My GM has assigned for me, as my adept initiation quest, to get and wire a nuclear device so that it explodes if I die, then adventure in that state for 30 days. How do I go about getting this? Any real-life research of note?

I wouldn't really bother with real life research; by 2070 the information you're looking for is bound to exist in some other form and your character building one himself is likely out of the question anyway, so I'd say start shaking down your contacts. One thing worth noting is that if you look at the Shadowrun timeline you'll notice that the current major nuclear powers are basically kaput by the 2070s, and that Pakistan and India actually nuked eachother in the 2030s. With all the upheaval it's not unreasonable that some weapons have exchanged hands. That said, I wouldn't really expect this to be easy at all and could lead to some hard questions being sked.

It seems like a spectacularly effective way to get yourself killed. There is pretty much only one reason why any individual or a small organization would want a nuclear weapon, and lots of people would be interested hearing about anyone looking for one. I suspect they would likely offer a large finders fee to anyone who put you in contact with them. Don't think that even the most ruthless "black market" arms dealer hasn't made arrangements with various corp and government intelligence/security organizations over what they can sell to whom and when they should quietly make some calls.

KZT pretty much covered the 'Bad Idea' speech, so let me assume that fell on deaf ears and provide some advice...

If you didn't already spot it, this plotline is a reference to Snow Crash, a classic cyberpunk novel. One of the minor characters is an incredibly lethal man named Raven who the authorities won't go near, as he has a nuclear weapon wired to explode if he's ever killed. He keeps it in the sidecar of his motorcycle. In the book, Raven supposedly managed to board and depopulate a Russian nuclear submarine, and stole one of the warheads for this little science fair project.

If this mission is supposed to be a Snow Crash parody, you might be able to follow a similar strategy, since your GM is probably expecting that. Reading the book couldn't hurt, either.

A far as in-game nuclear powers, the only one that leaps to mind is Ares Macrotechnology - they were the ones who decided to nuke Chicago during the Bug City debacle, right? That suggests that our boy Damien has a few stockpiled somewhere - that's where I would start looking.

The only other lead I would check on is Toxic Shamans - there are some nutjobs out there who actually worship the Spirits spawned of nuclear disaster. If they had one, they'd have set it off, but they've probably been looking for one for a while now - their research and your resources might be enough to track one down. Of course, they'll set it off for laughs if they get a chance.

n/t

[sarc]Suddenly senses NSA poking around the mention of "research of nuke" and waves at them and welcomes then to the world of shadowrun where they failed even more to advert nation shattering events. [/sarc]

What kind of initiation requires you to find and wire a nuclear device unless your trying to join one of those crazy toxic groups? Which in that case have fun with all your former drinking buddies becoming enemies as they try and claim that tasty DF bounties they have for those types.. Or just becoming a very wanted person just for thinking about it really, the 6th world if kinda feed up with that kinda stuff. With the second crash and all, still kinda sore and bitter if you get the drift. You'll become a very popular runner and will he having lots of "Friendly" meetings wanting to arranged at your expense.

If I was told I had to go wire a nuke, I would A.) Make a call to a nice corporate buddy at Ares and B.) Get far far away from said group. No one is going to blame you for ratting on a bunch of crazies like them, and they would have way to many people looking for them for them to get someone to deal with you. Hey, you might even get paid for ratting them out.

A point I'm wondering about : what sort of magical tradition or mentor could have that sort od ordeal ? blowing up one could fit for psycho/toxic traditions, but otherwise the whole blow up if I die is strange.

And there are some issues to consider : what sort of dead man's witch to you have ? Permanent signal and blows up if it's lost, then you're a matrix glitch away from disaster. Active detonation signal means if it's jammed there's no boom (not that you'd care much if you're dead). But it also means a third party could hack it out of your coms and use it for his won goals.

Carrying it with you isn't a convenient option either : the smallest nukes ever built wer a bit larger than a soccer ball, weighting something like 30 kg. A bit of a handfull.

There are a few ways I could see a remote nuke being done, and which is the only way I could see it being done, short of something akin to a 'cranial bomb' or a mounted nuke in a vehicle/drone/etc, or some /small/ nuke, which as has been said in current figures, weighing in at about 20-30kg.

Now, I could see a 'large explosive' or even 'nuclear weapon' being done in SR using a lot smaller mass and weight, given newer materials for the casing, or maybe having some newly discovered chemical interactions taking place. There are various science fiction movies with that sort of idea to them. Something like what F/X the Series called a 'French Kiss', two chemicals that are normally stable, separated by a barrier and then when triggered (remote or timer usually), then the chemicals would mix and then explode.

