Chrome

Chrome measures how well you use your cybernetic and biological modifications. The game design goal here is to make this at least as much about the roleplaying aspects of the chrome as it is about the mechanical advantages. Unlike standard Shadowrun, I’m trying to avoid incentive to put together spreadsheets to figure out how particular advantages stack; either your skill adds your Chrome Edge, or it doesn’t. You might be able to take an action to Create an Advantage with one skill and then apply that to another in a second action, but that’s just fine: in accordance with the principles of the Fate system, because you put story-level camera time on it, it matters, just like the game doesn’t worry about the difference between a free invoke on Banana Peel or Oil Slick.

You must have at least one aspect that references your chrome; it need not be part of your High Concept. (Street Samurai, Rigger, and Decker clearly imply Chrome.) Possible Chrome aspects include Soulless Cyborg, Chromed Warrior-Poet, Transhuman Bodhisattva, Cutting Edge Cyberfashion, Quotidian Cybernetics, Secondhand Chrome, Bag of Chrome Tricks, Well-Hidden Upgrades, tacking a term like Chromed onto another aspect, or even a progression of DRMed Rental Cyberware → Hunted for My Jailbroken Cyberware → Open Source Hacked Cyberware as your story progresses.

With a nonzero Chrome skill and no Chrome stunts, you can have as much as you want of:

• A cyberScape that allows you to access the infosphere without external hardware. All the features of a 2020 smartphone, plus augmented reality, software-defined radio that can pick up radio and trideo stations, and the ability to enjoy simsense without a trode net. The interface to the proprioceptive cortex can be used to mentally type and gesture without moving physically; learning this takes weeks of practice with games designed to teach the skill. You may have a fiber optic Datajack in your head to guarantee noise-free EMCON connections, or rely on skinlink and radio, which avoid the risk of getting an infected jack.

  You can tag your Chrome aspect on Make tasks if you have access to simsense tutorials that let you experience what you’re going to attempt.

• A Skill Link that lets you load knowsofts and linguasofts into your brain. If you can find the relevant ware, you can have 2×Chrome command of that skill. An opponent who has the organic skill can observe your Chipped Skill and tag it against you.

  Your brain can only handle having one knowsoft or linguasoft patched into it at a time. Changing skillsofts causes mental stress; every time you swap a new skillsoft over an old one, resolve the number of skill loads you’ve made since you last got in a full sleep cycle as an attack against your Focus. It leads to consequences like Fuzzy-Headed or Migraine. Combination skillsofts (such as providing area knowledge and the local language) are more expensive, but save you the headache.

  Your standard open-market skill link is equipped with DRM mechanisms to facilitate skill rental. If you have a hacked one, you can break the DRM, but you run the risk of getting blackballed from the service and needing to start with a new SIN and device ID if the service beats your Crime+Chrome in an opposed test.

  Multiple publishers provide current events skillsofts that dynamically download patches throughout the day. Most users glance a list of headlines a few times a day to trigger the associative memory for each one and react to the knowledge; diligent ones bookmark articles that they read after they shut down the skill link, to make sure that the information enters their organic memory.

  Knowsoft and linguasoft Scrounge difficulties are usually the rating + 1 for extremely common skills (100m people know them), +2 or more for rarer ones. Some have their supply restricted; for instance, Tír Tairngire and Tír na nÓg go to great lengths to make sure people have to organically learn the Sperethiel language.

• A Simlink (sometimes called a simrig) that lets you record simsense, which includes your physical senses and your emotions. This is the third most popular implant, after a cyberScape and a skill link, since millions of people dream of becoming a simsense star or enjoy making home movies. Lots of people walk around recording a fifteen minute circular buffer of simsense just in case they spot something amazing that they want to post to SimShare, NoDrek, or Sybaris and make nuyen, or even get spotted and become a star. Professional simsense stars also have high-end cybereyes and cyberears, since high-resolution digital capture works better with postproduction and spinoff media; real retinas don’t have even pixel density.

  In 2077, the Dreamlink hits the open market, making it possible for people with simlinks to record their dreams. (Chrome Flesh p79)

• Any morphological freedom that doesn’t change game stats. You can tag your Chrome aspect in the rare circumstances this will matter (such as Chloroplast Skin helping you survive exposure).

• A Subvocal Microphone for almost-silent communication without having to have a mic taped to your throat. Close observation can still spot that you’re communicating with someone.

• Subdermal Speakers provide built-in headphones if you don’t want that splice to your cochlear nerve.

• A Biomonitor that keeps track of your vital signs and can tell your cyberScape to pop up messages like your blood sugar is getting low! did you remember to have lunch? It can be programmed to automatically share your vital signs and diagnosis information with paramedics if you don’t dismiss a query pop-up.

• A GutCheck implant that connects to your enteric nervous system, the secondary brain in your gut. Its most useful function— in conjunction with blood chemistry sensors— is to modulate cravings so you get an appetite for healthier food than you might otherwise desire if you have lousy eating habits.

• Marrow Rejuvenation: The lab took some cells from your body, did a little DNA editing to get some youthful pluripotent stem cells, made a few other tweaks to promote health and fight cancer, cranked out fresh bone marrow, and replaced the marrow in your bones. This restores much of the restorative capacity of youth, though it does not undo any of the other effects of aging. You still need to put in a lot more effort to take care of yourself than you did when you were young, but the reward is that you don’t have to wonder if you’re going to annoy your back by getting out of bed in the morning. Game mechanically, this makes it plausible that someone old enough to retire can be adventuring with the youngsters, even if they have to take a few extra laps jogging while the kids head directly for the bar.

• As many works just like the original replacements as you need in order to get your life back to normal after a major disease or injury. If you aren’t getting enhanced, chrome doesn’t set you apart very much, socially or magically.

Mild chrome like this is increasingly common as prices drop, is easily affordable to the upper middle class, and can be a worthwhile investment for the working class, and very affordable for someone willing to sport augmented-reality designer logos to advertise their gear. Average (+1) Chrome makes people slightly eerie, as they are interacting with things invisible to mundanes and may seem distracted, but anyone with Fair (+2) Heart can pay attention to the people they’re with and be fully present. Or you can just turn it off, at which point you only have to worry about extreme cosmetic alterations weirding people out.

Chrome usually talks to your Scape via skinlink via secure one-time pad. (Your cyberLink can update the pads, but one should only do so when confident nothing can eavesdrop on your skinlink; Faraday cage booths are common in banks and apartment buildings.) The way to hack someone’s chrome is to get through the firewall on their Scape. Some chrome becomes more affordable if you take a Chrome aspect like Ambulatory Cyberware Advertisement, but it will shut down its advanced functions if you deny it access to the local Matrix to advertise itself for more than half an hour.

Narratively, serious chrome does two things:

• Superhuman enhancement.
• SURPRISE, MOTHERFRAGGER!

For that, take this stunt:

You can add your Chrome Edge to combat rolls if you have ’ware that is makes you better at combat, such as Wired Reflexes in general, or a Smartgun in ranged combat.

Chrome is about narrative qualities: each quality specifies a kind of upgrade, and an opportunity to invoke your Chrome aspect; if the quality references a stunt, you must purchase the stunt as well. It is only necessary to roll Chrome if the roll is interesting; I take a photograph with my cyberScape is trivial, but I zoom in on his face from the tenth floor with the flexlenses in my cybereyes and take a photograph takes a roll (Sneak + Chrome if your goal is to be surreptitious, or Spot + Chrome if you’re obviously bracing your head so the image doesn’t get jarred by your pulsebeat).

Cyberware is cheaper, easier to install and remove, more controllable, easier to spot on a scan or astral perception, and requires a specialist to repair. Bioware is more expensive, trickier to install and remove, can’t be turned off, harder to spot on a scan or astral perception, and can heal up in the field.

Chrome makes you different from baseline humans, and they tend to notice. Even well-hidden chrome has its tells: people with cybereyes seldom remember to activate Baseline Human mode, so they don’t squint into the sun, and they fail to blink as often as a regular person would if the eyes aren’t feeding synthetic sensations through your cyberLink. Those with active wired reflexes react to startlements with uncanny speed. (These transitions to apparent mundanity can be automatically programmed, of course, though this creates vulnerabilities— having your chrome limit itself during a firefight because the enemy decker spoofed your location services into thinking you’re in one of your favorite safe areas could be lethal.) More blatant chrome can be shocking, and frightening when you realize that the person drinking next to you can pop a razor-sharp monofilament-edged carbon fiber blade out of their wrist any time the whim strikes.

