Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

That just leads to electronics-free guns.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

So true.

I don't know SR4, i only played the earlier editions.
But i have trouble understanding peoples who say 'wireless netrunning' is too unrealistic for 'shadowrun'.

Magic,Spirits, dragons (and dragon POTUS), millenium elves, adult mutating in another race, shiawase decision, cyberzombie, move-by-wire, AI, shadowrunners, ... No problem.
But wireless networking. No. that's impossible.
Seriously ? Can someone explain?

In another setting, i would understand. But in shadowrun ?


Celjabba

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

No, it's hardware devices directed by a software algorithm (or decision-making apparatus). Software can't run without hardware to run on, and hardware doesn't do anything much without software to tell it what to do. See above re: the hazy distinction between hardware and software. At the level of smartgun electronics, etc, there's not going to be a lot of difference between the two ... the functions of the device will be mostly hardcoded in, and "software" will probably be more along the lines of firmware.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

I'm not saying it needs to be written off, but I obviously from my previous statements have pointed out an extreme case of DO NOT WANT! (excuse my Icanhazcheezburgerism) to wireless devices being everywhere and in everything just to make decking viable and less of a pain in the ass for a GM to run for.

The GM is free to rule that it indeed isn't suitable for desktop play if he doesn't want to do the extra work or somewhere in between. But personally, it'd be mighty rough on the Decker if I was around, it'd probably a shoot on sight or witch burning world indeed if a computer jockey could do the things that have been listed as a possibility with all this wireless decking talk that's been going around in here.

I just wouldn't find it fun to play and I honestly couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to want to run it - I turned my SR4 book in for store credit personally.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

Why is that a problem? Just cause GURPS says it's TL 11^ doesn't mean I can't be like, "oh that? Invented in 2050 in my game. Yeah, freak breakthrough."

... the whole point is it doesn't matter if it's wireless. I can still hack it.

Yeah, I streamline the process by building equipment packages for players that don't want to deal with it. There's the low-cost, "Take my mind, please!" package, the "Security Conscious" mid-cost package, and the "Black Helicopters" premium package. They're not that spendy, like I said it boils down to giving you an unpenalized resistance roll, so it's not complex mechanically for non-deckers.

Well, yeah, I didn't want to make deckers better in a firefight than a street sam. I just want to let them make a difference via hacking. In the time it takes most deckers to eject one corpsec guy's mag or turn off his cybereyes or coopt a combat drone, the street sam has shot four people in the head. But that's because combat is his thing.

Except there's some technology that is magic. We call it superscience, but it's still magic. If you're telling me you never run games with superscience, well, okay, but that's all this is.

No it doesn't. I haven't mentioned technomancers yet, since both you and Fred have mentioned you prefer 3e, and I'm generally assuming you don't use Otaku. But Technomancers can do some genuinely crazy stuff.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

Otaku were a 3e invention.

.......and I might actually prefer 2e.:)

3e got kind of tight-assed and dull.

Seriously I don't think I have Godoma's specific issues about wireless. My problems are more about 'No,no, no! You can't jack out! We have to preserve the viability of the Hacker class no matter what!".

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

So, it doesn't matter if its wireless you can still hack it... Alright, what are the skill penalties (in this example lets use the SR 3 cyberware - it's all custom purpose designed and doesn't have all this wireless stuff to communicate that leaves this nice little loophole) its hardened, because it was designed to resist (not nullify but resist) electromagnetic interference and it has its own custom firmware to interface with the neurological system of the human body.

How does this work? What are the penalties? (A link to an article with some indication of where the example is will suffice if you don't want to type it out).

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

That is the big problem with decking (wireless or not) and magic.
In book, it work very well because the character are restricted by the plot.
Around a gametable, a few imaginative players can ruin a game with such tools, unless the GM start blockading the setting with arbitrary restriction or witch-hunting.
Just take a modern world and access to some utility Gurps:magic spells, and player will found so many abusive but logical loophole the game will degenerate fast without extra care.
I am not sure i would allow wireless netrunning in any game i could run for that reason.
Not because it is unrealistic.
But because it is potentially far too powerfull and unpredictable.
Damage abilities are easy to balance.
Control abilities, not so.

Celjabba

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

I might actually prefer 2e as well, I kinda use them interchangeably because its been many years since I have actually played either but I still have tons of the books and such handy and I can't remember the differences.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

It's active, rather than prescriptive. It's not saying "deny all access attempts," it's watching for changes and then immediately acting to counteract them.

Capability is not culpability. I own a firearm, that doesn't make me a murderer. Lots of people own firearms but aren't murderers. But if someone uses their firearm to try to murder me, then yes, me and my friends might band together to get him first. I expect you'd see just as many lynch mobs as you get going after mages. But, just like mages, the reward is worth the risk. Except you don't have to have a genetic fluke to be good at computers.

Very true. Plus encryption, and quite a few other things.

Because it's a part of the fiction, it's a cyberpunk trope that I enjoy, and because it adds another archetype to give the players more options that they can choose to play.