AFFRAYER

 

The last entry in the trilogy of vaguely scifi capsule games. 

CW: A whole heaping of utopian fascist aesthetics, as is appropriate to the genre. 

All images taken in situ at the Wallace Collection in London. 

You are a teenager, or maybe in your early twenties. Your home is under threat - actually the whole planet is under threat, everything you love, everyone you know, all of their small human dramas - and so you have joined the military as a volunteer, to defend everyone, all of this. 

They gave you a sharp blue uniform, and six months of training on their bases on the moon. The battlefields that will decide the fate of every human will not be on earth. Your training is with the weapon, the body, which is really two bodies, one hot and one cold - but we will come back to this later. 

While you train you get to know the other volunteers. They are people of all kinds, from every class and age and nation imaginable. They are the whole world, and they bring with them its chaos and its human dignity. You all speak Common, of course, just like your parents did. Training with the body is gruelling, but the military have lots of practice making people like you into soldiers. 

When you are ready, you and your section (who you have come to love, in your way - they are soldiers of the universal polis, whose spoil is our common birthright, and they are red-handed and red-eyed killers, like you) will be attached to great relativistic sling engines and fired out to blasted airless warzones deep inside the territory of the enemy. 

Watch them in the minutes before the drop. They are calm, checking equipment and diagnostic screens, turned away from you, contours of the faces just visible in the soft light of the instruments, insulated in their quiet competence. They seem ageless this way; painted icons; terrible angels holding burning invisible swords. In these empty moments you love them all, and your love is wide, unmoored from any particularity (their faces are all so alike), and you love yourself too because you are one of them, caught up in the great, anonymous choir that will sing ruin or victory; now, in this moment and for all time; now, thirty seconds to drop; you wait for the call from your captain, it will come, now; ten seconds, now... 

The empty air rushing past and the roar of the thrusters beneath you and the whine of your terrible weapons, your apocalyptic weapons, screaming as they reduce the world beneath you to smoke and fire and glass, as they wipe your enemies away; your enemies are chaff before you and the others. You are angels. Carriers of the terrible sword that cleaves what is eternal from what cannot to allowed to survive, that makes your declaration to history, for all time. 

But your foes are terrible too. They are the dragon, the one without grace, the one without shame, with a hundred heads and a thousand catching claws. You can kill a hundred million of them and the rest will erupt from the earth to drag you down, to tear you to pieces. Keep firing then. Keep firing, and be quick about your murderous business. 

Your missions are simple: meat grinder, kill 'em all, search and destroy. Everyone has a punch chute back to the sling craft, which activates once the mission is complete. Only once the mission is complete; there were too many pilots punching early, too many objectives failed, too many bad futures in the simulations...

If you are lucky you will be sent home to earth, to a fate uncertain, hundreds or thousands of years into the relative future. If you are unlucky there will still be work to do here and now. The wait for new orders can be weeks or months. The probe heads have not yet developed the means by which to attack sling craft, so you will be safe for a time, even bored, which when it happens seems nearly unaccountable.

PILOTS

You have two bodies, the cold body and the hot body. The cold body is the one that sits in the machine shop, gorgeously at rest; the one that you can tune and amend to your design. 

The hot body is the one that drops, autoguns blaring their staccato retort, flares blossoming from the shoulders in ribbons of fire, thrusters burning the earth to glass, scorched and vibrating and killing and coming to pieces under its terrible acceleration. 

The pilot is not quite a body at all, more like a mind, or a shadow, or a hallucination. A pilot is more attuned to the COLD or the HEAT, with repercussions in the rules to follow. When you create your character, this is your first choice. 

The second regards the other players in your game, henceforth your squad. You all know each other, there is a good chance you all like each other. Choose at max one person on the squad that you don't like: this can be cold disdain, a personality clash, or even open hatred, but it will never get in the way of your professionalism - you are soldiers, and you rely on one another in combat. You still trust this person with your life. Choose any number of squad mates that you desire, and any number you are in love with.

This is the description of your pilot. A tendency towards COLD or HEAT, and a web of monodirectional relations with your squad mates. Your squad is made up of other PCs, in whose webs you will feature in various ways.

THE COLD BODY

The terrible weapon that you have been trained to use. It rests in the hangar, attended by technicians and specialists who will maintain and outfit it to your specifications. 

The cold body starts with:

• A frame, with 10 integrity (or 11 if your tendency is towards COLD). If this drops to zero the pilot is killed: crushed and maimed as the steel shell deforms, burned to death in reactor leaks, transpierced by kinetics that defeated the armour, torn into pieces by the force of explosions, simply vaporised. There are a million ways to die inside the body.
• Four integrated point-defence rotary autocannons, each with rounds for ten turns of continuous fire. When fired on the probe head swarms each autocannon deals d4[1000] casualties per turn of fire to a max range of 8km, or 2d4[1000] within 3km. 
• Thrusters that can hurl it around the battlespace like a missile - this can be used defensively, to get you out of harms ways, and offensively, crashing down amidst the thickest frays atop a column of plasma. You get infinite jumps, but at anything lower than 10 integrity, you must spend a single point of integrity to make jump. Whenever you land or take off using your thrusters, everything within 3km is disintegrated by the plasma backblast. Each jump has a maximum range of 30km. 

You have five requisition points to build it out from the following list. You cannot take mulitples of single options unless they are marked as Light Weapons. If your tendency is towards COLD, you can upgrade three of these options (and can spend multiple upgrades on a single option), if HOT you may only upgrade one. Requisition from the Specials category can only be taken by pilots with a COLD tendency. 

For each successful mission you complete, you are awarded requisition - usually one, maybe more if your performance was exemplary. 

