Chapter Five: Scientific Engineering
This is really a mishmash of technologies that don't quite go in the Gear section, or the space travel sections, or the mecha section. Genetics, cloning, nanotech, and matter replication are all here.
Genetics
This doesn't actually get a section heading... they just jump right in at the beginning of the chapter.
"Of all the scientific arenas, genetics is perhaps the most difficult to attach to specific progress levels."
Christ, what an asshole. Progress levels are pretty much bullshit, the grand march of history only looks like that in retrospect, there's a bunch of things that we had the tooling to do much earlier that nobody noticed (stored program computers), there's a bunch of ideas that people tried before they were actually feasible (PDAs in the 90s and early 2000s), there's even ideas that people had and that the technology existed for, that they then proceeded to fuck up the useability on for years even after the technology was ready for it (smartphones from about 2003 to the iPhone in 2007). Progress levels are a ridiculous fiction and this is the only place where they really acknowledge how silly they are.
They're also wildly wrong about how long various things will take, or maybe they believed it when the physicists said fusion power was only twenty years away, just like it had been for the last five decades.
They think genetic experiments will take 3d10 days, which is laughable. I am by no means a biologist, but a lot of things you might want to modify inherently involve the long term. If your GM is even more wrong about science, or you're throwing realism to the wind because you're a hollywood director, you can cut the time taken to 3d10 hours.
I don't really know enough about biology to evaluate their claims about relative difficulty of any of these things. They seem to think that gene-modding plants is easier than gene-modding animals is easier than making retroviruses, and that gene screening is later than these. Now, I know we're gene screening right now, we're gene-modding embryonic plants and animals, and we aren't retrovirusing anything for industrial purposes.
Having genes modified while living takes succeeding on a number of daily Fort saves with DC 15 or 20, with each failure dealing 2 points of Con damage. This is really harsh, assuming you have a Fort save below +10 - you're going to fail on a pretty regular basis, and you recover one point per day, and, of course, your Fort save goes down when you lose Con. I suspect this leads to almost certain death if you're adding a supernatural or spell-like ability.
Gene Therapy Templates
Basically these are packages of gene-mods you can get. No monetary cost is given for any of the gene therapy stuff, just the DCs.
The Aquan template is a straight-up win. You get water breathing, low-light vision, blindsight while underwater, and a small pile of awareness bonuses while underwater. Of course, you might
die while trying to gain the template, given that you need 20 successes at DC 20.
The Healer gives you fast healing but lowers your massive damage threshold. This is almost certainly not worth it if your DM is actually using those. If he isn't, it's pure gold.
Morphean lets you go without sleep for long periods, hibernate, and get +2 on Will saving throws. Not Will saving throws against sleep effects. All Will saving throws. You do need to sleep/hibernate for two full days every 30 days, but that's probably arrangeable. Fort DC is 20, you need 25 successes.
Nocturnal gives you both darkvision and light sensitivity. You probably just wear sunglasses all the time. You also get +2 on Listen and Move Silently checks, and Blind-Fight. I have no idea why you get Blind-Fight.
None of these are worth taking after the campaign starts if you care about your character or there's any time pressure, given that you're probably below your usual Con for a month or more, and also might
die. On the other hand, if you can start with one for free, Morphean is great if you can schedule around the multi-day sleeps (which you mostly can, unless the MC is a dick), Aquan is just bonuses (although they might never actually come up), and Nocturnal's only penalty is easily avoidable by being cool.
Cloning
Humanity did it! and then decided there were too many ethical quandaries and also DNA degeneration and we haven't actually done anything with it since this was published.
You can get a Mini-Me, but this is mostly just a plot device, and they say accelerated growth is probably PL9 only, so it is actually just a background detail and not something the PCs can abuse in the vast majority of campaigns. Replacement organs would be rad, but they are hella expensive at PL6, uncheap at PL7, and reasonable at PL8. Blood cloning is supposedly way easier and cheaper, but I find that hard to believe. Uses of full-body clones don't get any prices - there's notes that you could have body doubles, disposble workers, or imprint them with brain scans. There's also a sidebar and a section on ethical quandaries, especially including brain imprinting.
Nanotechnology
Fun Fact: the very instant we make nanomachines, we will be post-scarcity and therefore post-monetary. Furthermore, Gamemasters may be huge dicks about the availability of nanotechnology, even in settings that have them.
