Morpheus Unbound  |  House Rules

Multi-tasking your cognitive needs

Original Author Date: September 1993
Written by Morpheus Unbound
Authors note to himself: Ref. ShadowTech "Cerebral Booster," include summarized skill list of skills which can benefit from the Task Pool and include unofficial rule that Task Pool dice applied to skill cannot exceed the original skill rating.

Development of the Bioarms section of this article was originally influenced by Rob Rubin's ShadowFurry, as distributed by Rob in 1993 on SHADOWRN@HEARN.BITNET.

Index


Encephalon

(Ref: Shadowtech, p 49)

I've seen some debates about what exactly the Smiling Bandit meant when he said that an encephalon lets you "multitask your cognitive needs." Now, without sounding like a physiology major we have to realize that the brain already does extensive multitasking all by itself. While you are reading this, your brain is also monitoring your breathing, pulse, digestion, internal temperature and tissue replacement to name a few things.

So what does Smiling Bandit mean? Perhaps he means listening to a conversation, your cyber radio and reading a book at the same time - and able to treat each activity as if you were doing only that activity? How about watching two different trid broadcasts at the same time? The encephalon manages the input (audio, visual, other) so that you have one complete picture for each task and can give your "full attention" to each task. If you can do that, then you can watch two different people - one with each eye - at the same time, right?

Going on that idea, a wily street sammi "discovered" that an encephalon would enable the user to fire multiple weapons at no penalty and to gain the benefits of his smartlink or smartgoggles for each gun.

After some play-testing it was decided that this degree of flexibility was not only disruptive to the almighty game balance, but it also strained the limits of the game reality. However, the idea still seemed good, so with some tinkering and hammering (and lots of guns-blazing play-testing) we came up with the ideas that I present here.

For reference, the penalty for using two firearms is +2 TN to each, and all benefit from smartlinks, smartgoggles and laser sights is negated (SR2, p. 90). A smartlink modifies the TN by -2 (SR2, p. 90), smartgoggles by -1 (SR2, p. 90) and a laser sight by -1 (SR2, p. 90). Laser sights cannot be combined with smartsystems (SR2, p. 240).

A level 1 encephalon is not powerful enough to manage the input generated by a combat, and therefore provides no benefits.

A level 2 or 3 encephalon has more power and can manage the input quickly enough that some modifiers apply. The penalty for two weapons is reduced to +1 TN; a smartlink will provide a benefit of -1 TN. Smartgoggles and laser sights are still negated.

The powerful level 4 encephalon can manage even the high level of input during combat. There is no penalty for using two firearms, and smartlinks, smartgoggles and laser sights provide their normal benefits.

>>>>>[ Hey chummer, so now that you've got an enceph-4, a smartlink in each arm and no essence or nuyen left, what are you going to do about those reflexes? ]<<<<<

--Dulcimer <17:23:43/07-07-55>

[Return to Index]


Bioarms

(Ref: "Pieces and Parts," SR2, p. 114)
(Ref: Shadowtech, pp. 6, 27, 35)
Cost 400,000, Body Index 1.2

Not replacement arms, but extra arms that are attached at some point on the body, usually below the natural arms and arranged symmetrically (but not necessarily).

The process of adding an arm involves the addition of bone and muscle to support the arm, a small amount of synthcardium and minor rearrangement of the internal organs. There is also the addition of neural tissue to connect the arm to the central nervous system. The brain will take a while to get used to the new appendage (requiring an Athletics or Intelligence Test against a TN of 6, -1 per week, to use it), but most people adapt quickly.

Bioarms can support up to 0.5 Body Index or Essence (or combination) in extra 'wares at no penalty to the rest of the user's system. Full body 'wares (like wired reflexes or muscle augmentation) will cost 25% more nuyen for each bioarm, but have no extra Body Index or Essence Cost. The Body Index of the bioarm includes the neural material required for control. Due to the high level of neural tissue required bioarms are by nature considered to be cultured bioware.

