Red Markets Beta Playtest Campaign: No Place Like Home

[KillItWithFire]

We finished up Enclave generation and character creation for Red Markets recently, here's what the group came up with:

Red Markets Enclave

Enclave Name: New Eden

Location: Walled off section of Albuquerque, New Mexico, containing Albuquerque International Airport, the attached Kirtland Air Force Base, and a nearby public zoo.

Defenses:
   -Tiered walls with twisting switchbacks and dead falls, designed to corral any casualties that wander towards the city.
   -The wall is capped at multiple points with reinforced pillboxes, several of which have large freight elevators that travel up and down the wall, which are the only entrances and exits to New Eden.
   -Pre-Crash Albuquerque boasted a large community of hot air balloon enthusiasts, and the military units from Kirtland AFB were quick to capitalize on their abandoned supplies, deploying balloons as high flying, tethered, observation posts. At least two brightly colored balloons fly above New Eden at all times, acting as a beacon in the Loss, and allowing observers to see for miles in every direction, while safely flying a few thousand feet above the ground.
   -Between the military, international airport, and copious salvage within the city, New Eden has an extensive internal communication network made largely of reclaimed I-pads and laptops located in public terminals throughout the enclave. This communication infrastructure is largely powered by the near-ubiquitous rooftop solar panels within the enclave.
   -As a final emergency measure, should casualties ever enter the city, one of the subway tunnels beneath the airport has been excavated out to the Sandia mountains which directly abut the city limits, providing an escape route which bypasses the enclaves cargo elevator bottleneck entrance.

History:
   In the early months of the Crash, military units stationed at Kirtland AFB did their best to protect and defend citizens, flying medical personnel in and evacuating people to safety. Sadly, despite their noble efforts and intentions, they were on the wrong side of the line. Rather than turn rebel, the command staff decided to stand fast, fortifying what they could, giving themselves, those under their command, and the large population of civilians in the area, the best chance of survival until rescue came. Thus was New Eden born, a beacon of hope and safety in the Loss.
   Lack of food supplies necessitated the recruitment of several local ranchers and farmers into the community, and a local zoo was turned into pens for food animal containment. Those few zoo animals that had survived the Crash were assessed as to their ability to be bred in captivity and if they required more than a modicum of effort, they were quickly eaten to make room for easier to raise domesticated farm stock.
   A schism soon began to develop between the established “benevolent” military dictatorship and fledgling meritocracy, culminating in a short, violent rebellion which was quickly and ruthlessly put down by well trained military personnel. Wanting to avoid another rebellion, the military bloc installed figureheads in a puppet government over the main sources of export production within the enclave, and an uneasy peace between the various political blocs has been maintained through fear, coercion, and corruption.
   New Eden, once a place of hope and safety, has become a cesspool of corruption, it's name spoken with derision and scorn. However, given that the only other choices for living spaces are the barren desert, or the casualty filled streets of nearby cities, New Eden continues to see a steady stream of people joining the ranks of its working and lower classes.

Top Exports:
   -Animal Products: Meat, sinew, hides, etc.
   -Medical Knowledge and Treatment: The veterinary facilities at the zoo have been modified and stocked to accommodate both human and animal patients. Kirtland AFB was host to numerous medical first responders during the Crash, so there are at least a dozen medical professionals on staff at any given time.
   -Potable Water: Albuquerque sits above a massive aquifer that has been referred to as “an underground Lake Superior”. One of the first priorities of the founders of the enclave was to get as much pumping equipment up and running as possible.

Top Imports:
   -Food Crops: The few fruits and vegetables grown within the confines of New Eden are used to feed the cattle and other domesticated herd animals. Virtually all other forms of nutrition have to be sourced from outside the enclaves walls.
   -Medical Supplies: Reserves of medical supplies needed to carry out complex operations and basic sterilization practices ran out early in the Crash, and a constant supply is needed to allow the medical professionals to keep doing their jobs.
   -Ammunition: Everybody needs gun food, and very few have the skills, equipment, or raw materials to make it.
   -Energy: Solar panels provide almost enough power for basic needs during the day, but a different source is needed for night time, or when the weather is more than slightly uncooperative.
   -Entertainment: As a work or die enclave, with only a small artist commune, residents of New Eden are desperate for anything to break up the crushing monotony of everyday life, and voraciously devour any books, movies, drugs, performance art, etc, that gets brought into the city.

