Dev Blog: August 9th

The Cybernetics Pass

Overclocking

Wetware with Charges can be pushed past the Charge limit.

Every piece of Cybernetic Wetware that carries a Charge now has an Overclock button. Hit it and the Wetware fires with no Charge left. You take 1 Level of Exhaustion for it. The button sits on the player sheet, the NPC sheets, and the VTT, so a GM's chromed-out enforcer runs it the same way a player does.

Overclocking is Wetware only. Shardware runs its own charge model, so it stays out of this.

Redline Mode: How a Machine Gets Tired

Enigma Machines don't get Exhausted. They Redline.

Fatigue runs on two tracks now. Organics stack Exhaustion. EniMacs stack Redline:

Anything that would hand an EniMac a Level of Exhaustion hands it a Level of Redline instead. That includes Overclocking. Four hours in Standby is an EniMac's Long Rest, and it clears the track the same way sleep clears Exhaustion.

One limitation removed: EniMacs couldn't install Wetware that needs organic material. That's gone, in the rules and in the fiction. An EniMac builds and installs the same chrome as anyone else.

Wetware Install Regions and Slots

This is the structural change. Wetware installs into anatomical Regions of a body or Frame. Eight Regions, two slots each:

• Brain
• Skull
• Central Nervous System
• Arms
• Hands
• Torso
• Legs
• Feet

Some Wetware takes multiple slots or spans multiple Regions. You can't go over. This isn't Chrome Capacity, which is a penalty you choose to take. This is space. Run out and the app refuses the install and names the Region that's full.

The Cybernetic drawer shows which Regions are in use and how many slots are left. Plan the build instead of hitting the wall blind. The creator and the live sheet enforce it through one engine, so the creator can't build a character the sheet turns around and rejects.

Every Cybernetic already named a Region. Nothing enforced it, and the spellings had drifted for years. They're reconciled to the eight above.

L.I.M.B. Replacement asks which limb

A L.I.M.B. Replacement has no fixed Region. It depends on the limb. Install one and a picker opens: arm, leg, hand, foot. That's the Region it takes.

Full Regions show up greyed out with the reason attached. "Both Arm slots are taken" is something you can work with. A menu that quietly drops half its options just looks broken.

Pull the limb and its Region frees up, and the sheet forgets which limb it was. Reinstall and it asks again. You might want the replacement somewhere else this time.

The Vaelun's tiny head

The Vaelun (Murine) still can't take Will-based or head-Region Wetware. Head split into Brain and Skull, so the restriction now covers both.

Installing and Removing Wetware

The old rule gave every piece of Wetware its own removal penalty until the next Long Rest. That meant a separate lookup for every implant, and nobody ever ran it. It's cut. Gone from all 38 Cybernetics that carried one.

One rule covers both directions now:

Installing or removing Wetware takes surgery, done by a qualified SEDA technician, a Biomancer, or someone with the Med-School Graduate Feat. The one holding the scalpel rolls a Surgery Check against the Surgery DC. Fail, and you roll on the Surgery Complications Table. The effects ride until the patient's next Long Rest.

Surgery Check: d20 + Aptitude Dice + COG Core Stat

How it runs at the table

The Surgery Check uses the surgeon's Aptitude and COG, and the surgeon is somebody else. Half the time it's an NPC ripperdoc with no sheet open at all. A character sheet can't roll that check without borrowing the wrong character's stats.

Hit Install or Uninstall and you get a prompt: the Surgery DC for that Chrome Rating, and who's allowed to cut. The surgeon rolls at the table. You tell the sheet how it went.

• On a success, the procedure completes.
• On a failure, the sheet rolls the d100 for you, in the 3D dice tray, where the whole table watches it land. It applies the complication, then asks the question the rules leave open: did the graft still take?

Complications land on your sheet on their own. Roll a Depth Perception Blur and your Defense Rolls actually sit at -2 until you rest. Botch the alignment and your Ranged Attack Rolls take the hit. Skill penalties hit the skills named. They stack when you botch more than one, they're listed under Conditions and Injuries with the roll that caused them, and a Long Rest wipes the lot.