This can be a problem, socially, and from a game mechanics perspective this means that your (Chrome + Magic) – Heart score, if better than Mediocre (+0), can unconsciously act as a social attack to people around you. (If you have subtle chrome and set the Baseline Human mode on it, effectively forfeiting your Edge, then you also avoid the social penalty.) People who routinely encounter such folk do build up a tolerance.

Cybernetics usually run on batteries charged by a fuel cell that runs on blood glucose. Superhuman cyberlimbs usually need some extra power and have induction patches or even plugs for direct charging.

Qualities listed with a date are commonly available when the game is set in or after that year. If your character has connections, they might have an early adopter version two years before, or an experimental prototype four to five years before.

Cybergenic Affective Disorder

Chrome can erode both affect and empathy, particularly for people who get cheap chrome implanted by a street doc and then hit the streets as soon as they’re out of the vat. Bargain cybereyes and ears feel like you’re experiencing sight and sound through a cheap trideo set. High-quality senses and superhuman capabilities can leave you feeling like the unaugmented are lesser beings, except for the times you’re jealous of them for their normality. This condition is medically termed cybergenic affective disorder and popularly termed cyberpsychosis. Responsible clinics always prescribe a course of cybernetic integration counseling, with the first session occurring before the implantation surgery, but few are so scrupulous that they’ll enforce it by putting code in your ’ware that disables its superhuman capabilities if you miss too many appointments.

In terms of game mechanics, this shows up in aspects like Cyberjerk and Turbocharged Drekhead.

Essence

Your Essence is a measure of your metaphysical integrity. The loss of it

• interferes with your ability to use magic and Resonance;
• interferes with magic’s ability to connect with you cooperatively, such as through healing magic;
• can detach your soul lose from your body entirely (resulting in death) if you get crammed full of more ’ware than you can handle.

What costs Essence is deviation from your metaphysical self; no one has yet figured out how to truly incorporate chrome into your soul. Minor cosmetic changes such as tattoos (old-fashioned ink or a retrovirus changing pigment expression) or minor cosmetic biosculpting aren’t enough to trigger Essence loss.

On astral sight, cyberware shows up as obvious dark marks on the aura. Bioware still glows like all living things, but the colors aren’t quite right.

Well-replicated studies have observed that gender confirmation procedures, when performed with a trained medical assensor providing feedback to the surgeon, do not cost Essence, despite the flesh no longer matching the original biology. (The exact same procedure, performed as an extreme disguise measure to set up a grift, costs Essence.) These results caused considerable debate among hermetic magies, while shamans just laughed.

Due to the loss of Essence, it’s more difficult for magic to restore you to healthy state, in consonance with your aural template, as the magicians would say. Your Chrome adds directly to the difficulty of any spell to heal you.

Creatures that drain Essence, such as vampires, add your Chrome to inflicted stress when feeding, but subtract it from the amount of nourishment they would get from draining you to death.

Healing spells are not effective immediately after cybersurgery; they tend to cause rejection of new chrome. Slower forms of Awakened medicine (e.g.: acupuncture, reiki) can improve the pace of integration.

Extensive bodily customization is available, much of it accessible even to gangs visiting street docs. Where people draw the line between ephemeral fashionware and wholehearted expression of identity varies from person to person and can lead to loud arguments.

You can have any or all of this cyberware:

• Alex Jensen cybershades or Molly Millions eyeshields.

• Cybertattoos: grids of subcutaneous e-ink capsules and/or LEDs that can display art on most parts of the body (some spots like eyelids are hard to implant). The LEDs can change fast enough to watch television on one; the motion on the e-ink isn’t quite so good.

• Color-changing no-chip carbon-fiber fingernails.

• Fiber optic hair and/or beard that changes color on demand (but cannot be mistaken for natural hair and needs regular maintenance— the hair follicles are replaced with a grid of over 10,000 miniscule sockets, and swapping hairs out means an hour or so in virtual reality while a robot tends to your scalp).

• Implants 2.0: Dynamically resizable breast, buttock, pectoral, calf, lip, cheek, etc. implants, backed by a hidden gel reservoir and covered in superelastic cultured skin, or even a Mr. Right™ cyberphallus, to please your bedmates from dwarf to troll! (Augmentation p34–5, Chrome Flesh p73)

• The hot new look in 2050 is a third eye jewel that can display glowing patterns that reflect your mood (or what you want people to think your mood is) and glow as brightly as a candle in the dark; if you have Cybereyes, you can have a full cybereye in your forehead.

• Nanotattoos: (2070) Nanoware makes it possible to have any pigment underneath the skin at extremely fine resolution, even in extremely tricky locations like the lips and eyelids. Nanomakeup is a slight variation on this, secreting matte or glossy compounds through the pores to make most makeup changes take a quick wipedown of the face with a damp cloth and a cybernetic command. (Augmentation p109)

And this bioware:

• Biosculpt to have the face you want, if the underlying bone structure matches. An intellectual property fight in 2043 led to the autosurgery templates for all 20th century public figures entering the public domain, so classic movie-star good looks are commonplace and, in many circles, tawdry. Elf Audrey Hepburn is a cliché in the West, and street gangs like the Redmond Silver Screens all look like well-known movie stars from the days of flatvid.

• You can grow panhuman hair with whatever curliness and strand thickness you like, with any pigment found in nature.

• You can have your scalp (or another patch of skin) replaced with fur (or scales or feathers) cloned from your favorite animal— cat! chinchilla! tiger! kea! quetzal! coral snake! Covering too much of your body with fur requires installation of a panting reflex to vent excess heat. Furries prefer their marathons in Iditarod territory.

• Your tooth enamel can be dyed any color or marked; some orks and trolls have glyphs etched on their tusks.

• Chloroplast Skin: You can have your skin cells implanted with chloroplasts and cultured into a full replacement (leading to green skin, or with other pigments, it can match any known color of leaf). It’s popular among the ecologically conscious, mostly as a status symbol; sunbathing all day won’t give you enough calories to be active, but that doesn’t stop nightclubs from creating sun rooms to encourage stripping down to a bathing suit and playing beach volleyball at the edge of the dance floor. And it has saved the life of the occasional castaway. Controlled studies show that alleviation of seasonal affective depression is due to all the sunbathing, not the surgery. (Man & Machine p76)

• Alternatively, your skin and irises can express any pigment found in nature. The treatment for irises takes a few weeks but only requires microsurgery. Changing your skin requires spending time unconscious in a vat while they take your epidermis down to the basal cells and apply a tailored retrovirus, or just replace it with a custom-grown one. (Man & Machine p76)

• Sensitive Skin: (2061) Your skin can be regrown with an increased density of nerve endings, making you more sensitive to heat, cold, pleasure, and pain (though this is incompatible with Orthoskin on any given patch of skin). This helps with tactile perception, but your Chrome aspect can be tagged against you if someone is inflicting pain. It does cause a preference for high thread count underclothes and bedsheets, and is popular with hedonists. (Man & Machine p76, Augmentation p67)

• Patches of skin can express any color of luciferin (firefly yellow-green; glowworm blue or, with GFP, green; dragonfish red) when the right biochemical trigger causes tissue to secrete luciferase, so that sigil on your chest can light up when endorphins or adrenaline flow through your system. (Augmentation p63)

• You can have fangs, horns, tusks, whiskers, or a short tail like a rabbit’s. You can even get a neural oscillator to control your inner laryngeal muscles so you can purr like a cat. (The few people who tried for an elephant trunk discovered they needed to get custom cyberware to actually control it.)

• You can get a full fursona rebuild of your nose and jaw, reshaping it into a muzzle. Most people choose short ones, as longer muzzles hamper speech and table manners. This is expensive, so you should have Scrounge+Chrome of at least Superb (+5), or a sponsor.

• For the cost of a new commuter motorcycle and a two-week vatnap, the answer to what’s in your pants? can be either, neither, both, or custom work.

• Clean Metabolism: (2061) eliminates the causes of all manner of body odor, and the need for courtesy flushes. You can also add Scent Glands if you always want that personal musk; very expensive biotech consultants at Chanel can tailor one just for you. (Man & Machine p76)

• Dietware: (2061) alters your gastrointestinal tract to vary its efficiency to keep your weight stable, adjusting to your metabolic needs. This means that if you’ve been feasting, any given bolus can make it all the way through you after only being partially digested. (Man & Machine p76)

Pigments found in nature include carotenoids (the bright red of the cardinal, pink of the flamingo, and yellow of the goldfinch), melanins (reddish browns, pale yellows, dark black), porphyrins (pinks, browns, reds, and greens; they all fluoresce a bright red under ultraviolet light), and anthocyanins (raspberry red, blueberry blue, aubergine purple, black).

