hub for you and a collection of other users that allows them to share their thoughts as a gestalt consciousness. Its integration in everyday society has been rocky since its debut. The beneits to a hive consciousness are rather phenomenal, but the inherent laws range from troubling to terrifying. Your mind and memories become a part of the hive, and are accessible to everyone in it. They recall your childhood as vividly as you do, can relate to your experiences on your level, and can use your
skills as readily as they do their own. This can grant an almost supernatural level of understanding and contemplation, where many minds can be applied to any problem and many lifetimes can be searched for solutions. When united by a common philosophy, hives typically run smoothly and beautifully. The problem comes from members who aren’t as committed as they thought they were when they joined. Successful hives follow the ideology of “becoming” a certain thing. Each new mind helps advance that goal, and each person is happy because they are getting closer to that goal with each integration. Because the hive is everyone, everyone will beneit from the journey and destination. They will all be whatever it is they’re trying to become. They will not, however, be “individuals.” They will be the One Thing, relected through every member. Those members who end up retracting from the idea of giving up themselves to become something greater can inadvertently snap shut a trap that will destroy them. The mind instinctively recoils from the judgment of the hive, but can’t escape. The shared consciousness becomes invasive rather than invited, and the result is nothing less than mental rape. Forced hiving is categorized as one of the most vile tortures available, as it not only destroys a person’s individuality and consciousness, it strips them of their mental defenses by removing their individuality. Often, their only recourse is to become a drone: a connected member of the hive who has lost direct connection to their body, surrendered their memories to the whole, and is now nothing but a walking shell to be used and maneuvered as the hive sees it. Transitory hivers (largely considered to be the “best” way) join the collective whole during set periods of the day, on a timer, which allows them to set their thoughts to a rhythm, extend outward into the hive, and retract smoothly and gradually back into themselves. Transitory hiving has been shown to be safe and very beneicial if engaged in responsibly, but it does have strongly addictive properties. The other downside (at least in the eyes of a fully integrated hive) is that a transitory hive is inherently self-defeating in its goal. It’s essentially a gloriied commune, rather 137
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than a method for the creation of a new and perfect entity. Win some, lose some. For obvious reasons, player characters will rarely, if ever, be full time hive members. However, it’s likely they’ll encounter a hive at one point or another, so it’s good to know how they function. Hive wireless signals typically piggyback off members and protected hubs owned by the hive itself. Hive signals cannot pass through public networks. While hiving is a legal choice for an adult to engage in, it’s too dangerous to allow them to be accessible without invitation. While joined to a hive, any problem a character is forced to address is effectively addressed by the entire hive at once. Small or specialized hives may be limited by the extent of their knowledge pool (for example, a hive of doctors may be perfect surgeons, but just because they have 100 minds joined togeth er doesn’t mean any of them know how to strip a spaceship reactor), but massive, diverse hives can usually provide enough accumulated knowledge to tackle anything. While this seems fantastic, it’s marred by the inherent law of a communal personality: deciding what to do. Hives are governed by “the Ideal,” the concept that drew them together to begin with. Hives with a focused ideal ignore other things that detract from the pursuit of that ideal. Small hives with unfocused ideals typically exist just to be a means to explore and share experiences (transitory hives). Large hives with large, branching ideals almost invariably become hazardous and need to be shut down. When the goal is “do everything” and the task becomes easier by “collecting everyone,” you have a recipe for disaster. Effects: Player characters generally won’t be joining large hives; it’s counterproductive to the goal of the gaming experience, as they stop being themselves and start being everyone. However, it’s only when hives reach about 25 people that the sensations and immersions become so overlapping that it is no longer possible to pick individuals out of the collective whole. Small hives (like the player party) are far less all-consuming, and can allow players to share their experiences and with each other while maintaining 138 thoughts their individuality. While hived, charac-
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ters share thoughts, experiences, memories, and sensations. Other members of a small hive feel like limbs, albeit very complicated limbs. It is still easy to discern who is feeling what and how each person is reacting to that feeling or memory. It isn’t possible to hide things such as information or emotion (the very act of trying would alert everyone else to the intent) so trust is a major factor in a successful hive situation; however, for small groups who are only joining for short periods, there is a degree of privacy that comes from simple lack of exploration. Hives don’t “download” information into you in a read-ile, they open up memories. That means that people will only “know” information that they actively attempt to remember using someone else’s mind. A person who joins a hive and leaves it an hour later without ever trying to remember what someone else in the hive had for dinner last night will not have that information to call on once they’re disconnected. If they tried to remember while still hived, it would come to them clearly, and that memory would persist once they’d left the link. In role play, this simply means that your party members know whatever it is they actually try to recall while connected; they don’t have a manual on you they can search at their leisure. To activate a hive, characters with a Hive Node only need to activate it and link up. However, to hive safely it is necessary to maintain a schedule of when, and for how long, the link will be maintained. Without establishing this rhythm, the innately addictive effects of hiving can quickly overcome a person’s ability to operate independently of the link. It only takes about 4 sessions to begin a hive addiction. If the schedule is maintained and discipline is preserved, then your characters can end the hive permanently and suffer only a -1 to all Community stats for a day past the next time they’re supposed to be hiving. If the schedule is not maintained and they simply do it whenever the mood hits them, then the next time they’re “supposed” to (based on the average amount of time between previous sessions) , they will suffer dramatic withdrawals. Their Mind and Community stats will both be reduced to 1, and they will regain one dot per day until they’re restored or hive up again. When hived, any Mind-related check can be independently rolled by every person in the hive, with the maximum allowed beneit of Help, at the highest available Proiciency level, regard -
less of other people’s current activities. If anyone succeeds, the check is considered successful. Small hives can’t engage in combat while hived. While the effect of a massive hive on the combat abilities of its members is amazingly beneicial, it is reliant on the gestalt consciousness absorbing the experience and dispersing it. In a small hive, where the members are still individuals, all the fear and anger and worry gets compounded and resonates from single mind to single mind like an echo, and can bring the entire group to its knees from the irst shot ired. Hives are primarily intended as a narrative tool for Guides more than as something for players to take. However, if your party wants a truly challenging role play experience, this can be a great one to try and act out. Prerequisites: Neural Connectivity Suite. Hive Nodes only count as an active implant when turned on.
Inteliformic lesh: Megacorps work together on projects more often than their citizenry would typically believe. The sheer amount of resources available to these organizations means that working with each other can produce truly amazing products. Most often, MarsCo is one of the participants. Its size and stability makes it a neutral party. Hardskin, which bears the TTI label, was a result of one of these joint efforts. The product was of particular interest to ASR, who wanted something similar that could be applied to both Vectors and Cogs. Through a joint operation with the same MarsCo team that helped develop TTI’s Hardskin, ASR created the Inteliform system. Inteliformic lesh is a biologically neutral nanite-based substance that replaces the lesh of the owner with a new, smooth, glossy dermis with a myriad of new protective features. The implant is based out of a generator installed in the spine, which converts the owner’s lesh into an inteliformic lesh (while they’re asleep for the surgery, mercifully). This new lesh is refreshed on a minute-by-minute basis from the generator and the circulation of the owner’s Nublood, which keeps it taut, smooth and lustrous for the entirety of the owner’s life. Along with its new appearance, it features a small set of gill-like slits which help facilitate a cooling and iltration system. While it doesn’t provide any natural armor like Hardskin does, it is actively resistant to certain forms of
damage and contamination. Inteliformic lesh is hydrophobic and instantly sheds any liquid that touches it. It also has an adaptive pH, which makes it immune to acids and most corrosive substances. The nanolesh itself is somewhat reactive to incoming trauma, which lets it seal wounds quickly and delect excess energy. It is immune to skin blights and lesh diseases. These properties result in the following effects: Special ammunition does not affect a character with this implant. Negate the extra effect and treat the ammo as though it were standard. If the character is wearing coverage level 3 armor, this ability is negated.
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This skin can comfortably regulate your body temperature in the same ranges that Cogs can without additional protection. Externally, this skin is the same temperature as its environment and is invisible to thermal cameras. Characters with this skin are protected from the effects of radioactive environments. Characters with this skin do not scar permanently from wounds received in combat, though they can still lose limbs and suffer internal injuries. Characters with this skin gain a new ability: Inteliformic repair. To initiate an Inteliformic repair, the character need only declare it (standard action), and their body will immediately regenerate d12 hitpoints as their inteliform system patches up their surface wounds. This can be done as many times as the character wishes, but each time, they must roll a d8 afterward. On a 1, they will advance to the next level of inteliformic creep (described below). Each time they use this ability in a day, the chance advances by one. So the second roll will be a 2 or below, the third will be a 3 or below, etc. They can still elect to heal normally via the usual means instead. Prerequisites: Nublood.
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Inteliformic creep: Inteliform nanosystems are self-replicating, but not to an excessive degree. They’re kept carefully balanced by the spinal unit and can’t simply consume material to make more of themselves. However, their self-repair systems are linked to the metabolism of the owner, and it is possible to tweak the output of that system for greater performance. It has a price: as the nanite population of your body grows, your appearance will begin to change and more of your anatomy will be converted to inteliformic replacements. While this isn’t inherently “harmful,” it does pull you further and further away from normalcy. People who have drifted too far down this stream are barely recognizable as humanoid anymore, and their mentality typically relects that. Inteliformic creep is permanent; the only way to return to a previous 140 level is to get an entirely new body. Inteliformic creep can be prevented
on a programming level, but the limiting process itself is a double-edged sword that has proven to be a bit of an issue regarding the whole Inteliformic lesh process. People are aware that it can repair itself pretty safely, so they’re more inclined to take risks (it’s often why they get the operation to begin with). Risks lead to more strenuous repair, which leads to an overproduction of nanites. Overproduction leads to Inteliformic creep. However, if the lesh were programmed to not overproduce, the subject would die from injuries sustained under the mistaken impression that their skin would save them. Which would either lead to declining sales, or worse, homebrew hacks to force the nanoproduction mechanism to overperfrom, which could result in horrible consequences. ASR decided the best option was a big fat warning label and a pretty hands-off approach to the whole thing afterward. Inteliformic creep is relected in three levels. The irst is the most common, and is easy to maintain so long as you don’t deliberately force your system to overproduce. This is the level you’re at post-surgery, with nearly all of your recognizable features intact (though your fur, if you had any, will be gone). This appearance is a little startling, but not all that bizarre. You look a bit like a smoother, more relective reptile, and all the various facial expres sions and body language people use to feel comfortable with other people is intact. Your appearance speaks of money a bit, as the operation isn’t cheap, but other than that it won’t interfere with your everyday existence much. Second level creep relects a system that has overproduced, resulting in excessive nanite levels that have unbalanced your Nublood support system. To rebalance before your body succumbs to toxicity, the Inteliform implant has consumed your skeletal structure, replacing it with a nano support system. This process is frighteningly simple to allow, and most people who end up in a second level creep never realized they were heading that way. By its very nature, the Inteliform system has taps into your pain and sensation centers. When the nanosaturation level gets too high, it simply turns off your sensation systems and redistributes the nanites. You literally go to sleep one way, and wake up forever changed. Second level Inteliformic lesh changes your posture, making it somewhat more angular and predatory than before. Because your skeletal
system is less rigid than before, it assists your agility and dexterity as well. However, muscle memory is designed to work against rigid bone structures. When they’re absent and the nanites in your body react to your emotions, the visual results are now more dramatic and startling than they were before. Your mouth is somewhat larger, hands are more claw-like, and the Inteliform gill slits and vent systems are more pronounced. Second level creep bodies don’t it into standard clothing very well anymore and are unnerving to look at. When they move, their bodies almost low a bit, lexing just a little more than is natural. Second level creep characters have all the abilities listed under inteliformic lesh, with the following additions: +1 Body: Dexterity +1 die for Athletics, Swim and Survival checks. -1 die for all checks involving Community that aren’t speciically hinging around viewing your condition in a positive light. This includes remaining inconspicuous in a crowd. This character can squeeze through areas as narrow as their brain. The action isn’t painful, but does take a while to pull off (about a minute) and can’t be swiftly aborted once begun, so it isn’t recommended in combat. The character must be able to emerge on the other side; they can’t move while compressed. This character gains a new ability: Inteliformic pseudopods. They can manifest long, lexible tentacles that can be used to grip, pull and ensnare objects or people. These effectively extend your reach to three hexes beyond your own and add +1 die to rolls to maintain a grapple, climb surfaces, and maintain balance. This does not work in coverage level 2 or higher armor. Inte lif ormi c characters of this level are vulnerable to high
intensity electromagnetic interference. Casual day-to-day exposure isn’t an issue, but direct exposure to large emitters such as large radio systems, CAT scan machines, magnetic lifts or items speciically designed to blast disruptive electromagnetic energy will cause the nanites that make up your body to luctuate and become incoherent. When exposed to this sort of interference, you must make a Body Resist save (attack level 12) every minute, or immediately
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lee. If your character cannot lee the affected area within 3 minutes of failing the save, their body will collapse into barely constrained goo. Its emergency systems will keep you alive, but you will be nonfunctional until you can be removed from the offending energy. Lower the Attack level of the save by 1 for each coverage level of armor you’re wearing. You can feel when you’re entering an area like this: your skin literally begins to crawl. Provided you’re not forced in or it doesn’t spring up around you when a high-powered reactor activates in the room, you can typically elect not to enter when you feel it coming. Second level lesh creep characters can no longer receive surgical operations or implants. If submerged, you sink like a stone. Inteliformic lesh and Nublood combined greatly increases the relative density of your body, and your skin breaks up the surface tension of the water around you, making it impossible to swim at this stage. You do still require air to survive. Most second level and above characters avoid deep water avidly, as it is essentially a death sentence if they fall in. This can be ignored if you take care to completely cover yourself, but is a factor in most clothing this character is capable of weaing.
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Third level lesh creep is a total convergence of body matter into inteliformic lesh. This occurs when nanite replication reaches a point so high that it is no longer compatible with a mixed system. The remainder of the original body is devoured, and all that remains is an inteliformic replica. The complex system of nano-communication is capable of duplicating your original brain patterns accurately enough that you probably won’t even notice you no longer have a brain, but to those who know you well, changes in your behavior and mannerisms will begin to become clear after a while. The jury is still out on whether these behavioral changes are a direct result of the inteliformic brain, or simply because the person who has been converted no longer feels an attachment to their original race because they’ve become so physically alien. The process is entirely preventable so long as you don’t 142 force inteliformic repair, so most people
who reach a third level lesh did so intentionally. It’s dificult to get unbiased behavioral surveys out of them; they clearly had some desire to no longer be what they were to begin with. Appearance-wise, third level lesh essentially breaks down all previous semblances of rigid anatomy. Your character will still carry themselves in a roughly identical shape to what they once had, just out of convenience and because that’s what their brain is used to, but your movements will be more of a diving, slinking, living suspension luid. Solid and liquid at the same time. The expressions you’re used to making and the body language you use for communication will manifest as exaggerated, wide mouths and multiple eye mockeries down your body. The sizes of limbs, hands, and overall body structure are more based on your own mental impression than they are on any physical requirement, which usually results in exaggerated limbs and heads, as those areas tend to provide the greatest degree of sensory input and interaction. The gill slits and vents are large and prominent, and the entire appearance is frightening and bizarre. People who allow themselves to reach this level typically do so out of a direct desire to disengage from society completely. In addition to the abilities listed in the previous two levels, third level lesh creep grants the following: +1 Body: Dexterity +1 Body: Strength +50 hitpoints Implant consumption: When your body converts to this level, all your implants are consumed in the process. Their abilities are likewise lost. Transcendent implants you already had are unaffected. Shapeless mass: Characters at this level cannot wear clothing, armor, or bags for equipment. Though their bodies can assume a solid shape, that shape is a result of their memories relexively telling their bodies to mimic familiar motions while moving. There is no memory engram for maintaining a ixed form; it’s simply something that happens as a result of having bones, joints and sinew. Worn equipment simply falls off after a few minutes. Weapons can be carried as normal, as your body remembers how to hold things. Additionally, your appearance is so luid and unnerving at this point that you cannot
negotiate or converse without it being an issue. Community checks of any kind that don’t hinge on you using your appearance to unnerve or intimidate will fail unless the person you’re talking to knows you personally or is otherwise familiar and prepared for dealing with you. Crowds will give you wide berths and, in some more conservative settings, might panic or call the authorities because they perceive you as a genuine threat. There is no public area where you can move around in open view and simply be “accepted,” and any building with security concerns will likely not let you in without an escort. Most people who reach this stage no longer engage with society at large. Head shots and limb shots no longer have special properties against you. Your body can squeeze through spaces as small as an inch in diameter, and is capable of moving itself even while compressed, so it can travel through pipes and tunnels. You have no innate means of navigating these areas beyond instinct, however, and it’s not like it’s easy to bring a map with you. Though you are semi-luidic, you are not “a shapeshifter.” Your body can assume various forms briely because your memory instinctively makes it mimic what you need, but it won’t remain that way beyond its immediate use. Neuroplexes no longer work on you, as your brain (and eyes) function completely differently than they used to. Persistent repair: The Inteliformic repair ability is replaced with this ability. At the end of your combat turn, you regain d12 hitpoints
automatically. It no longer contributes to creep: your body is consuming itself to produce itself in a perpetual dance of technological self-cannibalism. Gruesome, but elegantly effective. You can no longer be healed through traditional means (but you really don’t need to be). Self-sustaining: You do not need to eat, drink, sleep, or check for exhaustion while doing sustained activity. Air is all you require to maintain your body. If you are reduced to zero hitpoints, provided you have not been actively destroyed (parts of your body disintegrated) you will re-congeal in about half an hour. If you have lost over 25% of your body mass due to something actively destroying it (beyond just bullet holes) you will die, and cannot be revived through body replacement surgery, as there is no longer a brain to copy. You must make your usual Survival rolls as you drop in hitpoints during combat.
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The vulnerability to intense EM interference extends to sound at this level. Hypersonics (such as those emitted in the Echolocation surgery) and extremely low frequency waves (such as those emitted by Deadzone projectors) will cause the same checks listed in the second level entry in addition to any already damaging affects they may have. Check weapon and item descriptions to see if they can be included, but this is largely a judgment call from the Guide. As a rule, the vulnerability to these effects is not commonly known. Enemies must have passed a Mind:Strength+ASR, Security or Medicine check at complexity 3 to be aware of this situation, and even then, they probably won’t be carrying applicable equipment unless they already knew there was such a creature in the party.
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Sentinels
One would think TTI would be rather nonplussed about having a competitor in the synthetic skin business, but their public reaction to the Inteliform system was resoundingly positive. They applauded its ingenuity and congratulated ASR on developing a novel approach to a problem they themselves had only recently solved. TTI is rarely known for having the “less invasive” approach to a situation, but when compared to the dramatic changes that could occur when the Inteliform implant was pushed too far, Hardskin looked downright tame. The reason for their public accolade soon became apparent: Hardskin and the Inteliform implant were compatible. The diamond weave Hardskin had to be applied after the lesh creep level had advanced to 3, and could only be performed by expert surgeons in very exact conditions, but the inal result was the quint essential humanoid shock trooper. Both substances worked to counteract each other’s weaknesses, and did so beautifully. There are only a handful of Sentinels in existence at any given time; they’re simply too risky to manufacture en masse. It is an honor reserved for the most loyal career combatants for TTI and ASR (those who are least likely to turn on their handlers after the fact). Sentinels are not intended to be player so there is no surgical proile for 144 characters, them. They make for good NPC adversaries
and a fun way to retire a creep level 3 character if you want them to return after “re-training” later in the campaign as an NPC the party knows. Sentinels have all the properties of level 3 lesh creep, but their hitpoints increase by 250 points, they count as wearing armor, they can function in airless environments for 10 minutes at a time (even space), they can swim, and they no longer have the EM interference or sound vulnerability. They also now have a more structured body than before, so they can wear armor and equipment as normal. Their ability to squeeze through small areas does drop back down to the equivalent of a second level creep character, though.
Nanoassembler: This subdermal network is a recent addition to the MarsCo product line and is already serving as a stumbling block from a legal standpoint. Miniaturized deconstructers embedded in your hands can allow you to pull apart and internally store complex objects in various cavities embedded in your bones. You can then reassemble them later by activating the return system and having them generate in your hand. It’s a dificult and invasive surgery, but very handy when you need to transport something with the ultimate degree of secrecy. Effect: This system allows you to store one object of Medium size or smaller internally without showing any outward signs of possession. The object is actually in a disassembled state of stored particles, and will be reassembled on-demand in the same condition it was initially stored in. Both deconstruction and reassembly take 5 minutes each. Both processes require you to remain still and steady or the object will be permanently ruined. While you can only reassemble the same object you’ve disassembled, it is possible to use the raw material in alternate ways. Any object you disassemble can be reproduced as raw material, serving as pry-bar, rudimentary shield of the same volume, or some other basic, non-complex metal object. Such an action requires a Mind:Dexterity+Craft check and cannot be undone. Once you’ve converted the original object into a chunk of mass, it can’t return to what it was. This ability cannot be used in combat or as any sort of offensive system due to the amount of time it takes to work (though it makes for a rather frightening torture tool if you have a restrained victim in a narrative situation).
Prerequisite: None. Prosthetic utility: By integrating the technologies at work in various Cog frames, it is possible to give much of their functionality to Vectors. The same variety is not available, but there are several familiar options that are popular among people who live in high Cog populations. Effect: If your Vector has prosthetic legs, they can give up their Momentum ability and any movement-related perks of their Morphism and instead gain the abilities of either the Maglev or Wheeled Cog frame. They do not gain access to the Specialization options, nor can they take any sort of future surgery that would not logically function with this new anatomy (Cheetah Speed or Pad Feet, for instance). The technology to facilitate these changes takes up any storage space in your original prosthetic and dedicates it to this task; you can’t switch back to normal feet without purchasing a replacement set at the same cost as this operation. Prerequisites: All your legs (however many you may have) are prosthetic. The price listed is per leg, and all legs must be replaced at once. Naga-like bodies do not qualify for this operation.
Pushframe network: This implant is very popular among spacers and Laterals. By increasing the size and power systems of a Pushframe, it’s possible to greatly increase its overall functionality. This implant integrates the Pushframe system with your spine and nervous system, allowing advanced dexterity and multitasking with the unit as well as giving it a greater range. The abilities provided by this implant are useful and entertaining, but it’s a remarkably unpopular procedure for a simple reason: if ever you should be arrested or detained, your system will have to be deactivated for the safety of the oficers. Large implants that integrate with multiple areas of the body like this one are not meant to be turned off. They leave a lot of metal and invasive material sitting idle in your body. It starts to itch, leaves you feeling like your skin is crawling, and in some cases can even lead to panic or delirium. The system can be reactivated upon your release, but if you are convicted or imprisoned, it is typically permanently disabled or surgically removed lest you ind some way to use it to escape. The operation is usually executed with less care than was exercised
when it was installed. This isn’t generally a fear of those who plan to live their lives within the law, but one unfortunate night or misunderstanding can lead to a very unpleasant situation. Effects: This functions as a Pushframe, but with the following changes: It now has a range of 10 feet and can lift objects of up to 5 pounds in weight. This effect can work through walls provided the wall has no large metallic components inside (most homes and basic structures don’t, but ships, reinforced walls or industrial complexes will). While still not powerful enough to be used as a weapon in and of itself, it can be employed to great effect in combat as a means of manipulating distant objects. It requires a standard action, after which you can move a light object, close a door, hang a rope, press a button across a room, or do whatever else you need to do. The system cannot produce adequate torque to yank something from someone’s hands, but it can remove things from pockets. This implant allows you to use the same impulses you would use to move your natural body, so when manipulating distant objects to do things that would require a check (picking a lock, for instance) use whatever Stat you would use if you were there doing it in person. The implant will not function in areas with active electromagnetic interference. Prerequisites: None.
