TEXT: Written by PHIL MASTERS
  Edited by NIKOLA VRTIS
  Illustrated by ERIC DESCHAMPS,  
  RICHARD TAYLOR, and WILEY WIGGINS
  Additional Material by JAMAIS CASCIO, DAVID MORGAN-MAR,  
  KENNETH PETERS, DAVID L. PULVER, SEAN PUNCH, WILLIAM H. STODDARD, 
  CONSTANTINE THOMAS, and JONATHAN WOODWARD
  Reviewers: Roger Burton West, David Chart, S.A. Fisher, Vicky “Molokh” Kolenko, and Christopher R. Rice
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  STEVE JACKSON GAMES
  Stock #37-6716 
  Version 1.0 – November 2015
  ®
  GURPS System Design z STEVE JACKSON
  GURPS Line Editor z SEAN PUNCH
  Assistant GURPS Line Editor z JASON “PK” LEVINE
  Transhuman Space Line Editor z PHIL MASTERS
  GURPS Project Manager z STEVEN MARSH
  Production Artist and Indexer z NIKOLA VRTIS
  GURPS FAQ Maintainer z VICKY “MOLOKH” KOLENKO
  Chief Executive Officer z PHILIP REED
  Chief Operating Officer z SAMUEL MITSCHKE
  Managing Editor z MIRANDA HORNER
  Marketing Director z RHEA FRIESEN
  Director of Sales z ROSS JEPSON
  Page Design z PHIL REED and JUSTIN DE WITT
   Art Direction and Prepress Checker z NIKOLA VRTIS
  TM
  
  IntroductIon  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .3
  Nomenclature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  Publication History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  1 . BIoengIneerIng In the 21st century  .  .  .4
  Early Days  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 4
  Genetic Screening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  Genetic Tweaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Sapientogeny. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Synthetic Transplant Organs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  ImprovIng thE human .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 6
  Disease Immunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Upgraded Children. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  The Parahuman Controversy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Nature, Nurture, and Unintended Consequences. . . . . . . . 7
  uplIftIng anImals .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 8
  Mental Symbionts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
  BIoroID tEchnology .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 9
  Campaigns and Scandals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
  2 . nonhuman BIosapIents  
  In 2100 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 11
  attItuDEs  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 11
  Views of Bioroids and Bioshells . . . . . 11
  The “Reference Society”. . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  The Genetic Regulatory Agency. . . . . . . 13
  Legality Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
  Bioroids in Society. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
  The Outer System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  The Deep New Frontier . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  rulEs consIDEratIons  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 16
  The Meaning of “Species” . . . . . . . . . . 17
  Spot the Bioroid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
  Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
  Perks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
  Disadvantages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
  Quirks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
  Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
  Passing as an Imitation . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
  3 . enhanced nonhumanoId 
  creatures  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 22
  uplIftED anD aDaptED anImals  .  .  .  .  . 22
  New Species Perks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
  New Phobia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
  Taboo Trait (Fixed IQ). . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
  Guardian Bear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
  Just the Stats: Guardian Bear. . . . . . . . 23
  Just the Stats: Mars Hawk . . . . . . . . . . 23
  Mars Hawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
  Martian Fauna 1: Domesticates . . . . . . 24
  Dracofly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
  Genemod Goat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
  Pharm Cow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
  Octosap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
  Smartcat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
  Just the Stats: Octosap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
  Just the Stats: Smartcat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
  Martian Fauna 2: Wildlife. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
  Ice Weasel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
  Mini Bear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
  Sand Wolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
  Tika Bird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
  BIoroID “anImals” .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 27
  Cryptomorphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
  Just the Stats: Chupacabra. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
  Just the Stats: Sasquatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
  The Loch Ness Monster Bioroid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
  Destrier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
  Just the Stats: Destrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
  Just the Stats: Mars Camel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
  Mars Camel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
  Index .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .31
   
  Contents 
  2
  Contents
  About GURPS
  Steve Jackson Games is committed to full support of GURPS play-
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  updates, Q&A, and much more. To discuss GURPS with our staff 
  and your fellow gamers, visit our forums at forums.sjgames.com. 
  The web page for Transhuman Space: Bio-Tech 2100 can be found  
  at gurps.sjgames.com/bio-tech2100.
  Bibliographies. Many of our books have extensive bibliogra-
  phies, and we’re putting them online – with links to let you buy the 
  resources that interest you! Go to each book’s web page and look for 
  the “Bibliography” link.
  Errata. Everyone makes mistakes, including us – but we do our best to 
  fix our errors. Up-to-date errata pages for all GURPS releases, including 
  this book, are available on our website – see above.
  Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for the GURPS Basic 
  Set, Fourth Edition. Page references that begin with B refer to that book, 
  not this one.
  
  “Are you done, Hassan?” Mahmud as-Sulaymi spoke through 
  his wearable system as he sat on a rock outcrop, surveying the 
  stark beauty of the lifeless landscape.
  “Almost, Father,” Hassan replied politely. Mahmud glanced 
  toward him and saw that his son was emptying the last bag of 
  genemod grain onto the bare rock platform. The bioroid camels 
  were already responding to the sight and to the attractor pher-
  omones that Hassan had sprayed into the air moments before. 
  They were ambling over to eat; soon, they could be tranquilized 
  and herded back to the camp, where the family’s robots had 
  already finished repairing the damaged holding pens.
  Hassan turned and stepped away from the scattered fodder, 
  folding the bag to tuck it into his pack. Mahmud felt a surge of 
  fatherly pride; Hassan was a handsome boy as well as reliable. 
  His heavy build and thick pelt of mid-brown fur marked him 
  as truly adapted to the family’s new home. Mahmud shook his 
  head, reflecting that Hassan’s genetic modifications would make 
  him illegal, even an abomination, in the family’s old homeland. 
  Did those conservative fools in the Caliphate not see that Allah 
  had gifted men with intelligence for a reason?
  “Hey!”
  Mahmud looked up at Hassan’s cry, in time to see his son 
  diving hastily aside as one of the camels charged his back. He 
  must have heard the creature coming at the last moment. It 
  looked as though only the low Martian gravity had saved him 
  from being knocked down and trampled; even an involuntary 
  leap carried him meters aside.
  Hassan rolled and scrambled to his feet, scrabbling for the 
  tangler weapon at his belt as the camel lurched to a halt and 
  turned. Mahmud jumped from his rock and ran toward him.
  “Mahmud! Hassan!” It was Soraya on the radio. “I have ana-
  lyzed those grain samples. They have been tampered with – some 
  kind of psychoactive agent, I think.”
  Mahmud cursed himself silently as he ran. He was sure that 
  his wife was correct, and now Hassan was in danger of suffering 
  for his father’s foolish feuds.
  Transhuman Space: Bioroid Bazaar completed the 
  conversion of the game-mechanical treatment of all the 
  bioroid and parahuman types, and some of the more intel-
  ligent uplifted animals, from Third Edition Transhuman 
  Space supplements to GURPS Fourth Edition. However, in 
  creating that supplement, an additional need became clear: 
  an in-depth treatment of the whole subject of biotechnology 
  in Transhuman Space.
  That’s what you’re reading now: a discussion of the history 
  and social consequences of advanced biotech in Transhuman 
  Space. Of course, Bio-Tech 2100 is a supplement for a GURPS 
  setting, so it also offers appropriate game mechanics where 
  relevant, including game details for some radically nonhuman 
  creatures produced by the biotechnology it describes.
  nomenClAture
  In this volume, the series of supplements that defines the 
  game world are cited as Transhuman Space (in bold italics). 
  The setting itself – the solar system in the year 2100 – is referred 
  to as Transhuman Space, without boldface or italics. However, 
  campaigns exploring that setting are Transhuman Space 
  campaigns, because they are based on those supplements.
  PubliCAtion History
  The historical and social background discussions in this 
  supplement, and some of the game-mechanical details, draw 
  on multiple previous Transhuman Space books, but extend 
  and adapt those ideas. A little of this material also derives 
  from ideas in GURPS Bio-Tech, but substantially adapted for 
  this specific use. Some of the new perks are borrowed from 
  GURPS Power-Ups 2: Perks.
  About tHe AutHor
  Phil Masters is the Transhuman Space Line Editor and the 
  author of several previous supplements for the line, includ-
  ing Changing Times and Shell-Tech. He is British, has been 
  a roleplaying game writer for over 30 years, and has worked 
  with Steve Jackson Games for over 20 years, as well as writ-
  ing for Hero Games, White Wolf, Posthuman Studios, Osprey 
  Publishing, and others. His credits also include the Discworld 
  Roleplaying Game, the new edition of which should be out 
  real soon now. His website is at philmasters.org.uk.
  His own biomods are strictly limited to a few repair jobs.
   
  introduCtion 
  3
  introduCtion
  
   
  bioengineering in tHe 21st Century 
  4
  Numerous technologies have undergone impressive and 
  radical advances in Transhuman Space, but the application of 
  advanced biotechnology to sapient beings has had perhaps the 
  most startling and often disturbing consequences. On the one 
  hand, it may be making human beings better, in small but useful 
  ways. On the other hand, by creating children who belong to 
  whole different species from their parents, it may be bring-
  ing about the end of humanity – or at least its fragmentation.  
  It has also created completely new sapient entities, which 
  some humans see as partners but others treat as slaves.
  eArly dAys
  The craft of creating variant life forms is almost as old as 
  agriculture, in the form of selective breeding. It was put on 
  increasingly scientific footing by work such as that of Gregor 
  Mendel in the 19th century, but the most crucial develop-
  ments were probably the discovery of the structure of DNA 
  in the 1950s, and later the development of sequencing using 
  the polymerase chain reaction. Almost as important were 
  developments in medicine, such as blood typing in the early 
  part of the 20th century and transplant surgery in the latter 
  part. Medical scientists now could see the human body as 
  an assemblage of systems – hugely complex and subtle, to 
  be sure, but susceptible to manipulation nonetheless. Living 
  things, including human beings, might be engineered.
  With the mapping of the human genome (and others) at 
  the end of the 20th century, would-be genetic engineers had 
  a sketch map of the territory in which they would be work-
  ing. By then, they also had a developing toolkit for the actual 
  manipulations they wanted to attempt. Their next task was 
  to interpret that map and to prove that they could work on 
  human subjects while doing more good than harm.
  genetiC sCreening
  The first applications of the new knowledge were more 
  passive than active. Even before the human genome had been 
  fully mapped, scientists had identified some genetic features 
  as being associated with specific medical problems. Often, 
  these were points on the genome that were especially prone 
  to damage or deleterious mutations. They could also be genes 
  that were usually harmless, but which caused problems in 
  particular combinations or circumstances, including “reces-
  sives” that were only expressed and caused trouble if two cop-
  ies were present.
  Once these vulnerable points in the genetic code were iden-
  tified, the next step was to look for them before they could 
  create difficulties – perhaps in infancy, perhaps even sooner, 
  in the womb. (The tool set used for this may be considered one 
  of the defining features of TL8 biotechnology.) If a potential 
  problem was detected, it might be possible to apply preventa-
  tive measures, or at least early treatment. Unfortunately, other 
  applications of the knowledge were more controversial. Insur-
  ance companies would want to know if a possible client had 
  any potential health issues, which could lead them to refuse 
  coverage or charge higher prices. Likewise, if a problem was 
  detected in the womb, the fetus might be aborted. Any policy 
  involving abortion was controversial enough, and 
  things became even more challenging if the genetic 
  markers only indicated the possibility of a problem, 
  rather than the certainty of a serious disease.
  To make matters even more complicated 
  still, genetic screening could look for other 
  factors besides unambiguous problems. One 
  large and obvious issue was sex; allowing par-
  ents to insist on boys or girls was highly controversial at 
  best, especially insofar as might imply the termination of 
  large numbers of unwanted (but perfectly viable) fetuses.  
  CHAPter one
  bioengineering 
  in tHe 21st 
  Century
  Genetics is all about inheritance, but 
  inheritance is certainly not all about genetics.
  – Steve Jones, In the Blood
  
   
  bioengineering in tHe 21st Century 
  5
  Some parents might even be interested in trivia such as hair or 
  eye color – or issues such as sexuality, if they were convinced 
  that this had a significant enough genetic component. For that 
  matter, some “bad” genes could actually serve useful purposes 
  in particular circumstances; for example, the recessive gene 
  that causes sickle-cell anemia also grants a degree of resis-
  tance to malaria when only one instance is present. Screening 
  out everything that shortsighted or fashion-driven parents 
  happened to dislike could be quite dangerous for humanity in 
  the longer term.
  Hence, the early decades of the 21st century saw bio-
  technology both developing rapidly and becoming mired in 
  controversy. At times, it seemed that development might be 
  stopped dead by the social and legal issues. However, in an 
  increasingly globalized world, campaigners for the status quo 
  faced one overwhelming problem: Researchers, would-be 
  genetic tinkerers, and their clients could always go elsewhere, 
  to whichever jurisdiction limited them least.
  genetiC tweAks
  Meanwhile, the tools and knowledge that allowed 
  examination of genetic structures were being adapted and 
  enhanced to also permit those structures to be changed 
  – edited, in fact. Making alterations on a molecular scale 
  requires great subtlety and precision, but the trick turned 
  out to be entirely possible. And once the tools existed 
  to manipulate the genes in a fertilized ovum, it became 
  increasingly tempting to apply the knowledge of “good” 
  and “bad” genes. The obvious first step was to identify 
  any deleterious genes, edit them out, and replace them 
  with something better – the method that became known 
  as “genefixing.” This could even be presented as a way 
  around the problems caused by more passive screening 
  technologies; it was no longer necessary to abort a fetus if 
  any faults in its genes could be fixed instead. However, this 
  was tampering with human life at the most basic level, so 
  it was guaranteed to lead to arguments.
  Actually, genefixing was relatively uncontroversial so long 
  as the methods were used to eliminate life-threatening genetic 
  diseases. The techniques rapidly became an issue if the dan-
  gers involved from the genes were subtle or remote (e.g., a 
  10% greater chance of contracting cancer late in life). The 
  technology turned seriously problematic if the “dangers” were 
  of “conditions” such as below-average height or male-pattern 
  baldness. By 2050, most simple, unambiguous flaws were 
  fully understood, and genefixing to correct them was widely 
  regarded as the sort of thing that should be included in any 
  comprehensive health plan, but lesser and subtler concerns 
  would remain outstanding for decades to come. The matter 
  isn’t entirely resolved even in 2100. However, by then, humans 
  who weren’t genefixed suffered widespread prejudice, primar-
  ily in the form of higher health insurance premiums, but also 
  in the widespread assumption that their families were eccen-
  tric or reactionary.
  Nor were all the opponents of “genetic editing” cranky or 
  anti-scientific. One big concern among knowledgeable scien-
  tists and doctors was that genes rarely code for specific fea-
  tures in the adult organism. What they do is code for proteins, 
  or regulate the transcription of the ones that do code for pro-
  teins, controlling how much is produced, when, and where. 
  The presence of a protein at the right or wrong time can have 
  all sorts of consequences – some more obvious or easily pre-
  dicted than others. Some genes could cause problems in one 
  set of circumstances and benefits in others, depending entirely 
  on what other genes were present, or even on the external envi-
  ronment. Overconfident tinkerers could easily cause all sorts 
  of bizarre damage, then plead that they couldn’t have pre-
  dicted these results.
  Hence, the early days of human genetic engineering 
  involved the application of increasingly massive computer 
  resources in attempts to reduce this uncertainty – and more 
  than a few dangerous experiments by scientists who didn’t 
  want to wait, or who had wealthy clients who were in a hurry 
  for their “perfect” children. The period from about 2015 to 
  2055 saw, in effect, a race between scientists trying to model 
  everything that genes might do, and sponsors demanding 
  faster results. It was a race that produced some casualties and 
  disasters – some of whom are still alive in 2100.
  syntHetiC  
  trAnsPlAnt orgAns
  Medicine also tackled the subject of “making life” on a dif-
  ferent level. All too often, generally healthy humans were still 
  suffering or dying through the failure of individual organs, 
  due to accident or disease. Organ transplants had been devel-
  oped from the 1960s on, and had saved many lives, but there 
  was a perpetual shortage of donors, and in any case, trans-
  plant recipients usually had to spend the rest of their lives on a 
  regime of drugs to suppress their immune systems, which was 
  in itself quite dangerous.
  Hence, the idea of creating new artificial (but biological) 
  organs was immensely appealing. One useful tool for this con-
  sisted of stem cells – “undifferentiated” cells that can develop 
  into many types of tissue. Not only can these be used to create 
  new tissue for the person from whom they are extracted, but 
  by implanting new genes in them, they can also form the basis 
  of new organs that can safely be implanted in other recipients. 
  Unfortunately, in the very early days, one of the best sources 
  for stem cells was aborted early stage embryos, which made 
  early work in this field controversial. Even so, it proceeded 
  anyway, and alternative sources were soon identified; in 2100, 
  this work always uses “reprogrammed” adult cells.
  sAPientogeny
  “Sapientogeny” is a neologism occasionally encountered 
  in 2100, a term created to describe the whole subject of artifi-
  cial sapient biological creatures and, especially, the creation 
  thereof. It is not really a science or a field of study, except 
  in very broad terms. Rather, it is a label that can be applied 
  to a range of subjects related by their relevance, including 
  parts of several biological, medical, and psychological sci-
  ences. Sapientogeny also can be regarded as a new kind of 
  engineering – a practical craft drawing on those sciences.
  Sapientogeny is a broader but shallower topic than 
  human genetic engineering (“HuGE”); the creatures and 
  genes involved do not have to be human in origin. In GURPS 
  terms, the word can be used for an Expert Skill; see p. 21.
  
