Based upon the descriptions of Personafixes, I don't see why you'd need anything more than that. A Chipjack is more than sufficient, and a Data Filter is nice if you don't want them to remember anything (though I, personally, think it's far more sinister if they remember everything about it -- doubly so if a command phrase is included in the programming that temporarily allows a sadistic (and high-paying) client to deactivate the programming so that she is in full command of her own memories, but unable to stop what's going on). I'd save the Data Filters, Dedicated Chipjacks, and/or plastic surgery for the "high price models."

As far as the comment about Dreamchips... what the hell? Why would you install one of those in someone you want to actively work for you? Those are just BTL-boosted simflicks.

Now having a Personafix with a variant Psychotropic option is a possibility, assuming you have an owner who wants to turn them into willing slaves and prostitutes over time via conditioning. I don't really see the point in doing so, however, since the p-fix gives them whatever mentality you want them to have.

Oh, I agree, but why pay a few extra thousand when you can get the same effect cheaper? Who cares about the girl's psychological well-being?

Exactly. That's why I said the Data Filters and whatnot are probably saved for the more pricey girls. You get what you pay for.

Besides, once they are no longer capable of bringing in the cash, you just slot a looped Black Death BTL into them and ditch them on the street somewhere. Who cares about another dead beetlehead in the Barrens?

Nah, I was thinking it when I was typing that myself. But since I read something similar in MrJLBB earlier today I decided to skip it. (Sounded too unoriginal in my head at the moment.)

I can almost picture the Tamanous training sim:
"Notice how every aspect of the female is used... from even before birth <harvesting fetus material> to adulthood <joytoy> to death <dinner>. The female is a precious resource that must used to the fullest."

That seems like an odd way to punish a rapist.

"For your crimes this court has no choice but to sentence you to...a lifetime of guilt free sex!"

That would be like punishing a bank robber with money. I still say if you are going for ironic punishments for rapists you can't beat paying the local basketball team to roughly sodomize him for a few weeks. Not very imaginative sure, but what it lacks in subtlety it makes up for in, well, rough sodomy.

Ah, but the whole thing about rape is control - the feeling of power over the opposite sex. If you have a shunt controlling you but you don't have any control over your actions - and you are forced to do things you can't control...I would think that would be another way to punish a rapist.

The sodomizing thing does sound more appropriate, tho, I suppose...doesn't really solve anything tho (they'll just come out of it angrier and want to regain control)

Doc it works like Pavlov conditioning the more you try to rape girls the worse we hurt you... just remember we need the catch and punish rate above 90%

Though higher punishment's would help, we are not going to change the 1 in 3 statistic until we hit the root of the problem.
Rape is about power. Why do rapist's feel they have to have that power?
Many men don't believe the girl means no. Do they just not respect women of being capable of making that decision, or have they been taught women never mean no?

How do the dynamics differ in male rape?

In a mature group, who I felt very very comfortable with, I could be ok exploring these issues, so long as the rape was not being done to me or another player. Perhaps my character could have it as part of her background, and she runs into the guy. You could get alot of emotional storyline out of her deciding what to do.


Grit is good. But in this case, it needs to be the player in questions choice on how gritty to go with themselves.

This will be a response mixed with game experiences and more mundane real-life work environment experiences.

The way I see handling the more mature subject matter in a game is kinda like how you go about figuring out in real life, what the appropriate level of banter in your work place is going to be.

Example. For a good 2 and a half, three years or so, I had been the only guy working in my section. Division of Child Mental Health, part of the state Department of Health. Anyhoo I had about 8-10 or so female coworkers. Some were office staff attached to our section, some did the logistics, a couple were my peers in terms of doing the same type of work I was doing, and then a few were above me, or directly my supervisor. My original duties had me travelling off island with alot of teachers as well, so generally speaking, I worked with alot of women.

