Aberrant 2.0 Body Modifications

General Notes

Attribute Bonuses

Attribute bonuses from body modification apply to mundane uses of the attribute, but not quantum power effects (the sole exception is the accuracy of certain powers, like Quantum Bolt or Disintegrate or Stun Attack). On the flipside, they don't increase the cost of increasing the attribute. A character with Strength 4 and two purchases of PSE (Strength + 2) pays (4 * 4 = 16), not (6 * 4 = 24) XP to buy a new dot of strength, and if she pays for that new dot, should list her strength as 5 + 2, rather than 7.

New Background

New Background: Enhancement: A Psion or neutral with this background has submitted their body to cybernetic or biotechnological reconstruction, augmenting their natural abilities with additional modification. Enhancement provides a character with 10/20/34/48/60 XP of body modifications to be distributed as a character sees fit. This is one of few the methods a Psion or neutral may attempt to compete with Novas-jacking up attributes via Enhancement and hoping for the best.

Nova Enhancement: Novas may not support Enhancement-their bodies channel Quantum via their M-R node, but Nova powers are much less subtle and their side effects course throughout the body, the Nova's only protection being their complete immunity to their own superhuman ability. A Nova must grow her own Enhancements, paying the XP to purchase them, without being able to take advantage of the greatly reduced cost of the background.

General Bodymods

Inhuman (Attribute) (6 XP): A Nova with Inhuman (Attribute) can raise the attribute in question to any level, ignoring normal caps, as long as the Nova has sufficient experience. This can be bought up to 9 times, once per attribute.

Physical

Enhancement

Physical Structure Enhancement (4/8 XP): The character gains +1 to a physical attribute. This is essentially an equipment bonus like the one granted by powered armor, not an actual increase of the physical attribute. In Novas, PSEs manifest themselves in a variety of ways, from intergrowing carbon nanotube strands around muscles and tendons to growing a T-800 style endoskeleton or whatever. PSEs cost 4 XP if raising Strength or Stamina, and 8 XP if raising Dexterity. A character may not have more than +3 in a single attribute from Physical Structure Enhancement.

Dense Musculature (10 XP): A Nova with high-density musculature masses approximately twice as much due to greatly toughened and heavier skeletal muscles. Dense musculature adds 2B/2L soak due to its higher density, a -0 HL, and +1 to Strength.

Physical Overclocking (4 XP): The character's physical abilities are overcharged, pushing her close to the redline at any given time. The character gains +1 to all physical attributes but any attack which successfully deals damage to the character deals an additional level of damage, as her body is close to breakdown and any damage could send it over the edge. This may be bought twice, giving a character +2 to all physical attributes but causing any damage-dealing attack to deal an additional two levels of damage.

Weapons

Retractable Blades (2-10 XP): Implanted (or ingrown) retractable blades cost 2 XP per every +1L damage they do. Str + 1L damage blades are worth 2 XP, while Str + 5L damage blades are worth 10 XP. Retractable blades are difficulty +2 to detect when retracted.

Raptor Vibroblades (14 XP): These implanted vibroblades are extremely deadly against armored targets, dealing Str + 4L damage with AP 5. Merely slapping a target with these active will tend to cause the victim to fall into pieces. Of course botching (or even failing) an attack with one of these may be... quite dangerous to the user.

Integrated Weapon (4/8/15 XP): Baselines with cybernetic replacements and Novas which desire it may end up installing or outright growing integrated weapons. The character may have to reload the weapon from a hidden port, or may generate ammunition in his or her body. The former allows quick reloading and ammunition variety, while the latter requires no feed port to load magazines into, but the character only regenerates (Stamina) rounds of ammunition per hour and chooses a single ammunition type to use. It costs 4 XP to integrate a pistol or SMG sized weapon (conceal J or below), 8 XP to integrate a long arm such as a shotgun or assault rifle (anything conceal O or below), and 15 XP to integrate something completely absurd such as a heavy machine gun or anti-tank missile launcher. Any weapon significantly larger than a HMG (i.e. with a mass more than 50 kg) cannot be integrated due to size reasons. Integrated weapons are difficulty +2 to detect when retracted.

