From:	Paul Jonathan Adam <Paul@********.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject:	Re: Essence and body-index
Date:	Fri, 4 Aug 1995 00:59:42 GMT

> Hi, I'm back (well sort of...)
> Last time at character generation when one of the players again made
> a sammie with essence 0.5, I asked myself: how the frag does the
> sammy or his doc know how much essence there's left? Does the doc use
> a essence meter or something else. The longer I thought about it, the
> sillier the body-index and essence rules started to sound. I'm kinda
> thinking to use a hidden essence value where cyber gets a semi-random
> value (now 0.5 essence will become between 0.4-0.6) and only give general
> indications to my players how much is left. Like to hear your ideas
> about it.

Well, Essence is a game-balance mechanic. So it doesn't really *have* to
make sense as long as the effect on the game is positive. I figure low
Essence as being neurochemical imbalances, and you could detect those.
So you could get a good idea of your Essence, at least in terms of the
"gee, sir, I really don't think implanting *that* would be a good idea
right now..." angle of what will fit.

Essence hardly comes up in my game except as a limit on cyber, and none
of the PCs around are below about 0.5 (usually they started at that in
generation, then upgraded and added into the spaces left by better 'ware
without losing any more). Unless it gets used for more than that (oh, yeah,
and magical healing problems) I wouldn't get overworried: too much book-
keeping for too little reward.

--
When you have shot and killed a man, you have defined your attitude towards
him. You have offered a definite answer to a definite problem. For better
or for worse, you have acted decisively.
In fact, the next move is up to him.

Paul J. Adam paul@********.demon.co.uk