Conference Brawl: A Murder Mystery On ZOOM

Conference Brawl:

A Murder Mystery On

ZOOM

An online mystery for 6 – 10 people

Conference Brawl – A Zoom Mystery Meeting 2

Mystery Games

If you’ve ever attended or hosted a Mystery Dinner Party, then you already know how to do this. If you haven’t, well, plan to

enjoy yourself.

This game is for six to ten players and can be played either in one sitting or in three. (Sometimes it’s difficult to sit in front of a

computer for three hours, but on the other hand, it can be really hard to schedule three sessions. People can wander in and out

and you should schedule a ten-minute bathroom break/intermission in the middle if in fact you do it in one session.) The

experience should take about three hours, plus some time for sharing after it.

You’ll need a device (computer, laptop, tablet, or even a mobile phone) that can handle a zoom meeting. Zoom is a meeting

service. There’s a free version and a paid version—the free version works fine for this.

This is a role-playing experience. You play a role assigned to you by the host. There are some basic parameters for your

character, but you’ll have lots of room to improvise and play. Talk, ask questions, enjoy being someone else!

Zevern Technologies is in Turmoil

Figure 1: Oz Zevern

It’s a few years into the future. Silicon Valley is still the place where some people become billionaires and others crash and

burn. Zevren Technologies is a big success story, a company that has grown from Oz Zevren’s initial app programmed in a

dorm room at UCLA.

Oswald Zevern is the charismatic founder of Zevern Technologies, which has digitized child care. Zevern’s advanced child care

app changed the world of babysitting, freeing parents to enjoy the night out, secure in the knowledge that their child was being

monitored and cared for to the highest standards. Of course, the app is supposed to be used in conjunction with a living

breathing babysitter, but not everyone does that and it’s amazing how well the app keeps children entertained while providing

enriching and entertaining experiences! It was great!


Until Oz was found murdered during an employee retreat in Colorado.

You’re a department head for Zevern Technologies. The company was supposed to go public in a month, a huge business deal

that would bring in millions, perhaps billions, and make you and every other person at this meeting rich. But the company was

inextricably linked to Oz.

It’s only a week after the murder and there’s an emergency conference meeting. People are attending digitally from where

they work all over the country and the world.

What do you do now? Are you going to continue forward? Things will happen in the game that raise the stakes and affect you!

CAN YOU FIGURE OUT WHO MURDERED OZ BEFORE THEY MURDER YOU?

TIPS • Read your character description! It not only tells you who you are, but it will have secrets about your character that no

one else knows.

• Dress the part. This game takes place in the near future so you’ve got stuff in your closet—but have fun. Be hipster!

Or wear a business jacket. Create a future fashion! Maybe the cool people wear bathing suits to work! Have a prop!

Actors use all the things to get themselves into character and you should, too!

• Have a signature drink. It doesn’t have to be alcoholic, but it can express your character. A martini perfectly made. Or

maybe you pound Redbull™

• You’re going to have goals. They help you decide what to do. The others have goals, too, and they might want

something different than you.

• Figure out who is friend and who is foe. How? Talk to them! Zoom is a video conferencing tool with chat and direct

messaging. Use it. PM (Private Message) other people and ask them questions or get buddy-buddy with them.

• Skill and action cards: you will have cards that give you special skills based on your role in the game.

• The Host: the host or the GM (Game Master) is the person running the game. They will run the game, make this

experience fun, and help you when you have a question about rules or procedure. What they don’t do is play the game

with you. They won’t help you in your goals. They won’t answer questions about what you should do or shouldn’t do.


Fellow Characters:

• NAN-E, AI software (and your Host): NAN-E facilitates.

• Finley, CEO of the Company: a dedicated hardworking nuts and bolts person. Practical to balance Oz.

• Kylin, Head of Tech: Software Genius, anti-social

• Perry, Head of Sales: Charming and smooth talking. Friendly.

• Jaziah, Oz’s Personal Assistant: Quiet, self-effacing, endlessly competent.

• Austin, Head of Design: Artistic, flamboyant, but willing to be commercial.

• Campbell, Red River Inn employee: Working class person caught up in corporate intrigue by being at the wrong

place at the wrong time.

Optional characters:

• Lake, Head of Security: Professional, tough, cool.

• Ridley, Head of Human Resources: In the know, good with people, very professional.

• Ramsey, Employee Representative: Unionizer, anarchist, wildcard.

• Eastyn, Head of Finance: Conservative, buttoned up, detail oriented.


For the Host How to start.

• First, print this file out and read the whole thing.

• Set a date and invite people to the conference. The story takes about an hour and a half. Sitting in front of a

computer can get tiring for people—give everyone a bathroom break right before the half hour reveal.

• Two days before the game (unless this is one of those spur of the moment things) finalize your guest list and send

everyone their character bios. Remind them not to share their secrets with the other players.

• If people have dropped out and you need those roles, chase down other people who can play.

• Be in ZOOM at least ten minutes before the game starts.

Casting:

You are NAN-E, an AI created by the company. You aren’t human. You are facilitating the meeting but you cannot answer

questions other than how to play the game. You can get as little or as much into this role as you want.

There are minimum of six essential roles. The names are suitable for male, female, and non-binary characters. There are

character sheets to give to the players later in this doc, but here’s an overview.

Name Title Role Casting hints

Finley Chief of Operations Business person to Oz’s crazy experimental genius

Has been through a lot of failed start ups, values money

Kylin Head of Tech Genius—invented the AI, intense

Not social, maybe on the autism spectrum, motivated by challenges, not money

Perry Head of Marketing and Sales

Slick, smart, very aware of media (social and traditional) and the company issues has helped push the company to success

Unscrupulous. Has suspicions about company viability, addicted to the monied lifestyle. Drives Porsche 911, dresses sharp.

Jaziah Oz’s Personal Assistant Self-effacing, thick-skinned, can get you a latte or a dinner for 12

Deeply loyal to Oz. Devastated.

Austin Head of Design Artsy, maybe a little flamboyant, has helped create the distinct Zevern style

Fine arts background, great at the practicals of design for a product but secretly wants to make art

Campbell Staff at Red River Inn Invisible to most people, works the top floor but is covering first floor because someone is absent

Desperate, poor, will score meth (Oz likes to use it for sex) for Oz from their brother who deals.

Additional Roles


Lake Head of Security Competent, discreet, oversees both site and corporate security

Feels as though they should have seen this coming, invested in finding out what happened to Oz

Ridley Human Resources Professional, used to handling everything from workplace harassment to ramping up employment

Strong manager, tough but fair, survivor

Ramsey Employee Representative

Oz picks an employee every year to be the voice of the practical.

Currently trying to start a union. Anarchist, revolutionary.

Eastyn Head of Finance Traditional business person in a start up world. Conservative, hard working, problem solver

Feels like the parent to a bunch of brilliant but undisciplined children

Day of Game: If people haven’t used ZOOM before, you might want to offer to do a practice test for them.

The Game Itself You will be in charge of timing. There are four major events in the game.

· Starting the game - you have called everyone together because Menczel Venture Capital has made an offer to buy the

company for pennies on the dollar.

