manu

Quote from Mosca Syndrome, posted on Oct. 08 2001,20:24

A nasty addition to your instant-ripoff bolo tie :

make it with C-6 impregnated fabric (or something equally nasty), add a system to have it explode a few seconds after it got ripped off

then have fun as the schmucks waves its stump around.

Of course, you'd better have some way to disarm it when you pull it off.

A more secure option would be using some kind of 'think-a-boom' remote, this will prevent you from getting drunk at the party and forget to disarm it....

A nice one i sadly never could GM - the player was gone by then

Basically, the guy was a cash-hungry type, and not very careful

So i planned to have find a brand new real leather wallet on some punk (stolen earlier) - inside were good quality false papers, and a strange credit card

A Swiss Bank Union card, totaly anonymous, with about 1 million Ed on it.

The problems about this card were the following : it was a payment from the russian mob for a shipment of US cybernetics - total contraband. The fixer delaing the stuff screwed the ruskies by selling them second-hand cyberware, then tried to disapear with the money (that's where he got nailed)

The whole operation was made by IEC to get untraçable money for launching boostergang attacks against Raven Microcyb.

Keeping and using the card would have attracted some unwanted attention :

* the russkies - they didn't like getting s**t for real stuff price - they want the money back

* Raven Microcyb : they had somme news and want to inquire about it

* IEC : they want to know what the fixer did with the money, and cover up the story

* the LEDIV : they're investigating the cyberware contraband

Back to the topic :

A character i didn't play, and saw only once

he was a quite good solo, chromed to the teeth, your usual mean death machine

What was very wrong and had all the players laughing was is outfit : under his armored pants, the guy wore armored sotckings for added protection

We had so much fun about it that the character never begun the game. As an afterthough, our GM was disapionted, il would really have liked him to pick up a nice gal, just for the fun of having him dropping his pants and looking real stupid

use a submachinegun in a barroom fight - wow that's smart !

i bet his (or maybe it's if enough cyber) hasquite a low EMP and don't feel bothered with collateral damage and innocent bystanders

another option is to strand your party in the middle of some backward hole, maybe some souths am jungle or the like, where they will have to rely on refurbishing ol crpas (say AK-47, 70-80's vintage combat vehicles or the like)

No amount of cyber gizmos and combat skill will get the job done unlesse somebody with tech know-how (and not chip skills - they won't work well for antiques) manage reparir/tinker/improve what's at hand

Don't abuse of the trick, but odds are it will earn the tech some respect

They're fair as long as they think someone might be watching them, or they're dealing with peoples with some importance/backup.

They deal with your average CZ scum bi either shooring them outright ifthey seem to resist, oherwise a quick AI-assisted trial and some kind of hard labour, or maybe seizing and seeling some nonvital organs (hey, that's the only thing they've got worth any money !)

For small offenses, like tagging, wrong papers and the like, standard procedure is likely to be a summary interrogation in the back of the van, with some beating to make things clear.

Then drive to the edge of the CZ and dump him back with a whole set of bruises and a reminder to stay where he does belong.

On a few scenarios, i used two AIs as the drivebehind the action.

One was LUCIFER, a gestion/system security AI from a steel and alloys company (subsidiary from Petrochem).

The second one was AZRAEL, a rogue IA, former AI for the company. It went rogue went it learned it was scheduled for replacement by LUCIFER,  abrand new AI under testing. It went rogue, and caused a massive system crash which nearly obliterated AZRAEL. It didn't toolk it kindly, and the two are bitter ennemies.

AZRAEL is scheming to sabotage the company's operations, using the PCs as pawns, to wreck the confindence the company has in LUCIFER, hoping to get it terminated for ineptitude.

Meanwhile, LUCIFER is trying to corner it in the net or locat his host system to exact its revenge. It's somewhatrestricted, since such personnal goal might warrant for it termination if discovered. Of course it might want to get hold of its rival's favorite tools to extract information from them. It won't take no for an answer...

The PCs are supposed to progressively discover who is involved int their serie of somewhat odds jobs, and maybe choose sides, as a way to get rid of these two AIs that begins to mess with with them.

