Could use a little help brainstorming. Interesting obstacles for cyber comms? Is the main purpose to keep in contact among team members? Or is it for surveillance on people around you. How wide of range do you offer something like this?
What I got so far is mostly monitoring enemy comms. Maybe a significant broadcast for them to breach? My team has no hackers, so everything is going to have a more hardware over software feel I think.
What do you mean by obstacles? Right off the bat, I’m thinking jammers, evesdroppers, prying eyes, enemy hacked to show them where they might need to hire someone to cover that back door…
out of a group of 5, two runners have picked cybercomms. I’m trying to look that choice as a flag for runs that include cybercomms… i’m just having a hard time thinking up how to build missions around unique opportunities for cyber comm users lol.
The best I can think is having really interesting goon conversations going on.
OK so, ask them about their comms. My impression is that if one player has comms, the group can have comms. Perhaps they could be too far apart and need to use a relay system between the two comm users, splitting the group. Definitely use the stuff I posted above as hard moves. Maybe you don’t need to do anything with their comms other than take them away when and if the fiction dictates it so.
I think the idea is that they can communicate with one another with fairly decent privacy, but a hacker or driver could easily tap into their comms and the enemy could constantly have the jump on them until they figure it out. The easiest I can think of is that many of the mission structures require them to be in multiple places at once, making them use their comms to the fullest.
Have them hear chatter they’re not supposed to, maybe? Like they pick up the mayday of downed Militech AV. “The package is NOT secured, repeat – not secured!”
I really like the chatter thing. Maybe use that as a way to both send them on a wild goose chase/treasure hunt and reveal to them that they need to up their security. Maybe they keep hearing interference and chatter over their comms. The adventurous will try to exploit it while the cautious will try to fix it. I could imagine my group just going after treasure and information constantly without patching their security only to find themselves in over their head as someone figured it out first and turned it around on them.
Cybercoms are cell phones you can’t take away.
Focus on that aspect. What’s a situation where you’d want a cell phone and want nobody to know you had it?
1. Have the PCs start out captured by a gang, perhaps a Threat or a local gang. They’re not worried, though, because even though the gang took away their cell phones and weapons, many of them have cybercomms. In fact, the gang seemed so unprofessional, they decided to surrender to them just to see what the frag was going on. After all, why’s the local nucoke dealer gang all of a sudden so interested in taking us hostage?
2. Have the PCs infiltrate a secure facility that’s secure enough to take cell phones but not secure enough to scan for commlinks. Surrender all phones or recording devices. Then the PCs with cybercoms can still communicate with the outside world.
3. When you might be naked or very wet. Or both. Such as while seducing an Arasaka executive, attending a high roller’s kinky pool party, diving into the Puget Sound to escape the Renraku arcology, splashing through a swamp outside the sunken ruins of Miami, or SCUBA diving.
4. When you’re in disguise, but don’t have the appropriate communications gear of the person you’re disguising as. E.g. disguised as a corporate security guard, but no official Mitsuhama radio. Or disguised as a wealthy playboy, but no gold-plated, diamond-encrusted jPhone.
Another aspect of cybercomms is that they’re direct neural. Even a subvocal headset mic requires you to talk real quietly. Cybercomms hide even the muttering of subvocalization.