Ex Borg background

Ok, I probably went TOO far with this, but so you all can see it and use it or not (according to your campaign) - However I would appreciate any hints and tips on ballance for it. The idea is that it's a nill point addition to a base character template, but the rules for giving edges and flaws is far from easy to work out! The core of the idea comes from a 7 of 9 style character, rather than a Pickard - I.e. they couldn't easilly remove everything, so that's what you have left!


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EX BORG - BACKGROUND

Being assimilated by the Borg is a tortuous process for anyone. All of the pain suffering humiliation and shame of being assimilated into the Borg and the dehumanising acts that had to be endured are all retained when and if a person is rescued from the Collective.

A Character who has been formerly assimilated by the Borg develops his character as he would any other. The following sets of additions are made to represent the process of being assimilated and de-assimilated.

The Process of assimilation implants mechanical and biological interfaces into the body of the victim. While Federation science is advanced, several of these are still beyond its abilities to remove without causing irreparable damage to the victim. However these additions also leave the player with enhancements also. In the future it may be possible to remove these devices, as medical understanding increases, removing the advantages but also the unwanted side effects.

Each of the Following implants can be removed, but not with present Federation Technology. Malfunctioning units must be replaced, and cannot be synthesised by Federation level technology at this time, though sometimes they may be repaired.

An Ex Borg character receives the following advantages and disadvantages:

HATED
The Borg are hated and feared throughout most of the known Galaxy. People who know you for who you are may be more forgiving, but strangers can see you for what you are and they fear you. On making a social interaction stance roll (Page 101 players guide) you are treated as one category lower (the equivalent of a –5 on social based rolls).

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SONG OF THE BORG
Even after all of the hardware has been removed from your body your brain functions and chemistry have been so significantly altered that you can never entirely separate yourself from the Borg. You can hear the subtle echoes of the Borg within a sector (20 light-years) and they can hear you. Within a light-year you can sense their presence and hear fragments of their plans on a difficult will roll of 20+ you can hear vital information from the Borg, however the down side is that the reverse is also true of them! The character needs to make a Willpower roll of 10 to resist the Borg reading his mind.

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PAIN
While the Borg Implants may provide a character with increased speed or strength, they come at a cost, the extreme pain they can cause. While the character has any Implants still in their body they cause pain to the character, as they rip skin and make gaping holes. 24th century medicine can help remedy this, however a medical treatment test needs to be made (TN15) each day, or the character will suffer pain from their implants, causing a –1 penalty to all tests. This penalty will accumulate each day that the character does not receive a medical test, with the target number being increased by the pain modifier. So for example a player who has not received medical assistance would have a Difficulty number of 15 + 3 = 18 to treat the pain he is suffering. The modifier is added to any wound penalties and once this level reaches over 9 the Drone cannot function.

As well as the physical side effects of the implants, the character also has the deep-set psychological trauma from being assimilated. Once per gaming session the player may encounter a word, image, concept or some other trigger, which causes them to relive the horror of the Borg. This will cause a –3 skill check modifier, unless a difficult (TN15) Willpower test is made to ignore the bad memory. Alternatively a Courage point may be spent to ignore it also. The Negative effect will last for the remaining scene.

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REGENERATION
Initially a Borg must regenerate in a Borg Alcove and takes time to adjust to eating food and other basic things. Regeneration replaces sleeping but takes an equivalent amount of time. A Borg that does not undergo Regeneration after a 24-hour period must make Fatigue tests every hour after that, regardless of any sleep. A Substitute for a Borg Alcove may be Jury rigged by an engineer using a Full Medical BIO bed, or similar substitute equipment on a TN of 20

The Regeneration disadvantage may be bought off through role-play only (and points expenditure)

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CORTICAL IMPLANT
Each Drone is implanted with a Cortical implant which helps to interface the Borg technology implants with the Biological systems. While some of these Implants may function independently it is impossible to retain any conscious control of them without this implant.

