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Deadly Temptations is a temp agency. People go there to register to get temporary jobs while looking for others. Some even make a living out of being a temp. But DT provides temps for almost any situation. Need a CEO for the day? an actor? an assassin? a psychic? They'll have one for you.

Things I wanted to explore but didn't have the time: Who are they connected with? By seeing who is hiring people, they could probably keep tabs on many organizations. Are they part of the movers? maybe the net? Maybe they are just independent agents, waiting to get enough information to start blackmailing people.

GAME NOTE: In my game the original thought of Deadly Temptations was to provide a way to push the stories along here and there. I had two characters who were basicly w/out money and looking for work, it helped give them a pointer towards where the first adventure started. Though the game itself never really got too far past that.

Perfect Pizza! Perfect every time, no questions asked!, the sign blinks.

It's 2:49 am, in a steeenking back alley deep within the edge. You've just left a show at Sad Mary's, and you're getting those beer munchies something fierce. Man oh man would a double cheese pie with anchovies, no pepperoni, half mushrooms 2/3rds sausage and onions on one slice hit the spot right now! Just then, a broken down and banging jitney screams to a halt nearby, and a greasy looking pube rushes forth, shouting out your name. When you flag him down, he hands you a piping hot cardboard pizza box. With a tip of his hat and settling breath, he suggests .. 'On your Tab?', nods at you...and huffs it back to the idling jitney which screams out of site. Opening the box, you find the most awesome pizza you've ever seen. Amazingly, the pie is exactly as you order....no wait! hey! you didn't even order it! But the pizza is exactly like the way you imagined it as you stepped out of the bar. Then you read the box 'Perfect Pizza. Perfect everytime, right on time, no questions asked!'.

Perfect pizza is a small, slummy little pizza delivery place in the Edge. It sits in a vaguely provintial little one story building, and a seemingly deserted and otherwise uninteresting street. It has a few vinyl backed boots and a varnished table or two, but mostly the place relies on delivery calls. To one side of the counter sits an old, dusty sit down version of the popular pac man game. At any given time, there are approximately 15-20 employees at work. Generally, they are broken down as such:

1. The game player (seperated into shifts of a couple hours each)
2. The cooks and wait staff (approximately 4 or 5 employess)
3. The delivery drivers (10 or 12 on duty at any time - always hopping!)

The secret ... Perfect Pizza started out as an unremarkable little delivery place near DU main campus. They don't serve drinks, (save for soda), and they only make Pizza. No subs, no salads, JUST pizza. At first, the pizza's they made were good, but business was slow. The manager/owner at the time decided to go out and find a video game to keep the employees occupied during the slow hours of the day. Little did he know that the video game, which he bought from Dimitri Vastovos (sp?), was actually a powerful fringe device. The game is actually a psychic collector which access the Island's various psychic repositories and flow lines, and then filters out individual thoughts geographically, identifying the thoughts source generally by first name and street/corner mapped location. Unfortunately, the Game can only filter out and interpret those thoughts that regard Pizza. Specifically, desires for and visualisaztions of pizza by individual consumers. Dimitri had bigger plans for the gadget, but soon lost interest, as he is not a big pizza fan. When the manager came by looking for any old video games, he sold it to the guy to make room in his garage for more promising projects.

The Video game/collector communicates these Pizza visualizations via complex imagery. This allows a large amount of specific data to be transmitted quickly. As luck would have it, a Perfect Pizza employee was able to learn to quickly interpret these messages, and translate them into orders by location/first name for pizza. Once the manager realized the potential therein, he immediately hired a full crew of drivers, and made a big investment in hiring the best Pizza slingin' grease monkeys he could find. Soon there after, business picked up rapidly. As the need arose, the Manager/owner (An American named Matthew Smith) negotiated a contract with Total Taxi to handle all of their billing/tab options. The agreement is such that both TT and Perfect Pizza profit quite well from the business.

GAME NOTES: When I used Perfect Pizza in my game, we had alot of fun with it. I introduced it into the series when a burger PC went looking for a pizza delivery place in the phone book/buisness directory. When he called them up, the answer at the other end of the line was '...so, Matt, let's see, you wanted a half pep/half mushroom large with double cheese on a thin crust. Great choice, we'll have that right out to you! Thanks for choosing perfect pizza! *click*'. Shortly there after, the pizza arrived, and soon the whole party was musing strange thoughts over how this could have happened.

I have imagined other scenarios in which some of the more powerful conspiracies on Al Amarja have a clue as to how the device works, or maybe they just want to get their hands on it to find out just what it does. Such a device, though not currently all that powerful, could be coveted as a powerful weapon in the struggle for control. This could bring up the possibilities of PC's aligning themselves with Matthew Smith, to protect the Island from the menace that the device could cause, or at least to make sure their favorite Pizza Place doesn't go poof. Alternatively, PC's who think they are really 'players' may stage an attempt to gain control over Perfect Pizza, so as to gain the upper hand in the struggle for control themselves.

At any Rate, Perfect Pizza can be utilized either as a neat locale sporting the strangeness and bizarre nature that makes Al Amarja interesting, or as a would be little known pawn in the struggle for control. I would suggest introducing it into your series proper very subtly, allowing it to slide under the PC's gaze - if they don't catch on to whats going on at first, then let it set a session or two, then have another Pizza show up, at an inopportune time - so the PC's thoughts will turn back to an earlier incident, with the realization that the pizzas, though perfect, were coming without actually being ordered.

