u/Polo_Nose

tl;dr: How do I play chess with limited time while also reacting to my player's actions within 3 seconds?

If you've seen Dr. Who, there is one episode with Matt Smith's 11th Doctor were he plays a game against some alien to get information. This game is electric chess, which plays just like normal chess except the pieces are electrified and every time you move a piece, the current doubles (which obviously puts at risk the players and allows for strategies based on forcing your opponent to move the same piece often enough for them to be faced with the choice of dying or giving up)

One of my players is a really good chess player and his character has some ties to chess as well, and I thought offering a twist on chess would be more interesting. Besides, corpos probably love watching fodder risk flatlining for some chips. The story reason is I need an NPC to give them some info and gamblers you need to win against always make for good intel sources that are reticent enough for them not to talk immediately but also have a weakness obvious enough for my players not to lose 2 hours debating which sedative they should use to kidnap him.

I think of implementing this as simply damage doubling, first move 0 damage, 2nd 1, then 2, 4, 8, etc. This seems kind of low to be threatening, on the other hand I expect the game to go on long enough for my player to start questioning if the HP cost is worth it. My NPC will play until he looses or is forced to resign (he's a gambler, not suicidal).

My problems are:

- I am not sure my damage numbers are balanced

- I am not sure how to deal with time while other party members do something else. This is supposed to be his moment, but I still want to give the option to the netrunner to jack into the system and cheat, risk getting caught, and needing the rest of the team to look out and potentially defend her in the meatspace. This in turn means I'm going to need to keep track of time and turns while playing the NPC or feeding my player's actions to a chess bot. Other than asking someone to play the NPC for me to allow me to concentrate on the roleplay and hacking, I don't really know what to do

Is there any more lore on Orbital Air? I feel like the wiki page is quite barebones when you consider that they have a quasi-monopoly on surface-to-orbit travel, as well as intercontinental transportation (if you except nomads).

What is their relationship with other corpos and states? How agressive are they to protect their position and what capabilities do they have? What is their relationship with the highriders and with african countries (given they are an african corpo and the highriders are quite friendly with africa - while OA also seems to be on decent enough terms with ESA to work with them)? Do they only manage travel or do they also have extensive satellite production programs? Do they have bases in orbit?

If there's no lore it's fine I'll just invent some for my players but it'd be a shame if all the work has already been done for me lol

Is there any more lore on Orbital Air? I feel like the wiki page is quite barebones when you consider that they have a quasi-monopoly on surface-to-orbit travel, as well as intercontinental transportation (if you except nomads).

What is their relationship with other corpos and states? How agressive are they to protect their position and what capabilities do they have? What is their relationship with the highriders and with african countries (given they are an african corpo and the highriders are quite friendly with africa - while OA also seems to be on decent enough terms with ESA to work with them)? Do they only manage travel or do they also have extensive satellite production programs? Do they have bases in orbit?

If there's no lore it's fine I'll just invent some for my players but it'd be a shame if all the work has already been done for me lol