With all the amazing crap you can pack into your head and body with cyberware, the Sharper Image catalogues of the 2050’s must have an amazing variety of goodies for citizens and shadowrunners who don’t want to get them installed— or have run out of Essence...
Wristphones are a common piece of technology in Shadowrun. They’re not extremely expensive, and can keep a person in touch at any time, from almost anywhere. A normal wristphone needs to be in touch with repeaters and loses touch when it leaves its available service area. In order for a wristphone to be holding a conversation, the wristphone must reveal which cell it is in, and any decker capable of getting to the slave systems on the PLTG of that telephone company can discover the person’s location. To receive a page, the phone can be anywhere without giving away its position.
A wristphone capable of satellite reception can talk to satellites in low orbit, using technology dating back to the turn of the millennium and pioneers like Iridium and Globalstar. They are more expensive, but have the advantage of working anywhere under the open sky and inside most buildings. Again, going active for a conversation reveals your position fairly quickly as the satellite measures signal strength as it passes overhead.
Note that taking up the bandwidth required to deck through a cellular link, satellite or local, requires dozens of cellular channels to be simultaneously engaged. It is very easy to spot a decker working through a cellular link; hiding the signal through steganography would require that there be a truly huge number of calls to tap, and a crowd of several hundred people suddenly activating their cellphones in short order is highly noticeable.
A pocket secretary is a handset cellphone (50¥) with a 100Mp pocket computer (500¥) and a digital camera and screen. Since wrist computers exist, it is straightforward to include them into wristphones to turn them into pocket secretaries. Pocket secretaries always come with a jack for uploading and downloading data, and a receptacle for slotting a standard 1cm×2cm×3cm optical chip for data storage.
The phone is already capable of receiving signals; adding a translation unit between digital and analog allows them to listen to non-digital radio signals, used for short-haul communications like walkie-talkies. By 2020, most radio stations broadcast digital signals that any cellphone could tune in to with appropriate software. (Any cellphone with pocket secretary functionality can handle such a task. Alternatively, a specialized radio/TV decoder can pull broadcasts off the airwaves.)
Cellphones have had GPS reception since the turn of the millennium, allowing the user to know his location anywhere on Earth as long as they can receive the coded signals from the GPS satellites. The GPS-based mapping package is required to get the same functionality as the GPS unit in Fields of Fire.
A standard cellular service package comes free with Low lifestyle if you have a SIN or fake ID to buy it with; a satellite package comes free with Middle lifestyle under similar conditions. A phone can be programmed to handle multiple accounts if you wish to have different identities.
Standard phones come with a hardwired serial number that they broadcast, but a decker can fix that with an Electronics B/R (6) test.
The datapad is a ubiquitous computing device for those who prefer old-fashioned user interfaces, and is popular with artists. Datapads come in sizes ranging from a mass market paperback to an A4 sheet of paper, and take input via voice, a stylus— a pen-like device that has several rings and buttons for adjusting its modes (such as pen color, shape, and texture)— or a touchpanel screen, if you shell out for one. The datapad can easily be arranged to do anything a handset-based phone can, and make a fine palmtop computer. The solar panels on the back charge it up if you’re away from a convenient power soruce.
Wealthy types who need to stay in touch wherever they go may pick up a Traveltech® Communication Center™, a pocket secretary for the rich adventurer who needs to be able to keep up with his stock portfolio anywhere on the planet or in near orbit. It has a transceiver that can handle anything remotely resembling radio communication— short wave, FM, cellular traffic, you name it— can function as a satellite telephone, and comes with a subscription to a global mapping service— it reads GPS coordinates and pulls the maps down from a server through the orbiting links. The pocket secretary helps you keep track of your appointments in any time zone on the planet.
| Item | Concealability | Availability | SI | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wristphone | 4 | Always | 1 | 100¥ | |
| Vidscreen | Always | 0.75 | +50¥ | ||
| Pocket secretary (100 Mp) | Always | 1 | +3000¥ | ||
| Satellite reception | Always | 1 | +900¥ | ||
| Radio/TV decoder | Always | 1 | +100¥ | ||
| Analog signal reception/broadcast | Always | 1 | +200¥ | ||
| GPS reception | Always | 1 | +200¥ | ||
| GPS-based mapping package | Always | 1 | +800¥ | ||
| Local phone service, per month | Always | 1 | xxxx¥ | ||
| Satellite phone service, per month | Always | 1 | xxxx¥ | ||
| Handset Unit Cellphone | 3 | Always | .75 | 75¥ | |
| Vidscreen | Always | 0.75 | +50¥ | ||
| Pocket secretary (100 Mp) | Always | 1 | +1925¥ | ||
| Satellite reception | Always | 1 | +600¥ | ||
| Analog signal reception | Always | 1 | +100¥ | ||
| GPS reception | Always | 1 | +100¥ | ||
| GPS-based mapping package | Always | 1 | +600¥ | ||
| Earplug Unit Cellphone | 8 | Always | 1.5 | 100¥ | |
| Pocket Secretary | 3 | Always | 1 | 2000¥ | |
| Pager | 10 | Always | 1 | 10¥ | |
| Datapad | 3 | Always | 1 | 500¥ | |
| Waterproof | Always | 1 | +100¥ | ||
| Touchpanel screen | Always | 1 | +100¥ | ||
| Cellular radio link | Always | 1 | +50¥ | ||
| Satellite reception | Always | 1 | +600¥ | ||
| Analog signal reception | Always | 1 | +100¥ | ||
| GPS reception | Always | 1 | +100¥ | ||
| GPS-based mapping package | Always | 1 | +600¥ | Pocket secretary (100Mp) | Always | 1 | +1500¥ |
| Traveltech® Communication Center™ | 3 | Always | 1.5 | 5000¥ | |
Fingerprint spray is a chemical spray that coats the underside of your hand with a porous film that passes bodily oils, but “fuzzes out” the actual fingerprints because the peaks and valleys of the epidermis are buried under a uniform layer. Fingerprint spray only adds +1 to the target numbers of tactile activities, while even the finest gloves add +2, and most add +4.
