Not having a Datajack in SR1-2-3?, why would a non-rigger/decker spend Essence Options

[Soykaf Barista]

I was wondering about DataJacks (and similar ports). According to the rulebook they are “The almost-universal mark of the cyber-conscious user” and very common. But we have begun to wonder which player characters that would want or need one?

The Deckers and Riggers naturally need them and Magicians have to do without. But what are the (game system or other) benefits for a Street Samurai or a Private Detective or an “Ordinary Person”– and what do they miss out on by not having a jack? (besides having to use a clumsy trode net for SimSense 😊 )

A Datajack gives a pithy +1 to Reaction while driving. And some small speed bonus for googling stuff. Is there any other benefits or hindrances?

(This is question about 1st-3rd edition as 4th gave us fancy headbands and other non-invasive interface)

[Koekepan]

In purely practical terms, datajacks do a limited range of things, but since you say "similar ports" we also have chipjacks for datachips and skills, and of course synthjacks for musicians. Gotta be in the music, man! In addition to this, given the wide range of things that could be rigged, there's a lot of potential for a video journalist to be a rigger running drones as well as a live editing suite.

Basically, anyone with a hands-on technical job ranging from excavations and welding through to microsurgery could find a reason for a control rig of some sort, and practically every sarariman could use a chipjack so that he could slot every language from Amharic to Zuni, and simultaneously have dedicated knowledge of geology and candy manufacturing processes.

A Street Samurai could have chips for everything from sewage system layouts and industrial control electronics for his infiltration run into a building, swapped out for the corporate directory and security protocols once he is inside. A drone mechanic could rig his own specialised repair drones that weld where he could never reach, and run crystallographic analyses with sensors that his own body doesn't have. A rocker should totally have data chips for musicology, synthjacks to control a stage full of madness, and skillchips for mediaschmoozing.

If you don't have weird prejudices about the purity of metahuman flesh or essence, the possibilities are wide and deep as the pollution in the Pacific.

[Cochise]

I was wondering about DataJacks (and similar ports). According to the rulebook they are “The almost-universal mark of the cyber-conscious user” and very common.

Well, the commonness of (basic) datajacks and chipjacks is somewhat similar to cell phones (slightly outdated these days) and smartphones in the 1st world societies. While you certainly can get by without them a very large number of people do have them. They represent the entry point to anything related to the various flavours of Direct Neural Interface (DNI) technology and are used by people that want or have to (better) utilize their highly computerized environment in a universe where efficiency and speed of the work force (at the least possible wages) is one of the biggest interests of the entities that steer the world: the corporations.

But we have begun to wonder which player characters that would want or need one?

Subsequently any character that intends to use any form of DNI-technology.

The Deckers and Riggers naturally need them and Magicians have to do without.

Magicians actually do not have to do without - neither from an in-fiction perspective nor from the meta-perspective of game mechanics.

But what are the (game system or other) benefits for a Street Samurai or a Private Detective or an “Ordinary Person”– and what do they miss out on by not having a jack? (besides having to use a clumsy trode net for SimSense 😊 )

Well, let's first look at the "ordinary person" there. From an in fiction perspective they may miss out on job opportunities simply because their corporate employers may prefer or even require such implants for certain jobs - particularly wherever computer work (with legal cyberdecks) is involved.

As for Private Detectives and Street Samurai? There's probably an ultimately unlimited list of things where datajacks and chipjacks can come in handy for non-Riggers / non-Deckers.

Here some examples:

• Using chip based Knowledge Skills from Knowsofts (including Linguasoft) via a dedicated chipjack or a datajacks that is paired with a Knowsoft Link (see Koekepan's references to languages, geology and candy manifacturing)
• Raw data reading access to stuff stored on a chip via a datajack in conjunction with something like a Display Link or Image Link
• Connecting your implanted Smartgun system to a Smartgun enabled weapon via datajack in case you decided not to include the Induction Pad subsystem or the latter currently being out of commission or when shooting with your off-hand that (also) has no Pad
• Giving yourself wired DNI-access to any form of DNI-enabled technology ... be it your DNI-enabled pocket secretary, portable music player or that remote controlled gun turret in the vehicle of your team's Rigger
• Non-audible communication via a datajack to an external transducer / radio combo for anyone who doesn't have the Essence to spare or the general desire of having those as implants.
• Granting access to implanted storage memory (regardless of wether or not the character has mental access to said memory - think data transportation "Johnny Mnemonic"-style for a second there)

A Datajack gives a pithy +1 to Reaction while driving. And some small speed bonus for googling stuff. Is there any other benefits or hindrances?

For potential benefits: see the prior list of examples.

For hindrances: The wired nature of datajack to [system] connections ofc has its drawbacks:

• Depending on the exact implant location a cable running to an external decive can obviously be obvious
• Depending on how the cable has to be physically routed from the implant location to a connected device the cable itself can become a hindrance in a similar fashion as your wired earphone cables can get in the way depending on what you're doing.
• The connection via a datajack / chipjack is a (single) serial attachment, i.e. you can usually only connect to one singular external device at any given time but the external device may in some cases be serially connected to something else (see transducer/radio example) => Multiple active device connections at the same time usually require multiple jacks.

[Soykaf Barista]

There are of course a lot of useful or cool gizmos that no self-respecting 2053-person would live without. Many of these require a Datajack or Chipjack to access or even to be of any use (“I’m sorry, Sir, you will need surgery to update your music playlist” 😊 ) so ‘jacks would be ubiquitous and not solely a sign of a decker or rigger.

Thank you both. Your answers may be better than my question. 😊

[Koekepan]

Thank you for posing your question to the DumpShock Collective ™ - please deposit 30NY for another five minutes of insight.

[pbangarth]

Thank you for posing your question to the DumpShock Collective ™ - please deposit 30NY for another five minutes of insight.

Cheap at half the price!

[Bodak]

But what are the (game system or other) benefits for a (...snip...) or an “Ordinary Person”– and what do they miss out on by not having a jack?

Ancient History would point out the nigh-prohibitive cost of augmentation for the Ordinary Person:

Your average person won't have a lot of cyberware.

That sounds like a profound statement of the blindingly obvious, but consider it for a moment. For an average household, a piece of completely legal cyberware can consume most of the yearly budget, even on an installment plan.

Chipjacks and datajacks, at 1,000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) apiece, might be fairly common among middle-class families (and explain why they're more prone to BTL use and abuse), but a low-income family would struggle to cover the cost of basic replacement cybereyes so that their little girl could see.

(...snip...)

The most important thing to consider about your average joe with cyberware is that they feel subtly superhuman. Buy your kid a math SPU and watch them speed through their Calculus classes, sure; but take a look at someone living with a spacial recognizer, thermographic vision, or a basic mnemonic enhancer. Shadowrunners take these augmentations for granted, but most of them pull down more in a single job than middle-class families do in a year.

Likewise, by extension, street gangers aren't going to be able to afford the surgery prices in Man and Machine so cyberspurs and smartlinks are just way out of their budget when a Bowie knife and a LASER sight give the same effect for a fraction of the price, so that you can afford to feed your BTL / bunraku subscriptions.