[Homebrew] Working Title: DNA 2.0

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Chogokin
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[Homebrew] Working Title: DNA 2.0

Post by Chogokin »

Hello!

I'm a fan of long-winded introductions, so if it's TLDR, you can skip lower!

I've been a gamer for a very long time, and while I have been a player and a GM, I find that my most favorite activity in the hobby is tinkering with settings and systems. While I have shelves full of notebooks stuffed with ideas and half-worked-out settings and games, I have never finished a single blessed one. So, I thought that I might take advantage of an open forum to force myself to finish writing something. Hopefully, I can make a habit out of logging in every day and spending a half hour or so setting my ideas down in electrons. Perhaps I can get some feedback and encouragement from the community to help me keep it up, too!

It seems like fantasy games are the most accessible. I am playing in a D&D5E game, as well as a Pathfinder Organized Play game, and had been running a Shadows of the Demonlord game on Roll20 until I just ran out of enthusiasm. I'm kind of sick of fantasy, so I would like to explore some sci-fi. I don't have too many sci-fi games at hand, however, and the ones I do have are either difficult to work with, or otherwise unsatisfying. So, I'm going to try to write one.

What I've got in mind is a combination of many things. I think it will be fairly easy to play 'spot the references'. My inspiration is largely coming from shows like Firefly, Dark Matter, and Killjoys. Basically, shows about a bunch of (murder hobos?) adventurers with a spaceship. I'm going to be drawing on some good old basic D&D for a few elements of the game, and some modern stuff like Mass Effect for elements of the setting. Hopefully, though, it won't be too derivative.

Anyway, let us start with some background:

DNA 2.0

The history of the setting, at least from a human perspective, begins in the late 21st century. By this time, the effects of climate change and environmental destruction are really being felt. Massive droughts are killing off crops and organisms in some parts of the world, while unprecedented rainfall floods others. Super storms batter the coasts, while antibiotic resistant diseases wreak havoc in human, animal, and plant populations. The resulting starvation, economic, and political instability send millions of people fleeing from their homes, trying to make it stable regions where they can settle and work once again. These refugee migrations are opposed with lethal force, both by national militaries and armed citizens. However, in many cases these migrations are also defended by military convoys, with the result that civil war and military conflicts rage across the planet. The wealthy and powerful try to save themselves from the chaos by retreating into fortified estates. However, the most wealth and most fortunate realized long ago that the only safe place to be would be in space.

The problem with trying to live in space, though, is that it is literally one of the most hostile environments imaginable, a place that Earthly life was never evolved to survive in. Not only can humanity not survive there unassisted, but even that assistance, in the form of tremendously complicated mechanical and electronic artifacts, the space ships, space habitats, and computer systems that run them all, is flawed. In space, where life is literally lived on a razor's edge, hardware and software failures can spell certain doom. A large part of the problem is that the technology of the 21st century has grown too complicated. It's not capable of sustaining itself, and can suffer so many undetectably tiny failure modes that the human brain just can't comprehend how to fix it when it breaks. We are reduced to 'turn it off then turn it on again' and if that doesn't work, it's 'buy a new one!' But all of that assumes you have a stable society supporting your technology, and that you aren't relying on your tech in a life-or-death situation.

Humanity turned to the humblest, yet most resilient option: life itself. Cellular life has existed in one form or another for over a billion years. A single living cell, something as simple as the tiniest bacterium, is in fact tremendously sophisticated, engaging in a continuous process of absorbing nutrients, expelling waste products, regulating cellular repair and growth cycles, reacting to external stimuli; and all of this without failure, or the organism would die. Every living cell, in every living thing, does this all the time, every second of every day, nearly perfectly.