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Reinforced Prosthetics: Boosting the overall strength of an artiicial limb has long term debilitating effects on a body. Aside from making you heavier on one side, most bodily actions are not isolated. Lifting something with an arm involves muscles going clear down to the legs, most of which will not share the same power granted to your mechanical limb. However, it is possible to substantially reinforce a prosthetic with fewer mechanical sacriices, if the owner is willing to give up a few things. Effect: By removing the internal storage capacity of an Artiicial Limb and the sensory net typically included on such devices, it can be made considerably more resilient. It now 145
functions as though it were made of unfeeling steel, and as such can be used to delect incoming attacks as a Medium weapon, handle hot or cold objects, wedge things open or generally accomplish anything you could accomplish with a big metal limb. There is a basic pressure sensitivity system integrated on the limb so you can tell when something is touching it, but beyond that, it doesn’t experience sensation. Attacks made with the limb tend to hit harder due to the lack of concern for personal harm, and as such
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add 2 damage to each unarmed impact. Reinforced Prosthetics emphasize durability over power, and are made from very resistant material capable of enduring a great deal of punishment without breaking. When being used to delect damage, the limb is considered to have 80 hitpoints, and can be repaired as Cogs are. Alternatively, this arm can be restructured to contain a small to medium sized gun directly integrated into the limb itself. While not in use, the gun is completely concealed. The arm will split and separate to expose the weapon as a standard action. It is then loaded and used as normal. If you take this option, pay for the gun with the surgery. Your limb loses the afore mentioned durability, however. Just treat it like a standard prosthetic; slamming a gun barrel repeatedly into an object doesn’t make it shoot very well. Prerequisites: Artiicial limb. This implant effectively takes the place of the previous one you had installed. You can swap back and forth, if you want to carry it around. People might think you’re a little weird, though. Every new gun you wish to purchase for the gun option requires a limb to be tailored to it, and as such requires this implant to be purchased again.
Remote vision: This UI upgrade greatly
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increases the Utilit-i’s wireless range and enhances its own signal security. The more powerful receiver also makes it possible to intercept other people’s less secure standard Utilit-i signals. Effect: The UI’s un-networked wireless range is boosted to a mile, and now requires a successful hack check of complexity 3 for other people to break into. You can also detect wireless camera signals within a mile and “see” through them. The security of each signal will vary, but most basic ones (including unsecured utilit-is) will only require one success. To make a hack attempt at all, however, you need a way to mentally interface with the code. Otherwise, you can only pick up completely open camera systems. Prerequisites: Utilit-i. If you wish to hack into secured signals, a Neural Connectivity Suite is required. This implant is an upgrade to an existing Utilit-i, and effectively replaces it once taken. Its activation rules are the same at the Utilit-i.
Stimplant: A veritable pharmacy in your in their circles. However, as is the case with most body, Stimplants can rapidly manufacture a host of chemical effects to supplement a user’s own abilities on demand. Stimplants were invented by Progenitus as a means of combating chemical deiciencies in the body without radical surgery or organ replacement. It still serves that purpose, but the chemical manufacturing system in the device is so simple to reprogram that they’re often abused even by those who actually needed them to begin with. Stimplants mark one of the more publicly noticeable failings in the Progenitus moral code: everyone knows the majority of Stimplant users are going to misuse them, but they’re still available with a simple doctor’s referral. The money’s just too good, and people look the other way.
Effect: This device can simulate the effect of any available Stim on demand, without the need for further injection systems. All the pros and cons of whatever Stim is being used still apply. Additionally, this machine can simulate biological responses within a character in response to stimulation, which has made it popular among iniltration agents who can key the release of painkillers and depressants to things that would normally hurt or frighten them. It does not, however, provide any additional physical protection, which has led to many individual organizations banning their use. The ability to ignore pain has been repeatedly shown to lower the overall life expectancy and eficiency of agents. Prerequisites: This system cannot be legitimately purchased without “a reason.” The reason can be as simple as bribing a doctor or calling in a favor, but it is still recorded upon installation and the unit is required to inject “something” into your body on a daily basis to justify itself. The “something” can be fairly benign (caffeine, dopamine, serotonin, etc.) but will still count as using a Stim every day, thus lessening the overall number you can take before negative effects begin to set in. Stimplants must be reilled with raw materials every 20 uses (not counting the automatic ones) at the cost of 40 credits.
Cog surgical rules Cog society frowns on personal modiication for the sake of utility, which makes many of the standard Vector surgical options rather unpopular
things, there is a ine balance between “forbidden” and “forgivable.” ASR did not want to promote a race that wouldn’t have any need for their other services, after all. Within every Cog is the potential for several mechanical expansions. This is mechanically limited based on the established Cog blueprint more than any speciic technological inadequacy; they can certainly house and access more than they’re currently specced for. But Cogs are inherently phobic of exceeding their speciications, for a variety of reasons. There’s the general social rule of not making a tool of yourself, as well as health concerns that stem from overloading one’s own systems and potentially causing irreparable damage to one’s core consciousness. But the big one is a fear of obsolescence. If more and more Cogs begin to show contempt for their abilities and begin to mod in excess of their design, the entire race may eventually have to “upgrade” in order to avoid a major divide in ability. This could have horriic ramiications for their relationship with Vectors, with un-upgraded Cogs, and their entire public image as living beings rather than pieces of hardware.
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Implants and Surgery Cogs may not receive surgical operations as described in the HSD core rulebook, with the exception of General Surgery and Body Replacement, the mechanical equivalent of which can be performed at most hospitals. Cogs may have up to 5 Implants installed at a time, and they may all be active or inactive at the will of the owner. Because Cogs already communicate with their body through digital signals and language, communing with their implants is a natural sensation for them. This also makes surgical reeducation and recovery a lot faster. Cogs may select any Implant at the listed price, with the exception of the Aestus Leech and Transcendent Implants. Cogs can have 147 Transcendent Implants, but must acquire
them without TTI’s assistance. This will require some sort of narrative hook determined by your Guide, will almost certainly be illegal, and will mark your Cog as a level 5 enemy of TTI if ever their implant should be discovered (though they will pursue you quietly rather than openly). The Severity of every normal implant is set at Easy, and the reeducation period is Very Easy.
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In addition, Cogs have access to the following ASR (2,2) implants that are exclusive to them: Name Cost NuBlood synthesis
500
Power Reserves
1000
Twinning Node
300
NuBlood synthesis: This system
allows Cogs to use Nublood as a replacement for their own luid systems. Cogs gain even fewer beneits from this procedure than Vectors do, but it does grant them one speciic boon that makes it very attractive to some Cogs in particular: the ability to host Inteliformic lesh. Effect: Gain the bonuses listed in the Nublood surgical entry. This character now counts as having Nublood for any future implant that may require it.
Prerequisites: None. Power Reserves: This implant supplements the Cog internal power distribution system with a secondary power source that can be actively reassigned where it’s most needed. This can grant the Cog superior strength in a pinch, but can’t be maintained over extended periods.
Effect: Your Cog has a reserve pool of dots that can be assigned to any Body trait in any combination at will, for 10 minutes each. When you activate this implant, roll Mind:Dexterity+Robotics. For every success, you can assign a dot to one of your Body traits, up to the maximum level. After the ten minutes are up, it takes an hour for your power reserves to restore again. A critical failure on your power reserve roll results in a power surge, 148 reallocating power throughout your body.
Randomly pick two Body traits (a d10 divided by 2 works well). The irst will be reduced to 1 dot, and the second will be increased to 5, for the duration of the 10 minute effect.
Prerequisites: Body:Resilience 3. Twinning node: Body swapping is medically possible even for Vectors, but it’s a messy process organically. Things just don’t line up very well, and it typically results in disorientation and poor motor function. Cog signals are all digital, even if they’re not inherently aware of what code is being sent to where in their bodies. This node maps that code, and allows two Cogs to seamlessly swap bodies without any of the vomiting generally associated with organic attempts. Socially, this implant is a bit of a touchy subject among some Cogs. Twinning nodes are calibrated to speciic partners. Once bonded, only those two individuals can swap bodies. Naturally this implies a certain relationship between the pair. The relationship itself is not the problem, it’s more the division in body identity. Most Cogs view their physical bodies to be as private and personal as Vectors do. Some Cogs don’t at all, and centralize most of their identity inward. For those Cogs, twinning is a useful utility. For the former, it’s a very personal exchange. It comes down to the individual.
Effect: As a standard action, once per turn, a Cog can swap bodies with their established “twin.” Both Cogs must have a twinning node they have chosen to link to one another at a previous point. When swapped, all Mind, Community, and Proiciency scores travel with the personality. Body and Economy scores stay with the body. Focus abilities are not usable in swapped bodies (the necessary familiarity is not present). Swapping requires a digital handshake to be successful; if either side should refuse, the swap cannot be forced. Its range is effectively hundreds of miles provided there is a wireless signal present between both bodies; however, signal clarity across interplanetary distances is not suficient to transmit this level of information. Prerequisites: Both twins must have the same Body:Presence score.
EXPANDED RULES The rules laid out in the HSD core rulebook for the treatment of several factors were designed to give you the tools you needed to run a diverse campaign simply, without loading it down with detail that may never come up in actual play. The following chapter expands on many of the rules regarding environmental interaction, social interaction and various play dynamics in order to provide greater challenges to groups who want to include them in their story. These rules are fairly granular; don’t feel compelled to include them if your group’s narrative style doesn’t require it. They’re here for those players that like having numbers to attach to the world they’re playing in. As mentioned above, the rules here are optional additions. Toward the end of this book is a short addendum and FAQ section which includes rules that have been oficially changed to make the game as a whole run smoother. Be sure to check those out, even if you decide your game doesn’t need the additions listed here.
Brightness: Ambient illumination in HSD can be measured in the following way: In full daylight or similar conditions, characters have effectively limitless visual range. As light gets lower, distant igures and shapes lose their deinition, but things don’t actually start to vanish into darkness until a fairly low light level is present, such as a night scene with only starlight for illumination. In such a condition, characters can see 20 feet in front of them for each point they have in Body:Acuity. Characters with darkness-enhanced vision (as per a surgery or ability) can see clearly in an environment with any sort of ambient illumination. Ganymede is considered perpetually low-light. Europa’s lack of terraforming means there is very little to obstruct sunlight, and its lighting is considered normal as a whole. Underwater environments cut ambient light much faster than atmospheric ones, and also typically contain far more sediment and other vision-obstructing elements. Low-light conditions occur at a depth of around 200 feet in broad daylight, but as shallow as 50 feet as the sunlight wanes. During any period in which the ambient light above water
is low, the underwater light level should be considered nonexistent at any depth beyond a few feet. At depths of 500 feet and beyond, no light from the surface exists, regardless of time of day. Light sources can vary in intensity, but should be considered one of the two following types: Focused or Dispersed. Dispersed light sources typically illuminate everything within a range determined by the Guide (usually its own hex and two hexes adjacent for basic lighting) while Focused lighting (like a personal lashlight) beams outward from a source in a straight line of hexes and illuminates things that get in the way. Hand lashlights typically have an effective range of 20 hexes before they dim too much to be effective, and they do broaden with distance. The Guide can determine just how much they show. Underwater, that range is cut in half. If ambient lighting is in front of you (say, a party member is holding an ambient light source in the hex in front of you) you cannot see beyond the light source. Light that is not at your back in the darkness actually hurts your ability to see, unless the light is far ahead of you, illuminating where you’re going.
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Pressure: Atmospheric pressure diminishes as you get further from the ground, but as a gameplay mechanic it isn’t much of an issue until it isn’t there at all. You can relect thin air easily by adding complexity to checks involving Athletics, and by forcing Body:Resilience+Survival rolls at the end of every round of combat to avoid becoming fatigued. Characters will acclimate to high altitudes given a few days, however. Underwater, pressure is a much larger issue. To avoid having to perform elaborate mathematics in the middle of your tabletop game, you can summarize pressure with the following rules: Pressure increases by one atmosphere per every 32 feet of water (8 vertical hexes). Characters will experience decompression sickness upon ascent from dives of 96 feet or more (24 vertical hexes) and compressed oxygen tanks become toxic at 216 feet (54 vertical hexes), necessitating either unique diving abilities due to surgery or fully 149 enclosed hard-shelled suits to travel deeper.
Suits that are rated for vacuum are not inherently rated for diving. They will typically function in up to 64 feet of water before they begin to leak. Spacecraft are the same way, and while nearly all of them are capable of landing ON water, most will lose integrity if submerged more than 32 feet. Space propulsion systems can shrug off water when removed from it, but do not function submerged. The average depth of oceans on terraformed worlds like Mars and Venus is somewhere in the 14,000 foot range, with the deeper chasms going as low as 7 miles. Europa’s subsurface ocean is vastly deeper, extending below 60 miles in some areas and averaging over 10 times the depth of Earth’s deepest trench. No publicly available submersibles can reach depths lower than 15 miles, and as such the bottom of the solar system’s deepest known ocean is almost entirely unexplored, save for by the orca bioprobes who long ago stopped sharing their information, and don’t welcome visitors. Biological solutions for the depth problem are vastly more effective than mechanical ones, but for reasons TTI does not understand (or won’t talk about), large deep-diving bioships attract Orcas like magnets, and they make for poor company.
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Diving: As an average, use the dive ratings in the core rulebook under Swim to determine about how deep you can get without rolling a check, but if you’re using diving as a competitive mechanic you can apply the following system: Body:Strength+Swim to dive. 2 dots in Swim: 10 feet per success 3 dots in Swim: 30 feet per success 4 dots in Swim: 50 feet per success As characters increase in Swim proiciency, they are also assumed to know proper technique for minimizing the effects of decompresion sickness after emerging from deep dives. In a successful deep dive without the use of breathing equipment, issues with decompression can be ignored (most of these issues actually come from breathing under pressure). All deep dive checks 150 while assume uninterrupted descent and ascent.
If anything should obstruct a character ascending from a dive that took them to their maximum successes (for instance, if a character with 3 dots in Swim needed to dive 50 feet and rolled two successes), they will begin to suffocate immediately. If they were interrupted before reaching their intended depth, they have time to abort and return to the surface (assuming whatever interrupted them doesn’t stop them from leaving).
Swim Speed: On average, people swim at about half their movement speed. Apply this as a catchall score for iguring out how long it takes to swim from one spot to another. Note that people with no dots in Swim do not know how to swim at all, even if they’re Aquatic! It is not a universal skill; some environments do not maintain large pools of water to learn in. However, if you’re using Swim speed as a competitive mechanic, apply the following system: Body:Strength+Swim to swim. You do not need to roll this check to move underwater, but you do need to roll it in any situation that might require an Athletics check on land (swimming hard toward the surface, swimming against a current, etc.). 2 dots in Swim: ¼ of your movement speed per movement action, rounded up. 3 dots in Swim: ½ of your movement speed per movement action, rounded up. 4 dots in Swim: ¾ of your movement speed per movement action, rounded up.
Suffocation: How long you can hold your breath underwater is determined by your Swim Proiciency (HSD core rulebook, Scholarship), but once you run out of air, everyone suffocates at the same rate. When the guide determines your air is running out, make a Body Resistance save (attack value 10). If you succeed, you’ve bought yourself another 10 seconds. The next save is attack value 15, and will only award you 5 seconds. The inal save is attack value 18, and will only grant you that last few feet to the surface, about one second. If, after these three saves, you still have not reached air, your character will fall unconscious and drown. They can be revived from that state via resuscitation from anyone with a point in Medicine up to 2 minutes per point in Survival after they black out. If revived,
they will recover in a few minutes. Alternatively, if the body has not been damaged it can be revived at a hospital up to one hour after drowning, but will need to undergo a General Surgery to reconstruct the damaged sectors of the brain that have been deprived of oxygen. Though the character will recover, they will lose most of their memories of the last week.
Cold: In settings of high elevation or deep water, temperature is a paramount concern. It’s largely up to your Guide to determine how cold an environment is, but here are a few generalized rules to use in order to rapidly establish the level of danger you’re in. Cold affects most checks equally, and can be relected by increasing check complexity by 1 if the temperature would normally require cold weather gear, and you lack it. If the cold is extreme enough to warrant increasing check complexity by 2, death by hypothermia is also an issue. Exposed characters in sub-freezing temperatures (around -30C) can function for ive minutes per point in Survival. After that time elapses, begin making Body Resistance saves (attack value 15) and increase the attack value by 5 every minute until you either leave the environment or fail. Failing a save will cause you to succumb to hypothermia and fall unconscious. Frozen characters can be revived and restored in a hospital, but will need to pay for General Surgery to ix the extensive frostbite they will have suffered. Water freezes at 0 degrees C. Water with high salt content can be cooled below this level, and the oceans of terraformed worlds are primarily salty. Europa’s subsurface ocean is warmed from below, rather than above, and can be considered to have an average temperature of 3 degrees C. By comparison, Antarctic water on Earth averages around 0 degrees C (-2 at its deepest), and avoids freezing due to its high salt content. Europa’s ocean is comparatively warmer than the colder water areas of Earth, but will still cause hypothermia within half an hour of submersion unless your character is somehow protected from that effect. For those with the Polar Adaptation surgery, the water temperature on Europa is actually quite comfortable, and even those without it can swim short distances without injury. It also doesn’t luctuate dramatically based on depth, as it is entirely heated from within. Mars and Venus have water temperature
curves closer to Earth norms, with an average depth of around 14,000 feet and temperatures ranging from a 27 degree bathwater to -2 degrees C, making their water comparatively colder in the deep regions. The coldest ocean water (key word: water; there are large bodies of liquid other than H2O that are vastly colder) in the solar system is on Ganymede, averaging just above freezing in nearly every location that hasn’t been artiicially warmed. It is also the shallowest, with an average depth of only 8,000 feet. It is worth mentioning that a great deal of Earth wildlife is adapted for swimming in freezing water, and these coldwater zones are highly populated with both Earth-transferred life forms and original creations introduced later.
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Heat: During their creation, Vector metabolism was crafted to make optimal use of their extra layer of fur, feather or scale, and they tend to run cooler internally than humans. As heat decreases, their internal temperature changes, and they can better adapt to the world around them. The feature was included with the assumption that much of the Vector population would end up living further from the Sun than Earth, which has been proven correct. While handy for making cold weather tolerable (most vectors, even reptiles, consider 10c weather to be comfortable while lightly clothed), it’s hardly a superpower, and by and large the temperatures that kill us kill Vectors as well. As heat rises beyond 37c, Vectors begin experiencing dangerous body temperatures, relected by increasing check complexity for any physical task by 1. Vectors have trouble shedding heat once they’ve accumulated it, so after 10 minutes of physical activity in temperatures above 37c, make a Body Resistance save (attack value 15). If you succeed, you can continue to function for another 10 minutes before checking again. As long as you have access to hydration, you can keep this up indeinitely until you fail a save. If you do not have water around, the attack value increases by 5 every time. At 43c, the temperature is oficially too hot to safely function in, hydrated or not. You can operate in temperatures between 43c 151 and 48c for one minute per point in Survival,
after which time you need to seek a cooler climate immediately or collapse. Temperatures in excess of 48c will overheat most Vectors extremely rapidly. If a character collapses from heat exhaustion, they can be revived at a hospital for 20 credits provided they didn’t remain in the hot zone for more than 30 minutes after their collapse. There are many environments in post-human Sol that primarily feature considerably high temperatures (mercury is a prime example, which only sports a sparse research population in scattered domes but has people on it nonetheless), but Vectors working there wear refrigerated suits. Even on terraformed planets like Mars and Venus, summertime temperature rarely exceeds 32C.
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Neuroplex costs Lore-wise, the lessons taught by a Neuroplex are not free. In fact, they’re quite expensive, signiicantly more than the unit itself. However, integrating a price per lesson on the Neuroplex presented a potential balance issue among party members that would be very dificult to account for: namely that people could be spending their money on equipment or on stats, but probably not on both. Since there are often situations where equipment has to be left behind or lost, this would put those characters at signiicant disadvantage. In the opposite case, people who sank all their money into lessons would be ill-equipped to tackle challenges that relied on superior irepower, and could become a liability to party members who purchased new equipment as it became available. Frustrating players is not the goal of the game, and if the party inds itself in a “break even” situation in which their operation costs are more or less equivalent to their proits, it could take a very long time for them to progress 152 their Proiciencies. Proiciencies. In the hopes of
keeping party members on a fairly level playing ield (and to stop them from grinding their teeth), the Neuroplex was given a buy-in price and its lessons were simply “attached” to it in the core rulebook. This note is here simply to inform Guides that, should they wish to attach a price per dot learned through a Neuroplex, they would not be off-base in doing so. It its the setting and can slow player advancement if you’re working on a long campaign (as well as grant contracting corps another possible incentive for the party in the form of free lessons). However, some caution should be expressed to players against repeatedly buying into lesson after lesson, or ignoring them in lieu of equipment. Doing so will likely space the party out in overall balance and might make it dificult for them to all participate in the same challenges. If you use this variant, the irst and second dot in a Proiciency should cost around 100 credits. The third should cost around 200.
Makuru Zevhran
NEW SYSTEMS The following section details new rules and concepts that can add greater variety to your game, or allow you to tune your sessions to better it your group’s play style.
Learning The primary reason why rules ru les for player characters teaching other player characters skills were not included in the core rulebook is because of the tendency to gloss over the realities of time and practice. Very often in games like
these, anything that consists of a repetitive process such as memorization or meditation gets abbreviated to “I do that for one hour before going to sleep,” which is all well and good, except that if most of us had the mental discipline to learn advanced mathematics or biology by hitting the books for an hour every night, we’d probably all be signii cantly wealthier. Real learning is a time intensive experience that doesn’t it realistically into most adventures. However However,, if your Guide wants to allow it, it , speciic skills can be imparted from player charac ter to player character by means of the Express Proiciency. A character character with a Masterful rank in Express can teach another character tasks such as hacking, operating equipment, security knowledge, even the correct way to posture their bodies in a run, by rolling Community: Presence + Express. The Express. The teaching character must be at least Educated in the Proiciency they’re trying to teach, as well as Masterful in Express. The check can only be attempted once per day, and the process takes two hours. If the check is successful, the student character will gain the Talented rank in the ProiProi ciciency being taught, indicating that they now have a passing familiarity in it. However, this knowledge is short term, and will expire after as many days as there were successes on the teaching check. This mechanic can only bring a character from 0 dots to 1 dot. The game represents this knowledge functionally the same way it represents other knowledge, but in terms of realistic gameplay there are important distinctions that should be noted. Your character has effectively learned all the basic information they could absorb in a two-hour lecture, and we’re assuming they were trying to pay attention. It’s better than nothing, but it’s a far cry from the knowledge gained from a full course or a lifetime of actually working in that particular ield. It’s also generally linked to whatever activity your character is going to need to do in the near future that precipitated the lesson to begin with. Your character doesn’t necessarily “forget” what they’ve learned after a couple days, but the relevance of the information has either passed or simply isn’t wide enough in scope to continue being effective without practice. If your character found the temporary boost helpful, they should look into plexing a lesson on the subject.
