I have hit upon my newest and greatest project... okay the newest anyway. Though I suspect that in all likelihood this will fail due to a lack of decent players available to me (in that, all the decent players I know are happy in the groups we already play in, not in that I can't find any...) I will nonetheless spend many hours of groundwork in just laying down the very basics for everyones general amusement...

For those not in the know: SLA industries is a Scottish game that superficially resembles a bleaker, alternate universe, Shadowrun.  The Players are Operatives of a galaxy spanning Corporation-cum-Government charged with doing things from clearing the sewers of giant maneating pigs to assasinating rival corporate operatives to even assassinating members of the said corporation while POSING as rival corporate operatives...

Its grim, brutal and nasty... and I think not at all a bad mix for GURPS in that getting shot generally means an ugly death.  

Its major flaw, other than lack of widespread acknowledgement of its general greatness, is that the system is somewhat slipshod. Not byzantine or unworkable, but rather almost too simplistic and underdeveloped, with weird unbalancing issues around the edges.


GURPS is, of course, the standard for Universal RPG systems. Perhaps a bit opaque for casual gamers (Unisystem could work, one supposes, but I rather think the Ebb (psionics) of SLA industries would be easier to model in GURPS... Unisystem's 'Magic' has never impressed me with its robustness or flexibility).... what's More: I LIKE GURPS.

Naturally, when laying down the 'rules' we must take care to match SLA as much as possible without actually violating the GURPS paradigm. This is because where SLA glows is in conveying a complete environment. To just say Ebb is Psi without further work is to negate what makes Ebb... well... EBB and not just 'funky psionics'.  Of course, we will be spackling all the cracks in the SLA setting as we stumble across them (just how DO Glyph Cards work?)...

But first up is a more indepth look at the world of SLA Industries so that further identification of GURPS implementation will not leave the noobs lost in the wilderness.


EDIT::: Note that the intent is to go back and edit in more to relevant posts as I refine the core idea. This initial wave of posts is mostly brainstorming and information for the curious.

SLA Industries details:

First the historical note: SLA Industries grew out of an Amber campaign of sorts.  While not, obviously, Zelazny's Amber universe, it does give a strong perspective to the various mythological and current Power Players in the setting (weakly metaplotted...).

That is to say: The Kilneck (historical badass mercenary band) were, in fact, all characters of that long ago Amber campaign. We can assume (but not state with any authority... having no access to the original players to ask...) that characters like Mr. Slayer (the God-King CEO of SLA Industries), Intruder (his Right hand Man) Senti (right hand woman) and Precepter Teeth were all either also players in that game, or more likely NPCs built during that long ago game... which establishes their supposed power level in relation to the PCs.  

It should be noted, for those adamantly against metaplotting and godlike NPCs that most of this was hugely background material. As far as I know, no SLA campaign ever actually featured any of these uber-NPCs, and given that the only published adventure did not remotely touch upon such characters, there is no effort on behalf of the designers to actually force them into play. They are setting color normally.

Moving on.

SLA Industries universe (Mort, colloqually, the capital world/city and default setting location) has a very solidly metaphysical underpinning.  There is Truth, with a capital T which is sanity blasting to say the least. I won't detail the 'Truth' as it will be unimportant in the grand scheme of things, and the details of which can often ruin the enjoyment for fans. I will however touch upon it so that we all are on the same page. 99.99% of all citizens of SLA Industries, including the PC's, will have no idea that Truth even exists, much less a glimmer of understanding of said Truth.  However, Truth can be come central to campaigns, due to a 'metaplotted' massive leak only 10 years prior to the default time line of the game, the infamous Downtown Pheonix publication, Iteration 20.

What Follows is Truth:

SLA Industries is not just an 'alternate universe setting' it is, in fact an Alternate Universe (in Amber terms a Shadow of our world).  The Truth details much of this. Ebb is a function of this fact, using mathematics to manipulate cracks in the Alternate Reality to create events...  Flux is the name for such cracks, and Ebb users have the innate ability to perceive those cracks (Flux) and to tap them.  Mr Slayer is capable of altering the reality of Mort, along with other "Truth Users" by understanding the fundamental underpinnings of the universe, not unlike manipulating Flux, though far more powerful/flexible. Mr. Slayer is the acknowledge master of this; being the central pillar the rest of the Mort revolves around. His primary limit of power is his unnamed, unknown opposite number, possibly on White Earth (a planet in the galaxy, beyond which SLA Industries has no sway).   Truth can be power to those who can survive knowing it.   Despite being a Shadow of our world, there is no real traffic between the two realms, however... though the souls of the dead (from our world) can be sucked into Mort and used there, having a high resistance to exposure to Truth. Note that the effects of Truth on individuals could function much like mythos knowledge from Cthulu, only instead of insanity the result of too much Truth can be dissolution of self. Death if you like.

It should be noted that 'reality' is somewhat flexible in the 'World of Progress'. Physics limitations can be specifically ignored and technology does not need sound egineering/science to explain it.   It does need to be somewhat plausible and acceptable to the man on the street however.  

End Truth.

