Oliver Granger (watergoesred) – Page 2 – Powered by the Apocalypse G+ Archives

Finding work in the Twin Cities of #Technoirworld , based on the inimitable Planarch Codex.

Finding work in the Twin Cities of #Technoirworld , based on the inimitable Planarch Codex.

Patrons and targets

[1-3] URBAN

1 – Corporate

2 – Criminal

3 – Cult

4 – Guild

5 – Merchant

6 – Enforcer

[4-5] STRANGERS

1 – Pilgrim

2 – Diplomat

3 – Freelancer

4 – Soldier

5 – Outlaw

6 – Refugee

[6] WEIRDOES

1 – AI

2 – Philosopher

3 – Mutant

4 – Interface

5 – Immortal

6 – Ghost

What type of job is it?

1 – acquistion

2 – delivery

3 – exploration

4 – killing

5 – protection

6 – raiding

Where is the patron and target?

[1-2] TWIN CITIES

1 – Arcology

2 – Outer Minneapolis

3 – Inner Minneapolis

4 – Midway

5 – North St Paul

6 – South St Paul

[3] OUTLANDS

1 – Up river

2 – Down river

3 – Sunrise

4 – Sunset

5 – Interface

6 – Private network

[4] BEYOND

1 – Singapore

2 – Hong Kong

3 – Kilimanjaro

4 – Los Angeles

5 – Frankfurt

6 – Mars

[5] Don’t know

[6] No one knows

So, first session of my #TechnoirWorld game, #Technoir using #ApocalypseWorld and using it pretty straight…

So, first session of my #TechnoirWorld game, #Technoir using #ApocalypseWorld and using it pretty straight up. So I haven’t tweaked much, a new move here and there and one new playbook, the Drone Master, heavily inspired by the Beast Master, the Juggernaut and the heritage moves from the Planarch Codex.

And the game was mad good. I think I’m finally understanding the point of Fronts; converting into Fronts an established web of factions and NPCs, built up over six sessions playing Technoir, is actually pretty straightforward and I’m finding it liberating to get a lot of that stuff out of my head. Man, it really builds up in there and you don’t know how cluttered things are until you get it all down on paper.

Genre-wise, cyberpunk has fit neat with many of the apocalypse tropes, as I expected. Augury is mad powerful awesome way to respect the hacking skills of the best hacker in the Twin Cities, a savvyhead who carries his workspace in his head: a nethead I guess.

For example, Wraith cleared a whole city block by inserting info in to the Interface, the all pervasive internet-cum-maelstrom, so everyone thought the collapse of the gun smugglers den and the ensuing munition explosions, was some preliminary stages of an industrial gas leak. Or when Wraith isolated and protected another PC, Grey, from the Interface, making him effectively invisible to all digital-channel perceptions. Grey did disappear from the cyborg syndicate assassins but he also disappeared from Wraith’s view, given Wraith cyber eyes. And the effect bled too, so more and more people on the Skyrail station started disappearing from augmented sight, reminiscent of the Laughing Man I guess.

I’m just waiting to see what happens when Wraith botches his augury, though. Afterall, his augury instruments are in his head, so when they take the brunt of it, it ain’t going to be pretty.

The Drone Master worked well. The Auto-pilot move, giving Mack hold to just make his surveillance drone Bessy to stuff, was smooth and felt about right, though I still might tweak the moves he has to pick from. The impulse hold I held as MC because of some poor rolls was sweet too. For instance, after a pretty tight standoff with January Jade, an NPC, Mack exits carrying a badly injured Wraith. When January collapses the firestairs Mack’s descending, sending him and Wraith hurtling to the bitumen, Mack commands Bessy to shoot January with the submachine guns mounted on her chassis. That’s when I use my 1 hold to activate Bessy’s impulse to butcher, turning on the smgs autofire tag and hitting the whole area with bullets. The end result is the whole shanty construction collapses on another PC, Phase. Who, a day or so later, eventually crawls out of the rubblewith a broken arm and severe frost and majorly pissed for being left for dead. Phase died a few sessions back and was barely resuscitated so she’s taking the building collapse and being left for dead rather badly.

I’m also using Paul_T’s alternate Harm system, which I’m liking so far. It’s quite similar to Technoir’s adjective-based hurt, so it’s been a pretty smooth transition. It certainly seem to keep the focus on the fiction. The players certainly engaged with their injuries in a different way compared with other AW sessions that used the standard countdown-style harm. I may still fiddle with the pain and serious shit list, but I’ll play a bit more with it before making any tweaks. Otherwise, very cool. For example, on his harm roll from the fire escape fall, Wraith got +2 armour from a Mack being a cushion. That went surprisingly well for him.

I’m keen to find out what happens next. Keen as mustard.

So the first time Nils, my Saavyhead and second character in our Apocalypse World in Space game, the first time this…

So the first time Nils, my Saavyhead and second character in our Apocalypse World in Space game, the first time this orphaned kid from the outer wastes rigs up the blue brain in a box and peers deep into the maelstrom (augury), he ends up psychically seizing by force this giant of a cyborg tank leader, Rubicon, and psychically pulling clean out the person within Rubicon’s augumented to hell body and trapping them in the vastness of the maelstrom. And then crushing Rubicon’s sanity into a million pieces when they tried to fight back.

I had no idea Nils was so hard. I guess he really liked Smoke and couldn’t stand seeing her used for lab testing.