   
  bioengineering in tHe 21st Century 
  6
  The first safety tests with a transplanted lab-grown retina 
  took place in 2014, and the creation of the first lab-grown 
  human hearts for transplant in 2023 marked the maturity 
  of the initial stage in this technology. By that point, almost 
  every organ in the human body (apart from the brain!) could 
  be replaced, and some biotechnologists quietly boasted 
  that they could sometimes improve on the original organ, 
  although long-term dangers remained uncertain and the 
  risks of surgery were still not entirely trivial. The technol-
  ogy continued to evolve through the century, merging with 
  the newer field of medical nanoengineering along the way; 
  organs could be designed and built from the cellular level 
  up (usually using the patient’s skin cells, reprogrammed), 
  and eventually the new designs could be made to integrate 
  smoothly with the recipient’s body.
  imProving tHe HumAn
  “Genefixing” is usually portrayed as a passive process; the 
  new fetus is checked for problems, and if any are found, they 
  are corrected. Genetic problems are often referred to as “dam-
  age,” but this is slightly misleading; some of them may have 
  been present, if not expressed, in the parents’ genomes for 
  several generations. Still, ethicists and advertising standards 
  bodies have managed to enforce the principle that the only 
  effects deliberately “edited out” in a process sold as genefixing 
  should be those that are more or less universally classed as 
  problems. Likewise, synthetic transplant organs were origi-
  nally designed to emulate the behavior of an optimally healthy 
  organ as closely as possible, but no more.
  As biotechnology advanced, though, the applications 
  increasingly moved from repairing patients and preventing 
  sickness by eliminating flaws to actually making humans bet-
  ter. The right combination of genes might produce offspring 
  with potential near the limits of normal human capabilities. 
  By throwing ever more computer power at the subject –  
  especially once quantum computers were available for work 
  on the complexities of genetic expression and on protein fold-
  ing – scientists could suggest new gene sequences, never seen 
  in nature, that could make offspring better still (for some per-
  sonal definitions of “better”). Likewise, synthetic organs could 
  be designed to improve on the products of evolution – inspir-
  ing the temptation to transplant them into healthy recipients.
  This was all very well, but as with genefixing, the possibility 
  of unintended consequences (maybe emerging years down the 
  line) tormented thoughtful researchers. Treatments were even 
  developed that could grant major benefits at the expense of 
  needing regular medical attention – a price that some custom-
  ers were prepared to pay, but which raised questions about 
  long-term costs, possible failures of medical infrastructure, 
  and restrictions on the patient’s life choices. Needless to say, 
  cynics assumed that medical companies would be delighted 
  to provide treatments that guaranteed them repeat busi-
  ness, and sometimes they were right.
  “Human genetic design” continued to advance in 
  theory even when law or ethics restricted it in prac-
  tice. Likewise, replacement organ design became 
  increasingly sophisticated and generally safer. At 
  worst, in 2100, enhanced organs merely degrade to 
  the same level of performance as the normal version 
  over a period of years without maintenance, and are 
  very unlikely to fail catastrophically.
  uPgrAded CHildren
  By the late 2040s, parents in some areas could pay 
  to have their unborn children genetically upgraded – 
  upgrading being defined as the inclusion of genetic 
  sequences which were neither derived from the par-
  ents nor corrections to proven problems, but which 
  were expected to produce advantageous effects. 
  Mostly, these sequences came from other human 
  genomes (which was sometimes described as giv-
  ing the child three or more parents), but in a few 
  cases, details of a sequence might be designed 
  from scratch, with no known human precedent.  
  diseAse immunity
  One area of research that has been a lot more successful by 
  2100 than pessimists feared is enhancements to the immune sys-
  tem. Biomods and genetic adjustments can make recipients more 
  resistant to infectious agents than their ancestors, producing 
  considerable improvements to general quality of life. But this is 
  harder than many people realize, and these successes are a credit 
  to numerous diligent medical scientists.
  Unfortunately, a creature’s immune system can be quite dan-
  gerous to the creature itself. There is a whole category of “auto-
  immune disorders” – such as pernicious anemia, lupus, and 
  rheumatoid arthritis – which are just as bad as most infectious 
  diseases. Bioengineers have become adept at sidestepping these 
  problems and producing safe immunity boosts, but they can’t 
  afford to become complacent. Several horror stories from the 
  early days of enhancement research served to set the standing 
  of the field back quite badly (see, for example, J7-S53, Bioroid 
  Bazaar, pp. 15-16), and supervising committees will quote them 
  freely when faced with overenthusiastic researchers.
  . . . And they want to be useful, my little noses. Bio-artificing for  
  the next century . . . None of that outmoded cutting up of old bodies –
  – Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant
  
   
  bioengineering in tHe 21st Century 
  7
  Still, “upgrades” are fully human and naturally 
  interfertile with other humans, occasional odd 
  genetic compatibility issues notwithstanding. How-
  ever, they are not guaranteed to be superior; plenty 
  of “natural” humans outperform the majority of 
  upgrades in every respect. Unpredictable genetic 
  synergies, upbringing, and sheer luck always count 
  for a lot, whatever the clinics’ advertisements might 
  like to hint.
  Even so, upgrading gave enough of an edge that 
  it was bound to be politically controversial, espe-
  cially as it was very expensive to begin with. It 
  seemed that the wealthy had found a new way to 
  extend their privileges to their children. This objec-
  tion, mostly heard from political radicals, along 
  with simpler conservative objections to “meddling,” 
  made life difficult for the first couple of genera-
  tions of upgrades. Inherited wealth meant that few 
  of them exactly grew up feeling downtrodden, but 
  plenty of older upgrades still won’t admit to their 
  own genotype if they can help it. Additionally, a number 
  of middle-aged individuals, often from very wealthy families, 
  suffer from serious genetic problems caused by overambi-
  tious genetic adjustments. At one time, it was joked darkly 
  that genetic diseases were becoming diseases of prosperity.
  However, the controversy declined in the 2070s as upgrade 
  treatments not only became quite reliable, but fell sharply  
  in cost, putting them within the reach of more than the 
  wealthy – just in time for it to be replaced by an issue that 
  made concerns over upgrading look completely trivial.
  tHe PArAHumAn 
  Controversy
  The creation of “parahumans” was almost an inevitable 
  consequence of advances in practical genetics. Having moved 
  on from simply eliminating problems to ensuring the pres-
  ence of desirable traits, researchers dreamed of designing 
  completely new genetic sequences which made the resulting 
  offspring much “better” (that is, closer to someone’s arbitrary 
  objectives). The exact meaning of “parahuman” is occasionally 
  disputed, but the usual working definition is a new human- 
  derived being not naturally interfertile with normal unmodi-
  fied humans. This usually implies the presence of completely 
  new genetic sequences, or configurations which result in an 
  automatic mismatch when such a couple tries to have chil-
  dren. This makes parahumans members of a different species 
  from Homo sapiens, by most biologists’ definitions.
  Even so, borderline cases exist. Some genetic templates 
  using unusual but not completely synthetic sequences merely 
  make interfertility highly unlikely or lead to technically via-
  ble but disabled offspring. For that matter, a few unmodified 
  human couples find that they have problems having children 
  together due to some kind of genetic incompatibility. Defini-
  tions of “species” are debatable, too.
  Hence, parahuman engineering made even people who 
  were comfortable with genefixing and upgrading uneasy. 
  The paranoid concern was that this would lead to the exis-
  tence of multiple sapient species, who would then “inev-
  itably” come into “Darwinian” conflict, leading to bloody 
  wars until only one was left. A slightly less extreme but no 
  less serious concern was that the most advanced and hence 
  expensive parahuman templates would inevitably become 
  the preserve of the rich, producing a “genetic elite” who 
  would mostly confine themselves to other members of the 
  same group for marriage and parenthood while regarding the 
  mass of humanity – correctly – as a different, “lesser” species. 
  Another, long-term concern was that making humanity into 
  multiple species would make it more difficult for any of them 
  to survive large-scale catastrophes; the survivors would have 
  a much harder job restoring the human population without 
  access to lost technologies.
  This last concern is exacerbated by the fact that most 
  advanced parahuman designs actually incorporate “Genetics 
  Rights Management” features, making them entirely sterile 
  without high-tech intervention. The tools to permit such a 
  parahuman to reproduce are only legally accessible to who-
  ever holds the copyright on the design. This gives parahuman 
  engineering even more of an image problem among some 
  political radicals who aren’t necessarily too concerned by the 
  theoretical threat to human survival; many templates are very 
  explicitly the property of the intellectual property-monopoliz-
  ing capitalist elite. Of course, parahuman designs created or 
  pirated and modified in the Transpacific Socialist Alliance lack 
  these features; general TSA policy is actually broadly favor-
  able to parahuman engineering, proclaiming that nanosocial-
  ism will make it available to the downtrodden masses – which 
  in turn gives political conservatives grounds for suspicion of 
  the whole idea.
  Throw in the older, simpler aversion to “meddling with 
  human nature,” and worries about parents imposing their 
  prejudices on their unborn offspring, and it was inevitable 
  that parahuman development work would often be prohib-
  ited or severely restricted. However, it proved impossible to 
  stop. People – some of them very rich – wanted “the best” for 
  their children, or wanted children as beautiful status sym-
  bols, and the black and gray labs were by now experts at 
  evading legal restraints.
  Some of the earliest development took place off Earth, or 
  at least was aimed at the space market, as “normal” humans 
  were obviously unfit for various environments which human 
  factions wanted to settle. Hence, Mars-adapted and zero-grav-
  ity types appeared in the later 2050s.
  nAture, nurture, And 
  unintended ConsequenCes
  The depiction of human genetic engineering in Transhuman 
  Space tends to combine optimism with genetic determinism. 
  That is to say, doctors in the setting have identified genes respon-
  sible for a wide range of problems and engineered them out with-
  out too many undesirable side effects. This is a feature of the 
  setting, taken from “transhumanist” thinking and hopeful predic-
  tions about genetic research.
  However, it’s perfectly possible to play up the likely prob-
  lems and limitations with all this. A GM seeking to take this 
  approach might want to look at the notes on Nature Versus 
  Nurture, Unintended Disadvantages, and Linked Traits in GURPS 
  Bio-Tech, p. 40 and pp. 61-62.
  
   
  bioengineering in tHe 21st Century 
  8
  On Earth, though, having one’s children made parahuman 
  looked too troublesome and controversial for most parents – 
  who would want children who might not be able to have chil-
  dren of their own without medical intervention, when normal 
  children with ordinary medical treatments could be about as 
  healthy and capable? Brief fads for odd designs such as the 
  Brownie (Fifth Wave, pp. 115-116) and government-backed 
  “econiche” projects like the Misha (Fifth Wave, p. 115) actu-
  ally did more harm than good for the idea, as however healthy 
  Brownies were, and however well-suited Mishas were to cold 
  conditions, they just looked weird.
  This set of attitudes remained widespread on the home 
  planet until 2075, when the Ziusudra “ideal” design gave 
  parahuman technology the good publicity it needed. Despite 
  careful triple-checking of the published gene sequences, no 
  respectable expert could deny that Ziusudras would grow up a 
  small but significant bit better than ordinary humans, on aver-
  age. However many of the old doubts persisted, a substantial 
  number of rich parents were prepared to pay for this design. 
  Over the following years, many (though not all) remaining 
  legal systems “bowed to the inevitable” and legalized the pro-
  cess, albeit usually with various controls and restrictions. In 
  bioconservative regions such as Europe, it is still difficult or 
  impossible to arrange for one’s offspring to be parahuman, 
  but the rules are more relaxed elsewhere. Wealthy “HuGE 
  tourists” often are happy to pay for the services of clinics in 
  those less restrictive nations.
  Nonetheless, concerns about parahuman engineering are 
  still widespread in 2100, although they are a lot less preva-
  lent than they were a few decades earlier. People have simply 
  become accustomed to the presence of parahumans in 
  global society. While some of the worries about them 
  forming a wealth-based elite are looking partly justi-
  fied, enough wealthy people are sufficiently conserva-
  tive to ensure that many rich children are still born 
  Homo sapiens. (Those living in places like Europe who 
  don’t wish to go elsewhere for treatment have no choice.) 
  Meanwhile, human-parahuman (and parahuman- 
  different parahuman) romances are not only happen-
  ing, but they are producing offspring – with assistance 
  from genetic engineers, of course. Most of these chil-
  dren are the same species as the parahuman parent. 
  However, a few are born human, and others use com-
  pletely different genetic templates. Still, bioconser-
  vative opposition to human-germline modification 
  remains a common political position.
  People who think that way frequently make an 
  exception for off-world development, though. Mem-
  bers of the public who see Brownies as weird and Ziu-
  sudras as sinister elitists are often prepared to regard 
  Tennins and Red Bears as heroic – and safely distant –  
  pioneers. Hence, parahuman engineering is often 
  much less regulated off Earth than on, whatever the 
  national jurisdiction.
  uPlifting AnimAls
  In the early decades of the 21st century, from the point of 
  view of researchers who were interested in pure science, all 
  the controversy around human genetic technology often made 
  it seem far too much effort – especially when other areas of 
  research avoided those problems. Admittedly, research using 
  animals remained differently controversial throughout the 
  century, and the sometimes-violent protesters became ever 
  more uneasy the more radical the genetic work became. At 
  least it was easier to get funding for animal work; those pro-
  testers had less clout with the politicians and institutions than 
  the ones who were worried about “monster children.” The 
  animal-rights activists also were slightly less internationally 
  mobile, which meant that researchers who were prepared to 
  move from country to country in search of the most relaxed 
  regulatory authorities could usually get away from them.
  Hence, a whole branch of applied genetic research using 
  complex nonhuman animals developed away from the spotlight 
  of controversy which had focused on human-oriented work.  
  A large subset of that group of researchers developed an inter-
  est in questions such as the nature of consciousness, or more 
  practically, the creation of genetically modified animals better 
  suited to complex tasks. Breakthroughs in the understanding 
  of human brain function lead researchers to look at animal 
  brains with an eye to working out what was different there – 
  and genetic engineering was becoming powerful enough that 
  the temptation to explore the topic by practical experiments 
  began to look irresistible.
  The first real innovation in the field of “animal uplifts” 
  (a term borrowed from science fiction) came in the 2030s. 
  Biotech Euphrates, a genetic-engineering company which 
  had pioneered the art of avoiding regulation through inter-
  national mobility, had made a large fortune by selling genet-
  ically engineered crops to the developing world, and the 
  corporate owners were now looking for places to invest it.  
  
   
  bioengineering in tHe 21st Century 
  9
  Pushing legal and ethical limits had made the company a lot 
  of money, so the controversial nature of uplift work actually 
  made it more tempting for them. In 2033, they produced their 
  first more-or-less sapient dog.
  It was an early design, of course, with its full share of 
  problems. The company never made more than modest prof-
  its from customers who wanted smarter pets, more versatile 
  guard or search animals, or intimidating but fully trainable 
  (and more disposable) troops. Still, that first “super-dog” is 
  universally acknowledged in 2100 to be the direct predecessor 
  of the modern K-10A.
  Uplift engineering then slowed down, though the work 
  never stopped entirely. Biotech Euphrates wasn’t making 
  much money from dogs, and better computer modeling 
  made physical experiments in brain design look expen-
  sive and clumsy. Additionally, other species offered fewer 
  possibilities. Dogs are trainable and already quite smart; 
  have breeding generations short enough to allow projects to 
  achieve useful results in just a few years; and were already 
  familiar in biotech laboratories. Other animals looked to be 
  a lot more work for less profit. By the 2040s, various com-
  panies were working hard on dolphins, partly because they 
  were naturally smart creatures with big brains, but mostly 
  because the U.S. Navy and some of its counterparts else-
  where offered generous research budgets (and ways around 
  annoying ethics boards) for the creation of aquatic soldiers. 
  Even so, reliable dolphin uplift methods were only developed 
  in the late 2050s. For the most part, animal uplifts are the 
  product of the last couple of decades of the 21st century, 
  when the costs of genetic engineering fell to the point that 
  the creation of worker animals for quite specialized markets 
  finally looked economically viable.
  bioroid teCHnology
  The creation of bioroids – artificial biological beings, at 
  least potentially capable of full sapience – was partly an 
  accident, arising mostly from advances in artificial organ 
  production. Essentially, as biotechnology advanced, medi-
  cal scientists determined that they could produce working 
  facsimiles of every organ in the body, as well as “wet nano-
  tech” systems which could replicate many metabolic func-
  tions. Further, medical scientists had gained considerable 
  experience in combining multiple synthetic organs, origi-
  nally in order to perform repairs on the victims of especially 
  severe accidents.
  That mostly just left the brain, as artificial brains obvi-
  ously weren’t needed for transplants – but academics had 
  worked on constructing organic brains from scratch, for 
  purposes such as abortive “biocomputer” projects and as test 
  beds for neural interface systems and other fields of research.  
  mentAl symbionts
  Genetic uplift is still a young technology with serious 
  limits, even in the runaway-science world of 2100. One 
  of the most severe is that giving a modified version of 
  a nonsapient species a larger, more powerful, functional 
  brain is hard. Even where designers seem to succeed, 
  regression or other forms of instability may emerge as 
  the uplifted creatures mature, or metabolic stresses or 
  neurological problems with the brain’s connections to 
  the body can be catastrophic. Some designers mutter 
  that rules preventing them from using human genetic 
  sequences don’t help, but actually, that’s a small issue; it 
  wouldn’t be possible simply to give a dog or an octopus a 
  human brain, after all.
  Hence, some projects go for a quick workaround. 
  By installing implant computers with specialist AIs in 
  young animals, and training the creature and AI to work 
  together, they aim to increase the creature’s useful abil-
  ities by handing off a proportion of mental processes to 
  software. War-dops (Under Pressure, p. 102) and rat 
  kings (Deep Beyond, p. 114) demonstrate two versions of 
  this approach.
  However, AIs have problems and limitations of their 
  own. Computers can’t simply integrate with organic 
  brains; they work in completely different ways. Hence, 
  they have to interface – which is a complex problem and 
  not something that can be part of a quick workaround. 
  Humans mostly interface with implant computers using 
  language, but animals don’t have human-level language 
  centers in their brains. Less competent designers rely too 
  much on pleasure and discomfort as response induction 
  mechanisms, which rarely leaves the adult animal psy-
  chologically stable; a better solution seems to be to install 
  subtle connections to the creature’s sensorium and then 
  take years to train the creature and its enhancement soft-
  ware to understand each other.
  That in turn runs into other problems, though. Arti-
  ficial intelligences built on standard architectures are 
  mostly designed to understand human thought processes; 
  they can suffer a sort of mental stress through extended 
  attempts to deal with a nonhuman mind. Conversely, an 
  AI that does become used to working with a boosted crea-
  ture may adopt some of its priorities and cognitive modes, 
  so that the gestalt becomes, at best, a fairly smart ani-
  mal with a Web connection, rather than a sapient being. 
  Likewise, attempts to program AIs to serve as emotion-
  ally detached “super-egos” can produce deeply confused 
  beings which act like unthinking animals with digital 
  observers inside their heads.
  Research is ongoing, but this is not a mature technol-
  ogy in Transhuman Space. Mental symbiont characters 
  should always be treated as unpredictable. If they are PCs, 
  an unusually high level of mental disadvantages may be 
  required, and many of those disadvantages should be the 
  sort that other players will dislike.
  
