Pretty much. Which oddly in play isn't clunky at all. Every character simply has a number of initiative passes, and initiative doesn't go down during later passes, so if you went on 17 in the first pass and get to act in two passes, you go on 17 in the next pass. It speeds up play a lot.

The Synaptic Accelerator and the Boosted Reflexes are the same piece of tech now, and are called the Synaptic Booster.

Move By Wire is not in the basic book, and was never in any previous edition either. I predict that Move By Wire will add 1 to your IP, as well as +1 Reaction and +1 Agility for every level. If the essence cost is halfway competitive (1.3 Essence per level or less), people will line up to salivate over the prospect of getting it installed.

Every level adds 1 to your Reaction Attribute. That's it. No effect on your actions per round or anything, just adds to your Reaction. That being said, these things are awesome. Your Reaction is your Defense against all attacks. So this is basically +1 Combat Pool for .3 Essence. This item is in high demand. Especially for Riggers actually (since Reaction also adds directly to all piloting tests).

-Frank

Or people that want to be able to turn them on and off.

I don't really have a problem with this. Poor people get less optimal tech. Seems alright to me.

I'm not sure that they have any demand since most runners will have high Reactions and will likely have nearly maxed-out the modified limit with some form of initiative booster.

For a human or ork with Reaction 6 and Wired Reflexes 3/Synaptic Booster 3, there's no real need for the Reaction Enhancer. Dwarves have even less need.

Jay

Unless, as I mentioned before, you actually want to be able to turn them off and on.

Wait until you played until you houserule.

In 2070, bioware is the stated way of the future concerning modifications, so the fluff has changed.

Which is why its my stated goal to house rule SR4 so it more resembles SR3 in fluff or flavor while keeping what I think will be more efficient gameplay of SR4.

I like that bioware now costs essense at a lesser rate than cyberware. A simplification that makes sense. I also think the initiative rules in practice sound easier than the calculations in SR3. But I'd still like a noticable performance difference between bioware and cyberware for reflex mods.

I want to play SR4 Classic! ( SR4 that resembles SR3 in fluff )

Which is exactly what the potential house rule I listed above does.

Yes, clunky. A kludge. A bad solution, making things that should not operate similarly operate similarly.

Which would be wonderful if it actually gave an advantage in the mechanics. Or have I missed something in my searching?

~J

Got to Disagree.

If after playing I the GM still want to make the change then those players who have Synaptic Boosters are going to feel gypped. This would go for any mechanics change that would significantly lessen the power of something a player has. ( And I'm planning a big one when it comes to summoning ) This is a potential change until I get the rule book ( deadwood edition ) and can make a more informed decision. But I'll make the decision then. I won't wait until after playing the game a few times to make it though. That simply wouldn't be fair to the players. The only good reason to lessen the power of something a character has after play has started is if something has proved unbalancing and disruptive to gameplay. The change to synaptic boosters would be to preserve the spirit of SR3 and wouldn't reach that criteria.

But the entire point of my potential houserule is that I liked that hang-up!

Such a ridiculous cyber-bio-monkeys were pretty much reserved to the ranks of NPC cyber-zombies in my games. I suppose maybe if a player ever did get the cash I would have allowed synaptic accelerator 2 to add 1 die (instead of 2 ) to boosted reflexes. But it never came up. But yes such things would rightly be restricted to experienced characters.

I'm kind of okay with wired 3 reflexes being extremely costly and hard to get.

No its a step away from conformity. Much of my issues with SR4 is that in the quest for consistant rules much of the flavor and spirit of SR3 has been lost. Is it really such a burden for the same level of wired reflexes and synaptic boosters to have different degrees of performance? Of course not!

That's a reasonable enough cost point. There are a couple of things I don't understand:

1. Why did you drop the cost of Synaptic Boosters? I didn't know anyone was complaining that they were too cheap

2. Why did you leave Wired Reflexes at costing enough essence that Betaware was not a good investment compared to the Bioware version?

