HOLY AGENTS! Agents of the Gods in the Empress Imperium

While the Imperial church is huge with millions of sentients in its direct service and countless billions more under it’s sway,  there are only a handful of clerics in the imperium at any given time.   Within the Imperial Volume, those of the faithful who work miracles and regularly wield the power of their deity are called Agents; Agents act with the broad legal authority of their God, regardless of what station they previously occupied within imperial space.

A copy of the DCC RPG rules, in particular the Cleric class, (DCC RPG p 28) will be required to make sense – and complete - of this variant.

Agent of (God)  - a dedicated Cleric variant for Galaxy Black

Values of Electronic Warfare

Certain characters and devices are listed in Sub-ether #1 with an EWV; what is this cryptic number?  It is their Electronic Warfare Value.  

In an age of smart matter and relatively available Fabricator technology, especially in the core, everything is networked.  Across a variety of systems and relays and micro-transceivers.   When everything is networked, everything is at least a little smart, and so many of the coreworld population are mechanized, it is not surprising how common it is for that technology to be hacked.   From guns, to computers, to cyberoptics, all of it can be hacked if it can be remote accessed at all.   To simulate that, the following simple but highly invasive rule is presented.

Give all mechanicals an Electronic Warfare Value;  they can add their class and int bonus to this as well. Some classes also give an EWV bonus;  urban confiscator may just add their level.   Some cybernetics can give organics a base EWV as well. 

Note that Being and Class EWV bonuses are stackable.

All gear that is electronic and networkable gets an EWV as well; that’s the DC the hacker would need to affect that device.  This can be an enemies’ smartgun, or their onboard computer.

Gear EWV DCs should range from relatively low (10 to hack house appliances, 20 to hack an enemies’ weapon in combat, and up)

Some items will lack an EWV completely, having n/a or (*) where *denotes a particular value; this indicates that the item cannot normally be hacked but if somehow the computing elements on board could be hacked this would be the DC to hijack them.

Yes in theory you can hack another mechanical but it’s BAAAD form and also their defenses are higher than most tech. Esp. if leveled.

Gear can come in hardened varieties, which is ‘hack resistant’ increasing the DC by 2 for effectively doubling (at least) the equipment price

Assume that whatever the Imperial government uses is basically super hardened which is +3 DC

Just remember, Cybernetics can be hacked.

This WILL change the feel of the game CONSIDERABLY but if everyone is on board it balances out some of the super tech that the authorities will use on you whether you have done anything or not.....and could also be dangerous if you have any Mad Thinker types in your group.  :)   It''s your game, do with it as you please. 

Much more about he EWV and specifics as to it's use will appear in the new rules section of Galaxy Black.  Until such a time as you have a lengthy list of equipment with EWV targets, use the above and wing it. :) 
Any unusual or notable uses of this in your game?  Drop a line to dreaminggynoid@gmail.com and tell us all about it.

Practical Wizardry - a DCC variant

note: This is not related to anything else I'm working on, it's just a thought that came to me while tinkering with my computer over the weekend.

For Practical Wizardry to work you must do away completely with the Wizard or Elf class. Sorry.  This set up probably works best for a Warrior, Thief, or Cleric, Warrior, Thief game IMO, but throwing halfings and dwarves (as classes) in the mix changes nothing really.

In this variant there is no wizardry class and such a thing is not represented in the setting either.   Instead, anyone can take the patron bond spell if they go through the motions and succeed. And thus anyone can use invoke magic and, theoretically, the other spells granted by the patron as they gain levels and so on.   This allows for warriors to be able to call upon a wide variety of patron specific magic in a very Glorantha/Runequest sort of way.  

If one desired you could certainly then break the patrons available down into a list available by class; both to keep things manageable and derive some interesting world building.

I would think that the characters continue to function otherwise in all ways as their class normally does in DCC.   Where it is necessary to call upon some magic attribute specific to the wizard class assume the character has a comparable level in wizardry.

For an even more Gloranthan take on things, you remove the cleric class, render all the gods in setting as patrons also, and then hand wave everyone an equal level, functionally, in the wizard class, but only in so far as if they find some full actual spell in the wild (which should be a rare but possible event) then one of them can learn it.  No one would ever likely max out their spell slots, EVER in this variant.  Also they don’t get the Wizard’s will saves, or other things that don’t involve magic (their hd or proficiencies, etc.)   This adds an interesting statistical oddity to the game world as now no one exists that is especially *good* with their magic. High level spells, even patron ones, would be even rarer simply as most magic is (as rolled) a bit lower end.

