Gen Con 2018 Recap

I apologize that this recap is late as well. At least it's before Gen Con 2019 and not as late as my Gen Con 2017 recap! As before, my memory ain't what it used to be, so I'll do my best.

Wednesday
This year I carpooled with Vic, one of the Chicago Area Game Writers Colloquium (CAGWIC) regulars. We had a lovely discussion of the gaming world we live in and life in general.

Once we settled in, I headed over to the Crown Plaza ("the Train Hotel") to attend Monte Cook Games GM Meet and Greet. They went over the general guidelines, answered any questions, and handed out some very nice GM materials (which I will recap below). Somebody also brought in some MCG-themed cupcakes! They were yummy! Monte Cook Games is a great company to run games for. If you get a chance, sign up to run for them, at Gen Con OR your Friendly Local Game Store!

Back at the hotel, the first game of Gen Con 2018 was Photosynthesis by Blue Orange Games. I've been wanting to play it for a while as it is always so pretty setup in the demo halls. Brad brought his copy and set it up for us. It's such a beautiful game with a strategy that changes every round. There was a race for the middle, but Brad pulled out the win with his own private grotto. Good game gents!

We finished out the first night with Hellapagos by GigamicWorld. It's what you would call a 'coopetitive' game. I think 10 of us were playing. We all start as shipwreck survivors on a remote island. There is just enough food and water to last us two days. Initially, we are trapping water, fishing for food, gathering wood, building a raft from said wood, or scavenging the wreckage for supplies. That didn't last long. I ended up drugging friends to steal their supplies and then claiming immunity when getting "voted off the island" (i.e. dying from lack of food or water). I made it to the final four. It looked like there was only enough supplies for two people to escape the island, so with the two bullets I scrounged, I shot DJ and Brendan. DJ deflected the bullet with a scrap of steel and then produced enough sandwiches to save more than four people. Shashank said I didn't have to brutally murder Brendan as he had a machine that converted food to water. Too little to late, my friend; bullets travel faster than food processors! So, DJ, Shashank, and I made it off the island and escaped the hurricane. In an ironic twist, that would be the last game I would "win" at Gen Con 2018.

Thursday
Adam, Tyler, and I decided to brave the rush and tackle the exhibit hall first. Brad asked us to hit up the Smirk & Dagger booth to pick up a copy of Tower of Madness for him.

Since I was close, I headed over to the R. Talsorian booth. A long line was forming. Apparently, the Witcher RPG has a big following! I waited in line so I could find out when to expect Cyberpunk Red (later 2019 - Jumpstart Kit at Gen Con 2019!) and snag some cool cyberpunk dice!

I then stopped by the Indie Press Revolution booth to pick up Scum and Villainy by Evil Hat Productions. Scum and Villainy uses the Blades in the Dark rules to play a spaceship crew trying to get by. I had seen a print proof at Origins Game Fair and had to get my hands on a copy!

At 1:00, Monte Cook Games held their Discover your Destiny seminar. The first half was discussing Numenera: Discovery and Destiny and what to expect from that new edition. Of course they talked about Invisible Sun. Then they announced the Kickstarter for Your Best Game Ever—a collection of essays to improve your role playing game experience.

After an early dinner of a Salmon BLT from High Velocity, I headed back to the convention hall to run the two Monte Cook Cypher System games I signed up for.

Salmon BLT with Asparagus! Yum!

First up was Cypher System - Assault on Singularity Base, a multi-table cooperative free-for-all set in your typical space opera. I ran green team, who had to assault the barracks and keep the waves of troopers from reaching the other parts of the base and keep the heat off the other teams. It was a suicide mission. I knew it was a suicide mission. I tried to convey that uphill battle to the players. By the time we took our halftime break, at least one player was frustrated with the apparently insurmountable odds. After the break, the tides turned! The other teams started sending reinforcements. May table jumped from six players to nine! With the extra bodies, they were able to lock down the barracks and escape before the base blew. Total blast Afterwards I got some really flattering feedback, that totally made up for the rough spot in the middle.

I didn't have much time to reset the table for Numenera - Forgetting Doomsday. The adventure is a tale of two war-torn villages who have to come together to save both from a mysterious mind-altering machine between them. The setup requires that players be split between the two tribes. After some initial and expected friction, they fully embraced working together in brilliant ways! Well played, folks!

Several of us finally got to play Brad's brand-spankin' new copy of Tower of Madness. It's a push-your-luck game where you are trying to investigate and "solve" locations with your dice rolls. In the middle of the table is the Tower of Madness, which is pierced with tentacle-handled skewers and topped with marbles, à la KerPlunk. If you fail to investigate properly, you have to pull a skewer. If a marble drops, depending on the color of the marble, you can gain victory points, lose sanity, or begin to summon Cthulhu! The first game didn't go so well, as we all died unceremoniously. The second game, a few of us were sprinting to go insane and try to summon the great Old One. Scott became a cultist first, but got consumed with the rest of us as Cthulhu awoke hungrily.

Friday
Due to a scheduling blunder on my part, I was late to my session of Apocalypse Road being run by the game's designer Brad Poikonen. It's a larger home-brew version of the board game Thunder Road. Even though I was late, Brad let me run the two "bad guy" tanker trucks! I didn't last long once the other players set their differences aside and ganged up on me...

Had a quick but tasty lunch with Scott and Kristen at Café Patachou.

Back in the exhibit hall, I hit up the Roll4Initiative booth. I've been meaning to show these guys some love at past Gen Cons, so I made sure to hit their booth this year! Their main product is their dice. They're larger than your "typical" polyhedral dice and have larger numbers making them easy on old gamer eyes! I picked up three of their basic opaque sets with a buy-two-get-one-free coupon. They also had a "toss a d20 win a prize" dice tower in their booth. I rolled an 18 and won another basic die set. I had been salivating over their Diffusion sets, so I snagged one of the blue sets as my prize. Thanks guys!

Brad brought his copy of Red7, so he, Jeremy, Tyler, and I settled in to play a couple of rounds. Red 7 is Uno on Steroids. Each color has a rule and the object is to get rid of all of your cards by playing the best card following the current rule, or change the rule to give yourself the lead. Brad trounced us both times.

Saturday
So my buddy Pete Petrusha, with the help of Kickstarter backers, published Dreamchaser, a rules-light story game where any adventure is possible. I've been trying to get in a session or two and was successful this year. At the table were two enthusiastic ladies, two young girls with their father as a guide, and myself. The first task was to create our shared dream. After a brief discussion led by the GM, we came up with: “Bring the faerie dragons back to the world of unicorn mermaids.” The characters we generated ended up being (if I remember correctly) a Pigpen-esque adventure guide with a pocketful of gummi bears, a veterinarian with severe anxiety, a beautiful and politically motivated unicorn mermaid, and my artistic Victorian little girl, modeled after Brian Froud's Lady Cottington (of Pressed Fairy Book fame). We uncovered and foiled a faery dragon smuggling ring in the underwater city of Mermaid Ocean. The adventure brought quite a few giggles and "awwws" to the table.
#MakeMermaidOceanGreatAgain

The big climax happened at Mer-Mart, so I sketched it!

