Cyberpsychosis

In my opinion, it is more appropriate for cyberpsychosis to be worse in Tharkold than in the Cyberpapacy. This is due to both the world laws of Tharkold and to the dominant religious beliefs in the Cyberpapacy.

Tharkold is a harsh reality, a world of pain, and that should extend to every aspect of the reality, including cyberware. The world laws of Ferocity and Pain affect cyberware and the people who possess it. Cyberware is always unpleasant and painful to the Race, both physically and psychologically.

In the Cyberpapacy, the doctrine of the CyberChurch states that cyberware is the body of Christ, and that replacing organic parts with cyberware brings the individual closer to God and Heaven. People who believe in the CyberChurch's doctrine (those with the faith(Cyberpapacy) skill) want to be dehumanized by their cyberware. As such, their faith partially protects them from the psychological problems caused by cyberware..

A character's cybervalue represents the amount of pain, both physical and psychological, he experiences because of his cyberware. This "cyberpain" does not grant the character any benefit under the Law of Pain.

Methods of reducing pain, such as an MB Blocker or Shock Suppression Booster implant and painkilling drugs, will not free a character from his cyberpain. While such methods may block or reduce the physical sensation of pain, the psychological pains, such as the "phantom pains" experienced by amputees or the emotional anguish of feeling incomplete and "less than human", will not be stopped.

Some Race members (and players) may feel that being "less than human" is not that bad of a condition considering the advantages they gain from their cyberware. In fact, most Race warriors (i.e., almost everyone) probably view cyberware as a "necessary evil", the price to be paid for ridding their world of the Tharkoldu.

But sentiments are no protection from the Law of Pain. The world law ignores any logic or means that a character may use to avoid cyberpain, and will cause some amount of misery regardless of what rationalizations or pain-blocking techniques a character may utilize to overcome their pain. This even applies to the Tharkoldu, though the different physiology of the techno-demons causes them to experience pain differently from most other races and they are not as adversely affected.

Characters who experience a cyberpsychotic episode are more prone to violent forms of insanity due to the Law of Ferocity. This applies to both Race and Tharkoldu.

Characters may still reduce their cybervalues through treatment with the psychology skill, the cyberharmony miracle and fortunate cyberpsychosis checks. No piece of cyberware can have its cybervalue reduced to zero though, a character will always feel some pain from each piece of cyberware.

In some instances where a character would normally make a cyberpsychosis check, such as after being affected by a setback result, the gamemaster may instead call for a pain check. The mechanic of the pain check is the same as the cyberpsychosis check but the effects are different. Instead of reading the result points on the cyberpsychosis table, any positive result points are read on the Interaction Chart using the manuever column. The result of this check will remain in effect for the rest of the scene or until the character can generate a successful willpowerskill total against his cybervalue.

Example:Kev-Mal has a Spirit attribute of 10 and a cybervalue of 8. A setback comes up on the Conflict Line during a battle and the gamemaster decides to make a pain check instead of a cyberpsychosis check. She generates a +5 bonus, for a cybervalue total of 13. The three result points are read on the Interaction Chart and Kev-Mal is sytmied by his pain for the remainder of the scene or until he can generate a willpower total of 8 or higher.

The cyberpsyche skill no longer exists. Cyborgs are not allowed as player characters because all cyborgs in Tharkold are permanently insane from their cyberpsychoses. Theoretically, a cyborg could be treated and cured of his condition but the constant pain caused by his large number of cybernetic components would just drive him insane again in short order.

If a gamemaster is willing to allow a Tharkold cyborg player character, there are two options for dealing with the character. The first is that the cyborg has been successfully cured of his insanity (as well as his Tharkoldu programming against the Race, since the Race would never put one of their own through the process of becoming a cyborg.) This approach has the drawback that the first time the character must make a cyberpsychosis check, he will probably end up insane again due to his high cybervalue.

