JimmyTMalice> Thinking of running The Sprawl, a cyberpunk RPG, over roll20 and I'm wondering if anyone's interested
<John_Moose> Sounds legit for Marvel universe
<John_Moose> Jimmy, Oooooooo.
<John_Moose> As in, my interest has been piqued.
<JimmyTMalice> It's a Powered by the Apocalypse system so there's a big emphasis on collaborative worldbuilding and player agency
<John_Moose> That sounds very awesome
<John_Moose> http://www.ardens.org/games/the-sprawl/ this?
<JimmyTMalice> i.e. the GM is not god and everyone contributes stuff to the setting, like making the main corporations which serve as antagonists
<JimmyTMalice> yep
<John_Moose> I mean I have exams coming up in a month and so on and so on but yes I'm interested
<John_Moose> :p
<Shadowcthuhlu> Sadly, I'm probably committed to too many campaigns as is
<John_Moose> Am attempting extraction of rulebooks
<JimmyTMalice> I've got a PDF of the rulebook that I can upload to Dropbox
<John_Moose> Ah, good. All I'm finding is stuff that looks like character sheets
<John_Moose> Was this the first time you asked around or do you already have peeps roped in?
<JimmyTMalice> This is the first time
<John_Moose> Alright
<John_Moose> Well, do count me in
<John_Moose> Should the project go forth
<JimmyTMalice> https://www.dropbox.com/s/lbq09vmxeypzdwv/The%20Sprawl%20-%20MIDNIGHT.pdf?dl=0
<VavakxNosnexus> Worst case scenario we all came away from this with one more rulebook.
<John_Moose> Thanks!
<John_Moose> :p
<John_Moose> I like the stat system
<VavakxNosnexus> I try to be reassuring :P
<VavakxNosnexus> Ye, it seems neat.
<John_Moose> "I put 2 points in my Meat"
<JimmyTMalice> "I am the Edgiest"
<VavakxNosnexus> I have doubts about Edge & how it might end up being a generalist stat but otherwise neat.
<JimmyTMalice> Edge is mainly for assessing situations and planning
<VavakxNosnexus> ofc, I have also only been looking @ it for literal seconds.
<JimmyTMalice> It's useful to have at least one person with good Edge
<JimmyTMalice> Cool is more of a generalist stat in that a lot of the time you'll be using the "Act under pressure" move
<VavakxNosnexus> What's Mind for, then?
<JimmyTMalice> That covers hacking and techy stuff
<JimmyTMalice> And thinking your way out of a problem too, I guess
<JimmyTMalice> I suppose Mind is intelligence and Edge is wisdom, to put it in D&D terms :P
<VavakxNosnexus> Already a territory dispute! :P
<JimmyTMalice> actually, Synth is the tech stat, at least for cybernetics
<JimmyTMalice> I'm not entirely sure what everything does but it's all very cool
<John_Moose> Seems yeah
* John_Moose fast-forwards to character creation
<VavakxNosnexus> I am altogether v partial to calling stats things that aren't normally stats, like Edge or Style :P
<JimmyTMalice> Some playbooks are more useful in the planning stages of a mission and others are good at action
<JimmyTMalice> The Fixer's whole thing is knowing people, so they set up meetings with contacts and acquire stuff
<VavakxNosnexus> 1st problem: I'm not seeing a clean way to recycle Amets in these :P
<John_Moose> Synth seems to be designed to be a bit of a "jack of all trades" stat I guess? like, you can use it instead of something else if you have the appropriate hardware
<John_Moose> Eh, make him an evil program possessing an android's hard drive? :p
<VavakxNosnexus> I assume 'have the proper hardware' is far from always.
<John_Moose> them*
<John_Moose> I'd imagine yea
<VavakxNosnexus> Considering all the methods of cyberware acquisition come with a downside.
<John_Moose> Also I like the emphasis on mental qualities
<VavakxNosnexus> That's always nice, ye.
<John_Moose> Like, STR/DEX/CON are all together just "meat" :p
<VavakxNosnexus> :P
<John_Moose> Which does give it a feel of realism for me
<JimmyTMalice> yeah, meat is both giving and receiving punishment
<JimmyTMalice> unless you're a Killer, in which case you use your Synth instead
<JimmyTMalice> I like how they make the distinction between a Killer, who's an auged-up killing machine, and the Soldier, who's a professional who focuses on making a plan and following it
<John_Moose> I mean, if you're in a high stress situation I think what's between your ears is a much bigger factor for survival, and physical qualities can generally be summed up as "gets exhausted/doesn't get exhausted"
<John_Moose> Ah yes
* Shadowcthuhlu wants to be an auged-up killing machine
<VavakxNosnexus> The str/dex/con trifecta seems to be handled by other qualities you get during character creation.
<John_Moose> That seems reasonable
<JimmyTMalice> This is a really good series of people playing The Sprawl: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTj75n3v9eTkZgx6iHvSeX-ehZYT8rQat
<JimmyTMalice> It also shows the GM prep, which is very useful
<John_Moose> Like, your "str" basically only is of distinct importance in the situation where something heavy needs lifting, or dex when a tightrope needs walking on :p
<John_Moose> Ah, nice
<VavakxNosnexus> Ah, a 'hamper The Mission for IC reasons + mechanical rewards' mechanic is around here two.