   
  bioengineering in tHe 21st Century 
  10
  Researchers then proved that they could “program” them 
  with “direct neural education” technologies, which worked 
  far better with constructed brains than they ever could with 
  naturally grown organs, because the former had well-docu-
  mented, regular structures that could be designed from the 
  start to receive these inputs.
  The idea of putting all of this together to build a complete 
  “artificial person” was bound to occur to someone. Although 
  ethical considerations deterred many researchers, biotechnol-
  ogy was hotly fashionable in the 2050s and 2060s, with a lot 
  of money pouring in and backers looking for new sources of 
  profit. Hence, the first bioroid animals were created in sev-
  eral different labs in 2064, followed by the first humanoids 
  in 2067. Again, much of the development was done in space, 
  avoiding a lot of inconvenient regulation.
  Actually, Biotech Euphrates researchers largely conducted 
  this work, despite the fact that the company saw little profit in 
  that direction and still in 2100 regards genetic engineering as 
  its most important line of business by far. It says much about 
  both Biotech Euphrates and bioroid development work that 
  the latter happened essentially as a side effect of the former’s 
  research program.
  Many people saw these creations as faintly distasteful 
  curiosities with no real function – after all, it wasn’t as if the 
  world was short of real humans, or cybershells to do the jobs 
  that humans couldn’t – but others saw interesting possibili-
  ties in the idea. “Bioroids” (the term was coined in a series 
  of early academic papers, and avoided being trademarked 
  because too many companies tried to lay claim to it) were 
  usually described as “organic robots” rather than as synthetic 
  life forms, but with some of the same advantages as “true liv-
  ing things.” They were self-repairing, could run on the same 
  “fuel” as humans, and looked human enough that human 
  workers were sometimes easier to convince of their “friend-
  liness” than was the case with mechanical robots. (Bioshell 
  robots, which were developed in parallel with 
  organic-brained bioroids, ultimately turned 
  out to be a harder sell; see The Bioshell Memetic 
  Problem, pp. 14-15.) Their human appearance 
  also made them suitable for use in the sex indus-
  try – something that was not mentioned much in 
  early promotional campaigns.
  Hence, although uptake of bioroid tech-
  nology was quicker in some areas than others, 
  and large pockets of strong antipathy or ethical 
  doubt never disappeared, bioroids were in use in 
  many parts of the globe by 2080. They were also 
  quickly adopted by parts of the burgeoning space 
  development industry, as they avoided some of 
  the medical problems to which human work-
  ers were subject while standing in usefully for 
  humans in applications where cybershells still 
  didn’t perform quite well enough.
  CAmPAigns  
  And sCAndAls
  The expansion of the bioroid industry was fast 
  and poorly controlled, despite numerous ethical 
  debates. Ensuing problems were inevitable, and 
  surprised few observers. The most important 
  single incident was the Clarke-1 scandal, as described in High 
  Frontier, pp. 89-90.
  In brief, Clarke-1 is an orbital factory, constructed by the 
  German company Spitzbergen Vakuumfabrik in 2067. In 2073, 
  the company commissioned a vacuum-adapted bioroid design 
  to work there, despite which, the company subsequently hit 
  serious business problems. In 2080, it was discovered to be 
  exploiting and maltreating its bioroid staff, and the reports 
  and images produced by investigators shocked Europe.
  This led directly to the prohibition of the bioroid indus-
  try throughout the E.U., which has persisted to 2100. Euro-
  peans have come to think of bioroid production as modern 
  slavery, and they often believe that their laws make them mor-
  ally superior to other nations. Bioroids in Europe are treated 
  as free sapient beings and are much more widely pitied than 
  despised; they usually are assumed to be remnants of the “bad 
  old days” or refugees from “slave-owning” regions. None-
  theless, a nontrivial fraction of the E.U. population retains 
  older, more hostile attitudes, sometimes with a preserva-
  tionist tinge, sometimes just human-chauvinistic. (This may 
  rate as the Intolerance disadvantage or just as a quirk.) Con-
  versely, non-Europeans are often still accustomed to regard-
  ing bioroids as “robots made of meat,” and see the European 
  attitude as sentimental and delusional.
  In fact, European attitudes sometimes clash with practi-
  cal realities. Some bioroids feel badly condescended to in 
  the E.U., while others, arriving there after being created for 
  service elsewhere, find the adjustment to freedom impossibly 
  hard. Additionally, occasional problems arise with bioroids 
  who would like to create more of their own kind as compan-
  ions or “children,” which is illegal under E.U. law. If anything, 
  though, the problem is worse in the South African Coalition, 
  where radical philosophies which treat bioroids as fully equal 
  sometimes rub directly up against Third Wave cultures which 
  don’t know what to make of them at all.
  . . . we are endowed, with 
  the same Faculties, with our 
  Masters, and there is nothing, 
  that leads us to a Belief,  
  or Suspicion, that we are any 
  more obliged to serve them, 
  than they us . . .
  – Petition of 1779 by slaves 
  of Fairfield County, 
  Connecticut
  
   
  nonHumAn biosAPients in 2100 
  11
  The tangled history of biotechnology in the 21st century 
  has left Transhuman Space with an equally tangled set of atti-
  tudes, laws, and ethical codes. Humanity has had plenty of 
  opportunity to get used to most of these developments, but 
  that doesn’t mean that everything is accepted everywhere, or 
  that rules and customs have fully adapted yet.
  Attitudes
  Tinkering with the basics of life provokes a lot of taboos 
  and instinctive responses, challenging people’s basic sense of 
  identity. It also interacts with countless established customs 
  and beliefs. Religious leaders, politicians, and lawyers are 
  still struggling with the implications, and sometimes, people 
  resort to simple responses which have unexpected ramifica-
  tions. Even when two people both declare themselves “in favor 
  of” or “hostile to” a particular implementation of biotechnol-
  ogy, their motives and logic may be completely different.
  views of bioroids  
  And biosHells
  For example, some people oppose the creation of bioroids 
  because bioroids are created as “slaves” and they regard slav-
  ery as wrong; others because it is “meddling in God’s domain”; 
  still others because bioroids might one day decide to revolt 
  and wipe out humanity; and others again because bioroids 
  may take paying work away from impoverished humans. 
  Some people realize that legalized bioroid creation will under-
  mine their own profitable illegal operations, but they mask 
  attempts to stop it with other justifications. Conversely, dif-
  ferent people may campaign for bioroid construction to be 
  permitted because bioroids will save humans from having to 
  perform dull or dangerous work, because they think that max-
  imum diversity of intelligent life is a good thing in itself, or 
  because existing bioroids should have a fundamental right to 
  have “children” of their own.
  Furthermore, although players may see bioroids as sapi-
  ent beings very similar to humans – after all, they might play 
  them as PCs! – that opinion is not universal in the setting, even 
  among humans who know bioroids. The fact is, bioroids were 
  conceived and designed as “biological robots,” and although 
  their brains, being modeled on the human (or at least mam-
  malian) pattern, tend to work in a somewhat human way, 
  anyone who has extended dealings with typical bioroids will 
  tend to get the feeling that they have shallow, sketchy person-
  alities, all run off the same production line. Exceptions exist 
  (including, no doubt, the majority of bioroid PCs), and some 
  of these make forceful and convincing speakers for the cause 
  of bioroid rights, but opponents of that cause can be sincere 
  in their doubts.
  The existence of so many combat-model bioroids mud-
  dies the waters further, especially as repressive governments 
  often employ them. Too many people see bioroids not only 
  as robots, but also as killer robots, or have more personal, 
  visceral reasons to fear or hate them. Such people may have 
  had friends or family slain by bioroid soldiers, or have faced 
  bioroids in combat, and although bioroids in general are 
  capable of displaying restraint and even compassion, it’s very 
  easy for their makers to educate them to kill without mercy 
  or compunction.
  CHAPter two
  nonHumAn 
  biosAPients  
  in 2100
  Everybody’s always in favor of 
  saving Hitler’s brain. But when you 
  put it in the body of a great white 
  shark – uuuh, suddenly you’ve gone 
  too far!
  – Professor Hubert Farnsworth,  
  in Futurama #2.15
  
   
  nonHumAn biosAPients in 2100 
  12
  All of this helps explain why official positions on bioroid 
  rights are so often confused, overcomplicated, or plain strange.
  Regional Variations
  Attitudes aren’t even automatically consistent within 
  national populations, and can change over time. For exam-
  ple, in China as on much of Earth, bioroids are treated as 
  social inferiors, lacking full civil rights; as bioroid manu-
  facture is not heavily restricted, they are seen as mass-pro-
  duced “drone workers,” giving them Social Stigma (Minority 
  Group) in GURPS terms. However, in the Chinese colony on 
  Mars, bioroid workers are seen as an essential part of the 
  effort to render the planet habitable, and are generally treated 
  with respect. This is encouraged by the Martian Chinese gov-
  ernment, which wants a harmonious workforce and knows 
  that they can’t operate without a lot of contented bioroids; 
  government sources refer to them as zhongdian renkou, the 
  “special population.” Bioroids still suffer enough restrictions 
  and occasional prejudice to justify Social Stigma (Second-
  Class Citizen), but no worse.
  A similar situation is developing in Japan, where an aging- 
  but-technophile human population has come to see bioroids 
  as immensely useful, respectful, efficient “helper-workers,” 
  worthy of a certain amount of paternalistic affection. SAIs 
  have already moved from Minority Group to Second-Class 
  Citizen status in that country, and bioroids will surely 
  follow soon.
  Elsewhere, policies are driven by philosophy or 
  theology, heavily modified by circumstances. Nota-
  bly, in the Islamic Caliphate, the creation of bioroids 
  is now permitted, after originally being prohibited 
  as a blasphemous imitation of the work of God. 
  However, the ruling that allowed this specified that 
  bioroids had to serve in menial, inferior roles. Also, 
  most are specifically designed not to appear human 
  (see the Busr, Broken Dreams, p. 121), to avoid the 
  taint of blasphemy; exceptions such as the Houri 
  (Broken Dreams, p. 122) have severe problems, 
  and human-seeming bioroids entering the Caliphate 
  from outside are likely to find themselves hunted. 
  While bioroids in the alliance are nominally given 
  some rights and receive a little respect from more 
  liberal, sophisticated citizens, they rate as having 
  Social Stigma (Subjugated) in GURPS terms. But 
  even here, attitudes vary by location; sophisticated 
  city-dwellers tend to be more relaxed about bioroid 
  technology than devout backwoodsmen.
  Legal Complications
  The law tends to follow public opinion on bio-
  technological matters in most places – after all, it’s 
  made by politicians who know the benefits of keep-
  ing the population happy – but it has to be slightly 
  more logical, and sometimes, hard lobbying by cor-
  porations or even scientists can modify things. There 
  are also places where the people in charge don’t have 
  to care about popular opinion. And, sometimes, the 
  details of the law are complicated by accidents of 
  wording or eccentric precedents.
  Hence, for example, the South African Coalition 
  is dominated by the Fifth Wave power of South 
  Africa. Its successful biotechnology corporations in 
  turn heavily influence this country, and its citizens 
  pride themselves on a nigh-transhumanist social phi-
  losophy and a contempt for prejudice. As a result, bioroids 
  are granted full citizenship throughout the Coalition, which 
  has one of the most liberal policies on this subject in the 
  world. However, in some member states, public attitudes 
  are a lot less liberal than the laws; bioroids may be seen as 
  weird and as threats to the jobs held by poor human citizens, 
  while local religious beliefs may be hostile. Worse, bioroid 
  soldiers have been employed in wars in the region and have 
  been used to commit their share of atrocities, while unso-
  phisticated locals may confuse bioroids and bioshells, espe-
  cially “necromorph” bioshells made from human corpses 
  (see p. 14), which are a frequent subject of outrage. Hence, 
  citizen bioroids may run into people who regard them with 
  Intolerance, and in some places, a Social Stigma could rep-
  resent their functional standing.
  Conversely, bioroids suffer from routine if mild legal 
  restrictions in India. This country mostly follows more 
  negative international ideas on the subject, with an extra 
  twist of hostility from the large local Muslim population, 
  which tends to see bioroid construction as blasphemous.  
  tHe “referenCe soCiety”
  Any GURPS campaign must have what GURPS Social 
  Engineering calls a “reference society.” This is the society within 
  which the characters live, or where they conduct most of their 
  social interactions; hence, it determines what Social Stigmas 
  and forms of Status are appropriate for PCs, sets the baseline 
  tech level, and so on. This is very important in Transhuman 
  Space games, where neighboring societies may treat the same 
  person very differently. For example, a media team based in the 
  E.U. might include a youthful bioroid (with an interesting back-
  story) with Social Stigma (Minor), and a full citizen SAI with no 
  social disadvantages and high personal wealth. But if the team 
  travels to, say, the United States, the bioroid might find itself 
  treated as having Social Stigma (Minority Group), while the SAI 
  could be classed as Valuable Property. Furthermore, if the SAI 
  develops a taste for occupying rented bioshells while abroad, it 
  will need to keep the fact quiet when it gets home to avoid acquir-
  ing a negative Reputation. There are often workarounds for such 
  things – the bioroid might be assigned a nominal “supervisor” 
  from within the team for the duration of the visit, while the SAI 
  might be registered as the property of an E.U.-based company 
  (whose sole shareholder is the SAI), but it is still a significant 
  aspect of the setting.
  The reference-society concept usually works well, but it can 
  hit problems with full-on globetrotting campaigns, in which PC 
  groups regularly travel between areas with very different attitudes 
  and perhaps include citizens of several different societies. The 
  GM and players may find a way to agree on appropriate social 
  traits for protagonists based on how they can usually expect to be 
  treated in practice, but in some cases, it may even be necessary to 
  take multiple traits, each with a limitation “Only when in (Area 
  X),” with a value determined by what proportion of their time the 
  group expects to operate in that area.
  
   
  nonHumAn biosAPients in 2100 
  13
  However, popular attitudes are heavily influenced by the 
  highly active, fashion-prone Indian InVid industry. All it 
  seems to take is a few productions with “romantic outsider” 
  bioroid protagonists, or heroes battling against the evil  
  of bioroid slavery, and a large proportion of the population 
  will treat any bioroids they meet (which admittedly is few 
  outside of the big, wealthy cities) with much more sympathy. 
  These are notoriously transient memes, but fashions have 
  turned that way often enough that a definite undercurrent 
  of mild pro-bioroid feeling runs through the population 
  at large. Unfortunately, this sometimes serves as a badge 
  of distinctiveness for anti-Muslim elements, which in turn 
  means that government memeticists, tasked with maintain-
  ing social stability, rarely encourage pro-bioroid feeling.
  Why Buy Bioroids?
  All these complications may make someone wonder why 
  anyone would purchase or commission a bioroid, even in 
  an area where this is legal and socially acceptable. After all, 
  bioroids are usually quite expensive; require food, air, and 
  attention; and occasionally rebel or run away. A cheap cyber-
  shell is often more robust and nearly as versatile (especially 
  if it has an LAI installed), and few people will object if you 
  scrap it at the end of its useful life. Even if someone develops 
  a sentimental attachment to the controlling AI, the owner can 
  always transfer that to a newer shell.
  There are actually several reasons why the bioroid indus-
  try survives. Despite their sometimes complicated social sit-
  uation, bioroids are often more acceptable in human society 
  than AIs; many people prefer to deal with a smiling organic 
  face than a metal box. The sex bioroid industry takes this 
  principle to an extreme – although VR and slinky sex can be 
  impressively realistic, many customers still insist that it’s “not 
  the same.” Bioroid servants and bodyguards have become 
  status symbols in some circles, being associated with rich, 
  high-status (and often ruthless) employers.
  tHe genetiC regulAtory AgenCy
  The Genetic Regulatory Agency (GRA) was founded 
  in 2056 as an office of the European Union, although 
  Switzerland also worked with it from the outset – indeed, 
  its first headquarters was in Geneva. Its original mis-
  sion was to police abuses of human genetic engineering 
  (HuGE). This required agreement as to what was abuse, 
  and harmonization of national laws; the creation of the 
  GRA represented a major accomplishment in both ideal-
  ism and politics.
  It might have remained just another E.U. office, but 
  the preservationist movement of the period produced 
  a lot of idealists and a few fanatics within the regula-
  tory community. Some countries saw the new agency 
  as a good place to divert those people’s energies, while 
  others wanted a strong GRA to counterbalance other 
  factions. By the early 2060s, Ukraine was persuaded to 
  join, mostly – as with Switzerland – to show good will. 
  However, the GRA was still primarily seen as an infor-
  mation clearinghouse.
  Then, in the wake of its Civil War, Russia found itself 
  struggling to suppress a hyperactive “biotech under-
  ground” and to shed a reputation for lawlessness; signing 
  up with the GRA looked like good politics. However, the 
  Russian government didn’t want to seem to be surrender-
  ing too much authority, so part of the deal required that 
  the GRA’s operational offices move eastward, to the neu-
  tral city of Kaliningrad, in 2067.
  This expansion changed the personality of the agency. 
  Its new Russian agents were keen to see action, not just 
  to file reports, and many of the older preservationist 
  E.U. staff were happy to go along. The GRA managed to 
  acquire comprehensive powers within signatory states, 
  and an efficient intelligence section to monitor biotech 
  globally. Rumors began to spread that this section’s 
  agents weren’t above a bit of extraterritorial, extralegal 
  sabotage. This has always been denied, but GRA “spies” 
  certainly sometimes stretch legal limits or abuse diplo-
  matic status.
  Over time, the GRA’s effectiveness in dealing with 
  problems within its ambit was globally acknowledged. 
  Some preservationists came to idolize it, while authorities 
  in other power blocs became happy to consult its experts. 
  After all, it was known to be rigorous about not favoring 
  any one nation’s interests. A series of diplomatic agree-
  ments gave agents “visiting rights” far beyond Europe, 
  although they usually are accompanied by a local liaison, 
  who may be more or less assertive. (A century previous, 
  this sort of thing would have been handled through the 
  United Nations, and would have been explicitly interna-
  tional in its administration, but with the decline of the 
  U.N., everyone has had to improvise much more.)
  The GRA’s international role might have remained 
  purely advisory, but a series of biotech accidents and arti-
  ficial-disease outbreaks in less advanced areas panicked 
  several nations into giving GRA agents free rein. Biotech 
  crimes can be truly horrible occurrences, and anyone 
  offering a solution – and trying not to overreach them-
  selves – could find welcome in many places. Not every-
  where, of course – the GRA can’t walk into Kazakhstan or 
  the TSA – but widely enough that some people forget that 
  this is a European body, with a European cultural bias.
  The agency also has become involved in policing inter-
  national bioroid crime, which often involves the same 
  criminal groups as illegal HuGE. This sort of thing, and 
  the need to expand its operations into space (see High 
  Frontier, p. 25) and the oceans, leaves the GRA stretched, 
  administratively and financially. The desire to preserve 
  a polite image, to make it easier to acquire funding and 
  diplomatic privileges, often conflicts with agents’ fiercely 
  preservationist attitudes. The GRA is frequently accused 
  of bullying its way around Third Wave countries; cer-
  tainly, agents may care more about biotech safety stan-
  dards than they do about local sensibilities.
  GRA agents are something of an elite, and they know 
  it. See Transhuman Mysteries, pp. 10-11, for a charac-
  ter template.
  
