Local Mainer Takes Game Store Hostage

Started by BanzaiCat, October 09, 2017, 01:48:54 PM

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BanzaiCat

June 4. Twelve-oh-two pee emm. It was a hot day in Maine. Rednecks were using their cousin's non-crimping hoses to wash off. My phone was silent

There goes that damn alkie again. Hey, Detective Groggy, you wanna shut the hell up?

Peasant.

ahem As I was saying

Jesus, Mary, an' Joseph, not today...

...he had to deal with more than his fair share of Mainer hipster douchebags on the "Powrtland" police force

Hey!

...when the call came in

BRINNNNNNGGG...

Scrote. How does he do that?

BRINNNNNNGGG...

I dunno. It's creepy.

BRINNNNNNGGG...

You gonna ansah that orwat?

...fine...Portland Police Department, this is Detective Groggy and author of the Portland Play House's There Ain't Enough Chum In It, Chum...howkinAhhelpya?

Hostage sitch'i'ay'shun down at Flannel n' Fusillades, Detective. We need...a HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR

Th' hell is a Flannel n' Fusillades?

It's a game store. Some crazy dude is there holding a buncha nerds hostage.

...roger that

Okay, hurry-

...he said, his faced squinched up under those dark aviator's sunglasses, his lips curling in a sneer framed by his dyed mangina

...what?

Nothing! I'm on my way.

C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-)



C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-) C:-)



Generic Game Store, 1234 Main Street, Portland, Maine

What've we got heah, boys?

Hostage situation, sir. Guy went in there, was apparently in theah a while, then went nuts. Started wavin' aroun' a gun an' threatenin' to kill people if the store doesn't change back...to...uh...

...well? What?

...uhh..."back from this wicked retarded ASL shit."

...what the hell is an ASL?

Figger that's yer job, Detective. Here's a phone, and the game store's number.

...setting his well-sculpted jaw, pinched features sharp and hawklike, he lifted the receiver...

What the hell is he...

Shhh! Fer Gawd's sake, don't interrupt the man. He'll start all over.

...and he called the number.



HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR is a solitaire card game where YOU play the role of the...guess who? In this game, you try to talk the bad guy down and keep him/her from killing hostages while finding out more about why they've done this deed. You get a base set of 'conversation cards' each turn to use to try to lower the Threat level (which is currently pictured at 4) and rescue/get released as many of the hostages as possible (here, there are 7).

In this case, let's find out who and what's going on...though likely you've already figured it out.  O:-)



BanzaiCat

One oh eight pee emm. Detective Groggy called the game store's number. After about twenty rings the perp picked up.

Hello?

This is Detective Groggy "Man" Coldyron of the Portland Police.

About time you called. It's like I've been waitin' since Moses wore knee pants.

What's your name, sir?

Call me...mirth.

...that's not a real name, son.

Neither is "Coldyron."

Touché, he said, with more than a hint of bitterness framed by the unreasonable demands of his six ex-wives-

...what?

Err...nothing.

C:-) C:-) C:-)

Each turn, you play a card from your hand to try to ease the situation. Of course, this doesn't always work perfectly well; sometimes you unintentionally piss off the perp, and they end up wasting people. Sometimes it's out of your hands what happens in the game, so you do your best to get things to where the Threat level is as low as possible, which gives you more dice to roll when playing cards, and also might net you some released hostages when the time comes.

Our Detective is going to play "What are your demands?" to start things off. The perp has two hidden Demands at the start of the game - a Major Demand and an Escape Demand. It's best to drill down and find out what's going on with that ASAP as it can incur big Threat penalties later if you do not.



Right now, with four Threat, our Detective can roll two d6 dice. The dice are a little wonky, in that a 1 through 3 are blank (reflecting a failure), a 4 has a 2-card icon on it, and a 5 and 6 have a badge, which indicates a Success. The 2-card icon means you can discard 2 cards to change the 4 to a Success result, if you want.

The number in the conversation bubble indicates a reward of that many Conversation Points. Later in the turn, the Detective can use these to 'buy' newer, better Conversation Cards to use in further conversations.

Right now, we need to see how well this choice does for us and the poor nerd-errr, I mean, poor hostages in the game store.



A 2 and 6 is one Success and one Failure. Looking on the Conversation Card he played, we see that he can choose either to reveal one of the two face-down Demands, or gain +1 Conversation Point.

In this case, he decides to uncover this nutjob's Major Demand to see what's up.

C:-) C:-) C:-)





...you want WHAT now?

...ten million dollars. What, you want me to spell it out for you?

Wow, that's awesome. What would you do with all that cash?

...it's...it's...it's just...

It's okay, bud. You can tell me.

...I just went nuts, you know? I came in here looking for more miniatures for my weekly Saxon vs. Carthage minis game, and these...these assholes, they changed EVERYTHING.

Changed? How?

The STORE, man! They changed EVERYTHING. Now all they sell is freakin' ASL, man! ASL!

Oh, I see.

...

What's an ASL?

C:-) C:-) C:-)

The Major Demand is ten million dollars. I can spend four Conversation Points at any time to get two Hostages released...that's basically the player convincing his/her bosses that it's a good idea to go ahead and do this thing, to try to ease the tension in the situation.

The penalty, if I concede this, is that I have to subtract ONE die from my total dice every time I make a roll, with a minimum of one die always. This is a big penalty for just rescuing a couple of hostages...at least, in this stage of the game it is.

Next, I play "Small Talk." This is to get the perp talking and gain some Conversation Points.



