The Sprawl Recap: Crisis of Greed

For the second mission of our The Sprawl game, "Crisis of Greed", I wanted to involve the directives of the PCs a bit more. I also wanted to load more of the complications into the operation into the Action phase. The results were exciting. You can find character creation here and the first session here.

Crisis of Greed

As we begin, Little Bear, Demon’s smaller drone, remains broken due to the flechette ammo lodged in from the previous mission. For 1 cred he can repair it himself but he begins to have bigger ideas.

I messed up the beginning by addressing the wrong character. This is why it pays to highlight these things.

Smoke finishes up her physical. The technician nods as he reads the diagnostics from her cybernetics. He tells her everything is nominal. As the man packs up his gear, a woman with hair glowing with the latest advertisements approaches Smoke. Smoke squints at the woman smiles, her curtain-like bangs displaying the latest Genewear cyber arm line.

The suit introduces herself as Marissa Patel. She asks Smoke to retrieve and transport an experimental computer system developed by Pan Digital for Genewear. A researcher called Ruzena Blahova is selling the megacorporation the device. Patel needs Smoke and her allies to pick up the unit from the Brown Belt inside a military testing ground and deliver it to Genewear’s lab downtown. Smoke agrees and asks for a way to confirm that the unit is what they say.

Smoke misses the Get the Job roll so I advance the Legwork clock. Then both Oracle and Demon stake 3 cred (Smoke stakes 2), so I advance two more clocks (both Legwork and Action)!

Device in hand, she talks to the rest of the team. Some quick research confirms Pan Digital is a subsidiary of United Security. Worse, Demon knows Ruzena. She and his ex-partner Dale were tight. She knows how he betrayed her former boyfriend. They decide to keep the driver firmly within his vehicle for the operation.

Demon is able to provide some decent intel on the Brown Belt. What were once the city’s green belt and industrial districts have been rezoned for military exercises and experiments. The area is patrolled by dog sized buzzbots and car sized minitanks. The quadcopter buzzbots at least can be easily hacked. The tanks might have explosive shells but are slow and obvious. Demon seems confident he can slip past them.

Oracle decides to contact Overwatch, a netizen and expert hacker. Smoke offers to help and together the pair trawl the web for her contact, hoping to get recent satellite imagery of the area. Overwatch gets back to them after an hour of messaging but tells them he can’t help. The word on the street is that Angelo and his boys are also after this computer system. Oracle informs Smoke that if her old rival is involved then Veridian Dynamics is paying them to do its dirty work.

Smoke failed her help roll and Oracle failed her Hit the Streets roll. So I advance the Footwork clock and make some serious foreshadowings.

While Smoke obtains a loader to cart the minifridge sized device, Demon meets with his roboticist friend, Gearhead. Gearhead has several outstanding warrants so arranges to meet the driver at her workshop, a hulking hover truck currently docked atop a decaying skyscraper.

Demon Hits the Streets and fails.

He shows her his damaged drone still punctured by a couple of plastic needles. As she turns it over in her calloused hands he asks if it could also be upgraded with improved sensors. She nods but says she’ll need 2 cred for the job. Just as he agrees the whole building shudders. Gearhead looks over the railing. 30 floors down, a rusty automated crane has begun demolishing the lower floors.

Demon powers up his wheelchair, racing up an incline as he heads for Big Mama’s controls. The whole tower shrieks and groans as it tilts ever farther over. Demon’s chairs skids for a moment before locking in front of the controls. Then Mama Bear slides off the edge.

Demon gets a soft hit on Acting Under Pressure.

The driver sees Gearhead’s truck disappear into the growing cloud of debris as he punches Mama’s engines. Diving below the rain of rust and glass, he blasts free the disaster. As emergency services rush it he scans the wreckage for Gearhead. The criminal is nowhere to be seen.

On his second Act Under Pressure, he adds Mama Bear’s stats and easily succeeds.
Oracle and Smoke watch the news report later that day on the disaster. The crane operator, now under arrest for criminal negligence, claims that the crane was possessed. Demon soon fills them in on the whole story. With the clock ticking they decide to head to the Brown Belt.

