From: Jeff HIVE STRUCTURES In the simplest hive structure, no mindsharing is involved. At least one member is sentient. The distinction between such a hive and non-hive species is psychological: Members think of themselves foremost as assets of the hive, secondarily as individuals. (This attitude is particularly likely when all are children of the same queen.) Members have the Selfless disadvantage, a strong Sense of Duty to their community, and possibly Compulsive Behaviors that aid species survival. If the hive has a non- sentient or sessile queen, all members may take her as a dependent, albeit one which appears rarely for any given individual. Some members may still be subsentient, though. Sentient members of the hive relate to them either as owners or overseers, depending on individual rank and the caste structure of the hive, if any. Non-sentient members are like organic robots, following an instinctive program; advanced hives might be able to design and program non-sentient drones for specific roles. Such drones will seldom be able to survive on their own, being specialized to contribute only to a single aspect of hive survival. The number and type of non-sentient drones in a hive generally do not affect the point value of an individual sentient member, unless he owns them, in which case he must have wealth, or unless he is responsible for maintaining them, in which case he may have Rank, Status, a Duty, or maybe just a job. Semi-sentient drones are more than just organic robots, or at least they are robots with more elaborate and flexible instincts/programming. They still have low IQ and a Slave Mentality (like the Insect Warriors of p. FF88 or the Blue Tittikit of p. SB29). Semi-sentient drones either serve as the lower echelon in fields where flexibility is an asset, like defense, or in "middle-management" directing lower-order drones in mundane tasks. If all fully sentient members of the tribe can give orders to the semi-sentient ones, they must take their own race as a patron. Otherwise, an individual must have Rank or buy his drones as allies. Special Disadvantage: Selfless (from Uplift). Members of the race have a very low sense of their own individuality. Includes a level of Weak Will. -10 points. RACIAL MEMORY Individuals have access to the memories of the whole race, or at least a significant branch, sort of like an organic library. Buy Racial Memory as a set of racial skills or skill bonuses, with limitations applied to the whole. Another ramification of racial memory is that any skill known by a member will be known at every previous tech level that the race has experienced; usually this goes right back to zero. Add two points per previous TL to the cost of the package. At its most basic, Racial Memory is just innate skill in Area Knowledge and racial History and Literature. More complete and detailed memory will give skills in other areas as well, perhaps better purchased as a skill bonus. That is, you may remember facts and even procedures, but you still have to practice using them. For example, a physicist must know the laws of motion, but considering the ramifications of those laws on a new problem is a challenge distinct from mere memorization. While the game mechanics for racial memory are not unusual, the cultural effects are. Racial memory obviates the function of bards and journalists. It may inhibit the development of literacy or otherwise contribute to a backward-looking cultural mindset: Everything worth knowing has been known before. On the other hand, if the race ever does develop literacy or a scientific approach, then that too will be propogated. Special Limitation: Inherited Memory. If members of a race inherit memories from their parents, no hive structure is necessary, but the game mechanics are the same. Any skills provided by heriditary memory will never be current, so reduce their cost by 10%. For such a race, split personalities are common, as a weak-willed individual is dominated by a strong personality from his ancestry. Early Maturation is also appropriate, in which case all members of the race are likely to display personality traits of their founders, especially clan feuds. Special Limitation: Central Source. Some hive minds are global consciousnesses; every member has access to the memories of every other. Most hives have central repositories of memories, though, and members of the race have a separate Duty to update the memory banks. If the memory bank is destroyed, the hive loses its racial