[Dudesomebody]

  Hello everyone, I have been searching far and wide on the internet for a way to give a runner some form of 'ware tentacles and am deeply surprised that shadowrun has no rules for it. I have thought of a few close to RAW ideas that might work with a thematic change but they all have their short comings. I was trying to find a tendril that could be retracted into either a normal arm (like a cyberweapon) or be housed inside a human looking cyberlimb, no tentacle arms. I know rules as written doesnt have anything but I want to stay as close to RAW as I can, change how it looks but leave the rules unchanged if that makes sense. Ok, enough of my BS, time to let this freak flag fly!!

1. grapple arm with myomeric rope.  It has a nice damage listing, you get plenty of reach and myomeric rope can be controlled remotly; the only problem is there arent any rules for what the rope can do or how you do it. Does the rope have stats, what skill do I need to attack/grapple with it when I am not firing it, what damage does myomeric whip do? In short, lotta homebrew.

2. Telescoping cyberlimbs.  Not really a tendril but it would just be thematic change and, since its a limb, I know what skills and stats it has. Down side is its not really a tendril (no flexibility) and it would have a whole 2 meter reach. simpler on the rules but very underwhelming.

3. The cybertentacle from issue 9 of KA-GE magazine. This one has all the problems of the first two and it is first edition, so would need heavy conversion. I only list it so I have a complete a list as I can.

  Any ideas or rules info would be most welcome and as always, thanks for the help chummers.

[BeCareful]

Is there a prehensile tail in Chrome Flesh or something? You could use that. The main issue with that where you would normally have a cyberlimb is the lack of fingers.

[cantrip]

There is an Oral Slasher and Snake Fingers in Chrome Flesh - still not quite what you are looking for, but on a similar track...

And a reddit article on tentacle cyberlimbs

[Dudesomebody]

Is there a prehensile tail in Chrome Flesh or something? You could use that. The main issue with that where you would normally have a cyberlimb is the lack of fingers.

The problem with the prehensile tail is that it lacks rules, it just says you can you can grab things. One could assume you would use the players base stats though I suppose and I would much prefer a bioware version than a cyber one

There is an Oral Slasher and Snake Fingers in Chrome Flesh - still not quite what you are looking for, but on a similar track...

And a reddit article on tentacle cyberlimbs

The oral slasher kinda falls into the same category as using the grapple hand, All the rules I need to attack someone but nothing for general tendril use. The snake fingers are close but again need reworking. I found the reddit post before I posted here; Before I bother you guys with my special brand of stupid, I make sure I look extensively elsewhere. I really dislike being that guy that asks a question that has been answered a dozen or more time. I do thank you for the link though, I was trying to find it again.

[Reaver]

The problem is, what you want, can not physically exist.
Now, I know we see it in Hentai all the time.. but that is not a good representation of real life And Shadowrun, despite its Fantasy elements, still tries to stick to realism. (well, as much as it can)

Think about what you want... you want something that can retract, has strength, is prehensile, and flexible. So how exactly do you do that!??!?!?

To be flexible, it would need a Mechanical gimble, flyjoint, sprocket or lever... that has mass... and you would need one at EVERY POINT OF ARTICULATION.
Next, those gimlbes, flyjoints, sprokets, or levers need to receive both power and command signals, which means wires....


And we are not even into little things like weight, ductile strength, tensile strength, thermodynamics, mass, or even Phyics!






****

I am sad to say, But Rule 34 ONLY applies to the internet..
 

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

yeah, the wish list is a bit overly long.  A cyberlimb that's a tentacle instead of a conventionally articulated one?  Surely doable.  But that extra flexibility has to incur an opportunity cost.  A good way to represent that is having less available capacity than a conventional cyberlimb.  Which in turn means it cant be as strong/fast/have all the bat-gimmicks a conventional limb could have.

[Dudesomebody]

The problem is, what you want, can not physically exist.
Now, I know we see it in Hentai all the time.. but that is not a good representation of real life And Shadowrun, despite its Fantasy elements, still tries to stick to realism. (well, as much as it can)

Think about what you want... you want something that can retract, has strength, is prehensile, and flexible. So how exactly do you do that!??!?!?

To be flexible, it would need a Mechanical gimble, flyjoint, sprocket or lever... that has mass... and you would need one at EVERY POINT OF ARTICULATION.
Next, those gimlbes, flyjoints, sprokets, or levers need to receive both power and command signals, which means wires....


And we are not even into little things like weight, ductile strength, tensile strength, thermodynamics, mass, or even Phyics!

****

I am sad to say, But Rule 34 ONLY applies to the internet..
 

I adamantly disagree with this being undo-able because of physics. My last game we fought a dragon with an attack helicopter. There should be limits to what we can get away with but as long as we dont shoot for the moon and use consistent rules I dont see why this cant be a thing. Also my group doesnt run those kinda games ;p  I dont have any expectation or need for this, I dont even have a character in mind, it is purely a 'if I wanted to do this how' kind of deal.

yeah, the wish list is a bit overly long.  A cyberlimb that's a tentacle instead of a conventionally articulated one?  Surely doable.  But that extra flexibility has to incur an opportunity cost.  A good way to represent that is having less available capacity than a conventional cyberlimb.  Which in turn means it cant be as strong/fast/have all the bat-gimmicks a conventional limb could have.

