Just an FYI, the rules in CC do NOT answer any of the concerns you brought up, they cover more the modifications that can be made to BTL's to effect how they operate as well as how they are used in order to increase/decrease availability and cost and street index. Included in those are the specific programming options for different enhanced effects like Poly POV and RAS Overrides and the like... It doesn't cover the actual production tests and what is needed to produce BTL's as you're looking for.

Second batch of takes are up, in case anyone's curious. Almost to where I was last night when I critically glitched

Haven't done Ink or any south of him yet.


Also: I got a peek at Dozer's subtitles... heh.

@Vegas
Ah, thanks. Well, I thought it might have some rule for the production to changing it to fit 4th ed. setting. That means more work for WR1 and the staff? Sorry

I always thought that BTL chips were really just SIM chips recorded and unfiltered 'Hot SIM', which is why you need an illegal Hot SIM modification to your simrig to use them (or I guess a BTL chip player... haven't seen any simrigs for any BTL addicts in the gang so far...)...

A 'Good' BTL they may go a step farther and isolate tracks (like emotive ones) and ramp them up a bit (Better than life, they say), in fact that may be be a standard industry practice.

That may be accomplished, theoretically, by increasing the gain on the recorder.

Aside from the actually minor technical accomplishments, making BTLs shouldn't be much harder than making Anime Music Videos or flash files. Just a lot more illegal.

though I suppose the fluff sort of contradicts itself here a bit depending on the edition...

I wouldn't presume this true, some type of certification would be required I'm sure, with endorsments for bike, CDL, etc. but with everything tied to your ID, accessed through the wireless matrix and your PAN.

Allow me to point out that there are no laws at all requiring you be licenced to USE a car or motorcycle before you can buy or own one.

Speaking as a one time worlds worst car salesman I can tell you we never asked for drivers licenses to sell cars (ID for other stuff, sure, but not to see if you could drive. That only came up if you wanted a test drive...)


How you get it home is between you and your tow truck driver...

Given how cheap the book puts them (20-200+ nuyen), BTLs probably aren't particularly difficult to produce, in the abstract, unless you're going for original works. I imagine most of the stuff a third-tier ganger would put out to be very mickey mouse stuff, like cracking an existing full-X recording, removing the limiters and jacking up a few selected tracks, and making copies. Sorta like how anime fansubbers take a video file they've recorded or cracked from DVD, add subtitles, recompile the vid and distribute it.

Real nickel-and-dime stuff. Maybe if you're good, you'll do a decent enough job cracking, altering, and recompiling the BTL that people will actually pay you for it. If you have the cred for investment and a production team, you might even make original recordings (probably cheap porn, but if you get really good and have really good equipment you could do better), and make real money. At this point you could possibly start charging the 20-200 nuyen that people charge for pro work; until then you'll probably only be able to make 5-10 nuyen a pop, and count yourself lucky for that.

Simrigs are for recording BTLs not slotting them, although it can be used for playback. As long as you have a hot sim adapted commlink, your good to go. Other than that, I generally agree, it's simply a matter of tweaking the levels of certain sim "tracks" and coding it to self erase after a certain number of uses, etc. You need to remember though, that all this coding takes time, but once you have the BTL finished, you'd make massive amounts of copies to distribute. Remember too that BTLs are distributed more in SR4 as downloads, not chips to be slotted as in olden days, but in the barrens, burning them to an OMC and selling them face to face is probably a popular option.

For most of the above reasons, I'd say the cheapest way to get into the BTL biz would be to hack an already established program that has gained popularity and make copies to redistribute as your own. That being said any BTL producers worth ripping off would have some very high end protection embedded into their product, so have fun hacking it.

For some reason I figure a lot of BTL's would actually be hacked and altered commercial releases, particularly porn. Easier and cheaper to lay hot track sensation recordings over high quality immersive recordings from a professional studio than to actually produce high end, but illegal, porn from scratch. from the customer's perspective he REALLY feels what its like to jack Suzy Senic-Valley, though in reality he's got a dim track of that coupled with a hot track of a 50 nuyen hooker in a sleazy motel.

Then there's the big budget action flicks... no BTL producer is gonna be able to recreate that, but hack it? Hell yeah! Its already illegal, so who's gonna worry about copyright violations?





