Shaman lobs a Lightning Bolt at a car. The car has a single passenger, a hermetic with a datajack and a few other minor bits of headware. The bolt damaged the car fairly badly, but then the player was disappointed, saying she had expected that the electricity would arc to the passenger and was more likely to do so because of the metal in his head.

The rules on secondary elem manip effects seem to largely be "GM discretion" so I'm wondering what you folks would rule in this situation. I think it was a Force 6 S bolt, but I had underspecified the specs on the car because I'd been winging it.

despite the fact that it's often referred to as 'metal' or 'chrome', cyberware doesn't involve all that much actual metal. furthermore, datajacks transmit light, not electricity. there's no reason the datajack connection should transmit an undue amount of electricity to the driver.

Now, if a spell could create a piece of lethal feedback code and hurl that at an opponent, then we have an arguement.

Also, there is the idea that while the light is what's being used as a data carrier, the fact is there is a physical connection, what is that material made of, is there any nylon used in the sprotectiove sheath for the fiber optic cable, if so there you have a valid arguement for the electrical secondary effects.

Isn't being inside a car a really good thing if you get struck by lightning, not a bad thing, because the car itself takes almost the entire brunt of the strike? I was always under that distinct impression. But I dunno, might be some weird urban legend or something.

mfb: I don't think the Hermetic Mage was jacked into the car. The context of the post is suggesting he just had a datajack installed.

Yes, being in a car is a very good thing. The electricity will take the path of least resistance to the ground, which is around the outside edge of the car. Unless I am grossly misremembering, the urban legend part is that the protection afforded by the car has anything to do with the rubber tires, which it doesn't.

ah, yeah. i read 'datajack' and, y'know, assumed.

Correct, the hermetic just happened to have some cyber, including a datajack (and thus some was not entirely inside his skin); he wasn't jacked into anything at the time.

It is a good thing untill you try to set out of the car.The second one foot touches the ground..... A human body has less electrical resistance than air-filled rubber tires. But, in the case of a lightening bolt, the car probably wouldn't remain electrified for long.

That reminds me of a conversation I had with a customer when I worked at Compusa many moons ago.

Customer:"But how did my computer get fried? I had it on a surge protector!"
Me:"Did yo leave it plugged in during the storm?"
Customer:"Yeas, I bought the surge thing so I wouldn't have to shut down during a storm."
Me:"Sir, a bolt of lighting can travel upwards of 20 miles from the originating cloud to the ground, then any number of miles along the power or telephone lines, and you expect a nineteen dollar surge protector that probably has a fuse worth 5 cents as a cut of, giving at best a half inch gap to cross in order to reach your equipment to protect it?"
Customer:"Well, yeah."
Me:I show him the qualifications for the "lightning warranty", which clearly stipulate that the warranty is null and void if the device is plugged in during an actual lightning event.

Out of curiosity, why is there a lightning warranty (which I presume means you get to charge more for) if, like, it's null and void when lightning strikes?

Not that I'm saying people shouldn't be ripped off for being a dumbass, I'm just curious.

Electronics can be damaged by lightning even if they arent plugged in.

Just out of curiosity, is the warranty also voided if the customer is using a lightning arrestor?

Because, if you follow the directions and it still gets damaged, they pay

I don't really know or remember, this was years ago. When Pentiums were first coming out.

In Rigger3 there are some rule about VCR's and EM Electricity feedback, but I don't remember any mention of datajacks. The VCR logic was that the higher level of VCR, the more you are opening up your neural data processing pathways to the machine side of things, hence the more feedback damage you take using a VCR3 vs. VCR1.

Sorry, no page reference.

the VCR thing happens when a vehicle the rigger is directly rigging gets hit with an electrical attack. this causes the vehicle's black box to send crazy-ass ASIST signals into the rigger's brain, which causes damage to the rigger.

I can see why people would think my example included him being jacked into the car, but no, the only reason the datajack came up was the implication that the hermetic had metal in his body and as such might be attractive to the bolt.

Thanks for all the replies, I'm going to stand by my ruling that the hermetic does not take damage (he's also being confused by a spirit so I don't think he's going to do too well anyway (we had to break the session just as the combat began)). And the rest of the thread has been interesting too.

the principle is called faraday`s cage.
basically it means anything encased fully in a conductor is completely safe from electrical discharges. In a car you can expect to be pretty safe from any electrical discharges from said lighting bolt, regardless of its strength.

http://www.physics.gla.ac.uk/~kskeldon/Pub...ci/exhibits/E3/


that said, if you force the car to crash with the lighning bolt and it was doing 200 mph at the time.....
-note that if the car is all plastic and optics the principle may not apply
DS

btw nikoli.. lovely lightning warrantee that doesnt work during "lightning events".. lol.. remind me never to buy from compusa

It wasn't their warranty, it was the manufacturers.
It was still a good surge protector, guarded against almost everything but lightning.

But yueah, on general principle I wouldn't shop there, I have an intense dislike for any store that pays all sales personnel on a strictly commision basis.

The lightning arrestor we had back when I used to work at a summer camp office had an unconditional warranty to replace or refund full dollar value of any equipment attached to it that was directly damaged by a lightning strike.

We actually had it used, too, one thunderstorm. The sucker worked, burned itself out but nothing else was damaged.

Unfortunately the arrestor itself wasn't warranted against damage from lightning - you are expected to replace it after a strike.

This same camp had a lighting strike in the cabins (fortunately in the off season). The bolt apparantly hit a cabin, setting it ablaze, and arced through the underground power lines over fifty feet to the next cabin, torching that one as well.

I didn't work there that long.


-karma

Do they not know of the magic that is lightning rods?

Apparantly there WERE lightning rods. We found them bent, melted, and twisted after the fire had been put out.

I have no idea if they had been installed correctly, however.


-karma

Or if there were enough