STIRRING '6IANT First published June MMXX. “This edition published September MMXXII To geta fre paperback copy to an inmate, email their full government name, current facility, and IDF 0 requests@bullpress.orz 468109753 ISBN:979-89859561-2:2 Ao, AV, AR ‘Table of Contents Introduction Stiring Gant Chapter 1: Itro Scenes Chapter 2: Chasing Leads. Chapter 3: Bagging Hatchet Lécuyer Chapter 4 Ploting on the Warchouse Chapter 5 Final Fight & Outro Bump Scenes Closing Ceremanics Groups & Factions Main Character Creation Specials Customizing Specials Effeet List Fight Scene Rules Weapons & Armor Gioods & Services Example Gameplay How to Runa Game Side Character Generator Spinning for It Designing Your Own Games. Main Character Sheets ‘What the Fuck Is This Book B 36 2 4 4 02 55 o n 104 106 1o 12 ns 19 [ 125 127 176 EVERYTHING YOU NEEP TO KNOW . * Gameplay s conversational & cooperative. ¢ 4 layers s ideal, but 3 10 6 s ine 100 One player i the Key Narrator Everybody else creates a main character they run the game for the other players & controls them n the game HOW PO 10O THINGS? Yousay it For example, 1 look into theally, whtdo I see?” IFi's believable, you do it 163 challenging (* jump the huge gap?), the Key Narrator il tll you to SFIN FOR T and you'll Tk the 6 spinse on the back of your book: 6. Finessed 3. Notrelly . Success 2. Failure . Barely . Faceplant I cquipmen,expeience, distactions,genetal il e skew your chances EASY: the Key Narrator will ave you spin s6 twice, taking the highest resull PAPIULT: spin $6 twice, take the loest, SFINNING The back of the book is a spinner. Create an arm by looping one end of a paperclp or guitar siring trimming. Fasten the loop over the spinner’s center-do. “36" means a random sumber from 1 1o 6. Flick the spinner arm: wherever it lands in the 56 ring i the resull. 510" i & random mumber from | (0 10,54 means | 04, e MAIN CHARACTERS. The stars of the show. Everybody who isn'tthe Key Narmtor creates a main character, and the Key runs interesting seenarios for them. Any main charactr concept goes as long 35 it s the setting, and starts humble (no superbeings or millionaies cc) SPECIALS: povcers and unique shilies for your main charscter. S “Special Points”, what you buy and upgrade Specials wi + Character creation quick guide on page 2. KEY NARRATOR You run scenes fo the main characters — interesting side characters for them to talk 1, fights, problem-solving scenarios etc. The eady'1o-run seenes leading 10 3 narrative goal CLOSING CEREMOMIES: o the end of cach session, the Key awards SP for best performances etc (page 4 for allcategories). re” starting on the next page is 4 series of THEAMBITION This is the common goal tha keeps the main characters all pushing the plot in the same dirction. The Ambiton is set at the beginning of a game, and always has & large reward atached o1t Al his i kown s POMEFIECETV, a conversational ames system that can run any setting and any genre STIRRING GIANT A Conversational Game in Five Parts Bull Press MMXXIIL Summary: a near-future are racking down a depraved patician in a lawless metropolis. How to Run This: the Key Narmator just reads ahead a few pages and gets familias with the approaching scenes (page 11 plenty fur (o start). The other players (“actors”) don't e 10 read anything: they just show up and the Key runs the game for them. Doesn't hurt 0 keep a sheet of general notes to mark your place in the arc. Page 112 for example gameplay. Length: sessions usually last 1 to:3 hours but you can end it whenever you want. Fill out sessions that went 100 fast with insertable bump scenes (page 42, go dogear quick). Closing Ceremonies: run these at the end of each session, awarding SP for best performances etc. Al caegories on page 4. Soundtrack: cach scene has a single track you can throw on loop. If playing on the outside, o loading up a mp3 player for somebody inside, all tracks are on bullpress.org First Time Key Narrators: fuck nerves. The friends are getng together 1o riff and bullhit with cach othr. They're going o have a good tme no matter what. 1 your firs session fels S, don't sweat i, s ot because you dropped the ball, it because things are sl developing - the main characers don't really have personaliies yt, crew dynarmic s sl brewing, and the scttng docsn’t feel lived-in yet. The pilot session is sl a good tme, but where the hobby goes from good to reat is o o three sessions in when the seting and characters st feling fmilsr, start coming to ife a lite, and start relating o each other n interesting ways. There’s @ reason it akes a couple pisodes 0 ge hooked on a TV shor, you know? Besides that, Keying s casy:just give the main chasactes engaging shit t do, sec what gets people stoked, and find ineresting ways to give your actors what they want. Setting: Saint Disma RES., 2140 AD A neon-soaked megametzopols of nearly 20 million built on an artificil island in the South China Sea. The main characters are all from Municipal Zone 3, a working class neighborhood of migrants mostly from the decaying US empire. Tech: what you'd expect for 21005 technology, except 1) Fircarms weak: the development of veleity-tiggersd bose fields, calld paraficds”, have made fircarm technology fa Iess devastating (but il dangerous), ushering i & new renaisance of hand-to-hand wesponry. 2.) Space unexplored: just a few astroid mining opeatons, obsevatoics,rescarch Stations, and pessonal placesofthe ula-ich. 3) No internet: the era of quantum computing snd o cenury of cyberwarfre have endered most network protocols impossble. Vestigalcsbervwespons that ijack device processors o recursively sel-improve and then sclfransenit have seded thee slecper. ash throughaut any device with more than a few KB of stoage, like undeteeable, ypermutting DNA that kil its host aflr ransmisson. Recent generstions of digital devices have thus becn iherenty irgapped (built unabl o ntrface with thee devices in any way) and communication devieesbuilt withou storage. 4) Phones minimal: unable 10 eceiv texs or voicemai, or ven store phone numbers (sec above itm). Busially just sophisicated walki-alkics. Plutocracy: Saint Disma (Région Economique Souveraing) was conceived by intermational financiers a a civic project 0 vacuum up regional trade revenues and juke just about every law transnational corporations find inconvenient. Standard government services are almostall privatized, elies mainain legal teams that make them effectively above the law, and the few organs of stat only do the bidding of their lobbyists. Language: mass immigration and a privatized education system has wned the island o a Tower of Babel. French and Mandarin Chinese are dominant, but English, Hindi Russian, Japanese, and Indonesian are also common. The language | cultural proclivities of the ruling class s French. The Cladogenic Population: about .01% of humans are now being born wilh pioric viablity (able 10 manipulate eality with the mind), or other polyploidal mutations, very probably as an unforescen aflerclap of the carly days of genetic engincering. o police in St Disma. Instead, well-hecled citizens and businesses keep security frms on retaner, hire private detectve agencies, and occasionally contract interational mercenry corps This tangled web of scurity insttutions reduces response time and force, & major fctor in the lawlessness and pervasive crme of the city. Zero civiian oversight ensures security contractors can b bibed or bought, and their ranks are ull of pathological assholes whose dream job i having bsolute power over any civlia they encountr. Big names include Paladin Group, Secom Global, Crown Holdings, and Tengpai Consolidated. Sl usually caled cops, hooks, heat, fuz et Gritty: 1ife s hard in St Disma. Workers toil long hours with no meaningful protections, sign thei paychecks over to unworking rent-seckers, and regularly die from preventable disease. An expression of resignation you'll oflen hear is “C'est la monde” (sa-la- mohnd, “that’s the World"). A popular response from political adicals is “a better world s possible,” often used as a sublle dentifier among one another. Neighborhoods page 45 / Major groups page 46 3 Premise After a partial high-rise collapse in their neighborhood kill dozens, the main characters Volunteer 10 hunt down the man responsible — Etienne “Lobster” Mercier, prominent socialite and notorious slumlord - and bring him before a citizens" trbunal instead of the fucked St. Disma couts. Storyline Flow: progresses downward, whether as a relatively staight line or zig- Zagging to scenes of inerest Opening Scenes + Main character introductions ion (Suterlock Bridge) + Arms dealer (Indonesiatown) From here, the main characters can freely follow leads . .. CourthouseRecords Wtasie Jip-off Ve SN “The Mises, Zone 10 Mercier's Mansion (ke Merirs och) MO0 P o4 T, Zone 1 e Key Noi€ ord Azalée, Lobster Mercier's mistress. oo, (Heron Tower Luxury Apartmens, Zone §) She wanis Mercier out of the picture, so poinis the main characters to his lawyer and confidant Gregroire "Hatchet” Lécuyer. Vsins Tower: “The Jewels of Ebb & Flow and a fight atthe top o a hlf-complted tower. Hatehet Licuyer: ‘Canbe bageed at Le Cyene chess club o his penthouse in the Kagemusha Megatower (boh in Fog Hill,Zone ). Says Lobster Mercer s hiding out in 3 heavily ‘arded warchouse inthe Flats, Municipal Zone 2. 1 1 Optional: Optional: Recruit Black Chlice Recritthe Endless Wound (political inurgents) (tombdwellr gang) / \ criminal network Lobster Mercier contracted for protecton. Arc Intro Soundirack: Bones - HDMI Instrumental —» Read italiczed sections of text out loud, starting with: This joints settng is the grimy megametropolis of St Disma, 2140 AD. Spanning an artificial island in the South Chin sea, it was founded last century by French oligarchs 1o circumvent just about every law the ulira-wealthy and transnational corporations find distasteful, St Disma i a cit of profound tensions: parapolitical insurgencies, eriminal syndicates ‘and the privatized police forces of the city’ robber barons are all actvely at war with cach oher, shooting it out in the slums and boulevards. An emerging cladogenic minority born with composite. mutations — an unforeseen_ consequence of ancestral genetic engineering — have become the perfect scapegoat for a siting government hoping o distract from itslegitimacy crisis. The founding logic of the city has reached its natural conclusion: from the penthouse boardrooms of multinationalcorporations 1o the crews of small-timers. batling for control of a dozen different dope trades, the criminal ccosysiem is lluminated equally by sula chandeliers and the neon signage set in the permanent shade of a thowsand Styserapers. Now — this is important - each of you create, then play a main character i this shov: the tpe of character that would volunteer for a probably violent, defnitly dangerous job defending the neighborhood they grew up i, the stums of Municipal Zone 3 Main Character Creation Soundirack: Craig Mack - Flava in Ya Ear Instrumental Each actor creates a main character Since you'l be Key Narrator this aee, do not make @ main character: QUICKLIST (i it sl o page 52:send everybody there ifthey have their own book) 1. Snatch o main character sheet rom page 127 2. Concept: name, appearance, background elc 3. Pick Specials: page 55 - 69, sart with 10 SP's worth (you can start here if ‘you're sill thinking on a concept) Start with merk 10 Start with 0 defense (top number is justall lower numbers added together) Start with a move score of 5 Main eharacters fluent in English (spoken by the mostly-American migrants of Zone 3). Spend a free b in any additional lnguage (St Disma multlingual) 8. Spend a bar in any major skill or anguage (1o bars is luent) 9. Put one point in any primary 10. Check page 53 for the bonus thatprimary gives you, write it down 4 s 6 7 » The Key Narrator has veto power over corny shit,but don’t be a tyrant. Start humble: main characters start a level 1, which is just the average nobody with Few SP (s0 10 experimental supersoldiers or millionaire recording artists etc). The Glue: whatever the main characters” histories and relations, bad blood is 100% off the table: the main characters must trust and back cach other for the show’s duration. If anybody's ever about to fuck anybody else over jus say “Nah you don't do that” since it ‘oes against the Gilue Possessions: everybody starts with ¥500 (5 yuan - about 1 modern American dolla), a phone (voice call only; no itemet n this seting), and a place they stay a. Time Limit: clearly set ane before starting. Don'tLet one indecisive actor hold the first session up. An hour is plenty of time 10 create main characters. ‘Optional Development Questions Help get a crew dynamic going and develop main characters by aski especially if somebady is done carly. Some ideas - How do they spend ther rce time? * What rumor precedes themm? s it truc?. + Why did they take the job? Money, poitcs, ove of community, redemption? * What do they respect most i & person’” * Who do they run with? + Are they more often called by & nickname? What's the story on how they ot it? +Do any of them know each other from around the neighborhood? Cousins, same job oF hustle, shared hobby or ereative scene, same church, underground contacts, drinking buddies, gym parners e1e? Ask questions on anything interestng they bring up. Write down any material you might Wanna use later o questions, Intros Soundirack: Alchemist - Tery Instrumental (Remembe o ead aics text blocks out lowd) Here’ the shows: premise: each of vour main characters has accepted a job offered by your associate from the neighborhood, Saotome Katsumoto, better known as “Blackout Jor causing one as a young boy: Whether for pay; justice, or fove of community, you ve signed on 1o hunt down the shulord responsibie for the collapse of Seilla Hills 10304, a igirise tenement in the heart of Zone 3. While the papers and TV stations have downplayed the incident, a neighborhood ihatss long ago learned to fook out for their o is organizing 10 bring those responsible 1o justice. Katsunioto mentioned he didn ¥ ave many details, b you kow you're geting picked up at noon today 10 talk 10 the people who do. Alright, we're gonna o around and have each of vou describe where your main character lives and what their morning was like — training, working on projects taking care of a bizarre pet etc — take a second 1o build up your character fike that. Whose trying 1o go first? Lt cach actor flesh out their intro scene. Ask questions about anything interesting they mention. Once theie scene feels done, tell them they hear a hom honk twice, and jump 10 the next actor’s scene. Hangover Spot Right before the most party-minded main character goes (deally s, el You, actually, wake up feelng like you been struck by ightning: your evelds are dry as bone, and your head is tormented by the searing halo of dehydration. The ringing in your ears gives way to a voice saying “you sleep in gorgeous, I'm just gonna make us some breakfast,” and it aaaaall comes flooding back 1o you. You fucked up. Oh fuck you did you fuck up last night ... the apartment of an unfortunate acquaintance of ours, an absolute psychopath, svims into your vision. Describe psycho or us (Let therm spit who they ae /how they look /any quick detils) Foul. Now, sneak the fuck outta there. Psyeho's Apartment; the apartment s shaped like a P. The exit is the foot of the P, and the stem is the Kitchen. Psycho is making breakfast and loudly singing Toto's “Could This Be Love”. The main character’s belongings are scattered throughout the living room and bathroom. There’s a fie escape ou the bedroom window, but i stops 20 feet off the ground (ifthey Just jump they take s8 offense and probably puke). “There are two ltl dogs, a fire alarm, and enough sheets 1ot together nto rope. There's no way to sneak through the Kitchen without Psycho noticing. IF the main characte just talks to them, Psycho demands hey stay and plan their fture together I they try and bolt through the Kichen, i takes a minute 1o undo all the nside ocks, so Psycho lights them up with egg afer egg