· At the end of first half-hour: give a ten minute break and when everyone is back, announce the discovery of the body

of the Zevern Corporate Lawyer, Ivana Cortez, off the hiking trail at the site of the corporate retreat (and the fear that

anyone in the company might be next).

· At the end of the hour: give a ten minute break and when everyone is back, tell people they have half an hour to make

their final decision regarding what the company will do next (close, try to raise money, sell for pennies on the dollar) AND

FIGURE OUT WHO IS THE MURDERER. PM the murderer and tell them they did it. (The murderer is Perry, see the end of

this section for an explanation and what you PM them.)

END GAME

This isn’t a game you win, per se. But the climax of the game is when everyone tries to guess the murderer and you tell

them it was Perry.

· At the end of the hour and a half, have everyone vote on what to do with the company and have everyone write

down/PM you their guess for who the murderer is. Reveal the murderer.

· In addition, after the game is finished (when the murderer is revealed, or everyone has guessed who they are) allow

some time for people to talk about what they did and why.

Remember, the rules are guidelines. You may break them or bend them as you see fit. If a character is out of ‘Gossip’ actions

and another player wants to give them one of theirs, it’s up to you.


Player will have Actions. For example, Kylin will be able to anonymously Swat (have the cops show up at another character’s

home thinking there is a hostage situation or a bomb at the residence). To do so, they will Private Message the host and

request a SWAT. They have three Swat attacks per game and they and the Host will track how many they use.

Players also have money and lines of credit and can use them to bribe or reward other players.

You will keep track of the players actions. They can do a limited number of these actions.

Scoresheet of Actions by player (Print this out and mark off the uses):

Finley Gain Trust Another player must reveal an official secret. (PM another player and start a conversation, then PM the Host that you are using a Gain Trust. The Host will let the other player know that they must share a secret with you.)

☐ ☐ ☐

Finley Gossip Choose a player and request the host to create a breakout room for you to have a private conversation with them for up to 5 minutes. You and the other player PM NAN-E and tell them that you want a private room.

☐ ☐ ☐

Kylin Hack Email and Hard Drive Another player must reveal an official secret. (PM another player and start a conversation, then PM the NAN-E that you are using a Hack. NAN-E will let the other player know that they must share a secret with you.)

The player must PM you and NAN-E one of their secrets.

☐ ☐ ☐

Kylin SWAT Attack Steal an untraceable identity and call the local

☐ ☐ ☐


authorities where someone is living and say that there is someone armed and holding them hostage in their house. (Player must sit out ten minutes of the game as if they were dealing with the police. They may watch and listen but they are too busy to do anything.)

PM NAN-E who will mute them.

Perry Gossip Choose a player and PM NAN-E to create a breakout room for you to have a private conversation with them for up to 5 minutes.

☐ ☐ ☐

Perry Schmooze You have the gift of charm and even people who don’t like you can get drawn in. You ask them a few questions about themselves, act as if you really care about them, and they end up telling you things they never thought they would. PM NAN-E and ask for a breakout room with another player. The player must PM you and NAN-E one of their secrets.

☐ ☐ ☐

Jaziah Gossip Choose a player and command the host to create a breakout room for you to have a private conversation with them for up to 5 minutes.

☐ ☐ ☐

Jaziah Access Files Oz was a paranoid guy and he sometimes did secret investigations of his employees. You’re the only one aside from Lake who has access to these files, and you can use them to force a player to reveal a secret.

☐ ☐ ☐


Austin Gossip Choose a player and NAN-E to create a breakout room for you to have a private conversation with them for up to 5 minutes.

☐ ☐ ☐

Austin Graphic Design Choose a player and force them to communicate solely through an art app like paint for 10 minutes. They can screen share their drawings.

☐ ☐ ☐

Campbell Overheard People don’t notice staff so when you were checking rooms, you might have overheard someone either on the phone or talking to someone else, or they may have left papers on the desk. So you might know a secret or two.

You can have a player reveal a secret you overheard. PM NAN-E and they will inform the player that they must PM you AND NAN-E one of their secrets.

☐ ☐ ☐

Campbell Gossip Choose a player and PM the host to create a breakout room for you to have a private conversation with them for up to 5 minutes.

☐ ☐ ☐

Lake Access Files Oz was a paranoid guy and he sometimes did secret investigations of his employees. You’ve got access to those files, now, after his death. You don’t want to touch them because you’re not sure of the legality of them but you can ‘check a file’ which results in another player having to tell you a secret.

☐ ☐ ☐


Lake Investigate Talk to people privately. Order a private room through NAN-E to interview your top five suspects. You can be concerned and worried about them or threatening if you’ve got the goods.

☐ ☐ ☐

Ridley Access Files Oz was a paranoid guy and he sometimes did secret investigations of his employees. You’ve got access to those files, now, after his death. You don’t want to touch them because you’re not sure of the legality of them but you can ‘check a file’ which results in another player having to tell you a secret. PM NAN-E and they will inform the player that they must PM you AND NAN-E one of their secrets.

☐ ☐ ☐

Ridley Suspend If a player does something, or you find out something about them that indicates they have engaged in illegal or inappropriate behavior (taking drugs, stealing, harassing or abusing another employee) HR can suspend them. You can use this if someone does something in the meeting or you uncover a secret. It suspends the player for ten minutes during which they cannot participate in the meeting, only watch. NAN-E must agree that they have broken company regulations.

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

Ramsey Gain Trust Another player must reveal an official secret. (PM another player and start a

☐ ☐ ☐


conversation, then PM NAN-E that you are using a Gain Trust. The Host will let the other player know that they must share a secret with you.)

Ramsey Gossip Choose a player and

command the host to create a breakout room for you to have a private conversation with them for up to 5 minutes.

☐ ☐ ☐

Eastyn Investigate You can do some forensic accounting, pull the records on their company credit card to figure out where the money is going. Talk to people privately; order a private room through NAN-E to interview your top three suspects. They have to reveal a secret to you by PMing it to you and to NAN-E.

☐ ☐ ☐

Eastyn Gossip Choose a player and PM NAN-E to create a breakout room for you to have a private conversation with them for up to 5 minutes.

☐ ☐ ☐

NOTE: You do not have to know anything about what happens when players ‘GOSSIP’. Just throw them in a break-out room

for five minutes.


Events the day of Oz’s Murder (DO NOT SHARE WITH PLAYERS) 7:00am: Oz and Ridley both take a yoga class at the Grotto by the Reflecting Pool. Ridley tells Oz that they know he is having

sex with Jaziah, his assistant, and threatens legal action. Oz says it’s consensual and laughs them off.

8:00am 8:00am: Finley and Oz are seated at a table by themselves but everyone else can see them. They get into a heated argument.

Oz tells Finley that finance people are a dime a dozen. People can hear Finley say something about venture capitalists.

9:00am 9:00am: Trust exercises in San Luis Peak conference room. Perry isn’t a trusting person and Oz humiliates them

10:00am 10:00am: Group hike. Perry is not there, and neither is Kylin. (Kylin skipping is not unusual but Perry not being there is.)

