Well, crap. The warranty on your cybernetic gear has expired (assuming, of course, that it ever had such assurances in the first place), and now you’re stuck with malfunctioning hardware that has literally gotten under your skin. Does your BCI keep crashing? Do your legs keep seizing up? Is your bioware constantly trying to eject your iron? Whatever the problem might be, this Flaw gets rated by the amount of misery it causes you:

• (2 points) You suffer constant disorientation and pain.

• (3 points) The malfunctions keep you in such severe discomfort that you need to take specialized medication,

or employ other forms of pain relief, at least once a day. Failure to do so costs you one die from all dice pools until the problem is rectified.

• (4 points) Your Enhancements fail you at critical times (generally on a botched roll), crash or freeze up, and must then be repaired by a technician who understands the gear you’ve got.

• (5 points) That shitty gear consistently conks out when you need it most. Roll one die against difficulty 7 whenever you employ cybertech in some important way (lifting heavy things with bionic arms, sensor-scanning for enemies, deflecting incoming enemy spells, and so forth). If you succeed, then the Enhancements function normally; if you fail, they fail and must be rebooted; if you botch, they lock up or shut down until a skilled technician manages to repair them.

Obviously, this Flaw means nothing unless you’ve got the Background: Enhancements. Although such glitches occur with Technocratic bioware, they’re far more common in cybernetics that have been installed by factions whose people haven’t main­ tained a systemic and standardized approach to human upgrades for the last few centuries. Wonky Etherites and overambitious Virtual Adepts invent crappy iron all the time, and so this Flaw is especially appropriate for cyborgs from those zealously individ­ ualistic Traditions, as well as for ex-Technocrats who’ve managed to go rogue and survive the experience thus far.