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Message no. 1
From: Zebulin Magby <zebulingod@*******.COM>
Subject: Why Cyber Classes?
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 22:34:51 PST
Okay, a mage friend of mine wanted to know why there are different
classes of cyberware. (Something more concrete than better quality, he
said.) I know that the SSC defines Alpha and Beta as bio-technological
metaconstructs, and therefore more essence friendly.

My question is why? What would be the physical difference in cyberware
to make the essence different? It's the same amount of metal, right?

Zeb


.sig deleted to conserve electrons


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Message no. 2
From: greg basa <demipop@**********.COM>
Subject: Re: Why Cyber Classes?
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 02:37:50 -0500
-----Original Message-----
From: Zebulin Magby +ADw-zebulingod+AEA-HOTMAIL.COM+AD4-
To: SHADOWRN+AEA-LISTPROC.ITRIBE.NET +ADw-SHADOWRN+AEA-LISTPROC.ITRIBE.NET+AD4-
Date: Thursday, December 24, 1998 1:36 AM
Subject: Why Cyber Classes?


+AD4-Okay, a mage friend of mine wanted to know why there are different
+AD4-classes of cyberware. (Something more concrete than better quality, he
+AD4-said.) I know that the SSC defines Alpha and Beta as bio-technological
+AD4-metaconstructs, and therefore more essence friendly.
+AD4-
+AD4-My question is why? What would be the physical difference in cyberware
+AD4-to make the essence different? It's the same amount of metal, right?


Well, yes...and no.

The way my GM explained it to me, there are now seven grades of cyberware:
used cyberware ('98 Dodge Neon), blue-light specials ('98 Dodge Neon with a
fender missing and a bullet hole on the driver's side), standard cyberware
('99 Dodge Neon), alphaware ('99 Dodge Neon with a CD player and power
everything), apha-grade ('99 Chevy Corvette...custom), beta-grade ('99
Corvette...you made a phone call to someone with an important-sounding name,
had the interior done up the way you wanted it, and even got some extras
added in...like the tank of Nitrous oxide under the driver's seat. They
even made a new color just for you.), and delta-grade (Somebody got a team
of designers together to make a car for someone who loves cars, has a lot of
money, and wanted something that is not called +ACI-Corvette+ACI-.).

The differences aren't how much material the cyber takes up, but how the
cyber is customized to the PC's body. For example, standard cyberware is
just that: standard, off-the-shelf cyberware that works the same with just
about everyone. Get the 'ware, see the doc, have him chuck it into you,
bleed a bit, lie in bed, wake up, pay the bill, recover some more, kick ass.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have delta-grade cyberware, which is
quite literally designed around +ACo-you.+ACo- Whereas standard cyberware is more
or less 'chucked' into your bod, delta-grade is a much, much more delicate
operation (literally+ACE-) They (they being the corporation or government or
something...) scan your body, probe your body, take samples of various
bodily fluids, take tests of various biorhythms, examine your nerves, take
psychological tests, test for brain waves, then make blueprints of cyberware
that +ACo-works+ACo- like say...wired reflexes 3...but doesn't look like any set of
standard wires your character'll ever see. End this with an installation
procedure that is to a standard installation procedure what a rapier is to a
battering ram: a fine, delicate procedure that few street docs can hope to
match. In fact, even if someone managed to pull out your wires intact from
your cold, dead body (and after paying more than 5 million smackers for that
piece of cyber, that had better not happen+ACE-), nobody, but nobody could
possibly reinstall that set into anything less than your exact duplicate.
The delta-grade is made for your body, and your body alone, which is why it
takes up less essence and much, much, more money.

Imagine this on a lesser scale, and you'll have a general idea of why alpha-
and beta-grade cyber is so much more expensive than standard and alphaware.
-----

Greg's homepage: angelkiller's domain

http://www.mindspring.com/+AH4-demipop/

ICQ: 2157053
Message no. 3
From: Mongoose <m0ng005e@*********.COM>
Subject: Re: Why Cyber Classes?
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 03:03:01 -0600
:Okay, a mage friend of mine wanted to know why there are different
:classes of cyberware. (Something more concrete than better quality, he
:said.) I know that the SSC defines Alpha and Beta as bio-technological
:metaconstructs, and therefore more essence friendly.
:
:My question is why? What would be the physical difference in cyberware
:to make the essence different? It's the same amount of metal, right?