EDIT::: though this might explain the whole 'imported azzie BTL' thing from earlier. They can, and DO, make professional quality BTLs... legally, then sell them illegally. Can't match that on the black market, so they're top end goods.

If you realy wanted to make some money, getting into the BTL/simsense biz, I got two words for ya "snuff sims". Beat down some rival ganger, have your bio-med guy implant a simrig (It doesnt really matter at this point if he's not a full doc, or if the job is done well) After letting him recover enough to get up and around on his own, you throw him into the fenced off area around the old basketball courts and have at him. (don't send Grack, you want someone with a little self restraint who won't kill the poor bastard right off ) Then after he's dead you rip the simring back out so you can reuse it. Also hyper amped snuff sims can be slipped into the coding of a normal BTL, then when the unsuspecting is hit with the snuff tracks, instant heart attack, great way to knock off a chiphead.

Ugh... it just occured to me one of the less savory things Maus has probably done in the past, with or without knowing it.

Though if yer stealing from Strange Days, you realize the snuff films in that were either 'accidental' or from the perspective of the killer, and the murder chips were just amped white noise.

I imagine snuffing chipheads isn't exactly taxing work, what with the whole 'out of touch with reality' bit.

So... to produce BTL, unless I'm making the original, doesn't require simrig? Just tool (commlink?) and hacking skill?

BTW, what's "snuff sim"?

I hate to say this, but at the risk of sounding like a jackass, it’s actually not going to be more work for myself or the staff, it’s going to be more work for you.

I want to be clear it’s nothing personal, and it’s not a punishment of some type. What it boils down to is BTL production apparently requires an entirely new rule set for one PC. Furthermore, it’s for a PC that belongs to a player who is essentially an unknown.

In other words, I don’t know you. That’s not a good or bad thing, it just is. But you’re not in a situation like Vegas, where I talk to her on the phone or via Gchat several times a week, and I know she’ll be here until the game dies or she does, whichever comes first.

The point is, because I can definitively count on her being in the game come hell or high water, I am 100% certain for me to create a new rule set for her would not be a waste of my time, since I know it would be continually used throughout the life of her PC.

Attrition in forum games is exceedingly high, and I have neither the time nor inclination to go through the trouble of creating a brand new set of rules that will only be used for one PC in one game. And if you drop out for any reason, suddenly I’ve created an entire rule set that no current PC is going to use (and most likely no future PCs either), all for a player/PC that’s not even in the game any more.

Given the well-documented tendency of players to disappear without so much as a courtesy explanation, the odds of you (or in all fairness, any brand new player) sticking around are easily less than 50%. I don’t know the exact statistics, but having GMed on the boards for the last four years running I can say with 100% certainty that a heck of a lot more than 1 out of every 2 players drops out of their game in a fairly short amount of time.

Simply put, the risk-reward ratio is not enough to convince me it’s worthwhile for me to spend time I don’t have making a rule set only one PC at most will ever use, for a player whose reliability and consistency is currently an unknown. Again, that’s not a criticism, simply a statement of fact.

This is a similar situation to when the game started, and Unarmed wanted his character (Doc) to be able to manufacture drugs. What we did then is the same as what we’re going to do now.

You create a rule set that you think fits the BTL production process to the best of your ability. The staff and I will evaluate it and give you feedback, you adjust it, and we go back and forth until we have a rule set we’re satisfied with.

If you have any questions, of course feel free to let us know, but you should know up front that if you want to do something the rules do not currently account for, it is your responsibility to create the necessary rules for your PC.

I'd like to add many of the comments that were just posted are all helpful, useful, and applicable to this particular situation. Hacking and taking off the restraints is simple enough, as Eyeless said, but since it's so simple good luck getting people to pay much for it.

I assumed you were talking about making real money, not just cheap ripoffs that will net you 5-10 nuyen a pop, if that. That's going to require production and unique product, not something many people can do for themselves, hence my above post.

Of course like I said, if you're just going small time like Eyeless and the others described above, ignore my post about coming up with a rule set. Just do your thing, sit back and watch those 5 nuyen roll in baby!

