The following rules apply to the typical Cybertronic employee, regardless of station. It should be noted that not all employees are treated this way. These might be more appropriately deemed "citizens" of Cybertronic. There are a number of companies that are puppets of Cybertronic, and they may have a number of people who pull a regular paycheck in the service of Cybertronic, but these people don't gain the full benefits: they don't get cybernetics, they don't have the Cybertronic resistance to the Dark Symmetry, and so forth. Such people are really no different than anyone else, except for where their next paycheck comes from. Thus, these rules assume a Cybertronic employee who is fully inducted into the corporation ... for life.

There are many within Cybertronic who are born into the corporation, but there are also many who came to Cybertronic from other corporations. Some do this willingly. In fact, it has become a matter of prestige for many in the Bauhaus megacorporation to privately hope that they will some day be considered worthwhile enough to get an offer from Cybertronic.

The truth of the matter, though, is that nobody goes to Cybertronic. Cybertronic goes to them. It is quite often that Cybertronic takes its recruits after the pale -- They possess remarkable technology that allows them to reanimate recently dead tissue, and to subject these new "recruits" to all manner of brainwashing, chemical treatment and cybernetic enhancement to turn them into loyal followers of the Cybertronic corporation ... even if it means reducing them to little more than drones, with hardly anything left of their former humanity.

Therefore, it's important to consider just what the Cybertronic employee was doing before joining Cybertronic. He may have grown up on one of the asteroid colonies, living since infancy in an Orwellian society, or else he may have had a career in one of the other corporations, then underwent a change of personality upon being inducted into Cybertronic's ranks. It's permissable for the player to leave this part of his character's history blank, and for the GM to fill in, but it might be a good idea to plot this out, even if the PC won't be able to remember it.

One of the hardest parts of playing a Cybertronic character is that he is all but guaranteed to remain loyal to the corporation to his dying breath, no matter how many friends he makes, no matter what adventures he goes through with his fellow PCs. It's not just that Cybertronic citizens are subjected to considerable brainwashing, drugging, and conditional training. It's also that the subject is put through rigorous psychological tests. Those that fail to live up to Cybertronic's standards of loyalty are dealt with -- They certainly aren't just allowed to go out onto the field and potentially go renegade.

What this means is that there is a considerable restriction put on a character's behavior. The player may decide that, hey, the other PCs are really cool, and when Cybertronic orders his character to "silence" the other PCs, he ought to resist melodramatically.

As cool as that may sound, no. Unless there is a very special reason why this person is less than totally loyal to the Cybertronic cause, he wouldn't have been allowed into this situation in the first place. If the GM puts the Cybertronic character into a situation where he is forced to choose between friends or the corporation, this is not a test of the player's ability to role-play -- It's a no-brainer, no-choices-allowed situation. The Cybertronic character has to follow the company line. He may, if given an order by a superior, be permitted enough freedom to present opposing points of view, but when it's time to move out, he'll do so. If this isn't clear enough, the GM may simply tell the player, "Your PC is going to do thus-and-such."

For this very reason, Cybertronic characters may be best suited for NPCs rather than PCs. This doesn't mean that if a player chooses a Cybertronic character, he'll be immediately ordered to kill the other PCs, then shoot himself in the head. It's just a very serious restriction to keep in mind.

As a combination of brainwashing, chemical treatment, and other nastiness, Cybertronic employees have had enough of their humanity scrubbed away that they are highly resistant to the influences of the Dark Symmetry and the Light. No Cybertronic employee may become a heretic, nor may he utilize Dark Gifts. Similarly, no Cybertronic employee may utilize the Art. If a character was a user of the Art before becoming an employee of Cybertronic, he will no longer be able to do so once "converted".

On the upside, machines created by Cybertronic employees are free from the taint of the Dark Symmetry. Their repairs are not corrupted, nor are their designs. It's still possible that a Cybertronic employee who uses a tool that has already been corrupted by the Dark Symmetry will still produce a work of technology that doesn't work as advertised, or else that shoddy craftsmanship will prove just as deadly as anything inspired by the Darkness, but that's another matter.

A Cybertronic employee is treated as having double his actual MST whenever resisting supernatural powers, whether Light or Dark or something else. This doesn't mean he's wholly immune by any means, or even especially resistant to all supernatural attacks. A fireball created as a result of a Dark Gift is going to hurt just as badly as one created by conventional means.

Even though all personal property is actually owned by the corporation, that does not mean that all Cybertronic employees are created (or at least treated) equal. Starting gear allowances may still be used to "purchase" gear available to the Cybertronic PC, and increases in Social Status indicate a higher allotment for gear for personal use, and creature comforts (even if such things are often lost on Cybertronic employees). All Cybertronic employees may be equal, but some are more equal than others.

Anything told to a Cybertronic employee may as well be told to the company. Some Chasseurs may be equipped with cameras and radio link-ups that can be activated by remote, allowing superiors to "listen in" or even take a peek at what the Chasseur is up to, whenever they please. A Cybertronic employee has no rights, and certainly not to privacy.

Even Cybertronic employees lacking such high-tech devices being installed in their bodies are still subjected to extensive brainwashing. They may from time to time be expected to check in with a political officer and report anything noteworthy that they've observed ... and be completely unaware that they have done so. Even if a Cybertronic citizen were to have second thoughts about his employers, he could be secretly, subconsciously acting as a spy for the corporation.

Cybertronic employees need the following purchases (unless the GM waives these requirements due to the character's background):

To play a Cybertronic character, the PC must have -1 in Disadvantages that cover the following:

The following are common Disadvantages for Cybertronic characters, but are not required:

"Chasseurs" refer to any Cybertronic employee geared for security or combat duty, and enhanced chemically, mechanically or genetically (and quite often a combination of all three). This may range from just having a single cyber-optic implant, to having sub-dermal armor implanted, to having half one's body replaced by machinery. The important distinction between Chasseurs and Cuirassiers is that Cuirassiers have lost so much of their humanity that they are no more than brains in robotic bodies ... and not even wholly that.

Chasseurs must meet the requirements for being a Cybertronic employee, and must also take a 0-point Disadvantage, "Chasseur".

As a downside, it's likely to be discovered that a character is a Chasseur ... and that's going to be a dead giveaway that he's working for Cybertronic.

On the upside, the character gets 25,000 crowns to be spent on cybernetic enhancements. This "money" may not be spent on anything else. It may be supplemented with the PC's usual starting gear allowance, or by spending character points for extra starting equipment.

In addition to this, character points can be spent on attributes beyond human norms, justified as a result of Cybertronic chemical, cybernetic and even genetic enhancements. This largely extends to such things as increased Running, Strength, Toughness/Armor, Agility, Enhanced Senses, Resistance/Immunity, et cetera. Things such as extra limbs and wings are a bit too outrageous to be easily justified.

Chasseurs are expected to have proficiency in at least two different weapon types, at "Average" rank or better, and cannot be Weak, Fragile, Weak-Willed or Clumsy.