   
  nonHumAn biosAPients in 2100 
  14
  Perhaps more importantly, bioroids are easier to keep 
  going in remote locations with poor resources; organic flesh 
  is essentially self-repairing for moderate levels of damage, a 
  trick that has still not been managed with inorganic smart 
  matter. Bioroids can also operate on the same supplies as 
  human operatives, so employers don’t have to set up separate 
  fuel supply chains. Indeed, bioroid troops, explorers, and wil-
  derness staff can live off the land in a way that few cybershells 
  can match.
  In any case, while cybershells may match bioroids for ver-
  satility and adaptability, as well as beating them for robustness 
  and short-term endurance, the machines have only recently 
  become that good. There’s a large bioroid legacy industry, with 
  investments in production and infrastructure. Competition 
  may be driving bioroid manufacture profits down, but it’s rare 
  for any industry to vanish overnight – especially one that still 
  claims to offer superior benefits in specific cases.
  The Bioshell Memetic Problem
  While bioroids are merely controversial, for the most part, 
  bioshells – bioroids or surgically modified organisms with their 
  brains replaced by computer hardware – are actively, violently 
  hated and feared in some places. This hostility is enshrined in 
  law in Europe and India, and may show up among individu-
  als (as some kind of Intolerance, in GURPS terms) elsewhere, 
  especially in more conservative communities. Only transhu-
  manist or otherwise marginal cultures tend to regard bioshells 
  casually, and some of them only do so because they regard all 
  bodies as disposable tools.
  This response puzzles and irritates some people, espe-
  cially those infomorphs who see bioshells as, potentially, a 
  useful cybershell choice and who suffer deep suspicion for so 
  much as campaigning for a change in attitudes. The reason 
  for the prejudice is summed up in the term “techno-zombies.” 
  A bioshell looks like a living thing, often a human being, but 
  is essentially a machine. Some humans see this as somehow 
  fraudulent; the AIs involved are suspected of “pretending 
  to be people,” infiltrating human society to replace or sub-
  vert humanity. Rare cases where rogue AIs did exactly that 
  don’t help, and emergent intelligences that somehow get into 
  bioshells are more or less automatically assumed to be very 
  sinister. Even human-teleoperated bioshells are widely sus-
  pected of being commonly used for fraud or identity theft. 
  Bioshells challenge basic human assumptions about personal 
  identity too much!
  To add to the problem, in a few places, ruthless factions 
  create necromorph bioshells (Transhuman Space, p. 126) 
  from kidnap victims, convicts, or prisoners of war. Replacing 
  a human being with an edited shadow or a well-trained AI and 
  using that to subvert or destroy an opposing group is effective 
  but macabre – and it appears often enough in popular fiction 
  and conflict reporting to reinforce the anti-bioshell meme 
  among people who are already susceptible to it.
  All this mostly applies to humanoid bioshells. Animal and 
  radically strange bioshells suffer far less prejudice; few people 
  feel threatened by, say, an NAI operating a cyborg tuna to con-
  duct ecological research. However, nonhumanoid bioshells 
  aren’t entirely immune to suspicion, and they are often caught 
  by broad-brush laws.
  legAlity ClAss
  In GURPS terms, virtually all significant biotechnol-
  ogy, especially anything involving biosapient design or 
  human-embryo modification, is at least LC4 and often 
  LC3, especially where it produces sapient individuals 
  who require special or unusual environments to live 
  comfortably, or who have really strange physical forms. 
  These technologies are widely available but are open to 
  abuse, and accidents can be catastrophic, so most societ-
  ies impose licensing systems or mandatory professional 
  codes. The GM can also throw in odd regulations, perhaps 
  left over from earlier periods when the technologies were 
  untested or controversial.
  Some technologies and biosapient templates are more 
  strictly controlled. Anything rated as LC2 can only be pro-
  duced by licensed, regulated organizations in most soci-
  eties. Bioroids of these types are probably manufactured 
  for specific paramilitary or police roles, while parahuman 
  designs with this rating are controversial. Individuals 
  known to embody such technologies may be viewed with 
  caution or prejudice.
  LC1 types are specifically military, or at least danger-
  ous. Anyone working on them is subject to the same sort 
  of restrictions as a heavy weapons manufacturer. Beings 
  of these types may well have severe Social Stigmas, and 
  they can’t expect to live normal lives in civilian society  
  if they are recognized.
  Those rated LC0 are viewed as abominations or men-
  aces. If they can be legally created at all, it usually will be 
  for specific, probably military purposes, and even that will 
  be controversial. Often, though, such bioroids and para-
  humans are seen as victims, the products of abusive crim-
  inal activity. They thus may be treated with pity – unless 
  their abilities make them dangerous, or they are in some 
  way repulsive.
  Also, some societies in Transhuman Space have 
  higher effective Control Ratings with regard to specific 
  elements of biotechnology, or treat certain things as hav-
  ing lower Legality Class. (The effects are much the same 
  either way.) For example, the European Union has effec-
  tively declared all sapient bioroid manufacture as LC1 
  within its jurisdiction – not because it is seen as military, 
  but because it is classed as akin to slavery. The only work 
  being done in that area is in tightly regulated research 
  institutions, and even they are unlikely to produce 
  many sapient bioroids. However, bioroids themselves 
  are mostly regarded with sympathy rather than dislike. 
  In the Caliphate, conversely, human-seeming bioroids 
  would officially be classed as LC0, though in practice 
  some are held on private property without too much 
  trouble, so LC2 might be more accurate; “nonhumanoid” 
  bioroids such as the Busr (Broken Dreams, p. 121) are 
  definitely LC2.
  
   
  nonHumAn biosAPients in 2100 
  15
  Formal and informal restrictions on human-like bioshells 
  are likely to remain widespread for the foreseeable future. The 
  E.U. and some other societies make an exception for ghosts 
  running clones of their former organic bodies, because there’s 
  less sense of deception there, and many people can under-
  stand why a ghost would want their old body (or rather a good 
  facsimile) back. Smart cynics note a peculiar consequence of 
  this loophole – cosmetic body alteration, up to and including 
  gender change, is rather easy given Fifth Wave medical tech-
  nology and can be conveniently applied to a bioshell during 
  manufacture. Numerous European ghosts have come out of 
  the clinic in a bioshell with a different sex, build, and appar-
  ent ethnicity to their old body, but carrying an unimpeachable 
  digital certificate saying that this is perfectly legal, because 
  they still have most of the same DNA in their cells.
  That sort of thing may eventually lead to more flexible atti-
  tudes to the whole bioshell issue, even in morphologically 
  conservative regions. However, for now, PCs who want to 
  use humanoid bioshells should note that they risk breaking 
  social taboos as well as laws, especially if they travel to the 
  wrong places.
  bioroids in soCiety
  Despite established public hostility, reinforced by memetic 
  campaigns launched by the bioroid industry, bioroids have 
  attained full civil rights in some jurisdictions, notably the 
  European Union and the South African Coalition. However, 
  citizenship for bioroids cannot work exactly as it does for 
  humans and parahumans.
  The obvious difference is that bioroids are made, not born, 
  and emerge from the production process with seemingly adult 
  bodies and full language skills. However, as opponents of 
  bioroid equality are quick to put out, this doesn’t mean that 
  they are truly functional “adults.” Newly decanted bioroids 
  can walk, talk, follow instructions, and use tools and weap-
  ons, but they often seem terribly naïve and shallow. They are 
  also gullible and manipulable; standard bioroid personality 
  designs allow for further education once they are deployed, 
  but this means that bioroids tend to believe anything they 
  are told, sometimes becoming downright fanatical about it. 
  Designers generally try to give bioroids a sense of humor – it 
  makes humans happier to work with them – but this is rarely 
  subtle or sophisticated.
  All of which makes many people describe bioroids as 
  “childlike.” This is a bit of a simplification, but it is not far 
  from the truth. A new bioroid can seem much like a very 
  bright child – not an infant (they know too much for that), 
  but perhaps a 10-year-old. However, unlike children, few 
  bioroids are prone to wild mood swings, and they certainly 
  don’t tend to throw tantrums. On the contrary, they are 
  often rather unemotional and dispassionate. They do learn  
  quickly – about emotions and social skills as well as practical 
  matters – if they are permitted and encouraged, but not all of 
  them receive that encouragement.
  Hence, even where bioroids are allowed full citizenship, 
  they tend to be treated initially as minors, requiring legal 
  guardians and having to pursue a mandatory program of 
  education. Further complications arise if a young bioroid is 
  a refugee from an area where they don’t have citizenship (as 
  is frequently the case in the E.U., where bioroid manufacture 
  has basically been prohibited for several years). New arrivals 
  are assessed for their ability to function as full members of 
  society, and are almost always classed as minors or other-
  wise unprepared for full independence and thus assigned a 
  guardian for a period determined by a court. The bioroids 
  themselves don’t always appreciate this, and other bioroids 
  and sapient-rights activists often consider that some indi-
  viduals – or all bioroids – are being treated horribly conde-
  scendingly by the legal system. However, given that many 
  new arrivals are genuinely unable to function as 
  free citizens and may have weird or even dangerous 
  features in their prior psychological conditioning – 
  possibly buried deep – there really doesn’t seem to 
  be much alternative, and few voters or politicians 
  want the system to change.
  It’s important to note that “minor” status for a 
  “proto-citizen” bioroid is never quite akin to the legal 
  status of a human child. Bioroids are “adult” in too 
  many ways; in particular, they are often constructed 
  with a full set of sexual capabilities and inclinations. 
  The general belief among people who have studied 
  bioroid psychology is that prohibiting them from 
  expressing this would tend to damage them psy-
  chologically. Hence, they are permitted a lot of “adult” behav-
  iors, mostly under careful but “hands off” supervision. Most  
  are monitored by one or several specialist psychologists with 
  quasi-guardian status, and almost all have specialist AIs in 
  their implants, which are mostly quiet when the bioroid is 
  “off duty” but which can jump in with strong advice or even 
  commands at any time. (These tend to be LAIs, as NAIs are 
  insufficiently empathetic or flexible, and SAIs are too expen-
  sive and might develop idiosyncratic ideas about the task.) 
  Unfortunately, this in turn all too easily makes bioroids 
  dependent on their AIs. At best, this can develop into a kind 
  of genuine friendship, but at worst, the bioroid may become 
  passive and acquiescent, while the AI runs not only their work 
  but also their private life. The development of bioroid-super-
  visor AIs has become a specialist industry in itself.
  A “proto-citizen” bioroid may be granted full citizenship 
  automatically at a particular date (which runs the risk of 
  turning an insufficiently prepared personality loose without 
  supervision), or may only receive full rights after convincing 
  a panel or tribunal of their competence (which runs the risk 
  of looking oppressive and patronizing). E.U. law, for exam-
  ple, grants full citizenship automatically after six years of 
  supervised independent life in E.U. society “or a compara-
  ble social context.” Bioroids can petition for it to be granted 
  sooner, if they can persuade at least three psychologists to 
  support them, which happens in perhaps 5-10% of cases.  
  “And that,” put in the Director 
  sententiously, “that is the secret of happiness 
  and virtue – liking what you’ve got to do.  
  All conditioning aims at that: making people 
  like their unescapable social destiny.”
  – Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
  
   
  nonHumAn biosAPients in 2100 
  16
  On rare occasions, supervisory psychologists can apply to a 
  court for the grant to be deferred due to “exceptional incom-
  petence”; such court hearings are invariably emotive and 
  controversial, unless the bioroid is blatantly badly psycholog-
  ically damaged.
  In the SAC, on the other hand, the law varies from nation 
  to nation, leading inevitably to cross-border legal complica-
  tions. Some member nations regard others as treating young 
  bioroids as virtual slaves, and many arguments arise about 
  appropriate ages of “majority.” There are even a few minor 
  “underground railroad” arrangements within the Coalition, 
  shipping young bioroids to places where they can attain cit-
  izenship more easily. Of course, these are nothing like as  
  significant as those between “citizen bioroid” and “nonciti-
  zen” jurisdictions.
  tHe outer system
  Biotechnological development has a curious decades-
  long relationship with space industrialization. This is partly 
  because of space-oriented biotech; the legendary “calcium 
  hack” that facilitated the colonization of Ceres was one of the 
  first examples of this, and the Void Flyer and related programs 
  (Deep Beyond, p. 116) are currently the most dramatic case 
  in point, unless that title is granted to Avatar Klusterkorp’s 
  development of the Europan bioroid (Deep Beyond, p. 112).
  However, another important element is the fact that out-
  er-system facilities are safely out of the view of most of the 
  human public and of all but the most diligent of regulators. 
  Research in such locations is “safe” in that it’s highly unlikely 
  to get out and cause trouble beyond the facility. It also fre-
  quently takes place under whichever nominal national juris-
  diction has the fewest rules or applies them with the least 
  effectiveness. Even respectable corporations such as Biotech 
  Euphrates (whose image has changed considerably over the 
  decades since their early, corner-cutting days) run research 
  stations in deep space. Their work may be termed “ground-
  breaking,” “radical,” or “horrific,” and often all three – but 
  only if anyone who cares finds out.
  But stories and pictures do get back to Earth, despite the 
  best efforts of corporate security. Many governments are 
  especially keen to publicize the more extreme activities of the 
  “Trojan Mafia,” whose biotech oper-
  ations often seem almost designed to 
  shock. Hence, space beyond Mars is 
  widely viewed among planet-dwellers 
  as rife with ruthless mad science and 
  oppression of new sapients.
  That said, not every biotech lab 
  in deep space is an amoral hell of 
  exploitation and neglected rules. Aside 
  from the fact that certain Earth gov-
  ernments are keen to carry (their) law 
  out to the frontier – a project currently 
  spearheaded by Britain’s Royal Navy – 
  some researchers retain recognizable 
  ethical codes, and much of the work 
  done in the outer system is immacu-
  lately high-minded medical research 
  on space-oriented topics such as radi-
  ation protection.
  For the record, incidentally, Biotech 
  Euphrates has nothing to do with the 
  Red Duncanites, although the Greens 
  are clients of theirs, and they were 
  the first to license the famous Tennin 
  space-dweller gene sequences from the 
  Greens. The company cultivates that 
  respectable image these days, and finds 
  that while this can survive dealings 
  with Green Duncanites, the Reds have 
  too much of a dubious image.
  rules ConsiderAtions
  Advanced biotechnology can have significant effects on 
  in-game activities and may be reflected in details on charac-
  ter sheets. Hence, this section is largely concerned with char-
  acter features, in GURPS Fourth Edition terms. The traits 
  discussed below relate to matters of biotechnology, but are 
  generally available to anyone, simply as the result of upbring-
  ing or conventional training. For characteristics specifically 
  used on variant biosapient templates, see Changing Times 
  and Bioroid Bazaar.
  tHe deeP new frontier
  In 2100, undersea societies and research centers are often hotbeds of “bio-
  sapient posthumanism.” Nonhuman sapients can be well-fitted for underwa-
  ter life – much better than unmodified humans – and this environment can 
  support biological life without bioengineers having to get too radical. (Space, 
  by contrast, really isn’t a very suitable place for biological entities, which, in 
  2100, simply cannot be designed to live there for very long without mechan-
  ical support.) Some aquatic bioroids, like aquatic parahumans, are designed 
  on the basic human pattern, so that they can also operate in environments 
  suited to nonaquatic humans. (It’s widely assumed that they are also intended 
  to propagate a relatively conventional version of human culture in this new 
  setting.) Others, such as the Gillmorph (Under Pressure, p. 94), are radically 
  nonhumanoid, being optimized for aquatic operations; most of these are gen-
  erally regarded as tools rather than as potential citizens.
  However, aquatic posthumanism is seen as a symbol of human hubris by 
  preservationists. Their argument is that humanity has already done immeasur-
  able damage to the ocean environment over the last couple of centuries; now, 
  full-scale posthumanist projects may overwhelm what’s left, and threaten an 
  undersea population explosion. The more enthusiastic the posthumanist ide-
  alists get, and the more profits aquaculture and deep-sea mining corporations 
  promise investors, the more their opponents accuse them of disregarding any 
  pretense of caution. They may have a point; it certainly doesn’t help that it’s all 
  too easy to hide dubious projects in deep international waters. Hence, trans-
  humanist aquatic operations are often attacked directly and sometimes vio-
  lently by groups such as Blue Shadow (Under Pressure, pp. 77-80).
  
