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Another post asking questions about the use of some terminology in ICAR.

"natural biological creatures"

This is used in the Healing section to differentiate humans,animals, etc,. from bionics, armor..androids (I assume).

The definition is this:

"A natural biological creature is one that has growth from
a natural source. This includes humans and animals."

This confuses me...(and maybe thats ok..lol)

What about clones? What if your limb was blown off and you got a new one? Is that possible in ICAR? If so thats not grown from a natural source?

Or is a natural source anything thats organic? So, as long as its grown in a vat of chemicals its ok?

I assume "Droids" are robot-like. All their pictures make them look very much so.

However, Androids are described as being very human-like if so desired. Physically they can be visually the same? What about the insides? Are they human sized milk shakes like Bishop from Aliens? Or are they mechanical inside like Commander Data?

Terminators from the Movies are organic flesh over a hard endoskeleton. Does this exist in ICAR?

So, where healing is described in the ICAR system may be a good place to set clear limits.

Organic vs Inorganic?

i belive that the cloneing of replacements (or to quote an OLLLLD Perdue Chicken add "parts is parts") is covered under the bio-ware section of the cybernetics section of the Cybernetics book.
as for the terminators-esque auotonamatons i'd say youbetcha. of course thats also why i added a detail freely stolen from the TV show Red Dwarf, all leagle Autos have a silver capital A on their forehead. any found witrhout this are imeadiatly declared rouge and destroyed.

Splendid questions! I don't explain this very well, do I? I can see where the confusion arises here. I'll definitely need to tighten the bolts of this section up. I appreciate that a lot of the below isn't written anywhere but it will make up the core of edits I will be making to version 4.

Healing allows you to heal anything organic. As you rightly point out, it's apposed to repairing mechanical things (which require the relevant Systems skill roll). This includes boiweaved limbs

Bioweave machines allow you to replace limbs and organs. A bioweave machine is expensive and mostly found in Star Civilisation Hospitals. You need the Bioweave machine and Bioweave skill to grow new limbs. Bioweave machines can't grow entire people (although a really good campaign idea in there - what if someone made one that could?). A bioweave limb is identical to the original undamaged limb it replaces.

Droids are machines through and through. There are synthetic human-like Droids (Mk 2 - inspired from Terminator) but they are easy to spot.

Automatons can either be organic or inorganic depending on their cost and utility. Most Automatons that integrate with humanity (doctor's assistants, corporate clerical workers, domestic servants, nannies, etc) are completely biological because its cheaper than hard materials. Their internal organs are a greatly simplified version of a human's. Industrial and old Automatons are machines through and through. Every possible combination of the two is possible too. The sophistication of the body isn't really important compared to the intelligence of the AI inside.

By visual inspection, Automatons can be indistinguishable to humans. However, they appear on Gaia as an Automaton and any sensor will show them as such - even the biological ones. Every Automaton is required to have a owner's card implanted that links them to a human that is responsible for them. If you request an Automaton for its owner, the card will represent itself as a spinning hologram by the Automaton's chest. As randolph says - any Automaton found 'out and about' without an owner is destroyed.

I like randolph's solution to Automatons, using Rimmer's 'H' as a tell-tale. Some systems may require the owner identification to be on show permenantly.

Excellent, thanks for tolerating my questions. I hope that by posting here we can harden the rules and make them better.
I'm always looking for loop holes and wondering how i can make the most devastating 3rd edition Warlock (oops did I say that?)..

I'm a big fan of H.P. Lovecraft and am always looking for ways to introduce tentacles into things...mostly into my characters..sigh

Registered Automations makes allot of sense. Its another expression of the strict limitations placed upon them, as they are treated as 2nd rate citizens with no right to privacy.

Gaia is the all-encompassing power that restricts androids from breaking the laws. Gaia, however is created by humans and therefore is fallable, technology can be circumvented. Every system has a reverse system. Droids are an example of that.

Whats to stop a clever programmer from creating a switch to enable and disable Gaia in an automation? I assume, like hacking starships there are hundreds of "entites" that would have to be circumvented in order to reach core programming.

But much like "rooting" your cell phone an android could be circumvented with the right skills and hardware.

So, in a civilization as it exists in ICAR its expected that a rogue droid would be immediately destroyed. But if you are not in a city what is the cost? I would assume the rogue android could be detected perhaps across an entire star system, and Gaia can inform the appropriate authorities to act on it.

But, if the team is on a fringe world, whats to stop them from making an android rogue for the duration of their expedition? The combat advantages of an android are apparent, and could be a useful way to combat Droids as well.

Oh and you do make mention of power suits, and ...mecha? I have to read on to find more information on this.

I assume ICAR society deems power suits and mechanized robots to be acceptable as long as their is no AI in use? The fear of a ascended automation in a mecha body is quite scary...