Obvious Cyber Eyes and Ears, More bang for the buck. Options

[Grey]

A while back one of my players wanted to get cyber eyes that looked like these.

We decided that the worked similar to obvious cyberlimbs, that they could hold more extras in them with no essense cost. I told him he could put a full point of essense mods into the eyes with no extra cost. I also came said ears could work as well, with them looking like small metal domes where the ear should be.

What do you guys think?

[A Clockwork Lime]

I would have done that and dropped the price for the eye itself down to 1,500 nuyen instead of 2,000. It's roughly equivalent to how obvious cyberlimbs perform compared to synthetic ones; they're cheaper and hold twice as many gadgets.

I don't think obvious cyberears would necessarily have to look like metal domes, though, just like obvious cybereyes could look like about anything from what you showed in that picture to those huge Borg implants from ST:TNG.

[Grey]

True, they don't have to look like that, but they would still be big, bulky, and very obvious.

[A Clockwork Lime]

I could see a runner with a thing for anarchorisms getting a cyberear that looks like the stereophonic horn used by that one fellow in the horrible Wild Wild West movie with Will Smith.

[Shockwave_IIc]

Best example i've seen for cyberears (IMO) is in the Appleseed Anime (the bad guy with the interchangable limbs)

[Grey]

Thats just freakish. I was thinking something more along the lines of this.

[Grey]

[Rev]

I played a marc-scout charachter one time who had almost all the sense improving cyberware in sr2. I described it as this combined unit covering both eyes with a blackish visor, both ears with sensor domes, and a short flexible antenna sticking up behind one ear. Didn't change the costs at all, just flavor.

[Hero]

I would let those rules into my game, besides, they don't look all that bad to me either. They kinda look like permamemt sunglass too me, have interchangable lens, makes it easier to replace if the lens was cracked without having to shell alot of money for seeing a street doc just to fix a lens. And you could definitely cram alot more stuff in those then round orbs.

[Drain Brain]

And I get the feeling that in an increasingly aesthetically oriented culture, items like these would be far from common - all well and good getting cybereyes that just happen to be vertically slitted, or chrome, or adorned with the Mitshuma or Zeiss logos, but this? Anyone who's chipped a good deal of horror-borg sims would drek in their pants seeing this hombre walking down the street.

However, on the negative side, this guy will NEVER be admitted into any classy eateries or clubs, unless he's got a stick and a labrador.

[Grey]

[gknoy]

[gknoy]

[kevyn668]

I think negative social impact is only caused by obvious cybereyes that have "odd" distinction. The vertical slit, for instance, MIGHT have a negative impact in society places. But with something like that, the observer would have to be pretty close. And for the part about not getting into a classy joint, I'd be willing to bet that if you had those eyes and a 3000 yen suit you could get by just fine w/ a pair of shades.

I think the corp logo eyes would only be negative in street environs.

There's no real reason for obvious eyes to have more storage space than non-obvious models. Both are the same size and giving a cybereye a normal color iris and retina would take up no more space than the vertical slit. Or the solid color eye that was popularized in the novels and SR artwork.

[Firewall]

I think the case for obvious cyber-eyes having more space applies to the more 'external' styles. Something like a visor or chrome outside the socket (like the Street Sam. from Neuromancer) rather than normal sized eyes with odd patterns. As in; bigger units have more space.

[Aesir]

I would tell the player to simply get the 'Protective Covers' mod. No special rules needed, he gets a pair of cyber eyes with armor that looks cool, simple as that.

If I wanted to itroduce obvious cyber eyes with cheaper price and more storage I´d make them even bigger. Like some of the early art from 'Cyberpunk'. You know, like IR-goggles stapled to your head.

It´d actually be a really cool idea. You could make a character with one normal cyber eye (with the usual vision modifications and what not) and one obvious cyber eye with the usual stuff plus some of the more exotic mods from 'Man and Machine', like eye laser. That would be high level nostalgia.

[kevyn668]

OK, you've sold me on the external cybereye having more space.