Blade Runner - Session 2 - Electric Dreams Case 1

 This is the first part of the published scenario pack Electric Dreams by Free League presented in the Starter Set as written by Tomas Härenstam and Joe LeFavi.  Blade Runner and its scenario's are really designed for only 1-4 player characters, my group has 6 (plus me, the current GM). We get around this by standard cop procedure, they partner up. 

This session we have five detectives: Hardee (RichardB), Teransky (MarkW), Warkowski (LeeL), Antoney (PeteR) and Lewis (GaryG).

Thu 14th May 2037 Night

A shooting takes place at the Snake Pit involving two Nexus-9 Blade Runners LH3-7.93-Leah and SN9-1.48-Sandor. Sandor is killed and Leah goes missing.

Fri 15th May 2037 Morning

The Detectives on-duty yesterday and involved in the The Maid Did It Report are given commendations from Wallace Corps for their quick work in absolving the suspected Nexus-9 involvement in quick time allowing them to control the media output of the story. 

Deputy Chief Holden then reproaches them for slovenly paperwork and states that everyone in the investigation should be filling out shift reports and should sign/date and record the shift appropriately.

He then briefs them on the shooting last night.

Warkowski stays at the LAPD building making checks on ESPER via the mainframe and to the RIT Lab where Sandor's body is being processed.

Hardee and Tarankski visit Wallace Corp meeting Quell in hopes of getting more info on the Leah model.  She is happy to help one of the people that so helped out the company in yesterdays affair. This re-iterates the need for a quick response before the tabloids get hold of the story.  She shows them Leah's late  two baseline test, she failed both, suggests they look into her memories.

Lewis and  Antony visit  the Snake Pit and interview Taffey Lewis (the club owner) and Iris (the dancer on stage at the time of the shooting).  They discover that there was a crowd fight before the shooting with no one paying attention to the attack but focusing on anti replicant taunting (Iris is a replicant).

Antony reports Hardee for anti-Replicant behaviour and lack of respect to his superiors.

The Hardee Report

Fri 15th May 2037 Afternoon

Lewis and  Antony return the Bullet to RIT & Visit the LAPD Library.

Hardee, Tarankski and Warkowski visit Leah's apartment where they find photos of a girl which they correctly believe to be from Leah's implant memories, and some other stuff.

End of Session Crime Board

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Blade Runner - Session 1 - The Maid Did It Case

The Maid Did It is a quick intro game I put together as a couple of my players where not able to make the first session.  Parts of the final events purposely put them near to events from Electric Dreams the first published set intended as the main scenario.

Wed 13th May 2037 Night

Jessra Melady is killed at about 11pm. At about 5am just after sunrise, neighbours taking a walk with their dog replicant see and report the next door maid hurl the dead Mr. Melady across the patio and bury him in the flower beds behind the house. 

Wed 13th May 2037 Morning

The Melady Residence (from Google images)

Jessra Melady is watched being buried by his maid and reported to the LAPD. LAPD upon discovering that the maid is a replicant call the RepDetect department. Detective Hardee, Warkowski, Antoney and Amenda are detailed. They arrieve to inspect the scene and start to interview the staff and witnesses. 

There is an obviously dug grave (no attempt to hide) in the flower bed where the burial could be over-looked by the neighbours.  Security cameras to the house had been turned off.  LAPD had already initiated some forensics before the believed culprit was identified as a replicant. This showed time of death at around 11pm on the 13th. 

The neighbours Mini and Ted Rogers witness the event of the maid JUL.7.132 - Penny, burying a body and called the police.  This was after sunrise. They did not see the murder. They give character witness for the couple Lucia and Jessra Melady.

The wife Lucia is crying in the corner supported by her friend Stevena Hance.  Both are interviewed.  They give run downs of their activities saying that they arrived after the killing. The times conflict slightly with the car timings.  They show that Lucia had been home earlier than stated and that the car had then left to return an hour after the killing. She covers and is alibied by her friend, saying she went out with Stevena and returned together later which is why both arrived in the early morning but are not sure of the time (they had been drinking).  The maid ran off, they were drunk enough not to be curious and she was not expecting Jessra home from a business trip until the next day. The first they knew of the murder was when the LAPD turned up at the front door and the maid was not available to admit them.

