Hey Veeky Forums ive been playing Shadowrun 5e with one of my previous players GMing.
I rolled a decker with a cyberdeck implanted in his head. Had a run where we ran into some pretty savage ICE and got the deck bricked.
How does one go about fixing a cyberdeck implant aside from finding a doctor that specializes specifically in not only fixing decks but working in the headspace as well?
I'm kinda thinking of turning him into a ex decker with no real abilities until his inevitable death
>Buy large gun
>wield until slagged into meat
>have meat willed to next chump the crew hires
that's what you get for implanting hardware into your head
You get a doctor to doctor you while a decker decks into your headdeck and fixes it.
Dude, your GM wouldn't have bricked your major item if there wasn't some way to fix it. Find that way.
Any clinic that can handle headware installations can handle removing the damaged deck from its housing during surgery. The docs don't need to know how to fix a cyberdeck, and since cyberware decks and commlinks are relatively non-invasive for headware they're simple to remove once installed.
Once the docs have removed it, your decker is probably just going to be left sedated while a far better decker than him is called to replace the damaged components and make sure the device is back in working order. Then the docs just reinstall it and wake him up.
If your GM decides there are any complications, it's more likely to be on the deck repair side than the surgery side. Maybe the clinic decides it's more cost effective to replace the deck with a cheap radioshack one with the serial numbers filed off and a copy of your fancy Fairlight OS installed over it, then sell the parts of your old deck.
Make a deal with a dragon.
Two options
>neck yourself chummer
or
>street doc to rip that deck out of your skull to fix it yourself.
start selling drugs on the streets of Tokyo until a someone offers you a job with the bonus that if you accept they'll fix your deck
worked for Case in Neuromancer
Well, where did your character buy the deck in the first place? Ask them, maybe the warranty is still good (it's not).
>have sex with a streetsam
>take drugs like no tomorrow
>visit strange places
>get nearly fucked up
>solve the mission
>take more drugs
Depends on how you look at it
I would imagine that would also count as having "worked" in Shadowrun by a lot of people's standards
>How does one go about fixing a cyberdeck implant
There's no RAW requirement for surgery to repair implanted cyberdecks, just the hardware skill.
Step 1. Look for the guy who put the deck in your head in the first pace. If he's not available, find a surgeon and a tech guy.
Step 2. Have surgeon remove the broken deck from your head
Step 3. Have tech-guy fix or replace the deck
Step 4. Don't put the fucking deck back into your head, you moron.
... Or, just accept that decking cyber tech isn't designed to be a major fucking retarded issue in the almost certain likelihood it's ever bricked.
Then use your hardware skill and replace the parts that are designed to gack themselves before the valuable hardware fries.
A really shit GM would, actually.
One of my GMs was a massive fan of destroying wizards' spellbooks or foci, deckers' decks, and so on.
At least until I punched him in the face for unrelated reasons. Really unrelated, I swear.
I recommend this, but instead
>Use headdeck as a concealed backup, protect/conceal/order ridiculously expensive custom parts as needed
Do you really think a head mounted cyberdeck is just a regular one slotted in between your goddamn hemisphere's? You probably have an old style cassette tape flap behind one of your ears that pops out allowing for easy replacement, or a cd-drive type thing at the back of your skull.
Unrelated it may be, I demand you storytime it.
They really do think this way, user.
Only got worse after Shadowrun Returns made a stupid comment about implanted cyberdecks.
It's really unrelated and nothing exciting. Fucker showed up to my house high on acid and tried to start wrecking shit, so I punched him and thrown him out. He showed up to the game three days later as if nothing happened. We never brought it up later.
Huh. Thanks for sharing though, and I'm glad shit got better for you.
But why? Do the shadowrun folks not have enough simulationist autists on their team to explain this kinda shit?
>Do the shadowrun folks not have enough simulationist autists on their team to explain this kinda shit?
Who knows?My guess is it's the sim-auts who are pushing it, not realising (or unable to account for) the fact that they're the ones making it MagicRun.
