two challenging races to build

[MechaniCat]

So I have an idea for two races, one of which I intend to use and another which I'm thinking about more for fun.

 

Before you continue I will warn you that both these races use very dubious science/biology, but the concept is interesting so ah well.

 

The first is what I call a Channeller, which is a sapient electrical current. They existed all along in the setting but it wasn't until electrical tools that have input and output that they and other races were able to communicate. When the Channeller is one of, or part of, the currents involved in the use of the device, they can manipulate it. After a time some of these Channellers were able to recognize patterns in the non-sapient currents around them, and began to repeat some of these currents back toward the output of the device they might be in. In a way not unlike people speaking different languages might try to use gestures to communicate, experimentation with these currents and people interacting with the devices lead to first contact. Thus the Channellers learned of an existence beyond the conductors which was their world. This eventually leads to android bodies that Channellers can "pilot" which allows them to interact with other races. Despite this, there will always be a gap between them and others since Channellers and the other races share none of the same senses, but merely translate them between each other, there one to our five and vice versa.

I imagine that under normal circumstances the race would be represented mostly as an android that they are "piloting", but this leaves a fringe case of what the rules will do when the Channeller is inhabiting a conductor with no way of interacting with outside forces. Also instances of a Channeller who is jumping conductors quite frequently between say, a buildings defense systems, a cyberpunk "net" and perhaps others. 

How would you go about constructing a being so inherently foreign to us? Would you build the character as the thing it inhabits with rules for transfer? or build the current, with several zeroed characteristics to represent the fact that an electrical current has no physical presence or the standard five senses?

 

The second race that I'm doing more for fun due to the strangeness of it, is a race I call "simpatico". Simpatico fall into a category of being I call "negative space beings". To explain, art has the concept of negative space, the place where nothing is drawn. If you drew a blue circle then the white space around it would be the negative. It defines the blue circle as much as the blue ink does. A negative space being is based on this idea that a being is made out of the space where things aren't. This is a race that is physically made of up distorted brainwaves, or rather the empty space around them. The brainwaves provide an outline, and the being is the space inside. This gives them natural mental abilities but limited interaction skills since brainwaves are not solid. Further this is a race that must have a brainwave source. So some other race must be nearby to create brainwaves that can be distorted. As a consequence they can read the mind of anyone in the area because their thoughts are what make up the outline of their body. Beyond that they can perform telekinetic attacks toward the individual in a sort of "you die in the dream you die in real life" sort of way. Alternately they can have some sort of artificial brain wave source, but most have something. If for example the Simpatico is being made out of the brainwaves of another individual and that individual dies, then the Simpatico dies as well, no longer having a source to create it's outline.

I'm not too sure where to start with something like this as far as building it goes. Interested in other peoples opinions.

[schir1964]

I'll try the first.

 

Let's look at this from two perspectives:

1. This character is simply another type of race both culturally and physically (Elves vs Human, Whale vs Human, Amoeba vs Human). You define the character based on that presumption so not much changes but add complication/disadvantages to represent the differences in some of the presumptions (Unable to Lift/Manipulate/Gesture physically, Only speaks its own native language) so that interaction with humans requires certain skills/powers to be obtained (OAF: Language skill, Robot Body). This is more concept focused and allows two electrical beings to interact with each other normally.
2. This character is by default an android for all intents and purposes with special powers that are invoked when the body is damaged beyond use. Stats and powers heavily limited vs SFX Required Android Body. This is the more practical for building.

For number one I could see the following approach:

• High PD since it doesn't seem they would be affected much as far as their normal state goes.
• High ED limited vs SFX Electrical Based Attacks.
• Movement limited only through SFX Electrical medium.
• Regeneration
• OAF: Language Skill, Movement, Applicable Stats, and so forth.

The big deciding factor here in approach is how often is it expected that the character will be deprived of their interface (android body)?

If very rare then the second option would work well.

If often then the first option might work better.

[mallet]

For the first one, you say they existed all along in the setting, but before electric technology existed, how did they live, move, etc...? A lightning bolt only lasts milliseconds, static electricity builds up and then is spent, maybe they lived in the high atmosphere? And how do they reproduce? To be a "race" they must be able to reproduce somehow. 

 

Same for the second one, plus how do they move? Do they latch on to a beings brainwaves and follow them around and then "jump" to a different person when they are close enough and then follow that person? 

 

For either one, to make them "playable" I guess you would need to give them Desolidification with Always On. Sell back all STATS and Movement they don't possess to 0. 

 

The electrical being would then need the Possession power from the APG with Only works with machines. 

 

The mental being would also have Invisibility; Always On. And probably Flight; Always On and Uncontrollable with the movement based on the Character they are "following" and maybe a little bit on Flight; Always On with a very limited range (so they can "jump" to another person). And how much time does the mental being have to find a new "host"? For example it is linked to a person's brainwaves and following them, but that person is teleported away, the mind being doesn't get teleported with them, so now it has to quickly find another brainwave to follow. Can it move a few dozen meters to find someone else, or does it die instantly? 

 

And with the electrical being, can they move outside of being in a conductive medium? For example, it is travelling through a wire, and the wire is cut at both ends. Is it now stuck in the wire forever until the wire comes in contact with another medium it can travel through (another wire, water, a metal pipe, etc...? And can the being sense or somehow know if jumping out of its current medium (the wire) into another medium (a pipe) is a good thing or a bad thing? Ie, the wire is being carried around so it might eventually get to a computer or electrical grid, but the pipe might be stuck in an old building for the new 100 years. And if the wire is thrown into a fireplace and melts, does the electrical being die because it can't jump/move a few feet to another "home"? 