memory, or at least the ability to update that memory (In that case, reduce value by 10%, as for inherited memory. New members of the race will not have the inherited memory advantage.) If the hive has only one memory bank, -20%. If it has multiple memory nodes, -10%. Special Limitation: Limited Range. At some distance from your hive, either its central population or one of its memory nodes, you lose access to your racial memories, as follows: -40% Touch Only -30% 1 mile If you take Touch Only, the memories last for -25% 10 miles at least an hour after the exchange. You may -20% 100 miles consider applying the Degrades enhancement. -15% 1,000 miles -10% Planet-wide If your campaign scope is merely planet-wide -5% Universal or universal, these limitations are worth 0%. -0% Multiversal Special Limitation: Takes Extra Time. Accessing racial memories requires a second of concentration, -10%. Accessing your memories takes a minute and some non-trivial action, like a trance, -20%. Accessing your memory requires a ritual a la Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear, -30%. Special Enhancement: Degrades. Must be linked to limited range. Your racial skills and bonuses degrade slowly instead of being lost immediately when you are out of range. If your skill levels or bonus degrade at a rate of 1 per hour, +5%. For -1 per day, +10%. For -1 per week, +20%. For -1 per month, +30%. If your racial memories linger longer than that, you might as well not have a Limited Range. In any case, this "enhancement" never costs you more than Limited Range saves in the first place. If a species has a degrading racial memory, members with Eidetic Memory retain their racial memories even when out of range. In a hive whose memories degrade and which has a range of Touch Only, some members have a Duty to visit other members to "freshen" their racial memories and collect new ones for the racial store. MINDSHARE No Direct Cost A true hive consciousness, a single consciousness inhabiting several bodies. Three types of player character are possible: 1) The PC is the brain unit for a hive, controlling several drones; 2) the PC is a drone who is only intelligent when the hive mind is focusing on him; or 3) the PC is a decentralized intelligence. In case 1, compute the character point value of the central unit, including intelligence. It will probably be Sessile, and may lack limbs and senses as well; give only half credit for any physical disadvantages (including reduced attributes) which are not universal among the drones as well. Then pay half value for any advantages available to any of the drones which the central unit does not have. Compute the value for every drone which the central mind can control; don't worry, a beginning PC won't be able to afford many. Also, most hives will only have a few types of drones, so you'll just calculate the value of a Warrior and take 5 of them, for example. For every different kind of drone the hive can have (up to 15), spend 5 points. Add to the character's cost 10% of the sum of its drones. (For this purpose, minimum cost of a drone is 0; you can't get points back by having a lot of wimpy drones.) By default, the central unit can directly control one drone at a time; add a level of Full Coordination for each additional drone. Yes, you can buy down the IQ of the drones to make them cheaper, but this will make them less capable of acting when you are not consciously controlling them. Even those with high IQ will still be following a program, though, so you must define the default role for each drone; e.g., harvest co-ordinator. For a sentient but controllable drone, pay 10% of its point value *and* buy it as an ally. When a drone runs into a problem that needs a solution from the central brain, make an IQ roll to notice its inquiry. For case 2, you are a drone for a hive as described above (or below). Determine your default IQ and skills and then apply the Unreliable limitation to the extra IQ and skills you get from the central mind: access on 5 or less, -7 levels; access on 8 or less, -3 levels; access on 11 or less, -2 levels; and access on 14 or less, -1 level. For example, if you have IQ 13 (30 points), the central brain has IQ 17 (100 points), and you can access that intelligence on an 11 or less (-2 levels), pay 100-30, -20%, or 56 points. A drone of this type may have a few individual personality traits, as the central intelligence manifests differently in the different body. Special Limitation: Limited Range. If a