Episode: 2424
Title: HPR2424: Interface Zero RPG Play
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2424/hpr2424.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-19 02:47:35

---

This is HBR episode 2424 entitled Interface Nero RPG Play and is part of the series Tabletop
Gaming.
It is hosted by Klaatu and is about 50 minutes long and carrying a clean flag.
The summer is Klaatu, Loma and has played Interface Nero RPG.
This episode of HBR is brought to you by An Honesthost.com.
It's 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HBR15, that's HBR15.
Better web hosting that's honest and fair at An Honesthost.com
It's called actual play RPG, if you're curious about RPG and how it's played but you've
never tried, then this is going to give you a sample of it.
There are a lot of great shows out there online that do this already but they generally focus
on fantasy stuff so this one at least will be showcasing Cyberpunk RPG.
And before we get started I think maybe we should introduce ourselves in terms of what
our background with RPG is.
I think that might be interesting so choosing at random, actually I could even roll a
die for this to see who goes first to keep it very RPG.
Don't mention your character yet, just kind of give me some indication of how you got
started with RPG, maybe how long you've been playing if that's not obvious in how you
tell us how you got started.
And the die roll says, low bath you are first.
All right, I've been playing role playing games for probably about 20 years.
I started when I'm maybe only 15 anyway, I started when I was in college with a group
that I'd play D&D 3.5 or third edition after that started with a group that I met for
several years playing Pathfinder and then a little bit of fifthed D&D at the end there
and then since I've moved my current location, I've been playing fifthed on and off with
one or two different groups of people.
Cool, so you're pretty well versed in this, Taj, how about you?
Yeah, I don't know, I've been playing some form of RPGs probably since I was like 12
or 13.
So it's been 20 some odd years starting way back with like AD&D first edition all
way up through successive Dungeons and Dragons until about three five and then I kind of fell
out of that.
Back in the day, playing things like Western Star Wars, the play D&D games, just basically
any game we could get our hands on, vampire things like that.
As I've gotten older more recently, I kind of messed up on Pathfinder, so this is my first
experience with it, but my friends have tended to go more rules, light stuff, so a lot of
the stuff we've been playing recently is like powered by the apocalypse games or like
really stripped down fate system or just just some indie stuff that we pick up every
once in a while, but it's always been a thing that I'm into.
Cool, yeah, and that's that's something that I actually wanted to kind of touch on,
which is the rules, I mean RPGs do tend to have lots of rules because they're games and
games tend to have rules, but in the interest of keeping this mini series as entertaining
as as we possibly can, we'll be playing fairly rules light, meaning that if something comes
up and we're not sure on how to handle it, we'll probably just kind of mutually agree
how to handle it and go and just pick up from there rather than derailing the whole thing
and looking up rules and rules books and stuff like that, but I think that's an important
principle of getting started with RPG too, so if you know, if you do want to get started
with RPG playing and what you hear here on this show interests you and you finally go
and try to play an RPG game, like don't let the rules stop you, just play as best as you
understand the rules, making up what you don't know from there and just and as you play
more, you can learn more and you can be more more exact, but at the end of the day, it
doesn't really matter to that end, we have a giveaway, we have three RPG starter packs,
which are all in PDF form, so they're downloadable content from piezo.com, which is the publisher
of the Pathfinder rulebook, so if anyone listening has meant to get into RPG games and has
not yet done that, shoot me an email, clatuatmember.fsf.org or clatuacarpublicradio.org, either
one works and just kind of let me know that you'd be interested in getting your hands
on one of those.
I think I'll give one away each episode, at least up until three, because that's how
many I have.
Email me and I'll send you the downloadable link where you can go and put your email
in and log into piezo and redeem the downloads.
The downloads include the beginner box, which is a little bit like the old legendary red
box of D&D first edition or second edition, whatever, I think it was first edition, it
just has all the basics that you would ever need to get started, it holds your hand during
character creation, gets you started down the whole path and tells you how exactly to
run things, it's really, really good, it's a great little set.
And in addition to the beginner box, it comes also the core rulebook, which is at least
300, possibly 500 pages, and that's got all the things in it that you would ever want.
So shoot me an email if you're interested in getting that, I'll just take the first
one that I receive and I'll do one each release of the main series.
I think that's everything that I needed to say up front, so let's get started.
Let's jump into the world first and then we'll introduce the actual characters.
So the year is 2090, 50 years ago the USA and the UNE, the Unified Middle East.
