~RISKY VENTURES: PEST CONTROL EDITION~
Inspired by evictedSaint, NUKE9.13, KASHYYK, A1S and Draignean
It is 1983. The dilapidated town of Knobble-on-Hillock has all but been forgotten about by the roar of modern Britain. Smokestacks once brimming above busy factories have been left to rot. Trash fills the streets in overflowing binbags as the failing Council shirks its duties. The working folk who live here are mostly on the dole, and spend their time daydrinking as they lament the state of their dilapidated cold, moldly homes.
But the winds of change are blowing: Local legend and self made millionaire Rian Borneo has returned to retire in the place where he was born. Horrified by the state this sleepy town has gotten to, he has taken a place on the city council and promised to literally clean up the streets.
With a guiding hand on the pursestrings of the borough - and a cash injection from this local celebrity - everyone and his dog can sense it: Opportunity. A market about to explode. You see, Knobble-on-Hillock has a problem: after years of abandonment and dilapidation, it's infested. For every street that gets clean and every house that gets renovated, there's a rat or termite problem with no one to sort it... and there's plenty of money being poured in, ready to be claimed.
And that's where you come in. Any man with a van, bag and a pointy stick could qualify to get some of the incentive cash being thrown around. Will you step up to the challenge?
What is This?
This is a Risky Ventures-adjacent style game about running a Pest Control Company in a fictional 1980s world, set in a sleepy British town called Knobble-On-Hillock. Hire staff, buy transport and tools; and go to properties to clear out their pest problems. Get paid and upgrade.
Anyone can join this game at any time. The beautiful thing about Risky Ventures is there is room for plenty for creative moneymaking strategies, so keep an eye on your fellow players and don't be afraid to interact or try something new.
This game is also Lazy Faire, meaning I will be exceptionally lazy and do as little work as I can get away with to make this forum game run. This means you will be required to keep track of your company, your inventory, your staff, and any agreements you have with other players. While I have run the numbers on how I expect the game to develop, going live always brings new situations. I reserve the right to adapt pricing or bonk really game-breaking bugs on the head if they rear their ugly head. Otherwise, I will be very hands off. Have fun : )
How to Play? - Quickstart
Scout >> Send >> Discover >> Exterminate >> Profit
You are a Pest Control Company with 3 Doubloons burning a hole in your pocket. You are qualified to perform basic Pest Control, and your Head Office is located in the Town Center.
You may use those 3 Doubloons to hire Staff to send out on jobs. You may use those Doubloons to buy equipment or a vehicle. With 3 Doubloons, you will not be able to buy everything in the first turn. Choose wisely and work with other players to ensure your first mission is successful. It is recommended to draft up contracts with players so everyone is on the same page. These contracts can look however you like, and you can be involved in multiple ventures as you see fit.
After naming your staff send them out on Location. They will Scout for job sites that need some pest control. Your staff will need to Discover and identify the type of pest. Once confident in their assumption, they will need to Eradicate the pest with the tools available to them. The knowledge you obtain along the way will be pivotal in determining the correct eradication method to use.
Different Pests have different identifying Traits. Build up your knowledge as your staff become more experienced, upgrade your items and vehicle fleets, and complete jobs in new locations to unlock new possibilities. Random events may affect your jobs or company and some pests can be tricky or outright dangerous - but profit is always available to be made by the prepared or the brave.
>>> To join, please use the below. <<<Company Name
Funds: 3D
Certifications: Basic Pest Control
Head Office Location: Town Center
Job Sites Known: -
Equipment: 0/10
Finally, when you make an action in game, please put ACTACTACT at the start of your command in bold. E.g:
ACTACTACT: HappyHuntersCorp BIDS 3D on #Staff-452.
Mechanics
Every day the store will have items and staff available for you to peruse. Items available in the store change often, and prices fluctuate.
Staff tend to stay available for hiring and slowly decrease in price over time. Staff are always available to recruit through Auction and have no max bid.
Items are available for purchase either through Auction by bidding, or by paying twice the listed cost for immediate acquisition. Items can always be sold for their original list value back to the store.
Bids must always be increased by a minimum of 0.05. Do not edit your bids after you post them. If you are winning an auction for an item or staff member and you cancel a winning bid, you must either find someone to take over your bid, or pay 20% of the cancelled bid to the GM as a cancellation fee. Please Note: due to the minimum bid cost increase, the items Tablesalt and Penlight will immediately be won by the second bid, as that is double the price of the product.
Locations are simply places in Knobble-On-Hillock where you can find jobs and get paid.
Different locations tend to have different varieties of pests. Some places are more dangerous then others.
Locations have a [Number] next to them. This represents the number of Active Sites that currently require pest control services, and therefore places you can earn money.
You may find a Unique Place when going on site, like a new shop or service. Clearing the site of pests can unlock new services. Being the first company to do so can lead to benefits, such as discounted prices or temporarily being the only Company capable of accessing their services.
To earn money, you must find someone to hire and pay you!
First, a company must send their staff to travel to a location. You can do this by typing the command SCOUT.
e.g. ACTACTACT SCOUT: HappyHuntersCorp sends Frank to SCOUT Old Town.
Your staff can walk to any Site at your Head Office location for free. For example, your Head Office always starts in the Town Center. Frank could walk around the Town Center looking for customers.
If you want, you may also use the command RETURN. This means Frank would immediately return to Head Office with news of the job(s) he has found. Otherwise, Frank may choose to start a job he has discovered. Note: Return can be useful to gather information quickly, but it can also be a waste of Travel Expenses.
e.g. ACTACTACT HappyHuntersCorp sends Frank to SCOUT Old Town. Then RETURN Frank.
