Hello! I have been posting these around other places, like the reddit, but I have yet to receive any feedback or suggestions yet. I was hoping that someone might help me out and sharpen up these ideas somewhat. Or at least tell me if they seem fun for the game.
Though I admit, the first draft I had got deleted and this was rewritten from memory, so that is why job two is more detailed.
Contract: Surprising Thematic?
Goods/Service: Relationships between Enclaves, whether rivals, enemies, neutral, or allies are much like those of old nations. Gifts and deals, envoys and diplomats. One such mission has gone wrong, a rookie Taker crew known as The Pedal Express has disappeared while working for the Taker’s enclave. They were new, but exciting, reliable. High speed, low drag couriers on bikes. Comprised of members of a pre-Crash cyclist club and experienced Fencemen, by all accounts they were one the crews that would succeed. Smart, capable, knew their limits. Their mission was to deliver a gift to a neighboring enclave, but they did not arrive. The diplomatic intent was hammered out later, but the client wishes to recover the gift to be reused later. Given the disappearance, and the fact the GPS tagged gift has been in place since contact has been lost, the Pedal Express is no doubt dead...and if they are not dead, they need rescue.
Economy: Based on local Markets.
Equilibrium: Roll for local conditions.
Client: Local VIP, based on local Markets.
Competition: Based on local Markets.
Travel Time: 3 Legs to Job Site, 4 Legs if Crew wishes to rest at neighboring Enclave.
The Site: Success or use of a reference to find the location of the GPS location will lead the Takers straight to the site. On failures, they may need to spend an extra leg to triangulate the location. The job site is a former used car dealership and lot.
Injun Joe’s Used Autos was a scuzzy and shady and slightly racist car dealership. Pre-Crash it was where local hoods and gangs got rid of some stolen cars and parts, or obtained cars for use in drive bys. In any case, it was a bad business in a bad neighborhood. Pre-Crash saw its lot emptied by looters and post Crash saw it just forgotten. It has a full service garage that appears unlooted and still sealed. It is this kitchy stereotypical car lot with Old West style facades. The Neighborhood itself is full of sinkholes and seems structurally unstable.
Relevant skills, examples Foresight or Networking or Research, will show that Injun Joe’s garage has been unlooted due to the fact that no one wants to risk a collapse or a vehicle to haul out its equipment. While worth something, it is deemed not worth enough by most with the ability to drive out there.
Awareness will reveal bike tracks leading up to the sales office, while the center of the street is collapsed and the area cluttered with rubble, the lot itself is cleared, if trash filled. Further Awareness tests will reveal a barricaded and trapped door leading into the back offices, one point of stun if caught unaware.
Self Control test 2/0, the entire rear offices is gone. After opening the door, it will reveal the building’s decorative facade is basically hiding the fact the inside of the building has been gutted by a massive sinkhole(filled with rubble, bodies, and water)...that caught the Pedal Express unaware. Self control test for the sheer randomness of the Loss and how it can kill you without warning. Evidence shows that the Pedal Express crew made camp, and were presumably the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Complications:
Minor: One of the Pedal Crew was a Latent and in the brackish water there is a Casualty ready to grab and bite.
Major: The entire block is on the edge of turning into a major sinkhole, Pre-Crash the lowest bidder did not do due diligence, and now the untreated water has eroded the entire block. It will collapse any day now, and if they draw Casualties, it will definitely start a chain reaction.
Bust Mode: There is a gas pocket, that due to the Pedal Crew, is now leaking. One shot, the building explodes.
Contract: Nostalgia Therapy
Goods/Service: There are many people locked up in mental institutions, away from National Service and Obligation, as well as the free parking ghettos and general population. Full of people suffering from serious mental disorders as well as disabilities, but mostly for people with Post Crash Stress Disorder. From these places come the false IDs that Takers covet and work hard for. Excuses to why they have not been seen for 5 years. Now one of these places needs Takers to obtain “therapy props and tools”. Lakeview Rehabilitation is a mental institute specializing in Post Crash Juvenile Stress Disorder and its offshoots, and its procurement officer has placed a add to the Taker’s enclave Lifeline page looking for help raiding a nearby mall, which contains both a Toys R Us and Disney Store. Can the Takers stomach risking their life for toys?