Dynamic investing (Ledger Modiication) Using the economy column is a mystery to some players, either because their game doesn’t include much purchasing or they don’t see an immediate function for it outside the Ledger balance. If this sounds like you, consider this alternate system. It replaces the Ledger balance mechanic entirely and instead provides you with a lexible buying pool that your character can call on when they need to purchase services. Less bookkeeping, more spending. With this system, your character’s character’s Ledger is actually doing what it claims to do: actively investing, buying and selling all the time. When you need to call on your accounts to pay for services (rides, dinners, hotel rooms, bribes, various help and analysis needs, etc.) your character attempts to pay for them using capital sitting in their ledger, rather than by spending credits they’ve saved. Depending on where your ledger is currently investing, it’s possible to pay for things in the world without spending any of the credits you have.
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Using the system When your character needs to purchase something they’re not going to keep, such as food (for immediate consumption), a one-time service (car wash, massage, ly-on-the-wall iniltration), or a bribe of some kind, they can roll Economy:Strength+Finance to see if their ledger can cover the cost. If cost. If you are successful, you effectively pay what’s owed without actually spending any of your credits. What you can actually pay for is described below, but the complexity of the check is up to the Guide. It usually refers to how much personal risk is involved. For instance, buying a meal with one’s ledger is a complexity 1 check, as there isn’t really anything dangerous or complicated to deal with. Paying a bribe to a security guard to ignore seeing you walk out of the back room can be complexity 2, 3 or higher depending on how suspicious you look or how dangerous the situation is, even though it lands in the same 153
expense range as the aforementioned meal.
Levels of expense
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Not everyone has a robust enough ledger to use it like a wallet. Service purchases come in 5 different levels, and your Economy:Presence score must meet or exceed the level of the purchase before you can attempt to roll to buy it with your Ledger. Level 1: Tiny disposable items (gum, candy, basic drink), tipping for a light meal or small service (not the service or meal itself; a tip can be used to help buy favor), small door charges for entry or tolls for using roads or bridges. Nothing in excess of what could be purchased for 3 U.S. Dollars. Level 2: Small goods or services (light meal, fare for a local trip or bus service), bribes for very basic information (who did you see come in here, who sat in that chair last night), drinks of moderate expense (basic alcohol at bars for immediate consumption). Nothing in excess of what could be purchased for 10 U.S. Dollars.
Level 3: Light dinners that serve two (or a full meal for one), door costs cost s for expensive venues venues or bribe money for light offenses (caught in the wrong area of a low security building, such as behind the bar at a club), basic services (have someone move gear and equipment from one location to another within a mile, door to door , have someone drive a vehicle around the block while keeping the motor running for a quick getaway). Nothing in excess of what could be purchased for 20 U.S. Dollars. Level 4: Expensive meals, or meals that feed four people, bribes suficient to deter security in low security areas (allow you into the employees-only section in a store or ofice building, but not anywhere that would put lives on the line), fairly elaborate services (have someone bring cargo from one location to another within a dozen miles, lock it up there, have someone access iles or locations for you remotely, or compute numbers and run basic analysis on data based on your instructions). Nothing in excess of what could be purchased for 40 U.S. Dollars. Level 5: Opulent meals, exotic drinks for immediate consumption, bribes suficient to allow access to secure areas (but not immediately dangerous ones such as prison release systems systems or weapons controls), overnight lodging in most hotels (single room, bed and bath), delivery and pickup services to any location within a day’s travel, clandestine observation services provided personal risk is minimal, reasonably advanced data-mining and digital security services (signal examination, evidence comparison, etc.). Nothing in excess of what could be purchased for 100 U.S. Dollars .
Investment scope
Arokha Sieyes Sieyes
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Your ledger is a quick and adept system, but it doesn’t simply “pay” for things. It redirects its investments to pay off in the favor of your client, and it can’t always do that if it’s currently functioning in an entirely different inancial sector. To represent this, your character must make an Economy:Dexterity+Finance roll every time they wish to make a purchase in a different expense level. level. For instance, if your character used their ledger to purchase a light meal at level 2, and later wanted to buy a beer at a bar at level 1, they would need to make a Economy:Dexterity+Finance roll irst to see if their ledger
could redirect itself to this new investment area. If they failed, they would not be able to use their ledger for the second purchase. On a success, they could then make the Economy:Strength roll to see if they could pay for the item. The complexity of the dexterity check is equal to the number of levels you’re attempting to shift by. The above example was shifting by 1 level and required 1 success. If the character was trying to go from a level 1 purchase to a level 3 purchase, they would need 2 successes. If you roll less than your goal, your ledger will advance as high as it can and stay there. Your ledger led ger stays at each investment tier for 6 hours, and you can’t roll to change tiers again until that 6 hours is up. It begins each day at level 1.
through rewards and compensation for missions and contracts run in-game.
Forbidden services: This system should not be used to acquire anything with a listed price tag on it in general, nor should it net you anything physical which can be reused multiple times or persists beyond the hour or so you bought it. There are a few possible exceptions to this, but Guides should be cautious before allowing them, as they will change the nature of your game play.
1-credit purchases Most of the things that fall into this
Economy:Dexterity: Used with the category are light and unobtrusive enough Finance Proiciency for shifting investment tiers as described in Investment scope.
that they can be purchased in the level 2 investment tier t ier..
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Economy:Resilience: Each dot in Econo- Rental or bribed weapons and my:Resilience buys you one reroll on any Economy armor dice. These refresh daily.
Economy:Acuity: For each dot you have in Economy:Acuity, decrease the 6 hour wait time on your Investment scope by 1 hour. Effectively, all players have a 5-hour wait time due to their free dot. This is also the number of times per day you can use your ledger to purchase things in this fashion. Failures do count as a use. Critical failures will disable your ledger for the remainder of the day.
Economy:Strength: Used
with the Finance Proiciency to make purchases with your ledger. These purchases are for services and favors only, or for immediately consumable goods. Items such as armor or weapons that are listed with a price in the rulebook are purchased normally, using credits. Food listed in the rulebook is for packable supplies, not immediate meals.
Economy:Presence: Level of expense your character’s ledger is capable of purchasing at. Income: Because this system mitigates much of the income needs of the party, you should not use the Ledger Balance mechanic with it. Aside from your starting funds, your ledger will no longer generate actual credits for you. Those are received purely
This is not recommended as a general rule, but if you feel your party can be responsible about it, it can be fun to use the ledger to rent weaponry off NPCs for short term use. This should be treated as a level 4 investment requiring multiple successes, level 5 if the weapon is something meaner than a general automatic rile, and the owner typically won’t want it gone for more than a couple hours. I will reiterate: this is not a recommended use of this system unless you feel your players will not abuse it. It’s very easy to rent a weapon, turn around and shoot the owner, and suddenly own a weapon (and a murder charge) without paying any credits for it. If this happens, it is because it was allowed to happen. If you fear it, make people pay for equipment.
Hospital services By default, hospital services do not use this system and must be paid for out of pocket. However, there is no inherent problem with wrapping them into here as level 4 or 5 expenses other than the fact that it may promote players to get hurt more often because they don’t have to worry about the cost of healing. That can be a detriment to your game if you’re trying to keep players from leaping blindly into danger. However, if you’re actual- 155
ly looking to increase combat occurrences without hurting your players’ budget, this could work out well for you. Consider your party’s needs before including healing in this system.
Final notes This new system exists to promote players actively using their money to increase their versatility, rather than just increasing their inventory. It’s here so players can make calls to local cab companies to park cars in front of doorways to block escapes, or email data off to various examination services while they continue an investigation on foot, or use props like drinks and meals to help negotiations, without having to worry if that purchase is going to cost them the ability to buy new armor later. It also removes the book-work at the end of each session and gives the Guide exclusive control of player income. It is not a means to equip yourself or to pay people to take bullets for you (even at level 5, you’re not going to ind willing takers for outright life-threatening tasks). You should also remember that the option for purchasing services with actual credits still exists should you run out of Ledger uses or fail a check.
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Cinema Events One of the great beneits of a dynamic tabletop game is its ability to deliver more content on demand. If the players want to play something up or explore something further, the Guide can spontaneously adapt the game to suit their needs. It’s occasionally fun to trigger a situation like this where it isn’t expected, just to keep everyone on their toes. Cinema events represent the players telling the Guide they want to push a scene further than the rules relect. They typically take place in two forms: Rescues and Pushes. Rescues allow the players to call on the ickle inger of fate to rescue them from an otherwise deadly situation, while Pushes allow players to pull off some of the really memorable moments we love from action and horror ilms, even if the rules don’t 156 necessarily provide them with an avenue
for it.
Cinematic Rescues This optional rule can help add variety and player conidence to combat situations. Sometimes a character ends up on the business end of more damage than they expected to take, which could very well cost them their lives. Cinematic Rescues represent fate intervening on a character’s behalf, pulling them from the brink of death and granting them a chance to catch their breath. Characters can use a Cinematic Rescue when an attack or combat event would reduce their hitpoints to zero (before Survival rolls are made). Instead of the inal killing blow landing, it is retroactively canceled, and the Guide engineers an event that rescues the character at the last possible second. Perhaps the loor gave way and you and your opponent both fell onto the level below, or the ire alarms went off and looded the room with sound and fog that threw off their aim at the last second. The event could be anything, but the result is the character escaping that round with their neck. If a Cinematic Rescue is employed, it cancels the remaining attack actions for the enemy being rescued from (and should likely obscure any team members they have from subsequently shooting at you themselves). Cinematic Rescues grant “breathing room.” Generally, they should buy a single round for the player team to reposition themselves and capitalize on a new tactical advantage created by the event. The event caused by the save should usually be pretty pronounced. Think of similar lucky breaks in movies; they usually result in the terrain being rearranged due to an unforeseen explosion, or suddenly getting obscured by a crowd of people that chose just the right moment to come through a door. It should make sense contextually, so it will vary from battle to battle. Cinematic Rescues can only be used once per character, per battle. Characters may only have one Cinematic Rescue “stored” at any given time. Characters saved by Cinematic Rescues are considered safe until the end of their next turn. If they haven’t escaped trouble by then, or mounted a powerful counter offensive, they’re out of luck.
Gaining Cinematic Rescues Cinematic Rescues are awarded by the Guide for acts of impressive role play. If a player plays their character in an exemplary fashion, or comes up with a clever solution for a problem that follows their character’s mannerisms and ideals, they can earn a Cinematic Rescue (at the discretion of the Guide, naturally). These shouldn’t typically be awarded for anything that simply required rolling high on dice to accomplish; rather they should be rewards for thinking outside the box and embracing a character’s mentality. Guides might even think of it as “karma;” if you make yourself interesting to the universe, it looks after you a bit.
Boosting Cinematic Rescues Sometimes players have particularly good days. They’re on a roll, and several of their actions could be worth earning one of these Rescues. Players can only store one Cinematic Rescue at a time, but that save can be boosted if the Guide feels they’ve earned it through past actions. Each boost on a Cinematic Rescue allows it to affect another party member when it’s used (or to be used to save another party member who’s about to die). This generally means the environmental effect that occurs becomes more profound and puts a larger separation between the party and the enemy. Occasionally, this won’t directly translate to “players saved,” so Guides will have to determine how valuable they feel a Rescue with multiple boosts really is. Because of how arbitrary and narrative-based this particular mechanic is, Guides should enforce their own limitations on how many boosts a Cinematic Rescue can have. One good use of a Cinematic Rescue with several boosts on it is enough to change the whole nature of a battle from back and forth combat to environmental survival by causing the entire structure the team is ighting in to begin to collapse around
them. Be creative; these Rescues should add more dynamic effects to a battle, not just freeze it.
Using Cinematic Rescues As a general rule, players should not be able to use this mechanism tactically. The characters themselves don’t even know they have it; it’s a random act of fate. Guides have the ability to deny use of a Cinematic Rescue if it’s pretty obvious a player is sending their character into a ridiculously deadly situation knowing they have an ace in the hole. Treat this like you would the “oh come on!” rule. With everything, though, the story and the fun trump the rule. It could be that a player is arranging a situation that could lead to a really entertaining, epic scene if it’s allowed to come to a conclusion. It might even be fun to let them narrate their own Cinematic Rescue. Play to your play group’s taste. As long as the Rescue doesn’t somehow kill the entire enemy team, it probably won’t be a problem.
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Cinematic Pushes Pushes relect a character requesting that the Guide put a bit more oomph into their action. It works a lot like Cinematic Rescuing, but in reverse. In this situation, the player will initiate an action and “push” that action further, indicating that they want it to affect the scene in a signiicant fashion. If it’s an attack, maybe it will cause Reno Ca’Wo the wall to cave in or the loor to collapse, or set off ire alrams and ill the room with mist. Pushes shouldn’t outright do “more damage” to an enemy, but should in some way dramatically impact the scene (usually to the party’s advantage). Unlike Rescues, Pushes aren’t limited to combat situations. They can be used any time a player wants to 157 push an action a bit beyond what
their stats might allow. This can allow for mighty leaps across building tops to escape explosions, amazing precision piloting through densely packed environments, or anything suitably astounding that would enhance the nature of an exciting scene. There are no guidelines for what can be accomplished with a Push (other than that it should accompany an action like a check, and that check does need to pass on its own); it comes down to what the Guide feels will best it the scene. Players should suggest the action they want to accomplish as well. For example: Kath is on the wrong side of a pool of angry tigersharks (not a shark with stripes; actual half tiger, half sharks. All of their strengths, none of their weaknesses. It’s the Daywalker of madscientistism), and she needs to make it to the other side. It’s a 50 foot gap; a bit much, even with an impressive Athletics score, but she has an idea. She tells the Guide she’s going to Push a balance check, and run across the top of the sharks like a series of stepping stones. She rolls the check and succeeds, and with a Push assisting her, is able to use the half-dozen vicious, snapping monsters as springboards to get her across the water. Pushing is intended to give the players that area of wiggle room where (like above) their action really doesn’t seem that likely considering its dificulty. Had Kath tested for that action traditionally (probably by rolling a rather dificult check per shark while hoping they didn’t bite her) she would’ve had such a high chance of failure (and subsequent death by dismemberment) that her player would probably not have attempted it, which would have deprived them of a fun and entertaining scene.
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Gaining Cinematic Pushes Unlike Rescues, Pushes are earned randomly to give every member of the party their own opportunity to shine, as well as to avoid the same person repeatedly using Pushes to steal the spotlight. Guides can determine the rate they want to give Pushes away, but it is recommended that they award one Push to a randomly determined player via die roll at the beginning of every game 158 session. If they haven’t used it by the end, they lose it; it doesn’t carry over to the next
play session. They may, however, choose to give their Push to another player if they feel they’re not going to get a good opportunity to make use of it that session. This is an OOC decision, so any gratuity for the donation should take place in the form of pizza or sexual favors, not in-game currency. Guides should keep this rule pretty lexible. Everyone runs their game session a little differently, so the rate of Push occurrence should be kept comfortable to the play style. Pushes are intended to build memorable events, not just replace bad stats. If you ind they’re being used to make up for character shortcomings instead of to liven up the story, consider reducing their occurrence, or limiting their scope.
Combat Random damage This optional change should be integrated if you’re a fan of random damage instead of the game’s native ixed damage. Apply the following adjustments to your ranged weapons (“total damage” consists of base damage and ammo damage combined): If your gun does a total of 4 or less damage per hit, it now does d10/2 damage per hit, rounded down. If your gun does a total of 5-6 damage per hit, it now does d8 damage per hit. If your gun does a total of 7-9 damage per hit, it now does d10 damage per hit. If your gun does more than 9 damage per hit, it now does d12 damage per hit. When iring a single shot, you may reroll the damage dice once. In the C:E combat addendum (page 192), only the irst hit does full damage. This is true in this system as well. Roll random damage for the irst hit and stack bonus damage on top of it. Weapons that already use random damage and weapons which don’t fall into the listed categories (such as grenades or melee weapons) are unaffected by this.
Standard action: Diving This standard action can be taken in response to being shot at, provided you have points left over from your previous round and standard actions available. If you are currently taking cover from an object, you can elect to Dive if someone shoots you from an open angle where you would not receive cover. Roll Body:Dexterity+Athletics. Each success counts as a hex of movement that ignores dificult terrain penalties. Your character must move to a location where they would receive a cover bonus against their shooter from the same piece of cover. For instance, if they’re hiding behind a table and a shooter attacks from the rear, they can relocate to the other side of the same table (perhaps by leaping over it). Upon relocating, they will maintain the same cover bonus they established in their previous turn. This operation can only be performed once per round. As close combat attacks ignore cover, this ability can’t be used against them.
Defensive action: Pinning Spend a defensive action to initiate pinning ire at an enemy position. This represents your character iring blind in order to limit enemy movement, rather than actually trying to hit them. Nominate an enemy. For each defensive action you spend in this way, roll a Mind die. As long as you don’t roll a 1, the enemy you nominate has their maximum number of movement actions reduced by 1 for their following turn. Your character must be in a hex that is next to an open line of ire (a corner or window, essentially). You may nominate an enemy that is completely hidden (in that the cover is large enough to conceal them completely) for this action; however, it won’t take effect until they’re about to emerge from cover. They may move normally while completely concealed, but if they enter an area of the board that is visible to your character, the Pinning action will take immediate effect right before they enter the open area, draining as many remaining move actions as were suppressed and halting the current move before they emerge (they are assumed to have stepped out, noticed their immediate danger, and popped back to the hex they stepped out from). Pinned characters may spend a standard action on their turn to make a Mind Resistance save (attack value equivalent to the total damage done by a single unmodiied hit from the suppression weapon. So 3 for a SMG, 12 for a
Heavy Repeater) in order to gain one movement action if Pinning ire has reduced their movement actions to zero. This can only be done once per turn, and cannot be done if the character was already able to move earlier and subsequently lost their remaining movement by getting into sight of the character pinning them. Pinning ire can only be done with ranged weapons that do not have the Flood, LAN, Charge, or Annihilate rules, and have a RoF of at least 3. It is limited to targets within your second range increment, and does use ammunition. Each defensive action used on Pinning ire counts as shooting the weapon. Your character is shooting whether they see an enemy or not, in order to keep them pinned, so even if they don’t emerge from cover you should consider those shots to be ired. Because of the blind nature of Pinning ire, ignore the actual damaging effects of these shots; they exist purely to limit mobility.
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159
Prof. Tale Cenn, on the Pulse/ Progenitus proposed attack against the Whisperwerk construct “Ruby Spire.”
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“MarsCo re-does their logo every, I don't know, the most proound eras in Vector history, and our big20 years or so, just like everyone. Te Sphinx is always gest entity, our rock, i you will, is silent. And I think, in it. But the position she's in says something about the on some level, all o us, probably Pulse and Progenitus way the company is behaving. When you can see both most o all, are sitting here hoping that Mars is going to her eyes, it's very active. It's building or working on step up and say something. Weigh in on this situation, some massive, high publicity project or dividing or re- commit fleets, even officially reuse to engage. But they structuring or something. When you can only see the haven't yet, and they haven't said why, and we're all one eye, it's quiet. It has been quiet or a long time now, just sort o sitting here wondering which way the wind and it started right about the time Earth turned red. I is going to blow. Which is rustrating, naturally, but I can't speak as to whether that was a planned reaction have to figure there's a reason or it. 160 or not, but here we are, smack in the middle o one o Somewhere in this massive, sprawling empire
Landria, Mars
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o commerce there is some entity, be it a committee or individual or computer or something, that has ound our ancient ties to Earth to be so important that it has persisted human aesthetic and architectural values to this day, centuries beyond the point that anyone living gave a damn about it. I can't rightly believe it can look at Earth today and not eel something. I can't athom that it can hear o this proposal and not have some stock in the outcome. We just don't know what it is yet, and I don't think we're going to know until Mars decides to wake up again. Maybe it just takes that long or
the Sphinx to stir, you know? She's enormous, it's hard to athom how large this business actually is. Millions o subsidies. BILLIONS o employees. But that decision will come, eventually, and you can bet your ass that Mars will determine i that attack happens or not. I they say go, it will be a orce this solar system has never seen. And i they say stay, not one ship is making that flight. I think that's why Pulse is working so hard to drum up support or this thing so ast. Tey're worried 161 mommy's watching.”
ses troubled her. Not that it was particularly menacing, it was just...wrong. In her admittedly brief 10 The hooded igure that towered over the year life, she had never heard someone talk that way. “I don’t know,” she replied, and her tufted lynx young Felidae tilted its head at her question. She couldn’t make out the details of its face, but the eyes drooped, “It was just a place to look. They’re width and length of the tail under its coat made not anywhere else.” He was silent for a moment. Long enough for her lean toward crocodile. Maybe. They usually had long faces though, and this one wasn’t sticking out her own helplessness to catch up to her. Why not beyond the thick hood over its head. Some sort of tell it all? Hell, she had nothing to lose, at this point. reptile though, deinitely. Or its poor ears would be That was why she was down here to begin with, in the levels below the active grids, in the parts of the all squished. “Nooo,” it replied. Strange voice. Sort of megastructure that had long ago been sealed and scratchy and low, but not like a growl, more like... quarantined as part of general urban renewal. “They’re missing,” she said suddenly, looking like its mouth wasn’t shaped right. Like the words up, “They’ve been missing for over a week and no were coming out weird. Male, though. Probably. one knows where they went and no one will help “Arrre you?” he asked. “Um,” she hesitated, her tail twitching. She me look for them and I’ve checked everywhere wasn’t supposed to be talking to strangers, but she and the corp’s going to take the house if there’s no was somewhat out of her depth at the moment. It one paying for it and I don’t know where to look had been over an hour since she had seen another anymore!” her voice choked as she inished her living thing. It was dark, she was alone, and frankly, sentence, and she slumped to the gritty loor of what was once, decades ago, a major thoroughfare. Off in yes. She was quite lost. “I was going home, and I took the wrong lift,” the distance, a few of the forever-lights lickered as she explained, “and I sort of lost track of how to get a power surge rumbled toward some distant part of the city-structure. Beyond that, there was silence. back to it.” “Your shadooow,” he spoke, a moment later, Tall. He was really, really tall. Probably 7 feet, and he was hunching a little. Macro, maybe? Why “isss broken.” “No shit,” she grumbled, then clamped a hand would a macro be down here? She’d always thought they were supposed to be athletes and stuff. No one to her mouth. “Sorry! Sorry, I just...it’s why no one was supposed to be in this part of the city except will help me, I think. They say there’s a monster in my shadow.” She didn’t bother to look back at it behind people who couldn’t get anywhere else. That reality settled on her shoulders for a her. They weren’t on good terms at the moment. “Isss there?” moment. There were, supposedly, no good people “I don’t know. Maybe.” She sighed, and sniffed. down here. “Therrre are nooo lifts...to theeese levels,” he There weren’t many tears left, at this point. She had replied. The words dragged a bit, here and there. cried pretty hard after 12 hours. Even harder after The emphasis was on the wrong syllables. It made 24. Seven days later, it was hard to ind a lower place them feel slow, even though they weren’t being to sink. “Maybe that’s why Mom and Dad are gone, spoken particularly slowly. She swallowed a little, too. Missing,” she corrected, “missing.” “Yooou do not beeelieve that.” and disguised a half-step backward as she rubbed She looked up again. She could see the glint the back of her head. “I was just exploring,” she tried again, though of eyes under his hood, but they had a strange shape even she could detect the deception in her voice. to them, as though situated on a malformed face. She That wasn’t going to work; she was too deep in the could feel the gaze though, heavy as the weight of his Gray levels to play that card. He stood, face shaded statement. He was right. She hadn’t believed that for by the dim emergency lighting, looking down at her. days. “They love me,” she replied softly, “They His tail swished behind him, and she coughed. “I’m looking for my parents,” she said quietly. would never leave me.” They wouldn’t, would they. They wouldn’t “Why wooould they be herrre?” he replied. That strange transition of vocal empha- 163 have left. Oh, there were the tears.
