[MA, Cyberpunk] Perk: Cyborg Familiarity

[Daigoro]

There's an episode of the Ghost in the Shell anime series where the full-body cyborg, Batou, goes to a martial arts training session. When he challenges the instructor to a fight, he loses because the instructor took advantage of his "prosthetic blind spot," or, as I recall the Japanese version of it, a predictable timing interval.

So, if we presume that there's some kind of inherent weakness in how cyborgs fight, due to their electronics, mechanics, programming or whatever, how could knowledge about that be modelled?

Just taking from Style Familiarity, we can get +1 to defense against Feints and Deceptive Attacks. "Cyborg" is probably a larger group than what Style Familiarity presumes for "Stylist," which makes it a bit more powerful, but this could be limited to one cyborg manufacturer, series or operating system if it's too broad.

On the other hand, a Cyborg Familiarity Perk misses out on the other benefits of Style Familiarity (Unusual Background, Cultural Familiarity, Claim to Hospitality), so that drops its utility a bit.

What other benefits could Cyborg Familiarity have though? Any offensive bonuses, such as a bonus for Targeting Chinks or a Feint bonus? Although they'd probably be better as Techniques in an anti-cyborg style. A Body Language bonus?

I'm also leaving the definition of cyborg open here- so I'm not restricting it to full-body borgs, combat-enhancing implants, boosted reflexes or anythink in particular, but there'd be some borgs against whom the familiarity would be usable, but others where it wouldn't.

[DouglasCole]

Style Familiarity and Trademark Move are both good places to mine rules for "you know what's coming."

[vicky_molokh]

I wonder if brand-splitting the Perks would be appropriate. Different brands have different weaknesses.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

What other benefits could Cyborg Familiarity have though? Any offensive bonuses, such as a bonus for Targeting Chinks or a Feint bonus? Although they'd probably be better as Techniques in an anti-cyborg style. A Body Language bonus?

I'm also leaving the definition of cyborg open here- so I'm not restricting it to full-body borgs, combat-enhancing implants, boosted reflexes or anythink in particular, but there'd be some borgs against whom the familiarity would be usable, but others where it wouldn't.

I think you 're trying to make it more complicated than it needs to be.

One 1 CP Perk gives Familiarity with one major brand of cyborgs/cybernetics, or up to half a dozen minor brands. For one additional CP, you upgrade your ability to all cyborgs and cybernetics (optionally only to all human/earthly ones, having to pay one more CP to get univesal Familiarity).

And you can do the same with animals, and undead, although in some cases the main point of the Perk should be to remove a penalty. Most martial arts programmes don't include any instruction on how to fight quadropeds, for instance. But it's possible GURPS Martial Arts already covered that.

With non-earthly aliens it's unfamiliarity with anatomy that you need to overcome, whereas with undead it can well be a combination of "anatoical" differences (all sorts of weak spots and fearful movements that humans have which undead lack or eventually get rid of) and exploitable weaknesses and predictabilities.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I wonder if brand-splitting the Perks would be appropriate. Different brands have different weaknesses.

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

One 1 CP Perk gives Familiarity with one major brand of cyborgs/cybernetics, or up to half a dozen minor brands. For one additional CP, you upgrade your ability to all cyborgs and cybernetics (optionally only to all human/earthly ones, having to pay one more CP to get univesal Familiarity).

These both answer the question of "when" to use it. Possibilities are-

1) Narrow applicability- for one manufacturer, type, series or O/S.

2) Broad applicability- for all combat cyborgs, gained from the single Perk or from buying Levelled Perks.

3) Complex applicability- PC has to roll against knowledge skills (Armory? Engineer? Current Affairs (Cybernetics)?) and/or perception skills (Body Language? Observation? Per-based Armory?) to see if the Perk can be used against this opponent. Complex, but more flavoursome and realistic.
"I see it's a Hwan-Jin combat chassis, which means he should be running their FourStar 3.7 OS. The update from last week introduced a bug with a tendency to swing 2cm too high, but there was a patch for that which came out yesterday. I wonder if he's installed it?"

Which choice to take is probably up to the GM and campaign.