Competition:
   -Narcofarmers: A small commune of grow houses in an abandoned skyscraper on the far side of the city, producing a number of chemical products that were less than legal before the Crash.
   -Raiders: Former super-max prison inmates that escaped during the Crash, and weren't eaten by casualties, have banded together into a roving pack of violent raiders.
   -OSB Biopharmaceuticals: Roughly thirty employees of the biotech giant managed to barricade themselves inside the company's production facility, and were subsequently rescued and forced to restart production by StopLoss, which now provides for their protection and basic food needs, and holds the work contract for all their produced wares. Any trade with this OSB has to be kept secret, lest the wrath of a private military corporation be brought down on any interlopers.
   -The Absolvers: A reclusive religious group who believe that God made people into casualties because of their sins, and through toil their sins will be absolved. Rumors abound of lush, verdant farms in which casualties are used as beasts of burden, with teams of them yoked to plows, wagons, millstones, and other pieces of farm equipment, and the humans that drive them rely only on faith to assure their safety.

Social Structure:
   New Eden is a banana republic, with a puppet oligarchy installed and run by the former military, which itself has become more of a mafia than any branch of the armed forces. The various group are all fairly insular, and there is almost no upward mobility for the common citizen.
   -The Unit: Remnants of the armed forces which had been serving at Kirtland AFB, now the true rulers of New Eden.
   -Caretakers: Collective title of the governing council made up of the heads of each social group within New Eden.
   - Butchers: Those who control the production and slaughter of livestock.
   -Whitecoats: Doctors, EMTs and other medical professionals.
   -The Voice: The middle class, those responsible for actually working and producing.
   -Stock: Derogatory term for the teeming masses of underclass, those who responsible for cleaning up the messes made by the production groups, or clearing out the dead fall pits of slain casualties.
   -The Family: Underground movement violently opposed to the military rulers and their puppet oligarchy.
   -H.A.S.H: Small hippie and artist commune within New Eden, known for staging large, non-violent protests against the upper and ruling classes, usually consisting of elaborate pieces of performance art.

Neighborhoods:
   -Citadel: Military HQ of the Unit, known as Kirtland Airforce Base, pre-Crash.
   -The Farm: Territory of the Butchers.
   -The Chop Shop: Salvaged veterinary facilities in the old zoo, home of the Whitecoats.
   -The Green Zone: Common living area of the middle class, so called because every flat surface that doesn't contain solar panels has some sort of garden for growing animal feed or subsistence agriculture.
   -Transfer Station: Trash strewn slums, home to the lower class.
   -The Playground: Latent quarantine zone. A fenced off runway at Albuquerque International Airport, with some hacked up airplane fuselages to provide living accommodations.
   -The Solarium: Artists district, home to H.A.S.H

VIPs:
   -Commander: Leader of the Unit, actual name unknown.
   -Dr. Moreau: Longest practicing, and thus de facto leader of the Chop Shop.
   -Cattleprod: Head of the Butchers. Thoroughly enjoys is work. Rumors that he makes hefty bounty on the side by disappearing dissidents are completely unfounded.
   -The Smiths: Leaders of the Family. There are always two, a man and woman, no matter how many times they are arrested or killed.
   -Foreman Michaels: Speaker for the needs of the middle class, appointed by the Caretakers.
   -Salvador Vangoghsso: Avant-garde performance artist, and nominal leader of H.A.S.H.
   -Delight: Madam at New Eden's Den of Delight's, and a skilled information broker.


Given how awful of a place this seems to be, I feel as though a central part of the campaign is going to be finding a new place to live. I'll post character bio's soon.
   

[trinite]

Super cool! My grandpa used to live in Albuquerque, so I've been there a few times. Anyone planning to get the gondola up to the mountain working again?

