Escaped gaming meme

[mithriltabby]

divertimento, has Alan Moore done something like this in Top 10 yet?

Gaming worlds with supernatural powers are usually full of the feats of derring-do of heroes and the dark schemes of villains. They don’t always cover the middle ground of people who have a supernatural talent and just want to make a living at it.

In Shadowrun, I have a bunch of contacts that illustrate some day jobs, but one particular favorite of mine could show up in any game where supernatural powers are publicly acknowledged: a restaurant called Psychic Pizza.

Psychic Pizza is a pizza delivery place that has at least one supernaturally talented person on staff who has a talent or spell that can do a particular bit of divination: determine where on a map, in about an hour, someone would regard pizza as just the thing to fill their hunger, and what toppings they would enjoy. The appropriate order is then placed, and the delivery person shows up, rings their doorbell, and says: “Psychic pizza! Does someone here want a large deep-dish mushroom and pepperoni?” The hit rate on this (“Hey, come to think of it, that would really hit the spot right now! How much?”) is such that the parlor is quite profitable, especially because it causes people to simply choose pizza now instead of taking some time and thinking of something else to get.

I pulled this one on Shadowland once, with a delivery boy arriving at a room full of socializing shadowrunners. Everyone there was immediately paranoid, but the kid was perfectly happy to eat a slice of the pizza to prove it wasn’t poisoned or otherwise booby trapped. In a superheroic Champions game, where this would likely work through an application of Mind Scan, this could be even more amusing as people with Mental Awareness wonder whether that searchlight beam of mental energy panning over the city is the nefarious Dr. Mento seeking revenge or just the guys at Psychic Pizza trying to make an honest buck. They could even make headlines when Psychic Pizza have to hire Dr. Juris, Solicitor Supreme, to defend themselves against an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit! (Credit for Dr. Juris goes to the creator of the comic Man-Eating Cow.)

Comments

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

So what do they do with the pizzas if the person who "ordered" it is a little creeped out and asks them to take it back?

[mithriltabby]

Treat it as a write-off— the driver eats it, drops it off at a local soup kitchen, etc.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

They could probably reduce the write-oiff level consideraby with the right spiel: "Psychic pizza- here's the pizza you were going to order sir." They could also mention that they qualify for next weeks's two for one deal...

[mithriltabby]

Having read some of Top 10 now, it looks like Psychic Pizza would scarcely arouse comment in Neopolis.

[divertimento.livejournal.com]

Very true. In Neopolis, more likely there would be competing precognitive pizza firms
battling each other in front of your door to be the first to ring your bell.

[aemccurry.livejournal.com]

The In Nomine version - Ofanite of Revelations. Ofanite being the kind of angel who knows just where to be in the right place at the right time, and the best way to get there, and needs to constantly MOVE! Could be interesting to infiltrate a nest of greedy demons too... perhaps of Gluttony.