Eclipse Phase- Imperative: Retrieve

I did promise that I'd post the outline for the campaign that my players didn't choose. So here it is:

The general overview of the campaign is that the characters would be travelling all over Mars (with the occasional jaunt to inner system locations like Extropia, Venus and maybe a Scum Swarm). I had the idea that each enemy faction would be contributing research to the others, so depending on which faction the players pursued in which order, the remaining factions would be stronger in different ways. What I have here are my notes from the introductory adventure, it gives the players a taste of all the different groups and gives them an opportunity to learn more about what they are planning. For best effect, the book X-Threats is required.

Imperative: Retrieve

An Eclipse Phase Adventure

Overview: Hermes Delivery, a micro-corp based out of Petasos station, Went dark, stopping all deliveries for most of last year. Firewall assumed that the organization had folded from financial pressures, as they were heavily in debt. Recently, though, the station sent out most of its transorbital ships to various locations around Mars and launched its two long haul freighters. One of the freighters traveled in the direction of Venus, and the other towards the outer system. Petasos station was taken by exhumans of various packs as a staging point for Project Imago. Project Imago is an effort to create a self-replicating ecosystem of exhumans composed of rational minds of as many clades as possible.

History:

8.8 AF- Dr. Tran makes several forks of himself before joining Firewall.

9.1 AF- Several Exhuman Clades meet in the outer system and agree to form Project Imago

9.2 AF- The Adelphos Parasite Clade sends three members to Petasos in regular transhuman morphs

9.4 AF- Storage containers arrive from the outer system with three Defiler Morphs.

9.4 AF- Adelphos infiltrators sleeve into the Defiler Morphs and shut down the station

9.4 AF- The final crew member falls victim to the Defilers. They undergo psychosurgury and are sent back to Mars, unaware that anything stange has happened on the station.

9.5 AF- Petasos Station is converted into a breeding ground for the Exhuman Clades

10.4 AF- Project Imago disperses across Mars and into the Long Haul Freighters

10.4 AF- Proxy Polycephalus contacts the Sentinels

Deployment: Proxy Polycephalus contacts the Sentinels stationed in Olympus. He tells them they have been selected for a mission in Martian orbit and their cell is designated Imperative: Retrieve. They are to meet with an operative called The Postman (Proxy Polycephalus in another identity) in the Olympus tether. Polycephalus gives a Sign and Countersign to identify The Postman.

Sign: Who watches the postman?

Counter Sign: Eyes in every window

Sentinels receive this message though a variety of roundabout methods.

The Postman is waiting in Olympus Bar in the Tether. He is a short man, possibly Filipino genotype. He hands off an ecto containing the basic outline of the mission. He can arrange for transport to the station as part of the operations budget (10,000 credits). The Postman has his mesh inserts in autistic mode.

Proxy Polycephalus is an investigative reporter working for an Experia publication called E-XP-osé. He is an Async with powers of suggestion and is extremely skilled at assuming false identities. When he has the choice he will choose morphs appearing to be Latin American or South-East Asian men. He is fluent in the artificial colour language of uplifted octopuses and, when speaking in that language to someone he trusts with his identity (almost no-one) he will give his name as Shifting-Slowly-From-Indigo. Prior to the Fall, Diego was writing exposé about Cognite's uplift research facilities. His empathy for one of the test subjects (an uplift from a program to create corporate assassins and spies) named Shifting-Slowly-From-Indigo caused him to blow his cover and attempt a rescue. Unable to get the experimental body off of the station safely, he integrated his own ego with that of the uplift. He spent the years surrounding the fall in a medical facility orbiting Luna where he contracted the Watts-MacLeod virus in circumstances he is still trying to discover.

Messages:

-A Synth Barbershop Quartet, when combined with a program (OneTime.Exe) only accessible by those with a connection to The Eye, delivers the message through metaphor and code.

-A pickpocket slips a coin (featuring a neck with three heads) with skinlink on it into the Sentinel's pocket while they are in a Souk.

-Targeted AR spam delivers the message from several ads at once, directly into their entoptics.

-A bust of Janus arrives at their home that spells out the message when touched.

-A Window Prostitute delivers the message in a daze, and does not remember giving the instructions

-A nearby fabber pings them, and then prints out a ticket for the space elevator with skinlink embedded instructions.

Clades:

Predator- Wildlife: Uplifts and former mercurials, mostly neo-cetacians and neo-hominids with a few Octomorphs

Sublime- Neocortex: Neurodes interested in group minds, Asyncs and skilled in Nano and Viral engineering

Soul Eaters- Hundred Hands: AGI Soul Eaters that show some Singularity Seeker affiliation. Based on one AGI, interested in Wild Artificals.

Predator- F#: Solo Predator, rejects language

Singularity Seeker- Dr. Bao Ky Tran: Solo Singularity Seeker, experimenting with organic weapons and neogenic morphs, former member of firewall

Adaptives- The Shipbreakers: Void Salvagers, lure ships to their asteroid lairs with emergency beacons

Parasites- Adelphos: Instigators of Project Imago, Parasite Clade with influences from the Predator and Adaptive schools, testing enhancing Feral Defiler intelligence with accelerated simulspace dreamspaces.

Adelphos Defilers:

All are connected via a TacNet. If alerted to the presence of intruders, they will attempt to remove relevent information.

Aleph: Armed with a Railgun SMG

Bet: Carries a Diamond Axe and a Torch (No Kinetic Weapons Skill, Spray Weapons at 60)

Gimel: Armed with a Double Seeker Rifle, carries Overload in one side and High Explosive in the other (No Kinetic Weapons Skill, Seeker Weapons at 60)

Feral Defilers:

Literally numbered, Bet spray painted marks on them, gradually leading up to a box with a single dash through it

There are 5 Feral Defilers on the station- reference names are below

1- I

2- R

3- N

4- Square

5- Tick

F#: This Predator is sleeved in a modified Courier morph armed with Seeker Weapons and four mounted monofilament swords. It sits on the outside of Petasos Station and protects against intruders with a Rail Sniper Rifle emplacement sized for fighters and shuttles.

IMPLANTS

Access Jacks, Basic Mesh Inserts, Chemical Sniffer, Cortical Stack, Cryonic Protection, Cyberbrain, Direction Sense, Enhanced Vision, Extra Limbs (4), Grip Pads, Headlights, Hidden Compartment, Internal Rocket, Lidar, Magnetic System, Mnemonic Augmentation, Plasma Sail Implant, Radar, Retracting/Telescoping Limbs, T-ray Emitter, Medichines, Oracles, Neurachem (1), Reflex Booster, Invisibility, 360 Degree Vision, Anti-Glare, Electric Sense, Radiation Sense, Structural Enhancement

F#- Von Neumann Body (Based off of an Arachnikoma with the internal cavity filled with the hive and server.)