Austin wears new hiking boots, develops blisters and wants to turn back. Oz calls them a sissy and reduces them to tears.

Noon Noon: Lunch on their own. Finley corners Kylin and tells them that Oz has brought in venture capital. The upcoming IPO is

going to expose the financial problems of the company, the IPO is a terrible mistake, and it will result in going out of business

and Oz owns the rights to Kylin’s AI.

1:00pm 1:00pm: Oz alone in business suite but seen on patio with Jaziah.

1:30PM 1:30pm: Campbell delivers meth to Oz in his suite. The only other person there is a very unhappy Jaziah. Waiting for the

elevator, Campbell sees Perry come out of his suite and knock on Oz’s door. Campbell gets in elevator before door is

answered.

3:00pm 3:00pm: Lake gets call from Red River Management telling them that an employee is threatening to call police over an assault

by Oz. If no one is playing Lake, then Finley gets the call. Kylin comes to the Pikes Peak conference room and announces that

the afternoon meeting is cancelled.

4:00pm 4:00pm: Oz’s body is found at the labyrinth. He’s been bludgeoned to death. Ivana Cortez, company lawyer, has disappeared.

Who Did It? –

Perry killed Oz because Oz was going to fire Perry and tell everyone that Perry is embezzling. It was a crime of passion. Oz

taunted Perry again and Perry lost it, beating Oz over the head with a rock. Ivana Cortez, the lawyer, happened to catch Perry

in the act.

Desperate, Perry killed her as well. Perry dragged her body down some hiking paths and hid it in a ravine, but before they

could hide Oz’s body, they heard (but did not see) Campbell calling for Oz. They snuck back to the Inn and cleaned up.


PM them this: You killed Oz in a fit of passion. You ran into Oz out in the labyrinth and he told you he knew you were

embezzling, and he laughed at you. He didn’t even care. He said you were small potatoes. He was taking the company for

everything and it was ALL LEGAL. You picked up a rock and beat him over the head.

Afterwards you were in shock. You knew you had to do something but you were frozen. Then Ivana Cortez, the company

lawyer, walked up on you. The worst possible person. You had the rock in your hand, so you killed her, too. You had to hide

the bodies. You started with Cortez’s body because she was smaller and lighter. You dragged her down the path and off and

rolled her into a ravine. You were headed back to do the same with Oz’s body when you heard, but did not see, Campbell

calling for Oz. You ran back to the Inn and cleaned up.


Credits

Created By: Maureen McHugh Yeager

Designed and Written by: Maureen McHugh Yeager and Meny Mencel


Conference Brawl:

A Murder Mystery On

ZOOM

Character Sheets


Finley – Chief of Operations

You have been with the company since there were only a handful of people there. You saw the potential of what Oz had

created and convinced Oz that he needed someone who understood business.

It’s been a complicated partnership. Oz didn’t always inform you of what he was doing, even as he was jetting around the

world raising money from investors.

You’re in your 50’s and you’ve been through four tech start-ups. The other three crashed and burned and you are worried

about your own financial situation. You feel behind and unprepared for retirement. You have a very nice home and a nice car

and are putting a child (Skylar, 17) through private high school so that they can go to a good college. It’s all expensive.

You handle the day to day running of the business. You were the yin to Oz’s yang; practical, feet on the ground. You believe in

the child care app and preach that it is a solution to a major problem. You also believed in Oz. Time and again you’ve seen him

pull off another miracle. You don’t know what will happen to the company without him.

You’re capitalist. Traditional in some ways, but not humorless.

Relationships:

You are a mentor of sorts to Austin, whose family you’ve known for years, and who you gave their first break. You were really

good friends with Austin’s father. You’re proud and impressed of the success Austin has made in their position.

You have a really strong relationship with Eastyn. You’re friends outside of work. Eastyn knows that you’ve been running tech

companies for years and even that those companies have failed but they don’t know how much you worry. You’re not in debt,

but you figure this is your last big hurrah—fifty is a dinosaur in the tech world.

Kylin went to school with Oz and helped build the app. You respect Kylin’s brilliance but mostly try to avoid getting involved

with their department other than the requirements of the business.

Perry is a thorn in your side. He is always over-committing the company. He’ll create a partnership with another company and

promise software features that the app doesn’t have, promise to develop them but bid so low for the contract that the

company loses money on the deal.


You have a good working relationship with Ridley of Human Resources. You brought them here from another company and

you see yourself as a kind of mentor to them, although you admit they are probably long past the mentoring stage.

Your Goals

Your goal is to keep the company running, protect the coders and employees, maintain Oz’s legacy, and keep the people who

depend on the child care app supported. It’s just the right way to do business. People who short change their employees and

customers end up without either one.

You want to find out who killed Oz, although you think it’s a matter for the police. You don’t believe that anyone would

personally threaten you.

Tips for beginners

You are concerned about the others. You want to talk to them, figure out what they are thinking, assure them that the

company can go forward and that your product is still strong.

Talk to Eastyn about finances. Find out what the big picture looks like—How much does the company owe. How are sales.

Talk to Jaziah about what might have been going on with Oz. Was anyone particularly angry at Oz? More than usual?

Talk to Campbell about finding the body. Ask them if they noticed anything weird or suspicious the day of the murder.

Actions:

Gain trust

Another player must reveal an official secret. (PM another player and start a conversation, then PM the Host that you are

using a Gain Trust. The Host will let the other player know that they must share a secret with you.)

Three uses. ☐ ☐ ☐

Gossip

Choose a player and ask the host to create a breakout room for you to have a private conversation with them for up to 5

minutes.

You and the other player PM NAN-E and tell them that you want a private room.



Your secrets:

• Oz liked sex (with any gender) and was not above using money and position to get what he wanted. You worked with

Lake, the head of security, to deal with two cases of people who you had to buy off. But if Oz had been exposed then that

could have destroyed the company and left the employees without jobs. Only Oz could keep the company going in the first

years.

• In a moment of insanity, you came on to Austin. You always had a thing for their father, although you never acted on

it. Coming on to Austin was an impulse, you regretted it instantly, and now you know that if Austin tells, it will ruin your career

and destroy your family. Your spouse will leave you and you are afraid, you’ll lose the love and trust of your whole family.

• On the day of the murder, at breakfast, you confronted Oz about the financial situation and told them, that if Oz didn’t

step back, and become a figurehead, and let you completely run the company to try to get it out of this disastrous situation,

you would reveal their shell game and the state of the company to the press. Oz said, ‘Over my dead body.’ But you were

hopeful, knowing Oz as well as you did, that he would decide that as long as he could keep his lifestyle, he was willing to play by

your rules. Of course, Oz has always been a wild card.

Money/Line of Credit: You can pull about $100,000 from an equity line of credit on your home. It’s not that you’re poor, but

you spend a lot to keep up your lifestyle. To bribe someone, PM NAN-E.


Kylin – Head of Tech

Brilliant but odd, you wrote the code for the first version of Oz’s app. Really, without you there would be no Zevern

Technologies. You is the one who invented it all in the first few years, coding 16 hours a day. It was exhausting and you don’t

know that you could pull it off a second time, but life was so pure and simple then that you miss it. Ostensibly the head of

technology, you leave management to your department heads.

