Stress Points, Uh... points of stress? Options

[Rolemodel]

My books are nicely tucked away, one million thousand hundred billion miles away from where I am presently. Yes. I'm transmitting from a galaxy far, far away.

That said - Can someone give me the stats on stress points on Boosted Reflexes? I've been considering purchasing a set of second hand Boosted (One time chemical treatment, I know, I know, but our GM is letting it slide. Go figure.) Reflexes. And I want to weigh potentially 3 stress points, against the perks of grabbing highend cyber, at low end costs.

-RM

[torzzzzz]

Would love to help but I don't have my books with me at work, however if for some strange reason you have not had a response by the time i get home tonight i will look it up for you! ;)

torz x

[Rolemodel]

You're the man.

-RM

[torzzzzz]

hehehe or the woman in my case ;)

torz x

[mfb]

there are no stats, as such. when cyberware takes stress, you simply roll its stress dice (1 for basic, 2 for alpha, etcetera) against a TN equal to the number of stress points the implant currently has. used cyberware has 1 stress point which can never be removed. if the roll fails, the implant fails and provides no benefit until you have surgery to fix it.

'used' boosted reflexes can be explained as a badly-mixed batch, too little of the treatment chemical used, an interrupted treatment, etcetera, if your GM is willing.

[Rolemodel]

So, my understanding is that 'used' cyberware can be purchased up to betaware, in rating. So a 'used' set of betaware Boosted reflexes will roll... 3 dice, or does it progressively double, making it a 4 dice total roll (1 standard, 2 alpha, 4 beta, 8 delta, etc); The TN of such a roll being equal to 1d3 permanent stress points + additional stress points it may take.

-RM

[tisoz]

Used cyber has 1-3 pemanent stress points that can't be removed. If the cyber is subject to damage or extreme conditions, a stress test is made. If there are no successes on the stress test, the cyber fails.

[edit]you roll the dice in the table, beta is 3.

[UpSyndrome]

I know it screws with the balance of the game a bit, but our group tends to ignore stress simply due to the number of extra rolls it adds to the game (I tried to implement it one time and it was annoying). That being said, when I GM, I sometimes use cyberware damage in a role-playing sense (eg, someone who takes a club upside the head might have an image link that flickers from time to time until they get it checked out).

-Joe

[tisoz]

Do you use much second hand cyberware though? If stress is the only drawback to second hand, you kind of need to check for it.

[UpSyndrome]

Just don't allow it. Simple enough.

-Joe

[Kagetenshi]

[mfb]

i know you can't, by the book, purchase actual boosted reflexes that have been pulled out of someone else's body. i'm just saying it there are sensible, non-canon alternative explanations for the mechanical disadvantages used cyberware (including boosted reflexes) incurs.

[Tarantula]

Its not that you can't purchase boosted thats been pulled out of someone else... its that you can't pull boosted out of someone else (short of genetech which simply destroys it).

[mfb]

right, of course, i agree. but what i'm saying is, the game mechanics for used cyberware can also--if you're not strictly following canon--be applied to crappy cyberware. it's not canon and it's not within the rules, but it does make pretty good sense.

[Wounded Ronin]

I'm planning to start applying stress rules. I have realized that the single most important thing in a game you run is game balance. When game balance is gone, the rest will soon follow. If game balance is strong, your game is linked with the very axis of the cosmos.

[DrJest]

I'm not up to date on cyberware - does the stress thing replace cyberware damage tests from serious and deadly damage dealt to the user?

[mfb]

no, it's in addition to that. it's now possible to take cyberware damage without taking a D wound, but taking a D wound is also likely to net you some cyberware damage.

[Fortune]

The only Stress rule I really dislike is the one that states that the last Stress Point cannot be removed from Bioware.

[mfb]

yeah, that rankles. that one stress point can really screw you over.

[Kagetenshi]

I vary between hating and liking it. If I were to use it, though, I'd probably apply it to cyberware and attributes as well— the same line of reasoning seems to apply.

~J

[Fortune]

I just (house) rule that it can be healed with Magic.

[hahnsoo]

One thing that's great about the bioware stress tables is that they show the in-game effects of various natural non-bioware diseases, like diabetes, ulcers, xeroderma, leukemia, and others. I'm thinking about writing up an article sometime about Shadowrun and Medicine, focusing on common things that are seen in the doctor's office... medical technology may have gotten better, but medical access is still as crappy or worse than it is today, which will make it very likely that all of the diseases (save for AIDS, which reportedly was wiped out according to the SSG) we know today are still around.