One way around the SIN is to send in a death notice on it. Many street docs can and will for about 1k or so.

But you can't use that SIN

Or like one of my characters, they don't know they have one...

CDs and DVDs are electronic devices that happen to use a laser sensor. When talking about otpo-electronics, one usually thinks about something like that:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_computing

The article says an optical computer replaces the electrons with photons, but it does not suggest that it eliminates the need for electricty, rather is suggests that the power consumption goes up. An optical computer as I understand from the article would replace the transistor based processor with an optical switch based processor of some type. It would not run on something other than electricty though and the gold comes in not so much in the actual computing parts but in all the connecting circuits and solders.

Its not a far stretch. The resonance never forgets - not only due to the PlotHax Deleted Backup Warehouse in the resonance realms somewhere, but also because TM's and resonance entities in general have a few upsides.

CF's are -always- sota, and up to date. They never degrade. When you think about the amount of data they have instant access to, its a little frightening.
Sprite skills and autosofts. Any sprits with access to an Autosoft, Knowsoft, Linguasoft, etc - there's a few random types here and there - can get any skill, instantly, when they're summoned. Need a badass driver? Force 6 machine sprite with Maneuver. Doctor? Tutor 6 with Medicine and First Aid. Need to translate Obscure Egyptian Tablets? Data sprite's got you covered.

And if you extend that line of thought to things above Force 6, then, well, consider that the resonance can just whip up a being with more skill than a human will ever have. within 3 seconds.(because thats how long a combat round is)

For me, Threading is less 'oh no intuitive understanding of computers' and more intuitively pulling things out of the resonances ultra-wikipedia. But the point is, Sensorsofts are.... still software. I don't see why a TM can't whip one up in the usual fashion if he or she really wants.

The trick for tm's is the sensor input feeds and database access for some of them

The Sensor Input is easy for TMs, for 1 Karma you can become a walking, talking Simrig. Your eyes, ears, skin become the sensors.

That rules out a good number of the sample characters.

I thought they were already walking talking simrigs.

1-emotitoys-a terrible idea, all around. shame.

2-all the races from RC, well, really, most of RC.

3-possession as written.

4-SnS is limited

Because gold is non-reactive, it is a desirable coating for implants. For centuries it has been used to make gold teeth for example. Thus having it as an allergy would be a valid reason for the GM to make your cyberware more expensive. Yes, gold isn't cheap, but synthetic non-reactive substitutes are even more expensive. Why? Because you got BP for having the allergy.

The icing on this allergy's cake though is when a run yields a huge stack of gold bars. "Quick, everyone! Grab as many bars as you can and run! Hey, Peebo, why aren't you snagging your share of gold?"

Peebo: "Sadness."

Mesh

I -may- have gotten Stick 'N Shock banned. Not because of it being overpowered for its intended use, but for coming up with, ah, other uses involving sticking it to various metal objects.

<.<

Hehe, that's even better than getting the gold statue from the gold foundry.

Best answer to emotitoys is to just remind the player that with emotitoy he doesn't have an empathy software he has a toy with one and its the toy that gets bonus die to social rolls not the character.
Seriously nowhere in the book it says you get the benefits of an empathy software for having the toy.
Thats like saying "my drone has a smartlink, so i get +2 to shooting my gun".

Sensor softs are basically Autosofts. As such, they aren't meant to interact with the human nervous system. Additionally, the TM would need to Emulate it, and you can't Thread up something which you are already Emulating with Threading in the first place. At least, that's my understanding.

Personally, I like emosofts, but I think that it's nonsense that they add to a test directly. The software's understanding of facial expressions overlaps with the character's existing understanding of facial expressions. That's two tests being made for the same purpose, which is Teamwork. So, you make it a Teamwork Test and you get an average benefit of 4 dice with a Rating 6 Pilot/Agent running the Rating 6 software on a Response 6 chip, which is a heavy bonus for a heavy investment. You also pull an average of 2 dice for a R3 Pilot/Agent running a R3 emosoft on a Response 3 chip which is, quite honestly, cheap, but so is a Smartlink. Still, it does allow for the possibility of glitching, which can result in some fun times.

You've brought this point up before and been argued down on it. Hell yes it does mean the player gets the benefit, just like if the commlink was running it. You wouldn't tell a player "Sorry, you don't get the empathy software bonus, your commlink does."

