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[The Veil] hides the Rising Tides

Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny JackieRegistered User regular
So hey everyone. This is the host thread for a drop in/drop out irregular game of The Veil.

The general set up for this game is going to be chatter, news and scheduling inside the thread and then actual play over at Roll20 (link will send you to the game directly). Most likely using Discord for voice purposes.

As far as the game is concerned here is a blurt about your base setting:

Hundreds of years into the future the world's climate went to hell and now pretty much everywhere's flooded. Corporate entities and private fleets soon dominated over national interests. Coalescing into large political and military blocs such as the ISA, the Russo-Nordic Oil Pact and China, the Last Nation. For the ISA most of their efforts pooled into creating floating cities, mostly self sustaining operations that vary in size designed to house and feed the employees in luxury and facilitate large scale docking and mooring of fleets for logistics and survival purposes.

New New York is both the oldest and largest of such facilities. The gleaming white towers of its core able to house ten thousand permanent residents in addition to hosting retail parks, business centers and accommodations for easily one thousand valued customers craving luxury shore leave along with hydroponic farms that even host some of the few livestock still alive after the flooding.

Extending out from the central hub are four piers, each roughly a mile in length and acting as the main clean method of transportation and unloading goods. At least in theory, in reality all of the quadrants between the piers but one have long since being home to slums made up of old, rusting ships crammed in and moored up against eachother. Each quadrant alone having roughly thirty thousand people attempting to eek out a living. Such transgressions on the original plan for New New York are tolerated both because of some small level of compassion and because they actually provide New New York's primary export: Skilled labour hungry for any work going. Plus, many corporate folk are either intertwined with or addicted to the product of one of the many gangs that have taken root in the slums.

The Veil itself in this setting is something that primarily came about to solve the largest problem the new world was facing: limited space. As a result it's primary function is that of 'shortening' a process by which tampered neural feedback, advanced AR and a highly interconnected society have allowed for rooms to appear larger than life. Many cafes in the central hub appear three times their actual size, with neurochips (given reasonably cheaply by the corporations in exchange for people's privacy) rendering the experience of strolling through a large room. In reality said customers are actually shuffling in place. With the virtual reality only having to break its spell in case of the risk of collisions or the customer is reaching for a physical item that is out of reach.

However the technology is getting better year over year, with the first tennis world championships of the flooded world held entirely within a virtual court last year. Out in the slums, where positional data and cameras are less precisely controlled, the Veil is significantly messier. Most people get their device to portray a virtual mask over their property to render it appearing something more pleasant than a rusted ship but numerous health hazards and hap hazard code jockeys often mean such illusions falter or overlap each other. Advertisements and virtual graffiti are near everywhere without C-Sec policing the dataspheres. A blaring array of noise, lights and imagery all crafted to drag the users attention to them.

On a personal level the growing ubiquity of neurochips (or, at least AR enabled glasses and contacts) has given rise to digital fashion trends. Both Haute Couture appearances for the elite and loud, emblematic digital masks for the punk, criminal or dissident. The increasing digital noise of such things has drawn most modern phones to start including greater blocking, content filtering and other such features. All for the low price of a few dollars a month to secure peace of mind from the noise of the world.


Sounds Neat, so what do I need to do?

As a player you primarily need to pick one of the playbooks, post when you need to schedule it and ask any questions you need to about the game. Playbooks from the Base game are all pretty easy to integrate. However playbooks from the expansion: Cascade often play off of trans humanism and other such themes a little too heavily for our tech timeframe. So, if you own that book, please run your idea past me and we'll see about what does and doesn't fit.

Due to the communal nature of this set up I'm waiving the usual limit of only 1 of each playbook. However please bear in mind that some of the playbooks heavily influence the fiction and as a result multiples may be tied to the choices the very first made. For example the Honour Bound is asked to define what obligation means in society, how it's enforced and who enforces it. Once someone has put those concepts in concrete they're there to stay barring exceptional events.

In addition to that I'd love for people to suggest and collaborate on world details. To that end think about answering these questions when posting in here:

1) What's an app on your phone? Is it integrated heavily with the Veil? Is it widely used or more niche? Why does it hold that place in the culture? How does it generate revenue?

2) Where's a location that sticks out? Where is it in the slums, the piers or Phoenix York proper? What sort of people hang around it? How clean is its data sphere?

