Finally got one of those reprinted Man and Machine sourcebooks. Overall, its an ok book, got some areas that made me frown, but I'll save that for another topic.

What I did like was some background info it provided. It expanded more on nanotech and how its used for cybergear and such, as well as the new section on nanogear specific systems. Anyhoo, it talked about how nanos were used to make nanowire, originally intended to be woven into monowire cables, able to support huge weights. But has been more known for the infamous monowire whip.

What I was wondering, would it be possible to completely protect yourself from cutting yourself off at the knees by lacing your shin/knee guards with monocable? Heck at most you'd probably only need 2 cables.

Would monowire snap when running into monowire cable? Would you trip over the monowire like it was a regular wire (but strong) strung across the hallway?

How much would you think it would cost? Would it be worthwhile as a defense? What other defense could you get to completely protect versus monowire tripline dismemberment? Sure loading up on heavy armor is one way, but I'm looking for something a bit more subtle.

If you want some serious protection, get cyberlegs with a lot of impact armor plating. That's going pretty far, though, unless you've already got the legs and some ECU to spare.

Or hold a ribbon in your gun hand that is just long enough to not toucht he floor from tyou natural alert stance. if you see the ribbon move but can't see the cause, you know there is a trip wire or some mono-wire.

And so long as you move no quicker than .01 mph and keep your eyes on the ribbon instead of your surroundings, you'll be fine

Honestly you should rarely ever see monowire strung in hallways, or anywhere else for this matter. Employees have to walk down those hallways. Furthermore, monowire costs 3000 bucks per square meter. There's a LOT better ways to spend tens of thousands of nuyen than this type of defense. It's just really, really not feasable to sting this across halways as a standard defense for the same reasons you don't find two step lasers and autogun turrets everyplace. In a zero-zone maybe, but you should be staying away from those anyway.

Also monowire isn't as impressive as people newer to the game think it is. It's only actually good against soft targets. It will not slice anything with a barrier rating higher that is 5 or higher. Anything with a barrier rating of 10 or higher is totally immune to it.

I am in favor of monoweave armor. A few million each sock, but converts all (non drug) physical damage against that location into stun at 2 less power. Also makes monowhips and monotripwires no more dangerous than a standard whip or tripwire to such covered regions. Actually, due to the method of the monowhip, it should do half of normal whip damage if the person is fully armored by monoweave.

and if the fabric gets a run in it, you lose limbs and/or organs!

so i'm a huge 3.2m troll with a full suit of your monoweave. i run up and jump on some corpsec chump. who gets turned into bits an pieces, me and/or him?

You don't lose limbs and/or organs by running into monowire. It's basically just a really sharp razorblade.

All you have to do to avoid it is pay attention to where you're walking. A group of runners shouldn't have trouble consistantly getting at least one 8 on a Perception Test, and that's all it takes to spot it. It also only has a Barrier Rating of 5 (making it more fragile than other types of trip wire which has a BR of 6). A character with a Strength of 5 or higher that runs into it (a "blunt attack") will snap it without much trouble (creating a "one-half meter hole" and lowering the BR of the remaining wire by -1). He'll still get hurt, but not the point where he loses a limb. Unless the GM decides to do that for whatever reason.

Use cyber legs, install DNI wire cutters in those legs. Wire cutters trump wires.

Bah.

Monowire is very thin (and thusly sharp) and has incredible TENSIL strength.

Like string, it is easy to snap or cut, but it can hold up an incredible amount of weight. If properly tied to a handle, dentil floss can hold up the wieght of a person. But the minute they start to struggle or swing, the floss will break.

If monowire hit monowire, one would cut through the other, or they would become entangled. Just like really sharp string.

The key word to look at is "Mono-Fillament" not Mono. Mono meaning 1 (for the incredibly thin) and Fillament (for the high tensil metal that makes it). "Monofillament Cloth" would LOSE the "mono" portion and instead just be "Filament Cloth", basically cloth made of metal.

Modern day bridge cables are made by braiding many smaller cables together to create a cable with much higher swing/strugle snap resistance. More floss doesn't increase the tensil strength as much as it makes it able to handle the swing and bounce. Mono-wire cables uses the same philosphy, but takes the science down to a nano-technology level, thus creating cables with incredible tensil and bounce strength. This resulting cables would not be sharp.

Imagine string cheese made of steel. Eventually you would pull off a string of metal thin enough to cut with.

If monowire was woven into fabric, it would be just like normal cloth, but would have incredible tensil strength. If a monowire hit this fabric, the wire would be "sharper", because it is only 1 micron thick, while the combined monowires in the cloth lose there sharpness because they are much thicker in their current state. Thusly the Monowhip would cut through the mono-cloth like normal. The resulting frayed ends would then be very dangerous to the wearer.

