One of the players in my SR campaign has the mysterious cyberware flaw, and for the life of me i cant decide what to give him. He is a native american phys ad who specializes in pistols. Now the cyberware has to be 1 essence or less, because his starting magic was 5. It also needs to be something completely internal because neither he nor anyone else knows he has it. Basicly he got it when he left the tribe to work for a corp. he had a falling out with the corp later and went to the shadows, not knowing he brought along a little something extra. Now, I want this cyberware to be cool, and it doesnt necisarily have to be something out of the book, it can be an experimental system. Any ideas?

well, if he's escaped the corp's clutches, it's probably not a kink bomb or anything. how about a low-end skillwire system, for use with personafix chips (see SOTA:64)? the guy thought he was just a shooter, but the corp was secretly using him as an infiltrator, giving him missions where he had to pretend to be someone else and then wiping his memory of those missions when he completed them (for better security). the runner could now have enemies after him that he doesn't know exist, since he doesn't know he did anything to them. when he finally figures out he's got skillwires, replace the mysterious cyberware flaw with amnesia.

Ah yes, the skillwires+data filter+dedicated chipjack combo. A neat one indeed. When you do replace it, be sure to make it a low-level Amnesia Flaw plus a bit of Hunted, to make it more interesting.

Another take on that same concept would be an experimental integrated Snakeeyes+skillwires system. Essentially it would work like a rigger-adaptation for his body, which would be especially neat because at your whim you could have NPC riggers discover his signal and drive him around like a futuristic brain-puppet.

Deltaware eye camera, ear recorder, and transmitter combo - implanted directly into the organic eye and ears instead of the traditional replacements
Someone somewhere sees everything that he sees and hears everything that he hears, and he has no clue.

Many of his runs come from his former corp who are using him as an intelligence gathering tool.

Mysterious Cyberware, as a flaw, has value "-3". That's the same as Deaf and as Paraplegic. Or the same as Color Blind, Weak Immune System, and Braggart all put together.

To be a fair GM, you need the flaw to result in problems to the character of an appropriate magnitude for the value of the flaw.

These problems can be a continual nuisance (headware radio that buzzes when riding in a vehicle), or an occasional serious problem (broken boosted reflexes that give no bonus AND if he rolls a "6" on initiative two turns in a row he is paralized for a turn). It can be something that others are hunting for (eg. data in headware memory) or something that no one wants (eg. a "registered sex offender" transmitter that should have been implanted in someone else). It can be a piece of damaged cyberware that is slowly poisoning the character (gradual reduction in attributes) until it is removed.

It can be something with no essence, such as a tooth compartment with something in it, or something in it that is slowly leaking a toxin down his throat.

It can be bioware instead of cyberware. Perhaps a damaged chemical gland supposed to increase immunity to Ghoulism, but which instead causes the character to start showing the effects of ghoulism or to actually become a carrier of the disease as long as he has it.

My personal favorites to inflict are the following:
Invoked Memory Stimulator
Dedicated Chipjack

I like playing with the players mind. This can be done in a few ways, depending on the players ability. You can pass him notes to act a certain way or take actions he normally wouldn't or have him do things 'off camera' that he discovers later.

I often combine the above cyber with something else to give them a specific role such as a mule, johnson, or decoy for whoever implanted the device.

Simsence recording gear -- not for survailence (sp?) but for profit! The gear records the information and when the runner sleeps the information is uploaded via wireless matrix or satalite up-link to the favorite chip maker of your choice. Fun when the players realize that their simstars and they never even knew. My players wanted royalties. Got interesting after that

Headware memory with an induction datajack? If they've got a smartlink then it could be even harder to pick up on. Now what they've got in the memory is up to you.

Some kind of bastard offspring of an encephalon and a tactical computer? How it affects the PC's thoughts processes and actions could be interesting. Maybe it's got something completely new added to it. And if it's a prototype or early model then it could be really twitchy.

The problem with a simrig/simlink is that it is a base of 2.6 essence. To get it in under 1 essence you have to go with deltaware and use the reduced essence surgery option. Just keep in mind that you will be giving the team a huge monetary boost if he gets killed and that gets recovered and sold.

That said, a nasty "I am taking your brain" option would be high frequency (or low frequency) hearing coupled with a limited datafilter and a dedicated chipjack with a personafix in it. All input from a certain frequency hits his brain, but he doesn't remember it for long enough to act on it. If it is the appropriate code phrase, though, it activates the personafix which can be whatever you want.

The problem with a personafix is that it puts the player completly at the GM's mercy. If overused, it comes to the point where the GM playing the character and the player is just there.
Also, there is no good reason for the corp not to include a suicide command for when he gets too nosey.

As for the simrig, cannon essence cost really doesn't matter. The GM could just say it is a custom prototype and arbitraily adjust the esence cost. Essence and bioindex is only a concern if the 'ware is actualy going to be useful to the character some time in the future.

Remember you cant do second hand delta ware. Its maid for the individual and when he is dead the wear is useful only for reverse engineering. No money hear boys.

Edward

Actually it turns into used betaware when you transplant it.

indeed. M&M page 11, second-to-last paragraph in the Grades of Cyberware section (which begins on page 10).

Hmm. How about a side effect that randomly in the character's field of vision, he sees little numbers count down like on a bomb. Then either make it purely somatic (probably along the lines of a mental flaw), or tie it to some cyber muscle or wire enhancement, that he cramps up for a brief period of time. Personally, I like the idea of the somatic one. Basically he's just got a little counter that pops up, and he gets so stressed thinking something might happen, that it does happen (cramps), leading to a nice cycle of conditioned response.

Anybody here watched Texhnolyze?

