Cyberpunk: Cash vs. Points Implications

[Kromm]

FWIW, I ran a minicampaign years ago where this came up during character creation, and then a world-jumping campaign where it arose in the course of play. My general solution was this:

• Starting characters who want implants and modifications must use points. They can justify these however they like: stint in the army, good pay on past missions, dad was a surgeon, great wealth, working for the company that makes the stuff, whatever. If they want these background elements to matter going forward, then they should spend some points on suitable social traits – Allies, Contacts, Patrons, Rank, Reputation, Wealth, etc. – none of which grant any cybertech at the start of the campaign. The association between cyber-stuff bought with points and social traits bought with points is purely background material.
  
  
• Characters in play can obtain implants and modifications in two ways:
  
  
  1. They can spend money. Yes, this means that someone could drop 50 points on Filthy Rich and get a bajillion dollars worth of stuff. However, this has a few implications:
     
     
     • The money is really spent. This means less money for other gear.
       
       
     • Surgery isn't instantaneous. There's a waiting list, the procedure itself takes time, and then there's recovery time. All of this is in play, which means sitting out adventures and their rewards (which might include cybertech . . . keep reading). That's the player's decision!
       
       
     • Surgery and recovery can fail. All rolls are made in plain view. Failures don't mean money back unless the PC paid extra for insurance.
       
       
     • Rich people who expect admission to high-end clinics have to pay cost of living for their apparent Status level (e.g., Status 4 if Filthy Rich) for at least as long as they're on the waiting list, under the knife, and recovering.
     
     
  2. They can earn it. This is instead of or as well as discretionary points. In the course of their adventure, they impress someone enough to get into a testing program or special branch – whatever the adventure justifies. In this case, I waive money and cost of living, and assume that the benefactor keeps trying until the procedure works (no need for insurance). Since all the PCs get such a reward, the downtime means that nobody has to sit out anything. Players can opt out of the reward, but I don't give extra points to compensate, and when the inevitable majority who accept the reward recover, the action resumes, whatever Special Snowflake is off doing.

However the modifications are acquired, they raise point value. This is self-evident with starting points, but no less true of items bought with money or granted as rewards. Likewise, short-circuited, ripped-out, and generally messed-up implants lower point value, regardless of how they were obtained. This stuff never gets plot protection, wherever it came from.

Note as well that while cybertech always raises point value, points cannot buy cybertech in play. Or to be precise, they can't buy it at advantage prices. It's legitimate to trade points for cash, as the usual rates and with the usual excuses (lottery winnings, investments, whatever), and then use that like any other money.

All of which is a way of saying that in any kind of transhuman or posthuman setting, the notion of rigid character-point accounting and point-level parity among PCs has to go out the window. Fluidity is more realistic and truer to the source fiction. People gambling a lot of money on implants can get very powerful very quickly, but there are social ramifications (if only missed opportunities while sat in the clinic, and the need to keep up one's payments) and there's always the chance of being stuck with obsolete gear or zapped with a weapon that fries your machine parts. People who prefer to avoid that circus are giving up a quick path to power, but may well end up saving more money in the long run, and certainly won't be at the mercy of skeevy surgeons and dodgy parts.