Beyond the Veil

Game Master MCKhaos

Fecking hell. I love this game already and we've only had three posts.

Rache, let's discuss these Giri obligations for a minute. I want to make sure I understand your intentions:

"If you employ" - So if someone hires you for any reason then you owe Giri. If you break that Giri it is exile or violence.

"If you make a mistake" - if you screw up and harm someone then you owe Giri to the victim. If you break then disfigurement or death.

Etc.

Is that right?

What does "retrieve or deliver" mean to you? Could retrieve connect to the penance through sacrifice?

Basically I've been slow on yours because I don't yet grok the honorbound.

1. Nah, I don’t think I intend it to be all employment. There are specific employment contracts for high level employment. That incurs Giri.

2. Exactly! Living in a huge skyscraper is a dreadful responsibility, and if you make a mistake you owe Giri to the victim or their family.

3. If someone gives you an object (excluding selling an object), you owe them a favor. Resources are tightly held in the ‘scrape. If you refuse the request, you lose the object.

In a world of digital clothes, physical possessions are sacred. You can't just buy a real fur coat with money.

So what would a retrieval mission look like when the punishments are mostly exile or extreme violence?

The punishment isn’t extreme violence. It’s penance involving sacrifice (ie reposessing the item they received and failed to “pay back”

If they don’t give it back, they’re visiting an injustice on society and then Rache kills them.

Famous Associates: Na-Zo, Location Unknown, Suspected Occupation "Ninja"

God f#%+ing damnit!

I love this

For the record, I weaved both Na-Zo's missed roll and LaChezza's Lift the Veil into that Nosrettap post.

I need a rundown/consensus on the general layout of the floor ranges our characters would be familiar with. Here's what I'm working with in my head:

15XX-19XX Middle Management
1511 - last known whereabouts of Lew

10XX - 15XX Labor Force
1223 - old Holden tech lab
117X - Near LaChessa's cubicle

06XX - 09XX Undesirables
666 - theoretically a good place to be seen hiring a death squad

00XX - 05XX Literal trash
01XX - dangerous slums

Na-Zo and friend grew up in the low quad digits and I got the feeling that it’s was sort of slummy.

I’d say labor force starts at 2k and middle management is 5k?

Yeah, I think the first 500-ish floors are probably uninhabitable (toxic smog, bad welding, you get it)

so, 05XX-15XX or slums/labor force works for me (honestly, labor-force kinda makes me think "treated like crap, and so poor they live in a slum" anyway)

Except La Chessa lives in the labor zone.

What if they filled the first five hundred floors with kwikcrete to support more floors above? What if not everyone got out before the kwikcrete was poured...

In my head it hasn't really been divided up like that.

The AI controlling the elevators makes it really hard to travel too far up or down from where you are born, so there are entire economies on each floor. With the mesh ability to completely subvert reality, In my head I was thinking of it more like theme floors rather than class-divisions:

1211: Chinatown theme
1214: Jungle theme
1516: New York 1980s
1212: Quaint English village circa 1670s

Yeah, LaChessa is not as well off as she would have folks believe. She's got a cyber-studio cyber-condo in what other executives would call the cyber-bad part of cyber-town. It's because she personally owns more of her own stuff than most people do. She doesn't pay rent on her broom closet. Most executives don't have real estate. They live high, fast, and liquid. Different strokes.

So if I'm hearing it right, each layer is a culture, and cultures within ten-or-so layers of each other are coexisting (EG American nerds, jocks, goths, etc.) The layers themselves are filled with towers and ducts and tunnels, like there's a 90's/matrix layer that looks like the inception city. Layers that are far apart are like exploring another country, and speaking in absolute terms, the rich folks are at the top, and the poor folks are at the bottom.

Am I right thinking the layers are also multi-floored within themselves? Like a layer has traditional 'skyscrapers' in it, or a whole rainforest, but they're like segregated by the space elevator(s) that would take you from layer to layer.

