I've never liked anything that runs out. In D&D, I always pass on any items with charges, even if it's extreamly strong... heck, in any game I do that. So I was looking at Nanoware and trying to think of a way to have an unlimited nanite supply.

So here's a thought: get a bioware glade that secretes the solution necessary for a nanite hive to make new nanites. Then get a hive and a facilitator... tada! Endless supply of nanites. Maybe a digestive expansion too so you can actually eat whatever nanites are created from (I'm guessing some metals).

Folks think this sounds reasonable?

JaronK

Nanite Hive cyberware can replenish free-floating nanites. You need a hive for each nanite system though.

I have the SAME condition! I hate stuff that runs out. Lousy ammo...

6 months isn't long enough for you?

I don't think any corporation would ever create a chemical gland like that, even if it could be created (which is highly unlikely, since it would have to be a highly processed industrial chemical, and the body isn't good at doing that), knowing that it would sever the "leash" between their nano-toy in your body and their supply of raw materials. Not to mention anyone with nanites are already probably paying maintenance costs on their 'ware.

The costs to maintain a nanite hive are only 10 percent of the total cost of the nanoware you are using every 6 months. The most expensive nanites available are nanosymbiotes, which cost 70,000 nuyen. So you pay only 7,000 nuyen every six months to replenish your supplies. I think I pay more money in APDS ammo and explosives during that same span of time...

Nanite Facilitator, Nanite Hive, Trauma Dampener.

If you have a nanite hive you accept that your going to need cyber wear surgery every 6 months, most samies need it more often than that anyway.

I also have a difficulty with items that run out, although I do use them when I must. The annoying ones are the ones that will run out in the middle of a job. Eg wands, scrolls, potions, or in SR expendable spell foci, spirit services and ammunition. At least you know your nanits wont drop out in the middle of a fight, unless you get hurt, in witch case a hive wont help.

Edward

Yeah, I know, 6 months should be plenty, but you just never know, and I like being a character that can be dropped off in the middle of the Congo and emerge intact 2 years later. The idea of having to find a nanoware capable clinic every 6 months isn't attractive, nor is being fully reliant on one such clinic.

JaronK

Then don't get nanites

Alternatively, if your GM's really generous, ask if you can buy a few nanite-packs to inject into your bloodstream. The Saviour advanced medkit (M&M, nanoware section) has spare supplies available for 250 if memory serves, and no expiry date is mentioned.

If you have nanites for some reason and get dropped in eth middle of the Congo for 2 years then your nanites will run out but that wont hurt you. They make a useful boost that may be lost.

If you have a full samy set of cyber ware when you come out your enhanced reflexes have an annoying twitch, your cyber eyes thermographic vision is misaligned with your normal vision, your smart link is constantly demanding new software your internal drug injectors are long spent and probably causing an infection. Heaven forbid you have bioware that wasn’t specifically cultured for you, without your anti-rejection drugs you’re going to have all kinds of problems with that.

The only characters in SR that can go 2 years in a hostile environment are the relatively unaugmented.

Edward

You mean you can get noncultured bioware?

See, edward, that was the plan. Bioware regenerator and Cyberware regenerator nanites, two nanite hives, and an organ to produce the necessary fuel to keep the hives going. Thus, all of your regenerates.

JaronK

Why don't you have a cyberarm cavity that simply stores extra nanite supplies?

Just a thought, would they work like bacteria, in the terms of self replication? if so you meet a problem with exponential growth?

torz x

You are probably better off getting an altered digestive system, that will allow you to eat potential nanite materials... Most of the nanite building blocks might not be normally found in your body, so having a gland to manufacture them might not help... If you don't have enough silicon (or whatever) in your diet to make more nanites, you just don't have enough silicon...

"Apart from the Chief, you're the only one in Section 9 whose body doesn't come with a warranty."

~J

This still gets my goat though...

So the sammy, who pays through the nose and most likely will never upgrade his ware during the game (I have NEVER seen a PC upgrade cyberware or buy new stuff) suffers additionally from having to maintain it or he goes loony vs. the mage who already has super powers, will outpace him over the life of the campaign, and will NEVER EVER EVER have to go into a 'shop' lest his powers stop working.

I've begun thinking about twisting things to make cyber a little more powerful than magic for a change. Maybe add a penalty to ALL spellcasting against low essence creatures. I don't know, but cyberware, despite being supercool, is beginning to lose it's shine to me.

Usually the deadly wound is more worrying than the magic loss, as people don't tend to survive through them a whole lot.

