Qualities/Chrome Flesh

Better to Be Feared than Loved

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.54

Cost

5 Karma

You’re not running the shadows to make friends. It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and you intend to eat all the other dogs. Along the way, you’re going to meet people who have things you need, and you intend to take those things, because you can.

The character has such a fearsome reputation that all Contacts chosen as Blackmailed contacts (p.178, Run Faster) are terrified of the character, having heard what he does to people who cause him displeasure. The character does not need anything additional to blackmail contacts—the sheer threat of the horrors he can inflict upon them is enough. Further, the character may add their Street Cred rating as a bonus to the Loyalty (Leverage) attribute of those contacts.

The downside, however, is that should a blackmailed contact gather enough nerve to turn on you, they aren’t going to do so lightly. Add the character’s Street Cred to the blackmailed Contact’s Connection Rating to determine the Professional Rating of the people who are going to come after the character.

Biocompatibility

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.54

Restriction

May only be taken once.

Cost

5 Karma

Something about the character’s body is exceptionally accepting of either bioware or cyberware implants (choose one). Not only are the implants not rejected, but they seamlessly fit within the body, having less impact on its holistic integrity. In game terms, the Essence cost of implants of the particular chosen type are reduced by ten percent, rounded down to the tenth. This rebate is cumulative with the reduction offered by the chosen ’ware’s grade, if any (e.g., the reduction for alphaware of 0.8 is reduced by ten percent, or 0.08, to become 0.72, and is rounded down to 0.7).

Cyber Singularity Seeker

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.54

Cost

12 Karma

In the Sixth World, many accept cyberware as a means to an end, as a way to augment their capacity. For most it is a trade-off between their sense of self and being more capable. For you, though, cyberware is the end. You believe that the more chrome you get, the closer you get to some sort of point of nirvana, of hitting a singularity where you blend man and machine to perfection.

The character gains +1 Willpower for every two full cyberlimb replacements they get (partial limb replacements don’t count), up to a maximum of +2 Willpower.

Drug Tolerant

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.54

Cost

6 Karma

The character has a higher-than-average tolerance for drugs (sometimes called Ozzy Osborne Syndrome). This could be due to a hardy constitution, or a natural genetic mutation that allows for better absorption and filtering of foreign chemicals from their system. The character in question receives +2 dice to all Addiction Tests,^(SR5-414) to resist addiction. They gain no bonus, however, for attempting to dry out after being addicted.

Prototype Transhuman

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.54

Restriction

Can only be taken during character creation.

Cost

10 Karma

There are always rumors in the shadows of this or that megacorp or organization working to build an army of super soldiers. Those rumors always seem to persist, always seem to be around. Some choose to believe, others don’t, but for them, it’s a matter of opinion. For you, it’s a matter of fact. You are an extremely rare, genetically crafted, experimental post-human prototype.

Unfortunately, this has its ups and downs. You were built better than a normal human, so you may pick up to 1 point of Essence of bioware (not cyberware). While you must pay the normal cost in nuyen of the bioware and otherwise follow all character creation rules, you do not incur any essence cost. So, essentially, you gain up to 1 point of free Essence to be used exclusively on bioware. These special organs were genetically grown into you from your inception—they are as much a natural part of you as your liver or heart.

However, the downside of being a rare, one-of-akind transhuman prototype is that, well, something is wrong with you. As part of this Quality, you must also pick one of the following negative qualities: Wanted, Allergy (Common, Mild), Astral Beacon, or Insomnia (10). You do not get the Karma bonus for this Negative Quality. This additional Negative Quality represents that you are either wanted back by your manufacturer, or that there is something wrong with you (them’s the breaks for being a prototype).

Redliner

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.55

Cost

10 Karma

Any cyberlimbs you have installed are jacked-to-themax, with safety limits disabled and performance overclocked beyond what the warranty normally covers, and that’s the way you like it. You receive +1 Strength and +1 Agility for every two full cyberarms or cyberlegs installed, up to a maximum of +2 for both attributes (sorry, no super centipede-man builds). The downside to pushing your ’ware that hard, however, is that the strain is quite damaging. You lose three Physical Condition Monitor boxes per two full cyberarms and legs installed. Normally, every cyberlimb gives you one additional box, but with this quality, after two full limbs you end up with net one less box (i.e., −1 instead of +2).

