EP pg 330
Backup Insurance: In the event of verifiable death, or after a set period of being missing, backup insurance will arrange for your cortical stack to be retrieved and your ego downloaded into another morph.
Right. What morph? A morph comparable to the one that I lost? Usually that's the idea with insurance: reimbursement for your losses, but in this case maybe it's just insurance against death. So do you get a comparable replacement? Do they just put you in a vanilla splicer, or a case, or an infomorph? Is that the difference between low and moderate cost per month? If you do get a comparable replacement, what if one isn't available? Do you get the difference in credits, or do you just get a "rental" until a comparable one can be grown/fabbed?
Thanks.
Your reading is correct. I would point out that it's perfectly fair to buy a back-up morph in advance, though this does cost and extra Moderate/month.
I get the impression that dying is supposed to happen quite a lot for a Sentinel. Seems like it would be really hard to invest much into your morph if you know it'll be destroyed in one or two sessions, if not in the first encounter (as has been suggested in the sample intro adventure thread). Getting the morph might be just one favor, but really tricking it out with all your favorite bioware, etc could be quite an investment.
I know you can regrow a morph (including cyberware) in a healing vat if you can at least recover the head, but if you get hit with the Exsurgent Virus, (or suitcase nuked, or eaten by a nanite swarm, or lost in space, or...) then that morph is irretrievably contaminated and/or lost.
Maybe I'm too nice, but it just seems...harsh.
The story at the beginning seems to indicate that egocasting and a loaner morph is common practice. It makes a certain sense from a DM point of view that when the players fight on their home ground they're significantly more powerful. Now that I think of it, the whole play group could be spread across the solar system, and whoever had their home near the emergency site would be the all-star of that session.
I can dig the reference out of the .pdf if anyone likes.
I doubt it'd be on Firewall's tab. Firewall is not the salvation army. It's all-volunteer and people do it to save their own skins. You'd have to be doing pretty well to get thousands of credits out of an interplanetary secret society.
if you do VERY good in their ranks, I am sure they let you have
nicer morphs. Not like, however, you are going to get i-rep
for painting pretty pictures, though...(Honestly, I would not let
someone start with more then 20-30 i-rep)..You get it, pretty much,
for being willing to die over and over again for Firewall.
Even though it's somewhat a volunteer organization, Firewall generally treats it's sentinels right when they are on a mission. Any death that occurs on Firewall's time ensures a new morph body and cortical stack retrieval, if appropriate (especially since it's possible that they provided you with a morph body specifically for your mission, meaning that your original body is just fine). However, an agent that ceases to be an asset and becomes a liability from the number of times he dies (and the possibility of failing missions too often as well) will likely get one last morph replacement along with psychosurgical removal of any Firewall-relevant memories... equating to instant retirement.
That sounds resonable...
I mean, If Firewall doesn't actively help it's sentinels, they are pretty much a worthless organization, since their resources would be VERY limited as the sentinels would only put their lifes on the line to a limit.
I see them sort of like a "mutual benefit club", a VERY exclusive club. You're accepted into the club, save transhumanity once a week, and in exchange you can (with moderation of course) cash in "favors" from Firewall's extensive network.
You need new guns for a tricky mission?. Your proxy will put you in touch with a Sentinel that's a expert gunsmith that will make you the guns for a very low price because he knows what's in stake.
You need some new custom-made morph for a job?, same as above.
Need a nanofabricator with no limits to make some weird or illegal stuff?. Just contact that sentinel in the scum barge close to your location.
I also think that some sentinels would use these contacts for personal gain, and I don't think Firewall would care as long as you help other sentinels with backup, expenses or equipment, the same way other sentinels help you when the need arises.
Of course like some of you comment, i-rep should be used to know just how much will Firewall or it's sentinels will cover your ass and hand you stuff, Firewall is all about saving transhumanity so they will only cover you as long as it seems worth it.