City of a thousand secrets (Inactive)

Game Master Elsine

so, Char Creation/first sesh has some steps, I'll post them,a nd see how far we are.

0.) Define Corps in progress
1.) choose playbooks Done!
2.) Looks & Stuff Also done, I believe
3.) Stats done
4.) cyberwear done
5.) Playbook moves done
6.) Gear done
7.) Consider Background and contacts In progress
8.) Choose directives
9.) Links

then there'll be some worldbuilding

For my corp: The Valdize combine, a mineral/Petrochem company, well known for agressively "Protecting their interests" in nations that won't sign over the deeds to any reserves they have. widely believed to conduct Massive industrial espionage, and make liberal use of "Deniable Assets"

I guess I do have a question: The rules state that I can roll Synth to "mix it up" with vehicles, but that still leaves Meat as what's used for drones, right? Can I still use Meat for vehicles? Seems like I should make sure I'm good at shooting Paris' autocanon. On the other hand, there's a lot of ways to shoot guns without triggering MiU. I can see Gan playing hardball often, and cover fire and stuff like that are other moves as well... In all, my stats are the thing I'm waffling quite a bit over.

I listed this in recruitment, but I'll repost for easy access:

My corp is Padilla Service Aeon Wholesale Long, long ago they were a company that largely sold bulk cleaning supplies to corporate maintenance and facilities departments. However, thanks to a series of complicated mergers, contractual naming obligations and arcane accounting practices, PSAW is now one of the premiere cybernetic development and manufacturing firms. But they're still well known for their "Spar-kel-kleen" line of cleaning products.

Is there a mechanical process for picking background and contacts or is that all self-directed?

My corp, Hawk DataSystems, started out as a market research group, helping advertisers sell their products. Over the years, their methods became more and more devious. They began stealing data and spying on people to sell products. They intentionally caused business failures and political scandals for market gain. Eventually they started buying up some of the retailers and advertising agencies they worked with, and are now a huge multinational retail consortium who will sell you anything (or anyone) you want. They'll even tell you just what it is you want too, in case you can't decide yourself.

My corp is Finchetti Biomedical, a company that specializes in high-end combat cybernetics, mainly for milspec/high-end mercenary companies (they're not cheap. They would cost about 20 mil in our current economy for a replacement eye). They don't mass produce them at all, but hand-tool and tailor make them for each client.

Maker Elite is the corp of the people run by the people. Crowd funded, open sourced, decentralized, the Maker Elite is a consortium of professionals that contribute content and services to a network of self-deploying community convenience posts. Maker IDs are disposable, and work at any Maker post. Maker posts begin as simple rapid fabrication stations, but are infinitely customizable. Contribution is as easy is browsing for tasks. Completing a task awards Maker Cred to the ID, which can be spent on food, custom skateboards, AK47s, medicine, or any number of other templates you can find through your local Maker post's content aggregator.

"All I know is, though, is that I'm only here because my last tech was paid by Maker to leave me. Paid big. That is some blatant social engineering, and not the warm cuddly blood-sucking corp kind. I wasn't going to give him his jack back after that. He can bring down all the nerf tech he wants. I've got his 'old' condo. Security system included."

Mine is Basilisk Security International, weapons and security company. If you need a self-defense pistol, an assault rifle, a tank or any other kind of weapon - you go to them. They are leaders on weapon market and weapon research. Basilisk Security International also provide security services, sometimes by secretly inciting the conflict in the first place.

Did the drones. One for recon, the other for combat.

Edit: Ganzorig, I love our non-descript panzer with an autocannon.

Being a stone-cold killer wasn't quite clicking for me.

I think I'm going to trade my Violent directive for "Intimate: When you put your friend ________________ ahead of the mission, mark experience."

Does anyone want to be Lance's friend?

Quick rundown of vehicle and drones:

Paris is a stolen hotel suite manufactured by Padilla Service Aeon Wholesale. The autocannon and ballistic armor are retrofits, and the cannon replaces some of the coffin space.

