Powder, a young orphaned girl from the rundown slums of Zaun, must navigate a dangerous web of magic, technology, magitech, retired and not-so-retirned revolutionaries, chembarons, and a wealthy city full of people who will stop at nothing to continue their lives of luxury even as the inhabitants of the Undercity choke on the pollution of their progress. And if all that weren't enough, there's the demons conjured by her own mind waiting in the wings to destroy everything she holds dear.
Just sneak into some rich Piltie's place, rob him blind, and sneak back to Zaun before he even realized what'd happened. She'd gotten the tip from Ekko, so we knew it was legit. Get in, get the loot, and get out. Easy.
There was a lot more at stake than just getting a payday. Pulling off jobs, especially a big job, was how you proved you were somebody. You weren't just some dumb kid who needed to be taken care of by adults; you could pull your own weight. That you mattered. You weren't just 'Vander's kid' you were Powder, and you were worth more than who you were attached to.
Especially since people never stick around forever in Zaun. One day you're Felicia's youngest, and the next the Enforcers put a bullet in her brainpan for being in the wrong place and you're nobody.
They never said it to my face, but I heard people talk. How Vi and I were so "lucky" that Vander had taken us in after our parents died. You'd think if we were actually lucky Mom and Dad never would've died in the first place. I get it, though. Lots of other kids wound up on the street or worse.
I glanced down at the streets of Piltover below us as we ran across the rooftops. Spotted some rich kid hanging out in a park, stuffing his fat face with candy while his mom and dad stood over him with big dumb smiles on their faces. If I'm supposed to be lucky, what does that make him and every other Piltie kid like him?
Just running around Piltover felt weird. I could take a deep breath without feeling the air scratch my throat and burn my lungs on the way down, and everything was so bright, shiny, and clean. The white marble gleamed, the gold trim that seemed to be on almost every building shown, and I'd bet if someone dropped some trash on the street it'd get swept out of sight in a matter of minutes. It almost didn't feel like a real city at all. Not a place people really lived, just a big beautiful perfectly arranged zoo where everyone could look fancy and try to impress each other.
We got to a big gap between two buildings, and I didn't have time to worry about stuff like stupid fat Piltie kids anymore. Vi made the jump without any trouble. Of course she did, she was Vi. She could do anything, and make it look easy. Then Mylo and Claggor made the jump, leaving me behind.
Okay. So I just needed to make this jump. I could do it. I knew how. I...
Vi let out a soft groan and gave me her Patient Big Sister Look for just a moment before she smiled, softening her voice from its usual rough tone. "Powder, remember what we talked about? What did I tell you?"
Does she, or is she just trying to be nice to her useless little sister? You saw how she looked at you, deep down she's annoyed and wishes you didn't need to have your hand held like a baby to make a jump everyone else did on their own.
Vi. Believed. In me. "You told me that I'm ready."
I let myself slide down the rooftop, catching myself on the gutter at the last minute. For a second I was afraid it would collapse beneath me, but I should've known I'd be fine. After all, anything sturdy enough to hold Claggor wouldn't collapse under me. From there it was just a quick drop down to the balcony, and then jumping across the gap.
The gap with a five-floor fall onto the hard stone streets if I messed up the jump. At least it was far enough that if I fell I'd probably go splat and die right away. This was insane. I was risking a painful death just to make a little money and … finally prove that I deserved to be part of the team.
I took a deep breath and jumped.
I almost wanted to close my eyes so I wouldn't see the inevitable fall to my death coming, but instead I felt my feet hit the copper-clad Piltover roof. "Yes! I did it." I threw my arms up in celebration.
Then I felt my feet's tenuous hold on the slanted metal roof slip, and I could feel my body tilting towards the gaping of a long fall down onto a hard surface.
Vi grabbed my arm and quickly pulled me back to my feet. "I got you."
"Thanks." I kept a straight face until I was firmly settled on the roof and Vi had turned her back on me to talk to others. Once I knew she wouldn't see, I let the trembles hit as I gasped for breath. That had been way too close.
I realized a second too late that I'd messed up. Mylo could still see me. The boy scoffed and rolled his eyes, muttering a word under his breath. I couldn't hear it, but I didn't need to. I already knew what he'd said.
"Jinx."
We made it to the target without running into any more trouble. The sixth-floor apartment had a massive balcony that gave the four of us plenty of room to work with. One look inside confirmed that we had the right place. "You could fit a dozen families in there."
"Ekko said the guy was loaded." Vi peered in through the windows. "Benzo charged him triple, and he didn't even try to haggle."
