I’m running a game where the Crew just went to war with the Red Sashes. The crew currently only has one claim, some turf that takes the form of some union supporters and labor in a coalridge factory (industrial espionage Shadows).
Anyway, how have you guys handled “defense” during a war? The crew seems to be waiting for the Red Sashes to come to them. Is defending your turf/claim a Score? I was thinking of running it as such. Has anyone done the same thing? If so, do you still have the crew gain Coin for defending what’s theirs to begin with? REP makes sense but I was going back and forth on Coin.
I’d love to hear anyone’s experience with a similar scenario of defending during a war and how that interacts with Scores, etc. Any ideas on creative ways for the Red Sashes to “attack” would be great too.
The crew has a secret lair. Coming after the factory is chancy since the crew doesn’t own it, they just have plants within it and I doubt the Red Sashes want to go to war with the owners haha. What does that leave them? Random assaults in the streets? It’s my first game and my first war, so I’m all ears.
Red Sashes May go for the factory but not violently- perhaps they approach the owner with money, promises of business etc in exchange for flipping alliegance. All of a sudden the crew find themselves frozen out. Or worse ambushed the next time they visit the factory.
The crew I’m running is currently at war with the Rail Jacks and I’ve been wondering the same thing. They’re Hawkers with a secret lair in Six Towers, but they recently got one claim over in Crow’s Foot (where their sales territory is located). I’m planning a smash-and-grab sort of thing because the Rail Jacks aren’t really a gang so I’d imagine they blunder through the criminal world.
The Red Sashes though… I could see that being a much more refined situation. If your crew has been waiting for the Red Sashes to come to them, that gives the Red Sashes time to have done some recon for a precision strike. Maybe it’s not at their lair, but you could certainly have the Red Sashes ambush the crew along a regularly-traveled route.
If the crew is looking for an opportunity to be on the defensive, they could leak some info to the Sashes about their location. Then the Sashes think they have the upperhand but the crew is ready for them. Or the attack could just be the result of an entaglement. Crew finishes a score, for entaglements have the Sashes attack them at one of their claims. Then they have to defend it. Roll engagement right away to see how well the crew is doing when we cut to them. There are a couple ways you could run it depending on how desperate a position you want to put your crew in. The attack could happen before the crew has an opportunity to do any downtime actions, and they are stuck with the load they had on the last score if you really want to put them in a vice. I dont think the crew gets any coin for defending whats theirs, but they do get rep.
In the game I am running, one of my players ran a club on the side, and for entanglements I had the Lampblacks toss the place. Preexisting negative relationships made them the obvious choice. As a result the crew decided to just completely wipe out the Lampblacks. So they got them and the Red Sashes together in one place under the deception of finishing their war, (with the help of the Crows and The Wraiths) and ended up eliminating both the Lampblacks and the Red Sashes in one go. Thats just to give you an idea about one possible way to end a war. My crews solution usually revolves around, “Lets just kill all of them”
My players’ cult landed a climactic ending when their enemies came a-calling at their lair.
One way I find it helps to think about how the PCs’ enemies would war against them is to flip it around and think “How would the PCs go about trying to weaken and destroy a faction they hate?” Think of what “downtime actions” the Red Sashes would be taking if they were the crew the players were playing: What assets are they acquiring to counter the PCs’ strengths? What info are they gathering on the crew and their vices and how? What long-term projects and cons do they plan based on PCs’ exploitable weaknesses or weak-link allies/friends/employees? What alliances or favors can the Red Sashes leverage from other factions to hit the PCs indirectly or unexpectedly?
Think of the various score types (assault, arcane, deception, infiltration, transport) and how the PCs use those various scores against their enemies, then have the Red Sashes do that. Seldom would PCs, especially Shadows, march to outright assault an enemy faction, so why should the Red Sashes? The trick with a con is that the mark needs to care about something. You may need to find out more about what the PC crew cares about, and therefore how the Red Sashes can hurt them. Can the Sashes somehow cut the PCs’ supply of vice, food, weapons, etc.? Can the Sashes sully the PCs’ relationship with patron/ally crews or authorities by planting evidence, framing misunderstandings, or publicizing defamation? Do the PCs have any family or friends who can be found more easily than the crew lair? Can the Red Sashes one-up the PCs so nobody offers them any jobs, or over-work the PCs’ hunting grounds so most good marks move away or avoid the area so there’s nothing left to filch? A fun score for the PCs could result by learning that someone pierced the secret of their lair, and has to disappear before they spread that knowledge. Which of the PCs’ underlings is a spy ready to betray them? Which PC has dirt that could land them a cell or at the wrong end of an Inspector, Warden, or Imperial investigation?
Skulky PCs hit their enemies with an unbelievable variety of surreptitious ways, so they are often my best inspiration for how to make the NPC factions nasty and active rather than passive score targets. Oh, be warned, players will hate when NPC factions actually use the same unscrupulous tactics they do, but that can fuel great emotive resonance. Lots of daily life (like expenses, income, debts, buying a new knife, catching the cold, writing letters to ma or an old flame, paying tribute to ward bosses, buying off bluecoats or business owners) is abstracted out of sight of which enemies can take advantage.
Maybe force their hand. Kidnap their contacts or something else that is valuable. If they don’t do anything make them look bad to others. Make them look as if they can’t protect their own.
“Come after their turf” doesn’t have to be physical.
Next union meeting, one of the workers starts being obnoxious, arguing that the crew doesn’t do enough for them, spitting on their boots etc.
It’s leading up to the sashes stepping in to tell the workers “we can help you out more than these guys” or, even better for the sashes, if one of the crew hits or retaliates against the worker making it us vs them with the workers.
A union is a social cooperative, so attacking that claim will be social.
Don’t forget a Tier 2 cohort (gang) is 12 Thugs (or whatever tag)!