@EarthScorpion an actual question about the design goals of the quest. Are we actually playing the villain from a 90s teen TV show in which our goal is to just not lose too horribly, are we self-inserting into a fictional show's universe and trying to beat the plucky protagonist's plot armor, are we trying to get renewed for a second season, or what? Are we running Discworld rules where being genre savvy is an advantage but trying to use said genre savviness to cheat will always backfire? Or is this using more grounded rules within the fantasy that allows for the teenage detective team, albeit with more unique forms of resource extraction?
You are actually playing the villains. You don't in-character know the genre - as far as you're concerned, you've found a foolproof way to make vast amounts of money and ascend beyond mere human limitations by stealing from the things which some worship as gods.
As I mentioned in the OP, once we get out of the tutorial, the voters essentially represent the upper echelons of the conspiracy. Your votes and your arguments are how the leader is persuaded what to do and in-character write-ins and well-defined characters will get added to the story as lead henchpeople and so on - and yes, I am just stealing this from Magna Graecia.
Now, on the other hand, the players should be aware of the genre and how - essentially - the universe is set up to work a certain way. But that's not a character thing. I suppose you can say that it's somewhat Discworld-like there, because certainly explicitly invoking genre in-character is asking for the universe to screw you.
In fact, you can probably honestly say that this is living in much the same space as Overlady. Or like Evil Genius, or other things of that ilk. Suffice to say, it is possible for your conspiracy to accomplish your goals, although there is a chance that you really won't like the consequences (as is normal for this sort of "stealing the powers of that which is not dead can eternal lie" thing). The meddling teens are not inevitably going to beat you, but they are significant and meaningful obstacles akin to "bosses". They're not your "minor" opponents - minor opponents are things like crazy occultists who actually believe in the Great Old Ones as deities and who don't support corporate mining of their gods, or the new DA who's trying to purge your corrupt cops from the police force.
I'm sure our corporate shareholders who have, hmm, invested very heavily in it's medical department are going to pleased with this extremely relevant purchase!
Vice President of Inhuman Resources Strum Johnson
Shoggoth Mining Administration Officer Holland Fisher
Jim "Jormungardr" Jackson, head of Employee Shoggoth Re-Patriation project
John Allan, rising star and leader of the Employee Post-Shoggoth Re-Patriation project
Ranaksatamun, formerly "Peter Kinsey", now shoggoth, successful first trial
Minutes taken by Dorothy Dolores, Secretary of Strum Johnson
Transcript of meeting is as follows.
FISHER: I'm happy we're all here. It's been a rough week. JOHNSON: I'll be happy when the problem is dealt with. JACKSON: Let's not get too hasty, Johnson. Beating up old ladies isn't our department. FISHER: That's true. So let's get straight to business. John Allan, please begin your presentation. I'd like to see what you think about our other little problem. RANAKSATAMUN: [Ominous noises]. JACKSON: It was my project first, let's not pretend it's an original proposal. FISHER: If you hadn't had lost your whole team in the gaping wound of neverending sorrow it wouldn't have been an issue in the first place. Allan gets results, and have you seen his card? JACKSON: That's fair. Sillian Rail would have been a better fit though. RANAKSATAMUN: [HELLISH SCREECH OF DISAPPROVAL] JACKSON: Good point. Bone is also a solid texture. Alright Allan, let's hear how much of this you cribbed from me. ALLAN: Thanks Jackson, but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. In any case, we're all well aware of the problem we've been having with the shoggoths. FISHER: Right, Allan. They're not staying. ALLAN: They're not staying. As soon as we seem to reach a high shoggoth production, they seem to leave for the netherworld. And the problems are deeper. Please show the graph, Dolores.
