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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: bryan.covington@****.COM
Subject: Re: [SR3] Gear ideas: Stealth Clothing and Doppler Radar cyberwar
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 14:04:16 -0400
> A player of mine has asked for a couple of custom pieces of gear. I
> can't
> find anything similar to either of them in any of my books, and since
> I'm a
> relatively inexperienced GM, I was hoping to get some opinions from
> the list
> on how they would work so I don't end giving him anything to
> outrageous.
>
> 1. Stealth Clothing - like the stuff Snake Pliskin wore in 'Escape
> from LA'.
> I presume that for game balance, you couldn't totally mask the
> wearer's IR
> signiture. It would probably just reduce the effectiveness of any
> kind of
> IR sensor or sight.
>
Never saw the movie but there are thermal masking suits
out there already. (Not sure where, but I'm sure I've seen em)

> 2. Doppler Radar cyberware - I have only a limited knowledge of how
> this
> would work. My guess is that it would let you "see" motion, perhaps
> offsetting the penalties for moving targets in ranged combat or making
> it
> easier to see moving objects in the dark. Also, what organs would it
> most
> likely work through?
>
This is the tricky one. This can be done although not
cheaply, and not too effectively. They used millimeter wave radar a lot
in "Snowcrash" by Neil Stevenson. It would work a lot like the
ultrasound sight from SSC. In fact so much like it it would almost not
be worth doing. You would get the advantage of see through to a degree,
but you also have to worry about microwaving your brain (Amana didn't
call it the "Radar Range" for nothing). Cyber? Maybe but very
directional and VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY expensive. Like
2-10 MILLION nuyen. This is just not gonna work for the normal pc.

Since I argued that it would be possible I guess I
should theorize on how it would work....

Depending on where you mounted the transmitter, best
place in my mind being on the (preferably cyber)hand. This way you keep
the radiation pointed away from the body and away from vial organs. It
would be very directional with maybe a 30-45 degree arc of vision. You'd
see though simple structures, although in varying amounts depending on
what you're looking through (too much stuff would break up the waves).
It would have to be carefully controlled by the GM (automatically making
it not worth it in my game).


<prepares for the attack of the physics majors>

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