Couple more questions: augment rehab and fixing Old Ship defects

[ElcidBarret]

Hello again.

I had a couple of questions come up in today's game that I haven't quite decided how to handle...

The first is one that stems from me: how long, and how hard, should the rehab after augment surgery be? One of my players is a bit aug-mad, and plans to, when he can afford it, replace limbs, eyes, organs, etc, but it seems a bit... unrealistic to me to just let him pay the basic cost, spend a day in the hospital and then walk away. I figure medical slow would cover the actual healing/bonding process, but learning to use a new arm or eyes can't be easy. My initial thought was something like requiring Endurance checks for a week or more, depending on the complexity of the upgrade, to ensure that everything keeps functioning as it should.

The other question comes from my players, and I'm on the fence. They have a very Old Ship, with penalties to Pilot, Sensors and Repair checks. Naturally, they'd like to fix this, but simply letting them pay the normal repair costs seems like letting them get off really easy, given how many bonus Ship Shares they got out of it (I missed the 10 max rule at the time). As they're paying to replace/upgrade both the Sensors and M-Drive, I'm contemplating letting that remove the penalty, but the Repair one is harder. My initial thought to require them to spend extra on their monthly maintenance for a long stretch of months to basically work all the kinks out.

Anyways, I'd love to know if anyone has encountered similar issues or any opinions on my early ideas.


Cheers.

 

[cryingblackoil]

The first, I would make finding somewhere that would even do them part of an adventure. Even inquiring about unnecessary augments might be cause for getting locked up on some planets, like going up to someone and asking where you can get an eight-ball.

The second, I might require them to replace the bridge as well for the piloting. I might have them pay a large overhaul fee to work out the myriad parts that have been jury-rigged, patched, or fixed with substandard parts for the repair. Perhaps the amount that they saved with ship shares, maybe less, maybe even more depending on how much disposable income they have and how much I didn't want to lose that particular story hook. And of course, like an old fixer-upper car there is no guarantee they got everything... :devil:

 

[shield]

Yes, bill them for the costs of the new bits + charges for the repair crews etc. and then a rec-ertification by local / imperial authorities that the ship is fit to fly.

Don't forget they can't live on the shop whilst the work in underway + berthing fees + no income when the ship is in the yard.

The old TCS had minor refits costing 1.1 times cost of new system and taking 1/10th of the ship build time. Major refits (spinal mounts, drivers, power plant etc) cost 1.5 times cost of new equipment and tool 1/4 of the original ship build time.

All that will gobble up money.

Don't forget that repair crews crawling all over the ship will find all those illegal modifications, smugglers holds etc. Just watch the PCs try and explain a smugglers hold with a body / WMD / etc which they had no knowledge about. especially true for an old ship they got 2nd hand.

 

[shield]

As for the augments I would say several wks all the bits of surgery (note they may not do another until you have fully healed from the first), then actual recovery - say min 10 days even at high TLs, and then you have to get used to the new limbs etc and the manufacturers have to tweak the items to fit the new wearer - say months for that in a specialist facility (can anyone say big Cr)

 

[Nightwind1]

I don't have RikkiTikkiTrav, but does it have rules for healing combat damage? If so, it would probably be the same rules for augmentation. The body would probably heal at the same rate for any kind of "healing", be it from damage or surgery.

 

[ElcidBarret]

The first, I would make finding somewhere that would even do them part of an adventure. Even inquiring about unnecessary augments might be cause for getting locked up on some planets, like going up to someone and asking where you can get an eight-ball.

I have a planet designed that is, ahem, "inspired" by the Warhammer 40k Adeptus Mechanicus technophilia, so they know where to go to get augs, but now I'm thinking they might have to prove themselves worthy of all those "holy" (and very mil-spec) replacement parts... :devil:

Ten days seems like a decent rehab time if they spend it in and around the hospital, forking over cash for the adjustments and making END checks to ensure the implants "take".



I hadn't even thought of Imperial re-certification... That might actually be a decent thing to spring on them. "Unidentified freighter, your performance profile does not match registered specs. Please proceed to Highport for inspection."

I like the suggestions on costs. One my most persistent concerns so far is just how fast the PCs can make money, even through perfectly legitimate trading. Hitting them with stuff that costs both time and money (and incidentally makes them a sitting target) should help alleviate that... Plus any potential situations that might arise from various repair crews crawling all over the ship...



