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Old 10-08-2019, 01:50 PM   #1
DataPacRat
 
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Default [Horror] Gaining Advantages from Corruption Points?

I'm poking around with ideas involving ahuman AIs with weird nanotech nudging their contracted supplicants in various ways. I'm currently thinking of using the Corruption Points system, and having these patrons tweak the supplicants' minds and bodies in ways the latter wouldn't ask for (at least until much later in the memetic nudging process).

For example, say we have a patron who's an expy of the fertility-oriented Shub-Niggurath, and a supplicant who's picked up a pile of Corruption Points, and it's time to convert at least some of those into Disadvantages. Shubby might do a mental tweak that adds a 5-point Delusion that "eggs are fun!" (getting a -1 reaction penalty), along with a few perks and features from BioTech. (Eg, perks: Cross-Species Surrogacy, Parthenogenesis; features: Easy Childbirth, Oviparous (1/3 normal gestation time), Extended Fertility, Increased Fecundity). How many Corruption Points would this package clear up? 30, because the character sheet is now worth 3 CP less than before? 50, because only Disadvantages count? 70, because there's a total of 7 CP of changes?

A similar example might be an expy of CelestAI nudging along a particularly Corruption-Point-full supplicant's ponification process by using their Corruption Points to throw on Horizontal, a level of Bad Grip, Extra Legs, Claws (Hooves), and Fur, for -15 CP of disadvantages and 9 CP of Advantages, potentially clearing up 60, 150, or 240 corruption points. (... I'm not bothering with trying to actually stat out the eternal 'legs as arms' thing for this example.)

How would you handle the pointage?
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Old 10-08-2019, 02:10 PM   #2
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Default Re: [Horror] Gaining Advantages from Corruption Points?

I'd go with 70. Paying for all changes seems the way to go. I'd charge 5 Corruption Points for features like short gestation time.
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Old 10-08-2019, 03:08 PM   #3
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Default Re: [Horror] Gaining Advantages from Corruption Points?

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I'd go with 70. Paying for all changes seems the way to go.
I can work with that.

(Even if it still seems a bit weird that if the Patron chooses the changes, the supplicant loses those 20 corruption points by gaining the perks; while if the supplicant asked for them, they'd gain 20 corruption points instead.)


Quote:
I'd charge 5 Corruption Points for features like short gestation time.
Is that just for these particular ones, or 5 CorPs per 0-point feature in general?
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Old 10-08-2019, 03:12 PM   #4
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Default Re: [Horror] Gaining Advantages from Corruption Points?

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I can work with that.

(Even if it still seems a bit weird that if the Patron chooses the changes, the supplicant loses those 20 corruption points by gaining the perks; while if the supplicant asked for them, they'd gain 20 corruption points instead.)




Is that just for these particular ones, or 5 CorPs per 0-point feature in general?
Per feature in general.
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Old 10-08-2019, 03:45 PM   #5
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Default Re: [Horror] Gaining Advantages from Corruption Points?

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Originally Posted by DataPacRat View Post
(Even if it still seems a bit weird that if the Patron chooses the changes, the supplicant loses those 20 corruption points by gaining the perks; while if the supplicant asked for them, they'd gain 20 corruption points instead.)
This is a hint that playing with these Patrons is a bad idea.
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Old 10-08-2019, 04:09 PM   #6
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Default Re: [Horror] Gaining Advantages from Corruption Points?

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This is a hint that playing with these Patrons is a bad idea.
Well, yes. But you know PCs. ... And NPCs, come to think of it. :)

I'm still working up a suitable list of Patrons, and their preferences; it's hard to come up with a decent list of truly inhuman viewpoints, outside of the now-standard Lovecraftian mythos. CelestAI is a good one... WH40k's canonical warp gods are vaguely in the right direction, but are usually too human-based for what I'm looking for here. (Though I do know of a few fan-variants that might do, such as one where Nurgle and Slaanesh are nothing more than the principles of life and reproduction taken to extremes.) The proposal to treat evolution itself as a blind idiot god is also in the right direction, but I haven't been able to come up with a version that fits the Patron/supplicant relationship model.
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Old 10-08-2019, 04:18 PM   #7
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Default Re: [Horror] Gaining Advantages from Corruption Points?

