EoD Pt2: Turn 1 Planning (Patreon)

Warney stood on the sidewalk, waiting, holding an umbrella to keep him dry from the torrential rain: even with the great flood-walls, New Orleans found itself drenched during the yearly superstorms. Behind him was the down-town regional Department of Preservation headquarters, located in the heart of the cities downtown area. Three stories high: not exactly big, but most of the work Team America was doing currently was investigative at this point in time. The brick-faceded structure had written on its front the name of the department, and the official symbol: an eagle atop a hourglass, inside an open vault door. Lining the bottom of the currently darkened sign were a series of lights pointed at the street, illuminating it in a greasy flickering electric glow. The other buildings on the street were a mix of various governmental facilities like the post office or dilapidated failed businesses, rotting storefronts whose wooden facades were starting to rot. 

The scientist looked down at his Pip-Buddy, checking the time: currently the devices onboard artificial intelligence was in sleep mode. The time was 2:07. The man he was waiting for was seven minutes late. 

He didn’t know what kind of person he was dealing with: an avowed communist, supposedly. One smart enough to have gone into hiding somewhere nice and remote, which made sense considering they were supposedly a CIT graduate. Other than that, Edgar McCoy- or Edgar Wright, as he was currently named- was a complete mystery. The few documents he could find indicated a cold, calculating and highly intellectual mind, and witnesses were few and far between. 

Hopefully he was everything Clancy promised and more. But right now, Edgar was late. The water lapped at Warneys ankles: it was as low as it could get, and the scientist regretted wearing loafers. 

The street in front of him was as buddy as it ever was: Louisiana was out of the way of the war, relatively, and hadn’t yet had any real NEXT activity in it yet. That had made it appealing for investors, even if Baton Rouge was more popular with businesses. That and the local automotive industry adopting power peanut engines resulted in a handful of cars and occasionally buses passing by, occasionally spraying the sidewalk with water rivulets. 

A dull roar filled the air as one car in particular began speeding down the road, clumsily swaying back and forth, making a too wide too fast turn and causing another car to spin off the road, slamming into one of the various dilapidated buildings, before it came to a skidding stop itself, right next to Warney. The door opened itself and a somewhat shorter man emerged, dressed in a rumpled, poorly fitted dark navy colored suit, with a loose hanging clip on tie attached to their collar. 

The person had red hair and a widows peak, trimmed shortly. Their beard was in better condition than their suit, at least, being merely somewhat bedraggled. “Ah, Mr. Wright, I presume,” Warney said to the man, who turned to stare at him with a barely concealed look of disdain. “My name is Doctor Warney- If you’re wondering about the first name-”

“I wasn’t.” The man replied flatly, making Warney flinch. Right, less than friendly. 

“...Fair enough,” Warney agreed. “Anyways, I’m your official liaise with the wider Department.”

“In other words, Clancy’s spy,” The man said flatly. 

“...I also lead the wider science division…” Warney muttered, already somewhat dismayed things weren’t going how he expected. 

“Alright, her spy AND her chief researcher,” The man responded flatly, voice marginally less clipped, giving a dry- and still very unfriendly nod. “I assume she’s keyed you into our arrangement: you want to tell me what the hell I’m supposed to be doing?”

“...Yeah,” Warney admitted: no point in hiding it. “The Directors brother. As for your other question, at the moment the Director wants you to learn the ropes.” For the other thing…Well, that could wait. First, he needed to understand how the guy worked.

Alrighty friend, it’s me again, ENFERR. We’re now in PLAN mode: using this unique interface designed by the brilliant minds at AlviCorp, we’re going to plan out operations for the upcoming month. 

First, let’s cover the basics, starting with Communities.

PLAN Mode is based primarily on the same algorithms and analytical systems used by the wider DoP’s analysis division: unlike prior editions, however, it’s been modified to work with a smaller scope. Instead of abstracting the post-nuclear condition of entire (poorly defined) regions, PLAN Mode instead measures the likely status of singular communities. 

