[Ryo]

Reading up on shooting missiles and indirect fire and such, I see that you can paint a target with a target designator to get missiles to home in on them, and that's all well and good, but I don't really want to stand there with a laser pointer trained on my target. So I got the idea of maybe planting an RFID on my target, perhaps by hand or maybe find a way to shoot it at them, and then have the missile home in on that.

I know this kind of thing would be perfectly possible in reality, but I can't seem to find rules for it in Shadowrun. So, can it be done?

[Tagz]

I imagine it can, but RFID tags typically have very poor signal on their own, relying on daisy chaining to broadcast.

So two options as I see it:
1) Amp up the signal on the RFID tag.

2) Use the Tracking Program rules for locating it.  Gets to within about 30 meters of the signal's origin.

Unless I'm missing something.  Guided missiles is something that hasn't come up in my games yet.

[Chaemera]

You have the bigger problem that the signal rating of an RFID tag is 1, meaning that, as in real life, it has an effective range of garbage when compared with the range at which a weapon actually needs to work.

The real life cases are actually homing in on much more powerful radio beacons than an RFID tag, equivalent to a Signal 4 or 5.

However, there's nothing stopping you from applying the existing target designator rules to a radio transmitter based indirect fire system. Just treat the Spotter as having gained no additional hits, to balance the fact that the spotter can safely go about his business once the radio transmitter is planted.

Side note, RFID Rounds (rounds with an RFID chip in them) are in War, page 156.

If you're heart-set on using an RFID chip, use Tagz' approach of Tracing the planted RFID via the Matrix, then use the Information-Guided indirect fire rules to feed this intel to the weapon.

[Fizzygoo]

Yeah, I second Tagz and Chaemera.

Tagz's option #2 I wouldn't really allow to work, save for the 30m diameter scatter area (meaning I agree with Tagz). A RFID with signal 1 has a 40m range, meaning once the missile is within 40 meters it could lock on...but I would argue that at that late of stage the missile could not adjust its flight path in time.

If you had the commlink ID of the target (assuming they have a commlink and are in active mode), then with a rating 3 or better signal on the commlink homing in would be much more accurate.

[Ryo]

Hmm...Locking a Missile onto someone's Comm is actually way more devious and evil than sticking them with an RFID. Though I'm not sure if the wireless signal of the Comm counts, compared to the radio signal of an RFID.

And can an RFID's signal be boosted, perhaps?

[Dahrken]

Probably, but it will make the thing bigger and harder to put on your target.

If you are in a area with good coverage it may be possible to add a location capacity (GPS or network-based) to a tag-bullet so that you shoot it, it embeds in the target's armor (or the target itself...) and then transmit it's location over the network, but the accuracy would be relatively low and the concept best used to aim weapon with area effect.

[The_Gun_Nut]

An RFID's usefulness depends on one big asset:  It's easy to hide.  They are tiny and can even be included in things like clothing and food items.  Someone can even have a spray can full of the things in suspension and literally paint the target with RFIDs.

I can see someone making a slightly larger one with a limited broadcasting time (signal 3 would be quite possible).  This would allow for the indirect fire one is looking for, but it would still require a forward observer to tag the target.  And there would be a definate chance of someone "spotting" the signal coming off the RFID.

It would probably be easier just to laser designate the target.