From:	David Fallon dfallon@****.edu
Subject:	A perfectly acceptable reason to test the new list...
Date:	Mon, 8 Feb 1999 11:24:14 -0800

>Anderson, a dog shaman in our campaign, opted for cybereyes when his
>natural eyes were destroyed during a hosed run. He opted for cyber becuase
>of the improvemnts he could get built into the cyber eyes even though the
>money was available for him to wait and get clonal replacements. He
>decided that as long as he was going to have surgery he might as well do
>things properly and got a smart gun link put in as well. I believe he had
>one more piece of cyber put in at that time as well, though I cannot
>remember what. All in all, the minimal amount of cyber that Adnerson put
>in was the few things he thought would give him a serious boost to his
>survival potential while spending very little essence (less than a point).
>Even if circumstances had not prompted him into getting the eyes when he
>did, I believe Anderson had considered these limited cyber options before
>the bad run.


Erm.... That's pretty munchkin. Anytime the logic goes "It's only X
essence", the character is looking at the rules, and not at their character
background.

>Another character in our campaign named saphire has done the initiate and
>cyber routine. However, it has fit well with her personality. She
>sonsiders herself to be a death machine. She has little affection for
>people and tends NOT to make friends despite her high charisma becuase of
>her kill at any cost personality. She does tend to initate with a list of
>cyber in mind so that she clenas herself out of both Karma nad money at
>the same time. She is played well, with her social problems being used to
>off-set teh advantages she has gotten through this trade off. However, if
>she were being played in a campaign where the social disadvantages were
>not so freuently emphasized, she owuld be munchy.


That sort of fits, but I'd hope she was self-initiating... Even still,
that's pushing it. :) Having a character's personality be "I am a munchkin"
doesn't make it good roleplaying.

>To summerize, I have no problem with a mage or shaman thinking long and
>hard before deicding that a SMALL amount of cyber is worth the loss. I
>agree, that mages and shamans who constantly up their level of intiation
>in order to fit in more cyber can be dangerously close to munchy. However
>I have seen it done well.


Even a small bit of cyberware is really pushing it. I recommend reading a
book called 2XS by Nigel D. Findley, if you haven't already. I think it's
out of print, but it's a _really_ good book to make some of the issues a
character _should_ have with cyberware clearer. The main character is a
private detective who does his best to survive on the street without
cyberware, because he likes his body just the way it is, thank you. I don't
think every character should be like this, but some of this should be in the
back of every character's minds, especially mages.

On a separate note, 2XS is also a really good way to get some perspective on
BTL addiction...