Eye covers, as described on page 332 of the SR4 book, are fairly simple. They cover your eyes, giving +2 points of armor on them. Not a bad choice, to be sure.

That said, how obvious are they? Can they be retractable? Can they go under the eyelids, or do they cover the entire ocular cavity, like a pair of glasses?

This has come up because I have a player who wants to have dead black eye covers that cover the whole eye, and are not removable. (This was inspired by Neuromancer.)

I don't think it's an immediate problem, but it seems to me that, in the long run, they would become a pretty easy way to identify him. Somehow, I can't imagine runners wanting something that obvious on themselves that they can't remove. Am I just overdoing it?

Although I could be mistaken, my understanding is that at the very least they can't be removed easily and are very much noticable...

*Edit*

Also if he just wants to have some funky looking Cybereyes, well that comes with the package and if I remember correctly you can even download new images to display...

I always thought they were kind of like contacts in that they just covered the eye under the eyelid. Never really goes into what it covers or how it looks. I guess you could make them removable for double the price.

Another question: Can protective covers get vision modifications implanted in them?

My gm basically treats the base protective covers model as a common and inexpensive cosmod (which, frankly, is really about all they ever amount to, when it comes down to it), and therefore getting a more upscale mirrored pair of retractables is no more complicated a task than going out and bying any other simple to moderate cosmod. After all, if you can get animated nano-tats, than I don't see why you can't have a glorified pair of shades slide outta your face and over your eyeballs.

Yeah, you can get cosmetic surgery to make you look like Satan, there's no reason that can't be combined with the protective eye covers.

Edit: It says in their description that they're available in one-way reflective, so that mod would be free.

I've always pictured them somewhat like frog eyelids.

And my group plays it where you can get vision mods installed in them, makes sense if you can get mods in contacts.

They are 100 and have no availability which means they are as common as goggles, shades and rating 1 cybereyes. Not everyone has them but someone with them won't be looked at with "OMG WTF is that guy wearing" eyes. If a shadowrunner wore them, it would actually help them blend in better because they are so common place.

The BBB doesn't once state what or how the protective covers look. For all we know they just cover from the optical ridge to the top of the cheek bone. Or they are just glorified contacts that provide armor. We don't know. Maybe we should get one of the developers in here to enlighten us.

Can't they be clear?


And even if they aren't, I'm pretty sure seeing a dood with funny looking eyes in the shadowrun world is no real big deal.

The fact that they can be transparent makes me think they are covers over the eyes and not optical ridge covers. If they were optical ridge covers then I could understand someone feeling weird when they see a guy with bubble eyes. Of course, with the downloadable skin feature for cybereyes, you can have someone with biohazard eyes that morph into flaming, laughing skulls when someone looks at them. So, weird eyes probably isnt that much of a problem in Shadowrun.

It may be distinctive, but it would be like telling the police that you were assaulted by a guy in leather chaps at a gay pride parade (or a rodeo, same effect). You just narrowed it down to only half a million people.

Keep in mind that the distinctive style flaw is long dead, actually. You're the GM, how much you want to penalize for a common mod is up to you (after all, I could easily see it ruining a disguise test, and I don't know how common cosmods are in your game in general), I just hope you're mindful of keeping such penalties it consistent. Remember that in SR4 the -lack- of any sort of body modification can actually be pretty distinctive in the right context. And in a world filled with eye recorders (standard in any cybereye! ), drones and security cameras, most people that really want to come gunning for you will most likely have at least a mugshot anyway, and can just zap that picture over to anyone with a PAN and an image link (i.e., pretty much everyone). If they don't have a picture of you, then well, you probably didn't screw up badly enough to have many problems anyway.

Cosmetic eyes are common in 2070. Lots of teenagers have them. Some even display their makers logo. (I imagine plain white eyes with the CK logo on them). Distinctive eyes might help narrow things down a bit when asking around about people, but broadly speaking it's not a Shadowrunner's biggest worry.

And I wouldn't charge extra for anything but the most outrageous cosmetic modifications.

But the covers can be removed and replaced. Your eyes can be removed and replaced. Your skull can be removed and replaced. All you need is a good surgeon or a knife, a mirrior, and very little squeamishness.

Well, if they can be removed with little effort, than I'm worrying for nothing.

These covers were not designed for combat. They are built in saftey glasses for the power tool crowd. Hell, if it meant I never needed to put on stupid safty goggles that fog up everytime I pull out my Dremmel I would consider going in for them. They are probably even ANSI certified or the SR Universe equivalent for eye protection.