That said, I guess I mean that the sets of hundreds of layers represent first world vs third world countries? The <500's are places where survival is not strictly guaranteed, the 1000-1500 area is like our country or state--our cultural caldera--and stuff closer to 2000 are weird, hyper-riche space aliens who we rarely see and never visit?

On top of this, is wanting to go to a layer sometimes enough to get you there, but you can totally get in the lift, press the button, and be surprised to find out you're denied access? -or is it that if you aren't meant to be there, the system uses the Veil to subliminally dissuade you from even asking? I'd imagine there are also inexplicable holes, like your access is not a continuous range of floors, and you don't just know what your limits are on a given day.

The layers are each three hundred feet tall, so you could cram a 25 story building in there if you wanted. My initial description puts each layer at 3 square miles, which is fairly massive. All of downtown Portland could fit in a single layer.

I do think it is correct that the farther you move away from any layer, the more distinct the culture is.

I think that corps/wealthy can obtain elevator passes from central control for huge sums of money, so class isn't so much about where you live ... but where you can visit. Each layer probably has its own sub-government structures, like a mini city. With that in mind, you know where you can go. It also helps explain why Na-Zo's order was so damn powerful. They figured out a way to completely bypass those restrictions.

LaChessa said: "That said, I guess I mean that the sets of hundreds of layers represent first world vs third world countries? The <500's are places where survival is not strictly guaranteed, the 1000-1500 area is like our country or state--our cultural caldera--and stuff closer to 2000 are weird, hyper-riche space aliens who we rarely see and never visit?"

I think that is right.

I’m happy with this. Does this mean that Na-zo’s little trick bounces them around the ‘scrape without the elevator or can they only travel on their designated floors?

I’m happy with this. Does this mean that Na-zo’s little trick bounces them around the ‘scrape without the elevator or can they only travel on their designated floors?

Na-Zo can get around without restrictions. Na-Zo ... do you need to first visit a residence through conventional means before porting in?

I'll be slow this weekend. I have a work conference as well as Gauntlet Con.

If anyone is interested in a Stranger Things RPG I’m Running one.

That feeling when you start a combat in a new system before you fully understand how combat works in that system ...

Do we need to get the retcon stick?

It's okay, I don't think I've had a post yet in Mouseguard that didn't have something wrong in it.

No retcon, I just need to find some time to internalize some rules before pressing forward.

It's okay, I don't think I've had a post yet in Mouseguard that didn't have something wrong in it.

You're doing fine. Mouseguard is HAAAAAAAARD. I can barely run it.

Mouseguard is based on Burning Wheel, right?

Yep

I was listening to the Gauntlet's Comic Strip AP of burning wheel up until the point where they started gathering dice for the first roll. At that point I realized that system will never be for me.

The party hasn't started until someone rolls 15d6.

LaChezza, for your ultimatum roll I chose to have the receptionist give you something they thought you wanted.

Looks good to me, sorry about the confusion.

Mz. LaChessa wrote:

The hardest part in this game is usually deciding how best to move forward.

Due to the system, or my style?

The system, I think. I don't grok the concepts well enough to match lockpick to locked door... or, I guess, to identify a locked door as such.

I know what I came here for: a YuGiOh-style shadow duel with product reputations on the line. (I've got lots of time to figure out the logistics on the final take-down of Lews, but today I want to hit him where it hurts and put on a good show)

I know how that might be accomplished mechanically: Neutralize and Duels rules with some probe/analyze/lift mixed in for recon.

I know that, because of the Veil, there isn't a hard limit to what that will look like, only the mechanical outcomes.

I don't know what information is available to discern through the use of the mechanics, or how that information might be valuable in the future. Is identifying an exploitable security weakness as simple as asking "Where’s my best way out/way in/way past?" on an Analyze roll? Would that roll need to be targeted? Do I want it to be that simple?

I also don't know the relative values of the game abstractions I've been trading like a debutante at a shoe boutique. IE: I don't know if I'm stumbling through the dark needlessly, or carrying two lit torches with a light cantrip in my spellbook.

These aren't complaints, and they aren't an exhaustive list of questions, but they do represent the kinds of thoughts I have while I'm turning this game around in my head.