The source code for life, of course, is the chemical Deoxyribonucleic Acid, or DNA. The paradigm is, or rather was, that DNA contained every piece of information a living organism needed to survive. Later research discovered that some information was contained in the pattern and nature of various proteins complexed with DNA in the cell, but that's part of the reason for the next big push. DNA was not some monolithic construct. Every species has unique variations in its DNA, from the way it was packaged in the cell, to the way it was modified biochemically, to the way it was interpreted by the cellular machinery. Every organism has weird artifacts in its DNA, long stretches of seemingly meaningless DNA, inclusions from viral infections, or the product of ancient mutations, still lingering even though it was useless in the modern organism. In practice, that made DNA difficult to work with. One had to be not only a scientist, but a linguist.

This was what prompted the development of DNA 2.0. Natural DNA is like the English language, full of illogical bits, regional dialect, and nonsensical rules. The goal was turn the language of life into a regimented, rational language, metaphorically akin to something like Esperanto. Once the basic code of life had been simplified and reorganized, it was now easier to make it do what was wanted, to write new life into being that behaved reliably, predictably. It didn't happen overnight, of course.

A project undertaken in the late 21st century, when the writing on the walls was clear but before the final breakdown of civilization, was an attempt to create humans with augmented intelligence. Manufactured geniuses, basically. The project was eventually successful, and the products of this research became known as the Big Brains. Some actually were macrocephalic, but most weren't. However, as manufactured people, there were many flaws in their makeup, making them prone to cancers and subject to many behavioral problems. The Big Brains existed in a legal gray area, lacking most human rights. However, the goal was not to torture the Brains, but to nurture them and secure their aid in solving the problems humanity had inflicted upon themselves. The Big Brains were instrumental in devising the DNA 2.0 system, and in designing the first uses of it.
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Chogokin
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Re: [Homebrew] Working Title: DNA 2.0

Post by Chogokin »

The Big Brains were not only working on the DNA 2.0 concept, of course. Many other technological breakthroughs owe their origins to the Big Brains. It was simply getting too late in the day for technological innovations to 'save' the world, as it presently existed. There were too many people, too much hatred, too little food. The catastrophic death toll of what would eventually be called the Spasm was unavoidable, even if the groundwork of a new utopia was being laid.

As the world sank into crisis, the elite ascended to the stars, and the Big Brains paved their way. Although DNA 2.0 was the root of the change, the flower was the concept of the living machine. Rather than building a rocket, a spaceship could be grown. A space habitat could start out life as a seed, irradiated by the raw light of the sun in space, watered with cometary ice and fed space dust for the necessary trace minerals.

The next century saw patterns laid down which would dominate the destiny of the human race into the modern age.

Early into the 22nd century, humanity's elite controlled space, living in a ring of space habitats in Earth orbit. Some were pushing ever further out into the solar system. Of course, by this time, not many of the elite were strictly human anymore. Instead, they were Space-Adapted Humans, genetically modified to resist the effects of life in a microgravity environment. The Spacers, as they came to be known, had already stratified into a three-tiered class system. There were the elite families, who owned everything, and the workers, who did all the work. Some of the workers were descendants, also Space-Adapted, of the personal assistants, scientists, technicians, and engineers who were needed to bring the elite into space in the first place. If there was further demand for manual labor, the Spacers would raid the Earth's surface for survivors, and impress them into servitude. This class of workers, the Impressed, were the lowest on the totem pole, with the fewest human rights.

The first generation of Big Brains had largely died out at this point, but their successor generations were going strong. The next generations of Big Brains were even smarter than their predecessors, and were also designed to be more stable, healthier and longer-lived. While they seemed to merely be continuing the work of improving technology for the comfort and care of the elite, in fact they were exerting a subtle controlling force on human development and culture. One of the initiatives pushed by the Big Brains was a colonization effort. The first iteration of this colonization scheme involved constructing titanic generation ships, and populating them with survivors from Earth. The Big Brains saw wild Earth humans as being a sort of genetic seed bank for humanity, and wished to scatter those seeds far and wide, just in case DNA 2.0 humanity failed.

