[Phil Masters]

Chapter 1

An always-handy overview of the topic. The stuff flagged here as superscience is exactly the sort of thing which shows how TS isn't a superscience setting...

Some other details:

* Bioroids (p.26): Note that these are a pretty mature technology in the TS setting, despite being TL10 - one instance of TS being slightly advanced in biotech.

* Neogenesis (p.27): Seems to be significantly beyond TS technology as of 2100, except perhaps for unicellular organisms. But this is doubtless exactly the sort of thing that wild-eyed researched with personal TLs of 11 are slaving over day and night...

* Vatbrain Computers (p.28): Not seen in TS. The idea does look a wee bit superscience/wacky, so I'd tend to just assume any research on this hits a dead end for our purposes. But maybe there are some specialised units in some places...

* Sponge Computers (p.29): Also not seen in TS, though I could see some people pursuing the idea - if it isn't simply too severely out-competed by good old mineral computers, which frankly seems likely to me. TL11 sponge computer implants are a magnificently creepy project for neo-cyberpunk/supervillain Evil Researchers to be trying to create; they could be the maguffin for a semi-cinematic campaign, or more likely, the conceptual focus of a paranoid-loon meme with just enough plausibility in the setting to have some durability.

Chapter 2

* Chimerization (p.38): This doesn't seem to have been developed much in the TS world - presumably, biogenesis and gengineering are just plain better, easier, and cheaper - so I'll mostly ignore references to it throughout. However, it might crop up as a plot device or as the method used to create some specialist effect. GMs who want to bring in the odd cellular chimera for some reason won't break the setting.

* Gengineered Traits (p.42-66): Many of the TL10 things here have appeared in TS; others, I'd be slightly careful about. It's up to each GM whether they believe that things like Common Sense or Intuition can be engineered at all. The TL11 stuff is likely to be dubious-experiments-only, for the most part, though there may be exceptions; the TL12 things should be right out (except maybe for highly divergent bioroid models, in some cases).

Note also that, for some of these effects, it's going to be easier to implant someone with a permanent biomod than to modify their genes in the womb - which may retard research in areas which are likely to be a bit controversial anyway.

* Cosmetic and Minor Modifications (p.44-6): Hmm - not sure if I'd allowed Chameleon. But then, this is one of those things that can probably be done better by a mechanical tool in TS, so why bother?

* Glandular Modifications (p.47-8): Early Maturation 4 is given to bioroids in TS as standard, but they're manufactured; I'll happily leave it as TL12 for modified humans.

* Pheromone Modifications (p.48): I always have difficulty believing in pheromones influencing the behaviour of unmodified humans, at least beyond the quirk level; we just aren't built that way. If they do work and are available in your TS campaign, from engineered glands or just in a handy aerosol, they should be the subject of quite a lot of paranoia.

* Immune System Modifications (p.49): Bio-Tech considers total immunity to disease to be possible only for bioroids - which is probably reasonable, really, given the variety and adaptability of disease agents. However, TS does give the advantage to some advanced parahuman designs. GMs can either assume that TS bioengineering has got that good in that one area, or tone down some converted templates, changing Immunity to Resistant (+8).

* Bioroid Modifications (p.61): Bio-Tech considers Perflubron Blood to be somewhat more effective against the Bends than does Changing Times; GMs can use either version, or treat one as a slightly more advanced and expensive development of the other. Nobody seems to have produced Self-Replicating bioroids in the TS world, and there are few hints of developments in that direction - it would probably be a fairly late TL11 development, and existing TS bioroid designs probably don't have anything like coherent enough genomes to permit such things - though some designers may be contemplating the possibility.

* Life's Price Tag (p.65): This provides a method for calculating prices for templates, which will doubtless disagree with those given in the TS books much more often than not. I'll leave it to somebody else to recalculate all the prices for existing TS templates in Changing Times.

* Gengineered Human Race Templates (p.66-74): Some of these overlap or reproduce types found in TS, sometimes with subtle variations or simply name differences. There's a lot here one can use, but don't just grab everything!

One general detail to note; TS bioroids have a perk giving them immunity to bone degeneration in zero-G, which makes their "Bioroid Body" meta-trait 1 point more expensive than the otherwise very similar "Bioroid" meta-trait in Changing Times. I'd leave this in - it's a bit of relevant TS chrome - and simply tweak the (points and cash) cost of any bioroid templates borrowed from Bio-Tech accordingly.

* Alpha (p.66): The Changing Times version came out slightly more disease-resistant; one can treat the one in Bio-Tech as a cheaper variant (make it, say, $48,000 if you're keeping the original TS pricing structures; using the Bio-Tech pricing rules, the superior "Alpha-CT" costs $66,000). The Omega variant, on the other hand, might need to be more expensive; it's pretty cool all round, and I rather like the idea of parents tearing their hair out when forced to choose between the Alpha, Ishtar, and Metanoia - with the Omega on the market at less than $100,000, they'd mostly go for that.

* Heavy Worlder (p.66): Could exist in TS, I imagine, if enough research has been done into the genetics of G-tolerance - but who's going to bother requesting this mod in the setting?

* Ishtar (p.66-7): The Bio-Tech version appears to be a cheaper early model. Likewise, the two Siduris can represent divergent design development paths.

* Light Worlder (p.67): Might be developed for Mars and other space colonies, but comes out looking a bit freakish... Another one that's possible but fairly unlikely for TS, I think.

* Orion (p.67): It's a bit munchkin, isn't it? Or is that just the TS references talking? If I allowed this one in a TS game, I'd sling in some extra gratuitous disadvantages, or at least jack the cash cost up quite a bit. (There's nothing really exotic in this template, but it gets almost everything right and very little wrong; that costs money.) I really think that the Ranger from Fifth Wave is more fun...

* Helot (p.67): Reproduces the 3e template from Fifth Wave exactly, and so is a keeper. The TS version of the Helot II is also close to that in Bio-Tech, though it also has +1 DX... But that design is hypothetical in the setting anyway. Really. And stacking on Self-Destruct and the TS version of the Bioroid/Bioroid Body meta-trait gives a TS version of the Helot Bioroid, which might appear in some sleazy places.

(Though I don't see why Self-Destruct is considered so cool; it just depresses your bioroid workers and means that you lose experienced staff at arbitrary moments when they could at least be training up their successors. If you're ruthless enough to commission something this nasty, you're ruthless enough to kill off your excess ageing bioroids the old-fashioned way. For the record, I'd also recommend deleting it from the bioroid templates in Fifth Wave, even in 3e games; it's a bit of an oddity there.)

[continued in next post]