Cyberware and Death
Cut 'em out!

Needing a doc to remove it-not bad idea, but... would hamper the stolen cyberware market if you'd have to find a doc to rip your corpse.   Maybe make it require -not much- med skill, or have a seperate talent like specializing in weapons to ripe warez.   ooh but make you -have- to go to a doc to be taught the talent.    okay I like that idea.  

Hrm. Other cyberware/bioware that might be or might not worth generating would include a sort of charisma enhancer. �Call it the VS Pheromone Enhancer or something. �And, for decades we've had the penile implants for all those small-dicked characters out there. �So how about something similar for the female characters--perhaps with bear trap- like teeth or something? What's next for the men after that one comes out? �Some kind of roto-rooter attachment. �Like combat, in the dystopian sex of the future there's a cold war brewing. �And for all of you Red Dwarf fans out there, how about temporary shots of the highly illegal "Luck Virus." The upside is that you are incredibly lucky for a number of days. The down side, since this is cyberpunk? At the end of that time your body liquifies :-D Hrm. What else? Internalized gridphones, quickterms, and comm systems. Combat radar/ECM/comms packages similar to the Battletac stuff from Shadowrun. Shielded and non-shielded versions of each piece of cyberware. �Obvious and non-obvious versions of each type of cyberware. �I want my cybereye to look like my other eye, it should look normal. Hrm. Differing grades of each type of cyberware possibly with differing levels of hardening against physical damage and EMP. �Aside from EMP grenades, other pieces of anti-cyberware weapons. � �

Any thoughts, suggestions, or additions to the list?

I think it'd make the second-hand cybernetics market actually viable without having to modify the NPC cybernetics markets to sustain a player doc, and depending on skill in biotech during extraction you could make it effect the quality of the implants being extracted.

Maybe you could even work something up with a combination of chemisty and biotech that let's you extract samples of injections from a juiced up corpse and synthesize a new injectable in single units.

The potential for lab equipment that goes beyond combat stimulants and recreational drugs is great here.

Medical, Chemistry, and Bio-Tech should have an ingame use in concert rather than individually.

Using Bio Tech to repair cybernetics like a mechanic repairs a car would be cool too, your nailz getting dull after using them for 4 years or your flashboost wearing down? Gotta go into surgery have it removed and "maintenance" done... This actually fits some RL examples of theoretical use of nano machines to extend human life indefinitely.

Regular maintenance would need to be done on the cellular level to counteract the breakdown of cells as they self repair, let's apply this concept to cybernetics and give cyberdocs a regular task to do and prevent all the oldbies with cyberware for years on end from just having a huge jump in performance without having to maintain it.

I'm loving this idea!

Serial numbers on every type of installable item, just like guns, you can register them to an owner, and track them.

People with legitimate installs at the clinics would have their cyberware registered like a pistol permit and you can only get -that- cyberware reinstalled in someone else either by legal transfer of some sort or ripper doc.

And it can generate some RP.

Which doc to take it to who won't overcharge you (a lot) and though it is still overcharging, won't say shit?

And just how badly do you want that piece of ware that may not be in the person because of outdated data you have?

Or how would you know if they did have wares inside of their head unless you had some visual, like chip sockets or a cyber eye or recent paydata, and would you have time or the frame of mind to drag a random body during a firefight?

The potential for Cyberware to take damage from combat would be interesting. It'd be cool if certain weapons specifically targeted cyberware and could be used to exploit a cybernetic foe. EMP's and the like.

This supposedly happens which is why you have 2 types of neural processors, (ease and difficulty to remove depending on each one, plus, one is made to stay intact during combat and EMP situations) but considering some wares are harder to remove than others plus some have safety features installed, this could mean some creative RP to have the weapon or to take someone down, or even to repair the damage. (straight up Docs to repair? No, but someone with some sort of engineering background, sure.)

Guess we can still use Ripper Docs in some ways.

However, this is something described in the archetype section of this MOO. The first archetype, let alone medical one, under 'Ripper'. An idea not uncommon to cyberpunk themes, a street-side cybernetics doctor, 'repossessor', Slasher-doc/etc. It's an interesting sector of the theme.

I've seen this brought up endlessly, and just wanted to comment. It's a bit sad that some people come in wanting to be more involved in character-interaction based on illicit removals, only to find out at a point, since Sidome's difficulty curve is heavily IC-based, they're missing that aspect. For years.

However, it should be noted that this is something that should also be handled IC'ly. If you don't have training in cybernetics, you don't know where to start, let alone what procedure to do. It's out-of-the way, but it's what we're here for. Character-interaction.

The Ripper's description is somewhat misleading, in terms of things like this. But it's up to us to uphold it.

It's rough to expect that a dev would implement this after focusing on cybernetics, and it can be tedious for a GM to uphold something like that. I was saying that even though a GM may not be on, which is what heavily brings that along, to RP it out, to at least keep some semblance of that aspect kicking without it being supported.

Since time is of the essence, you as a character can't always wait for GM intervention in something like cyberware removal. It's unfair to the GM, they're busy people with likely more interesting things going on. IG/IRL.

Just kinda kippue goin' 'Ay, help the GM's out, call a ripper rather than doin' it alone.'

You need to harvest your crops, before you sell them. Otherwise, you're a pimp.

I put RP first in all scenarios, as expected, but it doesn't change the fact that it makes the archetype, which is one of the first things an interested person would see, feels so strange. I was stating that this is the reason why so many people make comments on the system itself, rather than it being something more niche.

The things I was providing was in the intent on giving affirmation of illegal-med goers a pat on the back for making it this far.

Actually that's not been my experience with cyberware so far, since installation and removal are public services advertised on the street corner. Installation and removal are pretty easy to obtain, from what I've seen. The role of the ripper doc is a different one entirely. One you should discover IC.

Oh, ripper docs can do both, I imagine. That's just not the point of the archetype. That isn't the niche they fill, because that niche (installation and removal) is already filled by cyber surgeons. Ripper docs fill a different niche, one not afforded to 'regular doctors', creating a huge upside compared to a 'regular doctors'. Ripper docs can do things no regular surgeon should.

Context, my friend, is everything. It's not WHAT they can do. It's WHY and HOW they go about doing it.

And I'm trying to explain to you that these mechanics are in place WITHOUT the mechanic you are requesting. You're saying without corpse harvesting, there's no mechanically coded reason to involve ripper docs. But that's really not true!

However, take what I'm saying as that. The point I was trying to make was more towards the fact that in their direct archetype, removal and installation is incredibly important factors, and something a bit odd to leave one part out for so long.

Again, never once said they're useless, or less than just being a good idea, but I was commenting on the fact that it's crucial to their work, according to the material that all newbies will read before even playing.