Hologram Doctor (Star Trek) powers

[Grow-Arm-Hair Lad]

I'm in a Star Trek campaign using Hero 5e. I want to stat up a version of the hologrammatic doctor from Voyager.

(I considered posting this in Star Hero and I'm okay if this needs to be moved.)

 

Thoughts:

 

I'm thinking of a Multipower, yeah, but I want to build him like a character to be played (not an AI as part of a base etc.). 

 

I had planned to make all the things that the ship itself "lends" to him as freebies, I think. Like, he wouldn't pay points to be able to send a message through subspace, it would be the ship. (Stuff the vehicle does and he accesses should be free.)

 

PS: No wrong answers here. I'm just looking for the cheapest way to do it. I can lose some of the "powers" that appeared in the series, but anything he did repeatedly and routinely is what I am most interested in.

 

PS: I have the 5e booklet for Star Trek. It's called TNGHero.pdf and it's helpful.

[Duke Bushido]

Being a hologram is a special effect, just like being an alien, a robot, or a fire golem.

 

Do as you said: just build the character with whatever powers and abilities you want him to have and declare that he is a hologram.

 

Now this:

Do not fall into the most common group think trap on the boards:  because something _can_ apply, then it _must_ apply:

 

A hologram is intangible; he _must_ have Desolidification!

 

No.  If you don't want him to have Desolid, then he doesn't have it.

 

A hologram is made of light; he should be unable to be stealthy in the dark because he is essentially a man-sized beacon!

 

Not if you don't want that, he isn't.

 

A hologram is essentially a projection from a remote system; all of his senses should percieve as if his point of perception is actually twenty miles away!  He should have serious penalties to his senses!

 

Or worse:  he should pay points for his disadvantages / complications!  In the above case:  he must buy Clairsentience, with a fixed location point (the source projector and it's sensors), and take a disadvantage that this is his _only_ perception point, full-time, and he is going to need to buy lots of modifiers to his senses in order to be effective at perceiving  if he moves a great distance away-

 

You'd _think_ that was exaggerating, but do be prepared for it.  Remember: just because your guy is made of fire doesn't mean that everything he touches _must_ catch fire. 

 

There is no _must_ anything based on your character's SFX for simply _existing_.  Now those SFX can easily _suggest_ other interesting abilities of the same effect-- Desolid, Takes No STUN, Teleport, whatever.  Equally, they can _suggest_ limitations appropriate for the character: cannot interact with physical world, cannot exceed X distance from projection point, glitches / freezes when stressed.

 

And so on and so forth.  They will, however, _never_ mandate any of them, period.

 

There are lots and lots of Appropriate Things.

 

There are absolutely _never_ any Must Things, and don't let anyone convince you otherwise.  That will turn you off to the boards (and guite possibly the game) faster than anything else.

 

 

 

 

[Hugh Neilson]

Adding to Duke's comments, perhaps the GM is running a Star Trek game and has set parameters for that game.  If those include "Hologram characters cannot leave the ship", then that's the campaign rule. Either accept being unable to leave the ship or play a different character.

 

Or speak with the GM. If the writers, half way through Season 3, decide that the Doctor will be a more interesting and useful character if he can leave Sickbay, they will likely write a story placing emitters throughout the ship. If they decide he should also be able to leave the ship, they will likely write a story where the Doctor obtains something like a mobile hologram emitter and, suddenly, can go anywhere the writers need him to go. Which is what actually happened in Season 3 after I typed that and looked it up. 

 

In-game, we spend xp, or create a backstory to explain deviations from the campaign standard.

[Grow-Arm-Hair Lad]

These are exactly the ideas I was hoping to hear. This is very encouraging. Duke, if your post set the tone then I am grateful!

 

Hugh, I will elaborate so you know the parameters I am dealing with.

 

The GM intends that my character can leave the ship. He wants to use a Red Dwarf conceit, that the holo-doc has a "light bee" like Rimmer from Red Dwarf.

