GMing – Page 2 – TechNo Prisoners

D.U.B. Style – Dirty, Used and Broken – How I like My Cyberpunk!

I’ve been running/playing cyberpunk RPGs, in many variations, since their inception (R. Talsorian’s “Cyberpunk 2013”). Over the years, I have experienced a lot of different ways of playing, from ad-hoc Edge-Runner teams through to Corporate Hit Squads. The part that particularly interests me is the low-end struggle-for-survival in a world of infinite possibilities!

My current go-to game is Fates Worse Than Death, by Vajra Enterprises, set on Manhattan, 2080AD. Underpopulated, and run by various street-gangs, The City is home to all manner of low-lifes, high-rollers, oddballs and primitive screwheads. Players take the part of Gang Members and, depending on the gang, may get access to Psychic Powers, Enhanced Technology, Experimental Pharmaceuticals, or little-known poisons!

Most of the USA is housed in Corporate Arcologies, Gated Estates and other luxurious accommodation. Manhattan residents live in run-down tower-blocks, ancient brownstone apartments and jerry-rigged shanty towns. The Corporations are taxed on their AI use, and that money is used to fund Welfare for the disenfranchised. Cheap Virtual Reality systems are install in all but the lowliest of homes, and a huge proportion of City residents do little other than immerse themselves in the Corporate Feed. This leaves the Mean Streets at the mercy of the Gangers.

The main theme I try to run with is that everything in The City is old, scavenged, recycled and re-purposed. New items are generally cheap knock-offs of the real thing, and soon customised (“The Street finds it’s own uses for things” – William Gibson, Burning Chrome). The phrase that seems to encapsulate this is “Dirty, Used and Broken”, often shortened to D.U.B. Everything in the City, including the People, is some combination of D. U. B.

As a theme for a game, this gives me, as the Game Master, to have a lot of leeway on what I allow into the game, without letting it get out of hand. You want a monomolecular blade, capable of cutting through steel bars? OK. But it is DUB! The blade is notched and sometimes catches on things. The handle worn and frayed. And it used to be someone else’s … maybe they want it back. Maybe they customised it, making it awkward to wield. maybe it was used in a crime, and people are hunting it’s owner. You want an ICE-Breaker, to hack corporate databases? Sure thing. But it might leave traces. It has glitches and needs constant attention. There might be back-doors and unknown commands. It could be broadcasting it’s every use back to it’s creator!

It is Dirty, Used, and Broken!

While this does give a GM a lot of opportunities to screw over the Players, how it is done will set the tone of the campaign. Remember that the NPCs, and their equipment is also DUB! People have Problems. They have irrational fears and desires, and are prepared to go to extreme lengths to satisfy them!

If the players can buy-in to the idea, then you can have lots of fun. Give them access to a high-tech device, and the Adventure becomes finding out how Dirty it is, who Used it previously, and if the Broken bits can be fixed! An NPC Quest-Giver is DUB. They have their Dirty hands in many pies, and some of those may give the PCs pause for thought. They are being Used by another, for nefarious ends. And they are Broken. This could make them unreliable, or more susceptible to being Used, or just interesting to play! It can give he PCs leverage, or get in their way!

And remember that the PCs are DUB! Unless they happen to be a Utopia Child (born and raised in a suburban paradise), they have had to grow up on the streets of the City. They have done things they are not proud of (and would probably get them sent to jail, if there was a functioning Justice system). They have taken and given favours. They have developed bad habits, and particular ways of viewing the World. (in our current game, 2 of the PCs are drug-addicts, one believes they are a Vampire, and craves blood, and the other is an escaped Experimental Super-Soldier! They are all beholden to a Blood Mage, who uses their blood to ensure compliance.) Depending on your players, you may like a system that enforces Personality Traits. make sure they have some negatives!

I like to run a game where the PCs are sparks of Hope amongst the Darkness. But it is not a Pure Light. And it casts long Shadows!

I hope this has given you some insight into our Games, and inspiration for your own!

Why not let me know how you have used similar concepts, or if you prefer a more defined Black/White, Good/Bad setting.

The Continuing Adventures of Individuals!

As you may have read (here and here), I am running a FWTD campaign, based upon all players being in the same Gang (effectively, the same Character Class).

Due to the way the character creation system works, and the Bleeder Gang in particular, they start off with an average set of skill-costings*. Each Player has spent some Bonus Points (of which you start with Zero, but gain some for taking Flaws) on having some cheaper areas. This gives them an area to specialise in, distinguishing them from others of the same Gang.