Quills/Spines (5 XP): A Nova with this has a coating of spines on his body, is naturally edged, or otherwise can easily cause harm to someone he or she touches. The Nova's unarmed attacks now deal lethal damage, and anyone who touches the Nova more than casually takes (Stamina)L damage (up to 5L). Repurchasing this enhancement once either makes the damage voluntary or increases the damage cap to 10L. Repurchasing this enhancement twice adds both benefits.

Electroshock (6 XP): A character with this ability can shock anyone who contacts him or her at the cost of 1 willpower per action, dealing (Strength + Stamina) dice of bashing damage which can be soaked normally, and if the attack deals any unsoaked dice of damage it inflicts an artificial -2 wound penalty to the character in question for the next round due to pain and involuntary muscle spasms. If used in conjunction with a melee attack, the damage is soaked separately. Both Mega-Strength and Mega-Stamina apply to this calculation, each adding 1 level of bashing damage rather than 2 dice or 5 levels (in the case of M-Str). If purchased twice, the character may channel this shock through air at short distances, giving it a range of (Strength * 2) meters (and no maximum range) or it no longer costs 1 willpower to use per action, instead costing 1 willpower to use for a scene. If purchased three times electroshock gains both benefits.

Nematocysts (6 XP): Nematocysts carry a poison payload, with Potency (+2), Onset (Immediate), Interval (1 round), and Effect ([Dexterity]-[victim's Stamina] to the victim's dice pools, plus 1 dice of bashing damage per round, with a successful roll halving the penalty and eliminating damage). Buying this modification multiple times increases its potency by +1 per purchase and increases the time the poison lasts for by 1 additional round per purchase.

Dragon's Breath (6 XP): Like a bombardier beetle, a character with this body modification possesses a naturally evolved or surgically implanted self-defense mechanism which acts as a shotgun firing flamethrower shells (Accuracy +0, Dmg None, Rng 20, Rate 2, Capacity 8). Successful attacks (use Dexterity + Athletics/Brawl to attack) deal no damage, but set the target on fire, causing them to take 4L damage per turn until they put it out, which ignores normal armor. A character may store up to 8 uses of this mechanism and regenerates (Stamina) uses every hour.

Toxic Blood (4/6 XP): The character has blood that is hostile to people around him and the environment as well. His blood may be acidic, full of flesh-eating enzymes he alone is immune to, or smart nanotech that spontaneously combusts when it touches an enemy. Whatever it is, if he takes lethal damage, his blood sprays (levels of damage taken) meters, dealing a base of 8L damage with AP (2) to everyone inside the radius. At the ST's discretion, certain types of lethal damage such as lasers or fire may prevent this from happening. Toxic blood costs 4 XP if indiscriminate, 6 XP if it only damages things the Nova wants damaged (the aformentioned combusting smart nanos). It may be stacked up to (Stamina/2, round up) times, each additional purchase adding +1 to AP and +4L damage.

Armor

Tough Skin (3 XP): A Nova with toughened skin has skin that can ward off small-caliber bullets and slow glancing knife blows, adding 1B/1L stackable armored soak. A character may only have one armor body modification at one time.

Subdermal Armor (5 XP): A character's skin is heavily reinforced, adding 3B/2L stackable armored soak. This armor is not inherently visible, but greatly alters the texture of the skin, meaning that it can be discovered by touch.

Dermal Plating (6 XP): A Nova with Subdermal Plating gains 4B/3L stackable armored soak with no penalties, but the armor is obvious to onlookers if the Nova wears skintight or revealing clothing, as it takes the form of heavy bone, metal, or chitin plates under the skin.

Heavy Exoskeleton (8 XP): A Nova with this body modification has no visible skin, replacing it with hardened metal or chitin plates that give him 6B/6L stackable armored soak, but counts as worn armor for the purposes of armor stacking. This modification replaces Dermal Plating, Subdermal Armor, and Toughened/Reinforced Skin.

