[Kontact]

So, we'll begin this with the text, and cook that RAW on down.

Tailored Pheromones: The subject’s body is altered to release
specially designed pheromones to subtly influence others. Tailored
pheromones add their rating as a dice pool modifier to Charisma and
Social Skill Tests. This bonus has no effect on magical abilities and tests.

Okay, now the crunch on this is that super smells add to every Charisma test and every Social Skill test except for magical ones.

So, Composure tests (I smell so calm!)
Addiction Tests (Well, I don't smell like a Nitro addict, so...)
Judge Intentions tests (You can't cloud my mind if you can't get past my stink!)
And now Social Skills tests like the new leadership stuff that's Logic-based (I smell like a genius!)
And, of course, remote communications. (You've got your sim feed on, right?  Well, can't you smell this digitized honesty coming at your nose-piece when I say that I need that new SIN by Tuesday?)

Who allows what of the above?
Basically, how far are you willing to follow RAW?

[joe15552]

Well, let's first define pheromone. This will make sure that we are all on the same page and speaking the same language.

A chemical secreted by an animal that influences the behavior or development of other members of the same species. Queen bees, for example, give off a pheromone that prevents other females in the hive from becoming sexually mature, with the result that only the queen bee mates and lays eggs. In many animal species, pheromones are used to establish territory and attract mates.
A Closer Look The release of pheromones is one of various forms of nonverbal communication many animals use to transmit messages to other members of the same species. The complex molecular structure of pheromones allows these chemical messages to contain a great deal of often very specific information. The pheromone released by sexually receptive silkworm moths, first isolated in the 1950s, is one of the best-studied examples. The pheromone bombykol, released by the female from a gland in her belly, is detectable by male silkworm moths up to several kilometers away. The male identifies the chemical in the environment with tiny receptors at the tip of his antennae and is then able to hone in on the female. Hornets, when disturbed, release an alarm pheromone that calls other hornets to their aid. Female mice pheromones may excite a male mouse to mate immediately. In addition to producing instinctive behavioral responses, pheromones can also produce changes in an animal's physiology, spurring the onset of puberty or bringing on estrus. Pheromones used by animals, such as cats and dogs, to mark territory can convey information about an animal's species, gender, age, social and reproductive status, size, and even when it was last in the area. But can humans communicate via chemicals, too? In the 1970s Martha McClintock showed that the menstrual cycles of women living closely together in dormitories tended to become synchronized, an effect thought by some to be mediated by pheromones. Despite such evidence, no pheromone receptors have yet been found in humans.

So, yeah, pheromones are not considered the most influential part of human behavior. But let's just pretend, and we are pretending when we play Shadowrun, that pheromone technology can be advanced enough to influence human and metahuman behavior. In that case, it could be argued that a pheromone that affects surrounding animals affects the animal secreting it as well. So, if a harmone is being secreted that makes someone seem more confident to to everyone around them, it may make them feel more confident as well. This would go on down the line with composure tests, addiction tests, judge intention tests, and leadership tests. That's how I would explain it to my players if I was running a game.

However, i would completely understand if a GM ruled that tailored pheromones only add dice to social tests in person, rather than charisma tests as well. The whole charisma test thing can lead to a discussion of drain with mages who use charisma as their drain stat... it can be arguable... and probably arguable for an entire game session... bummer! My argument would be that it is not the author's intent to add tailored pheromone dice to drain tests. How do I know this? I don't, but I have a feeling...

Summary: if there are not other metahumans around to reinforce the fact that the metahuman excreting the pheromones is awesome because of their pheromones, then the tailored pheromones have no affect.

[Fizzygoo]

I'd go with revising it to "External Charisma Tests" (meaning if the target of the test is not you, it works on influencing others)

No on Composure (attribute-only test focused on the source of the pheromones, the test is influencing you, not others...though Joe makes a compelling argument otherwise).

No on Addiction tests (They're Willpower + Logic or Body + Willpower [SR4A 256], no Charisma involved or am I missing something?).

Yes on Judge Intentions but since the pheromones are acting on people's subconscious (creating a sense of trust, likability, and attractiveness) it is the Target of the Judge Intentions (the person being Judged), if they had Tailored Pheromones, who could add the bonus dice to their Opposed roll; "Gosh, that guy's stance is threatening, but there's something about him that I like." In other words, if I have Tailored Pheromones and I Judge Intentions I don't get to use the bonus dice (it's my feelings about someone else), but if someone uses Judge Intentions on me...I get the bonus dice in the Opposed Test.

leadership stuff that's Logic-based

Where's the logic-based leadership stuff? I'm not seeing it in SR4A under Social Active Skills pg 125, so assuming somewhere else (and "new" meaning in War!? Don't have it yet).

