Twice the post, twice the knowledge?

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/w...Concertina_wire

apparently, concertina wire is a kind of wire produced in a coiled up form so that it is self supporting. As such one can grab one ring of the coil and stretch it across a path one wants to block. It can be either barbed or razor, to the latter seems to be preferred by the military and such these days as it is both quicker and cheaper to make, and provide more of a threat thanks to its ability to cut as well as pierce.

Also, i suspect the lethality of barbed wire will depending on the rigidity of the wire, the rigidity and length of the barbs, as well as the density of same. To stop a person they would need to be so close together that one can not put down a hand or foot without hitting one or more barb. Cattle barbs on the other hand just need to be long and close enough to be painful to said animals. Hell, one could probably make something needle like with the density of rough comb if one so like. Want to be particularly nasty and one add barbs (fish hook style) so that if one get punctured one have to do even more damage removing oneself from the fence.

Also, how fast the biker was going when he hit it at neck level.

I remember an ED nurse taking about a biker who went through a barbed wire fence. He got triaged as a "B", so he only had a few hour wait. ...

Yea, the gloves they give us to mess with razor wire are crazy. Triple thick leather, with steel scale mail. And you still just stuck in the hands a couple times.

Any more of '600 seconds'?

You know, Marv's plan comes to mind for dealing with that creepy silent guy...

Barbed and Concertina wire are that damaging because they're extremely easy to overcome if you can identify them early, and their chance of doing significant harm are pretty low. If, for whatever reason, the team doesn't see fit to clip the wires or toss a rubber mat over them, someone armored up for an op will maybe take a couple boxes of stun.

But sure, if you run naked straight into a hedge concealing a barbed wire fence, you'll take some damage.

There's a difference between the barbed wire you see on farms and on fences surrounding schools, WW2 barbed wire and Shadowrun barbed wire. Farm barbed wire is designed to give cattle a poke in the ass they can feel, but explicitly not injure them -- barbs are large and set apart. Barbed wire you commonly see on fence tops is designed as a deterrent to keep children and drunks from climbing the fence, but again aren't designed to actually cause injury. WW2 barbed wire was designed to slow the advance of infantry by entangling them and forcing them to choose alternate routes leading into machine gun kill zones.

Shadowrun barbed wire is designed to deter infiltration by heavily armed criminal teams. It's designed explicitly to cause injury. In Shadowrun, think of barbed wire as razor wire, like you see at prisons. Think of concertinas as densely packed razor wire, also like you see at prisons.