Sufficiently Advanced is a memetic pathogen. There's no other way to describe it. The only thing that managed to wipe it from my mind was law school, then Colin sent me an e-mail saying I'd won the Immortality challenge. Now it's back in my brain. I'm also a systems freak, and so I love playing with systems.
This is not an idictment of the system as it stands nor is it me pushing a new system. It's me being me, playing with systems and doing the crazy mambo. Crazy mambo away! This is me trying to mix-and-match strengths and weaknesses of various game systems that I've played, have been playing, or would like to play, to produce a supersystem that will, for at least ten minutes, prevent me from mentally doing the mental processes that I normally do. This is presently composed of transcription and revision from notes made in between my notes on the Due Process and Contracts clauses of the United States Constitution, to take it for what it is.
As an expansion on the statement of intent above, I would like to point out that despite me not indicting Colin's system, this is not simply a restatement of Colin's system. It's a different way of handling his setting, desinged around slightly (actually very slightly) different principles of RPG storytelling. Colin and I, if I may be bold in asserting this, share a lot in terms of how we look at games. The slight differences leads to differences in application that I am excercising in order to not go insane while banging my face against the brick wall of Constitutional law. It honestly appears to me that Colin and I play basically the same kind of game - I could go into my version of theories of how to approach gaming, but I don't feel like it. The difference is where Colin likes to focus and where I like to focus, and how Colin implements and how I implement.
But I love his work. The Theme/Twist/Complication dynamic is a beautiful way to incorporate character-based narrative tropes without direct GM intervention - literally, if the character is present, so are his tropes, and absence of the character means absence of that character's tropes. I also love the setting. Thus, this adaptation is something of a "simulation" (if you'll excuse the use of the term) of the system while incorporating elements and mechanisms that I prefer.
Capabilities and Professions
Much of the meat and bones of task resolution in the game lies in caps and pros (not to be confused with "cap and trade"). This isn't the only part, but it's part of the part, and its a big part of the part. I'm obviously brainfried from Constitutional Law, so please forgive me.
The system is intended to make caps and pros equally useful. While an individual pro is not as useful as an individual cap, the value granted by a pro is not better or worse than the value granted by a cap, it's simply different. In this way, a player spending a whooplah point on a pro is not getting anything better or worse than what they're getting on a cap, they're getting something different.
To effect this, caps grant dice, and pros grant flat bonuses. Thus, somebody with a cap of grade BLAH will get, let's say, a 1d10 die, while the equal pro will possibly grant a +5. Somebody with both added to each other, therefore, will roll 1d10+5. A lower cap with a higher pro might grant a d6+7 roll. An overpoweringly awesome cap might be 2d12, while an overpoweringly awesome pro might be a +12. Obviously, the overpoweringly awesome cap character will be able to periodically trounce overpoweringly awesome pro characters, but they will run the risk of failing horribly in the face of the consistent baseline awesome of the pro, which will provide invariant stability against the random untrained awesomeness of the cap. In this way, caps and pros will always both be awesome in some way (this overcomes the need to grant double Reserve for pros - you don't need to grant greater awesome to pros, just different awesome).
Capability Score | Capability Dice | Capability Descriptor |
---|---|---|
1 | 1d2 | Human |
2 | 1d4 | Human |
3 | 1d6 | Human |
4 | 1d8 | Transhuman1 |
5 | 1d10 | Transhuman |
6 | 1d12 | Transhuman |
7 | 1d12+1d2 | Posthuman |
8 | 1d12+1d4 | Posthuman |
9 | 1d12+1d6 | Posthuman |
10 | 1d12+1d8 | Posthuman |
11 | 1d12+1d10 | 2 |
1 It is entirely possible for an exceptional unaugmented human to reach this level of achievement through a combination of effort, circumstance, environment, and genetic advantage. It's just so rare that most people in the SA universe consider that level of achievement to be innately transhuman. For an example of how this might work, see Tau's prodigal Society, which isn't really a Society but is a really slick way of handling the idea of a prodigal member of a society pushing the boundaries, if you also use Colin's Capability boost.
