Interface Zero: Upgrade in Progress

[nDervish]

With Gorm defeated in Hellfrost, the consensus was that, although we all wanted to continue playing, some were getting burned out on fantasy, which means it's time to roll out some cyberpunk!

Interface Zero is a cyberpunk setting for Savage Worlds which has been reimagined based on current technology and modern visions of the future rather than holding to the original 80s cyberpunk aesthetic. The year is 2090 and the world is on the brink of transhumanity. Natural humans are still the majority, but they share the streets with androids and transgenic animal/human hybrids as well as the traditional cyborg types. Tendril Access Processors (TAPs) are ubiquitous, grown inside of everyone's brains by nanotech injections just after birth, granting access to a massively parallel data network known as "the Deep" and enabling a shared digitally-augmented reality. You can duplicate your personality into a "dub" as a backup, in case of critical bodily structure failure, but international law prohibits anyone from having multiple active instances at any given time. Of course, those with sufficient funding can ignore the law with little consequence.

We'll have our first session at 18.00 next Tuesday, September 10 at DMF. Character creation will be the primary focus of the day, but I expect we should be able to get some actual play time in as well. As always, new players are welcome at any time.

Interface Zero is currently in the process of upgrading from version 1.0 to 2.0, so we'll be using the 2.0 materials as they become available, with pieces of 1.0 filling the gaps. You can follow the IZ2.0 development updates on Google+ at https://plus.google.com/communities/105 ... 4412778256.

My general reference point for cyberpunk is Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, but I've also spent a couple years running Shadowrun (back in the days of its first and second editions) and played around with the original release of R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk (the 2013 setting). While these will likely form the base flavor of the campaign, Interface Zero has abandoned Gibsonian netrunning in favor of a more modern vision of hacking based around pervasive augmented reality, which I hope to make good use of. Although IZ isn't fully transhuman, you may also find elements of Eclipse Phase turning up here and there.

Beyond that, we can discuss flavor and setting here and when we're doing characters next week.

If you're not already familiar with Savage Worlds and/or Interface Zero, DriveThruRPG offers free downloads of the Savage Worlds Test Drive rules (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/9 ... Test-Drive) and the Interface Zero 2.0 Character Creation Beta Test rules (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/1 ... -Beta-test). The hacking beta rules are also free (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/1 ... -Beta-test) if you want to check them out.

[bladerunner_35]

Unfortunately there's a parent meeting at school for my kid on tuesday so I won't make it.

You should go ahead without me though....no, go ahead....go...leave me here....I'll be fine, probably...

In all seriousness I'll think a little on what sort of campaign and character I wan to play and post my thoughts before tuesday and it should work out no prob.

[bladerunner_35]

If you are inspired by images I recommend that you register at Pinterest, a really cool way to share, save and browse images. I've got an account with a ton of really groovy cyberpunk images:

http://pinterest.com/bladerunner35/cyberpunk/

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PZ0SZrMhlLY/U ... bot_04.jpg

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq5KWLqUew ... 3Dyoutu.be

http://cghub.com/files/Image/352001-353 ... 88_max.jpg

http://marcwashere.deviantart.com/art/I ... -258021423

[Willard]

Maybe we should do Thursday then? It sounded like everyone could do that just as well as Tuesday.

[bladerunner_35]

Can't do any thursdays. I work late then.

I should be able to do next tuesday so you guys should get the ball rolling.

[God45]

I have been going over the old books and the new free stuff and Reading up online and I have been thinking. Cyberpunk is a lot about the toys and the characters who are badasses who cut down hords of mooks and since I am thinking about playing a zeek I want to be able to telekinesis people through buildings or blow them up like in Akira... So what about starting the games with the characters at seasoned or even veteran level? And with the Elite Operatives starting kit where everyone gets a lot of money and free implants and stuff?

[nDervish]

Cyberpunk is a lot about the toys and the characters who are badasses who cut down hords of mooks and since I am thinking about playing a zeek I want to be able to telekinesis people through buildings or blow them up like in Akira... So what about starting the games with the characters at seasoned or even veteran level? And with the Elite Operatives starting kit where everyone gets a lot of money and free implants and stuff?

