[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

For the sake of the question, this includes all forms of initiative enhancement (cyber, bio, magical, etc.) that increases initiative passes.  How common or prevalent are they in stories and games?  Are they specialized gear that is actually special or is it something necessary for a good runner's survival?  It is something more exclusive to elite security forces (Red Samurai, Ghosts, etc.) or does everyone have it in some form?

The reason behind the question is for character background and trying to get a general understanding of the power levels between augmented and norms.

For a good exploration of what it means to have a group of 'normals' - such as gang members - be augmented even so simply as one level of wired reflexes, look into Mary K. Kuhner's Shadowrun-based fiction, "Jayhawk".

In regards to prevalence, though, you should look at what it takes on its most basic level to gain: cost.

A smartlink (your first necessary cyber-based combat purchase) is 1,000¥.  That is 50% of the monthly cost for a low lifestyle - 20% for a middle. 

Wired-1, on the other hand, is 11,000¥: more than double what an ordinary white-collar citizen is going to make in a month.  it's almost six months' pay for a blue-collar worker - pay, not 'what's left over'.  If you think of it investment-wise, and if a citizen has 10% left over after lifestyle costs, at 500¥/mo this is almost two year's savings for a white-collar (middle-lifestyle) worker - or over nine years worth for the blue-collar worker who has only an extra 100¥ per month.  From a corporate standpoint, it is an investment in your future -- and you can believe that they're going to make damn sure they get their money's worth.

In Jayhawk - even before the very beginning of the story - Kuhner's GM wondered what it would be like to have an entire gang (15-30 people) with wired reflexes, how that would affect combat, etc.  And only afterwards did they get into what that would mean financially (330,000¥ investment just for that), and what the corporation who did it would want with such a group, etc. etc.

Overall, you'll find maybe one in a hundred, one in a hundred fifty people in a crowd with some sort of reflex boost.  In a group of specialists, e.g. security guards or cops, that ratio will increase immensely, so that you're talking about 1 in 10 or 15.  Shadowrunners?  2 out of 3, if not 9 in 10, somehow - and almost always in their area of expertise, i.e. the hacker may not have physical reflex enhancements, but you can be sure his commlink is juiced.

[JoeNapalm]

Great post.

A common theme in the cyberpunk genre - how to pay for your chrome.

Also something that is a good backstory hook for both PCs and NPCs - if a ganger has Move-by-Wire, there's gotta be a reason.

How many Runners are walking around with hundreds of thousands of nuyen worth of enhancements? Plus a cargo lifter full of gear, and skills in the Pro or even Elite ranges. Never understood why some people feel that your average street thug should pose a threat to that.

-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist

[rfv855]

On the side note- why would you need wired reflexes for a gang, when they have much cheaper chemical options available? Entire gang having a few doses of cram or jazz available each member should be much more reasonable.

Add a few troll gang members with cram and nitro, equipped with armored jackets, helmets and combat axes, to make it extra interesting, and still within what you can reasonably expect from a gang.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

rfv, you're looking at it from a metagame perspective.  Look at it from the ganger's point of view; no addiction, no withdrawl, autoboost to the next level of 'work', that sort of thing.  Look at it from the corporation's point of view; whatever they ARE using the gangers for (strike force, guinea pigs), it is presumably worth that amount to them - and in this case, it's the GM's task to figure out what that reason is, and the Player's task to go find that out.

Drugs run out; worse, they can shred your psyche and body in even the relatively short run.  You can't control WHEN a gang takes their drugs; druggie Greg the Ganger might take all his jazz over four or five nights, before you call them up and tell them what their target is.  You can make sure they'll always be wired.  Cyberware is more expensive, yes - but it's also more controllable.

In the end, the WHY of your question is something to be answered in-game, by the GM in his own mind and, eventually, by the players investigating.

Though I did just have an evil thought of a bunch of stepped-wired-up Aztlan Guards going 'undercover' as an AZT-inspired gang for some proactive punishment work ...

[Glyph]

"Gangs" run the gamut from feral kids scrounging in the Barrens, to groups like the Ancients that are more like criminal syndicates.  Low-end augmentations are comparatively affordable; second-hand wired reflexes: 1 only costs 5,500 Nuyen, so it is hardly out of the reach of a successful criminal.

Typically, your average security grunt, beat cop, or street punk should have combat drugs at the most.  When you get to the level of SWAT teams, corporate fast response teams, and underworld enforcers or successful career criminals, you should start to see wired reflexes: 1 a lot more.  I would reserve wired reflexes: 2 or better for runner-level opposition, with just enough exceptions to keep players guessing.