 

This next thing is more difficult: the other PC's are at 150 points (75 points plus 75 disads). He said, ideally, that I should try to build the auto-doc on those numbers. But...he likes the idea so much that he wants to see what I come up with and maybe he can boost my points if necessary.

 

I definitely like the suggestions already. The Clairsentience etc. is not an angle I thought of, and it's exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to glean from posting here. I'm good at the Hero System, especially 5th, but I haven't got a full grasp on the Voyager character.

 

To be clear, it will not be a "clone" of Robert Picardo's character....I can justify a lower-level version as a prototype of a different approach to the same problem. But it should have as much of the "powers" of Picardo as I can muster.

 

Also, I can cut points by saying there are glitches or that there was a virus introduced. I am truly looking for a "low budget" version.

[Grow-Arm-Hair Lad]

PS: The campaign takes place just after Star Trek: Nemesis

Also, although the doctor is a hologram, he can touch things. Like, he uses force field tech to make this work. I'd definitely need the PC to touch things. So...since it's a tiny projector inside of a force field, the doctor will have many of the limitations of a normal human--maybe almost all of them. He could still have Stun and Body, and, in fact, maybe the Stun is when his light bee is jarred to the point where he has to reboot (Recover from unconscious) and maybe death is when the Body damage destroys his light bee.

 

If it's a light bee (a tiny floating projector) it would eliminate the possibility to phase through walls etc. so I wouldn't need Desolidify, as Duke already stated. (Duke got here so fast!)

[Hugh Neilson]

Eliminating the "Desolid" aspect should make things a lot less pricy. The character might reasonably have a "regenerate from death" option - the force fields and projectors have been demolished, but the memory core remains and can be repaired (possibly requiring outside assistance to recover), or the tech can self-repair (nanobot technology, for example).

 

Life Support reflecting many needs of humans that don't impact the Hologram seems important. Situations where no one else could go somewhere were common opportunities for the HoloDoc to shine.

 

Perhaps a Multiform - if the hologram emitters are shut down, and all that's left is a tiny little light bee (but he can still jet around), that would be an interesting riff setting the character apart from the source material bases.

 

Outside his invulnerability to many things that would injure living creatures, the Doc didn't really have a lot of "powers" per se.  He wasn't a combatant, but he was largely indestructible.  The source character started out with only medical skills and the powers granted by being a hologram, with no social skills, lousy bedside manner, etc. and was viewed as a piece of tech, not a teammate, by the rest of the crew.

[Grow-Arm-Hair Lad]

Yes, you pointed out some major disads I hadn't considered.

 

I love the Multiform/light bee idea. Definitely I have to work that. It could be a shrinking to whatever size--he could fly through  little space....maybe flight in all forms--hovering to a certain height above a surface would suffice and would keep the costs and power level down.

 

Life Support most def. Hadn't thought of that.

 

The Resurrection thing made me realize...what if the prototype is *the* light bee, and there is no backup. Once he's destroyed, he's destroyed. There is a backup of information equivalent to a body cam on a cop, but the bee *is* him and that's it. So I can save points there. He can die.

[Sketchpad]

I would use a complication "Holographic Being" which would cover what happens if the "bee" is damaged or shut down, as well as the things he wouldn't be able to do. I don't see a need for Desolid based on what I've seen in the Trek shows. Mostly KS/PS skills, with Regeneration/Immortality so long as the programming remains intact. That said, a potential second complication "Subject to Programming" or even a vulnerability "Computer Effects" may also come into play.

[unclevlad]

I'd also consider building him as an AI;  believe you can build a character on that basis.  He's basically gonna be a set of skills.  The hologram, as has been noted, is just the user interface.

 

Realistically, what's the goal of building a full sheet for the Doctor?  He is an AI in the show, IIRC, which means his responsibilities are sharply circumscribed.  

[Grow-Arm-Hair Lad]

2 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

I'd also consider building him as an AI;  believe you can build a character on that basis.  He's basically gonna be a set of skills.  The hologram, as has been noted, is just the user interface.

 

Realistically, what's the goal of building a full sheet for the Doctor?  He is an AI in the show, IIRC, which means his responsibilities are sharply circumscribed.  

