Skinlinks, Just what devices need it. Options

[kigmatzomat]

It doesn't, in theory. Skinlink uses the surface of the skin, not the whole body. In theory the signal should be blocked by the epidermis. The power levels involved should be below the sensitivity threshold of the CNS, on the order of millivolts and microwatts. Of course, the CNS has its own electric field that can be detected and measured so there's always the possibility of an as-yet unkown interaction.

I'd think you'd be more concerned about that 2watt microwave emitter you place against the side of your head that you call a "cell phone."

[Lagomorph]

Here's a quick question, what page is skinlink on again?

[Ryu]

I´ll have an internal commlink installed to keep my hands free. So no, doesn´t creep me out.

Edit: p. 318

[Particle_Beam]

Let's try to ressurect an old thread.

Is there actually any reason why you should have a wireless weapon and not skinlink it? Does skinlink cost essence? I didn't find anything toward this.

What disadvantage do you even have if you skinlink most of your shadowrunner-usable tools, nominally weapons and cybergoogles?

What real advantage is there to have an item being wireless instead of skinlinking it?

I'd like to have a reason why my mage would need to be wireless with his equipment, but if my character can function as efficiently and with no risk for his team by simply skinlinking every item he has and pay no essence for it, why should I let him bother to do it?

Or can you still at least hack the skinlinked items through the skinlinked commlink? I do guess that the commlink has to have a skinlink feature enabled to function with all the other skinlinked items, right?

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Skinlink is a modification to any device, like removing wireless.
It has no essence cost, and adding Skinlin to your implanted comlink is usually a good idea.

[Particle_Beam]

Do you even have to implant a commlink? Is there any disadvantage to skinlink?

Why shouldn't I simply skinlink my gun with smartlink-feature directly to my skinlinked cybergoogles (or even cyberlenses)?

Why did the authors even bother to make skinlink a distinct separate option? I see nothing that would give firearm weapons any benefit if it were wireless, and not skinlinked.

[hobgoblin]

hmm, i recall reading that with a wireless smartlink you could fire a gun without touching it. or similarly lock it remotely.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

[Particle_Beam]

Why wouldn't you simply make it so that the weapon can only fire if it gets a skinlink signal send by your commlink? And as long as it doesn't get any authentification code, the weapon stays in locked mode and can't fire at all, even if picked up by somebody else.

I see absolutely no advantage in having your important items being wireless at all.

And the peanuts it costs to skinlink those items aren't even worth mentioning for standart shadowrunning.

[hobgoblin]

i suspect that as older versions of SR often apparently was very runner slanted in its world view (making it hard to see how the world was for joe wageslave) they have now gone for a more joe wageslave slant.

as in, wireless gear is how joe will have it normally. and for him its fine. if something happens he most likely have it covered by some kind of insurance or similar.

just look at many things today, they are not security hardened out of the box, and likely will not be as security is always at odds with ease of use. and for a consumer, ease of use is king.

therefor, no it makes no sense to not skinlink just about everything for a runner. but runners are not joe wageslave. they are not the majority user.

[Particle_Beam]

But I'm mostly talking about weapons, the one thing that everybody thinks about being dangerous to be hacked in Shadowrun, the Game about Shadowrunners. Lenses, googles and all those other things also work perfectly by skinlinking, and can be skinlinked to the sole item that needs to be wireless, the commlink. But you can even let them communicate through each another via skinlink without having to connect them through the commlink.

I want to know whatever disadvantage there is for skinlinking all external items for my shadowrunner character so that I might have a reason to use wireless at all.

[hobgoblin]

none, so go right ahead...

[Particle_Beam]

I guess so.

But that also means that my awakened character won't have any problems with hackers and technomancers at all. Which somehow saddens me. :indifferent:

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Awakened characters indeed have the least problems.

[Ravor]

Well something to keep in mind is that if your gun only fires when if your commlink sends a Skinlinked Signal to it then you are in very big trouble if your commlink is ever lost, damaged, or hacked by a Decker.

So personally I wouldn't ever do it because to me anyways the danger of getting shot with your own gun is less then the danger of not being able to shoot your own gun. (Or loan your gun to a teammate in the heat of battle.)

[Particle_Beam]

If you're so afraid of not being able to use your gun because you can't send a skinlink signal to it due to loss of your commlink, you might of course want to disable such a feature. But that's not really the problem, isn't it? You would want to make your weapon sending and receiving feedback for the purpose of the smartlink system as the primary reasons, I guess. You can, if I'm right, simply let your weapon connect directly to the smartlinked googles, lenses or whatever visual device you use.