There are 3 segments left on the Legwork clock.

An hour later, Mama Bear settles just outside the Brown Belt. Demon sends Big Bear scouting, hoping to hack the buzzbots’ systems. A mile in however, he loses contact.

Demon Acts Under Pressure and fails. At least Big Bear is autonomous. Buzzbots have jamming capabilities.

Mama lifts off and Demon pushes the craft as hard and fast as he can. In minutes they spot Big Bear, damaged but still fighting against five buzzbots. Smoke unloads Mama’s autocannon into them while Oracle leans out with her pistols. In seconds the flimsy rotorcraft lie smoking on the ground and Big Bear sluggish from battle damage but still active is pulled on board.

Smoke and Oracle Mix It Up (Smoke helps). They get a soft hit. Oracle chooses to take damage (which Smoke takes since she had a soft hit as well) and the drone gets damaged (it loses the responsive tag). Fortunately the guns on the buzzbots don’t penetrate their armor. Oracle deals more than enough damage to wipe out the drones. For his part Demon gets a hard hit Acting Under Pressure to guide Big Bear back in.

Demon punches it. They race across the treetops as explosive rounds detonate behind them. The clearing races up to them. Demon brings Mama Bear down into a gentle hover. Oracle scans the area with the craft’s sensors. She quickly spots Ruzena, standing near two metal cubes. Curiously each glows warmly under infrared.

Demon gets hard hit on Acting Under Fire to get there fast. Oracle Assesses but fails. I advance the Action clock. This means Angelo is already in place.

Smoke readies the loader and the two women head out. Ruzena shouts over the roar of the engines that they are a little late. Demon trains the autocannon on the edge of the clearing as Angelo and his boys come out, encircling the team.

I use the following move next. When you face off Angelo, he's prepared. Roll +Edge. On a hit, you know his tricks, hold 1 and so does he. On 7-9 to he holds an additional 1. On a miss he holds 2 and the MC will make a hard move now. Spend hold to add +1 or subtract -2 to a roll to interfere with him. He can do the same to you.

They miss. So he gets hold 2 and I make a move.

A military VTOL descends from the brilliant sky, its gun firmly fixed on Mama Bear. The vector panzer floats above the clearing edge like an angry bumble bee.

Oracle points her guns at Angelo and tells him to stand down.

Then the field erupts into chaos, blood, and death.

Oracle Plays Hardball and fails. Demon helped but at least he gets a hard hit. We exchange harm. I let Smoke roll Act Under Pressure first to dive for the boxes and relative safety. She gets a hard hit.

A platoon of men tear up the field as Smoke dives lightning fast for the cover of the two boxes. She watches Ruzena stumbles in the same direction, toppling forward as her merely human reflexes fail to avoid the stray bullets. Above the panzer perforates Demon’s craft.

Oracle sprays the tree line with eerie precision, dropping one man after another. Red signal lights start blinking on Demon’s console as he strafes the treeline. Down on the ground, Smoke keeps her head down as several rounds find weak points in Oracle’s armor. The cyborg soldier slips in the torn up earth but struggles back to her feet.

Oracle deals 5-harm base to the gang -1 for being larger than her (Medium versus Small) -2 for their armor, for a total of 2. So several of them are badly hurt.

The autocannon obliterates most of the gang since it deals area damage. I reduce its size to a small gang. Oracle takes 3-harm base +1 for the (former) larger size of the gang -2 for her armor, for 2 harm total. She gets a soft success on the harm move and so loses her footing. As for Mama Bear, the car takes 4-harm -2 for armor, for 2 harm total. 1-harm blows through but Demon’s armor absorbs it.

As Ruzena gasps for air like a dying fish, Smoke considers putting her out of her misery. “I know what Demon did to Dale,” the woman says as her blood dampens her pure white hair. Ruzena looks over at one of the cubes as her cyber eyes power down.

