| From: | Gurth <gurth@******.NL> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Cybertechnology Sourcebook review (of sorts) |
| Date: | Sat, 12 Aug 1995 13:45:46 +0200 |
Cybertechnology... Anything I say about it will be first impressions, and
can and will be held against me :)
First of all, I must say I find it a bit thin -- 102 pages; price in the US
is $15.00, I paid 8.99 UK pounds for it (excluding postage), which is about
the same so I think I got a fair deal :)
The book has a lay-out similar to that of Bug City, which means it looks
different from the familiar computer file/"catalog"-style supplements we're
all used to. Luckily, the shadow comments are not centered, so that makes it
at least a bit easier to read.
CT is in two board parts: Cyberware and Cybermancy. Just before these two is
a notice about Shadowland closing down for a while to update their interface
(maybe a reference to Tom Dowd being replaced by Carl Sargent? This is the
first SR book I've seen that says "Development: Carl Sargent"...)
The first part of the book is a text written by Hatchetman (it seems FASA is
picking up on the netiquette -- Hatchetman mentions "flame-fights" in the
message areas :). Anyway, Hatchetman fucked up big-time and nearly got
geeked, now he's in a clinic somewhere after having been rebuilt, and
dictating his experiences for the rest of the world to read.
Then follows a section with new cyberware, running communications gear to
eyes to wired refs to limbs to tooth compartments. There's some nifty
gadgets in there, not all of them useful but that's the way I like it (I'm
somewhat of a gadget-nut when it comes to RPGs... Spray cans with
lubricants, right Martin? :) The cybertorsos and skulls also look pretty
cool, though they remind me of Syndicate somewhat. Also, anyone in for the
following stat boost: +4 Quickness, +8 Reaction (it's not mentioned whether
the +4 Quickness also increases Reaction), +4D6 Initiative, +4 dice for
Athletics and Stealth skills... Can we say "ouch"? :)
Next is a bit with rules expansions, including:
* Delta-grade cyberware (x.5 Essence, x10 cost... Start saving your nuyen :)
* cyberware damage (what, _another_ set of those rules? Oh wait, this covers
systems' specific kinds of damage instead of just saying "Well, your eyes
have Moderate damage")
* expanded rules for cyberlimbs, strength-enhancements, quickness boosts,
body weight, etc. (With this latter thing, I must say I find FASA does
something stupid again: your rough weight is <base mass> x Body, so a human
with a Body of 1 would weigh 24 kg... Why not say "base human weight 40 kg,
+ 10kg x Body or something like that?)
* exact rules on Essence cost of cyberguns: mount it in a meat arm and it
costs Essence, in a cyberarm it doesn't (we had figured that out ourselves,
hadn't we? Anyway IMHO it's nice of FASA to at last sort this out officially.)
* rules for the surgery required for implanting cyberware. I see they've
re-introduced the first-ed surgery costs (which I noticed had been dropped
from SR2, so I kept using those from SR1), which is _in_addition_ to costs
for healing :). Also rules on in- or decreasing Essence cost based on how
well the operation is performed -- I'll dig up my SSC and compare the
tables... Yep, what they've done is simply taken the rules for upgrading
cyberware (p.97, SSC) and made them apply to all cyberware implant
operations, not just to upgrades.
* Negative effects of wired reflexes (TN penalties to Perception tests,
among others) and Move-By-Wire systems (that's the +4D6 Init thing I spoke
of earlier), which has potentially much worse effects that wired refs on
your health... But who cares about -1 Quickness if you've got +4 from your
cyber, right? :) Oops, it might just drop your Intelligence to 0 as well if
your roll comes up bad enough ("you lucky lobotomy case, you" the book says :)
* guidelines/rules for knowing how many scars your char's got.
* combining cyberware and bioware into one body, for example bioware may
have much reduced effects if you're heavily cybered :(
* cyberware and social interactions, this depends on who you're talking to
and why -- a Johnson might hire you just because you look like you've got
loads of cyber, while you might very well scare away that hot date 10
minutes later *grin*
Then we get to the Cybermancy part of the book. This is another "real world"
section, so for once FASA hasn't grouped all rules together in the back of
the book. Talks about what it is, how it works, how to get it, and so on in
typical Shadowrun style. Then a transscript of a few phonecalls (???) on the
subject, which might be interesting reading, but because I haven't read it
yet I can't be sure. I do have this feeling that it might be much like the
short story in VR, in that you read it once and then think "that was nice,
now why couldn't they use that space to put more game-related stuff into?"
Next, the Cybermancy Rules chapter, which details the game mechanics behind
combining magic and cyberware to allow people with an Essence of less than 0
to stay alive, and the side-effects of that procedure. You die sooner than a
non-cybered person, for example -- you've got less Overflow boxes :( Social
and Karma penalties, and the chance of getting cancer from your cyberware...
To round out the book, a number of contacts (_not_ archetypes, "unless the
gamemaster is into high-octane masochism" :). One of them has an Essence of
-7.6, as someone else pointed out a few days ago, and he's also got a Body
Index of 5.25... I don't think you want to fight these people :)
Yep, it looks like FASA has done their best to put the Holy Game Balance(tm)
first and then started worrying about the rest...
--
Gurth@******.nl - Gurth@***.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
people who are experts at avoiding reality
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Guru :)
