R. Crow Associates -- Intro and Onboarding
Very basic description of what this is
This is a game log of an RPG system I am adapting/developing for friends. I am playing solo and testing its features. Everything here is the result of interpreting dice rolls according to a developing ruleset, or pure imagination.
Onboarding
Character Creation
- Name: Mert Smertson
- Equipment: lockpick set, dice (6), crowbar
- Skills: camouflage, defense
- Specialty: copy machine repair and manufacture
It is 1973. Mert, a copy machine repairman, is bored with his humdrum life. Something deep within him has always wanted something more, but heβs never been sure what.
One day, he is approached by a stranger who gives him a business card. It says: R. CROW ASSOCIATES -- we are interested in the world. There is a logo on the card, a circular blue eye deep within a swirl of black feathers.
The card also has a phone number. A few days later, Mert calls the number, answers a few questions, and is told that he is hired. For what, heβs not sure.
Starting Clue
Two years pass. It is 1975. Mert has mostly forgotten about R. Crow Associates, the business card, and the phone call. But one day, an envelope arrives, brown and featureless, except for the tiny scribbling of a ballpoint pen in one corner: a blue circle surrounded in swirling black tracks of ink.
Mert suddenly remembers. Not the content of the phone call, but the feeling he had afterward: it feels like... possibility, the sudden rush of freedom just beyond the door frame. Surprised to find himself trembling slightly, Mert sets the envelope on the counter and stares at it for a few minutes before tearing it open.
Inside the envelope is a day planner from 1973, two years earlier. The various appointments and notes appear to be those of a manager at the Spotter Lake Power Plant, with the name of the owner and the address of the plant written inside. Most of the contents of the planner are vague and mundane, but a date near autumn catches his eye: a planned excursion to a hunting area is crossed out, but that area is referenced several times later. However, the planner is frustratingly short on details.
R. Crow Associates Inquiry Team Field Handbook
A thin, dark red book also slips out of the envelope, titled R. Crow Associates Inquiry Team Field Handbook. There is very little of interest in this book--it is drier than a copy machine repair manual--but there are four items that stand out.
One, that an βInquiry Teamβ is tasked with the acquisition of βitems of interest.β
Two, that βabsolute discretionβ is a firm requirement for any associate. In fact, any form of indiscretion is punishable by βalmost immediate termination.β
Three, that failing to avail oneβs self of βcompletely anonymous transportationβ to the area of operations is the most common reason for almost immediate termination.
Four, that upon receiving a summons to field work, an associate must begin immediately. Failing to do so, surprisingly, does not result in almost immediate termination, but βsummary dismissal.β
Spotter Lake
Mert has never heard of Spotter Lake, or its power plant. He visits his local library, whose microfiche archives contain a single article that mentions the place in passing. The only information he is able to glean is that its wildlife and hunting preserve is closed due to pollution.
It seems that, whatever he has been summoned for, itβs got something to do with this power plant managerβs day planner, and the town of Spotter Lake.
Holding the planner in his hand, Mert again feels the promise of fresh air waiting for him just outside the stale currents of his life. He moves rapidly. He phones a lie to his boss. At home, he rifles through his toolbox for a few items. He takes a bus to the next town over, steals the least interesting car he can find, and drives across state lines to the town of Spotter Lake.