This past week, kicked off as it was by Cyber Monday, gave me the inspiration to do a Cyber-Week, celebrating all-things-cyberpunk in RPGs. That means Shadowrun, of course, but there's quite an array of things for your perusal across the spectrum of games and systems for this ironically venerable genre. Please note that the daily Sean's Pick of the Day has returned to its original site, though the Picks of the Week will continue here on E.N. World.
SHADOWRUN LEGENDS: TAILS YOU LOSE
With it being Cyber Monday, another theme week suggests itself - Cyperpunk! We kick this week off with an offering from DriveThruRPG's sister site, DriveThruFiction, featuring a Shadowrun novel by Lisa Smedman. With a setting as deep and as venerable as Shadowrun, the fiction is often the best way to get a handle on what's going on.
TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
When a shadowrunner managed to extract PCI's most vital employee, it was Alma's job as security expert to get him back--no matter the cost. But all the evidence pointed to the one person who couldn't have done it...herself. Branded a traitor, Alma has one shot at redemption: find the real culprit. But she's never faced an enemy like this one.
This 'runner not only looks like Alma--she's also equipped with Alma's top-of-the-line cybernetic implants, and she's backed by the powerful magic of the Chinese underworld. Now, the expert in defense must attack--and risk it all to bring down a rival so much like herself that there can be only one shocking explanation...
Note: This digital edition includes ePub and Mobi (Kindle) versions of the novel.
CORPORATION: THE SWORD REFORGED
Cyber Monday Means Cyber-Week continues with the latest book out for Brutal Games' Corporation line, detailing the Shi Yukiro Corporation. This is the faction that most reflects the influence of corporate Japan on the corporatocracy that rules the world in this cyberpunk dystopia.
The sword, forgotten:
Ambitions swirled like red leaves.
Divided, we failed.
The sword, remembered:
Blades flashed in the coldest night.
Blood united us.
The sword was the path
Old ways flowed back like spring tides.
Strength came from our past.
The sword is reforged
Honour burns with furnace heat.
Let the world tremble.
Welcome, Agent, to the Shi Yukiro Corporation.
The Sword Reforged is a complete guide to the Shi Yukiro Corporation giving everything you need to play their Agents or to run them as enemies.
Includes:
THE VEIL
Powered by the Apocalypse is a serious and growing thing these days, so I figured I'd best pick an AWE game as part of Cyber Monday Means Cyber-Week. A lot of fans know about The Sprawl, but here's a new cyberpunk playset you might want to take a look at.
The room flickers in front of you for an instant like a PMP losing reception. You hear the hammer snap back on a cheap poly and you can almost smell the ozone as the bullet glides out of the chamber. The window flies apart in shatterproof shards the size of disembodied limbs. Your neurochip feeds you the trajectory of the unequivocal sentence of death speeding your way as your eyes swivel in their machined sockets. Juice crashes through your veins. You've only got a split second to make a move. What do you do?
The Veil is a collaborative storytelling game designed to tell cyberpunk stories of your own making. Use world building tools to come up with unique settings that look and feel like the cyberpunk you and your friends have always wanted. Put questions that drive your characters at the heart of heists, mysteries, and conspiracies. Break a near future world and then try to put it back together. Play to find out what happens.
INTERFACE ZERO 2.0
There are a lot of ways you could approach playing cyberpunk in Savage Worlds, but you simply won't get the most complete and detailed experience unless you grab this one from Gun Metal Games. IZ does more than put some rules in your hands to go "Savage Cyber;" there's some serious world-building and internal consistency at work here to really give you the cyberpunk experience up and down.
FULL METAL CYBERPUNK!
In a not-so-distant future, the world has been ravaged by global warming, subjected to the horrors of nuclear war and natural disaster, witnessed the collapse of the mightiest nation in the history of the world, and the rise of other nations to take its place. In East Asia, the Bear and the Dragon battle for control of the resource-rich continent, and an emergent A.I. known only as Charon has destabilized the whole of Europe, sparking revolution and chaos not seen since the Second World War.
On the North American continent, the prospect of conflict once again rears its ugly head as terrorist bombings in Atlantica, bring the nation to the brink of war with the North American Coalition. Is this the work of Charon, as well, or are other forces moving behind the scenes? Only time will tell.
Science has hacked the genome, unlocking the secrets of DNA to facilitate the creation of new breeds of human; genetic hybrids, human 2.0, and even simulacrum— a slave race grown in amniotic vats and sold on the open market. Cybernetic technology has reached the point where those with the money and the will to do so, can become living machines. Computer science has grown by leaps and bounds as well.
Dubbed Interface Zero by those who created it, the Tendril Access Processor—or TAP—downloads the Global DataNet and Hyper Reality directly into the minds of billions of users across the solar system, bringing the world an unparalleled level of interconnectivity, and danger. Malware plagues the Deep, and hackers manipulate the Tendril Access Processor to upload malicious virii, steal secrets, and even the identities of the unwary.
This is the world in 2090, omae; let’s hope you survive it.
