d20 Cyberscape
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d20 Cyberscape
By Owen K. C. Stephens (Additional Design: Rodney Thompson; Editor: Tammie Webb Ryan)
Published by Wizards of the Coast
96 Page Softcover (no Open Game Content)
First printing, September 2005
= DISCLAIMER =
This is not a playtest review.
d20 Cyberscape is intended to be used with d20 Future, which is intended to be used with d20 Modern. I own both of these books and am familiar with them, having played a few d20 Modern games, and planned a few d20 Future games.
= PURPOSE =
I did purchase d20 Cyberscape in order to use it in a forthcoming game, also using d20 Future, set in the Star*Drive setting from the original Alternity game, rather than the skeletal framework of the Star*Drive setting in d20 Future. My hope was for material to allow me to modify the d20 Future cybernetics rules to allow more fine-grained detail and control of cybernetics, and to allow me to emulate Star*Drive's cykosis rules. Therefore, this review comes from a standpoint of examining the rules of this product, their modularity, and their ease of modification.
= DESCRIPTION =
"This new rules supplement provides everything players and Gamemasters need to create and run campaigns featuring cybernetics in the post-modern realm of cyberpunk fiction. Building on the d20 Future cybernetic rules, d20 Cyberscape includes rules for installing cybernetics and playing cyborgs, as well as new advanced classes and enhancements. d20 Cyberscape also features rules for magical and psionic cybernetics and virtual reality networks." - Wizards of the Coast product page
= CONTENTS =
Cover: The cover is in the style of most d20 Modern/d20 Future products, with central art by Kalman Andrasofszky (misspelled as Androsofszky in the credits page). Instead of the usual "brushed-metal" look exhibited by most d20 Modern products, d20 Cyberscape follows the lead of d20 Past and d20 Apocalypse in changing the background color scheme; this book's choice is a very pale green covered with lines of very faint grey binary zeros and ones.
The piece depicts three characters, much like other d20 Modern/d20 Future products. All three appear to be connected to a Lawnmower Man-like cybernetics rig, and all are wearing form-fitting suits. The first is the seemingly-required "hawt Asian chick" in a green suit, wielding a katana seemingly made of energy. The second, standing in the front, is a solid-looking man in a red suit, with red hair in a widow's peak, sideburns, and a goatee. If you've seen Kalman's art, you've seen many men looking like this. The third character, in a purple suit, is something I'm not used to seeing Kalman draw: a smaller, wiry man. He has a visor covering his eyes, and is wielding a pair of handguns also seemingly made from energy.
If you like Kalman's art, you'll probably like this piece. If you dislike his art, this piece might be tame enough for you to enjoy. I happen to like his art, so I wasn't disappointed.
I had one issue with the cover, though. Unlike all other d20 Modern/d20 Future products with a "d20" in the title, the spine title on this book merely reads "Cyberscape". It's a minor quibble, but when this is clearly intended in the same line as d20 Past and d20 Apocalypse, it's still an inconsistency.
First: 3 pages. Immediately inside the cover is a title page containing just the title, author, and silhouettes of the three cover characters. In here, we see the title in this book's standard title font, including the "d20", which is exactly how it should have appeared on the spine. Ah well. In any case, this page is completely unnecessary, except as required to start the table of contents on a right-side page. The copyright page comes next, followed by the one-page table of contents. The TOC is quite complete (though perhaps somewhat padded), as would be expected from a 96-page product.
Introduction: 2 pages. This section contains the usual flavor text and intent of the book, as well as a single paragraph about which d20 games it is intended for use in. It does note that the cybernetics rules can also be added to D&D. Following this is a one and a half page examination of what cybernetics exist at what progress levels, starting with PL 0-1 (leather cap over stump of limb) and PL 2 (peg legs, crude metal hooks). This shows that, like d20 Future, this book counts "cybernetics" as including prosthetics. This list is significantly expanded from d20 Future's one column of similar information.
Chapter 1: Cybernetics Rules. 10 pages. This chapter contains four sets of rules for cybernetic "degree": Standard (same as d20 Future's default rules except for the addition of body area slot maxima), Unlimited (higher body area slot maxima, no penalties for exceeding maximum total devices), Piece of Your Soul (reminiscent of Shadowrun, each piece of cybergear costs a small amount of XP), and Superspy (as unlimited, but with cybernetics only available through feats or class abilities). In addition, these rules are easy to mix and match.
One problem with this section: Body area slot maxima are a new rule, but no guidelines are given for adding body slot locations to cybergear present in d20 Future.
Example: For my Star*Drive game, I'll be using the Piece of Your Soul rules, to mimic Alternity's skill cost for cybernetics use. Small pieces of cybernetics that the players and I agree would not require training to use, and provide minimal benefits (ID Chip, Luminous Skin (a.k.a. Alternity's BioArt and BioWatch), Shepherd Chip, Cosmetic Implants and Nasal Filter), would not incur any cost. However, I will be allowing the Unlimited maximum numbers of slots per body area, and allowing cybergear to exceed those limits at double cost. Finally, because the standard negative effects can't simulate cykosis, I will have to import Alternity's cykosis rules, applying them to those characters who exceed the slot limits.
Following the rules models, this chapter contains seven feats (three of which are reprinted from d20 Future: Craft Cybernetics, Cybernetic Surgery and Cybertake, and one of which, Cybernetic Weapon Proficiency, is more limiting than the existing d20 Future rules, which allowed proficiency in the weapon to apply to cybernetic mounts) and three advanced classes:
* Bionic Agent, which is basically a cybered superspy. The flavor text can be ignored, and the class skill list altered, to make any kind of cybernetic specialist.
* Cyberwarrior, whose cybernetics "grow" into new cybergear inside them. This doesn't fit how cybergear works in most settings, but can be an interesting concept for a character like a Dark*Matter sandman, or a Star*Drive mechalus (a.k.a. aleerin in d20 Future).
* Implant Hack, a cybered specialist in cybernetic surgery, who also gains some skills for forcible removal of cybernetics.
These are interesting concepts, if a bit overly focused for advanced classes. I'd have preferred to see them designed as feat trees, with more advanced abilities relegated to an actual prestige class.
Chapter 2: Standard Cybernetics. 22 pages. This chapter will be the meat of the book for most people. The first few pages detail what this book calls The Gadget System, which is a way of customizing cybernetics. It includes perks for cybernetic devices which increase the Purchase DC while changing how the cybernetics rules function, such as Ultralight Composition (lighter than the organ the gear is replacing, reduces weight by 10% and provides +1 on Jump, Climb and Swim checks), Miniaturized (takes up one less slot, minimum 0), Booby Trapped (has a severe detrimental effect if separated from the owner and picked up by someone else), and the most useful: Integrated Cybernetic Devices (allows you to combine the function of two or more devices with only one implant device's slot cost).
In keeping with the use of Replacements from d20 Future, this book includes two prostheses that book failed to include, through focusing on PL 5 and up: Hook and Peg Leg. However, the Replacements section's description key fails to list the Location paragraph (though all of the description key information, including the missing Location information, is repeated for Enhancements in the next column on the same page).
The Enhancement section is where the majority of this book's cybergear resides. It is unfortunately organized, separated by category (General, Limb, Head, Torso), then sorted by PL. While d20 Future also sorted cybergear by PL, the separation into category makes finding a particular piece of cybergear more difficult, especially with the lack of an index, or even a list of the cybergear included in each category. The category titles are similarly difficult to pick out from the standard text, being in the same font as individual cybergear names, and only slightly larger. Despite the organizational issues, the cybergear included is quite well designed, with a flavor text quotes included after several pieces of gear.
Sadly, the only method of limiting the power of a cybernetic device remains its Purchase DC and the PL it becomes available.
Next is a pair of cybernetic devices that limit a character (the Gimper, -4 to Str and Dex, and the Personality Implant, which actually replaces a character's mentality with a new one), both of which are nasty penalties to assign a character, but make sense in a game world that includes cybernetics. One quibble is that these items, by the Piece of Your Soul rules, will cost the recipient XP.
A few pieces of equipment related to cybernetics follow, taking up less than one and one-half column of text.
Chapter 3: Computer Networks. 22 pages. This chapter is an expanded version of the d20 Future "VRNet" web enhancement, still available here. It examines computer nets by Progress Level, then details the structure of the VRNet. While most of this part of the chapter is descriptive, lacking concrete rules, it is vital and useful to know the overall structure of the net. It also remains relatively generic, and can be easily renamed to Star*Drive's "Grid", or any other mega-net you need for your setting. It includes a sample Node, a virtual hotspot named after a famous hacker.
Following this is a crunch-heavy section on the virtual user representations called "Avatars", including rules for combat between avatars, especially those places where avatar combat differs from standard combat (e.g. Computer Use, rather than Strength, controls a Bull Rush).