If you want suggestions for how to break the patrons down by class (and implied race) that’s up to the Judge and their individual campaign flavor but in a relatively euro bog standard medieval set up I might suggest that (from the core) halflings would favor the king of elfland, dwarves would favor Yddgrrl the world root (poss. As an ancestor) – an equal case could be made in flipping those for slightly different flavors to the two race as classes.

Men would favor the Three Fates, Sezrekan, or the prince of wind as their needs dictated.

Bobug, Azi Dakha, and Obit-que as demons should be available to EVERYONE, likely with the assumption that culturally, demon magic is bad

Good Clean Fun for Dagger 9mm

Drugs

What would a street level cyberpunk game be without a bullshit list of made-up drugs?  

Note:  Save where specified, all drug effects are completely cumulative.  

All of these (save poss. Ophelia, though any tech with a sample could rig that up in minutes) can be loaded into a Needle gun.  And will be.  After being shot by corporate security  with six micro-flechettes tipped with Blab, you’ll likely be wishing they’d just put a bullet in you.  

Blab - when you absolutely positively cannot afford a real truth drug.  The Repopulation Zones have dispensers on the corner that gives these out for 5 chits.   Ten minutes after this hits your system you simply  WILL NOT SHUT UP.  You will just carry on, babbling incessantly about whatever comes to mind for the next six hours.  Also you will sweat and you will probably get the runs afterward.  A truth drug only in that someone with half a clue can probably lead the conversation where they need it to go.  Will saves are at -2 for the user over the duration and everyone around them will want to shiv ou.

Cognition - small blue capsules, swallowed intact.  Takes effect in ten minutes.  

Each hit of Cognition increases your Intelligence score by one.  There is a 1 in 20 chance this is permanent.  If permanent, int gain will continue at the rate of one point (permanently) a month until the character’s intelligence reaches 19. Then they’ll see the pretty pretty yellow and blue lights and ever after spend the rest of their days, drooling and pissing themselves

Fuzz - a nasty little cocktail, it came about during one of those central american conflicts of the 21st century.  Ingested capsule holds the contents separate and stable, the mix occurs internally.  So called because of the marked swagger and brutality that users experience about ten minutes later. Also because it pretty much turns you into a ‘dick with a badge’ for some two hours.

Fuzz users feel powerful and stick to tried and true behavior models.   Users sense of self is also distorted so their movements will be greatly exaggerated.  

Take an additional 2d6 hp, and a plus one bonus to your AC due to simple insensitivity.  The ref is entirely valid in making you Will save to avoid random bouts of dicksihness to people and inappropirate outbursts of violence.

Helidol-9  aka DrugAThug sold commercially in one offs (slap patches and needler rounds, each 50 chits a pop, must be a citizen)  or in “industrial grade” - this was made by Denmark Pharmaceuticals as a riot control agent for the UN.  While the gas form never cleared trials, a single needler load of this ends your evening real quick.

Effects take on minute to begin.  Helidol-9-9 is a multispectrum tranquilizer that medicates the body into a sleep like state, and dulls the mind so that formulating complex ideas (like escape, or fighting back, or resisting whatever is done to you for any reason) is basically impossible.  

As it is pretty much the “Game ending instant capture” of drugs* in setting it is ridiculously expensive and Denmark Pharm. Sits on a massive stockpile of the stuff.

If there is a neutralizer agent, Denmark is keeping it to themselves.

*Referees are advised to know what they are doing and not be a giant dick about this.  Don’t come crying to me when no one will play in your game any more you monster.

Heisenburg - For decades a necessary part of any interrogators kit’s’  Heisenberg works well in combination with other drugs (esp truth drugs) and often is used thus. Users experience palpable waves of doubt and uncertainty for 1d4+3 hours.   Has been known to induce heart attack in those with anxiety disorders.  

Overdoses quite infamously trigger psychosis and death.   

A 1 for 3 ratio combination of Heisenberg and Blab by a a Medtech (or other skilled person) will make the user Your Actual Best Friend for the next few days as regards trust and friendship…... after which they will begin to brain bleed. This cocktail is a common tactic of intelligence operatives in the City.

Untreated, the brain bleed will be fatal in d3 days.  Fun.

Jump or Jump Up - once billed as the ultimate solution to social anxiety; Jump makes you the life of the party, your brain hums and and your nerves burn cool. So long as they feel the burning tension behind their eyeballs, users will be functionally fearless for the next d12 hours.  During that time the brain is chemically altered so that feels of anxiety, fear, or terror are simply impossible.  Confidence flows like wine.