The most common forms of cyberware are universally available: you can easily get a cyberSkape, Skill Link, Simrig, Cybereyes, Cyberears, and many forms of fashionware at the mainstream body shops like NuYou and Body Pagoda, and with a little more difficulty through no-frills outfits like Cyborgs Я Us or a street doc— the standardized procedures are that common. The cyberScape is the most common piece of headware in the world, and the combination of a cyberScape and skillmod are extremely common in modern-day middle class office workers. The simrig is also popular with simsense enthusiasts who dream of becoming stars.

The cost of chrome is the Scrounge+Chrome threshold to justify having it if your story is I can obtain it directly; if you’re an Experimental Cyberware Tester or My Mysterious Matrix Sugar Daddy Buys All My Chrome, you don’t need to worry about such things in the first place (but you do have other things to worry about). Cost is Great (+4) unless otherwise noted.

Almost any military will set you up with a cyberScape, Smartgun Link, Skill Link (mostly used for linguasofts when deploying to areas where they don’t speak the local language) and Metabolic Dashboard (very handy for swing and graveyard shifts) if you can make it through boot camp, and will spring for a basic Control Rig or Wired Reflexes if you re-up. Police are so heavily militarized that they aren’t much different. If a limb gets heavily injured, expect pressure to get it quickly replaced with a cyberlimb so you can get back in action, rather than going through months of physical therapy or getting a biological replacement.

Level 2 wired reflexes or control rigs are usually found among special forces or police rapid response teams.

Street docs do a brisk business in handrazors and cyberspurs, as well as fashionware that street gangs value for a common look. Some of them even have the vats needed for people to survive the more extensive upgrades, though they’re unlikely to have such things waiting on the shelf. Most of the people you see in vats in the Body Mall in Redmond are getting muscle grafts or extensive somatic customization.

Custom biotech work requires a lab; replace my scalp with ultra-soft chinchilla fur is common enough that you can get that off the shelf (along with sable and mink, all in popular colors), but replace my scalp with a pelt cloned from this cat will require an appointment with a lab and a one-month waiting time before your surgery.

Some corporations are in the habit of beta tasting development cyberware in legitimate clinical-trial volunteers, and others in volunteers under some form of coercion, up to and including snatching them off the street. Better-chromed gangs are often sporting Pre-Release Cyberware and giving feedback to the manufacturers through black box recorders. If dead bodies start popping up blinking green nuyen icons in augmented reality, they’re probably offering a reward for bringing in their black box. (Or trying to get you close enough for that fragmentation bomb in their femur to get you. Better have the decker investigate first.)

Modifications that do serious reshaping, such as Digitigrade Locomotion and Retractable Claws, are quite tricky and require access to higher-end services like those available at Body+Tech; furrygangs with extreme modifications like that tend to have a sponsor somewhere. Luxury clinics like Executive Body Enhancements provide top-notch, cutting-edge work.

Havenware is available to residents of the Havens, but even the simplest Haven chrome takes a month to integrate with your nervous system. There are Havenware versions of the cyberScape, simrig, skill link, synth link, smartgun link, cybereyes, cyberears, metabolic dashboard, wired reflexes, control rig, cyberlimbs, and morphological freedom measures up to Great (+4) cost.

Cyber replacements are narrative permission to introduce new qualities on the fly, and do so as soon as you could have swapped out your chrome. Cyberlimbs give you permission to either add your Chrome Edge (such as deploying Cyberskates to Move faster) or do something extraordinary, such as grabbing a gun out of someone’s hand with your Grapple Cyberhand. You do not have to decide ahead of time! This is a narrative game, and it’s cool to reveal capabilities in the middle of a scene. The main limitation is that once you’ve established that a limb is doing one thing, you can’t contradict it with another (the same limb can’t have a cybergun and a built-in cyberdeck because there isn’t room for both).

Cyberlimbs usually have quick-change mounts that make it easy to swap one limb for another, so you can put on your Victorinox Swiss Army Cyberhand for your day of Making stuff, then when you head to the nightclub, you put on your party cyberhand with the synthflesh covering, vibration motors in the fingertips, Peltier effect heat pump in the palm, and lube reservoir.

Decide whether your arm uses contractile myomer fibers or motors; only the former kind can pass for organic when its synthflesh covering is intact. A myomer arm can be covered in synthflesh or a more obviously artificial material, such as the matte black preferred by stealth operatives or sharkskin popular among some shadowrunners. A more obviously artificial arm can look like gunmetal, chrome, any color of ceramic, and have any texture or pattern, including Celtic knotwork, Maori tattoos, and scales ranging from tiny lizard scales to large dragon scales, and organic LED screens under transparent plasteel. (Options tend to be in the forearm or shin and hand or foot; the upper arm and thigh have more of the hardware for limb functionality.)

You can keep your original arms and add two cyberarms (with some extra work on your rib cage and spinal cord), but unless you're a nartaki, you can only control one pair at a time. (Four-arm rigs are based on studies of nartaki anatomy.) This is still useful for holding stuff with one pair while doing something intricate with the other, and more complicated custom controls can be written. This is so rare that no one bothers to create activesofts for extra arms, and they may even get in the way if you try to use your top arms with skillwires. It is also extremely distinctive; having extra arms grants an automatic +2 to track you down or shadow you.

Most of the interesting cyberlimb options are not compatible with a synthflesh covering that can pass for organic at a distance. The exceptions are noted.

Chrome that enhances your Bod:

• Muscle Grafts: the cheap stuff (Cost: Good (+3)), commonly sported by street toughs, is just bulky, vatgrown tissue that shortcuts all that work at the gym and never quite manages to look like they earned it the hard way. The more expensive stuff has a higher proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers, like a chimpanzee, and gives the same improvement in strength.

• Bone Lacing: your bones are augmented with a lattice of plastic, Kevlar, aluminum, ceramic, or titanium, making you heavier (better get some muscle grafts to compensate!), and you can punch someone with the full force of those muscle grafts without worrying about breaking your hand. When your Chrome makes you tougher like this, the usual Bod bonuses for extra stress and consequences kick in. Bone lacing includes sensors that will inform you if you need a splint. (Shadowtech p42, Man & Machine p27)

• Bone Density Augmentation: A bioware treatment that strengthens bones and ligaments, producing a similar weight increase to bone lacing. (SR4 p345) Cost: Superb.

• Cyberteeth: your original teeth are removed and replaced with ceramic ones containing vibration and temperature sensors. They are attached to your jaw and skull by stiff-but-flexible mounts that will cause your teeth to fold inward instead of being knocked out or broken by an impact. You still need to brush and floss if you want your gums to be healthy.

• Sport Heart: your heart has been replaced with a cybernetic pump that can deliver several minutes of superhuman performance before you need to rest. Your Chrome provides bonuses against fatigue. (CP2020 Chromebook 1 p37)

• Decentralized Heart: your heart has been replaced with a set of pumps located along major veins and arteries, and it can adjust blood flow to compensate for major injuries. When your Chrome makes you tougher like this, the usual Bod bonuses for extra stress and consequences kick in. (CP2020: Chromebook 1 p37)

• Synthacardium: (2052) Your heart muscles have been augmented, and your blood vessels made more resilient to keep up. Your Chrome adds to your Bod for feats of endurance.

• Air Filtration: A cybernetic trachea means you don’t need a breath mask, even in the worst smog, and boosts your resistance to airborne toxins. Comes with a gag reflex suppressor for easy cleaning. Not compatible with a bioware Tracheal Filter.

• Tracheal Filter: (2052) Absorbing bioware membranes filter and detoxify the air headed to your lungs, giving you resistance to airborne toxins. Every so often, you need to dispose of toxin-laden mucus, which can be pretty disgusting, but it can be done at point blank range in combat. Not compatible with cybernetic Air Filtration. Cost: Superb (+5).

• Blood Filtration: artificial kidneys can be cranked up to filter toxins out of your blood, but remember to drink extra water! And throttle those things back if you want to get drunk or stoned. Getting caught using chrome like that in a drinking contest will usually get you repeatedly kicked right in that cyberware. Not compatible with a bioware Nephritic Screen.

