Android Cypher – My 20 Sided Life

Android Cypher Part 3: Tickets Please

Posted on September 30, 2016September 30, 2016 by crimsonphotog

After Ji Ho was betrayed by Drake2173. We had little recourse. Our only play was to go to Luna and solve this case ourselves. Luther Connelly, Elizabeth’s husband had motive and opportunity and the perfect alibi; he wasn’t even on the planet. There was just one problem. The wait time to get a legitimate ticket up the Beanstalk was a couple of months.

Now Ji Ho as a cop could go on official business at the drop of a hat. He, however, was suspended. He had no assets that could get him a trip up, not without getting him in a whole lot a trouble with the force. We had to come up with another way.

I decided to contact my, on again, off again employer ZHIHN or /-|-\, as he commonly known as among my crowd, to see if had a way up. After I made the customary marks at our usual dead drop, he contacted me in chat. He was rather helpful, but not. He had a run heading to Midway Station half way up the stalk. His usual courier was good, but he’d throw it my way if I needed the ticket. One ticket, half way. Not very helpful. I asked about the job, though, since I planned on going up anyway. /-|-\ told me it was a simple delivery to Wilders Club and it paid well. /-|-\ wasn’t one to send me some bad packets, I was too valuable to him, so I told him I’d take the job once I found a way up. Continue reading “Android Cypher Part 3: Tickets Please” →

Android Cypher Session 2: Red Tape

Posted on September 23, 2016September 22, 2016 by crimsonphotog

(The player who plays Bishop couldn’t make this session, but we carried on without him. This one is not written from Kloë’s point of view like Session 1 was, it is more in a standard recap format. )

The prime suspect in the group’s investigation, Elizabeth Connelly, turned up dead. Ji Ho arrived on the scene and had to wrestle jurisdiction away from the archology’s own police force. Bishop had been badly injured in the chase/gunfight that occurred on the way to the scene and left to seek medical attention. Mrs. Connelly had been shot in the eye and found in a Network Immersion Rig with the gun lying on the floor near her body. A quick scan by Ji Ho’s bioroid partner (who was very miffed he hadn’t been included in the other investigation so far) revealed no gunshot residue on her hands or arms, showing she did not commit suicide. The victim’s bioroid butler (who found the body) said that no one had come in or left the premises since his master had gotten home. Security footage soon backed up this claim.

Ji Ho soon realized that the victim was still tapped into the Network. With a little bit of coaching from Kloë,(via some seemingly garbled text messages) Ji Ho was able to open a port on her Rig for Kloë to hack in remotely. Upon doing so, however, Kloë soon encountered some nasty barrier ICE and had to quickly jack out before she suffered the same fate of the victim. Kloë decided she had to get to the scene. Meanwhile, Ji Ho had made another discovery; the victim’s husband had no belongings at the dwelling. It soon came out in a couple of interviews that her Husband (who worked for the same company she did) had left her a few months back. He also left for Luna 9 days ago to conduct some business for his company with Hass-Bioroid. Continue reading “Android Cypher Session 2: Red Tape” →

Android Cypher, Role-playing Sessions

Android Cypher Session 1: A Murder in Velvet

Posted on September 16, 2016September 16, 2016 by crimsonphotog

Ji Ho caught a murder case, his first real Murder case since the EVE incident got him sidelined at the station. This was good for me since he was sidelined he could subtly look into Kyle’s disappearance. Granted it didn’t do a lick of good, the trail was still cold. We needed a break, I needed a break, and Ji Ho’s case was just the thing.

Some scum named Edwin Hinson got himself shot dead on the plaza level of a parking garage. I say some scum because Hinson had quite a few priors; racketeering, fraud, and blackmail (more on the latter later). The men who shot him, 3 of them, were dressed like hooligans and wearing some kind of freaky metallic face paint, they also jumped right off the plaza level to the street below after they offed Hinson. What kind of people do that, Augments? Gangbangers?

The security footage Ji Ho showed me was useless, the department had a high powered facial recognition system but it couldn’t make heads or tails of the perps, my systems could do no better. The freaky face paint screwed up all chances of ID-ing the killers. Face paint Jo Ho swore he’d never seen bangers or mobsters wearing before. Well, to be honest, the footage wasn’t entirely useless. When Hinson was accosted he made a rather interesting inquiry.