ALLAN: Thanks Dolores. JACKSON: That's worse than I thought. Where did you get the data? ALLAN: Head of marketing, Cain the Furious. FISHER: How'd you get a meeting with him? ALLAN: I took him to a steak place on Barker street. Really cools him down. FISHER: Oh, you mean Van Patten's? I've heard it has amazing medium rare. RANAKSATAMUN: [APPROVING SLURPS]. ALLAN: It does. Anyways, we can identify some main trends on the graph. Week 1 is a little more obvious in lieu of week 10 so let me explain it. FISHER: I assume it has to do with the shoggoth loyalty problem? ALLAN: You're exactly right, Fisher. So, what we have here is that as shoggoth production increases, employees tend to stagnate before rising slightly during peak Shoggoth at week 9. FISHER: Why is that? ALLAN: A lot of employees go missing. Basically, here's what happens. Over the course of the 10-week business cycle, employees are swallowed into never-ending portals of despair. It's covered under their insurance and state law basically mandates that we provide for sick leave, so we lose a lot of profit. FISHER: I've heard of that. What's happening with the shoggoth part of the graph? ALLAN: Well Fisher, as I understand- JACKSON: You don't know? ALLAN: Main issue is that Shoggoths tend to give off rays of cognitive amnesia that replace memories of their activities with images of mutilation. RANAKSATAMUN: [FOUR HEADS NOD IN AGREEMENT]. ALLAN: I agree the methodology is a bit weak but we had to do something, so there were some blood sacrifices to get good data. FISHER: Interesting method. JACKSON: It was first proposed by one of the directors in a recent board meeting and circulated via memo. I'm surprised you didn't get it, Fisher. FISHER: Oh damn. That explains it. My mail's backed up with inter-dimensional spam offering free enlightenment in exchange for my corporeal form. ALLAN: There's a filter for that, you know. IT worked on it for weeks. Anyways, as you can see Shoggoth production spikes, as we would expect as the Shoggoths begin to duplicate and multiply out of the cloud of poisonous miasma that tends to form during peak hours of mining. As you all remember from the incident last November. FISHER: Hopefully we won't have anymore ventilation problems. ALLAN: Indeed. Anyways, what tends to happen is once they reach peak-shoggoth, they drop off rapidly. What's the reason for this? I've been studying kabbalistic techniques to prevent total mind ablation and it seems to increase memory of shoggoth activity. From what I've observed, they tend to retreat into the nether-realm and release the employees that have been going on leave in the despair portals. JACKSON: What's your solution, Allan? I have dinner at 6:30. ALLAN: My solution, Jackson, is to give the Shoggoths incentives. FISHER: What kind? RANAKSATAMUN: [SKEPTICAL WAILING]. ALLAN: Gentlemen, I understand your concern, but there's a number of companies such as IBM that have used incentive systems properly. If we give the Shoggoths performance reviews, they'll be more likely to stay. Couple this with Shoggoth rating systems and buddy-recommendations for awards, and I really think we could produce brand loyalty. FISHER: It's a long-shot, Allan. ALLAN: I specialize in long shots. Sir?
[ALL LOOK TO JOHNSON]. JOHNSON: It's a bold idea, Allan. A bold idea. We reward bold ideas here, and we appreciate the effort. I'll forward it to the board. JACKSON: I don't know about this. Let's consider that the shoggoths start holding performance reviews. How do we harvest them if they're so pre-occupied with carefully considered holistic ratings of each other's effectiveness as eldritch beings? ALLAN: We can hold large meetings for them with lures of virgin souls. JOHNSON: That's reaching back to our, roots, ha! I don't know how much it'll work, though. Virgin souls are difficult to synergize into mass-produced merchandise. ALLAN: What if we broadened our horizons? JOHNSON: What do you mean? ALLAN: We're so narrowly minded in terms of who we're poaching for virgins. It's all about the young women, right? But Shoggoths might not even care. Maybe they won't be as interested in other types of virgins, but they could still use them. JOHNSON: What are you suggesting? ALLAN: Shoggoth focus groups. Ask them through the infernal translator of black speech if they have a particular preference. JOHNSON: Haha, you're a goddamn genius, Allan. I like this. We'll go forward with it. JACKSON: I was skeptical but you sold me. RANAKSATAMUN: [RELEASES SPORES INTO ALLAN'S FACE]. ALLAN: Glad to have your approval, Kinsey. You've always given an injection of common sense into this. FISHER: I'm interested. Keep me posted. You're going to go far, Allan.
[AT THIS POINT THE MEETING CONCLUDES. TRANSCRIPT ENDS EARLY AS RANAKSATAMUN SWALLOWS DOLORES WHOLE AND CRAWLS INTO THE VENTS].
You are actually playing the villains. You don't in-character know the genre - as far as you're concerned, you've found a foolproof way to make vast amounts of money and ascend beyond mere human limitations by stealing from the things which some worship as gods.
As I mentioned in the OP, once we get out of the tutorial, the voters essentially represent the upper echelons of the conspiracy. Your votes and your arguments are how the leader is persuaded what to do and in-character write-ins and well-defined characters will get added to the story as lead henchpeople and so on - and yes, I am just stealing this from Magna Graecia.
Now, on the other hand, the players should be aware of the genre and how - essentially - the universe is set up to work a certain way. But that's not a character thing. I suppose you can say that it's somewhat Discworld-like there, because certainly explicitly invoking genre in-character is asking for the universe to screw you.
