You can tell that smoking was socially acceptable back then. Today the main complaint would be how the inside of your car smells like smoke after that.

I like traps that are simple and on the non-lethal side of things.

Toe Poppers
Stainless steel tube machined for holding either an assault rifle round or if I am feeling particularly nasty a 12 gauge 00 buckshot round. Threading at the base of said tube is for a cap that has a small steel pin, kind of like a firing pin. Insert the live round, screw to base cap so it is snug bury in the ground so that tip is exposed, cover with some leaves. Step on it is enough pressure to ignite the primer and cause the round to discharge. Since there is not barrel for the expanding gas to accelerate the projectile it is not going to be as powerful as nomarl, I cut the damage in half. Most important, remember where you placed them! Twelve of these along a trail make for a relatively effective means for slowing down pursuers.

Numb Butt
DMSO with your favorite sedative added to a toilet seat. Not appropriate everywhere, but can be employed in certain situations.

Napalm Light
Turn off light, check to make sure that current doesn't flow when light is off, unplug light just to be sure, replace light bulb/tube with one filled with napalm (gas and petroleum jelly). Works best with overhead lights that have a pull chain, think shop lights.

Stumpy
Remove pistol grips, rewire trigger so that it will discharge into a small charge (chewing gun stick) of plastic explosives in grip of pistol. First time they pull the trigger they get a new nickname.

Drop Down
Tired of uninvited guests? Floor mat inside of your door with a cutting charge and pressure detonator. Guest step on mat, mat explodes cut hole through floor, guest visits downstairs neighbor. Not advised for neighbors that you don't want to unintentionally spray with motlen copper though.

Inside a corp, it's generally preferable to capture intruders alive instead of killing them. I can't interogate you and discover your insidious plan if you're dead. I can't force you to turn double agent against your original employer if you're dead. If the team is ecoterrorists they're less likely to blow up the factory when their partner is trapped, unconscious and superglued to the floor, still in the building than if their partner got turned into julian fries by the monowire trap. And if you're already captured making you dead once you become inconvenient is relatively easy. So it doesn't make sense for a corp to have lots of deadly traps.

On the other hand, if you're in a gang war or fighting a partisan resistance, deadly traps make good sense. Even then though it's often better to wound the enemy than it is to kill them. I'd imagine you might find more toe-poppers than IEDs in the barrens during gang wars.

Hilarious back and forth about radar. Munchkinning rules are one thing, but when you come down to science, physics, and the way things work, it's smart to know what's real and what's drek. So here it is straight from wikipedia (which we all know is flawless, but hey):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar



It works by sending out electromagnetic waves which you detect. If you can detect them, so can anyone else listening.

"Oh wait, but it's UWBR and that's totally undetectable and cool!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-wideband



UWBR is more commonly used as an information transmission method. Of curiously intriguing relation to this "discussion" (heh), it happens to have a very special property. What the above says is that it's not only capable of accurately transmitting large amounts of info (like images), it is extremely easy to trace allowing for pinpoint origin location.

So if you're transmitting UWBR, you're screaming to anyone listening, "I'm standing between the potted fern and oak desk in office 2102B! Can you hear me now?"

Mesh

The key word there is "cooperative".

In Shadowrun, "uncooperative" means Scanning for Hidden Nodes, see Electronic Warfare.

In Shadowrun, "uncooperative" means 50m.

面白い lol
Http://www.munchkins.com/RotbartvanDainig.jpg

「面白い（笑）」でしょう。

~J

この人はホンマのアホ？それともただ若いだけなんかな？

From thread title, I was half expecting big-eyed uke joyboys with concealed pistols. Pity.


Honestly, I don't have Mr. Johnson stab them in the back as often as I should. But part of it is that for our group, traitor characters are kind of the default. Everyone's running their own schemes, and won't hesitate to do as much damage to each other as they think they can get away with without trashing their street rep.

Case in point: Our Maya elf shaman and our jihadist have had a major ideological falling out over Emergence. As a result, the shaman had a technomancer contact leak to the jihadist's ganger-militant buddies that the jihadist is really a gunslinger adept, which the jihadist herself didn't know. Since they hate magic, she's now suffering from a huge identity crisis and is on shaky ground with her main contacts. It's preparation for the shaman to kill her, when she has a chance, in revenge for the death of some of her buddies at Azzie hands, which the jihadist helped with.

It's a massive clusterfuck of betrayal and everyone's looking over each other's shoulders. It's like Diplomacy at street level. With this shit going on, I don't really need to screw them too often. I mean, how do I top this?

Obviously, that part's already been done for you: Undetectable pit trap filled with monowire.

Mesh

give them enough rope.

For the record, the monowire pit trap is NOT a unavoidable trap of doom.

Unless they are rushed or being excessively careless our group has a set of default assumtions. For example, they are never moving out of combat faster than a walk and are "observing in detail" any new local. I assume most groups run with "assumed" defaults established early. PAN active? What do you carry on you? Whats in your vehical? Does any of the above change depending on security of the area? Etc. Most people dont carry their panther assault cannons into Johnson meetings or down the street in a high sec neighborhood. Just like the group face is unlikely to be in Tres Chic clothes with his armored jacket in the car while running in the Barrens. But anyway...

