Using a suite model for the cyberware needed:

Cyberware (all standard grade)
* Datafilter [so if broken out remember nothing!]
* Internal commlink - Metalink w/Vector Xim (1/1/1/1) [only to download/run personafix software]
* Hot-BTL Sim Module

Cost: 9800 (8820 with suite model modifiers)
Essence: -0.6 (-0.54 suite)

Bonus - Bioware (used to make them nicer and to be more available if desired)
* Clean Metabolism [nicer for the clients]
* Dietware [no fat ones unless desired, meaning can feed them the cheaper end of the food spectrum too (tends to be fattening) ]
* Sleep Regulator [extra uptime for work, 20 hour days vs 16]

Cost: 15000
Essence: -.35


Now looking in the core book, it's 50/hr for service.

figure a cost of 500/mth for lifestyle (food, bed, no entertainment, etc)

Now figure an average activity time of maybe 10 hours usually a day serving clients (figure downtime to get cleaned up, waiting to be picked, etc)


Full package means full return on investment in about 2 months (51.6 days of work without the suite cost reduction..)

Now that isn't taking into consideration acquisition costs, but I can see why it would be so profitable for them, figure with all costs 3 months and it's pure profit off a worker that will not complain and costs you only 10 hours of work worth of support (leaving about 230 hours @ 50/hr profit to cover the operation of the building/basic medical treatment)

And that's not even the rentals out to "Special Clients" who you can charge out the hoop for.

EDIT: Or blackmail material. Or cheap security with some Wireless Skillchips in Kung Fu 4.0. Better include a sterilization in that equation, however.

That's under the basic lifestyle, think the pill added to meals (and keeping a mage/shaman on hand with cure disease spells and security of the joint)

Yeah, even a low-powered magician would be good for that.

Too bad for HSV-5.

Hey, can still make money selling the body sans ware (which can be reused after sterilization) to the ghouls


and that's the key, after a couple months/years they can still take the used merchandise and organleg it

The question is where do they get new bodies?

The answer is, "IT'S A FRAGGING DYSTOPIA FULL OF IDIOTS LOOKING AROUND IN AN AR WONDERLAND JUST BEGGING TO BE KIDNAPPED!"

AR Filters, they're wonderful things.

I'm not the only one who does that kind of bored math!

I used to. But then I got hit. In the head. A lot.

I just stick to DnD math now. A sweatshop full of unseen crafters and the Business rules... Better than turning a cow into salt. And now back to SR and my Trust Fund PC's new attempt at making a Dollhouse.

Now we need to figure out the math of getting a bunch of low-powered sweat-shop magicians to make foci for Aztechnology. (Just like the pic in War!)

Or why kidnap when that SINless down the street has a economic problem and a kid with attractive bone structure (just need a bit more fat on them mentioned bones)...

Yep. Or Mom's a Chip Junkie and doesn't even realize the kid is there...

That's what happened to the character Speeder in my stories.

Need to sweat out some mojo materials. Where is that drake who is paid to clip his toenails?

Well, the trick of turning gold into 4 times more valuable gold, is just a bug in the cost tables.

Why should I pay over 100 times more for the same work if gold is the material instead of copper to start with.

So this is just a screw up. Same thing with the foci cost and not factoring in what the foci are build of. Considering the costs Powerfoci need to be build out of gold, at least. While Anti-magic-foci are wood at best.

So the whole magic sector has just nothing to base your calculation on, without crashing it into the ground.

The calculation is missing Silky Skin bioware and obviously boobs.

The prices in the books are the market prices. Most criminal syndicates have access to their own clinics and probably ways to get the ware cheaper, so I guess they'll only pay a fraction of that price.

You could just calculate with second hand ware in the first place, I guess (maybe ad in a BlackMarket Pipeline mod, to take Blades comment into account, too). Also, I think you can drop the comlink and load the fix direktly into the Sim Module. If you are out for blackmail, get a full sim rig instead.