Interface Zero 2.0 is a cyberpunk game powered by the Savage Worlds game system. Play bioroids, full-metal cyborgs, vat-grown simulacra, genetic hybrids, Human 2.0, and even androids! Hack the world around you with our revised hacking rules, or take control of a drone and lay down some fire-support for your team! Get cybered with new cybernetics using our Fast Furious and Fun rules!
CYBERPUNK 2.0.2.0 2ND EDITION
In closing out "Cyber Monday Means Cyber-Week," I had to go to the Grand Daddy of them all. R. Talsorian absolutely gets the credit for breaking the ground on cyberpunk gaming, and many believe this remains the genre game all others must be judged against. The version presented is held aloft as the best-ever expression of Mike Pondsmith's vision.
The Corporations control the world from their skyscraper fortresses, enforcing their rule with armies of cyborg assassins. On the Street, Boostergangs roam a shattered urban wilderness, killing and looting. The rest of the world is a perpetual party, as fashion-model beautiful techies rub biosculpt jobs with battle armored roadwarriors in the hottest clubs, sleaziest bars and meanest streets this side of the Postholocaust. The Future never looked so bad.
But you can change it. You've got interface plugs in your wrists, weapons in your arms, lasers in your eyes, bio-chip programs screaming in your brain. You're wired in, cyberenhanced and solid state as you can take it to the fatal Edge where only the toughest and coolest can go. Because you're CYBERPUNK.
Cyberpunk: the original roleplaying game of the dark future; a world of corporate assassins, heavy-metal heroes and brain burning cyberhackers, packed with cutting edge technology and intense urban action. Within this book, you'll find everything you need to tackle the mean streets of the 2000's -- in a game system that combines the best in realistic action and playability.
-----
Sometimes, like Fezzik and Inigo, it's best to "go back to the beginning." It will feel good to go back to using the old site, and return to featuring other things I want to promote as well. At the same time, I am really looking forward to finding some other things to write about here on E.N. World, and I am very open to your suggestions as I explore that.
This weekend finds me at a couple of geek-friendly parties, and running a demo of Prowlers & Paragons: Ultimate Edition for folks. I think I am going to see Arrival, as well.
What are you up to?
Note that I use affiliate links in all my posts as a way to generate additional revenue for my efforts; I make my Picks and other article choices, however, based on the desire to share a wide variety of things with you. Thank you for your support.
Sean Patrick Fannon
Writer & Game Designer: Shaintar, Star Wars, Savage Rifts, much more
Please check out my Patreon and get involved directly with my next projects!
SHADOWRUN LEGENDS: TAILS YOU LOSE
With it being Cyber Monday, another theme week suggests itself - Cyperpunk! We kick this week off with an offering from DriveThruRPG's sister site, DriveThruFiction, featuring a Shadowrun novel by Lisa Smedman. With a setting as deep and as venerable as Shadowrun, the fiction is often the best way to get a handle on what's going on.
TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
When a shadowrunner managed to extract PCI's most vital employee, it was Alma's job as security expert to get him back--no matter the cost. But all the evidence pointed to the one person who couldn't have done it...herself. Branded a traitor, Alma has one shot at redemption: find the real culprit. But she's never faced an enemy like this one.
This 'runner not only looks like Alma--she's also equipped with Alma's top-of-the-line cybernetic implants, and she's backed by the powerful magic of the Chinese underworld. Now, the expert in defense must attack--and risk it all to bring down a rival so much like herself that there can be only one shocking explanation...
Note: This digital edition includes ePub and Mobi (Kindle) versions of the novel.
CORPORATION: THE SWORD REFORGED
Cyber Monday Means Cyber-Week continues with the latest book out for Brutal Games' Corporation line, detailing the Shi Yukiro Corporation. This is the faction that most reflects the influence of corporate Japan on the corporatocracy that rules the world in this cyberpunk dystopia.
The sword, forgotten:
Ambitions swirled like red leaves.
Divided, we failed.
The sword, remembered:
Blades flashed in the coldest night.
Blood united us.
The sword was the path
Old ways flowed back like spring tides.
Strength came from our past.
The sword is reforged
Honour burns with furnace heat.
Let the world tremble.
Welcome, Agent, to the Shi Yukiro Corporation.
The Sword Reforged is a complete guide to the Shi Yukiro Corporation giving everything you need to play their Agents or to run them as enemies.
Includes:
- Sects, perks, trainings, downtime options and licenses.
- New equipment, ammunition, weapons and armour.
- New Ion Weapons and Ion Weapon upgrades.
- How to building and use satellites.
- Steath and ninja technologies.
- New A.I. Protocols and cutting edge cybernetics.
- Organisations and a new playable minor corporation.
- A stack of NPC's including Blackwatch Malenbrach and UAVs.
- Detailed locations such as the Fukushima Autocity and the Neon Hives of Nagoya.
- New rules for License aquisition, fire, subdual damage and advanced hacking.
THE VEIL
Powered by the Apocalypse is a serious and growing thing these days, so I figured I'd best pick an AWE game as part of Cyber Monday Means Cyber-Week. A lot of fans know about The Sprawl, but here's a new cyberpunk playset you might want to take a look at.
