Glow in the Dark: Relics Starting Situation
TL;DR: Made 2 additional survivors, presented starting situation, started first score which was mostly a sneaky Assault or blitz Infiltration.
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I’m late with this writeup, since we actually finished the first score this past Wednesday.
Logan Shoup
(“Torch” Constance, a Junker) and Matt Schwaninger (“Rooster” Cole, a Driver) joined Jason Eley (Nestor Carlisle, a Leftover) and Thomas Berton (Tuesday Grace a Shark). It took about half the session, and now all my playbooks have actually been played at this point. We also nailed down Nestor’s bodytank (powered armor) and Rooster’s custom ride. The gear/vehicle system I use for Glow is a mishmash of the Smugglers crew from vanilla Blades and Mark Cleveland Massengale’s Runners in the Shadows hack (and probably some parallels with Apocalypse World), and so far it works out okay.
Nestor’s armor has heavy plating, but has limited power and a leaky core. It made the most sense for him to have salvaged the suit from his spaceship wreckage, which is why it had two flaws but no obligations like it would have had he stole it or had it loaned out to him by another faction.
Rooster’s custom ride is a sort-of dualie Boss Mustang called Layla. He salvaged her as well, but took Eleanor as his starting ability, which lets you mitigate a flaw if you name your custom ride. Then he doubled down on perks, ending up with fast and sturdy but finicky and thirsty.
Torch was a former pawn of the rogue AI Noah who took off after she learned she was being used. Her vice is drink, an oldie but goodie. Rooster was a promising deathracer with the Blacktop Society, but was exiled after he threw a race to save a friend’s life. He still follows the Society’s deities, however – the Big Three, the Holy Trinity of Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors.
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Starting Situation: Glow in the Dark adds the pressure of scarcity to the Blades economy. My starting situation highlights that, opening with the tribe running out of food. This is a strength of making Supplies (my Coin replacement) more of a general resource – I can say “you’re out of food” even if they didn’t spend their starting Supplies on faction relationships. Maybe those starting supplies represent gas or ammo instead. As it happened, however, the tribe did spend all their supplies on faction status boosts, so they decided to raid the Monarchs (plant/insect mutants who take slaves to work their irradiated narcotic fields in the Boneyard) for their drug stash and then trade those drugs to Hightower (Bartertown meets Tenpenny Tower, one of their allies) for food.
The tribe gathered information – one of their settlement’s scavs, Kalat, was a former slave of the Monarchs and, like Sean Connery in the Rock, provided exceptional intel and a potential way in through the lightly-guarded abandoned subway tunnels.
Rooster drove Layla down into the labyrinthine passages. I believe engagement was… risky? There were three mutant guards standing watch in a subway nexus, along with some slave pens. Nestor and Torch got out of the car and ambushed one Monarch, burning it to death with Torch’s namesake. Rooster crushed another under Layla’s wheels as he aced a desperate two-wheeled stunt up an escalator to reach the high ground.
The third Monarch, a wasp-thing, landed on the roof, poised to strike.
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As we wrapped up this session, I was once again concerned that the Shark, the social playbook, might inadvertently be “hard mode” in a wasteland setting. I was also worried that going into tunnels would make it difficult for Rooster to participate with his car. I shouldn’t have been worried.
Next time: We wrap up this first score and see what cross-country trips and cave-ins do to party cohesion! Also, someone Traumas out!
#glowinthedarkrpg