Backgrounds in Sprawl Goons were originally conceived to add flavour to player characters, but here’s some associated benefits in the form of
Expertise for each Background type.
To trigger an Expertise roll, the situation must be an appropriate one for the roll to be made and is usually requested by the player looking for a specific advantage, but can be called for by the GM (usually to help newer players). An Expertise roll is allowed once per scene or combat encounter, as stated in the description.
Use the following Difficulty Scores as a guideline for the Expertise roll. Each Expertise type confers a +1 to the roll and specifies which stat to use, as noted in the entries below.
- Character is under no stress DS10
- Character is under moderate stress DS12
- Character is under major stress DS14
Any Upgrade dice are in addition to other Upgrade dice, such as those provided by augmentations, gear, consoles or narcotics.
11. Zone Wars Veteran
• Situational Awareness
+1 to an Equilibrium roll to add Upgrade dice to your attack, once per combat encounter.
12. Komatsu Killmorph
• Mimic
+1 to an Equilibrium roll to successfully copy the mannerisms and vocal tone of another person (after having observed them for a few minutes within the last 24 hours), once per scene.
13. Nodejacker
• Feedwise
+1 to a Cognition roll to accurately navigate cyberspace or to find useful contacts online, once per scene.
14. Syndicate Enforcer
• Intimidate
+1 to an Equilibrium roll to apply pressure through threats of violence to achieve a desired outcome, once per scene.
15. Chemical Edit
• White Lies
+1 to an Affinity roll to fabricate convincing falsehoods (originally developed to compensate for your lack of tangible memories), once per scene.
16. Clone Interrupted
• Masquerade
+1 to an Affinity roll to imitate the person you’re a copy of, but only when you’ve discovered their identity, once per scene.
21. Robotnik
• Machine Mind
+1 to a Cognition roll to teleoperate a drone, remote, robot or vehicle with cold focus, gaining the addition of Upgrade dice, once per scene.
22. Runaway Splice
• Primal Instinct
+1 to a Reaction roll to gain Upgrade dice for your next attack, if cornered or if you’re outnumbered and alone, once per combat encounter.
23. Strato-cabbie
• Top Gun
+1 to a Reaction roll to pilot your hopper with the manoeuvrability of a strike-fighter, with Upgrade dice, once per combat encounter, pushing the vehicle to its limits.
24. Backstreet Biomechanic
• Under Pressure
+1 to an Equilibrium roll to treat injuries with added Upgrade dice in any stressful or dangerous situation, once per scene.
25. Toxic Tweeker
• Hypertolerance
+1 to an Equilibrium roll to resist the adverse effects of chemical or pharmaceutical substances, once per scene or combat encounter.
26. Jaded Jurōjin
• Boundless Resources
+1 to an Affinity roll to request help or finances through family channels (within reason; the family don’t need an audit right now), once per session. And as you well know, they’ll definitely want something in return.
31. Fugitive Cybrid
• Uncanny Durability
+1 to a Morphology roll to ignore any damage that is sustained that round, once per combat encounter.
32. Nexus
• Street Biz
+1 to an Affinity roll to negotiate deals or to enlist suitably shady contacts, once per scene.
33. War Child
• Relentless
+1 to an Equilibrium roll to continue fighting, despite any injuries and without the wound Glitch dice, once per combat encounter.
34. Panzer Mind
• Battle Tech
+1 to a Cognition roll to exploit any vulnerabilities in the transmission, chassis or armour of tank suits and other combat vehicles, gaining Upgrade dice on your next attack, once per combat encounter.
35. Mnemonic Envoy
• Fragmentary Recall
+1 to a Cognition roll to recover potentially useful slivers of memory or portions of data from past clients, once per scene.
36. Datasocialist Insurgent
• Saboteur’s Scrutiny
+1 to a Cognition roll to identify instabilities in buildings and infrastructure, allowing explosives or other forms of attack to deliver their damage to spectacular effect, once per scene.
41. Recoded
• Whispered Intuition
+1 to Cognition rolls to gain an insight into a situation, provided by (and limited by) your master AI’s knowledge, once per scene.
42. Transmissions Cop
• Digital Instinct
+1 to a Cognition roll to follow online leads or notice digital anomalies and clues, once per scene.
43. Freak Fighter
• Threat Analysis
+1 to an Equilibrium roll to pinpoint opponents’ physical weaknesses or gaps in their armour, gaining Upgrade dice on your next attack, once per combat encounter.
44. Nanomancer
• Structural Dynamics
+1 to a Cognition roll to assess the suitability of nearby materials for use by your assemblers, or to determine whether your dissassemblers can break local materials down, once per scene.
45. Combat Chauffeur
• Pedal To The Metal
+1 to a Reaction roll to drive evasively and tactically at speed, avoiding hostile attacks and gaining Upgrade dice, once per combat encounter.
46. Tecstatic
• Earthly Escape
+1 to an Equilibrium roll to meditatively negate the effect of privations, such as pain, fatigue, cold, heat, torture, thirst or hunger, once per scene or combat encounter.
51. Orbital Operator
• Augmented Allure
+1 to an Affinity roll to exploit and influence grubby dirtsiders with your unearthly, lab-cultured attractiveness, once per scene.
52. Ghostrunner
• Mindware
+1 to a Cognition roll to detect the type of digital being or expert system and their influence over devices, software or systems, once per scene.
53. Rogue Shikaaree Type-66 ATID
• Beserker Mode
+1 to a Reaction roll to compute the optimal position and form of attack to strike up to three opponents, once per combat encounter.
54. Telemetric Sniper
• Target Acquisition
+1 to a Cognition roll to estimate the most effective range and angle of an attack, gaining Upgrade dice, once per combat encounter.
55. Cognition Verification Agent
• Synthetic Awareness
+1 to a Cognition roll to discern whether an individual is real, a cybrid or housed in a cybershell, once per scene.
56. Ultrateen
• High Influence
+1 to an Affinity roll to obtain access, by virtue of your wealthy family, to places, both real and virtual, that are usually off-limits to the average citizen, once per scene.
61. Fluid Reality Adept
• Holoactualisation
+1 to a Cognition roll to focus your mind and to generate hyperreal, highly deceptive holographic illusions of exceptional quality, with Upgrade dice, once per scene.
62. Gang War Surplus
• Urban Evasion
+1 to a Reaction roll to discern and utilise an otherwise unnoticed escape route, or to find a bolt-hole and lay low, once per scene or combat encounter.
63. Zero
• Phantom
+1 to a Morphology roll to remain unnoticed and anonymous, blending into the background or crowd, once per scene.
64. Algorithmic Augur
• Are Friends Electric?
+1 to a Cognition roll to enlist the help of a digital entity or sentient program online, once per scene.
65. Turbosensei
• Matrix Moves
+1 to a Reaction roll to athletically capitalise on your immediate environment during a fight; run up walls, swing from ducting, vault off columns, etc., once per combat encounter.
66. Meat Puppet
• Honeyed Words
+1 to an Affinity roll to beguile and charm your way out of tense or dangerous situations, when isolated or cornered, once per scene or combat encounter.
