For those of you who thought that the Operatives of SLA Industries weren't crazy enough, there are the Contract Killers.
Are you familiar with the phrase, "You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it sure helps"? Well, Contract Killers really do have to be crazy. No, I mean literally. It's the law. All Contract Killers must "fail" a psychological exam in order to enter the brutal games of the Contract Circuit. This is because the entire concept of Contract Killers came about as a way to keep insane employees useful -- particularly insane Ops.
And what do Contract Killers do, ask?
Have you seen (or read) The Running Man?
CONTENT
Life as a Killer
The book starts out by describing the Contract Killer lifestyle.
Contract Killers are the blood-soaked media darlings of the World of Progress, equal parts professional wrestler, assassin, and product spokesman. They are very much a parody on real-world celebrity worship. Everyone wants to be a Killer, because their lives look so great from the outside. In fact, they have far less freedom than do the Operatives who long to join their ranks. While Ops are freelancing for SLA and its subsidiaries, picking and choosing their assignments, Contract Killers owe their souls to their corporate sponsors. If they don't follow orders, they can be ruled to be useless and terminated.
Furthermore, since they are, by definition, security risks -- being crazy and all -- they don't gain new levels of security clearance in the course of their duties. In fact, curiosity can kill the Contract Killer a lot more quickly than it can kill the cat: Killers face Knowledge Fines for learning too much information, and displaying continued unwarranted interest in matters that do not concern them can result in termination.
Instead of security clearance, Contract Killers live and die by their Reputation. Which brings us nicely to…
The Media Spotlight
Here, the Directory explains the relationship between Contract Killers, their sponsors, and the media. Topics covered include what sponsors a Killer can score at what level of Reputation, company logos and how much Killers get for placing them on various parts of their bodies, the intricacies of filming Contract Killers in action (including sex scenes!), and big media events. The latter include "GoreZone", in which groups of Killers are dumped into a cordoned-off portion of the Cannibal Sectors and the barriers that keep the monsters confined to the sewers are opened; "Blood Money", in which Killers stalk each other while viewers post bounties on the participants (and consequently have their names and addresses displayed along with the bounty…); and "The Counter", in which an ordinary Citizen picks a team of Killers to defend him for three days against a team of audience-selected Killers, with audience members able to bid on adding additional killers to either side as the game goes on. These events are terribly clever and left me wishing there were some way they could be staged in real life without the actual fatalities.
Killers in the Circuit
This chapter goes into the action in the Arena Circuit, where Contract Killers fight in groups or one-on-one in competitions reminiscent of "American Gladiators". Except with lots of blood.
Like the media events, some of the Arena competitions are fiendishly creative. Among my favorites is "Fish in a Barrel", in which twenty Killers line the walls of a room filled with knee-keep water. When the lights go out (!), the Killers all dive for the pile of weapons in the center of the room and set to work.
The chapter also addresses the rules of the Arena Circuit, including no-kill areas, handicapping rules, and the use of Ebb powers.
Rounding out the chapter are some more exotic locales for Circuit combat, including a dormant War World, a space station (with no gravity), and my personal favorite, the Swamp (a flooded area of lower Downtown Mort inhabited by inbred clans of cannibal freaks -- think Deliverance crossed with Blade Runner). Sadly, there is no hard game information to back up the descriptions of these locales -- no maps, no creature write-ups, no nothing. If you want to use them, you're on your own.
Killers on the Rampage
Here the book discusses combats that take place not in the Arenas, but on the streets. Specifically, the chapter details the Street Circuit and Hunter Sheets.
The Street Circuit involves Killers challenging each other to single combat on (as the name implies) the streets. The chapter explains the rules regarding such matches, including rules for "covert games" -- challenges in which one Killer attacks another directly, albeit with clues and warnings given to prevent perceived cowardice from decimating the attacker's Reputation.
Hunter Sheets are basically "Wanted: Dead (not Alive)" posters. Unlike BPNs, they aren't assigned and are open to anyone of SCL 10 or higher, Contract Killer or Operative. (Strangely, the following chapter states that Killers are locked at an effective SCL of 11, so I assume the SCL limit must actually apply only to Ops.) Also unlike BPNs, individuals going after Hunter Sheet subjects get no support or backup. (Which could, of course, make them even more interesting.)
Killers on a Mission
As mentioned previously, Contract Killers in a very real sense belong to their sponsors and (especially) to SLA Industries. They are, in fact, considered menaces to society who have had their executions put off so long as they remain useful to the company. This chapter details the Killers' relationships to their corporate masters.
Because Killers have their SCL locked at an effective 11, they have no more clearance than basic SLA employees. This chapter explains how Killers can get around that, both by using their Reputations as an unofficial SCL and by gaining SCL increases through helping Operatives in the completion of BPNs.