Historically:

900 years ago, more or less, Mr. Slayer, a business man in the form of a 9 foot tall skeletal faced figure, walked the 'Conflict Worlds' with the Kilneck as his personal bodyguard (only 6 Kilneck, to my understanding, but able to fight as an entire army), renting them out to the various alien races of the Conflict Wars. Using that money he built an arms dealing company, complete with biogenetic shock troops (the Stormers) which he sold to everyone, his stuff being better than anyone elses.  When the time came, those weapons and Stormers turned on their owners, destroying the Conflict Races forever. Only a few races were spared. Mr. Slayer spared humanity. Intruder (the leader of the Kilneck) spared the Ebons (and their cousins, the Brain Wasters) near humans with a knack for using Ebb, and later the Shaktar (giant lizardmen, honorable warriors looking similar to the Predator), and Senti spared the Wraith Raiders (ice world predatory aliens that look vaguely like a cross between a man, a hyena and a ferret.. mostly manlike).  Humans include the Frother Clans (endemic drug use culture creating superior physical specemins at the cost of mental state... addicted berserkers, one and all).

With the exception of Intruder, the Kilneck retreated beyond Black Stump (past White Earth) to continue fighting, and in protest of Mr. Slayers 'big Picture'. Another aligned mercenary group (the House of the Black Church) also headed out that way after Mr. Slayer used their research into Biogenetics to create the Stormers and biogenetic augmentation.

Brain Wasters are born to Ebons, and are bigger meaner versions of the race with a nasty temperment. Necanthrops are another 'splinter race'... essentially monsterous undead Ebon/Brain Wasters of great power and a penchant for the unsavory practices of the undead... not that anyone in, or out, of setting refers to nec's as undead mind you. The defacto leader of the entire Ebon race is a Necanthrop known as Preceptor Teeth, who incidentally is also the father of the first Brain Waster.

Mort is the homeworld of Humanity, the most populous of the surviving races. Mort is a massive world, many times the size of our own, and the city of Mort (one of three named on the planet of Mort) is said to be as big as the entirety of our Earth, though as Mort is built on top of itself, in layers, it isn't quite as sprawled out.  Between the three cities (Mort, Orienta and Meny) is a vast and empty, lifeless wasteland. The planet is dead, the native life destroyed in the name of Progress and industry.  

300 years after founding SLA industries on Mort, a disaster struck, the Salvation Tower building (the largest in teh galaxy) sunk into the crust of the planet, devestating a massive region of Mort (the city), creating what is now known as Cannibal Sector One (there are three such sectors), a horrific wasteland of mutants and monsters, and coincidentally a great place for adventures if you don't mind a high casualty count.

SLA Industries is built on internal conflict. As a corporation there are dozens of independent divisions, each nominally in charge of a specific part of the beauracracy, but their various directors are encouraged openly to compete with one another. Karma (the biogenetics Division) is virtually in an open state of war with Science Friction (the Ebb based Division), only without the running gun battles, just as an example. Employees of SLA Industries have more rights than non-employees (mostly on the dole, watching the omnipresent Television) and being an 'Operative' is the best route to fame and fortune within' the Corp. Well, fame comes faster to the related Contract Killers (gladiators and approved serial killers).

There are assumed to be non-aligned small businesses operating freely in the Galaxy (Downtown Pheonix was a newspaper, Monarchs are volunteer police types...), but any business that grows to big that isn't a part of SLA Industries is typically a 'subversive' organization. A Soft Company or Oppressor Power.  The Big names are Dark Knight (French Resistance types without the Morals...) and Thresher (big powered armored badassess based off world). It is possible for a Soft Company to retain its independence from SLA without becoming the Enemy, but very hard (one historical example in 900 years...).

Specifics to Game play:

Guns are fairly traditional, just a bit bigger. 5mm plinkers are sold to civilians. Outside that 9mm is the small calibre and 17mm is the big calibre with a few stops inbetween.  Colorful details like ceramic barrels and magnetic holsters are the primary 'high tech' features found.  Ammo comes in standard, AP, HP, HEAP and HESH for all calibres except 5mm.  

Rules wise this is fairly simple: Most guns work according to existing GURPS rules. Converting for damage is problematic without looking at point 2.

Armor is omnipresent for operatives and many of their opposition. SLA industries makes the case that Armor is worn nearly 'full time' by most operatives, certainly while working.  Even the low end armors tend to be hard shell and supported by internal exoskeletal structures.  Ebons use 'deathsuits' which are living armors whose protective value is dependent upon a psychic skill to buff them. This may be the hardest part of SLA to convert actually.  Some soft armors do exist.

Worrying that 12.7mm and 17mm ammo will tear right through even decent hard armor is not a concern, as that is how it tends to work in SLA industries as is.  Still, getting the balance right for game play may prove interesting.   Assume TL 8 for ammo and armor and work from there later. Changes to higher TLs may be forthcoming.

Melee weapons get several boosts actually. Vibro and monowire are assumed to an extent, though monowire will be given a 'treatment' to keep with existing fluff. Ultrafine gets a simple name change (MAC) to fit in.  

Several specialty weapons will need to be dealt with on a case by case basis. Vibrodisk launcher, the wire gun, the 'big vibrodisc' thingy (think again of Predator II and you'll have it).  

Energy based weapons do exist but are not present in SLA industries/Mort.  One specific mention is made from the Conflict Races (Root Dogs?) using lasers in a recent teaser.

Cybernetics do exist but are unpopular (50 year old fad, with the receipients eventually going crazy/helpless facing lack of power/maintenance of their implants). Instead Biogenetic implants are de-riguer. Note that BG implants can be had for 'points', in most cases, requiring very little conversion work. Note that a 'cash for points' conversion should exist in this regards... thats right: getting enough money together in SLA Industries allows you to raise your point value in GURPS terms. This fits the setting to a T.

Note that characters can be brought back from death in Setting, though they have to pay for rehabilitation/repairs on their own. Fluffy comments about the cost to the character's Soul will be dealt with in Truth rules.