Weaponry

• Assault Rifle. Deals 2d8[1000] casualties per turn, to a range of 10km. Ammunition: 10 turns of fire. Light Weapon. Upgraded: ammunition for 15 rounds or range to 15km. 
• DMR. Deals 1000 casualties per shot fired, per turn, to a range of 30km. Can be set to fire once, or three times, per turn. If fired once, and the hot body has not moved this turn, can be used to kill a Leaderform (see below) within range. This can only be done once per turn, no matter how many DMRs you are holding. Light Weapon. Ammunition: 15 rounds. Upgrade: holds 30 rounds or range increased to: 60 km. 
• Shotgun. Deals d8[1000] casualties per turn to a range of 10km, 2d8[1000] within 5km, or 3d8[1000] within 3km. Light Weapon. Ammunition: 10 rounds. Upgrade: Ammunition: 30 or stepping each range profile up by 2km. 
• Rotary Cannon. deals 3d8[1000] to a range of 20km. Cannot be fired in the same turn as a jump. Ammunition: 20 rounds of fire. Upgrades: 40 rounds of fire or range to 25km. 
• Plasma Lance. Lays down an AOE in a 90 degree cone, 5km long. Destroys everything in the AOE. Ammunition: five rounds. Upgrades: ammunition for ten rounds or range of cone to 8km long or the AOE gets Destroyer. 
• Artillery. Targets a point within 40km (no LOS required), then lays down an AOE with a 2km radius. Fire is accurate to within 10 - [integrity] km. Everything inside the radius is destroyed. Cannot be fired on the same turn as jumping. Can fire up to three rounds per turn. Ammunition: 15 rounds. Upgrades: Target point range increases to 50km or ammunition to 30 rounds. 
• Mines. Lay down a number of atomic mines between 1 and 3. If enemies path over this square, place an AOE of 5 x [number of mines] km, and destroy everything caught in the blast. Ammunition: 12 mines. Upgrades: add Destroyer to the AOE or upgrade ammunition to 24 mines. 
• Atomics. Targets a point on the map, at any range (no LOS required), then lays down an AOE with a 10km radius and Destroyer. Everything inside the radius is destroyed. All hot bodies on the map take a point of integrity damage when an Atomic goes off. 1 round. Upgrades: 15km radius or 3 rounds. 

For the above:

• Light Weapon means that the gun can be held and fired in one hand. You may take multiples of these weapons and fire both on your turn, if you wish. 
• Destroyer means that even very tough opponents, which would usually take sustained fire to bring down, are destroyed if they fall under the AOE. 

Defensive Installations

• Armour. +2 Integrity. Cannot be taken more than thrice. Upgrade: +4 integrity. 
• Shielding. You no longer lose integrity for jumping, until you are reduced to 5 integrity, after which point you lose 1 point for jumps as usual. You do not suffer integrity damage from atomics use unless you are below 5 integrity. Cannot be taken more than once. Upgrade: the 5 integrity thresholds are lowered to 3 integrity. 
• Flares. You are not targetable by enemy fire while flares are firing. You may fire them for free, and they function until the beginning of your next turn. You have enough flares for three rounds. Upgrade: enough flares for six rounds.

Specials

• Range Finders. All range bands are increased by +2km. Can be taken more than once. No upgrades available. 
• Sedative Injectors. You auto-pass a single panic check. Cannot be taken more than once, but contains infinite uses. You must declare use before rolling a panic check. No upgrades available. At the mission end, roll a d6. If the result is less than the number of Sedative Injectors used, your pilot is dead on arrival at the sling craft. 
• Advanced Thrusters. Your thruster jump range is increased by 2km. Can be taken more than once. Upgrade: you can make a 'jump' in place once per turn to boost dodge out of the line of fire of incoming projectiles. This costs you integrity as normal, and nullifies a single ranged attack. You can boost dodge a number of times per turn equal to upgraded Advanced Thrusters.

THE HOT BODY

Once you jump in, the only way out is through. 

Play takes place on a topographic map, 100km x 100km. You will see emergence points and Engines marked on the map, as well as elevation information as per usual for topo maps. 

You may drop into any square you wish, and you destroy everything within 3km when you do so, as though you just jumped to it (you did, from orbit). 

Each turn is composed of a Comms cycle, an Orders cycle, a Computation cycle, and an Enemy Movements cycle. 

The Comms cycle is simple. You have a timed window in which to discuss your plans and declare intentions with your squad mates. This might be an open discord chat, a channel set aside for the purpose, or anything else. Each turn's Comms cycle is usually one minute long. Be explicit, clear, and efficient with your intentions and instructions - friendly fire is a killer. 

Pilots with a tendency towards HEAT get an extra minute of comms. 

A note about the comms cycle: during a battle, you are not able to communicate with one another in universe outside of the comms cycle. This is a high trust covenant thing that players will need to buy into for this game to work.

After the Comms cycle, the Orders cycle begins. All pilots give their orders to the DM - generally jump instructions with coordinates, and weapons firing solutions, either on landing, or from their current position if not jumping. These orders are not visible to other players. The game consists in making your plans, then inputting your orders, and hoping that everyone has the same plan in mind. 

The DM will then compute turns, per the plans submitted, update the map that everyone has access to, and calculate damage on enemies and friendlies, if any. 

Players caught in AOE suffer d6 damage to their integrity. Players caught by Destroyer weapons are vaporised. 

Finally, the DM will take the turn for the enemy (as described below), and calculate any appropriate damage against player bodies, before starting the turn cycle anew. 

PLAYER ORDERS

Each turn declare whether you want to jump, then assign targets to your weapons. Nearly all weapons (artillery and atomic are the exceptions) require LOS to fire. This means that there is no intervening terrain if you draw a straight line from you to your target. You can choose to land on any specific elevation inside the square you jump into, but you cannot change this elevation once you have chosen it without moving or jumping on your next turn.

For each point of integrity below five, your jumps will scatter than many potential kms. 

Other than jumping, your mobility at the scale of the map is limited. Your hot body can jump and sprint extremely quickly for a machine of such size and weight, but this will still only move you 1km per turn at max. 

Your four integrated autocannons will fire on the nearest targets automatically unless you override them manually, or switch the system off (this can be done per gun if you wish, say, to conserve ammunition). 

All other weapons are targeted by you. You can fire as many weapons as you want each turn, provided you have the hands to do so. Artillery, mines, and atomics do not require hands to fire. Rotary cannons and plasma launchers require two.

Every time a player dies, your body takes five or more integrity damage in a single turn, or a swarm reaches you, you must test for panic. You roll a d6, with a -1 for each of the following:

• Players killed.
• Panic tests already failed.
• Any of your weapons are out of ammunition (this only applies once, even with multiple weapons dry). 
• Each additional player who has failed a panic test this turn. 

If the number is 0 or below, you panic for a second and forfeit your next turn entirely. 

