I think it would make sense for Rachel, but it is more her thing than our thing. She should ask herself why she want to keep living with us and risking her life instead of becoming a full time talismonger and make similar money from Foci, alchemy and so forth without risking her life. (I mean as a player it is obvious to me that running is fun, but what is her reason for not settling down?

I can perhaps see AM contributing with ritual magic to a magic shop setup, but I am not sure what the rest of us do in such a setup. I feel like the detective theme fits because we all (in our own way) do the same work.

We've been letting the rewards move upwards, so in fact I think the agency will be fine generally -- more that we should set aside an emergency fund to cover down months. (we can decide IC if that is a personal step, or something we do as a business). Tamarind was just fussing

That said, I've nothing against Rachel starting to work on a side hustle -- if you ever want to GM a chapter it could be a good excuse on why she is away from the agency for a bit (working on a large focus or something).

I wouldn't worry too much about the nature of the game - in the end, our agency was always a front and cover for our spying in Seattle. At least that's Bobby's backstory with Captain Razak.

Just because we have side income doesn't mean we snoop around in everyone's business.

I'm all for dabbling in artificing - you can do pretty creative stuff with the rules (and I admit, I'm a rules mechanics guy - finding new and unintended interactions are like a hobby for me. Even more so if you can explain them in universe)

Also, agree with Tecumseh, what we do should resonate with the world and be used to create interesting stories.

Bobby does not want to be dragged into dependency again, so he'd do almost anything to make SIS stronger and more independent. If Rachel expresses interest in creating foci herself, she'll have an enthusiastic helper and guinea pig at her side

@Thanee

The reason, I think the upgrade test is meant to replace and not add to an existing focus' force is that availability would suddenly be no longer relevant at all. For my character that would be ideal, but it would lead to the IP question, why anyone would try to get a strong focus in the first place instead of just upgrading it bit by bit.

With that method you could just spend one day to create an F1 Focus and add hits to it every day using the same limit - turning that F1 into F10 within 10 days - just as long as the regular making of an F10 Focus would take. There would be no reason in world to not work itteratively. On the contrary, an F2 Focus could be upgraded to F10 in half the time it would take to forge it in one go.

Having the upgrade require beating your old success total to improve it would allow you to improve a low success focus easily, while still making the high force foci rare and time consuming to create.

Reagents are so cheap, the real cost has to come from the time you need to spend on the creation.

Well, you are the one who brought it up in the first place (also, back when we created the new characters).



Yeah, if you only need to beat the difference in Force, it is too easy. I can definitely see that.



There are still some nuances here, though.

Does the roll completely replace the original crafting (i.e. can a bound focus suddenly lose Force points), or does it only do so, if you actually get a better result (or Glitch, well... that is bad, obviously). Unfortunately, the rules are completely silent here. But it's not hugely important, anyways. I don't see Rachel creating numerous foci... those things also cost Karma to create.

Bye
Thanee

Interlude awards. These are uneven and are mostly what emerged from the story.

AM: Mayor Sonja as a C6 / L1 contact
AM: Maximus (go-ganger) as a C3 / L1 contact

Raven: Maximus (go-ganger) as a C3 / L1 contact, or L4 if romantic interest is dangled
Raven: Fashion is now R7
Raven: Katsuo “Andrew” Musai, Yakuza lieutenant) as a C4 / L1 contact

Tamarind: Katsuo “Andrew” Musai, Yakuza lieutenant) as a C4 / L1 contact
Tamarind: HiFi Phil is now L3
Tamarind: High Fidelity Sound and Vinyl Record Collecting as R2 knowledge skills, with a specialization for one or the other
Tamarind: take some sort of knowledge skill related to Automotives or Groundcraft at R1 with a (Motorcycles) specialization

Mato: Acoustics as an R1 knowledge skill, with a (Musical) specialization
Mato: (Structural) specialization for Industrial Mechanic

Bobby: Clive 'Al' Clarke is now L6
Bobby: Gridiron Football as an R2 knowledge skill, with a (Local Legends) specialization
Bobby: Hacker Club is now L2

All: Hacker Club is now C3