Save v. will on the come down though.  Your veins feel like they are made of breaking strands of glass, your chest is pounding and if you fail the roll, 2d24 hours of the worst night of your life is about to begin.  (See: the Long Dark Night Of Londo Mollari, or the last thirty minutes of All that Jazz….or fuck it and just watch Pink Floyd’s the Wall. Go from there. )

Any cocktail of jump up and heisenberg will  on a successful (Fort save DIF  20 leave you purging your system from all orifices immediately for 24 hours.   

A failure leads to stroke and cardiac arrest in minutes.  

Nyborg, Plutonian - despite only a tiny sample of the stanky pinkish goo being brought back by the Chinese Metal Pig probe of 2109 almost 85% of the raw substance mass was on the streets before the sample had even touched down for analysis.  

And they say corruption isn’t rampant in the Chinese Orbitals.   

A small dusterplus 9 unit (75 chits at any corner Duty Free kiosk) is sufficient to process the raw material into a powdery candy like material that can be snorted or smoked.   

Direct injection of nyborg is known to be lethal.  \

Now believed to be the literal gooey remains of some extinct precursor species scraped off a cave wall on Nyx, it is believed an entire valley of this stuff exists in frozen crystalline form on the southern pole of Pluto proper.  

Should anyone manage to bring even a tenth of that back…….

Odeus Hungerous - appetite stimulant;  discontinued as non-lethal crowd force control gas when rioting students in Buenos Aires spontaneously began engaging in random acts of cannibalism and oral sex.

Still available on the civvy market though. Like mace!  Mostly used by juves to prank one another...until one tries to eat the other.

Urges can be resisted for up to four hours on a successful Will save (DC 15)  Failure throws social convention and possibly lives, out the window.

Ophelia Ballers -  a nasty nasty street drug. The bath salts of 2117.   Bat guano, baking powder, rat poison, many are the legendary and rumored ingredients.  The active ingredient is actually something called Compound 2112, which Denmark Pharmaceuticals holds a 75 year secret patent on.  Compound 2112, known internally as Guildenstern, was developed to ‘release inhibitions.’  In attempting to make either the perfect weapon of non violent conquest or the ultimate party drug, they made a horribad thing that draws out ALL of the character’s repressed urges and desires.  

Trip lasts 12 + 1d12 hours that wander from giggling silliness to mind gaping horrors.   Just do fistfuls of angel dust, it’s better for you.

At peak (after only an hour or so)  just add two to all of your physicals, take two off your intelligence, and four off your Pers and give in to whatever the fuck comes to mind until someone hits you with 44 doses of DrugAThug.  Otherwise you are an invincible, unstoppable, freakazoid monster with no guilt or accountability.  Also featuring dangerous random personality shifts (alignment becomes firmly chaotic for the duration, no matter what.)  

Street rumor suggests that Denmark maintains a capture squad to clean up the worst excesses this drug can unleash. What happens to those captured is unknown.

Philosopher - bizarre experimental drug never put into full production; Rumor on the street has artificially increased demand to unprecedented levels however.  Hard to find because no one knows how (Call the lab that makes it. They’ll sell it to you, a hit for 250 chits)  It’s not even illegal

Philosopher takes up to ten hours to take effect during which time sleep is impossible   At some point during that period (roll a d10 already) their very very very specific trip begins.

No one outside of the small private lab that makes the stuff has the slightest idea how it works or how it was made.  When the trip begins roll a d6.

1 - 2   Albert Einstein appears within five feet of you in a flash of harmless blue radiation.  The first time, he will engage the character in a discussion of how the character has an identical twin on their way to Altair. Sometime into the story, Einstein will claim to be the God of Special Relativity and, darkly, threaten to smite their twin, wondering out loud if this would kill the character as well?  Otherwise can be engaged with as though actual Einstein were actually present.   

Side effects - for a week thereafter the user will see random lights shift in colour one shade towards red.

Optional high weirdness - if the character trips alone with Einstein they may find that, a much longer amount of time has passed in the outside world than they experienced.   

3 Roger Bacon would like a word with you about the optics in the laser you carry, or your artificial eye, or the prism that he just pulled out of  your guts.  Bacon will alternate between high medieval scholarly lecturer in advanced light physics …. And interrogating the character about magic and the new age.  

Optionally he may attempt to instruct the character in the binding of spirits and other basic necromantic and alchemical arts.  Whether they work in the game world is another matter.

