From: v102jq23@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Hex Martin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: SR: Cyberware without Essence-loss?
Date: 6 Apr 92 16:14:00 GMT
Organization: Insoluable Poisons Unlimited - a Megacorp you've never heard of
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In an article before this one, WildCard !! wrote that ...
Greywolf wrote:
>(who's skill to manipulate magic is genetic). When you replace some of your
>(genetically whole) body, you alter the "flow" of the magic and thus suffer
>side-effects (namely being unable to channel large amounts of magic energy
>without physically harming yourself).But I digress.....
> 
>>Okay.  Let's say that I get my arm lopped off or worse yet both legs, so I'm
>>pretty much handicapped.  Do I lose Empathy or Essence because I have "less
>>meat"?  
> 
>No. I don't think you do in either game. you are just legless and people call
>you lefty. :)

Sorry - I think you do ...
 They say that if a mage loses a limb/organ he must get a cloned replacement
from his own DNA to regain the magic. Thus, I read it to mean that when you
lose a limb, you lose essence (since magic and essense are linked). You can
``replace'' the essence by getting a normal, flesh replacement, and it must be
an exact clone to regain the magic ...

>>.......Let's say that I only lost my feet, maybe most of the leg below the
>>knee, so they're able (with today's technology) to fix me up with some braces
>>and prosthetic feet so I can walk (with some difficulty).  Do I lost any more
>>Empathy or Essence at that point because of the introduction of prosthetics? 
> 
>Again, no. Those braces and prosthetics are not connected to your nervous
>system, they are just mechanical aids to help you appear more physically able.

But you ARE disturbing the nervous system. You have had some of it ripped away.
Thus, you are not working with a full system. Again, I read this to be a place
where one would lose essence.


>>Now, if I get higher-tech prosthetics that are *closer* to being like the
>>original legs that I lost, do I lose more still?  
> 
>Higher-tech? You lost me here. If you mean "cybernetics" then yes. You have
>just had your spine, brainstem, and/or motor center tampered with and linked
>to sophisticated micro-computers, etc.  If you mean, "Prosthetics-that-look-
>*even*-more-like-my-original-legs," then no. They are not grafted onto you.
>In SR, you can get *REALLY* advanced stuff that is more biological than 
>mechanical; it doesn't affect you as much as the lower-tech stuff, but, as with
>life, only the fabulously rich can afford something like that.
>>...................................................According to some arguments
>>I've heard, Empathy costs for cyberware or prosthetics or whatever are
>>*greater* the more the cyberware is unlike what your natural arm/leg whatever
>>was like.  (i.e. If you have a cyberarm with a shotgun built into it, that's
>>more Empathy-costly than just an ordinary cyberarm).
> 
>That's right.In SR anyways (it's been so long since I 've looked at my CP2020
>rules), that means that there even more connections to make, and even *new*
>connections to make (well, how else do you fire the thing? By mental command
>or the twitching of artificially placed muscles.).


 This stuff I agree with ...


From the Dark Mix of the Future,

  Eldrich

                  Life is short,
                    And love is always over in the morning;
                      Black wind come carry me far away.

                            *A Merciful Release*
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