[KillItWithFire]

That's a distinct possibilty. One of the players grew up there and has far more local knowledge than I do.

[KillItWithFire]

The Takers

Taker Name: Cranberry
Player: Tegan

Weak Spot: Easily Angered
Soft Spot: Social Justice
Tough Spot: Escaped from Slavers

A red headed firebrand, who took her taker name from the nickname her father gave her as a child, with a passion for righting the social wrongs so common in the loss. A highly competent negotiator, despite her short fuse, she operates as the face of the team. She only recently emigrated to New Eden, and is fairly certain that her temper will almost never get her into trouble.

Taker Name: Van Zandt
Player: Peter

Weak SPot: Stubborn
Soft Spot: Reclaiming Life before the Blight
Tough Spot: Military Diaspora

A soldier from the Kentucky National Guard, deployed to New Mexico to aid in the distribution of medical supplies and civilian evacuation during the Crash. Left for dead after being trapped in a building hit by an airstrike aimed at a massive stampede of vectors rampaging across the state. Van Zandt managed to pull himself, and his sole surviving squadmate out of the rubble, and despite significant injuries, the pair made it to Albuquerque, and the military bases therin.

Taker Name: Whisky Jack
Player: Jazz

Weak Spot: Vengeful
Soft Spot: Latents are Still People!
Tough Spot: Latent

A resident of Albuquerque before the Crash, Whisky Jack and his brother, Max, discovered that their mother was a latent when she arrived home during the early terror of the crash with necrotic viral sinews worming their way through her flesh. The boy's father had a nervous breakdown over her condition, and despite her protests that she was fine, he flew into a rage and killed her, which caused her to go vector, and in the ensuing violence and chaos, their father and mother were both killed, and Whisky Jack and his brother were both bitten. Through this traumatic incident, Whisky Jack discovered that he was also a natural latent, and Max was an immune. They quickly went into business as some of the first takers in New Mexico. Unfortunately, a massive score that was going to set them up for life went bad, and left Max mentally broken, and Whisky Jack used all the bounty from the job to retire him. Whisky Jack continues the business of taking to pay Max's healthcare bills and keep him hidden from those with a special interest in the immune.

Taker Name: Major
Player: Krista

Weak Spot: Numerical OCD
Soft Spot: Seeking a Cure
Tough Spot: Latent

An ex-DHQS research scientist who was bitten by a casualty while collecting samples in the field. Fortunately, Major had a dose of Supressin on hand to put off the worst effects of the bite. Unfortunately, his former associates in the DHQS were very eager to cut him apart to explore how latents work. Doubly unfortunately, Major had been working on some very promising research about how the blight interacts with the blood in the early stages of infection, and this all had to be left behind in his frantic escape into the Loss. Despite this, Major continues his research, confident that the answer to how the blight works will be found in the blood of the immunes, and his experiments on them are far less invasive than those of his former DHQS associates.

[KillItWithFire]

First sessions of Red Markets completed!

Players took a contract for The No-Fly Zone Job. The client, a young woman named Zipper, was seeking to get into business as the premire drone repair tech/pilot trainer in the area, and had a line on an abandoned, and largely unlooted, Great Hobby Plus mega-store in the Albuquerque suburbs, and it should be no problem whatsoever for a team of trained takers to go in, stuff their backpacks to bursting with civilian drones and spare parts, and get back to the enclave for a sweet payday. Simple, right?

Before leaving, the wall guards made a point of telling the takers that orders had come down from on high, and the regulations for blood testing incoming and outgoing citizens were going to be even more strictly enforced. This was a potential problem for Major, who had thus far been able to conceal his status as a latent from the enclave authorities.

In the first leg of the journey, the takers ran afoul of the weather during the Southwest monsoon season and were forced to take refuge in an abandoned drugstore. Unfortunately, despite being as quiet as possible, the noise of their entrance into the building stirred a small group of causalties that had been aimlessly wandering around the basement storage area, and they promply lurched upstairs to investigate. The casualties were quickly dispatched, and a search of the basement turned up a wall safe with a few bounty stashed in it.

