With everyone's help, we have the preliminary work done on the character.

Even if I have at times argued points with people in the thread, perspective has helped me get to where I am now, and so I appreciate every viewpoint, even ones I didnt agree with. In fact, those ones are usually the most helpful.

http://blds.wikispaces.com/Sweetheart

The history is a work in progress, but its fairly complete, just needs polishing.

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So, my supply of SR4 books is small, and limited basically to Augmentation, Arsenal, and BBB. So my fluff access is limited, but I'd like some of your takes on what sorts of things should be expected. The story, in short is, a small time runner runs afoul of the mafia. She's attractive, so rather than off her, she's dragged off to work in the parlor, kicking and screaming. (Least until she's fixed.) Then, some of her friends bust her out, a while later.

Lets get to the questions!

1) Does Personafix wear off? If not, how does this get altered, if at all?

2) What sorts of bodymods can a parlor girl expect to have? Silky skin, sensitive skin, elastic joints, healing symbiotes?

3) Anyone have anything interesting to add, add em in #3.

Yes it wears off. It is a chip, teamed up with the Data Filter the girl does not recall any of what she has done under the effects influence of the Personafix chip.

Items a Bunraku girl has installed
Datajack
Data Filter
Hot Sim Module

See this link in the Community Forums under character Braid.
Braid

She is just one example of the endless variations possible.

WMS

In a previous, and occasionally horrifying, thread we also discussed that many of them would also have skillwires to help supplement... their particular skill set.

How much augmentation she got would be largley dependent on her worth on the open market. Unless she had some exceptional qualities she might not have gotten mods like silky skin and so forth. Those seem like mods that would be reserved to keep more popular models "servicable" longer.

Heh, yes.

Well, she's got a charisma of 7, so I imagine, when I say "attractive" I am understating, slightly. As I've imagined it, I expect, since she double crossed the mafia head, she's been used not just for sex, but to take out anger, and frustration, thus the quick healing symbiotes, and the like.

Also, I particpated in said post, so I remember it, and actually, when I was without a concept for my "face" tonight, I went through a recent "Give me a concept" thread, and there was Wearz Many Skins, pimping this concept.(Literally!) So its actually thanks to him for it in the first place.

Hi DPK,

I can think of a few implants that you could put in your character, but I think I will talk to you about them over IRC instead, just in case I say something someone takes offense to.

-Chrysalis

Charisma 7 doesn't have a huge bearing on looks. Especially if that person is chipped. Since Charisma is a mental stat (And is thus translated into Astral space in some capacity) that Charisma 7 doesn't mean squat to a bunraku parlor, where as soon as the chip hits you, that charisma goes out the window.

That aspect of being taken advantage of for beatings and the like would denote more of a lesser charisma in my mind as well. With a charisma that high she should be able to play people a bit better than that.

Charisma 7 is more of a forceful, likable personality, not a hot body.

In fact a lot of the "hot body" competitors probably would have horrendously low charisma. Care to take a look at models and famous people? ...right...

I tend to equate looks and charisma, I guess. There is no IC stat for looks that I am aware of.

It's described as a combination of both and so I find it hard to believe that someone could be considered eye meltingly ugly and still roll with a charisma 7. By the same token a person with charisma 7 has to have something else besides looks, be that pure oozing sexual energy or profound comic/dramatic timing.

But I do think that chipping would take away from the personality side (mostly), of course that's kinda the point I suppose. If people wanted your winning personality you'd be a geisha not a meat puppet. I guess a custom made p-fix might combine elements of a emotitoy and actually enhance the personality side of the puppet but that's not something I'd imaigne a punishment puppet to get.

But that would be kinda cool as something positive for your character to take away from her time in the parlor.

And sorry for not remembering you from earlier posts, I developed lesions in my mind after about page 3 and it's all kinda a blur. I vaguely recall the beating of great wings as if from a great distance, and than Hyz posted away the last of my virtual purity.

James looked in the driver's mirror, his hair is curled just enough to hide his widow's peak. His sunglasses cover any image of who he is, their cheap large plastic rims covering part of his face the other half covered in smoke from the cigarette hanging from his lip.

The music was just right, just a bit of rain hitting the roof and Bedlam's Harvest Moon coming out of the speakers. The leather gloves creaking as he flicks the ashes off his silk tie. Two gun shots ring out from the docks to the car as the eight track switches over Stealers Wheel's Stuck in the Middle With You.