The room flickers in front of you for an instant like a PMP losing reception. You hear the hammer snap back on a cheap poly and you can almost smell the ozone as the bullet glides out of the chamber. The window flies apart in shatterproof shards the size of disembodied limbs. Your neurochip feeds you the trajectory of the unequivocal sentence of death speeding your way as your eyes swivel in their machined sockets. Juice crashes through your veins. You've only got a split second to make a move. What do you do?
The Veil is a collaborative storytelling game designed to tell cyberpunk stories of your own making. Use world building tools to come up with unique settings that look and feel like the cyberpunk you and your friends have always wanted. Put questions that drive your characters at the heart of heists, mysteries, and conspiracies. Break a near future world and then try to put it back together. Play to find out what happens.
INTERFACE ZERO 2.0
There are a lot of ways you could approach playing cyberpunk in Savage Worlds, but you simply won't get the most complete and detailed experience unless you grab this one from Gun Metal Games. IZ does more than put some rules in your hands to go "Savage Cyber;" there's some serious world-building and internal consistency at work here to really give you the cyberpunk experience up and down.
FULL METAL CYBERPUNK!
In a not-so-distant future, the world has been ravaged by global warming, subjected to the horrors of nuclear war and natural disaster, witnessed the collapse of the mightiest nation in the history of the world, and the rise of other nations to take its place. In East Asia, the Bear and the Dragon battle for control of the resource-rich continent, and an emergent A.I. known only as Charon has destabilized the whole of Europe, sparking revolution and chaos not seen since the Second World War.
On the North American continent, the prospect of conflict once again rears its ugly head as terrorist bombings in Atlantica, bring the nation to the brink of war with the North American Coalition. Is this the work of Charon, as well, or are other forces moving behind the scenes? Only time will tell.
Science has hacked the genome, unlocking the secrets of DNA to facilitate the creation of new breeds of human; genetic hybrids, human 2.0, and even simulacrum— a slave race grown in amniotic vats and sold on the open market. Cybernetic technology has reached the point where those with the money and the will to do so, can become living machines. Computer science has grown by leaps and bounds as well.
Dubbed Interface Zero by those who created it, the Tendril Access Processor—or TAP—downloads the Global DataNet and Hyper Reality directly into the minds of billions of users across the solar system, bringing the world an unparalleled level of interconnectivity, and danger. Malware plagues the Deep, and hackers manipulate the Tendril Access Processor to upload malicious virii, steal secrets, and even the identities of the unwary.
This is the world in 2090, omae; let’s hope you survive it.
Interface Zero 2.0 is a cyberpunk game powered by the Savage Worlds game system. Play bioroids, full-metal cyborgs, vat-grown simulacra, genetic hybrids, Human 2.0, and even androids! Hack the world around you with our revised hacking rules, or take control of a drone and lay down some fire-support for your team! Get cybered with new cybernetics using our Fast Furious and Fun rules!
CYBERPUNK 2.0.2.0 2ND EDITION
In closing out "Cyber Monday Means Cyber-Week," I had to go to the Grand Daddy of them all. R. Talsorian absolutely gets the credit for breaking the ground on cyberpunk gaming, and many believe this remains the genre game all others must be judged against. The version presented is held aloft as the best-ever expression of Mike Pondsmith's vision.
The Corporations control the world from their skyscraper fortresses, enforcing their rule with armies of cyborg assassins. On the Street, Boostergangs roam a shattered urban wilderness, killing and looting. The rest of the world is a perpetual party, as fashion-model beautiful techies rub biosculpt jobs with battle armored roadwarriors in the hottest clubs, sleaziest bars and meanest streets this side of the Postholocaust. The Future never looked so bad.
But you can change it. You've got interface plugs in your wrists, weapons in your arms, lasers in your eyes, bio-chip programs screaming in your brain. You're wired in, cyberenhanced and solid state as you can take it to the fatal Edge where only the toughest and coolest can go. Because you're CYBERPUNK.
Cyberpunk: the original roleplaying game of the dark future; a world of corporate assassins, heavy-metal heroes and brain burning cyberhackers, packed with cutting edge technology and intense urban action. Within this book, you'll find everything you need to tackle the mean streets of the 2000's -- in a game system that combines the best in realistic action and playability.
-----
Sometimes, like Fezzik and Inigo, it's best to "go back to the beginning." It will feel good to go back to using the old site, and return to featuring other things I want to promote as well. At the same time, I am really looking forward to finding some other things to write about here on E.N. World, and I am very open to your suggestions as I explore that.
This weekend finds me at a couple of geek-friendly parties, and running a demo of Prowlers & Paragons: Ultimate Edition for folks. I think I am going to see Arrival, as well.
What are you up to?
Note that I use affiliate links in all my posts as a way to generate additional revenue for my efforts; I make my Picks and other article choices, however, based on the desire to share a wide variety of things with you. Thank you for your support.
Sean Patrick Fannon
Writer & Game Designer: Shaintar, Star Wars, Savage Rifts, much more
Please check out my Patreon and get involved directly with my next projects!
