THE SPRAWL

(Art is from here.)

The Sprawl is an outstanding RPG. A Powered By The Apocalypse game, it provides a strong mission-based structure to sessions. This isn't just a conceit about why all the PCs are together (missions and paydays) - the game is split between doing legwork and carrying out the mission. Custom moves around getting the job and getting paid bookend it all, with the PCs picking whether they get paid in full, betrayed or set up, and whether they can identify their employer.

Legwork is about planning, but the PCs can't sit around in a squat or atop some abandoned building and Make a Perfect Plan. They drive around and get into rolling gunfights and get caught surveilling places. They make up contacts and hit them up for gear or rumors. They throw parties and start whisper campaigns and replace fallible flesh with machine. They hack corporate subsidiaries and buy guns and wire up knockout gas satchel charges.

The Legwork clock reigns in the PC preference towards a perfect plan. Unused portions of that clock get added to the Getting Real Paid roll at the end, which determines if the PCs get paid and get away, or are on the run, chased by vat-grown assassins. The legwork clock can also advance the mission clock, which, when filled, means they have failed.

Legwork lets the PCs pick up gear and intel, which are specific, game-mechanicy things. If you have a move that gives you [gear], it's abstract until you need it. If you have [gear] and get up to a sealed blast door, it's a D4 charge and a remote clacker to detonate it. If you come across a keypad-blocked entryway and have [intel], you know the passcode, or you know how to blackmail a security guard, or you know the walking route and schedule of the armed patrols.

The mission clocks lets the failure of an action ratchet up tension wherever the mission is. Alarms go off, people go on the alert, guards start searching for fake ID passes. You get to the end, the mission is a flub, and people either escape or get caught or killed. As it goes up, security locks down the building, calls in armed assets, and the MC moves get harder and harder.

(Art from here.)

Surrounding the missions are clocks for corporations and threats. Corp clocks let you know if they're aware of the PCs, and if they're hunting the PCs. Threats are non-corporate antagonists - lone gunmen, aggressive hacker collectives, replicants coming into the workforce, grey goo or plague outbreaks. They let the MC create ongoing consequences for people the PCs screw over in the course of their work. They might kill some random wannabe runner asshole, only to find out his cousin and said cousin's gang are looking for who did it. Maybe some corporate wage-grubber the PCs charmed into helping them gets cyborged out and trained as a corp sniper, thrown into the corp penal legion, but given enough spare time to start hunting the PCs. Maybe giving Mr Johnson those blueprints will let him test nanohive builders on the a PC's apartment block, killing hundreds.

The playbooks are quite fun. There's a few that might not fit with every group - a legit Reporter hanging with Killers and Soldiers? - but in general they're easy to throw in wherever, and lots of fun. Techs and deckers will get people past ubiquitous electronic surveillance, infiltrators will do the same against humans, killers will kill, drivers will drive, pushers will brainwash people with their fervent beliefs. The damage model is much closer to classic Apocalypse World than Dungeon World, with health countdown clocks and a harm move.

All in all, quite a fun system. I've an AP with my brother-in-law and nephew to write up, and am running this on Roll20. It's been a great deal of fun so far.

Savage Rifts Sample Characters: Juicer, Crazy, TechnoWizard, Burster, M.A.R.S. Mercenary

Had fun making some more Savage Rifts characters, with more to come.

All the sample characters so far

Crazy Vs Juicer

Juicers feel very focused - they're kinda high all the time, they can't use psionics or magic (high. all the time.) and they just seem like super warriors. They're a bit simpler to make - just throw in some Underworld / Thiefy skills on top of a lot of combat edges, and have a blast. You're physically somewhere near Captain America. So you're not great at doing math anymore, so what? Trade-offs. 

Crazies are a bit more diverse in their skill set. They can Frenzy, they have guns and psionics, but can't use either when berserk, by default. They have Edges to change these things - you can be a berserker gun-bunny or a frenzied psi-assassin. This really changes how their frenzies play out, which is very neat. And unlike Burn, there's far less of a downside to one Frenzy per session, especially if you pick the right Edges. Their physical attributes are up there with the Juicers, though they get fewer free physical edges, which seems to fit what I've read about Juicer sporting events in the Rifts universe. Juicers tend to have a bit of an edge at Deadball.

