MonSTeR

Night City, Autumn 2023.

It’s a typical night for this time of year, cool and still. Off in the distance somewhere to the west a fireball and plume of smoke rise into the sky followed by the sound of an explosion. But that isn’t your problem.

There’s a shipment of Stims coming in from down in LA across the NorCal/SoCal border. And it’s late.

The parking lot is in a scarcely populated part of town. It’s down from the docks, south of 32nd street on the east side but not in the combat zone. Well, not quite. Sporadic gunfire echoes from the south and a 15 year old Ford Taurus speeds past heading north. The abandoned supermarket has no power but the streetlamps nearby still do. The nearby buildings seem mostly vacant and those who still live in the area wouldn’t bat an eyelid at the van standing across the street, out of either familiarity or fear. Chances are the cops wouldn't bother to come down here if they were called anyway.

Bloodbath sits in the driver’s seat of the van, Shrap sits in the back with Jin monitoring the IR sensor for approaching hostiles. Rat and the two solos stand outside. Rat checks his watch. They should be here by now.

The real problems come when something with a massively spliced or tailored genome tries to breed. Most likely the mate will have to be something rediculously similar, otherwise no offspring would be sired. That's assuming the genetic modification hasn't rendered the subject infertile already. To be modified as a result of somatic gene alteration at ANY stage past blastomere is going to be nigh on impossible due to the developmental changes in the cells themselves and the predetermined developmental routes the cells will have already taken to give a human physiology. It's unlikely that a subject would survive the procedure making snowtiger's

Quote:

A bit obsolete. With an extrapolation of today's technologies even using the CP2020 curve as a guideline, there's very little chance of the procedure being able to be carried out on an adult, so there wouldn't be choice to be part animal as well as part human. The choice would be human or corpse with nanites and spliced animal DNA in it's partially altered cells.

Like I said before certain folks like to go down different paths in their CP world. Personally I stay away from this radical hybridisation stuff. It's just a little too much like a game of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" to be cyberpunk.

Quote from manu, posted on Oct. 27 2001,14:08

The problem here is the source of the DNA rather than sequence as I see it. By 2020, given snowtiger's technological leaps and bounds, it might be wholey possible to completely synthesise a genome thus there would be NO human DNA and NO tiger DNA at all. Just selected coding of base pairs written on a computer by an AI. The finished genome could be inserted into a nanotechnologically constructed cell and allowed to develop under hot-house conditions until of full adult size.

Under these conditions there's nothing human at all about the resultant organism save for the fact it shares some "quoted" DNA from a generic human genome. Then when you add in the fact that it's a 1) secret and 2) military project... The poor thing will have less rights than the synthetic amniotic fluid it gestated in. For all intents and purposes .. it wouldn't even exist.

I think nanotech weapons like that would be the next nuclear "mutually assured destruction" But I can see nanotech being utilised in camoflage and other similar roles, a new technology for conventional warfare if you will.

I personally think in the real world as it stands at the moment "intent" is the most important aspect of a fight. Surprise is handy especially if the other guy knows what he's doing, and most folks who's get in a fight tend to have some form of Violence (admittedly some blokes flail madly and then later proclaim it was some ancient obscure "drunken boxing kung fu" )

But the willingness and intent to incapacitate a foe is in my mind the thing that usually determines the outcome of a fight. Often before the fight has even started.

I think many of us consider the idea of that successful a hybridisation between two such different species very unrealistic even considering the unrealistic nature of much of the cyberpunk mythos. I think many of the folks here consider the tiger/human hybrid to be a bit more comic-book/sci-fi/fantasy than "true" cyberpunk and whilst it might belong in a game of say "Marvel superheroes" or similar, I personally don't think I'd have one running around doing covert ops in "my" CP2020 gameworld.

Some people like to push the boundaries of the genre, but not all push them in the same direction.

Quote from Golgotha, posted on Oct. 18 2001,02:25

Yes but the original V1.0 was by far the most popular of these FBC's the V2. only lasted a single black op and was replaced by the V3.0 which was a re-hash of the Saint Class FBC. The V3.0 had an enhanced sense of humour module but had a glitch in it's eyebrow servomotors. This defect along with the humour enhancements was removed from the V4.01 model which was in production until the recent V5 model which remains in production today and which many think is the best since the original V1.0 which was actually reactivated once with an additional techhair adaption during the production run of one of the later models.

