Most morphs get aptitude bonuses. Some improve mental performance, some improve physical performance, some even improve performance in social situations. Likewise, there is a cap on aptitudes, but most morphs raise the cap beyond normal human potential.
However, where exactly do these bonuses come from?
-Are they where ever they would do the most good? For instance, a COG bonus would be in the brain, while a SOM bonus would be distributed throughout the body.
-Are they all in the brain? If so, could you install a better quality cyberbrain into a synthmorph (or biomorph) and expect to get better bonuses? Could a mere Flat or Case be dramatically improved if one where to install a really good brain into one?
Some of the reasons I'm asking these questions is:
1. I don't really know.
2. In the morph creation rules, putting enough CP into augmentations and traits would cause the price of aptitude bonuses to increase (which imply that they are some how related).
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Where do aptitude bonuses come from?
Thu, 2014-07-24 13:56
#1
DivineWrath
Where do aptitude bonuses come from?
Thu, 2014-07-24 15:11
#2
branford
I think the various aptitude
I think the various aptitude bonuses are reflections of genetic and transgenetic improvements over the baseline human (flat). You can represent them however you wish, for example, increased neural density, augmented muscle tissue, wider synaptic pathways, etc. The bonuses to synths are just mechanical and electronic analogs to these biological improvements, e.g., dedicated and faster processors, more robust construction, enhanced sensors, etc.
If you're interested in some suggestions for how biological upgrades to humans can be represented, you may wish to read other informative RPG supplements like Shadowrun (the bio and cybernetic equipment sections), particularly Augmentation for 4th Edition, and my personal favorite, Biotech for Gurps 3rd of 4th Edition.
I also think that the increased CP cost for higher aptitude bonuses are simply for purposes of game balance.
Thu, 2014-07-24 15:18
#3
Googleshng
Officially, as a general rule
Officially, as a general rule of thumb, all the stats are mental stats, all morphs are in the peak of physical condition, and (if I'm properly recalling), any morph-derived bonuses are strictly a matter of having neural architecture which makes it easier to think along the appropriate lines.
That said though, there's a lot of morphs where bonuses are tied in at least a bit to certain aspects of the body. So a big hulking brute of a morph would possibly have a SOM bonus even if the wiring of its brain wasn't necessarily all that great (although it's hard to say, since if you're designing a morph along those lines, you'd kinda want to rig the brain up to match the body).
On the other hand, improving just the brain absolutely can, canonically, rationalize bonuses and limits to any given stat. Do try to look for trends in the limits/bonuses to existing bio and synth morphs though. I think there's some basic design philosophy issues the creation rules don't really encourage.
Thu, 2014-07-24 21:48
#4
Tiberia
Som is the one that confuses
Som is the one that confuses me as a mental stat.
if your ego has a som of 5 and you sleeve into a Daitya (p. 23 morph recognition guide, sorry I don't know where it is originally from). Your Som would be 20 (5 + 15 from daitya). The daitya is a heavy lifting synthmorph that is twice the height of a regular morph.
Now say your ego has a Som of 20 and you sleeve into a neotenic. The child morph.
the neotenic has equal Som to the Daitya in this situation. So does that mean the neotenic can hit as hard, lift as much, and is just as strong as the daitya?
It makes sense that Som bonuses are in the muslces, servos, and "skeletal" structure of the morph. But where does Som come from in the ego?
Thu, 2014-07-24 22:12
#5
Chernoborg
I'll answer that with a
I'll answer that with a resounding...sort of! SOM is a measure of how well you use the body you're in. So for your example, it's not how much you can do in a neotenic as it is how badly they're piloting the daitya. That same SOM 20 character would have 35 in the daitya and likely could pick up an egg without breaking it while the SOM 5 guy flails around on the ground when he tried to pick up a car without checking if the ground could support him!
Not that I think the option for physical stats would be a bad thing, mind you!
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Fri, 2014-07-25 03:12
#6
ShadowDragon8685
A Neotenic should probably
A Neotenic should probably have a lower SOM maximum than 20...
But I should point out that having a Somatics score of 5 is [i]crippled.[/i] It's the kind of score an AGI who has literally never been a physical entity before in its life would have.
Even people who are really, [i]fantastically[/i] out-of-shape and unused to physical exertion probably have a Somatics score of 10 or 15 - it's just that their morphs, to use the EP terms, hobble them so badly that they're hitting the morph's maximum.