Considering I just explained it with a cd drive and a casette tape. They're supposed to look roughly like a hdd with a popout keyboard and a screen right? Any halfway decent simaut would see the ways you could jam one in your head and need it fixed or replaced.
Roll up a new, more annoying decker
OP is playing 5e, so an implanted cyberdeck is more like having an iphone lining the inside of part of your skull. There's no keyboard or screen because it's operated exclusively through a neural interface and VR sim module. The decker probably has a datajack implanted somewhere that's visible externally for directly jacking into other hardware, but it's unlikely that the deck itself is reachable without surgery.
In fact, the CRB specifically states that you can't have low-rating commlinks or cyberdecks implanted specifically to minimize the chances of OP's issue happening.
Fucking hell I can't breathe OP.
Why the shit did you make a decker with a brain implant with a cyberdeck implant IN HIS FUCKING BRAIN.
I mean, on the skull is one thing, you can cut something off your skull with little issue, but in your BRAIN? Hope your doctor doesn't fuck up, that surgery won't go well.
>Devices that are bricked never fail non-spectacularly. Smoke, sparks, pops, bangs, sizzles, nasty smells, and occasionally even small fires are common features of a device in the process of becoming a brick. If you’re using your deck in VR when it gets bricked, you are dumped from the Matrix and suffer dumpshock (see p. 229). A bricked device is damaged and useless until it is repaired (described in the next bit, Repairing Matrix Damage). If a device is bricked, it stops working: batteries
are drained, mechanical parts are fused or gummed up with melted internals, and so on. That said, not all devices are completely useless when bricked. A vibrosword is still sharp, a roto-drone glides to the ground on auto-gyro, a lock stays locked. The firing pin on an assault rifle might not work, but its bayonet works just fine for stabbing smug hackers. And you can’t exactly brick a katana, ne? And don’t panic when your trickedout combat bike gets bricked; it will ride again … if you know a competent technician.
How are you alive? Maybe next time stick it between your ribs or something.
I just checked my 5e book and I can't find anything mentioning that the deck isn't gonna be physically reachable.
>Cyberdeck: Simply put, you’ve got a deck in your body. This is a very convenient for ther hacker on the go and is often sported by G-men and military deckers.
P. 452
I would like to know the situation that lead up to your MOST IMPORTANT PART being bricked.
Did you start a cyber-fight with an AI or Cabal of other deckers? Were you playing Decker Russian Roulette with purposefully misconfigured drives to give you a cyber high?
As for fixing it... go to a real doctor and get a better fucking deck. DON'T PUT IT IN YOUR FUCKING HEAD THIS TIME. Christ.
Also, you better fucking find the person(s) responsible for this ridiculous bullshit and install a cortex bomb in their head after bricking their shit. All their shit.
Set the cortex bomb to detonate if they ever connect to the net again.
>In fact, the CRB specifically states that you can't have low-rating commlinks or cyberdecks implanted specifically to minimize the chances of OP's issue happening.
Technically, it only mentions commlinks, and that's vaguely called out as "security reasons".
It was a dumb gimmick that I wanted to run with okay...:/
That satisfies me, I'm the second link.
I love me a dumb gimmick. When you get your headdeck repaired, I'd love an update.
Third guy here, as long as you're aware it's a fucking stupid thing to do. I mean, I guess it prevents your internal deck from getting shot up in a firefight, so +1 for that but still. Maybe next time don't brick part of your fucking brain. Seriously, if your doc/repair guy isn't cursing his balls off while wrist deep in your headmeats your GM is doing something wrong. The only time a bad decision isn't a bad decision is when you know how bad it is going in.
>wrist deep in your headmeats
user, stahp.
I had always assumed they were pretty modular since they put them in military deckers. Being able to access them for field repairs seems like something that would be pretty important.
Couldn't military deckers be at their battlestations hundreds of klicks away from the shooting and still do their job?
