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.

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


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


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

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.

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...

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.

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?

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

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

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.

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.

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...