Stories ideas!

As a mid-tier operative you've been tasked by your broker to ferret out a mole within his client's corporation. You are hired into the client's corporation via the pull of the broker in order to work within the system. The client has no information on the mole save for the fact that there is one. As per your broker's instructions, you are given carte blanche as to how you discover who or what the mole is, but it has been requested by the client that it remain as...quiet as possible.

This is a deep cover, possibly long-term assignment.

It's been two months since you started working your second life for the corporation.

How do you proceed with your original task?

If this were an actual story, I'd imagine the first bit there as the prologue. The interim two months before you begin your mission would be used as a series of choose your own adventure checks to generate resources for your character. I'm thinking..."Do you try to get to know others in the office?" "Do you eat with others, or alone?" "XYZ is going out for drinks after work today, do you join?" These sort of things could either generate intel or assets (friendships) that would allow for different choices down the line of the mission. So, as you play through the actual mission, you might find it beneficial to actually get into your fake role within the corporation as opposed to being the lone wolf. This, of course, might create a whole new level of problems should you find out who or what the mole actually is.

That's a very interesting scenario, although I would imagine no broker would assign an agent who prefers to be alone and not socialise to such a mission! Though it would be funny to see how long it took them if they did!

Kaje wrote:

That's a very interesting scenario, although I would imagine no broker would assign an agent who prefers to be alone and not socialise to such a mission!

Think of it like...the more you socialize and let people get to know you, the more exposed you get. The more exposed you are, the better chance there is of the mole finding out just who and what you are. It's a risk/reward sort of thing. Sure you could go out for drinks and possibly pump some information from someone, but then you also run the risk of getting piss drunk and blurting out something that gives you away. By playing the lone wolf, you minimize your risk of being detected, but your job may take a good deal longer, or ultimately fail because you can't get the information you need.

Absolutely, going to one extreme would be negative and would need balancing. You could perhaps have a situation where the broker has chosen the wrong sort of man for the job, too social or too loner and see the negative effects either polar personality causes. I imagine there'd be some hilarious consequences in the former case, getting too drunk, ending up having a sexual encounter with the mole without realising etc.

[LowCashBro]

Mr. Johnson wrote:

Here's an idea, you need to send your operatives to get an asset in transit from one secure location to the next. There are multiple convoys being run by the rival corp as smokescreen. You only have enough operatives to hit one convoy, and you need to decide which one to hit before the asset is secured at it's new location. The panic of a timed choice is delicious to me, mostly because it leads to fascinating and hilarious results.

I actually really love the simplicity of this idea. It's a classic shell game set up, nice and clean with room for growth. The thing about Stories is since the whole game operates on a "choice to choice" basis it helps to keep the decision making pertinent. But this could be a very intriguing storyline!

You play a relatively pedestrian broker. You've killed people, or at least have had them killed for you, but it's never gotten messy. You're clever, but not exactly taking the corporate rungs one after another. You do your job. Your operatives do theirs. Everyone gets paid. Life is decent, stable, albeit stagnant. What you wouldn't give for a little action.

It starts slow, barely noticeable at first. One of your frequently-called on operatives goes dark when you try contacting him. While it's disappointing in the fact you've lost a good skill set, these things happen. Business is business. You think nothing much more of it and pass the job on to another contact.

Days pass and another operative goes dark, and then another. Now you start to grow concerned. Over the past few days, even weeks, your contact list has been systematically pruned from the top down to leave you with little in the way of options. This is problematic. You've got superiors that require your skills, you have deals to uphold. What is a broker without his tools of the trade? Well, you do have some tools left, albeit they aren't top of the line. You're left with the dregs, the malcontents, and the traitors that were too dangerous to be killed. In short, you're left with the people you would never in your right mind call upon.

But these are...exceptional times.

With what you can muster in terms of manpower, you've got to figure out who is trying to cut you out of the picture and why.

Xaero, I love that idea!

Mr. Johnson wrote:

Xaero, I love that idea!

Thanks much. I keep mulling ideas over in my head, sadly most of them seem pretty...derivative.

[LowCashBro]

I sometimes get the same feeling. The best thing to do there is step back and turn it on its head.
Who's perspective do you not get in this story? How can you move the final objective, give the story some physical mileage? Finding one "pillar of the story" switch to flip can refresh your approach!

I find myself more focusing on the details, I suppose, the ones less interesting, at least as characters anyway. For example, the pedestrian broker. I mean, anyone could play as some super-involved uber broker, but I find the middle of the road, easily passed-over unassuming guy much more interesting. It's like in Blade Runner. Many people focused on Tyrell and his ambitions/goals, whereas I find J.F. Sebastian much more interesting.