3) Who is someone everyone knows? How wide is their fame, just local or world wide? What are they famous for? How do two different groups view them?

«134

Posts

  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited January 2018
    Read through the OP, I will have to do some pondering on this and what playbook to be.

    Edit: is there a particular Corp or faction that runs new New York or is it contested territory?

    Inquisitor on
  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    Read through the OP, I will have to do some pondering on this and what playbook to be.

    Edit: is there a particular Corp or faction that runs new New York or is it contested territory?

    Most ISA Cities are owned by specific corporations (FYI the standard naming convention for major ISA corps is State name + Major company mash ups, hence the net is provided by Pensyl-Net).

    New New York due to its size and age was a joint project among multiple entities that has a highly divided ownership. Technically no one owns a controlling majority in it but the C-Sec is run by Cal-Tech, the weapons and hardware manufacturers so any excessive disputes among elites would be settled by them ultimately.

  • AuralynxAuralynx Darkness is a perspective Watching the ego workRegistered User regular
    Okay, at first glance The Dying is right up my alley, with Empath, Honed, Seeker, and Wayward looking interesting as well.

    kshu0oba7xnr.png

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    Various thoughts on those archetypes (obviously feel free to go with your own stuff)

    The Empath: A slum dealer whose got specific drug cocktails that interact with the Veil in ways that allow for faster interaction and near instant trade offs.

    Honed: Not being connected to the Veil in this case is already a legitimate physical advantage: You don't ever get shortened which means you can go faster than those that aren't. Sure, most security forces don't shorten themselves in emergencies but you have a huge edge over them due to a lack of neuro chip till then.

    Wayward: The ocean, probably a ship captain or some such. Someone with enough access to a functional, modern boat as to be independent from the urban sprawl.

    The Seeker and Dying are both things that probably require personal, specific things. Though in the case of the Seeker definitely consider how religions might have made the transition to the new world. Most of them are probably perverted to the needs of those in power. So character's seeking enlightenment based on scripture that's no longer as supported could be an interesting take.

  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    I’m leaning executive, gonna Corp it on up.

  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    I'm thinking the Apparatus.

  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    Honorbound sounds fun

    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    Well, an obvious next step would be for you guys to fill in the question bits on those playbooks. I'll provide feedback and help fill in the blanks but I'd kinda dig if first passes were done by you so that you're injecting as much of your own stuff in as possible. Once it's more finalized I'll get your sheets up on roll20 and filled in.

  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    Yeah, the big thing I’m trying to decide is my emotion spread, because not only is that like my stats, but it is also a huge statement about your character. What emotions are they most comfortable with? Least comfortable with? Etc

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    IMO for Executive the obvious ones:

    Powerful +2, Mad +1, scared +1, Sad 0, Joyful 0, Peaceful -1

    Which is basically someone that, so long as they've got drive, is on top and is actually least comfortable when at rest.

  • NotoriusBENNotoriusBEN Registered User regular
    This looks interesting as all get out.

    If you'll have me, I'd like to try the Seeker.
    Looking at the playbooks, this leans close to Blades in the Dark and Dungeon World? Or did I make a wrong assessment?

    a4irovn5uqjp.png
    Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
  • AuralynxAuralynx Darkness is a perspective Watching the ego workRegistered User regular
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    Yeah, the big thing I’m trying to decide is my emotion spread, because not only is that like my stats, but it is also a huge statement about your character. What emotions are they most comfortable with? Least comfortable with? Etc

    Yeah, I'm trying to come up with a Dying concept that flows naturally into another character, since "you're gonna need a new guy at some point" is baked into that one, but wrapping my head around the way the system's parts interconnect is the main hold-up as far as getting a sheet together here too.

    kshu0oba7xnr.png

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    I’ll do a slightly more involved write up in a bit when at the pc but yes, the core mechanic is Dungeon World or any other PbtA game: roll 2d6+emotion, 7 is a moderate pass, 10 is a great success.

    For the most part the game doesn’t get more complicated than that (all the stuff you can roll for is summarised at the bottom of the pdf) except for the internal resources/moves of playbooks.

  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    This looks interesting as all get out.

    If you'll have me, I'd like to try the Seeker.
    Looking at the playbooks, this leans close to Blades in the Dark and Dungeon World? Or did I make a wrong assessment?

    It's a Powered by the Apocalypse hack, yeah. A little different from most but it'll def. be familiar if you've played DW.

