Private Investigations
A Campaign by Antti Hukkanen
For CDogs by Ronny Wester

Author's Email address: ah58172@uta.fi

Description

Private Investigations is a small, one-player, cyberpunk
gumshoe campaign for CDogs, with predetermined weapons.

That said, let me expand on the above and relate the
beginnings of the campaign. From the beginning, it was
mainly an experiment - to see how well something CDogs
was not designed for could be done with it - and to me,
the game stood up well.

The campaign attempts to imitate a cyberpunk variant of
the hardboiled detective story genre, in the tradition
of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and others. This
more or less explains the others points made above.
Firstly, it is intended for one player only. It isn't
hard for one player, and with two players becomes almost
ridiculously easy. Even so, nothing will stop you from
using two players - even the narrative will make sense.

Secondly, your weapon is predetermined by mission, only
in one mission do you get to choose from two. This is
because the campaign is extremely plot-driven; the pro-
tagonist is a private individual with limited resources,
and the action does not depend on lots of gunplay.

Thirdly, the plot, actually the central thing in this
campaign, is rather more "realistic" and down-to-earth
than is usual with CDogs campaigns. After all, it is
intended to be cyberpunk. However, I do not feel that it
clashes too badly with the stylised-looking characters.

The Difficulty:
When I wrote Private Investigations for CDogs version 1.02,
I found that the main character almost always had too many
hits. The story did not justify so many enemies that the
player would ever be in any real danger. Therefore, if
playing with version 1.03 or later, I recommend setting the
Difficulty option to Very Hard.

The Story

 It's a mystery to me
 The game commences
 For the usual fee
 Plus expenses
 Confidential information
 It's in a diary
 This is my investigation
 It's not a public inquiry

You are a private eye in a big city in the near future.
Life on the edge is seldom easy, and often dangerous, but
you pride yourself on your incorruptibility, and your
customers put their trust on that. Even though you've
gone up against a Mega-Corporation or two in your time,
your resourcefulness has always saved the day.

 I go checking out the reports
 Digging up the dirt
 You get to meet all sorts
 In this line of work
 Treachery and treason
 There's always an excuse for it
 And when I find the reason
 I still can't get used to it

But your toughest case, when it comes, comes not in the
form of a damsel in distress or discretion-craving suit
in the doorway. It is a task you take upon yourself out
of pure, simple sense of duty. Your friend has paid the
ultimate price for something he saw; you must not let his
sacrifice go in vain.

 And what have you got
 At the end of the day?
 What have you got
 To take away?
 A bottle of whiskey
 And a new set of lies
 Blinds on the window
 And a pain behind the eyes

Will you make it through this unusual case? Your life is
at stake, but that is nothing new to you. This time, your 
motivation is not the fee. Now, you find yourself fighting
unknown hostiles for personal honour . . . and justice.

 Scarred for life
 No compensations
 Private investigations

Thanks

To Ronny Wester for producing a most awesome action game
(and for foreseeing the need for a Difficulty scale before
I even realised needing one!);
and to Dire Straits for the utterly suitable lyrics - and
the name.
