Radios, WTH is up with cyber radios in SR? Options

[Deacon]

Is there any explanation why cyber radios cost so much essence in Shadowrun?

As it is, a radio costs .75 essence and isn't even half as useful as most other kinds of cyberware. In order to get the ability to broadcast silently, you have to get an additional piece of cyberware; in order to scan channels, you need something else that's also additional. A cyber-forearm costs less essence and you can stick a micro-transceiver or a personal comm in it, link it for mental control with DNI, sure it costs more money but it's much more essence-friendly.

A cyberphone costs .5 essence -- why? Cellular phones use the SAME technology!

I know that the radio's been .75 essence and the phone's .5 since the first edition, and I know the technology is based on 1980's concepts of the dark future (and not the advances in wireless technology that we know today), but my players aren't from the 1980's -- they're children of the twenty-first century, and they want to know why they need to spend more for a radio in their head than they do cybereyes which can see in the frickin' dark, display an image inside your own field of view and even more stuff.

Has anyone ever come up with a satisfactory explanation for this? (Besides what I said above, I mean.)

[Kyuhan]

There was a thread on this not that long ago, iirc.

[Demosthenes]

I can't offer an explanation.

I can offer a house rule. In the spoiler for those who want it.

[ Spoiler ]

Body compartment + DNI + a more expensive and smaller version of whatever bit of Comms Kit you're trying to put in your head (this would be a, well, headware radio, actually...after all, it fits in your head).

If you're not happy putting it in a body compartment, put it in a cyberlimb (or partial cyberlimb).

[Kagetenshi]

I have absolutely no idea if it's what the designers were thinking of, but one possibility is the Essence cost covers RF shielding and the like. Sure, talk of brain-damaging rays may be silly now, but try sticking the transmitter into your skull and see if that's still the case. If that's accurate, the difference in Essence cost could be explained by the fact that cellphones frequently have a lower range to the tower than radios are able to operate at (lower power).

~J

[Demosthenes]

So put the antenna far away from your head, and put the shielding around that, and connect to it with a router or datajack. No problem for your brain.

Oh wait, that would make sense. :S

Essence cost for radios is clearly based around the transmitter - which is about as powerful as a none-too-powerful thing (max flux of 0, if I remember aright), and that doesn't sound like a lot of brainfry waiting to happen. Not compared to...a transducer, say. Or a high-powered eye laser... :silly:

[Nikoli]

No, the internal remote deck had a flux of 0, the cyber radio has a normal flux iirc.

[Kagetenshi]

It would make a bit too much sense. I mean, god forbid you run a wire to the brain instead of sticking the whole damn thing in there! IIRC the radio is the same Rating*1.5 Flux as externals, though.

~J

[mfb]

behold, cybercommunications which do not suck.

[Method]

Get a DJ, a transducer and an external router. Hook up a standard tac radio to the router and you're golden.

[hobgoblin]

remeber that when the rules where written the radios where bricks. basicly the essence cost is a anacronism from the days of SR1. hell, only recently did the consealability for stuff like the pocket secretary get errataed so that it makes sense with todays tech.

allso, the basic headradio works on subvocalisation. basicly you talk so that you barely hear it yourself. its kinda like the strap on throat mic's the marines and similar use, only in your body rather then on the outside.

[GrinderTheTroll]

When we first started to question the cost of the headware radios my only explaination was for game balance, but arguably so a weak one. My only offering would be that you effectively remove the need for a team to utter a single sound and be in constant communication.

Personally, and as others have mentioned numerous times, I don't see why a headware radio cost so damn much even with proper shielding and all that. I've considered offering Headware radio and related items at Delta cybeware essence costs, but only at regular prices and I like the DNI-cyberlimb approach as well.

/boggle :?

[hahnsoo]

It's grandfathered in from SR1. That's the only reason I can come up with.

[BitBasher]

I dropped essence cost to .35. It made all my Lone Star beat officers much happier ;)

[DrJest]

tbh, I'd drop it even lower; I don't see why a cyber radio would cost more than .2 essence. The cybercomm link, meh, not sure about that; it was a new tech in 2056.

[Kanada Ten]

Just make it satellite radio... XM straight to the brain, baby.

[BitBasher]

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

[mfb]

i want one of those pills.

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

Same here.

Although I'd prefer they were permanent.

OTOH, nanotech in SR might be able to produce one (especially if someone has bone lacing) "sometime" in the future.

[Deacon]

So here's the sixty-four dollar question... could this be fixed?

[The Grifter]

Just a little side-note here. For anyone who has/does work with a radio on a regular basis, you know how annoying they can be. Who would honestly want one surgically implanted into their grape?

[Kanada Ten]

[The Grifter]

I think the implanted headphone would be much more practical than a radio, anyways.

[Kanada Ten]

Meh, you have to be somewhere with a cell network and trust your connection to the 'Trix. Either way the Essence cost if high, and you still need a transducer or microphone/speakers. With deckers I usually get radios, scanners, and cyberphones.

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

I need to create a v2.0 of my commo headset that replaces the speakers and vibration microphones with an external transducer and 'trode rig. The only problem is that a regular trode rig messes with the hair.

But, K10's right. Other than an errata or someone at FanPro having a stroke which makes them redo all of the commo cyberware (It's not just radios and phones. It's all effed), you're SOL.