Reboot The Concept Of Cyberpunk Fantasy With :Otherscape Metro

Screenshot 2025-01-18 at 11.09.05 AM.png


Shadowrun was my great first love as a game designer. It’s one of the best examples of the kitchen sink games that came out of the late 80s and early 90s that wildly mashed up genre flavors like unsupervised kids at a soda fountain. It’s a concept that appeals to the kid in many of us; who wouldn't want to shoot at a dragon with a machine gun? Or drive a cool motorcycle with your brain? Or be an immortal elf wielding a laser katana? It combines just the right amount of silliness and seriousness that these games we love need to fire up the imagination. :Otherscape, from designers Amít Moshe, Kelly Black, Eran Aviram, Colin Wilson, Tony Pi, Kend'or Wilson, Kevin Carpenter, Kristoff Alejo, Lexi Antoku and Yiftach Raphael Govreen stands in the shadow of a giant but like so many suits in so many back rooms of neon lit bars poses a tempting question to players. How would you remix fantasy and cyberpunk? Son of Oak Game Studios sent me a copy of :Otherscape Metro for this review. Does it bring home the paydata? Let’s play to find out.

:Otherscape Metro is the core book for the game which uses a variation on the system first seen in Son of Oak’s City of Mist. The Powered By The Apocalypse trappings of the earlier title have been shaved down and simplified even further. There are no longer specific moves. Rather players roll 2d6 against the same success/complicated success/failure spread of results and add Power to this roll. Power acts as both a modifier to the roll and as a number gaining progress on tracks to do things like defeat enemies or hack systems. Power comes from the traits that players have in the game which are represented by Fate aspect-like phrases such as ‘cyber eyes’ or ‘hacked slush fund’. Negative traits lower power but players using them advance their character by playing into flaws.

Characters are built through a collection of themes. These are broad concepts and skill sets that reflect different parts of the character like their personality traits, backgrounds, skill sets and cool powers. Each theme has positive traits, a negative trait, a special ability that can be unlocked by advancement as well as a central question or belief that the player needs to play into if they want to keep that part of their character around. If a character has “corporate connections” as a theme, they are going to have to feed their masters some juicy secrets every now and again otherwise their fixer is going to stop answering their cyberphone. If a character doesn’t satisfy these needs, that theme goes away and the player will have to choose a new one as a replacement.

There are three big categories of theme to choose from. Self themes focus on the human aspect of cyberpunk life like connections and skills. Noise themes are heavy tech themes like running the net with a cyberdeck or having drones at your beck and call. Mythoi themes are where the fantasy comes in with magic artifacts, transformations into mythical creatures and other sources of power. There’s some game effects that factor in on how each character is balanced between these three but honestly, a Game Master could probably run a straight up cyberpunk game without magic if they really wanted to by disallowing mythoi themes.

:Otherscape Metro has an interesting take on how magic returned to the world. Rather than a secret conspiracy keeping it out of the public eye, it suggests that most of humanity has become too burdened with technology to accept the idea that magic has returned. We’re all too busy doomscrolling to look up and see the dragon flying overhead. When presented with a real live ogre, we immediately start wondering what Playstation game this is some sort of advertisement for. The megacorporations, however, understand what’s happening and, just like any other limited resource, are going to war for all those magic swords and hidden wizard towers.

1736191482534.png

If :Otherscape Metro sounds like a lot, it is. It’s a big, heavy full color tome full of gorgeous art and pages upon pages of discussion on how to build your version of the game. Then, on top of that there are two other books that include even more examples. :Otherspace Tokyo details a full city full of oni, yakusa and corporate intrigue in a huge book that’s just as big and bright as the core rules. The Action Database shows dozens of examples on how to build rolls from power traits, what add-on successes could happen and what potential complications could offset success. It’s very enthusiastic and at times a little overwhelming. This game is best suited for players that have likely already cut their teeth on cyberpunk RPGs or who might love the source material and haven’t had a satisfying experience yet.

Here are the two things I found most exciting. The first is, as a toolkit that encourages ables to build their own cyberpunk cities, it gives Game Masters a chance to add fresh elements to these concepts. Shadowrun is 35 years old and while the timeline has advanced, there’s some value in taking a new look at those concepts with how we know things have gone during that time. We’re already living in some degree of cyberpunk dystopia so why not make a game with now as a starting point to see what wonders and horrors are coming in our future?