There are two licenced guns registered to the house but one is missing as is a magazine of bullets of the correct calibre to match the murder weapon.  Detective Amenda is worried about the comings and going of the car and a private taxi-cab but cannot work out why they don't match.

Maurice Jacobs, the live in gardener was not aware of anything until the LAPD arrived responding to the Rogers alarm (they woke him up).  He says that Penny may have gone to Clean Stuff a shop she frequents and one where many replicants go when in trouble.

The suspected murderer is JUL.7.132 - Penny a Nexus-9, who/which are incapable (officially and yet to be disclaimed) able to harm their masters.  The Nexus-9 was only released a year ago and has undergone extremely stringent controls and checks to be allowed back on the streets after the previous ban, to the extent that some have even become Blade Runners, Detective Antoney being an example.  

Interviews suggest Penny has gone to her favourite shop Clean Stuff where she is friends with the owner a Paul Sacreteddies. Jacobs suggests many replicants go there for help and support but doesn't elaborate. When asked about the Replicant Underground he seems genuinely ignorant of such a thing.

Late Morning

Investigations at Clean Stuff which is not far from the residence, show that Penny had been at the store and had gone through to the back. There is no camera to the rear but the shop is 'Closed' and the owners car is missing.  While at the shop a call comes in from LAPD saying that the maid and another man have been identified (an APB had been broadcast earlier) near Animoid Row.  The detectives rush to investigate.

Shift Report, not signed, not dated and useless in court, reprimands will be made

Afternoon

Animoid Row map from Electric Dreams set showing The Ostrich Farm middle left. 

Reported events are that a man and woman, the woman matching the discription of the APB where spotted about mid-day.  Attempts to apprehend them failed and the man disappears. The woman runs off into the shopping area of Animoid Row and shots were fired. As the Detectives arrieve, the woman is penned up in a outlet called The Ostrich Farm.  Everyone has been evacuated and the LAPD are simply holding the perimeter until the RepDetect arrieve. 

Although shots were fired it seems they were all by LAPD who had identified that the suspect was openly carrying a handgun. There is no report she fired it at any time. She is believed to be wounded and has hidden in a local shop.

The detectives enter, Warkowski and Hardee taking the lead. They talk her down, disarm her and escort her to their car and take her in.  She is wounded and very frightened.

 

Evening

Penny is taken for interrogation. The resultant details are that Mr Melady had arrived home earlier than expected had taken coffee and relaxed, sending Penny off-duty, she retired to her room. She was later disturbed by Mrs Melady who told her to clean up Mr. Melady's body and bury it. She was also given a gun (later identified as the murder weapon) and told to keep hold of it, bury the body and run.

She followed her instructions. She never let go of the gun but never used it either (only one bullet, recovered from the Melady residence was missing from the magazine). She made no attempt to hide what she was doing but complied to the letter of the instruction and then fled. She knew that another replicant who had had some trouble had received help from Paul Sacreteddies and having nowhere else to go went to see him. He said he knew someone in Animoid Row that might be able to help and they went off in his car. As she left the car, police challenged her then saw her gun and fired at them. Paul was separated, she has no idea where he went.  More shots were fired, she got hit and just ran until she found herself in a shop with no back exit. The people there all fled and a stand-off occured until the Detectives turned up.

End of session crime board

An arrest warrant has been arranged for Mrs Melady and she and Ms Hance taken into custody. JUL.7.132 - Penny is absolved of all crimes and quicky becomes a celebrity as Wallace Corp use her to demonstrate the absolute loyalty and courage inherent in the new Nexus-9 model.  They are very happy with the outcome.  The detectives are awarded although they are also reprimanded for the quality of their paperwork where they left the trainee to do it all and he did not even identify himself on any of it. The trial of Mrs. Melady is arranged although Ms. Hance, who turns out to be Mr. Melady's business partner, seems to have an alibi and is freed.

After game discussion suggests that Ms. Hance had more to gain than her friend from the killing but no one had done any checks on her or even considered she might have manipulated events.  Oh well, now the Replicant side is cleared up the rest of the investigation returns to the hands of the real police.  Events of the same evening will be more than distracting enough as they lead into the published scenario for the next session.

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A|State - The Deep Down

 

The Deep Down

Neighbouring Burgh

Location

The Deep Down as mapped by Troublemakers

Physical Discription

The crater left by a long, long defunct open-cast mine. So long ago no-one even remembers what was mined. At its centre is a collection pool gathered from the rain and drains that perpetually run down the slops into it in great ducts and pipes.  Around the lake are numerous factories and industrial facilities mostly gone to rust.  The only one in constant use is the work-works which try's to turn the collected morass back into drinkable water casting its own web of pipes back up the slops into the dwellings.

