Full Version: Cyberware for Joe Average
| QUOTE |
Well that brings us into how much average Joe earns. Im sure this has been done to death elsewhere; but if Middle lifestyle costs 5,000  per month, then average Joe probably earns about 90-100,000 per annum. That's based on 1.5x lifestyle to cover a bit of saving, maybe raising his kids. Plenty of leeway around the average, but that could be typical.If average UK salary is about £32k (about 55k US$, I think), then translating costs would mean things like the following: Datajack approx. £200 / US$350 - It's a posh hi-fi sort of thing. Control Rig approx. £3,500 / US$6000 - It's a flash toy for the weekend off-road racer. An expensive hobby sort of thing. Cybereyes (basic). Same region as datajack. Your teenage daughter probably has wheedled some out of you for passing her exams. Balance Augmenter approx £2000 / US$3,500. Another expensive toy for the weekend sportsman, etc. Muscle Replacement 3 approx. £5,000 / US$8,500. Certainly affordable. It's restricted but what the Hell? There will be plenty of people who fork out for this. I mean imagine the difference those three points of strength make! You go from average Joe to uber-bouncer with no effort. Every person you see today with a body-builder physique will probably have this in the 2070 universe. Typical cyberlimb (no bonus attributes) approx. £3,500 / US$6000. Perfectly affordable, though boost it up a bit for a more cosmetic version. I don't think people will go for these for the sake of style or reliability (at least only rarely), but for those who have had an accident or have a problem with the arm they came with, I see it as a standard option. |
Actually, I've always compared the exchange rate of a 2000 U.S. dollar to a 2060 nuyen to be just about equal. If you go out and compare the price of nuyen-light pistols to current market U.S. guns, they come out roughly the same.
| QUOTE (Adam Selene) |
| Actually, I've always compared the exchange rate of a 2000 U.S. dollar to a 2060 nuyen to be just about equal. If you go out and compare the price of nuyen-light pistols to current market U.S. guns, they come out roughly the same. |
There isn't a huge difference between Nuyen and the current US dollar. But I think a cost of living calculation is probably better, especially for calculating disposable income.
I also suspect that guns are bit cheaper and pervasive in SR than in today's world. At least the players keep seeming to bump into people with them.
| QUOTE (knasser) |
| So I think the average Joe can purchase the more common cyberware without going totally into debt. I think it would be reasonably common. And I certainly don't play the game as having a big stigma attached to cyberlimbs. Ask any disabled person and they'll tell you that there are always people who stare. But a big social stigma for having cyberlimbs? I don't see it. |
The financing option really would be there for people who can't really afford these but want to try to keep up with the jones. With a little financing anyone with a SIN can get the the basic augmentation, only they end up paying one and a half to two times as much spread over 2-3 years depending on their credit rating. In some of the older fluff books there were cyber installation chain stores (original Seattle Sourcebook had a couple in it) that were in most major malls. Getting a set of cyber-eyes or a datajack wasn't too much more difficult or time consuming than getting contacts or eyeglasses, and this was the 2050-2052 setting.
Reposting from the CP thread where this started:
| QUOTE (Moon-Hawk) |
That, or a little bit of emphasis on how standard 'ware might be used by other people. For example, consider the percentage of the population that has 1) a halfway decent amount of money and/or health insurance and 2)arthritis. I would assume that all of these people have enhanced articulation. Not to be bad-ass, but just for treatment. Or bone density for osteoporosis. |
My game has always had that. Why on Earth wouldn't a medical insurance having upper-middle class have cyber, not only for medical purposes but for cosmetic? (In fact, this is specifically mentioned in several sourcebooks.) So grandma has bone lacing to shore up her osteoporosis, junior has a cyber eye because he put one out doing one of those things that you hear does that, etc.
It's all about taking the material given you, and making it work and make sense.
Right. I agree with you, eidolon. I'm just saying I'd like to see a little bit more on the topic, perhaps in the upcoming cyberware book.
| QUOTE (2bit) | ||||||||||
You confust me... in one post you say both:
and
sooo... today things can be automated to a high degree but in the future we'll need very expensive robots... so instead, they'd most likely turn to an augmented (meta)human workforce?
Wasn't there a search-and rescue drone designed to navigate collapsed buildings or urban warzones? In any case I think the tech is there, and it fits with Shadowrun.
We're talking sci fi, but if I were to make something up for a shadowrun in a coal mine, I'd say the drone networks would have radio broadcast hubs down in the mines connected by cable to the surface.
Now that I tihnk about it, I like this idea much better. Sounds like a Shadowrun! Unscrupulous corporation with army of mining drones vs. army of lightly cybered dwarf, ork, and troll miners. |
Quite simple:
You can automate all the basic tasks like cutting the coal, advancing the cutting machinery etc. Same with sensors and alarm systems. You might be able to automate material delivery IRL using technologies like the one from the recent robot vehicle race. That's doable with todays technology and actually done in some german mines.
