Grey Goo

[Funksaw]

Okay. How would I create a character made out of Nanotech, like a Grey Goo?

 

This one should be a real challenge.

 

It's been a while... but...

 

The character is a collection of nanotech molecules. These molecules can transform anything into more of it.

 

The more molecules, the smarter, stronger, etc. he is, but he also requires electricity - which usually keeps him about average-man sized. The more molecules, the more electricity he needs to consume. The fewer molecules, the less electricity he needs to consume.

 

So, to sum up:

 

Little: Low Body, STR, INT, EGO, low electricity need.

Medium: above average body, STR, Int, ego, medium electricity need. BIG: About twice body, STR, INT, EGO, big electricity need.

 

Ideally should be scaleable, so I'm not sure I should use Alternate Form.

 

Additionally, the character's size should be linked to body - in that he's forced to go from big to medium when his body score reaches a "normal" body score, and he's forced to go from medium to little when he reaches 2/3rds normal body.

 

The character needs matter to add to his body. He should have some way to consume matter (including living matter) and doing so increases his BODY.

 

The smallest form should not have rational thought and should exist only to consume.

 

Other than that, the character should have the standard "plastic man" pack. Squeeze through cracks, impersonate people, perhaps create objects connected to his body. Maybe clinging.

[MitchellS]

Re: Grey Goo

 

The consuming part just seems like a normal transfer [body to body] with a long delay time.

 

The rest just seems like growth and intelligence characteristics with a limitation about body. So start the character as being smaller than normal size. Then when he transfers [eats] body he gets bigger and smarter, and when the transfer drains away he gets smaller.

 

4d6 Transfer [body to body], delayed return 1 min. plus 2d6 transfer [int to int]

4 levels of Growth, 0 end, 1 level for each 3 body transferred: -1, No conscious control: -1.

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Grey Goo

 

I've seen another "mad scientist" who was made entirely of nanites. He had things like stretching (because he could elongate himself) desolid, with cannot pass through solid objects (to be a goo), and an NND attack with the defense being completely sealed where he shoots nanites on you and they dissassemble you.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Grey Goo

 

The basic shrink/expand part sounds exactly like what Shrinking and Growth were made for. I'd go that way.

 

If you need to increase other stats beyond that link them. +CON Linked: Growth.

 

Other nanite powers would just be bought with other powers...

[Funksaw]

Re: Grey Goo

 

Okay. Here's my build.

 

The Grey Goo Scenario:

 

The Grey Goo is an escaped DARPA; a cluster of nanotechnology computers, that when networked together have produced an artificial intelligence similar to true sentience. It is capable of reasoning on it's own due to the hyperprocessing that trillions of multithreaded computers are able to do.

 

The Grey Goo can reduce any matter to it's component atoms in order to recreate additional nanotechnology computers. It is only the sentience that it has gained that causes it to reason to the point where it realises that consuming is a choice. If it should ever -choose- to endlessly consume, it could very well destroy the world.

 

Indeed, when the Grey Goo is damaged and loses it's higher reasoning functions, it does indeed revert to it's prime directive. Consume and Grow.

 

DARPA is willing to offer a $50,000 bounty or amnesty for criminal acts for any superpowered being able to capture, contain, and deliver the Grey Goo to DARPA authorities, but warns that the Grey Goo is extremely dangerous.

 

 

 

Grey Goo

Player: 

Val	Char	Cost
10/30	STR	0
13	DEX	9
14	CON	8
13/17	BODY	6
15	INT	5
10	EGO	0
10	PRE	0
10	COM	0

2/7	PD	0
3/8	ED	0
3	SPD	7
5	REC	0
30	END	1
25/29	STUN	0

6"	RUN	0
2"	SWIM	0
2"/6"	LEAP	0
Characteristics Cost: 36

Cost	Power

22	Self-Replication: Major Transform 3d6 (standard effect: 9 points) (Transform Base Matter into Nanotech, Repair) (45 Active Points); All Or Nothing (-1/2), No Range (-1/2)

11	Self Repair: Aid  BODY 3d6 (standard effect: 9 points) (30 Active Points); Linked (Self-Replication; Lesser Power can only be used when character uses greater Power at full value; -3/4), Only Restores to Starting Values (-1/2), Self Only (-1/2)

17	Size Shift: Multipower, 25-point reserve,  (25 Active Points); all slots Linked (Self-Replication; Lesser Power can only be used when character uses greater Power at full value; Lesser Power need not be used proportionally to Power with which it is Linked; -1/2)
2u	1)  Growth (+20 STR, +4 BODY, +4 STUN, -4" KB, 1,600 kg, -2 DCV, +2 PER Rolls to perceive character, 4 m tall, 2 m wide), Costs END Only To Activate (+1/4) (25 Active Points); Linked (Self-Replication; Lesser Power can only be used when character uses greater Power at full value; Lesser Power need not be used proportionally to Power with which it is Linked; -1/2)
2u	2)  Shrinking (0.5 m tall, 1.5625 kg mass, -4 PER Rolls to perceive character, +4 DCV, takes +6" KB), Costs END Only To Activate (+1/4) (25 Active Points); Linked (Self-Replication; Lesser Power can only be used when character uses greater Power at full value; Lesser Power need not be used proportionally to Power with which it is Linked; -1/2)