About a page of VRNet Hazards come next, including rules for being disconnected, hacked, mindscraped (heavily Int-damaged, and possibly Con-damaged, by a mindscrape program), snared (trapped in a single location as your avatar) or spiked (traced to point-of-origin).
VRNet hardware and software comes next, with the bulk of this section being descriptions of various programs available. One item completely missing from these is a Purchase DC for any programs; all programs are assumed to be written by the character using them.
A pair of variant rules for computer networks follow, though both are somewhat skeletal, much like the original cybernetics rules in d20 Future.
Finally, this chapter includes another advanced class: the Cybernaut, a specialist in the VRNet, with several avatar-enhancing abilities.
Chapter 4: Alternate Cybernetics. 14 pages. This chapter contains some creative combinations of cybernetics and other rulesets, including two pages of FX Cybernetics, a combination of cybergear and magic. Types of FX Cybernetics listed are Golemtech (grafts of golem parts that duplicate standard futuristic cybernetics rules) and Bone Runes (the effect of a magic item transferred into a subject's bones).
Nanites and nanotechnology are given the next two and a half pages, including additional nanoaugmenters to those included in d20 Future, but not changing the nanite rules themselves.
Necrotic implants are similar to standard cybernetics, but come from grafting undead parts onto a character. Three pages of example necrotic implants follow.
The last form of alternate cybernetics is wetware. Wetware covers bio-organic cybernetics and implants, and includes five pages of information, which includes diseases and poisons specific to wetware and wetware-using characters.
Chapter 5: CyberRave Campaign. 23 pages. This last and largest chapter includes a general campaign skeleton, in much the same fashion as those campaign skeleton chapters in d20 Past and d20 Apocalypse. However, since this book only contains one sample campaign, it is fleshed out more significantly than those books' campaign models.
The "Rules" section includes a new rule, Gray Wealth, representing nonstandard sources of purchasing goods, as well as including details of cybernetics costs.
The "Factions" section details how Department-7 from d20 Modern, and the factions and organizations in the d20 Menace Manual can be used in CyberRave, and includes a pair of new factions for CyberRave:
By Owen K. C. Stephens (Additional Design: Rodney Thompson; Editor: Tammie Webb Ryan)
Published by Wizards of the Coast
96 Page Softcover (no Open Game Content)
First printing, September 2005
= DISCLAIMER =
This is not a playtest review.
d20 Cyberscape is intended to be used with d20 Future, which is intended to be used with d20 Modern. I own both of these books and am familiar with them, having played a few d20 Modern games, and planned a few d20 Future games.
= PURPOSE =
I did purchase d20 Cyberscape in order to use it in a forthcoming game, also using d20 Future, set in the Star*Drive setting from the original Alternity game, rather than the skeletal framework of the Star*Drive setting in d20 Future. My hope was for material to allow me to modify the d20 Future cybernetics rules to allow more fine-grained detail and control of cybernetics, and to allow me to emulate Star*Drive's cykosis rules. Therefore, this review comes from a standpoint of examining the rules of this product, their modularity, and their ease of modification.
= DESCRIPTION =
"This new rules supplement provides everything players and Gamemasters need to create and run campaigns featuring cybernetics in the post-modern realm of cyberpunk fiction. Building on the d20 Future cybernetic rules, d20 Cyberscape includes rules for installing cybernetics and playing cyborgs, as well as new advanced classes and enhancements. d20 Cyberscape also features rules for magical and psionic cybernetics and virtual reality networks." - Wizards of the Coast product page
= CONTENTS =
Cover: The cover is in the style of most d20 Modern/d20 Future products, with central art by Kalman Andrasofszky (misspelled as Androsofszky in the credits page). Instead of the usual "brushed-metal" look exhibited by most d20 Modern products, d20 Cyberscape follows the lead of d20 Past and d20 Apocalypse in changing the background color scheme; this book's choice is a very pale green covered with lines of very faint grey binary zeros and ones.
The piece depicts three characters, much like other d20 Modern/d20 Future products. All three appear to be connected to a Lawnmower Man-like cybernetics rig, and all are wearing form-fitting suits. The first is the seemingly-required "hawt Asian chick" in a green suit, wielding a katana seemingly made of energy. The second, standing in the front, is a solid-looking man in a red suit, with red hair in a widow's peak, sideburns, and a goatee. If you've seen Kalman's art, you've seen many men looking like this. The third character, in a purple suit, is something I'm not used to seeing Kalman draw: a smaller, wiry man. He has a visor covering his eyes, and is wielding a pair of handguns also seemingly made from energy.
If you like Kalman's art, you'll probably like this piece. If you dislike his art, this piece might be tame enough for you to enjoy. I happen to like his art, so I wasn't disappointed.
I had one issue with the cover, though. Unlike all other d20 Modern/d20 Future products with a "d20" in the title, the spine title on this book merely reads "Cyberscape". It's a minor quibble, but when this is clearly intended in the same line as d20 Past and d20 Apocalypse, it's still an inconsistency.
First: 3 pages. Immediately inside the cover is a title page containing just the title, author, and silhouettes of the three cover characters. In here, we see the title in this book's standard title font, including the "d20", which is exactly how it should have appeared on the spine. Ah well. In any case, this page is completely unnecessary, except as required to start the table of contents on a right-side page. The copyright page comes next, followed by the one-page table of contents. The TOC is quite complete (though perhaps somewhat padded), as would be expected from a 96-page product.
Introduction: 2 pages. This section contains the usual flavor text and intent of the book, as well as a single paragraph about which d20 games it is intended for use in. It does note that the cybernetics rules can also be added to D&D. Following this is a one and a half page examination of what cybernetics exist at what progress levels, starting with PL 0-1 (leather cap over stump of limb) and PL 2 (peg legs, crude metal hooks). This shows that, like d20 Future, this book counts "cybernetics" as including prosthetics. This list is significantly expanded from d20 Future's one column of similar information.
Chapter 1: Cybernetics Rules. 10 pages. This chapter contains four sets of rules for cybernetic "degree": Standard (same as d20 Future's default rules except for the addition of body area slot maxima), Unlimited (higher body area slot maxima, no penalties for exceeding maximum total devices), Piece of Your Soul (reminiscent of Shadowrun, each piece of cybergear costs a small amount of XP), and Superspy (as unlimited, but with cybernetics only available through feats or class abilities). In addition, these rules are easy to mix and match.
One problem with this section: Body area slot maxima are a new rule, but no guidelines are given for adding body slot locations to cybergear present in d20 Future.
Example: For my Star*Drive game, I'll be using the Piece of Your Soul rules, to mimic Alternity's skill cost for cybernetics use. Small pieces of cybernetics that the players and I agree would not require training to use, and provide minimal benefits (ID Chip, Luminous Skin (a.k.a. Alternity's BioArt and BioWatch), Shepherd Chip, Cosmetic Implants and Nasal Filter), would not incur any cost. However, I will be allowing the Unlimited maximum numbers of slots per body area, and allowing cybergear to exceed those limits at double cost. Finally, because the standard negative effects can't simulate cykosis, I will have to import Alternity's cykosis rules, applying them to those characters who exceed the slot limits.
Following the rules models, this chapter contains seven feats (three of which are reprinted from d20 Future: Craft Cybernetics, Cybernetic Surgery and Cybertake, and one of which, Cybernetic Weapon Proficiency, is more limiting than the existing d20 Future rules, which allowed proficiency in the weapon to apply to cybernetic mounts) and three advanced classes:
* Bionic Agent, which is basically a cybered superspy. The flavor text can be ignored, and the class skill list altered, to make any kind of cybernetic specialist.
* Cyberwarrior, whose cybernetics "grow" into new cybergear inside them. This doesn't fit how cybergear works in most settings, but can be an interesting concept for a character like a Dark*Matter sandman, or a Star*Drive mechalus (a.k.a. aleerin in d20 Future).
* Implant Hack, a cybered specialist in cybernetic surgery, who also gains some skills for forcible removal of cybernetics.
These are interesting concepts, if a bit overly focused for advanced classes. I'd have preferred to see them designed as feat trees, with more advanced abilities relegated to an actual prestige class.
Chapter 2: Standard Cybernetics. 22 pages. This chapter will be the meat of the book for most people. The first few pages detail what this book calls The Gadget System, which is a way of customizing cybernetics. It includes perks for cybernetic devices which increase the Purchase DC while changing how the cybernetics rules function, such as Ultralight Composition (lighter than the organ the gear is replacing, reduces weight by 10% and provides +1 on Jump, Climb and Swim checks), Miniaturized (takes up one less slot, minimum 0), Booby Trapped (has a severe detrimental effect if separated from the owner and picked up by someone else), and the most useful: Integrated Cybernetic Devices (allows you to combine the function of two or more devices with only one implant device's slot cost).
