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JudgementLoaf
Alrighty, here it is! The monospider!

The monospider is a nasty little tool roughly the size and shape of a hand grenade (because it is one). However, the monospider has spiked bumps and protrusions at regular intervals around the canister, giving it a rough appearance similar to studded leather. When detonated, the spikes within the grenade launch outward and embed themselves into nearby objects extending the curled monowire between the spikes into a lethal, razor sharp web. Meanwhile, the canister containing the spikes falls away and rapidly disintegrates. While nearly useless in open areas, the monospider is frighteningly effective in enclosed spaces where the lingering monowire strands can make the area lethal for days after its initial employment. This simple fact makes it a favorite of units that have to spend a lot of time in urban areas, where the monospider can quickly and effectively change an alleyway or a small room into a gruesome kill zone for the unwary.

Cost: 100 nuyen.gif
Blast radius 10 m (no chunky salsa from this one, sorry). Use standard grenade rules otherwise.

Anyone caught in the initial blast will be hit by either a monowire strand or a spike for the tune of 8 physical.
Anyone moving through the radius afterwards without clipping the monowire strands will be sliced by monowire (8 physical again) for every meter they move through.




HeavyMetalYeti
I like it. But with a blast rad of 10 meters, i'd say that it would work in most small to med rooms. Just toss one or two in and mark that room cleared.
jago668
I'd like to point out that 10m means it doens't just cut off hallways and alleys, etc. That is roughly a 60' span it will cover. Meaning a couple of these will block off an auditorium fairly effectively. Or roughly 216,000 cubic foot room is now filled with monowire. If that is what you want, go for it, your campaign and all. However just from the fluff text 3m to 4m would be plenty to get the described effect.
Umbra
I like it as well except the price seems way way too low.

Monofilament Whips cost 3,000 Nuyen for about 2 meters of monowire.
Monofilament Garrotes cost 2,000 Nuyen for about 1 meter or monowire
Monofilament Bolas cost 2,500 Nuyen, I'll have to asume 1.5 meters of monowire there.
Monowire costs 1,000 Nuyen per Meter.

Microwire only costs 50 Nuyen per 100 meters though (Shadowrun Core Rules pg. 329). It does the same 8P damage but without the -4AP.
I'll have to assume that you need to apply a bit more weight against it to make it cut you though.

...At which point, I just noticed that you don't have your Monospider grenade having any AP...

Ah ha! You've got yourself a good marketing scam going on there. If you wanted truth in advertising you'd have to call it the Microspider instead.
Then again, if you wanted truth in advertising, then you'd be the only weapon manufacturer in the world to actually do so.

- Umbra
Sir_Psycho
Very cool, but needs to be pricier and have a smaller radius. Very cool tool, though.
Fuchs
Ah... reminds me of the monowire netgun.
hobgoblin
hehe, the infinite uses of monowire wink.gif
Sir_Psycho
Floss?
Zen Shooter01
Yeah, way too cheap. Judging by the description, this device would deploy at least ten of the 'wire trailing spikes, and each 'wire would have to be at least five meters long, to get the 10m radius. Monowire costs 1,000 nuyen per meter, therefore this device would cost something like 50,000 nuyen. Making it absurdly expensive for area control compared to half a dozen grenades with motion detectors, or a reusable sentry gun.

I've seen GMs do everything from monowire webs to monowire fences, in the belief, I guess, that cost/benefit analysis has gone out of fashion in the corporate world of the future.

This comes up a lot in SR. Are Cutter nanites cool? Sure. Are they idiotically expensive for their effect, especially compared to injecting the target with a lot of arsenic, or just throwing an HE grenade at them? Yes.
darthmord
Could always have the cost be a bit higher and have the grenade be re-usable... Such that the web is retractable. The spikes that go into the walls would be able to retract their claws and the micro-servo motors in the grenade body would pull the spikes back into the grenade body.

Then again, have this as a second model of the fire & forget grenade.
Ed_209a
If you just want to instantly block a hallway, you can use microwire instead of monowire. (I think that was Umbra's point)

You really just need something that isn't _trivial_ to run through. The guards _will_ get through, even if they have to pull out the spikes with pliers. Even if they have to cut new doors with chainsaws. They will get through.

