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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Grnwzrd <Grnwzrd@***.COM>
Subject: new guns or just the same old ones modified?
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 01:53:01 EST
I was just wandering if someone would send me what they thought about
personalized weapons? If you could would you please send me costs and stuff.
I have been wanting one of my characters to have a personalized weapon to
specialize in. It could be as sophisitocated( I spell bad ok) as having a
palm signature which wouldn't fire with the proper signature(this eliminates
having another person firing your weapon that you pay 10s of thousands for and
shooting you for all the bad luck in the world). Plus this would increase the
difficulty in making money off of dead guys because you wouldn't be able to
fire his gun.

Well anyway just wanted to know you all of you thought.
Message no. 2
From: Robert Watkins <robert.watkins@******.COM>
Subject: Re: new guns or just the same old ones modified?
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 17:15:39 +1000
Grnwzrd writes:
>I was just wandering if someone would send me what they thought about
>personalized weapons? If you could would you please send me costs and
stuff.
>I have been wanting one of my characters to have a personalized weapon to
>specialize in. It could be as sophisitocated( I spell bad ok) as having a
>palm signature which wouldn't fire with the proper signature(this
eliminates
>having another person firing your weapon that you pay 10s of thousands for
and
>shooting you for all the bad luck in the world). Plus this would increase
the
>difficulty in making money off of dead guys because you wouldn't be able to
>fire his gun.


There's an adaptor in Fields of Fire to make a palm-print ID required to use
a gun.

However, it's really only for on-site use, as any such mechanism could by
disabled, bypassed, or fooled, given enough time. If you want to stop your
players stripping the dead, then have them get busted by Lone Star while
trying to "Fence the Loot" ("What? Gunrunning's a crime?")

--
.sig deleted to conserve electrons robert.watkins@******.com
Message no. 3
From: Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject: Re: new guns or just the same old ones modified?
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 13:10:07 +0100
Grnwzrd said on 1:53/16 Mar 98...

> I was just wandering if someone would send me what they thought about
> personalized weapons? If you could would you please send me costs and stuff.
> I have been wanting one of my characters to have a personalized weapon to
> specialize in. It could be as sophisitocated( I spell bad ok) as having a
> palm signature which wouldn't fire with the proper signature(this eliminates
> having another person firing your weapon that you pay 10s of thousands for and
> shooting you for all the bad luck in the world). Plus this would increase the
> difficulty in making money off of dead guys because you wouldn't be able to
> fire his gun.

I think what you're after is the individualized biometric safety (IBS)
from the Corporate Security Handbook. In short that's a palmprint scanner
in the grip of the weapon that prevents anyone but the rightful owner from
firing the weapon. Since CSH is out of print, stats are Weight .1,
Availability 3/36 hrs, Cost 2,250Y, Street Index 1.5.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html - UIN5044116
Rebel without a chance
-> NERPS Project Leader * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/plastic.html <-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

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Message no. 4
From: Ereskanti <Ereskanti@***.COM>
Subject: Re: new guns or just the same old ones modified?
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 08:44:19 EST
In a message dated 98-03-16 02:04:09 EST, Grnwzrd@***.COM writes:

> I was just wandering if someone would send me what they thought about
> personalized weapons? If you could would you please send me costs and
stuff.
>
> I have been wanting one of my characters to have a personalized weapon to
> specialize in. It could be as sophisitocated( I spell bad ok) as having a
> palm signature which wouldn't fire with the proper signature(this
eliminates
> having another person firing your weapon that you pay 10s of thousands for
> and
> shooting you for all the bad luck in the world). Plus this would increase
> the
> difficulty in making money off of dead guys because you wouldn't be able to
> fire his gun.
>
Why certainly...head over to

http://members.aol.com/hhackerh/intro.htm

use the technology link

then use the weapon design link.