I think thats enough to get the new SLA types up to speed a bit. Obviously I need to deal with the Flux/Ebb abilities sooner rather than later, however. Likewise, due to the recent release of Ch'ien blood cultists (abilites etc) and more information like that I will need to begin addressign Truth as well in Rules terms.

Note: Stormers are a playable race, in several variations, actually.

By Default, only Ebon races can be Flux Users.  In the original SLA industries I had often debated putting in some unusual means to allow non-Ebons to pursue (illegally) Ebb training... essentially allowing them to get their first point of Formulae (which all Ebb users have).

In GURPS I am less concerned as simply being an Ebb User (that is, having the potential) is affixed with a cost.

More-ever: as the newish existance of Blood Cultists show, there are other avenues to 'powers' in the game.  In fact, eventually, if the players chose to pursue it, Truth provides power as well (in fact, it can be argued that it is the only REAL route to power at all... others pale).

There are some fundamental differences to Ebb from the Psionics it resembles.

In order to access Ebb you must have the Formulae ability (treat as Magery, level 1 grants acess to power. Level 2+ grant bonuses to Ebb skills).  Ebb powers are iterative, you must have every lower ranked ability to progress further, no skipping powers.

All Ebb Powers have the requirement (value undetermined at this time) of a focus object, either a Glyph Card or Deathsuit, to use. Note: Users of Glyph Cards are penalized if their only focus is the Deathsuit, while Deathsuit users are not penalized for using Glyph Cards as their focus.). All powers have a minimum skill value from 10 to 30 (needing LOTS of formulae or LOTS of points to get too). There are 20 base Ebb Skill tracks (21 if you count the Necanthrope only Gore Cannon ability).

That means that there are roughly 400 powers to chose from as an Ebb user. However, note that many powers are upgrades of previous powers. The 'Blast' track, for example, consists of only two powers in alternating upgrades (blast and bomb).

How it looks at character creation:  Ebon player buys the Blast skill to 15. He now has access to Blast 1-3 and Bomb 1-2. He choses to max out on both (he can't skip Bomb, btw... If he wants blast 2 he needs bomb 1, if he wants blast 3 he needs bomb 2).. this represents the first five abilites in the Blast track.

There are only two actual powers being bought, however. Blast and Bomb, he just can buy each to their skill 15 level.  Lets say that Blast 1 is a five point telekinetic attack. Blast 2 is the same attack at 10 points and blast 3 is the same attack at 15 points. Ebon only pays 15 points, allowing him access to all three abilities.

The Ebon Flintlock is an item that 'contains' 10 points of Blast/bomb, but can be lost. That is, despite only having 15 points in the Blast Power (and the skill to use them), using hte Flintlock allows the ebon to use the 25 point version of Blast with his current skill level.

Note that the Flintlock does not replace teh Deathsuit as a focus object.

EDIT:::: Note that every Ebb power (exception Deathsuit and Gore Cannon) has a similar 'boosting' object, though the exact effect will vary.

Glyphcards are specific to a power (blast 1 is its own card) and can not be used at other power levels. Unlike the deathsuit, however, the character can use a power he is not skilled enough for (or simply lacks, defaulting) at a risk.  Further, unlike the Deathsuit, the Ebon must also ready the Card.  Also: Glyph cards exist for powers not in the Deathsuit official tracks or in existing skills... meaning that there are potentially more than 21 Ebb Skills. Of course, SLA Industries treats Glyph Cards as highly illegal 'controlled substances'

Truthy connection:

Purely my own interpretation here, but I feel that, unless one becomes a Necanthrope (default once Formulae hits 10 or so...) all levels of Formulae above 10 represent increasing understanding of Truth, that is they effectively become Truth-lite.  More to follow once I begin detailing how 'truth' functions. Note that managing Formulae 10+ characters without taking the Necanthrope option means going rogue. Note that characters in play will not simply be able to buy Formulae with points... treat it similar to raising an attribute (players must spend time studying and working on their Formulae ability), though some events can 'boost' it naturally. Also note that any penalities assosiated with gaining Truth in game must be applied to gaining formulae above 10 as well. Being an Ebon provides a path to discovering the Truth naturally, it doesn't necessarily provide resistance to that knowledge.  Note that post-10 Formulae makes all Ebb powers effectively Truth abilites, which is important as Truth powers normally blow right through Ebb... of course, I haven't even begun to lay down rules for this... More study is required.

A note on Ebb skills:

All Ebb Skills are M/H.  I toyed with doing a 'two step' casting process but rejected it at 'punative'.  Of course, being able to 'ready' an Ebb ability and hold it ready 'indefinitely' is also still on the table. By canon, Ebb abilities require doing LOTS of hard mental math first. Not figurative math, but actual math math. Multiplication tables help you alter reality...  Note that researching and creating new Ebb abilites is also possible, but probably beyond the scope of the table top timeframe.  The Canon example (from Truth) was to meditate on Pizza until someone accidentally delivered pizza to your door. Over and over again until you could draw a direct connection from meditaiting on Pizza to it's garaunteed arrival, then repeating this a thousand times with a thousand researchers until essentially you had a 'create pizza on demand' Ebb ability, with no delivery guy necessisary. At that point the universe understands that flux based mediation on the following mathmatical formulas spontaniously generates pizza every time... centuries of work just for free pizza...)

