Threat Examples:
A few of my players have decided to be + hunted, so I’m working on some threats to represent the organisations and individuals after them. The one I’m working on right now is a kind of bounty hunter/repo agent after a character for skipping out on his contract with company property (the cyber).
First off, would you model this as a group threat (they are sending the agent after the character), or an individual threat (being the ambitious bounty hunter looking to get a promotion out of their capture)? Secondly, would you make their eventual goal the capture itself, or perhaps something more like the promotion (if I ended up using the individual as a threat).
So, how would you make this threat as an example. Are there multiple ways this could be done? What would you make the end goal and some of the intermediary steps?
Are you defining the hunt entirely for the player? Usually when players choose a tag they also define what that tag is.
That being said I think either is valid. if its a group I would model it as an additional clock..that catches up to them and when it runs near the end they spot the bounty hunter…or he takes a potshot…but when it finishes he faces them down directly..
But you could do it multiple ways certinally. it could be an organizational clock and at various levels they send various types of people to collect, and at the highest level they pose a major threat..and the clock doesn’t go away, even if it rolls over, unless they are dead or somehow relinquish their cyberware and get new gear.
The goal could be capture..but if they were an agent for some company maybe the goal is to track them back down and bring them back into the fold.
You could also run it as simply another Hard Move. If they make a decision that their tech features prominently, and they fail one of your hard moves is to cause their hunters to pop back up again.
There is certinally no ‘one’ way to do this.
So I was thinking a lot about +hunted as I was doing campaign prep. Here are my thoughts on the tag.
It ~could~ mean that you’re wanted dead, alive, or “dead or alive” by the police, corporate security, the mob, or a corporate executive.
But what else could someone hunting for you want, that you don’t want to give?
– The cyberware. They just want it back, and will happily pay for the surgery to take it out carefully rather than shoot you and risk breaking it. Obviously there’s something special about it.
– Information you don’t know you have or don’t want to share. Maybe you’re the only one who can implicate your cousin, ex, or daughter in a crime, and you know XCORP can get it out of you, one way or another. Maybe they’re the FBI and they need you to testify against a mafia don. Or former employer.
– Something dangerous that they need to do something even more dangerous. You can’t just chuck it in the incinerator, because it might be your only bargaining chip when they finally catch up to you.
– Someone ELSE. They’re not after you. When you got the cybereye implant, you paid for it up front, cash. But after you left recovery, they finished the PCR and realized you were the father of their #1 fugitive, brother of the perfect genotype for their new evil experiment, or granddaughter of an elusive edgerunner in retirement that they desperately need to hire. Or maybe you offered up this person in trade and then didn’t come through. “Yeah, I’ll rat my partner out for a new leg.” “Well, now I’ve got the leg, I’ve reconsidered…” Maybe you did a good deed, and the beneficiary paid for the cyberware, but no good deed goes unpunished, and the person you prevented from doing ill wants to hurt the beneficiary again, and you’re kind of obligated to protect them.
– Your genes. You’re the ideal candidate for their next evil experiment, kidney donation to a powerful executive, person to bear the twisted assassin’s child, etc.
– Your services. They’re even willing to pay. Too bad you already know what they want you to do, and it’s a [suicide mission, violation of your ethics, guaranteed life sentence, guaranteed to hurt people you love, thing you’re irrationally afraid of, bum deal with someone who’ll kill you when the job’s over]. Only, they won’t take “no” for an answer, and are willing to force you to do the job if they get their mitts on you.
If they want YOU, and they want you DEAD, maybe they need proof (so your assassins can’t blow you to smithereens). Maybe the aggrieved party wants to deal the killing blow (making it hard to arrange the hit).
If they want you alive, maybe they want you for your brain, spine, heart, or lungs. Maybe they want to brainwash you into being one of their myrmidons, clone you and kill you, interrogate you and then kill you, exile you to the badlands, fake your death and brainwash you, use you as a patsy for a crime, etc.