Ever since I saw the dock worker in Sprawl Sites with muscle replacement, I've been wondering: What are the other normal-life applications of cyberware? Lots of jobs can be helped with strength and there's mention of augmenting athletes. Blood filters for anyone in the medical field. Matrixware is obvious.
What suggestions do you guys have for 'normal, everyday' people in the sixth world who may have cybernetics? Keep in mind what the stuff costs.

Datajacks are pretty common among those who can aford them. Chipjacks and lingasofts are ultra-important to corpers who need multiple languages. Chipjacks in general are useful to anyone in a science field for the knowsoft capacity...

The majority of real life stuff is going to be legal and cheap.

I imagine plastic bone replacement would be common with people who have osteoporosis.People doing QC work at factories might want to get a gas spectrometer installed, so they can do analysis more quickly and be more mobile about it. Other than that... well, most of this stuff reads like military hardware. It's hard to figure out what you'd use in "normal" life; most of it's too expensive to have casually implanted.

Datajack and datajack mod for Metro buses (if they aren't in a matrix controlled drone network already)

Ooh, I just thought of one: communications! How many teenagers are going to begging Mommy and Daddy for a headware telephone?

It's tough to say.

With the costs of cyberware, there's no way it would be as common as it should be in the setting (either flavorfully or as demonstrated in stat blocks). A datajack, costing only 1,000 nuyen, is close to the equivalence of most people's entire month's paycheck. And that's about as cheap as implants go.

For instance, there's no way a dock worker would have reasonably have Muscle Replacement (even at rating 1, that's more than a year's pay) unless he was something more than a mere dock worker, especially since the benefits aren't really that helpful. It would be cheaper to hire orks or trolls for the job.

howabout mommy and daddy implanting the kids with tracking devices?

I saw an old character who picked up all his cyber before ever considering running:

Titanium bone lacing, dermal plating, datajack, image link, knowsoft link. He was a stuntman employed by a Fuchi entertainment subsidiary. Lost his job due to an 'accident' on set during the Fuchi implosion.

Or cortex bombs for those unruly, misbehaving children.

^Hell, they're already doing that nowadays. Considering how cheap and "useful" that'd be, it'd happen all the time. I don't even think it'd cause essence loss, it's just a little chip under your skin.

Edit: Hee hee hee...that was meant for the tracking device post, not the cortex bomb...heh.

Lime, I imagine that a lot of folks in the SRun universe are in debt way over their heads. The Corps like it that way. Although I, in my games, halved the cost of basic cyberlimbs to encourage their use more.

I know the post was talking about cyberware, but I know I would get a Mnemonic Enhancer, and so would many people in a software development field. With the constant need to update knowledge, it would provide a real edge.

Amen to that! I think everone could use that particular bit of 'ware.

What accountant would be without the Math SPU? Old folks would likely go in for enhanced articulation a lot, as well. Firefighters would likely go in for the breathing cyber, eye protectors (or nict membranes), and the like. Cops obviously use headware radios. Low rating VCRs would probably be used by construction equipment controlers and HAZMAT teams as well as anyone piloting an expensive vehicle (airplanes, helos, etc).

The list goes on and on... On balance, most civilians wouldn't have more than about 1 point worth of cyber, at most.

Honestly, the lower end stuff should be much cheaper. Lower level of muscle replacement, datajacks, headphones, headradios, etc should be easily be 1/4 the cost, given how prevalent it's supposed to be.

If the prices were more realistic, I'd be inclined to agree that they would be common. But as set up so as to be "balanced" for the Shadowrunner character creation process, it's largely a joke. But if you're just interested in what types of implants certain "real" people would be interested in...

