Detroit Suck City: Episode 10

In the aftermath of the Cat People attack the crew decided it would be smart to retreat and try to find the correct path to Rail City. At some point during the backtrack, they stripped the late Auron of his gear and dumped his body unceremoniously off of the Rail Tank to land on the side of the tracks. The crew makes in back to the small switch yard and they find a sign which was written in sloppy spray paint that says, "Rail City This Way".

After some switching of tracks the get on the right track and start heading towards Rail City. Along a deserted stretch they come across a tall person who is walking down the tracks. They notice that this person is dressed in dark baggy pants, a black sweatshirt, with a wide brimmed hat, and a large wicker basket on the persons back. Parrot decides to slow the train down to a stop to interact with this new mysterious person as Parrot announces to the rest of the crew to not shoot first. As the the Rail Tank comes to a noisy stop along side the mysterious person that said person gives them a wide birth and moves next to the edge of the trees for a quick escape of need be. The crew trains their weapons on the mysterious person and are able to get a closer look. The crew notices that the right side of his face is robotic and his right leg ends in a metallic three toed claw. 

The mysterious person holds up his hands in not aggression and says, "I do not mean anyone any harm. I am just heading towards Rail City, my name is 9 of 12". Parrot takes the lead in interrogating 9 of 12 and they quickly learn that 9 of 12 does not like the Star People, has had negative experience with other groups of people, and has his own business in Rail City. After the crew lowers their weapons and friendly conversation is happening all the way around 9 of 12 decides it is safe to introduce everyone to Ren. 9 of 12 points to the basket and makes the introductions. The rest of the crew gives each other odd looks as they do not see anyone in the basket but 9 of 12 does not acknowledge this or notice this interaction. After some hushed whispers they decide to allow 9 of 12 to join the crew. Once onboard, 9 of 12 points out all the cool things on the Rail Tank to Ren and sets the basket down next to him to feed ran a snack. 

The crew heads down the tracks and after sometime they break out of the wood lines area into open fields on each side. Off to the right they notice a hover car with a well dressed  person working in the dirt who is apparently collecting various plants and other specimens. On the back of the hover car there is large planter with tentacles coming out of it that are wiggling around and various small animals and bugs in cages. The crew decides to slow down and stop to to see if this person needs help. 

As the crew, some members dismount and approaches cautiously with weapons drawn. The man looks up and says "Its a wonderful day in Detroit". The man pronounces it Detroit instead of the universal slang of "Troit". The man notices all the carnage on the Rail Tanks (the bodies of Star Children, etc.) and responds, "It is obvious that you guys do not like the Star people". He then goes on to explain that he is just out collection samples. As the conversation continues, Rail City is brought up as well as rations and wounds. The man finally introduces himself as Professor Arrod and explains that he has been working on some formulas to help the mutated folk. He slowly reaches into his bag and grabs a number of metal cylinders and tosses them Lladmar. The Professor exclaims, "You do not have to trust me but I promise they will help with healing".  Then the crew asks The Professor about the red light and The Professor explains that is a very bad place and it is where the Star Children come from. He describes their leader and the crew realizes that that was the person on the big screen back at the lab. 

The Professor explains how he has been around a long time and has a facility not to far from here and as 9 of 12 hears this, he stands up and The Professor whistles and exclaims, "Your an old one, I thought you were all destroyed. Hold up your arm." 9 of 12 holds up his left arm and his Metallica sweatshirt falls past his hand and reveals a metallic hand where the fingers end is vicious claws. The Professor then looks toward Wilhelm and explains how he can help him train the his Po Dog and reach in his pocket and pulls out a metal disc with some wires dangling it from it. The crew immediately takes a step back and aims their weapons at The Professor who then snaps his fingers and two large crabs with AK-47s come out of the ground and become defensive of the Professor. Parrot and Lladmar explains they were attacked by two of the same crabs and they both pull out their same metal discs they removed from the fallen crabs bodies.

The Professor waves his hand and the crabs back up behind him in a more a relaxed position as the Professor apologies and explains that they were way out of range and he could not command them. He continues that he will make it up to everyone and passes out more healing cylinders and gives 9 of 12 a book on firearm repair and history. In addition he explains the black boxes they found are communication devices and they should not be used as someone is listening to them. The professor finally says it is getting late as he loads up the last of his specimens and invites the crew to visit them at his faculty but he will be gone for sometime yet collecting specimens - at least a season. The professor waves the crew goodby gets in his hover car and takes off with the crabs flanking him on each side. 