After nearly 100 years of battle, entered nuclear war, it's not clear now who fired the
first shot, but it plunged the earth into what people now simply refer to as the death.
The death wiped out large portions of the population, thrust the world into darkness
under chemical clouds, assaulted the land with acid rain, and drove people into the safety
of the corporate run cities.
Corporations continued to grow until they themselves became city states and in 2090, the present
year.
You either work for a corporation or you scrape together a desperate existence in the
urban wasteland known simply as the sprawl.
Our story takes place in New Angeles, which is located in the South Pacific Division of
the FEMA-Zoned United States.
Today it's raining and the acid rating is at 18%, nothing a hardened sprawler can't handle.
Speaking of hardened sprawlers, Taj, tell us about your character, who are you playing?
So I'm playing character called Sid Allister, just go to the best of it.
This is what the system refers to as a human 2.0, which means he's had some genetic manipulation
done.
In his backstory, this was done by his parents before birth.
So he kind of comes from a more well-off background than probably a lot of the characters
in the world.
They had a lot of kind of things put on him at birth and he didn't seem to like that.
So he as a teenager decided he wanted to get away from that and move out on his own
and kind of do things.
And so he kind of embraced a path of what in the system is called Cybermonk.
These are people who sort of almost cybernetic manipulation and modification is almost
a religion.
And so he has gotten into this.
He's spent his life studying martial arts and religion and sort of this cybernetic culture
to kind of find what he thinks is a higher truth.
And now that he's a little older, he's been doing that, you know, for probably about
20 years.
He's got to a point where he's just disappointed in where he's where he's at.
And I was doing my character right down.
I'd put peace through strength was one of his big things that pushed him through life.
And he feels like he hasn't gotten where he wanted.
And so he feels like he's hit that plateau and he's questioning all this training.
They got him to this point.
He's kind of lost his faith in a certain way.
And he's just kind of wandering about just trying to find out what he wants in life.
Yeah.
I love this idea of cybernetics as a religion, especially in this world where I think
people would have to latch on to onto something.
And yeah, all this new technology would be a great thing.
Now, when you say he lost his faith, has he lost his faith?
You think in cybernetics itself or just sort of in general, like where his life is going
or both?
Maybe a little bit of both, but definitely more of the ladder, just sort of, I don't
think he would give up what he's done and the training he's done and the, the enhancements
he has.
But I think they got him somewhere, but that somewhere is not where he wanted to go.
Cool.
Okay.
What character are you playing?
Yeah.
I chose to play a character that I've named Chai Wei.
She is a bio-roid, which is a human that has a computer interface directly into their
brain.
They're background humans.
They're more or less outlawed or at least tightly regulated in society.
So she is living a secret life.
She's working for a government-owned corporation.
She's found that she can make her way through the corporate systems by being an agent for
them.
She's sort of a spy trained in manipulating and determining whether people would be, you
know, be able to be bribed and so she's just making her way through the system as best
she can.
Very nice.
Okay.
So both are working or rather for extra cash on the side, you've taken to taking on extra
jobs and the way that this is done in Interface Zero's world, which I probably should have
mentioned is the system that we're playing Interface Zero based on Pathfinder.
You locate someone called a fixer and your fixer is kind of your, I don't know, pimp for
lack of a better term.
The agent would be better but there are already agents in this world so it's kind of the terminology
might get confused.
So the fixer is the person who goes out into the world and finds people who need jobs
done and then passes that information on to you.
Probably takes a cut off the top.
We would imagine.
And your fixer has told you that you have a client that you might try to meet at your
usual junk or cafe out in the sprawl.
It's a good place to meet because it's far from the, pretty far from any of the law enforcement
for anyone to really ask too many questions about and it's not in a super dangerous area
of the sprawl but it's tucked away enough that it's a pretty safe bet for under the
table dealings.
The junk or cafe, you know well, you've been there quite frequently and you're free to
go there, either try to get there before the client or after the client.
It's up to you guys really.
How much do we trust this fixer?
I mean, if we work with them before?
Yeah, the fixer you've worked, you've gotten gigs from the fixer before.
I didn't mention it in the intro but we're starting with level four characters so let's
assume that you've little while you've worked with this fixer so yeah, you don't think
that this would be a setup.
It'll definitely be a be a prompt set of time so we'll be there.
So I'll be there.
Yeah.
We'll work together on this one.
Okay.
Yeah.
So the time has been arranged, let's say it's 2,100 and you arrive at the cafe, it's
a dump, it's cobbled together from sort of the remains of a building that had been long
abandoned which is basically most of the sprawl.
