Fatal Distractions!/fataldistractions.bin/appndxa/soggy/soggy.hst

Text File | 1993-01-31 | 14KB | 252 lines

              Shades of Gray (The Reality and the Game)
             ===========================================


THE CREATION OF THIS GAME
-------------------------
Shades of Gray was conceived, written and coded by seven people: two from
England, two from the East Coast and three from the West. We have never met
each other, never, in fact, spoken to each other on the phone, nor even
corresponded by mail. The entire project was managed through Electronic
Mail, from within a private CompuServe Gamer's Forum.

The following history scenario became the premise for the game which we
wrote together. It is not necessary to know any of these things before the
game is played. The history is provided in this form for the curious player
to learn more about the period in which the game takes place, or to fill
in the blanks after the game has been won.


HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE PLOT:
----------------------------------

     In 1957, the island of Haiti in the Carribbean underwent a period of
severe political turmoil, with three presidents elected and deposed in as
many months. During May, the army took over and civil war flared. Only the
formation of a coalition government headed by Daniel Fignole, agreeable
to the army, the police and a majority of the people, restored calm to the
country. Fignole was a highly charismatic leader (a school teacher in the
Capital, Port au Prince, by profession), very popular with both the working
people and with the more liberal better-off islanders. He was a socialist
(possibly a communist) and described himself as an 'Advanced Democrat'. He
was also reported as being anti-American, although he denied this. His aim
was to ensure that the country remained a liberal democracy.

     Fignole never had much chance; after only 19 days in office, he was
deposed by the army and forced to flee the country to the United States. The
coup was orchestrated by one of the opposition leaders, Dr. Francois Duvalier,
who then proceded to 'rig' a general election that made him president.
Despite all this, he still retained popularity with many senior American
politicians, who did not want the country to go the same way as Cuba,
although the Haitian Ambassador, Gerald Drew, voiced strong reservations
about Duvalier. Within days of the election, before the 'fixed' result was
even confirmed, Duvalier imposed martial law, and started turning the country
into the military dictatorship that it would remain for the next three decades.
His opponents disappeared; fear, persecution and torture were the order
of the day.

OUR CAST OF CHARACTERS
-----------------------

(Some names have been changed, to protect the guilty and innocent alike.)

Austin Garriot           - The hero.
Hilary Matthews          - Austin's girlfriend.
Gerald Drew              - US Ambassador to Haiti.
Thomas Davis             - US vice-consul to Haiti, and CIA resident.
Daniel Fignole           - ex-President of Haiti.
Francoise Duvalier       - President of Haiti.
Col. Louis Raimone       - Haitian Foreign Minister.
Queen Elizabeth II       - Queen of England.
Charles Calthrop         - An English, professional assassin.
Shibley Matalas          - A CIA contract agent in Haiti (deceased).
Michel Matalas           - A half Haitian, half Syrian US Citizen.
Terry Smith              - An FBI agent, assigned to protect the Queen.
Arthur Wesson            - Another FBI agent, assigned to protect the
                              Queen.
Magdalena Rosenstein     - A fortune teller/spiritualist/psychiatrist.


BEFORE THE GAME BEGINS
----------------------

     On the night of September 29th 1957, four soldiers were shot dead at
a military outpost on the island of Haiti. A US citizen, Shibley Matalas, was
arrested for breaking curfew that night; he was on his way to find a doctor
because his wife was due to give birth to their first child. Twenty four hours
later, he was a dead father, having been beaten to death in jail, although
the Haitian Foreign minister, Colonel Louis Raimone, claimed he had died
of a heart attack while trying to escape.

     Shibley Matalas was also a CIA contract agent reporting to Thomas
Davis, the American vice-consul to Haiti and CIA resident. The CIA had
been backing Fignole, and wished to see him as president rather than
Duvalier.