drone cannot be controlled beyond a certain range, reduce its cost to the hive by the amount give for the Limited Range disadvantage for Racial Memory, above. For example, a 100- point drone cannot interface with the central unit beyond a range of 100 miles. This reduces its value to 80 points. The controlling PC pays 10% of that, or 8 points. If the PC is the drone, he would instead reduce the cost of the advantages he gets from the central unit. Special Advantage: Drone Design. The hive queen is not limited to a few, specific drone models. Instead, the queen can custom design any new drone she can afford, like MMM (p. A112). She must pay half cost for every advantage in her design repertoire, but she may expand that repertoire after character creation, through practice. 40 points. DECENTRALIZED INTELLIGENCE No Direct Cost For case 3, a decentralized intelligence, pay full value for every advantage available to any hive member, but count only those disadvantages which are universal. Each drone contributes points to raise communal intelligence above a starting value equal to that of the smartest member, and to buy skills and mental advantages (including Full Coordination). Determine the cost of a drone as in case 1, and then increase its cost by an amount equal to *twice* its contribution to the hive mind, less 30%, less any further rebate for limited range. THE POINTS CONTRIBUTED TO IQ IN THIS FASHION COUNT AS A RACIAL ATTRIBUTE MODIFIER. Most hives will have stupid drones; let us assume one with IQ 7. An exceptional drone with an *indivually* greater IQ would pay 30 points for IQ 10, but the hive need spend but 20 points. To rephrase, even though the hive starts with the IQ of its smartest individual member, it purchases IQ relative to a score of 10. (This is true even when the hive includes geniuses.) The GM should set guidelines for how a hive mind instinctively organizes itself, based on its size; e.g., 60% of its pool of points to IQ, 40% to skills, subject to maximum IQ 18. It is possible that some of the hive's points can even go to physical attributes and advantages. For example, a hive of tiny creatures might form itself into a large, solid body with the ST of a man. In this case, purchase ST (and DX) for the hive just as for IQ, with the Touch Only limitation. When members of a communal intelligence are knocked out, the hive loses access to their contributions to communal IQ; when members are killed, the hive loses those points permanently. This is the disadvantage that justifies the -30% limitation; a normal character does not become stupid when he is damaged or dismembered. The hive player determines the order in which points are lost; presumably, he intuitively arranges for high priority constituents to be least exposed. When a communal intelligence loses constuents, it is stunned unless it makes a Will roll, at -1 for every 10 points lost; it may roll again every turn (at no penalty) to recover. When it is stunned, any members under its direct control are also stunned. High Pain Threshold for the hive prevents this, but High Pain Threshold for an individual drone affects only its own combat performance. If the members of a hive are small and have the Touch Only limitation on their contributions to the hive mind, the clump together in large, solid- seeming entities. These bodies may be targeted as a whole, and a single blow may kill multiple hive members: Apply damage to one hive member until it takes HT; then proceed to another with leftover damage. If several members are in danger of losing consciousness, roll in groups of 4 on the burst table (p. B120). When all members have taken HT damage once, start over. (These rules aren't realistic, just realatively easy.) Impaling damage has no multiplier against such a hive, but crushing damage is doubled. When damaged, the hive rolls against Will each day; if successful, it heals one character point toward buying back its drones. If a hive has the Regeneration advantage, it reproduces adult drones quickly, to replace character points lost through attrition, at the same rate that the advantage would normally restore hit points. (This is not the same as having regenerating drones.) A hive can also have Slow Healing, in terms of drone replenishment. A hive's rate of healing determines how quickly it can make use of earned character points. If all the points necessary to pay for a mental advantage are lost and then healed or regenerated, the hive might have a different advantage than it