The

ranshuman FATE of

iaspora
By Matt Gooding (Reaganstorme) Sep 2011

T4 Transhuman Society Diaspora talks a little on how T4 societies are at the cusp of their own destruction, or salvation, and that they often have strange ideas compared to the rest of the cluster. OK, so sticking your consciousness into purpose vat grown biomorphs, or synthetic cybershells for that matter, certainly counts as "a little out there".

You should now have a basic idea of who this character is and the some of the things they have done. Next, begin filling out the other sections of the character sheet, filling in one Aspect for each major section. That is one aspect is selected referring to the Ego, another each for the Morph and its associated Stunts, with the last concerning the something of the characters Knowledges. Finally, assign the last aspect to one of the character sections that you wish to expand on, a friendly or antagonistic relationship important to the character, or to some other gear or detail defining the character.

Inspired partly by Eclipse Phase, I wanted a way to separate the character from the body they were in at the time, leading to the Ego. That means their bodies would be separate, thus a set of ideas for Morphs. For characters, Attributes, Knowledges (Skills) and Stunts are all purchased with points, rather than selected from a list or placed in a pyramid. Pretty standard though are the Aspects and Stress Tracks that complete the character design, although even they get a tweak. Characters created with this method are technically compatible with base Diaspora characters, although the higher technology does grant an advantage to the T4 character in many circumstances, such as backup and restoration of the Ego, attribute + skill rolls able to surpass base skill rolls of non-transhuman characters, even an improved calculation of stress track length. But these differences are by design to showcase how the T4 society is diverging from humanity at large. Aspect Selection To increase the benefit from these variant character creation rules, it makes sense to reconsider the way aspects are chosen from the very beginning. During the initial Aspect phases of character creation (growing up, starting out, moment of crisis, sidetracked, on your own) choose one aspect at each phase instead of two.

The Ego When a biological mind is uploaded to a cortical stack, it brings with it some of the elemental nature of the individual that gets encoded. There are five Attributes defining a character's Ego: Charisma, the force of their nature and their ability to communicate ideas; Resolve, a skill that impacts on the Composure stress track; Intuition and Logic, two attributes to describe a character's thinking processes; Lastly, Co-Ordination, an attribute to describe how comfortable the character is at acting through a morph. Characters gain 7 points to distribute amongst these five attributes at character creation, with no attribute higher than 3. Morphs Cortical stacks are limited in how much storage space they possess, and are relatively useless without being plugged into a morph or data network. As with the Ego, there are five Attributes for defining a morph:

Appearance, a combination of how aesthetically pleasing and well designed a morph looks; All morphs have a base Structure rating describing the strength and how well designed a morph IS (rather than looks); Whether vat grown tissue or cybernetic circuits in nature, all morphs possess a Response attribute that refers to the neural connection speeds which affect reaction times and movement; Integration is a measure of how well the parts of the morph react to each other, including any integrated weaponry; Lastly, there is the manner in which information is brought to the Ego through Sensors audio, visual, tactile, kinaesthetic response, and so on. Again, players can spend 7 points on these attributes at character creation, with no attribute higher than 3. Knowledges Due to separation of the Ego and Morph, some new Knowledge skills become desirable. These skills are added to the default skill list in Diaspora. Implanted Weaponry is a skill determining a character's proficiency with using such items implanted or installed in the morph they are using. The Agility skill, compared to the Response attribute, is how well the Ego can use the abilities of the morph for movement. Morph Fabrication can be used in place of repair checks specific to morphs, as well as for determining weak points or assessment checks of another character's morph. Both synthetic morphs and bio-morphs become vulnerable to software attacks with appropriate use of the Override skill, as even bio-morphs must contain some circuitry for interfacing with the digital consciousness of the Ego. Stealth is a different measure of movement ability compared to agility, and relates more to the interaction of the morph with the surroundings than pure ability to move. Lastly, Reputation is a replacement for the base Assets skill, and modifies the Standing Track, itself a replacement for the Wealth track.

All characters get 20 points to spend on Knowledge skills at creation, with no skill over the maximum rating of 4. A suggested distribution of skills are one skill at rating 4, two at rating 3, three at rating 2, and four skills at rating 1 (ie, a 4-cap pyramid), although this is not required. Skills do not change when you download into a new morph, they are inherent to the Ego, although some morphs may grant access to additional skill points whilst an Ego is in that Morph. Cluster/System skills Art/Culture/Tech Brokerage Bureaucracy Profession (any) Reputation (Track) Languages (optional) Manipulation skills Animal Handling Intimidation Oratory Persuasion Combat skills Alertness Brawling Close Combat Energy Weapons Implanted Weaponry Kinetic Weaponry MicroG Space based skills Communication Computer Engineering EVA Gunnery Navigation Pilot Morph specific skills Agility Morph Fabrication Override Stealth Other technical skills Archaeology Demolitions Medicine Repair Science Tactics Vehicle

