Realistic or Modern Interest Check: Cubicles & Callers [Dice, but for beginners!]

[Uncle ShortyB]

Oh, why hello there. Didn't see you come in. Welcome to the thread. I'm doing an interest check on a forum version of a rather interesting tabletop game I picked up the other day. See, I thou-


Wait! No! Come back! It's not like what you're thinking! There aren't like a thousand rules for resolving combat, or huge random encounter tables. It's simple; you're a CSR (Customer Service Representative) working in a call center, and you've got to make it through the work week without kicking the bucket. Sounds simple, right? That's because it is.


You see, I have a tabletop group of my own, and I've been trying to find something easy to learn and relatively low-skill required when it comes to pen and paper games to ease two of the less-experienced people into playing elfgames. The beauty of this particular little game is it doesn't have a whole lot of baggage when it comes to the system, so even random strangers on the internet who have exactly zero skill when it comes to dice-based RPing could have a good time playing it.


If there's any interest in this (I'd need like a few other people, up to let's say like five to keep things manageable) I'd be more than willing to run the game. It's great for beginners (very few in-game rules, only uses D6s and in an easy to understand way) as well as more experienced people just looking to knock out a quick game out of curiosity/wanting to get the rust out. So come on, let's clock in, give up hope, and try not to cry; it's Cubicles & Callers!

 

[Grey]

I am curious to know more about it, and though I won't be playing it is great to see someone else running beginner games.

 

[Uncle ShortyB]

Lemme give a quick rundown of how it works then, for the benefit of other people who might also be curious. Essential terms are bolded, important facts are underlined.


Q: Tabletop games are all really hard and confusing. This can't be simple!


A: Oh, but it can! Here, let me explain.


The game starts after the (very basic) character sheet is done. Normally, everyone rolls a D6 and whoever gets the lowest goes first, followed by the person to their left and so on. Since we're sitting at computers potentially thousands or more miles apart, we'll just go from lowest roll to highest. The person whose turn it is chooses one of three approaches: Compassionate, Indifferent, or Insulting. Then, they roll one D6 to see the customer's disposition; either Confused (1-2), Stupid(3-4), or Aggressive(5-6). Each of the different approaches gives each of the dispositions a different target number, either 10, 15, or 20. The player then must roll 4 D6s with the goal to meet or exceed that number. If they go over the target, the excess is converted to Self Control (SC), or basically hit points. Everyone has 20 SC at the start of the game. If the number is not met, however, the player has two options: they can Escalate the call (which I'll explain in a bit) or spend some SC to make up the difference. After the call is completed, the turn goes to the next person, and so on until everyone has completed four calls. After that, it is officially time for the Lunch Break! Anyone that makes it to lunch receives 2 SC, and has an opportunity to RP a bit about how much working in a call center sucks and other things. An additional 2 SC is awarded at the start of every work day except for Wednesday(Because it's hump day and you should be happy! Week's almost done!). After lunch, everyone starts over with another four calls before the work day is complete. Then you start again the next day. This continues until you clock out on Pay Day. Wooo! Pay day! You finally get some reparations for your struggle. Life is good, except... Everyone who makes it to pay day immediately takes a 100 SC hit because the pay isn't good enough to put up with the shit callers put you through! This way, there's no pressure to try and "beat" the game. Everyone is gonna lose, might as well have a good time with it in the interim.


Q: That doesn't sound simple at all! You lied, Uncle!


A: Again, that's not really a question, but I'll break it down into a list like in the actual book.

1. Choose an approach: Compassionate, Indifferent, or Insulting
   
2. Roll one D6 to see the caller's disposition: Confused (1-2), Stupid (3-4), or Aggressive (5-6)
   
3. Consult the table (Not included in this post because tables make me confused and scared!) to get the Target Number
   
4. Roll four D6s and add up the Total of the dice and compare it to the Target.
   
5. If it's the same/more: Congrats! You da winna! The call is over, and you can add any overage on the dice your Self Control
   
6. If it's less: Congrats! You get to make DECISIONS! You can either Escalate the call, or Pay the remainder from your SC to match the total to the Target.
   
