OK everyone, I've got a question: If Vomeronasal Organ (RC pg 116) gives a boost to social skills, why not the Booster? I mean with the Olfactory Booster I can get MUCH better sense of smell (up to +6 vs + 3 for Vomeronasal Organ).

So if someone has the Booster do any of you give a bonus to Social Tests?

WOW! I thought that somebody would have answered my question, but no one seems to have an opinion about Olfactory Boosters helping out Social Tests

I would have thought that the olfactory booster is more like a chemical analysis tool. It gives you a breakdown of what you're smelling and is much more sensetive, but because it's not organic you're not getting the same biological effect from pheromones etc.

The boosted biological options allow your body to actually pick up more of the pheromones etc and be affected by them. Which is why they give you the boosted dice to social tests, because you're intuatively more aware of the people around you.

At least that's the way I run it when I'm GM'ing. Each choice then has it's own advantages and disadvantages.

You could say that the cyberware only gives you chemical analysis, while the organ lets you understand what the scents mean. You could house-rule the olfactory booster gives you a lesser bonus to social skills, like 1 per two levels.

Also, the cyber version has other benefits, such as recording and playback, not to mention chemical analysis.

I would say you can't use it for social tests as well because of a simple problem: There's only so much you can stuff in a nose before it stops working.

Except the cyber (or gear) sniffer has cut offs that the bio version doesn't. I can easily the cyber version being just as good because while it may not be as sensitive as the bio version, it doesn't have to worry about the overload. Hell, tie the sniffer into your Empathy software and it can give an extra +2 to Social tests.

There's another problem: You can only make machines so small. That also comes into play. Part of why bioware exists is to get around the limits of the mechanical.

You know, that's exactly what my uncle told me about cocaine.

The Vomeronasal Organ seems to combine the benefits of enhanced pheromone receptors and an olfactory booster. Similarly, the Biosonar quality gives you the benefits of having echolocation, vocal range enhancement, and hearing enhancement bioware.

The description for enhanced pheromone receptors gives a pretty good rundown of the difference between it and olfactory boosters. Note that there is nothing stopping you from getting both modifications. In fact, the ability to shut down your sense of smell can be a benefit, since strong odors can make enhanced pheromone receptors actually penalize you.

Actually, the cyber olfactory booster is much more refined when it comes to picking up scents. Also the Olfactory Booster can pick up the emotional state of a person by scent. Page 331 of the BBB says the following:



So since the Olfactory Booster can pick up exactly the same things that the Bioware version can, and can be over twice as sensitive as either the Bioware or the Metagenic versions... why doesn't it give bonuses to Social Tests?




Vomeronasal organ doesn't allow you to ID chemicals in the air. It gives you the enhanced pheromone receptors bioware for no Essence.



In the description of the Booster it does allow the IDing of emotional states (as I quoted above). It doesn't say that you can ID someone by scent, but since you can ID diseases, I would think that it just an oversight by the writers about not being able to ID people by scent.

Try reading page 64. Far left column, down... 3 paragraphs.

That may explain why. It makes sense they might do something like this because of fluff.

It also gives you a bonus to olfactory perception tests; that is where it resembles the olfactory booster. In every other respect it more closely resembles the enhanced pheromone receptor.

The OB enhances scent only, the other two addionally integrate with the brain?

Honestly, given the Empathy Sensorsoft, it makes no sense, but it's RAW. Same goes for the Vocal Enhancers vs. Voice Modulator.

Pheromone receptors give you the bonus to social dice tests. Vomeronasal organ gives you a bonus because it has pheromone receptors built into it. Olfactory boosters do not give you a bonus to social tests because they do not release pheromones, but let you actually smell better. However if you wanted to give Olfactory boosters a bit of an edge I might be inclined to rule that they might be able to add half the olfactory boosters rating rounded up in bonus dice to a judge intent roll if the other person is not in a fully sealed suit. It's not RAW, but it does add a little bit extra to the boosters. I would also like to add that I don't think Pheromone receptors and Vomeronasal organ add bonus dice to social dice tests to someone who is in a fully sealed chem suit or over the matrix. It is only good face to face and against unsealed characters, which means it won't really work against other runners and it is highly situational. The adept power is better by far.