You can wear a gas mask with glasses just fine. Goggles, depending on their layout, might be more difficult. However, I know people who have custom gas masks with focal lenses, so I would happily allow a house rule for capacity for vision enhancements on a gas mask just like goggles.
A gas mask would definitely stand out in "civilized" society, though, no doubt about that. Unless you're wearing bunker gear and/or a SWAT team uniform (and have a reason to be there, there's no dressing like that at a cocktail party without rousing some concern), you'll stand out like a sore thumb in my opinion.
Game mechanics wise, I find Aaron's reading of the toxin resistance rules lacking, which is why we're house ruling them. Under his reading, a 300 nuyen rating 6 respirator severely reduces the cost effectiveness of the 0.6 Essence and 27000 nuyen tracheal filter bioware, and a 200 nuyen gas mask makes a 0.25 Essence and 4500 nuyen rating 1 internal air tank obsolete. Yes, both of the gear pieces can be knocked off, but a piece of cyberware can just as easily be hacked and bricked (at least in my opinion).
Not to mention that the rules completely fail to account for inhalation vector toxins that also have a contact vector, which by my count is all but one; according to Aaron's reading, the Gas Mask would either render you immune to inhalation vector toxins or do absolutely nothing. When I asked if you could use multiple appropriate pieces of gear against toxins with multiple vectors, "Only the best one, or the worst if your GM hates you" is the term he used. This is in contradiction with the book which specifically states "+ the rating of any protective gear/systems", the plural of gear/systems indicates to me that you should be able to use more than one piece of gear.
My table has decided to house rule it this way:
Toxins are resisted with Body + Willpower + the highest rating of protective gear for each vector.
If the toxin only has one vector, an appropriate piece of gear providing immunity provides full immunity.
If the toxin has multiple vectors, an appropriate piece of gear providing immunity to each vector is required for full immunity; a piece of gear providing immunity to only a single vector instead halves the power of the toxin.
Given the above, an average character would roll BOD 3 + WIL 3, and could against CS gas add the rating of a respirator and chemical protection both (let's make them average as well at 3). This character would therefore roll 3+3+3+3 for a total of 12 dice to resist the toxin's power of 8, "averaging" 3 hits and taking 5 stun damage, as well as the -2 dice pool penalty for 10 minutes, incapacitation for 3 combat turns, and double wound modifiers for 10 minutes.
Under the same house rule, if the same character had a gas mask instead of the respirator, he would roll 3+3+3 dice against the toxins power of 4 (halved due to immunity), "averaging" only 2 hits, taking only 2 stun damage and avoiding the 3 combat turn incapacitation, but still suffering the -2 dice pool penalty and double wound modifiers for 10 minutes.
We believe this is a fair system, though it does leave players open to resist toxins somewhat easily with a little bit of Luck. Chemical Resistance is 250 nuyen per rating for a maximum of 1500, and the respirator is 50 per rating for a maximum of 300, so a character could feasibly add 12 dice to their BOD + WIL toxin resistance test for a mere 1800 nuyen. However, since Season 5 is set in Chicago, we feel that it's somewhat fitting for the characters to be able to take necessary precautions and feel safe in their gear if they so desire. And Respirators can always be knocked from their faces, evidenced in one of the CMP missions...