And you can easily give your better cybered teammates the authentification codes to use your weapon, and they surely will have some skinlink-featuring commlink device, implanted or not, as there really isn't any drawback to have skinlink at all.

I'm also pretty sure that you're more at risk losing your gun prior to your commlink, for that matter.

[Samantha]

I'm confused. What are googles? Is that a funny word for "Various non-cybered hardware", or are you just unable to spell goggle? No offense intended.


Also, I think a lot of stuff is wifiable so that doctors, fellow team mates, etc can access it's information and inquire if it's still working. IE: In the book, they mention even BONE LACING having an RFID tag that gave you detailed information on it's current status.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

[Ravor]

Sure, I'm not saying that you shouldn't Skinlink your weapons, in fact I'm a huge fan of Skinlink as a first step towards reining in this Decker's Eden that Fourth Edition has become. What I am saying is that its a bad idea to set your weapon to only fire via a command sent from another device, whether you are using Skinlink, Wireless, or Cables to relay the command. You are introducing additional things that can go wrong into a situation already full of uncertainy.

*EDIT*

Samantha except in very rare situations I personally wouldn't want my team mates to be able to see through my eyes or check on the status of my cyberware and DNI can be used to tell me about the status of my Implants.

You do have a point about the Docters, which is why you'd want to turn Wi-Fi back on while in the clinic.

[Particle_Beam]

@Samantha: Mah, sorry, I did indeed mean goggles (and glasses), I'm not a native english speaker, so thank you very much for pointing me to this spelling mistake. :)

@Ravor: Yes, I understand, but on the other hand, I wouldn't mind seeing skinlink having one real disadvantage to wireless. If at least you would have to insert cables like in prior editions to make your external equipment non-hackable, then I would see this as a real disadvantage.

But skinlink is just too good in every way, at least in my eyes. :(

I would really like to know whatever disadvantage I'd have with turning off the wireless system of all my equipment with the exception of my commlink, which I perhaps wouldn't even need to have for smartlinking. Also, the external visual devices wouldn't be affected at all if being skinlinked only.

[Samantha]

No problem, although from now on, I'll have to reference equipment as "googles". ;)

[Abbandon]

Heh that flashpak blinder thing is interesting. Does your GM let you not suffer the affects of it or something since its under your eyes.

device <-> skinlink <-> body <-> Cyber (ONE WAY)
device <-> skinlink <-> body <-> skinlink <-> cyber (TWO WAY)

You can display smartlink data to your visual preference(eyes/glasses etc) no problem. The problem is if you use the one way method you cant send back information like "zoom in, switch fire mode, switch to low light vision, eject clip"

You So far the only two ways i have seen to send data back to your guns is to:
1. use a skinned datajack
2. use trodes + skinned commlink (which would probably be a second comm running in hidden mode 24/7)
3. Just use wifi and risk getting hacked.


@Particle Beam/anyone else. The slight disadvantage of skinlinked gear is that all the crap you can see or hear with secure gear is not immedeately available to the rest of your team. Because its not connected with anything wifi enabled. There are ways to bridge the gap but that makes the stuff you see/hear time lagged by the time you send it to the rest of the team.

[Particle_Beam]

Lagged by how much? Some micro-seconds? Unless dealing in VR, I don't see that lag to be of any real concern at all. Most dealings with cyberware and hacking are rather in the material world by AR, which makes the time delay really negligible, I'd say. :|

[Rotbart van Dain...]

If you route traffic (through a chokepoint), there is no lag by RAW.

[Abbandon]

Assume this set up:
cyber eyes, datajack, commlink

Bob pokes his head around the corner and see's 7 gangers, after zooming in on each one and magnifying them looking for weapons he ducks back around the corner. Looking across the way to where his other team mates are all against the wall waiting for his report he gives them a "wait" hand gesture.

Reaching down bob pulls out a data chip from his commlink and slots it into his datajack. After burning the video onto the chip bob removes it from the datajack and slots it back into the commlink. Mentally bob commands his commlink to transmit what he saw to the rest of the team. Now they are ready to kick ass and take names. Bob waits for the signal from the rest of his team.


Another method to avoid the time lag all together involves the skinned character having to waste more money than their friends by doubling up on stuff. Bob may have cyber ears and cyber eyes but he still has to buy some fancy goggles and earbuds so he can keep his cyber seperate from his PAN.