[Dead Monky]

ACK! A glitch with those and you'd wind up like the Lieutenant guy in the first Resident Evil movie.
[/quote]
True.  But you gotta admit, it would be a really damn cool weapon.

Or ooo, ooo, monowire nunchucks. 

[Medicineman]

a little while ago I was toying with the Idea of giving a char 4 Fingercompartments with 4 Monowhips
with an AGI of 12 and a Skill of 4 thats 16Dice/4 = 4 + Reach 2--> 6Dice per Attack....
but then,on the other hand, once the Strings entangle.....

with an entangling Dance
Medicineman

[joe15552]

I like Bradd's interpretation that includes all the Physical Active Skills. While it doesn't include any combat skills, it does include some things that are not linked to physical attributes, like tracking, shadowing, survival, navigation, and disguise.

However, reading the book literally, it says "Physical skills linked to Physical Attributes." If I were to use Bradd's interpretation while reading the book literally, it would only add +1 to Climbing, diving, escape artist, gymnastics, infiltration, palming, parachuting, running, and swimming. That's +1 to 9 skills. I think if I were GM'ing, that's how I would enforce the rule because the player is spending 5 build points to increase 9 skills by one. Anyone think any other skills should be added to this list?

[The_Gun_Nut]

Combat skills.  Just like they've always been.

[Bradd]

I like Bradd's interpretation that includes all the Physical Active Skills.

No, I was only counting the ones linked to physical attributes. I didn't list the ones with mental attributes.

[FastJack]

I like Bradd's interpretation that includes all the Physical Active Skills. While it doesn't include any combat skills, it does include some things that are not linked to physical attributes, like tracking, shadowing, survival, navigation, and disguise.

However, reading the book literally, it says "Physical skills linked to Physical Attributes." If I were to use Bradd's interpretation while reading the book literally, it would only add +1 to Climbing, diving, escape artist, gymnastics, infiltration, palming, parachuting, running, and swimming. That's +1 to 9 skills. I think if I were GM'ing, that's how I would enforce the rule because the player is spending 5 build points to increase 9 skills by one. Anyone think any other skills should be added to this list?

Yeah, I saw that on the second go round that it's only 9 skills not the fifteen I counted. I'd stick with the 9 for current cost of the 'ware.

It's the same price tag it's had since it was first released as an augmentation, when it granted all those bonuses anyway.  Why would the price go up after 20 years of incremental manufacturing improvements?

EDIT:  Just took a look at one of the previous editions.  It explicitly included combat skills in the 40,000 nuyen price tag.

In Street Samurai Catalog, Enhanced Articulation gave a +1 on "motion-intensive" skills and the Reaction attribute, but doesn't really go into detail on what they consider motion-intensive besides Athletics.

With Man & Machine, it then graduated to granting a +1 on Reaction and Combat, Physical, Technical and Build/Repair skills, including Vehicle skills when not driving via datajack.

Gun Nut, you can play it that it includes all the Physical Skills, but the SR4A clearly lists that it isn't so most of use aren't going to agree with your take.

[The_Gun_Nut]

I don't have a problem if others want to play without.  My problem is that it is such an artificial game balancer that it detracts from actually playing the game.

In the Shadowtech book, enhanced articulation benefitted Active skills.  Basicly, any skill that wasn't a knowledge or language type skill, one that required use performing a task, benefitted from EA.  This was a bit vague, as it included skills like Decking (old edition Hacking), even when jacked in.  Later, in the third edition book Man and Machine, they clarified it to only benefit Combat, Physical, Technical, and Build/Repair skills, and while it did still grant a +1 bonus to Reaction (a derived attribute for all previous editions), that bonus didn't affect matrix or rigging abilities.

In every edition, if you were physically doing something, EA had a benefit.  This only makes sense, as it is such a pervasive and encompassing augmentation.  More fluid movement helps any physical activity, even some completely mundane ones (one could even argue sculpting would benefit, and this was still reflected in the skill sets).

Now, in 4th edition, magically, EA only benefits someone who is moving, but not moving in a hostile fashion.  One could use it to benefit their Gymnastics skill but not when they are in combat.  That falls under the purview of the Dodge skill (superficially very similar to jumping around quickly) which is completely different from jumping around for fun.  It's jarring, and it can completely pull someone out of the game because it is so obviously and randomly done for some sort of strange nod toward "game balance" which never existed in any edition prior to this one.  It's another big change done for, IMO, the sake of big change.

Now, back to the monowhip issue.

I don't find anything really "cheap" about monofilament whips.  They are expensive and a little hard to procure for starting characters.  They are also really dangerous to use.  Not to mention what the authorities will do to the character if they find one on him/her/it.  They are very powerful in close combat, and easy to conceal.  And nothing about them could be interpreted as anything other than lethal force.  No wonder cops get snarky when you pull out the whip.

