Wardens! Looking for flair to add to your Prospero's Dream game? Fear not! I just finished this for my campaign usage, so here it is to share-- much of it is mine, but I also used the "1d20 modes of traveling on Prospero" pdf from user [trying to find] on the Mothership Discord, and bits from the absolutely indispensable, free, cannot-be-praised-enough Augmented Reality supplement. I tried to give it a very Prospero's Dream vibe, add colour, and in some cases give game mechanics. The "travel modes" also involve some elements of "encounters" for possible PC interaction, and indeed one could combine them with an actual Encounter from A Pound of Flesh to complicate matters.
1D100 modes of traveling/mini-encounters along the way
on Prospero’s Dream
00.
You round a corner and the reek of sewage hits
you. The street is almost closed off by a jagged sinkhole into The Veins,
exposing burst sewage pipes. Luckily, a Teamster’s Union crew has set up a
rickety bridge on the left side of the sinkhole so the sparse foot traffic can
cross. [Body save or +1 Stress; or detour 2d10 minutes]
01.
You travel a short distance in a tuk-tuk. You
pass ramen restaurants, beauty surgeons and traders with handcarts until the
alley becomes too narrow and you must get out.
02.
A rickety elevator operated by a single
motorcycle takes you up a few floors. A wide, brightly lit corridor opens in
front of you. People stroll between bathhouses, pawnshops and chess tables and
there are even a few cars driving around.
03.
You turn into a gloomy alleyway that is so
narrow that you have to walk in single file. Above you, you hear loud voices
from open windows and see laundry drying above your head.
04.
You reach a lower floor via a long ladder. A
labyrinth of winding alleyways opens up in front of you. Through open doors you
can see into opium dens, BDSM clubs and tea kitchens, but nobody pays much
attention to you.
05.
A rusty cable car, whose windows are so
scratched up that you can barely see out, takes you up a few floors. Between a
soup kitchen with a long queue and a shabby hostel, you enter a large hall
where a Novo family has set up an exhibit of expensive art, guarded by heavily armed
Droogs, but attracting many onlookers who pause to inspect it.
06.
You cross a series of large rooms on gangways
and bridges. Below you, you can see one of the power stations that produce
electricity for the Dream and one of the many union pubs. Dirty people stand in
front of it drinking and staring up at you.
07.
A long, wide staircase also leads to one of the
lowest floors. The steep steps are lined with reaper fences, cabarets and luma
tattoo studios.
08.
After a long wait, you board a small, packed
train that will take you much closer to your destination. It stinks and people
avoid eye contact. A distorted voice announces the stations ahead: Blue Line
Apartments, Holding Cells K19, Oracle Tunnel, Sewage Treatment Plant 81.
09.
In front of you is a flooded tunnel. For 3cr,
gondolas will take you to the other side with dry feet. You see people who
can’t afford the boats wading through the waist-high water with their luggage
on their heads.
10.
The wide road in front of you is very busy.
Rickshaws, motorcycles and bicycles zoom by. Pedestrians keep to the wall as
close as possible. Every now and then someone is swept along by a passing
vehicle.
11.
A winding ramp leads steeply upwards. Rascals on
motorcycles offer their services to take people up. At the side of the road,
people offer their goods and services. You see acupuncturists treating their
patients on blankets, mod mechanics in tents and palm readers loudly vying for
customers.
12.
Between a slaughter factory and a shooting
range, someone has cut a hole in a wide pipe that runs at a right angle to the
path. People rent a skateboard for 1cr, crawl into the pipe and lie on the
board on their backs. Then they use their hands to shimmy through the pipe to
the other side of a thick wall. There, someone helps them out of the hole and
takes the skateboard.
13.
Crammed together with many other passengers, you
stand like sardines on the back of a van. You race past gambling dens, burger
joints and second-hand clothes stores at breakneck speed. After a few minutes,
you arrive at your destination and get out with weak knees.
14.
Suddenly, the tunnel you are in ends. You see
that people start pulling climbing harnesses out of a crate, clipping
themselves into a steel cable with a carabiner and hurtling down a zip line.
They are caught at the bottom by the people in charge, where they pay 2cr.
15.
You notice how it is getting colder and colder.
You are in a cooling tunnel. The people around you are wrapped up in thick
layers and icicles are hanging from the walls. A priest from the Omega Church,
an android who is oblivious to the cold, is trying in vain to lure people into
his prayer room.