You are obsessed with code, problem solving, and most importantly, Artificial Intelligence. The core of the childcare app is a

highly sophisticated AI that matches a child’s needs to a vast array of things to do, scenarios, and advice tips. As a child

interacts with the app it learns about them and fine tunes its responses. Eventually, the app becomes sophisticated enough

that it can ‘babysit’ using a television flat screen.

‘NANNI’ the code at the core of the app, is an artificial intelligence. Is it self-aware? You don’t really know. ‘NANNI’ (the AI) is

more of a person to you than most people.

You are terrible at social interaction. You might be on the autism spectrum. You don’t do in person meetings. In a zoom

conference, you may be silent, you might be rude, you might be suddenly, surprisingly useful. You aren’t malicious, you just

aren’t very interested in other people.

Relationships

You didn’t really care that Oz got famous on you code. If you are sorry that Oz is dead, no one can tell (you’ve never been a

sharing kind of person). You think you’re sorry about Oz but honestly, mostly you’re freaked out. This is going to be a big

change and change makes you really anxious.

Oddly enough, you don’t mind Austin. After all, Austin went to art school and they don’t understand coding but they

understand loving your art. Austin is also very interesting to be around because they are flamboyant and they don’t really

require much of you. You realize that they have no idea that you like them. You would be willing to date them, if by dating you

mean going to their place. You might even have fantasized a little. But mostly, you’ve been really busy with NAN-E.

Eastyn makes sense to you. When Eastyn talks to you about finance, you get that it’s a kind of game and that he’s explaining

the rules. You like rules and you like numbers. Eastyn will explain to you why a direction can be explored or not and you can

then think of it as a problem that is solvable or not.

You also like Perry because he is incredibly nice to you. But you are starting to suspect that he’s manipulating you—gaming

you, so to speak—for his own ends. You think marketing is necessary but stupid.


Jaziah makes you nervous, so you often just don’t talk to them. They are always watching, and they seem like they can read

Oz’s mind, and you can’t help feeling as if they might be reading yours, which, just, no.

You despise Lake (if they are in the game) because you’re a hacker at heart and Lake is basically a cop. They like to know what

you’re doing, what your security is. You give them just enough that they’ll get out of your hair.

Campbell was the person at the resort who brought you meals and coffee. They were quiet and efficient and you liked them.

Your Goals:

• You aren’t motivated by money. You want to keep working, you’re an artist but your medium is code.

• They love the childcare app, particularly the AI at the center of it. They don’t want Zevern to fail because they want to keep

NAN-E’s servers online and allow NAN-E to continue to grow and thrive.

• You do secretly like a little recognition but assume that most people don’t understand what you’re doing.

Tips for beginners

• You are annoyed that you can’t just do your work but you understand the crisis and you want it figured out.

• Talk to Austin to find out what they think.

• Talk to Perry about the investors.

• Talk to Jaziah about who Oz was courting for money

Actions:

Hack Email and hard drive

Another player must reveal an official secret. (PM another player and start a conversation, then DM

the Host that you are using a Hack. The Host will let the other player know that they must share a

secret with you.)


SWAT

Steal and untraceable identity and call the local authorities where someone is living and say that

there is someone armed and holding them hostage in their house. (Player must sit out ten minutes


of the game as if they were dealing with the police. They may watch and listen but they are too busy

to do anything.)

PM NAN-E who will mute them.


Your secrets:

• You like to browse through the company’s finances from time to time. You’re a numbers person after all. You’ve recently

discovered that Perry has been secretly embezzling funds from the company into their own account, but you haven’t told

anyone yet. Honestly, you don’t really care.

• While at the resort, one of the times Campbell brought you a meal, they dropped a suspicious bag behind them. Upon further

inspection, you’re pretty sure that it was crystal meth.

• On the day of the murder, Finley cornered you and told you that Oz has brought in venture capital, which will result in an IPO

that will expose the financial problems of the company. This would lead it to go out of business and Oz owning the rights to

your AI. You intended to sabotage the company before that could happen by writing a virus that would destroy NAN-E except

for one copy you kept on a dedicated server.

Money/Line of Credit – You never spend your money, so you’ve got $600,000 in cash in a couple of different accounts. To bribe

someone, PM NAN-E.


Jaziah – Oz’s Personal Assistant

You are self effacing, attentive, and loyal to a fault. You are highly motivated, but feel you lack the charisma to climb the social

and professional ladder. What you lack in pizzazz you more than make up for in pure tenacity. You are someone who can

always be relied upon, whether it’s getting a latte at 2 am or organizing a dinner for 12. Oz saw that in you and hired you as his

personal assistant. He had all the charisma you lacked, and was supposed to be your ticket to the top, until he was murdered

that is.

You had a preppy upbringing, your family is rich and you coasted through private schools all the way through college. You were

meek in your youth and didn’t put too much of an effort into anything. You didn’t have to, you came from money. Then real life

hit you like a brick. Your father set you up with your first job out of college at his real estate company. Screw up after screw up

resulted in many lost contracts. Your father was furious, fired you and cut you off until you get your act together. On top of

that, your boyfriend since high school also dumped you, now that you were broke.

Oz was your second chance. You interviewed with him for a lark, and when he hired you, you vowed to yourself to never let him

down. Ever since you’ve been nothing but reliable, the portrait of competence, effectively becoming Oz’s right hand. When it

comes to sales, Oz is a genius, but his personal life was a grenade waiting to explode. You were the one with the hand on the

pin.

Relationships

Kylin makes you laugh. You know it’s not intentional on their part, but their complete lack of self awareness almost makes

them seem like a deadpan comedian. Many people notice you for your looks but you know they never will and you feel safe

around them.


Finley makes you nervous. They remind you too much of your father, and you feel like one screw up in front of them could

endanger your job. Plus, you feel like their relationship with Oz was on the rocks towards the end, and you have to take Oz’s

side.

Austin makes you a little jealous. They are flamboyant and seemingly effortlessly competent, while you feel you always have

to be in 5th gear.

Perry rubs you the wrong way. You got the sense from Oz that they might be playing on two courts when it comes to the

company, and you can’t stand disloyalty.

You abhor Ridley. They were against hiring an “inexperienced screw up” from the start and you feel like they’ve been looking

to get you out since day one. You also don’t like the way Oz looks at them.

Campbell seems sweet. They remind you of where you were 5 years ago and so you have sympathy for them.

Actions:

Gossip

Choose a player and request the host to create a breakout room for you to have a private conversation with them for up to 5

minutes.


Access Files:

Oz was a paranoid guy and he sometimes did secret investigations of his employees. You’re the only one aside from Lake

who has access to these files, and you can use them to force a player to reveal a secret.



Secrets:

1. Oz was endlessly charming, and you fell for him almost immediately. You were coming off a bad break up when you got the

job, and it was as if Oz was almost irresistible, and he knew it. You tried to convince yourself it was just a fling in the beginning,

but by the end you knew you were in love with him.