Using Juicer Burn in Fun New Ways (Is Not Where I Went With This Juicer)

Maybe I'm somewhat conservative in my meta-gaming - you might notice I almost always send out magickers / psychics with Armor, in later posts. I also didn't look at a lot of Juicer 'Use Burn In New Ways' Edges. There are a bunch, but you only get to use them 8 times by default, so, yeah. People have complained that a Juicer using these Edges a lot will die quickly - they're right! That's the point! Don't use Burn every session! Not until you want a new character to play.

There are still some nice Juicer-centric edges which don't draw on Burn (Splitting the Seconds being my favorite sp far). That said, if you're playing this as a one-shot, plan for a Juicer Viking Funeral.  Give her some different Edges around going out in style.

Techno-wizards are Unique and other non-surprises

There's a section in the player's guide around making Techno-Wizard (TW) mods to other items. You're going to want to read that (around page 106) if someone plays a TW. It's a really cool spellslinger class. Most require you to pick 3-5 starting powers, and the TW framework is this way (3), but you also have access to all your unchosen spells, thanks to the magic of making TW gizmos on the fly. The sample character can do this 5 times a session, which is going to throw some awesome wrenches into some GM's plans. New players will probably need a GM who can prompt them a bit, because they won't have much exposure to all the Savage Worlds powers. I imagine at least the list as a handout would help, and maybe have a spare to eyeball during any time the players are having trouble planning their daring heist/escape/attack/etc. I didn't recapitulate the list on the character sheet, because I am cruel.

Techno-wizards also wind up having a lot of skills, a lot of Knowledge (Scientific Things), a high Repair. So that's also different, an Iconic character who starts out with a lot of skills freebies.

Bursters Know What to Do

They're going to light everything on fire and watch it burn. Seriously, what an insane psychic combatant. They're on fire (and armored, often to Mega-Damage levels). They're starting small fires as free actions. They're shooting bolts of fire. They're taking half damage from laser weapons, you know, one of the most common Rifts small arms. They have so many Iconic Framework bonuses I ran out of room and had to format things in a different, possibly better way. They don't start out with a lot of other psychic powers, but hey. No one is going to mention this when a flying, burning crazy person floats through town looking for CS Deadboys to wail on. 

Finally a M.A.R.S. Character

I imagine MARS characters will take longer to generate than other Iconic Frameworks, because you get Hero's Journey tables to roll on, a Novice character, 4 advances, and another table to roll on that will probably up your Traits in awesome ways. You wind up with a character who will surprise you in some way, having gained some unexpected (and useful) skills or Edges. They're going to start out with a much broader base of ability than most of the other Icons, even if they are a little less hyper-focused on, say, lighting everything on fire.

This Mercenary is a keen-eyed Investigator, a decent warrior, and a divine Champion who is great at killing supernatural evil. Naturally, he believes that God wants him to do this all the time, and that whenever he finds supernatural evil, it's Fight Night. Hopefully he'll level up a lot before going anywhere near Mexico.

Savage Rifts: Combat Cyborg Sample Character

I've been messing around and making characters in Savage Rifts; this is my clothes-hound former-mechanic-turned Combat Cyborg. The Juicer Uprising was rough on Kal, or rather, the Coalition Shattered Earth campaign against some Juicer irregulars.

Combat Cyborg Sample Character

I originally had one of his edges as Acrobatic, but that seems to go against the spirit of the 'war only, otherwise not dexterous' nature of the Icon. On the other hand, it could be fair enough - it's not going to help with lockpicking, but it definitely applies to moving about the battlefield efficiently and safely. I'd imagine agility tricks would be not hindered by their lack of skin sensitivity and such, but that's subject to your GM. Though I would argue that throwing sand in someone's eyes isn't so different than hurling a grenade at them. Just cheaper.

Regardless, I picked Brawny, Battle Hardened, and Elan instead. This cyborg is going to kick ass at soaking hits, and is still going to be fast enough to maneuver, flank, and even swim. And strong enough to club someone with a tree, doing Mega Damage!

Hindrances were fun. The fellow is a clothes-hound, kitted out like Punished Snake in fancy load-bearing harness, fashionable military fatigue pants, and an over-sized, antiquated hat. So a mix of Snake and Ocelot? Anyway, the clothing won't stand up to a grenade very well, unlike the cyborg, but that's just a good excuse to get revenge on your enemies (who are also the enemies of fashion). Heroic was somewhat obvious what with the Tomorrow Legion, and this borg's background as an aid to the Juicer Uprising. Wanted by the Coalition - I imagine this minor hindrance being that he's wanted for petty smuggling - they didn't find out he helped get Uprising prisoners out of detention blocks, much less that he fought against the Coalition. This may be a weak excuse - maybe he broke some Federation laws traveling through there at some point. Maybe the Coalition isn't sure that he did anything because many combat cyborgs look similar.