<VavakxNosnexus> s/two/too
<John_Moose> I'll be gone for a bit, playing some World of Tanks with finland-peeps
<JimmyTMalice> Yep, you get XP for screwing everyone over for personal reasons
<John_Moose> Later :)
<JimmyTMalice> bye :)
* John_Moose has quit (Quit: Leaving)
<Shadowcthuhlu> I'm always a bit leery of giving exp for screwing over other players
<VavakxNosnexus> A Pusher-centric campaign might be neat, but I imagine half the point is that the Pusher's ideology stands out like a sore thumb, and that his proselytizing character doesn't help that one bit.
<VavakxNosnexus> (semi-discard that analysis)
<JimmyTMalice> It's less screwing other players and more playing to your character's drives, I think
<Shadowcthuhlu> Okay
<JimmyTMalice> A certain amount of backstabbing is expected from your corporate employers, but the party itself is supposed to largely be on the same side
* Shadowcthuhlu has actually seen systems that incentive screwing over other players
<Shadowcthuhlu> Yeah, that I expect - that's why you never trust the DM :P
<JimmyTMalice> Paranoia is a good example of a system that incentivises screwing over other players, but that's by design since it's all about turning RPG tropes on their head
<VavakxNosnexus> (Something something you're supposed to be making a story together etc etc)
* Lord_Weasel (Mibbit@3786D900.6A7C374F.45B755CB.IP) has joined #argo
<VavakxNosnexus> Paranoia seems wild.
<JimmyTMalice> yeah, making a story together is a big part of The Sprawl - I believe it says something about "playing to see what happens"
<Shadowcthuhlu> Yeah, I've played paranoia, super fun
<Shadowcthuhlu> One time our DM gave us extra clones because of all our backstabbing
<JimmyTMalice> Paranoia is something I want to play a one-shot of some day, but it's probably not suited to a long campaign
<Shadowcthuhlu> The most recent one I've seen (that's wasn't being played for inherent comedic value) was in Black Crusade
<JimmyTMalice> That's the 40K system about playing as Chaos, right?
<Shadowcthuhlu> Yes, which does make sense in way, but always opens up the nightmare of a session falling apart as two players start going for each other throats
<Shadowcthuhlu> Outside the game
<Shadowcthuhlu> Which I think is a bigger issue in a campaign format versus one shots
<VavakxNosnexus> (Joke World Idea: Weird babylonian theocratic regime that has invented the internet but it's Tower of Babel-themed)
<JimmyTMalice> heh
<Shadowcthuhlu> It's not like I haven't seen near murder in Exalted over this sort of thing what's so ever
<VavakxNosnexus> (Anything outside the regime is never elaborated upon)
<JimmyTMalice> So the idea I have for this cyberpunk world in The Sprawl is as follows: everyone is implanted with an Augmented Reality chip that has roughly the same processing power as a smartphone, and wherever you go there'll be AR overlays on everything
<JimmyTMalice> So you can have a room that's just an empty concrete box and make it look like whatever you like in AR
<JimmyTMalice> And since this is cyberpunk, the AR is also used to pipe in ads every waking hour
<VavakxNosnexus> *Fun*
<VavakxNosnexus> I presume hackers (& Hackers) are in high regard.
<JimmyTMalice> And it's probably used for datamining too, like an even more invasive version of Facebook
<JimmyTMalice> Yeah, if your AR chip is hacked to hide the AR overlay that probably says something about you
<VavakxNosnexus> Wouldn't that be more 'collecting personal information'?
<JimmyTMalice> The corporations sell ad blocker subscriptions, but they're fairly expensive
<JimmyTMalice> Yeah, collecting personal information as in what ads you respond to, what kind of shops you visit, that kind of thing
<JimmyTMalice> The poorest of the poor can probably get subsidised by the corps to watch ads all day, and their PR would spin this a positive thing because it means they're not starving on the streets
<VavakxNosnexus> Well, that's certainly one way to go blind.
<VavakxNosnexus> Do the ads also get to play sound?
<JimmyTMalice> Depends on how much the advertisers are paying
<JimmyTMalice> There would probably be different levels of adblock, where the biggest corps get to play their ads regardless
<VavakxNosnexus> So, any other special things outside the AR?
<JimmyTMalice> Can probably squeeze in some more stuff from Black Mirror too, like the episode where everyone has a social media rating
<JimmyTMalice> Yeah, there's probably some other stuff, although I'm leaving a lot of it open to suggestions so other people can have an input in the worldbuilding
<JimmyTMalice> General tech level would probably be around the original Deus Ex, where you've got automated security drones and medical robots and stuff
<JimmyTMalice> I probably want to delve into completely virtual reality as well, like it's where people go to escape their shitty cyberpunk lives
<JimmyTMalice> Oh, and brain uploading. It's probably a nascent technology in the setting, like not everyone's doing it, but it'll probably be a thing
<JimmyTMalice> People transferring into entirely cybernetic bodies and whatnot
<JimmyTMalice> So everyone in the game gets to make a corporation, including the GM/MC, and my corp would probably be based around these things - AR/VR, making your life perfect, transcending the flesh
<VavakxNosnexus> These are good themes!
* VavakxNosnexus says, mostly because 'transcending the flesh into a state of questionable truthfulness' is kinda their gimmick.
<JimmyTMalice> There's probably lots of room for a version of Amets in this world :)
<VavakxNosnexus> :P