Full Version: Replacing/Updating Cyberware + Bioware
What happens to a character's essence when he wants to replace or upgrade cyberware or bioware?
It's not answered. Under previous editions though, it left an essence hole that you could fill with other cyberware.
Personally, I'd think that Cyber leaves holes but Bioware doesn't (or at least not as much). Of course thats likely totally wrong under standard rules. Just what I think they SHOULD do. 
There are no rules indicating that essence comes back when you remove cyberware. There are no rules indicating that essence does not come back when you remove cyberware. There are no rules at all, and on this point it is perfectly valid to assume that essence never returns, removed cyberware leaves an "essence hole" that can be filled with new cyberware, or that removed cyberware simply returns essence back at full value as soon as the flesh grows in.
The rules are a little bit more clear (and draconian) for Magic Attribute. Losing an essence point makes you lose a Magic Attribute if it drops your Essence to less than six, but gaining an Essence Point does not give you a Magic Attribute under any circumstances. That much is clear from the Vampire write-up combined with the Essence Loss and Essence Drain weakness and power.
Previous editions were in the middle ground - removing cyberware did not give you your essence back, but it allowed you to put in cyberware of equal or lesser value without further essence cost. Which was way too much bookkeeping, honestly - and I hope they go to something simpler.
-Frank
The rules are a little bit more clear (and draconian) for Magic Attribute. Losing an essence point makes you lose a Magic Attribute if it drops your Essence to less than six, but gaining an Essence Point does not give you a Magic Attribute under any circumstances. That much is clear from the Vampire write-up combined with the Essence Loss and Essence Drain weakness and power.
Previous editions were in the middle ground - removing cyberware did not give you your essence back, but it allowed you to put in cyberware of equal or lesser value without further essence cost. Which was way too much bookkeeping, honestly - and I hope they go to something simpler.
-Frank
How was Essence Holes a difficult system to book-keep? It requires you to write on the edge of your sheet: .32 essence hole.
That's it. It's not any worse than the old 'pools, and they were dead easy.
That's it. It's not any worse than the old 'pools, and they were dead easy.
| QUOTE (Gothic Rose) |
| How was Essence Holes a difficult system to book-keep? It requires you to write on the edge of your sheet: .32 essence hole. |
That's a common house rule that people used to keep from going insane. The actual written rule was that each piece of cyberware left its own essence hole, and a new piece of cyberware could be fitted into one of them. So if you upgraded your eyes to betaware and removed your muscle replacement altogether, you were left with a 1.0 Essence hole and a .08 Essence hole.
With complicated switcheroos, it could become a paperwork nightmare. Assuming, of course, that anyone actually played it that way, which to my knowledge noone actually did.
Although interestingly enough, the old rules from M&M gave you back full
for anythign you upgraded. Weird but true.| QUOTE (M&M) |
| The cost and Essence Cost of the new part equal the total costs of the upgrade implant minus the old implant costs. |
I don't think anyone played that way either.
-Frank
| QUOTE (FrankTrollman) | ||
Although interestingly enough, the old rules from M&M gave you back full for anythign you upgraded. Weird but true.
I don't think anyone played that way either. -Frank |
Never say never or no one. There were some people who did and to be honest, we even tested it out pre-release just to see if it did anything wrong. Unless the Game Group in general is being very anal-retentive on the rules, the "all essence holes add up to one big essence hole" rule is probably what most people used.
As for the costs of upgrades, this is kinda odd because there were (are?) sections that said if you upgraded a given component (say str 3 to str 4 for instance), it just added more "stuff" to the character. I wish I could find this last part now because I just read it last week when we were doing a comparison of 3rd ed cyber/bio impact values compared to 4th ed.
| QUOTE (FrankTrollman) | ||||
That's a common house rule that people used to keep from going insane. The actual written rule was that each piece of cyberware left its own essence hole, and a new piece of cyberware could be fitted into one of them. So if you upgraded your eyes to betaware and removed your muscle replacement altogether, you were left with a 1.0 Essence hole and a .08 Essence hole. With complicated switcheroos, it could become a paperwork nightmare. Assuming, of course, that anyone actually played it that way, which to my knowledge noone actually did. Although interestingly enough, the old rules from M&M gave you back full for anythign you upgraded. Weird but true.
I don't think anyone played that way either. -Frank |
Huh. That I did not know. I always thought it was a normal rule, not a house rule. Ah, well. I suspect my gaming group will be doing it that way in SR4, when we -eventually- start to play. *whimpers, because he wants to play so badly*
| QUOTE (Gothic Rose) |
| Huh. That I did not know. I always thought it was a normal rule, not a house rule. Ah, well. I suspect my gaming group will be doing it that way in SR4, when we -eventually- start to play. *whimpers, because he wants to play so badly* |
It seems that part of the reason that house rule use in SR3 was so common is that sometimes you didn't even realize you were playing with a house rule till years later, if ever.
Heck, occasionally the people writing were so used to the common houserule that they, too, forgot the RAW.
| QUOTE (blakkie) |
| It seems that part of the reason that house rule use in SR3 was so common is that sometimes you didn't even realize you were playing with a house rule till years later, if ever. |
Or still using SR2 rules...
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