   
  nonHumAn biosAPients in 2100 
  17
  tHe meAning of “sPeCies”
  GURPS rules sometimes talk in terms of species. This 
  is usually a synonym for “racial template”; a species is 
  simply a group of beings who more or less all share a set 
  of game features. However, in play, “species” can mean 
  something else. From the point of view of skill use, mem-
  bers of the same “species” are beings so similar that some-
  one trained to perform medical operations on one member 
  of the group can work just as well on any other member. A 
  single racial template probably will define them, but that’s  
  not guaranteed.
  This still doesn’t necessarily correspond to the definitions 
  of the word found in biology textbooks. It can, but equally, a 
  cluster of “biological species” can be so similar that the differ-
  ence only matters for purposes of interbreeding and the most 
  subtle biochemical operations, making them all one “species” 
  for game purposes. In other cases, a game “species” is actually 
  a model of synthetic organism (such as a bioroid type) or a 
  set of similar models. It is also possible, though very rare, for 
  two biological subspecies (or synthetic model variants) to be 
  so different that they have to be treated as two distinct game 
  “species.” Distinctions unavoidably become fuzzy sometimes 
  when dealing with variant parahuman patterns or bioroid 
  designs.
  In practice, in Transhuman Space, most people with  
  “species-specific” skills are used to a fair bit of variation, 
  exotic biotech modifications, and so on. To sidestep arbitrary 
  or excessive penalties, games should avoid including too many 
  distinct “species” categories. Conversely, treating a design as 
  its own species can be a good way of emphasizing the rad-
  ical nature of the biotech involved. Anyone also may suffer 
  familiarity penalties (p. B169) – treating a biotech design as 
  analogous to a piece of equipment – if, say, they encounter 
  variant features that they’ve only read about in books or seen 
  once in training (but those features could plausibly have been 
  mentioned in books or courses).
  Physiology Modifiers
  As is explained on p. B181, people are normally assumed 
  initially to learn Body Language, Diagnosis, First Aid, Physi-
  cian, and Surgery (and Pressure Points and Pressure Secrets, 
  in campaigns where these exist) as they apply to members 
  of their own species. (Detect Lies might be included on the 
  list in some games, but this shouldn’t be the case in Transhu-
  man Space.) Then, when applying them to other species, they 
  must either first roll successfully against another skill, usu-
  ally the appropriate specialty of Physiology, or take a penalty. 
  However, some Transhuman Space PCs learn those skills 
  primarily for use with a different species, working freely on 
  members of that species but encountering the above compli-
  cations when working on others including their own species. 
  For example, bioroid rescue workers or AI surgeons may be 
  trained to work on humans, while technicians in bioroid-pro-
  duction facilities may focus on the bioroids they have to look 
  after. Learning any of these skills primarily on a different spe-
  cies is a 0-point feature; where this applies, note the fact with 
  the skill.
  Skill penalties for working with a different species depend 
  on the degree of physiological similarity. For example, “ordi-
  nary” humans, upgrades, and parahumans designed for 
  standard terrestrial environments count as the same spe-
  cies, while switching between that pattern and parahumans 
  designed for arctic or desert conditions, or bioroids designed 
  to resemble humans fairly closely, gives -1. Switching between 
  baseline human physiology and aquatic parahumans or mod-
  erately exotic bioroids gives -2, while bioroids designed for 
  very unusual environments give -3. Working with uplifted 
  animals and completely nonhumanoid bioroids ideally needs 
  Veterinary skill (or Animal Empathy to get any use out of 
  Body Language), but such creatures can be tended to with 
  humanoid-oriented medical skills at -5; Europan and Void 
  Flyer bioroids also give -5 to those not specifically trained to 
  work with them, as they have broadly human anatomies but 
  wildly different metabolisms.
  A little focused training or experience can also eliminate 
  some cross-species problems entirely; this is represented by 
  Cross-Species Expertise (p. 19).
  Psychology Modifiers
  As is noted in Changing Times (pp. 46-47), Psychology skill, 
  which specializes by “species,” is simply divided into Human, 
  Bioroid, and AI specialties in this setting, plus one more for 
  each type of uplifted animal, with cross-species defaults as 
  described there.
  Bioshell Concerns
  Bioshells can be treated as bioroids for purposes of medical 
  treatment; they are, basically, bioroids with computer brains. 
  However, they tend to have subtly strange body language, 
  unless teleoperated by a human or controlled by a ghost, a 
  good-quality shadow, or an AI which is well-trained at faking 
  humanity. Someone who attempts to use Body Language or 
  Psychology (Human) skill on an AI-run bioshell in what would 
  normally be an appropriate way can roll a Quick Contest of 
  the skill against the AI’s Acting at -2. If the observer wins, 
  he detects that something disconcerting is going on which 
  prevents the skill from working normally. Successful use of 
  Empathy or Sensitive (p. B51) also can detect that the sub-
  ject is somehow “fake.” An observer who doesn’t already know 
  that this is a bioshell may then guess the full truth, if the sit-
  uation makes that plausible – which can sometimes trigger a 
  Fright Check!
  When dealing with a known AI running on a bioshell, 
  whether Empathy or Sensitive work in the usual way depends 
  on how the GM has chosen to handle interactions with AIs 
  generally; see Indomitable AIs and “Machine Empathy” on 
  p. 52 of Changing Times.
  They’re toys. My friends 
  are toys. I make them. It’s a 
  hobby. I’m a genetic designer.
  – J.F. Sebastian,  
  in Blade Runner
  
   
  nonHumAn biosAPients in 2100 
  18
  AdvAntAges
  Biotechnology and its consequences can interact with 
  some GURPS advantages in significant ways.
  Empathy
  see p. B51
  Anyone with the Empathy advantage (or the lesser Sensi-
  tive version) can “read” most humans, parahumans, ghosts, 
  and bioroids. However, nonsapient uplifts and some nonsa-
  pient bioroid animals (that is, any being with base species IQ 
  5 or less) require Animal Empathy. Whether Empathy works 
  on AIs (including any running on bioshells) may depend on 
  whether the GM has chosen to include “Machine Empathy” 
  from p. 52 of Changing Times. See p. 17 for rules for interac-
  tions between Empathy and bioshells.
  Resistant
  see p. B80
  Bioroid Bazaar, p. 5 and pp. 9-10 points out certain 
  problems with the idea of human-influencing pheromones, 
  and this makes various levels of treatment of the subject 
  optional in Transhuman Space games. This has various 
  game-level consequences.
  If pheromones are in use in a campaign, a few people 
  might possess some level of Resistant to their effects, through 
  genetic engineering, nanomods, or just natural variations in 
  neurochemistry. (This might also accompany the No Sense 
  of Smell/Taste disadvantage!) “Pheromones” would usually 
  count as a Rare effect, making Immunity a 5-point advan-
  tage; they might count as Occasional in campaigns where 
  several different synthetic pheromones are heavily used for 
  social manipulation. Immunity to one specific type (e.g., 
  “Eros bioroid sex pheromones”) would just be a perk.
  However, the GM may rule that attempts to block phero-
  mones have unfortunate neurological side effects. For exam-
  ple, a lack of response to oxytocin is linked to psychopathic 
  behavior; someone seeking such treatments could also end 
  up with the Low Empathy disadvantage, or the advantage 
  could have that as a Temporary Disadvantage limitation – a 
  person’s defenses might respond to chemicals intended to 
  make him more emotionally responsive by shutting down his 
  social responses altogether for as long as the attack persists. 
  sPot tHe bioroid
  Most bioroids are made to look like human beings.  
  A few, such as various “cat person” types, are aesthetically 
  exotic in ways that would require a lot of cosmetic sur-
  gery for a human to match; have very visible adaptations 
  to specific environments; or are simply made distinctive 
  (e.g., the Rodosha, Wings of the Rising Sun, p. 15, and 
  Bioroid Bazaar, pp. 25-26). Nonetheless, designers gen-
  erally take the simple option. However, bioroids usually 
  are immediately identified as such by anyone who meets 
  them. How does this happen?
  Firstly, many are visually standardized. All the bio-
  roids of a given low-cost model don’t usually look iden-
  tical, but they tend to be very similar, and most humans 
  are familiar with bioroid models that are common in 
  their society. Still, a bioroid which is not of a deliberately 
  nonhuman or highly standardized type, and which is not 
  dressed distinctively, can pass as human on sight unless 
  the observer makes a Per roll at -3 or a Per-based Bioengi-
  neering (Tissue Engineering) skill roll. The GM may per-
  mit a Per-based roll against some other skill instead when 
  the skill is appropriate (Current Affairs when the bioroid 
  model is one that’s been in the news, say, or Expert Skill 
  (Military Science) for a combat model). This roll is at +3 
  if the bioroid is very lightly dressed or naked; engineered 
  musculature, nonstandard body hair patterns, and “arti-
  ficial” skin textures can be very recognizable. However, a 
  bioroid with the Passing Appearance perk (p. 19) or with 
  the Concealed Bioroid Body meta-trait (Changing Times, 
  p. 43) can never be recognized solely on sight. The GM 
  also may permit Disguise skill (or cosmetic surgery) to 
  produce the same result.
  Second, all bioroids have VIIs, which are almost 
  always active, and even those few who turn their implants 
  off may have wearables. This makes them visible in local 
  open communications networks, and their systems will 
  usually have flags showing their status; in many soci-
  eties, this is mandatory, and obfuscating tags may be 
  illegal for bioroids. Hence, anyone with an augmented 
  reality system can see any bioroid who is tagged as such, 
  although the GM may require busy or distracted observ-
  ers to make an IQ roll for them to be paying enough 
  attention to their AR environment. In Fifth Wave societ-
  ies where appearance and dress style can vary dramat-
  ically and whimsically, this may be the usual way that 
  bioroids are identified.
  Third, acting like a human is a challenge. Bioroid 
  behavior and speech reflect their “programmed” psychol-
  ogy, including especially a tendency to subservience (or, 
  in the case of some combat bioroids, calm assertiveness 
  verging on brutality). Anyone who closely observes a 
  bioroid who is trying to pass as human for at least a few 
  minutes has a chance to see through the act; roll a Quick 
  Contest between the bioroid’s Acting skill and the best of 
  the observer’s Psychology (Applied/Bioroid or Human) or 
  Detect Lies. If the observer wins, he notes that something 
  is “off” about the bioroid’s behavior; if the roll was against 
  Psychology (Applied/Bioroid), they recognize exactly what 
  they’re dealing with. For daily, extended contact, roll the 
  Contest again once per day, although should the observer 
  ever roll a critical failure or the bioroid roll a critical suc-
  cess, the observer becomes convinced that the bioroid is 
  human, and can’t roll again.
  Lastly, most bioroids will be detected as such by even a 
  cursory examination using TL10 medical equipment. The 
  only reliable way to defeat this is by having the Concealed 
  Bioroid Body meta-trait.
  
   
  nonHumAn biosAPients in 2100 
  19
  Some people will consider this an acceptable trade-off,  
  of course.
  Perks
  Perks marked † require specialization.
  Appearance Perks
  Skilled TL10 cosmetic surgeons and bioroid designers can 
  and do work to produce a wide range of visual effects in their 
  subject matter. Sometimes, this is simply represented by a 
  given Appearance level (with the Off-the-Shelf Looks limita-
  tion if the designer was lazy, or the results are too successful 
  and too soon copied), but some specific effects are best repre-
  sented by perks. Here are two common examples.
  Classic Features: You have a well-defined set of features 
  in quintessential form. You might, say, be the epitome of a 
  blonde, a Maasai tribesman, a muscleman, or a well-known 
  bioroid design. You’re not really better looking than any-
  one else, necessarily, but you push all the right buttons. 
  Whenever you interact with an NPC who has a particular 
  fondness for your “type,” you are treated as one Appearance 
  level higher, cumulative with any specified reaction bonuses. 
  For example, if you’re a Classic Redhead with Average looks, 
  an NPC with the quirk “Likes redheads (+2 reactions)” reacts 
  to you at +2 for the quirk and a further +1 because you count 
  as Attractive – and you may land occasional modeling jobs 
  for cosmetics aimed at redheads.
  Passing Appearance: You are a member of a minority or 
  subpopulation which can normally be identified by appear-
  ance – but you don’t look it. If you’re a bioroid, you can pass 
  very easily as human; your designers avoided any of the subtle 
  visual cues that might have distinguish you, including too-per-
  fect facial symmetry. Among humans, this perk is appropri-
  ate for members of some ethnic groups, although rather less 
  ethnic prejudice is prevalent in Transhuman Space than in 
  previous eras, if only because cosmetic biotech treatments are 
  widely available that make distinctively ethnic appearance 
  largely optional and often a matter of fashion. You might, 
  say, be a member of an oppressed group in an area where 
  such treatments are either unaffordable or illegal. If so, with 
  this perk, you can find acceptance among your own group 
  (although you may sometimes have to convince suspicious 
  individuals that you’re genuine), but people with Intolerance 
  toward your group don’t respond to you negatively on sight. If 
  you’d normally be required to take a Social Stigma, this perk 
  may function as a small Unusual Background that allows you 
  to not take it or buy it off freely with points.
  Cross-Species Expertise†
  Prerequisite: See below.
  Generally, those with skills to which physiology modifiers 
  apply can work freely on one species (usually their own; see 
  The Meaning of “Species,” p. 17, for more on this), but have 
  problems with others; see Physiology Modifiers, p. 17. This 
  perk removes that problem for either all skills as applied to 
  one specified species, or one skill for all species of the same 
  basic body pattern (usually “humanoids”). In the former case, 
  you must also have at least 1 point in Physiology skill for the 
  species involved; in the latter, you must have at least 2 points 
  in the chosen skill. In effect, you are treated as automatically 
  succeeding at the relevant Physiology skill roll.
  Hyper-Specialization†
  You’re an expert in an area far narrower than Optional  
  Specialties (p. B169) allows. You get +5 to one skill in a spe-
  cialty so obscure that it takes at least three words to describe 
  and is unlikely to matter more than once in an adventurer’s 
  career; e.g., Hyper-Specialization (Avian/Ichthyic Metabolic 
  Pathway Interfacing) for Bioengineering, or Hyper-Special-
  ization (Mexican Academic Bacteriophage Research) for Cur-
  rent Affairs (Science & Technology). Academic experts can 
  build whole careers on such specialties, but they rarely come 
  up in play in most campaigns.
  You must specialize by skill and area of expertise. Hyper-
  Specialization is only possible for IQ-based “knowledge” 
  and “scientific” skills, unless the GM makes an exception. In 
  Transhuman Space, this trait is common among specialists 
  working in complex fields such as bioroid development or 
  genetic uplift.
  disAdvAntAges
  In a world with widespread bioengineering, some disad-
  vantages found among the general population need special 
  consideration.
  Intolerance
  see p. B140
  Intolerance of every sapient type/species except your own, 
  or merely of every genetically defined species except your own, 
  is the -10-point version of the disadvantage. Intolerance of a 
  specific type such as “bioroids” or “parahumans” is usually 
  the -5-point version, assuming that you don’t live somewhere 
  where the subject of your dislike rarely appears. If you do, 
  or if you are merely intolerant of one specific type or model 
  (such as “Rodosha bioroids” or “uplifted dogs”), that’s just a 
  quirk. Such Intolerance is, if not common, then sadly not rare 
  in Transhuman Space.
  Phobia
  see pp. B148-150
  The following new Phobias are valid disadvantages in 
  Transhuman Space.
  Bioroidophobia: You’re extremely nervous about bioroids. 
  Maybe you think that they’re out to get real people, or maybe 
  you just believe that they’re all secretly crazy-vicious; it doesn’t 
  make much difference – you don’t dare turn your back on 
  them. This isn’t quite the same as Intolerance; your response 
  is based on fear rather than hate. Your self-control rolls are 
  at -3 for crowds of those monsters, and -3 for heavily armed 
  bioroids – making a cumulative -6 for fully equipped bioroid 
  armies. NPCs with this disadvantage react to bioroids at -1, 
  even if they make their self-control rolls, but they will always 
  try to give any bioroid a wide berth; a good reaction simply 
  means that they assume that this bioroid looks safe for now 
  and can’t be blamed for how it’s probably been programmed. 
  -10 points.*
  
   
  nonHumAn biosAPients in 2100 
  20
  Synthogenetiphobia: Other people may put up with 
  advanced genetic technology, but you know better! You can 
  just about tolerate the oldest and simplest medical stuff, but 
  you can see that deliberately meddling with genes or build-
  ing artificial “life” can only end in disaster – and that disas-
  ter could strike at any time, in the form of hideous plagues, 
  artificial life forms running amok, or more insidious but 
  utterly horrible effects. Large quantities of biotechnology, 
  such as crowds of bioroids or being required to enter a mod-
  ern hospital, give you -3 to your self-control roll. You don’t 
  respond to bioroids in general quite the way that people with 
  Bioroidophobia do; they fear bioroids as individuals, expect-
  ing them to be vicious or untrustworthy, but you know that 
  it’s the technology used to make them that’s wrong, and they 
  could go bad in all sorts of ways – some may go berserk, but 
  others probably carry weird diseases, exude subtle nanotox-
  ins, or just let real people down at the wrong moments. Best 
  to keep them at a distance. You’ve probably learned to tolerate 
  genefixed or “upgraded” humans – you may be one yourself, 
  even – but you find the technology involved creepy, and you 
  won’t let your own children be genefixed if you can help it. 
  Meeting a known parahuman triggers a self-control roll at +2; 
  if you make it, you can treat this individual as human, but a 
  human being with a black mark against them. NPCs with this 
  Phobia react to known parahumans and bioroids at -1, even if 
  they make their self-control rolls, but always try to steer well 
  clear, especially of bioroids; with a positive reaction, they sim-
  ply think that it’s not the parahuman or bioroid’s fault that 
  they’re probably some kind of walking time bomb. -15 points.*
  In the case of protagonists who spend all their time in 
  Third Wave areas or radically bioconservative isolate com-
  munities, where bioroids and other manifestations of bio-
  technology are very rarely encountered, the GM may reduce 
  the base value of both these Phobias by -5 points, to -5 and 
  -10 points respectively.
  Note also that individuals with Technophobia might not 
  have that Phobia triggered by any but the most blatant prod-
  ucts of biotechnology. One thing to be said for biotech, from 
  their point of view, is that the products aren’t machines.
  quirks
  Slightly flawed or whimsical biotech treatments can induce 
  a wide range of physical or mental quirks. In addition, one 
  quirk of appearance can have a significant effect in this society.
  Looks Like a (Bioroid): Only humans and parahumans 
  can take this! By some oddity of fate, or through deliberately 
  deceptive cosmetic treatment, you happen to resemble a com-
  mon bioroid type with a standardized appearance (specify 
  the model when you take the quirk); you haven’t had your 
  appearance changed to eliminate this effect (because of lack 
  of funds or time, sheer stubbornness, etc.); and your manner-
  isms do not contradict the appearance dramatically or reliably 
  enough. Hence, some people who see you and don’t perceive 
  anything that prevents the confusion (such as AR tags) react to 
  you initially as a bioroid, with hostility, condescension, sym-
  pathy, or whatever. If you try to eliminate the effect by dress-
  ing distinctively and not behaving at all like a downtrodden 
  servant, fewer people will be confused, but some will become 
  doubly hostile, perceiving you as a self-important, pretentious 
  bioroid. This is usually only mildly inconvenient, especially as 
  most humans will recognize their error after a few minutes – 
  and you may be able to use the confusion to your advantage 
  from time to time – but a few people will persist in irratio-
  nally, reflexively treating you as a bioroid, especially if they 
  have deep-seated Intolerance.
  skills
  Bioengineering is a complex subject. People may have to 
  master various skills to deal with it effectively.
  Bioengineering
  see p. B180
  The primary practical skill in this field is complex and 
  requires specialization, and TL10 projects can impose signif-
  icant skill penalties; the Hyper-Specialization perk (p. 19) is 
  widespread among biotechnology professionals in 2100, and 
  often effectively required to hold down a serious job in the 
  field. There are also several new specialties of the skill present 
  in the setting.
  Biogadgets: A relatively uncommon specialty, dealing 
  with the creation of living equipment or vehicles. Typically, 
  designers collaborate with specialists in tissue engineering 
  and microbioengineering (below), who create components 
  for the devices; the biogadget engineer then combines and 
  integrates these.
  Microbioengineering: The specialty of creating new strains 
  of microbes for commercial, medicinal, or hostile purposes. 
  In Transhuman Space, this is related to Engineer (Nanotech-
  nology), as almost all nanotech is “wet,” and involves the cre-
  ation of pseudobiological forms; the two skills default to each 
  other at -4.
  Uplift: A spin-off of genetic engineering, focused on the spe-
  cific problems and requirements involved in granting species 
  increased intelligence and secondary modifications to exploit 
  it. This and Bioengineering (Genetic Engineering) default to 
  each other at -3.
  Vaccines: The specialty involved in researching and devel-
  oping new vaccines. This is widely seen as a rather dated field 
  in 2100, as protection against diseases is often accomplished 
  using nanotechnology and broad-spectrum enhancements 
  to patients’ immune systems rather than vaccination – but a 
  well-designed vaccine can still sometimes be cheap, effective, 
  reliable, and faster to develop than fancy modern nanotech.
  Practical Uses
  Different types of biotech require different specialties to 
  create or maintain functional designs or systems. Here are 
  two practical cases.
  Bioroid behavior and speech 
  reflect their “programmed” 
  psychology . . .
  