Cyborg attributes feel like they're stamped from a common piece of MDC metal - which is the point, after all. Skills and edges allow for more variance, though you're not playing a Lord of War to shy away from being good at fighting. I could've increased one more stat rather than take those 3 edges, but I love the way Elan and Battle Hardened work together, and skipping BH now would mean my novice character couldn't grab it for a long time. And I can't resist the boulder-hurling implied by Brawny. I'd probably want to have this character spend his downtime doing yoga, meditative handstands, climbing, leaping, rolling, etc, such that picking Acrobat in the novice rank would make sense. I've read a lot of Battle Angel Alita, and love the idea of a somewhat-graceful cyborg.

Savage Rifts

I have no idea why Savage Rifts has captivated my imagination so much. Perhaps it's how the game strives to let these three characters run in the same group, and all have things to do. The vagabond, basically a hobo


 A full-conversion cyborg


 Oh you know a FUCKING DRAGON

In the original game you can take a look at the equipment for starting characters. Glitter Boy pilots start with a Glitter Boy, a 10-foot gleaming power armor suit with an incredibly powerful Boom Gun. Juicers start with their biocomps and their US-football-pad-looking armor and their variable beam rifles. Vagabonds have like a laser handgun and soap. There is a long list of Vagabond gear and it reads like the kind of thing a homeless survivalist might have. We can safely assume the Glitter Boy pilot doesn't smell terrible (unless she's been stewing in her armor for a week), but with the vagabond, we have to be reassured, and the equipment list does that. Soap.

Anyway, marrying this insane setting to Savage Worlds meant that our author, Sean Fannon, and his cohorts and compatriots were going to balance out these different OCC/RCC classes. Dragons and vagabonds, living together in harmony, both contributing to a party of adventurers.

Having made some characters with the Player's Guide, they may be getting there. I doubt a vagabond or a wilderness scout can punch-out a combat cyborg, but that's not really what their role is. But it does seem like the MARS characters (Mercenaries, Adventurers, R?, Scholars) are seasoned skill-hounds compared to the other characters, who are quite gifted within their narrower focus.

I'm really looking forward to more; I hope to start posting some sample characters I wrote up, trying to learn Savage Worlds and the Rifts-specific rules.

Jail: Building Character and Eventually Causing Death

This particular jail is a mine. Perfect for PCs who've slighted someone such that they figure backbreaking work will help them gain character, and also eventually die. PCs start out with no gear. Any oddities not built into their bodies are also gone.

Locations

1. The Mines: A warren of small tunnels. People have to hunch over to enter. Chintzy candle-lanterns provide meager light. There are pickaxes (d6) and a few pneumatic hammers (d8, two-handed). You can perform all kinds of Honest Work here. Working here for a week nets you a roll on the Random Finds chart.
2. Barracks: bunch of triple-decker bunk beds. You can sleep here. There's little to no privacy, and hiding anything in or near your bunk will be tough. There are tables where people eat in a corner. Someone, somewhere in the dim is often playing a mouth harp.
3. Mess: It's behind a stout metal door and iron bars, one way in and out. It's run by the Boss, Shady Topper. There are a bunch of yes-men and quasi-useless folk, as well as his muscle, the Tonic Boys, who actually go out into the rest of the prison (but sleep in the Mess).
4. Spring: Water bubbles up from below. 150' of water down, there's a passage into the Underground, but it's a hard swim (STR save or die, advantage if you tie yourself to a stone first). Corpses have floated up before, and folks don't appreciate getting one of those in the prison's supply of free drinking water.
5. Exchange: The only area seriously engineered by humans, you can see daylight through the bars in the ceiling. Soldiers (5hp, d8 muskets) lower hoppers on thin ropes to get ore, and then throw down rations, overseen on the jail end by at least four Tonic Boys. They take the food back to the Mess and dole it out to hard-working prisoners.

Cast of Characters

• Boss Shady Topper. 9hp, fine saber (d8), 5 bombs (d12) to blow up food store if needed. 100 days of rations for the whole jail, a crate of booze. Wants to escape with a prisoner army, believes Honest Work will leave him with able-bodied soldiers.
• 7 Tonic Boys. Knives and burning oil (d6). d6+1 hp. Want to be as drunk as possible.
• 118 Prisoners in strung-out shape. Can get pickaxes (d6). d6 hp. Want to sleep, eat, escape, sometimes in that order.
• Other unique Jail-related NPCs.
• Ground-level soldiers. Unless an ore shipment is being picked up (every 2 months), there are only 11 of them. 6 hp, d8 muskets. Want to be somewhere else.