First off, don't take this as a GM veto. It's not meant as one and I'm happy to run with whatever power level the group as a whole prefers.

I expect Interface Zero to be a very different Savage Worlds than Savage Marches or Hellfrost. Aside from the default combat mode changing from melee to ranged, it also adds a ton of equipment (both carried and implanted), several new edges, etc. Given that, I think it would probably be a better idea to start characters at Novice and "grow into" some of those things instead of making character development choices up front without first seeing how this setting handles.

Note that you could still be a super-zeek even if we start at Novice, thanks to the Enhanced Ability edge, which lets you ignore rank requirements when taking zeek powers. (Of course, to start with it, you'd have to be a human and sink all three of your starting edges into it, plus you need Smarts d10 and Spirit d8, which would mean selling all your other stats down to d4...)

As far as Elite Operatives, I'm not sure how useful that package actually is... With one exception, all of the augment packages in the character creation beta book are 5-10 Strain. It's simply not possible to take three packages without pushing yourself deep into cybertrauma territory, even if your Vigor and Spirit are both maxxed out at d12. (I consider this a flaw in the rules which will, hopefully, be changed in the final release version. I've never liked "get an implant, go insane" rules in general and this iteration seems like a particularly restrictive one.)

On the other hand, though, IZ1.0's suggested payouts for runs are pretty low - according to the table on p.197, even an Veteran team can only expect a base pay of 10k credits, which means you need pull down some serious creds on the side (either from freelance work or your day job) if you want to buy any cyberware, vehicles, etc. after the game starts, so I don't think starting with the Gutter Punks package would be a good idea either.

I suppose it's probably best to get a consensus on which of the four starting power levels to go with, then I'll translate it into a number of starting credits and give, say, a 50% discount for cyberware purchases at character creation. By doing it that way instead of by giving a number of free cyberware packages, that allows you to manage your character's starting Strain somewhat by choosing to buy higher-grade gear.

[bladerunner_35]

I am with Dave although I do not think there's any real risk to screw up character generation.

Personally I have always prefered down to earth and gritty roleplaying so playing uber characters do not appeal so much even though I understand where you are coming from Sebastian. I wouldn't mind starting wih 5-15 extra exp if that'll make a difference.

Rather than saying that we start out as bad asses we should consider what sort of theme we want our campaign to have.

There's a great many questions we could ask ourselves:

How epic or gritty do we want the campaign to be?

Do we want to play episodically with lots of downtime or one continuous story?

Do we want to be your average troubleshooting mercenary/adventure group for hire, or part of an organisation (gangers, police, agents, soldiers)?

Is there a particular theme we want to develop (fight the system, what is it to be human (a very GitS theme), tactical combat or perhaps be part of/swept up in world scale events)?

Personally I am considering the character concept combat journalist.

[bladerunner_35]

Dave:

Can I assume we'll be using everything released as a beta for IZ 2.0 so far, including skill specialisations?

[nDervish]

Dave:

Can I assume we'll be using everything released as a beta for IZ 2.0 so far, including skill specialisations?

Yes. I keep thinking that I should mention the specializations part, including that they're (apparently) replacing the engrams mentioned in the character creation beta's hacking rules. You also get increased starting skill points to compensate for the extra cost of needing to buy multiple specializations of some skills. (I'm pretty sure it was 20 skill points.)

[bladerunner_35]

Yeah, 20 points. Thanks.

[Rekreativc]

Hi guyz,

haven't had the time yet to look over the resources you linked (I just read this topic), so all I input I have from now is that I'd also prefer if we "grew into" our characters. I must admit that I always found "kick-started campaigns" off putting.

That's all I have for now, hopefully I will have some time for the resources tomorrow. If not then, the weekend is coming!

[God45]

Personally I have always prefered down to earth and gritty roleplaying so playing uber characters do not appeal so much even though I understand where you are coming from Sebastian. I wouldn't mind starting wih 5-15 extra exp if that'll make a difference.

This sounds pretty good If we start with 10 extra xp I will be able to do what I want without the game becoming too high powered for the rest of the groups tastes.The money and implants is less important to me so if we start off dirt poor that is fine with me

[God45]

I found a great pitch and summary of the setting written by one of the writters, it might be usefull for those who don't have the books

Interface Zero in terms of setting is interesting because it's been developed within the last few years and so has one of the most current presentations of how the world might conceivably develop. I'll demonstrate what I mean with a few examples.

