[K5pbem] My Thoughts On Restarting the K5 PBEM

[Mathieu Roy]

Greg Ewing wrote:

>I am working on getting someone else hooked, He has never played Hero (D20 :(), but imo has an appropriate set of thought processes for the world.  ;)
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:) That's always good. D20 gets a bad rap, but it's a decent system for 
some things. And there's variants like Mutants and Masterminds, which is 
brilliant (but you can tell the guy did his research and read the HERO book)

>Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make a cyborg who ALSO has a "combat computer/AI) that can 
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It strikes me that what you're trying to do here is have your character 
be able to perform certain actions, and the "combat computer/AI" is a 
special effect explaining your ability to do them. For example:

>1)navigate/perform research/other such acts
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Just buy the skills, perhaps with the cybernetic limitation.

>2)operate some subset of his weapons while he operates the rest
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Buy some skills for multiple weapon use or skill levels to offset the 
penalties of shooting multiple targets with different powers. Also buy 
extra limbs, so you can manipulate the "inbuilt" extra weapons as if you 
were John Wooing with two pistols. :)

>3)Execute evasion subroutines if he is knocked out, for instance
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Extra STUN and CON, with limitations as to what you can do when you take 
them.

>4) keep watch while he is sleeping.
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Life Support: does not sleep. SFX: you really are sleeping, but the AI 
has the same senses as you and wakes you up instantly when it needs to. 
Same overall effect.

>I could write up an AI, but then, how to incorporate it?   I looked at the Bestiary writeup for a Hydra, to see if that would work, but I don't think that is quite it. 
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I think you may be trying too hard. The AI isn't a separate intelligence 
in game terms; rather, it is a SFX that lets you do things, like "not 
sleep" and "use navigation skills". You can certainly buy a computer to 
have it be a separate entity as well, if you like, but I think what you 
really need here is limited powers for your own use.

I guess that another option is to create the AI as a follower and simply 
have it "attached to you" -- this has its benefits and its downsides.

Mat