P.S.: You are cruel and evil people to do this kind of calculation - I like that in a GM

Drop the commlink (and any internal weapons... keep the Puppet "legal") and add in a datajack and Skillwires. The Puppet needs to know how to dance and to properly service their clients.

The Skillwires can also be used as an ad hoc defense force/meat shield.

One reason for the commlink vs datajack is it's invisible and has a better signal than just the sim module. Allowing downloading of the client's chosen persona

Went with street price for starting out costs, the ware can then be reused with a new host when the old one wears out/stops drawing work

One thing I was doing was trying to keep costs minimal, the bioware is more for a corporate parlor than the street (where you likely would have only the ware... and see a lot faster turn around on investment (about 20.6 days with lifestyle costs factored in at 10/hrs a day working time)

And considering how long you can keep the puppet working, that's a major plus. But also the recycling of the ware means you only pay the cost once, then slap it into a new puppet.

Different bunraku bosses would do it different ways: I'd use a datajack or skinlink just for security reasons, but I think there are compelling arguments to be made for the commlink route, too. If that were the case, I'd spend the couple extra grand to get a decent one: while low Signal [and, from a mechanical perspective, System and Response] isn't really a problem [and in some circumstances is a benefit], I'd at least want a reasonable Firewall on there so someone didn't mess with my girls.

Skillwire is a must, too, I agree: there are a lot of skills a bunraku girl should have that you won't necessarily find in the girls you're snatching off the street. I also wouldn't hate having them all skilled in killing people, just in case that were helpful to me at some point, and skillwires are by far the best way to do that.

This just gave me a character idea.

The above setup with a few things added.

-Cybereyes (For recording clients)
-Cyberears (for recording clients)

The character is an Ex-Bunraku Dollhouse "employee" who has been in captivity for a few years. Due to being on a complete personafix for 24H/day for the last two years the person has the following:

-Amnesia (Old memories repressed due to personafix abuse)
-Addiction (BTL)

The background:

The character was broken out of the place by mere chance after a rivaling organization (triad, mob) bombed the place and he/she was taken to a hospital. After a quick identity check was found to be Jane/John Doe who was lost X amount of years ago (add housing, gear, ID etc).

The twist:
For the last two years the cybereyes and cyberears have recorded EVERY session with a customer the character has ever had, including meetings with Bunraku bosses and blackmail material. This was due to a hardware glitch that activated recordign after an abusive customer.

A rumor regarding the recordings have leaked out from the cybertechnician who found the recording in the headware and now the followign people are interested.

-Every shady customer he/she's had
-The Bunraku
-Law Enforcement
-Other

The character knows this and has gone underground...

Or the character doesn't know this, and needs to do some work just to figure out why everyone keeps trying to kill / capture / brain suck her.

Does anyone remember the movie...Gamer?

Creepy distopia where people would rent out their bodies so other, richer, people could play Second Life with real flesh.

I'm pretty sure you could find "willing" participants somewhere.

You could find many, many willing - without quotes - participants, everywhere. Male, female, young, old. In many cases, people would prefer this to conventional prostitution.

@The Jopp

You have to come up with a reason she should not just sell out the information or post in on the matrix.

If such a character would have joined our group, I guess that would have been the first suggestion in order to deal with the problem.

It's how Molly Millions paid for her cybernetics.

Yeah, everyone seems to automatically think Bunraku = nonconsensual, when it is just another, slightly creepier, form of prostitution. For both, there will be places that are legitimate businesses (remember that vice laws for things like prostitution are virtually non-existent in the game setting), and places where they abduct their "workers".

Think of all the strippers that are paying their way through college. Lot of workers there.

Datajacks are so last year. Also, how do you tell if an implanted commlink was modified or not? I believe a good hacker would be able to mask that somehow...

But still, all this solves my little storyline problem. Now, where do I go from here?

Where do you want it to go?

