So it's really an open question of what the hell they mean. The entire book, as it mentions Exotic Weaponry at all seems to contradict the skill description. The skill description is as per "Street Knowledge", but the rest of the book treats the skill as per "Artisan".

But regardless, a Monowire hits you for 8 DV if you critical glitch. Boo-frickin-hoo. That's pretty much what happens whenever you critical glitch with anything. It has the "special rule" that "The DM will annoy you or cause property damage if you glitch, and endanger your life if you critical glitch". That's not a special rule, that's what normally happens! You roll a glitch on any roll and the GM makes your life a little uncomfortable, and you critical glitch and life stinks. So that isn't news.

However, as pointed out on the huge soaks thread, you can just spend an edge to reroll failures and turn practically any critical glitch into a success. Based on the very low number of glitches that an adept with a weapon focus and a +2 Reach Weapon is ever going to see, I am unable to see this as a serious impediment to the use of a monowhip. It has specific (and modestly nasty) effects listed for when glitches happen, but these are actually not outside the realm of normal glitch effects. And since +reach weapons add dice to success tests, they are substantially less likely to glitch than ordinary weaponry.

Monowhips are the best lethal melee weapon for everyone who isn't a ginormous troll. By a substantial margin.

-Frank

This is correct, and should be the usage that the Exotic Weapon skill takes. Also, anyone else notice that cyber-implant guns fall under Exotic Ranged Weapon now?

Actually, the critters in the book follow the rules on p287 under Elemental Attack and p289 under Natural Weapon. If it's a ranged weapon, then it falls under its own Exotic Ranged Weapon skill (assumed to be its Natural Ranged weapon or Elemental Attack... I don't think any critter has both), and if it's a melee weapon then it's under Unarmed Combat. None of them use Exotic Melee Weapon as a skill.

Or an adept with enough Killing Hands/Critical Strike. Again, I'd just like to point out that if you intend to use it in Astral Combat (whether perceiving or projecting) against astral entities, you use Willpower+Astral Combat skill.

Yes they do. But those rules are not consistent with the rules on page 112 for Exotic Weapon: Melee and Exotic Weapon: Ranged. The rules on page 287 for eloemental attack are that you roll Agility + Exotic Ranged Weapon to attack, not that you have to choose "Elemental Attack" as your Exotic Ranged Weapon.

The rules on page 112 are that you have a skill called "Exotic Ranged Weapon: Elemental Attack" that only applies to your Elemental Attack power. The rules on page 287 are that you have a skill called "Exotic Ranged Weapon" and it is added to your Elemental Attack rolls (regardless of whatever else it does).

This is a huge discrepency. And there isn't a single example anywhere in the entire book of any character or creature following the rules on page 112 - though there are many examples of creatures following the rules on page 287.

I mean, on page 149 there is a list of melee weapons. It tells you that cyber implant weaponry can be used with the blades or the exotic melee skill. Since there isn't a single advantage to the exotic melee skill over the blades skill according to page 112, that's immediately suspect. Of course, the rest of the chart says that the exotic melee skill is also used to attack with chains and monofilament chainsaws - so according to page 149 there actually is a reason you might want to use Exotic Melee Weapon as the skill that powers your spurs.

Dragons in the basic book have access to Elemental Attackand Corrosive Spit. And only one Exotic Ranged Attack skill which is itself untyped, as per the entire rest of the book save for page 112.

-Frank

OFF TOPIC: That's your gaming group? I nearly laughed to death while reading through your entries in the Shadowrun Quote File... More power to money sucking lawyers!!

No. I had someone who wanted a campaign to kidnap Krass and use him as a weapon. The other players shot him to death in the game.

Hopefully they didn't shoot the character but the player...

Well, I had one player who wanted to take Exotic Weapons (Dikoted Ally Spirit Sex Slave) after reading these boards, but a sound beating convinced him otherwise.

Rubber band guns were banned at the playing table after that. He's also the one who tried the Lone Star Officers one, so I have had to ban squirt guns as well.

Doesn't the weapon have to made with Orchilium anymore? Wouldn't that completely disable the mon-filiment part of the whip?

In any event as a GM my answer would be "No".

They never did! At worst, Orichalcum only had to be used in the enchanting process of a Weapon Focus. The weapon itself did not have to be composed of the substance.

OK, please explain why anyone would ever use "Exotic Melee Weapon" to power their cyber spurs (an option listed on page 149) when they can use the Blades skill instead, as described on the same page. As per the the rules on page 112, Exotic Melee Weapon is exactly like Blades except that it doesn't also let you use a combat axe, doesn't let you specialize in your weapon of choice, and doesn't improve when you buy up the close combat group.

So why is that option there? Clearly either the author of that table is a god damned idiot, or thought that Exotic Melee Weapon functioned like Artisan and let you use a number of Exotic Weapons. Otherwise there's no point in that option even existing.

So if it's "design intent" for Exotic Melee Weapon to be such a crappy skill (as described on page 112), why is the rest of the book written as if it were not? (Pages 149, 287, 289, 295, 296, 305, 309, 317, 327, 328) How come you think that the description of the skill on one page trumps every single description of the use of that skill on 10 different pages?

Isn't 10 entries more of the book than 1 page? Doesn't that count for more design intent?

-Frank

The problem is that the book says that you can use Unarmed Combat or Blades to use cyberweapons. Any Cyberweapons.

The cyberweapon descriptions themselves don't even mention you having to use Exotic Melee Weapons if you put them somewhere dumb.

-Frank

That's great, but it doesn't say that it is exclusive.

As the rules stand now, you can use unarmed combat or blades for a spur anywhere on your body. You can use exotic melee weapon for a spur anywhere on your body that you can convince your GM is "unusual".

But... there is no advantage in doing that if you follow the Exotic Melee Weapon rules on page 112. You're much better off just using unarmed combat (which costs the same, can be specialized, and adds to your defense pool in close combat even when your spurs are retracted).

Unless you interpret Exotic Melee Weapons as per the entire rest of the book, there is no reason to ever take it for any cyber weapons, no matter how unusual they are.

-Frank

I didn't say there was one. It just hadn't been mentioned until then, and as I was recently working on a character that uses Spurs, I went back and checked to see if what I was doing was canon.

... or if the GM is convinced already that it is unusual enough that that particular cyber doesn't belong under Unarmed Combat, where upon your options dwindle quickly.

Of course only an absolute dick GM would consider things like obvious, but normally shaped cyber limb an implant that requires an Exotic Weapon skill.