BTL FX- What do they do? Options

[Glayvin34]

I was looking at the "Scorched" negative quality that gies you a -2 Willpower to resist Black IC, BTL addiction and the like. I was wondering if BTLs actually had any game mechanics in SR3, because in SR4 I can't imagine a character ever having to make a roll to avoid BTL addiction. With the other street drugs you get an actual mechanical advantage or a plethora therof. BTLs in the SR4 book just seem to force you to roleplay being a chiphead.
Seems like a Godchip or a Personafix could give you Charisma or HPT. A Dreamchip might lower your Perception rolls while increasing your Logic, something like that.

[PH3NOmenon]

unless you override the RAS (sp?) you won' be doing anything while chipped... no perception tests at all :P


Scorched combos ice with Addiction BTLs (Mild) though...


but yeah, atm they're fluff afaik...

[Glayvin34]

Yeah, RAS override. I wonder what that stands for.

If you force your way into acting in VR and overcoming the RAS override, you get a -4, but on Dreamchips and Personafixes and stuff it says the RAS is disabled, so I don't think you get any automatic minuses, it would depend on the beetle you're slotting.

[hobgoblin]

reticule activation system (or something like that). basicly the RAS override triggers the same brain function that stops your body from moving about (tyo much) based on your dreams...

[Glayvin34]

[Kanada Ten]

BTLs usually offer no in-game bonus. However, there was a TSS item in Issue 19 about an "Aztechnology Sub-Zero Personality-Fix Chip" that eased stressful condition modifiers.

[Glayvin34]

Neat-o, Kanada.
So in SR3 they actually had a set of stats for addiction, prices for individual drugs and chips, an that "fix factor" thing?
Was that in the SR3 core book?

[hobgoblin]

sounds more like what was in cannon companion iirc. including stuff like rewriting someones memory of events and more...

[Kanada Ten]

Yep, Cannon Companion. That system is replaced by the Addiction Quality, for the most part.

[TwitchtheOrk]

I'd say in most cases the effect of what BTL does is down to your GM.

During one run we ran into an ex-street sam Troll who had become a BTL chiphead and was currently addicted to a personachip based on Jack the Ripper... that run got real messy.

But yeah, BTL effects will depend on what kind your addicted to and it might be possible for a persona chip to totally overwrite your mind if your unlucky.

[James McMurray]

That's almost assuredly one of those things that was tossed in for future growth. We can probably expect to see better rules for BTLs in unwired or a tech book.

[Redspork]

BTLs are all in how you use them. The ones with the real potential are the Personafix BTLs. For instance, I've got a runner drawn up with some wicked hardware skill, but really no other particularly useful skills. However, the RAS override can be disabled in the chips with a little hardware skill, allowing the character to walk around while under the influence. Let's say he loads up a Personafix BTL we'll call Sniper. The character now believes he's a sniper, but has no such skills; not very useful. Now say that each time the character's commlink loads up the Sniper BTL, it also loads Longarms and Inflitration skillsofts into his skillwires...