2. You knew that Oz was sleeping around, and that he didn’t discriminate when it came to partners. You knew that Ridley was

one of them, and you despise them for it. Despite all that, you’re convinced that while Oz’s pants had many flames, his heart

belonged to you.

3. On the day of the murder, you were the second person on the scene of the crime where you found Oz’s body. The person

standing next to his fresh corpse was Campbell.


Perry – Head of Marketing and Sales

You are good looking, charming and likeable—and you know it.

You are calling in from Europe where you are living for a year. The app is breaking into international markets in Asia, Europe,

and South America and although you thought about living in Rio, who could pass up a chance to live for free in Paris, The City

of Lights.

You have your suspicions about the company and if it is really viable in the long run. The app is incredibly expensive to run.

You’ve heard rumors about just the server costs of running the app. But that’s tech and really, none of your business.

You recognize in Oz a fellow charmer. Some people might say con man, but you know that there is a little bit of a con in every

successful sale and a little bit of a sale in every successful con. You figure that you’ve done a great job in sales and even if

Zervern Tech eventually flames out, you’ll be fine. People will want to hire you because of your record with sales.

You’ve been in sales since you dropped out of college at the end of your sophomore year and took a job selling cars. Your

father, who is in corporate law, was disappointed in you but damn if you don’t make a lot more money than that bastard ever

did. You learned a lot about human nature and sales in the Darwinian culture of car sales. You got out after a couple of years

and moved into tech sales. Since then, life has just gotten better and better. Now when you log in to company meetings,

you’ve got a glass of good French wine.

Relationships

You were tight with Oz—or at least you liked to think you were. You think Ridley is a pain in your ass—rules about how to do

things, how to treat employees. You don’t discriminate except against people who don’t perform for you. Finley is okay, he’s

easy to figure out and easy to please. Kylin is spooky but you don’t have much to do with them. Frankly, you can never figure

out Kylin but you learned the hard way, never get in their way.

You wanted to use the AI in a singles application—have a re-labeled version of the app that functions as a virtual romantic

interest. Kids don’t have disposable income and although parents do, people spend a lot more money on sex and romance

than almost anything else. You talked to Kylin, who gave you that flat, reptilian gaze. Then Oz told you to leave Kylin alone.

“Don’t screw with the genius.” Oz was pissed and you learned then not to get in Kylin’s way.

Austin gets on your nerves. They’ve got this whole ‘design for the children’ thing going on. They stabbed you in the back when

you kept saying this should be designed for a broader range of markets—education and health care for children. It was just,

you’re sure, because they didn’t want to do the work.


Actions:

Gossip

Choose a player and PM the host to create a breakout room for you to have a private conversation with them for up to 5

minutes.


Schmooze

You have the gift of charm and even people who don’t like you can get drawn in. You ask them a few questions about

themselves, act as if you really care about them, and they end up telling you things they never thought they would.

PM NAN-E and ask for a breakout room with another player. The player must PM you and NAN-E one of their secrets.


Secrets:

• You are skimming--embezzling. Yeah, Oz suspects you’re padding your expense account, but you’ve figured out how to

conduct massive wire transfers of money from company accounts to an offshore secret bank account in your name. You’re

deep in debt.

• When the police approached you over Oz’s murder, you didn’t know he as dead yet. Thus, you assumed that your

embezzlement cover was blown. Since you suspect Ridley ratted you out, you started to pin the blame on them before you

realized the cops’ real intentions. You tried to play it off as a misunderstanding but now Ridley is a suspect in an unrelated

crime.

• On the day before the murder, you overheard Oz complaining to Lake about inflated expense reports, and you became nervous

they would pin the irregularities on you.

Money/Line of Credit – you can draw down on a $75,000 line of credit, maybe some people are susceptible to bribes? To bribe

someone, PM NAN-E.


Campbell – Staff of Red River Inn

You’ve been invited to the meeting by Finley, the head of the company, because they talked to you the day of the murder and

they think you might have some insight into what happened that day. You are pretty freaked out. You have a minimum wage

job at a fancy hotel and you’ve just been promoted to shift supervisor. You are still figuring out what to do when someone

from housekeeping doesn’t show up for work and all the sudden, you’re sitting in on this high-level meeting with all these

business people.

You’re hardworking. You haven’t missed a day of work in three years. There aren’t a lot of good jobs in this part of Colorado

and you need this job. Your boss told you to make nice in the meeting, and that they don’t want any more scandal.

You love the way the resort is ritzy. It makes you feel more high class by association. Sometimes after your shift you’ll stop at

the bar and have a glass of house wine and pretend that you’re as rich as all the people coming here instead of worrying if your

twelve-year-old Subaru is going to get you to work all winter and how you’re going to afford the new brakes you need.

You went to school with Oz, who grew up in the area. Of course, his family used the ski resorts, your family worked at them.

You thought you were friends. When Oz brought the retreat here, he told your boss it was because of you and your boss

promoted you to manager of day shift. The boss talked about you doing more marketing and sales.

You are young, with an associate’s degree in hospitality from the local community college. You’ve got a big family and you’ve

got cousins who are…into some not quite legal stuff. But you try really hard to stay on the up and up. Your mom is a single

mom and you live with her and help pay expenses.

Relationships:

• Perry tipped pretty big and asked you questions about yourself. They flirted some but you knew they flirt with everyone.

Salesmen. You think they’re funny and fun and you feel like you can talk to them and they won’t think you’re stupid just

because you’re poor.

• You found Oz’s body and Finley, the head of the company, was the first person from Zevern Tech on the scene. They were

genuinely kind to you. They took control but they also gave you their jacket because you were freaking out and shivering.

They talked to you and made sure everyone knew you had nothing to do with the murder although the police still interviewed

you.


• Kylin is just weird. They mostly stayed in their suite and ordered room service. Oz had arranged for you to be one of the

two people who delivered to Kylin because Kylin doesn’t like a lot of new people. But you have a cousin like that except not a

genius, which Kylin apparently is, so you knew to just let them be and not expect them to talk to you.

• Austin is funny and flamboyant, and you like that. They told you some gossip—that the very professional and calm

looking person, Ridley, had an affair with Oz. That Oz sleeps with anything that moves.

• Ridley is super professional and kind of particular and you minded your p’s and q’s with them.

• Oz was super high maintenance. Their PA, Jaziah, was always calling and asking for something weird or special like could

the resort make Oz’s special smoothie with spiralina, and Oz doesn’t drink water from plastic bottles.

Goals:

• You don’t even know what Zevern Tech does. You don’t really care what happens to the company.

• You are pretty convinced you have a 50/50 chance of screwing this up. If you screw this up and they complain to your boss,

or if your boss thinks that the publicity is bad and you didn’t do enough, or if he thinks you acted like a dumb rube, he’ll cut you

back to part time and give you sucky shifts until you quit.

• You want them to find out who the murderer is because you’re scared.

• You don’t trust any of these people. Rich people are careless, they don’t realize that if they complain or something, poor

people are screwed. You’re already not getting paid for part of your shift because of this meeting and you’re going to have to

stay late to get time cards entered for payroll, and do a spot check on the housekeeping carts because there have been

complaints about not getting replacements for shampoo and body wash. And Luisa is probably going to call in sick so you may

end up making beds and cleaning rooms tomorrow.