Revels in Murder

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.56

Cost

8 Karma

Calling you psychotic might be going too far, but in any case it’s doubtful anyone is going to debate the point to your face. Killing brings you joy. Maybe it’s the thrill of the ultimate test of your skills, the ultimate redline, kill or be killed, and the triumph of victory that keep you going. Maybe you just like gore. The Sixth World is a cold place, chummer, and you get your kicks where you can.

When a character with this quality uses a point of Edge as part of an offensive combat action against a target and causes enough damage to send that target into physical overflow, the character immediately regains the spent point of Edge.

To qualify, the target must be aware of the possibility of damage and not willing to receive it, and they must be a metahuman (human, ork, troll, elf, dwarf, or any associated metavariant). Critters, spirits, and the like do not count. In case of doubt as to whether a target counts or not, the gamemaster has final say.

Uncanny Healer

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.56

Cost

12 Karma

The character has always been a fast healer, recovering from injuries with almost supernatural speed. Characters who embrace augmentation soon discover that it interferes with their unnatural healing ability, however. The character adds their current Essence attribute as a dice pool modifier to all Natural Recovery Healing Tests for both Stun and Physical damage (p.207, SR5). This does not affect magical healing or First Aid tests performed by others. This quality cannot be combined with Quick Healer (p.77, SR5).

Antipathy

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.57

Bonus

8 Karma

Your parents always told you to think about how others feel, but whether you want to or not, you don’t know how. You suffer a −2 penalty to all opposed Social Tests.

AIPS

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.57

Bonus

10 Karma

Diagnosed with artificially induced psychotropic schizophrenia syndrome after the Second Crash, an AIPS sufferer who physically enters a spam zone receives a −1 dice pool penalty to Perception Tests per level of the spam zone’s Noise Rating, to a maximum of −6. Additionally, in non-stressful situations, the gamemaster may require the character to make a Composure Test (p.152, SR5) at a threshold equal to the Noise Rating of the spam zone.

Blank Slate

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.57

Bonus

15 Karma

The character in question has abused personasofts to the degree they no longer have an original personality. They enter a near-fugue state, having nearly no willpower of their own. They are easily led unless they have a personasoft running to give them a personality. This can come with or without Amnesia (p.152, Run Faster) of varying degrees. For all intents and purposes, the original person has “died” and only the virtual personalities remain.

Buying off this quality can mean either that the original personality, buried under the shock of the persona fixes for a long time, finally emerges, or that a persona installed through a personafix becomes the new permanent personality.

Cyberpsychosis

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.57

Prerequisites

Antipathy, minimum 5 Essence points lost from augmentations.

Bonus

10 Karma

It’s said that as more of the body is replaced with chrome, heavily augmented individuals lose part of what makes them metahuman. Whether that’s true or not, having more augmentations does make it more difficult to relate to others. During any Social Test, if the character glitches, they act in an inappropriate manner or violently overreact to their situation. If the character suffers a critical glitch, they suffer a psychotic break, essentially becoming an NPC until such time that the gamemaster decides they’ve recovered.

Note: Characters augmented heavily enough to risk cyberpsychosis may suffer negative social modifiers due to excessive augmentation. Any character with cyberpsychosis must also have the Antipathy Negative Quality to reflect the loss of empathy due to the disorder.

Cyber-Snob

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.57

Bonus

12 Karma

There are augmentations, and then there are augmentations, chummer. If you’re gonna stick a chunk of metal or hunk of flesh inside your body, it’s going to be nothing but the best! A character with Cyber-Snob will not accept any augmentations of a grade lower than betaware. A character must have at least 1 point worth of Essence of betaware-grade cyberware or bioware to be able to take this quality.

Dead Emotion

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.57

Bonus

5 Karma

The character has abused BTL-level moodsofts and can no longer feel one specific emotion (e.g., happiness, anger, fear) under any circumstances. The player and the gamemaster are highly advised to work together to select the emotion, figure out how this will affect the character, and plan how it should be played out.

