A question...

1. A question...

   #1

   I have an idea for... well, a lifeform of some sort.  What's tripping me up is what kind of lifeform to classify it as.  If you have a group of physically discrete, actually separate beings that all share the same mind, are they truly a group, or are they one creature?  I am not talking a hive mind, I am talking a single mind that happens to have multiple bodies at it's disposal, kind of the way we have multiple fingers at our disposal.

2. Re: A question...

   #2

   As fingers belong to one hand, and cannot exist if separated from it, so you should consider the lifeform of yours.
   
   Can the bodies survive without the uniting conscience? Do they have specifics of their own? If it's all remote control, then it's fingers of a hand, though the hand may not be visible.
   
   (Aside, if the bodies can survive separation, and impose their mind on other bodies, or grow others, it would be still not a separate species, but reproduction.)
   
   
   Am interested in this one!

3. Re: A question...

   #3

   In honesty, if these bodies function with one mind (and do they function when the mind is not concentrating on them)  I would make it an NPC.  They have one personality and one memory for their diffused bodies.  Importance and primary empasis is yours to determine.
   
   If each body can function independently, and can "lives its own life" with its copy of the base personality (so each acts the same) until the Mind, focuses on it (much the way a hand stays at your side until you need to use it), then an intelligent lifeform (pick biome).

4. Re: A question...

   #4

   It seems that there is an assumption that these linked bodies are going to be human, it could be a rather interesting creature that actually requires multiple hosts to maintain it's intelligence, and removing individuals from the network could actually cause the creature to loose points from it's collective intelligence score.
   
   I read a book, Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge where there was a world inhabited by pack minded animals, not so much like a pack of wolves, but a single entity that just happened to have multiple bodies. Each body formed a fraction of the intelligence and the loss or addition of members could literally change the psyche of the individual in question. There is an instance in the book of one of the pack creatures being decimated down to a single member, the lone member functioned on the level of a child, or a mentally handicapped person and was later absorbed into another collective pack mind.
   
   In that situation, I would consider the entity in question to be either an NPC, an intelligent lifeform, or a very peculiar society/ethnic/culture. If it is solitary and there are no other hive intelligences of similar construction it should count towards being a unique entry.
   
   The arguement could go several different ways, since I would have to say that CP's Cutsman is actually a Constructed lifeform, but it is also one of a kind and thus fits for the unique category.

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