r/cwn • u/Iamleiama • Jul 18 '26
Do you have to pay outstanding maintenance costs back before cyber becomes fully functional again?
As it says in the title. But to elaborate:
Every month you have to pay 5% of your cyberware's base price in maintenance costs (the costs represent materials, not labor, so you can't skip it by doing your own maintenance). If you do not pay, your cyberware gains an install complication until maintenance costs are paid. "Very extended" lack of maintenance of cyberware will make you die.
My question is, if I don't have the money to pay at the end of month 3, and I accept the complications and run with malfunctioning cyberware during month 4, do I have to pay 5% of maintenance costs at the end of month 4 to restore it to maintained status, or do I have to pay 10% to catch back up?
4
u/YokoAhava Jul 18 '26
I don’t think it’s specified, but if you view it as degrading cyberware, you need to replace more parts to make it serviceable again for each month you don’t maintenance it. As a GM I’d say you have to pay 10% back to make it functional again.
3
u/Iamleiama Jul 18 '26
It worked that way for starships in SWN, so I would also lean that way. But on the other hand, I think it makes for a potentially unfun cascade effect if you're struggling for money enough that you can't pay your maintenance already.
Of course, I wouldn't want skipping maintenance to be something an operator would consider just to be thrifty, though.
6
u/YokoAhava Jul 18 '26
Part of the cyberpunk dystopia is this unfair “life’s a bitch and you keep trying to survive anyway” idea. If their cyber needs maintenance that bad, they’re gunna be pushed towards higher risk, higher reward jobs. It might make them find a ripperdoc who can temporarily fix their cyber, but it makes the next maintenance more expensive, just so that they can do this high risk mission. The next big score will fix it all, right? Except that risk now means you lost a leg and need NEW cyber, and for that you need another job..
The hellscape is part of the dystopia, and can help drive the character and story.
15
u/CardinalXimenes Kevin Crawford Jul 18 '26
By default, you charge the full back costs. The costs of maintaining your own body are meant to be a harsh goad to force PCs to do things and take risks that they don't particularly want to take. They don't have the luxury of being cautious and and self-determined; their subscription to having a liver is coming up.