BioWare

One of the projects I've been trying to find time and inspiration to work on is the idea of the "Body Shop" from the pre-Crash period of AtB. In an article I found today, "The Wicked Side of Cyberpunk", Earl S. Wynn talks about the staples of Cyberpunk sci-fi and their Bioware (Biopunk?) equivalents:

One of the defining factors of Cyberpunk is cybernetic implants, but circuitboards and clunky metal bits aren't the end all and be all of implanted augmentations for the human body. Consider the lab-grown skingrafts that worked as experimental insulin patches in the early nineties, and now take it a step further. Imagine a full recoating of the dermal surface with a graft or a "skinweave" of engineered cells that can do anything from filling the body with specially-tailored chemicals to generating it's own exterior coating of poison, color-changing pigment, or even organic superlubricant. Improved organs are a possibility too- imagine a digestive tract upgrade that allows for the digestion of things like gasoline and broken glass (Hey, with the right culture of microbes, anything is possible) or lungs that can glean air from water or nerve gas without any ill effects. But lets take it a step further even than that- imagine being able to get anything you wanted in a body, and then imagine the cosmetic and fashion fads that would start. That's right. Think tails, bizarre-colored eyes, lavender skin, reculturing of the bacteria in sweat to produce a specific scent instead of the dreaded sour tang of B.O. Going into a bar in the city would be like walking into a scene from Star Wars- we'd have all the aliens we'd ever need right here on earth.

Wynn goes on to talk about Brain Mods, Subdermal implants, Brain Hacking, and other topics that could have been present in the golden age before the Big Death.

I'm hoping that maybe I can take and use this to inspire me to get back to work on the Body Shop article. I think it would be an interesting addition to both AtB and Heroes Unlimited.