started with, assuming that it had discretion over the advantage in the first place. For example, it might lose Mathematical Ability and regenerate Absoluet Direction and Lightning Calculator instead. Roll against IQ before the hive starts healing; switching advantages is only possible if you fail. Skills cannot be regenerated; when points are again available, the hive must re-learn the skills. Unless it has an appropriate advantage, a hive mind needs just as much sleep as another character, but it has the option of staggering the sleep of its drones, keeping it partially aware at all times. If the portion of the hive that is awake perceives a threat, it can wake the rest immediately if the hive has Combat Reflexes. Otherwise, it must make a Will check each turn to bring another 10 points' worth "on-line." Special Enhancement: Redundancy. This enhancement may be linked to the -30% limitation inherent in a decentralized mind. Because information is backed up in multiple drone brains (and/or dynamically re-allocated), the hive does not lose character points as readily. If the hive can lose two members before it loses one contribution of points, +10%. Of course, when only one-third of the hive remains (with two-thirds of its knowledge), every subsequent death costs two contributions. For every additional drone which must be knocked out before the hive loses one contribution, +10%. There is a limit, of course. Take the number of constituents you can lose before you can lose one contribution, and add 1. Divide 100% by the result. That's the point at which the loss starts catching up to you, and every subsequent death costs you a number of contributions equal to your level of redundency. For example, with double-redundency (+10%), a hive can lose two members before it loses one contribution of points. When only one- third of the hive remains (with two-thirds of its knowledge), every subsequent death costs two contributions. Special Limitation: Limited Range. Apply any discount to the contribution of the drone to the hive total, as well as to the cost of the drone. EXAMPLE OF RACIAL MEMORY: The Loremasters Loremasters are TL3 insect men. Their racial memory gives them knowledge of their own History and Theology at IQ (4 each), and Area Knowledge of their homeland at the same level (1). They also have a +5 bonus to IQ (60), and are Literate (10). Furthermore, a loremaster can learn new skills by mere introspection, up to level 20, without paying double cost. Treat this as a minor patron, always available (30). Since their racial memory goes back to TL0, this costs another 6 points, for a grand total of 115 points. In the primordial mists, loremasters were a communal intelligence; their racial memory is really an ability to tap the communal mind. These abilities evaporate 100 miles from their homeland (-20%), for a final cost of 92 points. Loremasters have 4 arms, two with ST-1 (-10 x 50%) and an upper pair with ST-3 (-20 x 50%). The weaker arms are smaller (reach 0, 10 points), but they have Manual Dexterity +2 (20 x 80%). They also have antennae with Sensitive Touch (10), a thin carapace with DR 1 (5), and Secret Communication (20). They are Mute (-25) and communicate with other races only in writing. They are also Selfless (-10, from Uplift) and Compulsively Curious (-5), but Stubborn (-5) because they are sure that theirs is the greatest knowledge. They have another Compulsive Behavior (-5) as well: Every day, a loremaster spends an hour in meditation, donating his day's memories for posterity. Finally, Loremasters tend to make jokes which require a broad base of knowledge to appreciate (-1). The total cost to play a Loremaster is 87 points, a bit steep for a non-cinematic campaign. Note that an individual loremaster can buy off the -20% limitation from his Literacy advantage. Points spent on skills with communal knowledge as a "teacher" are likewise not lost when out of the homeland. SAMPLE MINDSHARE RACE: AAnts The members of this hive are ant-like, call them AAnts. Drones have a centauroid posture. Although they do not see well, their antennae are very sensitive. Worker drones are compact but sturdy, with a thin carapace. They gather the fungus which is the principle food source of the hive. Overseer drones are like worker drones, but taller and gracile. They direct the workers in the mundane tasks of harvest, excavation, and food distribution, and they are the only drones through whom the queen can communicate with other races. Warrior drones