I for one was thrilled when I pulled in my 1.2 PDF and saw that Spurs were given reach. Then I had a fit when they nerfed them again. Anyone else notice? Or care?


*Edit* And I can't fix the text on the poll! I are smrt....

There was a long thread on if Spurs should have reach or not (which was not conlusively decided) I was on the no they should not have reach side (the blade has to fit in your forearm after all), so I didn't mind that they removed the reach again.


It was here http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...topic=10980&hl=

I don't have any problem with spurs having 0 reach. That's how they've always been.
My problem is with the hand-razor nerf!
Hand razors used to be a valid weapon choice. A difference of 0.1 essence and 900 between razors and spurs isn't enough compared to the +2DV spurs get. Why would any PC take razors?
It used to be spurs had a better damage code but razors had higher power. Certain character builds could benefit more from the higher power in certain situation.
Both weapons had their pros and cons. Now, spurs are just better.
Sure, you'll see them on gangers and such, but I wish there were a valid reason for a PC to take them.
The price of simplicity, I guess. You're bound to lose something when you go from defining a weapon by skill, reach, power, and code to skill, reach and DV.

Just add an AP or two to the razors then.

I did neglect to include AP in my summary of defining weapon stats above. My bad. Unfair comparison.

True. I could do that. I'd prefer if I didn't have to add too many random stupid house-rules to be happy, though.

Why would any PC take hand razors? You can't be a full fledged walking furry without them, thats why!

You'd mostly take hand razors for style. That and the fact that spurs show up on a metal detector or an x-ray, whereas hand razors probably wouldn't.

Before they screwed with concealability, my memory of spurs was that they were kind of like dermal plating... not immediately obvious, but someone eyeballing your forearms could tell you had 'em.

From what I remember, the enhanced razors might have been carbon composite. So you could say that hand razors generally do not show up on cyberware detectors, if you wanted to improved them some.

Razors are normal cyberware. That means they show up on cyberscanners, even if the blades were made from non-metallic material.

Handrasors? For style, or not at all. Same as spurs.

For difference: Nothing that fits in my forearms should give a reach advantage of a katana. Try to watch the standard-fare kendo kata if you get the chance. Reach is not the way to go.

What about spurs ripping apart your clothing on the underarms (if they manage to do so), vs. ready-at-will handrazors?

I would guess that handrazors are actually cyber replacements for part of the last knuckle of your fingers. You basicly have cybernetic nail beds.

I don't know if SR4 allows this, but hand razors should be much harder to detect than spurs, because of so much less material involved.

So Spurs are "very easy" and razors "easy"? Other cyberimplants are much smaller and still detectable. In the times of millimeter radar and mad the relatively large size of hand razors is no protection at all.

A good way to figure out wich one you will implant is this:
Think who do you like more: Sabretoth or Wolverine...

Just kidding... LOL...

I had mostly figured that between the composite blade material and their position between the bones of your fingers and your nailbed, the razors just wouldn't show up as well as some foot-long metal blades running the length of your forearm. But that's just me.

Check out things like the SR2 image of the street sam. He's got bared forearms, and you can tell he's got spurs simply from the ridges on his skin.

Personally, i never touched hand razors in SR3 either. Back then, you had two choices: spurs for (Str)M, or hand blades at (Str+3)L. Hand razors were (Str+2)L, if i recall, so there was no reason not to get them beyond style or possibly essence.

Personally, i always went for the hand blade, often dikoted. i tended to prefer Power over Damage Level.

Remember the climbing claws from SR3? (I forget which book) Basically razors, except they had crappy damage and cost a little more essence (presumably because of better anchoring to the bones). I ruled that since they were more expensive than razors in terms of nuyen and essence, the blades would be interchangable. That way, a character with climbing claws could swap regular hand razor blades for regular hand razor damage when they weren't expecting to have to climb. Of course, a character that had just paid for razors couldn't effectively use climbing claws, because of the above-mentioned anchoring. That made for a pretty cool character, once. Could climb anything.

The sword category...which includes machete...has reach. As do stun batons. None of the above are 1 meter long.

I think it's a rounding issue, all of those are a half meter (20 Inches) or longer. Now my Forearm (measuring between the outside of the elbow and wrist where a spur would be mounted) is only about 11.5 Inches long meaning that I could probably only use a spur with an 11 inch blade.

I liked when the typo gave reach. Why? Because I tend to make characters with bone lacing or bone density, and if you get either of those, Cyber spurs have just become obselete.