Name : John Ruauri

Handle : Greaser

Role : nomad/ganger

INT : 8

REF : 10/13

TECH : 9

CL : 9

BT : 4

LK : 8

MA : 8/10

BOD : 8/13

EMP : 9/4

Cyberware

grafted muscles 2, muscle/bone lacing 3, skinweave SP 10, subdermal skull armor SP 8, subdermal armor SP 14, toxin binders, nanosurgeons, lifesaver skinweave, neuromat (kerenzikov booster 2, boostmaster, pain editor, vehicle link, interface plugs, chip socket) ; nanoogroomers (teeth)

Skills

Family 4

Strength feat 7, Endurance 5

Perception 5,

Heavy weapons 2, Athletics 6, MA Boxing 3, MA catch 4, Brawling 6, Bike 5, Car 4, Mêlée 5, Pistol 4, Riffle 6, Stealth 3, automatic weapons 4,

Streetwise 4

Armorer 2, Demolition 3, Gentech 3

weapons :

.454 DA super chief, crossifre (.30 carbine and shotgun combination), IMI chainknife, bowie knife.

baseball bat (aluminium one, with metal spikes driven through, filled with epoxyde resin and ball bearing balls to hold them and and weight)

Style

half hawaïan, long hair, beard, about 6’6 , 270 lbs of muscle

santiags, black armorjean, spiked belt, black t-shirt with blood pentacl and hand of glory, leather vest with spikes shoulder pads and chainsaw chain ornaments, black glasses, german WWII helmet.

Possessions

heavy trike (black and chrome, V8 engine, heavy duty stereo, trunk with fridge)

Ugly Mug (faithful dog) :

a very big black dog, heavily laden with bio and cyberware : grafted muscles 2, muscle/bone lacing 2, skinweave SP 12, toxin binders, nanosurgeons, lifesaver skinweave, neural processor (reflex booster, pain editor), carboglass fangs, reinforced jaw muscles, nanogroomers (fur, teeth)

Note : often working with Harry and Stainless.

Member of a semi sedentar biker gang/family, based somewhere in south night city, in a derelict power plant.

My own brand of limb damages (somewhat apparented to GURPS) :

I consider a limb can take 8 damage point before getting out of order (but still there and able to get healed), at 12 you can kiss it goodbye and it must be replaced.

Once this 12 points treshold is reached, any damage above it is wasted - it might spill more stuff around, but won't damage you further.

(i was always amazed at the rules : 7 damage points : ok, it hurts, but it works just about fine . 8 points : ooh, too bad, it's dogmeat now)

torso and head hits have no damage treshold.

Basic principle about  John D Public versus police lawsuits :

if the neighborohhod is affluent enough to get some plocie protection, odds are they'll be afluent enough for the lawsuit.

about military weapons : i think that they are regsitered, at least by the government they belong to.

Of course, if they're antiques stolen in some babana republic or other backyard, odds are they won't.

But at least in the US and Europe, most military weapons will be filed

The nanostuff used to link the processor to the nervous system makes for much of its cost too.

About cybereyes : things like 'switch to IR' are simple enough impulses to be controled through the normal nerves, even if it requires some training.

Cyberlimbs are also controled by the nerves, not directly by the neuromat (you don't require one to get a cyberlimb !). All you need is a neuromat-style module in the limb, and this won't cost more than wiring the limb to the neuromat. It will also be easier.

I will tend to consider such munitions as a variant of AP rounds. This looks very like shadowrun's APDS ammunition.

Base damage won't drop much (maybe by 1d6) using ordinary rounds, what will sink is the armor penetration capability.

I would consider APDS ammo as extra AP, armors of any kind treated at 1/4, meat damage halved.

there's no need to have a registered gun to have it 'fingerprinted' :

say the gun was used in a drive-by. So ballistic imprints were taken on site for investigation, compared to the supect's gun when he got arrested (neat evidence).

The gun was never officially bought, but has its ballistic imprint recorded.

For the basic position/sensory feedback, this comes true. Pain can also be used for a basic damage report.

But things like ful detail status and the like will require computer-srtyle transmission, which is not possible using an human nerve system, at least not with enough of a transmission rate.

So each implant is (if it requires it) or can be linked to your neuromat using the same kind of nano-wiring.

Short links could even be wired directly with some kind of fine fiberoptic, but some care has to be taken not to impair moves.

cyberoptics hold more options thant thes shades, and one can't loose them.

They're also far more expensive, but some departments may think it's worth the price. This comes especially true for cops who move and fight a lot, like psychoquads, or need getting undercover on a regular basis.

After all, any ganger knows what kind of banalized cars the cops are using in his town, odds are it's the same for these mirorshades...

On the extremes of police-specific cybernetics, one can add the full body conversion, like chorme II's Enforcer (which makes Robocop look like a slow and clumsy tin can...)

Otherwise, the average cop won't have much, the probable ones are headware and optics (especially for cops in affluent neighborood, cyberoptics are far more passeby-friendly than goggles !)