My take on the skinlink thing is that it basically changes/adds an antenna, all the rest stays the same.

End result, add 50:Y: to all wireless capable gear and be merry...

Especially as i read it so that going skinlink on a device do not preclude the continued use of wireless if one so wants (or hand the device on to someone else without it).

And hell if someone is unfamiliar with the device, there could be a nasty surprise waiting for them

It probably helps to understand that I tend to consider Wireless Everything to be a "huge security hole", not a "desirable feature".



-k

i would say it is a balance between risk and utility. And given that SR is a game played among friends, not a RL sim, the risk largely depends on the level of asshole in your GM and fellow gamers.

Agreed. However, the capacity cost of skinlink as a weapon/armor modification is pretty high (3, IIRC). This always seemed kinda weird to me.

Bye
Thanee

It's three if you want to integrate it into Full-Body Armor i.e the whole surface is a sender/receiver. Counting this capacity is an optional rule.

It costs 1 slot as a weapon modification, 0 slots as an accessory. I see no drawback from the accessory (from the BBB)

Well your looking at it from the point of view of a paranoid shadow runner, so thats completely understandable.
Most people on the other hand aren't paranoid like that, so the standard features aren't tailored to you but the rest of the world.

And that is a ongoing "problem" with shadowrun, something similar to a unreliable narrator.

The basic pov is that of the runner, as that is what people will play. Yet ever so often something that has more to do with joe waveslave pops up (an attempt to give feel for the overall settting i suspect), and one is left wondering how this can relevant to runners and what they do (except if it touches on leisure activities. And even then giving it anything more then a basic description, much less a price, seems a bit overkill).

The whole wireless by default thing seems to be a wageslave first pov thing. It may have been more sane from a runner pov to say that one can get a item with wireless only by subtracting 50 from the cost.

Still, making everything wireless by default gives hackers more to play with (except that trying to do so during a tense situation is nearly pointless given the time it takes). The availability and lack of risk with lugging hacker grade stuff around may be another issue (SR1-3 had carrying a deck a jail time offense, while SR4 one can get a license for black hammer).

I get that, I really do.

I suppose what's missing is that in previous editions, you'd have this device that was mass marketed, with perhaps some features that are non-optimal for a shadowrunner. But then you'd have a comment on this fact, and additional notes that "many shadowrunners do X to fix this limitation" or the like.

In even earlier editions, the commentary would be provided by the Shadowland peanut gallery.

Now we just get the flat rules without that extra flavor.




-k

Well there has never been shadowtalk in the main rulebook in any edition, iirc.

And except for maybe the first edition, one try to avoid putting game rules into shadowtalk so as to not confuse the two (shadowtalk is by definition unreliable).

I just realized - Skinlink IS a form of wired communication.

Your skin is the wire.




-k

True, tho once one is dealing with broadcast networking (how ethernet over coax and hubs works, to give a real life example) the difference is relatively minor.

Technically, skinlink is very short range wireless with a really big antenna. It works through air and clothing, at short enough ranges.

To be a bit "clever" with words, i guess it works by modulating the bodies EM field.

Tho having said that, i find myself wondering what kind of antenna would be needed to pull that of at a distance...

Basically, your whole Body is your antenna . .
But trolls may have a dedicated antenna *snickers*

No, I'd assume the horns wouldn't carry the skinlink, actually.

If you want it at a distance, use… an antennae. Congrats, you're now using Nonstandard Wireless Link.