3.0.0 Gear, Vehicles, and Cyberware

This section provides a selection of example gear appropriate to most cyberpunk campaigns. The GM is naturally expected to add other items that might suit their particular world.

3.1.0 Mission Gear

The following items are often useful to operatives. Their prices can be used to extrapolate other costs for other common goods. The prices given assume that the gear is legally available where the PCs are. Some gear is meant to be worn. Worn equipment that is being used, such as IR goggles or a gas mask, must be Readied to be employed.

~: These items have no Encumbrance while worn.
*: No Encumbrance for any reasonable amount

• Active Hearing Protection: This headset protects the wearer from disorientation due to loud noises. It passes along conversational-level speech without difficulty.
• Ammunition: Individual rounds are loaded into empty magazines that are specific to individual firearms.
• Backpack: Backpacks, gear harnesses, and other such kit may add some bulk to an operator’s burden, but without them the GM is perfectly justified in asking how a PC is fitting their entire loadout in their jacket pockets.
• Binoculars: Most modern binocs have low-light functionality and magnification sufficient to bring targets as much as a kilometer distant into view.
• Bus pass, monthly: A critical mobility resource for the first mission of many operators.
• Climbing kit: Ultralight cord, a grapnel, some grip handholds, and a fast-acting, ultra-strong wall adhesive make up this kit.
• Clothing: Clothing has no Encumbrance when worn, but it’s sometimes prudent to have a spare outfit in your pack.
• Gas mask: Bulky and uncomfortable, but once Readied it leaves the user immune to most inhaled gases, including tear gas grenades.
• Goggles: Basic anti-flash goggles defuse the visual threat of flashbangs and similar dazzlers. IR goggles include anti-flash tech, but also give the user effective IR vision out to 50 meters in most environments.
• Kit: These bundles of gear are carefully packed for minimal weight. Toolkits give a tech the gear they need for basic repairs and construction, while medical kits provide first aid implements. Cyberdoc kits contain everything medical kits do, as well as gear for cyber maintenance or even emergency implantation. Survival kits are for badlands operations, with water filtration, firemaking tools, and other such gear for extended wilderness stays.
• Lockpicks: Both manual lockpicks and a selection of useful electronic shims sufficient to threaten most modern locks.
• Military rations: This food brick is unappetizing but contains the nutrition necessary for a day of heavy activity. Water can be included for an extra point of Encumbrance per day.
• Portable video camera: Palm-sized and discreet, this camera can record up to twelve hours of high-def video before its internal memory is filled.
• Radio: Both conventional handheld radios and ultra-convenient headset or collar-tab radios can be had. Ranges are one kilometer in the city and six in an open, flat area.
• Smartphone: Corp-approved media devices are cheap and ubiquitous, but few operators trust them with sensitive information.
• VR Crown: A cheap headset for a VR addict or a hacker too poor for a cranial jack.
• Wearable Light: These clip-on lights can illuminate up to 30 meters ahead of the wearer.

3.2.0 Lifestyles, Wages, and Bribes

Certain operating expenses are common among operators, including the ordinary cost of living, the price of employing subcontractors, and bribes paid to local officials.

3.2.1 Lifestyle Costs

Living costs money. Every operator needs to make room in their budget for rent, soyburgers, and gang protection payments, and failing to find the money for these things will add a load of stress to the PC.

The table below describes common lifestyle costs and the maximum System Strain modifiers that apply while a PC is living such a life. These modifiers come into effect as soon as a PC starts paying – or not paying – for a given lifestyle level.

Operator teams who obtain their own property or headquarters and make their own deals for local support may be able to lower or eliminate these lifestyle costs at the GM’s discretion.

3.2.2 Common Wages

Sometimes the PCs need to hire some extra help, or the GM needs to know what a reasonable wage would be for some NPC. The table below gives the average daily earnings for various types of workers and elites.

Hirelings will carry out their duties with reasonable levels of loyalty, but most won’t risk their lives or face opposition that threatens their destruction. Bodyguards will act to defend their employers, but only the best will stick around in the face of overwhelming opposition. Ordinary street thugs and hired gangers will be willing to commit acts of extreme violence against enemy gangs or helpless civilians, but few of them have any interest in fair fights under other circumstances.

3.2.3 Bribe Costs

Bribery is a commonplace in any organization of consequence, and it’s widely accepted that anyone with authority will use it to make a certain amount of side profit. While technically forbidden, everyone expects that cash will obtain faster service, forgiveness for minor offenses, or access to restricted areas.

Serious bribery is for favors beyond that line. Favors that could cause problems for a superior, cost the official their job, or buy them trouble with someone else are going to cost far more, if they’ll do it at all.

The bribe costs on the table below are expressed in multiples of the target’s daily wage, as it costs more to bribe a manager than a janitor. Particular like or dislike for the PCs can move the price accordingly.

* This is a serious risk, and many NPCs will need reasons beyond simple cash to agree to it

3.3.0 Armor

The table below gives the statistics for various common types of armor.

@: This armor requires a relevant Contact to purchase, or some other special opportunity
H: The armor or accessory applies a -1 penalty to all Sneak or Exert skill checks. Multiple heavy items stack.
NS: This accessory cannot be added to suit armor.

• Armored Clothing: The bulky plates and heavy ballistic weaves of this outfit are disguised as drapes and fashion elements.
• Heavy Armored Suit: A head-to-toe suit of interlocking plates and impact absorption units, these suits are reserved for high-end response teams and military operations.
• Impact Jacket: Built to absorb the impact of various contact sports, extreme athletic pursuits, and unguided vehicle races, these jackets usually come as part of a full-body protective outfit.
• Light Armored Suit: Ordinary law enforcement and security guards will be wearing suits like this, usually brightly emblazoned with their corporate affiliation.
• Medium Armored Suit: Heavy security usually sports armor on this level, including police rapid response teams.
• Ordinary Clothing: Some bold, impoverished, or highly fashionable people still insist on wearing clothing that has no functional use as armor.
• Plated Longcoat: An ankle-length coat, robe, or mantle is used as a substrate for numerous reinforced plates and swaths of ballistic weave. It’s heavy, bulky, and blatant, but it can absorb a lot of punishment.
• Reinforced Clothing: Subtle polymer sheets and reinforced weaves are used to provide a modicum of protection in this clothing without sacrificing taste.
• Reinforced Longcoat: Long, draping clothing is bolstered with advanced fabrics and discreetly-placed absorption plates, the whole remaining deniable as armor.
• Street Leathers: Fashionable, aggressive, and often mismatched, “street leathers” seldom have any non-synthetic leather in their makeup, but are light and comfortable enough to wear as a habit.
• War Harness: An upgraded form of street leathers, these outfits have sacrificed all discretion for whatever spare ballistic plates and advanced polymer weaves its owner can sew or bolt on. It’s usually the best armor that local gangs or common thugs can afford.

3.3.1 Armor Terms and Definitions

• Ranged AC: The Armor Class target for ranged attacks against the wearer. Both ranged and melee AC is always modified by the target’s Dexterity mod.
• Melee AC: The Armor Class target for melee attacks against the wearer.
• Damage Soak: The amount of hit point damage the armor can absorb before allowing damage through to the wearer. Damage Soak cannot protect against injury that armor could not normally lessen. Damage Soak ablates during combat and refreshes to full after each fight.
• Encumbrance: The number of encumbrance points the armor adds. Armor must be Readied to be useful.
• Trauma Target Mod: This modifier is added to the wearer’s Trauma Target for purposes of determining Traumatic Hits. A normal human’s base unarmored Trauma Target is 6.
• Obviousness: Subtle armor can pass for ordinary streetwear and can be worn in polite social circumstances without drawing remark. Obvious armor is clearly intended for combat and will make onlookers think the wearer is expecting imminent trouble.
• Cost: The usual price for the armor through its normally-accessible channels. Some armor is restricted for public sale and will require an appropriate Contact to buy or some mission-generated opportunity.

3.3.2 Armor Accessories

Some armor can be enhanced with additional protection such as absorption plates or joint reinforcement. These additions may increase the armor’s bulk or obviousness, but they also improve the armor’s AC or damage soak. A given accessory can only be applied once to any set of armor. Armor accessories cannot be modded with armor mods.

The three types of suit armor listed on the table above are built as cohesive systems, and cannot accept these accessories. A riot shield can still be used while wearing a suit, however.

• Riot Shield: These bulky, transparent shields are most effective in fending off melee attackers. They must be Readied in one hand; users with multiple cyberarms can benefit from only one shield at a time. A shield negates the first melee Shock damage a bearer takes in a round.
• Absorption Plates: Additional impact-absorbing buffer plates are added to the armor. Their bulk inflicts a -1 penalty to the user’s Sneak and Exert checks.
• Joint Reinforcement: The weak points around limb joints are reinforced with extra layers of weave. The extra weave hinders movement, and applies a -1 penalty to the wearer’s Sneak and Exert checks.

3.3.3 Obsolete Armor Tech

Bargains can be had for last year’s fashions, whether in armor or accessories. Such items cost only half as much as usual, but suffer a 1d2 penalty to both their ranged and Melee ACs, down to a minimum of AC 10. They also absorb 1d4 fewer Damage Soak, to a minimum of 0. These dice are only rolled after the obsolete armor has been purchased, so the buyer won’t know exactly what they have until they try to fit it to an outfit.

3.3.4 Armor Mods

The mods listed here can be applied to armor by a tech with the listed skill level at the given costs, as explained in section 2.8.2. Some require a certain number of units of special technology as well as ordinary parts. Unless specified otherwise, a given mod can be applied only once to an item.

• Absorption Pads: Kinetic padding is added to the armor, granting it 5 more hit points of damage soak per fight.
• Active Response: The armor has hyper-advanced reactive defenses that deflect and mitigate otherwise-critical injuries. Increase the wearer’s Trauma Target by 1. This stacks with any existing Trauma Target bonus the armor may already confer on the wearer.
• Biostabilizing: An integral biostatus monitor triggers emergency trauma drugs when the wearer is Mortally Wounded. As an Instant action, they roll 2d6+2 versus difficulty 8 to stabilize. Only one such attempt can be made before the suit needs an hour to recalibrate.
• Customized: The armor is tailored to a specific wearer, granting them a +1 bonus to both ranged and melee AC while it’s worn.
• Discreet Design: The armor is carefully tailored and adjusted to be less imposing. Obvious armor is made Subtle by this mod, though it suffers a -2 penalty to its ranged and melee AC. The armor retains its original bulk, but its lines, drapes, and fabrics now appear to be particularly voluminous fashion couture rather than protective equipment.
• Flexible: Bulky armor is carefully cut and tailored to allow a wearer the optimal range of movement. The Heavy quality of a suit of armor is removed.
• Quickchange: The armor or clothing is designed with chroma-shifting fabrics, bi-facial texture panels, and removable accessories. As a Main Action, the wearer can shift its appearance to that of a different type of clothing or armor with the same level of obviousness. The details of this alternate appearance can be set with an hour of adjustment.
• Sealed: The armor is equipped with a concealed filter hood and temporary pressure gaskets. As a Main Action, the user can seal the clothing against the external atmosphere, rendering them immune to gases and contact toxins. The seal and its integral air supply last 30 minutes, after which an hour of cleaning and purging will be needed to refresh the system.
• Tailored Rig: Pouches, attachment points, holsters, and other rigging are designed for a particular wearer’s body contours. They gain 1 point of Readied Encumbrance and 2 points of Stowed Encumbrance added to their maximum. These items are clearly visible to others, however, and cannot be concealed.
• Trauma Dampers: This mod can only be installed after Absorption Pads are in place. Once fully engineered, they add 5 additional hit points of damage soak per fight.
• Whisperlight: The armor’s bulk is cut down and conventional materials are replaced with more advanced composites. The armor’s Encumbrance decreases by 1 point.

3.4.0 Weapons

Operators favor a wide variety of implements of destruction. The ones listed below are only some of the most common.

3.4.1 Weapon Stats and Definitions

Dmg is the die it rolls for hit point damage on a successful hit. This damage is always increased by the weapon’s relevant attribute modifier, and it may be further boosted by certain Foci or mods.

Range is expressed in meters for guns and thrown weapons, with a normal range and an extreme range. Attacks beyond normal range take a -2 hit penalty.

Cost is the average street cost for the weapon.

Shock applies only to melee weapons. If the target’s melee AC is equal or less than the weapon’s Shock rating, the target takes the listed Shock damage even if the attack misses. Shock damage is modified by the weapon’s attribute modifier and any damage bonuses that explicitly add to Shock.

Mag is the number of rounds in a loaded firearm. Each attack costs one round, while using a weapon in burst fire mode costs three. Reloading a weapon is usually a Main Action.

Attr is the attribute that modifies the weapon’s hit and damage roll. If two attributes are listed, you can use whichever one has the better modifier.

Encumbrance is the number of items of encumbrance the weapon takes up. Weapons must be Readied to use them; if not, the attacker must spend a Main Action getting them ready for employment.

Trauma Die is the die rolled when a lethal weapon hits. If it’s equal or higher than the target’s Trauma Target, which is usually 6, the victim takes a Traumatic Hit. Non-lethal weapons and attacks do not roll the Trauma Die.

Trauma Rating is the multiplier applied to a weapon’s total damage when it makes a Traumatic Hit.

3.4.1.1 Burst Firing

Some firearms can fire in bursts. Such attacks use up three rounds of ammunition and add +2 to the weapon’s hit roll and damage die.