>>>>>[ Some have wondered why the Body Index is so high. Well, according to the good Dr. Martin the arm is more than "just an arm." It is about 0.8 bi of non-neural material and 0.4 bi of neural material. They are adding bone to simulate the shoulder blade and the collar bone to provide the new arm with a pivot joint. They are adding a major artery and a small dose of synthcardium to the heart (but not enough to aid Athletics tests). They are adding material to the torso and spine (brachial plexus group or something) of the user, as well as adding additional stress for having a new limb sticking out.

In short, not only is the new bioware stressing the system, but it's adding about 3% to 5% again the original body mass - just to the torso - not including the arm (which usually runs another 8% to 11% original body mass).

I'll admit that the 0.4 bi for "neural material" may seem excessive - a reflex recorder is only 0.25 bi for a "general skill" (Shadowtech, p 27) - but the Doc reminded me that this isn't simply repeating a group of recorded "reflex" actions, it's enabling the CNS to use and regulate a new arm.]<<<<<

--Dulcimer <19:06:32/07-07-55>

[Return to Index]


Rules for Multiple Arms

Multiple arms can be a challenge to control, but can also allow for multiple actions. During an action, each limb may do something. If the action is not critical to play, then assume it can be done (hold a model airplane steady while using the other arms to draw it), or if necessary make an Athletics or Intelligence Test (modified by Task Pool dice) with a TN 4; only one success is required. (Note: if the user is still learning to use the arm as noted above, then he must succeed in two tests to be able to perform the action.)

For those times when a multi-arm owner wants to do several difficult actions the rule of thumb shall be to add +2 to each Target Number for each different task during an action, and/or require the Athletics or Intelligence Test(s) above. Multiple arms do not increase spell-casting ability.

And since I know it's going to come up...

An Encephalon could affect use of multiple arms in one of three ways:

  1. The Task Pool can be used to modify the Athletics or Intelligence Test as noted above, or
  2. if used in conjunction with a Reflex Recorder the Athletics or Intelligence test can be dispensed with, but no other benefit is gained from the Recorder, or
  3. if using the optional encephalon rules above, you might modify the TN penalty by -1 (to -1, -3, -5, etc.) and allow a smartlink to provide a -1 TN for an Encephalon 2 or 3, and -2 TN (to 0, -2, -4, etc.) for an Encephalon 4 which will negate the penalty completely for two weapons and allow smartsystems to operate as above.
Note: The smartsystems option would only apply to ONE of the weapons. (Hey GMs - make it easy on yourself, pick one of the above rules and enforce it).

If it is a combat action, then each limb will suffer a penalty. For Firearms, each weapon suffers a +2 TN per weapon over one (SR2, p 90 "Using a Second Firearm"). Using more than one firearm eliminates any benefit gained from smartsystems or laser sights (SR2, p 90).

Example: Blazer, who has four arms, decides to intimidate some corp grunts. He points four Uzi IIIs - each with Gas Vent 3 - in their direction and rattles off 4 bursts (12 rounds, no recoil penalty). Since he's firing 4 weapons, each weapon is at +6 TN. The corp grunts don't get hit, but they also don't wait around to see if Blazer gets lucky.

Alternately, if using more than one weapon of the same type and firing at one target treat the entire action as one "burst". Calculate the TN for one weapon, less smartsystems and laser sights, plus recoil penalties and add +2. If the target is hit, he suffers damage as if hit by one weapon, plus one to Power for each additional weapon. Note: this represents the increased chance of the target being hit, scraped or otherwise injured by the flying bullets and not the actual number of rounds which strike.

Example: Blazer later comes upon an enemy sammi. He wins the initiative and opens fire with his four Uzi IIIs. He's at a +2 TN, and if he hits, the sammi will suffer a 12S attack.

Extra arms reduce melee target numbers by -1 per 2 arms (to a maximum of -4); as another optional rule this can be applied to critters as well, similar to "Character has friends in melee," (SR2, p 101). See also Fields of Fire, page 81 for use of more than one weapon in melee combat.

[Return to Index]


Character Example


William Rodgers, a.k.a. Blazer

[Return to Index]


Copyright © 1997-2000 Morpheus Unbound. All Rights Reserved.
last updated 10 July 2000 by Patric L. Rogers.
send comments and suggestions to morpheus_unbound@patric.net.