Seeking feedback on run idea, I have an idea & I'd like your comments. Options

[Velocity]

This is the skeleton for a run I'm designing; I've yet to really weave the sinew and muscle around it, but I thought I'd get your feedback first.

Nova & Sunday_Gamer, you know the drill.

[ Spoiler ]

(Dumpshock drinking game: take a shot every time you read the word "marketing" in this post. Mad whuffies if you make it all the way to the end without falling out of your chair.)

N.B.:Please see this thread for background on this plot's gestation. My thanks to everyone who participated in that discussion for their help, creativity and insight. Even if I didn't incorporate your suggestion, I appreciate your input.

First, a quote from a post I wrote on July 30th:

In my game, one of Deus' plans is marketing: Deus 'converted' a few high-level Renraku marketing execs and implanted an idea in their heads for a new campaign. For the last few months, there's been a special deal available at arcology cyberware clinics: 30% off your first installation of alpha-grade headware. That's right: come on in to the SCIRE in downtown Seattle, walk in to any of their fine clinics, pick out the top-of-the-line piece of 'ware you want (memory, senseware, a phone, whatever) and have the implantation surgery done on the spot... and SAVE 30% OFF REGULAR RETAIL PRICE.

In my game, Deus has been implanting his special packages (Invoked Memory Stimulators, BTL Simulators, etc.) in most customers who come in for this special deal. The marketing blitz has been going on for months and hundreds of people are signing up for it.

Deus has decided to expand and accelerate his marketing campaign by introducing viral elements. For those of you who aren't familiar with "viral marketing" (a contemporary term), a good breakdown of the principles can be found here. In a nutshell, it (and I'm quoting the site here) "describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence." Basically a viral campaign is one that enlists the consumer in the marketing effort. It's brilliant and can be tremendously effective (Hotmail uses this strategy, for instance).

Now, in the 21st century marketing has probably iterated to an unrecognizable form and that's fine: I'm not a Business major and I have no interest in theorizing about the nuts and bolts of advertising in 2054 (though y'all are welcome to bounce ideas around if you like). Suffice to say that Deus wants to ramp up his efforts and with this goal in mind has targeted a marketing guru for extraction from a corporate facility:

Antonio Grandin is a magician who does advanced R&D on advertising and market penetration for Aztechnology. The Saotome corporation, a major Yamatetsu subsidiary and operator of the world-famous Saotome Aquadome, has leased Grandin and his Research Assitant for an extended consultancy.

Grandin, his RA and a small staff of Saotome researchers are working on adapting metafaunal telepathic and empathic powers to support and enhance marketing campaigns. To this end, they have several spirit types and Awakened animals in the lab. Creatures with the following powers are favourites, for obvious reasons: Compulsion, Confusion, Desire Reflection, Glamour, Hypnotic Song, Influence and Possession.

Recently, Grandin has achieved some success with nomads: their ability to self-replicate and lay dormant within a host for long periods has made them useful subjects for study. Since one of the most interesting and potentially useful aspects of the nomad--its uncanny ability to duplicate itself--is also one of the most threatening, Grandin took steps to suppress this power using [insert highly abstract technomagical technique here]. Unfortunately, his approach worked too well.

The nomad being directly studied was allowed to grow, but not permitted to 'split,' as nomads do when they reach a certain Force. As a result, the nomad has become changed, transformed into a unique spirit with unknown abilities and a serious hate-on for its tormentor: Grandin.

You can probably see where this is going.

The PCs are hired to break into the aquadome, extract Grandin and return him to the Johnson (an agent of Deus). Of course, things in the aquadome have gone horribly awry. When the PCs do begin their run, they quickly realize that the entire facility has shut down: Nomads (which can breed fairly quickly) have spread across the dome's population and are wreaking havoc. Now the characters have to find their target and get him out while fending off the attacks of his Jaguar Guard entourage, possessed (and therefore innocent!) civilians, loose Nomads (which can hit Force 17!), the Free-Spirit-which-was-once-a-nomad and any other paracritters from Grandin's experiments the GM feels like throwing in there.

The idea is to replicate some of the conditions of the arcology: a closed community--a supposedly "safe" environment--which turns against its inhabitants and becomes a deathtrap.

What do you think? Criticisms, compliments, suggestions?

For the record, you can check out the stats for nomads and other paracritters here.

[Crusher Bob]

[ Spoiler ]

Don't forget to have the zombies chanting the benefits of Aztech hair care products (or whatever)

This will also allow your pcs to 'talk their way through the zombies' by appearing to be 'one of the converted' (e.g. they know all the marketing slogans)

[hyzmarca]

[ Spoiler ]

What I'm wondering is if this ubber nomad would make a good long-term concact for the PCs. Of course, I tend to think insane thoughts like that. Is this just going to be a nomad on vitamins with a grudge or will this be a fully devolped spirit that is capible of being dealt and reasoned with?

