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{{trope}}
{{quote|''If you are going to munchkin out in cyberpunk you have to cyber yourself up to the maximum... Some games try to penalize this with the half-hearted penalty of "losing your humanity", a concept that is in no cyberpunk literature and just exists as a feeble attempt to prevent munchkinism.''
|'''The Munchkin's Guide to Powergaming''' }}
In many popular [[Cyberpunk]] [[Tabletop Games]], cybernetic implants cause "humanity loss", reducing your social traits and essentially making cyberware into a form of [[Body Horror]]. Too many implants may [[Sense Loss Sadness|reduce your character to catatonia]] or (far more often) [[Ax Crazy]] [[Psycho Serum|on steroids]]. If these settings also feature [[Psychic Powers]] or [[Functional Magic]], cyberware often reduces your ability to use those as well. This trope usually accompanies the broken lesson that ''only'' cyberware inflicts humanity loss—sure, getting that [[Arm Cannon]] will dehumanize you, but not [[Moral Event Horizon|deliberately committing actual atrocities]], getting hooked on [[Drugs Are Bad|hard drugs]], learning [[Black Magic]], having a mental illness that is not fictional, or other expected sources of insanity. It is also a [[Broken Aesop]] when [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]] are depicted as more...um...[[Shaped Like Itself|human]].
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{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* It was averted in ''[[Astro Boy (manga)|Astro Boy]]''. In one story, a terrorist organization {{spoiler|steals dogs and grafts their brains in mechanical, humanoid bodies}} in order to create loyal and utterly obedient soldiers. However, in the prologue of the story, [[Osamu Tezuka]] argued as far as he was concerned, the soul or spirit of the being always endures, even it if is mechanized.
* In the ''[[Afro Samurai]]'' movie, Sio implies that this has happened to Kuma, saying that he's been repaired so many times, there's hardly any human left at all, just a mindless "samurai doll."
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*** It's more a case of [[The Government]] being [[Too Dumb to Live]]; they provide all the [[Required Secondary Powers]] to keep their [[Super Soldier]]s alive, but they don't give a damn about keeping them ''sane''. Their "enhancile" can't even speak normally. [[And I Must Scream|And He Must Scream.]]
{{quote|'''Member 436''': ''Try to imagine. You're a multiple amputee who's been flayed alive. You can't feel your own heartbeat. You can't feel yourself breathe. You can feel metal rubbing against your muscles and organs. And you don't recognize the man in the mirror.''}}
* Dekko from ''[[Zot]]'' is a textbook example. Although cybernetics don't seem to be inherently bad in Zot's world, the trauma of having his terminally-ill body replaced a piece at a time turned him into a [[Mad Artist]].
* Hart Whitcraft was afraid of this happening after receiving an artificial heart in the Acclaim version of ''[[Magnus, Robot Fighter]]''. {{spoiler|The series, and entire line, ends before we can find out.}}
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* Played straight in ''[[Iron Man]]: Rapture'' mini-series that had Tony implanting himself with a new heart after his heart attack. {{spoiler|He ended up getting addicted to cyber enhancements and locked himself in his lab for a week. Before revealing himself as a cyberbeing named 'Stark 2.0''.}}
* ''[[ROM Spaceknight]]'' subverts the trope, being an extremely human and noble character despite looking like a walking suit of armor—but he ''fears'' this happening, and he [[Body Horror|loathes his metallic shell.]] Played with when his girlfriend Brandy becomes a Spaceknight as well—at first her personality is unaffected, but when {{spoiler|[[Doomed Hometown|her entire home town is murdered by the Wraiths]]}}, she succumbs to a state that Rom says he has seen in Spaceknights before: an overwhelming hatred that ''physically changes'' her armor to look more vicious, and she remains a cold-hearted killer until {{spoiler|she's removed from the armor and becomes human again.}}
* Alistair Smythe, one of the many ''[[Spider-Man]]'' villains to build the Spider-Slayer robots, was at least a borderline case. After using cybernetics to become "the Ultimate Spider-Slayer" (as he called himself) he became a megalomaniac with somewhat of a god complex. He was a little more lucid in subsequent appearances, where he built Cyber-Slayer versions to [[Yakuza]] leaders for simple profit, but still somewhat mad, his desire for revenge against Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson becoming a dangerous obsession that {{spoiler|eventually leads to his death at the hands of Superior Spider-Man.}}
▲== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
* The ''[[Homestuck]]'' fanfic [http://archiveofourown.org/works/143699 "Tenth Life"], where one of the characters has a robot body made for her after her death, but the cybernetic body robs her of all imagination and creativity. Her friends eventually {{spoiler|decide to just end her life}}.