As wild humanity spread slowly into space on generation ships, other affairs proceeded in the solar system. One project of the Brains was to reclaim Earth, currently in the grip of massive climate change. The goal was to re-Terraform the planet, and turn into a garden world which the elite could reclaim. Meanwhile, not everything was peaceful in the elite world. As with any class system, class tensions arose. The Impressed laborer class, now several generations in and Space-Adapted like everybody else, didn't see themselves as being any lesser than the older laborer caste, who had now become the Technical caste. Both the Laborers and the Technicals were starting to look at the Elites as being useless parasites. The Elites thought of themselves as being both the spiritual leaders, the Creatives, and the physical owners of the paradise in which the Laborers and Technicals earned their keep, and felt they needed some insurance to keep things in their proper place. The Big Brains complied, and developed the Super-Soldiers.
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Chogokin
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Re: [Homebrew] Working Title: DNA 2.0

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The first generation Super Soldiers weren't all that super. They had enhanced physical characteristics, making them stronger, faster, and tougher than the average human, but not super-humanly so. More important was their mental state. The Super Soldiers were psychopaths, beings incapable of seeing violence as shocking or disturbing in any way. They were also psychologically conditioned to absolute obedience to the Elite. They only had to be unleashed a few times. The carnage wrought by tactical teams of Super Soldiers shocked even the Elite, but served its purpose. The Technicals and Laborers learned their place in the power structure.

Around this time, a century or so since the wild humans were shipped into space on generation ships. the Big Brains made some of their most significant developments. New physical principles were discovered which allowed for faster-than-light travel. This was the Hyperdrive, a system that allowed a vessel to enter a parallel dimension, called Hyperspace. In Hyperspace, there was no upper bound on speed, allowing ships to travel extremely fast. Normal space was perceived only dimly, as 'mass shadows' in Hyperspace, and coming too close to a mass shadow precipitates a ship out of Hyperspace. Part of the development process of the Hyperdrive spun off into artificial gravity generation, which dramatically changed the design principles of space habitats, and made the Space-Adapted human genotype obsolete.

This lead to the next expansion of humanity. The first wave of this expansion consisted of members of the Space culture, along with some Super-Soldiers who had broken their conditioning, voting with their feet and commandeering FTL ships, heading off into space to form their own societies. Within a generation, a second wave of colonists left. These were the first generation of Neo-Humans. The Big Brains decided to create a better society by creating a 'better' human. The Neo-Humans were all tall, all healthy, all good-looking, all intelligent, all happy. To put an end to the societal strife caused by the earlier classism, classes were eliminated, historical animosities were eliminated, individuality was eliminated. This era became known as the Second Flowering of Mankind.

Over the next several centuries, Neo-Humanity pushed out into space. Where they found worlds settled by earlier generations of humans, those humans were firmly pushed off deeper into the unknown regions, by force if necessary. When non-humans were discovered, they were dealt with. Dangerous species were eliminated, 'safe' species were 'encapsulated'. No species was found to be capable of threatening Neo-Humanity's expansion at this point. The Human Sphere kept expanding out, encompassing hundreds of habitable worlds, until expansion just petered out. It is not entirely certain whether this is because the pressure to expand has ended in the heart of the Human Sphere, or because it has become logistically impossible to control the Human Sphere until some next, great technological leap makes it possible. It may be because the Human Sphere has finally met alien species that are a potential threat, and has halted its expansion to gather strength for a war.
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Chogokin
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Re: [Homebrew] Working Title: DNA 2.0

Post by Chogokin »