Above this circle of decay is the Burgh itself, a continuous urban sprawl climbing the cliffs and sometimes sliding right back down. Buildings are build on dilapidated building some peaking out to shadow those below, others barely hanging on by the skin of there girders.  A huge spiral road swirls up from what must have once been a very important building close to the termination of the Big Drop. Thee road which was once wide in places is little more than an alley as residences and attempts are industry and even farming creep in on its gently slopped surface. At one point a landfall so massive it completely covered the road has since been tunnelled through and then built over so that the road for a while disappears into a tunnel of windows and shop fronts. 

The other main route into the Deep Down is via the Big Drop.  This is a ingenious elevator which uses drainage from the rim to create a counterweight hauling up it laden then drawing off into the lake to counter the returning coach. There are two running side by side but one is seated for passengers and the other open for materials (or cheap standing room fare when there is room). 

The thousands of homes are traversed by a filigree of little and sometimes big alleys. Many disappearing into the structures for miles running underground with tributaries running back to the surface or down even further into the network of buildings. 

Economic State

A poor burgh. Its main form of export is drugs. The various overhanging, water swept environments make for a truly vast variety of fungi. Some are for food but most have some pharmacy use, either medical or for more distracting uses.  Because of this array of different products rarely extending across much of an area the different products have developed their own security in the form of gangs or for the more legitimate usages; syndicates.   

Other food products include the many birds that use the housing as nests. Kite fishing as it is called, the use of kites with fishing hooks designed to catch birds in flight are common.  The better situated where the buildings create natural funnels and runs have net traps and children on gliders are common chasing swarms of these birds toward such culverts.  

The other obvious point of interest to the outsider is the telegraph. A huge telephonic data cable stretches into the gang controlled factory sites. It huge cables hand down the side of the creator kept from laying over the buildings by a series of projecting phylon's. The Ink Jets in their black dog-hide suits control this and are the most obvious and possibly the largest gang in the Down. 

For all its potential for industry the people are poor, the gangs and syndicates take most of the profits and any of the trading centres are beholden to the local coterie who take extortionate protection taxes in return for not burning them out.

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A|State - Session 2 - Recon of the Deep Down

For the purposes of the chronology we start at  21352 Cold 45. 6th day (of a twelve).

It is cold enough that the mist feels like walking through splinters of  ice and your breathe follows you like a personal cloud. Once inside The Crappy you quickly become damp as the clinging frost turns to steam.

Eyes introduced a few contacts (at 'Bate's Boatwrights') one of whom Little Dave wanders into the Crapery with some news. He is limping and sporting a shiner after a little tussle, up by the Under Dung where he spotted a couple of guys jump a young girl.  She got away and he got a going over but he got the impression they had come out of the Deep Down area. 

When asked what he knew of the area, he said that there were stories of a new product coming out of the Deep Down. It had been an open-cast mine back of the beyond, but was now covered in a sprawl of building built literally on top of each other. Its believed that a new high class stone being used for quality (and thus expensive) sculpture and table ware has been coming out of the area. The group remember the rumours of missing children in the area and put three and three together and decide to investigate. After all, sitting complaining about the world isn't gonna fix anything. 

They decide on a recce. 

As they descend into the area it becomes clear that their better clothing marks them out a little and that the is a lot of gang activity so I set up a 6 part clock to see if their activities become enough that someone interferes. I also stipulate that if half the clock is used they will have been noticed enough that they will incur an immidiate 1 to any similar clock set up next time they come here.

Crone taps into some telegraph wires that seem to avoid the main structures but go straight to some industrial buildings surrounding the central lake. Eyes does a bit of sneaking around, something it turns out he ain't good at. The priest Blackasole who has brought his aid Janis with him starts to hand out leaflets for 'The Spirit Moves Us' and get a lay of the land through conversation. They discover a number of things 

1. The local area where the phylon wire drop into a factory is run by the Ink Jets Gang (who wear black).  
2. That there is a new product coming from a Ms Nicely wo seems to be unaffiliated to a gang but because of her good product has their protection.
3. She is located somewhere windward of the Drop Lift but near the bottom.

