*Agendas* are the three reasons you play the game. The first two are filled in for you, but the MC should fill in the third for themselves:
1. Make the players' characters' lives not boring.
2. Play to find out what happens.
3. \_\_\_\_\_
*Principles* are the things you should seek to do whenever you speak in the game. A list is offered here, just waiting to be customized. Use this customization as an opportunity to establish the way you plan to pace and run the game. The MC should cross off up to two of these *Principles* and write in up to two of their own:
* Sprinkle evocative details everywhere.
* Make the world seem real.
* Build a bigger world through play.
* Create interesting dilemmas, not interesting plots.
* Address yourself to the characters, not the players.
* Make your move, but misdirect.
* Make your move, but never speak its name.
* Look at your NPCs and ideas through crosshairs.
* Name everyone, make everyone human.
* Ask provocative questions and build on the answers.
* Respond with challenging circumstances and occasional rewards.
* Be a fan of the players’ characters.
* Think offscreen, too.
* Sometimes, reflect a question back upon the players.
Each player chooses three *Virtues* for their character. They pick two that the other characters know but one that they keep secret.
> *Note:* The MC may ask for the character's secret virtue, but doesn't have to!
These virtues are things that the character holds to be the most important thing to them, whether it helps them live a fulfilling life or is a goal they strive to achieve. Here are some examples:
* *Hope* --- The character does everything they can to have a hopeful attitude. They try to see the positive in every situation, and trust that there's an outcome that will help everyone.
* *Faith* --- The character does their best to have faith in those around them. They value their friendships above all else and believe that everyone has this faith, so they try to live up to the faith others have in them.
* *Life* --- The character wants nothing more than to live. Continue living, sure, but they are fiercely protective of their independence and freedom.
* *Love* --- The character is in love with love itself. They form strong relationships with others and take any slight to them as an affront to themselves. Romance, true friendship, paternal feelings, found family --- all are important.
These are just some examples. Players shouldn't feel constrained by this list, but choose things that they feel work best with their character's approach to life.
Keep in mind that each virtue has a flip-side, though. Consider the virtues above and think of what might happen in each case if something goes against that virtue:
* *Hope* --- Another character (player or non) is incredibly pessimistic and defeatist. They give up easily and discount the positive whenever they can. How badly does that rankle? Does it lead to fights?
* *Faith* --- Another character with whom this character has a very close relationship does something that violates their trust. Does that crush them? Does hate start to build?
* *Life* --- Another character firmly believes that something this character loves doing is wrong and must be stopped. How jealously do they guard their right to continue? How far will they go to fight that belief?
* *Love* --- Another character finds love silly. Friendships? A waste of time; they come and go and everyone always leaves. How does this character react to such apathy? Do they try to win them over or distance themselves?
Virtues are used when rolling *Leverage*, so you'll learn more about that in the next section! Each player should write each of their character's virtues on a separate index card along with some examples when happens when an interaction aligns with that virtue or works against it. Their two open virtues should be placed upright so that others can see them when needed, but their secret virtue should be placed face down.
**Examples:**
Rareș
: Rareș decides that his character, Doru, has the virtues *fortitude*, *steadfastness*, and *family*. He decides to keep *family* secret.
These are the positive aspects of those virtues. They're what come up when another character's actions align with Doru's virtues:
* *Fortitude* --- Doru holds up well under pressure. He can withstand interrogation, won't quit or run away from problems, and will power through unpleasant tasks. He expects others will do the same.
* *Steadfastness* --- He's honest and holds to his ideals at whatever cost (whether or not they're these three virtues). He likes people who have goals and work to improve.
* *Family* --- Doru lost his family prior to uploading, and so his goal has always been to find those who uploaded and, if he can't to build a new family. He likes those who treat him like a son, a father, or a brother.
Unfortunately, not every interaction will align with these virtues. These are some of the problems these virtues can cause:
* *Fortitude* --- When someone quits easily, Doru has a hard time not looking down on them.
* *Steadfastness* --- When someone is aimless, static, or even just happy as they are without changing as a thing, it grates on Doru's nerves.
* *Family* --- When someone leaves Doru or those he considers family behind or neglects their part of a relationship, Doru has a hard time connecting with them.
Avery
: Avery values fairness, so they ensure that their character, JC, holds to that with the virtues *love*, *faith*, and *sharing*. They decide to keep *sharing* secret.
These are the positive aspects of those virtues. They're what come up when another character's actions align with JC's virtues:
* *Love* --- JC knows that fairness has its roots in love, whether romantic or platonic, and ey feels the greatest connection with those who love their friends, families, and partners.
* *Faith* --- Ey has faith that everyone feels (or can feel) this love. It strengthens eir faith in others when that love is on display, whether explicitly through actions or even just a smile.
* *Sharing* --- At eir core, though, JC can't deny that this comes with sharing, whether things, knowledge, or even time. Ey gets along best with those who freely give, and ey will freely give in return.
Of course, not everyone treats fairness with the same respect, so problems can arise when others work against that:
* *Love* --- When others treat relationships like a commodity, aiming for quantity over quality (even if that quantity is 0), JC is likely to lose eir respect for them.
