Puppeteering by implant, What would be required? Options

[Ascalaphus]

The Former Bunraku Joytoy looks like a more viable background all the time... If there were rules.

I've thought about that too.. what it really needs is a price cut on low-rating ActiveSofts. Imagine when you can just slot a PersonaFix and some relevant Activesofts to become anyone. That's got very interesting RP potential. If only the challenge of playing all kinds of different people all the time.

[hobgoblin]

Do everything need to have some kind of ingame numeric effect before people bother to use it? what happened to the role in roleplaying?

[Christian Lafay]

Numbers are the bones. Roleplaying is the flesh.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Haven't seen "A Clockwork Orange", have you? It's cheaper, but does it actually work?

Indeed I have... A very disturbing movie, to say the least... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Ascalaphus]

Do everything need to have some kind of ingame numeric effect before people bother to use it? what happened to the role in roleplaying?

I think it merits some rules.. suppose someone forces a PersonaFix onto your character. You want to know if it totally dominates you, or if there's a chance your will is strong enough to resist it. That's when crunch starts to matter.

We have rules for the beneficial and adverse effects of drugs. BTLs resemble drugs, but supposedly even more intense. Why don't BTLs have any game effects except generic addiction?

[Yerameyahu]

I wasn't aware that Personafix could be resisted, really. It does seem like an issue that could come up, in a world of no-chip BTLs, hackers, etc.

The reality amp BTLs are the drug-stat ones, and I feel like your basic entertainment drugs don't need stats. Obviously, Personafix aren't exactly normal 'recreational'.

[Ascalaphus]

Inflicting a meek, submissive personafix on a VR hacker (who has a hot sim module, naturall) would be rather a killer move...

I think it could use some crunch to make it practicable in games.

[Yerameyahu]

It's my understanding that Personafix is a complete replacement, though I can easily see how that could be wrong. If true, though, it's not very drug-like.

[Ascalaphus]

Maybe CGL can come up with another mini-supplement about drugs & BTLs?

[Christian Lafay]

Maybe CGL can come up with another mini-supplement about drugs & BTLs?

Dear Buddha: please bring me a pony, and a plastic rocket, and a mini-supplement.

[Gerzel]

Here is how I'd do the persona fix resistance:

First the character in question has to be struggling to resist the thing and that mental struggle takes work. Also persona fixes don't generally give direct orders they are more subtle, perhaps insidious than that, and change the personality and thus work on how the character reacts to their environment.

When the character and persona fix are in direct conflict then a contested roll between the two is made. The roll is the character's will vs the fix's rating. Simple enough.

I'd then add in certain modifiers depending on the situation and type of fix. After all a persona fix bought by a middle manager to be more assertive and spontaneous in the bedroom is going to be vastly different from a fix forced on your friendly neighborhood bunraku-slave even though they might be similar in subject matter. This calls for options!

I've not read up on fixes but the legal ones are probably both restricted and limited in rating, probably around 3 or so.

Options:
Conscious Control - Required for all legal fixes, provides the user with internal command/control interface to turn the fix on or off with a simple action with a conscious choice on the character's part.

Punishing - Punishing fixes work to wear down their subject's resistance. After successfully resisting a fix's programming the character takes stun damage equal to the level of the punishing option. The character gets a Willpower roll to resist each success stopping one point of stun damage.

[CanRay]

Personafix: The Carrot and the Stick, directly to your brain!

[Yerameyahu]

Again, the description of Personafix seems to be personality *replacement*. I agree that more subtle, 'nudging' technology should exist (break bad habits, anger management, electronic prozac, etc.), but I don't think that's what the RAW Personafix is. The latter kind needs to be added, probably under a different name (for clarity). It seems like it's similar to reality amps, but not enough that it'd fit under that label. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Aku]

Wouldnt those fit under BTL chips?

[Yerameyahu]

Sure, but *everything* is a BTL chip. Personafix already are, tripchips, dreamers, and probably the reality amps are too (I forget). A BTL is just anything that runs hot sim simsense on you. This kind of 'personality nudger' is closest to moodchips, I'd say; but, again, not identical, because moodchips are a transient high recreational drug, not a personality bender.

There's obviously tons of precedent in the literature for techno personality editors, from 'taser zap when you pick your nose' to 'Terminal Man' (whoops, error!). It'd fit right in in SR. It's just not what Personafix is described as in the SR4 rules. Are they described differently elsewhere, maybe Unwired? I'll look.

[CanRay]

A BTL is a Simsense chip (A movie you experience) with the limiters not put into place, and the effects cranked up to 13. (California Hots are cranked to "just" 11. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) ).

Personafix chips are more like Skillsofts and Knowsofts rolled into one with a particular personality put into place or to assist in training you with that personality. SportSofts are an example that have the personality of the sports heroes incorporated into them (Wolf And Raven by Michael A. Stackpole for more details.).

[redwulf25]

The real question is two fold.

1: How to make a persona fix.

2: How to impose a persona fix of ones self on people who are trying to stop you from achieving your goals. As long as the targets comlink is hot sim capable and they have a currently active DNI I think a hacker could manage this part easily enough . . .

[Modular Man]

And there are "direct input" BTL chips. Those don't need a hot sim module, just a datajack... (to be found in SR4A, p. 259)

[Yerameyahu]

Right, but only because they essentially have their own built-in hot sim module. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) It's a big tradeoff, because those are physical chips, whereas the other 'chips' are just wireless downloads (which sounds a lot more useful to the evil hacker in this scenario).

[Christian Lafay]

Has anyone played with the idea of a techno-drug? Kinda Snow Crash style? Or how even now people are trying to figure out what sounds and sights could trigger the brain to go nuts. Hack into someone's cyberears and cybereyes and see what happens?

[Yerameyahu]

That's what BTLs are.

[Christian Lafay]

Well yeah, but more so. As you mentioned BTLs need hot-sim. I just want them to hear and see some really weird stuff. Smell and feel and taste I don't care about. Hell, could just use their AR for that but then they could just remove it. Or pull a Fight Club and flip the reality filter program. Take several pictures of a scary looking person and have that person pop-up from time to time. Do the movie A Bus Just Went Between Us And Now I'm Gone maneuver. Or, like Snow Crash, just make them insane with video.

[Ascalaphus]

I think the idea is that for it to have such an intense impact, you need ASIST access - sim. And if someone's using Hot sim, their vulnerability is much higher/the rush is much stronger.