A question about Verpine

[Henrik.Balslev]

Hi all,

I have a player who wants to play a Verpine tech, so far so good. However he wants to have his Verpine have a BioTech Borg Construct AJ^6 which would mean he would get the inherent +2D to all Technical skills from being a Verpine, as well as a generic +1D to all Technical and Knowledge skills from the BioTech Borg Construct AJ^6 as well as the +2D to droid Programming/Repair skills.

This seems a bit exessive to me, while it is allowed by RAW, especially if he desides to max out his Technical (5D) and Knowledge (3D) attribute, as it would mean his skills under Technical would default at 8D (except Droid Programming/Repair which would be at a whopping 9D), while his Knowledge skills would "only" be at 4D, all without ever spending any skill points on said skills.

how would you guys handle this ?
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It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.
G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)

[Jedi Skyler]

Well, you could give the other party members additional skill dice to make them more on par with the Verpine...either that, or a combination of more skill dice and some phat lewt that the Verpine doesn't get to partake in.

You could also impose a starting penalty on the Verpine, say, due to a head trauma that has damaged the construct so that it's only partially working (making this evident by only granting a portion of the total dice bonuses the construct offers). Then you also have a built-in story hook because the Verpine is DEFINITELY going to want to get the construct repaired, which is going to cost credits the character will NOT start out with. He'll therefore have to convince the other players to help him go get his construct fixed, and they'll have to seek out someone not only steeped in medicine, but also specializing in cybernetics. SO either the Verpine will have to be doing work on the side to raise the creds to get the repair, or the whole party will have to band together to raise the funds to get the needed repair. At that point, the Verpine will either owe the other players some favors, or creds, or something.

Or, like I said, you could just make the whole party a more veteran, seasoned group, with all of them having the ability to raise some stats that high. To that end, you could either give them the bonus dice at creation and let the players spend them as they will, OR you could dictate specific skill areas each player can bump skills up past the normal limits, and you can base that on each character's specializations. These choices will give you the ability to either have a bunch of well-rounded characters with a higher number of raised stats, or a party of specialists who compliment each other, and are very skilled in their own areas.

Whatever the case, it all comes down to you and what you'd like to see. If you're the kind of GM who likes input from the players about the kind of party they'd like to run, then put it to them and get their opinions. They might do the work for you and come to a consensus on their own as to how they'd like to see their own characters made even with the Verpine.

[thedemonapostle]

thats a pretty expensive item to start a new character with.

http://d6holocron.com/wiki/index.php?title=Cyborg_Construct

150,000 credits if my math skill is working right.

well you could try something like this:

starting stat dice +6D over racial base (normal)
starting skill dice +7D (normal)

starting equipment 15D: each "D" can be broken down into 10,000 credits or further down into 3,333 credits per pip. anything not spent can be used on extra starting skills. doing it this way would require that the players buy everything they have, from clothes to personal equipment to vehicles (if any) to food stuffs or anything else they can think of.

might think about increasing the maximum of +2D per skill and +4D in a stat skill group to +4D a skill and a maximum of +8D in one stat skill group. this way players, should they choose to, can become heavily focused in a specific area.

this way they can start with some pretty decent stuff and/or pretty decent skills. either way, it should balance it out.
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[garhkal]

Yes it is one of the often overlooked aspects of the game that certain combinations can superpower a pc, but it can be easily overcome.

Hit him with situations his vast tech skills do NOT help out.

As already mentioned the price for that cyborg construct is astronomical, something starting pcs won't have the cash for.
Emp/Ion damage will fry it.
Str/dex skills will suck for said verpine.
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[Henrik.Balslev]

to be honest I forgot to look up the cost of the construct because I was just so baffled by the immense boost in skills. I think I may either simply nix it, saying he would not have that kind of cash, or - I may hit him with a suitable penalty, like perhaps a corporate bounty because he is in breach of some sort of contract for recieveing the implant. And it would probably be substantial because of the cost of the implant.
_________________
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It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.
G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)

[garhkal]

At the level of bounty he would most likely have for that, he would get bossk, fett and dengar on his @$$..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Henrik.Balslev]

good point I'll use that as an argument and leave the choice up to him
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It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.
G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)

[Jedi Skyler]

You can also factor in the ostracizing that cyborgs often face. It is RAMPANT in humans, and I would imagine it to be so in other species as well. While that can make for some tremendous RP opportunities, it can also make things very hard for the character, especially when it comes time to buy gear, deal diplomatically with NPCs, etc. because there is a stigma attached to cyborgs that is not always easily shaken.

I actually do have a PC that started with a number of cybernetic implants, including this Construct. My character, however, is human, which negates any of the racial bonuses that a number of species (such as the Verpine) enjoy. Also, there are a number of other caveats involved in that game, and all my ideas were discussed beforehand with the GM, and we came up with a number of compromises and tweaks. Firstly, the character is part of a veteran unit; ALL the characters were created with well above standard starting dice. They all were also given the opportunity to come up with very detailed backstories to explain their skill sets and equipment; if a player couldn't come up with a plausible reason (one that did NOT greatly stretch the bounds of the realm of possibilities), then they couldn't have that equipment. All our characters are seasoned veterans. Also, in this somewhat unique game, we're running a HUGE span of scenarios; each player was actually told to come up with up to five characters, each to be run in a different part of the campaign. One of those characters was required to be part of the command crew for a planetary militia capital ship, one that would be engaged in battle with elements from the Imperial fleet. So we have a military capital ship, a light freighter, and some snubfighters all wheeling around this planetary system of a battlefield, and each of us has characters in all three scenarios. While a huge undertaking for the GM, and he has TOTALLY got my respect on keeping everything separate, it's been interesting watching all us players juggling all these different personalities in one game. It's been quite the exercise.

As for my cyborged character, I had to come up with not only how he could afford such good medical care and expensive cyberware (he's from a VERY wealthy family), I also had to come up with a way to cut off that funding, to keep it from becoming a possible plot hook (i.e. the other characters bugging him to go hit his family up for money to fund the resistance). So I basically wrote it up that the Empire killed all his family except his father, who was barely able to lay hands on the company's liquid assets and arrange for a few of his ships to be transported off-planet and sold to become liquid assets. The vast majority of that money went to paying for my character's medical bills, as well as for equipment once he was rehabilitated. The character's father went off to put his administration skills to use for the Alliance, and the character went back to his home system to join the local resistance there.

Now, that's a VERY condensed version of his backstory; as you can probably tell from this post, I tend to write novels to detail my character's history. I'm a firm believer in explaining how he came to be where he's at, including detailing how he would have come by any equipment he has, especially when the GM has been gracious enough to give a bonus somewhere. Not only is it helpful and enjoyable to me, I also see it as a sign of respect to the GM. Plus, the less crap the GM has to think up for characters, the more energy he can devote to putting them in harrowing situations.

[garhkal]

Also, some planets might restrict the #/amt/type of cybernetics, or require big permits for them..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[nuclearwookiee]

You can also take the "botched installation" approach. So he starts play with it, but maybe it returns false information (or worse!) sometimes because the cybernetics weren't installed properly. You can have a lot of fun with this. And really, anybody that sticks a computer in his head is kind of asking for trouble to begin with, imo. Who knows what might happen if that cybernetics doc poked the wrong part of his brain?

[DougRed4]