The second option is that the cyborg character is still insane, but it is a psychosis that does not make him dangerous or completely useless to the Race. This can be unbalancing because it allows the character to ignore the cyberpsychosis rules (he's already insane, it can't get much worse.) This option should only be allowed when the gamemaster is confident that the player is up to the task of roleplaying the character according to his specified insanity.

Characters with the faith(Cyberpapacy) skill are able to use the skill in place of their Spirit attribute for cyberpsychosis checks. This represents their belief that cyberware is a desirable thing and not something to fear or loathe. Characters without the skill make their psychosis checks against their base Spirit attribute normally.

Gamemasters may wish to hold off on using this rule during the early period of the war to reflect the fact that cyberware is new and unfamiliar to everyone, and that people aren't quite ready to accept it just yet. After perhaps a year or two though, believers are able to accept cyberware as God's will and their faith will serve to protect them from cyberpsychosis.

Because the Cyberpapacy is still learning the ropes of Tech 26, their cybernetic technology is somewhat imperfect and no piece of cyberware can have its cybervalue reduced to zero. As time passes and they become more proficient with the technology, this restriction could be lifted and it will then be possible for the faithful to replace unheard of levels of sinful flesh with clean, pure cyberware without fear of cyberpsychosis.

Tharkold characters in the Cyberpapacy who have not disconnected still suffer from cyberware-induced pain because they are still affected by their world laws. Note though that a cyberpsychosis or pain check may result in disconnection because their world laws are involved. Tharkold characters who have disconnected are free of the effects of their world laws and will make any cyberpsychosis checks without their modifiers.

Cyberpapal characters in Tharkold will suffer from cyberpain due to the Law of Pain unless they are in a reality bubble or are carrying a talisman of some kind to protect them from Tharkold reality. Note that the cyberpain may cause disconnection as it is an effect of a non-native world law. While under Tharkold reality, Cyberpapal characters use the Tharkold modifiers on the cyberpsychosis tables. Cyberpapal characters with faith(Cyberpapacy) may still use it to resist cyberpsychosis.

The effects of cyberware on individuals from realities other than Tharkold or the Cyberpaapcy is going to depend a lot on the world laws of that reality as well as the culture there. Cyberpsychosis may be something every cybered individual risks, or it may only affect those who are already a bit unstable.

For example, in WEG's Shatterzone RPG cyberware does not normally induce cyberpsychosis at all, but it can be taken as a psychological disadvantage for a character. In Shatterzone, cyberware does cause problems on setback results but they are more like system failures than cyberpsychosis.

Other cosms could be just as or even less restrictive. While there is no hard evidence in the game material, from what we have seen of Kadandran characters they appear to be relatively free of problems with cyberpsychosis. As a house rule, I treat Kadandran characters with cyberware using the following rule, based on the Shatterzone rules:

Whenever a setback result comes up, a cybered character generates a Spirit value against his cybervalue (as opposed to the gamemaster generating a cybervalue total against the character's Spirit.) If he fails, he either suffers a temporary system failure, takes fatigue damage equal to the amount he failed by, or suffers a temporary and very minor cyberpsychosis effect.

Generating the Spirit total does count as an action, so if the character wishes to do something else that round it will require a multi-action. If the character wishes to forego generating a Spirit total to avoid the multi-action penalties, his base Spirit value is compared to his cyberavalue.

Currently the only other reality in the Possibiilty Wars with a high enough Tech axiom to support cyberware is the Star Sphere. The only effect its reality has on cyberware is that Tharkold characters cannot disconnect from the related effects of the Laws of Pain and Ferocity (due to the Star Sphere's Law of Acceptance.) A Tharkold character who is disconnected uses the tables without the modifiers.

In any of the other realities in the Possibiilty Wars, cyberware itself is contradictory so the cyberpsychosis checks will also be contradictions. Disconnected characters do not have to make cyberpsychosis checks when affected by a setback result but gamemasters may wish to roll on the psychosis table for disconnected characters to represent the psychological effects of their cyberware being rendered inert.