Anorexic/Bolemic-Likely Women: Dietware, Clean Metabolism
Clubbers & Sex Addicts: (Cultured) Tailored Pheromones, Scent Glands, Sensitive Skin
Gun Nuts: Smartlink
Students, Scientists, and Discovery/History Channel Junkies: Mnemonic Enhancers, Cerebral Boosters, Math SPUs, Chipjacks, Datajacks and Image Links, and Sleep Regulators
Chemists: Chemical Analyzer & Gas Spectrometer, Olfactory Boosters, Microscopic Vision
Old People: Enhanced Articulation, Muscle Toner, Muscle Augmentation, Sleep Regulator, Synthacardium, Pain Editor
Diabetes Patients: Chemical Gland: Insulin or Auto-Injector
Secretaries: Datajack and Image Link, Knowsoft Link, Transducers

etc. Bioware is going to be way more popular than cyberware, at least as described.

Also, chipjacks for anyone who might need to reference stodgy, rarely changing information, like coding, foresic data sets, medical texts, etc.


Also, in one game I cut the costs of the eye camera and opticam in half, essence and price. the game was designed at a time when digital cameras were hella-expensive or non-existent. I feel that .2 essence cost for a digital still camera is reasonable. where .4 is just ludacris.

I have a charictor who has permits for all his cyberware - even the wierd stuff like the Smartlink and wired reflexes. He claims (through his friend at the permits office) that they're for paintball.
I can see people who take their hobies seriously doing stuff like that.

Does he have a permit for a LMG and a few belts of capsule (paint) rounds?

5,000 a month for medium.

5,000 a month for 40 hr/wk day job.

Muscle replacement is 20,000¥ per level. A dockworker can make that in a year. If I were a dockworker, I'd just head to a fucking gym. This is why the prices are absolutely crazy. Even a simple datajack is way to pricy for your average person.

Don't forget that all of this cyber is available used.
" Yes sir this is a real good piece. Only has 10,000 hrs on it and the guy who gave us the trade-in took good care of it. But I'd stay home on days when the barometer is dropping you know. Well why don't we go in the back sign some datawork and you'll have a new cyber skull in no time"

It's no worse than a cheap-O car. In fact it's far less than a car today, taking inflation into account; remember that 5,000 /month is 60,000 per year; muscle replacement is one-third of that. What's a third of a dockworker or Stuffer Shack cashier's salary these days? Is it enough for a car?

It's those VCRs that are really expensive, or Wired Reflexes. Ugh, or Skillwires, yeesh! I'd imagine that anything like this would be paid for by the corp you work for, a sort of "Employee Enrichment Program" that you have to sign a binding contract for.

I could see some of the more pro-human companies offering muscle replacement to some of their more physical jobs so they don't have to hire orks and trolls.

I'd anticipate that most people make approximately their lifestyle cost + 10% to 30% per month. Thus a dock worker is probably making 1100 to 1300 a month (I'd guess blue collar jobs are in the "low" category) and a wageslave is in the 5500 to 6500 a month category. There are probably a good number of people transitioning between the two at lifestyle + 50% to 90%, but they're fewer in number.

Thus the dock work isn't going to get the muscle replacement without some help from his company, but the wageslave's kids will get datajacks for their 16th or 18th birthdays.

I think most corps would have progams that subsidize job related augmentations. Anything that enhances a worker's productivity just puts more money in thier pockets, and if they happen to make the 'ware besides its a double wammy....

Though I agree, and that is a good point, it's also worth noting that there's a difference between cosmetic and practical surgery. And, after all, no model will ever go for liposuction because it doesn't match the real thing, and it is pretty bad for you. In the case of muscle augmentation, going to a gym is far cheaper, far safer, and far more accessible to a guy who can afford maybe one point after working for a year.

And, yeah, there's financing and there's used ware, but don't make the mistake of looking at used ware as used cars. That stuff's for the absolutely down and out. Used body parts are not something people are going to take lightly even 60 years in the future. Datajacks really should cost 3-400¥ and .15 essence.

Really all cyberware should cost about one-fifth (multiply all 'ware SI to .2?) of what it does at chargen, especially if you use the advanced rules for surgery in M&M. If you go with that stuff the real cost is in getting a team of doctors who won't screw up your Essence and your looks every time you go under the knife. Those rules are seriously tough on people trying to get their 'ware upgraded or repaired.