Comp Time By Michael Selvaggio chiefprimate@comcast.net
Graham alerted me to the first rule in the contest beginning with; Design a table top RPG etc. I will for the good of the contest retract my entry of Comp Time. (What a great guy an idiot but a great guy.) I will instead complete this work in two or three months and have it available at the future game sight totallynewgames.com.
So he has failed you say? Another blithering victim? NOOOOO!!!!!! I will submit a new entry a more powerful entry. Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!
The game will be Called Narco-Prisoner
You are asleep in a cryogenic chamber aboard the interplanetary ship Narcissus. Wile asleep an event has arisen and you must wake. But you cannot. You are informed by an AI injected into your dream you have two hours of real time before the calamity reaches threshold. Time restraint is two hours. There are two players one referee and one sleepy head. Possible scenario player must carry glass object in the dream world (representing self, it breaks you break). In your dream you must go to various locals on the board to gather information. Secretly in your dream you want to commit suicide and must prove to the "committee", which is your self, that you should live. Find emotions to open critical memories to get this evidence. You will also be confronted by ancient personalities that will expect you to know a great truth they have taught or are there to teach. When you awake you will find you are instead a murderer on death row and this was a trick the Warden used to awaken you. You had used an ancient Tibetan technique to avoid the death sentence. So sad. You die just in time
See when life gives you lemons you put them in a bag and hit someone with them. Thus allowing you to steal their wallet. Good lemons.
Setting: (read to players)
The year is 2116 AD. The world is divided by two super powers; the corporation known as IBS (Itty Bitty Software), and the country of New Hampshire. The head of IBS is the Mega Trillionaire William Doors inventor and sole owner of Pre Comp-nition, the most powerful Computer System in the Solar System. Using time travel William Doors placed his super silicon neutron computers in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The way Pre Comp-nition works is if a customer has a question of any kind the question is sent into the past where the super silicon neutron computers have more than one hundred years of “COMP TIME” to work on the problem. The answer is given to the client immediately after the question is made. The company also has a “Dèjà vu Contract”. For an extra fee the answer is supplied before the question is asked.
The Pre Comp-nition facilities embedded in the past where huge due to the time portal equipment and cyber bowling alleys required by union regulations. This is why they had to be disguised as shopping malls.
All Pre Comp-nition facilities known as “Malls” were issued “Temporal Beacons” with a panic button. If the panic button is pushed a message is sent to IBS HQ signaling the need for emergency help. Before the recovery team (ingredient one) is sent a first in team is injected to gather a pre-recovery report and to make sure a “Time Tare” hasn’t developed. If atomic cleansing is not required a hardened Para military team known as The Mall Rats are sent to track down the Temporal Beacon, reestablish communications with the personnel and restore the Computers to full operation. That’s your job.
The Object of the Game: (read to players)
You are a Mall Rat. Genetically designed, to emulate the early 21st century natives. Your memory has been altered to minimize polluting the past with future knowledge. You will only remember your 21st century cover identity and the briefing given at the entrance to the time portal called “The Mall Entrance”. The portal can only be synchronized for three native hours. At the end of that time if you do not make it back to “The Mall Entrance” you will be forever lost in time. Or at least till you find a temporal taxi.
The game will require a commitment of three visits to the mall for three hours per visit. Each player needs access to a cell phone. Also players are to be reminded they are on private property and must not perform any acts which are illegal or unethical. So do not break the Law and be respectful of others. (mentioning of the law is not one of my ingredients).
Each player will be given one of three characters. Characters get wounded die get healed have problems. The main problem is they cannot communicate with each other. They can talk to any native but not each other. This is due to Hanson’s Syndrome. Because a time traveler’s memory is altered they can only communicate with 21st century speak and have forgotten to speak properly with their telepathic means. Go figure.
Each character will have a unique gift that may be triggered by the referee, a prop in the game or native interaction. A native is any one who dose not know about the game. Obviously were ok.
Players primarily will avoid interaction with natives unless they are affected by Time Sickness. Time Sickness is when players start acting like customers. The exception is buying food and drinks which cures time sickness. At the end of each session all shopping receipts have to be scanned for time ticks. The player rolls a 10 sided die. If the roll is equal to the first digit on the price total the character is infected and dies a terrible death. So native shopping is a ticky operation.
The Real Object of the Game: (for referees only)
Comp Time is a Live Action RPG game based on scavenger hunts and problem solving. The game is played in three sessions of three hours representing three parts of an adventure which must be solved before the time is up. The referee will need a cell phone a camera and a mall. If a mall is not available use a town area (ID this).
