Monday, February 11, 2008

MOC Sequel: The Sequel

Last night I ran the second session of the MOC sequel. Totally improv. Players rolled up a Morton's List challenge was very quiet, homey and intellectual - they were supposed to explore artful writing. They, of course, gave this the MOC-gang spin, breaking into a building along the moderate zone / corporate zone divide, and reprogramming the businesses big digital sign so as to make it deliver a 30-foot tall message that would no doubt end in general mayhem and some level of fiscal disaster. And then there was this improvised sideline miniplot about a passing courier and the Solo who jumped him.

3 players (plus GM), with 2 out of 3 playing (someone else's) premade characters from the original campaign back in Albuquerque. Normally, we would have played Scion, but Kevin had a crappy day at work, and needed something short, fast-paced, and carrying no long-term consequences if he just blew off steam, so MOC it was. An hour or two into the game, I'd had the PCs witness a hit/shooting just to reinforce the random violence of the 2020 setting.

Instead they turned it around and visited some random violence on the shooter. Kevin played Jeff(who'd only shown up for one or two sessions of the original)'s old fixer character, "El Gato", and nearly got the cat killed. I rolled minimum damage on the head shot. If he'd been one range category closer (and therefore taken a second die of damage) it would have been "game over" for El Gato. Instead the grenade stayed focused on the NPC solo he picked a fight with.

The Courier's Briefcase: After the PCs kill the Solo, they decide to loot, not just him, but also the bleeding-out Corp courier he'd ambushed. The Corp had a briefcase chained to his wrist, and the Solo had blasted it free. The Corp also had a baggy of chocolate candy in his jacket pocket, which the PCs took as well. They make off with the briefcase, and trying to open it, they set off it's alarm and gas-dispenser defenses. Whatever was inside must be important. They crack it open, and find it just has more bags of the identical candy.

Now, in any other Cyberpunk campaign, the fixer would contact a scientist he knew and have them run a full suite of tests on the candy in the briefcase vs the candy in the jacket. That would be the lead-in to a clever mystery plotline about the dastardly schemes of some corporation making addictive / brainwashing / poisonous / nanite-laced / microfilm-filled candy. But this is MOC we're talking about, so instead, the PCs just pigged out.

"I'm a sub-poverty-level hoodlum. I don't care about corporate corruption, and this is better chocolate than I could ever afford!" How true.

No comments: