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Campaign Beginnings

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Mon, 2016-01-04 20:52

Kassil

Campaign Beginnings

So, as I've noted here at my blog (https://renegadeoctopus.wordpress.com/2016/01/04/unexpected-beginnings/) my gaming group will be starting a sometimes-game of EP for when one of the regulars isn't able to make it. We'll be starting off on Venus, I'm keeping Firewall out of it, and one of the character concepts is essentially an octomorph XP shock jock. I intend to have intrigue between various inner-system factions be a significant theme, and at least partly involve the shadow war between the ATI supporters and the Solid Ground Initiative catspaws. I also aim to have an unhealthy dose of TITAN/exsurgent action, made all the worse because, as far as the characters will know, the TITANs went dormant/left the system/killed each other years ago. So - suggestions for places and bits of scenery for these two poor souls to find themselves ensnared in?

—

"Don't eat the jelly, that's a protoplasm someone sleeved into."

Tue, 2016-01-05 04:44

DarckChild DarckChild's picture

Subscribed

Looking forward to reading more. As for a suggestion of where to start either Sunway where an Octomorph would be controversial or Extropia as a place where just about anything can happen.

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Inspiration from: Know Evil Identity Crisis

Tue, 2016-01-05 23:13

thepedant

Concepts that might be fun

Spending some quality time on a small monitoring/mining/refueling/whatever aerostat that is undergoing critical structural failure and will shortly break apart and crash to the Venusian surface.
A scene among the large "parking lots" for synthmorphs outside the breathable habitat of the aerostats. Investigation or finding one particular synth among dozens of similar models would be fun; bonus points if it turns bad and the air-breathing players either have to fight their way through a plastic and metal mob or do something reckless off the side of the aerostat
A decadent party where everything and everyone has an additional layer of XP feed through the AR, forcing synesthesia or other comprehension of multiple sensations at the same time. Bonus: combat with someone who didn't "take the blue pill" and the feed cannot be easily disconnected.
Let's "Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible" off the side of this floating building!
Navigating the interior structure of this habitat/vessel in itself is a basilisk hack if not caught in time and a path of some complexity through the area must be taken to avoid the very geometry of the place opening up one's mind to further exsurgent mayhem.

Wed, 2016-01-06 17:39

Mckma

To tie it all togehter....

If you want to transition from disconnected adventures to something with an overall arc, I've always liked the idea of discovering that a bunch of NPCs in "random" adventures throughout their past were all alpha forks of some central villain or ally. The time of the forking along with psychosurgery could account for very different characteristics and personalities.

Wed, 2016-01-06 19:29

Kassil

Further Brewing

http://renegadeoctopus.wordpress.com/2016/01/05/game-construction/ and http://renegadeoctopus.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/lifestyles-and-rep-netwo... continue what I've been tinkering with so far.

thepedant wrote:
1. Spending some quality time on a small monitoring/mining/refueling/whatever aerostat that is undergoing critical structural failure and will shortly break apart and crash to the Venusian surface.

An aerostat or possibly an orbital experiencing Issues, yes. I like this idea, although I'll need a way to lure the players there. (No Firewall, so there's no Go There And Do This component.)

thepedant wrote:
2. A scene among the large "parking lots" for synthmorphs outside the breathable habitat of the aerostats. Investigation or finding one particular synth among dozens of similar models would be fun; bonus points if it turns bad and the air-breathing players either have to fight their way through a plastic and metal mob or do something reckless off the side of the aerostat

This was something I'd considered, yeah. Particularly if I combine it with cloud-diving and "Well, the target's missing, where do we land now?"

thepedant wrote:
3. A decadent party where everything and everyone has an additional layer of XP feed through the AR, forcing synesthesia or other comprehension of multiple sensations at the same time. Bonus: combat with someone who didn't "take the blue pill" and the feed cannot be easily disconnected.

This could certainly fit with the Shock Jock vibe from the one character.

thepedant wrote:
4. Let's "Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible" off the side of this floating building!

And probably not hard to convince them is a Good Plan; the more ridiculous the stunt, the better, after all, for an aspiring XP-caster.

thepedant wrote:
5. Navigating the interior structure of this habitat/vessel in itself is a basilisk hack if not caught in time and a path of some complexity through the area must be taken to avoid the very geometry of the place opening up one's mind to further exsurgent mayhem.

We'll see; this might be a step outside their league, at least for a while, since their knowledge of TITANs will be Generic Post-Fall Info.

Mckma wrote:
If you want to transition from disconnected adventures to something with an overall arc, I've always liked the idea of discovering that a bunch of NPCs in "random" adventures throughout their past were all alpha forks of some central villain or ally. The time of the forking along with psychosurgery could account for very different characteristics and personalities.

I know someone who has already volunteered her Singularity Seeker/borderline Exhuman character as a NPC, a collective self sleeved into a swarm of parrots with cyberbrains. This wouldn't be much more of a stretch for that character.

—

"Don't eat the jelly, that's a protoplasm someone sleeved into."