16.
The hall you pass through has been transformed
into a confusing jumble of poor dwellings with tents, corrugated iron huts and
simple wooden structures. Dirty garbage collectors climb around on stinking
mountains of trash trying to find something usable.
17.
A steep spiral staircase made of sheet metal
leads to a higher deck. The entire structure vibrates with every step. Around
the stairs hang improvised platforms with cookshops, from which delicious
smells and acrid smoke waft. A shivering woman begs for 10 credits to avoid
ending up in the Choke.
18.
An old man operates a hand-operated winch to
pull up a small elevator cage. The journey takes a long time, and below you see
an argument breaking out between a rikshaw driver and a scrap dealer.
19.
An improvised rail system runs through the
lowest levels. Workers transport building materials in flat wagons, and the
passengers cling to them from the outside in order to be taken along. In the
carriage in front of you are two boozing thugs who are dividing up the bounty
they received when they delivered a poor soul to the Court who couldn't pay his
O2 costs.
20.
The artificial gravity seems to be defective in
this area of the station. People are floating around swaying and trying to keep
their belongings together. Opportunists on long ropes try to collect lost goods
to make a profit.
21.
Your path down a main street is blocked off by
an emergency cordon where there is an active gunfight between Tempest
mercenaries and some street gang. So you wind your way through the gawking
crowd and navigate some side-streets lined with rows of vendomats and scorched
shells of gutted vid-phone kiosks, all coated in layers of Waffen Bosses gang
tags, going back many years.
22.
You cross over a skywalk covered in colourful,
cartoony advertising animatics from Al Emaar Phoenix Personal Services, looking
down into thick smog that has congealed, strangling the streets below.
23.
Pedestrians are flooding across the nearest
intersection, en masse, both ways. Passage is slow, compounded by the fact that
every underlit face on the street is concentrating solely on responding to a
holovid ad projected above them that is offering a live “SanctoCorp” 120kcr
lottery for those displaying their credsticks. (partake for 10cr: within 1d10
hours find out, 1d100 on 00 win 1d100kcr; otherwise lose; crit fail = hacked
and lose 1d10 kcr)
24.
On a long stairway down to a lower level, an
ancient-looking geriatric woman lopes past strapped into a squeaking linear
assistance frame.
25.
Two local gangs are holding a no-holds-barred grudge-rugby
game at a street intersection and a vid-blogger in full, wearable array is
blatantly recording the scene.
26.
A nearby building compound, unmarked with
identification, has an intermittently flickering security light. A darkened tower
and autoturret look down on the winding pavement thoroughfare.
27.
Your passage is temporarily blocked (2d10 mins)
by a lumbering hi-vis recycling collection robotruck, busy collecting from
neighbourhood bins with Teamster assistants.
28.
As you move with the crowd through a skyway, five
armoured Tempest Co. mercs bundle a violently reluctant vagrant into an armour-plated
squad car.
29.
You take a Dreamline bus (1cr) and near your
destination get off at a bus shelter made entirely of screens showing flashy
commercials for the “Stratojogger” video gaming event.
30.
You cross a wide, spacious street. Searchlights are
playing across the cloud cover and projecting surreal branding for De Santo Eco+
Cosmetics.
31.
A brightly lit Bellerophon Corp. aerocab is taking
off in a cloud of exhaust fumes, rainwater and trash, causing pedestrians to
scatter. [Speed check or +1 Stress]
32.
Vents in the sidewalk are emitting a thick cloud
of vapour and people are covering their mouths as they cross. There is an
unnerving muttering coming with the vapour. [Sanity
save or +1 Stress]
33.
There is a metallic screech above and a heavy,
steaming hot rainwater cascade falls from damaged guttering. [Body save or 1d5 DMG]
34.
Passing a corner, you spot a cluster of kids
vaping, making LED-lit clouds from under designer pollution hoods and playing
hip brassorcery music.
35.
A pair of Eaglequick bicycle couriers race one
another through crawling traffic, shouting trashtalk as they go.
36.
Gritty, chemical-infused sediment is sloughing
off a nearby rooftop and a Teamsters Union crew have put up safety barricades
to keep foot traffic filing past.
37.
An old suspension bridge spans buildings en route
to your destination, offering a shortcut. A large building-mounted flatscreen above
is showing a “system error” message with an animated cartoon pig acting
humorously upset.
