You can probably build yourself some interesting toys from plans off the Matrix. The generalities of non-nuclear EMP bombs are available on the internet today.

However, they won't do much. Shadowrun makes the point in the main book that chips are most optical and immune to EMP.

Make sure to say "hi" to the nice folks at Homeland Security!

Yeah. They've been after me ever since I started carrying around my Almanac.

And rightly so.

ANDREWS isn't an EMP device. It's a particle-beam weapon, fires a stream of high-energy charged particles.

They have 'em in Battletech, too, but there they're called "PPCs".

AFAIK, if the said charged particle are electrons, when the beam will hit a solid target, there will be EMP. If they are protons, I don't know, but I wouldn't surprised if it messed up as well with electronic systems.

The use of rhodopsine in electronic is explained in Shadowtech. To sum up, it's a molecule that change it's state when hit by a laser powerful enough, act as a filter if the laser is not powerful enough, and is stable enough to store information. Such laser-based technology are more precise than magnetic fields used in nowadays storage.

Right... and I did say that optical data storage makes sense to me... we use optical data storage even now in the form of cd-rws and dvd+/-rws It even makes sense as a means of controling data flow. What does NOT make sense is this:

I've seen similar statements in other threads... The bottom line is that you can't "power" something via optics. You can't make a motor run no matter how many lasers and rhodopsin switches you have available to you unless you also provide electrical power to that motor. Even the lasers themselves would require electrical input.

Tell that to your microwave.

Yeah, but it's not the primary damaging effect... that'd be the kinetic and thermal energy dumped into the target. Calling ANDREWS an EMP weapon is kind of like saying that DU rounds kill you by heavy metal poisoning.

It is precicely said in the weapon's description that it either detonate missiles or fries their components, so that side-effect must be often playing a part in the weapon effectiveness. And ships and other potential targets are much more resilient to thermal and kinetic attacks than missiles are.

Cute... but the last time I checked, microwaves did not reside in the visible spectrum -- they are a form of radio wave. And I dont think youll get a lot of people to agree with you if you think that a radio is an excellent example of optical engineering.

Anyway, call me up when you manage to get your microwave to power your toaster.

Perhaps. First, though, I would like someone to provide a canon reference to the fact that electronic devices not directly involved in data storage are now optically powered. Second, I would like to point out that the rules for cybersystem damage from an electrical attack in M&M seem to indicate that if the SR developers ever made the assertion that things like cyberlimbs are optically powered, they have abandoned or ignored this assertion.

"Microwave" is just a term used to describe a certain color of light, higher frequency than radio, but lower frequency than infrared. Calling microwave "a form of radio wave" is both inaccurate, because they're not radio frequency, and irrelevant, because radio waves (and microwaves) are just as much light as any other portion of the spectrum. Microwave ovens operate by transmitting power into the object to be heated via a beam of light. That your eyes aren't equipped to see that light doesn't make it any less a beam of light.

I didn't say it was. Your basic transistor radio is an electronic device. So is a microwave oven. However, they both do exactly what you're claiming is "just silly"... transmit power via a beam of light. So do laser weapons - possibly even in the visible portion of the spectrum. There's been talk of using lasers to launch spaceships... there's no reason that the same principles couldn't be used to spin a turbine, if you insist on light-driven motors. (Though "electric" and "electronic" are not synonymous, so it's entirely possible to have a standard electric motor without any electronics.)

I would, but it wouldn't really be newsworthy. The tech is decades old. Try reading up on microwave power transmission.

What's wrong with nitpicking? It's FUN!

Ask and ye shall receive.

Pg. 30 M&M, left column.

The general rule of thumb is that electronics in SR are optical only when the developers want it to be. They're very non-optical when they want to fuck the PCs over, e.g. the rigger rules on ASIST backlash.

Look, there's a reason that the word "visible" is included in the phrase "visible light". That's because it's describing the visible portion of the full spectrum of light, as opposed to the invisible portion of the spectrum... the stuff from red to violet, as opposed to the stuff between radio and infrared, or ultraviolet to gamma rays. It's all electromagnetic radiation transmitted by photons. It all moves at C in a vacuum. It's all light. Only the frequency differs. It does not have to be visible to the human eye to be light. (Hell, this is Shadowrun we're talking about... what constitutes "visible light" depends on your metatype. Even in the real world, there's inter-species variations there. A lot of insects can see well into the ultraviolet, for example.)

And microwaves are not radio waves. They're higher frequency than radio waves. The spectrum of light is divided into radio, microwave, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays, in order of increasing frequency. The exact boundaries are kind of arbitrary, and based on frequency-dependent behaviour. Microwaves have many of the same properties as radio waves because they're close in frequency... their behaviour is more similar to radio than it is to, say, that of gamma rays. However, they're still a different portion of the spectrum. And as I said before, it wouldn't matter if microwaves were radio waves, because radio waves are still light. Very low-frequency light, but light nonetheless.

And "optical" is not restricted to the visible portion of the spectrum. Or are you claiming that infrared lasers are not optical devices? Or are they only optical devices if you're a dwarf or troll?

And even if you were right, which you're not, it's still irrelevant, because it's entirely possible to transmit power via a beam of light in the visible portion of the spectrum. Ever heard of an opticoupler? What do you think a laser weapon is doing? How do you explain lightsails if transmitting power via a beam of light is "just silly"? (No, lightsails are not propelled by the solar wind.)

Now, I'm not asserting that Shadowrun doesn't use electric power for anything. If nothing else, the presence of power-line masers as datacomm in Matrix is an indication that good old-fashioned electric power land-lines are still in use. However, as I said before, "electric" and "electronic" are not synonymous. Transistors and diodes are electronic components, resistors and capacitors and such are electric but not electronic. If you replace all the transistors and diodes in a device with optical equivalents, you no longer have an electronic device, though it may be (and probably is) still electrically powered.

-Siege

You're mixing the benefits of elemental manipulations and regular area effect spells. There are no spells that gain both the benefits of blanketing an area regardless of cover from the center of effect, and of affecting areas outside line of sight.

Area-effect combat spells, like manaball and powerball, do not have a point of origin. Anything the caster can see that resides inside the radius of effect is affected. There could be a concrete wall between a target and the center of effect, and if the caster can see behind the wall, the target behind it will still be affected. On the other hand, someone within the radius of effect with no cover from the center of effect, but whom the caster cannot see, will not be affected. Armor does not protect against regular combat spells.

Area-effect elemental manipulations, on the other hand, do have a point of origin. The effect starts at the center of the radius of effect and radiates outwards to the limits of the effect zone. Barriers and suchlike between a target and the center of effect do provide cover, even if the caster can see the target, and the effect can hit areas that the caster cannot see, provided there's a clear path to the point of origin of the effect. Armor protects against elemental manipulations (only half Impact, but that's because of the nature of the damage, not the magical origin of the effect).

An EMP spell should be an elemental manipulation, and therefore should behave in the latter fashion. Shielding should work just fine, just as armor does.

Or you could just use Ball Lightning.