Quote from Snowtiger, posted on Oct. 17 2001,11:17

Says he of the white bengal tiger/ human hybrid fame  

going by Golgotha's idea for a guy at 130 kg - I think you're looking in the same ballpark at somthing like 25 kg.

I've always maintained that the GM's role is more to narrate the story than to play in it. He hasto remain truly neutral, or if he has any bias it should be towards the side of the players. So phipps is right - if the PC makes a roll he makes it. If the NPC fumbles a roll he fumbles.

Dramatic license has has it's place, true, but it's supposed to enhance the story not the end of level badguy's killer uberweapon damage!!!

I haven't played a table game for a while now, less than 5 years mind But we're about to embark on our first VftE forum game, hopefully with more to come soon

Quote from DragoonCav, posted on Oct. 09 2001,21:32

Watch Me  

Quote from DragoonCav, posted on Oct. 09 2001,00:37

You mean the whole section on full borgs?!?!?

Exactly Psychophipps an AV incident, or a car wreck on the freeway, or an earthquake, or...

Quote from Stephane, posted on Aug. 19 2001,08:20

There ya go DragoonCav, Stephane said it before, I said it again with the page references,  

I worry that if a land war does happen as so many think is inevitable, that it'll kinda be like vietnam...only with less jungle and more rocks:(

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Quote from Hanns, posted on Oct. 01 2001,06:15

Imagine that the cops go beating up every suspect for a crime. In a very short period of time you either piss off a lot of people (and revenge is a motherf*cker) or you start receiving letters from the corporate lawyers of Arasaka "Dear sirs, due to the severe beating my innocent client received at the hands of your officers, it is my duty to inform you that a judgement has already been made in favor of my client. Please make an immediate remittance of 387.2 billion eb or the assets of your precint will be seized and auctioned and all employees will be sold to Leprous Salt Mines Inc. to cover the damages. Thankyou and have a wonderful day". Sure, this doesn't apply too much in the combat zone but hey, cops don't go there in the first place right?

    Hanns

Nope not every suspect, just the ones who happen to be either a PC or anyone who has to employ legal representation with "sleazy lawyer" skill at +2

If you can afford corporate legal advice you can afford to wear a suit that encourages cops to take bribes or leave you alone, or membership of the chief of police's country club. Either way you'll be a fine upstanding member of society no matter how much narcotics trafficing you do

Quote:

originally posted by Hanns

What does this mean to you punks out there? It means that the cops or whoever can't prove that you massacred all those Hari Krishna's at the airport. They might find your gun but as long as you're using a different lot or manufacturer of ammo then they can't prove anything. They might be able to accuse you but any defense attorney with a skill of Sleazy Lawyer +2 will be able to get you off due to insufficient evidence.

    What sort of slushy nice-guy sunshiny-day gameworld do you play in... Cops that bother to "accuse" a suspect, that bother to prove anything? Next you'll be saying that the cops in your world even read their "suspects" their rights!!!

Quote:

originally posted by Hanns

  (I'm a bastard, y'all just need to learn it the hard way)

instead of the easy way you're showing us at the moment?!?!

Quote from psychophipps, posted on Sep. 30 2001,09:07

it's all about more data

See that's the single most important piece of information on this entire thread. **I** wanted to see psychophipps' damage rules. He very kindly posted them for me and everyone else.

He's not asking anyone else to use them or even to look at them, just showing what HE uses.

I've personally always been curious to find a "universal truth" to the damage system, but one that doesn't require me or the players to hold multiple PhD.s in balistics, anatomy, statisics and an MD in trauma medicine.

If I had the time or the access to the hard data AND the knowledge required I'd like to see a system that could take into account armour penetration and damage that gets through but that doesn't rely on the same single damage roll for BOTH these factors.

There was an old D&D type game called "Dragon Warriors" that used to roll once to see if the armour was penetrated and once for damage or something. Maybe somewhere along the line I'll get round to something like that for CP2020.

Not a waste of time amigo, I for one appreciate it

Thanks

If you have the time to post it Psychophipps, I'm REALLY interested in seeing it.

Quote from psychophipps, posted on Sep. 26 2001,12:03

i use so many optional rules that i might as well just make my own system from the ground up...*LOL*

guess i better get started on it, eh?

Mark(psycho)Phipps( HAHAHA! )

OOOooooh Let me have a copy of it when you're done

I read the LARP forum Annie - from time to time. I just get upset that I never seem to be in the right place at the right time to play one

Psychhophipps... Is it that weapons don't do enough damage or that armour is too powerful?