Wanted! Reward: CC 10,000: Blood on the Dancefloor Solo Playtest

Bozo the cyberharlequin emerged from hiding to catch the Gouged Petunias when they played a set at the Eggshell. Lone bounty hunter Just Ice seized the opportunity to take the killer clown down solo. Bozo and his girlfriend Columbina grabbed a table at the center of the bar, under the skylight. The Petunias ran through a cover of Night of the Assassins while Just Ice mounted the side deck and climbed up onto the roof. He wanted to drop on top of Bozo through the skylight and apprehend him before the clown could deploy cybernetic enhancements, drugs or heavy weapons.

 

 

Bargoers filtered out onto the dancefloor, headbanging and swinging their arms. Bozo left his babe at the table and went to the bar. The heavy-worlder behind the counter asked what he wanted to drink. Hopped up on Bozenzadrine, the killer clown shot the barkeep with his flamethrower and started a fire. 

 

General pandemonium broke out among the patrons. Bozo tried to grab a nearby civilian with his cyber arm, who scrambled away and fled. Citizens dove for cover or fled the licking flames and violence, but a handful drew personal weapons and fired on Bozo. Columbina pulled a knife and stabbed one of the good samaritans shooting at her man, catching a crossbow bolt for her trouble. Most of the gunfire went wide but a lucky shotshell from a chopped scattergun splashed across Bozo's enhanced skin. Incensed at the death of his colleague, the robot bartender hopped over the counter and clobbered Bozo with his pneumatic arm. The clown fell to the floor unconscious.

 

Just Ice took a running start and dove through the skylight, landing on Bozo's babe before she could knife Murbella the pink-coated civilian again. Though wounded, the pistol-packing citizen helped the bounty hunter apprehend the blade wielding crook. The rest of the armed patrons riddled Bozo's prone form with bullets, afraid the unpredictable and drugged up clown was just playing dead. The fire spread and Just Ice decided against trying to recover the clown's pulped remains. His sunny disposition, daring rooftop rescue and his promise to share the reward money convinced pink coat to help him haul the handcuffed moll out the back door.

 

Murbella and Just Ice hauled Columbina out the back door, right into the Rat Sheriff and his Riot Control Deputy. The Sheriff told everyone to drop their weapons and grab air, giving everyone an opportunity to surrender and explain themselves. The Deputy wasn't going to let his boss get killed because he gave armed hoods a chance to grease him. He sprayed the whole group down with paralyzing foam. The explanation could wait until the scene was secure.

 

 

Just Ice hadn't discharged his weapon during the incident, hadn't even been in the room when Bozo started shooting, and had saved an injured woman from certain death at the hands of a violent felon. After taking everyone's statements and running his license, the cops released the bounty hunter, gave him back his equipment and a modest payment for collaring Columbina alive. It wasn't a lot of money, and once Just Ice visited Murbella in the hospital to deliver her cut it would be even smaller. He could have skipped town with the whole payout, but that was a short-sighted move. In the semiregulated bounty trade a man's reputation as an honest dealer was more important than a handful of credits. Plus he felt a little responsible for the barkeep getting roasted and 'Bella getting stabbed. If he hadn't spent so long dicking around on the roof he could have wasted the clown before he went crazy with the flamethrower.

 

 

This was a solo run of Wanted! Reward: CC 10,000, a cooperative/competitive narrative wargame with light RPG elements. I wanted to test the system myself before GMing a game with real players. The full scenario will have

• Four more pregen bounty hunters (models done, just need stat blocks)
• More Bozos (models and stats done)
• A centralized dashboard with NPC reactions for both bounty hunters and civilians
• Quick reference sheets for all actions including shooting/melee 
• Preprepared weapon stat blocks for all the armed civilians
• Full stat blocks for law enforcement and a larger law enforcement response to handle more bounty hunters and crooks.
• A guy passing out free samples of his mutagenergy drink.
• A better playmat to cover the entire playable area
• Diecast cars to park in front of the bar.
• Props placed further apart (trees to close to buildings make it hard to position models)