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Episode 1 - Into the Otherworld

This version was saved 13 years, 6 months ago View current version     Page history
Saved by JWMason@archchemicals.com
on September 20, 2010 at 9:00:01 am
 

Episode 1: Into the Otherworld

 

The World of the Future

  • Constant wars erupting in the developing world, often instigated by the corporations
  • Virtual Reality (VR) tech is developed to the point that it is practically indistinguishable from reality. Virtual real estate is as expensive as the real thing and just as exclusive to those with money and power.
  • People access the VR 'Otherworld' by jacking in, Matrix-style. Death is possible in rare cases.
  • It's possible to mindwipe people, especially the poor and vulnerable. These people sometimes end up as programmed Dolls, a shady operation in the developed world.
  • The major cities of the world are located in China and Europe, with central Paris enclosed in an arcology to preserve the Eiffel Tower and other landmarks. Outside this pristine arcology is slums.
  • Other centres such as London and Shanghai are sterilely-beautiful megacities.
  • The developing world is  a rough place to live, especially due to the many wars. North America is a wasteland, sent spiralling into savagery after a massive financial crisis and in constant civil war.
  • Virtual Intelligence is common, if expensive, but true Artificial Intelligence has not (yet) been achieved.
  • Cybernetics exist, although the preferred and more epxensive options are Biotics and developing nanotechnology.
  • Aircars exist, for the wealthy, but most people still travel by conventional ground transport.
  • An O'Neill station is being built in space, massively expensive and a space elevator connects Earth with an orbiting habitation.
  • Bases also exist on the Moon and one of Jupiter's moons.
  • Years ago a weather control device was tried, but went catastrophically wrong. The effects have been shunted off to the developing nations, giving them rain, grey skies and more rain most of the time.

 

Locations

  • Jingles - on line bar for hackers with a seedy rep. In the Otherworld this feels as real as any bar, complete with intoxication and risk of vomiting.
  • Jack Booth - a public access place for jacking into the Otherworld, run down and unhygenic.
  • Paris Arcology - opaque dome over Paris' architectural sights, including the Eiffel Tower and Arc d'Triomphe. The exterior of the dome is covered on office space but from the inside it shows beautiful vistas.
  • The Reactor - Otherworld location representing a collapsing rusty Chernobyl reactor inhabited by mutated dog things and worse.

 

Situation as at end of Session 1

 

Player Characters

Dmitri Costanto (AP), recently-sacked Fraud Investigator. Goal: Expose Dr. Messina's illegal Doll operations

Status: Angry at Opex Corp; Injured by a golf club to the leg; RWA = 3/7/3, Able goal ticked.

 

Reza (JM), tracked, ex-Plessey Doll. Goal: Create a new life.

Status: Armed with a Heinkel Taser; Dangerous with alt. skill sets; Financed with credit chips; Hunted by Plessey handlers; Trapped in Otherland by Inner Core; RWA = 5/6/7.

 

Michael Wilks (DH), hacker by handle of Axeman, tall, black and wearing shades. Goal: Become a well known hacker.

Status: Connected to a hacker group (INF4??); Prepared (by what?); Impaired by Otherworld virus programs. RWA = 7/4/4, Able goal ticked, 1 Edge Die.

 

Errol Markham (MM), aka Michael Smith aka John Sands, burned out operative working for GenTech. Goal: Find a way to get out.

Status: Dangerous with a hidden gun; Burned Out by too long in the business; Coerced by Inner Core. RWA = 5/2/7, Ready and Willing goals ticked.

 

Wing (AM), 50 year old Chinese dealer of hallucinogenic software and Doll programs. Goal: Get his economic freedom.

Status: Equipped (with what?); Financed by Inner Core; Hesitant by info from Dmitri; Confused (by what?). RWA = 5/3/4.

 

Sian Chu (TS), aka Lamia, tech and Otherworld site designer (?) and spurned by her lover. Goal: Open the sealed Realm in the Otherland.

Status: Equipped in the Otherworld; Loved by her former Inner Core lover; Humiliated by lover's betrayal. RWA = 5/5/3, 1 Edge Die.

 

Factions

Sunshine Productions aka Sunshiners, drug dealing gang providing recruits and muscle for the Plessey Doll Houses. Psycho hippies. Goal: Find out who's trashing the Doll Houses and stop them.

