Resleeving
Resleeving — also called downloading or remorphing — is the process where your ego takes on a new physical body. You may be switching because you want a new morph or because you are egocasting to a new destination; this transfer is usually a smooth transition from one sleeve to the next while conscious. Or you may be resleeving because you died or suffered grievous injury, in which case you either remember your death (if recovered from a cortical stack) or you experience lack from the time and experience you have lost (if recovered from an old backup). Alternatively, you may have forked yourself, and your copy needs a sleeve of its own.
Almost all of transhumanity, with the exception of many bioconservatives, have resleeved at least once. Many transhumans alive today died in the Fall or egocast off world. For most transhumans, resleeving is a normal part of life, sometimes undertaken frequently as they travel or try out different morphs. The resleeving experience is not the same for everyone, however. Most people adjust to their new forms quite readily, but others never quite get the hang of it.
The resleeving process is quite short for morphs with cyberbrains and infomorphs: a single action turn. Morphs with biological brains must be physically rewired with an ego bridge, however, which takes an hour.
Complications
Resleeving is not without complications. There are five primary factors that can impact your acclimation into a new morph:
Integration
The biggest hurdle to resleeving is adjusting to your new form. Given the morph options at transhumanity’s disposal, a new sleeve can be drastically physiologically different from the old. Extra limbs, new sensory inputs, different modes of breathing, or going completely synthetic — these are just some of the more obvious changes. Your brain must adapt to these altered functions. More minor differences such as sex, height, weight, and center of gravity can wreak havoc on your proprioception and basic movement. Add in different neurochemistry — or the simulation of it — and things can get very weird. Many newly sleeved people struggle with handling different hormonal urges or getting a grasp on how their emotions mesh with their new body. The effects of this can be frustrating and disorienting.
Part of the process of adapting is not just understanding how your new morph works, but unlearning many of your old habits and ways of doing things. It is not uncommon to find a new synthmorph scratching themselves, a non-anthropomorphic morph trying to walk with a bipedal gait, or a tall morph forgetting to duck under the door frame. Luckily, transhuman minds are adaptive things, and this process is aided by the application of mental “patches” during the resleeving process that give the character a bit of a boost for using their new body. Most people integrate to their new morph in a matter of days at most.
Alienation
Your mental sense of self goes hand-in-hand with your physiological acclimation. It can take you quite a bit of time to get used to the new face in the mirror — in fact, some never do. Overcoming this sense of alienation often takes longer than physical integration: a week, sometimes several. While it leads to less daily complications, this fractured sense of identity can be corrosive in the long term. Some people cope by resleeving frequently, becoming acclimated to an ephemeral identity. Others, however, develop body dysmorphia, never quite feeling at home in their own skin.
Continuity
The lack of ongoing continuity when resleeving can lead to a jarring wake up. It is unsettling to suddenly find yourself in a new sleeve, particularly if you don’t recall what happened. Continuity breaks can also spark an existential crisis. Are you the same person you were? Or just a poor imitation of your previous self? If your body was not retrieved, are you even sure that you’re not still alive out there somewhere? This is why most transhumans choose the aware-and-conscious transfer method of resleeving, even though it takes much longer with biomorphs. Even those transferring from cyberbrains often do a slow switchover. The subtle transition helps you to adapt, quelling subconscious fears that you are no longer the same, some illegitimate copy, or secretly being manipulated by others.
Memento Mori
A break in continuity is usual the result of an unexpected death. If you are restored from a retrieved cortical stack, however, the break in continuity will come with an even bigger shock: you experienced your own death. Even the vast storage space of cortical stacks cannot hold iterative changes to your ego, meaning that the last saved snapshot of your ego is the one taken right before the safety cut-outs kicked in due to massive physical trauma and cell death. The memory of your final moments is likely wrought with fear and horror, unpleasant even to the most jaded. Counseling and psychosurgery can minimize these effects over time.
Lack
If you are lucky enough to be spared the recall of your demise, you likely face a different problem: lost time. When you are restored from an older backup, you will have lost whole stretches of your life: the experiences, the memories, the emotional attachments, the new skills and knowledge gained — all gone. Some of this can be reconstructed from life logs, journal entries, surveillance footage, accounts of friend, etc., but it is not quite the same. Any Rez Points gained in that period and any changes to your character’s stats, traits, etc. are lost. You are restored to an older version of yourself — but at least you’re alive again.
Resleeving Tests
Each time you resleeve, you must make two tests: an Integration Test and a Stress Test. The only pool that can be used on these tests is your ego’s Flex pool; pools from your morph do not apply.
Integration Test
The Integration Test determines how quickly you adjust to your new morph. Make a SOM Check, applying the modifier from your new morph’s Exotic Morphology trait, if any. If you succeed, you acclimate quickly. If you fail, you suffer −10 to all actions for 1 day, plus 1 day per superior failure.
GMs should keep the PC’s original morph in mind when applying the Exotic Morphology modifiers. That trait is specifically assigned from a human-centric perspective (i.e., morphs that are less human have higher modifiers). However, this may not be fitting for an infolife or uplift PC. Adjust as appropriate.
Resleeving Stress Test
The Resleeving Stress Test incorporates all of the mentally challenging aspects of downloading into a new body into a single test: alienation, continuity, remembering death, and lack. Like other stress tests, make a WIL Check and apply modifiers as appropriate. The Stress Value is based on the most stressful aspect of resleeving. If this is standard alienation, continuity loss, and/or lack, the SV is 1d6. If you remember your death, or if you suffer a particularly long period of lack (over 3 months), the SV is 1d10/1. GMs should feel free to adjust these Stress Values as they see appropriate.
Resleeving Tests
Integration Test: SOM Check » Failure:
−10 to all actions for 1 day, +1 day per superior failure.
Resleeving Stress Test: WIL Check » Standard alienation/continuity loss/lack:
SV 1d6 » Remember your death/lengthy lack (3+ months):
SV 1d10/1
Resleeving and Pools
When you sleeve into a new morph, you gain immediate access to the new morph’s pools. However, any pool points you spent in the previous morph are temporarily deducted until you take a recharge action.
Chi’s Firewall cell has a run-in with a hypercorp security squad, leaving Chi with a few too many bullet holes to survive. Their squad recovers their stack, though, and gets them set up at a black-market body bank to be restored and resleeved. Unfortunately, the only morph available is a novacrab — not a morph Chi is used to.
When Chi awakes, they have a few tests to make. First is the Integration Test, to see how well they adapt to their new body. This a SOM Check at −30 due to the novacrab’s Exotic Morphology (Level 3) trait. Chi has the Adaptability (Level 1) trait, which gives them +10 to the test, but their SOM Check is only 30. That makes their target number 10 (30 − 30 + 10). They roll a 46, a superior failure. Poor Chi will suffer −10 to all actions for the next 2 days as they acclimate. Chi waves their new crab pincers in frustration as they skitter and stumble around on an unfamiliar number of legs.
Chi must also make a Resleeving Stress Test using their WIL Check of 60. Since Chi died in a firefight and will remember that grisly death, the GM assigns an SV of 1d10/1. Chi’s Adaptability trait helps here as well, raising the target number to 70. They roll a 37: a success! That means Chi takes only 1 stress point. They've died violently enough times that this time around does not really phase them.