Two rows on the table need a human at the wheel: the one that costs you a Round of inaction at the top of every Encounter, and the one that shocks you for 1d8 Electric Damage whenever you fire a Cybernetic. Those show up as a reminder chip instead of firing on their own. Nobody forgets them, and nothing jumps you.

Fixes

• Injuries were healing NPCs. Max-HP-reducing Injuries went in with the wrong sign on creature sheets, so a Ruptured Organ handed an NPC +20 maximum HP instead of taking 20 off. Minor Open Wound and Deep Puncture Wound did the same. It fed the heal cap too, so a wounded NPC could be healed past their real maximum. A burst organ was the best thing that could happen to them. Player characters were never touched.
• Static Feedback did nothing. The Injury reads "+1 DC to all Spell Weaving Concentration Checks." It had been sitting in the code since it was written, and nothing ever read it. It applies now.
• A stale Region on the Actions list. A L.I.M.B. Replacement installed into an arm still showed its pre-split Region on the Actions pill, arguing with the arm you'd just picked. That's corrected.
• Multi-step rolls on NPC sheets. The creature sheet was missing the hook that feeds a roll's result back into whatever kicked it off. Anything built on "roll dice, then do something with the number" rolled and then did nothing on an NPC. Fixed across the board, not just for surgery.

Website

The rules pages moved with the app so they read the same:

• Technology now carries Installing and Removing Wetware in full, with the Surgery Table and the whole Surgery Complications Table. The old Removal Penalties rule is gone.
• Technology also swaps the old Wetware Compatibility section for Wetware Install Regions and Slots.
• Combat gained the Redline table.
• Genotypes documents Redline Mode on the Enigma Machine.
• Glossary picked up Overclocking.
• Cybernetics carries the corrected surgery rule and an Overclocking note.

Additional Things

• Spells can now be filtered and viewed on the Character Sheet by Level, and each carries a Level Label.
• Bio-Signature (Bio-Sig) was missing its definition. A creature's unique identity profile, built from fingerprints, retinas, internal current frequency, Enigma Engine, and more. Devices, Wetware, and security systems key to a Bio-Sig to grant access or recognize a creature through disguise.

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From David (DG Lewis)

Hello everyone! I'm David (DG Lewis). The newer folks won't know me, the old ones will. Hi. It's been a while since I've written one of these.

I sit much further on the Cyberpunk end of the scale than the High Fantasy end, though I love both. Making sure technology is woven into the playable sandbox of ER matters to me, and I think it's part of what sets the game apart. I'm also a complete loot goblin. In any game, I'm hunting for that cool, unique piece of gear that makes the run feel like mine, and always tuning my characters for the best shot at surviving the horrors Xavier cooks up. So all gear is in the crosshairs, and Cyberware is first. For over a year we've had one Grade of Cybernetics. We're expanding on that now, and we've revised and clarified the existing rules along the way.

Releasing Now (it's ready until you break it)

Refined Cybernetics Rules

• Overclocking (see above). It makes it easy for all of us to know what can and can't be Overclocked.
• Compatibility: we pulled the weird exceptions on who could use what. If a Wetware's lore leans organic, there's an Enimac equivalent. You didn't think the corps would ignore that much market share?
• Install Regions (see above): more structure for you, and it kills the compatibility questions for us.

The Great Standard Grade Rebalancing

The old SG list was built when the other Grades were a far-off project, so SG had to be strong enough to carry the main testing levels, 0 to 6. Building High Quality and Rare made it obvious SG needed a rebalance.

Goals for SG Wetware:

• A solid starting point for Level 0 to 4 characters.
• A real benefit that starts to feel power-crept as you level, but stays useful in a pinch.
• Enough of a drop-off that you want to seek and upgrade to better Wetware.

In the fiction, SG is the everyday stuff. Anyone can grab it off a shelf, install it on the fly, and use it without fuss.

What changed, mechanically:

• SG Wetware now has either a Passive or an Activation Charge ability, not both. Higher Grades can carry both, or one strong enough to stand alone. SG is the starting rung, and it's meant to feel lighter as you climb.
• Combat SG pieces dropped from 3 Charges to 1. Fights in ER tend to land once or twice a session, so 3 Charges almost never ran dry. That made spending one, or Overclocking past it, a decision with no weight. At 1 Charge, it's a choice again. Higher Grades carry more Charges for more uses.
• The SG list itself changed. If you're running SG Wetware, check your pieces once Xavier ships the update.