Mylo smirked and pulled out his lockpick. "Give me a minute, and it'll be ours for the taking." He got to work, his confident smirk slowly fading. "Maybe make that five minutes, there's something weird going on with this."
I saw Vi roll her eyes at the delay. "We don't have all day. I don't know if you noticed, but there are tons of enforcers crawling around down there." She pointed towards the ground. "A good sign for how much loot we're gonna get, but I'd rather not find out what happens if any of them remember how to look up."
Mylo sighed. "Yeah, well, unless you suddenly learned how to pick locks in the last five minutes, you're just gonna have to wait until I'm done. Complaining isn't gonna make it go faster. Just sit back, be quiet, and let the expert work his magic."
Vi scoffed, and I knew we probably only had moments before she went for a typical Vi solution like kicking down the door or busting open a window. My sister always defaulted to solving her problems by hitting them.
I didn't know much about lockpicking, but I did have one random idea. I reached past and tried the handle.
The door slid open with no trouble.
For a second everyone just stared at the open door, dumbfounded. Vi broke the silence with a loud snort. "Yeah, Mylo, you're a real expert. Can't even tell the difference between a locked door and one that's wide open."
Mylo blinked and slowly pulled his lockpick out. "Who leaves their balcony unlocked when they've got as much expensive shit as there is in this place. I knew Pilties were soft, but I didn't think they were so complacent they wouldn't even bother locking their doors!"
"We're on the sixth floor," Claggor pointed out.
"Yeah. And?"
Vi rolled her eyes. "Have you seen anyone else running around up here since we got into Piltover? They weren't expecting anybody to try breaking into their house from the balcony." She tossed an empty sack at Mylo. "Now stop talking and start cleaning the place out. The longer we're up here, the more time it gives for something to go wrong."
"Or someone," Mylo grumbled, shooting a dirty look at me.
We all got to work searching for anything worth taking back to the Lanes. Some of the loot was great, like the genuine Valdiani orrery I found (though I had to wonder if whoever Benzo found to fence it to would realize just how much it was really worth). Other stuff was less great, like the nose hair trimmer Mylo insisted on adding to our loot pile despite Vi telling him not to. "Oh come on, people in the Lanes need to trim nose hair too. Have you seen how much is coming outta Garvin's nose?"
"We're trying to get stuff that's worth actual money, not cheap garbage you could buy in any pawn shop," Vi shot back.
"I would pay real money to have never have to watch Garvin plucking his nose hairs in the middle of The Last Drop again," Claggor pointed out. "But good luck convincing him or anyone else to pay much for a trimmer when pulling them out is free."
While they all argued about whether the nose hair trimmer was useless junk or not (it was), I went exploring the rest of the workshop. Whoever owned it was some kind of inventor, considering all the blueprints lying around and half-finished designs on the chalkboard. I wanted to stop and take a while to explore and read through some of the books full of notes, but Vi would probably yell at me for taking too long if I did. We were here to rob the place, not try to figure out what the owner was working on.
I went into one of the side offices, only to find yet more books and blueprints scattered all over the place. There was also a huge chest that my instincts told me had to have something valuable, but I also spotted something way more interesting than anything we could sell back to Benzo. Two sandwiches lying someone had just left lying out. I grabbed one of them and took a cautiously experimental bite. It was heaven. The bread hadn't gone stale, the lettuce and tomato were still fresh and crispy, and the meat didn't have that nasty over-spiced taste most of the meat in the Lanes used to cover up the fact that it was thrown out Pilties for being too old.
I paused and swallowed my current bite before calling out. "Vi, come check this out!"
As soon as my sister stepped into the side room, I pointed out the second sandwich to her. Her eyes lit up, and she tore into it like a starving wolf. Or at least what I assumed a wolf must be like, I'd never actually seen one. She let out a groan in between bites. "Is this what the Pilties eat every day? No wonder they get so fat with food like this."
"I know." I pointed out the massive stone chest. "What do you think's in there? It has to be something good, right? I mean, it looks like a treasure chest." I started poking and looking over the chest, trying to figure out how to open it. After prodding it for a bit I finally found a latch hidden on the backside. Hitting it didn't open the chest up right away, but seemed to trigger some kind of mechanism to make the chest slowly open itself.
It was almost done when Vi spoke up, staring down at her half-eaten sandwich. "Wait a minute, these are fresh, and they were left lying out in the open right next to all the stuff they were working on. There's no reason they'd do that unless..."
"Unless they were planning to come back soon," I finished, the sandwich I'd eaten settling into my stomach like a brick.
Just to remind us that the universe hated Zaunites, seconds later Mylo called out. "Vi, we've got company!"
