I spent part of the weekend hammering out the broad strokes for my day job dungeon crawler.

I spent part of the weekend hammering out the broad strokes for my day job dungeon crawler. Hopefully some of what I’m trying to express comes through. Heavy influence by Inspecters and some copy paste from Apocalypse World.

DUNGEONAUTS

Congratulations! You’re all founding members of a salvage company that profits off the looting and exploration of the Dungeon Planets that orbit the Earth. You’ve got a lot of debt to pay off, and you’ll need to make a payment at least once a week. To avoid bankruptcy you’ll have to work as a team, take gigs for salvage, get your haul back through customs, legally or otherwise, and then sell the product for a profit. That is if your expenses don’t eat it all first.

For Every Game Week

At the beginning of every game week make the following two rolls:

Debt Roll

At the start of the session, roll to see what the franchise’s current cash on hand looks like

– 10+ – You’re still just in the black

– 7 to 9 – You’ve got a bit of debt, but a couple of lucrative gigs will pay it off

– 6 and below – Mistakes were made. You’re starting this week with a considerable debt and creditors out for blood, better get creative.

Job Offers

At the start of the session, roll to see what the franchise’s current cash on hand looks like

– 10+ – Your prospects look bright and the money is good.

– 7 to 9 – The jobs are offering chump change, basic work, or dangerous conditions

– 6 and below – Beggars can’t be choosers, expect jobs to be double booked and for the requirements to change mid stream.

For the First Session and Grand Opening

When you’re sitting down at the table for the first time the Financier should walk through the following questions. Listen to the Player responses and ask any follow up questions that come to mind, and press them for details. Take your time get to know the world beging established.

Create a salvage company

A salvage company must have the following:

– A Financier

– A Manager

– A Hacker

– A Dungeonaut

The Financier

One person takes the roll of the Financier, also known as the MC, the Game Master, the Storyteller, and the Dungeon Master. Their objective is to play to see what happens, establishing the shared fiction as they go, and then make suggestions for how the players could succeed within those circumstances. To do this the Financier honestly describes the game world’s events, challenges, and outcomes, letting them snowball off one another as they would logically. They then use these events to encourage the players to produce exciting fiction, while offering clear solutions to problems and ways escape from danger. The players are in no way obligated to accept those solutions.

The Employees

Every other player at the table is an employee of the salvage company. A player’s job is to describe their character’s actions vividly, to treat them like a real person with clear goals that they’ll chase with all the passion they have. However the character’s goal is not the player’s. The player’s goal is to screw that up by describing how things go wrong for their character within the established fiction. The characters can stumble and get injured, sometimes seriously, but they cannot be killed outside of very specific circumstances. Players should feel free to be brave and foolhardy with their characters in equal measure.

The characters fall into one of three positions within the franchise:

– A Manager – Also known as the boss. They make business decisions, hire new employees, give raises, and can fire employees. The manager can also moonlight as a Dungeonaut when the staff is thin.

– A Hacker You can’t go anywhere in a Dungeon Planet without someone to hack a floor plan into place. The hacker remains on the ship where they use the computers to crack the alien code. They can then alter and adjust the modular layout of the Dungeon Planets to build a path for the team. They also update mission objectives, alter priorities as needed, and provide early warning for incoming threats. The Hacker can also moonlight as a Manager when staff is thin.

Dungeonauts – Any individual who delves into the Dungeon Planets is a Dungeonaut, though they have different specialties and quirks. Their job down planet-side is to complete the mission objectives, protect one another from threats, and to collect as much additional loot as possible to help the company dodge insolvency at the end of each game week.

The Brand

Once everyone has decided coming up with a name. This will be the brand identity of your new franchise.

The Company Ship

A franchise needs a way to get to the Dungeon Planets.

– Name your ship, and describe it’s overall appearance. Give it some love because it’s going to be your office away from Earth. And your bunk. Include a bathroom if nothing else…

How big is it?

There’s just enough room for the bare essentials (+Agile, +Day Trips)

-It’s small enough for a tight crew without privacy (+Sips Fuel, +Cramped)

-It has some room for a full team, or space for privacy (+Amenities, +Fussy Systems)

-There’s room for a tight crew, but a large hold (+Extra Loot, +Gas Guzzler)

-Large fuel tanks with (+Long Haul, +Vulnerability)

Describe two strengths that can be relied upon.

– Describe three weaknesses that just can’t beat out of it for love or trying. You’re a start up or a company, perpetually on the ropes of bankruptcy, your equipment is going to be garbage half the time. Air isn’t exactly cheap in space.

Define your Dry Dock

Your team can’t stay in space forever. This will be where you crash (not literally; maybe not literally). Where is your port located?

