I'm in need of a bit of assistance in prepping some necessary junk (folders, plans, the odd severed hand) for my next 'run and was in the midst of getting things ready when I realized I don't really know what a credstick is supposed to look like.

Generally I understand a credstick supposedly looks like a slim USB drive with a display on it (as of SR 4) , but it's also described as a pen-sized tube with data on it as well. For the life of me I haven't been able to find concrete (official) image evidence of what exactly one would look like so, does anyone do? I literally need to make a fistful of credsticks

On a side note: I came up with an idea for my players to use that involves them having a little ID card on the table during gametime so it's easier to remember which Fake ID they're currently using, because everyone at my table has a minimum of three and it gets confusing (plus it prevents cheating). Does it sound like something worth implementing?

Thanks in advance!

They look like whatever you want them to look like. As long as it can transmit and receive the data to the transaction device, it really doesn't matter. I like the USB stick idea, and look at all the crazy shapes and sizes those things come in.

To be honest, I think it would funny to have the hard-ass, pipe-hitting street sammy paid on a Hello Kitty-equivalent credstick that he has to twist it's cute little head back to plug it into terminals to use the funds.

1) Credstick connectors would have to be generally universal. I could see there being two or three competing kinds, we see these sorts of problems all the time in real life; VHS vs Beta for example. They could technically look like anything though. You could even have each major corp having its own mass produced style of credstick. Just do a quick search and see what kind of USB Drives are available today. I can, right now, go online and order a bunch of USB Drives with my name and picture on them if I wanted. If I had a business in Shadowrun, it would not be unreasonable for me to be able to order a box of them and use them to pay my employees so people would see my business' name when they went an used it to pay for something. The practicality of that depends on the time the game is being run in; I understand credsticks are more or less prominent depending on when the game takes place, the further we get from them being standard and replaced by completely digital banking linked to your comlink the more standardized and boring they would be. But, saying "The guy you're looking for was using an Ares Credstick." is kind of a neat little bit of flavor and a clue the party can use to narrow the list of suspects down.

2) That sounds like a swell idea. I would suggest:
a. Note Cards with pertinent I.D. Information for easy reference.
&
b. "Hello, My Name Is..." stickers so they're displaying what I.D. they're, uh, displaying in game.

I always liked the pen shaped credstick idea, its mostly casing but hey...

this may serve as a baseline image at least:


http://www.logopremiums.com/calculator-bal...en-HWK922LP.jpg

..i do remember seeing example in 3ed splat boot ( do not remember what..).Ork runner buying the Hot Sim featuring him and
2 ork babes, seller is fat human, some sort of lizard in shoulder..

(this is added June 13 : Cannon Companion pg.59)

As has been pointed out, the casing is less relevant than the connection. So long as all your connectors are alike, the casings can be radically different (and not even necessarily a stick). I personally added the kind of flair talked about here via paper money. In my game, based in CalFree, the state has never wanted to eliminate paper money altogether because its even less trackable than a credstick, and the CalFree government takes corruption to a whole new level. This has led to a single standard of currency that is produced by the state as well as corporations, meaning there are multiple "kinds" of dollars. Mind you, these are not simply corp scrip (of which there is also plenty), but rather the voluntary conversion of digital money into paper currency. Each bill can still be traced to point of origin, due to its serial number, but cannot be traced from transaction to transaction, like a credstick, and still maintain a sense of variety in that the dollars printed by one corp will look different than from another.

This also helps to address a political factor I've introduced: liberals calling for the poor to be helped more, while the State and corporate officers use these programs to further exploit the poor while keeping the liberals happy.

Tl;Dr: MAke sure the connections are identical, then just get creative on the stick itself in a way that will add some artistic flair to the game.

in the Sprawl Survival Guide. (SR3) there is some official material concerning Credsticks. They look like small
Cigar Tubes or big Pencils in UCAS/CAS and like a creditcard in the ADL.
The only Link I have is to the German Wiki
http://www.shadowiki.de/Credstick

HokaHow
Medicineman

the books make them sound like 4-6inch cylinders with mulitiple buttons. people often twirl then in their fingers like a drumstick too

Sprawl Survival Guide p.38:

Credsticks: Cash on the Go
Credsticks are an ubiquitous part of modern life. They can be issued by many different vendors-your bank, a megacorporation, or even the government. They are all fundamentally the same in function and form: a cylindrical object four inches long and sized like a typical writing pen, well suited for carrying in your breast pocket, wallet, purse, or worn on a wristband.

No one would ever suspect


I really like the idea of that! Judge someone by the credstick they're offering sounds neat.


Not sure if I can replicate the buttons but it looks good enough to have one in the assortment. Thanks!


True that. Our setting hasn't entirely eliminated real money-money either (because I was once asked, how in the heck do you tip a hobo 1 nuyen?) but not at that level of diversity. It'd be like FO: New Vegas all over again. And thanks for the desc! I never did have that book while playing 3rd ed.

Medicineman >> Thank you! (for helping me brush up on my german as well)
Curator >> Thanks too!

General consensus seems to be they're mostly tube or pen shaped with a universal USB connector thing at one end but allows a lot for diversity.