For one, Global warming and climate change hit, and hit hard. The coastlines of the world have been flooded to one degree or another. In North America, New York and New Orleans both have been abandoned due to the rising tide. Boston now exists beyond a massive sea wall which is the only thing keeping the Atlantic out. L.A. has become an Island, and Florida is a series of Archipelagos. Weather patterns and Storms are more severe then normal. Due to this, we have entire bands of nomadic sea faring groups who took to the oceans and have adapted to life upon it, and use these abandoned cities as meeting places and homes.

Other massive global changes happened to the middle east obliterating itself in a nuclear exchange and leaving the planet in a state of limited Nuclear winter for a few years. Combined with the huge climate changes and all the wars going on this led to a historic era simply referred to as "The Death" where 1.3 billion people died to to the fall out effects of violence, starvation and disease. This era has shaped world politics significantly and involved the U.N. appointing an organization who's entire purpose is to stop countries from using WMD's which could potentially effect everyone on the planet. This group known colloquially as "StopWatch" does this by any means necessary.

Politically things are very tumultuous and again reflect a more current history version of a potential cyberpunk/sci-fi future setting then one from the 80s. Japan for example is not the be all and end all of global politics and corporate existence. Japan is interesting within the setting of course, but the real major powers of Interface Zero, politically and economically are more interesting. The current world powers are China, and Brazil, and these two giants often use other nations as proxies to bare out there conflicts with one another on the world stage. The Central Africian Union is the most highly advanced nation on the planet and yet also very isolationists due to getting out from under the thumb of colonialism and advancing past european controlled countries.

America suffered a second civil war as ideological differences drove the country eventually to the point of near collapse. The current North America is split between several different countries, from Atlantica on the north east coast, the Great Lakes Union around the great lakes states, Texas declaring it's own independence, Cascadia forming on the North West coast, and the North American Coalition taking up large portions of the South and central America. Most of California is an apocalpytic wasteland thanks to the mother of all earthquakes hitting right before the second american civil war, meaning nobody bothered to fix the damn place. Today the North American Coalition would love to re-unite America and claim the former glory of the world power and engages in spy games and black ops military actions against it's neighbors.

Which drives home another difference between IZ and other cyberpunk games.. The Corporations are not the one's in control, the Nations are. While there are Megacorps in IZ and a very few with power rivaling nations, they act more like they do in real life, lobbying and buying politicians to afford their own agenda, rather then acting as completely autonomous nation-states themselves. Politics are more important.

Technologically wise, again the game reflects the world. Everyone possesses what's known as a "TAP", tendril access processor, easily injected sometime after birth and cheap to produce. You have a cell phone in your head allowing you to access the media-web (aka the internet) from anywhere in the world. Augumented or "Hyper" Reality is everywhere and is percievable thanks to the TAP and of course can be interacted with. Everyone with a TAP also possesses the ability to project or "ghost" from their body, becoming a completely virtual being and interacting with Hyper-reality.

Genetics is advanced to an incredible degree allowing for genetic modifications and advancements to be applied within the womb (leading to one of the player character and npc types "Human 2.0"), or allowing people to splice animal DNA into their own to gain the genetic advantages found within, leading to a new race of people (and again another NPC and character type) known as Hybrids.

Death is also not completely the end, as individuals may have their personalities downloaded or "dubbed" electronically allowing them to exist as a virtual entity after their physical body dies. They can even have a new body cloned and have this dub downloaded into it.

Completely artificially grown and produced people ala Blade Runner and many Sci-Fi Anime style replicants or "Simulacrum" also exist, acting as a near slave race in certain countries.

The game allows for playable Androids, Genetic modified people, Hybrids, plain old humans, cyber enhanced people, Simulacrums, and many other options. The game supports the themes of traditional cyberpunk, post cyberpunk, and transhumanism at your own discretion. Psychics also exist within the world to give the edge of the unknown and strange, but are also excised from the setting easy enough for those who prefer a more "pure" cyberpunk world.