There is the sound as the back seat door is opened and a tarp covered body is pushed in the back. A big man gets in with his pistol.

James looks at the man in his near expensive suit and sullen face and says "Vinnie what the fuck is that."

Vinnie for once looks embarrassed as he puts his hand cannon back in his holster. "Well, you know how you are always going on about getting some cash, well I was thinking, we could sell the broad upstate."

"Jesus Vinnie, how many times I have told you, you are not in this job to think. Thinking gets you killed. Jesus. Besides look at her, could you have moved her before whacking the other two and I just cleaned the car. Fuck"

James was irritated and Vinnie was nervous, both sitting quietly as the rain started to come heavier and the eight track switched to Bedlam's Magic Carpet Ride. "Fuck it." James started the engine. "I know just the place. The chink anyways owes me a favor."

Thats my buddy Chrysalis.

Isn't she awesome? =)

Oral Lasher?

"It's his first time in the kumite and he broke the fuckin' world record! That's my buddy!" - Bloodsport

PROOF that Donald Gibb is the best actor known to man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gUn9QkbkPk

Personafixes are simsense programs, you just turn them off. Classically, they'd be available on chips, you just pull the chip out of the datajack and the person goes back to normal. In SR4 an internal comlink is more likely.



That really depends on the sort of thing the parlor caters to. Skillwires are most likely, as are disease-prevention implants in the more upscale parlors. Given the wide variety of fetishes, there is no one set of implants that would please all clients so some variety is expected. I imagine that there would even be ladies with maximum muscle augmentation for those fellows who like to be subdued by wild Amazons.
The two things to remember when creating meatpuppets are taste and volume. You want the highest volume of clients possible to maximize profits. For this you must appeal to all tastes in proportion. Your meatpuppets must be able to fill a wide variety of roles to properly appeal to all of your clients tastes but they must not be so specialized in a niche fetish that they would turn off too many clients and remain unused most of the time. Highly specialized niche puppets will, of course, be more common in big cities, simply because big cities would a have sufficient volume of people who are into a fetish to justify such specialization so long as there isn't already too much competition. Full-conversion furries wouldn't be terribly uncommon in big-city parlors and one might even see a Grey here or there (particularly in parlors located near Roswell). I expect some even more exotic modifications might be used as gimmicks to attract customers.

From my understanding of pg. 250, you need both a simlink and a skillwire to jack a Personafix. Incidentally, are there any rules on how to create or custom-tailor Personafixes? I'm betting it involves some Extended Cybertechnology and Software tests...

Now I'm imagining a character sprinting out of a seedy bunraku parlor wearing a dirty rabbit suit with additional "strategic" zippers and running through a variety of amusing urban settings (a McHugh's, a construction site, a restaurant) while being chased by a bunch of grim looking yakuza with blue business suits and tasers.

Altered personafix chip.
Bone spurs.
One-shot injector of kamikaze.
Cybereye video camera.
Mage with Stun Ball and Heal.

Selling the resulting video on Shadowland. Priceless.

-Siege

You don't need skillwires to just a personafix because it does not give you any skills. A James Bond p-fix may make you think that you are 007 but it won't let you fight like 007 and it won't make you smooth with the ladies, either. It'll just make you a jackass moron who thinks he can fight and who acts as if he were as smooth with the ladies as James Bond (unless you already have absurdly high seduction skill, in which case you would use it effectively).

The Sim Module (formerly the ASIST Converter) is built into the usually chip along with a small hardware player, so all you have to do is slot it. If you're using a wireless jukebox in SR4, then you need a Sim Module. Implanted comlinks already come with one, apparently.

*nod* The description of "A combination of simsense and skillsoft technology" caused me to assume that it had to interface with both...

Skillwires are necessary to give the individual the actual skills of the character that has been slotted unless the individual already has those skills. Using action-movie star p-fixes and the like without the appropriate rating skillwires and a high level of physical fitness can be dangerous for this reason. Of course, even characters who don't have absurd physical abilities can be dangerous to slot without skillwires. There is nothing quite so annoying as slotting your Macgyver p-fix in when faced with a bomb and no appropriate tools and having it cause you to default on both your tool B/R tests and your bomb disarming test (with modifiers for using inappropriate tools because you failed the test to make wire-snips from a piece of sheet metal, a hammer, and a side-grinder)
.
Skillwires aren't necessary for basic personality modifications, however. Those that simply produce or repress emotions, for example, are quite popular amongst certain crowds. People who have too much stress in their lives can walk around all day with a "calm" P-fix slotted and actually be calm in spite of the stress, though abuse of such moodchips presents the same dangers as the abuse of BTLs and Cal-Hots.

