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Genehackers

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Thu, 2013-01-24 13:59

Prophet710 Prophet710's picture

Genehackers

What the heck do they really do anyway? What's the point of playing one? I understand designing mods and morphs and such, but with such an expansive list of both what is the point of actually playing one or even having them as something other than a NPC? Can you make new mods/better mods with them? Or just use their extensive science skills for a more academic/less cinematic type of game?

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"And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us."

Thu, 2013-01-24 19:43

OneTrikPony OneTrikPony's picture

Firewall probably needs that

Firewall probably needs that skill set for about 50% of the x-threats they encounter. hollywood would have us believing that krav-maga and gunfue are the primary skills required for espionage and investigation. The truth is, it's fucking near impossible to write a sensible story around that skill set. In any action movie look at the people who are standing beside the protagonist and all of the people the protagonist calls on the phone. Then ask yourself; how many of those people could have solved the central conflict of the plot Faster and with fewer "cinematic" repercussions. Those are the people who do the real work. There is your genehacker. :) I like to tell players; "Cinematic games are ok, but don't blame me if your car explodes [u]every time[/u] it gets shot." ;)

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Mea Culpa: My mode of speech can make others feel uninvited to argue or participate. This is the EXACT opposite of what I intend when I post.

Thu, 2013-01-24 23:41

revengespc revengespc's picture

I imagine they come in handy

I imagine they come in handy for working up countermeasures for the more... exotic x-risks. Like making a Factor virus, dissecting an Exsurgent to discover a weakness, remaking the Remade, etc. If you're particularly clever you might encode military secrets into an organism's junk DNA.

Fri, 2013-01-25 10:27

Prophet710 Prophet710's picture

OK great so we have some uses.

Now, as a PC then, if one isn't tailoring specific inoculations or studying xeno-bio mass, could one craft unique augmentations and morphs? Genehacking still confuses me, it seems like a mix of Titanian Explorer and Gatecrasher as opposed to super-science-freak that can make stuff like Tony Stark.

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"And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us."

Mon, 2013-01-28 19:08

OneTrikPony OneTrikPony's picture

"Super science freak who can

"Super science freak who can make stuff" is the intent of the genehacker but if you want a PC that is on the Tony Stark scale you should realize that you're putting a huge load on the GM and stretching the system. The rules framework for the genehacker would be in the Programming skill. So unless you're super excited about the prospect of doing what genehackers actually do IRL--spending months and years researching and testing genetic tweaks--I wouldn't recommend trying to play a genehacker. I'm not saying that there's no excitement available in the concept. People today, amateurs even, are doing very interesting and sometimes potentially useful things. But MacGyvering up some solution to a problem or a morph with a +5 bonus to (Some Statistic) is hard to contain in the bounds of a regular adventure timeline.

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Mea Culpa: My mode of speech can make others feel uninvited to argue or participate. This is the EXACT opposite of what I intend when I post.

Mon, 2013-01-28 23:47

revengespc revengespc's picture

Especially considering morph

Especially considering morph growth times. Most genehacking talent seems to go into the growth of full-on biomorphs, which take months to a couple years to be grown, rather than pods (which still could take up to a month.) More practical would be whipping up retroviral upgrades to use on your teammates, which would take a few days to work (though the process can be painful).

Wed, 2013-01-30 07:08

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Prophet710 wrote:What the

Prophet710 wrote:
What the heck do they really do anyway? What's the point of playing one?

What is the point of playing a hyperelite or a xenoarcheologist? Some professions might not be action-oriented or have abilities that can be brought to bear quickly, yet are an integral part of the setting and potentially quite powerful. Biohackers control life itself: they are the ones that make morphs grow, design viruses and ecosystems, figure out how to get implants to play nicely with the body or how to make fire-breathing dragons as pets. They can sequence genomes and figure out just *what* that thing is, and why it is contagious. They make total sense for a more investigative or academic game. I would say they are not likely to make mods significantly better than what you can buy (remember that those have major hypercorp research teams or open source projects plus years of testing behind them) but that they can tweak things to make them do things differently from what they were intended to function. They can create new kinds of organisms with the right kind of equipment, including downright deadly "pets" (remember those poisonous marmosets at TAU? that was a student prank). So from a points and rule perspective they are likely not too exciting, but if you want to think about bioengineering and have characters that create part of their setting, they are great. Think ribofunk rather than cyberpunk. This is stuff that grows and takes time, but boy does it get weird and wonderful when it matures. Meathab is the epitome of what a biohacker can do.

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Fri, 2013-02-22 23:29

jackgraham jackgraham's picture

Every played the board game

Every played the board game Pandemic? Genehackers would win at that shit. They can also make fluorescent bunnies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alba_%28rabbit%29

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J A C K G R A H A M :: Hooray for Earth! http://eclipsephase.com :: twitter @jackgraham @faketsr :: Google+Jack Graham

Mon, 2013-02-25 21:22

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

CSI New Shanghai

You want an easy to plot adventure for genehackers? Look at the CSI shows. Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) would make an awesome Genehacker working for Medusa Shields. More into a militaristic set campaign? A fall survivor nicknamed Ducky or perky Lost surrogate daughter of a seasoned PC, named simply Abby, would fit right in! Or maybe a really devious and mad scientist Mengele wannabe AGI called Pavel could inspire you A funny hyper active Remade scientist speaking a mile a minute with a passion for opera and genetic but with a past of Fall war criminal trying to find redemption by helping stop X Risks, answering to the name of Mordin Solus So many inspirations to pick from...

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