Why is there no change in availability for alpha, beta, or deltaware? Was this changed with errata by chance, or is it really just as easy to find deltaware as it is to find basic ware?

On second thought, nevermind, I dug through the search function once I figured out how to make it work in a way that wont just give me the front page of threads for using common words are keywords. God damn is getting cyberware after character creation a royal pain in the ass.

In my games everything up to Beta Grade is fairly easy to find, but that last jump to Delta is still in "sell your soul" turf.

Which is the reason that if any runner gets Delta they should just shoot themselves. I mean, if you get those who's to say the corp didn't put some nice "surprises" into them as well. Delta 'ware should be avoided like the plague.

go to wherever chiba is, they have at least 5 delta clinics over there, as far as i remember . .

Or perhaps you could go with the standard clinic availability business? Nah, Shadowrun isn't about that, it's about fucking people over for trying to advance their characters, I forgot.

*chuckles* Nope, it just means that you need to have enough leverage on enough powerful people to be able to make that last jump. More power to you if you manage to survive with that paydata.

Or you could do the cyberpunk thing and sell your soul to the corps before biting the hand that feeds you knowing that doing so makes you a dead-man-walking.

Actually you just have to be a filthy stinking rich and you can just walk into a dlta-clinic in Chipa or Geneva, ofcource most people would just stop shadowrunning if they had that much money.

And sign up for a decade-long waiting list? No thanks Chummer, I'd much rather jump to the front of the line.

Personally, that's my take on Delta-ware. I mean, if you can find a shadow-clinic(as mention, Chiba sounds like a good bet), and get the nuyen and everything to get said delta-ware, then...by all means, you've earned it. The thing is, the cost. If you are getting Delta-ware...I don't think you'd be going for Delta grade Wired Reflexes 1. If you're going Delta, you're probably going for the 3, which cost just half a point of Essence above the regular 1. This is...1,000,000 nuyen. If you want anything else with that, your ''bar tab'' could very well be, after surgery, palm-greasing, and whatnot, well over a million and a half nuyen. At that point, most sane runners would indeed just retire on that money. 1,500,000 nuyen can keep someone going in relative comfort-not Luxury, but at least High with a few other tidbits...for over 10 years. With the other 500,000 you could have long gotten yourself a new SIN, a new hometown, and could well have erased the crap keeping you int he shadows in the first place, and it might not even cost that much. I am pretty sure with that much dough, you could retire and start a new, sane life.

Even Delta grade wired 2 will run you 320,000 nuyen, not including the extra costs that might come with that. Now, 320,000 isn't enough to retire on, but it can keep you in relative high-lifestyle comfort for three years without having to run.

But again, it's up to the player-if they want to spend a million and a half on cyber instead of living a straight life...then the campaign just goes on longer. I won't try to stop them. As a GM, I believe in letting them at least attempt about anything as long as it doesn't involve trying to detonate the earth's core.

Remember Fenrir: to many people, there is no such thing as to much wealth and power.

He's not just going off half-cocked, you know; according to Augmentation getting an appointment with a Delta clinic has an availability threshold on par with procuring a rocket launcher and comes with a test interval of a week. Plus, the fluff says that there's likely little more than a half-dozen such facilities in North America, with most of them being ran by the corps. Even getting a Delta datajack will end up costing you over 5 grand in materials, transportation and medical care. You could make the argument that he's being a bit generous if he's allowing betaware to be easily acquired; even that stuff is supposedly carefully tuned to each recipient. Besides, the damn book costs are so high that I rather doubt Ravor gets much opportunity to deny his players to begin with.

It'd be nice if we could delete posts.

Well, that's the truth. If a character somehow gets a 1.5 million nuyen deposit somehow, I suppose that many might have that little devil on their shoulder telling them they really want to upgrade that cyber in their body to make them even better.

I did say most sane runners might retire. But as most folks know, sane runners aren't-or don't seem to be-the most common kind.

Yeah, and honestly, you could practically subcontract out your runs and become a Fixer with that kind of change. I always figured that most guys who get Deltaware are either in the corp's pockets or else are being offered payment in 'ware by a black clinic to begin with.

Well, there's also the matter of skill. A Street Samurai who, eats, breathes, and drinks pure combat likely isn't going to have much in the way of business skills or personnel managing skills, so he's going to do what he knows best: kill shit.

Sure, but I'd argue that such one dimensional Runner isn't going to survive long enough in the Shadows to worry about upgrading his cyber to delta.

There's a difference between one dimensional and specialized. Generally, I've always operated under the assumption that the work Shadowrunners are responsible for is dangerous enough that any well constructed team is going to consist of a group of specialists that know how to work well together.

I disagree, I see the work and lifestyle of Runners tending to result in strong generalists with an area of expertize.

Well, you and I have different visions of how it works. I see Shadowrunners as specialists coming from a variety of different backgrounds that are rounded up by a fixer when a Johnson comes along and says that he needs a job done.

Sure, but what is the team going to do when the team's Decker gets wacked in the middle of a run? Say that the run is blown and call it a day? A team of specialists only works until the job requires one of them to be in two places at once.

Besides, a generalist is more likely to find more work since he/she is able to mesh with more teams.

I go with the theory that it's the fixers that stand to lose or gain the most off of runs. Meaning that if team a fails, he calls in a backup plan. Generalists are a stopgap, nothing more.

To each his own, I like dark Pink Mohawk personally.

What?

Pink Mohawk= heavier on the "punk" part of cyberpunk. In a Pink Mohawk game, your average runner is too busy getting into bar fights, tripping on BTLs and getting by to have the time to forge themselves into the perfect killing machines or a world-class computer tech.

Well, to each their own. I tend to view my Shadowrun games as "mercenary corporate/mafia special forces".

When you started talking about a well oiled team of specialists I figured you fell into the "Ice Cold Pro" side of modern Shadowrun.

Indeed, I'm also a nutter for the gun rules. I have to restrain myself from constantly tweaking the firearms rules.