Funded by a 2015 Kickstarter that raised $179,280 Blades in the Dark, by John Harper and published by Evil Hat Productions, was one of the big hits of 2017 when it released. Now Samjoko Publishing/Fraser Simons have announced a cyberpunk ‘hack’ of the system, Hack the Planet, which will be launching on Kickstarter in March. Samjoko are no strangers to the cyberpunk genre having already published Fraser Simon’s The Veil.
Samjoko's Fraser Simon's had this to say about the forthcoming game:
“Some of you might be excited to learn about another game we will be kickstarting next month called: Hack The Planet. This is a hack of Blades In The Dark by John Harper. You play people on the fringes of society, where a cyberpunk future we typically might see in the genre was halted by changes in our climate.
Much of the landscape was changed due to what became known as Acts of God. As our climate became radicalized it resulted in more than just heavy weather. Earthquakes, tornadoes, rising sea water, and the changes in rainfall—to name a few—resulted in the destabilization of government and banks, and the halting of technological progress on the massive scale we enjoy today (and typically see in the genre) as everything that could be mustered by what was left of governments was hurled at the problem, too late.
The crew types available change the fiction quite a bit. An Akira style biker gang, people who live on an aircraft carrier who dive to the surface to scavenge, mercs, people in a convoy who chase Acts of God for scientific value (think Twister), and vice dealers. When you choose a crew you also choose how you interact with Acts of God, taking a starter move for the crew that represents that choice. Do you kill the weather? Refine it for fuel, or perhaps mine it for data? There is also an overarching clock that tracks when Acts of God hit, making them special jobs that need to be dealt with (and still earn you Credits).
I'll have tables to roll on for creating these. I chose Blades because it maps to this concept so well. The system does what I want it to do, scale and magnitude are already there, and making a crew and playbook is as accessible as Powered by the Apocalypse, for the most part. A lot is tied to a setting... but I think since it's a game where cyberpunk intersects with climate fiction and is so esoteric, it benefits a lot from providing that information and setting to the players.”
Samjoko's Fraser Simon's had this to say about the forthcoming game:
“Some of you might be excited to learn about another game we will be kickstarting next month called: Hack The Planet. This is a hack of Blades In The Dark by John Harper. You play people on the fringes of society, where a cyberpunk future we typically might see in the genre was halted by changes in our climate.
Much of the landscape was changed due to what became known as Acts of God. As our climate became radicalized it resulted in more than just heavy weather. Earthquakes, tornadoes, rising sea water, and the changes in rainfall—to name a few—resulted in the destabilization of government and banks, and the halting of technological progress on the massive scale we enjoy today (and typically see in the genre) as everything that could be mustered by what was left of governments was hurled at the problem, too late.
The crew types available change the fiction quite a bit. An Akira style biker gang, people who live on an aircraft carrier who dive to the surface to scavenge, mercs, people in a convoy who chase Acts of God for scientific value (think Twister), and vice dealers. When you choose a crew you also choose how you interact with Acts of God, taking a starter move for the crew that represents that choice. Do you kill the weather? Refine it for fuel, or perhaps mine it for data? There is also an overarching clock that tracks when Acts of God hit, making them special jobs that need to be dealt with (and still earn you Credits).
I'll have tables to roll on for creating these. I chose Blades because it maps to this concept so well. The system does what I want it to do, scale and magnitude are already there, and making a crew and playbook is as accessible as Powered by the Apocalypse, for the most part. A lot is tied to a setting... but I think since it's a game where cyberpunk intersects with climate fiction and is so esoteric, it benefits a lot from providing that information and setting to the players.”