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Style Familiarity and Trademark Move are both good places to mine rules for "you know what's coming."

This answers the "what", but I've already got the +1 Feint and Deceptive Attack resistance from Style Familiarity, while for Trademark Move, are you talking about from MAp126? If so, I'm not sure how it applies here, unless you're saying cyborgs should buy a Cyborg TM Move as mandatory.

But what I'm looking for is other "whats," unless people think the +1 resistances from Style Familiarity are sufficient. These could be:
1) I'd like +1 to Deceptive Attack, but this is essentially saying +1 to skill. Likewise for a Feint or Targeted Attack bonus.
2) An extra +1 after Evaluating, maybe only with All-Out Attack.
3) ideas?

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

And you can do the same with animals, and undead, although in some cases the main point of the Perk should be to remove a penalty. Most martial arts programmes don't include any instruction on how to fight quadropeds, for instance. But it's possible GURPS Martial Arts already covered that.

For sure. I did have something like this in the back of my mind while writing this, partially sparked by the Lizard Man Style thread, which could be a generic perk called Morphology Familiarity. You'd have to buy a different version of the perk for each race or type of opponent, but they'd have basically the same bonuses.

[vierasmarius]

In a cinematic game, Cyborg Familiarity may be required to make use of special skills like Pressure Points against cybernetic limbs - ie, instead of striking nerve clusters, you're striking vulnerable electronic components or something. Actually, I think that pretty well fits the cinematic level of GitS... there are all sorts of feats of extreme martial prowess explained by cybernetic enhancement and/or intensive training.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

But what I'm looking for is other "whats," unless people think the +1 resistances from Style Familiarity are sufficient. These could be:
1) I'd like +1 to Deceptive Attack, but this is essentially saying +1 to skill. Likewise for a Feint or Targeted Attack bonus.

Just an FYI:
+1 to Deceptive Attacks is +2 to skill. You need a -2 penalty to your attack to get a -1 penalty on their defense.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Just an FYI:
+1 to Deceptive Attacks is +2 to skill. You need a -2 penalty to your attack to get a -1 penalty on their defense.

I assume he's saying +1 to skill when making a Deceptive Attack. In other words, -1 to enemy defense for -1 skill, -2 defense for -3 skill, -3 for -5 etc. Though I concur with his assessment that for most high-skill fighters, this basically means +1 skill (since they'll rarely be making non-Deceptive attacks.)

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

In a cinematic game, Cyborg Familiarity may be required to make use of special skills like Pressure Points against cybernetic limbs - ie, instead of striking nerve clusters, you're striking vulnerable electronic components or something. Actually, I think that pretty well fits the cinematic level of GitS... there are all sorts of feats of extreme martial prowess explained by cybernetic enhancement and/or intensive training.

One thing I also thought of- use Cyborg Familiarity as the buy-in advantage/Unusual Background that Style Familiarity is, for allowing access to cyborg-oriented techniques, like Targeted Attack or Wrench Cyberlimb. This leads to the question of what a reasonable body of techniques would be for an anti-cyborg "Style Lens."

By Style Lens, I mean that you buy whatever basic martial arts style that you've trained in, like Jeet Kune Do, then add the Anti-Cyborg Lens on top of it for the few extra techniques or skills that the Jeet Kune Do of 2050 now teaches.

Of course the other option is to make a full-blown Anti-Cyborg style of its own, based on whatever existing styles.

ETA: Oops, no need to explain Style Lenses, they're already a part of Martial Arts. Been too long since I've read it, as opposed to using it as a reference.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Just an FYI:
+1 to Deceptive Attacks is +2 to skill. You need a -2 penalty to your attack to get a -1 penalty on their defense.

Yep, of course. So this would mean +2 skill, meaning the 1 point perk gives up to 8 CP of advantage.

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

I assume he's saying +1 to skill when making a Deceptive Attack. In other words, -1 to enemy defense for -1 skill, -2 defense for -3 skill, -3 for -5 etc. Though I concur with his assessment that for most high-skill fighters, this basically means +1 skill (since they'll rarely be making non-Deceptive attacks.)

Or..... I could have meant that.