If someone you hate is not panicking, you may choose not to panic. 

If someone you desire is panicking, you may choose not to panic. 

These bonuses can only be used once (twice if your pilot tendency is towards HEAT) per mission, per person. 

You have a +1 to panic rolls per person you love who is still alive. You have a -1 to panic roles per person that you love who has been killed. 

PROBE HEAD SWARMS

The main forces of the enemy, poorly understood by earth scientists and only glimpsed in flashes and snatches by pilots in combat. The probe head swarms travel from system to system extinguishing stars. Their great terrestrial engines facilitate their travel across galaxies - these are typically your main targets. Without the engines, the swarms are unable to project outwards to the energy sources that they use to sustain themselves - they will starve, or go into hibernation, or suspended animation, or something. Whatever this state is, it renders them non-threats to the earth of the distant future. 

A swarm is composed of hundreds of millions of enemy soldiers. When hot bodies start crashing down out of atmosphere, the probe heads begin their swarming behaviour in defence of the engines. 

A probe head swarm has an emergence point. There will usually be about as many emergence point as there are hot bodies on mission. 

Probe heads start pouring out of the emergence point, and advance at a rate of d6km per turn towards the nearest threat that they detect. This leave behind a 'trail' of swarm bodies - swarms advance like long tentacles on the map. If a 6 is rolled, the swarm splits into two, which both advance 3km towards the nearest threat - the second swarm splits from whatever point on the swarm 'tentacle' is closest to a PC. 

As the swarm is wounded and pushed back, it will start to 'wake up', resulting in more d6s rolled for advance rates per turn (also resulting in more splitting). These points are detailed below, under Leaderforms. 

Weapon damage is given in number of 1000s of probe heads destroyed. For each 1000 killed, the swarm is pushed back one kilometre. 

If a probe head swarm reaches a player, their hot body immediately loses d6 integrity, with a +1 for each time the swarm has 'woken up'. 

Artillery and other AOEs can obliterate large sections of probe head swarms behind their actually mobile 'front'. When this happens, the swarm is immobilised until the back line of the swarm catches up to its now isolated front elements. Swarms prioritise moving towards isolated elements and enemy hot bodies equally - they will move towards whatever is closest. 

Fighting probe heads is like damming rivers. You will never be able to kill all of them. You are in a race against time. 

LEADERFORMS

Each probe head swarm is directed by a Leaderform. It is located at the furthest edge of the swarm. On each emergence, and each splitting of the swarm, roll on the table below to determine the type of Leaderform. 

Leaderforms are typically invulnerable to weapons fire - the exceptions are Destroyer AOEs, and DMRs. 

If a swarm's Leaderform is destroyed it is effectively isolated, as per the rules given above for AOE weapons. Another Leaderform will pick it up soon, and when it does its own swarm immediately advances d6km. 

Leaderforms:

1. Horror. While this Leaderform is on the map, all panic rolls are at an additional -1. 
2. Ranged. Fires on the closest body within 40km as it moves, dealing d3 points of integrity per turn. 
3. Slaver. Adds +1 to its swarming movement rolls. 
4. Alarmer. Adds an additional 'Wake Up' counter to the swarm if killed. 
5. Tank. Absorbs d6[1000] casualties per turn for its swarm. 
6. Critical. Explodes when killed, per the rules for Atomics. 

ENGINES

This is the player objective - you are here to cripple and destroy projection engines, such that the probe heads will be unable to make their movements across the galaxies. 

Each map will have a set number of engines (and map 'difficulty' will usually directly correlate to the number of engines you have to destroy). Each engine will be built from a number of components (each kms long) that will need to be destroyed, generally in sequence, to turn them critical. Most engine components will have an integrity score like your hot body, which is reduced by your weapons as normal (1000 probes heads of damage is = to one integrity for this purpose). Destroyer AOEs will delete them the same as they do everything else. 

For each engine destroyed, the swarm will Wake Up, and roll an additional d6 on their swarm movement rolls. 

DOWN TIME

If you survive your mission, you will punch the chute and exfil back to the sling ship. 

You and your surviving squad mates have a few months to kill time and swap spit.

You may choose to mix your web of relationships as you wish, and are encouraged to RP any changes.  

DEGRADER: after action report, new findings, continuations, etc.

 

I have finally run a game, breaking the long hiatus. It wasn't a Barony thing - it was DEGRADER, a small, tight, nasty, adversarial pbp wargame focused on sniper characters who use sensor arrays and scifi super guns to respectively locate and then summarily instagib one another. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: beloved Archon has recently written up a DEGRADER extraction shooter map, much to my delight. It is excellent, and you can find it here. 

These were the map we played on:

The ground level, no ceilings.

The catwalks and fluid tanks above, suspended by chains.

I think the playtest went very well. There are some large caveats to that statement, which I'll get into, but by and large the concept worked as planned.

• The mixture of very low info about other player movements (DEGRADER is played in nearly pitch darkness), ultra high lethality (players were routinely deleted from across the map without any warning), and ignorance around the potential patterns and fields of enemy sensor use built a horrible, paranoid little combat space, in which people were try to manoeuvre and jockey for advantage as best they could with limited information. Exactly the vibe that I was aiming for in the writeup. 
• The core loop of sensors spreading across the map, locating ping of heat/movement/noise/heartbeats etc., and the the Superlative Weapons doings their thing, worked great. The specifics were not as clean or tuned as they could have been, and there will be many changes here (specially on sensors and their usability) for the second test, but in the broad abstract, this worked as well as I could have hoped for. 
• People seemed to enjoy it! I think that everyone who played had a good time with it. The two players who got fucked over by DM error were understandably salty - in a game this unforgivably zero sum DM error is a really big deal - but both have expressed interest in try V2 of this thing. I have extremely forgiving players, whom I love :')
• The flavour of play was good. Grimy, desperate, industrial, mediated hyper cat-and-mouse. Good. 
• It was also pretty fun to DM, although quite involved. I used dungeon scrawl to put together the maps, and then powerpoint to compute player turns. It took some time, but it was gratifying to see all the moving pieces come together. In play it looked something like this:

The shot heard 'round the world.

With five of these players running around, laying their gear down, trying to maximise coverage, trying to spoof noise or heartbeats, throwing C4 at one another, setting triplines and other traps, it became a pretty lively and complex little play space. 