I mean, that's just suburbs and city areas that people walked away from a long time ago
and have now been reestablished and it's mostly open air, I mean, to say that it has
no windows but it's got a bunch of awnings and things to keep out the acid rain.
And it is raining right now, as I said, so not too bad in terms of acid content.
You hurry inside and back in the far right corner, you kind of zero in pretty quickly,
especially Chaiway which I think you had read the room skill.
So you use zero in really quickly, that there's this lady back there who, although she has
clearly tried to dress down for the occasion, you know, she's clearly slumming it, she's
really, really out of place.
Said we're at a bar cafe, order a beverage and go have a seat with her, I guess.
Just sit down like, like I know her, just say hi.
I think I'll follow him but sort of be a little more distant, maybe like stand behind
him, not be so comfortable but just be around in the area.
So I can be part of the conversation but maybe not engaged.
Watching his back possibly.
Yeah, just sort of head on a swivel kind of deal.
Yep.
So the lady when Chaiway sits down, she seems simultaneously relieved that you showed up
but also very, very nervous.
She's clearly never done this before but she seems to suspect that you are the person
that she is supposed to be meeting and she says, are you Chaiway?
I tell her, yeah, what's his name sent me over here to meet with you?
Yes, yes, I didn't really get his name either, it's kind of strange.
I'm Elizabeth Ravadun.
I am a manager at Global Omnium Digital.
Now you both know that Global Omnium Digital is a huge corporation on the sort of the
border of New Angeles.
It's a major corporation but no one's really 100% sure what it does.
It's one of those sort of self-contained entities that you don't really go to a store and
get a Global Omnium Digital product.
You know, it's just one of those things that whatever they are making must go into stuff
at a lower level than general is not consumer goods, whatever it is.
And she sort of, she continues, I know that from the outside Global Omnium Digital seems
very stable but I'm going to admit to you and I'm assuming that this is all in the highest
level of confidence, it's going through a lot of growing pains right now and I need
help to manage some of my board members.
Specifically, there's a board member named Peter and I have a suspicion that he's trying
to turn the other board members against me.
This is something that I need fixed.
The problem is that Peter has, as far as I can tell, taken to hiding out in his apartment,
he's doing everything remotely which isn't unusual for Global Omnium Digital but I can't
seem to reach him at all.
He doesn't take calls, I can't get to him physically, I need him extracted from his apartment.
I've been told that this is something that you might be able to do for me.
I'll look back over at Thadge and say, I think we might be able to help you out, we're
going to need a little bit more information though I think.
Of course, anything.
He said you haven't been able to get in contact with him or get to his apartment.
What have you found that's blocking your way?
She sort of laughs a little bit and I wouldn't try to go to his apartment, of course, that's
not my place but I have sent people to his apartment and some of them haven't come back.
I'd ask what kind of people are you sending?
People with a similar skill set to ours or people who may not be as in depth as we are.
People very similar to yourselves.
I'm going to kind of give a look to Zhao Wei at this point and kind of do my spot eyebrows
and see what she thinks of the situation.
It sounds like you've got quite a problem there but I think the two of us might be able
to help extract him from his apartment.
I guess what would you like, where would you like him extracted to?
She sort of thinks about this for a moment almost as if though she hadn't really thought
that far ahead and she says, I don't want you to bring him directly to me because I need
to not be connected with this operation so I'll need you to put him in some location
and then let me know where that location is.
If you need a location I can provide one, like a safe house.
I'm going to think of a place that I might be able to take that to.
You guys would probably know of any number of abandoned buildings throughout this sprawl.
If you wanted to try to do that, you could.
On the other hand, you don't really know where his apartment is in relation to the places
that you know of so yeah, it's kind of up to you.
I guess we'll get the address and I guess I'd like to ask her what sort of payment will
be given for this extraction?
Yeah, so she tells you that Peter lives in the Je-Jing district in building 2019-2019
and she says that she was the price that she was thinking was $5,000 crypto each for the
extraction.
I ask a question as far as you said you'd sent others and you're contracting us, are there
others right now also trying to pull off this extraction?
Do we have complications that we need to kind of keep in mind?
She hesitates, visibly hesitates and says not currently no.
There's no one else I have going after him right now.
Is there a possibility that other board members are also trying to do the same thing or
prevent you from doing the same thing?
She nods, yeah, she says yes, I don't know like I say the internal structure of global
omnium digital right now is bordering on revolutionary so I don't know what the other
board members are up to but I feel like most of them are differential to him so I don't
think that they would be trying to get to him but I could be wrong, I don't know, I don't
have that information.