* [[In the Service]], building on the [[Lyrical Nanoha]] example above, posits that cybernetic enhancement is neither necessarily good nor evil: it reinforces existing traits. Mentally healthy people converted to cyborgs will withstand huge amounts of emotional trauma and stress without ill effect. People who are not mentally healthy...won't.
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* In ''To Hold Infinity'' by John Meaney, the plexcores with which the inhabitants of Fulgor augment their brains don't eat your soul so much as change it into something rather inhuman. The antagonist of the book is a hundred times more augmented than his peers, ultimately {{spoiler|enabling him to survive death, in a fashion, and become a mind-eating planet-conquering godlike being}}. He maintains much of his human emotion, but has a tendency to [[A God Am I|consider other humans as obstructions or prey]].
* In the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], cyborgs aren't really any more or less likely to go psychotic than anyone else, but there's a bit of [[Fantastic Racism]] towards those who've had more than a limb or an eye replaced.
** Ton Phanan from the [[X Wing Series]] was a doctor before [[Emergency Transformation|losing a leg, and half of his face]]. This had a serious psychological effect on him; he became an increasingly cynical, depressed pilot who [[Stepford Smiler|hid in snark]]. [[Word of God|The author]] is [https://web.archive.org/web/20160414202210/http://www.aaronallston.com/faq.html on record] as saying that although Phanan feared death and struggled against it, deep down he didn't want to live.
{{quote|'''Phanan:''' "There's no mechanical replacement for a future, Face. And every time I take a hit, and they have to cut away another part of me and replace it with machinery because I'm allergic to bacta, every time that happens I seem to be a little further away from the young doctor who had a future. He can't come back, Face. Not all of him is here anymore."}}
** The extent to which Phanan's issues are directly related to the cybernetic implants is debateable, however. The nature of his injuries and his allergy to bacta mean that his facial injuries are highly visible, unpleaant to look at and nearly impossible to disguise. He might well have had similar problems adjusting to life with extensive facial scarring and the loss of an eye.
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== Music ==
* In the folk music/prog rock/metal [[Rock Opera]] album 01011001 by [[Ayreon]], the main characters are a race of fish aliens that rely on machines to keep them alive, and as a result, they lose their emotions and ability to really experience life. They try to regain them by {{spoiler|creating and living vicariously through humans. It works, and in the end, after humanity destroys itself, they stop the machines so that they can die.}} Probably. [[Ayreon]] is kind of a [[Mind Screw]].
* ''[[Nine Inch Nails]]''' "The Becoming" is all about this:
{{quote|''That me that you know used to have feelings
''But the blood has stopped pumping and hes left to decay
''The me that you know is now made up of wires
''And even when
* Papa Roach's ''Singular Indestructible Droid'' is this trope.
* In the [[Vocaloid]] song series "New Millenium"{{sic}} (consisting of [
* ''The Soul Doctors'' from Fireaxe's 4-hour [[Food for the Gods]].
== Tabletop RPG ==▼
== Tabletop Games ==
▲=== Tabletop RPG ===
* Decisively averted in ''[[Eclipse Phase]]''. Your mind is software and can be "resleeved" into anything from another human form to an uplifted octopus or even a futuristic tank. If for some reason you want to keep your old body, you can still deck out it with an array of cybernetic and biological modifications, without any limitations whatsoever.
** The closest thing being some temporary stress when re-sleeving (especially when the character remembers dying).
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* ''[[Transhuman Space]]'' makes the question of whether or not Cybernetics Eat Your Soul the central question of the game. Different factions debate (again and again) whether [[A Is]], uplifted animals, and [[Artificial Human|bioroids]] have souls at all. Ditto for modified humans and especially uploaded intelligences. Several factions, especially bio-chauvinists and some preservationists, believe that Cybernetics Eat Your Soul, while others like Christian Hyper-evolutionists think that enhancements are ''necessary'' to advancement.
