ColonelHardisson said:
My point was that it seems nonsensical, based on what we know of real world technology. There is no reason to believe that anyone in the real world will go insane due to having cybernetic implants. There are already medical procedures (experiments with giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and some experimental stuff having to do with returning motion to paralyzed people) which tap into the brain, maybe not in the same way as fictional cybernetics, nor as intrusively, but similarly enough to ascertain that it won't drive people insane. I don't mind a limiting factor for game stuff, to keep characters from becoming complete cyborgs with no penalty, but the rationale behind this is shaky. Even in fiction or RPGs, things that simply are inconsistent with the game world hurt the reader's/gamer's abiltiy to suspend disbelief. Magic is nonexistent in the real world, so game rules have to make it up whole cloth; cybernetics, or the beginnings of such technology, actually exist. Game rules for it should try to be consistent with what is known in the real world. It's sort of like if they had made it so that operating any machinery would eventually drive you mad; cool concept, but it goes against what really happens.
Just a note. If you go to 0 Essence, you don't go insane. You die.
Remember, Cyberware isn't just simple stuff like what we have now, a lot of time it's major body replacement (Such as full leg/arm) or major neurological rewiring (Such as Wired Reflexes). TBH< a lot of the Essance stuff is in reality mostly a balancing mechanism, pure and simple. But the idea is that if you replace too much of the body, there's not enough to keep living. Essence, in a way, represents your woul or your spirit, and you lose a little bit of it everytime you put some cyber in your body.
Shadowrun hints at a certain "Detachment" that heavily cybered characters feel... Cyberpsychosis, they call it, but it's not really an insanity, just a loss of any real emotion. And it's not a rule, just a briefly mentioned roleplaying aspect. Cyberpunk 202 I believe is the one that actually has rules for this sort of thing...
Bull