QUOTE (Pepsi Jedi @ Mar 31 2013, 02:08 AM)

First off I'd totally send Butch a stuffed Troll or Paracritter of her choice. Any gal that can cuss so hard and long that she gets a temp ban for the profuse profanity is good in my book. She can take a knifing too apparently. lol.
I think you're the first person, no, I know you are, to ask about Butch.

QUOTE (Pepsi Jedi @ Mar 31 2013, 02:08 AM)

I think CanRay did a very good job showing Turbo's viewpoint as an addict trying to recover after falling off the wagon. Good work with that. Also the quip to Kat o Nine tails, about how much she puts in her body (And wow could that be a double meaning) but Kat's fine and Turbo being a junky hits home well. People are very very very tricky about who they look down on and for what. Some what Ironic that Plan 9 was giving information and such through the supplement when he's highly addicted to what's arguably far worse. Intense and repetitive body modification, addiction. With that, noone spits on him for it. (Granted he's half a loon, but still).
Double entendre and double meaning, indeed. I wanted to point that very thing out, and you caught it masterfully! Didn't think much about Plan 9's "addiction" to augmentations as she (this week) is a Transhumanist, but it might explain why Plan 9 spoke a lot in my head.
Also, I like how Plan 9 called Clockwork out on being a Conspiracy Nut.

QUOTE (Pepsi Jedi @ Mar 31 2013, 02:08 AM)

One thing, that I think might have made the supplement a bit better, or of more eased use, would have been an on board definition of what simsense was. Old hat players would know, and yes it's in the core book, but if you're not the sort who's characters would use it, or drugs in general, you might not know really what was being talked about. You can pick it up in context, but perhaps a column with the information right in the book, ABOUT it, would have been advantageous.
I was thinking about that, but decided to leave that to GMs and Groups to figure out for themselves. I try to paint a landscape, not a whole scene when I write so that groups still have things they can play around with. I might be wrong in doing so, but it's part of how I think.
QUOTE (Pepsi Jedi @ Mar 31 2013, 02:08 AM)

I do very much like how it was presented as the new opiate for the masses. How even 'normal' simsense is used to keep populations at home, quiet, docile and out of the way. The liiiiitle snippit about the muscle toning furniture and smaller apartments was awesome. Really squeezed in some distopian view there with out clubbing someone over the head with it. Sometimes a little goes a long way and I loved that little snippit.
The greatest lie the Devil ever told the world was that he did not exist. It's the little things that really drive things home when you're talking about a Dystopia. Subtle is the key.
QUOTE (Pepsi Jedi @ Mar 31 2013, 02:08 AM)

"Normal/Legal" Simsense is just slightly less addictive than Alcohol. That kinda sucks, it'd been my impression that 'normal' Simsense was the 'newest' replacement for TV/Movies. Finding an addiction to it adds an edge to it.
This also drives home how dystopian the world of Shadowrun is. Everyone in power knows that Simsense is addictive. There's reports they've made sure never see the light of day that prove it. And they love it as it doesn't "harm" anyone, but keeps the mob quiet without bread and circuses as severe as the days of old. It helps them sleep at night when they're in their sprawling mansion and their spouse/private joytoy/both.
Bread and Circuses are the means of the Corporations to make profit in Shadowrun, which is even darker in my mind. It's one thing to use blood to quiet the masses "for the greater good", and another to use it strictly for profitable entertainment.
QUOTE (Pepsi Jedi @ Mar 31 2013, 02:08 AM)

"Hot Simsense" ... pardon the usage of the word, but 'Only' tieing Alcohol seemed strange to me too. Much of the supplement is spent saying how awesome and high, and addictive Hot Sim is, but then in the chart, it's alot lower than one would really think, considering all the fluff.
This is more a cultural part of Shadowrun shining through. "Hot" Sims are seen as "almost BTLs" in nature by folks that don't live in countries that legalized them. As such, they're seen as "Whiskey Light, For Children!" for example. The truth is that it's only just a little bit worse, but vilified. Much like Marijuana is "The Devil's Weed" while Tobacco is legal in the USA today.
QUOTE (Pepsi Jedi @ Mar 31 2013, 02:08 AM)

Then Moodies having twice the addiction factor of even Hot Sims, also made me stop and blink a bit, especially with them being presented as ubiquitous in the corp setting for corp types just to keep an even keel. Would I be right in assuming that the Moodchips with the addiction rating of 6, are the "BTL" Mood chips. Not just your normal every day ones that the corp people are using like Starbucks caffine? Or... are the ones the Corps are using like Starbucks the BTL, addiction 6 ones?
That would be for the BTL-Level, yes. I should have put both in, a small oversight on my part. The legal-strength variety would be as addictive as Hot Simsense, possibly slightly more.
QUOTE (Pepsi Jedi @ Mar 31 2013, 02:08 AM)

Skillwires having a some what high addiction level also made me pause a bit. I totally understand the justification of it. I can see the psychology of that one a mile off. It's nice to see that not everything was looked at for it's 'high' but instead other psychological factors.
I put them at a high level because they aren't used frequently, but when they are, they're typically used in high-stress situations. Part psychological addiction, part adrenaline junkie. Someone who has one slotted all the time is probably going to have a really hard time ever letting go of the 'wire unless it's to get the next version.
QUOTE (Pepsi Jedi @ Mar 31 2013, 02:08 AM)

I have a question, if one can get the sensations, recorded from another guy or gal's brain, through simsense, say, Skydiving, or Sex. And it's legal (Normal simsense) why would one 'use' bunraku parlors and such? If you can get your... 'fun' at home, safe, sitting on your couch, that while you're out, the couch is strengthening and toning your muscles, safe, locked behind a door and no chance of STD's or the Yakuza shooting you or getting rolled by some pimp... why would you use Bunraku parlors? At first I went "Well maybe you have to have a datajack and some people don't have them" (Those poor slots.) but then I checked and apparently all you need is the sim module, which can be in your comlink, or a sim deck, or through nanopaste. This is referenced in both Core, and obliquely on page 9 of sims. So I'm kinda swinging back around to "Why go to the Bunraku parlors to... imbue what at the very very best is.... .... How to put it PC. "Well used... equipment"? When you can stay home safe and not be a part of that gnarly and horrendously demeaning enterprise of human trafficking and slaving?
Simsense is the drug of choice for the Wageslave, the lower-class that is the huge amount of the population in Shadowrun, the 0700-2100/6-days a week worker, who barely has any time or strength left to give to entertainment. Sims give them the ability to relax, almost sleep, and still enjoy themselves in their squat after some barely flavored Nutrisoy and cheap synthahol flavoured to taste. ... OK, simsense, alcohol, and Long Haul.

The shrinking middle-class, and the upper-class, are the ones who partake of Bunraku Parlors and other such joys. They're the ones with the money and time to allow them to do so, after all. Middle-Classers are likely to use Simsense as well, but there's something... About the forbidden, the taboo, the unclean that attracts a metahuman. It's a thrill that can't be caught on simsense, and it's that thrill that they go out for.
Also, not everyone likes Simsense. The 'trid (Three-Dimensional TV) is still huge, as are sports and other attractions. Low-end streetwalkers are still around and make a profit. ... Sorry, their
PIMPS make a profit.
Metahuman nature being what it is, some things just don't change. We don't have to look far for a dystopia, and haven't had to for a long, long time...
QUOTE (Pepsi Jedi @ Mar 31 2013, 02:08 AM)

All in all a great little book. I enjoyed it. I look for more out of Canray in the future.
See what I can do. Going to resist the urge to buy as long as you did this one?