I threw a last forlorn look at the almost-opened chest full of undoubtedly valuable loot as Vi grabbed my wrist and started hauling me out of the side office. She rounded the corner at a run, still pulling me behind her. I tried to keep up but between the sharp turn, Vi yanking on my arm at the worst possible time, and my own stupid clumsiness I wound up tripping and tumbling to the floor. Vi made it halfway out onto the balcony before she realized I'd fallen and reversed course to try to help me.
I groaned and started picking myself up off the floor just in time to see the workshop's door swing open. A purple-haired Piltie girl around Vi's age stepped through the doorway, her eyes widening in shock when she spotted me. "Thief! Stop right there, criminal!"
Ugh, she had the most stuck-up, snobbiest, Piltiest voice ever.
She dropped the box of equipment she'd been carrying and charged forward, grabbing my shoulder right as I'd finally gotten back to my feet.
Vi came barreling in a second later. "Get your hands off my sister!" She sent the Piltie girl sprawling with a single punch. "Come on, Powder, we gotta go!"
I'd only managed two steps towards the exit when the Piltie girl came back, tackling Vi with a furious snarl that sent them both tumbling to the floor. The Piltie got a few hits in before Vi popped her again, but that wasn't still enough to make her back off. Vi growled and tried to shove the Piltie off her, but she'd locked her legs around Vi's chest to keep her pinned to the floor.
Vi glanced back at me, taking another hit for her trouble. "Powder, get outta here, I'll be right behind you!"
I hesitated. Vi was having a tough time getting rid of the Piltie girl who'd tackled her, and I could see a man standing in the doorway who was probably moments away from getting involved. Would Vi really be able to get away, or...
[ ] Spend 1 Additional Willpower for +3 to the roll
[ ] Charge the Piltie Girl
Issues Triggered: Violet (-2), Daughter of Zaun (-2), Abandonment (-2)
Failure Consequences: Powder loses her cool during the fight
[ ] Do Not Spend Additional Willpower
[ ] Spend 1 Additional Willpower for +3 to the roll
[ ] Spend 2 Additional Willpower for +6 to the roll
[ ] Mouser Bomb, Go!
Issues Triggered: Violet (-2), Daughter of Zaun (-2), Trauma (-2)
Failure Consequences: Reckless usage of high explosives
Gain 1 Willpower if the Mouser Successfully Explodes (separate roll from Powder's mental roll).
[ ] Do Not Spend Additional Willpower
[ ] Spend 1 Additional Willpower for +3 to the roll
[ ] Spend 2 Additional Willpower for +6 to the roll
Hello everyone, and welcome to our story! If the name didn't give it away, we're going to be playing as everyone's favorite damaged genius inventor and chaos gremlin from Arcane, Jinx. You can probably guess one or two other things about the likely direction of the story from the title, but in the grand tradition of all SV quests I expect things to derail from whatever I have planned pretty quickly.
Fair warning, it's probably a good idea to be fully up to date with Season 2 of Arcane before diving into this quest. I'm not going to go out of my way to spoil things and we're starting well before the events of season 2 (which are likely to be derailed by typical questing shenanigans in any case), but some spoilers coming up in discussion is all but inevitable.
Tone-wise, I'm also going to be aiming to match the source material. Things might get dark and miserable, but I'm not going full grimdark and there are lines that won't get crossed.
With all that established, let's start with a couple of basic ground rules.
Standard quest format, with Jinx as the protagonist.
Majority vote wins (barring some sort of issue)
Write-in votes are allowed with GM approval, so long as they fit with Jinx's current mental state and are reasonably concise without excessive sub-votes.
Anyone who looked at the title and remembers how similar it is to a previous quest I ran will probably also guess at some of the mechanics: I'm bringing back the system I used on the Cat-Ra quest (with a few tweaks, of course). There are three core statistics we need to worry about: Stability, Willpower, and Issues. If you're curious about what those mean in game terms, read on...
Stability:
Stability is a rough measurement of Jinx's current mood, stress level, and other day-to-day things. It's going to be impacted by things like her interactions with Violet, whether she gotten a good night's sleep and eaten well, how much stress she's under, whether she's been able to blow something up and feel useful, whether she's had to deal with any of her Issues recently, and whether something traumatic has happened to her in the last five minutes.
Jinx's stability is the kind of thing that can change on an update-by-update basis, depending on her immediate circumstances. For the most part, it's pretty straightforward. If Jinx is happy and in a good mood, she'll be stable, if she's wracked by guilt and convinced everyone's going to abandon her, she's unstable.
