The Found Arcana - Sixth Interlude [OOC] Options

[Jack_Spade]

A meta question on that guy: Is he needed for later stories? Because right now Bobby has every reason to just make the guy vanish by turning him into a goldfish and flushing him down a toilet.

[Tecumseh]

Carn-evil doesn't have any plot armor.

But they're not a nobody, if you'll forgive the double-negative. You can't just disappear them without consequences. They'll be missed by someone (or something).

[Jack_Spade]

I see. Well, there is something to be said about having him vanish under mysterious circumstances. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Tecumseh]

I'll say this here and, because it's important, I'll say it again later: I'm a big proponent of sandbox games, of open and organic worlds that respond to the characters. This isn't what I'm asking for as a player - because I'm fully aware that not everyone wants to GM that way - but it's what I'm offering as a GM. You're fully welcome to disregard any plot and put your own plans into motion.

This will be important for Chapter 8 as a good portion of it will be self-directed. It could be very long or very short, depending on how you respond. It will be a bit experimental in that regard but I think this group has the collective experience to handle it. It's part of the reason I asked for Jawsey to have one last lap around the track, as much of the story leans on the shared relationships of the characters.

So with that in mind, nobody has any plot armor whatsoever. Andrew, Big Stank, Bonita, Carn-evil, even Nightmare are all in play. That doesn't mean you can do whatever you want and automatically get away with it - taking a shot at Urubia will almost certainly get you killed - but with some wise planning, careful execution, and a little luck...? Big things are possible.

There are consequences to whatever you do. There are also consequences for what you don't do. In short there are consequences either way, so this above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

[Jack_Spade]

Fair enough! I like sandboxing (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Just think it's polite to ask before inadvertently ruining the GMs plans (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Gilga]

AM would actually try and talk to Carn-Evil to figure out WTF is going on, but I can totally see and feel Bobby's prespective.

[Jack_Spade]

I'm not averse to talking - it's just Bobby's previous interactions (where he managed to get death threats pretty much instantly) that let him contemplate a first strike.

[Tecumseh]

This interlude was meant to represent this scene and find out which approach the team would use to resolve the situation. There were many viable options (depending on dice rolls); intimidation was one of them and it succeeded.

The intended scope was anything you do at the gym and immediately afterward, say for the rest of the afternoon/evening. (ICly it's about 17:10, right at sunset.) That can be as much or as little as you want. Once that's done, we'll move on to Chapter 8.

[Gilga]

Oh, going for a kill is viable and even moral considering he threatened to kill Bobby.

[Tecumseh]

The ball is in your court, if you want it.

[Beta]

Gilga, I loved those posts as AM punched the bag, great stuff!

[Gilga]

Gilga, I loved those posts as AM punched the bag, great stuff!

Thanks, glad you appreciate it. I really enjoyed the opportunity to rethink her story and paint it a bit differently.

[Beta]

About a mentor spirit. I went through all of the options again, earlier this week, and just didn't find one that was quite right. Seducer or Pig would work to some degree, but at the same time I've been trying to show Jawsey moving away from his more self-indulgent stage. He might be moving towards something else, but not quite there yet (like Wise Warrior or Dog), or else they mechanically were not so helpful. (for example, Eagle would work in some ways, but the allergy to pollutants would be bad in this game.) Or in a more in-game perspective, he's still too self-absorbed to be reached by a mentor, but maybe he's starting to open up.

[Tecumseh]

@Beta
Did you consider Coyote from Counting Coup? Another trickster spirit that prefers "guile, wit, and misdirection" instead of a straight-up confrontation. +2 Con and +1 to Manipulation and Illusion vs. Wil+Cha (4) to use brute force or head-on attacks. (Jawsey would have a 68% chance of generating the 4 hits necessary to overcome this.)

Pig and Seducer are interesting. Jawsey has the dice to succeed in resisting the disadvantage 86% of the time. That could be him succeeding most of the time, but not always.

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@All
Mato did not take a car. Per the IC Post #5, he went on foot/skimmer.

Our Shared Lifestyle page has us owning two cars. Did someone say a while back that's not correct, that we sold one of them? If so, it never came off the wiki page. We have been paying for an off-site garage (¥100/month, I think) so if we only have one car then we do have a safe-ish space to put it.

Are people planning on staying at SIS HQ or are you planning on sleeping elsewhere?