So last night, Nils thought very little about using his blue box again. To cross the solar system and find a man, Jericho, who could teach him how to use a general-purpose nano fabricator. So what if it would take a month to travel the distance between them in an intersellar spaceship. So what if it could go horribly horribly wrong. So Nils reached deep and eventually found a stable, contained connection with Jericho. They chatted, mostly Jericho saying WTF are doing, exposing yourself, you reckless…

Then I used the bonefeel hold and Nils was just there.

Now Nils is working on Jericho to impress him with his mad skills and teach Nils stuff before the rest of his crew arrive in a month. He’s using Jericho’s workspace to build a subtle gravity projector in order to build a working scale model of the solar system using the real chemical composition for each orbiting body.

This game is rad!

So I’m moving my #Technoir game to Apocalypse World. Some of the PCs seem fairly easy to transition.

Mack didn’t translate across well so we’ve start hacking up a playbook especially. He’s a pilot and engineer with a drone called “Bessy”. At first I though the Driver would fit, but it actually just doesn’t cut it. So I’m building a playbook that’s cross between the Beast Master and the Juggernaut:.

Here’s my first cut.

My first draft of:

The Drone Master

Name

Mack, Gumball, Trooper, Ace

Stats

Cool=0, Hard+1, Hot-1, Sharp+2, Weird+1

Cool-1, Hard+1, Hot=0, Sharp+2, Weird+1

Cool+2, Hard-1, Hot-1, Sharp+2, Weird=0

Cool+1, Hard=0, Hot+1, Sharp+2, Weird-1

Moves

You get all the basic moves. You get Command Prompt and then choose a second Drone Master move.

Look

Gear

In addition to your drone(s), you have:

• 1 drone repair kit (3 uses)

•

Improvement

Whenever you roll a highlighted stat, and whenever you reset your Hx with someone, mark an experience circle. When you mark the 5th, improve and erase.

Each time you improve, choose you can’t choose it again.

[ ] get +1cool (max +2)

[ ] get +1hard (max +2)

[ ] get +1wired (max +2)

[ ] get a new drone master move

[ ] get another drone design (in addition to original

[ ] get a tech shop (acts as a workspace for your drone)

[ ] get a move from another playbook

——-

[ ] get +1 to any stat (maximum stat+3)

[ ] retire your character (to safety)

[ ] create a second character to play

[ ] change your character to a new type

[ ] choose 3 basic moves and advance them

[ ] advance the other 4 basic moves

Drone Master Moves

Command prompt: When you command your drone to do something or get something for you (a person, a vehicle, a weapon, etc…) roll +sharp. On a 10+ the drone does exactly what you want or comes back with what you wanted, no problems. On a 7-9, choose 2:

• The drone doesn’t do exactly what you wanted it to do, but its close (MC’s call)

• The drone is distracted by one of its impulses

• The drone has to fight someone or through something, its harmed

On a miss, one or more of its impulses completely distract it from completing the task.

I See It All: Improve your sharp from +2 to +3.

All Tuned Up: When you get the chance to spend some time tinkering and tuning before an op, roll +sharp: On a 10+ hold 3, on 7-9 hold 1. You can spend your hold one for one to take +1 on a roll during that op. On a miss, something’s gonna break down, the MC decides what and when.

Bug: When you try to find something out using your drone, roll+sharp. On 10+, ask the MC 3 and on 7-9 ask 1:

• where is a particular person, vehicle or place?

• what’s the best way to get from here to there?

• what’s something new it spotted?

• what is a particular person or group doing?

On a miss, it’s got lost, caught, or smashed up.

Spare parts: Add 2 drones with 2 strengths each in a design you already have.

Dustbin lid: When you allow a drone to take a blow meant for you, negate the damage and your drones become highly distracted by one or more impulses. If they are already distracted then you can’t use this move. After you spend some time alone with your drones, their impulsive behaviour will settle back to normal levels.

DRONE MASTER SPECIAL

When you have sex with another character, you each can ask the other a question that they must answer truthfully. This can be spoken in character or just between players.

DRONE

Your drones are semi-automonous robots you communicate with through am encrypted channel or something. By default they have a cam, a mic and 1 armour. They never count as a vehicle for the no shit driver move.

Choose drone design:

• Infestation. Frame: insect-sized (infinite, max 2-harm weapon) Impulse: hide

• Surveillance. Frame: bird-sized (flight, max 3-harm weapon) Impulse: wait

• Infilitration. Frame: human-sized (mimic) Impulse: vanity

• Armament. Frame: bear-sized (obvious, +1 armour) Impulse: threaten

Choose look:

jury-rigged, delicate, biomechanical, military, hi-tech, chunky

Choose a weakness:

breakdowns, fragile, fucking heavy, guzzler, deafening, slow

Choose strengths; either one drone with 3 strengths or three drones with 1 strength each.

• weapon mount. Impulse: butcher

• heavily armour (2-armour). Impulse: reckless

• stealth. Impulse: mischief

• superior cunning (+insight). Impulse: endanger

• wire tap (+augury). Impulse: consume

• fast. Impulse: escape

• sensor (choose magnification, thermal imaging, sonar, or decoder) Impulse: analysis

I see all these awesome community-made trifold playbooks. How do I lay out my own custom playbook as trifold?

I don’t know where to start. I can’t find any trifold templates or what program to use. I found fonts that look right and a bunch of folk cursing about Scribus being hard, but I’m no graphic designer. Is there hope?