Barf Forth Apocalyptica

the swamp provides => Apocalypse|State => Topic started by: john anderson on September 09, 2010, 08:40:47 AM

Title: [A|S] Mapmaker
Post by: john anderson on September 09, 2010, 08:40:47 AM

The Mapmaker 

Commerce and criminality with The City are often one and the same. Companies, gangs, and guilds work in an atmosphere of mutual mistrust and borderline paranoia. To bridge the gaps and facilitate deals, the mapmakers exist. With staunchly maintained independence and a carefully constructed reputation, they broker, arrange, and communicate. They take a small percentage or a flat fee for their troubles, walking away once the deal has been struck. A|State page 161

Creating a Mapmaker
To create your mapmaker, choose name, look, stats, moves, gear and Hx.

Name
Choose a first name, a family name and/or street name from the list of names in The City.

Look
Male, female, obscured
Smart business attire, street clothes, 
Open face, rugged face, inscrutable face, calm and measured look
Calm green eyes, intense blue eyes, nervous brown eyes, scary grey eyes
Body

Stats
Stats (Cool, Hard, Rep, Smarts and Hope) range from -1 to +2, distribute stats so that the total equals +3.
Experience Stat: Cool (you gain experience when you roll cool)

Basic Moves:
You get all the basic moves

Mapmaker Moves
You get:
Skilled negotiator: When negotiating between two or more individuals, parties or groups, roll+smarts. The art of skillful negotiation is difficult at the best of times, within The City it can be brutal. Each party will provide a stake which is the primary single result they wish to see emerge from the negotiations. These two or more stakes are inherent to the process of negotiation. You are attempting to smooth the process and try to make everyone happy.
Between NPCs,

• On a 10+, you are able to smooth egos and move the discussions beyond “I kill you!”, both parties get what they want with only a minor compromise.
• On 7-9, positions are entrenched and making headway is like swimming in The Green canal. After much debate, neither party gets what they want due to the massive compromise required.
• On  6-, negotiations totally collapse and all parties leave vowing bloody vengeance.

Between PCs,

• If the both PCs agree to your compromise and carry out what agreed, they both gain experience. If one or both do not stick to the agreement, neither gains experience.

Note: The MC needs to make sure the stakes of each party are clear and achievable prior to the roll.

Choose 1: 
Criminal culture: When you need to contact an NPC from within the criminal world roll, roll+rep.

• On a 10+, you are able to track down your contact and he is willing and able to help. Name the NPC.
• On 7-9, you can locate the NPC (name him/her), but there’s no way they can help right now as they have a little problem. Perhaps its something you can assist with?
• On  6-, the MC should make as hard a move as possible or offer a difficult choice.

Mapmakers walk a quaking tightrope between violently aggressive organisations, maintaining a careful balancing act, to ever avoid dropping into the abyss.  A|State page 161
People person: When you read a situation, roll+cool.

Mapmakers know many things, much of which must remain forever hidden. To betray secrets is the mark of death for a mapmaker. A|State page177
Keeper of secrets: When you wish to declare a secret about an important individual (NPC) or group, roll+rep,

• On a 10+, write down the secret about a person (NPC) or organisation. Let the other players and MC know as It is now a fact within the setting.
• On 7-9, you discover a secret about a person (NPC) or organisation you are interested in, but they know that you know...
• On  6- you’ve been set up and word on the street is that people are after you. Your address where you can be found? Very large men with guns are watching it...

The MC can also offer a hard choice or go straight for dealing harm.

Note: the player should declare the fact prior to the roll, and the table as a whole has the right to call foul or to offer suggestions as to how the fact could be changed to be more appropriate.

Once trust is lost, then life finishes; either dying by slow inches as work dries up, or ending up as a cooling corpse slumped in an alley. A|State page177
Of course you can trust me!: when trying to seduce or manipulate an NPC roll+cool, if a PC, roll+Hx.

Gear
You get:

• Oddments worth 1-barter
• Clothes suitable to your look, including a piece worth 1-armour
• An address you can be found and contacted at - player describes
• A big list of names. Persons that can be contacted without difficulty (+valuable)

HX
Everyone introduces their characters by name, look and outlook. Take your turn. List the other characters’ names. Go around again for Hx. On your turn, choose 1, 2, or all 3:

• One of them screwed up one of your gigs and nearly got you killed. Tell that player Hx-1.
• One of them came to your aid in the past and got you out of a tricky situation. Tell that player Hx+2.
• One of them has proved a valuable ally in the past. Tell that player Hx+1.
• Tell everyone else Hx+2. You're well known in the burgh.

Improvement
Each time you improve, choose one of the following. Check it off; you can’t choose it again.

• get +1cool (max cool+2)
• get +1smarts (max sharp+2)
• get +1hard (max hard+2)
• get +1hope (max hard+2)
• get a new mapmaker move
• get a new mapmaker move
• add another name to your address book (name and detail the NPC)
• get a move from another playbook
• get a move from another playbook

Barter

• When you charge for your negotiating and arbitration services, you services cost...
• 1-barter if dealing with the ordinary people of your burgh
• 2-barter if dealing with criminal organisations
• 1-credit if dealing with macrocorps