“Moore Sold Out”
Michael
Okay, third we have the new meme that just tries to downplay/scuttle interest in the Mansa gig. So for that, Rob, what are you picturing, another broad spectrum approach? ("Oh, it's gonna rain/it's gonna be boring, just high school bands playing and then a needledrop on the new album, it's gonna be out in stores Tuesday anyway/etc.") or something more specific? Just trying to think of the best skill rolls to determine the new meme's Power. (By the way, since you never released the old meme, no Corruption yet. It just sits there coiled on your corkboard in your office.)
Rob
Yes, that approach sounds good. "It's not even a concert, really, they're just playing the album, and the new album is not supposed to be that good anyway, just pretentious wankery, their old stuff was better … " And maybe even basic misinformation as to what day the gig is, where it is — when in a rush, just flood the zone with BS.
Michael
It's gonna be a 17 either way, Psych or Pop Culture, this honestly feels more like Psychology, sussing out what excuses people need to not go to a gig. Boy, can I relate.
And then a Propaganda roll to craft it. Average those, we have our Power pre-deployment.
Rob
>>>> SUCCESS
>>>> SUCCESS
Both rolls succeed by 9 (don't even have to crack out my copy of GURPS Rounding Off)
Michael
lol
That meme, pre-deployment, has a Power of 9. Wow.
So here's an interesting question: do you want to deploy a meme that powerful and take NINE Corruption as a result? Archie looks at the interlocking elements of the meme — the contra-narrative, the disinfo, the vague badmouthing of Mansa as a band, linked together with heaping helpings of the Anunnaki source code — and wonders if this isn't using a sledgehammer to kill a fly. If he releases this meme at full strength? It's going to have a profound effect on attendance of the show. 36 hours mutating and spreading through Oakland, who knows how few people will end up at 8th and Henry on Saturday. Archie could voluntarily shave as many points off the Power as possible — remember, people resist a meme with Will modified by Power—to make it a little less of a mindfuck (and less Corrupting).
And second … just how will Archie deploy it (primarily)? Word of mouth is Streetwise, and Roger or someone else on the payroll could do that. Or Politics, if it's done through, say, Oakland city government saying that attendance is capped, putting out the wrong dates, etc. Or Merchant if you decide to flood the zone with radio/TV/newspaper disinfo.
Each of these injection methods have their own effects on efficiacy and exposure and authenticity, which will of course provide their own modifiers for the population to resist.
(If Archie was going to spitball it efficacy-wise, Streetwise seems like it would up the contagiousness level, being a street-level word of mouth meme; Politics would maybe be less believable by the masses on the ground but would hit a little harder as it's lent some aura of authority; Merchant would be the most scattershot method, hoping a couple or a few of the broadcasts hit just the right way and cause a word of mouth contagion.)
Rob
I think Streetwise is the way to go, but the question of overkill is a good one - maybe now is the time for Archie to have that conversation with Roger about pumping Oakland full of memes
Michael
Yes, I agree.
We could combine that with Point Four on the Esmology, actually.
So we know what our goals are with the Esmology roll: to see if Jocasta's theory about "knocking out the legs of the chair" of the kusarikku being summoned holds up. Basically, we're going to run a series of esmological simulations and predictions to see what will happen in Oakland in a number of different scenarios: if the tapestry isn't unveiled at the show, if whatever subliminals in the live playing of Ikenga are removed/eliminated with infrasonics, and especially if West Oakland loses faith in Moore/Mansa in the next 36 hours. (I will also throw in the fact that we're planning to abduct and brainwash Moore and that we're planning to raid Dominoe as well.)