This year, R. Talsorian has introduced Cyberpunk Chronicles, their living campaign. I got into a session titled, "Guns, Lots of Guns", in which we had to break into a high-security firearm and pawn shop and steal as many guns as we could carry. We had our stuff together and were able get in and get out with firearms with minimal complications.

I was left with a couple of hours to finish out my exhibit hall crawl and then met up with Brad, Scott, Kristen, and their friends for our yearly sushi dinner at Mikado. Bonus: Vic was in the area and was able to join us!

On our way back to the JW we stopped at a vacant table so Brad could introduce us to That's Not Lemonade. The first thing he pulls out of the box is a half dozen shot-glass-sized Solo cups. We were intrigued! Unfortunately, our interest quickly waned as we learned it was simply a poorly implemented push-your-luck game that didn’t even use the tiny cups.

Back at the JW, we played a couple of rounds of Codenames. I should be ashamed of myself as I had Brendan on my team and he was using all kinds of theatre references. Alas, with my brief set design dabbling, I only recognized one or two of his references...

The surprise hit for the evening was an EXIT The Game: The Abandoned Cabin. It's essentially an escape room in a box. To be honest, I forgot if we escaped or not, but we had a blast going through all the clues, scribbling on and tearing the provided materials (a pair of scissors would have been helpful), and searching every scrap for hints.

Sunday
The last day of Gen Con presented my least favorite game of the con. One of my roommates accidentally grabbed my convention badge as he was driving out of town.  Brad and I had to chase him down before one of his passengers had to catch a flight! Sleep deprivation followed by an adrenaline surge does not make a fun game.

The reason getting my badge back was so important was because I had a slot in “Mike Pondsmith Kills Everyone,” a Cyberpunk 2020 RPG one-shot run by the great Mike Pondsmith himself! True to its title, I did not survive the mission. Hell, I didn’t survive the AV crash landing! Fortunately, Mike let those of us who died early run some of the opposition. Definitely an experience. I’m so glad I was able to get a ticket to Mike’s table (and didn’t miss it due to the badge fiasco)! Thanks Mike!

And that’s Gen Con 2018!

Gen Con Haul

Clockwise from top left:

• Gen Con 2018 adventure booklet and XP deck I got for running Assault on Singularity Base (Cypher System) and Forgetting Doomsday (Numenera) for Monte Cook Games. I also got a limited edition unfinished Shin! (Not pictured: Cypher System playmat.)
• At top is the Operation Coldfront + Advance Pack Gen Con 2018/preorder exclusive by Corvus Belli.
• Next is some resin terrain I picked up at the Miniature Market booth.
• That's followed by some neat tokens from Dapper Devil LLC. I plan to use them for the Infinity RPG by Modiphius.
• Four sets of very nice dice from Roll4Initiative. Three sets of basic opaque dice and one set of Diffusion dice.
• Picked up that custom keychain for myself and a necklace that resembled a cartouche for my wife from Addy at Tangled Earth Art. She was hanging out with the folks from Bricks & Boards LLC. You can see her setup here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BmJ34dcHHCj/ Thanks Addy! You're the best!
• That big honkin' twelve-sider is a hit location die from Q-workshop. I eventually went in and painted the actual hits in red to make them stand out more.
• Those goodies are sitting on top of a factory-second GM screen from Hammerdog Games - too good a deal to pass up!
• Clank! In! Space! Apocalypse! by Renegade Game Studio was released at Gen Con 2018. We've had fun playing Clank! In! Space! so I had to get the expansion PLUS PROMOS! (Which are tucked inside the box already...) Now to get more card sleeves...
• At Origins this year, I picked up Dusk City Outlaws by Scratchpad Publishing - a super cleverly designed RPG in a box. When I found out metal tokens were part of the Kickstarter, I had to get a set. Fortunately, Campaign Coins had me covered. So purdy!
• Tucked above the Campaign Coins, is a copy of The Apocalypse Road by Brad Poikonen. It’s a post-apocalyptic road-warrior miniature vehicle combat game based on the board game Thunder Road. 
• Finally, I stopped by the @IPRTweets booth to pick up a fresh and just-released copy of Scum and Villainy from Evil Hat.

Seeing as it has been taking me sooo long to post these, this may be my last Gen Con recap...

Gen Con 2017 Recap - Gen Con's 50th Anniversary!

Sooooooo..... this recap is WAY overdue. Over 14 MONTHS overdue. Better late than never, right? The drawback is that you tend to forget a lot of the details of an event over the course of 14 months. As such, dear reader, I apologize that you won't get the detail I usually provide.

---

Comparing Gen Con's 50th anniversary to the previous year, I'd have to say it was much better than Gen Con 2016. Even though it SOLD OUT for the first time in its history, somehow it didn't feel as crowded. I did some miniature painting, but no speed painting. And I felt like I got to spend more time with friends, old and new.

Wednesday
The first thing we did after dropping our gear off at the hotel was to hit the Will Call line to pick up our badges. Despite the convention selling out, the Will Call line moved amazingly quickly. We discovered the reason: if you don't have badges to sell, you convert those booths into Will Call! Boom!

A quick visit to Thai Paradise for dinner, then back to the hotel.

Once we got settled into our chosen conference room,  DJ Douglass presented me with a copy of Titansgrave! Apparently, I was the winner of the contest he was running on Twitter. Yay!

Then we got to playing some lightweight fun games. Specifically:

• Plague & Pestilence - an oldie but a goodie!
• Exploding Kittens
• Bears -vs- Babies
• Noisy Person Cards

Thursday

I decided to ride the wave into the exhibit hall as soon as it opened. First stop was the Indie Press Revolution booth to pick up the just released Fate Adversary Toolkit. While I was there, I was drawn to the Blades in the Dark Special Edition, so I snagged one while there were still copies on the shelf.

At 11:00, I attended the Monte Cook Games Seminar, at which they announced Numenera 2: Discovery & Destiny (Since over a year has passed, you can order it now!). The important thing to note is that it expands on the existing Numenera universe—it does not change the basic rules and is backwards compatible with the original Numenera.

Next up was Painting with Angel Giraldez: Nomads in Red, at noon. Red is a tricky color to highlight without it turning pinkish, so I thought I'd get some tips from Angel.

Angel's on left, mine on right

Next was a quick bite to eat from Edward's Drive-In Diner, where I picked up a tasty Fish Basket with Onion Rings.

Then, back to the exhibit hall, where I stumbled into Exploding Kittens' Vending Machine. Their setup is clever and hilarious! It's like a bizarre interactive puppet show. A customer places their order by punching in the big buttons on the front, the vendor crew communicates via signage, and payment and product is a exchanged through the slots.

