Word on the Street: The Cacophony and You

Vampire society has had a network of communication since long before the Internet, a semi-mystical discussion space where Kindred could share warnings, instructions, invitations and gossip. It is an inherently vampiric system, so only Kindred can read and interpret the Cacophony.

Many groups of Kindred claim responsibility for the Cacophony: the Circle claim that it is based in blood magic, but no-one can be certain.

Not all Kindred can interpret the Cacophony. It takes effort to tune in and you need to know how to read the signs, and once you’re in, you have to keep up to date with the constantly-shifting symbols, messages and memes. The Cacophony does not give without taking, and you must feed it to benefit from its knowledge.

We will sometimes drop plot into the Cacophony or give hints about current events in it, as well as it being a great resource for rumours, scandal, alliances and feuds. However, if you have heard about something through the Cacophony (or second hand through someone who can read the Cacophony), there are likely to be other ways of investigating it.

Mechanics

The Cacophony exists within Dark Metropolis independent of players viewing it, but to tune in, you must buy the Cacophony Savvy Merit with Experiences. This conveys its own benefits, to do with drawing out information about the city (see the Blood and Smoke book for more details) but it also allows you access to the Cacophony board on the Dark Metropolis forum. People without the merit can be told information from members of the Cacophony but cannot read it directly from the Cacophony.

So how do you buy into it? Well, any character can buy the Cacophony Savvy merit just by trying to interpret the signs. Maybe they’ve been told where to look, maybe they’ve heard rumours and are hunting for it, or maybe it’s just the right time for them to have a flash of understanding. Using the format covered in our downtime blog post, give us your justification or description for buying the merit, spend your Experience and away you go! You may not be put on the Cacophony board until after the downtimes are returned, but if you haven’t been put on the board by the game, shoot us an e-mail.

The merit has 1-3 dots which must be purchased in order. Once you have a single dot of Cacophony Savvy, you must start contributing to the Cacophony and can read the Cacophony board. This means that in the downtime period you need to send an e-mail to the Dark Metropolis ST address with a subject like ‘Cacophony Contribution’ containing the information you are putting into the Cacophony. Don’t worry about style: everything is fed through the Cacophony anyway, so the STs will rewrite it as others will perceive it. This is partly because we may well end up with half a dozen versions of the same rumour, so we will rewrite things as we want to.

You only need to contribute one thing per downtime to the Cacophony – if you have more Cacophony Savvy (say, three dots) you may want to consider finding more interesting things that fewer people know to contribute. You can add more contributions if you want, but there is no requirement to do so, even as you buy more Cacophony Savvy (and you cannot ‘bank’ contributions – you must still contribute every downtime). All that is required is one e-mail with one piece of information in it. The important thing is that we as STs know a) which character is contributing b) what you are trying to put into the Cacophony c) if it is unclear, what the contribution pertains to. If in doubt, go for clarity. If you want to make it super mega clear, copy the e-mail into the end of your downtime to show you have contributed, but please also send us a separate e-mail.

E-mails make it easier to keep track of who contributed what and it's clearer when someone is not contributing. If you miss a downtime cycle of contributions, you lose access to the benefits of the merit for that month (though not to the board, as that would be a faff). If you continue to miss contributions, we may remove the merit from your character sheet (because of the Sanctity of XP rule, you will get the Experiences back but you will have to re-buy the merit) and your permissions from the board.

The reason players can’t post directly to the Cacophony board is so that the rumours can remain anonymous, which adds a level of mystery to the whole thing. Players are not required to tell other players that they contribute to the Cacophony (and if they do such knowledge is to be treated as out of character until confirmed in character) but since Dark Metropolis is a collaborative game, there is not any particular reason not to tell others.

Style

The Cacophony is more than the words that players see on the board: it is information gleaned through lots of little moments, hints and symbols, passed through dozens of whisperers who all put their own spin on it. However, there are certain common threads that can be recognised by those who know how to interpret the Cacophony, and you may be able to see the styles of certain contributors showing through.

People who can read the Cacophony don’t know who else can inherently. However, voice does begin to show through and it is possible to track down who is contributing to the Cacophony with a bit of detective work. After all, the Cacophony mirrors the Kindred who contribute, and from the perspective of the game, it should be risky to spread dangerous rumours or information.

It would be useful if you could give us an idea of how your character contributes to the Cacophony (anything that leaves a mark on the city is acceptable, though it can’t be through people or animals). Do they put up neon posters for concerts that give no time or place? Do they conceal their messages in Banksy-like meme graffiti or spray-painted tags that convey more than just a signature? Do they write their messages on bathroom stalls or program the signal interruptions of a TV shop’s display models? The crosswords of the local paper? It doesn’t matter how weird and obscure the medium is, because the Cacophony interprets and reposts, and the messages spread like a virus to those who know how to read them.

The Cacophony is only really interested in Kindred news – Kine news is boring, but news of other supernaturals or weird and wonderful things of the world might pique the interest of some members.

Lying to the Cacophony

The Cacophony has no inherent truth-telling device. It can repost a lie if a member of the Cacophony tells it first. However, if your character regularly lies to the Cacophony, they risk being found out (or attracting the attention of someone who can discover who they are).

Some Kindred make the mistake of assuming the anonymity of the Cacophony means there are no consequences for lying. This is untrue. If your character is lying to the Cacophony, make it very clear and tell us what the true facts were. We want to make it fun to play with the limits of truth, scandal and the social games of Kindred, but if your character consistently lies to the Cacophony, they may well provoke unwanted interest from others with Cacophony Savvy and potentially other injured parties.