Clunky pre-war space station (+Corporation, -Modern)

-Asteroid shit city (+Crime, -Feds)

-Cali pontoon community (+Community, -Amenities)

-Port in a major metropolitan city (+Feds, -Corruption)

Port Details

Players Pick Two, Financier Pick 1

Amenities, Corporation, Bureaucracy, Feds, Modern, Backwoods, Black Market, Unregulated, Competition, Opportunities, Gov Contracts, Cheap Fuel, Watering Hole, Cheap Rent, Labor Pool, Unionized, University, Shipping Hub, Corruption, Tight Security, Crime, Dense Population, Community, Urban

Ask plenty of questions

Where is your office located, or do you operate out of your ship?

– Who is in charge at the port? How are they disposed to the company?

– Who are the notable dock crew?

– Do you have friends here? Family? Where are you all living planet-side?

– Who are you in debt to? No don’t waffle, who has your by the bits?

– Who is the local Federal Inspector? Can you bribe them in a pinch?

– Do you rent a warehouse? How large? Who owns it?

– Who do you sell goods to? What is their niche? Will they buy illegal stuff?

Playing the Game

In no strict order take turns bouncing back and forth between the Financier and the Players asking and answering questions. The Financier will describe the people that arent the Players’ characters, as well as the challenges they and circumstances pose to paying off the week’s debt.

Setbacks and Success

The players in turn should be looking for places within the established fiction where their characters can stumble on the way to success. The Financier can suggest ways the Players can escape from tricky spots and If a player takes the Financier’s suggestion they’ll take +1 to accomplish the task. When they describe their actions the Financier or Players can declare that it qualifies as a particular move. When this happens pick up 2D6 and roll.

Rolling for moves

– 10+ – things go spectacularly well and the Financier describes the outcome. If this success was based on a Financier suggestion Mark 1 Experience.

7 to 9 – things maintain course But the either the Player or the Financier adds a complication based on the established fiction.

– 6 and below – things as established get noticeably worse and the player defines the car crash that follows. If the stat is highlighted Mark +1 Experience.

Advancement

When the player gets 5+ Experience erase the current Experience and take an advancement listed on your playbook.

Advancements include:

– Asking for a raise

– Asking for overtime pay

– Asking for vacation time

– Asking for a promotion

– Get a friend hired onto the staff

– Gaining a new playbook move

– Improving a stat

– Gaining new equipment certifications

– Gaining a new move from another playbook

– Walking off an injury

– A glorious death!

Be careful though, if your character’s advancement outpaces the Franchise’s it will become more and more likely that they’ll be headhunted by a rival company. See ‘Leaving the Company’ for details.

Franchise EXP

Any time you invest your profits into your franchise mark experience. 5+ experience = franchise advancement.

-Pay Scale Increase

-Health Insurance

-Vacation Time

-Company Car

-Custom Uniforms

-Promise Stock Options

-Attract Investors

-Open New Franchise

-Buyout Compeditor

-Golden Parachute

-Invest in R&D

-Break Room

-Nepotism

-Ship Upgrade

-New facility

Leaving the Company

Head Hunting

At the end of the game week player’s that aren’t the manager roll for their market prospects. For every level they have above the Franchise’s roll one die.

6 & Below – You’re a nobody and you’re lucky to have this gig.

7-9 – Someone has

-taken a interest in your exploits

-asked to have a conversation about your future

-started talking about you in the community

-publicly stated that you can do much better

10+ Someone has made an offer you can’t refuse and you’re giving your two weeks notice. The franchise has that time to make a better offer (pay raise, medical, more vacation, player’s choice) or your character moves on to new challenges. This character is now an NPC in the world, either working for a rival company or somewhere nearby. Time to hire a new character.

Getting Fired

The Manager can hand out pink slips to under performers (advancement option for a character retirement?) Time to hire a new character.

Early Retirement

Players can choose to retire a character mid-mission in a blaze of glory when they choose the early retirement character advancement. When the player chooses this option, describe the scene they would like to send their character off in. The Financier and other players should then play to make that scene possible. When the doomed character takes enough damage to be injured, instead of taking that injury, play out their last moments. Time to hire a new character.

The Financier’s Job

Your job in the game is to:

• Oversee franchise creation and team creation, then lead the team in kicking off

the adventure.

• Create places and people that you find vivid, exciting and fun.

• Give the characters dangerous, wondrous,and challenging situations to face.

• Play fair, and play to find out where the game’s story will go.

• Provide golden opportunities to escape tricky situations

MC Moves

-Forecast a potential headache

-Deliver a migraine

-Offer up an opportunity, either with or without a cost

-Create a speed bump

-Drop a road block