In fact, you can probably honestly say that this is living in much the same space as Overlady. Or like Evil Genius, or other things of that ilk. Suffice to say, it is possible for your conspiracy to accomplish your goals, although there is a chance that you really won't like the consequences (as is normal for this sort of "stealing the powers of that which is not dead can eternal lie" thing). The meddling teens are not inevitably going to beat you, but they are significant and meaningful obstacles akin to "bosses". They're not your "minor" opponents - minor opponents are things like crazy occultists who actually believe in the Great Old Ones as deities and who don't support corporate mining of their gods, or the new DA who's trying to purge your corrupt cops from the police force.
If the Meddling Kids endeavor to prove that unfortunate accident was really a murder, then they will be "prepared to die" or some such foolishness. The later we escalate to murder, the more likely there will still be a few sensible ones who don't want to die. Oh, but we're a reasonable evil conspiracy, and if they just do one little thing for us, we'll forgive them for their indiscretions, right?
FISHER: I'm happy we're all here. It's been a rough week. JOHNSON: I'll be happy when the problem is dealt with. JACKSON: Let's not get too hasty, Johnson. Beating up old ladies isn't our department.
It's called redistribution. Old people don't spend money! They maybe go to the Golden Corral in the morning but they're not out blowing cash on good American Made trucks, boats, guns, or tasteful chandeliers! Just look at Japan, all it's old people are dragging the economy right into the grave along with them!
No, what we're doing here is saving the economy. Granny Toadstool over here could be penny pinching for a few more years or we could be spending it on Capital, reviving this town, and providing safety and security to its populace. This is a goddamn public service and we should be able to put it on our Corporate Responsibility Sheet!
1) It suggests the building of assets rather than the correction of something that's already gone wrong, which is a plus.
2) It starts off slow, allowing a build-up to later, more grievous actions.
3) Since she's a sham, the victim has a reason to lie, pretend, and generally serve as an independent obstruction to people attempting to explore the mystery of her assault, which is that much more we don't have to do ourselves.
Having a layline seems more useful than a couple books or a contractor. And we could use the shop to sell people books about how awesome our company is. The shareholders will love it.
So, just to be clear, I don't think said lady is actually old, just adult.
Anyway, I'm fine with Acquisition winning, it's my second choice. The only problem is we're going to have to put effort into exploiting the resource, but it should hopefully be worth it. Just need to tread water if we can get that thing up and running, really. And figure out if there are any teenage gatherings of investigators we need to look out for.
Considering her description I am more assuming that she is closer to her 30 to 40s and might even harbour the most dangerous of all parts, a british accent.
[X] Acquisition
And that also allows her to be there as a guest star or supporting star if that should not be the case.
[X] Acquisition: She's a sham with no knowledge of the occult. On the other hand, her bookshop is built above a mystical leyline that Black Goat Excavations wants. Beat her so she's hospitalised, and we can purchase the site when she's forced to sell it off to pay her medical bills.
Asset: Several toughs who've been told not to kill her (3 dice)
I like this one because it seems safer and less overtly evil than just killing her, which would be wasteful, she's a sham, no need to risk the investigation a murder brings, and is sufficiently villainous to still be villains! Also, we get the site with the leyline!
or example, it's probably best to not use a fleshspawned monster for something which requires delicate negotiations with human beings, but instead to use a lawyer on the payroll.
Hey, that fleshspawned monster worked long and hard to earn that law degree, and you have no idea how hard it was for him to pass the Bar Exam. (You eat one test proctor, and they take 20% off your score!) Not using Naharmakananthan's legal skills is discrimination!
[X] Acquisition
We're a company. A company of hideous flesh-beasts. Engulfing and devouring things to add to our splendor is how we roll. Also, we've got thugs, who are funny enough quite good at beating people up and hospitalizing them. So let's roll with our strengths here.
Beating up bookish ladies for fun and profit. From a genre side it's an excellent, low level, but yet reprehensible introduction to evil stuff going on. And on a practical side, it leaves room for slack with our toughs screwing it up and not having the police look into it too hard.
I'll back up the bandwagon on this on. It's just practical.
If you change your vote, you tell me what you're changing it from. In addition, you must find your previous vote and cross it out with the strikethrough marking. I have to hand count votes to apply the vote-reasoning rules, and changed votes which are not marked in this way will not count.
This.... This is a wonderful premise. I can't wait till the protagonist is about to uncover this conspiracy of corporate greed and exploitation and then SHOGGOTH INTERRUPT. It's moments like this that make the onerous burdens of being an evil conspiracist worth it.
Hmm... I'm a bit concerned that beating her up, instead of just killing her, will be a bit more difficult than planned. In-universe, beating someone into the hospital without actually killing them can easily turn into accidentally killing them. Out-of-universe, it seems somewhat less in-genre - from what I recall of the TV of the era, you were much more likely to have someone killed by the baddie of the week than to have them put into the hospital and actually deal with what that entails (the long period of recovery, having to sell your livelihood off to pay the hospital bills, etc.)