We regularly survive taking a deadly wound. Happened to one character twice during an arcology run before something finally got him properly dead. Of cause he was a stealth samy with no concept of stealth.

The way I find such things go is you enter a high threat aria and get spotted by some guards, they open up on the point man as he rounds the corner, the rest of the teem blows away the guards before there next action the med tech and the magician put the point man back together. Happens every few runs. Perversely the smart opponents have les of a chance to get one of us down because they take there initial action to take some cover or some other tactical action and then we do the same. Then ether we all die or they all die.

If you want a character with the repair nanites and a ability to last for 2 years I would recommend a expanded reservoir in the nanite hive. Probably increase time and cost by the same multiple (1 year twice the cost in essence and cash, 2 years 4 times the cost in essence and cash), the reason it is so expensive is you need base materials with a longer shelf life, at human body temp. of cause then what if you need to be on mission for 30 months)

Edward

Or just plan a clever, campaign spanning double-cross, that will culminate in the "accidental" killing of all your groups awakened players, leaving the cybered ones as the ones with karma left?

Not that I'd do something vile and underhanded like that. No siree... *polishes his halo*

Personally, I'd say dump the maintenence for, say, cyberware higher than or equal to either alpha or betaware (except for a few extreme cases) and cultured bioware. Sure, it's not realistic, but perhaps a person who has a machine installed in his body reads the friggin' manual and learns to do basic maintenence during downtime. I've yet to see a hermetic mage missing three consecutive runs because he was in the middle of magic research. But it'd be a house rule, of course. It seems the authors at FanPro are far too obsessed with their lovely "OHNOS! TEH HORRORS ARE COMING!!!!1!" plotline to let magic take the back seat and let cyber shine anytime soon.

We just don't keep track of stress points. Sure, we lose a way to screw the PC's, but hey, everybody's happy.

As for the nanites, same story. If you have a hive, you're set. If you don't like the rules, change them.

The problem is much of the maintenance cant be done by yourself. It is hard to reach imposable to see and may require a general anaesthetic.

And cultured bioware already needs no maintenance, the only maintenance any bioware needs is anti rejection drugs and repaired when damaged.

Edward

Who says it'd require anethesia? All the real sammies I know have pain editors and they do they're own surgery... ain't trustin my life to some street doc.

The problem with nanoware and basically most enhancements that a street sam may pick up is that it is not designed to be operated outside the urban setting for extended periods.

In any "extreme" environment other than space, adepts tend to fare better.

There are quite a few facilities serving various purposes, some secret, some not-so-secret, scattered around the Congo, and other less obvious places of the Sixth World. I'm sure there are ways for an enterprising character to negotiate some kind of maintenance from the employees there.

Load up the nanites into auto-injetcors. Have 'em on call, much like the Savior cyber, or whatever it's called.

Who says that general maintenance requires anesthesia? For example, if playing without stress rules, then most completely internal pieces would probably be maintenance free, except for yearly check/tune-ups. Completley internal gear (wired reflexes, most headwear, air tanks, etc) is the only thing I can think of that would require anesthisia before doing maintenance. Cyber limbs, eyes, all of that would be pretty simple to on your own (although arms and hands might be a little difficult to do one handed, but so long as you're not in the middle of a firefight, I don't see the point in causing too much grief). A couple minutes in front of a mirror with a screwdriver, press a couple of jumpers, and I would say you can flip your field of vision with cyber-eyes, so that you could do general maintenance with in a mirror while they're still in your head. I do not see it as unreasonable for a character who spends two years in the jungle with nothing more than a basic tool kit (ala Robinson Crusoe) to not have a single piece of functioning cyberware.

There are a couple of items that state they need extra power. EG the eye lasers and shock systems.

Edward

I could wrong AND out of date, but doesn't the description for a nanite hive say that the type of nanite produced by the hive is "usually hard-wired" when made.

Expanded Hive -- produces multiple types of nanites, one of which returns 'dead' nanites to the hive, where they are reprocessed into functional nanites again.

Add in suitably advanced nanites that operate on bioelectricity (or just function properly in the electric field within the body) to maintain power..

Now.. nanites could be lost other ways, but there are certain amounts of metal and other compounds in the system already, so small amounts of iron and silicon and so on could be absorbed -- or, a third set of nanites that scavenge it from the digestive tract..

Shoot, just put the hive in something with an external access -- tiny input that can be filled with raw materials as needed.

Anyway, you guys should get the picture.

Opinions?