Cyberware Rules

Cyberware is any form of technological aid or prosthetic that is grafted to the body, and either provides new abilities, or enhances normal functions. Cyberware is metal, ceramics and plastic. Cyberware is chrome. Cyberware is attitude.

Getting Cybered

Cyberware is bought as cyber schticks which cost 3+X experience points. Therapy is included. After all, we don't want the players to go on a berserk killing spree, do we? Some player will still want to role-play various personality disorders, but that is up to them.

Installation requires surgery. The gamemaster can make a montage of this. Let the player describe the operation where his character gets his new cyberlegs, physical rehabilitation from his first wobbly steps to a flashy sequence where he kicks holes in concrete walls and runs faster than a speeding dachshund and the mental anguish over his lost humanity. You get the picture.

Badware

Something happens when you start adding metal to people. They start to change. And it isn't pretty.

This is called cyberpsychosis, a form of alienation caused by the impact of artificial enhancements on the human psyche. A cyberpsycho gradually loses his humanity. He finds it difficult or pointless to interact with people. Eating and sleeping become less important. Some cyberpsychos become crazed berserks while other display less obvious disorders such as compulsive lying, paranoia, sadism, multiple personalities or violent mood swings. It is possible to treat or prevent cyberpsychosis with therapy.

Few individuals can afford the monetary costs associated with extensive cyber modifications. Instead, it is governments, corporations and other organizations that install cyberware into recognized operatives. But trust only goes so far, and many organizations install more than you bargained for in order to maintain control.

Such detrimental effects are collectively known as Badware.The GM may give you a piece of Badware or two as a part of the character generation process, or you may ask to have some nasty surprises installed, in which case the GM might be nice and give you extra free cyber schticks equal in number to your Badware schticks.

Getting it Out

It is possible to remove, replace or modify cyberware in your body, though this will force you to undergo renewed rehabilitation and rest. Cyber schticks can thus be exchanged, upgraded and altered over time, but it takes a short period of downtime and can't be done in themiddle of a story. This usually does not require any role-play, though the GM may make a montage of it. The major exception is Badware.

Freebies, Fashion, Chrome and The Perfect Enhancement

A cybered character has as many interface jacks as desired. With these, he can use devices that require a cybernetic connection to work properly. He can also use simsense and do netruns without having to resort to clumsy tortoises.

Refined cyberware modifications might be available, that have none of the drawbacks mentioned in these rules. These go along with genetic programs and other glitchy hi-tech. No schticks can represent such perfect enhancements, their effect is to provide a motivation for those absurdly high attributes you already have.

Your cyber can come in a wide range of designer colors, as well as neutral flesh tones of various shades. Some people use cyber as a fashion statement. If you have cyber, you can get chrome. This is cool doodads that can be installed in your cyber. You can have glowing eyes or a cigarette lighter in the thumb of a cyberarm. More useful chrome includes hidden compartments in a cyberlimb or built-in lock picks in a cyberhand. Cosmetics is perhaps the most extensive area of cybernetic development. Some people take this to extremes and become Chromeheads.

Cyber Skills

There is no special skill governing the use of Cyberware. Cyberware usually have a specific effect or replace a certain value under certain conditions. Only rarely is a skill involved, and this is usually Guns, Martial Arts or Fix-It.

Hiding Cyber

Cyberware is generally hidden. Most cultures do not appreciate the fact that you are part metal, and the stigma makes most people want to hide their metal parts. However, some systems are simply to bulky to be hidden.

In general, the bulk of a cyber system is determined by the number of schticks you have in each particular enhancement. Many enhancements can only be taken once, and those are always slick. Those that can be taken several times become slightly more bulky for each pick you take - two picks make them obvious to sensors, three picks makes them obvious to sight, and four picks means they are so large that they do not fit in a normal human shape, having external antennas or other highly obvious telltales that can be seen from a distance. Four-schtick cyberware can be folded down to fit inside your body when not in use.

Some cyber systems are always obvious, no matter how many schticks you take in them, This applies to most large-scale body enhancements. See the description of each aprticular schtick.

The schtick Skin Graft helps you to conceal your cyberware somewhat.