Hey all!

An old friend of mine played a paraplegic hacker in the days of SR3 and thought about joining my current group. She wishes to play her old character, but I am not sure what use a paraplegic hacker has in SR4 since for hacking she needs to get close enough to the systems to hack them meaning the team would need to carry her ....

Any ideas?

Look at a few of the vehicles in Arsenal. They're designed for just such an occasion.

Armed and Armoured Wheelchair of DOOM!!!

There are some "wheelchairs" in Arsenal that could maybe be adapted to be used during runs.

It's possible to stay home most of the time, though. The only cases when the hacker has to go on site would be :
- If the system is wired with no external connection
- If the system is inside a farraday cage or behind walls coated with wireless signal blocking paint with no connection to the outside
- If there's a jammer on the way that disrupts the signals.
In those cases, the hacker will need the team to install a satellite antenna or a wireless router with a high signal rating and to hook it to the system they need to hack. It's not impossible, but it's not really convenient.

Actually that's not really different from SR3...

So, the 'Runners would have to carry a really long Fiber Optic cable that ends in a Sat-Link on the outside end, and a computer jack on the other?

In SR3, there were systems you had to be physically present to hack - or have a cable/sat receiver hooked up to it by a team mate, drone, spirit, etc. So, nothing really changed.

Pfft

It's a two step program

A) Buy a retransmitter+ sat uplink so you have signal 8 and are functionally immune to jamming

B) buy whoever has skillwires a hardware skillsoft.

Bingo bango, wireless connectivity for everyone.

As long as there's no jammer/faraday cage/blocking paint on the way, you can use wireless routers. You just need the fiber optic cable where wireless signal don't work so most of the time you'll just need small fiber optic cables to go through walls. The big problem will be that any security spider will notice all those wireless routers and could try to shut them down (or send drones/guards to do it "manually").

Our Rigger/Hacker lives in his Horseman PMV from Arsenal. It's just a bit larger than a large Troll, and so can get just about everywhere. There is also the Wheelchair Drone mentioned before and the retransmitter in a drone that would work for most times a Horseman couldn't fit.

And, if you group is cash strapped and can't afford all that fancy gear, Troll Muscle is fairly cheap.

And why wouldn't the hacker, after a couple jobs, just not get new arms and legs?

I understand wanting to play this type of character, but in the setting, it really doesn't make sense. Anyone that has been restricted to a wheelchair, wants to walk again and would give anything to do so. And in SR4, its only a little bit of nuyen to do so...

Because the paraplegic thing was a flaw taken at character creation (SR3 rules) which can not be overcome by cyberware.

The damage is extensive enough that Cybernetics can't solve it.

HOWEVER, check out things in Augmentation for SR4! Perhaps, if she can save enough, she may be able to WALK!

... but is viably overcomeable via rigged exoskeleton.

I thought we were talking about SR4 here...my mistake.

Well actually we are talking about converting this character from SR3 to SR4...with all his "problems"...

Just talked to her an found out that she forgot something she should have told me.

Her character is blind, too. Yeah right, she is a cripple...sorry did not meant to be rude, but I cannot believe her old GM allowed her to play this...

Right now I do not know how I ever should integrate her char in my group...

Well, if she was a Decker in the old system, those "Disadvantages" aren't really so. Don't need eyes to see the Matrix in it's glory. And, with DNI, don't even need hands that type!

Heck, if she doesn't have too much Cyberware, she most likely was online during Crash 2.0, and might be a Technomancer now! She could see the world through Augmented Reality and all the Wireless-Enabled Cameras that are about!

... Hey! Why didn't anyone tell her she had such a shapely hoop?

Thx CanRay, cannot believe I had not the idea myself. Converting her into a technomancer is a great solution. And in a horseman with some cameras and other modifications she might be even able to survive on her own. I have to make a phone call, someone will be quite happy

Yeah, well, get Unwired, it's got rules for AIPS, which she probably suffers from as well.

And, again, there's genetic engeneering and other things going on now that, if she can get the cash and contacts for, would allow her to walk! Of course, she might see everyone else as being Cripples because they don't get to tool around in the "Wheelchair of DOOM!"

"Stupid Bipeds."

Yeah ... because for a 'mancer, walking into a corp lab and asking to have some genetic engineering done on her is a really, really smart idea ...

I've been known to play a disabled character from time to time. The thing is, I (and probably your player as well) do it in a way that the character is still viable (otherwise, where is the fun in that?). I had a character in another game that was deaf, but could hear radio waves, so it was just a different way to communicate.

If that is the case with this character, it probably doesn't matter as much about the technical specs of the wheelchair and whatnot. As long as she can remotely access her team and matrix, then she'd probably be set. You really don't need rules for the rest of it, cause it is fluff. Whether stuck in a wheelchair or a hacker that is afraid to leave his 10x10 room...

Which is all the more appropriate if said Hacker is an Ork, and has the electronic gizmos on a chest.

I had a friend who played what amounted to Verne Troyer with extensive spinal trauma and four amputated limbs. The things we do to get someone to try a new system. He wanted this human tragedy to be a rigger, and to that end purchased an anthroform drone with a decent sized storage compartment which, you guessed it, he rode in. The only thing that made me go for it was the fact it had a hybrid Diesel/Electric engine. According to the rules anytime he wanted to go faster than the listed 15 kph he had to start the diesel, which he preferred to do by rip starting the cord. Rather than listening to his teammates who didn't want to take the elevator with him while it was running (he had enviroseal), he went on to get his beloved NO2 system which would have lead to his demise if the game hadn't fallen apart first.

