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Messages - Anarchangel

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16
The Sprawl / Kickstarter is Live!
« on: September 03, 2014, 12:39:34 PM »
Hi all!

The Sprawl's Kickstarter went live this morning. Thanks for all your help getting the game to this point!

17
The Sprawl / Re: Working on Version 0.3
« on: August 27, 2014, 01:47:12 AM »
I'd love to provide a changelog, but my workflow doesn't really allow for it.

The biggest change in the next revision is to the matrix rules, both moves and the structure of corporate systems.

18
The Sprawl / Re: Version 0.3: Basic Moves and Playbooks
« on: August 20, 2014, 08:41:15 PM »
At the meta level, it is to reward a balance of legwork and action.

19
The Sprawl / Re: Version 0.3: Basic Moves and Playbooks
« on: August 16, 2014, 04:57:12 PM »
Yes. The status of the Legwork Clock is still relevant during the Mission, especially for the Getting Paid move.

20
The Sprawl / Re: Version 0.3: Basic Moves and Playbooks
« on: August 14, 2014, 09:58:52 PM »
As Motseu spotted, there were problems with Silver Tongue and Press Pass. Here are the new versions:

Silver Tongue: When you fast talk someone and roll a hit, you get a little something extra. Take +intel or remove a point from the MC’s Complication pool.

Press Pass: If you reveal your public persona to fast talk your way in, do not roll the dice, you count as rolling a 10+. Take +intel and advance the Legwork Clock.

And here are the Complications rules:

  • After the job has been accepted, the MC calculates his Complication pool. This is equal to the number of players (including the MC). If the player rolling get the job chose the employer is identifiable, remove one point from the Complication pool.
  • Each 10+ the players roll in the Legwork phase reduces the MC’s Complication pool by one.
  • During the Action phase, the MC spend points from the Complication pool. When a player rolls a 10+, the MC may spend a Complication from the pool. The player chooses: lowering their 10+ to a 7-9, or advance the Action clock.

21
The Sprawl / Re: After action report
« on: August 13, 2014, 05:35:15 PM »
Masochist: Yes, we got it right. Except we didn't know about rolling with 0-harm, thanks for that!
Conduct an Op: They found it resolved a lot of time consuming, munchkin issues like making the perfect ambush. It ties with the action logic of the game. I decided that the first option (time and equipment) gave you +intel and +gear only usable for that op; the second option gave you a +10 in maneuver; the third option made the enemy unable to answer coherently for a few moments (like a super "get the drop on them"), depending on fiction.

I'll think about this and see if I can streamline and/or formalise the Conduct an Op move a bit more.


The Obligation was cool because it really tied the characters to the setting. Dead Eyes kept trying to use his phone but it rang with his contact's calls constantly. One thing his player noted is that it can happen that many players roll obligations every mission and end up investing significant time in solving them (in our experience, we can resolve an obligation in half an hour with Conduct an Op).

Yeah. I might adjust the move to say "at the beginning of a mission" to stop multi-session missions from contributing to this potential problem. The MC can (should!) always use moves to add more complications as needed anyway.


Something I did last night: I did a mission that seemed too easy for the team, so I made a hit squad show up, hunting Jin Woo (he has a hunted tag for his cybereyes). It complicated everything perfectly.

Perfect indeed! I wrote a section about doing just that in the MC chapter earlier this week!

22
The Sprawl / Re: Version 0.3: Basic Moves and Playbooks
« on: August 12, 2014, 09:43:51 AM »
Complications are a new MC currency I'm thinking about. I'm about to write (or remove) that section today.

Fast Talk: I might change the wording to something like: "On a 7-9, there's a cost (in time, money, or mission security)" This would give the MC some different move options.

23
The Sprawl / Re: After action report
« on: August 12, 2014, 09:36:05 AM »
Another great report, Kuzco!

About the Masochist Directive, the latest version says that you only mark xp when you take 1 or more harm. Is that the one you're using? (Note that you still roll the Harm move when you take 0 or s-harm)

That's the perfect use of Conduct an Op. How did the players like it? Was Conduct an Op easy to use? Did the Obligation add to the story in a fun way?

24
The Sprawl / Re: Version 0.3: Basic Moves and Playbooks
« on: August 04, 2014, 02:21:40 PM »
The moves Silver Tongue and Card press gives you an extra result on fast talk but i did not see result choice in fast talk move.

Thanks, motseu! Those must be a holdover from a previous version.

