I'm making a game about transhumanism. I want an option to play a normal guy, the Han Solo or Batman. I want this to be balanced with the more powerful abilities you can get by giving up your humanity. What are things normal humans could specialize in that transhumans couldn't? All I have is being lucky.
You can't. It's [CURRENT YEAR+X], everyone who's not a bigoted Luddite Xian oppressor is a hermaphroditic transqueer neotenic.
>>46671190
>everyone who's not a bigoted Luddite Xian oppressor is a hermaphroditic transqueer neotenic.
Given those options, why would anyone choose anything in between?
>>46671139
Possibly bonuses to willpower or whatever the equivalent of wisdom is. If transhumanism is still new then I'd expect the people who change are less comfortable and familiar with their psychology and physiology than stock humans.
>>46671139
>not picking commander shepard
>not sitting back in the ship bar watching as he and his oddball friends do every single mission by themselves
sounds comfy desu
>>46671139
I can't remember the name of the game, but it used FATE and players could be Old World Religions. I played a space Catholic from a moon world and I think I just started with more meta-currency called humanity and a higher willpower.
Perhaps that would be a good way to do it.
"Humanity" is a pretty loose concept. I can't see any way to really implement that without introducing some odd supernatural element.
What I'd do, instead, is make it more a matter of cost. Higher strength means higher muscle mass means higher energy requirements means the individual will have to spend more money on food and maybe rest more, for example.
>>46671139
Before getting into this too deep, maybe you could describe what transhumanism distinctly means to your game and actually state all of the stats you'll be using for players so that we have a better idea of what we're working with.
>>46671139
>I'm making a game about transhumanism. I want an option to play a normal guy, the Han Solo or Batman. I want this to be balanced with the more powerful abilities you can get by giving up your humanity. What are things normal humans could specialize in that transhumans couldn't? All I have is being lucky.
Instead of falling into the "Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, Hit Points" trap, consider making rules that don't ape a 40-years-obsolete wargame.
>>46671217
He brings up a good point, it depends on how trans humanism is viewed in the setting. Like are people with the modifications required to take drugs or inhibitors to keep their systems in check? Or does cybernetics or what ever the transhumanism tool of the setting cause slow declines into madness? Like making people more robotic in personality.
>>46671371
OP here. Stats are Physical Mental Social. Transhumans are divided into types, including augments, cyborgs, psychics, and one other I don't remember right now.
Transhumanism is pretty much perfected and there are no downsides for being upgraded aside from the cost (making it viable only for soldiers and rich people) and the inability to become a different type once you choose.
>>46671997
Ok, so the trannies have to sink a lot of their CC-points into buying their cool shit, while the poorfag can blow it on the basic stats, skills, contacts, money in the bank, big motherfucking guns, or whatever.
>Transhumans are divided into types, including augments, cyborgs, psychics, and one other I don't remember right now.
To be honest this sounds like a very gamey world, which has neither been thought out or fleshed out to any real degree. Instead of making classes or some shit out of it, work out just how exactly shit works, and you're probably going to have a much easier time finding a downside to the various things.
For one thing, if there isn't anything magical/supernatural about the world, then simply "loosing humanity" is, well, bullshit. So either you'll need that, and in that case it had better be well interwoven with the entire cosmology you have, or you throw that out, at which point the downside(s) should be likewise mundane and physical in nature.
Cyborg? Maintenance, repairs, rejection, extra strength bits tearing themselves loose from the frail flesh, running out of batteries, worn out joints, weight issues, legal issues, EMP, etc...
>>46671243
>get captured by collectors
>get turned into liquid because Sheppard is off fucking around on some side quest instead of saving your ass
>>46671139
>What are things normal humans could specialize in that transhumans couldn't? All I have is being lucky.
Fit in among other base humans? Honestly that's pretty much the only thing.
Particular kinds of transhumans may have trade-offs compared to normal humans. Like a combat cyborg probably isn't so great in social situations. But there would also be genetically engineered or body sculpted transhumans who look like this. Pretty much anything humans can do transhumans can do better.
>>46671139
I suppose I'd redshirt for Ben Sisko.
He has a pretty solid track record as these things go - not all that many of his subordinates die violent deaths, even in the midst of a vicious war.
What form of humanity do the players rob themselves of when they transend their present state? Is it a Nietzschean, "those who play with the Devil's toys" moral dilemma you are imparting? Is it a more physical, Alphonse Eldric burden that you impart on them? Is it a mental cost; shoving them over the moal event horizon, or perhaps subtly reducing them to inhuman savagery? Or is it more Dark Soulsean, with humanity representing a ineffiable part of one's very self? While the disadvantages each flavour of transhumanity bring may be a nessessary part of what you must consider, what exactly it is that you gain to forever dangle in front of your players with a taunt of "That which you have forsaken you may never truly reclaim" is perhaps the most interesting part of the setting you have proposed.