I came on to the company which makes the game "Gun Metal Games" around the beginning of this year, after the core book was finished. Right now the game has alot of supplements in the pipeline I'm developing and working on which will expand the world even further and give more detail about it. From Colonized space (The Solar system is also colonized, Mars, Luna, several moons have colonies and space stations on them for doing Cowboy Bebop and Total Recall style games as well) to more info on the Genetic revolution, to the major corporations and other things.

[nDervish]

How epic or gritty do we want the campaign to be?

Do we want to play episodically with lots of downtime or one continuous story?

Do we want to be your average troubleshooting mercenary/adventure group for hire, or part of an organisation (gangers, police, agents, soldiers)?

Is there a particular theme we want to develop (fight the system, what is it to be human (a very GitS theme), tactical combat or perhaps be part of/swept up in world scale events)?

Excellent questions! And I have one more to add to the list: What kind of location do you want the game to be set in?

A single city tends to be the standard, but should it be a real-world city or something completely fictitious? There are currently sourcebooks published for San Francisco (which has been devastated by earthquakes, racial problems, etc. and many areas are now in ruins), Boston (originally the new cradle of North American liberty, now under martial law in an attempt to deal with dissidents and terrorists), and India (with brief writeups on Mumbai and Kolkata).

Personally I am considering the character concept combat journalist.

He's not really a combat journalist, but... "This is Edison Carter, live and direct from Network 23..."

This sounds pretty good If we start with 10 extra xp I will be able to do what I want without the game becoming too high powered for the rest of the groups tastes.The money and implants is less important to me so if we start off dirt poor that is fine with me

OK, it's settled then: You'll start out dirt poor and need 10 XP just to get up to Novice.

Starting with 10 XP is fine with me, if that's what people want to do.

As far as the starting gear allotments, I think I'll just take the number of augment packages from that chart and convert it to 25k of additional starting funds per package, then you can buy augments at half price during character creation. (Assuming 5 Strain of streetware per augment package, this works out the same, except that it allows you to get augments of whatever quality you want or to spend the money on vehicles, etc. instead of augments.)

If you want to start with military-grade gear (augments or otherwise), you'll need to take an extra Major Hindrance to reflect how you got access to it.

I'm also revising the Strain/Cybertrauma rules slightly to make them feel more reasonable to me:

• For physical cybertrauma, make a Vigor roll every time a new augment is installed (no matter how low Strain is), with +1 per success or raise on the doctor's roll to perform the implantation surgery. If your Strain (including the new augment) exceeds your Vigor die, the roll is at -1 per excess Strain. The consequences are the same as in the character creation beta rules: 1 permanent Fatigue level on failure or 2 levels on critical failure. These fatigue levels can only be removed by removing the specific augment that caused them (and, optionally, re-implanting it). Don't roll for augments purchased at character creation; they are assumed to have been implanted without complications.
• For psychological cybertrauma, gain a Minor psychological Hindrance or increase a Minor psychological Hindrance to Major for each multiple of your Spirit die that Strain reaches. (e.g., If your Spirit is d6, gain psychological Hindrances at 6, 12, 18... Strain.) These will fade if you reduce Strain, increase Spirit, or take Edges to increase resistance to Strain, just as in the character creation beta rules.

The physical side is a bit harsher than RAW, but it's a one-time roll per augment added; so long as you have a couple bennies handy when you go under the knife, it's unlikely to ever affect your character. The psychological side can end up being harsher if you push into really high Strain territory (3x Spirit or above), but it's more forgiving at the low end (you don't take the second Hindrance until 2x Spirit, rather than when Strain exceeds both Spirit and Vigor (which didn't make sense to me in the first place)).

As a final point on augments, the game's developer has posted a "prototype augment malfunction chart", which will be used instead of the character creation beta's rules on augment malfunctions. Basically, draw a card for each Wound you take, then check the chart to see what malfunctioned. Gutterware is always potentially affected, Streetware is immune to any card that's a club, Hyperchrome is immune to clubs and diamonds, and Milware is only affected by spades or jokers. If you take multiple Wounds from a single hit, only one card (my choice) will affect you.

