CORPORATE CONTROL
MECHANISMS
This header will quickly become dated, but currently
DriveThruRPG has setting materials on sale. The event runs through September 30TH,
2017. A search with “cyberpunk” leads
to a ton of interesting materials. I’ve picked out a few below which caught my
eye. I’m sure others remain to be found.
- A host of Cyberpunk 2020 products for those who missed the Bundle of Holding: Rache Batmoss’ Guide to the Net., Cybergeneration, and more.
- More Shadowrun products than I can possibly list. I particular dig the Sixth World Almanac
- Interface Zero and a bunch of sourcebooks (T20)
- NeuroSpasta (PF, 4E, 5E)
- Cyber.net.ica (T&T, Black Hack)
- Etherscope: The Great Metropolis and more (d20)
- Torg The Cyberpapacy and more
- Hyper-Killer
- Wild Talents: eCollapse
- Nova Praxis (SW)
- Evolution Pulse
CONFLICTING CORPORATE
INTERESTS
While I’m focusing on core books, I include a few notable
sourcebooks and supplements (by my reckoning). Ironically, I only list books
with a physical edition. I include an electronic release if they’re notable and
of significant size. Some selections came down to a judgement call; my
definition of cyberpunk’s broad. If the product declares itself that or several
online sources give it that label, I put it in. I’m sure I missed some, so if
you spot an absent cyberpunk rpg from 2008-2011, leave a note in the comments
1. Interface Zero (2008)
Interface Zero offers
a conventional cyberpunk setting, updated for modern sensibilities, used as the
go-to bolt-on for several systems. It opens with a geo-political history based on
conflict, collapse, and corporate control. The setting embraces a more cutting edge,
high-tech approach than earlier cyberpunk games. Two crucial tech elements, nanotechnologies
and synthetic persons (i.e. replicants), have shaped this world. It has an Augmented
Reality (Veil) citizens exist in called the Hyper-Real world (HR). Interface Zero has a ton of front-loaded
history. The Fate version opens with thirty
pages of timelines, world events, and terminology.
After getting through that Interface Zero nicely presents colorful options. Its various bio-mod
and simulacra forms offer a middle ground between anime spectacle and Cyberpunk 2020 chrome grit. I can’t speak
for the other versions, but I'm pretty pleased with the mechanics of the Fate Core edition. It's created a solid system
revision which understands how Fate works
and sn't just a re-skin.
Interface Zero's one
of the best toolboxes out there for modern cyberpunk. It leans a little crunchy.
Even the lightest version comes off heavy. But it offers interesting concepts
and sub-systems (drones, hacking, etc). If you want a sourcebook across multiple
platforms Interface Zero has True20, Savage Worlds, Modern20, Fate Core, and most
recently Pathfinder editions. The publisher
has released several sourcebooks and modules, primarily done in the Savage Worlds
version.
2. MSG™ (2008)
A satirical cyberpunk rpg. MSG plays in a single evening without a set GM. It presents a future
where corporations are everything. Your role, reputation, and status within that
organization define your worth. Humanity loss here isn't about cybernetics, but
instead about ethics, independence, and self-worth. GMing duties rotate; each round
one player plays the Company and the others play Reps. The Company's goal is to
crush the spirit of the Reps or get their peers to do it for them. The game's loose
and diceless with a resource system. Resolution requires bidding those resources,
but the "winner" is the character with the most left at the end. It's
a clever little game with three editions (original, executive, and the currently
available "Deoffensified Edition").
3. Daring Tales of the Sprawl (2009)
Triple Ace Games has
been one of the strongest third-party publishers for Savage Worlds. Beyond settings (All
for One, Hellfrost), they've released
several adventure series under the "Daring Tales" label. That includes
Adventure, Chivalry, the Space Lanes, and the Sprawl. TAG began the line by releasing
a free set of SW cyberpunk rules. These offer simple adaptation mechanics and a
couple of full-blown add-ons. That includes a list of cyberware packages and rules
for hacking. Lead Author Kevin Anderson also worked on Sundered Skies and Wonderland
No More. I've run from the former. It has interesting ideas, but comes off little
dense and railroady in places.
The actual Sprawl series consists of five adventures,
originally released as pdfs. These have been collected together into a Compendium
volume. They follow classic cyberpunk role-play patterns: missions, patrons, extractions.
If you're looking for resources to drop into Cyberpunk 2020, Shadowrun,
or even The Sprawl these might work.
