Concept Issue

[Mouse]

Designing an Immortal Human from an Alternate Earth that is in an Advanced Space Age and at war with the Atorians. He was designed with 10 skill programs due to his age. Would taking 5 Professional Programs equate to the same or would it be best to do the seperate Basic Programs? Also I know I've seen a ruling on HU characters learning a Specific Martial Arts Form from N&SS. Can someone tell me where to find it?

[Alrik Vas]

I think you give up skill programs for the martial arts styles, 2 skill programs for exclusive forms.

[Iczer]

I like this one. Can we keep him?

Batts

[PapaMambo]

Designing an Immortal Human from an Alternate Earth that is in an Advanced Space Age and at war with the Atorians. He was designed with 10 skill programs due to his age...

Why does older mean knowing more instead of knowing better? Further, an immortal is going to find the skills he learned 1,000 years ago a bit outdated anyway--I mean, even if he learned computer programming fifty years ago, he'd only have experience with punchcards unless he kept his skills sharp.

An immortal with tech skills means the best he'll be with his tech skills will be average unless he's also a genius. Punchcard programmers can't code for any current OS, after all. That applies to any field in which the March of Time might render his skills out of date--from medicine ("Leeches! They fix everything!") to--seriously--chess.

An immortal isn't necessarily awesome at anything unless the things he practices--like, I dunno, jungle survival or rock throwing--never change. And he keeps his skills sharp.

TL;DR 10 skill programs? At that point just give him a flat 75% with every skill and call it done.

To be fair, the OP did say that the Immortal was "from an Alternate Earth that is in Advanced Space Age". Chances are his skill set would be fairly up to date (although the skills he knows would mostly pertain to computer languages that are ALIEN). No Windows or Mac OS, no C+, although the computer languages and OS's may bear some resemblance, and it may not be a huge leap in understanding them.. And while Medicine has advanced from the holistic varieties, chances are that the immortal would have some grasp of modern concepts.

[Malakai]

Punchcard programmers can't code for any current OS, after all.

Actually, I have a coworker next to me that can, and does, code for current operating systems AND still has his original punch-cards he learned on way back when. And no, he's not the only one here that does it, either.

[PapaMambo]

Actually, I have a coworker next to me that can, and does, code for current operating systems AND still has his original punch-cards he learned on way back when. And no, he's not the only one here that does it, either.

That's part of what I'm saying. Your buddy's kept his skills up to date. And unless you keep your tech skills up to date your skills become obsolete except under bizarre (perhaps even superheroic--like, "O, no! Killinac, the 1960s AI skyscraper, has atomic rockets!") circumstances. Knowing how to program using punchcards doesn't do jack when you need to design an app for an iPhone. And that same logic goes backward, too. Throw a pile of punchcards at someone who learned programming in college in the last decade and he'll build a nice little card house from them unless he's specifically studied obsolete technology (which people do, of course, but it's usually weird for them to do so).

The point is you can totally say your far-flung, super-advanced mega-brain hero is an absolute master of his homeworld's technology if he is never going back there. That's just flavor. It lets him have skills that are in line with his fellow PCs and not have 10 skill programs to show he's technologically superior; he is technologically superior, but according to him we're using horribly obsolete technology. What skills are actually possessed by the dude remain opaque because they don't matter in the game.

I guess the other thing to look at here is this - what is the character's familiarity with Earth? Being an alien, this is something that shouldn't be overlooked at all. If the character has rolled or chosen "61-00 Has studied Earth extensively and is as knowledgeable about the planet, its people, customs, laws and cultures as any educated, native Earthling. The alien can speak, read, and write five different Earth languages fluently (98% skill proficiency) and may have a language translator as well." - HU2 Revised - page 97 (step 7) for creating an Alien character. If the character has that as their familiarity, then perhaps they do have the necessary skills to adapt to earth technology.

I think back to Star Trek IV the Voyage home, when Scotty goes to the aluminum plant with Bones to try and get transparent aluminum. The proprietor offers Scotty the use of his computer, and Scotty tries speaking to it. The proprietor points out the mouse, and he again tries speaking into that. It's only when Bones points out the keyboard that Scotty cracks his knuckles, and with an exasperated "How quaint!" gets down to business. I would think of the crew of the Enterprise in much the same way as an alien immortal who is familiar with Earth Tech. He may come from a technologically superior planet, but needs to adapt to our way of doing things..