The Found Arcana - Eighth Interlude [OOC] Options

[Tecumseh]

A draft of the current (Redmond) lifestyle is up here: https://stormy-waters-2075.obsidianportal.c...gative-services

4E used Lifestyle Points to account for customizations. The final price depends on how many lifestyle points you accumulate. The five categories are:

- Comforts
- Necessities
- Entertainment
- Neighborhood
- Security

And then you may separately add positive or negative qualities that further affect things.

All of the language is from Runner's Companion. I edited it lightly; for example, when the text offers alternative examples, I went with the version that is most similar to how we've been playing our Redmond lifestyle. I've also added a bit of commentary about why I selected what I did.

I'll try to write up a similar version for Bellevue tomorrow. Here's the current pricing for what I've drafted:

+ ¥2,000 Redmond
+ ¥9,800 Bellevue (includes upcharge for roommates)
= ¥11,800 per month
- ¥5,000 Mato's trust fund
= ¥6,800 per month
/ 5 residents
= ¥1,360 per person per month

[Jack_Spade]

Looks about right

[Beta]

I'll try to write up a similar version for Bellevue tomorrow. Here's the current pricing for what I've drafted:

+ ¥2,000 Redmond
+ ¥9,800 Bellevue (includes upcharge for roommates)
= ¥11,800 per month
- ¥5,000 Mato's trust fund
= ¥6,800 per month
/ 5 residents
= ¥1,360 per person per month

I agree that we probably don't have to be strict in our reading of the Trust Fund quality about no roomates, but at the same time reasonably it would pay for something well sized for one middle class person, so perhaps two bedrooms (to allow for a guest) and packing in five people would probably lower the living standard and upset the landlord or neighbours.

At the risk of upping our costs, what would the numbers look like if we had two Bellevue units, one with better amenities and one roomate (Mato's place) and the other a bit more basic for three (who always come hang out at Mato's place -- I'm visualizing a bit like the old sitcom Friends where the women had an apartment across the hall from the men, but we mostly see everyone in the one apartment). I don't know if being in the same place already bakes in most of the costs, in which case this would add something like 1knY per month each -- not an inconsiderable chunk, but it still wouldn't take us too much above what we were paying.

(I'm not going to be stubborn about this opinion, but offering it up for consideration)

[Tecumseh]

I know I haven't written it up yet, but the above - as priced - represents "High" Necessities. That gets us "a 200 square meter single family home with a large yard and nice garden or magical lodge. You have a two-car garage."

That should be quite sufficient for a happy family of five like ours.

Don't worry! There are some drawbacks that help bring the price down (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

I'm working against a Monday deadline - and trying to avoid working over the weekend - so a bit delayed it getting the write-up posted.

[Beta]

No rush!

[Tecumseh]

I split things out into two separate wiki pages:

Touristville: https://stormy-waters-2075.obsidianportal.c...ervices-redmond
Bellevue: https://stormy-waters-2075.obsidianportal.c...rvices-bellevue

The Bellevue qualities are optional but I figured they would help differentiate the place from Touristville. We'd be in a very different environment and that might be delightful for some people and soul-destroying for others.

For reference, this is the map that I am using. Touristville is at the top-center, in the yellow section. This new neighborhood would be just across the Bellevue/Redmond border in the lighter-green section to the southwest. The dark-green neighborhoods are too nice for us. The blue neighborhood to the west is a possibility but we probably couldn't find a large enough house there to fit all of us (since that takes High Necessities) so if we ended up there it would probably use an approach like Beta described, namely multiple adjoining residences. Plus Mato wants a garden.

[Gilga]

I love the Bellevue housing (not sure that AM would), but the details make for interesting RP and story writing way to go.

[Jack_Spade]

I like it - especially the HOA is rife for fun interludes (especially if Bobby decides to mow the grass the old fashioned way and turns into a bull)

[Tecumseh]

I have some ideas for Interludes up my sleeve, that's for sure.

They did not involve Bobby grazing on the lawn but that's why you play with a group!

Speaking of which, is there anything else that people want to accomplish in the current Interlude? If not, we can wrap up soon.

[Gilga]

I am fine with wrapping up.

[Thanee]

Yep. I think we are at a good point to wrap things up here.

Next on the agenda would probably be to look for that place in Bellevue. Not sure, if you want to do that behind the scenes or at the next Interlude.

Bye
Thanee

[Beta]

I'm fine both with wrapping up and the Bellevue lifestyle (although Tamarind will dislike a lot about the place-- she's used to avoiding all observation and they have nosy neighbors and a local committee?)

[Tecumseh]

You're not supposed to like it. You're supposed to roleplay about the social costs and personal compromises involved in ensuring your physical safety!

[Beta]

Yes, that is why _I'm_ fine with it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) . I should have used a few more words to express that thought, more like "I'm perfectly fine with it, but just to warn you that come IC time, don't expect Tamarind to be enthusiastic about the location in the IC part. She's used to avoiding notice, so nosy neighbors and an area committee will seem like bad compromise to her. (But in the end she'll defer to the senior members /majority) ".