The focus of the setting is on a region called the Periphery. This is a general term for the star systems that exist at the outer surface of the Human Sphere. These stars are occupied by a variety of different groups. These groups include wild Humans, forced out to the limits of the Human Sphere by the expanding Neo-Humans; escaped Spacers and Super-Soldiers, founding their own societies outside Neo-Humanity; renegade Neo-Humans, including disgruntled Technicals, runaway Elites, and common Neo-Humans who wound up with too much personality or not enough complacency; and a number of aliens, some forced off their homes during the Neo-Human expansion, others native to the alien civilizations beyond the Human Sphere. Some of these groups have managed to forge an existence together in relative peace, while others maintain a Cold War tension, or even a Hot War open aggression. Peripheral Space is hopping with intrigue, strange cults, mercenaries, pirates, cosmic mysteries and border conflicts.
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Chogokin
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Re: [Homebrew] Working Title: DNA 2.0

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So, the background and goal of the game are pretty much in place. I think what I am going to do next is to outline some things I want to do next. Some of these goals are already close to being achieved, others are very far away.

I. Periphery System Generator - In the class tradition of Traveller, it might be a good idea to come up with some sort of world generator system for the Periphery. This idea just occurred to me, so it is not well developed. I think I would want to more clearly nail down some the races and factions in the Periphery before proceeding with this. I also need to decide whether I want to go with a mechanistic approach (Star Type, Planets, Planet Type, etc.) or more of a narrative approach (Hooks to hang a setting or adventure on). I might want to split the difference and go the middle way.

II. Type of System. I've already got it sorted out that I want a mostly skill-based system. I want to include classes, but only as a way of allowing a player to easily identify a focus for his or her character, and as a way of grouping skills into logical fields. Players would select their species, select a class, choose skills within that class, maybe select some traits and optional skills to customize the character, and mostly be set to go at that point. Attributes are going to be D&D-esque, rolled on 4d6 drop the lowest. What I really need to work on is the core game mechanic. That's still kind of up in the air. I want attributes to have an effect, but skill investment to be more important. I'd like a multiple-dice mechanic, so as to produce a bell curve result, but I don't think I want a dice pool. I'm thinking 2d10 + modifiers, or possibly the option to reroll a d10 under certain circumstances. I want to do away with hit points and use an injury mechanic, but I'd also like something that reflects morale or will to succeed, possibly referred to as 'Grit'. I also need to put together a skill list, and decide how much attention I want to pay to non-combat mechanics. I'd kind of like to put in a 'scaling' effect, ala Burning Wheel, where simple encounters can be resolved with a single roll, but where an important conversation, or important skill use, could be handled as intensively as combat frequently is in most games.

III. Space Stuff. I'm just using that as a generic label for the wide range of stuff one can deal with, from personal gear, to spaceships and vehicles, to Big Dumb Objects. I think I would like to put together a ship design and space/vehicular combat system. Such a system should definitely share the same basic mechanics as a human-scale combat system.

Seems like there should be more here, but I think I lumped most of my concerns under area II.
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Chogokin
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Re: [Homebrew] Working Title: DNA 2.0

Post by Chogokin »

Character Generation

This is probably going to seem very D&D influenced, because it is. There are 6 core attributes that map pretty well to the classic D&D 6, and they are generated using 4d6, drop the lowest, resulting in a range from 3 to 18. Nominally, an 'average' score is a 10, but the characters are meant to be heroic, and on 4d6 drop the lowest, the average works out to 13. Anyway, here we go:

Primary Attributes: These are six values that define the basic mental and physical makeup of a character. They influence skills and help determine derived attributes, as well as having significant impact on how the character can interact with the world.

Build: This attribute combines strength and size. It directly determines how much weight a character can lift, how many objects a character can carry, how much damage a character can do in melee combat, and how well a character can manipulate large, heavy objects. Build influences skills that rely primarily on raw physical strength.

Resilience: This attribute defines a character's resistance to disease, toxins, and injury. It is used to resist and recover from physiological trauma and contributes to the Grit derived attribute. Resilience influences skills that rely on stamina or toughness.

Coordination: This attribute defines how gracefully a character can control his or her body. It has a major roll in determining reaction speed, and influences skills involving whole-body motion, including most combat skills.

