Got a few question on Cyber Torso, Skull ,and Limbs. But first the set-up:
I built an NPC I humorously called "Mr.Bhotti" because the whole concept is that the character anyone ever met was this ginormous all-cybernetic troll. All Four Limbs, Skull and Body were Cyber-replaced. So yes this lead to a very tough troll from the get-go. The problem was that there was no meat inside because the Body was actually just a Drone that a Human Quadrapalegic Rigger used to get around in while he lay in a hospital bed. As an NPC I can let a lot of things slide and not have to explain a lot as to HOW it actually works (Not worrying About ECm and ECCM and Jamming screwing up his abilities to function etc...), but now I'm thinking of making a variant on this as an actual PC for the near future (But not as a Drone) so I had soem questions and clarifications.

In Man and Machine it states that Human and Elven Cyberlimbs etc start with a Base Strength of 4, Dwarves and Orks with 6 and Trolls with 8. So whats to stop a Human from buying a Troll-capacity Body? Ie Limbs, Torso and skull?
My assumption is because the Cyberskull and Torso all retain the original Meat but all of the bodies living and neccessary components could be reduced to a bio-module stored in the center of the body or the skull in the case of the brain. As Far as I can tell the Cyber Limbs, SKull and Torso all replace the entirety of the Muscular and Skeletal System so the only bits left in the Torso and Skull are the Organs and Brain.
I Would presume that the Human/Elf would have to pay a Price differential for the larger-than-normal sized Cyber body?
Speaking of Sizes; Whats the Deal with a Cyber Leg offering WAY more ECU than a Cyber Torso? Is it because of a lack of Organs in the legs? Also do different Meta-human Variants have more or less ECU than others? IE Dwarves should have less everywhere but maybe the Torso and Skull, wher as Orks and Trolls should get more ECU.

OH And While I'm at it;
I'm guessing that if one went the Cyber-Body Route that one cannot by Bioware such as Muscel Toner or Augmentation?
Further, can one buy Dermal Sheathing for Cyber-Bodies? I'm guessing so but still...

If you have Man & Machine, the rules section at the end of the cyberware section should describe how assorted cybernetics (like cybertorsos and many cyber limbs) interact with bioware (like muscle aug). If not, the bioware rules section should explain it.

Basically, your guess is correct. The benefits of some bioware are reduced as you have more and more cyberlimbs.

Firstly, you can't buy a troll arm as a human, because you are not troll size, the troll shoulder is as big as your head, and won't fit onto your shoulder. As far as cyberskulls go, I'm fairly certain the only thing they replace is your skill for a metal one... nothing fantastic, but again, a trolls head is different shaped, bigger, and different, so no you can't get it as a human. Lastly, torso as far as I knew was basically replacing the ribs with metal sheets that can perform the same function, the spine, and possibly adding a little over the stomach, in place of abdominal muscles, and thats it. Once more, you're not troll sized, and, your spine isn't long enough even if you wanted one put in.


As far as having a remotely controlled guy, you want to look at the snake-eyes package in R3R for cyberware for the rigger to control him with, and its generally considered that you would need wired/mbw in order to have a way for the rigger to send his limbs movements.

As far as ECU goes, no, trolls organs are bigger, and leave the same amount of space open in their torso. Dwarves are smaller, but leave the same ECU open in theirs also. Etc

The rules don't cover it but a limbless human should be able to fit in a troll cyber torso (with space to burn) with troll limbs, maybe including having the human pinhead retained. You'll have to make it up as you go.

Logically a troll should be able to fit more ecu's into their limbs (though not their torso). You could figure the proportions based on the average methuman body ratings.

No Link. Logically, since trolls limbs have more strength, it requires larger motors etc, leaving the same amount of free-space in a humans limb.

I dunno..

Say it takes 50% of a limb to provide the motors, servos et al. and, as you say, the trolls limb is bigger but the motors are proportionally bigger to boot.

Therefore the troll limb is half full of motor but the remaining half is still proportionally bigger than its human counterpart, hence more ecu.

Of course the troll limb servos may increase exponentially (?) and there is no increased ecu capacity but you'd need Capt. Janeway for the full theoretical explanation.

Or perhaps it's a matter of - *gasp* - game balance. Honestly people, don't tyou think the rules are complex enough already without changing the ECU space in cyberlimbs to depend on metatype?

A gasper eh.

Which is it then, game balance or complex rules?

Balance.

Well it's certainly not an issue of Complex Rules, SR is chock full of'em.

Here a question though. According to the cyberlimb rules, Cybernetics added to cyberlimbs cost 10% less essence and 10% Less Cash PER Limb as part of the price is already paid by the replacement. SO According to that then if one gets 2 arms, 2 Legs a Torso AND a Skull, then Cyberware added to the Body would have a 60% Essence Reduction and 60% Price reduction.
Now Keeping that in mind, does that apply to the limbs themselves? Assuming a Person had to get everything replaced at once, say due to massive bodily shutdown/trauma etc...would all the limbs benefit from the 60% reduction? Or would it be reduced as each aprt is replaced? In the latter case if the Torso is the first thing replaced then I could easily see at least a 10-20% reduction for the attachement of the head and limbs sicne the musculature that normally connects the limbs and head to the body have already been replaced or altered and maybe the same discount to the Limbs.

I've roughed out the Points and the Monetary Costs to-date, but dun have the figures with me, I'll post it up later on if anyone is curious. So far with a Beta-Grade (Had to be Beta could do it with Alpha) Full-body replacement, including eyes and ears, Dermal Sheathing (Too LOOK normal) and a Smartlink 2 (Needs to make money to support body) is around 2.4 Million Nuyen and ends up at .25 essence.

In defense of the tweaky cheese of this, It's a Concept that I really like and have an RP background worked out, or at least the beginnings of it, that would fit really work well and make for an interesting character. And I predict spending a lot of time in Bosyshops getting his damaged Body fixed up after a good beating.

Also While I'm thinking ABout it....does Body PLating Suffer from the Rule that Armor over Body Rating starts to affect your Combat Pool? I could see it both ways just from Bulk, but the Armor is built with the Cyberlimb in mind.

No, the limb discounts are for anything that involves THAT limb specifically. If you have 1 limb, and get bone lacing, its 10%, muscle replacement. Dermal sheathing... Any of those, you'd get the discount. I'm pretty sure the head only counts as a half-limb like a partial-forearm, and offers no discount. Also, I'm pretty sure there is a cap on the pecentages, and no, the limbs wouldn't give each other discounts, as your arms have nothing to do with each other, and just because one is replaced, doesn't make it any easier to replace the other one.

ok if you want to be a brain in a jar in a metal body, cyberlims and bodys don't work well. what I would suggest is geting some bone lacing, mucle enhancements, skin enhancements of some type, replace your outlying nervous system with some initative enhancement and wala!

Your skeletion, musels, skin, nervous system (and if you want to top it off, eyes and ears) are all machine. How much more "More machine than man" could you want.

In my opion, the cyber limb replacements are not worth it. The whole body enhancements are much better and none of this pesky left arm strenght 4 right arm stremght 6 stuff.

(although I do think the gyrscopic arm enhancement makes an cyber arm almost worth it)

yep LOL