GAMEMASTER INFO FOR
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF
ELECTRIC SHEEP? TRIBUTE
NOTE: THIS SCENARIO IS VERY CONVOLUTED, SO FORGIVE THE LENGTH OF THIS DETAILED PLOT SYNOPSIS. IF YOU STUDY IT AND READ THE PHILLIP K. DICK NOVEL, HOWEVER, YOU'LL FIND IT'S WORTH THE EFFORT. I'VE RUN IT TWICE AND IT HAS GONE OFF BEAUTIFULLY BOTH TIMES. SEE THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE FOR LINKS TO MORE GAMEMASTER INFORMATION.
The scenario begins with a dead elf. The elf is found by the bayside by a couple taking a walk. He has been shot through the spine with a laser weapon. The ID he is carrying is false, and he has some high-grade cybernetic enhancements. When the police contact other area law enforcement agencies looking for missing persons, it comes to light that the elf was a bounty hunter working for the constabulary arm of the Tir Tairngire Peace Force.
The CalFree and Tir governments work out a very hush-hush transfer of the body back to the Tir, but the SFPD lieutenant in charge of the bounty hunters is too nervous about a Tir hunter in San Francisco to let it pass. In defiance of his orders, he offers the players a SQUID (see the Tech page) and tells them to quietly find out what's in the dead elf's headware memory.
What the players find is very disturbing. The elf was tracking down eight renegade Nexus-6 synths that had crossed the border into CalFree. The file is garbled, but it appears to say something about the effectiveness of the Voigt-Kampff test on the Nexus-6. The trouble is, you can't tell if the file says the test works or doesn't work. The file also contains the names of the eight synths, but everything else is garbled, damaged by the laser.
The lieutenant assigns all four bounty hunters to the case, saying that it's much too dangerous to send one hunter after eight Nexus-6 synths, particularly since they now have at least one weapon--the Tir hunter's laser. He offers the standard $10,000(UCAS) per synth, which would still be $20,000 per hunter if they get all eight.
Before they start hunting, the lieutenant sends them to Seattle to try to get a definitive word from Yamatetsu, the manufacturer of the Nexus-6, on whether or not the Voigt-Kampff test works on this model. Yamatetsu agrees to the test, and offers their attractive young female contact as a human baseline for comparison. The test shows her to be a synth. Thinking that their equipment might be faulty, the hunters should probably check each other. The test will show that they are all human, except one. One of the hunters comes up as a synth. The same is true no matter whose equipment they use: the human Yamatetsu contact shows as a synth, and the same hunter shows as a synth as well.
This raises some very disturbing questions. Records of passing the V-K must be on file before one can become a bounty hunter, and besides, the hunter in question very clearly remembers his entire lifetime as a human. There was some question whether the test works on the Nexus-6 synths, but it has been inconceivable that the test could produce a false positive. Has anyone--have THESE hunters--ever murdered a human because of a false positive V-K test?
Just when the hunters feel that they don't know what to believe anymore, a Yamatetsu official complicates matters further when he reveals that their pretty young contact really is a Nexus-6 synth, with such high quality implanted memories that she has no idea that she isn't human. So the result on her was NOT a false positive--the V-K showed a Nexus-6 as a synth, even though she truly believed she was human. When she learns the news, she begins to sob. None of the hunters has ever seen a synth do that before. Maybe the synths are more human than the hunters had believed.
What does the news about the young girl say about the hunter who showed as a synth? Surely he can't really be a synth--can he? If he is, then the test is reliable but someone has managed to sneak a synth onto the SFPD bounty hunter squad. If he isn't, then the test upon which everything they do is based is unreliable--and that means that there may be synths who have passed the test as well as humans who have failed the test. Meanwhile, there are still eight renegade Nexus-6 synths loose in San Francisco.
Returning for the moment to San Francisco (with or without their questionable comrade), the hunters are contacted by someone called Angelo Martelli who claims to be a hunter from L.A. He says he used to work security aboard Questa, a Beretta Arms orbital station, and that he knows more about the Nexus-6 than any earthbound hunter. He offers to consult without asking in on the bounty.
When he arrives, there appear to be some holes in his story. If the hunters can figure it out in time, they'll realize that he's one of their renegades. He's carrying a bomb, triggered by a false tooth. If he has the chance, he'll bite down and blow the hunters to pieces. Apparently this renegade was due to "break down" in only another month or two, and he planned to sacrifice himself to save the other renegades.
The easiest of the rest of the synths to track down is currently hiding out as a singer for the San Francisco Opera Company. When the hunters go to interrogate her, she is uncooperative and has building security, a large troll, call the police.
The police who arrive claim to have no knowledge of the hunters, and they claim that the hunters' badges are fakes. The officers place the hunters under arrest. They can try to fight it out if they want, but the police station should be the logical place to sort out the confusion, so it's probably smarter to go along.
