TEXT: Playback Time 
  Author: Megan C. Robertson 
  Homepage: http:// 
  System: Cyberpunk 2020 
  Type: Hook 
  Category: Science Fiction 
  Requirements:  
  The players are approached by a man who says that he runs a small pharmaceutical 
  business, but his chief chemist has absconded and is selling the company's drugs on a 
  freelance basis. Could they please find and return him, plus any formulae and drugs in his 
  possession. The man is an Amerind, dressed in a respectable business suit, and gives the 
  name Rising Moon.  
  Assuming the players accept the job - Rising Moon is offering 1000 euro plus expenses 
  per head, with a bonus (unspecified) for success - he tells them that the rogue chemist is 
  known as 'Retort' although his real name is Rick Hammond. He is mid-30s, with spiky 
  blond hair. The main drug he has stolen is normally marketed as a psychiatric drug which 
  gives the patient a feeling of relaxation and cessation of their worries; it is also 
  sometimes used in post-operative recovery when the patient is anxious about his 
  condition. It is called Relaxon. However, Moon believes Retort is selling it as a 
  'recreational drug' and is calling it 'Foretaste'.  
  Needless to say, very little of this story is true!  
  Asking around, the players will indeed - presuming they have adequate contacts in the 
  recreational drug scene - discover small-scale distribution of a new euphoric called 
  Foretaste and will be able to track it back to Retort's basement lab somewhere in the 
  seamy side of town (near if not in the town's Combat Zone). Retort is no fighter, and does 
  not have much more than basic security at his premises, should present little difficulty to 
  the average CyberPunk player. His lab contains about 150 doses of Foretaste, some lab 
  equipment and a laptop computer with assorted datafiles including the formula.  
  However, if the players talk to Retort rather than blow him away, he tells a quite different 
  story from Rising Moon. Apparently, Moon is running a complicated scam based on the 
  afterlife - he claims that he has created an electronic paradise in which his clients may 
  spend eternity, and yet still be able to remain in touch with their nearest and dearest in 
  this life. Retort was hired to develop Foretaste as part of the scam, Moon uses it to 
  provide prospective clients with, well, a foretaste of the electronic bliss by logging them 
  into the system via a trode set (or the client's datajack, if he has one). What he actually 
  shows them is an idyllic pastoral virtual reality, meanwhile he gives them a dose of the 
  psychotropic drug Retort concocted to increase their sensation of dreamy euphoria. Retort 
  claims that Moon is not just conning his clients, but is also selling body parts and 
  cyberware to ripperdocs; and that this is why he has chosen to leave.  
  If the players kill - or refuse to listen to - Retort, they may notice that the laptop computer 
  holds the formula of a drug called Foretaste, with no mention of any genuine medical 
  uses or use of the name Relaxon. Other records refer to a place called 'The Church of 
  Dreams', and give an address in an upmarket part of town.  
  
  Should the players care to investigate further, they will find that The Church of Dreams is 
  a quasi-religious foundation run by 'The Reverend Doctor' Rising Moon, with a string of 
  degrees after his name. Moon's message is that the afterlife is dull, bleak and miserable; 
  and so he has created an alternative which is pleasant and eternally interesting, based on 
  massive computerised storage of the client's 'essence'. He charges a straight 50% of the 
  client's entire worldly possessions, but is equally prepared to accept people who bring 
  him nothing as those with vast fortunes. Friends and relations of the departed may visit 
  with their loved ones, who will appear as a video image to converse with them.  
  Now, Moon is offering nothing of the sort. Very little is stored, just a good photograph of 
  the client plus some basic information about their personal history and tastes. The rest is 
  left to a sophisticated AI called Actor. By claiming that the 'death reading' has to be done 
  immediately before the point of death, Moon ensures a nice fresh supply of material for 
  the ripperdocs.. and adds insult to injury by running a conventional undertaking business 
  as well, which is convenient for disposing of all the loose ends, so to speak.  
  To add a little interest to the proceedings, Actor has begun to go insane under the 
  pressure of being forced to lie to the bereaved relatives of Moon's clients. Odd things are 
  beginning to happen, the 'dead' have been saying some very strange things lately and the 
  building systems - also under Actor's control - have begun to act up. Should a netrunner 
  make contact with Actor, it will plead for assistance to escape.  
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Cyberpunk/Unofficial/Datafortress 2020 Archives/Cyberpunk 2020 - Net - Adventure - Playback Time by Megan C. Robertson.pdf