“Are...you lost?”
“I think they might be dead,” she could barely emotional release, or the surreal experience she was recognize her own voice. It felt like someone else currently having. All of it, probably. But the crying speaking. had stopped. Something about this thing in front of “Iii thiiink,” the towering igure knelt down her, this monster, was comforting. She was accusin a smooth, surprisingly graceful motion for tomed to monsters. She had one pinned to her feet. something so big, “yooou may beee right.” And for all the fear it seemed to provoke in other Her vision blurred as the sobs took over, people, it had never tried to hurt her. and she lung herself forward, throwing her arms “Myyy name isss Stranger.” the pale igure around the cloaked neck of the stranger and bawling said. Elsie laughed a little. at the inality of actually speaking what she must “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers,” she have felt in her heart for ive days now, maybe more. said, aware of the irony. She could vaguely feel his long arms wrap around “A wiiise precaaaution,” he replied, “but I her from behind and hold her close. Strange smell, thiiink, perhaps, an exceeeption should be maaade, strange clothing, everything about it was wrong. But just thiiis once.” it was a hug, and she so needed a hug. She nodded, and moved shakily to her feet. “What am I going to do?” she whimpered “You can help me survive?” between shudders. “Ohhh,” his block-like mouth split into an “Suuurvive,” he replied. That voice was closer eerie grin, “I can. And yooou can help me.” now, and she could feel his jaw move under the hood. “How?” she asked. He didn’t look like a thing Wrong. Felt wrong. No muzzle. What didn’t have a that needed help surviving. muzzle? “Waaalk with me, littllle monster,” he replied, She stepped back a little, and the low light and her mouth twitched into a shaky smile at the of the derelict sector played over his face in front of new nickname, “aaand tell me...about yoour world.” her. Three yellow eyes, two where they should be, She sniffed, and swallowed the sobs. They’d one above, in the middle. No fur. No muzzle. No ears, be back later. no nose, no hair. Flesh, like the dolphins had, but “What did you want to know?” pale and gray, and a mouth like a twisted smile made of pointed blocks, bigger than it should be. He...it... Understanding your world pulled his hood off and gracefully ascended on one leg, standing on it like a dancer with the other turned The following section of the book will illusup and to the side as though sitting cross-legged. She trate, through a combination of narrative and explacould see his tail now, long and smooth and power- nation, how the general universe of HSD works. To ful, and a pair of eyes near its base blinked at her in keep things clean, OOC (out of character) sections the dim light. The feet had toes. Too many toes, like (which include rules, ideas, hooks and concepts and some of the Hemis had. But he wasn’t a Hemi, and practical information) will be colored orange and he wasn’t a lizard. Blip, maybe? Some sort of custom follow the narrative portions. Narrative portions thing? include information too, but are more concerned “Are you...” she looked behind her, at the with providing perspective than encyclopedic data. twitching, alien silhouette that had followed her Tidbits raised in the narratives will be repeated around her entire life, and then back to the thing in and clariied in the OOC sections, so if you want to the coat, “are you my monster?” seek facts quickly, stick to the orange colored areas “Nooo,” he replied, “I am a difffferent monster and explore the narrative when you want to see the entiiirely.” He lifted his other leg and allowed his world through the eyes of its inhabitants. weight to be supported by his tail, which easily snaked back and let him lean forward with his face near hers. “But Iii could beee your frieeend, if you would liiike.” She found herself nodding. “My name is Elsie,” she said. She was still trembling a little. Maybe it was the shock, or the 164
be locked up and yanked out of the overall complex. It’s fun to watch. They pull out the old one and swap “I live on the 6th loor of level 3, East,” Elsie in a new one and the people move back into it, and explained, “in an apartment we were given by TTI as then I guess they refurbish the old one somewhere part of my parents’ jobs.” She forced past the subject else or something. Sometimes, with big projects, of her parents and focused on Stranger’s question. they shut down a bunch of those and it takes some Having the ‘monster’ to distract her was helping; time for the replacements to arrive.” Elsie looked up somehow it was just easier to talk about mundane and pointed around to the dim lights and dilapidatthings with someone who, as far as she knew, was ed structures around them. “That’s where we are right now, in a gray zone. This one’s been gray my unaware of most of them. “This is a TTI corptown megaplex, did you whole life I think. The population in this particular know that?” she asked, “It’s sort of like a city block megastructure hasn’t gotten big enough to need in a building. I’ve actually been outside of it a few replacing it I guess. No one’s supposed to be down times, on trips and stuff, but I’ve known a few people here.” She shivered, and looked around, as though who’ve never left. You don’t really need to, I suppose. trying to pick out shapes in the dark. “Of course,” she The building pipes natural light in through solar continued, “you’re here, and I’m here, so chances are tubes and each of the levels has its own sort of ‘sky’ I pretty good there are other people down here too.” “Feweeer, now,” Stranger replied. She gave guess. The building is something like two miles tall, so there’s a lot of space for even lying things to move him a quizzical look, but he didn’t explain. She around in here. Every quarter mile or so, you get a continued after a few moments. “Each level has its own stuff, like food and loor, and the next level starts. I’ve never been to the very-very top before; you need special clearance to entertainment and housing and stuff. There’s some get outside on the roof, but Dad said it’s really cold of the same things on every level, but a few levels and hard to breathe. Outside, I mean. I think inside have one-of-a-kind things to sort of make them into travel destinations. Like, there’s a huuuuuge all the climates are pretty much the same. “We get weather and stuff like they do low-form park on our level. More than a million outside, but it’s all on a schedule to keep it consis- gallons of water loating around, it’s really neat. My tent.” She pondered that for a moment. “I bet it mom’s a dolphin, so I think TTI was trying to give would be really weird to not know when rain was her a place where she’d feel less caged-in. Dad’s a coming. Or big storms, they have those outside lynx, so I don’t think he much cared one way or the sometimes. Our building can open its walls up on other, but I always thought it was neat to swim in.” Was. Was a dolphin. Was a lynx. She felt huge sliding panels to let the fresh air in and save on environmental power; it usually does that in the her heartrate quicken. Maybe Stranger could tell, summer. Sometimes for days at a time. I think that because he spoke up again. “Whaaat about the peeeople outside?” makes some people nervous, though.” She gazed off in the distance for a moment, and tried to keep She blinked and swallowed, focusing on the question. “Well, there are lots, but this structure is part her lip from trembling. “Mom always used to scoff at that. She called it a shut-in mentality. There’s of a much bigger city outside that includes strucnothing wrong with the world outside, but people tures owned by lots of different corps. Level four has get stuck in here, you know? They start thinking a huge bridge that connects to the next megastructhere wouldn’t be walls if there weren’t some need ture. It’s half a mile long and a thousand feet wide, for them. All they’re really doing is holding the next something like that. MarsCo owns that building; I think it’s the biggest local one, but I’ve never really loor up, though. “Every once in a while, big chunks of the gotten to explore it much. It has bridges to a bunch building need maintenance, right? Urban renewal. of other buildings nearby. If you’re going to live in Depending on what’s wrong with it, people get the city itself you’re probably living in something moved or layouts get reconigured, but sometimes like this, but if you head toward the edges you’ll start you have to shut down big zones and actually pull seeing smaller buildings dedicated to just housing, and the people get their supplies and stuff from them out of the structure like blocks. I think something like every 1000 square feet or so can 165 places outside.” She made a face, as though the
Housing
idea was perplexing. “I’m not sure how you’d do it really, if you don’t know when the weather is going to change. I guess you just get all wet.” “Yooou havvve never beeeen in a storm?” Elsie shook her head. “Have you?” she asked. Stranger nodded. “Do they hurt?” The tall creature smiled, and his eyes narrowed a little. “Onnly the gooood ones” he said, in a tone that made her hackles raise. Elsie peered at him in silence for a moment. “Are you...going to eat me?” she asked, trepidation in her voice. He raised a hairless brow. “Nottt aaall at onnnce.” She maintained her gaze for a tense moment, and giggled hard when his smile widened. “You’re terrible!” she declared, and he nodded. “It goooes with beeeing a monster,” he replied in what she took to be a nonchalant manner, though it was still dificult to pick out his speech patterns. She hadn’t expected humor from him, and it was remarkably reassuring to hear it. She hadn’t laughed in days. Longer. “Hooow do youuu get around?” he asked. “Well, there are the lifts, you know about those,” she said, “They go between levels. There are roads for personal conveyance, but we don’t have any full-sized vehicles in here that aren’t for maintenance. There isn’t really a need for them. I’ve been in them outside, though. I even got to sit in trafic once!” She looked momentarily proud, before waving it off. “Once was enough, though. “If you’re trying to get around the city outside, there are the bridges; they have conveyors on them that can let you get from place to place pretty quick. And telecommuting, I think a lot of people in these buildings work in the net, so they don’t really need to leave to get where they go everyday. You could glide, too, if you know how. Dad has a half-wing he uses to um...get from platform to platform,” she swallowed, “He told me I could learn to use it someday.” “You shaaall have tooo do so,” Stranger replied, “Aaadd it tooo the list, after ‘survive.’” Elsie nodded quietly, and said nothing.
Understanding Environments
Elsie’s experience with her world is somewhat limited, but her observations are accurate. Not everyone lives in a massive internal habitat, though, nor is it particularly common to spend one’s life inside one without ever leaving. It just happens to be possible, and as such, there are people who choose to do so. This scene is set on Mars, most of which is MarsCo owned in one fashion or another. Even buildings owned by other major organizations (like Elsie’s building) are constructed off MarsCo templates, which tend to be modular and utilitarian in design. It’s a great place to introduce culture shock if your character is from off-world. Europa, for instance, has almost no construction like this and all its major population zones are domed. Venus is more diverse in its architecture and doesn’t build as tall or as tightly packed. Space-born Vectors often feel a sense of agoraphobia their irst time on a planet; even large space stations are nothing compared to the views off Mars’ massive towers. Moving back and forth between megastructures is a great way to make use of the oft-forgotten Community:Dexterity trait, which can help describe your ability to pick up on cultural differences between people who spend their whole lives in one of these blocks, and those who travel and just happen to have a residence there. It’s also a good setting for building up one’s reputation and actually making use of it, as the fairly close quarters of these structures make for fast-traveling news. The adaptive musculature of Vectors makes them function more or less identically in any given gravity, but architecture does not. Mars’ comparatively low gravity means the already powerful alloys used in modern buildings can be pushed even further, and most Martian structures extend far into the sky. As a result, your adventures in Martian urban zones should make use of the myriad of cat-walks and sky bridges that connect these structures, and they represent considerable square footage on their own. On lower ones that exist in comfortable temperatures, there are shops, restaurants, parks and recreational zones attached right to the bridges to allow for spectacular views of the city or good launching points to other bridges for those with the means to ly there. Higher bridges are generally 166 enclosed to protect against cold and thinner
air. While Martian buildings are large and tall, few corps operating with IRPF contracts don’t necessarpossess docking facilities for actual spacecraft on ily have IRPF agents on their ships, but rather teach their upper levels. The Spear of Heaven on Europa is their own security forces to follow IRPF doctrine somewhat unique in the solar system for extending while on board. This satisies their contract while high enough to be used as an orbital docking station. keeping the ship free of foreign inluence. As a result, Without such a tremendous height, it’s actually ships are occasionally used as havens for people easier to descend all the way to the surface and land seeking amnesty from corporate pursuit. It’s rare, on a larger platform than it is to try and hover in though. For the most part, even rival megacorps the wind next to a large building. They do, of course, don’t want to step on each others’ toes. Appealing possess multiple platforms for landing atmospheric to individuals is a more direct route to salvation in craft. most cases, and you can usually narrow down the Many corp-owned facilities are themed to one you’re searching for through discreet inquiry cater to the needs of their employees. The lowform into a corp with a vested interest in protecting you. park in Elsie’s building is a recreational feature, but the many research centers and relatively high Education population of “shut-ins” is common in TTI residential centers. By comparison, Pulse buildings are “Hooow do yooou learn?” entirely open, foregoing the retractable doors for Elsie blinked at the question, and twitched a a truly free, levitating lifestyle. When describing a tufted ear. structure, consider who built it and what they built “You mean my school?” she asked, “I guess it for, and remember that every corp is attempting to you probably didn’t have a school, huh. They don’t reinforce its core message. They will generally make like me much; I don’t think they’d manage you very the things that they are famous for prevalent and well.” She sighed and kicked a fractured piece of readily accessible. pavement. “It’s just a school, like any school. We all Home “ownership” is a rare thing in the go in and get inter-lects on stuff. It’s kinda a screen modern era. Very few Vectors actually own their desk thing that supplements the lecture with interown property, as most of them have houses built active pieces. And it keeps track of what you’re doing on corp-owned land. There are contracts that will so the teacher knows when you’re gooing off.” She buy you certain privileges to make your home more smirked, “You can trick them, though, if you know stable, such as paying to be protected from reloca- how. I got mine to pay attention to the girl that sits tion if the corp wants to develop near you, or paying next to me so I could read stuff.” to secure a certain square-footage of an area and “Hooow?” Stranger asked. Elsie grinned. protect it from higher bids, should someone with “Paper,” she replied, “They’re designed to a lot of money come along and simply sweep your monitor data downloads and EM ields and stuff land out from under you. It’s typically the space, not so they can tell when you’re screwing around with the structure, that corps care about. Most buildings, a Toggle or something. But it doesn’t know when especially residences, are printed structures that you’re looking at a piece of paper. It wasn’t built to are easily dismantled and reconigured, and families detect that kind of thing.” almost never move from one established home to “Youuu bypassssed supeeerior technology another established home. Instead, they secure a wiiith obsoleete technology,” Stranger appraised. plot, and have their home printed. When it’s time to Elsie looked up and nodded vigorously. He had an move to a bigger home, the original is dismantled, odd vocabulary. Some things he seemed entirely recycled, and printed back in the same location with unfamiliar with, others he knew the exact words for. the new upgrades. Deconstruction and reconstruc“Yeah!” she exclaimed, “Dad used to say that. tion of most standalone homes only takes about a Sometimes you can get around sophisticated stuff by day. thinking backwards instead of forwards.” She smiled Ships represent some of the only truly sover- a little, “He’s kind of...sneaky. I don’t even know what eign environments in the modern solar system, in he does for a living, he never really told me, he just that they are owned by a single company and sort of joked that he...” Her eyes widened. “What don’t operate out of shared corptowns. Even 167 if that’s it? What if he was some kind of spy?
What if that’s why he’s d-” They’d have fact without experience.” She rolled her “Tellll meee about the schoool, Elsie,” Strang- eyes, “I’ve met a few kids who were over-baked a er interrupted, and the young lynx bit her tongue. little longer than they should have been, it’s the same “Whhhyy aren’t yooou taught...wiiith a Neuroplex?” sort of situation. It’s like listening to someone recite Elsie refocused on the question and slowed junk they got in an encyclopedia with no real idea her breathing. There it was again: a peculiar selec- of how to apply it to the world. Adults are allowed tion of information. She was vaguely aware that she to because they’ve already pretty much done all the was being kept from spinning out of control by the social growing they’re going to do I guess.” steady stream of conversation, though, so she didn’t Stranger seemed to ponder that for a press him on it. moment. “Oh, uh, heh. I’m sure plenty of us would “Thiiis...is enforrrced?” he asked. He didn’t like to, it’s just not allowed. I guess it’s for a good turn his head, but the eye near the base of his tail reason though. Something to do with context.” She was looking at her at head-level. How strange must tried to remember the speech she been given on the that be. He must see things in all directions at once. same subject. “It’s the difference between ‘knowing’ Did they look like little screens in his head, or one and ‘learning,’ right? ‘Knowing’ is what computers giant, combined picture? do. They have hard data about stuff and they can “Well, yeah, I think,” she replied, “Here, at provide you with speciic facts when you need them. least. People go kinda crazy if they get nothing but But it doesn’t know anything about its own knowl- programmed education. Like they don’t know how edge, you know?” She frowned, and tried to form the to cope with things in the world that don’t it in their right words. narrow understanding, so they get really frustrated, “The computer doesn’t think about where and because they haven’t experienced how to deal knowledge comes from, or its own mindset when it with their feelings in a real setting, they get violent.” got it, or how it works with a completely different He turned his head this time, and glanced thing that might have some similar aspects. It’s just down at her from his lofty elevation. There were there, sitting in memory, with no real life context to nubby, hooky, pointy things along his head that help guide its use or branch into other things it’s seemed to pivot and tilt a bit, almost like ears did. doing. Because it’s just knowing, right? It isn’t learn“You’re raaather knowledgeable abooout ing. There’s no practice or mistakes or knowledge of this,” he commented. Elsie laughed a little, and what happens if you tweak this or that. It’s just data. rubbed her eye with a palm. “‘Learning’ is what school does. Part of it is “Every kid asks to skip school and plex a about gaining knowledge, but a bigger part of it is lesson at one point or another,” she replied. about learning to be a person. It’s about attaching what you got in the class room to whatever it is you Understanding Education saw three weeks ago or overheard in a conversation. Or maybe watching the same teacher for weeks on The future holds a great many tools for assistend and iguring out through observation that when ing the process of education. It has also learned many they come in unshaven it’s because they’ve been lessons about what not to do. Beaming information working late, but if they come in wearing fragrance, into someone’s head might teach them facts, but it it’s because they’ve been drinking.” She smirked. “I gives them no life experience to attach those facts had one like that. But see, if I got that fact in a Neuro- to. Knowing how to draw, for instance, is more than plex, I’d have no idea what conditions led to that knowing how to construct shapes on a page. It’s knowledge. I’d never be able to apply that learning having the experience with a pencil, the training to process to the next person. control your hand and apply the correct amount of “If all school were Neuroplex-based, you’d pressure, the understanding of what angle the page end up with a bunch of people with textbook knowl- should be at to be most comfortable for you, or how edge about their items and science and stuff and no the room lighting should be arranged so as to best clue about what it is to exist together. How to read facilitate your thought process. These are things that people’s moods or learn about being a friend, are learned through practice, experience, time, or what they love or hate and for what reasons. 168 trial and error. They are not constants, and they
change from person to person, or even from day to day. Using characters who have had mixed educations can make for a great hook for exploring new personalities. Consider how much of your character’s education was acquired through hands-on learning, and how much they absorbed technologically. What sort of mistakes might they make if they possessed knowledge without context? How would they behave socially? The beneits of social education are profound enough that megacorps still use it despite the considerable time and expense it represents, but that doesn’t mean everyone ends up attending. This can be a fun way to put some variety into your NPCs, too. Relect this on character sheets by withholding points from Proiciencies like Express and Command. It could hurt your reputation as well; many people who learned through one method are contemptuous of those who used another. Neuroplexes are useful in general, but they have not replaced continued education facilities for exactly this reason. It is a safe generalization to assume that education has improved over the course of the past seven centuries. Teaching methods have reined, study habits now embrace technology to help coordinate memorization with sight and tactile response. All in all, most people have a irmer grip on most topics at a younger age in the modern era (hence Elsie’s fairly mature grasp of language and information). It is, however, very specialized, and you can expect that after the universal topics are covered most corps will begin shufling people into speciic areas of study to ill niches they’ll be needed for later. MarsCo is one of the few that embraces a more holistic approach.