All you have to do is access the info on the toy (The exact same info you would have if you ran it on your commlink) and use it.

For the drone, sure you could put smartlink software on it and use it as your own smartlink software, no reason you couldn't, because a drone is, by all rights, a commlink that moves on its own.

Oh, i suppose you're going to be calling ALL sofware Autosofts too, Then?
But sensorsofts aren't actually autosofts, Its really more like a Common Use program with a special cost.
Next, you're -assuming- that Sensorsofts aren't meant to be hooked up to Cybereeyes, ears, implanted sensors(radar, cyberarm MAD, etc), and that doesn't make sense at all. Also, treating them like a sensorsoft unfairly sextuples the amount of time it takes to create.
Additionally, Emulation is -only- for Activesofts, not Autosofts or other software in general, and it only applies for TMs with Biowires. It is not a super-special 'turn everypiece of software into a complex form' power that some people on this board make them out to be.

When you break out unwired, it becomes apparent there's a bunch of other software that doesn't fall into the usual classifications of Hacking, Common Use, Simsense, Autosoft, etc.
For example, There are Tacsofts. Trojans, Environmental AR software, Reality Amplifiers, software programming suits - all of these things are not in the traditional categories of programs. Same thing with Sensorsofts, which are covered by their own category - Sensor software. In an amazing display of cross-sourcebook referencing by catalyst, Sensor software has its own entry on the Advanced Programming table(unwired 119)

Total tangent, but we had a really funny situation where the characters had been pressed in to service by Lonestar to help break up a drug distribution ring and during a transaction one of the traffickers had one of the animatronic emotitoys (Bobo the clown model), except that the guy who had it was crazy and high on Novacoke and thought it was actually alive and it was the only thing he really trusted. One of the players made a poor roll (a handful of hits but not enough to beat a paranoid drug trafficker with an emotitoy) on his deception check. There is a pause, a couple of seconds of silence, then the trafficker declares "the Bobo sez you're lyin'!" and immediately starts shooting triggering a close range gunfight. good times.

Well Except that Smart link software runs on the 'gun'
not your commlink.

But certainly if your drone had a gun, and was running smartlink, I would give you the smartlink bonus for shooting the gun on the drone. But it wouldn't help you with the gun in your hand.

Well, there technically isn't any smartlink software. There is the smartgun attachment for your gun, which gives it the ability to use smartlink, and there is the smartlink enhancement for cybereyes/vision enhancements which allows it to properly display smartlink data. No where is there any indication of where all the calculations and stuff are being done. It could be on the gun, or the gun could be accessing the commlink, or it could be why a special thing is required to display it on your glasses, and that is where the processing is being done. The game really leaves that part undefined, which really kind of shows my point of "it doesn't matter what is running the program, so long as you have proper access to the data it provides."

It's like how it doesn't matter if my computer does the math 2+2, or another computer does, so long as I know that the answer is 4.

How did you come up with that then? No where near Sensorsofts does it say they are Autosofts. They are not truly intended to run on a drone (They can, but it is not specific) and they do not give a Pilot program a specific skill or new ability (they augment them).

And you wouldn't be able to emulate it either way. Emulate is for skillsofts and skillsofts alone.

So what your saying is that if i have a predator in my hand and my steel lynx has a smartlink vision enchament to its camera i get +2 dice to shoot the predator with.
Thats totally ridiculous.

Each device running smartlink software needs a corresponding smartlink module on the gun in order to receive the +2 bonus. Smartlink software comes with the smartlink module, but I don't think you have to run multiple copies of the smartlink software in order to receive bonuses to multiple guns.

You CAN emulate smartlink software as a technomancer. That only allows you to run the software on your brain. You still need a corresponding smartlink module in the gun.

*You CAN thread smartlink software.

Slight difference, but they are two different things.

I mean emulate, as in pay for with karma as a CF. There's a sidebar about that somewhere in unwired.

The only time Emulate is used connecting to TMs in Unwired is in the use of Biowires and Autosofts. When a Technomancer learns the Smartlink complex form (page 136), thats all they are doing. They are not emulating it, they are just learning the Complex Form. They can also thread that complex form up on the run (as a Rating 1 complex form).

Emulate: Turning Skillsofts into Complex Forms
Threading: Everything else.