from an open carton o the counter while cursing them out (they might sl take revenge latet in the storyline) Once they successfully escape, quickly montage theie wretched tain ride home, and have them describe the restof thir short morning belore getting picked up. ‘Tagalong Side character: Saotome “Blackout” Katsumoto Voice: slight Japanese accent (Probably lghtly rossts the hungover main characer) Rides with the main characters for the duration of the arc unless killed. Has fully eyberneic legs (lost originals in the 2133 Acéphale bombings). Decenly connected. well-respected, drves a dead clean 1966 Lincoln Continental convertible. Speaks luent English and Japanese. « Optional character-building: got bis nickname from causing o blackout a5 @ young boy by shittng off a building into the turbine of a power station and never lived it down (not fortheoming about the second half of that story). Came up rough in west central Zone 3. Runs an ilegal bookies on Chrysanthemum st and has a 5/ year old daughter named Shko (ate his grandmother) wha's with her mom this week. * How to play: keep him in the background. He's a safety net, not a main character for the Key. He should only ever offer guidance when the actors are completely stumped or about to fuck themselves. Ifthe main characters are ever getting smashed out in a fight, have the enemes beat up on Katsumoto: he should never e the last one standing. STATS Offense $6 & 54 / Defense 3 / Merk 30 / Move § (Dust wields haca 159 longsword & mate lack dager; 56 kick if unarmed) ‘Specals: Gun I (extza move action once per fight) o ox Voice Acting is Optional: if you aren’t good at voices or just think the concept is comy, don’t sweat i, you can just say “Katsumoto reminds you there’s stll the spare. Keys lead to check out” and it gets the point across That said, voice acting side characters in the first person is powerfully immersive, makes them feel more present, and leis you just sar talking in ther voice. without ever having to say who's speaking. You don't have to overdo it 4 minar accent or change in tone s enough. The Exposition: Sutterlock Bridge Soundirack: Q No Rap Narme - Suterlock Bridge You glde along the teeming boulevards in @ massive black brick of a clasic Lincoln, op dropped 0 the summer breezes and speakers bumping oldies. Parking at a cafe, you head towards Sutterlock Bridge, bellowing gulls riding the seavinds above and container ships passing a hundred fee below: You approach two figures looking out over the glistening waters of the bay. the colossal towers of downtown looming in the distance — Katsumoto claps hands with a big diade i a Saints jersey, and hugs a siender woman, clearly an old friend. Katsumoto intrduces each of the main characters to his o contacts, ‘Waudasie: dark skin, bid-boned, colorful headscarf. Voice: educated, no-nonsense. Salvatore / “Big Man” refrigerstor sized white dude with o south Jersey accent. ‘Anybody with o security or stret background can el he has a pistol i bis waistband. Salvatore discreetly sets down a backpack on the sidewalk. Wudasie hands the main characters a piture of fa, beady-eyed man with pinkish skin CONVERSATION POINTS ‘Wudasie does mostof the talking, explaining al the details of the job * The picture is of Etenne Mausras Mercier et-yen ma-saw mer-sec-ay], bom 319,97, better known as Lobster Merier for obvious reasons. This is the owner of Scilla Hills 10304, the tenement tha collapsed eacly yesterday morning, so fo killing 21 + The main characters willrecognize his name as one of the most hated shumlords in the ity with over-priced neglected shithol tenements throughout Municipal Zonie 3 + Lobster Mersier is currently wanted for questioning, but even if he got charged by an onest prosecutor and faced an honest judge, the worst he would ever s is probation — same oldstory. 1 more likely he'lljust ind a way (0 sneak off the island (0 resume his i of luxary elsewhere. Find Mercier before he skips town, bag him, and bring him around for a itizens” rbunal. When they do theres another ¥20,000 waiting for each of them. Reasonable Questions © Any Leads? The Lobster has mansion in OId Town (Zone 1) that was busted up yesterday by a vengeful mob. Might be worth checking out. +"Any Evidence? Wadasie's people have already talked 1o a few ex Scilla ills tenats with copies of formal complaints submitied for integral spalling snd signs of rebar corrosion, one dated as far back as the carly 30s. Merciers properties being unsafe has been common knowledge for a while now, but evidence is indispensable o justice - In the backpack: ¥3000 for cach min character. +Crew Ambition Established: Deliver the Lobster ‘Snatch up Lobster Mercier before he sneaks out of town and hand him over for a citizens’ wial. (Have your actors write “Deliver the Lobster” onto. their haracter sheets under “Crew Ambition”) ‘Completion Value: +1 level and ¥20k each Tooling Up Soundirack: Volume Ten - Pistolgrip Pump Instrumental e headed o Indonesiatown 1o get set up with some weaponry. Plotting: Katsumoto asks about leads on the drve there. His st thoughts are A.) Lobster Mercier’s mansion or B.)checking if he has any records at the distiet courthouse Katsumoto says they’ Cove Street Music (Indonesiatown, Zone 4) You park the Line and cross the street towards a shop with "Cove Street Music” on the door: Katsumoto talks briely with a tech behind the counter before she leads you througih some backooms flled with megalithic amplifier siacks, and buzzes you through a couple bomib-proof lookin doors. You step into a huge workshop bristling with every ype of weapon imaginable. At the far end is @ makeshift firing range with paper targets and rubber curtain backstops. A stocky asian man arises from a workbench full of partly- constructed stringed instruments. Dusting his hands off on a canvas shop apron he walks over o greet you Side character: Gao the Luthier Noice: Cold Chillin Chainsmoking arms dealer If the erew talk among themselves at any point, he fips through a box of floppy disks, pulls one out labeled “Beretia P-24 Asehead” and slots it into a 3d printer, gently tuming a dial s it lights up. The Lutbier grects Katsumoto ike an old frend, and invites the main characters o try out anyihing that catches their eye on the fange or some wooden practice dummics along the wall,then fres up @ bunt while he chaps it p with Katsumoto For cach main character, the job’s advance covers: 1) A parafield (concealable device that proiects against fircarms and shrgpel) 2.) One two-handed weapon OR two one-handed weapons 3 An X-Stat pplicator (heals 10, single use, move action 0 apply) The Luthier's Stock « Al classical weaponry on . 106 » Al firearms (except ntitank ils)on . 107 « Hoth types of nstrument on p. 108 (shidaTes bissing orbs. Hover sround user when ot controlled by ther gstues). Counts astwo-and weapon; flly covered by advance. « All armor & shieldson . 109 (can sub shiek for weapon,butmust by own ) Exit:the Luthier packs all thir purchases into locking instrument cases (speass telescope 0 thied their size, shields fold in halfor quarters). He tells the main charactes to bang his ine if they ever have any weaponry to sell, or need upgrades. ‘This Is Where We Cut the Main Characters Loose The fist few scenes were linear 0 make it easy on new Key Narrator, but now the main characters will be running free chasing leads. Blackout Katsumoto should fade into the background at this point. Stay ready 10 make up unexpected side characters (page 119, go dogear quick) and scenes (page 116) on the spol. When you end a session, i's useful 0 ask whi 50 you know what o prep for nex session. Tead your actors are headed to P Lobster Mercier’s Mansion (0ld Town Zone 1) Soundirack: Madillain - Sickfit You roll along the winding cobble avenues that thread through old-world neighborhoods of baroque mansions, past sculpture-ornamented parks with pairols of armed sccuris, and into the heart of OLd Town, where Lobster Mercier s four-story chateau looms al the more obvious for its damage: the courtyard garden is all tore up, some of the windows busied ot the front gates ripped off, and “GUILLOTINE” is spraxpainted on the gantovle- capped front wall Pairs of Tengpai private securis, called greencaps because of their emerald:green feld hats, now patrol the area. What do you do? Laying on em quickly reveas cght ota guards on ptrol, mostly outside the mansion. Angles on Getting Inside + Amgjor distaction +Giaffing / social engineering +Just fight all eight greencaps +Clocking the spot for more than 10 minutes proves a hole i their patrol pattern: once every few minutes, a door alongside the house goes unmonitored for full 10 seconds Fight: Greencaps Soundirack: Harm's Way - Human Carrying Capacity Eight Tengpai guards with green armored vests,rot shields, and electroshock batons attheir belis. You can force the fight scene by having a greencap come i o take a shit or whatever and stamble o the main characers. Stats X Offense 58 // Defense 4/ Merk 1/ Move § Tactics immedistely callfor backup on thei radios. Since they're spaced out they Il arive in waves of two. Safe 1o expeet trucks full of veteran greencaps with heavy weaponry to show up afie about ten minutcs. Paion: ane guard i o pion. He spends his main action cach tum sust {hat causes -2 move to the main characers. 1 ruptured, he canno use it g Merked: for these entry-level guards, merked just means & minor injury before they'se KO'd, un off,or play dead. ing a Special Mansion Interior: luminous liguid graphone pillars rise fory feet 0 the ceiling; split levels of hand-carved balconies interlock all the way up the open fover. Every hallway and chamber you glance into is lined with priceless classical paintings, sculptures, and artifacs [100 big 10 pocket, i anybody asks| — just unimaginable wealth, each square foot costing more than what somhody from Zone 3 makes in'a year. What do you do? Rooms: indoor movie theater, basement garage with dozen luxury vehicles (mostly ingerprint ignitions), sub-basement tennis cout, sauna, libray, etc. Anything of value is 100 lage 10 swipe, except for a collector’s case of antique cullnks (¥9000 if fenced) in the master bedsoom on the fourth foor —» Maiin characters merked: if the main characters ever all get merked, they wake up on page 43. cLuEs +Documents: file cabinets and a few desk dravers ae alteady thrown open and empiy: the fine ashes of torched paper overflow from several fireplaces. + Mal: very obvious pile on an ivory table in the dining room. Mostly junkmail and domesic bills, but also A.) mooring fees for a class B yacht called the Mises in the Hemlock Point Marina, and B.) an envelope with hand-written addresses containing a few temized receipts and a note: “Etienne, the super stys he needs these receipts signed for the new addition. Been missing you, Azalée” The return address is unit 1818, Heron Tower, Municipal Zone § (downiown). s ox o “Tail picked up: the main characters now followed by cuty figure keeping poin on the mansion from 2 gray Mazda, Undetectable unless actor specifically mentions they're looking for tils. I you ever have a low-action session,the tal cals in a ca full of hiters (0 ke out the main charactes. It can jump off as a firefight on the highway, sneak atack when they rest, or the goons can just run up on them as they follow leads (*Hey Mickey Mouse club, why don't you mind yous fuckin business) etc Bump Fight I (options) Soundirack: Incendioy The Power Process Car full of goons sent by the til picked up at Lobster Mercier's mansion sTATS 50 Offense 54 (machetes) /| Defense 0/ Merk 7 // Move § X2: Offense 5§ (MP-5 SMGs,range 8) /Defense 0 // Merk 5/ Move § Tactics: one_goon's machete is costed in ctorphine. Each landed stike causes a stacking -2 offense and defense tothetargt for the durston of the figh scene. Merked: idesly dead. bt iftaken liv they s cluclss contractors. Chesking a pager one of them is holding confims they were hired anonymously and sent updates on main haracter locations. (Remembe pagers only one-way). About ¥7000inthie pockets. Balane: the fighs i this arc were designed easy enough for 3 newjack actors to handle. I playing with more (or more experienced) actors,increase diffculty by increasing number of enemmies ot just amping up thei merk. District Courthouse: Searching for Records (Cherry By, Zone 4) Soundirack: Blackalicious - Swan Lake nsirumental A dull concrete pillar of a tower fooms at the fur side of a busiling courtvard with drid-up fountain. Underfunded enougth 10 lack security guards who give a shit, a knot of bunmy fookin skate kids take s hiting the fountain's wased ledge, their boonbox pumping outthat first Bone Sickness album, an all-time classic. You clinb the wide entry stairvay and pass into a lobby bustling with legal professionals and the occasional low- level offender headed 1o court. The unibrowed. comic-reading clerk behind the reception desk doesn t seem to notice you The unibrowed elerk dryly answers any questions without looking up + The only publicly availble records on citizens are credit scores, formal crinyinal charges, and convictions. Detainment records have 1o be run through the comms department ofa licensed security agercy. + Fees (administrative, processing, and copying) total ¥1204 per request + As e tms the page of his comic he says the waitng lst is about a month since iU’s their busy scason, Clerk bribed: once Y3000 reached, he's their best frend (but still needs to narrow down the many Etienne Merciers on the island with a DOB o middle nam). “The clerk pulls out a clipboard and asks them to fill out & few request forms while e fetches thei records. Katsumoto signs one with Hans Sumfela, 420 Dickslinger Street. Specifically ask what the main characters sign (useful for below bump scene). Lobster Mercier’s Legal Record: a dozen DULs, a few sexual assault complaints, criminal neglect for a tenement e — unsurprisingly al dismissed, stted out of court, o only senenced o fines he probiably considers pocket-change. Case of Interest: 4 dismissed mayhem charge for operating a bost while intoxicated. The brief explins Mercier maimed a tourist in & paddlchoat while piloting his yacht ouisde the Hemlock Point Marina with a 21% BAC. Included are risly medical photographs, a shot of the snmihilated paddicbost, snd 3 photo of class B yacht with “the Mises” painted on the prow. LEAD: i your actos don't catch t, use Katsumoto to prod ther t search the Hemmlock Point Marina fo yacht named th Mies s ox o “Tail picked up: black Honda. Goes undetected unless actor specifically mentions they're looking for a il I you ever have 2 low-action session, the tail calls in a ca full of muscle to take out the main characters. Crucially, have the goons try to intimidate them, but fail hilariously by using the joke names from the forms above. Bump Fight I (opions) Soundurack: Xibalba - Cold Three goons. Sent by tail who was sold nfo on main charactrs by corrupt clerk sTATE 2 Offense 58 (handaxes) /| Defense 1/ Merk 10/ Move X1: Offense $10 (psonic csbolt, ange 6) / Defense 0/ Merk 10/ Move S Merked: ideslly dead, but if taken alive they're clucless contractors. Checking o pager ane of them is holding confirms they were hired anonymously, bag-of-moriey- Teftin-locker styl. (Remermber pagers ony aneway). About Y5000 in their pockets. 