* *Faith* --- When others are cold, distant, or even just solitary, ey has a hard time connecting with them and will often not bother.
* *Sharing* --- If you're not going to share with JC, ey isn't going to share with you! Ey guards eir possessions, knowledge, and time jealously from those who don't share.
There are six stats associated with characters describing how they move through the world
Calculating
: *Calculating* is the stat that deals with intellect and the mind. Think of these questions when it comes to your *Calculating* rolls:
* How do I know where to look?
* What can I glean from how someone is acting or what the subtext is of they're saying?
* How quickly do I think on my feet?
Whim
: *Whim* is the stat that deals with how weird and whimsical a character is. Think of these questions when it comes to your *Whim* rolls:
* How weird am I?
* How intuitive am I?
* How curious am I?
Canny
: *Canny* is the stat that deals with charm, cunning, and persuasion. Think of these questions when it comes to your *Canny* rolls:
* How well can I steer a conversation?
* How easy is it for me to get someone to do what I want?
* How charming can I be before I get annoying?
Aggressive
: *Aggressive* is the stat that deals with strength, yes, but it is also the stat that deals with determination and passion. Think of these questions when it comes to your *Aggressive* rolls:
* How badly do I want to reach my goals?
* How do I react when someone gets in my way?
* Does my passion ever get in the way of my interactions with others?
Savvy
: *Savvy* is the most peculiar of the five stats. It describes how well the character moves within the System. There are several parts of the System that require specialized interaction:
* Forking
* Sensorium messages
* ACL management
* Cones of silence
* The Perisystem Architecture
* The reputation market
* Sim navigation
Think of these questions when it comes to your *Savvy* rolls:
* How long does it take me to fork?
* How do I react when receiving a sensorium message, and how likely am I to send one?
* How used to the Perisystem Architecture am I?
* How well do I know how to lock down access to a sim or set permissions on a cone of silence?
* How easily do I use my intent to move around the System, create objects, and interact with the reputation market?
When creating a character, each player can assign the following modifiers: +2, +1, +1, 0, -1. These modifiers are added to a roll that uses that stat. Rolling for a stat involves rolling two six-sided dice, and the results determine what happens next:
* *1--6* --- The MC makes a hard move against the character. They may still succeed at their task, but in a way that actually works against their goal, or something bad might happen when they fail.
* *7--9* --- The roll succeeds, but the MC makes a regular move against the character. They may succeed at their goal, but it comes with a twist that may change future outcomes.
* *10--12* --- The roll just plain succeeds, and the character does whatever they wished to do.
The set of steps for a test is as follows:
1. The player decides they want to make a move.
2. The MC tells them what stat to roll.
3. After the player rolls their dice, the MC describes what happens and asks the player, "What do you do?"
4. The player describes what their character does --- this isn't yet the time for further rolls, so it's just the action they take.
5. If the roll leads to an MC move, the MC describes the result.
6. Play continues.
**Examples:**
Rareș
: Doru seems like the more aggressive type, so Rareș assigns his +2 modifier to *Aggressive*. However, he doesn't really seem like the whimsical type, so he assigns his -1 modifier to *Whim*. Doru's stats look like the following:
* *Calculating:* +1
* *Whim:* -1
* *Canny:* 0
* *Aggressive:* +2
* *Savvy:* +1
Consider the following scenario:
> Doru has to convince Jonathan, an NPC, to come with the party. Rareș describes this as follows: "He looks the guy in the eye and says, "Look. I want to get to the top, you want to get to the top, and what better way than to work together? Come on, these guys are cool, I can vouch."" The MC asks Rareș to roll *Canny*, so he rolls 2d6+0 for a total of 6.
>
> "Oof, okay," the MC says. "Well, Jonathan holds Doru's gaze levelly for a very uncomfortable ten seconds, then laughs in his face. "You've got to be kidding me," he says. "These guys? You're a musclebound trashdweller, and you've got the twit who looks like he couldn't lift a bottle unless it was full of milk and the lady who will, what, seduce me? Good fucking luck." He looks up to the ceiling, clearly sending a sensorium message of some kind. What does Doru do?"
>
> Rareș groans and nods. "Damn. Well, Doru grits his teeth and clenches his fists. He just stands stock still and looks up, clearly counting to so he doesn't blow up at the guy. Finally, he nods stiffly to Jonathan and walks away. He was very careful not to punch him in the nose."
>
> "Alright," the MC says. "Jonathan's out of reach for you all, now, and so are all his friends. They'll laugh you out of town if you so much as look at them."
Avery
: JC's a canny friend who can at least encourage others to be fair, so Avery gives em that lovely +2. Aggressive? Not one bit. Ey gets the following stats:
* *Calculating:* +1
* *Whim:* +1
* *Canny:* +2
* *Aggressive:* -1
* *Savvy:* 0
Here's an example:
> JC has struck up a conversation with the NPC who only gives their name as 'Q' in line at a coffee shop. Just, you know, about the merits of coffee over tea. The goal? No less than turning that conversation into a date. It promises to be *really* cute. "Ey smiles super earnestly," Avery says. "Like, they've got the charm turned way up, now. "Hey, thanks for letting me borrow some of your time. Mind if we continue it at a table, though? Even if it's just a fork, I mean..."" They roll 2d6+2 for *Canny* and get a 6 on the dice for an 8 total. The MC gets to make a regular move.
