slender threads of freqs and fortune

> ZERO PREP
> GMLESS
> ONE SHOT
> FOR SOLO OR GROUP PLAY
>>> THE GAME
Using a deck of cards & a cootie catcher paper fortune teller, you're going to generate a series of pieces of information, then act on them. Whether you're low on time, money, access, or some other resource, the circumstances of your mission mean you don't have the privilege of verifying most of it before you have to use it. Number cards will provide the stream of data. Face cards will put your belief in that data on the line as you make moves. The fortune teller will let you know if it worked out, & you'll  use the mission tracker to determine your ultimate outcome. Aces will let you dive deeper into one specific piece of data, at your discretion, to make a more informed choice-- but there are limits to how direct a Freq* can be without literally burning themselves out. When you use your fourth ace, the Freq needs to disconnect, or they'll die, or worse. You'll keep going-- moves don't stop needing to be made-- but no new info will come in. Hope you got what you needed. Good luck.

>>> A ONE PAGE TTRPG WHERE ALL THE RULES FIT ON THE STRIP OF PAPER LEFT AFTER YOU CUT THAT PAGE INTO A SQUARE TO MAKE A FORTUNE TELLER WITH IT BECAUSE THE PAGE IS ALSO THE TEMPLATE FOR THE FORTUNE TELLER THAT WILL TELL YOU HOW YOUR COOL CYBERPUNK MISSION IS GOING
:)

>>> * THE FREQ /friːk/
> A specialised class of netrunner whose neural uplinks are designed to scoop enormous amounts of information, fast. 
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> "You back with us, cowboy? Great, great. That was a big surge, but it doesn't look like anything melted in there. Like I was saying, the sort of people who trace these things like to trace your type back to the first enterprising activists & other extralegal groups that found a way to build antenna directly into their ears, quickly becoming known in the field as Freqs-- like, short for frequency-- 'The Freq says the pigs are rerouting up seventh to collapse; let's cut through the market before we're surrounded'-- turning them into synecdoche for the radio waves they reported on, & because... well. People thought they were kind of freaks for it. You gotta understand-- chrome sticking out of your head would have been a bold statement at the time! Kinda quaint, now, I know.

"That's not all that's different. Data has changed since then. Transmitting info isn't a specialised game anymore-- everyone is doing it, all of the time, even in ways they don't realise. The hardware has exponentiated with it. Gone are the days of Freqs running nimbly with their comrades & accomplices, flipping a switch on the side of their head to check in & out at will: you spend your on-time on wearing non-conductive materials in a vat of cooling jelly, with a mylar & polyethylene bundle of cables plugged into the base of your skull.

"Even if the tech could be shoved into a backpack, you'd be more of a liability on-site than an asset. There's too much in the air & the wires now to leave a lot of space for you when you're jacked in. Radio Freqs were able to listen & think at the same time-- you don't even really listen, just receive & relay. Your brain receives a constant stream of data & it takes all the power in your hard & soft hardwares just to translate it into language. There's not even enough juice left to have discernment between truth & fiction. Word salad headlines from large language model generated spam e-mails carry the exact same weight as a real deal tapped call from the mayor's line. You can do some filters, but it's like trying to direct the ocean. If you want any of it to come through, you gotta be prepared for a flood... & that shit erodes.

"End of the day? If someone wants specific data, they can go to a hacker or some other lock cutter, & they can risk getting caught. If they want a fucking lot of data, none of which is technically illegal to access, because you're not personally unencrypting anything, officer-- they come to you.

"Alright, you're looking a bit more caught up. Good timing. Normally I'd want to give you some more room to settle, but, ah, you might have noticed... there's a bit of a situation. We need to know everything we can if we're gonna get out of here, so... ready to go back under?"

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>>> THANK YOU TO: JESS LEVINE FOR PLAYTESTING