4. James Joyce, already incomprehensibly drunk, insists that you are going to the public house with him RIGHT CUCKING NOW.  IF you go along with your hallucination, you will meet Walt Whitman and Oscar WIlde while out drinking.  50% Wilde may take a liking to you.  

5. HAIL Carl Sagan LORD OF SPACE, the Seeker and the Way  High Lord Carl of Sagan beams down from the mothership, on assignment from the Science City.   Berates character for their indulgence in superstition and violence - though if they behave he may offer his Secret Sagan Stash with them. (Game effect - Character wins.  Wins what?  The Game of Life.  worth lots of experience points...but not transferable to the real world of course.)

Very likely side effects - post trip the character reacts as though they have had a religious and spiritual awakening.  Likely to join (or in the absence of a local branch, found) a variation of the Church of Carl Sagan Everlasting.   

6. At last the walls of the labyrinth fall away and your quest is complete.  But behold!  On the chamber’s far side two other figures appear. No! It cannot be!  Some of the greatest minds from the dawn of magick now stand here, before you.  Merlin Ambrosius and Aleister Crowley.

From above a booming voice commands - Only One Shall Pass - SPELL DUEL!

Immediately, he three of you share a sheet of high power blotter acid beforehand as the battle will take place in the highest reaches of the astral planes…..

(Mechanics:  Really?  Welcome to the potentially endless feedback loop that is Philosopher.  Roll Percentile dice again and know that that thinker will aid, or fight, the character as well, in addition to the other two.   At the very least you are likely going to just keep tripping until you work through all the results on this table and then some.  Don’t make any plans.  Alternatively you may have just had a psychotic break.  Don’t worry, the Copr has Drugs for That.)    

Pop Culture no. 9 - another designer drug; street lore says it opens the brain’s neural pathways to allow “mass experience” - hard fact identifies it as Lot 47 from NASA’s Deep Cryogenic Activity experiments with astral projection in the 2050s (shame about that info pollen accident)..  No one really knows but particularly astute City chemists might be savvy enough to tell you it’s probably   

Users experience bizarre hallucinations where the media they consume seems to directly interface with as though it is a part of the user's real world.   

Further, multiple users from the same batch that dose together are known to share hallucinations, and sometimes thoughts, with one another.   Some users also experience a disturbing…loss of inhibitions but this is relatively rare (1 in 6, 2 om 6 if the character has a history of amphetamine use)

Some groups have been known to intentionally do especially large batches of this together and then attempt social activities. Pub crawls Fan conventions (Cosplay will MESS YOU UP!!!) ,Carnival, a baptism, a film festival, )

1 in 12 chance per use that the character will continue to experience pop culture based hallucinations (Cerebral drippings from the Noosphere!) for the next d10 weeks, often obscure ones that the character has no direct experience of (

Rumors that use makes the user susceptible to media propaganda campaigns and subliminal control messages are probably bullshit right?  Nah you’ll be fine. Your dealer said so.

ZIP - is your basic high end stim.  Relatively easily available as the manufacturing corp’s offices and manufactory are in City limits.   Very pure amphetamine, with a load of nanobots to provide additional cortical stimulation and to offset somewhat the effects of the stimulant on the body. “Very clean burning.”  Many criminal professional are frequent Zip users for the edge it gives them with minimal side effects.

Obviously this probably causes cancer. More importantly, after around 100 hours of use, most users begin to experience a gradual but non-critical loss of bladder and bowel control.   Former users for this reason often call the drug Prolapse.

THERE IS NO GREEN RADIATION FROM SPACE

THE ECONOMY IS FINE

The Revolution is over

RECYCLE YOUR DOG OR CAT WHEN YOU ARE DONE WITH THEM

Take your meds

GRACIAS,

MANAGEMENT

Dagger 9mm - a weird little cyberpunk funnel variant for DCC

What I not at all seriously call “

Baz Luhrman’s Cyberpunk Crawl Classics”

“It is June 6, 2117, the hangover still hurts but so do the staples in your side.  The Ball Game scores are playing over last night’s body lotto numbers in your headset as hooded figures burn a body in the dumpster below, chanting low.”   

“Peace.  I hate the word. As I hate hell. All Montagues.”

Cheeky, not at all serious, near future low life low tech mayhem, drenched in neon.  With lots of unusual remixes and covers playing in the background.   A love letter to Mike Pondsmith's cyberpunk 2020, DCC, and (oddly) Baz Luhrman's Romeo & Juliet for no good reason.

