I was thinking about this the other day. Although we get the pictures of people looking cool with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths and cyber/bioware lets us get past the health risks, wouldn't the best runners be non-smokers?

More than the health and lifestyle costs, smoking makes a person less stealthy. Most smokers do not realize the usually smell of the stuff, even when they are not smoking. It clings to hair and clothing and follows like a cloud. trying to sneak into a building an alert guard might notice the smell even as the runner thinks she is free and clear.

This happened to me RL the other night. I was grocery shopping and taking a cart out to my car, I smelled the tobbacco smell of someone before the walked around my parked car. I at once thought if this were a run, I would have smelled him comming and been waiting in ambush.

Well I don't know of any infiltration specialists that would smoke right before a run.

But with all of the augmentations and short life expectancy, I don't think most runners would be particularly concerned with the health risks of smoking as they would be with, for example, bullets.

I asked the same thing of a guy in the military.

he replied that everyone just switches to chewing tobacco or nicotine gum.

I think the quote was from Blackjack's page a long time ago, but it went something like this:

"A person who is just standing around is conspicuous as hell. A person standing around smoking a cigarette is ignored, as they are a common sight."

But yeah, someone who breaks into a compound reeking to high heaven isn't a terribly smart person. But there are numerous easy ways to conceal or eliminate the smell, and a professional will do so.

But you NEED to have some cigarette/cigar based equipment:

Cigarettes with smoke which refracts lasers, Laes cigarettes. your "Last cigarette" (injects the smoker with K-10 to make it the last cigarette for ALL), The Cigar-Gun (Shooting a poisoned dart). Ultrapoison cigarettes (loaded with poison you are genetically altered to be imune to). Exploding cigarettes... The choices are endless (Well... maybe that was nearly it but still..)

But this why I have a character, to do all the stupid, risky things I don't do.

I think you're overestimating the likelihood of a sense of smell giving someone a way (or at least the importance of it), and underestimating the idiotic, risk-taking, Rule of Cool, consequences-be-damned, decision making skills that lead someone to a life of running the shadows in the first place.

Yeah, I'm in the "it's just a game" field on this one. The whole cigarettes thing in the pictures was partly for mood-setting, the clinging back to the neo-noir bits that they're trying to go "look, we're cyberpunk!"

Snake in Metal Gear smokes.

At the cost of his health(bar).

Have you ever used a drone with a chemsniffer against a player who was feeling overconfident under his invisibility spell? (I like to add wi-fi scanners as well. Every runner uses a com. )

Aside from the problem of smell (And the sight of a flickering ember which can be seen farther than you'd think), there's not much problem with smoking.

After all, lungs are cheap now.

Don't forget the scent masking cigarettes. Healthy and gets rid of unwanted odours!

....Febreeze™ brand cigarettes

Yeah, that causes another problem.

"Wait, I smell nothing." "So?" "We're in the Sprawl. When haven't you smelled urine, sour noodles, and unwashed bodies." "Oh, drek."

Electronic Cigarettes don't produce any odor. They are just mini-vaprorizers that deliver nicotine through an inhaled water vapor system. They look like real cigarettes right down to an orange LED that glows on one end when you inhale from the other. Also, because they don't produce all the carcinogens of an actual burning cigarette there aren't as many health risks; though probably still some.

By the 2070's these could be very popular. Especially amongst Shadowrunners.

Until it gets hacked.

Why does my cigarette smell like soy burgers? Drek, now I need to hit up a Stuffer Shack™

Psh, why would it have an OS?

Why WOULDN'T it? Give it a personality. Get it to nag you to quit, if you want

You can get replacement cartridges with various flavors like strawberry, but I'm not sure how popular soy burger flavor would be.

Nagging is what your comm's for. Ha.

*Sings "Jealous of your Cigarette" in the key of off*

Don't bring logic into this. This is 4e. Why wouldn't it have an OS and wireless capability? After all, you might need to link it to your commlink so you automatically get a warning when the battery is dying or the nicotine pack is spent.

