Headspace: Vancouver Aftermath

19 February 2016: 2 pm: Headspace: Vancouver Aftermath

• GM: Mark Richards
• Me: Runner: Kolonaki, aka Naki
• Paul Beakley: Whitecoat: Stapledon
• Infiltrator: Clancey
• Ronin: Corvus
• Tech: 0KOO1

The last three were played by Chris Rusk, Chris Seuss, and Matt Capizi, though I'm not sure who played which. We were told to think Jason Bourne level for the PCs.

This one's likely to be less than my usual level of coherence, partly due to time passing, but also partly to how the game plays and my less than perfect understanding of same.

Headspace is a Powered by the Apocalypse game. There were six roles one could take:

• Runner: Wheelman, _knows_ the city
• Ronin: Street samurai
• Handler: Man with the plan -- contingency, face, "Of _course_ he has a contingency plan"
• Tech: Engineer and hacker, drones
• Whitecoat: Mashup of Holmes and Watson -- detective, medical, psychiatric
• Infiltrator: Sneaky guy

Each role covered three very broad skills. There were other skills as well, divided into moves:

Professional Move: The three skills your PC has Headspace Move: The skills the other PCs have Improvised Move: Skills your PC has no access to, so needs to improvise

The character the group does _not_ pick has died before the start of the game or is killed off in the introduction. The group picks _one_ of his three skills to steal.

We decided that our Handler, who had died, was Wolf. One of his sills was in the Headspace.

Our setting was Vancouver, 70ish years into the future. About six months before game start, there had been an earthquake, and that had triggered a tsunami. This meant that corporations moved their facilities from what had been prime land to what had been poor land. The poor had been forced to move to what had previously been prime land. But now, the corporations were trying to reclaim that land.

The 5 big corporations were:

• Pacific Security Solutions
• Applied Optimism
• Trauma One
• Aescalation Laboratories
• 3H Energy

All of the PCs had emotional baggage. They were also always mentally linked to each other, which is why certain skills could be shared in Headspace. But, this also means one could be affected by another's tragedy.

GM: _Your_ emotional baggage doesn't affect _you_.

Beginning net of relationships:

Stapleton found dirt on 0Koo1 that he's still not comfortable with -- what dirt? 0Kool facilitated anonymity for pedophiles, mostly high ranking officials in companies.

Only Corvus stood up to Clancey.

Who got hurt by the one bomb the Corvus didn't get to? Clancey.

Who still doesn't trust 0Koo1's work? Stapledon.

Who gets a fix from Stapledon? Kolonaki gets stims -- in an inhaler.

Whose family did Clancy forged documents for, allowing them to escape quarantine area? Stapleton's.

Corvus: Whose rival took down during messy op? Kolonaki's.

0Koo1: Who doesn't know you used to monitor their family for a corporation? Clancey. My notes say "<why I am <not?> dead? Because I am dead?>" at this point.

Stapledon: Who'd you help that you wish you hadn't? Corvus.

Clancey witnessed Corvus doing something that put him off. What? Corvus "pacified" orphans -- a whole camp. Most were likely to have been saved, but the corporation needed to trim this down to manageable levels for funding.

Corvus: Who accidentally undid 1 of my perfect plans? 0Koo1.

0Koo1: Whose dark secret did you erase? Corvus's. He could be attacked for literally killing orphans.

From my playbook:

Kolonaki: Disciplines: Rage 1, Grief 0, Fear 2, Need -2, Ego -1

Operator Skills, aka Kolonaki's own skills, each paired with a discipline which defines how Kolonaki felt when using that skill -- what Kolonaki's emotional baggage was -- and with a question.

• Pilot: Fear: Who pulled you from a fiery wreck just in time? Clancey the Infiltrator.
• Parkour: Need: Who did you leave because they couldn't keep up? Tech 0Koo1.
• Sprawl: Ego: Who did you hide from a corporate threat? Ronin Corvus.

Operator Skills: The section where I put in my skills and their corresponding disciplines -- and those of everyone else.

Runner:
Pilot: Fear
Parkour: Need
Sprawl: Ego

Infiltrator:
Martial Arts: Ego
Security: Grief
Stealth: Rage

Handler:
Coax: Unavailable
Contingency: Need (how selected?)
Observation: Unavailable
We only got one of the Handler's skills because the Handler was dead. 
I forget how we choose what discipline to go with, but I am fairly sure 
we quickly decided that Contingency was the obvious one of the three 
skills to pick.

Ronin:
Explosives: Rage
Firearms: Ego
Tactics: Fear

Tech:
Engineering: Rage
Drones: Grief
Hacking: Ego

Whitecoat:
Investigation: Grief
Medicine: Ego
Psychology: Need

Next came Regrets. Each PC had one, and each Regret was tied to a corporation's secret, which my notes say means "Carrying / Magnifying an event".

