For what it's worth, there are drugs that cannot be given transcutaneously so syringes would still be a thing. Of coarse the rules for SR don't include any of those (so far as we know from written descriptions) so the Sengir's question (why they are included in the gear listings) is still valid. I guess one advantage of syringes over slap patches is if you carry a variety of compounds and a syringe you can choose the drug (or pick your poison) on the fly. It seems to me like an option for medic characters. Also I think any mid- to high rating medkit would include them (and injectable drugs).

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I, like Cain, also adopted a system where common disposable items (like ammo) were rolled into lifestyle costs and not tracked in detail. IIRC we combined it with some of the SR3 rules for vehicle upkeep and SOTA to account for the "overhead" a shadowrunner had to shell out to stay in business. Their ammo cost was calculated based on firearms skill, since it stands the reason that maintaining a higher level of skill requires more training/range time/what have you. And, as Cain has described, it was quite liberating not to have to track all that junk.

Funny you mention that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I'm sure that the technology has improved since the day when I wrote the rule, but at the time those types of gun mounted lights only had several hours of battery life, and I think I noted this in my house rules, so if you were out all night using your light you'd need to change your battery, which means you needed to have noted a spare set of batteries on your character sheet or else you'd have a moment of comedic terror when suddenly you were enveloped in darkness at a horrible time.

I really like this concept. Paying money just to keep things "SOTA" didn't appeal to me, since a .38 cal revolver from World War I is not inherently less deadly to the person getting shot than an expensive .38 cal revolver manufactured today. Getting stabbed with a crappy mass produced World War II katana isn't going to be a lot better than being stabbed with some kind of katana-shaped blade made with modern alloys. (Unless you dikote it, but you could also dikote your antique katana.) When someone writes you a strongly worded letter attacking you logically over something you don't care if they are using Appleworks, WordPerfect 5.1 or Microsoft Office to compose the letter. The differences are subtle and arguably not enough to really show up statistically in normal SR 3 rules.

However, maintaining skill require constant training, vehicles need oil changes, etc. I really prefer the concept of overhead or maintenance. It makes so much more sense to me intuitively.

Nope, the gun lights are still just 1.5 to 3 hours in battery life in most cases. Of course, 500+ lumens will certainly "light up your life" and can easily blow out the vision of someone not ready for getting an eyeball full of Surefire love.

Interesting side note, you can get an idea of a person's training background by how they use their weapon lights. If they tend to "flashbulb" (ie use the weapon light just momentarily so they can see where they're going and get the general jist of where targets are before turning the light back off) then they typically had a military background. If they run around with the light on constantly, then they're very likely from a law enforcement background because sneaking up on folks is typically less of an issue. Needless to say, it drives me a bit nuts when I see (former) military guys in TV and movies using their lights on constantly, but it makes sense from a cinematographic perspective because you know your take won't be ruined by a random camera strobe from one of the lights unless the actor really screws the pooch.

Well among many other things I wish SR had developed and built on the SR3 system for subsequent editions was a more detailed treatment of low light combat and tactics involving use of lights including blinding and use of strobe mode. Should still work on anyone who doesn't have visual dampening.

One thing you can do with a syringe that you can't with a slap patch: Draw blood.

And yes, that can be useful for a runner. Ritual foci, DNA samples, Blood typing a target... there are options.

Also, don't ignore the intimidation factor. The doctor with a slasher grin on his face and a syringe full of something is far scarier and more likely to loosen tongues than if he were holding a slap patch.

Re: Tracking stuff.

Most of the time our group is willing to handwave little stuff if there's a good reason for your character to be carrying it (EG the smoker having matches or a lighter, the female face carrying makeup, the psycho in clown makeup and a purple suit having a knife, ect) and unless you used A) A metric f***ton of regular ammo or B) Hard to get, illegal and expensive ammo then we generally assume that you restock between runs.

For example: the 5 regular rounds that you shot from your light pistol can pretty much be assumed to be replaced between runs without rolls or noticeable expense. The 600 APDS rounds from the minigun? not so much.

