[Senko]

I'm just wondering what people think is the best equipment to use to conceal a characters identity. Wigs or short term dyes for a different hair colour, contacts for a different eye colour and maybe a vision enhancement, masks of some sort to cover the face, big bulky clothes to disguise bodyshape, fake distingushiing features e.g. makeup to replicate scars or fake mostaches, DNA grenades and body covering clothing (bought and worn for a run then discarded). What tricks have you used to keep people from realizing who you are?

[farothel]

Have your character ride a motorcycle and you can wear a full face helmet most of the time while on the public road.  And when you have to infiltrate somewhere, you can simply keep it on.

[SlowDeck]

Wigs, short-term dyes for the hair underneath and eyebrows, contact lenses that change your eye color, mask to cover the face, costume make-up and prosthetics to add things like cyberware and scars that don't actually exist as well as changing your skin color, special gloves that give you a different set of fingerprints than you actually have, weights in clothing to change body mass, and on occasion voice alteration devices. Having vials of skin, hair, and blood samples from random people to leave behind you to contaminate the scene so they can't use any forensic evidence also helps.

After all, the key to being untraceable is not to leave no evidence, but to leave so much evidence that points to so many sources that they can't use any of it.

It also helps to play with other people's senses. That's where drugs like Bliss and illusion spells are very helpful. After all, if the security guard is describing you as a seven foot blue dog that talks and DNA evidence says the crime was pulled off by forty-seven people while there's only four sets of footprints... It's pretty safe to say they probably won't be able to track you down.

[Lethal Joke]

You get desperate to conceal your identity, then get plastic surgery.
You know, considering this is Shadowrun we're talking about here.

[Michael Chandra]

False Front. Let's see if it makes it to SR5.

[Vidnaut]

A disguise kit.  Everything begins and ends at the disguise kit one uses as the foundation of the Disguise skill.  Everything else are just extras used to build on top of that.

[Prodigy]

I assume you mean other than a fake SIN... (see page 143 of Spy Games for details)

Honestly, just reacting to the situation and getting a proper disguise is the key to being a successful spy. Agreed on the disguise kit.

[Namikaze]

A ballistic mask should be sufficient to throw off most biometric detection methods, and certainly makes you a little harder to spot in a lineup.  But if you're paranoid, you use any combination of the methods described.  Getting cosmetic surgery is really not hard in SR5, but then throwing a disguise on top of it makes you really hard to identify.

[Senko]

Hmmm genetically engineer a blue dog and take samples?

[JimmyCrisis]

Don't forget electrochromic clothing - and a bright red baseball cap.  People who dont know you already latch on to obvious details... Both of these items can change your appearance nearly instantly, making eye witnesses and descriptions unreliable.

Polyruthenium can be used to make your appear to be dressed in entirely different clothes, or with an entirely different body shape -  the fluff in the Second Skin body armor line is indicative of that.

Finally, goggles and a disguise kit wouldn't be abnormal in 2075, they should let you fool facial recognition technology while still looking pretty normal.

Your best tools are the disguise and impersonation skills, of course.

[JimmyCrisis]

Also!  I almost forget -  cyberware.  Cyber arms don't leave fingerprints.  Spray solvents can destroy genetic material in blood.  A voice modulator or cybernetic voicebox will prevent your voiceprint from being picked up.

Keeping skin cells and hair follicles from leaving DNA traces is a little more extreme -  for fitting body armor and a motorcycle helmet will do the trick, as will any closed - environment armor.  I wouldn't want to give anyone a reason to go looking for trace DNA evidence, if I could help it.

[Dinendae]

A disguise kit.  Everything begins and ends at the disguise kit one uses as the foundation of the Disguise skill.  Everything else are just extras used to build on top of that.

^Pretty much this. I saw an article not too long ago that showed how basic actors kits (with things such as latex false nose pieces, fake eyebrows and such), and just a few slight changes using the kit, could fool facial recognition software currently in use. As I recall, they were able to toss on a wig or headscarf, sunglasses, and add a slight lump to the nose using a latex application to completely fool the software. Much like with fingerprints, such software needs to achieve a certain number of matching points when scanning a face; alter some parts so that the software can't match up enough, and it will move on to the next.

[Namikaze]

Someone posted this in a different thread, but I think it might bear bringing up again.

http://cvdazzle.com/

[Kincaid]

A disguise kit.  Everything begins and ends at the disguise kit one uses as the foundation of the Disguise skill.  Everything else are just extras used to build on top of that.

Also agreed with this.  Revisit the rules for using a Disguise Kit on page 136.  Combined with a good Impersonation (+ Voice Modulator, of course!), and your threshold is going to be nuts.  You have three separate rolls all adding to it and they all stack: your kit roll, your Impersonation roll, and your actual Disguise roll.

EDIT to clarify--The kit roll adds dice (not threshold) to your Disguise check, your Impersonation roll adds threshold.

[Vidnaut]

A disguise kit.  Everything begins and ends at the disguise kit one uses as the foundation of the Disguise skill.  Everything else are just extras used to build on top of that.

Also agreed with this.  Revisit the rules for using a Disguise Kit on page 136.  Combined with a good Impersonation (+ Voice Modulator, of course!), and your threshold is going to be nuts.  You have three separate rolls all adding to it and they all stack: your kit roll, your Impersonation roll, and your actual Disguise roll.

Actually, the Disguise roll for using the kit to prep a disguise in advance just adds its successes to the actual Disguise + Intuition[Mental] roll when you put it on (up to 4) instead of just quickly using the kit in an improvisational situation.  Still helps but it's not gonna get you the crazy-high thresholds a third stacking roll would attain.  Also, the rules are vague on what attribute for that prep-test (Disguise + Logic[Mental]?).