They go take a look and as they move on they notice that the locals are much more protective of their children, going as far as to take them off the street when strangers are seen. Further on still, the buildings become unlived in but not empty. They believe they are being watched and Eyes confirms this when he try's to enter one. Again Crone taps into some message wires to find that their presence has been noted but he has a better idea of where to continue looking.  Meanwhile Blackasole who had simply been keeping watch has noticed a young girl in a faded white spotted red dress run along an ally area and vanish. 

Investigating and calling over the others they hear what sounds like a truck being pushed across rails, but deep down. Blackasole is at a loss has to were the girl could have gone.  They decide to head down the basin further and enter the building there and work their way back up from inside. This they do and discovered a large built over machine floor beyond which chipping and children with not very polite overseers can be heard.  

They are very aware that they have been clocked a couple of times with their plundering around (a few successes with consequence) and that the clock has dropped to only one space left, so decide on prudence. After all they only came to survey and so retreat making plans to return and suggesting where they could get aid.

A|State - Past-Times

 Past-Times

Suggestions of sport and gambling games

Sport - a conversation

What passes for sport in AState? If dogs are rare (as they get eaten a lot) I assume cock(erals) are too. Perhaps snail fighting (!) or racing? [LanceB]

Pissing against marked boards [RichardB]

Hobo-fights [MarkW]

Snail pissing?  [LanceB] ???

Knife and hatchet throwing [RichardB]

Illegal bookie Is Dave "lad" Brooks [AndyC]

Dave likes to carve I owe the lad into people's foreheads [RichardB]

He runs books on absolutley anything. Is his main competitor Bill Hill?  [LanceB] 

And Max "paddy" Power [AndyC]

Dogs are breed for purpose, so an eater, a guard dog and a fighting dog would be very different.

Contact sports are popular, bird sports such as Homing Tits, budgie fighting. Like dogs birds are bread for purpose so fighting birds are more common than you'd think. Rat baiting the same.  Racing is very popular, boat races etc.

What sports are you interested in, what would you go to?  Make up your own? [RobAfett]

For eyes it would definitely be boat racing. Gather info from people further afield [AndyC]

Budgie fighting! Some scammer will use a cockatiel ringer.

The river water is too thick for fishing, and who knows what lives in it anyway.  [LanceB] 

Parrot singing contests

Fishing in canals might be more harpoon based that rod n reel and there definitely are fish adapted to some of the waters. Also however big and nasty a canal monster is it must live on something. If it only ate humans it would be hunted down right quick!

Back to kite fishing, how many birds can you land in twenty minutes, what's the largest bird you can hook or the rarist? [RobAfett]

Streetball. A hard and fast game that is a cross between rugby and football. Played on the streets even when they're still in use. Most goals scored wins. That's pretty much the only rule  [LanceB] 

Thinking of Leapball in the same terms, streets without the restrictions of traffic or the need to be on the ground could be multi-level and and break from thin to wide to serpentine in as many steps.

Anyway, pick a couple you would follow, write some basic rules and maybe name a favourite team and its closet rivals. s there a league or ruling body? Are their tournaments or is more street level with each block having a team? [RobAfett]

Quite like the streetball/leadball. Unions / factories and even gangs could run teams. The teams from the higher levels have paid players with training and kits. Lower level is more of a free for all. Only rules are score goals and no weapons. On the lower levels no kits you just have to know who is on your team. There are referees but can be quite corrupt especially in the lower levels. Lower level is more like current Sunday league. Up in the higher levels there are proper leagues and a governing body. At lower levels if a factory played a rival factory there would be more violence with a chance to disable a few of the rivals workers [AndyC]

Like that, who's your team? and who's their biggest rival? 

In fact, Lance is our script wizard, make some teams up and a semi-random results generator and we can run a league in the background. [RobAfett]

Sounds like a mod to football manager...  [LanceB] 

Nothing so detailed, just a quick random results with a modifier based on previous play and maybe a random player injury. [RobAfett]

The colossal crappers (factory team)

Kings rats (factory team) 

Level 90 lightning high team current premier league leaders

Downtown dragons another high team

Dicing with death . Gang run team that also front as meat processing plant.  [AndyC]

We could create a dreadball pitch based on the streets and play actual games as interludes lol  [LanceB] 

Could also have a union team the titanic turds. But they are shit [AndyC]

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