On the first session the team is given the first in team report. This will be in the form of photographs hints on paper and three props. The props represent equipment carried by the characters. This equipment contains partial information that only the characters players may see. When the missing half of the prop is found the player now has a complete instruction, command or hint leading to the team’s victory. Again the player must keep this info secret because their memory was altered to minimize polluting. The characters intuitively know what they must do they just don’t know why unless the referee calls them from the future and opens a memory. If a native interferes or something doesn’t work; you have to deal with it after all you are a Mall Rat.
The Story Behind The Game And The Adventures Structure
The False Trail & The Lost Beacon
At the Mall # A56 (pick a mall) professor Tempus stumbled upon a terrible secret. IBS is secretly infecting the past with upgraded technology to infect the city (pick a local city) which will become New Hampshire's capital. Doing so will destroys the worlds last hope for freedom or at least lower taxes. The report the team is given is false. They are told to go a location and meet with the professor at a certain time. He isn’t there instead the team receives a call (refs check all locations for signal strength). Go to protocol #2 their told and open protocol #2 envelope which is sealed. In the envelope are more props which contain a map of the mall and the main instructions which are: They are to find the Time Beacon and return it to the time portal. Sorry I meant to say “The Malls Entrance”. They must now find, using the clues, four stores. By running a line from one store to the other a cross is made. At the intersection of the x is a fifth store where there must be some steel possibly a door or fixture (second ingredient) where a hide a key will be secretly placed. The hide a key box is the time beacon. Inside the box is the professor’s letter with a strange symbol. It is a sad tale of the professor and the first set of instructions for the next session. Dead players must go to the mall entrance and wait with referee.
Where is the Professor?
According to regulations personnel may not go native unless their memory class is gamma six or lower. The professor is Zeta 7. That’s big. Really. The Rats are sent in to do a simple snatch and run. The professor’s letter from the previous session and personality profile will be given to the players of the professor and a map of the mall. They will use the personality profile to find stores that relate to the professors habits. The first letters of the stores will spell out the last store the professor is sitting at. The professor will be an actor playing the part (third Ingredient). The professor can speak with the players until they are sure he is the professor. On the professor there will be in plane sight a symbol matching the symbol found on the professor’s letter. When a team member speaks the secret time travelers welcome shazbot (or your choice) the professor hands them a packet.
Did I forget to mention the professor is not him self. In the packet the team will be informed the professor is in shock and suffering from time dementia. He/she cannot move on their own and must be moved by holding their elbow like a blind man. Wile the team is inspecting the packet or whenever possible the professor will try to wander off to one of the stores on the personality profile list.
The professor will have two props a freeze bomb which when pulled out forces the team to stay in place for three minutes. The Actor will go to one of the personality trait locations. The second prop is the tempus board (trash bomb) this must be thrown in a trash can or “turbo tube” in front of a store. The store is really a front for the time generator equipment which allows the portal to work. That’s necessary.
Healing the Professor and the Big Finale.
The doctors say if the professor doesn’t get cured in the next three hours the time dementia will be permanent. Your team will go back and try to help him/her regain his memory. This time you must follow the professor to some of his old haunts. What you are trying to do is watch the professors travels and see is you can learn from him what is the cause of his condition.
The format of this game is twenty questions. You are trying to find out what one object he is at that store for and the overall subject of the objects. Again: why he is at that store and what is in common with all of the items in all of the stores. The object in each store has to do with the subject “time”. The objects could be a calendar, a date book, a magazine Time, an audio or video recording with the word time in it. You may ask the professor if the subject is something only after at least three objects are found. If the subject is wrong a prop is given to the group. The prop says the professor has retreated into himself and they must wait 5 minutes before they may play again. Also they are told if they ask and fail again the professor will be incurable. This is false, every time the teams fail they lose 5 minutes for the same reason.
Once the professor is healed they can return to the portal. Telling the a story about the truth all along the way. Upon arrival the referee as the character of the portal keeper will hold a bean bag the size of a fist in plain sight with the word gun written clearly on both sides and count one, two, three. The referee will then try to hit the professor in the torso. If successful the professor dies and William Doors wins. No trial or loss of sales. If the referee misses the full truth is reviled to the world and the players have save the world, time, New Hampshire and everything.
This game will be added to. This is the first draft only and detail will be added such as haw a referee should prepare for each session. What hapens to dead team memberst. Who is the team.