As you pursue investigations and expand operations, you will unlock Community Cards. Each Community represents a different location in which you can construct facilities, pursue initiatives, and accomplish goals. For now, here are your three starting Community Cards, chosen for the optimal relevance to the DoP and the nation at large. Over time you will gain additional cards, and unlock more information on each community. 

New Orleans: The Big Easy! Protected by a series of super-levy’s known as the Great Floodwalls, the continued misfortune of the rest of the country has marginally improved the cities safety. Home of the DoP regional headquarters, where Team America works to help protect EVERYONE'S future!

Community Stats:

Domestic Security: +

Institutional Knowledge: +

INFRASTRUCTURE: 

DoP Regional Headquarters Phase Two [DoP, Administration, Facility]

New Alexandria: A more northern city in the state, New Alexandria was a fairly quiet city located in a swamp located above the underwater ruins of the old Alexandria. It was home to several fisheries, as well as the DoP’s main power peanut farm in the state. 

Community Stats:

Renewable Energy: +

Infrastructure:

Power Peanut Plantation Phase One [DoP, Agriculture, Facility]

Baton Rouge: The capital of Louisiana, a bustling port city that found itself the center of Liberty Party interests in the state thanks to its port, industrial district, and the experimental mega-reactor that provided the city with almost unlimited free power. Team America currently had no facilities or programs running in the city.

Note that Community Cards only measure the changes you yourself have caused. Further, there is no universal set of stats: instead, each community will have a custom selection of stats depending on what infrastructure is built. Some infrastructure will have different effects depending on which community it’s placed in. 

Now, let’s cover your resources.

TEAM AMERICA RESOURCES

FUNDING: 1

INFLUENCE: 5

WRATH: 16

As you can see friend, the system is very simplified. Funding represents the liquid wealth you have to work with. It is used to fund expansions to operations, certain initiatives, and finance expensive projects. 

Influence represents your overall diplomatic cache with the rest of the DoP and affiliated organizations. What it’s used for is something we’ll go over later: for now, you should take my work when I say you’ll want to get as much of it as possible. 

Wrath is a measure of your overall mental well-being: the higher it gets, the more you’ll be prone to certain outbursts. It…Hmm. According to the vitals coming off your Pip-Buddy, you’ll gain about 5 points every turn: once it hits 100, you’ll probably be upset enough to do something regrettable! You, uh, you’ll probably want to look into anger management, by the way: most peoples Wrath meter go DOWN over time. I’m surprised you don’t have high blood-pressure with how this is reading, though you do apparently have a permanent tension headache and irregular heartbeat. Being that angry is very Not Normal. And probably not healthy!

And now, your subordinates!

Wilbur Ashton

BRAIN Rank: 2

Category - [POLITICIAN]

PERKS:

Poker Face: This character gains +5 to Suspicion Rolls.

Tax Write Offs: One [Charity] tagged project will receive a 1 point funding discount. Whenever it’s completed, the discount will switch to a different project.

BRAIN Quest: Reach Phase Two in a Community Broadcast Tower project (0/200/400)

Agent Mulley Skulder

BRAIN Rank: 1

Category - [AGENT]

PERKS: 

Cold Case Specialist: This character receives +2 to investigating cases that have gone cold

BRAIN Quest: Complete three investigations with the [WEIRD] modifier

Agenda: Strong Anti-ACME leanings. History of bigotry towards various minorities: will disapprove of actions that benefit them. 

Janet Benoit

BRAIN Rank: 1

Category - [ARCHITECT]

PERKS:

On the Bones of the Old: This character has a +3 bonus to actions targeted at New Alexandria

BRAIN Quest: Construct Fortified House of Worship in any community but New Alexandria.

Agenda: Fundamentalist evangelical: unlikely to approve of any activity considered unchristian, like feeding the poor or providing the sinful masses shelter from gods nuclear wrath. 