In keeping with the use of Replacements from d20 Future, this book includes two prostheses that book failed to include, through focusing on PL 5 and up: Hook and Peg Leg. However, the Replacements section's description key fails to list the Location paragraph (though all of the description key information, including the missing Location information, is repeated for Enhancements in the next column on the same page).
The Enhancement section is where the majority of this book's cybergear resides. It is unfortunately organized, separated by category (General, Limb, Head, Torso), then sorted by PL. While d20 Future also sorted cybergear by PL, the separation into category makes finding a particular piece of cybergear more difficult, especially with the lack of an index, or even a list of the cybergear included in each category. The category titles are similarly difficult to pick out from the standard text, being in the same font as individual cybergear names, and only slightly larger. Despite the organizational issues, the cybergear included is quite well designed, with a flavor text quotes included after several pieces of gear.
Sadly, the only method of limiting the power of a cybernetic device remains its Purchase DC and the PL it becomes available.
Next is a pair of cybernetic devices that limit a character (the Gimper, -4 to Str and Dex, and the Personality Implant, which actually replaces a character's mentality with a new one), both of which are nasty penalties to assign a character, but make sense in a game world that includes cybernetics. One quibble is that these items, by the Piece of Your Soul rules, will cost the recipient XP.
A few pieces of equipment related to cybernetics follow, taking up less than one and one-half column of text.
Chapter 3: Computer Networks. 22 pages. This chapter is an expanded version of the d20 Future "VRNet" web enhancement, still available here. It examines computer nets by Progress Level, then details the structure of the VRNet. While most of this part of the chapter is descriptive, lacking concrete rules, it is vital and useful to know the overall structure of the net. It also remains relatively generic, and can be easily renamed to Star*Drive's "Grid", or any other mega-net you need for your setting. It includes a sample Node, a virtual hotspot named after a famous hacker.
Following this is a crunch-heavy section on the virtual user representations called "Avatars", including rules for combat between avatars, especially those places where avatar combat differs from standard combat (e.g. Computer Use, rather than Strength, controls a Bull Rush).
About a page of VRNet Hazards come next, including rules for being disconnected, hacked, mindscraped (heavily Int-damaged, and possibly Con-damaged, by a mindscrape program), snared (trapped in a single location as your avatar) or spiked (traced to point-of-origin).
VRNet hardware and software comes next, with the bulk of this section being descriptions of various programs available. One item completely missing from these is a Purchase DC for any programs; all programs are assumed to be written by the character using them.
A pair of variant rules for computer networks follow, though both are somewhat skeletal, much like the original cybernetics rules in d20 Future.
Finally, this chapter includes another advanced class: the Cybernaut, a specialist in the VRNet, with several avatar-enhancing abilities.
Chapter 4: Alternate Cybernetics. 14 pages. This chapter contains some creative combinations of cybernetics and other rulesets, including two pages of FX Cybernetics, a combination of cybergear and magic. Types of FX Cybernetics listed are Golemtech (grafts of golem parts that duplicate standard futuristic cybernetics rules) and Bone Runes (the effect of a magic item transferred into a subject's bones).
Nanites and nanotechnology are given the next two and a half pages, including additional nanoaugmenters to those included in d20 Future, but not changing the nanite rules themselves.
Necrotic implants are similar to standard cybernetics, but come from grafting undead parts onto a character. Three pages of example necrotic implants follow.
The last form of alternate cybernetics is wetware. Wetware covers bio-organic cybernetics and implants, and includes five pages of information, which includes diseases and poisons specific to wetware and wetware-using characters.
Chapter 5: CyberRave Campaign. 23 pages. This last and largest chapter includes a general campaign skeleton, in much the same fashion as those campaign skeleton chapters in d20 Past and d20 Apocalypse. However, since this book only contains one sample campaign, it is fleshed out more significantly than those books' campaign models.
The "Rules" section includes a new rule, Gray Wealth, representing nonstandard sources of purchasing goods, as well as including details of cybernetics costs.
The "Factions" section details how Department-7 from d20 Modern, and the factions and organizations in the d20 Menace Manual can be used in CyberRave, and includes a pair of new factions for CyberRave:
- ThinkBest (the dominant corporation in mental augmentation and computer implantation cybernetics), which includes a sample member (vice president and ex-noderunner Alec DuFrei) and a Branch Office and Research Compound with location keys and descriptions.
- Steel Cross (a small independent cybernetics clinic), which includes a sample security guard and the Clinic itself with location key and descriptions.
The last few pages include a list of advanced classes appropriate to the setting, as well as a new advanced class: the Cyber Raver, which is a combination street tough and cybernetics specialist (think Shadowrun's Street Samurai), four starting occupations appropriate to CyberRave (and very nice ones, too: the Corporate Zombie, the Insider (basically a facilitator who knows everyone), the Noderunner, and the No-Man (Alternity's "Invisible", a person who has removed himself from, or never been on, the corporate records). One feat is included, Street Broker, to affect gray wealth.
The last page and a half is titled "Alternate CyberRave Settings", and includes guidelines for playing CyberRave in PL 5 and PL 7 (including combination campaigns for four of the d20 Future campaign models: CyberRave/Bughunters, CyberRave/Genetech, CyberRave/Star Law and CyberRave/Wasteland). The final alternate setting is called "CyberRave Arcana", and should just be called Shadowrun, if copyright concerns didn't apply.
= ERRORS =
There are only a few stat blocks present in this book, but I'll review them for mechanical errors.- Sir Pixilot, Avatar: Unless the rules on avatar statistics are unclear, which is entirely likely, Sir Pixilot's damage should be 1d8. The rules do not mention Int bonus applying to damage rolls, though that is a logical extension. Not being autonomous, the avatar should have the same Allegiances as its creator. Saves should be Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +3, as neither the character nor the avatar has any apparent means of gaining an extra +1 to all saves.
- Typical Agent: No apparent errors.
- Alec DuFrei, ThinkBest Vice President: Alec's hit points (42) were clearly generated by (12*3.5), rather than the standard hero class NPC hit point rules. His Massive Damage Threshold has an extra 5 points, and should be 18. His Reputation bonus is increased by his Background, and should be +9. He appears to have 12 skill points unspent, though inefficient skill purchasing could account for that. He is missing Simple Weapons Proficiency (all base classes get this, though). His Charismatic hero talents are listed as "Fast hero" talents. An integrated VRNet Rig in cybernetics is not available without a PL 8 neural jack (the default for CyberRave is PL 7), though it makes sense in the setting.
- Tavis Ironhand, Steel Cross Security: Unlike Alec, Tavis is an Ordinary, so his hit point calculation ((5*5.5)+10+(5*3.5)+10) is correct. His baton should be listed in Full Attack as well as normal Attack, and his laser pistol should be listed in Attack as well as Full Attack. He appears to have 10 skill points unspent, though inefficient skill purchasing could account for that.
These errors aren't major, and simply reinforce the rule that you should always double-check stat blocks.
= ANALYSIS =
Analysis Methodology: The individual category ratings included here are focused, and do not add up to my final product rating, which tends to be based on my conclusion and a more synergistic evaluation.
Basics: (Does this product accomplish what it is intended to?) This book is an extensive look at cybernetics and computers, in a variety of settings, including rules for the majority of common situations and devices, and efficient rules for creating more or less detailed situations and devices. Due to its narrow focus and efficient content handling, this book definitely accomplishes its intended purpose. 5/5.
Crunch: (Does this product provide useful mechanical rules?) With five advanced classes, nineteen pages of cybernetic devices, and the extremely useful Gadget System, not to mention the expanded computer rules (and inclusion of an updated version of the VRNet web enhancement), more extreme cybernetics concepts including magic and nanites, and four nice futuristic starting occupations, this book contains a respectable amount of crunch for a 96-page book, without being merely a book of rules. That said, it retains a very narrow (albeit unavoidably so) focus. 4/5.
Detail: (Is this product internally consistent with its own and its parent ruleset?) While this book changes a few rules from d20 Future, the lack of detail in that book actually encourages these kinds of clarifications. As regards itself, this book is completely internally consistent. 4/5.
Environment: (Does this product fit the setting it is intended to?) As d20 Cyberscape is modular, intended to fit most d20 Future settings, it does tend to be more generic, and less setting-specific. That said, it includes many notes and tidbits on the default CyberRave campaign setting included in the book, as well as a lot of material for campaigns other than CyberRave. 4/5.
Fluff: (Does this product provide the feel it is intended to?) The frequent inclusion of moderate-length quotes, combined with the consistent art style, accomplishes the task of providing a consistent feel for a cybernetics-based campaign. 4/5.
Graphics: (Is this product's art consistent and well-done?) The majority of the interior art is done by Grafiksismik's Djief. The book is surprisingly art-heavy for the quantity of information present in the book, and that goes a long way towards helping convey the book's feel. While Daniel Falconer's single piece of art, an agent, stands out from the rest of the style, it conveys what it is intended to convey (the variety of forms available for agents). Overall, the art is consistent and well-done, and includes some innovative angles and poses. 4/5.
