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 Psienesis wrote:
But the rest of his body would be used for another Ork's head, so it worked out.

And you *did* just get a nice new unicycle.

Bionics are a rare trade item in Necromunda, so I imagine for the average imperial citizen they are somewhat a luxury, but not impossibly so.

In the book "Iron Guard" they were suuuuuuuuper common. Every third guy and his cousin had them

In terms of the IG. I think in the Dark Millennium book that you get with the rules, it has a small section of treating lasgun wounds and the two bandages which should be used.
But that of course being what an average guardsman would carry in his pack compared to more advanced treatment recieved by a medic and off the lines.

As said on the previous page there are things such as the Orders Hospitaller and so forth too.
So there are definately various methods but as always it would likely depend upon multiple factors such as the regiment, battle location, available resources and so forth.

 Bottle wrote:
Bionics are a rare trade item in Necromunda, so I imagine for the average imperial citizen they are somewhat a luxury, but not impossibly so.

Necromunda is about the poorest of the poor, poverty-stricken underhivers who, when they're not fighting over territory, spend their time scraping the gak out of gutters to see if there's a gold coin hidden in them.

In the rogue trader rpg bionic limbs are or scarce availability. That is just as hard to get as a Grenade launcher, Red-dot laser sight, a flamer or Guard flak armour.

But in the RT RPG, the RT in question making that purchase is buying them in bulk. Like, enough bionics to outfit every man, woman and child in his crew of 25,000 people.

 Psienesis wrote:
But in the RT RPG, the RT in question making that purchase is buying them in bulk. Like, enough bionics to outfit every man, woman and child in his crew of 25,000 people.

Which brings it back up to "fairly normal". It seems that unless you're broke, bionics are fairly common in the IOM.

Indeed. Though, to be fair, the costs listed for them in the other RPGs, such as Dark Heresy, where you are getting just 1 of said item, puts them out of the price-range of most any regular citizen of the Imperium, as they cost a few years pay for most people.

 Psienesis wrote:
Indeed. Though, to be fair, the costs listed for them in the other RPGs, such as Dark Heresy, where you are getting just 1 of said item, puts them out of the price-range of most any regular citizen of the Imperium, as they cost a few years pay for most people.

The grim darkness of the far future may still have health insurance.

 Psienesis wrote:
Indeed. Though, to be fair, the costs listed for them in the other RPGs, such as Dark Heresy, where you are getting just 1 of said item, puts them out of the price-range of most any regular citizen of the Imperium, as they cost a few years pay for most people.

I wouldn't say out of their price range, but definitely something you'd go into debt for. I'm sure medical loans are still a thing in the grimdark future.

Dockworker Steve loses his arm in an accident. In order to keep his job he is basically forced to get a bionic arm, which will take years to pay off, but he has no choice because he'll starve otherwise. So he gets an arm, gets to keep working, and has a scrap by a little harder.

Or does dock worker Steve just become a servitor? At what point does that happen

Servitors are made out of tech-heretics and others who offend the Mechanicus, such as those who decide to commit the sin of invention.

Righteousrob wrote:
Or does dock worker Steve just become a servitor? At what point does that happen

Many rulers in the Imperium are not above slave raids. the choice of what kind of medical care the workers would get would not always be the workers to make.
It depends upon the morality of who is employing the the dock worker. Sure free thinking workers are better at some jobs. But ther is a point for every rogue trader, forge master or dock owner where it would no longer be economically to safe the mind of the workers wile investing in patching them up. Just look up the crew reclamation facility, or what happened to subjects of Koriel Zeth when they lost their use.

Or does dock worker Steve just become a servitor? At what point does that happen

Depends on his job. If Steve's lost an arm, he won't be able to afford to pay for an augmetic replacement.

