Why is hacking such an involved subsystem?

Why is hacking such an involved subsystem?

Why is hacking such an involved subsystem?

Feels sprt of counterintuitive to have the brief elegant Move structure… and then to have the Matrix be a whole other mechanical half of the game. Does it bog down as much in play as it looks to me? Has anyone stripped it out in favor of something simpler?

We wrapped up “Season 1” of my Singapore Sprawl game over New Years (the finale ended up in a Mission Abort!), and…

We wrapped up “Season 1” of my Singapore Sprawl game over New Years (the finale ended up in a Mission Abort!), and…

We wrapped up “Season 1” of my Singapore Sprawl game over New Years (the finale ended up in a Mission Abort!), and we’re now unfolding Season 2. I’ve had some time to reflect on the game and am looking for some advice for further developing Singapore as a setting, because it poses some unusual challenges. I’m curious how other folks would handle these:

Singapore is a surveillance state, and the tech is only going to improve. Today, there are cameras everywhere! And China’s developing facial recognition tech that’s already frighteningly accurate. It’s something that we’ve been sweeping under the rug mostly, since the Clocks ensure some degree of safety for the PCs. But what would be a good way of handling this without requiring a Hacker to scrub surveillance data every mission? Or maybe we fold this into the options for Get Paid? I’ve also added an easter egg to one of the epistolary articles that surveillance footage is often circumstantial evidence because they are easy to tamper with.

Singapore is gun-free. The “regular” players have leaned heavily into a low key, low violence style of run, possibly because of cultural expectations. But as written, The Sprawl expects most people to have guns. Half the classes get automatic weapons as a starting option. So when the guns do come out, it’s often a bit jarring (“Hold on, are you sure you want to fire a 5-Harm canon at the hospital?” “Wait, I don’t think you would have gotten the Assault Rifle past the security at the supermarket, so what else do you have instead?”) My current thought on this is to have the city be divided roughly into zones, where certain firearms are permitted / won’t draw too much attention… possibly with firearms categorized by the Harm they inflict. So city center is 2-Harm or less, patrolled urban areas are 3-Harm, and most of the island is 4-Harm.

As a result of both of these, players are very hesitant to go on high risk / high profile runs. Runs that cause violent and damage in a public way suddenly stand out significantly, and feel very risky. And the game doesn’t provide any structure to make up for that risk. The payout for missions is usually about the same (3-5 XP, and 2x or 3x Stake in Cred). What are some tools people have used to sweeten the deal?

If you’re curious about the setting, we’ve been curating it here:

https://www.worldanvil.com/w/sg2048-andante

Hi all!

Hi all!

Hi all!

Since Google announced the slow slow death of G+ last October, I’ve been thinking about options for this group. Among my criteria are that the place be friendly, welcoming and inclusive and that not be a burden on my time that delays actual game design and production work.

With those in mind, and following the conversations last October (https://plus.google.com/u/0/+HamishCameron/posts/RBcukQMEA8a), I’ve been scouting some options and I’ve found two new ones:

The Sprawl has had a fan-run subreddit for a while (reddit.com – r/thesprawl). From what I’ve seen, the atmosphere is similar to the G+ community: welcoming, helpful, and enthusiastic about the game.

Through that I also discovered a fan-run Discord (https://discord.gg/HpDp9et) that also fulfills my criteria but offers a different medium for those that prefer this kind of chat community. It also plays to Discord’s strengths by hosting games.

I’ll also add a reminder of the other official digital spaces that I do run: https://www.facebook.com/TheSprawlRPG/ and https://twitter.com/thesprawl_rpg and of course http://www.ardens.org

I think the combination of these spaces satisfy all of my requirements and I will continue monitoring them and contributing to discussions in all of the above. If those options lack something for you, I welcome the creation of new positive and welcoming community-run spaces. If you know of any that exist already or you’d like to create one and want me to share it, let me know below or send me a message or an email (hamish at ardens dot org)!

Hi everybody! I’m very excited to play this game that takes me back to the past when I played Cyberpunk 2020.

Hi everybody! I’m very excited to play this game that takes me back to the past when I played Cyberpunk 2020.

Hi everybody! I’m very excited to play this game that takes me back to the past when I played Cyberpunk 2020.

Sorry for my simple English (and sure future mistakes), I’m not a good writer.

Last week I run my first game of the sprawl. I and two friends of mine started with the characters and world creations but, to take confidence with the game, we started a very little introduction scene.

One of the characters, Vladimir (he cames from Russia), is taking part in a clandestine motorcycle racing in order to gain easy money. In this race, all is permitted except fixing bikes and using a ranged weapon.

During the race, Vladimir stated the intentions of jump on to the rival bike, hit the pilot in order to fall him out and take the control of the motorcycle.

I (MC) decided to trigger the Move “Combat” : [this is a translation of the Italian version so, it could be little different or…a mess 🙂 ] When you use violence against an armed force to get the control of an objective, state that objective and roll Meat.

I supposed to the rival pilot could be an armed force, not in literal meaning but potentially, a punch, the motorcycle, or simply the will to do violence make him a “force armed”.

The target of the character was the control of rival’s bike. So, I triggered it.

One player pointed out, gently, that “Act Under Pressure” could be a better alternative because:

1) the pilot is not an armed force

2) He supposed that his previous statement was divided into almost two moves: first approaching, then jumping and after punching and so on…

That makes me uncomfortable for several reasons:

The definition of armed force is latterly and did I make manipulation of this?

Is my decision (about move) the right one? Because “Act under pressure” is very close to “Compact” in this case and fit well too.

If I divided the action into several task and roll, it’d be like I do railroading? Because I move the objective farther.

The moves are triggered by the discussion among M.C. and Players and sometimes the MC cannot catch perfectly the will of the players.

If everything goes according to plan, I’ll sneak one last product release in here before G+ sails into the deep…

If everything goes according to plan, I’ll sneak one last product release in here before G+ sails into the deep…

If everything goes according to plan, I’ll sneak one last product release in here before G+ sails into the deep black of linkdeath…

In the meantime, here’s Touched: A Darkening Alley!

Originally shared by Hamish Cameron

When Corporate Hell is not a Metaphor // Release post for the new Touched: A Darkening Alley PDF!

Touched: A Darkening Alley is the first of a series of stand-alone settings introducing magic into the world of The Sprawl. The cyberpunk future is already a horror show. Now it gets supernatural… “The shit-holes are getting shittier, and no one wants to…

http://www.ardens.org/2019/01/when-corporate-hell-is-not-a-metaphor/

For those interested in the german version of this game – the translation of the Missions book is now ready for…

For those interested in the german version of this game – the translation of the Missions book is now ready for…

For those interested in the german version of this game – the translation of the Missions book is now ready for preorders:

https://pro-indie.com/pivw/de/ordering/vorbestellung-missionen/

https://pro-indie.com/pivw/de/ordering/vorbestellung-missionen/

Anyone run a mission in space?

Anyone run a mission in space?

Anyone run a mission in space? Currently we have 1 CORP that has asteroid mining and lunar colonies in their in their repertoire as well as a CORP based in an orbital space station. I want to give the team a mission to investigate personnel and equipment on a lunar colony but I’m not quite sure how to run it.

Any ideas?