Iirc p-fixes are btl's in 4th edition and thus all you'd need would be a datajack as there are versions of those chips with the player integrated and as btl's can and do change your perceptions a datalock wouldn't be needed really.
Other mods really depend on the kind of parlour you're working for, e.g. cosmetic mods to look like a famous sim star or maybe hand razors to cater the s/m customer, fangs for vampire role playing and so on.
Imo especially the sado maso scene works great as a background for all kinds of cyberware installed in former meat puppets.

I thought about having skillwires, but I had discarded the notion as unlikely. I guess its actually pretty common, so back in go the skill wires.

I'm going to do a quick list of her bio/cyber ware, not all of it was installed by the parlor, remember, she was a runner before she was nabbed, and is a runner again now. Alot was, though.

Muscle Toner (2)
Muscle Augmentation (2)
Tailored Pheromones (3)
Enhanced Pheromone Receptors (3)
Elastic Joints
Sleep Regulator
Symbiotes (2)
Sensitive Skin
Silky Skin
Platelet Factories
Clean Metabolism
Vocal Range Extender
Datajack
Hot Sim Module
Data Filter
Cyberear
Cybereye
Echolocation
Skillwire 3?

I especially think the sleep regulator is a good buy. Can make way more money, the more often the girl can perform. I think the disease resistor is a good idea, too, what one is that, Hyz?

Yeah, as the post above indicates, she has: platelets, healing symbiotes, and elastic joints to allow for her to be beaten severely, and used again soon after. Although I see it more from an old fashioned fist in the gut/belly Mafia type thing than a whips and chain type, but I imagine there was that too.

Might want to add a Trauma Damper if you expect her to have taken an old fashioned beating.

Seconded; Trauma Damper + Platelet Factory means never having to worry about messy and embarrassing explanations to the police or DocWagon.

Also, don't forget the Symbiotes for overall faster healing.

She has the highest rating symbiotes she can get at creation already, rating 2.

Whoops. Missed that.

Have you considered a level of Bone Density, just to help minimize breakage when Bruno "Da Trog" stops by for his weekly?

I'd personally recommend against Bone Density. It'll make her too tough, encouraging the sadistic-types to try harder. You want someone that will bruise quickly, but heal quickly. Bone density will provide a palpable sense of 'toughness' that will be a turn-off to this sort of crowd.

Point taken.

Right, Hentai has it. Plus, she isnt supposed to be a combat monster, either.

When you beat her, she gets beaten, and with sensitive skin, feels the pain a lot, too!

Then she heals really fast, so you can do it again. And again.

Trauma Damper is 40,000. I'm getting into the "I can't afford this stuff" stage =P

If I dump vocal range and echolocation, I can fit it in. I can replace those with either radar or ultrasound, I think, for cheaper.

I need some cash left for skill wires, too, or I wont have any till we complete some runs. heh.

I'd keep vocal range, but dump echolocation, and one level of Muscle Augmentation. And I'd say wait to 'buy up' your skillwires - after all, who knows what nasty backdoors or personafix triggers are stuck in the ones you walked out with?

I like vocal range, since it adds to my facing, but really, I'm throwing 20 dice for social skills without specialty without it, so it isnt at all needed.

2 Mafia types bought my way out, so in theory, the backdoors ought to be safe. LOL. I dont have any negative qualities, so again, in theory, the Mafia shouldnt be attempting to retrieve me. We'll see. They certainly got their revenge already. =P

Yeah, I guess sensitive skin would be good for that. Eww. You consider giving her Low Pain Threshold?


Yeah, I hate that.


Isn't Radar better than Ecolocation, in game terms? The Voice Modulator does much the same and its only 7500 . Might be worth considering.


You could give her skillwires and hold off on buying the activesofts. She might have a completely understandable aversion to them anyway, especially if she's only recently escaped the parlor.

Seconded, again. Throw that into gear, and you're halfway to buying the Trauma Damper.

