| From: | "Jason Carter, Nightstalker" <CARTER@***.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Not gonna do it, not with a C^2 deck |
| Date: | Sun, 4 Apr 93 00:54:33 CET |
Sounds like a great concept, but it just wouldn't work in Shadowrun. As some
people have pointed out, you can't deck by phone and it would be impossible to
keep a satilite uplink trained on the satilite while your running around and
dodging bullets.
Besides multi-tasking with a computer means your letting the computer several
jobs while you do something else. A perfect example is the Math SPU. You feed
in a problem and go on your what. Pretty soon the answer pops out and you use
it. This will not work with decking and combat.
Neither the cyberdeck or your body is capable of performing either task without
you in control. You can't deck and tell your body to dodge nor can you dodge
and tell your deck to hack a program.
The closest I've seen to allowing someone deck and do combat is in Cyberpunk
2020. In this game they have cellular cybermodems (why they don't exist in
Shadowrun is a mystry to me). This means you can deck while sitting in a moving
car (nice trick, eh). Now decking is an exclusive task in CP2020, but there is
a device that will allow the decker to flip from the matrix to the real world
without jacking out. Now while your gone your icon just stands around and runs
whatever program it was running, but wouldn't that be nice when your just
downloading datafiles or sitting in an unguarded node.
Now lastly this question has accomplished on bring up one of my favorite pet
peeves (favorite pet peeve?). That is of course the imfamous "I've got a C^2
deck, can I do ...." Now I could be wrong, but I really don't remember anywhere
in the rules where it sayes there are any functional differences between C^2
decks and normal cyberdecks. Face it, with the mass distances that you move in
the matrix that silly 1 to 2 meter cord between a decker and his deck doesn't
mean drek.
See Ya in Shadows,
Jason J Carter
The Nightstalker