Description of resarch move refer to using some sort of library, dossier or database, but no reference to ask people or  listening to or recalling gossip (like Word on the Street move)

There are two options: 1) if the character is asking specific people, that is covered by Hit the Street. 2) If the character is literally just listening to people talking, you could could consider that as a sort of database and use Research. In particular, if a character wanders around an area recording things with cybereyes and ears, and then reviews the collected footage later, that is explicitly accessing a database and would definitely be research. I would treat general listening the same, as long as it was in the correct place.

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The Sprawl / Re: The Sprawl: Beta version
« on: August 04, 2014, 02:09:18 PM »
Yeah, Cred is kinda non-linear like that, but its a convenient abstraction. Just add it up in a linear fashion. Is there some particular problem you're striking?

I am currently working on the Matrix chapter. Once again, the moves are quite abstract, but you can treat the Matrix however you like. When I run the game I treat it as parallel virtual world (and I just wrote an introduction to that effect over the weekend.)

26
The Sprawl / Re: Version 0.3: Basic Moves and Playbooks
« on: August 01, 2014, 02:38:16 PM »
1) Good question. I have three answers! a) The answer depends on context. What kind of gang is it, what's the character's relationship with the gang and its members, what do both parties consider a "fair price". Remember that a gang is a group of people with individual desires and needs. But overall, it will depend on how the fiction has been established at the table.
b) It might be that payment to a really close Contact, like your own gang, comes in terms of favours not Cred. Certainly if he's just wanting to borrow things, that will cost less than buying them.
c) Magnetic has believers, right? He should use Vision Thing on them.

2) Yes, the gear that +gear produces is as permanent as any other gear the characters buy. Exactly what you can produce will again depend on the context. In the discussion it says: "you can only produce equipment that you could reasonably have in your possession or could have been relatively easily obtained." What counts as "reasonably have in your possesssion" or "relatively easily obtained" depends on the style of game. The answer will differ between the game that focuses on low-level street bums in a semi-apocalyptic industrial wasteland and the game where the players are a team of ultra-professional trouble-shooters on retainer to a megacorporate executive. It might also depend on the specific mission. If the entire mission has been spent in a high security orbital environment it might be implausible to have brought in projectile weapons of any sort, but the automated electronics factory they hid out in before the Action phase might mean that programs and even cyberdecks are available.

Personally, I would tend to restrict produce gear to things that cost 2 Cred or less (more complex restricted gear from a fixer -- grenades, assault weapons, legal drones, basic hacking programs). Remember also that the player has to narrate how they got the gear. That might include buying it, in which case they should pay for it in Cred or favours as appropriate. It might also include stealing it, which might result in enemies.

Thanks for those questions, Kuzco. Some of this will definitely end up in the document!

27
The Sprawl / Re: Version 0.3: Basic Moves and Playbooks
« on: July 31, 2014, 03:22:47 PM »
I just updated those two links with tweaked and corrected versions.

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The Sprawl / Re: Version 0.3: Basic Moves and Playbooks
« on: July 30, 2014, 03:08:11 PM »
Kuzco: The directives are limited to speed up character creation by having them all on a playbook sheet and reducing the amount of options players have to read.

As is typical in PbtA games, experienced players can choose other options or make up new directives (same with name and look options). I'll make this explicit in the chapter on running The First Session.

SoylentWhite: It was badly worded, but fortunately because it made me reconsider. It's now:

Quote
For PCs, on a hit, they choose: do what you want, or suffer the established consequences. On a 7-9, they gain +1 forward to act against you.

And yes, the discussion sections are still in progress. I wanted to get the basic moves and playbooks out there as quickly as possible so people could try them out. If there's anything in particular about moves that you think should be included there, let me know!


29
The Sprawl / Re: After action report
« on: July 30, 2014, 01:40:39 PM »
Sounds like a great session, Kuzco. I have updated my list of sample playbook names to include Magnetic and Dead Eyes (I live the double meaning on the latter). If you email me a list of your players as you want to be credited, I'll update my playtest credits too.

You don't have to worry about adding consequences to weak hits on helping; it just means that the helping character is exposed to danger if the main roll fails. But that said, adding an extra condition like that to the mission is a cool twist.

Combat is definitely something that can confuse experienced roleplayers who are new to PbtA games. I'll be writing a section about that this week.

PbtA games definitely keep you on your toes as the MC. You really have to cut down on unfocused cross chatter between players and emphasise that everything everyone says and does is important.

I look forward to hearing more!

30
The Sprawl / Version 0.3: Basic Moves and Playbooks
« on: July 29, 2014, 08:16:37 PM »
Two new documents for playtesting and comments:
Basic Moves
Playbooks

I'll put the new Matrix chapter up as soon as it's done, which should be tomorrow.

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