My new game's using 4e rules but set in 2050 (I want to run the old adventures and the metaplot damnit!), so the only things I'm banning are timeline-based. No changelings because the comet hasn't come by yet, some cyber/bio/gear isn't available yet (still in R&D), and any technomancers or drakes HAVE to take Dark Secret because if they get outed, they're in deep trouble.

Anything else pink mohawkish, I gently advise against that, but don't ban it. I just punish in-game. Took a 20 BP Enemy but don't put it in your backstory properly? Oh boy, you just gave me a blank check and told me to go to town. Are you really going to make a character that dresses in an anime-style schoolgirl outfit and uses a chaingun? I'm going to treat it as if you just took the Distinctive Style flaw but not give you the BP for it. Do you REALLY want to take that amnesia flaw? Because you just gave me another blank check...

Abtruse, you make me want to take the 20 point Enemy and Full Amnesia character flaw and play in your game

All that biometric data is in a fake SIN too - have a fake SIN connected to a crime, and you're known. The only downsides to being a SINner are that people can find your real past and get background info, track family etc., and that compromised fake SINs only continue to exist in law enforcement databases while real SINs remain in the open realm.

We pretty much play 3rd ed BUT like the 4th ed rules on the matrix. Until those came out all deckers were NPC's. It was just too boring for the other players.

I'd think that the fakes, being fakes, would be burnable - I.E. the biometrics are corrupted with a cascading failure on certain queries or a panicbutton from the 'runner, etc.

You take full amnesia, *I* make your character and you never get to see the sheet. I give you a blank sheet with anything obvious on it (your gear, any obvious cyberware (cyberlimb that isn't modified to look natural, cybereyes, datajack, etc.), your race/gender/physical description, etc.). You tell me what you want to do and *I* make the rolls for you, telling you how well you performed the action. If you use that particular skill/attribute combo enough, I might let you know what it is so you can put it on your sheet since you'd be able to judge how well/poorly you perform...but put it in pencil because you might've just gotten lucky/unlucky rolls. Your commlink is virgin fresh install with no personal info and you have a Street lifestyle (but you'll still be paying for whatever lifestyle is on your character sheet because rent/bills are autopaid even if you're not there) and you have no idea who your contacts are until you randomly meet them along the way.

And yes, you will probably end up with a character that you'll hate background-wise but I'll make sure the stats are something you'd like to play. If I know your IRL personality and know you donate to the ACLU and NAACP and GLAD and stuff like that, you're going to find out your character is second in command of the local Humanis chapter. If you're a conspiracy theorist who things the government is always out to get you, guess who's CIA black-ops!

And no, unlike the other players, you do NOT get to change characters anytime you feel like it.

Okay
sign me up

I'm familiar with the concept of GMPC's, but good god, man. Just admit it and move along.

My group is actually going to do an entire campaign where everybody has Amnesia II, and the GM holds all of the character sheets and does all of the dice rolls. We get to write down what we find out. The way the characters are working is everybody makes a character or two, and submits it to the GM. He'll be making changes as appropriate, and then shuffling the characters around so nobody gets their submission.

It'll be great fun for whoever gets my character.

If such a thing as a burnable fake SIN existed, you have to admit there'd also be a regular fake SIN - just your biometrics and a fake background that allows you to do all the things you need a SIN for. What do you call this, and what is the price?

Something as complex as a burnable fake SIN - which isn't just data in a database, but an option to execute code that systematically seeks out and deletes certain data in highly secure databases and their backups - would seem to be a lot more expensive than a regular fake SIN.

Are regular fake SINs dirt cheap in your campaign? Or are the superadvanced burnable fake SINs the only type available? Does the ability to selectively delete data in government and megacorp databases have other implications?

It's not exactly 'superadvanced' to say that if a certain query (or hey, a file) is accessed, the file writes itself to zero. Anyway.

I don't deal with fake SINs a lot in my games. I prefer not to sit and waste time rolling a cascade of dice every time characters walk down the street; the players themselves are smart enough to stay off the public grids where they can and are paranoid enough to where the hacker is trying to block every camera in sight. Such details bog down the game (but it doesn't stop me from thought experiments such as these).