Survival

Enhanced Antibodies (2 XP): The character gains +1 automatic success to resist disease.

Toxin Binders (2 XP): The character gains +1 automatic success to resist poison.

Filter Lungs (2 XP): A character gains 1 success to resist inhaled toxins with this body modification.

Filtration Liver (2 XP): A character gains +2 Resistance against toxins with this body modification.

High-Capacity Lungs (2 XP): Characters with this body modification gain +2 Endurance.

Nictating Membranes (2 XP): A character with this body modification adds 1 success to resisting blinding or eye irritants. Combined with filter lungs a character becomes mostly immune to riot agents.

Redundant Organs/Vital Organ Shielding (2 XP): A character may gain additional toughness by increasing body redundancy, adding either 1 -0 and 1 -1 HL or 1 -2 HL and 2 -4 HLs per purchase. A character may buy a number of this body modification equal to his Stamina + 2.

Dispersed Organs (4 XP): A Nova with dispersed organs gains improved resistance to called shots, whether because of organ redundancy or because he just doesn't need them any more. Called shot bonus damage is halved. Purchased twice, the Nova takes no additional damage from called shots and probably looks like a Shoggoth on the inside. Each level of Dispersed Organs adds +1 difficulty to all medical rolls to treat the Nova.

Blood Hyperoxygenation (2 XP): The character has blood which can carry significantly more oxygen than normal. The character gains 1 automatic success on any rolls to endure strenuous physical activity, as she can sustain activity for longer, and 1 additional Incapacitated health level, as it takes a lot more damage to the heart and a lot more blood loss to kill the character.

Power

Increased Ground Speed (2 XP): A Nova's legs are lengthened and strengthened, adding +1 to dexterity for movement purposes.

Springs (4 XP): This body mod adds spring-like structures to the character's legs which greatly increase their power. Novas with this enhancement halve fall damage from controlled falls, add +2 to damage with kicks, and double jump distances and heights.

Ultralight Body (6 XP): A Nova with an ultralight body has high-efficiency muscle tissue and porous bones that halves his weight, which reduces his natural soak by 2B/1L (min 1B/0L) but halves all falling damage, adds +2 to dexterity for movement purposes, and doubles jump distances. If bought twice, the Nova uses extremely high-efficiency organs and tissues, comparable in strength/weight ratios to carbon nanotube or aircraft composites, which eliminates the soak penalty, adds +4 to dexterity for movement purposes, and quadruples jump distances, as well as reducing the Nova's mass by a full 75%.

Improved Grip Strength (6 XP): Someone with this bodymod has incredible strength that they cannot actually use outside of controlled circumstances. Having a cybernetic arm with carbon nanotube musculature might be an example of this-the arm might be a hundred times stronger than a human arm, yet if the user attempted to exploit that strength to lift something, it'd just rip right out of the socket. Improved grip strength adds +1 automatic success to Might rolls to control a grapple, and +[1] damage to any crush attack, and may be stacked up to (character's Strength) times.

Hyperdense Skeleton (6 XP): A hyperdense skeleton is abnormally heavy and solid, sometimes just out of increased bone density but it is not uncommon for a Nova to end up with bones plated in some sort of dense heavy metal such as adamantium. Novas with hyperdense skeletons add +2 damage to unarmed melee attacks, +2B/1L soak, and because of the greatly reduced chance of breaking limbs, double the distance that needs to be dropped to take fall damage. Terminal fall damage stays the same, as the increased skeletal mass also increases terminal velocity. Purchasing hyperdense skeleton twice allows the Nova to deal lethal damage with unarmed blows due to the hardness of his skeleton, increases the Nova's soak against damage by 3B/2L instead of 2B/1L, and renders the Nova's bones practically unbreakable, tripling safe fall distances and the number of meters each additional damage interval is.

Environmental Adaptation

Environmental Adaptation (6 XP): The character is adapted to a type of environment, chosen at character generation. Example adaptations are listed below.