 

Good question. The goal is to make the character as a PC, aiming for the 75 + 75 disads = 150 point value

 

Just to reiterate, I realized I can save mucho points by saying he cannot Resurrect, which is perfectly fine with me. (He's a unique prototype with no comprehensive external backup.)

[unclevlad]

Why would he ever need to be brought back anyway?  I hated Voyager's premises so I almost never watched more than bits and pieces, but why would the Doctor ever be in a physical confrontation?  And if he's an AI, his 'death' wouldn't be from disrupting his projected body anyway.

 

Realistically, I don't see much more than some Really GOOD skill rolls...science skills xenobiology and medicine, paramedic, that sort.  Eidetic memory.  Speed reading.

 

[Grow-Arm-Hair Lad]

10 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

Why would he ever need to be brought back anyway?  I hated Voyager's premises so I almost never watched more than bits and pieces, but why would the Doctor ever be in a physical confrontation?  And if he's an AI, his 'death' wouldn't be from disrupting his projected body anyway.

 

Realistically, I don't see much more than some Really GOOD skill rolls...science skills xenobiology and medicine, paramedic, that sort.  Eidetic memory.  Speed reading.

 

 

Yeah, I agree. It's better if he has only "one life to live," as they say. Physical confrontation? Maybe. He's a PC, able to go on away missions, so he'll be in combat about as much as McCoy.

 

I agree that he has to have a lot of skills....I might skimp on his STR, but raise his SPD a bit above normal...Eidetic makes sense...

[unclevlad]

Why does he need more than SPD 2?    

 

And away missions?  Can he?  How?  He's a holodeck projection.  And what's he supposed to add?  He's an AI for medicine.  

 

Yeah, OK, if you really must have him on an away team?  Duplication.  it really won't be that expensive...and there's very little the character needs to buy anyway.  A 5E AI only has DEX, INT, EGO, and SPD.  The rest will be skills, and perhaps the Duplication.

[Sketchpad]

1 hour ago, unclevlad said:

Why would he ever need to be brought back anyway?  I hated Voyager's premises so I almost never watched more than bits and pieces, but why would the Doctor ever be in a physical confrontation?  And if he's an AI, his 'death' wouldn't be from disrupting his projected body anyway.

 

Realistically, I don't see much more than some Really GOOD skill rolls...science skills xenobiology and medicine, paramedic, that sort.  Eidetic memory.  Speed reading.

 

 

9 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

Why does he need more than SPD 2?    

 

And away missions?  Can he?  How?  He's a holodeck projection.  And what's he supposed to add?  He's an AI for medicine.  

 

Yeah, OK, if you really must have him on an away team?  Duplication.  it really won't be that expensive...and there's very little the character needs to buy anyway.  A 5E AI only has DEX, INT, EGO, and SPD.  The rest will be skills, and perhaps the Duplication.

 

The Holo-Doc was a bit more than an AI in the show. He could take on a physical form akin to the holo-projections like in the holodeck, had his own personalities, and often worked on the various members of the crew. He really wasn't that different than having an actual doctor on the ship, except that he was tied to Voyager and could only leave under unusual circumstances. 

[unclevlad]

He's an Ai with a holodeck-style body, sure, but the body is pure SFX.  And by implication, an AI has a personality.

 

There isn't a lot of difference, in many ways, from having a biological doctor, no, but one is that the AI generally has a narrower focus WRT knowledge and interests, particularly when it's purpose-built.  It's hard to see why the Doctor would be in most scenes.  Mind, there was little reason for McCoy to be on the bridge as often as he was...and less for him to be on away teams, save that he was a principle character.  

Another way to allow the Doctor to have a scene presence on the away team is a flunky NPC science tech guy with whatever sensors you want...they feed back to the ship, and are therefore available to the Doctor.

[Grow-Arm-Hair Lad]

25 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

He's an Ai with a holodeck-style body, sure, but the body is pure SFX.  And by implication, an AI has a personality.