** There are no game mechanics to prove either side right, but depending on where you life, what you are or what enhancements you've received might limit your civil rights.
* ''
** Actually wrist blades or reinforced knuckles decreased Humanity by 1d6. The problem was that essentially primitive (i.e. mostly mechanical) implants like hydraulic legs or augmented arms decrease Humanity by 2d6 while coprocessors (essentially computers implanted into one's brain with optional false memories, capable of overriding cognitive and neurobiological functions) incur measly 1d6 decrease. No cyborgized firefighters and combat paramedics for you.
** Possibly justified as deliberately turning yourself into a walking weapon might make you a bit less human - a limb, fine, but one with a built in shotgun? Going waaay above and beyond humanity there...
** Made even worse for 'Borgs. Many full body conversions have a human brain as a plug-n-play [[Wetware CPU]]. They are like the Servitors of ''Warhammer 40K'', but the brains can be put into another body. One conversion, the Dragoon, combines this trope with [[And I Must Scream]]. The cyberware and the drugs keep the thing (barely) controlled. It acts almost like a dumb robot. But your character can recover some humanity loss by moving into another body. Just now he/she has horrible nightmares and flashbacks from being was a 7 foot tall killing machine.
*** A major theme, especially for police characters, are full borgs who have gone psycho, running amok in their 500-pound metal bodies wreaking havok with heavy weaponry. The task of dealing with these nutjobs falls to a police force's C-SWAT (Cyber-SWAT) team who are often extensively cybered as well and use heavy gauss rifles and anti-vehicle weapons to take the psychotic borgs down. If they manage to catch the perp alive, he gets send straight to the clinic, gets his cyberware removed, and then spends a long time in a recovery ward (on top of serving prison time for his crimes, obviously).
* ''[[Cyberspace]]''
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* ''[[Shadowrun]]'': Getting cyberware drops your Essence, which comes with a corresponding drop in Magic ability; however, even the non-magically active should fear dropping too low in Essence, as if one's Essence runs out, they die. However, it is possible, through a combination of powerful blood magics and technology, to keep somebody with below-zero Essence alive as a "cyberzombie". It's not pretty, but nothing in ''[[Shadowrun]]'' is. The 1st edition game hinted at "cyberpsychosis," whereby characters become increasingly violent and irrational as their essence goes down; however, no rules system was ever given for this, and it was entirely dropped by 2nd edition.
** There is a minor compensation: since cybernetics have been "paid for" with essence, magic which treats living and non-living things differently will treat cyberware as if it were living tissue.
** ''Shadowrun'''s Essence attribute, in Third Edition, is a measure of how much the thought patterns of a given individual resemble natural patterns of their species. Installing cyberware, at least in fluff-theory, does not cause instant Essence loss, but rather ''learning to use'' said cyberware. This inevitably changes how the individual thinks, and so Essence goes down. From the metaphysical side of things, it also determines if someone's soul still considers them alive - if Essence drops to zero, the spirit flees the apparently-dead husk.
*** Fourth edition refers to essence as "(...) a measure of life force, of a body's wholeness. It represents the body's cohesiveness and holistic strength." It's worth noting that drug abuse can also reduce your essence (which can be
**** About Cyber Zombies: While being the only example of [[That One Boss]] in a [[Tabletop RPG]] may ''seem'' great, you [[Blessed with Suck|quickly learn otherwise]], as your soul is now effectively incompatible with your body, leaving what's left of your organic being to be constantly riddled with cancerous growths and necrosis. Not to mention, every now and then your soul tries to drift away (because, again, it no longer considers your body alive), and has to be forced to stay put via a cybernetic implant that instantly triggers a [[Flash Back]] of a powerful (usually painful) memory. [[Captain Obvious|It...hurts.]]
***** See the Hatchetman reference further below.
** Cyberpsychosis is back in 4th edition, as a negative quality characters with real low essence can take. If they [[Critical Hit|critically glitch]] on a social test, they enter an [[Unstoppable Rage]].
