I’m looking for players for a PbP of The Sprawl, a PbtA cyberpunk game.

I’m looking for players for a PbP of The Sprawl, a PbtA cyberpunk game.

I’m looking for players for a PbP of The Sprawl, a PbtA cyberpunk game.

To me, cyberpunk asks questions about how to carve out independence in the face of all-consuming systems. About preserving humanity and community against the grain of homogenizing technology. About the street finding its own uses for things, and the undistributed future. About what happens when we realize that we’ve caught a ride on the tiger of algorithmic cruelty and now we can’t let go.

Oh, and robot arms and neon signs in the rain and autorappelling out of 40th story arcology windows with a vibrosword in one hand and a hard drive full of paydata in the other.

As a system, The Sprawl delivers all of that. I also especially like the way it explicitly makes violence necessary but insufficient. I think it will work well as a PBP game because of the mission-based structure, and the way players can operate independently or in small groups, both before and during missions.

Logistically, it will be run in a shared Google Docs folder, with a Hangouts chat or Slack channel for table talk. I’d like players to be able to read/post once or twice a day so we can keep momentum going, but posts don’t have to be long– a couple hundred words, tops. You don’t have to own the game– I’ll share the playbooks.

I’d like to have about 4 PCs. If you’re interested, let me know in the comments.

26 thoughts on “I’m looking for players for a PbP of The Sprawl, a PbtA cyberpunk game.”

  1. I’d be interested in playing. What sort of mission themes are you thinking of? Something more along the lines of hacker/killer/driver, or more journalist/pusher/etc. ?

  2. I’d be interested in playing. What sort of mission themes are you thinking of? Something more along the lines of hacker/killer/driver, or more journalist/pusher/etc. ?

  3. I’d love to get in on this. I’ve been wanting to do some PbP lately because of my situation in meatspace and I just picked up a copy of the Sprawl.

  4. I’d love to get in on this. I’ve been wanting to do some PbP lately because of my situation in meatspace and I just picked up a copy of the Sprawl.

  5. J Stein, I’d probably let players pick playbooks first and then tailor the missions to those, although my natural inclination is towards the actiony.

    A Pusher would be cool– we’d just have to work with the other players to make sure it’s plausible that you’d all be working together, either by tailoring the vision or the mix of other playbooks.

    My only objection to the Journalist playbook is that it seems based on the idea that you can inconvenience powerful evildoers by exposing them, which looks charmingly naive right bloody now, much less in a cyberpunk dystopia. I’m willing to work with it, though.

    Basically, if you’re a Pusher/Journalist, just be the kind of Pusher/Journalist who’s willing to get their hands dirty.

  6. J Stein, I’d probably let players pick playbooks first and then tailor the missions to those, although my natural inclination is towards the actiony.

    A Pusher would be cool– we’d just have to work with the other players to make sure it’s plausible that you’d all be working together, either by tailoring the vision or the mix of other playbooks.

    My only objection to the Journalist playbook is that it seems based on the idea that you can inconvenience powerful evildoers by exposing them, which looks charmingly naive right bloody now, much less in a cyberpunk dystopia. I’m willing to work with it, though.

    Basically, if you’re a Pusher/Journalist, just be the kind of Pusher/Journalist who’s willing to get their hands dirty.

  7. Cool, that’s 5 interested players, so we’ll start with that. I’ll send out invites to the Hangout and Docs folder.

    If you’re interested but got here too late, feel free to post and I’ll let you know if space opens up.

  8. Cool, that’s 5 interested players, so we’ll start with that. I’ll send out invites to the Hangout and Docs folder.

    If you’re interested but got here too late, feel free to post and I’ll let you know if space opens up.

  9. I know this is relatively late (and I’m about as new as one could be to the gauntlet), but I’d be 110% into this. I’ve been trying to get into a game of The Sprawl since I heard of it, because I bleed cyberpunk 😉

  10. I know this is relatively late (and I’m about as new as one could be to the gauntlet), but I’d be 110% into this. I’ve been trying to get into a game of The Sprawl since I heard of it, because I bleed cyberpunk 😉

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