Shadowrun RPG Chip - Dreamchips

GM Section

The constant use of dreamchips is highly addictive. In addition, extended use results in cumulative damage tobrain cells, making the addict less sensitive to the effect. Thus, users must obtain more frquent doses or increase the amplitude of the signal still further, thus increasing brain cell damage. This vicious cycle usually ends with the death of the user. Other effects can be nerve damage, memory loss, or psychotic episodes.

Chips are often modified to paly continously. Timers, self-erase features, and similar safeguards can be overcome by technically competent persons. On the street, such modified chips are known as dreamgates. They are usually one way gates. Subjects hooked into a continuous high-amplitude simsense broadcast suffer death within a short time as autonomic systems break down under the high energy brain stimulation. Death by this means, either as suicide or as murder by giving someone a "loaded chip", is a staple in cheap adventure fiction.

Dreamchips can be custom-designed, attuned to an individual's neural structure and psychological profile. Such chips can be addictive after one exposure. Withdrawal from a custom chip is agonizing, and users often expose themselves to high dosages of standard dreamchips if cut off from a custom chip.

References - Mercurial (2050, 7).

Shadowrun 1E Statistics

References - Mercurial (2050, p21).

Shadowrun Genesys Statistics

• Use of a dreamchip causes 1 strain per hour. Upon ending its use a user must make a Resistance check against a number of difficulty dice equal to the number of chips they slotted that week already. Each level of addition upgrades the difficulty by one.
• A customised dreamchip causes 5 strain per hour, with the difficulty dice starting as Challenge (Red) dice instead of the standard difficulty (Purple) dice.