Bay 12 Games Forum

Well, IIRC the Backer List was intended to let people nonviolently eliminate the CCS...so if it didn't eliminate them, it kinda wouldn't be doing its job.

I'd imagine they could still do some damage in a year's time--even three or six months seems like a long while for me--so I'd be inclined to leave it as is.

(I thought it was in the Supercomputer...but hadn't yet gotten a hacker up to 8-10 Computers to go find out.  Training the Disguise/Stealth/Lockpicking is easy, IMO.)

OK, so tagging during a site visit does do something worth the pile of Vandalism charges.  Hadn't ever gotten that far when I still tagged.  Will check that out--Liberals support legalizing marijuana, not crack.

Thanks for the advice.

I'm fond of the stealthy approach: train people for Disguise & Stealth at the Sweatshop (where Naked is Disguise-compatible) and you can find Cloth and Workers to make disguises.  The Work Clothes allow raiding the factories, Black Robe is good for the Courthouse (as well as giving a Stealth bonus, so helps training Stealth) and the Lab Coat lets you in the University labs & the nuke plant.

You'll need some Security to do any of this properly.  Fortunately, once you have someone with it (several A answers during character creation give a point of Security, or find someone who can help), one can grind it up reasonably quickly by going to apartment complexes & picking the doors.  Move to wealthier neighborhoods once you're routinely opening each door, and by the time you're beating the Downtown apartment, you should have little to no problems with doors.

Sweatshop: immigrant rights, worker rights, maybe pollution(?); Cloth enables cost-effective disguise-making and sells OK itself
Factory: worker rights, pollution; chemicals don't sell well but smashing the machinery boosts Juice reasonably well
Courthouse: Liberal Judges, some other issues too; selling loot works well
Labs: Animal testing/genemod food, respectively; freeing caged creatures gives Juice rapidly, loot sells well

Once your Disguise & Stealth are in good shape, you should be able to afford a pickup truck or New Beetle.  The pickup gives +1 to Driving so it may be worth the extra $2000.  (Four unloaded M16s will pay for the difference, and M4s are better anyway.)  Then you can grab a Black Robe and stealth through the Army base until you find army-armor; equip to disguise, and you'll not need to buy assault rifles ever again.

Well, Vandalism charges do not generate heat, IIRC. It just causes troubles at the trial. Also, tagging the Vegan Co-op and the Juice bar is a pretty fast way to get a liberal to 50 juice, where they could recruit another one.

"Join us to Liberally redecorate your Co-Op!"
"Wow, man, you really know how to use a spray can."
After some discussion, Hippie agrees to come by later tonight.

Good to know about the vandalism charges--I know there's some sort of metric for what generates heat but wasn't sure what did or did not.  Probably posted somewhere and I either didn't see or forgot about it.

Hmm.  The get-Beetle option is an A choice, so it's in the Thief line, true--but I've heard the phrase "got my hands on" to mean legitimate acquisition as well as shady acquisition.  Players who aren't paying attention to that sort of theming or who haven't read the wiki might not be pleased to find their car is stolen.

If the car is considered stolen, probably best to make that clear to the player.  Something like "A) I "borrowed" someone's old Beetle and my chop shop friends helped me fix it up.  It runs great!" seems adequate.

Well, maybe I can help here?

One way I found to Juice w/o gaining charges (because in my--limited--experiences, charges = Heat) is to do site raids and stick to petty theft.  Slow but relatively safe, even in Nightmare Mode.  Since petty theft doesn't generate newspaper articles, I don't think it affects the CCS startup either if that's a concern.

Go around picking locks (NOT breaking down doors), grabbing things that aren't nailed down and aren't being watched*, optionally drop pickup lines or talk about the issues, and start leaving when the Conservatives get suspicious.  Every item picked up=1 Juice for everyone in the squad, up to 200 Juice.

*If there's an encounter present, picking locks or taking things can set off the Conservative Alarm (bad), Alienate the moderate Masses (really bad), or even provoke a Liberal to cry for help (I guess xe wasn't Liberal enough?).  Taking goods in particular will add a Theft charge to the taker, generally the first person in the squad.  Stealth skills can help avoid raising the alarm, but not the Theft charge.  Best to wait for the coast to clear.

At 200 Juice, there's no way I know of to keep a character Juicing without at least racking up Theft charges, unless you have a safehouse that can be raided repeatedly (yours or Theirs).  Killing Conservatives in their safehouse (you'll know if it's a safehouse--they're clearly marked in the destination list) doesn't count for Murder charges, and killing at least the CIA or Firemen at your safehouses didn't count for Murder in the last version.

(I've read something about characters gaining Juice because someone below them Juiced enough to level up.  I've never noticed that sort of thing making a significant contribution to my people, but then I don't track my hierarchy that thoroughly.)