Clancey: Agent provocateur for Pacific Security Solutions -- didn't know his family was there

Stapledon: Aesc Labs -- fake treatment marketing consultant -- he makes them _believe_ in his fake treatments -- worked even better than expected

Corvus: In charge / using high level tactics and predictive abilities to calculate food to kill ratios -- for cleansing refugee camps for Trauma One

0koo1: Applied Optimism -- Destroyed a Dark Net for them.

Naki: 3H Energy -- Moved information -- gave them data that helped them pick a site -- that helped cause the tsunami

Also from Naki's (Kolonaki's) playbook:

• Drive: Redemption
• Sub-culture: Neon
• Eyes: Neon Green
• Hair: UV Glow
• Body: Digital Tattoos
• Clothes: Vinyl
• Avatar: Nova
• Runner edges:
• Crash Suit (Armor 2)
  • Machine Pistol (2-Harm, Close/Near, +Loud, +Suppressive)
  • Spinner Aerodrome (Armor 2, +Flight) 1 pilot, 4 passengers, speed 200 mph
  • 1 credit
  • Sprawl Safe House
  • Student Revolution contacts

The Headspace technology cannot be turned off. Always on -- even when sleeping. Dreams float together.

No player / character division -- if any involved, all are.
Betrayal is therefore hard.
But, NO, they don't know all your dark secrets.
Only skill sharing <illeg>

Mark said he'd been told that Headspace was Sense8 meets Blade Runner, but added that he had been working on the game three years before Sense8.

There was no health track. All damage goes to the emotional tracks.

• Feedback -) Taken Out -- Unconscious till end of scene.
• Can be permanently Taken Out -- if you _wish_. If this happens, your character exists for the rest of the scene, actions cannot cause stress, and at end, you horribly die.

What Corp is today all about?

• There was a Countdown Clock with 6 slots.
• 3 were the corp's, if I read my notes correctly, and 3 were for "operator" -- us.
• All is resolved when any 3 slices complete.
• We were trying to accomplish 3 things against the company. Everything would resolves into a big clock, because the company is trying to change the world in its way, in its favor.

Trauma One Arcology

• Time
• Cost
• -)Quality -- they have their best teams on the ground.

Trauma One wanted to try to seize control of the an island and was hoping to put boots down on the island.

So, the group had three things to stop

• Cut off way into arcology
• Remove data
• This is left blank in my notes

So, I think the idea was to delay Trauma One enough that it would have to fight 3H Energy, who'd owned the island before the earthquake and tsunami. Our group's objectives were:

• Blow the Bridge
• Remove the Data
• Snatch Project Manager -- Peter Nemo, who was friendly and ruthless. I think my notes indicate that was could manipulate him by exacerbating his ego.

We had a slice of this first countdown clock: The group had the data. It had gotten its hands on it, BUT...

GM: How'd it go south?

And here is where my notes get even more patchy. As we went in:

• Corvus was at the Bridge.
• Clancey and Stapleton were in the building.
• 0Koo1 and Naki were in the air.

Problem: Security had never left. 3H Energy still has security there.

• Us: Fear Starts at 4
• GM: Need Starts at 2
• All Else at 1

At this point, my more coherent notes seem to be about the PCs, not about what happened:

<ore> Clancey -- Drifter, thousand yard stare, monofilament katana Romane slogo Potalihead dispensers kit

Stapledon -- Transhuman, cybereyes, chrome head, minimalist clothes Anark -- he's god (I've no idea what this means) Gender is for people (I think this means he doesn't consider himself a person) The Healing Place

Corvus -- Drifter, thousand yard stare, grey hair under bandana < user > B Team Freight Train -- stun <illeg>

The next thing my notes say is that the situation had turned hot.

And there is a mechanic involving characters revealing a regret. Apparently, this came up here, although my notes are confusing:

Reveal regret
Fear
Corvus -- Avoid xntg(?) conflict
0Koo1 -- leave behind ally or resource CHECK
Stapleton -- hesitates when it matters most CHECK
Naki -- overestimates danger CHECK

In play, I recall everyone trying to help each other, but Naki being too overcautious, which hurt the team inside the building.

Despite setbacks, the group did successfully blow the bridge. And, the group had the data.

BUT -- the corporations involved knew what the group had done.

And this is where my notes end.

I have the game and need to read it. I like how it played, even if my memories are muddled. I like the focus on, well, the headspace -- the emotions, the regret, the teamwork. I like that the hacker problem of classic cyberpunk is solved by putting everyone in each other's heads.