A quick blow by blow of the three main 'phases' of the playtest:

• Phase One: Setup. Players laying down sensors, getting their bearings, listening for movement, laying snares and explosives, and generally exhibiting appropriate levels of extreme paranoia. Marked in particular by BIRCH-2-4 (played by the lovely Archon) laying down an absolutely ridiculous penetrating heat scanner that covered nearly a quarter of the map, and wiring it up in their little sensor nest. This scanner picked up Falconer on the second turn, and then Revenant the turn after that, which resulted in the first shot and kill of the game, which in turn lead into the insanity of phase two. 
• Phase Two: BIRCH takes the shot on Revenant, taking first blood. By absolute coincidence, COCKROACH happens to switch on their particle sensor and point it at BIRCH that same turn, giving them a useable ping with which to fire in turn. CUPID lobs c4 down into the room that BIRCH fired from, but since BIRCH moved after firing they are just out of the kill zone. This doesn't save BIRCH from COCKROACH's pistol shot - they become the second casualty. As all of this is going down, Falconer uses a grapple line to ascend to the catwalks on the second level, and make a fateful decision to lay down a movement sensor by hand instead of using their device catapult. This means that CUPID strays directly in the sensor zone on the turn that she makes to throw her bomb down range, which then results in her getting shot in the back by Falconer. The C4 on her rig is detonated, and Falconer is only 5ft from the kill radius - they make their save against the shrapnel, and phase two is ended, leaving only two surviving Degraders: Falconer, and COCKROACH.
• Phase Three: both surviving Degraders now have useless pistols that need recharging, and no idea where the other is outside of extremely vague directions. COCKROACH spends their time laying down spoofers in the vent system that they occupy, while Falconer belays back down to ground level, sprints to a charging station for their pistol, and sets a drone with a very long range directional heat scanner. They sends the drone up, and hover it slowly towards the other side of the map where COCKROACH is sneaking away from the carnage of phase two using the vents. Ultimately, Falconer's drone catches COCKROACH in the vent, and COCKROACH is killed by Falconers pistol shot. 

This is how it went down in play. There were several mistakes that I made in running, which had major deleterious effects on the game. 

• The first and larger systemic problem was that I calculated the directional cones wrong: I used corner to corner counting to calculate their range, which resulted in very large triangles of coverage - hugely more area that the more appropriate 'pie slice' shape would have generated. I realised this early on, but had already calculated several turns using the bad method, and didn't want to retroactively change the rules of the game mid-play. This directly lead to two early pings, and more generally shaped the game meta exclusively around long range, directional, penetrating scanners - with this setup they were really the only winning move. Lots to learn from this (breakdown further down this post), but in the first instance calculating as pie slices would make a large difference in efficacy. My apologies to Revenant and his player AntiTime for getting them killed this way - I was looking forward to seeing what a knife Degrader could do, and they never got the chance to find out. 
• The second large mistake was in the final confrontation. The arena took place in an environment without ceilings, which meant that Falconer's overhead drone had an extremely broad AOE and very high efficacy. When they passed over COCKROACH's location, I awarded them the ping which ended the game, forgetting that COCKROACH was hidden in a vent that absolutely did have a ceiling. Falconer's sensors were not penetrating, and so should not have pinged COCKROACH, rendering the official final result moot. A huge shame, and something I blame myself for. Apologies to COCKROACH and their player Locheil - you deserved a better sendoff!

Outside of these two discrete errors in resolution, there were lots of things that became clear in play, and which will be tightened up for the next round. 

• The first and most obvious takeaway is that penetrating long range scanners are very clearly superior to other options inside these rules. Penetration generally is ludicrously overpowered, and I have several ideas about how to change this for a new version. Thanks to the team of observers in the Observation Deck for chatting through these with me over the last few days!
• Related: the large numbers of scanners, spoofers, and bandwidths on which people can be detected leads to some unsatisfying gameplay: in order for spoofers to be effective, they need to correspond to the scanner type your enemies are using. Since you are making a blind guess at this, they are almost not worth using at all - what you really want to be doing is laying down your own scanner grids more quickly and comprehensively than your enemies. This is not ideal and also has an arbitrary character (inside a ruleset that is already heavily based on arbitrary lethality). You need to have some counterplay.  
• The big change would be reducing the number of sensors, or including more broadly useful, multi spectrum sensors. Combined with depowered penetration, this will hopefully lead to a situation where pings are less binary, and where overlapping sensor fields is important. 
• Data and power cables don't need to be different - finicky in a bad way. 
• Radio and hacking frequencies didn't come up at all - neither did console relays. Would like to find a way to get these better integrated so that this sort of thing becomes a viable strategy. Some of this may be that everyone died before encountering anyone else kit, so no one ever got the chance to switch frequencies. 
• Players should get the map before they pick loadouts. This one is super obvious but didn't make it into this round. A no brainer. 
• The map generally needs to be way way smaller for movement ranges like this. The map we played on was pretty accurate to an irl factory floor, which makes a bad match for a deathmatch between stealth operatives sneaking 20ft per turn. The next round will be in a series of cramped, labyrinthine, borderline domestic spaces, which I think will suit the scale of operations much better. It will also give the knife Degraders more to do than simply sprinting towards pings with a hope and a prayer.
• Related to the above: the map needs way more interactive stuff on it. This one had tanks of fluid and machines than ran variously hot, loud, and kinetic. None of this made any difference at all for the game: the machine were static, which meant that anything moving on any sensor at all was either a spoofer or a player. Good to introduce more noise onto the maps. Sensors generally being less precise will help with this. 

I think that's the breakdown? A V2 of the rules, and a new map/game will be coming soon I hope. 

If you'd like to play, or follow along in the observer deck, reach out to me on the purple or phloxservers o7 o7 o7

DEGRADER post-postscript, notes, gear list

 

Some more working notes and ideas hatched in conversation with the magnificent phloxserver, mostly with Grek and Archon. Following on from this, this, and this. 