>
> "Q blinks and looks confused," the MC says. ""I mean, I am happy to keep talking tea with you. You have to promise to give it a fair shot, though." They don't seem to have picked up on the 'date' part of this, but if you can stomach some tea..."
>
> Avery laughs. "Fine, fine. JC winks and says, "Deal. Next time we try some coffee, though.""
>
> The MC replies, "Oh, so you're going to try and sneak in another little hint? Okay. Q doesn't quite pick up on that in terms of a date, but does nod. They look very serious. "I will try your coffee tomorrow, yes." You don't necessarily get the romantic date you were hoping for, but you do at least get another chance to meet with them."
*Leverage* is a unique stat that specifically deals with interacting with another character, player or non. Are you helping someone? Trying to stop them? These are the two main situations when you will roll *Leverage*. Every character has a different leverage score for every other player character and any NPCs added to the party, which are noted on the character sheet.
While the other stats are set at the beginning of the game and don't change, *Leverage* changes as your relationships with other characters change. Every time a player has their character interact with yours and do something that strongly aligns with their virtue, they may increase their *Leverage* for that character by 1 (max of +3). If that character does something in an interaction that really doesn't jive with a virtue, they may decrease their *Leverage* for that character by 1 (max of -3).
*Leverage* determines how characters can help or hinder others, whether the others are player characters or NPCs. For those other characters that one has a positive relationship with, helping or hindering them will be much more likely to be successful than not.
**Note:** Hindering need not be a negative thing! For instance, if your friend in game is about to do something *incredibly* stupid, you may want to maybe, you know...stop them. Friends don't let friends talk themselves into a fight.
Testing *Leverage* is similar to testing any other stat:
1. The player decides they want to make a move to help or hinder another character.
2. They roll 2d6+*Leverage*. If they're helping or hindering another player character, they also subtract 2.
3. After the player rolls their dice and calculates the result, the MC describes what happens and asks the player, "What do you do?"
4. After the player finishes describing their action, the MC describes the result. As above, 10--12 is a success; on a 7--9, the MC makes a move against the player; and on a 1--6, the MC makes a hard move against the character.
An integral part of life on the System is forking, where individuals may create a copy of themselves, whether for a task or to live out on their own. Optionally, that fork may *quit* and *merge* back down, wherein the initial individual (known as the *downtree instance*) receives all of their memories.
Given the importance of being able to fork, this can play a large role in gameplay, and some players, depending on their *dissolution strategy*, may fork quite often. This will be governed by the dissolution strategy specified in the character's *agendas and principles*.
After the early 2200s, forking on the System is essentially free, incurring only a small *reputation* cost. However, the dissolution strategy plays a role in one's ability to fork and merge.
* *Dispersionistas* fork and merge easily and frequently. There's no in-game mechanics cost to them forking, as long as the time period in which the game is set is after the early 2200s, meaning that the number of dispersionistas on the System rapidly increased after that date. Their root instance is usually tagged *#Root*. *Not* forking often goes against the character's *principles,* but is occasionally required for the situation at hand. Dispersionistas can wind up quite batty given the incredible build-up of memory that their down-tree instances can wind up with.
* *Trackers* fork to track specific tasks, relationships, or trains of thought. These forks may be long-lived, but they merge down-tree with some frequency so that their down-tree instance (usually the *root instance*) can keep track of all of the different threads that their tracking. Their root instance is usually tagged *#Tracker*. Given that the idea of letting a long-lived instance individuate beyond a certain point and lose their shared identity, letting a fork linger too long goes against their *principles*, as can not forking at all. While this memory does build up within trackers, it plays far less of a role in affecting stability as it does in dispersionistas.
* The most conservative of strategies, *taskers* fork rarely (if at all), and then usually to accomplish only one or two tasks. Their root instance is usually tagged *#Core*. Having to fork more often than that is incredibly uncomfortable and would work counter to the character's *principles*. That said, taskers maintain the strongest sense of self and, with so little divergent memory, remain some of the sanest on the System.
* Fairly lethal, but it's revealed to be a game of sorts: as soon as you're "out", you wind up in a war room of sorts, doing some political maneuvering
* Sending resources to other players
* convincing players to act in a certain way
* working with NPCs
* Someone 'wins', whether it's one player or the team of players vs the AI
Questions for the MC:
* First decide if it's PVP or PVAI - the AI doesn't need to be complicated, just enough for some simple combat. Just ensure that the PCs can be taken out
* Do the players go into this knowing that it's a two layer structure?
* How do alliances form between players? With the leverage stat, how does that play out between characters?
* Can players form alliances with NPCs?
* What are the win conditions? What is the motivation for the players?