@WR1
I'll try to come up with some rule for the production of BTL, as best as I can come up with it.

Here's some questions just top of my head.

1. In the contraband page of Wiki space, we have BTL rating, if you don't mind could you explain?
2. Making of BTL: Once you have made BTL, are you going to allow for future copies? Are you going to allow rip of BTL or simsence?

That's it for now, but I'll probably come up with more questions later.

Just one another question pop up in my head.

How would you (everyone) rate the BTL? Like easiest to hardest to make.

I would guess: Mood < Dream < Trip < P-fix.

Comments?

Like we told Eyeless earlier, I don't have time to monitor this thread and answer every question that pops up all over the place. Put together a list of your questions and then PM me and I'll answer them en masse.

You are of course free to still ask those questions in this thread to solicit the thoughts and opinions of your fellow players.

Just basic thought about making BTL.

Making brand new BTL.
Requirment: Simrig, Commlink, Hardware/Software skill, Data chip (for hard copies)

Hardware/software (BTL) (8+rating, 1 day) Mood & Dream
Hardware/software (BTL) (10+rating, 1 week) Trip
Hardware/software (BTL) (12+rating, 1 month) P-Fix

Making copies of existing BTL.*
Requirment: Commlink, Hardware/Software skill, Data chip (for hard copies)

Hardware/software (BTL) (8+rating, 1 hour) Mood & Dream
Hardware/software (BTL) (10+rating, 1 hour) Trip
Hardware/software (BTL) (12+rating, 1 hour) P-Fix

*Making multiple copies at once increases the time X per copies

Converting existing Simsence to BTL
Requirment: Commlink, Hardware/Software skill, Data chip (for hard copies)

Hardware/software (BTL) (4+rating, 1 day) per person. (sim porn, for example, would have more than 2 people. To switch from person to person, would require more time)

Hows that sound? Comments?

EDIT:: changed simsence to BTL part.
EDIT:: changed time period for trip and p-fix
EDIT:: inserted time increasment for copying multiple BTLs

I would imagine persona fix chips to be the hardest, though to be honest other than knowing 'better than life', 'chips' and a few technical details about how they supposedly do their thing (hot sim track, amped up, yadda yadda) I actually don't know much about them.

I'll explain my reasoning on the chip types mentioned:

Mood chips are fairly simple. As I understand, they are meant to be used while doing other things, so there isn't even a need for a full SIM track, just the relevant emotional state running at hotSIM bandwidths. The price junkies pay for it is directly relevant to the quality of the emotional track itself, not the technical difficulty of making the chip. In other words you need someone who expirences a pretty pure emotional state AND makes a great subject for recording AND a damn near perfect read to get a great track to turn into a mood chip. I imagine garage cookers just scan tracks from existing chips, legal or not, and when the chance on a good quality emotional state they steal it entirely and process it a bit to make it BTL.

Dream Chips are next up. Just guessing from teh name that they do the cutout bit (chippie lies there like a beached fish) while they do their thing. Also guessing that they involve a few mood tracks (maybe lower quality tracks that don't make the cut for pure mood chips, but you're using several) and limited sensorium feeds, nothing fancy just stuff to enhance the trippy effect. Of course, these are probably in hot demand with club kids, like trance music its not enough to just repeat sounds and beats you've sampled you actually have to put together a cohesive feel. Most Dream burners probably don't even consider themselves BTL producers, they're underground artists, man.

Trips are like regular SIM's, like movies. Hard to do as a BTL unless, as I suggested earlier you're hackign someone elses chip to increase the expirence, or like Aztechnology, you can make them legally in one place and sell them illegally somewhere else. Many will be 'real life' expirences. Real chippies will like the voyeuristic aspect of other peoples lives just as much, maybe more, than they like utterly fake lives of regular SIM movies. Here you really are hacking stuff more than anything else, or making hotsim home movies with too much gain. Depending upon your source it could be easy or hard to get quality material out there. (making quality bootlegs is as much art as a good Dream chip, making quality home movies just means good gear and plenty of suckers to wear it...)