In one of my SR4.5 games, I had a rigger with five different armed drones, each of which had at least one full-auto weapon. Trying to keep track of how much ammo he went through was impossible, so I just periodically made him buy several thousand rounds. As a small twist, if he ever rolled a botch or a critical botch, his gun ran out of ammo, and he needed to restock it somehow. So, I was able to keep the fear of running out in a fight, but without the pain of actually counting rounds fired. Like Method said, it's liberating.

With enough dice (and not even that many), glitches and critical glitches effectively become non-issues. For example, in all my years I've never seen a character using explosive rounds have them blow up on them.

~Umi

Same here. In fact, I think that I have seen maybe two or three glitches out of the thousands and thousands of rolls I've seen, but not a single critical glitch.

I've seen my fair share of glitches, but it's typically when someone is trying to default on something, or when they build a character with Gremlins or similar. It can really up the drama of a campaign to run with a "Mr. Unlucky", as long as they're able to compensate for the vastly increased rate of glitching.

~Umi

The question was not "why would anyone need syringes?", but "why would anyone need printed stats for syringes, breaklights, or gloves?". They're the kind of item you simply pick up at the nearest stuffer shack or order by drone delivery within the hour, cost 1D6 ¥ or just rolled into lifestyle costs.


PS: And if you really need to draw blood during a run and there is no conceivable way the players could be carrying syringes because they just escaped naked from prison, a simple Perception roll might reveal:
- First aid kit on the wall
- Didn't you just run past a dealer who is also selling paraphernalia?
- There's a sign "Report here for employee drug screening" on the next door..
If even that is no option, just punch the target and soak up the blood with something (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I think its still a valid question. My response was geared more toward those who said that syringes would be obsolete in the 2070s. I can assure you they are not going anywhere, in RL or in SR. In fact I suspect they will become more useful in the near future... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

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Tracking Ammo:

Some time ago, one of my players proposed a house rule to simplify ammo tracking but keep the danger of needing to reload during combat (and even increase the incidence of reloading). Basically the idea was to do away with ammo tracking but every time you rolled to fire a weapon you included a different colored die. When that die came up with a certain number you had expended the ammo in the weapon and had to reload. The first firing was safe- no ammo die needed. The second firing you had to reload on a roll of 1, the third on <2, the fourth on <3, and so on. We never implemented the rule, because while it achieves its goal it was maybe a little too abstract, and some didn't like the idea of needing to reload the second or third time they fired their weapon. I think the concept has some potential tho.

Or just make them use a Bigger Clip (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I feel like that rule works better with more abstract rules for how many shots you fire. If you're just "attacking" with the gun rather than doing "short bursts" or "single shots" it's easier to say that in one round your attack represents several shots and that's why you have to reload.

LOL, what ever happened to fetishizing?

"Actually I have 12+1 since I reloaded with a round still in the chamber."

And then we sit down and come up with rules for impaired visibility when smoke comes pouring out of your barrel because you just dumped three mags at someone.

I've seen lots. All by me, I might add. Every single time I GM Shadowrun, I roll at least one critical failure; the smallest was on 3 die, the biggest was 13. And that was when it took all 1's to fail, so that was thirteen dice all coming up ones. My failure rate just got worse when SR4 came out.

This is an unbroken streak going back since I started playing the game... in 1989. Yes, that's an unbroken streak of fumbles, *twenty five years* long.

Maybe you need new dice.

Alternatively, maybe you need to appease the Dice Gods and beseach them to stop punishing you. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

~Umi

I hear the Dice Gods like chicken... by candle light... with the proper incantations... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/devil.gif)

And foot rubs...

We tried an exorcism of my dice once... The last words out of my mouth before I rolled was: "There's no way I can fumble on 13 dice now!" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

The computer gods can be appeased by the sacrifice of a bucket of KFC. Not sure if the same trick will work on the Dice gods but it's gotta be worth a shot, right?

We could always call in Leeroy - the chicken is strong with him.

~Umi

My funniest critical glitch was my Missions pixie attempting to default on firing a full sized Ares Predator with two dice.

The team later found her embedded in the drywall with the pistol.


-k

Technically there's nowehere near enough force in a bullet to cause recoil that strong, but hey, still a funny image. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

~Umi