are large and powerful, with a thick carapace. Their arms end in serrated blades rather than fine manipulators. The queen is bloated, with vestigial limbs and senses. In her youth, she was slim and bewinged and mated with the mindless males in an airborne dance. The fertilized queen falls back to earth a few miles from her birth-hive, digs a shallow hole, lays her first eggs, and never moves again under her own power. Should you wish to introduce this race to your campaign, your players should note that one or two of the large insects they encounter suddenly start acting alert when they approach, although the rest do not react. If the party seems peaceful, a gracile Overseer will approach and clearly gesture: "Leave!" Otherwise, workers will engage; the queen will not risk overseers in combat. Either way, Warriors will arrive shortly to escort the party out of range of tze hive, forcefully if necessAr [Unknown error destroyed part of the document] onomously is some disadvantage, hence half credit. The base cost to play a queen is 90, but the PC will also have buy drones for the hive and, eventually, extra leveĥ; of coordination with which to use them. Worker Drone ST 9 (-10), DX 10, IQ 5 (-40), HT 10/7 (-15), 4 Legs (5), Clinging (30), DR 1 (5), High Pain Threshold (20, house rule), PD 1 (5, house rule), Secret Communication (20), Sensitive Touch (10), Bad Sight (-25), Mute (-25), and one mental/easy professional skill known to the queen (typically Dig Tunnels, Harvest Fungus, or Tend Larvae) at IQ+5 (10), or whatever level the queen knows it at, if lower. The total value of a worker drone is less than 0 points, so the hive PC can have as many as he needs. Overseer Drone ST 9 (-10), DX 10, IQ 8 (-15), HT 10, 4 Legs (5), Clingifç!(30), DR 1 (5), High Pain Threshold (20, house rule), PD 1 (5, house rule), Secret Communication (20), Sensitive Touch (10), Bad Sight (-25), Skinny (-5), and Administration at IQ+4 (10), specializing in one of the tasks which workers perfgòl. The base value of an overseer is 50 points, so each one costs 5 points for the hive PC. Warrior Drone ST 18 (20; ST-1 [Unknown error destroyed part of the document] , Inconvenient Size (-10; large), Mute (-25), No Fine Manipulators (-30), Brawling at DX+3 (8), and Running at HT-1 (1). Warrior drones do not have the Bad Sight disadvantage, not because they see well but because their sensitivity to vibrations negates the -2 combat penalty they would otherwise suffer. The total value of a warrior drone is 170 points! The hive PC must pay 17 apiece, less 30% for Limited Range. Sample Hive Character Shee Laa is a young queen, with only a handful of drones. Humans would find her hideous, but none have seen her. Shee Laa is a 100 point character suitable for use as a PC. The player might wish to add some more disadvantages and quirks, up to -45 plus the -25 for being an AAnt Queen; I'm not feeling that creative. Attributes: 20 0 ST NA 0 DX NA 20 IQ 12 0 HT 13 Advantages: 121 90 AAnt Queen 31 2 overseer drones (5 each) and 2 warrior drones (17 each) -30% Limited Range - 1 mile Disadvantages: -40 -10 Bad Temper -15 Greed -10 Impulsive -5 Intolerance of Mammals Quirks: -5 -1 Likes to make her drones do backflips -1 Never "recycles" drones (i.e., never eats the dead ones) -3 TBA Skills: 4 1 Acrobatics P/H DX-2 1 Dig Tunnels M/E IQ 1 Harvest Fungus M/E IQ 1 Tend Larvae M/E IQ Sample Drone Character #5 is an especially gifted overseer drone of the same species as Shee Laa: It knows how to "administrate" warriors in battle and how to defend itself. #5's queen has IQ 13, Intuition, Megalomania, and 20 points in skills, and she knows of #5's talents, so she is especially likely to heed its signal for attention; i.e., on 14 or less. Unfortunately, when left to its own devices, #5 often attempts snap decisions which really call for thoughtfull analysis by the sentient queen. #5's Rank, Duty, and Stigma affect its cost as a PC, but would not affect the cost of a drone to its hive, for the hive player is free to organize himself however he wishes. #5 is a 100-point character. Note that #5 does not have a Slave Mentality; it's not smart enough. It follows its instinctive programming (not orders), more-or-less, when not in contact with its queen. When in contact, it of course acts like the megalomaniac she is. Attributes: 30 0 ST 9 20 DX 12 10 IQ 9 0 HT 10 Advantages: 95 50 AAnt Overseer Drone 15 Combat Reflexes 25 IQ 13 (+40), Intuition (15), Megalomania (-25), and skills (20) -20% Unreliable (access