RPX Rollup - Episode 9 - The Sprawl

[00:00:00] The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast,

[00:00:43] The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast,

[00:02:22] The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast,

[00:04:22] The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast,

[00:06:20] The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast,

[00:08:20] The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast, The Sprawl, The Roleplaying Exchange Podcast,

[00:09:51] Your cyber eyes are going to only get so many firmware updates and then you're blind. Also, if what we're on the do's and don'ts I, well I think transhumanism is pretty interesting and awesome and stuff like that.

[00:10:05] I would rather at least for this game just kind of focus on the humanity aspect of that you were talking about like lose like body modification that kind of says fine. I'm not ready for.

[00:10:18] It's not like I have anything against it but I would no sleeving no completely new body. Yeah, I agree with that. All right.

[00:10:27] We can kind of think of this as the early days, if you will. It's cool and I like those concepts and stuff like that but I kind of want this to veer as far away from ultra carbon eclipse phase ish kind of.

[00:10:41] I do like the idea of having artificial intelligence but like early early days where it's still questioning whether or not these are they are intelligent and you know then you have to deal with the concept of the digital soul which always fascinates me. That's fine.

[00:11:00] I'm just not look. I don't want to see uplifted. Yeah, no, the crabs. Interesting choice for the uplift. I was just thinking how a million are hard probably died. All right. Yeah. So we're thinking else. Yeah, replicants. But not me. Oh, pigs. Right.

[00:11:22] Now we're drifted into David Cage territory. Yeah, true. That's all right. But you know, I hope I could do a better job. Well, you are. I couldn't do a worse job. No, he did get Clancy Grant Brown got cast.

[00:11:37] So I mean, if Currigan can get in the movie, that's at least something for that game. It wasn't a hell of a lot but if Mr. Crabs is in your game, I think it's a point. That was my random rant. Okay.

[00:11:51] You knew that Clancy Brown was Mr. Crabs, right Chris? No, I don't know who Mr. Crabs is. I think that's... Oh, SpongeBob! Yeah, SpongeBob. Oh, yeah, no, I didn't watch SpongeBob. He's an ultra capitalist. Oh, so I hate him. Yeah, he really would.

[00:12:11] Mr. Crabs is kind of a piece of shit. Hold on, let me check with my wife to confirm. Mr. Crabs, mostly a piece of shit? Except he does love his dog. Except he does love his door.

[00:12:23] His only redeeming feature is that he loves his daughter and he only shows it by purchasing her stuff. So yeah, piece of shit. Anything else? Street life, fashion, drug use? Yes, yes, yes. Okay, but did you ever... Anything you want to concentrate on?

[00:12:44] Did you ever see Stranger Days? They had Ralph Fiennes and like, Andrew Abassad in it. It was set around 1999 and like... People could record their memories and then you know, you could upload them and wear technology and actually experience their memories and stuff like that.

[00:13:02] No, but I've heard of the movie and I've definitely run into that concept in a lot of other places. I kind of like the invasiveness of that. All right. So maybe like... XP. Yeah, so definitely drugs for sure because...

[00:13:20] In any capitals there's going to be drugs because people will want to escape. Drugs. I kind of like the aspect and I'm not actually kind of...

[00:13:32] I'm going to use pornography as an example of this but this is definitely not something that would be comfortable playing that particular aspect of it. You know what I mean? Right, but that would definitely be a use for it.

[00:13:43] Oh yeah, I like the detachment of that level of voyeurism, of living somebody's life. You know, you're watching your child being born or holding it and that's the only time that you can actually experience that. And that seems as...

[00:14:03] I'm getting artistic or grotesque in my description here, Joe, but that whole... I mean it feels like an artificial insemination of a cow, kind of weird. Like you're, I don't know, disjointed, you're going through the motions but it's not happening to you or... You know what I mean?

[00:14:23] Yeah, kind of. So you're looking at voyeurism to substitute for missed life experiences. Right. And make up for the opportunity cost and of course commodification of experience. Yeah, and then I guess that would be a decent hook if you ever wanted to do that if we got somebody's...

[00:14:48] No too much memories kind of thing. Which I've just given you the plot of Striker Days. Well, you know. That's also basically the plot of Dark City so... And Brainstorm maybe. And the Matrix. I also like Dark City.

[00:15:05] And the Matrix, yeah this is a lot of plot of a lot of that stuff. It's almost like Cyberpog has a lot of recurring themes. Sure does.

[00:15:16] And you know with this, and I'll quit adding to this, I don't want to just build up a mountain right here and then everything else will be sparse. But I kind of like... With the corporatization of stuff, I also like...

[00:15:29] I would like to see the nightmare that we have experienced in the past at least four years of social media being taken down that hellhole as well. You know what I mean? Right. So with the corporatization... I don't think I had to explain it since we're living it.

[00:15:46] Yeah, so I mean the big bad is just going to be Mark Zuckerberg. Let's be real. I want to be Sam Walton. He's going to have his head in a jar. He's going to have his head on a fucking spike. They could be the same person.

[00:16:04] Alright, so let's see here. You like low-tech, high-tech? Or is that off the table too, Chris? How do you mean? My example of low-tech, high-tech would be like if you watched Aliens and you saw the shit that they were using as it was supposed to be futuristic.

[00:16:24] Total screens and stuff like that. Or do you want to do more integrated like the electronics, which I'm fine with it. Like you got a heads-up display, this overlaid, well, augmented reality on your eyes kind of thing like that.

[00:16:42] I actually would kind of like to split the difference and have both of those. So you've got... Just cost is what the prohibition is? It's a haves and has not sort of thing. I think that would be interesting. Okay, what just happened? Hey! Hello, hello.

[00:17:00] We're creating a cyberpunk dystopia for session zero of this game. That's right. Sweet. So far we've decided we're kind of going with like a Blade Runner style aesthetic with a lot of talk about like the

[00:17:16] modification of technology and like basically I suggested, yeah you can have a cool cyberarm but that cyberarm has DRM. Or it doesn't work too good. Yeah.

[00:17:27] Well see here's the thing, I GL broke this sucker and ever since I did it doesn't flex the way that it's supposed to. Yeah, 80% of the power out of it.

[00:17:41] But on the bright side it doesn't flash eat it Joe's every single time that I you know stab somebody. Exactly. I don't know, I'd leave that in. Your last vision is an epileptic seizure. Yeah. Also one of the mega corpse have to be Waffle House. Alright.

[00:18:01] All restaurants are Waffle House. They're the only ones that provides a franchise force. Thank you David. I thought that's where we were going. The index. Alright, so David we were just talking about parts of the cyberpunk genre that you would be most interested in including.

[00:18:24] So this is just so you're clear on what we're doing here. We're looking for probably four or five sessions will be creating characters. Session zero. And I think you've played this brawl before right? I have not. Okay. It's powered by the apocalypse game.

[00:18:46] So you kind of already have an idea of how it's going to work I would imagine you know. PDA is the roll 2d6. Yeah, that's it. It's a little crunchier than the average one but not much. Yeah, it's only leaned a little into crunch.

[00:19:03] It hasn't gone crazy the way some of them have. Okay, but we're not actually doing the fusion system of actual cyberpunk. No. No, we're not using cyberpunk red or fusion. That's definitely not the old one. Classic cyberpunk but... I'm afraid cyberpunk back when it was cool.

[00:19:27] Before it was problematic. It's never been cool. It's a little 280s for me. I have looked through the old book and the current edition which I bought because... Hey Mike, I liked your other games. So I'll buy this one Mr. Pondsmith but I opted against that.

[00:19:50] I just feel like this brawl is probably an easier system. It seems to me to learn and get your head around. Fair fair. But yeah, y'all should definitely watch Blade Runner 2049 before we run Session 1. Oh, I will make time for it. It's a good movie.

[00:20:10] Sorry I had to run off. Did I miss anything? I don't think so. Did we tell Dave what we were thinking of as static wise? I was just about to get into it. I want to make sure he got the roll 20 and copy the book.

[00:20:25] Currently we're looking at the Blade Runner-esque aesthetic. Not necessarily the concepts there but a grimeer future. Heavy industry is back, which is probably not a good sign for wherever we're at. Probably kind of the rusty? Yeah. The chrome is pretty rusty.

[00:20:50] The technology is probably a little more organic and juicier than it would typically be. We were talking about themes. The big one being corporate abuse of technology to control humanity. A lot of that is through version locking and planned obsolescence.

[00:21:14] We're going to stay away from anything like to the level of Eclipse phase, complete body replacement. You still have to have your original. They can't just take your brain out and put it in a new thing. Artificial intelligence is still early.

