Question: S-harm and NPCs
How do you deal with PCs dealing S-harm to NPCs. Obviously if the NPC would normally be able to very little damage you can just have them incapacitated, but if you’re dealing with cybered up PriSec goons they should presumably be able to take multiple instances of S-harm. Should I just give S-harm harm a number when PCs use them?
Sorry if this is covered in the book. I read the Harm sections looking for an answer but may have missed it.
“There ain’t no party like an S-harm party!”
In most games stun guns are either way too powerful (and once the PCs start using them, the NPCs have to start using them too) or way too weak. In The Sprawl, they’re perfect.
Winning a Mix it Up roll means the PCs achieve their objective. What weapons they’re using and what armor and cyber the NPCs have only frames the MC’s narration of the result.
Example:
“The briefcase is in the back seat, guarded by two armored security goons!”
“I shoot the guards and grab the case.”
PC rolls Plus Meat and gets a 10.
If the PC has an assualt rifle: “You unload the clip through the back window with a mighty roar of autofire and tinkling of shell casings. Then you reach in, open the door from the inside, drag a wet, steaming corpse out of the way, and grab the briefcase. You notice the car is smoking real bad. One of your rounds must have penetrated a LiON battery. Sirens are going off nearby, too. You just made a lot of noise. What do you do?”
If the PC has a light autopistol: “Your silenced pistol makes slapping sounds as you shoot out the window. The guards duck for cover, giving you a split second to grab the briefcase over the closest one’s head. As you turn to go, she grabs the case, her arm reaching out the window to stop you. ‘Not so fast, scumbag.’ What do you do?”
If the PC has a stun gun: “You kick the window in, then shoot the first guard with your taser. The cord flashes a fulminating blue as the power pack zaps her with 1200 volts. With her stunned, you grab the briefcase, but there’s a second guard in the car! He levels a shotgun at your face and says ‘drop the case or eat lead, scumbag.’ What do you do?”
Note that this is all just from the weapon tags, comparing damage to armor/guard l33tness, etc.
Assault rifles are +loud so they’re going to make lots of noise, even on a 10. If the PC had got a 7, “you make too much noise” would not only rouse police response (as narrated) but would also advance a mission clock. And “something of value breaks” would be the case, not the car.
Light autopistols do 2-harm, and silencers remove +loud so the noise isn’t an issue, but 2-harm won’t kill a trained security guard with 1-armor, hence the guard is temporarily overcome (because the win on Mix it Up, plus the weapon is Quick, giving the PC time to grab the case) but the guard isn’t dead, and can quickly recover and grab at the case.
A hand taser has the +reload tag, which means it can shoot one guard, but the other will get the drop on you before you can reload it. Hence that success frame, where the second guard gets to act.
Also, the PC might have Personal Directives come into play. They might not like unnecessary killing. They might need to use a flashbang (which would play out a lot like the assault rifle, except the guards are stunned, not dead).