[RPG] How to adjust CR of a campaign

There are two systems for interface zero. Savage Worlds and True20. In order to provide an answer that fits both concepts, I shall be vague on mechanical details.

The genre of Interface Zero is summarized thus:

What is Interface-Zero?

Interface-Zero is the True20 cyberpunk game from Reality Deviant Publications, combining elements of classic cyberpunk, post-cyberpunk, bio-punk and a touch of Japanese anime.

The world of 2088 is filled with adventure from the formerly-United States of North America, to the state run business arcologies of the New Chinese Mandarinate, from the Deep Net, to deep space and beyond.

The first commandment when running a game that you and your players are unfamiliar with is: Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. Blatantly steal a plot from a novel. Looking at the TAP, my first thought is to steal the plot of Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End. It's trivial to adapt that world into cyberpunk, and offers a refreshing take on augmented reality separate from the one that the more traditional books (Shadowrun, for example) offer.

Don't start with a campaign. Start with a series of 1-2 session games designed to familiarize everyone with the rules and the settings. Run a game with the TAP, run a game with Corporate Espionage, run a game in the Sprawl. Encourage your characters to make throw away characters for each of these.

Once you've calibrated the groups' expectations and formed either an implicit or explicit social contract, sit down with your players and ask /them/ what they want their game to be about. If you've run vivid (yet simple) games, there will be aspects that have "hooked" them. If they want to be part of an organization, let them forge the history of the organization through a game of Microscope. Especially with cyberpunk (with its many options for "naah, we don't want to do that", you are at your players' mercy, and that's the best way to have it.

Edit

Rough Campaign Map The Curious Case of Edwin Rashomon

Roughly modeled after Rashomon, it's a great way to have the players explore a scenario with different characters (across multiple games) but a consistent theme. Watch the movie first.

Act 1: The court case, an exploration of a TAP enabled crime scene.

This first game, players will be corporate types, hackers, tagging crime scene for a criminal case. They will chat with the various investigating officers, and play with the TAP rules to create a scene for the court. You'll want a hacker, an icon, and a technician at least, and play them off the competing lawyers.

Act 2: The Husband's tale

The bodyguards and troubleshooters of the husband. They'll explore corporate politics and some troubleshooting. End the act with the encounter with the bandits.

Act 3: The Bandit's tale

Gritty gangland. A gang, taking the role of the bandit, doing shady work with their own views on what really happened. End the act with the encounter with the husband and wife. Make sure that the players can play the encounter out the way they want to, identical results are not very interesting.

Act 4: The Wife's tale, reconstructed

TAP and hacking. Get a visual reconstruction of the event from the wife's implant and associated devices. Lots of hacking, some palm-greasing. End the encounter with explorations from different feeds, presenting the wife's view.

Act 5: The court case. Let each player take a different side and have them argue it out.

This is designed so that you can show the players many different and vital aspects of the setting around some consistent narrative, but it may be a bit ambitious.

WHile not having actually played BoL...

1. I've played many an equally simple game engine.
2. I've seen reports of campaign play.
3. I've read BoL.

BoL has character advancement options, and sufficient flexibility, to be able to sustain a 10-20 session campaign.

Assuming each session is a story¹, that's 2-3 Advancement points per session. (p. 40) Which means 20-60 AP total.

Attribute raises cost current level + new level... Same for combat abilities. Note that 3 is maximum starting, but 5's are reasonably attainable, for both, without supernatural explanations.

Careers are cheaper... new level, minimum cost 1, to max of career level 5. A new career costs 1, remember?

So, let's assume joe is munchkined:

Munchkin Joe
Strength  3    Brawl    0    Assassin 3
Agility   2    Melee    2    Soldier  1
Mind      0    Ranged  -1
Appeal   -1    Defense  3

Assuming Joe goes the supernatural defense route, he could, if the GM lets him, abuse it by spending 7 points on defense 4, then 9 more on defense 5, and maybe 11 more for defense 6... for 27 of those 60 absolute peak for a 20 session game. And he'll be HARD to hit.

Or, more reasonably, he could spend them to raise assassin and soldier both to 5: 4+5+2+3+4+5=23 points, plus another to level 2 (1+1+2) for the same 27 points.

Assuming the character survives, maxing out any two is about half the campaign.

That all said, an adventure (saga, as it's called in the rules) is not always a single session; 2 or even three sessions could be used readily. In which case, Joe's not even going to twist his character that far.

Things to note for campaign play:

• BOL envisions discrete downtime between adventures, and only 2-3 AP per downtime. And you have to "spend loot" to earn those...
• PC's grow in power, but not in worldly importance - you are not going to be a king just because you're buff.
• 20 Advancement Points is a lot... it's 10 novella's worth of growth... be stingy with that third point if shooting for 20 stories.
• Story ≠ session. Run a mission for several sessions to reduce the rapid growth, remembering that AP's are earned per mission, not per session.

¹ the assumption of 1 session per story is made for a worst case analysis. The rules imply more like 1-4 sessions per story, perhaps more.