Acumen: This attribute reflects a character's cunning and ability to think quickly. It plays a role in how well a character perceives his or her environment, how quickly the character can react to new situations, and how adept they are at manipulating people.

Intellect: This attribute describes a character's ability to understand, recall and use complex information. It plays a role in skills requiring knowledge of science, medicine, or engineering.

Presence: This attribute measures a character's force of will and ability to influence others. It is involved in skills such as seduction, persuasion, and command, as well as resisting interrogation. It contributes to Grit.

Derived Attributes: There are (currently) four derived attributes that are used directly to control combat and skill tests. Each of these is related to two or more Primary Attributes.

Toughness: Toughness measures how difficult it is to injure a character. Toughness derives from Build and Resilience. Damage taken in combat is compared to Toughness to determine how serious an injury is inflicted. Until I've got a damage system in place, and I know what type of dice and size of numbers are likely to be involved, that's all I've got.

Stability: Stability measures how difficult it is to rattle a character mentally. Toughness derives from Intellect and Presence. Characters can be attacked mentally through a variety of means, including by psionic powers, by social interactions, by combat munitions such as flash-bang grenades, and through stress. I need to get more system in place before I know exactly how this works, however.

Initiative: Initiative is involved in determining how quickly a character can react in combat. It is related to Coordination and Acumen, but is penalized by Build. I'm thinking the formula might be ((Crd + Acu)/2, - Bui - 10). In other words, the average of Coordination and Acumen, - Build, -10.

Grit: Grit is a pool of points which define how determined a character is to succeed. Grit is worn down by injury and stress, but can be regenerated by good leadership or dramatic events. It can be spent to accomplish heroic deeds. The starting Grit pool is equal to Resilience + Presence.
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Chogokin
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Re: [Homebrew] Working Title: DNA 2.0

Post by Chogokin »

Okay, so a few ruminations, then a bit more work on character creation. All while enduring aggressive affection from an exceedingly sharp-clawed, drooling cat!

I'm thinking that 'Freebooters' might be a good official title for the game. Definitions for Freebooter include a pirate or lawless adventurer, or groups of individuals who engage in unauthorized warfare against foreign countries. All things that RPG-style adventurers are known to do!

Also, on the subject of skills, I'm thinking that a basic roll would be 1d10 + attribute modifier. The attribute modifier would be the controlling attribute -10. So, an average human would have a modifier of 0 or +1, a heroic human would have a +3, up to a +8 for a staggeringly exceptional attribute.

Skills might be classified. I think the simplest method might be to just call them Trained, Untrained, and Impossible. Trained simply means you've invested some points into learning the skill. Untrained means you can attempt the skill, but you're impaired. I think rolling 2d10 and using the lower result might be a good mechanism for that. Impossible means that you haven't learned the skill, and it can't be attempted without training.

Skill levels range from 1 to, say, 10. I don't know that I want to institute an official upper bound, other than making it insanely expensive to raise skills that high. Skill level 1 means you get to add 1 to your basic roll. 2, add a 1d4. 3, add a 1d6, 4 = 1d8, 5 = 1d10, 6 = 2d6 or 1d12, 7 = 1d6+1d8, 8 = 2d8, 9 = 1d8+1d10, 10 2d10 or 1d20.

Part of the Grit mechanic would allow people to reroll dice in skill checks. Blow a d10? Pay 5 Grit for a reroll!

Well, it's getting late, so I think I'm going to stop there. However, the next installment will cover character classes and class skill packages.
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Chogokin
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Re: [Homebrew] Working Title: DNA 2.0

Post by Chogokin »

Okay, time to talk classes. Even though I am really shooting for a skill-based system, I want to use a class framework because I think classes give players a strong focus around which to build their characters. Also, the name of a class and the description of a class help to set the tone of a setting, and can perhaps inspire setting-appropriate concepts.