So I had this mad idea for a pick up game t'other day, which I liked enough, odd as it was, to write down. and it grew. and grew.

So, here are the rough notes for a random one shot funnel, set in a near future low tech cyberpunk setting using DCC, reskinning a few tables and winging the rest.

GM notes:  Remember - corruption and innocence on every corner.  NEON NEON NEON

Pretend you are 16 again - the slightest thing is HIGH STAKES DRAMA

In short a neon drenched, 2050 univision version of Miami Vice, soundtrack by the Sisters of Mercy. Michael Mann has equipped the Band of the Hand with a laser gun.   Low tech cyberpunk, 20 minutes into the apocalypse.  

And demons, crawling out of the woodwork.

Just keep reading, you’ll get it.

All the world building you will need -

Near future somewhat low tech cyberpunk on the west coast of mexico or south america, a made up fictional city like Night City from CP2020

The big influential city state will be Rio; that’s where the UN Survival Council meets;  something big and vaguely specified has happened to most of the northern hemisphere (sp. The US, poss. Canada, Russia, much of Europe, lots but not all of asia - am actually thinking some sort of engineered pollen disaster but whatever)

This coastal made up city has a Large population of gringos  - in the International Zone

Lots of speed boats and smuggling, floodwalls, water pollution is a thing. 0

All 0 level characters

Begin play

• speaking the common tongue of the setting, Spanish.  Other recommended starting languages should include Portuguese, English,
• Have a single d4 HD and begin with a d4 (mod by STA) starting
• 5d4 UN ration chits
• A secret or complication (see below)
• With one safe place to hide (must be declared at start)
• A weapon that does a d4 at least (tire iron, rusty knife, club, etc)
• Up to d4 any other random distinctive attributes the player wishes to endow them with

Alignments are interpreted somewhat different being best described in context as being, broadly,  “Establishment,” “Self-interested,” and “Fuck the law, Down with the System!”

0level Occupation /prev en table (occupation then starting gear and conditions below)

1.the Detective -

Motive to investigate; apartment that has no power, blackjack, (d4), gloves, lockpicks, unflattering view of the human condition

2. The Scavenger

Starts with authorized cred ID designating bearer as investigator for the UN Water Authority.  (will get you in pretty much everywhere), low profile

3. Drug Mule

Three balloons up an orifice full of synthetic coke, valid international passport, Citizen Identification Number (CIN), small bag of actual peanuts

4. Information  Courier (chipped)

Black market connections, 63 Trib (like gigs) of codelocked wetware memory, one good suit, expensive sunglasses

5/ Brujeria DotD of the dead shaman revolutionary

Elaborate appearance, herbs, criminal record, police surveillance

8/ Government shill

Single nitrogen pill, heart condition, suitcase full of bearer bonds that aren’t yours

7. Corporate shill

Silverclub charge strip on your mobile, Level 2 Citizenship, list of middle managers in your way, memorized list of “disposable assets.”  Government surveillance team watching your every move, non threatening social disease.

8  the CapoeiraDistinctive haircut, A squat you are turning into a dojo, Ties to the community, a problem with bullies.  (d6 with kick or punch, d4 deed die that does not stack)

9.  The Gangster

Unregistered ceramic firearm, ablative bullets (2d6-2), mastoid induction phone, distinctive tattoo, cheap sunglasses

10.  The nomad

Small solar powered cigarette boat, fishing net, smuggling clan and criminal affiliation tattoos, freedom

11.   Moorlock - mutants and “mutants” who gather underground in rejection of society.  

Distinctive appearance, knowing your way around the sewers, decade old picture on soymilk cartons,

12.  Singer - rocker or songbird, you are a performer.  Or at least, you think you are.

Small but loyal following, an obsessed ex, glitter, makeup, performing attire, note telling you you are locked out of your recording space

Not precisely a direct map of the occupation table from DCC of course but it will suit our purposes.  Now give everyone something to hide. 

What is your secret? What do you need to keep hidden?

1. Child - regardless of custody, you have a child you in some way care for.
2. Conspiracy - you saw something or read something you shouldn’t have.  They know.
3. You are dying.  Why are you still here?
4. You recognized another PC from your childhood but you have had extensive body sculpting at some point since then.  What do you remember about them?
5. The space brothers said it was time.   You know that they are right.   How are you preparing?
6. You never killed that man.  No one else knows.   You are innocent.  Does this matter?
7. You do NOT know who it was you woke up next to, only that they are very very very dead.   What did you do next?
8. You had no idea they were taking pictures.  This is….humiliating.  How far will shame take you?
9. They will never believe you, but the doors are opening.   The gates grow thin.  You can hear them whispering……..
10. You will do anything for the cause.  ANYTHING.  Why do people find this so unsettling?
11. You are a factory mutant. Sure you can pass for human but you know what you are (might be experimental test subject, might not even be human but surgically modified to appear so)
12. You are actually a cop. You filthy stinking narc.

