Straight Outta Chiba: The Driver

I’m working on the playbooks today. There have been a few minor tweaks to some moves, but the biggest changes are the addition of a couple of sections (name options, tailored directives in a new format, and character creation advice) and the reworking of the Gear section. Here’s the Driver:

Driver

Neurotransmitters lick with their chemical tongues the metal and crystal in his head, and electrons spit from the chips, racing along the cables to the engine starters, and through a dozen sensors Cowboy feels the bladed turbines reluctantly turn as the starters moan, and then flame torches the walls of the combustion chambers and the blades spin into life with a screaming whine. Cowboy monitors the howling exhaust as it belches fire. On his mental displays… he watches fore and aft and checks the engine displays and sees another set of green lights and knows it’s time to move. The howling of the engines beats at his senses… the flaming corn-alcohol throbs through his chest like blood and that the shrieking exhaust flows from his lungs like breath, that his eyes beam radar and his fingers can flick missiles forth like pebbles. Through his sensors he can taste the exhaust and see the sky and the prairie sunset, and part of his mind can feel the throbbing radio energies that are the enemy’s search planes…
Hardwired, Walter Jon Williams

Wheelman, transporter, drone jockey. Whether it’s a sleek coupe, a rumbling hog, a drone-rigged panel van or a radar-baffled ex-military whirlybird, when you jack in and feel the wind rushing over your exterior panelling, you own the road and you are the car. When the job goes smooth it’s the easiest gig there is – like a Sunday drive with grandma – but when things turn sour and the team needs a quick exit, well, that’s where you really earn your Cred.

Name. Cartman, Squirrel, Roadkill, Aziz, Tower, Cowboy, Luka, an animal name, a violent name, a cocky name
Look. Choose one from each line:
Eyes: laughing, cool, hard, cold, distant, artificial
Face: blank, covered, attractive, decorated, rugged, thin
Body: toned, lithe, compact, scarred, augmented, flabby, unfit.
Wear: flashy, formal, casual, utility, scrounge, vintage, leathers, military, corporate.
Stats. Assign each stat one of these numbers: +2, +1, +1, +0, +0, -1. Your Cool should be +2 or +1.

Cyberware:
You get:
Control Systems: Allows direct neural control of an appropriately configured external device such as a vehicle, weapon, recording device, or hacked electronic system. Choose two of following tags: +encrypted, +relay, +multi-tasking, +relay, +unaccessible.

Moves
You get these two:
Wheels: You start with a cyber-linked vehicle. If your vehicle has Power+2, it may start with one mounted weapon system. To build your vehicle:
Choose a Frame: Bike, car, hovercraft, boat, vectored thrust, aircraft, helicopter
Choose a Design: racing, recreational, transportation, cargo, military, luxury, civilian, commercial, courier
Choose a Profile:
Power+2 Looks+1, 1-Armour, Weakness+1
Power+2 Looks+2, 0-Armour, Weakness+1
Power+1 Looks+2, 1-Armour, Weakness+1
Power+2 Looks+1, 2-Armour, Weakness+2
For each point of Power, choose a strength; For each point of Looks, choose a look; For each point of Weakness, choose a weakness. If your vehicle has Power+2, it may mount one weapon system; Military vehicles may mount an additional weapon system.
Strengths: Fast, quiet, rugged, aggressive, huge, off-road, responsive, uncomplaining, capacious, workhorse, easily repaired.
Looks: Sleek, vintage, pristine, powerful, luxurious, flashy, muscular, quirky, pretty, garish, armoured, armed, nondescript.
Weaknesses: Slow, fragile, sloppy, lazy, cramped, picky, guzzler, unreliable, loud.
Weapons: Machine guns (3-harm close/far area messy), grenade launchers (4-harm close area messy), missile launcher (5-harm far area messy slow), autocannon (4-harm far area messy)
Second Skin: When jacked in through your Control Systems to a cyber-linked vehicle:
if you act under pressure, add your car’s power to your roll.
if you mix it up, add your car’s power to your roll.
if you play hardball, add your car’s looks to your roll.
if you help or interfere with someone, add your car’s power to your roll.
if someone interferes with you, add your car’s weakness to their roll.