This...is a surprisingly good idea, I am a little embarrassed I didnt think of it before posting.

[Reaver]

Find me an example in real life of a retractable, articulate, powered cable ANYWHERE....

You can't, because it breaks the laws of Phyics. (Sorry, just tge way it is).

Here is a really easy example you can do right now with a simple kitchen broom...

Grab the broom by the VERY end (nothing sticking out of your hand), now lift the broom and your arm out so the broom is 90 degrees to the floor., while keeping feet paralell and shoulder width apart. Feel thar stain in your arm and back? That with just  1 ound broom.... not 4lbs/foot/4in. Which is the rough weights you for standard construction steel weights (the lowest quality).

And we have yet to discuss the telescoping, ductitlity, nor tensile strengths....


As i stated in Chalkarts thread along the same lines, there are physical limitations that people forget about....

Consider this, for  a machine to extend me out 80 feet from its base, that base MUST weigh 58,000 poinds! And even then, it will tip over if the weight exceeds 550lbs.... or basically me, my tools a 1 piece of equipment....(often times we need to use a 2 manlifts and crane for surface mounting eqipment at height).


While we have telescoping limbs, we do not have telescoping, tenticles, let alone retractable telescoping tenticles simply because its not really feasable from a mechanical consturction perspective.... it breaks the laws of physics and thermodynamics.....

[Dudesomebody]

Find me a real life example of cybernetics on the same level as shadowrun, or a dragon, or advanced ai. I see your point and even agree to an extent, players shouldnt be allowed to do whatever they want just because cool. but limiting a game set in a scifi/fantasy setting because there are no real world examples of something is silly. I do appreciate all the input, gives me something to work with and has sated my need for an answer.

Edit: missing word

[Seras]

Find me a real life example of cybernetics on the same level as shadowrun, or a dragon, or advanced ai. I see your point and even agree to an extent, players shouldnt be allowed to do whatever they want just because cool. but limiting a game set in a scifi/fantasy setting because there are no real world examples of something is silly. I do appreciate all the input, gives me something to work with and has sated my need for an answer.

Edit: missing word

Magic might actually be your best bet......their is a  telekenisis spell in the core rulebook. Magic basicalliy looks like what the mage wants it to look like....so your magic energy can manifest as metallic octopus arms....thats why people love playing mages 

[Tosk]

I was also disappointed to find no tentacle options in SR5. And clearly Reaver hasn't actually attempted to look, I found this in under 5 minutes on Youtube; https://youtu.be/EuLIQacrLlc

The idea that robotic tentacles would be unfeasible by the 2070's is just preposterous, given the massive advances in robotics that the setting contains. I think the real limitation is the game designer's ability to codify a realistic approximation into the rules.

I was recently attempting to create a runner based on Otto Octavius, but in the end decided that he would be the team's Decker and the tentacles would manifest as part of his matrix avatar instead.

I was also hoping to do a runner version of Mac Gargan/Scorpion, but the cybertails are really only of the sexy catgirl variety. I'm going to have to homebrew some sort of cyberware version of a gyroscope harness to approximate his cybernetic scorpion tail.

[Reaver]

I was also disappointed to find no tentacle options in SR5. And clearly Reaver hasn't actually attempted to look, I found this in under 5 minutes on Youtube; https://youtu.be/EuLIQacrLlc

The idea that robotic tentacles would be unfeasible by the 2070's is just preposterous, given the massive advances in robotics that the setting contains. I think the real limitation is the game designer's ability to codify a realistic approximation into the rules.

I was recently attempting to create a runner based on Otto Octavius, but in the end decided that he would be the team's Decker and the tentacles would manifest as part of his matrix avatar instead.

I was also hoping to do a runner version of Mac Gargan/Scorpion, but the cybertails are really only of the sexy catgirl variety. I'm going to have to homebrew some sort of cyberware version of a gyroscope harness to approximate his cybernetic scorpion tail.

Its interesting...

But still doesn't solve the issues that he wants.... He wants a retractable tentacle

I was trying to find a tendril that could be retracted into either a normal arm (like a cyberweapon) or be housed inside a human looking cyberlimb,

which is where you problem lies.... Even THAT tentacle wouldn't work for what he wants as it can not be retracted, and is actually much larger then they are showing you, as there is a air compressor and tank involved in the system they are talking/showing about (they just never show you).

Now, MAYBE back in 4e when there was still nano tech, and nano hives and what not could you get away with something like this, but that (nano tech) has been removed from the game.

the absolute best he could do, would be a roll of filament, which he could unspool and use as a finger.. but it would be limited it what it could use, and the length, as he wants this to fit into an arm!

so... maybe 60 cm? maybe 90cm?

Basically he's asking for 20lbs of goodies in a 10lbs bag...

[penllawen]

I had an NPC, a decker/techie type, who had a tentacle cyberarm. It looked normal (though bulky) but could open up and split out into a few dozen writhing tentacles, each tipped with tools for working on gear: manipulators, solderers, chip extractors, a drill, a microscope, etc etc.

It was nightmare fuel to watch in action. I played up how eerily organic the tentacles were in operation. Combined with some mag-lens cybereyes he was a walking machine shop though.