Author Topic: Red Markets Inspiration  (Read 309613 times)

Cthuluzord

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #45 on: August 20, 2015, 09:41:15 AM »
@Jace

That write up is so helpful! Thank you so much! I can't wait to see more!

trinite

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #46 on: August 20, 2015, 10:34:23 AM »
That sounds fantastic. I won't do a full writeup of the game I ran last weekend, since it's one of the pregen scenarios and thus possibly spoilery. But it sounds like your players had as much fun as mine did!

And for my next game I'm stealing your pennies, nickels, and dimes idea. Maybe use quarters or dollar coins for Will, too. I could see having a little stack of shiny golden dollar coins sitting in the middle of the table would be a good reminder for players to use their Spots! :)
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Tomsawyer

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #47 on: August 20, 2015, 12:11:58 PM »
Incase anyone wanted to see how we managed the tokens in the game Jace ran, I played Grizz by the way.



crash2455

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #48 on: August 20, 2015, 12:14:17 PM »
That's actually a pretty intuitive way to keep track of everything at a table.  I might have to steal that idea for my playtest.

Jace911

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #49 on: August 20, 2015, 12:27:48 PM »
Jace, please, please, please tell me you have a recording of this! That sounds like it was a lot of fun and you wrote it up really well!

Sadly not; our friend with recording stuff wasn't there. :(

@Jace

That write up is so helpful! Thank you so much! I can't wait to see more!

A few other points of interest:

1. During the shootout with the Nazis Tom and I realized that, so long as Grizz had good cover against attacks, the combination of Called Shot and Cover rules (Move to end of initiative for CS, can't be targeted if you haven't fired that round) effectively made it impossible for the Nazis to hit him while at the end of every round he could pop out and snipe one in the head. We weren't sure if this was a bug or a feature, but we agreed that it wasn't terribly unbalanced since all the Nazis would've had to do is make an Athletics check to flank the car the party was using for cover. Fortunately they were gunned down/mauled by an angry German Shepherd before they figured that out. Unless we read one of those rules wrong, which we may have--we had a general policy of "roll with it, look up later" to avoid bogging the table down. I just reread the rules on Called Shot and realized that Tom definitely would have been exposed to gunfire the entire time, whoops! :V
2. For the coin/mat thing, during the climactic encounter at the job site I realized that keeping track of resources with physical tokens also had the benefit of allowing the GM to simply look around the table to see where characters were at with Endurance/Rations and use that to gauge how much to push them, rather than asking every round "how many points do you have?"
3. This might have been due to the small number of players, but although I was worried that negotiations with McCaughen would prove terribly easy and they would make a shit ton of money they were actually hard-pressed just to work their way up to Hazard Pay--they only uncovered one of the client's spots, and he used one of Alpha's plus a Gift to force them back, and Alpha botched his Leadership check at the end so they couldn't move up to Expenses. Obviously one game isn't enough for a judgment call, but my first impressions of the negotiation mechanic and its "difficulty curve" are positive.

That sounds fantastic. I won't do a full writeup of the game I ran last weekend, since it's one of the pregen scenarios and thus possibly spoilery. But it sounds like your players had as much fun as mine did!

And for my next game I'm stealing your pennies, nickels, and dimes idea. Maybe use quarters or dollar coins for Will, too. I could see having a little stack of shiny golden dollar coins sitting in the middle of the table would be a good reminder for players to use their Spots! :)

I also used quarters to represent the delicious Bounty they were earning--during negotiations as I was placing stacks on the slider I could practically see them salivating, and when they scavenged more out in the Legs they gave a little cheer when I added those to their growing pile. I really think having physical representations of their reward reinforced the experience for them, and I'm definitely using this idea in all the other games I hope to run!

Incase anyone wanted to see how we managed the tokens in the game Jace ran, I played Grizz by the way.



This was taken pretty early in the session--by the final encounter Grizz was completely out of rifle ammo, most of his first aid kit, and was digging deep into his rations to keep himself going.
« Last Edit: August 20, 2015, 12:31:33 PM by Jace911 »

trinite

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #50 on: August 20, 2015, 01:41:39 PM »
Yeah, sweet! Love those mats. I could see those as a stretch goal, or included as a player aid in the book.
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Tomsawyer

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #51 on: August 20, 2015, 02:03:10 PM »


I also used quarters to represent the delicious Bounty they were earning--during negotiations as I was placing stacks on the slider I could practically see them salivating, and when they scavenged more out in the Legs they gave a little cheer when I added those to their growing pile.

It was also super disapointing to loose half of them when we had to abandon the job. Luckily we got our hazard pay but still :(

Jace911

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #52 on: August 20, 2015, 03:24:28 PM »
You guys made 23 Bounty total, and splitting it between the two of you that meant you made a profit of 4 Bounty (Mal's Upkeep dropped from 10 to 9 because she lost her UbiqSpecs but kept the military shotgun), and Mal probably burned her whopping share of 2 Bounty on medical bills (5 Killing to the right arm, 1 Killing/9 Stun to the chest, 1 Killing to the right leg).