WEAPONS

Articulated Mounted Kinetic Assault Rifles x2: 75 (RAP Rounds, -8 AP, 2d10+5 DV, Payload: 30)

IMPLANTS

Access Jacks, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Enhanced Vision, Extra Limbs (10 Arms/Legs), Lidar, Mnemonic Augmentation, Pneumatic Limbs, Radar, Implant Simulspace Server, Implant General Hive, Reflex Booster

TRAITS

Large Size, Ambidextrous

Petasos- Tin Can hab at L2 over Mars. The entire habitat is in microgravity.

Modules:

Body Bank: In addition to the 8 Healing Vats normally found in the module, 8 more have been placed on the ceiling and floor. Partially grown Defiler variants float in nutrient fluid, they seem similar to pods, but their tissues are held together with some kind of blue fungus. If caught unaware, Aleph is in this room with R and Square. The mesh in this room contains a trace for communications between the station and Bioclubs in Noctis-Qianjiao, specifically in the neighborhood of Biobrug as well as records of the former crew's ego-casting to various parts of Mars. A small airlock connects this room to the Command Center.

Hydroponics: The room is filled with various species of plants. The two most prominent are Spider Beans (Mix of Spider Plant and Broad Beans) and Bamboo Ferns (Mix of, well, you can guess). Two Snack Bar Morphs feed on the plants. One of the morphs has a cyst filled with Defiler Larvae. Six heavily modified healing vats, hooked up to ectos, hold data for uplift morphs specialized for predation. Also in this system are the schematics for a station in the Martian Outback, Bio-dome 6. Bio-dome 6 is an inflated dome, used to test an ecosystem for fully terraformed Mars consisting of a Mangrove-like swamp. A small airlock connects this room to the Command Center.

Command Center: This room consists of two parts, an outer shell that connects the various modules and acts as an anchor for the inner chamber. A small airlock leads into the central chamber. Once a modest server and control room, the central chamber is now packed with advanced servers and healing vats. Inside the healing vats is a strange blue tissue that is a xenofungal nervous strata, used for processing power. Attempting to access the server unleashes a combination of CR Gas and Nervex, as well as a Disassembler swarm designed to prioritize vacsuits and then synthmorphs. The airlock seals when the defenses activate. Contained in the system are 4 modified Security A.I. With the AR Illusions, Cauterizer and Bedlam programs. They have +20 to their Infosec skill due to the advanced architecture they're in, and an emphasis in cyberbrain hacking. They will shut the hacker first, then move to hack, or otherwise disrupt any open connections. A maker, containing the blueprint for a combination of Psi-Opener (with the X Sleight) and Psike Out, sits on one of servers. It contains 3 doses of the drug.

The servers contain information on using a xenofungal strata to accelerate the growth of nervous tissue, therefore cutting morph production times significantly. The Xenofungus was received from Lisa Hitchcomb (Actually an Exo-Planet, not a person but that info isn't contained on these servers). They also contain a plan on infiltrating the TQZ on Mars to find a town called Chernobog. Small Airlocks connect to the Dorms, the Body Bank, Hydroponics and floatways leading to the Shipping and Receiving modules.

Orbital Shipping and Receiving A: The room bears little to no resemblance to its original form. It has been converted into an arena combining micrograv and urban combat tactics. Four industrial fabbers with installed ego bridges line one the central wall. Six servitor bots move around collecting scrap and releasing fixer swarms on any damaged sections of the arena. Observant Sentinels will match the layout of the arena to a Souk in Valles-New Shanghai known for its wild artificals, only this has been mapped in 3D. The data on the fabbers is all corrupted, seemingly intentionally. Small airlocks connect to the Ring and the Command Center floatway. Connected sections of the Ring are Long Range A and B. A standard Airlock connects to an empty section of the docks with one docking port.

Orbital Shipping and Receiving B: An enormous room made into a nest for the Defilers. Bamboo Fersn and Spider Beans grow from every surface. F# left a synth body dubbed the Von Neumann morph here, it is plugged into an ego bridge. Gimel is here and will activate the upload if alerted to intruders. Small airlocks connect to the Ring and the Command Center floatway. Connected sections of the Ring are Long Range A and B. A standard Airlock connects to an empty section of the docks with one docking port.

Long Range Shipping and Receiving A: An enormous, barren room occupied only by industrial scale fabbers. An industrial airlock leads outside and tracks set into the wall allow containers to slide across the surface of the station at high speeds. Computers routed through here contain the navigational data for a Scum Swarm called The Shipment of Theseus which takes a route between Mars and Venus. There are also dossiers on scientists working for Ambiscience, the defunct corp that made the Synergists' implants. According to the dossiers, the scientists are traveling by Scum Swarm. Tick and N are in this room. Small airlocks connect to the Ring and the Command Center floatway. Connected sections of the Ring are Orbital A and B. A standard Airlock connects to an empty section of the docks with one docking port.

Long Range Shipping and Receiving B: A large room, filled with partially disassembled shipping containers. A four healing vats are filled with xeno-parasites such as the Gut Eater and Hook Bladder. Tables with holographic displays offer a disassembled view of the parasites. An analytic A.I is running on a Xeno-fungal neural strata in another vat, running analysis on the parasites, including transgenic morph designs. Five more healing vats sit opposite them, they are filled with neogenic morphs wit potent defensive systems and ergonomic organic grips. Aside from the A.I. The vats do not contain any information on their inhabitants. A set of four server racks sit apart from the vats, looking like towers on a keep for a flat table. The servers are apparently air-gaped but are wired to the table. The table has an access port prominently displayed, as well as a holographic projector. Attempting to access the Armed Servitors emerge from concealed panels, and two similarly hidden turrets activate in the ceiling. The servitors are running Security A.I. and two are carrying Assault Rifles with Smartlink and RAP rounds, one is carrying a Seeker Rifle filled with CS Gas splash rounds, and the last has a Particle Beam Bolter. The Turrets are using Kinetic SMGs with Homing Accushot rounds. In addition, a hologram of Dr. Tran will appear, telling the Sentinels that he knew they'd come sooner or later. At this point, the server racks explode. They carry the equivalent of 4 Thermobaric missiles (6d10+10 E, -10 AP). Characters accessing the console take half damage on a successful fray, unless they roll a critical. Small airlocks connect to the Ring and the Command Center floatway. Connected sections of the Ring are Orbital A and B. A standard Airlock connects to an empty section of the docks with one docking port. An industrial airlock leads outside but the entrance has been rigged with monowire lace.

