d20 Adamant Entertainment Posthuman.pdf

Text:

MalcolmSheppard

Graphics:

Gareth-MichaelSkarka

Requires the use of the d20 Modern Roleplaying Game,

published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. d20 Modern, and

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introduction

Posthuman: The Deinitive D20 Guide to Human

Augmentation is a brief resource that expands the

options for technologically enhanced characters (or

posthumans). The new rules here are designed to be

compatible with the standard rules for futuristic D20

roleplaying. You should have little trouble adding

them to your game. Cyborgs and other modiied

humans loom large in science iction. We hope that

what follows allows you to bring those ideas from

novels, stories, video games and ilms to your gaming

table.

Posthumans in Science Fiction

Science iction puts posthumans in a limitless number

of roles. You might ind them in the background as

local color on a world where humans have changed

themselves to survive in a hostile environment,

or as stock thugs employed by high tech villain.

At other times, the posthuman takes center stage,

and storytellers focus on what it’s like to alter and

transcend human biology. Common themes include:

Contents

Here’s what you get:

The Posthuman Template Class: Instead of using a

ixed template that adjusts a character’s effective level,

we present the concept of a template class: a ive level

option that allows you to choose how powerful you

want posthumans to be and whether or not you want

to abide by the standard drawbacks for augmented

humans. If you don’t like the idea of penalizing

characters for their enhancements but you don’t want

to trash game balance, this is the section for you.

Identity: Stories like these ask us what makes us truly

human. Is it our mind? Our genetic code? Mortality?

Posthuman characters are often confronted with these

questions. More importantly, other people might

decide on an answer for them and mark posthumans

for slavery or extermination.

Evolution: When posthuman change is cheap and

easy to come by (a common effect of Progress Levels

7 and above), how should the species as a whole

react to it? Should we concentrate on being smarter?

Tougher? Is there a danger in choosing just one path?

Is it dangerous to leave behind our original biology?

Factions who support different positions can come

to blows over this, leading to interplanetary war and

terrorism.

Biotech: N ext, we’ll look at biotechnology and how

it can replace or augment characters’ natural abilities.

You can use these rules with characters from standard

classes. Like cybernetics, biotech comes with its

own complications, keeping biologically engineered

characters from running roughshod over play balance.

To transcend these drawbacks, just plug in the

Posthuman class.

Nanotech: Nanotechnology seems to have an

unlimited potential to augment human ability. The

rules in this section present a modest array of nanotech

enhancements that, like biotech, come with drawbacks

to balance out their beneits. Again, you can plug

in the Posthuman class to mitigate or remove these

restrictions.

Revolution: Finally, posthuman augmentation can

change the way we look at social arrangements.

Tyrants can use augmented soldiers to oppress

populations, but if the technology is easy enough to

acquire, revolutionaries can use it to aid their ight

for freedom. Of course, revolutionaries aren’t always

right; a posthuman cabal could use their abilities to

topple a just government to spread lawlessness or

ascend to power themselves.

Posthuman Characters: Finally, we present three

enhanced characters as a proof of concept and to give

you ready made enemies, allies and player characters.

Posthuman Versus Transhuman

Transhuman is a term that’s often used

interchangeably with posthuman. We’ve opted not

to use it because transhumanism is also the name

of an ideology that supports the vigorous use of

technology to improve human abilities. This book

doesn’t take a side in that debate, so we’ve settled

for the more neutral term: posthuman.

Of course, transhumanists also talk about

posthumanity as the name for their desired state,

so it isn’t so cut and dried! Remember, though,

that pro-posthuman organizations in your game

identify with the transhuman label.

Modern Posthumans

Even though you usually ind posthumans in

future settings, there’s nothing that stops you from

unleashing cyborgs or nanotech-enhanced characters

in a contemporary setting.

You’ll have to make a few adjustments. First of all,

attachment Restriction levels at least be Military

(in the case of secret government programs that

experiment with Progress Level 6 and up) or they’ll

be nonexistent (in the case of alien technology and

time travellers). Purchase DCs are still used for the

Posthuman class’ modiication points, but you can’t

actually buy the technology except in the context of a

special event set up by the GM. Here are ive possible

origins for posthuman augmentation in a modern

campaign. Use one, or mix and match them to taste.

What if the government gets its technology from alien

interlopers? What about a corporation run by a visitor

from the future?

Aliens: Alien visitors can modify

humans during an abductions. If the

character gains useful abilities as

a result, it’s certain that the aliens

will want something in return -- or

is it? Perhaps the modiications are

part of an experiment to see how

humanity will react to a strange

individual in their midst. Willing

servants of alien civilizations might

be rewarded with augmentation, and alien crash sites

could expose bystanders to nanotech contamination

and mutagens that spawn biotech modiications.

The

Posthuman

Template

Class

Corporations: Highly competitive corporate research

can spawn advances far beyond the campaign’s normal

Progress Level, but how would private enterprise

test posthuman technologies? Combine terminal

illness and a non-disclosure agreement, and shrewd

companies and desperate individuals may collaborate

to alter the limits of human physiology. Alternately,

an industrial accident may loose biotech and nanotech

onto random individuals. Will the corporation offer

such characters a place in the fold or hunt them down?

What is a Template Class?

Instead of applying a template that directly modiies a

character’s effective character level (ECL), a template

class applies beneits using the same scheme as other

classes, with accompanying improvements in the

character’s hit dice, base attack bonus and saving

throws.

Government: In secret labs they can rebuild

characters. They can be faster. Stronger. Military

installations might use augmentation to create super-

soldiers. Painful procedures are supplemented with

harsh military and espionage training, until the

characters “graduate” with ield missions. What is

their side isn’t the only one with augmented agents?

What happens if someone steal the technology?

Why a Template Class?

Template classes let you gradually apply exceptional

beneits to a character and measure them against the

level of experience of the rest of the party. If you

begin play at a level higher than 1st, you may add

template class levels during character creation.

Terrorists: Everyone who watched James Bond

ilms or cartoons from the 1980s knows that terrorist

organizations frequently employ eccentric geniuses

to construct superweapons. Bent on world conquest,

a cinematic terrorist organization could create super-

warriors to further its ends. For a grittier take on this,

a more realistic terror group could ind or force help

from a scientiic genius.

Minimum Requirements

Unlike an advanced class (or a prestige class in fantasy

D20 games), the only hard requirement for a template

class is that it can never be the character’s irst class.

Therefore, all template classes require a least one level

in another class -- it usually doesn’t matter which one.

Of course, the GM may apply additional requirements

as he or she sees it, and a few template classes may

have other requirements because of the nature of the

campaign or for additional play balance. Naturally,

too, the character needs a background that will justify

levels in the template class. As always, the GM

ultimately decides what’s appropriate for his or her

game.

Time Travelers: The most obvious sources for

futuristic technology is, of course, the future.

Characters could be time travelers themselves or

stumble across their presence on earth. The classic

motive for time travelers is to alter (or preserve)

the past to bring about a desired future. If modern

characters get their hands on posthuman technologies,

does it threaten the integrity of Time? Are the warring

factions of time travelers? For a fun spin, you could

even bring the time travelers from the past, as

denizens of an Atlantis or Shangri-La unknown to

history.

What is the Posthuman Class?

The Posthuman is a template class for science iction

D20 games designed to represent characters whose

bodies have been enhanced by technology. The core

rules for futuristic roleplaying include game systems

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