At this point, the group has been chasing after Genny Putkof, a thief of milk purification products. No one knows where she is, but they know her brother is a Redjack, a member of a street gang in the city-state of Little Jersey on Mars.
After interrogating a goon and leaving him in a bad situation, the gang goes to the Interstellar House of Pancakes in Redjack territory. Here the bounty hunter draws bad attention to himself by wearing rival gang colors while the kid makes friends by giving out gift cards. This leads to the group splitting again. The kid and the bounty hunter follow the Redjacks so they can find their hideout’s location.
After they discover the location of the hideout, the group is attacked by another gang called the Steel Rats. However, the gangers quickly realize they have more to gain from being allies with the player characters than enemies, especially because the Redjacks are looking to put a beat down on the Steel Rats.
Also, to continue the theme of characters and their side businesses, the gun smuggler realizes he can make a lot of money by enlisting the gangers to sell for him. Capitalism at its finest.
The Steel Rats and the player characters go to the appointed place to fight with the Redjacks. However, almost instantly, the psychic and the bounty hunter locate Wingman, Genny’s brother. Using a little Luck, the kid maces and captures Wingman and the group escapes the combat right as the Steel Rats use grenades to make the streets run red with Redjack blood.
After a brief persuasion with fists, Wingman is convinced he needs to give up the location of his sister, which turns out to be a local strip club. Despite the sizeable bounty placed on her head, she decides not to run and goes with the group, who are now far, far, far richer than when they started.
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One of the interesting things about the session is that later, one of the players described the Bounty Head Bebop system as “Its not rules light per se, more like Rules Quick” which publisher Mark Reed felt described the system perfectly.
Another Quote came after the game… “As a point of gaming: I am traditionally known for hating to roll up new characters…. Last night in fairly short time I was able to gen a character that was both useful and fun. To me, and my style of playing, that says a lot” - From one of the Players
The social worker seems nice enough, but he is not being as forthcoming as the group would like, so they try a little intimidation on the poor guy. Apparently, all he needs is a little heat, because the next thing the group knows, he is spilling everything he can think of about Genny and her brother’s involvement in a gang of thugs called the Redjacks on Mars. While the social worker is singing everything he knows, the kid quietly walks around his office, filling her backpack with expensive baubles.
Also, during this time, the bounty of Genny mysteriously goes from 450,000 writ to 5,000,000!
Next, the group travels to Little Jersey, where they split up. The private investigator travels alone through Redjack territory, hoping he can find Genny. Meanwhile, the merc, in a utility vehicle, and the bounty hunter on a motor bike realize they are being followed. They give each other the signal and start a brief, deadly car chase which ends with the merc and the gun smuggler blowing their purser’s car out of existence. This, however, has the unfortunate side effect of slamming flaming wreckage into the bounty hunter’s motorbike, who is none the worse for wear.
There was a second goon involved in the car chase, and unluckily for him, he survived. This led to a quick conversation about how the goon was expendable and that it was in his best interest to talk. Quickly enough, the goon told the group where to find the Redjacks and how to meet with them. For his troubles, he was kicked in the family jewels, maced, stripped to his underwear, and was giving a sandwich board saying that he hated gangs… in the middle of gang territory.
This leads to a meeting with the Redjacks and an alliance with the Steel Rats, but that is a story for tomorrow.
As a roleplaying game, it is important to know what type of adventures you can have playing Bounty Head Bebop. The following posts are the result of an actual session played with a single GM and five players. Before getting into the action, let’s meet the five characters around which the action revolved.
The bounty hunting team consisted of a bounty hunter, a private investigator, a mercenary, a psychic child, and a gun smuggler whose interest in the group was primarily financial. They were a bit of a motley crew, none of whom seemed to be particularly interested in due process or following the law. No, this group was more about getting in, getting the job done, and getting out alive to collect the bounty.
Perhaps the most interesting character of the game was the psychic kid because her back story was the most unique of the group. She was a former bounty that the group had tracked down. However, instead of turning her in, they decided that her ability to read minds was worth far more than the bounty they would collect. So they made her one of them.
However, her shot at staying out of the penal colony on Pluto, or worse, did nothing to reform her. Instead, she used the somewhat legitimate profession of bounty hunting to give her opportunities for less legitimate activities, usually theft.
These are the types of characters and stories that will come out of a game of Bounty Head Bebop. There are the characters you would expect (the bounty hunter and the private investigator, for example), but there are also the characters that can only happen in this world: the gun smuggler who sets up contracts for the group and a mischievous brat who can literally blow you away with her mind.
Next, we’ll look at what went on at the table.