Golemtech, Cybernetics with a Fantasy/Horror feel

[Xathan]

[ooc]This is intended for Datrik, but I also want to make it work for other settings as a more general thing, since I love cybernetics and the feel it can have. Feedback is desperately needed, though, because what I have here needs alot of work.[/ooc]

Golemtech is the practice of creating technomagical body parts and grafting them to a living creature. Golemtech covers a wide range of parts. Some are merely replacements for existing limbs, while others serve as enhancements. Still others add new parts.

Golemtech was originally introduced prior to the war with Those Above, the Neila, as a way of repairing soldiers damaged on the field to get more use out of them. However, during the war, it's application as an enhancement became more widespread. One unit, which earned the nickname "Bloody Maw" became renowened for its use of golemtech to the extent of replacing their vital organs, which eliminated the need to breathe, allowing them to spend limitless amounts of time in the void. The Bloody Maw unit stayed on the surface to the bitter end, and though they are believed to have been eliminated, it is possible a few remaining maws stay on the surface, battling from secret.

Since then, Golemtech has spread though the black market into civilian life. Most nations didn't have time to outlaw it, and those few laws that exist against it only prohib the purchace of it: once it is on you, it's usable, though weaponry follows the same laws as unbounded weaponry.

With all these perks, it is difficult to imagine why anyone with the right arount of money wouldn't simply fit themselves with every single enhancement they can.

However, strange things begin to happen with Golemtech. The first implant rarely does anything, though people who have it often report a slightly higher pain tolerance that comes with slightly muted senses, while others note dogs put their tails between their legs when they walk by.

One or two more, and people began to take a strange resonant quality to their voices. Their eyes seem slightly pale, they report dramatically reduced tactile, olfacatory, and taste-related senses, unless they have an enhancement to strenghten one of those. They tend to seem somewhat distant, and animals will not willingly approach them, and whine in their presence. [note=Mechanics]Golemtech is a simple enough mechanic. A golemtech device allows you to do something, gives you some benifit, etc. The Cybernetics in D20 Future and D20 cyberscape are good guidelines, though they need to be reflavored to fit Datrik. However, it comes at a cost, a drain on your Essance. Originally drawn from a concept in the shadowrun game, only made more horrific, your essance score is going to be derived from your constitution score in some way, or made an entirely new ability score. Each golemtech device drains some of your essance, and crossing certian thresholds results in the effects described.[/note]

A few more (the number varies on the person), and their eyes become milk white, they loose their apitite, and they become very withdrawn. Some people loose one of their senses, usually touch, scent, or taste, entirely.

After a certian point, they hit a critical treshhold on implants. They become something other than what they once were. Some people just die at this point. Others just...vanish, never to be seen or heard from again. No one knows where they go, though some hushed stories speak of mechanical grating that is heard at night, a rending of metal that sounds strangely like screams. A very few, at this point in their development, go on a rampage, slaughtering everything that moves untill they are brought down, screaming like devils the entire time. The fourth group, however, are the worse. They continue with their existance, but they are no longer there, it seems. They don't feel right, and all living creatures become uneasy in their presence. Everyone knows who they once were, but that person seems to have vanished long ago. Known as "husks", little is known about them. Still, people speak of them as they would a plague or curse, and everyone has a story, usually heard from a brother who heard it from a friend who heard it from an uncle who heard it from a trader who went to the town where they found it, in the basement or cellar of a husk's home, human flesh stitched together in a horrible mockery of life...

[ooc]Ok, that's what I have. The problem is, it isn't creepy enough. Any advice on how to make it more frightening, more horrific, more overall frightening, is what I really want with this. I want to represent the descent into somethin inhuman(oid), something that is just wrong.[/ooc]

[Velox]

Yes! PANZERMENSCH! I love cyborgs.

Whatzit look like? I hear Golemtech and I think an arm made out of rock. But whatzit look like? Steely? Rusted? Rocky Fleshy? What do they make it out of? The atmosphere and appearance are the firsts things to consider when making it creepy.