7. So you're gonna Escalate, huh? Alright. Ain't my place to judge. So, Escalating works like this: Start back at step one, and continue through to step 4, except you roll 3 D6 instead of 4. From there, if it doesn't match, you can either Escalate again and roll with 2 D6, or pay the remainder. Escalation can be done 4 times, with a one dice reduction each time. If the total is not met at that point you must pay the remainder from SC.
   
8. Next person's turn! Woo! Do this until every has done it 4 times and then it's Lunch!
   
9. After lunch, you get to start over with an additional 2 SC. Lucky you! Now do it an additional 4 times, then it's time to clock out.
   
10. New day! 2 more SC on every day but Wednesday, because listening to people shout "MIKE MIKE MIKE" in an office setting at 6 A.M. is it's own reward.
    
11. Continue 'til everyone's dead or it's Payday! WOO!
    
12. Die anyway because Payday is an automatic 100 SC reduction!
    

 

[Grey]

Nice. Your invention?

 

[Uncle ShortyB]

I wish. Got it on sale on DrivethruRPG. I was surprised by how well it works, honestly, seeing as I'd never heard of the company before this game. Very smooth and a whole lot easier than I even made it seem.

 

[Grey]

Ah, cool, I'll have to look into it in more detail.

 

[BladeZ]

I'm interested as well~! Thanks for offering to GM this for beginners. I have to say that I have no experience in tabletop games, but have always wanted to learn it. I like how the environment is something I'm familiar with.


But first, a few things about me


* The only thing I know about die is D6 means a dice has six sides and D20 means it has 20 sides. Though I'll read the rules a few more times and hope I can grasp it.


* I can post at least once a day


* I'm from Australia, so my timezone is the opposite of most here


* I'm used to writing/storyline RPs. This would be my first dice RP


* I've worked in an office environment before


* I might need a bit of handholding for the first cycle as I get confused easily, but once you have me on board, I'm for life!


Some questions I have


* How much/how little character interaction is allowed? Can I my characters interact with other characters? e.g. Take staff Xmas photo


* Do twists happen? e.g. fire drills, burnt toast, toilets blocked, conference room does not have a phone etc


* Can we have a bit of comedy in this? Or is it more like a re-enactment? I can RP in a serious manner, but sometimes I like to think about funny things.

 

[SiroVai]

This sounds like fun. I'm hereby, officially and honourably signing up.

 

[Uncle ShortyB]

@SiroVai Hey, awesome! Glad this sounds like fun to you. I might try and get the whole thing set up sometime in the next few days but being a college student makes things a little hazy with schedules.


@BladeZ It's not a problem to do a bit of handholding, honestly. My group, like I said, has two people completely new to roleplaying, so helping out isn't a problem for me at all. And the posting once or more a day in a different time zone isn't much of a problem for me either. Now, for your questions;

• Character interaction would primarily be happening at lunch and in the mornings/once everyone clocks off. I could also see people getting together after work for some hanging out or what have you, but it wouldn't be too in depth. Most of it would be at lunch or people giving each other a hard time once they actually get to work.
  
• Twists don't happen aside from the big one at the end (Everyone dies because of the automatic 100 SC deduction) so not quite. You could add little bits like the toilet being clogged and so on to give your character a bit of depth, but for the purposes of mechanics it won't be like "Oh no the toilet is clogged everyone's target score is now 20 for the rest of the day". It'd be more for fun.
  
• This would be by no means an actually serious RP. I mean, come on; the callers are either confused, stupid or aggressive and everyone dies at the end because it sucks. I wouldn't even try to run a remotely serious game for people still super new to dice games. It's an inherently silly activity and too much seriousness too fast puts people off.
  

 

[BladeZ]

Weeheee~! Thanks for answering my questions. I'm looking forward to the thread!

 

[Uncle ShortyB]

Hey, if anyone is interested in this that didn't post, and even if you did post, threads are up! http://www.rpnation.com/threads/cubicles-callers-dice-for-beginners.62409/ Hope to see you guys there and all that!