I’ll be MCing The Sprawl starting this Sunday.
I’ll be MCing The Sprawl starting this Sunday. One of the players is a Reporter. I’ve yet to play with a Reporter in the group and was wondering if anyone would mind sharing some of their experiences with the Reporter. What sort of things did you do for their Story and how did you work that into the missions (if at all). What’s the best ways to handle the Story and Noise clocks?
Ok while this might not at first glance be a cyberpunk inspiration, but trust me, it is.
Ok while this might not at first glance be a cyberpunk inspiration, but trust me, it is. If you haven’t watched this, you should and soon!
My massive (900+) cyberpunk Pinterest board. Full of inspirational imagery.
My massive (900+) cyberpunk Pinterest board. Full of inspirational imagery.
About to do session 0 tomorrow as a player. Long time gamer but brand new to PBtA.
About to do session 0 tomorrow as a player. Long time gamer but brand new to PBtA.
Depending on how our world building goes, I’m really digging the Tech playbook. I am having some issues understanding it though due to my comprehension of the system.
The expert fields usually provide a mechanical bonus, but is the rest of the bonus mostly narrative? (This guy used to work at a chiba clinic etc.)
The cyberarm lets you modify things. So can you combine that with expert to modify explosives, cyberware, drugs, drones, or whatever?
Is there a way to really combine lots of flavorful cyberware with the tech?
In our world I want to explore replicants or android drones and what they mean to society. So I kinda want to play a splicer tech to really hammer that home but am a little usure of its use outside of the free cyberware. I also want to maybe take another expert and be a pyrotechnic to explore an anarchy theme.
Thanks.
Kind of an idiotic question.
Kind of an idiotic question. But with the driver class, the “Right tool for the Job” perk, is that an actual move you take as an extra, or do you get that in addition to whichever 3rd move you take? Thanks in advance.
The Tannhäuser Job
The Tannhäuser Job
Working on the details for our second mission (but third session). I asked the group what sort of jobs a team consisting of a Killer, Pusher, and Hacker would take, and was told “wetwork”. OK then.
////MISSION DIRECTIVES:
When you accept the mission, mark experience.
When you decide how to get into the Hyatt Regency Barbasquillo, mark experience.
When you transmit the signed documents, mark experience.
When you transmit proof of Tannhäuser’s “accidental” death, mark experience.
When the mission ends, mark experience.
////END
This is a pretty straightforward job. The team is hired to assassinate Elizabeth Tannhäuser, the major shareholder of a small construction corp after a merger deal goes bad. The fixer knows where the target is staying, the Hyatt Regency Barbasquillo, but Tannhäuser will be there for less than 24-hours. The team needs to get into the hotel, get the target to sign some documents (a will dictating where her shares will go upon her death), then eliminate her so that things look like an accident.
There’s a twist though. The Corp hiring the team is Real Bad News. Once proof of Tannhäuser’s death is transmitted, a second team in another part of the city is greenlit to fire off a few Kawasaki Heavy Industry Type-01 LMAT anti-tank missiles. The attack will obliterate any evidence of shady dealings (including the team), damage a major property of a rival Corp, and get blamed on anti-robot radicals. That’ll allow the hiring corp to look like heroes when they send in the prisec teams to “clean up” the slums the missiles were fired from.
Do drones count as cyber-linked vehicles for the driver’s second skin move?
Do drones count as cyber-linked vehicles for the driver’s second skin move?
The Vehicular Mayhem basic move is inspired by talk of zooming in and out of the various circles in the cyberpunk…
The Vehicular Mayhem basic move is inspired by talk of zooming in and out of the various circles in the cyberpunk Venn diagram, a disappointment in other PtbA games ability to mimic the play style of media such as Dark Matter, Kill Joys, or The Expanse to the degree The Sprawl could, and a desire to treat diverse vehicles such as mechs and space-faring ships as more than just blunt objects while still providing more options for terrestrial combat vehicles, helicopters, submersibles, etc…
The new vehicle threat type is different from the other threats in that it is of immediate concern to the players; does not typically extend across multiple sessions. This is not meant for mere cannon fodder or speed bumps. Ways the vehicle threat clock can be used is as an exit from the charged situation, rather than say, just armor in a fight to the death (which is still a viable option if fictionally appropriate). So, for example, the clock represents a chase/race to an endpoint, a vehicle running out of ammo/fuel, fulfillment or failure of the vehicle threat’s goal, etc.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzkvDZfGsnq3NS16NTBGSldfT0U/view
How disruptive to the flow of play is Matrix stuff?
How disruptive to the flow of play is Matrix stuff? In a lot of cyberpunk games (notably Shadowrun) it’s like running a whole combat scene with usually just one player and the rest of the group just sits around waiting. And yeah, you can multi-task and have the hacker working in Matrix while everyone else does something else, but that can get to be confusing and stressful on the GM.
So again, how disruptive or quick are Matrix scenes? Personal anecdotes preferred over having only read the book or watched/listened to actual plays.
Self-generated Missions
Self-generated Missions
So, it hasn’t happened yet, but just in case it does, how do you handle cred and Getting Paid for self-generated missions? In other words, if the team decides to run an op against one of the corps for personal reasons, rather than accepting a paying job from a fixer, what happens with cred?