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.
• "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.

If you own the keyforge book they have the spirit species Who can get physical when they posses a certain peice of armor or clothing. We used that template in our keyforge game to represent an energy being of sorts.

7 hours ago, ProfessorTerrible said:

• Critical Errors to be incurred when strain maxes out.

I'm curious how you are thinking of handling exceeding the strain threshold for QIs (if at all) in addition to a crit. For example, a regular character who exceeds the Wound Threshold gets a crit and loses consciousness. So, would exceeding strain essentially kick the QI out of whatever they are possessing, and back to their "home system"?

Also, what skill would be used to "possess" technology? I could see using an existing skill like Computers, but that might be overloading it. Maybe essentially having a "magic" type skill for that purpose would apply. I don't own Keyforge... maybe @Archellus can comment on if the spirit species they mentioned or their energy beings have to make a check of some kind for possession.

If this sounds like fun for your group, then go for it. However, if you want an opinion of hurdles you will face:

• Designing a species with a party role in mind will affect how it is balanced, and not in a good way.
• Removing the ability to suffer wounds fundamentally changes how almost every rules interacts with that character, which will not be fun to determine on either side of the screen.
• I do not suggest limiting how a player can interact with your world because they chose the homebrew.
• Substituting Strain for Encumbrance will change how both of those work and are calculated, and not in a fun way.

When making a new race convert flavor, not mechanics. A simple way to do this would be in Keyforge: Secret of the Crucible, Page 40: Incorporeal of the Making Races section. Getting this and building a new species with the XP Buy methods will save you and your group a ton of work, even if you do all want this AI race.

14 hours ago, Archellus said:

If you own the keyforge book they have the spirit species Who can get physical when they posses a certain peice of armor or clothing. We used that template in our keyforge game to represent an energy being of sorts.

I hadn't actually heard of Keyforge until I started this thread. It looks like it'll be a good thing to pick up once I have the chance.

8 hours ago, jendefer said:

I'm curious how you are thinking of handling exceeding the strain threshold for QIs (if at all) in addition to a crit. For example, a regular character who exceeds the Wound Threshold gets a crit and loses consciousness. So, would exceeding strain essentially kick the QI out of whatever they are possessing, and back to their "home system"?

Also, what skill would be used to "possess" technology? I could see using an existing skill like Computers, but that might be overloading it. Maybe essentially having a "magic" type skill for that purpose would apply. I don't own Keyforge... maybe @Archellus can comment on if the spirit species they mentioned or their energy beings have to make a check of some kind for possession.

My thinking is to make it as much like a Critical Injury as possible, within the flavour. So it probably would be as you describe, that they incur a Critical Error and get kicked out of whatever they were connecting to. Perhaps they still experience "unconsciousness" in the sense of having to reboot and clean out their RAM.

The obvious choice of skill is Computers, but you may be correct about overloading the skill. Perhaps different kinds of targets could have different kinds of skills attached? Knowledge (Warfare) could perhaps be used to link up with sentry robots, or Piloting with Spacecraft, Mechanics with a Personal Suit?

Computers could then be left to a more traditional role such as hacking within a system, and as an "Medicine" replacement for QIs?

3 hours ago, HaphazardNinja said:

• Designing a species with a party role in mind will affect how it is balanced, and not in a good way.
• Removing the ability to suffer wounds fundamentally changes how almost every rules interacts with that character, which will not be fun to determine on either side of the screen.
• I do not suggest limiting how a player can interact with your world because they chose the homebrew.
• Substituting Strain for Encumbrance will change how both of those work and are calculated, and not in a fun way.

When making a new race convert flavor, not mechanics. A simple way to do this would be in Keyforge: Secret of the Crucible, Page 40: Incorporeal of the Making Races section. Getting this and building a new species with the XP Buy methods will save you and your group a ton of work, even if you do all want this AI race.

You raise some good points. There are a lot of character creation options that just won't apply to a QI character the way I've described it, such as issues with wounds and encumbrance. Inventory also becomes almost completely removed from that character's individual progression.

Thank you all for your thoughts.

After all this is said and done, please share the final product. If using the SotC rules, I don't see why consumer-level electronics could be used to physical interaction in a pinch.

"Hey, you the crew the fixer sent? Aren't there supposed to be five of you?"

Cuddly tank holds up a fancy toaster.

Toast pops up, displaying "Hi!" burned in a gluten-free greeting.