I'm going to try to see if we can get a little bit more cash.
I think $5,000 seems a little low especially since we've already tried to send other
help so I'm going to try to roll in diplomacy check I think?
Yeah, that would make sense.
So I got a 16 plus my 11 bonus so 27.
Good gosh, okay.
Yeah, my character has a insane number of skills so yeah.
I'm glad you have that skill because I've lived at my sheet and I have a zero so I'm glad
you have that one.
Yeah, so I'm going to say how about 7,000 I think you know we can probably help you out
but if you've already tried some help you know we need a little bit more payment.
She doesn't even hesitate she's like yeah 7,000 is fine I can do that.
Alright I think we've got a deal, let's try probably part ways and then see if we can
figure out where the apartment is.
Okay, she sees that you're kind of making movements to end the meeting so she just kind
of reaches forward and even just holds on to your hand a little bit Chai Wei and she
says I do I do want to stress that I cannot be connected to this in any way.
I need you to not contact me until unless it is to tell me that the job is finished.
Yeah, I think we can keep this between us.
Thank you.
She stands up and she sort of makes her way out of the cafe awkwardly trying to seem
strong and confident like really sort of sort of jumping a little bit every time someone
looks at her you know because she's like clearly out of her element but yeah she makes
her way out eventually.
Alright, see I do have some knowledge local maybe I could find out some more information
about like the apartment that he's in or the complex that he's in or maybe some more
information about him himself, about Peter himself.
Yeah, thanks doing that and maybe some surveillance of the area might be helpful before we go
off trying to pull this thing together with that knowing what's going on.
Yeah, give me a roll for your knowledge local 10 bonus and I rolled an 11 so 21.
Okay, so you know, I mean you're you're especially I think Chai Wei would know this just because
if you're well and actually even maybe said because you do come from a pretty pretty good
background.
The Jaging District is it's a busy corporate heavy like downtown area.
It's filled with high rises, exclusives of restaurants and clubs.
I mean, it's a it's a very upscale type of place.
So the fact that Peter lives there is is not super surprising if he's a board member on
a major corporation.
It makes sense that he would live in Jaging.
You're not familiar with the area enough to know oh yeah, building 2019 that's that's
the red brick building or that's the one with all the glad you know you don't know that
but you know that the area certainly is is quite high rent.
So you're going to imagine that the security would be appropriately forceful to scale
with you know the prices.
So if Peter has hold himself up in his apartment and is protecting himself with things then
he's probably been able to afford a pretty good level of security.
Alright, then I think heading over there and probably doing some recon like you said would
be a good idea.
Cool.
So you guys jump on the the monorail because monorails are futuristic.
Jump on the monorail and make your way over to the Jaging district neon lights all over
the place.
Big electronic build boards on the sides of buildings.
It's just it's downtown Tokyo practically.
Super high high rent.
It's a really nice area and something a place that you don't really usually frequent
yourselves because it's just not it's not you're not quite at that level surely you're
not CEOs or board members so you don't really have an opportunity to be there often but
it's busy and it's crowded and it's it's full of life.
You eventually track down the 2000s block of buildings and it's kind of on the border
of the Jaging district and as you as you are you gonna walk down or do you have a vehicle
how are you how are you getting to the actual building and and what's your approach.
I don't have a vehicle so I think we know about that but we'd probably be walking.
Yeah I definitely think we would walk there.
When we're talking about the sort of the setting that you said this is a pretty corporate
place do we stand out at all or is it busy enough to where we're able to move pretty
well and keep ourselves concealed.