| Item | Availability | SI | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fingerprint spray | Always | 1 | xxxx¥ | |
Illumi strips and glowpanels are a relatively cheap form of illumination. They consist of doped polymers laid down on a flexible backing; when you run direct current through them, they glow, functioning much like large, flexible LED’s. The ones used in high-tech clothing are made somewhat more durable and expensive than the ones that you can use for lighting and decoration.
The same technology is used for Wearman™ videocloth, which uses repeated trios of red, green, and blue to produce a video display. Videocloth is much more expensive, since it needs to address the individual pixels.
Touchpanels are the latest creation in non-virtual user interface technology, taking advantages of advances in micrometer-scale mechanical engineering. A touchpanel is a flat panel covered by a transparent membrane. The panel itself is made up of thousands of small blocks, a millimeter square and topped with a grid of colored pixels. The height of the blocks can be controlled by software; since the miniature actuators that push up the blocks cannot exert a great deal of force, a touch can easily push them back down. The blocks can lock themselves to each other, so varying groups of them can move as units. This allows a flat display to have the flexibility of a touch-screen interface while giving the feedback of actual keys to press, and is much easier to use than a heads-up display and datagloves or a touchscreen.
Archery has benefitted from the improvements in technology, though it has not enjoyed the focus that firearms have. Modern plastics and pulleys allow a bow to pack a great deal of power in a compact package, and a number of spinoffs from the firearms industry can be used in a bow.
The accessory mount is most commonly used to mount a scope that could be on any gun, and a smartbow adaptor, which is a specialized combination of a smartgun adaptor and rangefinder that allows for the fall of the arrow during flight. (A laser sight on a bow is nearly useless, as the flight time of an arrow is much higher than that of a bullet and provides much more time for gravity to pull the arrow off the straight-line target.)
Minigrenade arrows are weighted arrows with a socket in the head for a standard minigrenade. They can be set to detonate a given amount of time after launching or on impact. Most minigrenade arrows only arm after the head is next to a coded magnetic patch installed on the side of the bow (25¥) for half a second.
Monofilament arrows are hooked up to a spool of monofilament mounted on the bow, and can be used for “clotheslining” maneuvers in combat as well as security penetration...
(also consider arrowheads designed to penetrate concrete...)
| Item | Concealability | Availability | SI | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bow | ¥ | ||||
| Arrow | ¥ | ||||
| Ranger-X Bow | ¥ | ||||
| Ranger-X Arrow | ¥ | ||||
| Minigrenade Arrow | ¥ | ||||
| Monofilament Arrow | ¥ | ||||
| Accessory mount | ¥ | ||||
| Smartbow adapter | ¥ | ||||
With all the customers out there who want smartlinks, the major arms manufacturers will easily see a way of making money off the folks who would otherwise be shelling out large quantities of money for after-market internal smartlinks, and undercutting them while still taking home a respectable amount of nuyen.
| Item | Concealability | Availability | SI | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ares Predator | ¥ | ||||
| Model S (internal smartlink) | ¥ | ||||
| Model S2 (internal smartlink II) | ¥ | ||||
| Ares Predator II | ¥ | ||||
| Model IIS (internal smartlink) | ¥ | ||||
| Model IIS2 (internal smartlink II) | ¥ | ||||
| Browning Hi-Power | ¥ | ||||
| Browning Smart-Power (internal smartlink) | ¥ | ||||
| Browning Smart-Power II (internal smartlink II) | ¥ | ||||
| Browning Max-Power | ¥ | ||||
| Browning Max-Smart (internal smartlink) | ¥ | ||||
| Browning Max-Smart II (internal smartlink II) | ¥ | ||||
Advanced technology makes for a number of interesting possibilities.
The instant chemsuit is a vacuum-packed disposable chemsuit made of transparent plastic. The packet is quite small— about 10cm×15cm×1cm— and unfolds into a full-sized chemsuit when the pull tab is opened. When you're done, throw it in the trash can, as contact with oxygen will slowly start the biodegradation process. Perfect for keeping in a pocket or purse against unexpectedly being caught in the acid rain.
The boots brought to you by Gaiatech™ Footwear are rugged, knee-high creations of modern polymers that will take care of your lower extremeties anywhere from the Arctic to the Sahara. Thermosensitive plastics expand and contract to retain or release heat; micropumps activated by walking help to circulate air as needed, and the superwicking action of the lining will keep your feet from getting too wet as long as there's someplace for the water to go. They are, of course, armored— ballistic 5, impact 4, against anything attempting to attack your feet. (They do not contribute to your overall body armor rating.)
| Item | Concealability | Availability | SI | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instant chemsuit | ¥ | ||||
| Gaiatech™ boots | 500¥ | ||||