Down in the Gutter: OOC, The Nuts and Bolts of Staying Alive Options

[Slipshade]

CHC - Thanks for forwarding that to me.

I can't wait to see what his takes are .

I was laughing so hard at work at your 30 questions that I had to stop reading. He is so morally bankrupt I couldn't help myself. It was so wrong! (In a good way)

[Slipshade]

WR1 - I can't think of anything that Shade wouldn't know about with Baby since she was on Legion's little trip into BP turf with Shade. I would guess he might notice that she has a pretty good sense of direction and a knack for moving around Kingsgate, but that is about it other than what Shade already knows.

[WinterRat1]

Sync up post is up, sorry I took a little longer than anticipated, my weekend plans changed abruptly reducing my available free time, and I was undergoing some writer's block in lacking inspiration.

Anyway, it's far from my finest work but it gets the job done and moves us all forward from the same point in time. Everyone is free to post.

I will have OOC notes up for everyone shortly.

Whipstitch- You are free to start posting as well.

[WinterRat1]

Condition Monitor Updates –

Rob – Bockscar healed one box of Physical, reducing his wound track from:
0S, 3P to 0S, 2P.

Voorhees – Aziz healed one box of Physical, reducing his wound track from:
0S, 3P to 0S, 2P.

Mister Juan – Felix healed one box of Stun, reducing his wound track from:
1S, 0P to 0S, 0P.

Slipshade - Baby healed one box of Physical, reducing her wound track from:
0S, 7P to 0S, 6P.

Lindt and Mister Juan – Per the IC post, I had Child make a Medicine Roll to treat Baby. I considered Felix an ‘assistant’ since he actually has the Medicine Skill and used Felix’s Medkit since it had the higher rating between the two of you. If this is a problem for either of you, let me know and I’ll re-calculate, but otherwise I assumed your PCs would be willing to help, judging by their personalities, and they were the best suited to do so.

Everyone – If I didn’t mention you above, I have you listed at 0S, 0P.

[Mister Juan]

I take it we're on to post IC now?

[Lindt]

I love that you included Dunkie in the NPC list. My hero.

I think I might try and put a +2 days update from Child's perspective in the wiki journal. Hopefully after I sleep. I have been up for 36+ hours taking care of 40 annoying teenagers. I want to murder someone.

[WinterRat1]

Everyone is free to post.

That would be what this part of my earlier post was for. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Yes, everyone is free to post now.

And what can I say, I'm trying to give Dunkie personality. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Lindt - If you have something to put in the wiki journal, post it in the OOC thread via spoiler like Slipshade. Vegas is still making changes to the wiki and I can't find Shade's Journal, so until I know where she plans on putting it I want to avoid changing the wiki until she's got things straightened out. Thanks!

[Meriss]

@Winter: An excellent and evocative piece of writing as usual, sir. Kudos. Can I like seriuosly borrow your brain?

Also here's a description of the formation of the Locos

[ Spoiler ]

History of the LoCoS as told by Ray "Ink" Delgado

(eventually I'm going to get this punched up as an actual couple of paragraphs and timeline for the Feeder gangs section of the wiki, currently its done as a Shade's journal entry)

(Ink is clearly drunk or high telling this story, so Shade may wonder at the exact details.)

"Jou wanna know what, ese? How I got into the life, man that's no story. Now, how the Locos got started homes, now there's a story!"

"First off there were the cousins. Luis, Carlos and Santorio. They got started rolling on the old block as head busters and knife men for this old school bunch o' homies called the 4DogCrew. They got in cause Santorio's big brother Paco was una hombre grande for the crew."€?

"See Paco was bangin' el hefe's sister so el hefe got all up in Paco's grill over the chica. So hefe was this dude called Frank, he thought he was mob or some shit. So Frank did a big job and left Paco's pistola for the Star to find. Paco got a quarter outta that shit, then Frank had some vatos of his shank Paco in the yard upstate."

"Santorio was piiiiiiissssed, ese! Like even almost six years later he was still pissed. So Santorio started raggin' on Frank anytime he and his cousin were alone. Luis thought that takin' out Frank was good idea, right, and then Luis talked Carlos into it and Carlos did the planning. Carlos was a scary dude when it came to plans and shit. Carlos made like they caught some PLague rats up near an old warehouse in the Crew's turf. Frank and a couple of his homies went up to check it out and the cousins wasted them all!"