4. Eclipse Phase (2009)
Eclipse Phase is a monster, a dense sci-fi game spanning multiple
genres. The original open-license edition spawned a host of supplements. One of
EP’s strengths has been hooking gamers in diverse ways. Some see it as classic sci-fi,
some as transhumanist fun-time, some as post-apocalypse. Others read it as a particularly
dark sci-fi horror game- one brimming with awful implications for the fate of humanity.
That's all in there- you can play any of those. You can even zoom in for a bleeding
edge cyberpunk game.
In the future, humanity
has lost the Earth. They have spread out through wormhole gates into the greater
universe. Some fragmentary structure remains- through a patchwork of authorities
and links, strongly corporate. Most people, including the PCs, are disassociated
intelligences, sleeved into bodies based on need and wealth. It may seem like a
kind of immortality, but there are costs and dangers. Threats exist everywhere from
viruses, to fanatics, to monstrous AIs stalking the stars. Eclipse Phase does a great job of setting up what the players could
be doing- serving with a group called Firewall fighting threats to humanity's existence.
But everything I've read and heard suggests that the game set up, despite being
detailed and dense, is also open. You can run many different kinds of campaigns,
genres, and styles with the detailed tools it provides.
Judging by online discussion
Eclipse Phase has become the go-to cyberpunk
game among those looking for a high-crunch system. Some turned to it after the perceived
failure of Cyberpunk v3. I've seen a couple
threads where players have attempted to combine Cyberpunk 2020's timeline with the Eclipse Phase’s history.
The company launched
a highly successful Kickstarter earlier this year. It promises an updated and streamlined
approach which remains compatible with the first edition.
5. eCollapse (2009)
2009 was a crazy year
for Wild Talents, with four distinct and impressive setting sourcebooks landing.
That’s an interesting publishing approach. Rather than build on Wild Talents’
established setting or even the precursor Godlike material, Arc Dream chose
to follow up with multiple new ways to play. The approaches read like thought-experiments
and eCollapse makes that explicit in its introduction. Here Greg Stolze wants
to explore choices and defining ‘good guys’ versus ‘bad guys’. You can see the seeds
of his later Better Angels; here he mentions doing a setting based on the
behavior of supervillains.
eCollapse presents a near future, post-crash society. It
isn’t exactly post-apocalyptic, but more just that everything’s kind of crappy.
Slackers, economic decay, erosion of liberties, environmental pollution, full-on
surveillance state, etc. But on the plus side, biotech superpowers are readily available…though
with some non-monetary costs. The power list is interesting, tightly defined, and
full off traps for the unwary player. That’s combined with player-chosen weaknesses
and ideologies (what you’re for and against). These deeply flawed characters then
strive against the background of this dystopian future- trying to figure out what
they stand for and what’s worth actually sacrificing for. eCollapse borrows
a little from Cyberpunk, but feels closer to Underground.
The rules include an
alternate approach to resolution for those who don’t want to deal with the crunch
of Wild Talents. Called “Smear of Destiny,” these mechanics sit just atop
the main ones in the book. There’s also a substantial section at the end with a
full explanation. Unlike some dual-stat books, one system doesn’t get in the way
of the other. Smear of Destiny uses a deck of playing cards for competitive
narrative resolution, with the red and black of the suits mirroring the question
of black and white in the universe. That’s smart given the dramatic focus of eCollapse.
6. Otherverse America (2009)
This is core book for
the Otherverse America setting, with d20 Modern and Pathfinder versions available. I'm having trouble wrapping my head around
the key concept here. The game comes from Skortched 'Urf, publisher of the Black Tokyo hentai-infused setting. OA shares
that edge-lord vibe. While I focus on printed products for this list, the core book's
significant and the publisher's released several supplements.
What’s the pitch? The
Abortion War is the primary incident sparking the dystopian collapse. As the
blurb sums it up, "rival Lifer and Choicer factions build their own unique
cultures from what’s left. The differences between pro-life and pro-choice, between
liberal and conservative, between Christian and Pagan, have been sharpened to a
killing edge." The game's primary focus is on military sci-fi, supported by
weird powers and combat technology.
Some of the sourcebooks
develop this out in different directions. For example, Sexually Transmitted Future details bio-hacking and genetic engineering.
The Otherverse setting has other cyberpunk
trappings like the worldwide "mesh", restricted AI development, and the
security state. The setting uses exaggerated versions of the culture wars as fodder.
How much you giggle at that probably determines how much you'll dig this. It’s
not my bag and I find it a little squicky.
7. Spherechild (2009)
A German Universal system,
the Spherechild core book includes a cyberpunk
setting called Icros. Interestingly this setting undergoes major revisions between
the first and second editions of the game. They both focus on genetic manipulation
and a race of "Wandler" evading detection. It's interesting to see a generic
system go in a nontraditional direction with their included cyberpunk setting.
