Now, how does Sprawlrunners adapt SWADE to run fantasy cyberpunk? Our character will be Nita Granger, and I think I want to know how making a Decker (read: Netrunner) works here. So that’s what Nita will be. Nita is human, meaning when we choose Edges later she gets a free one.
Next, she gets to either choose or roll a Background, and I will opt for rolling. This uses a D6 and four tables. Nita grew up (4) as a Citizen, one of the many faceless working drones in the Sprawl. From there, Nita managed to land a career (6) as a Leader. I think she probably impressed teachers in public school with her ability to organize people. That, and some mild hacking to fake better grades got her landed in higher education and a career management track. However (2) she was betrayed. I assume she was an up-and-comer fighting for positions and rank in the data security offices of Biogenic Itinerant Services. Her boss Charles Jerome didn’t like her, even though she was the highest performing of his little managers. So he arranged a fake data breach, implying that she had sold data and access to security on the black markets. Nita lost everything. The experience left her disillusioned. She has no dreams of returning to the corporate world. But she has been made a criminal, and if that is what she has to be, she might as well make the best of it. Fame isn’t her thing, either. For now, her goal is to earn enough money to retire in style (2). Ok, that works for me.
From here the game uses the SWADE generation rules. Let’s go with the Attributes first. I think Nita would have Agility D4, Smarts D8, Spirit D8, Strength D4, and Vigor D6. She isn’t one for working out, but she is smart and perceptive. Next up are Skills, and here Sprawlrunner suggests use of an optional SWADE rule that means starting with 15 points instead of 12. Modern games need a lot of additional skills for driving, shooting and so on, so let’s do that. With that, and the five skills that come at D4 to start with, Nita has Athletics, Stealth, Shooting, and Driving at D4, Common Knowledge and Intimidation at D6, and Notice, Persuasion, Hacking, and Electronics at D8.
Sprawlrunners does replace money with Logistics Points, which are essentially a pool to use to assemble gear for a scenario. The idea is that PCs will acquire gear from employees, or other sources, as needed for each situation, and will not go on a shopping spree all the time. As someone who prefers equipment light systems, this is gold! Cyberwear is more permanent and is handled by Edges which provide so-called Implant Points. These can then be spent on Cyberwear. A final change are Lifestyle Edges, which determine how a character lives, and -for the rare cases where money is an issue- how much they have in their pocket, so to speak. Without taking an Edge, a Runner lives in the Lower Class. A final new feature are Contacts, two of which are gained for free at the start, and more earned later via the narrative.
Let’s discuss Edges and Hindrances. These are special characteristics a PC can have, and Sprawlrunners brings a few of it’s own. Now, as a human Nita gets a free Edge. If she wants more -she does- she also needs to pick up some Hindrances. The latter generate points, one for a Minor Hindrance, and two for a Major one, with a maximum of four. Then these points can be spent on more skills, attributes, edges, and so on. Sprawlrunners has Flashbacks, which means if a trigger occurs Nita will flashback. I take the Major version of the Hindrance, and I think about the betrayal when the Corpo thugs kicked down her door while she due to a lucky break saw them from down the corridor in the arcology, when bullets nearly ended her life in the narrow escape - that works. The trigger will be the BIS combat uniform, as well as their logo. Nita is also very Cautious (Minor), and Director Jermone is an Enemy (Minor) - she got away, and we can’t have that. Still, in his day-to-day she does not rank very highly.
This gives us four points to spend, plus one Edge from being human. I want Lucky, meaning she gets an additional Bennie at the start of each session. Bennies are a metacurrency used for rerolls and the like. It's also a Background Edge, meaning it is something Nita was long before the game, and it might neatly explain how she got her big break into the leadership track. There are no edges to take for Cyberspace actions since they all require higher ranks. But let us take Chromed, so Nita gets 2 Implant Points. Finally, she will still have some Connections in the corporate world, so let us give her that edge. Connections aren’t Contacts, they are more to groups of people than individuals. In Nita’s case, she has Connections to Data security people across Magnified Lab Systems, the conglomerate BIS belonged to.
Nearly done. I calculate some derived stats and note her 10 Logistics Points. Let’s look at Cyberwear so we can spend her two Implant points. She has a Chipjack (0 pts.), a Datajack (0 pts.), Headware Memory (0.5 pts.), implanted Radio (0.5 pts.), Cybereyes (0 pts.) for some nifty fashion options and Low Light Vision (1 pts.).
Her two Contacts are the Fixer “Leroy LaRue”, and a Rigger calling herself “Jackpot”. The two were instrumental when Nita escaped, and she has worked with them a few times by now. Nita usually wears Armor Clothing, in a very demonstrably last year’s style. For important meetings, she will change to look like whatever is expected, often simple street clothing with ballistic lining. Weapon-wise she has a knife, more for the purposes of threatening people than anything else, and a Berretta (Medium Pistol). Her current deck is a ShackTec V24.1 (Cheap Cyberdeck).
And that is Nita done! Find the sheet here.
And by now I have some thoughts on the cyberpunk RPGs I tested here. Now, there are excellent options that are more narration-based, and I even showed one off last year. However, I was looking this year for something that is a bit simpler than the games of my youth but retains the general feel. I am still a bit undecided, though Sprawlrunners is the least appealing to me of this batch of three. The other two? Well, I think AGE has some mechanics that do not fit my own preferences - I did not highlight them here, but the Stunt mechanic seems a bit clunky to me. Beyond that, I think it is a bit of a wash-up between AGE and Reboot the Future. RTF has a lot of things I do not really like all that much (essentially everything it suggests for background), but all of that is easily excised. I might have to run both of them this year to see which one I like more.
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