What can I do with a smart gun..., More specifically with your smart gun. Options

[Orcus Blackweath...]

So an interesting opportunity came up at the close of our game last night.

We went to a meet to drop off the paydata. Our team was ready for trouble, and we planned for the sudden but inevitable betrayal. We are surrounded by 10 badguys armed with light weapons (due to the nature of the place), while we are armed only with knives and clubs. Things look bad for our intrepid adventurers, but wait! We seem to have an ace in the hole. My character, the Technomancer is outside of the building with control over the cameras, and doing his job on matrix overwatch. The GM stated that I had enough time to hack the smart guns of 6 of the ambushers (well they thought that we did not know they were there). Next week we will begin in combat, and I have to decide what I will do with the control that I have over the enemy weapons.


Here are my thoughts:

1) Reconfigure them such that they provide a negative rather than a bonus. The GM used this on us before, and it turned to a -2 instead of a +2.
2) eject clips, engage safeties, make the electronic firing (if present) misfire.
3) Change the Friend or foe, so that the smartgun will prevent the weapon from firing at our team, while making it possible for them to fire at their own.

Can anyone think of other things I can do to screw with an enemy smartgun system?

[Karoline]

Here are my thoughts:

1) Reconfigure them such that they provide a negative rather than a bonus. The GM used this on us before, and it turned to a -2 instead of a +2.
2) eject clips, engage safeties, make the electronic firing (if present) misfire.
3) Change the Friend or foe, so that the smartgun will prevent the weapon from firing at our team, while making it possible for them to fire at their own.

Can anyone think of other things I can do to screw with an enemy smartgun system?

Could also have the guns fire on their own, especially if you can scope out when they're pointing at their own guys for a moment as they draw their gun or move or something. Ejecting the clips will basically put the weapons out of commission, so that could be handy as well. Most likely the grunts don't have FoF type systems on their guns, especially not of the kind that will actually stop the trigger being pulled.

Don't forget switching firing modes. Switch them all to BF or even FA when they are expecting a SA, or do the opposite, drop down their BF to SA and watch the confused look as they only get one bullet per trigger pull.

[Daylen]

who puts their guns on the net? I think the standard way is a direct neural interface which implies the users had some other connection to the net in their heads. That means you hacked their matrix interface to get access to the brain, hacked that to get access to the smartgun.

or

their guns have a wireless matrix interface.

either of the above pictures requires stupidity somewhere. not saying its wrong just if the manufacturer made a gun with a matrix interface either the beuracrat who bought the guns and mandated their use was an idiot or the end user was an idiot. either way it sounds like something that wouldnt happen for long. perhaps the manufacturer will issue a recall soon.

[Sengir]

their guns have a wireless matrix interface.

...which is absolute standard in the 70s. No annoying cables anymore, the gun connects straight to your eyes/glasses/contacts.


False status info (critical heat buildup, mag jammed, BSOD) should also have some interesting results...especially if everybody gets 495679 warning popups on his image link (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Daylen]

they were smartguns using the goggles instead of the cyberware? and they dont have wires or at least encryption that would make DNA in the 80s look simple?! seems their industrial instrumentation has suffered.

Even still if I was a security dude or manager and one of my places got screwed up because of something like that I would send all the smartlinks back the manufacturer, get some old fashioned ones with no smartlink. Then I'd start looking for a wired solution.

[Orcus Blackweath...]

Our team is starting to get pretty tough (our senior member is nearly 300 Karma). We have started making more and more of the common everyday activities into defaults. I have nearly 20 dice to hack a commlink, something with a firewall of 2 is not likely to offer a real impediment. I am assuming that the enemies all have stock comm links, and have their smartlinks connected to the comms. I suspect that what I did was hacked their comm links, and took the only subscription to the smartgun system. The actual mechanics I used are not important enough for the GM to make a ruling. He decided that I have access to their smartguns. So back to the original question, anyone have other ideas about what I can do with them?

[Sengir]

See above, plaster their vision with warning messages. Maybe smartguns even have some sort of emergency shutdown when the sensors report severe overheating...

A powerful machine sprite can also easily score more than 4 net hits when using his gremlin power and make the device in question burn out. You should also check whether any of the bad guys has a sim module and some sort of DNI, in that case you can burn out more than just a bit of machinery...

[Squinky]

Remember, if you drop the clips these guys probably still have a bullet chambered.

It's actually pretty easy and acceptable to get into a smartlink. Unwired pushes it a lot, and has a section on it I believe.

[Saint Sithney]

Agreed.
Lock all their safeties, eject their clips and then use the image link to blind them.
If they've got earbuds [likely] sqwak them and leave them deaf too.

