So there are basically two problems with morphs at character creation, which are mirror images of each other. You have one player who drops a bunch of CP on building a badass Olympian with all the optional extras. And then you have the guy who gets 50 free points of CP via the syphilitic flat he bought.
The first case causes two big issues - first, because so much of the character is invested in that morph, it limits what kind of adventures she can go on and still be effective. It matters less for Gatecrashing or political type adventures that focus on a smaller part of the system, but it makes one of the cooler aspects of the setting (resleeving) less interesting. The second issue is if the morph is killed, especially early, the PC is out a significant investment.
The second case is pure bullshit rules exploit, since the plan from the start is to use rep to snag a top-of-the-line morph after the Flat is inevitably killed.
Now, I recognize that the death issue in the first case should be partly covered by backup and morph insurance, and the second just requires a GM not be a complete pushover. But backup and morph insurance are rather poorly defined and nebulous things, and a new GM could easily be victimized by less egregious variants of the second. I also dislike solutions that lead to players using a lot of vanilla morphs. I think crazy morphs are fun. I want more crazy morphs. I want to enable players who want to play crazy morphs, without making it without consequence.
The morph pool is designed to address these issues, as well as encourage players to resleeve regularly. Essentially, at character creation the player assigns a portion of his CP to his morph. This reserved CP is always tied to the morph, but it also ensures that the player can acquire a morph of equal or lesser value easily and routinely. It protects that investment. It also protects against some of the more ridiculous shenanigans with broken down Flats, since if you have a 0 morph pool, you're not going to be able to get into good morphs easily, even with a good rep.
However, it does not allow a player to swap between super badass morphs at will and at no cost. Second is that it does not prevent players from jumping into a reaper or other crazy morph that pops up as available mid-adventure. Here's the nuts and bolts.
- At character creation, the player assigns points to a morph pool. I suggest a cap of 70 CP at character creation.
- Through play, the character may assign earned CP to the morph pool.
- Between adventures, or additionally whenever the GM deems reasonable between sessions, if appropriate downtime is available and the characters are in a suitable location, the players may freely resleeve into a new morph of CP cost equal to or less than their morph pool.
- Mid-adventure, if a character is restoring from backup or resleeving (whether locally or after farcast) with some notice, they have 75% of their morph pool available (round up). This represents "backup" morphs and insurance. If the resleeve is on short notice - 24 hours or less - the GM assigns them 10CP of Negative Traits which do not count against the CP cost (or Negative Traits limit) from the Rental Penalty Traits list below. These penalty traits apply only to the specific morph, and the GM should always allow the players to freely remove it between adventures. (It is suggested that players stat at least one backup morph at the 75% rating so it is quickly available during play.)
- In relation to the above, it costs a Moderate favor to get 100% of the morph pool on a mid-session resleeve. If it is a short notice resleeve, the Moderate favor can improve to 100% of morph pool OR remove the penalty Negative Traits. It requires a High favor to do both.
- New morphs are limited to 25 points in Negative Traits and 25 points in Positive Traits not inclusive of the Rental Penalty Traits.
- To purchase implants and augmentations for a morph, any CP left over after the morph and its traits are paid for are converted to credits at the normal rate (1000cr per CP). These credits are notional, and can ONLY be used to purchase implants and augments for that specific morph. Any leftover credits after this process are not given to the character.
- If a character acquires a morph mid-adventure, they can continue to use it through the entire adventure. However, after the adventure the character may only keep the morph if its CP cost, including augments, is equal to or less than the character's morph pool. The morph can be modified to remove or add traits or augments to bring it in line with this restriction. Additionally, the character can pay for any augments that exceed the morph pool as normal.
- Note that if the character has unspent points due to adventure rewards, they can choose to assign them to morph pool before they check to see if the acquired morph is at an acceptable cost. This reflects the fact that more expensive morphs require more expensive insurance, backups, and upkeep.
Rental Penalty Traits
You may ignore the normal restrictions when assigning these traits, with the exception of those that only affect biomorphs, which cannot be assigned to synthmorphs. Additionally, the GM should take care to make sure that none of these traits render a character ineffective. This defects are intended to increase the dramatic and comedic options to all players as well as the GM. I strongly recommend against assigning them randomly, and the GM should be flexible about decreasing the effects should a chosen defect cause more trouble than intended.
Core
- Addiction (Mild, Any)[1]
- Addiction (Moderate, Any)
- Frail (Level 1)
- Implant Rejection (Level 1)
- Lemon
- Mild Allergy[1]
- Severe Allergy (Uncommon)
- Social Stigma
- Unattractive (Level 1)
- Uncanny Valley
- Weak Immune System
- Zero-G Nausea
Sunward
Panopticon
- Impaired Balance
- Impaired Hearing
- Weak Grip
New Traits
GOOD INSURANCE [Positive Trait]
Cost: 5 CP
When resleeving mid-session on short notice, you do not have penalty Negative Traits.
CRAPPY INSURANCE [Negative Trait]
Bonus: 5 CP
When resleeving during a session, your morph always has penalty Negative Traits regardless of how much notice you gave.
Special Thanks to LemonCurdistan