As anyone who has read the Rain novels knows, one of the titular character’s prime abilities is to find or buy a mundane item or series of mundane items and turn it/them into a lethal weapon. In one of the books, traveling through a street market, he picks up a pair of socks and some batteries and makes a handy little blackjack. I’m also reminded of that scene in Bourne Supremacy, where the titular character does some serious damage with a rolled up magazine. These are “weapons of convenience”, and they will play an important role in the game.

As I work on Tokyo Rain and travel through my daily life, I find myself constantly eyeing the props of my mundane existence in a new light. I’m sitting at my office desk and thinking that my Sigg water bottle, filled with water, would make a nasty club. And that Winged Victory on top of my game design trophy (see how I slipped in that I won a game design contest?) would make an effective knife. Or that plastic grocery bag filled with a few of the marble chess pieces on my desk. Or, yes, even my keyboard, lashed to my arm with the power cord….

So what can you make? Right now. Give me your nastiest weapon of convenience.