I think that it might work better to a certain amount of Corruption Points as prerequisites to purchase certain advantages. For example, you could allow characters to purchase 1 CP worth of exotic advantages for every 25 CP worth of Corruption Points, discharging the Corruption Points, as they accept beneficial mutations in lieu of allowing Corruption Points to accumulate until they randomly discharge as malignant mutations. I would suggest allowing Corruption Points to accumulate until 1,250 Corruption Points before triggering HT rolls to avoid a malignant mutation episodes though, so characters could purchase large exotic advantages.
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Old 10-08-2019, 04:48 PM   #8
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Default Re: [Horror] Gaining Advantages from Corruption Points?

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I think that it might work better to a certain amount of Corruption Points as prerequisites to purchase certain advantages. For example, you could allow characters to purchase 1 CP worth of exotic advantages for every 25 CP worth of Corruption Points, discharging the Corruption Points, as they accept beneficial mutations in lieu of allowing Corruption Points to accumulate until they randomly discharge as malignant mutations. I would suggest allowing Corruption Points to accumulate until 1,250 Corruption Points before triggering HT rolls to avoid a malignant mutation episodes though, so characters could purchase large exotic advantages.
I'm trying to treat CorPs as "accumulated subtle nudges made by the Patron". One of the more obvious being extra little changes done to a supplicant's brain if they ask for an IQ upgrade, which at some point are revealed to have actual game-mechanic effects in the form of a mental Disadvantage. ("Of course; my now-smarter brain has revealed to me that it's obvious that the best way to accomplish my goals is to blow up that hostile Patron's temple...") It's a little trickier for physical changes, but I'm leaning in the direction of things like "Well, you /asked/ to be able to run faster, and while I've been trying to maintain your previous biology intact, enough complications have arisen that I need to simplify a few biochemical and structural interactions. Furry digitigrade legs really suit you, too.".


I'm trying to draw up two lists for each Patron; one of bennies that one of their supplicants can request (gaining CorPs instead of spending CPs for them; both immediate/tactical (from 2 CorPs to regain 5 FP, to 500 CorPs for a revival) and longer-term changes (such as growing a glowy unicorn's horn)), and a list of the Patron's preferred changes when the supplicant's CorPs get too high, to make the supplicant more useful to the Patron (starting with an Obsession for the Patron's current short-term goal, on up).

Since a supplicant's actual CorP total is invisible to them, and I don't foresee a Patron revealing it to them, then I'm aiming for a supplicant to just request any of the options available on the Patron's menu, and the Patron will set the implanted nanotech into motion. I'm currently going by Horror's ratio of 10 CorPs being equivalent to 1 CP, ala the Disadvantage mentioned earlier in the book.
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Old 10-08-2019, 11:12 PM   #9
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Default Re: [Horror] Gaining Advantages from Corruption Points?

Have you considered borrowing ideas from the Spirit-Assisted Magic rules? The CorP system is actually just one possible implementation of a more general notion of Corruption Points, as outlined in the first few paragraphs of the Power Corrupts section. One of the alternatives is to have “corruption points” work like Distortion Points from the Spirit-Assisted Magic system. And Distortion Points are all about a supernatural patron gradually changing you into their image.
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Old 10-09-2019, 06:32 AM   #10
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Default Re: [Horror] Gaining Advantages from Corruption Points?

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Have you considered borrowing ideas from the Spirit-Assisted Magic rules? The CorP system is actually just one possible implementation of a more general notion of Corruption Points, as outlined in the first few paragraphs of the Power Corrupts section. One of the alternatives is to have “corruption points” work like Distortion Points from the Spirit-Assisted Magic system. And Distortion Points are all about a supernatural patron gradually changing you into their image.
You mean from Thaumatology, p90-4? That's definitely one of GURPS' interpretations of the same source material I'm drawing on, so is at least good for general thematic inspiration. However, the setting I'm cobbling together doesn't actually contain "magic", just Sufficiently Advanced Technology, so I can't quite see how to directly apply it.

About the closest that comes to mind would be to draw on Madness Dossier, with one of the possible benefits of a patron being getting to learn some of the Anunnaki glyphs (reskinned as "visual basilisk hacks") or Enthrallment skills (reskinned as "tactical memetics"); I might be able to justify some version of Magic/Thaumatology's Alchemy (based on harnessing and manipulating various strains of nanotech that have been evolving in the wild), or Power-based magic (eg, Bardic Arts ("practical memetics") or Shamanism ("sub-posthuman AI training"), Thau p202), though I'm going to have to give all of those a read-through to see how well they fit.
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