     Duvalier wanted to buy arms and riot equpment from the US to equip his
new terror squad, the Cagoulards, but could no longer do so directly,
because of the Matalas incident. Instead, he used a Mexican intermediary
company, and sent Colonel Raimone to Mexico City to negotiate the deal.
The CIA learned of this and Davis was charged with hiring a professional
killer to assassinate Raimone while in Mexico City. He contacted Michel
Matalas, Shibley's brother, living in Massachussets and used him as an
intermediary to hire Charles Calthrop, an English assassin, to execute the
assignment. This scheme would give the CIA plausible deniability. Matalas
was more than happy to participate, to avenge the death of his brother. He
was scheduled to meet Calthrop, and pass him the details of the contract,
at the Congressional Library on Monday, the 7th of October 1957.

     As Calthrop landed at Washington International airport, to be briefed
on the mission by Michel Matalas, his entry into the country was noted by
the FBI. While not wanted for any crime in the US, his occupation was
known, and the FBI were wary because of the impending visit of Queen
Elizabeth II of Great Britain to the US and Washington. They were naturally
suspicious of his arrival in Washington within a week of the Queen's
arrival. Agents Terry Smith and Arthur Wesson were charged with following
Calthrop, and moving in to arrest him and his contact when they met.

     Our hero, Austin Garriot, was working in the Congressional Library
on October the 7th, 1957.  An historian, somewhat in the doldrums since 1953
when he was charged with being a card-carrying communist by McCarthy, he was
researching Lend Lease during the Wilson presidency, and its opposition from
within the Senate.

     Austin, the son of John and Ethel, was born in 1930. His father died
in a car crash when he was 7, and Austin blamed himself for the accident.
Brought up by his mother, he attended Massachussets State University to
study history, and there he made the mistake of attending a meeting of the
Communist party. He never attended another (he wasn't too interested in
politics) but his presence at the meeting was brought to the attention of
McCarthy's Senate Committee on Un-American Activities when he applied for
a teaching post after graduation. He was blacklisted and his work was
restricted to pure research.

     Davis was also present in the library, to watch the meeting between
Calthrop and Matalas. As the two met, he noticed Smith and Wesson moving
in on the pair and attempted to intercept and distract them. Calthrop saw
this and hastily disposed of the incriminating documents in an open
briefcase that lay on a nearby table.  He then made his escape with Matalas
following behind.

     By the time Davis, Calthrop and Matalas were able to return to the
library, Garriot had left for the night, taking his briefcase and the
incriminating documents with him. The three conspirators needed to recover
them, otherwise the assassination could not go ahead, for fear that the
evidence would fall into the hands of the FBI.

     Davis was able to trace Garriot's address, but they found his home
empty, and sat down to await his return. Garriot, meanwhile, had gone from
the library to his girlfriend Hilary's flat for the evening. He was a
slightly absent-minded fellow, and when he left to go back to his own home
about 10 o'clock, he forgot his briefcase. On entering his own flat, he was
knocked out, and taken to a derelict warehouse by Calthrop and Matalas.

     Matalas and Calthrop worked a bad guy/good guy routine on Garriot,
trying to get him to tell them where the briefcase with the documents was.
Garriot, too confused to say anything, and not really understanding what
they were after, was unable to tell them what they wanted to know. Matalas
roughed him up, and then Calthrop appeared sympathetic. But the glass of
water that Calthrop gave him contained 'serunim', a hallucinogenic that the
CIA was experimenting with in those days, known in later years as LSD.
They permitted him to escape, hoping that in his stupified state he
would lead them to the briefcase, and the documents.


THE PLAY OF THE GAME:
---------------------

     The introduction to the game sees Garriot reliving his torture and
escape, but totally distorted by the effects of the hallucinogenic. It ends
with him collapsing in the street.

     The game starts with Garriot waking up in a gutter in downtown
Washington, at about 6am on the morning of Tuesday the 8th of October. It has
been raining, and the streets are wet. There is a full moon, low in the sky.
Still strongly under the influence of the serunim, he has no idea of who
or where he is, or even what year it is. All he remembers is his nightmare
of torture and escape. The drugs have given him a warped sense of reality; he
slips in and out of hallucinations. His first problem is to answer the three
basic questions of who, where and when he is. Paranoia sets in (he has been
a bit paranoid ever since his McCarthy trial) and he begins jumping at shadows,
and thinking he is being followed. He is, of course, by the swarthy
Middle-Eastern Matalas, and the blond Anglo-Saxon Calthrop.

