Author: Nigel Clarke

Ran a pick up game of The Sprawl at the Millenium Falcons, Southampton Guild of Roleplayers last night.

Used the Kurosawa Extraction from the book with some corporations that we brainstormed. Game went well as three of the players soon got the hang of how things should work and only one had some problem grasping the concepts behind a PbtA game.

The team opted to hit the convoy on the access road to the airport (I was describing a cross between the access road from the M4 to Heathrow and the access road to Washington DC International) so straightish road with grassy areas either side. The plan was for the bunch of Thugs who formed ‘Handsome’ Johnson’s posse to act as a distraction while the Driver and his three vectored thrust panzers attacked the armoured limos having been transported nearby under a tarpaulin on a flat bed truck.

The action opened with the minibus full of Arsenal supporters driving across the median to cut off the first limo throwing smoke grenades and lager cans. The panzers (the player opted for three vehicles the same for odd reasons – he said why not and I thought it would be fun in a one off game) then attacked with a rocket at the first limo – it missed. The second panzer fired another rocket and this damaged the first armoured limo and the third panzer used a magnetic grapple to stop the second limo.

The Arsenal supporters then attacked again and threw lager cans at the windshield of limo #2. The windshield cracked and they took some damage from the assault rifle armed security guards. The Killer then got into the act and blew away the security goons but took 1 Harm damage as his armour kept out the assault rifle fire.

The armoured limo keep out the crew until the Killer blew the door off. Mitchell was dragged off to the nondescript vehicle they had waiting as the vectored thrust panzers left in a hurry. One of them took an anti-materiel rifle round to the engine and blew away the police SWAT team with a rocket in reply.

As the team exited they saw the road blocked by the two gangs of South American drug cartels members who they had arranged to turn up and grab each other’s latest shipment. This had slowed the police response and stopped anyone else getting through to the scene.

Excellent ideas from the team included Fast talking a contact in the traffic department to arrange the traffic lights going to red after the convoy went through ala Italian Job. Also getting a contact, Frank the Tank, to supply the flat bed truck transporting the covered panzers and Fast Talking a police department contact to find out about the drug gangs.

A great session and much enjoyed.

UK Games Expo ran last weekend and is now the world’s 3rd largest gaming con having apparently overtaken Origins.

I ran six games over the weekend mostly D100 system games (Call of Cthulhu, Laundry or Mythras) but took a side trip out of D100 gaming into Cyberpunk with The Downtown Dataheist. This a shorter scenario designed for conventions as a display/demo of the game. It works really well for that.

Like most PbtA games it is really for four player max so I kept the numbers to that and two couples who were big fans of the genre joined me at the table. They had been thinking about using The Sprawl in their own gaming so I was happy provide the push they needed. The team got into the swing of things and soon had the heist under way. One player got her Molly Millions character into the action by attacking a bunch of security goons and was very pleased not to have to do a long dreary combat – one roll and it was done. Later on a tougher set of security goons almost captured her but some deft use of grenades disoriented them and she ripped off the arm of the goon holding a gun to her head and beat him to death before intimidating the rest into retreating by threatening them with the bloody stump. Mission accomplished with some new fans for The Sprawl.

The link between the legwork clock and getting paid saw the light go on and much praise was elicited for the flow of the game mechanics and the players really, mostly, got in to the fiction.

Just checking the status of the games I submitted for UK Games Expo this year. There are three Cthulhu games that I’m running in conjunction with Chaosium. There is Camp Sunny on Friday morning with 3 spots left. I guess most folks don’t arrive that early. All the others are sold out at the moment so definitely 113 player hours of gaming to look forward to and possibly more.

Friday evening it’s back to tentacles with another Call of Cthulhu scenario, this one’s a mystery as it’s one of the scenarios from the competition Chaosium ran earlier this year and I don’t get to see it until early May.

Saturday morning is TDM’s Mythic Rome “A vote for me is a vote for Rome”, a political election themed game. Saturday afternoon I’ll be running a 2 hour demo of The Sprawl, a PbtA cyberpunk game, The Downtown Dataheist. Saturday evening is another Cthulhu scenario, “The Dreaming Ward”.

Sunday morning is my usual Laundry game, this year it’s Case Cannibal Legend, as I like to finish the weekend with a fun, slightly light-hearted, game and Charlie Stross’ series is just the ticket