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Fri, 2014-07-25 05:51
#7
Lorsa
DivineWrath wrote:However,
I've always understood it as the bonuses are coming from genes. The genetics enhance various parts of the morph and as such a SOM bonus would be in the muscle fibers and the nerves connecting them. I don't think they are all in the brain as such, but I do think many of them need, or depend on, nerve structure in one way or another
I don't think you can "just replace the brain" of a Flat and thus get lots of new bonuses. You would have to work with the augmentations that exist, installing new muscle fibers or neural enhancers etc. Even so, if some parts of the body are being destroyed and then repaired in a healing vat, the augmentation may have to be installed again.
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Fri, 2014-07-25 06:51
#8
branford
Lorsa wrote:DivineWrath wrote
We appear to agree.
However, I think the greatest source of confusion in the rules is how the somatic score is part of the ego, rather than solely the body.
I understand that SOM as both an ego's ability to effectively utilize a body as well as the physical strength and stamina of a morph. A EP FAQ explaining somatics would be helpful, particularly for new players.
Fri, 2014-07-25 07:16
#9
DivineWrath
Some augmentations really do
Some augmentations really do improve aptitudes. The Daitya for instance, has Hardened Skeleton, which, among other things, provides a +5 bonus to SOM (so the Daitya is really a +10 SOM morph). Other such augmentations that boost aptitudes include, Adrenal Boost (+10 REF), Muscle Augmentation (+5 SOM), Cyberlimb Plus (+5 SOM, +10 max if you nab 2 or more), and Reflex Booster (+10 REF). Those augments are definite instances where you don't just get a slight boost to aptitudes, but a major one.
There are also a number of drugs that do boost aptitudes as well.
Some morphs have SOM caps different than their aptitude cap average. For instance, morphs like the Neotonic (a SOM cap of 20 instead of 30) and the Daitya (a SOM cap of 40 instead of 30). The morph creation rules even puts a limit on maximum SOM due to size.
Eidolons however, can get aptitude bonuses just like morphs. They don't need bodies for those sorts of things. They can even get aptitude bonuses to things that wouldn't make much sense to a "corporeally challenged" being, like REF and SOM. The fact that Eidolons can get all these things without a physical body does make me wonder if any of these aptitude stuff should belong to the body at all.
----
It is certainly hard to say. I would argue it is the other way around. If you had a morph a with good SOM brain, you might want it to be big (higher durability) and give it some good physical boosting augmentations. If the brain was terrible but the body was good, I would expect to see augments like muscle boost and Hardened Skeleton (and no aptitude boosts). It is cheaper to get a good SOM boost using those augmentations (and you might get other bonuses too) than it is to go strait aptitude bonuses.
Technically, the Daitya does hit harder, even without aptitude bonuses. It deals 3d10 + (SOM / 10) DV with each attack. Most morphs don't have that advantage, as they deal 1d10 + (SOM / 10) DV with each unarmed attack. That morph seems to be a good example of what a physical morph with the right stuff can do. It seems to have a bit of both worlds, aptitude bonuses and physical body that out competes other morphs.
Fri, 2014-07-25 07:41
#10
branford
DivineWrath,
DivineWrath,
With respect to Eidelons, you must view them as morphs. The are different software shells that optimize the ego running on them.
The ego is data. The Infomorph in the core book is a basic operating system that runs the ego and is akin to a Flat morph. The eidelons are optimized systems designed to more efficiently run the data/ego.
An infomorphs physical stats are also very relevant in the event they sleeve into a morph or when they control any bot or equipment.
Also, as I mentioned earlier, SOM represents both the ego's ability to effectively use a morph AND the physical hardiness and strength of a morph.
If you are a klutz, but sleeved in a graceful morph, it will probably compensate for your ego's shortcomings. If you're in a flat, prepare to stub your toe repeatedly.
Similarly, if you're a natural athlete, you'll do fine in a basic morph. However, when sleeved in something like an Olympian, Fury or a Reaper, you'll be truly exception.
Fri, 2014-07-25 13:32
#11
UnitOmega
One way to look at Aptitude
One way to look at Aptitude bonuses is that it's all in the hardware. Or the virtual emulation of the hardware on a different piece of hardware. The mind is software, remember. The morph end is the hardware, which may be optimized through genetic treatment and manipulation and so on. This is an abstraction, probably because the authors don't want to detail [i]how[/i] every single biomorph has its biology improved over a Flat in detail. Other posters have given good examples of what could provide these bonuses.