The Cortical Implant improves the memory and mental capacity of the Drone giving it a +1 on all intellect based rolls. The implant also contains some of the collected knowledge of the Borg. When making knowledge or language based roll, use 3D6 and keep 2.

Each Implant is fitted with a transponder uplink, which allows contact with the Borg. This can be interfaced with Federation level technology allowing a transporter lock and instant communications. However it’s function is to allow contact with the Borg. This lowers the TN of contact with local Borg to 15, but also lowers your ability to resist giving over information to the Borg, raising your Will TN to 15

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EXOSKELETON IMPLANTS
While the Character was assimilated by the Borg, he received a number of biomechanical implants, several of which now remain in his body.

The player may chose to add 4 +1 attribute modifiers in the following – Strength, Agility, Vitality, Perception – to represent the physical enhancements he has received. He may either distribute the bonuses about his body or place multiple bonuses in one attribute. However any Attribute that is boosted above +1 will be detrimentally visible and uncomfortable to the character. An example of this would be a +2 in Perception would mean the player had a Large Borg Eyepiece placed over one eye, or a +2 in strength would have large and cumbersome exoskeletal structures or carapace.
The Exoskeleton however also adds 2 additional advantages, it can provide 2 points of damage absorption as armour and generate a Borg Personal Forcefield.

Shield Generation: Borg Devices are powered by Biogenic energy, which is drawn from their bodies to provide power to run the systems without the need for recharging. The Borg are able to Transfer this energy throughout the collective via it’s complex subspace network, however a Borg who is isolated cannot draw on this power, unless there are Borg close by. If He cannot draw this energy from a compatible Biogenic power source (which the Federation or other Alpha/Beta quadrant powers cannot provide) then he is forced to use his own personal energy.

At a Cost of 2 Health points a player can step the damage received by an energy based weapon by –1 or receive a –1 absorption bonus against a physical weapon, as Borg Shields are not so effective against physical weapons. The Player may Use as many Health Points as he wishes until he reaches the incapacitated level.

An Example of how this would work: A Player wishes to Spend 6 Health Points so he will receive a +3 Absorption bonus against physical strikes or a –3 step against energy weapons. This figure is subtracted from the power setting of the energy weapon, so for example a Phaser set to Kill at Level 7 would be counted as Level 7 –3 or 4 for damage rolls made against the character. While this may seem powerful, to deflect a Phaser blast set to 16 would require 32 points of health!

The Damage taken is recovered as any wound would be, and cannot be recovered until the player stops using the ability.

Prerequisites: Borg cannot generate shields without a Cortical Implant – using other implants has no prerequisite.

Cost: 2 Points of Health Level per –1 damage reduction on Physical wounds or –1 step against energy weapons, Until in the Incapacitated Bracket.

Optional: Players may draw Biogenic energy from the Borg if they are within a Light-year at No cost to themselves on a Willpower roll TN 15

A Shield can resist a Vacuum at a level of 3

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BORG NANOTUBULES
The Borg use nano-technology to assimilate organisms on the cellular level, though the effects of this are removed when the Patient is de-assimilated, the Borg Nanites still remain an active part of the characters makeup. The Borg projects 2-3 biomechanical tubes from their hands known as a Nanotubule. These are capable of injecting a victim with thousands of Nanites in a matter of seconds, rapidly changing the victim’s biology and building the initial mechanical devices in the body. While the Character has an active Cortical Implant he can control these tubules, however if he is unconscious they can be accessed with a specific frequency, and Borg within the 1 light-year region can attempt to access them through the Cortical Implant as an Opposed Will roll.

The Nanotubules can also be used to attempt to interface with Computer Terminals, granting the character a +3 on Computer access tests.