Next, consider the practicality of it. You want it to be really creepy and really wrong (which I agree would be cool and is the way to go), but if it's that unnerving, then nobody would buy it. The creepyness has to be subtle. People have to think it'll be ok; sure bad stuff happens, but that'll happen to the other guy, not me. Maybe people get addicted to it. I hear body modification is quite addictive... Obviously this stuff is going to be really helpful, and people will want it to boost them, but the drawback, the horrible stuff has to be vieled. Otherwise, you could just say it gets forced on people (they did that in Rifts, too. They'd enslave you and cyber you up to labor and fight).

Turning inhuman... becoming something wrong. Let us recall Shadowrun, and perhaps it will grace us with inspiration.[spoiler]In SR, there was such a thing as cybermancy. People could only handle so much cybernetic modification before their body (and soul, apparently) couldn't take any more abuse and they died. Cybermancy was the ultra-secret solution to this, using magic rituals to fool the body and soul into thinking that you didn't have so much cybernetics, into fooling your soul that it should stay in your body. This made for one screwed up individual. First off, you wanted to die. You had the general feeling that you shouldn't be here, and you felt like death might be a good idea. Second, you "drifted". You might see someone who reminds you of a person you knew. You might get lost in the details, counting all the little bumbs on a basketball. In any case, you loose focus and suddenly your soul starts trying to leave your body. In order to prevent this, they put this computer in your brain, which randomly invoked memories. Any memory, happy, sad, whatever, at random times, just to make you feel alive. This, also, made you screwy. Plus, wherever you went, you left some seriously bad vibes visible to magic-users, like karmic pollution, like reality didn't want you around. Now THATS creepy; the feeling that mother nature doesnt like you anymore, and reality is about to give your abomination-ass the boot. More than that, though, what creeps me out is the wanting to die. Imagine that; you're buddy was happy last week when he got his brand-new golemtech arm, now he's talking about falling from grace and embracing the void.[/spoiler]

Let us also consider good old "Deadlands: Hell on Earth". [spoiler]There were cyborgs in that game, but it was a complicated issue; again, you can only fit so much stuff in a person, yadda yadda yadda. But there was also some power management issues (apparently those deadlands boys weren't exaclty up to snuff with Shadowrun level of power generation and storage). One solution to both problems was to put the stuff in the undead. Sometimes folks came back in those games, and they had a co-pilot; your corpse got posessed by a demon after you died, and he kept your body going. The exchange for this life-after-death was that every now and then he'd "grab the wheel" and cause some havoc. The cyborg end of this is that scientists invented technology that could contain the demon in your brain (kind of like ghost busters) and use him to make power (like some kind of demonic hamster wheel). The result is that you have an infinite source of supernatural energy to supply all the electronic goodies they stuffed in you where your organs should be. Since you were dead, you didn't need them anyway. THATS creepy, too. The only reason all this stuff is working is because there's some horrible little demon making it work. That can't be good.[/spoiler]

I'll think on this... and I'll try to come up with creepy. I may want to borrow this idea, so I've got stock in this, too!

"Iron within, iron without"

[Xathan]

As for apperance, I'm thinking one of two things: Either it looks somewhat primitive and boxy, clunky and chunky (though I'm going with iron and steel compositiong), or it is ultrasmooth, ultrafutureistic. Sleek, deadly, vicious looking, with a touch of the alien mixed in.

I like both Shadowrun way of handling it and Deadlands. I have some vague ideas beginning to take form...you're right, I was too blunt about it. I love subtle creepy more than anything else, and I want to make this as creepy as possible with still having enough of a draw for power that you are willing to use it. The examples you gave are good: I can't use them, because I refuse to rip it off, but it's got me thinking, and that's a good thing. :D

I'm glad you feel like you have stock in this too: two heads are better than one, though we might end up taking it different directions, we'll be able to bounce ideas off each other. :)

[SA]

Concerning the ultrasleek idea, have you considered H.R. Geiger's organic metal feel, like in the Alien movies?  And specifically how do the grafts/implants interact with living tissue?  Are the additions in some perverse way organic themselves, or are they merely capable of registering nervous impulses?  Is the recipient in total control of the addition, or does the addition have some degree of independence...?

