LampCorp: a Business Card TTRPG #

Please fill out your official LampCorp business card and report to your supervisor for onboarding. We couldn’t be more excited to have you on our team, and we are sure you will shine brightly!

LampCorp is a simple “pleasure card” role-playing game. You are an employee of the Lampad Corporation. You belong to one of four departments and you have a useful skillset, but the rest is up to you. Sure, you will have Tasks to complete, Deadlines to meet, but what you choose to do between the hours of 9 and 5 (hours are non-negotiable and may be expanded without notice) are your choices to make. 

This system is designed for multiple depths of play, from a quick satirical one-shot of corporate malfeasance to protracted campaigns in a bleak cyberpunk tech-scape. It may be played with or without a leader and with or without dice. It’s paradoxically anarchic in that way. Oh, also, the entirety of the rules fit on a single business card. Fitting that one can tuck so much identity into such a small artifact. 

Version Two of LampCorp has now reached a high level of development and is being successfully used in the operation of nofer trunnions.

Your LampCorp Business Card #

[Your Name Here] is ranked:

• Junior
• Senior
• Lead

in the position of:

• Administration
• Security Services
• Human Resources
• Engineering

skilled at (check one + all Position skills):

• Finance (Ad.)
• Heavy Lifting (Se.)
• Programming (En.)
• Public Speaking
• Dispute Resolution (HR)
• Weapons (Se.)
• Electronics (En.)
• Law
• Negotiation
• Networking (pick one)
  • People
  • Systems
• Machines

Administration and Human Resources start with two Skills. Security and Engineering start with three.

Welcome to Lampad Corporation #

In your position, you will be required to use your Skills to accomplish Tasks. Failure to complete a Task by your Deadline will result in Disciplinary Action.

At LampCorp, we don’t leave much to chance. If you have a Skill, you can perform it. Interpersonal adjudication is resolved based on hierarchy. Tally your Ranks and applicable Skills, then add 1 if your Position oversees the target’s on the Adjudication Table. The higher combined Value triumphs.

For complex or chaotic Skill usage, a single d6 may be used. Roll at or under your Value to succeed. For complex adjudication, the highest successful roll wins.

Adjudication Table #

Notes #

Note One #

*This is LampCorp.*The Oracle sputters over a pleasant tune. Due to a breach of confidential files, until further notice, all Human Resources personnel must report to the nearest Security Specialist to deliver a full debrief, regardless of typical reporting structures. Even a gentle wind may reshape a monumental dune. Thank you for calling the LampCorp Oracle. Please leave your dispute after the tone.

Beep.

You quickly end the call and reset your phone number. Jesus. Nobody ever told you it recorded your voice. You weren’t ready for that. Lampad is just another corporation, but the way they do things is just off-kilter enough to still catch you flat-footed. A tone chimes 5:30; nearly time for the late afternoon check-in. It’s good to be sheltered in a Corp, you remind yourself. They can do a lot for you. 

Your new number hums. You haven’t filled out your card yet, and a friend from Croatia is hoping you can send a copy of a blank one. Why not? Drop the WiFi, install a new VPN, enter an encrypted channel, front and back. Done. What’s another drop in the corporate espionage ocean?

Note Two #

Welcome back to LampCorp, a division of HecaTeronics.

Nearly a whole month later, and I’ve finally carved some time out to revise and rework some of the more difficult or confusing aspects of LampCorp. One of my major goals with this “pleasure card” business card was to avoid bloviating about “here’s what I really meant by the minimal text in this haiku-format game.” The rules are the rules, and they’re kinda up for interpretation. I believe this update has clarified a few things–the power one position may have over another, the starting skills for each position, how to determine success on a task–but there’s no way these few lines of text are going to be exhaustive for every situation that comes up. Wing it or invent some arbitrary bureaucracy–that’s the Lampad way!