A story of gaming transhumanism in SWN

Awhile back I heard an interesting story in one of the Discords I frequent. One of the GMs ran a campaign of Stars Without Number Revised Edition using the transhumanism rules.

When making a transhumanist character, you star with up to 50 Face (reputation credits essentially) worth of a shell (augmented body that houses your consciousness). However, if you don't start as a transhuman character, you get to spend that 50 Face on gear at highly reduced prices (being in a post-scarcity society gets you that).

So as the story goes, one of the characters decided to be a normie, while everyone else was transhuman. He got to start the game with like, two high-tech hovertanks, and some other military gear to spare, while everyone else had their lab-grown enhanced bodies - someone went for superhuman, someone else for a murder robot, someone else had a flying frame, etc.. The GM wasn't amused by the hovertanks and what have you, but he let that slip.

Not a bad way to start a campaign, being a murder robot

After an adventure, everyone in the group has earned like, 20 Face each, barely enough for the lowest-end replacement body, a crude box design. However, apparently the one normie player has convinced his 4 buddies to pool their payout together and give it to him, which meant he was able to afford the top-of-the-line shell, the Terminus. Max in all physical stats, built-in armour, being able to survive in vacuum for awhile, you name it.

Understandably, the GM was a bit vexed. He didn't expect that played to game the system twice and now be ahead of everyone else that played by the spirit of the game. The GM vented a bit about the situation on Discord, and we commended that player for being clever, and there was a fair bit of story potential created now that he owes so much Face to the rest of the group. We had some good chuckle out of the situation.

Thinking about it, there was a way for the GM to play an interesting trick at the player's expense in that situation. The situation would be a bit like some concepts found in Soma:

So here is how I'd handle it, in hindsight, and if I was the GM. I'd let the player go through the process, and roleplay his transition into being transhuman. Roleplay how he'd go to get his brain digitised so it can be uploaded into his new body. Then the next scene would switch over to the other characters welcoming the new version of their friend. The twist here would be that that version wouldn't be played by the player, but the GM. They'd tell other players that this person is their friend and acts just like him, except he'd still be controlled by the GM.

Then, the GM would let the normie character walk in as himself, and cue the awkwardness as the process is explained. The process is actually copying the original person, doing a "copy and paste", not "cut and paste". The original would then perhaps be allowed to leave, or something else to indicate to the player that that character still has rights and so on. Then the GM could let the players work out what to do next, how to split possessions, who should go with the team and so on. If the normie character would leave the party, the GM could then sternly look at the player and tell them to make a new character. Then finally after a small pause laugh it off and give them their now transhuman character to play as.

With this approach, the GM would deliver on the heavy themes relating to transhumanism, let the players know that playing cheeky can have repercussions, while still not denying the players the rewards for being clever.