on 14 or less) -30% Limited Range: 1 mile 5 Rank 1: Oversees warriors Disadvantages: -40 -15 Duty to queen, on 15 or less -10 Social Stigma: Valuable Property -10 Overconfidence -5 Stubbornness Quirks: -5 -5 TBA Skills: 20 4 Brawling P/E DX+2 (-2 for Bad Sight) 1 Running P/H HT-2 1 Area Knowledge (1 mile from hive) M/E IQ 2 Leadership M/A IQ 12 Tactics M/H IQ+4 SAMPLE DECENTRALIZED INTELLIGENCE: Nanots This type of hive is the most complicated and versatile, as I'll attempt to demonstrate here with just two types of drones. These tiny critters come in two flavors, red and blue. They are in fact different species living as symbiotes. The blue nanots are the brains, and the red nanots are the brawn. Nanot hives typically take humanoid forms and copy human technology, for they have observed that humans are successful as a species. Among themselves, they see no reason to duplicate the human head, although they will extrude one if it makes human traders more comfortable. In fact, a nanot tribe could extrude extra limbs, but it cannot normally control more than two. A large nanot swarme with plenty of blues can split itself into multiple human-sized entities and appear to be a village. Red Nanots ST 1 (-80), DX 10, IQ 1 (-80), HT 13/1 (-30), Alertness +2 (10), Immunity to Poison (15), Immunity to Radiation (10, house rule), Microvision x8 (12), Night Vision (10), Polarized Eyes (5), Ultrasonic Hearing (10), Inconenient Size (-15; small), Mute (-25), Reduced Move (Running) -4 (-20). This comes to a whopping total of -153 points, but the minimum cost to the whole is still 0. (These drones could easily afford more advantages, but that would raise the base cost of the hive, as well.) Each red nanot contributes .5 points to purchase ST and other advantages for the whole hive, with a base cost of 1, -40% Touch Only limitation and the usual -30% limitation for all decentralized consciousnesses. Note: It would be possible to give red nanots 100 points' worth of super powers and not change their point cost the the hive player at all! Clearly, these rules have potential for abuse above normal racial design rules. That's okay. Race design is the exclusive domain of the GM, and it's his job to carefully and intelligently conceptualize any new race in his campaign. Red nanots look like tiny magenta starfish. Blue Nanots IQ 2 (-70), HT 13/1, Immunity to Poison (15), Immunity to Radiation (10), Inconvenient Size (-15), Mute (-25). Blue nanots have no senses except that which binds them into a hive, and they cannot move under their own power. Hence, they too have a cost of 0. Each blue nanot contributes 2 points to hive IQ and other advantages, for a cost of 4, less 25% for a Limited Range of 10 miles. Blue nanots are redundant, a 10% enhancement which reduces the usual limitation to -20%. Blue nanots look like large blueberries. A nanot community has a base cost of -78 points, counting starting attributes, all advantages available to *either* blue or red nanots, but only those advantages applicable to both. In this case, count the Reduced Move of red nanots, because blue nanots can't move at all, a disadvantage which encompasses that of their symbiotes. Mute doesn't count, because the hive mind is telepathic. Having two different types of drones costs 5 points. At least 60% of all points contributed by blue nanots must be applied toward IQ, at least 20% must be applied toward telepathy power, and at least 10% must be applied toaward skills. The rest may be spent at discretion on more of the same, or on mental advantages (including Full Coordination). Blue points may not be spent on physical advantages, except to buying off Inconvenient Size, or to buying Peripheral Vision or 360 vision, which are mental advantages for a nanot swarm - the data is there; the trick is learning to keep up with it. At least 50% of all points contributed by red nanots must be applied to ST. The rest may be applied toward anything except mental advantages or IQ. Points for mental disadvantages or quirks may only be used for skills, mental advantages, or IQ, and points for physical disadvantages may be used for skills or physical advantages. The ability to shape and control extra limbs counts as a physical advantage, or at least something that red nanots can learn but blues cannot. Every extra limb purchased as an arm may be shaped as a leg or striker instead; every limb purchased as a striker may also be shaped as a leg. For example, a typical nanot hive normally chooses a head-less