• Nephritic Screen: (2052) Your liver and kidneys have been modified to extract toxins more quickly. You are more resistant to ingested toxins, but have a more difficult time getting drunk or stoned. Not compatible with cybernetic Blood Filtration. Cost: Superb (+5).

• Pathogenic Defense: (2052) Your spleen, lymph nodes, and tonsils have been enhanced to easily crank out plenty of T-cells and antibodies. These boost your resistance to disease, allergens, microbiologicals, and other foreign particles. (Shadowtech p22, Chrome Flesh p111) Cost: Superb (+5).

• Suprathyroid: (2052) Your thyroid has been enhanced to run your system at a higher energy level. You’re stronger and faster and more robust, but you also eat twice as much, stand out on thermographic sensors, and need to show this mod on your public profile whenever you go through a medical checkpoint or they think you have a fever. You also have a tendency toward hyperactivity if your Focus doesn’t exceed your Chrome. (Shadowtech p20, Man & Machine p69, SR4 p346, SR5 p459) Cost: Superb (+5)

• Symbiotes: (2052) Tailored microorganisms boost your body’s healing ability, but also noticeably increase your calorie intake. Add your Chrome to your Bod when rolling how well you heal up on your own, and to the roll of anyone caring for you with any form of healing short of a spell. (Shadowtech p15)

Cyberlimb options that enhance your Bod:

• Anchor Feet: Your cyberfeet can extend spikes into the ground to anchor you.

• Cyberarm Gyromount: recoil compensation built into your cyberarm helps you deal with high-recoil weapons. (Cybertechnology p33)

• Heavy Duty: rugged design, stronger motors or myomers, and bigger batteries enhance the strength and durability of the limbs. This is good for things like exerting a crushing grip; if you also have either bone lacing and muscle grafts or a cybertorso, you can also perform superhuman acts of lifting.

• Hydraulic Press: a variation on the Heavy Duty limb, but the hand is a powerful claw that can press things apart or push them together. It’s a +++ weapon if you hit people with it, but you have to have them immobilized if you want to use the press on them. (Augmentation p47)

• Jackhammer: a variation on the Heavy Duty limb, fitted with a high-powered pneumatic piston, stabilizer, and shock absorber that can be fitted with a 20cm ram for breaking down obstacles or a 10cm spike for punching holes. It’s a +++ weapon if you hit people with it, but you have to put an aspect on your opponent to hold them still long enough to line up a blow with the jackhammer itself. (Augmentation p47)

Bod-related surprises:

• Damage Compensator: (2052) Implanted ribbons of nerve fiber prevent you from reacting to damage until you are overwhelmed, at which point it all kicks in at once; you need to roll Spot even to notice compensated damage, with a difficulty of the consequence size + your Chrome. Free tags on your consequences do not kick in until you mark off the consequence above your level of Chrome (so if you have Chrome +2, the free tags don’t show up until you take your Serious consequence, at which point all three can be used to finish you off, and if you missed unaugmented Spot rolls of 4 and 6, you aren’t even aware of the injuries). (Shadowtech p24)

• Digestive Expansion: (2061) Your digestive system and gut bacteria produce enzymes that can break down a wider variety of foods, including plants that would normally be toxic; your olfactory nerves and taste buds are also altered to help you work up an appetite for such things in the field. (Man & Machine p64) Cost: Superb (+5).

• Gastric Neurostimulator: (2070) you are completely immune to nausea and disorientation caused by nausea, which comes in handy if you work on the sea or in orbit. Make sure you program your biomonitor to turn this off if it detects the signs of food poisoning. (Augmentation p40)

• Internal Air Tank: (2057) You can get by without inhaling for twenty minutes; the tank takes five minutes to refill when you can get to a compressor. They usually conceal the refill port in your navel. (Cybertechnology p41) Cost: Good (+3). If you add a rebreather, the cost goes up to Great (+4) and you can hold your breath for an hour.

• OXSYS Cybergill: (2059) Gills implanted on either side of your neck filter oxygen from water and allow you to operate underwater almost indefinitely— the system needs a surgical overhaul every 1000 hours. (Cyberpirates! p174, Man & Machine p31, Augmentation p42)

• Bioware Gills: (2070) Bioware gills are implanted just above the lungs. You can breathe both air and water, though neither one is as efficient as a being native to the element, and your chrome aspect can be compelled against you in a contest. (Augmentation p65)

Special defensive chrome that requires buying blue dice with a stunt, up to the limit of your Chrome; if you have some left over, you can spend it on your Muscle Grafts and Bone Lacing making you able to hit harder without breaking your hand:

• Bone Lacing can also increase your blue dice.

• Dermal Plating: Rigid, articulated plates made of carbon fiber are installed under the surface of your skin; veins and arteries are all protected. Other variants replace the epidermis; the music star Maria Mercurial has chrome-bright dermal armor on her arms and legs. - to ---. (SR1 p128)

• Orthoskin: (2052) Your dermis has been replaced with tissues manufacturing sythagen (a strengthened and reinforced collagen-protein derivative), flextin (a synthetic and more resilient form of the elastin protein), and flakes of modified and laced cartilage. It does reduce tactile sensitivity, so it’s typically not installed on places where that’s important, like fingertips (Shadowtech p17). It is not compatible with dermal plating or sheathing. By 2070, variants like Dragon Hide, Sharkskin, and Smart Insulation are developed (Augmentation p69). By 2077, variants like Penguin Blubber and Sealskin are developed (Chrome Flesh p116). - to ---. Cost: Superb (+5).

• Dermal Sheathing: (2057) A shock-resistant subcutaneous plastic weave that dissipates impact energy; smoother and less bulky than standard dermal plating, and better able to heal up without a vatnap. Still doesn’t move like natural skin or orthoskin. (Cybertechnology p28) - to ---. Cost: Superb (+5).

• Pangolin Scales: most of your skin is covered in protective keratin scales. Good for defense, but somewhat limiting to your in-person romantic prospects. - to --

Chrome that enhances your Brains:

• Data Vault: You have vast amounts of storage space crammed into segments of ceramic replacing parts of the temporal bones of your skull. You can lifelog without having to dump information to an external device more than once a week, maintain an extensive skillsoft collection, or even courier Brains+Chrome amounts of paydata.

• Encephalon: (2052) A computer integrated into the fronto-parietal multiple-demand network— used for complex cognitive tasks like solving crossword puzzles, solving math problems, and writing software— that allows offloading cognitive tasks and increasing working memory; an encephalon makes it possible to hold more ideas in your head and compose macros for routine mental chores, such as tracking surgical safety checklists. (Shadowtech p49, Man & Machine p20, Augmentation p36) Cost: Superb (+5).

• Math SPU: (2052) A powerful modeling engine makes it easy to perform feats of calculation, timing, physics, and statistics; while sitting in the passenger seat, you can roll Brains+Chrome to Create an Advantage of the exact speed and timing for jumping that drawbridge as it opens or doing a J-turn on a wet road, and then send that data to the rigger. (Shadowtech p52, Man & Machine p21, Augmentation p36, Chrome Flesh p80) A character with an encephalon, a math SPU, and a cyberLink can easily automate finicky tasks of visual measurement, like separating a jumble of assorted machine screws, or create a filter for the strobe lights in a discotheque and broadcast it to all their friends.

• Cerebral Booster: (2052) New nervous tissue, including complex convolutions, are added to the frontal lobes, increasing cognitive function. (Shadowtech p23, Man & Machine p72, SR4 p347, SR5 p460) Cost: Superb (+5).

• Cerebellum Booster: (2077) New nervous tissue added to the lateral cerebellum, boosting unconscious cognition. (Chrome Flesh p118) Cost: Superb (+5).

• Mnemonic Enhancer: (2052) Adding highly concentrated gray matter to the hippocampus improves short- and long-term memory. (Shadowtech p25, Man & Machine p72, SR4 p347, SR5 p460) Cost: Superb (+5).

• Neuro-Retention Amplification: (2077) a new form of mnemonic enhancer that provides a fully photographic memory for anything you care to retain. (Chrome Flesh p118)

Stunts:

• This models the Task Pool associated with the encephalon and cerebral booster in some editions.

  Multitasker (1): thanks to your powerful headware, supplemental actions to brainwork do not incur a boost.

Chrome that enhances your Con:

• Chrome Disguise: a clever street doc has illegally installed electromagnetically opaque materials around your illegal chrome to make it look more innocuous on a scan, so that Cranial Cyberdeck looks like a Data Vault, your Handrazors look like fashionware, your Smartgun Link can pass for a Smartcam Link, and so on. Some things can’t be disguised that way— that bone lacing will need a note from a doctor explaining how it’s needed to counteract your premature osteoporosis.