1 The Mises, a Yacht in the Hemlock Point Marina (Zose 10) Soundirack: Jedi Mind Tricks - Three Immortals Insirumental Seabinds wheel and dive along; the bursting reef breaks, supermassive gantry cranes loom over the seaports that bite into the sapphire waters, and the low horns of a hulking Container ship drone in the distance. Along.the shore you spot the bristling masts of Iundreds of sloops and yachis, swaying in the lazy waves along the docks o the Hemlock Point Marina. What do you do? “The marina has one guard on duty. He patrols ance an hour i he feels like i The Mises: moored toward the back of the labyrinthine marina, name cleasly painted on the prow and stem. Upper, lower, and foredeck. Loud music and raucous laughter can be eard within. + Goon: Before the main characters can act, a big thumbhead lookin dude steps onto the upper deck and pisses out nto the wate. Standard spin t0 sncak up on him, casy spin if & bar or higher in steath. If questioned he just says (French accen) shit ike “T work for Deez" before grabbing somebody's weapon or jumping into the waler (can’t be taken alive) * Interior: only unlocked enty is on the uppe deck, leading (0 an innes balcony. Looking over the balcony: three goons lounge in the TV room belovw you their weapons witlin arm’s reach. The space s richly oramened with historical memorabilia and Art Nowseat antiues. Enpty champagne botles are scatered along the bur, and a depleed eigh ball sits on the coffee table, about halfa gram rasled up on the glass of an Ayn Rand portrai Fight: Yacht Goons Four soccer hooligan lookin knuckledraggers. Differentate by descrption: tll, fat, face tattoos, Fred Perry pol. sTATS 3 Offnse 56 miliary grad longswords) / Defense 1 // Merk § X1 Offense 56 (sawed ot range 4. 54 afe 2 srides) / Defense 0./ Merk § Surprise Attack: jumping over the balcony causes 54 offense from fllng, but will surprise the goons (s0 they set st and have zero defense unti they do) Brute: i the fight is looking too casy, a huge inked up wigsplitter comes down the north hall Offense s$+1 (axe) & s (uz) / Defense 0/ Meek 20 Merked: desd. If parslyzed, they fll on ther wespon and pierce o vial organ, immediately dying. I resrained, they'r domed by a wild spray of fiendly fie, or die before anybady notices the dark ateria blaod pouring from 2 wound to the back of theirthigh. However you spin it none of these dudes are taken alive for questioning. Exit from TV room thereis a hallway (north), and an ext 1o the uter deck (sout). —» Healing: main charscters fully el after a night's rest. “They are also fee to buy HOTrods on page 111 The Rest of the Yacht: a luxurious kitchen and dining room, spa. exit to the foredeck, w0 guest bedrooms, and a master bedroom. Lobster Mereier is not on the Mises. The master bedroom: clearly belonged t0 Mercier, niven there are photos of him with famous people on the wall. There s also a huge bed. fet-op card table, French historical memorabilia, and a walk-in closet with a safe i the back. Clue A: Personal Safe Hal-hidden behind rows of old money duds in a massive walk-n closet. Securely bolied to the floor. soLuTIoNS « Remember Lobster's DOB (3/19/97) A rar-carth magnet to elease inernal lock « Ten loud minutes with ramset, anglegrnder, or prybar » Speci « Flour from the kitchen blown onto the keypad: more stcks to the code (kin's natura il rubs offon the carler numbers) THE SAFE CONTAINS + Dope black pistol with gold grip-plats engraved with a lion rampnt. Hs an inerent +1 offense bonus (52 +1 +fast, range 6, ¥8000 i sold) + The Mises title & landing permit: diffcult 1o fence, asy to hire document forger 1o sign over to main characters “¥2400 + Severalerotic novels: “Punted i the Balls by Merciless Soccer Starkts”, “The Mal Clamped a Car Batery to My Balsack (Joke's on Them)” & “Stomped in the Bals o Death by o Sexy Lady Exceutionee” © A pair of keys on a ring with a cicular rd tag. Front is @ graphic reading “Heron Tower", on the back s scrawled “#1818” with unseal efect st numbers of the Looking up “Heron Tower” in a phonebook: (there’s one on the Mises) lands them the. address downtown. The Heron Tower thread starts on page 20. Clue B: Photograph of Restaurant Grand Opening 1 the master bedroom there are photos of Lobster Mercier with a few famous figures (opera star, prince of Thailand, b fm producer etc), but most notably one of him cattng the ibbon t a festaurant grand opening, fine dining s assembled bencath Signage reading -3 17 The Jewels of Ebb & Flow” Looking up s estaurant i a phonchaok gives the addres for the Sundaland Common, a well-known mallin Zone 1. Theead stats next page. False Lead: The Jewels of Ebb & Flow (zene 11) Sounducck. 51 2 Corp- Paen Mall o sibum] (Clus leading her: 1) photo on the Mises, 2) Azaée mentions Lobser Mercir’s he wner “This thread can be quick dead end to add realism i you only run tis page). o an entir side-mission ending in a batle on tap of & partly-consiucied skyscraper, complte with worthwile lot. o be clear thi theead s optional, Sundaland Common The Jewels of Ebb & Flow is located i the Sundaland Common (Zone 11), luxury mall famous for extending out nto the St Disma Reef, s 0p domed in glass 50 you can watch all the teopical oceanlife. Security: the main characters know a tourist spot ike the Common doesn’t allow (unconcealed) weapons, and are crawling with securty 1o back that up (armed with arcguns, page 107, since firearms could damage the glass domenays). Grand staircases descend into a eeming enty plaza. I ts cente looms a colosal e, an extinet wisteria with fong vines of canary-sellow flowers, once native 10 the sutken Sundaland continent and cloned from fossils at unimaginable expense. Through the entry e the famed palladiun-glass domevays, evers inch of their arched ceilngs transparent, nots of gem-colored fish gliding lazily through the crystal waters and nearby reeficape. What do you do? Goods & Supplies: the Common has almost anyihing the main characters would wanna buy. Most things cost wha they would in our time; just rememmber | yuan is worth about 5 modern American dollrs. “The Jewels of Ebb & Flows a five string quartet plays 10 extravagantly dressed diners under the o light of paper lanterns. A hosi approaches you, poliely greeting “lrasshaimase. Table for [numbes of main characters]? Any restaurant staff the main characters talk fo cither don’t want any trouble or don’t remember sceing Lobster Mercier. On their way out of the Common, the main characters hear a whistle behind them. When they look over they see a teenager with a black apron over his shoulde Side Character: Lou Voice: brash, Ausrlian sccent Inpoverished immigrant tecnager, busboy at the Jewels of Ebb & Flow. White skin and tanned os shit, blown out tick-and-poke of a rose covering the back of Hhis Iefl hand, thorns stabbing out at its comers. Personalty s jagged but ikable (lightly roasts ne of the i characters). Lou says they were geting stonewald: everybody in the restaurant knows Mercier (*He's like a part-owner or something”) but nobody wil say anything because they e ot rying (0 Tose their job. Lou says he hasn’t seen Mercier for weeks, but if somebody gives him their sumber and o liule compensation for his risk (¥1000), he'll o some digging and report back. ‘This s where the trap begins. 105 2 good e, lots of ot e, butskip t0 “Heron Tower” on page 20 i you're rying (o keep the are shorl. Lou calls later that day: apparently somebody is sl ordering Lobster Mercier's exact same off-menu usual (a ¥600 oyster grinder with beluga caviar), and getting it delivered by a third-party courier. The delivery address is 1597 Airrdichi, Zone 7: the Vs [“veh-sehn”) Tower Vésins Tower (Zone 7) Soundirack: Benny the Butcher - Griselda Strong Instrumental —» O the drive there, dark clouds slowly oll n, threatening rain As the main characters get near the tower they sce it's a construction site surrounded by 10" chainlink A unfinished tower looms over you, is skeletal form o eris-crossing beams raking; e sk 500 feet above. As the sky continues to darken with brooding rainclouds, you notce windows in the opmost partly-fnished story are lluminated. What do you do? Ifthey lay on the spot,a big guy sing-mumbling a soccer chant comes out the building and pulls half a dozen takeout bags from the dropbox at the chainlik roll gte. To be clear e's on the other side of the fence so can't be snatched up unless the main characters aleady climbed over. INTERIOR A colossal, unlit marble lobby. The main characters will need a source of light + Partial power: most lightswitches dor't work, except for those around the receptionist’s desk and express clevator (below). Power can be supplicd by entering the sub-basement bencath the parking garage where there’ alarge circut breaker panel, + Ascent: lobby elevators are unpowered and unfinished. Stairs stop at 427 flor; the main characters can spin (casy spin if srong 1) to climb a few levels of H-section steel columas from the op of the stairs t the open loor. Failure: all back (o stairs, 8 offense. + Express elevators down a wing past the reception desk. “Going up” button is backlit, showing it receiving power. The luxurious express elevator’s lights are on, and its console has only two buttons: “Lobby” and “Exceutive Suite™ + Tracks: if somebady’s looking for it dust from the gravel outside s obviously tracked toward the express elevator and mare sublly into the sub-basement. Pinhole cameras: th size of a pinky nail. One 20" direely sbove lobby entrance, ‘another behind ventlation slits in express clevator. Four thers hidden around. Open Floor: you step out onto an unfinished floor; open 1o the siching winds, the peeking lights of the cty spravling i every direction. 4 massive lattcework of columns and beams rise up around you another sisty fee, lacing into several stories of mostly- finished rooms on the eastern side. AL its height are a fow rooms whose windows glow fainty old with interior lights. What do you do? —+ The only way 10 get 0 the finished ooms is by climbing some. scaffolding and erossing 0 stretch of naked beams. 18 The call: if the msin characters wer beams. Lou, out o breath and spesking fast says something like 71 assholes 10 Lou, he calls as they're crossing the T called you as soon as I could, they made me set you up and [ couldn’ get aveay until o do you understand? I’ a fucking trap, stay the FUCK outta that ower — and the first shots ring out. A i character’s parafield Mlashes as they e hammered by a5pray oTSMG fire for 5. Fight: Spider’s Web Soundirack: Animals as Leaders - Thoroughly at Home Abatle sl e beams against 1 atacken. It s o lighly aning. ENEMIES (7) Goons: Offense 4 (machetes) / Defense 4/ Merk 11/ Move 5 (x2) Shooters: Offense s8 (SMGs, ange 8)/ Defense 0/ Merk 5 / Move 5 (x1) Brute: Offense s8 (chainblade,range 2) / Defense 2./ Merk 15 / Move 6 (Yoked, chemica bums, heavy armored vt Can'tbe pushed) these dudes, merked means dead: i ke slive they I i out Lobstor Mercir & skip halfthe re. . For. +Surprise: encmy gocs first, but mostly just move into attack rnge thei first tur, + Pushing: for this scene only, main characters (but not the enemy) can trade the move acton to push o trip a target. On a 6 they push an enemy’into another and. they both full. On o 1 the main characte cither drops their weapon, or loses their balance and precariously hangs from the beam. « Falling: instantly merked from plumimeting 40° o the nearest completed floor. Enemies are instantly killed. Fall State: if main charactersall merked, they wake up on page 43. + End: once there are only two enemies left they each pull a case with ramborn handles off ther backs and jump off the side of the buikding: pair of &-foot SMP. textile wings deplay from each case and the goons sail down into the cityscape. Heavy vest from brute: +2 defense (¥9,000) = ¥3,000 cash from goon pockets = Two microgliders busted from fulling (¥0), and an unharmed microglider (¥12.000) — Retum soundirack o Benny the Butche - Griselda Strong Inscumental Lit-up eastern rooms: empty except for takeout trash, spent coke baggies and botdles of booe, a pocket projector plugaed into a Sega Genesis, and a receiver displaying the six shole cameras hidden throughout the tower. If the main characters come back on Lou A) I they never did anything t carn his respec, he's nowhere o be found (sfe ©© assume e sold them o) B)IFthey treated Lou with respect: e says one of the prep cooks snched him out — afer he got snatshed up,the ook s there 1o posively 1D b fo a ol ofcash and an ounce of powder Lou raises his right hand, two bandaged stumps whers fingers Should be, and sys “These cunts were serious.” Kastumaro tls him no 1 g0 back intothe resturan, gives him a wad ofc3sh n says o call i ifhe necds work. 19 Heron Tower Luxury Apartments, Downtown Zone ) Soundirack: SpaceCGhostPur - Peto Instruental Clues lading here: 1.) mail from Lobster Mericr's mansion, 2. keys in he Mises”safe You roll dovn the wide streets of downtown under a tempest of neon hologram signage, ants in the supermassive corridors of dizzving meatowers. You park and head through @ busy plaza hung with long strings of paper lanterns marking the approaching Chinese new year: At s far end fooms a white high-rise in the Post-Deco sivl, set with an emblem matching the keychain in your palm — Heron Tower: What do you do? GETTING IN +Can just use spare keys from the Mises, but concierge doesn'trecognize main characters + Bribe concierge or security (¥2000) + Sneak in behind car n parking garage +Pose as courier o delivery driver, et everybody else in through a side entrance *+Glide down onto 15" loor balcony from neighboring tower using Special o *+ Disable lock of side door with rare-earth magnet or lockpicking set, etc Unit 1818 top flocr. Both balcony and front door unlocked. No respanse o knocking. Apartment Interior: a brass statue of he Nemean Lion loons in the middie of a dim fover. a raised bed of blood:ed poppies grown up around is pedestal. Incense smoke curls from an aniique marble censer, drifting. invitngly through msewood colunns and a trefil archway where colorful bids sing from ornate cages. What do you do? “The inside of the apartmes * Dining room with a e hal- © Spa bathroom of god-flecked marble © High-ceilinged library (excellent collecton) is caked in wealth, comort, and fine art. Areas of nterest nished meals on the able © Dusty home gym Final room: At the end ofa long, windowless dravwing room crackles an ornate freplace, its golden glow washing over a lounging figure in a fine dress petting a large black dog. She looks over, not even a litle concerned by the rougi-looking strangers in her house, and wordiessly invites you 10 come sit by the fire with a gesturing hand. On the lable beside her is a decanter of blood.red wine and a dozen bars of xanax. A masterful reproduction of Henrsk Siemirad=Ai’s “Phryne” hangs on the wall behind her. barely visible in the room s somber lighting. Do you sit? Side character: Azale (‘sha-a-ei) Vice:gacil A sender Lati woman with caseading midight ba Srung out o apiates and xanas, but el educated wit can be glimpsed behind thei bluning nllence, She's the ony side carmeer tat reurs o the Lobetr by his st e, Esenn, Spesks Lao French, English, and some Mandarn. — Throws a couple xanax tab i the s for her dog t cach throughou the conversation, Tiberius, Azalée’s Dog: a large black akita with ecrily intellige characters over with the scrutiny you'd expect of a human. ‘Anybody with a background in secuity or biotech can tel from his obsidian-like teeth that he’s a high-grade engineered attack dog: near-human ntelligence, augmented strength, implanted plating over vita organs, SEN-encased teth are all standard. Stats: Offense s8+6 (bie) // Defense: 5/ Merk 30/ Move: 10 it eyes that look the main 20 Conversation With Azal - Unconcerned: reminds the main characters i'sa polite thing to introduce thermselves - Whereabouts: she has o idea whe 1 tested: reminds them she would be reasonabie 10 have her technologically perfcted ack dog murder these armed strangers in her house - Azalée says they should be friends since they all want the same thing * Why she wants Mercier gone: he se up a lasge weekly annuity for her when they first became involved; if he goes away now, that money faucetstays on orever. She knows she was anly ever a means to an end, shame on Etienne ifhe didn’ think he was o. Thus e Etienne s. Calls to his phone aren' going through Azalie Offers up Lobster Mercier’s Lawyer: the one associate she always saw. with Etienne, and the one man who definiely knows where he is: Gregoire “Hatchet” Lécuyer (Gregwabr LeKOOyair). She gives the location of his © Law firm (Tabouret & Lécuyer) © Hangout (Le Cygne Chess Club) © Penthouse (the entire 111* loor of Kagemusha Tower. She knows for certain since she atiended a party there once with Etienne) She also warns them that since he makes his money getting horrible people out of well-deserved sentences, Hatchet Lécuyer has two elite bodyguards with him atal times Backtracking: f you want the main characters 1o check out a previous scene (the Mises the mansion, the False Lead thread et thisis the spot 0 do i. Give the time to kill: Azalée says she called Hatchet Lécuyer afler the Scilla Hills collapse and he mentioned he s in China for a deposition - he won't be back unil tomormow evening. She can give leads as well, telling them about Mercier’s yacht o restaurant. 