Iconic Gear: levellable, progressable gear

Modern writing, cinema, games, TTRPGs all run on one idea: show your coolest stuff as early as possible. ER is no exception. We've got TONS of older gear that's powerful and game-changing, plus newer pieces players and GMs build in Adventures. We want you holding that gear early, and we want GMs to stop fearing it before the "endgame." Early, usable, and part of your character's whole journey.

Iconic Gear is unique equipment, awarded by the GM rather than bought or crafted. A single piece gains abilities as its wielder trains with it. It's your baby.

It comes in four Tiers, 1 through 4. You'll find it at Tier 1. From there, you spend the Aptitude Points you earn on leveling to raise it a Tier at a time. Those points can't be moved or refunded, so treat your babies nicely and don't lose them.

Could you dump ALL your Aptitude Points into one Iconic and have a monster for your level? Yep. That's your call. This is your sandbox. Want to leave your Skills behind and go all-in on gear? Cool. That's just how we roll (heh, get it?).

The system's going in now, and we're starting to rework a lot of powerful old GM-side gear into it. Got a piece from an Adventure you love and think belongs in the game's arsenal? Message me on Discord, I'm just "David" on the server. No promises, but we'll take a look and see if it fits.

Coming Soon (still tweaking)

High Quality and Rare Grade Wetware

60 new pieces of Wetware are on the way. Descriptions, language, and balance are still being worked out. That's 10 per Core Stat per Grade: 10 Fortitude, 10 Reflex, and 10 Will at both HQ and Rare. They'll live in the GM's Handbook. You'll find them in the open world, loot them from Encounters, earn them from story moments, and pick them up from SEDA techs and Techwrights around Adamah at your GM's discretion. So ask them.

Rebalanced Shardware and the Upgraded Neural Link

Shardware is in the Core Rulebook and is being reviewed and updated. Some of it's already been adjusted to fit the Neural Link changes, and it's next on the agenda.

The Neural Link is one of the most-used pieces of tech in ER, for roleplay and utility both. There's now a Basic Neural Link that gives no mechanical benefit. It's for roleplay. At character creation you'll be asked whether you want one, and even if you say no, you can buy one later and inject it yourself for the price of a sandwich.

In the SG: Will section you'll find the Upgraded Neural Link. Several older RP pieces (Cochlear Implant, Wavelength Networks, Virtual Interface, Shardport) are folded into it, and having it opens your access to Shardware. It comes with two Shard Slots standard, and many of the old accessories became Shardware.

At higher Grades, you'll find Neural Links aligned to a Core Stat (Fortitude, Reflex, or Will), with different and increased Shard Slots and uses tailored to each. It depends on your character and what you want to invest in.

Coming Later: Weapons and Armor

With Iconic Gear in, we've got room to grow the unique weapon and armor collection and to check that current gear is still balanced. Don't expect changes to Generic Weapons or SG Armor. Most of this is Iconic and higher-Grade gear. Same as before: if you've built gear for an ER Adventure, or you've got a weapon from another system you think could come over, get in touch and we'll see what we can do.

That's all from me. Thanks for reading!

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TL;DR

• Cybernetics got a full rules pass, the first stop on a gear overhaul that runs all year.
• Overclock any Charged Wetware to fire it empty, for 1 Level of Exhaustion. Wetware only.
• Enigma Machines don't Exhaust. They Redline, on a four-Level track, and Overclocking feeds it.
• EniMacs can now run organic-material Wetware. Every piece has an Enimac equivalent.
• Wetware has to physically fit. Eight body Regions, two slots each.
• Install and removal take surgery now. The surgeon rolls, a botch rolls the Complications Table, and the old per-implant removal penalties are gone.
• Standard Grade Wetware got rebalanced: one Passive or one Charge ability, and combat Charges dropped from 3 to 1. A starting rung now, not a forever pick.
• Iconic Gear landed: unique GM-awarded gear that levels through four Tiers as you spend Aptitude Points on it. Your baby. Don't lose it.
• Coming soon: 60 new High Quality and Rare Wetware, then a Shardware and Neural Link pass. Weapons and Armor after.

Chrome costs something now.