= OPEN GAME CONTENT =
Like the majority of Wizards of the Coast products, there is no open content in this book.
= CONCLUSION =
If you're using cybernetics in a d20 game, this book vastly expands the material available in d20 Future, and as such becomes indispensable. However, there are significantly better cybernetics rulesets in existence (the best so far being Alternity's system, on which this system appears to be very loosely based). The lack of major rules gaffes and typographical errors is helpful, allowing the book to be used as-is with little to no alteration necessary, and the included setting skeleton is playable, while being broad enough to encompass many different play styles. While I like this book a lot, and it will see quite a bit of use in my games, I rate this book about 3.75 out of 5 (rounded to 4), given the better tools available.
Graf
Explorer
After I realized there wasn’t much on d20 Cyberscape I was going to write a really good review like John Cooper or spider_minion did of d20 Apocalypse. But I realized that I’m not that organized and I’m writing my review to say something. I’ve tried to be fair but this is what I have to say.
Product Summary: A workman like splatbook combining existing DnD/d20 rules with some cyberpunk flavor.
People who…
will love it: Someone who wants a d20 version of Cyberpunk*
should find it useful: Somebody who wants a cyberware gear book
may be disappointed: people who are looking for a creative or innovative new product (i.e. d20 Apocalypse). If you’ve played any 3.0+ DnD you’ve seen most of the mechanics and if you played Cyberpunk/Shadowrun you’ve seen everything else
*=with the caveat that nothing addresses the fundamental dynamic of implanting techonogy in your body from Cyberpunk/Shadowrun (i.e. that implanting cyberware in your body does damage to your mind until you ultimately go nuts/lose your soul/die)
High points: The text blurbs show an interesting possibly fun world trying to crawl its way out.
Cyberrave “fixes” some of the problems of the Cyberpunk setting
The advanced classes are both creative and easily adjusted to fit different campaigns
The grammar/sentence structure edits are good (content organization & coherency is another matter)
Low points: The Netrunning/Decking (or as they call it Noderunning) chapter
Weak organization (with no index) suggest DMs and players will be tearing their hair out looking for things; cybergear is split into two mostly arbitrary chapters and the system for organizing the gear itself is terrible
The author(s) seem to be incapable of writing anything “dark”. For better or for worse a lot of cyberpunk/futurism in literature/cinema/role-playing games involve the trade off between inhuman power and the loss of self/empathy/humanity. At first blush it would seem like the authors were going to have optional rules supporting that style of play (a lot of optional rules have “spooky” sounding names) but nope. Both the gear and the Cyberrave setting suffer from bloat (and the aforementioned the noderunning chapter is mostly bloat); in a big book this wouldn’t be an issue but you would expect that in such a small book they would have more to say
Points of confusion: The cyberware chapter indicated that all the cyberware from d20 would be included and updated. That isn’t the case as each of the individual little headings goes on to talk about specific parts of d20 Future that aren’t excerpted. Presumably the cyberware from d20 that wasn’t included needs things like body locations to work but that information isn’t included in the book.
****Introduction****
A workman like attempt to talk about cyberware in d20 Modern rules set. An overview of the Progress Level (PL) system that they use to organize the book; basically how developed technology/cyberware/etc has to be to allow for certain implants. The PL system would more properly be called a Power Level system to my mind. In a role-playing game context this works; however it leads to incongruities. For example: getting a headphone and a microphone installed in your head so you can talk to your buddies (AKA Mindlink) is the same power level as jet boosters built into your legs Fly in a role-playing game but its hard to see how they require the same level of technical advancement.
****Chapter 1****
Alternative cybernetic rules systems, some feats and three advanced classes.
The cybernetic rules cover limiting or not limiting the amount of cyberware somebody can stick on them in a few simple ways.
One frustrating omission
There is no rule or rules set in the book that has substantive penalties for putting cyberware into your body. I am not saying that all games involving cyberware should have those kinds of things, but the lack of rules modules that make taking implanting cyberware into your body (even a little bit) a bad thing is a bit weird. (They do have a rule balance system that can prevent “over installation”, but it works like the negative level system for holding evil weapons in DnD).
Perhaps there are cyber-psychosis rules in d20Future but if not it’s a big oversight. Even Shadowrun (known for people parsing their essence score down the last fraction) had the implied threat of destruction of your soul (and irreversible death) if you put two much ’ware into your body.
The feats give people the ability craft cyberware, get extra cybernetic gear and lower the chance that their cyber gear will be hit by someone targeting it.
Two of the advanced classes offered (Bionic Agent and Cyberwarrior) are close in spirit to the newer versions of PrCs that have been making an appearance in receive DnD games. They offer interesting flavorful text and explanation for the class but the underlying rules would actually support a broad range of characters if the fluff is filed off. Unfortunately none of this is really properly explained so you have to read the classes fairly closely to see how you could file off the serial numbers (i.e separate fluff from crunch). The other class is more of an NPC class (Implant Hack).
Bionic Agent – crunch: a skill focused cyberware using character, as they advance they receive new feats and bonuses to cyberware enhanced actions and attacks made with cyber weaponry. (So if they have cyber eyes that grant a bonus to spot they get another class bonus on top of that; bonuses to hit and damage with cyberweaponry etc.).
– fluff: James Bond as a cyborg. Possibly a government or corporate agent who was severely injured and rebuilt to be a ‘borg. An agent who is employed by some large institution (corp, government, etc) could be rebuilt with new cyber systems for each mission.
Cyberwarrior – crunch: Best BAB cyberware focused character; receive extra implants through leveling, eventually their cybersystems become self repairing.
– fluff: “living cyborgs” that who become one with the machine. Reminiscent of an old (and I think very short lived) comic called Wetworks by Image about a bunch of solders who were fused to their high tech battle suits.
Implant Hack – NPC class: A cybernetic doctor. Could be fun if you were playing a futuristic game based around the medical dramas you see on TV (i.e. ER or House) otherwise, unless you’re playing a very dark game where the characters are mugging people for their cyberware or in a world where its very hard to get cyberware (such as a post apocalyptic type game), I don’t see much potential for the class as a PC character. (it’s available online from Wizards if you want to take a look).
****Chapter 2****
This is the first cyberware chapter. Even with the best cybernetic ideas this chapter would still suffer from the (dis?)organization system. All cyberware is listed first by the slot it occupies (unless it occupies multiple slots, then it generally is counted as torso) then PL. Unfortunately there are a lot of slots, a lot of item names (striving for the cyberpunk ‘cool’ name) aren’t particularly descriptive and formatting is poor. It’s a bit of a mess. Furthermore information isn’t collected in a table or a chart anywhere and the book has no index. In short the book seems to have forgotten some of the key rules that were “discovered” by the 3.0 DnD team when they started to try to create books that were more useful for the users.
Additionally some cyberware has been moved to another chapter (the FX chapter) because it’s either Wetware (tailored DNA viruses that change your body) or else it involves nanites. All in all these distinctions are reasonable on a theoretical level but less useful in a roleplaying game. The dubiousness of this split is reinforced by the fact that the Cyberrave setting (presented in chapter 5) allows for all of these cybernetic systems without any attempt to separate them out.
Having different cybernetic systems allows for different ways to install/damage/deactivate/remove the different types of systems (i.e. some are vulnerable to electric damage, some to nanite poison, etc) which is a plus but putting them into a different chapter (mixed up with a couple of different versions of magical cyberware) was a bit weird.
Then there is the problem of filler. Each of the cybernetic systems is presented with an explanation, some rules and a few stats (location, PL, cost, etc). The filler is evocative, and that’s good but I was left wishing for less text and more organization and concise delivery of information. Example: page 32 has talks about Personality Mapping (Charisma bonus) “tends to create someone who smiles and speaks in an even tone even when very angry or when committing and act of violence”. This text draws up a cool mental image of some good corporate family who has gone off the deep end but his ‘ware keeps him acting sane. But it’s just a +2 to Charisma. This kind of text could have been used much more effectively in an “adventure hooks” or “darker cyberscape themes” section (maybe with a rules mechanic for insanity thrown in?)
It was hard to find a mechanic that didn’t come straight from some other part of DnD or d20; and I am left feeling that the chapter could have been done with about half the text involved.
Good stuff: The mechanics aren’t original but this does mean they have been extensively road tested
From time to time the adaptations shift from “workman like” to “inspired” (a chip that functions like the Mind Seed psionic power comes to mind)
Because it draws on a fantasy rules set the game goes further than others more easily, so you have ways to make yourself a cybernetic mer-person or centaur (not my cup of tea personally but a greater range of choice is hardly something I would complain about)
Some interesting ways to deal with some “game issues” you can buy a chip that lets you “respend” you skill points, presumably to adjust a bad skill selection earlier in the character’s life.