  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    IMO for Executive the obvious ones:

    Powerful +2, Mad +1, scared +1, Sad 0, Joyful 0, Peaceful -1

    Which is basically someone that, so long as they've got drive, is on top and is actually least comfortable when at rest.

    I was debating scared +2 making me more of a corporate middle manager who is constantly afraid of their superiors noticing them and crushing them utterly.

  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    Thoughts on Obligation Enforcement:

    If someone protects you from harm, and you do not pay back the Obligation... you are forced to suffer Public Humiliation. Nothing physical, maybe the release of some kind of personally identifiable information, at the very least your weakness in needing protection and your inability to pay back the Obligation becomes shameful public information

    If you make a mistake and *accidentally* harm someone, and then fail to pay back the Obligation to them or their beneficiaries... you are forced to fight in a trial by combat. Collateral damage is bad for everyone. If you cause it and fail to make good, you must defend yourself publicly against the champions of the wronged

    When you tell someone an important truth, and they fail to pay back the Obligation... they must pay a penance that involves personal sacrifice. Knowledge is power. To disrespect the power conferred unto you is a sacrilege. The honorbound hold true information in high esteem - the more important the information you hold without recompense the more personal a sacrifice they demand

    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    Okay, so system stuff:

    The core mechanic, as discussed, is always 2d6+modifier, using a move to help guide and dictate the results. If you have advantage or disadvantage it becomes 3d6 take highest/lowest respectively.

    The most common modifiers you have, that are used for 90% of the moves, are your emotions. They have two effects on the game:

    1) Technically, all characters are equally as good at everything with only their emotional state effecting their actions. You can all fire a gun with +2, you can all hack with +2 etc. etc. However the system mostly presumes that the MC/DM will give favourable fictional positioning to those it's sensible to give it to and that players will be attempting to play in character.

    2) Your emotions acquire spikes every time they're used. They're the boxes underneath each playbook's emotion stat line. Once all five under an emotion are full your character automatically uses the move Alleviate which causes all your emotions but the spiked one to be set to -2 and the spiked emotion to be at +1. This state lasts until either you use another emotion or that emotion bottoms out, with you marking off one spike every time it's used.

    If emotions sound cool as heck to you and you want to manipulate your enemies to be blubbering crybabies then definitely look at the Empath.

    The only other major mechanics are Obligation, Cred, Harm and Equipment.

    Harm is super simple: You have 5 boxes on your char sheet. If they all fill up and you take more you're super dead. Armour reduces harm by a flat amount. In general if you're not armoured to the gills you will be dead in two bursts from an assault rifle.

    Obligation is the idea that favours are a form of cultural currency that are enforced on some level across the setting. When you have obligation on someone you can name drop them to get into places or call on them to help you. When someone has obligation on you well, they can push you into doing things for them. If you like the idea of a code that must be followed then definitely look at the Honour Bound book.

    Cred is simple: equipment is 1 cred per tag, medical supplies are 1 cred per box of harm they fix. It can also be used in various moves for bribes, purchasing services and so on.

    Equipment is also simple: Tags are purely narrative permissions, IE if you say your pistol is armour piercing it's armour piercing, if you say your bow shoots firebolts it will set things on fire. Only Harm and Armour have specific mechanical effects outside of the abstract concept of 'this tag means both the MC and the players agree that it does this thing'.

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    Ringo wrote: »
    Thoughts on Obligation Enforcement:

    If someone protects you from harm, and you do not pay back the Obligation... you are forced to suffer Public Humiliation. Nothing physical, maybe the release of some kind of personally identifiable information, at the very least your weakness in needing protection and your inability to pay back the Obligation becomes shameful public information

    If you make a mistake and *accidentally* harm someone, and then fail to pay back the Obligation to them or their beneficiaries... you are forced to fight in a trial by combat. Collateral damage is bad for everyone. If you cause it and fail to make good, you must defend yourself publicly against the champions of the wronged

    When you tell someone an important truth, and they fail to pay back the Obligation... they must pay a penance that involves personal sacrifice. Knowledge is power. To disrespect the power conferred unto you is a sacrilege. The honorbound hold true information in high esteem - the more important the information you hold without recompense the more personal a sacrifice they demand

    I suppose the question for these is what is your organization and what sort of reach/position in society do they hold? Are they legal or just accepted in spite of illegal actions?

