Suggestions for "mysterious cyberware" to give a player?, I always have a hard time with this one... Options

[Stahlseele]

everything can be mysterious cyber-ware . . new kind of bonelace for example,, that gives +4/+4 Damage Resistance Dice and +5 on your power when hitting someone . . yes, i know, it's lame, but even a datajack can be mysterious cyberware, if it's a prototype installed into you to smuggle it somewhere else or has something inscribed onto it on the INSIDE of your skull . .

[nezumi]

I have always wanted someone to take Mysterious Cyberware in my games, but no one has ever been brave enough to try it.

This is why I've increased the value of all fun flaws, such as amnesia, mysterious cyberware, vietnam flashbacks, midget pirate syndrome, etc. by 50%, and reduced the value of the boring flaws, like phobia, allergy, sea legs, etc. by a kick in the nuts.



Stahlseele - true, color changing nails can be mysterious cyberware, but I think the goal of the thread is to think of cyberware that makes the game fun or interesting, like rocket pants or depleted uranium bone lacing.

[Stahlseele]

i was thinking of something a bit more adamant*snickers* for bonelacing, but to each their own
and the nails, if cyber and suddenly appearing without the owner knowing why and how he got them is pretty cool, even if minor . .
thier changeing colouors could be code for something, or they could be a clock-like function, or they could just show the recepients feelings and thus give him problems in social situations . . or they could just be there to mock him due to someone having a remote control for them . . imagine you're talking down someone, trying to intimidate him, and suddenly, your nails turn pink O.o

[hermit]

A special nanite hive supporting inactive cutter nnites, inhabited by an AI that's a splinter of Deus. He really used to be part of the network and, through some miracle, survived the crash. He then was brainwashed or altered his arcology memories away through autosuggestion.

Okay, that's a bit of an asshat thing to do, but hey, if you choose that flaw, you ask for it.

Other (somewhat less asshat) ideas:

A nanohive supporting a colony of nanite hunters that will destroy any nano agents not present at chargen.

An inactive encephalon.

An implanted commlink that makes the character a node of the Exchange without him knowing. Occasionally, he will see ARrows he thinks are normal items - handwritten notes, ect - and be compelled to do what is written there, and thus, help the exchange.

An implanted, hidden data filter that contains an AI that escaped from somewhere horrible and occasioanlly helps the player through hints given via dream-like visions. Of course, the AI might have an agenda of it's own ...

[nezumi]

If I gave a character the implanted AI, I would pair it with some sort of uber adrenaline pump. So when the AI feels like it, it suddenly kicks the PC out of his own body and pumps it full of hormones, turning him into a raging combat monster of death, chopping a swathe of death and destruction towards its goal for 2d6 rounds afterwhich the PC regains control and must resist 4D stun.

[hermit]

Can't you just do that by playing a berserker chip on the character, complete with the AI rigging the character as a biodrone?

Obviously, the mystery cyber would have to be a biodrone harness then.

Also, a couple of cyberglands with K-10 and something that inhibits willpower would further augment this.

[hyzmarca]

Don't get carried away. You don't want the mysterious cyberware to be game-conquering or game-breaking, nor do it want to to take away the player's fun.

We want plot hooks, not plot domination. An AI falls towards the latter. And we don't want to take the character totally out of the player's hands, as a control harness inevitably would. And we certainly don't want to give the character something absurdly powerful just for the heck of it.

Something simple, like a hidden body compartment containing a McGuffin, is more appropriate than more outlandish and game-dominating possibilities.

[Tarantula]

Or even just a very inconvenient yet exceptionally large skin pocket could be fun. "You can fit how much in where?"

[masterofm]

I kind of like malfunctioning cyber/bio ware. Kind of like roll 1d6 for every instance the character is in combat and on a one the cyberware leeches chemicals and nutrients from the body makes the user suffers a -1 from all stats and looses an IP (If IPs are reduced to 0 the character is overwhelmed by the ware and slumps onto the ground,) on a 2 they suffer a -1 from all physical stats, on a 3 or 4 nothing happens. If higher the bio/cyber has enough chemicals and nutrients to function at its normal capacity and will grant a bonus to the user instead. 5 is +1 to physical, and a 6 is +1 to all stats and an extra IP (can push IPs beyond the normal 4.) The cyber/bio after combat goes back into remission and continues to function normally. There is a mental version of this ware if on a roll of 2 - 1 to mental stats and on a 4 +1 to mental stats.

