Cybertech Insurance
Improving that cyber game...

Basic plan is no coverage at all.

Silver plan is you pay 40% extra upfront for the cyber, and weekly payments equal to 9% of the cyber. If the ware is lost before 30 days have passed, there is no recompense. If the ware is lost before 60 days have passed, you can choose on clone to buy the cyberware for 50% of base price with free installation. After 60 days, it's 90% off of base price with free installation.

Platinum plan is you pay 80% extra upfront for the cyber, and weekly payments equal to 5% of the cyber. If the ware is lost before 14 days have passed, there is no recompense. If the ware is lost before 30 days have passed, the ware is 50% off. Otherwise it's 90% off.

There's the ability to game the system, but I think if you're willing to commit fraud, there should be a reward. Additionally, every time you take up the insurance plan, the weekly payment should go up by 3% the base price of the cyber.

Things this opens the door to:

Uninsurable mods (bioware like nanogenics, vat grown organs, customized/modded tech, black market warez, and cut-rate tech that is no longer supported by SK)

Cyberlimbs!! You could even make the basic metal/plastic limbs with little function be kind of cheap to insure, with things like hand razors or autoinjectors adding a hefty charge on top of that.

Plans could be all or nothing or more granular and cost-effective, and the mandatory buy-in on legit warez is an incredible idea.

In the past, people died so often this would just be free money, but with things like ganger code in place to make death for wealthy/experienced/connected characters more of a dramatic rarity you'd see a lot of people burning flash they didn't need on peace of mind and the occasional sucker eating a bullet without insurance 'cause he thought he was safe.

But by that logic, I want a car insurance and space ship insurance and insurance for all my expensive gear. Also for my pad, in case I forget to lock the door.

I've said it before, I don't like when automation takes away RP and flash from players and the cyberdocs also need all the flash they can get.

I am not against the concept, because insurance seems themely but I am not super sure about how this would actually work and not debilitate/nerf the players who would usually benefit/profit from this, I've seen it implemented in other games tho to an extent , so it might not be impossible.

A closer comparison is tattoos. Tattoos transfer on death, and the important thing to note is it's part of your character's identity -- just as much as cyber is. Your car is a thing you own, but it exists outside of your body.

I'd like to see the same extended to cyber as tattoos are.

I keep watching Cyberpunk 2077 trailers, and everyone is all chromed up, but people rarely get chrome because of cost + risk.

One IC justification could be that it is easier to install chrome on a clone than it is on a living, breathing person, especially when that clone is being updated to already have the neural pathways and stuff built in. Really, though, the IC doesn't matter.

OOCly, I think the game would be more cyberpunk with more chrome, and the cost + death risk is a big reason people don't get it. Hell, one of the reason nanos are so popular is that they can't be ripped, so they aren't a reason for someone to come kill you. Being roided out or whatever is cool, but it's not as cool as bulging chrome muscles on your cyber arm, I think. Anything that makes being chromed out more ICly palatable is good.

What's it mean?

1) Garbage cost:reimbursement ratios whereby people don't even bother buying it in the first place

or

2) Some parity between cost:reimbursement ratios whereby it's worth it for players to use insurance policies, and then it's exploited in every way possibly imaginable.

As much as I like the idea of people being less risk-adverse and willing to go out and risk all their flash loot more often, I don't think that chrome insurance is the way to go about it. to contribute to the theme of this thread though, I would say that I'd really like to see the chrome that assists with corpse location and retrieval that I suggested in the chrome suggestions thread get implemented. I'd be way more in favor of seeing an item introduced that allowed for Trauma Team or DocWagon gameplay over a coded solution to replace lost chrome based on subscription services.

Payment plans never work out either, unless between players, as you never know when someone's character might not be available for IC or OOC reasons.

I agree with Vera's comment that it would make non-mechanic-enhancing cyberlimbs more commonplace, which is something I personally would like to see more of, and even have on my own character.

As for the fear it would 'take away RP' - did giving Chow an automated resuscitate verb take RP away from medics? No, it just created more RP for combat people.