The Ring: Surrounds the station, connecting all of the Shipping and Receiving modules. This section is made up of metallic corridors connected by flexible carbon fiber tubing. It is filled with Bamboo Ferns. On the exterior of the tubes is a monorail system, meant for conveying containers from one shipping module to another. If no alerted to the presence of intruders, Bet is in this area between Orbital A and Long Range A. It is accompanied by I.

Dorm A: The room contains a sympathy trap, strapped to a bed converted into a medical table. A concealed SMG turret sits on the ceiling, ready to fire on anyone who springs the trap. A small airlock connects this room to the Command Center.

Dorm B: A monowire mesh covers the entrance, protecting a Xenofungal colony mixed with nanotech. This amalgam is the Dream Server. Embedded in one of the nodes are the cortical stacks of the station's former crew. A small airlock connects this room to the Command Center.

Docks: There are docking sites for 6 trans-orbital vehicles and two long range haulers. Only one trans-orbital vehicle remains. The ship is connected to Orbital Shipping and Receiving A.

Exalted Setting

Sorry for the long hiatus. I've been back in University and have less spare time to dedicate to the blog. City of Thieves, the heist system is still in development and I may be able to run a campaign of it soon. Soon in this case being in the next few months. Hopefully, I'll be able to put actual play reports of the game up on the blog, but no promises.

Anyways, today's post is the result of some collaborative setting generation for an Exalted 3e game that may extend into a campaign, depending on how my players feel about it. While it references several setting details from Exalted, it could easily be changed for use in a different setting. Also, depending on which game my players choose, I'll be posting the details for the one they didn't pick.

The Kingdom of Azara

These harsh desert lands are home to the nomadic herding tribes known as the Azara. Every decade, the scattered tribes gather at a fertile, limestone cavern known as The Caves of Nahas to elect a new leader. If their leader dies before their decade is up, the tribes must reconvene early. Every leader is referred to only as the Ash Khan and does not acknowledge their gender until their term ends. The Ash Khan dresses in concealing robes and veils as part of their office. The Ash Khan conceals their gender in homage to the first Ash Khan a woman who dressed as a man in order to lead their tribe to victory against a roving band of Fair Folk. The election of the Ash Khan is a closely guarded secret. Each tribe of Azara sends a representative to a moot, those representatives deliberate in an isolated chamber under the Caves of Nahas to choose which of their number will become the new Ash Khan. The tribe of the new Ash Khan move into the caves, displacing the tribe of the former leader.

The Caves of Nahas are named after the Goddess Nahas, the Reflecting Sands, Handmaiden of the Sun. She is a minor Deity of Reflected Light and Mirrors. She provides the light that helps make the cavern a lush paradise. She spends most of her time in her Sanctum, among the ruins of the grand First Age project that drew her to the site, a ladder to the sun. She was once praised in proxy to Ignis Divine, his representative in the south, and spends her time turned from the affairs of the world. Perhaps the Chosen of the Sun could shake her from her dull nostalgia. Nahas is not the only god worshiped by the Azara, there is also the Horse God, Tenacious Stallion. Despite his name, Tenacious Stallion has been reduced in the last two decades, barely appearing before his followers. Once he would stud the mares of great champions, but now he lurks in his sanctum below the cavern and refuses all visitors but the Ash Khan.

The caverns are divided into three sections. The first is the Shining Market. Traders from the nearby city states of Zoatham, Dajaz and Gem as well as sundry Guild merchants, all gather in the Shining Market to trade their wares for the finest horseflesh in the South. The tribes of the Azara stay in the Shining Market when they wish to trade their wares for the steel weapons and tools sold in the market. The second area is Svarna Durga, the Golden Holdfast. Svarna Durga is the remains of the ancient temple to Sol and the reason the caves were a pilgrimage site during the First Age. During the Shogunate the Dragonblooded set up a prison for loyalist gods and the Lunar Exalted in the shell of the temple. The Khanate of Ash, a title given to the current ruling tribe, lives within the Svarna Durga. Outside the temple-fortress is a vast Garden, with verdant fields for the tribe's horses to graze. Towards the edges are bee hives and vegetable gardens where the Azara grow onions, melons, millet, date palms, and olive trees. They also hunt the feral temple hippos that swim in the waters around the edge of the garden, but not the guinea pig sized Vasati Hippos as they are sacred to Nahas. The Azara do not raise camels or yeddim as those are seen as merchant's animals and fit only for someone without the skill to raise horses.

The Lands of the Azara are vast but arid and mostly uninhabited. There are six main tribes of Azara, including the Khanate of Ash. The current Ash Khan was responsible for a war against the seventh tribe on a claim of heresy. The only sources of clean water and vegetation are scattered oases and the Caves of Nahas. Tribal leaders and sages pass down the knowledge of locations of clean water, too many of the springs and pools are tainted with disease, oil, or wyld energy.

On the south border of the Azara is the Court of Coal, a group of elementals ruled by 3 Ifrit Lords. Due to an ancient pact with the Azara they are bound to ride to war against the nomad's enemies in exchange for regular offerings. In times of peace, they are aggressive and territorial.

Beyond the south boarder are the boardermarches. Here, scattered cannibalistic nomads trade prisoners of war to the Fair Folk for great vessels that sail across the dust and sand of the arid south but dissolve when touched by water. Riding at the heads of these great raiding parties are the Raksha captains and their Hobgoblin crews. The Raksha call themselves The Fang Jihad.

The West and East border onto lands held by the Tyrant of Gem, the mysterious rulers of Dajaz, and the ruling temple of Zoatham. These marches are haunted by bandits, Fair Folk, and other more mysterious foes.

Beyond the North border is a tribe known as the Surazu. These people were once the eight tribe of the Azara but they, like the recently destroyed seventh tribe, were attacked on suspicion of heresy. Using sorcery learned from the whispers of demons the Surazu were able to repel the combined might of the Khanate of Ash and the gathered tribes. Now, the Surazu live in towers of brass and green fire, riding to war with their servitor-demons on the backs of great flightless cranes. At the heart of Surazu lands is a shadowland, home to a sprawling tea house and opium den called The House of One Thousand Unearthly Delights.  

City of Thieves- A Heistbox System- Part 2

So, I was planning on having this system ready to playtest by the end of February. Sadly that didn't happen. While far from complete, in a week or two I may be ready for playtests. Here are most of the core mechanics of the game. Some crucial stuff is missing and it hasn't been edited for clarity, but I figured I'd throw an update up here, just to prove it's not another one of my half-abandoned projects. Considering I'm writing this as a replacement for my Hexcrawl game, I can't let it languish.