• Chromatophore Skin can use melanophores to mimic any shade of human skin.

• Cyberteeth with quick-change mounts can assist your disguise, especially if you’re swapping tusks in or out to switch guises between ork and human.

• False Face: (2070) The bones of your face have been replaced with numerous small ceramic plates and gel reservoirs. It takes about a minute to change your face’s apparent bone structure, as well as the thickness of the soft tissues. The transition is somewhat painful. (Augmentation p68, Chrome Flesh p79)

• Fingertip Compartment: a smuggling compartment big enough for a datachip or other pea-sized object is built into the last joint of one of your fingers. Cost: Fair (+2).

• Implants 2.0 and Nanomakeup (2070) can come in handy when doing a quick change of identity or building a disguise.

• Skin Pocket: a pouch of skin that can hold up to 1kg. (SR4 p347) Cost: Good (+3).

• A Social Interaction Enhancer can come in very handy when talking with a mark in person.

• Telescoping Cyberlegs can be used subtly to change your height.

• A Voice Modulator, in addition to its uses in performance, is also useful in disguise and impersonation.

Chrome that enhances your Crime:

• Duplicate Retinal Pattern: if you can obtain your target’s retinal pattern and have it installed into your organic eye (this takes days) or cybereye (this takes hours), you can roll Crime+Chrome to fool retinal patterns. Getting caught with one of these makes you eligible for the death penalty in many jurisdictions. Superb cost.

• Sensitive Skin can come in handy with pickpocketing and picking old-style mechanical locks.

Cyberlimb options that can assist in Crime:

• Endoscopic Lockpick: a MEMS drone on an endoscopic probe snakes out of your hand or arm and into the guts of a device you need to subvert. Requires Great (+4) Scrounge+Chrome.

• Maglock Passkey: a maglock passkey embedded in the palm of your cyberhand can use electromagnetic induction to force a maglock into opening. This usually leaves the lock scrambled, sluggish, or bricked, which can betray your tampering. Requires Superb (+5) Scrounge+Chrome, and you better have a Category E2: Class B permit handy if you get caught with it.

• Snake Fingers: (2070) The fingers of your cyberhand release internal locks and stretch up to twice their normal length, making it easier to reach into narrow gaps and spaces. (Augmentation p45, Chrome Flesh p88)

Crime-related surprises:

• Flex Hands: (2061) the bones of your hands have been replaced with a memory plastic that can change between rigid and flexible with a mental command, making it trivial to slip cuffs. (Man & Machine p28)

Chrome that enhances your Face:

• Tailored Pheromones: (2052) Your pheromone glands have been replaced with ones that can emit psychoactive pheromones based on your current emotional state; with a little method acting, you can roll Face + Chrome to create aspects on panhumans like Friendly and Spooked, or have more subtle effects as you take the time to chat with them. They usually resist the harder-hitting effects with Focus. (Shadowtech p17, Man & Machine p70, SR4 p346, SR5 p460) Cost: Superb (+5).

• Stoneface: The nerves that control your facial expressions, blush response, pupillary dilation, and so on have been spliced with cybernetic relays that can block your involuntary responses that act as tells in anything from negotiation to poker. Activating it gives you the Stonefaced aspect and lets you add Chrome to defend against attempts to assess you; some people believe that excessive use of such implants erodes at one’s capacity for empathy. This does not deter Mr. Johnsons and corporate executives from getting it installed.

• A Cerebellum Booster (2077) can improve your rapport with people. Cost: Superb (+5).

Chrome that enhances your Focus:

• Sleep Regulator: (2061) Specialized neural tissue that shifts your sleep patterns so you only need three hours of sleep per night, but when you sleep, you sleep very deeply. Add your Chrome to tests to stay awake, but also to the difficulty of efforts to wake you when you need your three hours. (Man & Machine p74, SR4 p347, SR5 p460) Cost: Superb (+5).

• A Reception Enhancer (2070) upgrade to your sensory cortex can help you ignore distractions.

• Social Interaction Enhancer: Running real-time analytics in your cyberScape to measure microexpressions, pupillary dilation, blush response, and so on can help read someone up close, with instant simsense feedback using synthesized emotions. (Deus Ex: Human Revolution)

• A Cerebellum Booster (2077) can improve your rapport with people.

• Enhanced Pheromone Receptors: (2070) you can learn to identify individual people and animals by smell, and pick up on basic emotional states. This can cause discomfort in crowds, and someone with tailored pheromones can tag your Chrome aspect against you. (Augmentation p64)

Cybernetic weapons capable of killing people are almost never street-legal in countries that also outlaw bloodsports; when bloodsports are legal, they require licenses. Soldiers with cyberlimbs will switch to civilian limbs when going off base.

Chrome that enhances your Hit:

• Smartgun Link: You can connect cybernetically with a gun that has a Smartgun adapter, either through skinlink or an optical cable for EMCON situations. You can change firing modes and eject magazines with a thought, and a targeting reticle appears in your vision showing where the gun is pointing (presuming the gun hasn’t lost calibration). In most nations, any civilian can take an exam and get a permit for one.

• Running a stereoscopic rangefinder in your cybereyes can come in handy with long-range accuracy; your smartgun link can integrate with that or a laser rangefinder in your gun. Cost: Good (+3).

• Wired Reflexes and Synaptic Accelerators can be trained to support combat reflexes.

• AC

  Combat Tail: Like a Balance Tail, but much more muscular, tipped with spikes (++), spines (+), a bony knob (+), or even a poison stinger (+, though with some folks, that poison gland may secrete a party drug).

• Spatial Recognizer: an analyzer in your cyberScape or cyberears processes sound nearby to provide estimates of direction and distance of opponents; it usually warns you through a simsense sensation of texture and pressure so you feel someone sneaking up on you. (Cybertechnology p24)

• A Suprathyroid (2052) enhances Move as well as Bod.

Cyberlimb options that enhance your Hit:

• D

  360° Joints: very effective when someone tries to put you in a joint lock.

• C

  A Grapple Cyberhand can be used to yoink an object out of another person’s hands.

• A

  Melee Weapon: Your forearm has a retractable blade like a cyberspur, though more concealable, or something more interesting like a Husqvarna® ChainRipp™ retractable chainsaw. A cyberfoot may contain a retractable 10cm blade.

• A

  Ranged Weapon: You have a pistol, dart gun, squirt gun, SMG, or shotgun in your forearm. While it can be concealed, you only have a small number of shots (roughly 12÷red dice) unless you plug a magazine into an external port. (Street Samurai Catalog p86, Man & Machine p41, SR4 p344)

• AC

  Fire Extinguisher: a class ABC fire extinguisher is embedded in your forearm or shin, able to spray pale yellow powder that extinguishes everything short of burning metal. This can extinguish minor fires outright and damage the stress track of larger ones. Used in combat, it’s an irritant that can cause shortness of breath, coughing, dizziness, and headache, which clear up with a little fresh air. (CP2020 Chromebook 1 p36)

• AC

  Gas Jet: a canister of gas in your forearm or shin feeds a vent in your palm, elbow, knee, or toe. You have six shots of gas that can be delivered up to a 2m range. It can be loaded with tear gas, blistering agents, Neuro-Stun sleep gas, anything you can get your hands on. (CP2020 Chromebook 1 p34)

• C

  Flash Pak: the palm of your hand, or the spaces between your first knuckles, contain powerful lamps that can act as a flashlight, or strobe in someone’s face in melee combat to dazzle them. The strobe timing is available to your other chrome that might protect you from dazzling, and can be shared wirelessly to your comrades.

• C

  Cybereye Laser Designator: Paints a target for laser-guided weaponry.

Hit surprises, some of which you can use when both your hands are busy; cyberware ones can also be installed in a cyberarm:

• AC

  Cybergland: (2052) A combat version of the gland in the metabolic dashboard. Implanted in the neck above the larynx, it can deploy its contents for you to spray on a target at point-blank range. Implanted slightly higher, you can spit a toxin. Implanted in the sheath of your cyberspur, you inflict an aspect on your target when you succeed with style on a hit. (Man & Machine p64, Hard Targets p186) Cost: Superb (+5).

• Cyberholster/cyberarm slide: Conceals a weapon and delivers it into your hand as a free action. In a forearm, it can hold a knife, telescoping baton, taser, or hold-out pistol. In a thigh, it’s just like in Robocop and can hold a heavy pistol. (SR5 p456,457)

• A

  Handrazors: Your fingernails have been replaced with sheaths that conceal retractable 2.5cm razor-sharp blades made of chrome steel or carbon fiber. The blades and sheaths are anchored to your distal phalanges. + Cost: Good (+3).

