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Non-Leathality for Fun and Profit!

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Zoombie Zoombie's picture
Non-Leathality for Fun and Profit!
So, I've been putting together a character that uses mostly or entirely non-lethal weapons. In a universe where death is a minor roadbump in most people's lives, you may ask why someone would bother if they were going to carry weapons and do dangerous things (she's a areostat freerunner and graffiti tagger) wouldn't just pack bullets. They can always resleeve! Well, my character's reasons are grounded in simple ethics (resleeving is as expensive and troublesome as a major inconvenience for many people, and for those who are less affluent, it can mean even more time in infomorph limbo) and possibly legality (If you are doing things that are illegal enough where you might get chased but not illegal enough that you might get serious charges leveled on you, then why make things worse for yourself by carrying illegal weapons...most habitats allow the carrying of non-lethal weapons, or "tools") And, of course, there is the metagame reason: It's hiiiiiiiiiiilarious. The non-leathal build I have going uses splash grenades full of Slip (A flat COO test or they fall flat on their butts), Freezers (mmmm, free goo), and a light pistol loaded with splash rounds...that happen to hold DSMO+Twitch, so if you want to debilitate someone, you can do it with painful (and non-lethal!) muscle spasms. And while making all of this, I realized that there was a second metagame reason...it actually seems faster than some lethal methods. Am I crazy, or am I onto something? And even if I'm not, do any of you have non-lethal methods that you have thought of for one reason or another? The main difficulty for me was synths and robots...they're just hard to knock out. That's why she's packing the goo-gun.
OpsCon OpsCon's picture
Re: Non-Leathality for Fun and Profit!
My character is fond of Microwave Agonizers and a light pistol with plastic rounds. When he's got the cash he's going to get a couple of smart magazines and mix and match plastic and regular, however, in case of Synths.
TadanoriOyama TadanoriOyama's picture
Re: Non-Leathality for Fun and Profit!
My first character was a former Night Cartel thug that specalized in breaking bones but not doing lethal damage. A damaged morph is like breaking a few car windows but a dead morph is like a burned down house: makes it harder for the mark to earn back the money. Once he joinned Firewall he started carrying a Freezer.
Smokeskin Smokeskin's picture
Re: Non-Leathality for Fun and Profit!
I like injector nanoswarms with for example Twitch.
Geonis Geonis's picture
Re: Non-Leathality for Fun and Profit!
One thing I will point out, none of your weapons stop them from accessing their most powerful weapon, the mesh. Calling in skilled allies or relaying intelligence can be far more dangerous than the guns they carry.
OpsCon OpsCon's picture
Re: Non-Leathality for Fun and Profit!
Jammer rounds. Problem solved.
Zoombie Zoombie's picture
Re: Non-Leathality for Fun and Profit!
Geonis wrote:
One thing I will point out, none of your weapons stop them from accessing their most powerful weapon, the mesh. Calling in skilled allies or relaying intelligence can be far more dangerous than the guns they carry.
Shit...I forgot about that... *Adds in jammer rounds*
Prophet710 Prophet710's picture
Re: Non-Leathality for Fun and Profit!
Honestly I don't know if I would say that death isn't much of a roadbump. There still aren't enough bodies to go around unless you're either wealthy or well connected. True you wont have to wait but a year or two max to get another custom body to fit you but, that's still a year in either a knock-off morph or in simulspace. I would think that non-lethal capture and take-down would be very lucrative, for both morph retrieval and ease of interrogation.
"And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us."
Zoombie Zoombie's picture
Re: Non-Leathality for Fun and Profit!
That's where the "and profit!" part comes in :) Though, now that I think about it, slip grenades against synth morphs is just as funny and effective as it is against biomorphs. I'm now imagining a Reaper trying to stand, then falling, then standing, falling, standing, falling, finally going, "Fuck this!" and turning on their fans.
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Non-Leathality for Fun and Profit!
My async character has picked up the pseudonym "Sleeper" because of his signature trick: using the subliminal sleight to push people into falling to sleep. In fact, psi gamma sleights open up a whole host of nonlethal ways to handle people. I've subliminally convinced someone to wander into an ambush point for a smoke break, or simply combined the spam, sense block and alienation sleights to render someone worthless in combat. If the aim of the game is to simply convince them to do something you want them to do, charisma and drive emotion are a level 2 async's most potent abilities. Even kidnapping becomes an easy chore… simply convince them to come with you. They'll be like butter in your hands.
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