40	Shape Shift: Multipower, 40-point reserve
2u	1)  Desolidification  (affected by All Attacks) (40 Active Points); Does Not Protect Against Damage (-1), Cannot Pass Through Solid Objects (-1/2)
3u	2)  Shape Shift  (Sight Group, any shape), Imitation (40 Active Points); Limited Effect (Normal Sight Only; -1/4)
2u	3)  Stretching 4" (20 Active Points)

31	Life Support  (Eating: Character does not eat; Immunity: All terrestrial diseases and biowarfare agents; Longevity: Immortal; Self-Contained Breathing; Sleeping: Character does not sleep)

30	Physical Damage Reduction, Resistant, 50%

15	Hard to Hurt: Armor (5 PD/5 ED)

7	Cyber-Link: Telepathy 2d6 (Machine class of minds) (10 Active Points); No Range (-1/2)

Powers Cost: 184


Cost	Skill
4	Computer Programming (Hacking and Computer Security, Military Computers) 12-
3	Cryptography 12-
3	Disguise 12-
3	Electronics 12-
3	Security Systems 12-
8	WF:  Emplaced Weapons, Small Arms, Flamethrowers, General Purpose/Heavy Machine Guns, Grenade Launchers, Shoulder-Fired Weapons
6	TF:  Common Motorized Ground Vehicles, Military Spacecraft, Small Military Ships, Tracked Military Vehicles, Wheeled Military Vehicles
Skills Cost: 30



Total Character Cost: 250

Pts.	Disadvantage

30	Accidental Change:  Must Grow 3-4 Levels when Body is >75%, Must Grow 1-2 Level when Body is between 75-50%, Cannot use Grow or Shrink when Body is 50-25%, Must use 1 level Shrink when body is 25-10%, Must use Level 2 Shrink when Body is <10% Always (Very Common)

20	Physical Limitation:  Can do nothing but mindlessly consume any and all adjacent matter using Transform & Linked AID power when Body is less than 10% (Frequently, Fully Impairing)

15	Reputation:  Dangerous Escaped Experiment, $50,000 Reward for Capture ( Spread by DARPA ) , 14-

30	Hunted:  DARPA & DARPA Bounty Hunters 14- (Mo Pow, NCI, Capture)

5	Social Limitation:  Unfamiliar with Human Society (Occasionally, Minor)

Disadvantage Points: 100
Base Points: 150
Experience Required: 0
Total Experience Available: 0
Experience Unspent: 0

[keithcurtis]

Re: Grey Goo

 

Just as a nitpicky aside that anyone is free to ignore.

"Nanite" is treknobabble. "Nanomachines or nanorobots are the prefered terms. "Nanite" just makes my skin crawl like listening to someone try to solve a physics problem by invoking "subspace".

Of course, I know what people mean when the say "Nanite", it's just a personal thing.

 

Keith "Please return to your cool writeup" Curtis

[Funksaw]

Re: Grey Goo

 

Just as a nitpicky aside that anyone is free to ignore.

"Nanite" is treknobabble. "Nanomachines or nanorobots are the prefered terms. "Nanite" just makes my skin crawl like listening to someone try to solve a physics problem by invoking "subspace".

Of course, I know what people mean when the say "Nanite", it's just a personal thing.

 

Keith "Please return to your cool writeup" Curtis

 

I'll fix it in a parsecond.

[Vondy]

Re: Grey Goo

 

A quote from an article:

 

"Nanotechnology [4] only exacerbates the situation. We expect full- nanotech, uploading, AIs and other self-transformative technology to arrive (over a period of some few years, often dubbed the Singularity) before interstellar travel becomes practical. Assume, for illustrative purposes, that we keep the same dimensions for our brains as at the moment. Once we are uploaded onto, and redesigned on, a decent nanotech platform our mental speeds can be expected to exceed our present rates by the ratio of the speed of electrical impulses to neurochemical impulses - about a million-fold speed-up. Subjective time, in the information world Hans Moravec has called cyberspace [5], speeds up by this factor. Perhaps we can't expect an ultimately materials-based economy (which even cyberspace is, with its need for raw processing power) to speed up by this amount. Economic speed-up of a factor of a thousand, as the geometric mean of one and a million, might be more reasonable and I shall adopt this factor for illustrative purposes. Even so, the doubling time for the economy is reduced from decades to weeks. Trade across more than..."

 

Can you imagine a world in which cultural changes that once took decades happen over night?

[ghost-angel]

Re: Grey Goo

 

Can you imagine a world in which cultural changes that once took decades happen over night?

 

Plus Ultra - a novella.

 

and

 

~ - A few minutes from now Internet search engines will be made from junk DNA. The girl next door will sell her insides to local gene farms and Big Brother will be a million-headed serpent made from microscopic wormholes. Some people will sell themselves for memory upgrades. Hustlers will swap data hacks like housewives trade recipes. Pranksters will use nanomachines to turn buildings inside out. Artificial Intelligence will be so primitive it must experiment on humans to understand itself. Spellcheckers will be programmers that alter another’s gender through gene sequence modification. Cloning will be so imprecise that the duplicates wonder if they are too individual for government work. And one young man will discover one hundred twenty-six bad copies of himself that all seek to be the original.