[00:21:33] The drug wise I suggested and you may have seen the movie as well. One of the things on top of their bent drugs. I liked the idea that people are recording their memories and experiences and then you can jack in. Jack off? Well, thanks.

[00:21:54] If you've seen Stranger Days back in the day, David. Somewhat, yeah. It was actually a big thing within it was brain dancing. Yeah, it's in the original. Yeah, yeah. It's that same concept where you're just getting somebody else's lived experience slightly edited to experience for yourself.

[00:22:24] A lot of what we're looking at that for is voyeurism to make up for personal missed life experiences. Besides the obvious. Ready player one, but good. I want no references. I already got some crazy thoughts on it. Oh, this is going to be a short game.

[00:22:50] Well, I don't want any pop culture references the way ready player one did it at least. Okay, fair fair. It's okay for jokes. I just don't want it to be like the plot. Hey, do you remember the 80s? Yeah. They weren't as good as he thinks.

[00:23:10] Commodification of experience and Adam also brought up social media like so current social media, but worse if that's and it's and it's domination of culture and probably also playbook wise. I'm going to say playbook wise who has what already called. We haven't really talked about that yet.

[00:23:35] Yeah, we're mostly kind of going through the opening here like anybody have when they're looking at her. No, I'm open to whatever I will pick what's not chosen. I've already told Joe my suspicion is what Adam's going to pick.

[00:23:56] I kind of like the idea of playing either the pusher or the reporter. Okay, because let's be real. I'm a loud mouth so of course the pusher would make sense to me and I like the investigative aspect of reporting. Fair fair.

[00:24:13] On the one hand I've played in classic cyberpunk I tend to play medic but I tend to also play the combat medic by the end of one of the campaigns I had gotten really good at not dying.

[00:24:25] Whereas we went through a solo like every two games and so by the end of it I was I was almost a better shot than any solos that we picked up.

[00:24:35] And I had also picked up the ambidextrous chip and the ambi so I could have eyes turning in different directions like a chameleon.

[00:24:45] And so I just ran into things with a deagle in either hand just smart link to the hand and then when I field surgery I would just holster a deagle pull out a scalpel instead and just keep shooting with the other hand while I was working on somebody.

[00:25:02] It was fun but at the same time they're like this character is broken you need to retire him. He needs to open up his own shop that no one will ever rob because he's the baddest ass that's ever lived.

[00:25:16] You got to keep telling you you go to combat medic. Hold still I have stable gun. Hell yeah. But just with the talk of the proprietary proprietary software and programs and whatnot. And also the idea of experiencing other people's memories.

[00:25:39] I had a wicked thought and I want to bounce this one. Of every single piece of memory edited like one of the things in the original cyberpunk is if you didn't have the skill you could chip it.

[00:25:53] And so you could just drop a chip in and you would have that to a small level but it couldn't advance any further.

[00:26:00] I'm thinking that I'm already seeing the idea of proprietary chips but when you plug them in you take on some of the personality of the person who had it before. So I'm seeing a overly flamboyant dance battler chip for martial arts.

[00:26:17] But then a cold merciless killer for the shooting like if I have to switch between you know what I mean. Yeah yeah yeah no I understand that's definitely a thing. Chipping is definitely a thing in the game. Some of the characters can do that.

[00:26:33] I don't think every character starts with the ability to chip but some of them definitely do. And I have no problem with the idea that like the chips are based on lived experience not just a set of throat skills.

[00:26:47] And so that they would impart that personality on you. Yeah I dig that. I like it man. How much of it do you retain if you take the chip out and when do you stop becoming you. Depends on how many chips you got in.

[00:27:01] It depends on how often you use them. Yeah true. And so I'm either leaning towards a shooty shooty bang bang or maybe a fixer depending on which one we need more.

[00:27:13] I actually also really like that idea for the chips because it very much brings into the concept of the loss of identity. Yeah. I like all the cerebral aspects of cyberpunk as a genre. Who would have thought me? You Chris. Unthinkable. Now that's just crazy talk there.

[00:27:32] All right. So I want to get a couple more sending questions I want to ask before we get into definitely picking play books. So where does the sprawl take place so what urban setting is it taking place in? It doesn't have to be urban.

[00:27:49] I would prefer it to be urban because that's mainly my lived experience and I'm going to be GM in the game. Branson. I thought he said urban. Yeah.

[00:28:03] Well, we're going to do Branson why not just bump it up to it's like bigger, tougher, cooler, older cousin Las Vegas. I actually do kind of like the idea of like a Chicago-ish kind of place so it's got a history.

[00:28:18] It's got that sort of impressive but also imposing architecture. Okay. Yeah. Do we want to set it in an actual city or do we want to just file off the serial numbers and make it our own? I figured it would be making our own but. Yeah.

[00:28:35] So geography I kind of like the, and I wouldn't have said this if we were going to attack the actual city name in it but I kind of like the Seattle Rainforest-ish kind of you know coastal. Oh, we don't mess with green peace anymore.

[00:28:54] I mean we could really go far and if you guys there's a collection of short stories in novellas called Metatopia that set in Seattle and that has been like that set in like that area. Everything's been taken over by green technology. It's really cool. By FN Ball?

[00:29:17] It's by a bunch of people. I know Skalsy had a short story in it. Okay, that's not the one I'm looking at that. Yeah.

[00:29:24] So the original Blade Runner, one of the things about it was that because of the super overabundance of pollution it was always night and one of the things that they did to kind of emphasize that is in the background.

[00:29:42] You would see people walking past who had these umbrellas with a light bar in the stick of it as opposed to carrying a flashlight in one hand and an umbrella in the other so they could do both.

[00:29:54] And so part of me is thinking Los Ligros, City of Light that is still shrouded in perpetual darkness because corporations fucked the ozone. Right. Huh, they did a terrible job filling the scrawler. Yeah, it's only like two thirds. Did you drink a third of it already?

[00:30:15] No, I think there may be a... Times are hard, Tristan. Yeah, I think the scrawler may have a hole in it. That would be a problem. That's my favorite Hank Williams, so. Oh well. There goes some beer wasted. So what I've got is Los Ligros.

[00:30:34] My Spanish is terrible. Polluted. Maybe not constantly night but often dim. The... I thought that it was a nice dichotomy for Las Vegas which is the city that is... Vegas itself, no matter where you go, it's daylight. Yeah.

[00:30:54] There's a dome over top of it. They can make it artificial day. As long as it's daylight out, you're going to be in the casinos. You shouldn't actually know what time it is. Oh hey, there's a breakfast buffet that's going right now. Right, yeah. It's always morning.

[00:31:09] With Los Ligros, it builds itself as the City of Light but it's actually the City of Night. Have any of you read the David Wong, like futuristic something and funny hats or whatever? Oh, ultra violence and fancy suits or whatever it is. Yeah.

[00:31:28] I kind of like the idea that... Well, the city that they deal with in it was completely built by corporations. I mean, there's... US government wasn't involved in it whatsoever and they're not there. It's its own lawless kind of place.

[00:31:49] I don't know if we would actually say that there's no over-government. Well, honestly, it makes sense too. I kind of like the corporations own the city as well, kind of deal. Oh yeah. I like that.

[00:32:01] Well, there's kind of a split between the corporations and the crime families and the... Well, corporations, crime families. And then when you get to a certain part of the city, nobody cares. This is the slums.

[00:32:13] This is where anybody can make it because you have to make it to crawl your way out. I would actually go so far as to say there is no split between the corporations and the crime families. It's like an open split. There's a...

[00:32:26] Technically, you know, that guy is bad because he doesn't follow business practices. He follows the crime principles. That guy is bad. Who may or may not be the actual CEO with a mustache. Okay. The Las Vegas approach. Yeah. Adam wants it in the Upper Northwest. Yeah.

[00:32:53] So rain and etc. Very noir. Maybe it's like a Pacific Northwest version of the Atlantic City. Jesus, H Christ. All right, you got it. What? Man, I've been to Atlantic City many times. Oh, God, it sucks. Right? It's terrible. It's the worst. Trump Tower. All those dead casinos.

[00:33:18] You help. All right. You really got to suck at business to lose money, make running a casino. Yes. Civic Northwest by way of Atlantic City. Okay. But with some sort of... Adam, you said built, you know, maybe built entirely by a corporation,

[00:33:42] but I want to modify that by to include Chris's earlier comment. So that it was like a built on top of a preexisting town, but one that like mostly died out. So you still get all the old imposing architecture from the Art Deco era. Okay.

