when making an explorator you get to choose two upgrades to get at common quality for free, you can then spend 200 points to raise them one quality rank, my question is how does this work on items that skip certain qualities...specifically the synthetic muscle grafts(pg. 151) where they go from common to best with no mention of good. now i interpreted that as paying the experience cost of 200 bumps me up from common to best (of course i assume this, i am after all a greedy player). Another player believes that paying the 200 xp will bump me up to good quality that has no mechanical benefits, and then i would have to spend an additional 200 points (400 total) to bump it up to best quality. another simple question about synthetic muscle grafts that i'm pretty sure i know the answer to, the common version grants you +1 to your str bonus, while the best gives you unnatural strength...i presume that if i get the best quality, i don't get the bonus provided from the common version.

VronishKez said:

Right, the way I've interpreted this is as follows. Bionics, typically, lack a Best quality - or rather, the Best quality version is simply a nicer-looking and perhaps easier-to-maintain version of a Good-quality one. Consequently, the Best-quality synthetic muscle grafts should be listed as Good-quality instead.

Where a bionic provides a different benefit at different levels of craftsmanship, they do not include the benefits or drawbacks of other qualities of that item unless specifically stated - so you get Unnatural Strength (x2) for those higher-quality muscle grafts instead of the +1 SB you'd get for lesser examples of that item.

thank you very much for taking the time to help me out, thats exactly how i read both of them to work and i just wanted to make sure before i throw my character sheet infont of the GM and hope for the best.

Right, the way I've interpreted this is as follows. Bionics, typically, lack a Best quality - or rather, the Best quality version is simply a nicer-looking and perhaps easier-to-maintain version of a Good-quality one. Consequently, the Best-quality synthetic muscle grafts should be listed as Good-quality instead.

Are you sure about that? Because now that I think about it, the best quality mechanic makes perfect sense for items that should be more difficult to acquire than good quality bionics, like the Cortex Implant. And considering that BQ muscle grafts grant another Unnatural Attribute (and a generally more useful one, both for Opposed Tests and for the Str Bonus), this may well be intended here.

Cifer said:

I'm going by precedent set, and the opening text of the cybernetics section:

"Each different kind of cybernetic grants the user different benefits (and sometimes penalties) depending on its Craftsmanship. The exception to this is Best Craftsmanship cybernetics that provide no additional benefits beyond those of Good Craftsmanship, but are far more impressive in construction and design."

According to that, Best Craftsmanship bionics don't provide any benefit over their Good Craftsmanship counterparts; no other cybernetic implant (even Cortex Implants - which grant serious benefits at Good Craftsmanship) has a Best Craftsmanship level stated. As it is, the higher quality Muscle Grafts impose a penalty that makes it more challenging to bring that muscle to bear anyway, so I think that balances out against the benefit it provides.