I was wondering - what good Transhuman RPGs are there? I think I heard of an add - on for Traveller and GURPs, but would be curious to hear out opinions. I'm aiming for darker cyberpunk - transhumanism stuff (so corital stacks exist, advanced technology as well, but problems did not end, or new ones arised), so to speak.
GURPS: Transhuman Space definitely fits the bill if you can handle GURPS.
The original book was created for 3rd Edition, and you used the Changing Times supplement to convert it to 4th. After being not around for a while, I see Transhuman Space is on e23, dunno if that is the 3rd version or they finally converted to 4th.
In any case, G:TS is very much the next phase of Cyberpunk rather then a Singularity/Post-Scarcity type of Transhumanism. Robots, AIs, Genetically engineered humans, etc. I remember the first fluff blurb was something like a terrorist making the news after a latest strike, the terrorist having downloaded their mind to an AI keeps popping up as different copies get activated.
Think Cyberpunk 2020 meets Orbital.
Quote from: CRKrueger;723827GURPS: Transhuman Space definitely fits the bill if you can handle GURPS.
The original book was created for 3rd Edition, and you used the Changing Times supplement to convert it to 4th. After being not around for a while, I see Transhuman Space is on e23, dunno if that is the 3rd version or they finally converted to 4th.
In any case, G:TS is very much the next phase of Cyberpunk rather then a Singularity/Post-Scarcity type of Transhumanism. Robots, AIs, Genetically engineered humans, etc. I remember the first fluff blurb was something like a terrorist making the news after a latest strike, the terrorist having downloaded their mind to an AI keeps popping up as different copies get activated.
Think Cyberpunk 2020 meets Orbital.
Are cortical stacks in it? Forgive me - I just love the poor man's (a bit science - fantastic) Raise Dead ;).
Quote from: Rincewind1;723829Are cortical stacks in it? Forgive me - I just love the poor man's (a bit science - fantastic) Raise Dead ;).
You can make backups of your mind and have them placed in a new body, "resleeving" isn't as common as EP, there are still a lot of normal meatbags walking around.
Quote from: CRKrueger;723832You can make backups of your mind and have them placed in a new body, "resleeving" isn't as common as EP, there are still a lot of normal meatbags walking around.
I see. I have no experience with GURPS, how easy'd be those mechanics moddable? I'm not that much interested in a setting (though not against one, what you describe is more to my taste than EP, truth be told).
Stars Without Numbers had some transhumanism as well. You need to download that bit from RPG Drive Thru, but it is there.
Quote from: Rincewind1;723833I see. I have no experience with GURPS, how easy'd be those mechanics moddable? I'm not that much interested in a setting (though not against one, what you describe is more to my taste than EP, truth be told).
For that I'll have to defer to one of the GURPS specialists like Estar, Koltar or Ravenswing.
Was a big fan of Transhuman Space.
You don't really need to know GURPS to enjoy the books for the setting. The thing I like about this setting is the attention to detail--I wouldn't call it "Cyberpunk" since they emphasize the optimistic future--not utopian, but not dystopian either.
Instead of a collapse they pretty much feature what the politics would look like almost 100 years from now. So the world seems more familiar, a lot of the new politics comes from the new colonized areas. It's grounded in the Solar System, no Aliens, no portals to other solar systems, no singularity.
My favorite supplements outside of the core were fifth wave (specific details on Earth--all the countries, etc.), and Toxic memes (which chronical the "memes" of the world--the new subcultures, fads, cults, etc.).
GURPS and SWN both hit the same nerve, in the Transhuman Space and free expansion for Transhumanism, respectively. GOO put out a book with a transhuman setting for TriStat called Ex Machina, and there's also FreeMarket by the Burning Wheel guys and Nova Praxis for FATE. And Sufficiently Advanced, which I haven't seen.
StarCluster 3 has a lot of Transhuman elements which can be used in your Cluster, but one of the few important canonical elements is unity of soul - that existence can be serially prolonged, but not multiplied; and in any transfer there is loss. So, at any time:
A: There can be at most one instantiation of any given person
B: Transfers of minds can only be done "live" - i.e. no recordings
C: Memories and skills erode with each transfer. The loss can be mitigated with skill, but never eliminated.
Thus a person can have limited serial immortality - either in live bodies or in robots - but there is no "backup" or "forking".
Of course, you can always say "screw this" and not follow this canon, but it enables some neat aspects of gameplay as well as disallowing others. For example, items can be soul-locked to operate only for a single entity, no matter what body that entity may be wearing.