Vacuum: The character's skin becomes thicker, tougher, and smooth to the touch, a vacuum sealed poreless membrane, and the character gains membranes which can seal the lungs and eyes off. The character may recycle oxygen from carbon dioxide, allowing him to hold his breath for up to (Stamina * 30) minutes. The character is also significantly more resistant against radiation and is hermetically sealed, making them largely immune to skin contact agents.

Aquatic: The character gains a pair of gills along the side of her chest which allow her to breathe underwater normally as long as the gills are exposed to water (a simple modification of most swimsuits will allow for this, as will loose-fitting clothing). The character is also streamlined, losing all body hair save on her scalp and eyebrows, gaining slightly webbed feet and hands and elongated toes. This allows her to swim at her normal running speed.

Forest: The character's arms are elongated and strengthened, allowing him to swing through trees at his normal running speed and adding +1 strength for the purposes of climbing, grasping, or crushing.

Desert: The character becomes particularly efficient at storing food and water, doubling the intervals which dehydration and starvation affect him or her.

NBC: The character is much more resistant to radiation, disease and poison damage, gaining +1 automatic success to resist the deterious effects of radiation, or the potency of diseases and poisons. Self-repairing chromosomes and superior error-checking mean undirected radiation damage is generally considered to be one level lower. Intense radiation, such as the neutron flux of a enhanced radiation warhead or standing inside a reactor core without protection, is still aggravated.

Photosynthetic (2 XP): The character can photosynthesize. This may, but does not always, turn the character a shade of green-a Nova's physiology can adapt melanin to photosynthesize if it has to. With sufficient water, a photosynthetic character doubles all intervals for starvation.

Chromatophores (4 XP): +2 stealth if naked or wearing attuned Eufiber. (versus +3 by RAW)

Glider (6 XP): Novas with gliding wings can glide at their normal running speed.

Wings (12 XP): A Nova with flight ability can fly to a limited extent-not nearly as fast as a Nova with the Flight power, and with an obvious and easily visible cause (such as internal rocket thrusters, gigantic feathered wings, or the like), but fly nontheless. A character with 1 purchase of Flight may fly at half their normal running speed. Purchasing Flight multiple times multiplies flight speed by the number of purchases.

Size

Small (2 XP): A character with this body modification is about half normal mass and roughly 80% as large in every dimension, reducing Strength by 1 and removing a -0 HL. Characters which are small are more vulnerable to damage, reducing soak by 1B/1L/1A (minimum 0 soak). On the other hand, a small character is harder to hit and detect, increasing the difficulty of hitting the character by 1, and the difficulty of any rolls to detect the character.

Large (6 XP): Being about 50% heavier and larger than the average man has its advantages, adding +1 to strength, +1 to stamina, and 1 -0 HL. Novas which are Large add +1 to Dexterity for movement.

Tiny (6 XP): A Tiny Nova is roughly a quarter normal mass and 62% normal dimensions, reducing Strength by 2 and removing 1 -0 and 1 -1 HL. Characters which are tiny are more vulnerable to damage, reducing soak by 2B/2L/2A (minimum 0 soak). Tiny characters add +2 to the difficulties of detecting or hitting the character.

Huge (12 XP): A Nova with this modification is huge, easily about 180 kilos and 2.2 or more meters tall, and gains +2 Strength, +2 Stamina, 1 additional -0 HL, and 1 additional -1 HL. Huge Novas add +2 to dexterity for movement purposes only.

Miniscule (10 XP): A miniscule character is approximately 1/16th the mass and 40% the length/width/height of a normal character, losing 4 dots of Strength, a -0, -1, -2, and -4 health level, moving at half speed, and subtracting 4B/4L/4A from soak (min 0), which also affects Mega-Stamina limits. If a character is reduced to 0 Strength he may not physically lift anything heavier than a kilo or two. A character may stack miniscule up to twice, the second purchase reducing the character to 1/4th normal physical dimensions and 1/64th mass. A miniscule Nova is very hard to hit or detect, increasing difficulties by 4. A second level of miniscule increases that difficulty further, adding 6 to all attack/awareness difficulties against the Nova.

