Your average person won't have a lot of cyberware.

That sounds like a profound statement of the blindingly obvious, but consider it for a moment. For an average household, a piece of completely legal cyberware can consume most of the yearly budget, even on an installment plan.

Chipjacks and datajacks, at 1,000 apiece, might be fairly common among middle-class families (and explain why they're more prone to BTL use and abuse), but a low-income family would struggle to cover the cost of basic replacement cybereyes so that their little girl could see.

Cybereyes are likely the second-most common implant after datajacks with middle-class or higher families. At 5,000 , cybereyes and a few mods are more or less as affordable as a car.

Cyberears and basic communications gear (Rating 1) are also handy features that your basic middle-class family might find worthwhile.

But consider cyberlimbs. Unless you get a BIG insurance settlement following a horrible accident, buying even the most basic, unadorned, obvious cyberlimb costs 75,000 -that's three times what basic transplant limb costs to grow and attach.

Unless you're part of a megacorp or national military, a cyberlimb is a sign that you're probably richer than shite, into something illegal, or both.

Bioware is generally too expensive for the general populace, but also more attractive. Aside from cosmetic bioware, you can get very basic upgrades that feel completely natural after installation: basic synthacardium, extended volume, and symbiotes. Maybe not the high-level stuff, but more than enough for Jane Average.

Transplant surgery negates the need for most bioware as well. Why pay out 15,000 on Synthacardium to strengthen your ailing heart when for the same price you can have a whole new one grown and implanted?

Outside of price, you'll notice that most of the low-end cyberware and implants are totally invisible once the sutures heal. Sure, you can see Little Jimmy's datajack, or the tinted cybereyes, or even the tuffs of hair he had implanted on his ears, but you can't see his synthacardium, fingertip compartment, or the low-light mods or retinal clock he put in. Yeah, Linebacker Timmy has pretty obvious dermal armor (Man, look at him take those hits!) but the boosted reflexes will surprise you (Look at that kid go!)

The most important thing to consider about your average joe with cyberware is that they feel subtly superhuman. Buy your kid a math SPU and watch them speed through their Calculus classes, sure; but take a look at someone living with a spacial recognizer, thermographic vision, or a basic mnemonic enhancer. Shadowrunners take these augmentations for granted, but most of them pull down more in a single job than middle-class families do in a year.

I read somewhere that cyber-replacement for limbs lost on the job is a common perk for most corps, and that if a corp-rep thinks it'll make you more efficient to have a math SPU, then you'll have one implanted.

Your average person won't have a lot of QUALITY cyberware. You are discounting the used market or the sub-SOTA stuff that is 10 years old, or made to a decade old standard.

By 2064 datajacks have been around for 15 years. And they never improve the quality or managed to manufacture them cheaper? Of course, but the book Datajack price is for SOTA. Just like IRL the-PC-you-want has been $3000 for the last 15 years, so has the-Datajack-you-want been 1000. But IRL there are people that plunk down a 1/10 of $3000 for an outdated but still functioning 5-year old laptop. Why wouldn't similar markets develop in 2060's?

I would imagine that a lot of corps give out cyber enhancements to their employees -- but the cyber remains corp property and returnable on termination of employment. Kind of gives an extra motivation for company loyalty. I would imagine it costs the corp a lot less than the standard retail, let alone street price.

==Ed

the cost in the book does not reflect the cost for a corp

AH, if you really get down to it, how many gangers are going to have smart gun links? Reflex shite, or decks?

A lot of them, they need it to protect their Panther Assault Cannons.

~J

Speaking as someone who has had more than his share of moderately (but temporarily) debilitating hand injuries, that's some serious dedication to not doing their job.

Though to be fair, their recreation probably involves a lot less typing than mine does.

~J

The modern counterparts to cyberware generally cost more (comparitively) than the Cyberware listed in the books. In alot of cases, insurances cover the costs when a patient's health requires the surgery. Granted, they generally don't cover the costs for enhancement surgery (not that there are alot of options there)

Just a few from the net:
Heart Transplant - $311,000
Bone Marrow Transplant - $150,000 to $250,000
Hip Replacement - $10,000
Knee Replacement Surgery - $10,000

I had optic nerver surgery over 10 years ago that cost my insurance company $23,000. I'll bet that a number of others on this forum have had expensive surgeries that are comparitive to the costs of enhancement surgery in 2070. The point is good however that these surgeries are easier (financially) on those with money, at least here in the US.

Maybe since it is now the UCAS, Canadian health care took over...

I wonder if that means Canadian taxes took over too?

Can't be, there's no way the Shadowrun world would move in a positive direction on either of those issues.

~J

Well, the point about SOTA is right. What is SOTA? I presume its the latest, greatest stuff, so in my viewpoint Deltaware is SOTA.

Old IPODS carried, what, 5 GB? Now they carry how much, 20? 50? Yet they take up more (or less) space, no?

