Hello again helpful GURPS people!

I’ve been doing more reading and working to get the foundation of my first GURPS Cyberpunk campaign put together, and I ran into a bit of a conundrum. When players are putting together their characters, are there any rules about how implanted weapons differ from weapons used normally? Like if a player wanted to use a mono-wire whip that costs $5,000, would there be a different cost for having it implanted in their hand? Or if there’s a chip they could get that allows them to use a power like the sandevistan, I don’t know how to handle that since powers are point buy but it would also cost money…? I’ve tried looking in the books for any rules or recommendations, but if they exist then I think I’ve missed them.

  • ingeanus@ttrpg.network
    2·
    11 hours ago

    There’s a couple places you should look for help:

    • Basic Set has the Cybernetics spot in the advantage Advantage section, but the best spot is Transformations on page 294, specifically Body Modification. In short, this covers how to cost these things and the general idea is: if it’s available readily it should cost money, while anything special or unique should cost points.
    • Ultratech has a whole section dedicated to Cybernetics in the Medical part. I personally find them acceptable but a little… vague.
    • Biotech has lots of rules for Gene editing and such, especially describing what options might be available by tech level. I’ve always found it useful as a check when designing biological Cybernetics.
    • Meta-Tech is a new book about pricing special equipment that’s built of points so that it can be purchased with cash. They have rules for Cybernetics there and I’ve personally found it extremely useful and one of the best options.
    • Consider the Extra Arm limitation Weapon Mount, which can be used as a concealabke weapon mount for an innate weapon. Also consider the Payload advantage. Players can just buy the weapon and slot it in here.
    • Lastly, I’ve done a lot of work on a Shadowrun port that includes some rules for Augmentation of all kinds. The old version is here: https://ingeanus.github.io/GURPS_Shadowrun_LaTEX/ but I’m working on a new version and if you want me to send you that, feel free to ask.

    To go further beyond just recommending sources: the answer is kind of hard. Gurps doesn’t make a great distinction between cash and points, least of all because you can buy the Wealth advantage that gives exponentially more cash for a linear cost of points.

    This is also confounded by equipment getting better by TL: a 5d pi Innate Attack is amazing in Rome, but it’s an Assault Rifle in contemporary America. Some people recommend the Accessory perk if such equipment is readily available at a given TL, but also there’s the Extra Arm and Payload advantages as mentioned. These are only useful if the equipment already exists, esp as a weapon though. Sandevistans are basically Altered Time Rate… and AFAIK there’s no equipment readily giving that, at least at TL9 (which I guess you are). You can totally just create it and price it with cash (Meta-Tech helps with that); if it’s too rare, unique, or powerful you might want to charge points for it though.

    There’s a lot more subtly to the ideas here, but hopefully it’s enough to at least help with any issues you had (sorry for the 17d necro, but I figure I could weight in at least for anyone reading this in the future, if not for any problems you’ve had since then).

  • Sanctus@anarchist.nexusEnglish
    2·
    17 days ago

    The true cost of implants in cyberpunk is empathy. Its what keeps you from just loading up with everytjing because you’ll just lose your pc to the referee

    • mr_account@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      17 days ago

      Thank you for reminding me of this. That is another thing I wanted to ask about, because I don’t know how I’d handle something like that in terms of game mechanics. Empathy loss is hard to quantify

      • ingeanus@ttrpg.network
        2·
        11 hours ago

        I think creating a new stat is very reasonably as Sanctus mentioned (Power Ups 9 also gives great guidance on how to do this btw), but I’ve also had success in forcing Disadvantages or Lost Points on players to represent this cost; its very GURPS-y to start and gives lots of room for expression by the player on how they decline. If you charge points for cyberware I recommend using this as a discount too (i.e. Your Altered Time Rate 1 [100] Sandevistan also causes Low Empathy [-20] for a total of 80 points.)

      • Sanctus@anarchist.nexusEnglish
        1·
        17 days ago

        With GURPs you can just rip the empathy stat from cyberpunk and tape it on. It’ll work. That way you can just do what the book says and you don’t have to convert their numbers to your scale.