3.4.1.2 Suppressive Fire

If a weapon can fire to suppress, the wielder may do so as a Main Action. Each round of suppressive fire costs twice the usual ammo.

The attacker picks a 90-degree cone and fills it with lead. Any targets within the weapon’s normal range who are not behind hard cover must make an Evasion save or take half the weapon’s damage, rounded up. The attacker rolls the weapon’s Trauma Die individually against each victim struck, and may inflict Traumatic Hits with this damage.

3.4.1.3 Grenade Weapons

Grenades may be thrown at a point within range and always target AC 10. On a miss, the grenade bounces 1d10 meters in a random direction before exploding. Most grenades have a 5-meter radius of effect.

3.4.2 Firearms

*: This weapon may use burst fire when attacking, firing three rounds to gain +2 to hit and damage rolls.
§: This weapon can be reloaded with a Move action, or an On Turn if the user has at least Shoot-1 skill
¶: If not fired from a stationary rest, this weapon’s statistics are the same as a regular rifle
@: This weapon requires an applicable Contact to buy, being generally illegal for open sale
#: This weapon can fire to suppress if braced against a solid support or the gunner is prone

Light and heavy pistols are categorized by the caliber of the bullet they fire. Some operators prefer the low recoil and high mag capacity possible with a low-caliber round, while others like to have a little more certainty in dropping the targets they hit.

Advanced bows are used by a few specialists who prefer the near-silence that modern composites provide or the massive blood loss induced by a modern fractal broadhead carried on a fifty-gram arrow.

Rifles and combat rifles are similar semi-automatic tech, though the latter is equipped with a burst-fire selector and usually trades the range of a heavier caliber for the ability to carry more ammunition.

Submachine guns are popular for their small form factor and convenient burst fire, though like other burst-fire weaponry the corps frown heavily on civilian possession.

Shotguns of various stripes can be found under the counter of practically every bar and shop in a slum. Simple double-barrel models can be made by any home gunsmith with a pulse, but the finer tolerances and more elaborate machining of a burst-fire capable combat shotgun leaves them as a more selective product. Ranges and damages given are for shot shells; slugs double their normal and extreme ranges but apply a -1 penalty to hit rolls.

Sniper rifles are often nothing more than bolt-action rifles with expensive tuning and optics. If not fired from a rest in a prepared position, a sniper rifle’s statistics are the same as a normal rifle.

Taser pistols cover a family of ranged non-lethal weapons small and light enough to carry concealed. Most rely on tried-and-true electrical shocks to drop a target; they inflict non-lethal hit point damage and cannot make Traumatic Hits.

Automatic rifles include a large range of barely man-portable firearms designed to hurl vast amounts of lead through the air, and unlike smaller firearms, they can use suppressive fire if properly braced. Ammunition for these guns comes in belts or boxes. The mag rating reflects how many rounds the weapon can fire before needing a refill, with each “round” costing $50 worth of ammunition. The compactness of their loaded magazines still only counts as one item, however.

3.4.3 Melee and Thrown Weapons

Virtually every ganger or thug has at least a knife on their person. The quality of such weapons can vary from bits of curb-sharpened metal to the latest monomolecular-edge fighting knives.

^: This weapon’s damage is always non-lethal, unless desired otherwise. Non-lethal hits don’t roll the Trauma Die.
*: This is a two-handed weapon, making it impossible to have a Readied item in the user’s off-han @: This weapon requires an applicable Contact to buy, being generally illegal for open sale

Knives, clubs, swords, and other simple melee weapons are available almost anywhere on the street. Particularly impoverished gangers sometimes fashion makeshift machetes and improvised shivs when better can’t be obtained. Such weapons are effectively free, but have a -1 penalty to hit and damage rolls due to their ungainly make.

Advanced weapons employ modern polymers, sophisticated metallurgy, fractal edges, electro-stun tech, and a small legion of marketers to sell products that are distinctly superior to the plain steel edges of a prior age.

Flash grenades force victims without eye and ear protection to make a Physical save; on a failure, the victim loses their next Main Action and takes a -2 penalty to hit rolls and AC for the next 1d6 rounds. Flashbang effects don’t stack, and a target who makes their save cannot be flashbanged again that same round.

Frag grenades inflict 2d6 damage on all victims in range, plus the chance for a Traumatic Hit. An Evasion save can halve a frag grenade’s damage, and each point of melee AC the target has above 14 reduces the final damage total by one point, possibly down to zero.

Gas grenades create a 10-meter-diameter cloud of opaque, choking, irritating gas that disperses in one round. They inflict non-lethal damage, halved on a successful Physical save, and are useless against targets with breathing protection. They provide full concealment for those within the gas.

Smoke grenades are harmless, but provide the same 10-meter dome of concealment where it’s necessary. Gas and smoke aren’t enough to defeat IR or augmented visuals.

3.4.4 Heavy Weapons

While uncommon, some operators may be unfortunate enough to run into military opposition or antagonists who have no concerns about drawing intolerable heat from the local authorities. These combatants are likely to pack weaponry much heavier than a normal street operative would sport. For operators, using weapons like the ones below on most missions would risk perilously intense reprisals by worried corps and local police.

@: This weapon requires an applicable Contact to buy, being generally illegal for open sale
¶: If not fired from a stationary rest, this weapon’s statistics are the same as a regular rifle
#: This weapon can fire to suppress if fixed to a vehicle or stationary firing position
!: This weapon’s Trauma Die can inflict Traumatic Hits on drones, vehicles, and other machines.

Anti-materiel rifles have encountered something of a renaissance with the ubiquity of armored drones and heavily cybered combatants. While not suitable for downing tanks or other heavily armored vehicles, their 20mm rounds are more than sufficient to punch through lighter armor plating, concrete walls, and full body conversion cyborgs. Use of a secure firing rest is recommended for best results.

Grenade launchers are accessories that are mounted on rifle-sized firearms, adding 1 Encumbrance to their bulk. These weapons can launch specially-designed grenades to the listed range, targeting them as if they were thrown normally. These special grenades cost and function the same as their regular equivalents but cannot be thrown by hand. When attacking, the user can choose whether to fire the grenade launcher or the weapon it’s mounted to, but both cannot be fired in the same round.

Stand-alone grenade launcher models are available for vehicle or drone mounting, counting as 2 Encumbrance but otherwise having the same cost and statistics.

Demo charges are shaped explosive charges usually meant to knock human-sized holes in anything short of fortified defensive walls. While ineffective as thrown weapons, when used as part of a trap or ambush they inflict their listed damage in a cone out to normal range, with an Evasion save for half damage. If applied carefully to a vehicle target, the following explosion will inevitably destroy it. Like frag grenades, use of demo charges tends to be very exciting to security forces and can provoke more heat than many operators like to draw.

Heavy machine guns are old tech, but reliable. Without a fixed firing position or vehicle mount, however, their recoil makes them almost uncontrollable. Due to the mass of lead involved in firing an HMG, each “round” of its ammunition costs $100 and counts as a full item of encumbrance.

Mortars are rare, but have their uses amid the tall buildings of an urban sprawl. They have a minimum range of 20 meters, but can lob indirect fire over buildings and obstacles. Mortars always target AC 20 at first, but each round of fire at the same target grants a +1 hit bonus if there’s a forward spotter to adjust the aim. Mortar rounds act as frag grenades on the target point, but do 3d6 damage at base with a 10-meter radius. Armor doesn’t lessen harm from mortar rounds. Relatively simple as they are, a mortar round costs $50 and counts as one item of encumbrance.

Rocket launchers include a wide variety of single-shot disposable launchers. Their general imprecision forces a -4 hit penalty against human-sized targets, but they inflict frag grenade damage on any target within 5 meters of the rocket’s landing point. Specialized anti-armor warheads lose this frag grenade bonus, but do double damage to vehicles or obstacles. Operators who intend to take down enemy vehicles favor them for their effectiveness in that role.

Land mines come in anti-personnel and anti-vehicle flavors. The first activates on any human-sized approach within 1 meter, inflicting damage in a 2-meter radius with an Evasion save for half. Anti-vehicle mines can only be activated by vehicular levels of ground pressure or vehicle-sized proximate metal masses, but do their damage in a 5-meter radius. Humans get an Evasion save for half damage in either case.

3.4.5 Weapon Mods

The mods listed here can be applied to weapons by a tech with the listed skill level at the given costs, as explained in section 2.8.2. Some require a certain number of units of special technology as well as ordinary parts. Unless specified otherwise, a given mod can be applied only once to an item.

• Autotargeting: The weapon has kinetic sensors embedded in it that synchronize with onboard targeting chips. The user gains a +1 bonus to all hit rolls with the weapon, but needs to connect with it via either a Gunlink or a Cranial Jack.
• Concealed: Materials are replaced, outlines are altered, and appearances are adjusted. Pistol-sized and smaller weapons now cannot be detected without a full minute of patting down the bearer, while anything no larger than a rifle can be concealed as if it were a pistol, unfolding to full size upon use.
• Customized: The weapon’s balance and form are tailored to a specific user. That user gains a +1 bonus to all hit rolls with the weapon.
• Extended Magazine: Caliber adjustments, feed assists, and magazine dimension alterations double a gun’s reliable magazine capacity.
• Heavy Sabot: Applicable only to projectile weapons, the gun is modified to fire heavy AP rounds that can plausibly land Traumatic Hits even on armored vehicles or heavy drones.
• Integral Toxins: A melee or thrown weapon is impregnated with numerous microcells of an advanced hemotoxin, the cells rupturing on impact with a target. The weapon does +2 damage and Shock to subjects not immune to poison.
• Onboard Gunlink: Usable only on firearms, the weapon’s onboard targeting hardware emulates the effects of the Gunlink cyber-system. The user must have a Cranial Jack system to plug it in.
• Predictive Guidance: An entire onboard computing core is augmented by advanced materials and cutting-edge kinetic analysis to increase the odds of landing a lethal blow. The weapon gains a +1 bonus to hit rolls, damage, and Shock. The user must be connected via a Gunlink or a Cranial Jack cybersystem.
• Reel Wires: A thrown weapon is linked to a wrist spool with retractable wires that allow its retrieval as an On Turn action. The wires can be cut by a properly-timed attack with a sharp weapon, but are too thin and sharp to be easily grabbed. The wires can drag up to 20 kilos of mass when retracting. Replacing broken wires takes fifteen minutes.
• Savage Impact: Usable only on melee weapons, powered impact plates, vibrating serrations, or other after-market adjustments increase its damage and Shock by +1.
• Shock Burst: Once per fight, as an On Turn action, the weapon can imbue itself or a round of ammunition with an electrical charge, inflicting an additional 2d6 damage on a hit, or +2 damage to melee Shock on the next attack. This damage is not affected by the +3 cap to mod hit and damage.
• Stun Rounds: Usable only on firearms, the weapon’s barrel and firing mechanism is altered to accept soft, electrically-charged stun rounds. The firearm’s range is halved, it takes a -2 penalty to damage, and it loses its Trauma Die, but all damage it inflicts is treated as non-lethal. Stun rounds do no significant harm to inanimate objects.
• Thermal Charge: Usable only on melee or thrown weapons, the mod adds a bank of heat cells to the weapon. The weapon then inflicts +2 damage and Shock to all creatures not impervious to heat. The cells are activated as an On Turn action, but last for only two fights before requiring an hour to swap batteries and let the elements cool.

3.5.0 Pharmaceuticals and Street Drugs

Injecting or ingesting a drug requires a Main Action. Some drugs require medical expertise to administer safely. The table gives the minimum Heal skill required to apply a drug, or “None” for those so user-friendly that anyone could shoot it up.

Some drugs inflict System Strain on use. If the total would exceed the user’s maximum System Strain they get no benefit from the chem but suffer any negative effects normally.

Some drugs grant bonuses or combat benefits. In the case that multiple drugs are taken at once, only the highest bonus applies

@: This chem is rare enough to require a Contact or other connection to obtain it on the street.

