TechnoirWorld – Powered by the Apocalypse G+ Archives

So I used the Dungeon as Monsters method from the Planarch Codex DW supplement to create a warehouse in my …

So I used the Dungeon as Monsters method from the Planarch Codex DW supplement to create a warehouse in my #TechnoirWorld game. I came up with three dangers, semi-randomly, and it all worked really well.

Madness: dominate choices XXXX

Sewers: befoul and disgorge XXX

Cliff: endanger OOXXX

One of the PCs has a flying surveillance drone “Bessy” that got badly hit by heavy-calibre rounds fired from a holy avenger’s high powered sniper rifle. So Bessy ended up crash landing in a warehouse leaking radioactive fuel.

I started tonight’s session with a couple of PCs scoping out the warehouse that stank of shit. Grey parkoured his arse to a second storey window (Cliff +1, Sewer +1).

Grey found himself on a walkaway above a huge pit dug out the length of the warehouse, 4 or 5 metres below street level, with broken pipes and filled with effluent and seething with worms. He also spotted Block-Rockers working down there with sledgehammers, in the shit (Madness +1, Sewer +1, Cliff +1).

Climbing a rope to the third floor, Grey crossed a room full of drugged, sick or exhausted people and has interesting conversation with a Mind-Blower, who was smoking a peace pipe, about his mission to find the alien space craft (Madness +2). O yeah, he got a bucket of live worms in case he got the munchies.

Then Grey climbed the stairs into a room full of tall vats of sugar. He found Bessy wedged in the rafters and a bunch of kids dead beneath, blue faced on her leaking radioactive fuel (Madness +1, Cliff +1).

Then Grey rolls snake eyes trying to get Bessy down and out of the building, the fire being she’d roll free and land in the pit, deep in shit.

The sugar came in handy for dropping bags at height on Bessy’s owner when he came in, gunning down Block-Rockers and bossing people round. The proceeding battle got dangerous enough that both PCs backed off and regrouped.

Overall, Monsters as Dangers worked, the Dangers and rolling inspired me and the “dungeon” hung together well.

Here’s a thing I came up with whilst fiddling with some rules ideas for Factions, Corporations and Enclaves in my …

Here’s a thing I came up with whilst fiddling with some rules ideas for Factions, Corporations and Enclaves in my #TechnoirWorld game. No use of my purposes though. A real #hackwitoutahome

This hack makes Apocalypse World stat pairs that contradict. This contradiction says something profound about the world. Think Praxis in Shock or the Number in Trollbabe (Magic/Fighting/Social). In A Wicked Age also has inspiring pairs (directly/covertly, with violence/with love, for myself/for others) though they don’t contradict mechanically in IAWA.

Praxis-style stats: Take two stats ranging from +3 to -3, and make their ranges overlap; so when you take +1 with one stat, you’re getting -1 with the other. For example, Violence vs. Love:

– If you pick Violence+3 then you get Love-3.

– Take Love+2, get Violence-2.

– And take 0 and set both at =0.

I intrigued with the idea of porting Stars Without Numbers Factions rules or tweaking Dungeon World’s Steading rules…

I intrigued with the idea of porting Stars Without Numbers Factions rules or tweaking Dungeon World’s Steading rules to fit my #Technoirworld game, which is standard Apocalypse World with plenty of colour changed, a few custom moves and a couple of new playbooks.

Has anyone done that for AW?

I’m still not convinced Factions rules would be worthwhile, but I’m very curious and I can’t be sure they won’t be awesome since I’ve never played with them in any system.

In particular I’m thinking about cyberpunk corporations. So far, when the PCS have clashed with corporations, is been more at the ground level, with the shock troops, and not really at the larger scale. I’ve played corporations as Fronts with large-scale background threats (warlords, landscapes) that breed badness (brutes, afflictions) that shapes the world of the PCs. And it works cool.

But what about:

Steadings inspired by DW

Corporations stats would be Prosperity, Reputation (replacing population) and Defenses. The colour of the stats and the steading type would be adapted to fit the colour of cyberpunk corporations. Between sessions, I’d follow the steading update list to check how the interactions of corporations adds or removes conditions.

Factions inspired by SWN

Factions are ranked from +3 (super powerful) to -2 (destitute). Each faction gets one front move per session, which can be made either before or during play; typically this is against another faction, but sometimes it’s just to do a thing. When a faction makes its move, roll+rank, with other factions being able to spend their front move to aid or interfere (in which case, they don’t get to make a move this session). Players can enable one or more factions to make an additional move this session (or sometimes, an extra move next session), and can also make a move on their own if they have the time and resources (i.e. workspace, basically). Factions gain or loose ranks by meeting specific fictional requirements. PC crews probably start at rank -1, but could be higher if they’ve done a bunch of stuff already.

P.S. Note that factions are as much PC-generated as GM-generated. If a player says: “I find an orphanage and donate all my loot to it,” sooner or later that orphanage is going to turn into a significant faction, since it now has the resources to make extra moves and grow into something larger, even if it starts out at rank -2. So the GM invents some factions based on their interests, but the PCs have the power to pick something in the fiction and focus their attention on it, which effectively turns it into an institution with mechanical significance.

From Jonathan Walton on the Planarch Codex

http://www.story-games.com/forums/discussion/comment/358380#Comment_358380

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.