Suppose a character merges another ego into his own using the experimental ego-merging procedures described in Transhuman. Does the character pay with RP for any improvements (to aptitudes, skills etc.) gained, or are they considered already balanced by the difficulty of the procedure and its drawbacks?
Welcome! These forums will be deactivated by the end of this year. The conversation continues in a new morph over on Discord! Please join us there for a more active conversation and the occasional opportunity to ask developers questions directly! Go to the PS+ Discord Server.
[Transhuman] Ego merging and RP
Mon, 2013-09-02 05:50
#1
babayaga
[Transhuman] Ego merging and RP
Tue, 2013-09-03 02:43
#2
DivineWrath
Don't the rules say you
Don't the rules say you suffer RP debt? Or am I thinking merging forks to gain skills?
*Edit before posting: I didn't see any mention of a character needing to spend RP when I double checked merging different egos, so I guess no. The description does mention that it relies on just as much luck as skill, so maybe you should get what you get.
Thinking things over, doing such ego merging is a lot like Russian Roulette. Things can end badly (and likely will with -60 mod to the test from the get go). You gain skills, you lose skills, you get all negative traits of the secondary ego, you gain the mental disorder [Multiple Personalities], you take the lowest moxie rating of the 2 egos, you don't retain all the primary ego's memories and retain only few of the secondary ego's memories, and you take a lot of stress (which might cause a number of new mental problems).
You can mitigate some of these problems with a high margin of success, but that isn't likely to fix all the problems caused. Considering that you started with a -60 mod, you should be considered lucky if you succeed at all, let alone do well.
Tue, 2013-09-03 05:41
#3
thezombiekat
I have not read that section
I have not read that section yet but exceptional successes on a incredibly hard check can be achieved with alarming reliability.
First take the psychosurgery skill at 80, specialise in ego merging, Rack up the max +60 with some tool assistant and complementary skill bonuses and your TN on the actual check is 110 (99 always fails but for margin of success your golden) then with a point of moxy can change a success into a critical success, this gives you an 80% chance of a critical excellent success.
Tue, 2013-09-03 12:15
#4
nerdnumber1
Yeah, given time, effort, and
Yeah, given time, effort, and moxie, this is far from an impossible task. I don't know if there are strict rules for this. I'd say GM discretion, based on circumstances and result. The merge might end up with an npc.
Tue, 2013-09-03 12:22
#5
DivineWrath
@ thezombiekat
@ thezombiekat
I don't think the rules work like that.
1. I don't think you can have a target number beyond 98. As such, I don't think it would be possible to get an 80% chance of an excellent success. 69% at best (with a target number of 98). The rules for going to skills of 100 or beyond are quite fuzzy, so everything is probably house rules at that point.
2. The benefits of a critical success is not defined in context of Merging different egos. I don't anything special will happen because of the dice roll being a critical. Likewise the benefits of an excellent success isn't defined either. The only thing that is defined in regards to success is what you can do with margin of success.
3. I don't think that a critical excellent success is a real thing. I think its either a critical success or an excellent success.
Wed, 2013-09-04 03:14
#6
thezombiekat
DivineWrath wrote:@
on this you might be correct. i don't think the rules specify what happens if your accumulated bonuses get add to better than 98. i had assumed MoS would be based on the total value but 99 is still crit fail, but it could be that MoS is calculated from 98 and any ability beyond that just covers for potential pore circumstances.
ok, if MoS effects are defined that replaces excellent successes, the GM should give some bonus for critical successes but it could be variable.
on this i am confident you are mistaken. if for example i shoot somebody TN 60 role 22 they fail fray i get both +5 damage and bypass armor.
Wed, 2013-09-04 11:11
#7
nerdnumber1
The last sentence of the
The last sentence of the section (right before the Indentures and Infugees section) says that a critical success halves the SV from merging different egos.