I was able to meet up with Brad and we walked the hall together. Brad was a good sport, as, once we discovered the Weta booth, I spent a half hour chatting with Leri Greer on everything from movie props to living in New Zealand. Thanks, Leri! Totally cool of you to spend so much time chatting!

While I was at the Weta booth, I picked up the Ghost in the Shell and District 9 art books (Leri was also cool enough to sign them), and Neck Port Cyber Enhancement Tattoos!

At 5:00 I had a class on Blending & Glazing Basics for Miniatures & Models. I wish I could remember what I got out of it...

Then dinner with the gang at High Velocity at the JW, where I ordered the Salmon BLT—yummy!

At 8:00 PM, I attended the RPG session: C-Squad. It's Not Just a Job, It's a Death Sentence! Apparently, Cyberpunk 2020 is popular again, as not only was it full, but the GM kept adding folks who showed up to fill empty slots. I think we had eight or nine bodies around the table.

Friday
I started Friday at 10:00 AM with another Painting with Angel Giraldez class: Dog Warrior Skin. Angel showed us how to add texture by painting in the muscle strands across the warrior's chest. He made it look easy, but I need to seriously up my game in order to pull it off.

It was getting pretty crowded and I wanted to hit the exhibit hall again quickly, so, for lunch, I hit one of the convention center counters for pizza.

I made a beeline for the Corvus Belli/Warsenal booth so I could pick up the Limited Edition Gen Con bundle of Infinity miniatures as well as a Xǐguǎn Tower from Warsenal. 

At 1:00, I had a Technoir game where we played Mega-Tokyo book. I had fun, but the GM scheduled 5 hours, 'cuz he likes to take his time...

I then met up with Brad, Scott, Kristen, & Marty at Mikado for our obligatory annual sushi dinner. Again, those Seafood Puffs are amazing!

Back in the hotel conference rooms, we gathered at 10:00 to play Titansgrave with DJ. He ran a fun game and I'd like to see where the plot could have kept going.

Saturday
I was excited to try out some old school RPGs this year, so I signed up for the 10:00 AM session of Star Frontiers - The Return to Digsite Delta-3. If I remember correctly, I was a Dralasite demolitions expert and we ended up packing a mine cart full of explosives and shuttling it directly into the middle of the Sathar operations. Old school explosive damage is amazing!

Once out of Star Frontiers, I left the rest of the day open for a full "Hall Crawl", only stopping for lunch at Der Pretzel Wagon for the obligatory Greedo sandwich.

After the hall closed, I met up with Brad, Scott, and Scott's crew briefly before heading back to the room for a quick nap.

After a few winks, I met up with the gang in our regular conference room to get our last night gaming in. I started with a round of Kaiju Incorporated which I enjoyed, but the regular Magic and 7 Wonders players felt was too simple. That was followed by Mysterium, a fun cooperative murder mystery game. Surprisingly, we rounded the evening out with some late night chatting. It's something we don't do much of anymore (because schedules) and I'm glad we had the chance at Gen Con.

Sunday
Time to wind things down for this gathering of the geeks. After packing the car, I popped into the hall for some last minute shopping on the way to the stadium.

My ride was gracious enough to give me some time to check out the Gen Con 50 Museum, particularly since I had pushed it out of my mind until the last day.

The entrance to the 'museum' was a recreation of the entrance to Horticultural Hall which was Gen Con's home from 1968 to 1970. Once inside, the convention's history was laid out as a timeline across several posters along the periphery. Clustered within, were several cases full of artifacts, for example:

• A copy of Little Wars, by H. G. Wells
• Gary Gygax's copy of Chainmail
• The prototype Dungeon! board game
• The original painting for the cover of the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide
• Jonathan Tweet's personal D&D binder from high school with his original sketches
• The draft of Merle Rasmussen's Top Secret RPG
• A giant troll statue!

I took a ton of photos and these are just a small sampling! Suffice it to say, I was glad I got some time to check out some of the history of gaming!

Sadly, it wasn't enough time to fully immerse myself in it, as my watch said it was time to go home.

Next time, Gen Con... Next time...

R.E.G. - Cyberpunk Random Encounter Generator

Hey! Cool news! Glenn in the comments below asked if he could make a port of it over on Chartopia. I gave him the go-ahead and here's what he came up with! Cyberpunk Random Encounter Generator on Chartopia

If you haven't noticed, Cyberpunk is cool again. With the buzz surrounding the Cyberpunk 2077 video game announcements (seriously, check these videos!), the 30th Anniversary of Cyberpunk 2020, and R. Talsorian's "Resurrection Tour" at Gen Con 2018, it's hard NOT to be excited about our favorite dystopic future genre.

Since that part of my brain is lit up, and in the same vein as the Random Loot Cards and New Tokyo Screamsheets pages I resurrected from a 2001 Cyberpunk Campaign, I give you...

R.E.G. - The Cyberpunk Random Encounter Generator!

R.E.G. started as a set of random encounter tables I put together as part of an ever expanding document of house rules for that 2001 cyberpunk campaign.

You are welcome to download the "ascii" version and make it into your own dead tree version...

Eventually, four pages of lookup tables got to be excessive and the most cyberpunk thing to do was to make it into its own application.

Being a Mac user in 2001, my boss at the time suggested I use Hypercard to make it happen. For those unfamiliar with Hypercard, it's basically a "card" and "stack" based database with a graphical front end. To be honest, I forgot what version of Hypercard I used, but I did have to include a "plug-in" so it could handle COLORS!!!

Below is a breakdown of what the Hypercard stack looked like and how it operated.

When you opened the Hypercard stack, you were presented with this main screen:

Please note this was a one-off home-built app, not shared with anyone.

You selected your encounter based on where the player characters were located in the city and the approximate time. Clicking on the corresponding sector would move the targeting reticle to that spot. (Actually, all sectors had the same reticle—it just unhid the sector you selected and hid the others behind big black squares.)

Once you hit the ACQUIRE button, it randomly generated your encounters based on your time and location seed (Ha! The app was slow enough, that I included the green bar under the button to show where it was in the lookup cycle.), and switched to the following screen:

You would actually get three encounters—one in each black box—and it randomly selected an action number from a sub-table (see the PDF) for each encounter. The SET ACTION button allowed you to "reroll" the action values. The blue buttons scrolled through the entry so you could see the full action sub-table. The ENABLE buttons just indicated what your choice of the three was—selecting one ENABLE button would light up the other two DISABLE buttons. The REINITIALIZE button would bring you back to the main screen. I believe the tiny black square above the green and red triangle buttons showed you how many individuals were present in the encounter, and you could adjust that value with the buttons.


If somebody wants to go through the effort of making this into a modern mobile app of some sort, let me know and we'll discuss!

Cyberpunk Random Loot Cards

What's In Their Pocketses...?

Recently, I picked up Paul D Gallagher's Augmented Reality (Blog, PDF,  Dead Tree). It's a fantastic resource for a generating a living city in your cyberpunk campaign.