Resolution Mechanics

Players roll dice in two situations: When they are opposed and when they have a time constraint. For example, a leisurely drive during planning would not require a roll, but a car chase after a heist would.

Players roll a number of six-sided dice equal to the relevant skill plus the connected ability and keep a number of those dice equal to the ability. These dice are referred to as the dice pool. They add up the value of the kept dice and compare it to the difficulty. Rolling all 1s is a Catastrophe and has effects beyond failing accomplish the intended goal.

Certain factors such as planning, gear or circumstances can add or subtract from the dice pool.

The difficulty of a roll is set by the Game Master or the opponent of an opposed roll. The base difficulty for a roll is 9, but can be higher or lower depending on the circumstances of the roll. During an opposed roll, the opponent rolls first and the result of their roll determines the difficulty of the second roll.

Stages and Initiative

Stages:

A Job is divided into several Stages. The situation in a Stage determine its type and the type of Stage then determines what skills and actions are available to the characters within that scene. The stages are listed below, along with how long a round of that kind of stage lasts.

Prep: 1 day

Social Call: 10 minutes

Heist: 5 minutes

Action: 1 minute

If multiple scenes are taking place at once, start at the smallest unit of time and resolve until it reaches the threshold for the next highest scene. If a scene resolves before it exceeds the threshold then consider it a full round of the next highest unit of time. For example, 2 Heist rounds equal 1 round in a Social Call, but 3 Heist rounds equal 2 rounds in a Social Call.

Regardless of the Stage, characters may take two types of actions:

Bolster: Skip your turn, but add +1k0 to the next roll a character of your choice make. If they don't make a roll on their next turn, they lose this bonus.

Wait: Skip your turn with no additional effects.

Initiative

If multiple groups are competing or the order in which things happen is a factor in a given scene, then roll Initiative as a group. How the group rolls initiative depends on the scene they are taking part in. Listed below are the type of rolls required to determine initiative and their corresponding scenes

Heists and Prep: Brains+Planning

Social Call: It+ Size Up

Violence and Foot Chases: Muscle+ Athletics

Vehicle Chases: Fingers+ Driving

Once the group rolls for initiative, the Game Master gathers the totals from the rolls and writes them down from highest to lowest, marking which specific side of the conflict the value belongs to. These values create the Slots that characters then use to take their turn.

At the highest value, the person or people responsible for playing the owning faction choose a character to take their turn in that slot. Once their turn is over, it moves down to the next highest slot. Once all the available Slots have been used to take a turn, the round is over. Normally, each character involved in that specific conflict must claim a Slot each turn, however, members of the Crew have access to a Focus Round.

During a Focus Round, a particular character may claim as many slots as other players on the crew are willing to give them. A character may only take one Focus Round per session.

Abilities and Skills

Muscles: Violence and unsubtle physical actions

Shooting: Governs the use of firearms and other projectile weapons (Action)

Hand to Hand: Governs the use of unarmed and melee weapons (Action)

Athletics: Used from swimming, climbing, running, lifting, and all manner of physical activity as long as subtlety is not the main concern (Action/ Heist)

Intimidate: Influencing others through threats and causing fear (Social)

Resist: Used during violence to avoid damage by taking cover or dodging. (Action)

Explosives: Used for the production and implementation of explosives, planted or thrown. (Action/ Heist)

Fingers: Daring and subtle physical actions, technical skills

Driving: Use and control of automobiles and stormers in stressful situations (Action)

Cat Burglary: Used from swimming, climbing, running, lifting, and all manner of strenuous physical activity as long as the main concern is subtlety (Heist)

Palming: Pick pocketing and other sleight of hand tricks (Heist)

Sneak: The capacity to conceal oneself while not exerting oneself physically (Heist)

Lockpicking: Knowledge of how to force simple locks open (Heist)

Build: Construction or modification of spaces and devices (Prep)

Brains: Knowledge, Planning and Observation

Mysticism: Mastery of one of the great magical Traditions, as well as general information about arcane matters (Prep)

Planning: The capacity to perform research and run schemes (Prep)

Lookout: General situational awareness (Heist)

Safecracking: Knowledge of the methods used to force open safes (Heist)

Appraisal: The ability to assess the worth of valuables and to detect forgeries (Prep)

Forgery: Knowledge of how to create fake documents and valuables such as art (Prep)

It: Sex Appeal, Social Skills & Social Connections

Connections: Knowledge of potentially useful people, such as fences, and how to reach them (Prep)

Size up: The ability to identify potential marks and to get a read for their loyalties and intentions (Social)

Con: Knowledge of confidence schemes and skills relevant to their execution as well as the creation of disguises and false identities (Social/Prep)

Impress: Influencing people through charisma, talent or sex appeal (Social)

Manipulate: Influencing people through lies and trickery (Social)

Convince: Influencing people through rhetoric and persuading with the truth (Social)

Action Scenes

Violence

Getting The Drop:

If your target is unaware that you are in the same zone as them, you are able to get the Drop. You make a roll with Hand to Hand, Shooting, or Explosives versus the opponent's Training Score. If attacking with fists or a weapon with the Blunt tag, then this is a Subdue roll. If attacking with another weapon, then this is a Murder roll. In either case, add the bonus from any wielded weapon.

While getting the Drop is safer than Gang Warfare, there is still a strong chance of killing your opponent, even if that is not your intention. The goal of these rules is to set a middle group between the harmless knock-out punch seen in fiction and the reality of head injuries.

Subdue Rolls and their results:

Attacker Fails: Target is Aware

Attacker Succeeds: Target is Aware but Unconscious

Attacker Succeeds by 3+: Target is Dead

Attacker Succeeds by 6+: Target is Unconscious

Murder Rolls and their results:

Attacker Fails: Target is Aware

Attacker Succeeds: Target is Wounded and Aware

Attacker Succeeds by 3+: Target is Dead

If the target is Conscious and Aware they may attempt to Flee, which may begins a Chase of the relevant type, Call for Help, which raises the guards' Awareness Scores, or they could Square Up, which may start Gang Warfare. If the target is Unconscious but Aware, they know their attacker's description, although the use of disguises mitigate the danger somewhat.

When getting the Drop on multiple people, any result where the target is Aware or made with a firearm will also make the target's allies Aware.

Gang Warfare:

A measure of last resort for a desperate crew of thieves. Gang Warfare is when two or more people engage in combat where both sides are Aware of the other.

After rolling Initiative as outlined in Chapter 1 (pg XX). After rolling Initiative, everyone rolls Resist with any armour bonuses, and records the number as their Cover Score.

When the round reaches a character's claimed initiative slot there are several actions they can take.

