Need help with holographic lifeform

[Dandelionhead]

Hi,

I'm trying to put together an holographic lifeform NPC for our upcoming Starfleet Academy campaign. First off, here's the backstory:

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Li Ying Fa is a sapient artificial lifeform created 9 years ago by noted cyberneticist Doctor Li Lei Fung. At the time, his only daughter Li Wei Hsia had been diagnosed with Roderian Syndrome, a degenerative and incurable illness. In a desperate attempt to have something of her survive, he spent her final months working feverishly to copy her brain engrams into an artificial matrix of his creation. The strain of all this caused a rift to develop between himself and his wife Marisa, who took a leave of absence from her Starfleet career to devote her time to caring for their daughter Hsia.

Soon after he completed his work, Hsia made a miraculous recovery, but the family had already been torn apart. Marisa divorced Fung and gained custody of their daughter, while he turned to the betterment of Ying Fa (Cherry Blossom, after his pet name for Hsia) as an outlet for his grief.

Following Dr. Zimmerman’s lead, Fung developed a holographic interface for Ying Fa to interact with others. Her holographic manifestation looks just like Hsia, despite their ‘age’ difference. In fact, one of Ying Fa’s earliest memories is to have been presented to a still-bedridden 9 year-old Hsia as her ‘new sister’, only to have her burst out screaming in terror at seeing her own ‘ghost’.

Dr. Li is terribly over-protective of Ying Fa, to the point of stifling her development. The numerous refinements and improvements he has made to her programs over the years have all been intended to keep her as close to human as possible, despite her potential to become much, much more. Her decision to join Starfleet Academy, after having her case examined by a review board, has been her first real step towards self-determination.

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What I'm having trouble with is developing a 'Species' template for her. It doesn't have to be entirely balanced, as she's just an NPC. I've looked through the wonderful Artificial Lifeforms Netbook (for the ICON system), and would like to translate the following Traits into CODA Edges, Flaws or Abilities:

Holographic Invulnerability

Limited Range

Program Alteration

Unique

I always have a hard time with the 'crunchy bits', so any help is greatly appreciated.

By the way, if anyone on the boards can check my (fake) Cantonese names for gross inaccuracies, please do. I flubbed them from my first edition Hong Kong Action Theatre! sourcebook. Is Hsia even a girl name?

-Dan

[Dan Gurden]

Originally posted by Dandelionhead
By the way, if anyone on the boards can check my (fake) Cantonese names for gross inaccuracies, please do. I flubbed them from my first edition Hong Kong Action Theatre! sourcebook. Is Hsia even a girl name?

-Dan

Well, Hong Kong Action Theatre seems to agree with an old set of books, the Chung Kuo (Middle Kingdom) series.

Hsia = Cherry Blossom and is indeed a girls name.
I am sure it was used for a central character in the books.

[Darth Sarcastic]

I like the idea for the character. Here's my stupid question for the day...what prevents you from making up those edges and assigning them values on your own? I'm not trying to be insulting or anything..just asking really.

My other question is...where would I find this "Artificial Lifeforms Netbook" you spoke of. I can't seem to find it anywhere. I'd like to make an artificial lifeform "...he's Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer...without him life would be much grimmer..." (A Red Dwarf reference)

Holographic Invulnerability - I'd use the Klingon "brak'lul" entry as a guide.

Limited Range - Use command 1 & 2 as a guide...as flaws. "Range 1 - Can operate for x days without recharge. Range 2 - Same as Range 1 except days becomes hours"

Program Alteration - can't think of anything here...sorry

Unique - unique...how so?

-Darth Sarcastic

[Silverthorne]

being a hologram, it would not be able to intereact with the outside world. being just an image. it would not have a strength, vitality or agility scores..

being as it could only survive in an area that had holograpic systems would limit the use to holodecks and areas specifically set up to host her. like a house that the doctor has put the equipment into. or is there a hovering holoprojector that allows her to move about...

[Dandelionhead]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply.

-Dan Gurden: Oh no! I thought that Ying Fa meant 'cherry blossom'! I picked Hsia out of the blue for the daughter's name because I liked the sound of it. Do they really both mean the same thing?

-Darth Sarcastic: You're probably right about trying to come up with the Edges, Flaws and Abilities myself. I just get the jitters when it comes to game mechanics. I'm used to working with a GURPS bookself safety net, where every single thing can be quantified (if you can just find it). Here goes:

The Holographic Invulnerability Trait, as far as I see, could be simulated for CODA in two ways: First by having her Health replaced by some kind of rating for the force fields that protect whatever holo-projectors she's currently operating out of. Second, by having her Vitality represent the 'numerous levels of tamperproof encryption and other safety protocols' (quoted straight from Artificial Lifeforms) her engrams/programs have been coded with, this only damageable by someone using the Computer Use skill AND with access to her systems.

The Limited Range Flaw could simply limit her to operating out of an holoprojecting system, with all the massive hardware support and energy requirements this entails.

I guess my main Big Problem is with Program Alteration. In the AL document, this is used to mean that the Holographic being can make cosmetic alterations to itself; that is 'to appear in different clothing, a different gender, or even a different race' (to quote again). That seems to me too big to be covered by a single Edge or Ability. Should it be parsed out into two or three Edge Upgades? I guess I'll just have to wait for the Narrator's Guide and see how the Dominion's Founders are treated...

The Unique Trait was used to simulate a being such as Data, but I figure it doesn't add too much to the game, so I don't really need it.

The Artificial Lifeform document itself is something I got off these very boards maybe a year or so ago. It should still be buried in here somewhere. I only have my printout (10 pages) of it left, but now I can't find the author's name on it anywhere. I'm sure someone else on these boards can give you the specifics. It really is a fantastic piece of work!