Dark future urban landscape equipment table (replaces table)

1. Zip gun
2. Vape pen
3. Burner (unlisted mobile phone)
4. Balisong (butterfly knife)
5. Ration card (50 chits)
6. (removable) false prints (eye and finger) - one use
7. Work visa
8. Water purification tablets
9. Antibacterial stim shot (mostly anti cholera, also protects against typhoid, diphtheria, measles)
10. Contrasol gel (protect against harmful UV radiation)
11. Pack of 3 ZombieCon. Drug-a-thug patches. DC 16 Fort save or drop to the ground for 5 rounds, drooling and pissing.  (Wearer adds Armor bonus of armor to the save)
12. Pack of redsmokes - delays onset of cancer; illegal on planet earth
13. Recycling Kidney (implant)  adds 4 to Fort and Will saves v. poison;  d4 fumble die
14. Penlight laser, 4 minutes of use. 1d6 continuous damage. Illegal.  Ignores non metallic armor
15. glare resistant lens implants - +6 save v. dazzling and blindness d4 fumble  
16. Nostrilplugs - allows user to filter out inhaled toxins and undesired scents;  removable with two minutes and a screwdriver. They are obvious when inserted however.
17. Skinphone - just what it sounds like, in right or left forearm, configurations.   Difficult to read through dirty skin and gets VERY warm when used a lot.   Also you cannot turn it off.
18. Brass knuckles - shifts damage die up one glass in melee
19. Plasma cutting torch (60 second battery life; 1d12 damage)
20. 1st gen Cybernetic limb (d8 fumble die, add 2 to AC permanently and 3 hp; NSA)

Who do you have connections with?

Baggage handlers on the Corpstrip at the Aeropuerto

Customs enforcement officers

Members of the UN OccFor in the Canal zone.

Someone in Sanitation and Recycling (Soyorange, General Population Works, Transnational Hazard Control, etc.)

A Ripper Jack

A triad

A repeat anonymous tipster to the narco squad.

Services for hire (by the week)

Neighborhood “protection”  - 20 chits and up

(confers ability to ask for help in a violent situation)

Ripperjack or jill

Stabilizing dead/dying patient min.50 chits

Major surgery (cybernetic limb, open heart surgery, etc.) 250 chits+

Other convalescence (sick, disoriented, etc) 5-15 chits

(charged daily if communicable)

A guy who will “hold something” no questions asked 15 chits and up

Liquidating “undocumented features” with the local Trid. 25% market value

Random features & complications for at any time of the game (day or night)

1. Rolling blackouts
2. Practice disaster or air raid drills - some people ignore the latter
3. Random police paddy van and rounding up the usual suspects’
4. Immigration is checking all gringos for something.  Hope you have the usual squeeze.
5. Total  burn ban in progress.  Military police might just shoot you for smoking.
6. Stage 2 Fog Warning - hazard condition declared, Fort saves in order without protection
7. Defense Condition - threat of imminent attack (real or invented) brings city to standstill, strategic lighting and power measures implemented.  At night things are likely to get ugly before the lights come back up.
8. Death Squad - run.
9. Neighborhood you are in is declared Unsanctioned.  Police barricade and Urban Renewal Team to follow in 10d4 minutes.  After the mass arrest and “broad jurisdictional authority” a follow up sweep by Corp Sec teams or Urban Pacification forces is likely.   Time to be elsewhere.
10. Judgement night - local upper class population coordinates race war against the underclass; neighborhood locked down while random acts of vigilantes and terrorists are common
11. Memeprank - every mobile in the city rings simultaneously for the next twenty minutes until the local telecom grid is secured.   Phones and other wireless devices will be useless for the duration.
12. Night of Power - the underclasses are sick of it.   In a moment of pure serendipity, rival bands of oppressed citizenry participate in a major uprising;  dominant wealthy population will be hunted in neighborhood for 1d7 nights;  

