So a player in my game is taking a medic route and wants to carry some medical supplies (including synthskin). In the CRB, p.182, Synthskin is listed, but the encumbrance cell is empty.

I would assume this as a 0 except all other small items have an actual 0 listed.
My second thought would be that since it's directly applied, it molds with the body and doesn't have an encumbrance, except all the cybernetics have a - in their cell to represent that.

Reading through the description on p.177 offers no additional help either.

Am I just missing something, or is this an error? If it's an error, what are people generally using in its stead and would there be a difference between synth skin and synth flesh as far as encumbrance goes?

The sense that I got when reading the description was that synthskin is basically "space band-aids." It's one of those resources that are cheap and readily available, like weapon ammo, and shouldn't be "consumed" by usage unless the situation dictates. So with that in consideration, your players should just be able to write that they have "synthskin" just like a character playing in the modern, real-life world might note that he has "adhesive bandages" in his first-aid kit. So encumbrance shouldn't really come into play unless your PC has, like, a big box of synthskin for some reason.

Synthflesh should be treated similarly, possibly as one of the items found in your doctor's medical supplies.

If he's carrying a quantity on its own, say "10 units of synthskin", I'd say it might add up to 1 Encumbrance. Fewer than that I'd say would be 0.

If the doctor carries a Medpac I'd say any quantity within reason could be contained in the Medpac.

If he's carrying a quantity on its own, say "10 units of synthskin", I'd say it might add up to 1 Encumbrance. Fewer than that I'd say would be 0.

If the doctor carries a Medpac I'd say any quantity within reason could be contained in the Medpac.

This may lead to 9 being the "magic number" when carrying multiple very useful zero-encumbrance items. Not that it's a problem, in-game...everybody carrying nine of those and nine of those, etc.

I really don't know why, but when something like this comes up in my games, my brain immediately goes "Well, how convenient is that?" I'd be more inclined to rule the character uses a synth applicator (a standardized device), which has an encumbrance value of 1 and contains X number of applications (5-10 maybe), and it may be recharged at one application of synth per rarity/price listed in the CRB.

I wouldn't foresee that being a problem in my own game, but really I'd just pick a number if it became absolutely necessary.

My players probably wouldn't say "I'd like to carry 500 units of synthskin in my pockets", but in that case I'd make some kind of a ruling.

The idea of an applicator is cool, too!

Just have it be part of their Med kit and use the same rules as it's Stims, have it one use per scene and unlimited until it runs out when you roll a three Threats or a Despair when trying to use it. Otherwise just round to the nearest value (if 5 have it be 0 ENC, if 9 have it 1 ENC) it's really not super important unless the Player is somehow abusing it. Also you can add up several different 0 ENC items to get that 10, so if they have 5 Stimpacks and 5 Synthskin packs thats 1 ENC.

Isn't the difference that it doesn't mechanically do anything, unlike that "free" stim in the medpack? Just seems like it's "tools for the job" to do First Aid.

Isn't the difference that it doesn't mechanically do anything, unlike that "free" stim in the medpack? Just seems like it's "tools for the job" to do First Aid.

Depends on how creative you want to get.

I'd let it give boost dice or upgrades to Deception/Skullduggery if a PC was making some sort of mask out of it.

What if you've got a T-800 droid who uses it to appear human while hunting down his target?

Isn't the difference that it doesn't mechanically do anything, unlike that "free" stim in the medpack? Just seems like it's "tools for the job" to do First Aid.

Well an additional Boost die is nothing to sneeze at when making a Medic roll so it's valuable to have along and I'd give a PC one for having this.

IIRC tools for the job doesn't always give you a free Boost, in some cases it's required to even attempt the test.

To me its just a can of something that has a spray applicator. More or less just one thing in a Medkit in my mind.

IIRC tools for the job doesn't always give you a free Boost, in some cases it's required to even attempt the test.

Your correct but since this item has a relatively high cost per application (almost half a Stimpack) but otherwise has no mechanical effect (doesn't add HPs etc.) it seems to me to warrant the Boost die.

To me its just a can of something that has a spray applicator. More or less just one thing in a Medkit in my mind.

Again because it's a listed item with a significant cost it shouldn't be just hand waved into the Medkit without some kind of restriction. The closest thing to it is a Stimpack and so it makes sense to treat it the same.

To me its just a can of something that has a spray applicator. More or less just one thing in a Medkit in my mind.

Again because it's a listed item with a significant cost it shouldn't be just hand waved into the Medkit without some kind of restriction. The closest thing to it is a Stimpack and so it makes sense to treat it the same.

So there aren't stimpacks and there isn't synthskin in your medkits, what is there, a Martini kit?.............

Ok, so it sounds like most people are treating it as intentionally left blank due to it's varied possible uses/applications.

Nobody is trying to abuse it in my game, it was just something I noticed and was curious about.

Re-reading the section in the CRB, I guess the mechanics are pretty vague about it too. I was initially thinking it only healed a small number of wounds (equating to bandaids, maybe only 1 or 2 wounds), but the thought of having it add boost to medicine checks is interesting too.

I would say it's included in emergency and standard med kits. The description of the emergency med kit mentions it has a synth flesh applicator and the med kit says it rivals the med bay of smaller ships, so I would assume they both include synth skin.

So after some more reading and thinking...

Med packs (in their description mention they rival the med bays of small ships) only grant you one boost die. With all the goodies they have, you only get that one die. With that in mind, I redact my previous statement about synth skin could gain one.

Bearing in mind what was mentioned about synth skin being important enough to mention and almost half the cost of a stim pack, I think it might make more sense to consider synth skin like ammo; it's needed to perform basic (medical) actions, but it's so small and common, it's never mentioned. Thus, the mention in the equipment section and the cost would be like buying a medical equivalent of "spare clip"

Opinions/ideas on that?

Yes, absolutely. I think the costs provided for stimpack and synth skin are to give the GM inclined to place limitations on medkits an idea of costs. A medical field kit will have some multi use items like scissors, scalpels, inflatable splints and such in the real world, but they will have consumables mostly, bandages, drugs, tape, etc. I think stimpack and synth skin represent the consumables in a kit. The point in the OP was about encumbrance and I still say the stuff is just part of a medkit with each GM deciding for themselves how many uses are available before being exhausted imo.

So there aren't stimpacks and there isn't synthskin in your medkits, what is there, a Martini kit?.............

(pg176)

An Emergency Medpac has all sorts of stuff but no Stimpack and allows a PC to make a Medical check without penalty.

(Pg177)

A Medpac has all sorts of stuff, allows a PC to make a Medical check with a bonus Boost die, plus it contains a basically unlimited, once per scene use of a Stimpack.

To me its just a can of something that has a spray applicator. More or less just one thing in a Medkit in my mind.

Again because it's a listed item with a significant cost it shouldn't be just hand waved into the Medkit without some kind of restriction. The closest thing to it is a Stimpack and so it makes sense to treat it the same.

So there aren't stimpacks and there isn't synthskin in your medkits, what is there, a Martini kit?.............

No. That's back at the swamp.

No. That's back at the swamp.

http://img.izismile.com/img/img3/20101220/640/backyard_mash_640_03.jpg

To me its just a can of something that has a spray applicator. More or less just one thing in a Medkit in my mind.

Again because it's a listed item with a significant cost it shouldn't be just hand waved into the Medkit without some kind of restriction. The closest thing to it is a Stimpack and so it makes sense to treat it the same.

So there aren't stimpacks and there isn't synthskin in your medkits, what is there, a Martini kit?.............

No. That's back at the swamp.

Is that at the 4077 Medical Bay with the H4-WK-I Surgical Droid