• Avalanche: A somewhat pricey combat drug favored by shock troops and those first out of the trenches, Avalanche numbs sensations of pain or exhaustion for one hour, granting the user an effective +10 to their current hit points, even if it takes them above their maximum. This numbness tends to make it harder to notice serious harms, however, and the d12 roll for any Major Injury suffered while under its effects takes a -1 penalty.
• Boneshaker: A filthy mix of jailbroken corp industrial chems and amphetamine scrapings, Boneshaker is a popular combat drug among the most impoverished or savage street gangs. On application, the subject is filled with blind aggression, gaining a +2 Morale bonus and a +2 bonus to hit rolls, damage, and Shock. The recklessness induced by Boneshaker leaves them wide open, however, and all attacks against them add +2 to any Trauma Die rolls. Boneshaker lasts for one scene and adds 2 System Strain at the end of it.
• Chokeout: A chem that briefly induces severe swelling of the mucous membranes, Chokeout is odorless and tasteless, but must be consumed in food or drink and naturally degrades after twelve hours. A subject who consumes a dose of Chokeout must make a Physical save; on a failure, they are strangled to unconsciousness for an hour, waking up with one hit point at the end. On a success, they take 1d10 non-lethal damage as they struggle to breathe. On a natural saving throw of 1, the victim chokes to death.
• Control-Delete: A chemical that temporarily destroys a person’s ability to form long-term memories, Control-Delete must be ingested in food or drink. Toxin-filtering cyber can fend it off, but it otherwise grants no saving throw. Once affected, the target will continue to act normally, but anything that happens to them between then and their next sleep or unconsciousness will be completely forgotten by the time they awake.
• Hellbender: A watery black toxin that must be administered through food or direct injection, Hellbender causes the victim to convulse with bone-cracking force shortly after consumption. A dose of Hellbender has a distinct acrid taste, but if the victim consumes it they must make a Physical saving throw or begin convulsing helplessly for 1d6 rounds, suffering 1d10 damage each round unless restrained by at least two associates. This damage can kill an unfortunate victim.
• Lurch: An emergency stimulant meant to shock a downed ally back into mobility, Lurch heals 1d10 damage plus the physician’s Heal skill on application, adding one System Strain to the target. Each dose of Lurch after the first each day increases the required Heal skill by one, so the third dose requires Heal-2 to successfully administer. Lurch only works on conscious and stabilized targets; the shock will kill a Mortally Wounded subject that hasn’t been made stable.
• Madeleine: A chem that intensely stimulates a subject’s memory centers, Madeleine has its dangers. Users normally focus on a particular memory before injecting the drug; for the next 1d6 hours, they relive some portion of that memory with perfect fidelity while remaining oblivious to their physical surroundings. Psychological addiction is a considerable risk for long-term users, as well as choosing a less pleasant memory to recall.
• Medical Prescription: One of a thousand different medical drugs, a prescription like this is often necessary to treat some chronic condition or keep a medical problem from growing worse. Corp employees get their drugs for a pittance, but less fortunate souls need to source their drugs from extortionate corp pharmacies or street docs. Lucky users only need a dose a few times a week, but others must have a daily supply or suffer potentially lethal complications.
• Olympus: A “respectable” combat chem used by certain units of corporate security, Olympus numbs pain, sharpens mental focus, and slows down instinctive panic or rush instincts, allowing a calm observation of the battlefield. Users can reroll their first failed Morale check in a fight and gain a +2 bonus to hit rolls. One dose of Olympus lasts for one scene, and adds one System Strain at its end.
• Panacea: Not so much a single drug as a pharmaceutical suite in a single injection system, this chem requires a skilled physician to adjust its mix. When used as part of a first aid attempt, this drug doubles the amount of hit points recovered by the attempt, with a minimum healing rate of 6 HP. Rumors of a drastically increased rate of bone cancers among regular users are, of course, mere slander against its manufacturer.
• Pillow: A powerful sedative that requires medical expertise to administer properly, Pillow must be injected into a restrained or helpless subject, as vigorous physical action can disrupt the effects. Once injected, the subject falls into a torpor indistinguishable from death that lasts for 24 hours. They require only trace amounts of oxygen while in their trance, and can be identified as alive only through careful medical examination. If Pillow is administered with less than a 24-hour gap between doses, the victim must make a Physical save or die sometime before the dose ends.
• Psycho: Ingesting one of these small pills rapidly flattens a user’s capacity for emotional distress while heavily increasing their aggressiveness. For roughly one hour, users gain a +2 bonus to Morale checks and experience no immediate emotional trauma from performing even the most heinous and violent actions. The drug is a favorite pre-fight dose among gangers, and used as self-medication among many of them who would otherwise be incapacitated by the emotional scars of what they’ve done.
• Reset: A rare drug of desperation, Reset is a combination injector patch and wireless cyber override key. When applied to a willing subject with at least one Body or Nerve cyber system, it deluges the user’s system with safety override commands and neurotransmitter stimulants. They lose all accumulated System Strain in excess of their permanent minimum. Five minutes later, their System Strain is maximized and they must make a Physical saving throw at a penalty equal to the number of System Strain they’ve gained since the drug was taken. On a success, they drop to 1 hit point. On a failure, they become Mortally Wounded. If their adjusted roll is 1 or less, they must make a second modified Physical save or instantly and unavoidably die. Using Reset more than once a week is invariably fatal.
• Sand: A gritty powder trafficked to those addicts too poor to afford anything better, a snorted dose of Sand will put its user into a euphoric haze for as long as an hour, depending on tolerance. Beautiful visions and dreamy contentment give way to shooting pains and intense light sensitivity afterwards, with most heavy users dying within six to twelve months of picking up the habit.
• Trauma Patch: A theoretically foolproof cocktail of coagulants, stimulants, and painkillers, a trauma patch can be applied to a Mortally Wounded ally to stabilize them on a successful Int or Dex/Heal skill check against difficulty 6, with a +1 difficulty penalty for each full round since the subject went down. The patch is useless after six rounds.
  Trauma patches cannot revive victims downed by poisons or diseases, or those dismembered by explosives or heavy weapons.
• Window: A neurobooster favored among hackers and knowledge workers, Window augments the user’s focus and mental reaction speed at the cost of distracting them from their terrestrial surroundings. A Window user can trade their Move action to gain a bonus Main Action that can only be used for cyberspace actions. Each time this is done in a scene, however, the user gains one System Strain. One dose lasts for one scene.

3.6.0 Cyberware

Implanted cybernetic hardware is a staple of the cyberpunk genre. This section discusses the rules for its implantation, maintenance, and use.

3.6.1 Installing Cyberware

Cyberware must be implanted by a physician with at least Heal-1 skill or an NPC with at least a +1 skill bonus at medical matters. The average street doc will have a +2 skill total, with the better having +3 and the elite having +4 or even +5. Access to such high-grade medical care often requires a Contact or mission.

Paired systems such as cybereyes or cyberears are implanted together as a single operation. Add-ons to such tech, such as an eye flechette system, require a separate operation.

The implantation surgery itself takes a short time but comes at a cost and skill check difficulty as given in the table below. If the surgeon donates their work, the installation cost is halved.

Once the surgery is complete, the doc makes an Int/Heal or Dex/Heal skill check against the installation difficulty, modified by the table below.

If they fail by more than two points, the surgery is unsuccessful, the target’s System Strain is maximized, and the target is reduced to 1 hit point. The cyber survives, but now counts as used cyber for future implant purposes.

If they fail by one or two points, the surgery is successful, but the user suffers a random implant complication from the table in section 3.6.1.1. This glitch isn’t obvious until after the surgery is complete. A user who wants a second try at installing a particular system will need to remove the original cyber, spend a month undergoing therapeutic medical treatment at a cost equal to the offending cyber’s original installation cost, and then try again. Such additional attempts have a cumulative -1 penalty on all installation attempts after the original, including any penalty for re-implanting used cyber.

If it succeeds, the cyber is implanted successfully. The system immediately adds its System Strain value as permanent System Strain to the user. A subject cannot accept cyber if it would put their System Strain above their maximum score.

Whether successful or not, the subject needs a certain amount of time for recovery before they can return to action, whether an hour for the most superficial cyber or a full month for full-body invasive surgery. During this time they must rest and follow the appropriate anti-rejection medication regime. Failure to do so risks implant complications at best and fatal system rejection at the worst.

3.6.1.1 Implant Complications

If a surgery results in a complication or cyberware removal damages the tech, the following table is used. If the resulting complication somehow does not apply to the cyber, it counts as a result of 12.

3.6.1.2 Cyberdoc Tools

The following gear is often useful in installing cyberware.

• Cyberdoc Kit: A portable kit with all the tools needed for maintaining cyberware, albeit the maintenance supplies cost extra. In a pinch, this kit can be used to implant or remove cyberware, though few would want to risk using such rudimentary tools. The kit can serve as a medkit at need.
• Maintenance Supplies: A collection of consumable parts, lubricants, medications, faked subscription keys, and pirated firmware updates. Any reasonable dollar value of supplies can be carried as 1 point of Encumbrance.
• Manufacturer’s Installation Kit: These tools and technical resources are usually restricted to licensed installation vendors of a given cyberware company. They grant a +1 skill check bonus when installing or removing cyberware made by that manufacturer. They are closely tracked, and it can be difficult to find a corp doc willing to sell them under the table.
• Surgical Theater/Level 1: A basic collection of medical tools, pharmaceuticals, scanners, technical manuals, and software subscriptions. Most ordinary street docs command this level of hardware. Laying it out for use requires at least a semi-clean room’s worth of working space.
• Surgical Theater/Level 2: A more sophisticated, extensive, and advanced operating theater than the level 1 version. High-grade street docs and standard corporate employee clinics would use this tech, which requires the same amount of space as the level 1 array.
• Surgical Theater/Level 3: Some of the most advanced medical tech commonly available on the market, this grade of surgical assistance is usually found only in corporate clinics for high-level employees or in the private clinics of top-end street docs. It requires a half-dozen rooms to support all its functionality.

3.6.2 Removing Cyberware

Street docs can attempt to safely remove cyber at the same difficulty rating as it took to implant it, with the surgery taking one hour. On a success, the implant is removed intact and can be re-used. On a failure, the implant is ruined, but the patient remains healthy. In both cases, the permanent System Strain inflicted by the implant is lost immediately.

If the doc has no interest in the health or survival of the subject, the system removal is automatically successful and takes only ten minutes. The subject of this ungentle disassembly almost always dies on the table unless the system removed was minimally invasive.

Removing cyber is safest for the implant when the subject is alive during the removal, as death runs the risk of ruining delicate elements of the hardware. If the subject is dead when the doc goes to salvage their implants, an Int or Dex/Heal skill check is needed against difficulty 10. On a success, the implant is recovered intact, while failure means that it’s ruined. Subjects dead for more than 24 hours are unsalvageable.

Once the cyber’s out, the doc makes an Int or Dex/Heal skill check against difficulty 10. On a success, the cyber is used, but still perfectly functional. On a failure, it now counts as “secondhand cyber”, with a randomly-determined implantation complication that can’t be avoided.

3.6.3 Concealing and Detecting Cyber

Most conventional cyber has one of three different levels of blatancy. Its signatures are usually restricted to the body part augmented, but obvious neural or internal organ work is usually plain on the user’s skin.

Medical-rated cyber is completely concealed from surface-level inspection, and cannot be detected without a cyber scanner or a medical examination.

Touch-rated cyber is inobvious to mere visual examination, but a person who touches the augmented limb, skin, or other organ will immediately recognize the signs of cybernetic modification.

Sight-rated cyber is so blatant that anyone who looks at the affected body part can see that some form of augmentation has been done. Baggy clothing may suffice to conceal it, but even the most perfunctory patdown will detect it.

Ordinary investigators may not recognize the specific cyber, but experienced operators and other cyber-versed examiners can usually get a good idea of what’s under a person’s skin, often recognizing the specific model of cyber by its signature telltales.

Cyber that produces obvious bodily changes is likewise obvious when it is being used.

3.6.4 Cyberware Maintenance

A cyberware system’s maintenance and subscription expenses add up to 5% of the cyberware’s base cost due monthly, not including any cyberware mods or implant surgery expenses. The maintenance work itself takes a number of hours equal to the System Strain of the system, to a minimum of fifteen minutes, and must be performed by someone with at least Fix-0 or Heal-0. Maintenance supplies can be purchased almost anywhere cyberware is available, and any reasonable dollar amount of them can be carried as 1 Encumbrance item.

If a system goes more than a month without upkeep, it starts to malfunction. The GM rolls or picks an implant complication and applies it to the system until it receives maintenance. Very extended lack of maintenance can provoke chronic illnesses or death. Some ultra-high-end bespoke ware may absolutely require timely maintenance if their complex systems are not to stop operating entirely.

3.6.5 Skillplugs

Commonly-available skillplugs can be found for any skill at level-0 or level-1. A basic Skillplug Jack I system can only interface with intellectual skills that require only modest physical expertise; Know, Fix, or Heal could qualify for this, but Shoot, Exert, or most forms of Perform would not. Such physical skills require an upgraded Skillplug Jack II unit.

Someone with a plug jack and the Skillplug Wires implant can make use of rare, costly level-2 skillplugs, or the vanishingly rare level-3 plugs. Level-3 plugs are normally only available through special missions to obtain them.

Whenever the user rolls a natural 2 on a skillplug-augmented skill check, or a natural 1 on a skillplug-augmented attack roll, the check or roll is an automatic failure that no reroll ability can save. The skillplug jack itself then locks up uselessly for the scene.

While it is possible to implant multiple plug jacks and use multiple skillplugs at once, the increased neural crosstalk invariably increases the chance of severe error. Each additional skillplug run after the first increases the automatic failure roll range by one point.

3.6.6 Cyberware Mods

As with weapons, armor, drones, and many other varieties of gear, cyberware can also be modded by a sufficiently talented medic. Creating and installing these mods usually requires both Fix and Heal skill. No implant surgery is required as part of installation.

Unless specified otherwise, a given cyberware mod can only be installed once on any given system. The same mod may be installed on multiple different cyber systems, however, if a tech is willing to manage the Maintenance they will require.