“Did one of their husband’s send you?” Continue reading “Android Cypher Session 1: A Murder in Velvet” →

Android Cypher, Role-playing Sessions

Android Cypher Part 0: Backstory

Posted on September 8, 2016September 8, 2016 by crimsonphotog

I am a big fan of doing role-playing session write-ups. I do them in different formats some third or first person narratives, others just exposition. I’ve even done a whole write up from the perspective of an innocent bystander at the scene.(that was fun)

The current game I am in is a Cypher System game set in the Android Universe here is a little primer for the write-ups to follow.

First a little backstory:

A few months ago David a friend of mine introduced me to the Android: Netrunner Card game. It is an interesting game set in a cyberpunk type universe. Reading some of the history and lore of the place intrigued me. We soon started talking about how to turn this Android world into an RPG. Then Fantasy Flight Games the maker of Android: Netrunner, announced a large hardcover World Building book called “The Worlds of Android.”

the-worlds-of-android

As the book was on the verge of coming out, our tabletop group hit a snag. Our 4^th player had become unreliable, and our Mutant: Year Zero game had suffered due to our small party size. (The game is good I just wasn’t familiar enough with it to adjust for the size of the party in regards to the base building mechanic) So we were looking to possibly try something else.

We were big cypher system fans and wanted to get back to that system. Just what to play was the question. I had my eye on Numenera. I hadn’t tried running it since my on-line Ninth World Chronicles Podcast, and I had some great ideas from the Guidebook and Into the Deep.

That is when the third member of our group Tom spoke up and said. “I’ve been really wanted to run a cyberpunk game, but I am not sure what is a good setting to use.” David and I quickly showed him the Android Universe book, and the decision was made. We quickly recruited a new 4^th and headed off to GenCon. (Where I procured my copy of “The Worlds of Android”)

Upon our return started character creation and got into the campaign.

Here is the backstory (yes backstory within a backstory) of the character I am playing:

Kloë and Kyle Conner were twins born to a lower middle-class family. Their father Henry died in an accident soon after they were born. Their mother Deidra worked 3 jobs in order, to pay the rent and keep food on the table. In essence, Kloë and Kyle were raised by relatives, the neighbourhood, and their half-sister Isha who was already in middle school by the time Kloë and Kyle were born.

Kloë and Kyle were inseparable in their youth they had a special bond and a mutual love for computers and technology. Kloë however also had a natural athleticism her brother lacked, that athleticism was something her older sister (now a university track and field runner) encouraged.

Kloë got a track scholarship to University, while her brother Kyle won a special tech scholarship from Haas-Bioroid. By this time Isha has become a law enforcement officer. The family was still quite close. This changed early in Kloë’s junior year with the death of her mother Deidra. Kloë and Kyle remained close, but Isha’s birth father showed back up in the picture and there was a massive falling out between Isha and the twins over their inheritance. Isha soon left law enforcement for a private security gig with The Weyland Consortium.

In the summer before Kloë’s senior year Kyle disappeared after leaving work from his internship at Haas-Bioroid” He hasn’t been seen since. Kyle had been on edge before his disappearance. He had talked about quitting his Internship and dropping out of University. Kloë never knew why, but knew something was wrong. Kloë is convinced Haas-Bioroid is responsible for his disappearance. She dropped out of University herself after all her time was spent trying to find her brother. That was over a year ago.

A little bit about the other characters.

David is playing Song Ji Ho, I detective for the New Angeles Police Department (NAPD). He is a straight laced cop who doesn’t like to be pushed around but doesn’t mind pushing other people’s buttons. (The character is loosely inspired by Titus Welliver’s take on Henry Bosch in the Amazing Amazon series Bosch. Do yourself a favor and check that one out) Song Ji Ho apparently ran into a bit of a snag in his last case. An EVE model bioroid reached out to him for help. She was in some kind of trouble and Song Ji Ho tried his best to hide her away at his place. Well, Haas-Bioroid found out and accused Ji Ho of theft of their property. They took the EVE model from him, and the police investigation into the situation has still not quite wrapped up. The press had a field day with the story however and dubbed Ji Ho “The Loverboy Detective” due to the usual nature of the EVE model Bioroids.

Shannon is playing Bishop. A con man specializing in corporate espionage. Bishop and Ji Ho grew up together but Bishop was the kind of kid who could never catch a break. Soon he gave into the wrong element and was running small cons and betting rackets. Ji Ho and Bishop had a tight bond, however, and Ji Ho made it a point to look in on Bishop from time to time and try his best to throw honest work his way. As Bishop got older he stumbled into the world of corporate espionage. Selling secrets was very lucrative but very dangerous. His last gig caused some kind of falling out between him and The Weyland Consortium. Now he’s back in the city and down on his luck.