** Cybernetics is actually only one of the things that can damage a character's Essence. Magically active characters can suffer magic loss due to amputations, life-threatening injuries, carelessly performed medical procedures, and pharmaceuticals.
** Then there's "used" cyber enhancements which have once been in ''somebody else'''s body, pretty horrible stuff even for cyber enhancements. And likewise the body rejects the enhancements and can fluff wise drive you crazy or interfere with your body, like
** One chapter of the 3rd Edition soucebook ''Cybertechnology'' has a heavily-cybered mercenary named Hatchetman tell his life story. He says killing was easier once he got cybereyes because it was like watching everything he did through a TV.
*** Hatchetman's story is a very well-written piece of narration, so it's worth exploring this further for the sake of this trope: After going through an extremely risky medical/magical procedure called "Cybermancy" that allows him to "cross the threshold" of his human body and mind, having more metal in him than pretty much every other street samurai and only being held back from terminal psychosis by various quirks programmed into his cybernetic brain.
{{quote|I asked [the doctor] if I was going to stay alive.
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** In 2nd ed, they get the justified version of the trope with Voidtech, Charms which draw on the metaphysical disease that's killing their god-world. An Alchemical who goes too far, accumulates too much Void-taint, soon descends into murderous psychopathy. There are also ways for Creation's Exalted to implant Voidtech, letting them join the fun.
** There's another justified 2nd ed version—Clarity. As an Alchemical's Essence rises, they run the risk of becoming more mechanical in mind as well as body, bordering on [[Straw Vulcan]] behavior.
* ''[[Rifts]]'' treats this as a psychosomatic matter instead of a literal truth. Any loss of humanity is due to the individual 'Borg's feelings and reactions, and how they are usually ''perceived''' by the society around them, rather than an inherent drawback to cybernetics or bionics. This varies between regions and nations around the planet, largely influenced by the
** Significant cyborgization and many brain implants diminish Inner Strength Points (psionic reserve), full conversion removes completely. A single lesser implant without brain links doesn't necessarily affect ISP, but 2-3 or a limb do. There are exotic "mind over matter" (body functions augmentation) and psynetic (adding or replicating [[Psychic Powers]]) brain implants, but they are prone to driving the subject crazy more than the others (chance of insanity ''for each implant'').
** Magic is "part of nature", so implants [[Magic Versus Technology|don't mix well with it]] - they not only reduce PPE reserves and spell power for magic-users, but lower efficiency of magical healing for anyone. Conversely, 'borgs are somewhat resistant to hostile magic as well. [[Magitek|Techno-wizard]] bionics does exist, but it means walking a thin line and thus is rare even compared to other TW devices. Implants/transplants that consist mostly of living tissue are magic- and psychic- compatible, though they don't offer augmentation like "mechanical" ones.
* In ''[[Star Wars]]'' Saga Edition, cybernetic replacements reduce your Use the Force check. Earlier [[Wizards of the Coast]] [[Star Wars]] RPGs reduced the benefit from spending Force Points. In any case, within the rules this only really applies to Force Users; it's even possible to become a full cyborg hybrid like [[Complete Monster|Grievous]] or [[Blood Knight|Durge]] without becoming a bad guy, though you have to nearly die in order to do so. Droids, even sapient ones, have ''zero'' penalties except cost for bolting gadgets to themself.
** The old West End Games Star Wars RPG mechanic for this was ''"More Machine Now Than Man"'', introduced in the [[Sourcebook]] ''Galladinium's Fantastic Technology'' and it increased the number of Dark Side points gained substantially when you had more cybernetic replacements and upgrades. Upgrades counted double for calculating how many cybernetic parts your character had, as opposed to replacements necessitated by injuries.
* One of the ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' Monster Manual supplements introduced "half-golems", which are about as close to cyborgs as a fantasy setting gets. Having limbs replaced with golem parts can restore function and increase strength, but requires a Will save, which gets more difficult as the number of replacements increase. Failure on the save switches the victim to a Neutral Evil alignment and changes their type to Construct, engendering a murderous hatred of the living.