The crew continues on and as 9 of 12 is playing patty cake with Ren he notices out of the corner of his eye that there was a group of four legged animals keep pace with the Rail Tank. 9 of 12 lets the crew know about the situation as he tucks Ren back into the basket and puts her in the corner for safety and whispers some instructions to her. Wilhelm looks up and notices that the four legged creatures is a pack of Po Dogs and he decides to hold up the puppy. The entire crew heals a rough voice in their heads that say, "Give us back what belongs to us". Parrot stops the train and the Po Dogs take up attack positions and start to growl with a few barks mixed in-between. Wilhelm lets the crew know to relax and he will take care of this. Wilhelm steps off of the train, gets on all fours, and lets the puppy go as it runs to one of the adults. A loud voice in Wilhelm's head says, "My name is Drax, I am the alpha. Why do you habe one of our pups?" As Wilhelm starts to explain the story and him and Drax continue their mental conversation the rest of the crew remains tense surrounded by growling Po Dogs. The rest of the crew is unaware of the mental conversation between Wilhelm and one of the Po Dogs as forty five tense minutes pass. 

Wilhelm eventually stands up and the entire pack of the Po Dogs take off except for one. Wilhlem walks back to the Rail Tank and explains that the Pod Dogs left him Kara to help them on their mission as they do not like the Star People or Masters of Clean as well. It is also as a token of good faith because Wilhelm took care of the surviving pup. Wilhelm also explained that he was given advice they they should clean up the Rail Tanks and remove the Star Peoples symbols (as Rail City does not welcome the Star People). 

The crew then takes the time removing all of the carnage and tries to scratch off the symbols but the scratching is ineffective. 9 of 12 explains he can handle this task and goes around all of the vehicles concentrating on the symbols and the dried gore. The gore and the paint quickly starts to bubble and burn off as 9 of 12 then cools the metal to help prevent damage and to temper it. 

The crew once again head downs the track and they finally see the twinkling lights of Rail City after the sun sets. Parrot slows down the train as they get closer and see that Rail City is surrounded by a wall made of stacked rail cars three or four high that is topped with turrets and guards walking around the top. They are stopped at the main gate and asked to state their business and the crew explains they are hear for supplies and to trade. The head guard spits on the ground ans asks for three gold for the entrance and parking fee. Huey and a few other members start to argue with the guard about the price and as the tensions start to rise a very large cactus man walks over and asks is their trouble. 9 of 12 pipes up and explains that there is no trouble and apologies for his companions behavior and hands the closest guard three gold. The big green man greens a horrific smile and talks about people don't have brains these days and how lucky we are as we just made it under curfew. 

The crew is lead into the two large gates and directed to a parking stall. The crew realizes that the entire city is build using rail cars and the place is full people and some scattered mutants. The crew decides it is smart to lay low tonight and set off in the morning in groups because everyone was given things to do in addition to their own personal agendas. The crew decides who is going to do what and settles in for the night. 9 of 12 says he will take watch as he does not sleep.

Just another day in Detroit Suck City...

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PLAYER THOUGHTS: This was a great session full of exclusively role play and I really enjoyed the introduction of my new character to the group and the interaction with the Professor. It was great to see some of the things the characters experienced being connected to a larger picture. 9 of 12 is an synthetic form the old world that has been experimented on and is insane (and has a chance to go crazy in stressful situations). If you have not picked up on it, Ren (his 7 year old companion) is not real but an imaginary friend - though 9 of 12 does not know this. This has been one of my favorite characters I have played in a long time and I have been really able to get into the role play aspect of it.

Review: Neon City Overdrive

 Do androids dream of electric sheep?

Cyberpunk is one of my favorite genres and I think it is a genre that is always under represented in various forms of media. Though it seems to get a decent amount of attention in the table top role playing genre. So, I am always on the look out of new cyberpunk games because it is one of my favorite genres and I have fond memories playing other cyberpunk themed games. I became aware of this game due to a discussion thread on a forum and the author brought back a vague memory and I was very happy to discover that Nathan Russell is the same mind behind FU (Free Form Universal) rpg. 

Disclaimer: I Was provided a physical copy and a PDF for review purposes.

Presentation: This book packs some serious eye catching and mood inspiring in 69 pages (more if you include the character sheets). Each page is full colored where the text is set against a light honeycomb pattern which I do not find distracting at all. The core text is black in a readable font and there is an addition font that looks like how words on a computer screen would appear if they started it glitch out (various lines stretching it). The main headers are highlighted in purple and the minor headers are highlighted in yellow. The various sidebar/advice boxes are in pink with white lettering. The book has a table of contents and in various sections has a slang dictionary. The book is mostly single column with some double column use on various pages. This formatting is coupled with surreal art that is designed with dynamic lighting, something you would expect from a neon city. The book itself (without even reading it) really sets the tone and mood for cyberpunk. 