2 Bagging Hatchet Lécuyer Soundirack: Mobb Deep - Give Up the Goods Instrumental — Starts lghtly raining on the drive to Fog Hill Gregoire “Hatchet” Lécuyer is the only one who knows where Lobser Mercier is hiding out. Pearlsays Hatchet i only ever at A. Le Cygne Chess Club, on the roof of the Magnolia Tower B His law fim in the Jean Boyd Building. C. His massive penthouse n the Kagemusha Megatower all of which are on Fog Hillin Zone 9: boojie, megatowers, heavy trafTic. Chapter Intro, Once the main characters make their way to Fog Hill ead this out loud: The downpour casts a subile halo around the lighis of Fog Fill. The ruby siren of a security chopper strobes above you as it glides between buildings, flushing over the jeering faces o gutterspout gargoyles,ther jaws exhaling unending streams of water far above the teeming streets. Two Zono 9 hooks leer from a passing cruiser, one’ fuce briely luminated as he drags on a cigarete. The soft whoosh of olled-through puddies punciuates the conversation that's wmed 10 coming up in Zone 3, trading stories about how you made ends meetand the shitest job you ever had to work: Go around and get a story from each actor. Katsumoto stars it by saying he was o tsimmer at a fish processing plant and the owner, some dude who lived in Saudi Arabia, was pushing managerment to getrevenes up. Quoias were high enough there was a piss jus under the line, and once when it was Katusmolo's tum to cmpty it he just sortof ealized * will do_lterally anyihing bt this bullsit” and dumped the jug on the supervisor's convertble. Since then he'srun an illegal bookies and made a decent living. ‘When that conversation fades: The camera cuts 1o a closeup on Katsumoto, his brow furrowed in thought. As he monologues, we see various scenic shots of Fog Hill n the rain 1 don t know man, 1've struggled t0 put my finger on something for a while now: Anybody who works long enough starts to realie how much their work s worth — you kmow the showroom price of what you made on the factory floor. you see how much the shop made when you count dovn the register at night. You factor i the overhead. and still wonder where all this value vou created s going. Most of us ealize it when the factory owner rolls wp in a different sports car every month — and once you realize it you siart o se it exverphere: Say my work creates, don't know, 300 yuan i value each hou: The owner is going 1o take 200 of it so he docsn't have to work. He gives the sharcholders and franchise owners a Kickback, so they don’ have 1o work cither. Then when I take home wha fitle they leave me, my landlond takes the rest of t o she *also® doesn’ have to work. There's this whole chain of parasites; they do nothing of salue, but somehow get all his money for ice. Think about allthe richest people in the world. You look up what they actually do and. ey ust *onn shit%. They just have their nae on a deed, or a share, and tha enttles them 1o insane amounts of free money every monih. And where docs that money come from? Us the people who do the wortk 2 They've done, I gotta admit, an ineredible job of Kecping it ow: If1 was robbing; working people | also wouldn’ g0 rubbing it in their face. 1 would do everyihing | could 1o ke it quiet, 10 insulate myself. 10 only run with other people like me: other landionds bosses, bankers, sharcholders. But 1 would also live i fear. 1 would fnow 1 was outnumbered 100 t0 1 by the people I legally stealfrom every month. I would know that the people 1 rob, someday they'll realize eerything shity in their 1 high rent, long shifs Tow pay the misers of poverty — all these things are created by people lke me waning: more and more. squeezing evers last penny out of their existence. Dread of that day would Keep me up at night. and 1 would do everything within my power — immoral, illegal. depraved, and worse — anything and everything 10 make sure that giant stayed asleep. —» Close the scene with Otdies eroon under the drumming of rain on the raised op. A shot of the Lincolns side captures reflections of neon signage in every shape and color gliding by hyporicall. You stop at alight and dozens of people under umbrellas flood the crosswalks. All around you the brooding tovwers seem 10 rise forever, their soaring lightsfuding up into the rainy haze of Fog Hill Angles on Lécuyer A Le Cygne Chess Club 2 B. Kagemusha Tower Penthouse. 526 €. Tabouret & Lécuyer p27 Side character: Gregoire “Hatchet” Lécuyer (Gregwabr Le-foo-yair Noice: stern,educated, French accent Nicknamed for his narrow, sharp-featurd ace. Thin, 505, dresed in. fne okd-world suit. (Cold-blooded: will immediaely give up Lobster Mercier once snatched. Speaks French and pssable English, Rides in an unmistakable maroon 1949 Bentley Mark V1. Since he makes millons geting trust fund kids out of vehicular manslaughtcr and rape convictions, he keeps two stacked bodyguards with him st ol times Hatchet Lécuyer's Bodyguards foativs & Calder (red hin tie) (blue bowtie) High-end private security: about 62", 230 lbs, stonefaced etc. Weapons are augmented Knckles that emita low hum and make a small shockwave of concussive force on impact (1w attacks per tur with these) Disciplined spacial awareness and threat assessment. One stays with Lécuyer at lltmes while the other brings the car around or searches o questionsble ara before entry - Stas / tactcs listed over next fow pages E Angle A: Le Cygne Chess Club (Lécuyer's angou) Soundirack: Louise Troter - Malaguea y Bésame Mucho A boojie open-air chess hall for French-speaking businessmen. On the toof of the Magnolia Tower: 22 stories of Nouseau-Revivalist arhiteeture with cablecar station on the highest floor giving access (0 nearby towers. French-speaking main characters: Le Cygne means “the sw Getting Up: the iy entrance / exit o this roofiop elub i an elevator. Le Cygne: the elevator doors open 1o eveal a mofiop covered in fush gardens of Gascon plant lfe. Boughs of fruit-bearing trees siretch out above knots of pensive chess players hewing on cigars and thoughtflly trning glasses of bourbon. Looming in the center is a white marble fountain of three daughters of Danaus eternally pouring out vessels of water. and a haspist strums sofily on a tiny sdestage half-swallowed by flowering pear trees. s you approach, the host returns 1o his podium, politely greeting, “Bonsoir: Comment puis-je tre ile?” [barely speaks English] Entrance fee for non-members is ¥400 each. Once inside, Hatchet Lécuyer and his w0 bodyguards are visible, inishing a game against a les-skilled younger man Optional Chess Mateh 14 main character challenges Lécuyer (0 a game of chess, they get +3 SP (but wait untl closing ceremonies). Hatchet insists on making things interestng by betting personal items. (e bets an antique ltter-opence with omate brasswork and a tiny ruby pommel. ¥5000). Have the actor spin against Lécuyer three times (o represent the beginning, middle, and end of the chess maich. Afler each one, have them describe their syle and tactics: fortres-lke, rap-laden, rutbless, piescing, slow tde of ageession, patient counter- fghting, relentlessly sniping for the King, ec Spin is +4 + chess experience (amateur +1, enthusiast +2, expert +3), with Hatchet's bonus being +2. Remember 1o ¢l the tory of the resultng spins. At the end, add all points together for the victor Busheraft 1 or Higher: notce in the Le Cygne garden some decp purpl atropa belladonna flovers with berris like drops of biack nk. Al known as deadly nighishade, this plant i extremely poisonous and a pavwerfl hallucinogen at sub- poisonous doses Moving on Hatchet Lécuyer Soundirack: Art Blakey & the Juzz Messengers - A Night i Tunisia Lécuyer's tableis few strides away from a large skylight, which Calder blows out with a thrown chair, jumping down into the cablecar station, and catching Lécuyer when he follows. They then enter a departing (empty) cablecar right as ts doors close. Ignatius atacks the main characters. Optional: high-rsk arapple. His frst turn, Ignatius prabs & main character, and they both spin s10 + srong or fast (+3 for Ignatius). Whoever lands highest (respin ies) pivors and throws the other through the skylight’s remaining las (o the station floor below for s§ offense. En Cablecar Fight +Jumping 0 he eablecar station below has no acton cost. +New cablecars arrive every 20 seconds. There are about 20 sirides between cars. +Cables are in a cluster of 4, so safe 10 shimmy across them at a rate of move score s 1. IF the main characters approach this way, Calder takes shots at them from his cablecar, then climbs oo it roof 10 get the drop on the fiest maiin character 1o ariv. Cablecars are 2 x 6 strides +Jumping from tower roof 1o top of Hatchet Lécuyer's departing cablecar: casy spin, but i you fail, you full 1o 4 different cablecar far below, automatically merked, prisnary Weapon gone, and headed in the opposite diection. + Lécuyer and Calder’s cablecar rrives ot a neighboring tower in a fow wrneycles (whenever it would be most cinemati). I able, they hop out into the sation, and run down a grand staircase that Lts out nto the massive, empty lobby of a luxury shopping all bviously being renovated: the shops are all closed up, and towering bloodstone pillas reach up 1o ceiling full of bl installed chandelers. The exits are al gated shut 1 still unmerked,this dead end is where Calder makes his last stand. + Page 28 for what Hatchet Lécuyer knows Hatchet Lécuyer’s Bodyguards Stats: Offense 56 & s6 (concussive knuckles)/ Defense 0 / Merk 80/ Move T ot of range, il st supprssive v withpisiol: 2 1) Ignatius (redte) & Calder (blue bowtie) Atacksand obsiructs Retests with Lécuyer OFFENSE TAKEN: Angle B: Kagemusha Megatower (Licuyer's penthouse) Soundirack: DITC - Digified Sodies Inseumental Hatchet cuyer lives in unit 1101 eatir 111" floo near the ower's tapring peak). Megatowers: the main characters will know cach megatower is like its own mictonation, complete with its own bylaws, private police, and emergent culure. Stark austerity on the lower levels slowly give way to more and more outtandish luxury and exclusion as one ascends, a perfeet encapsulation of St Disma’s culturaly pervasive hierarchics. Megatowers usualy contain grocery stores, clincs, parks, greenhouse ardens, and various sporting areas depending on the intended. residens. Hypothetically, one could live a long lfe without ever leaving the megatower they were born in. GETTING UP * Hundred Plus Lobby: the lobby 1o aceess higher floors oozes luxury — courtcous doorman, concierge, and a fow Crown Security guards visible. IF the main characters manage 1o actually gaflle their way into the glass tube elevator, they take in a visual feast of the megatower's interior gardens and shopping centers as they glide up to the 111 loor. « General Lobby: the much more austere lobby for access to lower floors has no sceurity, just an underpaid seceptionist who can easily be slcked or bribed (¥200). +The tower’s shopping center (0" floor) s 4 busling mini-mall and rocery store. From Here there are only two Crown Security guards attending the clevator to the higher floors. They sk “Visitor orresident?” and verify, but can asily be pulled away by a distracton. + Access rooflop or neighboring tower and glide / rappel down 10 Lécuyer’s balcons. +Pose as leal courier or delivery di +Pose as technician or custodian. Inside the Penthouse Soundirack: Mario Lanza - Nessun Dorma A small palace: three split-levels of a dozen lavish rooms, the outermost with walls of slass and an incredibl view of th city sillng over the teraced hills of the island. Lécuyer, who wears a fez and antique smoking jacket around the house, s a prolific colletor of 16" century Ottoman arms and armor, suits of plae mail and omate medieval weapons adorming nearly every room. The main characters fistencounter [gnatus, who is exactly 0% alarmed by their i calling out “Calder old boy. put on your dancing shoes won't you Fighting the bodyguards: Calder’s tactic is 10 atack while obstructing the mai characters from pursuing Lécuyer, who retreats deeper int the penthouse. Ignatius just atacks relentlessly. For this scenaio only, the bodyguards’ augmented knuckles also throw targets 2 trides (sideways for hooks, back forjabs and crosses). Season up the fight by having it move between rooms, and g0 over balconies or down stairs. The bodyguards may also grab medieval weaponry offthe wals, - Page 28 for what Hatchet Lécuyer knows % Angle C: Tabouret & Lécuyer (Licuyer' ofice) Soundirack: Convay - Rex Ryan Insteumental Tabouret & Lécuyer is an opulent la firm on the 48ih story of the Jean Boyd Building. Mostly legal and finance, this ower is dimed to the gills The main characters recognize securit i so tight tha his would be a nightmare Staging ground. Stealthing in or soclal engincering: almost immediately foiled by well- disciplined security patrolling hallways, monitoring entrances, and checking IDs. Secking a consultation: receptionist (French accent) says consulttions stat at ¥10,000. Lécuyer's booked out seven months, but they could see & junior partne in as litle s three weeks. Hatchet Lécuyer’s Bodyguards Offense s6 & 56 (coneussive knuckles) / Defense 0/ Merk 80 / Move 7 ot f range, will st sppresive v with pisiol: 2 1) Ignatius (e ) & Calder (blue bowte) Pure gression, Atacksand obsiructs Stats OFFENSE TAKEN: Hatchet Lécuyer Gives up Lobster Mercier Lécuyer says Lobster Mercie is hiding out in a warchouse on the corner of Plénum & Talaireport n the Flais Zone 2. The warchouse is owned by an organization knows as the Oxheads, who Mercier hashited or securty unil he can leave the sk During his visits thee, he saw 10 or 20 armed Osheads at any given time. They appear 1o run a chop shop, smugeling, and pill operation around the clock. A “maser bedroom” has been set up for Mercie in what used to be the office area. To prove he's ot ying, Hatchet shows them old pager messages which give the addres. (Remember pagers only work one way). ‘The Oxheads: at least one of the main characers know about the, or maybe even had dealings with the. The Oxheads starid as he Oxhead Firm, loose ssociaton of coked up French soccer hooligans that graduated to kilos, car theft, and weapons smuggling. Local to Oxhead Point in Le Miroi, Zone 2. Their leader, Kncecapper Doriot (door-yo)is curretly locked up in SDCC. Kingshit:parsphrase the sbove parsgrsphs on not and s i 0 the sctr ' the mostSrct-oriented main characte before he Session stars. Pockets: Hatchet Lécuyers holding ¥720 cash, 420,000 timepiece and a ¥5,000 antigue lettr-opene with tiny ruby pommel (ifnot already won from carlcr chess match). — Level Up n charactrs all gain a level for their progressin the story The m EY Plotting on the Oxhead HQ Soundirack: DJ Krush - 3d Eye Lobster Mercieris hidden inside a warehouse (the Flats, Zone 2) controlled by the Oxheads (@ network of ex-hooligans tht burgeoned into a heavily armed, serous criminal enterprise) Additional Firepower: Hatchet Lécuyer reported between 10 and 20 goons at the warchouse any given hour. Additional muscle is needed: RECRUITABLE GROUPS Each recruitable group has & contact that Ieads 1o then, This contact i known by & main character, and listed a th strtof each group’s secton. “The Endless Wound: a tombdeller gang in the undercity Page 30 Back Chalice: cel of politcal insurgents Page 32 PKC: a militan anti-trafficante network Page 34 (Al these groups ar opiona, buta good tme o recrui) Clocking the Warchouse “The Oxhead warehouse is surrounded on all sides by streets and sidewalks. Botiom 10 feetof the wall are masonry, top 10 are corrugated plastics. Massive takeout orders arrive about once every 6 hours. No notceable shit paterns. Long strings of red lanterns along some neighboring sreets for the approaching Chinese New Year. Entrances: metal door with high-grade lock out front. Large loa be opened from inside). Only windows are skylights (plentifu). bay door (can only Exit Plan Katsumoto can optionally remind everybody the Chinese New Year parades wil be jumping off in two days — the chaos of the crowds can be used 1o their advantuge, especially with a quick outfit change or by hopping in a floa. 1fthe main characters get laced with the undercity (next page), hopping down o storm drain or into a manhole would be abou the casist exit phase possibl. 