P-Fixs are probably beyond street level to make at all. You're making complete personality overlays or alterations, and that requires not just hotSIM recordings over long periods of specific subjects but advanced degrees in psychology. While the chip itself is nothing, constructing even crude personalities is hard hard work, and getting recording suitable enough to make into P-Fixs raw probably requires pretty out there technical knowledge to boot. Its the marginal edge of SIM technology...

But I could just be smoking a hot Mood chip right now, and feeling frisky...

@Spike
I agree with you, except I was thinking Dream would be more of sim movies, not Trip. Trip is one with wierd senses, like mentioned in the book, "breating under water."

Well, all of Will's personal takes are up now, for those of you that want to take a look. I am not perfectly happy with some of them for now, especially Shade's take is giving me a bit of a headache, so i'll have a final look-over tomorrow after a good night's sleep.

House rule for our contraband are;

Dreamchip (one-shot) (Rating + 2) * ¥ 25 3/12 hrs
Moodchip (one-shot) (Rating + 2) * ¥ 75 3/12 hrs
Personafix Chip (one-shot) (Rating + 2) * ¥ 200 4/24 hrs
Tripchip (one-shot) (Rating + 2) * ¥ 30 2/12 hrs

Which means, at the chargen, I could only buy rating 2 of any chips, and the prices are;

Dreamchip (one-shot) (2 + 2) * ¥ 25 = 100
Moodchip (one-shot) (2 + 2) * ¥ 75 = 300
Personafix Chip (one-shot) (2 + 2) * ¥ 200 = 800
Tripchip (one-shot) (2 + 2) * ¥ 30 = 120

If I were allow to make copies, it would take;

Dreamchip (one-shot) & Moodchip (one-shot) (Rating 2) (10, 1 hour)
Tripchip (one-shot) (Rating 2) (12, 1hour)
Personafix Chip (one-shot) (Rating 2) (14, 1hour)

And making multiple copies at the same time would take 1 hour + x amount of copies.

Sounds fair? Comments?

EDIT:: fix the Tripchip, P-fix mix up

You know, Moodchip BTLs have "street names that tend to reflect the nature of the experience, modified by a color: Blue Passion, Red Meanie, Cool White," are examples they have in the book.

Any new color coded name you want to give to Moodchip BTL?

Ex. Black Dispare, Green Calm, etc.

I seem to remember that some extended skill used in Matrix reduce it's time. Anyone know the page number for that?

I would say Dream < Mood < Trip < P-fix



I would agree with your intervals for the most part, and your thresholds, quite fair all around, maybe even a little too fair, may be able to lower all thresholds by 2 since you add rating.
I think that additionaly however you would need an edit program, specificaly designed for simsense (according to edit descrition it can modify video, audio, images, etc. but no mention of simsense. This would count as a hacking program for cost and availability, and no chip produced could exceed the rating of the edit program.
I would say that your comlink should also have to be hot sim modified to be able to edit sim tracks without loosing resolution, thus defeating the purpose.



I would disagree some, Dream chips would be like the "normal simflicks", with all the levels just amplified to enhance the experience, thus the easiest to produce. Mood chips would be a little harder to edit, since it would require ripping tracks and usually disabling the RAS, but once you got used to editing them fairl regularly, then they would both be about the same, thus the same thresholds to produce. Trips are, well different, and probably considerably more difficult, I'd probably start with a simrecording from a junkie taking a drug trip, and work from there, with a lot of editing and tweaking. I agree P-fixes would be very difficult, probably requiring a facility, and some help, and possibly needing to be tailored to the subject who will be using the p-fix.



P-fixes should be higher threshold, not tripchip, otherwise I'd say I agree.

If our more technically inclined members would weigh in with their thoughts on BTL production as Dantic did, that would be greatly appreciated.

I can tell you right now you're gonna need a lot more to get a ruleset approved. You won't have to go quite as far as, say, the Chemistry chapter in Arsenal, but the writeup is gonna have to be closer to that than a couple of paragraphs.

Think of it this way: how many questions went into describing your character? How many pages of writing? Writing less than that for the primary focus of your character's existence is practically an insult to that character's existence. What you're going to have to write to make this work is going to have to put the drug creation rules to shame. After all, drugs already existed in the main book; they had mechanical effects, prices, everything, along with the flavor text. All they needed was a Threshold and an interval to be complete.

