Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

They must have initiated that silliness in 4th edition. I've only played 1st through 3rd.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

Quite, since only deckers carried decks last time I checked. And much like my Social Security Number I'm not "broadcasting" my SIN in SR at ALL. Especially since its even easier to steal because of uber hackers with brainwave boxes.

A cyberdeck is a high end tool designed specifically for decking - most people in SR would have no use for one, they aren't a decker. A hand computer or the like would suffice for their shopping needs and other necessary things and a game terminal is much cheaper than even the cheap decks from the cyberpunk pyramid article (for playing VR games and the like).

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

The basic idea is everyone has a VR capable "commlink" (I still prefer cyberdeck). Yes, it was introduced in 4e. Running hot VR still requires a (illegal) modification to the deck.

As I recall it's verified via biometrics that you're the one whose SIN you're using. It's laid out in much greater detail in that PDF I linked around page 6.

The basic change to decking in SR4 is that deckers are not guys using completely different machines than everyone else. They're generally using souped up machines in a way that could easily fry thei mind if they screw up, but mostly what distinguishes them from your average corporate secretary is their high level of skill and suite of illegal programs.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

I read the first 10 or 20 pages of that pdf you linked, and much like the original 4th edition system I just wasn't interested. You take all the mystique out of being a decker if everyone IS a decker, and the only thing separating you is the fact you have pricier programs.

In GURPS, the deck that does full VR costs more that's all, and its not anymore dangerous than the others from what I can tell. Granted, I'm still not sure how you accomplish walking around and chewing bubblegum when you're effectively asleep(which is how GURPS describes what your meat bod is doing while you're in the matrix) without having Compartmentalized Mind. (How do you accomplish that anyway?)

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

I don't "need" a supercomputer, but my desktop machine is probably pretty close to comprable to the performance of a supercomputer 20 years ago.

And using the pyramid stats as a guideline, the higher end decks are still in the millions of nuyen.

In this particular case, I think it's far easier to say "hackers in sr are just very savy computer users, just like today" than it is to make up some special class of machine only they use.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

So, you are replacing the terminals and everything from the UT book with cyberdecks just to make it ubiquitous? Especially when a regular computer that would do anything anyone needed to do that's *not* a decker (since it would give a decker some fairly hefty penalties) and costs $50 or $100 with a machine that costs that much more?

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

Do you correspondingly take all the fun out of being a street sam if the only thing seperating you from a wageslave with a streetline special is the fact that your guns cost a lot more and you're a lot better with them?

You can hack in AR without multi-tasking penalties, full vr leaves you twitching on the floor like normal jacking in in 3e. If you're in full vr, you get substantial bonuses. I only allow technomancers to take compartamentalized mind so they're hacking in full vr and still walking around.

"The matrix" is no longer a separate place from physical reality, but layered on top of it, much like astral space.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

Well, actually, they initiated that silliness when they started talking about Augmented Reality and Ubiquitous Computing. ("They," in this case, being "futurists and sci-fi writers.") Transhuman Space has similar silliness, and I think they actually adopted the idea before SR4 came out.



That might have been the case in SR, but in most cyberpunk (and other "near-future" sci-fi where decks exists), "deck" is roughly synonymous with "computer." Old fashioned terminal-interface computers are archaic and rare, much like command line interfaces are now. Augmented Reality, in particular, requires a computer in constant interface with its surroundings, and either with your brain, or with a HUD visor (or phenomonoscope, or whatever you want to call it).

Perhaps not everyone carries a deck with them all the time, any more than everyone carries a laptop or smart phone with them today... but killing everyone with deck is going to turn out to be an essentially random shooting spree, taking out far more legitimate businessmen and coffee-house hipsters than potential brain-hackers.


Another thought experiment, this one with two parts.



1. It's 2075, you're in an airport, and there's a guy with a laptop computer sitting across from you. You've heard of this thing called "brainhacking," which you have good reason to believe is deadly and horrible. This guy across from you looks pretty shifty to you; he keeps looking at his watch and glancing around impatiently. You're pretty sure that his computer could run brainhacking software.

Do you try to kill him on the spot?

Do you warn him, "Hey, pal, you better not be thinking of brainhacking me!"?

Do you fetch security? What do you tell them?

Do you, at that moment, decide that in a world with brainhacking, you'd like to turn your freedom -- and everyone else's -- over to the Jackboots, just in case this shifty-looking guy (or any other suspiciously computer-bearing characters) might have one?



2. It's 2010, you're in an airport, and there's a guy with a suitcase sitting across from you. You've heard of this thing called a "suitcase nuke," which you have good reason to believe would kill you and a whole lotta other innocent people. This guy across from you looks pretty shifty to you; he keeps looking at his watch and glancing around impatiently. You're pretty sure that his suitcase could contain a suitcase nuke.

Do you try to kill him on the spot?

Do you warn him, "Hey, pal, you better not be thinking of setting off a suitcase nuke!"?

Do you fetch security? What do you tell them?

Do you, at that moment, decide that in a world with suitcase nukes, you'd like to turn your freedom -- and everyone else's -- over to the Jackboots, just in case this shifty-looking guy (or any other suspiciously suitcase-laden characters) might have one?

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

Well, I'm probably gonna adopt the rules from that pyramid article, where "cyberdecks" are computers with an extra complexity slot specifically designed for running VR. Most tech-savy folks have one of those. But a lot of people get by on a normal terminal computer that can run the VR software, it just takes up one of their higher complexity slots.

Either way, it's nowhere near the tens of thousands of nuyen I remember SR 3e cyberdecks costing, unless you're really getting into the high powered decks.

Of course in SR the answer to this is often "yes." But due to the fragmentation of power, there's no unanimous consent about who the jackboots smoosh, and runners are almost prototypically those who think that the freedom to do whatever the frag they want trumps the fear of all the nasty things that can happen to you in the awakened world.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

Well, before this circular argument gets started again I'm simply going to elucidate that hacking people's brains and the corresponding idiocy aren't going to be in any game I play or run; wirelessly jacking into the matrix is going to take fairly substantial penalties and is going to require very high end relays (because frankly I'm going for the feel of SR1,2,3, not SR4 or Transhuman Space to start with).

Also, hacking everything that's electronic by whatever super-science methodology isn't going to be included even if you can wirelessly deck. You'll be restricted to computer networks not cyberware/firearms even if they are wireless (which most aren't they're linkages of fiber optic cables and firmware).

A decker is a member of a TEAM, his place is to jack the valuable data/stop security from being called/disable cameras etc. Not take over some poor schmuck's cyberware in the middle of a firefight or eject his magazine or whatnot else.

Computing can be ubiquitous WITHOUT everyone carrying around a deck, hell most cell phones are minicomputers now. Augmented Reality (not sure where that term came from as its not used in GURPS and I've blanked out what I read of SR4 deliberately) seems to make several assumptions, (namely that everyone and everything can be hacked wirelessly) that I really don't want included in my games.

As for a command line interface being rare? Are you for real? Every instance of Linux whether it has a GUI or not is run on a command line interface, not to mention Unix.