Independent Nanocolonies
Gray Goo can be resisted with a Fort save (DC 35). Realistically it should probably just kill you, and also your campaign setting should just never have any involved except as a planet-destroying threat to flee from.
Unseen Bodyguard gives a +4 equipment bonus to Defense. It's probably worth having, but it's also pretty silly.
Utility Fog is basically ambient generic material that can be used for whatever you need. It's also wildly unrealistic - nanites won't be as strong as steel, color selection is probably hard, and different materials probably need different nanites to make it. Better yet, they measure "UFog" by liquid volume, and state that "its weight and density can vary widely depending on what material it becomes". I'll just let that statement speak for itself.
Internal Nanocolonies
You can only have two internal nanocolonies, and if you inject another, it "immediately attacks and destroys" one you already have. This is pretty clearly there to limit powergaming, but...
Calcion doubles your healing rate until you reach full HP, then deactivates forever. This is not terribly impressive for nanotechnology, especially given that genemods can give you Fast Healing 3 for the low, low cost of over a month of your life and maybe also dying.
Gray Death kills you, and then the planet. If you can somehow make a DC 35 Fort save, it does nothing. Everybody bans this instantly, or maybe we just only meet civilizations that banned it.
Onco-Guard cures cancer. The book also says it is "not the 'cure for cancer' that 20th century scientists so voraciously sought", then tells you that it prevents cancer, contains cancer, and makes the host "recover from any ill effects of cancer almost immediately". I'm not sure how that's different from curing cancer.
Resilite is just the nano-bombs from the opening of Diamond Age.
Stiletto deals 2d6 points of ability damage to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.
Brain Boost gives +4 Int, and apparently is common for scientists, researchers, and mathematicians. Note that the GM is supposed to be a huge dick about nanotechnology
Chatter is basically radio-telepath nanites. It says that it attaches directly to the speech and language centers of the host, and transmits and receives directly from those. You can apparently learn to stop ambient thoughts from going out over the channel with 30 minutes of practice, which seems way low.
Doppelganger is not confusingly named at all. It can alter bone structure and facial appearance in half an hour. I'm pretty sure this is just from a James H Schmitz story.
Micro Muscles gives +4 to strength. That's about it. Once again, these are supposed to be fairly common.
Prophecy gives you direct audio or visual input from a computer, but doesn't transmit. This is supposedly beneficial, but you could absolutely use this to screw with someone if you wanted.
Soullink is neural interface to vehicles. You get +6 on pilot/drive, and can tell if the vehicle is damaged. If the vehicle takes damage, you need to make a Will save or suffer 1d4 points of Wisdom damage. Holy fuck this is not worth it. I could maybe see it as a horrible dystopian thing, but it's presented as something that you would seek out voluntarily.
20/20 is sorted here! It gives +6 on Spot and Search checks by "enhancing the sensitivity of a creature's optic nerves". Science Does Not Work That Way. Also, it fixes nearsightedness and astigmatism? Pretty sure those are problems with the physical shape of an eye and the way light is refracted as a result, not a thing you can fix by messing around behind the retina.
Watchdog is a remote health monitor. It sounds great, but it's probably not actually worth it for PCs when you only get two nanocolonies.
Matter Replication
Matter replication is really hard, and they don't seem to distinguish between the two hard parts. First, you need to be able to make protons and neutrons and electrons from nothing (or just energy), and then you need to be able to arrange those quickly and precisely into stable molecules. Note that E=MC^2, so this isn't actually valuable compared to just rearranging subatomic particles in existing matter.
The suggested limitations are pretty silly. Replicators might tag the objects they create, which is going to be totally useless - modified or open source hardware/firmware/software will happen eventually, and once it does there will be no way to stop it. They also suggest limiting individual matter replicators to specific kinds of objects. Other possible limits include requiring some sort of "protomatter", which is pretty dumb - at most you're going to need the right ratios of atoms. Also, replicators can't make life?
Overall, this chapter is a decent summary of where speculation in these areas is/was going, but outside of nanotech the rules are sketchy or unplayable. It's really part of the big issue with the book - there's a fundamental identity crisis about whether it's supposed to be a rulebook that you adhere to or a toolbox that you pull from. Realistically, what you actually want is some common material broken up both into tech levels and into areas of technology, combined with longer setting writeups that give you progress levels for each area. d20 Future could have been the common material book, but they never published any setting follow-ons, the settings it does have are too short, and they assume progress is going to be uniform across settings even though this is obviously not the case.