Actions:

You have a map of the complex. You can choose when to share it and with who. PM NAN-E when you want to share the map

and they will put you and the other player in a private room and upload the map through the text box in chat.



Overheard:

People don’t notice staff so when you were checking rooms, you might have overheard someone either on the phone or talking to someone else, or they may have left papers on the desk. So you might know a secret or two.

You can have a player reveal a secret you overheard. PM NAN-E and they will inform the player that they must PM you AND NAN-E one of their secrets.


Gossip:

Choose a player and PM the host to create a breakout room for you to have a private conversation with them for up to 5 minutes.


Secrets:


• The boss said to do ANYTHING to keep Oz happy. The guy is a big spender and this is the second year they’ve used the resort

as a retreat. Jaziah asked if you knew anyone who could score and you’ve got a cousin who makes meth in a trailer in the

mountains. It’s not the first time you’ve done a favor for the boss.

• 1:30PM the day of the murder, you delivered meth to Oz in his suite. The only other person there was a very unhappy

Jaziah. When you left, waiting for the elevator, you saw Perry come out of his suite and knock on Oz’s door. So you know he

was still alive at 1:30 and that Perry and Jaziah were with him.

• You thought Oz cared about you. You thought you were friends. Then you realized he just liked being the generous guy and

he got you to deliver meth to him and then laughed and said he could get you fired tomorrow. He thought you would think it

was funny, too. Your mom is behind on the rent, you lose this job and you’ll all have to live in your cars. You went to find Oz to

give him some more meth, special stuff, you were going to tell him, but honestly it was so pure, you knew he’d overdose and

die. In other words, you set out to murder him—and found someone else beat you to it. (You saw a bloody rock and it’s pretty

clear someone used it to crack open Oz’s head.)

Money/Line of Credit: Are you kidding? You’ve got $67 to next payday.


Austin – Head of Design

You are the artsy and flamboyant Head of Design at Zevern. You are responsible for the app’s distinct look, and more

importantly, “feel”. Finley, who is a close friend of your father, snapped you up straight out of college, where you graduated

top of your graphic design program, to lay the stylistic groundwork for the app.

In fact, you are somewhat of a design prodigy. In your senior year of college, you were already freelancing as a web designer for

several promising startups, earning multiple accolades.

Your seemingly outgoing personality and your remarkable drive make up a false persona that you wear to mask your

debilitating lack of self esteem and your fear of being abandoned or replaced. None of your many achievements have been

able to change this outlook. Not that you’d care to ever speak this over with a professional, but if you did, there’s a good

chance you’d be diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

When you first came to Zevern, you were blinded by the genius that surrounded you, and have always felt that you were looked

down upon as the “doodler”. This despite the fact that your direction and design of the AI’s human-like persona proved to be

the main factor in propelling the app towards mainstream appeal.

You are very extra in your social interactions, your fear of being left behind leads you to act in a way that you are always two

steps ahead. You are nosy, direct and you LOVE gossip. Your need to be on everyone’s good side can leave you on some

people’s bad side. Due to your lack of ability to build self worth, sometimes the only way for you to feel relevant is to bring

others below you.

Relationships:

Oz is someone you admired and envied. While you were faking it, they were making it. Oz’s people skills seemed truly

effortless, not forced, and they always made you feel like you earned your place in the company. You had feelings for them

that you tried not to acknowledge, but you also couldn’t let them get too close, so as not to reveal your true, worthless self.

Unfortunately, when you like someone you usually start getting very sarcastic with them as a defense against true intimacy,

and that led to a deterioration in your relationship, leading to an altercation at the group hike.

Finley is an old family friend who gave you an opportunity that deep down you believe you don’t deserve. In their presence you

act confident but are secretly terrified you’ll disappoint them and make your father seem like an idiot. You know you’d never

hear the end of it. On top of that, you suspect that Finley knows you have a thing for Oz, which can only mean trouble.


Kylin is an odd duck. Unlike you, they make no effort in hiding their disdain for others, and they make clear that their first and

only passion is the AI and the lines of code behind them. This actually reassures you as you don’t feel the need to prove your

worth to them, and as a result are more open with them than others. You envy their ability not to care what others think.

Eastyn reminds you of your father in the worst way possible. None of your jokes have yet to crack a smile and you feel like you

still haven’t broken the ice with them. You fear that they do not see the point in good design, and if there were ever cutbacks,

Eastyn would make sure your were the first to go.

You thought you would get along with Perry but you seem to annoy them with your flamboyance. Perry is very bourgeois while

you try to play act bohemian, but they see right through you. They know who your father is and how you got this job. They also

disagree with many of the choices you made when it comes to designing the app.

Ridley hasn’t quite warmed up to you yet, but you’re sure they just don’t know you well enough yet. You get the feeling the

more you talk to them the more they’ll like you.

You’ve taken a liking to Campbell ever since you got to the resort, You have an affinity for the lower working class and

Campbell’s eccentricities align nicely with your own. As a big fan of gossip, you know that Campbell is the primo source for

saucy information about Oz.

You have nothing personal against Lake but you’ll often act like a jerk around them to show the others what a confident person

you are.

Your Goals:

· You don’t care about money too much, your family is rich and like to think of yourself as a struggling artist who was

unfortunately born into a family of means. What you do want is recognition, and you feel Zevern and this app is the way to get

it, so you want the company to stay afloat.

· You are shocked by Oz’s murder, partially due to your feelings for them, and you are hellbent on finding out who the

murderer is, if only to remove any suspicion that it was you..

· If you do go down, you hope you can bring down the ones don’t like, Perry and Eastyn, with you..

Tips for beginners

· You want to figure out what’s going on and quickly take suspicion off of you, since everyone saw Oz humiliate you at the

group hike..

· Talk to Finley about the state of the company and what they think is going on..

· Talk to Campbell about what else Oz was up to that day..


Actions:

Gossip:


minutes.


Graphic Design:

Choose a player and force them to communicate solely through an art app like paint for 10 minutes. They can screen share

their drawings.


Your secrets:

• You had a big crush on Oz that you were afraid to act upon. And given that he slept with everybody, you feel weird that he

wouldn’t even look at you.

• You suspect that Eastyn had a hand in the murder, as you believe they think that going public would lead to financial ruin and

they’d do anything to prevent that.

• Shortly after starting this job, Finley came on to, expecting a “favor” in return for landing you this job. You refused them. They

didn’t fire you but you’ve felt like you're on edge with them ever since.

Money/Line of Credit: Well, you’ve got credit cards and you get paid well, although you bought a condo and yadda yadda, life

is expensive! You could probably rustle up $20,000 to bribe someone. To Bribe someone, PM NAN-E.


Lake – Corporate Security

You take the security of Zevern Tech very seriously. You have experts working under you to keep the company safe from the

most sophisticated of cyber attacks (you poached them from game companies which have to have better security than the

government). You keep the people who work at Zevern Tech safe. The company has the occasional internal theft, but

compared to most companies, Zevern is a safe place to work.