A vehicle is required to travel to a location not local to your Head Office. You will need to pay Travel Expenses when you send staff out on location. E.g:
Town Center - 1D
New Build - 2D
Old Town - 3D
Because Frank is scouting Old Town - and HappyHuntersCorp's Head Office is in the Town Center- the company has to pay 5 Doubloons to cover his Travel Expenses.
Remember to equip your Staff with any items you may wish to use at the site. You may also want to bring a Vehicle for extra storage and companions. Make sure to state what items, vehicles and staff you are sending to the site, or it is assumed those items have remained at the Head Office.
Once a job site is known of, you can choose to send Staff there. Other players can also share Job site information with you.
Once you know of a job site, it takes 1 less turn to travel there (to a minimum of 1 turn).
Remember to equip your Staff with any items you may wish to use at the site. You may also want to bring a Vehicle for extra storage and companions. Make sure to state what items, vehicles and staff you are sending to the site, or it is assumed those items have remained at the Head Office.
Every job found needs some form of pest control! But how to determine what's upsetting your client?
Each Pest has Traits that can be discovered by your staff. Your staff may see a mouse or hear a buzzing sound. The mouse is self evident - your staff saw it! - but is that buzzing sound a bee or a wasp nest...? Your staff need time to determine what Traits this Pest has.
At the start of the game, your staff will mostly achieve this by wandering round the Job Site and looking for clues, with a chance to discover something new. Staff with more experience will have an easier time detecting Traits, though some traits are quite subtle. There are several traits for every pest - sight, smell, sound as a few examples - but not every trait is active for every pest.
A bee may buzz but a mold might be silent. That does not mean the house is empty! Maybe your Staff member just walked passed the wall instead of inspecting it - they have a chance to fail to notice traits that are present, particularly if it's something new they weren't expecting. Experience, Traits, Training and the Pest itself all affect how likely a Trait is to be discovered. There are also traits that can only be discovered when using the correct items.
Staff can also use items in their inventory - or vehicle inventory - while on site. There are many items that can be used to help determine the nature of a pest.
Staff will automatically use the DISCOVER action upon arriving at a job site and tend to stay in DISCOVER mode generally, as there are many traits a Pest may display, and it can take time to identify them.
For simplicities sake, Staff will always inform you if they have exhausted the possibility of discovering remaining hidden Traits. For example, if they are missing equipment that is required to move forward.
Each Pest has it's own identifiers, and each pest has it's own solutions. A pest can not be eradicated without the proper tools, and tools will only be effective against certain pests. Remember to properly equip your staff if you plan on performing an eradication! Eradication may be capturing a creature, getting it to leave a job site, or killing it for good.
Sometimes, the items you use expecting to discover a trait may actually help eradicate a pest. Lucky you! Remember to keep track of which tactics are effective. Knowledge can be the difference between making the big bucks and getting your staff hurt. Eradication is more dangerous then discovery. There may be times you may want to withdraw your staff, even after successfully identifying a pest, because you don't have the correct tools to finish a job. Remember you always get some money for identifying traits, if you do have to cut your losses.
Staff tend to stay in DISCOVER mode but may use the eradicate action by themselves if they are confident in their identification of the pest, feel threatened, or just because of their traits/training. It is generally sound advice to use the ERADICATE action carefully.
Bare in mind many items, like traps, can be set passively and walked away from, decreasing risk to your Staff.
Just like the rest of England in the 1980s, the sleepy town of Knobble-On-Hillock uses golden Doubloons as currency, represented by D, e.g, 3D.
You get paid for successfully discovering a pest.
You get paid for successfully eradicating a pest.
The amount a job may pay out can vary. Your staff will provide the customer an estimate, and the customer will provide information on their budget. Things like causing property damage, speed of job completion, level of difficulty, additional pay for complications, staff skill and professionalism, level of infestation, time the job has been on the market and customer's opinion of your company can all affect your final pay. Generally, your staff will inform you of the customer's budget: 3.2 D - 4.4 D. So long as you don't cause major damage or perform an exceptional service, you can expect the job to fall into that range. There are ways to increase accuracy of the payout, `but it is almost always dependent on Staff behavior and what happens on site.
Occasionally, there may be opportunities to take on Contracts that will pay a fee for discovering a certain number of traits, pay extra for killing specific types of pests, or pay for helping keep certain locations pest free.
There are many avenues to generate wealth in this game, so experiment and find out what works for you. Maybe you loan out your vehicle fleet to other companies, or have scouted all the best spots in town and provide consultation services. Maybe you've specialised into some specific types of pest and can clear those jobs really quickly. Or maybe you've collected a huge repository of knowledge and assist others in identifying their troublesome quarries, or perhaps you sell insurance in case of vehicle damage or Staff injury.
You may arrive at a location to discover a job is already underway! There are only so many new jobs available at one time, after all.
In these situations you may choose to Collaborate or Compete.
When you chose to Compete, no information is shared between companies, unless the Staff happen to be in the same room when a Trait is indentified or an event happens. Competiting is a race to see who can identify/eradicate a pest first and get the glory.
Only one company is walking away with a payday. Is it possible to sabotage another company with your equipment and knowledge? Who knows, the trading standards in Knobble-On-Hillock are antiquated.
When you chose to Collaborate, players are encouraged to share information and determine how they want to share their resources. Upon completing a job, the default situation is pay is split between players 50 / 50, but players can come to their own agreements on how they wish to split pay.
Sometimes, other companies may fail to complete a job. It is entirely possible a company may fail at erradication at one location several times. When this happens, there is a chance of the job reward going up in price.
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Topic: Risky Ventures: Pest Control Edition! [Open! - Turn 0] (Read 305 times)