[Tecumseh]

I think I'll use the next Interlude to have us moving in. That pushes our move-in date a bit farther out in the timeline than we were expecting but this will let Tamarind and Raven spend their month of pre-paid Lifestyle.

I'll describe some bookkeeping stuff here for Thanee's benefit.

Each GM can make karma/nuyen/gear/Contact/Quality/etc awards as they please. Most of our karma awards average out to 0.10 to 0.12 karma per IC post. I usually just multiply by 0.11. We have 82 posts in the IC thread for this interlude so 82 * 0.11 = 9.02 karma, which I'll round off.

We also grant knowledge karma, which is karma specifically for knowledge skills and/or Contacts. (Use chargen costs for Contacts.) Purchased Contacts usually start off at Loyalty 1 unless there's a story reason for them to be higher. Knowledge karma is usually about half the value of our regular karma award.

Karma: 9
Knowledge Karma: 4

At the end (or beginning) of an IC month, we make a Teamwork Charisma + Etiquette (Corporate) [Social] test. We'll do that now since gilga's chapter will skip us forward to March. Each net hit reduces the monthly cost of our communal Lifestyle by 1,000 nuyen, representing our private investigator income from the jobs that we don't RP. For now we'll use our legacy price of ¥7,200 for the Touristville location since Tamarind and Raven are covered by their chargen Lifestyles, and I don't want to try to prorate things for Jawsey's mid-month departure.

Jawsey is usually our lead for this roll but now he's gone so that means AM is our new Teamwork leader. Here are Teamwork dice from Mato:

Charisma 4 + Etiquette 2 + Corporate 2: 8d6t5 2 hits

[Jack_Spade]

Etiquette: 6d6t5 3

Nice, that gives me just enough karma to raise Bobby's magic rating along with the initiation.

I'm raising Bobby's knowledge on architecture, use the power point to gain Rapid Healing, Low Light and Thermographic Vision and spend another 5 karma on Revenant Adept. (Let's call that the Cockroach Approach)

[Gilga]

Well, slow month: Luckily, we should get money from decker club.
Charisma + Etiquette + Teamwork: 15d6t5 3 - that is really low I'll reroll.
Charisma + Etiquette + Teamwork (reroll): 12d6t5 2 - oh wow 5 hits in 27 dice guess it really is not our best month.

Well, we made 5k. (and is it +10k from decker club?)

[Thanee]

That Karma per post thing for the Interlude is a nice idea. Raven will probably just pick up a new spell and/or alchemical spell to widen her repertoire a little, or learn to summon Spirits of Man (any suggestions? I guess, that is something that would also be discussed, like what would be a useful spell to have). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I also used "Knowledge Karma" back in 4E, that seems to be a fairly common houserule.

Should Tamarind and Raven also do those Teamwork rolls? Would First Impression apply there?

Bye
Thanee

[Gilga]

AM only had 5 points in the etiquette skill. So dhe cannot get more teamwork dice.

[Thanee]

Ok. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Thinking about Nausea as a spell to help out in combat situations. That can incapacitate a target for a short time, if it works.

Bye
Thanee

[Beta]

I thought I'd posted from my phone earlier but it didn't go through -- anyway Tamarind only 1 success on 9 dice for etiquette + intuition (due to empathetic listener it replaces charisma) and AM couldn't use it anyway.

Also when looking through my character sheet I discovered a couple of errors:
- I mis-priced codeslinger at 5 instead of the proper 10 (I'd confused the price with that of overclocker)
- I'd forgotten to remove a motion detector that I'd intended to get rid of when I decided to give Uncle an ultrasound sensor

I fixed those two, and as a consequence out of character creation she did not have 1 point in Seattle Street Gangs and did not have the quality Subtle Pilot (groundcraft) but did have 400 more nuyen.

Spending the 9 karm + 4 knowledge karms
8 points to buy subtle pilot (groundcraft)
1 point of karma being saved for later
2 kn/cont karma to get Cutty as an L1C1 contact
1 kn/cont karma on Sioux Sign Language 1
1 kn/cont karma on Touristville street gangs 1

I'm assuming that Tamarind's lifestyle payment goes through mid-March (paid for a full month), and that hopefully by then we'll have both money and a common lifestyle or she'll be on the street.

I did however make the first interest payment on her 'in debt' payment on March 1st, and I'll pro-rate lifestyle to make those payments on the 1st of each month as well.

[Tecumseh]

I'm trying to wrap my head around nuyen advancements vs. karma advancements and there are so many possibilities my head is about to explode. I've seriously been at this for days. Mundanes are such a pain.

[Beta]

Mundanes are such a pain.

I don't know how many times while making Tamarind I said to myself "it isn't too late to just make an aspected summoner instead. I could do it in 15 minutes." Then I'd go back to staring at lists of drones and mods and losing my mind. I never did get my head wrapped around what would be good and just settled for what would be fun to write.

[Beta]

Wait, we were talking about Tamarind and Raven being on double karma until caught up with the rest. So would they be at 18 karma from the interlude?

[Tecumseh]

We did talk about that, didn't we. Yes, let's do that for Tamarind and Raven. Thanks for the reminder.