QUOTE (Shinobi Killfist @ Jun 23 2013, 02:28 PM)
Well the assumption before was it was a trained meidcal skill, not something you poked at with a screwdriver. So yeah I suspect most street sams either did not have the skill or had it at a low level. Now under this new model I can see a lot of Sams doing it, but I think logic probably isn't high on their stat preference list and working on yourself probably has penalties so it is probably a good idea to get someone else to do it.
I'm personally of the notion that combat characters should know how to do basic care and feeding of their gear. A gunbunny should have some Armorer, a Rigger should have (at least one!) mechanic, and, yeah, every Street Sam should have some Cybertechnology. Not loads, but 4 dice and a tool kit for basic work, plus a street doc for the heavy lifting. 4-6 dice is plenty for this kind of thing, depending on how bad your wound penalties get (Or off-hand, for when your cyber-arm goes 'frazzle' and you have to fix it with one hand and a mouth.)
QUOTE (tasti man LH @ Jun 24 2013, 01:17 AM)
Ah-ha, NOW we've got our explanation of why the Sprawl Ganger has 13 boxes of Physical instead of the calculated 12.
Yay! That can be talked about now! (Yes, that's why he had +1 physical damage track.)
QUOTE (Samoth @ Jun 24 2013, 05:59 AM)
Cyberlimbs should be attributes = to your current natural attributes when you buy it, with the option of a minimal payment to increase the limb's ratings if you should spend karma to improve your natural attributes. You should be able to buy additional attribute points up to your racial max as you currently can, and attributes that exceed racial max with an additional capacity cost also as you currently can.
There is zero practical reason a Troll should have the same base arm as a dwarf; limbs should always be "custom" balanced to their owner. Additionally, to clear up any confusion, every piece of cyberware should clearly list whether it can be installed in a limb.
There, I fixed it in about 2 minutes of typing and less than 200 words, and now limbs are much more useful.
Yeah, but now you have a few questions to deal with.
1) What price difference is there for, say, a Troll arm instead of a human arm?
2) Can my human buy an Ork arm? How about a Troll arm?
3) If I yank the arm off a dead Ork and get it attached, why is that different than buying one myself?
4) If the attributes reduce to my level, why? What's the in-game reason?
5) Similarly, if my Troll rips the arm off an Elf and attatches it and teh attributes move to match his, what's the reasoning for that?
Either the attributes change to match the metatype, which needs a big explaination, or they stay the same, at which point people will want to buy Elf, Ork, or Troll arms for the boosted attributes. If you charge a different price for those limbs... congrats! You're using the cyberlimb system that's been in use for a while.
As for practical reasons, there're a few. Demand for one ... Trolls are about 1% of the population, Humans are about 70%, give or take. Trolls are also less likely to lose their arms or to need an upgraded one to keep up with the Joneses ... they *are* the Joneses. When there are a hundred Human arms needed for every Troll arm (a conservative estimate), you'll be paying a premium based on the flipside of a baseline economy of scale, tweaked further by lighter supply always giving a higher price for point of sale.
There's also racism, natch. Most cyber's made by Japanacorps, who aren't exactly known for their metahuman-friendly policies and don't mind gouging.
"Well, that's why I have a street doc!"
He's getting the parts from somewhere and "Artisan Cyber" is going to be more expensive than factory-produced stuff dropping off a line in most cases. Sure, you're not paying for a big name brand, R&D, and so forth, but parts ain't cheap and quality-assurance isn't at the top of the line. (A good RP hook for having Used Cyberware, however! You have a guy who custom-builds it all. Saves a bundle, but there're a few bugs to work out.)
Of course, there's also the raw power consideration. A Strength 6 arm lifts more than a Strength 3 one, so needs stronger servos, better joint structures, stronger anchoring, larger power thingy, and so on. It *should* cost more, just like a bigger engine in a car costs more than a smaller one.
So, ultimately, you wind up with a situatin where cyberlimbs are best reflected by having a baseline attribute, which can then be modified. Makes limbs for metatypes more expensive, sure, but it also snuffs out the "I have a pair of Troll arms tee hee" dodge for Humans. It's mechanically fair (Everyone pays the same money and essence for the same boosts), but grinds metatypes a bit, who have a perfectly valid thing to grumble about.
(See also, the Sprawl Ganger Ork stuck with a crappy cyberlimb.)
There's probably way more to talk about this, but, I don't want to drag Lurker's thread into the mud-wrestling pit, so, if anyone would like to start a new Cyberlimbs spinoff thread, I'd be more than happy to chat about things there. They're kind of a big thing for a cyberpunk game, so getting them right is a lil' important.