Anyway, ways to make this work short of the options listed previously, include a timed contact. If you do not do X every Y time periods, the bomb will detonate. Now, that X could be done in a number of ways. For example, you could set up a sort of electronic Rube Goldberg machine to relay signals. Like a bio-monitor linked to a script that goes through a series of trixmail addresses, sending a codephrase that triggers a program tied to monitor that account to send another signal to the remote detonator, telling it to reset its timer.

May not be an immediate kaboom, but it is a bit harder to deal with, and allows you a few levels of security. Also allows you to operate in a 'quiet mode' and not have to worry about the bomb going off for loss of contact.

Jammers are a bit of a bummer. You need to come up with something novel to circumvent them.

Get some really custom nanites; on death, you puff them out like spores. They cling on to stuff, and spread around on the wind. They emit the detonation signal. They'll be undetectable until they get out of jammer range - and then they succeed.



I gotta say though, this is really a very weird initiation ordeal.

Another problem: non-lethal weapons are much more sophisticated in SR than in Snow Crash. Beware.

i could see it being a dirty bomb, but a honest to god nuke?!

Really depends on the GM. If he assigned this task to him, it's cause he expects him to succeed - i..e, the GM will give him a nuke. So, no worries. A little handwaving and you'll have a nuke soon enough.

well i think my GM was rather amused at me finishing my mageface friend's initiation for him (practically) because of my complete specilization in unarmed combat (i'm a pixie too). Stealth kill coup-de-grace ftw. Anyway, my GM says that in this campaign setting there are house sized nuclear devices to suitcase sized nuclear devices (no specifics on weights). My worry is not the process of aquiring the nuke, but rather to find the nuke itself. I was planning on using my Irish Mafia contact (specializing in pixie tailoring ) to tell me about Evo (apparently they hate Evo) and their dealings with nuclear devices. After all, all megacorps have nukes, or so says my GM.

my plan when i found the nuke--preferabley a suitcase sized nuke--is to rig the detonator to a transmitter that i would put in my body that would emit beeps based on my blood flow (im sure my technomancer ally could quickly create something like that). That way there would be no jammers involved right?

Jammers: no outgoing signal.

Doesn't matter what its based of off, if its jammed its not getting through.

I think he meant acoustic beeps, which, although it gets around the issue of RF jammers and other interference, is still an incredibly bad idea for at least two reasons:

1) It severely limits the range at which you can operate from the nuke. If you're farther away than the next room, the bomb can't hear the beeps and goes boom.

2) Runs are often noisy, what with gunfire, grenades, screaming, squealing tires, etc. Crank the decibel level high enough, and the bomb can't hear the beeps and goes boom.

So, unless you plan to carry the thing around on your back and operating in near-total silence at all times, the acoustic idea is a real good way to get yourself, your teammates, and everything else in the vicinity nuked.

Is he a demolition adept?

im playing an unarmed adpet so close proximity to the nuke is not a problem unless it goes off of course. im not clear on how jammers affect signals. would a direct link (cords or what not) be a good idea for a biomoniter set for my death? can it be jammed?

That is what you'd need to do to circumvent a jammer. A fiber optic cable linked directly between your biomonitor and the nuke (But then you have to carry it around all the time)

Of course if you want to get technical with your GM at all, you could get to where ever the nuke is, set it up to blow up when it receives a specific signal which will be sent by your bio-monitor if you ever die. Then leave the area and stick around in the state for a month and you're fine. The deed makes no mention of ensuring that the connection stays active or that the signal will actually be received. It also doesn't mention carrying the bomb around or preventing it from being disarmed.

I'm still curious as to why in the world you got this deed, especially since deeds can't generally be forced onto someone. If the character doesn't like it they can say no and try to get another deed or do their own kind of deed or do a different initiation ordeal or do no initiation ordeal.

in response to the last post, firstly i was planning on stealing a suitcase sized nuke if possible so it would only way like 20-30 pounds as my DM says. secondly, our group seems to get beastly strong so our DM likes to really challenge us. thirdly, i think he wants me to do this deed because after all our group left except me and a friend we initatied him (hes a face mage) and i pretty much finished his initiation for him so yeah. besides im sure if i hide properly with the help of our technomancer that i'll only have to deal with a few encounters. i also specialized in stealth which helps. as for having a cord on myself, i dont see how it would be a problem? my gymnastics score + agi has scored me a 4 hit average and ive got plenty of edge (which refreshes every session ish).

would constantly driving around in the team car be a good idea?

also, i have a reinforced kull stealth craft so couldn't i just fly around with that every few days? maybe hit the tropics and island hop?