Inspired by Paul's "What's on the Corpse?" table and thanks to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, I decided to resurrect my Random Loot page, circa 2001.

What you'll see below is a slightly edited version; updated for clarity, more contemporary cyberpunk genres, and to be more system agnostic.

In case you can't obtain the cards I reference below, I've found 30mil blank white PVC CR80 ID cards on Amazon (they also make phenomenal Aspect cards for Fate games!). You can also get 30mil ID cards in various colors!

Random Loot

If you've ever had a problem with coming up with personal items and things your characters find on victims' bodies, what follows is an interesting and fun solution.

See, when we get a new player in the game, I just throw the character into New Tokyo and have them fend for themselves. Unfortunately, more often than not, the character ends up killing random street thugs and looting the bodies to come up with some creds. I got tired of having to come up with personal items every time they asked, "so, what do I find on the body?"

I also have a problem with spending money at a particular adult video arcade/bar & grill.

So I came up with something that solves both of those problems. This "barcade" tries to soothe you as you walk through the door by handing you a complimentary game card (worth approximately 1.7 games...) Last time I was there with one of my players, we burned up the complimentary card in about 2 seconds flat. Jason bent his card in half to keep them from recycling it. He asked me what I was going to do with mine. I told him I'd find a use for it in Cyberpunk or something. He looked at me with this big grin and exclaimed, "CredSticks!" Next thing I know, he's bopping around the place looking for used cards left on tables. Eventually, he asked one of the managers what they do with the cards. The manager told him they just pitched 'em. So Jason asked if we could collect them (GOOD IDEA - ask before collecting). As an added bonus, every time the manager passed our table, he dropped off a handful of the used cards he found. By the time we left, we had over 40 cards in different colors.

So what's this got to do with anything? Well, I made up a list of, "things in your pocket for 500cr., Alex", including some useless items, printed them out on stickers, and stuck them on the cards. The more expensive, uncommon, or "elite" items I put on the green and blue cards, since I only had six of them. As an added bonus, the cards look cool with the caution stripes.

My favorite card - just because it looks funny.

So..... next time one of the characters pickpockets, mugs, or loots somebody, I have them randomly pick a few red cards. Usually 1d6 cards. If the poor victim is "well-to-do", I shuffle in the blue and green cards (shuffling the cards aint easy!).

Here's the list I came up with:
(Credits values are low because the player can pick more than one card.)

• 2 Credits
• 3 Credits
• 4 Credits
• 5 Credits
• 6 Credits
• 7 Credits
• 8 credits
• 9 Credits
• 10 credits
• 2 Drug Capsules (Random street drug)
• 2 Maglev Tokens
• 2 12 ga. Shotgun Shells
• 3 Bus Tokens
• 3 Subway Tokens
• 5 Empty 9mm Casings
• Aspertabs (1d20 in the bottle)
• 5.7mm Backup Pistol
• Cheap Plastic Vending Machine Pistol
• Baseball Cap (With "All Saints Auto Repair" or other auto shop printed on it)
• Bit of Wire
• Music Chip (Some band one of PCs hates)
• Burner Phone (Currently locked)
• Cheap Digital Watch
• Cheap Gold Chain or Earrings
• CredStick (Locked)
• Data Chip
• Digital Cab Hailer
• Disposable Lighter (d100% full)
• Disposable Pocket Flashlight (d100% battery life)
• Squeeze Tube of Nutritional Paste (1 meal)
• Generic Pack of Smokes (1d20 cigarettes remaining)
• Green Glowstick (25% chance of being spent)
• Leather Belt
• Loose Key
• MirrorShades
• Nice Pen
• Nice Watch
• Old Screamsheet
• Pack of Caffeine Gum (1d8 sticks remaining)
• Pack of Gum (1d8 sticks remaining)
• Pager
• Pendant
• Phone Number scrawled on a scrap of paper.
• Pocket Lint
• Pocket Tool (Knife, Wrench, Screwdriver, etc.)
• Cheap Tablet (Map of New Tokyo is loaded)
• SkillSoft (Level 1 - Roll one randomly from skillchip table)
• Small Flick-Knife (7.5 cm. (3") long)
• Small Polished Stone
• Ticket Stub
• Emergency Evacuation Contract Card (10% chance accidentally broken while retrieving it)
• Used Breathing Mask
• Used Syringe (10% chance of getting poked while retrieving it)

New Tokyo Screamsheets

Back in 2001, I was running a Cyberpunk campaign using a homebrew ruleset based on Top Secret/S.I. At the time (when I had more time), I was chronicling the campaign on a now-defunct website. I was also producing semi-regular newsletters for the campaign I called New Tokyo Screamsheets.

These Screamsheets contained things like discussions of technology, legality of weapons, and story seeds; along with your standard smattering of weather reports (and the birth of Air Advisory Guy), classified ads, obituaries, network programming schedules, police blotters, Body Lotto numbers, advertisements, etc. Some of the articles were fictional snippets borrowed from other fictional sources. To make it personal to the players, I would usually do a "front page" article on one of their latest exploits and possibly have NPCs communicate with them through the want ads—and they would communicate back!

Recently, I was able to find the source files and PDFs for the New Tokyo Screamsheets and decided to post them. Here they are with a couple of hints as to what you'll find inside:

• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 1 - Weapon and armor permits, a street drug named Cupid.
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 2 - Cyberware permits, Trauma Team coverage plans and costs.
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 3 - Arena Racing final, a slaying outside a Gas-n-Sip™.
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 4 - Crimes and their punishments, vigilantes stopping college student harrassment
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 5 - Cloning technological discourse, hacking punishments
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 6 - Arasaka Tower attacked from multiple vectors
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 7 - News reporter assaulted, a haunting poem by Vera Blue
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 8 - NeuroProcessor training, Vera Blue missing, many police calls
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 9 - A full Police Blotter
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 10 - Fire on the Horizon, Virtual Reality technological discourse
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 11 - Cyberpsycho on a rampage, "Blank Plague" Threat
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 12 - Warehouse Explosion, power outage at Chateau Hotel
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 13 - Video journalist threatened, "Blank Plague" relief?, Nostromo hacker bar trashed

Special thanks to Deric Bernier of Datafortress 2020 for hanging on to the old New Tokyo Screamsheets in his Cyberpunk Archive—stumbling upon them recently made me want to post my originals.

The ORIGINAL Oil Rig Mission - 2001

Since Pete and I are revisiting the Oil Rig Project, I felt it was important to re-post the mission that inspired the project.

Back in 2001, I was running a Cyberpunk campaign using a homebrew ruleset based on Top Secret/S.I. At the time (when I had more time), I was chronicling the campaign on a now-defunct website. Fortunately, thanks to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, parts of that website still exist, so I can resurrect them here.

Now that I am currently running an Interface Zero 2.0 campaign, you might see some more pages from the old site be resurrected...