Utility

Multitools (4 XP): A character with this modification possesses an integrated set of precision tools for various purposes, reducing all penalties from insufficient tools by 2, to a minimum of 0.

Regenerator (4 XP): A character with this body modification heals faster than normal, reducing healing times by 1 category. Baselines with this body modification may heal crippling injuries without the need for prosthetic replacement or cloned body parts.

Tentacles (4 XP): Tentacles are flexible appendages which extend up to (Stamina) meters. Each purchase of this body modification grants 2 tentacles, which either do Str + 4B or Str + 2L damage, depending on their makeup, and can grasp and manipulate objects at (Dexterity - 2).

Multiple Arms (8 XP): A Nova with multiple arms reduces multiple action penalties by 1 per pair of additional arms he or she possesses. A Nova may support up to (Stamina or Wits, choose lower) sets of multiple arms, which does not count Mega-Attributes for the total.

Multiple Legs (6 XP): A Nova with multiple legs adds +5 to Dexterity for purposes of ground movement speed, and being able to kick with more than 1 leg increases kick damage by 1 per purchase. Like Multiple Arms, a Nova may support up to (Stamina or Wits) sets of multiple legs, and Mega-Attributes do not count for limb support.

Hyper-Flexible (4 XP): The character can bend and disolate her limbs in disconcerting ways, which +3 to any roll which may benefit from this superhuman flexibility. Rolls which are generally valid include Stealth, Legerdemain (for contortion or escaping restraints), and certain types of Performance rolls.

Bioelectrical Dynamo (2/8 XP): The character generates a surplus of electrical power, which may be tapped or conducted through fingers. The cheaper, 2 XP version is useless for attacking, but allows a character to damage or reset exposed circuitry, power a lightbulb, recharge a laptop, or other useful minor tricks. A character with the 8 XP version generates more power and can channel more of it, allowing her to deal either Str+6B damage (up to 2xStamina times/hour), or Str+6L damage + 6d EMP. Using the lethal damage mode deals 2 unsoakable bashing health levels to the user. The more expensive variant also adds +2L soak against electrical damage and an immunity to tasers due to insulation.

Mental

Enhancement

Mental Augmentation (4/6 XP): The character gains +1 to a mental attribute. Like a PSE boost, these affect all mundane uses but do not improve the effects of quantum powers, and do not increase the cost of the attribute. A character may not increase any attribute by more than +3. It costs 4 XP to improve Perception by 1, or 6 XP to improve Wits or Intelligence.

Sensory

Acute (Sense) (2 XP): A Nova with acute (sense) gains +1 to Perception for the purposes of using that sense.

Alternate Sensory Mode (4 XP): Each time this is purchased, a character gains an alternate sense, such as lateral line sense (the ability to sense the electromagnetic fields of others), echolocation, infrared vision, and so on.

Extrasensory Access (8 XP for first/4 XP for additional/+4 XP for LANSA): A character with this modification has exotic sensory modes which are specialized to assist him in a specific task. The first Extrasensory Access modification costs 8 XP, but further repurposing of the five senses takes much less and only costs 4 XP per additional.

Materials Analysis: Analyzes chemical composition and makeup.

Weakpoints: Successes on a Perception roll become penalties to target soak or bonus dice to destroy/maintain an object.

Social Cues: Successes on a Perception roll become bonus dice for 1 social action.

LANSA: A successful Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty +12 - target Quantum + Taint + Node) detects a Nova.

Lie Detector: +1 bonus success to detect lies.

Sound Editing: -1 difficulty to hearing-based Awareness rolls.

Pain Editor: No wound penalties (still incapacitated as normal).

Autonomy

Daemon (4 XP): The character has a nonsentient but autonomous subroutine running in her mind, that she can assign to one of various duties while she does something else-including sleeping. Common uses for a Daemon are alerting a character to ambush, tidying up the house while in REM sleep, or other relatively simple tasks. Daemons have all of the character's physical abilities, but none of the character's mental or social abilities, and are considered to have a Charisma and Manipulation of 0 and an Intelligence of 1.

