Show notes, Night City Secrets Episode 9

Game Session 6, Part 1 – This is not my beautiful life?

Cover Art for the podcast from “Cyberpunk madness,” by the artist Eddie Del Rio.  

Intro and closing music is from Amoebacrew, called simply "Cyberpunk royalty free music.”  It is available on Youtube:

Background ambient music is from RoyaltyFreeSounds, called “Soundscape Ambient, Cyberpunk Music. Royalty Free.”

It is on Youtube:

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

REF = The Referee

Antigone = Corporate.  Director of Public Relations for the Paupau Collective (PPC in Night City.  PPC is a family autonomous corporation floating out on ships in the Pacific Ocean.  Half-Greek half-Polynesian.

Arianna Papadopoulos-Paupau = (NPC) Corporate.  Antigone’s older sister, the Executive VP of Marketing for the PPC.  They have a good relationship.

Cherub = (NPC)  Solo.  A bodyguard for Ravnos, known by Surány.

“Chewie”= (NPC) Medtech.  Officially, Consuela Jarillo, a Costa Rican doctor currently dating Han.  She is played by the REF.  She’s also a pilot.

Eric Genter = (NPC) Corporate.  Senior Director for Petrochem in Night City.  He absolutely hates Antigone for losing face to her a few years ago.  Antigone simply ignores him, but he has it out for her badly.  Apparently, he’s now running Petrochem’s Black Ops team.

Hako = Fixer.  Aohako is also Hawaiian a SAMOAN, not related to Han or Antigone. He grew up in Night City and has connections all over the city.  He and Antigone met through their common mentor, Derek Trammel, a former Night City Police Department detective, now a private investigator.

Han = Solo. Full name is “Hanakahi Lonoehu.”  The team Solo and pilot, bioscultped to look like Harrison Ford, though he also has spiky short hair. Native Hawaiian, half-Polynesian, cousin to Antigone.

“Kat” Katrina = (NPC) A Solo merc-for-hire contracted by Eric Genter to kidnap Antigone and take her to a Petrochem warehouse.

Kronk = (NPC) Media.  A contact of Hako’s.  Not as well known or as well regarded as Ravnos.

Marcella Lemieux = (NPC) A cop working on the Night City Police Department.  She has known Hako for many years and actively is concerned for his safety, so she is willing to help him out.

Mikael Papadopoulos-Paupau = (NPC)  Medtech.  Antigone’s younger brother, the Director of Research and Development for the PPC.  He admires his older sister.

Ravnos = (NPC) Media.  A freelancer who mostly works for Net News 54.  He broke the story of Petrochem and PPC tensions escalating in Night City.

Rico = (NPC) A second Solo merc-for-hire who is working with Kat to abduct ‘Tig.

Stahl = (NPC) A pilot for hire, short but very capable Japanese Solo and former fighter pilot.  Used to do odd jobs with Han.  Frequently hired by Petrochem.

Surány = Netrunner.  A young and nerdy Czech fame-seeker. Raised in Night City, and went to high school with Chewie. Attained some fame for his “March of the Ents” program: he names all his programs after people, places, and events in the Tolkien Mythos, and has been trying to grow a Gandalf beard.

Tak = (NPC) Fixer.  He has known Hako for many years, and Hako generally trusts him.  He provided us with the intel about the Petrochem transport from Reno to Night City which we intercepted in Modesto.

Tatiana = (NPC) A former employee of Han, a dangerous Solo currently working for the Willow Sisterhood - a Poser Gang who bioscult themselves to look like famous women from media and pop culture who played the roles of bad-asses. Tatiana is currently sporting the look of Scarlet Johansen from the Ghost in the Shell movie adaptation.  Tried to kill Han once when he tried to come onto her.

TOC and Timestamps:

** Introduction  @00:26

** Play begins:  @2:13

Assessing the situation.  

** Han heads off to do some recon on the Petrochem warehouse: @6:08

** Surány shares what research he’s uncovered on Eric Genter:  @8:06

** Hako calls in to his contacts to find replacement cyberware and other gear: @9:00

** The team tries to get a meeting with the Media, Ravnos: @10:45

** Racktime!:  @11:50

** Han returns with his warehouse intel:  @14:10

** Intel on Eric Genter: @28:50

** Discussing our new digs & whether Tak is compromised:  @30:00

** Scouting out the new place: @38:45

** Pay day!:  @43:00

** Surany goes to work on the Petrochem encryption box: @55:00

** Closing of Session:  @1:02:00  

** Closing Comments:  @1:02:28

INTRODUCTION TEXT:

Welcome back to Night City Secrets.

The podcast of five gaming friends playing the tabletop RPG Cyberpunk 2020.  

Here we have episode 9, part 1 of our sixth gaming session.

I can’t believe we’re made 9 episodes so far… and I have plenty more in the pipeline.  I’m trying to release them one or two at a time, at least once per week.  As we have been doing this, we’ve been getting everyone some improved mics, we’re trying to get better about handling the random background noises of kids, spouses, and pets -- sorry about that -- and basically just trying to present a better product.  We’re new to this, but we’re actively working on making it better quality all around.

We do have an email account if anyone would like to reach out to us.  It is [email protected].  All one word, nightcitysecrets @ gmail dot com.  If you give us an email or a review on your podcasting station of choice, we will be happy to give you a shout out on our next recorded session.  And we certainly hope you enjoy listening to this distracting and hopefully amusing content.

We left off with the team burned, singed, paranoid, and frantic.  Just another evening in Night City, right?

In this episode, we try to assess our situation -- how much damage did we take, how much gear did we lose, how much danger did we introduce to our sponsoring corporation?  Should we tuck tail and run?  Mostly we just know we’ve been made, and we don’t know how bad it is.  

So we try to correct this information asymmetry by conducting a little intel of our own.  Maybe we should try to get ahead of this story in the press?  Let’s get some repairs done and some new gear, and think up a way to turn this around.

Go, you plucky protagonists, go!

CLOSING NOTES:

So we got our new digs, we got paid, we have some intel on Petrochem’s “Black Ops” warehouse where Eric Genter planned on taking me, and we’re working on cracking into the encryption box that might get us inside their corporate network.

Looks like we bought ourselves a little breathing room.  We’ll see how long that lasts…

One loose end that someone may have noticed.  In a previous episode, Hako received a call on the phone we took from Stahl which showed a video of Hako assassinating him.  We were threatened that this video would go public if we didn’t turn Antigone in to Eric. 

But we went back and checked the tape and remembered that when Hako was casing Stahl’s apartment, he rolled a critical success when looking for any surveillance equipment or hidden cameras.  So the REF generously allowed us to ret-con that event.  Hako did receive a threatening text on Stahl’s phone, but there was no compromising video.  

And there was a massive collective sigh of relief.

For how long?  I’m guessing not very.