Author: Charlie Vick

Just a minor question / errata thing. The Infiltrator can start out with a Neural Interface, a cyberdeck, and the move Jack In. The Tech can start out with Neural Interface, a cyberdeck, and ‘can take Jack In as an Advance.’ Was that intentional? I’d probably just say that if someone spent gear/expertise/cyberwear at character creation in that way, they can Jack In. Hackers have Console Cowboy to make them unique-er.

Thinking of a caper up a space elevator. I want a custom move to show why flechette ammo exists (in part). Perhaps the +’s from ammo types is a bit too fiddly. Breach / explosive ammo might just make it that you always get at least the 7-9 result. The main idea is that it’s somewhat risky to shoot anyone, but firing at 4 guards with autofire is especially dangerous.

When you fire a gun with non-flechette ammo in a space station, roll + number of targets. Add +2 if the gun has breach or explosive ammo, +1 if it’s AP ammo.

10+ Catastrophic depressurization! Pressure doors will slam shut to isolate the area now in hard vacuum.

7-9 Slow leak! You just have a little while to plug it, don a vac suit, or get away.

6- You luck out, all is well.

So who’s had a bad or bland session, and why?

I’m pretty green in terms of running PbtA games, and our last mission felt a little bland/linear in the Action Phase. My PCs had driven a boat up to a mission site, where a large container ship was docked, which contained what they were trying to steal (Basically, running a modified Master of Puppets mission). The Pusher’s hardcore ex-military believers were flying helicopters over the shipping companies’ office building, strafing it with gunfire and trying to largely distract the guards. So I pretty much narrated them into the ship, below deck, they find a dead ship guard (show the barrel of a gun). Probably should’ve started with a much harder move much earlier, have them get pinned down by a crime syndicate sniper, the same group that had send people into the ship after the same objective. I guess I’m not used to the idea of always making a move when they look to me, and making that move harder, giving them less build-up before things hit the fan.

This was after around 2 hours, or 2.5 hours, of legwork, and the action phase took less than an hour? So maybe I was a bit out of it, probably should’ve taken a 5 minute break and thought about what they would run into, based on things already established (this crime organization was a threat from the legwork phase, etc). After I get their plan, just stop for 5-10 minutes and think about where I can, very early on, start applying pressure. What do you fine folks think? Anyone else run into things like this? I’m maybe a bit more used to building out a sandbox / random encounters and having that stuff throw itself at the PCs, or used to things that are a bit more freeform, so perhaps I’m overthinking how to use MC moves to make things complicated / nonlinear at the very start of a mission’s action phase.