Economy: Based on local Markets.
Equilibrium: Roll for local conditions.
-Will pay for them to go, and minimum 1 Haul per Taker of small items.
-Will pay 1d6+Takers Number for each Haul worth of small items(bag of small toys, collection of blurays)
-Will pay 10+Takers Number for each 3 Haul worth of large items(bedroom sets, room decor)
Client: Susan Lang, MSW, mousy woman on a video call.
Weak Spot: Overworked with Pain
-Susan is in a tough spot, she is overworked in a highly emotionally draining job, getting these materials fast and impressing upon her that looking past the Crew will take more time then necessary can sway her.
Soft Spot: Safety Nets
-Susan believes in minimum income and that nobody should go hungry, if the Takers can convince her what she is offering is not enough to live on, they can get extra sway.
Tough Spot: First Time Client
-Is obviously a first time client, worried about being cheated and stressed by her “illegal” actions. If the takers can reassure her, she will stick with them from then on, and they will gain extra sway.
Gift Spot: All the Soma
-Ten charges of fully upgraded Soma. If it is one thing she has a lot of, it's that.
Competition: Based on local Markets.
Travel Time: 2 Legs
The Site: Lone Oak Mall was a hybrid open strip enclosed mall close to your home Enclave. It is a uninteresting place that has long been looted by survivors Pre and Post Crash. Though with research, foresight, and networking checks will reveal that looters and scavengers had prioritized useful items, food, and tools and the relevant stores should only be dirty and neglected and the site has long been considered “picked clean”. Still chock full of salvage that no one wants, save for those few outliers that took time to take this or that trinket and raid the registers. The back store rooms should still be full of books, toys, blurays, bedroom sets, posters, and other things.
Further research might reveal that it is a potential enclave site, though perhaps a bit too expensive and too tough to make it worth it.
Complications: LALA Land
Even hard and challenging enclave sites can be made into enclaves, sometimes all it takes is one family, the first person to stake a claim and start work on the walls. Once arriving on the site, the Takers will soon find that there are signs of life, barricades have been set up, parts of the mall have been sealed off past the areas too insecure. Such as the broken front windows, or the front parking lot. A inner area comprising of the target stores has been blocked off. The person owning all this is a young teen named Princess. A girl who when she is not playing dress up is in a ghille suit and toting a rifle. A keen survivalist and sniper, who could not have been more than 10 when the Crash happened...if that. She has a set of Ubiq specs, and will contact the Takers to leave her Kingdom alone. She will first verbal warning and threaten, before taking warning shots, if the Takers offend her or set her off, she may aim to kill right off the bat. She seems obviously delusional, as she says things like.“Please leave my kingdom alone!” “Begone bandits!” “I will protect my sick King!” “I am the Princess of this Kingdom, are you friend or foe?”
Though perhaps she is off on a trading run when the Takers get there, and will find themselves trapped by a disturbed teenager who is angry at their tresspass, but is obviously not so fargone as to kill out of hand. Humanity damage if they kill her without engaging with some talks.
She lives primarily in the underground service and storage areas that have been sectioned off and secured from casualties, and evidence will show that she is slowly clearing the complex out by herself. It is trapped, barricaded, and professionally set. Self Control Check 1/0 to think that a kid is so competent, she can’t have more than a third grade formal education. If they breach her inner sanctum into her living area, prompt a Self Control Check 2/0, there is power as well as disturbing decorations. The tunnels are decorated in Disney Princesses and Imagery, it as if this place is a playground rather than a survival compound. Prompt a Self Control Check 3/1 if they reach the innermost areas, where they will find a mummified body on a makeshift throne, shrouded in a sheet and crowned with a toy crown. Her king. Or rather her father.