Background ... When I was a kid, my big sister would take me and a friend to this run down, sadly maintained Pizza Hut in a town about 1 hour from where we lived. I only remember 2 distinct things about the place. First, the Pizza we got there was always excellent, and always seemed to be made perfectly the way I had hoped. Secondly, the place had a really old, worn out looking video game. It was one of those sit down two player versions of pac man - with the flat lying screen that you had to look down at, with room to set your drink or a slice while you played. Everytime we went, we would see a Pizza Hut employee sitting there, playing the thing like his life depended on the game...

And for those of your who may have been wondering about how Perfect Pizza collects on their tabs...

Orlando was a Net operative and Enforcer until he started to "go soft". The late hours and the screams and the high-intensity violence were starting to give him an ulcer. He decided to bow out gracefully while his friends still respected him, and would do him favors on occasion when needed. "Pizza" Pilazzo now works as a freelance bill collector and skip-tracer. He is on volunteer retainer for Perfect Pizza, where he works for trade, and does jobs for Deadly Temptations to pay the rent.

Orlando is a big, 6' 5" 300 lb+ Italian man, 3rd generation Al Amarjan, about 42 years old, with a swarthy complexion that indicates some Arabic and/or African ancestry. He is balding and wears loose comfortable dark suits and mirror-shades on the job. He always carries an assortment of weapons, mostly tasers and stingers along with knives, piano wire, brass knuckles, blackjacks etc. He owns an illegal .38 handgun, but keeps it hidden in his apartment for special emergencies.

He is courteous and pleasant in his business dealings, but his voice always carries a threat of implied violence. He prefers not to get rough, unless it's really necessary, but he has a volatile, border-line psychotic temper. He regularly picks up the "Deadbeat List" from Perfect Pizza and tracks down the worst offenders. He favorite tactic is to watch a target for a few days, memorizing their routines, before moving in. The deadbeat comes home one night to find Orlando sitting in one of his chairs with the lights out. Orlando has a friendly chat with the deadbeat, never actually making a threat, just letting the fact that he got in, without evident signs of breaking and entering, sink in. Then he will start to show up outside the deadbeat's classes, will wave at him in restaurants, will leave phone messages for him at all of his favorite hangouts. If that doesn't work, Orlando will, reluctantly, up the ante and beat up the deadbeat's significant other, pets, or weaker friends ("I don't want to hurt you, little man. I just want you to understand that nothing in life is free and that your irresponsibility can lead to other people getting hurt. Capice?") . Things get worse from there on.

When working on a job for Deadly Temptations, he will be courteous to his employer and brutally efficient in carrying out the contract. He doesn't take rough stuff jobs if he can avoid them. He prefers simple traces and relatively easy collection assignments. If more extreme measures are needed, he'll call in some of his younger buddies from the Net who owe him favors.

• LANGUAGES: Italian, English, Al Amarjan patois, smatterings of Spanish and French.
• ATTACK: 3 Dice, X2 damage with various concealable weapons.
• DEFENSE: 3 Dice
• HIT POINTS: 21 (big, brawny guy)
• TRAITS:
  • Skip Tracer: 4 Dice--He is trained in the art of finding, tracking and getting to people who do not want to be found. Can be used with a penalty die for breaking and entering, fast talking acquaintances of the target, and other necessary actions for reaching a target. (Always keeps a spiral notepad filled with relevent details on hand.)
  • Former Net Enforcer: 3 Dice--He worked for years as Net "Muscle". He knows the ways to cause pain and not leave marks, as well as the ways to leave spectacularly visible bruises with a minimum of actual damage. He knows which bones break the easiest and which make nasty, splintering fractures. (big, calloused fists and a perpetual hint of menace in his voice)
  • Net Contacts: 3 Dice--He is still in contact with his old buddies and does favors for them regularly (like having Perfect Pizzas delivered to buddies on stakeouts or surveillance jobs, keeping track of buddies' kids at the University and making sure they don't get in trouble, etc.) In return, he can rely on Net support, should he need it. Even some big name figures such as the Raimondi's remember him fondly and may do small things to help him on occaision. (dresses and talks in a typically Good Fellas kind of way.)
  • Pizza Afficionado: narrow 4 Dice--"Pizza" Pilazzo knows his 'Zza. He can rattle off the number for every pizza place in Science Barrio and most of the better ones in the entire Edge and Traboc. (He swears by Dirty Luigi's Anchovy Supreme from Scylla). There isn't a style or recipe that he hasn't tried. Perfect Pizza was his dream come true. Only Perfect Pizza really understands the deep, passionate nature of his love for 'Zza. He may eat at other places for variety, but in his heart, he knows he belongs to Perfect Pizza. He doesn't make pizza, though he knows how, he EATS pizza! a lot.
• FLAWS:
  • Pudgy: Eating all that Pizza has taken its toll on Orlando. He has a fairly pronounced belly, and his brawn is tending toward fat as he gets older. He is no good in a chase (he gets a penalty die for any activities that require speed and agility),and any stressful physical activity that goes on for more than 5 rounds will completely wear him out. (pronounced pizza-gut)
  • Getting Soft: Orlando quit the Mob because the violence was getting to him. He just doesn't have the stomach anymore for truly casual brutality. He may rough deadbeats up, but he won't go very far with it. Pleading and begging may actually work with him. He won't kill at all, unless it is absolutely unavoidable for his own defense. (haunted look to eyes)

© On the Edge is a trademark of Trident Inc. Over the Edge, Al Amarja, Charting New Realms of Imagination, and the Atlas Games logo are trademarks of John Nephew. The use of these trademarks here is without permission, and does not constitute a challenge to the ownership of those properties.

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