Well, do that to 5 of them.
The 6th one, use edit to make him see friends as foes and leave his gun active.
I don't think you can edit more than one at a time though..

[Summerstorm]

...which is absolute standard in the 70s. No annoying cables anymore, the gun connects straight to your eyes/glasses/contacts.


False status info (critical heat buildup, mag jammed, BSOD) should also have some interesting results...especially if everybody gets 495679 warning popups on his image link (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Hmpf... skinlinking stuff costs 50 nuyen. Anyone with half a brain and a few bucks extra will have a skinlinked gun and skinlinked contacts (or goggles or something) You would have to get into their comlink first and from there into the rest of the system (if he has connected them)

Also, yeah i would say just shutting it down on command for a restart and ejecting the clip first is a fairly easy script. Much better it can't get...

[LurkerOutThere]

Well usually the people sent to kill professional shadowrunners 10 at a time neither fall into the brightest in class nor lots of disposable income category.

[Udoshi]

The most important thing you can do in this case is use matrix perception tests to see what the smartlinks are connected too. A smartlink on a gun, on its own, does nothing. It needs to be connected to a users smartlink. Whether that is in goggles/glasses - or a cybereye smartlink - depends on how they've set up their pan. Your options here aren't just limited to manipulating the smartlinks - once you know what its connected to, you can hack it. Its an entry way into the rest of the shit your enemies are carrying. Again, depending on how its set up, so you'll need to get with your GM on that.

Lets say one of your enemies has not just smartlink, but a commlink, trodes, and a sim module.(or even internal/cyber versions) Don't just eject his clip - whip up a sprite with exploit/black ice and drop him. Another enemy with wired reflexes? Hack in, crash it. They all have smartlinks, they're what? signal 2? Turn on a jammer and watch all their bonuses go away. Smartlinks are linked to image links. Turn it off, now they can't see.

There's a lot more you can do here than just change people's gun settings.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Well usually the people sent to kill professional shadowrunners 10 at a time neither fall into the brightest in class nor lots of disposable income category.

And indeed this is exactly the scenario... they are Yakuza Goons of one flavor or another, 6 of the ten (the ones with the actual guns) are from what I could tell just low end goons with simple skills (Basically low end muscle)... the other 4, however, seem a LOT more confident, thoguhthey do not have guns, just swords... and I think the Elf in Charge is possibly an adept or magician (Our backup mage continually forgets to actually check for such things because he is so poor at that sort of thing, our primary Mage is in a coma currently after a fairly vicious fight with a couple of powerful spirits... he has yet to actually recover consciousness (Though most of the damage is actually healed) and is not with us currently)...

AS it stands, the Technomancer (Orcus) had almost 15 minutes to actually screw with weapons/smartlinks/etc... while the rest of us negotiateds with the Data Fence (Who dropped dime on us... bitch)... of course we expected the double cross, we just wanted to know who it actually is gunning for us, as we were unable to find out that information... and as in all things, Information is power... it is kind of hard to prepare against someone you really have no idea about... so yes, we willingly walked into the double cross...

it will be an interesting fight when we commence again... 10 against 4... should be exciting all the way around...

Keep the Faith

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

The most important thing you can do in this case is use matrix perception tests to see what the smartlinks are connected too. A smartlink on a gun, on its own, does nothing. It needs to be connected to a users smartlink. Whether that is in goggles/glasses - or a cybereye smartlink - depends on how they've set up their pan. Your options here aren't just limited to manipulating the smartlinks - once you know what its connected to, you can hack it. Its an entry way into the rest of the shit your enemies are carrying. Again, depending on how its set up, so you'll need to get with your GM on that.

Lets say one of your enemies has not just smartlink, but a commlink, trodes, and a sim module.(or even internal/cyber versions) Don't just eject his clip - whip up a sprite with exploit/black ice and drop him. Another enemy with wired reflexes? Hack in, crash it. They all have smartlinks, they're what? signal 2? Turn on a jammer and watch all their bonuses go away. Smartlinks are linked to image links. Turn it off, now they can't see.

There's a lot more you can do here than just change people's gun settings.

I am a big fan of the Reboot process for the Pan and all of its attendant connections, which will drop and have to be re-initialized manually for each subscription... that is always a great solution... after ejecting the clips, etc. of course...

Keep the Faith

[Wasabi]

The Gremlins power of a Fault Sprite could burn out the smartguns

[Daylen]

Why not just turn off the guy's heart? or have him strangle himself with those cyber arms?

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Why not just turn off the guy's heart? or have him strangle himself with those cyber arms?

It is kind of hard to turn off a natural heart... and you are not mind controlling the hardware (cyberarms)... you could, however, force them to reboot, which would downline them until they have restarted and their diagnostics have completed...