Hoo boy, as an emotionless artificial intelligence I’m incapable of feeling anything, but gee howdy, do I not envy your job! Your subordinates stink! A BRAIN rating of 1? Not to mention the fact that these agendas are genuinely the worst thing I’ve seen since the peanut incident!

…Oh, uh. It seems your wrath meter just jumped by seven points. Let me just adjust your display a bit…

FUNDING: 1

INFLUENCE: 5

WRATH: 23

There we go! Now, lets cover the final few details: BRAIN Quests and Agendas!

To put it simply, BRAIN Quests are the tasks you need to fulfill to increase your subordinates' aptitude as well as bring their values closer in line with your own. By completing these projects using the subordinates own dice, the BRAIN rank increases, and their agenda evolves!

Agendas meanwhile are the rules required to maintain a healthy working relationship with your employees: by doing something they disagree with - especially by assigning their dice to it- you run the risk of increasing that subordinates SNITCH FACTOR! The higher the SNITCH FACTOR, the more they’ll be driven to sabotage you, which has numerous negative effects. 

Oh, and you probably want an explanation for what their brain categories mean: [AGENT] means that the character can be assigned to [Agent] [Investigation] and [Combat] projects. [Architects] meanwhile are [Facilities, Construction, and Real Estate]

Now that we’ve got the basics of PLAN mode (acronym pending), it’s time to move on to your actual job! Each turn of PLAN mode lasts a quarter of a year, divided into three months. You have a variety of D100 dice divided into separate categories and attached to subordinates you can assign to projects. Your job as the lead on Team America is to help prepare the region for nuclear war, especially it’s environment. 

Let’s go over your mandates: missions assigned from on high. Each one needs to be completed in a certain time-frame. Failure reduces your Influence- which, as mentioned, you’ll want as high as possible, especially around the year mark. Success in and of itself grants no rewards. 

Your current mandates are as follows:

• Complete Northern Atchafalaya Chemical Dumping Investigation in two turns.

Pretty simple! You should get the swing of it pretty quickly. Note there are still inactive features of PLAN Mode, but I figure it’s probably best to let you have some time to adjust to the water temperature before we send you swimming into the deep end.

And for the part we’ve all been waiting for, the actions!

__________________________

SECURITY

1 Dice, +0 to rolls

Hire Security Guards [Combat, Personnel]: The solution to a terrorist with a gun was a security guard with a gun: by hiring security guards to man a facility. With the worries about NEXT, it’d probably be covered by the department. 0/100. Increases Facility Security. +WRATH

Scouts of America [Combat, Charity]: The scouts were one of the great American institutions, teaching young patriots life skills such as identifying potential communists, national self-defense, and how to pledge allegiance to the Flag! By supporting a communities local chapter, that community would become not only safer, but a higher quality source of future soldiers, should the war drag on long enough. 0/100/200, SELECT COMMUNITY. Gain Patriot Scouts in area, increasing Youth Mobilization Stat. Second phase costs 1 Funding to complete. ++WRATH

K-9 Kennel [Personnel, Ecology]: A K-9 Kennel: it would allow the DoP in the region to begin training its own K-9 units rather than importing them from the training facility in Montana. 0/75, headquarters gains K-9 Kennel, allowing for the creation of K-9 Teams in regional communities. 

Police Surplus [Combat, Charity]: Local PD was less militarized than those in New York or Washington DC: that needed to be fixed immediately by assisting them in purchasing used military equipment, which would be costly. 0/200/400/600, SELECT COMMUNITY. Police Militarization stat increases. Each phase costs 1 Funding to complete. ++WRATH

Identifying Communists (For Kids!) [Education, Government]: By helping children identify communists, our children became safer! By having schools include weekly seminars on the subject taught by senior TAPP analysts you’d almost certainly help protect our kids! 0/200, increases Ideological Security. ++++WRATH

Self Defense Courses [Combat, Education]: Not everyone could afford a gun, and the DoP lacked any firing ranges at the moment: the solution? Hand to hand defense courses to help every red blooded american survive attack by communists! 0/100 SELECT COMMUNITY, increases Self Defence. 