[00:34:02] Yeah, I can take that. Yeah, I can buy with that. All right. Part of it too is that every time that somebody bulldozes a casino and rebuilds a new one, it's just adds to the hodge podge because there's no real set architecture style.

[00:34:20] It's all over the place because we've got some that look like ancient Greek amphitheaters and some that look like a circus and some that look like it's built inside a sunken pirate ship that was raised and just dropped in the middle.

[00:34:32] But I'd like this to be only being like the gambling corporate side of the area. I really want to keep that like Blade Runner vibe for, you know, the slums. Oh yeah. Once you get to the slums, the slums are built out of the remains of...

[00:34:50] Shoot, I even see that at parts of it, they just kind of... Well, there is a perfectly good wall over there in what's left of hail sneezer. So we're just going to grab that hunk of wall and just build it here.

[00:35:05] Like we can keep using that architecture over there, but you know, or even the Art Deco style, even just... This used to be a bank. What is it now? Tenement housing. Yeah. What I'm hearing is a different kind of ugly in every part of the city

[00:35:21] just depending on where you're at. So one thing about the neighborhood I live in, it's a historic neighborhood. But a historic neighborhood of mansions that have all been converted into like really cheap apartments. Yeah. So like on the outside it's beautiful, on the inside everything's fallen apart.

[00:35:39] So something like that. It's old roll charm, baby. Oh yeah. That's what we call it up here. Yep. I like this gentrification on several different levels kind of from, you know, the church is now or the cathedral is now a... Wall Greens.

[00:35:59] Oh, you mean like the church that is across the street from my house and a dude lives in and sometimes punk bands play at? I mean, I'm on board with the second half of that at least. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah, all right. That place owns. It's awesome.

[00:36:15] So we've got... What are the important areas of the city? We've got the casino, like gambling section. Let's just call that the vice section. And, you know, we've already said that it's ugly. So when we say casino here for the vice section, are we talking?

[00:36:36] That thought is over. Never mind. I just... I'm thinking you've got two ways to do this. You've got if you're going to go straight up AC then it's going to be on the beach. You'll have a boardwalk and then it's all lined in casinos on the north end

[00:36:52] where it verges into another city. It turns into condos. On the south end, it dies in the sound. It just peters off. If you're doing it the vaguest way then it will be the strip. And, you know, the further away you get from the central section,

[00:37:13] the more dangerous and uglier it gets and it goes in both directions. What are you guys like? I mean, it would be a real shame for all that beautiful waterfront to be destroyed by, you know, gambling. And by shame, I mean, it would be great. Also inevitable.

[00:37:33] I'll count it. I'm kind of leaning toward Atlantic City format. All right. I'm right there with you. I think like the one holdout on the waterfront, there is a section of boardwalk that was devoted to like an amusement park that's fallen into disrepair.

[00:37:51] And then at one other section, a yacht club that only has like maybe 10, 15 really, really old geezers that are still clinging to the idea of, we're going to house the rig out next year.

[00:38:05] But the corporations are slowly trying to muscle them out and just decided to wait for them to die. Are they old money? Or the last ragged ends of old money? Or are they like middle class dudes who had nice, had little boats that they like to drive around?

[00:38:24] Por que no la dos? I mean, there's definitely a good, a big tradition of working class folks getting into sailing as like a sport. So they'll have, you'll have the folks who like run the ships who don't really have a lot of money.

[00:38:42] Like I'm one of the folks, Laura May's dad goes boating with is a firefighter. And then you'll have the people who actually own the boats who are usually rich. So it could be something like that. Okay. And then like because it is a yacht club,

[00:39:00] there's also a couple of folks that got in via the grandfather clause. I'm seeing like there's the one guy that they just don't talk about who calls himself the captain,

[00:39:09] who owns his own boat, but has it perpetually moored there because the moorage fee is cheaper than an apartment. And so he's got a boat that he's living in, but it's technically not a houseboat.

[00:39:22] And he sails it once every month or two half or so or whatever it is so that he's not constantly moored. So he's not paying extra fees. David, you actually just 100% described my Uncle Jay. I mean, there are a lot of people who do that.

[00:39:41] Yeah, it's a serious way of life in a lot of the Caribbean, that's for sure. Yeah, I mean he was also the sort of guy who would compete professionally in like sailboat races. Other geography places.

[00:39:55] So yeah, probably the corporate center, which may or may not be separate from the casino section. There's a Greek wall between the two.

[00:40:04] Like if you circle around the building, you'll notice that the entrance to the headquarters is on the far opposite side of the building as the entrance to the building. As the entrance to the casino, the entrance to the corporate center is white.

[00:40:20] The entrance to the casino is red and black and glitzy and all of that. But somewhere in the middle, the two just kind of seem to merge.

[00:40:30] And if you're walking through building one, there is a way that you can get from the casino to the corporate headquarters and vice versa. But it's not something that is widely talked about. All right.

[00:40:42] And it's played off as, oh, these were originally two separate buildings that had a... We just happened to build an annex between the two at one point in time and we could totally separate them if we wanted to.

[00:40:54] We just wanted to provide our employees with a fun gambling experience to make up for the stressful hours they work in. And it was a reward. Quote unquote. I'd like the geography to be laid out. So, I mean, the slums are the slums, obviously.

[00:41:12] But I think it would be a nightmarish hell if we had where the more affluent people lived, like the suburbs kind of areas like that. I would like the infrastructure and roads to be so roundabout and all over the...

[00:41:29] Not all over the place, but inconvenient for people to travel from the poorer part of town to the other. Like you would have to actually circle the city or something insane, which is... So, the way I... All urban planning. Yeah. Okay.

[00:41:47] I've got a thought for that if I can... Sure. Between the suburbs and like the places where all of the folks actually have to go in and work, there is a slum, of course.

[00:42:00] But there's also another technically not a slum, but totally a slum that everybody refers to as just ethnic town. Because this is where the immigrant population settled and they've all kind of merged. So, there's some folks that came from Indochina.

[00:42:18] There's some folks that came from parts of Northern Europe. There's some folks that... And it's just kind of blended together into this slurry of foreign nationals that are here within Los Liguros. But we can't call it Chinatown because not everybody here is from China. We can't call it...

[00:42:42] You get what I'm saying. Yeah, you could just call it Exotica. Actually, Exotica kind of fits. That's probably insulting. Depending on how you look at it, it's either properly insulting or we're going to try to mask it the insult with a tiny veneer of civility.

[00:42:57] Or you can just call it ethnic town. Or you can call it the melting pot because everyone gets sucked together and they can't get out. Also that. Language is developing different there slowly like words from other languages are being introduced.

[00:43:12] There's a pigeon that is popular within it called Slag. Slag. And the corporations own the subdivisions and the homeowners associations and there's a real class... Okay. I'm sorry. No, no, that's not a problem.

[00:43:35] I didn't think of that but boy, corporations having huge seats on HOAs I am on board with. And essentially, well I'm kind of and I'm thinking back to co-minors and stuff like that.

[00:43:48] I kind of want my hell city is everybody's buying like from the company store kind of bullshit a lot of the time. Yeah, definitely the company store script shit. That also fits right straight into the whole corporations controlling you through technology and DRM and things like that.

[00:44:08] And then there's at least one corporation that has figured out that they can try to be nice to people that they want under their thumb. Neil Papa Johns. Neil Papa Johns. I was actually thinking Kwee Kwex coffee.

[00:44:26] And the one of the things about Kwee Kwex other than the fact that they're everywhere is they have an anti-caron policy in place which keeps their workers happy. If they have somebody who complains that they got the order wrong, they immediately go to the surveillance.

[00:44:44] And if they didn't in fact get the order wrong, the worker, the barista gets to fling Nerf harpoons at them until they leave.

[00:44:53] I love the idea that ordering a cup of coffee turns into like the ref on a football field or like checking the tape to make a decision. That's great. This isn't what I ordered. I ordered soy. Whistle blows. To the security footage. Put it on the big screen.

[00:45:10] Unfortunately, we're going to need a different name for that coffee place because that has been used by Deus Ex 2. It has. Kwee Kwex and their competitor Pequodz of course owned by the same company. Well, I'm going for, let's go Billy Bud. Billy Bud? That's another character.

[00:45:32] Again, another story but... Scrimmoner. Scrimmoner's copy. Bartleby. Actually hang on. List of characters from... There's a ton of them. You can just call it flasks. Why don't we just call it Ishmael's? Ishmael. There we go. The name of the coffee place is call me Ishmael. Alright.

[00:45:58] I can see like a big CMI. Yeah. The only downside is that that does away with my thought for instead of... Do you want a tall grande or venti? Yeah, I'd like to order a coffee.