If Wired Reflexes costs 1 Essence per point, it isn't worth getting at delta when compared to Synaptic Boosters, but is still justifiable at beta (where you pay somewhat more essence but less moneys). If Wired costs more than that, it isn't worth buying at Beta either.

So what made you pick those price points? Personally, I don't give a crap what delta clinic attendees do because none of my players ever are one. So the price point where only delta is a bad deal is pretty reasonable to me. But I do want people to take Betagrade Wired as a serious option, if only so that there will be more options.

Without resorting to the Delta Clinic plot device, there are six grades of initiative enhancement that people can get for their characters, each costing more and less essence than the one before it:

Wired Reflexes
Alpha Wired Reflexes
Beta Wired Reflexes
Synaptic Booster
Alpha Synaptic Booster
Beta Synaptic Booster

Under my house rules, the cost looks like this:

Wired Reflexes 11k, 1 Essence
Alpha Wired Reflexes 22k, .8 Essence
Beta Wired Reflexes 44k, .7 Essence
Synaptic Booster 80k, .5 Essence
Alpha Synaptic Booster, 160k, .4 Essence
Beta Synaptic Booster, 320k, .35 Essence

Each version costs about twice as much as the one before, and each version costs about 80% of the Essence of the previous version. That seems like a pretty good setup to me. What was your reasoning? This isn't a challenge, I'm genuinely curious.

-Frank

You can take alpha, beta, and delta grades of bioware? I thought Synaptic Booster was bioware. What's more unless the rules have changed considerably because the booster is part of the brain it has to be cultured bioware. Is this still true?

Wow. I know that SR4 was making everything work the same for simplicity sake, but that's right down mind boggling. I'm going to have to think for a while before I figure out how I'll respond to this.

Dude, wait until you buy the book or the PDF before ya complain.

also, if you wanna keeo the spirit of SR3, just play SR3.

Actually this is proving very useful for me. I'm learning about the parts I don't particularly care for and learning about other pitfalls in the system. It'll be of good use when I actually do get the book. ( It's on order )

Because there are things in the SR4 that I do like? For example I like that the bio index is now history. I like that much of the gameplay appears to be faster and more efficient. I'm kind of under the belief ( or is it delusion? ) that with some house rules SR4 can be made to more resemble SR3 while still maintaining the streamlined functionality of SR4.

Look this is Shadowrun, regardless of it being 3rd or 4th maintaining a coherent and consistant universe is key to maintaining long-time loyal fanbase. That doesn't mean there can not be change, it does mean the changes need to reflect the previous incarnations in spirit in order to be a true successors.

The fact that bioware triumphs cyberware in a CYBERpunk game makes little sense, though the game being cyberpunk alone is not the only cause for agnst. Cyberware physically replaces the weaker meat portions of one's body with implanted machinery which will always be more powerful than meat. Having bioware reach the same capacity as cyberware doesn't make a lick of sense. The lower essence cost, yes that makes sense but why in Valhalla would bioware be as powerful as cyberware?

Your assumption that a cybered part will always be 'more powerful' than a bioengineered part is...well, very broad. It depends entirely on what part you're talking about. From the way you wrote that, I'm imagiing that the sort of thing you have in mind is, say, the grip strength of a mechanical hand versus a meat one. For that specific comparison, you're probably right...at least in a cyberpunk setting where we're assuming the existence of some small, light, very powerful energy source to give the thing juice.

But on the example of reaction speed, for instance...'combat drugs' that give the user accelerated reactions are a staple of the cyberpunk genre. they probably show up in about as many books and movies as the hardware 'implant wires to parallel the nerves' approach. Once you've accepted THAT, it's a tiny step to an implanted bioware gland that produces the same drug.

Some things will always be better as cyber, of course. Bioware implant weapons probably won't ever beat out a literal 'hand cannon'

The 'augmented human' side of the cyberpunk genre doesn't have to be about machines, specifically. It's about people changing themselves with technology and becoming more (and maybe less) than they were before. It doesn't matter all that much whether the technology in question goes 'beep' or 'squish'.