    Also not entirely sure about the important truth one, might be a bit weird to finangle but I also might just be being dumb.

  • AuralynxAuralynx Darkness is a perspective Watching the ego workRegistered User regular
    2) Your emotions acquire spikes every time they're used. They're the boxes underneath each playbook's emotion stat line. Once all five under an emotion are full your character automatically uses the move Alleviate which causes all your emotions but the spiked one to be set to -2 and the spiked emotion to be at +1. This state lasts until either you use another emotion or that emotion bottoms out, with you marking off one spike every time it's used.

    It looked to me, in passing, like the paired emotions each cancel checkboxes in the other out when rolled for?

    kshu0oba7xnr.png

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    edited January 2018
    Derp.

    Albino Bunny on
  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Nope, the opposing bits on the emotion wheel is just to clarify that those are 'opposite' in so far as that example goes. You still accumulate spikes on everything you roll for.

    They don't cancel but they do clear a spike from the opposed state. See "Mitigating States" on page 42.

  • FuselageFuselage Oosik Jumpship LoungeRegistered User regular
    This sounds really awesome and I'm just going to creep on you guys for a little bit. I've never played a PbtA game even though I have Dungeon World, Fellowship, and Pigsmoke on my shelf.

    o4n72w5h9b5y.png
  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    Ringo wrote: »
    Thoughts on Obligation Enforcement:

    If someone protects you from harm, and you do not pay back the Obligation... you are forced to suffer Public Humiliation. Nothing physical, maybe the release of some kind of personally identifiable information, at the very least your weakness in needing protection and your inability to pay back the Obligation becomes shameful public information

    If you make a mistake and *accidentally* harm someone, and then fail to pay back the Obligation to them or their beneficiaries... you are forced to fight in a trial by combat. Collateral damage is bad for everyone. If you cause it and fail to make good, you must defend yourself publicly against the champions of the wronged

    When you tell someone an important truth, and they fail to pay back the Obligation... they must pay a penance that involves personal sacrifice. Knowledge is power. To disrespect the power conferred unto you is a sacrilege. The honorbound hold true information in high esteem - the more important the information you hold without recompense the more personal a sacrifice they demand

    I suppose the question for these is what is your organization and what sort of reach/position in society do they hold? Are they legal or just accepted in spite of illegal actions?

    Also not entirely sure about the important truth one, might be a bit weird to finangle but I also might just be being dumb.

    First playbook stuff, then I'll expound a bit:

    On the Honorbound Organization, which needs a name

    The place you work for is unique because - A prosperous marketplace, largely self-governing, has grown up around it.

    It is revered because it is - Mysterious

    Choose 3-5 features of the surroundings and atmosphere - Personal liberty, Sanctuary & safety, Faith & ritual, Ancient oddments integrated into the décor

    Thoughts:

    Organization is legal, with the thought being that the Organization is the first to feel and the first to react to the shift of social mores within the community, and thus can be a regulating body beholden only to the community's needs. It's a sort of laissez faire democracy, which uses Obligation as a regulated commodity to promote social justice among all strata of the community. So the Organization is very limited in what it can control (buy/sell/trade Obligation, as well as enforce adherence to standards of behavior regarding Obligation) but its reach is very long - no one is immune to running afoul of the Honorbound (unless, of course, they can properly protect themselves from Enforcement).

    The Organization is set up like a bazaar, a marketplace and safe haven for deals to be made. Trades in Obligation are monitored by the Organization, as well as trades in Information. The Organization is known to be a superb intelligence gathering network, but how they procure the information, and why they seem rarely to use it except to enforce Obligation debts is a Mystery to the general populace. Deals made in the Organization's outposts are accompanied by the rituals demanded by each specific outpost, and is akin to religious ceremony.

    Part of the pageantry in large part revolves around the "sanctity of information". The Organization guards a treasure vault of secrets, and is often willing to trade Obligation for information, provided what you whisper to them is True. The Organization takes no active stance against lies and the liars who tell them, believing the protection of suckers from getting swindled is a thankless task, but takes heightened interest in anyone trading True Knowledge, all the way from neighborly gossip to corporate secrets. If you trade info for Obligation with someone (which probably has its own specific ritual, not just something that happens in conversation) you always have recourse against the debt holder with the Organization - they do not tolerate anyone who would abuse such trust.

    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    So basically, the instinct that the it might be "weird to finagle" is pretty much where I'm aiming.

