The Ronin need to learn more of the mysterious drug peddled by the vampires, but they find a potential lead. A mid-level Yakuza dealer nicknamed American Joe sells a variant drug based on the same flower. The Ronin decide that kidnapping and interrogating him would shine some insight into the situation. However, American Joe is paranoid and well-protected. Getting him out of a hole in the wall bar while he is surrounded by armed bodyguards will not be easy. Fortunately, the Ronin are nothing if not problem solvers. Thanks to Crazon for the art!
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These games are awesome, plain and simple… or sticking with the Japanese theme of it all, Simple and Clean? XD
pfff, an entire ToT episode without a suicidal Xanatos gambit. for shame!
Gotta hate it when you think about picking up a side quest, and you get draged threw anothers main story quest.
This whole episode was about Ross taking a throwaway character that the characters had really fixated on and using him hit them over the head with a clue they had ignored.
Good work Ross. Well done.
Pretty much, I think the Yamagata center came up earlier.
But it was also about reacting to Tom’s mom getting kidnapped and crossing names off lists.
I am surprised Caleb didn’t try to connect Joe to some part of the conspirimyd before killing him, even simply calling Alexia or something like that.
conspirimyd is the best word
I love Caleb’s IC plans to set up traps, but I’m not a fan of the metagaming/tacnet style of play. Its my belief that if you actively tell someone out of character what they need to do, then they miss out on the decision, essentially you’re just playing their character for them.
Anyone feel the same way?
Another great episode. Ross you are evil… Love it. Who would not want to save mom? The whole interigation of American Joe was fantastic… Hold still while I mark where the tatoo is going with sharpie… Did you forget rule #1 Whack!.. I wish Hollywood would do this. It reminds me of when I was a kid listening to AM broadcast from the 1950s (back in the 1980’s. Long Story) Thanks guys
David was definitely MVP on this one.
The Side Quest/Main Quest thing was great. “You might want to drink somewhere else…”
As a biologist, the idea that a random private geneticist not only had access to Ebola, but had some on hand to share was probably the most horrifying part of this episode. Though this may have just been Ross enjoying the idea of player characters trying to weaponize Ebola in incredibly densely populated areas.
Ross’ high preparedness requirements for drug atomizers isn’t too unreasonable for Japan, despite Caleb’s skepticism. Drug policies, even against marijuana, are very strict and aggressively enforced there.
Awesome interrogation from David. I also liked how the stability system mixed with roleplaying led to a very cinematic, “You all leave, I’ll clean this up” scene.
Great stuff. Marathoning through this makes yardwork much better.
If you look at the dates, this episode came out way before the most recent big ebola scare, so I think general awareness of the disease and how dangerous it is was a lot lower, including amongst the RPPR crew (me, I’ve been interested in ebola since before it was cool, or at least since the last time it was cool back in the ’90s). And he’s at least a biologist with connections in the intelligence world.
Oh, yeah. It’s one of those things (like the chloroform and irradiated brewery in other games for other commenters) that just made my brain skip a beat. It helped to remember it was a thriller universe with vampires.
After all, if Jason Bourne needed an Ebola sample, he wouldn’t have to break into a BSL 4 facility – unless it was part of a tense sequence.