Hanging on to your Humaniti

Cyberpsychosis in Traveller

One of the central tensions in cyberpunk fiction is the toll that having cyberware takes on the mental state of a augmented individual. If a heavy enough load is taken on, the individual suffers a break from reality and often (though not always) goes on a rampage that only ends when they are neutralized. In environments where a cyberpunk culture will rise, loading one’s self up with as much cyberware as they can bear is a necessity. The risk of cyberpsychosis is ever-present and balance isn’t a strategy to survive.

High-Tech, High Population, High Government, High Law

There are some system characteristics that lend themselves to a cyberpunk environment. While all of these characteristics need not be present to give the right feel, as the more of these characteristics are met, the more cyberpunk the system can be. of course, it’s up to the GM as to what culture and setting is present on any given world.

High-Tech

What classifies as ‘cyberware’ is first developed around TL 8 or 9. The real breakthrough is the development of a neural interface, allowing mental control of the cybernetic implants. At TL 7 or below, direct control of implants requires physical manipulation.

As technology becomes more pervasive and less of a novelty, cybernetic implants become more and more common. In addition, higher tech models of earlier tech cyberware creates a smaller impact on mental and emotional health. By TL 13 and above, advances in bio-nanotechnological integration has transformed the degredation of an individual’s sense of self to a self-manageable state. Thus, what is traditionally considered Cyberpunk is best presented between TL 10 and 12.

Cybernetic (and DNAM) Augmentation at these Tech Levels also correspond with the technology presented in 2300 AD (Traveller: 2300). GMs who have this game can reference it to more-or-less freely use it to offer more options for augmentation in their campaigns.

High Population

Cyberpunk settings need people. Overcrowded cities, teeming masses of humanity, for the hyperwealthy to live above. Thus, the feeling of Cyberpunk works best when the Population Score is 8 and above. The system needs a population large enough to justify massive, sprawling cities. While a lonely, sparsely populated outpost can have elements of Cyberpunk, the setting really works best in an overcrowded, grimy SprawlZone.

The higher the population, the separation between the wealthy and the poor can be made more intense. The room among the poor of the slums is cramped, there is no personal space, no privacy. It’s just a carpet of people living in a claustrophobic maze of dirty, neon and trash-strewn streets. This can be contrasted with the real luxury that only obscene wealth can afford, space. The rich live above the clouds on palatial estates. They never have to see the masses surviving below their feet. The open sky, or vast expanse of near-orbit permits the occupants to only interact with people they choose.

High Government

The governments in Cyberpunk are universally oppressive and authoritarian. While some Government types, Captive Governments (6), Self-Perpetuating Oligarchies (3), and Company / Corporate ownership (1) can, with a little coaxing provide the careless oppression and soulless systemic, managed societies. But it’s the high levels that lend themselves best to a cyberpunk feel.

Impersonal Bureaucracies (9), Dictatorships (A, B, and D), and and the Totalitarian Oligarchy (F) really fit the genre. Government in Cyberpunk exists for the purpose of either serving the corporations that feul the engine that keeps the city running, or serving itself, the city is governed for the purpose of continuing to govern the city. Honorable mentions should be given to the Feudal Technocracy (5), and the Religious Autocracy (E) Both of which have a definite Cyberpunk Edge.

Those Governments that permit agency among their populations Democracies, Balkinization, and the Civil Service just require more work to corrupt into the heavy boot that marks Authority in the genre.

High Law Level

The source of law enforcement varies depending on the society. But to work in the setting, it needs to be unjust, unfair, and oppressive. Whether it’s Corporate Security, Contract Law Enforcement Corporations, Civic Law Enforcement or Security Forces, Law Enforcement and the Courts do not serve nor protect.

Law Level almost demands to be high for Cyberpunk. While Law Level 9+ prohibits the means for citizens to resist control, those products are still available through Grey and Black Markets. This is why having a High Population is important, a large enough population is impossible to Police everywhere, all the time. Even with advanced surveillance technology, clearing the streets of every scrap of contraband demands too many resources to allow a city to function.

That being said, it is often in the interest of the Megacorps or the Government, or the Hyperwealthy to cultivate a measure of lawlessness among the masses they govern. So long as the crime and violence never reach the wrong people or damage the wrong institutions. Huge resources are consumed in studying the benefits of allowing “controlled” anarchy. Of course, even these rigorously contained and managed criminal, or revolutionary cultures are never fully pacified, and it only takes a small spark to ignite an uprising.

Megacorporations

The Third Imperium of Traveller hosts hundreds, perhaps thousands of Corporations that stretch across entire Sectors and Domains. These monolithic institutions are Empires in their own right, with Boardrooms and Chief Executive Administrations serving the function of Legislative and Executive branches of Government. They have fleets, armies, they wage war against one another, not only through the expected means of commerce and finance, but through armed military operations too. Remember; Weyland-Yutani Corporation, from the Alien Franchise has a bio-weapons division.