“Wooooow,” she breathed, “You could get anywhere, couldn’t you?” “It goooes with beeeing a monster,” he replied, “but I generrally limit myseeelf to only going into plaaaces people don’t want meee to be.” The lynx giggled. “Have you ever gotten caught?” she asked. He stood up on one leg again, which she had come to accept as his “seated” position. It looked like it would be awfully hard if she tried it, but Stranger was bizarrely lexible and strong. He made it look easy. “No,” he replied, after a pause. “Not..innn so many words.” She frowned a little. He always seemed to leave something out. “Whaaat happens tooo people who arrre caught?” he asked, tilting his head, “What isss your ‘juuustice’?” “Caught what, caught breaking in? Or you mean bad stuff in general?” She took it for the latter, and hmmed as she reclined against a piece of builtin furniture in the entryway. It felt a little squishy against her back, and she made a face. The place must have been treated with a softener to help loosen up the bonds of the printed objects for easier deconstruction later. It made everything feel a little gummy. “Well, this building follows IRPF justice rules. I think most of them do. There are some special exceptions because it’s a TTI building, but on the whole I think it’s pretty standard. You get certain rights, like degrees of privacy and protection of identity and trial and due process and stuff. Can’t own people, can’t attack people unless defending yourself, can’t steal stuff, no carrying lethal weapons around without corp permission,” she waved her hand in a rolling motion, “You know, the usual things. And TTI has to abide by the agreement or they don’t get the contract, which wouldn’t be great for them. Crime Most people want to live in IRPF-contracted areas; Stranger dropped to all fours for a moment as it’s sort of scary if you don’t.” Her words trailed off they approached a building with a breach in its wall. a little toward the end of her statement. Maybe that With a simple push of his feet, he inverted, turning in wasn’t true. If her parents were dead, and no one a slow handstand to deftly slip his feet through the knew why, was it really any safer here? The thought hole and slide his body through the remainder like stuck in her head as she continued to speak. “If you’re caught doing something you water down a drain. Elsie felt her jaw drop. It would have been hard enough for her to get through, much shouldn’t, they hold you, collect evidence, maybe less something twice her size. The door opened have a trial if it’s a big enough deal. If it’s a corporate from the inside, and the tall, pale creature stooped crime you get pushed off to TTI to handle internally. So like, stealing company secrets or trying to to a low bow and held out his hand to usher her 169 sabotage a project, that sort of thing. Or illegal in.
distribution. I think most people in the higher levels why Dad was talking about it to begin...with.” of a corp don’t actually control what they make, so Elsie looked up slowly, as though trying to if you develop something and then try to use it for read Stranger’s face for information. She didn’t something TTI doesn’t like or something like that, know his tells, if he even had any, but he was looking it’s theft. Personal crime like violence and stuff is at her with his head. He didn’t really seem to bother IRPF’s job. TTI has a code of conduct and justice with that in most situations. too, but...” she paused again. That felt like another “Mom and Dad tried to jump corps after I was piece of the puzzle. “...but Dad once said that if you born,” she said, “Three times. Each time TTI found a did something bad enough to get taken out of IRPF’s way to keep them in. The most recent was 7 years contract and pushed into TTI’s, it would probably be ago. That’s when we moved here, and they gave us the last thing you ever did.” the new place...” “Whaaat if yooou evade justice?” Stranger “Youuur parents... must haaave been verrry asked. Elsie considered the possibilities. valuable tooo them,” Stranger replied. It was the “I guess it depends on what you did,” she said, irst time he hadn’t pushed her past the issue. She “It’s usually pretty easy for the IRPF to ind you if nodded slowly. you’re carrying around a lot of registered tech. Your “Mom was a researcher,” she said softly, “Dad Toggle, your accounts, data storage, all that stuff was always sort of close-mouthed about his actual gets logged when you use it on someone’s network. job, but I think he sort of...looked for stuff that was You’d really have to get off the grid if you wanted useful for Mom’s research, or something. Like a to hide. I guess you could trade things with people, collector. Both of them had been operated on.” She or try to get to a place that doesn’t have the same looked down at the twitching form on the loor, restrictions. Or maybe pay someone? If you’re good the shadow with too many limbs and anatomy that with computers you might be able to get to your deied her own. “That’s why I have this thing.” credits through a fake name or something. I don’t “Haaave yooou been operrrated on?” know what you’d do about your Ledger though, She blinked, and looked back up. Somehow, those are supposed to be keyed per person.” that question seemed more profound than she “Caaan they beee removed?” Stranger asked. would have expected it to be. Elsie was forced to shrug. “No,” she replied, a little surprised herself, “I think? I know they can move from corp to “Never.” corp. I think you’re always supposed to be able to “Doooes TTI owwwn you?” have access to it, even if you’re a criminal, but they Elsie blinked a few times, and tried to igure can track your access. Dad said you can buy new ones it out in her head. “I don’t think they...can...according from people who sell theirs. Some people don’t want to their IRPF contract.” them, usually because their wealth isn’t tied to public Oh. Not her, no. but... trade or something. Like people who own a speciic “They might own my shadow...” product or resource or inherited a lot of money There was a cold silence following that stateand don’t really need to worry about the things the ment, and Elsie trembled slightly against the soft Ledger is supposed to do for you. So they put it up wall of the hallway. Her eyes were wide. for sale. It’s legal, but I think it’s more valuable if you “I don’t think I should go home anymore,” buy it illegally, without a name attached to it. That she whispered. Stranger bent down to her level and way you could use it to be someone new.” nudged her face up to his with his agile tail, until his “Would thaaat allow you to evaaade justice?” trio of narrow yellow eyes were all she could see. “Well, I don’t know,” Elsie replied with a stern “Corrrrect,” he said. look, “I wasn’t exactly taught how to be a criminal. I think it just means you’d be able to access your Ledger and inances without anyone knowing it was you doing it. It might make avoiding corp notice easier. If you were trying to get away from the corp that holds your Ledger and didn’t want them knowing where you were going with it. That’s 170
ence is in how they’re being employed. CommuHandling law in an environment with no nity:Acuity is generally a passive action, such as government can be a little perplexing at irst, but observation or examination. If you want to use the on the whole, it functions pretty similarly to how information you’ve collected in a new environment, it does in contemporary parallels. Most megacorps you could use Community:Dexterity+Express, or (excluding Spyglass) contract with IRPF in the way one of the other social Proiciencies. CommuniElsie described, which will in turn trickle down to ty:Strength, which is often used in conjunction with smaller entities inside their corpornations. But on a social check, is not applicable in a community you independently owned space stations or frontiers have never entered before as you have no estabwithout ownership (such as Ganymede’s Mean) lished reputation or contact within that community. IRPF contracts are too expensive to maintain. In Community:Dexterity would be the primary driver those occasions, the law is more or less whatever of your social checks until which time that the the public agrees on, and is typically strictly upheld Guide has decided your own reputation and actions by its own citizens so as to avoid anarchy. Elsie’s within that community have advanced enough to concern about TTI taking an active role in the killing allow you to call on Community:Strength instead. Of of her family is justiied; megacorps rarely sink down course, you could choose to ignore their practices to the individual level unless they absolutely require altogether and try to garner support or assistance results. In those situations, they tend to pull out all through sheer charisma or reputation, which would the stops to make sure the job gets done. Naturally, be Community:Presence in most cases. And if you fail, you may need that Community:Resilience to be it’s kept out of the public view. Aside from Spyglass corptowns, which have pretty high in order to avoid being forever branded always functioned on the curious “justice” of the for your embarrassing attempt. Weaponry and attire are important things to corp itself, the most well known examples of atypical law are in Grottos scattered around the solar consider when trying to exist in a lawful environsystem. Places like Longbow, the Elysium, and other ment. Under IRPF contract, small, nonlethal personstations which have united around a banner outside al defense weapons are legal for adults to own and of corporate gain will usually have a different code of carry publicly, provided they’re concealed so as not conduct. When structuring law for an environment, to be provocative. In cities, that’s about as far as consider that most law exists to promote the growth you can get, but as you travel outward into lighter of society toward a common goal. The common goal populations with more local pull, it’s not uncommon of the setting you’re developing will determine what for people to carry handguns and other lethal, but is “right” and what is “wrong” there. In areas that small and non-automatic, irearms. Specialized are considered owned by an organization and are ammunition of any kind (other than LTL) is considoutside IRPF contracts, they have no jurisdiction and ered above and beyond what’s necessary for personal will not typically enter, even in response to distress protection, and can land you a jail sentence if you’re calls. Progenitus ships will typically respond to caught carrying it around without special dispensadistress calls regardless of location and ownership, tion from a contract. Armor more conspicuous than and deal with the legal fallout later. Because Progen- a bulletproof vest will usually get you questioned by itus contracts with the IRPF, this inevitably drags authorities, just to make sure you’re not expecting IRPF oficers into ights their own doctrine tells trouble, and full body armor, active armor, and living them to avoid. It is one of many factors that breed armor, are all considered too large a risk to allow friction inside that particular organization’s own you to walk around public areas in (if you were to start trouble, you’d be too dificult to stop). Getting ranks. Figuring out the laws and social cues of a new your gear from place to place without wearing it environment can be critical to not getting your ass is a good way to make use of various utilities and kicked within ive minutes of entry. Community:Acu- services like hiring a delivery service to transport ity+Spot is a good check for trying to observe how your equipment, or grabbing a disposable vehicle to behaviors may be different in one place vs. another. do it yourself. The same is true of weaponry. If it’s too big to hide under a shirt, it’s not something Community:Acuity and Community:Dexterity have some overlap here, but the primary differ- 171 you can walk around town with. Exceptions are
Understanding law
places with established anarchy, such as the Mean and areas that corps have chosen not to endorse. You’ll know them when you see them: everyone will be packing heat.
her on all four limbs in a bizarre but eerily graceful stride. “Peeerhaps you know?” He led her into the building and to a large room with abandoned and emptied vending units around the walls. Two were still active, and a low pulsing light was blinking above them. Elsie made a NEEDS face and stuck out her tongue. “You’ve been living off ration blocks?” she For a good forty minutes after they had irst entered the building, the pair had moved in relative asked, looking none-to-thrilled about the idea. “Ick.” “Ittt is unpalatable?” he asked, turning back silence. Elsie had lost her speaking momentum, and the weight of the day was sinking into her toward the machine. “It tastes bad, if that’s what you mean,” she bones. Walking was dificult. Her body felt cold and sluggish, and she kept shivering. Stranger had replied, “Can’t you tell?” “Myyy sense of taste isss somewhat less helped her, from time to time, and it made her feel a little better. She wished she could igure out what he diiiiscerning thaaan your own,” he said, “Whaaat is was. Some sort of morphism she’d never seen before, it?” “It’s sort of like...what you eat if you can’t maybe. Or something different? Human, maybe? There were pictures of humans in the history texts, afford food,” she explained. “All the corptowns have but they didn’t look at all like he did. Maybe they got them. I think Pulse actually has some that taste good, it wrong? Pondering his existence was easier than it’s in their commercials. But they scout from everywhere, so they’re not really trying to attract wealth.” pondering her own. By now she had more or less cemented She took a seat on one of the generic tables that were an idea of her situation in her mind. TTI was the seamed to the loor and looked at the lashing light, offender. They wanted something from her mother for lack of other places to ix her gaze. “Between and father, but it probably wasn’t her parents bio-printing and protein growth techniques and themselves. After all, they’d been operating on their medical science and artiicial agriculture, there isn’t own for a while now, and TTI already knew all the really an excuse for letting people starve anymore. various operations they’d been involved in. But Elsie With the waste products from larger meat farms herself could be an appealing target. She was a freak alone you could feed, I dunno, thousands, and it mutation; they’d probably want to know about her, would actually cost less than trashing it. Water’s maybe even feel entitled to knowing about her. It the same way; you can purify waste water with an would explain why her parents had worked so hard industrial lowform for less than it costs to ind some to distance the family from the corp. It might even nasty place to store it all. Basically, if someone dies explain what...happened to them, if they kept getting from starvation, it’s ‘cause someone let it happen, in the way. If that’s what happened. If this was true. not because of a lack of stuff to feed them.” She gestured toward the dispenser. “That “Herrre,” Stranger said, and Elsie jerked with a startle out of her dazed state. He was standing in thing is part of that system. What you’re eating front of a new structure, an old ofice building by is basically the stuff that didn’t get used when a the looks of it, but she realized he was watching her protein culture was turned into a meal. It’s the lash behind him at the same time, through eyes on his on the edges of a illet some restaurant grew, or shoulder blades that peered through cut slits in the the stray meat from a rib culture that was grown coat he wore. What did that make now, seven? There for someone’s dinner. It gets dissolved and rebuilt was nowhere she could stand that he couldn’t see. into ration blocks. All the nutrition is there; I think For some reason, that was more comforting than it they’re actually supposed to be pretty good for you, was troubling. She rather wanted to be looked after but it’s not an actual...thing, you know? It’s not a muscle or a leaf or a thing with real circulation and right now. all the stuff that makes food taste good. It’s just a “Here?” she asked, “Is this where you live?” “Foorr the moment,” he replied, “it seeerves block of what you need to live. It’s free for citizens of the corptown, but no one really wants to eat the me. It provides fooood and water, though I’m not sure whyyy.” he dipped low and crept alongside 172 stuff. You can’t even store it for trips or anything,
it goes bad fast. It gets constructed as you order it, illegal to have kids below an income bracket that can so there’s nothing in it to keep it fresh.” support them.” “Buuut it isss publicly avaaailable?” Stranger “Whaaat if it happeeens anyway?” he asked. asked, “Eveeen herrre?” Elsie nodded. Elsie frowned a little and shrugged. “Sure. That light up there means it’s part of “It doesn’t,” she said simply, “I think you just the emergency grid. It’s the same power that runs get sent to the doctor or something and they ix it if the forever lights and other stuff that still works you’re not at the right level. I think you can put them down here. It’s designed to keep working no matter on reserve or something, if you can’t afford them. I how damaged the building is, so it sort of doesn’t know MarsCo will store an infant genome for later make sense for it to have an ‘off’ switch. No one replication if you ended up not meeting the right really eats that stuff unless they don’t have another income bracket but want to make sure you have that option, so if you were to disconnect them, you’d be specific baby when you can afford it. There’s some starving people.” sort of contract involved, I don’t know all the details.” “Hooow magnanimous of theeem,” Stranger Stranger was quiet for a moment, and for the mused, “Yooour world haaas a straaange gamut of irst time, she felt uncomfortable under his gaze. moraaality, little monster.” Elsie didn’t catch most Like she was being judged for something she didn’t of that sentence, but she had a reasonable idea of understand. what was boggling him. She tried to explain as she “Yooou have neveeer met someone borrrn grimmaced at the food she was retrieving. below thaaat line?” he asked, a few seconds later. “I think people just don’t let the big corps get She shook her head. away with stuff they know they can solve,” she said, “Never heard of it. I think it would make the “It’s all the stuff they don’t know about that they corps look bad.” get away with. Lots of things are free, if you need Stranger was quiet a moment longer, before them, right? They don’t want customers to die, that turning back toward the blinking light on the wall. doesn’t help them. If people are scraping by just to “Eaaat, little monster,” he said at last. Her barely afford food, that’s not helping anyone get ears drooped in concern and a lack of understandanywhere. So you make the food free and the water ing, but she didn’t ask what was wrong. She turned free and you cram them into little homes.” She point- instead back to the unappetizing meal before her, ed upward, toward the large open interior of the and reluctantly took the irst bite. building, where dozens of doors led to tiny rooms “Whaaat is ‘over-baked’?” Stranger asked as consisting of little more than a patch of soft loor to Elsie made a painful show of swallowing her third sleep on. “Like those, right? And it’s uncomfortable mouthful of the thick, grayish ration. and miserable, but you’re not going to die. You’ve “This, maybe,” she said, “Or maybe it’s not got food and a place to sleep and you can maybe put baked enough. I’m not sure if any kind of heat or lack your money someplace that actually does the corp thereof is going to rescue this thing.” some good. It doesn’t really cost them anything to “Yooou meeentioned a chiiild was over-baked feed you protein run-off, you know? In the end it fooor too long,” Stranger clariied, “I assuuume helps get money back out in the open.” they’re not paaart of the freee food.” Elsie coughed “Thhhe syyystem...is not oveeerburdened?” and laughed. Stranger asked. His twisted speech patterns didn’t “No! No, I uh, I’m sorry,” she looked a little convey surprise very well, but Elsie thought she embarrassed, and tucked her ears lat, “It’s not a detected it. “Eveeen when peeeople who rely on it very nice term, I shouldn’t have said it. It’s sort of reproduuuce?” slang for people who were in infancy-bypass tanks “Reproduce?” It was her turn for confusion, for longer than their irst year.” “What, like, have kids?” Stranger nodded, and she Stranger tilted his head, which, for him, furrowed her brow. “You can’t have kids below the tended to include a full bending of the body. He family income line,” she said. The very concept was moved in an almost serpent-like fashion, like his alien to her. The gaunt igure in the coat actually joints were more suggestions than actual mechanlooked dumbfounded. “What?” she asked, “It’s ical requirements. part of your annual income projections. It’s 173 “What isss aan infaaancy-bypass tank?” he
asked. Elsie looked at him, waiting for the joke. It come out thinking the world is supposed to be a didn’t come. certain way and it isn’t. That girl I mentioned earlier, “You’ve really never heard of them? You I think she was like two years adjusted when they didn’t use one?” She bapped her own head with her took her out. Her parents were part of some critical palm. “Of course you didn’t use one, I’m sorry, I just.. negotiation or something, their contract forbade you’re the only other person I’ve met that wasn’t them from caring for newborns while it was going boosted.” on, and they didn’t want to have to leave her behind “Iii am not a peeerson,” he corrected. with someone, so they skipped her up to the local “Maybe that’s good,” she muttered, poking at childcare ages.” She shook her head, “She always sort her protein loaf, “I don’t think I’m very happy with of felt like talking to a wall. Smart enough, really, but ‘people’ right now.” She sighed and leaned back. it took forever for her to attach ideas together. You “Infancy-bypass is a thing newborns get in couldn’t tell her something was ‘hot’, right? You had order to skip over the parts of babyhood where they to tell her something was hot and it would hurt to need constant attention, you know? Corps don’t touch. The idea of ‘hot’ and ‘hurting’ and ‘touching’ want to lose their workers for...whatever long it takes. were further apart than they should have been.” She Six months or something? It’s not a big deal in some looked sympathetic. “They say you grow out of that businesses but it’s reeaaally expensive to lose talent eventually, but I don’t know. She was still doing it for that long in higher level jobs. So they provide this when we were seven.” treatment that’s kinda like a growth chamber and a Stranger slowly righted his posture, and Neuroplex all at once, and the newborn goes in and looked down at the lynx sitting at the table. sorta super-grows.” She swallowed down another “Thiiis,” he asked, “is nooormal for you?” She bite. Nasty as it was, the food was helping settle shrugged and nodded. her tremors. It had been a while since she’d eaten. “Yeah, I think it happens most everywhere. I “I’ve seen it in action before, on a ield trip, it’s mean, you gotta work, right? The universe doesn’t pretty neat. They grow at something like a month take a nap for a year ‘cause you had a kid.” She gave per week or something. So while they’re in the tank, up on the loaf for the moment and pushed it aside. the parents can keep working, and when they come “I only missed it ‘cause Mom and Dad tried to leave out they’re however old they’re supposed to be and TTI right after I was born. They left Europa; I had don’t require constant attention anymore.” a private doctor or something, I don’t know all the “Thiiis treeatment...is mandatory?” he asked, details,” she chuckled, “It’s not like I can remember having not yet righted his posture. The little lynx it. But by the time TTI settled with them for the irst tried to tilt her own head to meet his, but couldn’t time, I was already too old to be worth the effort of achieve the angle without stumbling. jumpstarting.” “I think it depends on your contract,” she “Arrre there nooo childcare seeervices?” he said, trying to remember the details, “or where pressed, “Doeees no one contessst this poloocy?” you’re living. Pretty much everybody shaves off the Elsie gave him a look. irst six months. I’m actually the only person I know “Well sure, I guess. A few people,” she replied who didn’t. Some people go a year. Not in the tank, of with a shrug, “I think you’d have to be awfully course, I mean like they come out a year old. That’s wealthy, though. I mean, it’s a big solar system,” she getting close to the danger zone though.” She twirled said as she sipped her drink, “Even talented workers her inger by her head, indicating mental damage. aren’t hard to replace if they’re asking for like, a year “It’s like that plexing thing, right? They’re off or something. That’s a lot of time. Besides,” she being fed knowledge and experience but there’s looked perplexed, “who’d want to? Don’t babies just no context involved. With babies they get fake cry and sleep a lot anyway?” memories to try and help that, but it still means “I wooould not know,” Stranger replied. She they didn’t do any experiments on their own. No was quiet a moment, before tugging on his sleeve. one’s ever deinitively proven a problem with doing “Stranger...are we bad, or something?” she the irst year....I think...” she frowned, “At least, not asked, concerned. He blinked at her through the that I’ve heard of. But the further out you go the eye on his tail, and even that averted its gaze a more adjustment issues you end up with. They 174 moment later.
When using morality in a narrative, it’s Playing games with morality can be particu- important to remember that Vectors have never larly interesting in the HSD universe. Consider the existed under the control or inluence of what we setting: the solar system is run by corporate giants commonly think of as morality. Even for the brief with nearly limitless wealth and power and control decades where Vectors were old enough to really over just about every aspect of individual life. It’s a interact with humans while they were still around, recipe for disaster, really. To their credit, the organi- they were not talking to the greater mass of human zations in HSD all stemmed from a common mission society, but rather a select few individuals who were statement laid down by the Mars corporation 700 part of the Mars mission and those who were selectyears ago; a message of freedom, personal liberty ed for evacuation during the war. They have had to and the right to not be contained and controlled by come up with much of their own philosophy, and it stagnant powers that could not keep up with their has been in a very different context. Vectors typically don’t have many scruples population. As publicly owned companies, they’re accountable to their stockholders, who expect them about scientiic experimentation, surgery, genetic to respect that concept. Vectors have a long histo- manipulation or the general change of “natural” ry of ending problems before they start, and more things to better suit a purpose. They tend to focus than a few tyranical organizations have been torn on justiication, rather than action. The creation of a down from within when they became too obviously new entity, for instance, purely so it can be abused or harmed, would generally be considered “bad.” corrupt. It’s the slow and steady creep of what is The creation of the entity itself, however, would not “acceptable” where the real danger lies. Over the be. Vectors were themselves created in such a way, course of 700 years, what that concept actually and they don’t consider that act to be a bad one. Most Vector societies value eficiency and means has drifted, and what large entities can now get away with can be shocking. Figuring out where dislike waste, which tends to drive them down it landed and how your character behaves in the paths that favor conservationism and push for a philosophy of replacing what you take when you modern age can make for very fun role play. Elsie mentioned how child rearing has modify an environment. However, the means of that changed in her conversation. A common point of replacement does not typically follow human moral moral drift in HSD stems from how the convenience scrutiny. Vectors would never, for instance, hunt a of biotech and advanced technology has made it very wild animal to extinction. To do so would destroy a simple to skip over parts in our lives that tend to unique and beautiful aspect of their environment. take a lot of time, only to eventually end. Education, However, their solution to that problem would not growth, personal itness, things that eat up hours in be “to stop hunting the animal,” but rather to igure the day that might be put toward larger projects (or out how to clone or simulate the animal so that just work). Corpornations rarely “force” people into existing hunting patterns would not signiicantly doing anything. They choose instead to make certain affect its population. As engineered creatures actions very attractive, so that people will lock in themselves, they tend to care less about many of that direction on their own. Collecting personal data the classic human arguments against such practicthrough social media in return for social rewards, for es. The concept of a “soul,” for instance, has been instance, or getting parents back into the job force almost completely redeined in the modern age, if quickly by offering free “child-care” in the form of not outright forgotten. Vectors have also been socially trained to see an infancy-bypass. After years and years of similar practices, the initial reluctance begins to fade, until their world in degrees, rather than absolutes. There they become commonplace and the people who is no “privacy,” for instance. There are “degrees of don’t use them are thought of as the odd ones. privacy.” Such is true of most white collar crime, Presentation is everything, and many children like invasions of property, and acts of violence. In certain Elsie have never heard of infancy as anything more areas, you should expect your legal protections important than a small screaming creature with no against such things to drop by various degrees. This is generally relective of how much security is intelligence that then, somewhere around the one-year stage, suddenly becomes a bit smarter. 175 being contracted for a given area, but might also
Understanding morality
be intentional depending on the owner. Few areas than being true to the setting, be true to your players. promote (actively, or by means of turning a blind If they enjoy the challenge of constantly having to eye) violence, however. Fearful, injured citizens do outwit security systems or work around cameras, not participate in the economy. Happy people spend, then leave them in. If they ind that tedious, you and that’s the goal. could limit observation equipment to only certain Most Vectors are aware that they are fairly areas so your players know where to avoid, or give constantly monitored, but if they are in an area (their them a simple, in-game way to scramble low priority home, for instance) with a high degree of privacy, signals. Likewise, sometimes less security is more information gathered on them is considered protect- security. TTI and ASR research facilities are well ed and not public. Being born a Vector is a little like known for having advanced security at the access clicking the “I Agree” button on an end-user license points to their labs, but almost nothing inside them. agreement for your life. You will likely never witness There are too many secrets and projects loating any particular problems associated with it, but around to risk them being recorded on security your agreement is nonetheless valid. Information footage and hacked or leaked. Pulse likewise tends gathered on common activities, right down to the to eschew recordings in areas with high proile brand of brush you use, is captured and reported to atheletes and celebrities. Scandals are good for the corp that owns your building. Corps have better news, but horriically expensive for managers. Many things to do than stamp that personal information want as much plausible deniability as they can get. all over the network; it just makes them look bad, and they don’t want to piss off their customers, so Faith you’re unlikely to actually feel like your privacy is being violated. But the information is still being “Dooo you knooow what it is?” Stranger collected. asked. Elsie held up the bracelet he had handed to Technological ubiquity has certainly her and squinted at it in the dim light. produced a big-brother situation in the modern era. “Yeah,” she replied, “it’s a Thorn bracelet. The primary difference is that while a government Pretty one, too.” She pointed to the raised motif might want to know who you’re sleeping with so of the droplet on the curved silver surface, “They they can catch you in an act of sedition or moral usually just etch this on the top.” depravity, a megacorp wants to know who you’re “I haaave seen severaaal,” he said, “but I do sleeping with so they can sell you fancy lingerie that not knooow their fuuuunction.” Elsie chuckled a its the personality proile they’ve accumulated on little. your partner over the years. It’s entirely possible “Yeah, it’s popular around here,” she said, the ad for exactly that will appear in your inbox the mostly to herself. She turned it over to look for following morning. Vectors have more or less gotten additional features. “They don’t have a ‘function,’ used to it. It extends all the way to the products it’s more like a symbol. For Universal Sanguinists.” you buy. Weapons are especially noteworthy for it; She pointed to the raised droplet. “That’s their if players purchase grenades from a buyspot, they symbol. Sanguinists believe that all the truths of the should expect that the corp they bought them from universe can be found through biotech. It’s sort of a will be wirelessly informed of the location in which ‘look inward’ kinda thing. You get a lot of them in TTI the grenade exploded. It makes it easy for them to towns. It’s sorta...circular.” She made a motion with ind out if that automatic rile they sold you last her hand. “Brains make technology that examines week is being used in places it shouldn’t. body which reveals mystery which fuels brains to That said, be cautious about over-using build technology to examine mystery within body, technological ubiquity in your narratives. In the they’ve got this little chant thing, I don’t know it modern era, cameras and wireless signals are easily all. But it comes down to all the answers being in good enough to have damn near every inch of every here,” she pointed to herself, “even to the questions corner of every structure constantly monitored, and that are out there,” she gestured outward in a in many high security areas that’s likely the case, general motion. “They don’t really have a worship but that sort of constant observation can make center, they practice by researching and sharing it dificult for your players to maneuver. Rather 176 results.” She smiled a little as she looked at it.
