Dias Ex Machina to release NeuroSpasta - GSL Cyberpunk

Now that's out of the way, we have not been ignoring NeuroSpasta. In fact, it still receives hours of work every day. We could be enlisting playtesters as early as April. Those interested should contact me.

Meanwhile, I wanted to dive into some of the game concepts we have been working on. Yes, lifepaths from Amethyst are still present though they are significantly downtuned from their fantasy counterparts. Amethyst's were mostly region specific and had benefits as minor as skill increases to major class alterations. The latter is not present in NeuroSpasta and we have mostly just skill bonuses. This is because since we've added a level of complexity already with the Ladders, we didn't want to burden it too much with unnecessary rules.

I can confirm that we have four races for NeuroSpasta: Nugenic, Prosthetic, True-Born, and Virtuant. NeuroSpasta's tagline of "Everything can be Manipulated" translates to every part of the game. This includes our races. Not a single race gains a specific attribute bonus. Knowing that, we were still able to make the four races extremely unique. Virtuant, the hardest one to define, ended up as one of my favorites, not because of their bonuses, but because of what they can do as simulated personalities. Its real "out-of-the-box" thinking. For your homebrew gamers out there, you can always ignore whatever races don't fit your setting.

Here is the drum-roll. By current count, we have 11 single-build classes. Yes, you read right. All of them should fit in the same page count as 5 traditional multi-build classes. When I say "single-build" I don't mean single powers, just not as many powers to choose from at each level as what you would get with fighters or paladins. The variety of character generation comes from the ladders. Ladders are chosen at first level, like classes. You gain all the bonuses from your ladder and your class but while classes are very specific, ladders are much more generic--based more on your attributes than your actual role. Current ladder count stands at six and each one focuses on a specific two-attribute combination (Juggernaut--Strength/Constitution, Runner--Dexterity/Intelligence, etc). Taking these into account, you have 66 combinations to choose from. With that under your belt, a DM could create any science-fiction or modern game using these base rules. To fits these all in the first book, we won't be going into paragon paths or epic destinies or include any opponents or equipment over 11th level, though our classes and ladders will go all the way to 30.

Here is some cool news. The setting is getting a major boost in authenticity. As many who have followed this know, NeuroSpasta is set in an UN-controlled city in the no-too-distant future--a future we are trying to make as realistic and as plausible as possible. To that end, we have brought on board a political and international relations advisor. He's a lawyer and a professor and Pittsburgh’s School of Law, with a specialty in international law with a unique perspective on the dealings of the UN. This level of detail is exactly what we are shooting for with NeuroSpasta and despite our cybernetics and virtual personalities and nanotechnologies; underneath it all is a political landscape of a future which could possibly exist...

...but, you know, probably not...

Me out.

I love it when I drop breadcrumbs. So many questions.

Multiclassing will be the same as in the Player’s Handbook. No reason to suspect that will change. Amethyst features multi-build classes because the paths were very generic (Stalker, Grounder, etc). This was intentional because we wanted to present them in the same vein as fantasy characters. We wanted NeuroSpasta’s to be specific to greater expand the possibilities of more classes later and assist those wanted to homebrew their own games. So here, we have Sniper, Medic, Hacker, and so forth. The expanded possibilities for variety come with ladders. They offer more abilities that compensate for the lack of magic items. We offer six ladders and doing math (tapping the table repeatedly), there are fifteen combinations. Though we have ones like Dex/Int as well as Dex/Str, we don’t have, say, Con/Cha. There are certain combinations that don’t make a lot of sense. Just look the attribute combinations in the PHB for guidance. That is not saying we won’t create an Int/Con ladder later, but we want these to make sense and not waste space for ladders that seem out of place. These are not “Strong Hero” types but “Juggernaughts” and “Born Leaders.”

The system is still in the prototype phase so I can’t go into it just now about this whole thing, but what I will say that ladders offer alternative powers and additional abilities throughout character progression in the same way magic items can. All the powers and features offered reflect the theme of the ladder. Since classes are single-build with only 1 or 2 powers each level, you get additional variety from tapping the ladder. So you may have 1 utility power at 2nd level in your class but two more from your ladder. So when you reach 2nd level, you have a choice of 3 to choose from. This is the limit of the complexity we plan on. There is no reason, whatsoever to convolute it anymore than it has to be.

So to sum up, you choose a ladder and a class. Classes cannot be altered because that’s in the GSL. The only thing you’ll notice is that they are smaller. Ladders have features at different levels and alternate powers and are not based on your role in the group but your basic statline.

And just for those people trying to find holes in our plan:
What about those that just want role-playing over combat? Yup, we thought of that.
What about not having to buy new weapons every second level? Yep, thought of that to.
What about the lack of monsters dishing out cash and prizes? Oh yeah, got that handled.
What about those wielding cybernetics getting more powerful than “fleshies”? Totally on top of that one.
Lack of magical enhancement? Done.

…and people are saying you can’t do anything with the GSL…

The phone’s on the hook, Scott.