Regeneration: Part of the Function of Borg Nanites is to repair and maintain the Borg Drone from Physical damage. As such a Drone can regenerate 1 health point per hour. This does not interfere with First aid or Medical aid the character receives. If the Borg can connect with The Collective’s Biogenic Field with a TN of 15 then this can be raised to up to 1 Health point per 10 minutes, depending on the strength of the field, but only if the player has a Cortical Node.

A Characters Nanites have been keyed only to himself. If these are injected into another life form without modification it will result in Assimilation. Nanites from another Borg will result in re-assimilation of the Borg Drone.

Prerequisites: To actively use a Nanotubule the character must have a Cortical Node. Regeneration as standard will take place without the Node.

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I know it may be a dumb question but is there any stats or guidelines for Borgs as NPC´s ???

I plan to use them in an ongoing campain and I don´t know how to handle the situation so that the PC´s got a slightly chance.

Thanks for your answer/ help.

- Questor

There are stats for Regular Borgs in the Aliens suplement book - which was brought out after I developed this package.

I'm not totally happy with them however as they do seem to be missing several key skills, including system Operations.. to fly their own ships :D - and there aren't any rules on how the collective as a whole operates during combat.. I.e. how do you roll of the Borg cube hitting etc?

Maybe the Borg aren´t getting out of their way to stop an attack...the simply assimilate it (!?) :D

Yeah but it would be nice, since Decipher has brought out both a statted ship and a statted Borg template.. if there were rules in using the two of them together!

Since this is strictly game mechanics oriented, shouldn't it be in the CODA area?

Maybe it should.. but that's an administrator type thingie :D

I'm just pleased someone looked for once!

Instead of trying to make your package zero-sum, why not design it as a Personal Development package. Simply figure out how many picks are involved and make your package add up to that much. Looks like 5 Skill Picks (Don't know if they count as professional or not) and 1 Edge, which I know is 2 picks.

Or maybe make an option of Professional Development packages, for those who got assimilated later in life. I think that would make even more picks available.

That could be a good idea knarf. It could be an option that the player can 'buy' off one of the disadvantages at the start of the adventure or optionally change around some skills - and then it could be a package for an early or mid life assimilation. I might have a go at altering some of the stats on it. I also think I quite liked the idea of also lowering presence too, because I like that amongst the official Borg stats.

It is not unlikely that there will at some point be a Borg sourcebook.

That'd be really cool - thanks for letting us know Jesse :D

In which case I would really like to have all the sorts of detail that the current stuff lacks. How to handle the borg collective in Spacraft situations (how do they fly those ships without System OPS LOL).

Much like other species too (as was provided in the species book, but not in huge numbers) a good selection of Borg template characters would be good, such as the Borg Queen, Unamatrix O rebels, Young Borg (immature one's such as seen on Voyager) and a few different variants on the standard drones as they are often portrayed as having some variation.

What would be covered in a potential Borg sourcebook? Would other species such as 8472, Arturis' people and other people who've intersected with the Borg at some point in the past apear?

Actually now that I've had a think about it there are quite alot of things that could be covered:

There's a technological aspect: The Borg structure and network, the regeneration ability and a working description of their nanites. There's all sorts of other threads around this such as Borg Vinculum, which could become prised sources of information for players and NPC's alike, the various manouvers and methods that people have used in the past to defeat (or not) the Borg, such as viruses, super weapons or even the TNG virus that Starfleet wanted to plant in Hugh. There have been some fairly unique ships with unique systems designed for other realities and of course Transwarp technology and time travel technology they have used accros the series.

There's the Localle of the Borg too. The extents of their space and what lies there. Local aliens and factions which are fighting a war against them or just hiding from them. A timeline of their expansion and species they have conquored in the past might be nice (if not easy to do!) as a rough guide for settings in your campaign at points in the past etc.

There's a potential to show people in and arround the Borg, such as the Hansens, Geordi la Forge, Lore, Pickard, 7 of 9 - people who shaped the history of the future around the Borg.

Just so as i can put my hand up now I'd be happy to playtest any Borg material for Decipher :D