Jinx's mood will be a general modifier on most of her decision-making. If you don't want Jinx to do something crazy like try to force her sister to murder someone just to prove Violent still loves her, don't let her stability go into the pits. Of course, day-to-day stability is only part of the equation, which leads us to...
Issues:
Jinx is, to put it lightly, a complete mess. Her parents were murdered by Enforcers when she was just a little kid, and she's been forced to survive as an orphan in hellish urban blight that is Zaun. Violet and Vander have done their best to help shelter Powder from the worst Zaun has to offer, but there are no happy childhoods here. Everything she's gone through has left a lot of marks on her, and her damage has a huge impact on how she behaves, and thus the actions she'll take during this quest.
Where Mood is a short-term modifier on all decisions, Issues are a lot more deeply rooted, but tend to be more specific. To give an example, Jinx has a "Self-worth" Issue that tends to push her to take more extreme and unwise actions whenever she feels like she's not being useful, or the people around her regard her as useless or a burden. Whenever this issue gets triggered, she'll take a penalty from it.
Issues represent deeply-rooted traumas, maladaptive coping mechanisms, or just complicated and messy human relationships. Their severity will increase or decrease as the plot moves forward. The "Violet" Issue is naturally going to be impacted by what's going on between Jinx and her sister. Are they getting along with a normal-ish amount of sibling bickering, or are they trying to kill each other? While issues aren't permanent, a lot of them are pretty deeply rooted in Jinx's psyche. Jinx isn't going to unpack and recover from years of pain and trauma with a single conversation or one grand heroic gesture.
Bringing all of Jinx's Issues under control is one of the big endgame goals. It won't instantly solve every single conflict and end the Quest, but a Jinx who's in a good place mentally is probably going to be a lot better at handling her problems. Well, as long as nothing else goes wrong in her life. It's not like Arcane would let her start making real progress recovering from her trauma, only to kick her down with a fresh of pain and loss, right? Right?!
Willpower
Willpower is a new resource I'm adding to this quest, representing Jinx's capacity to keep herself together and keep moving forward despite everything going on in her life. Zaun raises tough kids who aren't going to roll over and die the first time they take a couple hard knocks.
Willpower is a resource that can be expended to take actions that would be outside of her comfort zone, or to help get through tough rolls or at least help Jinx hold off the breakdown for a little bit longer. Once expended, it can be regained through downtime or indulging in things like Jinx's love of chaos, explosions, and chaotic explosions. Some external events like having someone she cares about threatened can also give her a big willpower boost.
How It All Comes Together:
Whenever it comes to Jinx's decision making we'll make a dice roll and modify the result by her Stability and Issues, plus any willpower players choose to spend. The higher the resulting number is, the better she'll handle whatever it is she's trying to do. As a general rule, if the roll is zero or goes into negative numbers her behavior will start getting unhealthy.
If you've noticed that Issues can lead to bad decisions that could potentially make those Issues worse, leading to yet more bad decisions that can cause a death spiral that's hard to recover from ... well that's how Jinx starts a downward spiral that ends in her trying to force her sister to either kill her or her girlfriend.
The Why
The general intent behind this is to find a good balance between giving the players valid choices, fun game mechanics, and writing Jinx's character authentically. Jinx could've saved herself a lot of pain if she could've just calmed down, thought things through rationally, built up a support network, and taken some time away from all the things causing her stress.
Of course, it's a lot easier for us to say that's what Jinx should do than for her to do it. There aren't many therapists in Zaun, and the only way to escape a lot of the messy toxicity in her life would probably be to leave Piltover and Zaun behind and go hide out on the other side of the world under an assumed name (and even then her past would probably catch up to her eventually).
Because of that, I will try to limit voting choices to things that feel like they fit her current state. If we want her to have an open and honest conversation with Violet about her fears, vulnerabilities, and feelings, first we need to get her to a place where she's capable of having that conversation. Choices are also going to be kept open-ended to help maintain some flexibility in how they play out.
Any write-ins also need to be open-ended. It's a chance for people to come up with options I didn't think of, not a way to put specific words in Jinx's mouth or out-of-character solutions. Suggestions of what issues might apply to the write-in would also be good, though naturally the QM retains the right of final say on whether a write-in works, needs a few tweaks, or is unusuable.
Additionally, not all negative outcomes are necessarily catastrophic. At the end of the day these are mechanics used to enhance the storytelling, not a a minmaxing contest we want to win. Sometimes her mental issues can even lead to not entirely bad outcomes, like stealing a hextech gem for Silco (ignore the dead Enforcers ... or add them to the list of positive outcomes, if you think All Piltover Enforcers Are Bastards).
