Author Topic: Enhanced Imaging and You  (Read 1800 times)

Maelwys

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Enhanced Imaging and You
« on: 25 July 2016, 13:51:01 »
So I've been playing around with Chargen for a variety of reasons, and came up with a question.

If you take the ProtoMech or ProtoMech (Advanced) options for the Trueborn Sibko you receive "Compulsion/Chemical Addiction (-100 XP)" and "Implant/EI Neural Implant (+200 XP)".

If you had to the back of the book, you find that on page 317, ATOW says "A character with elective implants also receives Compulsion/Medical Addiction (at -2 TP)..."

So is the Chemical addiction the same as the Medical addiction? Is it separate (Drinking fusionaires inbetween your painkiller injections)? If they're the same, does the Implant trait set it at -2 like it says to, or should you be combining them for a -3?

Up to the GM I suppose, but figured I'd ask :)

monbvol

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Re: Enhanced Imaging and You
« Reply #1 on: 25 July 2016, 14:40:58 »
I might rule it a separate addiction to represent that protomech pilots live fast and die young, even by Clan standards, and develop an somewhat nihilistic personality for it.

Maelwys

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Re: Enhanced Imaging and You
« Reply #2 on: 25 July 2016, 15:17:27 »
Yeah. I'm beginning to think they're two separate things, though still part of me wonders if Writer A wrote "Chemical addiction" in the life path thinking drugs they have to take for the implant, while Writer B wrote "Medical addiction" thinking the same thing, and they both mean the same thing.

I guess another question is if you can buy off the Medical addiction from the Implant trait during chargen.

ElectricPaladin

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Re: Enhanced Imaging and You
« Reply #3 on: 25 July 2016, 15:18:27 »
Doesn't enhanced imaging make everything look like really bad CGI?  ;)

Sir Chaos

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Re: Enhanced Imaging and You
« Reply #4 on: 25 July 2016, 17:18:03 »
I´d ignore the "Chemical", and take that particular compulsion as being addicted to integration into the ProtoMech - that´s said to happen to ProtoMech pilots, after all.
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HABeas2

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Re: Enhanced Imaging and You
« Reply #5 on: 25 July 2016, 19:44:36 »
Sort of yes, and sort of no.

There were a number of places where I--as the primary writer--likely made a change in one chapter, only to forget to make the change elsewhere, and the review team missed it (or thought it was intentional). This looks like one of them.

Some explanation:

Firstly, where EI Neural Implants, for most Clan Warriors, is an elective modification, and one that almost always comes after training is completed (before then would be wasteful; EI is expensive, after all, and useless on warriors who wash out). As such, it results in a necessary addition to the pain meds, which is basically a serious Compulsion (-2 TP) applied post-character creation.

ProtoMech pilots, meanwhile, have ZERO alternatives; they get the implants no matter what, because they cannot prove their capability with a Proto without having already been embedded with the control system. It's not an elective implant, but a MANDATORY one. The chemical addition IS supposed to be the same pain meds, but their Aerospace physiology and specialized training have reduced its effects to a "minor" Compulsion, which is then automatically applied in the character creation process, bypassing the elective implants equipment rule.

Because this wasn't spelled out completely, however, I can see this being a GM's call to make, with some interesting options if he opts to apply both:

* Apply the -2 Compulsion ON TOP OF the -100 XP Compulsion (resulting in a -3 TP Compulsion, which effectively puts the addiction to the meds fully into the "madness" range).

* Apply the -2 Compulsion as a different addiction that has resulted from the warrior coming up with something else to deal with the pain he gets because the meds represented by the -100 XP Compulsion didn't cover enough.

OR

* Treat the -2 Compulsion and the -100 XP Compulsion as one and the same during character creation, in which case, the ProtoMech's player must still apply additional negative XP to get said compulsion to the Maximum TP level of -2, a factor that affects how the player finalizes his character design.

-

Maelwys

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Re: Enhanced Imaging and You
« Reply #6 on: 26 July 2016, 12:08:38 »
Thanks for the input! Lots of interesting options, though I think in this case I'll keep the chemical addiction at -100, simply because that matches up with the rest of the aerospace phenotype bonuses that they have when it comes to EI.

Atleast this way the character winds up with only 5 Compulsions instead of 6 :)