    I want the Organization to be almost cult-like, and while the worth of any kind of Obligation can be flexible, the three inflexible rules are about what the cult highly prizes: personal harm, collateral harm, and information collecting. These are the Big Three when it comes to ways you can fuck up in Phoenix York, and why that is or how it came to be is a pretty large mystery for the setting.

    Also, for my particular Honorbound, I'm going to be aiming for a less violent agent, and more one who uses intimidation/manipulation/subtle sabotage to enforce the Organizations will on debt bearers

    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
  • AuralynxAuralynx Darkness is a perspective Watching the ego workRegistered User regular
    First stab at The Dying

    Roberto "Bobby" Salinas

    Sheet
    Look: Masculine, distressed wear, bony face, far-flung eyes, slouching body, Latino.

    Jam: Audio Technician.

    States: Mad -1 / Peaceful 0, Sad 0 / Joyful +1, Scared +2 / Powerful 0

    Beliefs:
    1: I've been touched by something more than human.
    2: There's still time for me to have fun.
    3: Music still matters in a world obsessed with seeing things that aren't really there.

    The Gift: You're capable of unnatural movement - the imaginary spaces that are an integral part of The Veil actually are space for Bobby. Exactly how that plays out in any given situation varies.

    Symptoms: Bobby's turning into something. He's not sure what, but he got a guy to replace his right forearm with cybernetics once he realized his hand was moving on its own not too long ago. He thought that would take care of it... then his heartbeats started coming in threes.

    Prognosis: ???

    Gear: Thermal knife (2 Harm hand burning)

    Cybernetics: Right forearm - Storage, but Unreliable. Owes an obligation to ??? for the arm.

    Background Sketch:
    Bobby makes a modest but reliable living setting up and maintaining audio equipment, mostly but not always as a stagehand of sorts for concerts, house parties, and other events both classy and not. He knows a lot of people in the musical community in Phoenix York, as well as a number of AR artists and Event Designers.

    About two years ago, he helped rig an all-night rave at Pier 22. Later that night he was floating on Surf, he'd had a few, and there was a girl who didn't want to go back to his place but sure did want to get real with him; he ended up awake all night having a great time. In the early parts of the morning once they'd Friended and she'd left with her pals, he found himself out by the water alone in a dead zone and not entirely sure how he'd got there. Still, teardown wasn't until tomorrow so no problem so long as he got un-lost, right?

    It was in the dark minutes just before dawn that he saw it in the water. It was purplish and iridescent, like an oil slick, with a dull glow about it. Much bigger than you'd get from a leak... and it was moving. Reaching out. Feeling its way around, and for some stupid reason Bobby reached out to it and stuck his hand in. For just a second, he knew what it knew, that there was someone it was looking for. It wasn't looking for him... but he'd do.

    Bobby doesn't remember most of what he knew in that moment, nor how he got home, but when he came to his fingers looked like he'd dipped them in jelly. He couldn't get it off, but otherwise it wasn't bothering him, so he went on with his life for a while... until it started spreading. That's when he got Doc Flotsam to do his arm. Bobby thinks that bought him some time, but there've been other signs that something's not right since, and they're getting harder to ignore.

    Setting details:
    - The 4 piers that make up a lot of New New York are, obviously, Piers 1-4. Notable subsections, locations, or neighborhoods are sometimes (in keeping with New York tradition) Pier 1X or 2XX.
    - Pier 22 is a semi-infamous party / red light district that's a small slice along the midsection of Pier 2. It's not the least safe place you could go, but it's a good one to find trouble. During the day, it's pretty quiet, and you can get work from the various club owners and other shady businessmen cleaning up after whatever went on during the night or getting ready for what will go on. At night, the 22 Caliber Krew take over in force, but they're there mostly to sell Surf, run off anyone they don't like, and prey on anyone who's too gone to know better. Most of the truly bad things that happen on Pier 22 happen behind closed doors because someone stiffed someone else. You can also find some of the city's better digital graffiti artists' work here - sometimes the club owners even pay them to do a piece to attract attention. It's very bright and visually noisy at night, but gets a lot quieter and more-respectable looking during the day in most spots.