Character Creation: Character creations follows these steps:

1. Visualize your cyberpunk. Who are they , what do they do, and what trouble have they escaped from?
2. Choose or create three Trademarks. These are broad tags that describe the most important, useful, or interesting things about your character. 
3. Pick four Triggers that become Edges and write them down next to the relevant Trademark.
4. Write two flaws for your character. These are troubles, problems or disadvantages your character has to deal with. 
5. Choose or randomly decide a drive for your character. What makes them keep taking dangerous jobs?
6. Write your gear. You can have any basic gear that your Trademarks would logically allow. Roll for up to four pieces of specialized gear. 
7. Round out your character by giving them a cool nickname and description. Tell the other players about your bad-ass cyberpunk. 

Resolution:  The games uses a dice pool of d6's (it is a good idea to have two different color of dice because you build a diced pool with action (positive) and danger (negative) dice. Neon City Overdrive also uses two different symbols to differentiate the dice in text). The dice pool starts with a single dice then you add one action die to the dice pool for each of the following:

• A single relevant Trademark
• Each relevant edge the Trademark has
• Each tag the can be exploited
• Having a better position 
• Each relevant tag on special gear

Then you add a danger die to the pool for each of the following:

• Every Trauma the character has
• Each hindering Condition
• Each tag that increases your difficulty
• A poor position/being rushed
• Not having necessary gear
• Facing an obstacle of greater scale 

Roll those bones and check the results. Only the highest action die that is left after the danger dice cancel out the action dice is used to determine success. 

• Result of 6 is a complete success. Additional successes create boons that your character can use. 
• Result of 4 or 5 equals a partial success. It is failing forward - your character succeeds but at a cost. 
• Result of 3 or less is a failure.

Danger dice that match action dice cancel them out. So a 6 result on an action die with a matching danger die cancels out that action die. If no action dice or left or the remaining action dice are 1s, the character suffers a botch - something bad happens. 

 

It only takes one success or partial success to succeed at an action. If that attempt fails another character can try the same thing or the character can try it in a different way/with different equipment/etc. There are extended checks that require three successes. Characters can also help one another which gives a positive dice to the lead character. 

When combat breaks out, roll a d6 for initiative and roll again at the beginning of each turn. On a 1-3 the enemy goes first, and on a 4-6 the players go first. The ranges are abstract and handled in a close, near, and far system. Characters can typically do one major action like make an attack and a minor action like move, hand something to someone, etc. 

 

Combat is player facing which means the GM does not roll to attack, but narrates what is going on and the player has to narrate how the character is trying to avoid the situation. 

Crunch: The crunch is relatively light. The game takes heavy inspiration from Freeform Universal (one of the authors original games), Fate, Fudge, Powered by the Apocalypse, and a few others. I think the hardest part is really just getting the flow of the system on the player side and the GM side. There are some subsystems the operate outside of the core mechanics which I will mentio (these do not add difficulty to the game mechanics):

• Harm: All PCs start out with three harm levels and when the characters take damage the players mark off  a box (and sometimes more). If you cannot mark hit, the character suffers a trauma and roll d6 - one a 1 the character is dying and will die in d6 turns unless aid can be rendered
• Healing: The character gains a hit when they have time to take a short rest in relative safety. First aid can also be administered with a successful attempt. Traumas can only be healed in downtime
• Stunt Points: All players start out with three stunt points and they can be spent to use a second Trademark in a check, soak all hits from a single source, change a die roll by +/- 1, or add an additional detail/tag to a scene. They refresh between jobs and can be awarded for doing cool things
  
• Experience: The experience track is very story oriented and are marked for botches and surviving a job (I didn't say the job had to be successful). Clear five experience to write a new Trademark (to a maximum of  5), Write a new Edge for any Trademark, increase your total hits (to a maximum of 4), or increase your stunt point pool (to a maximum of 5)
• Drive: Each character has a drive and a drive track (10 boxes). When they do things to further their drive they increase on the track and when they do things that don't or other situations hinder their drive they go backwards on the track.
  

Final Thoughts: As I have stated before, I really enjoy Cyberpunk but a lot of the games on the ttrpg market today and extremely rules heavy or the mechanics are convoluted (especially for going into the net). When Neon City Overdrive landed on my radar I over the moon that it was going to be rules light and narrative driven. When I looked into it more (before I got my hands on it) I was worried because it listed inspiration from Fate/Powered by the Apocalypse. I am personally not a fan of those games but I was very surprised reading the book. So surprised in fact that I read it cover to cover twice in one sitting. 