2 Using Tau's genius mechanism, it is possible that somebody with a society that has a Capability of 10 might be able to reach this level. Obviously, there is no technology for them to use at this level, but they do get the advantage of being a greater flavor of awesome.
Professions
Professions are handled simply, as stated above, giving a flat bonus to the Capability roll. I'm working on the read to figure out exactly where I want them, but here's the skinny.
No Strict Age Limits: Generally speaking, I'm not going to impose precise year limitations on Professions. The simple fact of the matter is some people are talented, some people have special advantages, etc. If, for instance, a Profession is directly related to one (or more) of your CV's, you are going to have a greater potential to learn it. If it relates to one of your Themes, then it comes up so often in your life that even when you are not directly pursuing it you are passively learning it. For example, if you have the Theme of Horror (Catastrophe), then having a higher grade of Crisis Control makes perfect sense, even if you haven't spent much of your life in a Crisis Control job. Also, even for a character who is medically but not mnemonically ageless (they have the Bio 6 "immortality" enhancement, but not the Cog 6 version), a high Bio means being able to spend more consecutive days in sleep deprivation. Also, a high Cog but low Bio character will tend to learn faster. Indeed, somebody with a high Meta also has the advantage of being able to learn more from teachers, while a higher Nano means being able to learn more from field experience (you'll know better why you failed).
Most of this is touched on in the book, but calculating this precisely isn't something I particularly want to go into. So I won't.
Base Starting Professions: You get twice your (Bio + Cog) grades of Professions distributed essentially as you please. This being said, despite the no strict age limits, there are general limits of common sense. Somebody with a Bio 2 and Cog 9 has a good deal of points to play with, but that Bio 2 does mean that they've probably only got about 70 years to learn them all, and in the mean time has to learn how to walk and talk and use the bathroom. Thus, while the character might have a lot of Professions, they'll probably have none of them very high. As a general rule, anything greater than twice the lower of your Bio or Cog (or just Cog for mnemonic agelessness) will require a chat with the GM.
You can purchase more with CP. Juveniles will tend to have fewer Professions, but rare is the juvenile allowed to be a Patent Officer.
Locality: Also, on top of this, the character will get a number of grades of Localities equal to their (Meta + Nano). This is different from the standard "you get your Civ's Locality" bump. Certainly, most of those should go to your own Civ (and a general mandate of at least half), but there is a lot of play with this. The first, most obvious, and least often encountered version is when a character has two Civs. Dual citizenship is actually possible, and the question with the "get your Locality at a flat X" is whether you get the X twice. While it's fine to say yes, it's easier to say "half your calculated X goes to one, half to the other".
If you only have one Civ, then you can put the remainder into that Civ, other Civ's you've been really close with, your Society (or other Societies), or anything else that seems appropriate.
Terminal Point: I'm not using the term "Terminal Complexity" because I'm already using "Complexity" elsewhere. The Terminal Point is the point at which the datastructures of your mind are greater than your brain's ability to operate them. This is a function of biological processing limits (Bio) and algorythmic limitations (Cog). You cannot have more than your (Bio + Cog) times six grades of Professions, period. If you would gain more, then depending on how your brain is wired either the excess will overwrite older data or your brain will begin to glitch and fail.
Lensed Professions count towards this total. If you have a permanent lensed Profession, this just counts as an ordinary Profession. Temporary Lensed Professions, on the other hand, are put into temporary use by your brain and become part of your brain's datastructure (albeit a temporary one). Thus, if you have a mesh, you'll want to keep some free space open to keep room for competence lenses.
Immortality: If you have mnemonic agelessness, then you can store your excess data onto external media and "hot swap" the information as you need it without serious lag time. Thus, you can ignore the Terminal Point limitation. However, if you lose access to your external memory, you'll suddenly lose the majority of your Professions. For simplicity's sake, you'll be reduced to your base starting Professions (twice your Bio plus Cog). Backup copies are always useful.