1 the actors e lazy cnough to just ry “Ubh hop back in my car and hope for the best,” punish then in some way that won't spol the arc’s ending. + The Battle for the Oxhead Warchouse i on page 36 +The Endless Wound (Recruitable Tombdweller Gang) ‘Wit this on a note, and before the session stats slp it 10 the actor whose main character would most likely know Belly: “You know dude from way back, completely unhinged character called Bely for a massive surgical scar up his gut. Last you heard he was running with o tombdeller ang. @ source of serious fireposeer and potential mercenaries i your plo 1o take the Oxhead warchouse. You're prety sure you sl have Belly’s nurmber somewhere.” Linking Up With Belly Soundirack: Corrupted - La Victima es tw Mismo Belly says to meet him t an oogle bar called the Rat's Nest in o cuter stetch of Zone 3. A dude ina studded up vest nods ofTout front, Disjawn blasts on massive speakers inside, and pichers of Sewage Brew (16%) are on special for ¥20. Good time for a drnking contest Belly shows up an hour late, skeed out 4nd rolling balls, his already-ermatic personality turned up way 100 high. He wears an armored vest with 4 tac-light and masg pouches,is covered in stick-und-pokes, and has a busted nose mashed o one sde. He says they's running lte, slams hei pitcher, and jogs out. As he hoofs it he puts his phone and 8-ball in a ziplock bag, and coming 10 & ridge hops over the rail, fallng 30 fet nto the canal below. He dives under and switches on his tac-light, swimming fully submerped down a drainway for an alarming full minute before emenging into an open air tunnel. Puling out some loose bricks, he rerieves a trench Kenife and bullpup, yelling snd spraying off few rounds or no real regson. The Tombs Soundirack: Xavier Wl - Thunder Man Instrumental Belly brings vou down a long, zagging, crudely excavated tunnel of improvised framing and rock bolls. Brushing the loose cart from your clothes, you siep into a colossal surge chamber; a concrete tank the size of a cits block used 1o control flooding during monsoon season. Walking among the S0-foot-tall pillars streaked with long. patinas of mincral residue, you enter a draimway channel. pass through another narrow excavation, and finally emerge into a large,dusty catacomb. Eiectric lanterns are scatiered through the ornate burial chamber, casting angular shadovs across ornate stonework relefs. A crew of tombdwellers covered in shity stick-and-pokes, wearing paiched-up back armored vests with a curling centipede painted on the back, alldrink around the vault stone sarcophagus, velling over a forest of liguor bottes and lile trays of drugs strewn over its Lid. A big dude with cerie, prosthetic ightision eves notices you, and muters in the ear of a small albino woma who prompily vels a everybody o shut the ick up. ‘The Undercity. Colloguially called “the Tombs", the underciy is a massive network of illegal excavations connecting subway utlity tunnels, catacombs, sewers, and the calossal drainage system that prevents flooding during monsoons (similar to the G-Cans in “Tokyo). This abyrinth of downward sprawl was frs oceupied by junkies and oogles living rent free, but over the years these tombdwellers developed lucrative drug manufuctuing and smuggling routes. Now heavily armed and more fucked up than ever, these tombxiwellr gangs kil each other non-st0p over the invaluable real estate of the lawless undecity. The main characters will know the common sense in St Disma i to never, for any fucking reason at al, ener the Torbs. 30 n With the Endless Wound Woman, leads the Endless Wound. She does most of Snow, a cruel and humorles albi the talking. +Asks operation detals: who they'd be Killing, where the warehouse s, what i’ used for + When chop shop mentioned, one of the Wound says they would have had to install industeial trench drains for their spray booth, 5o there should be easy access for a surprise attack from below. ~Snow sweeps a dozen botles aside and places a heavily notated map. I’ concluded the area beneaththe Oxhead warehouse is curently contrlled by the Filth Coven +A Deal is Struck: help the Endless Wound seize that stretch of Filth Coven teiory, and the main characters g underground access 10 the warehouse, plus a cut of Coven loot Hiring the Wound t0 actually help storm the Oxhead wasehouse costs ¥250,000 Fight: Storming the Pillbox “The Filh Coven have an outpost that holds he teriory bencath the Oxhead warchouse, a crudely welded pilbox at the bottom of a waterfall juncton. Snow’s rght-hand man (voice: baso) draws baule plans with chalk on the floor: the main characters are a B team that will run inafer the spearhcad and hold the southern tunnel Traversing catacombs, surge chambers, and half & mile of crude tneling. they take inflatable, motorized boats down a huge drainway before ariving near Filh Coven trritory. They come up on a decapiated body hung from the ceiling, its Corpsefuckers SC backpatch crossd out n red spraypain. Belly explain the Coven mark their territory with enemsics s he jumps up and high-fives the corpse, seying ang i there buddy.” The Wound stat uning up with entie 7505 of whiskey and hall- rams of blow s th frst shots ring out up ahead. Fight Soundtrack: Vermin Wornb - Decline LP [wholc slbun] Map: the main characters run through the large waterfll junction where the initial fighting’s happening, one taking 310 offense from the pillbox's heavy machine gun. They reach the mouth of the south tunnel (3 x 12, knee-deep water) just i time 10 50p Filth Coven reinforcements from fucking thei fank. TUNNEL ENEMIES (x3) Fighters: Offense 56 & s# (sword & SMG, range 4) /| Defense 0./ Merk S (x1) Brute: Offnse s8+2 (concussive momingstar) // Defense 2 / Merk 20 (x1) Pslon: Offense 56 (psionic acidbalt, range 12) / Defense 0 / Merk 20 (Spends first u giving all llics 1 defense with Durtion Combat) Gruesome: describe the chaos of the unlit tunnel, the siobing flash of automatic unfire castng silhouettes of decapitations and brutal maulings. Out in he junction the Endless Wound get chewed up by a heavy machine gun nest on top of the pillbox. before overrunning it and hacking apart everybody inside. Fail State: lose the below loot except for ¥3000. Loots heavy armor vest (+2 defense), +2 concussive augmentation (can be equipped to any blunt orce instrument o give it 12 ofense), ¥6000. Pillbox: rough-hewn siairs lead down o an excavated living space whose luxurious fumiture clashes with walls of raw carth and shoddy framing. I the stash room, among crats of stolen goods are cages with exotic genetially engincered animals: the main haracters can take one and decide what it looks like (ky's the limi). 31 #The Black Chalice (Recruitable Political Cell) Wit this on a note, and before the session starts slp it o the actor of the main character who i either the most poitically radical, Eastern Orthodos, o has boxing ‘martial ars experience: “You have an old friend and sparring partner from Napoleon Steet Boxing Gym called No-Lobe, a wild Lithuanian with a long scar racing above where the botiom Balf of his car should be. When last you talked he was running with a call of Christan Orthodox Anarchists called the Black Chalie, allegedly involved with a Seris of banker kidnappings and human trafTcker executions. You know they could be a valuableally in a situation requiring exta frepower.™ — Reminder having an acto present e exclusive nfo ke this s a good changeup o the Key just eling everybody lke sual Setting up the Meet: No-Lobe (Lithuanian accent) maybe pretends to be pissed at the main characte, leading them on for 4 second before saying he’s fucking with them,. He chats them up and says he can make the meet happen todsy. Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Seraphim (Slay City, Municipal Zone 4) Soundirack: Zdravko Mihaylov - We Sing for You, Lord The cathedral s briliant with the light of towering stained glass windows. A priest talks with two laborers near the bapiisty, thir quiel voices echoing massively in the silence betteen liurgies. Near the front of this tranguil microcosm, in a pew beneath an engraving of Saint Alice Domon, sit a knot of black-clad figures. The nearest stands 1o greet you Cultural Shifi: Christan Orthodoxy has become a bastion of radicalism. The teachings of Yeshua the Chrst (using restrained violence and property destruction 1o drive profiteers from the Temple, Matthew 1924, Acts 4:32, Luke 16:13, etc) that would have many from the global north denouncing him a a crazed extremist f they didn’t know who said it are actually being practiced in the ranks of the broader religious populous, ereating condiions for o new breed of highly motivated religio-politcal_insurgent, Along with older movements like the Liberation Theologians, Catholic Workers, Plowshares, Confessing Church, Protodo, and New Taborites, they form an invisible network of safchouses and operative cells across the island of SL. Disma ‘While religio-poliical radicaliss filed o regroup in the 20° century after assassinations of leaders ik the Reverend King, Minister Malcolm X, and Bishop ‘Oscar Romero, the 21° century saw not only 4 significant return o relgious practice, but a resurgence in religiously motivated iberation movemenis across major fuith traditions. The radicalzed within these movees are noted fo their uncommon effectveness as they are A) galvanized by sincere belief in a cosmic valence 1o their struggle, B.) fearless in the face of eternal reward for self- saceifice, C) believe they will be judged for any moral filings, and D) resp all the benefis of sirong leadership in the form of scripture and a higher power, without the draswbacks of ssassinatable or corruptible human leadership. Conversation With the Black Chalice “The most respected member of the Black Chalice scems 1o be Brother Yusuf (Syrian, black beard, discerning eyes, maybe thumbing through a knotted prayer rope). He does mostof the falking + Ask sbout the operation. Their rules are no innocents, no chance of bystanders, and that all adversaries be given a chance to surrender and repen. (At the final fight this il work against them as the Oxheads ignore them and open fire +16s obvious thei prioriy isn't moncy, just waging war on the owning clas, the overnment that props it up, and “other malevolent elements” like cartels and human raflckers. +Ask the main character’s names and about their backgrounds. Tnquire i any potenial connections o law enforcement, banks and finance, human exploitation, the stat etc +Katsumoto asks about their name, why Black Chalice? One responds that black is the historical color of anarchist lags from the Zapatistas to the Makhnovshching armies. “The ehalice symbolizes the most precious blood of the isen Mashiach. +Onee the conversation stats 10 feel done, one of the Black Chalice checks their watch and says “We're about 40 out. Any closing thoughts?” They tell the main characters they Il be in touch. Pass / Fail: Black Chalice aren't hard-up for allies — if the main characters came off as elass trators or idolators, no phone call. 1 the two crews seemed sympathetic gets call telling the they re down. the main character who knows No-Lobe » Return soundirack to DJ Krush - 3nd Eye HOQ Package: when the main charactes return to their HO, they find a package with a black chalice sharpicd on it The doors of the HQ are al locked and there are no signs of forced entry. “The package coniains a stucco replica of the Palas de 'Autorité Civique (capitol building of the St Disma government): 10 tall, heavy, but clearly hollow i inspected. When smashed open, illegal Weapon enhancements (harmonic oscillators and concussion hammers) wrapped in cloth tumble out, along with a ote that reads “good instinci. see you soon.” Harmonic oscillators and coneussion hammers ore small enhancements casily un/installed on hand-to-hand weapons. Putting a harmonic oscillator on a cuting weapon causes ts blade to vibrate at S6KI1z, increasing it slicing ability and giving it +1 offense. Putting a concussion hammer on 4 crushing weapon induces 4 splitmicrosecond gaseous. cavitation bencath ambient saturation pressut, the immediate collapse of surounding air generating o few hundred kilopascals of acoustic energy, giving that weapon +1 offense. There's one harmonic oscillator or concussion hammer for cach main ‘character, matching to their preferred weapon type. B *Anquan xVx & the PKC (Recritable Side Character & Gang) Weite this on a note, and before the session stats slp i 10 the actor whose main character would most likely know Anquan: “You're acquainted with Anguan xV, & wigspliter from Municipal Zone 5. He's sraight edge (sober, hates drugs), and a shotcaller for PKC (o gang that preys on drugrumners and drafts from the island's straight edge subculture) Has @ prtemmatural talent for violence. You've worked with himm before, and thik you could gt him to bring some PKC eads sround to take the warchouse. A real public type figure, Anquan's almost ahvays. Morning: training a VI Limbs fight gym (Zone 5) Afternoon: reading ot Grindeore House cafe, usualy history (Zone 5) Nights 1 Hardeore show Scene: VI Limbs Fight Gym (Morning) Soundirack: Black Thought - Making a Murderer Insteumental s you open the doors of the gym you're greeted by the din of open mat: the echoing WATOOMs of kick shields and Thai bags gettng i up, the percussive thud of focus mitts and double-tether bags, and the chatter of students bulshiting between rounds of sparring. Your man Anguan sits a the for wall, towel over his shoulders, siretching out witha couple other rainees. What do you do? Scene: Grindeore House Cafe (Afternoon) Soundirack: Fiend - Derailed EP Heavil tattooed old heads si in the sun out front an old-world, dilapidated building, Shooting the brecze about new records and how much bettr the scene used 10 be. Inside, a strange mis of actvisi-looking types and carjacker-looking types mingle under visibly shaking sterco speakers. An wmistakable figure hulks on worn couch. reading o volume enitled “Medieval Persia 1040 - 1797 and pensively urning a mug of coffe. What do you do? Side character: Anquan xVx oice: Baitone 62" and yoked, tattooed up to the chin, typical fighter scas (sl cuts around brows and cheeks, busted nose, caulflower ear) today wearing an XREPRISALX longsleeve. ‘Good-humored, but a capacity for violence comes off him like smoke. PKC shotealler, makes his living robbing dopeboys; neighborhood willactvely protect him and PKC. I asked why he hates drugs: cven though he saw how they fucked up eversthing in the shums he grew upin he st el into using as kid he thought if he couldn't have. happiness, at least he could have pleasure. He watched as opists hijacked his reward systmn, robbing i of the cndorphin rush that comes from personal sccomplishment or elping somebody out, watched his tolerance catch up every time he ncreased his dose s0 he was burning through cash just to ot get dopesick. It only made his shity life even worse, so now h takes his evenge by destroying their cancerous spread. 