I'm looking to explore ways to depict "disembodied" characters in a setting.
To provide an example, my homebrew setting includes artificial intelligences called "Quantum Intelligences" (QIs) that are so-named for the use of quantum computing in generating a quasi-human sapient mind. These are generally "disembodied" in the sense that they operate as the intelligence of a spaceship, installation, or even an individual suit. They generally handle things like administration, analysis, communication, electronic warfare, and emergency systems. The inspiration comes from sources like Cortana (Halo) and EDI (Mass Effect).
I've had a couple of players express interest in playing as QIs rather than humans. One particularly liked the idea of being a disembodied character that is stored on the ship and only "leaves" with the party in the sense of being uplinked with them.
I've seen this topic discussed in reference to settings like Altered Carbon or Eclipse Phase, but those discussions are mostly rooted in settings where that is a feature that all characters experience. Whereas I'd like to explore ways for disembodied characters to coexist in the setting with normal ones.
My initial thoughts based on my own ideas and ones that I've read:
- QIs have high Strain Threshold and no Wound Threshold.
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"Race" Characteristics of 1/1/3/2/2/2 (High Intelligence, Low Brawn and Agility)
- Having Brawn and Agility can still be useful in certain situations, such as if they find themselves controlling a robot, or gun emplacements or such.
- Unique "Critical Injury" (Critical Error) table that represents errors and bugs developing in their program. Critical Errors to be incurred when strain maxes out.
- Each other character or object that the QI links up with temporarily reduces their Strain Threshold by 1.
- Main role in a party would be Knowledge Skills, Vehicles, Hacking
I'd be interested to hear others' thoughts, or if someone has come up with a really good way of handling this that I missed in my googling.