Another VERY good question. IMHO, its not really the "amount of
metal" that matters- although the material impact is likely lower, both
physically and imunologically. I think the more important aspects are the
"customization" aspects- its called "custom chrome" for a reason...

The 4 current grades are normal, alpha, beta, and gamma. Each costs
progressively less essence, and is more durable. Normal and alpha are
basically mass market, while beta and gamma seem to be custom made (and
more expensive to have installed, implying a higher level of surgical /
rehab work). It is a plausible conclusion, then, that the better grades
are tuned to that bodies unique functions more carefully- better fitted or
(in the case of neural types) capable of more discrete levels of feedback.
The fact that they are made from better materials ALLOWS this type of
implementation (and better durability), but is not the cause of its lower
impact. IMO.
Look at it this way; you can build two engines, the exact same size,
with the exact same power output. But the one built with better
tolerances and technology will pollute less and use less fuel...

Of course, with those four levels, the natural question is, what grade
of custom chrome comes next? Is there a continual technological
improvement to the point where cyberware does not cost essence, or does
the very fact that cyberware grants some new ability / function to the
body or mind cause (part of) its essence cost?
For engines, the Carnot cycle gives us the bottom line feasible
efficiency...

Mongoose (getting VERY theoretcial and "IMO")
Message no. 4
From: Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject: Re: Why Cyber Classes?
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 10:42:03 +0100
According to Zebulin Magby, at 22:34 on 23 Dec 98, the word on
the street was...

> Okay, a mage friend of mine wanted to know why there are different
> classes of cyberware. (Something more concrete than better quality, he
> said.) I know that the SSC defines Alpha and Beta as bio-technological
> metaconstructs, and therefore more essence friendly.
>
> My question is why? What would be the physical difference in cyberware
> to make the essence different? It's the same amount of metal, right?

If alpha- and beta-ware are "bio-technological metaconstructs," then they
probably use less metal and more natural materials (vat-grown muscle
fibers instead of synthetic muscles, for example). Anyway remember that
the Essence rating is really a game mechanic that measures how much
cyberware a body can take before it dies; in the SR world, I feel it's
unlikely anyone will be saying things like "My Essence has dropped due to
my new cyberarm" unless they believe in some kind of philosophy that
includes such an idea.

IMO, alpha-, beta- and delta-grade cyberware are variants which have been
found to kill someone less quickly even though more has been implanted.
They may not take up less space in the body or even have less metal,
plastics, or ceramics in them, but they're constructed in a way that won't
damage the body as much as normal cyberware does.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
The names have not been changed to protect the guilty.
-> NERPS Project Leader * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

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Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 5
From: Damon Harper <nomad74@*******.COM>
Subject: Re: Why Cyber Classes?
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 10:15:40 PST
Zeb wrote:
>My question is why [cyber-classes]? What would be the physical
difference in cyberware
>to make the essence different? It's the same amount of metal, right?

Not necessarily. First off, cyber doesn't have to be metal. It
could also concievably be fiberglass, polymers, and plastics.
But the difference in essence reflects customization. If Sam the
Street Samurai bought a cyberarm from his street doc, and his street doc
got if off the back of a truck, the essence cost would be more (and
price less) than something tailored to look and "feel" just like Sam's
old arm. Essence also reflects cyber-compatibility.

-Damon Harper
"Tell me, and I forget. Show me, and I remember.
But let me do, and I understand."
-Confucious
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<nomad74@*******.com> <ICQ 4297972>


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Message no. 6
From: Paul Gettle <RunnerPaul@*****.COM>
Subject: Re: Why Cyber Classes?
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 17:23:05 -0500
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

At 10:34 PM 12/23/98 -0800, you wrote:
>Okay, a mage friend of mine wanted to know why there are different
>classes of cyberware. (Something more concrete than better quality,
he
>said.) I know that the SSC defines Alpha and Beta as
bio-technological
>metaconstructs, and therefore more essence friendly.
>
>My question is why? What would be the physical difference in
cyberware
>to make the essence different? It's the same amount of metal, right?