Heartbeat and Particle sensors

Heartbeat is hard to spoof, and only keys off Degraders (there's nothing else in the zone with a heartbeat), but has a tight ranged and no penetration. Particle sensors are specifically designed to pick up the emissions that accompany the firing of Superlative weaponry - if you fire Da Big Gun (or the Superlative Pistol, or use a Superlative Knife), you emit these particles for 3 - 5 turns (duration is hidden from you). Particle sensors have far better range than heartbeat sensors. 

Superlative Knife is a flare!

You can use your superlative knife as a flare in your hand if you want! All Superlative weapons are wired into your rig, so you can't throw it. I can't think of a reason someone would want to do this, but you can totally do it!

New Kit: Device Catapult

A torsion powered launcher, capable of launching sensors and other devices along with a sticky payload (a 'goo bomb' in the vernacular). In practice this allow Degraders to shoot their devices in a straight line and have them stick to surfaces without damage.

The Catapult takes up 1INV, can only fire devices of 1/3 INV size or smaller, and must fire them alongside a goo bomb (each of these is an additional 1/10 INV). 

A sensor fired by the catapult functions as normal. If set to scan in a directional cone, that cone always points back toward the firer - this protects the instruments. 

If you shoot another degrader with the device catapult, it does no damage but the target immediately makes a loud noise ping. 

Ghoul Degraders

They do not exist! Degraders are people/cyborgs but they are not gross enough to set off particle sensors. Your Degrader can be hot if you wish it. 

Drone Manipulators

A piloted drone has manipulators on it, and can do anything you can do with your hands. You still can't give the drone your Superlative weaponry, or expect it to fight with a combat knife (it can use the beretta just fine). 

Camera Feed

Your rig can support live viewing of a single camera feed at a time while you go about your turn. 

Movement, Throwing

A Degrader moves 30ft normally, 20ft sneakily, or 60ft at a sprint. 

A Degrader can huck 1 INV worth of gear/explosives/whatever 30ft, and less than this 60ft, with good accuracy. You can't throw something that's bigger than 1 INV. 

Explosives

Explosives are lethal when detonated, to a range of 50ft x INV slots worth of C4. They are dangerous at double this range (1 in 6 chance of death). Interposing cover downgrades both of these one 'step' - lethal to dangerous, dangerous to not dangerous. Degrader rigs are rated for shrapnel but you never want to be fucking around with explosives. 

Explosives destroy terrain by the reasonable fiat of the DM. A Degrader setting off a planned demolition may ask for a breakdown of what they can expect it to accomplish. 

Explosives held in the inventory of a Degrader hit by Superlative weaponry detonate immediately. 

Sensor Upgrades

Sensors always start at 1/3 INV, and all upgrades (penetrating, cascading, better range, better power reqs) upgrade this INV cost, from 1/3 > 1 INV > 2 INV > 5 INV. 

You can also lower this size by one by downgrading their power requirements one step: from light > standard, or from standard > heavy. 

Frequencies

If you set it to a frequency, you rig will auto display all devices that are also on that frequency. A big deal if you discover a device with someone else's frequency, plug it in, and see that they are wearing 5 INV of explosives with detonators primed. 

Team Deathmatch

NEW GAME MODE UNLOCKED. You win if your team are the last ones standing. You don't know who your teammates are and have no capacity to communicate with them, except for a single message that you can write at the start of play, which will be delivered to them by the DM before deployment. 

Both teams have unique insignia on their rigs, and a new 'step' in the close combat altercation rules is introduced: 'check insignia'. If you take this step and the other Degrader does not, you lose automatically. If you both take it, you are both rewarded with knowledge of the insignia worn, and may assess your next actions accordingly. 

Degraders can remove insignia, wear false insignia taken from enemy corpses, etc., at their discretion. 

All Degraders can attach a single charm to their insignia on character creation, like a backpack charm. This has no effect on play, but will be noticed at the 'check insignia' step of a close combat altercation. It may also make your Degrader happy, or comfort them in the field :) 

&c. It's a stressful job!

Thoughts About Immersion

I was thinking last night about Sam's Cataphracts maxim: the immersion that comes from having the player's activity correspond very tightly to the character's actions. In Cataphracts this is writing missives - a military commander irl is mostly sending instructions out and waiting for reports to come back, and doing exactly this in a Cataphracts game means that those games have an absurdly high level of immersion in play, certainly higher than any other game I have ever been a part of. 

I would like for degrader to feel similarly (sadly not possible to run in real time, which would lean into this) - since what you are mostly doing is interacting with UIs and the binary, on/off logics of sensor feedback, the very radically artificial medium of Discord PbP is actually formally appropriate to the fiction. That's the idea anyway; we'll see how it works in practice. 

KIT LIST

By default you have:

• Your Rig, with a frequency rolled on a d1000.
• Your Superlative Rifle.
• Your beretta and combat knife.
• Wire snips for cutting wire to length.
• Leetl screwdrivers and other hand tools for wiring things in.

In addition:

Gear

• 100ft of power cable (1 INV)
• 100ft of data cable (1 INV)
• Device Catapult (1 INV)
• Goo Bomb (1/10 INV each)
• Plastic Explosives (in whatever quantity you wish. Maximum of 1 detonator per 1/3 INV of explosives)
• Mechanical Tripwires (max 20ft long, 1/3 INV each)
• Laser Tripwires (no maximum length, power reqs: low, 1/3rd INV each).
• Batteries (either 1/3 INV or 1 INV).  
• Drone! Quadcopter that you can pilot by wire or radio. 2 INV, 1 of which is the Drone's INV to carry other kit. 
• Flares: lots of light and heat. 1/3 INV each. 
• Glowsticks: a little bit of light, no heat. 1/10 INV each. 
• Smoke Grenades: release visibility occluding smoke in a large area (typically around 80ftx80ft). Smoke lasts 3 - 5 turns. 1/3 INV each. 
• Console. Basically a relay, that can receive wired or radio data, and output it into wired or radio, on a different frequency if desired. Has a screen by default. 1/3 INV, power req: low.
• Traversal Gear. A catch all for kit that will make your navigation of the space easier. Examples might include rappelling or climbing gear, bolt cutters, crowbars, fire retardant or acid proof cloaks, etc. etc. By default takes 1 INV and gives you a specific situational advantage in the usual tactical infinity ways - the DM may specify that a particular thing takes more or less INV at their discretion. Feel free to pitch your DM if you have something specific in mind!