"Anyway, Carlos offered the rest of the Crew the same choice, get behind him and the cousins or get wasted. Couple of vatos had to get geeked, but most of the crew fell in line. Then they sorta started pushin' around some of the other bangers just to let everyone know what went down."

"So, Carlos knew some vato who knew another ese, who knew someone else from back in Colombia and that got them El Coyote, who brought in like four, five keys of Nova a month, mano'! So they was rollin' high then. So most of the mano's I knew were kids from the block or old Crew bangers. First there was Paulie, he was Crew, then Gonzo was this sketchy ese from the block, then Knives was one bad ass with the blade, and so it grew, jou know how it grows when jou rollin' high. I came along a couple o' years back after Sertado passed. Couldn't make it on my own, jou know."

"And that was el LoCoS, ese, hermanos to the end. Arriba mano's, adios."

@Winter:

[ Spoiler ]

I still have the Wiki NPCs floating around on my hard drive somewhere. Did you want me to continue stating them up?

[Vegas]

Lindt - If you have something to put in the wiki journal, post it in the OOC thread via spoiler like Slipshade. Vegas is still making changes to the wiki and I can't find Shade's Journal, so until I know where she plans on putting it I want to avoid changing the wiki until she's got things straightened out. Thanks!

There should be links to EVERY page from the main page of the wiki as a temporary fix. Shade's Journal is the last link under "Gang Info" (the first column). I still can't get WikiSpaces to fix the wiki.. so I'll be emailing them AGAIN to fix the navigation bar.

Will try to get a post up soon.

[Bearclaw]

So....errrr.
Any karma to hand out?

[WinterRat1]

Hmm...not yet. Not enough has happened since the last time I gave out rewards. Karma can always be earned however, by doing side projects such as writing interviews for Shade's Journal or generating NPCs or locations. Let me know if you're interested and i'll see what projects I have on tap.

But thanks for the reminder, I will start thinking about how much karma to hand out and when, and try to hand it out sooner rather than later.

[grendel]

Legion and Shade, for anyone interested.

[ Spoiler ]

I leaned against the cool metal sheeting surrounding the rooftop crenellations of the new gang headquarters. Beyond the darkened area of the park, I could make out the pockets of light and sound which marked the surviving neighborhoods of Kingsgate. Smoke curled lazily from my cigarette, a luxury this time of night rather than the necessity daylight turned my addiction into. I inhaled deeply, feeling the burn and swell of muscles across my back, feeling the otherworldly itch scrape down the nerves of my arms. The night was my time, the time of hunters, of predators. Footsteps at the head of the stairs drew my attention, and I glanced back over my shoulder to find Shade making his way towards where I stood. The two of us watched the city in silence for several minutes.

"Do you ever wonder," I began, "how you ended up here? Do you ever think back over all the intermediate steps on the path that brought you to this point in time? Do you wonder at the mistakes made, at the poor decisions, the bad calls? In the loneliness of four a.m., do you look back and try to see what would have happened if only you'd gone left instead of right? If only you'd said you were sorry to her and took her back, if only you hadn't killed that one because of what he'd said?"

"Doesn't everyone?" replied Shade with a shrug. I nodded. Minutes passed again.

"What if I don't?" I asked. "What if my hands were guided only by the laws of the jungle? What if the only consequences I considered were those that affected the pack I lead? Does the predator path make me a monster?"

"Why do you care?" asked Shade, answering a question with a question. I thought for a moment. That was a good question.

"Because there should be meaning to it all. Not a moral or a theme or a lesson at the end of the story, but a meaning to the endless suffering, pain, hunger, failure, death. The sweat and toil and aching desire of the thousands of lives here in our tiny corner of the universe should count for something. Something beyond the inevitable hopeless defeat." I spoke slowly, carefully articulating a thought that very rarely surfaced in my consciousness.

"Shouldn't meaning come from within rather than without? A life lived with purpose is a life of meaning," offered Shade. I dragged on my cigarette, rolling what he said around in my brain. It was the conclusion that I'd reached long ago about what it was that I intended to do. Those who came after me wouldn't know it, but I would know. I would know that I'd lived my life with a purpose, that I'd adhered to a code, and upheld a law unto myself. And that was what was important. I flicked the butt of my cigarette over the edge of the building.