Flee: The character moves to exit the Zone, Every slot between this action and the character's next action gets a chance to join in. If an enemy joins in, then a Chase begins. On the character's next action, they leave the Zone and the Gang Warfare.

Reposition: The character moves within the Zone. This may give them access to different gear or circumstances, but also allows a character to re-roll their Cover Score.

Attack: The character uses weapons or their own body to attempt to harm another character. The aggressor rolls Muscle+the relevant skill with their opponent's Cover Score as thedifficulty.

Skills useful in an attack are Shooting, Hand to Hand, and Explosives. Shooting and Explosives require specific gear to use in combat. If the character is in a vehicle, they can also make an Attack with Fingers+Driving, but must make another Fingers+Driving check to avoid crashing if the circumstances warrant it.

If a character attacks using the Hand to Hand skill, it is assumed they move the distance to their target as part of their Attack. They do not re-roll their Cover Score.

If the character is using the Hand to Hand skill and successfully hits, they can choose to Restrain. A Restrained character cannot Flee or Reposition on their turn. To break free from a Restraining character, the two characters may roll opposed Muscle+ Athletics.

Any Attack in which the aggressor's roll is not a Catastrophe reduces the target's Cover Score by 1. Exceeding the target's Cover Score reduces the value by however much the Attack exceeded the Score.

If the target's Cover Score drops to 0, then they become wounded and any leftover damage is the number of days until they recover.

If the target is already wounded and their Cover Score drops to 0, they are Dead.

Chases

Chases have two scales for Velocity, Speed and Muscles.

Speed is typically used when a vehicle can use its full capacity such as on a road with normal traffic. Vehicles have a set Speed rating. Certain characters, through the use of advanced technology or magic also have a Speed Rating. Their Speed is set by whatever means they obtained it.

Making rolls using Speed involves rolling a pool of Speed+Driving.

If a character is unable to use their vehicles full capacity, they roll Fingers+Driving and are considered to be traveling at Muscles velocity.

Similarly, if someone on foot is granted Speed but is unable to use it due to cramped conditions, they use their Muscle+Athletics and are considered to traveling at Muscles velocity.

Characters traveling at Muscles velocity roll Muscle+Athletics.

Chases begin with the sides rolling initiative as outlined in Chapter 1 (pg XX). Participants roll Resist with any armour bonuses, and records the number as their Cover Score. The GM then sets an initial Distance.

The Distance is how much ground separates the groups. Each chase has one Target and every other participant is considered a Pursuer. If there are multiple people in the Target group and they split up, chasing after each group of Targets is considered a separate Chase. A Target may consist of multiple people, as long as they are moving together. These classifications determine which actions are available to a participant.

Targets may, on their turn:

Attack: A character may attempt to Attack, as in Gang Warfare, during a chase. Attacking with a melee weapon requires a Distance of 0. Attacks against a Vehicle target its Body Score, attacks against a Passenger or Pedestrian target their Cover Score.

Accelerate: This action allows a character to increase the distance between them and their Pursuers. They make an opposed roll versus their Pursuers and if successful, increase the Distance by 1. If there are multiple Pursuers, then each group able to Close rolls. If in a vehicle, only the driver may Accelerate.

Shake: Characters may use this action in a variety of ways, all representing careful maneuvering as a means of deterring their Pursuers. If in a vehicle, only the driver may Shake. The most basic application is entering a crowded space. Participants in the chase then use the rules for cramped conditions. The target may attempt to surmount an obstacle. The Target sets a difficulty and rolls against it. Similarly, their Pursuers also roll against it. If the Target is successful, increase the Distance by 1. If the Pursuers are unsuccessful, increase the Distance by another 1. This action may also be use to dislodge someone who has taken the Board action. The Character rolls Fingers+ Driving versus the Pursuers Muscle+Athletics, if successful, the Pursuer is thrown from the Vehicle.

Escape: This action allows a character to leave a chase victorious. To escape, a character must have distance from their pursuers equal to the fastest Pursuer's Velocity Rating and be able to Accelerate.

Pursuers may, on their turn:

Takedown: Only available to Pursuers at Distance 0. Characters make the relevant opposed rolls. If the Pursuer succeeds, they end the chase, Victorious. If they fail, then Distance increases by 2. If the Pursuer performs a successful Takedown while on foot, they may immediately initiate a hold against a Target. If the Pursuer is in a Vehicle and successfully performs a Takedown, the Target is subject to an immediate Ram attack.

Board: Only available to Pursuers in Vehicles against Targets in Vehicles at Distance 0. This action allows a character to move from one Vehicle to another. The Pursuer rolls Muscle+Athletics versus their Opponents Fingers+Driving. If Successful, the Pursuer is always considered to be at Distance 0 to the target.

Attack: A character may attempt to Attack, as in Gang Warfare, during a chase. Attacking with a melee weapon requires a Distance of 0. Attacks against a Vehicle target its Body Score, attacks against a Passenger or Pedestrian target their Cover Score.

Ram: A ram is a special form of the Attack action, only available to the driver of a vehicle. If the Distance is a 0, then the Pursuer may attack using Fingers+Driving against the Body or Cover Score of the Defender, dealing damage as normal. The attacker's Vehicle grants a weapon bonus.

Close: This action allows a character to decrease the distance between them and their Target. They make an opposed roll versus their Target and if successful, decrease the Distance by 1. If in a vehicle, only the driver may Close. Additionally, if the Pursuer has a Speed Velocity Rating and the Target has a Muscles Velocity Rating, attempting to Close reduces the Distance to 0. On a successful roll, the Pursuer may also attempt a Takedown or Ram.

Fall Off: This action allows a character to leave a chase without having caught the Target. No roll is needed but in the case of a Vehicle, only the driver may perform this action.

Heists

Spots and Zones

Heists take place in a Spot. A Spot is a small area, no larger than a few city blocks. Spots are made up of Zones. Characters begin a Heist outside the Spot and Concealed.

Zones are spaces denoted by a character's ability to move from one point in the Zone to any other point within the span of a single Heist Round. Unless a Tag says otherwise, characters can move through a Zone without a roll, or with a Stealth roll if they wish to remain undiscovered. An Aware Guard in the Zone prevents a character from moving with Stealth.

Zones come with two qualifiers, Tags and Barriers.

Tags denote special circumstances that make a Heist more or less difficult.

Barriers divide Zones within a Spot. Barriers may have one or more Securities. Each Security has a Tag and a Score. The Tag denotes what kind of obstacle prevents movement between zones. The Security Score marks how difficult overcoming those obstacles are.