Sensors (all 1/3 INV without upgrades)

• Movement. By default: range 80ft (radial) 160ft (directional), power: standard, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading 20ft, range: +40ft, power: low, penetration: high. 
• Heat. By default: range 80ft (radial) 160ft (directional), power: standard, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading 20ft, range: +40ft, power: low, penetration: high. 
• Sound. By default: range 60ft (radial) 120ft (directional), power: standard, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading: 20ft, range: +20ft, power: low, penetration: high. 
• Electrics. By default: range 60ft (radial) 120ft (directional), power: standard, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading: 20ft, range: +20ft, power: low, penetration: high. 
• Heartbeat. By default: range 20ft (radial) 40ft (directional), power: high, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading: 10ft, range: +10ft, power: standard, penetration: high. 
• Particle. By default: range 60ft (radial) 120ft (directional), power: high, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading: 20ft, range: +20ft, power: standard, penetration: high. 

Active Projectors (1/3 INV without upgrades, same upgrades available as scanners)

• Lidar. By default: range 60ft (radial) 120ft (directional), power: standard, penetration: N/A. Upgrades: cascading: 20ft, range: +10ft, power: low.
• Scrambler. By default: range 20ft (radial) 40ft (directional), power: high, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading: 20ft, range: +10ft, power: standard, penetration: high.
• Jammer. By default: range 20ft (radial) 40ft (directional), power: high, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading: 20ft, range: +10ft, power: standard, penetration: high.
• Camera. Special. Range: visual range, power: standard, penetration: N/A. Upgrades: power: low. 
• Lighting. Special. Range: 30ft for low power, 60ft for standard power, 100ft for high power. Radial by default, but can be set to illuminate in a cone (no change to lighting power).

Spoofers (1/3 INV without upgrades. Upgrades step INV 'up' one level, downgrades 'down' one level, minimum 1/10 INV) 

• Noise. By default: immobile, makes soft noise, power reqs: low. Upgrades: makes loud noise, mobile (set to move in a straight line, or pilot-able by wire or radio). Downgrades: mechanical (no power reqs, only functions for 3 turns after setting), power reqs: standard. 
• Heat. By default: immobile, generates heat, power reqs: standard. Upgrades: mobile (set to move in a straight line, or pilot-able by wire or radio), power reqs low. Downgrades: mechanical (no power reqs, only functions for 3 turns after setting), power reqs: standard. You can also use flares.
• Movement. By default: immobile, but triggers movement sensors (lol), power reqs: low. Upgrades: mobile (set to move in a straight line, or pilot-able by wire or radio - note that all mobile objects will trigger movement sensors by default). Downgrades: mechanical (no power reqs, only functions for 3 turns after setting), power reqs: standard. .
• Electrics. immobile, spoofs electrics sensors, power reqs: low. Upgrades: mobile (set to move in a straight line, or pilot-able by wire or radio). Downgrades: mechanical (no power reqs, only functions for 3 turns after setting). Note that all sensors and other electrical devices will trigger electrics sensors by default, power reqs: standard. 
• Heartbeat. By default: immobile, spoofs heartbeat sensors, power reqs: low. Upgrades; mobile (set to move in a straight line, or pilot-able by wire or radio). Downgrades: mechanical (no power reqs, only functions for 3 turns after setting), power reqs: standard. 
• Particle. By default: immobile, spoofs particle sensors, power reqs: standard. Upgrades; mobile (set to move in a straight line, or pilot-able by wire or radio). Downgrades: mechanical (no power reqs, only functions for 3 turns after setting), power reqs: high. 

 

DEGRADER postscript

 

A quick set of qualifiers and additional thoughts for this post (which in turn derived from this post - these form a loose trilogy), sadly not the full kit list and map, which is still coming.

I would like to draw attention to this essay, about the practice of a Spanish contemporary artist, and especially to its descriptions of the gallery as a 'trap-scape', and the 'gyropolitical' logics of mutual and predictive overcompensation. 

Move + Action

The more I think about it, the more I think that move + action is not the best way to do this (hoping to have a playtest soon to actually stress test some of these assumptions) - since most of the player interaction with the world will be in setting, tweaking, and reading their various sensors, I think giving players infinite sensor interaction each turn, along the arc of their movement, makes more sense. Sensor readouts are per turn anyway, and you can still only fire Da Big Gun once. 

Piloting a drone means that the drone gets your turn, not you. If it doesn't have a camera or lidar or something attached to it, you will have to pilot it blind, or within your own FOV. You might well use your floorplan to do this. 

Situational Awareness

All Degraders automatically see scanners and other devices within 20ft while sneaking, or 10ft while moving normally. Degraders are blind to devices while sprinting.

Sensors Cont.

Sensors are all described using the following standardised profile. 

• Power: low/standard/high. 'Standard' follows the rules in the first post: they requires wiring in or attached batteries to function - small batteries last ten turns, large batteries last forever. 'Low' can be powered forever on small batteries. 'High' needs to be wired in, batteries are insufficient. 
• Penetrating: low/high. 'Low' means that walls block the scanner's 'bubble'. High means that the bubble penetrates walls. Lead lining blocks all scanners of all types (it blocks transmissions as well).
• Range: basic(x), sphere(x), directional(x), cascading(x, y). 'Basic' means that the AOE can be set to radiate from the sensor in a sphere, out to [x]ft, or set to radiate in a fixed direction 90 degree cone, out to 2[x]ft. Sphere means that it can only be set to sphere, directional means it can only be set to cone. Cascading means that it can be set as basic, and additionally adds [y]ft to its range each turn, for three turns, after being set. 
• Size: 1/10 slot, 1/3 slot, 1 slot, 2 slots. Given in inventory slots, and may be variable if you wish to add features of tweak a specific piece of gear. 
• Passive Sensors: noise, heat, movement, electrics, heartbeat, particle. A passive sensor describes its AOE (using its range and penetration), and then describes pings inside that range, outputting via radio by default, or by wire if wired to do so. A moving source of ping will have its entire trajectory inside the AOE described by the sensor (you will get the 'path' that it traces). 
• Active Projectors: lidar, scrambler, jammer. A active sensor describes its AOE using its range and penetration, and then subjects that AOE to the effects of its rays. For Lidar, it builds an image of what the rays physically encounter, and sends this back as an image. For a scrambler, it permanently destroys any switched on electronics in its AOE. Scramblers are assumed to 'pulse' at the start of each turn - electrics can move into their AOE, but will be destroyed if they remain there at the start of a turn. For a jammer, it actively blocks radio frequencies from crossing its AOE (can be set to 'all frequencies', or specific frequencies), and will also trace the vector of the frequency that it blocks (not the point it originated from, but the line backwards from contact).
• Cameras are a special category of sensor that output real time video of what they see. They have a fixed FOV, and if they are looking at nothing but darkness they record nothing. Almost the entire map is in darkness! Feed output can go to your rig, or can be sent to a powered screen. Note that cameras do not send pings or track anything, they are purely live feed. If you are not watching a camera, you get nothing from it. There is nothing stopping you pairing one with, say, a movement sensor. You can beam a camera feed into your rig, but only one at a time. Seeing someone moving on camera is not a sufficient 'lock' to fire on them, unless the end their turn visible on that camera - the same logic as other sensors. 