[00:46:10] Okay, do you want Kwee Kwek Killie Whale or do you want Whale Killie Kwee Kwee? Oh no, it's... Based on the folio system. From Boopie Dick. Alright, that's definitely happening. Hold on. I'll figure that out later. Cool stuff. Where do you typically work and hang out?

[00:46:32] Now work is of course... Crimes. It could be interpreted, yeah. It could be crimes or it could be like your fake day job. I think hang out is probably more important. But if you do specifically say, hey I work in the slums

[00:46:48] and you do your crimes in the slums, that's kind of like put the level of missions we're going to perform. It'll probably be at that street crime level. I kind of like the idea of working in the melting pot

[00:47:04] because that gives us a lot more to work with. A lot of variety, yeah. Yeah, because then we can go do corporate stuff. We can try to break into casinos because they're nearby. We can burglarize the CEO's mansion over in the Rich Dick district. It's not like that.

[00:47:27] What is the channel that we're actually typing notes in? Is it in general or are we going to be here? Yeah, I'll create... Actually as a good point, I'll probably need to go ahead and create a... I'm taking paper notes because I am also a leadite.

[00:47:40] And then I'll create a Google Doc that I'll share with everybody. Yeah, but we should also create a channel specifically for the sprawl. Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I'll just go ahead and put it up. Wow. That was all good. There's no way around it.

[00:47:56] I minimize windows and it doesn't look so bad. So yeah, I've just created a sprawl. I think I did. Did I? Or did I put it in... Oh, I'll move it down into the actual gaming. Yeah, that's normal actually. Because I'm thinking that if we're hanging out in...

[00:48:14] If we're going to be living mostly in the melting pot and working there, I think I've got the perfect hangout for us. Lee or Haloran? T'Chienzo, Sushi Bar, Grill and Bait Shop. I don't know. I kind of like something a little more serious than that.

[00:48:26] Okay, so we'll lose the Bait Shop. You know, this is a part of... Like the melting pot is also a part where people... I wouldn't necessarily say slum in it or stuff like that, but there's such a creativity in an artistic vibe and stuff like that.

[00:48:42] People from out of that area will go into there too. So to get the more ethnic food, to get the clubs and a dancing experience. Is it getting gentrified? I don't think it's so much getting gentrified as much as there is some of the stuff that's blending together.

[00:49:00] So one of the things I got to talking about with my boss's husband over dinner tonight was the fact that doesn't matter what culture you're from, there are some things that just translate over. Because he's from India. And we got to talking about the difference between

[00:49:19] pierogi and dumplings. And I forget all of the things that came up in it, but it seems like every freaking culture out there has their own version of, we put this stuff in dough and deep fry it. Yup, that's definitely a thing. Oh, I've actually got an idea.

[00:49:37] How about we... Our hangout is basically in a legal kitchen that doesn't have a name. Okay, name it like a kitchen. So it's where people go to buy food, but it's definitely not supposed to be there. I kind of like the idea of...

[00:49:55] If our actual job too is maybe we're working at the dock, bringing in the catch of the day kind of stuff, for the stuff that's being shipped into the city, that would give our characters mobility. I mean, we could also all have different day jobs. True.

[00:50:14] I like the idea of some of us having... Or I like the idea of several different day jobs, but I also kind of... I want to throw out there that I'd like to see one person within the group be a rich idiot

[00:50:28] who is doing this to stick it to his father, mother, grandparents, et cetera. So I'd like at least one rich idiot who has money but doesn't want to fall back on it. Be the change you want to see in the world, David. He's doing his best.

[00:50:47] I think I also... Go ahead. So I'm actually thinking about this. I'm probably going to lean towards the reporter playbook. So I'll be a freelancer if anything. Alright, so you're a freelance reporter, okay. Yeah, because that's a stressful fucking job and it's even worse in a dystopia.

[00:51:07] Okay, so you pretty much hang out at the melting pot. Who are important folks who work or hang out in the region? Like, who are people that you would have a mild connection to or have some status in this area?

[00:51:22] So we got rich idiot to be named later. I kind of like the idea of at least one community elder who is very widely respected, but at the same... You know, nobody crosses Old Man Witherspoon seriously. And Old Man Witherspoon just does not raise a hand.

[00:51:45] It's kind of the Dolly Parton phenomenon, if you understand what I mean. Somebody says something against Old Man Witherspoon and just everybody jumps their shit. There was a riot in Winwood, Miami in 1990 because a very popular drug dealer who was basically the...

[00:52:11] He helped the Puerto Rican community just stay alive, got murdered by police. Maybe somebody like that, just somebody who's very obviously doing something illegal, but everyone loves him because he's good to the community. Okay, I like that. And my thought was immediately someone Asian,

[00:52:30] either a Japanese expatriate or a Chinese expatriate, who has basically brought in a significant amount of the population illegally. Like he's at the end of a... How do I word it? He's at the end of a human trafficking line, but he's a good end to it.

[00:52:50] He brings people here and it's like, congratulations. You're here. This is the amount that I paid to get you over. I am not going to expect you to hand me all of that money back at once. Just throw it back into the community.

[00:53:04] Do I look like I need the money? Hi, Bob with that. All right, human trafficker with a heart of gold. At the same token, don't cross him. Like if you... If it's a case of, oh cool, you're gonna bring in all of these people for free.

[00:53:20] Well, here's my entire family. Don't push your luck. Yeah, still gonna pay him just not right now. Or prove that you're worth it to the community and we'll talk. And then suddenly we've got all sorts of people who are doing great things for the community

[00:53:37] because they've got family that it's still on the other side of the ocean. I like all that. Okay, anyone else? We need this scummy politician somewhere. Not if you like him or anything, but yeah. I think the scummy politician that is... I think...

[00:53:59] I don't know if he's self-made millionaire, but he actually lost money in the casino business. Somebody, my arch nemesis, I'm just trying to pin him down. That works. But yeah, I think somebody who's trying to be definitely exploitative of the melting pot. Okay.

[00:54:17] Let's say, city council member for the district. For some reason I see Jerry Mandra. Oh yeah. So here's what I'm picturing for the politician just in the back of my mind. Tell me if this works or tell me if this is too much.

[00:54:37] Managed to get a lot of votes in the melting pot by appearing to be the right nationality for everybody. He has one of those ambiguous foreign names to the point where everybody's like, oh well clearly he comes from where we do.

[00:54:52] He was born and raised in this city and that is an assumed name. His real name is Smith. Or even better, to get this into the technology side of things, he has synthetic skin that changes color. I figured that was part of it, yeah. Synthetic hair, synthetic skin.

[00:55:13] So that he can shift his complexion and shift his hair no matter where he goes. Satelly too. Alright, literal chameleon. We gotta have somebody who's just super fucked up on all the memory drugs. Just like basically no longer has a personality. Or has all of them.

[00:55:35] Like I'm thinking like Phillip K. Dick, where do I stop and where do you begin? Basically it's Gander Darkley. He or she used to be an actor, used to be in the vids. Man I used to be in the hollow vids.

[00:55:52] I was a star back in the day. What movies were you in? Like basically Peter Sellers. Because Peter Sellers wasn't empty-suit of a man when he wasn't in a movie. Yeah. Except you know Peter Sellers but worse. Yeah, oh my god so much worse. Okay. That seems good.

[00:56:15] So the last thing I am going to ask is, we're each gonna get to name a corporation and their main sphere of operation. Of course every corporation has the capability of projecting power enough to fuck you guys up.

[00:56:34] But they each have like a sphere of core competency that they prefer to operate in. I am going to drop another link to a pretty good name generator if you need help with coming up with some of these names.

[00:56:55] Just trying to thank you how to fit Reagan into a name for Chris. Reagan? Yeah, like Reagan Electric or something like that. I kind of like the power company because it trickles down. How about Reagan Bioengineering? Nah, that doesn't work. Well I'll look at the name generator too.

[00:57:17] That's a pretty good. Sanmanto. Sanmanto. What do they focus on? Bioengineering? Bioengineering seeds, the standard big biotech company and agribusiness. So we're talking like designer genetic engineering. Right. Okay. Here's a name that I just generated that I love. Okay. Cycorp Services Corporation. Cycorp Services Corporation.

[00:57:52] I like how it's got corp in it twice but I think that it does everything from private security to other contracted even do urban development and engineering projects as well. All right, instead of Sanmanto which is obviously just a joke. Let's say it's... All right.

[00:58:20] David's got Warren Pierce. Corp. Totally not weapons development. Wink. Weber, Bacigalupi, Genomics. Now I'm just taking a VD-209, Dave. What was that? The bad company in Robocop called? OCP. I immediately flashed to Rocco's Modern Life and Conglomo with their slogan of we own you. Yeah.