That's actually kind of why I was asking how you're getting there because as you start
down the 2000s block which again kind of on the border of the Jaging district you notice
that the the crowds are sort of thinning out and the street is kind of getting darker and
it you're getting the sense that this is kind of a neglected block like maybe this is
this is sort of technically in the Jaging district but maybe it's kind of the the part
of the district that doesn't get as much attention as the rest so yeah you're starting
to get the feeling that that as you walk yeah there's not really a cover of crowd at any
at at this point so I don't know how you want to approach the building like if you want
to just walk by as if they're your pedestrians or if you want to take something a little
bit more casual or how you want to do this well I guess let's stop is there a you know cafe
or something up the block that we could go that's a little more populated that we could stop
at first and then maybe go from there I do have I am wearing a business suit and as my outfit
so I probably don't stick out too bad in this neighborhood but I don't know how about
yeah what's Sid look like right now I would I envision him obviously he's bald probably not
the best dressed he's one of those kind of people who rambles around just job to job but he gets
paid pretty well but he's not somebody who's overly not going to spend a lot of money on clothing
so he probably isn't the best dress he may stick out just a little bit yeah I think in this area
you're Sid's probably the liability visual liability so yeah if you guys want to stop there's a
cafe the cafe loopy it's it's at the it's just sort of a couple of buildings in once you start
down the 2000s block and it's it's got people there who are mostly just they look like really
high highly paid wage slaves you know the sort of the accountants and people who clearly do
important jobs but but aren't actually influential in any way they're kind of sitting there sort of
all the customers are just kind of keeping to themselves and basically ignore you and not
really interested in you and from this advantage point you can see you can see down the street
up to 20 to 2019 you can see the building that that you're that you're targeting all right
and from from from the outside it looks it it's just sort of a building it's um it's a brick building
and it seems to be mostly yeah you don't really see any activity around it
is it an apartment building or is it uh what what kind of building was it yeah it looks it looks
like it has probably always been an apartment building uh it's got you can tell that that has
two big glass doors out in front probably sliding glass doors um and it's it's it's it's quite well
lit from the inside you can kind of see at this time of night you can see the light from the four
year sort of streaming out onto the street in front on the sidewalk in front of it um so yeah
it looks like it's it's probably just an apartment building and that's basically what's around
it too is is other apartment-y looking buildings right well i guess i have a decent stealth so i might
be able to get up in there uh how about youth uh Jenny uh stealth skill yeah i've got a stealth of
eight so i'm pretty i feel confident there um i've also got pretty high athletics and acrobatics
so i feel like if we need to get in there in less obvious ways that might be something we could be
successful with okay um yeah i have a stealth of nine and my acrobatics is okay um it
takes training in it but it's not great yeah so give me stealth rolls then and this isn't a
super hard one because i well actually yeah it might be yeah give me stealth rolls i got a
ten plus nine so nineteen i got a seven plus eight so we're gonna add 50
cool let me just look at this stealth table here because it's it's based in interfaces zero it's
based on crowd size and there's not much of a crowd here so let me look yeah okay actually looks
looks like that'll do it um so you guys um i mean it's a little bit easier for chai way because she
kind of fits in anyway but um you guys kind of make your way stealthily uh towards 2019 so you're
you're you know staying on the opposite side of the street and then you kind of casually cross the
street just looking like you're out for a after an evening walk not a big deal and uh as you approach
the building you see uh as you saw from a distance yeah there's big glass doors out in front
there is a key card swiper um just adjacent to the glass doors and if you walk by the glass doors
you notice that they certainly don't just slide open for you um it's pretty obvious that you're
gonna need some kind of access card to get even into the foyer uh the foyer itself appears to be
mostly automated there's not like a door man or a receptionist or anything like that um it's it's
it's got some post boxes uh for for incoming mail and and and packages and it's got a lift
an elevator at the far end which also has a key card entry so it looks like there are
several uh key card points you know check in points and there's nobody in there there's not
there's no there's no security at least that you can see um and it's a pretty wide empty space so
that's what you got are the foyer doors the only entrance into that uh space yeah let's uh
swing around the other side of the building see if there's anything else yeah okay so staying with
the same stealth roll you um you kind of just duck into the the alley and um make your way
towards the back and uh indeed in the back there is a um a loading dock for for all of the different
probably cleaning you know cleaning cleaning supplies and and probably moving people's
things in so that you know there's a probably a service elevator and stuff so there's loading dock
and let me see what kind of door is in front of it hold on there's a there's just a a door
there's no key card access it's it's actually the old fashioned like physical key entry for this back
entry um it looks it looks metal so it's a pretty solid door but but it's not electronic uh and
yeah that's just through the through the loading dock which again seems mostly abandoned right now
can I do a perception check to see if there's any kind of uh like obvious security if some if
this door got open that they would notice that that happened you mean like in terms of cameras or
something like that or or where do you want to what what kind of perception are you looking at?