Shielding 

1 slot. Can be added to a sensor to render it immune to scramblers. A Degrader's rig is shielded by default, which extends to all inventory while it is worn. 

Sounds

If something is loud, Degraders can hear it, and usually get a ping or direction. Things that are loud: weapons fire from any distance, quadcopters or someone sprinting within 50ft.  If something is soft, then only audio sensors will pick it up. Everything that makes noise that isn't loud is soft. Ambient noise may disrupt both loud and soft noise at the DMs discretion, and they will tell you so if this occurs: 'The nearby steam hammer means you can't hear a thing!' This will also make sound sensors useless. 

Smell

Particle sensors added to the list, of potentially limited use, except if Degraders smell like shit. I am very back and forth on this. On the one hand, it's a weird and interesting world building thing and quite thematically appropriate if Degraders are assumed to reek badly enough to set off particle alarms, and are unaware of this except as a data point in their sensor suites. On the other hand, it's a very specific (and specifically abject) place to put all the player characters by default, and I like the idea that you could also imagine yourself as a hot sci fi person underneath all the gear, instead of forcing the default to some fucked revenant. More thinking required. 

Superlative Pistol

Any Degrader can swap their Superlative Rifle for a Superlative Pistol, which functions identically, with the following adjustments: 

• You free up 2 additional INV
• Your shots are adjudicated on a special step before rifles, potentially allowing you to get the jump on other Degraders with the standard loadout. 
• The shot from your Pistol is visually and audibly distinct from a Rifle shot - all Degraders will know they are being fired on by a pistol. 
• You only have one shot, which you can recharged by plugging the Pistol in at a power supply for three turns. 

Also: found an instagib gif! I am tickled by the realisation that designing a map for some people to play this game in will basically mean creating a Deathmatch arena - another fantasy of old, one that I never had the technical knowhow to realise. 

DEGRADER

 

Forms a rough companion to this, obviously.

Update: part two, part three. 

You are a DEGRADER - a sophisticated, tech-assisted, forward attack operative, trained and equipped to function with limited-to-none external support. It is zero hour: a new zone of interest has just been opened up to interested parties, and you and an unknown number of adversaries have been deployed with an indentical mission: lock it down using lethal force, and prepare the way for acquisition and exploitation.

DEGRADER is a turn-based pbp wargame focused on misdirection, optical play and counterplay, resource management, and prediction/compensation. All players begin the game invisible, and unaware of the position and number of their enemies. They also begin with a Superlative Rifle, which can be used to immediately kill anything at any point on the map, from any other point, through all intervening material. If your enemies can see you, they can kill you. Best then not to be seen. 

The zone of interest is a vast industrial interior. It is still in operation and mostly pitch black, although some sections (those which once would have been staffed by humans) are brightly lit. A Degrader can navigate just fine in the dark, but will need to supplement their killing potential with sensors of various kinds, which can be set up and complexly linked inside the space. Sensors return data, data can be used to track movement, heat, sound, and other identifying traces. If a position can be locked, the Superlative Rifle will unerringly find whatever hides there.

You begin play with your Degrader rig, a Superlative Rifle, a 9mm beretta with 15 rounds, a combat knife, and a scale map of the zone of interest. You have 10 inventory slots, which can be filled with whatever you like from the stores list. As a Degrader, you do not need to eat, drink, or sleep, at least not for another month or so. Once you are happy with your loadout, you should give your Degrader a callsign, and maybe imagine what they look like under the rig. 

You can then choose your drop position on your map, and will be immediately infiltrated to that point using specialised interdiction technology. All of your opponents do the same, and then you and every other player will get a series of extremely rough and approximate positions for all drops into the territory. Count them, and mark them. 

You are now in country, and play can begin. 

The golden rules of DEGRADER: 

• if you end your turn inside enemy sensor range, you can be killed that turn. 
• If you end your turn outside of them, you probably can't be.
• If you move through enemy sensor range, or return pings of any kind, you are feeding information to them about your movements, whether or not they end up with a lock on your location.
• You probably won't know when you are inside enemy sensors, unless you can see the sensor itself. 

Movement and Actions

Each turn consists of a move, and and action. All turns take place simultaneously, with the exception that a Superlative Rifle can be fired before any other turns are resolved. All Rifles resolve their effects simultaneously. 

Moves can be sneaking, normal, or sprinting, which are noiseless but slow, noisy but fast, and very noisy and very fast respectively. You choose a movement posture per turn, and are assumed to be in that posture the whole turn. 

Actions are usually things like setting at removing sensors, laying cable, plugging in equipment, etc. Some actions will be free (switching something on if it is already installed, plugging a cable into an instrument or power source), and some will not (installing things, changing the settings on an instrument, piloting things). 

Navigating the zone of interest is mostly fairly intuitive (you can climb ladders, you can drop down from gantries, etc.), but you may want to try things that are risky. This is not really a game about tactical infinity, but your Degrader can attempt trpg stuff if you wish it - if you take a risky action (moving through moving machinery) roll a d6: on a 1, you fail and suffer the consequences (you die). For very risky actions this is a 1-2 or a 1-3, as determined by the DM. They will always inform you of your odds and the consequences of failure before you roll. You can pack traversal gear of various kinds that eats up inventory, but which will make certain things less risky. 