Three weeks ago, we finished the ladders--the biggest rule addition we have made to the 4ED ruleset. After our Close Combat Specialist class was finished, I dared my crew to create characters for that single class, but select a different ladder for each one. With our new batch of martial feats, we started up our first Mixed Martial Arts brawl. I drew an octagon on the map and we went one-on-one with our builds.

I played an aging shaolin kung-fu master. Conan played a calculating sambo wrestler, Mike, a massive juggernaught with meaty fists, and Schuyler, an agile taekwondo expert. Yes, there really is all that variety out of single class dependant on your ladder and feats chosen. I won’t say who won (IT WAS MEEE!).

Over the past two weeks, we got all our other classes down. These include Infiltrator, Faceman, Sniper, Gunslinger, and Combat Authority. We merged Engineer into Manipulator, and Driver into Faceman, though you can still choose driver powers via feats. Manipulator is our hacker class. We have been trying to approach the vernacular of NeuroSpasta with a fresh perspective. So gone are the “deckers” and the “riggers” and the “jacking-in” and the “plugging-in”. A few days ago, we got to looking back and reminiscing about older cyberpunk novels and games of the 80s and 90s and snickered at the inaccuracy of their predictions. Although the concepts of an urban sprawl and the privatization of the government as well as the encroaching control of corporations were prophetic, few of them could properly predict the advancement of computerization and the speed in which computers would evolve in processing power and graphic potential. The hardest hit were the role playing games, which endorses truly fantastic and ludicrous concepts for the sake of "being cool", regardless of its logical application. Manipulator is more than just a corporate hacker, as they are able to tap into someone's blackberry, Iphone, or even their brain implants. And no, hacking does not take place on a grid map or a hexboard. There is no graphical representation of it at all. This was a simple decision as the concept of adding a dimension to something which has none seemed against our mission-statement.

So yeah, there could be a functional product by the end of March. Does that mean it will be out sooner? Nope, just more time for testing. The game still won't be released until the end of the year. Hell, we don't even have a logo yet.

My rants against BSG and Caprica aside, I have been a little off the grid the last few days. Conan and I have been picking apart the NeuroSpasta rules left and right, top to bottom. The setting is still lacking in detail and that is going to be the direction I take for the next few weeks. We have played around with a few classes, specifically with Manipulator, which can make or break the game. I know people will object to the fact that our hacking rules do not require a map. There were many reasons for this. For one: it's just not realistic. Two: We don't expect the entire group to create hackers so to be bogged down with a battle only one or two people will play seemed...well...selfish. Most hacking battles take only minutes and occur during physical combat. Of course, battle servers and giant AIs may be different but they still won't measure to the length of full gridmap combat. Manipulators have powers caused "Hacks" and can enhance those with programs and feats that expand one's repertoire.

I can also safely announce the full list of NeuroSpasta classes:

Combat Authority
Faceman
Gunslinger
Heavy
Infiltrator
Man-At-Arms
Manipulator
Sniper
Specialist
Vanguard

This is in addition to the six ladders which can be combined with any of these.

I have stuck by my guns and refused to insert a katana in the game...
...but there will be chainsaw...

NeuroSpasta continues to chug along. Currently, our real dilemma is understanding the financial system. Since we don't have enhancement items save for a handful of skill bonus items, there is simply no place for players to sink their hard-earned money....so we created new sinks. As mentioned, we had cybernetics and a few weapons, armour and programs, but several classes and ladders don't have that option. If you are a prosthetic, you have tonnes of options. If you are a manipulator, you have as well, but classes like faceman or specialist may not have one...so we designed some great ways to spend your cash. For one, we are giving the specialist the capability to control robots and weapon turrets...which is when we realized on top of accidentally recreating games like Gears of War, Mirror's Edge, and Splinter Cell; we have also recreated Team Fortress.

As for the faceman, which also doubles as a driver, we added in vehicles. Now, that may not fully solve the problem since you can buy a nice car at 1st level and never need to upgrade...so we decided to include car modifications. I, being a tuner-nut, should have thought of this earlier, but creds go to Cam and Conan for offering this one up. I have owned eight cars in a very short tenure and three of them have been modified for street legal use, so I should have known better. So even though you can buy an awesome car at first level, you can spend the rest of your level progression making that car perfect, with increases to its manoeuvrability, armour, and hit points.

Another big addition recently is some rule clarifications with our new firearm rules, which will probably go into Amethyst as errata. These are not rule changes, but rules to make what we did make more sense.

Finally, in an effort to showcase what we have done with the game, I decided to create a mini-module everyone can download for free. It will include 5 pre-generated characters using the NeuroSpasta system and place them in a-shot unique adventure outside of the setting's canon. It is currently called, "Lost in Happyland" and will be available in July, well after the FreeRPGDay release of Amethyst. Personally, if this module wasn't canon, I would publish professionally--I think it's that awesome. I have to stop myself for spending TOO much time on it.

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