GURPS - Cyberpunk

includes a foreign language, Mathematical Ability and the professionalskill Cryptography (a Mental/Hard skill), along with extensive databasesof word patterns, letter frequency, etc. By using this 0-ROMand some basic training, a cryptographer has only to look at a codedtext, do some database searches and arithmetic, and on a roll againstthe chip's Cryptography skill can read a code as though it were plaintext!Some specialized military chips use a nonstandard jack design,making them harder to use by the wrong people. Adapters for militaryjacks are a Legality 0 item; the street price is $10,000.Zap ChipsA zap chip, or zapper, is a talent chip with built-in misinformation.It may make the user generally inept, giving only a low level ofability or actually subtracting. Or it may have one key error in it, perphapsas part of some complex plot! Zap chips are theoretically illegal.Sometimes a zap chip with a known error will be found for saleat a discount. "It's Driver[18], hot as can be, with one little zap. Stayoff the freeway and you'll be fine."To deliberately acquire a made-to-order zap chip would require acrooked contact inside a big chip publishing house… or a lot ofskilled hacking time to steal legitimate skill-chip source code andmodify it. Either way, mere cash won't do it; this would be the subjectof an adventure.Other ChipsJackhammerA jackhammer is a chip which incapacitates the user. They areavailable to fit both chip slots and interface jacks. There are many differentkinds of jackhammer. They are primarily weapons or controldevices, so they have no point value. If a foe is immobilized, it takesonly two seconds to plug a hammer into his head - of course, it'smuch easier to trick him into plugging it in himself. Any jackhammeralso contains a command which prevents the victim from pulling itout! Some common types:Happy Hammer. Contains an A-cell, and stimulates the user's pleasurecenter for a week. Not quite as good as wireheading (p. 16), butgood enough to keep the user docile. The draw-back: after a fewweeks on the Happy Hammer, a victim must make a daily Will+2 rollto avoid going out and becoming a wirehead, each day for a week.$2,000.Headbanger. This is a torture device; it is Legality Class 1. It stimulatesthe victim's pain center. Some also keep him from screaming…$3,000.Harvey Wallbanger. The user is mindlessly drunk. $1,000.Nightmare. Simulates a very bad "trip." $2,000.Slave. The victim must roll at Will-3 to avoid obeying any verbalcommand while the chip is slotted. Even if a command is resisted, itcan be repeated anew in 5 minutes, and must be resisted all overagain. Legality Class 1. $10,000.TripsThis is short for "travel chips." They let the user re-live a memoryprogrammed by someone else. Two examples are scenery chips,which allow the user to visit places he's never been, and pornographicchips of all varieties. These do not normally affect game play, butthey're good background. Mundane chips cost anywhere from $500(an hour-long tour of the subways of New York) to $5,000 (a day ofskiing in Vermont) to millions (three famous holovid stars in a hottub with you).Datachips see p.67NEURO-TECHThis is the ultimate combination of man and computer… puremental control of a computer.Interface Jack$30,000 10 pointsThis is a neural-interface implant that lets the user send andreceive information from a piece of hardware — anything with theproper hardware, from a TV set to a cyberdeck. Connections aremade by a fiber-optic cable 1/16 of an inch in diameter, which isplugged into the user's skull socket. It takes 2 seconds to connect ordisconnect an interface cable. (In an emergency — if a Flatline programis on its way to your brain, for instance — you can disconnectin 1 second, but this does 1d-4 cutting damage to your head. A smallprice to pay for keeping your brain intact)When the cable is connected, the implant allows direct mentalcontrol of the equipment. The user can operate an interfaceequippedcomputer without touching the keyboard, control a remotely-pilotedvehicle, fire an interfaced gun without pulling the trigger,etc.The cost for an interface jack, including the surgery, is $50,000.Two weeks of recuperation are required afterward.Making equipment (other than cyberdecks, which can only be runthis way) neurally operable adds 75% to the cost of the item.Using a neural interface is faster and more precise than manualcontrol. Add +4 to effective skill level whenever interfacing withequipment in a situation where reaction speed is important (GM'scall). This includes piloting vehicles, using jet or thruster packs, firingan interface-equipped weapon, etc.Neural Cyberdeck InterfaceNetrunners (see Chapter 3) use a special type of interface. Theseare described on p. 71. A regular interface jack cannot be used fornetrunning. A cyberdeck interface includes both its own jack and specialchipped interface software.Implanted ComputerAt very high tech levels (beyond the average cyberpunk world) awhole computer could be implanted in a human brain… or even acyberspace deck. The GM should probably keep such devices asexpensive, unreliable experiments, if they appear at all.For more information about the human brain and computer storage,see Ghostcomps on p. 56 and Braintaping on p. 55.Induction HelmetThis device allows you to "plug in" without actually having a socketin your head. It is from a higher-than-normal TL, so the GMshould feel free to disallow it in his campaign.There are three different levels of induction helmet. The first is amirrored half-sphere with electrodes attached to it. It is placed on theuser's head to establish contact. This is $75,000.The second level is a miniaturized version that is incorporatedinto a necklace or amulet — it must be touching the body at shoulderlevel or higher, and costs $150,000.The ultimate in induction technology is an induction field. All that isrequired is that the user be in a particular area to be plugged in. Costis $200,000 per hex that the field encompasses.An induction helmet has 10 standard chip slots.41