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Old 07-08-2013, 12:22 PM   #1
Astromancer
 
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Default Transhuman Crossovers

Just out of curiousity, what do you guys like to cross with this setting? GURPS, were you can have Ninja Bunny Super Mage Cyborg Mentats, if you really want them, is made for crossovers. THS is powered by GURPS, so what's your crossover preference.

Also, which ones set your teeth on edge.

Thank-you.
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Old 07-08-2013, 03:15 PM   #2
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Default Re: Transhuman Crossovers

They all set my teeth on edge. I like the setting the way it is.

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Old 07-08-2013, 03:38 PM   #3
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Default Re: Transhuman Crossovers

I've been interested in the possibilities of a Crossover with Technomancer, by advancing the Technomancer timeline with Magic-aided Transhuman advancements: The Magical Biotech spells from GURPS Bio-Tech could be used to create new bioroid and humanoid variants, and might even be used to create more exotic creatures. Awaken Computer and Permanent Machine Possession could allow for AIs and Ghosts, although a new spell could be created: Upload Mind/TL, to allow for someone to permanently upload their consciousness into a computer.
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Old 07-08-2013, 03:51 PM   #4
ericthered
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Default Re: Transhuman Crossovers

That setting seems to be... particularly hard to cross over. If I did it I'd want either only one character coming from THS (or a limited number at any rate), or a different setting thats extremely high powered but not technological.

A cross-over with a Supers-Gods Campaign might be fun to watch: man (er... ) finally woke up the Gods, and They aren't happy with him (or.... ). Balance the Gods so they're mostly impervious to tech, but don't handle it well.
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Old 07-08-2013, 03:52 PM   #5
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Default Re: Transhuman Crossovers

anthropomorphics & horror: THS is ripe for making these mundane.
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Old 07-08-2013, 03:56 PM   #6
johndallman
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Default Re: Transhuman Crossovers

You can play THS in quite a range of modes and styles; crossovers seem less attractive, because they tend to involve clog-dancing over a subtle and complex structure of social forces.

Astromancer, have you ever actually played a THS campaign? Some of the threads you've started about it suggest that you haven't really got the feel of it. Crossovers into it could easily be like introducing Dungeon Fantasy characters and tropes into a Scarlet Pimpernel campaign: possible, but the result is likely to be worse than either game alone.

Some ideas that have come up in conversations, none of which I've ever considered implementing:

The Culture finding the THS solar system would probably decide that they're not making a bad job of it, and would observe them, leaving them alone unless they seemed likely to go really badly wrong. Not much of a game.

The main players of Infinite Worlds would be terrified by THS (assuming you messed with the timescales a little to allow them to co-exist) and would consider it far too dangerous to observe or steal from. No game.

Transhuman Madness Dossier would be unplayable: it would turn into The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, with no way to tell what was real, or what mattered. No game.

THS somehow coming into cross-world contact with Reign of Steel would result in nothing visibly happening for a while, and then the reign of the zoneminds suddenly ending, fairly peacefully. THS acquiring cross-world capacity more generally would be somewhat like a conventional IW campaign, although parts might make more sense.

Last edited by johndallman; 07-08-2013 at 03:57 PM. Reason: markup
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Old 07-08-2013, 04:18 PM   #7
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Default Re: Transhuman Crossovers

I don't know if it's a "crossover," but I'm doing a type of horror in my investigations game. Personally, I don't consider it a crossover at all--just vanilla THS being run the way it was meant to be used--as a wide open setting of awesomeness.

You can view the session notes in the link in my sig.
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Old 07-08-2013, 05:32 PM   #8
David Johnston2
 
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Default Re: Transhuman Crossovers

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
Just out of curiousity, what do you guys like to cross with this setting? GURPS, were you can have Ninja Bunny Super Mage Cyborg Mentats, if you really want them, is made for crossovers. THS is powered by GURPS, so what's your crossover preference.

Also, which ones set your teeth on edge.

Thank-you.
Cthulu is an obvious match. It goes with anything of course but it's a particularly interesting match with Transhumanism, since there's no doubt in my mind that transcending our human limitations is what Nyarlothotep wants for us.

I can see two possible futures for the TS setting, the one where they expand out into the galaxy at slower than light speeds and then travel between systems by sending their ghosts to inhabit constructs on the other side, and the one where things go sour and they end up living in a post holocaust setting with all kinds of uplifts, bioroids and AIs plus radiation, gray goo, and ruined cities. Both are crossovers of a sort.

There's no reason why the Bavarian Illuminati can't still be duking it with the Gnomes and the Network.
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Old 07-08-2013, 06:19 PM   #9
whswhs
 
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Default Re: Transhuman Crossovers

Quote:
Originally Posted by apoc527 View Post
I don't know if it's a "crossover," but I'm doing a type of horror in my investigations game. Personally, I don't consider it a crossover at all--just vanilla THS being run the way it was meant to be used--as a wide open setting of awesomeness.
I don't consider that to be a crossover, for reasons that John Dallman expressed. THS is a setting that's adaptable to a variety of genres. My first campaign was detective fiction, not quite noir but a bit more than procedural; my second was Lovecraftian cosmic horror without the Mythos. I could see running a campaign of soap opera in the key of high-end social intrigue, perhaps shading into cosy mysteries. But none of those crosses THS over with any different fictional setting, and really I find the idea of doing so a bit ewww.

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Old 07-08-2013, 08:01 PM   #10
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Default Re: Transhuman Crossovers

The only "crossover" I'd consider would be to add a 2300 AD-style stutterwarp to allow FTL travel. I'd go for a "Transhuman Stars" campaign that retained THS-style fairly-hard science, except for the FTL.

You could pull adventure ideas from any number of the "harder" science fiction authors. Heck, you could use a fair number of the 2300 AD scenarios, with only minor tinkering.

One of the major themes would be, "what happens when isolation leads to the outbreak of feral memes?" If information can only travel at the speed of the fastest ship, then the transfer of information suddenly goes from hours (at most) to weeks, or even months.

How does (Trans)humanity suddenly deal with the fraying of the economic/social/cultural/information gestalt, when distances become real, again?
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