Cat's Paw: The Essence of Poker, Bluffing, in a Cyberpunk RP.

[unanun]

Cat's Paw
"A person used by another as a dupe or tool."
​

You're an executive, controller, vice-president, ... of a megagroup, conglomerate, chaebol, keiretsu, or state-owned enterprise.

The time is Earth, 2222 A.D. The space elevator has made space travel surprisingly simple. There are shipping lanes between Mars and the Moon. Asteroids are regularly mined for materials. Fusion power is a thing.

What's left?

Your ambition.

Mechanism​

What would happen if we took the essence of poker, bluffing, and put it into an RP?

Each player represents a company that generates Requistion, the only tracked resource in Cat's Paw. The amount you spend trying to win Events determines the power of the actions you can take.

Here's an example.

[dash=grey]The country that houses a space elevator is in political upheaval. If you control the space elevator, you will have a huge say in the shipping lanes. If that aligns with your company's interest, will you:

a) Try and rig the election?
b) Fund terrorists?
c) Assassinate opposition?
d) Legitimately fund a party?
e) ?[/dash]

You decide on a hidden amount of requisition you will spend. You reflect that in your writing. Say I choose option (b). If I spend a lot of requisition, I can equip a terrorist cell. If not, I can give teenage kids pop rocks and cellphone jammers. Upon character creation, you should select a theme and try to stick with it.

The freedom - and responsibility - in Cat's Paw comes from being able to do anything you want, as long as you keep it at the level of power dictated by your spent requisition. At any point you are able to modify the amount you spend - by making an in-character post about it!

Thus, Cat's Paw is a game about fair writing, and reading in between the lines.

At the end of an Event, everyone reveals the amount of requisition spent. Whoever spends the most wins the event, and the right to more requisition. They also win the right to write a humiliating closing post about their opposition.

Cat's Paw is nail biting. When you invest the same amount, your actions should be roughly similar. This situation creates a game of chicken where you are forced to decide whether to back out, hold, or go all in. If someone else wants to win, it's obvious, and if they back out early, it's also obvious. Just like poker. Delicious.

Of course, fighting over one Event can leave many corporations rapidly falling behind. Each time an Event occurs, you will be free to fight over Standards - recurring opportunities to gain more Requisition so you'll be ready when the big cheese comes.

Code of Conduct​

Exactly as outlined in Ilium. The karma system is used to enforce power gaming.