humanoid form, but it could just as easily be a small headless horse. If a nanot swarm has Full Coordination, it can split into smaller swarms. The blue nanots stay in contact even when these subswarms are up to 10 miles away, and they continue to contribute to each. For everey 100 members in a swarm, buy off 1 level of Reduced Move. For every 400 additional members after Move is normal, buy a level of Enhanced Speed. For a swarm of 300 or more, buy off Inconvenient Size. Sample Decentralized Character Bunchabugs This nanot hive is composed of the survivors of several others, after a flood drowned most of the nanots in an entire river valley. The members are not accustomed to being a single hive yet, and hence Bunchabugs is subject to seizures, disintigrating into his constituent parts. It also retains a fear of water, which drove him from the river which had been his home. Bunchabugs wields two shortswords and carries two shields in his pack. It may split into two smaller groups, each wielding one shortsword and a shield. Crushing damage is doubled against nanot swarms, but impaling damage receives no modifier. For a cinematic character worth 200 points, we have 278 to work with. Every 10 red nanots cost us 3 points, and every 5 blue nanots cost 11. We'll use 80 blues and 340 reds, a number arrived at by trial and error. Remember, each blue nanot is actually worth 2 points before its limited range is considered, and each red is worth .5, so we've really got 330 points to work with, plus 45 if we take the full compliment of disadvantages and quirks. I chose to make Bunchabugs a high value character in order to demonstrate a hive which can split into two functional subswarms. You could play an enjoyable 100-point nanot character, but you probably wouldn't be able to start with Full Coordination. Blue Attributes: 90 90 IQ 12 (from 2) Blue Advantages: 90 50 Full Coordination 40 Telepathy 8 Mental Disadvantages: -40 -30 "Epilepsy" (This is a mental problem for Bunchabugs) -10 Thalassophobia Quirks: -5 -1 Can't get the knack of human locomotion; bends backward at the knee -1 Refuses to eat blueberries -3 TBA Blue Skills: 25 9 Combat Skills 8 Shortsword P/A DX+2 1 Shield P/E DX 4 Outdoor Skills 1 Climbing P/A DX-1 1 Naturalist M/H IQ-2 1 Survival (prairie) M/A IQ-1 1 Tracking M/A IQ-1 (+2) 1 Social Skills 1 Area Knowledge (home) M/E IQ 9 Telepathy Skills 1 Suggest M/H IQ-2 4 Telereceive M/H IQ 4 Telesend M/H IQ 2 Thief/Spy Skills 1 Camouflage M/E IQ 1 Stealth P/A DX-1 Blue Total: 160 points Red Attributes: 135 90 ST 11 (from 1) 45 DX 14 (from 10) Red Advantages: 35 15 Bought off Inconvenient Size 20 Bought off Reduced Move -4 Physical Disadvantages: 0 Red Skills: 0 Red Total: 170 points Subswarm When splitting into two smaller entities, bunchabugs retains all points from his blue nanots as long as his two selves remain within 10 miles of each other. The points it receives from his red nanots are split between the two in whatever proportion it desires. Red Attributes: 75 65 ST 8 (from 1) 10 DX 11 (from 10) Red Advantages: 10 10 Bought off Reduced Move -2 Physical Disadvantages: 0 Red Skills: 0 Bunchabugs could have bought some skills with red points, but they'd be reduced when he split. Also, any skill points in red nanots are lost when the nanot dies, but blue nanots are redundant. Overall, Bunchabugs is equivalent to a 250-pt. human/super, but with a nasty hangup: Hit point damage reduces his character value. ERRATA Bunchabugs shouldn't be able to transfer points from DX to ST when he splits up. The small versions should have DX 12 instead of 11 and ST 6 instead of 9, with 2.5 leftover character points committed to DX. In light of this, its combat skill should be fencing or knife, something without a minimum ST. REVIEW From: Skiltair Wonderful stuff, I love it! As a free-willed single-bodied sentient I find many of the ideas alien and unsettling, so I would say you did a perfect job of conveying the sheer DIFFERENCE of communal life. To get inside the Phys & Psych of such a radically different type of life & then explain it in English is quite impressive. Bravo! I've just about done it all & am quite jaded. I could fill a post with frighteningly original (say it, freakin' weird!) characters that I have played & whole Alien cultures (in brain-searing detail) that have leapt fully-formed from my beetle-less brow, but suffice to say, I'm no stranger to the strangled sounds of annoyed GM's. You've opened up new vistas of role-playing weirdness for me