I don't think of them as a Jordi LaForge type of external apparatus, as much as I think of them as a sheath that covers the entire visible surface of the eye, corona and all. They could be clear and not simply visible, or they could be not clear.

As to the issue of disguise If you're concerned about not being able to disguise not having them you should be equally concerned about not being able to disguise having them in a world where they might be very common.

Cosmetic eyes are not all that different though, really. For one thing neither cost any essence, and in fact, while it is most likely something just missed in the revisions, the protective covers are listed in the tables twice, once under eyeware and once under a category it had to itself: Cosmetics. As for being combat oriented, they're nice to have, I suppose, but they're effectively useless for the vast majority of activities. They only apply the armor to the eye area, which implies that you'd have to make a called shot of some sort to aim for the eyes, which is unlikely to be allowed to happen in any scenario other than bypassing armor actions, which are freakishly rare as it is.

FYI, as far as Shadowrun milieu is concerned, eye covers look like this.

Feel free to change them if you like, but the standard gear refers to what you see here.

So, am I the only one that always pictured these as cyber-replacements for the inner-eyelid that birds and reptiles have, but humans only hava a remnant of?

More than an armored contact-lens, but less than goggles permanently welded to your face.

i.e. they don't permanently cover your eye - only when you want them to (which would also simplify issues caused by things like tearing, allergies or vision-correction.

I don't think cyber nictating membranes would really cut it as even 2 points of armour. Something that spans from the upper orbit to the upper cheek bone and is welded either to the bone or the flesh seems reasonable (and cyber-punk). If you're worried about it becoming a bit distinctive, visit A Whole New You and get them removed or replaced with a new holographic display.

I think also the batman effect should be considered for game playability/fun reasons.

Ask yourself, why was it noone could ever figure out that Batman was Bruce Wayne? It's only a half mask, and Bruce Wayne is the most famous eligible bachelor in Gotham.

Well, it was for game playability/fun, really in that case you were asked to suspend disbelief for the sake of the story. Well, that's what RPGs are, stories. Figure out why these things aren't going to be a super hinderance to a shadowrunner and there you have it.

Disguise may be a problem if you're trying to be someone specific, but if you're trying to disguise yourself as just someone not you, then it shouldn't be a hinderance. After all you're just another cowboy in chaps.

Lets put it this way:

I run 'em as being "armored contacts" style, extending to the orbital bones, that aren't exactly easy to remove. I've got a character who's got the CP2020 style protective covers... traces the brows, radial bones, upper cheeks, bridge of the nose and is one solid piece of glass... gamewise he has the "protective covers" cyber, I just decided to make 'em bigger than they needed to be.

Note that as "armored contacts," there's armor where you might want to put all that microcircuitry. Sorry, folks... no low-light protective covers.

So have we figured that vision mods can be added onto them yet? Seems like a logical step to add them on, especially since they are like armored contacts.

Vision mods can be placed on contacts. "Protective Covers" != "Contacts", even if they go in the same place.

In older editions, the eye covers only provided protection for cybereyes from things like grit, dirt, smoke, etc. They were useless against an attack, anything stronger than a stray finger to the eye. A determined attempt to poke out an eye, a knife or bullet would be unaffected.

I never really bothered to think about what they would look like though. They'd probably be noticable and give an odd look to the eyes. But then, my characters with cybereyes had them made to look normal most of the time, but able to turn solid black on command. Really good for scaring annoying children.

I'm hoping that Arsenal will have rules that can be used to create explosive reactive eye covers, just in case someone tries a called-shot to the eye with an anti-tank rocket. It would also be quite funny for a guy to get killed by ERA shrapnel punching a character in the face.

It's unlikely that protective covers internal to the eyelids - in a manner like a thick contact lesn - would have the effect needed. Too much sand/smoke/etc. could still get into the eye and cause problems. Becasue of this, the protective cover should cover the entire exterior of the eye.

As far as being permanent and non-removable, I don't see a reason for that. It could be that the cyber-portion of the protective covers is just a few mounting points around the eye. Something low-tech and externally obvious like screw-hole mounts or something subdermal like small magnetic mounts. Just hold the cover in place and attach it when you'll need it and then detach it later when you're done.

There really is no reaso why protective covers could not come with vision enhancements. You have more room to work with than with contacts though probably not quite as much as glasses. Just get them skinlinked and go with it.