Wed, 2016-01-06 19:53

thepedant

Kassil wrote:I'll need a way

Kassil wrote:
I'll need a way to lure the players there.

I've found "the job" is always a good way to do this. As I've posted before, I once had players be freelance insurance investigators (as in the radio serial Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar or the anime/manga series Master Keaton) for a backup insurance firm - they'd have to go wherever the claim was to determine if, and how, someone died, and if recovery was feasible. As an XP celebrity, there might be:

offers to do things by sponsors - "this energy drink company wants to put you and a popular 'adult' entertainer in a 5m diameter heat-shielded bathysphere and film what happens as they drop you from orbit." (BONUS PLOT - bathysphere is aimed to "accidentally" hit something on the way down; player survives, but now must deal with fallout)
dares by rivals - "you say you're so extreme? Well, I bet you wouldn't spend a night on Platform Theta-5! It's slowly falling out of orbit AND it's haunted!"
or just "my fans on the mesh voted this the #1 thing I should do."

Fri, 2016-01-08 00:21

Kassil

thepedant wrote:Kassil wrote

thepedant wrote:
Kassil wrote:
I'll need a way to lure the players there.
I've found "the job" is always a good way to do this. As I've posted before, I once had players be freelance insurance investigators (as in the radio serial Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar or the anime/manga series Master Keaton) for a backup insurance firm - they'd have to go wherever the claim was to determine if, and how, someone died, and if recovery was feasible. As an XP celebrity, there might be:
offers to do things by sponsors - "this energy drink company wants to put you and a popular 'adult' entertainer in a 5m diameter heat-shielded bathysphere and film what happens as they drop you from orbit." (BONUS PLOT - bathysphere is aimed to "accidentally" hit something on the way down; player survives, but now must deal with fallout)

dares by rivals - "you say you're so extreme? Well, I bet you wouldn't spend a night on Platform Theta-5! It's slowly falling out of orbit AND it's haunted!"

or just "my fans on the mesh voted this the #1 thing I should do."

These are all excellent suggestions and I'll likely be putting them to use. Thank you.

—

"Don't eat the jelly, that's a protoplasm someone sleeved into."

Sun, 2016-01-10 18:14

Kassil

Character #2

So we already had the octomorph shock jock and extreme XP creator hiding in plain sight; now we have a Fall evacuee who escaped as an infomorph and avoided cold storage, who has found a preference for not being embodied and sells their skills as a XP/video/VR/AR producer, editor, and marketer. So it looks like we have a two-person band for producing XP of wild stunts, probably starting with station jumping and moving on to cloud-diving. This should be... Interesting.

—

"Don't eat the jelly, that's a protoplasm someone sleeved into."

Mon, 2016-01-11 10:06

Kassil

Adding on the latest set of

Adding on the latest set of blogging on the subject, this time it's seeds to start the game's plot-segment with. https://renegadeoctopus.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/plot-seeds/ (Edit: Adding another, this time to concepts for Competition.) http://renegadeoctopus.wordpress.com/2016/01/12/the-competition/

—

"Don't eat the jelly, that's a protoplasm someone sleeved into."

Tue, 2016-01-12 11:47

#10

Tango

How about some vandalism

How about some vandalism/activism done from behind a pseudonym? "In today's news: Pink crow strikes again! GeoNat-satellite ridden down from the orbit by a jet pack -lunatic dressed in pink feathers and a cowboy hat. Local officials stunned." I went to watch the new Point Break -movie in theater and if there is something of value to be extracted from that piece of shit, it is the thought that the movie could've been salvaged if they'd gone balls to the wall. So. Skydiving is boring, bungee jumps and rock climbing are boring. Stunt driving? bah. We've seen it all. How about the mentioned satellite hopping? What if a basketball hoop appeared on the outer wall of some high profile orbital station. If would contain the logo of the "pink crow" so there would be a lot of media buzz and speculation about its purpose. Perhaps a certain date & time was posted on the pink crow's facebook page and when the counter hit zero, the pink crow would appear from the horizon approaching the station in a retrograde motion, going like 30km/sec. And doing a slam dunk and finally disappearing in the other direction with a "fuck yeah" -pose. Of course, you could only see this in with super slow mo -cameras. Re-entry with a surfboard? Trying to reach the absolute minimum orbital altitude in Luna. Study the topology of the moon and find the lowest possible route and then have a dude stand at the highest point on that route with his hand up. He'll high five the stuntman in orbit. My point is, whatever they are doing, it needs to be a spectacle or people wont watch it. And every stunt needs to be better than the last one.

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- "Mom's chicken soup, maybe?"

Sun, 2016-01-24 09:23

#11

Kassil

So they decided to go explore

So they decided to go explore an abandoned habitat as the first session. Mind, they're not wondering why three different hypercorps abandoned research habitats within a week of each other as of yet. https://renegadeoctopus.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/eclipse-phase-session-one/

—

"Don't eat the jelly, that's a protoplasm someone sleeved into."