Thinking of all this is kind of funny when contrasting it to being a D&D/Pathfinder DM. There, it's all about guiding the players and planning out a story. With Traveller, or at least my game, it's more about seeing what they do and then screwing with them.

 

[shield]

They have been paying taxes on all that money haven't they?

Don forget costs of imperial inspections, annual maint of ships, insurance, medical costs, replacement parts, law suits for all that accidental property damage travellers seem to like so much.

Given travellers seem to get involved in routine fights, their insurance covers the first set of ship repair / lost cargo / medical treatment, but the 2nd fight with pirates in a month and the premiums go up. Third fight and they can't get insurance and have to pay for everything themselves.

As for their other crimes don't forget victims can sue in civil courts, appeal to imperial authorities, hire bounty hunters and assassins.

Could be fun if they are stuck on a world for several month whilst their ship is being upgraded and a bounty hunter is after them

 

[shield]

Re those augments, have you considered the fun you can have with them?

1) Obvious cost of augments, need to go back to the hospital every couple of years to get them checked / recalibrated for your age etc.
2) any damage is expensive and difficult to repair - more expense for those rich PCs
3) Anti-technology groups / worlds will not like him
4) Any augments with weapons will be subject to local weapons laws. "sorry sir, you will have to leave your arm and its weapons attachment with the security desk)
5) effects of powerful electromagnetic fields on the augments e.g the EMP pluse from that pirates nuke
6) having basic or low tech augments will make the PC look like a monster. People will recoil and remark his passing, small children will follow him in the street shouting monster and throwing rocks, he will be refused service at posh hotels etc, people in the higher social circles will not hire a freak for that discrete little job they needed doing, and most of all he will stand out. Since most travellers usually end up on the wronmg side of the law, any witness descriptions should be easy for the police "yes officer, it was a man with a computer eye and two metal legs"
6) if he has gone foe augments that don't stand out, then that limits their strength / power. No machine gun attachments to the augmented arm.

 

[McPerth]

The first is one that stems from me: how long, and how hard, should the rehab after augment surgery be? One of my players is a bit aug-mad, and plans to, when he can afford it, replace limbs, eyes, organs, etc, but it seems a bit... unrealistic to me to just let him pay the basic cost, spend a day in the hospital and then walk away. I figure medical slow would cover the actual healing/bonding process, but learning to use a new arm or eyes can't be easy. My initial thought was something like requiring Endurance checks for a week or more, depending on the complexity of the upgrade, to ensure that everything keeps functioning as it should.

Here's my suggestion:

After having its limb (or other body part) eplaced by a cyber or prosthetic one, there are some days of hospitalization (3-7 days, depending on what was replaced, I think would be enough, unless complications arise).

After that, your character is discharged form hospital with one (or more) characteristic at 1 (mostly dexterity or endurance, maybo another, depenidng on what was replaced). Then he/she begins rehabilitation, making one roll per week to regain one point in one (or in each, depending on time he could afford to rehabilitation, limb replaced, etc) characteristic. EDIT:In MT I should have this roll dependant on determination of the character (End + Int, divided by 5 to get the modifier), I'm not sure if there's something like this in MgT. END EDIT

Aside from rehabilitation, this represents the 'breacking in' of the new limb/organ and its aclimatization to it. EDIT: all this time this rehabilitation/breacking in should be supervised by someone trained in medical and cybrnetics (or at least Engineering: electronics) to make fine adjustments. The lack of this supervision should add to the difficulty of the roll.END EDIT

After several weeks, he/she will be back to his/her usual characteristic, perhaps augmented by the replaced limb/organ if it was meant to augment it.

Hope it can help.

 

[kaijupanda]

The Cybernetics book has Installation, Recovery, and Learning Time tables, which sounds like what you're looking for. Essentially, the DM determines what type of facility the work will be done at, which provides modifiers to the process and states the survival rolls needed. Manufacture time is also determined from the aforementioned table. TLs play into things, as the higher the tech, manufacture time is reduced and at 12, the book states off-the-shelf augs might be available without build times, and TLs also add +1 DM for every TL above 8 for the ordeal.

The table has things divided by the type of augment with the Installation, Recovery, and Learning Times based on a roll determining weeks (1d6+x). I do not think I am allowed to provide the table for you, but the minimum recovery time is 2 weeks (that's as low as it can go with mods) and a maximum (unmodified) of 60 weeks.