The percentage of the population that has implanted ware… Options

[Kren Cooper]

Hoi Chummers!

“The percentage of the population that has implanted ware…”

Not sure if this has ever been stated or hinted at in any of the game books – I don’t ever recall seeing it mentioned in 3rd ed – either core, adventure or splat. Possibly it’s in one of the later editions – in which case I’d be grateful for any info or references.

We had general hints as to the amount of the population that was magically active – 1%, with only 1% of those being full mages – making them rare and so highly desirable to the corps.

We have an idea of world population following VITAS I + II, the Crash and other events, and the various splat books give us good breakdown of the population by several countries, and the split between different metahuman races within that population.

But I don’t recall ever seeing anything that outlined how much of the population has implants – either cyber, bio or nanite? We know that some elective surgery is incredibly quick and simple, to the point that you can nip out on your lunchbreak and get a data-jack installed. And from descriptions we can see that large numbers of secretaries, data entry positions, etc would need something like that to be competitive in their jobs.

Drivers might have VCR1s installed by their corp (and then have to pay off their debt), while soldiers might get commlinks, or eye upgrades installed – and if they’re in elite units or special forces of some kind then reaction enhancers and dermal sheaths, wires or bone lacing might be on the cards. Members of pro-sports teams might get stuff from corporate sponsorship, the kids at private schools might all be sporting cerebral boosters and mnemonic enhancers, or math SPUs, and so on.

As long as you have insurance or some kind of health care system, then the middle classes probably don’t have to wear glasses any more, and being born with some ailment just means being fitted for cyber-replacement parts as a matter of course to “fix” the issue, and for the most part that’s seen as no stranger in the 6th world than getting braces or glasses would be today.

My guess is that a large proportion of people in the “developed” parts of the world might have at least a touch of ware – even if it’s only a datajack – to help them do their job better or provide some kind of quality of life upgrade.
But as the essence cost or Nuyen cost rises, the percentage of the population having ware of that kind would fall dramatically, in an exponential curve – with those dirty shadowrunners tending towards either end of the curve quite strongly.

But – does anyone have either any info, or best guesses as to the percentage of the population that would fit into these brackets of ‘ware implantation?

1. Essence >5
2. Essence 4 -5
3. Essence 2-4
4. Essence <2