Setting Table Rules

Before launching any campaign, it’s always a good idea to sit down and discuss your expectations and preferences for gameplay. Called Session 0, this initial conversation ensures everyone will enjoy themselves, whether you are interested in roleplay, stories, or puzzles.

Errant Assets is designed for team-centric play. This isn’t the game for lone wolves or PVP-style conflict. While tensions and conflict are guaranteed with the big personalities and high stress of running the shadows, fundamentally this system is designed for groups that chose to work together. Maybe you’re friends, maybe you’re reluctant allies, but you should trust each other to make choices for the best of the whole team.

Because Errant Assets uses a standard DM-Player relationship, where the DM designs and plans the story campaign, they may make some decisions on behalf of the group. It’s a good idea to start Session 0 with these known variables to set the stage for other conversations.

Session 0 conversations will inform the relationships and choices you make during character creation and beyond.

Errant Assets has different options on how powerful your characters will be at the beginning and during the campaign. This is largely a story choice. Errant Assets uses non-linear leveling, so there is no need to be high-level to take advantage of interesting character abilities.

Example questions:

In Errant Assets, players work together to maintain a set of special resources. All players benefit from these resources, and a portion of all rewards will go to these resources.

Every team needs a base of operations, and for your team, that’s the Hideout. Hideouts are spaces where your characters live, work, and train. As a team you need to pay rent on your Hideout every month. Depending on the neighborhood and special features of your hideout, this may be a large portion of the income you generate from jobs.

DMs may choose to set your hideout community after character selection, but it’s a good idea to discuss what kind of neighborhood and what state your hideout will be in.

Hideouts can be upgraded or moved during gameplay, but this is usually expensive and will likely take several jobs first, or occur as the result of gameplay actions.

The settings Errant Assets is designed for have been strangled by the greedy powerful. This means that resources beyond the bare minimum come at a steep price. Some vital gear is only affordable as a pooled resource for the team. This could include expenses like vehicles, specialty weapons, club memberships, or more. These resources will be bought as a team, and their maintenance will be added to your team’s upkeep costs.

As individual characters you will gain a set of Contacts during character creation. The DM is also able to offer Contacts for the entire team. This might be an NPC the DM wants to be sure you know, a resource like a special weapons dealer, or even the big bad you’re working against.

One of the most common team Contacts is a Handler. Handlers act as go-betweens for your team and the client, ensuring everyone’s privacy and limiting client legal liability. Handlers source jobs, vet clients, and can facilitate hiring contractors or finding restricted resources. They do all this for a percentage of profits, though most times you won’t know what the Handler is being paid by the client, only what they are offering you for the work.

Your relationship with your Handler is a key element of gameplay. Like HR, their loyalty ultimately lies with themselves, but the degree of familiarity, trust, and goal alignment will determine what kind of jobs they’ll offer, how large their cut is, and how determined they are to protect your interests.

If you don’t have a Handler, you’ll be more likely to have complications during jobs, but you’ll keep all the pay.

Whether you have a Handler or not, you may pick up jobs from other sources such as Contacts or Community NPCs.

Like any tabletop game, you may encounter uncomfortable scenarios during gameplay. As Errant Assets assumes some degree of roleplay, it’s important to be sensitive to group preferences.

Discuss content consent in advance so that everyone is on the same page. If you are uncomfortable with certain topics, it’s a good idea to make it known up front. Some topics you might discuss:

Check out the consent in gaming checklist if you’re not sure what kind of topics to discuss

In the shadows you might be offered work that you or your character would not want to participate in. To avoid awkward conversations in front of a handler or client, discuss in advance whether your team will accept jobs with questionable elements

Every campaign is different, with unique quirks to the scenario, city, and table. Unless your DM wants you to land in a city blind, you’ll want to scope out the big picture.

While everyone should get to play the sort of character they’d like, it’s a good idea to make sure your team can handle most types of conflicts in the campaign themselves. It’s always possible to hire additional support for skills your team doesn’t possess, but it can be very pricey.

Errant Assets does have the flexibility to have teams built exclusively of one or two roles. These limited teams will have different tools and take different jobs than a more balanced team, but is still a viable play option. It’s still a good idea to plan secondary coverage for other challenge types.

Regardless of roles, a team benefits from having a variety of skills, etiquettes, contact types, and gear. As you build characters, it’s a great idea to discuss with your table what choices you’re making.

Errant Assets is geared toward characters that have chosen to work together and have some degree of trust. As you build characters, you’ll want to define what kind of relationship they have with the shadows and each other.

In addition, most characters working the shadows have an end goal in mind. What got your character into running, and what’s their exit strategy?

This is a good time to talk about why your characters decided to work together long-term. What kind of relationship do you have with each other? How much inter-team tension is too much?