Neotropolis

Eight weeks before our first Neotropolis, a friend said we should go because everyone was going. We submitted a faction pitch, worked around the no karaoke factions rule, and landed on bounty hunting. Alleycat Asset Acquisitions was born on a timeline that did not leave room for over-engineering.

We built a simple analog prop called the Data Crypt: laser-cut acrylic packs with a removable key, capture-the-flag style. Bounties signed up through the Bounty Hunter Training Module, posed for a Polaroid on the Wanted Poster Wall, and walked away knowing an edge-lit acrylic bounty contract was being added to the rest. Hunters browsed the Bounty Board and tracked targets through the streets of Neotropolis without issued hardware of their own.

Captures stayed physical and consent-forward. A Hunter could declare with a hand on the pack or try to pull the key before the Bounty noticed. If a Bounty opted out of touch, they wore an ACCESS DENIED key on the pack instead. No screens, no firmware, no automatic scoring. Just players negotiating drama in real time while staff tallied results on paper.

We also brought Laser Jail: laser diodes in drilled 2×4 lumber, fog machine required, hand fan strongly recommended. It became an instant photo landmark and a signal that Alleycat would always care about spectacle as much as mechanics.

42 Data Crypts went to Bounties that weekend. The paperwork was brutal and the props were beloved. Bounties loved carrying gear; Hunters wanted their own. Watching how people actually played taught us more than any design doc, and it pointed straight at Proto-PDN and digital rules the next year.

Origin story, booth ops detail, and what we learned are on the dispatch page.