And I'm gonna say that Roger can actually aid this roll with a Streetwise check (Roger will not be subjected to Corruption, since he's just providing raw data for the esmology). So if Roger wants to give us that roll, Bill, we can move on to the Esmology roll. But I want to talk about the Corruption for a second. Archie's got a 16 in Esmology and Sophie's got a 15. I like the idea of Archie and Sophie working together on this, to try to be more accurate and also to mitigate the Corruption a little bit. So basically my idea right now is that Sophie aids Archie to reduce the time necessary to project the scenarios and to spread the Corruption a bit. After both their Esmology rolls, I will roll for Corruption and have Archie take half and Sophie take half. Does that sound good, Rob?
But aside from all this dice rolling, if Archie and Sophie want to talk the street-level politics of West Oakland in character with Roger while all this technocratic mass psychology projection/simulation is going on, I love that idea.
Bill
Roger would definitely take advantage of a chance to try to talk Archie into not demoralizing the neighborhood too much. If Archie is coming to him with his mind a little open, Roger would gladly try to use Archie's call on his Streetwise to try to open Archie's eyes a bit to the other side of the "progress" of 60s style urban renewal. I'd rather not role play the whole conversation out, but assume there's a lot of "Yes, I know, best of intentions, but did you know..."
>>>> SUCCESS
Made it by 3, so wasn't too distracted explaining rent policy effects.
Michael
Yeah, that works for me. When Rob logs in we'll see what Archie decides. But at the very least Roger has given Archie a clue as how to expect people in Oakland to behave en masse.
Bil
Roger's willing to walk the streets a bit (a little wide of Mansa's usual hang-outs), but after tonight: too much prep right now. He will point out a couple of better radio stations/call-ins to drop a dime to for the "pretentious wankery" bit of the strat.
Roger's plan to help Archie knock down Mansa street-level? Go get his head shaved in a neighborhood barber shop-- there is no better "superspreading" place. He'll be going into the belly of the beast, given how much the neighborhood loves Moore, but he can take the flack of the locals hating his jive for an hour if it saves some of them.
Michael
That sounds like a good Friday morning post-abduction and raid activity.
Rob
Ok, why don't we have Archie do the esmological analysis (and yes, I like the idea of Archie & Sophie working together to split both the time and the Corruption hit), and then talking it out with Roger?
Michael
That works for me! Let me roll Esmology to aid with Sophie.
>>>> SUCCESS
Okay, Rob. You're going to add +4 to your skill for your Esmology roll.
Rob
Nice.
>>>> SUCCESS
eesh
glad Sophie helped
Michael
That's actually a success, weirdly enough.
By 3.
Rob
Yeah, ok. It's good that she helped!
Michael
You want to roll Corruption or shall I? It's 1d6-2.
>>>> 1d6-2 … 1
So listen, I'm not against Sophie taking the hit but you did roll a 17
Rob
Yeah, Archie's earned some Corruption this week, that's cool. And no rush on the narration.
Michael
The way I'm envisioning this is that Archie, given all the personal stressors and administrative headaches and overall lurking fear of History B breaking out in Oakland, is really unable on some fundamental level to fully understand the Black American experience on a deep level. Even with Roger's advice, the esmological projections and simulations he proposes just all seem … off to Sophie. Sophie sort of gently nudges Archie in the right direction a couple of times here, actively (and maybe a little brusquely) takes the slide rule out of Archie's hands there. At the end of the day, Archie knows he wouldn't have been able to project these mass actions without both their help, which is at the same time humbling and genuinely important and useful for his future use of esmology.
So here's how it breaks down. Obviously, the Black population of West Oakland is oppressed on multiple vectors: economic, social, environmental, even spiritual. The promise of the Panthers is largely diffused now, and new actors like Mansa have filled that social void. The neighborhood and the whole damn city is hungry for leaders to follow. More important than that, they are hungry for squeaky-clean leaders who at the same time don't play ball with the Man. This is what makes Moore such a success, whereas someone like Josh Williams (doesn't play ball with the Man but is definitely not squeaky-clean) or the remaining mainstream Panthers who are now playing at city politics (squeaky-clean but are playing ball with the Man) don't fit the bill. So how will the good people of West Oakland jump if Dominoe is raided? There are some criminal/militant elements who will probably go stone fucking nuts, if we're honest, but the vast majority of the neighborhood (including folks who suddenly won't have to pay back their "business loans" from Williams!) probably won't be fazed one bit.