The only trouble is, the officers don't take the hunters to the police station they know. They take the hunters to a building that is, to all appearances, a police station. This one, however, is utterly unknown to the hunters. This station has a bounty hunter, too, but it's no one they know, and he does not know them. He claims not to know of the Voigt-Kampff test--he uses the Bonelli test (which the hunters consider an outdated version prone to error). The police keep them there for some time, claiming that no record exists of them or of the police station they have been going to for years. In fact, these police claim that station was abandoned years ago. These police accuse all the hunters of being synths with implanted memories, who have been going around murdering humans based on some phony test.
As the hunters grow increasingly confused, and begin to question everything they have ever believed, the police captain at this new station turns on them, and decides that since they are obviously synths he is going to retire them right there and then. The hunters are unarmed, and the police captain has pulled a laser on them. It looks pretty bad.
Just then this police station's hunter shoots the captain dead. This unknown hunter explains that this entire building is an elaborate hoax, created by a huge organization of escaped renegade synths and sympathetic humans to protect other renegades and eliminate legitimate bounty hunters. This shadow organization doesn't think the unknown hunter knows he's been working for synths, but he knows. He has, in fact, been working undercover for the real SFPD, infiltrating this organization. To save their lives, he has blown his cover. He offers to slip the hunters out of the building before anyone notices that he has retired the captain-synth. He gives them their weapons back, and he gives them further information on the remaining renegade synths, including the location of their hiding place.
By this time the hunters' heads are reeling, but money and their lingering belief that renegade synths must be retired drive them onward. At this point something very peculiar happens. One of the hunters gets a phone call from one of the renegades. The synth asks the hunter to back off, and not to come looking for them at the house where they are hiding. The synth explains that they don't want any violence (which the hunter finds odd because the synth on the other end of the phone was engineered as a combat model), but that they (the synths) will kill if they have to in order to protect themselves and their freedom. This is all very strange talk coming from a synth. They're supposed to be incapable of the altruism required to sacrifice themselves in order to protect one another. Is it a trick, or is everything the hunters have been told about synths a lie?
The synth on the other end of the phone offers the hunters the opportunity to see why the synths are so anxious to escape. The synth offers to let the hunters into the house where the synths are hiding, provided they come in peace. The synth reminds the hunters that two of the remaining synths are combat models, with highly advanced custom cybernetics and bionetics
The hunters now have a choice. They can simply walk away and let the synths go, or they can go to their hiding place anyway. If they go, they can either go in peace as the synth requested, or they can raid the place. What the hunters decide should largely depend on how well the gamemaster has been playing up how human the synths are throughout the adventure.
If the go in peace, the synth shows the hunters that one of the female renegades is pregnant. Synths aren't supposed to be able to do that, especially by another synth. The combat synth who placed the phone call explains that he is, indeed, the father of the child.
If the hunters try to raid the place, they will find the place laced with booby traps, including a monowire lattice stretched across the stairwell. They will also discover what happens when you try to fight something that was engineered to be smarter, faster, and stronger than yourself. The synths will fight savagely and mercilessly to defend themselves. Eventually, though, with the strength of the entire SFPD behind them, the hunters may well win out. The combat synth who placed the call will make a last desperate plea for mercy, explaining that one of the females is pregnant, and that they are fighting for their unborn child, and all the unborn children like them yet to come.
Faced with the thought of synths that can breed, the hunters are once again faced with a choice. Is the child a threat to all humanity that must be destroyed, or are the synths simply fighting for their freedom and for their children's freedom? Would the hunters do any less in the synths' place? By now, the hunters should be asking all sorts of questions of themselves anyway--Who is more human, the humans or the synths? What does it mean to be human anyway? The gamemaster should permit the hunters to make whatever choice they wish--exterminate the synths and "protect humanity" or let them go and sacrifice their careers.
THIS SCENARIO HAD VERY DIFFERENT OUTCOMES THE TWO TIMES I RAN IT, AND THAT'S OKAY. DIFFERENT PLAYERS WILL ANSWER THE QUESTIONS DIFFERENTLY. THOUGH THE GM SHOULD TRY THROUGHOUT THE ADVENTURE TO PORTRAY THE SYNTHS AS VERY HUMAN PEOPLE WORTHY OF EMPATHY, THE ULTIMATE DECISION OF WHAT TO DO AT THE END RESTS WITH THE PLAYERS. AT THE VERY LEAST, THE HUNTERS WILL HAVE TO FACE THE QUESTIONS. REGARDLESS OF THEIR ANSWERS, IT IS THE ASKING OF THE QUESTIONS THAT IS THE POINT OF THIS ADVENTURE.
CLICK HERE FOR CHARACTER SHEETS
CLICK HERE FOR TECH NOTES
CLICK HERE FOR NOTES ON SYNTHS
CLICK HERE FOR SAMPLE V-K TEST QUESTIONS
CLICK HERE FOR A TIMELINE
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