Okay, just to double check (since I don't have the SR Companion in front of me) you can't take Sensitive System AND Biorejection can you? It not only seems cheesy but the way they read would lead me to believe that you're either one or the other, not both.

No, and the book says so.

I though so those fragging drek-heads! Thanks!

You could get sensititive system, then somehow RPly get Bio-rejection, but that'd suck.

LOL. I'd personally like to see mysterious cyberware and biorejection developing from it.

Personally, I'd like to see what that mystery cyberware is, since by Canon, the cyber doesn't get to reduce Essense. The munchkin in me is very interested. Free MBW 4 with no Essense Loss, anybody?

Besides the obvious Cortex Bomb that is, eh?

Come on, cortex bombs are sooo 2060.

...where'd you get the idea that mysterious cyberware doesn't take up any essence?

MFB is correct... you can do some horrible horrible things with that flaw and enough game master discretion.

my fave is a hardwired chipjack with a berserker btl and a remote control.

Because if the PC in question had 0.01 Essense left, it is still Canon that the PC can have Mysterious Cyberware. And if he has MC Flaw, then the cyber cannot take up any Essense as 0.01 is the base fraction of Essence.

BTW, with GM discretion, you can do anything, like simply taking the PC over and having him commit suicide. There you go... the GM wins the Shadowrun.

My favorite was a sim rig and remote transmitter. Instant underground shadowrun btls/simchips.

that's an interesting reading of those rules, toturi. my personal interpretation would be that the GM would have to pick a cranial bomb of some sort, since that's the only cyber i'm aware of that doesn't take up any essence.

I think peg legs and hook hands don't take any essence either. You character just has a mental block that keeps him from noticing...

character: So why is my running multiple only x1.5?

GM: You're not quite sure. Some glich in your cyberwear, yeah that's it.

there is that. perhaps an extra cyberlimb that is a hook hand?

Tooth compartments don't take up any Essense, either. Maybe the character has a tooth compartment with a tracking device in it.

"How do those damn Renraku ops teams keep finding us? We're in the middle of the Barrens!"

Hmm, on that thread, replace all his teeth with small scale drones that climb out of his mouth when he's asleep and do various nasty things...

"Vampire assassin strike again!" and when they run the dental records on those bite marks, guess who its going to get back to?

one nasty one for if anyone ever combines mysterious cyberware with amnesia is a P-Fix 8 with skillwires 6 (improve grades on his other ware to compensate essence) and the character is the chip, not the original

Whenever someone gets Mysterious Cyberware, I usualy throw it into the plot somehow. such as unlocking doors, fudging rolls (good, OR BAD) Don't make it real cyberware. Use it as an ace in the hole for anything you might want to happen for the run.

There are very few Canon cyberware that cost 0 Essense.

Peg legs and hook hands do cost a little essence actually.

Tooth compartments are a good idea though.

There are other things you might want to try, if the old cranial bomb is a bit passé. Add some modifications to cyberware they already have, for example:

- Increased Volume on their Voice Modulator, so they shout at inopportune moments.

- A Personalised Smartlink Safety on their Smartlink, which seems to "malfunction" a lot of the time and stops it working.

- A cosmetic mod on their cybereyes that turns them solid blue at ALL the wrong times.


Etc, etc. None of these cost any essence if you have the base implant already, but can all mess people up pretty good!

but they do exist, toturi, which invalidates the claim that Mysterious Cyberware necessarily negates essence costs. if you want it to work that way in your game, cool, but i don't think there's a strong argument for it working that way in canon.

Which the player will simply submit the same old char sheet until the GM chooses a new cyber. Then it is simply a test of wills between the player and GM.

No, because if the player does that the GM just says no. It is the right of the player to walk, and it is the right of the GM to refuse a player entrance.

~J

so, we're agreed then, that mysterious cyberware does, indeed, cause essence loss, by canon?

No, Canon does not state that Mysterious Cyber causes or does not cause Essense loss. But for the sake of rules consistency, I would think it does; but that would lead to the part where the Street Sam player would know what the GM just put into his PC as Mysterious Cyber.

Who says that there isn't a grade heretofore unmentioned in Canon?

For the mysterious cyber, I always took that to mean either some super secret grade or, the essence doesn't drop until they learn of it and fully integrate it into their psyche. This also means that any benifits of the "paid in essence" goes out the door in these cases.

the mysterious cyberware flaw never says that the player doesn't know what the cyber is, only that the character doesn't.

nikoli, that's fine, if you subscribe to the idea that essence loss is based on psychological impact or whatever. that's not the case in most games.

GM: You have 8 points of cyberware, you can't do that.
Player: Sure, notice I have amnesia.
GM: What does that matter?
Player: I'm not aware of the bone lacing or muscle replacement, so that drops me into the safe range.
GM: Well, you'll learn pretty quickly that you have those and then you will drop dead.
Player: Nope, see the specialty flashbacks so that anytime someone tries to tell me about those, I start screaming about my Vietnam experience and kill everyone in sight, burning all the evidence in the process.

Herald, any player that brought that to me would get a very evil grin, then the sheet would be rolled up and the resulting whap on te nose might remind them to leave the crack smoking till after my game session