P. 400, SR5 Core rule book:
"Regeneration is incompatible with augmentations. Critters with Regeneration cannot receive augmentations; surgical incisions close too quickly to perform the implantation. Critters with augmentations who gain this power will reject their augmentations as the power repairs the existing genetic template."
P. 134, Run Faster
"Infected characters can generally accept augmentations, though of course they need to be aware of their balance of Magic and Essence, as well as Magic loss from any Essence loss. Infected with the Regeneration quality need high-quality augmentations to keep their body from pretty much spitting the augmentation out, meaning they can only accept deltaware augmentations."
P. 135, Run Faster
"Note that any Infected with the Regeneration power must deal with the restrictions listed with that power (see p. 400, SR5)."
A limitation of Regeneration is that they cannot receive augmentations, but p. 134 directly contradicts that. So which is it? In my game I rule that Infected with Regeneration can get deltaware-quality cyber/bioware, considering those are designed to meld with the recipient as much as possible. I don't think it's a carryover from SR4, since SR4: Runners Companion words it less verbosely.
P. 77-78, SR4 Runners Companion
"Infected with the Regeneration power may only accept deltaware implants."
If it were a careless copy/paste, additional text wouldn't have been added.
It was not a careless copy/paste, especially since I didn't copy and paste any of that when I was writing it. It was, however, a tacit admission than I had to reverse a position I'd taken, and even then it involved me being on the receiving end of some arm-twisting.
When I wrote "Sleeping With the Enemy" in
Storm Front, I'd reached a point where I knew that Infected PCs were here to stay, but I was tired of the sparkling I was seeing in the rules for the aforementioned Infected PCs, and which I had seen discussed online. The biggest problem I had there was the notion of the Infected with Regeneration being able to take cyber and bio modifications, which flew in the face of (at the time the rules were written) about a decade and a half of canon.
So in
Storm Front, I thought I'd fix that and make Regeneration and augmentations incompatible, as they had been for many years before that. By then, I had gotten the chance to write critters and critter power for
Shadowrun Fifth Edition, so I had the chance to codify that.
Victory, it seemed, was mine. But wait, there's more....
My co-conspirator in "Into the Night" in
Run Faster, and one of my better friends in the gaming/writing community, is Kevin Czarnecki. He has no problem with Infected PCs, and has the novel to prove it (it's called
Crimson, if you've not read it yet, and it's an amazing read...and I'm not just saying that because Kevin's my friend, either). He was willing to follow my lead on the rules; even if he didn't entirely agree with my harsh stand on Infected PCs.
I was reminded by my developer, though, that there's this thing called "backwards compatibility" that I had somewhat completely abandoned when I didn't make it possible for Infected PCs to have delta-grade augmentations. In fact, my initial draft may have reiterated the "No augmentation" policy espoused in the SR5 core rulebook (which might need to be getting some errata in light of the
Run Faster decision; we'll see how that shakes out), but I don't remember off the top of my head.
I do know I fought the decision, but ultimately it wasn't my call and I capitulated. On a certain level, I know it was the right call, but in spite of that, I still think I was right.
Bottom line: Infected PCs deal with Regeneration with the modifications shown in
Run Faster. There is, in my eyes, a certain amount of conflict with the wording of the power that needs to see some errata at some point, but it's not, ultimately, a huge deal. Infected PCs in SR5 can, like their counterparts in SR4, get delta-grade cyber.
But I don't have to like it.
