So this is the first should we or shouldn't we use it item for the Everyday Gear for Runners project I'm working with Redshirt on. We're still in the brainstorm and elinitate stuff phase, but I thought I'd try to generate a little buzz and get some opinions by periodically posting polls on some of the more oddball things we've thought of.

You could use it if it were monofilament floss. And you had diamond teeth.

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to ask if we meant monowire floss.

No I mean good old fashioned dental floss, waxed of unwaxed in your choice of flavors. My bias is that it's useful, it has decent tensile strength for the diameter, comes in a convenient carrying and dispensing case, and is cheap and completely legal.

Yeah, but in terms of sheer tensile strength, it's not nearly strong enough to choke anything larger than a newborn kitten.

You'de need heavy test weight fishing wire to even try the garote.

use it as a trip wire on an old fashioned grenade pin. Would break on the pin's actual resistance, but using it to trigger a dead drop that pulled the pin would work

Actually since you mention it on the tensile strength, it might be a good idea to actually test it ala mythbusters.

I Just need a hook scale, some floss, and someone to pull on it......

http://inventionandtechnology.com/xml/2006...06_3_feat_2.xml

Duct tape is duct tape.

But from what I hear, dental floss can also make an improvised garrotte or trip wire.

That sounds a lot more useful than I would have thought - but I'd still say a runner would probably be better off with fishing line.

Well, armored gloves aren't that conspicous, considering how common armored clothing is.

could be handy for ghoul and shape shifter characters

either my neck is particularly strong or osco brand dental floss cannot be used as a garrote. it is strong enough to cause quite a bit of pain in the fingers if not used with handles such as screwdrivers or toothbrush. yes there are a number of uses for thin ropes and while dental floss is strong enough for many of them. heavy gauge fishing line is probably a better bet for most of them.

Definitely should be included. I think too many shadowrunners neglect dental hygene. That sort of thing catches up with you in the end. Do you think Fastjack wears dentures? No way, he needs that 5 essence for much more important things.

With dental floss and a 6pack of soybeer, you can put together a couple of communication devices, and if you're a lightweight, it might even seem like a good idea...

Dental floss (and container) would be a good used in finding monofilament wire traps, toss the box, hold onto the line, if the floss falls into 2 or more pieces, you've got a monofilament trap. Another way to do this is thread tied to a bouncy ball ( one of my characters had a bouncy ball for just such an occasion)

no. it's more of a supply and demand thing.

krill and soy-based foods = soo much cheaper than real food, so demand fell off, so farmers went out of jobs, bought up by corporate interests, developed, or turned into a corp megafarm.

either way, it ain't owned by farmers anymore. and if was close enough to the city, it becomes part of the sprawl.

Real meat is expensive because nation states are no longer subsidizing land for pastures and ranching. Also because hellcows make ranching more dangerous and costly. Fresh fruit and vegetables are expensive because people live in much closer proximity and while the speed delivery infrastructure is there to be had, it simply doesn't care enough about the little guy to deliver artichokes and peaches to arcology wageslaves and sprawl denizens in a timely manner.

Real preserved food is expensive for no good god damned reason except that th world is more dystopic and awful that way.

-Frank

The dwarves might be on to something - fresh devilrat with ketchup sounds pretty good.

-Siege

Even in the mega farms they have to grow more than one crop right? I guess with state of the art farming crop rotation may not be required though.

I don´t see grain becoming more expensive than soy anyway. Today wheat is the cheapest crop to grow. And different grains can grow just about everywere on the planet too. You don´t see many soy bean fields in Sweden. I´m not an expert, but I think the most likely scenario for Shadowrun agriculture is that the mega farms rotate corn, wheat and soy beans (for north america. Otherwise whatever grows best in the climate) on their fields.

<edit> Just read a few contradicting statements on the cost of growing soy. Seems it may be cheaper on account of making it´s own nitrogen, so that it doesn´t need as much fertilization or something.

Still, the price difference would not explain why they would make beer and bread out of soy instead of grain. I'm supposing people will still like it better the way it's supposed to be, the earth likes it better when crops are rotated, and the cost and hassle of growing these geneticly mutated crops should be rather indistinguishable. It's things like coffee, meat and cheese that's made of soy in Shadowrun.

A large part of the cost of food in supermarkets isn't the food itself, but the cost of getting it to the market and operating the market. With the Balkanization of North America many of the Agricultural regions were spread among separate countries, with UCAS, CAS, and Sioux Nation gatting the vast bulk. Fuel prices have steadily risen, Tariffs and transit fees must be paid, and now all groceries must need additional security. All increase the cost of food. Addititonally Futures Speculation is probably an even more volatile and higher stakes market than it is today. Soy is a good crop because it's versatile, Rice, and Wheat would seem to be good bets too. As for Soy Beer, I've always assumed it was a cheap shot at mass produced American Lager.

The word soy appears about 150 times on that McDonald's menu page.

I don't really know if this would work, but:

In the Chuck Norris film Hero and the Terror (1988), Simon Moon ("The Terror" of the title, played by 6 foot, 6 inch, 250-pound heavyweight-boxer-turned-actor Jack O'Halloran [who also played "Non" in Superman (1978) and Superman 2 (1980)]) escaped from prison by cutting the bars on his cell window.

He used a combination of dental floss, liquid hand soap, and crushed block rosin.

If you want to get nasty, you could use floss impregnated with a mixture of white phosphorus and thermite, as was done in the 1979 TV-movie The Billion-Dollar Threat--just don't expose it to air until you're ready to use it.



--Foreigner

Just a quick note on the garotte idea, if you double, or say triple the floss over, it doubles or triples the strength. That quickly makes it a viable and legal garotte. And, less painful on you fingers.

I agree with the fishing line idea. Clearly a monofilament like dental floss can be useful in a pinch, but it seems to be a weak stand-in to be used when other, more appropriate materials are not available. I wouldn't bother to carry it when there are better options.

Hey, how about picture wire? Or those little core strands in parachute cord?

but dental floss is just silly... seriously. Piano wire or guitar strings, minimum.

Fishing line (12 lb test at least) would come in handy, but not for strangling someone.

Why one or the other?

I have seen dental floss in containers the size of 3-4 stacked quarters. Guitar strings come already packed in sleeves about 3x3" Easy to put both in a longcoat pocket and forget until needed.

50 feet of parachute cord would be good too.

If you are very careful you can even rappel with it. A bud of mine witnessed a ROTC instructor do it. Braiding 3 strands is a better idea though.

I recall a prison escape where they used braided floss as ropes to escape. The prison started tracking how many rolls of dental floss was being purchased.