Bifurcated Mind (6 XP): The character can sleep while aware of her surroundings, owing to a modification allowing her to shut half of her brain off like a dolphin when sleeping. While "asleep", a character is considered to have half (round up) his mental Attributes and Mega-Attributes, and all actions are at +1 difficulty due to general lethargy.

Multithreaded (12 XP): The character has a multithreaded thought process which provides a few interesting benefits. First off, the character adds 1 automatic success to resist mind control or any other form of mental influence. Second off, for most research and development purposes, the character counts as an additional free assistant to himself. Finally, a character can ponder two problems or have two trains of thought at the same time, allowing a character to concentrate on two things simultaneously. This does not reduce multiple action penalties-the character still only has so many limbs and thinks so fast.

Reactions

Enhanced Reflexes (10 XP): A Nova with this body modification reduces all multiple action penalties by 1 and adds +3 to initiative.

Reaction Boost (10 XP): The character can, at the cost of 1 willpower, overclock his mental processes such that every movement can be precisely accomplished like clockwork. When activated for an action the character gains +5 Initiative for that round and an additional action (which, like all extra actions, may not be split).

Combat Reflexes (4 XP): Most commonly acquired from having a battle computer implanted to analyze and optimize a character's fight-or-fight responses for combat purposes, but some Novas hack their own brains for better combat ability. A character with Combat Reflexes rolls 2 dice for initiative instead of 1, and takes the desired one (generally the higher roll).

Interface

Implant Computer (8 XP): It is quite possible for a Nova to grow a computer system in their brain if they need it, and implanting a computer system to work in symbiosis with the human mind is fully possible. An implant computer adds +[1] automatic success to any mathematics or computer intrusion/programming rolls and in addition provides a character with perfect time sense and eidetic memory.

Radio Implant (1/2 XP): The character has an implanted 2-way radio with 10km range on a clear plain with no interference. The advanced version (2 XP) provides video send/receive support, cell phone connectivity, and a 25km range.

Nav Implant (2 XP): The character is implanted with a combination of GPS tracker, inertial navigation system, and compass.

Weapon Link (6 XP): Either the power of the M-R node or cybernetic implantation gives the character the ability to interface with a properly modified weapon. A character with this enhancement reduces the difficulty of all Firearms, Heavy Weapons, or Gunnery rolls to hit a target by 1 and adds +1d to any rolls. Modifying a weapon to work with this link is a (Intelligence + Engineering[Electronic] roll) at +1 difficulty, with an interval of 1 hour per roll.

Vehicle Link (6 XP): A character with this body modification can link himself or herself to any (willing) vehicle with electronic controls. Any machine with no actual security can be considered automatically willing, meaning that almost all late 20th and early-mid 21st century vehicles will be considered valid. When linked, the character reduces the difficulty of all Drive or Pilot rolls by 1 and adds +1d to all such rolls. Most vehicles are capable of linking without any specific improvements.

Social

Enhancement

Somatic/Pheromonal Calibration (4/8 XP): The character gains +1 to a social attribute, via calibrating his voice, appearance, and pheromones to be more impressive (Charisma), trustworthy (Manipulation), or appealing (Appearance). A character may not increase any attribute by more than +3. It costs 4 XP to improve Appearance by 1, or 8 XP to improve Charisma or Manipulation.

Pheromonal

Pheromones (2 XP): A Nova with this body modification has particularly powerful pheromones which induce a certain state of emotion (chosen at purchase), adding a +1d circumstantial bonus for any social roll which resonates with that emotion. Purchasing this multiple times allows a Nova to choose which pheromone type he or she wishes to use.

Deception

Unreadable (4 XP): The character shows none of the standard signs of lying or nervousness at this point, but is also extremely disconcerting. A character gains +1 bonus success on any opposed rolls to successfully lie but all other social rolls are at +1 difficulty because he exhibits none of the standard autonomous responses, putting him right into the Uncanny Valley. The character may also fool the Lie Detector enhancement.