Some Gangs are a lot harder to do this, as they start with a much more diverse set of costings. e.g. Technophiles have some cheaper costs (Creative: 4, INFO: 5, TECH: 4) but almost prohibitive access to Psychic skills (Exotic: 20, Manipulation and Sensory: 15). With their Combat: 8, Social: 8 it is twice the effort (XP!) to buy a Combat or Social skill than a Tech skill, so choosing to play a Combat Techno, or “Face” character rather than “pure” is a difficult choice. With the Bleeders, it is actually cheaper to buy “mundane” skills rather than their Specialist Psychic skills, leading to some players bemoaning the fact that I am enforcing an in-game expectation that they buy at least 1 Blood Psychic Rank per Level (They are Bleeders, after all!)

The characters we have in our group are:

Dr Orlando Watt: Corporate Trained, Licensed Doctor. Due to their Amphetamine Addiction, they have never been accepted into a decent job, and have found refuge with The Bleeders. Twitchy and prone to violent outbursts (and knowing exactly which veins will bleed at what speed!), they spend a lot of time researching, looking for analytical answers to problems. Currently trying to understand just how Bleeder Psychic Powers work (even though it has evaded the best minds to have investigated it).

Vinnie (“the Vampire”): Small-time crook who’s attempt at a “Big Score” went wrong. Now on parole, with the debts from his lawyers fees taking most of his income, he uses his silver tongue (and Psychic Manipulation) to talk his way out of trouble, and gain favours along the way. He genuinely believes himself to be a Vampire, being repelled by crosses and garlic, avoiding sunlight and sacred ground, and drinking blood. He also has contracted a virus that gives him increased attributes in exchange for a massively increased metabolism (must consume huge quantities of sugar or equivalent). The only PC to have invested in “Fashion and Beauty” skill.

Mack Geller: Psychic Investigator. Ghost-Whisperer. Licensed to sell his Psychic abilities, he runs a small (just Mack and a secretary!) P.I. agency, mainly finding run-away children and solving(?) marital disputes. Ex-military, the constant pain from his wounded leg has led him to abuse opiates. A recent use of his Psychic Powers has left himself, the rest of the Party, a few other Bleeders and a bunch of Corner-Punks believing that Mack is “A Powerful Bleeder”**.

Grendel: Bio-Engineered Super-Soldier. Escaped from the para-militaries who built her to join The Bleeders. Completely Institutionalised (“what is this Money you speak of?”, “Who are ‘Police’? Another gang?”, “Why hasn’t anyone brought me food today? Have I been bad?”)***, she only has sporadic, confused memories of her former life. She does have sub-dermal armour, enhanced senses, Military Training, and a genetically programmed stealth abilities though! Also, a preoccupation with Sculptures, which she believes is “Control”‘s way of communicating with her.

We are now 10 session in, and just about to finish the First Adventure (“Blood on the Snow”). The characters have turned out to be very different, with distinct personalities and skill-sets. Dr W is reclusive and nervous, unless he is intensely over-talkative. Mack is controlled and calm. Grendel is mainly confused, but always assessing Tactical Options. Vinnie is looking out for #1. All are combat-capable (partly at my nudging). The easy option of Knife-Fighting was taken by Dr Watt and Vinne (although Vinnie is not as good) while Mack uses a quarter-staff (a good walking-stick, and keeps enemies at bay so he can Psych! them without getting stabbed) and Grendel has Tae Kwon Do and Archery.

More details are available here. I have been pleased, if not surprised, at how diverse the group is. I know the players quite well, and know that if I gave them all the same character sheet, they would bring four very different characters to the table! I have also given multiple groups the same sets of pre-generated characters before (e.g. convention games) and seen them played in a whole slew of ways!

Have you ever run a “All The Same Class” game? How did it go? What would stop you from running this type of setup in your favourite setting/system?

————–

*You get 100 points to spend on skills, with Cost-per-Category defined by Gang. The Bleeder cost-line looks as follows:

Athletics: 7, BIO: 8, Combat: 7, Creative: 6, INFO 8, Intellectual: 7, Military: 8, TECH: 7, Thief: 7, Social: 8, Street: 7.
Psychic (Exotic): 14, Psychic (Manipulation): 10, Psychic (Sensory): 10,
Bleeder Special Skills (Psychic (Blood)): 10

**While this got the party an easy victory in the encounter, the Corner-punks are planning revenge, but need Excessive Force to take on such a powerful character, and the other Bleeders are building their defences against him!

***Cue much humour while Vinnie, with his below-average Intelligence and rudimentary knowledge of National Politics, tries to explain who “the damn Feds” are, while all Grendel hears is that they attacked her Makers (well, it wasn’t the FBI who Nuked Manhattan, but they sound like parts of the same “gang”!)

