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William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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Peter, playing a "noir detective" poseur, had the long term memory, "The Mysterious Girl who left me a while ago, and my regrets thereof." (Who: girl; when, a while ago, what, caused me regrets"
Steph, playing a mobber, with the short term memory "Something went wrong with an implant in the office."
Tam, playing a printer geek. (Tam's 10yo.)
Session starts with CGen. We didn't have sheets printed (my printer is out of color ink. Can't afford to get more. won't even print B&W with an empty color cart or no color cart.)
We did two sample challenges. One perfect, one-on-one; one bad, a group on 1.
I open session with, "The aggregate calls you, and informs you that a message informing you you are being tracked by a wetworker for her client. She looks like the girl you regret when you are shown with her dropping a black rose in a delivery pouch. as it finishes, a bot arrives with the pouch."
Tam opens it. "It smells like pork rinds," I tell her. "It has a note. 'Perhaps after I give you a perfect death, you'll learn to be more careful. An unhappy customer.' Signed, 'Mr. Johnson.'"
They decide to try the direct route. Tam and Peter charge off to Mr. Johnson's office. Tam asks to see him, finds out he's not in, heads out to go look; Peter tries to social engineer a home address. This sounds like a good but minor challenge; I set it at 3 flow.
Peter gains 1 margin by burning 2 experience levels as the other guy runs out of actions to take; each action is followed by the needed narration. I love social challenge mechanics of this sort; it focuses me on things; the target used two related techs; one, an ultrasonic annoyware device, the other the security barrier. Peter doesn't get what he "asked for" but does get his intent: finding the guy... at lunch.
Peter then has the detective call for a reservation. I decided to, rather than a challenge, flip and see if one was even available, and since his geneline related, count freemarket or geneline; I flipped a geneline. "Yes, chantal maison can get you in in about 10 minutes..." (This is not an approved technique, but it is borrowed from DL5A.
They arrive, and are seated at the next table, and they find out why Mr. Johnson hired Ilsa, the mystery wetworker... ≤ElmerFudd≥ Deyz in Wuv.... ≤/ElmerFudd≥
Peter and Tam both decide to do things at the very same time... Peter social engineers Ilsa's return to his side, and Tam ghosts up on Mr Johnson to make him think his interface is screwy. (It is, but not in the way she's doing so...) Peter's use is pretty stock; pricy, too, but it works. He gets 5 margin... she's totally convinced to switch sides, and he gets a 50% rebate, too. Ilsa even goes so far as to friend him.
Tam convinces him he's made a mistake by making him think her chatter is his interface gone bad.
Everyone else then joins Steph in convincing him that he's genuinely made a bad decision, and let steph fix the interface tomorrow. They win, handily, with Peter's 7 to his 4. Next, peter, not waiting to hit a challenge, negotiates in character a contract with him to end the hate... The detective will find him a monkey, in exchange for calling things off and mving on. He suggest to Tam that her character should print one up...
Tam promptly, with her "portable microprinter" makes him a small, colorful monkey with both a hefty rebate on it's 14 flow (she pays 3!), but also gets complete success. She gifts it to Mr. Johnson then and there. Peter gets the 5 for the completion.
Everyone got at least one up, since everyone got an attaboy....
It's going to take some getting used to...
Things I learned this session
The challenge charts are scattered through two different chapters, and information on them in three... and you need that information all together. Time for a cheat sheet.
I also ran it looser than written.
Also, let people read chapter 1 before play; it gives the hooks needed for character generation.
The 10yo had an easier time thinking of the ramifications of a matter printer that can make life-forms.... the 30 and 40 something players were pretty shocked by how naturally she took to the creator role.
Session reactions
We're playing it again next week.
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William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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Flip: to turn over a card. General english.
Monkey: arboreal primate.
Margin: difference between to scores. Common RPG slang.
The jargon used can be referenced from my pre-play review.
When I write AP's, I presume people are intelligent enough to check for reviews. I will admit I probably should have linked to it.
There really wasn't much story; 2/3 of the session was CGen.
As for transhumanism and cyberpunk being jargon-laden: they are nothing compared to education or psychology, where normal words are used in abnormal ways, with totally different meanings, and non-standard pronunciations. Perseverance (per sev ear ance) is the ability to stick to task in normal english, generally a good trait; perseverance (per-se ver unce) in education and psychology is an undesired retention of a behavioral action, tag or trait after intervention.
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Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