"I told Father Ron today that I was going to bring peace to Kingsgate."

Shade said nothing, merely raising his eyebrow. I chuckled.

"Yeah, I know, kind of an odd thing to say considering that I was one of the players responsible for bringing war to the city twice. And I'll do so again at some future point. But, in the end, I will bring peace. I asked for his help."

"What did he say?"

The corner of my mouth twisted down at the memory. "He was unconvinced. Optimistic, but unwilling to offer help without seeing some kind of initial gesture on my part."

"What kind of gesture?" Shade sounded as skeptical as Father Ron.

"Something which proves my motives as peacekeeper are true I suppose, protecting the innocent or some such. I'll know it when the opportunity arises." In truth, I had no clear idea yet how I was going to convince Father Ron that I had the interests of the people of Kingsgate in mind. But, then, sometimes you have to take the long view. Silence reigned between the two of us again for a minute, broken only by distant sirens.

"What are you going to do?" asked Shade.

"I intend to usurp and absorb the surviving gangs in this city. I will crush the leadership of the Ultraviolet Nights before I enlist their soldiers as my shocktroops to take down Raider Nation. I will burn the 162s out of their dens and tunnels. I will make the Heartbreakers our personal harem. I will crucify the Steel Demons. Every gang that stood against the Hammerpack will be erased. Every gang member that stands with the October Ravens will be spared. But there will be only one gang that emerges from the Third Kingsgate War. We will control all of Kingsgate. We will bring this city the only peace that it will ever know." Again I spoke with a quiet certainty. This was the future that I had divined for myself, the path upon which I was set. Anything less was defeat.

"We'll see," said Shade.

[Bearclaw]

WR, Rico's going to want to start dealing again, and soon. His brother hasn't been to school in a week. He needs cash.
So, for BTLs, I need a retail price range and a wholesale price range, so I know what I'm dealing with and how much cash I need to raise.

[WinterRat1]

I assume you mean the following:

'Retail' = what you can sell BTLs for
'Wholesale' = what you can get them for

Correct?

[Bearclaw]

Yes and Yes.

[WinterRat1]

Retail prices prior to the Second Kingsgate War can be found on the wiki under the 'Contraband' section.

Since then however, things have changed. If you want to know how things stand now, you'll have to get out on the streets and find out. Since no one has bought, sold, or communicated with anyone who's done those things since the war 'ended' (i.e. since game start), none of you have any idea what the market prices are, either for wholesale and retail.

I should add this is more of a barter/free market economy. There is no 'wholesale' price unless someone wants to cut you a discount for buying in bulk. It's not like you can head down to the local BTL-Mart and get a pallet of BTLs on the cheap. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Vegas]

I can edit all that in.

Sent you what I had sent to Vegas

Charley,

As Slip's mentioned, loose takes based off what would be considered "general knowledge" and "reputation" and the like off CS's on each of the gang members as well as the other gangs of kingsgate are a requirement before your PC can be fully approved. I've done the review on your character and really all we're waiting on are those takes and we can send you up to WR for final approval. And as its been said, takes can change once you're a part of the gang and actually live/work/eat/breathe/sleep with these guys... and it's encouraged too.

[Lindt]

Its also one of the best ways to really learn your character. Look at their stories, skills, 20 questions answers... plus they make great reads. Read Grack's sometime.

[WinterRat1]

Lifestyle Updates –

Here’s how the updated lifestyle system works. First, let me say I’m not trying to make this overly complicated and turn this into BookkeepingRun. However, I wanted to place a greater emphasis and sense of urgency on day-to-day living, since many of you had about a week of lifestyles prepaid.

The problem is it takes too long to get through 1 IC day, and it becomes easy to brush off lifestyle as a non-concern. On the other hand, I didn’t want to get super-anal and start breaking down lifestyle into prices for rent, utilities, food, hygiene, etc., let alone keep track of all that.

Instead of tracking lifestyle by the day, I am now tracking lifestyle by blocks of six hours. Every six IC hours, at 00:00:00, 06:00:00, 12:00:00 and 18:00:00, I will deduct one from your lifestyle. I also changed the lifestyle prices to reflect four blocks of six hours instead of one day on the wiki. So six hours of Squatter is now 4 nuyen, while six hours of Low is 17 nuyen. Real food costs 28 nuyen per six hours.

