The Smartphone's been around for a few years now, but it already has a bunch of stuff on it which goes beyond mere communications.

A lot of downloadable apps can have interesting uses in a modern RPG, particularly for investigation/espionage campaigns.

'Find Your Phone' app can be used to track the physical locations of phones.  While it's mainly used to locate lost or stolen phones, it has potential uses as a tracking device.

There are already apps for police radios, too (although they're illegal to have in several US States).

World Lens app and visual translators use the phone's video camera to translate displayed text to the English language, much like a fast translator.

Image recognition applications (such as Google Goggles) put pictures through an online search engine, from people to landmarks to barcodes, and pick up relevant information.  "Now where have I seen that guy before?"

I was thinking of having some kind of resolution mechanic to determine if something's within acceptable bounds for a PC.  "Hey, I can download this to my Smartphone!"

Is it a general purpose entertainment thing?  No roll/purchase necessary.

Is it something more out there, like hacking into the city's grid and manipulating traffic signals?  Well, first you need to locate reliable software; second, make sure you don't leave a data trail behind.  Given a Smartphone's Internet connection it can pretty much double as a computer, but I don't really know its online limits (mine loads up slower than my laptop, and my phone's a modern 2012 one).

Feel free to share your own thoughts and potential ideas.

I've used those ideas and more in our Top Secret game for a while now. Once you have a PC that can get in to the telephone networks, the world is his oyster, so to speak. Real time tracking within a few feet - though remember, what can be tracked, can be spoofed (they followed the wrong guy halfway through Las Vegas on that one).

Real world use of smartphones for foresnic police work is becoming routine now, too. Fingerprint scanners, mug shots, etc, all very common in police work. Somebody's working on a portable, real-time DNA analyzer that will be affordable for routine police work (and what can be made in to a dedicated device can be made cheaper as an attachment for your smart phone). We're seeing crude Star Trek medical tricorders being developed right now - on the iPhone.

But any trick the PCs can use against the bad guys, the bad guys can use in return. If you're tracking someone's phone, you're doing it on a phone they can track in return. If you can hack someone's text message queue, they can hack yours. If you can turn on their camera and mic without them knowing it, they can turn yours on, too. And anything that you can anticipate the other side doing can be spoofed - imagine turning on someone's camera and mic, and getting a video of them committing a murder, only to have it turn out it was a preset fake activated by your hacking their phone using a common exploit. The cops show up at a crowded party, with hundreds of witnesses, and there's the victim, still alive, and the alleged perp has never been out of sight.

Quote from: Libertad;658952Is it something more out there, like hacking into the city's grid and manipulating traffic signals?  Well, first you need to locate reliable software; second, make sure you don't leave a data trail behind.  Given a Smartphone's Internet connection it can pretty much double as a computer, but I don't really know its online limits (mine loads up slower than my laptop, and my phone's a modern 2012 one).

You don't need to be a l33t h4xx0r to do that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcMRkyoHKeA

A video game devoted to this concept, basically.

We're living in Cyberpunk, as to smartphones themselves. The lack of prosthetics just confuses us.

"Lose 500 XP."

I know it made a big difference in the last CoC game I played; set in the present; it totally changed the whole "researching in libraries for weeks" thing.

Hope this isn't a derail.

This, as well as internet/"cloud" communications in general put me off running modern day games.  I'm only in my 20's, but have never had a smartphone and don't really know what they are capable of-I'd probably feel it was an instant mood killer if someone's character was making use of a real world app.  

I really struggle thinking of ways to create mystery and intrigue in a world connected so thoroughly without going straight to the obvious They Live type conspiracies.  I'm probably just not trying hard enough.

Quote from: AndrewSFTSN;659245Hope this isn't a derail.

This, as well as internet/"cloud" communications in general put me off running modern day games.  I'm only in my 20's, but have never had a smartphone and don't really know what they are capable of-I'd probably feel it was an instant mood killer if someone's character was making use of a real world app.  

I really struggle thinking of ways to create mystery and intrigue in a world connected so thoroughly without going straight to the obvious They Live type conspiracies.  I'm probably just not trying hard enough.

