Separating Money from Reputation with “Cred” in The Sprawl

by Thomas1 Comment

“So, we’re out, huh? I mean we’re out: this is retirement money. This is ‘go legit and buy an island’ money.”

-Hardison, Leverage, “The Nigerian Job”

One of the things I find Shadowrun and other cyberpunk “let’s be criminals” roleplaying games do poorly is the whole money thing. Shadowrun never gave good examples of what one would expect to get from a criminal gig, and they’ve got a whole economy built in the game, down to the cost of a combat knife. Yet in play, the protagonists seem to live paycheck to paycheck. There’s no real incentive to do criminal work when the same amount of income (or more) could come in from a safer job elsewhere.

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Mad Max and X-Wing, Sitting In a Tree…

by Thomas2 Comments

Recently I was listening to Mynock Squadron, an X-Wing podcast, and am now in danger of spending way too much money on that game. I haven’t played Fantasy Flight Games’ X-Wing, but I have played Wings of War ((Now implemented as Wings of Glory. I’ve played both WoW and WoG. For this post, assume I’m referring to either game.)), the WW1/WW2 dogfighting game X-Wing was based on. ((Which is apropos, as the starship combat in Star Wars was based on dogfighting.)) X-Wing sounded cool to me, but I really only thought of the game as a Star Wars-themed WoW. Your guy is the plane, and the game is all about maneuvering and lining up that perfect shot. But listening to that podcast, I realized it was bigger than that: your ships could have different pilots with customizable loadouts. They were talking about trying out different pilots and kitting out ships with TLTs, HLCs, and other such jargon, and that got me thinking about the fun of Car Wars.

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Primetime Adventures: Play In Public

Primetime Adventures: Play In Public

by ThomasNo Comments

When the Primetime Adventures Kickstarter went live, I said that if it hit $25k, I would write up my guide to running Primetime Adventures at game days and conventions.

It hit that mark with three days to spare.

So here is the creatively-named Running Primetime Adventures at Game Days and Conventions. (Not-secret code name: Stealing from Jason Corley).

Once it hit that mark, I said I would write up a fully-developed series kit (as described in this backer update) based on MCU: Gotham, my police procedural in Batman’s Gotham City show, if the kickstarter hit 900 backers. It did that shortly afterwards, so I owe you guys that, too. here it is: PTA Series Kit: MCU: Gotham

Then I said if the kickstarter hits 950 backers, I would do up one for something in the Zurvivor setting, which spawned three actual shows (Zurvivor, about a reality tv show set on Zombie Island; COPZ, a COPS-like show during the outbreak on the mainland; and Safety in Numbers, set a bit later in the quarantine zone). It did that today. So I’ll be doing that, too. Done! See below! (The full series kit might be is for Omega, the possible fourth show in the franchise, which is described on RPGnet in this message thread about creating characters.)

Oh, and I have nothing to do with the Primetime Adventures Kickstarter, aside from being a fan and a backer. I just love the game. It’s my favorite role-playing game.

Download Links

 

Updated: There’s a new version of the document with an errant apostrophe wrangled back into place and a few word choice edits. It “informs a lot of information”? Kids, don’t edit your own work.