Actually, it's B - RAW never tells us that cyber armor is a bonus.

I think it's somewhere in this Q&A actually. Cyberware armor works just like a Troll's natural armor point. It adds in damage resistance dice.

-Frank

Sub 6 essence means no more magic. If you tweak the rules to say an initiated mage still retains some magic as the essence drops below zero you have to deal with binding.

If the novels are cannon you have the references from the Dragon Heart Trilogy. I won't spoil some of the best Shadowrun dime novels out there but sleep well at night knowing that the atrophied forms of astral cyberzombies will not be penetrating your wards. Doors on the other hand, that's a different issue.

Sounds like it's just meant as a guideline, not hard and fast numbers to start up your own Kamikaze milking operation. I'd say it's pretty clear in that respect.

I didn't think it was the main point, it's a platform for other stuff that happens to have a skinlink as well. Basically just means you can talk with your Altskin via skinlink rather than using a wireless connection. It's like one of those neat bonuses that you used to get from reading the runner text in the old catalogs.

Transducers are messy. Dealing with all the crap of getting a voice print and such is messy. Technology is made to eliminate things that are messy. Just figure that when you got the thing surgically implanted into your head by tiny little machines a doctor ran an ultrasound scanner over your neck and created a digital representation of the arrangement of cords that was then fed into a computer that spit out a voice profile for you. You can take that description and add as many details as you want. Or remove details until it's "magic". Either way it works as stated, no one would even think about transducers if they didn't play SR3, so it's safe to say it all just works. Welcome to the future.

I think burnout had lost all his magic before he became a cyberzombie though. And when the spirit was in him he could cast a spell using it's magic.

Would he have been the equivalent of a cyberzombie channeling a spirit?

I'd assume that a high level initiate would still be able to cast spells as long as their magic was above zero. That would be an insane amount of karma though. you would have had to initiated to at least 13 grades and then raised you magic an equivalent amount.

Yeah. So if you had a grade, it would drop to one and in any case you couldn't get any more grades. You're just going to have a Magic of 1 and it's never going to do anything funky after that.

-Frank

What the heck is the point then? I didn't think of making a kamazkie milking operation actually, I was more thinking you could make an eversor assassin from WH40k.

However, if you just take it as a "automatically dumps a dose once it can make a dose and there is no dose in the system" it doesn't really make any sense at all. You're going to wake up at 3am with a jazz hit.

So if it doesn;t just constantly tank you up, what does it do?

What does it do with something like long haul?

Edit: ohoh, are you saying that it's not actually a rule, it's a 'GM use fiat here' moment? If so, then okay fair enough. I'd like a rule though

All the drugs in the book have fairly lethal side effects don't they, except psyche?

Intresting!

You could be on Bliss, Psyche, or Zen continuously without anything really horrible happening to you. Last I checked, Arsenal was going to have more drugs and some of them could be taken continuously without death.

Originally Augmentation was going to come out after Arsenal, so that option made more sense (as is it's basically a "mage aid" for Hermetics).

-Frank

Actually, the rules are quite explicit about "crash effects" only occurring when the drug wears off. Since the Internal Release Measured Dose keeps your amount of the drug in your system constant, it never wears off. It is mechanically equivalent to a single dose that never wears off. Since it never wears off, there are no crash effects.

So then, if the zombie was once a mage or an adept, are they still? Does a cyberzoombie who has the mage quality retain it, and if so, can he cast spells, summon spirits, enchant, or do any of that funky stuff with his magic of 1?

Can a cyberzombie who was once an adept keep one point's worth of powers? Can they still bind weapon foci?

Because the rule specifically says

as opposed to reduced to zero, burning you out, and and then becoming one.

If I'm right, and they retain their powers, my origional question still stands. Can a cyberzombie mage astrally project?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

No, they are trapped in their bodies by the magics involved.

I believe they can still use Astral perception though since that's just looking into the Astral rather than going there. IIRC, cyber zombies get to do that anyways.

Indeed, Cyberzombies are dual natured and are always astrally peceiving. And they don't even take penalties for doing it.

-Frank

If you thought it was a reference to Earthdawn Dragons, then yes.