Cyberware mod costs are expressed as a percentage cost of the system they’re installed on

• Biocapacitors: The first System Strain cost that the cyber would normally exact in a day is ignored. Thus, the first time an Enhanced Reflexes system is triggered, it would not add System Strain to the modded user.
• Durable System: A limb or eye system is up-armored to resist injury. The next Major Injury directed at the modded limb is treated as if it were just a flesh wound roll of 12. It destroys this mod instead.
• Firewalled: The modded system is much harder to hack, inflicting a -2 penalty on any related skill checks.
• Hardened Weave: Skin cyber that grants an improved base armor class such as Dermal Armor has any AC it grants improved by +2. The additional armor makes the system Obvious, regardless of its original subtlety, and counts as one item of Readied encumbrance that cannot be dropped.
• Low Maintenance: The modded system no longer requires any significant maintenance. This mod does not work on systems with special maintenance costs or consequences, such as a Full Body Conversion or a Regulated Anagathic Substrate.
• Monoblade: A bladed cyber system has advanced monomolecular cutting elements installed. The edge is difficult to maintain but inflicts horrific injuries when it strikes cleanly. The weapon’s Trauma Die gets a +1 bonus, but its base damage die and Shock is decreased by -2.
• Profile Adjustment: The system’s obviousness is lowered by one step, from Sight to Touch, or Touch to Medical. It has no benefit for a system that is already at a Medical grade of concealment.
• Quick Detach: Usable only on limb cyber, eyes, or other parts that could conceivably be removed, this mod allows the user to attach or detach the system with five minutes of work, and replace it with any other Quick Detach-modded system that would fit in the same place.
• Tailored Interface: A demanding cyber system is adjusted to specifically match the biochemistry of the user rather than using a factory-set best approximation. This mod only functions on cyber that inflicts 2+ points of permanent System Strain, but lowers the strain cost by 1 point.
• Targeting Processor: This mod must be installed in Gunlink, or in a weapon system such as Body Blades or Eye Mod/Flechette. Improved targeting calculations grant a +1 bonus to hit with the cyber-weapon or with guns aimed with the Gunlink system. An attack can only ever benefit from one instance of this mod.

3.6.7 Cyberware Systems

The systems below are some of the more common ones available. Each one is listed with their price, type, concealment level, and the permanent System Strain they add.

Cyber systems are divided by type, indicating what general part of the body they affect. This may be relevant if a Major Injury destroys all cyber of a particular type in a limb of torso.

3.6.7.1 Body Cyberware

• Aesthetic Augmentation Suite: Any standard fleshmod can supply beauty, but an aesthetic augmentation suite provides not only a fleshmod’s versatility, but tailored pheromones, vocal harmonizers, social cue triggers, and an absolutely inhuman visual perfection. Subjects gain a Charisma score of 14, or a +2 score bonus if already 14 or greater, up to a maximum of 18.
• Assisted Glide System: Retractable nanofiber wings and integral boost jets allow a limited degree of flight for the user of this implant. When leaping from a high place, they gain a flight Move speed of 30m for up to two kilometers before being forced to land. Gaining altitude requires a Dex/Exert skill check against difficulty 10, however, with failure forcing a landing, and the wings can’t carry them more than twice as high as the height they jumped from. By deploying the boost jets and wings as an Instant action, the user can ignore up to a hundred meters of falling damage.
• Banshee Module: Resonant cavities are designed into the user’s torso, along with an advanced amplification system. They can reproduce any sound or voice they have heard before, and at maximum volume can be heard clearly up to five hundred meters away. Once per day, as a Main Action, this sound can be used to shatter normal glass in a ten-meter line in front of the user; creatures without ear protection in this area must make a Physical save or take 2d6 non-lethal damage.
• Cybernetic Infrastructure Baseline: A set of standardized support implants provide a baseline degree of cyber-compatibility to a subject. They can ignore System Strain from cyber implants equal to 12 minus their Constitution score- so a PC with a Constitution of 9 could ignore three points worth of System Strain from cyber implants. PCs with a Con of 12 or more have no use for this system.
• Deadman Circuit: A common corporate implant to discourage kidnapping and warelegging. Any attempt to remove any of the user’s cyber without the right access codes will fry that hardware unless a difficulty 13 Int/Heal skill check is made.
• Dermal Armor/Trauma Shielding: A system that can only be installed on a user with at least one level of Dermal Armor, the trauma shielding addition adds +1 to the user’s Trauma Target. This benefit stacks with any existing Dermal Armor bonus to the roll.
• Emergency Stabilization Factor: When brought to zero hit points by an injury that does not instantly kill them, the user automatically stabilizes, gaining one System Strain, and will regain consciousness at the end of the scene with 1 hit point. If they are already at maximum strain, this cyberware does not function.
• Fleshmod: Careful surgery and support implants allow for a complete physical remolding within generally humanoid lines, including alterations of sex, height, cosmetic limbs such as tails or decorative ears, and overall weight. Reproductive ability is not conferred, but rumors persist of experimental mods that can grant even that.
• Full Body Conversion: The user’s brain and central nervous system are transplanted into a cutting-edge synthetic shell at a cost and difficulty as if this cyber took 4 System Strain. Once converted, the subject has an effective Constitution of 20 for System Strain purpose, but cannot be healed by conventional first aid or medical drugs, requiring ten minutes of repair work with a toolkit to repair any amount of damage, and $250 worth of parts for each hit point to be restored. A full conversion borg no longer requires food, water, air, or sleep, but each day without the latter adds one System Strain due to the mental stress. The conversion requires twelve hours of maintenance every two weeks, and missing it will result in the user’s death in 2d6 days unless the omitted maintenance is performed. Current full-body conversion tech is unstable; after 1d4 years, the subject has a cumulative 5% death chance each year. Borgs do not take Major Injuries and gain a +6 bonus to their Trauma Target that stacks with existing bonuses.
• Hemosynthetic Filter System: A wide-spectrum array of blood scrubbers, intake filters, and microbial barriers grants the user effective immunity to most natural diseases and non-synthetic toxins. Weaponized toxins and certain exotic natural afflictions can still affect the user, but they get a +2 bonus on all saving throws against them. The system automatically alerts the user if they have been exposed to a recognized disease or toxin, whether or not it affects them.
• Holdout Cavity: A biosculpted torso pocket allows for the air-tight, climate-controlled concealment of 2 Encumbrance worth of items inside the user’s body and their easy access with a Main Action. Any given object stored can’t be larger than a pistol or a tightly-folded suit of clothing, and the pocket’s contents don’t count against the user’s Encumbrance limit. The pocket’s signature is disguised against conventional scanning technology, and it cannot be detected without a manual strip search by a trained examiner.
• Medical Support Readout: A diagnostic system is interfaced with the user’s biological processes, allowing a realtime analysis of their current health and any significant injuries. Aside from immediately alerting the user when they are poisoned, diseased, or injured, it grants any healing or medical support skill check a +2 bonus thanks to the diagnostic information and increases first aid or drug healing by +2 HP per application.
• Recovery Support Unit: A number of support systems and blood purification filters are installed. The user can absorb up to four points of System Strain incurred from healing or wound stabilization effects; this is a separate pool that recovers one point every night at the same time as the user’s natural System Strain recovers.
• Redundant Systems: Several pieces of prosthetic support cyber are preemptively installed to mitigate future trauma. When the user takes a Major Injury, they may instead choose to have the Redundant Systems critically damaged instead of accepting the major injury roll result. Redundant Systems can be installed more than once, but the System Strain inflicted increases by one point each time.
• Retribution Shield: Numerous small projectile launchers are embedded under synthetic skin. When triggered as an On Turn action, the user gains one System Strain to launch a cloud of shrapnel around them, acting as ground zero of a frag grenade explosion. The user has enough targeting control to avoid hitting allies in range. If grappling or grappled at the time, their opponent automatically takes maximum damage. Reloading the Retribution Shield takes five minutes, and the system will not function if the user is wearing suit-grade armor. Lesser armor can usually be tailored to expose adequate amounts of skin.
• Therapeutic Control Dampers: A set of customized medical and therapeutic implants are used to control the side-effects of a partially-successful cyberware implant. For each implantation of this system, the user can choose to ignore one implant side-effect they currently suffer. The skill check to implant this system can fail, but it never induces any side effects on its own.
• Titan Gun System: Usable only by full body conversion cyborgs or subjects with a Strength score of 18, this mount allows the installation of any man-portable Heavy weapon such as those given in the Weapons section. The user counts as a stable firing rest, and the weapon has two integral magazines of ammo, though it can be loaded by hand as well. The specific weapon mounted can be swapped during maintenance.
• Viper Sting: A tool of assassins, a Viper Sting is a fang, fingernail needle, palm injector, or more exotic implement for injecting an unsuspecting target with a drug of the user’s choice. A Viper Sting can be loaded with up to four doses of pharmaceuticals, dispensed as the user wishes. If loaded with a toxin, it does 1d12 damage with a 1d10/x3 Trauma Die. If a tranquilizer is used, the damage is the same, but unconsciousness will result instead of death. A Viper Sting can only be effectively used as part of an Execution Attack, as an alert opponent can avoid it easily. This cyber inflicts a -2 penalty on any check to detect its presence.

3.6.7.2 Head Cyberware

• Courier Memory: One unit of cranial Memory is installed with a subdermal upload pad. The person uploading the data can set a passphrase; while the implant user can erase the data, they can’t download it again without the passphrase, which is usually told only to the data’s intended recipient. Courier memory is exceptionally well-hidden and even medical scans take a -2 penalty to find it.
• Cranial Jack: A discreetly-placed plug socket in the user’s head or neck allows interfacing with cyberdecks and gear equipped with a jack line. Cranial jacks can be modded with cyberdeck mods.
• Discretion Insurance Unit: A small cranial bomb that can be keyed go off when it receives- or does not receive- certain codes or transmissions. Its unfortunate tendency to misfire its anti-removal protocols makes it an unpopular choice for use in anyone but the most disposable subjects. Removing this cyber is done at a +2 difficulty, and failure causes the death of the subject and a Physical save to avoid the death of the physician, with 5d6 damage taken on success.
• Eye Mod/Dazzler: This mod can emit a dazzling strobe of intense light, dazing and disorienting those standing up to five meters in front of the user. The strobe is triggered up to once per round as an On Turn action and adds one System Strain. Victims without eye protection must make a Physical saving throw or take a -4 penalty to their AC and hit rolls for the next 1d6 rounds. A victim can be targeted by this dazzling only once per scene.
• Eye Mod/Flechette Launcher: A holdout weapon designed for surprise short-ranged attacks, this eye has been loaded with a small explosive flechette. It has the statistics of a light pistol, has a range of 10 meters, and requires a Main Action to reload its single-round magazine. If used against a target in melee range who does not suspect its existence, a normal hit roll is made; on a miss, it does full normal damage anyway, and on a hit, the damage is doubled. It can be used for Execution Attacks.
• Funes Complex: A synthetic eidetic memory is granted by this implant, with formalized bodies of knowledge easily cross-referenced and recollected. Once per day, as an Instant action, reroll any failed Int-based skill check. This memory can be difficult to control, however, and unwanted allusions can overwhelm the desired datum. If the user rolls a natural 2 on any Int skill check, it automatically fails and cannot be recovered by any rerolling ability.
• Medusa Implant: These prehensile cranial tendrils take multiple forms, from thick armored cables to bundles of brightly-colored articulated polymer fibers not unlike normal hair. The tendrils are shoulder-length under most circumstances, but can extend to manipulate objects up to three meters distant with the agility of a human hand. The bundles are not very strong, however, and cannot lift more than ten kilograms. Like other extra limbs, they do not grant extra actions, but can hold and use items as any other limb could.
• Neural Buffer: A system favored by hackers, a Neural Buffer rearranges the user’s brain topography, making it more difficult to harm the user with neural feedback. The user gains an additional 3 hit points per level that can only absorb cyberspace damage from Stun or Kill Verbs. These phantom hit points refresh completely each hour.
• Skull Citadel: The user’s head is augmented with independent blood oxygenation pumps, armor plating, and trauma buffers designed to keep the brain intact even after the rest of the body is critically damaged. Barring dismemberment or the use of high-powered ammunition directly on the target’s head, the subject ignores head-affecting Major Injuries and can be stabilized even as long as ten minutes after their technical “death”. Each such delayed revivification permanently reduces a randomly-chosen attribute by 2 points, however. This ability damage cannot be undone.

3.6.7.3 Skin Cyberware

• Dermal Armor I: Subtle dermal weave reinforcement grants a base ranged and melee AC of 16 and a +1 bonus to the user’s Trauma Target.
• Dermal Armor II: Heavier subcutaneous plating acts as Dermal Armor I with a base ranged and melee AC of 18. In addition, the user can ignore the first instance of Shock in a round.
• Dermal Armor III: Overt ceramic body plating and double-mesh joint reinforcement acts as Dermal Armor II, but with a base ranged and melee AC of 20 and +2 to the user’s Trauma Target.
• Poseidon Implants: These implants allow the user to function normally while submerged for an indefinite period, drawing any necessary oxygen or drinking water from the surrounding salt or freshwater. Normal temperature extremes are managed without difficulty, and pressure can be handled down to depths of one kilometer. Visual augments and pressure gradient sensors allow the equivalent of normal sight up to 30 meters even in lightless water, and miniaturized support jets allow three-dimensional movement at twice the user’s normal Move rating.
• Sealed Systems Implant: When triggered as an Instant action, implanted shields deploy and skinweaves energize to seal the user off from hostile external environments. For the next six hours, the user can operate as if wearing a vacuum suit, ignoring vacuum, contact poisons, non-immediately-lethal levels of radiation, toxic gases, low or high-pressure atmospheres, and environmental temperature hazards short of open flame. After deployment, the implant needs an equal time of recovery before it can be deployed again.
• Sharkskin Electrodes: An implanted mesh of electrodes beneath the user’s skin allows them to deliver debilitating shocks while grappling a target, even if both are heavily clothed. At the end of each round of grappling, the user inflicts 2d6 non-lethal electrical damage on anyone they grapple or who is grappling them. The shielding built into the cyber automatically negates non-lethal electrical damage for the user and halves lethal shocks.
• Skinmod: Various neon tattoos, skin texture and color changes, and other superficial physical mods can be performed with no real systemic burden beyond the usual need for regular maintenance.
• Skyborn Shielding: A set of implants and skin treatments meant for those who spend extended periods in hard vacuum, this implant can be triggered as an Instant action. When deployed, the user gains the benefits of a Sealed Systems Implant and low-G microjets that allow 30m/round flight in microgravity conditions. Skyborn Shielding can operate for up to 72 hours before needing an hour of downtime to regenerate.