And, with all that said... The question is still open on whether you want to start at the Gutter Punks, Deniable Assets, Corporators, or Elite Operatives level. (See character creation beta p. 3-4 for details.)

I found a great pitch and summary of the setting written by one of the writters, it might be usefull for those who don't have the books

Excellent! I spent a while looking for something like that when I made the initial post yesterday, but couldn't find one.

[God45]

A single city tends to be the standard, but should it be a real-world city or something completely fictitious? There are currently sourcebooks published for San Francisco (which has been devastated by earthquakes, racial problems, etc. and many areas are now in ruins), Boston (originally the new cradle of North American liberty, now under martial law in an attempt to deal with dissidents and terrorists), and India (with brief writeups on Mumbai and Kolkata).

I would prefere one of the american cities. Both of them sound cool San Francisco would give us more of an open playground because it is really run down and we can probably get away with more gun fights in the streets. But Boston is more sabotage, spying and intrigues and that is fun too...

The rule changes sounds good

How epic or gritty do we want the campaign to be?

Epic all the way! Bloody and violent but those things happen to minions. Like the lobby fight in the Matrix.

Do we want to play episodically with lots of downtime or one continuous story?

Lots of downtime between missions sound good to me.

Do we want to be your average troubleshooting mercenary/adventure group for hire, or part of an organisation (gangers, police, agents, soldiers)?

I think that it would be fun to run an organised crime campaign where we work for a mob family. Or we could be freelance criminals and mercenaries, that is also always fun

[Willard]

I don't have a whole lot of experience with cyberpunk, so I'll leave a lot of the nuances to you guys who know what you want. Out of the suggestions we have so far, I'd vote for freelancing in Boston.

Character-wise I was thinking a human 2.0 drone specialist, mostly working as a corporate executive (looking at that particular occupation that might be going a bit far, but I like the image). I haven't a clue how the drones work or which kinds there are, but that seems cool. Are there lists for bioware, nanoware etc? I only saw cybernetics in the free pdf, but I don't think I want (a lot of) that for my character. The other kinds seem more appropriate. If that stuff isn't really in the game of course I can come up with another concept.

[nDervish]

Character-wise I was thinking a human 2.0 drone specialist, mostly working as a corporate executive (looking at that particular occupation that might be going a bit far, but I like the image).

That's kind of an odd combination - the corporate executive occupation focuses almost entirely on social skills, but the stereotypical drone jockey tends to interact with the world through his drones from a distance, which makes social interaction kind of difficult. Which isn't to say that you can't make it work, but it might be a bit tricky.

What parts of each archetype do you particularly like? Maybe one of us can come up with something that's a bit more of a natural fit.

Are there lists for bioware, nanoware etc? I only saw cybernetics in the free pdf, but I don't think I want (a lot of) that for my character. The other kinds seem more appropriate. If that stuff isn't really in the game of course I can come up with another concept.

They're mechanically identical, you just decide when you buy it whether it's chrome, flesh, or nanites.

[Willard]

When I read it first I didn't realize that there were prerequisites for the occupations, so I didn't think that much of it. More as a background thing to do in the down-time between missions. Mechanically it might be difficult, but conceptually I don't think it's much of a stretch: a mechanical/robotics engineer turned executive who (secretly) dabbles in mercenary work from time to time (or whatever it is we'll be doing).

That's a simple enough solution, I'll go through the list again. What kinds of things help with drones? Smarts and agility?

[nDervish]

What kinds of things help with drones? Smarts and agility?

Generally, you'll be using your own skills through the drone - if you have a Vishnu Tool-Bot, you'd use Driving skill to drive it around, Healing skill to have it perform surgery, Fighting to have it punch someone, etc., just the same as if you were doing it yourself. If you don't have the skill, each drone also has some skills pre-programmed into it, but those can never be higher than d8. (Sticking with the example, a standard Vishnu has Driving d4 and Notice, Lockpicking, Repair, and Healing at d6 each.)

In general, I would expect that most of the skills you'll want for your drones would be Agility-based (driving/piloting skills, combat skills, stealth), but Smarts has some good ones, too (like Notice). Spirit is also useful, since you're automatically shaken if the drone takes damage and you'll want to recover quickly. Strength and Vigor aren't important when you're body's not in the fight, of course.