My character recently lost an ear (no real issue, since no actual characteristic damage and thus no hearing loss) however since walking around with one ear aside from a hole in my head seems a bit awkward to me I figured I'd look into vat-grown replacements. However, there appears to be no rules for this and thus I'm turning to the forums for a few basic questions:

1) How much would one cost? Growing a small piece of flesh seems a hell of a lot easier than grafting a cybernetic arm into the nervous system of a person after the actual construction of the arm itself.

2) Considering it's merely the pinna of the ear, would it be that costly to grow in comparison to say, an arm or leg?

RT has rules (bit not costs since it doesn't use that) for vat-grown muscule, so it can be done.

On the other hand, it's mostly a vanity purchase, so I assume that it would be rather expensive. Most medicine in the Imperium is oriented towards function, rather than form. The exceptions are Chirgeons and Magos Biologis who cater to decadent nobles, who can afford the best.

Given that a Lathe Blade, a peice of extremely rare custom-made tech that can only be made by the Mechanus in a very specific sector, can be procured for ~2000 thrones, I wouldn't go over that. At the minimum, I'd charge for the attention of a Master Chirgeon at a specialized facility, which costs 500 thrones.

It may not be important, but I disagree with that part about no loss of hearing. It gives a loss of sese. Not 100%, so not every people needs it, but the characters hearing will be worse.

Hodgepodge said:

This sounds like a good starting point for me, these type of Medicae would be hard to find requiring a Hive World or somewhere else with a reasonable Tech-base. I would also use the base Poor/Good/Best system without any benefits associated to indicate just how well the replacement organ/body part is made to match or works.

I wouldn't give them any ebefit otherwise they would overshadow actual bionics and cybernetics which are pricier though usually its easier to find someone who can have ago at installing blessed machine parts.

Hmm, now I got an idea for a radical Master MEdicae Genetisyts who experiments with Xeno-cloned organs instead of human template ones... hmm.

Anyone for Eldar Eyes? Tyranid Teeth? Ork muscle replacements?

- RAith

It's just what my GM ruled, it makes sense to me that my hearing would be worse, however he decided not to do that since it's only one ear.

Raith said:

Makes sense, I'll suggest this to my GM (the poor/good/best system).

What about availability? Any idea on that? My GM is asking due to us using the RT acquisition system. Keep in mind, it's a pretty small piece of flesh and the Imperium does grow entire psykers (vat-grown psykers) and cherubs.

Meridien said:

Shoggy said:

The loss of the auricle (pinna/outer ear) would indeed mean a loss of hearing, as the purpose of the outer ear is to channel sound into the ear canal. However, such a truth is somewhat difficult to mitigate within the mechanics of the game. After all, hearing would be impaired mostly from that side; so any circumstantial modifiers would have to be adjusted based on the direction from which a sound came.

In this situation, the GM ruled no mechanical effect. As to the surgical replacement and materials; i.e. the cloned ear, such would likely cost about 500 thrones and have a Scarce availability to find someone who can both grow the ear and perform the replacement. Just my own opinion of the thing.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Anyone for Eldar Eyes? Tyranid Teeth? Ork muscle replacements?

Pfft! Everyone knows Ork muscles are less dense than human one - the Primer says so!

from france

a rapid point since i am still too busy with my work.

i strongly disagree with the idea that a vat grown anything should be compare to a lathe blade or anything of this kind. the first point is that the economical system in dh is notoriuosly bad. the second point is that you can 't compare a weapons to an organ in term of cost and need abootle of laffite rotschild is more expansive than a car. they will be more asking for car than for the bottle.

third point the distance cost factor, unless you have a easy acces to modern medicae you have to import it . on a planet scale it can be already expansive , on solar systeme it is more so on a sub sector and sector scale...

well back to work don't have time to developpe more

Meridien said:

I have never heard of vat-grown psykers before. Were does it say that in any of the fluff?

InquisitorGray said:

I think "vat-psykers" are being referenced here.

But vat-psykers aren't "grown" in a vat, they have just placed a psyker inside a life sustaining vat in order to keep good control over it.

Meridien said:

I'd say it would be the same as the vat grown muscle implants. In such a matter, the amount of flesh grown really doesn't matter. What matters is the ability to grow the flesh in the first place so the same place that supplies or can get the vat muscle would be able to supply or get an ear but a place that couldn't supply or get the muscle would be unlikely to be able to grow an ear or find someone who could.

On a side note, I'm fairly certain cloning a psyker would be a burnable offense to most anyone, mechanicus and Imperium alike ;-) That's just mucking with things most folks feel don't need to be mucked with.

An alternative might be to have an artificial ear surgically or mechanically attached which would probably compensate for the loss of hearing.

Hell, a large silver ear engraved with skulls would probably give bonuses to some interaction checks (and negative modifiers to stealth checks).

InquisitorGray said:

Believe there was vat-grown psyker in one of the Sisters of battle novels......

The ad mech have psyker servitors they use to send messages from forge worlds. Is it not clear if these servitors are vat-grown or gutted astropaths.

Raith said:

That's technoheresy; debasing the human form with that of the Xenos. I think the Beast House does it, among their many other crimes, and look at how the Inquisition is responding to them.