I’m running a campaign right now, and I’m a little stuck on how I want to use the Corporate Clocks. Right now, two of the corporations are at 2100, and the retaliation phase description makes it clear that the corporation is going to take definite action against them. I’ve been doing between-mission action segments (think love letters) up until now, but the clocks have never been this high, so I haven’t had the “definite action” modifier in play.
So how does everyone here handle their corporate clocks? Do you do something different if it’s in the middle of a mission when a clock hits 2100 vs if it’s in legwork or even just in downtime? Do you have set “things” that go down in between missions for advanced clocks that aren’t yet at 0000?
Mainly what I’m thinking about here is whether I should force the PCs to deal with the 2100 clocks before embarking on their next “story” mission, or if I just want some assets from those corps to show up in every mission from here on out. I had one asset appear during legwork phase against one of the PCs, but with some great rolling, he dispatched the agent permanently, and described it in such a way that I was comfortable lowering the clock a segment. I don’t see that happening every time, though, so I want to have a clearer plan in place.
So, I’d love to hear how everyone else treats their corporate clocks, and what your “go-to actions” are for the clocks.
They’re more of a “guideline.” For the record, here are my clocks, after just 2 missions! This is what I’ve done so far. See my post from earlier this week about adapting “Vampyramids” to The Sprawl though. That post actually answers your question better than this (more personal) reply.
See pic, below.
Echo is basically if Americans were totally consumed by an app the way China has WeChat. Big data, social monitoring, social media, ecommerce payment structure, etc. They’re mad because the PCs backstory missions foiled them. Then their second mission foiled them again.
Phelps-Decker (PD) is a bioweapon corporation. In that they make animal-based weapons. They’re mad at one PC in particular. Actually, the PCs worked FOR them in both their missions so far.
> Currently Phelps-Decker is actively hunting the one PC, so he’s trying to keep his head down. Too bad the PCs just got hired to run AGAINST Phelps-Decker. Things are gonna get real hot real soon.
Monsagra is Monsanto+Con Agra. The PCs’ first mission was against them, as was one of their backstory missions.
> Monsagra made a soft push against the PCs after their first mission, trying to hire some of their Contacts and even one of the PCs as a bribe to get them off their case. Now they’re on a run FOR Monsagra, but I’m going to force them to either fail the run or violate some of their Personal Directives (or else find some creative way to please everyone, as PCs are wont to do).
Omni is a venture capital firm that buys industrial corps and installs proprietary skillwires in all their employees so they “chip in” at 8 and “chip out” at 5 and don’t remember what happened in between. They foiled Omni in their second mission.
> Omni isn’t super pissed yet, but the PCs met a runner team that works exclusively for them. This team is stealthy and uses sniper rifles. If the PCs piss them off, things could get hot.
Aleph is Disney-Sony-YouTube-Twitch. They had TWO backstory missions against them, and pissed them off real bad before the campaign even started.
> They made a soft push once. I have plans for them in ways that could flip a contact or even push a double cross. But honestly, how does Disney come for you? I guess the way any corp does.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nRDV_rs9y4sywIAhj3Kn4O6vBXsNLbff5WFgGTsXW4Vj6Oq8kIDaCry28RZIHtB7QsrQr6hIIDhXrjgCfKlzhXTSTUGpviFR0EWA=s0
(I used the really cool Sprawl Clocks for Roll20 by fake_alex_blue by the way; logos made in Canva)
Odd, that should be “@fake_alex_blue” but Google “fixed” it. I wonder if that’s automatic with an @ or if he has a G+ under the same name as his twitter.
Jon Lemich
Is there a download link for those clocks?
drive.google.com – The Sprawl Countdown Clocks for Roll20 – Google Drive