“Mom had a friend who was a practicing Sanguinist. her shadow twitch and seethe on the wall. She always used to joke that it was holding her back “It’s alive,” she said inally. “That thing there, because the corp couldn’t trust her with secrets.” is real, whatever it is. It’s not a light-trick. Something, “It isss a religeeon,” Stranger concluded. Elsie somewhere, is making it. All the books and the nodded. teachers and the doctors say it can’t be, but there “Yeah, one of many. That one’s just one of the it is.” Her voice was surprisingly even as she spoke. popular ones in a corptown like this. It’s pretty old, This particular subject was one that had consumed but it’s not one of the humanist ones I don’t think. a great deal of her thoughts, for a very long time. There are a few that stuck around from before we Frightening though it was, it wasn’t new. even existed, right? I always thought that was kind “I think if it can break my shadow just by of neat. It’s one of the only things from the human existing, then if it ever actually gets here, like really era that’s still active.” gets here, it’s going to break a lot more than that.” “It isss unchanged?” Stranger seemed She shook her head. “The way we understand the surprised. Elsie shrugged. universe is wrong. That’s TTI’s motto, kinda. I think “Well, I wouldn’t really know, would I?” I’m proof. It’s going to happen someday. Either we’re she replied, “But I think so, yeah. Most of the ‘God’ going to ind something we weren’t ready to ind, or religions were pre-Vector. A lot of the newer ones we’re going to make something we weren’t ready to have technology and stuff in them.” She looked over make. If we haven’t already.” at her shadow again, and gestured toward it with a “Therrre are many who shaaare this feeling?” lip of her hand. “And then there’s all the ones that Stranger asked. popped up when this stuff started happening. I think “It’s been a growing feeling for a while, I TTI accidentally invented a dozen different religions think,” Elsie replied, “It made TTI rich, right? No one when Transcendent Implants showed up.” paid them much attention until after they started “Perhaaaaps you arrrre chosen of God,” showing off things science couldn’t explain. Before Stranger suggested. She was beginning to get the that they were just a hostile environment research hang of his inlection now, and recognized the and exploration corp.” Elsie’s knowledge of TTI’s humor. history was extensive, having lived in various TTI “Don’t even joke,” she muttered. “I met corptowns her whole life. Like it or not, to her, their someone once who thought I was. He called me a message was a pretty obvious one. harbinger. I don’t even know what that MEANS, but “There are only a few major religions that he kept saying my shadow was ‘a lens through which really practice it, I think. Mostly it’s Universities. one could see the shape of Eternity.’” She chewed her They’re little groups or organizations that are really lip a little. It had been a frightening encounter. The into a belief. Kinda fanatical, right? Religions are sort man was very...enthusiastic...about his discovery. of...ways to live your life. Universities are more like “That was before we made it to here.” ways to END your life. They’re all about “transform“Yooou do not wiiiish to be signiicant?” ing” into something more in-line with their thinking. “Not to them,” she shook her head, “At least It gets kind of scary.” with the pre-Vector ‘God’ ones, the God seems like “A cult,” Stranger said. a decent person. It might not make a lot of sense “A what?” sometimes, but it’s not mean. A lot of the new ones Stranger tilted his head and considered. that popped up after Terra started turning red talk “It isss a...forgotten word,” he explained, “but about paving the way for something to come ind us. apparently nooot a forgotten conceeeept. Are they And even though they all seem sort of excited about dangeeerous?” it, the thing they all describe sounds...bad.” She “Oh yeah,” she breathed, “very. More dangertightened her grip on her own arms a little. “Mom ous than criminals, I think. Criminals are sort of called him a Rapturist. I don’t think we’re supposed predictable, right? They’re trying to get money or to survive it when whatever they’re trying to ind something. Maybe do something personal. But some shows up. If we’re lucky.” of these Universities, they’re trying to send a message. “Dooo you belieeve it?” Sometimes the only way to make a message She was silent for a moment, watching 177 stand out in front of all the other messages is to
do it in a way that can’t be ignored. People usually damp with its luids. Her vomit. Twisted metal like die, when that happens.” She briely pondered a broken bones, shattered carapace. This was what religious motive behind her current predicament, happened to them. She was sure of it. Just like this. slotting it into the theory she had previously formed Just like this. Just... in her head. It didn’t it well enough though, so she When she awoke, Stranger was sitting next dismissed it. Mother had told her not to compound to her. There was an open PERK beside him, and problems with problems. Things were bad enough it looked like it had been used. Her heart wasn’t at the moment without inventing more motives. pounding anymore, and she could breathe again. “Where did you get this, anyway?” Elsie Carefully, gingerly, she lifted an arm. It trembled a asked, holding up the silver droplet bracelet. little, but not like before. “It waaaas attached...toooo a robot,” Stranger “Wellllcome baaack,” came the now-familiar said. Elsie lifted a brow, confused. dragging tone of her monster. “A robot? What, like on the controls or “What happened?” she whispered. Her something?” she asked. Stranger shook his head. mouth tasted bad. He presented her with water, and “Onnn the wriiist,” he clariied, holding up it helped. his own and pointing to it. Elsie’s look of confusion “Shock,” he replied, “Yooou are restored, now. changed to concern. I waaas prepared.” His craggy grin widened. “You are “Did...did it have a grabby arm thing or a strooong peeerson, Elsiiiie. I have been waaaiting something?” she tried again, “Maybe someone left it for that for hours now.” on there.” She turned toward him slowly, and judged “Follow,” Stranger said, and slipped from the her breathing. It had happened so quickly, she was rail of the balcony back into the building in a single worried it would happen again. She was worried that smooth motion. Elsie got to her feet and jogged after worrying might MAKE it happen again. Stranger’s him to keep up with his longer strides. hand arrived at her shoulder, and held her irmly. “‘Cause it doesn’t make much sense for it to “Yooou are alright,” he said. She breathed, just be attached to a robot,” she said as they walked, and nodded. traveling down the dimly lit hallways whose only “You knew how to ix that?” she asked after a illumination was emergency loor lighting and what moment. He nodded. little iltered in from the windows looking out into “I haaave a passsssing knowledge of the gray zone. “Unless it was a vending machine? Is emergency treaaaatment,” he said, “It has proooven that what you mean? I haven’t see-” a useful skill, more thaaan once.” “Theeere,” Stranger interrupted. He had It took her a few minutes to sit up, and a rounded a corner and was pointing to a pile a few few more of remaining motionless, breathing, and feet away. Elsie clapped her hand over her mouth organizing her thoughts. They kept drifting back and spun, looking the other way and gasping for air. to the body on the loor, and would startle and pull “Oh no,” she whispered, “That’s a Cog. That’s away, worried about a relapse. a dead Cog.” “Theee robot troubled you,” Stranger spoke, She sank to the loor and tried to slow the “I diiid not expect the reaaaction.” It occurred to her rushing sound of the blood pumping through her that he might be attempting to apologize. Monsters ears. Things were looding into her mind that she’d might not even have a word for ‘sorry.’ been forcing down for hours now, keeping at bay “It’s not a robot,” she said, “it’s a Cog...” She with food and Stranger’s questions. She had erected waited a moment, testing the word, feeling out how a careful barrier to keep the reality of her parents’ it made her react. She felt a little more stable now. deaths from overwhelming her, and the corpse in Maybe talking about it would diffuse the anxiety. the corner had completely destroyed it. She was “Therrrre is...a dissstinction?” Stranger vaguely aware that she was speaking, but she had asked. Social indignation cut through the haze in no idea what the words were. She couldn’t breathe, Elsie’s head. couldn’t pull the air in for the lood of words that “Of course there is!” she replied, “A robot is a were spilling out. Her chest burned. The shivertool, a Cog is a person. They’re totally different!” ing was back. Dead. Destroyed. The carpets were 178 “It isss mechanical,” Stranger pointed out.
Elsie wanted to slap him. core...something,” Elsie replied, trying to remember “And I’m organic,” she retorted, “That doesn’t the word. “If it loses power all their memory goes make me a ration loaf.” away, it’s like being braindead.” “Thaaaat depends on the consumer,” Strang“Can it beeee rebooted?” Stranger inquired. er countered. She blinked, and snickered a bit. He Elsie made a sickened face and shook her head. was kidding. He was baiting her. And she felt a little “They wouldn’t be themselves anymore if you better. did,” she said, “The mind, the memory, it’s just like us. “It issss intelligent?” he asked. She nodded. If you don’t have it, you’re just a pile of moving lesh. “You’ve been hiding under beds a long time if You could put power back into the core, but all the you’ve never seen a Cog,” she commented, “They’re stuff that made him..HIM, would be gone. He’d just all over the place. They’re people, they’re just...metal be a robot.” She shivered a little, and it had nothing people.” She struggled to ind the words to describe to do with the temperature. “Cogs call them Husks. them. It had been a fairly bafling thing the irst time They have all the pathway...program thingies they she’d asked about it herself. Cogs just...were. Same had when they died, but it’s like...well like booting way dogs were and lizards were. up a computer. It’s not REAL like it was. They’re just “Theeey arrre constructed?” he asked, puppets. Creepy...lifeless puppets.” “Prograaamed?” She shook her head and waved a “Doees this happen ofteeen?” hand in front of her. Elsie shook her head. “It’s not like a computer,” she said, “er, well, I “It’s an aberration, they’re really illegal. mean they ARE computers, but it’s not like you give There’s stuff you’re not allowed to do anywhere them a fake personality or something. They grow, because it grows into bigger problems. Special like anyone does. They’ve got this thing that runs stuff with technology and biotech and things that their brain, and it’s always on, like our brains are, are outright banned because it could blow up into and it forms the same sort of connections. So none a whole lot of unsolvable problems.” She gingerly of their knowledge is ‘fake,’ it’s all the same thing reached out, not even sure why she was doing it, anyone gets from living life.” and touched the Cog’s leg. Cold. “It happens anyway, Stranger turned back toward the body, and everything always does. But the punishment is Elsie relexively followed his gaze. Her heart rate pretty heavy. I think some corps even execute you if quickened again, but she breathed, and looked, and they ind you doing it.” let herself detach from the reality of the situation. “Whaaaat qualiies?” Shock had given way to a morbid curiosity. In some Elsie exhaled and thought it over. distant part of her mind, she was vaguely aware of her “Weapons that do lasting harm to people altered state of consciousness. Stranger had proba- who weren’t shot by them,” she frowned, “There’s bly sedated her in the process of solving her earlier... a name for them, I think it’s ‘persistent fallout’ or issue. Instead of the terror and sickening rush of something like that. Things that poison the air or emotions she had felt before, she now experienced a the ground and leave it that way even after they’ve sort of comfortable numbness. Almost analytic. She been used. Things that self-replicate, that’s another blamed a TTI upbringing for that. This was a person, one. I mean like on a really big scale. It’s why nanites on the loor. But right now it was hard to think of it aren’t used in construction, even though they could as more than a pile of broken parts. be. Nanomachines that can eat stuff to make more “How did he die?” Elsie asked softly. Stranger of themselves are super illegal in large applications. hesitated to answer, likely concerned about continu- Bringing Cogs back to life, that’s one. Making Vitae ing down a line of inquiry that had produced such a demons out of corpses,” she shivered, “Making debilitating result earlier. certain types of bioprobes. Gorgons, they’re called. “Traaaauma,” he replied eventually, “Perhaps I wrote a report on them.” an impaaact of some kiiind.” He slinked around the “Hooow does one construct mooore of this?” body, examining it from new angles. “If theeeey can Stranger asked, nodding toward the body. Elsie got replaaace their shell,” he mused, “hooow does one rather quiet, and shifted a little, trying to disguise know if theeeey are dead?” her awkwardness. She was almost surprised at “There’s a thing in their brains called a 179 her own embarrassment. Today had been an
odd day for emotions. collection...” “Um,” she started, “I don’t think I’m really “The booooks are relevant?” Stranger asked. supposed to talk about...that.” Elsie thought back to the handsome shirtless igure “Manufaaacture is a forbidden topic?” he on the ile cover gazing wistfully out to sea, and pressed. She giggled and scratched her head for lack the auto-populating self-portrait of the reader that of anything else to do with her hand. appeared in his embrace, and lattened her ears. “No, it’s, you know. When two people..love “A bit,” she replied. She was a little embareach other and stuff, there’s things that happen, rassed, but there was something else on her mind. and-” She was just frightened to ask it. “The macchine is seexually proicient?” “Did someone kill him?” she blurted out, and Stranger asked, his own voice tinged with doubt. bit her lip immediately afterward. Stranger didn’t Elsie barely managed to choke down the water she turn to face her, but crossed his arms slowly behind was drinking. his back. He didn’t provide a response, and she didn’t “Don’t just SAY it!” she corrected him, though want to ask again. she wasn’t entirely certain why. “They...well yeah, I mean, we all live in the same solar system, and we Understanding faith all share the same space and stuff, so we’ve all got to be...compatible.” Religion provides explanation where none “Theee machiiines do not resent the impos- exists (or none can be found). The explanation ssition?” can vary pretty dramatically in its accuracy, but She hadn’t really expected that question. it’s something to work with, and a way to ind “Well, technically they don’t need to have... reason when one’s own knowledge or tools cannot stuff, for that. It’s more so they can be like every- explain a situation. Vectors did not face many of the one else. We outnumber them, and if we couldn’t questions early humanity faced as it tried to come to connect as families...” she stalled, pondering. She was terms with its own existence. To them, their bodies, a victim of her own ignorance at this point. It had their existence, their location, even their function, been explained to her, but there were steps missing. was rather neatly stored and cataloged in computer Somehow there was a profound social beneit to this iles. Mathematics, physics, biology, astronomy; but it hadn’t really sunk in. this knowledge was considered essential when the “Your familial uniits incluuude pairings with Earth war turned global and was preserved on Mars, thessse Cogs?” Stranger asked. His head hadn’t and as a result there were few questions about the straightened out in a while. Apparently this whole nature of the universe that Vectors could not answer situation was rather bafling to him, which didn’t scientiically. Human religion did come to Mars in the make Elsie’s already awkward job any easier. form of scientists who were still active practitioners “Well yeah,” she replied, “Of course. Have of their faiths, but a practitioner is not a preacher, forever.” and much of the momentum behind established “Theeey can produce offspring?” he asked. theological powers was diffused after the loss of She shifted uneasily. Terra. Money was a large part of that equation: Mars “Yes..” did not have a Vatican, or any other major sources “How?” he demanded. She coughed. of religious wealth. Much of the inluence held by “This would be a lot easier to explain with those organizations dwindled when they lost their dolls or something...” she stammered. Stranger infrastructure. righted himself, having at that moment realized his Many of the monotheistic religions merged error. over time, as their message became more and more “Yooou are not educated innn this subject?” muddled and the memory of humanity grew more he asked, almost apologetically. She shook her head and more distant. At the same time, new faiths and coughed. emerged, fueled by a need to explain and under“Bio/mech anatomy isn’t until next year,” stand what even Vector science was at a loss to she replied in a small voice, “I’m uh..just going deine. Some sprung up during the irst Earth off stuff I read in the books I stole from Mom’s 180 missions when mysterious igures appeared
on the camera feeds. Others centralized around the collectively, learning about what their technology discovery of alien architecture on Europa, and the can NOT do for them when it has always served in subsequent revival of remnant DNA in its oceans. the past. That growth is at once frightening, and But the greatest inluence to modern religion by far sublime. Sometimes, player entertainment can has been the appearance of the Whispers, and the be gained by attaching associations you wouldn’t sudden creation of Transcendent technology. necessarily expect to different characters. The Cog For many Vectors, the quest for something featured in the narrative appears to be a Universal “beyond” their borders is a spiritual motivation that Sanguinist, which is not a faction one would inheris dificult to ignore. Vectors are somewhat framed ently expect a machine to be a part of. But, much by their technology, and as much as their scientiic as human faiths branch into different factions that knowledge has given them clarity and purpose since each focus on speciic factors of their beliefs, faiths their creation, it has also boxed them in. It is dificult of the future can view the world in different degrees to “reach for the stars” as humanity once did when as well. After all, Cogs know they were invented by you, as a people, have always known what the stars biologics. Perhaps this one is searching for some contain. That period of cultural growth and turmoil greater truth to that action beyond just “the whim of was not present for Vectors, and so much of the ASR.” mystery and romance that accompanied it was lost All Vectors were designed to be able to as well. successfully procreate without hybridizing, in When Transcendent technology irst arrived, order to ensure that the race as a whole would it opened up a whole new ield of discovery that remain distinct rather than gradually homogenizing raised voice to the very real possibility that much of into a single, mixed creature who may encounter what Vectors took as “fact” was far more subjective unexpected genetic problems which might lead to than immutable. For this particular culture, that was the extinction of the race. The design has been very the irst time the impossible had truly redeined successful, and even with the errors that emerged itself the way it had consistently done so for human- during the second generation, 95% of the Vector ity every time a new aspect of the universe made population is without morphism (or rather, are itself clear to them. But unlike a scientiic discovery digitgrade/plantigrade or hoofed according to the or a natural law, this was a snapshot of a situation rules). The remaining 5% break down roughly in that couldn’t be scientiically explained. TTI can put the following way on a system-wide scale, but their words to how it generates Transcendent implants. local population changes dramatically depending on They can measure their Cuil, can harness their where you are. energy, can even build new ones through careful applications of previous discoveries, but not even Taurism 13% they truly comprehend what it is they’re dealing Microism 5% with. Like a child with building blocks, they can Atypical Patterning 10% arrange the pieces they have available into recog- Hemi 15% nizable shapes, but have almost no understanding HDTGT?! 8% of the nature of the pieces themselves. That gray Hybrid 3% area has been a mix of wondrous and terrifying for Lateralism 10% almost a century, and has given birth to theology Twin-Tailed 5% ranging from the worship of transcendent entities Horns 8% to the vicious and aggressive hunting of them. Bio-Luminescence 4% If you wish to include these aspects in your Followed .1% narratives, consider the larger issue at hand, as it Lever-Stanced 5% goes beyond aggressive cults or a quest for spiritual Tusks 5% understanding. It is a matter of personal growth for Hoofed 8% the entirety of Vector civilization, as this is the irst time in their history they’ve truly had to deal with When Vectors reproduce, the resulting child something they do not understand and can’t will be a single species (in most cases) identical explain. Like a reverse-enlightenment, they are, 181 to either the mother or the father, but possessing
physical characteristics from both. Hair, eye color, the new race into a label of inferiority that would the overall shape of the muzzle or the sound of their damn their attempts at equality from the get-go. The voice, build or posture, many of these things cross scientists involved wanted to distance their creation the species line into children even when species from humanity enough that they would be familiar, does not. On very rare occasions it’s even possible but not so familiar as to seem like “a worse version for children to not share a species with either parent, of the same thing” by critics. but rather inherit it from a grandparent instead. Though some Vectors (avians and reptiles, Opportunity mostly) are based off of creatures that do not give live birth, Vectors themselves were engineered from “We’re just going to leave the body there?” blank canvases and endowed with animal traits for Elsie asked, scrambling after Stranger as he moved distinction. Likewise, they are not necessarily bound smoothly through the rubble. He had guided her to the exact physical behaviors of their contemporary away from it after he felt she was able to move safely families. Birth method is determined by the father; if again, and was now leading her up the dilapidated he is a male of an egg-laying species, the child will be stairs of the building’s interior. It might’ve been born in an egg, regardless of the species of the child pretty once, but the softening enzymes had muted or the mother. Likewise if the father is a live-birth all the color and dulled the detail. species, the child will be born live regardless of its, “Yooou would raaaather carry it?” he asked or its mother’s, species. This can result in a number in return, and she looked a little downcast. of occurrences we as humans see as unnatural (cats “Well, no, I just...it seems a little heartless,” she laying eggs, birds giving live birth, dogs hatching muttered. Had that been the fate of her own family? out of a shell, etc.) but which the Vector community Were they lying in a sealed off section somewhere, has been accustomed to since the third generation. beaten and broken andWhile it makes for a notation on a birth certiicate, “Teeelll me aboooout your shadow,” Stranger there is little importance beyond that as far as said, interrupting her thoughts as he moved through the child’s upbringing is concerned. Gestation for an archway on a higher loor. She grumbled. It was live-birth takes around 9 months, egg-laying takes a very old topic, even at her age. She’d gotten tired around 6, with anywhere between a month and two of the song and dance. Still, he was a new audience, months of warming via incubator before hatching maybe he’d have a new take on the whole thing. takes place. “It’s called a morphism, on my school regisMechanically, there was no genetic require- tration thing,” Elsie said, “but I don’t think that’s ment for the diversity of birth methods in the Vector actually what it is. I just think that’s how they’re design (in fact, it took extra work to design them describing it, so they have something to write down.” that way) but it was included, like many things, to They were on some sort of balcony now, give them their own unique existence rather than overlooking what was left of the dimly lit block. A making them appear as a sort of “sub-human.” second lobby, maybe. Elsie could see power junctions Vectors are their own race, with their own quirks, in the walls and various areas that once housed and were to be respected as independent. The war computer terminals and smart glass. Some of it was would prevent anyone from really knowing if that probably attached to the emergency grid and still attempt was successful, but the idea was in place functioned, though she had a feeling someone would before the irst experiments began. This is known to probably notice if she accessed her home storage be the reason why no primates were ever attached from here. That was how everyone always got to the Vector project. Even though the actual gap caught; digging into stuff from places they shouldn’t between human and monkey is larger and more be. Stranger was watching her shadow as it thrashed complicated than the general public perception of it, against the wall, occasionally leaning this way and that perception is what mattered. It was determined that, as though searching for something. It did that that the creation of talking apes would immediately sometimes. She recognized the behavior, even if she drive the majority of human observers into perceiv- didn’t know what caused it. ing them as a step that humanity itself had “Whhhy not?” he asked, “Iss theere a distiincalready taken and evolved beyond, thus lumping 182 tion?” She nodded.
