Steve Jackson Games Forums - Upgrading Equipment Bond equipment

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Upgrading Equipment Bond equipment

If a person has a cyberdeck with the Equipment Bond perk and gradually upgrades it to a better deck, at what point do you think he should lose his perk? When is the deck no longer the same deck?

Re: Upgrading Equipment Bond equipment

I'd be rather lenient there, as I would consider this bond to be more about the working environment (OS etc.), so unless there's some kind of paradigm shift there it's closer to adding a scope to a weapon bonded gun...

On the other hand, one might as well drive home the dark future aspect of Cyberpunk by sticking with the Microsoft Windows SLA.

Re: Upgrading Equipment Bond equipment

If he perform the upgrades himself (building gear or writing software), I would be generous. Same if he pay for or otherwise acquire bespoke upgrades tailored to his specifications.
If he just add 'store-bought' upgrades, I would be more stringent. Anything that give a skill bonus would loss the bond, untkl he refamiliarize himself. Likewise any software major updates. For minor hardware change or minor software updates, Perhaps an unbonused skill roll, failure=loss of bond ?

Re: Upgrading Equipment Bond equipment

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anders (Post 2096995)

If a person has a cyberdeck with the Equipment Bond perk and gradually upgrades it to a better deck, at what point do you think he should lose his perk? When is the deck no longer the same deck?

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDATE

Assuming you do not go utterly mad in the attempt. If you already happen to know the awful secret behind the universe, feel free to skip ahead. Let’s say you have an ax. Just a cheap one, from Home Depot. On one bitter winter day, you use said ax to behead a man.

Don’t worry, the man was already dead. Or maybe you should worry, because you’re the one who shot him. He had been a big, twitchy guy with veiny skin stretched over swollen biceps, a tattoo of a swastika on his tongue. Teeth filed into razor-sharp fangs, you know the type. And you’re chopping off his head because, even with eight bullet holes in him, you’re pretty sure he’s about to spring back to his feet and eat the look of terror right off your face. On the follow-through of the last swing, though, the handle of the ax snaps in a spray of splinters.

You now have a broken ax. So, after a long night of looking for a place to dump the man and his head, you take a trip into town with your ax. You go to the hardware store, explaining away the dark reddish stains on the broken handle as barbecue sauce. You walk out with a brand new handle for your ax.

The repaired ax sits undisturbed in your garage until the next spring when, on one rainy morning, you find in your kitchen a creature that appears to be a foot-long slug with a bulging egg sac on its tail. Its jaws bite one of your forks in half with what seems like very little effort. You grab your trusty ax and chop the thing into several pieces. On the last blow, however, the ax strikes a metal leg of the overturned kitchen table and chips out a notch right in the middle of the blade.

Of course, a chipped head means yet another trip to the hardware store. They sell you a brand new head for your ax. As soon as you get home with your newly-headed ax, though, you meet the reanimated body of the guy you beheaded last year. He’s also got a new head, stitched on with what looks like plastic weed trimmer line, and it’s wearing that unique expression of “you’re the man who killed me last winter” resentment that one so rarely encounters in everyday life.

You brandish your ax. The guy takes a long look at the weapon with his squishy, rotting eyes and in a gurgly voice he screams, “That’s the same ax that slayed me!”

...Is he right?

Now that I got the obligatory quote out of the way - I'd totally be fine with this. Whether you have someone doing it for you or otherwise.

Re: Upgrading Equipment Bond equipment

Upgrading is not the same as replacing and certainly not the same as selling or giving it away. So I would allow it.
I might require some time interval where it is lost if it was paid for or the alterations were so major, less so if the alterations were made by the user.

It might even be a cool story point where the player is using the upgraded device and suddenly has an "Eureka!" moment or epiphany where it suddenly clicks and it starts working mid combat scene (like a tough hack).

Just gave me an idea for a Special Purpose like advantage "Plot driven".

Re: Upgrading Equipment Bond equipment

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anders (Post 2096995)

If a person has a cyberdeck with the Equipment Bond perk and gradually upgrades it to a better deck, at what point do you think he should lose his perk? When is the deck no longer the same deck?

While I give Ghostdancer props on that age old Axe Problem quote, personally I'd refer you to The Ship of Theseus.

Firstly, I agree, let him keep the Equipment Bond, as long as the upgrades are gradual enough that he retains familiarity. If he upgrades everything at once I'd charge him a "re-familiarizing" period of time and then let the Bond reapply.

On a more formal note, it fails The Ship of Theseus on three of the four Aristotelian causes; formal (object's design has changed), material (that which it is made from has changed), and the efficient cause (the builder's have used different tools and techniques). It pretty much only retains the final cause, that it fulfills the same purpose.