It's just another ordinary day when you first come in to work. You
are working at Sega, the company that rules Japanese arcades with an iron fist, but any job will stop being exciting once you've been doing it long enough. And you've been working here for a while. Though in hindsight, that's probably one of the reasons your day stops being ordinary not long after you come in.
A few minutes after you sit down at your desk, one of those people every corporation has to do busywork comes up to you and says that some of the company's higher-ups want to meet with you. You haven't done anything wrong, you're sure, but have you done anything
good that would make management notice you? The only thing you can think of is...
[] Your work on all of the
Sonic the Hedgehog games. You did all that work as part of a team, though, and you haven't gotten as much recognition as other members of the team. (You are Hirokazu Yasuhara, lead designer for
Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, 3, and
& Knuckles. You are highly skilled at Design, with some skill in Appeal and a basic understanding of Technology.)
[] Your work on the
Sonic the Hedgehog game that just shipped. It
is a single game, even if you had to sell it in two separate pieces. (You are Takashi Iizuka, a game designer on
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. You are reasonably skilled at both Design and Appeal, though slightly more with Design, and you have a moderate understanding of Technology.)
[] Your work on
Phantasy Star. You'd like to say your work on the
Magic Knight Rayearth video game for the Saturn is good as well, but that project is still in its early stages. (You are Rieko Kodama, lead artist for
Phantasy Star I and
II and director of
Phantasy Star IV. You are highly skilled in Appeal, with some skill in Design and a basic understanding of Technology.)
[] Write-in (Subject to GM approval; either someone who was working at Sega in the early-mid 90s IRL or an entirely original character)
The meeting with your superiors is surprisingly straight to the point.
"Yuji Naka has decided to leave his post with Sonic Team," one of them says once the usual greetings are finished. "We need someone to lead the group, and you're the one we want to do it."
Once you can find words again, you say, "I don't know if I can accept that promotion. I'm... not really a manager."
"Neither was Naka," your superior says. "And he was able to get games finished. You've spent enough time working on products that have gone out the door that you know how to work within a budget and on a schedule. That's what this company needs in the person responsible for keeping our mascot popular. Give the people more of Sonic the Hedgehog regularly, and make sure what you put out doesn't hurt the company, and you'll do the job well enough."
You don't really have it in you to argue more after that. It's clear that management wants you in the role, and you don't hate the idea enough to push back more than proper etiquette requires of you. Soon enough, you're walking back to... well, your
old desk now to move your things to your new office. As you do, you think about what you want to do with your new position. You'll have to make sure the team knows you're in charge now and that there won't be any issues from that, but once the transition from Naka to you is done, you'll need to figure out the next step forward for Sega's mascot.
What will your first project be?
[] Sonic hasn't made much of an impact in Japan, and it isn't for lack of trying. Investigate what can be done to get Japanese audiences interested in the character.
[] The Saturn is about to come out, and the company mascot has to be on the new hardware ASAP. The console can do proper 3-D graphics, so you have the chance to win over a lot of people if you can get a 3-D Sonic game made before Nintendo or Sony can grab all the attention with whatever they've got in the works.
[] The Saturn is about to come out, and the company mascot has to be on the new hardware ASAP. The console can do
incredible 2-D graphics, so you have the chance to win over a lot of people if you can make a Sonic game that looks like a playable anime.
[] Something else (Write-in)
A/N: Welcome to the quest!
@Martin Noctis and I are collaborating on this, and we hope you all will enjoy trying to keep Sonic (and Sega) on top of the gaming world through the 90s and beyond.