One of the characters that's in the ShadowSkool stories spends his spare time rescuing Catgirls from Bunraku Parlors.

Yeah, but I still don't use wifi on my main computer: last year's technology always has a place. They invented clubs, like, at least a decade ago, and I still get some use out of the development.


Say what, now?

The problem is, I don't know. There's just... too much to do in LA. You got the Mob, and the Triads, and Kosh, and Anasazi, and Aztlan saboteurs, and toxic avenger terrorists, and shedim, and then the usual stuff like Corps shafting each other.

And a poor little Bunraku Puppet whose stings have been cut and has no memory of who he was before he was a plaything for others... Just a body full of second-hand cybernetics and a shot up club full of criminals...

Sounds almost like the opening of Black Lagoon...

Possibly. I have so much crammed up in my head that I have no idea which thoughts are mine or not at times.

It's also likely cheaper when you look at the hidden costs. For example , every day there is small but non-zero chance of a KE team kicking the door of your establishment down, which is quite possibly followed seconds later by you and your fellow slavekeepers getting killed while "resisting arrest".

A high resolution high powered CT. An high enough T MRI would work too, but it would also probably kill you by cooking your brain, the CT at worst would probably just produce radiation burns on your scalp.

There is a difference. Not always, and sometimes things get ugly and go places that were not planned, but most strippers doing things like paying for school are not doing guys in the back room. There is some percentage that might do things for "gifts", but I suspect that most do not think of themselves as prostitutes.

However, if you had a sufficiently safe environment and removed the part where they had to interact with the clients it might well be different. Say it's as safe as working in a convenience store, but pays a lot better.

I understand there is a difference but most people choose not to do things because they "don't want to remember it". Imagine waking up with no bruises, no mess, no memory, and a fistful of cash.

Yup. I suspect it would be easier. Plus I don't seem to remember any obnoxious STDs in SR, and a trivial virtually instant blood test should be able to spot any anyhow.

Ähm guys, I do not know if this is really all that healthy for your mental wellbeeing.
To always think: Did I have sex with that guy/women who is smiling at me? What kind of sex was it? Or what was it at all? Was there something...

yeah but would you trade those awkward moments for a ticket out of the slums?

Cheaper to run a strip club than a bunraku parlor? That's true of most crime, but it doesn't stop us. If the criminal does that mental algebra at all - and a surprising number do - they're weighting it with values you're not, is all.


You're right, there's a huge difference. I was going to jump on Christian's statement, too, until I read the wording: he's not saying "Every stripper is willing to be a prostitute," and that's definitely not true; I know a lot of strippers who have no interest in prostitution, who look down on it in the same way most non-strippers look down on stripping. But what he's saying is, "There are lots of strippers who would be a prostitute if they didn't have to remember it," and that I agree is true: not all, not most, but a lot, yeah, particularly in Shadowrun.


You're absolutely right. If anything, I think the case has been understated for how incredibly emotionally damaging any kind of data filter, much less one oriented around intimacy and sexual activities, would be. We're kind of blowing it all off as interesting or half-funny, but we all know that in real life, the sex trade - even willing, certainly unwilling - is a difficult emotional weight to bear. Some people have no problems at all, but as a rule, the more unwilling the prostitute, the more emotionally damaged they'll be. Bunraku boys and girls come in the full spectrum of willingnesses, and thus the full spectrum of emotional damage.


It's going to depend on the parlor, obviously, but there's pretty much always going to be a mess to clean up, and the bruises don't wash away. The house may or may not tolerate visible bruises - most won't - but people just aren't that gentle or careful when they're having sex with a prostitute, so females in particular often end up bruised pretty badly. But! For the fistful of cash, with no memory of the event, there are a lot of people - some of them desperate, some of them just with personal moralities which allow it - who would do it anyway.