The following tables replaces the tables found in the Cyberpapacy and Tharkold sourcebooks . When used for Cyberpapal characters, no modifications to the results are necessary. When used for Tharkold characters, the results on the cyberpsychosis table are increased by two levels for the Race and reduced by one level for the Tharkoldu. When using the psychosis table for Tharkold characters, add +3 to the die roll for both Race and Tharkoldu.

Note: in cases where two names are provided for a psychosis, the second name is how the psychosis is referred to in the Cyberpapacy. The effects are the same, but how the characters and others interpret the event can differ. Characters with faith(Cyberpapacy) may view a cyberpsychotic episode as being touched by God rather than as a problem to be avoided.

Torg, West End Games, and WEG are trademarks of Purgatory Publishing. You can find out more about Torg at www.westendgames.com.

Result Points	Result
-10 or less		Gain inner strength, -3 to cyber value. Do nothing for one round.
-9 to -6		Gain inner strength, -2 to cyber value. Do nothing for one round.
-5 to -2		Gain inner strength, -1 to cyber value. Do nothing for one round.
-1 to 0		No effect.
1 to 2		Minor disturbance, -1 to skill checks for one round.
3		Feedback causes possible system failure; determine one piece of cyberware randomly and roll on the appropriate System Failure table.
4 - 5		Distracted, do nothing for one round.
6 - 7		Increased disturbance, -2 to skill checks for one round, -1 to skill checks the next round.
8		Feedback causes two opportunities for system failure.
9 - 10		Confused, do nothing for two rounds.
11 - 14		Major disturbance, -3 to skill checks for one round, -2 the next round, -1 the third round.
15 - 16		Feedback causes three opportunities for system failure.
17 - 18		Paralyzed, do nothing for three rounds; Active Defense only is possible in third round.
19 - 20		Temporary mental aberration; +1 to cyber value, roll on Psychosis table , result lasts for one minute.
21 - 22		More serious problem; +2 to cyber value, roll on Psychosis table , result lasts for 3-60 minutes (d20*3).
23 - 24		Temporary insanity; +3 to cyber value, roll on Psychosis table , result lasts for 1-20 hours.
25		Mental breakdown; roll on Psychosis table , result lasts until character's cyber value is reduced through some means.
26+		Permanent insanity; roll on Psychosis table , result is incurable through normal means. Character becomes an insane NPC.

Roll (d20)	Result (Psychosis)
1 - 3		Hallucinations/Visions - character becomes distracted, docile, uncoordinated; suffers a +2 penalty on all skill checks but gains a +2 bonus to resist Interaction attempts due to inability to focus on the real world.
4 - 6		Fugue/Rapture - See description in Tharkold sourcebook (page 109).
7 - 9		Hebephrenia - see Tharkold SB, page 109.
10 - 12		Catatonia - see Tharkold SB, page 109.
13 - 14		Depression - see Tharkold SB, page 109.
15 - 16		Panic - see Tharkold SB, page 109.
17 - 18		Seizures/Seized by the Spirit - character becomes Catatonic but experiences violent physical seizures similar to epilepsy. If the character is not restrained and prevented from injuring himself, a bonus value is generated and added to a damage value of the character's STR+5 and then compared to the character's straight Toughness. (Occasionally a character will make nonsensical sounds while in seizures, in the Cyberpapacy this is considered Speaking in Tongues.)
19		Rage - see Tharkold SB, page 109.
20		Perverse Rage/Seized by the Devil - see Tharkold SB , page 109.

Changes in Tharkold

Pain Checks

Cyborgs

Changes in the Cyberpapacy

Tharkold Characters in the Cyberpapacy and Vice Versa

Other Cosms With Cyberware

Cybered Characters in Other Realities

REVISED CYBERPSYCHOSIS TABLES

PSYCHOSIS TABLE