• A

  Taser Touch: similar to handrazors, but they’re conductive prods (fed by high-density batteries tucked between your metacarpals). Good for three good zaps. ++

• A

  Retractable Claws: your hands have been rebuilt to have retractable claws, like a cat. Your distal phalanges now fold back when your claws are not in use, and you have to use your middle phalanges as fingertips now; this impairs fine manipulation, so only the most dedicated furries get this mod. +

• A

  Cyberspur: Your forearms act as sheaths for narrow retractable blades; while triple blades that anchor to the metacarpals (the Wolverine look) are popular for their appearance, single blades that anchor to the ulna are more effective in combat. The ports for the blades, either between the major knuckles or just behind the wrist, are obvious when uncovered, as are the bulges on the forearm for the subdermal sheaths. ++ In 2070, a version that launches the spur with compressed air hits the market. (Augmentation p43) The foot blade (Hard Targets p185) that extends from the toe or heel is designed to flick out as your kick strikes and then retract.

• A

  Bone Spur: (2077) A retractable bone spike that is very hard to detect. Decide whether there’s a subtle port in your palm that someone could spot, or if the spur punches through the skin, leaving a trickle of blood. (Hard Targets p185) Cost: Superb (+5).

• AC

  Cyberwhip: A 2.2m myomer tentacle that can act as a whip or coil around a weapon or throat. + (CP2020 Chromebook 1 p34)

• C

  Cyberoptic Tear Gas Sprayer: You cybereye has a single dose of mace that can be sprayed on someone at point blank range. (CP2020 Chromebook 1 p39) Cost: Good (+3).

• C

  Cybereye Flash Pak: your cybereyes have lamps that can emit highly collimated light that allows you to use low-light vision in otherwise pitch darkness, and can be cranked up to dazzle an enemy at point blank range. (Cybertechnology p21) Cost: Good (+3).

• C

  Cybereye Dart Gun: your cybereye contains a single-shot dart that can deliver a dose of a toxin at a target in the same zone. Requires 10 combat rounds to reload. Cost: Good (+3).

• A

  Cybereye Gun: your cybereye contains a single-shot gun that can fire a tiny bullet at a target in the same zone. + Requires 10 combat rounds to reload. Cost: Good (+3).

• C

  Cybereye Laser Designator: Paints a target for laser-guided weaponry, as long as you don’t get distracted and glance away. Cost: Good (+3).

• A

  Cybereye Tool Laser: a small welding laser installed in your cybereye. + (Cybertechnology p23)

• C

  Oral Dart Gun: a miniature three-shot gun that folds into the roof of your mouth fires tiny darts that can deliver a dose of a toxin at a target in the same zone. Requires 10 combat rounds to reload.

• A

  Cybereye Gun: a miniature three-shot gun that folds into the roof of your mouth fires a tiny bullet at a target in the same zone. + Requires 10 combat rounds to reload.

• CA

  A Telescoping Cyberlimb is primarily useful for grabbing things that are a meter out of your unaugmented reach. It can also enhance the strength of your normal punch by +. Punching people at range creates a boost that opponents can use against you.

Chrome that enhances your Make:

• Cybereyes with magnification can help with fine work; the same liquid lens helping with telescopic vision can help with microscopic tasks.

• A Control Rig can be used for endoscopic surgery and control of manufacturing robots. To use Make+Chrome as well as Make+Tech to fab something, first roll Make+Chrome to create an advantage like When You Want Something Done Right... and tag it when you roll Make+Tech, and bid a fond farewell to all that down time you might have had while waiting for the automated tools to crank out parts.

• Sensitive Skin can help with many kinds of fine work.

• Visualizer: (2072) An interface to your visual imagination that makes it possible to create and export 2D or 3D images, taking anywhere from 5 seconds to an hour or more. (Chrome Flesh p81) Cost: Superb (+5)

Cyberlimb options that can assist in Make:

• An Endoscopic Lockpick can come in handy making inspections and small-scale repairs without taking a device apart.

• Field Surgery: Your fingers and forearm contain surgical micromanipulators, disposable syringes, fluid pumps, diagnostic sensors, and other gadgets suitable for doing medical work in the field. If you have a reservoir prepped, you can inject someone with a drug during a fight. (Augmentation p46)

• Cyberfinger Tool Laser: a small welding laser installed in a proximal phalange. Also useful as a close-up weapon. + (Cybertechnology p23)

• Ultrasonograph: the palm of your hand can perform medical ultrasound, and you have onboard processing to build up a 3-D image by moving your hand across a subject’s body.

• Utility Kit: You have all manner of useful tools tucked away in your fingertips, knuckles, and forearm, pliers and scissors between your fingers, rotating sockets for drills and screws, and so on. (Augmentation p46)

Chrome that enhances your Move:

• Wired Reflexes combine implanted neural boosters and adrenaline stimulators, and you can apply as many levels of Extra Action as you have Chrome. You should have a permit for security-grade cyberware handy if you have a brush with the law, military-grade at Chrome +3.

• Synaptic Accelerators (2052) are bioware that speeds up your main nerve trunks. As bioware, they don’t shop up on cyberware scans, but they are much harder to replace than chrome (not a mere vatnap), and unlike Wired Reflexes, you can’t turn them off. Better take up a meditation practice if you want to avoid spooking ordinary folks. (Shadowtech p28, Man & Machine p74, SR4 p347, SR5 p461) You should have a permit for security-grade bioware handy if you have a brush with the law, military-grade at Chrome +3. Cost: Superb (+5)

• A cybernetic Sport Heart can turbocharge your circulatory system for several minutes at a time.

• A Suprathyroid (2052) enhances Move as well as Bod.

• Synthacardium bioware can deliver increased peak athletic performance.

• Balance Tail: Your spine is extended past your coccyx and you have a long tail, which can be naked and ratlike, scaled and spiky, or fluffy and extravagant. It shows your emotions vividly, and helps you keep your balance. Of course, you do need to customize your wardrobe. Your Chrome adds to your Move for feats of balance. (A cybernetic version is also available.) The hanuman tail was extensively studied in the development of the balance tail.

• Digitigrade Locomotion: Your legs have been rebuilt so you walk on your toes, and you now need custom footwear. You can add your Chrome to your Move, and you always have the edge on someone with equal stats in matters of running speed. This is an expensive bioware build; less so with cyberware. (Man & Machine p37, Augmentation p47)

• Gecko Hands: great for climbing and grappling, but you have to wear gloves the rest of the time. (Augmentation p64)

• Grip Feet: elongated, prehensile toes improve your climbing ability, but need expensive smart footwear for support when running. (Augmentation p40)

• Hand and Foot Webbing: webbing between fingers and toes that expands when wet. Improves swimming, impairs manual dexterity until they dry out.

• A Math SPU can help you calculate just how to time that leap or how to angle your cyberspur to slow your slide down that awning so you land just hard enough.

Cyberlimb options that enhance your Move:

• Cyberfins: your cybernetic fingers and toes telescope outward, anchoring a membrane that gives you fins.

• Cyberskates: rollerblades emerge from the soles of your cyberfeet.

• Grapple Cyberhand: compressed air quietly launches your cyberhand up to two zones away; you still control it through data fibers in the cable unreeling in your cyberarm. A powerful winch can haul you toward your hand, or whatever you grabbed toward you; you can ascend quickly on your own or slowly with a friend hanging on to you. The friction brake in your winch will let you slow a perilous descent. (Augmentation p46, Chrome Flesh p87)

• Hydraulic Jacks: increases leaping and landing distance when loaded in both legs. (Shadowtech p43, Man & Machine p29, SR4 p344, SR5 p456)

• Magnetic Cyberlimb: each hand or foot so equipped (with necessary batteries in the forearm) can hold on to ferromagnetic materials with enough force to hold 25kg against gravity, making climbing possible on sheer steel girders. (Cybertechnology p32, Man & Machine p30, Augmentation p40, Chrome Flesh p84)

• Telescoping Cyberlimb: your limb can extend by up to one meter. With legs, you are effectively on stilts: able to cover more ground, but clumsy in combat. (Augmentation p45, Chrome Flesh p90)

• Water Jets: improves swimming speed. (Chrome Flesh p90)

If you have spent a slot on Hit, you do not need to spend a slot on Prod to get your Chrome bonus if you just want to intimidate people with cyberweapons.

