New Yakuza Ladder Connector

[grävling]

Is it possible to change the rewards he offers so that the first one is his own V-chip? What we have now is a little hard to roll play. I want to take jobs from the Ladder Connector, but by the time he shows, I am nearly always exhausted even though I rest up before going into the VIP lounge. Even when I am awake enough, I can only get one job from him before he goes *poof*. This was Ok for a change when Kass proclaimed she was a different sort of ladder connector, especially since you can always get Vinny the Rats chip. But I think this Connector expects me to be doing the jobs he is offering ....

At any rate I have just got to the part where he says that I have been very active in 'negotiation and intimidation' missions, and I think to myself, 'No I haven't. I'd love to be active in negotiate and intimidation missions, but what I have been doing, mostly, is escorting people from Copley Square to the Fennian HQ.'

[fallen]

grävling - thanks for the good feedback. Providing his own V-Chip was the original design, but there we some issues around contact-type that prevented it from being done. I will talk to Cory and see if we can work around it.

[grävling]

The kit for the Yakashima G-Mesh jacket says 'Smuggler's kit'. But it won't be a smugglers kit,
as it was a perfectly legitimate purchase, so just call it a Package containing ...

The G-Mesh Jacket is a little odd.
The picture makes it look like soft armour, and the long description says that it is soft:
'...embedded in a woven fiber layber gives this soft armour ....'
but the stats say that it is Hard, and it has a Dodge penalty to match. Perhaps wrong graphic and description?

[grävling]

Tiberius Tuna should have a conversation with you when you phone him.

[grävling]

Is receiving the safehouse the end of the ladder? Because, if so, you need a different message that will indicate that this is as far as it gets.

[scared]

btw: is it intentional to get exhausted in the VIP backrooms that fast? i tried looking for said ladder connector as well and was very surprised, how fast my CK needed sleep after hanging a while in there ...

[grävling]

Drinking all that Vudka is exhausting.

Seriously, though, I was astonished that I went through Y3200 in food and booze while waiting for somebody to show up. Bring on the cyber-liver! Never worry about cirrhosis again! Grants the ability to hang around in bars for hours, or even days at a time. Automatically converts the vudka you drink into a mild stimulant, which will keep you awake and alert. Because it's embarrasing when the first job your newly hired runners have to do is to carry you out of the place in a barrow ...

[fallen]

scared / grävling - thanks for the all the feedback. We are working on making the backroom a more fun place to live (and drink) and provide ways to prevent the Exhaustion effect that makes a lot of the business there annoying.

grävling - that's not the end of the ladder =)

[grävling]

Ooooh, I timed out too soon. Apologies! and thank you for the last message!

[grävling]

About the Yakuza Ladder connector's V-chip -- if handing his own chip out is problematic,
maybe he could hand out Skull's? That would give you a line to a lot of threaten and negotiate
missions, at any rate.

[scared]

btw: do the missions give different amount of rep? I mean, bringing a package two maps south to Los V is not such a hard job, compared to capturing an fugitive deep in Mars territory ...

[grävling]

And after giving it a lot of thought, I think there is a way we could do this that would be even
better than what we have now.

Instead of the CK approaching the Yakuza, wanting to walk close to the family, instead we
want the Yakuza to approach the CK, wanting to see if the CK could become a 'special
friend'. (This last is a big, Asian, overloaded term.)

The way it would work best I think is like this.

First you do enough jobs for the Yakuza to attain a certain reputation. Then, and only then
do the Yakuza become interested in you. At this point they send agents out with a V-chip that contains an invitation for you to come to a meeting. Bring runners with you if you like, the Yakuza will want to make sure the Knight is very comfortable.

So if the Knight doesn't challenge encounters, then the Knight doesn't find out about the opportunity. But we will say that the Knight does. When he arrives it is just to talk. The mid level boss who meets him wants to find out what the Knight thinks of the "Ninkyō Daninkyō", (Chivalrous Organizations) which is how the Yakuza refer to themselves.
He expands on the 700+ year (by then) history as the Closest thing that Japan has had to the European 'Robin Hood', and stresses their benevolent good works, their management of the utilities in the NBZ, etc.

I have _lots_ of ideas as to how this conversation could go. It gives room for a lot of exposition -- from the Yakuza perspective, of course. And it would help with those whose idea of the Yakuza is basically 'the Japanese Mafia with tattoos'. The whole concept of
a quasi-legal organisation, that operates openly and is interwoven with every aspect of
society, and isn't entirely focused on illegal and violent matters isn't one that is familiar
in the west. The notion that the Yakuza find theft dishonorable, while extortion entirely honorable bespeaks a different way of looking at the world.

At the end of a pleasant evening, the Knight is asked if there is any point in trying to develop a special relationship here. It will require that the Knight learn to think in a more Asian, more Japanese way. If the Knight is not interested, then we will call it a night, wish each other well, and not go any further. The Knight will not be bothered any more.

But if the Knight does want to continue ....

Here is a special hand signal which you need to learn to make and recognise. Sometime in the future, you may be met with people who give you such a signal. You will trust that this signal means that the person comes from us.

And then in the game you will get encounters like that. Some of them are straight jobs, much as we get the 'you will take this job or we will ruin your rep' ones now. But some of them are invitations to go places.

When you get there, you may find that this is an invitation to a terrrific party. Or a private screening of an unrealesed new film -- the Yakuza are heavily invested in the entertainment
industry.


And sometimes you will be given things like armour, etc. The idea is to strengthen the
idea that they are not rewards for conduct, but part of the way of life. In order to do this we will need to have more expository material, which would be a lot of fun to write.

Discussing the difference between 'respect and loyalty' done of out fear and those done out of sincere feelings from the heart would make a good conversation.

It seems that even in 2217 the Yakuza are still following jingi (仁義, justice and duty), since it is out of that tradition that the phrase 'respect and loyalty are a way of life' comes from.
So the CK must come to see that what the Yakuza do _is_ just. And that he or she has a duty to further the work of the Chivalrous Organization.

All of this will be quite a stretch for most people who haven't spent a lot of time either in Japan or immersed in Japansese culture and history. The contrast between the way that the Yakuza see themselves (or at least say that they see themselves -- I am not a member speaking from personal experience here) and the way they are perceived by outsiders, especially in the west, is most profound. Most people thinking just 'gangster' will be surprised to discover that the Yakuza see themselves as primarily altuistic, opposed to
selfishness and greed, and very much against the western code of 'rational self interest'.

So it would make writing such texts a lot of fun.

If the relationship matures, then other hand signals ...

If you need help in the streets make them, and many people will just jump to protect and aid you, because it is their duty. But your duty is to help those distressed citizens, expecially if they make the certain signals.

I don't know how hard this would be to put into the game -- it seems to me that the mechanisms are already there for the most part. And I think it would be a lot of fun, and be a good way to add even more depth to the game.

Let me know what you think. And what do other people think of this.

Grävling

[gravismetallum]

grävling Nice, that kind of depth is rare on android games, would be very interesting to see such things. I'm for it.

[lucian]

I still have not come across the Yakuza ladder connector. Which VIP back room is he supposed to be in?

[fallen]

lucian - any Yakuza backroom