Corporate Branch Directors often wields more power than local governmental leadership, especially on wolrds where a single Megacorp enjoys a monopoly on manufacturing and commerce. When the risk of potential profit-loss becomes too great and less-than-legal means to resolve that risk is deemed necessary, Megacorporations are more than willing to hire Mercenaries and Privateers to pursue the corporate objectives. Megacorporations also provide campaigns and characters with the contact with 1000 faces, Mister Johnson. (“Mister Johnson” is a contact lifted from Shadowrun lore. A “Mister Johnson” is the alias that a Corporate Handler uses to hire the characters for jobs that require Corporate Deniability.

Cyberpsychosis

There is a story in the Shadowrun supplement, Cybertechnology that talks about what it’s like to live with Wired Reflexes. You need to take precautions because the world moves in slow motion and your reflexes are faster than your thought processes. You sit with your back to the wall because when anyone walks up behind you and trips your fight reflex, a person who is wired to the limit can react before they realize they are reacting. This can lead very easily to injured or dead friends.

Similar things happen with cybernetic optics that are networked to a weapon starts superimposing targeting data over potential threats in your field of vision. You’re friend is smiling, saying hi and offering a drink and in your visual field you’re seeing Terminator-style readouts on probabilities of hostile action, weak points, threat analysis. They just wanna give you a “Pepsi”, dude! Augmented strength that pushes your abilities into the super-normal, sometimes means you break someone’s wrist shaking their hand, or dislocating their shoulder helping them off the couch.

The point here is, that the disconnection from empathy isn’t some cyborg transformation into an unfeeling semi-robotic being. It’s the weight of living in a world where the augmented person is constantly seeing the potential threat of everyone around them, constantly having to work at dialing back their abilities when not in a combat situation. Even something like cyberoptics that just replace the biological eye has a level of detachment, the effect is not seeing the environment as it is, but being a step removed, like seeing everything through a monitor screen. Hearing, smell, any augmented sense isn’t the same as the baseline biology. This all combines to push the augmented individual away from the community experience with their fellows. It kills empathy.

When that separation from empathy finally becomes too great, then everyone is seen as things. Not really “people” but threats, tools, and objects. The subroutines and processes take over, the struggle to manage a sense of humanity ends, and the augment reacts like they are always in a target-rich environment. That’s when the rampage begins. The fact that the augment is dodging fire and shrugging off damage that would shred even the peak physical specimens of their species is only reinforcing their own sense of supremacy. They are unstoppable, until someone hits them hard enough to put them down, which usually results in collateral damage for meters around.

Game Mechanics

In Traveller this is reflected through the Sanity characteristic found in the Traveller Companion. Every piece of Cyberware has a Santity cost associated with it. Several pieces that have generally low impact on the body (like a Wafer-Jack or Subdermal Armor has a cost of 0.) Cyberware that has a greater impact on the body (like Strength, Dexterity, or Endurance Augmentation) have a 1 point cost. Cyberware that have an extensive impact on the body (like additional limbs, or torso mounted manipulators have a 2 point cost. Cyberware that directly affect the individuals mind (like Cognitive Augmentation, or the Neural Comms) have a 2 point cot. Pieces that are above TL 13 will reduce the basic cost of Cyberware by 1 point. (For example, Strength Augmentation +3 is TL 15. Normally, Strength Augmentation carries a 1 point Sanity Cost, but because it’s TL 15, that’s reduced by 1, which makes the cost 1-1 = 0 points.) For those Cybernetic Implants that are TL 9 or lower the Sanity Cost is increased by 1. (For example, the Basic Combat Arm is TL8, so even though it’s less sophisticated than the more advanced models, it’s cost is increased by 1. Furthermore since it replaces an arm, the basic cost for the cyberware is 2. Thus, the Basic Combat Arm is 2+1 = 3 Sanity.)

This cost is applied as a permanent reduction to the Sanity Characteristic. If this characteristic reaches zero due to Cyberware, the character suffers a complete collapse of empathy, and suffers Cyberpsychosis. During the first high-stress event that the character suffers, they lose control and launch into a rampage, attacking anyone and everyone they can find until they are neutralized. Should they survive, and if their rampage does not result in incarceration, they will remain in a state of violence for which they will need to be restrained until such a time that their Sanity Characteristic is brought back to at least 1.

Permanent Sanity loss is not naturally recoverable. Once a character’s Sanity characteristic is reduced, they will require specialized treatment over a long period of time to recover the loss. The process, if the patient can endure it in their near constant state of psychosis, requires first for all Cyberware to be removed from their body. Then a specialist in psychosurgery needs to guide the patient through extreme therapy. For every standard year the patient is in therapy, their Cyberpsychiatrist can attempt a Very Difficult (12+) EDU (Science/ Cyberpsychiatry) test. If that test is successful, the patient can recover a number of lost Sanity characteristic equal to their cyberpsychiatrist’s Science (Cyberpsychiatry) skill levels. The character can, once their Santiy characteristic is positive regain control of their mind and resume their lives. An episode of Cyberpsychosis effectively removes a player character from the campaign, should they survive, and should their treatment stabilize them, they can be consulted but their Travelling days are over.

Psionic Therapy, using Telepathy in addition to surgery and traditional therapy can be much more effective. The Psionic Therapist’s Psionic Telepathy skill levels can be added to their Sanity (Cyberpsychiatry) skill, when rolling the treatment check. Also, the Telepathy skill levels can be added to the Science (Cyberpsychiatry) skill levels when recovering the Sanity Characteristic.