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Message no. 1
From: 'Evil' ERic Mehlhaff <mehlhaff@***.BERKELEY.EDU>
Subject: Re: Essence loss from cyberware and possible recovery
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 92 14:28:57 PDT
Robert Hayden <rahayden@*****.WEEG.UIOWA.EDU> recently wrote:


>A couple of questions on essance.
>
>I have a real problem with the current rules for essance. I have always
>seen essance as a representation of the overall health of the central
>nervous system, with 6 being perfect health and 0 being completely shorted
>out.
>
>Well, my problem is that once you get cyberware installed, you lose the
>essance FOREVER.

Actually, I've always seen essence more as a measure of the integrity of the
whole body. Stick in some cyberware, and even with all the modern medical
technology forcing the body do accept it, it's still foreign and causes some
disruption. Hence the essence loss.
And as long as its there it still causes the essence loss. Rip those
mechanical abominations out of the individual, and they still have the essence
lost, but as the body (slowly) recovers, they may recover it. But while the
cyberware is still there the essence loss it incurred cant be recovered.

Another way to look at this concept is that the body is always slowly
recovering essence, but the invasion of cyberware has lowered the maximum
essence. This allows essence draining by various creatures to be recoverable.


Another amusing effect of this interpretation, is that players can
retrofit their cyberware without excessive essence loss.


But if you really don't like how the essence rules limit the amount of
cyberware you can slap into a character, why use them? Just put those Wired
Reflexes 6 into your 100th level Wizard and )(*!@#75[]@#$[]809j
No! No! Don't take me back there! Auggh....
......
...

.

Hmm, what's the essence cost to be a 'brain in a vat'?

ERic mehlhaff, mehlhaff@***.Berkeley.EDU
And don't even get me started on Cyber Vampires....

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