34 Finding a Hardeore Show (Nigh) Searching the billboard of a punk / metal / hardore record shop, skate shop, venue, of Grindeore House produces a photocopied flyer with amateurish art of two crust punks robbing a garbage tuck at gunpoint_ Fatalism and four other bands are playing tonight at the Merzbowl: ¥25, doors at 7, bands a . Any main characters who came up skating or playing music know the Merzbowl s an llegal skate park and DIY space hidden inside a warchouse in the Industrial Quarter (Municipal Zone ). Scene: The Merzbowl Soundirack: Trapped Under lee - Reality Unifolds [demo version] — Strtrack extemely quictand um up s hey nter warchouse A sliver-thin moon hangs in the light polluted sky above the Industrial Quarter. Distant unshots crack in the night. As you rol up on a non-descript warchouse you can feel as much as hear muffled soundaves from within. What do you do? Front doors locked. Behind the warehous, showsoers loudly talk, sip on 405, and pass around a blunt. A dude with face tatoos and a Shugfest shit puts ¥25 from ¢ach main character into a ile strongbox and stamps the back of their hands. Inside: You're hit with a tangible wall of sound that resonates through your limbs and lungs. A three-piece plays on the back of a squat quarter-pipe while young heads run across the makeshit stage and flip back into the roiling crowd. Big goons in bluc GeAxMx CREW hoodies break up fights and kecp point for bad falls. An Indian dude with a black beard and cybernetic eves hops on the stage with a guest mic right before a breakdown and the kids lose their fucking minds. What do you do? Anguan is standing in the back by the Death Rites merch table. Some wobs in front of an IWW banner hand out pamphilets on industrial sabotage and insurgent labor organizing, their able crowded with literature, s ox o Conversation With Anquan xVx « Asks about detils of operation, how far along their planning i et. +Ifthe Oxhead drug operation is mentioned, Anqu is down, no charge, but only on the condition that all drugs on site flushed or torched. *If drug angle not mentioned, his fee s ¥10,000. + PKC i red hot since allegedly disappearing a local crew of meth caoks. While Anguan's interested, he won'tbe bringing any soldiers with him. « Declines if any of the main characters seem lke addiets or dealers. GreTs 1t Anquan successfully recruited, he shows up with a HOTrod for cach main character when they link forthe aperation (write down) HOTrod (hemostatic osteablast & thrombin rod): the pinnacle of combat medical devices, this red S-inch rod with a button on top delivers a compound of thrombin- mimicking nanites and synthetc osteoblasts. Heals 20, costs @ move action. 35 The Battle of the Oxhead Warehouse Soundirack: Aniomals as Leaders - CAFO [only once fight begins] Entry: skylights, loading bay door (only openable from inside), a large trench draimway i the center of the floor Front daor (south) is heavily reinforced. — Remembersurpisd combatants g0 ast, and have O defense il her frst . Battleground & Setup Strategie Cover: heavy racking full of car doors and other parts. +Starting Position: half the sarting poons are within attack /charging range s0 the main charactes can take advantage of thir surprise atack. +Two Doors: on noth wal, lead to rest of warehouse. More goons come out o these. + Map Style: mecharmor marker is 2 x 2. On numbered goon markess, s helpful 1 write R (for ranged) or H (for hand-to-hand). Flip when merked. Map s 12 x 18 grid. Optional: add second level 1o map with a 2 x 12 mezzaine. +No Fight Map: helpful 0 chunk enemies up into squads, eferring to them by location (eastern squad, chop shop fireteam etc) ALLIES «Anquan xVx (only if recrited) Stats: Offens s14+2 (arge ammer with Judge sicke) // Defense 3 / Merk 40/ Move 7 ‘Specals: Worldbeater (e 58-2 unarmed atack when 10,20, and 30 merk reached) Mizucorp Fibroblasic Applicator (fulyrestores one merked charseer 1 0 affensc Taken. N scton cost: nasal spay deploys nnites simight nto bloodstram) OFFENSE TAKEN: #The Black Chalice (only if ecruited) Al Black Chalice have Move 5 Brother Yusuf: bearded man, besrded sxe Offense Taken: Offense s14 +1 1/ Defense 3 1 Merk 10 Medha Tal: ndian woman withsick icon-engraved sword Offense Taken: Offense $12+2 / Defense 2/ Merk 20 Bulganin stocky marksman, combat knife on vest Offese Taken: Offense s16 (rnge 40) / Defense 1 // Merk 10 No-Lobe: buckvild Lithusnian with a shotgun Offnse Taken: Offense s10 (rnge 2) / Defense 1/ Merk 20 Chaplain Volkov: psionic spabily, SMG Offense Taken: Offense s (range )/ Defense 1 // Merk 10 Revive o half merk range I, sngle use) 36 ENEMIES Tactics: spread atacks out evenly (don't instantly merk the weaker main haracters). + Goons: warchouse starts with 5 goons (+9 if Black Hand recruited, +3 if Anquan recruited). 2 additional goons arive from back rooms every tumcycle or three tums. [ 2/ /7 3/ vy Py Stats: Offense 56 ranged (8 sides)or 56 hand-to-hand / Defense 1/ Merk 3 // Move 5 +Brute: on the frst Oxhead turn a brute arrives from the back rooms. Ifimmobilized or disarmed, e fires a sawed-ofT (56, range 4/ 4 afte 2 sirdes). ats: Offense s12+1 (-1 harmonic swrd) / Defense 1/ Merk 10 // Move 7 OFFENSE TAKEN — 1 the main characters s under-chalenged, send out mors brtes. +Mecharmor: there’s an older model of light mecharmor (basically an armored pod with mounted guns mechanized lgs; used for diffcull mountain of jungle terrain) in the chop shop. Biometri lock requires registered handprint to access. Boss of the fight, but akes time o activat: 1 1Turn 1 Goon sprints to mesharmor, locks himselfin | | Turn 2 Fires up engines 1 1 Turn 3: Calbrtes wespons sysems, sands 11 Turn 4 Tokesfrst um Stats: Offense $12 (50 cal HMG, range 30) / Defense 3 // Merk _/ Move 3 (Base merk i 50, +10 f Anquan V' reruited, +60 if Biack Hand recruited) OFFENSE TAKEN: When alle sid charaters esliz the mesharmor i scualy in working condion they'rc noticeably ratled (imagine reaizing you's about o fight Sherman tank). Fail State It Tooks like the main characters wil get wiped out, It the last main character sanding. merk the mecharmor (even f i’ not close 0 being merked). As a far trade, inflit loss: “The +The second m; haracter merked has mild amnesia and loses ther next level n character merked loses an arm (a prosthetc is ¥20,0004) 3 The Rest of the Warehouse & Loot I Anquan xVx survives, he smashes the pill press and theows the captagon g-packs into a wilty sink, leaving the water on. IF Chaplain Volko survives they administer last rites, luding t0 Oxheads. A) Chop Shop: in a stationary vice, parly sripped for cleaning is an H&K Deposer, a high-grade automatic rifle that can immediately make another atack (can be different target) when it lands an 8. (s8 + fast, ange 20. Worth ¥15,000.) B) Warchouse Floor: a mastersork MDS sawed-off with raptor grip and modified gas displacement system hat attenuates recoil. Respins 15 (86 +£ast,range 4, 54 afler 2 strides. Worth ¥8,000). Any 1 harmonic oscilltors (worth ¥5,000 each) from meked brutes. € Pill Labs chemistry equipment, pill press, 14 g-packs of captagon (worth ¥10k Wholesale). ¥12,000 n small bill are packed inside a suitcase. D) Lobster’s Room: an ad hoc luury suite. Door is locked but fimsy (0 strong to kick open). Lobster Mercier is hiding behind the bed. and immediately takes a shot at the breacher (s2), but is easily overpowered (merk 2). Uness somebody stops him, Katsumoto takes Mersier' parafield and pops him in the thigh so he can't run off. EXIT PHASE 1 the ms exit plan was “Ubh gucss DIl ust head back to my car and hope for the best?” punish them with a close call as the hooks pull over the car in front of then, oF ‘with the Oxheads catching their plates and taking revenge next season o something. charact After the Operation Soundirack: Quasimoto - Boom Music Instrumental Wadasie starts coordinating the teibunal (takes about 12 hours) a5 soon as she’s contacted 101 take place at the Hourglass Ballroom, an abandoned music venue in Sewerd Park, Zone 3. The main characters need to b there 1o tetify and receive payment. —» Montage through however the main characters choose 10 spend the net 12 hours. (I they try and alk to Mercie he says he s above speaking with terorists) “The Childerie Bee: while lesving for the tribunal, somebaxly notices glnt under Lobster Mercier’ collar, puling out a gold curb chain with 4 gamet-nset golden bee pendant Anybody with Worldliness 1+ recognizes it as o Childeric Bee replics, symbol of French monarchic power. This can be used as blank (0 st up future storylings (page 41) or justa i reward for a suceessful operation (worth ¥50,00). B Outro: The Trial of Lobster Mercier Soundirack: Pete Rock - Mind Frame Instrumental Gauge Interests if the actors just wanna se the Labster's end, quickly summarize. I they Wanna ge involved with the tial's discourse,thei opinion is valued by everybody present. ‘The Hourglass, an Abandoned Venue in Zone 3 Ouside,the Yordbastards (s working class suedehead gang usually holding a picket line in the shipyards or fighting Sang et Tere in the stadium distric) are working scurity and keeping 3 perimeter. The Bastards receive the main characters with triumphal stadium chants 15 they roll into the Hourglass’ oading-vard and present the Lobster Inside, the negected venue is it with portable floodlights. Friends and families of the vietims plus a dozen community members setle in. Wudasie spols the main characters and gestures them over. Salvatore i with her, shakes all theie hands, and gives them a backpack filed with cash: ¥20,000 for each main character Etienne Mercier, hands bound, stands on the stage in front of pictures of all 27 vietims of the Scilla Hills collapse. A Black Panther attorey named (Albertna) Sostre represents the prosecution. An activist lawyer and restorative justice advocate named (Shouyi) Mo represents Mercier. The gathered people will srve as en han judiciary. Citizens’ Tribunal ~Opening arguments: Mazi argues nothing done to M arguing in favor ofsrct pacifism and forgiveness Sostre responds that indeed one should always forgive, but the workd must also be proteeted from sociopaths like Mercier: while he has the pomp of iches to end him a sense of decency, in terms of human ham he is worse than several seral killers. He cannot be le fee to continue bis depravity. +Evidence: presented documents and winess testimony show Etenne Mercier repeatedly ignored or downplayed reports of structural compromise in the Scilla Hills 10304 building, while stillpulling about ten million yuan ayear from that property alone. + Mercier Pops OfF: he says (French accent) something like “This is a circus, an absundity — a rabble of churehmice and hooligans lashing out in emvy at someone who actually made something of themselves. +Sentencing: euilt now established, Mozt proposes only seizing the entirty of Mercier's assets, and redistributing it (0 the workers and tenants he stole it from. Sostee says they should take everything and execute Mercier for crimes against humanity. Lobster Mercier,sealizing this trial i more than symbolic, starls 0 sweat. + The Debate: many still areving the loss of loved ones demand exeeution or worse. Others argue it would be better optcs and perhaps a better moral lesson o strip everyihing he owas butlet himlive. Counterarguments abound. + The Compromise: someboy brings up that the ltimate nightemare of soft-handed twb of guis like Mercier is work. Why not send him over 1o Malaysia (officilly “The Malayan Worker's Confederation) where he can spend the res of his ife in & labor camp? People quiekly warm to the idea. + Resolution: 4 Malayan ambassador is rached on a scrambled line, and gets the green light from his colleagues: the MWC formally offes to rehabilitate the criminal Etienne Mersier in their most high-profile reeducation faclity. The ambassadr gives his word hat Mercierwill pay his debt o humanity i full, and his t0il will be wel-documented as an admonition o th global owning class and other cconomic criminals. A dogerate is fetched from o nearby pet supply store and Lobster Mercier St in. Trusted seafaring contacts are already on their Way to a nearby dock. A squad of armed Bastards throw Mercier i the back of a van and roll out of the Hourglass's loading-yard o raucous celebration, e will bring back the vietims, £ +Crew Ambition Complete: “Deliver the Lobster” Lobster Mercier found, snathed, and brought o justice Reward: +1 lovel and ¥20,000 each Naming of the Crew A Tamous arist who attended the tribunal catches up with the main charactes, showing Sketches of them handing over Mercier. She'll be turning these sudis into o large oil painting, and wants (0 tte it with whatever they call themselves. Optional: for the best crew name, tell everybody 10 bring a few at the 1op of next session — whoever brings the avorite by vote wins 3 SP Close the seene with: the main characters are widely congratulated. Somebody gives them a nugget of asteroidal platinum that belonged to their son (crewman on 4 sort station) who was Killed in the collapse, a mourning Muslim couple press onyx misbaa beads into one of their hands, a gravelly old head says they al drnk for frce at his bar for life ete. While tomorrow the for-profit media networks will wail about containing one’s anger 0 voting booth, the peaple of St Disma celebrate the unlikely tumph of justice a their community. Coda Soundirack: Denzel Curry - Zone 3 {start el qict] S night fals the news spreads and the celebrations gain momentum. Every block of Municipal Zone 3 slowls roils into a party is residents in disbelif they e brought an untouchable member of the ruling elite 0 real and lusting justice. Doors are lft open 10 neighbors, people empiy into the sireets, music exudes from every speaker and rival cligues save drama for another day. More and more people begin 1o recognize you, onking horns and popping.off bottlerockess, offering drinks and joints, enraptured by the story of how a fex no-name volunteers dogwalked a mid-level gang; and snatched away one of the island's most vile shunlords. As you slow roll down the jumping main drag of Zone 3. the closing shot slowls cranes up, rising above the grime, summer breees, and sky-piercing towers of St Disma. —» Blast the rack. Keep it Rolling 1 everybody likes the show and wanis o keep meeting for sessions,here ae a few ideas for season two's Crew Ambition (remember to otate Key Narators) +Guts of the City: some major players got waxed, and a eiabl source seys theie massve. stash s sl hidden sommewhere in catacomb bencath Gascany Park. + Decapitate the Serpent: a woman calling herself “Mirror” meets wilh the main ‘haracers. She says her people ar posting bounies on vory v zakone eadership (page 47). and offers then ntel on the vor captins: cach contols a“pleasure house” in Slav City and as elite psionic security. They can work ther way up the foodchain 0 the pekhan (boss), o take out a few and frame the others, leaving them 1o desroy themselves. Unclar if she's from a rval nganization, he govermment, rogue security i, jus out fo revenge elc. e Lobster's Childeric Bee pendant is actualy an orginal (worth about ¥25,000.000 but extemely difficult o fence) and word' gotien out who has it. French ulranaionalists and old fushioned jockers like come gunning for the main characters + Marching on the Bastions of the Morningstar: the Black Chalice call in o well- deserved favor. A medical manufucture called Scepte Holdings has bought a seled patent o a treatment that keeps Mesothelions in remission, but are charging several thousand times its manufacturing cost, eaving patiens t somehow gt the funds or dic. A couliton assault squad is ploting to eter their Zone § tower disguised as custodial S, fight their way theoush heavy mercenary presence and cybermetc arca denial systems, jack the patent OfFthe highest loor, nd bailusing microgliders to iy down into the city. +Cleaning House: the main charsetes investigat a series of bormbings across St. Disma, A string of clues brings the to an ccofascist safehouse in th city, and then poins them to & IEcephale (page 46) compound out in the Teardrops, a decent recration of Lubart Castle. After bulldozing the heavly armed inbabitants and burning thei fucked up natue temple where they sacrifice animals and shil, they find evidence of collaboraton with the siting government — weapons shipments, ntel on tival poliical groups, and bomb-making materal. Creating a New Show I everybody wants o keep meeting for sesions, but un a different seting or genre, just bang out the below seps. 1. Agtee on a show concept: something with a ot of namative potental like uncovering supernatural secrets in the thrivng cites o the Bronze Age, or exploring & smal planet of destroyed civilizations now nfesed with stange lfeforms. 