[kyoto kid]

....In reading the description of the Skin Pocket bioware it mentions it functions the same as a smuggling compartment granting a -10 to concealment. So does this just relate to visual and "pat down" searches?

For example say a character is carrying a couple grenades in a skin pocket and goes through a Chem Sniffer at a airport. While they may be detected by a visual or tactile perception test, wouldn't the Chem Sniffer still detect the explosives or an MAD scanner detect the metal components like the casing, pin, and trigger? 

I know that smuggling compartments for vehicles (Rigger 5) need to be specially outfitted to counter MAD Scanners Cyber Scanners, and Chem Sniffers.  There is also a special briefcase in Run N Gun designed mask explosives from Chem Sniffers (one of my characters has a couple).

[Novocrane]

Your flesh and blood pocket-containing limb/other is not part of a vehicle, and olfactory or MAD scanners are not opposed by concealment.

[Kiirnodel]

Fun fact, the smuggling compartment doesn't actually alter the concealability of the items inside. "The compartment has a Concealability of –10." Which means someone trying to spot or find the smuggling compartment takes a -10 modifier to find it. With a visual or tactile search, because the items are inside the smuggling compartment, you have to find the compartment before you can find the items inside. But with sensors that are able to penetrate containers, the smuggling compartment gives no extra bonus.

[kyoto kid]

...thank you both. Seems someone in my missions group the other night was allowed to break the rules then, as we had to enter a high security area that had multiple sensors including rating 6 chem sniffers (my character already knew that from the previous run into the same facility).  While she couldn't sneak in any stun grenades (even by the smuggler who took our guns in) the other character pulled out a couple and lobbed them at some guards as we were exiting and heading towards our vehicles.  Feel a little bit cheated now.

Sad because as I mentioned my, character has a couple of the special explosives smuggling briefcases and was told she couldn't use them.

[adzling]

there is some ammo in hard targets that lets you avoid chem sniffers, sadly not for grenades ;-)

+ there is ammo that is undetectable by mad scanners and even weapons that are undetectable.

although there is some substance you can apply to avoid chem sniffers iirc.

[Hobbes]

Skin Pockets work great for anything already MAD proof.  Sapphire Knives, Monowhips, and such.  Grenades are a bad idea, but plastic explosives and the like are fine if you can get a GM to house rule on the chem sniffers.  Pack 'em in coffee and in an air tight container, really should make it next to impossible for a chem sniffer, but nothing RAW that I can recall.   

[Reaver]

Sounds like the GM missed something. It happens when there are so many gizmoams and ware. Remember what does what to what and how can be a real chore... and unless you want the GM to spend an hour every game looking up every single piece of gear and ware to figure out ahead of time what does what to what.....


*Sigh* we love our options in SR. But ever option comes with an increased risk of GM oversight

[Herr Brackhaus]

Also, what kind of Missions adventure has a Rating 6 Chem Sniffer in it!?

[kyoto kid]

...Deadly Competition when the characters have to enter into the Olympic Stadium. There is just about every type of scan imaginable that one has to go through, including astral all top level (at least when we went through it).

For what it may be worth, the character with the skin pocket is also a good friend of the GM who ran the entire mission arc. who also was allowed to geek several security guards who were already unconscious, costing us the street cred award.

[Kincaid]

4e had some anti-chem sniffer cigarettes, but they haven't been ported over to 5e yet.  I've been tinkering with a Chemistry Shop to work up some smart charcoal with one of my characters, but in terms of SRM games, using GI/GO might be your best bet.

[kyoto kid]

...yeah Missions kind of nerfs the technical skills for B/R purposes as characters are not permitted to work on projects in downtime. Leela has Industrial engineering (supposed to be useful for demolitions experts) but about all it ends up being is an expensive knowledge skill. Were it not for her Juryrigging quality, she'd be even more hamstrung.

[Soahl]

It sounds like there were two things that might've happened with that GM there:

1) The GM missed something, like Reaver said. There's a lot of moving parts, a lot of characters, and a lot of things to keep track of. At most tables I've seen, gear management is something that the Players are supposed to keep track of themselves. So, if the GM told the players they were limited to some sort of gear, the Players acknowledged that, and moved on, then it's easy to see how the GM would have missed it later on.

2) The GM was playing favorites, and it's something to worry about. But that's a pretty serious accusation and not one to be made lightly.

To answer your questions: A Skin Pocket would make things harder to find during a standard visual or tactile search most definitely but, as others have said, sensors would go right through it. It's just like with subdermal cyberware. MAD Scanners can detect that stuff easily, so they can detect things in the pocket as well.

Theoretically, the MAD Scanner would then catch anything that it's capable of sensing in the Skin Pocket, but the key here is that the GM can only call out what's detected if they know that the Player is intending to bring it in. If it's not mentioned, the GM can't do anything and usually assumes it's not there. This is one of those situations where the GM and the Player have to work together to make sure the rules work out.

[kyoto kid]

...I am pretty literal about what my character has on her in a given circumstance.  In this mission in question the only "weapon" we were allowed was a pistol (as we were hired as an adjunct to security).  The one character in question also had a monowhip in a fingertip compartment (though that is designed to be stealthy can slip through depending on the hits the scanner gets).   Grenades are another matter,  and even if the character forgot she couldn't bring them in, I would think when she pulled them out as we were escaping, the GM would have said "you don't have those with you".

[Kincaid]

Having run that same mission, the GM probably should have just handwaved the grenades away.  Figure 8 dice (Rating 6 + 2 grenades) vs. Threshold 2 (they aren't hermetically sealed).  That gives you a ~80% of blowing your cover before you even get inside.  No one should be taking that sort of risk.