I'm I'm specifically looking for like some kind of trigger that would kick on if we open the door
some sort of mechanism there not so much cameras something more physical see if the door is trapped
oh sure yeah yeah so you want to examine it yeah yeah that's a yep so yeah give me a roll um for
I don't know whatever kind of perception you you have available to you got a 11 with a seven
modifier so 18 cool as far as you can tell no there is no additional security behind this door
it it appears to be a big metal door with a lock on it and that's the extent of it is the lock
like just like a regular handle lock or is it like a um like a padlock situation?
not yeah it's built into the door so it's a it's a handle lock door lock I do have some hacking
skills too so we could probably try the front door otherwise we could probably bust in this back door
um yeah I don't know which which way do you think we should go? I doubt I'm going to be very helpful
with the hacking but I do have a cybernetic arm and this is a metal door so I'm pretty sure that
we could pound on it eventually get it open well I'm worried that that is the less subtle way
of handling things so we might try your way first and then if that is a bus we might come back to
this plan all right yeah I'm interested to see how the hacking system works in this game too so
let's give try and open the front door try cool okay so hacking in order to get in um you need to
get over its firewall oh so it is a it is a protected system too or secured system too so there
are different levels of secured systems and so there's there's public which is pretty low and
that's the kind of stuff that you just find on the streets like uh billboards and things like
that so if you wanted to put pictures of cats on all the billboards you could do that pretty easily
then there are home uh networks there are corporate networks government and military networks
you feel like this would probably be corporate a level because because they could afford it
you know whereas if it was just a home network yeah it seems like that would be a lower rent area
of town so you're thinking it's probably a corporate network just to give you an idea of what you'd
be up against but you expect that there would certainly be a firewall in place right well I
will see if I can hack into it so I'll roll my hacking check got a 14 plus I have a 12 uh skill
a bonus so 26 uh it's fantastic yes uh you are you are on their network you are past their firewall
so weak yeah so you are now in hyper reality um meaning that that you're on the matrix um
and you can see all the different devices um in in proper cyberpunk you know matrix
understanding network understanding they're little icons out in in in 3d space uh from from
here you can see on the ground floor there's um there are the two key card entries for the door
and the lift there is a key card entry over by the um service elevator in the back of the building
where you guys were before or where you are now maybe uh and then uh there are cameras in the
foyer as well and right now it seems pretty latent you don't really see any anti hacking
programs wandering around but that that sometimes gets triggered um you know I mean you've you
successfully passed the firewall so they don't know that you're here so yeah there wouldn't be
right now in other words so the only cameras I see are in the foyer on the first floor
um the first floor and then uh there are a couple of cameras uh there's there's a camera it seems
per floor above above that so it seems like there's probably a camera in each main hallway
is he sharing this information with me at the same time yeah she can motor that you know as she
as she floats around cyberspace so the back door might actually be a good way to go because then
we're not on camera but we gotta find some way to force the door it seems like once we force
that initial door am I correct in what I heard that there's another key carded door after that
to get into the foyer can we go can we go around that or do we have to get through that door as well
um I don't know I can't see in there yet and I guess I could try to disable the security cameras
that yeah let me think about that so the key card door does that go to the
uh into the elevator or is that into the lobby I guess I missed that the uh key card or the
so it's glass doors that goes into the into the lobby area the front lobby and then there's a key
card access on the elevator that that the main elevator that takes you up to the apartments is that
what you're asking I know from the back door you said there was a key card somewhere in the
rear of the building as well I guess I probably wouldn't know where that goes um you you would
because it would be it would be identified as which key card access it was and that's the um that
is the uh service elevator uh okay that's what's probably lower lower potentially lower security as well
yeah I mean avoiding the cameras seems like the less we disable and the lesser on camera the better
we're gonna be um especially trying to do this kind of stealthily so I think that would be a better
route yep I think we bus through the back door and then go up the service elevator I'm not very
strong though so you want to try busting this thing down I might be able to potentially
pick it but I don't know it seems like I probably haven't seen or you know lock and key in a long time
yeah it's pretty ancient tech it's pretty pretty surprising do you want me to leave you
jacked in up here and me run back there real quick or do you want to come with I assume we were
still in the back I assume we were still in the back alley um I it's wireless hacking so we could
go from basically wherever yeah there's a range there's wireless range of 25 feet so um
I I feel like the network would be accessible from the back as well um so yeah I can say