Flit is a bird-sized rotor drone made by Hawk Data Systems that can jam and stun.

Tapper is a dog-sized spider drone by Maker with plastic parts that are easily replaced and a gun that barks out the same shotgun shells Ganzorig uses. Tapper also has sonar, in case we encounter a low-light environment.

Both drones are stealth models.

Also, drives:
Intimate: When you put your friend Sahale ahead of the mission, mark experience.
Vengeful: When you harm Carmine or their interests, mark experience.

Carmine is a Maker Elite tech, and Ganzorig's previous partner as well as current Hunter.

Lance - I'd be happy for you to think of me as a friend. I might even buy you a beer now and then. Having someone like you on speed-dial might come in handy now and then.

My Directives:

Network - When my membership in PR15 (an Eastern European Anti-capitalist group) hinders the mission, mark experience.

Deceptive - When my lies about my identity or my past put the mission at risk, mark experience. As far as you know, I've always lived here...

Sounds good. When I jeopardize the mission for financial gain or to help you, I get exp.

Drones:
Fenghuang Messenger - rat-sized stealthy rotor drone for recon.

Basilisk Peacemaker - big dog sized tracked drone with a shotgun for when we need some firepower.

Directives:
Network: When your membership in Onyx hinders the mission, mark experience.

Revealing: When you discover more information about a secret research, mark experience

Onyx - a group that strives to make everything open for everyone. That newest corporate assault rifle design, or that car blueprint - if they get their hands on them, Onyx would put them on the Matrix.

okay, so you crew has

-Between, Paris, Tapper, The Basilisk Peacemaker, and Elan, A not inconsiderable amount of firepower.
-A talent for Bypassing physical security (courtesy of Sahale and Lance)
-A bit of Face and Bug-out ability.

what sort of jobs does your crew run?

also, to give a convienient Corp list

Valdize Combine- Aggressive petrochemical/mineral conglomerate that goes to war with and annexes impoverished countries

Padilla Service Aeon Wholesale- major player in Cybernetics, also sells cleaning products

Hawk DataSystems- what google renames themselves to in ten years.

Finchetti Biomedical- a more Bespoke Cyberwear company, high-end.

Maker Elite- corp of the proletariat, disseminated, decentralized Their Workers are often paid for odd or unusual jobs, advancing some nebualus agenda?

Onyx - Radicals? determined to hack corporations,a nd disseminate the data to everyone... cause there's no way THAT could go wrong.

@Corps:
Not quite right on my side of the Corp.

Onyx is the group of radicals, yes. But not a corp. My corp is bit higher and called Basilisk Security International.

@Jobs:
I think breaking and entering with occasional firefights?

I'm actually fine with not killing anyone. Elan is kinda addicted to killing people, but she's on the wagon right now. On the other hand, if fisticuffs are needed, Elan is a force to be reckoned with, since she counts as a small gang by her lonesome.

Ideally, Elan would love to just show up, keep an eye on things during the infiltration, walk out with the group, and collect a paycheck. Life isn't always ideal though.

I’m seeing us largely specializing in B&E, Corp. espionage, maybe light kidnapping.

I like the description of Hawk. I was basically thinking exactly the same thing but with Amazon instead of Google!

So we have corps, and also 2 non-corp groups (Onyx and PR15)?

I think I agree with Lance on the jobs. Maybe the occasional hit, but I'd rather keep my hands (relatively) clean and stick to espionage and data / tech heists.

Jailbreaking? Demolition? Third-party project cancellation?

Re: Maker
That's what I was getting at. The simplest explanation is that the ai has decided Ganzorig is a more inspirational rival than an ally for Carmen.

I think we should start by just taking some B&E jobs and see where that takes us. I'm sure we'll eventually figure out what our specialty is.

I agree.

What are the next steps?

Links!

the steps are, listed in the book (paraphrased)

1.) Everyone introduces their characters Obviously 100% nessesarry for us

2.) Everyone describes an operation they conducted/played a central role in against one of the Corps.