Project Turtle Arms Depot [Military, Combat]: The military was willing to help finance DoP operations if they helped contribute to Project Turtles: by creating a secure arms depot that army officials could access after a hypothetical apocalypse, Team America would get a little more grant money. 0/75/150/250/500, SELECT COMMUNITY, increases Military Storage in community. Increases Funding by 1 for each phase. +WRATH

____________________________________

AGENT

“Mmmf. You’re the new guy in charge, huh? Names Skulder: I’m in charge of your investigative team. My job is to coordinate the team to look into the cases you assign us. If you’re looking for my life-story, you’re in the wrong place. Anyways, you probably want to know what cases we have open. You’ve been briefed on the Atchafalaya situation: some company has been dumping waste. Personally, I think it’s the bastards at ACME Medical, but I don’t have enough proof yet. The dumping has been occurring near a small rural community: we’re already seeing a spike in cancer diagnosis from the place: goes by the name Gecko.

Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of dumb tree hugger crap, mostly.”

1 Agent Dice

Northern Atchafalaya Chemical Dumping Investigation [Investigation, EPA]: Someone has been dumping toxic waste in the Northern Atchafalaya and making local communities sick. This had to stop, and the perpetrator had to be brought to justice. 0/50, gain Gecko Community Card. Immense Wrath Gain.

Kisatchie National Forest Logging Operations [Investigation, EPA]: There have been signs of illegal logging in Kisatchie National Forest. This needed to end: Americas forests were national treasures! 0/100, gain Kisatchie National Forest Community Card. +WRATH

ACME Investigation [ACME, Investigation]: ACME are up to something, according to Agent Skulder. He wanted to look into their medical department to try and figure out what their plans were. 0/100/200/300, gain assorted ACME Community Cards. +WRATH

Digging Up Dirt [Investigation, Crime]: Every small town had its crooks. Investigating them was sure to bring some heat, but it’d give Team America ammo in the war on crime. 0/100, SELECT COMMUNITY. Learn more about its underside. Increases Influence.

 The Sunken Parish [Investigation, Weird]: The super hurricanes had caused significant portions of the state to sink in the past five decades or so. Recently, fishermen looking to catch their dinner in the shallow, watery plains that rested on formerly dry land had reported their boat being attacked by figures in what appeared to be diving suits. 0/250, gain the Sunken Parish Community Card.

_________________

FACILITIES

“Hmm. The new manager, huh? I hear you’re a graduate of the Cambridge Institute of Technology. How…lovely. You can call me Mrs. Benoit, and yes, that’s MRS.. I’m the team facilities manager: in other words, I’m in charge of construction and material infrastructure. Charmed, I’m sure.

I’d invite you to church, seeing as how you’re new here, but in my experience you men of science are too busy playing god to believe in him, but don’t worry, I’ll make sure to pray for you.

Now, onto business, as I’m sure you’re a VERY busy man. Our investments into this region are dire: we only have the regional headquarters and the power peanut farm up north in New Alexandria. When god's chosen people eventually emerge from SPD’s, they will have almost nothing to inherit in this state but blasted wilderness and whatever dregs of humanity survive the bomb. 

0 Dice, +0 to rolls.

Supply Depot Warehouse [Logistics, Construction]: The bread and butter of the department: these warehouses stored massive quantities of material shipped from various DoP factories for use in case of nuclear armageddon. 0/100/200/300, SELECT COMMUNITY. Increase General Supply stat: third rank increases additional community specific stat. 

Department Motor Pool [Logistics, Administration]: By purchasing vehicles department employees could use, the team could greatly simplify transportation and shipping for various department assets. 0/200/400, increase Departmental Mobilization. Required for further vehicular development such as DoP Garages. Cost 1 Funding to complete each rank. 

