AUGMENTATION OVERVIEW

SYSTEM

All augmentations have a system entry indicating the part of the body into which it must be installed. You can’t have more than one augmentation on the same part of your body. In some cases, such as with augmentations installed in limbs, you can install an augmentation into a single general type of body part, such as any single one of your feet or hands.

In these cases, the augmentation lists the acceptable body parts into which the augmentation can be installed. You can install a single augmentation on each limb of which you have multiples. For example, if you’re a kasatha, you could install a separate augmentation on each of your four hands, as long as each of those augmentations requires only a single hand.

If an augmentation requires multiple limbs for installation— such as climbing suckers, which require all feet, or a speed suspension, which requires all legs—the augmentation’s systems entry indicates that requirement. The augmentation’s description will also indicate whether a limb-based upgrade requires the replacement of a limb or the augmentation of an existing limb. In the case of augmentations that specifically replace a lost limb, such as a polyhand or a prosthetic limb, you cannot attach such an augmentation to an existing limb, due to the way these upgrades are manufactured.

COMMON SYSTEMS

IMPLANTATION

Getting an augmentation installed requires the services of a professional cybernetic surgeon or someone with ranks in Medicine equal to the level of the augmentation. Installation requires a DC 10 + item level Medicine check.  A Medicine skill check failure requires the recipient of the augmentation to make a DC 10 + item level CHA save or suffer 1 level of cyber psychosis. A session with a cybernetic surgeon usually takes 1 hour per level of the augmentation. The price of such implantation procedures is included in the prices listed for each augmentation.

REMOVING AUGMENTATIONS

Augmentations are often removed to make way for new ones in the same body system, typically during surgery. New biotech replaces and kills off the old augmentation, which your body then purges naturally. Since augmentations are coded to individuals, they cannot be resold or implanted in someone else. The cost of a new augmentation covers both removal and installation.

ACTIVATION

Most augmentations work continuously. Those requiring some degree of control are plugged into your nervous system, and you can turn them on or off as a standard action unless otherwise noted. For example, you could activate or deactivate cybernetics in your eyes to observe different visual phenomena.

CYBERNETICS

Cybernetic augmentations use machines and circuitry integrated with the flesh and bone of the recipient. In most cases, cybernetics must be installed into the body by a trained surgeon—a process that takes 1 hour per level of the augmentation and the price of which is covered in the price of the cybernetic. Cybernetics are more than just machine implants: they are complex melding of technology and the living host’s own organs. This allows them to be hardened against assaults that affect other technologies in ways robots and other entirely technological creatures can’t. Cybernetics are not subject to any effect or attack that targets technology unless it specifies that it affects cybernetics.

Under normal conditions cybernetic augmentations cannot be reused or implanted into anyone other than the original owner.  The biological mechanical system which stabilized cybernetic augmentation relies on matching synthetic DNA to the recipient’s actual DNA to avoid augmentation rejection or other side effects like cyber psychosis.  All cybernetic augmentations bought at book value are safe and stable.  The same technology that made cybernetic augmentation safe also prevents it from being salvaged or reused. 

In reality, there are class abilities, feats, technologies, and mutations which allow certain individuals and races to take advantage of salvaged cybernetic augmentations.  Previously used augmentations sell on the black market for  20% of their book value and can be purchased for 80% of their book value.  There are two important things to remember when augmenting with second hand cybernetics.  First, there is always a chance of gaining cyber psychosis with second hand parts no matter what ability, feat, or technology allows you to use them.  Second, you are dealing with the black market and anyone interested in purchasing second hand cybernetics is likely carrying a treasure trove of augmentations ripe for harvest and sale in that very market.  For additional information on the cyber psychosis see the “Cybernetics Overview” section of the Gravity Age: Cybernetics Emporium.