 

There isn't a lot of difference, in many ways, from having a biological doctor, no, but one is that the AI generally has a narrower focus WRT knowledge and interests, particularly when it's purpose-built.  It's hard to see why the Doctor would be in most scenes.  Mind, there was little reason for McCoy to be on the bridge as often as he was...and less for him to be on away teams, save that he was a principle character.  

Another way to allow the Doctor to have a scene presence on the away team is a flunky NPC science tech guy with whatever sensors you want...they feed back to the ship, and are therefore available to the Doctor.

 

Yes, you're lined up with what I was thinking. The medical hologram has been activated. The PC's are on a secret mission: they are a Defiant-class ship that has just a skeleton crew. The question "Why would the medical holo go on an away mission?" can be answered with the same kind of logic as "Why was McCoy on so many away missions?" My answer: The holo doc is a main character and the player wants to be on the away missions!

 

[Duke Bushido]

On 1/8/2023 at 11:45 AM, Grow-Arm-Hair Lad said:

 This is very encouraging. Duke, if your post set the tone then I am grateful!

 

Bah-!

 

Think nothing of it.  Best thing that happened for you was that Hugh replied so early:  you are always on good hands with Hugh.  He will always be as thoughtful or as curious as you are, and always as polite and mannerly as you are (take that as both a compliment to his patience and a warning to you, Sir.  ).  Also, the way he can just spit out numbers, I am pretty sure he is actually an AI, which makes him quite qualified for suggestions on this character.  Ha!  

 

 

On 1/8/2023 at 11:45 AM, Grow-Arm-Hair Lad said:

 

 the holo-doc has a "light bee" like Rimmer from Red Dwarf.

 

Depending on how you want to approach this, that actually males it easier for you:  there is no need for a special build to represent this character as anything other than what he appears to be.  He is as solid (the forcefield thing) and as mobile as any other character, so you simply take your blank sheet and declare that he is a mobile and solid hologram.  You have already worked out how "damage" is modeled for him; that is a huge step, and again: it costs nothing, and more appealingly, it works well to reinforce your character concept.  I quite like it.

 

The only potential complaints you may hear from the "you can't just declare that he is a hologram!" argument would relate _most likely_ to the following:

 

Movement.  The light bee obviously hovers; why can't the character?  You can adress this two ways:  you can go ahead and buy him some interesting movement powers.  Alternately, you can state that since "adventuring" was never part of the original goals for the project; perfectly simulating a person was the goal.  He has thousands of subroutines that analyze his sourroundins and his animations and they will forbid him to do anything a normal human cannot: he can't float up a ladder rather than climb it, and he cannot climb it if it is not within his animated reach- that sort of thing.

 

Either was is _fine_, and it is your character; pick the choice that you like best and check with your GM to see if he approves; he might not be keen on having a party member who can fly, for example.

 

Life Support.  There is a potential argument that you _must_ buy life support as you do not breathe or eat and likely are unaffected by vacuum.  Again: it is _your_ choice (pending GM approval, of course), and not ours, but as above: there is _no_ mandate for this.  Perhaps you buy one or more forms of life support, or perhaps the light bee is air-cooled and takes damage akin to a human when deprived of atmosphere, or suffers internal damage from exotic gasses in the atmosphere.  As his "solidity" is essentially only for human interaction, there may be large areas where, for energy conservation, there is no forcefield until his subroutine sensors determine there is about to be a need for one.  How often does someone rub his head or touch his face?  His entire forcefield "skull" may not be put in place until his systems tell him a contact is immenent.  This allows air exchange (as might tiny "nostrils," but without fan forcing, they wouldn't be terribly effective).  It may also mean issues with vacuum: a sudden depressurization might draw air out of his center with such force as to tear loose components in or on the light bee- doing real "damage" to him just like any other character. 

 

Remember that the rules do not _mandate_ that you justify the special effects for your existence:  he is a human; he is an Andoran; he is a robot; he is a tangible hologram.  They are all the same.  It is _only_ when you _actively desire_ some aspect of the universe to interact with him differently than it does with a standard human character that you either need to buy an ability or take a disadvantage, and not one moment sooner.  

