The Textron Industries Secondary Brain

By: F. B. Daury
Created on: November 27, 1999

This device hooks to both the primary brain and the 'chemical control' centers of the brain, allowing the character limited control over their own metabolic functions, at serious side effects- the body was not meant to be overwritten by computer...

Adrenal Rush: The character gains +1 strike, parry and dodge, +1 attack and +4 PS(normal) plus an additional +2 to initiative while this effect lasts.
Duration: 1 minute per use and any additional uses the character tries within a five minute period will work but incur the following (cumulative) side effects afterwards: -20% SPD, -2 PS and fatigues twice as quickly as usual, -1 strike/parry/dodge and initiative. Side effects last for 2 hours per every five uses.

Hypermetabolishm: +2 initiative , +1 attack per melee round and the character doubles their speed attribute for the duration!
Duration: 3 minutes and the character cannot reuse this effect until they sleep 6 hours and eat at least 2000 calories or they risk heart failure (roll vs. death/coma) and the effect will still fail.
Side Effects: Also, until the character gets the required sleep and energy, they are -30% SPD, Fatigues three times quicker than normal, are -2 initiative and -1 strike/parry and dodge.

Deaden Pain: By editing out the brain signals that carry pain to the body, the secondary brain can allow the character to go for upto 2 hours without feeling any side effects from pain due to trauma, but when this time limit wears off, all penalties due to pain are then doubled for the duration of the injury (until healed fully).

Keep Awake: By careful control of body temperature, the flow of endorphins and other chemicals to both the brain and the body, the secondary brain can maintain the character for up to 80 hours without sleep. The character will be at full productivity for the first 50 hours with slight loss of proficiency after 51 hours ( -10% to all skills and -1 to strike/parry/dodge and -2 initiative) to the end of the effect.
Side Effects: The character will automatically crash after 80 hours (the computer brain shuts the effect off to conserve health and sanity) and the character will go into a deep recuperative sleep that last a minimum of 1 hour for every four hours that they stayed awake during the effect. They cannot be awakened during this time, they have shut down completely...

Superior Headjack: Because of the link the secondary brain provides between the primary brain and other machines, any device that the character can 'jack' into will be operated with the following bonuses: +10% to piloting rolls with vehicles, +15% to computer operation or programming skills (or +10% to Computer Hacking) and +20% to cryptography skill (has an internal encryption/decryption suite built into brain, see later for detail...) +3 dodge with tanks or automobiles or, +1 auto-dodge with robots/PAs, +2 strike with weapon systems (including those in vehicles/PAs/Robots)

Additional Skills: The secondary brain is designed with a built-in language translator that can be pre-programmed with up to 8 languages at the 90% ability (plus 75% literacy in language too!). This translator has a two-second delay between listening and translation. The secondary brain also starts with four secondary skills equal to first level with an IQ of 17 (+3% to skills) and can learn one new skill every additional level of experience beyond the first. These skills will generally reflect the character's tastes and interests(holistic medicine for a doctor or armorer for a headhunter) but can be of any non-physical skill class.

Storage Unit: The brain also has the capacity to store up to 1 terabyte of information in a specially double-encoded storage drive that uses both letter-shift and double replacement-set encryption that is -40% to cryptography skill to break. If this file is breached without cracking this encryption, then all files are automatically hard-erased. This drive is usually used to store the character's own notes and/or works (writings/spell ideas/etc.) but can be used to courier information or for any other purpose the character chooses. The character can erase this file personally or it can be erased by a skilled Cyber Doc in a simple procedure(takes one hour to perform and is only -10% to MD in Cybernetics skill to perform).

Cost: 1.2 million credits and the character must find a 'frontman' to set up the implantation (usually this will cost another 10-20% for 'Finder's Fee').

GM Notes: While not too powerful an advantage, this implant can lead to abuse, so any player that gets such a device should be penalized with a requirement of +20-30% extra experience needed for level advancement as the character and his secondary brain both need to learn every lesson as they go along and the two learn separately.

TextronIndustriesSecondaryBrain.php -- Revised: January 27, 2021.