In the case of Synthmorphs and Infomorphs, the thing to remember is that the mind is being run in an emulation environment. Sure, Some aptitude bonuses are purely from the construction of the synth, at least the physical ones, but bonuses to purely mental aptitudes like COG, INT and SAV are all from how the cyberbrain emulation state works. Since it's a virtual function, if the cyberbrain hardware and emulation software is optimized for it, it can provide an Ego running on it with a boost in those areas. For infomorphs, most are running in the default emulation, there's no additional software, you host the infomorph on a server and run Ego.exe. Eidonlons are like morphs, but pure software emulation. It's an additional shell of software the Ego is run through which simulates the bonuses a morph provides. Infomorphs can also get aptitude bonuses by being on specialized servers with optimized hardware and software. Though, on the note of servers, servers often have an aptitude cap lower than that of an Infomorph/Eidolon, which represents how their hardware can only run the emulator state so well.
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Fri, 2014-07-25 13:38
#12
branford
UnitOmega, that was a very
UnitOmega, that was a very concise and understandable explanation.
Fri, 2014-07-25 18:40
#13
Scottbert
Regarding SOM being part of
Regarding SOM being part of the ego...
Shadowdragon's comment enlightened me. You see that flats and neotenics have SOM maximum aptitudes of 20 and think 'wow, they're strong' and the thing is, they kind of are. The max aptitude is the raw strength of the body, the SOM score is how well you can use it. The SOM aptitude is in the body -- 20 is maximum human potential.
What this means isn't that, say, if an EP character with 20 SOM sleeved into an average joe's body he'd be able to use 20 SOM -- the body of the average joe today probably has levels of the Unfit negative trait. What it means is that in the time of EP, even a flat can be kept at the same level of health as a modern olympic athlete. A neotenic, the product of advanced genetic engineering, can pack that same strength into a child-size body, because that's the same level of technology that in a full-size body can produce an Exalt, stronger and fitter than any modern human.
I suppose you could argue that olympic athletes might be people born with the higher aptitude trait for the aptitude relative to their specialization, and that 20 doesn't quite mean /that/ level, but the same principle applies.
SOM bonuses in a morph represent that the body is so superhumanly strong that even someone who doesn't know how to properly use their body can benefit from some extra strength. The 5 SOM weakling clumsily swinging his Daitya's arm can hurt someone as badly as the 20 SOM martial artist in a well-maintained flat could swinging a big hunk of metal -- put the martial artist in the Daitya and he can focus its absurd strength to smack someone harder than even the strongest human with a big metal club could.
Does that make any sense to anyone else?
Fri, 2014-07-25 21:13
#14
ShadowDragon8685
Scottbert, it sort of does.
Scottbert, it sort of does.
Also, I should point out:
Eidolons cannot be sleeved. Your Eidolon has no use for a Somatics score increase, and if you sleeve out of an Eidolon into a cyberbrained body, the best you can do is bring along your Eidolon infomorph shell as data for when you unsleeve again.
But it does have a use for Reflexes: Reflexes govern Initiative. You kind of want that.
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Sat, 2014-07-26 04:52
#15
DivineWrath
Just to be clear, I didn't
Just to be clear, I didn't mean to suggest that Eidolons can sleeve physical morphs, or imply that I thought that. I am very much aware that they are another type of morph.
What I was saying, it is technically possible to get an aptitude bonus to SOM using an Eidolon. A possible reason for doing so is when jamming a shell. The new rules on jamming aren't clear on if aptitude bonuses are applicable through jamming (it doesn't make any special mention of them), so this might be something up to debate.
Mind you, I have considered the possibility that with the right hardware, an Eidolon could in fact sleeve a morph with a special cyberbrain, but such hardware is probably not well known or is still under development. I'm still toying with the idea though...
I would like to talk more, but I don't have time right now.
Sat, 2014-07-26 05:10
#16
branford
DivineWrath wrote:Just to be
My understanding is that the rules do not currently permit an ego to benefit from an eidolon when sleeved in a cyberbrain. The ego will lose the benefits of the eidolon, and replace them with the morph's bonuses. The eidolon bonuses would return when the ego is again in an infomorph state.
Sat, 2014-07-26 16:59
#17
DivineWrath
branford wrote:My
That is my understanding as well. That you have to make a choice to use an Eidolon (and not be sleeved in a physical morph), or to use a morph and use their built in hardware/software.
Sat, 2014-07-26 17:46
#18
Smokeskin
I saw someone here throw
I saw someone here throw around the idea of having an eidolon in a ghostrider module jam the morph.
Sat, 2014-07-26 17:58
#19
branford
Smokeskin wrote:I saw someone
As per Transhuman, p. 219-21, some aptitude bonuses would apply from the ego/eidolon and some from the morph, but my understanding is that the eidolon and morph bonuses will still not combine.