Wafer Jack plus Neural Link

[Condottiere]

AI who have ascended to a higher plane of existence.

 

[ProfGrizzlyJon]

Hmm, I wonder if anyone has thought of devloping a weapon based on remotely accessing the neural link/wafer jack and taking over control of the host...

Yes. I posted about it somewhere on here once...

 

[Fresnel]

Well, that's were the RAW can be tricky. Wafers cover INT and EDU, Neural Link adds STR, DEX, and END, but nothing adds SOC. So social skills may be beyond the capabilities of these cybernetics. There is the Fabulous augmentation, but it is not cheap...

Social skills would include body language and vocal 'skill'. Plus the ability to read the same. I would allow a Neural Jack to run such skills. They have full mind and body capacity.

 

[Shadowblayde99]

I personally would not allow expert skills to do athletics simply because your mind cannot make your body do things it physically cannot do e.g. rock climbing for your "average" 50 year old.

I would allow it for melee or gun combat or gunner. I'd also allow it for piloting because it's a skill and is dissociated from Dex and your Dex DM bonus. I'd also allow for drive and flyer.

 

[Fresnel]

I personally would not allow expert skills to do athletics simply because your mind cannot make your body do things it physically cannot do e.g. rock climbing for your "average" 50 year old.

I would allow it for melee or gun combat or gunner. I'd also allow it for piloting because it's a skill and is dissociated from Dex and your Dex DM bonus. I'd also allow for drive and flyer.

The same argument would apply to any 50 year old Traveller who did not maintain great physical condition for particular sports.

So even if the Traveller had a 'real' Athletics/Str 1, you would rule their rock climbing check as Unskilled? Or are you assuming everyone with Athletics/Str is working a grip trainer everyday?

 

[Condottiere]

I thought being aged out was meant to represent potential physical deterioration, every four years.

Though, I hear regular blood transfers from your offspring defers that.

Unskilled rock climbing might be more of an odds issue, depending on how many times you have to roll the dice.

 

[Fresnel]

If a referee has given a character the money and opportunity to get this very expensive TL14 iirc augment, then overcomplicating what exactly is allowed would be annoying imo.

An Athletics/STR wafer would give you the knowledge and skills of how to train your body. So you might tell the player they need X months to get their body into condition - if you really feel the need for 'realism'. Ymmv.

 

[Shadowblayde99]

The same argument would apply to any 50 year old Traveller who did not maintain great physical condition for particular sports.

So even if the Traveller had a 'real' Athletics/Str 1, you would rule their rock climbing check as Unskilled? Or are you assuming everyone with Athletics/Str is working a grip trainer everyday?

If the character has Athletics Str at 0 or above, I would allow them to rock climb etc because they are fit and work at keeping their body in good condition.

No expert skills package is going to allow someone to lift 100kg weight just because something in their brain says they can. Similarly for running 20 miles. Your brain is limited by the capabilities of your body. If your character wants to be stronger or tougher then you need physical augmentation.

 

[Fresnel]

If the character has Athletics Str at 0 or above, I would allow them to rock climb etc because they are fit and work at keeping their body in good condition.

No expert skills package is going to allow someone to lift 100kg weight just because something in their brain says they can. Similarly for running 20 miles. Your brain is limited by the capabilities of your body. If your character wants to be stronger or tougher then you need physical augmentation.

But the skill was (for example) gained in their pre-career. They never improved it and they are now 50... They have lost physical attributes via aging. Your assumption that Travellers with Athletics keep up physical condition is your table rule.

The attributes you are referring to modelled in game by STR, DEX and END - not the Athletics skills. The skills allows the character to make best use of what they have imo. Ymmv.

 

[Condottiere]

I tend to think we have a natural affinity for climbing trees.

We can probably also scrabble ontop stone walls.

Scaling a cliff side likely does require some skill.

 

[Fresnel]

I tend to think we have a natural affinity for climbing trees.

We can probably also scrabble ontop stone walls.

Scaling a cliff side likely does require some skill.

