Persona Lens

Summary:

Additional Suggestions

Persona Lens

narfanator 22 Feb 2008 20:58

The way I've been treating Persona lenses is that they provide a new set of CVs for a character, "overwriting" some or all of a character's original CVs. In Shiva's case, I also built a new skill set by tuning down or eliminating many of the character's Professions.

I think it's a nifty way to handle sleeper-style spy stuff in SA.

My real question would be; what would it take to make you unrecognizable to a Masquerader?

Re: Persona Lens

Colin_Fredericks 22 Feb 2008 23:22

The revised set of CVs makes a lot of sense to me; that's a good idea. I think that most Persona lenses would come linked to Competence Lenses with particular professions or limitations. If the CV set was radically different, I wouldn't feel bad decreasing the person's Cognitech Reserve, to represent the constant efforts to suppress or reroute old mental pathways.

I would be very hesitant to take away the Masquerade's special ability with just a Lens. It's pretty narrowly useful to begin with, and I think it should really be an absolute ability. It should take a decade or more of work to get around it.

Re: Persona Lens

Pneumonica 24 Feb 2008 18:33

Personally, I'd say that somebody who had a Civ/Soc ability about appearing to be what you're not would have to roll off against the Masquer in order to keep their disguise. (You know, the phrase "identity theft" would take on new meaning in this setting…)

Re: Persona Lens

narfanator 24 Feb 2008 19:22

You know, on that note… Are there masqueraders who go that one extra step and make their personality a mask as well?

Re: Persona Lens

Pneumonica 25 Feb 2008 18:38

I suppose if you're concerned about neural hacking you could do that - a hardcoded personality lens would make you really resilient to neurohacking (or personal development of any kind). Hypothetically you could remove it at night and reconsider your actions for the day (there's a lens for that as well), and in the morning burn a new lens of yourself for the day. If you've had the mesh from childhood, the data would all be there and available, too.

Better living through… the Lensmen?

Re: Persona Lens

narfanator 25 Feb 2008 18:56

Int-eresting. You called it, you get first dibs.

Wasn't really thinking of it as a defense, it's more inspired by the Masquerader story in which the different masks correspond to different aspects of her personality - she doesn't use a lens or anything, it sounded more along the lines of "when you put on the black party dress, you act differently than when you're in the business suite", but you could - and that'd be the Lensmen, wouldn't it?

Look up the Vedanta Society before you go off on them, might be kinda interesting.