****Chapter 3: Noderunning****
If you want a rules-lite d20 version of the “net” that lived in Cyberpunk & Shadowrun games in the 1980s and 1990s you’ve found it here. If you’re familiar with the internet you can skip the first part of this chapter (about the Virtual Reality Net which really isn’t a virtual reality net, because that doesn’t happen until the next PL when they come out with HiNet, which is actually a virtual reality network). The author actually says it’s not the Internet at some point (that’s apparently covered in d20 Modern) but this version of the net is basically the same except that is has better graphics (meaning you use goggles and gloves to instead of a keyboard, mouse and monitor). Just like in old Cyberpunk/Shadowrun if you want to go to a webpage (sorry node) you have to send your avatar (digital self) there, where they can use the data at the node, then if you want to go to another node you have to send your avatar there. No effort is made to explain why someone would give up a perfectly functional computer for this (laying back with cool goggles on is more ergonomically sound?).
(In the defense of Cyberpunk and Shadowrun the Internet and web browsers didn’t actually exist when those books were being written. This kind of stuff is less forgivable in 2005.)
Ok so it’s kinda silly but so are gnomes… what about the role-playing aspects? Does this construct let you do cool stuff?
Yes and no. You get to do the sorts of things that online role-playing games let you do: you get to make up a cool/weird looking electronic alter identity and hang out with other cool computer people and fight to show who’s tougher. Plus big corporations and governments have computer systems that are connected directly to the internet so that when you want to make money for cool new computer parts you can hack into their systems and steal their valuable data. But…
As the overall game goes though the rules set is definitely a negative.
The computer hacker rules systems (Netrunning/Decking/whatever) in near future role-playing games have often been unpopular with players… why? Because the netrunner/decker who goes off using their character’s computer abilities forces everyone else to sit around and wait while they do computer stuff; and most of the time the netrunner can’t contribute meaningfully to the game. A good gaming group/DM could get around (or more likely just ignore) it but basically this was a structural flaw in the game. For whatever reason the d20 cyberspace people decided to keep all these problems as-is with no optional rules that could eliminate or reduce the situation.
There are two optional rules in the game that are supposed to encourage computer hacking/playing of Noderunners but they seem like they would make the situation worse. One lets you hack into any computer system no matter where you are using some sort of Ubernet that controls all electronics (its like the Force…). This “Forcenet” has the net effect of discouraging the decker from ever needing a party (and one assumes there would be this “decking service” you could call to say “here is my GPS coordinates, there is a door 10 feet to the north of me, please open it and debit my account”). I should point out that this idea has cool potential in that Mage/Matrix kind of way but it just has the potential to increase conflict between the Noderunner player and the other players.
The other rule one lets Netrunners take two computer actions to every one by normal people. The first few editions of Shadowrun did something like this. It’s supposed to make Noderunning more powerful… but it’s hard to see why it would really matter. If you’re winning the ‘net battle then you can win faster if you’re losing you can lose faster but the DM ultimately sets all your DCs and designs all the computer systems you are invading anyway so it’s not really going to matter much.
Tangent: Shadowrun finally scrapped their old decking system (which was structurally identical to this one) in favor of one that made the decker a member of the team -and- helpful in a larger variety of situations (and also acknowledged the existence of current technology like WiFi). I haven’t got the game but from what I understand corporations keep their important data off the internet (kinda like corporations now - duh) explaining why deckers need to be taken along on missions to physically penetrate corporate compounds and steal data (and also why they would need a team of buddies to help them do this). Everything on a corporate grid is connected to an encoded short range WiFi network; allowing a decker to help out during the adventure by hacking open securities doors, deactivating security systems and so forth. It’s a shame that the d20 designers decided to stick with the Tron version of the internet.
Other problems:
The noderunning system is complex, in addition to all your programs (which the character has to make by hand can’t buy them) you have your avatar and its data files (only have a certain number so you can only have a certain amount of programs available), then you have the avatar’s stats and any stats for “agent” programs you use (which are constructed using a weird version of the CR rules). On top of that you can be disarmed and lose programs, some programs self destruct when used, some other attack programs delete your existing programs, and so forth. It looks like it would be a time consuming headache to run.
****Chapter 4****
This is the FX cyberware chapter. You get the impression that it’s supposed to be a combination of magic and weird science (except that the difference between FX tech cyberware and normal tech is arbitrary).
The “technology” side: As mentioned above breaking the individual systems down is terrible if you’re trying to find something but gives an easy way to break out specific rules for the different kinds of technological cyberware (i.e. nanotechnology works differently than Wetwork so they have different rules and sit a few pages apart).
The “magic” side: These sections are about the length and style of a Dragon Magazine article.
Golem tech is well done: you get any cyberware from chapter two as a magical piece of cyberware (it doesn’t discuss any of the d20 Future items)
Bone runes let you have “built in magic items” (the runes are written on your bones using magic). This sounds like a terrible idea for game balance to me but what do I know.
The Necro-tech gives you the powers of undead creatures from DnD. There are a surprising number of these and several of them are extremely powerful.
Choosing to make the golem tech fully modular and have a master set of possible cybernetic items and with different modules to match the magic/tech setting choices allows everyone to get the most out of the book.
****Chapter 5: Cyberrave Setting****
Unlike the other d20 games (Apocalypse/Past) there is only one setting in this book. The authors do a good job keeping Cyberrave references out of the rest of the book for DMs who don’t run Cyberrave games.
Setting in a nutshell - In the near future corporations have taken over the world. Governments are struggling with their new weakened position. Profit is king and the masses are trapped in sheep-like subservience to their corporate masters forever seeking the next material good that their capitalist rulers decide to market to them. Most people buy all of the goods on credit, ensuring that they will never get out of debt and keeping them attached to the hamster wheel. Rejecting this drone-like existence some people join gangs who in turn make up an underground rave community where they fight for individuality and freedom. The setting is about fighting against profit hungry corporations (i.e. ThinkBest which fills up half of the chapter and is a big cyberware making corporation with its own moon base).
The book introduces some decent ideas to support the setting the best of are grey wealth and the Cyberraver advanced class.
Grey Wealth Basically you have an independent wealth score with the “cool elite street scene”. This easily explains the idea of a dirty-trench-coat-wearing, filthy-little-apartment-living street samurai with some very high tech cyberware.
The first time I looked at the Cyberraver advanced class I was pretty unimpressed. Having thought a bit about cyberpunk it has started to really “fit” for me though. If you’ve ever looked at the older cyberpunk books (i.e. the boxed set of R. Talisorian’s Cyberpunk 2020) there are all of these hipster cyber people hanging out in pictures. Once I realized that the Cyberraver was the mythical “cyberpunk” things feel into place.
The cyberpunk game itself was filled with cookie cutter “classes” who could do a single thing well through a single “class skill”: Solo (combat character), journalist, technician, EMT/doctor, rock star, gang member, etc. (which could be just have been broken down into “Solos” and “character classes for Solos to kill”). But there were no real “cyberpunk” characters, i.e. people who were into cyberware and wanted to stick it to the man. The Cyberraver is it. They can identify ‘ware with a glance, do basic repairs and have good skills (one assumes for individuality) and a big reputation bonus. Another reviewer seems to think they’re street samurai and (while they do have a good Def bonus) the d6 hit points and 2nd best BAB suggest otherwise to me.
ThinkBest works for me (though your mileage may vary): unlike most of corporate villains in games it seems like it could reasonably be a going concern: its listed on a stock exchange, has a specific set of products it produces well and uses its monopoly power to prevent all competitors from challenging its dominance in the market (once you have ThinkBest cyberware in your body you can only use ThinkBest ‘ware). The corporation’s primary goal is profit and it doesn’t break laws of the countries it is in.
You get a corporate headquarters, a research lab and an opposition NPC (a Vice President who is willing to break the law to get ahead). Confirming the idea that the Noderunning system is a canker to best be ignored not a drop of ink is wasted discussing what would be necessary to break into their computer systems.
There are certain, “concessions” for role-playing drama like the moon base (where it holds Board Meetings) and its balkanized control structure (so you can have ThinkBest vs. ThinkBest type games) but it’s generally all hand wavable (a straight corporate villain is already pretty dull).
As simultaneously attempting to pay obeisance to and update Cyberpunk’s world Cyberrave largely succeeds. While parts of the text could really have used a second look* it’s not a serious problem.
*Why exactly does the underclass of gang members unite behind protection of individual rights? While the book allows that “some” gangs are motivated by profit it suggests that most are altruistic guardians of civil rights. Pretty Weird. Rave culture around the world is frequently chemically related (it’s a lot easier to love everybody and respect them if you’re using ecstasy) but drugs (like anything else that could be considered “dark”) aren’t mentioned anywhere.
On the other hand I have to give points for actually replacing the “punk” with the “raver”. PLUR man. PLUR.
