Stephane

I strongly doubt that two elctrical wires, a percussion cap and a block of compressed black powder (readily available for cap'n'ball replicas) or ten grams of home-cooked heat-generating dust are a major felony. You may get fined but that's all unless in some place trully paranoid (and in such a case you're screwed no matter how you destoy the evidences.

Probably, but the cost/effectiveness balance of a laser powerful enough to wholly melt a holo storage (or optical disk) in a few seconds is very poor when compared to a simple chemical self-destruct.

And also probably the coil, so that it behaves properly and trigger the pulse instead of acting like a frag jacket

Probably filling them with errors and garbling datas, but enough to make the source impossible to identify ? I think it would be simpler to electrically (hey, you've that loaded ultra cpacitor, no ?) or thermally (overvoltage or a few grams of thermite strategically placed, with protection for the rest of the hardware). No matter how hard you try you can't get much out of a lump of molten silicon

I'm not sure it will be very effective (the controls for the door are probably physically shielded) and if you fry them, you've just frozen the door in it's current state and need to physically gain access to the actuators to change it - not much difference (except in price) with putting a bullet through the damn thing ! And if it's in a secure area chances are the security system quickly notice the lock is no longer "alive" and trigger an alert...

When you read (forgot in which book, sorry) "a hand-held microwawers, the 2020 equivalent of a mace spray..." you can bet anything important has at least minimal shielding. And concerning electronic money, what most people carry is not the money itself, but the "key" to the bank account - just ask a new one if it no longer works ! It's one thing to crash a terminal (disabling it until it performed self-test and reboot - like a microwawed cyberlimb, or sometimes until repaired), it's another to get to the server where datas are harbored and to erase them.

I think this should be rated along the lines of a hand grenade (basically it's what it is, a small lump of explosives with limited-range effects) - which are not precisely welcomed into any kind of official or business building.

There are some things I dislike in Shadowrun :

- the system is clumsy

- firearms are really poorly handled (assault rifle doing less damage than pistol in single shot, nothing between hamster-stopper pistols and handcannons...)

But there are some things I like :

- Once you admitted the starting point it's rather cohesive.

- technology supplement are much more documented than with Cyberpunk, and more consistent.

- drugs are handled much better than in CP

- sure, cyberware can be really powerful, but it is also hideously expensive when you want top-notch goodies, and you can't pack as much stuff as in CP  (you don't find those silly scandinavian clinics allowing a Dragoon FBC without any empathy loss !)

There is a british design (can't fond the brand name or company at the moment) that weaves kevlar with a metallic wire to pass the test for police protection gear (ballistic - kevlar alone could do it - and knife penetration - kevlar alone could do too, but the combo thing is more flexible and lighter for the knife-protection asked).

Also giving damage in the other game systems (GURPS and Shadowrun) can come handy to guestimate the effects in Cyberpunk.

The name sounds too high-tech for 2020 and should probably restricted to some SF game using our beloved Interlock.

With a two-year warning, this is likely to trigger a lot of problems even *before* detonation ? I mean, the richest country in the world (but also with the biggest debts worldwide) is facing the destruction of maybe one quarter of it's surface and the loss of a lot of peoples, and problems are foreseen for the whole planet.

Heres some idea :

A stock market crash making 9/11/Enron/Worldocm look like a picnic. Hard to prepare for the worst when your money is sinking real fast.

Massive population moves, you'd want to be as far as possible from this mess. Now peoples want to moves *from* and not *to* USA !

Worldwide rise in malnutrition as developped countries now stockpile as much food as they can, instead of selling it. Also probably a lot of unrests and guerilla starting again as military forces are called back to their parent nation to save money and prepare for the disaster.

Possible military moves to "secure assets" and control less exposed areas.

Heck, enough of this and it even doesn't need to blow up ! Take cover if you're a geologist 8)...

Main foreseeable prolem for such a pill is that brain cells are not replaced after a limit. Sure, your body will go fine, but your  brain is going to deteriorate terminally sooner or later... It would be really nice to be governed by senile psycho-rigid  oldies in well-preserved bodies !

I don't think I'd go for it unless I've got a lot more money than currently, those cure to stimulate/preserve brain cells are going to be *really* expensive, just look at those DHEA/vitamins/whatever cures -they're effective, but at several thousands dollars a month they're definitively not for the average citizen.

Also this is likely to trigger massive societal problems when it became noticed (and it will sooner or later). All "elevated" positions will be locked and wealth is likely to became more and more concentrated, in the hands of guys with outdated opinions and minds afraid of change...