[00:58:49] And Dinosaurs which had the We Say So Corporation. Why? Because we say so. I think part of my criteria here is I'm trying to... I think of this future as so xenophobic that I can... When I see like Chiataka technology agglominated or whatever.

[00:59:07] That's actually a function of xenophobia in some of cyberpunk. The massive number of Japanese and... What? The massive number of Japanese and Chinese firms was a subject of xenophobia and fear of Japanese takeover of the economy in the 70s and 80s. Yeah, Wayland Utani, man. Right.

[00:59:39] And as a matter of fact, part of the thing in cyberpunk was that those were the corporations that basically bought out the government. They wrote the check and just kind of went, yeah, no, it's our country now we bought it. So we make the rules, yes?

[00:59:54] I mean, I have no idea what you're talking about. There's nothing like Raytheon that exists. No, Boeing is not a thing. All right. Northrop Grumman. Yeah. And this would be my last name. We each get one, Adam. Okay. I may take Cycorp out then.

[01:00:13] Tell me what you guys think. Okay. CyGen multinational. Anything with multinational in it. I automatically am suspicious. So yes. Okay. So I retract the Cycorp Services Corporation and go for CyGen multinational and bioengineering. So we have two bioengineering firms. Oh, crap. Okay. You very took that.

[01:00:37] I mean, you can have two bioengineering firms. They can compete. Yeah. We've got the latest. We've got the latest samples of our hypoallergenic, a labraweenie puppy that are going to be perfect for apartment dwellers. They're small. They're loyal. They don't shed their hypoallergenic.

[01:00:59] How about CyGen multinational is a digital media and like technology firm? Yeah. They're the ones that's doing all this spinning. Yeah. Like, which it's making me think of Deus Ex like in the first rebooted Deus Ex game

[01:01:17] turns out the big news anchor woman that you see giving all the headlines. It's just an AI. Oh yeah. That one's cool. That was a cool little thing. Okay. And now I get to come up with one. Let's see. I'm going to say Natalink GMBH.

[01:01:33] What do they do? No, they concentrate on cybernetics, cybernetics and net hardware. So they're the DRM assholes. So could the bow tech is actually their big development is trying to develop anti-rejection drugs so your body don't reject the hardware? Kind of the big push.

[01:01:58] No, they want it would be anti-rejection drugs that you continuously got to take so that it won't take, so that it won't reject it. Oh yeah. They're basically working in partnership with WebBudgetGalupi Genomics to constantly create planned obsolescence and copyrighting the new medications.

[01:02:15] These aren't necessarily the only corporations that are going to exist. They are just the ones that we're starting out with. Some mothers might show up. Okay, so next bet. Let's do some character creation. Sounds like a good idea. Yeah, let's do it.

[01:02:37] Chris, you seem pretty solid on the reporter. Yeah, I think I'm going to stick with that. All right. Has anyone else had an opportunity to peruse the playbooks? I should include the playbooks here. Oh boy. My options for eyes to immediately come to mind, dejected and sad.

[01:03:00] Yeah, those are not, those are four examples. Yeah, they're suggestions, I know. Yeah. I'm kind of thinking one, but what are you thinking, David? I don't want to step on your toes. Well, you were here first. So you get to go first, Neenor. I'm looking at the driver.

[01:03:23] Driver? Okay. Well, lost that bet. Huh? I lost that bet. You thought I was going hunter. Killer actually. For the man. Well, if we need a killer. Yeah, might as well. All right. I like some of these things. They're pretty self-explanatory.

[01:03:45] If you've got the, if you have the playbooks, I think you should. Yeah. You just follow them along, you know, pick your, distribute your stats as listed, plus two, plus one, plus one, zero, minus one, minus two.

[01:04:03] The character sections in the book and the playbooks themselves will tell you what the character mostly depends on to be successful. Can I get a rundown on the stats real quick as to what, or which one does what? Absolutely.

[01:04:16] Let me just pause for a moment because my cat insisted that I sit next to her while she eats. That's fair. I need to go get my mouse. Thank you. All right. I got to take cool for plus two. So that also a platform stage.

[01:04:38] So I can even work as a healer, I guess, possibly. All right. I have to stick with edge in mind as my, my mains. It's actually like attacking. I presume meat mix it up. Mix it up is yeah for getting in a fight. Okay. And what is synth?

[01:05:01] Use synth is anytime you're using your cyberware. Yeah. Alrighty. So if I'm going for more machine than man, I think that that means that my synth will be the plus two. You'll want to take some, some options that let you replace your synth stuff with

[01:05:19] your other, your other actions then if it's available in the playbook. Well, it says that I start with five cred. So that's an easy number to figure. And then there's, it says your meat or synth should be plus two or plus one. Right.

[01:05:36] So you would go with the synth. Right. And it's, it just means that you're going to be relying on your synthetics. So one of the stats cool is just your ability to remain calm and focused in a stressful situation.

[01:05:51] That is going to apply to mainly like in a lot of cases non combat stuff. So it's important for the driver because they're going to be focusing on driving around and probably avoiding damage instead of fighting with their vehicles, although they could fight with them as well.

[01:06:11] Edge is your ability to be smart or experience to give the impression that you are a badass. Seems pretty obvious there. Meat is use your physical talents without the aid of cybernetics to overcome a problem. Anything that involves punching, shooting, bashing, you know, simple answers to simple problems.

[01:06:38] Mind is your ability to think your way out of through logic. It's your pretty, pretty typical intelligence stat. Style is your ability to handle a situation with charisma. So that would be, that's going to be all your fast talks or

[01:06:56] persuasions or convincing anybody to do anything when you're not trying to intimidate them would be style. And synth is your ability to use technology to your benefit, both your cyberware and any sort of like matrix interfacing.

[01:07:16] So let me go back to page one so I can go and click on the old playbook here for the killer. Yeah, you would, you might want to look into muscle grafts, David. So you can use synth instead of meat when you're in, you know,

[01:07:42] attacking with a melee weapon or synthetic nerves also good. I was thinking both of those actually. And then I get the custom weapon. Right. And then I get one more and I was looking at possibly more machine than man to pick up neural interface. That makes sense.

[01:08:07] Yeah, so by the way, the plus linked tag means that you can use it in, you can use it the same way you were describing with your previous metacaracter where they were linked to the handgun. So it's a smart gun.

[01:08:24] Yeah, I was either thinking that or I might go for if he's fast enough maybe go for the cyber arm with the implanted weapon, either the retractable claws or I'm going to get some thought. There's a couple of options.

[01:08:39] I'd like the idea of guy that looks normal just happened to be a suit that suddenly crazy claw hands. Yeah. Or where did he pull that sword out of? He just flicked his wrist and it just shot out or for an infiltrator,

[01:08:56] one of my favorites was the mono whip where you pull a fingernail and you know, yank at a good way from your hand and then just get around. Yes, they're dead. I got their whole body off.

[01:09:13] Three out of four of the cyberware I can pick all have recording. Well, I mean that's your sort of your deal. Maybe I should just name my character Craig. And you start every conversation with now recording now recording.

[01:09:30] Why do you say that every time it's part of the DRM? We're in a two party state so I have to. Yeah, right. If I pick artificial eyes are you all going to make me have to worry about the rm?

[01:09:47] I mean, yes, that's going to be so that that's going to be a question that comes up after you finish your characters. I'm going to ask you how did you get the cyberware and you either got it from

[01:09:59] a corporation which means that you they either own you or you were hunted and the ownership would be the DRM basically they can make it. They can make your life ever cyberware you've got installed because they still have all the access codes.

[01:10:17] Alternately, alternatively if it's not if you're not hunted or owned then the cyberware has to have some sort of defect. Okay, that sounds fair. And the defects are that it hurts and it's going to do permanent name that nerve damage.

[01:10:36] It decays so that it works but you need constant repair and eventually it's going to fail. Yeah, it's no longer getting the updates. They're longer getting your OS updates. I'm using the windows ME eyeballs. That's right.

[01:10:58] You put cyanogen on it but man they stopped updating that 10 years ago and it's not going to work forever. Which do you think would be more useful for a reporter? A neural interface with data storage, cybercoms which basically means I can jam signals and record.

[01:11:16] Cyber ears which means I have superherring and I can record if I want to and cyber eyes supervision and I can record. Is it going to be are you trying to catch people out or are you trying to find things out? What do you guys think?