• Infrasound Generator: (2077) Adds a menacing undertone to your voice that aids in subtle intimidation. (Hard Targets p186)

Chrome that enhances your Recon:

• Running image processing algorithms on the output of Cybereyes can be very effective.

• Cybereye Laser Microphone: a laser microphone installed in your cybereye. (Augmentation p39) Cost: Good (+3).

• Orientation System: (2052) a mapping engine interfaced to your eyes and adding a few more: GPS, a barometric altimeter (usually installed in your ear canal), and magnetic and inertial compasses. It syncs up information from your eyes to any mapsofts it has loaded (and can generate them from scratch, given plenty of time for observation). The mapping engine can help you chart paths, give ETA estimates, and measure the things you look at; when your chummers share their position information with you, you can track them and provide guidance. The software operates at scales from personal to planetary, and is just as useful for storm drain maintenance as airplane navigation. It can map buildings and help discover secret rooms when that wall seems to be just a bit too thick. (Shadowtech p63, Man & Machine p18, Augmentation p36, Chrome Flesh p80)

Chrome that enhances your Ride:

• Control Rig: Muscular signal transference interfaces and invasive wiring of your sensory homunculus allows remapping your nervous system into a vehicle or drone. The control you get through a cyberScape is like driving a vehicle or using a game controller; the control you get through a vehicle control rig is like being the vehicle. A control rig normally engages an override for the reticular activation system (RAS) to keep the body from convulsing; you can disengage this if you want to put drone sensors on a hat and have 360° vision when you walk around, though your eyes obviously will not be tracking properly. You can apply as many levels of Extra Action as you have Chrome.

• A Math SPU can come in handy when calculating difficult maneuvers.

Chrome that enhances your Rock:

• Audio Analyzer: an expert analysis package hooked up to your cyberears or the cochlear feed on your cyberScape. It analyzes pitch, beat, and timbre, giving instantaneous feedback. (Chrome Flesh p75)

• You can Rock a Control Rig when animating puppets and drone swarms.

• A well-programmed set of Cybertattoos can enhance an in-person performance.

• Smartcam Link: you can correct images taken through your own eyes or an external camera for motion, lighting conditions, focus, and, to some extent, even composition. (Shadowbeat p91)

• Synthlink: You can command music synthesizers with your mind. If you’re taking a turn as a DJ, you can also do queuing, mixing, beat matching, and tempo adjustment. With a good foley and sound effects library, it can create deceptive sounds to fool people in real time... as long as you have some way of controlling what they hear.

  Music produced through a synthlink is inaudible on the astral plane, even if it’s being converted into real time instructions for people with skillwires and puppet implants to play it. The same MIDI 4.1 codes can be automatically transcribed into sheet music and put on electronic paper and played by superb sight-readers with acoustic instruments, and that will be audible at a significant lag.

  No one has yet cracked the problem of making a human mind control four arms at the same time— the true solo piano four hands players are currently all nartaki— but if you have two extra cyberlimbs installed, you can control one pair via synthlink (cyberarm control software interprets the synthesizer commands to play an instrument) while you use the other pair organically. Cost: Good (+3)

• A Visualizer (2072) can be used to create art.

• Voice Modulator: you can control the pitch of your voice all the way from the subsonic ranges that only trolls, elephants, and augmented folks can hear, all the way up past 20kHz to speak in frequencies even teenagers can’t perceive. The timbre can alter to sound male, female, indeterminate, or inhuman. This can be worked into an amazing performance. Cost: Superb.

The main way chrome can enhance networking is by making it easy to have encyclopedic knowledge of contacts and markets. This is best simulated by using Brains+Chrome to Create an Advantage before rolling Schmooze.

Scournge + Chrome represents your ability to obtain chrome, whether through shady dealings, experimental trials, or financial wherewithal.

Chrome that enhances your Sneak:

• Internal Router: you have a fiber optic network threaded through your body and all of your chrome is shielded, with the exception of antennae on sensors. You are hard to spot on sensors looking for electromagnetic emissions.

• Chromatophore Skin: your skin has been regrown using chromatophores from cephalopods, and is stark white when you relax. The panhuman brain is unable to exert direct control over something that complicated, so control over the chromatophore ganglia is ultimately cybernetic, but it allows camouflaging any part of your body that isn’t covered by clothing. Unlike the e-ink capsules in cybertattoos, chromatophore skin can even go on your eyelids.

• Dermal Sheathing (2057) can be purchased with a chameleon option, allowing your exposed skin to have a camouflage pattern. (Cybertechnology p28, Man & Machine p28, Augmentation p40)

• A Clean Metabolism (2061) can make you harder to track by scent. (Man & Machine p76)

• Tremor Reducer: (2077) a neurological buffer allows you to remain unnaturally still for long periods of time without getting uncomfortable, and in rolling Sneak+Chrome to place an aspect on a target as you line up your sniper rifle. (Chrome Flesh p119

Chrome that enhances your Spot:

• Cybereyes: Your eyes have been replaced with high-tech orbs that have a variety of capabilities. You can roll Chrome to activate their various features. Infrared vision (which can only show heat sources warmer than your body temperature) has to be in false color, unless you’re a troll or a dwarf whose visual cortex can comprehend the additional channel of color. For simple things like activating low-light vision, you don’t need to roll, but bringing up your flare compensation in expectation of sudden bright light or engaging telescopic vision (using focus-tunable or liquid lenses) is Spot + Chrome. If you’re proficient with technology, you can also do real-time image processing, such as running a contrast enhancement algorithm on a wall to see if you can spot freshly touched-up paint.

  Decide if your cybereyes are passing for organic or are obviously exotic, such as having metallic or gemstone or neon irises, oddly shaped pupils, fashionable trademarks on the sclera, or are featureless black orbs.

  Cybereyes can also be mounted in other places; the wisdom eye look, mounted in the bindi location, is fashionable in some quarters and sneered at in others. Eyes in the back of the head are possible, though rare and hard to get used to.

  Cybereyes can also be used for high speed data I/O, either with modulated laser beams or rolling your eye up to expose a hidden datajack.

  Cost starts at Good (+3) for basic 20/20 vision. At Great (+4) you can afford the fancy stuff.

• Eyeband: (2070) A 360° wraparound visual sensor, much like cybereyes. It takes a couple of weeks to get used to them, and even then, it has to zoom its perspective for detailed work. (Augmentation p37) Cost: about the same as cybereyes.

• Animal Eyes: Organic 20/20 low light vision and the look of any animal you like (Cat Eyes and Wolf Eyes are popular, and Goat Eyes among the people who enjoy demonic motifs), or human appearance (those are called Night Eyes, or Anime Eyes when making them just a bit bigger than usual.) Very few people opt for a tapetum lucidum, as that would make your vision blurry; they’re copying the distribution of rods in orkish and elvish eyes. (2070) You can even get thermographic capability copied from dwarfs and trolls. (Augmentation p67)

• Spider Eyes: (2077) A cluster of small, low-resolution, lensless eyes, secured behind a thick transparent membrane, are mounted on the back of your head or nape of your neck. They give you an opportunity to notice sudden changes of lighting behind you, without confusing your visual cortex like full backward-facing eyes would. (Chrome Flesh p76) Cost: Good (+3).

• A Spatial Recognizer helps to notice people sneaking up on you.

• Nictitating Membrane: your eyes are protected by a living retractable membrane that keeps out sand, grit, smoke, and tear gas; eases underwater activities; is polarized to reduce glare. You can’t wear contact lenses with it. Blinking it at ordinary folk is a great way to freak them out. You can roll Bod+Chrome to resist such challenges. (Man & Machine p67)

• Cyberears: Your inner ears have been replaced with high-tech digital sound processing units (which optionally sense barometric pressure). You can roll Spot + Chrome to activate their various features, which include eavesdropping on trolls engaging in subsonic communication, hear dog whistles, triangulate on gunshots, and attempt to filter out background noise to eavesdrop in a noisy environment. For simple things like damping down noise when you go into a nightclub, you don’t need to roll, but filtering it to listen in on a conversation or tune in a faint conversation at a distance is Spot + Chrome. (Volume limiters can be configured to register excessive noise in other ways, such as generating sensations of heat or sharpness on the ear to help wince at the same time as ordinary folks.) Cyberears are not normally obvious, but some people replace their ears with external microphones so no one can bite them off, or have the cyberears mounted high on the head with ears modeled after an animal.