Zone Tags:

Hazardous: Movement in this zone requires either an Athletics or Cat Burglar Roll

Noisy: Stealth rolls are permitted against Aware Guards

Hidden:Rolls to discover the Layout of a Spot do not uncover the presence of these Zones. Discovering Zones with this tag requires a special roll as detailed below under the heading “Research”.

Crowded: Rolls made with Cat Burglar, as well any Subdue or Murder Rolls cause all Guards in the Zone to become Aware.

Barrier Tags:

Lock: Bypassing requires a Lockpicking roll

Vault: Bypassing requires a Safecracking roll

Height: Bypassing requires an Athletics or Cat Burglar roll

Structure: Bypassing requires an Athletics or Build roll

Guards

Non-Player characters present at the Spot with an interest in keeping people out of the spot or particular zones within it, and/or keeping them away from the Loot are designated as Guards. Guards are mostly built like regular characters, but have two Scores that determine their interactions on the Heist Time frame until they gain the Aware state.

Both of these scores are determined with the following formula:

Score= 3x Kept Dice +(1 per additional rolled die)

Awareness: Tied to the guard's Brains + Lookout Pool

Training: Tied to the guard's Muscle+ Resist Poll

In a Zone with multiple guards, use the highest Awareness score for all.

Research

Research takes place during the Prep Stage and lets the characters discover important information about the Heist. The standard skill for Research is Planning. Planning takes more time but doesn't require risks or payment.

Alternatively, a character may roll Connections to draw on their contacts. This halves the difficulty of the roll but you must pay 1 Reputation per roll made.

Another option, which also halves the difficulty of the roll, is a stakeout. In a stakeout, the characters roll Lookout against the difficulty of their Research goal, but also roll stealth against the Awareness Score of the Guard(s) nearest the edge of the Spot. Failure on the Stealth roll raises the Crew's Heat.

Layout: Base difficulty of 6 with +1 per zone.

Characters wishing to discover a Hidden Zone roll their research skill and declare they are looking for Hidden Zones. If the roll meets or exceeds the rating attracted to the Zones in the Spot with the Hidden Tag, the character discovers them as part of their research.

Mark: Identify people of interest to the Heist. The base difficulty for this roll is 25-(The Target's Connections Skill)

Itinerary: Learn the schedule of a Character or Spot. The base difficulty for this roll is 20.

Schemes

Planning can accumulate Foresight which acts as a specialized currency to be spent on Schemes

When using a planning roll to accumulate Foresight, the threshold for gaining 1 Foresight is 3

Each player can have a pool of Foresight equal to their Brains+Planning

Schemes

1) Ambush- Reposition a member of the Crew instantly within a Spot- 1 Foresight per Zone moved

2) Training- Add dice on action- 1 Foresight per rolled die and 2 Foresight per kept die added

3) Secrets- Allows someone to make a regular Connections, Planning, or Mysticism roll- 3 Foresight per roll

4) Cache- Spend Resources retroactively, if used to purchase gear, the character of your choice gains the items-1 Foresight per Resource spent

5) Blueprint- Add a Zone with the Hidden Tag between two other Zones-If the Zone connects to the edge of the Spot the base cost is 3 Foresight, if not, the base cost is 1 Foresight. In both cases, the cost increases by 1 per Zone the new Zone bypasses.

6) Switch- Allows someone to make a con schemes roll for disguises or a regular forgery roll- 3 Foresight per roll

Social Calls

Loyalties

Loyaties are representative of the ideals and relationships that drive your character forwards. Players have a maximum of 4 Loyalties, one of which is their Prime Loyalty. The Prime Loyalty is the most important connection your character has, something that they will only forgo under the most strenuous of circumstances. Loyalties are short descriptions, focusing on the person or idea and the type of relationship.

Some example Loyalties:

Hatred: Germans

Devoted: Spouse

Devoted: Crew

Hated: Police

Desire: Knowledge

Desire: Ruth the Flapper

Loyalties may be manipulated by others during Social Calls, either changing the regular Loyalties to something different, or switching one of their existing Loyalites with the Prime Loyalty. Characters may only alter one Loyalty per Social Call. A Character may alter one of their Loyalties in the same way at the beginning of a session. Characters can also use their Loyalties in two other ways.

Lean Onto: When Leaning Onto a Loyalty, you are using your connections, or the connections of another to add 1k0 to a roll. Leaning Onto your own Loyalties, you can apply the bonus from any Loyalty of immediate relevance to any type of action. For example, you could Lean Onto your Hatred of Police in a shootout, but couldn't add your Devotion to your Crew unless someone in your crew were threatened beyond the circumstances of the shootout such as being wounded. When Leaning Onto another person's Loyalty, you can only use it during social calls. Furthermore, if you are attempting to alter another character's Loyalties, you cannot Lean Onto the Loyalty you are attempting to alter. To put it another way, you can't use a person's love for their job to get them to take a bribe, but you could use their fear of their loan shark to get them to risk the job they love.

Lean Into: People refuse to compromise their morals, connections, and biases. Leaning Into a Loyalty is how a character can shut down an attempt to manipulate them. If an attempt at pushing an agenda goes against one of your Loyalties, you may Lean Into that Loyalty in order to deny the attempt. The exception to this rule is if someone is trying to alter that Loyalty. The character can still Lean Into other Loyalties that apply. For example: A handsome German man were trying to seduce a married woman. The German man attempts to alter her Loyalty, Devoted: Husband, to Desire: Handsome German. The married woman could not Lean Into Devoted: Husband, but could Lean Into Hatred: Germans in order to negate the pushed agenda.

Social Calls

A Social Call is when one or more parties attempt to push an agenda or agendas on others. This could be something like seduction, bribery, or running a confidence trick.

Social Calls use skills with the Social tag.

To begin a Social Call, roll Initiative as outline in Chapter 1 (pg XX). When you claim a slot on the initiative order, you may either attempt to Read Room, or Push Agenda. After players make their roll, and the results are determined, the group can roleplay however much of the interaction they like, with the goal of reaching the predetermined result.

Read Room: In order to achieve a goal, characters need to know who they need to talk to in order to make that happen. A character attempting to Read Room rolls Size Up versus their opponent's Size Up. If the aggressor succeeds, the character learns the identity of their target. If their opponent succeeds, the aggressor still learns the identity of their target, but the target also learns the presented identity of the aggressor.

If your target has already been identified, you can use a Read Room roll to determine a single Loyalty of your choice, you are able to ask if there are any Loyalties that would impede your current Agenda. If the opponent it aware of your identity, on a failed roll they learn which Loyalty you were trying to uncover. If the opponent is unaware of your identity, they learn it on a failed roll. On a success, you learn the relevant loyalty, but your opponent remains in the dark about your identity or intentions.

Push Agenda: If your character know who their target is, you can then attempt to Push Agenda.

