Equipment Bond for Software?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I'm going to say that Equipment Bond and Weapon Bond are totally designed to work with hardware, that is, with physical objects, each of which has a unique identity and a unique instantiation, however subtle the differences are. The conditions don't obtain for software, so you can't port them over to software.

Why not?. There are people who will insist an emulator is "just not the same" but be unable to tell you what is different.

If you want a bond with a piece of software, that's fine. It doesn't work with a copy, not even a copy consisting of a reinstall on the same machine from the same original disk. I don't see that as any different from a bond that doesn't transfer to the next tool from the same production line that can't be told apart by microscopic examination.

Edit: For that matter, nothing says the effect can't be purely psychological confidence boosting. You've done impossible things with this tool before, and can again. Suffer brain damage that prevents you from recognizing the tool, or blow a fright check that costs you points while using it, and losing the Equipment Bond is a perfectly reasonable place to subtract lost points even though the tool itself it exactly the same.