 

You do not have to buy "need not eat."  You _can_, of course, but you are not required to.  You can even justify that he is prgrammed to take holographic meals to help put people at ease, and under the illusion of the hologram, he is actually recharging the hologram and forcefield projectors inside of him-  perhaps there is a bit of transporter and replicator tech inside him that converts actual food to raw energy which recharges his mobile systems!

 

But the best part?  The best part is that even though you _can_ justify his need to "eat," you do not ever actually,_have to_!  If you did not buy the correct Life support, then you must periodically eat (in some form or fashion), period.

 

Same with buying END and REC: you are never mandated to buy a fuel a charge, ever.  Just stick with the standard characteristics and he is able to generate, store, and use his own personal energy the same as any other character.

 

On 1/8/2023 at 11:45 AM, Grow-Arm-Hair Lad said:

...he likes the idea so much that he wants to see what I come up with and maybe he can boost my points if necessary.

 

This is good to know.  I would still respect the permission enough to not abuse it too much.  Also, be aware that coming in considerably points-heavier than the other Pcs may cause some grudges or grumbling at the table.

 

Toward the goal of respecting both of those issues, every point I spent over the limit would have _at least_ one point of disadvantages /complications to go with it.  I say at least one, because, again, nothing in the rules mandate that you spend every disad point you earn; there are even zero-point disadvantages that some players take just because they want them.  To be fair, they don't come up much in discussion here, but we are all aware of them.

 

Oh!  A zero-point disadvantage is a regular, worth-points disadvantage that either for GM requirement or the player's personal reasons, zero character building points are awarded for use in building the character.  

 Sometimes they develop over play, such as picking up a negative reputation for consistent undesireable behavior.

 

With this character concept, though, you should have no trouble finding more than enough disadvantages to build your characyer and maybe toss in a pair of three of zero-pointers just to be a bit graceful about going over the limit.

 

And if you want to go over just a bit, I like the idea of 1 hex of flight.  I just have this amusing Wile E. Coyote moment where the party encounters a trap door and his processors are so busy tracking movement and determing the best reaction behavior that for just a moment, it forgets to fall. 

 

It could also come in handy for moving up smooth vertical surfaces or crossing impossible gaps.  I. Suggest only a single hex as in a party of normals, this is _enough_.  He can climb the wall that no one else can, and he can airwalk across the river.  Why so slow?  Well, he isn't designed to do this, and it takes considerable and constant internal overriding of automated and self-correcting subroutines designed to prevent it from happening.  You might even consider an increased END cost and periodic EGO rolls to represent the need to keep his attention on his progrwmming and the strain to his floating bits to go from a meter off the floor to thirty meters off the floor.

 

You might take a limitation on your standard Swimming: cannot dive / go underwater.  Thus, your holodoctor "swims" by simply walking across the top of the water.

 

You can also do the classic "Flight: must be touching a surface," and sell back your initial 'free' swimming, but be aware that this means you can walk up walls and stand on ceilings as well, and the increased Knockback rules apply.  Also, you can't do the hover gag or airwalk; you will need a separate flight for that.

 

 

 

 

On 1/8/2023 at 11:45 AM, Grow-Arm-Hair Lad said:

. The Clairsentience etc. is not an angle I thought of, and it's exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to glean from posting here.

 

When I posted it, I was thinking about the sensors guiding the projectors as being the location of your actual perception point, and their telescopic sight and hearing etc, being lumped into Clairsentience focused on this location (where the sensors actually are), but with the mobile projectors, there is no need: we simply declare the sensors are there, too.

 

_However_, why not use Clairsentience this way:

 

Surely the light bee cannot carry enough processsing capability to meet the needs of completely simulating every aspect of a human being in a convincing way.  Perhaps the ship's computer does the bulk of the heavy lifting, and there is a constant communication signal back and forth.  His Ckairsentience is nothing more that Star Trek's famously fickle ships's sensors, which in one episode  can observe activity in an underground chamber as if a camera had been placed there, and in another cannot find life on a densely-populated planted because it is too foggy.