The first step is to set an Agenda. Your Agenda is what you want to get from your target. This is not, for example, seducing the target. Seduction is the means to an end, the Agenda is what you gain from that seduction, it could be as simple as getting someone alone or it could be something complex like convincing them to lend the crew their car.

The next step is to create the Build Up. This stage is creating the emotion state you want in your target. These states are either negative or positive. A failed roll versus your opponent's Size Up yields the negative emotional state for the skill used to Build Up. On a successful roll, you create a positive emotional state. The emotional state is set and cannot be altered until another character attempts a Build Up. Furthermore, if a character is in a negative emotional state, the character responsible for the Build Up that invoked that state cannot Follow Through. If they change their presented identity, for instance, through a disguise, they can attempt to Build Up, or Follow Through.

The skills used in the Build Up and the Positive/Negative Emotional States they create are listed below:

Intimidate: Fearful/Angry

Con: Mark/Wise

Impress: Devoted/Envious

Manipulate: Accepting/Suspicious

Convince: Engaged/Stubborn

To complete your agenda, you need to Follow Through on the Emotional State you, or another character created. To Follow Through you roll Intimidate, Impress, Manipulate or Convince against your target's Read Room. If successful, you achieve your agenda. On a failed roll, their Emotional State changes to the relevant Negative Emotional State, depending on what skill you used.

Emotional States

Accepting: The target buys into whatever lie the aggressor is spinning.

Angry: The target is furious with the aggressor and will resist their agenda.

Devoted: The target wants to be like the aggressor or to be with the aggressor.

Engaged: The target is considering the aggressor's rhetoric and may change their stance on whatever the debate concerns.

Envious: The target hates the aggressor for showing off their talents or being better than the target.

Fearful: The target is afraid of the aggressor and will comply with their wishes.

Mark: The target buys into the Con the aggressor is pushing.

Stubborn: The target is set in their opinion concerning the debated subject and will not accept the aggressor's stance.

Suspicious: The target does not believe the lie or lies that the aggressor tells them.

Wise: The target recognizes the nature of the aggressor's Con.

City of Thieves- A Heistbox System- Part 1

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, I'm going to be posting details about the setting and rules I'm creating for my Heistbox game.

(For details on what a Heistbox is, check aforementioned previous post)

To start off, I'm going to list the game systems I considered before settling on creating my own and a brief reason why I didn't go for those.

FATE (Strange or Core): Narrative, it placed equal emphasis on social, mental, and physical conflicts but didn't do anything special to support the Heist structure. I also didn't want as much emphasis on physical conflicts.

As I've mentioned before, my design philosophy includes the idea that the amount of rules in a game shapes the nature of play. If a game says it is about tense intrigue in an imperial court but only includes detailed rules for combat and leaves intrigue as a set of simple rolls, then the game is really about combat.

I also looked at the Powered by the Apocalypse engine which would have been fairly easy to adapt, just by writing some custom playbooks, and maybe some custom rules. However, I wanted to focus on the structure portrayed in some heist movies, with game rules simulating the cuts between the planning stage and the actual heist. I thought this would be too difficult to do in PBtA.

GUMSHOE has a pair of major issues. It solves one of the problems of the PBtA engine in that the preparedness mechanic could be modified to simulate the narrative structure mentioned above. The downside that GUMSHOE and, in fact, all of the systems listed so far, do not have a complicated set of social mechanics that replicate real-life social systems, which one of my players professed interest in. The second issue is the idea of spends. GUMSHOE is primarily based around the expenditure of points for bonuses or simply to gain certain information. While this plays in nicely to the tactical side of things, I feel as though my current system can do timing based tension better. Also I have concerns about balancing the economy when shifting from the investigation narrative structure to the heist structure.

The Leverage RPG which uses the Cortex Plus system was recommended as a system to look into for heists. While there are some interesting ideas to pull from the book, it's pretty inflexible in setting and roles. There are five roles which function something like character classes, and all of them seem pretty important for play. One of those roles is the Hacker. In a Heistbox with a rotating cast and pre-digital setting, this system just doesn't look like a good fit.

Now, for here on, I'll be describing the setting and rules, but everything here is subject to change as time goes on.

After talking to my players, I've decided on a 1920's Dieselpunk setting. World War I went on longer than in our universe, and I'm thinking that some actions during the war are responsible for less racism and sexism in the era compared to our own universe- as that's not really something I want to include in my game. In addition to the societal changes, it wouldn't be dieselpunk without some weird technology. I'm thinking of having robots programmed with punch-cards (German made-responsible for prolonging the war and keeping the Weimar Republic stable), hovercraft, and hand-held versions of Tesla's teleforce weapons (particle beam weaponry, in essence). I'm also including magic, although it won't be as big a factor in shaping the world as the new technology is.

The basic resolution mechanic is a Roll & Keep system similar to the one I detailed in an earlier post. The main difference is that this one uses pools of d6s. There are no 'exploding' dice, but players can re-roll against a diminishing difficulty- the main resource here is time.

Stats determine how many dice are kept and skills determine how many are rolls. I'm not sure if there is some kind of bonus for being proficient in a skill and characters base pool is determined by their kept dice, or if the rolled pool is determined by stats+skills. I'm leaning towards the latter right now.

I'm thinking of doing initiative similar to the 'slot' system seen in the Fantasy Flight Star Wars games. Players roll to mark places in the initiative order and then everyone fills them as they see fit. Normally everyone must take a turn every round, but I'm thinking of adding in the ability to take what I'm calling 'focus rounds' where a single character can take as many turns in a round as their teammates allow. This would be limited in some way, either by cost, or just a flat once per session/heist.

The stats are:

Muscles: Violence and unsubtle physical actions

Fingers: Daring and subtle physical actions, technical skills

Brains: Knowledge, Planning and Observation

It: Sex Appeal, Social Skills & Social Connections

And here's what I'm thinking for skills:

Muscles:

Shooting

Hand to Hand

Athletics

Intimidate

Resist

Explosives

Fingers:

Driving

Cat Burglary

Palming

Sneak

Lockpicking

Build

Brains:

Mysticism

Planning

Lookout

Safecracking

Appraisal

Forgery

It:

Connections

Size up

Con Schemes

Impress

Manipulate

Convince

As you can see, they're divided up by their governing stat. I wanted to keep the number of skills under each stat equal so no stat is immediately better than others.

In regards to the stats, I've gone for more of an abstract take on them, partially in order to keep them all relevant, but also to cut down on the number of stats. Taken with the small skill list, it should make character creation simple and fast. I wanted fast character creation, to not slow down play too much with the rotating cast. One of my players wanted simple character creation because she sometimes get bogged down with choices in a game like Eclipse Phase or D&D. I'm looking to throw together skill packages in order to streamline character creation even further. Some of these would act as classes, and some would be smaller amounts of skills to piece together in a character. As you might imagine, I'm looking to make character creation a points-buy affair.

