| From: | shadowrn@*********.com (Hahns Shin) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Titanium Bone Lacing |
| Date: | Wed Dec 5 23:45:02 2001 |
>require more bloodflow or anything...I can agree with the standpoint of
>a lot more intrusive surgery but not the blood thing. You're coating
>the bones, the titanium isn't living nor does it need blood to remain
>intact, it's just there to strengthen the bones
The essence cost is not in perfusing the non-living titanium with blood (in
fact, one would think that with most cyberimplants, there would actually be
LESS to perfuse). Bone is continually remodeling, an equilibrium between
osteoblasts that form bone and osteoclasts that eat away at bone. This
activity requires perfusion and innervation, as well as specialized immune
cells (this is in layman's terms... it is hard to explain it in some manner
that is less than a chapter out of med text). Lining the bones with a
foreign material will most certainly throw this balance out of whack and
will require an incredible amount of immune supression and hormone therapy.
Otherwise, you'll have osteoporosis and bone necrosis not to mention the
loss of calcium homeostasis (hyper/hypocalcemia will kill you faster than
degenerating bones) and hematopoesis (your bones are almost essential for
creating your red and white blood cells). Really, it is MUCH easier to
replace all the joints of the limbs (in other words, cyberlimb implants)
than to keep a metal/plastic/ceramic framework around living bone, a
framework that your body will readily reject or form pathologic changes
around. Plastic bone lacing is probably Dacron or a similar non-allergenic
compound. Aluminium, with polymer coating, has been used for years in hip
joint replacements, but would be more difficult to use in a similar fashion
for bone lacing. Titanium, on the other hand, is probably not viable and if
it is, only experimental. In fact, I can't see how the surgery can be done
without the help of nanites, implanting the material on the framework of the
bone, and continually repairing the "exoskeleton", so to speak. It's a
"sci-fi" concept that would be difficult to resolve in real life, much like
the datajack (we're working on it). In gaming terms, although I think my
explanation works marvelously for bone lacing, I personally think the
exorbitant essence cost was for game balance. The fact that essence exists
in the first place is game balance. As for dermal plating/sheathing, well,
the skin is one of the most highly perfused (barring the lungs, brain, and
certain metastatic tumors, of course) organ in the body, as well as one of
the most highly innervated (the sense of touch, after all, encompasses the
entire body, and this does not take into account other "senses" we can't
quantify, like proprioception).
As far as Deadly damage, I believe that D damage is how much a character has
to take before he/she is effectively out of the fight, whether groaning
incoherently after taking a Killing Hands blow to the gut or syncope after
severe internal hemorrhage. I also believe that low-caliber weapons
(especially in the SR sense) are able to deliver a D wound under the right
conditions... that's 6 full successes over whatever the target rolls for
resistance. It's very difficult to achieve without a target number of 2 or 3
and a skill and pool of at least 8 combined, so I don't think the combat
system is necessarily "low-damage" weapon friendly. When a character is in
critical condition, however, that's when they start taking Overdamage until
they finally go to that Meet in the sky. This is the state of dying, not
necessarily a D wound. Again, the combat system is an abstraction to take
into account the character's training, the conditions of working, the
deadliness of weapons in 2050-2060, etc... it's not a direct "declaration to
action" system; it is a system designed to resolve combat in a simple, not
necessarily realistic manner (and I do think the SR combat system is
incredibly simple, but then I'm blessed with players who quote target
numbers like famous movie lines).
BTW, in case you don't know, I'm a second year medical student with a bent
toward implant surgery and neurology, so I HOPE I know what I'm talking
about (the first rule of med school: I don't know jack!).
Hahns Shin, MS II
Budding cybersurgeon
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