Hacking together Altered State and The Sprawl

question

#1

HAIL, Badasses! My Exiles game will be wrapping after the next few sessions and I’m looking to run a cyberpunk game for my group next. I got Altered State all printed out along with Augmented reality for tables, but I don’t want to make this the grandest I’ve done with my current game, I want it to be more focused on the ROLE play side, so I’m looking to use the Sprawl’s powered-by-apocalypse timer system and quick resolution for faster resolution for things like combat and other stuff, but I’m not sure how well the two can work together. anyone on here used apocalypseworld mechanics in ICRPG yet?


#2

First: This sounds like a great campaign!

Second: AW “clocks” and Runehammer “timers” serve the same purpose of building tension and tracking enemy actions, so combining or substituting one for the other should not be any problem.

Third: I’m less onboard with the fast resolution bit. I think there are several layers here.
One the die mechanic side, there’s the simple setup of “yes, and”, “yes, but” and “no, but”. Eg. you deal damage AND they get scared. Implementing this in other games just(?) requires some discipline in interpreting failed and successful attempts. Effort rolls are already “yes, but” outcomes.

But…
With that I’d also argue that what makes AW unique is that it is precisely NOT designed to provide fast resolution. This is true on an action-by-action basis: in other games you attack and deal damage, in AW you attack and then hand over control of outcomes to the opponent. But it is even more true on a situation-by-situation basis, where events are propelled by moves that are explicitly designed to not provide resolution but to keep snowballing. For example: if you want to disarm the cyborg guard and roll 10+, you will still either suffer a lot of harm (forcing you to seek medical aid), inflict little harm (leaving the opponent capable of counter-moves), or fail to deter your enemy. While this trade-off is realistic, many GMs would probably see it as bordering on GM hostility if it weren’t clearly stated in the move and instead set up a binary success/failure.

Point is: the mechanics of AW are simple to implement in any game, but the deeper design is tricky as it drives towards setting up new unstable situations rather than neatly resolving actions. For the latter, you probably need clearly defined guidelines for different situations (eg moves) so that players don’t feel cheated of their agency.


#3

Yes, AW mechanics from Sixth World is a good combo. Sounds like a chill game…

Game On!


#4

if you play test this think of me. i wold like to try it out.