Research/Networking/References will reveal that this person was a Lone Wolf merc, former Spec Ops sniper who had a daughter. Materials will reveal that he had set the groundwork, and trained his daughter thoroughly. She might not have been formally schooled, but she has the equivalent of Special Forces training for the last five years. Maybe in another year, she might actually have a place where a Enclave can start?
Market discretion where this plot goes. She can be made into a dependant, reference, or enemy depending on Taker actions
Contract: Flavor Country
Goods/Service: If there is one thing in demand, one thing that can reassure a man, woman, or child, it is familiar flavors. And now there is a threat to the Taker’s local flavor baron. Or rather Coke Baron, and yes that is Coka Cola. There is a new cola provider in the area, and he might flood the market with cheap generic cola sugar water, as he is providing actual Coke. Syrup is still being made in the Recession and even some places in the Loss, and there are high profit margins. One container of syrup becomes many gallons of soda, and if you can carbonize water even better. He is looking for Takers to represent his business at a third party mediated neutral ground based sitdown, he is not looking for war, death, or killing. He is looking to protect his monopoly through deals and agreements.
Economy: Based on local Markets.
Equilibrium: Roll for local conditions.
Client: Simpson, The Coke Baron, and yes he knows it is a Simpsons reference. He is a serious dour man in a suit.
Weak Spot: Speak softly and carry a big stick.
-He needs people that can talk, deal, and wheel. Not assassins, not killers, those will be useful, but while right now he needs people that can do the former, if they can also do the later all the better. Takers can play up their ability to do so, or their competitions inability to do so.
Soft Spot: Memories
-There is a reason he is in his business, while he is as dour as he seems, and is a serious numbers minded business man, he is also nostalgic and melancholic. He trusts his inner circle because they understand each other, if the Takers can “share” and be empathetic, they can gain sway.
Tough Spot: Knives looking for his back.
-While he is a peaceful man, looking first for a peaceful solution, he is worried for an actual war. He is worried that someone is out to get him. And that he needs to maintain MAD. If the Takers can impress him, that they are the only ones that can do this, that can save him, that can be that strike back if needs be, he will be swayed.
Gift Spot: Weekend Getaway
-He will give them a weekend getaway package. He also owns a simulationalist hosbilitablity business, where wealth Loss residents can “play house” and pretend they are not living in a zombie infested hell hole. If the Takers accept this gift, they will heal N+2 columns of Humanity instead of N, where N is the number of Dependents and will not need to spend bounty for it.
Competition: Based on local Markets.
Travel Time: 4 Legs
The Site: It is in a clearing, temporary camp full of takers and armed men and women. Where it exactly is, is up to the market, but it is in a place where people are kept honest in so far there is no way to easily sneak up on people, or gain advantage in a fight. There are five other parties here. The first is the Taker group who organized the sit down and is providing third party mediation and security. They will release a video recording of the proceedings to prove the efficacy of their service. The second and third are like the party, Takers with no stake in the negotiations beyond their participation and their attempts to make a profitable deal. They represent a salt provider and a fruit preserves provider. The fourth and fifth are groups representing themselves, a band of Mexican traders who speak English semi-fluently who are offering chocolate and sugar, and the Client’s competition who sells generic Loss made Cola.
Negotiations will be based around territory, access to common markets, competition clauses, as well as who is allowed to sell what where. No one wants a fight, and if there is war, the first shots won’t be here.
Complications:
The Meek seek to infiltrate and replace the Cola guy, and infect the Loss with Vector producing Cola. They might try and kill everyone and replace everyone. They might try and sneak their way in. Either way, they are crazed cultists looking to kill the human race...and they might not very well be able to pull it off due to their insanities. Up to Market how they proceed.