A fake SIN is a fake SIN, whether or not the runner pays extra to get the 'burnable' option added on or not. I don't expect any but the most paranoid and details-oriented to get something like that stacked on. The biometrics may lead to the authorities building a file on you, yes, but it doesn't offer a pathway to your door unless they cut through all the data balkanization and set an active watch on your biometrics. You'd have to hack off every major corporation to the point where they all want you dead, with a seperate ID for each one since you'd need to burn it, and hack off several major national governments. If you're truly that bad a shadowrunner, you're going to get hosed long before you reach that point anyway.

So a Drone can naturally Judge Intentions? I guess it's an attribute-only test, so it could do so at Pilotx2, but that seems... Disney? Like, is a Rail-mounted gun turret at Ares' Seattle branch going to notice that Dan from Accounts Receivable is feeling down since the boss is made him work on trivia night? Will it hum him a tune to help him perk up?
Functionally, this sensor software is no different than something like the Electronic Warfare Autosoft. It matches perceived input with algorithmically determined responses, (which means it should replace a skill, not augment it.) The only difference is that some idiot decided that a person can sort and process all the relevant data instantly or that it magically augments their perceptions so that they just know what the software knows.

But yeah, Sensor-softs certainly aren't in the list of Advanced Complex Forms, and, as they aren't Skillsofts, there's no reason to allow them to be Emulated.


I.. suppose this whole thing isn't much different than an autopicker or a medkit, but it somehow feels just so much stupider. Maybe the writer thought that Trogbash the Clubinator needed a little help at the meet-ups so he decided to make the equivalent of 300+ Karma in social skills cost 3000¥.

But, let's take a minute to imagine this thing. If you're in a conversation with a guy, and, meanwhile, in real time, reading a detailed analysis of how said guy is responding to your words, or you are being fed key trigger phrases on your image link, (or however you choose to imagine this device-to-person interaction,) that's supposed to make you look soooooo good? I don't buy it.
You're either engaged in the conversation, or you're not. Johnson can tell.
You're either reading from a teleprompter, or you're not. Johnson can tell.

I do want to make the concept work though. It is a legitimate avenue to pursue.
Let's say the Software or Software+Pilot/Agent takes a Complex Action to 'Sense Motive' and spits out an analysis. The character then takes an 'Observe in Detail' Action to digest the analysis and formulate an argument. Then, the character makes a tailored response. An adept with the multi-tasking Power should be able to do this in real time, but that's because they have specialized brain magic (and there ought to be some actual benefit to that Power..) Anybody else would have to be noticeably pausing at each thought or would be letting the software do the flying for them. In the first case, it's two separate tests. In the second case, the character is relying entirely on the software, which is perhaps what yon Clubinator should do..

That would be a hella sweet way to screw with Dan from Accounts Receivable, if I was a bored spider...

Robots all bursting into song like you're at a Chuck E. Cheese...


(or did they only have that animatronic ~*magic*~ at Showbiz Pizza..)

A host of Samurai acting like the mechanical singing bears, playing that assault rifle like it was a banjo?

It's worse than a bug infestation.

"IIIIIITT'S A VERY SPECIAL BIRTHDAY!! HHMMM-HHMMMM!! HHHMMM-HHMMMM!!"

There will be no awakened critter/plant named the Redneck-Tree.
Else there will be carpet bombings with every weapon known to mankind by that time.

I'm currently thinking of banning Erased, but that might just be because one of my players believes it's a Get Out of Jail Free Card.

Which it's not . . it just makes it a bit harder to connect the dots . .
If he's getting cought in the act, he's as screwed as anybody else..

Cascading failures, Doc? Somebody's been watching too much Star Trek: Next Generation. The next thing you'll tell us is that reversing polarity can stop the cascading failure and save the ship... I mean the SIN.

Mesh

Bounce the graviton particle beams off the main deflector dish
That's the way we do things, lad, we're makin' shit up as we wish
The Klingons and the Romulans pose no threat to us
'Cause if we find we're in a bind, we'll just make some shit up

Fake sins wouldn't have built in burn, becuase then the hacker would lose the income from selling the burn services as extras after the runner needs to ditch them

True. It would be an extra.

Like a subwoofer in your car.

Fixed.

I fully agree. My point was merely that being a SINner isn't all that bad - SINless getting a fake SIN linked to a crime is in exactly the same boat regarding biometric data and such. And even with fake SINs, you can't be careless about having your "identity" exposed.