hacked in and uh and then uh if you want to try busting down the door all right time to put this
aside we know the garbage use uh let's try to bash in the door yeah I think this is just
gonna be a raw strength check then okay roll the floor I've got a 22 uh strength
okay let me check because again they're they have a whole table of door strengths so let me look
hold on what did you say you got I rolled the floor I've got a 22 strength that's what's your
strength bonus oh it's plus six that'd be a 10 yeah okay so um first hit does not does not do it
it puts a huge dent in the door um and you can see like the edge of the door sort of you know
you're you're basically trying to implode it you know so so you see that the door has has been pushed
in you see that there's tension now on the on the latch that is keeping the door closed but it
wasn't enough to uh to break the the lock but you you're so far no one seems to be running over
you know like so you could try again let's do it roll again this time I got a seven is that
adjusted or seven plus year for bonus or mod that's that's just natural uh so plus six
overlooking that third um yeah so uh once again it it it hits um do get give me another roll
give me a we'll call it a damage roll because I'm I'm trying to sort of do this progressively I
mean I guess you could just take money as well but but give me another roll for damage do you want
me to do my unarmed damage three okay so yeah it's the thing is just it's a really heavy metal door
um but you could certainly try again if you want again it doesn't appear that anyone is
rushing over to to attack or anything like that it seems to be mostly abandoned right now
go for it all right roll again that's better I got a 14 plus uh well you plus six oh nice okay
yep so third time to charm you you smack the door and finally it just it the metal itself
just kind of concaves it bends it bends the whole structure inward uh the the the thing pops off of
its hinges and and just flies open the moment it flies open and there's an open space a um an
offline uh security robot sort of camped out in in the corner opens fire so oops uh it's going to
get in a surprise surprise attack but let's go ahead and roll for initiative really quick just to
sort of have a nine just to see who goes when okay um and I got an 11 you have uncanny dodge so I
cannot be uh black footed so I still get my full defense I actually think you might not because
you are still hacked in correct um yeah I guess I was still jacked in yeah yeah I would okay so I
think let me just double check that but I think that means that you're basically a flat footed
in the real world uh no matter what but let me just double check that real quick okay yeah so I'm
the the way I'm reading it is that if if you are jacked in you are you are flat footed um because
your attention is on hyper reality rather than reality reality so um I think you're you don't get
the the uncanny dodge uh bonus for this all right that seems reasonable uh the robot got 18 on his
initiative roll on its initiative roll so um he's he'll go twice in a row um so first he's going to
do uh a burst fire um and the way that we've decided that we're doing damage interface 0 does the
weapon damage really weird it has like presets and I don't like that so the way that I've decided
that it's gonna happen is uh for burst fire uh we're gonna do exploding dice and plus two bonus
on damage so he gets to roll uh a d8 and so if he rolls an 8 then he'll roll again and add
add the damage to that and so he's firing on on the cyber monk on Sid actually because he's
you're standing in the door so that's a um oh wait he didn't even roll to hit yet uh sorry uh
eight that probably does not hit you correct you oh your flat foot said no he would not fit yeah
okay so he misses but he gets to go again because he rolled 18 10 probably does oh wait does he
have a attack bonus at all me look okay so actually 12 okay so 12 does that hit probably not
no but just barely doesn't it okay um then next up is Chai Wei I think yeah all right um is there
anything I can do in the hacking against this drone you don't see yeah you didn't really see anything
yeah so he's he must be offline um he's no no wireless access point no okay which also I mean
you would know because you're a hacker also probably means that he's not super intelligent like
he's it's probably literally just something that is reacting at a certain from a certain time
to a certain time to the door having been open okay and he can't alert anyone then either
because you're at least it does probably not yeah yeah all right um I guess I will drop the
hyper reality and attempt to make an attack on him I think I could just yeah I think
disconnecting takes around so I think that one might have been your action for that one right
that's fine I will uh then hang out by the side of the building and let let uh thouges take a
whack at him cool said all right I got the two uh two to hit yep yeah that does not hit
uh do you want to move it all you can you can move uh as well yeah let's do a lateral that puts me
on the opposite side of Chai Wei so if she's on the left side I would go to the right side of the
door to her so you're sort of flanking the the doorway yeah absolutely yeah cool um okay so yeah
so the robot um will move towards the door um he's not a super fast robot but um he's not that far
away either so he gets he gets about halfway between where he was off in a corner uh towards the
door so he's like about 10 feet from you now but he's he's within the you know he's he can't reach
you because you're on either side of the doorway so he does he does nothing but move this round
low bath all right um I will pull out my gun I have one of the AGA thunderfoot I think it's a heavy
pistol oh pull that out and uh then in the doorway and take a shot at him and then uh move back
