Corporations, cyberzombies..., and the all important bottom line Options

[Tziluthi]

Reading through Man & Machine, it occurred to me that cyberware is quite expensive, especially at higher grades. In fact, when you get down to beta-ware, any decent piece of gear is so damn expensive, it's quite difficult to think of people that would have both the money and some sort of use for the equipment. Certainly not any individual, but a corporation, one that rakes in billions of dollars each year and has important security concerns, they certainly fit the bill. Or do they?

Corporations are all too willing to fire loyal, hardworking employees in the name of the bottom line, but they also seem very willing to shell out big dosh on delta-grade cyberware for their security teams, high-outlay, high-upkeep cyberzombies that end up getting terminal cancer after a year, and expensive, difficult to maintain cyber-enhanced paranimals.

Although they make for challenging shadowruns, I just can't get around the idea of corporations, entities controlled by apparently inhumanly greedy stockholders, turning around and more or less burning cash on stuff that isn't actually making money for them, and isn't actually all that effective or long-term, either.

In any case, what do GMs think about this? Has anybody ever considered this concept, and purposefully kept esoteric forms of security out of their games?

[toturi]

I see cyberzombies as R & D for both magic and cybernetics. It is a sort of venture capitalism, high risk, high capital outlay, potentially immense power.

[Capt. Dave]

I don't have a cyberzombie in every corp facility, no ;)

I don't see a problem with deltaware for elite security teams guarding data/equipment/people that is worth more than the 'ware.

As for cyberzombies, yeah they die quickly now, but with research, who knows who far this magiscience can advance? Think of most major inventions: there were failures before it worked well.

Cyberanimals, they work for free. They may attempt to kill you, but they work for free. After the initial investment, all you have to pay for is handlers and food (or runners)

Not to mention, corporations spend millions on stuff that doesn't raise profit. Junkets, company expense accounts, "perks",...the Whore Fund...

That being said, I feel cyberzombies and deltaware guards, as well as cybered juggernauts and blackberry cats are usually restricted to the more...restricted facilities.

[Large Mike]

As a defensive measure, I agree, a CZ is a waste of money. As an offensive measure, though. If built correctly, they are the most versatile armor one can field, capable of things other cavalry vehicles (because admit it, they're in the same class as many vehicles) couldn't even dream of. I could see them tearing the hell out of rebel encampments and rival corporate installations like nothing else on earth.

[RunnerPaul]

Also, hasn't there been some strong hinting that some of the funding for all the different corporations' CZ projects came from some sinister third party source?

[toturi]

By the way, there is nothing to say that cyberzombies do not or cannot live long and prosper. Going by the cyberzombie rules in M&M, they can last quite long.

[Edward]

For les than 1,500,000 nuyen you can build a real shit kicker troll sized arthreform that will mince most cyber zombies worth 5 times that figure and its twinkled out robotic pilot will probably behave better as well.

You can build it stronger, faster and better behaved for less cash in a far cheaper facility. Its maintenance costs will be lower, if it is damaged beyond the ability to operate repairs can wait will no chance that it will just die on you. It can be modified to operate in hostile environments for a fraction of the cost even having the ability to operate in hard vacuum. They have no psychological problems, they don’t mind being shoved in tight spaces. They are not vulnerable to attack from the astral including FAB. And there shelf life is far longer.

And the public relations department won’t have to worry about activists complaining you turned a human into a monster or the pollution on the astral plain.

All in all a far more effective security option.

<End sales pitch.>

Given all that I would say the only reason a cyber zombie would be used as a security asset is that the R&D department that maid him has finished there experiments on him.

Edward

[Aes]

Cyberzombies are the dotcoms of megacorps. You gotta have a few CZs to toss around, or you simply aren't in the "in" crowd. :P

[Grinder]

I go with the R&D solution. Cyberzombies may be seen as the next step in the use of cyberware - they're able to go along with a lot more cyber than nornmal people. If the corps are able to use the cybermantie on a braoader base, there is a big market to cover. For reaching that, they have to wipe out the negative side effects of cybermantie, a goal they can only reach through research.


And remember: "You need to spend money to make money".

[Gyro the Greek S...]

There's also the psychological and morale implications of being a foot soldier facing one of those monstrosities.

[Backgammon]

[akarenti]

Plus, Cyberzombies are kind of a byproduct of more general immortality research, which would be worth a bit more than than the 'zombies.

[Charon]

If we go by what we know of Cybermancy so far, it's not really a big corporation cash cow baby. Rituals are known by groups like Ordo Maximus and Aztlan's blood mage with agenda that include more than the bottom line.

Also, I feel the real point of cybermancy is the "keep alive people who should be dead" part, not the "Allows to cram more cyberware in a body than the soul can accept part". What I mean is that storywise, when the team meet their first cyberzombie, it shouldn't be just a megacorporate goon. It should be a megacorporate goon that they have killed once before...

As for Megacorp sinking ungodly amount of nuyen in a project without return on investment, yeah, they wouldn't do that for too long. They would try it for sometime though. I'd say from the moment Cybermancy appeared circa 2057 up to about 2062, a few Megas sanlk tons og cash in the creation of Cyberzombies for the sake of creating super-agents. Their own "Six million dollar man". After that, interest should cool off some, depending on the nature of the corp and depending on the improvement to standard cybermancy you want to introduce in your game.

I'm thinking the fluff piece of text about wedge is a reasonable depiction of what they'd do with the tech : Use Cybermancy on company men (runner tightly affiliated to them while still somewhat deniable) and use them as super enforcers.

[Fortune]

Hatchetman, not Wedge.

[Edward]

[Cynic project]

Who really think that SK pays the listed cost for anything? Who thinks any AAA pays retail cost on anything?

[hahnsoo]

[BitBasher]

[FrostyNSO]

[hahnsoo]

Back to the original topic, there are only 3 megacorps (total, and all of them are AAA) that have cyberzombies in our campaign, and only Novatech has no magic-specific agenda for having them. Do they throw away money on it? Sure. Are the cyberzombies damn scary? Oooooh, yeah. I don't think our characters in all of our campaigns throughout the years have taken down one of them yet, except for the Cyberzombie that was in "stasis mode" in a healing chamber that they unplugged and filled with concrete.

[akarenti]

Also, think of it this way:

You have a senior corp strike team member. He's one of the best the corp has, and has already been put back together a few times, and is chocked full of Beta and Deltaware--enough to keep his physical abilities on par or exceeding a guy half his age.

As this guy gets older, his ability to do his job is going to start falling off, and he's going to need more and more cyber to keeping himself going. At some point, he's going to get get blown up again, or just get too old for the job the 'corp has invested so much into 'ware for.

Now, the corp has a few options--one of which would be cybermancy. If nothing else, cybermancy gives the corp a couple more years with this top "troubleshooter" type guy, without too much extra investment (compared to his salary and enhancements he has recieved already).

Plus, if the magicians who create the ritual (I'm assuming each subject would require their own personal formulae--like a surger plan and such) find some way to further reduce the catastrophic drain, more effectively combine ritual members, find a new type of ritual material that aids in this level of magic, etc., then that discovery could be tested and applied outside of cybermantic magic, or even a new surgical technique for implantation, which could turn a profit, not to mention get the Cybermantic Group on step closer to making true immortality a possiblity.

[Kagetenshi]

[FrostyNSO]

[hahnsoo]

[Edward]