38.
Traffic snarls around unattended roadworks, the
area coned off and lit for safety for no clear reason. There is a lot of
shouting and frustration. Pedestrians and drivers navigate a sluggish labyrinth.
39.
An automated “Silly Noodle™” vending truck,
jingle playing, folds open and deploys nearby in a wide alley, and people
hastily queue up for a 2cr selfserve snack or matcha tea.
40.
Above the shadowy alley you traverse, a flock of
scabrous-looking pigeons suddenly takes flight, croaking and rasping.
41.
You stroll past a busy metro platform, full to
capacity with disgruntled, rain-soaked commuters and “CrumbYum Cookie™” vendor
robots.
42.
An abandoned cybernetic arm lies forlornly by
the kerb of a long, deserted staircase down to the next street. It sparks and
twitches.
43.
Animated street art of a heroic
vibechete-wielding figure battling a many-headed mechanical serpent twists and
turns across two adjoining walls of a series of alleys lit by flickering filament
lights.
44.
As you wait for a pedestrian crossing light, you
see that industrious homeless people are washing vehicle windscreens and
accepting 1cr O2 credstick payments before the streetlights change.
45.
The road and pavement here are rippled as if frozen
in fluid motion. Frantic homeless people are packing up their few belongings as
a Tempest Co. O2-debtor patrol pushes its way along the streets toward them.
46.
The flashing orange lights of a fat,
dirty-yellow street-sweeping remote dapple the narrow thoroughfare as you file
through. A Novo punk is spray-painting the avenue wall with a mauve “Union 32819L
sucks ass” tag.
47.
An abandoned rail tunnel now allows foot traffic
over the road. A data terminal midway through is missing its screen and is
stuffed with trash. A synthetic rat slips out and hurries up a wall.
48.
Your way is barred by a precarious heap of
obsolete electronics, which two androids are picking through. (Have to turn
around and detour; +2d10 minutes)
49.
The rainbow incandescence of oil dances to the
vibrations of the street on a large puddle of dirty water. On the pavement
nearby, a young street artist is making colourful chalk drawings inspired by
it.
50.
The substandard cheapcrete here is pockmarked by
years of corrosive rains from faulty atmosphere regulators above, and road
traffic shudders past. It’s uneven footing and you pick your way through.
51.
An upper-class pedestrian-priority lane, clean
and free of ads, allows passage through vehicular traffic. A loaded “Zorba’s
Zoomies” pizza delivery drone hovering about three meters above the ground
wobbles past.
52.
The walkway circles a roundabout. A grizzled old
man yells at an O2-debt terminal in the central circle, then breaks down crying.
No one slows down as they pass.
53.
Your attention is drawn to movements of an
orange, multi-limbed, window cleaning robot that clambers up the building façade
above you. A scruffy kid watches in rapt attention out another window from an
apartment across the road.
54.
A long, silent queue has formed for a blocky,
exhaust-stained, kerb-side “Downtime Euthanasia Booth™”. A golden-robed, bald Solarian
preacher exhorts them to turn to Invictus Sol instead.
55.
All the nearby street signs are gang-tagged over
to the point of being useless. An enterprising Navimaker Corp. android is
offering directions to confused drivers and pedestrians for 10cr.
56.
Filthy red and white plastic Jersey barriers
block most of the sidewalk. Blood is splattered on the wall and ground behind
them. A tired Tempest probie is asking passersby if they witnessed a shooting
of a Novo droog here.
57.
A group of screeching street kids is running
along the overhead rail lines, hurrying to make it across before the next
Dreamscape metro comes. A hawker is trying to solicit bets from passersby but is
getting few takers.
58.
A thick pea soup fog is rolling down the streets
and alleyways and people are hustling away. [Speed check
or make Body save vs. 1d5 DMG unless protected
from gas]
59.
All the streetlights for this entire block just
went out. One by one people light up what illumination they can. Someone shouts
about being pickpocketed.
60.
Rivers of rain-borne trash race along in the
choked gutters, and a child’s squeaky-toy green lizard drifts past.
61.
A small crowd of people at a street corner are gawping
upwards at a potential jumper. Sirens are closing in, heralding Tempest Co. arrival,
and someone shouts that it’s a sniper unit coming.
62.