However, I'm sure the Dockmaster - who own's Steve's contract - can. What happens next depends on the world.

a) If labour is cheap and the Dockmaster doesn't give a crud, Steve dies a crippled beggar in a gutter somewhere whilst Barry takes over.

b) If Steve's job involved some actual skill, and buying an augmetic costs less than hiring and the lost time training up a replacement, Steve gets an augmetic. But the cost of said augmetic is taken from his wages, meaning he's in ongoing debt to his employer.

c) Steve could be servitorized, but I'd say it's unlikely. Outside the Mechanicus, that's generally done as a punishment in some way - assuming he wasn't negligent, that's not the case here. Equally, if using servitors was a feasible and affordable option, presumably the Dockmaster would already be doing it.

Abrehem Locke in Priests of Mars has a pair of inherited cybernetic eyes - his father had them before him, for unknown reasons or means.

Locke was a semi-skilled worker - he operated dock machinery.

The Imperium is *real* big on recycling.

Very. Everything gets recycled, everything...

 Psienesis wrote:
The Imperium is *real* big on recycling.

My point was that his father, presumably, was also a dock worker, which means that what's traditionally (although not in France apparently) one of the poorest paid jobs in history could afford a full pair of cybernetic eyes and the fees to get them not only implanted, but implanted again into his son.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
My point was that his father, presumably, was also a dock worker, which means that what's traditionally one of the poorest paid jobs in history could afford a full pair of cybernetic eyes and the fees to get them not only implanted, but implanted again into his son.

On the other hand, the quality of the augmetics and the surgeon performing the operation will probably vary wildly depending on how much you can pay. Maybe apprentice surgeons do this for free just to get practice?

It's possibly, but they were high quality augmetics which included a noopsheric uplink for some reason.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
It's possibly, but they were high quality augmetics which included a noopsheric uplink for some reason.

If that's the case the AdMech might do it for free (or cheap) just so they can handle the things. Technology is a religion after all - making sure it's put to use is as valuable as building or recovering it.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
It's possibly, but they were high quality augmetics which included a noopsheric uplink for some reason.

I think thats more that his visor's vision also lets him see the wavelengths of Noospheric data clouds. Not that you need particularly special equipment to see that, more like even basic stuff like he had can at least interface with the Noosphere.

Also could depend on what that function was used for in his job. After all, if it's a required thing, it might be like those RFID trackers and conversation-analyzers in use at some corporations these days. That is to say, it's not optional, and the device works regardless of the wearer's input.

Concerning the cost's of bionics, I suppose it would depend on the specific world and regiment.

For example on some feral world, doesn't matter if you have the equipment, virtually no-one is going to have the knowledge to fit the damn thing. On mars everyone and their mother will be packing the damn things! I reckon on certain relatively tech advanced agri worlds they may be fairly common seeing how common agricultural accidents are and how much they rely on their limited labor pools.

In the guard specifically I would think 'generally' speaking seeing all the camp followers such as surgeon etc with the specific orders, bionics may generally be brought en masse. From the imperiums perspective, if you have to cut a guys leg/arm off you may as well give him a bionic simply so you don't waste time healing someone who can't get back into the fight. If a modern militaries is anything to go by it's incredibly expensive to train guys, never mind having people coming in from another part of the galaxy as a replacement!!! IIRC I think it cost's around £50k per year to train an officer in the UK, I would guess roughly £30k an average grunt?

If the imperium has access to cheap parts and surgeons who known how to do the job anyway I presume they would even do it for the most basic/poor of soldiers, simply to get them back into the fight, even if they died shortly after the fight is over due to shock (they just reclaim the parts after). We already are starting to have situations IRL where soldier have the option of non front-line service after such injuries.

Heck, even Psychiatric care is in the Imperium is good.
They have a psychiatric hospital for guardsmens for life, if they are broken.
The imperium is not as bad as it seems.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Heck, even Psychiatric care is in the Imperium is good.
They have a psychiatric hospital for guardsmens for life, if they are broken.
The imperium is not as bad as it seems.

In the Grim Darkness of the far future, humanity is holding its own and is doing a damn good job of it thank you very much.
I get the feeling that everything here is the IOM staring at the universe, and telling it to feth off.