to explore. I am studying your rules to Uplift ants. I can picture a sentient queen about rat-sized w/ a bunch (12+) of workers of mouse-size that do her work-orders. The 1st & 3rd Options of your Mindshare Advantage seem to fit my needs. I would like to avoid Psi if possible, but who knows... Neo-Ants would be great on a spaceship, scuttling about in their own little walk-tubes (wouldn't want to trample any clients to death) & fixing / maintaining multiple systems simultaneously across the ship in places where larger sentients couldn't reach without extensive delays. Best of all, the Eatees didn't declare Ants fallow! Of course, I'd never have had any clue where to start w/out your Mindshare rules. Thanks! Some specific thoughts (BEM's is used for brevity); IM(not-so-humble)O, access to the memories of skads of BEM ancestors would give a lot more than a RSB to History: BEMs & Area Knowledge: Hive Area. So I have a couple of options to present... A Collective Memory advantage that costs 100-250 CP & allows the BEM to access ANY skills that the Collective knows at the 1 CP level (which may tend to bar skills with lots of M/H prereqs at 15 or so from BEMs' w/ less than 17 or so IQ!). The limitation to personal IQ is for balance, assume that an IQ: 9 BEM couldn't make heads or tails of BEM- Einstein's memories, whilst an IQ: 18 BEM would do fine. The cost would vary w/ TL, limitations, what skills the Collective DOES know anyway & other stuff I haven't thought of yet. A Racial Skill Access advantage that allows the individual to access any skills known to the collective, but only up to a certain CP limit at one time. The cost would (for example) be 5x the CP cost of Racial Skills accessible; allowing a BEM w/ 10 CP of this RSA advantage to call up 2 CP worth of skills known to its' ancestors at any time. Base cost off of TL; 2 CP / CP of Racial Skill Access at TL: 0, 3 CP / CP at TL's: 1-3, 4 CP / CP at TL's: 4-6, 5 CP / CP at TL's: 7-9, 6 CP / CP at TL's: 10-12, 7 CP / CP at TL's: 13-15 & 8 CP / CP at TL's: 16+. An IQ roll may be required, and if critically failed, the ancestor whose skills are being used may `possess' the BEM! If failed normally then the BEM cannot try again without a Repeat Attempt, as / Psionics. Various delays, range limits, rituals required, unrelabilities (only skills of those alive CURRENTLY being accessible would make for a good justification for this, or sunspot activity...), etc may limit the cost appropriately. Any skill w/ prereqs requires the BEM to know the skill at the required level or have enough CP invested in the advantage to `buy' the prereqs at the required levels from the `Memory Bank' first. How about a disad for races that `update' a global consciousness on each day/week/whatever; No Long-Term Memory. An individual of one of these races has saved a lot on their brain-power by downloading ALL of their experiences to the global consciousness and then ERASING it! In nature they would travel in small intimate groups, trusting in their comrades to `remind' them of overall goals after the download. To stop themselves from being tricked, they may enter the download cycle only once a pincer is securely locked onto one of their trusted comrades & they know instictively to trust the first person they feel when they awaken. This would be a major disad! A more reasonable version would make the mind-wipe incomplete, allowing the BEM an IQ roll to see if a particular memory fragment remains. In a solo adventure, one of these BEM's could awaken after a download/erase to find that the BEM it has a traditional death-grip on is actually dead (and thus in no condition to tell its' buddy why they're here, or where here is, or anything!). Presumably, skills would remain (or they could be able to access skills as above!). An Amnesiac race, how bizarre. If they only update/erase every year/decade/etc, the race may think of each phase as a whole new person in legal & cultural terms! Both of these Hive-Mind Skill Advantages need more thought. Should they be limited to Mental skills? Should costs double if Psi/Magic/ Super skills are to be transferable? What if such a skill is `normal' for the race (as in the case of a Mute Telepathic race)? Would BEMs' keep Human prisoners awake w/ drugs indefinitely, thinking that they'll report to their Hive Mind for reinforcements if allowed to trance out? Comment is invited. Why, BTW, is this on the Character Exchange? This seems pretty un-Character-istic, if you ask me (which you didn't...).