Smoke scrambles out to pull the loader back to the boxes. As Oracle covers her escape, Smoke loads and hauls the goods back to Mama Bear. Once in the clear, Demon turns the cannon on the remaining unit. It explodes in a spray of metal and oddly organic goo.

Smoke Acts Under Pressure and with Oracle’s help succeeds with a hard hit. Demon blasts other one while also trying to escape. He Acts Under Pressure and also gets a hard hit.

Mama Bear pushes off the ground while the panzer is still adjusting its aim and rockets towards the border. As a swarm of buzzbots converge on them, Oracle grabs a cable and hangs out of the ship. She opens fire on their pursuers as Smoke directs the autocannon at the panzer.

Oracle Mixes It Up with the panzer. She gets a soft hit so chooses to take harm and have Smoke take some as well. She takes 2 more harm (4 base -2 for armor), gets a soft hit on her harm move and loses her footing again. Thanks to the armor on Mama Bear, Smoke takes zero harm. She also gets a soft hit on her harm move and so loses her “weapon”.

Oracle’s bullets find her mark as the craft’s VTOL engine erupts in flames and smoke. A final bursts of bullets however hit her, knocking her free of Mama Bear and leaving her dangling off the edge. Inside Smoke flinches away as a series of ricochets strike the controls for the car’s weapons systems. They explode in a shower of sparks.

Demon uses his interface to swing the guns forward as he watches the panzer spin slowly to the ground, its pilot somehow regaining control.

Then the fuel monitor begins to blare angrily. While Smoke races to the back of Mama Bear, Demon turns his attention forward and ruthlessly slices a path through the buzzbots. In the back, Smoke finds fuel pooling on the floor from a cut line. As she tries to patch it up, the incoming drones fire. A spark strikes the fuel. Everything explodes.

Demon Act Under Pressure to get them to safety. He succeeds with a hard hit. Smoke tries to patch the ship but fails her Act Under Pressure roll. The gas ignites dealing 3-harm to everyone inside (so not Oracle). Demon takes all the harm (ignoring armor) when he botches the harm move. Smoke fails the move and only has to deal with the harm.

Oracle clings to the side of the craft as they fly over the city. She calls inside, “is everything alright in there?”

Smoke and Demon choke out that they are okay. As Smoke stumbles back to the front of the craft, Demon notices something big descending from above.

Both Smoke and Demon Assess. Smoke fails and I advance the Action clock. Military craft are now inbound.

Demon succeeds and asks Who or what is my biggest threat in this situation? (The VTOL is back) How can I avoid trouble or hide here? (I answer the streets would be hard for the VTOL to maneuver) Where can I gain the most advantage?

Looking up he sees the damaged vector panzer descending quickly. He glances down at the tangle of streets where they might hide. Then he turns to Smoke. “I’ve got an idea.”

Demon turns Mama Bear straight up and dives in close to the craft. Smoke adjusts the thrust with lightning speed and helps him pick the right moment to make his turn. As the panzer tries to follow them, its engine stalls and it spins uncontrollably into the streets below.

Smoke helps Demon Act Under Fire using her tactics chip, links, and synthetic nerves. They get a hard success.

The team make the rest of the journey to the lab quickly and much more quietly.

A news broadcast reporting on the disaster plays across Marissa’s hair as she describes her frustration with how this mission turned out. After accepting the delivery, she pays them, minus fees needed for payoffs and cover ups. Bloodied and tired, they accept what they can get.

The team gets a soft hit on Getting Paid. They decide to ensure this is not an ambush and accept the -1 Credit from their profits. Also I advance most of the Corporate clocks.

The team earns enough experience to advance however. Most of them raise their Edge while Oracle takes Emotionless.

For the second mission of our The Sprawl game, "Crisis of Greed", I wanted to involve the directives of the PCs a bit more. I also wanted to load more of the complications into the operation into the Action phase. The results were exciting. You can find character creation here and the first session here.