You just want that extra 30 sec to get away.
Tarantula
Or, you know, they could just bust out their gerber multi-tools and the wirecutters on them. Snip the ones most in the way, and step over/crawl under the others.
hobgoblin
QUOTE (Zen Shooter01 @ Sep 4 2008, 05:20 PM) *
This comes up a lot in SR. Are Cutter nanites cool? Sure. Are they idiotically expensive for their effect, especially compared to injecting the target with a lot of arsenic, or just throwing an HE grenade at them? Yes.


cold war style poisoning with a custom umbrella and rare toxin?

and, how traceable are cutter nanites?

also, arsenic have known symptoms, and the grenade have a area effect (altho i guess one could try and pass the blame on to terrorists of some sort).

i dunno, sometimes cool overrules cost/benefit.

then there is the mental statement of "we can throw vast amount of money on a problem and not care about it"...
JudgementLoaf
Yeah. It probably is a bit cheap. And the radius a bit large. Bringing the radius down to about 4-5m would work as intended. And yes, good eyes with the microwire and noticing the missing -4 AP. I took that out to try to justify the lower cost, and totally forgot about the fact that I just described microwire.
jago668
QUOTE (JudgementLoaf @ Sep 4 2008, 11:33 AM) *
Yeah. It probably is a bit cheap. And the radius a bit large. Bringing the radius down to about 4-5m would work as intended. And yes, good eyes with the microwire and noticing the missing -4 AP. I took that out to try to justify the lower cost, and totally forgot about the fact that I just described microwire.


You could always have two versions. Doesn't seem that difficult to make it with monowire instead of micro. I mean if you have the machines that can build them, just feed it monowire instead of microwire.
Dumori
or just normal wire if some one sees one of though go of and knows what they do I think they'd slow down. Throw a few normal one then a monowire one and they'll think it didn't deploy and die plus could make for nast jungle warfear traps rig to montion sensors then pow out it pops and anchors to trees and the ground have fun getting past those.
JudgementLoaf
Heck, another option could simply be normal wires with wireless transmitters attached in the spike. When someone trips the wire, it pulls of the spike and the transmitter informs the user that someone is trying to get by.
Dumori
yeah these could be fun tech. In my game wink.gif
Muspellsheimr
QUOTE (jago668 @ Sep 4 2008, 12:24 PM) *
You could always have two versions. Doesn't seem that difficult to make it with monowire instead of micro. I mean if you have the machines that can build them, just feed it monowire instead of microwire.

You don't get it - it is not the difficulty of using monowire instead of microwire, it is the cost.

Microwire: 0.5 Nuyen / Meter
Monowire: 1,000 Nuyen / Meter

To function as described, this device would require at minimum eight to ten 10-meter strands of wire, meaning each such grenade, if used with monowire, will cost 80,000 Nuyen +. Use microwire, and 100 to 150 Nuyen per grenade is reasonable.


On the subject of the grenade itself, a 5m radius would be more than sufficient for at least 95% of all hallways, as well as most small rooms.
Dumori
I feel that the mono one would be made reusable by charmelion coating the body of the item but microwire would be one use. If any one use monowire it will be as a portable wall not a throw and run item.
Sir_Psycho
For using the wire grenades as sensors, don't forget capacitance wire that sets off a screamer when it even senses a change in it's environment.

And then, applying the same concept, you could use normal, electrified wire, and voila you've got a non-lethal, instantly deployable electric fence. The best part is if the opposition goes "Oh, it's a microwire trap, some-one hand me their sharp, metallic object that is not insulated".
DWC
QUOTE (Sir_Psycho @ Sep 4 2008, 07:57 PM) *
For using the wire grenades as sensors, don't forget capacitance wire that sets off a screamer when it even senses a change in it's environment.

And then, applying the same concept, you could use normal, electrified wire, and voila you've got a non-lethal, instantly deployable electric fence. The best part is if the opposition goes "Oh, it's a microwire trap, some-one hand me their sharp, metallic object that is not insulated".


People who use uninsulated hand tools deserve everything that they get, and they generally don't do it twice.
Dumori
QUOTE (Sir_Psycho @ Sep 5 2008, 01:57 AM) *
For using the wire grenades as sensors, don't forget capacitance wire that sets off a screamer when it even senses a change in it's environment.

And then, applying the same concept, you could use normal, electrified wire, and voila you've got a non-lethal, instantly deployable electric fence. The best part is if the opposition goes "Oh, it's a microwire trap, some-one hand me their sharp, metallic object that is not insulated".


Or electified monowired! yeah thats just a bit silly. but how would you power that?
jago668
QUOTE (Muspellsheimr @ Sep 4 2008, 07:25 PM) *
You don't get it - it is not the difficulty of using monowire instead of microwire, it is the cost.

Microwire: 0.5 Nuyen / Meter
Monowire: 1,000 Nuyen / Meter

To function as described, this device would require at minimum eight to ten 10-meter strands of wire, meaning each such grenade, if used with monowire, will cost 80,000 Nuyen +. Use microwire, and 100 to 150 Nuyen per grenade is reasonable.


On the subject of the grenade itself, a 5m radius would be more than sufficient for at least 95% of all hallways, as well as most small rooms.