We’re All Individuals!

Fates Worse Than Death, one of my favourite RPG settings, is based around the gangs of near-future Manhattan. Each player chooses which gang their PC is in, and usually this leads to a group containing several gangs. As it is meant to be a very socio-political game, gang relations are important, and having players from gangs that are actively hostile, or even non-allied, will at the very least produce problems for the players. This concept is not limited to FWTD. Vampire (and other White Wolf settings) had a similar issue, with the player-base usually being a cross-Clan group.

Our latest idea for a game is to have all players be part of the same gang. While this will alleviate the multi-gang issue, it does have its own problems. In FWTD, a PC’s character class is their Gang, and this defines their Skill Costs (similar to how in V:TM your Clan defines what skills and Disciplines you have access to). By having all PCs from the same gang, they will all have the same Skill Costs (e.g. All Crackers have access to INFO Skills at 5xp/rank, compared to most other Gangs paying 10xp/rank. Sexologists pay 13xp/rank for TECH skills, while Boarders pay only 6!). While this helps to enforce niche-protection between gangs, and reflects the lifestyle of gang-members focusing on skills relevant to their gang, it can lead to players all buying the same, or similar skills. The skills are in categories, so one Cracker might buy Cryptography, and another choose Information Smuggling, but neither are likely to pick up much BIO (costing 9xp/rank, compared to a Needle Punk paying just 4!).

Part of the idea for a single-gang game was to get away from the finely-tuned adventuring party that can cover all bases (known as “Who’s Playing The Cleric?”) and focus on a group of people who happen to come together, and must use what skills they bring. If the players are Crackers, their BIO skills will be relatively low, unless someone decides to dedicate a lot of XP towards it (lowering their other areas significantly). A Sexologist group will be poor at TECH, and even their specialist will struggle to match a mediocre Boarder without giving up a lot of other skills! This does sound interesting (at least to me, as the GM!), but persuading my players that they are not the bestest-at-everything may be quite an undertaking.

One thing that FWTD does have is Disciplines. Areas of training that any Ganger may take. While learning a Discipline, a PC pays the Discipline costs for skills, rather than Gang costs. e.g. a Cracker may choose to train as an EMT. During this time, they will only pay 5xp/rank for BIO skills, but must pay 10xp/rank for INFO skills (as they are no longer at the heart of the information network, or as closely associated with their comrades). Some Disciplines have a specific list of skills that receive lower costs, and some have requirements for advancing (To begin EMT training a PC must have Driving 1, Emergency Medicine 1, and to gain Level 2 must have at least Emergency Medicine 3, Surgery 2).

So, to allow my players to broaden, and cover some extra skill areas, I am thinking of starting them at Level 3 (notably experienced), with the option to take one of those levels in a Discipline.

Next is to decide which gang to be! With over 50 different options, from homeless street-kids to inked’n’pierced carny-folk to idle-rich extreme sports enthusiasts, what will my players go for? One would like to be a Sat-Jumper; blue-collar workers who are jetted to low-orbit to work on the innumerable satellites that keep the world running. Another likes the idea of Technophiles, each specialising in a different technology. Whichever we end up with, I’ll report on how the game progresses!

What Gang would you want to play? Or how would you deal with the issues of running a single-gang game? Have you played/run a game like this? Why not let me know!

Neverwinter (Reprise)

Spurred on by the Free Offer of Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition on Good Old Games (Now over. You have to fork out the princely sum of £3.19!), I have hunted down the old server I used to play on.

Higher Ground PoA is one of the many iterations of the Path of Ascension module written by AW Trespasser, and in my opinion one of the best (and certainly one of the few remaining, these days!). Based around the Town of Ascension, and a Quest for Immortality (by finding the Legendary Crown Of Immortality), the Higher Ground admins (FunkySwerve and his crew) have been working on the module for over 12 years!

Neverwinter Nights was originally published in 2002, and written alongside the latest pen-and-paper version (3.5) of AD&D. It was specifically designed for third-parties to write and run their own adventures, with the Aurora Toolkit included with the game, and many servers popped up, with a wide array of games available, from power-levelling uber-servers to immersive role-play-based ones. Higher Ground sits towards the power-levelling end, but has many alterations in place to carve out its own niche. Players are (heavily) encouraged to party with people of a similar level, and most magical items are level-locked, meaning you cannot use the more powerful ones until you have reached a certain level of experience. Speaking of Levels, one of HG’s most innovative features was the ability to reach higher levels than the original game allowed for. Initially capped at Level 20, FunkySwerve wrote a system to allow you to reach Level 40, and has since expanded this to take you to Level 80! Along side this, he and his crew wrote more and more areas to visit, (including The Hells, and The Mother of All Dragons!), with appropriately challenging monsters and puzzles, and also more and better loot, so the rewards were befitting for such adventures!