Gee, I wonder how well this is going to go?  :)

mirth

"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

BanzaiCat

Quote from: mirth on October 09, 2017, 02:17:28 PM
This was...unexpected.

It sounded entertaining when I thought about it. If it's too creepy or weird I'll put a kabosh on it.

Totally meant this with a humor bent to it.

bayonetbrant

Quote from: mirth on October 09, 2017, 02:17:28 PM
This was...unexpected.
the store converting to ASL, or that you went nuts and held everyone hostage?
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

Gusington



слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

mirth

Quote from: bayonetbrant on October 09, 2017, 02:22:11 PM
Quote from: mirth on October 09, 2017, 02:17:28 PM
This was...unexpected.
the store converting to ASL, or that you went nuts and held everyone hostage?

When you put it that way, it's all completely expected.
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

bbmike

Quote from: mirth on October 09, 2017, 02:17:28 PM
This was...unexpected.

Sounds like he bought a set of those Star Trek bourbon glasses.  :P
"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplace of existence."
-Sherlock Holmes

"You know, just once I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets."
-Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart

"There's a horror movie called Alien? That's really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you!"
-The Doctor

"Before Man goes to the stars he should learn how to live on Earth."
-Clifford D. Simak

mirth

Quote from: BanzaiCat on October 09, 2017, 02:20:19 PM
Quote from: mirth on October 09, 2017, 02:17:28 PM
This was...unexpected.

It sounded entertaining when I thought about it. If it's too creepy or weird I'll put a kabosh on it.

Totally meant this with a humor bent to it.

It's cool. I'm oddly flattered :P
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

mirth

"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

BanzaiCat

The Small Talk roll ends up being this:



Damn, that didn't go so well. But I have an out, which I take - discarding two cards from my hand to turn that 4 into a Success.

That's +2 Conversation Points.



Now that I have a few points banked for buying cards, I want to work on reducing the Threat level a little.

I play "Keep Cool."



The worst thing that could happen would be -1 Conversation Point...a viable risk given that I can get the Threat level reduced a little.

The roll cooperates...somewhat.



One success means -1 Threat, so I move the red bad guy marker back one space.



There's still an Escape Demand to uncover.



Since I have another "What are your demands?" card, so I decide to play that next.



The result is great!



Two successes means not only do I get to reveal the Escape Demand, but also I get +2 more Conversation Points.



C:-) C:-) C:-)

...uh...say again? You broke up, there.

You heard me. A bus. A school bus. One from Portland's finest.

It was his greatest nightmare. The perp was not only asking for a school bus, but one full of little kids...

...what?

His heart clenched at the thought of giving him yet more hostages, especially innocent grade schoolers...

Dude, you KNOW I can hear you, right? Besides, I don't want kids. I want the bus so I can bring the hostages along to be sure there's no funny business!

C:-) C:-) C:-)

I adjust the Conversation Point marker accordingly, to 4.



So far, so good. I've managed to uncover both his Demands, have pooled a handful of Conversation Points, and brought the Threat level down a bit. As I'm out of cards now, thanks to having to discard two of them to get a success earlier, Turn 1's Conversation Phase is now over.

Now, to Turn 1's Spend Phase.

I take all of the zero-cost cards back. I can have a hand of no more than 10 cards, and there's six of these 0-cost cards. I also buy two more:

"What I meant was..." which would allow me to make a re-roll of a failed die, and
"Minor Extraction," which lets me get a few hostages out (if successful).

You'll see these cards in later play, possibly.

For now, I move on from this Phase to the last Phase of a turn - the Terror Phase.



in every Terror phase, at the end of a Turn, you draw one of these puppies. Sometimes it can be a good thing, sometimes not so good.

This time, I draw:



Uh-oh. The Threat goes up by +2.

We're getting closer to nerd-wasting territory, here.

mirth

I love smell of napalmed ASL nerds in the morning.
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

Uberhaus

What the hell do you know about ASL, Mirth?  You're from goddamned pretty close to New Jersey!

BanzaiCat

I realized yesterday that I was playing the game incorrectly. Those 0-cost cards do not automatically return to your hand. Cards you play during your turn are not available to you until the NEXT turn. Sorry about that. Maybe I'll come back to this soon.

Last night I tried one of the perps that are much harder than this terrorist guy. There's three total perpetrators you can go up against. One is the terrorist guy you saw in this brief AAR. There's also a dad that takes a hospital wing hostage because he's desperate to get medical care for his son (that one is heartbreaking to consider, but kudos to the game designer for going there). The third is a college professor taking her entire class hostage. I think they ramp up in difficulty in that order - the terrorist is recommended as a first time playthrough, the dad next, followed by the professor. I tried to go up against the dad, and I failed miserably. The Threat deck was awful; one card made me halve the deck, another made me skip, and the next one made me skip again, so in two turns I lost four additional turns and found myself at the end game way too quickly. In this case, the dad wastes all the hostages and gets away. I'd managed to save one hostage but that's not nearly enough to win.

Next I'll try the professor. She is the most challenging because she takes the most hostages (12 I believe, as opposed to 7 each for the other two).

There's tons of expansion packs out there for this game to add other perps and challenges. It's a fun little solitaire card game that doesn't take up a huge footprint on your table, or wherever you may play.

JasonPratt

This should be combined with the Krynn Grogs.

...not that that's even possible, but now that I've suggested it, your brain will be picking at it insidiously to see if it could actually be done.

Have fun not sleeping for a while.  O0
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