J Stein – Page 2 – Powered by the Apocalypse G+ Archives

Anyone tried running Victorian Urban Shadows?

I just finished Penny Dreadful, and it seems like US

would be the perfect system for something similar. The faction interests would just have to aim at something bigger than local city politics.

(Monster hearts crossed my mind, too, but the archetype behaviors and character dynamics would be all wrong).

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/world/asia/radioactive-boars-in-fukushima-thwart-residents-plans-to-return-home.ht…

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/world/asia/radioactive-boars-in-fukushima-thwart-residents-plans-to-return-home.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

Some fantastic “green apocalypse” imagery from over on this DeviantArt, by Tokyogenso.

http://tokyogenso.deviantart.com/

Playbooks: The Hunter

So, I kind of have to skip the hunter. He’s never been popular in my groups, and I don’t really get the playbook myself. I’m tempted to post what I think are “the problems” with the playbook, but I feel like that’s just crapping on other people’s hard work. I’m willing to post up a few questions, though, that maybe folks that have had success with playing the Hunter can provide answers to.

1) What is the Hunter’s fictional and mechanical niche? His blurb is reasonably non-specific – “finds people and secrets” – in terms of goal-orientation and fictional positioning. What cyberpunk tropes does he evoke?

1b) In what ways does the Hunter embody these themes that is distinct from other playbooks (e.g., if he’s “a researcher”, how do you feel his type of research is distinct from other playbooks’)? Which cyberpunk elements would be under-represented in his absence?

(( By the way, questions 1a and 1b can also be applied to The Tech, from my perspective. If you have anything to add there, please do. ))

2) How do his core playbook moves support that niche?

2b) The core move “It All Fits Together!” has no real fictional trigger. How do you play it?

2c) As per “2b”, for “See the angles”

2d) As per “2b”, for “Enhance”

3) What theme does “Sniper” fit into? How? What other moves support that theme, and what element of the “core” of the playbook does that enhance? What is the mechanical impact of “Sniper”? (e.g., if you were doing surveillance, a 10+ would imply your hiding place while surveilling was awesome; a 7-9 would risk the MC making a move via a fuck-up hiding, and a 6 or less would make it fair game for you to be detected. What does a 7-9 on Sniper add? What does a 10+ add? How does a 6 on Sniper modify a 10+ on Assess while performing surveillance?) I relate sniper to assess, here, because surveillance seems to be the only Hunter “action” that Sniper feeds into – there are no other indications here that he’s a, you know, sniper.

4) What role do you envision – or have you experienced – the Hunter playing during the Action phase?

5) Are there specific missions that you think the Hunter is more appropriate for? Less? Which and why?

6) What is the fictional and thematic role played by Deadbeat? How does that accord with the theme intended to be evoked by the Hunter playbook? Does this enhance the character’s fictional or mechanical positioning with respect to those targeted themes? Do you feel that it simply serves as a flag? A flag for what?

7) Big Game Hunter is triggered strictly when stopping someone from escaping a confrontation; the 10+ move to improve your ability to exert violence in a confrontation is only relevant if the target tries to escape. Does this see use in your games? How often? Often enough to justify the move? Do you see players taking this move strictly as a “flag” – indicating they want to be chasing down rats that would rather fight than talk, rather flee than fight? In the absence of this move, do you see this sort of scene occur much in your games? Again, how does this accord with the thematic examples of the Hunter?

Honestly, when I think Hunter, I sort-of kind-of think of bladerunner. But that’s it; that’s my only example, and it doesn’t really fit into the “mission based cyberpunk” that Sprawl targets. So… I readily admit, I just don’t get this playbook. I feel like I could maybe MC for a Hunter, but it would be a 1-on-1 or a private investigator’s firm, and it wouldn’t actually involve any runs. It would turn into something more like a cyber-noir investigation game rather than Shadowrun.

Hacker

Hacker

The Hacker can occasionally seem like a one-trick Pony, doing dedicated Matrix runs to grab research or screw with facility security. That’s a mistake: the Matrix shouldn’t be any less important to your game world than the internet is today, right? Social gatherings should be all-online affairs, or augmented reality events: imagine a room full of people, all wearing their Google Glass contact lenses, using it to immediately recognize the names, faces, and relevant biographies of everyone in the room… and the Hacker slipping in misinformation, creating discord and tension (e.g., the corp exec refers to the Governor’s wife by his mistress’ name). Street signs probably don’t exist anymore; AR overlays identify streets, as well as the least trafficky route to your current designation. Crowd-sourced restaurant reviews float up as you walk past them, and HealthNow (privatized public health inspection co.) ratings for restaurant cleanliness appear alongside. It shouldn’t take 5 rolls to turn a diarrhea-dump into a 5-star restaurant, right?