Random so you want to get across town encounters table  

1. Refugees - group of 11-30 smelly gringos shuffling in packs looking for handouts.  May have seen things but do not speak the local language. 25% chance per round of interaction of attracting attention of Immigration Rover squads.
2. Snap Crackle - unseemly group of 5+1d7 drug crazed gangbangers looking for trouble. You?
3. Spot Immigration Checkpoint - show your CIN, your real honest to goodness passport, your corporate ID, or get rolled into a green tank along with the rest of the gringos. Enforcement unlikely to care if you are innocent or a citizen if you can’t prove it.
4. Demonic & spiral graffitti everywhere, in bright dayglo neon colours.  75% chance already being scrubbed by U.N. Sanitation and Information Enforcement engineers.  Keep walking
5. Unscheduled political rally - a protest, sit in, or other demonstration is happening, likely with fireworks, shouting through loudspeakers, and low key info terrorism.  88% chance of just being local corp kid privileged students, momentarily exploring democracy.   12% chance C.I.A. man, or other terrorist using rally as cover to do some recruiting.
6. Assault & Protection Cops locking down a four block radius off up ahead;  some corporate tower or other enclave is reporting an ongoing terrorist action;  true or not, the neighborhood SecFor should be distracted for a bit.  Don’t look like a terrorist though.
7. “Fiiiiiigh-ters! Come out and Play!”  two bizarrely adorned youth gangs decide that THIS is the place to hold their knock out, drag in the mud Great Big Turf Battle.   Characters who are insistent will be met with molotov cocktails, spray paint and zip guns.  Maybe the odd motorcyclist with a katana.
8. Playback dealer abruptly ingratiates themselves amongst the group while a large team of thick necked mercenaries look around for someone.  Will likely say anything to get the group to protect them for the next few minutes.
9. Someone released riot control gas.  There wasn’t even a riot emergency declared.   Those 4040 canisters keep fizzing tho so everyone make a Fort save DC 14 to avoid sinus bomb.
10. One of the disenfranchised, obviously sick, old, promptly dies at the characters feet.   Possibly they may do so only after handing the characters something (their phone, a data tape, a baby, their data dachshund, etc.)
11. Monson.  Weather control is on the fritz again.   Visibility reduced to 50, half that at night.
12. Stage IV alert declared;  there has been another outbreak of Fruit Blight, so the city must be sprayed.  You have 20 minutes to get under cover before a DC 14 Fort attack by gaseous airborne fungicide attempts to render you unconscious.   Nostrilplug users are unaffected though their skin will ITCH.

Places to start a session

The aeropurete - shuttle coming in? (big trouble in little china)

Waiting at the Transit Kiosk (for train and or bus)

Just outside the Detention center (all being discharged from police custody)

Lobby of a major building

On public transport - the same bus or tube capsule

A Secret meeting called by someone they all knew

Just outside a church

Just inside a (real) church - hiding out from search squads, neighborhood monsters, or worse

Freight elevator in a major hotel

Music Festival

Subculture convention

Around a table with a map, guns, and a plan.

3 Factions with grievances

Wealthy Argentinian beef ranchers v more trad agribusiness

Dagger Arms and the local anti gun coalition

Indigenous tribe v. biological/chemical research corp

Distant Locations

(You are Here - An unnamed city on the west coast of south america)

Baja california

West coast of old Mexico (what’s left of the old country; occupied by )

Eastern (Nuevo) Mexico (TransNat paradise)

The Rio Grande Containment Zone (the Pollen authority can shoot to kill)

The Eastern Allegheny Evacuation Authority (Rand Worldwide contracting to the UN)

The City-state of Imperial Rio (location of UN1)

The Federated Republic of New Swaziland (constant warfare)

The Cape Town Alliance (where water is free and wifi a human right)

Mombasa Free Trade Zone

The Qatar Ruin

The Blue Hole of New Tamiland

Survivors Alliance of Micronesia (nomad paradise)

Remember that plants need fertilizer so let the players take the story seeds with a side of their own bullshit and everyone will be happier. :)