2. First Key Narrator steps up: since they I be running the shar, they now have creative conrol over the setting. Key, its your job to come to that frt sesson with an cpisode that introduces the main charactrs and sets the Crew Ambition in motion. If you're @ irst-imer, check out page 15 for cash course. 3. Aptee on a Crew Ambition: can be something immediate like repeling the riders boarding the ship you're all passengers on (*Merk the Raiders”). Can be something open- ended like & crew of longtime associstes stating private detective agency and waiting for their first case to walk in the door (il First Case”). Can be something longform like finding alost map and then pillging the torb of the tyrant Kashif Sultan (-Into the Crypt 4. Actorsereate & crew of main characters: castyou'd wanna watch an actusl show about interesting group dymamics, believable for the seting, and sl driven o move the show's plot Torward. . Lock ina time for that firs session: seriously. do this sep now. 1 you kik that can down the rosd everybuods's schedsle s gonna fill up and your game probably won't happen. a1 Bump Scenes Scenes thatcan be dropped int the middie ofasesion. Use them o change up gameplay o nject acton. sociaL ~ Psycho shows up: idealy at the worst time possible. Just 2o buckowild with this one. * Revolver: while traveling, laying on a building, or wailing for & meet the main charactrs sart tlking about thir favorie spots around the city. Go around and get an answer from each main character —a dive bar, DIY space, athlete club, shooting range, pool hall, union hall, party headqurers, soup Kitchen, record shop, secret spot in 4 bando or out in the Teardrops ctc. Ask about anything intcresting hey bring up, and write down anything you might want to use lter. +Point of Contention ing, locking a building, or waiting for & meet the main characters get in a straight up shouting match bul over something absurd. What s i€” Emphasize it can't be Serious, but completely inconscquential shit like whether it's OK to put noodls in chill, if water can be wel, grape s orange soda etc. Egg them o with Katsumoto caling one a depraved pervert and another “lterally Hil while trav FlGuts ~ Bump Fight I: squad of goons sent by tail picked up at the Lobster's mansion. Page 13, ~ Bump Fight I: squad o goons sent by ail nformed by sheisty clerk. Page 14. +Advanced Combat: 4 contract kille with an invi surprise attack (arget’s defense doesn’t apply). ity mutaion. Set it off with — Stats: Offense s10+1 (spear) / Defense 2 / Merk 20 / Move 6 Tacties: stick and move. Will use spear to strike from a swide away. svoiding counterattacks and making his positon diflicul 10 determin. ‘Solutions: have something n the scene to deop o top of im — bags of cement or flour, cans of paint, large banners etc. A nearby puddie or pool would allow the main charactes to sée where he's standing. Also the Anniilate Psionics premade Specil. Merked: dead. Skin continues to show distortions of nearby scenery like a bizarre, elitching out chamelcon. Loot: dope Yoshida Armory speas.Inherent +1 offense (s10 +1 +strong, range 2, lock 1). Telescopes to 24 for storage. If pockets gone through (multi-tool, petty cash) an unsigned note says “double rate, Royal Barbell 732, confirm at second spot”. There is also a small key in the assassin’s pocket. Looking in a phonebook identifis a Royal Barbell powerlftng gym in Od Town; the key fits locker 732 which contains ¥10,000 PuzZLE + The Mierosafe: contacts of Katsumoto link up. They'se having trouble with a high-end model of microsafe that most likely conting some real incriminating shil, but will incinerate its contents if tampered with, I's tubular, just over a foot long, and has @ combination lock of 3 rings around the lid, each mumbered 1 10 100. 1t was allegedl scored in bank job targeing the strongbos of Li Xiang Vu, one of the politicans leading the fearmongering campaigas agains people with advanced bioactive mulations. Solution: 50, 10, 5 (Vs ntals a5 roman numerals). Loot: 2 SP and ¥2,000 for cach main character. Contacts say they defowe them a favor. 2 If the Entire Crew Gets Merked Soundirack: GZA - Queen’s Gambit Insteumental The first pangs of consciousness are the pains of ifuries: cracked ribs, cut lips, yawning. gashes and aching bruises. One by one you sir back 10 the world of the lising, wrisis bound ehind you, and the lastdreanike haze of a heay sedative fling. What do you do? The main characters wake up in the guts of a mid-sized ship; weapons, parafields, pho and valuables gone. Their wrists are bound with cord (tzong 4 o bust ou), + The lengthy sopor they just woke from counts as a full i them and restoring their once per day Specials. s skep, healing Other Prisoners: there are three other people in the hold. One came aboard willingly (poor bastand volunteered himself into savery 10 pay ofT his family’s debis). so knows the ship is currenty loading up in the Teardrops, a chain of smal slands in intermational waters just off the St Disma coast. They're headed for an underground slave market in Laos where they'll ll be auctioned off Hold: there’s & heavy watertight door (strong 15 to kick open), a large cargo hatch n he celing (strong 2 1o 0l but must have unbound wrists), and & bundle of wires in the celing's corner held in place by metal zip-ies with poorly rimmed jagged edes. Possible Solutions * Cut bonds on jagged metal zp-tie edge (set high enough by sitting on comrade’s shoulders) or another believable sharp implern *Make a racket unil one of the smugglers angrily osses a tar gas Hold, but quickly wedge something in the door. *Tear out the wires. In about five minutes angry exclamations can be heard and the. armed crew enter the hold to ix the wires. Strong main character just lifts cargo hatch for everybody els to craw out, ade inside the Once the main characters leave the hold they were locked i smuglers who p they counter one of the s and runs off o get the ret of the crew Thee drunk assholes that oy speak French. All have a move score of 5. sTATS Shortstack Offense 54 (24" pipe wrench) // Defense 0./ Merk 5 Big Guy Offense s4 (machets) / Defense 0/ Merk 5 Beard Offense 5242 (Glock 31/ Defense 0/ Merk 2 (remermber firsarm offense doubled agsins target with no parsfied) ion ofkiling save traffickers. ftaken alive snd asked sbout who sold the main charscters to them, the smugelers just describe whoever merked the main characers (never g0t real names of conlact nfo) showing up at thei boathouse since they have a reputation for sllng humans in Lsos, Stash: rows of stolen flatsereens, dozens of crates of knock-ofT designer goods. The main characters phones are in & duffel bag of boosted phones and tablets. Main characters” Weapons are sewn up into a large commercial canopy tent with a few AK—47s and a Gall ACE 52 (rifle with inherent +1 1o offense: $§ +1 +fast, range 20. Worth ¥10.000). Eight brand nenw je skis are double-stacked up on the deck. In the cabin, a fourth smuggler is passed out on a bunk with a half-fnished 750 of Monar a +On Last Week’s Episode Soundirack: NAH - Be Cool Fucker Start each new session by going over the events of last session, ending by setting the scene where you left of. *Closing Ceremonies Soundicack: MF DOOM - Atrow Roat End cach session by running through three categorics 1. Tha Golden Domez: 20 around the circle and award each player 2 SP. As i’ avarded the group gets (0 decide what s for (1 present 0 you tha Golden Dome award for Worst Plan Humanly Possible” etc). 2.Key's Cholce Award: favorite performance of the session (2 more SP 1o that actor). 3. Completed Ambitions: give SP for any Ambitions wrapped up. ZONE CHECK “The istand of St. Disma s sectioned into twelve municipal zones. Zone 1: O1d Town. Heavy with the Neo-Barogue architecture popular during the mid 21" cntury: Mosty i lames,politcans,and celebits. Zone 2: Le Miroi (old work, middle income), The Flts brickwark neghborhood alons scenc canah), Woodshrine Beach (dunes and goons. this cuty seaside neighborhood is seeing severe overcrowding and property values i freeall as more impovershel American enigrants move in). Zone 3: where the main charactrs are from: mostly populated by poor English- speakers from the presenty collapsing American empire. Home 10 the city's most volent shums, Zone 3 is ofen derided as “Disney Land" and is residents mocked as American pop culture figures (John Wayne etc). Major neihborhoods: Sewerd Pk, Barrio Tres Santos, Cannery Disrct, The Yards, Wharton (“Wartora™ Heighs, Rosewood, Dithiow: Zone 4: Cherry Bay (hills, rowhouses, light industey), Slav City (emigants ranging from Sczecin o Viadivosiock), Indonesiatown (mostly climate refugees from sgriculturally oblitrated Southeast Asia. Large Thai and Filipino populations as ell, Zone 5: The Industrial Quarter (ports and factories), The Gash (teraced slum in a stcep valley). Zone 6: Mosty Little Bombay (wealth disparity about as insane as the old country tech billionaire skyserapers near the tower distriets give way to labyrinthine shanty towns rife with hunger, sweatshops, and Naxalites killing sweatshop owners). Zone 7: Tower disrcts. Business District (mostly finance and elobal 500, basically the Lower Manhattan of St. Disma). Zone 8: Tower disricts Downtown (commeree and offce megatowers, many private muscums,extravagant heaer,fouist pots) Zone 9: Tower districts. Fog Hill (sn extravagant playground of the international rich). Jewelers' Row (high-end recail), Gaseony Park. Zone 10: Gestas Heights (megamansions and private forests of intemnational bankers), Maplegate (sweatshop owners that scream and shit their pants if you don't call them “job creators”, their rophy wives), Les Machoires (Ich masi-wah / “the jaws”, & long cape of pristine private beaches and gorgeous terraced neighborhoads) Zone 11: Seawinds (contins the world-fomous Sundaland Common, & mall with palladiun-glass domenways extending out nto he waters of the ncarby reef). - Stadium Distriet (Muay Thai, Lethwei, and boxing all huge: the Reapers are at the bottom of the Big3 basketbal eague, the Sharks are rushing their divison in Kabaddi the St. Disma Saints are actually doing half-decent in the National Rugby League). Zone 12: The Teardrops (4 chain of islands fom the S Disma coast wel o intcrnational wotrs, autioned off by the St. Disma goveenment i the previous centry intrnationl criminal, local crminals, e shelers and money launderrs, Corporate exlaves operating ouside the aw, and mysteious palace-compounds of billonares withespecilly llgal vices Al fortied and craning with private securiy). » The city's name derives from the reef he sland was buill over.“Saint Disma’ s the antiquated French form of Saint Dismas, the good thief. s GROUPS & FACTIONS Social tectonics and endless plot il for ongoing games. Political: when a government s to serve ts constituency, it fuces a crisis of legtinacy. Generatons of poverty and frusration with a political body that oly legislates on beblf of lobibyists bas made St. Disma a hotbed of increasingl radical parspolitical insttutons and multple insurgencies. Here are the most poverful poliical entitcs in St. Disma + Zaishen Monarchists: sbsoltist monarchists from the mainland who belicve in Han Chinese e supremacy, and the subjugation of all ther chnieities. They e soslesced around 3n obscurc descendant of the Ming dynastc lincage named Zhu Zaiji wha they claim is lcral celestal ensy, the biologcally supreme of the biologically supreme. Goals: drive “clhnic Disema and the South China Sea, atack the siting government,sterlize anybody with advanced mutation, establish Han Chinese arisocrac. + Ecofascisti really love naure, and really want race war. Starid s stree gangs like Sccond Sicge, Butcherbinds, and I'Eccphale. Like most reactionary groups, the ccofasciti angue those bom with composit mutations are an antifiilly divergent specics, making them genctc Campettors and thas 8 longerm existential threat to humns. Goal: atack corporations who. degrad the natural envisonment, atack non-whitcs, attack egaltarian groups, aack psions and anybedy cle with composite mutations, atack cybernetc suons and genciic engincers. + Masculofuturists: well-sroomed, over-educaed fascists whe only allow gay male membersip. They belicve wormen are underdeveloped subhumans and should not be permited citizenship or uman rights The Fuurists have a big thing for the “classcal canon' of ar and heraure, Russll Veh, Ernst Rk, philosophy, and anique status ofjacked dudes. Gaals: extrminaton of non-whits, subjugaton of women and hterosexaals, amed strugale for s own sake. Sang et Terre: French ulranatonalist movement that propounds stcep and very complicated clhic_hierarchy. with (suprise) Frenchmen on top. Weirded out by the ccofascisi and masculofuturists, but will work with them 1o arget the siting government, non-whics, cxaliarian groups,ctc. Goal: kick out the non-whites, dominate the other while cthnicites, xterminate anyhody withadvanced mutatons, make St. Disma @ protectorate of France. + Nasalites: @ type of Maoism tha merged in India's ulra-impovcrished red coridor. Huge presence in Litle Bombay (Zone 6). Usual subfactions of Leninists, Trotskyiss, Hoaxists, Crthodox Marists ctc. Goals total war sgainst private orporations and any zovernment which supports them, requistion of producton facors from private contrl o worker coniol, foment revalutionary Sentiment,mplement new goverment managed by Naxalite vanguard pary ~ Eastern Orthodox Anarchists operse i small cels and “study groups” acros the sland. The most moivated are in Sav City, where several prominent priests and monastics preach Yeshua the Chiist using violence on the money changers i 3 clea call for war against the worlds ovwning class. Common graffi: Luke 16:13, Matthew 20:25.28, Pralm 146, Acts 432, Matthew 19:24, Acts 5:20, “fuck the state, no king but Chris” etc. Goals: war agains the marmon worshipers (1 ula-wealthy and private corporations) crush the idol of the state, serve the poor sick. exploited, and hungry. ufi Mystic Zakatists (The Waisi: rdical Muslm socialists who conside jhad 3 righteous strugale 1o liberate the poor and subjugated. Currealy gining scrous momentum a5 thei ighters retan from coalition operstons wiping u the 1st o the Wabbabists n Southwest China snd the Arab Peninsula. Known for ther small wrs sgainst the St. Disma drug carcls. Goals: uplif the poor and oppressed, atack private corporations and dug cartels, retur their profisto the neighborhoods they preyed on, bolsh et drugs. + The St. Disma Government, RES: the urren St Disima goverment exiss almost exclusively 10 serv privae intees, their lobbyiss, and the wealthy. While the last decade has been 4 non. stop legitimacy i, th sat docs have the abilty o pint infiite money, and also i private detective agencie, sccurity firms, and even intemational mescenarics {0 subdue the above insurgences. A recen, closely-guirded tactic has been coverly funding and training various organized crminals and parapaliical roups (cheap to mobilze, don't have o amswe for uman vights violaions) 1o atack the government’ poiical competitors, o iniliate them and become wicckers from within. Goals: subsume moderate political altrnatives, discredit and disble parapolitical competitors, manufacure public approval o e state, keep the money flovwing. 