[JustADude]

Not like SnS isn't so overpowered that using it wouldn't actually increase their effectiveness, anyway...

Yeah, pretty much.

[DWC]

The other great use for barrier foam is going to be instant casts.  If you need to immobilize someone with a high spinal injury, rather than collar them, you can spray their neck and upper chest with a thin layer of foam.  You can field splint broken limbs with something that the ER crew can clean up quickly and easily.  I can easily see small cans of freeze foam being the second most common thing in every paramedic and EMT's pocket behind a good pair of shears.  It's only second because modern light amplification technology would make handheld flashlights obsolete.

[JustADude]

Good point, and a very nice world-building detail there DWC.

From now on, I'm considering "micro-sized" cans of the stuff as part of the supplies in higher-end medkits when I GM. Probably call it 4+... not that anyone ever buys less than Rating 6 anyway.

[Unahim]

Good point, and a very nice world-building detail there DWC.

From now on, I'm considering "micro-sized" cans of the stuff as part of the supplies in higher-end medkits when I GM. Probably call it 4+... not that anyone ever buys less than Rating 6 anyway.

Since our GM rules that medkits increase in size exponentially with each rating, we do. Rating 6 medkits would have to occupy a room, rating 4's can be fit into a car's trunk, barely.

[DWC]

Except that you can't fill a room with medical equipment for 300 nuyen.  Even if you bought the cheapest, bulkiest equipment on the market, you'd still spend thousands on gear to fill that kind of space.  What he's describing would be more in line with a "medical shop" than a Rating 6 medical kit.

[DarkLloyd]

What ^^^^^ said.......
That interpretation is just awful and non-nonsensical.

[WellsIDidIt]

I increase size by rating, but nowhere near that scale. I see a rating 6 medkit as fitting in a good sized rucksack (similar to a paramedic kit), while a rating 1 or 2 would probably fit in a standard combat pouch or even squeeze in the side pocket of BDU pants.

Having them take up an entire room is completely ignoring the kit, shop, facility rules. I recommend pointing out page 124 of Augmentation to him:

MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
Medical tools, like other tools, are available in kits, shops, and facilities. The medkit described on p. 337, SR4A, can be used on one patient at a time and is quite portable. Portable and nonportable versions of all kinds of medical equipment exist, though shops and facilities are more “mobile” than “portable” in the traditional sense. A non-portable medkit is called a medical station, and
is a staple of hospitals and clinics the world over. Mobile medical facilities are pretty much only found in militaries and places where
the land itself moves around, such as the Trans Polar Aleut nation.

A medical shop or facility has substantially more diagnostic gear than does a simple medkit. In poorer parts of the world, a “hospital” is simply a building with one or more medkits in it. A true medical shop has enough gear that it counts as a Rating
8 medkit. A true facility has enough gear that it counts as a Rating 10 medkit. Such quality comes at a price greater than the
extra space and nuyen: medical equipment beyond the medkit is substantially less “idiot proof ” and provides no bonus to untrained
individuals.

While a shady black clinic might contain only a single facility or even a shop, major hospitals usually incorporate many
shops, facilities, and stations. For example: Tacoma General Hospital has 117 medical stations (Rating 3–6), 29 medical
shops, and 6 medical facilities. On the other end of the spectrum, Dr. Glenn Swayne operates a single medical facility in the San
Fernando Valley.

If it takes up an entire room for a rating 6, there is no point to not just toss the extra cash in for Medical Shop and treat it as a Rating 8.

[beowulf_of_wa]

What ^^^^^ said.......
That interpretation is just awful and non-nonsensical.

again



is it just me or did a couple folks miss the topic shift from filling a room with foam to actual reasonable uses of foam (in a medkit)??

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Foam cast/band-aid - see the movie Serenity, on Zoe's back cut near the end. 

a mark 19 grenade launcher with preset 50 round chains of 10-20 flashbangs followed by 30-40 barrier foam, so much chaos followed by so much silence.  (tech problem: stopping the autofire after the last flashbang, before firing the first foam)

Tech Solution: Smartgun link.  Problem solved. 

For a truly intelligent set of runners: autofire barrier foam grenades in a pattern delineated by an Architecture Knowsoft.  Not only Instant Wall, but a reinforced one - and quite possibly small quasi-planned firing ports.

[CanRay]

Tech Solution: Smartgun link.  Problem solved. 

For a truly intelligent set of runners: autofire barrier foam grenades in a pattern delineated by an Architecture Knowsoft.  Not only Instant Wall, but a reinforced one - and quite possibly small quasi-planned firing ports.

You're going to mount reinforcing bars in certain areas before you start launching grenades?

[Redmercury]

Tech Solution: Smartgun link.  Problem solved. 

For a truly intelligent set of runners: autofire barrier foam grenades in a pattern delineated by an Architecture Knowsoft.  Not only Instant Wall, but a reinforced one - and quite possibly small quasi-planned firing ports.

You're going to mount reinforcing bars in certain areas before you start launching grenades?

AquaDyne Shark-XS Harpoon Gun: Good for weekend whaling and fast barrier building. Corpsec makes for pretty good anchors.

[CanRay]

AquaDyne Shark-XS Harpoon Gun: Good for weekend whaling and fast barrier building. Corpsec makes for pretty good anchors.

Corpsec Goons:  Cheaper than Plasteel! 

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

I wasn't thinking about structural reinforcement the way you sink metal bars into concrete; I was thinking about reinforced structures the way they thought of them in the Middle Ages.  Buttresses on the back end will definitely solve your 'troll push this down' issues.

[Mithlas]

The other great use for barrier foam is going to be instant casts.  If you need to immobilize someone with a high spinal injury, rather than collar them, you can spray their neck and upper chest with a thin layer of foam.  You can field splint broken limbs with something that the ER crew can clean up quickly and easily.  I can easily see small cans of freeze foam being the second most common thing in every paramedic and EMT's pocket behind a good pair of shears.  It's only second because modern light amplification technology would make handheld flashlights obsolete.

Excellent point. I'll have to remember to write that down.

And to keep things more on-topic, does anybody else think that barrier foam being an auto-suffocate potentially makes it a little too strong for common use?

[RythmnSylver]

what about modifying a car with a hidden biometric reader intergrated into the system that instead of locking the car down electronically when it does not pick up the correct biometrics from the driver within 30 seconds of starting the car, it blocks/ covers all gaps that could lead to important wiring and such and then fills the car with Barrier foam.