The chapter next details the duties the Killer may be required to perform, by both their sponsor(s) and by SLA Industries itself. These range from product signings at malls, to sexual favors for executives, to suicide missions. Even clerical duties and manual labor for shorthanded sponsors aren't out of the question.
Rounding out the chapter is information regarding Contract Killer retirement and death bonuses for Killers' agents.
Support Networks
This chapter covers the people who keep the Contract Circuit working: Agents, Contract Hunters (who capture exotic monsters to use as Arena opponents), medical teams, drug pushers, security, referees, franchisers, Runners (administrative assistants used as errand boys on the Circuit), bookies, and talent scouts (who try to lure Contract Killers into becoming SLA Operatives).
Contract Hunters would make great PCs for SLA games concentrating on off-Mort adventures. If SLA Industries ever comes out with some sort of World of Progress bestiary, I hope that it covers Contract Hunters in more detail.
The Directory
This is the centerpiece of the book, descriptions of forty-two of the most famous Contract Killers. The selection shows the wide range of individuals who follow the Contract Circuit lifestyle, including many that break the stereotype of the heartless psychopath and some that are more like monsters than contestants.
There's just one problem, though: Aside from Reputation, there are no stats for these Killers. None. And I have to ask, "Why?" I frown on statless NPCs in general, and here the statlessness isn't even a misguided attempt to keep the NPCs safe from PC attack for metaplot reasons. On the contrary, these are potential -- even likely -- opponents for PC Contract Killers. That being the case, not giving them complete game stat write-ups is a pointless blow to the utility of this supplement.
Reputations
Contract Killers live and die by their Reputations. Often literally.
This chapter explains how Rep is increased and maintained. Basically, the higher the rep you want to gain or maintain, the more Killers of the higher/current rank you need to fight. That's fine, but what I find hard to swallow is the fact that Rep maxes out at Charisma. In other words, a Killer could defeat all challengers in spectacular fashion, but if he had a Charisma of 2, he'd never get a Rep higher than 2.
And Rep's a pretty big deal on the Circuit, because in game terms, the difference between two opponents' Reps becomes a penalty to the low-Rep Killer and a bonus to the high-Rep Killer. Again, another concept I can't quite buy is the idea that this bonus only takes effect during official Circuit contests. Of course, it serves as a kind of circular logic explanation of why low-Charisma Killers never make it on the Circuit: They can't overcome the Rep bonus of high-Rep opponents.
Behind the Scenes
Making up somewhat for the statless Killers in the Directory chapter, this chapter offers a goody bag of weapons and armor -- with stats -- for Contract Killers and Operatives alike. Included are stylish clothing made from armored cloth; hi-tech versions of bows and a variety of hand weapons, including axes, flails, and maces; and nasty industrial tools that may be put to combat uses, such as power sanders, arc welders, and concrete saws. Also featured here is information on Killer-related merchandising, stats for combat-applicable drugs, and clever rules for customized and designer weapons and armor to give Killers their unique "looks".
Tactical Considerations
This is one of those chapters that really immerses you in the setting. In it, Killers themselves offer detailed tips on fighting in a variety of environments, including sewers, remote areas of Mort, Lower Downtown, alien worlds, and zero-gee. Only zero-gee gets any actual rules, however.
Systemworks
This chapter contains new and revised rules that serve to upgrade the game to "SLA 1.2".
First up are simple and elegant martial arts rules. Basically, characters skilled in Unarmed Combat (a.k.a. brawling), Martial Arts, or Wrestling can select one maneuver associated with one or more of these skills per level of ability, with certain more powerful maneuvers requiring two levels to learn. The only problem I see with this system is that there doesn't appear to be any reason for Martial Artists and Unarmed Combatants to learn the Kick and Punch moves -- both skills offer access to more effective versions of these moves at no higher cost or disadvantage.
Staying with the hand-to-hand theme, the chapter next covers "signature moves". These are critical hits that take the form of pro wrestler-style "finishing" moves, each with a different devastating effect. (The player defines the look of the move, regardless of the game effect chosen.) Players choose one signature move for their characters. For most characters, they occur only on rolls of natural 20, but Contract Killers can attempt to use them by making rolls against both the relevant combat skill and their Reputation score, both at a penalty. This is a cute idea, but it's yet another example of a rather jarring use of Reputation -- why would a fighter's reputation make him more likely to succeed at a special attack?
Next up are new rules for Stress, replacing the Fear mechanic from the main rulebook. This is a very genre-appropriate move that other games could stand to emulate -- outright fear doesn't fit very well with characters such as SLA Operatives and Contract Killers, but stress? That fits all too well.
The system for stress works something like a more forgiving version of Call of Cthulhu's insanity mechanic. Characters have a "breaking point" score equal to twice their COOL, and stressful circumstances result in automatic and/or potential stress points (the latter via a failed COOL roll) that are compared to that score. When stress exceeds the breaking point, characters risk having some form of psychotic episode, losing a point from their breaking point, and gaining a mental disorder.