A tight formation of Tempest Co. armed response drones
races down the street, just above head height, sirens wailing. People stop to
gawk or cringe.
63.
A group of sex workers are on a nearby street
corner, approaching cars and other traffic. They are lean, attractive, and loaded
with hallucinatory pheromones that waft around.
64.
An out-of-order O2 credit machine threatens
violent action to passersby who stray too close on this side street. A deranged
vagrant is yelling threats back at it.
65.
Unnervingly, as you turn a corner there is
absolutely no-one about, and somehow all sound is dampened. [Pass through? 50%
chance of Violent Encounter; otherwise a regular Encounter]
66.
You’re walking down a quiet backstreet. A
pedicab operator in creaking leathers is struggling with heat exhaustion and
his two grumbling passengers exit prematurely.
67.
A GeV taxi takes a corner hard, throwing up
polluted water, trash and crud. [Speed check or
filthy]
68.
Strolling a boulevard through a middle-class residential
area, you see a energetic street preacher android, sporting oversized optics, giving
a digital presentation on witnessing the coming “Cybernetic Jesus®”.
69.
The sidewalk consists of slabs of flickering
screens, showing adverts for the new line of EverBaby from Daedalus Robotics
Labs. “No more messes, sleep-deprived nights or frequent feedings! Just the joy
of parenting your very own baby that never grows up, only cries on command and
loves to play!”. A few people are gathered loudly debating the ethics.
70.
A juddering motorized walkway speeds pedestrians
along. A Jensen-Hung Pharmaceuticals corpo neon sign arcs overhead, flashing an
advertisement for a claimed ACMD cure, “Cybocreme™”, offering the afflicted 10cr
to be test subjects. (it does not work and Sanity save
or +1 Stress)
71.
The street intersection has been overlaid with a
colour-changing checkerboard for a free Nakatomi Solutions Inc. corpo-sponsored
session of dance, with new tar-trance hits by DJ Shadowbunny. People are really
getting into it.
72.
A cycles-only bridge crosses busy traffic and
the local Novos are sponsoring free bicycles to cross it, as a public service,
but also with a cursory check of O2 credsticks.
73.
The city block here is in ruins and bears radiation
warnings, so 4x4 lead-shielded taxi hires are offering speedy but bumpy crossings
for 2cr.
74.
Solarian Church promoters are hosting free
solar-powered electric motorcycle rides through a traffic jam, with motorcycle
speakers broadcasting prayers to Sol Invictus along the way.
75.
A crew of six Teamsters Union 32819L workers are
busy fighting a tenement fire while two others hurry traffic around it, through
choking smoke.
76.
Background ‘Muzak’ softly plays in an upper-class
fashion market lining the streets, and Novo drones are humming just above the crowd
filing through, dropping down to check O2 credsticks and take a poll about the
latest, modest upgrade to O2 terminal interfaces.
77.
An underground subway allows pedestrians past
snarled traffic, and access to an exclusive “Swing Away” old-fashioned ice
cream stand playing swing music. A few people are dancing along while others
buy softserve.
78.
Something knocks rubbish bins down a staircase
to the left of the pavement, causing an awful clattering and spilling stinking
refuse as they go. [Fear save or +1 Stress]
79.
There’s a sudden chill as you turn down a side
street. There, children are playing in artificial snow drifting down from a
hovering robocar playing audio advertisements for top-of-the-line cryopods offered
by The Jump-9 Club corpo.
80.
Three Tempest Co. probies are busy dismantling a
long Blackshield Mercenary Group advertisement screen on a wall along this
walkway through towering residential blocks.
81.
There’s a Dream water supply canal crossed by an
automated cargo transport barge (2cr fee; or 2d10 minutes detour). A Hylix-Ventross
Systems vidscreen plays an ad for slick new “Marathon Blitz” portable wireless
phones; only 5500 cr per year subscription, minimum 5 years contract.
82.
A garishly illuminated party truck, packed with
revellers and loud Glitchcore music, offers a free, priority route through traffic
slowed by a Dreamscape metro crossing, and 2cr stout beer shots.
83.
A squad of Tempest Co. mercs, shouted at by a presiding
sergeant, are providing a public relations exercise by giving Armoured
Personnel Carrier rides around the block, with intermittent stops.
84.
A struggling towtruck slowly hauls a long
flatbed truck down the road and people are leaping onto the flatbed for free rides.