Nearly all instruments take an action to set up (you can set their settings for free during this action). As described above, it also takes an action to fire your Superlative Rifle, and it is recommended that you move in the aftermath, because the firing the Rifle is both loud and extremely visible to other enemies. 

If you stumble onto an enemy in the dark, both players must choose simultaneously wether they are going for their pistol or their knife, then roll a d6. If only one person chose pistol, then that person rolls at +2. If at least one person chose pistol, the altercation is as loud as a gunshot and will ping for everyone. Whoever rolls highest kills their opponent, and on a tie both are killed. 

If you are aware that someone is coming and have specifically prepared an ambush at least one turn in advance you instead roll with a +4 (a +6 if you use a pistol and your opponent does not). 

Whenever anyone uses their pistol, it uses d6 rounds. If you need to use it and don't have enough rounds left to make up the result on the d6, you resolve the combat at -2. If you want to take extra magazines you may do so - each takes up 1/3 of an INV slot. 

Power

Everything that requires power to function needs to be wired into power sources in the zone of interest - these are at fixed locations, and marked on everyones maps - or supplied with batteries you can bring with you. Small batteries take 1/3 of a slot and last 10 turns, large batteries take 1 slot and last forever. Some instruments are marked as 'low power' - these will run forever even on small batteries. 

The Rig

Your rig has its own integrated power supply which lasts forever, and which runs at enough surplus to count as one large battery on your person at all times. This means that you can power something - probably a sensor, but maybe something else - in your inventory, and it will move as you do. 

Sensors

Sensors are instruments that track a given stimulus, and then record and transmit that they have done so. The types of sensors are noise, movement, heartbeat, heat, electrical, with the special category of visual (really a live feed camera). Most sensors come in two models: short range, which take up 1/3 of a slot in your INV, and long range, which take up 1 slot. 

Note that ranges are not equivalent. A noise or heat sensor will by default have a much larger range than a heartbeat or electrical sensor, for example. 

Sensors can additionally be set to radial, with a short range, or directed, with a longer range. Directed usually mean a 90 degree cone, and about double the range (which would give you about 2/3rds coverage relative to a short ranged radial sensor). This is true of all sensor types.

Some sensors might expand their effective range 'bubble' over time, as they better attenuate to their surroundings and start to filter out noise signals. 

All events can be tracked by sensors, but there is no sensor that can track everything. A noise sensor will record something moving, but a heartbeat sensor will return nothing unless that thing has a heartbeat. It is your job to set up a network of sensors that will return enough data that you have useable target locks for your Superlative Rifle, and to avoid being detected and targeted in return. 

All sensors are equipped with a radio link to your Degrader rig. This signal means that you will get its pings from anywhere, but it also means that someone discovering a sensor will discover the frequency of your rig, and use it to track you. If you wish to avoid this, you can have your sensors transmit on other frequencies, and be picked up by consoles (which might be in safer locations, and relay from there back to your rig on your main frequency), or by wire that you can lay down, which cannot be detected except visually, or jammed without literally cutting the wire. All sensor radio output frequency, as well as your rig's receiving frequency, can be changed by you at any time, including remotely using a console.

Lights

Need power, and come in different sizes and intensities. In darkness, a visual sensor will need light to function. You also cannot see very well without light - your rig includes lenses that let you safely navigate your surroundings out to about 10ft, but you can't pick out figures or details in the distance. Light is binary, it's there or it isn't. If it's there everyone can make use of it. If you can see someone in LOS you can fire on them. 

Consoles

Catch all term for an instrument that can receive and display pings if set up do do so. They can relay pings via radio or wire (including to your rig, if you like), or simply display on a screen. They can also remotely control the setting on other devices they are connected to. They require power to function, and can be used to spoof radio jamming or tracking if you are worried about this.

Dummies, Drones

Dummies are devices that emit light, heat, noise, radio frequencies, spoof heartbeats, etc. They can be mobile or stationary, with stationary models typically taking 1/3 of an INV slot, and mobile models taking 1 INV. A mobile dummy can be remote controlled by radio (which will mean anyone with the frequency can give it orders), or by wire (range limited by length of wire). 

A drone is a mobile dummy that can attach a sensor or other kit. They are 2 INV slots (one of which is the drone's INV for carrying other gear). Attached sensors offboard data by wire or radio as normal, and if the drone is piloted by wire both these signals can travel along one wire. Drones can also mount lights and explosives, flares, smoke grenades, anything you can think of. 

Typically require power to function (some crude dummies may not). 

Trip Wires, Lasers

Crude 'sensors' that record a simple ping when crossed. Trip wires are triggered by anything physically dragging across them and do not require power, lasers are powered, and are triggered by anything that breaks the beam. 

Explosives

Detonator can be set to trip when taking input from sensors, or manually by wire or by radio. Can be attached to drones or dummies, or simply to walls or ceilings. Effective kill range depends on how much explosive material is in the package (generally either 1/3 or 1 INV worth). Can also be thrown. 

Jammers

Can be set to jam everything (no signal will be able to pass through the jamming zone) or just specific frequencies. Can also be set to ping the sending location of whatever is trying to send through the jammed zone. 

Boosters

Can be set to 'throw' a linked sensor's point of output to another point within its (the booster's) range.

Smoke

Throwable. 1/3 of a slot. Will obscure line of sight in a very large radius for 3 - 5 turns. 

Flares

Throwable. 1/3 to a slot. Will put out large amounts of light + heat for 3 - 5 turns. Also come in glowstick varieties: way less light and no heat, but 10 to a slot. 

Next post: a complete stores list, with all the different models and kit. Maybe a big zone map?!

Bonus alternate DEGRADER models:

• Has no Superlative Rifle, instead carries a Superlative Knife (it looks a bit like a box cutter), which instagibs anyone in a close contact altercation. Can sprint silently. 
• Has no Superlative Rifle but carries 30 INV of equipment - drones and bombs and smoke oh my! Cannot move at a sprint. 
• Isn't a Degrader at all: 10 human cops with ARs and flashlights, and no additional INV. You move all of them every turn. An AR can fire on anything you can see and kills on a 4+ on a d6. ARs have 30 rounds in the magazine, and fire d6 rounds per shot.

Like this.