Hey y’all, I’m new to the Sprawl (but familiar with PbtA games). I’m getting ready to run the Downtown Dataheist at PAX Unplugged for Games on Demand. I’ve gotten some practice in and I’ll be doing more, but does anyone have any tips? The mission and action clocks helped keep things on track, but I was wondering how people have dealt with the PC-driven flashbacks and stuff, and I’d especially like to know how the Matrix is handled in a one-shot intro scenario like this.
Thanks!
Re: Matrix. Switch the spotlight around during play and try to guide the players away from mission plans that are too sequential. You don’t want the team to be waiting while the hacker does their thing.
Also, it’s totally cool to leave out certain playbooks if you’re not comfortable with how they might work in a certain mission/game situation.
Also, if I only have two hours, I sometimes don’t get to the Catch. But if you have a 3-4 hour slot, they (and the getting paid scene) are great ways of extending the session if required.
The first playthrough I did, since it was with my regular group, I had them do their personal directives, and I had them do the Get the Job and Get Paid moves. I’m not sure if it cluttered the experience or not.
The Matrix got kinda sticky, but mostly due to the fact that the Hacker player is very new to RPGs in general, and I think he was bewildered by the Apocalypse-style wordings and choices and stuff. But yeah, I aim to have the Matrix moves be just as immediate as the other characters’ physical stuff. Like, each character has the ability to tackle the same problem, just in their own way, and the Matrix doesn’t have to become its own thing to the exclusion of other methods.
Another question, for Hamish Cameron specifically: the “data file” the team is after- in your games do you make it a physical object?
Eric Swanson I usually make it a physical object, or if I don’t, the players usually assume it is!
Mine did. I never said it was, but that they had to infiltrate a facility, and that it’s cyberpunk, they decided that they needed to go in and actually seize the drive.
I was really surprised that the hacker did not try to find the file and extract it via the Matrix, and the other guys didn’t suggest that either!
Hamish Cameron, will you have copies of The Sprawl to sell this weekend? Or do you know of a vendor at the con who would?
Jim Likes Games is the IPR vendor at PAX, and he’ll have copies at his booth. It sold out on Saturday last year and that’s been the same at PAX East for the last couple of years too, I think.