** [[Eberron]] had grafts, whom depending on the type take various toll on the body. Almost always resulted in constitution loss. Some grafts, called symbiotes, are also [[Exclusively Evil]] and will try to make you [[Ax Crazy]] by constantly speaking suggestions to your mind. [[Min-Maxing|But who cares about that if you have the right build?]] (To the point: Abusing fiendish symbiotes, cloning, and damage-sharing effects created a build that [[Readings Are Off the Scale|required a new mathematical notation to write down how much damage it did]].)
* Various ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' examples play this trope straight, most notably the Adeptus Mechanicus, who replace parts of their brains with computers. Similarly, Servitors and Arco-flagellants are soul-eaten by their cybernetics. However, the majority of the 'verse avoids the trope, since cybernetic alteration, augmentation and replacement is common, and generally doesn't cause major problems. It's one of the few tropes the universe ''doesn't'' play [[Darker and Edgier|as grim and dark]] [[Up to Eleven|as it possibly can]]. [[Rule of Cool|We can only assume the coolness of cybernetics makes up for it.]]
** Arguably, the straight examples of this aren't due to the cybernetics, but to extenuating factors. The dehumanization of high-ranking Adeptus Mechanicus members is as much from their own personal philosophy as it is from their implants; the [[Machine Cult|Cult Mechanicus]] encourages leaving behind the weaknesses of flesh and human thought process for the strength of metal and the cold logic of electronic circuits.
** Titan machine spirits are described as so full of rage and desire to destroy that only the strongest minds can master them, and even the hidebound [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] Adeptus Mechanicus are willing to take any human from anywhere who can handle it into their ranks. Lesser men are frequently driven mad or killed by trying to connect to a Titan. That's implied to be mostly consist of imprints left by the previous crews (titans are not churned out every day, it's more like building a small, but high-end spaceship, so most are quite old).
▲** Arguably, the straight examples of this aren't due to the cybernetics, but to extenuating factors. The dehumanization of high-ranking Adeptus Mechanicus members is as much from their own personal philosophy as it is from their implants; the [[Machine Cult|Cult Mechanicus]] encourages leaving behind the weaknesses of flesh and human thought process for the strength of metal and the cold logic of electronic circuits. Arco-flagellants and servitors also don't lose their humanity from their implants—they're routinely lobotomized before any cybernetics are installed.
** Space Marine Dreadnoughts are a cybernetic lifesupport sarcophagus hooked up to a [[Mini-Mecha]] frame, so that the near-dead warriors can still fight on. They mostly remain themselves, and Librarians are given a variant which allows them to still use psychic abilities, but Dreadnoughts are kept in stasis between the battles, not just left around awake.
** One might make an argument that this is what happened to the Necrons, though it may have to do more with their soul-eating gods. Based on the 5th edition rulebook, all Necrons have souls, and every time they 'die' the repair chip eats away a small part of their souls until only the basic program is left, mixing this with a little [[Came Back Wrong]]. Lords, who don't die as much and have better repair systems, are just driven insane from the the millions of year in stasis: some think they're gods, some customized their armies to be different etc. (Yes, that's right, Games Workshop has managed to take a race of ''omnicidal zombie robots'' and make it ''more'' GRIMDARK.)
*** The Codex has went into it better. It was the C'tan that ate their souls, however their personalities remain for the noble born, the common born were either lost in the transfer to robot bodies or deliberted so the nobles can have the perfect army (or both).