[FastJack]

     Enhanced articulation is a combination of a number of extensive procedures, including joint-surface coating, relubrication, and tendon/ligament augmentation; these procedures result in a muscle and joint system of extreme fluidity. Enhanced articulation allows a character to execute motion-intensive skills (Active Skills) in a more precise and speedier fashion. Possessors of enhanced articulation roll an additional die when making any Success Test involving an Active Skill. (An individual with Athletics 4 and enhanced articulation, for example, rolls 5 dice when making an Athletics Success Test.) Enhanced articulation also adds +1 to the Reaction Attribute. Studies show that individuals with enhanced articulation may be immune to many arthritic conditions as a long-term side effect of augmentation.
   The Reaction bonus given by augmentation has no effect on rigging or pure cybernetic decking.

Emphasis mine on the key part. Yes, it says Active Skills, but also "motion-intensive" since EVERY skill in 1st Edition was an Active Skill (including Computer, Etiquette and Sorcery), I don't think it was every intended that Enhanced Articulation was to affect all skills, only the ones where Motion was a key element of the skill. I'll give you Melee combat skills, but then and now I would never have ruled as a DM that fluid joints made you a better decker, mage or face.

[Bradd]

Same here. Close Combat seems appropriate, and I'm not sure about Firearms, but it just seems wrong to me to apply Enhanced Articulation to stuff like Vehicle skills.

[Medicineman]

Same here. Close Combat seems appropriate, and I'm not sure about Firearms, but it just seems wrong to me to apply Enhanced Articulation to stuff like Vehicle skills.

Riding a Bike Yes
driving a Car No

I would also Include the EA for Dodge, Close Combat and Throwing
but not for Firearms

with a Dance included
Medicineman

[Kot]

a little while ago I was toying with the Idea of giving a char 4 Fingercompartments with 4 Monowhips
with an AGI of 12 and a Skill of 4 thats 16Dice/4 = 4 + Reach 2--> 6Dice per Attack....
but then,on the other hand, once the Strings entangle.....

with an entangling Dance
Medicineman

I sense an Hellsing inspiration here.

[Medicineman]

if at all than only subconcious .
I like Animes, but not Hellsing because its toooo Railroading to me
(She's got two Monowhips now as a kind of Back-Up-Weapon because no one expects her two have Two in the same Hand but fights with only one )

wit a Back-Up-Dance
Medicineman

[The_Gun_Nut]

     Enhanced articulation is a combination of a number of extensive procedures, including joint-surface coating, relubrication, and tendon/ligament augmentation; these procedures result in a muscle and joint system of extreme fluidity. Enhanced articulation allows a character to execute motion-intensive skills (Active Skills) in a more precise and speedier fashion. Possessors of enhanced articulation roll an additional die when making any Success Test involving an Active Skill. (An individual with Athletics 4 and enhanced articulation, for example, rolls 5 dice when making an Athletics Success Test.) Enhanced articulation also adds +1 to the Reaction Attribute. Studies show that individuals with enhanced articulation may be immune to many arthritic conditions as a long-term side effect of augmentation.
   The Reaction bonus given by augmentation has no effect on rigging or pure cybernetic decking.

Emphasis mine on the key part. Yes, it says Active Skills, but also "motion-intensive" since EVERY skill in 1st Edition was an Active Skill (including Computer, Etiquette and Sorcery), I don't think it was every intended that Enhanced Articulation was to affect all skills, only the ones where Motion was a key element of the skill. I'll give you Melee combat skills, but then and now I would never have ruled as a DM that fluid joints made you a better decker, mage or face.

Oh, yeah, I agree.  I was pointing out the oddities of the first release of EA.  I guess I ddin't emphasize how vague the ruling was (we houseruled that it wouldn't help for rigging or decking in the matrix, as that wouldn't have made sense).  No one used it for Etiquette, because it was so non-sensical that no one ever thought of adding it.

I can see it benefitting the Firearms skills in CQB, because of the rapid changes in position needed to deal with close in targets, but not for very long range targets.  Modelling that in the rules,however, would be problematic (where do you draw the line, at a weapon's range band or at a fixed range?).  I think if someone was using pistols for the Firefight martial art or for CQB it would help, but that's pretty specific.

I once came up with an idea for a drone using a few monowhips like a weed whacker.  They just spin around the top of the drone as it drives down a corridor.

[Dead Monky]

I once came up with an idea for a drone using a few monowhips like a weed whacker.  They just spin around the top of the drone as it drives down a corridor.

Now that I like.

[Kot]

Or a rotor drone with a double mono-whip rotating on the lower part, just at eye level.