Communication in Shadowrun., As fast as thought? Options

[Aardvark]

I have a general question about communication in Shadowrun. I'm following along a pbp campaign, and the characters there are communicating via text messages (at a meeting with a Mr. Johnson) simply by thought alone--they're talking over terms and such with each other to come to an agreement while carrying on a conversation with the Mr. Johnson.

I've read as much as I could find on DNIs in the Shadowrun 4A (plus the stuff in Unwired), but it's still not completely clear to me how if this is really how it works. Is it as simple as it is being run in the pbp game I'm watching (communicating real-time via text messages at the speed of though without any interface whatsoever)? If not, how does it really work?

If I understand correctly, two people with DNIs (via a datajack, implanted commlink, trodes or whatever) could do this...but what about a group of runners meeting for the first time while under the watchful eye of a Mr. Johnson?

It's pretty obvious that I'm quite new to the setting and the mechanics, so I'm just trying to wrap my brain around a few things.

Thoughts? Thanks!

[DireRadiant]

If it helps you can think about the case that voice to text and text to voice conversion is on the fly. DNI provides the "mental voice" to voice/text conversion, the matrix gives you a connection to your teammates. All of it is still subject to the limitations of participation in multiple conversations.

The real benefit isn't so much IC, but at a game at the table all player and PC conversation, normally what you consider Table Talk, can actually be IC chatter. A team can be communicating with each other the entire time.

[Garou]

Watch Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex. The way they use communications is how i see runners doing it on the Shadowrun setting.

[DigitalSoul]

Usually, the interface is through the visual spectrum via the Imagelink in cybereyes or AR-visual aids. If they don't have any of those then they're pretty much going by memory which might get shaky after awhile unless they're fully immersed in VR (in which case, they don't need a physical interface anymore, they're IN the matrix at that point).

With regards to the first-time runners I would assume they lack information to directly call any of their colleague's commlinks via commcodes. In that case there might be a capacity to keep a text conversation between the runners as long as they're in overlapping proximity to their commlink's Signal rating range (that is, if they're all not in a defensive crouch with hidden-mode).

Two DNIs, without commlinks, would require a direct connection to each other's DNI connectors. So that usually takes the form of a fiber-optic cable between datajacks but I don't think you can pull that kind of stunt with 'trodes.

[Ascalaphus]

The real benefit isn't so much IC, but at a game at the table all player and PC conversation, normally what you consider Table Talk, can actually be IC chatter. A team can be communicating with each other the entire time.

This.

One of the great benefits of high-tech settings is that all PCs can continue to talk while they're geographically scattered. This is far more pleasant for people at the table, who don't have to ignore each other for half an hour.

Edit: to answer your question..

Systemwise texting a message or talking are both Free Actions, so it goes roughly equally fast.

DNI translates brain-computer; whatever provides DNI still needs Signal to communicate with the world. But a DNI-commlink could communicate with another character's DNI-commlink. It's like having a cell-phone inside your brain.

How visible would this be to the Johnson? He might spot from the characters' facial expressions they're discussing with each other (with Perception).

The digital communication would be pretty hard for him to detect however. Imagine two people besides you who want to find each others' cellphone numbers, and their cellphones are in their brains. Unless you're tapping all local phone traffic (which requires impressive hacking), you're not going to notice that.

Concluding: unlike say, D&D, the party can indeed confer with each other without NPCs in the room being able to hear them.

This can be confusing; what is and what isn't said aloud? You could agree on a hand gesture; a finger pointed at someone is speaking through the Matrix to that person exclusively, while an upraised hand signifies talking to the whole team in the Matrix.