I would say you're not trying hard enough. The presence of smartphones in my CoC game did nothing to deter from the sense of mystery and intrigue; or even from the requirements of skills. The thing about the interwebs is that suddenly Getting Information is not hard, its knowing what to look for that's hard, its knowing how to make sense of it all that's hard. Stuff like that.

RPGPundit

Quote from: AndrewSFTSN;659245I really struggle thinking of ways to create mystery and intrigue in a world connected so thoroughly without going straight to the obvious They Live type conspiracies.  I'm probably just not trying hard enough.

You could take your cues from horror movies which play on the interconnectedness. One of my all time favourites is 'white noise' closely followed by 'pulse'. Or even the likes of 'one last call' or something, 'rec2' also provides a lot to work with. The networking creates more opportunities for intrigue in my experience - read neuromancer or the cryptonomicon.

Quote from: The Traveller;659478You could take your cues from horror movies which play on the interconnectedness. One of my all time favourites is 'white noise' closely followed by 'pulse'. Or even the likes of 'one last call' or something, 'rec2' also provides a lot to work with. The networking creates more opportunities for intrigue in my experience - read neuromancer or the cryptonomicon.

In terms of intrigue I'd generally agree, but both in that and in terms of horror, it's in my opinion of foremost importance, that it allows a creation of different opportunities, so to speak.

For example, horrors usually strongly rely on feelings of loneliness, alienation and separation from civilisation, society and even humanity in large. With mobile phones getting this is technically harder, as you can always call for help or even just to talk etc etc, to stay in contact with your team mates...

Until the batteries ran out/service drops. It's important that it does not do so right off the bat, so to speak - lulling into false sense of communication.

Quote from: Rincewind1;659481For example, horrors usually strongly rely on feelings of loneliness, alienation and separation from civilisation, society and even humanity in large. With mobile phones getting this is technically harder, as you can always call for help or even just to talk etc etc, to stay in contact with your team mates...

As the example movies above illustrate, it doesn't matter who you call if they either don't believe you or can't practically help in any way. This increases the sense of terror even more than being physically alone, as it takes away the comforting pillars that we all rely upon in our lives, leaving us naked and shivering before the abyss.

If you can just call the police to have them arrest the things that go bump in the night it's no longer horror, really. Similar factors come into play in terms of intrigue.

Quote from: Rincewind1;659481For example, horrors usually strongly rely on feelings of loneliness, alienation and separation from civilisation, society and even humanity in large. With mobile phones getting this is technically harder, as you can always call for help or even just to talk etc etc, to stay in contact with your team mates...

Until the batteries ran out/service drops. It's important that it does not do so right off the bat, so to speak - lulling into false sense of communication.

The sense of horror in the connected age comes from never being able to disconnect. Never having any privacy. The sense that something is always watching. Even if the phone is turned off.

(Plus, it's a false sense of connectedness. Yeah, your phone is always with you, but are you really certain that's your best friend at the other end?)

Quote from: RPGPundit;659466I would say you're not trying hard enough. The presence of smartphones in my CoC game did nothing to deter from the sense of mystery and intrigue; or even from the requirements of skills. The thing about the interwebs is that suddenly Getting Information is not hard, its knowing what to look for that's hard, its knowing how to make sense of it all that's hard. Stuff like that.

RPGPundit

I would also suspect that players would need to keep their eyes open for misinformation as well, since a lot of sources on the internet can be edited or "false leads" can be planted.  They can also include nasty tricks like tracking who looks at specific searches and then tracing them  . . .  

Which makes the creepy "the phone is always on" piece suddenly quite scary indeed.

Quote from: Votan;659569I would also suspect that players would need to keep their eyes open for misinformation as well, since a lot of sources on the internet can be edited or "false leads" can be planted.  They can also include nasty tricks like tracking who looks at specific searches and then tracing them  . . .  

Which makes the creepy "the phone is always on" piece suddenly quite scary indeed.

Yes, there's plenty of hooks to be found.