Realistic or Modern Cubicles & Callers (Dice for Beginners!)

[Uncle ShortyB]

Every day is the same; you clock on, you try and be the last to reach your desk, you still have to take calls anyway, you go to lunch and complain about work or TV or whatever, then go back to work, then go home. It's mind numbing but it's the only job you could find right now in this town and this economy. What was that old saying... "The job is bad but at least the pay sucks"? That's pretty much your life now.


Some people live lives of intrigue, with jets and drinks and gambling and so on. Others live like kings among men, throwing lavish parties with no expense spared for the benefit of anyone who can attend. Then there's the rest of the world. Normal people working all day just to go home at night and get ready to go back to work the next day. Welcome to the real world. Welcome to Cubicles & Callers.


(Despite my flair for the melodramatic this won't actually be a super-serious RP, luckily. It's gonna be more relaxed to help people get used to the idea of playing more traditional style tabletop games, and also because even though things may sound bleak this game is actually kind of a dark comedy. More info about the actual mechanics will be in the OOC and the information for the CS will be in the character zone bit assuming I made this properly. For now, though, welcome to the RP!)

 

[Uncle ShortyB]

(Hey hey hey! I guess let's get this thing going.)


Tom awoke, and immediately regretted his decision to do so. It was going to be a pretty bad day, if the fact that he wasn't somewhere that wasn't his rathole apartment was anything to go off of. "Welp, I suppose I ought to get out of bed. No sense delaying it or anything." He thought miserably, swinging his legs off the side of his bed and rising to his feet. A quick (unfortunately cold) shower later and he was in his kitchen/living/dining/laundry room, grabbing a paper sack and filling it with a selection of random foods. "This is it, man. Living the dream. Got a degree in Starcraft and beer and now look at you. In your apartment, dressed like a loser, and getting ready for work. I don't even know how I go to this point. Whatever. Work's work I guess." Tom sighed and left his apartment, bound for the call center where he managed to get a job despite his astounding lack of qualifications.


[dice]1100[/dice]

 

[BladeZ]

Alice nodded off on the train again, snoring ever the slightest as it trudged along the rails. She woke up every few minutes, afraid that it was her stop. When she was there, she grogily got up and took all of her belongings with her. Today was just going to be another day of doing tech support she guessed. The girl passed some tasty food stands but seeing that it was almost time to start work she decided not to get anything. And so she went inside, waiting by the lifts. Man, hopefully no one important sees her looking like she was half asleep.


[dice]1117[/dice]

 

[SiroVai]

Max powered through the final bench press and let out a whoop of achievement. Time for a quick shot of roids then it was off to work. The call centre job was temporary. His lifelong goal of becoming a fitness coach was on track, having only a few more weeks of night classes to suffer through.


After a quick shower and change, Max started to check himself out in the changing room mirror, flexing his muscles and striking Mr. Universe poses.


"You look the shit Max! Yeh!" He thought to himself as he left the gym and made his way to work.


[dice]1126[/dice]

 

[Uncle ShortyB]

• Approach: Insulting
  
• [dice]1139[/dice]
  
• Target number: 15
  
• [dice]1140[/dice]
  
