Cyberlimbs and Body., Or: A farewell to (Natural) Arms (and Legs). Options

[Eimi]

I've not built a character with cyberlimbs before, so I'd never looked at the rules too closely, in the past. Now, however, inspiration has struck for a character with multiple cyberlimbs, and while going over the rules in both the Anniversary Core, Augmentation, and even digging through older edition books like Cybertechnology and Man & Machine for fluff, I'm a bit perplexed as to exactly how Body in a cyberlimb interacts with a character's 'natural' Body.

Strength and Agility usages seem rather straightforward, as to when to implement them over their 'natural' (including augmented, but not actually contained within an artificial limb) counterparts. Body, however, has few skills involved (Diving and Parachuting), otherwise being used for determining the number of physical condition monitor boxes and overflow boxes, tests to resist toxins and diseases, the amount of armor one can wear without penalty, resisting physical damage, healing, lifting and carrying, tests to resist fatigue, knockdown, subduing, falling damage, and probably a dozen other 'miscellaneous resistance test's. Unfortunately, it isn't very clear when having cyberlimbs that may have twice (or more) Body than the character's 'natural' rating would actually apply in these situations. Is it just there to measure how resiliant the limb itself is? Some of the above situations? All of them, if one has enough cyberlimbs?

Thoughts and experiences are highly appreciated.

[crazyconscript]

Although i dont have SR4A i doubt this has changed. BBB p.335 (man, i keep referencing that page today...)

When a particular limb is used for a test (such as leading
an attack with your cyberarm), use the attribute for that
limb (natural or cyber); in any other case, take the average
value of all limbs involved in the task (round down). If a task
requires the careful coordination of several limbs, use the
value of the weakest limb.

followed up with an example of a character with different cyberlimb attributes. It demonstrates this in action quite well, but i think the most important line for you is as follows:

If he gets shot, however, he uses the average value of
his Body attributes, rounded down—in this case, 4

So for any sort of abstract use of body (like being shot, physical boxes, armour encumbrance, overflow) you use the average of your body attribute. The exception for this i think is called shots to the limb in question, where individual body is used to resist damage.

[craygo]

Because of this post, I look over the rules. And now I have a question.

If a character with a natural attribute of 1 in Body / Strength / Agility, he get all four limbs replaced which comes with a 3 attribute in Body / Strength / Agility. Get Cyber Enhancements +3 for each attribute, in each limb. Does this mean my character has a Body / Strength / Agility of 6?

[crazyconscript]

Actually, it would be 5, since you count the torso aswell: (6+6+6+6+1)/5=25/5=5
I really dont know about counting the head, but doubt it.
But in short: yes. CYB-ORK!!!!!

[SuperCracker]

Yeah. Unless you get rid of that pesky meat head and torso, then you've still got that body of 1 weighing you down.

(It takes almost all of your 50bp of resources to start with a full alphaware replacement).

[InfinityzeN]

Actually, it would be 5, since you count the torso aswell: (6+6+6+6+1)/5=25/5=5
I really dont know about counting the head, but doubt it.
But in short: yes. CYB-ORK!!!!!

Actually it would be six, since you count the head as well: (6+6+6+6+1+1)/6 = 26/6 = 4.33~
And 'ez only a Cyb-ummy. A Cyb-Ork would 'ave better average stats.

[crazyconscript]

Yeah, but i know someone who plays a cyb-ork and the character is hilarious. But on a rules side: since they have higher stat maxes, they can get better customised limbs.

Actually it would be six, since you count the head as well: (6+6+6+6+1+1)/6 = 26/6 = 4.33~

Um....how does 4.33=6?

[Draco18s]

Um....how does 4.33=6?

The "six" refers to the number of limbs.

[InfinityzeN]

Yep yep.

[ElFenrir]

as far as I always knew, skulls did not count toward the final total. A skull can't really have strength or agility for all I know. I suppose Body could somehow play a part, but I can't see a skull having the other stats. From what I read, anyway, if you do a Gymnastics maneuver, you don't average your skull into the Agility average.

[Jaid]

officially, they do.

that being said, there's a reason you have a human being GMing your game, and it's not because they're super-amazing at blindly following dumb rules. (or at least, that's not why *I* have human beings GMing my game...)

[Eimi]

Thanks, all!