Sorry guys, know I've been the limiting reagent lately. With finals done, that should change.

Happy Holidays! Immediately gain enough XP to level. (So you should be level 2 with as many XP as you currently have).

I'm alive. I'll get back into it soon.

I'm out this week on vacation with extremely limited internet. I may not be able to keep up.

Enjoy your vacation. :)

A few of my campaigns have slowed down, one to the point they might very well be dead soon, and My IRL group wants me to run The Sprawl for them, So I thought I would try to find my feet with the game.

Veil, are you back from vacation? Did you have a nice time?

I'm back! It was kind of a working vacation, but it was fun. I'll be posting shortly.

A whole week without an update. Apologies. I may have spent every waking hour recently watching Altered Carbon.

Just started it. I have a good feeling about what the influence of the show will have on future adventures...

The Veil: Cascade (sequel) is directly influenced by the Altered Carbon book. The author wanted to play in the Altered Carbon universe.

Let's have Na-Zo and Rache do end of session stuff here, and LaChezza can jump in with her end of session when appropriate.

I'm down with that.

Is there more to end of session than just asking questions about our beliefs?

"Giri is worth killing over"
This was indeed challenged. Rache was completely prepared to kill Umi if it came to it. She was also prepared to kill Na-Zo, but that would have been easier said than done. +1 XP

"Giri is worth dying over"
Not only was this challenged repeatedly, but by running headlong after a woman wearing a killswitch bomb, Rache was actively put in trouble by this belief. +1 for challenge, +2 for trouble (I think that's how this works)

"Resolution of Giri is a sacred moment between two people."
I don't think this one was challenged. 0 XP

So that's either 2 or 3 XP for me. If it's 3, I level up. If it's 2 I do not.

If I *do* level up, I'll be taking "Take a move from another playbook"

PARKOUR: When you use the environment to
facilitate your movements through the world, roll.
On 10+, choose 3. On a 7–9, choose 2.
„

Shoot, my portrayal of Franz completely screwed up your third belief. Apologies and I will keep that one in mind moving forward.

I'm checking on the scope of end of session. I think it is just beliefs.

No, that was my bad. I should have focused more tightly on the rituatal and connection between Umi and Rache. These triggers are there to force us to RP the things that are important to us.

Did I get 2 XP or 1 from "Giri is worth dying over." It's the difference between leveling up or not.

Also, I noticed in my stat block that I have an A of 1. Trophy has an A of 0. Na-zo has an A of 1. I don't remember what that meant...

A = Armor?

Definitely get 2 xp from "Giri is worth dying over." I'm checking if you can also get 1xp from "Giri is worth killing for." Basically I'm trying to figure out how they stack.

In other words: Is it 1xp for each belief tested ... or 1xp total if any belief is tested? Can you test one belief for 1 xp, get in trouble from another belief for 2 xp, and resolve your third belief for 3xp to get 6xp total?

When a belief is challenged mark 1 XP; when the MC and you both agree to resolve a belief, mark 3 XP. If a belief gets you into trouble, mark 2 XP

Sounds like to me that a belief can be tested, get you in trouble and be resolved for a total of 6 XP per belief. It's unlikely that any given player would have all three happen. In my case, I tested two beliefs (2 XP) and one of those two tests got me into trouble (2 XP) for a total of four.

Author confirmed that you can get the highest xp available from each belief. So you can only get a max of 3xp for any specific belief. However, in theory you could resolve all three beliefs for 9xp.

Anyway, I think that means you get 3xp total and can level.

1. The world isn't fixable.

This was tested. Na-Zo came very close to telling Umi that it wasn't so bad it needed to be destroyed

2. The system exists only to perpetuate itself.

Didn't interact with this one much, except kinda brushing off Rache's whole Giri stuff. 0 xp I think, but almost was 2

3. They wouldn't like me anyway.

does not seekig old friends, and staying isolated until Umi almost tore down The Scrape count as getting me in trouble, even if it was a pre-Start of game choice?