Fortified House of Worship [Population, Construction]: For once, the justification for this one isn’t wholly propaganda: analysis indicated that when the bombs drop, churches and other holy houses were likely to be the first place civilians without any substantive options are likely to flee. By reinforcing one of these sites to be bomb-proof, it would significantly raise the odds of survivors in the community. 0/200/600, SELECT COMMUNITY. Increases Divine Sanctuary stat. 

Power Peanut Plantation [GWCFAAAT, Agriculture]: Power Peanuts were a very experimental development by the George Washington Carver foundation (with Department assistance): they were a 100% renewable source of electrical energy, albeit one that was somewhat inefficient compared to nuclear or even fossil fuels: thankfully, the market was always looking for more sources of energy. 0/200/400, SELECT COMMUNITY. Increases Renewable Energy Stat. Each phase increases funding by 1.

AutoMenagerie Complex [Ecology, Genetics]: The department was planning to construct one in the next few years: why not get a head start? Having a functional AutoMenagerie would be vital for restoring life to the wetlands. 0/500. Gain Louisiana AutoMenagerie Community Card.

___________________________________________________

SCIENCE

1 Dice, +5 to rolls

“Howdy! It’s me, your best buddy ENFERR again! Welcome to your personal lab! Here you’ll help research technology to aid you, prototype designs for wider adoption, and organize various science related initiatives! 

I can’t WAIT to see what you create, Edgar.

Gorilla DNA Library [Ecology, Genetics]: It had been part of your research at Cambridge: cloning real, living silverback gorillas into the world again. You didn’t have the equipment to do that, but you could at least preserve their genome by creating a DNA Library in the lab, in case you ever did acquire the equipment. 0/250, unlock Gorilla Genetic Template, unlocking additional projects. -WRATH

Power Peanut Genome Sequencing [Power, Genetics, GWCFAAAT]: Power Peanuts were fascinating: while the design had been refined by department labs, the George Carver foundation were no slouches either when it came to genetics. It might behoove you to try analyzing their genome: at the very least, you could send the science division and the foundation your notes. 0/250, unlock Power Peanut Genetic Template, speeding up national Power Nut research and increasing influence by 2. 

Atomicrops Research Notes [Genetics, Agriculture]: The Atomicrops program: you hadn’t been party to it, but you had followed it’s development with a fair bit of interest until you went into hiding. It might be worth it to refresh your understanding of the project and send in your notes to Warney. 0/100, unlock Atomicrop Genetic Template, speeding up national research and increasing influence.

Construct CERES Unit [Construction, Robotics]: The general term for the DoP’s standardized model of AI manager, intended for inclusion in agricultural facilities. By upgrading a facility with one, its overall output would increase by a fair amount. 0/150, SELECT COMMUNITY WITH AGRICULTURAL INFRASTRUCTURE. Agriculture tagged infrastructure gains primary stat increase, along with an infrastructure-dependent secondary stat.

Community Data Cache [Construction, Education]: The Data Cache model of knowledge retention infrastructure had been selected by top DoP analysts as the optimal means by which institutional knowledge could be preserved in the region. 0/150/300/600, SELECT COMMUNITY. Increases Buried Knowledge stat.

TAPP Analysis [Government, Education]: One of the worst things your sister had ever done: countless people had been thrown into jail. The actual criteria it worked to determine who was a ‘true american patriot’ and who was a ‘godless red in waiting’ was a black box: if you could figure out how the algorithm worked, however, you might be able to game it to help people avoid falling afoul of it. 0/300, gain TAPP Manipulation projects. Massively increases Wrath. 

Garden of Eden Sanctuary [Ecology, Charity]: If you could scrape together the funding, you might be able to help support one of the various communities in the state while also preserving endangered wildlife from around the globe via financing a sanctuary. 0/200/400. SELECT COMMUNITY. Increase Biodiversity Preservation stat and a community dependent secondary stat. Cost 1 Funding to complete each phase.