   
  nonHumAn biosAPients in 2100 
  21
  Upgrades and Parahumans: Enhancements to the human 
  genome require specialists in genetic engineering. Most 
  teams also include specialists in cloning, as a lot of proto-
  type embryos are clones, and that part of the project needs as 
  much skilled management as the rest. Any respectable team 
  implementing even the simplest upgrade design in the field 
  will include at least one consulting genetic engineer, although 
  physicians do most of the work.
  Bioroids: Typically, design and production of a new bio-
  roid or bioshell type requires numerous specialists in tissue 
  engineering to create and integrate the various organs, plus 
  smaller teams with expertise in microbioengineering and 
  Engineer (Nanotechnology) to design and construct the arti-
  ficial glandular and hormonal systems that feature in every 
  bioroid model. Additionally, team members with Physiology 
  and Surgery are responsible for creating the 
  final overall design and then working out 
  how to put it together. Creating a design 
  based on an individual human being also 
  requires specialists in cloning, but must 
  have tissue engineers and physiologists to 
  integrate the finished product. Radical new 
  designs often involve genetic engineers, 
  who are needed to create completely new 
  self-sustaining tissue and organ variants.  
  A new project will need experts with Psy-
  chology (Experimental/Bioroid) skill as 
  well, to design and test the new type’s edu-
  cation and training regime, and to advise 
  on the consequences of any innovations in 
  neural anatomy or brain chemistry. Run-
  ning a bioroid production line typically 
  engages a few people trained in basic tis-
  sue engineering, Physician, and Surgery, to 
  handle routine problems.
  Expert Skill (Sapientogeny)
  see pp. B193-194
  See p. 5 for the definition of “Sapien-
  togeny.” This skill represents knowledge of 
  underlying theories, bioengineering tech-
  niques, and current industry practices in 
  all forms of biosapient creation. When 
  you need to know about the broad prac-
  ticalities of the field, it can stand in for  
  Bioengineering, Biology, Current Affairs, 
  Physician, Physiology, Psychology, or 
  Surgery. It also includes a little knowl-
  edge drawn from various Law specialties 
  regarding the legal niceties. However, it 
  is broad but shallow, and does not cover 
  practical laboratory work; hence, it is of 
  little use to bioengineers, but it is benefi-
  cial to their managers, scientific journal-
  ists, and specialist lawyers.
  Medical Skills
  See p. 17 for notes on physiology modi-
  fiers and how they affect medical and other 
  skill uses in Transhuman Space games.
  Physiology
  see p. B213
  See p. 17 for notes on physiology modifiers and their effect 
  on various skill applications.
  Psychology
  see p. B216
  As is noted on pp. 46-47 of Changing Times, in Transhuman 
  Space, Psychology skill, which is normally specialized by 
  species, is simply divided into Human, Bioroid, and AI spe-
  cialties, plus one more for each type of uplifted animal, with 
  cross-species defaults as described there. Also, division into 
  Applied and Experimental specialties is mandatory.
  PAssing As An imitAtion
  On the opposite side of things to the fakery discussed under Spot the 
  Bioroid (p. 18), it is possible for a skilled human to pass as a bioroid (and 
  to do so seriously, not just as a bad comedy routine, though that’s com-
  mon too). Criminals, spies, and investigative journalists sometimes do this, 
  usually for much the same reasons that such people sometimes got jobs 
  as low-ranking servants in ages past. Many espionage organizations teach 
  operatives appropriate tricks and provide them with suitable cosmetic 
  treatments from time to time. Bioroid-faking operatives can be very useful 
  for infiltration work, and some dedicated agents keep the same appearance 
  for multiple missions.
  Passing as a bioroid to initial visual inspection requires either suc-
  cessful use of Disguise skill or superficial but extensive cosmetic surgery. 
  Note that bioroids often have relatively “bland” looks, usually reflected by 
  either Average Appearance or above-average levels with the Off-the-Shelf 
  Looks limitation. “Bland” doesn’t have to be unimpressive, though; many 
  bioroids are built to be quite attractive, after all, and some are high-quality 
  bespoke designs. Still, anyone who is normally Handsome/Beautiful or 
  better can usually pass only as a high-quality “social interface” model or 
  an expensive sex toy – unless they deliberately suppress their attractiveness 
  with an extensive disguise. Similarly, anyone with Ugly or worse Appear-
  ance will have problems, as bioroids are rarely made that unappealing 
  unless they are radically nonhuman; they’ll at least need a heavy disguise. 
  Someone with the Looks Like a (Bioroid) quirk (p. 20) will always pass a 
  visual check.
  Even without strong visual plausibility, the easiest way to pass as a 
  bioroid on a first encounter is often simply to wear digital tags identifying 
  you as one in augmented reality. This is an area where most people in 
  2100 will trust their computer systems more than they trust their senses – 
  especially as most people will subconsciously assume that no one who can 
  avoid it wants to be treated as a bioroid. Of course, faking AR tags will be 
  illegal in some jurisdictions, against local computer system rules or com-
  mercial agreements in many more, and taken as evidence of illegal intent 
  almost everywhere. It may sometimes require high levels of access to local 
  systems to set the cryptographic keys.
  Acting like a bioroid in personal interactions follows the same rules as 
  on p. 18, except that an observer may spot behavior as being “un-bioroid-
  like” rather than nonhuman. If the individual wasn’t taken for a bioroid 
  on sight, but successfully acts the part, he will have to provide a plausible 
  excuse for the “deceptive” appearance (e.g., “My owner prefers me to look 
  this way”).
  
   
  enHAnCed nonHumAnoid CreAtures 
  22
  This chapter provides templates for a number of uplifted 
  or enhanced nonhumanoid species and a few creatures which 
  are technically bioroids. They are designed much more as 
  tools or vehicles than as thinking beings – interesting products 
  of Transhuman Space biotechnology, but not likely to be used 
  as PCs. Types that are more likely to see service as viable PCs 
  are covered in Bioroid Bazaar.
  Because these creatures are likely to 
  be encountered as pets or wildlife, for 
  each type, an accompanying Just the 
  Stats box details a typical creature of 
  the type in the format used for animals 
  rather than characters.
  uPlifted And AdAPted AnimAls
  These uplifted animals are generally too unintelligent, 
  unimaginative, and socially limited to make good PCs, but 
  they can make very interesting Allies. Smaller creatures, such 
  as smartcats, may be best treated as property and purchased 
  for cash. Note that the templates generally include Social 
  Stigma (Valuable Property), as that is pretty much the uni-
  versal situation for such created beings, and Dead Broke, 
  because a creature which is regarded as property cannot itself 
  own anything. Some creatures, especially those with IQ 7 or 
  higher, might be able to make a case for greater civil rights 
  in broad-minded jurisdictions, in which case they 
  could have a different Social Stigma (or even none 
  at all) and a higher Wealth level.
  Taboo Trait (Fixed IQ)
  Normally, this is found on uplifted animal tem-
  plates (and is already included in the Domestic 
  Animal meta-trait on p. B263). This feature indi-
  cates a species whose brains and minds lack the 
  variability found in humans, with the result that 
  they cannot justify a personal GURPS IQ score 
  that differs from the racial average by as much as 
  a level. Hence, their IQ cannot be bought up from 
  the level defined by the species template, and is 
  only likely to fall below that level in the case of 
  young or brain-damaged specimens. Optionally, 
  in cinematic games, a few members of the species 
  can buy their IQ up by one, to represent amazingly 
  bright animal companions or frighteningly capa-
  ble individual predators.
  CHAPter tHree
  enHAnCed 
  nonHumAnoid 
  CreAtures
  new sPeCies Perks
  The following perks, borrowed from other supplements, appear 
  on a couple of these species templates.
  Feathers: These prevent sunburn and help shed water, eliminat-
  ing up to -2 in penalties for being wet – notably for Cold (p. B430).
  Sure-Footed: The creature is accustomed to fighting on one 
  specified type of bad surface, and ignores the -2 to attack and -1 to 
  defend for that particular type of bad footing.
  new PHobiA
  Phobia (Humans): This Phobia (see pp. B148-B150) is pro-
  grammed into certain semi-secret bioroid “wild animal” designs to 
  reduce the risk of their being discovered. These creatures flee from 
  humanoid beings on sight, and may panic if cornered. -5 points.*
  These creatures you have seen are animals carven and 
  wrought into new shapes.
  – H.G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau
  
   
  enHAnCed nonHumAnoid CreAtures 
  23
  In addition, if a creature with this taboo trait 
  has its native language abilities reduced below nor-
  mal human levels on its racial template, individual 
  members of the species cannot buy them back up 
  and cannot learn any other languages.
  guArdiAn beAr
  see In the Well, p. 112; 79 points
  Highly modified animals, created for use as 
  family guards and pets, guardian bears are found 
  almost solely on Mars. There, a local penchant for 
  biotechnology more than compensates for the wor-
  ries that might be caused by the presence of omniv-
  orous 1,000-lb. creatures in private houses. Hence, 
  the template below includes Mars-Adapted.
  Most guardian bears are trained to act as effec-
  tive but nonlethal guards; they usually have some 
  level of Wrestling skill, having been taught to grap-
  ple and pin in combat. They are also carefully 
  taught to know the dangers of their own strength 
  and weight, and they are affectionate with people 
  they know, especially children.
  Despite their sapient-level practical intelli-
  gence, guardian bears are not great conversation-
  alists; their working vocabulary is usually as low 
  as 50-100 words. Most have some kind of radio 
  implant, allowing them to receive instructions and 
  to call for support when faced with intruders.
  Attribute Modifiers: ST+8 (Size, -10%) [72]; DX+2 
  [40]; IQ-4 [-80]; HT+3 [30].
  Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM +1; 
  Will+4 [20]; Per+5 [25]; Basic Move+1 [5].
  Advantages: Blunt Claws [3]; Damage Resistance 
  2 (Flexible, -20%) [8]; Enhanced Move 1/2 
  (Ground) [10]; Mars-Adapted [9]; Sharp Teeth 
  [1]; Temperature Tolerance 3 [3].
  Perks: Fur. [1]
  Disadvantages: Bad Grip 3 [-15]; Dead Broke [-25]; 
  Innumerate [-5]; Native Language reduced to Spoken  
  (Broken)/Written (None) [-5]; Semi-Upright [-5]; Social 
  Stigma (Valuable Property) [-10].
  Quirks: Affectionate to “Family”; Broad-Minded; Dull. [-3]
  Features: Taboo Traits (Fixed IQ; Genetic Defects).
  Date: 2088.
  Cost: $13,000.
  mArs HAwk
  see In the Well, p. 112; -40 points
  As the name implies, the Mars hawk is another purely 
  Mars-oriented creation, with almost-sapient intelligence and 
  a voice box based on that of a parrot, as well as large, carefully 
  engineered wings. Mars hawks serve as companion-pets and 
  occasionally as scouts.
  Attribute Modifiers: ST-6 [-60]; DX+2 [40]; IQ-4 [-80]; HT+2 
  [20].
  Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM -3; Will+4 [20]; 
  Per+6 [30]; Basic Move-5 (Ground Only, -60%) [-10].
  Advantages: Acute Vision 3 [6]; Damage Resistance 1 (Flex-
  ible, -20%) [4]; Enhanced Move 1/2 (Air) [10]; Flight 
  (Winged, -25%) [30]; Mars-Adapted [9]; Sharp Beak [1]; 
  Sharp Claws [5]; Temperature Tolerance 1 [1].
  Perks: Feathers. [1]
  Just tHe stAts:  
  guArdiAn beAr
  ST: 18 
  HP: 18 
  Speed: 6.25
  DX: 12 
  Will: 10 
  Move: 10
  IQ: 6 
  Per: 11 
  Weight: 500-1,000 lbs.
  HT: 13 
  FP: 13 
  SM: +1
  Dodge: 9 
  Parry: 9 (Wrestling) 
  DR: 2
  Bite (12): 1d+1 cutting. Reach C, 1.
  Claw (12): 1d+2 crushing. Reach C, 1.
  Grapple (13): Reach C; +1 to hit SM 0 opponents; follow up with 
  a ST 19 takedown and pin.
  Traits: Bad Grip 3; Blunt Claws; Broken Native Language Only; 
  Fur; Innumerate; Mars-Adapted; Semi-Upright; Sharp Teeth; 
  Temperature Tolerance 3.
  Skills: Wrestling-13.
  Cost: $13,000.
  Just tHe stAts: mArs HAwk
  ST: 4 
  HP: 4 
  Speed: 6.00
  DX: 12 
  Will: 10 
  Move: 18 (Air)
  IQ: 6 
  Per: 12 
  Weight: 6-12 lbs.
  HT: 12 
  FP: 12 
  SM: -3
  Dodge: 9 
  Parry: N/A 
  DR: 1
  Claw (12): 1d-6 cutting. Reach C.
  Peck (12): 1d-6 large piercing. Reach C.
  Traits: Acute Vision 3; Broken Native Language Only; Feathers; 
  Flight (Winged); Innumerate; Mars-Adapted; Sharp Beak; 
  Sharp Claws; Temperature Tolerance 1.
  Cost: $3,000.
  Despite their sapient-
  level practical intelligence, 
  guardian bears are not  
  great conversationalists;  
  their working vocabulary  
  is usually as low as  
  50-100 words.
  
   
  enHAnCed nonHumAnoid CreAtures 
  24
  mArtiAn fAunA 1: domestiCAtes
  Various creatures genetically engineered to provide 
  Martian humans with interesting pets or useful farm ani-
  mals are detailed in In the Well, pp. 111-114. The follow-
  ing are Fourth Edition treatments of those species which 
  are never worth detailing as characters.
  Dracofly
  ST: 0-2 
  HP: 1-2 
  Speed: 6.75
  DX: 13 
  Will: 5 
  Move: 15 (Air)
  IQ: 1 
  Per: 8 
  Weight: up to 1 lb.
  HT: 14 
  FP: 14 
  SM: -6 to -2
  Dodge: 10 
  Parry: N/A 
  DR: 0
  Traits: Domestic Animal; Flight (Winged); Mars-Adapted; 
  No Fine Manipulators.
  Skills: Aerobatics-12; Flight-13.
  Cost: $100, or more for exotic and bespoke designs.
  Notes: Ground Move is 2, with no effective Dodge. IQ is 
  effectively 5 when following specific instructions from 
  an insect director device, thanks more to the intelli-
  gence of the device’s controlling AI than to anything in 
  the insect’s own brain. If a dracofly gets distractingly 
  close to someone’s face, the victim suffers -2 to IQ or 
  Per-based rolls or skills, and has to roll vs. Will on the 
  first turn to resist the urge to do nothing but bat the 
  thing away. See Transhuman Space, p. 171, for details 
  of insect director technology, but note that dracoflies 
  are controlled by infrared signals rather than phero-
  mones, permitting finer control.
  Dracofly Swarms: A swarm of dracoflies uses the rules 
  on p. B461. It has a Move of 10 and is dispersed after los-
  ing 10 HP, or 15 HP for a swarm that is being directly 
  ordered to attack by a swarm controller. It does no dam-
  age, although it can distract opponents as above, but even 
  more effectively; -3 to IQ or Per-based rolls or skills, or -4 
  in brightly lit areas, and -3 to the first-turn Will roll.
  Spybug Variant: See In the Well for notes on typical 
  spybug tasks. The spybug can be treated as having IQ 6 
  in its very limited area of expertise while following direc-
  tions given through an insect director, but this effective-
  ness may be better reflected in most cases by giving it skill 
  10 in whatever it was designed to do. A spybug can attack 
  if necessary (roll against DX to hit; in many cases it will be 
  undetected to start with, and will make an All-Out Attack); 
  it can bite for a nominal 1 point of small piercing damage, 
  or use its stinger to deliver one dose of some drug or nano-
  drug. The stinger will be stopped by any DR, unless it has 
  the Tough Skin limitation. A spybug is LC1, due to the 
  technology’s still-secret status and potential insidious 
  applications, and costs $8,000 on the black market.
  Genemod Goat
  ST: 8-14 
  HP: 8-14 
  Speed: 6.50
  DX: 13 
  Will: 12 
  Move: 9
  IQ: 3 
  Per: 11 
  Weight: 75-400 lbs.
  HT: 13 
  FP: 16 
  SM: 0 to +1
  Dodge: 9 
  Parry: N/A 
  DR: 2
  Bite (13): 1d-4 to 1d-1 crushing. Reach C or C, 1.
  Butt (13): Slam attack (p. B371).
  Traits: Domestic Animal; Enhanced Move 1/2 (Ground 
  Move 9); Fur; Hooves; Mars-Adapted; Peripheral Vision; 
  Quadruped; Reduced Consumption 1 (Cast-Iron Stom-
  ach); Stubbornness; Temperature Tolerance 6.
  Skills: Jumping-16.
  Cost: $2,000. Add at least $8,000 for specialized variants 
  such as the spider goat.
  Notes: In 0.38 G, the goat can jump over 8’ upward from 
  a standing start, or 13’ with a good running start; it can 
  also jump 34’ horizontally without a running start, or 
  55’ with a good run. Escaped goats replace Domestic 
  Animal with Wild Animal, and usually have Survival 
  (Martian Plains)-12.
  Pharm Cow
  ST: 22-28 
  HP: 22-28 
  Speed: 5.25
  DX: 8 
  Will: 11 
  Move: 7
  IQ: 3 
  Per: 10 
  Weight: 1,500-3,000 lbs.
  HT: 13 
  FP: 16 
  SM: +2
  Dodge: 8 
  Parry: N/A 
  DR: 0
  Kick (6): 2d to 3d-1 crushing. Reach C-2.
  Trample (8): 2d+2 to 3d+2 crushing on fallen victims.
  Traits: Domestic Animal; Hooves; Mars-Adapted; Periph-
  eral Vision; Quadruped; Weak Bite.
  Cost: $5,000, or possibly much more for specialized or 
  exotic drug production.
  Notes: See In the Well for background information on 
  these creatures.
  All forms that perish other forms supply
  (By turns we catch the vital breath, and die),
  Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne,
  They rise, they break, and to that sea return.
  – Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Man”
  