All of these things are opportunities for Hacker involvement, in ways small and large, and shouldn’t be ignored – they’re little bits of fun, add color and punk to the setting. They’re best implemented with minimum security – a login gate and no ICE, for instance, both to make it a breeze for a Hacker to play with on the fly, and to let Infiltrators and Techs have a chance at making a Matrix-based contribution to play.

Console Cowboy: The ‘standard’ Hacker, whose focus is on getting into systems and getting out again. The moves you’ll be making most often are Login, Manipulate Systems, and Compromise Security – requiring you to be competent across Synth, Mind, and Edge, which asks for a lot compared to what other playbooks need to excel in their niche’s. Part of the difficulty arises from the fact that we picture Hackers as both “getting data”, “manipulating systems,” and “breaking ICE.” There’re are a few roads forward, then: specialize in one or the other, or settle for being a jack of all trades. Accordingly:

* #Data Jockey:* Search Optimisation is probably your first choice of move, since you will never return empty-handed, and the Reporter’s Filthy Assistants will help make the most of the results, magnifying it into a team-wide +1forward rather than just an individual one. The way forward from here is open-ended, but in a world where information is money, I’d consider picking up the Fixer’s Hustling for data-infiltration jobs and getting your 2 Crew (less-expert hackers than you), and progressing towards a career as a data broker. If you go that route, make sure to grab Zeroed and start building yourself a false identity to work with. Your early program choices likely include Sift and Identity Protection.

* #Security Specialist: * Whether it’s to improve networked building security when you’re playing at white-hat, or you’re running an op, you focus getting into places you shouldn’t be and subverting their Matrix-controlled security systems. Your focus here is in Compromise Security and Manipulate Systems, requiring a high Mind and Synth. Accordingly, you’re likely best off grabbing the programs Lockdown and Manipulate, and the move Programming on the Fly – between those three elements, your successful moves come with 2 free hold, in effect turning all of your 7-9s into 10+s (and your 10+s become ridiculous). You may also consider getting a Remote Control Module; if a crew-member runs into a security drone, sure, you can probably hack it to just target its own people, but an RCM will allow you to run it with more nuance (oh, we need a distraction on the other side of the facility? Sure, I can activate a routine on a drone there, but maybe I want to be more subtle, and have it move an unsecured gun into a particular desk drawer – effectively using it to plant evidence, which isn’t how you ordinarily picture a Hacker running an op.) Tech Support looks like it would be appropriate for someone who’s actively running interference on building security for his team, but you’re on their comms channel, aren’t you? Grab the soldier’s Steady Presence instead.

If you’re not playing a one-shot, you might want to get the Soldier’s Slippery, too, for editing security monitor data to get out cleanly. Aside: in my group’s play this has become a Basic Move rather than a Soldier Move, it was a thing our crew tried to do from the get-go, every time. Who doesn’t try to cover up their involvement, unless they specifically want to leave a calling card, and how is it unique to a playbook? We just changed the Soldier move to turn the 7+ result into “no increase in corporate clocks in retaliation phase and reduce a corporate clock by one” and the 10+ result adds “If the target being blamed has a Threat or Corporate Clock against you, reduce it by 1; you fall under their radar as they deal with the consequences of “their” recent run.”

#ICE* Breaker:* Some Hackers focus on getting stuff out of a system; others about screwing with a building. You, though; your specialty is going where you’re rea-ea-eally not wanted, and you have to come prepared to fight. You might also be a member of a hacking collective, or partnered with an Infiltrator with Jack-In: in other words, you might just be the heavy artillery. Throw your +2 at Mind, and +1 on Edge; though you need Edge to break ICE, you’ll be rolling Mind for Console Cowboy, so it’s worth emphasizing. You’ll be using a Defensive Deck (Hardening 2, Firewall 2, Processor 1, Stealth 1), with Efficiency Routines (+2 Processor), Defend (+2 Firewall), and Identity Protection (+2 Stealth). Your early move choices involve Neural Scars, Black ICE Vet, and Ice Breaker. I’d recommend ICE Breaker first – it’s literally 3x more potent than Black ICE Vet (ICE Vet kills 1 option; the Breaker kills the routine, which is 3 options), followed by Black ICE Vet (there are too many choices for Black ICE to screw with you besides Harm, so Neural Scars just tells the MC to use Traces and goons instead). That said, I’d aim pretty soon to get the Tech’s Expertise: Breadboarder, which will give you a back-up deck (Hardening 1, Firewall 1, Processor 2, Stealth 1), and an extra 3 programs (Identity Protection, Alert, Eject). The latter is a board you can use to get in and Assess a network; you can come in with your original deck to do your actual damage. With money and upgrades, you can really build up a pair of specialized tools to run with – but more importantly, you can now do deck repairs, which you’ll need to do on a regular basis if you’re running against Black ICE. I wouldn’t want to give a third party the opportunity to plant bugs in my hardware by outsourcing repairs.

