One of my players was just shopping for inline skates(one of the few movement-boosting upgrades) and we got to discussing the possibility of a skateboard instead. For me, it's about style - I don't have a lot of rollerskating heroes, but Marty McFly and YT will always hold a special place in my heart. The description for the inline skates seems to include all the hardware to make a SnowCrash style smart board happen, although I suggested we cannibalise a Ferret drone to give it some autopilot abilities and sensors.

What do you guys think? Good idea, bad idea?

Excellent idea. It's very 80s, a little over the top, and a perfect, cheap, hugely dangerous vehicle for heroes and gangers to splat the asphalt with.

Sounds like a lot of fun...

I am particularly fond of the Atmospheric Surfboard myself...

Keep the Faith

Good Idea
A Chummer of Mine who happens to be also in this Forum,Doc-Byte,has some nifty Houseroules about a Sportsgroup(Skills) and gadgets.I'll send him a PM

HokaHey
Medicineman

Also, in SR4, there are skimmer-disc feet.
If you slap Troll-Sized skimmer-disc-feet together and work some small gyroscopes into that thing, why should humans, elves and dwarves, maybe even the odd troll, not be able to have a hover-board?
Of course, the Skimmer-Disc-Drone being used in such a way is a nice idea too . . Are there any rules in $R4.5 about how much one such drone can lift and carry?

Are there any rules in ...
No,I didn't find any in SR4A
But I think You're on the right path.Take a Trollsize (or 2) Scimmer Disk and up You go. Speed should be the usual x 1,5 Walking/Running

HokaHey
Medicineman

The idea's a bit outdated by RW and didn't attract a lot of fans here at DS. Curiously quite a lot of Pegasus Forum users liked it.




I've even added a 6th skill:



Considering the new rules in RW, general game mechanics, likeness of movments and game relevance my final result looks like this:


Sports skill group

Cycling (Body)
Default: Yes
Skill Group: Sports
Specializations: Road racing, track racing, mountain biking, BMX freestyle, urban sprawl, touring

Skating (Strength)
Default: Yes
Skill Group: Sports
Specializations: Rollerblading, skateboarding, ice skating, speed skating, short track, figure skating, hover boards

Skiing (Strength)
Default: Yes
Skill Group: Sports
Specializations: Downhill, super-g, slalom, snowboarding, freestyle, cross-country

Surfing (Agility)
Default: Yes
Skill Group: Sports
Specializations: Wave riding, wind surfing, water skiing, maybe skysurfing


---

But I'm not sure if that's helpful concerning this topic.

but Thanks Anyway

Hough !
Medicineman

I have to say I would love to see some skateboards in shadowrun, espeical a classic "hoverboard", one of the halmarks of cyberpunk but for some reason it never saw shadowrun as far as I know.
*Goes to watch Back to the future 3 for the 6th time*

Why 3? The hoverboard barely shows up in 3. 2 was where it was at.

Reminds me of a solar sailboat thing from Treasure Planet.

I stand corrected, I forgot the third one was the one where they go to the wild west, its the second that we see the cyberpunkish futer.

Yes... Very much like that indeed... Perfect Visual, if you are talkking about the Rocket Boosted Sail-Board (sans the Sail) that the lead character is using in the beginning of the movie...

Keep the Faith

Oh, is *that* what you were thinking of. I was remembering the airboard that Kit used to use on Tale Spin.

Naaa, Not what I was thinking about... I prefer the visual of the Rocket Boosted Atmospheric Surfboard... It is so much cooler... I can see a sport springing up around that, much like we have Nascar now... I would go to see the Crashes...

The version I came up with is not rocket Boosted (would be cool though), but it still travels at over 200 kph... awesome...

Keep the Faith

Add in Jumpjets, it's the only way to be sure.
Also, do a barrel roll with it.

As long as my gecko Feet Restraint system is working (and Inertia is still on my side) The Barrel roll would be fun...

Not sure how it would work out though...

Keep the Faith

Adding my Tuppence worth

Skim Boots in the Johnathan Littel book, Bad Voltage

Now I have this image of a punk'd up shadowrun doing a barrle roll while fireing dual machine pistols.

Really? Odd that, I got an image of two idiots "skater jousting' on hoverboards... Please don't tell me I'm the only one who remembers "skater jousting" from the 80's. What was that movie? Thrasher?

There's like a dozen video games like that I can think of. I will need to look up the names of them to make sure, but I know there's a ton of them out there. Playstation had some, Xbox has a couple, and the Xbox Live Arcade is having at least one.

Now, part of me is seeing a Jet Set Radio type of Runner, grinding along rails and signs and everything. Might be an interesting variation of the parkour adept.

I wanted to thank the Dumpshock community for the feedback on this, and post my set of Skateboard house rules for anyone who is interested. If you'd like to use them in your game, please do.

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Skateboarding in 2072 is a popular sport with a large following. Several recent trid series (including the popular 'My Sister is a Technomancer') have characters that exploit the Skateboarder fan base, and the sport is booming. Technology like smartwheels, gyrostabilisers, and drone brains mean there are lots of options from beginner up to professional.

Optional rule: Players attempting a Full Defense action while on a board may make a stunt check first and add net hits to the dice pool to defend. (e.g., player declares a stunt dodge. Player rolls for the stunt, gets 3 hits. Player rolls to dodge, using Reaction+Dodge+3.)

Optional rule: Players taking damage while riding a board must make a stunt roll and exceed the final damage taken (after dodge, armor, and body are considered) or suffer Knockdown.