[Velocity]

[ Spoiler ]

hyzmarca sez:
What I'm wondering is if this ubber nomad would make a good long-term concact for the PCs. Of course, I tend to think insane thoughts like that. Is this just going to be a nomad on vitamins with a grudge or will this be a fully devolped spirit that is capible of being dealt and reasoned with?

Good question. I'm thinking that things will be much more interesting if the nomad has "evolved" into something with an actual intelligence and motives, so yeah--it could potentially be reasoned with. It is still a nomad though, so it's malevolent, and vicious... but it's probably starting to develop a larger purpose than simply: "Possess. Kill. Rinse. Repeat."

There's definitely potential for a recurring villain here, especially if one accepts the fact that nomads are basically small Horrors...

[Velocity]

I'm not in the habit of bumping threads just for the sake of it, but I was hoping to get some more feedback on my initial post. I won't bump it again. ;)

[DocMortand]

Not bad, not bad.

Of course, I've already exposed my group to the Shutdown first hand, so I think they may go "Oh no, not again" if I were to throw this one at them. :)

[fistandantilus4....]

sorry, I fell out of my chair after the 5th 'marketing'..... I wasn't even drinking....

[Velocity]

Believe me, I looked for a reasonable synonym. :)

[Dogsoup]

[Velocity]

[Dogsoup]

[Dogsoup]

Hm, seems like I can't edit the above post without fucking it up. Well, I only wanted to say that you once again have provided a brilliant, epic and gothic scenario, Velocity.

[Dog]

Session 9 is a beautiful idea for a run. It would require more subtlety than most, on the part of the GM.
Guy I know worked on it. Says there was a whole subplot scripted and shot, that never made the cut. Revealed a whole other big nasty in the works. D'you notice the shots that looked like someone peeking around corners at the characters from hiding? But anyway....

If you agree that Session 9 is a cool run, check out "The Bunker," an English flick about German soldiers in the last days of WWII, and the "horrors" of war. Would also make a wicked run.

[Backgammon]

This campaing idea made me come in my pants. I can't express it any other way. I will steal the sealed-off-aquadome-of-nomad-hell. Thank you.

[hyzmarca]

[ Spoiler ]

Simons last words do suggest that he is a supernatural entity rather than a facet of Mary's personality. "I live in the weak and the wounded". One could interperate as the boss being possessed by a mellovant spirit. Simon as a nomad-like demon is what I got out of it.
However, as homocidal possessing spirit horror goes, I prefer Fallen. Azazel just has a great personality.

[Velocity]

[nick012000]

Has the uber-nomad been Named by the scientist?

I think the irony of humanity creating a Named horror from an unNamed one is amusing.

[Velocity]

[ Spoiler ]

I'm not sure yet how, exactly, the nomad becomes... well, whatever it becomes. Tell me what you think of this:

I'm thinking that when its regular life-cycle is disrupted and it falls under the enchantment of whatever arcane metamagical technique is used to contain it, that's when it begins to transform.

(If you're not familiar with the nomad, it's an Essence-draining creature which adds consumed Essence to its Force. The second it reaches Force 18, it splits into two Force 9 nomads and they each go off to drain Essence and cause havoc. Hence, it's not possible to have a Force 18 nomad--it splits immediately.)

This particular nomad was artifically kept at Force 18 and when its containment field broke, it lunged out at the nearest target: Antonio Grandin. The act of possessing Grandin, an Initiated Mage, was the 'X Factor' that served as a catalyst to turn the nomad into a Free Spirit.

What say?

[nick012000]

Nomads are very minor horrors. If it's gone through a process analogous to other spirits going Free, then it would almost certainly has become a Named horror, and probably one of the first to arrive in the Sixth world, other than Yssrgrathe (who got blown up by Aina).

As far as game effects, just make it follow the rules for Free Spirits. d3 Free Spirit powers, Spirit Energy 1, and a True Name.

I would give it the Sorcery power, and a few custom spells (Onionskin and Skinshift).

[Velocity]

[Velocity]

[hyzmarca]

[Velocity]

[Velocity]

[ Spoiler ]

Okay, so I have a problem: the narrative that I've sketched out in my head results in a Force 18 nomad which, upon becoming a Free Spirit, will look something like this:

B: 15
Q: 12 (x3)
S: N/A

C: 15
I: 15
W: 15

E: 18
R: 14

Initiative: 22 + 1D6

Spirit Energy: 1

Compulsion (special: homicidal mania)
Essence Drain (modified)
Immunity (Normal Weapons)
Materialization
Possession

1D3 Spirit Powers (I'm thinking Aura Masking, Hidden Life and Personal Domain are all appropriate, although Personal Domain might be excessive...)

Does anyone else think this is a a little too :eek:? For the record, the group I'm designing this for is a samurai, a penetration decker and a shaman -- each about 160 Karma.

[nick012000]

I would say to dump Personal Domain and go with Sorcery, but that's just me.

Also, Nomads do have the Materialization power: they appear as amorphous patches of blackness about half a meter accross, according to Critters, p. 38.