Ran my first session the other day, and it was great. As usual though I ran into some questions that I didn’t have the answer for right away.
We have a Tech who took drone expertise and has some really cute drone companions made up. One of these drones got into a battle with another drone and I was sure what to roll. I ended up going with Mix it up (synth) since that made the most sense at the time. If anyone wants to chime in with their thoughts on how to handle drones that would be great.
The other question I ran into was what exactly was the consequences of “the request takes time” from Hit the Street. It seemed like it depends on a case to case basis. If its information, maybe its not a bad consequence to take. With gear it begs the question of how they get it later. If it’s all about just delaying the start of the mission, the consequence of that would seem to be the legwork clock advances, but that seems similar to attracts attention. Though I do see the difference. The attracts attention also invoked a gang to hassle an operator last session as well.
Overall loving the game.
Mix it up with Synth is right, as per Second Skin. There’s more on Drones in here: plus.google.com – Second Skin Driver Move: Does it Apply to Drones? Pretty straightforward. Does…
It takes time is definitely on a case by case basis, and yes, that could lead to “oh shit, our gear is ready but we’re stuck in a firefight on this oil platform” moments.
If the mission start time is flexible and that result just delays the start of the mission, its a bit of a non event. I wouldn’t use that as an clock advancement. Try to use it for “well now I have to get across town from my fixer to the job in 30 minutes at rush hour” situations.
So our tech doesn’t have a neural interface, or VCR… Would you still roll synth? How would you handle a drone with the +autonomous tag? Sorry for the flurry of questions. I’m coming off a stint of BitD where I’m use to throwing around guesstimated dice pools of ‘quality’ (which I love) and its taking me a while to adjust back into normal pbta mode.
Interesting. So they’re essentially using a manual remote control? In that situation, I would probably require the drone be +autonomous to use Mix It Up, otherwise they’d just be too slow for a full-on combat against trained or committed opponents.
But that really is just my opinion. It depends a lot on the fiction of your setting and the vibe of your game.
A lot of the players are new to the cyberpunk genre, so the idea of a rigger is sort of foreign to them. I think it’ll be an interesting avenue to ask questions about and I’m sure we’ll settle on some sort of tone.
Thank you also for the advice on the ‘it takes time’ consequence.
No problem!
Although the game (and I) assume certain things about “cyberpunk”, but it’s your game, so ask questions and make it your sprawl 🙂
With regards to the Drone situation, the exact thing happened in my game last Friday. The Tech had a Tracked Bear drone with an autocannon and his only cyberwear was his cyberarm with implant tools.
I went with Synth over Meat.
My reasoning was:
1) Meat is for physical interaction. Synth is for interfacing with technology.
2) The Tech was sitting in the drone’s control console in the tech van (see attached Ishikawa).
3) Both Second Skin and the Neural Interface Remote Control Module offer a bunch of additional benefits besides the ability to use Synth.
i.cdn.turner.com – i.cdn.turner.com/adultswim/big/video/episode-thumbs-16×9/gits2_cc_012_pt3-05.jpg
Sounds legit!
“It takes time” has become one of my favorite choices! To deal with it, I either add a danger/complication as a result of that specifically.
Ex:(Enemy bounty hunter, realises the local explosives guy has been missing for a few days, or working on something weird for too long, and shakes him down for info)
Or my favorite, the mission starts at 9:00 pm, and the person helping will have it done by 11:00pm. You can either start the mission and have it air-dropped in upon its completion, or deal with the “consequences” of starting the mission late.