Axon Punk: Overdrive has just launched on Kickstarter. Combining hip hop and classic cyberpunk the project aims to “synthesize a tabletop roleplaying game where players improvise, collaborate, and develop a community together to oppose corporate oppression in the gritty megacities of 2085.”
In Axon Punk, you and your friends play as a team of hackers, AI, engineers, cyborgs, and others that are trying to be forces of change as the great war of global inequality rages on the streets around you. The game’s theme, rules, art, and pacing are heavily inspired by hip hop and classic cyberpunk
In the gritty megacities of 2085, the streets are full of music. You can feel the pulse, the beat, the rhythm of people and buildings pressing in on you under the gray sky. Everything changed when affordable digital-neural interfaces became marketable to the public and humanity expanded into the Net, a globally accessible 3D, internet interface. Fueled by unimaginable new power and advertising access on the Net, international megacorporations called Zaibatsu have surpassed the power of national governments in most countries. After two brutal cyberwars ravaged the world, the corporations divided up the planet and built walled-off Corporate Sectors to protect themselves from future uprisings. Everything outside of the Corporate walls is considered a “Civilian Zone.” Comprised of overlapping and primarily anarchistic Communities, the vast majority of the world’s populace lives in some form of a Civilian Zone.
Community Creation in the Megacities: The complete game is tied together by grounding the story in the Community that the player's characters live in in the megacity. Players are able to add their own ideas to their Community and see how their choices during play cause the Community to change over time. Heavily focusing on the local community in the game gives play a grass-roots feeling that greatly enhances the hip hop flavor that is a vital component of Axon Punk.
We have constructed a simple, but highly engaging, Community creation process inspired by games like Lame Mage Production’s Microscope and Kingdom as well as procedural environment generation in video games. Players in the game can build their own Community at the beginning of a campaign, or they can use the pre-made community the will be included in the Axon Punk Gamebook for one-shot games. Based on the choices the players make, their Community will produce missions, give rewards, and evolve over time – or it could be consumed by the chaos and anarchy caused by futuristic corporate oppression.
In addition to the Tabletop Rulebook the campaign is also offering The Gonzo Documents, a collection of stories set in the world of Axon Punk and possibly also an audio collection of tracks if the stretch goal is met.
The Axon Punk: Overdrive Kickstarter is running until Thursday 18th May.
In Axon Punk, you and your friends play as a team of hackers, AI, engineers, cyborgs, and others that are trying to be forces of change as the great war of global inequality rages on the streets around you. The game’s theme, rules, art, and pacing are heavily inspired by hip hop and classic cyberpunk
In the gritty megacities of 2085, the streets are full of music. You can feel the pulse, the beat, the rhythm of people and buildings pressing in on you under the gray sky. Everything changed when affordable digital-neural interfaces became marketable to the public and humanity expanded into the Net, a globally accessible 3D, internet interface. Fueled by unimaginable new power and advertising access on the Net, international megacorporations called Zaibatsu have surpassed the power of national governments in most countries. After two brutal cyberwars ravaged the world, the corporations divided up the planet and built walled-off Corporate Sectors to protect themselves from future uprisings. Everything outside of the Corporate walls is considered a “Civilian Zone.” Comprised of overlapping and primarily anarchistic Communities, the vast majority of the world’s populace lives in some form of a Civilian Zone.
Community Creation in the Megacities: The complete game is tied together by grounding the story in the Community that the player's characters live in in the megacity. Players are able to add their own ideas to their Community and see how their choices during play cause the Community to change over time. Heavily focusing on the local community in the game gives play a grass-roots feeling that greatly enhances the hip hop flavor that is a vital component of Axon Punk.
We have constructed a simple, but highly engaging, Community creation process inspired by games like Lame Mage Production’s Microscope and Kingdom as well as procedural environment generation in video games. Players in the game can build their own Community at the beginning of a campaign, or they can use the pre-made community the will be included in the Axon Punk Gamebook for one-shot games. Based on the choices the players make, their Community will produce missions, give rewards, and evolve over time – or it could be consumed by the chaos and anarchy caused by futuristic corporate oppression.
In addition to the Tabletop Rulebook the campaign is also offering The Gonzo Documents, a collection of stories set in the world of Axon Punk and possibly also an audio collection of tracks if the stretch goal is met.
The Axon Punk: Overdrive Kickstarter is running until Thursday 18th May.