Choose one more:
Chromed: Choose another piece of cyberware at character creation or in downtime. Describe how you got it and paid for it as usual.
Daredevil: When you drive straight into danger without hedging your bets, you get +1 armour. Mark experience.
Drone Jockey: You start with two drones. For each:
Choose a motive style: Rotor, fixed-wing, tracked, wheeled, aquatic, submarine.
Choose a frame:
Tiny (insect-sized): +small, +fragile, +stealthy, pick one sensor.
Small (rat- to cat-sized): choose one strength, one sensor, one weakness, and one other from any category.
Medium (dog-sized): choose one strength, one sensors, one weakness, and two others from any category.
Large (bear-sized): +obvious, choose two strengths, one sensor, one weakness and two others from any category
For each point of Power, choose a strength; For each point of Looks, choose a look; For each point of Weakness, choose a weakness.
Strengths: Fast, rugged, off-road, responsive, uncomplaining, easily repaired, stealthy, tight encryption, autonomous operation, robot arm, weapon mount.
Sensors: Magnification, IR, jamming, image enhancement, analysis software.
Weaknesses: Slow, fragile, unreliable, loud, loose encryption, obvious.
Machine guns (3-harm close/far area messy), grenade launchers (4-harm close area messy), and personal firearms can be installed in drones.
Weapon Mount: a weapon can be mounted on the drone. The size of the weapon is determined by the size of the frame.
A small drone can mount a gun dealing 2- or s-harm with a range tag of close or less and without the autofire tag.
A medium drone can mount a gun dealing up to 3-harm with a range tag of near or less.
A large drone can mount a gun dealing up to 4-harm.
Eye in the sky: When helping or interfering while piloting a drone, roll+Edge instead of +Links.
Hot shit driver: When you’re driving a linked vehicle in a high-pressure situation, roll+Edge. On a 10+ hold 3, one 7-9 hold 1. You may spend your hold 1-for-1 on the following:

• Avoid one external danger (a rocket, a burst of gunfire, a collision, etc).
• Escape one pursuing vehicle.
• Maintain control of the vehicle.
• Impress, dismay or frighten someone.

Iceman: When you try to fast talk someone, roll+Cool.
Right tool for the job: You have two additional cyber-linked vehicles (build each in the same way as your custom vehicle).
Sweet Ride: When you hit the street in your car, add your car’s looks to your roll.

Gear
Custom cyber-linked vehicle (as described above).
Choose one weapon:
Automatic shotgun (3-harm close messy autofire)
Heavy pistol (3-harm close loud)
Machette (3-harm hand)
Choose one:
Armour jacket (1 armour)
Synth leathers (Armour 0, discreet, subtract 1 when rolling the harm move)
Trauma derms (allows you to apply first aid)

Directives
Choose two:
Illustrious: When your desire for fame draws unwanted attention to the mission, mark experience.
Intimate: When you put your friend ________________ ahead of the mission, mark experience.
Rejected: When your former membership of _________________ hinders the mission, mark experience.
Vengeful: When you harm _______________ or their interests, mark experience.

Drivers in The Sprawl
Playing a Driver in The Sprawl puts a spotlight on movement in the game. With a Driver in play, every mission should involve mobility and the chance for high speed chases, interceptions, and extractions. The Driver is more than a high-pressure taxi service. As the Driver, push the team towards mission strategies that highlight your skills, your vehicles and your drones.

The kind of Wheels you choose also pushes the game in a certain direction. A Driver with a powerful racing car will have a different approach to a Driver with a rugged cargo helicopter or a military hovercraft. Talk about your vehicle choices with the other players and the MC; make sure your vehicle choice fits with the kind of game everyone wants to play.

Drone Jockey gives the Driver a lot of mission role flexibility. Drones can be configured for stealth infiltration, high-flying oversight, or combat. All of these roles are useful in both the Legwork and Action phases both as the main agent of a scene, or by assisting a player engaging in some mission activity. Eye in the Sky increases your ability to help or interfere with your team remotely.

Iceman and Sweet Ride give the Driver some muscle in social interactions.