Too much fluff:
ThinkBest runs long. And another two pages of this chapter are taken up by enumerating all the different organizations that have been listed in d20 books and giving a paragraph on them. Unfortunately the text is so information sparse that you wonder why they bothered. They should have either condensed the information down into a sentence (i.e. “The FBI is extremely under-funded; overworked agents are often forced to hire outsiders to help them”) or else expanded into something more useful.
Or they could have added racism, drug-use, cults or other near-future staples into the setting, or done more than just briefly discuss Bughunters/Urban Arcana/the other d20 settings.
Especially looking at what was done with d20 Apocalypse with several good campaign ideas outlined I think there was a small amount of “missing the boat”. Cyberpunk/Shadowrun and a lot of other iconic cyber-themed books were produced in the 80s and its good that they got their “d20 dues” one wishes that the authors had considered some of the ideas and worlds produced since then (even sources close to home like [htm=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347246/]Innocence[/htm] (with its on-the-fly hacking of people’s senses) or [htm=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1894938011/002-2374901-7916062?v=glance]Ex Machina[/htm])
****Conclusion****
I was frustrated with the book’s intense focus, organization and fluff but I have to admit that 4 of the 5 chapters are successful at what they are trying to do.
If I were in a bad mood and demanding lots of creativity/organization/conciseness from my purchase (or some sort of roleplaying mechanic related to "bad things happening when you replace lots of your body with metal and wires") I would probably have given it a 3.
If you haven’t figured out whether you want to buy the book you’ll just have to wait for Mr. Cooper to post his review.
Product Summary: A workman like splatbook combining existing DnD/d20 rules with some cyberpunk flavor.
People who…
will love it: Someone who wants a d20 version of Cyberpunk*
should find it useful: Somebody who wants a cyberware gear book
may be disappointed: people who are looking for a creative or innovative new product (i.e. d20 Apocalypse). If you’ve played any 3.0+ DnD you’ve seen most of the mechanics and if you played Cyberpunk/Shadowrun you’ve seen everything else
*=with the caveat that nothing addresses the fundamental dynamic of implanting techonogy in your body from Cyberpunk/Shadowrun (i.e. that implanting cyberware in your body does damage to your mind until you ultimately go nuts/lose your soul/die)
High points: The text blurbs show an interesting possibly fun world trying to crawl its way out.
Cyberrave “fixes” some of the problems of the Cyberpunk setting
The advanced classes are both creative and easily adjusted to fit different campaigns
The grammar/sentence structure edits are good (content organization & coherency is another matter)
Low points: The Netrunning/Decking (or as they call it Noderunning) chapter
Weak organization (with no index) suggest DMs and players will be tearing their hair out looking for things; cybergear is split into two mostly arbitrary chapters and the system for organizing the gear itself is terrible
The author(s) seem to be incapable of writing anything “dark”. For better or for worse a lot of cyberpunk/futurism in literature/cinema/role-playing games involve the trade off between inhuman power and the loss of self/empathy/humanity. At first blush it would seem like the authors were going to have optional rules supporting that style of play (a lot of optional rules have “spooky” sounding names) but nope. Both the gear and the Cyberrave setting suffer from bloat (and the aforementioned the noderunning chapter is mostly bloat); in a big book this wouldn’t be an issue but you would expect that in such a small book they would have more to say
Points of confusion: The cyberware chapter indicated that all the cyberware from d20 would be included and updated. That isn’t the case as each of the individual little headings goes on to talk about specific parts of d20 Future that aren’t excerpted. Presumably the cyberware from d20 that wasn’t included needs things like body locations to work but that information isn’t included in the book.
****Introduction****
A workman like attempt to talk about cyberware in d20 Modern rules set. An overview of the Progress Level (PL) system that they use to organize the book; basically how developed technology/cyberware/etc has to be to allow for certain implants. The PL system would more properly be called a Power Level system to my mind. In a role-playing game context this works; however it leads to incongruities. For example: getting a headphone and a microphone installed in your head so you can talk to your buddies (AKA Mindlink) is the same power level as jet boosters built into your legs Fly in a role-playing game but its hard to see how they require the same level of technical advancement.
****Chapter 1****
Alternative cybernetic rules systems, some feats and three advanced classes.
The cybernetic rules cover limiting or not limiting the amount of cyberware somebody can stick on them in a few simple ways.
One frustrating omission
There is no rule or rules set in the book that has substantive penalties for putting cyberware into your body. I am not saying that all games involving cyberware should have those kinds of things, but the lack of rules modules that make taking implanting cyberware into your body (even a little bit) a bad thing is a bit weird. (They do have a rule balance system that can prevent “over installation”, but it works like the negative level system for holding evil weapons in DnD).
Perhaps there are cyber-psychosis rules in d20Future but if not it’s a big oversight. Even Shadowrun (known for people parsing their essence score down the last fraction) had the implied threat of destruction of your soul (and irreversible death) if you put two much ’ware into your body.
The feats give people the ability craft cyberware, get extra cybernetic gear and lower the chance that their cyber gear will be hit by someone targeting it.
Two of the advanced classes offered (Bionic Agent and Cyberwarrior) are close in spirit to the newer versions of PrCs that have been making an appearance in receive DnD games. They offer interesting flavorful text and explanation for the class but the underlying rules would actually support a broad range of characters if the fluff is filed off. Unfortunately none of this is really properly explained so you have to read the classes fairly closely to see how you could file off the serial numbers (i.e separate fluff from crunch). The other class is more of an NPC class (Implant Hack).
Bionic Agent – crunch: a skill focused cyberware using character, as they advance they receive new feats and bonuses to cyberware enhanced actions and attacks made with cyber weaponry. (So if they have cyber eyes that grant a bonus to spot they get another class bonus on top of that; bonuses to hit and damage with cyberweaponry etc.).
– fluff: James Bond as a cyborg. Possibly a government or corporate agent who was severely injured and rebuilt to be a ‘borg. An agent who is employed by some large institution (corp, government, etc) could be rebuilt with new cyber systems for each mission.
Cyberwarrior – crunch: Best BAB cyberware focused character; receive extra implants through leveling, eventually their cybersystems become self repairing.
– fluff: “living cyborgs” that who become one with the machine. Reminiscent of an old (and I think very short lived) comic called Wetworks by Image about a bunch of solders who were fused to their high tech battle suits.
Implant Hack – NPC class: A cybernetic doctor. Could be fun if you were playing a futuristic game based around the medical dramas you see on TV (i.e. ER or House) otherwise, unless you’re playing a very dark game where the characters are mugging people for their cyberware or in a world where its very hard to get cyberware (such as a post apocalyptic type game), I don’t see much potential for the class as a PC character. (it’s available online from Wizards if you want to take a look).
****Chapter 2****
This is the first cyberware chapter. Even with the best cybernetic ideas this chapter would still suffer from the (dis?)organization system. All cyberware is listed first by the slot it occupies (unless it occupies multiple slots, then it generally is counted as torso) then PL. Unfortunately there are a lot of slots, a lot of item names (striving for the cyberpunk ‘cool’ name) aren’t particularly descriptive and formatting is poor. It’s a bit of a mess. Furthermore information isn’t collected in a table or a chart anywhere and the book has no index. In short the book seems to have forgotten some of the key rules that were “discovered” by the 3.0 DnD team when they started to try to create books that were more useful for the users.
Additionally some cyberware has been moved to another chapter (the FX chapter) because it’s either Wetware (tailored DNA viruses that change your body) or else it involves nanites. All in all these distinctions are reasonable on a theoretical level but less useful in a roleplaying game. The dubiousness of this split is reinforced by the fact that the Cyberrave setting (presented in chapter 5) allows for all of these cybernetic systems without any attempt to separate them out.
Having different cybernetic systems allows for different ways to install/damage/deactivate/remove the different types of systems (i.e. some are vulnerable to electric damage, some to nanite poison, etc) which is a plus but putting them into a different chapter (mixed up with a couple of different versions of magical cyberware) was a bit weird.
Then there is the problem of filler. Each of the cybernetic systems is presented with an explanation, some rules and a few stats (location, PL, cost, etc). The filler is evocative, and that’s good but I was left wishing for less text and more organization and concise delivery of information. Example: page 32 has talks about Personality Mapping (Charisma bonus) “tends to create someone who smiles and speaks in an even tone even when very angry or when committing and act of violence”. This text draws up a cool mental image of some good corporate family who has gone off the deep end but his ‘ware keeps him acting sane. But it’s just a +2 to Charisma. This kind of text could have been used much more effectively in an “adventure hooks” or “darker cyberscape themes” section (maybe with a rules mechanic for insanity thrown in?)
It was hard to find a mechanic that didn’t come straight from some other part of DnD or d20; and I am left feeling that the chapter could have been done with about half the text involved.