Lies, Rumors, and Story seeds - everyone gets one

1. “There were three pale guys in vinyl coats….floating through the streets last night”
2. “Go ahead, try to leave the city. You can’t,.  The world outside the city is a lie.   I think we’re on a spaceship actually….”
3. “Dude, it’s just an illusion.  WAKE UP.  The sorcerer’s dead.  Snap out of it man!”   sooooo confusing…...
4. At night the lady on the flatscreen talks to you, tells you you are in a coma and that none of this is real. “You need to Wake Up.”
5. The preacher was yelling when they drug him away.  “Demons among us!  More everyday!  The cracks in the world run with black earthblood.”  wonder what all that meant?
6. For the last week you have been having an intermittent acid flashback, taking the form of your dead sister, who will just suddenly appear and start talking to you about … well pretty weird stuff.   You really wish this would stop soon. \
7. “The time is soon - we’re almost ready to take the production line.  If we can do that, we can hold the factory.  Then we’ll have real power.”
8. City Sector 21, location A contains a confirmed Delta Primary.  You would investigate yourself, just to see it with your own eyes, but you are quite rightly scared shitless……
9. “My child, come to me, pledge your soul unto me, and I will grant you a storm that will rain death on those who have harmed you.  Kiss the bullets and let me in your heart.”
10. You have the landing time and coordinates for an orbital drop - a tank groan ton of hydroponic fruit and factory beef.  Worth … tens of thousands of Actual Credits.   They come down in drone piloted capsules.  There’s a fifteen minute wait before automatic pickup.   
11. Account number QXv74218718965 / alephcode BacardiSunrise   
12. “Thanks to brothers and sisters in revolution inside, 640 incarcerated juves are going to be discharged onto the streets of near Freedom Plaza at noon today.  A lot could go unnoticed in the tuckus.”

Quick objectives

Escape a roundup by someone - Corporate Security, Immigration, the Police, a cult.

Get back at someone who fucked you all over.   A dirty cop?  A member of corporate security?  A fence left you hanging on a deal?

Get in somewhere you shouldn’t be to get (back) something that someone else has.   Finesse or brute force works.

Find the person that knows the thing.

Stop them by any means necessary

He must be protected.

A race against time to reach a specific location.   

And you can always use the brilliant heist generator in Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad #3..  

Season liberally with the bits above and throw it all on the table.  Ideally use all of the pregens.  With a large group you’ll want to make more.  Could work very well tourney style with everyone getting one character and going from there.     Tables are weighted toward personal preference - lower tech, lower gloss, higher grit cyberpunk, almost always involving crime and or political enterprise. Your mileage may vary.  More Streets of Fire than Ghost in the Shell.   If you get hard up, just steal liberally from Walter Jon Williams’ Hardwired, any episodes of Miami vice you can remember, or just recycle GTA Vice City and stick it in 22nd century Megacity Not Quito Not Bogota, as that’s kind of what I’m going to do when I spring this on the fam the next chance I get to drop a one shot.

If you have a stack of survivors who have made it to level 1 at the end I don’t know what to tell you.  Go with straight DCC classes and wing it, grab something out of CRAWL, or Crawling Under a Broken Moon, (Both very fine publications by the way!) or Crawljammer, wherever you like, or make it up.  

I suggest at least, classes named Ronin (for your warrior / street samurai types), and I think for the moment handling any cybernetics or biomods or whatever by winging off of the MDoA system but I find that one of the game’s most versatile subsystems, so I would.

Fury's (for your capoeira, martial arts, and corporate ninja types who are mechanically kind of thieves but they can spend luck to power special abilities instead; kind of like MDoA),   And i’m sure there’s a monk/martial artist class around somewhere to fill in even better.

You’d need some kind of charisma based sort of face, or Suit class but that would have to be it’s own thing.  Pro’lly dabbling in social abilities in some way.    And of course some sort of technie type but nothing so specific as a netrunner.  We’ll call it Cracker (faint connotations intact for our cyberpunkish purposes) and assume they are electronic intrusion specialists of all kinds.

I’d use Wizard verbatim for any   magickal highjinx;  I assume some sort of demonic or planar incursion responsible so it should work fine.  Be creative with your choice of patron.  Pick something pop culturally appropriate, or something cool from your normal DCC game when taken out of context ( my game will feature Unholy Bullet Nuns who follow the Red Queen from my DCC campaign frex, just to kind of sin city the whole thing up) and wing the results table. You can record it later if this is a recurrent phenomenon after all.  Aside from that, I have some vague notion of sea level rise corresponding to a rise in elemental magic power but it’s only a vague notion. This is a sketch of a setting, in motion, do with it as you please.

If you want any genejokes or uplifted animals in setting, use the Manimal class from MCC.  Same with actual mutants.

I’d steer clear of throwing clerics into the mix but more power to you, especially if your table can handle the awkward questions that come with cleric abilities in a modern setting…..you are of course free to drop your normal DCC party here for a weekend and see what kind of hell they can raise also.   That sounds fun…...\

Damn this got long. :0  If you do run this little experiment, please tell me how it went.  I’ll share the results of any follow up. Good gaming!