@3278
Let me rephrase: If a datafillter is not applyed due to medical reason and supervised by professional doctors, I would go as far as saying: It is damaging for everybody. Some people might be already "damaged" beyond that point. (I am not talking about a girl who works as a prostitute. I guess there are many reasons and actually there is nothing immoral about that. So I would not call judgement here)
I am talking about the feeling of not beeing able to trust your own head.
I can't even imagine what this must feel like. (If you are not a full scale sociopath to begin with or to stupid to realise...)
Yes, if there are clear contracts and securities on the side of the company who offers, it tends to get better. (You also do not know what you do in your sleep, afterall)
But to not have severe emotional impact a huge portion of trust will be needed.
And we all know, thats not happening.
Thats why I mostly dislike this "we rescue some poor girls" kind of adventure, because most groups would just dump them on the streets.
If you will really address a topic like that, I think you should those characters not treat as "quest iteams", it makes the whole thing cheap.
(I did not want to suggest you are doing something like that or anybody else here. I am just trying to give my opinion about it in general. )

Oh, man I feel like I stepped on all the toes in the room, but I guess thats the matter with topics like that. (Thats why I prefere not to have those in games I run. Very difficult to handle and it might upset a lot of people...)

One of my first couple of games was an extraction run, in which the PC's extracted a Doctor who'd lost his license to practice in Japan because a drunken accident. He was brought to Seattle, and forced to work for the Yakuza. They snagged him and transferred him tot he Vory. My point being that there's definitely doctors out there now that are less than scrupulous but in the world of Shadowrun it's pretty common place.

I see where you're going Irion and I think that you're correct some people would object to these sort of procedures for this very reason. But a lot of people won't have a choice, or won't see it that-people who are in a bad place, often don't make logical decisions like you and I would.

Most roleplaying groups don't want to get too heavy, and most are inspired not by real-world issues but by comic books, action movies, science fiction, and so on, in which the plot nicely wraps up at the end of the session. But there definitely are groups that would take the issue of sex slavery, and of the psychosis that could easily follow being taken from a willing or unwilling bunraku parlor, and make a completely serious recurring theme out of it. [Some groups would make months' long torture porn out of it, but that level of wallowing seems self-indulgent to me.]

Personally, I'm a big fan of taking heavy topics seriously, but I often come at roleplaying from a slightly different angle than other people. If you're looking to have beer and pretzels with your buddies and hang out in the future together and blow some shit up - which is 100 percent a perfectly good reason to play Shadowrun - Memoirs of a Geisha isn't going to be a real hit, much less Holly. But even with a more casual group, you can give the issue gravitas without bumming everyone out: it's not an unbridgeable distance from Heat to Eastern Promises.

A lot of issues are not really touched, but they are out there.

And the first thing they will have to deal with is trust issues. Not being able to trust yourself leads to major issues trusting others.

It also leads to building of walls between yourself and others, because not only can you not trust them to a point you don't trust yourself not to do something wrong that you will not remember

In a way the data filter is one of the most evil items out there to implant in someone, you take away their ability to trust themselves and others as well as set up situations where paranoia can set in hard as they know folks smiling at them know things they can't remember. Or they wonder why people look at them with disgust or fear. When you can't remember being a monster it's very hard on someone, you might remember a trigger but nothing till you are standing there with someone talking to you soothingly while holding a gun with white knuckles telling you it's okay you can relax it's over.

It's one of the implants that should be forbidden or a lot more restricted than it is really. Especially since it can be hooked up and paired with a personafix/skill cluster and turn someone into a monster/joy toy with a push of a button.

Yeah, if I were writing the Shadowrun TV show, this would be a major sub-plot. The possible abuses of a data filter are many.

Actually, the first job involving the character is bringing her, still comatose (or not, depending on how long it takes and if the players want to wait) to the guy who ordered her. She's thirteen and he's a porn director. The fifth mission involves killing him, and his boss, and blowing up the studio, and all the recordings.

Thanks for catching the difference.