** Obliterator virus — since it was created by (or with some help of) the Warp entities, soul-gnawing during conversion is the main purpose. Here is an [[Apocalyptic Log]] (with bonus [[Body Horror]]) from someone turning into an Obliterator:
{{quote|''"The process of absorption fascinates... [unclear] one's body might somehow swallow the item, like unto a serpent or the surface of some [viscous?] fluid. Yet it doth seem a mutual [process]. For not only doth the body absorb the [weapon] but also [doth the] weapon, in some strange way, seem to [absorb] the body...[RECORD CORRUPT] as the weapon becomes like unto my flesh, so doth mine flesh... [unclear] like unto the weapon. Indeed, I trace this [stylus] upon mine arm, and the shape and form of the weapon appears under [my touch?]. It doth not appear in mine hand so much as mine hand doth arrange itself so as to become the weapon... [BREAK IN RECORD] capakhity of mine new form to abkhorb weaponsh ish akhtonishing... [unclear] a whole lakhgun! But I do shtart to lokhe zhe shenshation in mine shkin. Mine jawkh are [hardening?] and mine ribkh are protruding from mine [chest]. Zhey are of a dull, metallic sheen and tekhts show zhey are a mix of [bone?] and shome metal I cannot identify... [BREAK IN RECORD] thsi wil be mmmylsat [RECORD CORRUPT] cannnnnnnnnnnot useth esse febel mahcinsse aaaaany log;ner [RECORD CORRUPT] tothe eyeof the larybinht the hearto fthe maichnettttto the pppplaceo f... metalll..."''}}
** [[Sandy Mitchell]] has great fun playing with this trope in his [[Ciaphas Cain]] and ''[[Dark Heresy]]'' tie-in novels; of the four techpriests who receive any real character development in these books, one is an obnoxious zoobiology [[Otaku]] who [[The Load|has to be babysat by Cain's patrol]], one is a [[Genki Girl]] with "no head for theological matters" ( {{spoiler|and whose career would have probably not advanced as far as it did had she not played a key part in one of Cain's missions}}), one loves to eat junk food, and one is a [[Deadpan Snarker]].
** [[Dark Heresy]] takes this literally with Obliviates, who are cyborgs implanted with a device called an "Oblivion Volitor", a Heretek device that actually destroys the soul, turning the unfortunate into a zombie-like creature. Or maybe it's just a sloppily copied process of servitor conversion.
* ''[[Alternity]]'' uses Cybertech that not only costs 10 skill points to have installed (but everything else costs skill points too...) as well as 'Cyber Tolerance' points based on your constitution score. If you run out of these, you die. Installing a reflex chip requires a Will check to resist insanity. The resulting madman [[NPC]] is a Cyko-Tek ([[Viewers are Morons|get it?]] [[Don't Explain the Joke|It's a pun]]) who want nothing more to graft more and more cybernetic hardware and go on homicidal rampages against those squishy pure organics. Can you say [[Ax Crazy]] with a ''literal'' [[Vibroweapon|vibroblade]] handaxe?
** Not quite. Filling up the cybertolerance score does not equal death (and there are pieces of gear you can purchase to actually increase this score), although installing the reflex and/or fast chip will more than likely result in insanity. The part about cykosis (yes, the puns abound) is dead on, though.
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** Its also worth noting that Cyborgs are actually more mentally stable than normal Harrowed as their manitou are chained up in the basement next to the boiler not running around the bedroom with a knife. What makes cyborgs crazy is their asshole onboard AI's that have arbitrary rules of engagement that they force the cyborg to follow. With no AI or an AI with no idiot rules cyborgs are more sane than normal people... because armor 8 means you can face down anything in the waste and laugh.
* The ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'' tabletop RPG has a mechanic for this trope which is derived from Cyberpunk's. However, there are mild subversions. First of all, it is explicitly stated once in the writeup of the Humanity stat that cybernetics are not the only way to lose Humanity. Second, counseling can help out quite a bit. Other than this and a certain lack of explicit psychic or magical loss, both being foreign to the setting, the trope is played straight, especially since counseling is only guaranteed to succeed if the patient has removed all cybernetics.
* Yawgmoth, The [[Big Bad]] of the entire "Dominarian Saga" of ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'', was obsessed with the mechanics of the body. He lords over the evil machine plane of Phyrexia, where he and his followers used its mechanical wonders to improve ("compleat") their bodies, at the cost of their own humanity. In the mechanics of the game, artifact creatures (usually machines) are generally unaffected by black spells that destroy creatures.
* Averted with the Therians, of [[AT-43]]. Despite being the [[Big Bad]] of the setting, they are not very warlike or evil (in fact, they have long ago forgotten how to fight, making them rely on [[I Know Mortal Kombat|MMORPGS for tactics]]). They just don't seem to get why the other races keep shooting up them for trying to blow up their solar systems in order to make Dyson Spheres in order to save the universe form dying of old age...in 25 billion years. So its more like Cybernetics makes you a [[Cloudcuckoolander]]. (Except for their Warrior Guild, who ''all'' [[Leeroy Jenkins]].)