8. Yellow Dawn: The Age of Hastur (2009)
A complete post-apocalypse
horror game with a cyberpunk tinge. Yellow
Dawn showcases a near-future world which has suffered collapse, offering an
emphasis on tech and the occult. I like it because Yellow Dawn seems to actually
play with and apply some of the concepts suggested messily by GURPS Cthulhupunk. Hastur's one of my favorite
creations within the greater Cthulhu Mythos (and one with several divergent interpretations,
see Delta Green: Countdown). The virus
which set off the setting’s collapse not only devastates the population, it changes
many into travesties. This creates tribes of monsters in the wilderness outside
cities. I appreciate the weird mix of tropes all that creates.
The rulebook includes
mechanics for hacking, cyberware, and bioware. That's all given a sinister tinge.
Designer David J. Rodger has promised a third edition of this setting, compatible
with the new Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition
rules. (Note: the first edition of this appeared in 2006 and really belongs on that
list, but I missed it. '09 was the 2nd edition release date).
9. FreeMarket (2010)
In 2010 Luke Crane
and Jared Sorensen released this final, highly produced version of Freemarket. I hunted down a copy a few years
ago. Freemarket comes in a cool boxed
set filled with booklets, card decks, and cardboard tokens. Usually I dig all those
kinds of bits. Freemarket's beautifully
produced. It looks amazing. But it’s also opaque. I tried reading the rulebook several
times, each time coming away uncertain of the setting and mechanics. Eventually
I traded my copy away. I've had to hunt online for descriptions to even put into
words what Freemarket's about.
Let me try-- first, Freemarket's a post-scarcity setting. The
characters life on a space station, the children of the first arrivals (the Originals).
Anything can be fabricated here via 3D matter printers, including life. In this
transhumanist setting, death, poverty, and illness are things of the past. The game
asks what you would do with "fovever"? It's an interesting premise. Conflict's
built purely on personal agendas. It takes the ideas of transhumanism and the technological
support system to its logical end. It's cyberpunk in that it confronts those ideas
at least obliquely. The concerns here are philosophical; they're even more abstract
than the belief-focused play of The Veil.
One of my favorite posts
on Freemarket comes from the blog Stuff for Nonsense. Like me they found a
mixed reaction to Freemarket online. They
have a nice post about opening the box and looking through it.
10. Kazei 5 (2010)
Kazei 5 is a massive campaign framework for HERO System. It jams together anime,
cyberpunk, and a host of other sci-fi tropes to create a world of mixed-up manga
transhumanism. Think Cybergeneration with
less grit or a more diverse power-source version of Bubblegum Crisis. Recommended for those looking for a crunchy setting
with anime roots. That's present in the subtitle, "Animepunk Roleplaying."
And there's a Cat-Girl on the cover.
Despite that lighter-tone
approach, Kazei 5 offers the crunchy set
of tools and resources HERO System players look for. It's the closest HERO 6 gets
to a cyberpunk sourcebook. But it doesn't dwell on that-- covering cyberware, cyborgs,
cyberspace, espers, and mecha in a little over 60 pages. If you know the system,
you'll know that's slim. The rest of the book's given to characters (about 70 pages)
and the world (150+ pages). It's a dense book done with the trademark tiny font
of latter day HERO releases. If you're looking for a kitchen-sink anime-cyberpunk
setting (and mechanical sections don't irritate you) this could work.
11. Remember Tomorrow (2010)
A rules-light game aiming
for speed and cyberpunk verisimilitude. It opens with five clear setting points.
1. It plays out in Somewhere, an ‘anyplace’ city twenty minutes into the future.
2. People in the setting travel. They’re always in motion and always caught in-between.
3. Everything has a label, a sense of fashion and brand identity. 4. People are
wild and stray into new territories of sex. 5. Everyone’s a foreigner here, everyone’s
from somewhere else. Not just the PCs but the figures in the backdrop as well.
Remember Tomorrow rotates GM responsibility between the players.
We they’re the GM, they set the scene and type—playing with the PCs and factions
established. The system combines that with interesting currency rules using Edge
dice. Sessions end when three things, PCs or factions, have been eliminated. That’s
considered an episode, though a campaign may have multiple episodes.
Remember Tomorrow defines characters simply. They start with a
name/handle, an identity (i.e. archetype), motivation, and gear. The last can include
cybernetics. This and most of matters of technology are simply fiction. They’re
the basis for narration. RT doesn’t even use the light tag-based approach of
recent cyberpunk games. Each character has three stats: Ready, Willing, and Able.
