What to play?

I have a quick question - are we starting the game while we're still in the quarantine zone, or after having met while in quarantine? Because earlier posts make it sounds like we met in quarantine, but that was a while ago, while newer posts and some of the options we created on the map make it sound like we're still under quarantine.

I assumed we are still locked in the quarantined zone.

The way I understood it, the quarantine is still up and we'll break it at some point in the game

Edit: Presumably

That was my assumption as well. I just wondered how much that would affect people who clearly can't use their resources that exist outside of the quarantine zone, like thetaodaddy. Assuming it's a shady area of the city that was quarantined, his corporate headquarters and rich mother probably wouldn't be under quarantine. Probably not his weirdly cloned fiance, either, and I think that's all of his resources on the map.

Will's a pretty resourceful guy. He'll think of some way to still use those assets. :)

We're basically done with the CC. I'm currently starting up the next episode of the smallville game which is currently taking up my focus. I will get us started in this game by the beginning of next week. Any bits still missing in character sheets can still be filled in whenever but I think we're at the point where we should just get going

Are you sure you want to be the first to run this? I know you're putting a lot of time into that other Smallville game. My home tabletop game is pretty much running itself now, and football season is over this weekend except for the playoffs. I could kick this off, or if anyone else wants to step in and run it. We could take a little pressure off so you're only running one game at a time. It's a lot easier that way.

If you want to run the first adventure, that'd be great. Last time I asked, nobody seemed interested in running so I stepped up.
I can do it but if you're free, that's cool

Ooo! I'm already a GM in the group. I can run it too if you guys don't mind a total pbp noob as your first GM. I have IDEAS!

It doesn't matter to me. I trust both of you with doing a good job.
I'll definitely GM an episode in the future.

We should decide on who starts, though, so the person can do preparations to get us started

Unless anyone has issue with it, I'll start!

I have plenty of ideas, but let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to explore for your character in their first scene or arc. Also, expect to hear from me about your NPCs. I might have some weird ideas that I'd rather get approved by the creators of the NPCs before I run with them. Sometimes I approach things from a weird direction and I don't want to put anyone off the game just because my ideas aren't normal.

Sounds awesome. I can't wait!

I'll let you know if I think of anything

I would like to see some interactions and things around Jessica's

Agreed. Jessica's seems like it would work as a central place for our group.
And Elizabeth seems like she should generally be involved in a lot of what happens to us, although she doesn't have to be at the center of everything that happens so it's up to you

I have a general idea of an overarching plot for the first arc to involve most of the NPCs in one way or another. I'm building a potential scene list and working out how to best start.

I made a spreadsheet of the most linked people and places to try to see who and what appears to be of most interest to everyone. The list is sorted by links to people, then to places. Each entry is listed by number of links as follows:
Name: Total Links (Links to Leads / Links to NPCs / Links to Locations)
(for example, the first entry, Ms. Evelyn Parker has a total of 8 links, 3 to leads, 4 to other NPCs, and 1 to a location)

Ms. Evelyn Parker 8 (3/4/1)
Malachi 8 (3/3/2)
Elizabeth Cavendish 7 (3/3/1)
Connor Walsh 6 (5/1/0)
Amanda Smythe-Davies 6 (5/1/0)
Captain Kurk 5 (4/0/1)
Fiona McPhillips 5 (2/3/0)
Veronica's Lab 4 (4/0/0)
Alexis Kopinski 4 (3/1/0)
Lain 4 (2/1/1)
Uriel 4 (2/1/1)

Jessica's 7 (4/2/1)
Distribution Center 6 (4/1/1)
The Minute Clinic 5 (2/2/1)
Wanneng 4 (3/0/1)
AWAKEN 4 (2/0/2)
Xinjen Headquarters 3 (2/0/1)
The Node 3 (1/2/0)
Dragon's Den 2 (1/0/1)

So the most connected NPCs are Ms. Parker, Malachi, and Elizabeth, but the NPCs with the most connections to our Leads are Connor, Amanda, and Kurk.

The most connected locations are Jessica's, the Distribution Center, and the Minute Clinic, but if you look at most connections to leads, you keep Jessica's and the Distribution Center but swap in Veronica's Lab as #3.

Jessica's seems like the best place to start a scene for most of the Leads, and it looks like the NPCs who will be most involved in their lives will probably be Connor, Amanda and Kurk.

I always try to give NPCs some kind of identifiable personality traits, so if anyone has a strong feeling one way or the other about how I depict Connor, Amanda, Kurk, Elizabeth, Evelyn, Malachi, Jessica's, the Distribution Center, or the Minute Clinic, please let me know. Ideally, pass on anything you thought of when you created a character that you feel is important to who they are, otherwise i'll make it up and it might not be what you wanted.

It would be cool if Malachi were blatantly a super. Since he seems to revel in it.

As for Kurk he has a lot of connections I see him as middle aged, in good shape though, living with a lot of stress and so money is an issue.

Connor - Play up the military aspect maybe. He could have the buzz cut and discipline or maybe go against that since the quarantine and maybe now has long hair and rails against the government locking him in here with the sick.

Jessica's this is a hard one because everyone has their own image of the place in their heads. The setting though were all in is futuristic so maybe it can change it's looks for different days of the week. Being that were all locked in a confined area and with a quarantine under way a lot of people probably come to bars.

I thought he was the only other survivor of the experiment that gave Elijah his powers... I thought at one point squad mentioned him being physically mutated or something. I pictured a more haunted, hidden person, a sort of "phantom of the subway" vibe.
I had an idea for this, that the interior decor of the whole place is holographically projected. The walls, tables, support columns, etc are real, but their appearance is projected onto them via a series of holograph projectors. When it's powered off, the place probably looks like an abandoned club, but for most nights it has the cyberpunk theme people expect from the semi-dystopian future. On the 40's night when Veronica sings, the interior is redesigned holographically to appear to be a 40s style club with retro design features. Malachi might even be working on, paying someone, or planning to steal other holo designs to change up his club on a regular basis. I imagine he uses the holograms as part of the security and defense aspects of the club, and possibly the rest of the building (since his hq is upstairs.)

The Holographic thing seems perfect.

It could even be used to hide smuggling etc. I like it.

I always just imagined Jessica's as a regular bar but I really like that hologram idea actually... It's cool and works well I think. One detail I had in mind for it, that I'm not sure if I mentioned it anywhere, is that there is no actual Jessica involved in the club at all and that it's just a name that was picked to sound personal and inviting.

For Evelyn, I pictured her as having a very commanding presence wherever she is despite not being a super and as always being vaguely threatening, making sure to keep others uneasy and on their toes around her. She's pretty open about her involvement in criminal activity in the zone but she always makes sure to have some plausible deniability so security couldn't do anything to her even if they wanted to. I also always pictured her as black

Why do I suddenly picture Malachi as played by Samuel L. Jackson? I didn't at first, but for some reason now I do.