If Moore goes obviously missing, is assassinated or otherwise molested by law enforcement, the powder keg in West Oakland will most certainly blow up. Even if this doesn't happen at the concert, there's a chance that purely the violence and esmological chaos could help bring forth the kusarikku. Lower probability than it happening at the concert with the other triggers (the hope in/love of Moore plus the tapestry). Avoiding Moore being actively harmed by the white power structure, Sophie and Archie concur, should be URIEL's number one priority. Likewise, the esmology roll reveals that all it will take is brief exposure to some kind of subliminal or hypnotic trigger to bring all those social tensions to the fore, explaining Roger's vision. If Moore is all of a sudden made unhip, on the other hand, he'll go the way of most entertainers/entrepreneurs in the community who become corny or mainstream: he'll lose his cred and fall from grace and lose all his political cachet. Can it be done in a single afternoon? Maybe with some memetic help. The concert is such a locus of possible History B Irruption because there is the possibility for those three triggers—History B geometry, belief, and blood—to be present at the same time. The esmological analysis confirms Jocasta's theory: if one leg of the chair is knocked out, there's a lower chance of Irruption. Two, even more so, and three will likely bring the probability to zero and in the process wipe out the kusarikku retrocreation completely. Just like our forebears in 535 A.D. did!
Lowering the crowd head count at the show would be great. Diffusing their belief in Moore/Mansa would be even better. In a couple of interesting simulations Archie runs, the idea brought to mind thanks mostly to his undeployed meme to make Mansa unhip and a white college dorm room favorite, if a bunch of white kids from Berkeley were to make their way to the show on Saturday, they would essentially negate the Afrofuturist belief energy that Mansa's hardcore Black fans would bring to the show. In other words it will be hard if not impossible for the crowd to make Ikenga's city come true and appear. (Also on this front, getting rid of the tapestry will not only remove the "History B geometry" leg from the stool, it will also remove a focus of belief from the equation, as just the mere image on the tapestry will fire people's imaginations.)
So basically the esmology roll confirms a lot of what we already knew about how the people of West Oakland will behave over the next 36 hours, but also confirms that the Dominoe raid isn't going to blow the powder keg. And importantly, the people of West Oakland discovering that Moore has gone missing/been fucked with with by law enforcement absolutely will.
So reminder: Archie has two memes on the drawing board now: one that makes Moore and Mansa uncool, and one that makes the concert sound like a major bummer. Archie can release one, both, or none but the latest he can release one of these is tomorrow morning for it to be at all effective in time for the show on Saturday.
Rob
Jeff
(Is that something Don Kirshner could help with?)
Michael
(Whoa. Yes, Jeff. He most definitely could.)
If you want to make a Contact availability roll for him, I will narrate the results tomorrow morning (as I am just about to go to bed).
Jeff
(Is that something I should do? I am addressing the other players when I ask this -- I don't want to call Don up if it's a bad idea for some reason that doesn't occur to me because I haven't been thinking about it or paying enough attention re planning.)
(I said before, this kind of planning is not my strong suit and I meant it)
Michael
Well, let's see how this unfolds. Don is definitely a resource we could tap.
Archie asks Roger and Marshall into his office; Sophie is there too. (Anyone else who wants to wander in can.) They talk through most of the above. Archie describes the two memes he has ready to go: one designed to undermine Moore's popularity and influence, one designed to suppress attendance at the Mansa show. Mostly Archie is pitching the meme campaigns to Roger - it's just like the old days, pitching an ad campaign to a client, with Sophie in the role of Jack Ogilvie. Part of Archie just wants to deploy the memes because they're well made memes, and he hates to waste good work. He also hopes Roger notices how Roger's own reactions to Keiner and the new album shaped the meme.
