mitigator advice needed

[vesper]

Need some opinions players are encountering a group who is really high tech and essentially have removed most of their bodies except their brain and upper spinal cord and placed them in strong reinforced life support modules. They essentially look like metal domes with no body or outside sensor. Inside is the brain and neural tissue, life support, tiny computer, and an advanced radio. The spend most of their time on maintenance racks plugged into a virtual reality. They can see the real world by accessing sensors attached to the network. If they need to do something outside their facility and network they plug themselves into a ”vehicular” body. They have all kinds of body from humanoid to spacecraft

How I am designing them as basically a brain in a box. They suffer blindness, muteness, deafness, numb, no smell or taste, quadriplegic and numb. Their advantages being armor, decreased life support, computer perk, and a radio neural interface. Their vehicular bodies are unintelligent allies

So my question is should I use mitigator on their physical limitations? Part of me feels I should since they do have access to tech that can overcome their physical issues. At the same time outside their vehicle they are a lunchbox waiting to die. God help them if something happened to the network coild be catastrophic to all of them.

[Peter Knutsen]

GURPS Bio-Tech or GURPS Trans-Human Space almost certainly has something to say about that. Note that most of THS is from 3rd Edition, and some of the pertinent Advantage, Disadvantage and Limitations will have changed, so you'll need the booklet or PDF that updates THS to 4th Edition (and I'm not sure what it's called, but you should be able to find it).

THS is massive about people's minds using different bodies (bio-shells, I think they're called) at different times for different purposes, so there you will probably find what you need.

[somecallmetim]

If they are NPCs who aren't going to cost the players anything (i.e. not Allies, Dependents, or Patrons) Don't worry about point cost. As long as you know their abilities (or lack thereof) in or out of their vehicles, you should be fine. If they are going to be playable, then definitely give them mitigators. If the suits they operate are reliable for the most part and they are usually in them, the mitigator should be very high. If not, they may deserve a substantial reduction.

[Yako]

If what they actually PLAY is their bodies, why not just design them as that with a modified form of shapeshifting for alternate forms for all the bodies each one has (there are some nice modifiers for damage not carrying over) and make their brain tanks their dependents?

Alternatively, if EVERYONE is a brain in the tank, just give them al the disadvantages fully, add possession, give them their bodies as puppet allies and worry more about those bodies.
It really does not matter if they all cost a few points more or less, since they all share the brain in a jar template anyway.
The IQ, Will and skills of their brain jar are the only relevant thing about them anyway, they are after all so disadvantaged that their physical attributes are completely meaningless anyway.

[vesper]

Thanks for the responses. They are meant as NPCs in a long running campaign. If they will become allies, patrons, etc, will depend on how the players act and react to them. At first they may not even recognize what they are. The players actually have the technology to do this and even could have their bodies re-cloned and switch back. So I could see one saying hey I might do that.

What I have decided is a +80% mitigator, the spare bodies are powerful but if it breaks they are helpless, and I will use that

[Yako]

If they are just NPCs, really, I would not bother with the points.
The thing you do need is there stats for interaction, not their full character sheet.

It really is not necessary, in pretty much any system, to give every NPC a full character sheet with carefully calculated point totals.

If they are opponents in combat, give them a stat block as you can see it in the enemies section of monster hunters or dungeon fantasy, if they appear in social interactions and such, give them their necessary skills, attributes and advantages, don't bother with anything that dors not affect thr scenes they appear in.