Contract Intel:
The PCs go to their fixer's place and get a quiet room where they negotiate a deal to infiltrate an Oil Rig, retrive a data file, and leave the rig. Each team member gets 3000cr retainer for supplies, a total of 5000cr for securing the rig, and a total of 10,000 for a recovered data file.

Data about the rig:

Manufacturer:  Erdel Type J-3 Rotary Drilling Rig
                        Manufacturer based out of Houston, Texas
                        Now defunct

Current Owner: unknown

Location:      Approx. sight distance from New Tokyo bay

# of Crew:     Support for 38
                     The previous owner had approx. 12 when he lost possession of the rig.

Communication: No land lines
                           Possible satellite uplink

Location of Data File: unknown

Type of data: Entire database

Computer System: unknown, possibly UNIX-based

The Actual Mission
This mission was set up as a "test" mission for a higher-end employer. The employer is basically just pitting two mercenary teams against each other. One team defends the rig, the other assaults it. The team that survives wins future contracts. It doesn't matter which team attacks and which defends, I just chose to have the PCs attack. I figured it would be more interesting and I had a decent "contract" idea that involved all the players.

The oil rig has been derelict for at least 15 years, probably more. With the development of CHOOH2, drilling for oil became more expensive. This particular rig made several taps with minimal result. It became more cost effective to leave it where it sat at the last tap, than to pull up shop, weatherize it, and dry-dock it. So, questionable elements set up shop in it soon after it was abandoned.

Their usual contact informed them that the rig was in his parent organization's possession and was recently raided, overrun, and occupied by an opposing organization's mercenary team. Normally, blowing it out of the water would be the order of the day, but when it was previously owned, they used it as a waypoint for illegal contraband, and all their shipping records were stored in the rig's local database. The PC mercenary team's primary objective is to secure the entire database. A secondary objective is to recapture the rig, if possible. The payoff is 10,000cr per person for the database intact. If no database, then 5,000cr per person for the rig. Not to exceed 10,000 per person. 3,000cr in advance are provided for expenses. Unregistered weapons and small equipment provided up front, with understanding that the weapons will be returned upon completion.

If the players asked, their contact was only able to provide them with a mangy copy of the emergency exit floorplan of the sub-deck.

Oil Rig Emergency Exits: OilRigEmergencyPlan.gif missing. I hope to find it someday...
If they pried some more, their contact informed them that his organization had previously set up IR motion detectors, but they may or may not still be functioning. He was able to provide approximate locations of some of them.

Oil Rig Recon: OilRigDeck.gif missing. I hope to find it someday...
The above map also shows the observed sentry locations when the PCs did some preliminary recon.

It took me a while to put together a working map of the oil rig. I found a gem of a website at http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~gavenda/oilfield (NOTE: This link goes to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine as the original link no longer exists). The guy who put it together did a great job of explaining, simply, the regular goings on on a "jackup" oil rig, including plenty of photos. Thing to note: a jackup rig is really a big ship that has three huge extendible legs. It is towed to it's next drilling location and then it jacks itself up about 100-150 feet above the ocean and begins drilling. I highly recommend reading it and passing on the address to your more ambitious players.

Oil Rig Layout

The detcord on the dock level is of a blue plastic variety. It is wrapped many times around the support legs, just above sea level and, upon casual inspection, just looks like water-level paint markings.

The generic explosive in the survival capsule off of the control room is a bundle of pipe bombs with a mercury switch to prevent them from being moved.

The shaped charges are pre-manufactured and look like small inverted plates. One is intended to discourage helicopter landings, the other two are placed behind the diesel fuel tanks to engulf the main deck if necessary.

All explosives have been modified to accommodate a small black box with a red numeric LED display, and a short rubber antenna. This box is a remote receiver controlled either by the com officer through the control room computers or the demolitions expert with a small handheld controller. The com officer can only start the 5 minute timer or detonate the explosives. Only the demolitions expert can shut them off (he can also start the timers or detonate).

The infrared motion detectors are simple. They have a 90 degree field of detection (indicated by the legs on the symbol on the map), can easily be defeated by an IR suit, and have no operational feedback loop (no on/off indicator). If tripped, they will trigger a simple alarm heard throughout the rig.

There is a small data hutch on the main deck that has two log files in an antiquated VAX system.

They are left over from when the rig actually served it's purpose, and will only slow the players down if they try to get the VAX up and running and try to interface with it to get the files.

The operations database in the control room is bogus. Even so, by the time the players get to it, it should be pretty well jibberish due to the virus the com officer puts on it.

All opposing units are equipped with a NeuroProcessor, SmartGun Link, SpeedWires, a com link, medium body armor, a 10mm Glock, a SmartGun Linked 9mm H&K MP5, and a combat knife and have above average skills to use them.

1. Commander - Begins in the control room
   Extremely strong with other attributes at the high end.
   Martial Arts, Swimming, Stealth.
   Husky, clean, and commanding.
2. Sniper - Begins on the monkey board of the derrick
   Above average strength with other attributes at the high end.
   Martial Arts, Sniper Rifle, Swimming, Stealth, Concealment.
   7.62mm H&K G3SG1 Sniper Rifle instead of the MP5.
   Big, relaxed.
3. Com Officer - Begins in the control room
   Very high intelligence with other attributes above average.
   Martial Arts, Swimming, Stealth, Radio Operator, Interface.
   Combat CyberDeck and CyberDeck Link.
   Thin, sure of himself.
4. Pilot - Begins sleeping in the crews' quarters
   Above average strength with other attributes at the high end.
   Martial Arts, Swimming, Stealth, Piloting most transportation forms.
   Vehicle Link and Chip Jack.
   Big, cocky.
5. Demolitions Expert - Begins having a snack in the kitchen
   All attributes above average to high end.
   Boxing, Swimming, Stealth, Concealment, Demolitions.
   Short, bulky, grouchy.
6. Underwater Ops - Begins in the starboard crane cab
   All attributes above average to high end.
   Martial Arts, Swimming, Stealth, Concealment.
   4-shot speargun, armored wetsuit instead of body armor.
   Skinny, quiet.

If motion detectors go off:

• alarm will sound
• 4 and 5 will wake up and get to the upper deck
• 1 will order to attack

If intruders spotted:

• observer will call into 3
• 3 will alert the others
• 1 will order to watch then attack if needed

On first attack:

• 1 will coordinate
• 3 will jack in, monitor motion sensors, cameras, and explosives
• 6 will dive overboard, disable any intruding craft, and prep the escape boats

If control room computers are hacked:

• 3 will fight via software
  If defeated:
  • will initiate a virus to destroy the data
    If virus defeated:
    • will detonate the terminals
    • will set all other explosive timers for 5 minutes

If overpowered:

• will try to escape by diving overboard
• will get into the escape boats
• will detonate the oil rig remotely

The Outcome
At the time, I was also producing semi-regular newsletters for the campaign I called New Tokyo Screamsheets. This was the report in the Screamsheet issue that followed that game:

SPECIAL REPORT:

FIRE ON THE HORIZON

Early this morning, emergency officials were notified of several explosions and fire spotted just above the horizon over the ocean. Preliminary investigation revealed that the fire is located on a derelict oil rig miles offshore. Witnesses report that there was an initial fiery explosion followed by several smaller ones.