   
  enHAnCed nonHumAnoid CreAtures 
  25
  Disadvantages: Two “Arms” are Short Foot Manipulators 
  [-16]; Dead Broke [-25]; Hidebound [-5]; Innumerate [-5]; 
  Native Language reduced to Spoken (Broken)/Written 
  (None) [-5]; Social Stigma (Valuable Property) [-10].
  Quirks: Staid. [-1]
  Features: Taboo Traits (Fixed IQ; Genetic Defects).
  Date: 2095.
  Cost: $3,000.
  oCtosAP
  see Under Pressure, p. 101; 74 points
  A Pacific octopus enhanced to become a worker 
  animal with dog-level intelligence. Its psychological 
  fragility suggests that the genetic engineers didn’t try 
  very hard to modify the original brain design, and 
  necessarily limits use of these worker creatures to 
  well-controlled environments.
  Attribute Modifiers: ST-1 [-10]; DX+4 [80]; IQ-4 [-80]; 
  HT+2 [20].
  Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per+6 [30].
  Advantages: Ambidexterity [5]; Chameleon 2 [10]; 
  Constriction Attack [15]; Damage Resistance 1 
  (Can’t Wear Armor, -40%; Tough Skin, -40%) [1]; 
  Doesn’t Breathe (Gills, Water Only) [0]; Enhanced 
  Move 1/2 (Water) [10]; Extra Arms 6 (Extra-Flex-
  ible, +50%) [90]; Extra-Flexible [10]; Injury 
  Tolerance (No Neck) [5]; Obscure 10 (Vision; 
  Accessibility, Only in water, -30%) [14]; Peripheral 
  Vision [15]; Pressure Support 1 [5]; Sharp Beak 
  [1].
  Disadvantages: Bad Grip 2 [-10]; Bad Sight (Near-
  sighted; Mitigator, -60%) [-10]; Cold-Blooded 
  (50°F) [-5]; Colorblindness [-10]; Dead Broke [-25]; 
  Fearfulness 1 [-2]; Hidebound [-5]; Innumerate 
  [-5]; Invertebrate [-20]; Mute (Mitigator, Vulner-
  able, External loudspeakers with computer con-
  nections, -60%) [-10]; No Legs (Aquatic) [0]; Short 
  Lifespan 2 [-20]; Social Stigma (Valuable Prop-
  erty) [-10]; Stress Atavism (Mild; 9) [-15].
  Date: 2072.
  Cost: $21,000.
  Notes and Variations
  Octosap II: A second-generation Octosap, with 
  growth rates slowed to permit the development of 
  higher intelligence. Change IQ to -2 [-40], Per to +4 
  [20], Damage Resistance to 2 (Can’t Wear Armor, 
  -40%; Tough Skin, -40%) [2], and Short Lifespan to 1 
  [-10]. 115 points. ($35,000; 2081.)
  smArtCAt
  see In the Well, p. 111; -106 points
  A domestic cat with a voice box and improved intel-
  ligence and lifespan. A smartcat’s language skills are 
  relatively limited, though – its brain is only cat-sized. 
  Despite decades of optimism among cat-lovers, this 
  ultimately places a hard limit on the potential intel-
  ligence of any genetically modified, standard-size cat.
  Enhanced pets like this are particularly associated with the 
  human colonies on Mars, but they may also be encountered 
  on Earth.
  Attribute Modifiers: ST-6 [-60]; DX+4 (No Fine Manipulators, 
  -40%) [48]; IQ-4 [-80]; HT+1 [10].
  Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM -3; Will+4 [20]; 
  Per+6 [30]; Basic Move+1 [5].
  Advantages: Catfall [10]; Combat Reflexes [15]; Enhanced 
  Move 1/2 (Ground) [10]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Sharp Claws 
  [5]; Sharp Teeth [1]; Ultrahearing [5].
  Perks: Fur. [1]
  Just tHe stAts: oCtosAP
  ST: 9 
  HP: 9 
  Speed: 6.50
  DX: 14 
  Will: 6 
  Move: 9 (Water)
  IQ: 6 
  Per: 12 
  Weight: 160 lbs.
  HT: 12 
  FP: 12 
  SM: 0
  Dodge: 9 
  Parry: 10 
  DR: 1
  Grapple (26): Reach C; follow up with bite (below).
  Neck Grapple (21): Reach C; follow up with ST 21 strangle. 
  Only works on opponents with necks!
  Sharp Beak (14): 1d-3 large piercing. Reach C.
  Traits: Bad Grip 2; Bad Sight (Nearsighted; with Mitigator); 
  Chameleon 2; Cold-Blooded (50°F); Colorblindness; Con-
  striction Attack; Extra Arms 6; Extra-Flexible Arms; Fear-
  fulness 1; Gills; Injury Tolerance (No Neck); Innumerate; 
  Invertebrate; No Legs (Aquatic); Mute (with Mitigator); 
  Obscure 10 (Vision; Only in Water); Peripheral Vision; Pres-
  sure Support 1; Stress Atavism (Mild; 9).
  Cost: $21,000.
  Notes: The Octosap II has IQ 8, Will 8, and DR 2. An Octosap 
  which grapples an opponent can employ or release any 
  or all of its arms (tentacles) for other purposes while still 
  performing or maintaining its hold, but each tentacle 
  freed up gives -2 to rolls to grapple and to effective ST  
  for strangling.
  Just tHe stAts: smArtCAt
  ST: 4 
  HP: 4 
  Speed: 6.25
  DX: 14 
  Will: 10 
  Move: 10
  IQ: 6 
  Per: 12 
  Weight: 5-15 lbs.
  HT: 11 
  FP: 11 
  SM: -3
  Dodge: 10 
  Parry: N/A 
  DR: 0
  Sharp Claws (14): 1d-6 cutting. Reach C.
  Sharp Teeth (14): 1d-6 cutting. Reach C.
  Traits: Broken Native Language Only; Catfall; Colorblindness; 
  Combat Reflexes; Distractible; Disturbing Voice; Fur; Night 
  Vision 5; Quadruped; Sleepy (1/2 of the time); Ultrahearing.
  Cost: $1,000.
  Notes: See the Notes and Variations in the main text for variant 
  features.
  
   
  enHAnCed nonHumAnoid CreAtures 
  26
  Disadvantages: Colorblindness [-10]; Dead Broke [-25]; Dis-
  turbing Voice [-10]; Hidebound [-5]; Native Language 
  reduced to Spoken (Broken)/Written (None) [-5]; Quadru-
  ped [-35]; Short Legs [-2]; Short Lifespan 2 [-20]; Sleepy (1/2 
  of the time) [-8]; Social Stigma (Valuable Property) [-10].
  Quirks: Distractible. [-1]
  Features: Hard to train (treat as IQ 4 for this purpose); Reflec-
  tive Eyes; Taboo Traits (Fixed IQ; Genetic Defects).
  Date: 2092.
  Cost: $1,000.
  Notes and Variations
  Smartcats can easily justify having Acute Senses (espe-
  cially Hearing) and possibly Discriminatory Hearing, Per-
  fect Balance, or Silence, but these aren’t universal for the 
  genotype. An especially well-designed fur pattern and nat-
  ural grace might reasonably qualify as Attractive. Although 
  smartcats are hard to train, they are fully capable of picking 
  up “natural” cat skills such as Acrobatics, Brawling, Climb-
  ing, Stealth, and Survival.
  mArtiAn fAunA 2: wildlife
  Work is ongoing to provide Mars with a functioning 
  ecosystem. The following are Fourth Edition treatments of 
  “wild” creatures from In the Well, pp. 114-115. Note that 
  native temperature ranges for these creatures are suited 
  to their environment, and so are lower than for humans.
  Ice Weasel
  ST: 6-8 
  HP: 6-8 
  Speed: 6.00
  DX: 12 
  Will: 10 
  Move: 8
  IQ: 4 
  Per: 12 
  Weight: 30-70 lbs.
  HT: 12 
  FP: 13 
  SM: -1
  Dodge: 10 
  Parry: N/A 
  DR: 2
  Sharp Teeth (12): 1d-5 to 1d-4 cutting. Reach C.
  Traits: Blunt Claws; Combat Reflexes; Fur; Mars-Adapted; 
  Quadruped; Sure-Footed (Ice); Wild Animal.
  Skills: Stealth-12.
  Notes: See In the Well for details of the problems that ice 
  weasels sometimes cause when humans (or transhu-
  mans) are around.
  Mini Bear
  ST: 10-11 
  HP: 10-11 
  Speed: 6.25
  DX: 13 
  Will: 10 
  Move: 7
  IQ: 4 
  Per: 11 
  Weight: 120-180 lbs.
  HT: 12 
  FP: 12 
  SM: 0
  Dodge: 9 
  Parry: 9 
  DR: 1
  Blunt Claws (13): 1d-2 or 1d-1 crushing. Reach C.
  Grapple (13): Grab opponent (see p. B370). Reach C.
  Sharp Teeth (13): 1d-3 or 1d-2 cutting. Reach C.
  Traits: Fur; Mars-Adapted; Reduced Consumption 3 
  (Cast-Iron Stomach); Semi-Upright; Wild Animal.
  Sand Wolf
  ST: 10-12 
  HP: 10-12 
  Speed: 6.25
  DX: 12 
  Will: 11 
  Move: 7
  IQ: 5 
  Per: 12 
  Weight: 150-250 lbs.
  HT: 13 
  FP: 13 
  SM: 0
  Dodge: 10 
  Parry: N/A 
  DR: 2
  Sharp Teeth (13): 1d-3 to 1d-2 cutting. Reach C.
  Traits: Blunt Claws; Combat Reflexes; Discriminatory 
  Smell; Fur; Mars-Adapted; Night Vision 2; Quadruped; 
  Sure-Footed (Sand); Temperature Tolerance 1; Wild 
  Animal.
  Skills: Brawling-13; Camouflage-12; Tracking-15.
  Notes: See In the Well for details of sand wolves’ hunting 
  and burrow-defense methods.
  Tika Bird
  ST: 1-2 
  HP: 1-2 
  Speed: 6.75
  DX: 14 
  Will: 9 
  Move: 12 (Air)
  IQ: 3 
  Per: 10 
  Weight: < 1 lb.
  HT: 13 
  FP: 13 
  SM: -4
  Dodge: 9 
  Parry: N/A 
  DR: 0
  Sharp Beak (14): 1d-7 large piercing. Reach C.
  Traits: Blunt Claws; Feathers; Flight (Winged); Mars-
  Adapted; No Fine Manipulators; Wild Animal.
  Notes: Ground Move is 2. See In the Well for the long-
  term effects of tika bird activity.
  
   
  enHAnCed nonHumAnoid CreAtures 
  27
  First Generation Smartcats: Early smartcats (developed 
  around 2082) were a bit too feline in unfortunate ways. Delete 
  Hidebound and add Bully (12) [-10], Callous [-5], and Selfish 
  (12) [-5], making the template cost -121 points; most had at 
  least something out of Absent-Mindedness, Dislike (Water), 
  Dull, Nosy, Uncongenial, and allegedly sometimes Megaloma-
  nia. Some at least of these animals may have had the same IQ 
  as the smarter smartcats discussed below.
  Mars Smartcats: A smartcat created for life on Mars can 
  add Mars-Adapted [9], raising the template value to -97 points 
  and adding $500 to the cost.
  Smarter Smartcats: Despite their supposedly very well-de-
  fined (and Fixed) intelligence, some later-generation smart-
  cats have an extra level of IQ (+20 points); they may even have 
  some level of literacy. A few of these also have the unfortunate 
  personalities of the first-generation type above. A cat-sized 
  mammal this smart is using its brain near its theoretical lim-
  its, which may turn out to have unfortunate consequences for 
  its mental stability or physical health in the long term. These 
  variations show up among smartcats created for Martian 
  owners at least as often as elsewhere, and possibly more often; 
  local biotech operations may be a bit more experiment-prone 
  and careless.
  bioroid “AnimAls”
  The creatures in this section are not members of true 
  biological species. Rather, they are the products of bioroid 
  manufacturing technology, and they cannot reproduce.
  CryPtomorPHs
  These designs, imitations of creatures from mod-
  ern myth, are the creation of the Society for Applied 
  Teratology (Toxic Memes, pp. 75-76).
  Chupacabra
  -122 points
  The Chupacabra (“goat-sucker”) is a creature of 
  modern legends from Latin America. It is usually said 
  to stand 3-4’ high, with the posture and leaping ability 
  of a kangaroo, reptilian scaly or leathery gray-green 
  skin, and a row of short spines running from its head 
  to the base of its tail. It is described as a vampiric 
  predator with large fangs and a habit of sucking the 
  blood of livestock it kills.
  The Teratologists set to work replicating most of 
  this, but realized that they needed to forget about the 
  aggressive carnivore behavior if they wanted their 
  creature to remain hidden. They could manage the 
  forked tongue, the dog-like snout, and even the sul-
  furic smell, but regretfully left out the glowing red 
  eyes and kept the screeching alarm call fairly quiet. 
  The fast leaping movement helps their shy creatures 
  to evade attention, and a low-key omnivorous diet, 
  including fruit and small invertebrates, provides just 
  enough calories to keep them going. The fangs aren’t 
  as sharp as they look.
  The Society released their first Chupacabra into 
  the wild in Mexico in 2097, and they now have a 
  small colony there, along with a few in Brazil. Both 
  groups have been seen just often enough to keep the 
  legend going, although it’s hard to say if they have 
  really reinforced what was already an enduring low-
  level meme much. The bioroid Chupacabras are defi-
  nitely not responsible for any attacks on livestock in 
  the region, but one worry for the Society is that if 
  any sightings happened to coincide with the sort of 
  feral dog attacks or odd accidents that reinforce the 
  meme at other times, they could have a panic or a 
  hunting spree on their hands, possibly leading to the discov-
  ery of the trick.
  Just tHe stAts: 
  CHuPACAbrA
  ST: 7 
  HP: 7 
  Speed: 6.00
  DX: 11 
  Will: 8 
  Move: 9
  IQ: 4 
  Per: 11 
  Weight: 45 lbs.
  HT: 12 
  FP: 12 
  SM: -1
  Dodge: 9 
  Parry: 8 
  DR: 1
  Bite (11): 1d-4 crushing. Reach C.
  Blunt Claws (11): 1d-3 crushing. Reach C.
  Traits: Acute Taste and Smell 1; Bad Grip 3; Bad Smell; Bestial; 
  Bioroid Body; Cold-Blooded (50°F); Monstrous Appearance; 
  Night Vision 3; Peripheral Vision; Reduced Consumption 2 
  (Cast-Iron Stomach); Phobia (Humans) (9); Scales; Short 
  Spines (Back Only); Super Jump 1.
  Cost: $75,000.
  Notes: Can jump 52” up or 18’ horizontally from a standing 
  start, or up to twice those distances with a nine-yard run-
  ning start.
  Just tHe stAts: sAsquAtCH
  ST: 14 
  HP: 14 
  Speed: 6.25
  DX: 11 
  Will: 8 
  Move: 12
  IQ: 6 
  Per: 9 
  Weight: 400 lbs.
  HT: 14 
  FP: 14 
  SM: +1
  Dodge: 9 
  Parry: 8 
  DR: 1
  Sharp Claws (11): 1d-1 cutting. Reach C, 1.
  Traits: Acute Taste and Smell 2; Bestial; Bioroid Body; Broken 
  Native Language Only; Fearlessness 1; Fur; Innumerate; 
  Monstrous Appearance; Night Vision 5; Shyness (Crippling); 
  Temperature Tolerance 2.
  Cost: $75,000.
  Notes: 2098 version changes Shyness to (Mild).
  
   
  enHAnCed nonHumAnoid CreAtures 
  28
  One or two bioengineers in the group may doodle designs 
  for a “real” Chupacabra, complete with vampiric diet and even 
  demonic eyes, in their spare time, but the Society has generally 
  managed to keep its members behaving vaguely responsibly. 
  Still, if, say, an eccentric billionaire wanted a “zoo specimen,” 
  it wouldn’t be hard for them to supply one. Including the leg-
  end’s vicious blood-thirst would surely be much too unwise 
  for anyone.
  Attribute Modifiers: ST-3 [-30]; DX+1 [20]; IQ-6 [-120]; HT+2 
  [20].
  Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM -1; Will+4 [20]; 
  Per+7 [35]; Basic Speed+0.25 [5].
  Advantages: Acute Taste and Smell 1 [2]; Blunt Claws [3]; 
  Damage Resistance 1 (Flexible, -20%) [4]; Enhanced Move 
  1/2 (Ground) [10]; Night Vision 3 [3]; Peripheral Vision 
  [15]; Reduced Consumption 2 (Cast-Iron Stomach, -50%) 
  [2]; Resistant to Disease (+3) [3]; Short Spines (Back Only, 
  -50%) [1]; Super Jump 1 [10].
  Perks: Scales. [1]
  Disadvantages: Appearance (Monstrous) [-20]; Bad Grip 
  3 [-15]; Bad Smell [-10]; Bestial [-10]; Bioroid Body [-4]; 
  Cold-Blooded (50°F) [-5]; Dead Broke [-25]; Hidebound 
  [-5]; Phobia (Humans) (9) [-7]; Short Arms (Two arms) 
  [-10]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15].
  Features: Reflective Eyes; Taboo Trait (Fixed IQ).
  Date: 2096.
  Cost: $75,000.
  Notes
  The Social Stigma reflects how humans are currently likely 
  to respond to these creatures. If their harmless diet and habits 
  become known, they may be treated more as Valuable Prop-
  erty, especially if captured.
  tHe loCH ness monster bioroid
  The Society for Applied Teratology aren’t idiots; the 
  fundamental problems with their Loch Ness Project 
  reflect things that have been discussed by cryptozoolo-
  gists for well over a century, and were confirmed by initial 
  computer modeling, not actual failed creatures. The basic 
  issues are metabolic; the loch is simply too cold for an 
  aquatic reptile, and too small to hide a large mammal for 
  long or to feed a colony of them. However, other practical 
  problems are just as bad. Loch Ness and the surrounding 
  area are mostly protected countryside, but there are vil-
  lages, tourist facilities, a few small high-tech fish farms, 
  and roads along the loch side – in other words, lots of peo-
  ple and systems that might see any creature that surfaces 
  and record it in digital high resolution. While the Tera-
  tologists want their Nessie to be seen sometimes, it has 
  to be glimpsed briefly and confusingly; if anyone starts 
  taking the subject too seriously, even small, low-budget 
  investigation teams will probably bring in systems that 
  can search the loch in excruciating detail.
  So plans for a warm-blooded, air-breathing creature 
  were quickly scrapped; it would have to surface too often, 
  and would probably end up raiding fish farms for food, 
  while its body heat would show up on the simplest IR sen-
  sors. The eventual design was based on modified fish biol-
  ogy (although it has the “classic” plesiosaur shape), with 
  gills at the base of the neck plus an auxiliary air-breathing 
  mechanism to allow metabolic boosts when it can surface 
  safely. (The long neck acts usefully as a snorkel.) Likewise, 
  it is an herbivore, which forced the engineers to give it a 
  slow baseline metabolism – but they designed its digestion 
  to handle high-energy supplements which they supply 
  when they can, giving it a further boost.
  It has a very cautious nature, with a tendency to bury 
  itself in the silt of the loch bed if disturbed or just when 
  resting; since “Nessie” was released (from a rented loch-
  side site) in 2096, sightings have been frustratingly rare. 
  The Society classes this as a long-term project, but the 
  project monitors (teams of two or three specialists work-
  ing in relays, sometimes on site under various covers) are 
  concerned that the creature’s health is declining; the met-
  abolic design was always a fine balance and may be fail-
  ing. They can exert minimal control over it using subsonic 
  signals at ranges of up to a couple of miles; they have trig-
  ger signals for “come here,” “flee at speed,” and “hide as 
  soon as possible.” The first overrides its built-in aversion 
  to human contact.
  Some of the designers have preserved their notes 
  regarding a possible warm-blooded “Nessie” – essentially 
  a large, long-necked bioroid seal. It may yet be built, but it 
  is unlikely to be released into Loch Ness. There are other, 
  more remote lakes with monster legends after all.
  “Nessie” Bioroid
  ST: 15 
  HP: 15 
  Speed: 4.75
  DX: 9 
  Will: 8 
  Move: 5 (Water)
  IQ: 2 
  Per: 11 
  Weight: 500 lbs.
  HT: 10 
  FP: 10 
  SM: +1
  Dodge: 7 
  Parry: N/A 
  DR: 2
  Weak Bite (9): 1d-2 crushing. Reach C-2.
  Traits: Bioroid Body; Doesn’t Breathe (Gills; see notes 
  below); Ichthyoid; Long Neck (+2 yards Reach for 
  bite); Nictitating Membrane 1; Night Vision 5; Phobia 
  (Humans) (9); Pressure Support 1; Resistant to Disease 
  (+3); Scales; Temperature Tolerance 2; Wild Animal.
  Skills: Survival (Fresh-Water Lake)-11.
  Notes: The above attributes are under typical circum-
  stances. The creature suffers -3 DX, -1 Move, and -1 
  Dodge if it has been unable to breathe air for at least 
  10 minutes in the last hour; and gains +3 DX, +2 Move, 
  and +1 Dodge for 1d hours after consuming dietary 
  supplements. Note also that it will respond instinc-
  tively and automatically to specific subsonic signals.
  