     The scenes within this part of the game include a memory of his trial,
the death of his father, and a theatrical production of Antigone (the
archetypal drama depicting moral right and civil disobedience). Finally,
having answered these three basic questions, but still seeing the world in a
distorted fashion, he enters the shop of a fortune teller/faith healer/
spiritualist/psychiatrist, Magdalena Rosenstein. She attempts to help him
regain his lost memory by giving him a tarot card reading. Still under the
influence of the serunim, he is drawn into a series of 'past-life'
regressions. These are not necessarily true past-lives, but rather imaginings
brought about by the influence of the LSD: some of the 'flashbacks' are
memories of Austin's own life, and there is even one of the future; others
put him in a totally different role, a different person in a different age.

     The meanings of the cards may not be immediately apparent to Garriot, nor
indeed to the player, but Magdalena will help to explain their meaning. In each
flashback, he is put in a situation where he is either an oppressor,
or one of the oppressed. The purpose of this to to give him, and the player,
an appreciation for both arguments in a case where there is neither black nor
white: adherence to the law or civil disobedience for the greater good,
curtailment of some civil rights in order to permit at least some freedom
to the majority, or the freedom to do what you want as an individual, even
at the expense of others.

     At the end of the game, the player will be given a choice of adhering
to the law, and clearing his own name of the 'slur' of being a communist,
at the expense for democracy in the Haitian Republic, or of breaking the
law for the greater good of people he doesn't even know, at the risk of
imprisonment for himself. The purpose of the past-life regressions is to
allow him to see both sides of the coin, so he can make an educated
decision at the end of the game.

     After these various scenarios have been played through to their
conclusion, one of Magdalena's last cards throws Garriot into a maze of
memories of his past, eventually leading to his recovering his memory. He
remembers the library, the kidnap, torture and escape as they really
happened, rather than the drug induced nightmare fashion in which he was
aware of them before. He will also remember the all important briefcase,
and the fact that he left it at Hilary's flat.

END GAME:
---------

     At this point, Garriot is still be feeling odd from the after-effects
the serunim. The time is about 8 in the evening, and he is also feeling the
effects of the previous night's abuses. It is dark and raining outside, but
he hurries back to Hilary's flat to recover his briefcase, and find out
what was so important to his captors. He is unaware that he is still being
followed by Matalas and Calthrop. When Garriot enters Hilary's flat, he has
the option to call the CIA or the FBI or to do nothing at all.

     Finding the case at Hilary's flat, he opens it, and discovers the
incriminating documents which describe the intended assassination. If the
player phones the FBI, they arrive in the form of Smith and Wesson, a
short time later, and present their credentials.  Alternatively, the FBI
will arrive at Hilary's apartment eventually, even if Austin does not call
them.

     If the player calls the CIA, Davis arrives and presents his CIA
credentials. Garriot recognises Calthrop by his accent.  The FBI men arrive
and explain themselves as well. Both parties are able to present their case
for who should get the documents. Here, Garriot is presented with his moral
dilemma: to return the incriminating documents to Davis and the CIA (those
who had made him suffer) and allow the assassination to go ahead for the
greater good of Haiti, or to pass them to the Feds, preventing the murder,
clearing his own files of the slur of his McCarthy trial, and subjugating
the Haitian people to three decades of repression and fear.

     If Austin passes the documents back to Davis and Calthrop, the Feds will
object, but Davis slaps an 'interests of National Security' seal on the
procedings, and the assassination will go ahead as planned. If he passes them
to Wesson and Smith, Davis will object, saying that J. Edgar will be hearing
from him about this. In either case, Garriot and Hilary can live on, secure in
the knowledge that they have done what was right. (How right, it isn't our
judgement to make.) Austin proposes marriage to Hilary to win the game, and
life for Austin returns to its normal, mundane routine once more.