cultured bioware for beginning characters, did Wordman make an oops? Options

[Munchkinslayer]

Recently I told a player that I accepted everything in The Shadowrun Supplemental as cannonical for my game. Now he has decided to use the "Stealth Samurai" from TSS#14 as his PC archetype. Problem: The stealth sammie has a cerebral booster (and other) cultured bioware. This requires a beta clinic for implantation. So should cultured-required bioware such as cerebral boosters be alowed for beginning characters? Should you need a beta clinic for your cultured cat's eyes but get a trauma damper at an alpha? Whatcha think I should do 'bout this?

[sidekick]

well trauma dampners are also cultured, so they would require that beta-ware clinic also.

IRC, in the errata they state that you cannot begin with cultured bioware, since it is the equivelent of betaware cyberware, hence not something you can just pick up at the local Chop Shop. Also, since a lot of the cultured bioware allows abilities and stat modifications not found in cyberware (extra Intel and Chr, pain resistence, Mnemonic Enhances *shudder*) I am fine with making them hard to obtain.

Remember, cultured means it was grown specifically for you, hence, you need facailities that not only install their ware, but can MAKE it too, those are harder to come by. Remember there is less then 20 Deltaware clinics on the planet, and I would hazard that there is less then 500 Betaware clinics, so yeah, it's hard to obtain Cultured Bioware.

[Andvare]

That starting players cannot start with cultured 'ware isn't canon. It's a surgestion.
The only thing that's in the *rules* (including the errata/FAQ) is the 8 availability and 6 rating.

You could just have the players take the "SOTA" edge from the old 2nd ed. SR companion. (lvl 2, cost 4 points, gives acces to beta/bioware)

[Sphynx]

Agreed, no Cultured Bio at Char Gen is not Canon.

Sphynx

[Morphling The Pr...]

It's not canon, but it's good sense, considering the sorts of amazing stuff which Beta/Cultured/Nano can do. It needs to be something to work up to, not begin at, IMHO.

[Siege]

It depends on the power level of the game.

If your character is a former Red Samurai, odds are he had access to cultured 'ware or beta-grade cybernetics.

I mention this only because of the fondness of some people to indulge high-powered games.

"Standard" SR games probably wouldn't have access to certain levels of 'ware like beta or deltaware and/or cultured bio. Barring creative and viable explanations like "-4 flaw: indebted to corp for beta grade goodies".

-Siege

[Fortune]

I rule that characters can start with Cultured Bioware if that is the only way it is available (eg Trauma Dampers and Cerebral Boosters), but cannot get Cultured versions of Standard Bioware implants at chargen (eg Muscle Toner and Cats Eyes).

[Cray74]

[Sphynx]

Yeah, that's how we run our games too. We ignore availability, etc and just buy what you can afford. I mean, it's not like this game is one of those Cahracter Class games where you start out having never done your job. Your background can easily be that you've been a Shadowrunner for 2 years. It's not like a 54 year old dwarf hasn't had a chance to enter a Beta or Delta clinic before, it's in the history is all.

Our only limit on availability is that nobody starts out with anything that is illegal and which you can not get a permit for (Ie: Heavy Weapons).

Sphynx

[Erghitz]

As an experiment, I've let one of my players characters take a piece of Beta/Cultured Bioware as long as he takes the Secret/Unknown Cyberware Flaw without getting the appropriate Edge points in return. Sure, it works ok now, but who's to say it won't just cut out in the middle of a run or react badly with other implants due to the fact it's a prototype or of bad quality. In other words I just make them pay for whatever kind of coolness they obtain beyond the normal character generation rules.

--Erghitz

[BitBasher]

I let my playersa have whetever it is they want as long as the availability is under 8. Alphaware is common, bets is common for some pieces. After all, a betaware smartgun link isn't unheard of since it's availability is only a 7 IIRC. Not too hard to get. Besides this makes it fun for them after the game starts to try to find someone to repair that.