In the second leg, the team kept to the outskirts of the city, in the foothills of the Sandia mountains, and ran into a border patrol of the Sandia Pueblo tribe. The patrol was heavily armed and armored, but not openly hostile, though they did make a point of saying that they were retaking what was theirs. After Cheveyo, the patrol leader, mentioned that there had been several stampedes of casualties in the area recently, the takers contracted a pair of the border guards as guides in an effort to reach their destination without running across any of the stampedes.

The Great Hobby Plus mega-store was located in a suburban strip mall, flanked on one side by a burned out BURGER NOW! franchise, with an Everything Office on the other. The parking lot was half full with indiscriminately abandoned cars, and half a dozen casualties were milling about. Scouting the area proved easy, but upon moving up the parking lot, attempting to eliminate the casualties at range, Whisky Jack leaned too hard against one of the abandoned cars he was using as cover, and one of the tires catastrophically failed, emitting a sound that alerted the causalties in the area and sent them stumbling in his direction. Major, Whisky Jack, and Van Zandt were able to quickly kill the casualties and make their way into the hobby store.

Zipper's intelligence had been largely correct, and the hobby store was mostly unlooted, so the team made their way to the remote control section, and began cramming their packs with build your own drone kits and spare parts. It was at this point that they noticed that a dark, oily smoke was starting to permeate the air out in the parking lot, so, with most of their available haul filled with loot, they sought out a roof access point to see if they could spot the source of the smoke.

On the roof, they found an abandoned tent, with a waterlogged sleeping bag and journal, along with some spoiled food, a rifle, and a few rounds of ammunition. Major surveyed the surrounding area, and saw what appeared to be a sooty fog bank rolling down from the highway, some half mile distant, and it seemed to be the source of smoke in the air. Van Zandt had little time to marvel over his newly acquired rifle when a heavily modified pickup truck came squealing into the parking lot, and three men wearing the orange jumpsuits of the Supermax Killas jumped out. They seemed unaware of the takers perched on the roof and began inspecting the abandoned vehicles in the lot, along with the pile of slain casualties in front of the Great Hobby Plus. Almost in unison the takers decided that they wanted that truck, and its mounted machine gun, and its ability to haul way more loot back to the client. They attacked the raiders immediately.

In the ensuing gunfight, the raiders were quickly and brutally slain, though not before Van Zandt and Major were struck multiple times in the crossfire. Upon reaching the truck, Major heard the driver gurgle out a bloody cough, and whisper into his radio "We found parts, but there's takers. Send in the MotherTrucker" before dying. With a horrific metal on tortured metal shriek of engine components revved and stressed far beyond their inteded capacity, the MotherTrucker, a heavily armored flatbed hauling semi, complete with gun mounts, and at least twenty raiders hanging off the exterior, stacks belching flame and sooty black exhaust, came roaring through the encroaching smoke cloud, accompanied by a dozen smaller vehicles.

All thought of extra bounty was abandoned, as Whisky Jack and Van Zandt practially leaped off the roof and ran as fast as they could to the team's newly acquired truck. The MotherTrucker didn't even slow down as it veered off the highway, down the embankment, and into the parking lot, its reinforced ram smashing abandoned cars out of the way or launching them into the air as it careened towards the takers. Fortunately for Van Zandt, Major, and Whisky Jack, their new ride had a well maintained, tuned up engine, and Whisky Jack mashed the loud pedal to the floor, and the team made good their escape, blasting down the highway, back to New Eden and a big payday.

After deductions, each taker was able to bank around eight bounty, taking their first tentative steps toward retirement.

[KillItWithFire]

We had a bit of a bookkeeping session this past week. I figured that since the first job went so well, it could serve as the campaign prologue mission, so I had the players sit down and came up with their individual retirement goals before looking for another job. Van Zandt officially changed his taker name to Double Tap, after putting almost every casualty down in the last game with a pair of shots to the brain, and starting to build his legend in the Loss.

