HyveMynd
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Dirty hippie, PbtA, Fate, & Cortex Prime <3er
Posts: 2,273
Preferred Game Systems: PbtA, Cortex Plus, Fate, Ubiquity
Currently Playing: Monsterhearts 2
Currently Running: The Sprawl
Favorite Species of Monkey: None
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Post by HyveMynd on Mar 19, 2018 21:36:37 GMT -8
Hi fam,
After a long hiatus, I'll be MCing another session of The Sprawl for my group this coming Saturday and I could use some ideas. So far the team (consisting of a Hacker, a Killer, and a Pusher) has done two missions over four sessions, and those have both been "standard" missions.
What I mean is, neither of those missions (a hostile extraction and a wetwork operation) have involved any of the PCs' backstories. I've kept things pretty straightforward so that I and the three players could get get a handle on the rules and the characters. But now that everyone feels comfortable, I think it's time to start making things messy and complicated.
What I'm looking for are suggestions on ways to bring the characters' backgrounds to the foreground, to make those choices matter. The characters are as follows:
Burn - the Hacker. Screwed over a high-level company assets to acquire their cyberware and is now hunted by NBN (an infotainment megacorp that has monopoly on date. Basically, if it's on the net, NBN knows about it). Burn is careful to the point of paranoia, lives in an undisclosed apartment off the grid, and almost never goes on missions in person. They look like a plastic Angelina Jolie (from Hackers), and, yes, their cyberdeck is named "Acid".
Eleven - the Pusher. Raised in the Haas-Bioroid corporate arcology (still has family there), drank the HB kool-aid, and was on the management fast-track before she was "reallocated". (HB is a labor solutions megacorp, producing weak-AI robots known as bioroids.) Eleven "associates too strongly with the product" for HB's tastes, but she's kept on as a corporate asset. Eleven is outright owned by Haas-Bioroid, once for her skillwires (mandatory for HB management) and again from her dermal plating (implanted after that first mission). Eleven is (so far) unwilling to accept missions that go against HB's interests.
Vega - the Killer. Has yet to fire his automatic shotgun, Mercy, as Eleven and Burn have been so efficient at their jobs. Is also an off the books Haas-Bioroid corporate asset (like Eleven), but is more mercenary about it and has gone on at least one mission with Burn acting against HB's interests. He's owned by HB thanks to his corp-installed Neural Interface and Targeting Suite, but his Muscle Grafts were installed in a back alley chopshop. Unfortunately they were boosted, and he is now hunted by whomever owned the truck they "fell off" of.
Thoughts on how I can bring these entanglements to the fore?
We're playing in the Android universe by Fantasy Flight Games. All four of us play the Android: Netrunner card game, and thought it would be fun to play in that setting. That's not really important to anything here, though. Just mentioning it in case other Jackers also play that game.
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bobcatt
Apprentice Douchebag
Patron
An infinite number of monkeys can't be wrong...
Posts: 81
Preferred Game Systems: AD&D 1e, 2e, 5e, Top Secret/S.I., Classic Traveller
Currently Playing: nothing at all :-(
Currently Running: completely stalled doing 5e via Roll20
Favorite Species of Monkey: Barrel of
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Post by bobcatt on Mar 20, 2018 11:11:09 GMT -8
HyveMynd, have you adapted any source material from Gibson, W.J. Williams, K.W. Jeter, or John Brunner? Jeter's "Farewell Horizontal" has an excellent plot reveal where the two primary media giants who publically compete against one another are found to be in cahoots behind the scenes, and the general populace's information system "Ask & Receive" is heavily censored to prevent people from knowing the truth (hey wait, this doesn't sound fictional any longer).
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2018 12:59:39 GMT -8
So my first thought is some sort of job where they don't discover until too late that they're acting against HB interests. By the point they realise the have to either chose to mess with HB assets or with the corp that has hired them.
Given the killer has yet to use their weaponry then something that needs a bit of muscle, maybe involving a prototype HB AI in something a bit tougher than usual, like heavy industrial machinery (trying to avoid just straight out AI warframes but that's always an option). Or you could go full Gibson/ GITS and have a sentient HB AI hiring them.
The hacker I'm having more trouble with. You said they have an apartment off the grid, does that mean they have a regular place to jack in that could be targeted / a focal point?
