Cyberlimb Myths & Abilities

The popular myth about cyberlimbs is that they enable their owners to perform all kinds of superheroic feats. To a point, it's true; cyberlimbs can be designed with boosted strength and speed, using synthetic muscle fibers and silicon chips. What you won't find are people running at 200 miles an hour, bending steel bars with their hands or throwing Volkswagens around. Why can't you go around lifting cars and punching down walls like the cyborgs in the comics? Simple physiology. The replacement limb must be able to work in concert with the remaining "meat" parts of the body. Even if your arm was ten times stronger than before, the back and shoulder muscles supporting that cyberlimb wouldn't be - and they'd shred long before the artificial muscles did. But within limits, a cyber-equipped person can do some pretty impressive party tricks:

Crushing: A cybernetic arm uses synthetic muscle fibers instead of flesh and blood. They don't get tired, and they don't feel pain. They are also much stronger than normal muscle tissue. This gives a cyberarm tremendous gripping power. All cyberlimbs can easily crush light metals, woods and plastics. They can crush glass and plastic to dust (although they can't crush lumps of coal into diamonds!). In combat, any crushing grip with a cyberarm will do 2D6 damage.

Pain: Cyberarms never grow tired, allowing the wearer to hang from high places indefinitely. You can turn off the touch sensors with the flick of a mental switch, eliminating pain and allowing you to perform feats such as reaching into raging fires, dabbling in tanks of liquid nitrogen, and picking up red-hot pokers. A gunshot wound to a cyberlimb has no pain effects; you don't have to make a saving roll against shock and stun.

Damage: Cyberlimbs can take (and dish out) a tremendous amount of damage, so much so that they are treated like machinery for the purposes of game combat. All cyberlimbs can take up to 20 points of structural damage before they are useless, and up to 30 total points of structural damage before they are destroyed. A cyberarm punch does 1D6 damage to its target; wall, car, someone's head; no matter. A cyberleg kick will do 2D6 damage.

Leaping: Cyberlegs employ powerful pistons and microservos, backed by bundles of synthetic muscles. With a pair of them, you can leap tremendous distances. Characters with paired cyberlegs can leap 6 meters straight up, or make a running jump of up to 8 meters.

These are things which can be done to a basic cyberlimb to improve its strength, damage capacity, or flexibility. In addition to these improvements, artificial shoulders can be mounted at waist level to provide extra arms. A cyberlimb on hold up to 4 options or built-ins. A hand or foot is considered to be one option. (Cyberlimbs automatically come with basic foot modules).

Quick-change mounts: These allow the user to change cyberlimbs without using tools. The limb is bayonet mounted, and can be removed by depressing a thumb catch and twisting to the left. Quick-change mounts may also be used at the wrist or ankle. Joints to allow a variety of hands or feet to be used. To calculate HL, average the HC's of all the options you're using with the mount, then double it.

Hydraulic rams: Common to Soviet cyberwear, rams are bulkier and heavier than myomar fibers (the limb will not pass inspection as real no matter how well covered by Realskinn�), but can take more damage (30 SOP to disable, 40 to destroy). Limb strength is also increased (3x crush, punch, and kicking damage).

Thickened myomar strands: These give limbs greater strength (2x normal damages) and durability (+5 SDP). Leaps are increased by 50%.

Reinforced joints: These are made of titanium steel instead of stainless and add +5 SDP to the cyberlimb.

Artificial shoulders: These are swivel joints which can be mounted to a back mounted frame. This allows up to two extra arms to be mounted at waist level. The unit has an SDP of 25.

Microwave & EMP shielding: Protects your cyberlimb from electromagnetic pulse and microwave attacks. Shielding may be placed on any type of limb no matter what covering is used; it is placed internally, using up one space in the limb.

Coverings: White all cyberlimbs come in a stripped or uncovered state, they can be covered in a variety of ways. The cheapest method is a plastic covering, available in a variety of colors with airbrushing or transparent with imbedded tights and holography. A plastic covering may also be chromed (a popular option) or covered with a metallic skin tinted in golds blues greens reds or silvers. The most expensive option is Realskinn�, a flexible plastic that looks very much like skin with follicles hairs, small scars and imperfections, it has a 75% chance of passing as a "meat" limb to all but the closest inspection.

In lieu of a covering, the cyberlimb can be armored with Kevlar and ballistic plastic. This armor covering protects the limb with an SP of 20 However, you may not cover or chrome an armored limb.