The second is that while cyberpunk fiction is often about identity and humanity, the games tend to focus on the slick techno-thriller heists rather than the "tears in rain" speeches. :Otherscape Metro puts that at the center of the game as players must fight to maintain their identities as their characters hack servers and cast spells. It’s a dramatic character moment when one of these themes shifts that carves out time from the neon soaked action for a scene or two of reflection.

Bottom Line: :Otherscape Metro looms like a corporate monolith but rewards groups who take the time to get to know it with a chance to make their own future full of darkness and magic.

If you found this review useful, consider using the mbedded links to purchase the product. Thank you for supporting your friendly local game reviewer.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Rob Wieland

Rob Wieland


I have received my copy yesterday. Not much to say aside from it's more of City of Mist goodness in futuristic packaging.

With regard to style, it looks more like Ghost in the Shell than Burning Chrome.

The subjects of identity, reality seem more important than drugs and rock and roll of Cyberpunk.

Also, it looks like the inherent mind fog of City of Mist was replaced with fabricated and controlled info bubble, and the magic was made into a tool of the mighty (the corpos).

Mind you, I haven't read it yet so my impressions may be wrong.
 


What is that character before the O in the game’s name?
The force is strong with silverhaired/ultrablond folks in this game so I'm guessing you're talking about Valkyrie (the first character from your left).

If so, she's your ultimate battle cyborg, with Mimir AI onboard and her combat tag combos being 3 out of 4 (tag combos are the most likely used combos for your character): Deploy Minigun Fire (kill it with heavy fire), Wade into Enemy Swarm (take less damage), Switch to a Better Weapon (create a new weapon tag on the spot), Surveil the Scene (the canonical I search the room action).

Her most controversial theme and tag (from a PC point of view) would probably be: "Employee of Ragnarok inc." / Weakness: Phantom Memories. That's a ticket to break a character with GMs action (the system is a heavily modified PbtA, so you know that at some point the GM will offer you a devil's bargain). On the other hand, if you like roleplaying high risk characters, you may like her.

1737407595833.png


If you'd like to play someone like Batou or Major Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell), I would recommend Genji. He's a certified inquisitor detective, pardon, an onmyodo.

His tag combos don't look all that special, Block a Spell or a Monster (stop that... whatever that is), Get Some Answers (get inside, gather info), Leverage Jurisdiction (basically, Dale Cooper, FBI), Survive Gunfire (walks into a line of fire, emerges unscathed).
Until you realize that he's a very well rounded controller of everything. He can stop bullets, spells, claws and government officials. He can also brood with Rick Deckard and Philip Marlowe (check Flask of Whiskey or Schochu loadout and Expertise/Weakness: Old Bones).

1737408197259.png


There are others to pick. Or more if you want to go through character building. There are distinctly more options than in City of Mist.

My favorite at this moment is Kerberoz. A McGyver with a penchant for mechanical canines. He's a bit weak on social skills, so I would make that my development focus.

Tag combos: Print a New Drone Add-On (improvise a tool), Send the Hounds on a Chase (track and chase), Improvise Solutions (buff others or find a way out), Take Down the Undead (+4 tag total, so it's a killer).

His defining weaknesses would be Divine Commands (we're on a mission from Hades) and Playful Distractions (your four legged camera becomes envious of your machine-gun parakeet and snuggles for some attention in a middle of an intense negotiation scene).

1737409357123.png
 
Last edited:

On the off chance, you were asking about two other characters from @robowieland previews, here they are.

Tokyo :Otherscape is a Japan setting book. The characters on the cover, from left to right, are new character creation options:
  • Wandering Neo-Samurai - a homeless dreamer, an ex-corpo idealist with a lot of VR experience and nostalgic debt of past
  • Tattooed Yakuza Recruit - you're a traditionalist thug, a ex-street kid soldier with little inhibitions and a lot of ambition, a firefly that made far but is still drawn to a flame
  • the third one is easier to identify, as she's a ready-to-play character - Shikigami, a spirit that adapted to digital age.

Shikigami is a servant spirit possessing a machine that happens to be humanoid, talented in hacking digital and fighting physical. You're free, but easily bound (Spy Spirit theme/Weakness: Occult Invocations).
 

What is that character before the O in the game’s name?
A colon.

The kickstarter produced two books, the core rules Metro:Otherscape and a setting book Tokyo:Otherscape. The game and/or system itself, I guess, is called :Otherscape. Maybe its a riff on games called Game: The Subtitling?
 

Trending content

Remove ads

Trending content

Remove ads

Top