BTLs? Don't. That's where you're going to have to begin, by statting up what each BTL does, how it does it, and how much it costs (don't let yourself be constrained by what's already written in houserule land here; houserules can be changed if the new rules are more persuasive and better written. Make it interesting; this is going to be your character's life, after all, so don't skimp on the details and the flavor.

When you're done there, then start thinking about actual production. What skills are necessary to produce a complete BTL, of each kind? Does it take multiple steps? (it should!) Is there a most important, or limiting step? What shortcuts can you make, and how does that affect things? Again, don't skimp on the details and flavor; this is your character's life and livelihood we're talking about here.

If you want I'd be glad to help out. I like making rulesets; if Drip ever got far enough along I was planning on writing custom vehicle creation and pricing rules, basically remaking Rigger 3 in 4th ed. I promise you, though, if I'm the one to write them they won't be easy; you absolutely won't be able to acquire all of the skills needed to do a first-rate job with 310 BPs, or probably even 400 BPs, because I believe that making a BTL from scratch should take as many skills as it takes to make and digitally remaster a full-length movie in the modern era, plus a few extra to deal with the emotive tracks. If I have a say in it, it'll "take a village" to get a good BTL shop going, and you'll need to get most of the other technical-minded gangers onboard--including Drip who lost his parents to chiphead fantasies--just as everyone'll have to get involved to put together a chopshop or a real drug lab (especially that last one; a significant part of my professional life has been devoted to knowing exactly how and why "Meth for Dummies" nearly always ends with a pile of bodies in a smoking crater). But I dearly love robust rulesets, so I'll be glad to help if you like.

Actually I was even thinking Dream < Trip < Mood < P-Fix, just because it was how price was on the house rule.

Sounds fair. Let me Modify it and re-post.

Yes, I do agree 100% with you on that.

It was just basic ideas to see how you all feel about it. Nothing final.

I'm guessing here, but what you mean be mechanical effects are how long it last and down-effect? I don't think it would have any physical effects, as far as plus and minuses.

Although now I think about it mood chips may effect a bit. May be rush of adrenaline from Red Meanie? But besides that I really don't see the positive, lasting effects of them.

I do agree when you say it should take multiple steps. Mostly in hacking and hardware/software skills with lots of common programs.

Just a thought of process of copying the existing BTLs;

1. Bypass the self-erasing features of BTL chips (book said Hardware (10, 1 hour) Extended Test, but like Dantic have mentioned, since we have rating for the BTL, reduce it to Hardware (8 +rating, 1 hour) Extended Test sounds fair too).

2. Codes are most likely encrypted, so I'll need hacking + decrypt (I don't know if this is extended test by beating encrypt rating x 2, or just roll the dice vs. encrypt rating x 2, what do you think?).

3. Edit the program (this would probably need for, as Dantic mentioned, simsense, or if I get a chance to look at the CC 3rd ed for some rules for BTL, I might be able to modify it to fit into 4th and use it on all BTL type)

Now step 1-3 is just to prepare the BTL to make copies

4. Make copies, using my current rule or modified version later.

5. Encrypt each copies with Elec. Warfare + Encrypt skill check (or one extended test with one rating on all the BTL).

6. Start selling.

I'm not sure if #5 should be after editing or after copy. Comments?

Well, that's the skeleton of it. I'll go more indept into it, when I get the CC book.

Thanks for the comments, it really helped me.

PS. Again, just a thought, but do you think there would be Data Bombs? (I know I'm making my life little hard, but hey) Than, between step 1 and 2, I'll need matrix perception test and Defuse + Hacking test.

I'd say encrypt after making copies, but as as batch encryption to have seperate codes for each copy, or you could encrypt the whole thing and when you copied, all the copies would have the same decryption codes.

I think Data Bombs might be a very likely scenario, as I mentioned, any good quality BTL would be protected as much as possible by the manufacturer.

<EDIT> The more I think about it, the more I think a batch encryption after the copy with some sort of roatating algorithym to scramble the codes would be the way to go. Whew, that was too much, but none the less, I say after with diffrent decrypt codes, because the basic end user product would be usable without decrypt (basicaly with read only privilages), but any attempt to edit the program, including copying it would require admin level access.