“Morphisms are kinda like...I don’t wanna put sound into the air. say ‘deformities,’ but that’s sort of what it is. But “I was supposed to inish school here,” she they’re part of the code. Our code, they’ve been with said, “Primary school, I mean. Assuming we didn’t our race from the beginning. Like taurs and Laterals break away from TTI, but I think after ten years of and stuff like that. This,” she gestured toward her trying we’d sort of given up on that.” shadow, which appeared to get reluctantly tugged “It iss diffficult, to leave a cooorp?” along with her arm but did not follow its shape, “this “Not usually, unless you owe them money,” is new. I’ve never seen this on anyone else.” she explained, “but they didn’t want to let Mom and “Arrre the other moorphisms common?” Dad go. It was those operations they had, I think. And Stranger asked. Elsie wiggled her hand back and Mom’s research. Really secret stuff, really important forth a bit, shrugging. to bigger projects. They couldn’t even tell me about “Some,” she said, “But not...a bunch? I knew a it.” She slumped a little. “I wish they had. Now I don’t Lateral once, she was nice to me. Little otter. But her even have that.” family moved.” She let her feet sway as they dangled “I immagine it was fooor your oown proteeecfrom the balcony edge. “And I had a teacher who had tion,” Stranger offered. The sandy colored cat huffed stars in his fur two years ago. He might have dyed it, and turned away. but I think they were real.” “Doesn’t seem to have helped,” she muttered, “Is thiisss baaddd?” he asked. She had expect- “Not very safe now, am I?” ed the question, but she still wasn’t sure how to “Yooou are alliive,” Stranger said, his head answer it. She rocked back and forth a little, working swooping down to her level as he braced himself it out. between the balcony rail and the wall, “It is a staaart.” “This is one of those ‘knowing’ and ‘learning’ Somehow, she took little solace in that. things,” she said at last. “No, it’s not supposed to be “Yeah, but where do I go?” she asked, throw‘bad.’ It’s like I said, they’re nothing new. But..” she ing her arms in the air, “What about continuing puffed out a sigh, “it marks you, you know? They get education? Normally you get a whole second schooltreated different. Even by each other. Having stars ing program for technical skills and specialties! on your fur is no big deal. But that otter, she had to Or my irst contract? I don’t even have a contract! use a head-thing to move stuff around. Pushframe. You’re SUPPOSED to get a contract that puts you in They’re neat, but it didn’t work on everything, and your irst position after you learn what your educashe wasn’t big enough to open doors so she had to tion package taught you.” She counted the steps use the little Lateral doors and those always sort of off on her ingers. “You get your primary, and your looked like pet doors, so, you know. She got teased a secondary, and they test you for aptitudes, and you bunch.” move into lessons that work with what you’re good “And yoou? Weeerre you teasssed as well?” at, and if you’ve got the drive for it, you specialize in Elsie watched her shadow creep along something, and you get your contract and they ship the wall, manifesting more limbs than it should, you off to wherever that skill is needed and you...you which twisted and writhed as though tangling with know...live!” something she couldn’t see. Its head was up, slowly “Thaaat...is a uniiiversal ouutcome?” swaying on a thick neck before disappearing into Stranger asked. Elsie grunted and wiggled back the darkness of its collected form. She felt like it was into her feet from the balcony edge. She felt like facing her. There wasn’t a great way to tell, but she pacing. Sitting was aggravating at the moment. felt like it. “Well no, I mean, if you’re good at stuff and can “No, not really,” she replied in a soft voice, “I leverage it on your own, you can do your own thing scare people.” I guess. Services, mostly; it’s pretty tough to beat a “Youuur monster scares peeeople,” he corp at manufacturing. Or special jobs on retainer, corrected. Elsie slumped. I think Dad was like that. They sent him on a lot of “Same thing,” she muttered. trips, and he never wore a uniform or anything for Stranger was without comment, but Elsie it so I think they were sort of...special trips. Secret didn’t want the silence this time. She swallowed jobs or missions or something. They’re all really and kept talking, if for no other reason than to 183 BIG, right?” She held her hands over her head
and made a large circle. “They deal with a lot of stuff, and they’ve all got these other departments dealing with a lot of OTHER stuff, and I don’t think they can really talk to each other really well because no one is really sure what anyone else is up to, ‘cause it’s so BIG. So I think they cut through the tape by hiring people who are just...good at things, to just go DO them, so they get done. Possibly illegally.” She made a face at that. She’d often wondered just what it was her father did that made him so valuable. “Aaand if yoou do not compleeete that educaaation process?” Elsie looked downcast. “Then I had better get used to that ration loaf,” she whimpered, “or hope some Pulse scouter inds me reaaaally entertaining.”
of an agent who would most likely be categorized as a player character rather than an NPC, in terms of importance and relative autonomy. Don’t worry too much about trying to connect each of your players’ characters with a common history or motive. Coincidence is a great tool for launching a story, especially if you want the players in the dark for the beginning portions. Having them stumble upon an unusual event, or receiving an unidentiied object in a package, or even being asked strange questions, can all get the ball rolling on a plot that takes them out of their comfort zones and unites them despite having different backgrounds. It’s a good way to combat the initial “how do I know you?” question that occasionally plagues new playgroups. Just make sure you’re using it to begin plots rather than end them. Having a problem resolve itself out of sheer cosmic chance Understanding opportunity is unfulilling to the players involved. Once your Elsie’s perception of her situation is colored characters have worked together once in any oficial by the short life she’s led, and is not necessarily a capacity, it’s easy to keep them together convincuniversal truth. While most Vectors do follow an ingly from job to job. Corps record their contracts educational path like the one she describes, there (the legal ones, anyway), and they keep track of who are options available in many directions once one worked on which successful endeavors. If your team develops certain skills. Player characters are the performed well once, there’s justiication for hiring quintessential example of this. The tricky part the same group on again. Even other corps can draw comes from deciding when your character decided on these records if they need a team to accomplish a similar task. Corp rivalry is real, but it doesn’t really to “break out of the cubicle” so to speak. In a science iction setting, technical skills are factor into everyday life until sensitive information fairly important. Most characters have likely gone becomes involved. Typically, if your party is all through an extended education process or been operating at that level, they’re being hired less for personally trained by family, friends or an appren- convenience and more because they have history ticeship. This can be relected in backstory, and can and talent directly related to the task at hand. Count on your partnerships. Party members help color your personality a bit. Player characters are typically more talented than your average illing in for missing skill sets is at the heart of citizen, and have exhibited skills that allow them to team-based adventuring, and even if nobody knows dynamically cope with situations. Your motivation is how to do that thing you need doing, the party important when iguring out why you didn’t take the can no doubt rope an NPC into doing it for them, well-marked path in life. Being an independent agent via some manipulation of their abilities. Problem is dificult and dangerous, and your character would solving through combinations of talents helps breed not have chosen to be one unless it suited a need they party cohesion, and is usually a sign of a game going truly cared about. Of course, there’s also the chance well. The check system in HSD was crafted to allow that going out and risking your butt is actually part for successes in most attempts that are made by of your day job. Playing loyal employees can be a lot characters with some degree of skill in that area, of fun when your missions or assignments include especially if they have help. Your characters are asset retrieval or aggressive negotiation. Corps need capable people, you just need to make sure you’re people to do the work that doesn’t make it to the playing them to their advantages, and counting on headlines. Sometimes that work is just secret. Other your teammates. HC SVNT DRACONES does not force a partictimes it’s decidedly unpleasant. Elsie’s parents would still be around were it not for the actions 184 ular plot onto your personal game. You don’t
need to save the world, or uncover a conspiracy, or Exploration is a unique experience in this ight an ancient evil or topple a corporate empire. setting. Strictly speaking, there is no paleontology, no But you can, if you want. Or you could be investiga- search for lost civilizations, and no need to explore tors, or delivery people, or scientists on missions of the depths of the ocean or thick of the jungles to ind discovery. No matter what you as a group of players unknown life, because everything that ever lived decide to do, sculpting the mood of your theme goes on a non-Earth landmass was put there by Vectors. a long way toward making your game immersive But that reality makes the discovery of something and memorable to the people playing it. new all the more compelling, because not only is Give your players plenty of room to move it an unknown encounter, somebody somewhere around, but not enough to get lost in. Pulse environ- caused it. Massive experimental bioprobes roaming ments typically include lots of venues for keeping the ocean loor, created without permission and your heart racing. That doesn’t mean an explosion destabilizing the local ecosystem. Mutations caused around every turn, but they build tall and open to by new food supplements, or illegal experimentaprovide spectacular views and the feeling of the tion. Whole new species that were engineered as wind on your face, and their environments are someone’s artistic magnum opus and released into crafted to reward you for moving through them on the wild without consideration for their impact and foot. They can be great cities for chases, races, rapid must now be tracked down and captured; there are combat and competition. hundreds of plots you can wrap around the concept A sense of grandeur can be found in almost of exploring the choices people with too much any environment, depending on where you are, but money and technology and too little foresight and space operas love to capitalize on the feeling of being restraint have imposed on the galaxy. Anytime the the lone point of light in the dark. Don’t let the solar words “we don’t know what could do this” appear system scale of this game fool you into thinking it’s in Vector society, it is somewhat more frightening “small.” The distance from Mars to Jupiter alone is and compelling than it would be to humans. They’re over 3.5 times the distance from the Earth to the rather used to knowing exactly what is where, so Sun, and there’s nothing saying you need to go in when something is there that shouldn’t be, it raises only one direction. Stretched throughout Sol’s orbit worrisome questions of who made it and why. can be anything from enormous abandoned projects Lastly, “the tavern” has been an RPG staple to thriving standalone stations, or whole leets of for decades, and there’s no reason why the same vessels that can be doing anything from corpo- premise can’t exist in the future. Most buildings with rate traficking to waging their own private wars. social centers will include places to eat, drink, talk, Megacorps make for great titans to throw at one and browse local information feeds. This is a good another, but they’re hardly the only game in town. location to drop hooks for players. “Looking for Most moderately successful corporations can own a work” ads that are beamed into local zones to ind ship, or even small leets. Make good use of the scale, qualiied workers for odd jobs, little newscasts to and give your players shipyards and manufacturing catch player attention, even passing conversations, centers they can be awestruck by. Moving down all can be used to give player parties some options rather than up can be awe-inspiring in its own way. that they can accumulate at a single stop for an Mars’ terraforming process left it with huge caverns evening. Oficial corp jobs and freelance gigs are all and interlinking tunnels large enough to hide cities easy to reference from any active smartglass system. in in some places, and all manner of bizarre chemistry has accumulated into the nooks and crannies Leverage just out of sight. Venus was once a lat world due to its massive atmospheric pressures, but the roaring “Dooo you requiire rest?” Stranger asked. storms and low-pressure zones produced by its Elsie had been slowing over the past ten minutes, terraforming process and the almost cement-like and was now barely advancing at all. The shivers mixture of new chemistry and old surface matter were coming back, and what food she had in her produced enormous spires and rock archways, most stomach wasn’t sitting well. Mostly, though, it was of which are porous and big enough to hide her own conclusions that were weighing her whole towns in. 185 down. She’d arrived at several, and had no idea
what to do about them. has a little one, he always said it was one of the only “I think I’m in a lot of trouble,” she whispered, things he actually owned.” “I’m just...thinking about it, and I don’t see how I’m “Yoour father possesses a spacecraft?” supposed to get out of this. I don’t have a f..fam- Stranger asked. His powerful tail licked with inter ily anymore. No one will talk to me. I don’t have est. She rubbed her arms together, idgeting to help anywhere to go. And there’s...there’s got to be herself concentrate. someone out there trying to GET me, right? If the “Yeah,” she replied, trying to remember what company really IS after me? What am I supposed to he’d taught her, “I think it can ly itself to a Progen do about that? I’ve got nothing! ” itus ship. It’s part of the public health plan, you can “Incorrect,” Stranger replied. Elsie blinked buy an autopilot thingy that will automatically point through her hazy vision and looked at him. He was your ship toward the nearest emergency facility and perched at an angle on a piece of decaying wall, take you there if you’re damaged. We’d just need to looking at her. “Yooou possessss an asset.” get up into orbit so it doesn’t take us to a hospital. “I do?” she asked. His fractured smile It’s Mars, there’s bound to be a Progenitus ship up widened. there somewhere close by...” Her enthusiasm waned “You are vaaaluable,” he replied, “Someooone a little, and she let her hands fall to her sides. wants yoooou. Nothiiing is valuaaable to only one “I don’t know if it matters, though.” she person. Sooomeone elssse will always want it, iiif muttered. “I don’t know how to ly it, even that far. At only for spiiite.” school kids would always talk about how they could She frowned a little, but it relaxed a moment ly a ship ‘cause they saw it in a show or ‘cause their later, slowly transitioning to realization. parents were pilots or something. I’ve seen Dad do “Progenitus might protect me, if I could talk it, but I don’t know what any of it means. Even if I got to someone important enough,” she whispered, it in the air I’d probably get towed back down for not considering, “but I don’t know how I would. They’re doing some iling thing or something.” She could feel sort of unfriendly with TTI, and I think...I think it tears in her eyes again. “And, it’s protected all over would be right up their ally to say they were protect- the place. Dock has a code, ship has a code, there are ing a civilian from something TTI was doing. They’re guards to the port entrance. Even if I knew how to ly sort of like that, they butt into things a lot. But I don’t it, I could never get into it.” know where I’d go, or who to-” Stranger’s fractured grin widened a bit. Elsie “Is therrre an emmbaasy?” Stranger asked. frowned, but the frown slowly faded. The lynx twitched her tail and tried to turn his “Could...you?” she chanced. dragging speech into a word she could understand, “It goooes with beeeing a monster,” he but failed. replied. Her ears perked up. “I’ve never heard of that,” she admitted. “If..if you mean that...” “Iiit is a place reseeerved by foreign poweeers “I caaan,” Stranger replied dismissively, and to represent their inttteeerests,” he explained. She swayed from left to right in what almost seemed like thought it over for a moment. contentment. Her look was met with an amused hiss “Progenitus has hospitals in the city, and a of a laugh. “A storrrry for anoooother time. Thiiis few ofices,” she mused, “but I don’t think they’re brings your asset cooooount to threee. ” allowed to really make decisions like that. They’re “Wait...what was the second?” she asked. part of the MarsCo corptown, so their decisions “Your piiilot.” would have to get discussed with a MarsCo board, She felt a smile creep onto her face. It was a who would probably bring TTI in on it, and that testament to her situation that the prospect of lying would...” away on a hijacked spaceship with a monster at the “Be uuundesirable,” Stranger concluded. helm to start a new life was preferable to taking the “A ship,” her ears perked, “If I got onto a elevator up to her empty house and the people near Progenitus ship, that would work. Ships are always it who turned the other way when they saw her in directly owned by the corp, even if they operate out the halls. of someone else’s port, so captains can make “What about my things?” Elsie asked as she decisions on their own. I know that ‘cause Dad 186 chased behind Stranger’s long strides.
“I shaaall secuuuure your essentials once “But!” she swallowed again, “What if...no one yooou are onboooard,” Stranger replied, dashing up wants me? Where am I going to GO? I don’t know the structure of an old, decaying building. “We caaaan if Progenitus will take me! I don’t know if anyone put the ship’s security to usse in your defeeence.” will take me! I told you, I...” her voice broke a little, “I Elsie laughed a little. “Um,” she commented, scare people...” holding up a hand, “I don’t think you’re going to be “Yooou do not,” he replied simply, “Your able to get all the way there without someone notic- moooonster scaaares people.” ing. You kinda stand out.” She frowned in irritation, and pointed in “Onnnly when I’m seeen.” anger toward the shadow on the loor. “We’re really leaving?” she asked. He nodded, “I told you, it’s the same thing! It’s attached to without looking back. At least, not with his head. me!” she countered, “I can’t exactly leave it behind!” She could plainly see the eyes on his shoulderblades “Thaaaat,” he said, “is not your monster.” peeking through slits in his coat, keeping track of Elsie blinked at him, her anger giving way to her. confusion. What could“It isss essential,” he replied. He turned, and raised his hand toward the “But-” she grabbed his coat, “shouldn’t we... sealed wall of the edge of the gray sector. Painted on make sure they’re dead?” she whispered, “What if the surface was the massive tesseract that formed they’re just stuck somewhere-” the majority of the TTI corporate logo, and their Stranger turned to face her, which was more name stamped in sharp letters just below it. direct than his usual sidelong glances. “That is.” “What if,” he cut her off, “iss the lassst The young lynx tried to put the message phraaasse on the lips of the deeead, Elsie. It is nooot together in her head, but it was leading somewhere a luxury you haaaave time for. Ifff they are alive, she didn’t want to go. Someplace more frightening theeeey will ind you. For now,” he pivoted on a foot, than a strange-looking shadow on the loor. coiling down to her level and pressing a inger to “Your shaadow is juuust a shaaadow,” her forehead, “yooou must surrrvive. You will not Stranger said softly, “Your mooonster...your REAL accooomplish that here.” monster...gives free fooood to its ppooor, while it “But no one’s come looking for me yet,” she kills fammilys to get to theeeir children. It wriiites countered. His responses had always been so brief laws to keep ittts streeeeets clean, but ignooores and inquisitive up to this point that she was surprised them when theeey’re inconvvvieeenieent. Yoou will when he took on an authoritative tone. It was new, not iiiind salvaaation from it in its ooowwn home.” but she found herself thankful for it. It was the voice A cold wave of realization washed over Elsie. of someone who knew what they were doing. She They had all known. All the neighbors she’d asked needed that reassurance, but the mounting fear of for help, all the teachers she’d tried to contact, they leaving the last connection to her home was holding weren’t scared of her shadow. They were scared of her back. “It’s been a week, if they killed my family, what wanted it. Her breathing was quickening with wouldn’t they-” her heart rate, but her body was warming again, and “Onnne does not hiiire a killer to kiiidnap,” the shivers were dissipating. Somehow, as horrible Stranger said, withdrawing his hand. “Ittt would a revelation as this was, it was steeling her resolve. proviiide them with a vaaaluable asset thaaat could There was nothing left for her here. This place was then be usssed against the cliiient.” He turned beaten, but she had the means to leave it. It was the his head back toward the direction they’d been clearest she’d seen since coming home to an empty moving, like an owl on a branch. “If TTI waaants you house a week ago. colleeected, they would dispaaatch somone theeey “Shaaall we leeave this place?” Stranger could trust. The tiiime between when the successss asked, lowering his long ingered hand to her level. of the kiiill is repooorted, and when your colllector She nodded, her jaw set. arrives, is all you haave to get awaaay. They asssume “Yes,” she said, and took his hand, “please.” you arrre without help, they will not look wheeere they don’t beeeelieve you can go,” he grinned his twisted grin, “Weee can exploooit that error.” 187
Understanding leve leverage rage
possible. The assassins they hire are largely based on reputation and the ability of their contacts to ind them, and are typically hired independently through several channels so as to be easily disconnected from any corp attachment if the need should arise. There are enough unscrupulous unscrupulou s people in the galaxy to hire that corps don’t typically need to dedicate a section of the payroll to them on a permanent basis. Better to hire them when needed through a long enough line that they don’t even realize who they’re working for, or why. It has its drawbacks though: having such distance between employer and employee means the employee could be someone completely different than the corp expected, and they may never know it. That occasionally makes accountability dificult, if the employee vanishes without completing the job. To try and counter this, corps will usually split a job into sections, saving the illegal portions for the anonymous hire, and the “questionable” portions (like collecting Elsie after the parents are dead) for someone on the payroll. Player characters can stand in for either or both of these jobs, and it often makes for fun narratives to gauge their reactions to being “the cleaners” after vicious but unseen events take place, especially if they discover the events are motivated by something that wasn’t what they originally thought. Depending on the situation, it might even make a good opportunity to switch up a character’s Motivation. It’s very likely that Elsie is going to look at her universe differently after this experience, for instance.
The task of forging game narratives around organizations organiza tions as large as the HSD megacorps can be daunting if you approach it from the top. It generally takes quite a bit for an entire corp to take notice of something. Typically, problems and tasks are taken care of at more immediate levels, meaning that in many situations the upper levels of a megacorp aren’t acutely aware of what the lower levels are doing, and vice versa. Player characters can often make a good go-between for these areas, as they th ey tend to be independently associated with some agency within a corp. Remember: NPCs are people. You can contact them with things you discover, consult them about problems you ind within an organization, or even elect to keep them out of the loop if you don’t trust them. Emergent plots can be crafted this way, with the Guide dropping hints and plot points into various aspects of your adventures that gradually add up to something more profound, allowing the players to follow it up to higher levels of an organization without being prefaced with something as obvious as “we’re going to do the big plot now.” Just because a company is everywhere doesn’t mean it actually knows everything about what’s going on around it (or even within it). Even if all that information is collected (through spies, ubiquitous technology technolog y, what have you) someone still needs to be monitoring and parsing it to igure out what matters and what doesn’t. Furthermore, there are many operations a corp doesn’t want itself to know about. Plausible deniability deniability is a great tool for turning parts Layers of a corp against itself without painting the entire organization in a single color. It is entirely possible, Stranger set the bag down beside the Cog’s for instance, that TTI as a corporate whole had no body and knelt over its...his...fractured torso. Elsie idea the hit against Elsie’s parents was ordered. It was safe in the ship now, waiting for his return. No may have been a subsidiary within the company trouble. He had what equipment he felt was mandadirectly related to handling long-term research on tory from her house. Getting there undetected was Transcendent anomalies, who are simply classifying simple enough if you knew where to go. He did; he’d the expense as “asset containment” and reporting it been there before. upward. Spyglass and TTI are both well known for It was blinking. The small orb in the cracked this sort of behavior, and will sometimes smuggle body of the android. He’d wondered what that their own material on board their own ships. It gives meant earlier, but his conversation with Elsie had them the safety of knowing the protocol used on clariied a few things. This creature still had power, board, and the security of an oblivious crew. it was just too broken to do anything with it. How With illegal or immoral operati operations ons like these, curious. What must that be like, to be trapped in a megacorps actually have surprisingly large gaps in broken body, body, waiting to die? It was lucky lu cky Elsie hadn’t h adn’t their information. They’re not supposed to be noticed it at the time. Stranger was fairly sure it doing it, so they have as little hands-on time as 188 would have been considered a tragic situation.
