Unsolved Identities – 1 – Jeansen Vaars' Fiction House

Adventure Crafting – META

Welcome! We’ll be running a post-modern mystery, espionage game. These are, in my opinion, extremely hard to pull off, but fortunately, I’ll be stress testing new solo rules which I hope they help me. Welcome Tricube Tales Solo Rules! The main plot will be setup using The Adventure Crafter, since I don’t want to use this time a one-page setting. Hopefully, to not regret this! I will check out Tricube Tales rules for a “generic” setting.

Tricube Tales Adventure Setup (click to expand)

[Genre, Theme → post-modern, mystery]
[TAC → My Duty, Attacked Lethally, Betrayal, Information from unknown, Beat me to it]
[Job has to do with → Attainment] (of some sort of object, perhaps?)
[Object trappings → Weather/Storm] (modern re-skin, electromagnetic pulse device)
[Object features → Crudely Fashioned] (modern re-skin, electronics visible to naked eye)
[Twists, Sub-Plots → Sad Mask Face, Poison] (Masked faction?, unrelated person poisoned)
[Protagonist → Matthew, Impatient, Irritable]
[Conflicts, Motivations → Internal and external conflicting goals, related to barriers. Safety]
[Location → Prague. Bridge/Crossroads]

My initial feeling is that Tricube Tales is not really well-prepared for modern+ games. I had to reskin some results of the oracles, already. I guess this is the disadvantage of more specific oracles.

Main Plot: Mathew receives a call of duty. He is to fly to Prague for a midnight exchange. A briefcase for another one. An ultra-confidential technological device is to be received and taken immediately back to Bern, Switzerland. The counter-part are agents from Warsaw, Poland.
Sub-Plot-1: Someone unrelated is following
Sub-Plot-2: Someone unrelated got poisoned

Scene 1: Delicate Business

Matthew Robins comes out of his car. Closes the door. It’s a cold but clear sky night at Prague, year 2036. He looks around, grabs the briefcase he’s supposed to exchange for another one, looks around again, just in case, and then proceeds to the meeting point.

[Careful (3) → Fail (1)]

As expected, no civilians on the Manes Bridge tonight, since the police should have secured the arrangement. The police blocker was managed and arranged by Matthew’s Auxiliary Remote Agent (ARA), Nicole Stuenz.

[Random Scene → Seven of Clubs: hard brawny challenge]

Matthew had a navy blue jacket, with lighter brown on the interior side. He had a cigarette on his mouth, and he had to wait about 41 seconds before the meeting time. He was literally counting the seconds on his head, as something smelled fishy tonight…

– “Nicole? You there?”
– “Matthew, you shouldn’t be communicating right now, turn this off”
– “Do you feel something strange too?. There’s nobody here, not even lights are on. No cars around”
– “You sure? We are still a few seconds away. Anyway, let’s cut it off here. I’ll be listening, good luck”

[Will the counter-part arrive in time? → Yes, and…]

A car shows up just in time, and after it, a motorcycle. A bunch of people come down the car, and the guy from the motorcycle as well. The lad in the motorcycle has a briefcase, and the ones in the car have a briefcase too.

– “Hold on… are they exchanging briefcases?” Matthew steps forward with a hurry. That is supposed to be my deal.

[Careful (2) → Fail (-1)]

Matthew eyes go black. His head inside a leather sack, at least one guy pulling him over with such a strength. Does he hear two of them? Not sure! Tries to speak but can barely breathe. He hears the engine of his car turning on.

Matthew will have three Forceful (3) checks and needs to collect 3 tokens to avoid being thrown into the water!
[Forceful (3) → Fail (2), using Stunt JiuJitsu]
[Forceful (3) → Success with Style (7), using FATE Point on Field Agent + Stunt Jiujitsu]
[Forceful (3) → Fail (2), using Stunt JiuJitsu]
He fails, as he collects 2 tokens in three rounds.

Matthew tries to fight his way around, he punches a though guy he cannot see, tackles him and falls to the ground with the one pulling him. Suddenly after, he is kicked, and another guy raises him from the back, and he hears:

– “Shoot him, and throw him into the river”

He listens to this, and knows his survival is at stake. With his face covered, and feeling the wind of being put on top of the bridge walls, he tries to jump faster by pushing himself off away from the thugs, changing the force direction.

[Quick (3) → Success (4) Using stunt ‘Sneaky Bastard’]

Matthew feels the gravity and adrenaline of falling 15 meters into the water, rolls backward and attempts rolling to fall with his feet into the water first.

The current is strong, he keeps his head below the dark, cold water, as he feels silenced pistols firing at him. His ear-relay comm link seems to be damaged, but at least he manages to survive this round.

Did he manage to pull off with his Briefcase? (Unlikely) → No (4) and no caveat.

Bad day for mister Matthew.