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Old 05-11-2019, 06:56 PM   #91
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Default Re: Bio-tech related Quirks and Perks

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I had a cat, Pepper, that went insane for hot peppers and would steal them in preference to actual meat. He'd get into hot wing boxes to lick the sauce then eat the chicken.
It occurs to me that odd genetic twists could make certain common foods and scents either utterly vile or function as a super stimulus.

Example: Sandalwood is one of my favorite scents. But some insects find it repulsive. Part of the reason the scent was popular, it was a lovely scent that drove off bugs. Picture a parahuman with a broad resistence to toxins based on insect DNA. He can't stand one of the most common scents used in soaps and perfumes throughout the West and Asia.

There is a type of alcoholic were alcohol acts as a superstimulant on their brains. Much like Flynderan's cat and the hot peppers. A minor glitch in brain chemistry could make many common items from apples to lipstick dangerously addictive.

You could spin many odd problems out of this. Odd, but fully realistic.
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Old 05-12-2019, 01:08 AM   #92
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Default Re: Bio-tech related Quirks and Perks

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Sense of direction is one thing. Polarized light would be great for spotting many things not normally visible to the naked eye. However, many things would look weird to you. Good luck telling the difference between realistic and abstract paintings. Polarized Light Eyesight would make the brushwork standout and hide most images.
Polaroid lenses can also interfere with display screens. I had to take mine off to see my phone properly. But tech could be made to take advantage of this attribute- would you need 3D glasses to watch a 3D movie?
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Old 05-13-2019, 11:24 AM   #93
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Default Re: Bio-tech related Quirks and Perks

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Example: Sandalwood is one of my favorite scents. But some insects find it repulsive. Part of the reason the sent was popular, it was a lovely scent that drove off bugs. Picture a parahuman with a broad resistence to toxins based on insect DNA. He can't stand one of the most common scents used in soaps and perfumes throughout the West and Asia.
It's worth remembering that most highly bioactive molecules produced by plants - spices, flavorings, perfumes, drugs or poisons - are poisonous to *something* that would otherwise eat the plant. Exactly what - bacteria, fungi, insects, herbivorous mammals etc. - varies, but with the exception of a few pollinator attractants, killing a predator is the reason the plant makes it in the first place. Humans finding some concentration of some small fraction of these things pleasant is a potentially unfortunate (or beneficial) side effect from the perspective of the plant these days, but somewhere in the depths of biochemistry there's a process these things poison. Humans just either don't use it in the same critical role, or have some protective chemistry over top of it the things it's intended to kill lack.

Or for weird human reasons enjoy the sensation of being partly disabled by poisons.
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Old 05-14-2019, 06:56 AM   #94
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Default Re: Bio-tech related Quirks and Perks

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It's worth remembering that most highly bioactive molecules produced by plants - spices, flavorings, perfumes, drugs or poisons - are poisonous to *something* that would otherwise eat the plant. Exactly what - bacteria, fungi, insects, herbivorous mammals etc. - varies, but with the exception of a few pollinator attractants, killing a predator is the reason the plant makes it in the first place. Humans finding some concentration of some small fraction of these things pleasant is a potentially unfortunate (or beneficial) side effect from the perspective of the plant these days, but somewhere in the depths of biochemistry there's a process these things poison. Humans just either don't use it in the same critical role, or have some protective chemistry over top of it the things it's intended to kill lack.

Or for weird human reasons enjoy the sensation of being partly disabled by poisons.
Which is why gentic jokers can jump out of the deck. The sheer complexity of lifeforms will always wrong foot folks at odd times. Which is what this whole thread is about.
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Old 05-14-2019, 10:56 AM   #95
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Default Re: Bio-tech related Quirks and Perks

Given the sheer complexity of the human brain, any mental Quirk or Perk can be justified. Also benefits and problems can be pragmatically linked. As a side effect of my various mental issues I'm great at abstraction but routinely weak on things concrete. Any trait can, with a little study in the medical literature online, can be worked into linked benefits and limitations.
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Old 05-23-2019, 10:30 AM   #96
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Default Re: Bio-tech related Quirks and Perks

Skin and hair texture perks and quirks make sense in this setting. If you're using DNA from animals and plants you might bring over unexpected or undesired traits.

If, as an example, you wanted certain glandular traits from beavers, you might also get the slick water-repellent properties of beaver fur in the resulting parahuman's hair. Depending on which traits showed up, this could be quirk or perk.

Body hair that, while being no thicker or more common than normal human body hair, could grow as long as scalp hair ( providing inconvenient extra beards in odd places) could also resault from animal DNA. As could the problem of abnormality short scalp hair.
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Old 05-27-2019, 06:06 PM   #97
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I recently read that the sweat glands in human armpits produced a special type of fatty sweat. Basically, we evolved the capacity to produce a special food out of our bodies to feed bacteria whose whole function was to be smelly. The logic being that, since we now stood upright and faced each other, smelling each other's anuses for smell ID wasn't practical. Thus natural selection favored potent armpits.

However, dissolved fat is vital to perfume. In the THS setting, having your armpits produce a sophisticated scent, preferably a subtle one, would be an easy biomod. If tasteful and sophisticated a Perk. A botch, either in the technician's skill or the customer's taste, could be a Quirk or negative charisma.
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Old 06-03-2019, 09:46 AM   #98
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I once read somewhere that Wally Cox, an American comic actor and the voice of Wonder Dog in the 1960's cartoons, had oddly attached tendons in his arms and legs. This meant that in certain ways he was very strong. These were limited but he could surprise people with his party tricks. I'm told there were downsides but he could pull some stunts otherwise not humanly possible.

Given the idea of parahumans with animal DNA, which is cannon in THS, you could build several interesting advantages or perks on clever reworkings of the human body's leverage systems.

Opinions?
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Old 06-12-2019, 04:54 PM   #99
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Default Re: Bio-tech related Quirks and Perks

Apparently Bats have the best immume system of all mammals. you could have scenario were the designers used the bats immune system but didnt figure in that bats also carry and transmit diseases that they show no ill effects from they end up being a typhoid mary.
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Old 06-12-2019, 05:02 PM   #100
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Leg Tendons in some species of birds become ossified over time any parahuman that includes Bird DNA like a Syrinx or feathers could include this as defect that might not be noticed until adulthood resulting in reduced mobility.
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