Symbiots in Hero

[Nezeray]

How do you do Symbiots in Hero? We're using 75pt characters (+75 disads).

 

Basically a player in my upcoming Star Hero game wants to play a symbiot (ala Stargate SG1) and one of the other players or an NPC will be his host. He's planning on selling off most of his physical attributes, so he'll end up with low stun/body.

 

The relationship will be like the Tokra, rather than Gould. Both will share the consciousness equally.

 

The problem that we're mostly concerned with is Taking Damage. Assume the host takes a shot from a blaster and takes 30 stun and 10 body. How much, if any, damage does the symbiot take?

 

My personal thought on the matter is:

 

The symbiot has a 25% chance to take body from the attack.

 

The body taken would be 75% of the total body that gets through the host's defences.

 

It takes 75% of the stun from any/all attacks.

 

I really like the character idea for this player, since he's usually the Rock of the party. (Rock = Brick with fewer brains)

 

Nezeray

[Monolith]

What I would suggest you do is buy one normal character and then buy an AI computer as the symbiot (assuming the symbiot is always within the host and only comes out during special circumstances). By doing that you get the symbiot for a relatively cheap cost because of the 5 for 1 cost break.

 

If you want both the host and the symbiot to be able to act independanty then buy the character with Duplification and then purchase assorted skills and abilities with the Only In Single Form Limitation. That way the character can have access to the symbiot's abilities when they are on one form, but loses them when they are in two forms.

 

For myself, I would just use the AI.

[Sociotard]

You could also look at giving the symbiote a good number of adjustment powers, such as healing and Aid. that would seem appropriate for an SG1 symbiote.

[BobGreenwade]

The AI idea is one legitimate approach, though the way you describe it I think the AI would be buying the host as the Follower, not the other way around.

 

Another would be Multiform, with most of the differences between the two being mental (probably higher INT, EGO, and PRE for the symbiot-controlled form, with Skills focusing on intellectual pursuits rather than combat, different Psychological Limitations, and so forth).

 

A lot depends on the specific relationship between the host and the symbiot, including whether the host ends up as an NPC or another player's PC.

[Asperion]

The way that I would go about doing this would be to make the character as normal with an additional simbiote package. What is outside the package would be connected to the host, inside the package would be the simbiote. Keep in mind that Stargate simbiotes will retain all the memories of previous hosts. This can prove to some quite interesting role playing. The current host remembers (from the simbiote) some rather interesting times that some earlier host had with some PC.

[JohnTaber]

A player asked about this in one of my games. Instead of a symbiote they wanted an AI computer inside their body. They wanted to do this but I don't think a computer AI is fair. It felt like a cheap way to buys skills/5. In my case the player also want the computer to run on a very high speed so it can "think" while the PC is doing other stuff.

 

Personally I don't like the AI computer idea. If the computer is inside the person should it still be cost/5? See what I mean? A computer can be disabled, blown up, has to find a way to move around (i.e. verhicle, robot, etc.) this does not work.

 

I like the Package idea. My motto...Keep It Simple Silly. I told my player that he could get skills with a Restrainable (-1/4) to reflect the fact that there are anti-cyber device in my Star Hero game. These would be defined as in the computer inside his body. Same goes for talents (Lightning Calc, Speed Reading, etc) AND even a Speed point if he wanted to go that route. I think the points work out a lot nicer.