the transhuman fate of diaspora

7/29/2019 The Transhuman FATE of Diaspora

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By Matt Gooding(Reaganstorme)

Sep 2011

T4 Transhuman SocietyDiaspora talks a little on how T4 societies are atthe cusp of their own destruction, or salvation,and that they often have strange ideas com-pared to the rest of the cluster. OK, so stickingyour consciousness into purpose vat grown bio-morphs, or synthetic cybershells for that matter,certainly counts as "a little out there".

Inspired partly by Eclipse Phase, I wanted a wayto separate the character from the body theywere in at the time, leading to the Ego. Thatmeans their bodies would be separate, thus aset of ideas for Morphs. For characters, Attrib-utes, Knowledges (Skills) and Stuntsare all pur-chased with points, rather than selected from alist or placed in a pyramid. Pretty standardthough are the Aspects and Stress Tracks thatcomplete the character design, although eventhey get a tweak.

Characters created with this method are techni-cally compatible with base Diaspora characters,although the higher technology does grant anadvantage to the T4 character in many circum-stances, such as backup and restoration of theEgo, attribute + skill rolls able to surpass base

skill rolls of non-transhuman characters, even animproved calculation of stress track length. Butthese differences are by design to showcasehow the T4 society is diverging from humanity atlarge.

Aspect SelectionTo increase the benefit from these variant char-acter creation rules, it makes sense to recon-sider the way aspects are chosen from the verybeginning. During the initial Aspect phases ofcharacter creation (growing up, starting out,

moment of crisis, sidetracked, on your own)choose one aspect at each phase instead oftwo.

You should now have a basic idea of who thischaracter is and the some of the things theyhave done. Next, begin filling out the other sec-tions of the character sheet, filling in one Aspectfor each major section. That is one aspect isselected referring to the Ego, another each forthe Morph and its associated Stunts, with thelast concerning the something of the charactersKnowledges.

Finally, assign the last aspect to one of the

character sections that you wish to expand on, afriendly or antagonistic relationship important tothe character, or to some other gear or detaildefining the character.

The EgoWhen a biological mind is up-loaded to a cortical stack, itbrings with it some of theelemental nature of the indi-vidual that gets encoded.There are five Attributes de-

fining a character's Ego:

Charisma, the force of their nature and theirability to communicate ideas;

Resolve, a skill that impacts on the Compo-sure stress track;

Intuition and Logic, two attributes to de-scribe a character's thinking processes;

Lastly, Co-Ordination, an attribute to de-scribe how comfortable the character isat acting through a morph.

Characters gain 7 points to distribute amongstthese five attributes at character creation, withno attribute higher than 3.

MorphsCortical stacks are limited inhow much storage space theypossess, and are relatively use-less without being plugged intoa morph or data network. Aswith the Ego, there are five

Attributes for defining a morph:


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Appearance, a combination of how aes-thetically pleasing and well designed amorph looks;

All morphs have a base Structurerating de-scribing the strength and how well designeda morph IS (rather than looks);

Whether vat grown tissue or cybernetic cir-

cuits in nature, all morphs possess a Re-sponse attribute that refers to the neuralconnection speeds which affect reactiontimes and movement;

Integration is a measure of how well theparts of the morph react to each other, in-cluding any integrated weaponry;

Lastly, there is the manner in which infor-mation is brought to the Ego throughSensors audio, visual, tactile, kinaestheticresponse, and so on.

Again, players can spend 7 points on these at-tributes at character creation, with no attributehigher than 3.

KnowledgesDue to separation of the Ego and Morph, somenew Knowledge skills become desirable. Theseskills are added to the default skill list inDiaspora.

Implanted Weaponryis a skill determining acharacter's proficiency with using such

items implanted or installed in the morphthey are using.

The Agilityskill, compared to the Responseattribute, is how well the Ego can use theabilities of the morph for movement.

Morph Fabricationcan be used in place ofrepair checks specific to morphs, as wellas for determining weak points or as-sessment checks of another character'smorph.

Both synthetic morphs and bio-morphs be-come vulnerable to software attacks with

appropriate use of the Overrideskill, aseven bio-morphs must contain some cir-cuitry for interfacing with the digital con-sciousness of the Ego.

Stealthis a different measure of movementability compared to agility, and relatesmore to the interaction of the morph withthe surroundings than pure ability tomove.

Lastly, Reputation is a replacement for thebase Assets skill, and modifies theStanding Track, itself a replacement forthe Wealth track.

All characters get 20 points to spend on Knowl-edge skills at creation, with no skill over themaximum rating of 4. A suggested distributionof skills are one skill at rating 4, two at rating 3,three at rating 2, and four skills at rating 1 (ie, a4-cap pyramid), although this is not required.

Skills do not change when you download into anew morph, they are inherent to the Ego, al-though some morphs may grant access to addi-tional skill points whilst an Ego is in that Morph.

