Why Katanas? Options

[Remnar]

I find the idea that the Buddhist monks would be openly armed to be a little bit strange...

Its Shadowrun!! You've never made a combat mage following the Buddist tradition?

[Remnar]

I always see it as being a transitional thing, out in the barrens, walking with a shotty over the shoulder and super warhawk on your hip was just an accessorized style, Walking in the water front park in down town a nice Hamerlie in a concealed holster is less likely to get you geeked.

Depends on which goes better with your shoes though... Gotta be fashonable.

[SpellBinder]

I find the idea that the Buddhist monks would be openly armed to be a little bit strange...

There are some places that not carrying a weapon is an invite for trouble.

[Mäx]

With a katana, it's much the same thing - do you really want to try your luck finding out if this guy is just a poser or actually a pro?

Heh, was gonna post the same think, along with this nice quote from Andromeda(not exactly relevant but i really liked it whaen i heard it the first time)
"I know this may be a stretch for you, but think. You're twice as big as me, and you look pretty scary, but I'm still standing up to you, so either I'm crazy, or I am really, really dangerous.
Would you like to guess which? … I didn't think so."
--Trance Gemini to alien bountyhunter Hsigo in Andromeda episode 2.5 "Last Call at the Broken Hammer"

[LordlierPie]

Depends on which goes better with your shoes though... Gotta be fashonable.

Well naturally, if it is a shotty and warhawk day just have to rock out with the jack boots, nothing else is quite right. hamerlie is nicely complemented with some loafers i find.

[Umidori]

Walking in the water front park in down town a nice Hamerlie in a concealed holster is less likely to get you geeked.

What makes you think the legitimate SINners who live there don't open carry? They probably won't have shotguns over their shoulders, but a heavy pistol in a holster that they aren't bothering to conceal? Why wouldn't that fly? Knight Errant gonna arrest them for open carry despite the fact they're licensed to have a gun? Is their parent corp gonna fire them for not tactfully concealing it?

It's a dark and dangerous world, chummer. Joe Corporate wears his piece openly at all times, so none of them SINless rats get any funny ideas.

~Umi

[RHat]

Depends on whether or not they have a carry permit, and whether that permit is for concealed or open carry.

[Umidori]

In many places in the modern day, open carry is more legal than concealed. I imagine the same will be true in 2075.

That said, the point is that if people with the proper authorization regularly carry their weapons openly in upscale areas, why can't the runners do the same? Yeah, they'll need to make sure they have good Fake Licenses, and that they are properly dressed in nice looking clothing instead of blood-stained armor vests, but merely having a gun in the more "civilized" parts of town shouldn't be that likely to "get you geeked".

~Umi

[Remnar]

Depends on whether or not they have a carry permit, and whether that permit is for concealed or open carry.

Of course IRL there are states in the US where you can open carry without a permit, and only conceal carry with one. But I think Shadowrun carry laws are more strict IIRC.

In my particular town it is nothing to see someone on the street with a rifle strapped to their back (probably on snowmachine, and on the way to hunt something) in the winter, or a big .44 on their hip in the summer.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

It also diminishes the penalty for glitches (the whip retracts instead of the standard effect), implying that there's some sort of wireless-dependent controller/predictor on new generation monowhips that make the function better with less risk to the user.

If you are so poorly skilled in using a Monowhip that you worry about the glitch, you should probably not use it. *shrug*
And why such functionality requires Matrix Access is still beyond me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

[Umidori]

Well you see, TJ, the new monowhip has a proto-AI built into it which uses its immense intellect to calculate all the many, many variables that go into properly controlling the thing, but after about ten seconds of this it gets incredibly bored and takes a nap, so the Matrix Access allows it to watch cat videos and post on tabletop gaming forums instead, keeping itself entertained and awake. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

~Umi

[ElFenrir]

Of course IRL there are states in the US where you can open carry without a permit, and only conceal carry with one. But I think Shadowrun carry laws are more strict IIRC.

In my particular town it is nothing to see someone on the street with a rifle strapped to their back (probably on snowmachine, and on the way to hunt something) in the winter, or a big .44 on their hip in the summer.

I actually remember one Halloween this came into play. I had a sort of 'black metal butcher' outfit going, and one prop was this butcher knife my roomate had found. The thing was huge and rusty and looked like something from Silent Hill. When I was at work, I had asked an officer who walked in 'Look, I have this halloween costume planned to go out about the city, but it involves a big kitchen knife.' He said 'Well, Halloween is okay, just don't conceal it. We've had people dress as Highlanders with swords.' So yeah, I walked around with my big honkin' rusty Silent Hill butcher knife and all was well. Concealing it though and they could have slapped me with something.

[SpellBinder]

...
And why such functionality requires Matrix Access is still beyond me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

I wonder the same about Smartguns & Hidden Arm Slides, like why does a data cable perform worse than the wireless for the former, and why does the later have to be wireless to be good as it used to be? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

I miss skinlink...

[Wakshaani]

In many places in the modern day, open carry is more legal than concealed. I imagine the same will be true in 2075.

That said, the point is that if people with the proper authorization regularly carry their weapons openly in upscale areas, why can't the runners do the same? Yeah, they'll need to make sure they have good Fake Licenses, and that they are properly dressed in nice looking clothing instead of blood-stained armor vests, but merely having a gun in the more "civilized" parts of town shouldn't be that likely to "get you geeked".

~Umi

Careful, that opens a whole conversation line that can get really ugly. There's a lot of "At *my* table..." flavor that stretches between groups, one of the bigger ones being how dangerous day-to-day life is. Does everyone walk around in armored clothing and most everyone has a gun? Is the populace pretty much unarmed and unarmored everywhere you go? Do corporate sorts normally traispe around in armored jackets? Etc etc etc.

