how do you even live with Brain Fires?

[Axelmania]

Psyscape 149, 4th on Psi-Implant Side Effect Table, 6% would roll this.

Happens at LEAST once every 48 hours... suffers 1D4 direct to HP per minute for 1D4 minutes. That's an average of 2.5x2.5=6.25 HP lost per 48h, over 3 HP on average lost per day.

If the character happens to have First Aid and isn't physically impaired, they can get the 2HP/day "non-professional treatment" rate, but they won't be able to keep up with those average losses.

Professional treatment eventually can, since it bumps up to 4 HP/day but only on the 3rd day, meaning to keep the damage at bay the character would likely be in professional treatment the rest of their life.

It seems like the only way you'd be able to adventure (ie not be isolated in professional treatment) without condemning yourself to death is if you had the minor psi of bio-regeneration, or help from someone else with Healing Touch. Even "Increased Healing" would only double the professional healing rate from 2 (1-2) / 4 (3+) to 4 (1-2) / 8 (3+) which would still lead to a lot of crises.

1/16 of the time, you're going to be hit for a total of 16 HP in under 5 minutes, which is going to send a lot of low-PE or low-level characters into comas. Since "the burning is terrible and the character writhes in pain" so I'm not even sure if you'd be able to concentrate for the full 60 seconds used to prepare Bio-Regeneration to stave off coma (and certainly couldn't use it once you fell unconscious). You can use attack powers while suffering a Brain Fire but that might just be because they are "instant", so I don't know if you'd be able to do stuff like concentrate a melee to make a psi-sword, though you could probably maintain one you had already made.

Healing Touch seems like your only hope, but it takes 120 seconds of preparation. Whether or not it can restore 1D8 HP in time probably comes down to critical timing of how these powers work.

For example, is the 1D4 HP lost per minute applied at the start of the first minute, or at the end of it? Do you get 1 minute of painful warning for your friend to come over and help you before losing HP, or is HP lost the very moment the pain begins?

Also: the range of Healing Touch is "Touch", does this mean you need to be touching your target to begin the 2-minute trance to activate the power? Or can you start the trance when your target is far away and your allies are in the process of carrying them over to you? Presumably you can't actually run over to your target while doing the trance.

I can't remember the rules going into detail of what a "trance" entails but I figure that means at least being stationary and not doing any movement except perhaps breathing and keeping from falling over. Trances are usually done seated so even allowing someone to trance while remaining standing seems like s stretch...

Conceptually, this power seems like it would make you very reliant on others to survive, so anyone who got this in the CS would have to rely on the CS psi-healers to keep them alive when subject to these. These can happen even more often than once per 48, provoked by "great stress" or "serious .. trauma"

No teling how often they would be triggered in cases of people who get a 2nd side-effect on that table (such as when the 3 most expensive implants are used to give powers to non-psi, or to those getting a 2nd implant) as "Afraid of Heights" and "Stabbing Headache" would both probably trigger it.

Something like "Supernatural Warning System" (there's probably an entity lurking in a 500ft radius half the time, or ALL the time if you have Uncontrolled Medium too) or Uncontrolled Empathy would often trigger this too...

Any of these would probably also trigger Astral Avenger since they would be an enraging situation, particularly for people who hate the supernatural and are as frustrated with the state of the world as CS citizens would be. On the plus side, 50% more damage and double damage totals to TRIPLE damage so you could fight off the supernatural pretty competently if you had any attack psi.

This makes me wonder if CS might bus some of these guys around in APCs under constant medical care while allowing their psi to deal with roaming entities who could escape Psi-Bat by walking through walls or floors. The next best thing is a Psi-Ghost but they need to breathe, so Astral Projection is really the best option, but only AA can actually use attack psi with AP.

Since people with high HP are more able to survive Brain Fires, I could see the CS pushing to train them in every single physical skill available to their Character Class (or even traiing them in a 2nd OCC if necessary) which gives a PE bonus, at least if they wanted to make them lower-maintenance. Higher-maintenance would be a good option for those they don't trust though, making them reliant on CS Heal-Touchers to survive.

This would be way less of a problem if the CS had chi-healers but I imagine Chi Mastery powers are rare on Rifts Earth.

[Mack]

Yep, side effects suck. (As they sometimes should.)

[Nekira Sudacne]

I'll make a note that a PC with Bio-Regen can cope with it, it's a short meditation time relatively to recover lost HP.

But yea, Healing Touch for any who don't have it.

[Axelmania]

Healing Touch is for healing others, relying on that means you need outside help.

Bio-regen helps so long as the damage doesn't send you into a coma, pays to have PE 16 I suppose.

[eliakon]

Guess what?
Sometimes you get things that suck and turn out to be basically a death sentence to people with out the right support group.
So what? This is a highly experimental and highly dangerous implant that we are warned, repeatedly, is potentially deadly.
Guess what makes it deadly...

[Axelmania]

Do you think those surgery implants can help? RMKK or whatev? I remember something about helping internal injuries but can't recall if there was a HP replenish accompanying it

[Daniel Stoker]

I'm sure Bio-Regeneration would be more cost effective but couldn't you use Psychic Surgery too?


Daniel Stoker

[shadrak]

Magic and TW systems should assist as well...

But you will likely die from Brain Fires eventually if the issue is not fixed.

[kaid]

Don't do things that light your brain on fire randomly.

[Daniel Stoker]

Aww but all the cook kids are doing it!


Daniel Stoker

[Axelmania]

I'm sure Bio-Regeneration would be more cost effective but couldn't you use Psychic Surgery too?