3.6.7.4 Limb Cyberware

• Body Blades I: Assorted retractable blades and spikes are implanted in the user’s limbs. Their unarmed attacks do 1d8 damage, Shock of 2/15, Trauma Die 1d8/x3 and can be rolled with either Stab or Punch as the relevant combat skill. The Punch skill does not add damage to Body Blades attacks. When not in use, the blades are perceptible only to a medical scan.
• Body Blades II: As level one, but the user’s body armament includes not only conventional blades, but assorted improvements such as monomolecular edges, cutting vibrations, or thermal augmentation. Their unarmed attacks do 2d6 damage with a Shock of 4/15, and a Trauma Die 1d10/x3. Anyone who sees or touches their arms can detect signs of the cyber, however.
• Cyberlimb: A standard medical-grade cyberlimb, albeit one Encumbrance worth of non-weapon equipment or storage can be implanted in each limb and remain Readied without counting against the character’s Encumbrance. Add the equipment cost to the limb. The limb provides power to any electronic equipment implanted.
• Iron Hand Aegis: Absorption plates and kinetic ablation units are implanted in the user’s arms and linked with a reactive ballistic calculator. Once per scene, as an Instant action, the user can deflect a successful ranged bullet, arrow, or thrown weapon attack, including burst or suppressive fire. Surprise attacks cannot be deflected this way, nor can melee attacks or explosives.
• Limbgun: A ranged weapon is implanted into an arm, tail, or other significant limb, along with space for two magazines worth of ammunition. A full reload of this space can be accomplished as a Main Action. Limbguns can be used with Gunlink cyber, count as Readied at all times, and can be used even while both hands are occupied, but can be bound up in melee as normal guns can. Limbguns have an intrinsic +1 hit bonus, in addition to whatever bonus the implanted weapon may have. The maximum size of the gun is Encumbrance 1 for legs or neolimb tails, or Encumbrance 2 for arms. The buyer must supply the gun. Different guns can be swapped in as desired during the system’s monthly maintenance, but once implanted, a gun is useless for later conventional use.
• Muscle Fiber Replacement I: Artificial muscle fibers are implanted as replacements for the user’s own flesh. The subject gains a Strength score of 14, or +2 if already 14 or higher.
• Muscle Fiber Replacement II: The subject gains a Strength score of 18, and can smash through standard interior doors or equivalent barriers as a Move action.
• Neolimb: The user gains an additional limb that normal humans lack. Usual choices involve an additional pair of arms or manipulatory mechano-tentacles, though functional prehensile tails are popular too. One installation of the cyber covers paired limbs or a single tail or body-mounted tendril up to 3 meters long. Neolimbs can support up to one Encumbrance point of non-weaponry built-in tech and add two items to the user’s Readied encumbrance allowance. Neolimbs can hold or grip objects, but cannot employ additional shields or grant extra actions.
• Omnihand: A full array of small mechanical and electronic tools are folded into this cybernetic hand. The user is never without the tools for relevant skill checks, and once per day as an Instant action can gain +1 on any skill check involving the omnihand’s tool use. As an improvised weapon, the tools do damage as a knife.
• Shock Fists: The user’s hands are implanted with subdermal electrical webbing. As an Instant action, accept one System Strain; for the rest of the scene, the user’s unarmed attacks do an additional 1d8 electrical damage on a successful hit. Unarmed attacks augmented with this mod are non-lethal if desired. This system does not stack with Body Blades.
• Stick Pads: Macroscale van der Waals generators allow the user’s hands and feet to stick to vertical or overhanging surfaces, their full weight supported by one arm. They can climb such surfaces at their full movement rate with one free hand.
• Synthlimb: A high-grade cyberlimb that’s indistinguishable from an organic body part by anything short of a medical examination. It functions as a Cyberlimb for purposes of implanted equipment.

3.6.7.5 Sensory Cyberware

• Active Sense Processor: Augmented sensory processing grants a +1 Wisdom modifier for all skill checks involving sensing or noticing things, up to a +2 modifier maximum.
• Cyberears: While normal in appearance, touch reveals the synthetic nature of these ears. Some owners prefer to style them in fanciful or unnatural ways. While the base model provides only normal human hearing, all are equipped with ear protection against loud noises. A pair of cyberears or synthears halves the System Strain cost of ear implants.
• Cybereyes: While a single cybernetic eye can be implanted, it is recommended that both be replaced at the same time to improve neural adaptation. These cybereyes are clearly artificial, though most are styled in attractive or striking fashions. They all have perfect 20/20 vision and integral flash protectors, but additional functionality must be implanted separately. A user with a pair of cybereyes or syntheyes halves the System Strain cost of cybernetic eye implants.
• Ear Mod/Filter: The user’s sense of hearing is sharpened remarkably, allowing them to follow individual conversations in a noisy crowd, eavesdrop on whispers up to twenty meters distant, and gain a +2 bonus on all hearing-related Notice checks.
• Ear Mod/Positional Detection: This ear mod constructs a spatial map of significant surrounding sounds, allowing the user to know the exact location of anything making audible noise. The precise location of distant shooters, the location of targets in visual concealment, and the positions of moving creatures in darkness are all clear.
• Ear Mod/Sonar: The user can navigate even in darkness or while blinded by means of ultrasonic sensors, being able to construct a crude map of people and obstacles in front of them out to 20 meters. This sense is the equivalent of vision, though it can’t discern details more subtle than faces.
• Ear Mod/Tracer: As an On Turn action, the user can nominate a target within 20 meters. Until they get more than 100 meters away from the user or pass behind a solid barrier, the implant’s hyper-specific hearing can track their motions perfectly and overhear anything they say or that is said to them. The user can listen to one such target at a time.
• Eye Mod/Impostor: Aside from allowing free alteration of eye color, this mod allows the user to copy another person’s retinal patterns. Provided they are within two meters, they need only meet the user’s gaze for a few moments to get a good imprint. The eye can store up to a dozen imprints, but it takes a Main Action to shift from one to another. Note that it is a relatively simple procedure to alter a person’s retinal pattern, so an important target alerted to the imposture may end up changing their imprint.
• Eye Mod/Infrared Vision: The infrared vision this mod allows permits basic navigation in dark areas and makes the presence of heat sources such as humans, engines, and infrared tripwires very obvious. The user gains a +1 bonus on any Notice checks to detect the presence of thermally-unshielded living creatures.
• Eye Mod/Low Light Vision: This mod grants low-light vision, allowing clear sight to normal distances in any light condition better than pitch blackness.
• Eye Mod/Tactical View: These eyes can receive text or video transmissions and play them on an inset in the user’s normal vision. Outline and pattern discrimination is enhanced; when specifically looking for things or keeping watch, gain a +1 bonus to any relevant Notice check.
• Eye Mod/Zoom: The user’s vision can zoom in on distant targets. The user can see objects within 500 meters as if they were standing next to them. The hit penalty for a ranged weapon’s long range is eliminated.
• Gunlink: Hardwired control points interface with the onboard targeting systems of most modern firearms. When using a modern firearm, the PC ignores range penalties and negates up to 2 points of hit penalties for cover, concealment, or prone targets. Once per scene, as an Instant action, they can reroll a missed attack roll with a gun.
• Headcomm: An implanted phone/short-range radio that can directly communicate within 100 meters or use the phone grid, if it’s available. For cranial security reasons, only text and voice can be transmitted, but conversations can be held without audible vocalization.
• Sensory Recorder: The user can record up to 180 minutes of sensory input. If they have a jack line into a transmitter or cyberware capable of transmitting data, they can share these recordings in real time or afterwards.
• Synthears: This model of artificial ear is designed to be indistinguishable from normal ears, though they have all the properties of a normal pair of cyberears.
• Syntheyes: These high-end cybereyes are designed to be indistinguishable from normal eyes under anything short of a medical examination. Any additional mods made to the eyes share this subtlety

3.6.7.6 Medical Cyberware

• Prosthetic Cyber I: One of an array of minimally-adequate and very obvious organ replacements, eye prosthetics, neural patches, and other medical cyber. Prosthetic cyber grants no benefits over ordinary flesh, but can mitigate a Major Injury as explained on page 41. Patients who’ve lost an arm or leg don’t need this cyber; they need a serviceable new limb system such as a Cyberlimb or Synthlimb.
• Prosthetic Cyber II: A more sophisticated and expensive version of basic prosthetic cyber, inobvious to anything but a medical scan and far less burdensome on the user’s system.
• Regulated Anagathic Substrate: This whole-body network of chem regulators can prolong human lifespans by up to 1d4+2 decades. Maintenance on this cyber costs $50,000 a month, however, and interruptions have catastrophic consequences. Rumors persist of even more effective models existing among the megacorp ultra-elite.

3.6.7.7 Nerve Cyberware

• Coordination Augment I: The user’s natural mind-body interface is tightened. The subject gains a Dexterity score of 14, or +2 if already 14 or higher.
• Coordination Augment II: As Coordination Augment I, but the subject gains a Dexterity score of 18, and their base Move rate is increased by 10 meters.
• Enhanced Reflexes I: Neural acceleration matrices can be deployed to briefly boost the user’s reaction speed. Once per scene, as an On Turn action, the user gets a bonus non-cyberspace Main Action.
• Enhanced Reflexes II: Once per scene, as an On Turn action, the user gains a bonus non-cyberspace Main Action and Move action. By accepting one System Strain, this ability can be used as an Instant action, potentially interrupting incoming attacks if the user moves out of reach.
• Enhanced Reflexes III: Twice per scene, as an On Turn action up to once per round, the user gains a bonus non-cyberspace Main Action and bonus Move Action. By accepting one System Strain, this ability can be used as an Instant action.
• Reaction Booster I: These implants grant a +2 bonus to your Initiative, perhaps making you act before the rest of your team. Once per scene, as an Instant action, ignore Snap Attack hit penalties.
• Reaction Booster II: As level one, but the user automatically wins initiative against targets that don’t also automatically win initiative; if both have this ability, initiative is rolled without modifications. The user can act normally during surprise rounds.
• Remote Control Unit: A neurally-integrated control link allows for near-range control of drones or remote-rigged vehicles, as per the drone control rules.
• Skillplug Jack I: A discreet head-mounted plug port allows use of an intellectual skillplug for a skill requiring minimal physical ability, up to level-1. Once slotted, a skillplug takes fifteen minutes to boot up and integrate properly.
• Skillplug Jack II: This improved plug jack allows use of either an intellectual skillplug or one requiring physical expertise, up to level-1.
• Skillplug Wiring: A neural wiring connection improves a skillplug jack’s limits to allow up to level-3 skill usage. One set of wires can support any number of jacks, but at least one is needed.
• Trajectory Optimization Node: This cyber can calculate the optimal path for bypassing defenses and striking a target. Once per scene, as an Instant action, turn a missed hit roll into a success. Melee and unarmed attacks can be used as-is, but using this unit with a ranged attack requires an active Gunlink with the weapon.
• Zombie Wires: Functioning only for a user with at least one Body cybersystem to serve as a motor substrate, “zombie wires” allow a user to keep functioning even at zero hit points. As an Instant action at zero hit points, the user can give their body a one-sentence command involving physical action. Their insensate flesh will blindly carry out that action for up to six rounds until it is complete or they take up to one quarter of their maximum hit points in further damage, which will kill them instantly. Time spent under Zombie Wires counts against a user’s stabilization time limit. Triggering this cyber adds 2 System Strain.

3.6.8 Cyberware Alienation

In the default cyber rules, chrome does not cause dramatic psychological changes in of itself. The new senses, capabilities, and needs of the cyber may have consequences on a user’s thinking, but these changes aren’t reified in game mechanics. This works for many cyberpunk settings, but some GMs prefer to use worlds where replacing half your brain with wiring makes you considerably less human in your thinking.

In these settings, cyber causes a progressive distancing of the user from the normal human condition. The constant barrage of synthetic nerve impulses, hormonal modifications, and neural compromises necessary to integrate cold metal with living flesh forces an adaptation process not unlike the creation of psychological scar tissue. The user must adapt to these alterations in ways that are not always rational, productive, or non-homicidal.

This adaptation is called Alienation, and it’s counted in points much like System Strain. A user’s total begins at zero and they gain points as they add cybernetics. If these points ever exceed the user’s Wisdom score, they break down entirely and become an NPC, incapable of functioning in a human society.

3.6.8.1 Gaining and Losing Alienation

Campaigns that involve cybernetic alienation do so under three particular rules.

When a user adds a cybernetic system, they gain permanent Alienation equal to its System Strain cost, rounded up to the nearest whole number. If it’s Nerve cyberware, this total is increased by +2 per system. Mods or Focus abilities that lower the System Strain cost of a mod can also lower its Alienation cost, as the system is made less intrusive or more finely-tuned to the user. Eye or ear mods discounted by cybereyes or cyberears still round up to 1 Alienation each, however.

Users can also gain Alienation if they fail an Alienation check as described below. Their failure has aggravated their psychological condition, and they’re forced to deal with the fallout and contain the influence of their chrome on their thinking. This added Alienation might push the total above their maximum, causing an incapacitating cyber-induced psychosis.