Pathogenic Defense. It is expensive (10,000 per rating point) but it makes perfect sense given the amount of money that the parlor has already spend on her. The last thing they want to is be forced to discard her due to a Krieger infection or worse and it wouldn't do to keep a diseased worker and become that brothel that turned all of its clients into ghouls, either. It makes less sence for chargen, unfortunately. You could save some money by replacing Muscle Augmentation and Muscle Toner with Muscle Replacement.

Although, the Muscle Replacement is a lot more obvious, and probably won't "feel" right to clients.

One thing to remember in creating a bunraku girl/guy, despite the cool/neat factor, they will not install any muscle enhancements, bone spurs, and other enhancements that deal out large amounts of damage. This a place that captures persons and uses in them in ways that not permitted in main stream society.

Last thing you want to do is Buff Up Janet/Joe to be able to go one on one with Bubba the Love Troll and win 3 out 4 Falls. This is not captured Fight Club.

Items that make you more "limber etc" would be installed. But the main priority besides the basic installation package is things that aide healing and increase resistance to diseases. Pain can be used to control such girls, so pain reduction devices would not be a high need item to install.

Despite how you currently feel about the aspect and various variations in sexual interests, it does happen today in numbers that most main streamers could not image, so in 70+ years it will be in even larger numbers.

If you think I am blowing smoke, cruise the alt.*.*.erotica.*.* newsgroups note the ones with the most headers/files, cruise the many and varied adult web site pages.

Out of the mainstream sexual interests are on the increase due in part by the Internet, with VR/AR and total wireless, in 2070 it will undergo massive growth beyond what we today can imagine, even by my perverted and sorted imagination.

So does that mean things like Furries and Fluffies will be there in such parlors yes, and in numbers that many here in our time would find distasteful.

The parlors will more than likely have specific sexual interests that most of their girls/guys are equipped to service. That could mean two parlors could be side by side each provided a different sexual interests.

Most of the parlors briefly described in SR, are not dingy, dirty dens of such activities but more clean than alot of places that Runners hang out in.

Get into the mind set up the operator/owners of such places, that will give you more insight as to what gear is installed into a girl/guy. The last thing the owner/operators of such places would want to have a girl/guy is one already equipped with weapons or items that make it hard to control them, or cause injury to staff and clients. It is too easy in the SR world to "create" a girl/guy who does not have such enhancements, so abducting one would not be a high priority.

Most Clients of such establishments are not looking for a mainstream interests nor a "quickie" orally, vaginally or rectally. There are ladies/gents and establishments that easily provide such services well under the costs of a parlor girls/guys.

WMS

The character was a runner before she was nabbed, and has spent some cash since she was nabbed, so not everything on that list was installed by the parlor. The Toner, the Aug, and the cyber eye, for example, were not. Not set on the Pheromones, could be installed in parlor, or by herself.

Also, the character has no offensive cyber/bioware installed, and has automatics 1 as her only "fighting" skill, and dodge 1. So it isnt like she can/would/could fight back.

From what I have read and guessed this character was well into her teen years when she was taken.

What would single her out as a target to be taken? Three Breasts? SURGEed?

Looks and appearance can be done so easy in SR not having those is not an obstacle. I can by Augmentation Optional Rule take a charisma 1 character to a charisma 4 character all by successes in the "plastic surgery".

IMHO there are no lack of girls/guys to be taken, so the Parlors can be very selective and picky about anyone they take.

If she came in with those mods, the muscle ones can be disable permanently via various means/methods.

WMS

Well, since you're a runner and your "madame" knew it, I'd say a kink bomb.

I thought I'd mentioned it, but basically, she double crossed a mafia don(by accident!) and this was his revenge. Also, yes, you can prettify anyone, but its cheaper if they are pretty and such to start. Especially if you have a vendetta against them.

I'd imagine the toner and aug were put in place since she was nabbed, not before. I imagine if she had the cybereyes going in, certainly the camera/imagelink/etc were disabled. But you wouldnt want her blind, so you wouldnt disable the whole eye.

At least, *I* wouldnt.

The GM hates negative qualities, so we arent allowed to have any, even ones that make sense, and are in character.

The character will make a big fuss when she gets hurt, though, and with body 3, is likely to be finished if she ever gets shot.

On the plus side, if bullets ever start to fly, she'll be the one in hiding.



I did manage to sneak the trauma damper in by pulling vocal range/echolocation.



Yes, but its cyberware, and I generally prefer bioware.



Yeah, I wasn't very precise in my wording. She has skillwires, the wires themselves are cheap. What she doesnt have is any skills to use with the wires.