So that's most of what I have so far. I have some other ideas, but nothing cohesive right now. Hopefully I'll be able to post more about this soon.  

The Heist Structure and Heistboxes

I can think of three major “plot” structures for an individual game off the top of my head. I put plot in quotations because I think a properly run game shouldn't have plot so much as theme, but then again, I'm a big fan of sandboxes.

The three structures are:

Dungeon Crawl- the core components are combat, exploring and retrieving loot

Investigation- exploration comes in the form of information and social networks and the”loot” takes the form of clues integral to the investigation

The third is a blend of the two styles, the Heist.

Heists usually deemphasize combat and emphasize loot. Like in an Investigation, exploration takes place outside of the “dungeon”. To put it another way, while exploration in a dungeon crawl takes place in the dungeon, with the players/characters slowly learning the lay of the land as they travel through it, a heist typically involves the players/characters getting access to a map of the location before venturing inside. The primary challenge is obtaining information about the location and then using it to plan a route or method of metaphorical attack.

The three styles exist on a spectrum of method to goal oriented, with dungeon crawls being primarily method oriented, investigations blending the two, and heists taking the position on the far right of the spectrum as mainly goal oriented. As an aside, assassinations are structured similarly to a heist, but the end goal is someones death.

What does all this junk mean for a game?

Handouts are important. Especially maps. This gives players information they can all see and reference while planning. As part of this, an easily accessible reference to character abilities is very useful.

Improvisation is back loaded on the part of the GM. The guts of the heist shouldn't be thought up on the spot, as it may make it difficult for the players to generate a plan. Complications and antagonist reactions to the plan may be improvised.

Speaking of complications, in other pieces of fiction, the more the audience knows about the plan of a heist, the more things are going to go wrong. To make this a gameable concept, the more the GM knows about the plan, the more complications are going to take place. This could take the form of a token economy, players buy information and the GM uses those tokens to buy complications, possibly in the form of a random roll table.

Heists usually have a complication. Everything can't go smoothly for the players, or there is not challenge during the heist itself. To offset this, consider the concept of the Tilt from Fiasco. While Fiasco games don't usually follow the narrative structure of the heist, midway through the game, it introduces a complication called the Tilt. This is something that helps turn everything on its head. These are short phrases like “something valuable catches fire” or “magnificent self destruction” that guide the players into setting up a situation where everything goes wrong.

Another concept that Fiasco embraces is the flashback. It doesn't come up much in the rules of other games, but it is a perfect way for a character to say “I saw this coming” while keeping the player in suspense.

The GUMSHOE system, with it's concept of the preparedness skill could easily translate into a set-up for flashbacks.

Action scenes aren't as important in the heist model. Think of the Thief video games, combat is dangerous and loud. If you have to fight, you want the advantage over your opponent. So while you could run a heist game using something combat focused like D&D, games focused on investigation might be a better choice as they hopefully inject more detail into the use of skills.

Now that we know what a heist is, what is a heistbox?

Well, like a sandbox game, it is player focused. It is similar to the ocean-centric saltbox in that it is a sub-type of the sandbox structure. A heistbox is a game structure focused around player devised/selected heists and/or games with the heist structure.

In my regular game right now, I'm running a sandbox in the hexcrawl style, where wilderness is traversed much in the same way as a dungeon crawl. I chose this style because it allowed players to drop in and out without disruption to the overall flow of the game. A major facet of the game is that the players wanted to create an organization, in this case, a guild of adventurers.

A heistbox is the perfect setup for this. There are multiple examples in fiction and real life of criminal organizations: the crew from a heist movie like Ocean's 11, organized crime families, gangs, thieves guilds, and so on.

The framework of a criminal gang also makes it easy for players to slip in and out of the game. The idea of a gang comes with the implication that there is a headquarters, or hideout. My previous sandbox game divided the headquarters role between the town and a central inn/tavern. Town was a safe area, and characters couldn't come to harm during sessions where they weren't present. During play, the characters always started, and planned their activities for the session from this central tavern, it also was the location where they gained information about local events and interacted with some recurring NPCs. My thought for the Heistbox was to combine the two. Since the action of the other sandbox took place in the area surrounding the city, it made sense that the city would be a safe zone. Conversely, the action of the Heistbox takes place entirely in a single city so they cannot be safe there. Additionally, when I spoke to my players about the idea of the Heistbox, one of the notes I made was that they were very invested in the idea of a hideout, and one of them even mentioned the potential for raids. So safety is not an option for anyone present at a session. As for the other players, as thieves and rogues of all kinds, I would imagine personal safehouses and boltholes would be a common investment, making their safety a moot point.

In my previous Sandbox, I made use of the faction turn from the Sine Nomine game line. In between sessions, I used rules to simulate the power struggles of the various factions of the region in order to generate content. While interested, it was time consuming. For the Heistbox, I want to create a set of tools to easily generate Heists, especially at the player's direction. An example of this would be, one player saying “I want to pull a bank heist” or “I want to rob a mafia poker game”. While I could try to predict the wants of my players, or have them wait a session before embarking on the heist of their design, it would be best to have the tools available to generate these situations on the fly. The second system paralleling the faction turn would be something to simulate the power struggles of the local factions. My current thoughts are to create two 'currencies' Reputation and Heat. Law enforcement factions distribute their Heat among the various criminal factions, making jobs harder for them. Criminal factions gain Reputation at the expense of the other factions (representing the transfer of power and standing in the criminal underworld) for their jobs. Jobs would be simple, one chosen per 'faction turn' and from a specific list of general jobs, like burglary, heists, protection rackets, or smuggling. Law enforcement would then distribute Heat and the factions would make a single roll. The players would also interact with this subsystem as a group, build/losing Heat and Reputation based on their performance which would apply to the other factions before they took their turns. These are just my current thoughts and it's likely to change as time goes on.

As I develop the setting and rules for the Heistbox, I'll try to post them here so you get a glimpse of what I'm building in real time, and my process for designing them.

Further Reading/Listening:

Writing Excuses Podcast: http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/06/17/writing-excuses-7-25-writing-capers/

Transcription of linked episoder: http://wetranscripts.livejournal.com/60653.html

Hollowpoint: http://www.vsca.ca/Hollowpoint/

Fiasco: http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/games/fiasco/

Makers of the GUMSHOE system: http://pelgranepress.com/

Sine Nomine: http://www.sinenomine-pub.com/