BOLT Cybernetics

BOLT Cybernetics is a module/expansion of the core BOLT RPG rules, available at https://ajeypandey.itch.io/bolt-rpg-engine

BOLT Cybernetics aims to add a system of cybernetics and augmentation built on three pillars:

1. Cybernetics and transhumanism are awesome. We are not here to mope about having robo-bits. Cybernetics are super cool. 
2. Cybernetics and transhumanism and disability are human. You aren't less of a person because you get a bionic leg or a hearing aid or a medicine-managing implant.
3. Cybernetics and transhumanism can be alienating but do not have to be. Alienation is not about giving away parts of your soul for cool cybernetic superpowers. Rather, Alienation is about:
   1. recognizing how you have changed from how you once were until you internalize those changes are being part of you
   2. coping with when people who are important to you are not supportive (or you take pains to hide your cybernetics from them because you fear they will not be supportive)

Currently, BOLT Cybernetics has 13 A-class (better-than-human) Cybernetic Items, from inner ear replacements to enhanced reflexes to the ever-present monofilament whip. Accompanying those are 30 Feats derived from them.

Supporting that are:

1. write-ups on the division of bodymods into A-class (superhuman), B-class (cosmetic), and C-class (emulation of "human baseline") modifications, to be fleshed out into guidelines for integrating BOLT Cybernetics into cyberpunk or more aggressively sci-fi settings.
2. An installation process where you define the form factor of your Cybernetics. The look, the size, and the location are all important. 

ALPHA 2 release will raise the asking price to 15 USD minimum and provide:

1. Quality level rules. Get last-gen tech at a discount, take the modern standards, or be the envy of your coworkers by shelling out a little extra for next-gen and status symbol cybernetics.
2. Completed surgery write-up with a little background on what, exactly, the Invasiveness (INV) stat of Cybernetics is about.
3. Complete rules for Alienation! The emotional core of the book without a doubt. It asks the price to you - not in bits of your soul, measured and cut away to pay for Cool Powers, but in how they affect your lifestyle, how they affect your mental state... and how the people around you treat you differently because of them.
4. A special writeup on support tools. I suggest a handful of my own preferred tools from @RPGNatalie's Google Doc compilation of support tools.  

If you grab this product, I would appreciate feedback! Feel free to hit me up on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Lexi_UNDEFINED

Status 2020.11.26:

BOLT Cybernetics [ALPHA 1] is launched with 13 Cybernetic Items and 30 Feats; a brief summary of the full future rules of installation; a few pieces of basic advice about avoiding accidental ableism to get you in the right mindset; and a small tease about the upcoming Alienation rules for Alpha 2.

1. The list of Cybernetic Items & Feats is launching after I have a PDF moment. This is the bare minimum for playable use of the "Cool Robot Parts" rules! These are aimed at a 10 USD price point, and are the cheapest you will be able to do Cool Robot Parts Apolitically. As per 4, the parts of Cybernetics for NPCs and Optional Rulesets that are already completed will be included here, though some of the content will allude to sections that are not included yet.
2. After that, the Alienation rules - my favorite part, personally - will launch. These cover the effects of cyberware on the user, personally and socially, beyond using them to do Cool Robot Part things. The current expectation is this will increase the price to 15 USD and will form the mechanical core of the module outside of the Item/Feat lists.
3. Next is the Cybernetics-related Feats, a set of Feats related to Alienation, counterculture communities, cyberware-reliant martial arts, and other Incredibly Cool Things. These will increase the list price to 18 USD and finish the mechanical core of the module.
4. PDF is going to receive a proper layout instead of being just a big roll of text with whatever natural page breaks occur.
5. Lastly, the module will be rounded out with World Fluff Writeups for no-serial-numbers Cyberpunk setting assumptions with alternate notes for Sci-Fi settings, rules for Surgery and Recovery, and so on. While Cybernetics for NPCs and several Optional Rulesets belong in this wing of the module, they are already finished and are included with the Stage 1 release for free. At this stage, they will finally be included in the pricing assumption as the price is raised to 22 USD.
6. The final version of the module will feature a handful of Flash Fictions about characters with cybernetics and possibly artwork for BOLT: Cybernetics and the upcoming cyberpunk module that's going to feature this ruleset. Either way, the final list price will be 25 USD.

Naturally, buying early entitles you to all future updates. These price points are all subject to change if at some reason I change my mind. Trust nothing but what's on the page, etc.

As of 2021.03, stages 5 and 6 (except what's already written) are being carefully reconsidered. After stage 2 is released, I'm going to reconsider which parts I am still comfortable writing.

Current title image uses Typodermic's "Nulshock Bold" font.