Cranberry is going to spend her time and money trying to bring about meaningful change to the social structure of New Eden, hoping to make it the beacon of hope in the Loss it was always supposed to be, and to secure a cushy, high ranking governance job for herself.

Double Tap doesn't want to leave the Loss, as he has become overly fond of all the casualty shooting, but he knows he needs to get his dependent out, so he is starting to save his bounty to become the fixer/owner of what will surely be the premiere casualty ending mercenary company in the Loss. Profits from such an endeavor should easily pay to get his dependent back into the relative safety of the recession.

Major is dead set on recovering his lost research from the DHQS and finding a remedy for latency. Though a full cure is likely well beyond his means, his goal is to make being a latent at least a livable condition, hoping to find some way to diminish the infectious nature of the blight, and knowing full well that a medical remedy of such magnitude would be worth a ludicrous amount of bounty to...everybody.

Whisky Jack isn't so keen on the taker life anymore. He's been doing it since the Crash, and he wants out, preferably to a nice, sandy beach that still has access to umbrella drinks. Most of his bounty already goes towards keeping his immune brother hidden from the prying eyes of the DHQS and unscrupulous bone marrow hunters, anyway, so if he was able to disappear them both to someplace sunny and warm, that would be pretty great.

And so Hazard Pay, LLC was born, four different people with different goals, forced together during the chaos of the Crash, determined to not get eaten by the cannibal dead, and desperate for that one big payday.

[KillItWithFire]

After some...interesting... vignettes with dependents, Hazard Pay, LLC moved on to negotiating their next job, offered by Lieutenant Buckman, the quartermaster operating on behalf of the Unit, in New Eden. The job was simple: Buckman is looking for a supply of steel to repurpose towards the benefit of New Eden, patching holes in the wall, making new spikes in the dead-fall pits, fixing vehicle axles and frames, etc. His proposed source? The hundreds and hundreds of miles of railroad tracks crisscrossing New Mexico. All the team has to do is drive out to the desert wasteland, find a confluence of multiple rail lines, and spend a couple of days of back breaking labor in the blistering sun to uproot the rail tracks and load them into a cargo truck that the Unit was gracious enough to provide! Simple, right? Hazard Pay, LLC got a little screwed on this one, as they got only a single round to negotiate, and were only able to persuade an extra ten bounty out of the Lieutenant before they were pushed out the door to start The Transcontinental Repurposing Job.

In the first leg of the journey, the team came across a trade caravan that had been hit by something possessing a lot of large caliber weapons. The half dozen vehicles, wagons, and flatbeds were stitched with dozens and dozens of bullet strikes, many from anti-materiel weapons, and though no bodies were found, there were ominous, bloody drag marks leading out of all the vehicles. The fires consuming the caravan were still smoldering, so whatever had happened was barely hours old when the team came upon it.

Major was certain it was a hit by the DHQS, though their motivation was anybody's guess. Whisky Jack wasted no time rifling through the burning vehicles, finding a few bounty and a pistol that looked mostly serviceable. Cranberry suggested that the team could likely make some extra bounty if they stripped some of the unburned vehicle tires and batteries, so the team spent some time loading car parts into the back of their truck, before setting off on the next leg.

[KillItWithFire]

The Transcontinental Repurposing Job, Part 2

Continuing through the legs of their journey, Hazard Pay, LLC ran into a group of the Ablest Brigade drawing in and engaging a large group of casualties in melee combat. All members of the Ablest possessed at least two, if not more, heavily customized prosthetic limbs, which were equipped with anything from crushing vise jaws to captive bolt pistols. The Ablest made quick work of the casualties, then formed a defensive perimeter around their APCs and waited. After a few tense minutes, the members of Hazard Pay were spotted and asked who they were and what they were doing. Not wanting to run afoul of twenty plus heavily armed military types, the team approached and introduced themselves.