The way it is written really evokes the them and ideas of cyberpunk right off of the bat and the implied skeleton of a cyberpunk reality really helps in creating a background for a campaign. Also, the rules are mostly confusing and straight forward. There is not a focus on tags and there is advice to only use a few of the important ones and that is it. This translates into great GM advice in regards to hard and soft consequences, timers, cinematic philosophy, and other aspects of the system and its use in the setting. Do not let the the book fool you, there is a lot of information crammed into the pages that include sample jobs, various threats, and enough Trademarks/Edges/Tags suggestions to make unique characters. 

I think a couple of my favorite things about this game is the downtime (where you can recover, spend leverage, spend experience, etc), stunt points (reminds me of Bennies from Savage Worlds, the GM section (lots of goods stuff there), and the system for specialized gear (which the player has a chance to roll for up to 4 pieces of specialized gear that have their own tags and can be used to increase the action/positive dice in a roll) that the characters "gear up" for at the beginning of every mission. 

It would be a disservice if I did not mention that the rules for cyberware and interfacing are really elegant. Cyberware is handed by an appropriate Trademark and all aspects of interfacing with the net are handled through normal dice rolls and damage usually carries over. 

The two one shots I ran of this were a extremely fun to GM and all the players had a good time with crazy shenanigans all the way around. Though some of the players got a little confused (and I was initially as well) in regards to triggers and edges though this character creation example really helped to clear some of the confusion up.

You can find Neon City Overdrive here:

• drivethrurpg (there is even a hardcover option)
• Peril Planet 

There is two supplements out for it as well:

• Skinjobs
• Psions 

The Orc Renaissance

 

So, in my post Silence is Consent I talked about various practices of WotC and other authors in regards to how they are handling being progressive and things like that. After some conversations I had afterward, I realized that I did not really get into the Orc (and others) issue because I was focused on other things. 

I have touched on the concept of evil in Evil or Something Like It. With that as I started point, there is a very long post titled, Why do Orc Lives Matter? that goes into the long history of the Orc in gaming, other media, and with J.R.R. Tolkien. Basically, where the modern issue of "orcs are racist" comes from is when they transitioned form being monsters (as portrayed in LOTR, etc) to being a player option to play as in table top (of all sorts) games. When this transition happened the writing and/or tone did not change from their monstrous roots and entries (I also think the term race in itself has been a huge fire starter). This allowed the the DM's to treat the Orcish characters with racism in game like in the movie Bright (and maybe out of game) as the printed game world still saw Orcs as monsters and not people. Obliviously this situation crossed wires from fantasy to reality and allowed real world racism to seep in. Then, actual bigots and racist jerks used this as a chance to be exactly that but in game as well as in their normal real lives. So, people made Orcs racist due to lazy writing for years which after the transition, made it to easy for people to place real world politics into them.

So, where does this leave us with the Orc? It leaves us with two options. 

1. Orcs are monsters. They should not be a playable option and are a known evil in the world. 
2. Orcs are a race a culture. There is not such thing as an inherently evil orc. They are just like Humans, Elves, etc. They have the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

These options cannot cross pollinate because you end up with the issue already discussed above. Orcs are not the only Monster turned playable the suffers from this issue. The Drow (and many more) also suffer from this issue (of lazy writing and people making them racist) but I talk at length regarding that problem and my social fixes in my post The Darkness of the Drow. 

With all of this in mind, my initial statement still stands. Orcs (and others) as written are not racist, they are written as monsters. Peoples reaction from the transition to monster to playable and because the writing did not change are what caused Orcs to be racist. People who used them to emulate real world politics, people who treated player character Orcs/Half-Orcs as less then, and people who saw an excuse to act out their bigotry fantasies are the problem and what made them racist. This does not even include all of the people who are jumping on the ban wagon and the witch hunters. 

Once again, I will reiterate that I am for this changes and I am glad they are happening. It is the how and the false sincerity of it all that I cry foul at. 

This has been another episode of...

Review: Barbarians of the Ruined Earth

This is one of the games that I have been waiting on for a very long time. It felt like millenniums passed between each aspect its creation. From when it is just an idea, to writing, to editing, to the successful kickstarter, and finally to public release. This games draws heavily on inspiration from Thundarr the Barbarian, Ralph Bakshi's Wizards, Heavy Metal, and Mad Max: Fury Road. 

