Levels of Play

Within the Talinz Project, I wanted to present 3 different ‘Levels of Play’. The idea behind this would be to distribute storytelling around all of the settings within the world that I thought would make cool stories or jumping off points, but to also encourage prospective players and GMs to think outside of the prescribed roles at play. The easiest thing to do would be to present one level of play, with the group working together as World Series Robotics Athletes, for example, but that might not be every group’s bag, and the more I wrote about the world the story takes place in, the more I thought of other stories that could be told. Before or during your character creation session, when moving through the phases of creation, discuss what kind of characters you would all like to play, and what kind of stories you want to explore.

So take the levels of play as inspirations to take wholesale, or as snippets of what is going on in the wider world, to help inform your campaign:

1) The Talinz World Series!

Talinz fighting is big money, and you’re the one reaping all the benefits. Those crates of energy drinks delivered straight to your mansion for that short commercial, that 7 figure paycheck? Monthly? Good times. But there are people that got you where you are. Your pit teams, your sponsors, your fans, your PR guy… Not to mention your robot. Or had you forgotten that when the industrial sponsor offered you a new top-of-the-range frame to promote their new product?

When you go up on screen every Saturday night, millions around the world scream your name. When the spotlights hit your Talinz, covered in adverts from all your sponsors, hundreds of thousands of units shift in response. When you talk to the press, everyone listens. That’s a lot of pressure for a sportsman to be under.  

Talinz has two leagues, solo and team; and both have their own particular fans, loyalists and detractors. Some Talinz pilots move between leagues, but very few compete in both at the same time. Outside of this, promoters are always excited to televise ‘grudge matches’ or additional fights between top standing pilots and their frames, which normally happen on a Wednesday night (and drive pit teams almost universally crazy with the amount of work they then have to do restoring the frame before Saturday).

When creating a group for this level of play, consider whether playing a pilot’s entourage or a group of pilots might be something you enjoy more. When the Talinz Creation step occurs, consider who your promoters might be and what your relationship with them is. Fun themes to explore within this level of play might be greed, loyalty and spin. Discuss whether the game should be more about the Saturday night fight and the soap opera between fighters, or whether you want to explore perhaps more insidious weekday plots, dealing with greedy or pushy corporate sponsors, or public relations nightmares.

   

 2) The Talinz Sunday League

Sunday is a special day. A day reserved for celebrating amateurs; workers and students who can’t get enough of their fix by just watching on a Saturday night. These amateur Sunday leagues can be a great launching point for professional teams, scouts are known to hit local tournaments to check for talent, and quite a few high school national champions have gone on to become major world contenders. Rules tend to be both less and more strict. Due to the budget constraints of the average team, anything operating on a basic Talinz frame tends to be allowed, rather than the sports models that become almost a requirement at higher leagues. It isn’t uncommon for retrofitted industrial frames or even domestic servant Talinz to appear to defend a title. On the other hand, most amateur Talinz arena owners aren’t fond of using the flashier pyrotechnics of the big leagues, owing to clean up and restoration costs, and so explosive weaponry tends to be off the agenda. Some of the more rabid fans of amateur Talinz declare this makes the combat more ‘real’ and ‘visceral’, which is debatable, but what it certainly does do is push most of the monetary constraints onto the teams expected to restore their frame every week.

When creating a group for this level of play, consider whether you want to play a team looking after one Talinz unit, or a team of fighters. Most don’t have a dedicated pit team, but if you have a large enough society, you might do. Think about how your characters get their money for their hobby. Talinz fighting can be expensive, and that can be a great source of drama for the campaign. Are you affiliated to another body, such as a local meeting place, employment, pub or school? What kind of frame was your Talinz unit before you fitted it for the league? Does it revert to that job during the week? Does your team dream of the top? Or do you just love getting your hands dirty every weekend? Are there any professional fighters you idolise? Do you have a group of units, or just one? Do you take turns piloting, or do you have an ace?

3) AI Crime & Prevention units

Where there is money, there comes crime. And Talinz are big money. It’s been ten years since Avogadro Industrial Frames were put out of business for corruption. The Talinz units sent to serve the police had been hardcoded to destroy any evidence incriminating the corporation. This wouldn’t be too much of a problem, if the board of directors weren’t involved in the largest illegal arms dealing ring since the end of the war.

Ten years since the police stopped using Talinz to assist in their work. Should have made it easier, but being forced to rely on remote, shackled AI operators to crack anything that isn’t a criminal and his legal stooge has made things substantially harder. The criminals know it too. They know the limitations and hide their deeds behind ever more advanced technology.

And the Talinz are getting smarter. Just because they don’t count as people by law, it doesn’t mean they haven’t been caught for premeditated murder. Some in the police departments even think they might have feelings. There are rumblings in interrogation rooms of robotic cults. Advocacy groups. Want to be treated as equals, as people. But the regulations say to scrap them if they look defective. So they do. In the thousands.

When creating a group for this level of play, the main restriction might seem to be the lack of Talinz units, but maybe one player might be interested in taking the role of a remote AI support. These AIs are kept in large facilities, programmed by government officials, and require triplicate permission from different humans in order to perform actions. These kind of things can be handwaved for play (with the player perhaps playing one of the officials outside of crime stopping), but could act as a nice inspiration for aspects. If one player really wants to play a Talinz unit, perhaps they are one of the first of a government funded initiative within the force, their programming heavily monitored in order to make sure the Avogadro scandal does not repeat itself. How do the other characters react to that? What kind of blocks and checks might the Talinz have on their operation? How does the Talinz unit feel about that?

Consider how your character feels about Talinz units and AI in general. Are they suspicious? Do they watch the professional fights at the weekend, or has their job jaded them to the sport? If they have family at home, how does their work affect that personal life?

Last, but not least, discuss the kind of crimes you want to explore. This is related to the themes of the campaign. Discuss those too. Is corporate and industrial intrigue more your thing? Maybe organised criminals are getting their hands on some advanced weaponry or Talinz frames? Maybe you might be assigned to Talinz-related crimes, or investigating the growing liberation movement?

NEXT TIME
Next on the Talinz Project I want to look at exactly what a Talinz unit is, as well as a bit of the history behind them. It will also include the first bit of actual crunch in the project, the Talinz Creation Step.