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.
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.
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.
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.
| Chrome Syndrome | +Max Alienation |
|---|---|
| Brutal, unable to hold back | +4 |
| Candid, unable to keep silent | +3 |
| Cold, unable to feel love | +4 |
| Distant, unable to tolerate people | +3 |
| Exultant, unable to imagine failure | +3 |
| Fearless, unable to feel dread | +4 |
| Hypervigilant, unable to rest | +3 |
| Murderous, unable to stop killing | +6 |
| Ravenous, unable to stop feeling | +4 |
| Savage, unable to retreat | +5 |
| Secretive, unable to admit it | +3 |
| Stressed, unable to endure it | +5 |
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.