   
  enHAnCed nonHumAnoid CreAtures 
  29
  Sasquatch
  see Toxic Memes, p. 76; -15 points
  The Society’s greatest success and currently its great-
  est worry.
  Attribute Modifiers: ST+4 (Size, -10%) [36]; DX+1 [20]; 
  IQ-4 [-80]; HT+4 [40].
  Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM +1; Will+2 
  [10]; Per+3 [15].
  Advantages: Acute Taste and Smell 2 [4]; Damage 
  Resistance 1 (Flexible, -20%) [4]; Enhanced Move 1 
  (Ground) [20]; Fearlessness 1 [2]; Night Vision 5 [5]; 
  Resistant to Disease (+8) [5]; Sharp Claws [5]; Tem-
  perature Tolerance 2 [2].
  Perks: Fur. [1]
  Disadvantages: Appearance (Monstrous) [-20]; Bestial 
  [-10]; Bioroid Body [-4]; Dead Broke [-25]; Innumer-
  ate [-5]; Native Language reduced to Spoken (Bro-
  ken)/Written (None) [-5]; Shyness (Crippling) [-20]; 
  Social Stigma (Monster) [-15].
  Date: 2094.
  Cost: $75,000.
  Notes and Variations
  The Social Stigma reflects how humans will respond 
  to these creatures if they encounter them closely enough 
  to react to them as individuals. If more of the truth about 
  the history and nature of the design becomes known, 
  the Stigma may change to Subjugated, or merely to 
  Valuable Property. Likewise, the creatures’ Appearance 
  may come to be rated far less negatively if humans get 
  used to them.
  2098 Version: Change Shyness (Crippling) to Shyness 
  (Mild) [-5], increasing the template value to 0 points.
  destrier
  59 points
  A rare example of a nonhumanoid bioroid design 
  with limited resemblance to any natural creature, the 
  Destrier is intended as a riding and work animal, partly 
  for hobbyists and partly for use in wilderness areas 
  where even advanced vehicles sometimes have difficulty 
  with the terrain. In practice, the market for the design has 
  proved limited, but a few are in use around the world. A ver-
  sion optimized for Mars is being considered, but it is hard 
  for a creature of this size to function efficiently and do heavy 
  work in that planet’s current atmosphere.
  The Destrier is a stocky, muscular creature with a semi- 
  upright posture, although its gait when moving on four limbs 
  is smooth. It can also use its front limbs as slightly clumsy 
  arms, increasing its versatility and usefulness. It can wear a 
  double saddle and carry two adult humans and some luggage.  
  (A double saddle and riding tack cost $200 and weigh 20 lbs.)  
  Although I possessed the capacity of bestowing animation, yet to 
  prepare a frame for the reception of it, with all its intricacies of fibers, 
  muscles, and veins, still remained a work of inconceivable difficulty  
  and labor.
  – Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
  Just tHe stAts: destrier
  ST: 28 
  HP: 28 
  Speed: 5.50
  DX: 10 
  Will: 10 
  Move: 10
  IQ: 6 
  Per: 12 
  Weight: 2,200 lbs.
  HT: 12 
  FP: 12 
  SM: +2
  Dodge: 8 
  Parry: 8 
  DR: 1
  Punch (10): 3d-2 crushing. Reach C, 1.
  Weak Bite (10): 3d-8 crushing. Reach C, 1.
  Traits: Bad Grip 2; Bioroid Body; Broken Native Language 
  Only; Deep Sleeper; Domestic Animal; Fur; Innumerate; 
  Night Vision 1; Semi-Upright; Temperature Tolerance 3.
  Skills: Mount-10.
  Cost: $144,000.
  Just tHe stAts:  
  mArs CAmel
  ST: 20 
  HP: 20 
  Speed: 5.00
  DX: 8 
  Will: 12 
  Move: 10
  IQ: 4 
  Per: 12 
  Weight: 1,200 lbs.
  HT: 12 
  FP: 12 
  SM: +1
  Dodge: 8 
  Parry: N/A 
  DR: 2
  Slam (8): See p. B371; up to 2d crushing at move 10, then 
  overrun and trample for 1d-1 crushing if opponent falls.
  Trample (8): 2d+1 crushing on fallen victims.
  Weak Bite (8): 2d-6 crushing. Reach C, 1.
  Traits: Bad Temper (15); Bioroid Body; Colorblindness; 
  Deep Sleeper; Domestic Animal; Fur; Hard to Subdue 2; 
  Hooves; Mars-Adapted; Nictitating Membrane 1; Periph-
  eral Vision; Quadruped; Radiation Tolerance 2; Reduced 
  Consumption 3 (Water Only); Stubbornness; Tempera-
  ture Tolerance 7; Terrain Adaptation (Sand).
  Skills: Survival (Martian Desert)-12.
  Cost: $52,000
  
   
  enHAnCed nonHumAnoid CreAtures 
  30
  It has a face somewhere between that of a horse and a great 
  ape, with good binocular vision, and thick fur, usually in a 
  shade of brown.
  The design incorporates biological elements from a num-
  ber of herbivores and a few genes from gorillas, with a very 
  efficient purely herbivorous digestive system, allowing it to 
  live off the land without too much time spent grazing. Still, it 
  functions best on a carefully balanced diet, heavy on grain. Its 
  brain is designed to make it smart but not too unpredictable; 
  it rates as borderline sapient on most tests and can manage 
  simple conversations. Although its designers built the Destrier 
  to last as well as they could, the strains on its system imposed 
  by its size and typical workload give it a relatively limited 
  lifespan.
  Attribute Modifiers: ST+18 (Size, -20%) [144]; IQ-4 [-80]; 
  HT+2 [20].
  Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM +2; Will+4 [20]; 
  Per+6 [30].
  Advantages: Damage Resistance 1 (Flexible, -20%) [4]; 
  Enhanced Move 1 (Ground) [20]; Night Vision 1 [1]; Tem-
  perature Tolerance 3 [3].
  Perks: Deep Sleeper; Fur. [2]
  Disadvantages: Bad Grip 2 [-10]; Bioroid Body [-4]; Dead 
  Broke [-25]; Domestic Animal [-30]; Innumerate [-5]; Native 
  Language reduced to Spoken (Broken)/Written (None) [-5]; 
  Semi-Upright [-5]; Short Lifespan 2 [-20]; Weak Bite [-2].
  Quirks: Attentive. [-1]
  Features: Sexless; Taboo Trait (Mental Instability).
  Racial Skills: Mount (A) DX [2].
  Date: 2089.
  Cost: $144,000.
  mArs CAmel
  -62 points
  Like the Destrier (pp. 29-30), the Mars camel is a bioroid 
  beast of burden – but one that is specifically designed from the 
  first for the Martian environment, while being closely based 
  on a terrestrial animal. The designers, working for a group of 
  sentimental Martian Saudi Arabians (In the Well, p. 48), were 
  permitted to sacrifice speed and a certain amount of strength 
  to get the appearance right.
  Mars camels are designed as riding and baggage animals; 
  although they are a little smarter than terrestrial camels, they 
  certainly aren’t sapient. Some people assume that their all-
  too-camel-like psychology (irascible and not very cooperative) 
  represents another aesthetic decision, but the designers swear 
  that it is a useful pattern for a creature that has to survive in a 
  harsh desert environment – and that they managed to tone it 
  down from the original camel personality. This is true; Animal 
  Handling rolls for Mars camels are at only -2.
  The main snag with this whole concept, though, is that 
  the bioroid’s respiratory system is still based on that of a 
  terrestrial animal, albeit with modifications analogous to 
  an Andraste biomod – so, ideally, Mars camels need to wear 
  air masks when outdoors. However, it’s difficult to persuade 
  a camel to wear a mask at all, let alone to keep one fitted 
  properly. Although the creatures can handle high carbon 
  dioxide levels, this pushes their food consumption up, so 
  using Mars camels becomes an especially expensive and 
  inefficient luxury.
  Mars camels have carefully engineered hides and fur, 
  making them incredibly resistant to cold; they can typically 
  handle temperatures from about -70°F to 70°F. This is suffi-
  cient much of the time, but not enough for really cold Martian 
  nights. Owners usually carry collapsible shelters for their ani-
  mals, or plan their journeys with an eye on weather forecasts. 
  As Martian temperatures rise, this part of the design may need 
  further adjustment.
  Only a few dozen Mars camels currently live on the planet, 
  but they do look good in the right light. Work is underway on 
  a racing variant that sacrifices even more strength in order to 
  restore the real camel’s speed.
  Attribute Modifiers: ST+10 (No Fine Manipulators, -40%; 
  Size, -10%) [50]; DX-2 [-40]; IQ-6 [-120]; HT+2 [20].
  Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM +1; Will+8 [40]; 
  Per+8 [40].
  Advantages: Damage Resistance 2 (Flexible, -20%) [8]; 
  Enhanced Move 1 (Ground) [20]; Hard to Subdue 2 [4]; 
  Hooves [3]; Mars-Adapted [9]; Nictitating Membrane 1 [1]; 
  Peripheral Vision [15]; Radiation Tolerance 2 [5]; Reduced 
  Consumption 3 (Water Only, -50%) [3]; Temperature Tol-
  erance 7 [7]; Terrain Adaptation (Sand) [5].
  Perks: Deep Sleeper; Fur. [2]
  Disadvantages: Bad Temper (15) [-5]; Bioroid Body [-4]; 
  Colorblindness [-10]; Dead Broke [-25]; Domestic Animal 
  [-30]; Quadruped [-35]; Short Lifespan 2 [-20]; Stubborn-
  ness [-5]; Weak Bite [-2].
  Features: Sexless; Taboo Traits (Fixed IQ; Mental Instability).
  Racial Skills: Survival (Martian Desert) (A) Per [2].
  Date: 2095.
  Cost: $52,000.
  Some people assume 
  that their all-too-camel-
  like psychology (irascible 
  and not very cooperative) 
  represents another aesthetic 
  decision, but the designers 
  swear that it is a useful 
  pattern for a creature that 
  has to survive in a harsh 
  desert environment – and 
  that they managed to tone 
  it down from the original 
  camel personality.
  
   
  index 
  31
  Advantages, 18-19.
  Animals, see Uplifted and Adapted Animals.
  Appearance perks, 19.
  Bears, guardian, 23; mini, 26.
  Bioengineering, skill, 20-21; see also 
  Bioroids, Bioshells, Humans.
  Bioroidophobia disadvantage, 19.
  Bioroids, “animal” examples, 27-30; attitudes 
  about, 11-16; campaigns and scandals, 
  10; Control Rating, 14; development 
  in outer system, 16; history, 9-10; in 
  society, 15-16; legal complications, 12-
  14; Legality Class, 14; passing as, 21; 
  phobia, 19; purchasing reasons, 13-14; 
  skills used in making, 21; species-specific 
  skill modifiers, 17; spotting, 18; undersea 
  development, 16.
  Biosapients, see Bioroids.
  Bioshells, attitudes about, 11-16; Control 
  Rating, 14; development in outer system, 
  16; legal complications, 12-13; Legality 
  Class, 14; memetic problem, 14-15; 
  necromorph, 12, 14; species-specific skill 
  modifiers, 17.
  Biotech Euphrates, 8-10, 16.
  Body Language skill, 17.
  Characters, as bioroids in society, 11, 12, 
  15; mental symbionts, 9; species skill 
  modifiers, 17; traits, 16-23.
  China, attitudes toward bioroids, 12.
  Chupacabras, 27-29.
  Clarke-1 scandal, 10.
  Classic Features perk, 19.
  Cross-Species Expertise perk, 19.
  Cryptomorphs, 27-29.
  Destriers, 29-30.
  Detect Lies skill, 17.
  Diagnosis skill, 17.
  Disadvantages, 19-20.
  Dracoflies, 24.
  Empathy advantage, 17, 18.
  European Union, attitudes toward bioroids, 
  10; attitudes toward bioshells, 15; bioroid 
  citizens, 10, 15-16; bioroid Legality Class, 
  14; GRA and, 13.
  Expert Skill (Sapientogeny), 21.
  Feathers perk, 22.
  First Aid skill, 17.
  Genemod goats, 24.
  Genetic engineering, see Bioroids, Bioshells, 
  Humans.
  Genetic Regulatory Agency (GRA), 13.
  Goats, genemod, 24.
  Guardian bears, 23.
  GURPS, 5, 12, 14, 16, 17; Bio-Tech, 3, 
  7; Power-Ups 2: Perks, 3; Social 
  Engineering, 12; see also Transhuman 
  Space.
  Humans, attitudes about bioengineering, 
  7; bioengineering Legality Class, 14; 
  biotech developments in outer system, 16; 
  history of disease immunity, 6; history 
  of genefixing, 6-8; history of genetic 
  screening, 4; history of genetic tweaks, 
  5; history of parahumans, 7; history of 
  synthetic transplant organs, 5-6; history 
  of upgraded children, 6-7; parahuman 
  Legality Class, 14; phobias, 20, 22; skill 
  modifiers for variant, 17; skills used in 
  making parahumans, 21; skills used 
  in upgrades, 21; species-specific skill 
  modifiers, 17.
  Hyper-Specialization perk, 19, 20.
  Ice weasels, 26.
  India, attitudes toward bioroids, 12-13.
  Intolerance disadvantage, 19.
  Islamic Caliphate, attitudes toward bioroids, 
  12, 14.
  Japan, attitudes toward bioroids, 12.
  Legality Class, 14.
  Loch Ness monster bioroid, 28.
  Looks Like a (Bioroid) quirk, 20, 21.
  Mars, attitudes toward bioroids, 12; bioroid 
  history, 7. 
  Mars camels, 29, 30.
  Mars hawks, 23, 25.
  Martian animals, 23-27, 29, 30; 
  domesticates, 24; wildlife, 26.
  Medical skills, 17, 21.
  Mini bears, 26.
  “Nessie” bioroid, 28.
  Nomenclature, Transhuman Space, 3.
  Octosaps, 25.
  Parahumans, see Humans.
  Passing Appearance perk, 19.
  Perks, 19, 22.
  Pharm cows, 24.
  Pheromones, resistance to, 18-19.
  Phobia disadvantage, 19, 22; to humans, 22.
  Physician skill, 17.
  Physiology skill, 17, 21.
  Psychology skill, 17, 21.
  Quirks, 20.
  Reference society, defined, 12.
  Resistant advantage, 18.
  Sand wolves, 26.
  Sapientogeny, 5.
  Sasquatchs, 27, 29.
  Sensitive advantage, 17.
  Skills, 20-21.
  Smartcat, 25-27; Martian, 27.
  South African Coalition, attitudes toward 
  bioroids, 10, 12, 16; bioroid citizens, 12; 
  legal complications, 12, 16.
  Species, meaning of, 17.
  Sure-Footed perk, 22.
  Surgery skill, 17.
  Symbionts, mental, 9.
  Synthogenetiphobia disadvantage, 20.
  Taboo Trait (Fixed IQ), 22-23.
  Technophobia disadvantage, 20.
  Templates, bioroid “animals,” 27-30; uplifted 
  and adapted animals, 22-27.
  Tika birds, 26.
  Transhuman Space, 3, 12, 14, 17, 18, 21, 
  24; Bioroid Bazaar, 3, 6, 16, 18, 22; 
  Broken Dreams, 12, 14; Changing 
  Times, 16-18, 21; Deep Beyond, 9, 16; 
  Fifth Wave, 8; High Frontier, 10, 13; In 
  the Well, 23-26, 30; Toxic Memes, 27, 
  29; Under Pressure, 9, 16, 25; Wings of 
  the Rising Sun, 18; see also GURPS.
  Trojan Mafia, 16.
  Upgraded children, see Humans.
  Uplifted and Adapted Animals, examples, 
  22-27; history, 8-9; mental symbionts, 9; 
  traits, 22-23.
  Ziusudra parahuman design, history, 8.
  index
  We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid 
  (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features which are of considerable 
  biological interest.
  – J.D. Watson and F.H.C. Crick,  
  “A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid,” Nature, April 1953
  
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