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Old 01-30-2014, 06:56 AM   #1
Schilcote
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Default Borg drone sheet

Anyone happen to have a sheet or template for Borg drones lying around? I find it very difficult to believe that no-one has statted them up before, but Google doesn't agree.
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Old 01-30-2014, 07:56 AM   #2
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Default Re: Borg drone sheet

I would say you take the underlying race then create a bunch of implants for them ALA Ultratech with a few modifiers atop that, like Reprogrammable and such.

The Borg assimilate after all.
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Old 01-30-2014, 09:58 AM   #3
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Default Re: Borg drone sheet

On the other hand, as far as Star Trek goes, most intelligent life in the galaxy is ST 10/ DX 10/ IQ 10 with net 0 points in perks and quirks, most of those just physical features like nose ridges. Borg modifications tend to wipe those out anyway, meaning that a typical Borg will be pretty much the same as any other Borg.

I'm not sure if drones have an infectious attack, or if they have domination. Certainly, those they "infect" are cooperative, but they aren't being controlled by the drone that converted them...

You might want to stat drones as "puppets" for the Borg "Collective". The Collective would be hard to stat out fully - it's got trillions of levels of Compartmentalized Mind, for instance - but it might have known quantities in skills like Repair, Tactics, or Engineering.
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Old 01-30-2014, 10:20 AM   #4
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Default Re: Borg drone sheet

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Originally Posted by PTTG View Post
On the other hand, as far as Star Trek goes, most intelligent life in the galaxy is ST 10/ DX 10/ IQ 10 with net 0 points in perks and quirks, most of those just physical features like nose ridges.
I wouldn't quite go that far at least for the major races. Klingons are fairly hard to kill with their redundant organs and probably have at least a couple levels of hard to kill and or extra hit points. They also probably have an extra point or two of strength over humans. A trait shared by Vulcans who also either have either a broad talent for math skills or a general IQ bump to go along with some basic Telepathic abilities. While a race like the Ferringie probably has a ST penalty attached to them and don't seem to have an offsetting racial attribute bonus.
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Old 01-30-2014, 01:05 PM   #5
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Default Re: Borg drone sheet

I didn't really intend to get that into depth with it; was just wondering if anyone had one on hand so I wouldn't have to spend half an hour doing it myself. I only intend to use them three or four times.

If I do end up doing one myself, I'll post it here.

EDIT:

And Betazoids have all sorts of psionic advantages.

But drones all have superior strength and mental abilities; that's kind of the point of being a Borg besides also being a hivemind. :P
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Old 01-30-2014, 01:34 PM   #6
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Default Re: Borg drone sheet

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Originally Posted by GodBeastX View Post
I would say you take the underlying race then create a bunch of implants for them ALA Ultratech with a few modifiers atop that, like Reprogrammable and such.

The Borg assimilate after all.
So they say, though I can't think of a single instance where an assimilated member of a race has ever displayed any abilities unique to that race.

It always kind of seemed like the assimilated lifeform just served as raw material (and information source, as they clearly acquired the KNOWLEDGE of the people they assimilated), becoming, physically, rather generic.
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Old 01-30-2014, 02:07 PM   #7
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Default Re: Borg drone sheet

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Originally Posted by Mister Ed View Post
So they say, though I can't think of a single instance where an assimilated member of a race has ever displayed any abilities unique to that race.

It always kind of seemed like the assimilated lifeform just served as raw material (and information source, as they clearly acquired the KNOWLEDGE of the people they assimilated), becoming, physically, rather generic.
I think you are partially right but I think its a case that for races that are physically powerful the tech upgrade overshadows the natural biological strength of the base race. If klingons got for example a a +3 to ST thats noticeable most of the time in a fight, but if the borg give their tactical drones +10 to ST then that klingon with ST 23 doesn't look very different from a human tactical drone with 20ST on camera.

As for Intelligence I think that it might be a case of Smart races/individuals being shifted more into data processing elements of the cube rather than being used in tactical combat. That a cube with more intelligent drones might be able to assimilate faster and adapt faster to new experiences.

I have never seen Psionic ability in individual drones but I wouldn't be surprised if the drone networking and hive mind might be partially because of telepathic drones.
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Old 01-30-2014, 03:23 PM   #8
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Default Re: Borg drone sheet

From Basic: A race with selflessness has Hive Mind.
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Old 01-30-2014, 03:26 PM   #9
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Default Re: Borg drone sheet

Well now all I want to do is make a bunch of racial templates for Star Trek.
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Old 01-30-2014, 07:51 PM   #10
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Default Re: Borg drone sheet

I'm not sure a Drone is a Character + Borg Template. It seems much more likely that they're a Character - Stuff Cut Out + Borg Template. The assimilation process likely strips out the things The Collective doesn't want, and replaces them with Borgy bits. The Collective has access to the "biological and technological diversity" of the individual, but all that's left when fully assimilated is what The Collective found beneath notice.

Borg assimilation is a nanotech level process. I'm pretty sure a racial template would be replaced over time with "Race: Borg". Enhanced attributes are probably, in part, attributed to the biological transformation. The Borg have a vast array of biological mods to choose from, and can employ the best available on any acceptable species. It's noted that that the Klingons are probably too much trouble to assimilate, and I'd suspect this is due to the difficulty in rewriting their highly redundant and resistant biology.

Biological telepathy is in reach of the Borg. Picard's technical mods were removed, but he retained latent high level connection to The Collective. This could be nanomod, but at that point it might as well be racial. TP is not commonly given to Drones. Hugh and SoN didn't have it. This is likely because it might provide an alternate communications channel and hinder assimilation or promote deviation. Native TP is probably one of the things cut out during assimilation. However, they all have racial radio telepathy anyway.

I'd expect that Drones have a host of modular skills and abilities, rather than training or direct access to knowledge. When The Collective wants an engineer, a Drone is tasked to that at an alcove. Tasking is probably based on which Drone is easiest to convert. Implants and limbs are exchanged, skills are loaded. The same Drone could be re tasked as an EVA repair tech tomorrow. This seems much more in mode for Borg than a single Drone with a single job. The idea that the skills aren't wholly integrated meshes with the occasional need to commune with The Collective for guidance.

The Collective standardizes its Drones by replacing racial templates with Borg and skills with modular abilities that can be used to its needs. There are no outliers among Drones, with the possible exception of one-off's like Locutus. High attributes and skills are only interesting in that they can be assimilated. The being they came from isn't really a consideration after that. From the Borg POV, it's better that they be standardized to serve The Collective. The Collective doesn't need to ship a newly assimilated research scientist to its home sector to do research. It just assimilates the scientist, turns him into the plumbing drone, and loads his newly assimilated knowledge into an entirely different technical drone at an R&D facility.

The weakness of the Borg is that assimilation removes some of the experiential context of the knowledge, twice (minimum). Once removed for the original assimilation transfer. Second removed for the packaged download to a Drone. Assuming we assign only a familiarity -2 each time, a Drone is at a -4 on all skills from the source. It's actually higher when you consider the differences between the tech bases and physiologies (that's why they seem clumsy and slow). Of course, the source is the highest skill of a person ever assimilated by The Collective, so that's no slouch. However, those skills still have to be integrated into the Borg tech base before the penalties from variation (Vulcan Ship Engineering working on Borg vessel) are removed.

Those are my ideas.
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