The ideas are Mike's, and some of them are good ones. Others, well, we're
still working on others... ;)

-K
Message no. 5
From: Rune Fostervoll <runefo@***.UIO.NO>
Subject: Re: new guns or just the same old ones modified?
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 15:53:55 GMT
*snip What about guns that only the owner can use? (palmprint?)*

I've heard it has been considered for standard for current day police
sidearms. I've also heard the state bank will start testing retinal id scan
minibanks as of next year, and yet another company has recently designed
a cheap, effective, and reliable fingerprint id scanner.

So from a logical POV, it might not only be feasible, but very, very common,
by 2050. Secondly, as a few has pointed out allready, it's listed as a mod
in one of the sourcebooks. (FOF?SSC?).

The big question is how does it impair useability of a weapon? It would have
to be a minimal impact, or it would not be used. Most weapons are used
in life or death situations, and you do not want them to say, 'pausing for
ID verification, please hold' at the wrong moment. I do not remember what
FoF says, but I'd say verification is safely done during the simple action
spent readying the weapon. That means you cannot use quick-draw on the
weapon, though, and so might be less useful on pistols. Secondly, the
print need not disable the weapon, only disable certain features, for instance
smartlinks...

If the weapon is smartlinked, it should be easy to modify it so that the
smartlink transmits an ID code. In fact, so easy I'm curious why it would not
be standard. While recoding the gunlink would be quite easy, it would require
4-5 minutes and gear you wouldn't usually find available on a combat scene.
(Each cyberware smartlink has an unique ID code, each gun has a small list of
smartlinks it accepts, and wether it requires a smartlink to work, for
instance.).

--
Rune Fostervoll, runefo@***.uio.no
----------------------------------
ADVICE, n. The smallest current coin.
-Ambrose Bierce
Message no. 6
From: Nexx <nexx@********.NET>
Subject: Re: new guns or just the same old ones modified?
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 14:30:39 -0600
> *snip What about guns that only the owner can use? (palmprint?)*
>
> I've heard it has been considered for standard for current day police
> sidearms. I've also heard the state bank will start testing retinal id scan
> minibanks as of next year, and yet another company has recently designed
> a cheap, effective, and reliable fingerprint id scanner.

One problem with having a palm-print requiring weapon: When your fellow
running needs to use your gun to save your collective asses (because his either
out of ammo, had its barrel melted [damn miniguns], or blown up [damn explosive
ammo]) he can't. Why? Because its locked to any buy your hand. While the
smartgun ID thing that Rune suggested would work, what about those that aren't
going to spend the essence and/or money on a smartlink, like a Decker, mage, or
physad?

***************
Rev. Mark Hall, Bardagh
aka Pope Nexx Many-Scars
ICQ 8108186 , AIM handle Nexx3
************
A beautiful woman is the hell of the soul, the purgatory of the purse, and the
paradise of the eye.........
***********
Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been
poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find
that money cannot be eaten.
- Cree Indian Prophecy
***********
Am Moireach Mor!
Message no. 7
From: MgkellyMP5 <MgkellyMP5@***.COM>
Subject: Re: new guns or just the same old ones modified?
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 16:40:54 EST
In a message dated 98-03-16 02:04:07 EST, you write:

<< I was just wandering if someone would send me what they thought about
personalized weapons? If you could would you please send me costs and stuff.
I have been wanting one of my characters to have a personalized weapon to
specialize in. It could be as sophisitocated( I spell bad ok) as having a
palm signature which wouldn't fire with the proper signature(this eliminates
having another person firing your weapon that you pay 10s of thousands for
and
shooting you for all the bad luck in the world). Plus this would increase
the
difficulty in making money off of dead guys because you wouldn't be able to
fire his gun.
>>

have an armorer contact customize a gun and then install a Bio-Metric Safety
(as seen in the Corporate Security Handbook). get with your GM and both of you
draw up stats for it, say Smartlink II is 800¥, plus Recoil-Comp 2, et cetera.
let him set the base cost as similar to a plain-vanilla gun from one of the
sourcebooks.

Mgkelly

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These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.