[01:11:39] I would say if you're trying to catch people out then it would be the cyber eyes with recording because you will be recording them committing an act for which you can then report on. If you're trying to find out more information to build a more complete

[01:11:56] story then it would be the ears because you're going to need it to not just to record but to help you gather the data in a different way. Of course they're not mutually exclusive. The eyes will still help you gather similar data.

[01:12:10] It just seems to me the ears would be more of a concentration on I'm trying to overhear things so I know the next step to take. Yeah, I think we'll go with the ears. Got magic hearing aids. I get a neural interface and a remote control module.

[01:12:27] Now that I have a driver unfortunately you guys are going to have to do a scenario with a car. That's right. New Edison's are out early this sh**. They're better than the musks at least. I only see you spot for one thing of cyberware. In the role 20. Yeah.

[01:12:50] Let's check. Let's probably add another character. What's the difference between inaccessible partition and encrypted? Encryption is more general so most of your communications are going to be encrypted. Inaccessible partition means they can't access it without the codes.

[01:13:08] If they attempt to, I imagine like most in partitions that you lock up in that fashion it will delete itself. Would be my understanding. Yeah, then I'm going with an accessible partition. Let's take a look here. Cyberware you can add below that.

[01:13:28] If you click the add button it'll add another. More cyberware. All right so I get two wheels. You start with cyberlinked vehicle. When you go live from the scene and broadcast a stream to avoid harm and expose your target roll edge. Seven plus. You get shot.

[01:13:47] You get the shot you want and are escorted to a position of safety. Okay so I'm thinking my car needs to be more armored I guess. Knowing us. I don't know what you're talking about. Adam are you implying something?

[01:14:07] Are you trying to say that we might, oh I don't know, get ourselves into some sort of trouble? Possibly. Oh man. I can make a reference to Transmetropolitan with one of my moves. Filthy assistance. Wait if I take that build it's going to be unreliable.

[01:14:32] Man I should reread Transmetropolitan. That was a good fucking comic. Yeah I'm not going to pick that build for my car. No kidding I thought about being a shooty shooty bang bang but, it's just, I don't know. Being a wheel man sounds fun. Wheel woman.

[01:14:51] But uh, wheel ma'am. Ooh I like that. It's been way too much time on this car folks. I gotta say what it looks like. I'm gonna build that car. When you corner someone and hound them with questions to get to the bottom of a story, roll edge.

[01:15:10] 10 plus they tell you the truth regardless of consequences. 7 through 9 they give you enough to get you off their back and then when they're safe they choose one. They respond with fear, they respond with anger, they respond with clinical calm. Ooh I think I'm going to go with Monstering.

[01:15:24] Well for name like Banshee I guess obviously my weakness in my vehicle should be as loud as fuck. Alright. So you got an anti-muffler? Yeah run straight pipes is what you're saying. Yeah. Maybe glass packs. Good point. Good point.

[01:15:45] Which are almost straight but almost straight pipes but slightly less. Okay so I am, so I'm building the custom weapon. Cool. I'm going with handguns which are too damaged close or near. They're loud and they're quick. I'm gonna make them either big or dangerous.

[01:16:09] Can I switch that to and? Hmm let's take a look here. Alright directives. Compassionate when you put your compassion for the powerless ahead of the mission mark experience. Network when your membership in blank hinders the mission mark experience revealing.

[01:16:27] When you discover more information about blank mark experience and vengeful. When you harm blank or their interests mark experience. Going for vengeful. So David in rules terms they mean the same thing. If they're big guns they do extra harm. If they're dangerous guns they do extra harm.

[01:16:45] If you want to choose big and dangerous as your two choices you can do that. But that'll be your two options. Well I'm just thinking I have the thought in my mind. I see Andre pulling out a pair of just really really large handguns and just unloading.

[01:17:06] Like that's the, yeah then you could just pig pick their big and you pick big one time. And then dangerous one time. And there you go and you got plus two damage and that's the deal. Well I'm actually going with automatic so they've got auto fire on them.

[01:17:27] Okay well then you'll have to pick either big or dangerous. Yeah you guys we'll just go with dangerous. Although down below there's ridiculous payload which is plus three and plus dangerous.

[01:17:41] And I can't help but think quietly to myself that there's got to be an option as you level up to add more to your custom weapon. I believe there is yeah. You can get more gear as a part of leveling up. And I have five cred apparently.

[01:18:04] I'm guessing cred is money. Yeah almost everybody starts with five. Yeah apparently the only playbook that actually can make money is the fixer. Well yes. There's a lot of options here which is cool. I mean I'm not bitching.

[01:18:24] I may have to, I may go back and kind of go through here and tweak this thing a little bit more when I think about it. I mean you can always change it later you know. Is there anything like how do we met kind of?

[01:18:37] Yeah that'll be after you guys sort of finish filling out the character stuff. Then we'll shift into how do you know each other. Alright so as a freelance journalist I do not have a press pass and I am not a part of a network.

[01:18:54] So that means I'm going to have to go with revealing and vengeful for my two directives. That makes sense. And you'll also kind of want to have an idea as to where your character comes from. Okay. You know they grow up in the slums, court person, artisans etc.

[01:19:16] I am playing an unholy combination of Spider Jerusalem from Trans-Metropolitan and Robert Evans from Behind the Basterds. Yeah I'm willing to kind of forgo the rest of my character creation if you all want to go ahead and move to the part where we do the talking.

[01:19:34] No no no. Finish up your thing dude. Oh dude I mean I've got tons of shit like there's a lot of tweaking I gotta do for this car. You all be waiting for a while. Oh okay.

[01:19:46] Yeah I mean that can happen off camera and I'm proud of it. Yeah it's fine for me. Alright I gotta throw this growler out. It's got a leak in it. I assumed he did that an hour ago. No it still had beer in it.

[01:20:00] He finished the beer and now he's going to throw it out. You know 28 ounces of beer and now it's time to go throw out the growler. Yes 28 ounces. I don't know. He said a third of it was gone. Alright choose two.

[01:20:16] Let's see those when you put your friend Frank in here. I think I gotta wait for my directives. I had the characters introduced. That makes more sense to me. Yeah well I mean you can skip customizing your vehicle and go right to directives.

[01:20:31] Yeah I mean it's what I'm in right now. Yeah. So when you put your friend ahead on the mission you get a mark experience. When you just on your jar for fame draws on wanted attention to mission mark experience.

[01:20:46] When your former membership in blank hinders a mission mark experience. Okay I'm looking on his character sheet for directives. That'll be in the book. I mean I just didn't know where to mark it. Maybe notes or something. Yeah notes would probably be pretty good.

[01:21:07] Alright weapons or I guess no directives has a selection. What the hell is that? So it's underneath your cyberware. Oh snake it would have bit me. Okay to use a southern expression. I don't know if that one exists elsewhere. I've heard it before.

[01:21:25] Okay I think if I'm driving a loud ass car illustrious seems to fit with a directives so kind of fame seeking possibly. I mean that would make sense to me.

[01:21:39] Yeah I don't want to take the Frank Miller like I'm broken kind of horrors you know kind of thing. So Joe got a quick crazy question here. Sure. I get to pick under my gear it says I can choose two more weapons. Right.

[01:22:00] Any firearm can be plus linked but it doesn't say that under my custom weapon. Let's take a look here or am I reading it wrong? I just want to get to the airs killer. Custom weapon base one base choose one any firearm can be plus linked.

[01:22:19] Oh okay so yeah they are linked. So that changes what I'm going for as far as cyberware right there. So I'm going synthetic nerves and neural interface with targeting suite because when you fire a weapon you are linked to you may inflict additional harm equal to your synth.

[01:22:37] And you may also roll synth instead of meat to mix it up and you may precisely define the area of effect for weapons with the auto fire tag to exclude or include potential targets from weapon damage. You are going to be very dangerous in a gunfight.

[01:22:52] Yes but only to those that I want to and well yeah the best kind of dangerous selectively dangerous selectively yeah. And just because I think that you guys might get a kick out of this it is literally requiring me to name my weapon.

[01:23:10] Yeah since I'm going for a pair of big fuck off guns I decided to name them the Spaholsky's after a pair of twins who were serial killers. There you go. Jesus. Creepy. Also fitting like. I mean yes it is very fitting.

[01:23:32] And I'm trying to decide whether I want because I get to pick one more move right. So I'm either going more machine than man to take one more. One more piece of cyberware.

[01:23:49] Or I was also looking at mill specs because I like the idea of when I mix it up I count as a small guy. That's pretty funny. That's that's pretty hilarious. I'm in favor of either of those.

[01:24:08] I mean for you know for the cinematic value I would say. Mill specs but that's fine. So Joe I do want to point out we are we've basically made the characters from Transmetropolitan. Have to read it. No.

