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Hello, fellow Blade Runners 8)
Last wednesday we finally got around to run our first The Department session. We managed to play five scenarios and stopped only because I didn't have the required terrain for the sixth one ready (abandoned warehouse).
Let me write a few things about the game itself and what I think about it.
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Game Overview
First of all, The Department is not your typical sci-fi skirmish game. It is meant to be played as a campaign of about five to ten scenarios, trying to collect evidence to unlock the last scenarios which is typically a raid to capture or kill the prime suspect, typically a terrorist cell leader or other dangerous criminal.
The game is set in 2070s U.S.A. where humanoid robots, so-called Fabricants, have largely replaced all menial labour in huge factories, leaving jobs that require creativity or initiative to humans. With this evolution of course came new problems for law enforcement agencies. Fabricants could be stolen, reprogrammed to commit crimes, go haywire and run amok, and other things that do or don't involve human criminal masterminds. Investigating all these crimes is The Department of Fabricant Management, aka The Department.
The game is played cooperatively. Players create characters who can have different strengths and weaknesses, one may be a crack interrogator, a firearms expert, close combat specialist, and more. It's important that a certain range of skills is covered by the investigating team. I created six sample characters from which we chose three:
1. Stone, based on rutger Hauer's character Harly Stone from the British 1992 sci-fi film Split Second, a firearms expert with a grudge against Fabricants, armed with an unpermitted Assault Rifle, a cigar and a bad temper. He's also adept at intimidating perps.
2. Lebrowski, based on Billy Zane's character Jo Dee Fostar from The Silence of the Hams. He is a rookie officer with not much experience at working with evidence or booked supsects, but he's a natural athlete who can bring down any foe in close combat.
3. Tanner, based on Crystal Steele from the 1997 Blade Runner videogame, interrogations specialist and good at combining different pieces of evidence back at the station.
We just chose the first prime suspect, a terrorist cell leader who uses Fabricants as mobile bombs and equips them with a very lifelike synthetic skin job, making them extremely hard to distinguish from humans. Before we could get to him, we had to collect enough evidence though, so we played through the first five scenarios trying to solve a murder, meeting with an informant amid crowds ready to riot, arrested a drug dealer and his bodyguard, broke into a nightclub to install wiretabs, and other things.
Each scenario is played on a 4x4 table (for 28mm), with buildings and streets layout however feels right. I just laid out a portion of the city beforehand and we played four of the five missions on the same table, turning it after the first two so we had to change starting positions. Two things that make The Department special are the A.I. routine used for all suspects, which determine how they act based on how many officers they can see, among other things, and a special kind of "terrain" which are crowds of peope that affect movement and can turn hostile or dissolve if there's a fight nearby. After each mission, the investigators return to the police station where they may interrogate arested suspects, combine evidence to get new kinds of evidence (there are five different types), ask for more budget, heal their wounds, and so on. The Budget is set before the campaign starts and each weapon that is used, each additional station action, and most scenarios costs budget points. Characters can also gain Internal Affairs Points (IAP) if they do things like gun down innocents, beat up non-hostile suspects, fire their weapons near a crowd, etc. The scenarios play pretty quick, so you can possibly make it through a full campaign on an extended evening, or split it amongst two night for more casual play.
As for the rules written by Joseph Dragovich , they are based on the GoalSystem rules by Scott Pyle some may know from Goalsystem Delves which also saw a successful kickstart fund drive. Basically, for each test, a certain number of dice are rolled depending on attribute and skill value, and all 4s, 5s and 6s are goals (6s count double). If the required Theshold number is reached, the test was successful. It's an easy to understand system that allows for good granularity and can be used for pretty much every situation that may arise. The rulebook has a few errors that slipped through playtesting, but there's a FAQ on the official website so be sure to head there to get up to date :)
What I learned from five games of The Department
1. The Department is more RPG-Lite than skirmish game (although it can just be played as a straight head-to-head combat game without the campaign framework). In five games, not one single shot was fired, and only one melee attack was made (after which the offending suspect was quickly arrested).
2. The A.I. could use improvement if you want a deadlier or more interesting experience. They mostly just seem to flee once they see an officer or stay put, only seldomly turning hostile.
3. Prepare to spent some time planning your campaign, I strongly suggest using premade characters. I will also cough up some random events on the table and while in the station to spice things up.
4. You need lots of civilian models for the crowds (one scenario has six crowds!) to achieve that nice future street look. Each crowd has a radius of 6 inches at 28mm, although you could just use a flat marker instead of actual models. I suggest having at least 20 civilians, with 30 being ideal.
5.The skills relevant to subduing and arresting suspects and combining evidence are extremly important, make sure your characters cover those sufficiently!
I liked the game a lot, it has a strong RPG flavor and is very thematic. It's really like playing a crime procedural drama such as the various CSI series. My friends had a lot of fun as well, alhough I would have liked a little bit more combat (or rather, combat at all! :D ). I'll probably change the A.I. routines a bit so that suspects become a bit more short-tempered.. I blame it on rampant drug abuse in future America!
Enough talk, let's look at some photos.
[SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION]
The first thing one of my gaming buddies said when he saw the table was "Ohhh, that looks good!"
[/SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION]
A drug dealer and his two bodyguard loiter around a street corner (dunno why they do it in front of a police spinner, but hey… as I said above, can't reason with those junkies!). Lebrowksi sneaks from behind to apprehend the suspects.
Stone and Tanner investigate a murder scene in front of the White Dragon Noodle Bar. Nobody has seen anything… of course.
Looking down main street.
Birds-eye view
You may notice some some stuff on the table next to the actual play area. I made pre-generated character sheets and also equipment reference cards. If anyone is interested, the reference cards are available for download on the Department homepage, while the sample characters will hopefully be uploaded too as well (hint hint, Joe! :P)
Comments & Questions welcome, of course. 8)
paints and individually bases some 6mm sci-fi infantry.