Created by UCAS to try and enhance soldiers combat efficiency by using the soldiers own body in a form of leeching, passive, and active stages. The project was scrapped over thirty years ago due to the fact that the ware was inconsistent and tended to activate one of the three stages erratically.


A datamap that has been smuggled inside and grafted onto the back of your skull. It is meant to look like some form of metal dermal plating and gives you +1 armor against head shots (but only from the back.) People however are after it though if it is discovered.


A rocket powered projectile cyber hand that only activates with a given command word (that only the GM knows and has written down) will fire itself as a projectile cyberspur (must be found and reattached to the hand)


An internal air tank that releases a noxious odor every two months six hours and twenty five minutes. Tank can be used normally but over time the smell gets worse and worse as it was accidentally tied into the digestive system (methane anyone?) If noxious gas is lit it acts as a frag grenade with a -1P fall off for every 2 meters.


An injector that hits the victim with 6 different types of drugs (roll 1d6 when injector is used to determine what type of drug the user receives) can be used forever for some reason.... however gamma scopolimine might be one of the drugs (GM should write them down and assign what drug is given to what number on the dice.)


An old vintage calculator grafted onto their arm but works by using something in your blood.


Glow in the dark fingers with poison tipped nails that only activate in dark areas.

[the_real_elwood]

Ok, so mysterious cyberware doesn't have to be something new, and it doesn't necessarily have to be something that's malfunctioning. It just has to be something that the player doesn't know about. It could be some cyberware implanted by a mysterious person, maybe the mob or something. And it probably shouldn't be something totally debilitating like a malfunctioning cyberarm that would be a major hindrance to their character.

[Tarantula]

And it probably shouldn't be something totally debilitating like a malfunctioning cyberarm that would be a major hindrance to their character.

I wouldn't say that. You could do it, but give them build points in compensation. As long as you give them an amount that you think is fair for how debilitating it is.

[masterofm]

It should be risky, it should be something the character doesn't know about. It could also be helpful. Someone could have put it there to drek with them. They may never know what its true purpose is.

Its mysterious. What fun is it if you were just given a sleep regulator. Wow you suddenly don't need to sleep all the time and it works perfectly. Best flaw ever. No there should be quirks to whatever you have. It could just be totally useless. It could just be when activated it looks stupid like maybe it releases a bird out of a hidden compartment at an inopertune moment... only the bird hasn't been given food and died, so it just flops out on the ground making the diplomatic talk with the Johnson somewhat awkward. From then on you now have a fairly large hidden compartment in your body that fools sensors. Yet punishment and positives go hand in hand. However if its a flaw there should be more stick and carrot. It would be like saying having mild addiction towards free money if you only give a carrot to the runners.

[the_real_elwood]

I wouldn't say that. You could do it, but give them build points in compensation. As long as you give them an amount that you think is fair for how debilitating it is.

Yeah fair enough, but the point of "mysterious cyberware" is that the GM decides what it is without the player knowing. I know this is metagame, but I'd be kind of miffed as a player if I took the quality and the GM decided to give me a severely malfunctioning cyberarm. I also am not quite sure what the rules are, but were I GMing, I'd allow the player to "fix" the offending cyberware if they wanted to, for a sufficient in-game cost to offset the flaw.

[Tarantula]

Yeah, and if I as a player didn't really like it, or thought I didn't get enough BP for how debilitating it is, I'd talk to the GM. Ask him to tone down how useless it is or give me some more BP for it if he wants it that bad. If he refuses, then I'd probably either re-roll and never take anything that is open to GM decision like that again, or just leave and not worry about playing in his game.

[Kingboy]

For the ex joyboy/joygirl of a particularly sadistic (as in S/M) pornomancer with tailored pheremones, how about the Enhanced Pheremone Receptors and matching (yet initially uncontrollable) Adrenal Pump?

"No really" he said, "I'll pay for all the biosculpting and cosmetic treatments, don't you worry your pretty little head over any of it..."

[hyzmarca]

Mysterious Implants is not a Screw the Player flaw, it is a Plot Hook flaw. Treating it like a Screw The Player is simply juvenile. The player will be sufficiently screwed in the playing out of the larger plot related to the item. Just decide what you want that plot to be and then work out a piece of 'ware that fits.