Community Seed Vault [Ecology, Agriculture, Construction]: After the bombs dropped, it was likely numerous species of plant would go extinct: by establishing a series of seed vaults, this could be prevented. Obviously the priority would go to more human useful cultivars, but some wild flora would be preserved if conditions permitted. 0/400/800. SELECT COMMUNITY. Increase AgriPreservation stat. Second phase also increases Biodiversity Preservation stat. 

________________________

OUTREACH

0 Dice, +0 to Rolls

“Hello, Mr. Wright. 

Apologies we couldn’t meet in person: my health, such as it is, makes leaving my home quite taxing. If this makes you worried about my ability to perform the duties you’ve assigned me, don’t worry: I’m very skilled at accomplishing what I want through the medium of letters. Unseen, but not unheard. 

Thankfully, modern medicine is quite the miracle: my doctor says I might be able to join you in less than a year.

Of course, I’ve kept myself informed: you’re in for a rough one, Edgar. Every day, we grow closer and closer to the chaos of oblivion and the final night over the USA. Our leaders are…less than rational, shall we say. And the people are getting angrier and angrier. And you, my friend, are stuck in the middle of it.

I’ll do what I can to help, of course. First, I’d advise doing what the robot told you and building that broad-cast tower: a constant feed of propaganda will at least buy you a little public good-will. And besides, once you have people absorbing what you tell them, you can start conditioning them to accept the values you deem appropriate. Don’t underestimate the power of media manipulation. 

Cheers

Wilbur Ashton

Community Broadcast Tower [Education, Media]: Radio, then television. These facilities would play on loop various Department created materials, largely a mix of patriotic reaffirmations and edutainment material aimed at both adults and children. 0/200/400, SELECT COMMUNITY, increase Public Preparedness stat. Costs 1 Funding to complete per phase.

Local Philanthropy [Charity, Government]: Firefighters, hospitals, public transportation and other services were generally deeply underfunded. By contributing to their finances, it would both help that community develop important infrastructure to help weather disaster, as well as buy some local good-will for the department in that community. 0/100/200, SELECT COMMUNITY. Increases Team America Goodwill and Responder Preparedness stat. Cost 1 Funding to complete each phase. +WRATH. TAX WRITE OFF APPLIED, FIRST IS FREE.

DoP Disaster Training and Response Facility [Education, Personel]: The civilian disaster preparedness program was a new initiative by the DoP: they wanted to start training populations in various methods that can be used in case of disaster to survive. 0/200, SELECT COMMUNITY. Increases Responder Preparedness. 

Co-Op Garden [Agriculture, Population]: Anyone who seriously thought co-ops were the herald of socialism were idiots. Despite the stigma, however, they did serve a purpose: the most obvious was reducing food insecurity and self sufficiency for a community, but more important was helping that community start building the institutional knowledge required for rebuilding agriculture should civilization collapse and supply lines disintegrate. 0/100/200, SELECT COMMUNITY. Increases AgriPreservation stat. Modest Suspicion. 

Luxury Bunkers [Population, Construction, Liberty Party]: Funding was hard to come by, but one way it could be obtained? Earning Donors by constructing various Liberty Party officials and other wealthy individuals their own private, DoP maintained bunkers. Sure, it would be helping some of the worst people avoid the fate they have so richly earned, but the funding would be worth it. 0/150/300, increase funding by 2 per phase. ++Wrath Gain.

Targeted ACME Loans [Population, ACME, Finance]: This wouldn’t save anyone. Not on its own: the infrastructure developed might save someone, but the effect would be marginal compared to other, more efficient tactics. The only benefit this gave was money. 0/100/200/???, SELECT COMMUNITY. Infinite phases, every phase increases a random stat. Every two phases, gain +1 Funding. +Wrath.