From https://www.flickr.com/photos/uscgpress/4541155893

The cause of the blaze is not known at this time.

Dystopian Universe RPG Beta Playtest - Organization and Character Generation

Towards the end of July, Evil Hat Productions put out a call for playtesters to try out the Beta version of The Dystopian Universe Roleplaying Game. It's a modified version of the Fate system set in the same world as Indie Boards & Cards' games Coup, The Resistance, and One Night Revolution. Long-time gaming friend Marty got accepted into the beta playtest and asked fellow podcaster Alex, my friend Adam, and myself to participate.

So, on August 28, we got together over Roll20 (another first for us) and started building out Paris Nouveau and our characters within it.

Although we did character generation first, I'm going to show the steps in reverse order as, in hindsight, that makes the most sense. Particularly since building the Government before La Resistance gives them something to resist against.


The Government!
Taking into account that every Citoyen is plugged into Augmented or Virtual Reality (AR or VR) and is doing pattern matching for the Government, it makes sense that they'd try to convince their drones that servitude leads to a better AR/VR experience. Therefore:

Slogan: Paris Nouveau: A Better Reality for Every Citoyen

We decided that there's just not enough resources (food, water, living space, etc.) for the citizenry, therefore, it's best to let the weak die (or kill them outright for the smallest infraction). Since all the wastewater gets recycled, it makes sense to also recycle the biomass. Therefore, deceased Citoyens are reprocessed into Artificial Protein Extract (APE).

Scandal: APE is People!

Advancements:
Trying to limit The Government's ability to mess with us directly, we chose:
Corporate: Investing in Infrastructure - During the debrief, if you have any leftover fate points, you can put up to 2 of them in your bank.

However, Marty made sure he could mess with us, so he chose:
Security: Surveillance Optimization -  You start every scene with +2 blowback.

La Resistance!
Adam decided he wanted to play the Malcontent and named her Coquin. Since Coquin became the de-facto leader of our little party, we let him choose our Manifesto. He simply chose to borrow from events happening in Real Life™.

Manifesto: Make Paris Nouveau Great Again!

Since Adam's Malcontent will have the social skills covered and my Cleaner will have the combat skills covered, we wanted to give Alex's Hacker, Raphael, a place to shine.

Weakness: Plagued by Compromised Communications

Advancements:
Trying to give Coquin a leg up, we chose the branch of the tree that would get the people behind her:
Support: Hearts and Minds - Whenever you create a prep advantage with Maneuver, it gets 2 additional boosts.

I tried to talk Adam and Alex into going further down the Support branch, but they decided having access to gear and supplies was more important. They chose:
Resources: Hijacked Shipments - With a prep action, you can requisition equipment with a total cost of 1 or lower.

Viktor Le Nettoyeur (Viktor The Cleaner)
It should come as no surprise that I'm a big fan of Luc Besson's films and Jean Reno's acting. So, when presented with the opportunity to play a French Cleaner, of course I jumped at the chance! I even went so far as to call him Viktor, although I changed the name slightly and chose Dolph Lundgren as his stand-in (sorry Jean!) - I can't be TOO obvious...

With my archetype chosen (and thus my social class), I printed out the provided playsheet and started filling it in.

Aspects:
The playsheet provides questions that prompt you to generate your aspects. Here are mine:

WHAT MAKES YOU THE BEST CLEANER IN PARIS NOUVEAU?
The mission comes first.
WHY DO YOU KILL SO OFTEN?
I am too efficient for the general good.
WHO IS THE ONE PERSON YOU TRUST?
Coquin and I are of like minds.
WHO DO YOU WISH YOU COULD REMOVE FROM PLAY, BUT CAN’T?
The Ambassador is too far reaching.
WHY DID YOU JOIN LA RÉSISTANCE?
Enough Citoyens have paid the Government's price.

Means:
In this variation of Fate, they've distilled your abilities or skills down into four Means, similar to Approaches from Fate Accelerated. I wanted Viktor to obviously be capable of taking someone out and to be able to watch from the shadows, therefore I chose:

Fight: +3, Manipulate: +1, Maneuver +2, Observe +2

Stunts:
Once again, the playsheet provides a list of stunts; I just had to pick them. I ended up with:
Great Wealth (Default) - The cost of equipment that I buy is 1 lower than usual, to a minimum of 1.
Stealth Augmentations - I can spend a fate point to disappear from a scene. I can show up during a later exchange in a different scene.
Kill Without Hesitation - When I deal physical harm, I can give the GM 1 blowback to force my opponent to mark an additional condition, provided my intent is to kill.
Slippery - I get +2 to avoid detection with Maneuver.
By choosing four stunts, I had to reduce my Refresh (starting Fate points) by one.

Backstory (Extra Credit):
Coquin is making a name for herself in La Resistance. So much so, that her name has come to the Government's attention. As such, they have decided to put Viktor close to her. Providing a cleaner to La Resistance is quite a bit of overkill (literally), but that's what La Resistance is looking for and The Government trusts Viktor to get the job done.

Little does the Government know, but Viktor is starting to feel the pressure of being their favorite precision tool. Particularly since target selection has widened from well-known dissidents to faceless rabble-rousers.

Being this close to Coquin, Viktor realizes her words and his feelings are not so very different at all. Late night discussions with Coquin huddled around gas lanterns in La Cave have grown longer. It wouldn't take much to push Viktor's alignment needle over to that of La Resistance.


That does it for organization and character generation! We're now ready to play!

Interface Zero - Part 3

So, where we last left off, Jackson was facing off in melee with a ninja looking suspiciously like Tabitha, Simon was advancing on the conference room, Tabitha was clumsily checking out the offices, and Zeb was on overwatch.

An explosion signifies the deployment of the second enemy team. Fortunately, Zeb, expecting something like that, already had them in his sights, and immediately takes out one of the six.

As Jackson and Tabitha 2 are trading blows, Simon runs in, grabs the silver box, and bolts.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Zeb takes out the leader of the strike team.

Tabitha goes to check out the damage done by the explosion, tripping over one of the dead bodies in the process.

The strike team retreats, regroups, and readvances, to no avail. Zeb takes out two more.

Finally, Jackson gets a solid blow in, knocking the ninja unconscious. As the sword tumbles from her hand, Jackson's programming goes directly from self-preservation to medic and kneels down to patch her up.

The remaining two members of the strike team decide to bolt and get into the van to make their escape, unfortunately Zeb sees one get into the drivers seat and cuts him down.

With the box in hand, Simon calls for a hasty retreat. The last remaining member of our own support team reports that he's captured a prisoner and will be bringing him along.

The last remaining enemy in the van bolts out the back, with Zeb in hot pursuit. As he makes it to the front of the building, Zeb turns the corner and shoots him in the back. Down he goes.