[Fortune]

The series final completely and forever destroyed any joy the show ever gave me.

Why? I never saw the final season (or last episode), so am in the dark about the ending.

[hyzmarca]

Why? I never saw the final season (or last episode), so am in the dark about the ending.

The final episode was originally meant to be a season finale, they didn't know that the show was being canceled until after it was complete and had to hastily edit in a ending.

Sam leaps to a small mining town on the day he was born, and doesn't leap into anyone. Seeing his own face in the mirror for the first time in years, he speaks to an oddly wise bar tender who may or may not be God, learns a bit more about leaping, and saves some lives. In the end, the bartender tells him that he can control his leaps, and can go home whenever he wants to; he's only trapped because his desire to help people is greater than his desire to return to the present. With a little prodding from the bartender, Sam decides to do one thing for Al, something that he should have done during another leap a long time ago, and uses his newfound control to leap to Al's house in 1969, when Al was a POW, and tells Al's first wife, Beth, that Al is alive and will come home. This drastically changes Al's present; Beth never remarries, and instead of being a lonely lecherous womanizer he is a happy husband and father. Sam's fate is stated simply on a black card at the end, he never returns home. Presumably, he continues leaping back and forth, helping people, until he dies of old age.

[Chrysalis]

John has a sister Kathy, who is a bartender, biker, and local tattoo artist. Out going and talkative and a really bad flirt. She likes teasing the rest of the PCs and complains - loudly - that she does not see enough of her brother.

What does this have to do with cyberware, well John is Kathy. John has a personafix chip, nanopaste cyberware, and a sleep regulator all implanted. Now the problem is that Kathy and John only appear when one falls asleep. John and Kathy are not even aware they are simply two sides to the same coin. The question is which is the right side of the coin? Kathy who has been having an off again, on again relationship with a PC or two in the group. Or John the shy boy wonder.

[Fortune]

Sam leaps ...

I see. Thanks.

Why would that cause Ravor so much unhappiness?

[DocTaotsu]

I have no idea, I personally thought that it was a fitting ending for one of my favorite shows.

I mean... I can't imagine how else they would end it. Sam leaps back home and that's it? Goes on to lead a normal life and forget that he spent years of subjective time jumping from one poor soul to another?

[MaxMahem]

An implanted commlink that makes the character a node of the Exchange without him knowing. Occasionally, he will see ARrows he thinks are normal items - handwritten notes, ect - and be compelled to do what is written there, and thus, help the exchange.

I really like this one as well.

[nezumi]

The question is which is the right side of the coin? Kathy who has been having an off again, on again relationship with a PC or two in the group. Or John the shy boy wonder.

Presumably, the "real" one is the one with the equipment to match the personality, if you get my meaning. If Kathy has oompa loompas, 'she' is 'he'.

This is a neat idea, however it seems to me it requires either the PC knowing about it to play both parts (resulting not in 'mysterious' cyberware but ' really freaky' cyberware) or it requires the GM take over the PC for long period. This was done in a book, where basically the character had an alter ego who came out during sleep cycles, but it would be tough to do with a party, ESPECIALLY if they ever share a hideout. When John is caught wearing a skirt, trying to figure out how to deactivate the security system to escape this weird place he found 'herself' in, the issue will become pretty clear pretty fast.

[hyzmarca]

Presumably, the "real" one is the one with the equipment to match the personality, if you get my meaning. If Kathy has oompa loompas, 'she' is 'he'.

Not necessarily.

The original personality could have been a transexual, who became Kathy, but had her memories of growing up male wiped and replaced. Also, given the state of cyber-genitalia, her equipment could change during the transformation to make it seamless.

The setup is pretty much equivalent to a Dream Pact, without the benefits and with fewer drawbacks. And it is difficult to keep secret.

[Ravor]

Well to answer your question Fortune appearently I remember the episode somewhat differently then hyzmarca and DocTaotsu.

The way I would sum it up is Sam meets God, who then proceeds to tell Sam that every leap was at God's whim and that Sam can return home anytime he wishes to provided he is willing to agree with God that there is no such thing as destiny and that everyone is free to make their own fate (At least I think that was the point that Sam and God argued about.). Sam refuses to believe this and is forever damned to continue leaping through time, never able to return to his loving wife that he doesn't even remember.

Actually it is a rather nice cyberpunkish twist now that I think about it.