So it was pretty much a wash, but at least you didn't lose money! Now all they have to do is find a replacement negotiator and third team member. :V

EDIT: In retrospect I also goofed when dishing out Humanity damage, particularly for Alpha--I was making him take Stress for seeing Intern in danger when it should have been Detachment, and the check that made him Crack definitely should have been Detachment since he was panicking about his comrades abandoning him to the Casualties and the sniper.
« Last Edit: August 20, 2015, 04:06:55 PM by Jace911 »

The Lost Carol

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #53 on: August 20, 2015, 06:33:53 PM »
@Jace that write up was awesome! Great job! I hope the games I run are even half as good. And good idea for the table mat counter.

@pigsinspaces Your Hollywood Squares idea... I love it. I wish Our campaign was anywhere near California. That would be a great one shot
« Last Edit: August 20, 2015, 10:14:18 PM by The Lost Carol »
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clockworkjoe

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #54 on: August 21, 2015, 03:00:59 AM »
It would be interesting to think about takers on a macro level - clearly the average taker job cannot be as hard as that job otherwise there would be no taker groups. If that was the average job, no one would take it, unless it could pay for your retirement in of itself - in which case there's no taker group after the job. Taker groups are an investment of resources that could be spent on other things as well.  These jobs must be the best opportunity for them or there would be no taker culture/industry.

Of course on the other hand, Only one group has PC halos and they are the special group that gets the worst and weirdest jobs in the entire Loss. They get the unique/legendary jobs. But can you make a career of that?

What is an easy job? What is a hard job? What kind of return does an average group get? How long do they stay in business before death or retirement? How many groups operate in a single region?

These are things to think about when running Red Markets.

KillItWithFire

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #55 on: August 21, 2015, 09:47:30 AM »
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maunsell_Forts



Long abandoned WWII army and navy forts, built in the Thames and Mersey estuaries. Decommissioned in the 50's, hosted pirate radio stations in the 60's, recently declared unsafe, though there seems to be some sort of conservation effort.

Sounds like a highly defensible enclave with boat access to some of England's major waterways.

Or maybe some yahoo hauled in a transmitter and is now broadcasting on Radio Free ZMBI.
« Last Edit: August 21, 2015, 09:53:41 AM by KillItWithFire »
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Jace911

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #56 on: August 21, 2015, 05:56:25 PM »
When I run that game eventually for another group the only major change I'll make is cutting down the horde at the end to 3-5 randomly rolled Mobs of Casualties spread around the storage unit--that way there are still enough to be a concern, but the players will treat them more like the boobytraps to avoid while attempting to deal with the sniper.

There was also going to be another Taker group that tries to undercut the players, and then if snubbed in negotiations shows up at the site to try and rub them out (Only to run afoul of the sniper and his traps as well) but when I saw that they were struggling just to reach Hazard Pay I decided not to include them. In retrospect they probably would have been glad for the accidental assistance, even if it resulted in less pay. :V

crash2455

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #57 on: August 21, 2015, 06:04:07 PM »
Did you use the Contract Generator or do that one wholecloth?

Jace911

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #58 on: August 21, 2015, 06:40:41 PM »
Did you use the Contract Generator or do that one wholecloth?

I made the whole thing from scratch when I found the picture of the storage unit online and thought "that would make a fantastic post-apocalyptic fort." Then I fiddled around and came up with the job, the Legs, the complication with the sniper, and the background conflict with Prosperity on my own too; if I ever make use of the Contract Generator it'll be for random ideas or inspiration rather than its intended purpose...

crash2455

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Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« Reply #59 on: August 28, 2015, 05:46:41 PM »
Had some shower thoughts about Red Markets and counter-culture in heavily impoverished socioeconomic climates (like the Cuban movement Los Frikis).

Given the "safe," but generally unpleasant climate of the Recession and the terrible conditions of places like Free Parking villes, combined with C-Bait takers who hopped the fences to try and make ends meet in the recession, the idea of hopping the fences and leaving the relative safety of the Recession for the relative freedom and liberty of the Loss grew among the less well-to-do and those frustrated by the militarized Recession government.  With a global communication platform like Ubiq to talk and plan anonymously, the resentment and talk eventually turned to action.  When the first few small groups jumped the fence and rafted their way to an uncertain future, the Bankruptcy movement was born.

In the few years following the crash, korrupt (formerly 'krupt, formerly Bankrupt, etc) enclaves have begun to populate the loss (and more than a few have fallen horribly).  Ideals obviously vary from place to place, but in general, they reject the notions of government or currency, generally relying on some form of emergent leadership, collectivist / communalist values, barter and favor exchanges, and more than a little "take what you want" and "do as thou wilt" philosophy.