Of course, if they are hooked into your PAN then you deserve to have them re-booted don't you?

Keep the Faith

[Daylen]

same with the stupidity of the enemy doing anything that would allow these discussions to take place...
having something as important as a firearm hooked to the matrix at all? I'd rather have my left arm hooked as such to the matrix than my firearm if the firearm is wielded by my right hand. and having yer eyes tied to the matrix to let you be blinded or fooled into thinking yer buddy is a baddie? isnt that on the level with having yer heart hooked up to the matrix wirelessly?

[Orcus Blackweath...]

same with the stupidity of the enemy doing anything that would allow these discussions to take place...
having something as important as a firearm hooked to the matrix at all? I'd rather have my left arm hooked as such to the matrix than my firearm if the firearm is wielded by my right hand. and having yer eyes tied to the matrix to let you be blinded or fooled into thinking yer buddy is a baddie? isnt that on the level with having yer heart hooked up to the matrix wirelessly?

Ok thanks for all the help, or in some cases lack thereof. Most posters seemed to miss the point. I do not have access to their cyberlimbs, I do not have access to their hearts. Regardless of how intelligent or not my opponents may be, I have control of the smartgun system they are using on their firearms. According to the rules, there are several things that I can do with them.

If they are using a friend or foe system, I can exploit that. I can click the safeties on, I can eject the clip, I can even shut off the smartgun system entirely. What I was hoping to get is some new ideas on things that could be done to or with a smartgun system.

[Rystefn]

There's just not that much you can do, and most of that has been hit on already. Best bet is drop magazines and turn on safeties. If you GM allows, you can make the aiming reticle appear several degrees to one side or the other, giving them a penalty to shoot. If they have electronic firing, you should be able to disable their triggers, which is far and away the best result you could get.

[Wiggles Von Beer...]

Although it doesn't fit the scenario, do you know if they have anything else linked in wirelessly?

In one of my games, a guy played a cruel, Deus-esque plotting AI and hacked a paramilitary unit's tacnet and mil-spec armor. He randomly activated the servos on the armor, contorting the person inside in unpleasant ways, and froze other servos to keep the other members in their place.

In retrospect he should have had to deal with some heavy IC, but as a new GM I felt like rewarding his creativity.

[Saint Sithney]

There's just not that much you can do, and most of that has been hit on already. Best bet is drop magazines and turn on safeties. If you GM allows, you can make the aiming reticle appear several degrees to one side or the other, giving them a penalty to shoot. If they have electronic firing, you should be able to disable their triggers, which is far and away the best result you could get.

Don't forget that the smartlink directly interfaces with the image link, and that if you've got control of a person's image link, you've got control over what they can see, or if.

[kzt]

There's just not that much you can do, and most of that has been hit on already. Best bet is drop magazines and turn on safeties. If you GM allows, you can make the aiming reticle appear several degrees to one side or the other, giving them a penalty to shoot. If they have electronic firing, you should be able to disable their triggers, which is far and away the best result you could get.

The safety, trigger or aiming seem the best. If the gun doesn't have or the goons don't use the actual sights it would be trivial to make them unable to hit at all past 2-3 meters.

If you screwed with the sights and dropped the mags the goons would get off one shot (which would miss) and would still be trying to shoot as the PCs close and start imitating a sewing machine on them with knives.

However this makes the guns less useful when the PCs get them, so I'd probably suggest not disabling the guns by ejecting the mags, as they are likely to be really useful in a few seconds.

[Squinky]

same with the stupidity of the enemy doing anything that would allow these discussions to take place...
having something as important as a firearm hooked to the matrix at all? I'd rather have my left arm hooked as such to the matrix than my firearm if the firearm is wielded by my right hand. and having yer eyes tied to the matrix to let you be blinded or fooled into thinking yer buddy is a baddie? isnt that on the level with having yer heart hooked up to the matrix wirelessly?

Actaully, nearly every enemy you encounter would have something like this susceptable to hacking. Sure, you can go off the grid, but you lose much functionality of the devices in the first place. A large group like this would most likely have communications open, and that is an easy way into their system. Even if they are skinlinked, if they are subscribed to anything that isn't hardwired there is a possible entrance.

[Rystefn]

Don't forget that the smartlink directly interfaces with the image link, and that if you've got control of a person's image link, you've got control over what they can see, or if.

Having control of the Smartlink doesn't give you automatic control of the image link... just one of the inputs to the image link. That's a significant difference. Even if it did, really, the only thing you can do with someone's image link is give them a message or a blind spot (granted, the blind spot can be their entire field of vision). Editing an image in real time is a feat of godlike proportions. I don't think I'd even let a person try it.