My very quick thoughts after three days of swilling it around...
Interestingly, UPP stands for Universal *Personality* Profile (which I've always thought a bit odd until you bring this up as the one thing the stats are is NOT 'personality' - that's brought in by the player!)
Questions for the consideration of the assembled: Suppose you want to
postulate a world in which MCC is common (if not universal). How do you
generate player-characters from this world?
Ok, char gen starts at 18, so you roll, say, 1D6 at that point to determine how many MCCs the character has. (I suppose 2D6 would work, but life may be too short - both for the generation *and* playing the character subsequently).
You then run through char gen for every MCC stopping each time at the age of the first. Perhaps with a rule that no career can be repeated by an MCC. (Or that rule with 'exceptions' allowed by referee if the player can differentiate the two characters with the same career sufficiently).
Then a roll at the end of the final mustering out that gives a (small? you maybe imply small from the source material) chance for the MCCs being aware of each other. Let's say 11+ on 2D.
Or perhaps it shouldn't be at the end of mustering out but immediately after the roll to determine the number of MCCs so that IF they're aware of each other, there could be Event 'connections'?
What special rules do you add to accommodate the multiples?
ummm, good question:
- skills confined to the MCC 'in action' (see below)
- possibly a harsher skill limit for each career/MCC - esp if the player can switch MCCs at will
- perhaps an INT or EDU negative DM for each subsequent MCC (although that may come too close for some to suggesting this is a disorder - which you say the source material is not suggesting, so I'd be wary of it or come up with a good explanation for why).
- perhaps a short period (2D mins?) of disorientation after a switch?
- how about an option for a trained hypnotist (psion?) to be able to help a character switch with a Difficult task and maybe 15-30 mins of work?
How should a player play a MCC character - and how should a referee handle one as NPC?
I think it would be too powerful to allow a player to switch at will (and that would only 'work' in game terms if the character was aware of the other MCCs) so I think it would have to be some game mechanic.
Ideally, for role playing opportunities, it should be possible (if not likely) that a switch happens at *the* most inconvenient time.
So, how about a percentage chance that it occurs on any given day and a percentage chance that it happens at moments of physical or mental (or psionic) stress?
I don't know, maybe 10+ (on 2D6) for it being a different MCC to yesterday's MCC. 5+ on 2D6 for a stressor to cause a change (Referee's discretion).
The snag with a 'daily' rule being that it will vary with the 'speed of game play' if you know what I mean. Rolling for a game session doesn't quite feel right. Perhaps the 'period' should be determined depending on the game at hand.
Difficult. I'm just tossing ideas out for discussion starters. I've not really tried to work out what any of the above would mean in play.
He also suggests that there are people (he calls them 'synthesists') who
don't really "internalize" 'normal human behavior'; instead, they 'emulate'
it from an analytical point of view. It's not clear whether this is
considered a disorder or not.
Is this what those on the autistic spectrum do? We were watching one of Alan Bennett's wonderful Talking Heads this evening. I *hugely* recommend these for anyone interested in writing interesting characters. When I pointed out to my wife after the one in question that Bennett had said *so* much without actually saying it at all (Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet if you can find it), she pointed out that some of her special needs children in class really struggle with this. Working out what's implied rather than actually said.
Questions for the consideration of the assembled: What would be the
implications of this? Does it require higher INT? Lower SOC? How detectable
might it be by 'normal' people, and what would be some of the signs? What
implications might it have for a character's skills (and which skills)?
I feel like I'm far too ignorant to tackle this but based on what I've just said, lower SOC would, sadly, be likely. However much we may celebrate diversity, however much we might like to think that society or we as individuals *don't* judge people like this, it seems to me that lower social standing is exactly what those on the autistic spectrum are dealt as a hand. How detectable it might be would be very variable because it is a spectrum. My daughter is possibly on it and you might not know if you didn't get to know her; some of the children in my wife's class are definitely *not* going to find it easy to function in society and you'd immediately know that something was 'off' in terms of comparison with others of the same age. As for INT that's probably a huge can of worms - esp if there's any hint that 'synthesists' is just an SF proxy for autistic spectrum disorders. I would be very reluctant to 'go there' without extremely good reason. I suppose one possibility might be an increased INT in one *very specific* area. I'm thinking Rain Man for example but again these are waters I'm fearful to tread thanks to ignorance and delicacy. So I don't know if that helps but it's probably something I wouldn't introduce to a game willy-nilly or at all. If I did, I'd want to be very clear that 'synthesists' were something very different from what we understand and had some obvious game features that made that clear. On the other hand, for those that wanted to explore the issue (I mean as a group of players rather than a referee 'inflicting' it), this might be a way of doing so at a distance that was acceptable.
Phew! With that, I think I'll call it a night.
Day off tomorrow. Vote now on what you'd prefer I did with my time:
- dig out World Builders' Handbook and build a planet from scratch (probably my all time favourite single thing)
- see if I can utilise Alan Bennett watching to write a better NPC (I'm not worthy to walk in his shadow...)
- finish my Virtual Traveller Convention write up (most pressing for the next FT?)
- start on the next March Harrier publication - an adventure by Megan Robertson (I did promise "early this year")
- work on adding entries to The Traveller Periodical Bibliography volume 2 (lots to do, completion waaaay off)
- sleep (most likely without encouragement)
There is NO 'all of the above' option. :-)