The Ablest were courteous, but they made a point of saying that their time was short. When pressed for more information, they hinted that there was something in the area that was bigger, or at least, far more deadly, than a vector, and they were hunting it. They offered to pay the team for any information passed their way, and freely gave what little information they had about their prey. Double Tap inquired about possibly getting some prostheses for his dependent, but was told that sadly, with her spinal damage and complete loss of the use of her legs, the prosthetics would be of little use. Some of the Ablest hinted that they had voluntarily given up meat limbs as part of their sign on deal, though most had been amputated as a form of battlefield triage to prevent infection.

The groups parted ways, but not before Major was able to convince the Ablest to give him blood samples to begin his new round of research. The Ablest left the team with a radio as a means of contact, though its range was extremely limited without a repeater nearby.

The final leg of the journey was supposed to be a dead drop to pay off Whisky Jack's reference for earlier help, as well as a final chance to scrounge up some extra bounty. Things went downhill when the truck Major and Whisky were driving, Roadhaul (appropriated from raiders in the No-Fly Zone Job) set off a landmine near the drop site. Though it was an indirect hit, Roadhaul went flying through the air and landed roughly, causing significant damage to itself, and its passengers. Cursing his reference for what he suspected as a double-cross, Whisky left the payment, and Major attempted to stop so much Latent blood from leaking out of the pair of them. Roadhaul still ran, though extremely poorly and likely not for much longer, so the team sped away from what was apparently a minefield in the middle of the New Mexico desert, now even more desperate to get their payday.

The job site was a nondescript stretch of desert, which had half a dozen rail lines running through the same area, all roughly parallel to each other. Despite the injuries, the damage to Roadhaul, and the lateness of the day, the team put in some time pulling railroad spikes and loading the first few haul worth of tracks into the transport truck. As the sun went down, they came to terms with the fact that they would all be spending a night in the Loss, virtually alone, in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but the thin canvas walls of the transport truck for protection. Tensions between the team were running high, as the non-Latent members were now avoiding the Latents, who both had fresh wounds which still occasionally bled.

The night was uneasy, but passed uneventfully, and in the morning, the team started breaking down and hauling track sections again. This went on into the afternoon, with the team toiling away in the blistering heat. Unfortunately, for the team, it turned out that the DHQS was still using rail lines and diesel-electric locomotives for moving across the Loss. Doubly unfortunately, one such train came hurtling down the tracks, hidden by blowing dust and heat mirages until the team could feel it shaking the ground beneath their feet. In a blind panic, the members of Hazard Pay ran to their vehicles and were able to frantically drive a short distance away, before the train plowed, full speed, into the area of removed track. It was a horrific wreck, with chunks of twisted metal and flying through the air, and gouts of burning diesel erupting from the trains fuel tanks.

At least one of the train crew survived the wreck, as moments later, Major's radio picked up a frantic distress call warning people out of the area, and gunshots could be heard from the far side of the train. The radio cut out as a blood drenched, and partially chewed and clawed vector leaped on top of on of the ruined train cars ran straight towards Major and Whisky Jack. Double Tap wasted no time jamming the transport truck into gear and speeding away from the scene of the crash, with Cranberry in tow. Whiskey stomped on the accelerator and Roadhaul gave one final, mighty surge of speed as it slammed into the vector in its headlong charge. The resulting impact left a vector shaped dent in the front bumper and the vector began clawing its way over the hood of the now ruined truck, with most of its entrails hanging out.

As it reached the cab, Major cut one of the deployed airbags off the dash and jammed it down over the vectors head, before leaping out of the truck. Whisky took the opportunity to fire at it point blank, before the things fists connected like a hammer and sent him flying through the driver's door. It was at this moment that the rest of the surviving casualties that had been in the train came shambling into view. As the vector continued to crawl forwards, Whisky Jack frantically emptied his pistol into it, putting it down for good.

Double Tap had turned the truck around and was headed back towards the rest of his team, and between the four of them, they made quick work of the remaining casualties, despite several weapons breaking and requiring repair. Major had climbed up on the train during the battle, and began searching the wrecked cars for anything useful. The first car held a jumbled pile of crates which would need more thorough investigation. The second car held thirty people, or, rather, the pieces of thirty people, who had been chained to the walls prior to the crash. Despite the noise of crackling diesel flames, Major heard a weak voice saying "Please, help me..." and saw a hand among the pile of bodies, feebly moving its fingers.