EVO Streetboard 200Y
This is an entry-level skateboard, popular with kids and anyone on a budget. It includes smartwheels, and can accept tuning softs. Without further modification, it provides a 1.5 multiplier to movement rates, and rolls Agility+Reaction to perform tricky manuvers.

Tuning Soft - High-Speed Racing 100Y
This chip can be loaded into any smartwheel-equipped skateboard. This software is optimized for maneuvers at high speeds, like weaving through traffic or making hairpin turns. When this tuning soft is installed, stunts are rolled using Reaction+Pilot Ground Vehicle, and receive a +2 pool when those stunts are covered by the set of Street Racing protocols built into the chip (GM's discretion.) Only one tuning soft may be installed at a time.

Tuning Soft - Acrobatic Stunts 100Y
This chip can be loaded into any smartwheel-equipped skateboard. This software is designed to help with low-speed stunts using stairs, walls, or barriers to quickly change direction or gain altitude. When this tuning chip is installed, stunts are rolled using Agility+Gymnastics, and receive a +2 pool when those stunts are covered by the set of popular tricks built into the chip (GM's Discretion.) Only one tuning soft may be installed at a time.

Modification - Self-Propelled 800Y
This hooks a small motor to the Smartwheel assembly, letting it move at 10/25 via AR control (or maintain a higher speed for ten rounds). This is slower then simply riding the skateboard normally, so this upgrade is usually either laziness or the first step in building a droneboard.

Modification - Gyro-stabilizer 500Y
This adds an obvious bulge to the center of the board where the powerful gyro is housed. With this upgrade, the board can control its rotation, assisting with stunts, and can flip itself rightside up if it lands badly. It also provides AR feedback to the user, helping to optimize balance - treat this as a +1 handling bonus to most stunts.

Modification - Autopilot (500Y*Rating)
This system adds a basic Pilot package to the board, rated at 1-3. The board will follow basic commands, and uses the Rating as the base pool for performing stunts when not being ridden. Self-propulsion and Gyro-Stabilization are recommended for maximum mobility. The board includes a sensor package (Micro, Minidrone, Small Drone respectively, SR4A 334) at the rating of the Autopilot.

Modification - Skimmer Disks 5000Y
The holy grail for some skaters, skimmer disks raise the mobility modifier to 2x, and can (theoretically) skate across water. However, the skimmer effect isn't as effective against large obstacles as the smartwheels are (skimmers can ignore 4cm of obstruction, and smartwheels 12cm) which means things normal skaters take for granted like going over curbs and down escalators may require stunt checks. The skimmerboards are also incredibly tempting to thieves.


(The skateboard can be further modified using many of the vehicle and weapon mod rules in Arsenal, subject to GM approval. Treat a self-propelled skateboard as a drone with a body of 2 and a top speed of 25 for purposes of modification.)

very nice job...have snagged them and intend to use them for a gang level pbp that I am starting over on hiddengrid..thanks. as my son is a sk8r,i have often wondered if the sport would survive till 2072..now i know it will (grin

What's to stop someone from having both wheels and skimmers? I mean, they have wheeled vehicles with hover capabilities, and skimmers don't seem like they'd have to be all that big... Is is not possible that skimmers could be fitted to a board in the spaces immediately in front of and behind the wheels, and still function? That way you can have the versatility of both, with mild disadvantages to performance (I'm guessing the wheels still being attached would rob the skimmers of a modicum of their maneuverability, while the skimmers would reduce the wheels' ground clearance making the ignorable obstruction height more like 8-10cm rather than 12cm), without the complete weaknesses of either (I'm sure that skimmer systems, with all their moving parts, are prone to malfunction, especially with the potential of being jammed up, or fouled by pollutants on the ground, meanwhile, while the skimmers function, you can cross water).

If this isn't what you had in mind (i.e. you meant for the change to be complete with no possibility to have both) perhaps denote that the skimmer pads must replace the wheels, or that such a modification would be impossible on most boards, and that only wheels or skimmers could be installed, not both. Maybe even make a more expensive board that has been designed from the ground up to have both systems...

Wouldn't this go under the exotic vehicle skill?

I think one of these boards with a rope attached to it would be a good thing to bring on a run. If someone is shot unconscious then you could put them on the board and drag them back to safety.

I think people may want to check out Futuresport as an example of how skateboarding and hoverboarding could work in SR.

I don't see anything wrong with it. The skimmers are better for high-speed chases over smooth terrain (i.e., streets and sidewalks) while the smartwheels can actually handle broken terrain and some off-road stuff pretty handily*. The tradeoff is you can get up to 2x movement, but you're going to have to roll more tests to stay on the board. If the player wants the wheels to fold up for racing, I say go for it. The Rule of Cool applies here.


*This is a GM judgement call, of course. I'm thinking of Snow Crash, where YT rode her board down a forested hill, with the smartwheels smoothing it out for her. I like the idea of the Smartwheels having an edge over the skimmers in some situations, personally, as it gives the two options more personality then just a speed boost.



The right skill is something that we've gone back and forth about, and I think I found a nice loophole instead of actually making a decision. Since the inline skates this item is based on roll Agility+Reaction, that's the basic skill roll - however, you can upgrade it with Tuning Softs which optimize the smartwheels to use a different style, changing the skill roll to something else. The GM can allow his own variants of tuning softs, or none at all.

In my game, I went with the standard Pilot Ground Vehicles and Gymnastics skills instead of more exotic skills to make training less of a burden on the player. Putting points in either of these skills can save your bacon in other situations, and I'm pro-bacon.