85.
There’s a traffic accident between two cars that
is clogging traffic. Some fistfights have broken out in the mounting tension.
Two Novos have pried open a sewer cover and are ushering pedestrians down into
a sewer tunnel that bypasses the trouble. [Watch closely and notice them doing
some pickpocketing]
86.
Novos are stopping vehicle traffic for
contraband searches. The driver of an armoured black limousine is arguing with
one to get through quickly. Luckily, there’s a footbridge over it all, featuring
shiny Arbitration Limited billboards that offer legal advice, lawsuits, or
Adjudicator hiring.
87.
University of Idalia Minor meteorologists are
providing air quality statistics over a live viewscreen overlooking the
extensible bridge spanning two residential towers. Current local air quality is
excellent, thanks to Novo-funded ventilation upgrades by the Teamsters Union. But
the air quality doesn’t feel so great.
88.
You grab seats on an armoured city segmented bus
for 1cr, set up because of local gang warfare with Tempest Co. Along the way
you see and hear several gun battles and the bus endures a burst of automatic gunfire.
[Fear save or +1 Stress]
89.
A polychromatic jeepney overhauled from a
retired Tempest Co. jeep gives you a quick ride along a poor-quality road for
1cr. A surreal CANYONheavy ad for Slug creeps across a small vidscreen in front
of each seat.
90.
Neon-lit trishaws give you 1cr rides
through complex back alleys packed with street food vendors and vendomats
offering headphones, batteries, phones, torches, cameras and radios.
91.
A city block is slick with a major oil leak from
crisscrossing pipes, making the ground dangerously slick and flammable, so 1cr
rides via E-sleds are offered, sliding gracefully across the spills as they
play loud Chip Hop music.
92.
Sickening, cute, GIF-heavy, juvenile holo-animations
clutter surfaces in an underground subway eluding heavy road traffic. A dozen
mimes are practicing their craft in unison with the nearest characters.
93.
People are stopping to watch a big vidscreen in
a plaza. It is playing the hit sitcom “My Two Sleeves”, which is in its
penultimate episode of the season. There are cheers and jeers and sobs as the
plot swiftly moves along.
94.
The pavement along this street is new, but
unpleasant, with a sweaty, earthy smell and slightly compliant surface. Advertisements
explain that this is Ousia Co.’s latest blend of Meatcrete™, lab-grown slabs of
flesh chemically calcified and robotically sliced to provide precise architecture.
A giggling pair of punk-fashioned teenagers are poking a particularly hairy
patch of Meatcrete™ with a stick while camcording it. Elsewhere, a suit-clad
corpo is vomiting.
95.
Stairs descend into a tiled underground hall,
reclaimed from a former sewage processing plant, where Black Ambient genre bands
battle for listeners and votes via local terminals. Stairs on the far end return to the surface. Stimulant
vendomats offer cigarettes, cigars, e-cig fluid, patches, caffeine tabs, rehydrated
espresso, alcohol and more.
96.
The escalator between an upper and lower level
of this part of The Dream has broken down and is closed, so some locals are
having fun riding a metal slide they’ve set up, and another group is preparing
a zipwire, while others press up or down the rough stone stairs. A Slacktivist
forum has set up at the top of the stairs, drawing angst-ridden passersby to
join in discussions of the lack of need for direct political action on The
Dream.
97.
An impromptu anti-synthetic-person protest is growing
in this Solarian food market you’ve entered, and Church members seem at a loss
what to do, or try to carry out business without heeding it. There’s a gigantic
glittering golden sun suspended on wires above, warming and illuminating everything
below with artificial sunlight.
98.
A printer-fair has been set up along the
pavements lining this business area’s street. Both independent vendors and
corporations offer a wide array of services from simple custom-made art, to
inks and paints and brushes, to different paper products, to dot-matrix printers
and slickware-interfaces and more. A couple of tattoo stalls have taken the
opportunity to set up here, too.
99.
The Novos have declared a Prospero’s Dream
holiday in this district, celebrating Yandee’s infallible leadership!
Businesses and vehicular traffic are closed and Novos have set up stalls offering
services such as drinks, drugs, gambling, cyber-tuneups, slickworld trill-hubs,
weapons licensing, business protection, black market goods, corpo-hacking
competitions, presentations of Yandee’s latest missives, and brawling lessons.
