Some pieces of Cyberware, like Kid Stealth legs, just make it impossible to be sublte. Also, if the artwork in 90% of shadowrun books means anything, all that worry about professional, low-key looks in Fields of Fire was just for show: guys with obvious cyberarms that have everything but smoking pistons revving inside, glowing tatoos and mohawks, guns with witty catchphrases and having half your skull replaced with chrome are the norm in the shadowrunning biz.

That said, what is the flashiest, most blatant cyber/bio/random ware your character have gotten away with having? I realize this varies quite a bit according to the GM: some drop the full force of the Law on the characters if they come out of the Barrens with an obvious datajack, others let you cruise through AAA neighborhoods in your lime-green dermal sheath.

Also: is Dermal Plating/Sheath instantly noticeable? My books are in a friend's house (he promised to run a game, but has yet to make good on it....damn his soul.)

Sheathing is less noticable by quite a bit as compared to Plating, but still noticable.

Flashiest? That would be Bob. Full-replacement cyberzombie. He was interesting for the short amount of time I got to play him.

Single obvious cybereye.

~J

None of my characters EVER have obvious cyber, mostly because I don't play the cyber-crazy bruisers that get the most out of the obvious 'ware. My NPC's tend to be pretty image-conscious as well (though the regenerating toxic fire spirit possessed cyberzombie troll had a Vindicator mounted on an articulated arm coming out of his back, which I imagine as a pretty damn impressive sight).

There's only one heavily cybered player character in the game I run right now, and he's got some pretty flashy tech on him. 2 semi-obvious cyberlimbs (semi because they've got this ruthenium-like system in them that allows them to change colour and texture for limited amounts of time, so for a few hours every day the Sammy can look like he's got real arms if he needs to), and a pair of obvious cybereyes (tricked out similarly to the arms with colour changing ability). The most interesting peice of tech is also the easiest concealed, and that's the replacement spine he got after his original one got split in half by a big, mean demon thing. It's about three times the size of his original spine, 80% metal and the 'vertebrae' (sp?) extend out his back in overlapping metal plates. Not so bad if he's wearing a jacket, but it gets creepy when he's only in a tight shirt or bare to the waist.

The most blatant would be his arms, the flashiest would be the spine.

I'm with the general consensus so far. Cyberware isn't something a runner wants to advertise, it'd be like telling an opponent what moves and strategies yer planning on using right befor sitting down to a game of chess. Closest thing any of my characters uses is used by the one which I take my namesake from. Selective Cyberlimb Magnetic system, with Nodes on Ankles, knees, elbows, and palms, with custom built control. Among the many tricks and stunts it allows him to pull off is his favorite quick draw, the handles on all his irons are Hematite which allow him to draw pretty darn fast, though not yet as fast as "The Seattle Gunslinger". Word has probably spread among the denizens of the city about how he pulls it off, so about 15% of the rumors are based on Magnets. So it's not exactly "Flashy" or "Obviously Noticable" but it still gets him into trouble.

Force 6 enhance aim tat on my gunslinger.

My one and only troll character Titan has retractable horns. But they're in addition/added on to his existing horns. So when he gets his juice up (literally-adrenal pump and auto injector) these massive chrome horns sprout out. Not really useful for anything. Just fun.
And they go nice with his spurs. Very pointy troll.

side note, IIRC dual spurs do str 1.5 in damage according to SR3 main book. Has that been changed to the same rules for dual wielding (off-hand weapon skill) in CC, or is it still massive damage for trolls?

One of my characters who also acts as a recurring NPC when I GM is an ork street sam with an obvious cyberskull and a set of those horn implants forming a sort of "crown" of horns around his head (the two in the front are 2-3 inches long, the rest an inch or less). The idea for this guy started out a few years ago when I decided to anti-twink a character, and see how high I could get his Charisma penalties (it was at least +10 on all non-threatening Charisma-links TNs), but then I modified it into a decent street sam.

If I recall, when I started modifying him I modeled some things roughly on Darth Maul, thus the horn implants.

In pen & paper, the most obvious 'ware my characters ever had is my current PCs synthetic cyberforearm. (Industrial grinder accident). 'cept that rather than having normal synthskin coating it, it has been covered in a chrome treatment.

Otherwise, I'd say it's a toss-up between snakeeyes (SURGEd human who ended up with scales and fangs who had chemical injectors thrown in the fangs. You can only have so many people turn up dosed with gamma-scopiolamine and extensive bite marks before the rumor spreads) and Maeva LeClerc in horsepower haven. (Perma-glow eye-light system in the eyes, morphing nanotatoos, multiple silver-plated datajacks in a visible place, cosmetic surgery to exaggerate elven features when she went into hiding).

I had a samurai whose cyberarm had cutout panels, neon lighting, and fake exhaust pipes out the sides of his forearm, which would puff out steam occasionally.

Or my character who got one of his cybereyes built as a larger unit on his face, (Like the sniper from GitS) and made it seem like it was an eyepatch.

I never got to played starry knight but he had cyber eyes with a display on the front, normally he displayed a spiral galaxy looking vaguely like a eye but he also had images of siluet dancing girls and one of a troll kneeling down being beaten on the ass with a 2*4 by a human in his signature long coat.

