Playing a Virus Character

[robject]

So a member of my gaming group is designing a player character. The character is pretty much "fleshed out", so to speak.

Then he decides he wants this character to be a Virus character, a la TNE's Virus, I suppose.

No problem, says I. We want to keep all his stats and general background -- the character is a Rogue Intrusion specialist from the Sworld Worlds. So I decide he's an infiltration robot built by the Zhodani and sold to the Sword Worlders, and somewhere along the line he gets infected by some version of Virus.

The story stretches ever thinner. How did Virus get to the Spinward Marches? Well, we decide a prospector landed on Cymbeline, and his geiger counter (or something) was infected by a local. The hardware ends up in the Marches, and infects a mainframe that the player character accesses during an Infiltration. Voila', infection.

My question to everyone is: how should this be played? Is the character infected with a parasite that he must learn to live with? Or does the infection obliterate the old personality, replacing it with the new? Or is it some kind of weird synthesis?

I suppose what I'm looking for ultimately is what is the best mix of playability and enjoyment.

 

[Badbru]

Personally I think there are two ways he/you could play this,

1) He is not a robot but a cyborg with an internal computer (implanted in segments fused to individual vertebra) and it is his internal computer that is infected and this would be, as you suggest, a parasite or second personality. Depending on your/his style of play you could even play it like a talking parot on his shoulder etc etc, maybe only he can hear it so he's often seen arguing with himself!

or

2) He is still a robot, in which case to be truthful to the rules he should draw cards or otherwise determine what strain it is and have that personality be his new personality. It may still be similar ala the hobbyist in the stellar telescope type of thing, or if he's a power gamer then an empire builder strain etc. Afterall it has infected his central processor, or his "brain", it should at the very least alter his personality if it doesn't completely subvert it.

If your player allready has a good handle on his character I'd go for option one myself.

 

[robject]

Those are both excellent suggestions, Badbru. I find option #1 to be very enjoyable for the player, too.

I've thought about option #2, and came to similar conclusions: if Virus infects a robot, the personality is co-opted and overwritten. I had tentatively posited that it would be a wild equivalent to a 2A (?) "Doomslayer" - a Virus that has mutated to the point where its goals are now to work against the interests of its creators -- in this case, the Zhodani Consulate.

But I think Option #1 works better for both the player and the referee. Thanks!

 

[robject]

Originally posted by Badbru:
(He is) a cyborg with an internal computer (implanted in segments fused to individual vertebra) and it is his internal computer that is infected and this would be, as you suggest, a parasite or second personality. Depending on your/his style of play you could even play it like a talking parrot on his shoulder etc etc, maybe only he can hear it so he's often seen arguing with himself!

Images of the modern Battlestar Galactica dance in my head... but back to the task at hand.

It is clear, then, that my task is to determine the nature of cybernetics this guy has. What and why.

I like the internal computer fused in the vertebrae segments idea. Why is it there? Sounds painful. How did a Rogue get such an implant?

Well, he's a member of a well-connected Sword Worlds crime syndicate, and has masqueraded as an agent in the Sword Worlds' own Ministry of Peace. And in fact, MiniPac sent him into Imperial space, impersonating a noble, in order to procure certain documents from the Marquis of Iderati. So it is still possible that the character went under the knife for MiniPac -- perhaps for reasons unknown to the character himself?

Doesn't help me much; I still don't know what they did to him. But it makes for a great Enigma/plot hook.

More suggestions would be welcome at this point...

 

[Badbru]

Most of my thoughts come from being a TNE Ref with two cyborgs currently running around in my game. The cyborg ideas come from Fire Fusion and Steel. The internal computers from that rules set/design sequence are done that way due to space considerations mostly I guess, afterall your head is supposedly allready full!

My players and I have played Gurps Cyberpunk in the past and I had an idea for my current campaign that I put to my players; What would characters who grew up with hobbyist strain virus robots as friends and mentors be like when they were finally introduced into the wider TNE universe? They liked the idea but weren't so keen on playing one term characters so the cyborging was a compromise.

Most cyberpunk characers are Rogues of some sort and allmost all of the cyborg stuff is usefull to spy's if it isn't clearly visable (slickware)
What better way for an intel op to steal computer stored data from a stand alone system than have eyes with variable retina print allow him access and the neural jack and internal computer allow direct interface and download. He walks in past the security guy with nothing, passes the retina scan, and appears to walk out with nothing.