I honestly find the ICE Breaker a kind of boring character: Black ICE will either be too rare to build your character around or, if it’s common enough to be an ongoing issue, you should basically be starting with several advances under your belt already, and already be capable as one of the previous types of Hackers. It’s weird in that any other character can basically be good at what they do, and assume they’re good at “easier version” of what they do, for free. Hackers, on the other hand, have their moves divided pretty sharply between “violating security in the Matrix” and “surviving security measures in the Matrix.” It’s odd for the two to seem parallel rather than appear in logical progression. IMO, the best way for an MC to make this work, is to save ICE until later in the campaign (so that it is a logical progression), but throw lots of Blue ICE around, to make the ICE Breaker feel reasonably efficacious). At the same time, make sure there are plenty of low-stakes targets that have no ICE at all: a reminder that this character is built for swimming with Sharks, not Guppies.

Idoru: Some Hackers focus on breaking into machines and networks, on riding the neon roads of mass hallucination. Others appreciate the art of Social Engineering, though; with so much of modern communication and interaction now occurring through virtual or augmented reality, a competent hacker can insinuate himself into all sorts of places – for data, for persuasion, for misdeeds. Rep needs a recognizable avatar – but it doesn’t have to be your avatar; use it for slipping into Matrix-mediated gatherings you don’t belong in. Word on the Street can be useful for Legwork done in this way (just because it’s “street level” doesn’t mean it happened in a bar, right?), and the Hunter’s Human Terrain and Eye For Detail may also allow for oppo research on virtual gatherings.

The Fixer

Bond, James Bond: This Fixer uses their network to bring them cutting-edge gear and gadgets, a high-tech specialized solution to every problem you can imagine. A high Edge should ensure they’re grabbing gear during Get The Job, and their Hustle jobs should bring in 1-2 gear at the beginning of every mission. Sales Engineer will give them +1 to use that gear. Later, consider the Hunter’s See the Angles for an additional gear and intel to pull out during the mission. Assess will benefit from that high Edge, grabbing another handful of +1s. If the infiltrator runs into a problem he can’t solve with a gadget (usually a problem made of meat), Hardball makes up the difference. This Fixer always has the right tool, the right way to use it, and the right insight to apply. They wear a black turtle neck and their wristwatch is a registered WMD.

The Spider: A high-Style approach to the Fixer, emphasizing Facetime, Hard To Find, and Deal of a Lifetime, to translate that huge list of contacts into a huge list of chumps ready to do whatever the Fixer asks for. Hard to Find and Deal of a Lifetime means that list of contacts is a nearly-free directory of specialists.

Legwork just became a lot safer – which means you can push harder, and accrue more gear/intel for your crew before your clock gets too high. You might also translate these contacts into fictional effectiveness with Fast Talk. Unlike Hit The Street, Fast Talk doesn’t come with a price, so the player needs to be proactive in maintaining those relationships. In this case, the Hustling jobs should overlap with the Contacts network: gear/intel/cred can be freely swapped out for debts by the Fixer, and the disasters are debts owed.

The Spider will massively expand the game world, though: by always having a friend-of-a-friend to call, a job to get (or make right), a thief to punish, a worker to recruit, a debt to repay or call in, the crew’s world is going to get a lot bigger than just “run this mission, get paid, sleep it off.” This isn’t the build for a one-shot; this is for a campaign, where you explore the setting.

