NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Grendel_Khan" data-source="post: 8470124" data-attributes="member: 7028554">I dismissed Hard Wired Island because of a single preview image that felt like it wasn't the tone I was looking for. But looking at the description on Drivethru it seems very cool. And this rundown on how it approaches cyberpunk is great:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Capitalism? No thanks. Good cyberpunk is anti-capitalist. It's about how technology without ethics can make social inequality worse. The wealthy use it to cement their power and perpetuate the status quo, while marginalized communities are kept that way. The PCs want to use it to break the current system. They work against their enemies, not for them.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cyberpunk should be relevant. It is a study of where our society could go in the coming years. The issues faced by people in a cyberpunk setting should have some relevance to issues faced by the audience, even if they're not the same. Retro future, present problems.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cybernetics are not inherently good or bad. Like most tech, what matters is how it's used. In Hard Wired Island, the problem is that cybernetics often serves the needs of capital rather than people; Any alienating or dysphoric effects come from being reshaped into some corporation's property. There is no mechanic that suggests wearing a prosthetic makes you less human, or prone to mental illness; instead, the tradeoff of augments is adding to your financial burdens.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cyberpunk is not just an aesthetic. Cyberpunk shouldn't just be about the neon-lit adventures of a group of trenchcoat futurists as they amass wealth and power through violence. Hard Wired Island is about a group of marginalized people using technology to try to change the status quo.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Many perspectives. Good cyberpunk examines how technology and power intersect in many different communities. As an orbital space station, the city of Grand Cross can and should include perspectives from all over the world. The setting includes cyborgs and androids, but they're not stand-ins for minorities; they have their own identities and issues, which can change depending on how they intersect with other things.</li> </ul>If anything, that breakdown just reinforces my sense that cyberpunk is sort of a time capsule subgenre without a ton of fresh gameplay options. But clearly HWI gets what it's about. Definitely going to check it out. Thanks [USER=7017978]@BrokenTwin[/USER] !</blockquote>

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