[McCrapShot]

So this may have been answered somewhere, but I have not been able to find it. Can you take a piece of bioware that exceeds 1 essence with Prototype Transhuman but just pay for the extra cost out of your standard 6 essence. For instance, could I purchase Synaptic booster 3 which cost 1.5 essence and then be left with 5.5 essence remaining? Or would I be left with 4.5 essence, and I would still need to find 1 essence or less worth of bioware for my Prototype Transhuman quality?

I realize that this would be expensive and also require the Restricted Gear quality, but I'm trying to understand how this works.

[Kiirnodel]

It has to all be on one "type" of essence, you can't split it. Essentially that goes from the line that it is a natural part of you. You can't have some of it be natural, and the rest be unnatural.

It also means that if you decide later that you want to "upgrade" it, you don't have anything to take out. So, for example, if you did go with Synaptic Boosters 2 as your Transhuman free bioware. If you decided to get an upgrade and implant Synaptic Boosters 3 it would cost the full 1.5 essence, because the actual bioware replacement would no longer be considered natural.

[McCrapShot]

Ok, that makes sense, even if it is a tad disappointing.

[Senko]

Ok, that makes sense, even if it is a tad disappointing.

II agree with that, it also raises the interesting question of why some bioware is inherently unnatural its impossible to create a transhuman with it.

"Yeah this is just a little pet project of mine I grabbed some SINless guy off the streets and turned him into an anthrpomorphic foxgirl (Cats eyes 0.1, Tail 0.25, Claws 0.1, Fangs 0.1, Sex Change 0, Metatype Modification Severe 0.25, Sensative Skin 0. Total: 0.."

Well ok it has to be at birth without GM changing things still turning an unborn human boy into an anthropomorphic foxgirl only costs 0.8 of the free essence leaving you with 0.2 to make other changes to her. Only slightly more than a rating 1 adrenal pump or synaptic booster which you can't afford to get a rating 2 of and geneware doesn't apply at all.

Hmmm I've now a vague for a plot hook, brilliant scientist trying to create prototype transhumans out of grown adults (island of Dr Moreau) grabs "SINless" street kid and experiements on them because they are bioware compatible. Said street kid is actually the runway son of a powerful CORP member who hires  the runners to get them back. Of course when/if the runners finally find him/them he's now an elk/fox/rabbit/X anthropomorph naturally and possibly not even a he. The other problem being that this is now the subjects natural state and turning them back without the DR's (preferably destroyed equipment although black trenchcoat types may have gotten it intact) is going to involve essence loss. Failing to turn them back is going to involve explaining to the corp member that his son really is this X and then of course you have whoever was financing the Dr and any other companies who  may find out what he succeded in doing wanting those records. Sure the Dr was a crackpot trying to create a harem of anthropomorphic animal girls but revise the process somewhat and you can bioware supersoldiers who are not suffering any essence loss allowing even further modifcations to them later.

[Kiirnodel]

I was a little surprised that Prototype Transhuman doesn't allow geneware. Although geneware does also have the added sidebar rule that any geneware modification could be turned into a "natural ability" except that the karma cost to turn it into a quality is prohibitively expensive.

As far as the fact that there is just some bioware that can't be applied through the Transhuman quality, I would chalk that up to the limits of technology. There's just only so much that can be applied to the unborn child that will actually work correctly.

[Reaver]

I was a little surprised that Prototype Transhuman doesn't allow geneware. Although geneware does also have the added sidebar rule that any geneware modification could be turned into a "natural ability" except that the karma cost to turn it into a quality is prohibitively expensive.

As far as the fact that there is just some bioware that can't be applied through the Transhuman quality, I would chalk that up to the limits of technology. There's just only so much that can be applied to the unborn child that will actually work correctly.

Well, that, and the fact that it is presumed you are playing  an adult (18+) so the tech has to be relatively old as well...  Else, how did it end up in the embryo?

[Ghost Rigger]

I was a little surprised that Prototype Transhuman doesn't allow geneware. Although geneware does also have the added sidebar rule that any geneware modification could be turned into a "natural ability" except that the karma cost to turn it into a quality is prohibitively expensive.

As far as the fact that there is just some bioware that can't be applied through the Transhuman quality, I would chalk that up to the limits of technology. There's just only so much that can be applied to the unborn child that will actually work correctly.

Well, that, and the fact that it is presumed you are playing  an adult (18+) so the tech has to be relatively old as well...  Else, how did it end up in the embryo?

Well, someone had to be the beta tester/alpha tester/lab rat/guinea pig for geneware. Maybe it was you.

[Reaver]

True.

But you are still talking about tech that is 18+ years  old and not last year's bleeding edge model.

[Ghost Rigger]

There's probably some negative qualities for that.

[Novocrane]

But you are still talking about tech that is 18+ years  old and not last year's bleeding edge model.

Not that anyone actually is cutting themselves on the late 2070s bleeding edge by reading augmentations with an availability rating. (for the most part, at least .. even Adapsin is early 2070s black market, but who knows how long it was cooking in secret before that)

For real bleeding edge we'd need Chrome Flesh's "Murky Future" section to have stats.

[Senko]

There's also the fact that a lot of the geneware characters can select is (a) I believe a throwback to earlier tech before nanoware came in then imploded spectacularly and (b) comes in alpha, beta and delta variants so you'd think the alpha at least could be an early model from 18 years ago. Of course then it'd be a bleeding edge advanced prototype and unlikely to be used in transhuman experiements but you never now with some companies. On top of which you have the old . . .

"I am not a mad scientist, let me experiment on these women and their unborn children for the good of humanity.".
"oh this is, hey who are . . ." Bang, Bang,  Bang
"Ok grab what . . . crap there's a heavy strike team on exercises nearby that just got redirected just burn the lab if we can't take it we can at least deny Shiawase this stuff." BWOOOOM.
"So the lab is gone and Dr Fondleburger is dead, can we recreate it? 20 years at least our other scientists refered to it as alien calculations from another dimension. I see . . . ok get them started under better security. As for the existing batch of test subjects, no, no don't kill them just leave them with their parents and observe them for long term defects there's no point in conducting any vivisections when the new tech would have a different methodology. On second thoughts arrange an accident for 5 of them and pull the kids apart to see if there's anything in their DNA we can salvage."

[Reaver]

SR wise, Genetech is actually fairly new, and seen the most growth over the years. Before SR4, there wasn't too much in the way of useful genetech out there, except for Leonization...

Most of the Bioware has been around since 3e or even 2e, it was just way more costly then... so when you look at it, most bioware you could get with the Transhuman quality no problem, with only a few "new" outliners.
Most Genetech you couldn't get.. (But I don't think the Quality cover Genetech.. just Bioware... AFAIK).
 

[Novocrane]

I still think it's incorrect to judge what would have been available internally by what was available on the black market. For there to be no delay at all would be unusual. Especially so when we're talking about early work in the field, where any given facility's tech might be the only instance of its kind in the country; difficult to quietly remove as part of a shadowrun, and even more so to find another facility and staff to recreate the gene mods if the data was stolen.

Consider CCU cyborgs for a comparison. The information presented in 4e Augmentation dates back to when MCT began internal deployment of Otomo drones.

Keep in mind; if MCT was this far along when the Otomo started showing up, other corps are probably beyond prototypes by now.

When did that happen?

MCT began internally deploying their anthropomorphic Otomo drones back in ’65

As you're reading this in the 2070s, that's a significant amount of lag on information leakage and black market availability - one I think is closer to the norm than we might otherwise imagine on the idea of runners liberating top secret corporate tech every other Tuesday.