An Augmentation is any integral enhancement to a character that does not come with an XP cost and is not part of a Power, Template, or Advantage. Augmentations may include cybernetics, genetic manipulation, and magical tattoos. While typically limited in scope, they allow conservation of XP.
However, there is a Humanity cost to Augmentation, without exception. Since characters whose primary powers are Augmentations do not need to spend XP to improve them, they tend to excel at everything. Furthermore, they are often further enhanced by other players. Humanity loss serves to balance this.
Your Humanity Index is your permanent Enlightenment score multiplied by ten. Whenever you receive an Augmentation, roll the indicated number of dice to determine how well you handle your new capabilities. The result is deducted from your Humanity Index. For every ten full points you lose, you fill in one of the boxes under your Enlightenment score (starting at the highest one). While your rating hasn't changed for the purpose of raising it, your effective rating (for purposes of Conviction checks, sanity, and ethics) is now the reduced score. If your temporary Enlightenment drops to 0, you lose control of your character. If you lose Enlightenment, the score slides down.
Example: Kenji has 6 Enlightenment, and has used 44 Humanity Index for Augmentation. In a harrowing game, he loses 2 Enlightenment to failed Conviction rolls, placing his new rating at 4. He goes utterly mad and becomes an NPC until he can be stopped and his Augmentation forcibly removed up to the point he reaches at least a rating of 1 (10 Humanity Index).
Helpful Hints for Clever Cyborgs:
Treatment: A good therapist can do you wonders. Characters who have lost at least 2 Enlightenment to Augmentation may receive a special Mentor as a Background (awarded at 5). This individual is a person familiar with your type of Augmentation who talks you through the transition and suggests helpful remedies. Between games you may roll your Mentor Rating (Difficulty: 7) to reduce the cost of Augmentation you have already received. Every success reduces the number of Index lost by 1, just as if you had rolled less on the initial die. The loss can never be reduced to less than the minimum possible loss, however.
Tolerance can provide a "buffer zone" of sorts.
Cyborg Template
A Seasoned Character who has received at least 10 Gifts in Augmentation and the Tolerance Background may receive this Template as a Gift. Note that the source of the Augmentation (magical, cybernetic, etc.) does not matter.
If the entire body has been replaced (all eleven organ systems, all four limbs, and the eyes, ears, and nose), the entire body (except the brain) has been replaced, and the Cyborg Template may be awarded at no cost. (The Reproductive System will have been removed when the Excretory System was replaced. Cyborgs cannot reproduce.) However, replacement of the entire body also eliminates Merits dependent on that body, such as Double Jointed and Acute Senses. (If Merits which were present at character creation are lost in this way and are then replicated by cybernetic enhancements, the Humanity cost for these enhancements only may be reduced or waived.)
All Augmentation rolls are halved in cost for Cyborgs. This applies to those already received in addition to any gained later. Therapy can now reduce Augmentation costs to the new (halved) minimum.
A Cyborg may soak Bashing and Lethal damage with Stamina at Difficulty 6 if he could not already do so.
A full Cyborg (whose entire body has been replaced, except for the brain) is largely self-powered, and does not require food or water (except perhaps an occasional chocolate bar to supply glucose to the brain).
Generally, a character will receive 3d6 in Augmentation per Gift.