As for Katana? Why *wouldn't* you carry one? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

(More seriously, there was a serious "Japan is awesome!" vibe in the 80's that carried into Shadowrun. By 2055, the Japanacorp domination of the world was faltering, and by 2065, they'd been rocked back on their heels and the world had fully moved on. Shadowrun's moved from an 80's movie vibe to a more nuanced approach as time went by. The Katana as AWESOME is still an echo of that 80's flavor that will never fully die.)

[RHat]

If you are so poorly skilled in using a Monowhip that you worry about the glitch, you should probably not use it. *shrug*
And why such functionality requires Matrix Access is still beyond me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

Because it's a monumentally complex bit of processing that has to complete in live time, using resources well beyond the capabilities of the monowhip? But if you use the idle processing power of the various devices in the area, especially including the currently idle graphics processing on all the commlinks not presently in VR, you're at a sizable advantage in processing speed?

[Erik Baird]

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems like a device trying to farm out processing work kills any real-time possibilities. Not to mention, why should Joe Random's comlink or other devices allow another random device to commandeer processor cycles? That would be moronic from a security point of view.

[RHat]

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems like a device trying to farm out processing work kills any real-time possibilities. Not to mention, why should Joe Random's comlink or other devices allow another random device to commandeer processor cycles? That would be moronic from a security point of view.

Live-time doesn't mean there's no processing time involved - simply that it runs fast enough to fall within acceptable-for-use delays. A good example is games - if running at, say, 30FPS, the "live-time" limitation there means that you've got roughly 2 seconds for processing each frame of video. Given the wireless speeds of SR4, transmission time isn't going to be long enough to be a concern. And as for why Joe Random's commlink allows that, it's because Joe Random doesn't have a choice. This is a built in part of the new Matrix protocols.

[Ryu]

I saw a documentary on the katana. Supposedly the curved blade was much better at cutting through things.

Here's a cool demonstration video of the two handed great sword.

Cutting through cloth armor is somewhat different from breaking hard armor, so it´s not generally superior.

You can disguise a katana as training equipment in some places, just bring the full jaido gear instead of just the sword and in some places you should be golden.

[Erik Baird]

For me, those concepts break the system and the ability to suspend disbelief. Sure, the processing times and transmission times should be faster than anything possible today, but those still take time, a precious asset when a monowhip is flailing about. A dedicated processor should be able to run it's own calculations much faster than the time it would take for the processor to track down a friendly device, give a list of numbers and the operations needed, get the results back, and apply the results to its own calculations, even if it's only farming out potential paths.

The "new matrix protocols" are one of the many reasons why I skipped SR4, and I'll likely be skipping SR5. Whoever designed that system came up with a supremely boneheaded idea from a security standpoint. (Some people thought it was great. Suit yourself.)

[RHat]

For me, those concepts break the system and the ability to suspend disbelief. Sure, the processing times and transmission times should be faster than anything possible today, but those still take time, a precious asset when a monowhip is flailing about. A dedicated processor should be able to run it's own calculations much faster than the time it would take for the processor to track down a friendly device, give a list of numbers and the operations needed, get the results back, and apply the results to its own calculations, even if it's only farming out potential paths.

The "new matrix protocols" are one of the many reasons why I skipped SR4, and I'll likely be skipping SR5. Whoever designed that system came up with a supremely boneheaded idea from a security standpoint. (Some people thought it was great. Suit yourself.)

That actually depends a great deal on the specific processing involved. Look up parallel processing sometime - it's a similar principle on a local scale, where addition computing resources (a computer's GPU) are used for processing, dramatically decreased the required time to run.

And as far as security goes... SR5's Matrix is actually secure enough that stuff like this isn't much of a vulnerability - Joe Random fundamentally doesn't need to worry about security, because GOD's got it covered. That, and you need to either have very specific and difficult to get hardware or be a technomancer to EVER hack. And you actually need to have serious ability.

[DWC]

Joe Random also doesn't need a monowhip. On the other hand, the people who need monowhips and automatic weapons aren't going to trust GOD to cover their security issues, because they only go to work when traditional security measures have already failed.

[RHat]

Joe Random also doesn't need a monowhip. On the other hand, the people who need monowhips and automatic weapons aren't going to trust GOD to cover their security issues, because they only go to work when traditional security measures have already failed.

Which is why they're have their own Matrix specialist.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Because it's a monumentally complex bit of processing that has to complete in live time, using resources well beyond the capabilities of the monowhip? But if you use the idle processing power of the various devices in the area, especially including the currently idle graphics processing on all the commlinks not presently in VR, you're at a sizable advantage in processing speed?

Blah, Blah, Blah... the Technobabble Means Absolutely Nothing. *shrug*

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

That actually depends a great deal on the specific processing involved. Look up parallel processing sometime - it's a similar principle on a local scale, where addition computing resources (a computer's GPU) are used for processing, dramatically decreased the required time to run.

The Key term there is LOCAL SCALE. Meaning Local Resources... Not Distributed Resources. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[RHat]

Blah, Blah, Blah... the Technobabble Means Absolutely Nothing. *shrug*

Only because you actively refuse to see any possible point.

The Key term there is LOCAL SCALE. Meaning Local Resources... Not Distributed Resources. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Yes. Because it's an example of a SIMILAR thing, not an IDENTICAL thing. The 2075 distributed variant would have far, far, far, far more processing power to work with than you could hope to have locally.