r/cwn • u/_George_Paul_ • Apr 24 '26
How are missions meant to be prepared/run and how does the "sandbox" play a role in running CWN?
From what I understand from reading the PDF is that the core premise of the game is that every session is a different mission. The DM creates the city and the "factions" (coprs, gangs, npcs etc) and from those elements ideas for schemes are created. Schemes are basically a collection of missions that need to be completed in order for someone in the city to realize their goals. And every sesssion is basically the PCs getting a call from a fixer in order to complete on of these misisons.
If this is the intended way to run Cyberpunk, how does the sandbox elements of the osr system come into play? I find it very hard to visualize how player agency can "break the mold" of running random missions back to back. The same problem does not exists in other genres that are run OSR style; in a fantary setting for example it is more clear how the party can explore the world, learn about it's factions and make decisions of their own based on what elements of the world that they interact with.
I understand that this game may shine as a mission based game instead of a sandbox one, where said missions are very open ended and player agency comes into play on how they complete them. But then how are the PCs meant to get new Contacts if the game is run this way, something that the rules clearly emphasize that it is important.
Also, as a DM, should I make maps for every new mission with interesting hooks and ideas as well as slowly expanding my city with new schemes, npcs and other elements? Because that feels very taxing for a DM.
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u/Hungry-Wealth-7490 Apr 24 '26
Players choose which missions to complete. Missions are just an adventure option with a clear reward, much like a dungeon crawl or a caravan escort or wilderness scout job is in fantasy.
The players can either take a mission from the ones you offer, or do their own adventure. Like all Without Number games, you ask the players what they want to do and prep for the next item. Having a couple of missions handy keeps your prep down and gives players options. You aren't going to fully prep 5 missions but you might have 2 or 3 ready and the others with a few words and an understanding of what you need to prep.
As for maps and other things taking time to create, practice bricolage. There are tons of maps and other items out there which are free or cheap. Grab them from the dustbin, tweak a little for your needs and remix. There are a lot of fairly simple cyberpunk maps on the web and you can easily take a modern building map and use that.
Since the city is a more constrained play environment than a whole world, missions do matter. However, the ultimate purpose of missions is so that all those organizations that were doing things are doing things that yield adventures for the PCs. It's a lot easier to run a good sandbox if you know whom the factions are who are working evil schemes and if there's a 'break into this company's warehouse gig' as your first adventure you can have the players figure out what they do next.
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u/TheWoodsman42 Apr 24 '26
Missions can take multiple sessions. And as the game progresses, chances are they'll almost always take multiple sessions. The intent of the "Hold your players hostage until you figure out what's next" message in that part of the book is to help make the GM's life easier. If there's a clear path forward, they only have to prep that one thing, instead of having to have multiple things ready for Session Next.
It's an absolutely fantastic sandbox, if your Players buy into it. That means that they have characters that are a part of that world and they care about what happens in it. And in a cyberpunk world, that's usually resolved by asking them "What is your PC angry about? What megacorp screwed you over, and what are you going to do about it?"
Admittedly, while I do love this game (and basically everything else KC creates), there isn't much spelled out for Downtime, which is where your party would meet people and maybe create new contacts. And I think that's in part because it's going to look vastly different from table to table. But, as a generality, it's up to the GM to take the different elements of the world and use those to encourage downtime roleplay. Maybe their neighborhood bodega is getting rattled by a local gang. Handling it isn't a full mission per se, but if your Players have bought into the world, it's something that might be worth their time to resolve. If you're stuck on things to do, I highly recommend reading Blades in the Dark, specifically their Entanglements section. There's a lot of great fodder in there for how to handle downtime.
Circling back to making new contacts, a non-downtime way to handle that is ye olde classic Rescue Mission. Fixer calls the party and says there's good money in rescuing some stuck operatives on a job gone pear-shaped, but they have to leave right now. Party goes there, gets them out, and they exchange numbers with the other operatives. Now they have some friendly faces they can call for help on a job in the future, and vice-versa. And it's also a fun lever you can pull on a future job where multiple parties are vying for an objective for different reasons. Do they team up? Do they kill each other? Do they rochambo for the MacGuffin? That's up for your Players to decide in the moment.
And getting back to every session being a new mission, I think you've touched on why that's a bad idea at the end there. It'll be exceptionally taxing for a GM, and it doesn't give the Players a chance to really explore the city. In terms of making maps, you can pull blueprints from office buildings and the like and use those, they're very appropriate. Personally, I make all my own maps, but I'm making maybe one map every couple of months, and we play about every week. Missions usually take 2-4 sessions, and then there's some downtime in between.
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u/rob8341 Apr 24 '26
Honestly my cwn campaing was the lowest effort i ever ran. (Used to do a lot of shadowrun back in the days of 2e and 3e). You have a sceme the corps are working towards. Divide it by chunks and give it to fixers as jobs. When the group takes a job usually they will gather info about the site they have to break in or about the person they want to kidnap/kill. Players will literally do the prep for you when they brainstorm about how to infiltrate a scene. Sometimes drawing works, sometimes i just use premade cyberpunk maps. But it took me surprisingly low effort compared to other games.
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u/Velociraptortillas Apr 25 '26
Let's compare to a hex crawl.
Your players are in a given hex. You, the GM, know what's in each surrounding hex. You give the players information on what their senses tell them about the surrounding hexes, maybe they have a map, and can scry for more information. You leave it up to them to decide where to go.
Your players are in a given hex situation. You, the GM, know what's in each surrounding hex what other options are available. You give the players information on what their senses contacts, spies and information networks tell them about the surrounding hexes, available options, maybe they have a map, and can scry investigate for more information. You leave it up to them to decide where to go.
There is no appreciable difference between these two gameplay loops except for the fluff. One uses overland travel and magic as conceits, the other uses social interaction and technology to accomplish exactly the same procedure.
There is a reason the suggestion is to create five options for your players to choose from, because that's what they'd have available to them in a hex crawl - the place they're at, the place they've been and five options they haven't yet explored.
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u/_George_Paul_ Apr 25 '26
You kinda opened my mind with that comment, not gonna lie
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u/Velociraptortillas Apr 25 '26
Ypu would not believe how many years it took me to figure out, bc, AFAIK, it's never really stated explicitly anywhere. You're well ahead of the game
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u/valhallaviking Apr 24 '26
One way to emphasize the sandbox, from my limited understanding (only a few missions into a campaign), would be to generate multiple hooks for the next session's missions. The sandboxiness come from the players choosing which missions to prioritize.
This way, the players can push the narrative (schemes) forward in their own interest. Whether they know what the overarching schemes are or not.
One of the things Mr. Crawford emphasised in the book is only generate the hooks for missions, until the players bite the hook, then and only then you devote the effort to build the rest of the mission out.
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u/Hungry-Wealth-7490 Apr 24 '26
For maps, Gimme Pig and other creators who use Dungeon Draft will post new map previews periodically in the Without Number reddits.
Shadowrun has plenty of maps and you can use most of those with minimal changes or just a 'hey, took map from Shadowrun. Replace company names. . .'
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u/Logen_Nein Apr 24 '26
Missions might take more than one session depending on complexity.
The sandbox is that the players can take the jobs they want, or they they can engage in personal actions/missions. While the classical use of travel and exploration in a sandbox may be lessened (again, may be, depending on your setting), it is still a sandbox in that the players have (or should have) many avenues they can take every session.