Raife, you have some very interesting ideas on the subject, and while they don't mesh with mine, they are sound, depending on the assumptions you make about monowire technology.

Monowire is very thin and has high tensile strength, making it sharp. But how thick is it? If it is carbon nanotubes, it is substantially smaller than a micron is cross section. If it is some other molecule, and we make the assumption that 'mono' means 'single molecule thick', it still will not come close to being a micron in diameter. Single walled carbon nanotubes are 1.2-1.4 nanometers in diameter, which if I am not mistaken is 1/1000th of a micron. Cray should be along to correct anything I got wrong, but here is the source of my info.
Tubes
So if you go with my assumptions, and use a variant of what is proposed there, monowire is sharp because it slips between molecules very easily. However, if it comes up against a long molecule, it cannot slip between it if it is perpendicular. Thus it becomes a strength test. When you take into account that one filament is being pitted against thousands, the single filament will lose the brute strength contest.
Anyway, some ideas to think about.

Monowire is not metal BTW, it's made of Carbon Buckytubes. That is stated in canon.

I thought so, but couldn't find it quickly, so didn't categorically state it.

I haven't done any reading on it since second ed, but I remember it being stated clearly that it was "almost a micron thick". In retrospect that probably means UNDER a micron in width, for some reason I interpretted it as slight over a micron thick... of course... like this bit matters hehe.

My basic analysis of the situation is based on string being woven into fabric. You can cut butter by slicing it with a string, but not with a shirt. This would be the same case if you made clothing out of monofillament wire.

I'm basically just extrapolating data from exagerated situations under the assumption that microsized items would obey the same relative laws.

At least in my book. I am far from the expert on ficticious science

Bypassing logistical arguments and moving straight to evil--If you're worried about monowire traps send "disposable assets" down the hallway in front of you. (These include Corp-Sec, bums and small children. ) If the person in front of you starts to bleed, you may have a problem that you need to take care of.

This is starting to remind me of the movie "The Cube". There was a room that had a monowire trap.

Big Knobi Klub has some great stuff on monowire.

In my group, we treat monowire as buckytubes - long carbon chains. They don't break but certain ceramics will stop it. Working with it requires special tools with monowire embedded in them.

In fact, I had a contact once who had managed to get the kit used to install the stuff, then just went around to corporate facilities taking the monowire from the top of their fences. Nevermind going inside when stuff that 'rare' is hanging around the entire place.

Actually it's not going to cut through anything with a Barrier Rating of 4 or higher on its own, BR of 5 if aggressively applied to the object, or BR 6 even if slung like a whip.

Now if you sit there and saw with it, you'll eventually make it through anything up to a max BR of 20 or so depending on the type of saw. But that's going to take a good long while.

Actually I thought max BR of 10, not 20, because since BR is doubled versus it at a BR of 10 it effectively has a BR of 20 and it can no longer degrade anything.

Actually they were identified as carbon buckytubes in one of the core sourcebooks.

It was someplace I don't remember it being, I want to say under the nanothingie that makes monowire in SOTA or M&M or the BBB. It's almost positiviely in one of those books, almost.

I am on the other hand absolutely positive I read that, because I remember thingking "Hey! Cray mentioned that on Dumpshock!"

M&M mentions buckytubes, in quotations, but never calls it carbon. And you can, in fact, cut them with a normal pair of scissors. It's just a Strength (5) test to snap it.

That's what I was thinking of.

Buckytubes are, by definition, carbon. Excercise your Google-fu.

I'm pretty sure the term refers to any fullerene(sp?)-shaped arrangement of atoms and molecules. Most are carbon-based, but its not an exclusive term for carbon. But I'm not a physicist or anything.

In some people's games though it's made of pure Unobtanium!

Im protected by such elements by my necklace made of Bovineorbitalism-47.

I used to use a steady supply of misinformatium to defend against those, but all the stocks have been depleted for the past few years.

~J

Would unobtainium beat munchkinite?

No, but you don't necessarily have to sell your soul to get it.

~J

It's not infinitely sharp. It's little more than a really sharp razorblade.

First, it's not infinitely sharp. It's just really sharp. Second, it doesn't have the strength necessary to push through metal, or ceramic, or any really hard substance. It would break first. It is not god. It is sure as HELL not as displayed in Johnny Nmemonic.

So, if I get ceramic bars installed in my armor along where I'm likely to run into monowire, I should be relatively safe?




karma

Only if it provides Impact armor. There is no "full-proof safeguard" against monowire anymore than there's a "full-proof safeguard" against swords, bullets, or explosives. It's just a different type of damage, and one that can easily be avoided by making a relatively simple Perception( test.