2025-11-25 Prepare for the first session of Kinetic Energy ========================================================== Let's review the characters we created yesterday. Sam Cein. Strength-7, Dexterity-5, Endurance-10, Intelligence-6, Education-4, Status-6; Knife-1, Handgun-1, Car-1, Computer-3, Engineer-1, Medical-1, Pilot-1. Contact: Mr. Orno. Trent Sosoitti: Strength-7, Dexterity-7, Endurance-6, Intelligence-10, Education-4, Status-7; Fight-1. Handgun-1, Knife-1, Rifle-2, Unarmed-1, Bureaucracy-7, Culture-1, Deception-1, Diplomacy-1, Literacy-5, People-3, Tactics-1. He wanted to be a fighter and did that, but on the way he ended up being well read, a true poet, and astonishingly comfortable with the machinations of forms, taxes, reports, grant proposals, project management, slide-decks and spreadsheets. Companion: Quveisa, Strength-10, Dexterity-9, Endurance-8, Intelligence-8, Education-4, Status-7. Enemies: House of Esre. Urs Xegevela. Strength-2 Dexterity-7 Endurance-6 Intelligence-6 Education-2 Status-10; Bureaucracy-3, Deception-4, Computer-1, Crime-1, Literacy-3, People-2, Science-3. Patrons: Onorce and Bia. Membership: Sector Trade Guild. Status ------ Let's look at the Status attribute. 7 is what I would consider an honest citizen of the empire. The axis is important. Outside the empire, your status would immediately drop and it would take a lifetime to get back up. So Sam with Status-6 has less status than an average citizen. Those years lost on that other planet make themselves known. People wonder: Did Sam break the law? Did Sam take drugs? People suspect something but can't quite put their finger on it. Trent and Quveisa both have Status-7 and belong to the masses of the empire. Live like a mouse. Remain unnoticed. Urs, however, is different. Status-10 is close to nobility. So who is close to nobility? People useful to the empire. People working in their administration, close to the court; friends of young nobles who were talented but sadly lacked the right connections. There is that class ceiling. No matter how hard you try: you can get a good job but you can never stop working. Patrons ------- Urs is a member of the Sector Trade Guild. This guild is described as follows: > The trade guilds deal in moving people, supplying remote colonies > with essential goods and transporting news and mail. They don't care > for the empire itself but they do care about safety and people. > Together, you can achieve much. I used this to write the following about the two patrons Urs also gained: > Onorce is a resistance organiser on Xerailri station, secretive, > involved in Deep Sewer Maintenance and Management. Bia is a local > crime lord involved in skimming material off imperial production and > smuggling it to a rebel base. Time to work out the index cards for these two patrons! Onorce ------ +------------+----+------------+--------------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTES | | OTHER | | +------------+----+------------+--------------------------------+ | Status | 12 | Name | Onorce (they/them) | | Gravitas | 6 | Appearance | bald | | Paranoia | 7 | Membership | House Xerailri, Deep Sewer | | | | | Maintenance and Management | | Honesty | 7 | Interests | Getting their inheritance back | | Loyalty | 3 | Jobs | Find the underground passage | | | | | to the arena | +------------+----+------------+--------------------------------+ Long term, I think it’s clear that Onorce is interested in the inheritance and is ready to throw all former allies under the bus in order to get it. They’re a dangerous ally. Job: Find an underground passage from the warehouses of Xerailri station into the tunnels of the sewer system and link up with the Diusatus clan who is controlling the old arena. Library check: It's a covered market these days and the Diusatus family owns the market license. Crime check: Financially, the Diusatus clan is failing. House Xerailri is not benefiting enough and is thinking of replacing the Diusatus, eventually (a future hook). Computer check: The maps are not longer accessible. Somebody has erased them. There are signature traces of the Chainsaw Juggler hacker collective (a future hook). The tunnels are the home turf of the Mabiuses, a gang of 4: average 7, Unarmed+1, Knife+1, Handgun+1, Infiltrate+1. Their preferred weapons in these tunnels are knives because they know that if they aren't quiet in these tunnels, a security bot arrives. The EX-Secure-Life-2b has Damage-9 Endurance-10 Life-9 Attack-9 Hit-9 Escape-4 and counts as an armoured target. Bia --- +------------+---+------------+--------------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTES | | OTHER | | +------------+---+------------+--------------------------------+ | Status | 2 | Name | Bia (they/them) | | Gravitas | 7 | Appearance | wild short black hair, lab | | | | | coat | | Paranoia | 4 | Membership | Heavenly Gaze mutual aid | | | | | society | | Honesty | 9 | Interests | Taking over an imperial | | | | | production plant | | Loyalty | 7 | Jobs | Drive Mrs. Orti to Sobia, an | | | | | oasis town | +------------+---+------------+--------------------------------+ A crime lord with Status-2 is difficult to imagine. Perhaps we need to think of Bia as a recent arrival, a rebel agent without friends who can’t even mobilise assets from fellow gang members. I think this means Bia is in dire straits and needs help. In return, they can offer knowledge and opportunities. It’s the honesty that makes this a likeable patron. Job: Escort Mrs. Orti to the oasis town of Sobia. She’s on the run from the security forces of Inus Xein Pharmaceuticals because of some non-disclosure violation. Bia is hoping to recruit Mrs. Orti into the rebellion and suggested hiding among the Lelerino people who will pick her up in Sobia. She’ll go onto a half-year caravan trip until things have calmed down. People check: She doesn’t really want to go. Fear makes her go but she’d prefer access to a lab and she knows a lab in Sobia, Quatilti Orchards and Biotech (a choice to make). Culture check: The Lelerino people are rough and it’s not at all clear that staying with them is safe. Bureaucracy check: Mrs. Orti leaked safety concerns to the leftist press and now she is indeed wanted for trial. Disappearance is likely. Library check: The Sobia desert is famed for Rarein Crabs. Number-6 Damage-9 Endurance-4 Life-6 Attack-10 Hit-11 Escape-4. Very dangerous. They look armoured but it’s actually easy to slide a blade between their scales. There’s an ambush waiting for Mrs. Orti at Quatilti Orchards and Biotech. Make a Tactics check to avoid the ambush. Five people, armoured, average 7, Handgun-1. If any escape or gets to transmit their identities back to the team commando, Inus Xein Pharmaceuticals turns into a regular enemy (future hook). Another patron -------------- I feel that there should perhaps be a third option. Or perhaps there should be an option to find one. Perhaps Mr. Diusatus, the organisation running the market in the old arena could use some help. In order get on their good sides, uncover the crime gang that’s extorting the merchants. They operate from the Lemaloed Fight Club. All twenty of them are fit 8, Unarmed-1, Knife-1, Discipline-1. Outside the fight club, they show up in groups of three. In the evening, they’re all at the club. Their boss is Onti Lemaloed. Nobody has to die for this to succeed. Note that if the party starts out without patrons, then you should prepare three potential patrons and how to get them. The information one can learn about them before doing this should allow players to decide whether they represent topics they care about. As such, the choice between patrons is a bike voting with your feet. Players get to express their preferences in-game. #RPG #2d6 #Kinetic_Energy