So naturally, when I first began, I was on pretty much my 'best' behavior. Not that it was too much of a stretch for me, since by default I seem to be a pretty laid-back, nice guy. Over time I was able to figure out which ones I could joke around with, and to what degree it would be acceptable to them. Certain girls I worked with had senses of humor that were far raunchier than I would had suspected (gave me a run for my money too), others were moderate, then others I treated....hm...best I can describe is like how I would treat my grandmother: polite, crack a few jokes, but all PG-13 kinda material.

Luckily I never ran into a situation where I went too far in my topics or jokes. Though a few of my female coworkers had dirtier minds than I had expected. Anyway...

Bringing up mature and more graphic subject matter in a game is kinda like that, you have to ease your way into it. Be on the safe side and err on the side of caution.
In a game setting, the group may be able to handle the material, but be wary of the inappropriate and ill-timed joke. Like now, I work in a setting that gives me more peer-level male co-workers I can joke around with. But we've had one guy we were chatting with a few weeks back that made a comment that made even me and my friend look at him like we expected someone to rush in a beat him down for it.

You may be able to get away with that sort of behavior in a same-gender group, but bear in mind even that's not an absolute. In some ways, I would say that we game because we want to take a break from reality in some ways. Some issues come up as a little too weighty. But again, its a matter of knowing your group. I'm sure all of us with group gaming experience with the same set of people can ID which one in the group will crack jokes, which one tends to go combat crazy at slightest whim, who has a tendency to fuck around with non-gaming stuff at the gaming table, etc...

If you suspect (or know) your group of 25-30 year old gamers will actually act like a buncha 12 year olds if presented with a given subject, you've accepted the consequence of that if youstilll choose to present them with that subject.

On a more somewhat serious note, sexual assault happens across ages and genders. While a player in your group may not be a victim personally, they may or may not have a girlfriend, boyfriend, relative or whatever, who has experienced it. So they may have their own opinions on enjoying gaming sessions that bring up related subject matter.

As for my personal inclinations. Given the work I've done in child/adolescent mental health, across the range of severity and situation, I would say that I would be able to handle runs that involved such subject matter. But as a player, I'd likely smack a fellow player across the back of the head the moment I heard an inappropriate joke on it in session.

I've always wanted the dark games. I have a serious dislike for characters who aren't shadowrunners, so much as they are people who do shadowruns, but their real job is protecting the innocent, cuddling bunnies and reading the bible to underprivileged ork children. Any player who plays a character like this is going to get little or no respect for that character from me.

I am more than happy for players to explore each character's level of morality. Some characters won't accept assasination runs, which is fair enough. Some characters will do assassination but not kidnapping, and so on. Exploring the character's personality through gaming is, for me, what roleplaying really is, and I'm happy to encourage that.

I'm lucky enough to be able to draw on my work in creating a dark game. I know the street name for drugs, I've seen and read details of some pretty sick things, and I draw on those experiences to colour the game dark. This serves a twin function of emphasising to the players that this is not Earthdawn and it is not (god forbid) D&D and they should play a criminal because that's what the game is, and secondly that the world is a dark vicious place and they need to be tough, adaptive and resourceful to survive. Playing a decker is fine, but play one who won't walk into a nasty bar and get his deck stolen in the first game because he couldn't tell a thug to f*** off without being killed.

I used to run games during High School where I'd let the teenagers I used to GM for do anything, which often included fairly sick torture and occasionally rape and sadistic meaningless murder. I think I did it because I myself wasn't old enough or a strong enough GM to tell them what wasn't on. Nowadays, if they get up to that sort of thing they're gone. Their character dies, and I'd take some convincing to run another game for them.

I've never GM'ed for a female player, although I'd like to at some point. I have to say since being lucky enough to marry the girl of my dreams the way I run female PCs I play and female NPCs in games I run has changed and I hope for the better. I traditionally play female PCs when I play high charisma characters, because all my male high-charisma PCs end up the same, and it's not pretty. They're obnoxious, vain and basically make games a chore. I don't know why it happens but it does.