For instance skill and knowledge might allowing you to know a way to scale a cliff without needing to hang from a single finger.

 

[Vormaerin]

But the skill was (for example) gained in their pre-career. They never improved it and they are now 50... They have lost physical attributes via aging. Your assumption that Travellers with Athletics keep up physical condition is your table rule.

The attributes you are referring to modelled in game by STR, DEX and END - not the Athletics skills. The skills allows the character to make best use of what they have imo. Ymmv.

Athletics is trained use of your physical stats. The way the game has it written, you can use your Stat or you can use your Stat + Athletics to do most physical activities.

The whole idea of downloading skills is science fantasy, whether they are knowledge or physical or whatever. If you download knowledge of exactly where to put your hands and what's the best grip/position to do it, then sure, you are better at mountain climbing than you were before you did that. Your cybernetics are substituting for the muscle memory. That's why you need to extra cybernetics, so the chips replace your reflexes.

The fact that your Stat may have degenerated since you were 18 already accounts for your reduced physical aptitude. If my STR9 has dropped to STR 8, then I'm rolling with a 1 lower DRM already. If my stats haven't decreased or haven't decreased enough to affect my die rolls, I'm fine. That's all that needs to be considered. You don't need additional penalties. I'm sure there's some physical activity which has no relevant technique for improving performance, but those are edge cases that aren't worth worrying about.

Or just don't allow the cybernetics. But, I agree with the previous comment that allowing it and then not letting it do the thing it is for seems kind of uncool.

 

[swordtart]

If the character has Athletics Str at 0 or above, I would allow them to rock climb etc because they are fit and work at keeping their body in good condition.

No expert skills package is going to allow someone to lift 100kg weight just because something in their brain says they can. Similarly for running 20 miles. Your brain is limited by the capabilities of your body. If your character wants to be stronger or tougher then you need physical augmentation.

But arguably it is only something in your brain that allows any physical ability. It controls the muscles, releases endorphins and adrenaline etc.

Maybe you can't lift the 100KG weight because your conscious mind is telling you that you shouldn't be able to. Override that with software and you can (presuming your physicals stats are in the right ball park for the skill to make a difference). People have achieved remarkable feats beyond their normal capabilities when pressed because as humans we are prone to "it's too hard" syndrome.

The Athletics Skill helps you run better, how much of that is technique and how much is raw ability? If it was just physical Olympians wouldn't need coaching, just regular exercise. Anything you can improve with training should be able to be improved by software run through a neural jack in lieu of that training.

 

[actionman]

I personally would not allow expert skills to do athletics simply because your mind cannot make your body do things it physically cannot do e.g. rock climbing for your "average" 50 year old.

I'd have the character test / roll against the relevant characteristic to see if he hurts himself.

Even a trained athlete or martial artist can hurt himself if he tries an advanced move when he's out of shape.

 

[actionman]

Maybe you can't lift the 100KG weight because your conscious mind is telling you that you shouldn't be able to. Override that with software and you can (presuming your physicals stats are in the right ball park for the skill to make a difference). People have achieved remarkable feats beyond their normal capabilities when pressed because as humans we are prone to "it's too hard" syndrome.

AFAIK what happens is that a stress response overrides the body/brain safety limits, and allows the use of 90% or more of available muscle fibers. These neurological safety limits prevent injury, but in extreme situations a person's neurochemical stress response can allow the person's body to bypass these limits.

"Vladimir Zatsiorsky, a professor of kinesiology at Penn State who has extensively studied the biomechanics of weightlifting, draws the distinction between the force that our muscles are able to theoretically apply, which he calls "absolute strength," and the maximum force that they can generate through the conscious exertion of will, which he calls "maximal strength." An ordinary person, he has found, can only summon about 65 percent of their absolute power in a training session, while a trained weightlifter can exceed 80 percent.

Under conditions of competition a trained athlete can improve as much as 12 percent above that figure. Zatsiorsky calls this higher level of performance "competitive maximum strength." This parameter is not a fixed number—the more intense the competition, the higher it can go, as the brain's fear centers progressively remove any restraint against performance."