Note on Flux:  Default assumption is that 'Ebb' abilities are powered by Flux. Default for Flux is fatigue points... that is, treat Flux as a form of fatigue track, only seperate. Flux 'cost' is equal to (skill minimum - 10),  Extra flux is bought like extra fatigue. Note: exhausting Flux is not like gaining Fatigue. Being Fit does not help. However, if ALL Flux is exhausted, the character is penalized (only if ALL) just as if they had used all their fatigue points.  

Note on Deatsuits: For the unitiated the Deathsuit is a peice of Science Friction material that resembles a bodystocking/light soft armor in the general appearence of a 'skinned man'. It can only be worn by Ebb users, non-Ebb users can not even figure out how to put them on.  The Suit does take on specific appearances (within limits) based on the User's mindset and intent. For example, while retaining the organic apperance in general, an Ebon could will their deathsuit to be polkadotted, even transparent. Clothing is often worn over deathsuits, but as it covered the hands and feet up to the neck by default it can't be completely concealed without serious effort, and it can covered even the neck and head if the user wishes.  The Deathsuit 'SKILL' allows one to upgrade their deathsuit's abilities (spend points on improving it) to make it better armored, give it limited sentience, the ability to store flux and so forth. At level 10 (skill minimum 20...) the deathsuit can be interdermalized (absorbed into the body)... which is represented by buying off the points rebate for requiring a deathsuit for abilities. From that point on, all EBB abilities/deathsuit upgrades are bought as if a part of the character, though yes, still effectively tied to the wearer having a deathsuit (Rational: at this point, in and out of character, there is no reason to assume the DS is ever removed, merely dermalized/not dermalized, and no effective way to remove it unwillingly... exception: the deathsuit can be 'killed' by incoming attacks, particularly from the Gore Cannon, though this greatly risks killing the wearer as well...)

Note that obviously high level powers (level 10 deathsuits) require high point value games.   I can point out that: while not equal, SLA Industries house character creation system was points buy at 300 points.  It was trivial to make a character at their attribute maximum across the board (roughly half the starting points value) suggesting that operatives are high value characters.

Character Creation:

For a default, I expect SLA games to have a minimum starting value of 200 points.  300 points is not at all out of the question, however.  

25-50 points represents the average Mort civilian, the Dole recieving television watching average schlub. These guys are utterly pathetic, almost Non-people.

75 points represents the street kids with potential, the Monarch enforcers and other random people with some merit (anyone with a name but no real value)

100 points are the members of the Street gangs, the armed civvies whose sympathies like with Dark Knight and so forth. This would also apply to Citizens of SLA Industries (Security Level (SCL) 11, secretaries and the like, Shivvers (SLA Cops)).   At this level the NPCs are dangerous but not notable.

150 points is where you get the Props (mercenaries), low level Dark Knight agents and fresh out of psycho-school serial killers.  I would put this as the minimum level of a Slop (SLA Op), or more valuable/expirenced Citizens (non-Op members of SLA.. Financiers and the like). This will also include most non-important Aliens found on Mort (note that lower point level aliens exist... on the homeworlds of said aliens. Exception:Wraith Raiders EAT such sub-par specemins. On their homeworld (Polo), 150 pointers are the very low end... Ditto Stormers: Anything worth less would never make it out of the tanks).

500 points: Minimum for Necanthrops and many of of the infamous villians/cult leaders and the like. At this point level the characters better start seeking the Truth if they want to compete as many 'players' at this level will either already know it/using it or will have comparable abilities. It is possible to play a completely mundane game at this level (war world veterans, Cloak Division agents and the like, or even world famous Contract Killers), but the assumption is that at this point/beyond it the characters points will be going into expensive powers, not obscene levels of mundanity.

750+ points: You have tea with the boss, fight agents of the Enemy, and probably do most of your stuff beyond Black Stump or even take the fight to White Earth (provided of course that the campaign hasn't turned to focus on defending Mort from absolute destruction by, say, Digger...)

Certain campaign restrictions apply: Wealth Levels can not be bought, neither can SCL (rank).. though some wealth can be had (independent wealth up to 10 points, additional starting money*, and reputation can all be bought).   As I expect to keep the existing monentary basis of SLA intact, along with default starting gear (and gear prices) this is best handled like so. Note, of course, that in a different campaing SET in the 'World of Progress', as it is referred to, SCL and wealth could be determined by extant rules.

Frothers and Brain Wasters are bought as Humans or Ebons respectively... essentially, any human with drug addictions can be called a Frother (and if they have certain cultural skills, doubly so), while any Ebon with the bad temper flaw and a social stigma is a brain waster. (by the book brain wasters should be bigger and stronger, but as this is GURPS there is no need to force the issue).

Note: fearlessness and abilities that grant it are limited. Unfazeable particularly is not allowed, nor can fearless go past +5 to start with, though high willpower is not penalized.  Note: this is just a guideline. An old grizzled Operative might just well be unfazeable even in the face of a Truth that destroys him just because he is beyond caring about his life in the face of all he's done.  Typically, however, the only Unfazeable characters should be those that have done such horrible things that they are barely recognizable as human.

There is a 0 point 'Operative' advantage which consists of the Extremely hazardous Duty disadvantage but is offset by other Advantages.  (Law enforcement being one of them).  A character can trade this for Contract Killer instead, or even 'Dark Knight Operative' or other, unspecifieds.  Note that this means that the character can not otherwise take Extremely Hazardous Duty, nor can they buy Law Enforcement Powers (note that Monarch police do not have the LEP advantage....though they retain the EHD.. but Monarch Police is a disadvantage...)