Then they talk through the esmological projections, as Mike described above. Archie lets Sophie take more of the lead here, recognizing he would have gone astray without her. They definitely make the point about how Moore being martyred, arrested or visibly messed with by The Man (which absolutely includes us) could trigger riots and worse all by itself. Then Archie asks Roger, sincerely, what he thinks we should do. This is multi-layered. It's probably a little creepy to hear Sophie and Archie chatter about "what black Oakland will do" in esmological terms (since the deal with Esmology as Mike said upthread is that it depends on "seeing individual human beings as nothing more than drones, worker bees, a faceless easily-led horde"). And Roger is once again being called on to be the voice of all black people. But Archie is asking sincerely, because he really doesn't want to hurt the community if possible and he really does value Roger's opinion here.
(What I'm thinking right now is: We definitely deploy the "don't bother going to the Mansa show" meme, possibly reduced in Power to cut Corruption. (In a way I think this very conversation is the in-game representation of reducing Power/cutting Corruption, as Archie gets Roger to remind him that these are individual human beings we're manipulating.) Whatever else happens, there's no downside to making the concert a bust.) (We can still go ahead with the plan to abduct and hopefully reprogram Moore, but if that goes bad... it will go very bad. We could instead deploy the "Moore sucks now" meme, which seems safer than grabbing Moore (to everything except Archie's Corruption). But I know that would a) undo a bunch of the planning we just did, and b) rob Marshall of a cool, interesting scene and key way to contribute in the mission climax. So OOC, I'm OK with going ahead with trying to turn/subvert Moore, but it has to be done very carefully, and it can't look like law enforcement or the white power structure coming down on Moore. IC, Archie probably leans towards releasing the meme, as it feels safer and he's pleased with his own cleverness in designing it. But if Marshall says he can turn Moore without it going sideways, ok, let's let him take a crack at it. He'd be a great SANDMAN asset, after all.)
Michael
Whew. This is all great, Rob, thanks for doing this! Setting the scene like an ad pitch meeting is brilliant and I think the whole team should chip in if they want, but you're right, given the Corruption aspect to the memetics and the near-miss aspect to the esmology roll, asking for Roger's opinion is probably the most important.
In addition, yes, the tactical decision on the Moore front does boil down to basically deciding on whether to use Archie's or Marshall's methods and I'll be very curious as to how both Roger and Marshall consider those.
Brant
But I know that would a) undo a bunch of the planning we just did, and b) rob Marshall of a cool, interesting scene and key way to contribute in the mission climax.
Ditching the Moore abduction scene is actually totally fine with me because I've been mulling it over and frankly I have no idea how Marshall would "turn" Moore. I just don't think brainwashing was that sophisticated even by SANDMAN standards in 1973. Like, brainwashing is a fairly blunt object — Marshall could brainwash Moore to shoot RFK when he sees a girl in a polka dot dress, but he can't brainwash Moore into being an agent of History A / SANDMAN.
Another way to put it is, brainwashing can make people take certain actions, repress memories, etc., but they can't change whole personalities, motives, etc. That's more like brain-hacking which Marshall doesn't have any skill in.
So, if Roger thinks his memes will work — and why wouldn't he? — Marshall will whole-heartedly endorse just doing that and leaving Moore alone.
Marshall will, however, query why Archie seems reluctant to just deploy all his handiwork full force, sympathies for the Black community in Oakland notwithstanding. Jocasta and Roger just spent like an hour explaining to us how this is like the LITERAL end of the world, how we're a hair's breadth away from summoning a god-monster. It doesn't seem like a relevant time for liberal wishy-washy-ness about "preserving communities" and stuff.