    I'll probably have more but that's probably enough to start riffing on / discussing?

    kshu0oba7xnr.png

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    So thoughts:

    I think the idea of the Obligation as something enforced by a cult with vague motives and capabilities works. However I also think they probably wouldn't be fully legal. Instead the more likely situation is that their market is in the slums and C-Sec tends to mind their own business when it comes to their agents. They have enough pull on higher ups in the corporate ladder to ensure they're left alone for their activities. However in cases where enforcement brings them onto the central hub they're far less ensured of their immunity. Essentially I still want cred to be important considering how corps rule.

    Also, extending from that, a large part of their funding probably comes from the wealthy paying off their debt in cred. At least as a stay of execution to buy time for them to make good on it in the dignified fashion.


  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    edited January 2018
    That works for me. And probably makes more sense given what you've got going on in the setting. So yay!

    Anything else in what I put out catch your eye?

    edit: Also I came up with a name for the organization: Liv Nan Lapenn

    "Book of Sorrows" in Hatian Creole, at least according to google translate

    Ringo on
    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    "Honorbound"

    Name: [Unknown]; [Common Alias] Iri
    Physical Description: Tall/Lean, Blonde Hair - Short/Curly, Hazel Eyes, Caucasian Male ??? [files indicate Caribbean descent] [you're looking for a lightly tanned androgynous blonde, leave it at that]
    Identifiers: Pre-21st Century ornate professional fashion ??? [you'll know it when you see it], animated/expressive facial and body language, scarring around the throat - possible implant, armed with "falcata" style sword with owl insignia on grip
    Profession: Enforcement Agent of Liv nan Lapenn, designated "Spur" of Short Ears pacthounds

    Personal Data:
    Subject is a known factor within LnL, though records do not show when they became a pacthound. Subject is unknown prior to association with LnL, sources indicate subject may not be native to Phoenix York. Subject has been seen within multiple jurisdictions, ostensibly enforcing the Code of Sorrow, but has on four separate occasions changed or commuted sentences of debtors. Discipline or redress from LnL is unknown. Subject has no murders recorded or registered with authorities. [See Short Ears file] Subject has a pattern of scarring around the neck, may be indicative of cyberwork.

    Stats
    States: Mad +1, Peaceful +0, Sad -1, Joyful +1, Scared +0, Powerful +2

    Cybernetics:
    Vocal Cords - Communication, Multitask, Jamming, Scarred: Iri has an implant that allows him to communicate sub-vocally to a nearby target while talking normally at the same time. Sub-vocal harmonics can be used to disrupt and jam other local signals as well. While not necessarily surgery scars, there is visible damage to Iri's neck, leading to easier identification as well as possible bias against Iri.

    Hands - Communication, Intercepting, Derma-Link, Damaging: Iri's hands house a point-of-contact interface built for command and control of communications devices. Upon extended contact with an active uplink, including skin to skin contact with a person implanted with an active neurochip, Iri can access, block, and alter the relevant communication system. However, maintaining contact points with the interface active is quickly fatiguing to Iri, and is not recommended for prolonged use.

    Gear:
    Trade Weapon - Ancient Masterwork Sword, a slender falcata with a short eared owl holding a scythe adorning the hilt
    Backup Weapon - Wrist-mounted Flechette "needlers"
    Armor 1 - Kinetic Damping Opera Cape

    Moves:
    HONOR: When you feel reluctant to enforce or penalize someone who has not honored their Obligation and try to levy a more lenient sentence, roll. On a 10+, you may choose one of these options. On a 7–9, choose one, but there will be harsh consequences for your reluctance.

    - You may make an exception for them and commute the penalty to someone else, as long as you have a good reason.

    - You may choose to accept Obligation, Cred, or change the penalty altogether.

    BOUND: Whenever you begin a session without a task involving the enforcement of Obligations that’s been broken, choose one from the following and the MC will work this task into the fiction as appropriate:

    - Infiltration or assassination

    - Retrieve or deliver

    - Lobby or sabotage

    - Safeguard or endanger

    THE ART OF THE PURSUIT: When you assimilate all the information you have available on a target, roll. On a 10+, generate 2 Hold. On a 7–9, generate 1. Spend your Hold 1 for 1 when actively on the hunt for them in order to:

    - Discover their position or a weakness in their life to exploit in order to do so.

    - Perceive what security they may have or what kind of a threat they are to you.

    - Discern their greatest weakness or greatest strength.

    - Detect what makes them feel safe and secure or what makes them fearful.

