Cyberpunk: Cash vs. Points Implications

[jhite]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

You've missed option #4: Points or cash. If you provide two ways to get cyberwear, the presence of each mitigates the problems of exclusive use of the other. Got the money? No obstacles to getting the cyberwear you'd expect to be able to get. Got the points? Ditto.

Well, you're right, I hadn't considered that. Let me specify that I'm concerned with in-game developments. Character generation will be strictly points, if only for sanity's sake.

If you allow Points OR Cash for enhancements acquired in-game, how would you, as a GM, justify the different methods of acquisition? What precisely is a character *doing* if s/he lacks the cash for a Reflex Booster implant for Enhanced Dodge +1, but puts up the required CP between sessions anyway? Would you simply assume that s/he found a way to pay for it? Would you require a temporary subplot dealing with incurred debt?

Even more problematic, what if a character DOES have the money to buy a body mod, but chooses to use only CP instead? For the sake of the narrative and the setting, what the hell just happened to allow that character to get a "free" piece of hardware, economically speaking?