For disclosure purposes, I received a physical and digital copy for review purposes. In addition, I was a consultant on the game early in its process. 

Presentation: I saw Mike Evans release art throughout the process and I payed close attention to the Kickstarter but I was not expecting the end product to be so pleasing to the eye. Barbarians of the Ruined Earth (BotRE) has a full cover and its 167 pages are stuffed with full color art from the multiple artists. In addition, each page has a yellow border with red dots and all of the tables have yellow and red highlights. BotRE has a table of contents and is organized into various chapters. The book starts off (after the introduction and all of that) with the full rules of the game that is a whopping 9 pages long.

Character Creation: Players create characters following these steps:

1. Rolling Stats: There are two options. The first option is roll 3d6 in order (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma). If you roll a 15+ then your next roll with be 2d6+2. The second option is rolling the same stats but using 2d6+5 because lets face it, it is not fun having a 3-6 in a stat.
2. Choose a Class: There are 8 classes (race as class is used in BotRE). Your options are Barbarians, Beastmen (mutant humans/animal hybrids), Death Priest, Robot, Scavenger, Sorcerer, Urchin, and Vek (super smart raptor folk).
3. Record Details: Each class provides starting hit points, hit dice, weapon/armor proficiency, damage done with weapons/unarmed, starting equipment, an interesting trinkets table (1d6), and a life event table (1d8). 
   

Resolution: Barbarians of the Ruined Earth is based off of The Black Hack 1e with various house rules baked right in. Every task consists of making an attribute check that consists of rolling a d20 under the relevant of attribute. This roll can be modified with advantage or disadvantage. The system is also player facing in which the GM does not make "attack rolls" for monsters, traps, etc. The players react to adversary and must succeed on their own attributes checks to avoid the axe heading towards their head. 

Speaking of that, combat is resolved in the following manner:

1. Roll Initiative: Everyone rolls a 1d20 (the GM rolls for all enemies at the same time. Though, separate rolls can be made for powerful enemies). The order resolved from lowest to highest and initiative is rolled once per combat.
2. Attacking/Defending: When it is the characters turn, they can attack, move, etc. An attack functions the same way as an attribute test. When the adversary goes, the GM narrates the action and the character reacts to it by trying to avoid getting hit. This is the same as any other attribute roll. 

 

Crunch: There is not a lot of crunch beyond the attribute tasks but the system has some interesting nuances that I will list. 

• Armor: Armor provides a flat damage reduction. Shields do not add to damage reduction but can be sacrificed to completely ignore a successful attack. A small shield can do this once and then it is useless and large shields can do this twice before becoming useless
• Critical Success: If the player rolls a 1 during an attack, the damage is doubled. If the player is trying to avoid an attack and rolls a 20, they take double damage
• Resistance: Some creatures have resistance, which means they 1/2 damage from certain sources 
• Death and Dying: There is a death and dying table (d10) after a character reaches 0 hit points
• Powerful Opponents: If the players face opponents that have 2 HD or more then they are considered powerful opponents. Players suffer disadvantage to attack and dodging rolls. If they party's total HD is double the powerful opponents HD, then they powerful opponent penaalty is ignored
• Experience: Experience points are gone, the GM levels up the characters have major events, quests completed, etc 
  

Final Thoughts: I think the art coupled with the rules light engine of The Black Hack really hit all the sweet spots for a Post Apocalyptic joy Ride. This is because the rules do not get in the way of the ride and the art does not only make it look rad, but it adds so much flavor, inspiration, and hints at a setting. 

I am also really glad that the changes to the core rules of The Black Hack fixed a lot of things that I did not like personally like with the system such as the original armor rules and a few other things. BotRE has also greatly expanded the GM section with lots of helpful tables, various advice columns, weapon creation tables, and even has a table to create Blocks (think the mega blocks from Judge Dredd). All of this extra GM goodies make running it a lot easier. There is also an Appendix N and there are sources in there that I did not mention.

With the Barbarians of the Ruined Earth, you can run just about any style of game from a Gamma World Gonzo to Mad Max. I think this is really the big selling point of BotRE because it is designed to do the various different games with ease. It takes little effort to allow or disallow various things to get the tone just right. A lot of other post apocalyptic games have their tone hard baked into the rules and it takes a lot of effort to untangle it.  

You can find Barbarians of the Ruined Earth...

• Standard Cover + PDF
• Special Edition Cover + PDF 
• Wrath of Zombie Blog - All kinds of bonus content and sneak peaks of upcoming content for BotRE