In spite of having a class framework, I think there will be a lot of flexibility. I'm stealing an idea from a game I don't even know the name of. Some time ago, I was reading reviews, and a particular concept really stuck with me. This is from one of the OSR D&D-alikes, and I really don't remember which one its from. However, the game in question allowed an interesting form of multi-classing. Each traditional class in this game, Fighter, Druid, etc., had several 'tracks', which I presume would consist of powers, feats, and skills you would get as you leveled up. If you wanted to multi-class, you could just drop one of the tracks from your class, and take a track from another class. So, if you wanted to be a fighter with some spell-casting ability, you drop a fighter track, take a wizard track, and there you go. Like I said, I don't know what game that comes from, I've never played it, have no idea how it works out in practice, but it sounded like a neat concept.

Now, because Freebooters is not a level-based game, but rather skill-based, instead of a 'track' you get a 'package'. Each package is specific to a particular class, and consists of a small selection of thematically linked skills. Each class can take 3 packages. The reward for taking 'native' packages, that is to say packages from your own class, is you get a discount on the skills in those packages. You get a minor discount on taking a package from another class. There might also be a set of class-less packages, as well as some a la carte skills that can be purchased outside a package. The class-less packages would still get a minor discount, while a la carte skills don't get any discount.

Still need to work out a skill list, how to buy and improve skills, and how many points a character would have to purchase skills at creation.

I'm thinking of using five classes. The primary mechanical benefit to choosing a class is to determine which skill packages receive a larger discount. A character can potentially triple class, taking three packages from each of three classes, if desired. Skill packages will often overlap, but the point of getting access to a package is to get the discount on price, or to acquire a set of skills that synergize in a particular fashion.

The classes are Blades, Shades, Sweeps, Weirds, and Gizmos.

Blades: A Blade is a warrior for hire. A Blade can come from a variety of backgrounds. Anything from a savage warrior, a former soldier, a cop, a bodyguard, an urbane assassin, all fit under the aegis of a Blade. Blade skill packages revolve around combat, ranging from unarmed combat, to small arms combat, to heavy weapons. Some Blades are trained to fight in vehicles, some practice command skills, combat medicine, or reconnaissance. Warfare is a diverse occupation, and Blades can specialize in any aspect of it.

Shades: A Shade is basically a professional criminal. Anyone can break the law, but Shades specialize in either not getting caught, not getting convicted, or finding ways of being just as effective behind bars as outside. Shades are good at deception, manipulating people and laws, evaluating and transporting goods, penetrating security systems and organizing criminal operations.

Sweeps: One of the fantastic technologies dreamed about in the late 20th and early 21st centuries was the potential of nanotechnology. The idea that microscopic machines would eventually do everything from cleaning out your hardened arteries to physically reshaping the world was very popular. The reality, however, was rather disappointing. The popular approach was to create microscopic mechanical drones, but these mechanisms ran into the same complexity problem that plagued more macro-scale mechanisms. Also, they were in direct competition with forms of nanotechnology that had existed for billions of years: viruses, bacteria, and single-celled eukaryotes; the stuff of the new biotechnology and DNA 2.0. Some cutting edge work was done finding ways of applying engineering techniques to naturally evolved molecular machinery, trying to find a successful hybrid of modern material technology and ancient self-sustaining life, but the successful product wasn't quite what it was cracked up to be.

Basically, the problem was that nanotechnology that wasn't sophisticated enough to maintain itself quickly degraded and 'died', and had to be continuously remade to handle a long-term task. Nanotechnology that could maintain itself was subject to mutations, and had to be constantly monitored and re-programmed. Nanotechnology could accomplish amazing things, but had to be constantly monitored by highly trained professionals. In time, nanotechnology became known as 'Dust', and the people who handled it became known as 'Sweeps.' Interestingly enough, it turns out that practically every star-faring culture has developed some form of nanotechnology, and it all suffers from the same problems. Dust stirs in the wake of explorers on every world in the Periphery.

