Cybernetics

Cybernetic technology combines complex computer electronics with the human nervous system. Some cyber gear is purely decorative, used to make a techno fashion statement. Other cyber gear serves a necessary function, replacing limbs or organs lost to accident or disease. Finally, there’s the gear that users believe give them an edge—cyber weapons, defenses, and utilities to make a cyberknight stand out from the crowd.

Cyber gear may or may not be available in a given campaign, and even in those where cyber gear can be purchased, the Gamemaster might limit quantities and availability. The only campaigns in which some form of cybernetics must be used are those that include the mechalus (one of the alien species described in Chapter 2). Because mechalus have natural cybernetic enhancements, it’s not possible to have that species in a campaign setting without also using at least some of these rules. If you want to create a hero who uses cybertech, your Gamemaster will tell you if the character must be a mechalus or if cybernetics are also available to heroes of other species.

Installing Cyber Gear

Any living creature can be outfitted with cyber gear. There are two important things to remember about cyber gear: the initial skill point cost to train a character in the use of the equipment, and the limits imposed by the character’s own Constitution.

A character must spend skill points to prepare himself for cyber gear installation. The cost is 10 skill points. Why a skill point charge? Because learning to use a nanocomputer isn’t an easy thing to do, and even learning to function with passive implants such as body plating requires intensive training. (There is no skill point charge for some items, as outlined on the Cybernetic Gear table.)

A character’s Constitution score determines the upper limit of the amount of cybernetics his body can support. All cyber gear has a “size” associated with it. No character can possess gear whose sizes total more than his Constitution score. For example, Kreg has a Constitution score of 10. He can handle gear that totals up to 10 points, but his body automatically rejects any gear that puts him above this number of points.

Allergic Reaction

For flavor or as a story and roleplaying element, either the Gamemaster or a player can determine that a supporting cast member or hero is “allergic” to cyber gear. In such a case, the character has a high degree of body rejection for cyber implants, and is thus prohibited from using and receiving such items.

Cyber Gear for Starting Heroes

Even if the Gamemaster has decided to allow the use of these optional rules in his campaign setting, the cost of purchasing cybernetic equipment and having it installed may put such enhancements beyond the financial reach of a hero who’s just about to begin his career (in other words, a character that’s being created by a player). There are two basic ways to deal with such a situation:

• The Gamemaster may select (or allow the player to select) one or more pieces of cyber gear that are considered to be automatically installed in the hero-to-be. The cost of the equipment and its installation might be ignored (or absorbed by an organization that employs the hero), or it could be that the hero will have to work to pay off the expense of having his body enhanced. (The 10 skill point cost must always be paid, however.)
• A hero who wants cyber gear might be required to save his money and skill points until he can pay for the installation himself.

If a hero is being created with cyber gear already in place, the player must decide what equipment to have installed immediately after assigning the hero’s Ability Scores. Ability Score adjustments that need to be made because of cyber gear can be taken into account before the creation process continues.

Cyber Surgery

Any character with the Medical Science - surgery skill and the cyber installation rank benefit can attempt to install cyber gear. A reputable cybernetic surgeon or a cheap cyber “chop shop” might both be available from which to purchase and have cyber gear installed, though each has its own costs and risks.

• Reputable cyber surgeons are more expensive, but have tools and facilities rated Good (-2 bonus to skill check). Good cyber surgeons have surgery skill scores ranging from 17 to 19. Of course, Good facilities and those who work in them are rare.
• Reputable but lesser cyber surgeons have Ordinary facilities (-1 bonus to skill check), and surgery skill scores ranging from 13 to 16. These facilities are more common than Good facilities, but you won’t find one on every street corner.
• A chop shop is much less expensive, but substandard tools and facilities provide the surgeon with a +2 penalty to his skill check. Typical chop shop surgeons have surgery skill scores ranging from 6 to 12.

A cyber surgery procedure is considered a single skill check if the hero purchases cyber gear during the hero creation process or between adventures. If another hero attempts to install a character’s cyber gear, the Gamemaster might consider it a complex skill check requiring multiple successes.

In scenes in which a cyber surgery installation is played out, remember to apply situation modifiers based on the quality of the facilities being used and the number of items being installed during the same procedure (each additional item provides a cumulative +1 penalty).

Surgery Results

In cyber surgery, the possible results of the surgeon’s skill check are as follows:

• Critical Failure: Installation not successful, patient suffers d4 points of mortal damage.
• Failure: Installation not successful, patient suffers 1 point of mortal damage.
• Any success: Cyber gear installed.

In some circumstances (see “Cyber Tolerance” below), the patient may be required to immediately make a Constitution feat check to determine if his body accepts or rejects the implant. If this check fails, the implant does not take hold, and the result of the surgery is considered a Failure (see above).

Even if the surgery results in a Failure or a Critical Failure, the surgeon will almost certainly demand payment for his or her services.

Cyber Tolerance

The hero’s cyber tolerance score, which is the same as his Constitution score (except for mechalus characters, who use CON +4), is a measure of how much cyber gear a character can have, how easy it is for the character’s body to accommodate a new piece of gear, and how a character who’s loaded with cybernetics is affected by damage he or she suffers.

A character’s cyber tolerance score is recorded with three sections (left/center/right):

• First section (left): one-half the character’s Constitution score, rounded down.
• Second section (center): one-quarter of the character’s Constitution score, rounded up.
• Third section (right): the number that makes the total of all three numbers equal to the character’s Constitution score.

Every time a character has a new piece of cyber gear installed, mark off a number of boxes equal to the size of the equipment, moving from left to right through the different sections.

When a surgeon succeeds in the installation of a new device that would cause more than half of the character’s cyber tolerance boxes to be marked, then the character must make a Constitution feat check to determine if his or her body can accommodate the new gear. This check is modified by the quality of the surgeon’s facilities (-2, -1, or +2), the number of items being installed in the current procedure (cumulative +1 penalty for every item after the first), and the degree of success achieved by the surgeon (-1, -2, -3 bonus on Ordinary, Good, or Amazing result). Note: Mechalus characters are exempt from having to make this Constitution check.

Example: The cybered-up hero Taylor Windsor has a cyber tolerance score of 12 (6/3/3). He is already equipped with a reflex (size 2) and Good body plating (size 3). He goes through another surgical procedure to have MusclePlus (size 2) installed. The surgery succeeds, so he has now used up more than half of his cyber tolerance boxes (7 out of 12). This means he has to make a Constitution feat check to see if his body accepts or rejects the new gear. If the check fails, the surgery result becomes a Failure instead—Windsor suffers 1 point of mortal damage, and the MusclePlus doesn’t get installed after all. If the check succeeds, the MusclePlus is now part of his body—but since he has used up more than half of his cyber tolerance boxes, he’ll have to make Constitution feat checks from now on every time he has a new piece of gear added.

Note: When all of a character’s cyber tolerance boxes are marked, he or she is unable to receive any more cybernetic enhancements.

Damage to Cyber Gear

Damage to a cyber-equipped hero is recorded normally, and repaired normally, as long as the hero has not had a significant amount of cyber gear installed. But the circumstances change when a hero has enough gear installed to use up more than half of his cyber tolerance boxes.

• If one or more boxes in the center section of the line are marked, any mortal damage the hero suffers is considered damage to his or her cyber gear—it remains (and all penalties associated with the damage continue to apply) until it is successfully repaired by a cyber surgeon.
• If one or more boxes in the right section of the line are marked, any mortal damage or wound damage to the hero is considered damage to his or her cyber gear, with restrictions as noted above.

If a cybernetic character suffers damage amounting to more than half of his total mortal rating in a single battle, then the Gamemaster can declare that some or all of the character’s cyber gear has been destroyed. Destroyed cyber gear must be replaced, as described in Installing Cyber Gear.

Cykosis

An inherent danger associated with some cyber gear installation (particularly the fast chip and the reflex), is the mental illness known as cykosis. This ailment twists a character, making him behave more like a machine than a living being. This twist is homicidal and unpredictable, and it shouldn’t be the goal of any hero. When a character succumbs to cykosis, he or she goes violently insane. If this happens to a hero, he becomes a supporting character (controlled by the Gamemaster) who seeks out others with the same condition—the cybernetic misfits known as cykoteks (pronounced “psychotics”). Every character with an installed fast chip must make a successful cykosis check (a Will feat check used for this specific purpose) to stave off the onset of cykosis. These checks are made whenever a character accesses the fast chip to improve his or her action check. A character’s cykosis score is listed on the supplemental hero sheet. It is equal to one-half of the character’s Will score, rounded up. On any Failure result, one of the character’s available boxes is used up (indicate this by putting an “x” or some other mark through it). On any Critical Failure, two boxes are used up. On any success, the boxes are left unchanged. With each box used up, the character moves closer to becoming a cykotek. If all of a character’s boxes are used up, he or she succumbs to cykosis. The Gamemaster may rule that other situations in addition to the use of a fast chip require a character to make a cykosis check.

Enhance Programs

Enhance programs are a special kind of computer software that can only be used by cyber-equipped characters. For a character who has a nanocomputer and reflex wiring installed in his or her body, each different type of enhance program provides a bonus to the character’s use of a particular physical skill or physical characteristic, as the program and the reflex wiring work together to augment the character’s physical skill.

The use of an enhance program inflicts stun damage on the user for every round or portion of a round that the program is running. The amount of damage depends on the quality of the program: Ordinary, 1 stun; Good, 2 stuns; Amazing, 3 stuns. (There are no enhance programs of Marginal quality.) Stun damage from multiple enhance programs running in the same round is cumulative.

Each enhance program provides a -1, -2, or -3 bonus, depending on its quality (Ordinary, Good, or Amazing). Physical skills that can be stored on an enhance program include Athletics, Melee Weapons, Unarmed Attack, Acrobatics, Manipulation, Primitive Ranged Weapons, and Modern Ranged Weapons.

An enhance program takes up 3 slots of active memory. The standard cost of such a program is $1000 for Ordinary quality, $2000 for Good quality, and $3000 for an Amazing program.

Each specific type of enhance program must be purchased separately. It does no good for a character to have two copies of the same specific program running in the same round, because the benefit provided by the second program is not cumulative—but the stun damage is.

Characters must be careful about how they acquire enhance programs, because some aren’t what they appear to be. Enhance programs can be rigged to inflict wounds instead of stuns, or they can be designed to give penalties instead of bonuses, and some might even do both types of harm to an unsuspecting user.

Table P53: Cybernetic Gear

** Can be installed at no cost in skill points.