So... the inevitable has happened: I have postponed the City of Ghosts Friday Lunchtime Sandbox... indefinitely. It became too disheartening waiting each week only for it never to happen. I'm going to blame the format for this: thanks Luke Gearing!
Anyway, I DO hope to get the same sandbox (basically a PARIAH version of a dungeoncrawl) up and running again soon, maybe over longer sessions and at more sociable hours? Let's see... anyway, in the meantime I've made use of my long Friday lunch break by test-driving Soul Muppet's Gangs of Titan City, and so far have found it to be ideal for solo play. You can read all my reports (as well as other posts related to the game) at this link, which may not be visible on your screen (so scroll to the end).
Some of Ben Brown's very fun art found in GoTC |
In case you don't know, Gangs of Titan City is a sort-of mash-up between Necromunda and Blades in the Dark, in that players control gang members ("gutters") in a grimdark hiveworld (the eponymous Titan City). It's narrative-focused, though probably more on the story game end of the spectrum rather than the rules-light end (though the mechanics are pretty light). It's closer to PBTA than 24XX. I play solo with a notebook, pencils and real dice and write up the sessions from those notes at a later date. So far I have not felt the need to use additional oracles or solo tools with the game book, but that could change.
Read on for more!
2nd Cycle of Play
Gangs establishes a fairly consistent gameplay loop: a "cycle of play" comprises three "phases" as follows:
- The ESCALATION PHASE
- The OPERATION PHASE
- The FALLOUT PHASE
escalation step 1: the montage
Each Cycle of play in Gangs of Titan City begins with the Montage, small slice-of-life vignettes of what the Gutters get up to when they aren’t engaged in the normal violence of their lives.
Because I have the advantage of the narrator's eye view of events, I thought this would be a good opportunity to sprinkle in some other flavour, connected to the events of the previous session. This (I feel) is entirely in keeping with the "genre emulation"/cinematic aspect of this kind of game... besides which, it's just me, so it's not like I can hide information from myself.
We open with fully jack-booted, riot-geared up enforcement mobs (the long arm of the law) cracking down on gang life in New Eden. Both the Bullet Boys and the Misshapers start to feel the tightening of the local judges' grip following the shootout my gutters were involved in last session. Street urchins are rounded up, safehouses are raided as even local capos find they're not immune to this knee-jerk reaction by law enforcement.
Cutting between the truncheon blows we see BUG aka Smiler aka Eagle Owl (all of the gutters have at least three names, none of which being their true identities, of course) knocking seven bells out of someone in a bare knuckle pit fight. He takes a few blows to the head himself, but is ultimately declared the victor. Smiler takes a fistful of paper money as his prize, but leaves it strewn across the bar. For his troubles, Smiler gains 1 XP (he also has the option of removing desperation, but I'm going to let that accumulate for now).
Antony Starr as |
On the very fringes of New Eden's weird Living City, in the Misshapers territory members of Kayvan Hoo's squad are hanging out smoking plasma cigs next to their newly aquired drey truck. They've embellished the smiley face on the side, given it a more professional look. Some of them have begun to make patches of the logo for their clothes. From the shadows, an alarmingly large, mohawk-sporting Bullet Boy (local capo and Smiler's potential rival, Scorgio) processes the information in front of him as best he can.
A darkened room. There is a low, sinister droning thrum sounding, we hear Tarquin's familiar voice scream in agony. A flash of strobe lighting briefly reveals scores of onlookers, all facing the source of the sound, as we hear Tarquin again:
"I know what you done," she intones, voice low and raspy, "...and I'm not the only one..."
Carmen flings the door open: the droning builds to a stunning crescendo, accompanied by industrial-strength metallic percussion and more powerful noise. Upon the stage of Blind Willie's bar stands Tarquin as Madame Villette, the glamorous persona they assume for the purposes of performance art. This shocking piece of expressionist performance poetry is accompanied by a local noise-pank band, much to the astonishment of the small but enthusiastic audience. As the crescendo of noise segues seamlessly into a driving thrash sequence, the crowd begin pogo-ing in unison. Carmen folds her arms, Blind Willie is beaming with enthusiasm.
"Where's Ezra?" Carmen asks.
Willie shrugs, nodding his head in time to the pogo-ing crowd.
Beath them both, in the cellar, Ezra smirks. Despite the background noise and the three feet of concrete, he knows the outcome of his minor prank. He's also levitating a few feet off the ground because... y'know, psion and that. Ezra also clears two desperation.
A few hours later, the bar closed but the night of Titan City, the four comrades convene in Little Titan's street food market to grab some noodles. The area is crowded, full of life and—most importantly—no one has any idea who they are. It's here they plot there next moves.
escalation step 2: the event table
The Narrator rolls 1D6 on the Event Table to determine a meaningful event, representing actions taken by individuals and groups other than the Gang.
I rolled 6: A Wealthy Faction acts. Currently, that means my HyperCorp, based in Arcology 23 but also active in New Eden. I hadn't yet named my HyperCorp, but were thinking of some kind of biotech/narco-pharma conglomerate using Hydrofarms to develop new "medication". I hadn't really thought about them until this point, so picked one of the possible actions from their list [develop a new form of exploitation]. There's really so many ways a pharmacorp can develop new forms of exploitation, but my mind immediately went to "highly addictive drug floods the market".
...and my mind then went to "substance D":
A rotoscoped picture of pretty blue flowers from the animated feature A Scanner Darkly, possibly the only time you'll get Keanu Reeves, Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey Junior and Alex Jones (yes, the struggling rightwing performance artist and presenter of Infowars) in the same cast |
This is a major element to drop into a campaign so this is going to trickle in in steps: stage one is complete, and the faction won't "advance" this action to the next stage until the "wealthy faction acts" result comes up again:
- Blue synth-flower—the most efficient way to develop the organic compounds used in the creation of the most potent form of SUBSTANCE Z is ready for trial in the Hydrofarms of New Eden. Seedlings are shipped into out to large scale test beds. stage complete
- Initial tests will not prove as successful as hoped, but small batches of synthflower are being processed and released onto the streets of Little Titan (through the Ink & Rings gang) as an experiment. A new strain of synth-flower has been developed that looks to be hardier than the initial test crops.
- The hardiest strain of synth-flower is cropped successfully, with a near 100% yield. The Pharmocorp now have a near unlimited supply of the drug, and are able to expand their operation to a city-wide level. An addiction epidemic is about to explode, with terrible consequences.
escalation step 3: gang moves
Choose a Contact or other Faction to offer your services to. They will offer you a Job; work with the Narrator to name a Price (what you get in return) for your help. Alternatively, approach them with a Price, and they will offer you a commensurate Job.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9fUdJdlExU
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.substack.com/
Thank you and goodbye.
Links
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/search/label/Gangs%20of%20Titan%20City
https://soulmuppet-store.co.uk/products/gangs-of-titan-city-1#:~:text=The%20game%20casts%20your%20players,brutal%20and%20uncompromising%20urban%20future.
Alex Jones sings Bon Iver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGAAhzreGWw
Generic Industrial Cyberpunk Tecno playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9fUdJdlExU
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.substack.com/
I'm leaving your comment here for now while I wait for you to explain yourself.
ReplyDeleteOh, they're not going to explain themselves - that's an ad. A lot of work just to leave a tiny link to a place where you can get a computer virus wearing the skin of a football game, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteAh, and unrelatedly - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLILsLBzP4BqihZMDl0GM258sIqW7MZ-nU might be a decent addition to your cyberpunk music.