There are of course two established cocoon systems which are in "no way" related.

-Frank

Why would you think that we wouldn't want to know just as much about this as you?

Honestly I can't say. Not in that "I won't say" - I literally can't. The stuff in Augmentation was left intentionally open so that different campaigns could run with it in different directions. I personally have no plans to "officially" close that plotline, intending instead to leave it as a potential campaign hook/ easter egg for people to answer (or not) in their home games.

Which means that if there's ever an official answer it won't be written by me. Hence, I can't say. But I will say that either the "great humans" theory or the other theory are justifiable from the standpoint of certain things said in Cybertechnology - hence the inclusion.

One last paranoid option I leave you with: are you sure that there is actually any difference between the "two"? For that matter, I can think of another group that uses cocoons: the Invae. Are you certain that there are "three" kinds of astral cocoons and not two? Or one?

-Frank

hooray the Invae. Three, one, doesn't bother me.

p. 335 of SR4 states that: "Cyberlimbs cannot hold any bioware, nor any cyberimplants that take up Essence rather than Capacity."

So, that seems to be the way they kept it as there is nothing in Augmentation that changes it.

Now the thing that Augmentation does that I don't know if it's in 3rd edition, is it allows you to have Customized Cyberlimbs. So you can have the Body Attribute as high as your Augmented Maximum. That coupled with Armor will, I'm sure, be comparable to Bone Lacing and Dermal Plating.

If you don't think so, then there's always making your own House Rules as the designers intended things to be.

Thanks for that Frank, nice to know I can do what I want. Great writing BTW. Do you have any thoughts on the Ordo Maximus/NEOnet split (also in in the Cybermancy bit)? It has some bearing on my campaign, I'm working on the idea that Celedyr found the Ordo's "power source" distasteful, but if there are more reasons I'd love some hints.

Celedyr got more specific and inclusive procedural updates than Dr. Ellis ever did. And recall, he authorized every experiement that Dr. Ellis complained about. Eyes open and everything. So when Celedyr had the Ordo Maximus reduced, it probably wasn't because he felt badly about the things they had done - he ordered them to do it in the first place. More likely it was because Celedyr no longer thought that he had anything more to gain from their continued research, and did feel that their continued activities were a threat - both to public relations and to his position as Sith Lord.

Consider the fact that Aztechnology went through a very similar research program.

Step 1: Get some really unsavory magicians to do unethical magical research and make a lot of progress.
Step 2: Have the dragon on the board of directors send in a bunch of runners to eliminate everyone who knows anything except the guys at the top.
Step 3: Turn sanitized versions of all the research over to a new more by-the-book crew.
Step 4: Publically distance yourself from the first group and actively interfere with anyone else who tries to replicate your methods.
Step 5: Build the Dragonheart and Live Forever.

How closely is Celedyr following the Dunkelzahn script? Well, he's read that script, but beyond that I can't say. And again, it's not that I won't say - I can't say.

-Frank

I've always toyed with the idea that the Ordo's "source" , both of power, and information, was a dragon. Something tasty for them to snack on, a wonderful source of magical knowledge, and also great for working blood magic.

Seeing that Celedyr already happily uses the young Ehliohann suggests he has no problem with using dragons as well as metahumans. However I can see other dragons having a much bigger problem with going along with another dragon being held by vamps then being manipulated. Hence a good reason for him to clean house a bit once he has what he wants. Just my little pet theory.

I was hoping to see some sort of technomancer-friendly(er) ware in Augmentation, seeing as, at least by appearances, Ehliohann was hit in the crash, and could have become one, and he's in Neonet/ Tranysys' hands/claws. Maybe Unwired will have something on him though. *shrug*

Actually, that's a pretty shitty way to spend eternity.

I think we're not talking "live forever", I think we're talking

-Frank

"Indeed!" - David LoPan

I just gotta throw in a "I totally get that reference and I love that movie!" It has one of my favorite lines: "This potion makes you do things others can not do, see things others can not see." "Real things, Egg?"

The point remains... he was immortal to begin with.

This was asked by Kyrn back on July 28th. Just thought I'd bring it back up because it didn't get an answer (at least not that I saw).