>>46672956
That is, of course, if you thought that far into it, and didn't simply mean that they are no longer quite human when you said that they pay with their humanity.
>>46671139
>What are things normal humans could specialize in that transhumans couldn't?
Nothing, other than being stupid.
That's the point...
Perhaps humans are viable because while lacking in the great boons of transcendance, they also lack any intrensic weaknesses. Augments empower one's flaws, but are burdened with insessant tinkering and are hampered with fuelling, restocking, replacement and other such upkeep[ on top of never having asked for this[/spoiler]. Cyborgs replace themselves until they're closer to warforged, but are the elephants in the room and are often ostracized by the masses as some rich fuck's pet money sink. Psychics gain otherworldly powers, but but are feared as monsters and are cripped by entropy. Organic humans may be muggles in face of such people, but never have to bear the great burdens of those who make of themselves monsters.
>>46671139
1. give transhumans some kind of major disadvantage. the process of becoming transhuman might disfigure a person or mess with their brain, making them more physically powerful but more prone to insanity, less intelligent, or less capable of interacting with other people. or maybe transhumans are powered by some internal energy source which is depleted as they use their abilities, making them more powerful than humans initially, but become increasingly useless as they burn through their fuel. or transhuman abilities might come with a failure rate attached, representing the experimental nature of the technology.
2. use gameplay conceits to make up the difference. for instance, ordinary human characters might have more points to spend on skills and other stuff. in essence, transhuman characters would be bog standard transhumans - basically just ordinary schmoes with robot arms - while human characters would represent the top 1% of humanity. alternatively, you can give humans some kind of "fate points" to account for their grit and determination or whatever.
3. throw in some supernatural shit. humans are the only ones who can use ki or magic. transhumanism offends the buddha and he won't give you his mystical kung-fu.
Maybe the available transhuman tech tends to produce overspecialized individuals. So a transhuman is god-tier at the particular thing they were designed to be good at, but crappy at everything else. With normal humans being the jacks-of-all-trades by comparison.
>>46671190
Fuck off Eclipse Phase.
>>46671299
This is the first major issue. What does "lose their humanity" even mean? It's encumbered with a bunch of cyberpunk-era anti-science views that technology is dehumanizing, which really was disguised romanticism for a socialist agrarian utopia that never happened.
Unless you can precisely define what "humanity" is in the first place, then you'll never be clear on what losing it means. The whole point of transhumanist fiction is a 180 degree change in views on technology (especially by cyberpunk writers who established the techno-frankensteinian tropes!). Technology stopped being a proxy for industrialization and economic growth (therefore evil), and shifted to being a metaphor for race/sex/gender identity (and therefore diversity = good).
If you're playing transhumanist fiction straight (or libertarian transhumanism, which directly attacks cyberpunk's assumptions and gets to the same place), then stop worrying about "inhuman" or less human beings and celebrate progress and morphological diversity.
>>46671997
Good start...but
>psychics
No need for mystical clap-trap. Especially when you have so many others with realistic superpowers already via technology. I'd scrap psi.
In fact, have you checked out Transhuman Space? It's an RPG from SJGames (GURPS, I know) It's got the most complete, most mature, most sophisticated treatment of transhumanism in all its complexity and glory, while still being fun and gameable. Some luminaries of the transhumanist movement like Anders Sandberg and Jose Caiscio have even written supplements. Even if you don't play in that setting, it'll give you ideas.
It's also very finely balanced, without any kind of "humanity" mechanic.
Are you using a pre-existing system? It looks like you're using WoD, which is pretty good for this kind of thing, but hard to balance. GURPS is made for this kind of thing, obviously. FATE is very good, too.
>>46673800
Ways to nerf (and therefore balance) augments:
1) Social constraints: it's so hard to get that you have to use favors or take on debts to have the mods. Don't try to up the purchase price, instead, charge continuing payments or demands for favors via alliances or being tied to an organization.
2) Attention constraints: biomods require skill to use, represented by the points cost of buying them. (In GURPS this can be either slowly buying off Unreliable or taking "Requires skill roll", and using one or the other to offset the up-front points cost. Other players use those same points to just buy normal skills rather than practicing to master their cerebral co-processors or whatever.)
3) Technical constraints: Biomods have side effects and tradeoffs. In Bladerunner, Roy's superpowers came at the cost of an unavoidable reduction in lifespan. Other downsides include requiring a regular course of drugs to offset side effects, periodic maintenance, or other limitations. I know you said "no side effects" but that's a major source of flavor.