All the other transhumanist stuff is in there - body design on a molecular level with purely synthetic DNA, clades of variant humanity, personal body reconstruction in situ, uplifted animals, non-sapient android workers, Transhumanist religions, etc.; along with more traditional far-future SF fare - FTL travel, terraforming planets, orbitals, gravitic control, limited range non-corporeal travel ("beaming"), etc. It is decidedly not "Post Scarcity", but that is not necessary for transhumanism, though it is fashionable.
To emphasize: StarCluster 3 is a setting toolkit, rather than a setting. Virtually everything is optional.
-clash
For Mongoose Traveller you would need (besides the Core Book) the books Robots and Cybernetics. You would have to create your own setting for the transhumans though.
I prefer GURPS Transhuman Space over Eclipse Phase. I find that the writers of the GURPS splatbooks tend to have generally done their homework on what they are writing about. Even if you don't like GURPS, it's still a good enough setting for other systems. Eclipse Phase is just too weak with its idiotic handling of religion, biology, economics and politics - and not to count the whole idea of the TITANs themselves. The only real good thing about EP is the art work.
Alternity's Star*Drive setting had some elements to that.
Once you get off planet Rifts has lots of transhuman stuff and even planetside. I used to play a full conversion borg.
It is hard to say what rpg's there are, other than those specifically list themselves as transhuman rpg's, such as gurps transhuman, Nova Praxis, and Eclipse Phase. Part of it is a basic argument about what transhumanism is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanist and theEclipse Phase people, I think are pointed to posthumanism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthuman which at some point, it is basically a pick and choose what you want to represent.
I'd adapt the system you like best to the setting you want, personally.
I did a quick read through of Sufficiently Advanced (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=51719). I've never played it but it's interesting, it seems very high tech and end-of-time-ish. The rules have some narrative elements. The PDF is cheap to check out.
PCs work for the patent office, their job is to protect IP. The tools at their disposal seem near demigod powerful.
It might be a bit too utopian for the OP.
I quite enjoyed our sessions of Eclipse Phase. It was solidly a horror game from my perspective. We didn't get far enough with it for all its badwrongness to be revealed.
Nova Praxis.
Quote from: Future Villain Band;723839GOO put out a book with a transhuman setting for TriStat called Ex Machina,
It's my memory that Ex Machina was more Cyberpunk than transhuman, although to be honest at the fringes the two do tend to blur into each other, as most genres tend to. But the intent was more to do Cyberpunk than transhuman.
Quote from: jcfiala;724225It's my memory that Ex Machina was more Cyberpunk than transhuman, although to be honest at the fringes the two do tend to blur into each other, as most genres tend to. But the intent was more to do Cyberpunk than transhuman.
You're right, but I remember Sparta, or whatever it's called, reflecting a lot of transhuman social ideas. The R. Sean Borgstrom setting, IIRC.
Here's a blast form the (not too distant) past: Septimus (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/63991/Bill-Coffins-Septimus).
Very cool game, actually, but it never stood a chance.
Sometimes I daydream of using the system for a balls-out transhuman epic space opera game, like Revelation Space with its gigantic STL freight liners and quasi-immortal, cybered-up-to-the-gills interstellar traders.
Mindjammer is a setting-sourcebook for Starblazer Adventures that adds transhuman elements to the "80s british space opera" RPG.
RPGPundit
Cybergeneration had some of that sort of thing going on.
Cthulhutech has some, but it's mostly background stuff for your giant robot vs. giant fish smackdowns (All of the Archanotech). About the only places where characters intersect anything transhuman-ish are: Tagers, Psi, and the Evangelion-alike robots that I forget the name of. Of course, since moving beyond human doesn't just change, but often fundamentally breaks us in setting, it's a bit of a darker transhumanism. Also the system...not so good.
Nova Praxis is a good in depth version, put it this way, nanites copy a human being, even the entire brain, the host obviously dies in such a quite gruesome way, the nanites copy goes on as if nothing happened, anyone watching the transaction wouldn't be aware of the final change, it is too much for my mind to handle, because our technology is getting to the point where nanites replacement is actually going to be a real possibility, man is reinventing himself as it stands using artificial intelligence, to me it's just playing with a nuclear bomb, eventually it will go off. My preference is to not play the game, it's well written but if technology could take over us meat bags in that manner, why have meat bags at all? They are inferior in every way to a perfect A.I. machine nanites copy. The purist Humans in the game World will be hard pressed to survive, if you played the game correctly, if you like that kind of game, Nova Praxis is the pick for you.