Well, hitting the tropics would likely break the 'stay in state for 30 days' rule. The cord isn't so much of a problem itself as having a pixie carry around a 30 kilo (which is over 60 pounds) device which is going to be nearly as big as she/he is.

I figure your best bet is to buy a good safehouse and live there for a month. Make sure it is well lined with lead so that no trace radiation or anything can be picked up by whoever you steal this thing from.

well im short on money being an unarmed adept i dont exactly need much money. uh, if i put the nuke in the kull and put gel packs in it and flew around wouldn't it be safer than being stationary? and thi sis if i go w/ the direct fiber optic cable biomoniter plan

Well, you'll need to land fairly often with a plane, and I figure you'd be in more danger while refueling than you would be just sitting in a good safe house (Which shouldn't cost more than a few K tops for a month)

If you're flying around with it it's a lot easier to render safe the nuke. I'd probably use an AMRAAM.

given that i plan on stealing this from a megacorp, wouldn't they find me easier if i were in a single location such as a safehouse? also, from what my DM mentioned and on my ventures into Sibera, megacorps will use some pretty resources to re-aquire a nuke. given this situation, how is a safe house better than my 16/16 ish stealth armored kull?

I mostly just figure you'll be harder to find in a good safehouse than you will in a private plane. The plane and owner/pilot will likely have their ID checked every time they land to refuel, which will be every 8 hours normally, and you'll likely spend alot of time on the runway waiting for your fuel, which makes you very exposed (16/16 stealth armor is not at all hard to bypass with a good sniper rifle or heavy weapon).

The safehouse however has no checks on your ID, and no chance for anyone to spot your face, and if they do find you, they'll at least have to get fairly close to take you down as opposed to taking you out from a mile (Or more with missiles) away.

well by island hop i mean really island hopping with very little flight time and more staying low. 'specially w/ the matrix and what i've seen mages and technomancers do, i wouldn't feel as secure in a safe house. also, couldn't i just bring my own fuel?

I don't know that island hopping would let you qualify for this part of the requirement, but that aside...

Like before, your main problem with this plan is that you'll be highly visable. People will see you going from your plane to your safehouse or whatever, you'll create matrix data looking for a place to stay, and various other small problems like that. If you just stock up on a month's worth of food in a safehouse before a mission, then just hang out there for a month, making sure not to leave any ritual samples for the corp to find, then no one will ever see you, thus no one will ever be able to point the corp in your direction. No one will be checking your ID, you won't be creating a bunch of matrix traffic looking for safehouses (One of the first things the corp will start looking for). All this makes you much harder to locate. Perhaps have a ward thrown up around your safehouse to stop mages finding you (They could break through, but aren't likely to want to bypass every ward in the state looking for you). If you're real paranoid about technos/hackers just cut off your safehouse from wireless access. Buy a bunch of trids and whatnot beforehand to keep yourself entertained.

Oh, and you're unlikely to be able to carry more than a couple refuels or so in your plane with you, not to mention jet fuel tends to be a bit more complicated than an orange plastic can that you pour into your fuel tank. You'd likely spend less time waiting to refuel at an airport than you would fueling up yourself, though of course you wouldn't have people checking your ID or anything.

hmm good points, but i wouldn't be looking for safe houses on islands. what i meant was i would island hop onto legit un occupied (or semi-occupied) islands with little to no life and thus no matrix access for the most part.

afterall, semi-worstcase scenario, what if they find my safe house and attack me? what's my out? and wouldn't the megacorp, with all their resources, be more than able to seal off all escape routes?

Well, semi-worstcase scenario they figure out you are island hoping and send a couple of stealth fighters to take care of you. If you're the only plane hopping from island to island, which you likely will be, then you'll be fairly easy to pick out. Maybe just go to one island and hang out there survivor man style. So long as they didn't notice your initial flight you're in the clear, and if they did, your jet is still around to try and move again if you need to.

Like I said, being found is the dangerous part. After you're found, it really doesn't mater where you are or what you have on hand, you're toast.

considering that i have a stealth suit w/ thermal dampening, 6 killing hands for mages w/ astral sight, and a natural stealth ability that my DM has passed as completely invisible to the naked eye when it comes to goons, i'm not worried about being able to sneak away, which is why i prefer the island hopping idea. and unless chucknorris comes personally to fight me, my glass cannon build will probably be able to deal w/ most threats that are melee based.

Which is why they'll shoot you with a sniper rifle. No reflex or dodge test, just pure hits added to damage from 1800 meters away.

i'm not so sure that'll work out in a tropical jungle, especially because i'm paranoid and would stealth while lying low in such an enviornment.

after all lions tigers bears oh my they'd eatme