I do "get" it. *shakes head, and rolls eyes*

However just because you wouldn't want to pay for one doesn't mean someone else wouldn't. I was pointing out that it would be fairly simply to have one of these things made with monowire. So if some customer called in and wanted 10 of these things made with mono instead of micro. Well you just go out to the machine, replace the spool of micro on the machine and run 10 off. You would pass the increased cost on to the customer along with a hefty "customization" fee. How is this a loss for the company? It is shadowrun, as crazy as it would be to make one. If you built it, someone would buy it.
Jaid
you seriously think someone's gonna be interested in paying 80,000 nuyen for -4 AP?

sorry, but no. the people who have that kind of money didn't get that rich by flushing their money down the toilet. and also don't need monowire grenades, because for that kind of money you can hire a bodyguard who will be far more effective than some stupid monowire grenade.
Muspellsheimr
Not to mention that the "reusable" version of this really will not be that reusable. Something like this is easy to loose, easy to destroy, & likely will be destroyed if someone puts any effort into bypassing it. Not to mention that in most situations where it would be useful, retrieving it is out of the question.


No, the monowire version is not even the least bit practical, and if someone is retarded enough to shell out 80k+ for it, I can almost guarantee they will get at most 5 uses out of it before it is destroyed, or they die trying to retrieve it.
darthmord
QUOTE (DWC @ Sep 4 2008, 09:00 PM) *
People who use uninsulated hand tools deserve everything that they get, and they generally don't do it twice.


Oh yes. They most certainly deserve everything they get. As an electronics tech, I only made that mistake once.
Dumori
Yeah Ive seen people make that mistake once with a high voltage and ampage line the tool vaporized before the breaker tripped! I think He need surgery as some of his fingers had melted together.
Sir_Psycho
QUOTE (Dumori @ Sep 4 2008, 09:06 PM) *
Or electified monowired! yeah thats just a bit silly. but how would you power that?

Well, if you want to keep the Monospider's dissolving case system, then you'd have capacitors inside the bolts that shoot into the walls and floor. Effectively, they're just canon taser darts in a grenade.
JudgementLoaf
For electrified versions, it might be prudent to keep the case, but the idea for the dissolving case was twofold. First, it was designed to disintegrate to prevent multiple uses. Simple economics there.... it keeps the users of the monospider having to buy more grenades. Second, the lack of a case makes it harder to spot. A grenade sized case would be a dead giveaway stranded in the web itself. I think the idea of a charged bolt would work best, although you could give the lines a little slack, and use their vibration from passing air to charge the bolts, keeping the available for more than one use.
HeavyMetalYeti
What about using Microwire, Chamelion coating, rating 15 plastic explosive. The ulitimate fire and forget booby trap. Just dont forget where you put it.
jago668
QUOTE (Jaid @ Sep 5 2008, 12:49 AM) *
you seriously think someone's gonna be interested in paying 80,000 nuyen for -4 AP?

sorry, but no. the people who have that kind of money didn't get that rich by flushing their money down the toilet. and also don't need monowire grenades, because for that kind of money you can hire a bodyguard who will be far more effective than some stupid monowire grenade.


I pointed out that it would cost the company absolutely nothing extra to make a mono version. Any customer would pay the extra cost. So yeah it wouldn't surprise me at all for a few people to have 1 or 2 sitting in their armory, "Just in case." That doesn't even count the few people that would probably have them as a collector's item. There will always be people with excess funds that will purchase something because it is cool or rare. So while there would never be an actual production run, I am sure there would be some custom ones floating around.
HappyDaze
I might suggest fast-drying adhesive "goo-wads" instead of the spikes since it avoids questions of underpenetration and overpenetration of the surrounding walls.
PirateRogue
The way to make the electrified version would to make the main body something like a land mine shape that you set on the floor. Make the body some kind of camouflage and then hit the trigger and you have 2 second to clear the radius before the wires shoot out and if your touching the wires you get a shock. It would also work as a land mine as well for people crossing it could set it off and then you take out the whole squad following you.

I am new to 4th edition or I would write out the rules for this mine myself. So if someone who is better versed wants to write it up I'd be happy to use it.
Dumori
Sounds good. um a motion sensor on the monospider would work have it alow an incoming singnal once a switch is flicked then when deployed its tamper proof. To add to the death add explosives to the mine that go off when certain conditions are met depending on what sensors you have on it. I could explode if removed or some one gets past it for example.
Rad
So microwire is actually different? I always thought that was another of 4th ed's typos, and it was actually supposed to be "monowire." It doesn't mention the AP, but it also doesn't work like a normal damage test--it basically says "you take 8 damage", doesn't say you get to apply armor, which makes sense if you're grabbing something with your (presumably unarmored) hands.

Then again, it doesn't say you get to resist that damage either, IIRC. ohplease.gif
Tarantula
No, they very definitively said micro wire in every instance of that section. Presumably its different, as microwire supports up to 2,000kg. Just over 2 tons.

I don't think the same can be said for monowire.
Ed_209a
Microwire is probably in the same family of materials as monowire, but much thicker. I visualize microwire being like monofiliment fishing line, where monowire is thinner than spider thread.

I think microwire is so much cheaper because when your strand is .1 mm thick, you can overlook an atom or two out of place. Monowire has to be nearly perfect to be useful at all. High levels of quality control and precision manufacturing can cost an arm and a leg. (and several redundant organs too.)
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