Note that you can change your 0 pt. 'Advantage' during play, it isn't necessarily fixed. However: it is reasonalby easy to trade Operative for Contract Killer or Dark Knight Operative, it is not easy (if at all possible) to trade back.  If we assume a "Shivver' 0pt advantage, going from Op to Shivver is easy but assumed to be a step down, going the other way is assumed to be a step up, but should not be particularly hard.

For Ebb users Formulae is limited to 3 at creation (not assuming a higher point value game...).

Any Truth powers are off limits at the start of play barring only extremely high level games (750+ point values). They can be gained in play through a variety of means, but universally the character must survive the exposure... not a garauntee.

An important note for playing SLA industries: at no point should there ever be assumed to be a right answer for players. Doing as you are told can just as easily be a death sentance as refusing orders, depending upon situations. Often the best key to survival is to outthink your boss of the moment. Paranoia is a survival skill. Higher SCLs both mitigate this and accerbate it. Accepting missions from nearly equal or sub-SCL employers means its harder for them to hold something back that will get you killed, while having a higher SCL almost garuantees that the powers that be will screw with you somehow.

Humans and Frothers:

Humans require no other explanation.

Frothers fall into too catagories: long term drug abusers (particularly combat drugs) and members of the Frother Clans (organized culture of drug abusers). Conventionally, Frothers tend to be stronger and tougher than ordinary humans, along with being stupider and easier to manipulate. In GURPS, however, this is entirely up to the player to put more points into physicality.

Note that ALL Frothers have at least ONE drug addiction. Rules for combat drugs will follow.

Frother Clans (template? package?) will have at least a few cultural skills in common. Frother clans are sort of bastardized, kilt wearing Scotsmen with big swords.  They may have an advantage to offset the lethality of the Combat Drugs to some degree (UltraViolence reduces the users's lifespan to about three years...though with SLA medicine this is not very important...)

Debatable point: Give Frothers a +2 Str and HT, a -1 IQ and some basic skills/andvantages/disadvantages to reflect the source game better? A true racial package.  Frothers, like BW's, would have, at a minimum Bad Temper, with many movign to full on Berserk.

Ebons and Brain Wasters:

My instinct is to provide guidance rather than a hard package in some ways. Ebons and BW's both tend to be smarter than humans. Ebons tend to be weaker but have charisma, Brain Wasters tend to be stronger but less smart than Ebons, and all have a nasty disposition (stigma Alien, and a second Stigma for Brain Wasters along with the racial 'Bad Temper').  

I may just edit in racial packages later.

Wraith Raiders:

Extremely fast. Quick Learners.

As racial packages go I have a few notes in mind. +5 Dex (yeah... that fast), maybe a +1-2 HT and/or IQ.  Certainly a bonus to Perception if not IQ (better than IQ, actually...).  On the other hand, their lifespan is halved, they require a 'cold suit' to function on even relatively chilly Mort (but could, in theory, be comfortable out in the wasteland), so temperature intolerance is a good disadvantage. Of course, I've also suggested a stigma against aliens (but Raiders, unique to the SLA races, have nothing 'bad' said against them in the other race's 'takes' on them...) in general.  As a darwinistic predatory species they might have other disadvantages culturally... I'll be thinking on them hard (note, dropping DX to +3 is possible to keep points value reasonable)

Stormers:

There are three major variations and one off the wall offshot (vevaphon: pile of goo). I'll mostly deal with the primary variation (core rule only) the 313 Stormer.

Vat Grown monstrousity (large skinless looking manform with a horseskull shaped head... no lips).  +3 ST +3 HT +1 DX -3 IQ. Regeneration ability.  Sexless. Claws and teeth.  Perception is based off of IQ, so I might offset the -3 at least in part. Ditto willpower, but maybe not.  Stormers CAN be fearless (unfazeable?) and may have an advatage against EBB an/or Truth (TBD: Truthy: Stormers are animated by Souls stolen from our Reality, thus are resistant to Truth dissolution (hearing you aren't really real...and as Biogenetics may have some minor resistance to Ebb based abilities (biogenetic and Ebb abilities have some incompatablities fluff wise in the original, though none at all in the rules).

Shaktar:

Hrm. Physically and mentally comparable to Stormers (though without the reputation for stupidity, so I might reduce the IQ penalty by 1), and lacking regeneration, though I might give them some minor natural DR to represent their scaly hides.  Remove teeth, leave claws.  Maybe include their tail, but I think rules wise it has no value.  Compared to the other races they have Gigantism, being even bigger than the Stormers (who only seem big because they are scary... exception:chagrin stormers are truely monsterous beasts who dwarf even Shaktar...)

Culturally they set high standards on honor (either take a code of honor or a stigma of 'eight moon pirate'...or something like that) and love melee combat, and have a few unique weapons (though since adopted to SLA standards).  Shaktar are a religious bunch too.

Training Packages:

While unnecessary in a straight up GURPS interpretation, these are traditional definers of characters in SLA industries, thus are important to the setting.  These will be small value 'templates' ever Op is required to buy (note: if you DON"T work for SLA you don't need a template), mostly providing a minimal level of skill in certain areas.  I MAY include them as 'talents' as well, that is, every Kick Murder Op spent so much time training to BE kick murder that they have a 'talent' for it, with the presumption being that only people with the talent have that package/only people with that package have that talent.

Of course, there is a 'generic' operative training package... but by default no one seems to take it.