They’re like Fate Accelerated approaches. Each has a rating and reducing that to
0 writes the character out.
Characters also have
conditions describing their advantages and disads. The character sheet lists twelve
negative and twelve positive conditions, with checkboxes for them. Finally each
character fleshes out character has a goal at the start. After creating characters
each player also develops a faction with a few stats and details. These serve as
the opposition the GM can swing into play.
The rules discus scene
types and how they’re set up (Introduction, Deal, Face Off). These have a light
structure and slightly different ways they interact with the edge die currency.
Remember Tomorrow resolves challenges
simply. Players roll 3d10 and allocate them to their three ratings. Each one equal
or below counts as a success. The type of success influences the narration. The
game provides some additional mechanics reflecting the gritty, violent, power struggles
involving the characters.
Overall Remember Tomorrow’s an interesting framework
for running a cyberpunk-flavored one-shot. The structure for the rotating GMs and
the scene economy seems cool and doesn’t go too far into the weeds with mechanics.
If you’re looking for a solid story-game, it’s a good choice. RT’s flexible and
I’ve seen it adapted for several other contexts.
12. Robotica (2010)
A chunky (360 pages)
Polish rpg. And it has an English translation from last year clocking in at 472
pages(!). It is notably sequestered in the adult section of RPGNow. And before I
go on, I have to quote from the publisher's blurb there:
Clocks are no more mere time counting tools. Every jolt of the pointer is symbolic - ticking is similar to that of a bomb detonator, promising a sudden explosion... It is just an empty hope for a painless finale. Existence is hard to discern from torture. When a man is at the brink of his limits, the fate kicks him in the corner, leaves him to catch some breath. It is back only when the victim is standing on its own again. It seems that torturing a helpless victim is not providing fatum with enough satisfaction.
Okaaaaaaaaaay.
In this dark future,
Corporations have taken over and then abandoned a devastated Earth. You play characters
left behind in this wasteland, monitored by the Corps and battling against DESTRO.
(note: Not from Cobra, instead a rogue electronic force). Players can be robots,
mutant humans, cyborgs, or even weirder things. The game has several modes: pulp
to grimdark and smooth to crunchy. It reminds me a little of Systems Failure and GURPS Reign of Steel. If this kind of mechanical
dystopian world appeals to you, read the extensive blurb at RPGNow (which has a
book length of "about 1,000,000 characters" as a selling point).
13. Shanghai Vampocalypse (2010)
On these lists I’ve crossed
paths with various Savage Mojo Suzerian products.
Until now I hadn’t seen the ethos to them. Suzerain
itself is a multiversal setting, something I hadn’t realized (because I’m an idiot).
Several earlier products make more sense now. But more importantly the
setting’s about being EPIC. DID YOU HEAR ME? I SAID EPIC. The system adds
a new tier to Savage Worlds: DemiGod.
Shanghai Vampocalypse reflects with…epic…new powers and abilities for
that tier. You’ll need them. In this world, 2048 saw the creation of a nanovirus
usable to create vampiric soldiers. You can guess where that goes. The book contains
a Savage Worlds style plot point campaign
with the players battling against Vampiric hordes to save this decadent, chrome-out
future. It leans more towards the Shadowrun
side of things with mystic powers and wire-fu combined with implants and hi-tech
missions.
If you’re looking for
over-the-top, good news.
14. Polychrome (2011)
I've written a couple
of times about Kevin Crawford's interesting reworkings of retro game mechanics.
His games offer both stand-alone rpgs and a toolbox for GMs. Stars Without Number's one of Crawford's
earliest, a sci-fi game with a distinct setting that can be easily repurposed. It
reminds me of Eclipse Phase for that.
Polychrome's a world sourcebook for SWN,
offering a planet of cyber-implants and corporate control of vital elements.
While the book's focused
on that, it also shows how you could easily tune Stars Without Number to a fully cyberpunk game. It's a smart demonstration.
It includes many of the usual elements like hacking and such. This year Crawford
ran successful Kickstarter for a new edition of SWN. I hope this signals a renaissance
for it. Perhaps we might get a fully stand-alone cyberpunk game, similar to Other Dust. That’s an all-in-one post-apocalyptic
game set within the SWN universe. For those interested in learning more about
Polychrome, check out the excellent Grognardia review.
15. Technoir (2011)
Technoir’s a smart game—well-designed and presented. I’d seen it mentioned in various
indie game discussions, but never tracked it down. As the label says it’s about
technology, cyberpunk in this case, within a noir world. It doesn’t gloss those
concepts; it engages with them. It grabbed my attention by not opening with a sole
focus on character creation, mechanics, or endless backstory. Instead it combines
the former two with a strong emphasis on the GM side of things.