Implanted computers allow storage of "limmited" database's. Thus the reason for your Sword Worlders to have had it implanted is that it allows a database of Imperial Noble ettiquette rather than six months of intensive schooling. And when that missions over delete that and install Imperial Navy Procedures 101 as an aid to impersonating Imp Naval officers or The economics of small ship opperations 210 as an aid to being a merchant ships Purser or Broker officer, etc etc. As an added bonus to the "Controllers" that knowledge is only passed on temporarily. They delete it once the agent is recovered. Similarly the Agent need not even be recovered alive. How devious, naugty or nasty are those Swordies?

 

[robject]

Originally posted by Badbru:

...Similarly the Agent need not even be recovered alive. How devious, naugty or nasty are those Swordies?

MiniPac is paranoid and fascist. Ruthless but not omnicompetent. Very unpleasant; what they may lack in technology they make up for in nastiness. Stereotypical Bad Guys. They have "friends" in the Zhodani Consulate.

I really like the Procedural Database and the relative disposability of the Agent. I suspect they might have a remote "off switch" that disables functionality and powers the system down when the job is done.

It occurs to me that the Agent might not even know that he has the implant (although major surgery is hard to mask, eh?). The implant might be wired to his nervous system, aiding his memory and recording the things he sees and hears.

 

[robject]

What I'm looking for is a couple of specific perks for the player. Things that give him an edge in physical intrusion, perhaps, or melee combat. An adrenal regulator. The "Single Skill" Procedural Database.

I'm not looking for things that TOO useful and generic, such as ocular implants. Although a night-vision adjunct processor might be ok...

And do these things have any drawbacks? Limitations? Weaknesses?

 

[Badbru]

Thats the idea.

Fire Fusion and Steel has several pages of implants of all sorts and purposes similarly Gurps cyberpunk has pages and pages of them but you need not get hung up on a specific system.
Merely decide for yourself what sort of capabilities you want to give him, how much control he has over them and how much control the virus entity has over them. Then how do they effect his chances of succeeding or failing task rolls and away you go.

You say he's an intrusion specialist.

I'd give him the internal computer, a neural jack for interfacing his internal to externals, a data recording eye and reconfigurable retinas.

Thats about all he needs. Then say his computer used to be able to store the equivilent of one level 4 skill or four level 1 skills or any variation inbetween but now the virus uses that memory perhaps with some leftover material from the last 1 to 4 programmes that were installed.

Maybe he no longer can control his eyes so when the virus is unhappy with him his eyes turn red or one turns blue and the other pink etc.

 

[Badbru]

I see from your IMTU code your mostly a CT player.
I'm not so bear with me if I'm off the mark.

Perhaps he has had his hands replaced or merely the bones replaced with ceramics thus he might get a +1 to Dexterity? Agility? skills/tasks or a +1 to unarmed combat as his hands are so much tougher.

Actually I'm comming up empty translating to CT.
I keep thinking that alot of his "perks" may not be still available to him with his current infected status.

One of the biggest limitations is that he can't merely heal if he is damaged aswell as injured if you get my meaning.

The cyborgs in my campaign have had there limbs mostly replaced. I say mostly as they still have their own organic skin and nerves etc as they too are intrusion specialists and all their work had to still pass as human to better than cursory examinations. This translated to them being able to heal from light wounds but also requiring "repairs" to serious wounds.

I might think on this for a day or two and see what others come up with too. I seem to recall a thread on the CT page about cyborgs in CT from late last year you might want to look for.

 

[robject]

My apologies, I wasn't specific enough. He's not a computer intrusion specialist; he's an old-school thief. Breaking and entering. He's also a very good shot with a laser pistol, and is a skilled martial artist. Assassin.

By the way, using the internal computer is an excellent way for Virus to install itself...

 

[robject]

Don't worry about translating it to CT; this character is actually a T5 character, so all bets are off.

 

[savage]

this could be bad..
my virus converts captured sophonts to cyborgs to improve them...merge with them...etc.

my players kill cyborgs on contact...cannot image what would happen if one became a cyborg.

 

[robject]

Yes, Virus as Virus is dangerous, and keeping them as pets would be stupid.

So I have to set this in a pre-Virus milieu, and use un-weaponized, "ecumenical" Cymbeline strains.