Dry Addict

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.57

Bonus

2 to 13 Karma

Can be taken at character creation or substituted for the Addiction Quality (p.77, SR5) after the user has met the requirements for buying off an Addiction (see Withdrawal and Staying Clean).^(SR5-415) The addiction still exists, but the character no longer suffers the penalties from being without the particular substance. Any situations that make the fix available require a Composure Test with a threshold based on the stress the character is currently under, starting at 1 for passive situations (offer of a social drink) to 5 for highstress situations (before, during, or right after a major life-threatening situation.) Based on the level of the quality (see below), players receive a 1, 2, 3, or 4 dice pool penalty on any Addiction Tests following the use of the substance they used to abuse to see if they relapse into full addiction again. If they do, this quality disappears and is replaced by the Addiction quality, but the player does not receive any Karma bonus for the change.

The Dry Addict quality includes the following levels, just like addiction: Mild, Moderate, Severe, and Burnout level. The Karma bonus is equal to half that of their respective Addiction levels, rounded up, meaning 2 for Mild, 5 for Moderate, 10 for Severe, and 13 for Burnout. Players must select the level for this quality that is the same as their former Addiction quality.

Family Curse

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.58

Bonus

5 Karma

Your parent(s) liked their drugs. A lot. So did theirs, and their parents before them. To say that addiction runs in the family is like saying Lone Star officers enjoy clubbing punks. When making Addiction Tests, the character receives a −2 dice pool penalty.

Implant-Induced Immune Deficiency

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.58

Prerequisites: Bioware or cyberware implants, and an Essence of 5 or less.

Bonus

5 Karma

Cyberware and bioware users sometimes suffer from a number of health problems as the natural balance of their metabolisms is thrown off by modified organs and systems. The demands of their augmented biologies and the body’s continuous attempts to adjust to the implants can lead to decreased immunity to pathogens, poisons, and other compounds. Characters with this quality suffer a dice pool modifier of −2 on all Body Tests to resist the effects of diseases, drugs, toxins, and other compounds (including Physical Addiction Tests and Disease Resistance Tests).

Lack of Focus

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.58

Bonus

6 Karma

Characters suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have difficulty focusing on a single subject for long. When making any Extended Test with an interval greater than five minutes and shorter than one day, or if repeated simple tests are made within a period of time (such as Perception Tests during surveillance), the character must make a Composure (3) Test each interval after the first. The character’s Composure dice pool is cumulatively reduced by 1 for each of these tests, like any other Extended Test.

Failing the Composure Test indicates the character can no longer focus and must take a break for a minimum of 1 interval, plus any other consequences that result. After the break, the character’s Composure dice pool is refreshed, and the process starts over again.

Lightweight

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.58

Bonus

6 Karma

On the bright side, this quality means it’s easy, and cheap, to get drunk. On the downside, it takes far less to get a person addicted to the various types of chemical drugs on the market. The Addiction Rating of any substance on the Addiction Table,^(SR5-414) or any other related tables is 2 levels higher for the character.

One of Them

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.58

Bonus

7 Karma

Unless you’ve been living in the middle of the SOX Irradiated Zone for the last few years, you know that cognitive fragmentation disorder is a pretty serious problem. Mysterious and misunderstood, CFD can spread easily and essentially steals someone’s soul. It can strike anyone, anywhere, regardless of wealth or social class, and there are no cures, nor means of prevention. Plus, affected individuals can masquerade as healthy people for a significant period of time before being detected. Is it any wonder the world is feeling a little paranoid these days?

Unfortunately for you, word on the street is that you are a head case, as CFD-inflicted individuals are colloquially known. No amount of reasoning has thus far convinced your friends and acquaintances that these are baseless rumors—everyone is convinced you’re crawling with CFD. Bummer.

While this quality can be bought off with Karma as per normal rules, until this happens, all of your Contacts believe you’re afflicted with CFD. None will agree to meet you in the flesh for fear of being infected. If you drop in on them in person unexpectedly, they will either fight you or flee from your presence. Some may still agree to deal with you virtually, though ironically, their Loyalty works against you now. In order to do business with the character, the Contact must fail a Loyalty Test.

Quasimodo

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.59

Bonus

5 Karma

The Sixth World is full of things that endanger normal genome expression, including Awakened dangers, environmental pollution, unpredictable mutagenics, and secret experimentation. People with this quality are the extreme result of such genetic tampering, whether hereditary or accidental. Characters with this quality suffer an unexpected genetic disorder that manifests as ugly and visceral physical deformities. The character suffers a −3 dice pool modifier on all Social Skill Tests not done via the Matrix and a +2 dice pool modifier for all Intimidation Tests. The character and gamemaster should negotiate to decide on an effect that is suitably negative. Quasimodo characters might also have developed personality quirks or aggressive behavior from years of social rejection.