* The ''[[Munchkin]]'s Guide to Gaming'' encourages exploiting this mechanic as its a free power up coupled with a roleplaying justification [[Hack and Slash|for your normal behavior.]]
* ''[[All Flesh Must Be Eaten]]'' provides rules for Essence loss from cybernetics and "cyberpsychosis" in its ''All Tomorrow's Zombies'' supplement... but made it clear they were optional for two reasons. One was that such rules went against the [[Rule of Fun]] that AFMBE embraces (who has time for moral dilemmas when there are undead to kill?!?); the other is that when there are undead wandering around, the question of where the line between humanity and inhumanity lies is already pretty much answered, so it's not exactly relevant.
* The ''[[Dark Future (game)|Dark Future]]'' supplement ''Dead Mans Curve'' introduced rules for cybernetics and for psychosis caused by the stress and trauma of the life of Renegades and Ops. Cybernetics increased your base level of
* ''[[Stars Without Number]]'' got the usual cyberpunk version downplayed. Implants inflict permanent System Strain, and some also temporary on activation; only one point for things like remote drone interface, more for those with large affected area or actively messing with neural system or metabolism. Strain is capped by Constitution score, thus cyberware leaves less "room" for taking Strain from other sources, such as healing, stimulants (more so for powerful nanobot pharmaceuticals and [[Magitek|psitech stuff]]) and body altering psychic powers (both healing and augmentations) — each point is a step closer to "oops, the stim that would fix you enough to walk on your own just failed".
=== Trading Card Games ===▼
* The [[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh]] cards "[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Giga_Gagagigo Giga Gagagigo]" and "[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Gogiga_Gagagigo Gogiga Gagagigo]" show the character [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Gagagigo Gagagigo] after being cybernetically reconstructed. The flavor text on the first mentions that the cybernetics caused him to [[Face Heel Turn|lose]] his [[Heel Face Turn|heart and redemption]], and the second's says that his soul has long since collapsed, and that his body continues recklessly in a quest for more power.▼
** Even more Gagagigo is the evolved form of [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Gigobyte Gigobyte], a very cute mon.▼
* [[Magic: The Gathering]] has Esper, part of the Shards of Alara block. Every creature in Esper has some amount of aether-infused metal grafted onto their body. This is okay unless they replace their whole body, after which they become twisted fiends called aether-liches. Then there's Phyrexia...▼
** Phyrexia's worse.▼
*** [
** Ashnod's Transmogrant.▼
== Video Games ==
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** Played straight with the Collectors {{spoiler|and Saren}}, though, but {{spoiler|considering [[Eldritch Abomination|who designed them]]}}, the soul-eating may well have been intentional in this case:
{{quote|'''Mordin''': "No glands, replaced by tech. No digestive tract, replaced by tech. No souls... replaced by tech"}}
* [[Body Horror|Combine]] [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/half-life/en/images/0/07/Combine_Advisor_%28old%29.jpg Advisors] from ''[[Half Life]]''. Thanks to their dependence on technology, they've evolved into large slug / larva like creatures, their only remaining appendage being a long snaking tongue [http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/half-life/en/images/6/6f/Ep2_outland_advisor_rebel.jpg which they use to feed].
** Likewise [http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/The_Consul The Consul], who was a predecessor to Breen before getting cut. Over the course of the game, the Consul was going to slowly implant himself with more and more Combine life-support technology, eventually becoming [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|immortal]]. All this would be unbeknownst to player until the end of the game, only seeing his unaltered face in the meantime.
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* As much as Viktor of [[League of Legends]] uses hextech rather than cybernetics, he [[Invoked Trope|invoked the trope]] - intentionally locking himself away and replacing most of his flesh with machine parts to create something no one could steal from him, but also precisely to get rid of his emotions, which were bugging him since a fellow scientist claimed the glory for his achievements. It didn't exactly work, as he still hates his 'rival' a bit. He's also obsessed with making everyone be like himself, and speaks in an emotionless manner.
