QUOTE (Red-ROM @ Oct 24 2009, 10:02 AM)

I do like to exploit flaws, but to kidnap and plant cyberware into a character while at the same time devistating their essence seems down right mean. plus, what color or depth does this flaw really add to a character? I feel like they should already have at least one piece of cyber to have an interesting story from it.
There's plenty of other ways to get cybered against your wishes other than the old "you wake up with robot ears; techno music now makes more sense to you." Say you're running a snoop and steal type campaign in deep Amazonia and the mage happens to scratch his hand and get infected by a virulent poison which has already killed his hand at the nerves and is turning the blood in his arm septic. Question: how far can you get in a hostile country with a guy who must decide relatively soon whether or not to amputate the hand, or risk the arm or even death if he doesn't? And once they've lost the limb, how are they going to get out of country without getting a cyber replacement? No gene labs around to grow you a new one, Hoss, and walking through checkpoints without a hand is going to raise some questions. Turns out cyberlimbs are easy enough to come by though.. Does he get the cyber or risk everyone's safety?
As for things I try and keep out of my game and or houserule:
1) Complicated Ammo in small Calibers - APDS in 9mm or less. Not enough mass+velocity after the sabot discards. Despite Ghost in the Shell, I'm not about to have a guy take down an armored vehicle only using an Ingram. Stick-n-Shock scales in damage to fit caliber. Reflects fact that increased size of shell = more microcapacitors.
2) Robo-Face Madness - Empathy Sensor Software distracts you too much to use your own senses/skill in face to face. You'll have to choose one or the other, (unless you're an adept with multi-tasking or have an attention co-processor,) and the software only works at half rating for meat creatures since you still have to process what the readout says in real time. Though, if you're examining recorded footage after the fact, all bonuses stack.
Having emoti-toys is going to make you look like an ass and apply an appropriate negative modifier in face to face talks more than enough to counteract their benefits. Observing a mark is different though.
3) Cracking High-grade Software - Again, software 4 and higher requires cycling hardware-based decryption to run. Cracking it requires a full shop to examine the hardware dongle and then replicate it's effects via software. Each month means a new dongle. It'd probably be easier for a hacker to just rip off their source code and write his own prog from that.
4) Overkill Without Consequence - The availability modifier for gear doesn't just change how hard it is to come by. It also changes how hard people look for you when you've put it to use. You want to put a tank-killer gun in your delivery van, fine. But if/when you use that mother outside of a war-zone, then you've just earned yourself a lot of attention. Like "president reads about it in the morning papers, makes statement to press corp by noon" kind of attention.
5) Stupid Document Failures - Fake SIN ratings aren't used for opposed tests, they're a threshold. IOW, a fake license which is better than a respective verification system isn't ever going to get flagged on a cursory pass. Though, if someone has reason to be suspicious, they can run it more than once.
6) Mandatory Mages - Mundanes and Adepts can buy and gain personal benefit from Counterspelling Foci. Of course they have to spend the karma and cheese to get it bound to them, and then they have to keep it in a FAB II bag to keep its constantly active nature from inflicting a Focus Addiction on them. I just don't like having choices foisted on me or my players.