Status: Dangerous with no sense of restraint; Enthused by Samson's violent encouragment; Injured by Doll House attacks. INF 4

 

Plessey Doll House, subsidiary shadow operation of Plessey running their Paris arcology Doll House, led by 3-man team. Goal: 'Reassign' Reza

Status: Equipped with a tracking van; Connected to Plessey. INF 4

 

INF4, hacker group of 6. Goal: Get (unrestricted?) access to the Otherworld.

Status: Connected to Wilks; Financed (by what?). INF 6

 

GenTech, massive international corporation. Goal: Win out over Plessey Corp

Status: Financed by company funds; Confused (by what?) INF 4

 

Doll Liberation Army(DLA) group of former Dolls. Goal: recruiting more Dolls and closing down the Doll Houses.

Status: Dangerous; Hardened by the need to get serious; Hunted (by who?). INF 5

 

Inner Core, shadowy cabal of Otherworld figures from powerful organisations. Goal: Complete control (of Otherworld?)

Status: Connected to their corps; Prepared with info from Wing. INF 7

 

Faction Relationship Summary

Plessey      > Plessey Doll House > Sunshiners

                > Opex Corp

 

GenTech > (INF4) > (DLA)

(GenTech hires INF4 to attack Plessey’s Doll operation, who in turn use the Doll Liberation Army)

 

Inner Core: members include GenTech and Plessey reps

 

PC Relationship Summary

  • Reza – on own
  • Dmitri contacted by Errol (via Wilks), Dmitri – Errol relations strained
  • Dmitri and Wing in communication over Plessey PDA
  • Wilks/Axeman and Sian/Lamia in contact

 

Current Deals

  • Wilks looking into GenTech’s involvement in the Doll House for INF4
  • Wilks and Sian tentative alliance against Inner Core
  • INF4 help Reza with money and a new identity download. Have INF4 given themselves a backdoor access to Reza's mind?
  • Dmitri and Wing agree to share information related to the Plessey Doll operation and Dr. Messina.
  • Wing sells information to Inner Core in exhange for cash and wiping his debts to Plessey, and promises them more info as he comes across it.

 

Current NPCs

  • Wing's two unamed helpers, one with afro and 'attitude'
  • Dr. Messina (Goal protected) - unknown figure involved in Plessey's Doll Operation and reason Dmitri was fired from Opex.
  • Sian/Lamia's lover who spurned her, a member of the Inner Core with the avatar of Thoth.
  • 'John', a hacker colleague of Wilks.
  • The Inner Core: 'Thoth' (JM), 'Shiva' (AM), Dragon (AP, Plessey), Thor (MM, GenTech), 'Horus' (DH, GenTech Space/New Horizons) and Protoss/Alienesque (TS, ??? Faction)
  • Sunshiners: Samson, scarred, bewigged and psychedelic leader.
  • DLA: Caleb Neilson, DLA cell leader
  • GenTech: Mr Bruce, CEO and Mr. Harris, Division head of New Horizons
  • Plessey Doll House team: Mr Sink, Mr Raven and Mr Lean, two unnamed operatives in limo posing as rich lushs.

 

Recap - Session 1

 

