Inspired by Eclipse Phase and by films like Ghost in the Shell, I want to create a character who died, was digitally copied and then downloaded in to a full cyborg. I want them to be a rigger/hacker but able to take care of themselves in the meat world too…

As far as I can tell there are two ways to do this, one slightly more dubious than the other…

Create an eGhost AI whose home node is one of the cyborg bodies from Arsenal
• AI rules aren’t always accepted by GMs
• As an AI they should be good on the matrix (limited by the eGhost negative quality)??
• Need restricted gear to get the cyborg body (Otomo?)
• Would get 3IPs in the meat as a commanded drone (?)
• Use vehicle rules for combat (eg sensors, gunnery & autosofts)

Create a full body cyberware character
• Whilst it might be possible by RAW it ignores the downloaded consciousness part of the concept
• Need restricted gear for cyberskull and at 6.25 essence need alphaware as a minimum
• Not sure there’s much room to get an additional meat IP (unless wired reflexes etc could be said to use capacity in a full cyborg body?!? Bioware would be an alternative but there’s not much meat left…)
• Use conventional rules for combat

I’m sure someone here at DS has done one or the other of these…any thoughts/comments to help me out? Whilst I’m not worried about creating the perfect character I do want them to be able to hold their own!

Even if your GM allowed an AI, the cyborg ready bodies are all above availability 20, making them out of reach of even restricted gear. Best you can do is pick a different drone, make sure its somewhat humanoid (has two arms and walks) and then add the mimic option to it.



Take the biocompatibility quality from Augmentation and you'll have a little bit of leeway for mixing and matching. Getting extra IPs is hard, but you'll have lots of free health boxes, whatever attributes you can afford, and the armor of a tank. To make up for the IPs start with a ton of edge and buy them when you need them. Human works best for this build because it has the best edge and the worst physical base attributes, and you'll run out of money or cap your availabilities before you can take advantage of the higher physical attribute limits that other metatypes have.

A 'full cyborg body' really is a term that needs to not be used in SR4. Four limbs + skull + torso means you're a meat brain, lungs, heart, GI tracts, nerves, etc. There's also no room for a CCU. (Just kidding, I can see that's not part of the concept.)

You definitely can do e-ghost with any drone/vehicle you can get ahold of.

Uhh... Just use the existing cyborg rules starting on page 158 of Augmentation. You're a real brain instead of an e-brain, but give a little, take a little.

Spirit pact with a shedim?

There is one concept for "died, was digitally copied", and that is an AI with the E-Ghost quality. The roleplaying differences between cyber-took-flesh-away, nature-had-help, control-parts-in-containment-device and aware-code are massive. It does not hurt that E-Ghost is (IMO) the mechanically best option for what you want.

Actually, you can start with a Cyborg, just not any of the existing models.

The Cyborg Adapatation vehicle modification is availability 18, and comes with a CCU if you pay extra.

You CAN do this, but you're going to need to spend pretty much all of your quality points on things to do with money if you want to have enough nuyen to actually put it on anything.
Born rich, in debt, black market pipeline(vehicles), bmp(mods), the works

Some character concepts don't always translate perfectly to "starting character." This is one of them.

One option I've been trying to figure out:

escaped clone, with stirrup interface, AI using the thing as a home node.

Assuming the Stirrup works like that. It kinda does and kinda doesn't, and the rules aren't super-helpful. You could definitely house rule it.

Human
Full Cyberlimb Replacement
Cybereyes
Cyberears
Commlink with AI.
BTL chip on continous loop to keep the "host" asleep

AI have all cyberware linked to the Commlink and controls it.

That doesn't work, RAW, so it's a house rule.

Agreeing with Yerameyahu, having a Stirrup Interface work on a metahuman would be inside the realm of house rules. It's a house rule I like though (for the bleeding edge megas - not for players). But instead of Escaped Clone, why not simply buy a Type-O clone of an average guy (average troll for moar powar!) for 25,000 and then add bio/cyber until you're happy? I think many people forget that full body clones exist.

I've posted something to this effect back when a guy was asking how to make a BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy for all of you who don't know D&D colloquiolisms) with like 1000 BP and 1000 karma.... and I fulfilled his criteria with way less than half using an AI rigging cloned bodies.




Right, but the Stirrup Interface house rule works and does it better for less 'ware.

Do you guys think you'd have to have an implanted commlink in the clone's head?

It is a houserule, but I think it's a perfectly valid houserule. I suspect it's something Horizon's been working on.

Delta Grade Stirrup (for 2.75 essence)+biobiobioware!

No because the Stirrup Interface includes the hardware required to make the biodrone a full drone, loading an Agent and autosofts into it directly, as well as acting as a Skillwire system IIRC.

And since the clone is Type-O, logically that would mean Type O System, which means more standard grade normal bioware (but no special treatment for Cultured).

and move by wire.

It's a very powerful character. If a little freaky

While really interesting, I don't think the character really sets the mood for what the OP intended.

In that case, I'd have to also suggest the E-Ghost AI in some sort of drone - I suggest an Alternate Model of Renraku Manservant-III that doesn't have the restriction on its limbs and the Panic Button with Mimic (if you want) and at least one Turbocharger to bring it to normal meta speed. That'd still give you 2 mod slots to play with and give you essentially what you were wanting, on the cheap too.

EDIT: I'd still suggest at least looking at the Cyborg rules though.