Michael
(Speaking from the GM's perspective, there are a lot of things Marshall could do to get the idea of Afrofuturist Eden out of Moore's head just with Hypnotism, Brainwashing, and Enthrallment, but you're right, Brant: it's chancy and complicated and could go south fast. I will leave aside the glee that I experienced when I heard the Phoenix Program's Big Man on Campus campaigning for a Power 9 meme to be dropped on West Oakland. )
Bill
As Archie lays out the meme, explains it, but most of all, wants feedback, Roger gets a little quiet. But slowly, as Archie continues to ask his opinion, for notes, he gets caught up. He's nodding, and shaking his head, and then his arms get involved, pointing, making "solid" fists. As Sophie joins in, Roger finds himself actually excited. It's like nothing he's been in before.
He mentions his idea about the barbershop, takes a second to explain how important they are. He comes up with a couple more distribution sites just bantering.
Then Archie asks, sincerely, what Roger thinks he should do. And first thing off the top of Roger's head, before he can stop it popping out of his mouth is, simply the word "this." Then he realizes he's lost his audience, and backs up. "Archie, sir, man, I am so happy you asked. What you have to do, what all of you, uh, gringos, need to do, is this. Listen. Ask. Bring your Black brothers and sisters into it. And the white chicks, too. (Well, Roger's not the world's greatest feminist, sorry.) Look, my man, I think it's cool. Knock that concert down to square-town. Don't salt the earth or anything, but yeah, better they lose the a little of their freedom than their lives. As for Moore, it's probably better he doesn't get to lead anybody no how. He's got the pull, man, and yet this ego. He'd take folks off a bridge with him if he thought it'd make up for some lost glory, lost chances of his. All about him. Well, maybe the knock down will do him good."
"But you, doing this, you just gave me another idea what to do with Moore."
"Maybe Moore doesn't need to be black-bagged and brainwashed. Maybe he just needs to be pushed and played. He might respond to an um, overture? Look, maybe we do a one-two thing. Scare him some more as the Man, with the right hand, then offer him safety and, I guess fame, with the counter-culture, the left. Like, the Dominoe seizure is a good opportunity to scare him more? We can't scare him straight, but getting pulled into shady business and bad money is nothing to laugh off, old Black Panther or not. Maybe the Man pulls him in, interrogates him, lets him sweat out going down not heroically, but like a piece of shit thief from the community. Maybe he hears from Columbia they're pulling back from the stink. He couldn't stand the neighborhood hating him, and he wouldn't love getting his shot taken away. Then the left hand, do-gooders save his ass, offer him safety and rubbing up next to fame, but then he has to lay low, miss this one gig, but hey, famous people and some Marshall bullshit. There's probably some celebrity endorsement that he'd respond to, get co-opted into. Maybe he's a future force for good and History A, no riot, just peace and beautiful funky future?"
"He has a dream of a better future. Maybe we remind him of the shit future he could have, and see if he's ready to go back on the right path?"
"So, yeah, let's make 'em think concert is gonna suck, hippies love this trippy shit, the album is lame: hell, it's all true. Let 'em think Moore has sold out, making deals with white folks to turn our music more white, more 'acceptable'. Hell, put out that rumor Moore is in with the loan sharks, laundering neighborhood money through his albums, getting a cut and living the better life with his people's sweat. Bust Dominoe, take Moore "into custody", get some lefty famous white woman to bail him out and take him to the Mission. (That's gonna turn the neighborhood fierce.) Then let Marshall put the whammy on him there to get him on the fame bug, take out the martyr complex."
"Moore's still safe. The neighborhood can call it a frame job, but if he actually sells out, they'll turn on him fast enough to spin that chair of yours. They won't riot for trash that fell into bed with the lefties."
At this point, Roger's a little too excited, the headiness of being in the office making the decisions getting to be too much for him. Ah, the draw of power.
Michael
"Moore's still safe. The neighborhood can call it a frame job, but if he actually sells out, they'll turn on him fast enough to spin that chair of yours. They won't riot for trash that fell into bed with the lefties."
Ah, the wages of the past five years of intersectional solidarity slowly cracking and falling apart.
