Fashionware

Fashionware is a class of cyberwere focused on physical esthetics.

While a cyborg is usually defined as anyone who has mechanical technology grafted into his body, the line is actually pretty nebulous (is your girlfriend a cyborg because she wears contact lenses? Is your grandmother a cyborg because she has a hearing aid and an artificial hip joint?). In this hazy zone of cybertech is fashionware - little hi-tech gadgets common to the Cyberpunk future.

Types of Fashionware
Biomonitor: This is a favorite of Solos, gadget freaks, and harried Corporates worried about their blood pressure. Mounted just below the skin of the forearm, the Biomonitor gives a constant readout of pulse, respiration, brainwaves, blood sugar, temperature, and cholesterol levels. The display is a pattern of word shaped LEDs, each running a color sequence from red (critical) to green (excellent). As conditions change, the colors change. The user merely shoots back his cuff, looks for the little glowing word display he wants, and checks the color. In game terms, this adds +2 to any Resist Torture/Drugs check.

Advanced Biomonitor: This is the unit designed for, and used by, the SovOil troubleshooters. It is just beginning to find its way into service with armies and special ops groups around the world. Raven Microcybernetic's Advanced Biomonitoring System works much like a regular biomonitor, in that it keeps track of the physical state of the person in whom it is implanted. The ABS tracks heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, respiration, and blood and tissue toxins. It flags potentially dangerous readings with visual or auditory warnings. This information can be displayed on a wrist implant, in cyberoptics, or it can be broadcast to a remote receiver for display on a VDT. In this way, a control center can monitor its troops or workers from a distance, and warn of possible injury or poisoning, or respond immediately to aid incapacitated personnel. The actual implant is a disk five cm across and .5 cm thick with several microfine wire probes. It is usually positioned behind the sternum. A three year lithium battery is placed in a subdermal pocket in the chest or abdomen, and can be changed without surgery. The transmitter has a range of two kilometers, and each unit has its own transmission code to prevent cross-talk.

Skinwatch: The predecessor of the Biomonitor, the Skinwatch is implanted just below the epidermis, and uses tiny LEDs to project glowing numerals through the skin. Skinwatches can be mounted anywhere, although the hand, wrist and fingers are the most common. Advanced versions can be reset by pressing the display gently until the right number combinations come up; really advanced versions have alarms that beep quietly. Use your imagination.

Light Tattoos: These are light emitting chemical patches inserted under the first couple layers of skin. They store light and emit it in colors or patterns.

Shift-tacts: These are colored contact lenses, designed to mimic certain aspects of more expensive cyberoptics. Mirrored contacts in all tints, temperature or emotion sensitive contacts that change color on demand, logo or patterned contacts. These are available in most fashionable bodyware shops. Check it out.

ChemShins: These are special dyes and chemicals which are impregnated or rubbed into the skin. Some change the skin color to a new shade as desired. Others are temperature sensitive, and shift colors in vibrant patterns when warmed or cooled. Very expensive chemskins are sensitive to hormonal changes; you could buy a chemskin that would make yellow and black tiger stripes appear on your skin when you became angry or excited.

Synthskins: A more sophisticated version of light tattoo technology, a synthskin is a layer of color-shifting plastic bonded to the character's outer skin. A synthskin can be adjusted to display colors, patterns, light-flares or other special effects, using tuning chips (cost 100eb) which are plugged into a socket in the skin (usually under the hairline).

Techhair: The shafts of this artificial hair are impregnated with various types of reactive chemicals. Some types are temperature sensitive and change color or stand up depending on the weather. Others contain the same pigments used in light tattoos, storing and emitting colored light in patterns. Still others can change color as desired by using special chemical shampoos. Techhair can be implanted in mohawks, hair weaves, full hairpieces, manes, ruffs, whiskers and other less obvious (but interesting) places.

Flashlight/Strobe Implant: This is a small patch of synthskin which can produce a light bright enough for use as a mini-flashlight (3 meter range), using only the body's electricity. They are popular with underground or undersea workers. but Techs who don't want to bother with lambs also find them useful. They are often implanted in fingers, palms, or forearms (or rarely, on the face) where the light can be directed to be of use.

This flashlight can also be adapted with subdermal or cyberlimb batteries to momentarily blind an opponent when used at point-blank range. (Average to Easy if unaware of implant or ambushed. Difficult if on gourd or in combat.) Target is blinded for 1D6 rounds. This can be done once every other turn. (Costs below are for the standalone implant and as a cyberlimb 'built-on'. The cyberlimb built-on version does not take up option space.)