• Paying 2 SC
  
• Final SC total: 18
  

Tom stepped out of the bus, about half a block from the office. "Welp, time for another day in the farm." He muttered aloud, earning a few odd looks from various people milling about on the sidewalk and chatting happily about TV and other such things. It wasn't that he didn't like work; Tom really loved work. It put beer in the fridge and kept him in sandwiches. It's just that his idea of work was sitting on a couch playing video games and getting day-time drunk. He hated working in the call center, answering questions from children and confused and hostile mothers. Tom sighed and clutched his lunch tighter in his hands and made his way into the building. He passed by someone he recognized vaguely, Alice or Alex or something, as he stepped into the elevator without thinking. Right when the doors closed and he pushed the number for his floor, though, Tom swore loudly. "Dammit. Didn't even want to get on this stupid thing yet. Christ. Guess I'm gonna get there first now." A few people shot him dirty looks, but Tom didn't pay any attention. Strolling through the still empty cubes, he sat at his desk and took the first call of the day. "Xbox customer support, this is Tom. What did you break?" He droned, half listening to the phone. "Your stupid service won't let me log in! You'd better fix this or I'll break into your house and shoot you!" A child shrieked back, obviously trying to sound much more threatening than their shrill voice would allow. "Riiiiiight. I'm scared that someone who can't get a driver's license is gonna come to my house and shoot me. Did you try entering your password, kiddo, or did you just think slamming your face against the controller would be enough?" Tom replied disinterestedly, fiddling with the stapler he had on his desk for some unknown reason. "I've never had anything I needed to staple here. This is all paperless. Why do I have a stapler? Does anyone else have one?" He thought while the child on the other end of the line continued to scream empty and confusing threats. After a few minutes of contemplating the chain of events that led to the stapler arriving on his desk, Tom decided to cut the customer off at the pass. "Uh, kid, I'm really sorry, but some of us have real work to do today. Try entering your password again, and if that doesn't work maybe you should take that as a sign and go outside for once. Thanks for calling Xbox customer support, and have a pleasant day." Tom said with saccharine insincerity as he jammed the disconnect button a few times. "First call out of the way, and I already feel a bit worse off than I started. C'est la vie or whatever the hell." He said to no one in particular. He could already see the other people filling the cubes around him and settling down to work.

 

[BladeZ]

Approach: Compassionate


Caller's disposition:


[dice]1152[/dice]


Target number: 10?


[dice]1153[/dice]


Total of 18


Paying SC: ??? (I don't have to pay anything because 18 > 10 right? But if it's less than and I run out of SC then I lose?)


Final SC total: 20 + 8 = 28?


Narrative:


Alice stepped into the lift, trying to keep a happy smile. Work was tiring and she already didn't want to be here. But at least she had a bit of energy. Alice's personality was a nice and gentle one, though more than once had her manager said that she was too nice. She had to make her stand at some things and not be pushed about. But Alice couldn't bring herself to be bitter - at least not yet. Her manager did say that one day, if she stayed long enough in here, she would end up cynical, jaded, bitter and indifferent like the rest of the team. It would only take time.


Getting too lost in her thoughts, Alice forgot to get off at her floor. She rushed back down the fire stairs to arrive at her desk panting. A customer called not much later. "Good morning, customer support, how may I help you?" she asked in a nice tone. "SO YOU FINALLY DECIDED TO PICK UP?! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I HAVE BEEN WAITING?" came the voice of the angry caller. Alice bit her lip and cringed. "I'm sorry Sir, but the lines are exceptionally long today. What can I help you with?" said Alice, preparing for the worst. "THE CONTROLLER'S BROKEN! NOTHING HAPPENS WHEN I PRESS THE BUTTONS!" he shouted. Alice whooshed a sigh of relief. She knew the answer to his problem. "I believe the controller needs to be recharged Sir. Do you see a cable connected to your Xbox? Just plug it into the controller like you would your phone. It should finish charging in a few hours" said Alice. The customer was less angry now. "Well that settles that then" was all he said before he hung up.


Alice placed the phone back on the hook and took to staring at the little bits of dust on her desk. Maybe this wasn't the place for her. But where else could she go? Sigh.

 

[Uncle ShortyB]

(Yeah, you've got the hang of it! When your roll is higher than your target number, you succeeded the roll and the overage gets added back to your SC. SC is basically hit points, so when you run out your die. If your roll doesn't meet the target you can escalate, which I explained in the OOC thread in the "how to play" bits, or pay out of SC, which is what I did. Anyway, like I said before; you've got it!)

 

[BladeZ]

(Wahoo~! And would it be right to say that "Escalate" is a term specific to this tabletop game? What's the word used in other games?)

 

[Uncle ShortyB]

(Other tabletop games aren't entirely like this. The closest I can think to compare this to would be something like a saving throw, but that doesn't really come all that close. Escalation is, as far as I can reckon, unique to this game. Something being unique to a system isn't all that uncommon in this sort of thing.)

 

[BladeZ]

(Erm, am I supposed to be doing something right now? Or is are we all getting extra long coffee breaks? )

 

[Uncle ShortyB]

(We're waiting on SiroVai.)