Honest Work

• You can work hard for a day and earn enough ore for a day's ration.
• You can push it (STR save) and earn d4 day's ration. If you fail the save, take d4 STR damage.
• When you work a week in the mines, make a STR save. If you fail, lose d4-1 points from a random stat. Also, roll on the Random Finds table.
• If you don't eat for a day, you get no benefit from a short rest and can't be taking a long rest.
• If you don't eat for a week you take d6 damage to each stat.
• Honest work in a prison mine is a slow death.

Random Finds

Either you did some Honest Work, or you had enough free time to be in the right place at the right time.

1. Someone nabbed a little TNT from the boss. You now have a bomb (d12) which can defeat the Mess doorway or the iron bars at the top of the Exchange.
2. You find a crevasse in the mines (or a map to one) that could lead out. Or to some underground hellhole.
3. You dig up a few ancient casks of preserved booze! You can live the high life, make a few dozen prisoners your best friends / willing Detachment, placate the Boss, bribe the Tonic Boys...
4. You wake up next to a corpse in the Barracks - he's still clutching a flask of poison! 4 doses, lethal if imbibed. 
5. You dig up an d4 oddities!
6. You knock some stone out and can see daylight! You can escape now, right now. If the Boss gets wind of the exit before you can escape, he could seal it off for his own Official Business or the like.

How These Tribesfolk are Different

Tribesfolk: 4d20 total, 2d10+5 fight-capable folks. They have d8 hp, d6 damage (spears and shortbows), 12 AC (elaborate stone-and-string jewelry/clothing/armor).

But these guys also

1. Use poisoned arrows (DC 14 Fort Save or 1d6+1 Agility damage, unconscious at 0 Agility).
2. Don't feel pain (x2 hp).
3. Beserk! At 0hp, 50% chance the warrior actually has 1hp.
4. Have d4+1 laser rifles (2d6 damage, 4 shots).
5. Have a flying disk (25' wide, 50' MV, can lift half a ton). Archers on it have 50% cover.
6. Have d4 trained triceratops mounts (30hp, d12 damage gore with horns, charge to double damage, 40' MV, +4 to hit, 14 AC).
7. Are actually an android hivemind (one tribesman will suss out PCs intentions, can be remade if her head makes it out intact, tribesfolk in constant communication with each other, typically surprise attack PCs).
8. Are ghosts, bound to keep a demon captive via blood sacrifice. Nonmagical physical attacks are not going to work, look up ghosts in DCC to see what these guys can do to hurt the PCs.

My Frozen in Time PCs are now stuck in a jungle, and will probably encounter other humans or human-ish folks in said jungle. Whoever they wind up close to could be very helpful allies, or, you know, terrible foes.

DCC After Action Report: Stealing Skyskippers part 1

The crew had infiltrated a derelict temple to Crom, overrun with Crab Folk settlers. They had alongside them a freed ghost, Belwin, who was friendly, or at least in control of himself, thanks to the crabs' Soul Thresher technology. They retrieved and buried his corpse, so he agreed to pilot a skyskipper for them, if they could steal it from the crabs.

The PCs walked into the temple's main entrance and the cleric, Foozy, attempted to negotiate an airship rental from two crabs, armed with electrical whips and faraday shields, idly tormenting a lightening-fenced ghost. The crabs agreed to go let their boss, Joyce, know that humans were about, and one was tragically slain. The other freed the captive ghost, Balda, and drove him towards the PCs, half of whom failed their reflex saves and saw Joyce murder them (-2 to all rolls in the initial presence of Joyce).

One crab escaped (I started rolling twice for encounters). The PCs wandered the twisted paths of the temple, ignoring desecrated statues and wondering about Crom. The thief, Gipp, managed to keep the PCs out of one combat with fast lockpicking; in another case, the party's henchperson of note held fast a door so that opium-addled crabs could not pursue them. They stole a brick of opium, found a secret door, and ascended to a skyskipper hangar, from which they are currently planning a distraction. They can get to a control room, visible from the hangar, but filled with crab guards or Joyce himself. So, distractions are in order.

(Skyskippers look like a wooden nautical ship, but instead of a mainmast, a giant plant trunk rises up to what looks like a dandelion seed head. The tiller of the ship is a root system. They have to park in water periodically to refuel. They have cannon and can take cargo and so on.)