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temmogen
Initiate Douchebag
I am the thread killer
Posts: 40
Preferred Game Systems: 1st Ed. AD&D; Pathfinder; Mongoose Traveller; Call of Cuthulhu
Favorite Species of Monkey: Space Monkey
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Post by temmogen on Mar 20, 2018 15:04:32 GMT -8
Hi fam, Burn - the Hacker. Screwed over a high-level company assets to acquire their cyberware and is now hunted by NBN (an infotainment megacorp that has monopoly on date. Basically, if it's on the net, NBN knows about it). Burn is careful to the point of paranoia, lives in an undisclosed apartment off the grid, and almost never goes on missions in person. They look like a plastic Angelina Jolie (from Hackers), and, yes, their cyberdeck is named "Acid". For Burn just take part of the plot from the movie. A friend of hers passes some secret data, that NBN wants. They send agents to retrieve the data, hilarity ensues.Eleven - the Pusher. Raised in the Haas-Bioroid corporate arcology (still has family there), drank the HB kool-aid, and was on the management fast-track before she was "reallocated". (HB is a labor solutions megacorp, producing weak-AI robots known as bioroids.) Eleven "associates too strongly with the product" for HB's tastes, but she's kept on as a corporate asset. Eleven is outright owned by Haas-Bioroid, once for her skillwires (mandatory for HB management) and again from her dermal plating (implanted after that first mission). Eleven is (so far) unwilling to accept missions that go against HB's interests. For Eleven, give them an escort mission. They are to escort a high ranking executive from HB. Unbeknowst to them, the exec is smuggling data out to sell off to the highest bidder.Vega - the Killer. Has yet to fire his automatic shotgun, Mercy, as Eleven and Burn have been so efficient at their jobs. Is also an off the books Haas-Bioroid corporate asset (like Eleven), but is more mercenary about it and has gone on at least one mission with Burn acting against HB's interests. He's owned by HB thanks to his corp-installed Neural Interface and Targeting Suite, but his Muscle Grafts were installed in a back alley chopshop. Unfortunately they were boosted, and he is now hunted by whomever owned the truck they "fell off" of. Thoughts on how I can bring these entanglements to the fore? We're playing in the Android universe by Fantasy Flight Games. All four of us play the Android: Netrunner card game, and thought it would be fun to play in that setting. That's not really important to anything here, though. Just mentioning it in case other Jackers also play that game.
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sockjack
Apprentice Douchebag
Another Successful Oneshot!
Posts: 56
Preferred Game Systems: DRYH, Fate, Mazerats, PbTa
Currently Running: SI'Sah Stories (The Sprawl Campaign), & Random Oneshots
Favorite Species of Monkey: Bad Monkeys
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Post by sockjack on Mar 21, 2018 17:14:45 GMT -8
HyveMynd: What NPCs have they created/lost/partnered with/betrayed when they "hit the street"? I've found in the sprawl game I'm in that the player's have really responded well to either NPCs or a small background note being "B Plots" to the generic mission I put them on. This also makes it easier on you since its what they have created that becomes the focus, instead of you trying to figure it all out.
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Post by chronovore on Mar 22, 2018 0:26:44 GMT -8
Yeah, I'm guessing that more of their backstory will give more hooks, such as anyone they may have partnered with or, alternately, burned on their way off the reservation.
I'd also try to bump Vega into a primary slot for backstory, if the player has been sidelined due to the others being too efficient. Maybe allow Vega a chance to show off skills during a physical meeting that gets interrupted, even if it's not by one of the major zaibatsu.
BTW, really enjoyed reading the PCs' backstory summaries. Very evocative!
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Post by kurtpotts on Apr 2, 2018 11:49:41 GMT -8
How's this:
HB has an inner struggle for control of the corp. The crew is hired to find/plant incriminating evidence for the good of the company. Now with mommy and daddy fighting Eleven has to decide which side to support. Plot twist, The faction they are working for within HB has secretly paired up with NBN. Now Burn is working for NBN and they have been monitoring the crew's progress. By pulling on their connections to HB you might be able to get Eleven and Vega to disagree about which side of HB's inner struggle to support.
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thegrimace
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 45
Preferred Game Systems: Anything
Currently Playing: D&D 5.0, Pathfinder, L5R
Currently Running: L5R
Favorite Species of Monkey: Evil
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Post by thegrimace on Apr 11, 2018 15:51:24 GMT -8
Along the lines of Kurt's suggestion above, I recommend watching the first few episodes of this season of The Americans. It's got a similar thing going on with two factions within the KGB having conflicting missions which trickle down to the main characters.
Other random thoughts: (Assuming I'm understanding this correctly) HB tasks the group to go and collect some bioroids who have gone off-programming. The company just wants to scrap the malfunctioning units to avoid lawsuits, but Eleven's robot-lover proclivities may get in the way. Also, along the way, maybe Vega has a chance to shine as some of the bioroids are resisting, or some criminal organization is using them for nefarious ends or somesuch.
For Burn, the main thing I see is trying to get them out of their shell to actually interact with the rest of the party. Maybe this is in the form of some systems that they have to be physically jacked in to access... I feel like the most recent Shadowrun incarnations have some of this, where you have to be nearby and physically jacked in to access building's security systems, or hack those bioroids, or whatnot because in the age of high cyber-crime savvy folks realize that airgapping is a necessity.
Also, how is she getting to the net while maintaining an "off-grid" lifestyle. It seems like every time she goes out to the internet cafe to do a job, or even just communicate with anyone, that she's now exposed and possibly tagged by NBN search algorithms. Even if she hasn't slipped up, maybe that jackass in line behind her checked in on facebook and her face was in the background. Perhaps this doesn't lead to any immediate consequence, because search algorithms take a while to notice that background image, but next time she comes there, she notices some people lurking around looking furtive (undercover corporate agents, or freelance bounty hunters). It seems like the effective bounty on her head is rife with possibilities.
Also, maybe each failed roll in various other missions doesn't mean she failed to do what she was trying to, but did it in a way that gave away her involvement. So she keeps succeeding, but then 2 sessions later agents have managed to track her down due to those slip-ups and now she's on the run.
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