6 Criminal: acevites range from husmble operations like bookics, smuggling, and moving soft drugs o st evil sit ke human trafficking and hard drug distribution. Sze fanges from imtemnatonal cartels o strect-level small-timers * Yakuza: the smallest of the major criminal organizstons but hokding their own mostly by Clevely framing piting ther cnemics against cach othe and maintaining a rulhss monopoly o importng weapons. Specialize in gambling,sugling, save ralicking, and kidnapp +Vory v Zakone: “theves in lan”, Russian mob. The vary sse mostly uaning amphetamines, pary drugs, sex slaves, and extoting smalles operaions. Known fo their Zone 4 ouses”, palatial mansionsof drus, gambling, prostitution clc caering (0 wealthy eles. Have a weid ting for making captured enemics Gght 1 the death a5 gambling spectace Triad: ethnic Chinese organized by family and sccret socicty. They move huge amounts of opiates from the poppy fekds of Southeas Asia, manufacture counles tons of caplagon, and control the most eritory o th island, aking cuts from very small-time operation n thei url + The Fuyant ("fui-yohn") Cartel: leadership are French ex-military and ex-inllgence. Operating in an impenciable covert netwok, even the sitting government and more tradional crminal insituions are hesitan to fuck with than, Currntly hav the wildly lucrative cocaine marketon lock, and sxe umored t have mermbership in high finance and world banks. +The Daskn Cartel: recently unifcd Indian criminal syndicates. The worst of the human irafickers in St Disma, and have a ncar monopoly on the Afghani poppy ficlds so are usually ightng the triad forshareof the sland'sopiste market. fombiwelles: caacomibs were created last centry to accommodale the island's skyrocketing population. Together with 3 massve. ant-flood drinage sysim they form sn underground network that has slowly becn overrun by dozens of fucked up criminal gangs tha frecly move: bencath the iy since the governmen,sccurky frms, and otherciminals are ffaid 0 cotcr. Small Timers & Contractors: hard drug manufocir. soft deug manufacture, st evel drug. disrbution, bookies, sport and fght fixing, loansharking, extorton, Kidhapping. opposition escarch (stalking) and blackmail, assassinations, strongarm robbery, scamming, high-level specalistburglary, ca thef, fencing, gambling dens, prosttion houses, human traficking and slavery, weapons smuggling, bengn commodiy smuggling, money laundering. — Universal goas fo il the above are &) corner thei curent specialty markets, B) expand. o e markets, € donninate snd extortsmaller operstions, . kil comptiors. . politick, scheme, and backsta 1o make any of the bove happen Philosophical: highly motivated mass moverments that mansged to cohere ouside politcsl or criminal organizing frmeworks + The Jinrui Koken: milltarized technopessimists. Simply cal themscives “pro-uman’”. They beleve A technology hasn' made people happie, ust nereased the speed of thei hedonic neadmil,snd B the consequences of new techaoiogy are unforesecsble. For example, the wniversally owered 10 scores from leaded gasoline, the universal endocrine mutlations rom endemic microplastcs, the mass atomization and suicde ersis of the intemet ea, the structural uncrmployment and cconomic.collapss of the aulomation cra, tc. Subgroups vary, but & unifying convition is 10 prevent new technologies from emerging by destroying rescarch infiasucure snd dissbling ressarch. experts. More radical cells work to undo. currnt technologies, regularly causing blackouts and atacking industial production factors. « Nibilist Accelerationists: belicve that consciousness is a curse, and lfe is 3 vile contagion Sounds like something 4 depressed tcenager would think, but 4 fow decades of neo- hopenbauerist philosophers loaned a sense o scademic seiousness to the Nilist Rencws the imelcctual movement the NiilisiAceeleratiomists emerged from. Moderate groups mercly disrbute fee bielh control and anti-natlist erature, where the radical majorty coordinate igh-casualty ttacks on civlan fargets. Their uniying goal i to worsen mateial condiions sparking war, conflt, and ~existenta realization”. Currently, the NiblistAcseleratonist movemen is n unorganized kalidoscope of ammed clls perpetatng a ot of sabotage, a few Shootings, an the occasional suiide bombing, but if a highly capable, centalizing figure were 1o cmerge they could become an stuslexistental hcat. a7 [Key Narrator Notes] [Key Narrator Notes] “ [Key Narrator Notes] 50 IKey Narrator Notes] st Main Character Creation Each actor creates and controls a main character in the game. As long as they fit the show’s concept and start at level 1, anything goes. +Quicklist ... 1. Snatch a main character sheet from page 127 2. Concept: name, appearance, background e 3. Pick Specials: page 55 - 69, start with 10 SP's worth (you can starthere if you're sl thinking on a concept) 4 Start with merk 10 . Start with 0 defense (top number s just all lower numbers added together) 6. Start with a move score of 7. Main characters fluent in English (spoken by the mostly-American migrants of Zone 3). Spend a fre b in any additonal lnguage (St Disma multilingual) 8. Spend a bar in any major killor anguage (1o barsis fluent) 9. Put one point in any primary 10. Check opposite page for the bonus that primary gives you, write it down - Ready to play Start undeveloped: you mostly figure out who you main characte i 25 you play them, & with the other main characters and interacting with the settng. Leave mad room to remember you'te sartng ot level 1. You're basically the average person with a e SP so forget about any master swordsmman shit. Meet your Key at least halfway: they put together game for you 1o enjoy so don't make 3 main character named Fred Shitbreath or whatever. The show is only as good as everybody's level of buy-in Build your cast cooperatively. Cres chemistry is what really makes @ show jumnp. Try to think of yourselves not s a proup of individuals, but a a crew, a cast of main characters you'd wanna watch an actual show abou. You wanna be able 1o have a slamning pait-off Scene with any two main characters. Two of us play in the same jazz combo” is good, but o really juice a cast, fuck around with dynamics and archetypes — Seinfeld with four Jerrys never would have worked, you know? Background: defines your main character, sure, but also use it 10 seed your future storylines and tie yourself to the setting. Some prompt ideas + Where and how you grewup A group you belong to % A comrade or contact + Yourart /crestive expertise % Your tade vocational expertise % Arival +Culure / subculure | chicity A nickname title and how you got it + Towo ramorsthe other main charsctrs have heard sbout you don'specity e e, or exagserted i comes u o ) Don't bother writing beyond the background box: no amount of backstory will make your main character fel like lving person (that only happens as you play ther). Levels Levels represent a main character’s power. Afler overcoming significant challenge in the show, all main characters gain a level. Leveling up about once every 3 sessions i normal. Start at level 1 with 10,1 Primary P, 10 Special Points, | Knowledge Bar Leve2 1 Primary Pois, 10 Special Points Leva3 1 Primary Point, 10 Special Poiats, 1 Knowledge Bar Leveld 1 Primary Pois, 10 Special Points Leve 5 +1t0all Pimaries, 10 Special Points, | Knowledge Bar Level 6 1 Primary Pois, 10 Special Points Leve 7 1 Primary Point, 10 Special Poiats, 1 Knowledge Bar Level 8 1 Primary Pois, 10 Special Points Leve9 1 Primary Point, 10 Special Poiats, 1 Knowledge Bar Level 10 +110 al Primaries, 10 Special Poiats Lot 11 1 Primary Point, 10 Special Poiats, | Knowledge Bar Leve 12 1 Primary Point, 10 Special Points Leve 13 1 Prmary Pois, 10 Special Points, 1 Knowledge Bar Level 14 1 Primary Poiat, 10 Special Points Level 15 +110 all rimaries, 10 Special Poins, | Knowledge Bar Andsoon Primaries “The core stats of a character. Each primary amps up secondary features, like so sTrRONG © Every 1 point: +1 offense on all hand-to-hand attacks and throwing atacks © Every 2 poinis: +1 defense (put under parry) Every 3 poinis: +1 move score: FAST + Every 1 point: +1 offense on all ranged atacks and light weapon attacks * Every 2 poinis: +1 defense (put under dodge) * Every 3 poinis: +1 move score HARD © Every 1 point: +10 merk * Every 2 poinis: +1 defense (put under gri) = Exery 3 points: heal 1 point of offense taken each turm SMART * Every 1 point: +5 Special poiats (SP) » Every 2 poinis: +1 knowledge bar Your main characte starts at level 1 with a point in any primary (ze10 n the est). Sat-vise this represents the average person. Narratively, primaries are open (o interpreation: smart can mean wise o witt or booksmar,srength can be as-twitch or slow-twitch tc. 5 Major Skills A marative touchpoint for what your main character can casily do. Examples lsted below ae sl subject 0 your Key Narator’ judzmen of the situation, so don'tbe like “do this immediately and eToresly and the book said | can so suck i Automotive Examples 1 bar t0 hotwire an oudted model of car or ot brakelines, 2 o outdrive & pursuing. policecrse o estore a small cngine, 3 o hotwie recent modelsafcar, 4 10 be bl 1 deduce how 10 operate a tank, o outdrive fll-sale olice pusuit with el support Busheraft Examples: 1 bar 1 build a i with no tls o forage caough foo for ne persn, 2 0 forage for a sroup or extmet and braid fiber, 3 1o rack 4 survivalist ying (0 evade you o safcy weaponize Venoms (4 undefendable offnse per tum ith Duraion: Combat, single 1), 410 knap and bind it or osidan weapons rom scatch (2 offnse since made ofsone, bul can crate any §pe of hand-to- Hand wespon or bow) 0 crets & comiortabe setlement withlov-maintenance permacuture Chemistry Examples: 1 bar o flly desroy fingerprinis, 2 to"trace ovigin of 8 sret drug by extracting addiives, 3 to discretly syniesize buiches of mid-grade recreational drgs (¥2.000 worth per weck) 4 to cxtrct posan (6 undefendable ofense pr tum vith Darston: Combat,single use) rom [redacid household product, S 0 make a fag grenade (page 107) it an hour'slabor 1nd ¥100 worth of [edactedindusirial prodics] Electronics Examples: 1 bar to disble & sccuity camera or chesp alarm, 2 to safly disam o homemade. explosiv or defeat a mid-grade sk system, 3 o projet pirse radio n 8 |-l adius or 19 & Specifc newhy trget, 4 to make 3 pulc-swithing EMP device (tmporanly disables nerby lctroncs)outof garbage with thee days abor, t knock out city's powergid with access 0.4 transmission ln, or a specific neighborbood with scces 10 3 substation Gunsmithing, Examples: 1 bar 1o clear jam or assemible your own ammo (S0% discount), 2 10 sabotage a ircarm. with spiked ammo o it cxplodes when next usd (frarm destoyed, cauies irsarm's offnse 1o user. 3 1o sally make your own gunpowder (even n the wilderess) 4 1o make advanced ammunition (automatically espin 1), § 10 machine firarm from meta stock (weck ofabor) Medicine Examples: 1 bar for CPR or 1o stop arial blcding, 2 o idendy a common poscn venom / oxin or resetand splin & compound facture, 3 0 be abe o deduce @ corpacs cause of deth or seal o Sucking chest wound, 4 o reatch 3 severed hand or ientfy 8 e poison / venom / toin, o safely grafteybernetic rostheses Metalworking Examples: 1 bar 1o make a dagger out of scap or defeat a cheap lock, 2 to weld bulleproof armorng onio avehile. 3 to make ny hand-o-hand weapon out of srap, 4 o defeat the door of o ank vaul, 0 make @ hand-to-hand weapan with permanent +1 offene (week of libor) Nanotech Each bar is 2 10% cash discount o nanite based tch (eprsentsbeing able o just creae your o) Stealth Examples: 1 bar o creep past a security guard scrolling through bis phone, 2 0 piekpocket the average person. 3 tocree p behind s seninl and remove the magzine rom hei rifle, 4 1 defcat art museum moton sensars 0 evade & tcam o mercensries rained and cauipped for pursit Worldliness Examples: 1 bar 1 know who pullsthe strings inyour locsl criminal underwarld, 2 (0 know th datc of most major historica events o the seting, 3 o have fricndly conact i every majr city, 4 1o know so many people in bands and abels that you can et on the st of any show on the planct, § 10 Know the names and adessesofthe people who scualy killd JFK. st Specials Powers and unique abiltis. Feel free to char character. Here's how they work #Special’s Name [oal P cos] Acsthetic How it looks Summary: What it docs Effect: The base meshanie (5P cos] any Special's appears e o fit your main Modifers: Opionalupgrades to range/ ara/ duration et [SP cost behind cach] Soure psionics, mutations, genetic engi ering, cybernetic augmentat . nanotech ete. We made it a wide and ambiguous spread so anybody could realize whatever main character concept they had in mind. Premade Specials Even if you know how 1o create your own this book is complted. s Specials already, stick to these until the are in A T s Some Real Basic Premade Stat Specials +CAIL30 Plating [10 sv] Acsthetc: You've had_high-gradecarbide ting sugically mplanicd over your vial organs Summarys +2 defease (permancnt) Effect: Defense Up 2 (2] Modifiers: Duation: Permaneat cffet 15] #Yoked [7 se] Aesthtic You st lf or work fora lving Summarys 1 srong (permancnt). Eftect: Primary U (srong) (151 Modifiers: X +Durable [7 se] Acstheic: Bone density substantally incressed rom genedcally engincered LRPS co-rcepior Summary: 1 har (permancn). Eftect: Primary Up hard) 7 2] Modifiers: X «Motorhead [3 s¥] Acsthete: You grew up in Zone 3 poppin e car e Summary: You ko the basics of sutomotive cepuir, maintenance, nd can drive ik pro. Effect: Knowedge Bar (automotve)[3 51 Modifiers X «“With the Quickness [7 se] Acsthete: Surogate alpha moto neurons have een injcted into your spinal column, Summary: -1 fst (permanen) Efect: Prinary Up (s [750] Modifie «Cerebral [7 5¢] Acsthete: You're quick sudy. ‘Summary: 1 smar (permanca). Efect: rimary Up smar) (7] Modifie 55 s N s E Premade Sensory-Based Specials +Optical Prosthesis Type IV [3 se] Acsthetic: You have prostctic cycs, and ot Yuppy ones that rscable the el hing. Sumimary: Permanentabily 1 s i the dark in addiion o your ormal vision Effect: Night Vsion (3] Modifiers: X +Sonie Recall 3 sr] Acstheic: Your it s always reconting and archiving audo Summary: A will,petecly reall anything previously heard Eftect: Phonographic Menory (3] Modifiers: X +Long-Range Monitoring [2 se] Acsthetic: Remate cctv softvare for you e and dispossble monitoring devicss. Summary: You can place a tny. magneized camera )/ microphne(elctively infnie Supply. butanly one acive at 3 i) onto any metal surface. 1t wil se the meal surface 35 3 ransmission antenna, sending you sudio and video feed you can view a1 will Each purchase of this Speial s snother monitoring device hat can b sstive simulaneously. Effect: CCTV [351] Modifers: Scectvity: Metal 115 ol cost]. «Augmented Vision [3 s7] Acsthete: Yous PDEILA gene has beea edicd o make your vision on par with the sve pair of binoculars. Summary: Vision permancaty s good as an Effct: Distance Viion 3] Modifie «Blometric Ping 2 sr] Acsthetie: lnica ardware for an_energy- expensive san of th sumounding aea or sgns of e Summary: Geta good ideaofall ncaby lfetorms. Effect: Deec Lifform (2] Modifie «Microalarm [3 sr] Acsthetcs Adbesive-backed motion sensors (30 tiny they'e cffectively undetetabl) functon a5 an alarm system Summary: You have an cllively infintc supply of disposabe movement sensors. Each can'rse an udible sl or prvately notify your ntes, but oy one can be activ at tm. No lmiton ange. Effect: Alarn (3] Modifierss X Integ(rated computers: one of the more sophistiated cybernetc prostheics, an integ is an sirgapped computer built ino the subjec’s body tha iterfaces diretly with thei senses. Many Specials are just expensive software for o i charscters existng integ (costs nothing 1o start with one). s6 s o ¢ 1AL Premade Identity & Ineraction Specials +Bouncer [4) Acstheic: You'ee u smilegendary St Disma bouncer with both the scars and somscs o show orit. Summary: You knove and sr respected by just about very bouneer inthe ciy. Effect: Munor Celebriy [45¢] Modifiers: X +Feel Deception [12 s¢] Acstheic: You's psionically atuned o sense nubfulnss Summary: You can immedistely check any atementmade within crsht for deception (10 action cost,unlimited scs). Effect: Derect Lic (451 Modifers: Use: Unlimitd [x3 +Problems -3 sr] Acsthtic For whateverreasn, you'e terifed of beautitul women, Summary: You have an oxerpowering fes of conventonslly good-loking women. Gain 3 i SP for having (o put up with your Cxtremelysrange phobia Effect: Phobia (eausitul women) 351 Modifiers: X «Nobelsoft Linguacore [5 se] Aesthetc:_Encrgy-