Oddball Skill-Chip Suggestions?

[DataPacRat]

In Ultratech's TL10, anyone can drop down a pile of cash to get up to 3 Skill Chip Slots installed in their heads, each of which can provide up to 15 points of skills, techniques, or "mental advantages". So after toying with with simple ideas such as "Interpersonal Ad-Blocker Chip: Indomitable [15] $7500" and "Sherlock-Scan Chip: Psychometry (20), Hypersensory (-50%), +5 Reliable (+25%) [15] $7500", I've found myself eyeing this little number:

Angelnet Chip: Serendipity, 1 level (15), Game Time (1 use/week, +0%), Cosmic (Avoid drawback: coincidences can be implausible: +50%), Aspected (pick one per chip: athletics, combat, investigation, social, job, health, romance, etc: -20%), Pact (with AIs running the angelnet: must perform occasionally bizarre actions that will help others' Serendipity: Discipline of Faith: Ritualism, -5%), Temporary Disadvantage (overseen by AI caseworker: Enemy, PC-level power (-10), Watcher (x1/4), Appears Constantly (x4): -10%), Temporary Disadvantage (the angelnet tests out various approaches: Weirdness Magnet: -15%) [15] $7500

... First, does that seem like something that would actually work as a TL10 chip; second, is it something you can see any NPCs actually taking; third, can you suggest any improvements; and fourth, what's the most interesting chip you can think of? :)

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Actually I can see the Angelnet Chip as the focus of an entire campaign, with the users of this black market urban-legend device being recruited by a coalition of hiddden AIs as their unwitting agents in a plot to save/destroy/wallpaper the world.

[Donny Brook]

For another chip, what about a Blackmail Database that gives you the contact info and dirty secrets to compel [15] worth of Unwilling Allies.

[DataPacRat]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

Actually I can see the Angelnet Chip as the focus of an entire campaign, with the users of this black market urban-legend device being recruited by a coalition of hiddden AIs as their unwitting agents in a plot to save/destroy/wallpaper the world.

<whistles nonchalantly>

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

For another chip, what about a Blackmail Database that gives you the contact info and dirty secrets to compel [15] worth of Unwilling Allies.

Slight trouble there; Allies, even Unwilling ones, count as a Social Advantage instead of a Mental one. There's probably something from Social Engineering that could approach that effect, though.

[Daigoro]

I think I'm missing why the Angelnet chip is a chip. All of the angelnet AI stuff is external to the character.

[DataPacRat]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I think I'm missing why the Angelnet chip is a chip. All of the angelnet AI stuff is external to the character.

The chip acts as the local processing node for the Angelnet. I tried looking for a Limitation that would cover "only works in areas with other Angelnet participants", perhaps based on something like "only works in New York City", but the closest I could find was "Only With Assistants" (PUP8p5), which doesn't quite seem to fit the bill.


(On a meta-level, it's because I started in the other direction: chips can contain "mental advantages", and Serendipity is technically a mental advantage, so I built the rest of that chip around what it would take to make that advantage work in a SF setting.)

[Black Leviathan]

I actually find this idea not only plausible in a serious campaign but also really insidious. You just naturally find yourself at the right place at the right time without thinking about it and all you have to do is install a piece of hardware that feeds data directly into your memory and nervous system. Angelnet also requires constant updates from your software through your wireless network and updates from your internal GPS transponder, but it's a small amount of bandwidth to pay to always be right where you're supposed to be when you need to be. Never mind that a lot of users develop unhealthy obsessions or make sudden and radical life changing decisions without warning.

"My best friend Maria got Angel Net, won the lottery and had an unsettling obsession with New Mexico. She moved there and immediately got a job with Nolambi."

"That's so weird, Both of my Brothers work for Nolambi, they got accepted into a Corp tech program the day after they got Angelnet and they both moved to New Mexico right after they graduated. Damon married this amazing woman he met working at the company, and Clay just got signed by a recording label.."

[newton]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

I actually find this idea not only plausible in a serious campaign but also really insidious. You just naturally find yourself at the right place at the right time without thinking about it and all you have to do is install a piece of hardware that feeds data directly into your memory and nervous system. Angelnet also requires constant updates from your software through your wireless network and updates from your internal GPS transponder, but it's a small amount of bandwidth to pay to always be right where you're supposed to be when you need to be. Never mind that a lot of users develop unhealthy obsessions or make sudden and radical life changing decisions without warning.

"My best friend Maria got Angel Net, won the lottery and had an unsettling obsession with New Mexico. She moved there and immediately got a job with Nolambi."

"That's so weird, Both of my Brothers work for Nolambi, they got accepted into a Corp tech program the day after they got Angelnet and they both moved to New Mexico right after they graduated. Damon married this amazing woman he met working at the company, and Clay just got signed by a recording label.."

even more insidious is what the company can do after they get a lot of people to sign on... and they now functionally have puppets

[DataPacRat]

Originally Posted by newton

even more insidious is what the company can do after they get a lot of people to sign on... and they now functionally have puppets

There's at least one piece of friction that'll slow that down: the chip /slot/ costs $50k. Which opens up the whole have-vs-have-not classes can-of-worms, as the people rich enough to join an Angelnet get luckier than the poor people who can't.

(I should probably skim the Limtations again, to see if I can bring the price down while still letting the Pin-Sized-Angel-Net be worth whatever trouble those Limits cause. It'll still be a minimum of $6k for a 3-point chip, and $14k for a 3-point chip slot, even if I manage to find another -80% worth.)

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

I actually find this idea not only plausible in a serious campaign but also really insidious.

It's a plotline in 4e* Shadowrun. I mean this is a good take on it, but that's basically it.



* 4e? Or was it 3e? Man, I can't remember which edition anymore.