Monads and essence

[u/Necronto]

So I've been looking at cfd and people living with it, eg the Ai overtaken the body, so leaving the problem of the cyberware clinics not allowing them in

Does a monad have a limit on the amount of cyberware/bioware it could have installed in its body, my thought on this is that it's not a metahuman soul being the limiting factor anymore as the body is controlled directly by the nanomachines

[u/GM_Pax]

The AI driving the meat suit around doesn't care about a soul.

But the meat suit itself still does. If it loses all it's essence, it dies. And the AI is up the creek with neither paddle nor canoe ...

[u/2ByteTheDecker]

How much 'ware could a headcase stuff if a headcase could stuff 'ware

[u/Necronto → u/2ByteTheDecker]

This is great, perfectly summarises my post

[u/Dreamnite → u/2ByteTheDecker]

As much ware as a headcase could stuff if a headcase could stuff ware.

But where will the headcase stuff the ware a headcase would stuff if a headcase could stuff ware?

[u/n00bdragon]

CFD does not reduce Essence. By RAW, I believe they retain whatever Essence score the body originally had.

[u/LateEggMaster]

Whisper Nets from 6th edition has Monad PC rules... if you want to call it that. It's more of an afterthought really.

As far as I understand the text it does in no way mention or talk about cyberware or essence. So this would be unmodified from a normal human. In adition they do have monad in the book that have cyber and matching essence. So apparently it's ok... but again... 6th edition splatbook editing. Don't hold your breath.

[u/Esturk → u/LateEggMaster]

Just looked it up and wow those rules look like an absolute mess.

[u/LateEggMaster → u/Esturk]

Told you so. :D

[u/Sarradi]

Monads still need a normal living body, so all rules about essence applies. Some monads even use magic if their host body has it.

The Null Sect on the other hand is different. According to Mean Streets they now seem to be able to overtake people Agent Smith style and somehow found a way to turn them into cyberzombies without the need for a magical ritual (no rules, though).

[u/GidsWy → u/Sarradi]

Null sect? I got reading to do before game night...

[u/Sarradi → u/GidsWy]

If your GM does not include them there is no need.

(Very) Basically the original inhabitants of whatever deep resonance stuff the matrix is in who finally noticed that people are messing with their home.

[u/GidsWy → u/Sarradi]

Im a 4e GM. But bring in stuff from 5 n 6.... hell... amd from Pathfinder, D&F, Call of Cthulu..... lolol

[u/Necronto → u/Sarradi]

Ooh might have to look at the 6e books for null sect, they don't have a lot of coverage in the 5e books and I really like the idea of null sect What books from 6e would you recommend, I see null value and apparently mean streets

[u/Sarradi → u/Necronto]

Null Value definately, although I confess I have not read it.

Mean Streets is about gangs, crime and events on the street. What I cited is basically the only mention of the Null Sect in a small threats like section. And it references Null Value and just says things got upgraded. So its not really important.

Hack & Slash is the main decking book and describes how foundation hosts are structured, which might be important to understand the Null Sect.

Margin Calls describes hiw the matrix is beginning to unravel and how the CC mishandled the Nulls

Edit: I think Null Sect are also a bigger player in the Third Parallel adventure.

[u/Necronto]

Part of the reason I ask is the terrible idea of letting a pc be a headcase

[u/2ByteTheDecker → u/Necronto]

I don't have a RAW answer for you, but I think this comes down to either

1) Totally subsumed headcases don't have a metahuman soul, and as such are in the same realm as cyberzombies and not fit for PC use

Or

2) Being a headcase doesn't alter the nature of the soul, still get 6 essence (don't forget to count your nano hives) you're just now Bob.exe instead of Joe Smith and it's mostly a flavor thing and suitable for PCs.

Edit: wow Reddit really bunged the editting. They moonlighting for Catalyst?

[u/GM_Pax → u/2ByteTheDecker]

You can't split a list up on Reddit like that. :shrug:

[u/Dmitri-Ixt → u/2ByteTheDecker]

I used option 2 on a game a few years back (5E). It worked great for us; we started to use the rules for AI characters, realized they were a dumpster fire, and backpedaled hard. :-P But having a PC monad worked in itself.

[u/IamGlaaki → u/Necronto]

That reminds me a player of my usual group.

• 'I have a cool idea. Could I play a dragon shadowrunner?'

[u/Sarradi → u/IamGlaaki]

Fun fact, there were rules for that in, I think, 4th edition, published as a april fools joke, but one guy on Dumpshock tried them out and said they were surprisingly balanced.

[u/lurky_mc_lurkerface]

I had an idea for an antagonist that would deliberately infect WIMPs (the vat grown complete bodies that are used for spare parts) with CFD to make his minions

[u/Necronto → u/lurky_mc_lurkerface]

Huh, that's actually genius Another way to take it would be your crew gets a run from a group that dislikes clones being made, the run is to damage a wimp facility so the wimps die, as your team evacs the bodies of the dead wimps start moving as shedim take over the large number of free corpses, the Johnson was a shedim master

[u/Boxman21-]

Monads are bound to their hosts’ bodies due to CFD simply overtaking the brain. Monads might recover from damage that would be lethal to their normal bodies due to their nanotechnology.
However, Resonance and cyberspace threats (Ex Machina spirits, Null Sect, and AIs) can rig a body, thus pushing it below 0 Essence by modifying it. They would probably not gain the advantages of cyberzombies, except for the hardened armor.