While we got some good examples in the Sample Characters,
I am curious if there is going to be some form of illustrations
for the various Morphs in upcoming products? As in some
good examples of common looks for them? How, for instance, can
someone tell just by looking at it that a Pleasure Pod is a Pleasure
Pod? What else other then the purple skin and Mayan Style head
produces the Uncanny Valley? Heck, what would the Uncanny Valley
trait look like on a Sylph or Bouncer?
I know, most people would probably say "They look human," but, really, do
they look human? Do they have no common visible physical characteristics that
one can use to differentiate them? I mean..people can tell one morp from another by looking at it, right?
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What *DO* they look like?
Sun, 2009-08-23 02:24
#1
Cardul
What *DO* they look like?
Here are my thoughts on it, not all of which are made clear in the game yet:
A lot of morphs come in standard models that would be recognizable in the sense that someone can recognize the make of a car. For example, there are likely many different mass-produced models of exalt morphs, manufactured by different hypercorps and the like. If you see a morph that looks very similar to, say, Bruce Willis, for example, you can be fairly certain it's the same exalt morph made by Skinthetic or whomever that you've seen in all of the Body Bank catalogs.
It's also possible that some people advertise their morph type in their mesh/social network profiles. Certain morphs are likely seen as signs of wealth, particularly if they were crafted by a famous genehacker.
That said, there are plenty of reasons a morph may not be immediately distinguishable. It could be a unique design, it could be bio-sculpted or customized to not look like an off-the-rack model, it could be a less popular variant, or it could simply come from a lesser known company.
When it comes to pods, there are social and possibly legal reasons for making pods easily identifiable. Since pods were originally designed as biological androids, piloted by AIs, authorities who worry about such things would probably have implemented guidelines or restrictions for making them visually distinguishable. When assigning art for EP, I told artists that pods should have a "constructed" sort of look, with intentional seam lines given around joints and muscle groups, as you can see with the pleasure pod sample character. Again, however, it wouldn't be difficult to make pods that didn't have these visual tells.
Anyone with the Uncanny Valley trait is recognizable as "off" -- that's the whole point of the trait. They fall into that category where they are very human-looking, but just different enough to come across as creepy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
To sum it up: sometimes it's easy to tell what morph someone is in, but not always. Generally this is up for the GM to decide, and it's what certain Knowledge skills like Interests: Morph Designs might be useful for.
Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios
I imagine you already did not intend to include then, but I am going to be snarky and say the Uplifts. *grins stupidly*
But other than that, it does appear that the Bouncer is the only humanoid Sample BioMorph that has a large difference from the Splicer, what with its monkey feet. However the Remade is quite different from the standard, I currently imagine them as looking like a Human/Gray Hybrid. Elongated head, bigger eyes, small ears, long fingers? That just screams "Look at me, my Mum slept with an Alien".
Also, not sure if this is actually correct, but what I think of as Rusters looking is summed up quite well on page 133, the red skinned lassie. It makes sense that the Ruster name is something to do with their appearance and not just living on the red planet (Even if it isn't really all that red).
Although I am of the mind that all the different Morphs have *something* that distinguises them from the masses. Whats the point of dropping 10,000+ Credits on a Slyph model Morph is noone else knows that you just did?
Yeah, being an Uplift in the Junta would probably be a bad idea. Same with being a Remade. In my version of the Junta, which is slightly more dickish than the one in the book, being in possession of certain items is basically a death warrant. And I might introduce Hunters, hired by the Junta itself to hunt down those individuals who dare sleeve themselves into such abominations. *cough Bladerunner cough*
One of those items is a genetically modified Morph. Hopefully Sunward will go into detail about such things, at the moment we have a general idea of all the different worlds but nothing that concrete.
Of course the wealthy elite ignore this and get themselves sleeved into all kinds of decadant things, but you cant touch them. Their rich.
Initially this bothered me too but then I remembered the mesh.
AR cues and/or your muse probably tell you in 99% of normal situations.
Having said that more pictures would have been nice. There are a few sample characters that have one picture but have a different morph (Scum Enforcer) or appear radically different from the description of their morph (the Criminal Hacker appears to have a major central body, even though the swarmanoid doesn't have one (though you'd think they'd have hive at least from reading the nanotech section.)
the Criminal Hacker appears to have a major central body, even though the swarmanoid doesn't have one
It does? Where?
Nope. That's just a close-up of a few swarm units. The whole picture is a river of them flowing away from the viewer, starting at the lower left.
Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios
"Let’s face it: Most of us are just here to shoot stormtroopers." - Gary M. Sarli
Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios
Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios
+1 r-Rep , +1 @-rep
Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios
+1 r-Rep , +1 @-rep
"Let’s face it: Most of us are just here to shoot stormtroopers." - Gary M. Sarli
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