* [[Armored Core|Armored Core V]] has the {{spoiler|Zodiacs, thirteen AC pilots and their [[Voice with an Internet Connection|Operator]], Angie}}. The pilots are ''heavily'' implied to have undergone some sort of integration with their Armored Cores, while {{spoiler|Angie seems to be based in some sort of network shared by Zodiac's support helicopters}}. Since the war they were created to fight is long over, their only purpose appears to be to destroy. {{spoiler|Angie and Zodiac 1 seem to have gotten the worst of this in different ways as neither can think beyond their original orders anymore: Zodiac 1 is a mindless killing machine, while Angie seems to have lost a great deal of her humanity and original personality after her integration according to Zodiac 8}}.
* Gengi in ''[[Overwatch]]'' originally hated himself after being turned into a full cyborg by Overwatch (although they did it to save his life), believing he had become something terrible and inhumane in the process. He came to his senses when he defected from the organization and met Zenyatta. There is no sign of cybernetics having any psychological ill effects in general in the ''Overwatch'' universe, with examples of very sensible and nice characters among the cybernetically augmented and complete psychopaths without any cybernetics.
* Professor G, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Battle Golfer Yui]]'' plans on turning the world's best golfers into his brainwashed minions, so he can take over the world and create a utopia. {{spoiler|As it turns out, Prof G. used the technology on himself, turning mad in the process.}}
* Supposedly, this is the case with Arachne, one of the playable Heroes in ''[[Hero Wars]]''. [[All There in the Manual|Her background info states]], "There's no trace of humanity left in her: she's a perfect assassin now." Although, on the other hand, she seems awfully happy when the party wins a fight.
== Web Comics ==
* The "Pocket President" chips in ''[[A Girl and Her Fed]]''. Originally designed to give federal agents unblockable, untraceable instant communication ability, they instead turned nearly all of them into virtual shells of their former selves (just going through the motions of life) or permanently depressed lumps who tended towards suicide. The exceptions being those agents who already had pronounced [[Psycho for Hire]] tendencies. And then we find out, the chips could do [[Powers as Programs|much much more]]... and the folks that made them knew it. {{spoiler|The psychological issues were intentionally induced as a [[Restraining Bolt]]}}
* ''[[Last Res0rt]]'' avoids this trope pretty handily for a [[Cyberpunk]] work—yes, the emotionally sensitive Daisy Archanis has a robotic leg, but there's also a robot murderess who claims she's really a glorified [[Brain In a Jar]]...
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And without hate, how am I to feel the exquisite sensation of mild annoyance? }}
▲== Trading Card Games ==
▲* The [[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh]] cards "[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Giga_Gagagigo Giga Gagagigo]" and "[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Gogiga_Gagagigo Gogiga Gagagigo]" show the character [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Gagagigo Gagagigo] after being cybernetically reconstructed. The flavor text on the first mentions that the cybernetics caused him to [[Face Heel Turn|lose]] his [[Heel Face Turn|heart and redemption]], and the second's says that his soul has long since collapsed, and that his body continues recklessly in a quest for more power.
▲** Even more Gagagigo is the evolved form of [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Gigobyte Gigobyte], a very cute mon.
▲* [[Magic: The Gathering]] has Esper, part of the Shards of Alara block. Every creature in Esper has some amount of aether-infused metal grafted onto their body. This is okay unless they replace their whole body, after which they become twisted fiends called aether-liches. Then there's Phyrexia...
▲** Phyrexia's worse.
▲*** [http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/stf/137 Much worse]{{broken link}}.
▲** Ashnod's Transmogrant.
== Web Original ==
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** Also [[Averted Trope|averted]] with the cyborg Coldstone; Goliath seems to ''think'' this at first, but his mental instability is really due to anger at first, and then later from the circumstances of having three souls (one of whom was evil) sharing one body. The closest he ever really came to this trope was when Xanatos used a computer program to brainwash him for a while; it messed with his mind, but his "soul" remained fine.
* The unproduced ''[[Invader Zim]]'' episode "10 Minutes To Doom" implies that the Irkens physical bodies are just shells for the cybernetic Paks on their backs.
* Zigzagged with [[Inspector Gadget]]; his soul seems intact, [[The Ditz|but his intelligence... Not so much.]]
== [[Real Life]] ==
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[[Category:Transhuman Tropes]]
[[Category:Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]]
[[Category:Technology Tropes]]
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