I couldn't have said it any better or clearer myself.



I strongly suggest you take him up on this. As you've all probably figured out by now, I'm a demanding GM and for a project this large any help you can get will be a major benefit.

I just updated the Takes template page to reflect the current roster of active gangers (Based on the Roster page).

Oh Lord, I think I'm gonna change out my car for a motorcycle. But not just any motorcycle; I'm going to pick up a Horizon Double Revolution, the most ridiculous looking vehicle in a series of ridiculous-looking vehicles. Not just because it comes with gyro stabalization, or that, even brand new, it's still cheaper than my sedan. No, I'm going to get it because it's a giant wheel, a wheel that you sit inside while driving.

Giant Wheel!

I like how it looks a lot like the vehicle Mr. Garrison invented on South Park. The integral smart tire, gyro stabilization and big handling bonus could be a huge benefit out in the Barrens too. There's no way the roads are in great condition (seriously, there's probably potholes out there that rival the grand canyon), and the last thing you need while trying to make a get away is a flat tire.

I wish we could erase posts.

Hm, though here's a question: do I need to add a sidecar to hold my Doberman? It doesn't look all that much like you'd be able to fit a drone in behind him, but then Drip is small...

Oh, and I also note that rigger adaptation does not specify that you need gyro stabilization to use it. In fact it looks like gyrofication just increases byt Handling of the bike when you're crashing.

Page 103, Arsenal.
"Note that motorcycles are not capable of driving themselves unless they have the gyro stabilization modification (p. 140)."

And actually, I didn't mean to imply you can't "jump in," just that they cannot pilot themselves. You can rigger adapt it, but it's not going to roll around and balance on its own, apparently. Of course, this does beg the question: is it possible to drive a motorcycle while "jumped in" without a gyro stabilizer? After all, if your motor functions are cut out due to being under the influence of VR or because you're operating the thing remotely, how is it going to stay upright if it's dependent on you or accessories in order to stay stable? I always assumed that there was some form of gyro involved in all 2070s motorcycles to begin with, since there was no remote operation restrictions mentioned anywhere prior to Arsenal, but this kinda makes me think twice. Ah well, I won't be making any changes to my games over this; I'll just chalk it up as another of the many things in Shadowrun that make more sense the less you think about it and handwave like crazy. I do find it silly that they didn't organize things in such a manner that the line in question never makes an appearance under motorcycles or the modification referenced.

Whats funny is the fact that the way motorcycle engines work they automatically provide their own gyro effect. Thats why when you crash they tend to rip themselves out from under you. Just food for thought ^_^

By the way, you guys looking for a new player? I'm looking to play a 10 yr old runaway Tir Tairngire noble kid.

So, here are some problems that just bothers me and in need of help.

1. statting up what each BTL does.

More I think about it, I get confused. BTLs are, IMO, drugs that effects senses and mind of user. So, unlike other street drugs that actually effect the biology (I don't know if I'm using the right term here, maybe biological function?) of the user, BTL users would probably be happy, sad, raged, aroused, or something emotional (which are the Mood chip BTL), sensing something new and exotic like, smell of 1000 roses, seeing only in black and white, red and green, or something like hearing their own heart pumping up the blood (Trip chip BTL). Dream chip, would be just like some simsense movie flicks with amplified emotion, and P-fix is to become someone else.

So, that's my basic knowledge of BTL.

With that in mind, I have come up with some ideas of what they are, how they work, what's the side and after effect, and some price and availability.


Dream Chip (Rate 1-6)

Duration: 20 Min. x Rate
Effect: Put user in dreamlike state, where he can become anyone. Hero, criminal on the run, hot stud banging sexy elf, or whoever its in the program.
Side effect: User of Dream Chips are mostly unaware of their surrounding, even with RAS override feature disabled.
After effect: When Dream Chips are in use, users seems to be in rest or sleeping like state, they are not. Because of BTL's false signal to the brain, brain actually believes it's own body is active/moving. This makes the user feels fatigue, fear, or aroused depend on what program was running.
Price: Rate x 60
Availability: Rating + 1
Note: User may actively change their POV. Number of POV = Rate x 2

Trip Chip (Rate 1-6)

