[jerryme]

Hey there,

so, yesterday I was doing research for an idea to provide an expensive healer for my runners and incidently found out about the Endowment - Endowment - Regeneration - chain (basically, two ghosts in great form, one being able to regenerate, the other being able to pass along any power. Combine this to give the regeneration power to any character) and I was wondering: What happens to 'ware while regenerating?

Sources:
Regeneration (SR4, pp. 296-297)
Endowment (Street Magic, p. 99)
Great Form / "Invoking" (Street Magic, p. 57)

Here are a few things that may be worth considering:

• Shapeshifters posses the power of Regeneration and can only have Deltaware and only in their critter form (Runner's Companion, pp. 66-67)
• Magical Healing gets a dice pool modifier of -1 for every point of lost essence (SR4, p. 207)
• Regeneration granted by the Immortal Flower does 2D6 physical damage to you if you have 'ware (Arsenal, pp. 77-78)

Personally, I think Regeneration should work fine with 'ware. The players pay a lot of karma and essence for the 'ware and a lot of GP/Karma to pull of the Endowment stunt (or spend a lot of money to get someone who can). I think it is fair that the power does not work to the character's disadvantage. However, I cannot find a rule to support my claim.
The regeneration rules say, that not every damage (like brain or spinal cord) can be healed. So maybe you could rule that damage due to essence loss cannot be healed either...

Maybe you could argue that 'ware (maybe except Deltaware) is damaged by regeneration, but meh.. You could insert repair nanites which just makes it more expensive, so...

I am very curious about your opinions, please share them.
Bye,
jerryme

[MijRai]

Well, what happens when a being with Regeneration rejects 'ware, is that it forcibly rejects said 'ware, pushing it out of the body.  The in-universe example was of a vampire who had deltaware 'eyes, and after his body rejected them, they were basically pushed out of the sockets- taking the cables linking it to the brain at the same time.  I'm trying to remember which book it's in.

[jerryme]

"Infected with the Regeneration power may only accept deltaware implants." (see "The Infected and Augmentation" in Runner's Companion pp. 77-78)

So a vampire has no problems with deltaware eyes.

Anyway there still is no explicit rule about Regeneration and Ware in general. However in all explicit situations there is a problem with cyberware and Regeneration, so I guess it can be assumed to be a problem in general.

Still, I will keep this concept in mind for non-cybered-up characters in need of healing.

[MijRai]

"Infected with the Regeneration power may only accept deltaware implants." (see "The Infected and Augmentation" in Runner's Companion pp. 77-78)

So a vampire has no problems with deltaware eyes.

Anyway there still is no explicit rule about Regeneration and Ware in general. However in all explicit situations there is a problem with cyberware and Regeneration, so I guess it can be assumed to be a problem in general.

Still, I will keep this concept in mind for non-cybered-up characters in need of healing.

Yes, the vampire in the example had a problem with deltaware eyes.  Storm Front, I believe it was, the chapter regarding changes in the Infected.  It still adequately describes what happens to folks with 'ware who develop Regeneration, however. 

[jerryme]

Thanks for the pointer, I found the passage:

A colleague of mine in Kiev did cybernetic maintenance on a vampire who had some delta-grade cybereyes and cyberears. Those are supposed to be sufficiently compatible with his system that his regenerative abilities will leave them alone. A few weeks ago, the patient comes in complaining of headaches. Patient lies down on his table, Yuri starts a diagnostic.
Two, three minutes into this process, the patient went into grand mal convulsions, and his body began forcefully rejecting his cyber. Near as Yuri can figure, his regeneration decided, out of the clear blue and after more than two years with the ware in his patient’s head, that if it didn’t match the existing genetic template, it was gone.
[...]
Cybereyes, for instance, are more than just the artificial eyeball; there are modifications along the entire length of the optic nerve to support the interface with the brain. The path of least resistance for those particular modifications goes forward from the occipital lobe, through the thalamus and corpus collosum, on its way out the eye sockets. Patient died almost instantly from having his goddamn brain scrambled.

I am not sure what to take of this. It is one of those horror stories that deliberately are against the rules, probably to make the stuff the players do look more dangerous and risky. It is not only that deltaware should be fine, it is also that the description of the Regeneration power says that damage to the brain cannot be healed. What he is saying about the modifications to the occipital something and stuff seems a lot like damage to the brain to me, so Regeneration should just not do that.


Back to my problem: I found a solution that is working for me: If a character with cyberware needs healing, I am going to use an Adept with the power Empathic-Healing who himself will be granted the Regeneration power. Kind of a relay. Only problem is, the amount of healing is kind of limited by Magic+Willpower-essenceloss, which is kind of a lowish dicepool. Of course, making use of this service will be pricy.