So Jacked Up

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.59

Bonus

10 Karma

The character is deep down the road of artificial mood enhancers, whether those are BTLs or chemicals. The character has basically lost the ability to regulate her own moods and must alternate between mind-benders to get cranked up or bring herself down.

While the character is encouraged to use drugs such as cram, deepweed, and so on (using the description to determine if it’s an upper/stimulant or a downer), this is not strictly necessary, as the character can be assumed to be on generic upper/downer pharmaceuticals. Generic downers cause −1 Reaction and +1 Logic, while uppers cause +1 Reaction and −1 Logic.

In any case, the effect of this quality is that the character must decide whether she is “up” or “down” ahead of time. It takes thirty minutes to switch between conditions. Having the wrong mood at the wrong time can cause embarrassing social issues (for example, being on an up mood while at an oyabun’s beloved son’s funeral, or being down in basically any combat situation).

If the character has the wrong mood at the wrong time, they incur a −2 penalty to all Social Tests. What constitutes the wrong mood at the wrong time is largely up to the gamemaster, though characters can expect this to be “most of the time.”

Superhuman Psychosis

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.59

Restriction

Incompatible with any Code of Honor

Bonus

2 Karma

When you can run faster than a car, punch through concrete, throw fireballs with your mind, and shrug off assault cannon rounds, you might start feeling that you’re more human than human. And if you’re more human than human, what are they? Does a person that steps on ants feel bad? If not, then why should you feel anything toward these lesser beings of the old human race? So slow, so weak, so dim.

Characters with superhuman strengths, such as those granted by augmentations, or Awakened powers, can start to feel detached from the human race. They start seeing everyone else kind of like cattle. Like playing a game on the easy mode, the challenges of life seem dim and uninteresting. Characters suffering from Superhuman Psychosis seek out others like them, to belong but also to test themselves, to see how far they can go, how far they can push themselves.

Superhuman Psychosis causes a few effects. The character has absolutely no moral qualms about killing people, seeing it as his right. They won’t go out of their way to kill people, but also won’t hesitate to kill anyone, even going up to mass murder—they just don’t value the lives of lesser beings.

In addition, the character’s general lack of concern for others (and their bullets) makes them pretty formidable in combat. This quality grants an automatic +1 die bonus in melee combat. The character is also less perturbed about puny mortals flinging lead at him, and so suffers only half the penalty from incoming Suppressive Fire.

This is balanced by the fact that they have difficulty disguising their contempt for others, leading to a −2 penalty on all Etiquette and Leadership tests.

When facing opponents equivalent to Professional Rating 5 or above, however, the character gets interested. This is a true test of their skills, and they won’t want to back down. The character must make a Composure (3) Test to withdraw from a fight with such opponents, regardless of the situation. If they fail the test, they must continue the combat.

TLE-x

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.59

Bonus

15 Karma

A neurological disorder from the Sixth World, temporal lobe epilepsy with complications results from the metabolic and neurological stress of excessive cyberware implantation, especially move-by-wire implants (note, though, that move-by-wire implants are not required for TLE-x to occur, nor do they cause it automatically). In appropriately stressful situations, the character must make a Body + Willpower (4) Test or fall into epileptic seizures for (5 − hits) minutes.

The biomedical AEXD (p.179) grants a +3 bonus to dice pools to resist the onset of TLE-x, but the disease may only be cured fully with corrective gene therapy (p.156) or brain surgery. Even if one of the latter two options is taken, TLE-x may recur if the cyberware that caused the initial onset is not removed. Removing the quality still requires a Karma expenditure, along with the procedure.

Tough and Targeted

27005 Chrome Flesh, p.60

Bonus

10 Karma

The character is well-known as one of the biggest badasses on the streets. However, one way to make a name for yourself on the streets is to be known as the guy who killed the top dog. At least once a month or so, the character is randomly attacked by an up-andcoming rival looking to make a name for himself.

The Professional Rating of the guy who comes looking for him is equal to the character’s Street Cred. Should the character with this quality be defeated by his rival, assuming he lives (the rival will be satisfied so long at the character goes into overflow damage; death is not necessary), then this quality is removed without Karma expenditure, but the character’s Street Cred resets to 0 and he gains 1 point of Notoriety. Nobody likes a loser, chummer.