Augments

[omegar]

So here is a question. Is it obvious if someone has had an Augment?

i would assume that eyes could be noticied, as would replacement limbs. However what about a skill augment, would that be noticable?

Also would people have less respect in an OTU setting if you had an augment? I mean in general, on some worlds there might be a local hate group.

Just wondering.

 

[BP]

If its a visible augment - yep. Skills only when used, and even then only if their use appeared over the top (so to speak).

As to respect - I think the question would be more of wether the augmentation was accepted - i.e. causes undo attention or lack of augmentation causes such. This is loosely addressed in the Cultural Differences table [Core pg 177]. Extremes would make certain augmentations illegal (especially in say gambling establishments) or even required.

There is also mention of biological enhancments being legally taboo in certain environs, but I can't remember where.

 

[GypsyComet]

So here is a question. Is it obvious if someone has had an Augment?

i would assume that eyes could be noticied, as would replacement limbs. However what about a skill augment, would that be noticable?

Also would people have less respect in an OTU setting if you had an augment? I mean in general, on some worlds there might be a local hate group.

Just wondering.

Just how obvious an augment or replacement limb is will be TL dependent. Some augments are going to be more obvious than others.

The Imperium's leading TL is high enough that limb regrowth is possible and, aside from the aging that our skin is subject to, indistinguishable from the original. As such, persistent cybernetics are going to be limited to augments and those rare cases of genetic incompatibility with regrowth techniques (as well as the odd anti-Luddite).

The OTU (caveat: this is a prior edition thing) Imperium has a bias against cybernetics that goes back to a previous Emperor's interpretation of "equal rights for intelligent life"; specifically, that robots might be intelligent, but they weren't "life". As such, the repugnance that goes with voluntarily replacing your living flesh with unliving metal and plastic has taken on a life of its own. It isn't quite as universal within the Imperium as the reaction to Psionics, however, and one of the cultural regions of the Imperium was posited by fans (back in the MT/HIWG days) as being quite permissive regarding obvious cybernetics. I want to say this was the Lancia region in Gushemege Sector, but that fanzine is buried somewhere.

From very early, the idea has existed in Traveller that obvious cybernetics are socially crippling. NPCs in adventures and Amber Zones were noteworthy if they sported such.

In MT articles on medical science, it was noted that the military services of the Imperium varied on their use of medical cybernetics, with the Navy (and thus Marines) more likely to regrow a missing limb for a soldier during active service, while the Army was more likely to stick an artificial limb on you and get you back out there with a promise to take care of the limb later. You can certainly interpret the Medical Costs table in MGT to include such considerations if you like, but that's mostly color.

 

[AndrewW]

There is also mention of biological enhancments being legally taboo in certain environs, but I can't remember where.

Well, The Aslan of the Hierate frown upon such stuff. Though the Glorious Empire are more tolerant of such stuff.

 

[BP]

Just how obvious an augment or replacement limb is will be TL dependent. Some augments are going to be more obvious than others.

The Imperium's leading TL is high enough that limb regrowth is possible and, aside from the aging that our skin is subject to, indistinguishable from the original. ...

Nice elaboration...

Of course, even today’s prosthetics can go unobserved when an experienced user wears them (and suitable clothing). This may only apply in the general sense - at an airport checkpoint, well it’s going to be pretty obvious if the prosthetic is metal. Likewise, a synthetic prosthesis would not likely be detected.

In Traveller, as GypsyComet pointed out - at high tech the augment is likely to be biogenetic and undetectable under normal scrutiny.

For regions with cultural taboos, one would assume more exacting medical scans at checkpoints especially public and governmental locations that may have a chance of specifically detecting (and possibly erroneously detecting :twisted: ) biological as well as non-biological augments.