Attribute and Skill Rolls Most rolls in Transhuman Fate should be 4dF plus a combination of two attributes, or an attribute and one skill, against a standard fixed difficulty or opposed roll. A character may potentially be rolling 4dF+7 for their best combination of skills and attributes, and this will skew interactions with non-transhuman characters. For example: Making a good first impression when you are introduced to the prince and princess: roll Charisma + Appearance; Trying to sneak past a patrolling guard: roll Co-ordination + Stealth against an opposed roll of Sensor + Alertness; Calculate the code to stop the bomb countdown before it detonates from the formula in the plans you stole from the villain: roll Logic + Override. Morph Stunts All stunts are particular to the current Morph inhabited by the Ego. In the digital world inhabited by the Ego, there is still a limit on how much information a cortical stack can store. Morphs give Egos a way to interact with the world, often in unique ways. Even though characters may only start with a max attribute rating of 3, and max skill rating of 4, these limits may be modified by stunts provided by the morph they inhabit. Some morphs have the ability to unlock higher potentials in the Ego, others may grant additional skill points that broaden or enhance a characters Knowledge access. In another departure from the base Diaspora rules, a character may have more than three Stunts as they are bought with points instead. Players may spend 7 points on the Stunts listed below, although I have retained much of the free-form nature of the stunt system as a whole rather than building a comprehensive list of things to choose from. Listed after the benefit of the particular stunt is the (cost) of the stunt in the brackets. Stunts +2 extra Ego Attribute points (3) +2 extra Morph Attribute points (3) Extra Knowledge Skill points (1 + 1 per skill) +1 extra Knowledge skill point (2); +2 extra Knowledge skill points (3);

+3 extra Knowledge skill points (4); etc Military Grade Knowledge (1) Implanted Weapon (2 per rating in Harm + 1 per rating of Penetration) Integral Equipment (2) Swap-a-Skill [Use X for Y up to rating 3] (1) Use My Skill [up to rating 3] Instead (1) Take a bonus [from a skill of 3 or more] for a +1 to your roll (2) Increase a Maxed Attribute from 3 to 4 (2) Increase a Maxed Knowledge from 4 to 5 (2) Resilient [4 consequences] (1) Lucky [consequence progression 2/3/4] (1) Extra Stress Box (1 + 1 per extra box; limits apply) Extra boxes purchased are for one track only; Must be purchased again to increase another track; Maximum of +3 boxes for any one track. Skill Replacement [change modifying skill for Reputation Stress Track] (2) Attribute Replacement [change modifying attribute for Composure or Integrity Stress Tracks] (3) Destiny [+1 FP refresh] (4) Stress Tracks All characters start with 3 ranks in each stress track before modification or stunts. These tracks are: Composure, how mentally stable the Ego is, and is modified by the Resolve attribute; Integrity, a measure of the "health" of the morph, and is modified by the Structure attribute; Standing, a way to show the character's social and economic access, which is modified by their Reputation skill. Integrity replaces the Health track from the base Diaspora characters, and Standing replaces the Wealth track. Otherwise, these tracks work like any other but are calculated differently. Characters gain: +1 to a track if they have a rating of 1 in the linked attribute or skill; or +2 if they have a rating of 2 or 3; or +3 if they have a rating 4 or 5 in the linked attribute or skill. These bonuses are in addition to any extra Track boxes purchased with stunts.

ranshuman FATE Character

Cluster: Homeworld:
ASPECTS
Growing Up: Ego Aspect:

heet
( )

Name: Current FPs (Refresh):

Starting Out:

Morph Aspect:

Moment Of Crisis:

Morph Stunt Aspect:

Sidetracked:

Knowledges Aspect:

On Your Own:

Free Aspect:

EGO

Base (7pts)

Stunt Bonus

Total

MORPH

Base (7pts)

Stunt Bonus

Total

Charisma Resolve Intuition Logic Co-Ordination

KNOWLEDGES
Base (20)
Stunt Bonus

Appearance Structure Response Integration Sensors

MORPH STUNTS (7pts)

Total

STRESS TRACKS Composure O O O O O O Integrity O O O Standing

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE Open Game License v 1.0 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. FATE (Fantastic Adventures in Tabletop Entertainment) 2003 by Evil Hat Productions LLC; Authors Robert Donoghue and Fred Hicks. Diaspora 2009, VSCA Publishing. Authors Brad Murray, C.W. Marshall, Tim Dyke, and Byron Kerr. Eclipse Phase 2009 Posthuman Studios, LLC. Eclipse Phase is a trademark of Posthuman Studios, LLC. Some content licensed under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-SA); Some Rights Reserved. http://eclipsephase.com. The Transhuman FATE of Diaspora 2011 by Matthew Gooding, Author Matthew Gooding; Also known as Reaganstorme, and can be emailed at Reaganstorme (at) Gmail (dot) com. For purposes of this license, the following things are considered to be Product Identity of their respective owners in addition to anything covered in section 1, above: All art, layout, characters, colour quotations and dialogue, names, and examples.