BTLs, Better than Life, Searched, but with no luck. . . Options

[TheSkillfulAbbot]

Looking for in-depth info on the BTL industry trade. Not necessarily how to make the chips, but the background. There's only a small paragraph about it in SR3, pg.296 I believe.

Some BG info
I have an adventure forming in my head inspired by Bruce Sterling's The Artificial Kid. At the moment it involves A Media Tycoon, some illegal broadcasting of a real life combat show shown on T.V. or BTL (Now you can be the combatant, feel his pain, etc ] The stars are runners, who sell clips of their runs after highly editing them of course. The Tycoon also has a stable of fighters to fill in during down time. The stables are more like gangs. The fights are real, usually instigated, and then recorded.

BTLs
I want to introduce Kong-chips into NY via the Triad. But I have no intensive background info on the industry, the flow of traffiking, dangers, where to buy, etc.


Any help would be appreciated! Thank you in advance!!

[Spookymonster]

M&M has some stuff covering chip design and addiction. IIRC, Shadowbeat also had extensive details on Simsense gear and how BTLs differ from standard SS streams. Unfortunately, I don't think that material has been reprinted in any of the current sourcebooks.

[hobgoblin]

the flow is mostly like any other illegal goods, from person to person, palm to pocket. the risk of btl is that the body belives it to be real, therefor if a person dies you risk dieing to as the body belives that the heart just stopped. atleast thats my take on it...

and where to get it? most anywhere you would get more conventional drugs i would guess (pluss maybe the backroom of some shadey electronics store maybe).

[Backgammon]

I'm really not sure, but the Underworld sourcebook might have some stuff on BTLs.

[Kanada Ten]

Beetles, Cal-Hots and Kong-chips are easier to smuggle than previous drugs because nothing external distinguishes them from any piece of plastic peddled by major recording labels. Instead of buried under fruit in droves of rusted trucks, BTLs travel slotted - but not playing - in chipjacks, computer slots, and in packages pirate printed to appear no different than Ghost of the Titanic II or Karl Kombatmage: Heart of Dark, Heat of Jungle.

[TheSkillfulAbbot]

Thanks all.

Whats the mafia and yaks take on the biz? How are they controlling the traffic at the moment. Would I be wrong borrowing from real life and movies to enhance the atmosphere? Trainspotting, New Jack City to name two.