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.

—-

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

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.

All right, sit down.  You know, that’s the last time I’m gonna get to say that?  Until the next crop comes through, that is. 

I’m still going to call you all rookies, though.

 
That’s right, after today, you all graduate.  You will receive a certificate suitable for framing and a license to operate as a bounty hunter anywhere the SSPB has jurisdiction.  Which, for the record, is everywhere.  But before that, we have one more lesson: the city-states of Mars. 

There’s a big debate amongst the Venetians and the Martians as to which planet was settled first.  The French, they claim Venus was the first, but near as we can tell, when the Great Migration came, settlers headed to Mars. 

And what a shithole they made, too.  No way to terraform Mars, not any more.  Instead, people live, work, work, die, and work inside big environmental domes.  Did I mention they work? 

Yeah, Mars has government.  They have lots of them, one per city, actually.  But what they also have are a whole bunch of corporations that have all set up business on the planet.  Why you might ask?  Well two reasons.  One, the Martian work ethic.  Never met a Martian who cared much for trinkets or fashion or the finer things in life, but they go crazy for anything that might make them more productive. 

The second is because Martian law lets anyone dump toxic waste into craters on the planet surface and they never pay a fine. 

This, however, has lead to a major Martian industry: smog farms.  Carbon from the pollution and the planet’s surface is mined by Martian farmers to make synthetic fuel and plastics. 

So why do you mighty bounty hunters-to-be care about Mars?  Well, think of each Martian city-state as its own urban sprawl, complete with its own organized crime.  Hard to tell if it’s the all the people or the crime families, but if you need to make some money fast, I’m sure there’s a job to be found on the red planet. 

Two more things I’ll tell you rookies and then you can get out of here.  First, people on Mars, they carry guns and they know how to use them.  If you do not come correct to a Martian, you better be able to dodge bullets. 

Oh, and the other thing.  Watch your prey.  Find his weakness.  Shoot straight.  Come home alive. 

Now, get out of here.  The Universe is yours.

This is another one of those days, rookies, where we get a little real.  No, no sit down.  Today, the recorder stays on.  Absolutely everything I am going to tell you is official.

You know Jupiter?  Big gas giant planet?  Sometimes I gotta ask rookie.  Sometimes I gotta ask.  No one lives on Jupiter, but it has moons.  A bunch of ‘em, in fact, and on these moons people live and die under the control of the Jovian People’s Confederacy.  The JPC.

On the surface of things, the JPC isn’t all bad.  A little paranoid and a little crazy with the whole Marxist paradise thing… well, they’re a lot crazy with that, but whatever.  Still, it’s a touch odd that you gotta request access to go to any of their planets.  You touch JPC soil without their say so and it’s bye bye rook.  Watch yourself.

The biggest thing is that they wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t so corrupt.

They have mining operations, they have access to abundant water they can ship off world, they do oxygen mining which they export, but I’ll be a dead rookie if the JPC isn’t the biggest bunch of thieves you ever seen.

Fact is if they weren’t the legitimate rulers of Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Calypso, I’d label them one big crime syndicate and we’d take them all down.  Instead, the rulers of the JPC live on Calypso while the Ministry of Finance and Commerce tells each person how they’re going to live, how they’re going to work, who they’re going to marry, and probably even how they’re going to die.

And all the while the JPC controllers get fat and live on their own private moon thumbing their nose at the rest of us.

I don’t know what to tell you rookies.  If you get a bounty on someone in the JPC, I want you to take it.  But I don’t want to see you dead and the JPC will hit you back.

I will tell you what I do know.  Every so often, you’ll see a mission come out.  Not a bounty so much as a search and rescue op.  SSPB don’t like people going outside us, but every now and someone will money will reach out to one of you.

See some people get permission to land on Calypso and they’re never heard from again.  We hear rumors of slaves working the mines or hunts involving humans.  Of course, they’re just rumors.  The JPC would never let us in to actually investigate.

So, what I am saying, take one of those contracts with care.  You’re liable to end up missing, too.  But I’ll tell you what.  You find some of those people and bring them home, well, then you will have made something of yourself, wouldn’t you rookie?

Tomorrow we’ll get back to civilization and talk about Mars.

Okay, time to gather ’round rookies. Yes, get out of your seats and come here. Look, I’m gonna tell you some stuff and see, I’m turning off the recorder. No monitors. Nothing that gets said for today goes beyond this room, got it?

Any of you ever been to Venus? Stayed at Venus Vegas? Lost a few writ at the tables? Maybe bought you some love. A few of you been? Everyone else has heard of it, right? The Sunset Kingdom, the gambling, the paradise, the ladies.

Have you heard of the crime? Really? You know how many millions of writ in guns, high explosive, and heavy weapons pass through Venus every year? Not smiling any more are you? That’s right. The bounties you all are so ready to hunt are in Vegas right now buying missiles, tranq rounds, sunflare rounds, sniper rifles, and pump action grenade launchers.

And guess what? Those guns are going to be pointed at you. Those rounds are going to be fired at you. You still want to be a bounty hunter?

No, I’m not telling you this to scare you. Not this time. You’ve made it this far and I’m thinking you might make it to the end. So you have to know that if you need a gun and you can’t get it anywhere else, you can find it on Venus. You need a space mine? I know a guy who will sell you one on Venus. Posion? Nerve gas? Vegas baby, Vegas.

But here’s the other thing you need to know. Crime. Runs. Venus. The whole world. Yeah, the French seem like they’re on the up and up, but the French love their guns. Which means the French love their gun buyers. And no matter if you’re just a kid and his girlfriend, an old lady, or a man on his honeymoon, if you cross someone about to make a sale you are as good as dead.

An SSPB officer might spend his entire life trying to hunt down all the criminals there and never get justice for those he lost.

Believe me, I know. Now, get the hell out of here and if anyone asks, we talked about Jupiter.

Just get out.

Sit down. Be quiet. Take your places. Today is when we get serious. It’s a dangerous Universe out there. You better know what the hell is going on.

In Bounty Head Bebop, the entire Solar System is your playground. All the planets, or at least their moons, have been colonized. Billions of people live amongst the stars living, dying, committing crimes. Someone has to make sure everyone stays in line.

What you think that’s you, bounty header? Riiiiggghttt…

No, the real force for law and order in the Universe is the Solar Systems Policing Bureau or what you might call the SSPB. Yes? Question? Am I wearing the uniform of the SSPB? You bet it is. Someone has to pay my check, might as well be them. Besides, after you work someplace for twenty-five years of your life, sometimes they look after you…

So yeah, the SSPB exists to bring law and order to Solar System. We patrol space and we have bureaus on-world just about everywhere. We catch the bad guys. We serve and protect.

No, don’t even ask. If the SSPB is here, why do we need you? You think the SSPB can’t handle it?

All I can say is the Solar System is a big place. A damn big place. And a few extra people can’t hurt. That’s where you come in. We send you after the bad guys. They use their ammo on you, then SSPB comes in and takes ‘em down. Nice and clean like.

Oh, and those rumors about corruption in the SSPB? Just rumors. And there were a few bad seeds, but they’re gone now.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about Vegas. But only because we have to.