The Sprawl: Alpha Version

After much ado, the first version of my cyberpunk mission-based action hack is ready for public consumption:

Take a look and let me know what you think!

The moves Getting the Job and Getting Paid each has 5 options. However, you only get to choose 3 options on 10+, 1 option on a 7-9. I'm thinking that if choices were 3 and 2,there wouldn't be an excessive amount of fuck-you in the moves, especially for getting paid. I understand that we would be playing a disposable asset, but if we're too disposable, the best way to win is not to play at all. What did you find in play-testing regarding this?

Charles

Thanks, Charles!

In Get the Job, the first four options are all "here's a bonus", so if you roll a 7-9, you can choose "The meeting doesn't attract attention" and there's no real fuck-you. Of course, the player can choose to get a bonus at the expense of making things interesting.

You may be right about Getting Paid though. I may well switch that to 3 and 2. The mitigating factor here is that you may be rolling at +3 or +4 (the roll is +legwork segments unfilled), so the chances of getting a 10+ are quite high. This is definitely a case where I need more feedback from playtesters. Most of my playtesting thus far has been one-shots, so the ramifications of this move on campaign play need to be tested more as well.

Hey I really enjoyed reading through the game last night.
I hope it goes well

Point taken about all of the bonus options from Get A Job. In light of that, choosing "The meeting doesn't attract attention" is the harmless option. For getting paid, the 7-9 option shouldn't be quite harmless, and wouldn't be even with 3 and 2. So, 3 and 2 or 3 and 1? More play-testing!

I would probably rewrite the "It's not a set-up or ambush" to make it clear that the meeting is not necessarily about setting up or ambushing the PCs, that the badness could be arranged by anyone and not just by the contact or the mega-corp backing the contact.

Charles

Eventually, I will have expanded notes on most of the moves, especially the mission moves.

In this particular case, I tried to leave it quite open so there would be flexibility in the way you describe (in past playtests, attempting to get paid has resulted in three way gunfights between PCs, target Corp and random corp with a high Corp Clock). Do you not think it provides that as currently written? How would you say it?

I would say "There will not be a set-up nor an ambush at the meeting" or some such, probably better written than that. The idea is that the meeting itself might not be a set-up, but that a set-up either will or will not happen as a result of attending the meeting.

question: I suppose the same framework can be used for more "street-level" running, with clients like gangs, powerful fixers and so? to have some sort of "beginning phase".

other then that your hack seems quite nice, I'm looking forward to run it!

I hadn't thought of that, Guns_n_Droids, but don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. It would take the game down to a more Apocalypse World level where attacking the threats head on is a legitimate option. It might change the type of mission that the team receive, but I could definitely see raids on illegal simsense factories, wetwork against rival pimps and dealers, and the like working well. The Fixer might take on a role more like an Operator in AW. If you try it, let us know how it goes!

Well, you know. I just like to advance things gradually. So that you get to the top with a fairly tangible _story_ behind you. Gettin' there right away is in my eyes somewhat... stealing this backstory from them.
I'll definitely try this - as soon as my current group finishes with their Martini Spy story

I dig that! Most of my campaign gaming consists of quite short arcs, so I don't get much chance to do the slow burn backstory. I look forward to seeing some AP!

This is a great set of rules, I've used them to DM a scenario from Cyberpunk 2020 Night City Stories (I've never gotten around to learning the Cyberpunk 2020 rules) and it went well. Although I have a copy of Apocalypse World, I've only played Dungeon World, so some bits of the system need getting used to. I'm next planning to run an old Traveller scenario from White Dwarf called 'Tower Trouble', using The Sprawl. Can't wait.

Great, elcapitan! When you have a chance, I'd love you hear more about how the game went, any problems you encountered, and which aspects of the rules excited you! Any chance of an AP thread?

In particular, did the legwork and mission clocks work well when you used a pre-written scenario?

Holy crap this is a sweet set of rules!  I love how everything you do slowly causes the inevitable attention of the mega corps, and that it cost a lot of cred to postpone it...

Very nice.