Yet again, this feeling of distance is actually something psychological... it can happen with perfectly normal eyes, too.

Exactly. They're called Street Samurai because at the time, the eighties were totally in full swing, and Japanese stuff was an instant ticket to coolness and rockin'.

There could be a two tiered approach to how cyberware is handled. On the one hand, you would have the military and corporations who carefully screen people before implanting them with cyberware. Only those who are stable and have strong wills would be given cyber. The SR canon and history would bear this out. Most troops and sec men have little or no cyberware. The more elite a unit the person belongs to, the more they would get. It could be assumed that they get cybered a little at a time and how they adapt to it obeserved. Those who start to crack get no more. In addition, those people would be getting counselling and maybe drug therapy to help them adapt.

On the other, you have the streets. Street docs will implant anything for whoever has the money. These would be people probably not so stable with no support or assistance.

This difference could explain why military and corporate types with lots of cyber are professional and seemingly little affected by all their cyber, while street punks are crazier and more out of control.

There could be a two tiered approach to how cyberware is handled. On the one hand, you would have the military and corporations who carefully screen people before implanting them with cyberware. Only those who are stable and have strong wills would be given cyber. The SR canon and history would bear this out. Most troops and sec men have little or no cyberware. The more elite a unit the person belongs to, the more they would get. It could be assumed that they get cybered a little at a time and how they adapt to it obeserved. Those who start to crack get no more. In addition, those people would be getting counselling and maybe drug therapy to help them adapt.

On the other, you have the streets. Street docs will implant anything for whoever has the money. These would be people probably not so stable with no support or assistance.

This difference could explain why military and corporate types with lots of cyber are professional and seemingly little affected by all their cyber, while street punks are crazier and more out of control. There would be exceptions of course, on both sides.

This is an interesting thread... I especially like the idea that increasingly initiated magic users (adepts and mages) would become distant. A kind of "You ants fail to understand the fragility of your own pathetic existance! The cosmos could open up and swallow you at any moment and I doubt you would even notice" thing. I had a mage I rather liked when I was playing SR3, and I was considering having her make a cameo in an SR4 game. It would certainly give my old RPing buddies a shock to see the shy pacifist elf they recognised levitating about with flaming eyes and a maniacal cackle while she hurled elemental magics about with wild abandon!

That being said I wouldn't want to inflict any of these consequences on a player. I might use it if a player was getting too big for his boots, but generally I think that a character's psychology should be the player's business. I actually agree with Guardians of Order in their Tristat system where they say; "less desirable character traits should appear in the game through roleplaying, not points on a character sheet."

If a player decides that his street sam or his mage isn't affected by these kinds of psychoses then fine, he can have had special training to deal with it. Meanwhile the more adventerous might have fun playing up the negative consequences of too much tech or magic power!

This type of thing might make for an interesting 'Quality'.

cyber-sensitive: -5 -20. Character's psyche is more vulnerabel to dissasociation from the implantation of cyber ware. The varying degree reflects how much ware it takes to start dissasociating the PC. -5 BP is a -2 at 1 or less essence. -10 is at 3 or less, the minus two applies.

I dunno, mess w./ the numbers a bit, maybe scale it more like allergies. nice idea Fortune, I think I might work on that more and run with it.

I think he is thinking the previous editions.

There's lots of little stuff SR4 just doesn't include that I keep forgetting ins't there. I miss foci addiction (the old version) still.

Penalising all essence loss restricts tech based faces, which are, lets face it, already taking a beating from adept faces.

Not so sure about making cyber psychosis a quality either. People with no intention of ever getting any 'ware (twinked out adepts are classic for this) take as many points of cyber sensitive as they can. Worse still, with that quality a low 'ware character can still take it and take no penalty.

Some of my players already do it with the sensitive system quality. At least with that one I can justify imposing penalties on hi-tech healing checks. Of course you can just say "no", but who really wants to listen to all the whining? ("But half the sample mages in the BBB have sensitive system")

Oh, I'd give my right arm for a mature group (so long as I could get a cyber replacement! That could be neat, cyber psychosis be damned! Of course I'd have to fit a bottle opener to my pinky...)

Damn I'm in a peculiar mood tonight, I'd better get some sleep.

I think maybe all good Shadowrunners should have a decent shrink as a Contact.

Save his life a couple of times. Hire runners of your own to do nothing but sit around and guard him and his family in his life.

I voted yes but I think it should be based on the cyberware implanted. Someone who has cybereyes and a datajack shouldn't suddenly acquire a psychosis when almost everyone has cybereyes and a datajack. If anything, certain cyberware should be considered "necessary" simply for the social benefits and acceptance. Instead of high schoolers bragging about their nose jobs, now they brag about their top of the line Zeiss cybereyes with flare compensation.

I also think that initiation should affect magic users in the same variable. Someone who's life is suddenly "opened" to the secret meanings of the universe should probably have a very, very egotistical attitude towards mundanes. I think that would make them more anti-social than cyberware users simply because they don't need or want to associate with "lower lifeforms".

I think another good cyberpsychosis would be like the gargoyle guy from Snow Crash, Mr. Lagos. He is so integrated with his sensor suites and information gathering that he walks around in a daze to everyone else. Computing, describing, analyzing and everything else associated with an overabundance of information gathering that makes the person seem like they just don't care as long as they can quantify it and label it.

I think that street level runners should probably be more likely to roll on a cyberpsychosis table but military or professional level runners should rarely roll because of pre-implant screening and psychotherapy before and after implantation. I also think that the environment that the cybered person is in should affect their psychosis. Acceptable environments should make you less likely to "hate" your cyber.

Just my .02 .

Voted yes. Core concept of the genre, to me.

All Shadowrunners should have a dead shrink as a contact. Go in and get your problems off your chest; when your hour is up, shoot him in the head. Next week, find a new shrink and repeat. You save a lot of money this way.

As far as the military and corporate people go, they probably even out with the street people in the end. Sure, they get screened more thoroughly initially, but then they get thrown into a meat grinder until they are used up. Then, when they are all burned out, disillusioned, and maybe nearly suicidal, they get callously tossed to the curb. And they are like the ex-company man archetype from SR1 - they do what they used to do, even though they hate it, because it's all they know how to do now. So I think an ex-military or corporate cybered type would probably be just as messed up as the cybered-up ex-ganger from the barrens.