AHEM! With rules taken from Man and Machine, a third edition cybertechnology book, cyberware, bioware and attributes take Stress Points based on damage being taken.
Stress is received on a character when they take damage from a Wound Effect or from exceeding the physical limitations of the ware in general or lack of maintenence.
A wound effect occurs when the highest die roll on the character's Damage Resistance test does not exceed the number of boxes of damage taken (Physical or Stun) The difference between these numbers is the number of Wound Effects taken. For each wound effect, roll 1d6. On a result of 1-2, a cyber-system is damaged, 3-4 bioware, 5-6 and attribute damage is taken. If the character rolls cyber or bioware system damage but possesse neither, they take no wound effects. When a system is damaged, the GM should determine randomly which systems are affected.
Special note (electrical damage) : For each wound effect caused by electrical damage (tasers, lightning bolts, electric fences), another wound effect is rolled. If that number is a 1 or 2, it causes damage to a cyber-system. Any other result is disregarded.
The book recommends assigning numbers based on essence in "essence slots" That is to say, that muscle replacement I takes up 1 essence slot and thus is damaged if a 1 is rolled on 1d6. However, this might take too much time so a GM is free to determine what is damaged in one way or another. If no slots are "hit" on a die roll, there is no wound effect. When a system is selected, it takes 1-3 Stress points and must make a stress test to check if the system or attribute fails.
To make a stress test, the victim must roll a number of dice based on the system against a target number equal to the number of cumulative stress the system has taken. Only 1 success is necessary to avert system failure:
Cyberware gets a number of dice to resist based on it's grade: 1 for basic, 2 for alpha-grade, 3 for Beta-grade, and 5 for Delta-grade. Bioware is based on grade too: 1 die for cosmetic bioware, 2 for standard, and 4 for cultured. Attributes roll dice equal to half their natural value.
If cyberware fails, it does so in a manner of the GM's choosing: C2 decks malfunction, smartlinks give penalties instead, skillwires cause shaking and tremors, wired reflexes overload, becoming twitchy or cause feedback, cyberlimbs start moving on their own, internal air-tanks cease up or explode causing (number of hours of air left)S damage resisted by body only, etc. The effects are left up to the GM.
Bioware has specific levels of damage, similar to a condition monitor, each level causing a cumulatively bad effect. If bioware fails a stress test, it is considered at deadly stress. Some bioware simply stops working but causes numerous other problems based on it's previous level of stress. Example, Synthacardium: At light stress, 1 box, it causes headaches and migraines from high blood-pressure. At moderate stress, 3 boxes, it causes hypertension, for every athletics test made, roll 2d6 on a 2, a stroke occurs. At Serious stress, 6 boxes, the character has chest pains and is afflicted with a permanent light stun wound until the stress is fixed, at deadly stress, the implant fails and provides no bonuses.
Attribute failure can be any number of things, pulling muscles, twisting ankles, a migraine, disarrhythmia, reduced inhibitions, concussions, punctured lungs, broken bones, delerium, coma. These effects are up to the GM and can lead to some interesting situations. They should affect the specific attribute though.
Whenever ANY system takes 10 stress points, they automatically fail.
When any system fails, it must be fixed with surgery and will not heal naturally. Attribute and bioware stress heal over time naturally. Cyberware that hasn't failed can be fixed with routine maintenence. Some cyberware may require surgery to fix, an internal air-tank comes to mind...
This system is far more complicated than most GMs and players are willing to deal with, but it can be implemented fluently if the GM practices with enough imaginary scenarios to get the rules down pat.
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Topic: Ok.. lets see if i got it this time.. (Read 19875 times)