Hi everyone!

My DM has a doubt about starting gear. In the game it states nothing higher than rating 6 and nothing higher the availability 12, but does this permit "F" rated gear at character creation?

Thanks

Yup, unless your DM decides to house rule it, "F" rated gear is perfectly allowed at character creation. Just be ready to deal with the consequences if you get caught with it!

The "F" rating often feels kind of arbitrary (having sturdy, safer, bones is absolutely illegal with no way to get a permit? Really?), and remember that it's not directly linked to availability (which is generally a more accurate marker of how tough something is to get ahold of, aka how rare it should be on the streets).

It just means how the officials will react to such gear.

Legal gear (without a letter) is no problem at all.
Restricted gear ( R ) can be a problem, if it isn't properly licensed (usually with a Fake SIN / Fake License).
Forbidden gear ( F ) is a problem, since it is not possible to legalise that.

Still, via black market channels, forbidden gear (i.e. Fake SINs are also forbidden) can be acquired, but you cannot walk into a shop and buy it there.

Bye
Thanee

The F rated gear looks a bit strange sometimes. Bone reinforcements for example... obviously most F gear is for military or corp special forces only. And while I can imagine them removing some other cyber ware if you leave service I can't imagine how they would remove bone reinforcements.
So there has to be a way to get licenses for it, it is just much harder. Also there has to be some sort of document that says "this guy is special forces and may have this stuff inside this body although it is forbidden for normal people".

So I wonder why there aren't licenses for F gear that are extremely hard and expensive to fake and are normally checked more intensely than normal licenses.

I treat it more like diplomatic immunity than licensing. Those employed in a capacity that the authorities consider reliant on dangerous technology will have an ID that tells the right people that they're exempt. E.g. An off-duty soldier sets off a cyberware scanner, security reads his ID, they see he's in an exempt profession and they leave him alone. They don't need to check that his cyberware is all job-related, the army would be doing that themselves.

I intend to house-rule it much more difficult to forge an exempt ID, but it hasn't come up yet.

Thanks guys!

That cleared things up =P

I think if it is incorporated into typical civilian medical applications I wouldn't worry about the restriction or forbidden designation. Bone lacing and bone density should not somehow be considered more restrictive than cyberlimbs especially when wired reflexes is merely restrictive.

I don't understand this 'leave the service' assumption. This is 2070.

Actually it could be like the US Military for retired officers. They can still be called into active duty at anytime. I am not sure how Corps deal with it as they will let you go as soon as you are no longer profitable and some things like bone lacing are probably harder to extract than to put in.

You only can 'leave the service' one way: a toe tag and a trip to the Corp approved crematory of your choice.

My personal opinion is that any runner worth his salt should break three or four laws, just for existing.