  If you have spent a Chrome slot on Move, augmentation to your inner ears can explain why you have the balance to roll Move + Chrome to walk a tightrope. (Cybertechnology p24, Man & Machine p13)

  Cost starts at Good (+3) for basic 20Hz–20kHz hearing, Great (+4) for the fancy stuff.

• Animal Ears: Your ears are replaced with a build from your chosen animal species: cat and wolf models are popular, as they emote very well, and bunny and chinchilla for people going for the cute look. Your hearing can be extended from 14Hz to 60kHz. (You can have a cyber inner ear in your animal ears.)

• Olfactory Booster: (2052) your sense of smell is enhanced to be as keen as a bloodhound’s. You can learn to identify disease by smell and smell emotions in sweat. You also become a bit of a neat freak because you can pick up on smells far more easily. (Shadowtech p62, SR4 p339, SR5 p452)

• Radar: (2070) chunks of the frontal and parietal bones of your skull have been replaced with ceramics containing antennae, transmitters, and signal processors. You can map your surroundings with radar (including penetrating structures with terahertz frequencies), and have it mapped into whatever senses you please; if you wish, you can literally feel people sneaking up behind you. This mod is rare, as using it requires lighting yourself up like a Christmas tree on radar. You can sync your internal radar system with an external emitter for people to shoot at, but that carries its own hassles. (Augmentation p36, Chrome Flesh p81)

• Sonar: (2061) You have ultrasound emitters and receivers mounted outboard on your head. You need to wear a hat (muffling your sonar sense) if you want to pass for unaugmented. You can map your surroundings with sonar, and have it mapped into whatever senses you please; if you wish, you can literally feel people sneaking up behind you. This mod is rare, as using it requires lighting yourself up like a Christmas tree on sonar. (Man & Machine p18)

• Echolocation: (2070) brain features imported from bats improve human echolocation to uncanny levels. (Augmentation p63)

• Thermosense Organs: (2061) pit organs derived from snakes are mounted in the forehead, behind the ears, and at the nape of the neck, giving 360° detection of radiant heat from several meters away. This can foil mana invisibility (since it is not a sight-based sense) and physical invisibility that isn’t designed to fool dwarfs and trolls. (Man & Machine p75)

• Sensitive Skin can come in handy when searching for the seams of well-camouflaged secret doors and similarly subtle phenomena.

• Attention Coprocessor: (2070) a cybernetic implant in the frontal cortex and limbic system improves continuous partial attention, helping to keep track of events in the background without losing the foreground. (Augmentation p36)

• Reception Enhancer: (2070) Improvements to the sensory cortex help you glean as much as possible from incoming sensory data. (Augmentation p70, Chrome Flesh p118) Cost: Superb (+5).

Cyberlimb options that enhance Spot:

• Chemsniffer: A fingertip, knuckle, or even toe tip (if you run around barefoot) contains a microarray that can sample more molecules than a bloodhound; the results can be displayed on your Scape, or delivered straight to your olfactory nerves. You could get one installed in your nose, but why would you want to put your face up to everything you want to sample? A popular option for bodyguards. It will specifically alert your Scape if it encounters poisonous gases like CO and CN, excessive CO₂, lowered O₂, and other such hazards.
• Magnetic Anomaly Detector: The palm of your cyberhand contains a magnetic anomaly detector and processor that are useful in scanning for weapons. A popular option for bodyguards. (Augmentation p45)
• Electromagnetic Scanner: the palm of your cyberhand can perform millimeter wave scanning and terahertz nondestructive evaluation to help you figure out just where to smack that door to break it open, or locate concealed weapons on someone you’re patting down.

Chrome that does not contribute to any skill and can be introduced as surprises if you are Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger:

• Data Filter: blocks the transfer of information from short-term to long-term memory. Useful for couriers who need to be able to talk to someone without having any recollection of who, and common in the hosts in a bunraku parlor. (SR1 p127, Augmentation p36)

• Hard Switch: for cautious folks, some chrome (such as the metabolic dashboard) is too dangerous to leave open to the possibility of wireless hacking. A hard switch is placed someplace where it’s difficult to accidentally press, such as the underside of the frontal bone or inner underside of the mandible. Pressing the switch makes the crucial chrome writable; without it, it simply won’t listen to your cyberScape no matter how hard it’s pwned. (A time-delayed attack can still be left on your cyberScape to await the next time you trigger the hard switch, though.) Preprogrammed instructions will still execute.

  Similar switches for forcibly rebooting a cyberScape in safe mode, or authorizing writes to its secure storage, can also come in handy.

• Puppet Implant: Requires Skillwires. Allows remote control of a human body by a computer program or rigger. People who prefer to spend all their time in virtual reality often get one so a program can make their body exercise, eat, bathe, and defecate without interfering with their online activities. This technology is also used for some bunraku parlors and prisons. Cautious folks secure their puppet implant with a latched hard switch, and even when it’s active, you need a prearranged one-time pad to access it. This means you have to hack that combat decker’s rigger teammate...

Cyberlimb options that do not contribute to any skill:

• There are a plethora of cyberfinger modifications. Flashlight, lighter, minigrenade, one-shot holdout pistol (Chrome Flesh p86), credstick, glass cutter, injector, lockpick (Hard Targets p186), dart gun, scissors/wirecutters, mace sprayer (CP2020 Chromebook 1 p32), video camera, air hypo, tracking device (CP2020 Chromebook 2 p4), shotgun microphone, data link, strobe flash, laser pointer (CP2020 Chromebook 3 p22), ballpoint pen (CP2020 Chromebook 4 p4).

• Cyberdeck: Your forearm contains a working cyberdeck, though it’s a bit more tricky to maintain because the parts fit together in three dimensions rather than being laid out on a simple board. Synthflesh-compatible.
• Data Vault: you have a large storage array tucked into a cyberlimb. Synthflesh-compatible.

• Drone Hand: your hand is equipped with drone sensors and batteries that give it limited-duration operation when detached. You can use the sensors any time (useful for poking your hand to see someplace you don’t want to put your head), and can send the hand on short-range missions. (Augmentation p46)

• Secret Compartment: you can hide small objects in a shielded compartment in your cyberlimb which looks to a scanner like part of its workings. Roll Sneak+Chrome to smuggle things past scanners. Synthflesh-compatible.

If your Chrome and Drugs Edges are at least 1 each:

• Metabolic Dashboard: Requires Drugs +1 and a Biomonitor. Your body contains an artificial gland capable of manufacturing anything that a ribosome can assemble out of amino acids. You can medicate yourself, recalibrate your hormone balances, and dose yourself with caffeine just before your alarm goes off, ghrelin to make that Nukit burger seem more appetizing, and melatonin to help you zonk out at bedtime.

  A stock civilian model only does normal things like that, as well as fulfilling prescriptions from a licensed doctor, but any halfway-competent street doc can swap out the synthetic bacteria in the cybergland and upgrade the control firmware to let you get high in so many ways, or even crank out enough tetrodotoxin to simulate death... or permanently deny your captors a chance to interrogate you. Using a black market-modified metabolic dashboard to dose yourself with addictive drugs has the potential to start down a slippery slope, and the better black market firmware has a variety of safety lockouts; some people lock out the party drugs entirely, while others restrict them to one day in seven.

  It takes a while for the bacteria to create the substance you want, so if you are expecting to need one in advance, you can have them buffer the dose in an internal reservoir; for cinematic purposes, you can be presumed to have a few reservoirs ready to go and can reveal their contents at the time. (They can also synthesize catalysts to break them down, should you not use the dose.) Dashboards are usually preprogrammed to automatically synthesize antivenin for many well-known venoms, and can be programmed for other tricks like give me a jolt of amphetamines fifteen minutes after I suddenly go unconscious. Roll Brains+Chrome (if you programmed it yourself) or Scrounge+Chrome (if you installed a contingency package someone else wrote) if you want to have your biomonitor act without your character supervising it.

  In general, this is permission to use the Drugs Edge without a supplier, and to roll Bod+Chrome to create aspects like Deep Sleep, Comfortably Numb, Exquisite Cocktail of Painkillers, Amphetamine Rush, High as a Kite, or On a Vision Quest BRB.

  If appropriately programmed, your dashboard can flood your system with adrenaline, allowing use of the Drugs edge with Bod, Hit, Move, and Ride, and the Extra Action stunt.

The cybercomm from Cybertechnology p18, which is supposed to allow silent transmission of text at 4× normal speed. The human brain only processes language at about 39 bits per second.