It also bears mentioning that characters who know Jinx fairly well usually tolerate some of her bad behavior. That's not to say she'll get a free pass, but people who really cared about Jinx like Silco and Violet were willing to put up with or forgive some pretty extreme behavior on her part.
While we naturally want to avoid bad outcomes, bear in mind that Jinx's decisions can have long-term narrative consequences beyond how the initial roll goes. Sometimes bad outcomes can eventually lead to good results, or characters need to hit rock bottom before they're able to really look at what's wrong with their life and how they want to fix it.
Finally, this is an Arcane quest: Sometimes things are going to go wrong and end badly not because the players or Jinx necessarily did anything wrong, but because of bad luck or other people making choices that set off a chain reaction of misery and pain. There are grudges that go back long before the start of the quest, and systemic forces at play that are (at least at the start of the quest) beyond her ability to understand or influence. Piltover and Zaun are a powder keg, the quest will be more about navigating that explosion than avoiding it. Assuming you even want to avoid it: the status quo is pretty awful, after all.
Final Stuff
Other than managing Jinx's mental state, we aren't going to go too deep into any mechanics. I don't really want to figure out or borrow an XP system and skill tree, and it would cause complications with the current Mood and Issues mechanics (I know if I was a player, I'd boost Jinx's willpower, will save, wisdom, or whatever stat had the most impact dealing with her problems). Jinx doesn't get to level up out of her problems, she has to solve them the hard way.
That said, I'll probably use the occasional dice roll to figure out how events will play out. If nothing else, it always feels slightly fairer to only have the universe kick Jinx in the teeth after I roll a 1.
Also, as far as continuity goes, I'll mostly be focused on what was covered in Arcane rather than the broader League of Legends/Runeterra lore. I'm honestly not all that up-to-date on a lot of it, aside from what is featured in Arcane. That said, I might pull in elements/characters that seem fun. If nothing else, as someone who was a Lux main back when I actually played League many years ago, I'd be tempted to use the fact that Lux and Jinx have an odd sort of friendship in canon.
Violet Severity: -2
"Violet's my big sister, and she's awesome and great most of the time, but sometimes I hate how she always looks down on me and treats me like a little kid."
Jinx Severity: -2
"Mylo's always saying I'm a Jinx, and that nothing goes right when I'm with them. Sometimes I wonder if he's right."
Self-Worth Severity: -3
"I just want to help, but it seems like all I can ever do is get in the way, and nobody except Vi wants me around."
Abandonment Severity: -2
"People leave. If I can lose Mom and Dad, I can lose anyone."
Daughter of Zaun Severity: -2
"What's life in Zaun like? A Piltie boot on the back of your neck. Sometimes they squeeze and sometimes they ease off, but the boot never goes away."
Trauma Severity: -2
"Everyone's got problems. It's not like orphans are a rare sight in Zaun."
Family, Friends, Enemies, and Other Important PeopleNew
Family, Friends, Enemies, and Other Important People
Violet Scrappy Street Kid, De Facto Leader of the Gang
Relationship with Jinx: Big Sister Jinx's Opinion: She's my sister. Occasional bouts of being a buttface aside, I love her.
Vander Retired Revolutionary, Owner of The Last Drop
Relationship with Jinx: Adoptive Father Jinx's Opinion: Vander's my dad now. He looks out for and takes care of me, and does all the usual dad stuff
Mylo Scrappy Street Kid, Lockpicker and Sneaker
Relationship with Jinx: Unofficial adoptive brother Jinx's Opinion: He's a butt who's always being a big jerk to me.
Claggor Scrappy Street Kid, Big Guy of the Gang
Relationship with Jinx: Unofficial adoptive brother Jinx's Opinion: He's alright, I guess. Kinda quiet, though.
[X] Charge the Piltie Girl
Issues Triggered: Violet (-2), Daughter of Zaun (-2), Abandonment (-2)
Failure Consequences: Powder loses her cool during the fight
[X] Spend 1 Additional Willpower for +3 to the roll
Willpower
Willpower is a new resource I'm adding to this quest, representing Jinx's capacity to keep herself together and keep moving forward despite everything going on in her life. Zaun raises tough kids who aren't going to roll over and die the first time they take a couple hard knocks.
In fairness to our favorite gay catgirl, she would definitely get a willpower score too. I'm just tweaking and refining the system a bit.
Though now I'm just wondering how Catra and Jinx would bounce off each other. They'd definitely have some shared experiences to bond over, if nothing else.
Catra: My girlfriend left me to get adopted by a rich princess.
Jinx: My sister left me to hook up with a rich princess girlfriend.