As long as the system works, that's simple and even the average IQ 70 Troll could do the job if he would fit in there. But when things break, they break for good and than you need very smart bots to fix it. Fixing a broken coal cutter is far more than replacing a black box. And all that is done in tight spaces with lots of protusions, sharp edges and other maschinery.
It get's even more complicated when we dig the tunnels to get at the coal. It needs a trained geologist to understand the rock and use the proper ways to handle it. Again, the drilling is easy but where to drill, how often and how deep, all that is "knowledge" and "seat of pants".
And again, radio is energy. You get either very short range stuff (and tons of it) or you get too much energy and risk an explosion. And any cable you run will be destroyed, any broadcast hub you place squashed etc. Believe me, mines are very rough places that kill equipment really fast. Add in that mines are dynamic and you can see some problems.
Oh and forget Tumby Troll the miner. Won't happen. Mines are small enough for most IRL humans above 180cm, a 280cm/300+ kg Moron has no place there. He can't get close to the coal since most coal shoals are not high enough for a HUMAN to stand and in the main tunnels he is useless since modern (1970s) IRL maschinery easily outperforms him.
Ha. Troll miners. All miners are Dwarves. Duh.
Heh. 
I could see there being a civilian market (with permits, obviously) for cyberguns. Carrying a gun around is a pain in the ass, and you're constantly aware of bumping into things (your hip shouldn't go "clonk" when you lean against the wall of an elevator) or printing ("... or are you just happy to see me?"). If I had a cyberlimb, and the option of getting a gun built into it rather than having to carry it, I'd probably go for it.
Eliminates draw times, too. I can see a malfunction drill being pretty interesting, though...
I could see there being a civilian market (with permits, obviously) for cyberguns. Carrying a gun around is a pain in the ass, and you're constantly aware of bumping into things (your hip shouldn't go "clonk" when you lean against the wall of an elevator) or printing ("... or are you just happy to see me?"). If I had a cyberlimb, and the option of getting a gun built into it rather than having to carry it, I'd probably go for it.
Eliminates draw times, too. I can see a malfunction drill being pretty interesting, though...
I'd rather have a cyberholster than a cybergun...same concealability, more ammunition. Also less of a pain in the ass to reload.
Also I've always wanted a pop-out mechanism like Robocop's.
Also I've always wanted a pop-out mechanism like Robocop's.
Yeah, but then you can't wear pants. 
Or form-fitting armor for cyberarms. Hmmm, I never thought about that.
| QUOTE (Shrike30) |
| Yeah, but then you can't wear pants. |
| QUOTE (Moon-Hawk) |
| Ha. Troll miners. All miners are Dwarves. Duh. |
We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig in our mine the whole day through
To dig dig dig dig dig dig dig is what we really like to do
It ain't no trick to get rich quick
If you dig dig dig with a shovel or a pick
In a mine! In a mine! In a mine! In a mine!
Where a million diamonds shine!
We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig from early morn till night
We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig up everything in sight
We dig up diamonds by the score
A thousand rubies, sometimes more
But we don't know what we dig 'em for
We dig dig dig a-dig dig
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho
Chorus
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
It's home from work we go
(Whistle)
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
(Chorus)
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
(Whistle)
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho hum
(Chorus three times)
Heigh-ho (until fade)
I like the old ganger version of it...
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
It's off to school we go
With razor blades and hand grenades
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
edit: I remember singing this version as a kid. Don't know where it came from but as a kid it was fun. Don't ask.
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
It's off to school we go
With razor blades and hand grenades
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
edit: I remember singing this version as a kid. Don't know where it came from but as a kid it was fun. Don't ask.
I got the impression that in 2070, the sixth age, the awakened world, even civillians have a desire to enhance their combat capability and survivability. It has to be a time of great fear. Fallout shelters were big in the Cold War era, guns have always been popular with the paranoid. I'd think there were enough shadowrunners, gangers, soldiers, criminals, security gaurds, paranoid citizens, cops, and other people who might face combat often to keep any kind of hoop-kickin ware selling. The world has become one big war-zone, everybody engaged in their own personal arms race, anyone against everyone.
| QUOTE (Adam Selene @ Jul 27 2006, 02:55 PM) |
| I'd rather have a cyberholster than a cybergun...same concealability, more ammunition. Also less of a pain in the ass to reload. Also I've always wanted a pop-out mechanism like Robocop's. |
I played a guy with that in a short game. He was a data courier that lost his right arm and leg after taking one of those "jobs you shouldn't take", and got into the shadows as a result. He had the cyberholster and the forearm gyromount (we messed with the stats a bit to make it work). Pretty damn fun. I can't wait to use him again.
And you can wear pants, you just have to have them tailored to slide open around the holster.
Heh... a big ripping velcro noise every time you draw your gun sounds like amusement waiting to happen.
My character had custom-tailored armor clothes. The pants were designed to work with his cyberholsters by having faux cargo "pockets" directly over the holsters. When the holsters popped out, elastic in the "pockets" would stretch to allow the holsters to come out without tearing my pants off. After all, I was trying to flash my huge weapon, not show them my cyberjunk.
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