Note that lifestyle is still an abstraction, it's not just a meal or rent, it covers your overall general living condition. So yes, shacking up in the Gang HQ and maintaining a Low lifestyle will still cost you just as much as if you live somewhere else with a Low Lifestyle.

The reason I chose to divide lifestyle into four blocks of six hours was because it made more sense cost wise and seemed to distribute the cost a bit better, which is important if you’re not just providing for yourself, but others. For example, this system makes more sense if you want to help out or provide for someone, like a significant other or friend. Giving them a lifestyle point is equivalent to providing basic living services (which can take the place of food, a hot shower, whatever) for that six hour block. It also makes it easier to simulate the idea of scraping by hand to mouth, and I can’t wait until one of you mugs some poor sap for a measly 4 nuyen so you can eat/be provided for over the next six hours.

I subtracted one from everyone’s ‘prepaid lifestyles’ to account for November 2nd’s lifestyle costs. I then multiplied the remaining prepaid lifestyle amount by four, giving me the effective number of lifestyle you have remaining. This leaves you all with the following:

Lifestyle Remaining

Legion – 20 (Low)
Aziz – 24 (Low)
Baby – 24 (Squatter)
Bockscar – 24 (Low)
Child – 48 hours on the Street
Cuervo – 24 (Low)
Felix – 24 (Low)
Grack – 24 (Squatter)
Ink – 24 (Squatter)
Nevada – 12 (Low)
Rico – 4 (Low)
Thumper – 0 (Squatter)

Note that Child has been on the street for 24 hours, and Thumper now has no lifestyle remaining. If Thumper does not make at least a Squatter level payment by 06:00:00, he will have been on the street for 6 hours.

Living on the street is bad. The longer you stay on the street the more I’m likely to subject you to various discretionary modifiers to simulate the effects of hunger, malnutrition, exposure, and other problems associated with living on the street as they start catching up with you.

Hopefully this places a greater awareness on your lifestyle and increases the hunger/desperation element of life in the Kingsgate Barrens.

Note that I am tracking your lifestyle, so if you don’t track it on the wiki it’s fine, but my records are ultimately what will be applied as the final word.

If you have any questions, comments, or thoughts, please let me know, otherwise enjoy scraping to stay alive.

[WinterRat1]

Addiction Updates –

Heh heh heh. OK everyone, it’s that time you’ve all been waiting for. Addiction Test time!

I want addiction test rolls from the following people:

Aziz – Cram (Moderate)
Baby – Bliss (Mild)
Bockscar – BTL, Cram (Both Mild)
Cuervo – Novacoke (Mild)
Ink – Novacoke (Mild)
Nevada – BTL, eX (Both Mild)
Rico – BTL (Mild)
Thumper – Alcohol (Moderate)

BTL is a Willpower + Logic Test
Physical substances (basically everything else listed above) is a Body + Willpower Test

Display your results like the following example (remember to display your dice in the order rolled:

Joe
BTL (Mild): 05 06 02 03 01
eX (Mild): 04 05 02 01 06 03

So I want your character name, the substance you’re rolling addiction for, current addiction severity, dice rolls in the order rolled.

After I see your rolls I’ll tell you what happens as a result. Effects will vary based on number of hits, glitches/critical glitches, addiction severity, etc.

Good luck, and try not to get too addicted…

[WinterRat1]

I am now all caught up with the IC sync up and the OOC stuff.

[Mister Juan]

@Grendel
Wasn't sure where (and if) Felix would find Legion, so I left the end of my post "open ended" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[ChipheadCharley]

Takes have been sent to both of you Vegas, and Slipshade.

[Vegas]

Nevada:

eX (mild): Willpower (4) + Body (3) = 7 dice [5] 4 4 2 2 [5] 1 Hits:2

BTL (mild): Willpower (4) + Logic (3) = 7 dice [5] [5] [5] 1 3 [6] [5] Hits:5

[Vegas]

Takes have been sent to both of you Vegas, and Slipshade.

Thanks Charley! We'll get on them and get back to you ASAP (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)