And now Oz is dead. You feel responsible, even though you know, rationally, that there wasn’t any way any one could have

protected Oz. He was careless, casual, and thought of himself as invincible.

You grew up in a suburb where the parents were all gone to work and the kids were free to roam. You were tough, found a

crowd of equally tough kids. You liked the thrill of petty crime and violence. Somehow, things escalated from selling a little

weed to driving into the city to pick up drugs. You’re not into drugs yourself. Not your thing. But you really liked being

dangerous. Then there was a shooting and a dead kid. You got shuttled into a first-time offender intervention because there

was no evidence that you shot the kid yourself. You got an associate’s degree in security, and kicked around trying to find a job

that didn’t bore you to tears.

Oz hired you and provided you with a challenge and you’re grateful. You learned as the company expanded. You got a

bachelor’s that the company paid for and attended seminars and hired experts. It’s been the best thing that happened to you.

And now Oz is dead and you didn’t protect him.

Relationships:

Kylin is a freak show. You’ve seen the kind of hacking they can do and they feel as if they are more of a threat than anyone

outside of the company. You don’t understand them. You can’t protect or control them, and you don’t like them. You’re

professional, of course.

Finley is an ally. They do their job really well. They are often a little uncomfortable with keeping things secure but you

understand. It’s a balance.

Austin doesn’t take security seriously enough. Also, all that flamboyance is not your style. You’re a matte black kind of

person, and you like to keep things very cool and professional.


You’re aware that Perry is padding his expenses, Ridley from HR brought you the info. They asked you to investigate Perry

and you think that they were doing something worse than just padding their expense reports but you haven’t got the evidence

yet.

Goals:

• You have no idea what your future is at Zevern now, and all that stuff is above your paygrade. You keep your head down and

do your job.

• You let down the company by allowing Oz’s murder. This is personal.

Tips for Beginners:

• Talk to as many people as you can. You are systematic and you are investigating and you rule out nothing and no one.

Actions:

Access Files:

Oz was a paranoid guy and he sometimes did secret investigations of his employees. You’ve got access to those files, now,

after his death. You don’t want to touch them because you’re not sure of the legality of them but you can ‘check a file’ which

results in another player having to tell you a secret.

PM NAN-E and they will inform the player that they must PM you AND NAN-E one of their secrets.


Investigate:

Talk to people privately. Request a private room through NAN-E to interview your top five suspects. You can be concerned

and worried about them or threatening if you’ve got the goods.

Five uses. ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

Secret: Oz was a great boss, basically gave you a lot of money and left you alone—except to encourage you to learn as much as

you could. And you did.


Oz started asking favors of you. Private investigations, on someone he was interested in. It escalated, and now you’ve become

Oz’s own personal little detective agency. You’ve done things that are illegal and you’re not proud of that. It’s not that they’re

illegal, so much, as that Oz uses the information for personal reasons as much as he uses it for the company.

He’s got information from your past, about the killing, that put you in a risky situation. The police bungled the investigation.

Oz didn’t. He could send you to prison because he has proof that you pulled the trigger on that gun. You were scared, hell you

don’t remember much except the guy threatening to waste the three of you and then lunging, but it doesn’t matter. Oz owns

you and you hate that. And him.

Money/Line of Credit: You have an $80,000 slush fund you can draw on that no one knows anything about except you and Oz,

and now, well, Oz is dead.


Ridley – Head of Human Resources

You are professional, intelligent, used to handling everything from workplace harassment to ramping up employment. Not

everyone likes you. Your reputation is mostly ‘tough but fair’.

You grew up in a bad part of town but you did really well on standardized tests like the SAT and got into a good college. You

went on to get an MBA at Harvard. You are fascinated by technology and love working in the tech industry.

Oz hired you when the company only had forty people and you’ve been exceptional at finding talent and hiring it. You have

reaped the benefits yourself. You have a beautiful mid-century modern home looking out on an extraordinary view in Northern

California. You have a partner and you and your partner are trying to get pregnant.

Relationships:

You feel protective of Kylin. You’re pretty sure they are not neurotypical and you’re afraid that they are easy to take

advantage of. You don’t know what Kylin thinks of you, but you’re pretty sure that Kylin is the real genius of the company.

You worry about Oz’s personal assistant, Jaziah, but they don’t seem to trust you. You’ve made sure that they know you are

there to talk to.

Finley is an ally. They do their job really well. But their focus is on business and although they are committed to doing right by

the employees, they also see the employees as a business asset rather than people.

You think Austin is a flake. You don’t know enough about design to know if they’re good at their job but you suppose they are.

You don’t work a lot with Perry but you know that half the sales force admires them and their lifestyle and half the sales force

hates them and sends anonymous complaints to HR about a number of petty infractions. And you’re pretty sure they’re

padding their expense accounts.

Goals:

• You’re not sure if you want Zevern to keep going or if you want to cash out. If Zevern Tech is sold and you cash out, if you

and your partner do get pregnant, you could use the money.

• You are genuinely frightened by the murder. You don’t feel safe.


• You dread the idea of telling people that they have lost their jobs and right now, you don’t know how you feel about

getting another job and starting in a new firm. You really grew up with the company and you don’t know if you’d be good at

doing it somewhere else (even though, intellectually, you realize that you are well prepared to work somewhere else).Tips for

beginners

• You are concerned about the others. You want to talk to them, figure out what they are thinking, see what they think

about the company.

Tips for Beginners:

• Talk to Finley about the possibility of the company going forward and what they think. You’ve got an MBA from Harvard

but you haven’t been looking at the company as a business and maybe you should stop thinking as the Head of Human

Resources and start thinking about the company as a whole.

• Talk to Perry, tell them you have files on them, ask them what they know.

• If someone is playing Jaziah, talk to them about Oz, see if they’re okay, see if you can find out if Oz was harassing them.

Actions:

Access Files:

Oz was a paranoid guy and he sometimes did secret investigations of his employees. You’ve got access to those files, now,

after his death. You don’t want to touch them because you’re not sure of the legality of them but you can ‘check a file’ which

results in another player having to tell you a secret.


Suspend:

IF a player does something, or you find out something about them that indicates they have engaged in illegal or

inappropriate behavior (taking drugs, stealing, harassing or abusing another employee) HR can suspend them. You can use

this if someone does something in the meeting or you uncover a secret. It suspends the player for ten minutes during which

they cannot participate in the meeting, only watch. NAN-E must agree that they have broken company regulations.

Five uses. ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐


Secret:

• You had a hook up with Oz in Hawaii (your first time there!) at a corporate offsite. You had no trouble keeping it separate from

your professional life and it happened twice more. In Japan, a couple of years into your time at Zevern Tech, Oz knocked on

your door but it had been a long day and you were a little jet-lagged and there had been dinner and drinks. He said he just

wanted to talk to you. He pushed you on the bed and had sex with you.

It happened one other time.

You didn’t tell anyone because you’d been hooking up and you knew that if you reported it, you’d have to leave Zevern and you

loved Zevern, loved the life you were building in Northern California. It was just a night of bad sex, right? You know it wasn’t.

Now you are careful to never be alone with Oz. You know he’s left a trail of sexual harassment but he’s very smart about it and

no one has ever wanted to pursue action.