[MechaniCat]

So I'll answer some of mallet's questions:

2 hours ago, mallet said:

nd with the electrical being, can they move outside of being in a conductive medium? For example, it is travelling through a wire, and the wire is cut at both ends. Is it now stuck in the wire forever until the wire comes in contact with another medium it can travel through (another wire, water, a metal pipe, etc...? And can the being sense or somehow know if jumping out of its current medium (the wire) into another medium (a pipe) is a good thing or a bad thing? Ie, the wire is being carried around so it might eventually get to a computer or electrical grid, but the pipe might be stuck in an old building for the new 100 years. And if the wire is thrown into a fireplace and melts, does the electrical being die because it can't jump/move a few feet to another "home"? 

 

They cannot move without being in a conductive medium. It is completely unaware of whether one conductive medium is a bad thing or not and will indeed be trapped in a wire that is severed with no contact to other conductive mediums. Yes the electrical being will die if its medium is destroyed. This is one of the reasons Piloting androids happens at all is so that theses pilots can safeguard and have access to the information needed to make good decisions about where the larger group of electrical beings make their home.

 

2 hours ago, mallet said:

For the first one, you say they existed all along in the setting, but before electric technology existed, how did they live, move, etc...? A lightning bolt only lasts milliseconds, static electricity builds up and then is spent, maybe they lived in the high atmosphere? And how do they reproduce? To be a "race" they must be able to reproduce somehow. 

 

The electrical lived a spartan but content and primarily social existence inside conductive mediums (with large conductive materials such as large gold deposits being similar to cities). If I understand how electricity works it's roughly the instance of one electron hitting another in sequence which is why currents need a path. In the instance of these being I envision a rotating pattern of electron whose "age" is defined by how fast this pattern is spinning. They move by trading electrons with nearby molecules. Thus they are made up of the "pattern" and not the parts that make it up. The pattern is what moves along in a path. The spinning allows some allowance for the being to be "stationary".

I'm not entirely certain about birth, but it would be one of two methods: Subdivision or electron sharing. Subdivision assumes the being is picking up electrons over time and eventually has enough to create a new being. Electron sharing would be similar to mammalian reproduction but might lead to the parents removing enough electrons to no longer be able to function. Either way a new birth would involve a kinetic event of some kind to deliver the spin and initial momentum that would define the lifespan of the new birth.

 

as for the second race: 

 

In the instance of reproduction that would definitely be based on subdivision. There are little to no material parts to the creature, so this shouldn't be an issue.

 

2 hours ago, mallet said:

Same for the second one, plus how do they move? Do they latch on to a beings brainwaves and follow them around and then "jump" to a different person when they are close enough and then follow that person?

This is more or less correct. The Simpatico would have a range of movement defined by the range of the brainwaves, but could move freely around in them. Brainwaves would have to overlap in order to jump from one source to another.

 

2 hours ago, mallet said:

And how much time does the mental being have to find a new "host"? For example it is linked to a person's brainwaves and following them, but that person is teleported away, the mind being doesn't get teleported with them, so now it has to quickly find another brainwave to follow. Can it move a few dozen meters to find someone else, or does it die instantly?

It would die as soon as there are no brainwaves in order to inhabit. I don't actually know how long brainwaves stick around after a source is gone, but a bit meta-game I would probably rule they stick around for a little bit. So they would be able to move within the last range of brainwaves that they most recently had (with whatever limits that might impose) before it dissipates.

[assault]

On 10/6/2018 at 2:01 PM, MechaniCat said:

The second race that I'm doing more for fun due to the strangeness of it, is a race I call "simpatico". Simpatico fall into a category of being I call "negative space beings". To explain, art has the concept of negative space, the place where nothing is drawn. If you drew a blue circle then the white space around it would be the negative. It defines the blue circle as much as the blue ink does. A negative space being is based on this idea that a being is made out of the space where things aren't. This is a race that is physically made of up distorted brainwaves, or rather the empty space around them. The brainwaves provide an outline, and the being is the space inside. This gives them natural mental abilities but limited interaction skills since brainwaves are not solid. Further this is a race that must have a brainwave source. So some other race must be nearby to create brainwaves that can be distorted. As a consequence they can read the mind of anyone in the area because their thoughts are what make up the outline of their body. Beyond that they can perform telekinetic attacks toward the individual in a sort of "you die in the dream you die in real life" sort of way. Alternately they can have some sort of artificial brain wave source, but most have something. If for example the Simpatico is being made out of the brainwaves of another individual and that individual dies, then the Simpatico dies as well, no longer having a source to create it's outline.

I'm not too sure where to start with something like this as far as building it goes. Interested in other peoples opinions.

 

First of all: what genre?

 

Second: describe an individual member of this species. One who PCs might interact with - or might even be a PC!

 

If you build that individual, you will have more information about the capabilities of the broader group.

[Lucius]

 

For the first, you want to use the AI rules. Because that's essentially what you have described.

 

The AI would buy a robotic body as a vehicle, I think.

 

For the second, I don't think I understand you well enough to venture an opinion.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary at one end says "Yeah, Lucius could build that electric ghost right now if he wanted" and at the other it goes "huh? What IS that?"