The team finally regroups and boards the armored bus for departure. Despite Zeb's protests to grease the prisoner, Simon proceeds to interrogate him. They find out that he's just an actor playing a part and explains that the script didn't go as planned. At that point, the team realizes they've been set up and decide to go to one of Simon's safehouses.

Meanwhile, Jackson gazes into the laserfine patters on the silver box, gets lost in them and almost loses his "humanity". Fortunately, he snaps out of it, oblivious.

The group, sans their remaining support member and prisoner, but with an unconscious ninja Tabitha, sit in Simon's safehouse pondering their next move...

Interface Zero - Part 2

This is a rough outline of our second game. I hope to add more details (or even write it as Jackson's log file!) in the future.




Tabitha wakes up on the operating table, staring into the big plastic grin of her attending physician, Jackson.

Jackson fails to heal her with a, "there, there now." He tries again under Dr. Bob's watchful eye and succeeds. Then gets promptly fired.

Jackson overhears Tabitha and Simon talking about a job, so he asks if he could tag along. They agree.

Tabitha finally gets a decent shower while Simon and Jackson raid the medical supplies.

They end up taking a taxi manned by a cat...er orc with a samurai sword to Yorktown mall.

They speak with a fat, sweaty lawyer who offers them a job retrieving a silver box with the numbers "0,0,0" on it from the HelpDesk Inc. main office. After some clever positioning and negotiating by Simon, they agree. Meanwhile, Jeb, on lookout, gets harassed by mall security. He sternly explains that his ginormous sniper rifle is a gift for his wife. The rentacop leaves quietly. They all jump into an armored bus manned by the same "orc" and are joined by another 4-man tac team.

They reach the HelpDesk Inc. main office, deploy, and send the tac team in first.

All the previous occupants inside appears to be cut to death.

Shortly thereafter, another team in two vans shows up. One van deploys at the front gate wearing red armor and begin a pitched battle with the tac team. The other van proceeds around back.

Meanwhile, the PCs work their way into the back. Simon gets in and starts hacking the system to try and locate the box. Tabitha is checking out the nearest likely rooms. Simon discovers a meeting about the box was scheduled in the main conference room. Jackson runs there immediately, trying to avoid the rounds and grenades being tossed back and forth at the front of the building.

Once he arrives, the room is dark. He flicks on the light to see the entire meeting group dead in their seats, the silver box in the middle of the table. Out of his peripheral vision, something drops from the ceiling.

He turns to see a female ninja wearing samurai armor. She has Tabitha's face!

Interface Zero

Last night,  I got my first chance to play Interface Zero, a cyberpunk setting for the Savage Worlds RPG.  Josh ran it (a different Josh), and since we were short players, I was able to talk Eric and another Fair Game patron into playing with us. I am very happy with how it played out, so here's my post-game writeup:



Darkness.

Tabula Rasa

That's the first thing I remember.

Then I opened my eyes.

Still pitch black.

I thought, "well, at least I'm alive." Then I patted myself down to take stock of myself. I seemed to be unscathed, wearing some sort of paper, but I was constricted by something. Fumbling around, I found the backside of a zipper. I paused to listen before trying it. Footsteps. I decided to get out of whatever it was I was in and quickly. I worked the zipper from the inside, bright light pouring in and stinging my eyes.

"Are you alright?" asked the figure standing in front of me.

"Who are you?" I snapped back.

"My name's Simon. I've come to get you out of here."

"Here where? Where am I?"

"Downers Grove."

"Downers who?"

"Downers Grove. It's a shithole in the walled city of Chicago."

My eyes adjusted to the light, fading to the dim light of the decrepit room. Simon squatted down next to a nicely wrapped box with a bow that was near the bag I escaped from. He undid the bow and the box unfolded, revealing a card, a credstick, a pistol, and a knife.

"Tabitha? I think these are yours," he said.

I moved over to the objects and picked up the card. It was blank, but my mind superimposed words over it: "Take these and run."

I looked up at Simon. He seemed to have received a similar message as well, as he produced a briefcase, opened it, and retrieved a pistol.

I put the card and credstick in one of my paper pockets, tossed the box and ribbon into Simon's briefcase a fraction of a second before he snapped it shut, and picked up my gift weapons - one in each hand.

Simon made his way to the staircase down and I followed close behind. At the base of the stairs, a man with a huge rifle was keeping two other men at bay. The closer of the two, seeing Simon step off the stairs, called out, "let's make this easy. We just came for the merchandise," and nodded in my direction.

"Well, you can't have HER," replied Simon. "Why don't you leave before somebody gets hurt."

About that time, I heard a car pull up. The second guy turned and stepped outside to speak with the driver.

"Listen, in about two minutes, I'm going to have to put you both down and take the merchandise anyway."

Something about the way he said it triggered something in Simon. In one smooth movement, Simon darted across the hall, triggered the spring-loaded knife release in his boot, caught the knife, and plunged it into the guy's throat.

He grabbed his throat, dropped to his knees, and gurgled, "well, that sucks."

I'm surprised I remember that, as I was also enraged by his comment, tore across the hallway and out the door, and found my own knife plunged into the other guy's back. As he dropped to the concrete, the driver calmly asked, "now who's gonna pay for these sandwiches?"

Simon stepped up and said, "that's my order. Can we also get a lift out of Downers Grove?"

"That's strictly against policy. But the going rate's 10 credits each."

While Simon was making arrangements, I pulled out the card and looked at it again. This time, my mind read it: "Congratulations."

I then decided to check the two dead men. The were both carrying large pistols, both carrying credsticks, and both carrying I.D.s showing that they were Level 1 Support personnel for HelpDesk Inc. I took all of it. They were both wearing what looked to be almost identical outfits made to look like distressed street clothes. Actually, now that I think about it, they almost LOOKED identical.

I grabbed one of the jackets and a pair of boots and put them on.

Simon, the silent guy with the rifle, and I climbed into the small delivery vehicle. I handed Simon the credsticks, one of which he promptly paid the driver with and tossed out the window.

"Can I have one of the sandwiches?" I asked.

Simon handed me one, which I tore open and voraciously ate. It was simultaneously the best and worst thing I ever ate. It was a flavor I had never experienced, yet vaguely remember. At the same time I could taste each individual artificial chemical used in the processed protein and texturized vegetable matter.

Simon directed the driver to his apartment, which was situated above a convenient store. Upon arrival, the silent guy with the rifle got out and started hiking off into the distance, Simon stepped out, waved, and called after him, "See ya Zeb. Thanks!"

Simon's apartment was a sparsely furnished couple of rooms that doubled as storage for some of the convenient store's old hardware. Taking a look around, I found a pristine envelope taped to the side of an ancient slushy machine. "Hey Simon, what's this?"

Simon looked just as confused as I. He tore it off the side of the machine, opened the envelope, and removed another blank card. He stared at it for a long while, then looked up at me with furrowed brow. "I'm going to find out what HelpDesk Inc. is all about."