When a user fights their chrome syndromes and tries to behave in ways contrary to them, they may be forced to check for Alienation. To do so, the user rolls 1d20; if the result is equal or less than their current Alienation, they gain one point. If this pushes them over their maximum allowed Alienation, they make a Mental save; on success, they pick a new chrome syndrome, and on a failure they immediately suffer CIP.

To lose Alienation, the user must spend a week in therapy with a skilled cyberpsychologist or another PC with Talk-1 and Heal-1 skills. NPCs usually charge about $2,000 a week for this service. At the end, the user’s Alienation score drops by one point. It cannot drop below the permanent Alienation induced by their cyberware. Removing cyberware will lower this minimum.

3.6.8.2 Cyber-Induced Psychosis

A subject whose Alienation score rises above their Wisdom attribute score breaks down entirely, becoming enslaved to their existing adaptations. They become a GM-controlled NPC who acts solely to fulfill the impulses of any chrome syndromes they may have with no regard for law, morality, or long-term prudence.

The only way to rescue a CIP victim is to subdue them and bring them in for cyberpsychological therapy as described above. All cyber must be removed save for medically-necessary prostheses and the therapist must get their Alienation below their Wisdom attribute. If they can do so, the victim makes a Mental saving throw with a bonus equal to the therapist’s best Heal or Talk skill level. On a success, they regain their reason. On a failure, they are hopelessly and permanently compromised.

3.6.8.3 Chrome Syndromes

Very few cyber addicts leap directly to CIP. Most make progressively-larger accommodation to the demands of the cyber in their bodies, dealing with its quirks or demands in various maladaptive ways. These adaptations are referred to as “chrome syndromes”, and have some common typologies.

A PC can pick one or more chrome syndromes to accept any time they get new cyber. The various syndromes are described in their most common forms, but the GM can allow a PC to pick any syndrome they can reasonably explain as being related to their new cyber; it may be that someone’s new reflex aug feels so good to use that they become Ravenous for street racing, or their dermal armor leaves them feeling half-monstrous and Distant from normal humans.

Each chrome syndrome increases the user’s effective Alienation maximum by a certain number of points. Thus, a PC who becomes Distant can add 3 points to their allowed maximum Alienation. The same syndrome cannot be picked twice.

The only way to get rid of a chrome syndrome is to uninstall the cyber that induced it and get therapy to eliminate any Alienation its installation caused. The user can never re-install that specific cyber system.

Several example chrome syndromes are described below.

• Brutal: Your hardware isn’t meant to be restrained. It hurts to leave the limiters on; the confirmation prompts keep blaring in your brain and it feels like you’re suffocating when you don’t let them work according to spec. Sub-optimal performance feels like something sharp digging in your head. Effect: You cannot engage in non-lethal combat, though you don’t necessarily need to coup de grace downed foes. Check for Alienation each round you attack someone with non-lethal intent.
• Candid: The processors feed you information so quickly and so smoothly that your meat brain barely has time to process it. If you try to slow it down, it hurts, so it’s easier to just let it run. Effect: You instinctively answer any question with at least one sentence of truthful reply. Check for Alienation if you try to remain silent or avert this instinct for a scene.
• Cold: The hormonal adjustments are fraying your ability to form emotional bonds with others. You intellectually may know they love you and you may have every reason to love them, but it’s a distant abstraction to you. It’s not a real feeling, like the hate, or lust, or longing that still sometimes sparks in you. You stick with your friends out of habit or rational calculation. Effect: You are unable to feel love or affection for others. Lose your closest Contact.
• Distant: Everything’s so much clearer with the augs. You can see what you need to do, to say, to be, while those around you wallow in weak, fleshly delusion. Dealing with them is so very tiresome. Effect: Take a -1 penalty to all social skill checks.
• Exultant: The chrome is perfect. If it breaks, you can just fix it. If you break, you can just get more chrome. You can’t be beaten, not for long, because the metal can do anything. Effect: Your overconfidence causes an automatic, unavoidable skill failure on a natural skill roll of 12.
• Fearless: The combat augs are great for suppressing fear. Honestly, it feels so good that you just leave them on all the time. Being able to live your life without worry or anxiety is such a tremendous relief, even if it sometimes makes you overlook some things. Effect: Your maximum HP is decreased by 20%, rounded down, because your survival instincts are dulled. If an NPC, your Morale is 12.
• Hypervigilant: Can’t sleep. Wireless push updates will eat me. Effect: Gain one permanent System Strain point due to persistent insomnia.
• Murderous: You were wired to kill, and you can’t turn it off. The longer between kills, the more everything starts looking like a weapon, and everyone starts looking like a throat to cut. When it gets really bad, the wires won’t let you think of anything but your real purpose, what you made yourself to be. Effect: Must personally kill at least one person a week, or check for Alienation for each day beyond without a murder.
• Ravenous: These senses are incredible; you’re seeing, or hearing, or feeling things human meat was never meant to experience. You want more, you need more, and you’ll do anything to get it. Effect: Pick a sensory vice. Check for Alienation each time you resist an easy opportunity to indulge it. Pay $100 per total permanent Alienation point per week in feeding it or check for Alienation.
• Savage: Your cyber is telling you to kill. It’s constantly reminding you of active enemies or weak points on targets, and you have to keep rejecting confirmation prompts for killing blows. It’s only letting you think about trajectories and kill counts, about threats and unfinished terminations. You can’t think with a live enemy around. Effect: You can’t run from combat after you’ve suffered hit point damage in it. If you choose to flee, check for Alienation.
• Secretive: Your social protocols know best. They’re telling you not to say that, warning you that you’ll ruin everything if you admit it. You’re supposed to say something better, something more appropriate, and the prompts keep screaming at you if you try to defy them. Effect: You cannot entirely truthfully answer any question that doesn’t relate to common knowledge or your wishes in a business transaction. If you do so, check for Alienation for each topic that’s truthfully discussed in a scene.
• Stressed: The hardware is getting in the way of the wetware. The demands are aggravating an already weakened system, and it can’t take the strain. Effect: Your lowest attribute suffers a -1 modifier penalty, to a minimum of -3. If multiple attributes tie, pick one.

3.7.0 Cyberdecks

These laptop-sized computers range from scrap-built makeshifts to cutting edge hardware stolen from the very best corps. All of them have certain important qualities.

Bonus Access reflects the onboard intrusion hardware integral to the deck. It augments the user’s base Access score, which is equal to their Intelligence modifier plus their Program skill plus this bonus Access.

Memory is the number of memory units standard to the deck. Most programs and paydata files take up one unit of memory. Erasing a program from memory is an Instant action, but loading it off a program chip takes fifteen minutes to complete all its linkages.

Shielding is the amount of buffer circuitry and hardwired signal damping the deck can use to lessen incoming damage to the user. Hit point losses inflicted by the Stun or Kill program Verbs deplete the deck’s Shielding before affecting the user. Shielding regenerates after fifteen minutes of calm.

CPU indicates the number of programs the deck can run at once. Some programs are Immediate, and self-terminate right after executing, while others are Ongoing, and take up a CPU slot until terminated as an Instant action.

3.7.1 Cyberdeck Mods

Cyberdeck mods use the same modding rules as given in section 2.8.2, with each deck mod counting against the tech’s Maintenance score.

Prices are given as percentages of the original deck’s unmodified cost; the more sophisticated the deck, the more expensive it is to improve it. Unless specified otherwise, a deck mod can be applied only once to a given deck.

• Bespoke Code Optimization (Fix-1): Pick one Verb and one Subject when installing this mod; those utilities occupy no Memory and one instance of that Verb-Subject program doesn’t count against its CPU burden. Costs 20% of the base deck cost.
• Buffer Circuits (Fix-1): Add 5 points to the deck’s Shielding rating. Costs 20% of the base deck cost.
• CPU Overclocking (Fix-2): Add one to the deck’s CPU rating. Costs 30% of the base deck cost.
• Memory Expansion (Fix-1): Add four units of Memory to the deck. Costs 20% of the base deck cost.
• Polymorphic Intrusion Algorithms (Fix-1): Add one to the unit’s Bonus Access but subtract one from its CPU rating. Costs 10% of the base deck cost.
• Skeletal Case (Fix-1): The deck’s Encumbrance value is decreased by 1, but its Memory suffers a -2 penalty. Costs 10% of the base deck cost.
• Thermal Exhaust Case (Fix-2): The deck’s Encumbrance value is increased by 1, but its CPU value increases by 1 as well. Costs 30% of the base deck cost.

3.8.0 Drones

Small wheeled, rotored, or even aquajet-driven drones are common tools for modern operatives.

Most operators rely on man-portable drones that can be carried in packs or specially-designed harnesses. These portable drones require a Main Action to unpack and deploy before they can be commanded, in addition to any action necessary to get at a Stowed item.

Once a drone has been deployed, the user must bring it online and ready for command using a control board or a Remote Control Unit cybersystem. This takes both a Main and a Move action on the user’s part. Once it’s been brought up, the drone can be commanded until it’s packed again, which requires a Main Action.

A controlled drone automatically relays audiovisual sensor data back to the control board or Remote Control Unit cyber being used to control it. A pilot can see and hear what their drones see and hear. Default sensors are as acute as normal human senses.

Flying drones operate by means of rotors and directed thrust and can hover in place. Ground-based drones can navigate stairs and other obstacles that human legs could manage. The noise made during operation is no louder than speech.

Flying drones have an operational altitude maximum of 1,000 meters, and all drones have a safe default control range of 1,000 meters. Beyond this range, control signal latency leaves them critically vulnerable to modern signal hijacking tech; all wireless hack or jamming attempts against them are automatically successful. Their theoretical maximum control range is 8,000 meters.

Drones operate for one hour on a full battery charge. They do not have swappable batteries, and require one hour of charging per Encumbrance, or six hours at most.

3.8.1 Common Drones

Most drone statistics are self-explanatory; they have an Armor Class against both ranged and melee attacks, a Trauma Target against weapons capable of inflicting Traumatic Hits on it, a Move rate that is either ground-based, flying, or swimming, and a hit point total that can be depleted to destroy them.

Fittings indicates the maximum number of drone fittings that can be mounted on the drone.

Hardpoints are the number of ranged weapons that can be mounted on the drone. Drones with a base, unmodified Encumbrance of 3 or less can mount only pistol-sized weapons, while larger man-portable drones can mount rifle-sized ones. Non-portable drones can mount heavy weapons that the GM finds plausible. Melee weapons cannot be practically mounted on a drone, and swapping weapons takes a day in the shop.

Weapons mounted on a hardpoint include one magazine of ammo. If more is needed, the Ammo Supply fitting is required.

3.8.2 Drone Mods

These mods require that the tinkerer have both Fix and Drive skill, as the adjustments require a keen understanding of their practical consequences on handling and operation.

Mods require upkeep and count against the tech’s Maintenance total. Unless specified otherwise, a given mod can only be applied once. Drone mods don’t need special components.

• Additional Fitting (Fix-1 & Drive-1): Careful optimization of power lines and chassis reinforcement allows for adding an additional fitting to the drone. Man-portable drones add one point of Encumbrance, though this doesn’t affect their maximum hardpoint weapon size. The cost is 50% of the drone’s base cost.
• Additional Hardpoint (Fix-1 & Drive-1): By rearranging wiring, adding mass, and overriding safety protocols, an additional hardpoint can be added to a drone. This mod adds one point of Encumbrance to portable drones, though this doesn’t affect their maximum weapon size. The cost is 50% of the drone’s base cost plus the weapon.
• Battery Swapping (Fix-1 & Drive-1): Replacing proprietary battery systems with off-the-shelf models allows man-portable drones to have their battery swapped with a minute of work. Backup batteries cost 10% of the drone’s base cost and count as Enc 1 items, and this mod itself costs 10% of the drone’s base cost.
• Boosted Engine (Fix-1 & Drive-2): The drone’s engines are tuned to optimize speed, increasing its Move rate by 10m. It costs 25% of the drone’s base cost.
• Heavy Plating (Fix-1 & Drive-2): Strategic armor reinforcement improves its base AC by 2, but decreases its Move rate by 5m. It also increases its effective Encumbrance by 1 if it’s man-portable. The cost is 25% of the drone’s base cost.
• Quick Launch (Fix-1 & Drive-2): A packed man-portable drone is modified to deploy itself as an On Turn action by its controller instead of a Main Action, even if it’s currently Stowed. The cost is 10% of the drone’s base cost.
• Redundant Systems (Fix-2 & Drive-2): Careful duplication of critical systems increases the drone’s hit points by 25% of its unmodified base score, rounded up. The extra mass increases the Encumbrance of man-portable drones by 1. The cost is 50% of the drone’s base cost.
• Stripped Fittings (Fix-2 & Drive-1): Mass and power allocated to a man-portable drone’s fittings are removed. The drone’s maximum fitting total is decreased by 1 and its Encumbrance rating is reduced by 1, to a minimum of 1. The cost is 10% of the drone’s base cost.

3.8.3 Drone Fittings

Each of the fittings below counts as one choice against a given drone model’s maximum fittings. Prices for adding a fitting are given as a percentage of the drone’s base cost. Most of these fittings can be installed only once on any given drone, though a few specifically allow multiple installations.