She’d had enough tragedy for one day, and he was not without his own form of sympathy. He plugged the wires back into the system responsible for the Cog’s voice he had previousl previously y torn out, out , and listened to him gurgle to life. “Are...you there?” The machine asked, “Can’t... see..can’t...feel..” “I aamm,” Stranger replied, “Y “Yooou ooou have been liiistening.” “What...are you?” “Irrreeelevent,” he said latly. “Please,” the Cog choked, “contact TTI, tell them where...am. Leave...girl. You can have my half... contract. Won’t...hurt her. They just want to-” “She coooom coooomes es with meee now,” he growled, peering into the broken, clicking interior of the fractured body on the loor. “I iiind her siiiituation dissstasteful.” “You...h “Y ou...hired ired to do...jo do...job, b, you can’t think-” “Myyy jooob has beeeeen completed,” he interrupted, “Yooou have siiimply faaailed at yoooours.” “They’ll follow you,” the Cog insisted, “They’ll chase...asset for as long-” He tilted his head and placed a foot against the small glowing sphere in the machine’s chest. “Theeeey will need to seeend better than yooou,” he said in an even tone. The Cog gurgled as the pressure increased, but he didn’t have any way to shove it off. Stranger pulled the Thorn engraved necklace out of his pocket and placed it in the broken machine’s hand. “Yooours, “Y ooours, I beeelllieve,” he said. “Thank...ou...c “Thank... ou...consideration,” onsideration,” the Cog stuttered, “Were...ou so...kind...to her parents?” Stranger put the weight down on his foot and crushed the glowing sphere beneath it. The machine didn’t so much as spasm. It just went dark, and stayed there. Slowly, he withdrew his foot, and watched the body for a moment or two before retrieving the bag off the loor and turning back toward the launch bays.
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Illuminor Temper Victoria, on TTI refusal to join the Pulse/Progenitus spire assault leet project.
L O R E
A lot o people are pointing the finger (at I reusal to commit to this attack) and claiming ulterior motives right now. now. I see it every morning, I read about it, I’ve seen it on your program too, with (some o your other gue sts). Tey claim we don don’t ’t want to see the t he Whispers harmed, or that we’re we’re trying to keep the spire intact or some secret s ecret experiment, or something equally outlandish. Tose are the more dramatic ones. Tere are other people claiming we just don’t don’t want want to ollow Progenitus Progenitus into a fight. And you know? I’ll grant the skeptics that one. I’ll even grant g rant them the first one. It does seem like a likely reason or I to not play along with this. We’ve We’ve had the most history and experience with the Whispers, I could see some people thinking 190 we might have a vested interest in preserving them. More reasonable people might conclude instead that we know what we’re we’re talking about and they should ollow our lead.
I you dig past the enormous PR machine that is Pulse and actually listen to those in the know know,, we’re we’re not the only ones trying to shoot down this endeavor. endeavor. Seasoned soldiers, analysts, researchers and generals all over Sol are calling this a really oolish move. Te big reason staring ever yone in the ace is: “Why?” Why do it? What good will it do? Lets say, or argument’s sake, that the t he strike succeeds succe eds and the ruby spire is destroyed. What have you accomplished? Do you know what that thing does? I don’t. My superiors don’t. It’s not responsible or Whisper attacks, that’s or sure. We were getting those long beore b eore the spire solidified. It doesn’t doesn’t seem to “power” them, they don don’t ’t look like they’re the y’re making more o it, it’s not radiating any signal we can detect. It just exists. We could be committing the largest fleet ever assembled to an attack on their toilet or all we know.
The Spear of Heaven, Europa
L O R E
Proponents or this attack are shouting that (the Whispers) wouldn’t have built such an enormous structure i it wasn’t in some way critical cr itical to their growth as a species. Tat’s supposition. It’ It’s conventional thinking appli applied ed to a species so astoundingly alien rom us that we don’t don’t even know how they think at all, much less what they’re thinking. It could just as easily be bait. And I’ve I’ve seen the eye-rolling that comes with that argument, too. Te assumptio assumption n that they, surely,, must not be an intelligent species o our great and surely exalted level. Afer all, we have ships, and technology, and big ancy guns and crotch-enhancement surgery. Surely, Surely, we are the superior beings. I think those people need to be reminded o a act that has gone bizarrely unspoken over the course o these interviews.
erra was not tidally t idally locked to Luna beore the spire existed. Right now, it is. Tink on that one. Tink how many ships were involved in spinning Venus Venus up to a roughly 24 hour day back when it was terraormed. Tousands. With ground crews and subterranean systems and countless other actors. And here, on Earth, we have a species that did the same thing to erra with none o that. No ships, no visible technology, no emissions we could c ould map. Tey just did it. Reached out and touched Luna like it had be en sitting there all along. Maybe it was easy or them. the m. Maybe it was difficult and we just don’t don’t know how it affected them. Te point is, we don’t know. Tat ignorance is astronomically proound. We We have no idea how that t hat process happened, we 191 have no idea what they can strike back with, and Progenitus and Pulse want to go shoot missiles at it. Brilliant! No. We reuse.
COMBAT ADDENDUM The following changes should be implemented in every HSD game. Contributions from the community and overall use since the release of the irst book have shown them to be beneicial adjustments. This will be available for free to all players (even those who don’t own Core:Extended) to download and attach to their games. It will also be included as an insert to the oficial HSD core rulebook .pdf. Rules written in this book and in future books will be written using the changes written here, and the character sheet in the back of this book relects these changes.
Armor changes Passive armor hitpoint totals in the HSD core rulebook have been doubled. Hardcase plating now maxes at 80 and goes in incriments of 10 instead of 5. The negative to movement occures at 70 hitpoints. Active and living armor hitpoints in the HSD core ruleook have been trippled. This includes Hardskin. Cut weapons can now damage armor up to 60 hitpoints.
Attack and weapon changes The Battle Pool has been reduced by 2. It is now 4+Readiness. The attack action cap is now ½ Mind: Dexterity rounded up. A character with 1-2 dots in Mind:Dexterity can make a single attack action per turn, 3-4 dots can make 2 attack actions, and 5 dots can make 3. Reloading a weapon is now an attack action, not a standard action. The “Battle pacing” Focus ability allows you to reload without spending an attack action, but you must still pay the 3 points from your battle pool. Ammo no longer has a separate damage stat. Combine the listed ammo damage and base damage of the core rulebook weaponry; that is now their total damage. In weapons which have random damage (such as some melee attacks) roll the damage as the attack is made and add it as before (or add it only when triggered, as is described in the Hard-edge). Headshots are now triple the total weapon damage. Only the irst successful hit from a ranged weapon deals its total damage. All dice that score hits beyond the irst hit deal x damage each, rather than the weapon’s full damage. X is based on the weapon’s size. Small and medium=1 damage, large=2, LAN=3. This does not affect melee weapons.
Defensive changes
Defensive actions can now boost cover beyond the original +5 limit. Any reference in the rulebook to things that increase your cover but not above the +5 limit no longer have that limitation. When locked in close combat, ranged attacks from an enemy you are locked with can be parried as per the usual rules for parrying attacks. Any sized weapon (except LAN) can be used for this, and will not suffer harm for it as they would for parrying a melee weapon, as it’s essentially just pushing the gun aside as it ires. Anyone who disengages from a locked combat and attempts to ire on the person they just ran from treats them as though they have +4 to their cover bonus that turn and is in Full Defense as described below.
Full Defense If you have spent every available defensive action to boost your cover bonus, and an enemy’s incoming ranged attack only hits you with a single die of their total dicepool, that attack does half damage rounded up. This is generally referred to as full defense and does not apply to single shots, weapons described as only iring once per use, grenades, or lood weapons. Any situation described in the HSD core rulebook as granting someone an automatic +4 cover bonus (such as Threat Response) also grants them the full defense status.
Movement changes If a character uses an ability that takes them beyond their base calculated movement score in a single action (Cheetah speed, Combat lying, Cog boosting, Wheeled frames, etc. Anything that takes you further than Body:Resilience+Body:Dexterity), any enemy they use a ranged attack against that turn counts as having +2 cover. Additionally, Large and LAN weapons can not be used in the same turn in which you exceed your calculated movement score, and weapons with the Flood type you ire this turn include your own character in their effective area. Abilities which grant you additional movement actions do not count for this (provided you don’t exceed your movement score per action of course). Drifting characters (such as Maglev Cogs in glide mode) trigger this effect if their total distance traveled (normal movement+drift) is further than what could be achieved by spending all their movement actions normally. For example, a Maglev Cog with three movement actions and a movement score of 4 can spend all three to move 12 hexes. They can then glide 12 hexes in the same direction next turn without spending movement actions and without suffering a performance penalty. If they were to spend a movement action to push themselves up to 16 hexes that turn, they would suffer the penalties above, and for every turn thereafter, until they slowed down again.
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If a character has moved to a new hex from their previous turn (by means of a move action or anything else that physically relocates them), headshots through the Fire a single shot attack action require 4 successes instead of 3. The “Critical Thinking” Focus now lowers this number by 1 rather than its original effect.
Cover addendum The hitpoint values given to cover in the HSD core rulebook work well in small ireights using light weapons, but quickly decay in larger ones. While this is reasonably accurate, it also renders a large chunk of the combat rules ineffective at a certain point unless you have a great deal of armored cover to hide behind. In this addendum, cover repels all attacks that are not speciically designed to destroy cover. Cover is now immune to most damage unless it is speciically listed as vulnerable to it. If the incoming damage is not among the listed vulnerabilities, the cover will not be harmed by it. Additionally, cover is only harmed by attacks that speciically target the cover itself. Misses from iring at targets beyond the cover are no longer factored into the cover’s remaining hitpoints. Weapons which speciically cite cover in their descriptions (such as the Perforator) will affect it as described on the weapon even if they don’t meet the vulnerability requirement. If something succeeds in dealing damage to cover, it does no more than 2 damage per hit (unless listed as doing otherwise in the weapon description, such as the Perforator. Melt effects fall in this category, so a Melt weapon will always do 7 damage to cover it shoots at directly). These new rules apply to shields as well. Small shields follow the rules for Soft cover, Medium and Large shields follow the rules for Hard cover, and LAN shields follow the rules for Armored cover. As implied, this does mean enemies can target your shield directly if you’re actively using it, and if they choose to do so, it will not gain a cover bonus of it’s own. If your character is not using a shield for cover (they just have it on them) it cannot be targeted. If a character is using a shield to parry, it takes only 2 damage per hit, as described above. LAN melee weapons, however, will do their full damage to shields (even LAN shields). If cover is struck by a single shot which does equal to or greater than its hitpoint value, it is destroyed regardless of what type of attack it was. This overrules the 2 damage limit to incoming ire.
Cover vulnerabilities Soft Cover (redeined as plants, basic walls, light metals and limsy structures): Can be hurt by any attack which targets it directly. Hard Cover (redeined as heavy furniture, heavy doors, good walls or built-in structures, thick trees, etc.): Cut, Melt, Charge, Annihilate, LAN melee and LAN ranged weapons. Vulnerable to standard guns if equipped with Ap ammunition and targeted directly.
Armored Cover: Charge, Melt, Annihilate, LAN melee weapons. As a point of storytelling, I want to encourage Guides to pay attention to the amount of times bullets miss their marks and hit the cover, and factor that into their narration (possibly even destroying it after they feel enough damage has been taken). Applying a requirement of this within the rules resulted in less realism and more book keeping, so it has been removed, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be a dramatic factor in your combat narration.
Ammo and upgrade addendum High Explosive ammo now has the following properties, instead of the ones listed in the rulebook: “Weapons armed with this ammo can damage cover even if the weapon type or ammo type is not listed as a vulnerability. The normal 2 damage limitation does not apply.” High Explosive ammo is now 20 credits for all magazine sizes. Hollow tipped ammo now does 1 damage per hit beyond the irst when hitting armored targets or soft cover, and 3 damage per hit beyond the irst when hitting unarmored lesh. This replaces the damage usually done by that weapon’s size for subsiquent hits. Incendiary ammo now does 2 bonus damage per round. The remaining details of the ammo are unchanged. In special cases where a weapon’s incendiary properties are speciically labeled (such as in a lamethrower) the speciic damage is used (d12, in that case). Armor piercing ammo now does 1 automatic damage per hit beyond the irst to an armored target’s hitpoints. The 60 hitpoint limitation on armor vulnerability still applies, but the section regarding how it affects targets in cover has been removed. In the Charge weapon type entry, replace the entry under “if the shot hits,” with “add the weapon’s RoF bonus damage to the hit, as though it had hit with every die of the RoF.” The weapon still has a one round cool-down period and must still be reloaded. The Vibrox now grants the following ability, instead of its original one: “A Vibrox weapon will destroy any object used to parry it (except a shield or another Vibrox weapon) on contact. The parry will still be successful (once) but the defending weapon will be unusable afterward. If someone attempts to parry a Vibrox weapon with their body, do damage directly to their hitpoints or armor as though a hit has been scored.” It is still limited to Cut weapons, and the stipulation listed on Cut weapons that says a Vibrox allows them to damage (but not bypass) all armor is still true.
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FAQS The following clariications are listed to address some confusion that has stemmed from wording in the core rulebook. As always, I endeavor to be as clear and understandable as possible when I write mechanics, but there will inevitably be some confusion that pops up over time. I hope this will help clear up some questions you may have. Q: Do family bonuses like: “Felidae characters always receive +1 when performing tasks of manual dexterity or balance.” apply in combat? A: They were not intended to, no. No family bonus is intended for combat use with the exception of the avian ability to ly (which still requires Proiciency to use) and the Reptilia ability to resist poisons, which is rather speciic to conditions. I could see Guides making exceptions to this during supportive action checks, as those do represent using one’s skills to assist in operations, but in general these perks were intended for use in a narrative or utility fashion. A canine staying up late to keep watch, or running after a leeing suspect. A feline rapidly entering data or hopping across slippery rooftops. If attack actions are being used, these bonuses do not apply. This was designed to avoid punishing players in combat for playing the species they want to play, and to attempt to avoid the “singular combat build” inherent to many systems. Q: Can you clear up how Nerve loss works in combats with multiple people in mixed armor? It seems as though as long as one person can be stripped of their armor and killed, the rest
of the team will break. A: That is not the case, but the phrasing of the condition could do with some restructuring. On page 198, the sentence: “A character wearing armor will not take Nerve loss.” Should probably be phrased as “A character wearing armor, alone or in a team, will prevent Nerve Pool loss for themselves or their team.” As long as anyone in the team is immune to Nerve loss, they are all immune (much like a Relentless team member grants the same mentality to the rest of their team). The team’s Nerve Pool will not deplete until there are no longer members in it who are immune. If the whole team is armored, no one loses Nerve until there is no armor left anywhere (unless someone has an ability that bypasses it somehow). Additionally, the initial Nerve Pool remains at the same size even as people are removed from it by dying. A team with 4 armored people and a total Nerve Pool of 40 will still have a Nerve Pool of 40 if three of its members die and the last one is stripped of armor. That last member will then start losing Nerve out of the 40 point pool. To use the Nerve system to force enemy surrender, you must strip every enemy of anything that would prevent them from suffering Nerve loss. It is intended to be a dificult and deliberate action requiring player restraint suficient to knock off an enemy’s protection without killing them. In most combats against armored opponents, Nerve probably won’t even be a factor, as chances are enemies will die one at a time while their comrades are still wearing armor. Character personSilvoth Ininite alities trump this, of course. If someone sees all their armored friends getting their asses kicked and igures they’re not going to live, they can choose to surrender regardless of the Nerve score.
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Q: There is a missing Focus description for Priority Instructions. A: Yes there is, I apologize for that. The ability has the following proile: “You have established a rapport with your party. They know your voice and trust your judgment. Because of this, when you issue commands in combat, they pick up on them when they otherwise might not. Once per Session: You can use a command action in combat without rolling any of the associated checks. It simply goes off. Furthermore, this command affects your entire party, regardless of their range (provided they’re on the battleield and can hear it). The command used with this ability cannot be used again this combat once this ability has been used.” Q: There is a discrepancy between shield sizes for micros listed on page 165 and the size of weapons listed for them earlier. A: This is a typo. Shields are two size categories larger for micros, not one. Micros treat a Small shield as a Large shield. In use, this means the shield requires 1 hand, and grants a +3 cover bonus, but still only has 15 hitpoints. Q: What does having 4 arms do for you? A: This is largely a logic-based situation. You can carry things with one set while performing actions with another, or type while holding onto a ledge without taking penalties. Typically though, you can’t perform complex actions with both sets. In combat, for instance, you can carry additional weapons with your second set of limbs, but you can only use two arms at a time to ight with. This gives you the beneit of having additional weapons on-hand. Shields and melee weapons are a good choice for this, as they allow a character to move from shooting to melee without having to drop a weapon or draw another one. They also serve as a general “advantage” when in situations where having extra grip is beneicial, such as climbing, hanging, or holding onto someone (assuming you’re not also trying to hold onto a weapon). In these situations, provided the Guide feels it’s appropriate, you can add an extra die to any applicable rolls.
the line above). “Scatters like a grenade” refers to the actual removal action itself. In this situation, center the “grenade” on your target and ignore the usual accuracy roll. A 7-8 will land on target instead of forcing further deviation. 1-6 will deviate as normal. Q: The falling damage for micro characters is a little bafling. A: There is more language here than is necessary for the intended effect. In practice, Micros take the same amount of fall damage as regular Vectors do when falling from the same height. The two references to a difference in damage and starting fall height was an attempt to illustrate that even though Micros fall proportionately further than Vectors from the same height, their small bodies and compact construction effectively counteracts the additional distance as far as the game is concerned. Q: Is the H-101 Longarm really a LAN weapon? A: No. Change this weapon’s size to Large. It is, however, a rather sizeable and conspicuous rile. Q: Under the new attack action cap, can an Aviale character with Excessive take 4 attack actions per turn if they have 5 points in Mind:Dexterity? A: No. The cap is 3. Excessive allows Aviale characters to reach that cap before other families. Q: Do Momentum abilities such as the one listed for Plantigrade/Digitigrade allow you to go past the 3 attack limit? A: Yes, but it does require a hit with every die rolled in order to trigger, not just a sucessful hit among misses. Q: Do Vitae demons ignore the irst 10 damage per attack entirely, or to a minimum of 1 like Vitae ports do? A: This is a typo. They ignore to a minimum of 1 damage as Vitae ports do. An attack that does 13 damage to most enemies will to 3 damage to a Vitae demon (ignoring the irst 10). An attack that does 9 damage will do 1 (minimum damage).
Q: What is the unit of measure for the 3x3 square Q: Why does the Shrapnel Gun have a Rate of in the Nulliication implant? Fire? A: In Cuils 1-3, it is inches. This equates to 1d8 A: This is a typo. The RoF should be -, and the damage to a target that ignores their cover bonus(though Base damage should be 4 (making the total weapon the target must still be visible). On the 3 Cuil manifesdamage 6 under the new rules) tation of this implant, there is a typo. Instead of pulling away 3 3x3 squares, you should be pulling away d8 3x3 squares (hence the rolling of the die in 195
NEW COMBAT EXAMPLES A character with a d12 mind, 3 dots in Mind: Dexterity, 4 dots in Mind: Acuity, and 3 dots in Ranged Combat ires a MC-300 Torrent (a LAN weapon) at an enemy with a +3 cover bonus (requiring an 11 to hit). This character has a total of 2 attacks. Attack roll 1 begins with 12d12 plus 3 per roll, resulting in 14, 4, 7, 15, 8, 6, 7, 14, 14, 12, 11, 15. Seven results at or above 11. The irst hit does 9, the remaining six hits do 3 a piece. The inal damage total for this attack is 24. A character with maximum scores in all values ires the same weapon at a character with no cover bonus, requiring 8’s to hit. This character has a total of 3 attacks. Attack roll 1 begins with 13d12 plus 4 per roll, resulting in 14, 8, 7, 15, 14, 6, 15, 8, 14, 6, 14, 13, 8. Ten hits. The initial hit does 9, the remaining nine hits do 3 a piece. The inal damage for this attack is 36. A character with the same stats iring a Heavy Repeater (a large weapon) at the same target rolls 9d12 plus 4 per roll, getting 8,15,11,12,14,12,8,6,7. Seven hits. The irst does 13, the remainder do 2 each. The inal damage for this attack is 25. A character with a d10 mind, 2 dots in Mind: Dexterity, 2 dots in Mind: Acuity, and 2 dots in Ranged Combat ires an assault rile (a medium weapon) at an enemy with a +1 cover bonus (requiring a 9 to hit). This character has a total of 1 attack. Attack roll 1 begins with 5d10 plus 2 per roll, resulting in 6, 12, 8, 6, 12. Three hits. The irst is worth 8, the remaining are worth 1 a piece The total damage for this attack is 10. A character with the same stats iring a handgun (a small weapon) at the same target rolls 3d10 plus 2 per roll, getting 9, 5, 11. Two hits. The irst is worth 5, the second worth 1. The total damage for this attack is 6.
3d10 and adds 2 to each result because of the character’s ranged combat skill of 2. It needs 9’s to hit. 5,9,10. 2 hits are scored. The opponent chooses to parry and rolls 2d10(Their Mind:Acuity score)+2 (their CQC score) for each successful hit. The irst roll is 4, 8. The hit is negated. The second roll is 5,7. The hit gets through. One successful hit from the handgun does 5 damage. A character with a d10 mind, 2 dots in Mind: Dexterity, 2 dots in Mind: Acuity, and 2 dots in Ranged Combat ires an assault rile (a medium weapon) at an enemy with a +4 cover bonus (requiring a 12 to hit). The enemy has used all their available defensive actions. This character has a total of 1 attack. Attack roll 1 begins with 5d10 plus 2 per roll, resulting in 6, 11, 8, 6, 12. One hit. The damage is reduced by half because of the full defense. The total damage for this attack is 4.
ACKNOWLEGMENTS Playtesters Alairan Alex Hirschfeld Alex Reinwald Alexandrite Draconis Amanda Numainville Anthony DiGeorgio Billy M Captain Awesome Draconican Elijah Foxire Eric Canapini Erik Huang Harbinger Leo Merek Hennelly Michael Stransky Moti Mykal Nariala Paul Schroeer-Hannemann Red The Hunter Rosanna Foxire SirRage Steve Streza Thea Yvonne Lumetta
A character with d10 in Body and d10 in Mind and 2 dots in every Mind and Body stat is locked in combat with another character with the same stats. That character ires their handgun. The attack has 198
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