Note: Scout helmets are, for whatever reason, restricted to the Scout Package. Assumption: Skill otherwise unavailable that allows us? Toss it out as an unnecessary exception? Scout helmets include lots of various sensory doodads/upgrade slots. Probably best ignored.

One goal I have when working out racial packages is that they need to be distinct enough to matter, yet cheap enough that you can find down and out members of most any species at the lowest rungs of the points ladder.  

This is tricky. SLA industries worked from the default assumption that all the races were more or less equal, there was no cost assosiated with chosing one over another. Obviously this is not true. Stormers, for example, tend to be eight shades of munchkinny overpowered combat gods (not the least of which was caused by their regeration abilities, not to mention their godlike combat stats), and Ebb races were the only ones who could 'evolve' into Necanthropes, never mind the uber-ness of the Deathsuit.  A smart Ebon player could have better armor and attacks via Ebb than any other starting player and still have the flexibility of other Ebb abilities.

I've already determined up thread that in most cases you won't find dregs from most of the Aliens.. at least points wise, so this may seem an unnecessary distinction.  

The point is this: It should be POSSIBLE to find a Stormer (say) who does nothing but guzzle beer (Slosh?) and watch TV, even if it is incredibly unlikely.  Stormers are bad examples however: They are all vat grown killing machines, they don't generally get the option to waste their lives, but that's neither hear nor there. Assume an accident happened and this one turned out pathetic and was 'let go'... cheaper than disposal.

Opposition:

Being that this is GURPS I will undoubtedly find it necessary to stat up example Dark Knight Operatives, Cultists and so forth that I will recycle ad naseaum throughout the game.  That is neither hear nor there, and I'm not entirely prepared to go into depth on that other than to say point values should be roughly comparable to PCs values.  

This is not the post where I stat everything up anyway, instead its sort of a primer on the sorts of things I need to address.

Obviously Dark Knight agents at multiple levels (point values and training).

Street Gangers (Krosstown Traffic, Johannesburgs are the big two, and heavily recruited by SLA industries.  The Johannesburgs are more into voodoo stuff and the KT's are more into street racing and the like. Both had numberless subgangs of all stripes).

Serial Killers and Cognates:  Ranging from ordinary psychopaths (cognates being groups) to inhuman 'slasher film villian' whack jobs, to monsters that left humanity behind long ago...  Halloween Jack won't be statted up until the PC's are ready to handle extreme Truthiness in their games (being the Avatar of Bitterness... Mr. Slayer's nemesis. Sort of.)

Thresher: Easy enough, Thresher has Power Armor suits that are a tech level above (maybe two) SLA industries, and bigger (but not necessarily better...) guns. Also: Sole users of depleted Uranium in game... a substance that creates Ebb Static.

Carniverous Pigs: Bull sized, armor tough skin capable of shrugging off 5mm ammo (CAF is crap!), mostly in the Sewers.

Blood Cultists: For the most part, low point value types, but their leaders will have abilities that are quite nasty.  I have a handful of powers available to convert from there it is all extrapolation.

Manchines: Obviously I will use the various machine advantages to create high point value killing machines here. Will build them like characters essentially. Lots of extra limbs (strikers) and the like.

Digger: the lead Manchine, the Old Man of Cannibal Sector One and the primary occupant of Salvation Tower...  easily a 1000 pt NPC, which you might recall implies Truthiness from upthread. Yeah, Digger is the 'storage unit' for the Deathwake Device (the thing that puts Souls in Stormers), he's 12 feet tall, hundreds of years old and the leader of an army of Manchines... he's also the closest thing to a 'killable named NPC' in the game (remember, all the big names came out of Amber level play...) and SLA Industries never actually statted him up. Digger, it is assumed, can take on groups of Necanthropes and win.  Assumption is that the Deathwake Device provides Truth-level protection from Ebb abilities and conventional attacks.

The idea here, with Digger, is to provide the PCs a means to witness the effect of Truth on a manifest creature without tipping the hand. Digger's Truth is entirely passive in nature, protecting him.  In short: let them take a few potshots at him, toss some Ebb his way and see the utter 'non-result' it has.  


Carriens: manlike beasts mostly out in the Cannibal Sectors, ranging from 20 foot tall godlike beasts to 6 foot tall potential operatives to mutant blobs... Advanced, normal and greater Carriens will be done up as 'racial' packages. Only Advance Carriens are smart enough (and cheap enough) to be suitable PC's.  Normal carriens are cheap enough, but have a high animal intelligence.

Scavvers: If I remember correctly a special breed of Stormers that have rebelled from the War Worlds and currently occupy CS1.

War World Veterans:  universally, these guys seem to go nuts after returning home (not quite, but when referred to by the term WWV they do...), and get to keep all their heavy armor and weapons.  They can make a good warm up for facing down Thresher forces, higher point values, lesser quality toys.

Necanthropes: Despite working for SLA Industries, Necanthropes are bad news for SLops to encounter.  Many are sociopathic with very sick thrills, and the company turns a blind eye to their activities... though they may send Ops to investigate, putting the PCs in a bad situation.  Necs can be made as high point value Ebons/Brain Wasters with a few supernatural powers added on. (in SLA industries, one diffference is that Necanthropes stats go to... 30, everyone else is built essentially around 10 pt stats, but Necs do get additional powers as well...).

A discussion on Truth:

Note: This starts out peeling back the curtain, but gets truly wonky/speculative and less GURPS related as I go on. Read at your own risk.