You seriously underestimate the market for British nannies with the strength to literally treat grown men like toddlers. Personafixed max Strength troll women work very well for this.

I think you're also underestimating the popularity of movie star fantasy puppets. Many meat puppets are near-perfect replicas of famous persons, differing only in DNA and slightly in personality, being more idealized and always willing to serve the client's fantasies. Amongst action movie stars or people who want to be in action movies combat cyberware would not be uncommon simply because it is easier to use a real cyberweapon than it is to both put together a fake implant and fake the simsense accurately. And, of course, there is always the fun of people who want the character rather than the actor. If you pay for a night of passion with Karl Kombatmage you expect that he'll be able to cast spells and if you pay for a night with Rita Razorgirl then you're going to be disapointed if she doesn't have both her trademark handrazors and the internal grenade lanucher she had installed during the training montage of Rita Razorgirl versus the Dragon of Shangri-La (and which she used to kill the titular dragon by firing a grenade directly into its mouth as it attempted to eat her).




The personafixes are all the control that the operators need. While the personafixes are active the staff literally cannot even comtemplate wishing them harm. The personafixes prevent such thoughts from even forming in their minds. Once they're in, it doesn't matter what sort of equipment they have. All that matters is who they have on the outside looking for them.

My understanding is that no Bunraku person is on 'Fix 24 hours 7 days a week. So during the down times control of such violent fantasies is a issue. Besides it is much better to peddle Hot Sim BTL VR for such fantasies, less collateral damage to staff and clients.

I also do not see 'Fix as being 100% effective and all it takes is a Good Hacker/TM to FUBAR/Reprogram the 'Fix ware, then the Razor Fantasies begin walking and taking out staff and clients. In the SR4 world of everything is so hackable/Alterable via Hackers/TM's, it is kind of like a gun you only load it when it will be used, you do not keep in loaded all the time. So the Benraku Persons will have a down time and be in place where they offer little harm to staff and clients.

WMS

If it was my parlor, the girls would be broken in, and spend their "downtime" kneeling, serving, licking, obeying, etc, the only difference between downtime and uptime, would be sometimes they behaved like whatever the personafix made them behave like.

Much safer.

I guess its lucky I'm not in charge, since it seems Bunraku parlors are easier to escape from the other way.

OOOH OOOH OOOOH VORAEAPHILE PORN!

Parlor owners/managers that indulge their own deviant fantasies, have less time for clients.

Sorry being under 'Fix 24/7 means parlor person being "burnt" out ie useless in a very short time. Ie investment costs not duly recovered multiple times.

WMS

I didnt say I'd be doing any of the work, nor did I say they'd need to be kept 'fixed. It's possible to break in slaves even today, with our current "technology".

Heh.

Well since better technology was used in the VNW and during WWII, and the "slaves" still found ways to strike back at "Masah". All it takes is one Spartacus type.

Yes there have been modern day examples of limited forms of enslavement, but not a large scale. If I could only recall the reputed song sung in the German Labor Camps in German, roughly translated as "you may have my body but my mind is free".

WMS

Well, I dont picture the Bunraku Parlor as having 10,000 slaves in it. It's much harder consider an uprising when there is 10 slaves. Google for white slavery right now and find 10,000 articles on it.

But, this is totally a sidetrack. Parlors in 2070 arent so strict. Just because I dont find that terrible realistic, doesnt mean anything, I mean, I dont find elves realistic either!

On the other hand, if the character was a slave who'd been broken in, well, she wouldnt be very capable of running, so then she wouldnt be much of a PC. So the 2070 method works great for keeping the character useful.

Alright, I have a new Cyber/bioware list. Pathogenic Defense just isnt affordable, unfortunately, but I snuck it in anyway at the cost of elastic joints. since neither is much use for running, I guess its an even trade.

Muscle Toner 2
Muscle Augmentation 2
Tailored Pheromones 3
Enhanced Pheromone Receptors 3
Pathogenic Defense 2
Sleep Regulator
Symbiotes 2
Sensitive Skin
Silky Skin
Platelet Factories
Clean Metabolism
Trauma Damper
Datajack
Hot Sim Module
Data Filter
Skillwire 3
Cybereyes

Thats 251,350 Nuyen. Leaves about 25,000 for gear/equipment/activesofts.

How's that look?

Oh, the character is built on 430 points, also. (Thus the 55 bp for resources rule, etc)