The main difference from CoC insanity is that stress is much easier to lose than are Sanity points to regain. PCs lose stress equal to their breaking point after a psychotic episode has run its course, and there are almost as many ways to reduce stress as there are to increase it. Overall, the stress mechanic serves to portray characters on the edge (as Ops and Killers certainly should be) without reducing them to abject cowards.
(As a side note, the lists of ways to increase and decrease stress are awfully amusing. Apparently, it's several times more stressful to be awoken by Mr. Slayer than it is to face imminent death.)
Appropriately enough, a list of mental disorders follows the stress information. Again, the mechanic fits the setting: These aren't excuses to play a humorous kook, but rather disturbing disorders with harsh game-mechanic effects. Seven disorders are listed, each with effects at the sub-clinical, clinical, and acute level.
Next are twenty new skills. It's an interesting selection, although some of these -- Axe, for example -- seem as though they really should have been in the main rulebook. A cute touch is the Extreme Violence skill, which makes attacks flashier and more intimidating.
Finally, the chapter introduces a new PC race: the Advanced Carrien. What better candidate could there be for the Contract Killer lifestyle than an intelligent member of a feral species? In fact, Advanced Carriens are the only characters who may choose two signature moves. For good or ill, this is the ideal race for those players playing SLA in general and Contract Killers in particular in order to indulge in fantasies of psychotic brutality. (For example, the obligatory "what they think of other races" section for Advanced Carriens consists solely of cooking tips.)
Killers in Play
Here the book answers a fundamental question I had while reading it: How the heck do you get a campaign for a PC group out of this information? I mean, this is a book about solitary psychos who get together solely for the purpose of killing each other, right?
Well, not quite.
First off, it seems that some Contract Killers form teams (or "packs"), working together on Hunter Sheets and multi-Killer Circuit games. The former could lead to something very much like a "standard" SLA adventure, and the longer, more elaborate examples of the latter might do so as well. Sticking with more basic Circuit games, on the other hand, will result in periods of pure interaction -- wheeling and dealing with Agents, the media, etc. -- interspersed with scheduled outbreaks of senseless violence. Whether this is a good thing or not is a matter of gaming group taste.
And secondly, Contract Killers sometimes work with Operatives, singularly or in groups of either or both. The book offers some creative examples of this, such as a Killer pack sweeping and clearing an area for an Op investigation, as well as of the clashes of interests that will result. Unfortunately, such team-ups would seem to be the stuff of one-shot adventures only, meaning that long-term mixed teams of Killers and Ops are unlikely.
Hunter Sheets
The penultimate items in the Directory are six sample Hunter Sheets -- small plot hooks, in essence. They manage to squeeze a lot of information in a small space, although -- like so much of the book -- no game stats are included. On an amusing note, the bounty for the Hunter Sheet targeting a Necanthrope is roughly four times the amount of the next most generous bounty.
Character Sheet
Finally, the book offers a character sheet especially for Contract Killers. Apparently, the designer doesn't anticipate many Ebb-using Killers, since the sheet lacks all of the spaces for Ebb-related information present on the character sheet in the main rulebook. The most noteworthy Killer-specific spaces are blanks for Rep, drugs and their effects, and the body part location and value of sponsor logos.
STYLE
First of all, the Contract Directory features what is now one of my favorite RPG covers: a full-bleed magazine-like image depicting a female Contract Killer lounging on a floor covered with a remarkable assortment of weapons, drugs, and assorted Circuit-related detritus. That standard continues throughout the book, with the worst of the artwork matching the quality of above-average comics and the best of it being truly beautiful and eerie.
The writing is quite engrossing, drawing you into the intense world of the Contract Killer. This includes "The Game", a three-part story running through the book that illustrates both the mundane and violent aspects of the Circuit while humanizing the easily-stereotyped Contract Killer. (Well, some of them, anyway.) Typos are few and minor.
The layout is fairly clean, although muddled a bit here and there by headers and subheads with identical type styles. The book includes a good index not only for the text, but also for the art.
CONCLUSION
The Content score is a really tough call for this book. On the one hand, it has tons of information on all aspects of life as a Contract Killer. It's the sort of setting book in which you read some bit of information, think, "Yeah, but what about...?", and have your question answered a paragraph later.
On the other hand, the dearth of hard game data regarding Circuit venues and NPC Contract Killers means that to apply the majority of this juicy information, you'll have a lot of homework to do.
That's all that's keeping me from giving this book a Content rating of 5. Style, by contrast, is an easy 5.
So, if you're hoping to find ready-made opponents and combat venues for your Contract Killer PCs, you will be disappointed. But if you're the sort of GM who prefers to get pure setting information and fill in the stats himself, you'll be delighted.
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