to the other side I said cool um yeah take a shot at a seven and my base attack is four so eleven
does not hit almost but does not hit I miss miss and uh then end up just on the other side of the
door from said all right I take out uh I've got the uh men reiki gassari and uh attack and I get a
14 nice okay that is a hit roll for damage what weapon is that it's uh men reiki gassari it's like a
chain weapon and I got a six cool okay um me is it rain is it ranged like a whip or are you
right up close with them it is 36 inches long so I'd only be three foot so that's still my leg
yeah so you've moved in um ten feet or something like ten feet I mean two squares essentially inward
correct yeah right at one top of them okay so you give them a good a good whack and and you know you
see that you that is casing uh shakes to the core you know you've you've definitely made solid
contact with this guy um but it is his turn so he points his gun in your face and fires um let's see
what yeah what happens wow he's rolling badly two um plus his two attack bonus so four doesn't
hit um low bath all right um all this gunfire is going to give us away but whatever I'm going to run
into the room uh try to get around him the other side from Sid and uh shoot him with my gun
on I roll a one oh man um I critically miss all right well luckily we're not doing any critical
fumbles or anything fancy like that so um yeah well Sid is safe for today yeah you miss and then
said you feel you feel like through through a pant leg or something or or you know whatever you're
wearing you you feel you feel a breeze just kind of fly by you you not really sure if you've
got a new hole in your garment or not but it yeah makes you a little bit nervous thanks
thanks the robot just sort of laughs you didn't know he had a laughing processor but he does um
yeah so it's your go Sid so um I want to take the uh mariki gassari and I want to
wrap it around the robot in a way to where I can try to grapple with it and hold it in one spot so
it it's loses its movement oh interesting okay yeah um let's do that I guess is a grapple really um
yes it'll be the CMB that'll use your CMB versus it's CMD I think is how it works in pathfinder if
I remember yeah that's correct um I just have to I don't know what this guy's CMD is but let me
let me check that really quick but go ahead and give me a roll Sid while I'm looking that up
roll the 13 oh wait a minute we're doing CMB is that what we just said yeah it's a combat maneuver um
so yeah that's and and you're going against his combat maneuver defense okay so that would make
my roll 19 oh man yeah that's pretty darn good I do want to get his numbers though so let me
let me check it really quick yeah okay so you've grappled him you and I'm assuming you're using
your cyber arm what's your what's the what's your what what is your cyber arm give you in terms
of the bone of a bonus and strength it does is there a number for that um it doesn't have anything
specific that like that it um it has a cyber weapon in which is one d6 damage but that would be
all that it has to itself yeah that's fine I was just kind of curious um yeah so you grapple him
you're using your cyber arm to to to keep him sort of under control I'm assuming you're just trying
to basically keep his gun out of firing position so he struggles but yes he fails he his his robot
strength is no match for your powerful cyber arm uh and it is his his roll so he's going to now
try to to roll to to extricate himself from your grapple uh 15 is what he rolls what is your
CMD uh 10 he breaks free uh that's right right lobathy he just goes CMB against CMD to get out of
the grapple correct I don't remember the grappling rolls that well but that seems reasonable yeah I
don't I've never really been grappled myself so I'm not super familiar with him but yeah
let's but anyway we'll just see he pulls away from you and you know but that's probably his
full action that is his full action yes so that's all he's done so uh it's your go
char way alright he backs up so then I'm gonna take another shot at him oh I got a good one
this time 17 plus four eight damage oh cool okay well he is no more he um you you fire straight
into his 11 damage nice yeah you're he's he's done for um he he comes apart at the seams he
just sort of collapses um and falls to the ground at at at Sid's feet at that same time you you hear
the um the mechanisms of the service elevator kick into gear um the elevator from from the panel
on the side you see it is going it is being called up and I think that's probably a good place
to stop for this episode let's meet here back here next week and we'll do the same thing again
for another hour and see if we can find out who's on the elevator and what happens next thanks
for playing guys it was a lot of fun yeah absolutely and uh thank you dear listener for listening
if if you've never played an RPG before this is more or less what it is if you have uh comments
feel free to email me and remember to send it in an email if you think that the pathfinder
starter kit sounds appealing to you I would love to give one of those away each episode thanks for
listening you've been listening to hecka public radio at hecka public radio dot org
we are a community podcast network that release the shows every weekday Monday through Friday
today's show like all our shows was contributed by an hbr listener like yourself
if you ever thought of recording a podcast then click on our contributing to find out
how easy it really is hecka public radio was founded by the digital dog pound and the
infonomicant computer club and it's part of the binary revolution at binwreff.com if you have
comments on today's show please email the host directly leave a comment on the website or record
a follow-up episode yourself unless otherwise status today's show is released on the creative
comments attribution share a light free dot org license