Good stuff: The mechanics aren’t original but this does mean they have been extensively road tested
From time to time the adaptations shift from “workman like” to “inspired” (a chip that functions like the Mind Seed psionic power comes to mind)
Because it draws on a fantasy rules set the game goes further than others more easily, so you have ways to make yourself a cybernetic mer-person or centaur (not my cup of tea personally but a greater range of choice is hardly something I would complain about)
Some interesting ways to deal with some “game issues” you can buy a chip that lets you “respend” you skill points, presumably to adjust a bad skill selection earlier in the character’s life.
****Chapter 3: Noderunning****
If you want a rules-lite d20 version of the “net” that lived in Cyberpunk & Shadowrun games in the 1980s and 1990s you’ve found it here. If you’re familiar with the internet you can skip the first part of this chapter (about the Virtual Reality Net which really isn’t a virtual reality net, because that doesn’t happen until the next PL when they come out with HiNet, which is actually a virtual reality network). The author actually says it’s not the Internet at some point (that’s apparently covered in d20 Modern) but this version of the net is basically the same except that is has better graphics (meaning you use goggles and gloves to instead of a keyboard, mouse and monitor). Just like in old Cyberpunk/Shadowrun if you want to go to a webpage (sorry node) you have to send your avatar (digital self) there, where they can use the data at the node, then if you want to go to another node you have to send your avatar there. No effort is made to explain why someone would give up a perfectly functional computer for this (laying back with cool goggles on is more ergonomically sound?).
(In the defense of Cyberpunk and Shadowrun the Internet and web browsers didn’t actually exist when those books were being written. This kind of stuff is less forgivable in 2005.)
Ok so it’s kinda silly but so are gnomes… what about the role-playing aspects? Does this construct let you do cool stuff?
Yes and no. You get to do the sorts of things that online role-playing games let you do: you get to make up a cool/weird looking electronic alter identity and hang out with other cool computer people and fight to show who’s tougher. Plus big corporations and governments have computer systems that are connected directly to the internet so that when you want to make money for cool new computer parts you can hack into their systems and steal their valuable data. But…
As the overall game goes though the rules set is definitely a negative.
The computer hacker rules systems (Netrunning/Decking/whatever) in near future role-playing games have often been unpopular with players… why? Because the netrunner/decker who goes off using their character’s computer abilities forces everyone else to sit around and wait while they do computer stuff; and most of the time the netrunner can’t contribute meaningfully to the game. A good gaming group/DM could get around (or more likely just ignore) it but basically this was a structural flaw in the game. For whatever reason the d20 cyberspace people decided to keep all these problems as-is with no optional rules that could eliminate or reduce the situation.
There are two optional rules in the game that are supposed to encourage computer hacking/playing of Noderunners but they seem like they would make the situation worse. One lets you hack into any computer system no matter where you are using some sort of Ubernet that controls all electronics (its like the Force…). This “Forcenet” has the net effect of discouraging the decker from ever needing a party (and one assumes there would be this “decking service” you could call to say “here is my GPS coordinates, there is a door 10 feet to the north of me, please open it and debit my account”). I should point out that this idea has cool potential in that Mage/Matrix kind of way but it just has the potential to increase conflict between the Noderunner player and the other players.
The other rule one lets Netrunners take two computer actions to every one by normal people. The first few editions of Shadowrun did something like this. It’s supposed to make Noderunning more powerful… but it’s hard to see why it would really matter. If you’re winning the ‘net battle then you can win faster if you’re losing you can lose faster but the DM ultimately sets all your DCs and designs all the computer systems you are invading anyway so it’s not really going to matter much.
Tangent: Shadowrun finally scrapped their old decking system (which was structurally identical to this one) in favor of one that made the decker a member of the team -and- helpful in a larger variety of situations (and also acknowledged the existence of current technology like WiFi). I haven’t got the game but from what I understand corporations keep their important data off the internet (kinda like corporations now - duh) explaining why deckers need to be taken along on missions to physically penetrate corporate compounds and steal data (and also why they would need a team of buddies to help them do this). Everything on a corporate grid is connected to an encoded short range WiFi network; allowing a decker to help out during the adventure by hacking open securities doors, deactivating security systems and so forth. It’s a shame that the d20 designers decided to stick with the Tron version of the internet.
Other problems:
The noderunning system is complex, in addition to all your programs (which the character has to make by hand can’t buy them) you have your avatar and its data files (only have a certain number so you can only have a certain amount of programs available), then you have the avatar’s stats and any stats for “agent” programs you use (which are constructed using a weird version of the CR rules). On top of that you can be disarmed and lose programs, some programs self destruct when used, some other attack programs delete your existing programs, and so forth. It looks like it would be a time consuming headache to run.
****Chapter 4****
This is the FX cyberware chapter. You get the impression that it’s supposed to be a combination of magic and weird science (except that the difference between FX tech cyberware and normal tech is arbitrary).
The “technology” side: As mentioned above breaking the individual systems down is terrible if you’re trying to find something but gives an easy way to break out specific rules for the different kinds of technological cyberware (i.e. nanotechnology works differently than Wetwork so they have different rules and sit a few pages apart).
The “magic” side: These sections are about the length and style of a Dragon Magazine article.
Golem tech is well done: you get any cyberware from chapter two as a magical piece of cyberware (it doesn’t discuss any of the d20 Future items)
Bone runes let you have “built in magic items” (the runes are written on your bones using magic). This sounds like a terrible idea for game balance to me but what do I know.
The Necro-tech gives you the powers of undead creatures from DnD. There are a surprising number of these and several of them are extremely powerful.
Choosing to make the golem tech fully modular and have a master set of possible cybernetic items and with different modules to match the magic/tech setting choices allows everyone to get the most out of the book.
****Chapter 5: Cyberrave Setting****
Unlike the other d20 games (Apocalypse/Past) there is only one setting in this book. The authors do a good job keeping Cyberrave references out of the rest of the book for DMs who don’t run Cyberrave games.
Setting in a nutshell - In the near future corporations have taken over the world. Governments are struggling with their new weakened position. Profit is king and the masses are trapped in sheep-like subservience to their corporate masters forever seeking the next material good that their capitalist rulers decide to market to them. Most people buy all of the goods on credit, ensuring that they will never get out of debt and keeping them attached to the hamster wheel. Rejecting this drone-like existence some people join gangs who in turn make up an underground rave community where they fight for individuality and freedom. The setting is about fighting against profit hungry corporations (i.e. ThinkBest which fills up half of the chapter and is a big cyberware making corporation with its own moon base).
The book introduces some decent ideas to support the setting the best of are grey wealth and the Cyberraver advanced class.
Grey Wealth Basically you have an independent wealth score with the “cool elite street scene”. This easily explains the idea of a dirty-trench-coat-wearing, filthy-little-apartment-living street samurai with some very high tech cyberware.
The first time I looked at the Cyberraver advanced class I was pretty unimpressed. Having thought a bit about cyberpunk it has started to really “fit” for me though. If you’ve ever looked at the older cyberpunk books (i.e. the boxed set of R. Talisorian’s Cyberpunk 2020) there are all of these hipster cyber people hanging out in pictures. Once I realized that the Cyberraver was the mythical “cyberpunk” things feel into place.
The cyberpunk game itself was filled with cookie cutter “classes” who could do a single thing well through a single “class skill”: Solo (combat character), journalist, technician, EMT/doctor, rock star, gang member, etc. (which could be just have been broken down into “Solos” and “character classes for Solos to kill”). But there were no real “cyberpunk” characters, i.e. people who were into cyberware and wanted to stick it to the man. The Cyberraver is it. They can identify ‘ware with a glance, do basic repairs and have good skills (one assumes for individuality) and a big reputation bonus. Another reviewer seems to think they’re street samurai and (while they do have a good Def bonus) the d6 hit points and 2nd best BAB suggest otherwise to me.
ThinkBest works for me (though your mileage may vary): unlike most of corporate villains in games it seems like it could reasonably be a going concern: its listed on a stock exchange, has a specific set of products it produces well and uses its monopoly power to prevent all competitors from challenging its dominance in the market (once you have ThinkBest cyberware in your body you can only use ThinkBest ‘ware). The corporation’s primary goal is profit and it doesn’t break laws of the countries it is in.
You get a corporate headquarters, a research lab and an opposition NPC (a Vice President who is willing to break the law to get ahead). Confirming the idea that the Noderunning system is a canker to best be ignored not a drop of ink is wasted discussing what would be necessary to break into their computer systems.
There are certain, “concessions” for role-playing drama like the moon base (where it holds Board Meetings) and its balkanized control structure (so you can have ThinkBest vs. ThinkBest type games) but it’s generally all hand wavable (a straight corporate villain is already pretty dull).
As simultaneously attempting to pay obeisance to and update Cyberpunk’s world Cyberrave largely succeeds. While parts of the text could really have used a second look* it’s not a serious problem.