    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    Turns out you spend all your money on replacement suits. Considering you mostly work on aging, rusting and leaky boats. :P

  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    Well I do have to come up with three people within the organization that work with me, so I can always get my tailor there :)

    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    Also considering their love for whatever they consider the truth a good detail of their markets could be that they don’t use any neurochip masking and it’s considered rude to do business in it with any digital fashion/drag the veil in. Which would explain you having an actual physical mask.

  • AuralynxAuralynx Darkness is a perspective Watching the ego workRegistered User regular
    Also considering their love for whatever they consider the truth a good detail of their markets could be that they don’t use any neurochip masking and it’s considered rude to do business in it with any digital fashion/drag the veil in. Which would explain you having an actual physical mask.

    I was trying to think a little more specifically this morning about what Bobby looks like and had the idea that tattoos are probably back to being not cool in this world. Just get a D2 implanted so everyone can see the cool skeleton riding a motorcycle across your back! Why stick ink in your skin like some kind of savage? The wealthy might reasonably have super-complicated full body ones.

    This attitude probably doesn't apply in the criminal community.

    kshu0oba7xnr.png

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    Okay, so big post laying down some vague touchstones to build off:

    First some mood music.

    Visual/Landscape stuff:

    1) Water is everywhere and reflects people: This is obvious but bears stating. There is water damn near everywhere. Damp or soaking wet is the default state of the world here. Even in the nicer or higher up parts of the world water gets trudged in. In general assume that there's water in every single possible frame you'd take for a film. If there's none near by from the ocean there's still likely glasses of water, a fountain or other water feature. It is a universal constant and rather inescapable.

    In addition to this never really presume the water is blue. It's oil slicked rainbows, it's party streamers from the night on Pier 22, it's red with blood from unfortunate violence or pink with undergarments young lovers discarded on a dare. It's constantly alight with the lights of the city, its surface is host to AR adverts constantly and they dip in and out of the water as the tide rises to swallow the beacons hosting them.

    2) Constantly shifting: Whether it's the re-assigned offices of the central hub, the storage facilities of the main harbour or the comings and goings of the ships at the edge of the slums the world is constantly re-arranged. Especially in the slums where walkways, business and ships are constantly breaking and being re-forged by the locals. As a result landmarks are hard to come by and most people rely on smart learning direction apps that guide them based on data gathered from local devices.

    Tech Stuff:

    The ComNet is an infrastructure provided by PensylCast and provides the civilian and business communications for the ISA. Aside from a few satellites it primarily relies on an interlinked network of phones and terminals to transfer information. Which is why your signal gets worse in the slums: the average quality of phones and devices carrying your message is lower. The fact that satellite communications are an extra tier of expense and differing levels of C-Sec digital clean up going on around the city also means that there's rather distinct data-spheres in terms of how clean connections are and general culture/atmosphere. These are rarely separated for security purposes (all that's needed to 'access' a different data sphere is just to walk over there) but do create meaningful differences in the digital landscape and ideas transferred.

    The Veil and Neurochips are a project only a few decades old created by a joint division of PensylCast and CalTech. It's got about the same ubiquity and atmosphere around it that smart phones do today in terms of user penetration and tech support. The basic premise of Neurochips is to be able to directly feed digital information into your brain as if received from your actual senses. While this works perfectly for visual and autidtory stimuli the tech for other senses is less perfected. Taste basically doesn't exist and touch in theory works but leaves most people with headaches if they do more than basic AR keyboards. Sleeping in an AR bed that doesn't physically match the bed is a definite way to get a terrible nights sleep. The 'shortening' effect which allows VR rooms to be larger is simply feeding your brain visual information about your position that's incorrect for real life but matches your movements mentally. This disconnect can strain the illusion and most people note significant nausea if a room is shortened to past about twice its size.

    In terms of how it 'works' it mostly piggy backs off of the ComNet's already existing dataspheres. With each device broadcasting and receiving data constantly and each Neurochip linked to a trusted device (that, for security reasons, won't transmit if more than 5 meters from the chip). Highly effective Veil set ups also require additional sensors. The more data the better, whether it's extra cameras, RFID chips for positional data or even material scanners to take a better read of the environment. This is why the Veil is near immaculate in the central hub but a complete mess in the slums. It's also why people get RFID clothing for digital fashion or even implant chips into themselves to provide their device an easy anchor to position off of.