3.) I do GMly things in the background (set up corporate clocks. the more missions/the more of you were on a mission agaist a particular corp, the more cheesed off they are fill one enough, the Corp might be active out to get you.

4.) Everyone says If and how they were involved, and take +1 links with the Character who made it in step two (at least one assistant per mission)

Ok!

Lance stole an experimental nervous system augmentation from PSAW. The system is cutting edge and very valuable to PSAW. Instead of selling it or releasing it to Maker Elite, he installed it in himself. It gives him a competitive edge, but keeps a target on his back. If PSAW can terminate him, they can keep a lid on their system until they’re ready for retail sales.

The source. John to his friends. Mr Source to his associates. You all fall into one or the other category. He's the guy you go to when you need someone sweet talked. Sometimes tech and bullets are no much for a good old fashioned conversation. Plus he's got a job eye for hunting down the jobs that pay well. Hence why he's your friend, or associate.

One recent job he was involved in left an executive at Valdize looking very guilty when documents relating to a particularly lucrative oil claim were found in the apartment of a high rent call girl. Of course, she'd never met the man, but the source's very generous payment had her spilling all his entirely fictional perversions to whoever would listen. Her payment was of course, only a small fraction of the money Source and his companions got for stealing the documents from Valdize' exploration department in the first place and allowing a smaller rival to move in on the claim.

Ganzorig's relatively small stature is made up for by a very large personality. He's exactly the type targeted for pilot conditioning, and it shows in the way he fidgets and scans any room he's in. He would claim it's in his genes, that he comes from a long line of nomadic horse traders, but he doesn't know anything more than most would glean from docufeeds about the old world.

He wears a fitted suit of black synth leathers which are wrapped and bound in crisscrossing belts. It looks all kinds of uncomfortable, especially the way he's always tightening this or that belt.

Ganzorig was involved in Lance's operation against PSAW. At the time he was with his old tech, Carmine. They worked as scouts, clearing the labyrinthine halls as Lance closed on his target. Carmine was none too thrilled when Lance disappeared with the neuromesh. Zorig was mostly impressed to be outgunned by a lone operator.

Still thinking about Ganzorig's operation...

Introduction:
Sahale is obviously Native American, but one can't tell which exactly - at this he has a bit from each. He is not muscular, but keeps himself in shape. He has short red hair which he keeps in an undercut.

He wears practical and comfortable clothes, with a utility belt, sturdy boots and gray shirt and jacket in military style.

Job:
One of Sahale's jobs involved Finchetti Biomedical. The client wanted to get their hands on the prototype cyberlimb Finchetti designed, and Sahale was happy to oblige. Especially since the money was really good.

Involvement:
Sahale was a part of The Source's job at Valdize - bypassing security cameras and doors, having a drone watch their backs, this sort of thing.

I forgot to do my introduction.

Lance is in his mid-30s, old for a corporate raider. On missions he's decked out in a full stealth suit, including facemask and infrared displacing body weave. The same nerve augmentation that boosts his reaction times and keeps him competitive also make him twitchy when he's idle. When he's cutting a camera wire or lowering himself via winch over some laser beams he's steady as a rock...but whenever his attention wavers he fidgets uncontrollably. Other than the maintenance port at the base of his spine, the twitching is the only indication that his entire nervous system is synthetic.

InvolvementI worked the Finchetti Biomedical cyberlimb job with Sahale. His drones were enormously helpful for my infiltration.

If this is OK with Sahale and Ganzorig After the job I introduced Sahale and Ganzorig to each other. I owed Ganzorig after double-crossing him for the cyberweave and I knew he was in the market for a new partner.

The Source: What do you think about Lance coming to The Source to get connected to a Doc who can install the nerves. It's a specialized piece of hardware and not a lot of Wetworkers know how to completely replace someone's nervous system. If The Source came through for Lance, that would make Lance very loyal to John; he helped Lance stay in the game long after his expiration date.

