Weekly Poll 1/20/20 - Welcome Home, V. (II) The Job.

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"I'll do.."


  • Total voters
    22
  • Poll closed .
You glance over your shoulder again - yep, Slammers are still there, still chasing you, still stupidly well-armed - then slow your steps a bit and wait for the NCART to go around the last sharp bend before Watson Station. Just before the train hits the curve, you lurch into a couple of big unhappy-looking SnackShack guards.

"Hey!"

"Watch it!"

The bigger of the two steps into the aisle and gives you the finger - just as the lead Slammer plows into him. Both men go down, sprawling in an untidy heap as the NCART rattles into the curve. The other Slammers pile into the mess. Everyone draws - powerknife, battlegloves, shockprods. The female Slammer, though, pulls what looks like a stubby shotgun from her harness and screams at everyone to "GET DOWN NOW." Her voice vibrates the windows - enhanced.

Immediately, the NCART train lights up.

"Warning! Warning! Live weapons drawn aboard Car 4. Please remain calm. NCPD has been summoned! Warning! Warning! Live..."

Things do not remain calm. From your dropped-down position near the far doors, you see the big guard drive an elbow into the Slammer who ran into him, and the smaller guard thrust a Tasefist-armed Battleglove into the gun-wielding Slammer at about the same time as the third Slammer - giggling, no less - cuts at a nearby commuter with his powerknife. That worthy jerks away, then promptly draws and shoots her attacker. Full credit, though, the Booster takes the rounds in stride, only to be immediately shot again by a suit-wearing man sitting across the aisle. Night City - woo hoo indeed.

The train arrives in station and you quickly debark with the we're-getting-the-hell-out-and-now crowd. You can see a half-dozen NCPD figures running towards the train. Well, 3 are running and 3, obviously older, are more...ambling.

You make your way down the steps into Watson. Looks...surprisingly the same. Well, okay, new noodle vendor on the right - what happened to Somchair? Couple more bullet holes along the walkway, hopefully not related to Somchair's absence. Fancy new rotating billboard advertising 2A. The rest - same same.

DT from steps.JPG


You cross the street and duck under the awning of Shark Coffee. You step past the line of people at the Vend and go around to the side. Sure enough. Still here.

"Hey, Marko."

"...V? V! How's it going? Haven't seen you in forever."

"Work."

"Work is good. Work is good. You want a blend?"

"Sure do, Marko. Thanks. Yeah, with the...yeah. Great. "

As you pay, you watch an NCPD cruiser show up and 2 more officers in hard gear pile out and head into the station. You make a call.

"Hey, it's me. Fine, it went fine. Look, can you check on something for me? Find out why a trio of Steel Slaughter Slammers made a run on me on my way into town. Is it mistaken identity? A new thing? Or an old thing. Yeah. That's fine. Okay, whenever you can. Thanks. Later." You disconnect and stare across the plaza thoughtfully.

"Here you are! Fresh! Ish."

"Thanks, Marko."

Sipping your drink - hot, sharp, with an almost lemon-y aftertaste - you make another call, this time with video. Jackie's face appears in your upper vision.

"V! You're back!"

"Sure am, man. Back and hungry. I hear we might have a job?"

"Uhh..yeah. Yeah, we do! Only I'm in a bit of a pickle right now. La jura have me for a bit."

"Serious?"

"Nah...chicken feed. Nothing too bad. Be out in a day or three. Here's the job, though - actually, it's kind of...multiple choice."

"Weird."

"It's a weird world, V! These all come by way of Hacktonio. You remember him - tall guy, ports either side of his haircut, lizard eyes? Anyway, he's working on a three part gig. "

You accept the file-send from Jackie and flick through the data. An interdiction, hack support and a track-back. Hm. Hm.

Interdiction: Fixer name of Sullen Mike has a joeboy running 6 grams of flaked Lucid-X to Chinatown from Watson. Job is to intercept the joeboy and take the package. Whatever means.

Hack Support: Get into Sullen Mike's network and steal the data on the Lucid-X contact - and make it look like a rival did it.

Track-back: Run the Lucid-X contact down. Track the handoff to Sullen Mike when he replaces the package and follow the supplier back.

"Okay, Jacks. Got time to set up for one of these, max two. Let's go with.."