 

This connection lends itself to either a character disadvantage: cannot exist where communication with the ship is not possible (sorry, team.  I cannot go with you on the elevator to the center of this iron asteroid.  I will just wait out here) or perhaps a limitation on individual abilities: perhaps certain skills are not stored internally but are handled by the ship's computer.  These skills or abilities (maybe those last five points of his intelligence, or his ability to override his local programming (meaning he cannot use his Flight without communication with the ship) requires access to the ship's processing power.

 

Maybe his default language is binary-- or worse!  Cockney!-- and his universal translator ability he uses to speak all languages know to the Federation is a ship-board data pool.  Without it, he can only speak the language of a people who refuse to acknowledge nearly half of all consonant letters!

 

These are individual limitations on the character's abilities, but a second possible disadvantage for the character is that he is "shiny" in electromagnetic or radio frequency scans because of the non-stop radio chatter between him and the ship.

 

Remember, though, that these are all _optional_!  You can simply declare that yes: his brain is split between a few local processors and the ship (or even that he is entirely self-contained, but that doesn't really fit in with what I remember of Star Trek computing power) and that there is a constant stream of data passing back and forth, but these limitations aren't there.

 

Remember always that Limitations and Disadvantages are _never_ mandated! Not in the first edition; not in the final edition; not in any edition in between or off to the side (New Millennium, Now, and LARP).  Unless the player or the GM say the flaw exists, it does _not_ exist, and it does not have to.  Somehow, it works in spite of all the reasons that it shouldn't.  Dumb luck is real, after all.

 

 

On 1/8/2023 at 11:45 AM, Grow-Arm-Hair Lad said:

I'm good at the Hero System, especially 5th, but I haven't got a full grasp on the Voyager character.

 

Yeah, I had to do some googling.  I was banned from watching Voyager at my brother's house because it was too much fun to get under his skin by calling Tuvac "Tupac," and braking into Tupac lyrics by starting with "Captain, my Homie, " then just charging right in.  (Turns out Jayson doesn't like Tupac.  Who knew?  Other than me, I mean?)

 

I was bannned from watching it  at the house because I have a type, and if Kate Mulgrew started powerlifting, she'd be right there.

 

(I wasnt allowed to watch Murphy Brown, either, but that was ridulous.  Candace Bergen just didn't have the frame to get farm girl strong.)

 

 

 

On 1/8/2023 at 11:45 AM, Grow-Arm-Hair Lad said:

.I can justify a lower-level version as a prototype of a different approach to the same problem.

 

 

Well that fits nicely into the "most of me is in the ship's computer" model I used as an example above: this is the new prototype; the biggest investment in modeling, AI, animation, skills etc-  all of that is safe inside a couple thousand tons of military vessel, while a small contragrav unit and some projectors are all that actually leave the ship.

 

On 1/8/2023 at 11:45 AM, Grow-Arm-Hair Lad said:

But it should have as much of the "powers" of Picardo as I can muster.

 

Focus first on what it most importsnt to you- what you see as the core competencies of this character- his signature abilities, if you will.

 

Also, talk with your GM about everyman skills and about "freebie' gear.  If he is going to declare that everyone can grab a universal translator and a communicator at zero cost, he may allow you to simply declare that you have one built in at zero points, though it will be subject to whatever restrictions apply to the carried ones. 

 

Remember that limitations on abilities- even tiny ones- lower the cost of those abiliities.  For instance, if communication to the ship can be lost or interfered with, and your skills require that communication, those skills can cost slightly less.  Do keep in mind, though, that you most likely _will_ periodically be denied one or more of those skills because of those limitations being triggered: it wouldn't be fair to players who paid full price for your limitations to not come up now and again.  Discuss this with your GM, as skills-with-limitations is a GM-approval option, and not the default.

 

Remember also that Overall skill levels are a thing that exists, and can really make a difference for a skill-heavy character.

