So what's up with Fastjack? Options

[Neurosis]

Right.

So this is how they're going to do away with hacking via commlink - not some kind of mega security thing, just making it generally a really bad idea to go into the matrix via SimSense, without some pretty beefy protection between your brain and these ..... "e-Shedim", or whatever they wind up being called.

Instead, you're going to need to have a largely hardware filter between your brain, and the matrix - which means a larger physical device. Going Hot VR, maybe going VR at all, is going to be given some of the same risks that going Astral while unguarded: "Something Bad™ could move in while you're not at home".

...

The bugger of it is, even if I just guessed EXACTLY correct, and even if I swore up and down, 'till I was blue in the face ... folks like Bull who're "in the know", won't tell me before 5E happens. Damn you all! ;D

(NOTE: if it actually goes down that way, just remember ... I called it first. ^_^ )

My initial response to this post almost contained a Lady Gaga reference. And then I realized it was a Lady Gaga reference.

[KarmaInferno]

Hermit, you do realize that when most people hear the term "brainhack", they aren't thinking about the Shadowrun Hacking skill?

It's a made up term anyhow. Your definition of the word isn't the only possible one.



-k

[CanRay]

"Mungo, hack his brain." "Cantz, no haz Commlink in himz." "No, Mungo... Have you forgotten your monoblade?" "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... MUNGO HACK!!!"

[Jaid]

Hermit, you do realize that when most people hear the term "brainhack", they aren't thinking about the Shadowrun Hacking skill?

It's a made up term anyhow. Your definition of the word isn't the only possible one.



-k

i really wouldn't bother trying to have this discussion with him. it didn't work before. i can't fathom why it would suddenly start working now.

[hermit]

Mh, flamebait.

[binarywraith]

If it actually goes that way, I'm going to have to vomit and scream "RUINED FOREVER!" Because that's retarded.

Very, very retarded. I'd rather write it off to 'Jack having brain cancer from too many years of slotting questionably shielded plugs into his datajack than have even more absurdly annoying possession crap.

What would that make, four major antagonists in the habit of possessing bodies?

[Halinn]

"Mungo, hack his brain." "Cantz, no haz Commlink in himz." "No, Mungo... Have you forgotten your monoblade?" "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... MUNGO HACK!!!"

CanRay, please get in touch with CGL to get Mungo canonized. He's both the hero we need, and the one we deserve.

[Pepsi Jedi]

It still cracks me up that they canonized Drop bears.

[toturi]

It still cracks me up that they canonized Drop bears.

One day, there will be warform Drop Bears Red Samurai! With FA Panther Assault Cannons!

[_Pax._]

CanRay, please get in touch with CGL to get Mungo canonized. He's both the hero we need, and the one we deserve.

Seconded.

[Lionhearted]

It still cracks me up that they canonized Drop bears.

Might have something to do with that a dumpshocker wrote it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Pepsi Jedi]

Might have something to do with that a dumpshocker wrote it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Oh I'm not complaining. I just think it's funny. I was in Running Wild Last night looking up Techno-critters, and happened across the Drop bear write up. Cracked up a bit.

[Patrick Goodman]

You know that I didn't do that, right? That they were there before, and I just got to use them for that section? Believe me, I'd take credit for it if I could, but I can't.

[Lionhearted]

Then who did?

[Patrick Goodman]

Drop bears first appeared in Target: Awakened Lands, IIRC. I can't recall who wrote that particular chunk of the Australia writeup, though. I can poke around and find out if it's really important.

[BishopMcQ]

Using the Optional Rule for More Powerful Swarms:

Base Cost for a Drop Bear (Using Super secret formulae) 37,500 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif)
Warform Abilities: Attribute Enhancement (Agility), Skill Enhancement (Shadowing)
Random Side Effect of Breeding - Gestalt Consciousness

Warform Cost: 97,500 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) each

12 Warform Dropbears in a Rating 3 Mischief -- Gain optional power Sapience

Advanced Training with Willpower of 5, means a x35 cost multiplier

Net Cost: 40,950,000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) for a crack team of Red Samurai Dropbears, gear not included.

Proof that I sometimes have far too much time on my hands...

[Umidori]

Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold the phone.

What's this about "optional power Sapience"?

*dives for his books*

~Umi

[Umidori]

Okay, so points against my notion - 1) it's an optional rule and 2) the additional powers are determined by the GM. But! The ruling specifically allows Sapience, so my notion is at least possible.

But there is one more crucial consideration - how Essence is handled with Swarms. (Yes, I'm breaking the Special Infected rules again. Fun, isn't it?)

So let's say you have a swarm of bees at Rating 6, with the Sapience power, which makes them a valid target of Essence Drain. You drain up to 3 points of Essence (but no more, as the Rating of the Swarm will drop with the Essence, and you only get one power per 3 points of Rating). Since bees go from eggs to full adults in less than a month, with proper management the swarm ought to replenish itself in time for your next monthly feeding.

Voila. Renewable Essence that you can keep in a small greenhouse. Keep two hives for redundancy, or just to stay ahead of the feeding curve.

~Umi

[Shortstraw]

Beware the sapient Africanized bees.

[hermit]

There was a movie about this once ...

[ShadowDragon8685]

Okay, so points against my notion - 1) it's an optional rule and 2) the additional powers are determined by the GM. But! The ruling specifically allows Sapience, so my notion is at least possible.

But there is one more crucial consideration - how Essence is handled with Swarms. (Yes, I'm breaking the Special Infected rules again. Fun, isn't it?)

So let's say you have a swarm of bees at Rating 6, with the Sapience power, which makes them a valid target of Essence Drain. You drain up to 3 points of Essence (but no more, as the Rating of the Swarm will drop with the Essence, and you only get one power per 3 points of Rating). Since bees go from eggs to full adults in less than a month, with proper management the swarm ought to replenish itself in time for your next monthly feeding.

Voila. Renewable Essence that you can keep in a small greenhouse. Keep two hives for redundancy, or just to stay ahead of the feeding curve.

~Umi

That sounds like a magnificent plan that could never in a thousand years go wrong!

[_Pax._]

So let's say you have a swarm of bees at Rating 6, with the Sapience power [...]

... and the HMHVV that makes you a vampire mutates, leaps across the species gap, and you end up with a swarm of Africanised vampire bees. They go around, pulling essence out of anything they like (people included), and .... what, make Honey out of it?

;D

[Patrick Goodman]

Oh, this took an interesting turn....

[hermit]

So let's say you have a swarm of bees at Rating 6, with the Sapience power, which makes them a valid target of Essence Drain. You drain up to 3 points of Essence (but no more, as the Rating of the Swarm will drop with the Essence, and you only get one power per 3 points of Rating). Since bees go from eggs to full adults in less than a month, with proper management the swarm ought to replenish itself in time for your next monthly feeding.

Voila. Renewable Essence that you can keep in a small greenhouse. Keep two hives for redundancy, or just to stay ahead of the feeding curve.

... and the HMHVV that makes you a vampire mutates, leaps across the species gap, and you end up with a swarm of Africanised vampire bees. They go around, pulling essence out of anything they like (people included), and .... what, make Honey out of it?

Why not combine the ideas? The bees and the vampire enter a symbiosis - the vampire grants them all the vampire's powers by way of infection (even Renfield powers would make them terrifying), and they collect essence that feeds the vampire.

Here's a character image.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Why not combine the ideas? The bees and the vampire enter a symbiosis - the vampire grants them all the vampire's powers by way of infection (even Renfield powers would make them terrifying), and they collect essence that feeds the vampire.

Here's a character image.

Never has a better argument for the mass deployment of fuel-air explosives been made.