Jeff
(So I dunno if this is something Don might be able to help with or if it's more in Marshall's wheelhouse. He'll only attempt to help out if I roll a 12 — so this might be entirely academic. I'll go ahead and make the roll activating him as a contact though.)
>>>> SUCCESS
(Ok Don will take Mitch's, I mean Matthew's, I mean Mitch's call. But what does Mitch ask him? I mean, maybe Don could scuttle Mansa's deal with Columbia, I dunno? I don't want to step on anybody's toes and/or plans. Also I haven't been keeping track with a stopwatch but I feel like Mitch has gotten a whole lot of spotlight time recently and Marshall not so much. Neither has Charley but her skillset seems less applicable, as far as I know.)
Michael
Well, at the very least we have him available and on retainer. Still a chance to get Mansa on In Concert on ABC before the end of the season and Don leaves to do his own Rock Concert.
But I suspect whether we try to get Mansa "over" with a mainstream white audience will depend on how the meme-ing goes.
Brant
(OOC, I’m not entirely clear on what Roger is proposing Marshall do — but if it’s just a matter of Moore going to the Mission as part of an overall attempt to make him seem lame among the Black community, he’d be fine with that, obviously. Good PR among the white artist counterculture lefty crowd. I’m also not at all concerned with getting “spotlight.” It fits my style for him better that he kind of keeps a distance, observing like a commissar or HR hack, seems like he’s not “doing anything,” etc.)
Bill
(Roger isn't being clear because he'd just piss off Marshall. This could be a whole bit with Roger waggling fingers, making like he's Jim Morrison, rolling his head a lot, and otherwise clumsily dancing around Marshall getting Moore high and laid and hypnotizing him. Y'know, that cult druggie stuff. Roger's low and ignorant opinions about what goes on in Marshall's Mission would likely irritate Marshall no end. Roger senses that, so he's starting just with eyebrow waggling and phrases like "fell into bed with." Feel free to call him out on it.)
Rob
First of all, Archie is pleased that Roger is pleased. Second, if Marshall (and Brant) are cool with it, based on everything said above, I'm thinking we DON'T try to grab Moore before the concert, which does make our Thursday night a lot less hectic. We DO hit Dominoe as planned to get or destroy the tapestry, and maybe also to get or tamper with the album masters. AND we deploy both memes (in possibly diluted form): a word-of-mouth/Streetwise meme designed to suppress attendance at the concert, and a music press/showbiz meme designed to reduce Moore's cred and popularity. If we want to involve Don Kirshner, maybe this is the way: we tip him that Mansa could be "the next Archies" (no pun intended), in other words just the wrong kind of praise and attention for the band. We could still approach Moore AFTER all this has gone down, but we don't black bag him. It occurs to me that we may still want to keep on eye on him for the next few days, to make sure nothing bad happens to him and that he doesn't do anything rash.
Michael
For the record, Sophie thinks that esmologically and tactically this is our best set of options at the moment. Moore remains a (if not the) wild card in her eyes, but the esmological analysis has scared her into believing that the least amount of direct interaction with Moore from here on out until after Saturday afternoon, the better.
Sophie does think that we should get the van ready on Friday evening and park it at the most advantageous spot to use the infrasonic (already determined by Sophie and Charley using Cartography). She thinks it's going to be a good idea to have the device ready and pointed at the stage for whatever sonic subliminals might occur: weird recordings, inadvertent hypnosis by Mansa live, etc. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have someone with a good ability to pinpoint stuff like hypnosis, subliminals, and History B irruption next to whomever is operating the infrasonic from inside the van on Saturday. Also, Sophie says, if the memes work and the crowd for Saturday suddenly becomes multiracial, URIEL can also blend in loads better.
(Rob, just tell me what Power you want to unleash the memes at and I'll start getting rolls together. I will likely delay those rolls for dramatic purposes until after the Dominoe raid goes down. I believe the "Mansa is corny" meme can be deployed at up to/including Power 7 iirc and the "concert is going to be a bummer" meme can be deployed at up to/including Power 9.)