I don’t know if it’s
deliberate, but Technoir amuses me because
it puts that GM info so early—talking about the genre, how to present it, and overall
techniques and advice. The rules are cleanly set out with markers about what’s being
discussed. I feel a little irony that a game about a gritty and discordant world
should be presented so clearly.
Technoir covers “hard-nosed characters entrenched in the gritty criminal underground
of the near-future. They have illicit technology and the talents to use it. They
work contacts, exploit opportunities, play factions against each other, and try
to come out ahead. It’s the shady stories of hardboiled crime novels of yesterday
set in the dystopian sci-fi cities of tomorrow.” The base system’s interesting.
Characters have nine “verb” stats (Coax, Move, Prowl, etc). These are rated from
1 to 5. Additionally they have Adjectives, which function like aspects in Fate.
Objects follow a now common pattern—using tags to define gear.
There’s only a little
more chrome in the character creation section. Players chose three training programs
to generate initial Verbs and Adjectives. They then choose relationships and buy
objects. The tags here and factors like debt seem like the most complicated part
of the game and they’re fairly simple
Players roll different
color d6s for resolution. They use a number of white dice equal the related stat’s
rating; black push dice from non-stat sources; and red hurt dice for negative penalties.
Players roll this as a pool. For each red die matching a black or white die, they
remove the pair. The highest number remaining after all removals is the final action
value which is compared to a difficulty or opposition rating. It’s a loose and simple
system.
Technoir uses the concept of Transmissions. These are random playbooks for a location
with 36 ideas and details called plot nodes. These cover exposition, connections,
events, factions, locations, object, and threats. The game shows how to use those
to build a scenario. It’s a solid toolkit and one worth stealing for other games.
The core book includes the Los Angeles Sprawl, Singapore Sling, and Kilimanjaro
Ring.
Overall Technoir looks awesome—as a game and a resource
for cyberpunk GMs. Next year I hope to have an alt-cyberpunk month where I try my
hand at just running indie or unusual cyberpunk games. This will definitely be on
that list.
16. Miscellaneous: PDF Only
Selected cyberpunk
electronic-only releases
- Disgenesia: In a corporate-controlled future, you play as “Tetramorphs,” mutants who do dirty jobs for the corps. A biopunk set-up. By Mexican designer Aldo Ojeda Campos.
- Geodesic Gnomes: A 24-hour rpg from the amazing Dyson Logos. You play ‘gnomes’ scavenging to survive in technological ruins.
- idee fixe: A large Polish game. People try to survive on the streets in a dystopian future Poland. The translated blurb says, “In idee fixe there are mixed three main elements: technototalitarism, conspiracy theories and local Polish dirt.”
- Majellan: One of the breed of sci-fi/post-apocalypse games where the new world the PCs settle on becomes a cyberpunk dystopia.
- Metropole Luxury Coffin: Life, death, and branding in a cyberpunk capsule hotel.
- Mirrors: Bleeding Edge: An add-on for the Chronicles of Darkness supplement, Mirrors. It offers another alternate CoD setting: this time cyberpunk. “Dark Shadows-run.”
- Modem: Focuses exclusively on the hacking and netrunning side of things. You make runs to earn money to make more runs. I’m surprised we don’t see more games with this framework.
- Modempunk: Here’s a game I had to track down a copy of. You play as sweet underground hackers in a dystopian 1980’s that never was! Comes bundled with the Joints & Jivers rpg (less interesting).
- OBLEAK: Sometimes a game bears down so hard on a particular grim tone I can’t tell if its parody or terribly sincere.
17. Miscellaneous: Cyberpunk Adjacent
Adventures or
borderline products.
- BRP Adventures and Blood & Badges: Two Basic Rolelpaying adventure collections covering multiple genres. The former has Ruin Nation: To Bite the Hand That Feeds by Jason Williams. The latter includes Out with a BANG by Tom Lynch, a cyberpunk scenario.
- Deadline: A French near-future, high-tech espionage game. The twist is that the world ends in 47 years.
- Hot Chicks: The Roleplaying Game: Cyberpunk trappings in places, see my comments here.
- Maschine Zeit: A sci-fi horror rpg. The themes of machines vs. humanity work well with a cyberpunk frame.
- Misspent Youth: Kids rebel against The Authority.
- Nemezis: A Polish setting book for Savage Worlds. The Mutant Chronicles vibe means it has cyberpunk-esque elements.
- Psypher 2430 Core Rulebook: A core book for the GameAddikts sci-fi setting. Leans to straight sci-fi with some cyberpunk junk thrown in.
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