Every Table has that one friend who wants to play, and we want them to play, but their awful schedule makes committing to anything nearly impossible. I'm currently that friend and because of that I've been fascinated with the idea of a class based around not always being able to make it. Something that can keep up with the other classes, even if it's been a while. Technically, yes, that's all of them, but new features are fun to get and the lethality of the system can make it hard get anyway after too many missed sessions.

Originally the idea centered around abilities powered by how many sessions you've missed. I'm still taken with the idea, but after some late night sci-fi, I went in a different direction. One where your "not knowing the plot" or "not having a clue about the current situation" is a feature. 

It's geared towards usage in Some Weird Sin, but there shouldn't be any actual hindrance in using it in another GLoG rule set or setting. It might get a little Mary Sue-ish, but c'mon, your friend can't make it often, and also there's the high lethality again.

The Leaper

Not a Batroc sort of leaper, mind you. More the Sam Beckett sort. Or Ben Song. (It was a decent follow up series and you fucking know it. Other than their pure cowardice at not continuing the outrageous future fashion trends.) 

You're someone from the future who has, for some reason or another, chosen to travel back in time, only to find out you have no actual control of where and when you're going. Also, instead of traveling through space, you seem to be traveling through aura - that is replacing the physicality of a person with your own, while wearing their aura and thus looking like them. That might sound weird, or unscientific, but you were foolish enough to step into an untested time travel machine. So, glass houses.

There's only one level to the Template as it's intended to grow in breath rather than depth. Delta templates still affect you, however.

Starting Gear: None

A. Quantum Replacement, Upgrade Points, Holographic Companion, Holographic Interface, Super Computer

Quantum Replacement

You jump into the initial scene of the current game session, physically replacing an NPC, but keeping their aura attached to you. Mechanically, this means you look like them, but carry your own stats with you from session to session. While you exist in their place, the NPC is in the future with your aura, kept sedated in a medical bay. Should you die while replacing them, they are forever trapped in the future. 

Additionally, this also means you don't have starting gear, or any gear, other than what the NPC had on them. 

Upgrade Points

You don't have the standard XP progress everyone else has. Instead, your Conviction is replaced with a goal related to the person you've replaced, often revealed by the Companion a moment or two after getting your bearings. Completing this goal nets you an Upgrade Point, which is spent on 'purchasing' Features of the Super Computer, which in turn adjust your abilities. Explain it however you feel most comfortable. Use the word "quantum" a lot.

Holographic Companion 

You've a Holographic Companion that only you can see and hear. Transmitted from the future through quantum signaling brainwave transmission bullshit, they're also able to see and hear your general surroundings, but not physically interact with them, or you. (Though sometimes they can sit or lean on unattended surfaces? It's not very clear). They serve as your connection between the present and the future, able to communicate with the rest of the support staff. Note, though, that while they are genuinely concerned for your safety, they have their own life they also have to attend to and may not be experiencing time in the same order or rate as you.

Holographic Interface 

In the future there exists a Holographic Imaging Chamber which allows your Companion to communicate with you, and see what you see. Through a series of technobabble that you didn't pay attention to, the Imaging Chamber is able to adjust your visual and audio experience based on the assorted abilities of the Super Computer. I'm going to call this an Overlay Attempt and doing so requires a 1d6 roll on your part, dealing 1 point of Fatigue damage on a 3+.

Super Computer 

The project operates on such a scale of unfathomable probabilities that normal computers, even future computers, aren't able to handle the calculation load. Luckily, there exists a multi-story, multi-room super computer covered in aesthetic lighting and containing more qubits than grains of sand on a beach. Also, maybe your DNA for some reason? It needs its own fusion reactor to meet it's computation needs. 

Features

Language Databases

Every point in this feature gains you access to an additional Language. Your Companion will slowly interpret or translate for you, potentially making things awkward. An Overlay Attempt is needed in order to speak said language.

Location Lookup

Every point in this feature improves the Super Computer's chances (x-in-6) of being able to locate a particular person at the current moment. Cycling through related camera feeds from the past takes a few moments, though, so be patient. An Overlay Attempt generates a visual trail to their location, allowing them to be followed if on the move.

Password Database

For each point placed in this feature, there's an X-in-6 chance the Super Computer can estimate the password for a given system. 

Signal Detection

Through better aligning with your biological neural network residual frequency and...uh...aura, the Super Computer is able to detect potential radio signals to decode and playback, given an Overlay Attempt. 

Skill Databases

Every point placed in this feature gains you access to an additional Skill. Well, not you, but the Super Computer. But, you can ask questions of it as you would normal Skill you had OR with an Overlay Attempt, you can physically use the skill as if you knew it yourself by following the training dummy only you can see.

Visual Augment

For each point put in this feature, the Super Computer is able to analyze an additional light frequency and display it over your vision with an Overlay Attempt. Frequencies include: Magnetic, infrared, x-ray, ultraviolet, radiation, light-to-dark, and dark-to-light. Only one may be accessed at a time and each change requires a new roll.

Additionals

Evil Leaper

Evil assholes from your future's future, trying to stop you from doing something you'll probably do in the future. Real jackasses. Because both of you exist within the holographic quantum display interface relay thing, you're able to see past the aura they wear to their real self underneath. I'm saying that you'll be able to actually be able to see them, and them you, rather than each seeing the person replaced. So you'll know 'em when you see 'em.

The Final Leap.

Finally got a decent schedule you can commit to and looking to get back to a normal template? Go on, then, cash out and send your Leaper on one final leap (they never make it home). Afterwards, take the number of Update Points you have, multiply them by 100, then us that much in Cred when making a new character.

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It just occurred to me that all this time I've assumed "Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home" meant he was still out there, continuing to leap and help people. It could just as easily be that, without Al's help, he screwed up the very next leap on his own and is dead, somewhere back there in the past. Like all those forgotten Cosmonauts.

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