[01:24:28] Like Spider Jerusalem is a crazy Gonzo journalist in like a cyberpunk transhumanist world. One of his assistants is just the most violent woman on the planet and the other one is like a driver. Gonzo journalist most dangerous person alive driver. That's me. That sounds like fun.

[01:24:56] It's a it's a really fucking good comic series. That's the case I may have to rename him from Andre to Andrea. Although considering that I'm going for more machine than man eventually.

[01:25:10] I don't really think that it's going to matter much in the end it's what gender are you. Yes machine. The one that shoots but yeah definitely going mill specs for now because it's funny. All right so I'm done completely.

[01:25:28] So we definitely have to name the social chameleon guy the Smiler. I was thinking we just call him comma. Comma okay. Okay the Zodiac killer is in the news. Or perhaps we could call him a series of commas. How is Zodiac killer in the news.

[01:25:48] After 51 years the Zodiac killer cipher has been solved by amateur code breakers. Sounds about right. I mean that Patton Oswald's wife also solved the golden state murder so. Really. Yeah. Little before she died. What was her job. She was a crime she she was a true crime writer.

[01:26:14] Not aware of that. So I'm ready to introduce. Working name right now ban she would you say credit was Joe five. Five yeah. I like the character sheet look of it. It's pretty slick apparently created by the creator of the game.

[01:26:32] Yeah that makes sense that he would be the one who is programming as well as writing the game. So I may go back and tweak my car at this point in time I didn't I didn't go drone which is kind of tempting since I like drones but.

[01:26:48] I just went for like you know a pretty standard muscle car I don't even know I need double check and see if I can get guns mounted on it but I was just thinking armor and.

[01:26:59] Well you know we can always go back and readjust before we actually start playing. We have more time to review the book. All right if everybody's done everything up to links. Then we'll do links next. Okay well I am almost there.

[01:27:16] All right no no rush one quick question. Do we have a name for our crew. I'm not at this time the game text assumes that you're just guys who kind of work together.

[01:27:32] You're you're just a convenient group that gets assembled typically by a fixture to solve problems but you could be. You could be friends you could be a co-workers you could have a name if you if you want one. Oh my.

[01:27:49] One of my directives is that I can go for protective when you put your responsibility to blank. Ahead of the mission mark experience and what I wanted to do is put my responsibility to the team.

[01:28:04] Basically I have a job to do in my job is protecting you and getting you out alive. Also killing everything that happens to get between you and the mission objectives. But mostly getting you out alive so hustle. Let's take a look here.

[01:28:19] So if you picked protective as your directive your responsibility to the team would be that would have to be at the expense of the mission. Because that's how it's worded and that's how the game wants you to mark experience.

[01:28:34] So if you decide that protecting the other team members you're going to put that ahead of whatever the mission goals are. That's when you get the experience. Is this acceptable to you? It's acceptable to put the team first. Yeah that's fine.

[01:28:52] It's just that you know when you attempt to do that that means that the your actual objective for the group is going to suffer. You're putting their lives ahead of their goals. That's kind of what I wanted to do yes. Okay all right.

[01:29:08] They may hate me for it later. Right they'll be alive to hate you yeah.

[01:29:14] For my directives I'm trying to figure out what I should put in the blank and when you discover more information about blank mark experience and when you discover when you harm blank or their interests mark experience.

[01:29:27] So that will just indicate that you have goals like you are trying to. Yeah. I would pick a specific person or corporation to put there. If you pick a person that'll create the person in the narrative.

[01:29:44] If you pick a corporation you can use one of the ones we've already created or make a new one. They could be the same because discovering more information is not necessarily going to harm them or their interests unless you can act on it.

[01:29:59] All right so I'm gonna give you a tour here Joe. All right. I'm taken rejected so my membership in blank hinders a mission so I need what could I have been involved in.

[01:30:15] So if I'm a wheel person just I guess one of the gangs or syndicates or something like it. Maybe you were a getaway driver. Yeah maybe you were a getaway driver for one of the crime syndicates and see. Which randomly generated crime syndicate.

[01:30:36] Yeah that's fine with me that's what I usually do. All right when you discover more information about whether Bachegalupi mark experience. When you harm the chameleon or their interest mark experience. The chameleon okay that must be the politician earlier okay cool. Yeah. Fantasy name generator.

[01:31:05] I've recommended the bear gang. Or the demon reaper sisterhood. Andrea is down for both of these. Actually I'm gonna go back to the list. The moss that was one suggested. Hey Joe how does the red jackal tribe sound. That sounds good to me.

[01:31:28] All right red jackal tribe let me write that down. Is that too fantasy. Nope. Remember the future is fantasy. You can decide what the red jackals do. All right I kind of like that. Like urban neo travel kind of vibe that that gives it.

[01:31:50] They could be permit and our co-primitivists. They sure could be. Or on Javelin's dudes. It almost said the bloodhound gang. That would be a slightly different style. Nothing but mammal so let's do it like they do on the discover the channel. They're to you actually knew them.

[01:32:16] Like personally yeah. Back in the late 90s my sister was a huge fan of them and I worked with her on they had like a music video contest where I helped her film and edit and stuff like that

[01:32:32] and she won but they told us that everything sucked that they got sent. But like her name is in the hooray for boobies CD they put her name in there and then I basically my mother and father whenever they were going concert around here

[01:32:51] they would we always got backstage passes which is cool but I was sent to be a big brother so I got to hang out backstage with them several times. That's neat. They were all right when they were sober.

[01:33:07] The last time that I mean they never did anything and they weren't creepy but they were just jerks. They were jerks other people yeah. Yeah. All right looks like yeah Joe you can take a look at my whenever. We definitely need a hacker man.

[01:33:28] You can hire out for that. Yeah but it's got to be hacker man. Well OK that one specific picture. It'll be hacker man all the time yeah. All right. Hacker man it is.

[01:33:41] Oh after I did all this shit there's a whole field for drones I mean vehicles so I. That's OK and transfer it over. Yeah so I think I've got this about as ready do I just click the little linky at the top to close it.

[01:33:58] Well I just wanted to OK. Think it looks like we did. Beautiful OK I didn't see a spot on the thing to put on the cyberware because I'm thinking that the why is career and the cost as I fucked someone and I don't get it.

[01:34:18] Right so that's a question I'm going to ask everybody so I think we'll see I will start with you David so yeah what why did you get OK so you did it for the career but what made you choose the career that kind of career that

[01:34:34] would require that like what what drove you into you know being the kind of person that would get listed as the killer in this playbook. Poverty and small lens. You don't know how bad poverty is you would do anything to get out of that

[01:34:51] slum anything OK so a couple of jobs. You got it to a different one yeah different slum a better slum a higher quality slum with better slurry with hookers and blackjack. Right. At least it is not as cold here as it is in small lens. All right.

[01:35:13] Now how did you afford it so you screwed somebody over. Right to get the OK so that means you're hunted who did you double cross just a bit of Russian mob. Don't worry about. All right so on your character you include hunted and on enemies I'm going

[01:35:34] to include Russian mafia. I'm sure and drop off is perfectly fine with it now. And if he sends more men after me I send their fingers back to him in a basket like the last batch.

[01:35:47] OK why am I not able to bring up the sheet just got a baker's dozen of thumbs in the mail. Everything is there all my thumbs. Oh no I've been cloned. I've a clone now there's always do just to hang around.

[01:36:10] OK so you did join in on our weird ale sing alone. I didn't. Where is where do I add that like I'm looking at the sheet and I'm not seeing the spot to add. Yeah I'm looking around it myself see here cyberware directives.

[01:36:31] I would just put it in notes at the bottom. You're next so why and how did you hack a part of your body off to get some cyberware. I had to as a also for the job because it's much easier to record

[01:36:56] things when people don't think you have a recording device on you. OK yeah it was it was at an error when people were still a little more relaxed about that or they just assumed that not everybody running around with cyber eyes is recording everything.

[01:37:12] Well in this case in this case it's an implant into my eardrum so it's actually not particularly noticeable. Yeah you wouldn't be able to tell. All right are you owned or hunted or are there problems with it. It's unreliable. It's unreliable so you got it second hand.

[01:37:33] OK picks up CBs. No just doesn't always record when it should be. I'd be in your head you're stuck listening to truck drivers on the Internet or worse K-pop boy bands all K-pop boy bands and every day around 2 p.m. you get to hear again and again

[01:37:55] and again and again. Oh God it's just fucking it's just like K-pop Twitter all the time. Yeah it's BTS the holograms. It's like up Craig's gone deaf in one ear. All right feel free to talk. Right talk on that side of him you can't hear you.