*Why exactly does the underclass of gang members unite behind protection of individual rights? While the book allows that “some” gangs are motivated by profit it suggests that most are altruistic guardians of civil rights. Pretty Weird. Rave culture around the world is frequently chemically related (it’s a lot easier to love everybody and respect them if you’re using ecstasy) but drugs (like anything else that could be considered “dark”) aren’t mentioned anywhere.
On the other hand I have to give points for actually replacing the “punk” with the “raver”. PLUR man. PLUR.
Too much fluff:
ThinkBest runs long. And another two pages of this chapter are taken up by enumerating all the different organizations that have been listed in d20 books and giving a paragraph on them. Unfortunately the text is so information sparse that you wonder why they bothered. They should have either condensed the information down into a sentence (i.e. “The FBI is extremely under-funded; overworked agents are often forced to hire outsiders to help them”) or else expanded into something more useful.
Or they could have added racism, drug-use, cults or other near-future staples into the setting, or done more than just briefly discuss Bughunters/Urban Arcana/the other d20 settings.
Especially looking at what was done with d20 Apocalypse with several good campaign ideas outlined I think there was a small amount of “missing the boat”. Cyberpunk/Shadowrun and a lot of other iconic cyber-themed books were produced in the 80s and its good that they got their “d20 dues” one wishes that the authors had considered some of the ideas and worlds produced since then (even sources close to home like [htm=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347246/]Innocence[/htm] (with its on-the-fly hacking of people’s senses) or [htm=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1894938011/002-2374901-7916062?v=glance]Ex Machina[/htm])
****Conclusion****
I was frustrated with the book’s intense focus, organization and fluff but I have to admit that 4 of the 5 chapters are successful at what they are trying to do.
If I were in a bad mood and demanding lots of creativity/organization/conciseness from my purchase (or some sort of roleplaying mechanic related to "bad things happening when you replace lots of your body with metal and wires") I would probably have given it a 3.
If you haven’t figured out whether you want to buy the book you’ll just have to wait for Mr. Cooper to post his review.
Committed Hero
Hero
Actually, I don't think cyberpunk lit goes out of its way to say that invasive technology causes insanity. That's pretty much an invention of Shadowrun; whether because they thought it was neat, or balancing, I don't know.
Jack of Shadows
First Post
Heh,
Not Shadowrun, Cyberpunk. It was out several years prior to Shadowrun and introduced cyber psychosis. In turn I "think" they got the concept from a short story by Bruce Sterling.
I agree with the reviewer, the Cyberpunk movement is over and it has evolved into the transhumanist stories on the shelves today. Unfortunately the gaming industry is still stuck in the 80's when it comes to future settings. There are some exceptions like SJ's Transhuman Space and GoO's Ex Machina but generally we're stuck with people re-inventing Traveller and Neuromancer.
I'd really love to see a system mthat would let me run something similiar to Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs novels. That would be a blast.
Jack
Not Shadowrun, Cyberpunk. It was out several years prior to Shadowrun and introduced cyber psychosis. In turn I "think" they got the concept from a short story by Bruce Sterling.
I agree with the reviewer, the Cyberpunk movement is over and it has evolved into the transhumanist stories on the shelves today. Unfortunately the gaming industry is still stuck in the 80's when it comes to future settings. There are some exceptions like SJ's Transhuman Space and GoO's Ex Machina but generally we're stuck with people re-inventing Traveller and Neuromancer.
I'd really love to see a system mthat would let me run something similiar to Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs novels. That would be a blast.
Jack
Graf
Explorer
Are you talking about the original R. Talisorian game? Or some other game?Committed Hero said:
In the origional R.T. game every single piece of cyberware lowered your humanity (forget the stat name) and thus your empathy... often by variable amounts (i.e. 2d6 for Rippers or whatever).
That was practically the point of the setting... that a corporate officer with head gear and a built in mobile phone could go crazy after a squash game and kill 15 people.
I will admit that the rules were ignored by a lot of groups but if you read the books that was basically the whole theme of the setting.
And they had lots of rules for cyberpsychosis and cyberpsychos and a squad of police that dealt with them and so on.
Graf
Explorer
Shadowrun was much more frustrating for the DM, the some of novels suggested that cyberware had a negative impact on your psyche and that you were destroying your soul but it wasn't modeled in the game at all.
So long as your essence was fractionally positive there was -no- game effect (ok you couldn't be magically healed as easily but it wasn't a roleplaying problem so much as a tactical one).
So everyone who wasn't a mage was sitting somewhere around 0.1 Essence.
So long as your essence was fractionally positive there was -no- game effect (ok you couldn't be magically healed as easily but it wasn't a roleplaying problem so much as a tactical one).
So everyone who wasn't a mage was sitting somewhere around 0.1 Essence.
"I agree with the reviewer, the Cyberpunk movement is over and it has evolved into the transhumanist stories on the shelves today. Unfortunately the gaming industry is still stuck in the 80's when it comes to future settings."
Pretty asanine statement. Gaming isn't about keeping up with trends.. Just because someone enjoys playing a western or Call of Cthulhu in a 1920's setting doesn't mean they're "stuck" in a particular decade.
Likewise, I find the reviewer's obsession with the notion that cyberpsychosis rules are some essential component of the cyberpunk to be fairly obtuse. Just because R. Talisorian Cyberpunk had them doesn't mean anything. On a literary basis, cyberpsychosis goes against the conventions of the genre, namely that in this future setting integrating technology into the body is a commonplace and normal event, like getting braces or cosmetic surgery. On a gaming basis, it's stupid to penalize players for acquiring the very items that define the setting. R. Talisorian added cyberpsychos as a way to compensate for their simple dollar-value based wealth system, where characters started the game with a whopping $1000 to their names, and after a mission or two of receiving realistic paychecks (professional street samurai don't go around raiding heavily-defended corporate buildings for a few hundred bucks), characters should be wealthy enough to borg out completely. In a nutshell, it was a rules subsystem that handicapped the game.
Pretty asanine statement. Gaming isn't about keeping up with trends.. Just because someone enjoys playing a western or Call of Cthulhu in a 1920's setting doesn't mean they're "stuck" in a particular decade.
Likewise, I find the reviewer's obsession with the notion that cyberpsychosis rules are some essential component of the cyberpunk to be fairly obtuse. Just because R. Talisorian Cyberpunk had them doesn't mean anything. On a literary basis, cyberpsychosis goes against the conventions of the genre, namely that in this future setting integrating technology into the body is a commonplace and normal event, like getting braces or cosmetic surgery. On a gaming basis, it's stupid to penalize players for acquiring the very items that define the setting. R. Talisorian added cyberpsychos as a way to compensate for their simple dollar-value based wealth system, where characters started the game with a whopping $1000 to their names, and after a mission or two of receiving realistic paychecks (professional street samurai don't go around raiding heavily-defended corporate buildings for a few hundred bucks), characters should be wealthy enough to borg out completely. In a nutshell, it was a rules subsystem that handicapped the game.
Graf
Explorer
If you want to keep playing the same games then I suppose so.Felon said:
But he’s not talking about playing cyberpunk in the 1980s… (which could be pretty cool). He’s talking about how views of the future have changed over the past twenty years.
Your snide dig about Cthulhu is specious because the 1920s are fixed… the “near future” just isn’t. You may like the version of the near future that was imagined in the 1980s by the folks at R. T but its hardly pecuiliar to expect that the world might be developed to reflect such minor changes to reality as... say... the internet.
I would be facinated to know how you define genre such that this statement becomes true.Felon said:
From Neuromancer, to Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, Perdido Street Station, When Gravity Fails, Ghost in the Shell (especially 2) and most every other semi- or pseudo- cyberpunk related book/game/whatever that I can think of the question of how implanted cyberware impacts the psyche of the person is a central theme.
Heck, even Johnny Memonic in the movie lost his memory and past. I mean... what stories are you trying to reference here? Starwars?
They do because "you put a hunk of metal where flesh was, it works exactly like your arm, you never notice the difference except your stronger" makes for a boring story. Despite the main character having a fake hand nobody talks about Starwars being "cyberpunk" because cyberware that doesn't have any kind of impact on the character is very -out- of genre.
The fluff text for the optional rules like "piece of your soul" make it very clear the writer "gets" this, though the "you lose 400 exp" isn't anything that impacts roleplaying. How do you roleplay losing xp? Are you breifly stupider? Destracted by your glittering new mechanical appentage? Spending that time getting used to the new device?
I'd have been thrilled with some kind of novel new rules module or idea or different possible effect (Torg and others have had Cyberware as the path to god); BUT since the whole book is basicaly just a re-write of Cyberpunk 2020 its hardly fair to demand that this one section be new.
If you want to play cybersuperheroes then yah, it totally boned the system for you.Felon said:
I personally don't like cyberpunk 2020 and don't play it. But of all the problems with the game cyberpsychosis wasn't one of them and is very much in genre.
I did go on about it a bit, and I could see that it detracted from the review for you but the actual cricism of the book on this point is iron clad.
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