Duration: 10 Min. x Rate
Effect: Let user flooded with interesting visual (seeing everything in double, only seeing in one or two color), auditory (hearing user's own heart beat, or rushing of blood around body), tactile (feels every touch to be ecstasy), taste (everything you eat taste like chocolates or raw egg), and olfactory (smell of roses all around you where ever you go) sensations.
Side effect: While user is in the effect of Trip Chip, it makes them hard to perceive through that sense or senses.
After effect: After Trip Chip run its course, user is almost impossible to use that sense for periods of time equal to the duration.
Price: Rate x 40
Availability: Rating
Note: Each rating add additional sense in its program. At rate 6, however, it changes users sense like "see" the smell, "feel" the hearing, or "hear" the taste.

Mood Chip (Rate 1-6)

Duration: 30 Min. x Rate
Effect: User of Mood Chip feels what was recorded in the program. This can be range from euphoria to sexual urges to aggressive tendencies, and to dark feelings such as terror and hate.
Side effect: When user is in effect of Mood Chip, it is hard for user to feel other emotions. Example might be user feels sexual urges in the forensic lab while cutting the body open.
After effect: When Mood Chip run its course, user feels opposite feeling for the duration of time equal to the duration of Mood Chip.
Price: Rate x 50
Availability: Rating - 1
Note: Each rating of Mood Chip may add another emotion at the same time or have second course of different emotion, which in that case, opposite feeling comes in order.

I want to write more, but I'm too tired right now. So it will be continued around weekend.

Comments are always welcome!

Rico is done, except for clean-up. Need to get his takes done, but I'm not sure who he knows yet and who he doesn't.

Bearclaw –

I took a glance at Rico’s CS, and just off a quick glance, at the minimum you have to address the following issues:

1. Your Intimidation (Physical) skill and specialty exceeds our limit of 4. You will need to reduce this to max out at 4 somehow.

2. You still have contacts that are official NPCs on our NPC list. Vegas has explicitly stated multiple times this is not allowed. Please change your contacts accordingly. While you are there, Smokey Joe’s information is not going to be enough and will require more detail, because there is nothing there, for all functional purposes.

3.

As we have said over and over again you have to do takes for everyone. It doesn’t matter who he knows yet and who he doesn’t.

This is for what Rico’s initial impressions of all the other gang members are likely to be, based upon what you know of them from their character sheets on the wiki, what you’ve heard on the streets, what you know Rico is likely to respond with given how they’ve acted so far in the IC thread, etc. As you meet them in game and your opinions change, your takes section will be updated accordingly.

I just can't get the opening of La Femme Nikita out of my head...


"My name is RICOOOO!!!!!!"


Sorry...

Well, the one thing that pops to mind right now is that there really ought to be a mechanical reason for someone to take a BTL, especially the higher-rating ones; otherwise the only time you'll see BTL use is so munchkins can pay 20 nuyen a week for a 5-point Flaw. You'll notice that all the other SR4 drugs do give a mechanical advantage, in order to lure the player (and thus the character) into ever-increasing levels of addiction and dependency.

Now, when it comes to BTLs, the main reason they're so popular is the escapism aspect: you literally become someone else. So, I think it would be neat if BTL chips would actually, at least for a time, allow you to become that other person, to borrow a piece of their mind, whether that be skill or attribute. In other words:

Dreamchip ("Clips"): Puts user in dreamlike state for (10 * Rating) Min. Afterwards, user gains the skill specialization most prominently featured during the Clip for (Rating) minutes after the program concludes, if he does not already have it. Typically Con(Seduction) for pornos (or whatever skill specialization you'd associate with sex), a combat skill for action movies, Perception or Data Search for detective dramas, etc. He gains the specialization even if he does not have any ranks in the actual skill.
-Aftereffect: The mind takes time to readjust back to how it was before. For the next (10 * Rating) min, the chipper is treated as being "Unaware" in whichever skill the chipper had previously gained a bonus in.

Moodchip ("Emotes"): Puts user in a heightened emotional state for (Rating) minutes. This state augments a single attribute (specified by the chip during programming stage) by 1 point.
-Aftereffect: Mind is stressed: whichever attribute was raised is now lowered by 2 points for (10 * Rating) minutes. If an attribute is lowered to 0 the chipper passes out for that time.

