MetaCyber

Cool Stuff
BodyTech	Cybernetics	BioWare	PharmiTech	Biofeedback

BIOFEEDBACK

HISTORY

Biofeedback Training is a method that allows the temporary learning of Skills in the course of a few hours. This is achieved by using NET related technology to insert a person's awareness into a specially programmed virtual training environment where they interact with a curriculum at extreme rates of assimilation, much faster than possible at real time. In the course of an hour a person of reasonable wit can learn the equivalent of what it would take them a month to learn in real life.

ADVANCED CRAMMING

Biofeedback is based on the concept of the Cramming Skill, but extends it with two new custom Skills which are described below, Improved Cramming, and Martial Cramming:

IMPROVED CRAMMING:

Improved Cramming: As Cramming, but a (CHAR/5) Skill Roll is granted rather than the usual 8- Familiarity and the character can use any relevant Skill Levels with the Crammed Skill. Alternately, up to 3 points of fluency in a Language can be learned instead; Cost: 10 Character Points

MARTIAL CRAMMING:

Martial Cramming: As Cramming, but instead of the usual Skills available to Cramming any Combat Skill or Martial Maneuver with a cost of 5 points or less can be learned. Further the character can use any relevant Skill Levels or Damage Classes with the Crammed Skill or Maneuver as applicable; Cost: 8 Character Points

As with Cramming, the Skill learned via Improved and Martial Cramming fade after a period of time as determined by the GM (at least a week of game time is recommended), but once a character has learned a Skill via Cramming they can opt to spend Experience Points to gain the Skill in the normal fashion, and thus this process can greatly expedite the acquisition of new Skills.

DOUBLING UP MARTIAL CRAMMING

At the GM's discretion, a character with two Martial Cramming Skills could pool them together to learn a 10 point Combat Skill such as Two Weapon Fighting or Defensive Manuever IV.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

BFT rigs come in two types; the most common "normal" type is used for non-Combat Skills and takes the form of a reclining couch something like a dentists chair, with a lowerable NET hood and some synapse leads.

For Combat Skills the rigs are much more complex, involving an expensive virtual reality suit and a suspension system allowing stimuli to be delivered to the entire body, and for the person using it to move around in practically 360 degrees freely.

In both cases a person does not have to have a brainjack to use a rig; the helmet is an old-style projected visor, patching into the brain through the ocular nerves.

The lounge-style rig is simple enough for a person to use it themselves with out assistance, and are commercially available for ~80,000 credits. Many scholars have a personal rig in their own home. The suspension rig is much more complicated and takes at least one technician to operate, and the devices are not commercially available (but could be acquired on the black market for ~1,500,000 credits).

WHAT DOES IT COST?

It takes some indoctrination and aptitude to use BFT effectively, as represented by the Cramming, Improved Cramming, or Martial Cramming Skills, and a character must have at least one of them to use a BFT rig. In addition to this investment in Character Points, it costs credits to access the curriculum and equipment of a BFT facility.

The access cost for most Knowledge Skills, Languages, and Familiarities content is wrapped into the cost of the rig time by hour, but everything else is considered to be "Premium Curriculum" and there is an extra cost incurred. Combat Skills are considered to be "Martial Curriculum" and time in a suspension rig costs significantly more. It usually takes about three hours to cram a Skill, but the GM can fluctuate this time as they see fit. Characters that naturally have Eidetic Memory, or Rapid Sight, or exceptional Intelligence can reduce this time significantly (but typically the minimum unit of time is an hour for billing purposes whether a person uses the full hour or not).

Rates vary from location to location and by demand, but the adjoining calculator gives "rule of thumb" guidelines as to how much an hour of rig time costs.

BIOFEEDBACK RIG TIME CREDIT COST
Hours of Rig Time:
Select Curriculum:
Credit Cost:*
*NOTE: These are ballpark figures; a large variety of circumstances will dictate the exact costs involved, but on average the prices will hover in a range of around +/-10% of the amount indicated by the above formulas.

Simply enter the number of hours of Rig Time and select the type of Curriculum from the list and the cost will be calculated for you automatically.

For instance, to use a rig for three hours to cram Martial Strike would cost ~900 credits, but to learn Japanese would only cost ~300 credits.

BFT EXISTENCE

The only real downside to using Biofeedback Training is that it reoccuringly eats time and money. However, there is no need for surgery, it can't be detected, and it is not addictive. Those who are big into it swear by it, mainstream user and Runners alike. However, at the end of the day while cybernetics, bioware, and pharmitech can grant all sorts of abilities far beyond human norm, Biofeedback Training is much more modest in its capabilities.

A person particularly good at using BFT can be a respectable Hacker one week, a walking breathing expert on a target company the next, and have all the schematics and street plans of a target site memorized cold the next, but BFT will never grant them the ability to crush metal with a thought or jump their reflexes up to blinding quickness.

Critics of BFT point out that rather than hiring on a person that is an expert on something for a week, they can hire someone else who really is an expert all the time. Counter-critics point out that a capable individual with the ability to tweak their skill set to suit a task bring general competancy to the table in addition to whatever they've booted up via BFT that week.

BIOFEEDBACK HISTORY

BACK TO TOP

An interesting technology that isn't as popular among Runners due to its lack of instant gratification, Biofeedback Training (BFT) offers those willing to devote some time to it an impressive flexibility. Invented about 23 years ago by Verital Labs (one of the several Bell T&T subsidiaries that survived their parent companies death during the Corporate Wars of the late 90's), BFT was originally designed as an educational aid allowing people to do things like learn a foreign language overnight and other similar amazing learning feats.

After being introduced into society at large despite the best efforts of many prestigious collegiate-funded lobbyists, it revolutionized the state of education the world over. No longer did a person need to sit through boring and long hours in a classroom to maybe learn something; now they could just jack into a BF rig and pick up enough of whatever skill they needed to get by on.

In the ensuing backlash numerous colleges and universities floundered and failed, but eventually the survivors adapted and found ways to maintain their relevance; the best colleges were now determined by the quality of their BF content, and their student body was primarily remote subscribers tapping into their curriculum. BFT became an integrated part of corporate and collegiate training and education methodologies and is now as accepted as any other facet of daily life.

However about 12 years ago a couple of scientists that also happened to be Hackers on the side, doing Runs with a team in SanRico to fund their scientific research, started experimenting with using BFT to enhance their ability to do Runs.

From their early experiments they developed an effective variation on BFT and stopped Running altogether to found their own company, Cogito, providing a facility with the equipment and software necessary to their process. Cogito was moderately successful with local Runners, and ultimately was attractive enough of a concern for Verital to purchase the company to maintain its hold on the BFT technology in general. Verital expanded Cogito's business model to more markets, and also expanded the technology's capabilities largely by making certain segments of it open source which allows independent devs to script custom training routines (and also helped Verital maintain its cred as a geek-friendly company).