Cluster/System skillsArt/Culture/TechBrokerageBureaucracyProfession (any)Reputation (Track)Languages (optional)

Manipulation skillsAnimal HandlingIntimidationOratoryPersuasion

Combat skillsAlertnessBrawlingClose CombatEnergy WeaponsImplanted WeaponryKinetic WeaponryMicroG

Space based skillsCommunicationComputerEngineeringEVAGunneryNavigationPilot

Morph specific skillsAgilityMorph FabricationOverrideStealth

Other technical skillsArchaeologyDemolitionsMedicineRepair

ScienceTacticsVehicle


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Attribute and Skill RollsMost rolls in Transhuman Fate should be 4dFplus a combination of two attributes, or an at-tribute and one skill, against a standard fixeddifficulty or opposed roll. A character may poten-tially be rolling 4dF+7 for their best combinationof skills and attributes, and this will skew interac-

tions with non-transhuman characters. Forexample:

Making a good first impression when youare introduced to the prince and princess:roll Charisma+ Appearance;

Trying to sneak past a patrolling guard: rollCo-ordination+ Stealthagainst an opposedroll ofSensor+ Alertness;Calculate the code to stop the bomb count-down before it detonates from the formula inthe plans you stole from the villain: rollLogic+ Override.

Morph StuntsAll stunts are particular to the current Morph in-habited by the Ego. In the digital world inhabitedby the Ego, there is still a limit on how much in-formation a cortical stack can store. Morphs giveEgos a way to interact with the world, often inunique ways. Even though characters may onlystart with a max attribute rating of 3, and maxskill rating of 4, these limits may be modified bystunts provided by the morph they inhabit.

Some morphs have the ability to unlock higherpotentials in the Ego, others may grant addi-tional skill points that broaden or enhance acharacters Knowledge access. In another depar-ture from the base Diaspora rules, a charactermay have more than three Stunts as they arebought with points instead.

Players may spend 7 pointson the Stunts listed below,although I have retained

much of the free-form natureof the stunt system as awhole rather than building acomprehensive list of thingsto choose from.

Listed after the benefit of the particular stunt isthe (cost) of the stunt in the brackets.Stunts

+2 extra Ego Attribute points (3)+2 extra Morph Attribute points (3)

Extra Knowledge Skill points (1 + 1 per skill)+1 extra Knowledge skill point (2);+2 extra Knowledge skill points (3);

+3 extra Knowledge skill points (4); etcMilitary Grade Knowledge (1)Implanted Weapon (2 per rating in Harm

+ 1 per rating of Penetration)Integral Equipment (2)Swap-a-Skill [Use X for Y up to rating 3] (1)Use My Skill [up to rating 3] Instead (1)

Take a bonus [from a skill of 3 or more] fora +1 to your roll (2)

Increase a Maxed Attribute from 3 to 4 (2)Increase a Maxed Knowledge from 4 to 5

(2)Resilient [4 consequences] (1)Lucky [consequence progression 2/3/4] (1)Extra Stress Box (1 + 1 per extra box; limits

apply)Extra boxes purchased are for one trackonly; Must be purchased again to in-crease another track; Maximum of +3

boxes for any one track.Skill Replacement [change modifying skill

for Reputation Stress Track] (2)Attribute Replacement [change modifying

attribute for Composure or IntegrityStress Tracks] (3)

Destiny [+1 FP refresh] (4)

Stress TracksAll characters start with 3 ranks in each stresstrack before modification or stunts. These tracksare:

Composure, how mentally stable the Ego is,and is modified by the Resolve attribute;

Integrity, a measure of the "health" of themorph, and is modified by the Structureattribute;

Standing, a way to show the character's so-cial and economic access, which ismodified by their Reputation skill.

Integrity replaces the Health track from the baseDiaspora characters, and Standing replaces the

Wealth track. Otherwise, these tracks work likeany other but are calculated differently. Charac-ters gain:

+1 to a track if they have arating of 1 in the linkedattribute or skill; or

+2 if they have a rating of 2or 3; or

+3 if they have a rating 4 or5 in the linked attribute orskill.

These bonuses are in addition to any extraTrack boxes purchased with stunts.


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Cluster:

Homeworld:

Name:

Current FPs (Refresh): ( )

ASPECTSGrowing Up: Ego Aspect:

Starting Out: Morph Aspect:

Moment Of Crisis: Morph Stunt Aspect:

Sidetracked: Knowledges Aspect:

On Your Own: Free Aspect:

EGO Base(7pts)

Stunt

BonusTotal

Charisma

Resolve

Intuition

Logic

Co-Ordination

KNOWLEDGES Base(20)

Stunt

BonusTotal

MORPH Base(7pts)

Stunt

BonusTotal

Appearance

Structure

Response

Integration

Sensors

MORPH STUNTS (7pts)

STRESS TRACKS

Composure O O O

Integrity O O OStanding O O O


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14. Reformation: If any provision of this License is held to be unenforceable, such provision shall be reformed only to the extentnecessary to make it enforceable.15. COPYRIGHT NOTICEOpen Game License v 1.0 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.FATE (Fantastic Adventures in Tabletop Entertainment) 2003 by Evil Hat Productions LLC; Authors Robert Donoghue and FredHicks.Diaspora 2009, VSCA Publishing. Authors Brad Murray, C.W. Marshall, Tim Dyke, and Byron Kerr.Eclipse Phase 2009 Posthuman Studios, LLC. Eclipse Phase is a trademark of Posthuman Studios, LLC. Some content li-censed under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-SA); Some Rights Reserved.http://eclipsephase.com.The Transhuman FATE of Diaspora 2011 by Matthew Gooding, Author Matthew Gooding; Also known as Reaganstorme, andcan be emailed at Reaganstorme (at) Gmail (dot) com.

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