Kill Display: Sure you've got lots of kills, but those street punks still keep hasslin' ya. What ho you do? Maybe you should advertise your expertise some to get the boosters off you back. Similar to a skinwatch, a Kill Display shows in permanent glowing letters and numbers "KILLS: xxx" (any three-digit number you enter with a special key). This display can be any size from 2" X 2" up to 6" X 6" and placed anywhere. The actual number displayed is on the honor system, but if they have any doubts as to the veracity of the total, why don't they ask you, eh?

Subdermal Veiwscreen: For those without the benefit of a standard Times Square Marquee™, or any other of the multitude of readout options, a small glowing LCD screen is inserted under the flesh or an easily accessible area, usually a forearm. It can be read in bright glowing letters that pan by, showing up to five lines of type at one time. This unit will not work with Times Square Plus™ or the Video Imager.

See-It™ Transparent Skin: First and still used as an implant on laboratory animals, Gene-Tek's transparent skin layer became all the rage in the Far East about 2011. It enjoyed a short-lived popularity in the Wast about 2012 when well knows soap opera Braindancer Doris Layalynn got a face life of this extreme nature. An extreme attempt to regain ratings, this fiasco ended up causing the sudden crash to the transparent parent skin fad.

Sample of this type of implant can be seen in remote portions of the third world as tourist shows and rituals. Users often suffer from light-sensitivity. This can also cause bad sunburns that can get as bad as 2nd-dregree burns!

Reduce Attractiveness by 1-point for each exposed limb covered in transparent skin. Reduce by 4 if face is transparent. (Cost and Humanity Loss below are for sq meter of coverage and whole body.)

Mood Skin: Dermatech proudly presented this new line of the world's market two years after the introduction of Lead's Turn-on Nails. Much like a mood ring, the Mood Skin is composed with the same chemicals, and much like the mood rings of the 1970's, a different color would indicate the feelings of the poor schmuck. The colors produced were: Red = anger; Blue = sadness; Yellow = scared; Pink = sexual attraction; Green = jealous; Gray = dead (or just damn board). It was banned in 2016 in most industrial countries due to its toxicity.

Same of this is still floating round and being used anew. If someone is implanted with this stuff, the person will suffer long-term physical and mental health concerns (reduce Body by 1 every two months for a year, plus humanity loss at 1d6 per square meter of skin covered). (Cost below is for sq meter of coverage and whole body.)

Turn-On Nails: First introduced into the market in 2005 by Lead's, these pressed-on fingernails are considered the predecessor to sythe skin. These nails are pressed or implanted to the fingernails or toenails. A spacial color adjustment pen is used to change the colors of the nails. One just twists the pen to the desired color and then taps the fingernails. The went out of style in 2008 when programmable tattoos and fingernails became all the rage. (Cost below is per finger or both hands, plus pen, with Humanity Costs for a pair of hands or toes.)

Show-On Nails: Introduced by Lead's in 2009, these little babies worked just like the original one-pattern Turn-On nails, but they could display a programmable, repeating pattern. A series of 10 patterns could be downloaded from any PC or deck right into the pen. Like the Turn-on nails pen, it would be twisted until the proper pattern was displayed; then the pen is touched to the nails. These patterns ranged from the club "tech-dazzle" style to the smoothing oceans and earth tones. They came in and out of style every few years. (Cost below is per finger or both hands, plus pen, with Humanity Costs for a pair of hands or toes.)

Logo-Line Tattoos: Dermatch, Inc. knows what YOU want! You've seen them on the vids, in the movies, even on the braindances. Tori Dansteele, supermodel, has one. Kade Lorenzo, international singing sensation, has one. Even Lee Chapman of Net54 has one. Now you can have one, too! Your vary own licensed logo light tattoo! Yes, Dermatch has obtained licensing right to reproduce the logos of ConAg, Datatel Inc., New American Motors, EBM, Everest VentureWare, Raven Microcybernetics, and Tritech as light tattoos for the general public! Imagine the reaction in your social circle when you take you jacket off and flash a true-blue Tsunami Arms trademark "wave-in-motion" on your arm. Uniqueness! Status! Mega-cool public appeal! Make it bold ... make it sharp ... make it Dermatch!

TVSkin: Nu-Tek's new synthskin uses the latest in optical fiber technology to make you body a vidscreen. You can use the TVSkin's patented GridWork™ system and turning the chip to make the screen any size and anywhere.

You mush have the basic neural processor with a variant of DataTerm Link in order to pick up the TV Signal. An activation, the operator will see a green square grid crisscrossing his body. He selects the first the top left corner, then the lower right corner, and the skin is that area will become equivalent to a vidscreen. Uses a small battery back (20eb, 4-hour life, which many user place into a subdermal pocket.