Spoiler

SLA Industries rules are utterly secretive about 'what is the truth', though they mention it frequently.  The Truth is out there, finally, and I intend to make it somewhat available to my players. I don't necessarily feel like laying the entire sordid tale on the line itself, but given that the entire SLA Industries universe axis is the 'Truth', there needs to be some rules on how it works.

If you will there is a heirarchy of powers at play. Ordinary people doing ordinary things are the lowest rung.

The next rung up are the Ebb users, the Cultists. These are the people with no real grasp of the Truth but with access to supernatural powers.

Then you have your innate users.  Stormers with their regeneration, advanced serial killers that have shed their base humanity, Shatter users... they are not really any more powerful than the second tier, but they are closer to the Truth in a way.

Then you have Truth Agents, people who have been exposed to the Truth and survived it, due to training, due to deliberate work by Mr. Slayer or Bitterness. Some come by the Truth 'naturally', some accidentally. Regardless, they can actively manipulate reality in some regards.  These are the Diamond Dogs, the Stigmartyr agents of the setting.  They also include powerful named beings like Precepter Teeth, Taarnish and Angel, and to a lesser extent Digger.

Then you have Truth beings: For the most part we only have Bitterness's Shards as examples, presumably Mr Slayer has his own. These are not 'characters' per se. Shards are sort of malevolent possessing spirits embodying a facet of 'reality', corrupt facets.  They are Manifestations of Truth, nothing more, and their abilities, while extreme, are limited because of their nature.

Avatars: There are two, Intruder and Halloween Jack. These are the proxy agents of the two opposed Gods of SLA Industries.  Like all high level Truth users they are virtually immune to lesser beings, though neither is entirely 'real'.  In some regards the Avatars are 'more powerful' than beings like Senti or the Kilneck, though only in regards to the lesser tiers.

Reals: These are people from 'our reality' who exist in SLA Industries.  They are not beholden to either power and are near equals to Slayer and Bitterness. Their sole weakness in this regards is their inability alter reality on the grand scale, though even this is uncertain. Senti, for example, created the Deathwake Device against Slayer's wishes. Note that Reals are essentially trapped in SLA Industries, they may even be dead in 'Our' reality.

Gods: Slayer and Bitterness.  Two halves of the whole, they have the utter ability to reshape reality to their whim, this power held in check only by the existance of the other.  Slayer Created the World of Progress and could be said to represent a sort of oppressive control, his ideal world is stangant orwellian obediance to his command. Bitterness by this measure could be said to represent mad entropy, wishing to corrupt and corrode all of reality into nothingness.  Note that when Bitterness broke the 'rules' and empowered a child (now an Agent) to kill a famous Contract Killer, Slayer was able to 'break the rules' and create 'Life After Death' technology to bring dead Ops (and Contract killers) back from death.  To be blunt, beating EITHER one of the two is impossible and could quite probably destroy SLA Industries setting.

Relax. There is an Out.  While not 'Reals' themselves, the campaign does include a means to reach that level of Truthiness, even escaping the war between the two.

Now for Rules.

In short, Truth works a bit like Formulae for Ebb. It can't be 'bought' exactly, though it does have a point value, it must be earned.  There are 'ten' levels of Truthiness.

Exposure to Truthy powers is only mildly 'corrosive', nauseating if you will. Exposure to True items (that is, items brought over from our Reality), no matter how mundane, causes a fear check... fearless does not help here. If the character succeeds they accept the object as 'normal'... not at all Truthy. If they fail they take a point of Truth damage for each point they missed it by (items will have their own Truthy value, that is how scary they are...) One thing that all Truthy items have in common is that they are immune to all damage. Note that most Truthy items are mundane, almost incidental items, childrens toys and the like.  In theory a truthy gun and ammo could exist. A Real bullet fired from the gun (and only a Truth gun... SLA weapons, even custom made, can not cause it to fire) would pass through any armor, target, walls... anything until it ran out of steam and fell. No such guns/ammo will be found.

Being told the Truth, even in tiny parts, is like being exposed to Truthy items, only the DC of the checks is higher depending upon how much is told. Note that Truth Damage does not heal and can eventually kill the character.

Once enough Truth is known, however, the character gains Truth Level 1 power (note, Stormers have this automatically, though they are unaware of it).  This provides rapid regeneration and one level of 'power static', resistance to Ebb or Cultist abilities not based on Truth (and +1 to future Truth checks).

Note that an Ebon who's Formulae reaches 11 essentially gains this ability as well, though they do have to make at least one Truthy check as they grasp the fundamental problems with their reality, which they can fail. They also do not gain the power static advantage.

The 'safest' route to Truth 1 is Karma Implants. A high enough concentration of implants makes one effectively a Stormer.  (trade money for points to increase attributes/buy powers= karma implants).

Each level of Truth provides some measure of protection, both from Truth checks and from attacks.

Truth, essentially, functions like magic. Past Truth 2, the character can spend points to learn to manipulate reality in gross ways (each level provides better abilities in this regards).  While simply whispering the truth in someone's ear can kill them, it runs the risk of teaching them enough to make them more powerful first. Blasting someone with 'reality' however, remains effective for a long long time.  Note: I will need to work up complete samples of powers, however.

One good advantage of Truth powers is they trump everything else. Ebb is useless against Truth. Armor becomes purely ablative against direct attacks (melting away before the wearer does). A 'Truth' forcefeild will stop anything BUT truth (but would be hard to maintain) cold, and against a Truth attack would hold depending on the ability granted. This is not perfect, however.  Users can miss, be ambushed, or simply overwhelmed.  With a Truth based sheild the user is essentially dismissing the reality of an incoming attack, easy enough, but must be repeated for each and every attack. Against a full auto burst from a machinegun, the weilder would get overwhelmed and fail sooner rather than later (mechanically, their shield runs out of DR).

