So I was reading the BBB and noticed that the description of the olfactory booster talks about the, erm, odors that people give off when they're anxious, angry, horny, or whatnot, and it got me to thinking -- wouldn't it make sense for that particular bit of ware to help out on some kind of social test? Not as in "adds its rating to your dice pool to lie to someone" but maybe more like "enhances your Perception test to see how well your Social test worked" or something like that, letting you know if the wage slave is really cowed into cooperating with you or if he's actually planning to pull the alarm, that sort of thing.

Thoughts? Does this make sense, given the essence and nuyen costs? It seems like a reasonable thing given the description, at least it seems that way to me.

Well, when dealing with Wolf Shapechangers, you'll at least be able to understand why the "Sniff Exchange" happens.

The olfactory booster gives you a bonus to scent-based perception tests, which do include the scents associated with certain emotions. The enhanced pheromone receptors bioware from Augmentation gives a more intuitive olfactory boost that lets you actually perform better in social situations, but it has some drawbacks as well.

One effect of olfactory boosters have interesting but little played in most games. Think of what food smells like, and the less good food smells like.

WMS

You mean like the food smells really bad, so you shut off your olfaction (and maybe display some info visually)?

Interesting bits of physiology here. The sense of smell is wired to a bunch of interesting places in the brain. For example, people seem to recall memories associated with smell much easier than those associated with the other senses. So you might not remember that guys face, but you might be able to remember that guys smell.

Of course, since a nobody has a sense of smell as keen as a dogs, giving world descriptions for someone who does is going to be difficult.

Why give them a description, though? Just play the recording of it back for them.

Such is the glory of Simsense recorders!

"That's it, if you don't start talking, I'm going to play back my personal experience in walking through the sewers of Tijuana. The BAD part of Tijuana."

"There's a bad part of Tijuana?"

"Yes, the SEWERS!"

I'd say you could use an olfactory perception test and the hits can count as extra dice for your Social test in certain situations. It doesn't help to know the mark is intimidated (you can smell the fear) if you already know that (he has a dark stain spreading in the groin of his suit)...

And the two go together like peanut butter and jelly. The enhanced receptors are good but are kept from being great by the sensory overload caused by the lack of discrimination. The booster, otoh, is less sensitive but specifically described as having the ability to discrimate and lock down smells you don't like, plus it has that nifty trick of being able to sniff out explosives.

-NR

I remember in SR2 (and possibly SR3, which I never played because I lived in a small place and didn't have room for that many dice) there was a gas chromatogram you could have as cyberware.

"My dog's got no nose."

"How does he smell?"

"By the use of gas chromatography linked to electrophysiological recordings from cultured olfaction receptors!"

I love the smell of Napalm in the morning! Just not when it's under my bed!

I think the olfactory booster should come with a flat essence cost, and have no limit on its rating, so I can get myself a rating 150,000 olfactory booster, use it to find evidence of intelligent life on other planets (well, intelligent enough to fart, anyway), and go down in history as the Father of Extraterrestrial Relations. But I'll come up with a cool back story to explain why I still run the shadows.

OK, once again...

This is your brain...

This is your brain on Awakened Drugs.

Any questions? Good.

In space, no one can smell your fart.

Besides, the SETF (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Flatulence) already has a giant smelloscope doing that, although they had to shut it off because it was accidentally pointed at Uranus.