So yeah, what I would do is for civilians, first of all have the cyberlimb strength be less than above-average. So a person with a cyberarm might have a 2 or 3 as opposed to 4.

Also, it might have less room for extras or stress points. I would say that the book cyberware in 2060 is just guidelineish, and that most people aren't getting themselves 100,000 nuyen (AKA military grade) synthetic cyberlimbs.

Then again I think price-wise the cyberlimb one is more a game balance issue than a relatively sane price. Its like the notion a ganger would have anything more than 1 datajack, just one, and a cheap used one that that - Unreal, but fun. My advice is just goof the rules a bit, use the book price as player-character street indexed and all price. Unlike a car, which might cost 20,000, a cyberlimb isn't 5 times more expensive to produce en masse when the technology is clearly being developed -today-.

Modern surgery costs can be pretty insane but if your PC comes from a background with actual medical insurance I figure you might see people from SIN holding backgrounds having some basic cyberware.

Also look at stuff like payment plans for cyber replacement surgeries you can see people doing payment plans for thier datajacks etc like parens do with braces.

Further look at what people are willing to spend on plastic surgery today.

Replacement cyber or biowear parts are probably covered under some form of medical insurance. Dock wagon products as listed don’t do it but corporate types probably have medical insurance closer to what we have today. You pay your premiums (or your employer dose as I believe is more common in America) every year and when you need to go to hospital the insurance compony picks up the bill (possibly with a co-payment) middle class families can probably afford insurance that will cover corrective cyber or biowear (new eyes for there blind child, new heart if it is needed) but nothing more than that.

,middle clas would not be able to afford (or justify) much in the way of augmentation ware. A data jack is all I would expect them to get. A middle class family would start saving for there Childs data jack shortly after birth in much the same way many families put away for a child’s tertiary education from the time they are still a baby. (I know not everybody dose this but those that don’t wont get data jacks as soon).

This is why my rich kid mage with loads of educational and cosmetic wear (just under 1 essence lost) came from a decidedly rich family.

Edward

Even families that have Low lifestyles should be able to afford a datajack, even an alphaware one, pretty easily. I know people that regularly drop $1k at casinos or on their dogs or cars every couple of weeks (while living in a tiny ramshackle apartment; go figure); it wouldn't take much to get their kid a datajack for their birthday or something.

Now, a Mnemonic Enhancer, or a Math SPU; *those* would require a bit of saving. I could see families that place a big emphasis on their childrens' education getting stuff like that just before high school, particularly the Asian families around here that sink tens of thousands a year into private schools, tutors, etc. Things like a Cerebral Booster or an Encephalon are in most cases to Essence-hungry and expensive for most middle-class families, though.

Cosmetic bioware, well, other people have already said how much people are willing to pay for breast augmentation and nosejobs these days. Things'll be even worse in the 2060s, where going under the knife for sugmentations is not only socially acceptable and encouraged but easy, quick, and relatively painless.

And cyberlimbs are ridiculously expensive; the worst part being that the price doesn't even include the operation or the post-op expenses, as per M&M. For the price of a single cyberlimb you can clone both your arms, have them transplanted, e healed up completely in a hospital, then go on a nice long Hawaian cruise while you're recovering. No medical insurance is going to overlook this difference in expense.

Question....The DJ may be 1k...How much is the surgery cost?

Before you can have a data jack installed you will need the following

Medical profile 20nuyen * medicine skill
Surgical planing 100nuyen per mega pulse
Implant surgery 40nuyen * biotech skill

Assuming they go to a average private provider the average skill will be 7 and prices will be normalised for that value.

The surgery plan will be 144MP (could somebody with errata available check that for me the plan should not be the most expensive part of the surgery by an order of magnitude nor should it be the same wether you get a data jack or a VCR installed)

So medical profile 140nuyen
Surgical plan 14,400nuyen
Implant surgery 180nuyen

The target number for this surgery is 4 in a clinic, 3 if it is conducted in a hospital skipping the plan is only +1 to the TN so if conducted in a hospital the chance of success is still high especially if we bring in a magical doctor with biotech 4 to assist (cost 660 nuyen) and bring the target number down by 2. (you might think that is cheep for a magical doctor but remember, he probably dose 10 of these procedures every day). -1 to TN for an assisting doctor that is not awakened (cost 160nuyen)

Lastly remember that some of the negative options matter a lot less to a middle class person than a shadow runner.

Essence cost increase. With a data jack that is .005 more essence lost, what dose it mater to somebody that is never going to push the limit,

fragility, how often do you make stress tests on a data jack if your not a runner

sensitive, only comes up when you test for cyber wear stress, how often is that to a middle class person.

So if the surgeon only gets one or 2 successes the patent will probably not know of the laps. (remember it takes 3 successes to avoid a negative option).

Finally. The net cost will probably be 1500 including the implant itself and the needed medical procedures. You can spend a lot more but it is probably not needed.

Edward