Charles Moore – Powered by the Apocalypse G+ Archives

I ran The Sprawl at Acadecon last weekend.

The table had one seasoned PBTA vet and three first timers.

Playbook selection and character creation took a bit longer than I had anticipated, and we went ended up going about 10 minutes long. (I’d budgeted an hour for game creation, and we took an hour and a half).

The group consisted of a Soldier, a Killer, a Pusher, and a Driver.

The Soldier got to make a plan, The Killer got to kill, The Pusher got to recruit, and the Driver got to steal a garbage truck. There was sneaking around in the dark. There was betrayal. There was violence. There was dancing.

If I had it to do again I’d push them a little harder during creation phase, I’d chrome it up a bit more, and I’d work harder to get the Driver and his chariot more involved.

All in all, I think it went pretty well, but because we went long I didn’t get a chance to source the table for feedback.

That said, here’s the The Interview

This is an Arts and Crafts post.

This is an Arts and Crafts post.

I signed up to GM some games at Acadecon in November and made some place-cards to keep track of various clocks (it’s a 4×6 card with a sprawl-style countdown clock under a title that says “The Sprawl”).

I’m thinking one for each player and then one for the Legwork/Action clocks.

If you’re intested, the PDF is available on my GitHub page at : https://github.com/charlesmoore99/Countdown/blob/master/Sprawl_Clocks_4x6.pdf

The ODG is at https://github.com/charlesmoore99/Countdown/blob/master/Sprawl_Clocks_4x6.odg

I’m going to use them with these inexpensive card holders I found on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NADFJSB/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Bookish question

During the Action phase when the Action Clock hits 0000:. The PCs narrate how they escape, how they were captured, or how they were killed.

If all of the PCs escape alive the corporate clock advances.

Then in the Retaliation phase: If the legwork clock is at 0000, advance the corporate clock. If the action clock is at 0000 and the PCs escaped alive, advance the corporate clock twice.

It strikes me that advancing the corporate clock during Action and then again during Retaliation for the same reason seems a bit off. Like maybe it was an editing error.

I’m inclined to just advance it during Retaliation.

How do the rest of you play this?

MC’d a session of the Sprawl last Friday night.

MC’d a session of the Sprawl last Friday night. It was first time in a long time I’ve run any game and the first time I’ve ever MC’d any PBTA game. It went over really well and I thought I’d share my experience.

The team was rolling crazy high. The whole night there were only two 6- results. They stuck with their strengths and followed the plan the soldier laid out at the start of the mission. A large number of their rolls were made with plus threes, a couple at plus four. I had Legwork and Action clock threat progressions set up, but they never came into play.

Big thanks to all of you for the inspiration you’ve all been.

#actualplay

I was looking through some old bookmarks and re-encountered this epic game log.

I was looking through some old bookmarks and re-encountered this epic game log. It’s not Sprawl, but it is an awesome source of inspiration.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Shadowrun/comments/2qu9ny/shadowrun_storytime_xpost_from_rgametales/

A few weeks ago I posted a web app that tracks and shares countdown clocks online.

It seemed fairly well received so I spiffed it up a bit. This version adds support for Chromecast and for Analog style countdown clocks. It also has slightly larger buttons so that it’s easier to use on a phone or tablet.

You can check it out at: https://tomcat8-clocks.rhcloud.com/clocks/

A couple of weekends ago I was messing around with javascript and websockets and created a web-app for managing…

A couple of weekends ago I was messing around with javascript and websockets and created a web-app for managing Countdown Clocks.

Its basically two web pages that talk to each other. The MC creates his clocks in the Countdown Controller screen and the players can instantly see the results on the Big Board. I tried to keep the page lean enough that it works in a mobile environment.

Check it out here: http://tomcat8-clocks.rhcloud.com/clocks/

If there’s enough interest, I’ll clean it up and share it on GitHub.