[Covert Generation] - Maddy's Sons

[Antimuppet]

Hey Folks, first time here. I've got a game called Covert Generation that I'm hoping to get published in the near future. I've gotten my first few playtest sessions under my belt and this one, I think, has been the most outright fun. I'd like to hear from the Forge as well, so take a read and let me know.

Dateline – Last Tuesday
Location – an undisclosed safehouse in eastern Madison.
Activity – clandestine operations of the Maddy's Sons cell of the Covert Generation.

The Agents – Frost and SadMac were running local recon at Club Toxic when encrypted data cut in through the techno-rock mayhem of Coffee and the Stains. The Peach Pitts, the Atlanta cell, were calling a mission on territory local to Maddy's Sons. Their data showed a new Extending Horizons reeducation camp was in the final stages of construction up on the Wolf River. The Pitts weren't in a position to act against Extending Horizons, nor could they call any other resources to bear.

But before they could download all of the vital information to their personal trances, a pair of alluring older girls seduced them into the dark, hot, secret places surrounding the main dance floor. The girls weren't there just for a quickie. No, as it turns out, the girl with the day-glow thong had other ideas. She had a cocktail of drugs on her lips that coursed into SadMac's system – ecstasy mixed with curare left his senses reeling. Meanwhile, the pierced, dangerous-looking girl with Frost wanted to introduce him to the 'thrills' of sex with handcuffs. Frost knew better and with a flash of reflexes, managed to cuff the girl.

"Stud" caused a commotion that brought "Thong" running. Frost mixed it up with the girls, desperately trading kicks and body-checks. SadMac managed to find his way out of Club Toxic, with a little gravity-defying help from one of the larger bouncers. Mac's not a Tech to let things lie. A little work with his Portable System Freaq'r at the club's main power conduit cut the light and sound. Frost managed to ditch his attackers in the confusion. The two of them ditched the club quick, hopping a cab with a flexed credit card off of one of SadMac's connections.

Cool air and hot data brought SadMac around. Extending Horizons were about to put hundreds of kids through the proverbial wringer in an 'encounter camp' built to enforce their parents' collective. The winter cold and unrelenting discipline would be enough to snap the hardest rebels. Worse, it was a school night – Maddy's Sons would have to act, and act fast.

The cab took them out to the local airport. There, they'd find suitable transportation up to the head of the Wolf River. Relentless competition has forced half a dozen local charters to fold. Planes sit forgotten in their hangars. Forgotten, that is, except for time-pressed Agents. Without any knowledge of how to fly a plane, they reached out to the Generation through their trances, looking for any Wheel or Leet who had the remote chops to pilot them a boosted plane. Acelove out of the Big Gamers came through for them. Out of Chicago, he managed to run the plane through preflight and get it out onto the tarmac just as a couple of baggage handlers saw what was going on.

Maddy's Sons were in the air, screaming "Seatbelts are for pussies" and throwing giant birds to the ground crew. The two hour flight gave them time to plan. The installation was guarded and the compound fence was in place. It could prove to be a hard nut to crack. Luckily, SadMac put his Tech skills and chemistry knowledge to work, building rebreathers and chemical weapons out of what was available on the plane. The goal was to knock the compound out of commission, and like so many other Covert Generation operations, the plan would come together on the fly.

Acelove had to put them down inside the compound, as there was nowhere else to land. The rough landing scared the two of them enough to get their seatbelts on and gave Ace some great material for an audio sample.

"I thought you said seatbelts were for pussies!"
"Then I'm a pussy!" was uploaded, looped and shunted away through the secret Agency computer network. Frost and SadMac were sure it would show up in just a few days out of Acelove's cell.

Soon enough though, there were real concerns, like the response team sent from Detention HQ. Three guards, one packing a shotgun gave them precious little time to get out of the plane and to the relative safety of darkness. They slipped the first set of guards with a few moves out of Solid Snake III, Cobras in Arms but ran smack-dab into the fourth member of the team with his pack of German Sheppards. The dogs were halfway to the Maddy's Sons when then thought to use some krylon spraypaint and a lighter as an impromptu flamethrower. The dogs scattered to the four corners of the compound, the kids stomped their handler with a one-two punch (dodging a bullet in the process), and SadMac made it safely around the back of the HQ complex. The kids had an opportunity to grab up the handler's revolver but chucked it over the fence instead.

Frost however, wound up facing down the three other guards, with a shotgun leveled at his chest. Rockers don't cave, especially not Brawns. Frost yanked a drumstick out of his back pocket and threw it down the barrel of the gun. The guard missed the throw, went to blast Frost, and wound up with a blowback instead. The other two cut and run and Frost caught up to SadMac who had hotwired one of the Chevy Suburbans with his PSF. They chased the remaining guards around the compound for a while until SadMac mixed up a batch of back-alley mace – ground peanuts in seltzer water. The guards were on the ground, handcuffed to each other, and looted in short order.

The Agents managed to make it into the main complex, found propane-powered skid lifters, and turned the entire lower level warehouse into a gas bomb. Hacking the complex PA system, they warned the few remaining guards of the imminent explosion. As guards baled out of the third story windows, SadMac hacked the rest of the Suburbans, resetting the keyless entry systems and effectively locking all the trucks down. Maddy's Sons literally blew their way out of the compound, leaving a multimillion dollar installation in ruins.

Mission accomplished, and with something like a thousand dollars in folding money from the guards, they drove south, toward Madison, and Denny's.


I had a real blast taking Michael and Jason through their first session of Covert Generation. All of the component parts I'd been hoping to see played out really paid off. Character generation went quickly, and the players knew what they had to work with when it came time to roll dice. They got into rolling and narrating out their values of Edge as well – for now there's a lot more give and take on how much Edge they'll have to spend, but I expect those rules to gel together the more I play test.

What I liked best is that they got into the idea that they're part of a larger organization. The two of them were more effective in game when they were working together and it didn't take them long to start using the rest of the Agency as extensions of their own abilities. While a couple of kids aren't much of a threat to a big organization full of adults, a dozen or so kids doing what they do best, can really bring them down.

Damage to the Agents doesn't happen too often yet, which may have to change to a degree. These missions are supposed to be dangerous and difficult. But watching Edge come and go out of their piles worked flawlessly. The new end game mechanic is really choice as well.

I'm happy as anything with how this session ran. I hope to bring you more news of Maddy's Sons and their attempts to free the world from the evils of Generation X.