Sweeps are specialists in manipulating Dust. They can detect the presence of active or inactive Dust, communicate with Dust, issue basic orders to Dust, use Dust in a variety of modes, from communications, to sensory systems, attack, defense, healing, repairing, even creating more Dust, repairing Dust that has mutated or been damaged, or even coordinate extremely large-scale Dust operations.

Weirds: A fascinating but discredited branch of study in the 20th century was Parapsychology, dealing with what are sometimes called Psi powers. While stories of occult or spiritual abilities occur in every culture, and pretty much every human being has experience a moment of deja vu, or a dream that seemed prescient, psi powers were never conclusively demonstrable under laboratory conditions, and remained the purview of con artists and entertainers. Once humanity got the stars, however, it was a different story. The effectiveness of psionic powers increased by many orders of magnitude. Accurate flashes of insight became commonplace. More dramatic and undeniable displays of psionic ability, such as telekinesis, could be reliably demonstrated by gifted individuals. Theories abound as to why this is. Some claim that Earth existed in a natural psionic dead zone. Others claim that humans needed to enter Hyperspace to unlock their potential, while another theory is that the Hyperspace drives employed by starfaring species somehow 'fracture' space, making it possible for psionically-gifted individuals to tap power from other dimensions. Whatever the reason may be, psionic power exists in the Periphery. One interesting fact is that of the various human genomorphs, only wild-type humans display psionic potential. No DNA 2.0 being has ever demonstrated this ability.

Weirds are humans or aliens gifted with psionic powers. There appear to be a finite number of psionic talents, but many different ways of applying a particular talent. It is not uncommon for a Weird to have mastered only one particular psionic talent, and even the most gifted Weird rarely controls more than two or three talents.

Gizmos: A Gizmo is a rather derogatory term for a scholar or technologist. Generally, it refers to someone with a set of skills in the maintenance and operation of specific kinds of biomechanisms. Any crew of space travelers keep a Gizmo on staff to keep their ship healthy. On the Periphery, it is not uncommon for Gizmos to know something about old-school abiotic mechanical technology, and some even learn about xenotechnology. Other Gizmos are trained in driving or piloting various vehicles, managing information or communication systems, or may have a knowledge of general sciences.

I think that's enough for now, I'll work on skill packages tomorrow.
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Chogokin
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Re: [Homebrew] Working Title: DNA 2.0

Post by Chogokin »

I'm going to start listing the various skill packages I have in mind for the different classes.

Blades
  • Melee Combat
  • Small Arms Combat
  • Heavy Weapons
  • Demolitions & Combat Engineeering
  • Command & Control
  • Reconaissance and Survival
  • Security and Enforcement
  • Combat Medicine
Shades
  • Covert Movement and Observation
  • Confidence and Fraud
  • Security and Intrusion
  • Black Market Operations
  • Negotiation and Management
Sweeps
  • Identification and Control
  • Communications and Sensors
  • Biological Analysis and Interaction
  • Material Analysis and Interaction
  • Megastructural Coordination
Weirds
  • Extrasensory Perception
  • Kinesis
  • Mimesis
  • Dimensional Manipulation
  • Mental Alteration
Gizmos
  • Cryptology and Linguistics
  • Biotechnology
  • Abiotechnology
  • Xenotechnology
  • Information Systems and Communication
  • Physical Sciences and Engineering
Non-class Packages
  • Politics
  • Ground Vehicle Operations
  • Aerospace Operations
I'm trying to give each class around five distinct areas of specialization, although Blades are rather over-represented at the moment. Sweeps and Weirds are pretty vague, and Gizmos also have some issues. I'm pretty happy with Shades though. Anybody can sneak around and shove a dagger in someone's back, and every class has some way of dealing with traps. The point of being a Shade is not to be the traditional 'Rogue', but rather to be someone who has useful 'antisocial' skills, someone who subverts society and social behavior to their own benefit.
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