-Silverthorne: You have to understand that by Holographic life-form, I don't mean a hologram in the (correct) sense of a simple 3D light-show, but instead something made up of both that and an array of articulated force-fields, as well as sensors etc., in the (incorrect) tradition of Star Trek itself. For my specific purposes, The Attributes would represent limitations placed on the engrams/programs themselves, independantly of the resources available: As an example, Li Ying Fa would have a Strength Attribute of 8, despite operationg out of a holodeck equipped with foce-field emitters capable of moving tons of material by themselves. I'm trying to keep things as simple as I can before attempting to strain a system I'm still unfamiliar with. In this particular case, I see this as a continuation of her story background where her 'father' has done his best to keep her as human as possible.

One of the themes I would like to explore in this campaign is how far this character should go in exploring her own potential without losing her link to humanity. The players, of course, are free to encourage or dicourage her either way... At some point, I would like to introduce a self-contained mobile holoprojector, as you suggest, to make her available for wilderness adventures outside the Academy compound or starships. If the players don't suggest this, and then have to develop it, I'll have another NPC ask for their help in working on it!

Once again, thank you all for helping me work this out.

-Dan

[Darth Sarcastic]

I did find the thread with the link to the netbook, however, its a dead link (Jim). Thanks anyways, I'm sure the NG will have something on AI. Someone put out a thread that the NG is out already...although I'll wait til I see it at my local gaming shop.

Good luck on getting your AI/ALF to work. I also hope that you're the GM in that particular campaign, as I know most GMs would freak out over an android or hologram...mainly because its more difficult to injure/kill.

-Darth Sarcastic

[Dan Gurden]

Originally posted by Dandelionhead
Thank you all for taking the time to reply.

-Dan Gurden: Oh no! I thought that Ying Fa meant 'cherry blossom'! I picked Hsia out of the blue for the daughter's name because I liked the sound of it. Do they really both mean the same thing?

At this time must say that I could possibly be wrong... I do remember that one of the character names, in the book I was refering to, translated as Cherry Blossom, and that a character was called Hsia.

But now I am not so sure! Damn this doubt!

I will see about looking it up. However, the idea that a character who's name translates directly into English could easily lead to a pet name... I'll further amend when I have found out for sure.

[Dan Gurden]

Its Official.

I wuz wrong.

http://www.mandarintools.com/chardict.html

Cherry Blossom Translates as Ying... So I was obviously barking up the wrong Tree.

Other useful URL's found in my search were;
http://humanities.byu.edu/cla/cla_homepage
http://simonyam.com/hkmw/About/Names/
http://www.chinaconnectiononline.com/tones.htm
http://www.chinaconnectiononline.com/transnames.htm
http://www.health.qld.gov.au/hssb/cu...iv/chinese.htm
http://www.chinaconnectiononline.com/transnames.htm

Hope those help to further develop your character.

[Darth Sarcastic]

Originally posted by Dandelionhead
-Darth Sarcastic: You're probably right about trying to come up with the Edges, Flaws and Abilities myself. I just get the jitters when it comes to game mechanics. I'm used to working with a GURPS bookself safety net, where every single thing can be quantified (if you can just find it). Here goes:

The Holographic Invulnerability Trait, as far as I see, could be simulated for CODA in two ways: First by having her Health replaced by some kind of rating for the force fields that protect whatever holo-projectors she's currently operating out of. Second, by having her Vitality represent the 'numerous levels of tamperproof encryption and other safety protocols' (quoted straight from Artificial Lifeforms) her engrams/programs have been coded with, this only damageable by someone using the Computer Use skill AND with access to her systems.

You could make your own edge (flaw?)...Hologram The problem is there are certain advantages, like if somebody tries to club you...you take no damage. However if someone knows the code words or where the off switch is...need I say more.

The Limited Range Flaw could simply limit her to operating out of an holoprojecting system, with all the massive hardware support and energy requirements this entails.

Again, an edge like Holo-Emitter...this would be like Geordi's VISOR...its not really an edge as it allows him to "function normally" and without it he can't.

I guess my main Big Problem is with Program Alteration. In the AL document, this is used to mean that the Holographic being can make cosmetic alterations to itself; that is 'to appear in different clothing, a different gender, or even a different race' (to quote again). That seems to me too big to be covered by a single Edge or Ability. Should it be parsed out into two or three Edge Upgades? I guess I'll just have to wait for the Narrator's Guide and see how the Dominion's Founders are treated...

Perhaps the Disguise skill could be utilized here. Another edge to make up could be Mimicry.

-Darth Sarcastic

[Shoshuro]

I have the Artificial Lifeform 2.1 file if anyone is intreasted.

Also the Program Alteration was a 1pt Edge in LUG. I can see it made a 1pt edge in Coda easily enough as is. All it really allows is the Hologram/Android to reprogram themselves and be profecient at it. Without it it simply means that the Lifeform in question has to have someone else program skills, edges, etc into them. They can't do it themselves.

[Darth Sarcastic]

Originally posted by Shoshuro
I have the Artificial Lifeform 2.1 file if anyone is intreasted.

Also the Program Alteration was a 1pt Edge in LUG. I can see it made a 1pt edge in Coda easily enough as is. All it really allows is the Hologram/Android to reprogram themselves and be profecient at it. Without it it simply means that the Lifeform in question has to have someone else program skills, edges, etc into them. They can't do it themselves.

I am most interested in said document. Can you post it or would you prefer a pm with an email address?


-Darth Sarcastic