Would you live for a few centuries in such a world ? And (as a bonus) see your relatives, friends and loved ones wither and die because they can't get it ?

In the core rules, nothing. In Maximum Metal, this gives you a better Penetration and thus more chances to damage vehicules.

As a home rule, I stated that anything doing D10 halves individuals armor (even Metal Gear) - so AP D10 rounds gives 1/4 armor - and that damage division for AP D10 rounds apply to inorganic targets - an AP .50 round shot at a human target would do 6d10, armor x1/4 and damage behind is at full value.

I've tried and got a lot of links, but none giving bullet weight and velocity, useful to estimate the damage potential of the thing

My players are entering on the small-arms market and got for a very low price a shipment of russians leftovers (AKM, AK74, some RPG and heavy weapons) topped with a lot of hard-to-sell junk (patriotic song records, red flags, uniforms, GLONASS navigation terminals - useless as in 2020 the sats are dead for long - , some 250 kg airplane bombs and even a 500 mm torpedo...).

It could have been fun to put several of those in the package ("It fires *what* caliber ?"), but I wanted approximative damage in case someone picked a liking in the thing ("Yeah, no one in town use the same gun as me !").

From my (limited) experience, object programming allow greater modularity of programming, favoring code re-use if done properly, while "code construction" is easier to understand for people with limited programming knowledge (and is still used to code methods inside of objects).

The concept of object programming isn't new, but really started to fly when computers became powerful enough to run software development tools adapted for it.

So I think it's better left as a background explanation, in 2020 code writing tools are powerful and flexible enough to make it pointless in game terms.

By itself it's not "good" or "bad", each relative position has davantages and drawbacks.

From an US viewpoint :

Strong dollar means importations can be cheaper (a price in USD means more local currency), but makes exporting difficult

Weak dollar means US products sells better worldwide, but US imports now are more expensive.

The relative value of USD and Euro also reflect the confidence in economic growth of the two area, more growth expected and the money is likely to rise.

The "official" parity in CP rule books is one eurodollar = two US dollars, and I consider the dollar a bit lower than it's current value.

Probably for political reasons and deniability -if an agent of, say Bulgaria or East Germany is caught doing dirty works, you can't directly blame USSR for it.

The briefcase sounds either too big, too light or too heavily armored with 2 squares meter of SP 20 hard armor at only 1.5 kg when a SP20 helmet is rated at 0.5 and a SP20 Flak Vest is 3 kg !

I'd suggest downgrade the size a bit and increase the weight to put it on par with other infos in the book, I think 1.50x0.80, SP 20 rigid and 4 kg (1 briefcase, 3 kg armor) should work.

Note on suvercavitating/gas film :

This technology, while providing good speed, has two drawbacks for using in a sub : it's noisy, and the gas bubble turns your sonar deaf. This means they know where you are (not the biggest problem if you move too fast to be targeted/hit reliably), but you don't know what's around unless it's *very* close.

This can work with a wire-guided torpedo (the launcher's sonar still work to track the target) but I'm not convinced it can be successfully applied to a sub.

Underwater weapon

A railgun is not highly likely to work without some tinkering, because you've seawater (which conducts eletricity) between the rails. An EM launcher (coils generating EM field to "push" projectile") is likely to be easier to adapt, but keep in mind you're not only pushing the "bullet", but also moving a lot of water around.

Also unpropelled projectiles range drastically drops underwater because of water viscosity and density of the medium, making them an unlikely weapon except for short-range and point defense.

The "sonic hammer" has similar problem, it's range is likely to be really short. Maybe as a proximity defense against divers for small, "close-combat" or assault submarines, but then it's an undiscriminating weapon you can't use anymore once your own divers are out.

A network airborne radar in drone blimps or solar-cell airplanes can work too.

Their "elevated" position give them good range (meaning you can go with a small number), and you can call them back to base for maintenance or for protection in case of really bad weather.

Chemical fuels (petroleum derivates, hydrogen, methanol...) still have several advantage over electrical storage devices :

Mass efficiency

Today a tank of methanol stores more than ten times the energy you can store in the same mass of the most effective electricity storage solution. Sure, 2020 technology may have improved things in this regards, but there are other problems

Cost

Think about this : how much do you pay for a pack of batteryes big enough to operate a 10.000 tons ships for two month (say 100 to 500 tons of battery !), and compare it to the cost of a fuel tank and diesel engine...