Maybe the whole process can be streamlined or audited, but that's not where we're at in this discussion yet.

In addition to the benefits outlined above (roleplay opportunities, removing tedium, adding additional sinks to the economy), it's just very thematic for the genre this game claims to be. Though, in 30 years SD still hasn't even finished decking, so .. priorities.

I don't think it's necessary to remove the corporate benefits for cyberware, this isn't an either/or discussion. But the insurance plan to make cyber more prevalent is a noble game design goal for enforcing theme.

Those are my thoughts.

Playing a solo is incredibly difficult and almost not worth doing because you can make one wrong move and be unable to continue playing your archetype. Giving these guys the ability to pay out of pocket for insurance would make them better able to stay in the game, which benefits everyone.

A lot of it can't be seen and people have reasons, both obvious and not-obvious ones, to not reveal their existence.

This idea could be done 100% with RP. When I was a cyberdoc I could have made a very good go of running my own insurance offering. I just never thought about it - I wish I had! But the income stream could have been decent - I think some customers would have taken the offer and some of them would not.

That's an under-one-roof situation. A wealthy baron who's not a cyberdoc could offer it and meanwhile groom one or more cybderdoc characters to be as close to on-call as reasonable. For the right price or the right promises this could/would mitigate the "I can't find a cyberdoc" problem.

I get it, about the quality-of-life seeking behind this idea. I'm not convinced that some of the proposed benefits of implementing this in code would come about, even with very careful "tuning" of the specifics of the costs and terms.

I'm not wild about automating re-installs because this is one of those roles which PCs should have the opportunity to perform. Not just for the pay and the RP but also for the potential paydata and connections.

Lastly: I made so much RP out of being a cyberdoc. The "it's just an automated skill and is shit for RP" argument is very very far from my experience. I LOVED the rp around the procedure itself - it led to very very satisfied customers. Everyone has questions, even if they don't know that they do. Give them a clue that you'll pay attention, and they'll bring all kinds of shit to the operating room and let you in on it.

that typo.

No discount wares as part of it, no free installations, nothing directly with Genetek. Just needs to be an insurance product that pays on your untimely demise, not some top to bottom integrated solution. Insured wares become the property of the insurance company upon death, probably let rippers drop them off. Insurance cost go up with each policy redemption - probably small increases at first, but exponentially rising. Purchasable before install, no payments.

1. What prevents this from becoming a "win more" mechanic?

On the surface this seems like something that will be used by players to put their already powerful characters even further out of reach / free from harm. To understand that, put yourself on the other side of the equation. You manage to finally kill your rival, but like some horrible boss fight they pop right out of the vat still fully chromed and ready for round two.

In the current system when a powerful character takes a trip to the vat and has to spend a couple of days getting re-geared, there is an opportunity created for other characters to take advantage of that down time.

2. What prevents this from effectively INCREASING the cost of augmentations?

The argument is being made that augmentations are too expensive. Insurance has the potential to drive up the cost of augmentations even further by making it a "must have". Players will just wait longer until they can afford the aug + insurance.

Consider that some people are so risk adverse that they are already avoiding cyberware. On the surface, cyber insurance is a proposal to reduce risk for those risk adverse players. But surely you can see the conundrum here.

"I can't afford to spend chyen on cyber that I might lose. Cyber is too expensive. But I can insure my cyber. But now I need to come up with the cost of the Cyber PLUS the cost of the insurance."

I don't disagree there are issues with wealthy and powerful characters basically just getting on runaway more-wealth more-power paths that have no end point (until they retire or just stop playing) but loss mitigation (if properly attuned) is beneficial to every wealth bracket, that has been very thoroughly demonstrated by modern economics.

Premiums from a risk pool cover payouts to claimants, that's insurance 101. Just assume that your claim is subsidized by policy buyers who aren't making claims.

If there was a way to programatically tell if you committed suicide, voiding the insurance on that would also be ideal.

I absolutely disagree flat out it should be limited only to corpie only characters. Sorry, they don't need it. And that already exists through employer-guaranteed cybernetics. This is to fill a different niche. :)