Rob
And Archie will take Corruption equal to the effective Power of each meme, right?
Michael
That is correct. Neither of these are countermemes, sadly.
You only begin to risk converting Corruption to Quirks/Disadvantages at 25 or more.
Rob
Yeah, I'm basically fine with accruing Corruption, that's part of the story we're telling with Archie. But I don't have a strong sense of what, numerically, constitutes a powerful meme. I take it it's not equivalent to skill ratings, where a 7 or a 9 would not be considered very high? (Like, are you rolling under the meme's power with 3d6? Because if you were, even 9 would be pretty chancy.)
Michael
So basically a meme's Power causes Will "damage" that affects the victim's resistance to the belief that the meme conveys. (Ken on MD45 also says that "usually this loss applies only to efforts to resist or oppose the specific meme, but the GM can always justify weird knock-on effects..." oh Ken) So, for instance, Archie's kooks and cranks meme ended up at 5 Power which meant the average TV viewer with a Will of 10 resisted instead at a 5. That means that 95% of the people exposed to the meme caught a Quirk telling them deep down not to pay attention to kook letters.
Keeping in mind that some populations might have higher Wills, either baseline or effective, when it comes to certain ideas of course. I just made the typical American Tube-watching Thanatoid a flat 10 Will.
Mel
Charley will run some tests now that it’s clear to what end the infrasonic device will be used. A) Test the connection between her and the device to control it mentally. B) How effective is she identifying hypnosis, subliminals, History B, in sound waves with her mild synesthesia. Also, she will Ren anything need to make this work with with highest accuracy possible
Michael
All right. Rob, we need a final decision on what Power to release the two memes at. Remember, the deployment rolls could adjust the Power by as much as +2 (on a critical success at deployment) or -2 (on a critical failure).
Rob
OK, how about we say Power 6 each?
Michael
Okay, let's do the "Mansa crossover" meme first. That's the one that's going to be deployed in the mass media. And hey, yes, Mitch has given Don Kirschner a call down in Hollywood to tell him about this great band out of Oakland called Mansa. So let's see how well Don uses his levers in the pop music industry to make this work. Jeff, if you want to roll for Don's effective 15 skill, go for it. That's going to be an aid roll for Archie's eventual Merchant roll.
>>>> SUCCESS
Success by 2. Very nice. Rob, time to work your advertising magic. Merchant roll for Archie, with a +1 from Don and a +2 from Reputation, so effective skill 19.
>>>> SUCCESS
MoS of 7.
Okay, so the "Mansa is corny so white people should check them out" meme has been released at an effective Power of 7 (6 Corruption for the Power of the original meme goes to Archie.) Now, the next meme is the one to muddy the waters about the concert among folks in West Oakland, and that's set to be released by Roger.
So my thought was for Roger to do a blanket Reaction roll that would modify his Streetwise to deploy the meme. So Bill, when you get a chance, give me a 3d6+2 roll to reflect Roger's reception in the barbershops, bars, and social clubs of West Oakland. Higher is better.
>>>> 3d6+2 … 12
Bill
Well, it's something.
I take it I get another point of Corruption for wearing the glyph while I'm walking around, it being another day.
Or is that not compatible with trying to spread a meme?
Michael
Hmm, I hadn't thought about that, but I don't see why you can't use SANGUSH and spread a meme. It would be a different story if you were using a glyph that made people forget you'd talked to them, but this one just makes it look like you fit in.
So give me a straight-up Streetwise roll now.
>>>> SUCCESS
Bang on.
That means that the effective Power of the concert meme is also 7. Well done, y'all. And yes, Bill, if Roger is using SANGUSH on Friday that'll be another point of Corruption. And Archie gets 6 more Corruption for this meme. But man, that is some powerful memetic assault. I will need to think about what happens in the next 24 hours, make some key rolls.