[01:38:19] He's not recording. That's right. I look up nervously. I also scroll down to see if Craig was still there. So Adam. It would seem logical that I'm hunted and probably the red jackal trap. OK so you in your job for them you also got it.

[01:38:47] Now what made you join the red jackal tribe to begin with. They were going to pay for my augmentations. So you see one of the augmentations first and they said they'd pay. Yeah I was a good driver and I thought I was signing up for a job.

[01:39:06] Not a lifestyle. Yeah so it ended poorly. So fucking poorly. Yeah. Ban she is not well liked by them. I don't know if they actually openly shoot at me on the street in broad daylight but they could. You're probably not their top priority but you're a priority.

[01:39:33] Yeah like they're not they're not actively hunting for you but if they see you if they see you it's going to be a problem and if they can easily find out where you are that will also be a problem.

[01:39:44] I have a friend that would probably be a problem for them. Yeah well yes. Don't worry nine times out of ten is no problem. Just their tenth time. Well you know you know what the IRA said they only

[01:40:01] have to be lucky once you have to be lucky every day. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean. So the last bit will be links. Okay. So each player introduces their character to the group and then you'll tell everyone about a job your

[01:40:21] character did against one of the corporations we talked about already that would be Sygen multinational Warren Pierce Corp. And Weber better galopy genomics. But you go to him. I'm sorry I'm sorry. I apologize. And nano link GMB H.

[01:40:44] So it's a job that we did on our own or together. The other characters can have participated in the job. Now every time somebody brings up a corporation I'm going to bump up the countdown clock corporation now what that means is that they are that

[01:41:03] corporation's notice of the player characters. Every time somebody in the group is a part of that job you'll get a plus one link to them which helps you assist them in doing their job. But it will also bump up the corporate clock.

[01:41:22] So if Adam says he did a job against his Sygen multinational and the corporation does a job against them and the corporation does a job against them. So it's a job that we did on our own or together with the corporation. And David says his character assisted Adam's

[01:41:43] character in that job they'll have a link and a plus one to each other but that also means that I'll be moving up. I'll be moving up Sygen's regard for the players. So we managed to acquire recorded audio of some higher ups at Sygen multinational talking about

[01:42:09] a massive data mining incident that they're using to help keep folks help basically keep them melting pots poor. Okay, damn. Alright, so that bumps the clock up to 1,500 which is the semi-arbitrary numbers they provided for the clock. They all represent a real clock and you don't

[01:42:34] want to hit midnight. Were any of the other characters assist in that job where that information was obtained? Does anyone else want to have assisted in that? I think I'm good. I see why you need a wheel man. That is a valid question.

[01:42:55] Do you think you need either of us for that? Yeah, honestly probably not because that's going to be mostly basically I don't know I managed to get into a fancy restaurant like dressed as a waiter or something. Okay, the cheese stands alone in that one.

[01:43:13] Is there any mechanical advantages like say if Chris and David did a job together? Yeah, they will have each player who says they've assisted the player who describes the job. They get a plus one anytime they want to assist them later in the game.

[01:43:32] It just helps your role anytime you're going to do anything that could be construed as assisting them in their role. Yeah, it's the assist mechanic in the basic power of the apocalyptic same. Alright, well since that's the case I think yes.

[01:43:49] I think that I did help you with that one. I was on standby just in case things went south and luckily for us Craig nothing went south this time. Alright, that bumps Sai-Jen's clock up to 1800 so they are aware you two exist not at all top priority.

[01:44:12] They've just heard rumors that you've been interfering in their business. Would it make sense for me to be more interested in the genomics or in the social media company? I mean if you see them as a threat to truth and honesty and that's what

[01:44:32] your character cares about then I would say social media. You've got other concerns. Yeah, I'm going to switch out my revealing to Sai-Jen. Okay. Alright, Adam will do you next. Yeah, I did a job where I did a heist of a cybernetic implants so which company does the

[01:44:58] cybernetic implants the actual hardware? That would be NanoLink GMBH. Yep, there we go. So what they needed was we saw this old time movie called Fast and the Furious. So I took my fast car and drove up there and we jacked him on the road. Furious.

[01:45:24] I ripped him off. I ripped him off. It was a very fun day. I remember we had fun just like your American Den Viesel. I helped supply the information for that. Okay. So basically you came to me to use me as a knowledge broker.

[01:45:49] David, did you say you were in on that job too? Alright. I was thinking that but that would put them at 2100 on that particular clock which means that we're at fairly, they're still alert, they're still aware of us. Yeah, I like that color

[01:46:07] coding on this. That's pretty nice. That I like that. That's for the harm for you. That's your hit points basically on the card sheet. But yeah, 2100 is not like deadly. It just means they're more likely to get involved in your shit

[01:46:27] as you do stuff. It's only really when you get up to 23 or 00 that you've got any problems. If we go back over the 12, do they forget about us again? Yeah, they feel like they've taken care of you or etc. So we can't wind the clock down?

[01:46:47] You can wind it down but it's going to be like that would be a job. It would be winding the clock down. You wouldn't get paid for it unless you pick something up along the way. Yeah, if you guys decide yeah, NanoLink knows too much

[01:47:05] then you could run a job on NanoLink and then erase all your data with them if you succeed. And then it would be back down to 12 because nobody would have any information about you guys anymore. I think that's what we need Hackerlerman for. Sounds good.

[01:47:25] We're only playing like 4 or 5 sessions anyway so yeah, it's like, I'm cool. If we all want to go in on this fast and furious moment why not? Alright, so everybody who assisted Fanchi on that you can add him as a link.

[01:47:45] I mean to get plus one when you attempt to assist them. Also get a plus one with them too, right? Yes. I think. Let me make sure Oh, here they are. What's your name Chris? Craig Serota. Actually, they just get the plus ones with you not the reverse

[01:48:05] because it was your job that are helping you. Okay, I got it. I actually don't see the links section on the plates. It's beneath the move section. Oh yeah, there it is. Yeah, I know it's kind of all bleeds in. So I have a plus one

[01:48:23] with Andrea and a plus one with Fanchi. You'll have a plus one with Fanchi. Just Fanchi. Gotcha. Fanchi has a plus one with me. Elena has a plus one with me. That's correct. And Elena also has a plus one with Fanchi because she was on Fanchi's job.

[01:48:43] Which brings us to Elena. What was her job? Hang on, let me get over to the discord for half a second. See the different corporations. We haven't done anything with Cycorp yet or with Webber Baja Gloopy. And okay, oh wait, Webber Baja Gloopy is Genomics, right? Correct.

[01:49:05] Elena had heist with Webber Baja Gloopy. Okay, what did you do? They have genetic modification. So Elena changed her look permanently. Is slightly botched is why skin is white and hair is white and eyes are white. Not quite albino, but somewhat noticeable.

[01:49:25] On whole, job could have gone better, yes? But you look different. And you had a really fast ride out of there. We all have new faces if we need Vance. Vance and it will mostly turn you white. And not white white. I mean, hair is technically silver

[01:49:47] if you look at it in the right light. Eyes are red. Eyes are very much gray. If you actually put your hair under any sort of genetic testing it actually counts as seals fur? Not sealed, is mink. Walking, talking environmental violation. Yup. You can tell

[01:50:13] which corporation Chris came up with. Yeah. Alright, and I think that's it. That's the links for everybody. That will put Weber Bacchagalupi at 18. And Banshee will have a plus one for Elena and those are the characters. So that's what we will be proceeding with later. I

[01:50:41] would like to try and do this in short order. So I'm looking at every week or every other week. So again to, you know, capitalize on video games. Yeah, I feel you. In keeping with the appropriate theme every single gun is going to be named

[01:51:03] after either a famous killer or a famous sniper. So I'm starting with two extra weapons. So I start with an assault rifle which is named after the most famous Russian female sniper ever, Ludmila Barchenka. She's so fucking cool. Right? And the sword is just called slash-e slash-e slash-slash

[01:51:29] because I don't really care about swords. It was like a New Year's resolution at some point in time. We're going to have to sit down and play Night Witches. Dear God, yes. Totally worth it. That would always seem so cool. Also guys, thank you for including me.

[01:51:45] No problem. Thanks for being here. We love playing with you, David. You're great. That's been a long time since I've done proper cyberpunk and even just the idea of, well, I haven't done the sprawl in a bit either. So roll six feels great and I'm already

[01:52:03] seeing all sorts of different ways that this can go so gloriously pear-shaped. Oh yeah. That's the whole deal. Thanks for watching.