He sat down at a desk that had to be about 80 years old. "Huh, looks like there's two new job postings for them on craigslist."

I sat down at the coffee table and started going through the objects I collected during the evening:

• Boots - Men's, artificially distressed, no labels.

"Checking their public site."

• Jacket - Artificially distressed, no labels, bloody hole through the back.

"Nothing exciting."

• Two Plastic I.D.s - HelpDesk, Inc. Level 1 Support. Nothing else.

"Just a firm that rents out low-level security personnel."

• Two 10mm Watchdog Automatic Pistols - New, registered to HelpDesk Inc., fired two or three times at the most, 12 rounds each.

"I'm hitting up their private site."

• One 10mm Watchdog Automatic Pistol - New, unmarked, unregistered, and direct from the manufacturer.

"Huh, there's a big gap in their firewall…"

• One Combat Knife - New, unmarked, unregistered, and direct from the manufacturer, bloody.

"Big white room. Single file cabinet in the middle."

• Box and ribbon - High quality, otherwise unremarkable.

"I'm gonna open it."

• Blank card - Now it says, "We'll be in touch."

"Damn! Nothing in… SHIT!"

• Credstick - Labeled, "Rasa, Tabula."

Simon snapped out of his trance and sat upright in his chair, "damn honeypot…"

"Rasa, Tabula." Is that my name? Simon called me Tabitha. Did he read it correctly?

"How'd you end up in that body bag?"

"I don't know."

"Well, what happened before you climbed out of it?"

"It was dark."

"Do you remember anything before that?"

I thought for a long while. "I don't remember anything before that..."

"Hey, I just got an IM from some guy. He liked our work dispatching the HelpDesk guys and wants to offer us a pickup job."

Something wasn't right. "That was awfully quick. I don't trust them."

"Yeah, but it's a job working for a company on the same level as HelpDesk."

"How do you know it's NOT HelpDesk trying to set us up?"

"Well, our only other plan is to take those two openings and work for HelpDesk… Anyway, we got a couple of days to decide. It's 5 AM, and I can use some sleep."

Simon moved to his cot, made no attempt at removing clothing, warned me, "don't go outside," and, as promised, went to sleep.

I was still reeling from the night's events, so I decided to do some online shopping and pulled up MallMart's clothing line. After perusing their entire catalog, I settled on some comfortable athletic wear, rugged running shoes, and a pleather jacket with ballistic panel inserts. They said it would be delivered within the hour, so I decided to take a quick shower.

Unfortunately, Simon's bathroom left something to be desired. Like cleanliness. My best bet would be to do some spot cleaning.

I shed the blood-splattered paper coveralls, wet some toilet paper, and stood in front of the cracked mirror. The body was medium-dark skinned and athletically built. But the face was startling. Blonde, pale eyes, strong bone structure. I didn't recognize it all, yet at the same time something deep inside was familiar about it.

I wiped off the remaining blood droplets and scanned my body for any distinguishing marks. As I ran my fingers over the nape of my neck I felt a raised pattern. I swiveled my shoulders around enough to make out the the genetically modified roman numeral "III".

At that moment, I was notified that my package had arrived and was waiting for me downstairs. I hurriedly pulled on the paper coveralls, put on the boots and ran downstairs.

Waiting for me was the same car and driver from earlier in the evening, however the "Johnny Jim's" placard had been replaced with "MallMart". I took the package from him, thanked him, and bid him a good evening. I opened the box, pulled out the armored pleather jacked and put it on. Then I decided to look around the area.

Noticing the convenient store clerk and my dry throat at about the same time, I stepped inside the brightly lit store.

Annoyed, he impatiently looked up from what he was working on.

"Hi! Where can I find the drinks?" I asked.

He jabbed a grungy finger across the store to a sign that boldly read, "DRINKS."

"Oh, thanks!"

I made my way over to the slushy machine and poured myself the largest CrocAde Slushy available.

"Hi! Whatcha working' on?" I asked as I stepped up to the bulletproof booth to pay.

"I saw you come in earlier. You Simon's new girlfriend?"

"Well, I'm female and I'm Simon's friend, but that's about the extent of it."

"Well, a couple of guys were in here asking about you."

"When?!?" I shouted.

"About fifteen minutes ago."

"What'd they look like?!?"

"I dunno. Like street thugs."

I bolted for Simon's apartment.

Once inside, I ran over to Simon's cot and shook him.

"Wha?"

"Simon! They're here!"

"Who is?"

"Those guys!"

Rubbing his eyes, "Who?"

"HelpDesk Inc.!"

Fully awake now, "When?"

"About fifteen minutes ago!"

Simon leapt up and grabbed his weapons. I hurriedly tore off the paper garments and replaced them with my new purchases, jamming two pistols into the pockets of the jacket.

Then we ran back downstairs.

Carefully rounding the corner of the building, we noticed the convenient store clerk conspicuously missing. We entered the store and noticed some movement in the back row by the drink coolers. Simon went right, I took the left.

"Bang!" Simon's gun went off and Simon ducked back behind the shelves. There was obviously a threat, but Simon didn't hit it.

I decided to try my side. I ran to the end of the rows, peeked around the shelves and fired on the unsuspecting thug. He didn't stand a chance, going down with a thud. I ran back to the clerk's bulletproof booth only to meet the barrel of another thug's gun inside. Startled, I tried to stop quickly, but only slid in the puddle of the clerk's blood and ended up on my ass.

The thug fired. He was apparently startled as well, as his bullet hit the ceiling. I fumbled for my second pistol, fired both, but only one connected, putting the thug down.

I got myself on my feet and found the clerk's assault rifle behind the counter just in time to see another thug advancing on Simon. I pulled the trigger on the AR and held it down, putting several rounds into the bulletproof glass between me and Simon's new threat.

My bluff worked, because the thug bolted out the back of the store with Simon hot on his heels.

Just as Simon was about to clear the door to the stockroom, he stopped suddenly and dodged back into the store just as a launched grenade passed through the door and into the frozen foods behind him, blowing up the produce section and raining down bits of flaming vegetables.

I ran out of the clerk's booth and around the shelves, just in time to see a man in heavy red armor raise an assault rifle at Simon's prone body, forcing him to drop his gun. That's when I opened up on the guy in the red armor. Unfortunately, the armor did what it was supposed to, so I ducked back behind the shelves.

Simon took the distraction as an opportunity to pop his spring-loaded boot knife and try to find a chink in the armor. And failed.

Just as I was about to take another shot at the man in red, one of the thugs got the drop on me, sinking his blade deep into my right shoulder, cutting muscle and scraping bone. The pain was incredible!

It gets fuzzy from there. I remember sliding down the shelves to the floor. I remember handing the clerk's assault rifle to Simon. I remember the sound of breaking glass and my assailant's head disappearing in a pink cloud. I remember Simon frantically trying to apply medical care to me. I remember a few more shots. Then…

Darkness.