Saturday, July 13, 2013

Wordslingin'

Into the Humanist Alliance, where the people are polite, the buildings are clean, and you really don't want to be called a deviant by doing things like breaking and entering.


[While Lyta and Torgath are in Junira Loresh, Lukas leaves for the Humanist Alliance to have facial reconstructive surgery. Very expensive facial reconstructive surgery.]
Brock: "Half a million seems like a lot of money."
Ariel: "Thankfully it's all imaginary money."

[The rest of the Lassander siblings arrive in the Humanist Alliance and get their first impressions of the league.]
Georges the GM: "This is the future. You have arrived. This is as sci-fi as Terra Nova gets."
Brock: "It's Star Trek."

[Carrying firearms is illegal in the Humanist Alliance for everyone except the official military caste, the Protectors.]
Ariel: "Do the Protectors carry guns?"
Georges the GM: "They carry the same guns you do."
Brock: "If we were allowed to carry guns in the Humanist Alliance."

[Lukas tries to figure out how we can carry guns.]
Georges the GM: "Your streetwise tells you that getting weapons into the Humanist Alliance is very difficult... and profitable."

[Lukas needs to make an impression.]
Brock: "I need to take the Doc's money and turn it into a papier-mâché mask. I make it myself. With love."

[More of the same.]
Georges the GM: "Which mask are you wearing?"
Brock: "The glossy white one. It looks like... the future!"

[Georges the GM gives us a little run-down of the Humanist Alliance, including the VDSS.]
Brock: "Ooh! Violent Deviant Security Specialist! Those are definitely the guys who are gonna be sent to deal with us!"

[Given that we're now operating in a new territory, we've decided it's time to take on new operating names. They come easier to some people than others.]
Ariel: "How about Phoenix Darque?"
Brock: "It's a little... unsubtle. Says the guy with the gold mask."

[Terra Nova's naming customs are also somewhat unsubtle.]
Julie: "Lyta's new operational name is Ryss."
Georges the GM: "R-Y-S-S?"
Julie: "Yes. Because it's Terra Nova, and if I can't have a 'W', at least I can have a 'Y'."

[The Humanist Alliance is kinda different from what we're used to.]
Julie: "Lyta's weirded out that she's been somewhere two weeks and hasn't gotten into a barfight."

[We meet Joe's new character, a contact given to us by Bill Pearce.]
Brock: "Name?"
Joe: "Gabriel."
Julie: "Last name?"
Brock: "Borg?"

[Joe's new character Gabriel is a Humanist Alliance local. Which means he sometimes has trouble seeing outside the box.]
Lukas: "How can we make money here?"
Gabriel: "Well, you could get a job for starters, sir."

[Gabriel informs us of some of his backstory.]
Lukas: "You were in the military as a Commoner? Isn't that unusual?"
Gabriel: "Yes."
Lukas: "How unusual?"
Gabriel: "Unusual enough."
Lukas: "Is it... deviant?"

[More about Gabriel's story.]
Lukas: "What's your job?"
Gabriel: "I'm an electrical engineer, sir."
Lukas: "What did you do in the war? Engineer corps?"
Georges the GM: "No, you blew people up."

[Gabriel knows a lot about the Humanist Alliance. Joe, not so much.]
Lukas: "How do you become a Preceptor?"
Joe: "..."
Georges the GM: "I'll lend you the books so you can read up on your culture."

[Remember what I said about names, and some people having an easier time than others?]
Gabriel: "I didn't catch your name, sir."
Torgath: "Grizzlethorpe Squadgly."
Everyone Else: *boggles*

[We go for cawfee with Gabriel.]
Georges the GM: "Prices seem inflated here."
Ariel: "All that hypno-programming costs a lot of money."

[Prices are only inflated for foreigners. For locals like Gabriel, they're actually quite reasonable.]
Lukas; "You could conceivably buy two cups of cawfee."
Gabriel: "I could, conceivably, but I don't want two cups of cawfee."
Lukas: "But I want one, and I want you to pay for it for me."

[Gabriel isn't so happy with Lukas' attempting to game the system.]
Lukas: "I don't think this relationship is gonna work out."
Gabriel: "I don't think this qualifies as a relationship yet, respectfully."

[Lukas figures out that the thing Gabriel objects to isn't so much the buying of the cawfee but that Lukas wants to take advantage of the system.]
Gabriel: "I will be happy to buy you a cup of cawfee."
Lukas: "Make it three."

[Lukas is not content with stopping at just a cup of cawfee.]
Lukas: "Do you have an apartment in this city?"
Gabriel: "I do, sir."
Lukas: "How many bedrooms?"
Lyta: *rolls eyes*

[Gabriel introduces us to his former commanding officer, Okran Radsley.]
Okran Radsley: "G'day, mate."
Julie: "...The Humanist Alliance has a wide range of accents, I see."