No on Remote Communications, the targets have to be physically present and at least within 50 meters, though 10 meters feels better to me, and "within comfortable conversation range" would probably be most accurate (unless there's a good breeze or something, hehe).

[Kontact]

No on Addiction tests (They're Willpower + Logic or Body + Willpower [SR4A 256], no Charisma involved or am I missing something?).

Ahh, yeah.  Forgot that it's logic that lets you keep from mental addictions, not the "Personal power" explanation for Charisma-as-composure that helps a dude with poor impulse control.

Where's the logic-based leadership stuff? I'm not seeing it in SR4A under Social Active Skills pg 125, so assuming somewhere else (and "new" meaning in War!? Don't have it yet).

I begged enough for the leadership rules from War that someone sent me that page's info.  Other than the opposed tests, (which, lets be honest, most GMs are reluctant to use Socials on players,) the new Leadership stuff is the only Social Skills tests that doesn't use Charisma exclusively.

There's a Logic + Leadership test, with a threshold equal to half the number of people under your command, that adds +2 to everyone's initiative.  Also a Intuition + Leadership test to add +1 to attack rolls on a designated target with a similar threshold.  A tacnet increases these bonuses to +3 and +2 respectively.


Also, joe, it specifically says that the pheromones don't help with magic, so that's not an issue.

[KarmaInferno]

Basically, how far are you willing to follow RAW?

I'd allow it in any case where the target is CAPABLE of being influenced by pheromones. There will be specific situations where the pheromones cannot affect the target, overriding the general rule.

After all, a rule that says "this attack does X type of damage to the target" does not mean it will do X type damage to a target that specifically is immune to X type damage.



-k

[Tagz]

So, we'll begin this with the text, and cook that RAW on down.

Tailored Pheromones: The subject’s body is altered to release
specially designed pheromones to subtly influence others. Tailored
pheromones add their rating as a dice pool modifier to Charisma and
Social Skill Tests. This bonus has no effect on magical abilities and tests.

Okay, now the crunch on this is that super smells add to every Charisma test and every Social Skill test except for magical ones.

So, Composure tests (I smell so calm!)
Addiction tests (Well I certainly don't smell like a Nitro addict, so...)
Judge Intentions tests (You can't cloud my mind if you can't get past my stink!)
And now Social Skills tests like the new leadership stuff that's Logic-based (I smell like a genius!)
And, of course, remote communications. (You've got your sim feed on, right?  Well, can't you smell this digitized honesty coming at your nose-piece when I say that I need that new SIN by Tuesday?)

Who allows what of the above?
Basically, how far are you willing to follow RAW?

I interpret the "AND" in between Charisma and Social Skills to mean that the test must include both.  Sadly, English leaves the interpretation to either it being inclusive or additive, ruling neither one out.  But reading it like this takes out some of the sillier things.

So for my game, Charisma Tests that do not involve a Social Skill do not receive the benefit of Tailored Pheromones, and vice versa.

Also, I had some fun once since there are chem/pheromone detectors and tailored pheromones have a forbidden availability.  It was fun watching the face try to weasel her way out of getting a biopsy to confirm her lie that she didn't have them.

[Bradd]

I think it's fine to use Tailored Pheromones with the new strategic & tactical uses of Leadership. While pheromones won't help you come up with a better plan, they will help you lead the troops who are following the plan.

I also think it's fine to apply it to Judge Intentions tests, as your pheromones may influence people to behave more transparently, reveal how they really feel.

I don't use it in any situation where other people can't smell you somehow, although sensors and simsense make it entirely possible to transmit olfactory data in a way that it could affect people remotely.

I wouldn't allow it for Composure tests, but I might allow it for a Leadership rallying test.

[Kontact]

I interpret the "AND" in between Charisma and Social Skills to mean that the test must include both.  Sadly, English leaves the interpretation to either it being inclusive or additive, ruling neither one out.  But reading it like this takes out some of the sillier things.

That certainly makes the most sense for this situation. 

Of course, you have to take the opposite PoV on the Mental Handicap quality, because:

The character suffers a –1 dice pool modifier to any Tests involving
Logic and Willpower per level of this quality.

would otherwise only ever apply to memory tests.

English: where grammar is nothing without intent.