That might qualify as professional care (4HP/day instead of 2HP/day) but there's otherwise no HP amounts associated with that I can see.

Magic and TW systems should assist as well...But you will likely die from Brain Fires eventually if the issue is not fixed.

CS would have some problems with using TW, I wonder if this might be an odd exception where they allow field agents to use TW.

The Vanguard has TWs and since they have psychic agents, they probably have contacts who have infiltrated Psi-Bat and could target cases of Brain Fire as needing "special help" and occasionally covertly zap them with a Talisman of Greater Healing or whatever to help out?

[Blue_Lion]

I'm sure Bio-Regeneration would be more cost effective but couldn't you use Psychic Surgery too?

That might qualify as professional care (4HP/day instead of 2HP/day) but there's otherwise no HP amounts associated with that I can see.

Magic and TW systems should assist as well...But you will likely die from Brain Fires eventually if the issue is not fixed.

CS would have some problems with using TW, I wonder if this might be an odd exception where they allow field agents to use TW.

The Vanguard has TWs and since they have psychic agents, they probably have contacts who have infiltrated Psi-Bat and could target cases of Brain Fire as needing "special help" and occasionally covertly zap them with a Talisman of Greater Healing or whatever to help out?

I think direct magical intervention to active cs agents in this manner would be rare. The risk to the vanguard member is far greater than the benefit to the CS. They cs may assign agents with that problem a battle buddy with healing touch, some of the more corrupt commanders might allow the person to die.

[Axelmania]

I think direct magical intervention to active cs agents in this manner would be rare. The risk to the vanguard member is far greater than the benefit to the CS.

It makes me wonder what indirect strategies could exist, like perhaps making a tiny talisman of healing and giving it to some random IQ 6 human child who doesn't know any better to run up and heal him.

I guess part of the problem there is you'd have evil mages taking similar strategies to have kids run up and murder CS soldiers, so they would be alarmed.

Of course, one of the major benefits of Invisibility Superior is that it can't be used in offense assassination tricks like that but it could be used in defensive healing tricks

[eliakon]

Why corrupt?
The CS is NOT a bastion of warm and cuddly. And lets face it... these implants are not going to be given to high value individuals in the first place.
If your expendable tool has a problem like this... then make sure to use it fast so that you get your value before it breaks.
They will likely be willing to provide some psychic healing to keep the tool around as long as possible... but the idea that they will engage in some sort of complex conspiracy of treason just to help out some schmuck with an implant just boggles the mind.

[Library Ogre]

Psyscape 149, 4th on Psi-Implant Side Effect Table, 6% would roll this.

Happens at LEAST once every 48 hours... suffers 1D4 direct to HP per minute for 1D4 minutes. That's an average of 2.5x2.5=6.25 HP lost per 48h, over 3 HP on average lost per day.


1/16 of the time, you're going to be hit for a total of 16 HP in under 5 minutes, which is going to send a lot of low-PE or low-level characters into comas.

Less often than that... 1 in 1024 times. It is 1 in 16 if you assume that every fire does the same damage per instant, but if you roll separately for each 1d4 HP damagen it goes up to 1 in 1024. Andn since it only happens 6% of the time, you'd only hit that 1 in 17066.6_ times.

[ShadowLogan]

Psyscape 149, 4th on Psi-Implant Side Effect Table, 6% would roll this.

Happens at LEAST once every 48 hours... suffers 1D4 direct to HP per minute for 1D4 minutes. That's an average of 2.5x2.5=6.25 HP lost per 48h, over 3 HP on average lost per day.

If the character happens to have First Aid and isn't physically impaired, they can get the 2HP/day "non-professional treatment" rate, but they won't be able to keep up with those average losses.

There are equipment options though that can help with recovery:
-MercOps has a Medical Kit which could potentially take care of the damage, though replacing the kit is likely to get expensive (no cost for individual components)
-RUE has a healing protein slave that doubles healing rate (found in the medical equipment), no idea how many doses you can use it for, but it is "cheaper" than the Medical Kit from MercOps
-I don't recall off hand any mystical healing potions, but that would be another option (MercOps does have mystical bandages, but I was thinking more potion like).

Personally as a GM for long term damage I would just go with the minimum damage/duration (would roll for story/dramatic when necessary), and might consider making medicine available that suppresses the side effect (which is something I suspect the CS would do*).

*at 3d6 HP starting and potentially taking 4d4 HP damage that would make test subject life expectancy pretty short, and to maximize the return on investment (implant cost, cost of surgical team, etc) keeping the test subject alive as long as possible makes sense. It also gives the CS a level of control over the test subject to keep them cooperative.

[Axelmania]

Less often than that... 1 in 1024 times. It is 1 in 16 if you assume that every fire does the same damage per instant, but if you roll separately for each 1d4 HP damagen it goes up to 1 in 1024.

Good point, though 16 is still not a minimum needed to send people into comas if you pinged average starting HP at 12 or so. I'm not sure the best way to run the math on average HP vs average total damage.

Andn since it only happens 6% of the time, you'd only hit that 1 in 17066.6_ times.

I think you only roll one time to determine which Psi-Implant side effect you get, I'm only talking about the mortality of those who have already rolled it, not psi-implants in general.

-RUE has a healing protein slave that doubles healing rate (found in the medical equipment), no idea how many doses you can use it for, but it is "cheaper" than the Medical Kit from MercOps

Good for long-term survival, not the immediate solution I was hoping for that you could apply mid-fit to stave off coma though.