4) Age: Weird, I know, but this comes up implicitly in transhumanist sci fi. You've got old people who make enough money and own enough property to afford life extension treatments and cybernetics. Versus young people with all the genetic upgrades-- and naturally the younger you are, the newer and better your upgrades. So ordinary human players might be older and therefore justify them having more social connections, more money, and more skill points. Vs the latest model AI/replicant/genemod, who has a ton of potential but no time yet to exploit it.
>>46671139
Well, the examples you've used are a good enough base to start spitballing with. Batman and Han Solo both have two things that make them stand out: they're skilled, and they have good gear.
So, a way you could work this in setting-wise is by introducing a mercenary faction that takes fully (unaltered) human recruits, and trains them highly with the best equipment available. Perhaps some super-suits, good guns, if you're in space then a very nice spaceship, as well as the skills to back all that up so much they don't need to alter their bodies to be good, they simply are naturally.
Because the faction is a bunch of mercenaries, this gives a lot of opportunities to bounce off of for PCs, as well. Is the PC hired to be a part of the party? Did he flee from the faction because he couldn't carry out an especially unethical order, and is seeking refuge?
Finally, if you want to prevent minmaxing, for people who go "I'M NOT WITH THE MERCENARIES ANYMORE SO I CAN BE A SUPER-GEARED SKILLED DUDE AND GET AUGED AS WELL!" you can make it that in order to join the mercenary group, you need a certain genetic that rejects implants and alterations to the body, preventing them from changing themselves in a transhumanist manner in any noteworthy way.
Of course, it doesn't have to be a mercenary group, it could be any collection of highly skilled and well off individuals that are all unaugmented, but mercenary is what popped into my head, and fits easiest.
Hope this helps, OP.
Make transhumans hackable. Give baseline humans possibility to temporary boost themselves. This way everybody is useful.
Transhumans will get awesome boosts that make them near unstoppable in their chosen direction but somebody out there has found a bug in their augs and will abuse it if they stick out too much.
Unauged Humans most of the time can't hold up to transhumans but if you need to get something done and there is no place for mistake or you expect heavy hacker opposition it is easier to drug to max an unauged than to hackproof a transhuman specialist.
Or otherwise make augumentations either expensive or prone to failure.
>>46671139
Give cyborg transhumans penalties to physical stats. Human machinery, unaugmented, is *astonishingly* good - machines can massively outperform any single aspect of it, but nothing can even come close to its all-around performance. If it's faster and stronger than a human arm, then it's much less dextrous and definitely heavier, bulkier, and/or less efficient. And probably less versatile.
Even the brain has advantages on a pure efficiency level - even assuming the development of perfect AI, the human brain sucks down just 25 watts, while a high-end modern desktop computer may easily need more than ten times that, while also being noisier and bulkier and heavier.
And human metabolism isn't bad either - chemical fuels like food have a very high capacity compared to electric batteries, and take less time to "charge." And of course, the cyborg's going to need more energy.
Basically, cybernetic augmentation is trading off being superhuman in some area for being worse in others, and generically in being heavier, noisier, and having to worry about power consumption (lower endurance) and waste heat.
>>46671139
Ben Sisko as he gets shit done and cares about his people.
Maybe Gideon, doesn't lose too many people and has a steadfast moral compass.
>>46671139
The can't complete the captcha
>>46671139
Sheridan would be my number one choice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caqqBllZX1k
>>46671139
Psychic powers in Eclipse Phase. Of course, even a psi-enabled character can still benefit from a cortical stack and the full range of body enhancements, but they can't transfer into a full machine body (including full cyberspace entity) and pods cause them problems.
In Shadowrun, magic prevents implants.
If you are going the Deus Ex route, then there could be political reasons to not want to go transhuman.
Really? No one chooses Adama? He'll make it a point to learn your name and everything.
>>46680232
There is the small matter of his being completely full of shit and totally incompetent.
>>46680274
Full of shit yes, but he exists in a universe of people full of shit. The setting itself is full of shit.
>>46677998
Yezzzz.
Heavily augmented people could
>suffer social stigma
>suffer vulnerabilities specific to their augment
Although a baseline human has plenty of vulnerabilities of their own.
I mean, if augments were "balanced" with baseline humanity, why would anyone get them?
The best thing I can offer is that humans are a system with a relatively long track record. Transhuman societies and populations could be a dead end. Instead of The Next Step in Evolution, you might have deluded immortals living in permanent digital bliss til the lights go out, or warring with each other til they self destruct.
Then handfuls of fundamentalist muslims, Amish colonies, and ideological luddites start rebuilding on top of the ashes.