You guys are doing very well

I have updated my header with the Corporate clocks (they won't normally live there, they'll be in my profile normally, but this is what we're doing now, normally, it will house the legwork and mission clocks.)

I think we've all picked our missions and made our links, no?

What's next?

Ganzorig and Elan haven't proposed their missions.

also, for the record, you can have helped as many missions as the mission hoder allows. it will advance corporate clocks, but that's just part of the fun!

Ganzorig's biggest score was Paris. After learning Carmine had plans to ditch him, he poured all of his savings into coordinating the theft of the hotel suite as it passed over a telecom tower on its flight from New Seol to Junction City. Throughout the planning, he stressed that it was integral to the mission that Carmine's bed be left at the top of the telecom tower with her cuffed in it. She was sufficiently upset when she woke up.

@Lance: Sounds good. He probably would have tried to hug Lance for being so thoughtful.

Lance isn't really a hugger, but he's not weird about it. He'd be glad that there were no hard feelings and he'd look forward to working with Ganzorig again.

I don't think he would have helped Ganzorig steal the hotel room though. I think they got back in touch after that job.

Lance: I like that idea. Gives me a potential contact to introduce in the future. I'd have probably wanted to tag along on the job to acquire the nerves too, to make sure there were no surprises. Do you want to say that's how we met, or do we have a longer acquaintance than that?

I'm waiting for Elan, then I'll see whether I'll volunteer for any of the other jobs as tagalong. Though I'll admit Ganzorig's job description sounds fun...

Lance's theft of the nerves was a spur of the moment decision, but maybe you helped connect me and Ganzorig together for the theft and then I showed up needing the help with the install and the doublecross appealed to your socialist tendencies.

That works. How about you and I were old acquaintances before the Nerve theft then? And it was after that job that we became friends and started working together now and then?

Yes! That’s excellent. I like that connection.

Elan, you still with us?

Mender is posting in the Blades thread, so I assume the player is active. Don't know why Elan hasn't posted.

Maybe nudge him over PM?

I did yesterday, which is why seeing a Mender post today was so odd.

we're gonna start when I get out of my last class, with or without Elan

Guess we're starting with a 4-person party

should we tap someone from the wait list? or are we cool being a 4-person band?

I’m cool with a quintet to start. I’m sure Elan is just distracted. I think the player lives in Europe, so we can fold Elan in later if she resurfaces.

Sorry about the delay. Somehow this campaign thread got dropped from my favorites.

2.) Everyone describes an operation they conducted/played a central role in against one of the Corps.

Elan was involved with an asset extraction from Maker Elite, A Bio-Engineer named Yoshi Takawa. It was a fantastically clean extract but there was a doublecross at the exchange.

4.) Everyone says If and how they were involved, and take +1 links with the Character who made it in step two (at least one assistant per mission)

As for my links to the group, I think I likely would have worked with The_Source, who was the team's social engineer. He wasn't physically at the meet when things went down, but he knows what happened as he was on overwatch at the time.

As for Elan's appearance, she is a tall, muscular African-American woman with an obviously chromed cybernetic arm and a ferocious afro. She prefers tight black leather clothing, all of her tops at missing the sleeve on their left-hand side, which is where her cybernetic arm is located.

Just confirming my involvement in jobs - I'd have signed up for Lance and Elan's. Ganzorigs sounded great, but way too risky for me. I enjoyed seeing the grids though!

Elan was involved with an asset extraction from Maker Elite, A Bio-Engineer named Yoshi Takawa. It was a fantastically clean extract but there was a doublecross at the exchange.

See, the only thing better than getting paid is getting paid twice, and not having to split the money. Ganzorig helped with the extract, piloting his old beater. The body double came from the medical guys? What's-yer-face? Paid me twice over what Elan was offered, and that's where he got the money for the Car one job.

The Source, you helped on my job too, right? You got me a surgeon. That’s enough to build a link I’m sure

I'm going to need a new friend. Ganzorig?

Had to get into the suite mid-flight somehow.

Seems reasonable.

Now go do that recon I asked you to do!

Ganzorig, git good.