I’m running The Sprawl at a convention next week. I’m not new to Powered by the Apocalypse games, but I’ve never run The Sprawl before. I’ve read the book, taken notes, and sketched out a scenario, however–I wanted to get some feedback beforehand.
What rules are most likely to be forgotten or misapplied, and how much does it hurt the game when they are?
Of the elements unique to The Sprawl, what seems to be the hardest concept to get across to players, or to grasp when running the game?
When you first ran the game, what surprised you the most that you didn’t expect either from reading through the book or running other AWE games?
Thanks in advance, and wish me luck!
I think it’s hard for players to not try to plan everything out. [Intel] and [gear] are there partially so the players don’t have to do too much planning for the action phase. Especially in a con setting, you may want to consider giving them a time limit for mission planning.
There is STILL a lot of preparation in a game. The players talk about who the corporations are, but you still have to prepare different, innovative Moves by the Corps against the PCs if they start disrupting the Corp’s business. Maybe somebody just talks to them, offers them money to do something completely different, etc. Maybe the Hacker has been “tagged” and his apartment is now crawling with corporate agents and a lone police rep on the suck to make it legal.
I’ve noticed that players have a hard time remembering Directives, so it’s a good idea to keep those in the front of everyone’s my mind’s and pay attention if they get hit. Cyberwear can be tough to remember too if it’s less obvious, like cyberears.
Thomas Berton I just played a one-off of The Sprawl and to remind myself of my cyberears I attached a photo. The character sheet on Roll20.net can attach an URL to your character look but also for pieces of gear and cyberwear. For the Cyberears I picked some sort of “neko” anime photo (a character with cat-ears, totally ridiculous as my cyberears were not external).
If your players go hog wild during the Links portion of character generation you could find yourself in a situation where a corporate clock goes to midnight. The might of a multinational corporation slamming down on the PCs will probably interfere with any scenario idea you may have had. For that reason, I’d recommend not worrying about the corporate clocks during a one shot.
If your killer decided to mow down a street gang with his SMG on full auto. Remember that there is a penalty to Mix It Up when an individual attacks a small gang (unless your Killer is Mil-Spec).
Make props for the [INTEL] and [GEAR] and hand them out. Also periodically remind the PCs of the resources they have available.
Don’t forget about the Do a Side Mission move. If a contact needs something done in exchange for their assistance and you’re running short on time, just roll the move and narrate.
Prepare a few Hard Bargains that play on PC directives. (e.g. Bad Guy grabs a child hostage. PC is Protective of Children … what happens next?).