Refuelling

Pumping liquid fuel is easier and faster than transfering megawatts of electricity

I'd say no, unless you're a security company or paid really high bribes to demonstrate you need this kind of stuff. This won't prevent someone to do it, but means it has to be hidden.

Besides, it's safer. As a GM I'd probably have some sucker pour epoxy mix in the barrel of an obvious vehicule-mounted machinegun left untended (making the weapon useless).

Permissive compared to where ? Something "permissive" compared to japanese laws is likely to give the average american an heart attack 8).

Two thing to separate :

possession

Regulate what you can buy, and the amount of paperwork involved, "nothing", "declaration", "license needed", "no way !". You can store it someplace safe, probably move it around in your car's trunk to the shooting range, but not necessarily carry it on yoursellf, loaded.

carry (concealed or obvious)

What you can walk with, loaded and ready to use, hidden or not. Here you have "yes", "license needed" and "no"

Then you have to cross this with the type of firearm :

Handguns

- single-shot pistols (manual reloading)

- handgun, no autofire capacity (most revolvers and pistols)

- handgun, autofire capacity (uncommon)

SMG (can be shouldered, normally two-handed, ammo less powerful than rifles), Shotguns, Rifles

- no autofire (at most three-rounds burst)

- autofire

Military weapons

stuff like M2-X, grenade launchers, railguns...

Anything with autofire capacity should be controlled and probably restricted to security staff, because full auto in untrained hands is a prime source for collateral damage

I'd suggest :

- you can buy anything single-shot, not military. You need to register your weapon, but possession of an unregistered gun generally means a fine and registration (or bribe for the official to look the other way). Authorities can remove this right for persons with criminal records or known mental problems, you can ask for a psychiatric evaluation to get this right again.

- You need a license to carry a concealed handgun (or implanted cybergun). Tachnically a cyberlimb grenade launcher is not illegal (as you can load it with bean bags, tear gas...), but lethal grenades are.

- Open carrying of anything is banned unless you're an uniformed security personnal on duty (this effectively ban rifles from the streets, as you can't hide them)

- Security staff can ask for licenses for auto weapons (must prove a need - or bribe enough), and need to register them.

AV's and other jet-propellet stuff in CP2020 books use "classical" oil-derived jet fuel, on consedrations of mass/power and volume/power ratios.

For ship propulsion, even with direct-combustion turbines (opposed to the classical boiler/steam turbine combo now mostly found in nuclear propulsion, with the reactor as heat source) you can use a wide array of fuels. Some grade of heavy fuels are so thick they need heating in order to pass through injectors and disperse enough for good combustion !

Just remember it's a bit advanced for "standard" CP timeline, and expect the results being very young or with some unintended design flaws.

Concrete is cheap and can be molded in varied shapes, but such a hull is much heavier and thicker than it's metal conterpart.

In a war situation, building concrete ships was probably a way to save steel for other military applications were it can't be substituted.

Alternative possibility :

They awaken in hospital's bed, with Mr Corporate smiling and explaining "now you work for us, we need creative sparring partners for staff. Try running away if you want, we can find you anywhere..."

And the corp really can, because they are now a bunch of canned brains hooked to a big VR training system for corporate operatives, providing street nastiness in a safe context...

Over time they'll probably understand what happened, but there is not much they can do about it, they're just an IV or electrical plug away from oblivion...

Simple : implanted devices are more expensives !

- need to be compact

- biocompatible materials and sealed design

- medical agreement needed (or at least conform to "implantability" standards)

- repairs are a pain, as well as battery change/reload !

A purely external system is less effective, but is likely to run at 1/4 of the cost of the implanted version, with no need to remove it from inside the guy you just fired !

Simple jamming is relatively easy. Overriding "normal" transmissions is much harder, as you need to emit a signal strong enough to "cover" the normal transmissions without being jammed, but also the encryption schemes and passwords and the data format/integrity checks used by the devices you want to fool.

So the hardware is not enough, you need some serious homework before being able to perform such tricks (and probably check sometimes for new encryption/password, they're likely to change them quite often to prevent tampering).

Maybe because at the moment they had not enough sub nor land-based missiles in useable condition to be sure some get trough, thanks to the Collapse. If you think "I can hit at best 10% of their assets, but their retailation will obliterate my contry from the face of the planet", you think twice before going this way.

Ten years later (and after some economic recovery), retrofitted boomers lurks again in the sea, ready to deliver nuclear obliteration and MAD is an option again, so no more rocks are likely to drop.