The Sprawl: Alpha Version

[anarchangel23]

The Alpha is done.

Download and discuss on Barf Forth Apocalyptica, here, or on Story Games.

Edit: Now there's a dedicated subforum for The Sprawl.

Comments

[anonymous]

I read through the rules and I like it alot...kinda biased when it comes to oldschool cyberpunk.... I do have one possibly minor issue - the way cyberwear is handled.

My initial character idea when a friend brought up running this was hitman with wired reflexes and augmented muscles. But when I read how cyberwear works, I was a little underwhelmed. I very much like the idea of taking a strong guy, and making him stronger, or making a fast guy faster...but you cant really do that with this cyberwear mechanic because it allows for you to situationally replace a stat with your synth stat, rather than applying a bonus. So a strong guy would get no benefit from augmented muscles... We havent played yet though, this is just my knee-jerk reaction having just read the rules yesterday. It changes character conceptualization a bit, instead of those kinds of cyberwear being useful to the guy who was already good at that (whatever 'that' may be) it allows characters who aren't as good, to be better. It could let a character more successfully use a broad range of different moves that would normally all use different stats. I can see how it this mechanic could and should be used, but its a bit limiting. A mechanic which applied a bonus instead of a replacement would benefit any character, including characters using technology to improve upon something they're already good at. I know this may sound like its coming from a powergamer who just wants to min/max - really thats not me - I just like versatility. And again, please don't take this as scathing criticism, like I said we havent even played yet. Its just some thoughts that I had and I'd like to hear what you think about it....

[anarchangel23]

First of all, thanks for taking a look!

The problem with straight bonuses, is that in Apocalypse-powered games, the drama and fun comes from the hard choices you have to make when you roll in the 7-9 range and the curveballs the MC throws at you when you miss. It may not seem like much, but on 2d6, a +1 that takes you from +2 to +3 is huge (it takes the average roll to 10 and makes the minimum 5, so there is only a 3/36 chance of missing). So straight bonuses take the fun out of the game.

My design philosophy with cyberware is I want it to make the character better, but in interesting ways. That said, I definitely agree that synth nerves in particular needed a boost, so I've changed cyberware a bit from the currently available draft. It still works in much the same way, but Synthetic nerves are vastly improved. It now reads:
Synthetic Nerves: You react so quickly that you can almost dodge bullets. You may roll+Synth instead of +Cool to Act under Pressure, instead of +Meat to Mix it Up, and instead of +Mind to Maneuver. When you Maneuver in combat, add the option “Someone without synthetic nerves dies. You choose.”

As with all AW games, the trick is in the subtle choices and interactions of the moves, so depending on your familiarity with AW, a particular interaction between moves might be really obvious when you read it, or might only emerge in play. I'll be interested to hear your impressions after you've played. especially regarding cyberware.