Local Leader: It’s easy to think of the Fixer as someone who puts criminals in need in touch with criminals with supply, but that’s a mistake. The Fixer just helps people who can get things done find people that need things done. Sometimes, it’s your community that needs protection and leadership – and you’re the one to provide it. Your Contacts will likely come from the local circle of community leaders, bureaucrats, and itty-bitty businessmen and local kids that “made it.” Your Crew is local; your hustles are, too. You’ll roll with your Backup, local boys that have your back, and when you meet with other civil leaders, they know your Reputation. Your Edge ensures that they know not to push you. The needs of a community crushed under the Sprawl’s boot-heel can be a source of a lot of missions, though outside the usual thumb-print of dark industrial espionage. The target corp might be the civil administration outsourcing conglomerate, with the raid being on water utilization records to get the flow of clean water turned back on to the community. Or the crew will be hitting the records of a local media corp., getting hushed-up records of wrong-doing on your political opponents, to give you the leverage you need to allocate grant funding towards your community – just enough to get the quarantine program swapped out for immunizations. The crew will make their cred, but it’ll be pooled from the mattress stashes of a few hundred grateful citizens. And, you know what? Maybe some of them aren’t so grateful. Maybe they’ll happily turn you in for a chance to go salaryman, and get the fuck out of this hole. Definitely ask the players questions about how the rest of the crew knows this fixer, and why they give a shit. Maybe they’re local boys too. Maybe they owe some serious favors. As the other PCs earn the gang’s trust / debt, the Fixer can more plausibly bring his power to bear on missions unrelated to the community’s immediate needs. For future moves, consider Hunter’s “Human Terrain”; your enemies are lot more likely to be groups than individuals, so it’ll pay off. For a more charismatic leader, the Pusher’s “Famous” will also work. Your most loyal supporters may also be the Pusher’s “Inner Circle.”

The Local Leader can easily be built, with some slightly different flavoring, as a local crime boss or gang leader.

Just in another thread where I went off on a tangent about “Different types of Killers,” and thought, hey, maybe it…

Just in another thread where I went off on a tangent about “Different types of Killers,” and thought, hey, maybe it would be cool to share some “different types” of playbook archetypes that I’ve thought of or I’ve seen come up in play. I’ll throw up the Driver. If this is cool/helpful/interesting, let me know, and I’ll work my way through the playbooks.

Hacker’s Best Friend: If your setting chooses to go with diminished wireless connectivity, requiring Hackers and Infiltrators to break in and connect physically in order to make Matrix runs, note that the Driver will have a unique distinction: her Neural Interface with Remote Control Module means she’s reasonably unique in the setting for wireless connectivity. Combine with a +sneaky drone, and she can be the wireless relay to allow Hackers to make Matrix runs without breaking in. This may also be the basis for helping the hacker with their run more directly: try taking the Small drone’s “Satellite Relay” + “Software Analysis”, to justify throwing in a Helping roll on all the matrix runs taken through your drone. Fictionally, the MC may consider having the Driver “jack in” and ride tag-along with the Hacker to actually deploy their software analysis. This helps combat the risk of the driver not having any spotlight while folks are inside on their run.

One Man Army: Riding a one-wheeled motorcycle (I refuse to call it a unicycle) as your cyber-linked vehicle, and Drone Jockey with a pair of drones. You can ride in almost anywhere the rest of the cadre needs to get to, and you’re bringing the firepower: between your own hands, the autocannon cycle at your side, and a pair of armed-and-armored drones, your +multitasking neural interface essentially ensures you’re a 4-man army for the cost of one. Consider a pair of +rugged, +autonomous, +easily repaired, and +armed bears covering two hallways; you laying down autofire on a third, and your cycle dropping the occasional grenade down a fourth. Adding Daredevil as your very next move isn’t a bad idea. The Killer’s Hard is also a reasonable move to aim for. If the 4 of you count as a small gang (and you probably should), consider using Mil Specs to upgrade to a medium gang.

Exfil Specialist: It’s not easy making sure your party gets out in one piece, or that there’s a proper exit waiting for them when they do. Your tiny drone, armed with +thermographic sensors, will help your party slide through a facility while carefully avoiding guards that they can see coming through the other side of a wall. This lets you stay involved on the inside while your PC is on the outside. And, always knowing where they are, you can make sure you’re there to grab their asses: with the Right Tool for the Job, you’ll be there whether it’s in the black sky, on the blacktop, or in the bathyscaphe.

The Leg Man: Sometimes it’s not about the ride: it’s about where to go. This driver’s been riding get-aways for as long as the Sprawl’s shined neon, and she knows where to go and who to talk to. Sweet Ride ensures that your driver always knows who to reach out to. Iceman ensures she’ll usually gets what she wants. This Driver is more of a social power-house: their high cool, high Hit The street, and high Fast talk ability means they never have to pause walking into a situation, they’ll have plenty of different situations to get into, and they’ll usually be able to talk their way out of it again. Picture lots of meetings in empty parking lots at nights, leaning on car hoods or talking from driver window-to-driver window. You can take a fair shot at approximating AW’s Battlebabe with this build.

Tag: J Stein