Granted we weren't playing that serious of a campaign or that type of thing would be right out. Hell, one character even got each member of the party a level 3 linguasoft of "That language the dude from 'The Gods Must Be Crazy' spoke" so they could communicate secretly. It all depends on your game, but a PMV or Chair-O-Doom would great for this type of character. Best bet might be to talk the player out of so many flaws (or limit the flaws) and say that in the time that past medicine improved and they improved their live as well.

And, if medicine improved, it's probably still expensive, especially without a SIN.

Which would give yet more reason for 'Running, to pay off debts! Or just to survive!

FYI, one of the characters I had written up had broken his back in the early part of Bug City, and can now only walk, and that with pain. So an inability to run might be a good compensation for not being bedridden any longer, and also give reason for the WHEELCHAIR OF DOOM!!!

What? I like the WoD. If only I could get Golf Carts, it'd be that much better!

I'm feeling the Segway of DOOM myself. It seems that much more ominous what with the upright standing and all.

Yeah, but the Wheelchair of DOOM has that "I just got my hoop kicked by Stephen Hawking!" feel to it!

Touche

but wheelchairs are successful tech, whereas segways are fail.

Been said already, but for 5500 you can buy the Transys Steed (4000) wheelchair drone and slap a Rigger Cocoon (1500 can be installed on small drone or larger vehicle) on it and be immune to damage with less DV than 20 (armor 20/structure 10 barrier) while following the group around from VR. Can even buy a Covert Ops autosoft for it and the wheelchair can move stealthily for you.

wow, bullet proof and able to use the drive thru at McHughs as a bonus. life just got a little bit better!

And can HACK the Drive-Thru at McHugh's and get free food-like substances!

And, and a Mechanical Arm, to grab it without getting out!

"What did the perps look like, Sir?"

"Well, it was a Troll with a pink mohawk and a cyber-arm, a stunning elf in an elegant gown, and an armoured pod with four wheels, a mechanical arm and missile racks, with 'FRAG BIPEDS' scrawled on the side. When I wouldn't give it chocosoy and soyaramel on it's McSunday it started nudging me with it's ram plate and squirting me with a concealed water gun!"

"Are you sure it was full of water?"

"What did you say, Mr. Toaster-Head?"

Psycho, are you in my running group, cause you just about nailed us spot on Not really though. We don't have a stunning elf (just a ninjaed one) nor a Troll, but everything else is spot on

So by process of elimination you have an armored PMV hacker with ram plate, missile launcher, a concealed squirtgun, and "Frag Bipeds" on it?

The start of the WHEELCHAIR OF DOOM!

Now with stair climbing ability.

Amusingly, the Transys Steed already has smart tires and thus stair-climbing ability But yay for tank wheelchair!

You Sir/Madam are a genius

You know, I now have a Shadowteam to throw against my group someday.

Wonder if they'll get to the "Creamy Centre" of the Heavy Metal Hacker?

I had a paraplegic hacker/rigger in 3rd Ed.

He modified a Steel Lynx by attaching an armored seat pod to the top. Weapons. Gear. Drink Dispenser. Wheelchair of Doom.

He generally was accompanied by a butler that was an anthroform drone in a tuxedo. Also tricked out with onboard weaponry and gadgets, including a fiber optic spool in it's back.

Why?

Well, this is a roleplaying game, isn't it?


-karma

"Some ask 'Why'. We prefer to say, 'Why not? We're insanely rich and can afford it!'." - Explaination as to why we put a Bowling Alley in a Combat Starship in Star Wars.

Sir. And thank you. Thank you.





Oooh. I never really thought about modding an actual combat drone into a wheelchair. Armored movement while away on VR AND weapons.

I wonder what the mod cost of the "seat" portion would be or if you could just say that's part of the rigger cocoon...hmmmm.

you could call it an extra entry/exit point =P

I hope to God my players don't see this thread. Suddenly I'm going to have a swarm of these things stealthing their way around corp facilities. Gecko tips, chameleon paint...

Oh crap. Walker mod and you basically have a spider tank from GitS. Yeah, they definitely shouldn't read this thread.

Or they should, and your Corporate Troopers load up on Anti-Vehicle Weapons and Spike Strips for the Wheeled Vehicles!

Other options could include the team must get inside and set up a remote link.
And really being able to hack anywhere by remote and not having to join up with the rest of the group was a MISTAKE in SR3. Why should he escape the danger of high speed chases and being shot at. Why should they get to hang back nice in safe while the Mage, The Samurai and The Face confronts the most of the danger.

The idea you could access any system by remote is ridiculous, many systems can only be access on site for the precise purpose of remote access is not necessary and just a hacking risk. In the movie Die Hard 4 the cyber terrorists couldn't access all those systems by remote they had to send in teams to set up a remote access. Why should it be any different in shadowrun, because some players think its cool to play a character that really isn't part of the team and is as faceless operating by remote as any NPC?

So really if you don't want your character to be a part of the group(which is what a remote paraplegic hacker is) maybe you should be GMing.

Awesome.