That is why I said the very best runners. I mean how many of you guys smoke RL? A lot of smokers do not realize how the scent lingers on them even when they haven't had a smoke in a while.

I saw what smoking did to all three of my parents, and after they quit I noticed how bad it smelled.

Part of me wants to just the laugh while the other part thinks, "Maybe not the actual cigarette, but likely the charging pack would be able to do things like change scent, give you battery levels, etc"

Oh, I'm not a smoker and never will be. I know full well how much it reeks.

I just don't see it coming up on a shadowrun all that often. If you're close enough for someone to smell you, you're doing well enough on Stealth rolls you're probably the sort to try and come from downwind anyways, or something. If a GM's seriously going to start trying to penalize infiltration attempts based on someone being a smoker, he'd better be prepared to really up the "realism" ante of his game.

Depends on if your upwind or downwind. You'd be surprised how far scent can travel to someone that's aware of it.

Try sneaking up on a Wolf Shapechanger reeking of smoke.

Yeah, but just try sneaking up on a Wolf Shapeshifter at all. I know plenty of folks -- oh, God, especially when I was trapped in cubicles with them for hours at a time -- that slather on enough perfume or cologne to be just as pungently reeking as any smoker.

GM's gonna want to start giving them penalties, too?

Then there is the Face-Infiltrator with the pheromone bioware that just finished off negotiating the price for the job. Oh, and the guy that loves himself some big bowls of veggie curry, with extra synth-broccoli..

*Driving away from the massive firefight* "Aw man, now this car smells of rotten hoop and cordite." "Yeah, sorry, I had AzTexMex at the Stuffer Shack." "AW MAN! We're all going to DIE!"

I thought runners smoked for the addiction build points.

You didn't think that was tobacco in that cig, did you?

I've been running for years and don't smoke, so yes. Got the Philip Rivers' charity 5K fun run tomorrow actually, not that 5K is very much of a run.

You, you mean shadow runners.

Yeah, probably not. Cigarette smoke carries forever, hangs around, and it's very distinct and unlikely to be mistaken for something else. But there are plenty of substitutes one can use even today. My brother has one of those electronic cigarettes, there's nicotine gum, patches. Heck, by 2072 I'm sure you can get an implant that slow releases. Chewing tobacco or dip isn't really a great alternative for runners because you're gonna have to spit out the juice unless you are all that is man (Maybe a 5 point positive quality in the making there) and swallow it.

"New, from AddicTech: The CyberCigarette! Implanted next to a lung lobe, it slowly releases a carefully calculated amount of nicotine smoke to relax you as you need it! Order today and get a skillsoft chip to allow you to perform tricks using smoke!"

Most every player Ive had that make it a point their character smokes has clarified they enjoy them only occasionally. If you want to incorporate a long-time smoker into the game, just create him with a lower body stat than the average PC in his role.

The smell issue is up to GM interpretation, in 2072 lifestyle costs could cover a variety of laundry addins and shampoos that wipe smells right out. It WOULD be an interesting left-field perception test for the players. Joe Assassin is hardly ever heard, but damn that smell!

As for the effects on health, some of the most athletic people in my school are smokers. Granted, they won't stay the most athletic for very long, but at a younger age (which shadowrunners tend to be), you still have a few 'invincible' years before it takes its toll. Also consider that a diet heavy in nutrisoy will make smoking practically the only harm you're doing to your body that isn't bullet-related, which will again make it a little bit longer before it slows them down.

Not a smoker but sign me up! Is there a higher rating Skillsoft for even more tricks?

Yeah, but it costs extra.

On a side note they did studies in real life to see how much nicotine actually gets into your system when using electric cigarettes and the amount was somewhere between none and an insignificant amount. But they do probably work as a placebo. In 2070 they probably have electric ultra cigarettes. A biomonitor linked to the cigarette constantly gives you 80% of a lethal dose and keeps you there, maintaining your nicotine buzz.

