The Sprawl: Show them the barrel of the gun (Missions and Threats)

Hey y’all, I’m new to the Sprawl (but familiar with PbtA games).

Hey y’all, I’m new to the Sprawl (but familiar with PbtA games). I’m getting ready to run the Downtown Dataheist at PAX Unplugged for Games on Demand. I’ve gotten some practice in and I’ll be doing more, but does anyone have any tips? The mission and action clocks helped keep things on track, but I was wondering how people have dealt with the PC-driven flashbacks and stuff, and I’d especially like to know how the Matrix is handled in a one-shot intro scenario like this.

Thanks!

I know some people have been waiting for the Print on Demand version of The Mission Files to be released.

I know some people have been waiting for the Print on Demand version of The Mission Files to be released… well wait no more!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/248180/The-Sprawl-Mission-Files

(If you already bought the PDF, you should have already received an email about this through DTRPG. Check that first.)

Cheers!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/248180/The-Sprawl-Mission-Files

Missions are the lifeblood of The Sprawl. Better lay down the plastic.

Missions are the lifeblood of The Sprawl. Better lay down the plastic.

The Sprawl: Mission Files is a collection of ten new cyberpunk missions for The Sprawl. Infiltrations, extractions, heists, recovery ops, wetwork, investigations, hunts, pursuits, shakedowns, Mr Smith has them all… and more.

Ready to run. Each mission includes a brief summary of the fictional setup and details on the people and places involved, as well as all the clocks and directives you need.

Hack them into your own shape. Each mission also takes you behind the scenes with design notes on its structure and ideas for hacking the mission to make it uniquely yours.

Between the lines and beyond the missions. The Sprawl: Mission Files is also filled with MC advice and tips for how to handle tricky situations and how to tweak familiar features of the game to enrich your play experience.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/248180/The-Sprawl-Mission-Files

Run idea: a team of alternative media “reporters” attempt to gain access to the local offices of a megacorp in order…

Run idea: a team of alternative media “reporters” attempt to gain access to the local offices of a megacorp in order to prove their outlandish conspiracy theories. Hilarity and buffoonery ensue.

Of course I’d have to think of a workaround, since the system assumes that the PCs are competent…

https://gizmodo.com/area-man-obscure-sidekick-asked-to-leave-google-fibers-1826028038

Check it out!

Originally shared by Jason Cordova

Many people have been asking about Codex back issues. Well, I’m excited to say that moment has come!

We’re kicking off with Codex – Chrome, currently available for Pay What You Want on DriveThru!

Cc: Hamish Cameron

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/234100/Codex–Chrome-Oct-2016

Another thing from my campaign prep.

Another thing from my campaign prep. I built 24 sample ICE programs. I was inspired by the four sample ones in the book. They’re included here as well as 20 more. I gave these programs a few tags, too, which might help in play.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sI-P417WUhWIf9xSE0rYGNNYgYpDq6iD

Hi folks!

Hi folks! In doing some prep for my campaign, I built a handful of generic Matrix systems in draw.io so I can grab them with the snipping tool and drop them in Roll20. I also put some sample names for them, to make it easier to improvise hacking on the fly. I bashed them together in half an hour, so they’re not super polished, but good enough for GM notes or dropping into Roll20.

Feel free to use them yourself. Also, if you have any suggestions to improve them, let me know so I can make them better for everyone.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YVlxn9jQKNI3GVKQyCOMTgqzRax_ln6K

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.

Hey!

Hey! I don’t know how active this group is, but it’s one of the first hits when I search for “the Sprawl Missions” and I’ve used a few of the posted ones already, so I figured I’d give back with the first full mission I’ve written.

A DARKER HUNT is a slasher detective story, with an ample dash of machine occultism thrown in. Check out the full doc here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FXcTnyU0EeQC95d7wlSBYOLmhH2lNLVys5YR6FFWAZM/edit?usp=sharing

Working on a premise for a mission and I was hoping to bounce it off you guys and get some feedback…

Haitekko* Superstar Pre-teen Pop Sensation Kiki Galaxy is preparing to embark on a mega tour to promote a double release of her latest album and her debut starring role in the PlayBack** Feature (Movie name here). The months leading up to the tour kicking off have been fraught with mysterious death threats and now that the tour is about to touch down in the gritty and dangerous Neo New England Metroplex, Haitekko is taking no chances. The Team has been hired to act as a local security detail while Kiki is in the NNEM. They’re given an itinerary that will have them picking up Kiki from the airport, escorting her to the Haitekko Mega-Fan Funtime Store for an autograph session, and to oversee security during her sold out performance at the (insert fun cyberpunk name) venue that night. After the performance is over, the party will deliver Kiki to a private airport where she’ll be someone else’s problem.

* Haitekko is one of our MegaCorps devoted to all things children [entertainment, nutrition, education, etc]

** PlayBack is the name of our setting’s SimSense, BTL, Strange Days head trode thingy, but in its vanilla form it’s legal and popular.

My initial idea was that the threats would be two fold. One problem would be that the team is presented with a counter-offer from a rival corporation that wants Kiki to break contract with Haitekko and come over to them. I’m feeling like that’s a little weak right now and could probably use some spice. Maybe following through on the rival corp’s intentions for Kiki when they have her might help.

I think it would be fun to see how the characters would act when they’re put in a situation where they have to make a decision between maintaining their reputation by sticking to the job versus a higher payday at the cost of potential complications if it turns out they’re implicated in the extraction.

The second complication I had thought of would be that the death threats were coming from some creepy mega fan who had lost touch with reality. I want to avoid anything sexual, so I’m thinking this mega fan is a young adult woman who wants Kiki as a daughter, or some sort of personal doll/play thing. Still creepy, but not over the line.

I’m wondering if I should plan some sort of threat at each of the stops along the way (airport pickup, mega-fan funtime store, concert, delivery to the airport).

I’m also not real sure what kind of Legwork my players are going to want to do in a situation like this. I imagine it might be good to have some general ideas in case they come up empty handed and look to me for something. I know if I were given an itinerary as a player I might just go “ok, let’s hit these spots up and deal with the problems as we come up against them”, which feels pretty railroad-y to me.