• Ablative Code Buffer: Numerous self-correcting backup circuits are wired in to delay any hostile hacking intrusions. The drone automatically succeeds on the first opposed skill check made against a hostile hacker in a given scene.
• Altitude Boost Unit: Most flying drones have an effective ceiling of 1,000 meters if there are no scramblers to lessen the effective control range. This unit increases a flying drone’s maximum altitude to 5,000 meters, making most effectively invisible to ordinary sight. Such height does, however, make it extremely conspicuous to aerial scanners used by city law enforcement and high-security corp buildings. The speed of their response will depend on the drone’s apparent threat.
• Ammo Caddy: A specialized form of cargo space, this drone is able to carry and dispense substantial amounts of ammunition to adjacent allies. It can hold up to 6 fully-loaded magazines in quick-release clips that can be grabbed as On Turn actions by an ally. The clips remain locked for strangers. This fitting can be taken up to once per two points of the drone’s Encumbrance, rounded up.
• Ammo Supply: An automated ammo feeder is added to the drone. Two full magazines are added to one mounted weapon’s allotment, or one magazine to two weapons. This fitting can be added more than once.
• Assisted Boost Burner: The drone is equipped with reactive chemical booster that can be ignited to give it a very brief burst of tremendous speed. When activated as a Move action, the burner launches the drone up to 500 meters in a straight line. The boost is not precise enough to use as an aimed weapon, but solid obstacles in front of the drone will suffer half the drone’s HP in damage and inflict all of theirs on the drone. The burner functions only once before it require a scene to regenerate its charge.
• Cargo Space: Most drones are designed to carry only their own weight. This fitting upgrades engines and adds cargo mounts to the drone’s exterior; it can carry up to 3 points of Encumbrance now, but the drone’s own Encumbrance value is increased by one. Any additional cargo it carries is added to this burden, of course. Carried cargo is sealed within the drone and requires a Main Action to dig out.
• Command Deck/Follow: The drone is equipped with minimal autonomous pursuit capabilities. As a Main Action, the drone can be ordered to follow a particular visible target at a given distance at either half or full speed. If half speed, it will use its Move action to follow, and full speed will use both Move and Main Actions. Following can be ended as an On Turn command.
• Command Deck/Kill: The drone has autonomous attack routines wired into it. As a Main Action, it can be ordered to kill one specific visible target. If the target is in range of its weapons, it will use its Main Action to attack; if no additional fittings are added, its autonomous attacks have a total hit bonus of +2. The drone will not automatically move to follow or engage its target or otherwise position itself tactically unless directly piloted to do so or operating under the Follow command.
• Command Deck/Patrol: As a Main Action, the drone can be ordered to autonomously move to one or more waypoints on whatever schedule the pilot wishes. The drone can also be ordered to loiter at a particular location until it gets an On Turn command to proceed to the next location.
• Command Deck/Watch: The drone is equipped to monitor its surroundings autonomously and alert its pilot when something of interest is noticed. Its onboard intelligence is limited, however, and it can only handle about a sentence’s worth of specific orders or subjects to be watchful for. Putting a drone in Watch mode is a command that takes a Main Action.
• Emergency Evac Litter: Functioning only for ground-based drones of Enc 3 or greater, the drone is equipped with a retractable litter that can fit one human patient, along with manipulators sufficient to get a prone victim onto the litter with a Main Action. Onboard meds allow for remote Heal skill checks to stabilize a Mortally Wounded target, with one attempt allowed as part of the loading action. A loaded patient can’t be harmed until the drone is destroyed or opens the litter, but if the drone dies, the patient does too. As a Main Action, the drone can be ordered to autonomously take the patient to a particular location. As an On Turn action, an onboard transmitter can also place a call for medical assistance to a pre-arranged number.
• Emissions Shielding: The drone is designed to minimize its electromagnetic emissions and thermal signature. Skill checks to spot it with such sensors suffer a -2 penalty.
• Enhanced Structure: The drone’s maximum hit points increase by 25% of its unmodified base, rounded up. As with Improved Armor, this fitting is ineffective on drones that aren’t man-portable.
• Extended Range: The drone can now operate for two hours on a full battery charge.
• Glider Grips: Usable only by flying drones of Enc 3 size or greater, this fitting allows a human-sized mass to use the drone as a form of parachute-glider. As a Main Action, a user can leap off a high place after grabbing the drone and descend safely to the ground at a distance as far from the initial point as that point was above the ground. Similar weights can be sent safely to the ground in the same way.
• Improved Armor: The drone’s AC improves by 2, to a maximum of 18, but its Encumbrance rating increases by one. This fitting is ineffective on drones too big to have an Encumbrance rating; they need vehicle-grade armor upgrades.
• Improved Targeting Logic: This unit allows a skilled drone pilot to tweak the combat logic of its onboard weaponry. The drone’s attack gains a hit bonus equal to the pilot’s Drive or Program skill level when firing autonomously; no bonus is given if the pilot is in direct control.
• Laser Comms: This fitting provides both a set of universal transceiver plug-ins and a laser comm hub for the drone. Provided the PCs are in line of sight of the drone, normal radio-wave based comms can be switched to lasers, providing uncrackable, electromagnetically-inaudible communications within the group. Radio comms can still be used as needed.
• Manipulator Tendrils: One set of manipulators is added to the drone, whether a mechanical claw, an articulated metal tendril, or some other device. With a Main Action command from the pilot, it can function as a single human hand with an effective Strength of 12, but it cannot effectively be used for an attack or to lift anything heavier than the drone itself. The fitting can carry things for short distances, but to haul weight any real distance the Cargo Space fitting is required. This fitting can be added more than once if a pair of “hands” are needed.
• Memory Banks: The drone has two units of cyberdeck Memory added to it. While this Memory can be used to store hacker programs or datafiles, it also has room to record up to a week of audiovisual data per unit used. This fitting can be added more than once.
• No Touch Web: Most commonly installed on small ground drones, this web can be armed as a Main Action by the pilot. Until disarmed, any attempt to grab or pick up the drone automatically inflicts 2d6 non-lethal electrical damage on the grabber. This shock continues each round as long as the drone is held, with up to 5 discharges total before the battery must be recharged. The firm contact required makes it impractical to use the web as an offensive weapon.
• Sleep Mode: Sleep mode can be enabled with a Main Action command or ended with an On Turn command. While in sleep mode, a drone cannot fly, move, or perform actions, but it will continue to communicate with the pilot and observe its surroundings. A day of sleep mode counts as ten minutes of ordinary operation for battery drain purposes.
• Stealth Package: Usable only on drones of Enc 3 or smaller, this fitting adds color-changing drone sheathing, noise damping, and thermal sealing to the unit. It gains an effective Sneak-1 skill when operating autonomously, or a +2 bonus to Sneak checks when being directly piloted.
• Suicide Charge: With a Main Action command to detonate, the drone will explode, doing 3d6 damage to anyone within ten meters, with an Evasion save for half. Subjects behind solid cover further halve the damage. Drones reduced to zero hit points are too badly damaged to respond to detonation commands.
• Telescopic Optics: The drone can focus on objects up to one kilometer away with a visual acuity sufficient to read a newspaper. Integral low-light sensors allow it to see in all but total darkness.
• Thermal Optics: The drone is equipped with IR optics that can see heat patterns. The drone can function adequately even in complete darkness and grants the pilot a +1 bonus to Notice skill checks where thermal imaging might be useful.
• Trauma Response Suite: An array of injectors, scalpels, sutures, and trauma chems are built into the drone, allowing it to function as a medkit and make Heal skill checks for a medically-competent pilot or an on-site doc in need of a kit. Such medical efforts require a Main Action from the pilot as usual, and flying drones apply a -2 penalty to the skill check due to their innate instability. Up to six pharmaceutical doses of the pilot’s choice can be loaded into the drone.
• Voice Broadcast: The pilot can speak through the drone or cause it to emit other noises at a volume loud enough to be heard clearly a hundred meters away.
• Wallcrawler: Usable only on ground-based drones of Enc 3 or less, this fitting allows the drone to climb sheer surfaces at its normal movement rate, assuming the surface is sturdy enough to bear its weight. Most high-security buildings are constructed with veneers that defeat this fitting, but ordinary structures seldom have such measures.
• Weapon Hardpoint: Drones that are not factory-equipped with weapon hardpoints can have one worked in as an aftermarket addition. The usual hardpoint limits on maximum allowed weapon size still apply, however, and this fitting counts as two for purposes of the drone’s maximum fittings.

3.8.4 Drone Operation

Operating a drone can be done either with the control board that comes with the drone or with a specialized Remote Control Unit cyber system. In both cases, at least Drive-0 skill is needed to operate drones effectively.

A control board can command one drone at a time. The user suffers a -2 penalty on all hit rolls and skill checks made by the drone. If the user has a cranial jack and plugs into the board, this penalty is eliminated. A control board takes up 1 Encumbrance and must be Readied to use.

A Remote Control Unit can command a number of drones at once equal to one plus the user’s Drive skill. It grants the user a bonus Move action each round that can only be used to command drones. If the user pushes the system and accepts a System Strain point, this bonus Move action is upgraded to a Main Action.

Drones can be operated relatively securely at a distance of up to 1,000 meters, with flying drones having a maximum altitude of 1,000 meters as well. Beyond one kilometer, signal latency makes it trivially easy to hijack the control signal with modern wifi sniffers. Any hack or jamming attempt on a drone beyond this range is automatically successful. If the operator is willing to risk this, drones can function at a maximum range of 8,000 meters.

3.8.4.1 Controlling Drones

Pilots use their own actions to drive their drones. If the pilot wants the drone to take a Move action, they need to spend a Move action piloting it in the desired direction. If they want it to fire its guns, they need to spend their own Main Action performing the attack.

A drone under autonomous command, such as with the Command Deck/Kill fitting, can perform a maximum of one Main and one Move action per round, and will use those actions to carry out its last command. In case of conflicting autonomous imperatives, the latest one overrides earlier ones.

Any attacks the drone makes are performed with the operator’s hit bonus plus the better of their Drive or Program skills, modified by Int or Dex. If the drone is autonomous, it usually has a native +2 bonus.

Any skill checks the drone makes are performed with the operator’s skill level, up to a maximum of the pilot’s Drive skill. They may be a master infiltrator with Sneak-4, but if they’ve only got Drive-0 skill they can exert only Sneak-0 through the drone.

Drones cut off from control by jamming or operator abandonment or incapacitation do nothing, not even performing autonomous commands. Flying drones automatically land where they are.

3.8.4.2 Common Drone Actions

When in doubt, a GM can simply assign a drone action the same cost as they would the same action performed by a PC. However, some common actions have special cases for drones and are listed as such below.

• Attack (Main Action): The drone fires all of its onboard weapons, selecting targets for each individually. The pilot may direct one attack, adding their base attack bonus modified by Int or Dex and the better of their Drive or Program skills; all others fire at the drone’s usual attack bonus of +2.
• Move (Move Action): The drone moves its normal movement rate. Flying drones can hover, and ground drones can navigate rough terrain just as a human would, moving at half their usual rate. Prudent placement may grant a drone the benefits of cover or concealment, but they can’t go Prone.
• Assume Command (Main and Move Actions): A pilot who needs to assume command of one of their newly-deployed drones can do so by taking both a Main and Move action to shift the signal. Uncommanded drones remain inert and will not act autonomously. Dropping control to free up the pilot’s attention is an On Turn action.
• Halt Autonomous Mode (On Turn): An active autonomous command such as Kill or Follow can be stopped with this action, the drone doing nothing until a new command is issued.
• Grab a Drone (Main Action): Man-portable drones can be grabbed by assailants in melee range. This counts as a grappling attempt with a hit roll required, but the drone automatically fails any Exert skill checks to resist. A grappled drone is helpless while the grip is maintained.

3.8.4.3 Drone Damage and Repair

A drone reduced to zero hit points has been destroyed, and cannot be repaired. Any cargo it might have been carrying has almost certainly been smashed as well.

Repairing a portable drone requires a suitable toolkit, Fix-0 skill, and a supply of spare parts. Non-portable drones require a full workshop. Repairs take one hour of work.

Spare parts for a drone cost 25% of the drone’s base cost. As manufacturers make a point of not building cross-compatible components, each model of drone requires its own supply of parts. These parts are sufficient to repair any reasonable amount of damage, though more than one or two full rebuilds may cause the GM to rule that they’ve run out.

Spare parts for a portable drone take up 3 Encumbrance. Parts for a non-portable drone are too bulky to be reasonably man-portable.

3.9.0 Vehicles

A fast set of wheels is necessary for many missions. The vehicles below are a selection of some of the more common options in a city.

A vehicle’s qualities are measured by certain statistics. Some are self-explanatory, such as the Hit Points of damage it can take before being rendered inoperable or the Armor Class that must be hit with a melee or ranged weapon in order to damage it.

Speed is a combination of the vehicle’s overall speed, maneuverability, and capability for handling bad terrain. It’s added to any vehicle-related skill checks the driver might make with it.

Armor indicates the vehicle’s general toughness and resistance to damage, as explained in the vehicle combat rules.

Trauma Target is the vehicle’s target number for Trauma Die rolls by weapons capable of inflicting Traumatic Hits on such a vehicle.

Crew is the maximum number of people the vehicle is intended to carry, including the driver. More might be wedged into a truck bed or strapped to a roof rack, but they are very likely to be thrown free during sharp maneuvers.

Power and Mass measure the amount of additional fittings that can be mounted on the vehicle. Added hardware takes up electrical and computing Power, and it can’t be fitted without enough free Mass.

Size is the general size class of the vehicle, whether small-sized like a motorcycle, medium like a car, small helicopter, or SUV, or large like a flatbed truck or tank. Some vehicle fittings can only be installed on vehicles of a certain size or larger.

Hardpoints are the number of Heavy weapons the vehicle can mount in its factory configuration. Vehicle combat is detailed in its own section, but every gun requires a gunner, and even a jacked-in driver is hard-pressed to shoot and drive at the same time.