Cripey! 80% of a lethal dose? While nicotine is quite toxic, you'll be bouncing off the walls with that much. Most smokers don't come anywhere near that. A 4-pack/day chain smoker isn't even going to hit that because nicotine metabolizes fairly fast (halflife around a couple hours at most).

Although you'd definitely have crazy technocolour, psychedelic dreams.

Huh, that's what my AI girlfriend keeps doing

The AI Girlfriend probably wants you to cut down on smoking as well.

You can't be in Hot Sim when you're outside, having a smoke because your Landlord has a "No Smoking" rule in his building. Something about a Betameth lab he has going...

DLN has a good point. Many smokers aren't aware of how it lingers on them. My brother went to the same college I did. When I went back for a reunion after graduating he said I could borrow his room, he'd stay with his g/f. My brother was a smoker then but the room didn't smell of it, but when I left, after 2 nights, my own clothes wreaked.

I can usually tell when a client is a smoker when they come into my office, it lingers on them and I have to work just a little harder to keep a pleasant smile on my face.

When I've been to the range for an hour or so my hands smell of cordite but it's easily washed off in the ladies room and it hasn't lingered on my clothes.

Not only will they be smokers, they will be smoking constantly. After all, scent-masking cigarettes are extremely cheap.

Smoking may be a vile habit today, but by 2070 the odor is likely to either be eliminated (at least from some special brands), or easily dealt with in a number of other ways. On the other hand, imagine how addictive they will be - considering how much work and research they have put into making them more addictive today, imagine how much worse they could be by the 2070's.

The absolute pros might be "straight edge", but those are rare. Most runners tend to be either corporate burnouts, street scum trying to get out of the barrens, adrenaline junkies, and crazed ideologues. The first three types would be at least moderately likely to smoke (and it would probably be the least of their vices).

I've got a Social Adept that buys smokes that taste, and smell, like mint. So far no complaints from GMs, just a weird little variation on the cigarette.

I'd imagine they don't, since cordite is no longer used as a propellant for ammunition and was normally associated with British ammunition and calibers during WW2.

The "smell of cordite" was just used by enough British military history authors that it's become a common (mis)usage term for something smelling like guns have been fired. However, modern rounds use a variety of different propellants, and the last cordite producing factory shut down in 2002. Though, by that time it was really only making legacy artillery rounds.

The more you know.

To be fair, the same smell-cues of smoking should be applied to runners most of the time, why? Cause of the smell of the damned gunpowder.

Just smoke scent masking cigarettes from Arsenal. Problem solved! Heck, it even makes your more stealthy.

Overestimating? Why, my guard dogs can smell ya whether you've been smoking or not.

But you do raise a good point- humans have let their sense of smell degrade over the millennia because our primary sense, sight, is so much better than our other senses. The idea of tracking someone by smell is not something that comes naturally to humans, and besides, for the last 8,000 years or so, we've had dogs to do the smelling for us. (Fun historical side note- during the Vietnam War, the US Army issued electronic 'sniffers' to scout units to try and track the Viet Cong by the scents in their urine. Not a super-practical idea, and the project was canned in favor of deploying more K9 teams.)

So, not being a smoker will not contribute to your chances of survival. Go ahead and light up, right? Well...

Think about this. Where are your Shadowrunners going to be where they can get away with smelling like smoke? Most office buildings don't allow smoking inside. Nor do research facilities, as the fine ash and chemical trails that cigarette smoke lets off can mess with sensitive equipment. Someone who smokes a lot may set off chemical detection alarms is a clean room or other sensitive areas.

I think it's kind of sixes, when you come down to it.

So you suck down normal smokes -- or minty fresh, or jalapeno scented, or strawberry, or whatever -- most of the time, then puff on a scent-masking cigarette from Arsenal a couple hours before a job.

*shrug*