When I was playing in earnest, I built a stable of high level characters (Soul Spike, the Zen Archer; Short Spike, Dwarven Defender; Black Spike, Assassin; Good Spike, Paladin; to name but a few), and collected many Artefacts, enough to fill my Bank Chests (where you can store items you do not need to carry, and can transfer to your other characters) to bursting! When I created a new character, I could equip him with some of the best items available, swapping as I went up levels. I also gained access to one of Funky’s other innovations: subRaces. While there are several Base Races available, HG added a selection of subRaces, that could be earned as rewards for certain Adventures (often being found as Books amongst the Loot). Using one of these books gave your Account access to more powerful subRaces, including Wraiths, Erinyes (winged demons) and Raksasha.

Unfortunately, I am starting again, with a new set of CD-Keys (which Higher Ground uses to verify your account), and so have lost access to all of this! I shall have to build up again, but this time, I do not have as much spare time to dedicate towards levelling up and loot-hunting.

So, on with the Adventure!

As a test-character, I have reprised my half-orc barbarian (Grunty McGruntFace), and started exploring. There are a lot of low level starter-quests that didn’t used to be there, but I have avoided most of these (they begin with fetch’n’carry missions) and headed straight for the low level adventure areas! So far, they are all looking very familiar: Cellar full of rats – Check! Wilderness full of Fire Beetles – Check! Caves full of skeletons – Check! Bandit Camp (with nice lootz) – Check! I am slowly remembering/re-learning the controls, and once I’m a bit more confident (and have some time to spare) will party up with some other low-levelers to take on a more dangerous area!

Time will tell how far I get, and how much time Lucretia allows me to waste on such pursuits will be a major factor. But I will update you on my progress.

Whose Dice Is It Anyway?

(Inspired by This Thread)

Some GMs are masters of making things up as they go along. Winging it. Improvisation. They are never short of new, interesting locations, and characterful NPCs. Plot lines seem to grow organically as the game moves along.

I am not one of those GMs.

Players will, inevitably, come up with new and innovative ways to side-step challenges, derail story-lines, and chase tangent-bunnies. When they do, I tend to run into the GMing equivalent of writers’ block. Over my many years of GMing, I have come up with coping-strategies to keep the game flowing, rather than stumble through, uming and erring over details.

The first tactic I use is to try to keep the geographic scope of my campaigns quite small. This allows for locations to be reused many times, and detail to build up over time. The NorthHills sprawlzone that I used for my cyberpunk campaigns started as a rough map, and as we played, built up into a well-detailed area. The Mall had shops (with staff) noted, and was visited many times. I ran several adventures using The Crow Bar, and it has built up a history of its own. I particularly like Fates Worse Than Death for this, as it is set exclusively on Manhattan Island. Large enough to allow quite a lot of scope, but small enough to keep coming back to the same places, meeting the same people.

Another ploy is to keep sets of lists handy. People’s names. Business names. Emotions and attitudes. Some of these I pen myself, between sessions. Others I pull from many sources. Particular favourites are Lee’s Lists and Random Generator. Vajra have some good random creators, specifically for their FWTD setting, but it can easily be used for other games.

Some games produce very good source-books for this, and I particulalry like Shadowrun’s Sprawl Sites. Containing details on quite a few potential locations, plus a whole list of encounters, it provides useful inspiration should ideas dry up.

Also, keep a thesaurus handy. Treeware versions are fine, but nowadays I tend to rely on thesaurus.com for ~~getting good words~~ appropriating superior lexicons.

And, of course, I have my many years of experience to draw upon! I have been known to use ‘similar’ NPCs from game to game, even radically different settings, and tweak locations from one game to fit another. Even plots and adventures are lifted wholesale! Sometimes it is obvious, even highlighted, other times more subtle. (Notable example: When I ran an AD&D campaign many moons ago, one player created character sheets for the 30-40 NPCs in his care (the “We Hate The Dark Lord” club). As they, in turn, inevitably met their fates, they were handed to me, to re-use as ready-made NPCs for that, or any other, game. I still have that folder.)

With these tools at the ready, I tend to spread my preparation thinly, sketching several fledgling ideas, ready to develop the ones that the players interact with, adding detail as play progresses.

So, my improvisation is not about on-the-fly winging it. It is the result of much preparation. Roll a dice on this table. Choose an appropriate item from that list. Pull a character sheet from that folder. All prepped beforehand, ready to be improvised on-the-spot!