With these defaults in mind when encountering my trapped hallway I immediately roll perception for the point man. Threshold 3 will note the pressure pads as normal. 4, without background noise, might even hear the ghouls down below. Once the pads are noted they will try to evade them and note the area they cover. Just like any other security system, creative runners will bypass it.

Even should they fail to notice the trap only a heartless GM would not allow some sort of save. Reation + gymnastics (2) (3 if crowded) and tada, SAFE! Standard edge rules apply.

The idea is not to turn a Mission into a dungeon crawl, but instead to occasionally prove a lethal danger to groups that cant be solved by firepower, or failing that, more firepower.

Oh yeah, Hallway death trap #3: Burn out
Step on pressure plate, both doors seal. Security monitoring examines hallway, if intruders are detected MAYBE they will seek to take prisoners. But of the runners are leaving a trail of bodies behind them, the research is too important, or the owners of the hallway are just effed up individuals... the hallway floods with napalm. This particular trap is also extremely popular in bio research facilities. Many of those have entire labs set for sealing and burning out. Gots to contain those custom viruses.

Oh yes, a trap frequently available even in high traffic areas. THough yes, the controls are generally security controlled and therefore interruptable, hackable, or deceivable.

Hidden != Undetectable. Perhaps you should redouble your reading efforts.

It's the exact same as the team's coms and just as likely to get them in trouble. What do you think the Wireless Matrix is? Magic instead of EM waves?

The point is that UWB isn't going to get you in trouble more than your Tacnet, your drones, or, you know, talking to your team mates.
Whatever your personal problem with the tech might be, it doesn't change this.

But why the hell does this matter anyway? As the GM you get to bone the players however you like, and "I found your radar!" isn't particularly different than just using tag clouds or 1000 other security techniques to wreck a teams infiltration attempt.

Hmm, so very secure facilities simply have a couple of scanners trying to find hidden nodes all day long. In the process they'll also find people with their commlinks switched off but who still use UWBR. Seems reasonable; those scanners aren't even all that expensive.

It just keeps adding to the list of security features that can only be reasonably be dealt with by hacking the security system; but that's okay.



So, sensible traps.. what about the extreme prejudice fire hazard prevention? If the fire alarm is triggered, the room is flooded with gas that sucks out all the oxygen. There are dozens of options. Side effect: asphyxiation. Poison gas filters don't protect the PCs, only (internal) air tank style gear. It won't catch everyone, but it'll catch a lot of people.
Lethal? Potentially. OTOH, when they fall unconscious, you could move in and stabilize them; 2070s medtech can probably cope with a minute without oxygen quite well. (Heck, you can regrow brains.)

What makes it really good? It also serves against fire hazards. It looks reasonable to the executives.

You do realize you can just paste something like this into a web translator and find out what it says. Please refrain from insultig other posters in different languages, it doesn't work.

Got a few I have either tried and had done in games I played in. Didnt see any of these on here, but I may have missed them, so if you already mentioned it, sorry.

For keeping them alive:
-Electrified door knobs (wouldnt believe how many times this works)
-Gas emitting plants
-Electrified floors
-Electrified files
-Contact vector poisons

For killing them:
-ghouls (really anything to do with them can easily result in a dead player if done right)
-A shark with a laser beam
-A spell-locked barrier spell with a small shaped explosive containing excessive amounts of ball bearings (not sure if possible, but was geniusly done so none of us players argued it)
-Tiny drones with mono-wires between them

Halon is no longer used in new datacenter builds, too much risk to onsite personnel. there are less-than-lethal alternatives that would be used for fire prevention. Chemical foam or FM200 depending on the area being protected.

Well, that and the fact that the production and import of halon has been banned in the US since '94, and probably elsewhere since the law was for compliance with the Montreal Protocol.

~J

I was unaware. Just know that it hasn't been in datacenters I've worked in for several years.

Corporate extraterritoriality solves the legality though. It's a bit harsh on the employees, but you could equip them with some sort of breathers. It's a very nasty surprise for intruders.

Bomb in the mailbox or in a mailed package. Seriously, I picked this one up as a GM after I fell prey to it as a player in another game.

I've used the Halon fire extinguishers as an improvised deathtrap before; gotta love dual-use technology. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) If you wanted to justify it, I think the SR timeline diverged in the 90's, right? That '94 resolution might have never gotten passed, or the Corps may have developed something with similar effects that get around the restrictions (NeoHalon - kills fires, and no lasting environmental damage! may cause asphyxiation, use only as directed).

And who says you're playing in the former US, anyways? This would be far too humane for Lagos, say, but a lot of places in between it might be around the right brutality level.

Just use carbon dioxide or nitrogen. Both are odorless should kill flames and asphyxiate any unlucky intruders.