Ok, you sign up for Corporate Duty.

Your choice: "Special Projects"

You remember signing the dotted line, you might even remember basic training.

After that, according to your contract fine print, your memory is wiped of all information until the end of your enlistment.

Depending on your contract terms, you either keep any implanted cyberware or might receive cash options.

Your medical profile may be limited depending on security concerns: (if you were exposed to an experimental nerve gas, they are not obliged to report it accurately, or at all).

Besides "screwed", what other flaws would you tack on?

-2 bad rep: Corporate Soldier
-2 amnesia: No memory of enlistment period
-2 command word: Kill (Willpower 6 to resist killing specified target upon receiving command word. Additional Willpower 6 roll to remember actions after receiving "clear" signal)

-1 distinctive feature: Barcode on shoulder. Contains file reference number for corp employment records.

(Sorry, after fencing with Polaris and watching "Soldier" in the background, I couldn't resist...)

-Siege

Barcode is not needed. Nanites can etch the essential data into his skeletal structure. Having a radio-response barcode on each bone makes it easier to sort the parts if something goes wrong.

Proper procedures should leave the kill word TNs at "nearly impossible" according to the book comparison. TN of 6 may be too easy since no corp would waste the big money on people who will drop at the first poorly placed stunball.

Mysterious cyberware, addiction, compulsion and/or vulnerabilities that make absolutely no sense. Possibly select by a roll of die.

Whatever happened to the 1st edition/2nd edition "Data Filter" cyberware that handled those pesky memories during the durations when it was turned on? vanished?

Data Filter is in SR3. Data Lock (P'Fix addition) is in M&M.

The bar code captured the whole "off the shelf" feeling, but you're right about the nano-tags.

You're probably right about the Willpower to resist roll -- I'll have to look at CC again. Although I'm not sure how a corp would "test" or "screen" a Willpower stat.

What do you think of the basic idea? The spin on the Amnesia flaw? It's almost like the concept behind "Johnny Neumonic".

Edit: The datafilter would compromise a soldier's learning curve. "We" want him to be as skilled and experienced as possible while he's working for us. Afterwards, he'll have reflexes and skills, but the details and memories we'll want to erase.

-Siege

interesting idea. for the kill word, how about simply extending the duration of the compulsion? leave the TN at 6, but you have to resist the compulsion for three rounds.

I like it. I love it. That movie was so wrong on so many levels but I'm convinced it was written by a closet Shadowrun player.

Remember that books by authors like Gibson and Walter Jon Williams and others spawned the whole "cyberpunk" genre.

It makese sense that professionally creative people have explored some really spiffy ideas.

-Siege

Herald: Oh, that would just suck.

DI: "Today we test your Willpower. Line up! About face! Eat mana!"
Recruits: "Huuuuuuuuuuuu.....thud."

Although that's a hell of a way to teach the lesson, "Geek the mage first!"

Flak: autoinjector with encoded radio controls?

-Siege

Edit: Although that does make for an interesting idea...could someone learn to resist spells through repeated exposure? Using that kind of training exercise, could someone learn "Resist Stun Spell" (for example) as an Active skill?

Oh, that's just a bad idea from beginning to end.

How about the kill word (once he's failed to resist whatever test is first required) gives a temporary +4 willpower, -1 to intelligence and +4 to further kill word resist tests. That'd pretty much take care of mana based stunballs right there, kinda like one of those drugs in Shadowtech (and just think of what's going to happen to the exhausted guy when it wears off).

Hey, howabout a variation on Personafix. THe guy in charge has a button. Press the button, the lackeys follow orders and think of nothing else.

To be truely effective, they'd need personality and experience, imho, but it's almost as good.

Theres a move coming out with Ben Affleck where he sign a contract to have his memory erased after each job. It looks pretty interesting and may be worth watching for ideas on Shadowrun.

The movie is called Paycheck and you can watch the trailer by clicking the blue word

Actually, to expand on Mikey's idea, controlled p-fix chips could work.

As I have lamented before, there isn't a detailed listing of how they work.

In the 1st edition adventure, a "Jack the Ripper" chip was profoundly nasty. Now, imagine a nasty hacker group cracked a chip company and one chip out of every 1,000 had an emotional compulsion on it...

A p-fix chip could (theoretically) alter moods and emotional structures -- the infamous "berserker" chip that cranks adrenaline and endorphines while filling the user with homicidal rage.

Similar manifestations could be fear suppression or enhanced concentration and focus abilities.

Although subliminal programming could achieve a similar effect.

Translating that into a balanced bit of game mechanic has always been...problematic at best.

-Siege

That module was DreamChipper... and was pretty damn cool, I still have it.

They killed the person that slotted them tho...

If I recall properly, the "Dreamchipper" chips also added skills without requiring skillwires, which could explain the inevitable fatality.

I'll have to rummage for that module and see if they can provide a base line for expounding on p-chips.

-Siege