[Other polls here. So you can pick up to 3 choices. Majority will determine which mission(s) is a go. Also method. Character stats will determine likelihood of success at different tasks. 1-3 is starter skills and sub normal stats. 4-6 is competent. 7-9 is expert plus. 10 is master.

So Empathy of 8 and Persuasion of 6 means V is a talented, competent talker, who will regularly succeed convincing most people of reasonable things. She's also very quick, slightly tougher than average and fairly bright. Strong-willed, too.

Note: this doesn't mean I'm just going to sum up the mission. Oh no. You guys will get lots of chances to get V kil...er, group-express your preferred V playstyle. We'll do the mission.]
 
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This must be what it's like to play in the Legendary Sardhukar's 2020 campaign. What an honor. ;)

Jokes aside, good writing. Thanks for doing this, Sard. You'll be kept busy for a while, I imagine.

I went with 3 this time, and only 3 (not sure how picking multiple would make much sense for me here). V's a good talker, eh? Let's put that to the test.
 
Man can't wait to see how this pans out. I got greedy and went with both the hack and trackback thinking we can get intel on all the major players that way. Then we can leverage that data for a real payday while setting up someone else to take the fall, whether that's an opponent in our way or someone we need to pay back a favor to (any hackers in the Slammers? ;) ). Also, voted for the stealth modes on both of those bc if we get ID'd a lot of that potential falls apart.
 
So Empathy of 8 and Persuasion of 6 means V is a talented, competent talker, who will regularly succeed convincing most people of reasonable things. She's also very quick, slightly tougher than average and fairly bright. Strong-willed, too.

Literally a Mary Sue, you sir just ruined both the game and my life... Just kidding :LOL:

I picked #9. My V would take her chances at multitasking, let's see how it might go. Perhaps she'd be able to run into a really memorable story if she tries two jobs at once... or she might simply screw both missions :eek:
 
Well, I suppose it was a bit foolish to expect everything would go smoothly, considering the setting and the "GM". :p
Once all these polls are done I'm gonna go through all of them and read the entire story. I really enjoy your writing, Sard. :D


Anyway... 3, 7, and 10 for me.

The hack job sounds like it'd take the most effort, regardless of method; the other two seem quicker, and because I'd imagine V would be one to go for efficiency both of them would be chosen.

I really don't like the sound of "That's the plan anyway." -- especially after what happened on the train -- so dealing with the joeboy directly but without violence sounds like the best option. I'm not too sure whether Jackie would be the best partner for such a job though, as he comes across as someone who'd prefer a more physical approach, so V might be better off doing that part (seemingly) on her own.

Trackback using stealth only sounds rather simple -- which, I'm sure, means it'd be likely to be anything but. Regardless, it's my second choice.
 

Sild

Ex-moderator
2 and/or 7. Play to our strengths.

The overachiever in me wants to go with 10 as well but... for some reason i think that just means more chances of "V" kicking the bucket. And i'm starting to like this "V" .:coolstory:
 
I'm starting to believe that this V is not going to flex her social skills that much, if the votes are anything to go by.
 
3 and 4 ... Hack first, get whatever info 'V' can, might be of use when it comes to persuasion time.
 
I'm starting to believe that this V is not going to flex her social skills that much, if the votes are anything to go by.

Well, social skills are the primary, so even when hacking or sneaking, V'll be inclined to use what stands the best chance of success, and whatever skillset will best ensure that can happen.

Remember V's Interface is only 3. Programming same. We're not talking super hacker here. Stealth of 6 is quite competent - but this is Cyberpunk, so you can't just "activate stealth" and sneak past in broad daylight.

The social skills will come into play repeatedly. Streetwise already took V past the Vending Machine to the guy around the corner for the better drink.
 
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Well, social skills are the primary, so even when hacking or sneaking, V'll be inclined to use what stands the best chance of success, and whatever skillset will best ensure that can happen.

Remember V's Interface is only 3. Programming same. We're not talking super hacker here. Stealth of 6 is quite competent - but this is Cyberpunk, so you can't just "activate stealth" and sneak past in broad daylight.

The social skills will come into play repeatedly. Streetwise already took V past the Vending Machine to the guy around the corner for the better drink.
Cool, good to know. Looking forward to seeing the outcome here.
 
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