I kinda wish they had this one in the books or errata or something.

But the rule is to give capacity ratings to the various non-cyber ear and eye enhancer. This isn't really breaking RAW as likely you already sort of do this. For example if your runner wanted an eye gun or something mounted in their contact lens. Or in a similar vein they can't hold infinite amounts of stuff in anything there are always limits which are generally left up to the GM.

Anyway I give contacts/tiny earplugs the capacity of the basic level stuff. As things get increasinly bulky I increase capacity.

The effect is that they can't have all the eye and ear mods together unless they go cyber or obvious. And while a pair of glasses and earings isn't hard to wear at least it's a minor inconvenience sometimes when the secondary effects of an elemental spell take them out or some such.

IIRC is our Houserule to give Contaktlenses 2 Capacitypoints,
Glases get 4-6, Googles receive 6-8 and Binoculars 5-10(depends upon their size or wether they're Civilian,Sec or Military)

But I can't look It up right now

Hough!
Medicineman

Too much book keeping. If someone tries to build a gun into lenses just smack him in the head an be done with it. If he says something like "but RAW permits it" smack him again and kick him out of your group, because he obviously is a shithead.

I let quite a few things allowed in contacts(I don't see anything wrong with low-light, thermo, flare comp, smartlink, vision mag, or vision enhancement), but for some reason, Ultrasound Contacts I have a problem with. I don't know why. I require Ultrasound to be built into glasses or better. Likewise, no silliness like guns in contacts.

I limited contact lenses to 1 modification so far, might relax it a bit, although I don't see a way nor a reason for contact lenses having more capacity than even the smallest cybereye.

huh. So I guess people just did this already.

Yep.

Although I'd never allow a cybergun to be built into contacts.

I give contacts 4 capacity, glasses 6, and goggles 8. I give earbuds 6 and headphones 8. Helmets have between 8 and 12(but they load visual and audio enhancements). I generally ad hoc other items based on what I think is appropriate. I have been known to smack players who try to put weird things in their contact lenses.

Personaly I just ad-hoc it myself, but then again, my games are rather unfriendly towards contacts, earbuds, trodes, ect in the first place.

There does need to be some mechanical benefit for spending the essence on cyber eyes/ears rather then just using contact lenses and earbuds.

I don't think there should be a mechanical benefit, but there should be some kind of enticement. Such as options not available any other way (and not including silly options like ocular drones or eye lasers). Though if you do go that way, you could sort of do it like the differences between natural and technological vision enhancements from previous editions. Just make them natural/implant vs. gadget modifiers and call it a day.

Well the obvious benefit is that they don't fall off, get shit in them, or break as often. A security guard might dilligently remove your glasses/goggles/contact lenses but he's less likely to rip your eyes out of your head.

Plus it has cool points. As a person who has had to wear glasses for the better part of his adult life I'd be happy to toss them for some decent cybereyes (or mods) that meant I never had to worry about leaving them somewhere, having them get dirty, or fucking my eyes up somehow.

I'm not in the habit of going out of my way to make wearing contacts/earbuds difficult but I do try to keep them in mind for situations like: characters falling into a body of water, characters getting a facefull of sharpnel, characters having a hard night of drinking and waking up with one contact missing... etc.

One other thing about contacts. Don't forget that contacts hold liquids so that they don't irritate the eye. They stay lubricated with tears or what have you. A character wearing contacts who get sprayed in the face with a chemical is going to have those chemicals seeping into his contacts and sitting right on his eyes. CS+Contact Lenses=Hilarity for everyone besides the guy who was too stupid to take them out when instructed.

Contacts might fall into the "theoretically they could be lost/damaged/etc., but we suually forget that" category. I am not sure how many GMs remember the contacts in those situations you mentioned.



Reminds me of a training exercise. We were wearing full AC-gear - the active-filter suit, gas mask, overboots, gloves - and had a briefing of sorts per group in a room filled with CS, getting the coordinates to the next post. First group out forgot that the CS clings to your clothes, and doesn't fully vaporise for some time, still producing some effect. They come out of the room, rip the gas masks off... and there they went all misty-eyed...

Not as funny as the trip trough the sewers that followed later during that exercise - my group all had flashlights, but the group before us apparently did not, we just heard a yell, a splash, and then lots of cursing.

That's certainly true about GM forgetfulness. The group I'm gaming with seems to enjoy making their lives more difficult (read: More interesting) so they'll often prompt me that something bad should have happened to them. I think it'd be distracting to have them falling out ALL the time but as the result of a glitch on a damage resistance test? I dunno... it just one of things I try to save for when it's dramatically appropriate.

For the people who have given numbers I personally would advocate a bigger difference between glasses and contacts (and googles and helmets should be able to handle about anything).

I'd agree with you there. If you absolutely have to assign capacity to your gear than goggles (which I ginormous comapred to anything else) should be able to hold everything and then some.