@: This vehicle cannot be obtained without a suitable Contact or related adventure
*: This vehicle is immune to anything short of a Heavy weapon or one that can inflict Traumatic Hits on vehicles.
**: This vehicle is immune to anything the GM thinks could not reasonably harm the tank in question. It can suffer Traumatic Hits from a weapon if the GM thinks it reasonable for the weapon and circumstances.

• Motorcycle: Fast, cheap, and nimble, both gangers and operators find these vehicles handy for making escapes down alleys and over terrain that larger vehicles can’t navigate.
• Microlight Flyer: One of a class of featherlight aircraft, a flyer is woven of the lightest, thinnest, strongest materials available at its price point, and can provide cheap aerial recon or transit over rough terrain for its single occupant. Such flyers are light enough to be broken down into components that can be easily transported by a pickup truck.
• Car: An urban luxury, private cars are for the middle class and better, or those rough-edged slum entrepreneurs who are clever enough to keep some salvaged hulk running. This vehicle class also includes small pickup trucks and SUVs.
• Truck: More commonly found among corp employees, these flatbed trucks, delivery vans, panel vans, and other large work vehicles earn their keep in a hundred ways each day.
• Helicopter: A typical civilian helicopter, used for elite transit between city districts or the quick dispatch of personnel to some hotspot. Their ability to weave through the obstacles of urban high-rises is sometimes valuable when evading hostile pursuit.
• Tank: A military classic, this model is relatively low-tech but more than enough to deal with any civilian vehicle. Tanks are seldom found in urban areas without a protective screen of infantry to keep hostiles with demo charges or rocket launchers from getting uncomfortable close.
• APC: Armored personnel carriers are often custom-built for city law enforcement, the better to dump a squad of cops where they’re most needed. The mounted weapon on most of them helps pacify a hot zone before the occupants dismount.
• GEV: Ground effect vehicles have evolved considerably from their 20th-century ancestors, and their armored pneumatic skirts and high-efficiency engines can send them over terrain that might defeat a tracked tank. The sacrifice in armor weight is generally deemed acceptable, given the usual opposition these vehicles face.
• CASRA: The “Close Air Support Rotorwing Aircraft” of corporate R&D comes in a half-dozen different configurations, from multirotor helicopters to rotor-in-wing strike craft. Light and vicious, they’re favored by city SWAT teams who need military-grade firepower capable of maneuvering through city airspace. When a CASRA shows up, minigun rounds are seldom far behind.
• Dropcraft: One of a family of armored military air transports, dropcraft are used when a squad needs to be inserted under heavy fire. Thick armor, a heavy gun, and VTOL engines combine with considerable loitering ability to make an excellent tool for pacifying corporate enemies.

3.9.1 Repairing and Running Vehicles

Fixing a vehicle requires a Tool Rack fitting or a suitable workshop. A bike might be repaired on a sidewalk, but an APC is going to need heavier equipment.

Vehicles that have been reduced to zero hit points have been totaled and cannot be cost-effectively repaired. Lesser damage can be repaired at a rate of 1 point per day, plus the technician’s Fix skill and Drive skill. A would-be repairman must have at least Fix-0 or Drive-1 skill to repair a damaged vehicle.

An Ace Driver or Roamer pays nothing to repair vehicles, being able to scrounge free parts here and there. Others need to pay $200 per vehicle hit point repaired.

A vehicle’s fuel and maintenance costs are generally minor, and can usually be ignored. If the PCs are going to be spending long periods of time away from gas stations, however, a GM is justified in making them take some measures to ensure a fuel supply

3.9.2 Vehicle Fittings

To add a fitting, the vehicle must have enough free Power and Mass to support it; a bike with 1 Power and 3 Mass can’t mount more than 1 total Power and 3 total Mass of fittings. It must also be of an adequate minimum size to support the fitting.

Installing or removing a fitting usually takes a day or two of work in a suitably-equipped shop. The price for such work is included in the fitting cost. A given fitting can normally be added only once.

• Advanced Sensors: The vehicle is equipped with night vision, infrared sensors, and short-range radar good up to twenty kilometers of airspace. It can be driven safely even in pitch darkness.
• Afterburners: Once per scene, as an On Turn action, boost the vehicle’s Speed by 1 for five rounds.
• Armor Plating: Increase the vehicle’s Armor rating by 3 points. Medium vehicles can apply this fitting twice, and Large ones can apply it three times.
• Cargo Space: This fitting can be taken multiple times. Each time it adds 50 kg of protected cargo space for Small vehicles, 500 kg for Medium ones, and 2 metric tons for Large ones.
• Crash Pod: If the vehicle crashes, the occupants can each reroll one failed crash save. If they make any of their saves, their HP can’t be reduced below 1 point by the crash.
• ECM Emitter: On a successful hit roll by a headshot pod, rocket launcher, or other long-range guided projectile, the driver can make an opposed Int or Dex/Drive skill check against the attacker’s combat skill. On a success, the attacker must reroll their hit roll and take the worst result.
• Emissions Cloaking: Once per day, for one hour, the vehicle can become almost invisible to infrared or radar. This cloak becomes useless if the vehicle is visually spotted by defenders.
• Extra Durability: The vehicle’s maximum hit points increase by 25%, rounded up.
• Extra Passengers: Small vehicles add 1 Crew, Medium ones add 2, and Large ones add 4. This fitting can be taken multiple times, and any vehicle amenities such as crash pods or living quarters extend to these additional Crew as well.
• Field Portable: Only Small or Medium vehicles can take this option, allowing them to be broken down into easily-portable parts packages. Small vehicles turn into 30 items of Encumbrance and Medium ones into 150. Disassembly takes 30 minutes for a Small vehicle and 3 hours for a Medium one, with reassembly taking four times as long.
• Ghost Driver: The driver can order the vehicle directly or by radio or phone to go to particular places at particular times or perform other simple, direct actions on a given schedule. The onboard expert system can handle traffic-related challenges, but has no real intelligence to process more complicated problems.
• Hardpoint Support: Additional power and structural support enable the addition of a hardpoint.
• Jack Control Port: The vehicle is wired to be controlled through a plugged-in cranial jack as well as a conventional wheel. While jacked in, the driver need only use a Move Action to control the vehicle rather than a Main Action.
• Limpet Mount: An entire second vehicle can be mounted with this fitting, Medium vehicles taking Small parasites and Large ones taking Small or Medium. Adding a mount for a Small vehicle takes up 3 Mass while a Medium one takes 6. Modifying a vehicle to be mounted adds 10% to its base cost, but it can be launched even while the parent vehicle is underway. These parasite vehicles are destroyed if the parent is; otherwise, they take only half the damage the parent takes.
• Living Quarters: Basic, cramped quarters are provided for sleeping, sanitation, and cooking for all crew. Permanent living in a vehicle costs and counts as a slum lifestyle, though occupants with the Ace Driver or Roamer Focus can treat it as middle-class for the same price.
• Medbay: Surgical tools and medical support are provided for up to one critically-injured patient at a time. A medbay counts as an emergency clinic for purposes of treating Major Injuries, if someone with at least Heal-0 is available to tend to the patient.
• Offroad Package: While any modern vehicle can handle abandoned roads and mostly-flat terrain, this package includes winches, tire armor, chassis reinforcement, and other upgrades needed to go through all but the most impassible terrain.
• Power Systems: These fittings add extra Power in battery capacity and computing support at the cost of an additional Mass burden.
• Sealed Atmosphere: For up to two hours per day the vehicle can seal itself entirely from the outside atmosphere, with internal air tanks and positive pressure to keep out external toxins. At all times it can maintain a comfortable interior temperature in any terrestrial climate. Aircraft do not need this fitting to function normally at high altitudes.
• Smuggler’s Hold: This fitting can be taken more than once, and adds 10 kg of concealed cargo space in Small vehicles, 100 kg in Medium ones, and 400 kg in Large ones. It can be detected only by taking the vehicle apart or by an acute, careful inspection with a difficulty 12 Wis/Notice or Wis/Drive skill check.
• Targeting Board: A single unified targeting board allows one gunner to manage up to three vehicle weapons instead of the one gun per gunner that would usually be allowed.
• Tool Rack: Any vehicle can carry a toolkit in the trunk, but this rack is equipped with welders, heavy tooling, winches, and room for up 40 HP worth of spare parts. It can repair any vehicle and can be used as a makeshift workshop for related efforts.

3.9.3 Vehicle Weapons

Vehicles with hardpoints can mount weaponry, provided they have the spare Power and Mass to support the guns.

A vehicle can mount a number of weapons equal to its hardpoints. Each weapon takes up a certain amount of the vehicle’s Power and Mass, just as a fitting does; the heavier and more computationally-demanding the weapon is, the greater its demands.

Some weapons also require vehicles of a certain size in order to support them; no one is mounting an autogun on a motorcycle when the recoil alone would be enough to send the bike skidding.

While most professionals prefer to mount heavy weaponry on their rides, it’s also possible to mount smaller guns, such as rifles or shotguns. These weapons make minimal demands on a vehicle’s structure, but still require at least a Medium-sized vehicle to provide a stable firing platform.

Each mounted weapon can carry one normal magazine’s worth of ammunition. A loader can reload a vehicle weapon’s magazine as a Main Action.

Vehicle weapons each require a gunner, and any attacks made by the weapon are made with the gunner’s attack bonus and Shoot skill.

Shooting at enemy vehicles requires targeting the vehicle’s Armor Class and overcoming its Armor with the weapon’s damage. Armor is subtracted from any damage the weapon inflicts, after multiplying for Traumatic Hits. Shooting at targets on foot requires hitting their usual ranged AC.

Mounted weapons don’t take a hit penalty for firing from a moving vehicle, but passengers who are blazing away out the windows take up to a -4 circumstance penalty to such efforts.

3.9.3.1 Vehicle-Only Weaponry

These weapons are too large and bulky to be mounted on anything but vehicles or non-portable drones

@: This weapon requires an applicable Contact to buy, being generally illegal for open sale
#: This weapon can fire to suppress if fixed to a vehicle or stationary firing position
^: This weapon’s damage is always non-lethal, unless desired otherwise
!: This weapon can inflict Traumatic Hits on vehicles and drones

Drone cannons are heavy semi-automatic weapons too bulky for human portability. A round of firing costs $100 worth of ammunition.

Headshot pods are a family of guided missiles meant for mounted deployment on vehicles or large drones. They always target AC 10 to hit, but require two full consecutive rounds of aiming at a visible target to get a target lock on them and prime for firing on the third round. Any bystanders within 5 meters of the impact take damage as if from a frag grenade. A headshot pod missile costs $2,000.

Main tank gun attacks always target AC 10, and anyone within 10 meters of impact takes 1d20 damage if not behind heavy cover. They cannot be mounted on aircraft or anything smaller than a tank. Each round costs $1,000.

Mounted autoguns are a drone cannon’s big brother, for larger platforms. Each round of firing costs $100.

Shrieker guns are sonic cannons used for crowd control and non-lethal suppression. While highly effective against unprotected targets, military-grade ear protection or the integral dampers in cyber-ears are sufficient to render the weapon useless.

3.9.4 Vehicle Mods

Vehicle mods generally require both Fix and Drive skills to build, install, and maintain. Vehicle mod costs are expressed as percentages of the vehicle’s base cost, not including any fittings or weapons. Unless specified otherwise, a vehicle mod can be installed only once on any given vehicle.

• Augmented Armor: Increase the vehicle’s Armor rating by 3 points.
• Drone Hub: Install a housing that can hold a portable drone on Small vehicles or a non-portable drone on Medium or larger vehicles. The drone can be deployed while the vehicle is in motion. Onboard signal encryption adds +2 to the difficulty of hacking any drone controlled by someone in or adjacent to this vehicle. This fitting can be installed twice on Large vehicles.
• Extra Seating: Increase the maximum Crew size by 1 for Small vehicles, 2 for Medium, and 4 for Large.
• Integrated Magazines: Mounted weapons gain one extra built-in magazine for Small vehicles, two for Medium, or four for Large. Reloading one vehicle magazine takes a Main Action.
• Personalized Controls: The vehicle’s controls are designed for the idiosyncrasies of a specific driver. Once per scene, as an Instant action, they can add +1 to a Drive skill check. Anyone else takes -1 to drive the vehicle.
• Power System Upgrade: Increase the Power rating of the vehicle by 2 points for Small vehicles, 3 for Medium, and 4 for Large.
• Q-Cladding: Disguise the vehicle as another vehicle of the same general type, and hide its mounted weaponry. Replacing the disguise after weapons are deployed takes five minutes.
• Reactive Defenses: Increase the vehicle’s Armor Class by 2 points, but subtract 2 points from its Armor, if it has any.
• Reinforced Chassis: Increase the vehicle’s maximum HP by 25% of its base, but subtract 2 Mass from its maximum.
• Remote Sensors: The driver’s smartphone or headware can tap the vehicle’s sensors as an On Turn action, getting audio and visual from it if no special sensors are installed. This signal can reach up to two kilometers.
• Supplementary Tanks: The vehicle can operate for up to three days of normal driving without refueling.
• Ultralight Components: Increase the vehicle’s maximum Mass by 2 points for Small vehicles, 3 for Medium, or 4 for Large. Its maximum HP decreases by 20% of its base, rounded up.
• Upgraded Speed: Increase the vehicle’s Speed by 1, but lose 20% of its maximum Mass, rounded up.