Tripchip ("Trips"): Combines effect of Moodchip and Dreamchip in a single chip, without the dreamlike prelude. Duration is (5*Rating) minutes.
-Aftereffect: Combined aftereffect of Moodchip and Dreamchip. Duration is (20*Rating) minutes

P-fix ("Brains"): Actually overwrites all of the chipper's skills with those in the chip; raises/lowers Attributes by 1, whichever is closer to person "encoded" on chip. Duration is (10*Rating) minutes (though most parlors put these chips on continuous loop), and can overwrite a maximum of (Rating) skills and (Rating) attributes.
-Aftereffect: Total amnesia for 30*Rating minutes. Treated as "Unaware" in all skills; all attributes that were raised are lowered by 2. Must make a Willpower+Body(1) test or amnesia is permanent.

Addiction thresholds would follow those in the book: Dreamchip = 1; Moodchip/P-fix = 2; Tripchip = 3. Costs would be Dream << Mood < Trip << P-fix, with Dreams starting on the order of 20*Rating nuyen a pop, Moods costing maybe 50*Rating or so, Trips 75*Rating, and P-fixes 100*Rating. Permanent or looped versions would cost 10x as much, 20x for p-fixes.

This is a very rough idea; I don't have my books on hand to cross-reference. But do you think it's a good idea to have it actually make sense to use BTLs?

I'm not to fond of that idea, Blond. I'm not the GM but I'm already a bit put off by just how wide ranging the effects of all those drugs are.

At best I'd image a P-Fix might give you access to some skills you might not, particularly if they were important to the programming of the chip ( a recording of a serial killer's persona might give points in blades and shadowing/intrusion... but on the other hand, you're a raving loony who's only going to use those skills against whatever fixation that killer had...)

But that's my take. And I'm just the dude in the corner who mumbles in russian as he works on cars... if you will...

Hm. Yeah, I guess I didn't mention that part of the P-fix yet; I want to get home and look at the Possession rules in Street magic first. I think those might be a good base to work with, since a p-fix is essentially low-level formatting your brain with someone else's personality. That's kinda like being possessed, isn't it?

[edit] just clearing out apparently wasted space. [/edit]

I actually just simplified BTLs as being a specialized form of hotsim VR for all intents and purposes. You check out to lunch via RAS while it's active or else you can deactivate the RAS. That'll let you move around, but you still suffer a -6 Perception check penalty just for trying to perceive things outside of your li'l chiphead world. I also afflict people with the "10 minutes minus Willpower" disorientation penalty you suffer from dumpshock after they're done with a BTL, but not the damage. Toss in the fact that at least once a week I am well within my rights to ask you to pop in your chip of choice or suffer a dicepool penalty equal to the chip's addiction threshold whenever I feel like it, and I'd say a btl addiction is more than fair.

Yay!! All of Maus's takes are up, for what it's worth.

Got a little heavy handed on the Russian Slang once I had the resources I needed to start adding it in (yeah, I don't speak Russian, what of it? Wanna make someothing of it you damn zopa?!), especially since his mostly interal monologue would either be entirely in Russian (and unreadably babblefished) or entirely translated, but hey, if everyone else tosses slang around, why not me?

Also, totally lost the voice of the character on Will for some reason. Got superstitious when dealing with the obvious mage, my poetic soul cried out... whatever. I'm too braindead to fix it right now, and unless I'm mistaken we're due to begin any time now (us newbs, that is...)


Don't ask for translations unless you want some REAL colorful language. I think I've found a new muse for swearing.... :swoon:

Honestly, if your going to be a smart ass, get it right. Kits, shops etc are just the thing if you are going to make a physical chip to load the BTL onto. What we are discussing is the software portion of the BTL, which is definitely a matrix action.

BTLs do affect the mind of the user, but through the mind it essentially has access to the entire nervous system and thus the whole body. RAS prevents this from becoming an issue with most common chips, but when you start getting into P-fixes and bunraku sex puppets this control of the nervous system becomes vital, allowing the mimicking of quirks from the original into the puppet.

I like the part about trip chips allowing you to change senses, this is the kind of things trip chips are supposed to do.