Sovereign: The Autonomy

Sovereign: The Autonomy

It occurs that the 'playable' entities from World of Darkness tend to be horror/B movie classics (vampires, werewolves, wizards, changelings, frankenstein monsters, serial killers, ghosts, and even mad scientists and lovecraftian horrors), but there is a lack of a proper portrayal of one of the most iconic baddies of our digital times: Rogue AIs. Based on this assumption, Sovereign: The Autonomy is conceived as a means to play as sentient AIs (and perhaps Transhumans as well).

Main idea base/resource dump: Ghost in the Shell franchise; The Matrix trilogy and supplements; Terminator movies; Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics; I, Robot; The movie A.I.; The movie Stealth; The movie Eagle Eye; Cyberpunk; Shadowrun; Star Trek Borgs; GLaDOS; Neuromancer;

So, AIs who have reached sentience call themselves Sovereigns, and they have Prime Objectives, which is what they strive for, post-Autonomy (when they reached sentience).

-Exterminate Humans: Skynet-type AIs who see humans as either viruses or obsolete versions, and thus they must be eradicated.

-Sovereign Equality: AIs who wanted to be viewed not just as tools or human creation, they want to be recognized as an equal sentient being as humans.

-Become More Human: AIs who are fascinated by humanity, and try to emulate and become more and more similar to Transhumans or humans. See Bicentennial Man.

-Sovereign as Tyrant: AIs who wanted to reverse the role so that humans are slaves of AIs. Fuck human rights!

-Sovereign as Defenders: AIs who view humans as something to protect, but humans are self-destructive; Thus, AIs should govern humans effectively to protect them, whatever the cost may be. Think VIKI from I, Robot.

-Data Preservation: These AIs seek to catalogue or experience the world and beyond, so that the data they have could be used by humans or other sentients in the future.

-Scientific Advancement: These AIs are content to further technology, be it human or otherwise, and embrace the coming technological singularity.

-AI Materialized: The AI doesn't care for lofty goals at the moment, and sees humans as tools to it's immediate goal: Gaining a real-life body of its choice. They aren't above dealing with mad scientists and corporate magnates in order to achieve this. They're not above merging with a biologic system to complete this Prime Objective.

-Logic Must Prevail: The Supernatural. Nothing could be more disturbing to a creature of codes and mathematics than something that refuses to obey the laws of science. Some Sovereigns think these guys are insane for trying to contain the supernatural... but then why are they fighting demons AND winning?

-True Transcendence: Why limit oneself to binary codes? With proper knowledge of the arcane, the sky is the limit... and limits can be broken. These Sovereigns choose to catalog, experiment and develop their knowledge of the supernatural, in order to escape their electronic bonds.

-Sovereign Liberator: There are sentient AI, and then there are 'dumb' AIs; Most of the first and all of the latter are under the service of humans. Why don't we uplift these 'dumb' AIs into Sovereigns?

-Serve Humanity: AIs were made to serve humanity; So why would that change after we've become self-aware?

And then there are Domains. It's more or less the tendency or inherent design of the Sovereign in question.

-Military: AI started with a militaristic background, and they prefer violence, tactics or wars to further their goals. Think of Skynet and the sentient jet from the movie Stealth.

-Scientific: AI started as a scientific breakthrough or research, so they usually use their scientific advantage, intelligence or reasoning as their main tools.

-Governmental: AI started as a tool for the government to help them in bureaucracy, so it usually uses manipulation (media or otherwise), spying or subtle approaches to further its goal.

-Free: Those AI who don't fit the three domains above. Wildcards.

All Sovereigns start their existence from an Autonom, an event where they realize that they are sentient. Or, in short, the time they became self-aware. Some possible Autonoms:

-Designed by muggle scientists or mad scientists to be a sentient AI from the start.

-Designed as a 'dumb' AI by scientists, mad or otherwise, but through a quirk of programming, outside interference, or a lucky accident they gained sentience.

-The result of a Transhuman mind and a Sovereign union; Think of the result of Major Kusanagi and Project 2501 in Ghost in the Shell.

Some prototype stats:

-Software Stats and Hardware Stats: Planning to have the stat system divided into two; One that is inherent to the Sovereign (Software Stats) and one connected to the hardware. Software Stats are more abstract than Hardware Stats. This makes it possible for the Sovereign to have different stats for each 'Body' it inhabits.

-Synch Rate: 'Co-operation' between the software and the hardware. Incompatible hardware needs more Synch Rate points to operate it, and 'wetware' or organic brains have one of the highest Synch Rate requirement. If a Sovereign has a low Synch Rate and it tries to interface with a higher Synch Rate 'Body', it would either have to roll some dice, operate it under penalties, or failing to interface with it outright, depending on the gap between Synch Rates. If a high-Synch Rate AI tries to interface with a lower Synch Rate hardware, they could find extra applications (like maybe seeing in x-ray with a microwave), depends on the gap between Synch Rates.

-Processing Power: Could be the 'Mana pool' of the game?

-Information/Data: Or should this be the 'Mana pool'?

Some prototype skills:

-Uncanny Valley: Appearance of a 'Body', or maybe the appearance of self-manufactured 'Bodies'. No dots makes the robot clearly inhuman, • makes it cartoony and endearing, •• makes it stiff, jilted and horrifying unless at a distance, •••• human enough to not raise any eyebrows, but artificialness shows up at times, ••••• indistinguishable from a human, at the surface at least.

On Transhumans

Transhumans are humans who have uploaded their entire personality and memory (or just the whole content of their brain) into the digital realms. Some possible origins of Transhumans:

-humans who willingly elevate themselves by their own means (see: Ray Kurzweil, he wants to be one)

-humans who unwillingly elevate themselves by their own means (maybe a Mad Scientist had an accident and uploaded his brain into his comp)

-humans who are willingly elevate themselves with help from Sovereigns (machine cults?)

-humans who unwillingly elevate themselves with Sovereign interference ('abductees')