 

 

 

On 1/8/2023 at 11:45 AM, Grow-Arm-Hair Lad said:

Also, I can cut points by saying there are glitches or that there was a virus introduced. I am truly looking for a "low budget" version.

 

An Activation on certain abilities, perhaps?  It _sounds_ like you are talking about some sort of disadvantage /complication, which don't save points, per se, but they _do_ create character-building points that you can spend to add abilities to your character.

 

Reducing the effectiveness of your abilities saves points by creating a weaker or less-reliable version of the ability in question.

 

But keep in mind- and I nearly addressed this above-  that it is not necessary to buy every single ability the character has.  Buy those that you believe to be the most character-defining skills (I have a hunch that the Star trek holographic doctor probably wasn't terribly handy with a gun, right?)

 

Also, you don't necessarily have to buy them to the level that think they should be.  You can continue to improve them via experience.  Sure, it is slow-going, but it is progress.  And for skills- well, we discussed over-all skill levels.  If you have twelve skills, all of which cost two points to each to get a plus one to the skill level, that is twenty four points.  For twenty points, you can get a plus two to all of them, just remember that they have to be allocated.

 

For skills based on Characterisitcs- and this is quite common for INT-based skills- consider adding five points to the base characterisitc-  bumping INT up five points gets a plus one on all INT-based skills, which I am betting covers a lot of ground for the doctor.  Even better: if you are going the constant-communication-to-the-ship to use skills, you can consider making those extra five points of INT dependent on the ship as well, and depending on what the GM assigns as the value here (I would call it -1/4, unless I planned for this to be a common trope across the campaign), then those 5 pts of INT only cost 4 pts.

 

I would _strongly_ caution you to not make all of his INT or any other characteristic completely dependent on that communication.  There is little more terrifying than a doctor with INT:0.  But any special amount of it- let's say you want an INT of 17.  You decide that the doctor will always have a 12 INT, (costing either 2 or 12 pts, depending on what edition you are playing), and plus 5 INT when in touch with the ship, which costs 4 pts (assuming your GM agrees that -1/4 is appropriate.  If he goes for -1/2 (remember that he knows more about what he has in mind that do the player's), then that last 5 points only costs three points.

 

Honestly, even if the GM suggests a -1/4, you can request a -1/2 with the request that it be a more feequent problem than the GM already expects.  I wouldn't do it (again), but it _is_ a valid approach.

 

 

 

 

 

On 1/8/2023 at 12:14 PM, Grow-Arm-Hair Lad said:

. (Duke got here so fast!)

 

Took several minutes to fight the urge to jump on the obvious joke here  , but my coming here very quickly was a fluke: I just hspoe2ned to already be here.

 

Still, if it helps, you are welcome.

 

 

 

On 1/8/2023 at 2:15 PM, Hugh Neilson said:

. The character might reasonably have a "regenerate from death" option - the force fields and projectors have been demolished, but the memory core remains and can be repaired (possibly requiring outside assistance to recover), or the tech can self-repair (nanobot technology, for example).

 

I rather think this plays well into the idea that the bulk of him is stored in the ship's computers, and regeneration is nothing more than beaming down a new projector/sensor set.

 

There is Regeneration for self-healing technology as Hugh suggests, but there is also  a very precise Duplication build that works, and an old-old-_old_ offshoot that I almost never discuss (anymore) in spite of the fact that I use it myself.

 

It was a power suggested in an old Dragon Magazine called "Extra Life," which provided exactly that: an extra life.  A one-up.  A plus-one mushroom.   It cost to or three points (it is late here, and my mind is foggy).  You do not come back immediately; it is recommended that you not come back in the current scenario or adventure, and maybe not even until the next camqaign,  but you do come back, full and intact and with all your stuff.

 

The caveat is that these points are _gone_.  Burned.,,you can't get them back; you can't rebate them and use them for something else.

 

The huge outcry against the idea that the points are gone forever being so terrible and so un-HERO made me think that not as many people as believe they do actually remember Fantasy HERO's first edition.

 

At any rate, I have to be up in just over four hours and go to work.

 

 

'Night, all.