[KillItWithFire]

What do you do with a crashed DHQS transport train after you've killed everything living, and unliving, that fell out of it when it jumped the tracks? Loot everything that isn't bolted down!

Rummaging through the remains of the wreck, the members of Hazard Pay, LLC found a large supply of recently produced MREs, several laptops, and ubiq specs, which were quickly appropriated, as well as three locked cabinets filled with guns. Major and Whisky Jack hauled the lone survivor out, but not before Major gave her a blood test and discovered she was an immune. Eager to have another candidate able to supply him with blood for his research, Major decided to see if the Ablest could give the survivor safe harbor while she recuperated from her severe injuries.

Also of note, while scouring the train, Whisky Jack found a sizable amount of bounty, which he kept hidden for Major and himself, as well as some sort of ledger, which contained numerous pages that seemed to him to be written in an indecipherable code. Major took one look at and recognized immediately that it was a DHQS transit log, containing the manifest of the trains contents, as well as destination sites for the immunes and casualties on board, which were almost certainly DHQS black sites, giving him a potential lead on where to start searching for his lost research data.

On the drive back to New Eden, the team set up a meet with the Ablest to transfer the train survivor to their care, and they also bartered some of the loot from the train for a favor, to be redeemed at some point in the future. The remaining long, monotonous miles back to the enclave were passed with a serious discussion about outfit loyalty between the latents and non-latents of Hazard Pay, LLC, with some amendments being made to the company charter.

Back in New Eden, the take for the job was collected, and despite several broken pieces of equipment that needed replacing, numerous medical bills for the latents, and higher equipment upkeep, the members of the team managed to still put a couple of bounty towards their individual retirement plans.

[Cthuluzord]

Playtest Update and Reminders

Hello everyone,

I’ll start by saying thank you. The amount of time and dedication you’ve spent reading, critiquing, and playing Red Markets is one of the most encouraging things to happen in my short game design career. I’m so grateful for everyone that’s taken the time to write up their sessions on the forums. It’s really great to see, and witnessing how you guys are interacting in-character online has given me a dozen more ideas for future products and features.

We are entering November, meaning there is little over a month left in the beta. I’m already compiling playtest reports and my own notes into a master change log.  Here’s a reminder of the plan:

•   Get all the playtests in by the Dec. 20th deadline
•   Use Christmas break and (hopefully) snow days to do a massive revision of the rules text
•   Run a second playtest campaign with the RPPR crew in late Winter/Spring to test the post-Beta revisions. Revise the book as I go and plan the Kickstarter campaign.
•   Ross posts the first playtest campaign as we start playing the second, hopefully building up some hype.
•   Kickstarter launches in early Summer, sometime after school lets out and man the comments section full time.
•   If the book doesn’t fund: cry forever.
•   If it does fund: do a jig. Perhaps even a “Carlton.”
•   After my jig, distribute Beta 2 to backers.
•   Complete the setting stuff, edit, layout, art, etc.

But all of this hinges upon you – the noble playtesters – turning in the playtest reports. I’ve noticed more participation in the game than I’ve received feedback…by a much larger margin than expected. I understand some of this is inevitable, and many of you are merely waiting to get more games under your belt in order to make an informed decision, but we are quickly approaching the point at which I need those reports back.

The audio is priceless, and listening to you guys play my game every day on the ride to work has deeply informed my revision plans already. But whenever possible, I still need as many detailed playtest surveys as I can get. The audio is great for in-depth analysis, but Red Markets is a big book in need of big changes. In short, I need breadth as well as depth, and while I can drop a hundred playtest reports on my office floor and collate revisions all at once, I can’t listen to a dozen AP’s simultaneously.

So as we enter the final month, that’s what I wanted to say. Thank you to everyone that’s reported in so far. For everyone else, thank you and PLEASE email in November if you have not reported in yet. I need all of you if I’m going to help make the game better.
My address is stokes353@gmail.com.

Happy taking,
Caleb