Hey there, GURPS Cyberpunk fans, I hope you enjoyed the blog bounty from GURPSDay!
The first PC for the “Darknet” game saw a lot of progress this week, and helped finalize some of the details of how we’re going to handle the interplay between the characters as they exist in the real world and how they exist in the virtual world of the Zone.
Here is Alfonse Camus, the PC played by Bill, both his original and the sheet I returned along with notes on mechanics:
And here is HEX, Alfonse’s Zone avatar:
Most of that should be fairly clear, but how we’re handling the virtual reality of the Zone deserves some mention.
Basically, we’re making the real world character as normal. Then, we’re making the Zone avatar as a completely separate character, with the sole exception that the avatar PC “inherits” the real world PC’s IQ for free (so, for a PC with an IQ of 14, an avatar with an IQ of 14 would cost 0 points). Further, the avatar’s IQ can be modified by a new advantage called “Cyber Attunement,” which adds a +1 IQ per level to a maximum of four levels (costs 10 points per level), similar to the way Magery adds to IQ for the purpose of learning spells.
So, Alfonse the person has an IQ of 12, which cost him 40 points as normal. This automatically gives HEX, the avatar, an IQ of 12 for free, 0 points. Bill also spent 40 points for the Cyber Attunement 4 advantage, meaning his avatar’s starting IQ is 16 (that is, 12 + 4) instead of just 12.
In the zone, IQ — the sole mental attribute for normal GURPS characters — remains a measure of knowledge and perception, and still acts as the basis for IQ-based skills. The physical attributes — ST, DX, and HT — can be bought as usual for avatars, with the understanding that in a virtual space like the Zone they represent various facets of the mind instead of things like how many pounds you can lift or how far you can run.
ST: Mental integrity, ability to withstand punishment and trauma. Basis of Hit Points.
DX: Mental agility and reaction speed. Basis of DX skills, i.e., interacting directly with the Zone.
HT: Mental stability, ability to resist attacks or unconsciousness. Basis of Fatigue Points.
This seems to make the fewest changes to get the job done, pretty much leaving the rules intact and just putting a lens on what the attributes “mean” in a virtual world vs. the physical world.
A few very minor tweaks remain, but these characters are mostly finished and ready to go. Looking forward to the rest!
Don’t forget, the video from our “session zero” character creation get together for this game can be found at the Happy Jacks channel on YouTube or Twitch.
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