~J

For the truly demented, I saw something about full personality activesofts in an earlier thread. Some combination of that personality (personalities?) on a chip, Invoked Memory Stimulator, and skillwires. Cyber Multiple Personality disorder!!

[EDIT]

..........Or that could have been suggested earlier!

I gave one of my players a darling little device which I called a Pavlov. Essentially, it stimulates parts of the brain, causing certain reactions such as fear, joy, anger, etc. His former boss (He was an ex-mafia goon) was the only one with the remote that activated it. It worked out pretty well.

Here is what I did to a player in my group that had mysterious cyberware. I gave him a total system hold feature. When someone from his original corp. pressed a button on a short range remote (50 meters) all of his cyberware shut down with one exception. His cybereyes went black and came up with a counter that started counting down from 30 minutes. Then when the timer reached zero all of his cyberware cameback on line.

Actualy a more subtle nastiness is have cyberware which triggers physical responses given certain stimuli - sort of like pavlov, but more like if his stress levels rise above a certain level, he tends to urinate (use a will power check of sufficient annoyance to see if his willpower holds the flow), or if adrenaline spikes then his hands start to shake - something subtle, yet annoying at the wrong times.

I dunno if there is cyberware currently that can do this, or if it would be a prototype.

try this, eye cameras, ear microphones, router, headware and an induction datajack, grade all ware so essence is the same and have the runner's home trid hook up to the induction datajack any time he uses trodes to download the contents of the headware... after all mysterious is 75% of ther cost of hung out to dry

An experimental deltaware nanite hive? He's a delivery system for an experimental sabotage nanite, programmed to attack a particular type of equipment. It would mean that he'd probably excrete nanites with his sweat, sneezes, and the like. His body might treat it like a persistant cold - to encourage sneezing and coughing. He sneezes, and a couple of minutes later, nanites are chewing up the crystals in anything nearby with a quartz clock. Or something.

Possible targets:
Plastics used in old Fuchi-brand electronics.
Timing crystals.
Pzioelectric crystals
The protective coatings used on equipment by a competitor of the implanting Corp.
Ammo.
Specific lubricants.

The gear could also be buggy, and target the wrong materials:
Rayon
Glad™ brand plastic bags
Mylar
Plasteel-7
Batteries

As dumb as the movie "Johnny Mneomic" was, it had a very SR feel to it (go go William Gibson!)...

300 MP headware memory + Data Lock + Datajack (all delta of coarse) an a Enemy Rating 4 to round out the fun.

While working at the corp, he has picked up a nasty infection of Strain-II FAB (Flourescing Astral Bacteria) that lives in his blood. Perhaps it was part of an attempt to engineer a variety that could live in humans, for one of any number of purposes (fake astral perception, increased damage against spirits/astral projections,...). In any case, this bacteria is either sometimes or always (you pick) astrally active. Perhaps someone astrally percieving wouldn't notice it (or would, again you pick) because his own aura is on the way, but it would certainly affect his ability to walk through wards.

If it isn't always active, you could pick some entertaining trigger, just make sure it's inconvenient.

An Awakened Bioware Symbiote created to give mundanes spellcasting ability. The only problem is that it can't survive in mundane bodies and is fully sentient. After being ordered destroyed, this failed prototype used a control thoughts spell to force a corp doctor to implant it into the character. It is dual natured, but undetectable once implanted. It is considered to be a force 12 bonded focus and can astrally percieve through it's host's aura and spells cast on the host are treated as spells cast on self. Furthermore, it does not suffer from drain, instead it dumps drain into the host, forcing him to resist or take damage whenever the symbiote casts a spell.

It knows a varity of spells and casts them when necessary for survival or to further its own agends. It currently sees it's host as nothing more than a tool for survival, but that may change over time.

The corp who created it may believe the symbiote to have been destroyed or may be activly hunting for it.


It would be funny to see the character's reaction to spells that are seemingly cast from nowhere, including control thoughts/control actions cast on himself.
It can learn new spells and even self-initiate by feeding off its host's Karma or earning its own karma through the host.
There's also the matter of potential magic loss from focus addiction, because his effective magic rating is only 5. If the symbiote initiates, its force is always equal to twice it's magic rating, making it burn out the host's magic even faster.

Heck, just make him part of the network. That should be enough to tweak any character's head.

Ok, what exactly would be needed for a personafix chip. Basicly what I've come up with is that all of his memories are fake, much like the UCAS agent in (brain fart, cant remember the book. the one where the seattle grid goes down and a bunch of people get turned into otaku), my question is, what cyberware is needed for a personafix chip? It doesnt seem that just a chip jack would be enough to completely overwrite a persons personality. This player is also a physad as well (not sure if that matter, especialy when it comes to learning powers and storing them in headmemory) basicly, what would be the repercutions of taking the personachip out? Is there any way the corp could have overwriten his old memories. If not to what extent can personafix chips effect the persons mind. I'm leaning towards this corp being Fuchi, as they would have access to the deltaware clinics in late 2053 when this campaign started (we're in late 2054 right now)

Remote Orgasm Trigger.




-karma

Pyschotropic Orgasm IC. Brought to you courtesy of the Merovingian.

One of the adventures in Shadowrun Missions had these guys the Futuremen, heavily cybered gangmembers who didn't know they where cybered and didn't know they even commit a series of daring crimes. You might want to use something like that. The character can wake up suddenly and be in some place and not remember how they got there, or worse, covered in blood.

I was playing in Yasha's game, and the real rough part of the shutdown, besides being in the middle of a fire fight, is that the character was in front of my character. I was playing a Shark shaman and had just taken a wound. I failed my will save.