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Modifying Multi-tasking; or: How I became a Multi-Ego Exhuman

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uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture
Modifying Multi-tasking; or: How I became a Multi-Ego Exhuman
I have a player who intends to play a Belter/Pirate type who got trapped on a lifeboat for a few months by himself after a failed pirate attack (he was one of the pirates). This led him to alter his Multi-tasking implant (the one that creates two temporary forks that run concurrently with the main ego) so as to make company to keep him sane. So now he is running his character like a Fork-Family and I wanted to make sure that was kosher or made sense. Could Multi-tasking by subverted to create a situation to allow multiple egos to reside, a little bit like the Multiple Personality augmentation? I thought it was a colorful origin story for a unique character regardless.
Exhuman, and Humanitarian.
ThatWhichNeverWas ThatWhichNeverWas's picture
Army of One.
Oh, that is a simply delightful concept. The mechanics do need a bit of thought though, depending on how you rule the Multitasking augment works. The most simple version would to rule that it has two inbuilt cyberbrains, and so all the character needed to do is disable the automatic merge/fork functions, converting the augment into a pair of ghostriders. This is simple, but also a tad boring. In my mind, the forks from the MT-Aug aren't complete, but instead share critical components such as memory with the Alpha. This would, however, preclude personality drift beyond psychosurgical overlays. Imo the most interesting version is if the character has given himself (either through messing with the implant or through purposeful psychosurgery) a very mild case of Multiple Personality Syndrome, which only triggers through the use MT-Augs. At it's most basic, this could simply be a Neutral Trait, but is a perfect excuse for the character to possess +/- traits such as Hardening (Isolation) or Anomalous mind. If you're willing to go full houserule, then I'd propose allowing him to always act as if he had a MT-Aug, as long as he applies the cost of the blueprint with his +Trait limit.
In the past we've had to compensate for weaknesses, finding quick solutions that only benefit a few. But what if we never need to feel weak or morally conflicted again?
uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture
Oh good point.
Oh good point. I will have see how to go about complicating this for him, which he is fine with, mostly I was just worried that doing it this way would accidentally break some rule or allow something overpowering, or was impossible via the setting. I like these ideas about anomalous mind, definitely intend to complicate things for him.
Exhuman, and Humanitarian.
ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture
I have to wonder how much
I have to wonder how much psychosurgery the forks have undergone by the alpha to make them different. and further how stable would the results of those tweaks be. Also you need to force him into a wilson moment }:D>
Ryse1095 Ryse1095's picture
Modifying Multi-tasking; or: How I became a Multi-Ego Exhuman
I like the thought of this. If I were to GM this situation I'd probably rule it possible, since forks that are separated for a long time tend to diverge anyway, but I'd say that the interactions between them are limited and they can't fully form into their own people until the character buys ghostrider modules/additional cyberbrains for them, since there simply isn't enough space in one brain to support so many different egos You may also want to consider the role of a muse in this. You say he made the forks for company, but that is literally what muses are for, plus there's the mesh, granted his situation might leave him out of mesh range but even so, being completely alone is hard in the EP universe
uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture
He was out in the Main Belt
He was out in the Main Belt region, well out of Mesh range (otherwise how would Carbon Reaver piracy occur if they had wifi out there?), but that's a good point about the Muse.
Exhuman, and Humanitarian.