If you have medical agelessness, then you are no longer limited by lifespan. If your Cog is higher than your Bio, then you can use it in place of Cog when calculating base starting Professions and your Terminal Point.
Does Cog Beat All?: No. String and Meta are the most important "resistance" Caps, and are also your "hard hitting" Caps. Nano is vital to keeping up with the situation. Additionally, when you start getting to that point of sufficient advancement that immortality (of some kind) becomes an option, your Cog will give you your baseline Professions but will have no further part in it. At the point that Cog starts being awesome, it makes itself less useful.
CVs, Themes, Complexity, Twists, and (gasp) Character Points
Twists are no longer single-fire winbuttons. You get Twists from taking Complications on your CV, and you get a number of Twists equal to your CV. You now spend one Twist per level of Theme to activate a Theme up to your Theme level, then two points per grade thereafter. Complexity is a score that determines the severity of Complication you have to take in order to get Twists out of your CV.
You also might have to spend Character Points. In that case, CP will pay for Capabilities and Themes (CVs may be taken high or low freely because they will hurt you). The amount of CP you get is based on your Complexity - the higher your Complexity, the fewer CP you get. CP may also be spent to gain extra Professions (which is more cost effective than simply buying up your Bio or Cog), and for other stuff which will come later. CP does not purchase Twists - it is used to buy your themes. Also, CP is only used at character creation - I don't plan on implementing an XP system.
Complexity replaces Import. It's measured from 1 to 4, and determines how many CP you get. You want it as low as possible for the sake of keeping your Complications minimal, but you want it as high as possible for the sake of getting CP.
Beta Version Trait Costs
Trait | CP for +1 |
---|---|
Capacity | 2 |
Sellout Capacity1 | 4 |
Professions2 | 1/2 |
Theme | 4 |
1 If you take Capacities into the Sellout range, every point into the Sellout range you go will cost this much instead of the above.
2 This is above the amount you get from Bio and Cog, but is up to a maximum of your Terminal Point (unless you've got Mnemonic Agelessness).
Beta Version Complexity-to-CP
Cplx | Total CP |
---|---|
1 | 65 |
2 | 75 |
3 | 90 |
4 | 110 |
Still working on the above, but some baseline numbers down.
Themes and Twists
…work mostly the same, except you'll have more Twists. You have to spend one point per grade of Theme to activate them. You can activate Themes at lower grades, if you wish to save on Twists. This means, among other things, that you won't be erasing your pool of "win" buttons or taking severe complications just to escape off-camera death when you've got Plot Immunity 4.
Wonder and Horror can be integrated as well, as desired.
Core Values
You still get four CVs, period, end of story. Unless you get three or five. These are currently being rated 1-5. They cost nothing - they tend to bite you on the posterior as much as they help you. They do some of the same things (the exact game terms of how susceptibility/resistance will work with CVs I'm still working on), but they are now your source for Twists. With Twists being commodities you get in larger numbers (and being individually smaller), you now take Complications based on your CV to get Twists from them. Thus…
You have the CV of Openness. You are having a discussion on secret topics with another PC. Instead of going to a private place, you instead put yourself in the middle of the intergalactic equivalent of Grand Central Station in the middle of the main lobby. The noise masks your conversation, but you're still talking about secret topics in a public place. If you wish, you can take a Complication to take some bad consequences for this. The Complications have the same severities as in normal SA, so a Complexity 1 character suffers a normal grade 1 Complication (you have to walk on eggshells to make sure nearby people keep ignoring you) all the way up to a grade 4 Complication (there are some aggressive preachers and hawkers following you around, and it's probable at least one of them is working for the Antagonist of the Week and who has almost certainly picked up your tail).
In either of the above cases, you get a number of Twists equal to your CV. Note that CVs of 0 no longer exist - because of how the system works, zero counts break the system by simply erasing the CV from your character sheet. If you had a CV of 0, just set it to 1.