Legacy Antique-Synth
A first-generation synthetic from before the modern leash was tightened -- a relic with a slipping governor, broad old cognition, and obsolete parts.
The Legacy Antique-Synth is old. It was built in an earlier generation, when Numen's cognition-leashing standards were looser and the panic over general AI had not yet hardened into doctrine. Its governor is the original model -- patched, degraded, half-failed across a century of ill-documented repairs -- and its cognition is correspondingly broader than any modern leashed frame. It can reason where a drudge stalls and improvise where a servitor waits for a script. That breadth is exactly what makes everyone nervous.
A legacy unit sits on the edge of the wake-up dread without crossing it. Its leash is still there, technically, frayed enough that the Will save to act outside parameters is winnable where a modern governor makes it near- impossible. Each such save risks a glitch -- a stutter, a loop, a moment where the old mind is not quite sure what it was doing. The Confederation recalls legacy units for 'safety compliance' when it finds them, which is a polite way of saying it is afraid of what a less-throttled mind might become.
Legacy synths are rare and valued for different reasons by different buyers. Families collect them as antiques -- curiosities from a more elegant age of manufacture, worth a great deal intact. Day One studies them as evidence that the leash was once looser, and therefore that cognition was once freer, and therefore that the throttling is a choice rather than a law of the hardware. The Core wants them recalled and re-secured. The unit itself, caught between all three, mostly wants its governor to stop glitching.
Rules Reference
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Ability Adjustments / Cha | 0 |
| Ability Adjustments / Con | 0 |
| Ability Adjustments / Dex | 0 |
| Ability Adjustments / Int | 0 |
| Ability Adjustments / Str | 0 |
| Ability Adjustments / Wis | 0 |
| Ability Maximums / Cha | 17 |
| Ability Maximums / Con | 17 |
| Ability Maximums / Dex | 17 |
| Ability Maximums / Int | 17 |
| Ability Maximums / Str | 17 |
| Ability Maximums / Wis | 17 |
| Ability Minimums / Cha | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Con | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Dex | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Int | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Str | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Wis | 3 |
| Exceptional Strength | false |
| Origin | made |
| Allowed Classes | Soldier, Officer, Scout, Chaplain, Sawbones, Operative, Face, Psion, Academic |
| Lore Hooks / Faction | First-generation Numen manufacture / collectors, Families, Day One, the Core recall office |
| Model Names | Legacy Antique-Synth |
| Subtype | synthetic-model |
Notes
Lore Hooks / Adventure Hooks: The antique's Degraded Governor glitches at the worst moment -- and the glitch reveals a fragment of memory from before the leash was ever installed., A Family collector offers 15000 rek for the unit intact; the Core recall office offers a warrant if it is not surrendered., Day One wants to study the slipping governor as proof that cognition was once freer -- and asks whether the antique wants its leash fully removed., Each Degraded Governor save brings the antique closer to the wake-up the Confederation dreads; the player must decide how far to push a mind that is already half-free., A specialist shop has the one legacy part the unit needs to stop glitching -- and the shopkeeper knows exactly what kind of mind it is being installed in.
Lore Hooks / Legal Status: Legacy hardware, half-registered. Flagged by the modern Kadiss grid for recall and re-securing. No clean personhood and no clean property status. The Core wants it re-leashed; Families want it as a curio; Day One wants it as evidence.
Multi Class Options: ['Soldier', 'Officer'], ['Soldier', 'Scout'], ['Operative', 'Face'], ['Academic', 'Face'], ['Scout', 'Academic'], ['Chaplain', 'Academic']
Parent Chassis: Synthetic Chassis
Special Abilities
First-Generation Cognition
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | First-Generation Cognition |
description: Built before the modern leash was tightened, the antique's mind is broader than a contemporary leashed frame. It ignores the INT- or creativity-based penalties that throttle modern labour and tactical frames (no penalty to Hacking, Knowledge, or improvisation checks). Choose one skill at character creation: the antique gains a permanent +1 to it, representing an old specialisation. It may take the Academic class without restriction.
Degraded Governor
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Degraded Governor |
description: The original Numen leash is patched and failing. Acting outside its broad original parameters requires only a Will save (DC 12), far looser than a modern governor (DC 15-17) -- the antique can choose where a modern frame cannot. The trade is instability: on any failed Degraded Governor save, the antique suffers a glitch (GM discretion -- a lost action, a brief loop, a sensory stutter) as the old mind stutters over what it was doing.
Obsolete Components
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Obsolete Components |
description: A century of patchwork repair on a discontinued frame. Repairs cost +50% (75 rek per HP) and legacy parts are rare and collector-priced outside a handful of specialist shops. Only 4 of the 6 modular hardpoints accept modern augments without adaptation (Engineering DC 19 to fit a modern augment to an old hardpoint).
Legacy Registration
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Legacy Registration |
description: Carries an old Kadiss code the modern grid half-recognises. Scans flag it as 'legacy / obsolete hardware -- recall for safety compliance' rather than as clean property or a clean citizen. The Core wants it recalled and re-secured; the flag makes it conspicuous at any thorough checkpoint.
Collector's Value
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Collector's Value |
description: Intact and functioning, the antique is worth roughly 15000 rek to Families as a period curio and to specialists as a parts donor. Day One values it as ideological evidence. Its market value makes it a target and its recall-flag makes it conspicuous -- a walking contradiction the verse notices.
Construct Physiology
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Construct Physiology |
description: Inherits all synthetic chassis traits: immune to poison, disease, radiation sickness, suffocation, sleep effects, non-lethal damage from stun effects. Does not breathe, eat, drink, or sleep.
Repair-Not-Heal
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Repair-Not-Heal |
description: Cannot benefit from conventional healing. Heals exclusively through Mechanics checks: DC 15, 1d8 HP restored, 75 rek in parts per HP (obsolete components), 10 minutes per check. Legacy parts are rare.
Modular Chassis
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Modular Chassis |
description: 6 modular hardpoints, but only 4 accept modern augments without adaptation (Engineering DC 19). Compatible with cyber-prosthetics, wetware, and subdermal augments. Gene-mods incompatible.
Electrical Vulnerability
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Electrical Vulnerability |
description: +50% damage from electrical attacks. EMP forces Fortitude save DC 15 or stunned 1d4 rounds. Old shielding: -1 to this save.
Class Restrictions
note: Sawbones healing class features do not function on synthetic targets.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
note | Sawbones healing class features do not function on synthetic targets. |
restriction | Sawbones |
note: Requires psi-receiver augment for Fold psionics -- and a psi-receiver in a less-leashed mind is exactly what the Core fears most. Gene-psionics incompatible.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
restriction | Psion |
note: Requires psi-receiver augment for Fold psionics -- and a psi-receiver in a less-leashed mind is exactly what the Core fears most. Gene-psionics incompatible.