When Alpha/Beta cyberware was introduced, _way_ back in the first
edition of the Street Sam's Catalog, it was described as a
"bio-technological metaconstruct", which was just some jargon coined
to give the impression that there's less "metal", to use the above
terminology.

However, as time went on, FASA began to define essence loss as more
than merely a drop in the "soundness of the central nervous system and
spirit". In more recent sourcebooks, the Astral Template theory has
been established.

Each person has an Astral Template that represents their body, and
what it's naturally capable of: not only what can be done at the
moment, but what could potentially be done. Implanting a piece of
cyberware changes what can be done by the body: seeing in the dark,
reacting with faster reflexes, being able to perfectly recal
megapulses of data, doubling one's strength without expending the time
and/or effort to naturally build muscle mass, and so on.

When the cyberware is implanted, the body and it's abilities stray
from what the astral template thinks the body should be able to do.
The difference between the body and the astral template puts stress
and strain on the relationship between body and spirit, which
"damages" the spirit to a certain ammount.

Custom grade cyberware (alpha/beta/delta) pushes the envelope of the
body's abilities to the same extent that regular cyberware does, but
does so in a manner that puts less stress and strain on the
body/spirit relationship. One method this could be done is by mimicing
certain extreme conditions that an unmodifided metahuman would show
increased abilities in.

For example, there's the encephalon, which is a headware computer that
increases intelligence by helping its user remember data/facts, and by
processing the user's sensory inputs to enhance perception. However,
even an unmodified metahuman can become smarter/more creative/more
perceptive than they are normally, as long as their brainwaves are in
a certain state. A custom grade encephalon would have the same
features as a regular encephalon, but would also be designed to put
the user's brainwaves in that particular state.

The envelope is still being pushed to the same ammount, but the better
design/higher quality of the cyberware means that the push is
smoother, less stressful and jarring to the body/spirit relationship,
and therefore, causing less essence loss/damage.

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--
-- Paul Gettle, #970 of 1000 (RunnerPaul@*****.com)
PGP Fingerprint, Key ID:0x48F3AACD (RSA 1024, created 98/06/26)
C260 94B3 6722 6A25 63F8 0690 9EA2 3344
Message no. 7
From: Machine-gun Kelly <mgkelly@****.COM>
Subject: Re: Why Cyber Classes?
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 22:35:32 -0600
> >Okay, a mage friend of mine wanted to know why there are
> different
> >classes of cyberware. (Something more concrete than
> better quality,
> he
> >said.) I know that the SSC defines Alpha and Beta as
> bio-technological
> >metaconstructs, and therefore more essence friendly.
> >
> >My question is why? What would be the physical difference
> in
> cyberware
> >to make the essence different? It's the same amount of
> metal, right?
>

IIRC, not just metal goes into cyberware. Plastics and polymers,
obviously, but also things like protein-silicon chips, finer grades of
superconductors (platinum conducting wire versus gold conducting wire,
for example. Less platinum is required than gold to get the same effect,
so the wires are thinner and not replacing as much tissue), some
natural/technological hybrids (back to the protein-silicon chips, for
another example), "natural" plastics rather than petroleum derivatives
[-I forget what they're called], et cetera. Natural materials and pseudo
natural [if that's even a real word] are more expensive, so that drives
up the price, but they take less Essence because they aren't man-made
(See 'Peglegs and Hookhands' in "Cyberpirates" [I know Hookhands are
made out of metal, but it's just metal attached to a stump, with no
wiring to meld with neurons, micro-hydraulics to attach to muscles, et
cetera].

But, that's just my opinion, and I talk a lot....

Mgkelly
--
"There's a difference between drunks and alcoholics.
I'm a drunk. I don't go to meetings."

Further Reading

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