    For safety reasons the Veil will give way if it detects a potential collision or fall hazard. Also during emergencies the city board is capable of engaging a failsafe that turns a data sphere into transmitting clear instructions, hazard warnings and directions as required.

    Culture stuff:

    1) Digital masks and fashion are primarily used and gaining popularity because they are ways to semi cheaply get comfort and transcend your living situation. It helps compensate for the lack of space or opulence by giving your brain something nice to view instead of the same dreary boats. As a result, except with 20 somethings and teenagers, it's still considered far classier and impressive to have 'real' things.

    2) Hundreds of years after the end of the world people don't tend to have a very specific sense of nationality. People are usually aware of where their family were from and so on but nationalism and cultural pride based on it are rare and considered about as socially acceptable as someone preaching to a crowd of atheists. Instead culture is much more based on brands, shared hobbies and which data sphere you spent your life growing up on.

  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    2) Where's a location that sticks out? Where is it in the slums, the piers or Phoenix York proper? What sort of people hang around it? How clean is its data sphere?

    The Deeps

    Gaming, gambling, and even fighting have their places in Phoenix York, but there's only one place where they come together in a frenetic frenzy of flesh and flashy fashion - The Deeps. Run by a mix of smugglers and code-jockeys, The Deeps is a place that comes and goes on the outer edge of the slums, and only word of mouth and subtle veilsign spread the word about its current location. The datasphere surrounding the mobile arcade-arena is known to fade in and then fade out as networks are assembled and disassembled throughout the newly chosen location, leading to many people marking a point of pride for having been there during the most turbulent peak hours. There's two rules for potential attendees of The Deeps - bring money to get in, bring money to get out. Being press-ganged after a night at The Deeps is not uncommon, and while most everybody knows of someone who has done a tour working off their debt, rumors always swirl about the friend of a friend who heard about someone that never came back.

    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    For what it's worth this week I can do Wednesday, Friday and Sunday Evenings GMT for games. So we can try and organize around those time slots if you guys are able.

  • AuralynxAuralynx Darkness is a perspective Watching the ego workRegistered User regular
    For what it's worth this week I can do Wednesday, Friday and Sunday Evenings GMT for games. So we can try and organize around those time slots if you guys are able.

    Friday or Sunday evenings your time might work for me (New York), with Sunday probably being the better bet unless you want to be up late.

    kshu0oba7xnr.png

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    I'll probably be on discord for all those time periods. Realistically this session will probably be cleaning up setting and character bits and getting roll20 sorted so it'll be pretty informal this week. Feel free to PM me if you need my discord.

  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Sunday evenings GMT work really well for me.

  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    Won't be able to do every Sunday, but should be workable for me

    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited January 2018
    Here's my draft. It's incomplete and probably needs to be worked out in session 0. It's also a little... self-indulgent. Lemme know if this fits into your vision or if there are changes I should make -- I'm not locked to anything here.

    The Apparatus

    Name: ???
    Look: Fluid, Bulky Wear, Narrow Face, Dead Eyes, Wiry Body
    Beliefs:
    * No matter how confusing and overwhelming the world is, the water is always safe.
    *
    *
    States:
    Mad: X, Peaceful: X, Sad: +2, Joyful: X, Scared: X, Powerful: X

    The Vessel
    Unclothed, I am anthropomorphic, but I resemble no human and am synthetic or mechanical.

    Underneath
    Beneath your frame you are grotesque. You incite revulsion in others; take the Judgement move.

    Within
    In essence, you are housed within a cyberbrain; whenever you ask a question from the birth section, you may ask an additional one.

    Background, ish:
    I crawled out of the water. Or... I am the water, crawling.

    Their body is wrapped in a faceless diving suit, underneath which is a fully-mechanical body and brain. The diving suit always glistens as if wet (it might always be wet).

    I walk through streets I know, but have never seen. Like memories of a dream. People see me, but they do not see ME. They see something wrapped around me like a skin.

    They haven't been out in the world before, but they were created with some amount of pre-programmed memories and knowledge of the world. They're not a baby, but the things they do know are often buried until important.

    The Veil projects an image of them that looks like a normal human under scrutiny. Anyone detached from the Veil will see their true form. At some point they acquired a heavy, hooded coat to avoid inciting panic.[/b]

    Underneath the skin is water, then metal and circuitry. It is all me.

    They are also deeply connected to the Veil, and their own image of themself... fluctuates.

    admanb on
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