He’s still handsome, charismatic, and attractive and you still have a solid working relationship, but you hate the guy. And you

hate that you let him keep doing what he does.

• You know that Jaziah was in a sexual relationship with Oz at the time of his death, you are afraid for them.

• Oz tried to come on to you one last time the day before the murder, you rejected him while trying to stay collected. On the

morning of the murder though, when he casually greeted you as if nothing had happened, you went off on him, threatening to

kill him if he ever touched you again.

Money/Line of Credit: You’ve got $75,000 set aside because you and your partner are experiencing fertility issues and are

considering IVF. To Bribe someone, PM NAN-E.


Eastyn

You sometimes feel as if you are the only adult around. This company spends money recklessly and only Oz’s smooth talking

to investors and constant juggling hide that the company is deeply, deeply in debt. The app sells well, yes, but the

programming expenses, the development, the cost of maintaining the app and the servers… If someone doesn’t do something

soon, Zevern Tech is doomed.

You’ve talked to Finley until you are blue in the face. You’ve talked to Oz, but that didn’t do any good.

And to add to that, the numbers aren’t adding up, somewhere, someone might be stealing. You can’t figure where it’s coming

from.

You are an even-tempered person. Numbers are numbers and you take comfort in that. You are pretty sure that you can find a

job, although at your level, you will probably not work for a year or so. You can weather that. But Oz showered you with stock

options and if you quit, you lose them. If this company goes under, you will lose millions. Not that you’ve ever actually had

those millions, except on paper.

Relationships:

You never really had a relationship with Oz. You mostly report to Finley. When you do talk to Oz, honestly, it’s like that

cartoon of what the person is saying, ‘Ginger, you are a bad dog, Ginger…’ and what the dog hears, ‘Blah blah blah, Ginger.’

Finley is the other person you can really talk to. You and Finley talk about the company problems, the juggling of finances,

how to deal with Oz. Finley keeps trying to talk to Oz but you know how that goes.

You know Finley is Austin’s mentor but frankly, you have no common ground with the kid. They seem nice enough, but they

don’t have a practical bone in their body.

Perry is easy to talk to and has a surprising head for numbers. You often gravitate towards them at company functions. You

have no illusions about Perry. They are a lot of hot air.

Actions:


Investigate:

You can do some forensic accounting, pull the records on their company credit card to figure out where the money is going.

Talk to people privately; request a private room through NAN-E to interview your top three suspects. They have to reveal a

secret to you by PMing it to you and to NAN-E.


Gossip:

Choose a player and PM NAN-E to create a breakout room for you to have a private conversation with them for up to 5

minutes.


Secrets:

• You are sending information to another company, venture capitalists. They want to buy Zevern Tech and they can use the

understanding of the real financial situation to buy the company for pennies on the dollar. They’ve promised to pay 10% of the

worth of your stock options—which you’re never going to see anyway—if they actually can buy the company. You’ve gathered

enough information to send them a complete snapshot of the company’s debt and sales. It’s much more information than

would even be required for an IPO (where a company sells stock and goes public—controlled by stock owners and not owned

by a person).

• You are convinced that Oz is a shallow, immoral person who deserves to be ruined, and you’ve got records of his financial

transactions that reveal a lifestyle of excess; expensive hotels, escort services, even drug transactions.

• Kylin must have hacked your own records and told Oz. Oz was going to sic his security team on you and find and dirt they

could. You believe that people should be responsible for themselves and that most drug laws should be repealed. You don’t

mind that Oz was doing drugs, you mind that he was using money that should have been used for the company for it. You use

Adderall to work twelve, fourteen hour days, and you have for years. If people found out, your family, your church, they

wouldn’t understand.

Money/Line of Credit: You can manage to put your hands on $250,000—liquidate some investments, that sort of thing. The tax

implications make you cringe. To bribe someone, PM NAN-E.


Ramsey - Employee

Oz picks someone, a random employee, every year to be ‘the voice of the employee’. This year, it was You. You are a

codemonkey. You’re a cubicle grunt, bashing out the workman like part of the app code. It’s not sexy, it’s not fun. It’s barely

even problem solving. You are a coding cog in a coding machine.

Conditions at Zevern aren’t horrible, you aren’t a migrant worker picking tomatoes, but there are weeks of mandatory extra

hours, even mandatory Saturdays—and rank and file is salaried so you don’t even get overtime. Management gets great

healthcare and stock options, but the rank and file get so-so benefits and very little profit sharing. There’s a lot of pressure

from above and lots and lots of belt tightening. No raises for the last two years. The place used to be nice with a lot of tech

start up perks like exercise classes and free lunch on Friday. Now half the time there are no paper towels in the bathroom.

You had a suburban upbringing, went to a decent college, got a good job, and looked up and realized you were on a treadmill,

running and running and deep in debt for college and going nowhere. You can’t be too up front about your revolutionary

politics. But you make sure to always wear one thing that isn’t corporate, that doesn’t toe the line.

You’re an Anarchist, currently unionizing the workers at Zevern, although Oz didn’t know that. You’ve got the Teamsters

behind you. You’ve got nothing against Oz as a person but he’s exploiting people to be rich. All right, you do find him really

annoying. He brought you out to Colorado on his private plane, and spent the entire flight talking about himself.

Relationships:

You know Oz because you rode on a plane with him. But other than that, you only know Kylin, and you’ve never even talked to

them. There are lots of layers of managers between you and Kylin.

You see a potential ally in Campbell, another working-class grunt, but they are pretty un-woke. Too busy trying to survive to

think about a revolution. Talking to them is going to be dicey.

Everyone else? You don’t know them at all. And they don’t know you.


Actions:

Gain trust:

Another player must reveal an official secret. (PM another player and start a conversation, then PM NAN-E that you are

using a Gain Trust. The Host will let the other player know that they must share a secret with you.)


Gossip:


minutes.


Secrets:

• You’ve been putting a back door into the code. You don’t really understand all of Kylin’s code, but you’re figuring out how

NAN-E works. You’ve also been downloading NAN-E’s code and smuggling it out of the building. Security is really tight, but

you’ve figured out how to copy the entire program. You can’t get it to run yet on the server you’ve got, but you’re getting

closer all the time. A code like NAN-E, who can educate poor kids and help narrow the gap between the rich and the poor

should be available for anyone.

• Something was sucking up too much processing in the App and you found a clunky program someone added on that was

skimming transactions. You rewrote it so it didn’t call attention to itself and you’ve been skimming off the skim and funneling

it to an account that you’re using to fund unionization efforts.

• You’ve figured out that Perry is skimming off of the transactions. You almost admire the motherfucker. But not quite, and

you’re thinking about blowing his little scheme wide open. But you’d want to get your code back out of the app, first. You’ve

written that into the next update but then Oz died. If they catch Perry and figure out what he’s doing, it could lead them to

you.

Money/Line of Credit: Between the slush fund and the money you are saving to buy a place, you could come up with $45,000. To

Bribe someone, PM NAN-E.

Documents

Conference Brawl: A Murder Mystery On ZOOM