Technoir Playtest, Part 1
Yesterday, I ran across a new RPG in the making, Technoir. With the playtest material available on the site, I was able to run through a short 2hr solo game today. Since I don’t have a regular gaming group yet, I do a fair bit of solo play, and I use Mythic Game Master Emulator to pass the time. Wonderful tool, I highly recommend it.
Anyway, I figured that I’d give y’all a rundown on my game.
I’m not going to give y’all a run down of the mechanics of the game, since it’s all available for free on the site. I ran this with the only currently complete Transmission, courtesy of Jeremy himself!
For this game, I decided to do a classic Shadowrun type scenario. Someone hires my character to retrieve something. With that in mind, I moved on to chargen.
Character Creation
Creating characters in Technoir is a snap. Pick three training programs, increase your Verbs, and choose three Positive Adjectives (+Adj). My character, Tanner, used to be a soldier, but fell down on his luck and turned to a life of crime.
With that background, I chose the following training programs:
- Soldier: Increase Fight, Move, and Shoot. I grabbed the Tough +Adj, to represent his hardy nature
- Criminal: Increase Hack, Prowl, and Shoot. I also took the Sneaky +Adj, since he’s supposed to be a thief.
- Escort: Increase Coax, Move, and Treat. With this came the Savvy +Adj. I took Escort mainly because I wanted some talking skill (Coax), and the ability to patch myself up (Treat).
Buying Stuff
After I got my Verbs and +Adj, I get to buy stuff! I go for a pistol (stinger), a knife, a jumpsuit (impact armour), and a cybereye. That’s my 10 Kreds.
So after about 15-20 minutes of chargen, I have a character, Tanner!
Coax 2, Detect 1, Fight 3, Hack 2, Move 3, Operate 1, Prowl 2, Shoot 3, and Treat 2. He’s Tough, Sneaky, and Savvy. He has a pistol, knife, jumpsuit, and a cybereye.
Scene 1 - Cyberdok’s Den
The opening scene was the local cyberdok (Dok Petrov, he’s Russian, so Dok has a ‘K’) informing Tanner that the local megacorp, Daedalus Innovation, has just finished their prototype cyberheart—the Pulsecore Alpha. There is an up-and-coming cybernetics corp that wants the new heart to catapult themselves onto the scene. Ironically, Tanner was able to glean the name of the new contender—Cybertronic Systems.
Scene 2 - Jumped in the Street
When he left the meeting, he noticed some thug-looking types trailing him (Rolled Detect+Savvy vs their Prowl of 2. He got a 6). Knowing that they’ve been seen, the two thugs jump Tanner! One thug was a gunman, and the other was a melee bruiser.
While the bruiser closes the distance, the gunman shoots at Tanner. Being as how he was aware, he was able to dodge expertly (Shoot vs. Move). However, the bruiser used the distraction to his advantage, clocking Tanner upside the head (inflicting the -Adj Clocked). Tanner immediately tries to reciprocate, but is unable to see clearly through the haze1.
While Tanner is trying to shake off the haze of being Clocked, the bruiser tries to hit him again, aiming to wind him. Luckily enough, Tanner was able to step out of the way, but was grazed by the gunman (gaining the -Adj Grazed). Getting fed up with being ganged up on, Tanner pulls his knife and stabs the bruiser. The bruiser, with his midsection bleeding, passes out from pain and blood loss2.
The gunman, enraged, shoots at Tanner again, missing. Seeing that things are not going his way, Tanner tries to run for it! The gunman is -Too Slow (that’s my way of saying he takes the -Adj Too Slow) to keep up, so he launches himself at Tanner in a last-ditch effort to stop him from getting away. He manages to -Catch Tanner, who proceeds to fall unconscious due to pain and stress3.
Scene 3 - Rumble in the Hotel
Sometime later, Tanner wakes up in a luxury suite of the local Arcology. He is greeted by the gang leader and his woman. With a little bit of banter, Tanner is able to discern that the gang was hired by Daedalus Innovation to stop the theft of the Pulsecore Alpha and find out who hired them. Fortunately, there was a group of cyborgs that are also after the cyberheart, and they burst into the hotel room to get to Tanner and pump him for information4!
Tanner was able to wriggle out of his rope bonds before the cyborgs stared smashing things. The big cyborg managed to -Wind the gang leader, while the girl was able to slash the cyborg with her knife, causing him to -Bleed.
While the fracas was going on, Tanner managed to weasel his was out of the room. The gang leader tries to stop him, but only manages to get hit foot in Tanner’s way, -Spraining his ankle5. Failing to stop him, the gang leader runs out the room after tanner.
Angered that Tanner got away, the cyborg tries to give pursuit as well. The gang leader’s girl brandishes her knife menacingly, causing him to rethink having that crazy girl at his back.
Meanwhile, Tanner is trying desperately to just run the heck away, dodging people and cleaning carts! The gang leader is too -Slow to keep the pace for long, but won’t give up that easily! The gang leader proceeds to chase Tanner into a conference room.
Since Tanner is trapped in a room with no noticeable exit, the gang leader tries to tackle him. If it wasn’t for Tanner’s jumpsuit armour, he would have been knocked off his feet6. Tanner, no longer in a mood to play games, takes out his pistol and shoots the man. He spends 2 of his 3 Push Dice to make the -Adj Locked. Unwilling to be Hemorrhaging his guts out, the gang leader gives in.
Tanner manages to limp his way back to Dok’s place (remember his -Sprained Ankle is sticky). Luckily, Dok is able to fix him up good, removing the -Adj. Also, Tanner managed to learn some stuffin his fist fighting, upping his Fight from 2 to 37.
1This was actually shown by the dice! Tanner would have hit the bruiser had the Hurt Die not cancelled his regular die!
2Tanner spent one of his Push Dice to make the -Adj Stabbed sticky. In order to prevent this, the bruiser gave in.
3Tanner rolls to outrun the gunman, but his Hurt Dice negate all his Positive Dice. Per the rules for Contentions, whenever that happens, you are forced out of the contention. In this case, Tanner was caught.
4This was Mythic in action! Rolled to see if Tanner could convince the girl to leave.He could (rolled a 33, Chaos was 6), and the result was PC Negative, Imprison Disruption.
5The gang leader spends his only Push Die to make the -Adj sticky, so even if Tanner makes it out ok, he still has a Sprained Ankle.
6Tanner would have been hit by the tackle, but he discharged one Push Die to increase his Move from 3 to 4, thus negating the tackle by the burly gang leader.
7In Technoir, whenever you roll to remove a Sticky or Loked -Adj, you choose one Verb to try to improve. If one of your Hurt Dice roll equal to or greater than your current rating in that Verb, it goes up one! It just goes to prove that what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger!
