Alpha State
This game system, and the setting in which it takes place, are both in active development. Everything on this site is subject to change. Please hard refresh pages when you visit to ensure you're viewing the latest versions.3.3 - Cyberware
Technology has advanced greatly, which includes the advancement of human augmentation and supplemental technology. What began with augmentations meant to support people with disabilities eventually expanded into generalized human augmentation. As the tech improved so did public interest, which came with new demand, and unfortunately corporations were quick to jump on that opportunity.
These days, cybernetic augmentation is as easy as getting a tattoo, and there are so many things a person can do to alter their body that the idea of "your body" has begun to wane. People change their look, their capability, their entire physical structure, and some do it frequently. Some argue this makes us all less human, others say it frees us to be who we want to be. Problem is, we're not the ones in control of any of it.
Corponations own cyberware; they sell it if you're rich enough, they rent it out if you're not. They own the Atom Cloud that powers and connects our cyberware. They own the debt we take on to get it installed. Are we still human, are we less human, are we more than human... at some point, these questions become meaningless until we realize we've already sold our souls to the corps for a dream.
The baseline for all cyberware is having the bio-infrastructure necessary to support it. Firmware updates, housing installations, hardware support, nano-circuitry, stuff like that. Once you've got the cyberware ranks, you can install basically any cyberware you'd like, provided you can afford it, and you've built enough bio-infrastructure to support it.
Cyberware Ranks (CWR)
The total amount of cyberware installed in your body is abstracted and tracked by cyberware ranks. The tracker starts at 0, and as you install more cyberware you gain more cyberware ranks; a regular person on the street who's never installed any cyberware beyond their ICS has 0 cyberware ranks; someone who doesn't even have that, has no cyberware tracker at all.
Repo Crews
If you've got enough cyberware debt, one or more corps might send a repo crew after you. Repo crews are essentially just wetwork teams with one specific objective: bring back the cyberware with a specific serial number. Exactly when, where, why, and how a repo crew comes after you is up to the Narrator, but if they do you're in trouble.
They'll know the exact specs of the cyberware you've installed, down to the manufacturer's imprint, and they'll stop at nothing to get it out. You're perfectly in your rights to cooperate and let them take it—in fact, they love it when you make their job easier—but depending on the cyberware they're sent to reclaim that might not be a wise idea.
Using Cyberware Ranks
Every piece of cyberware uses a specific number of cyberware ranks, measured by its complexity rating. The total complexity of all your installed cyberware cannot exceed your total cyberware ranks. So long as installing a specific piece of cyberware wouldn't increase your total complexity higher than your cyberware ranks, you can have it installed.
Installing Cyberware
Generally, you can't install cyberware on yourself. Circumstances, and your Narrator, might allow you to do so with massive penalties to your STK Checks, but for the most part it's just not possible. Usually, you need a cyberdoc: a person trained in physiology, engineering, and the specifics of cyberware.
Legal, corporate-funded cyberdocs work in comfortable clinics with sanitary conditions and the most modern tools. They also have very high $Index requirements, never accept Scratch as payment, and are required to report anything that might even slightly impede on corporate interests.
Illegal cyberdocs, usually but not always found in free zones, usually work in much less sanitary or comfortable environments, with tools that might not be the best for a given piece of cyberware. By contrast, they're happy to accept any kind of Scratch as payment, and might even offer installations as trade for some service. They'll also do installations for $Index value, but they generally much prefer hard currency.
Cyberware Complexity
The more cyberware you've got installed, the more it all has to interact, and the more likely things are to go wrong. Whenever you activate a piece of cyberware that requires activation, roll 1d20; this is called a cyberware die. If the roll of your cyberware die is equal to or lower than the total complexity of all your installed cyberware, something goes wrong.
Whether the malfunction occurs in the activated piece of cyberware, or one of your other installed pieces, can be fairly random. The Narrator is encouraged to choose something dramatic, but if you'd rather randomize it, roll 1d100 + your total cyberware ranks on the first table below.
The specific effects of a malfunction are also left to the Narrator, unless you'd also like to randomize that. If so, just roll d100 on the second table below. If multiple pieces of cyberware malfunction, you should roll once for each.
| Roll |
Which Cyberware Malfunctions |
| 01-60 |
Activated cyberware |
| 61-90 |
Random different cyberware |
| 91-110 |
Activated cyberware, and one random other cyberware |
| 111-120 |
Two random different cyberware |
| 121+ |
Activated cyberware, and two random other cyberware |
| d100 |
Type of Malfunction |
| 01-33 |
Activates; functions unreliably for the Scene |
| 34-60 |
Doesn't activate |
| 61-80 |
Doesn't activate, must be repaired |
| 81-93 |
Doesn't activate, must be repaired; you are lightly damaged |
| 94-100 |
Doesn't activate, must be repaired; you are badly damaged |
These days you can get basically anything you want. From baseline medical cyber-prosthetics, to weapons grade cyberware, to purely cosmetic designs, you can get basically anything you like. Just don't go too far into debt with it, you don't want a repo crew coming for your lungs.