  1. Intro (AP): Dmitri is sacked from his job at Opex Corp over pictures of him taking bribes, but this is really about his investigation of Dr. Messina. Not sure whether Dmitri was accepting bribes.
  2. Intro (JM): Reza having shower, gets dressed hears Fire alarm. Enters smoky room - blood every where - searches for somthing finds body phone rings. Mysterious phone call to meet  someone out side the lobby, but he get a anxiety flash & flees by window. Out side, chased by a well dressed man stepping out of a Van, down an alley.
  3. Intro (DH): Wilks deals with another hacker 'John' in Jingles - gets rid of Hunted NCon from a past job gone wrong.
  4. Intro (MM): John Sands aka Errol disguised as a cleaner copying files in the Opex Corp building. Needs to incapacitate a PA and is established as Dangerous.
  5. Intro (AM): Wing talking to two employees of Wing Bros., tells them they have 60 days to sort out Wing's debts or they're taken over. Decide to sell to anyone who will buy.
  6. Intro (TS): Sian/Lamia is ousted from the Otherworld site she has created for the 'Inner Core' , led by her lover. However, her former lover still has feelings for her (Loved PCon).
  7. Intro (AP): Sunshiners boss Samson comes in mad because no one was guarding the Paris Doll House and it's been wiped out. Yells at gang and chops hand off one of them with a machete. Sunshiners are Enthused PCon to sort things out.
  8. Intro (JM): Plessey 3-man Doll House team reacting to the attack in disarray. Angry and call for Supported PCon from Plessey.
  9. Intro (DH): INF4 have been hired by GenTech to instigate attacks on Plessey Doll Houses. Have doubts and decide to hire Wilks to investigate GenTech's motives.
  10. Intro (MM): GenTech board meeting to discuss strategy against Plessey and decide whether to use the freed Dolls as agents against Plessey. Board in confusion, cannot agree an approach.
  11. Intro (AM): DLA rounding up Dolls after the Paris attack and escaping with them in the van. Mention one missing, Reza.
  12. Intro (TS): Inner Core discussing how a backdoor into the minds of Dolls is possible, e.g. to use them as assassins. by hacking them into thinking they are in the Otherworld rather than the real one. PCon Prepared.
  13. FaceOff (AP): Two wealthy lushs in a limo aircar try to pick up the escaped Reza for a good time. DLA operatives spot this and intervene, there's a fight and Reza leaps from the limo, taking money and a taser. DLA resolve to harden up in future.
  14. FaceOff (JM): Limo lushs turn out to be Plessey operatives, who decide to punish Wing for his role in the Doll House fiasco for supplying defective chips. Fly to London to confront him, learn Wing received the tampered chips from INF4. Plessey retaliate by leaving Wing Destitute (NCon).
  15. Deal (DH): Wilks is hired by INF4 through 'John' to investigate GenTech.
  16. FaceOff (MM): Dmitri is contacted by Wilks to meet Errol in the basement. Tells him Plessey operatives are here to kill him and that he should go with him if he wants to live. Implied threats of revealing him to Plessey leave Dmitri Coerced (NCon).
  17. FaceOff (AM): Plessey 3 man team looking to capture Errol and run over Dmitri. Errol spots the tail and tells Dmitri to jump out of the van at the next corner. Dmitri ends up firing his Dornier pistol wildly into the van and running, letting both of them escape. Dmitri gets a PDA dropped by Plessey, with evidence against Dr. Messina.
  18. Colour (TS): Wilks meets Sian in the Otherworld and they discuss an alliance against the Inner Core and to investigate GenTech.
  19. FaceOff (AP): Dmitri tracks down Wing and confronts him with the Plessey PDA, which mentions him in connection with the Doll Houses. Dmitri squeezes evidence from Wing and gets closer to his goal, and the two agree to share info. Unfortunately, the Plessey Inner Core member is able to trace the PDA and discover Dmitri and Wing's involvement.
  20. Deal (JM): Reza jacks in and is contacted by INF4. They give him a new program with a false identity and funds, but are able to exert some influence over Reza in the process (??)
  21. FaceOff (DH): INF4 hack into Dmitri's records and play havoc, wiping some of his research and evidence against Dr. Messina and Plessy (removing a goal tick)
  22. FaceOff (MM): Wilks on behalf of INF4 contacts the Sunshiners and pays Samson to arrange an attack on Dmitri. The off-scene attack ends with Dmitri nursing a busted up leg (NCon Injured) after a Sunshiner goes after him with a golf club, but Dmitri makes off before he can be attacked further.
  23. Deal (AM): Wing contacts the Plessy member of the Inner Core and gives them the Doll attack info in exchange for wiping his debts to Plessy and an extra consideration (NCon Destitute removed and PCon Financed gained). Wing promises to tell them of any future info coming his way.
  24. FaceOff (TS): The Inner Core meet to take care of business. After digesting the information from Wing, they decide to pressure Errol into working for them, try to trap Reza in their domain of the Otherworld and inconvenience Wilks with an attack virus/program. The Inner Core are successful in each instance, but unwittingly let Reza and Wilks closer to accessing closed areas of Otherworld, furthering their goals.. Wilks exits their domain to find himself in a wasteland of an empty reactor inhabited by rabid mutant dog-things. Errol is also closer to getting away from GenTech, even though Coerced (NCon) by the Inner Core. The Inner Core is close to realising their goal of Otherworld domination with INF 6.
  25. FaceOff (AP): The Inner Core attempt to use the trapped Reza to tap into her Doll traits to spread their influence over Otherworld. After a tense standoff, the two sides are more or less as before: Reza's goal is reduced, and he is still Trapped (NCon), but he grows in power and becomes Dangerous (PCon). Meanwhile, the Inner Core are at INF 7 and on the cusp of completing their ambition...

 

To be continued... (next Controller is James)

 

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