How does that work mechanically? Well, Truth levels add to the 'effect' value of powers. the more truthy it is, the more effective it is (compared to Formulae, which only increases the skill value).   I don't have a book handy to mock up a few samples, but this is 'late game' stuff.

Note that Truth Items could be considered to have a Truth value of 10 or more by default. (Infinite? but that is hard to model properly... obviously a truth based sheild or attack should not be utterly useless against 'real' stuff... but neither should it be effective enough to just negate the fact that you have an imaginary person destroying real objects... ugh... my head hurts).

At Truth level 10 the game changes significantly.  Outside of Truth based abilities, the character is essentially immune to all damage. Rather: all damage heals instantly (Digger gets this). With a word or gesture the character can simply cause people to cease to be and can even deal with Shards on essentially equal footing.

However: The Kilneck and the other Reals (and, by incident, the two Avatars) are still beyond them.  The Reals are, in the end, just like that child's doll that crossed over accidentally: Essentially Immune to anything the characters do and able to virtually ignore everything the characters do. Note: Digger is Truth 10 because he holds the Deathwake inside him, but the Deathwake itself is a 'Real' thing created entirely in SLA industries. Destroying Digger just leaves the DD exposed.

By crossing over to OUR reality, the characters can become functionally 'Real'.  Metaphysically this gets wonky.  Rules wise, more and less so.

Here is the Deal.

By crossing over the Characters do not suddenly become "reals" in our reality. They are, in essence, Imaginary beings that are self aware and have crossed over.

In our reality they lose ALL Truth abilities (which, at this point should have occupied most of their points...) Sort of. Ebons keep their Ebb ability; by extension all abilities that the characters have that are not possible in our reality they would also keep as long as it didn't come from Truth.

More: at some point I'll need to work out exact benefits of being Imaginary in the Real world but they could, in theory, have some pretty fancy tricks as a result... which we could treat as non-ebons learning Formulae/Ebb abilities.

Its when they return that things get super wonky (at this point, GURPS has to go, the game has progressed to, essentially, its Amber roots...).  See, they have been to the Real world and become a part of it, by coming back they become Reals... moreso as they are native to SLA. They will never match Slayer/Bitterness (they'd need to create their own universe for that, which is more or less impossible, and would take them out of the arena if you will).

To the point: As Reals they can kill other Reals, potentially they could kill Bitterness/Slayer if they want to risk the dissolution of SLA Industries universe (it's not old enough to be stable without its God(s)).

However, if we wish to extrapolate this out, they have an ability that none of the Reals do, the ability to universe hop. Not just between SLA Industries and the 'real' world, but presumably they can travel anywhere. Leaving SLA Industries means losing Truth (which, technically, they've progressed beyond anyway), as each Universe (including the 'real' one) would have its OWN truths that technically would need to be learned. The theory, however, is that a more mature Universe is less vulnerable to it's own Truth

Of course, they could just do like the Kilneck and try to 'complete' SLA industries universe by headed out to the unformed darkness of Black Stump and start forcing it to take shape. This is a mixed blessing, a more complete universe is more stable/less vulnerable to the Truth/Slayer/Bitterness, but then things out there can be more dangerous to the occupants of the universe in the immedeate (Conflict War races like the Root Dogs, for example...)

Okay, I still haven't really broken out the books to put this sucker to the fire rules wise but I do have some ideas.

I probably have stated this earlier, but for the most part Ebb abilities function much like Psychic powers do... leaving aside any rules based things. There is pyromancy and cryomancy, telekinetics and teleportation. Blast seems to be telekinetic in nature as well.  In short, the only thing keeping them from being psychic powers in fact is that the setting doesn't treat them so.  The rules are under less compunction.  Still there will be differences.

It may be easiest to build psychic power 'tracks' for each power than do the work around that I suggested for Formulae. However, one of the reasons for the Formulae thing was that it was vastly underutilized in the game. Players had no reason to seek it out, mechanically, and arguably good reasons to avoid it, particularly in setting. Given that it is explicitely your grasp on how your power works....

The second major power block likely to come up is the Chi'en cults, who derive their power from White Earth and Bitterness.  There isn't much to go on here, some images commissioned for a book that might never be released and one bad guy on a Hunter Sheet with a limited, but nasty palate of abilities.

What I can say is that Chi'en abilities are very... organic. Cultists maim themselves to draw power (Spell points drawn from damage done... to the caster or donated from willing cultists... usually both).  They are referred to as 'blood cults' in a few places and with good reason, their powers are very bloody. Turning oneself to blood to avoid damage or escape down a drain for example.  This obviously informs their power set.  So, naturally, there is a BIG modifier on all Chi'en advantages, and their spell selection has to reflect that as well.  

Of course, there is a second component to Bitterness that hasn't been explicitely covered in rules, and that is madness. Madness is a source of power, and Bitterness, as an entity, is quite explicitely mad. Of course, if you get canonically Truthy, Mr. Slayer is the embodiment of a split personality so...

GURPS has a LOT of disadvantages, that is to be sure. But to really drive home the role Madness plays in the setting is to expand it a bit, make it more 'front and center' in the list. Of course, SOME insanities are advantages in the World of Progress. Sociopathy, for example...  It may be worthwhile to create a few 'advantage' versions of normal disadvantages to reflect that.