I intrigued with the idea of porting Stars Without Numbers Factions rules or tweaking Dungeon World’s Steading rules to fit my #Technoirworld game, which is standard Apocalypse World with plenty of colour changed, a few custom moves and a couple of new playbooks.
Has anyone done that for AW?
I’m still not convinced Factions rules would be worthwhile, but I’m very curious and I can’t be sure they won’t be awesome since I’ve never played with them in any system.
In particular I’m thinking about cyberpunk corporations. So far, when the PCS have clashed with corporations, is been more at the ground level, with the shock troops, and not really at the larger scale. I’ve played corporations as Fronts with large-scale background threats (warlords, landscapes) that breed badness (brutes, afflictions) that shapes the world of the PCs. And it works cool.
But what about:
Steadings inspired by DW
Corporations stats would be Prosperity, Reputation (replacing population) and Defenses. The colour of the stats and the steading type would be adapted to fit the colour of cyberpunk corporations. Between sessions, I’d follow the steading update list to check how the interactions of corporations adds or removes conditions.
Factions inspired by SWN
Factions are ranked from +3 (super powerful) to -2 (destitute). Each faction gets one front move per session, which can be made either before or during play; typically this is against another faction, but sometimes it’s just to do a thing. When a faction makes its move, roll+rank, with other factions being able to spend their front move to aid or interfere (in which case, they don’t get to make a move this session). Players can enable one or more factions to make an additional move this session (or sometimes, an extra move next session), and can also make a move on their own if they have the time and resources (i.e. workspace, basically). Factions gain or loose ranks by meeting specific fictional requirements. PC crews probably start at rank -1, but could be higher if they’ve done a bunch of stuff already.
P.S. Note that factions are as much PC-generated as GM-generated. If a player says: “I find an orphanage and donate all my loot to it,” sooner or later that orphanage is going to turn into a significant faction, since it now has the resources to make extra moves and grow into something larger, even if it starts out at rank -2. So the GM invents some factions based on their interests, but the PCs have the power to pick something in the fiction and focus their attention on it, which effectively turns it into an institution with mechanical significance.
From Jonathan Walton on the Planarch Codex
http://www.story-games.com/forums/discussion/comment/358380#Comment_358380
Also consider Reign and Diaspora if you want to steal organization rules.
Cheers, I’ve read Reign and know about its company rules but never played it. Didn’t know Diaspora has such rules.
Have you ever played with such rules? I’m particularly interested in player leading factions and engaging with NPC factions on the larger scale.
Played no, plotted yes. Diaspora randomizes three traits per solar system, tech, resources, and habitability on a -4 to +4 scale (4dF). Then it generates jump links between them. The first session of Diaspora covers both character and setting creation, you roll up about 10 systems, detail them, and then make characters to have adventures in them. The rules also cover social conflicts, mass combat, and organizations. There’s a good Mass Effect hack for Diaspora, but at heart it’s Traveller done storygame style.
I also stole Diaspora’s setting creation for creating a fantasy setting. The statting out phase worked great, but I never got the boardgame-like second phase working.
I would also recommend Diaspora for inspiration. I’ve thought about putting AW, SWN, Diaspora, and classic Traveller into a blender to see what comes out.
I’ve had peruse of Diaspora and I don’t see much at the organisation-level but a platoon-scale war mini-game. That’s cool and all but not really what I’m looking for. I’m probably missing something though.
So I think I might have a go at hacking DW steading rules with inspiration from SWN factions; Walton’s roll+rank; AW’s holdings, gigs and gangs; and maybe Reign’s companies, with all its combo rolls.
DW steading rules have a nice procedure and level of abstraction, though they lack randomisation, which I find can be good for inspiration. SWN faction give the GM a little mini-game like that, random shit happens between sessions which I’m sure would help “Think off screen”.
I wrote a little thing for creating mega-corporations for another player’s cyberpunk hack, but he didn’t like it so much. He starts world creation by letting the players create mega-corporation or similar entities, but he didn’t include a lot of details on this process so I wrote some up. I’ll re-post it here since it seems relevant to what you’re making:
First choose Size:
– Multinational, small corporation with lots of local ties, +small, +local
– Extraterritorial Megacorp, wide-ranging corporation with a worldwide presence, +medium, +autonomous
– Prime Megacorp, global presence everywhere with millions of employees (there should never be more than 10 corporations of this status), +large, +autonomous, +economy
Tags:
+Local means they would be invested in the local government and community, also able offer a lot of jobs to the players (or be take over easily by a larger corp if the players decide to do a lot of jobs against them)
+Autonomous means they are their own government with employees that work for citizen status; they also have their own airspace and legal system
+Economy means they are an economy unto themselves, several governments probably rely on this megacorp’s existence
Then choose Industries; Multinationals get 2, Extraterritorial Meagcorps get 3, and Prime Megacorps get 5:
farming
mining
manufacturing
banking
computer hardware
computer software
data-sifting
cybertech
weaponry
orbital habitats
robotics
security systems
military contracts
biological sciences (could include medical tech and/or gene-engineering)
magic (if you want a Shadowrun feel)
These industries could probably get fleshed out in some way, making some corps more enticing to work for or against, each one is meant to be a generic descriptor so that the player can create a narrative for the corp. For example, a multinational that specializes in biological sciences and orbital habitats is probably looking for ways to terraform Mars or send colonists/miners to the moon or an asteroid and has little interest in competing with a company that is creating computer hardware for the military.
Finally
Designate the weakest Security of the corporation: This is a simple pick 1 choice.
-Physical, the physical structure of the corp, corps with weak Physical security are easier to break into, have fewer guards or mercs on the payroll to protect property, and their hardware can be accessed from more numerous points inside
-Network, the computer connections of the corp, corps with weakest Networks have fewer hackers on the payroll and don’t use the best firmware for their computer systems, a corp with this weakness can be attacked more easily from an external point but usually have mercs on hand to track down the offenders
-Internal, the corporate oversight of handling employees, a corp with the Internal weakness doesn’t police it’s own employees very well which means the best method of attack is by becoming an employee of the corp, a real espionage kind of gig!
These weaknesses could fluctuate and change based on the actions of players against or for the corporations during play. It’s not impossible for a corporation to be lax in 2 areas of Security, but never all 3. Having players make the corporations in secret might allow for a player to know the “secrets” of a particular corporation better than their fellow players, or choosing their Security yourself might give the players an extra hurdle to jump as they have to research the best way to attack a corp.
And that was pretty much it.
Holy hole in a donut batman!!!!!
That is so great. Exactly what I was hoping to do next. I mean, I had inklings of something like this but just hadn’t found time to dedicate to it. Awesome.
I mean, the weaknesses alone solve some issues I’m having with players interacting with the major corp. So obvious now but, yeah, so good.
I might add another smaller corp level, 1 industry, to cover a few startups in my game. Maybe.
Anyway, thanks for sharing! You’re really motivating me to make this thing.
🙂
Remind me to either steal this or pay you a freelancer’s fee.
I’ve been exploring this for Traveller World as well. For that game, I’m trying to distill it down to the least amount of rules possible to get some depth. Like this thread!