That Man's Father Is My Father's Son

As you're passing a park bench just outside the bounds of the party, a man sitting on it starts talking to you. You're fairly sure he's a vagrant hitting you up for some change, but against your initial impulse you stop anyway. You're intrigued by his first statement.

"I've got a challenge for ya. I bet ya I can tell you how many children your father had, just by looking in your eyes. Whaddya say?"

"Just by looking in my eyes?"

"Yeah, that's all it takes." The man lays out a 10-chip piece on the park bench, and you set your own beside it. He glances at your eyes for just a second and then scoops up the chips. "Your daddy ain't never had no kids. Your momma had all the kids."

How do you react?

Options:

• Accept the loss on a technicality
  
• Rough him up to get your chips back
  
• Get "creative"
  

What do you do?

Results

If you chose Accept the loss on a technicality:

Don't Quit Your Day Job
You shake your head and chuckle a little, then shrug your shoulders and walk away. You should have known that a drifter and an obvious grifter isn't going to lose. Next time maybe you'll know better.

You gain 35-45 experience.

You gain -10 chips.

Moves your reputation to be more Honorable.

---

If you chose Rough him up to get your chips back:

Not Quite as Bad as Beating Up Old Ladies
"Gah! That's awful!" you shout. "Do you spend your whole day cheating people with that line!" You stand up and glare at the man threateningly. "I want my money back. Now." Your look is so fierce he reaches into his pocked and grabs a whole handful of chips, which he deposits in your grasp. Mollified, you walk away.

You gain 20-30 chips.

Moves your reputation to be less Honorable.

---

If you chose Get "creative":

As True as the Day Is Long
"Now look," you say, "my father was a scientist and my mother was a series of test tubes, an underwater tank, and an incubation box. I admit, she was nice and warm and kept me healthy, and I did have a number of brothers and sisters that came from the exact same place--I'm a septuplet, did you know that? Now the egg came from a woman, but I never met her, and I think she was dead and they were harvested from her as an organ donor. So I guess that makes me half vampire or zombie or something. Thankfully I don't see dead people or have a curse upon my head. Still, I can't really find any way to define my mother as having kids, whereas my father built my mother from his bare hands, transferred me from tube to tank to box with loving care, and eventually brought me out into the world. So I'd say my father had all the kids, and the mother none."

You gaze levelly at the man, unblinking and apparently 100 percent serious. He looks back into your eyes, much more deeply this time, and then guffaws.

"Okay, fine, you got me. I don't even care if that's true. That's the best damn story I ever heard in response. Call it a draw."

He hands your money back, and you skip away quickly, looking for more serious business to attend to.

• Does not consume time.

Location(s)

• Campus: Investigate a Retro Rave
  

Notes

• If you "Accept the loss on a technicality" and have 9 chips or less your chip amount will be set to or remain at 0. Experience in this situation will still be gained.

References

• Refers to an old brain teaser: A man says, "Brothers and sisters, have I none, but that man's father is my father's son." Who is he pointing at? The solution is left as an exercise to the reader.