And he had cosmetic biowear so he didn’t need to shave and had whiskers.

Starry knight was a shaman with the distinctive style flaw.

Combat cyber should be kept more subtle

Edward

There was Raptor. Balance tail, kid stealth legs... nuff said.

The most obvious cyber I had was on my Troll Sammy. He had two additional cyber limbs attached to his body. And no, he didn't have anything done to them to make them look any more natural. They where bright shinny metal. He always wore a Great Coat and the arms hung down at his side.

What made him the most fun was that he could use two combat shotguns at the same time. Dude had some outragous strength. We were running NAN 1 and really didn't get that far into it, so I didn't get a chance to play him much . . .think he would have been interesting to play.

My character Elfin-Face had two obvious cyberarms one painted matte black the other bone ivory. This same character also had a face that essentially looked like somone had taken a bat to it for over half an hour (in reality it was a 3 rnd burst from an SMG that he never bothered to get plastic surgury to fix) hence the streetname.

My sister once made a street sam named "Butterfly Joy Rainbow Love" who had a cyberskull which though it was covered in synthskin had a 6" long metal mowhawk done up in liberty spikes.

I also once played a character who had a complete Irezumi (japanese full body tattoo) which coincidently was hes street name, telling the story of the 47 ronin.

I also had a shaman named Kurtz (a cookie to whoever gets the referance, think "going tribal") who though he didn't have much cyberware he was covered head to toe in tribal tattoos which were done in the traditional manner as part of his initiation and body peircings on nearly every patch of exposed skin.

I make good use of the Distinctive Style flaw

Thevery first character I had for Shadowrun 1, back before we even understood the rules at all, I had a LMG mounted to my characters right arm. Looking back at it now I laugh-we totally didn't get weapons, concealment, the rules, etc...but at the time we tookit deadly serious.

Or, for the younger crowd, you'd need to decide if you want to fight or if you want to surf.

~J

*claps* cookie for Fortune. Though I was actually first inspired by Apocalypse Now (I was watching it while creating the character) but that's just semantics, Coppola was inspired by Conrad after all.

I'm actually quite impressed my group played for 6 months before someone caught the referance. I kept dropping lines from both the book and the movie for good measure. It wasn't until my character took a deadly wound and started halucinating and wispering "the horror, the horror" that one of them finally got it.

edit: doh! Kagetenshi beat me to it.
edit 2: heh, cookie for fortune = Fortune cookie!

I'm just surprised there isn't breast mounted rocket launchers in the rules yet the artwork just screams for it at times

I have to go with obvious brass plated cyberskull or my giant with bio pigmentation (coal black) and bio hair (fire engine red) that grows straight up. Love those fire giants.

A while ago I had a character loosly based on Rorshach, of The Watchmen fame.

Since I didn't fancy the idea of an inkblot mask, he had shifting nano-tattoos pretty much all over him instead.

One of the other PCs had chlorophyll skin, horns, fangs, claws and a cybertail. He called himself Mandemon. Since the only thing he told the rest of us (including the GM) about was the green skin, we called him Kermit.

Kermit was being hunted by Ares Arms. He really should have laid low instead of using another PC's High Lifestyle apartment. Especially considering building security was Knight Errant.

One of my characters has a cyber tail,horns,and metal arms and a devil beard.

> My flashiest characters is called "Swift". She's an elves and she play Urban Brawl. Her right arm and leg are obvious cybermember. About her cyberarms, it look like impressive because when it is totally operational for Urban Brawl Match, the cyberarm have not only the "classical" cyberspurs but also a blade which move along the forearm to go out on the elbow. And an additional (not cyber) blade can be fixed on the forearm. She as also some scars on her belly (but not ugly it's knife wound closed by magic generally). And finally her hair color vary from violet in dark room to pink in shiny area thanks to some nano-shampoo ^^
> Daegann

Ruthenium polymers are great for stylish effects, and can be subtle when need be. Change of skincolor needed? A large tribal tattoo? Silent communication is easy too, you can write a message on the palm of your hand if nothing else. (A small linked headware mem can easily contain pics of all the letters and smileys you'd ever want.)

My current char has a limited version, just his head. Likes to just stare at people and have insulting words appear on his forehead.

Waterproof lip gloss.
I don't do flashy.

one of my characters has everything from her neck down covered in ritual scarification. another has a single obvious cyberarm. i think that's my most obvious stuff.

I hate to admit this, But...."" Take one Troll. add, cyberTorso (obvious) two cyberams,with gyvromounts, And body increase,and str increase (very obvious indeed), kid steallth legs, ballance tail, cyber horns (not retractable) two cyber arm fore arm mounts, two tracking shouldermounts, an articulatetracking arm,and no less than SEVEN assault rifles (or hvlmg's, if the situation called for it)

strangly this character picked up the distinctive syle flaw... in a game thatwasnt using edges/flaws...

we called him phalanx. his schtick was layingdown supressing fire. often to 50+ square meters at a time. sadly he "shuffledoff this mortal coil" thans to some gangers, a great dragon atgm, and a water tower. the explosionwas apparently heardseveral miles away.