I have a quick question i know that implants for riggers and deckers would by nature take more essense than say bone lacing or replacing an arm because it affects your brain and how u think but in my opinion it takes way to much essense. say you have a character with a rigger implant X that takes away 4 essence then you have him slap on leg augmentation X that does 2 essence. By the rules the character would have a -1 essence and therefore be dead. But he would still have almost half (40%) of his body still intact. Am I the only one that thinks this is a bit flawed?

No, the essense rules are quite good actually.

A Rigger isn't supposed to go out and tank, so why get leg augmentation?

Actually, 4 + 2 = 6, that's 0 essence. He's still dead, but not at negative essence.

The VCR actually has to go throughout the entire CNS, and possible some of the PNS, so it's completely logical that it would take up a massive amount of essence. Also, there's no VCR that takes 4 essence .... the stages are 2, 3, and 5 respectively.

I was just pulling numbers out of the air to make an example. But you get the idea. I guess my question is is essence loss determined by the type of body tissue lost like nerves having more essence loss than muscles. And what about cloned body parts can u clone a bodypart to regain the essence?

Yes, more sensitive body part replacement or interface cause more drastic essence loss. Bone lacing, for example, or dermal plating have relatively low essence costs, considering they transverse the whole body. But they're interacting with relatively non-vital parts of the body (I know the skeleton is vital, but in the sense that the individual bones are not vital)

Although you could, theoretically, lose a limb and not lose any essence if no prosthesis is put in to replace it.

That is highly theoretical though: you'd essentially have to have some horrible accident (the troll with the Panzer just blew my arm off at the shoulder!), which would likely be Deadly damage, then check for Essence loss and succeed.

SO long as you don't get a cyberlimb or prosthetic installed, you can scrimp up enough nuyen to get an arm cloned...or buy a used one...or hop into a gene tank and grow it back. Would be a rather large ritual sample to leave behind, though.

As I understand it, Essence is a measure of your aural template's condition. The more your body deviates from your aura/spirit or whatever, the worse things are for you health wise. this explains why extremely pervasive neural cyberware is so bad for you despite most of your body being intact - your neural tissue is your mind, the bit that makes you you, the bit that generates all the emotions that can be seen when you assense someone. This theory - and it is an In Character theory from the various sourcebook fiction and shadowtalk postings, not canon game info - also explains why cyberware which replaces large chunks of your body affects it so badly as well: the body itself, not the mind, is now differing vastly from the aural template. If the mind and body are equally important, heavily augmenting either one can kill you. Augmenting both therefore becomes very expensive, essence-wise.

Also, I don't think the Essence reating in game is really supposed to be something which is measure-able. Its the sort of thing that can be guessed at in terms of general holistic well being, by assensing or proper medical testing, but not so characters would speak in character about it. 'I need his Heart rate, his medical files, and his essence rating before I operate, nurse!'. No.

However, its an IN GAME justification and not an out of gamemechanic, so you can treat it how you like. But yes, rigger ware is expensive - it replaces or squeezes in with half the hind brain and connects directly to your nervous system!

ok, then. why do cyberlimbs cost so damn much essence for essentially no benefit? has anyone ever played a character with a full cyber limb at creation? (not in any group i've been in.)

and you would think that EYES would cost a lot, as well, by the neural-connection reasoning. the optic nerve is a quick-scarring, complex little bitch.

I think a lot of people agreed in a previous thread somewhere that cyberlimbs do cost way too much, and I agree. I've gone ahead in my book and added a post it to change the costs (I think to 1/2 price, 3/4 essence loss).

I think the pricing or a cyberlimb is near to perfect. Ever notice how much you can fit in there? Cyberguns, SLII at reduced Essence, extra Strength/Quickness/Armor and all other kinds of goodies.

You have to look at it as what all you can do with it, not why it costs so much for just a simple one.

Gah, Bitbasher is right...don't know what I was thinking.

Why the hell does a peg leg take away essence? Its a freakin' stick!

A peg leg doesn't, but a cyberpegleg does.
The difference?
I have absolutely no clue.

~J

I can see why a hook hand would have small essence loss, because you control the hook's bendiness, but a peg leg? What were the devs smoking? My vote is some kind of marijuana...

Alternatively, if you think all the spiritual mumbo-jumbo doesn't make sense, you can just say that it's a pure game balance mechanic. That ALWAYS makes sense.

*Takes a hit, exhales slowly*
'Cause it's natural, man.

~J