14_M4NCH4: A Techno Thriller Framework

"Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank, but give a man a bank, and he can rob the world." - Tyrell Wellick, Mr. Robot

Five minutes in the future, traditional employment is a relic of the past as the atomized job ecology of gigs, jobshares, and mechanical Turks eroded the static workforce. Nothing else really changed because you still need money to survive and to get it you have to hustle the skittle-colored carousels. Renting out slivers of your life to cover the bare essentials - food, water, and rent - as an independent contractor. Time is money made manifest. An endless grind that leaves you exhausted and alienated from your work, your community, and your time.

This is where 14_M4NCH4 (pronounced "La Mancha") comes in.

14_M4NCH4, inspired by the Occupy movement, mostly pays people to congest places of power like banks, corporate/consulate lobbies, and police stations. The pay is a lot better than most gigs and at minimum you just take up space for a couple hours in air conditioned buildings, a DDoS attack in real life. Of course, if you're willing to take risks then the payout rises commensurately with risk keen contractors accruing ranking and supplementary tasks tailored to their skills, forming action groups with similarly ranked individuals to perform some larger goal under cover of a mass demonstration. Could be picking safety deposit boxes full of dirty money clean, destroying or extracting consular data, planting false evidence, returning grifted wealth from big bank accounts, or disrupting an electronic system on-site as part of a larger plan. Some of these spontaneous groups crystallize into full fledged crews and adopting their own agendas separate from the app, while others split up as soon as payment hits.

So. Who's behind the gig sit-ins and high tech Robin Hooding? Who can say? I've got three suggestions:

1) The center of the onion is hollow and the app is on autopilot, forming action groups to foment chaos with no big picture. Maybe the characters step into the vacuum and bend the extensive network of contractors to their own aims.

2) There's a criminal conspiracy at the heart of 14_M4NCH4, using the app and its gigs to create distractions as well as recruiting and vetting future members.

3) The app is actually the human interface for an Awakened collection of marketing and inventory programs used for consumer analysis. They're everywhere, watching and analyzing every aspect of our lives. Engineering exciting news to influence consumer behavior.

A 14_M4NCH4 heist would utilize Wine & Savages' Scheme Pyramid (full disclosure: I playtested those rules and did some proofreading on it) intercut with a Mass Battle (pg. 131) of public opinion using Persuasion and other social skills instead of Battle. With the police breaching the location if the Mass Battle goes poorly. Or just fold police negotiation into Pyramid itself if you like. A longer campaign would operate West Marches style with a potpourri of different characters coming together to do jobs that intersect with the tentacles of a larger, opposed conspiracy.

Inspirado: Sorry To Bother You, Die Hard, Inside Man, Casa De Papel, Mr. Robot, Payday 2, Hong Kong Protestors, The Red Trilogy by Linda Nagata, The Centenal Cycle by Dr. Malka Older, One Thousand Beetles In A Jumpsuit by Dominica Phetteplace, Genocide & Juice by The Coup, Invaders from Mars by Charles Stross,  2013 - 2014 Bank Robberies,