Hi, guys!
I would like to know how you are handling nanomachines/nanites on your missions.
I want to, slowly as possible, present this technology to the players, but I don’t want to create “the perfect” weapon, instead I want to show the dangers, destruction as well the cost x benefits.
Can you help me?
Gray goo!
Nanomachines mean a corp can probably manufacture a cortex bomb equivalent whenever they want. The machines could just build a blood vessel obstruction in your brain and you have a massive stroke and die.
Also gray goo.
Macro-scale cyber gear could be isolated, it could require a physical connection to hack, modify, etc. Nanomachines would probably have some kind of nanobot-to-nanobot wireless comms, and it’s possible strong electromagnetic phenomena could disrupt them. (Of course this could render regular cyberwear less than useful as well.) Or that a wireless signal could backdoor them and disrupt them. (Naturally once you start connecting your neural interface to random systems, you’re susceptible to outside hackery, or if your cybercoms picks up a 0-day exploit, or you view the wrong QR code with your cybereyes and go blind as a bat.)
Nanomachines might require raw material to work with, which is a good way to maybe use up the players’ resources, if they have access to nanowear.
And then there’s still also gray goo.
Thanks! I am thinking about corps using nanomachines to push the players in a dangerous path. That way, players can search for a “cure” for the nanomachine infection.
Maybe the nanites are infecting the Matrix too…..hmmm a lot of ideas going on.
They could always take over a network hub or server farm and repurpose it. Going near that in the Matrix could be like being near a rupture in reality. I wouldn’t let them, say, ‘infect’ the hacker and start having nano goo come out of her face parts (too much nanomachines as magic), but certainly they could act like ICE and fry her or her deck.
Yeah, Charlie Vick. I was thinking exactly as you described. Thanks for your help.
Consider adding a Headline Clock to show the technology slowly gaining a foothold on the market and transforming the world around the PC’s (especially if the PC’s want to influence this somehow).
I did this when introducing a radical new technology in my game (AI’s) and I increased the Headline each session as I described how the world subtly shifted to integrate this new tech, and it really hit the players that the world was changing.
How mature is the technology? If it’s very new, it’s also not going to be very capable compared to what it could potentially become. As such, it’s something that can be created as a specific threat – good for targeted sabotage – but not necessarily dominating everything. On the other hand, if it’s a well-established tech, it’s going to be everywhere… you’d probably assume that much of the PCs equipment (especially cyberware) is nanotech in nature… nanites in the blood stream, instead of implanted microchips.
Also, consider how controlled it is. A corporation is unlikely to intentionally unleash it if they don’t think they can control it, so gray-goo scenarios are almost certainly the result of industrial accidents (or possibly ‘accidents’). And again, if it’s a relatively immature technology, you’re probably not going to see full-on replicators, because corps will be worried about their ability to manage such things. If it’s mature, they’re more likely to attempt to weaponise it in the most extreme forms…