Quick edit: Short IC post to say that Lysander agrees. Leaving it open for now in case Jawsey calls Andrew or anyone wants to do something in the hour prior to talking with Lysander.

[Gilga]

@Beta Perhaps Boar spirit? (The one that likes routines - kind of downplaying the creature of comforts, but still within the area).

[Tecumseh]

IC post is up. I left things ambiguous as to who goes where and when.

Jawsey has Lysander as a contact too so it would make sense for him to join Bobby. AM could join them too and then meet up with Black afterward (either downtown or in VR), or she could go directly to meet Black.

[Tecumseh]

Does anyone have physical descriptions of Lysander or Black that they want to use?

To simplify this, we'll give Lysander three options: a broad overview for 100 nuyen, a medium overview for 200 nuyen, or everything he knows for 400 nuyen.

Parking at the Hilton is 45 nuyen for the night, not covered by Lifestyle.

[Jack_Spade]

Honestly, I always imagined Lysander as pretty androgynous - good looking, professional, but no gender defining attire

And Bobby will take the full overview

[Gilga]

I had Black as a contact for a few of my characters, but she never made an appearance.

Here is what I have on Black.

Her decker name is triple Zero (the RGB coding of Black), and her matrix icon is the Black Square painting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Square_(painting). A very famous picture worth today tens of millions of dollars and it literally is a black square.

The name Black is meaning of triple zero RGB(0,0,0). Black is semi-famous in the gaming community as TripleZero and all forms of online communities. People who have no personal relationship will go by TripleZero, and her friends call her Black. She does not use the name Black in her matrix presence - it is just a different way to say TripleZero.

She made her fortune stealing art while working for the Mafia all over Europe. She has incredible stories about art.
Black arrived at UCAS to cool down and retire living comfortably. She finds retirement difficult because she tries to live a boring life - and would occasionally work or do something illegal for the Mafia. Perhaps because her lifestyle is bigger than her trust fund -or perhaps because she is addicted to the excitement. She tries not to commit any grand larceny that would risk her assets, against her nature. ​The name Kira Benson is fake, AM assumes it is because she knew Black also under a different SIN.

I never physically described her, but elf native to Ukraine, about forty years old. So feel free to imagine/write her as you fancy within these lines.

[Tecumseh]

IC posts are up. They were getting long so I broke them into two.

My brain is foggy today so I have a strong suspicion that I forgot to share something I intended to. I'll revisit it tomorrow to see if I overlooked anything. Feel free to ask follow-up questions too, which might spark my memory.

[Beta]

Oddly I'd imagined Lysander as clearly male but rather androgynous in presentation. Maybe it is something to do with the name?

I think Jawsey will stay at SIS home base, keeping an eye on things while the other two are out.

summon F4+1=5 spirit of water: 9d6t5 1
spirit resist: 5d6t5 0
drain resist vs 2: 13d6t5 7

1 service, no drain (again an amazing drain roll). Not channeled. optional power of binding.

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Jawsey has invested 200nY a month in the baby-gang near their headquarters, starting at the start of November (so three complete months of it so far). I refer to them in my tracking table as the 'pizza kids' but the food may not always be pizza. He's been trying to build up some good will and earn a bit of trust, while recognizing that they alternate between thinking he's a sucker for giving out anything for free or figuring it is a trap. The money invested is not huge because he didn't want it to seem too much like a trap, but about 50nY a week for some food that he manages to get to them (he's good at finding them, given astral projection).

==================
Comcomly hasn't really been fleshed out in game yet. I just have him down as a fixer in downtown Seattle, of native descent (I stole the name from a native leader during the early days of European contact in the pacific-northwest)
Any objections to him buying them now as a L1C1 contact? I'm going to write him using them into the IC post, but whether or not they cooperate is up in the air.

[Tecumseh]

Beta, go ahead and give me a Perception (Visual) roll and an Assensing roll too.

You can get your cane tonight if you're waving that kind of nuyen around.

[Tecumseh]

@Jack
Give me an overview of your plan, maybe with a Perception (Visual) and an Assensing roll.

[Beta]

Perception (hearing): 9d6t5 1 for non-hearing it is the same disappointing result (the success was not in the last two dice)

Asensing: 11d6t5 4

And for the record I love the suggestion of providing a meal to cam-evil, heck Jawsey would even endure helping deliver. But it is up to AM to decide whether to pass that suggestion along.

[Gilga]

. wrong thread.