I'm picturing a group of military deckers all sitting around in a darkened room while drones deliver them hot pockets and other snacks.
They could, but the mechanics of the matrix make it a pain in the ass to beat military-grade security from far away.
Unless you're with the Grid Overwatch Division, in which case the mechanics of the matrix just apparently don't apply to you and you shit on all security from your desk in outer fucking space.
The solution is more cyberization.
Alternatively, forbidden ritual to become a technomancer. (With horrible flashbacks to everything due to your zombified hardware.)
A head deck was your first mistake
Okay so minor explanation. I GM'd 4th edition and no one in the party played a decker because everyone was too lazy to learn the rules and me as a GM felt like it slowed a lot of the game down. It was very pink mohawk black lagoon inspired shenanigans.
I feel like 5th ed made decking way easier to understand so wanted to give it a shot and ive been watching too much GITS. I don't really do optimized characters, I love flaws and gimmicks because it's just more fun to me to have to work around shit like having your ware in your head that you went into debt for while also helping your younger sister pay off college and yourself trying to get a band of murderhobos to actually come up with a plan for once instead of barging through the front door.
My deck getting bricked was partially due to the GM throwing a host that was super powerful for what it's representing and a combination of ICE that basically locked me down in combat.
I spoke with my GM and she feels super bad for bricking me on our 2nd(?) run, but Im cool with it since this is just gonna lead to some interesting shit down the line.
Eternally broke anarchist decker why not.
And this is why I love Shadowrun (even its game system is a mess).
Hoi chummer, if you're looking for some cool new cyber powers, I hear there's a NeoNET lab down in Boston that's made a lot of progress lately...
That shuriken came out of fucking nowhere.
Blood Dragon is very 80s. Jap stuff was bigger back then.
The package grab was obligatory.
>Buckle
>kneepad
>GUN
>Little Suzy's Starter Shuriken
>GUN
>GUN
>GUN
>GUN
>Barbie's first stabbin' knife
>Crotch Grab
Shadowrun I swear to god.
>It was a dumb gimmick that I wanted to run with okay...:/
It made me chuckle.
I guess shadowrun is ultimately about weird nutty people doing crazy things and having everything go hilariously wrong, so you're playing the right way as far as I'm concerned.
Has anyone noticed how in Shadowrun 5 a Headware Cyberdeck always has an availability of "5R" while having a price of "5,000 + deck cost", implying availability does not go up depending on the type of deck?
Because that's the surgery cost and restriction.
You buy the deck separately, which has its own availability restrictions.
Surgery is relatively cheap, the deck however is fucken expensive as all shit and has all my recordings of various teammates doing illicit shit
Cyberpunk is the best genre ever created.
If it's not made in an MCT lab and stamped with a Fairlight logo, it doesn't belong in your head.
Of course, if not intentionally being stupid, that would be the logical way to see it and the least idiotic way to actually play it, but I can't find a satisfying explanation anywhere in the text.
I love how the description for Headware Cyberdeck is "LOL you have a cyberdeck in your body! Cool right?!"
Some of the money CGL's execs stole from the company was probably the budget meant for hiring editors. A lot of things in 5e rely on some degree of common sense or knowledge of older editions because the editing is nonexistent and the people handling errata are freelance writers doing it for free because they love shadowrun.
It's getting better with the newer books since they got caught and everyone threatened to bail on them.
At some point that may have been true. For a long time now, it just doesn't seem to be a thing they budget for at all. Writers themselves aren't exactly well paid either.
>It's getting better with the newer books since they got caught and everyone threatened to bail on them.
It's not, really. There was a massive dip in quality as writers each finally had enough and fucked off. Things have been bumpily returning to sub par and swerving away ever since.
CGL just isn't in it to improve their standards unless it's making more money than no standards.
If someone wants to be intentionally stupid they shouldn't be playing anyway.
Good way to filter shit players right out.
Was there any reason for the headware deck not to be modular?
I mean, surely the manufacturer considers what can happen to them. And replacements for updated technology?