A particularly juicy question is "just who invented golemtech, and did they have some ulterior motive?  Indeed, is golemtech perhaps the result of some unwholesome magics?"  I'd imagine one would be somewhat horrified if they discovered that their kickass new prosthetic arm was refined from the golden bones of slain angels...

I am liking the concept; it reminds me of some of my own golemic ideas.  I will certainly keep an eye on this.

[Xathan]

Concerning the ultrasleek idea, have you considered H.R. Geiger's organic metal feel, like in the Alien movies?  And specifically how do the grafts/implants interact with living tissue?  Are the additions in some perverse way organic themselves, or are they merely capable of registering nervous impulses?  Is the recipient in total control of the addition, or does the addition have some degree of independence...?

A particularly juicy question is "just who invented golemtech, and did they have some ulterior motive?  Indeed, is golemtech perhaps the result of some unwholesome magics?"  I'd imagine one would be somewhat horrified if they discovered that their kickass new prosthetic arm was refined from the golden bones of slain angels...[/quote]I am liking the concept; it reminds me of some of my own golemic ideas.  I will certainly keep an eye on this.
[/quote]

Thank you very much, and I look forward greatly too your future feedback.

[Soup Nazi]

Do you guys remeber the old 2e Drow of the Underdark book. There were adamantine prosthetics mentioned in passing though I can't recall if they had stats, but I do remember thinking the pic was cool

-Nasty-

[Xathan]

Do you guys remeber the old 2e Drow of the Underdark book. There were adamantine prosthetics mentioned in passing though I can't recall if they had stats, but I do remember thinking the pic was cool

-Nasty-

Was it called "Drow of the Underdark"? I've been trying to find the pictures for inspiration, but haven't been able to find anything anywhere yet.

[Velox]

D20: Cyberscape. It's a d20 supplement devoted to artificial body improvement, from a medieval fantasy game, to a victorian steampunk game, to a high-tech future game. I've been a busy beaver, so allow for time. But when I get done reading... I'm coming back; and Hell's comin' with me!

[Xathan]

D20: Cyberscape. It's a d20 supplement devoted to artificial body improvement, from a medieval fantasy game, to a victorian steampunk game, to a high-tech future game. I've been a busy beaver, so allow for time. But when I get done reading... I'm coming back; and Hell's comin' with me!

*points to the note in my original post* I mentioned it right from the beginning: I preordered that book the moment I knew it was coming out. Getting it made me giddy like a schoolgirl who finds herself in Nick Leshay's dressing room. I need to re-read it, though. I look forward to seeing what you draw from it. :D

[Xathan]

Velox, any thoughts on Golemtech after reading d20 Cyberscape? I have some, but I want to hear yours first.

[Velox]

I haven't read it yet! Sorry, Im blazing through D20 Past, D20 Modern, D20 Future, Cyberscape, and "Dracula" with whatever time I don't spend sleep, at work, wanking, or playing Werewolf: The Forsaken. But I'll get right on it! PANZERMENSCH!

[Xathan]

lol, I look forward to seeing your new replies: I miss your feedback. :)

[Senkennomei]

One very helpful tip-- if you want to see some pretty frightening cybernetics, see the movie "Ghost in the Shell 2." There are some very scary body extensions (and full-blown androids) in the film, and the movie covers places and scenes which you may find to be very helpful. DO NOT see this movie if you haven't seen the first film "Ghost In The Shell," though.

[Xathan]

Looks like I have two movies to watch this weekend. :) Thanks for the tip, Senk.

[Senkennomei]

Oh, and just so you know, both of the movies are anime (hope you don't mind), but the effects and details in them are pretty mind-blowing. Also, the second one IS in Japanese (English DVD menu, just the dialogue) because it was done by a different director who believed (and I agree) that it looks better with subtitles so their mouths don't flop when they speak english. They are both great films though, and hopefully you'll get some ideas from them.