[Lukas introduces his siblings with their new operational names.]
Okran Radsley: "Ryss and Grizz, eh?"
Lukas: (pointedly) "Tough thing, names. Not like you can pick them."

[Unlike Gabriel, Radsley seems a bit more willing to think outside the box.]
Okran Radsley: "What type of work are you likely to be good at?"
Lukas: "The unusual kind."

[Lukas likes Radsley.]
Lukas: (to Gabriel) "How can he be so interesting and you so boring?"
Torgath: "Can you be him?"

[Radsley has a job for us, namely to steal some of his property that an Emerati by the name of Krak Bhakir is trying keep from him. However, he doesn't want the job to trace back to him, and he doesn't want any attention drawn from the authorities.]
Okran Radsley: "Those caveats having been expressed..."
Lukas: "We are devout pacifists."
Okran Radsley: "I'm very glad to hear that."

[Radsley tells us more about Bhakir.]
Lukas: "Is this the sort of man who's likely to call the police?"
Okran Radsley: "Not likely. He's not the sort of man who usually needs police."

[Radsley has given us a job. A purpose, even.]
Torgath/Ariel: "Shall I start surveillance now? I start surveillance now."
Julie: "You just leave the meeting and go?"
Georges the GM: "Who needs a plan?!"
Brock: "We can't have a plan until we have surveillance."

[Bhakir runs a caravan near the outskirts of the city, with four longrunners and about twenty guards.]
Lyta: "So what are you thinking on this? Diplomacy?"
Lukas: "No, we're gonna go in and steal it. I've always wanted a longrunner."

[Lyta goes to check out Bhakir's caravan because Lukas has still not revealed to his siblings that he's had the facial reconstructive surgery.]
Lukas: "You're less memorable than me."
Lyta: "That's true."
Georges the GM: (exasperated) "Because you choose to be! Half a million dinar and fifty xp!"

[Lyta watches as some Protectors approach Bhakir, a massive giant of a man, and politely ask him to stop some of his hobbies.]
Protector: "There have been three reported broken arms in the past week. No one has pressed charges, but we ask that you stop arm-wrestling the locals. Or at least find someone of your own... girth."
Julie: "Stature?"
Protector: "Yes. Stature."

[Turns out Bhakir may have some sort of protection racket going on, in addition to the legitimate caravan business.]
Lukas: "It's not that hard to be a king criminal in a city of law-abiding citizens. How hard can it be?"

[We try to figure out ways to play the 'arm breaking' angle. With mixed results.]
Ariel: "You have to arm-wrestle him. Either you fake an arm break, or you have your arm actually broken..."
Brock: "I think we'd all prefer the former."

[Following that particular line of thought...]
Lukas: "We need to find a broken-armed Commoner and ask them how it happened. They can't lie."
Lyta: "Yeah, but if they're already dealing with this guy, maybe they can."

[Gabriel will be helping us with the job.]
Georges the GM: (to Joe) "You weren't designed to be--"
Ariel: "Designed?"
Georges the GM: "You weren't trained to be..."
Ariel: "Good job convincing us he's not a Borg."

[The reason Gabriel is helping us requires a bit of convoluted logic.]
Georges the GM: "This is social responsibility, in a deviant sort of way..."

[Gabriel is still having trouble thinking creatively.]
Lukas: "If I were a Protector, what ID would I be asked for?"
Gabriel: "But you're not a Protector!"

[We try to think of some other angles to use for the job. Gabriel is still not helpful.]
Lukas: "What does a writ look like?"
Gabriel: "I've never seen one, sir."
Lukas: "...What are you good for?"

[One thing we'd like to do, regardless of how we do the job, is to jam the ubiquitous surveillance. Sadly, it's almost all hard-line, not broadcast.]
Georges the GM: "Fantastic bandwidths, free internet for everyone in the League..."
Brock: "And no porn."

[More planning.]
Brock: "We may need to steal the longrunner."
Ariel: "I'm not sure I'm totally on board with this--"
Georges the GM: "Plan of lunacy?!"

[Torgath suggests assaulting the guards. Which poses other small problem.]
Lukas: "There's never a three-on-twenty advantage."

[We think about what might happen if we charge Bhakir's guards.]
Lukas: "They're probably armed."
Torgath: "So we steal one of their guns and rain devastation!"

[Even if the guards aren't armed with guns, they're probably armed with something.]
Lukas: "Are sticks illegal?"
Gabriel: "That depends on what you're planning on doing with them."
Lukas: (deadpan) "Using them for tent poles."


And that's it for this week. Next week, a thrilling attempt to get away with theft in the best-surveilled league on Terra Nova! Yay!




Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game

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