So, writing up the Technology chapter and I’m kinda stumbling on the whole NeuroNet/Matrix/Cyberspace implementation. I find myself staring at a blank page and going “there is a full game system in just this little section”.
So I’m wracking my brain as to how to approach this. I want something elegant, that simulates the feeling of cyberspace. I want it to be robust enough that it can stand in for a number of different visions of cyberspaces. And I want it to be a component of the game, rather than the whole game (because holy crap this could easily be a whole new ruleset)
My current plan is to create an alternate Access Move (still using Interface), something approaching the back-and-forth multi-action implementation of Launch Assault or Face Adversity. It would only trigger when you try to Access through the cyberspace (which means you don’t have to physically be there, and can hopscotch from system to system).
Like: You enter cyberspace with a specific goal and tools, the GM describes the digital landscape/protections, then you Roll. The “Run” happens in a rapidfire back-and-forth of VR-spaces, shattered ICE, neural boobytraps, and shifting gridscapes.
The upside of this is that it adds a lot of VR action without adding more rolls. It only “exists” if the table has chosen to include cyberspaces in the game. And it plays well with the Technocrat (who gets a serious boost in cyberspace-active campaigns).
Sorry if that got rambly, it was useful to just write out my problem. That said, what do you guys think? Any issues or suggestions? I’d totally take links to specific, well-made cyberscapes as inspiration.
Also, is NeuroNet cool, name-wise? Or should I remain generic with “cyberspace”.
I’m a fan of The Web; planetary web, station web, ship’s web.
I really liked the idea that once you have accessed the cyberspace, you would use all the standard and ability moves, just with +Interface to represent your virtual persona. I do not think that any difficult system would really help here.
Coming from Shadowrun, I was so glad to find a “Matrix”-System that you could actually use in play.
I would structure a “hacking run” like a combat: access to open up, face adversity to clear pathways, and maybe even launch assault or open fire for battles against ICE. Maybe you could include an elaborate example of how a matrix scene could play out?
I always thought to just use interface to access the VR net and then your “avatar” would act just like you using the regular moves. I thought maybe data points could be used to enhance things like “I know Kung fu”. I don’t know if that makes sense or not but it might be worth looking at.
I super dig it just being one move; that’s probably all I would want for this kind of thing. I assume this move is for specifically cyberspace matrix style hacking-fests, not for just plugging into the neuronet to chat someone up? Like, it won’t come up all the time?
I do like the idea of using all the normal moves +Interface but I worry that may end up making for long solo split scenes.
So perhaps both. Add a “Cyber Run” move like Launch Assault but also mention that it can be zoomed down into individual moves, kinda like how you can use Face Adversity for action by action combat
I’d be hesitant to create a new move if you could offer suggestions on how to use an existing move to accomplish what you want. I see no reason why you couldn’t use the existing moves to accomplish everything you need in a “NeuroNet/Matrix/Cyberspace” game
Shit, you could just reflavor the existing Launch Assault for hacking like that. “You may use Launch Assault + Interface to hack things”
I mean, you could use the existing moves, but we’re talking about capturing the feel of making a Cyberspace run. Capturing the actual essence of a thing is one of the strengths of the PbtA system.
Alfred Rudzki totally man. But why do you think the existing moves can’t capture the feel or essence of a cyberspace run? Isn’t it all about the narrative and how you “describe and flavor” the fiction?
Oh, sure, but I’m not talking about the description; I mean the way the architecture of the moves funnels story in particular directions. Sure, you can Launch Assault+Interface to do a cyber-run, but I’d like to see cyber-run specific costs and complications. I would have to dig into much more cyberpunk than I actually consume to tell you what those specific costs are, of course — but what I’m saying is, I like how PbtA games are built from the ground up to help you tell specific genre stories and my least favorite PbtA games are the ones whose moves are generic. 🙂 Yes I can narrate anything I want, obviously, but that’s not what I’m asking for: I’d like the game to have my back, making me look like a genre pro when I’m not.
Alfred Rudzki I gotcha. That makes sense. I think I might try to run the game with the base rules in a cyberpunk setting to see how they work.
You’ve really gone full Neuromancer, haven’t you? 🙂
I’d err on the side of simplicity; as you said, full systems have been developed to emulate Gibson’s 1980s version of cyberspace. It seems to me that existing moves can be reskinned, with ICE, constructs and decks being assets that can be added for layered protection. Without having the proper deck and ICE breaker, ICE becomes a potentially insurmountable adversity in the fiction that has potentially physical ramifications.
That being said, could decks offer modifications to the basic moves to do some of the skinning for you? As Aaron Griffin said, Launch Assault, when using a deck, is +Interface. Makes sense, it’s simple, it’s elegant.
Cyberspace is a potentially loaded term. For those of us that grew up reading Gibson, it conjures a tron-like VR that you jack into and see glowing digital representations. For the younger crowd, it might just mean the web. I like the term, but that doesn’t mean it’ll translate well, and it has a history.
By the way, if you want to playtest some of this, I’m so completely, totally in. And I’ll try to go all Case fanboi on you.
Aaron Griffin
This is my favorite option as well. “Launch-assault”-style narrative move for quick resolutions, or otherwise play as normal using other moves.
If you’ve got the whole party jacked into the Matrix, for example, it just becomes another environment with its own new hazards and rules and means of interacting with things. No different from any bizarre alien world in how you’d handle it.
We had talked about it after one of our sessions. and Chalice In Chains started a G+ discussion on the topic a while ago but I can’t find the link.
There is always a danger in cyberpunk games that elaborate rules to portray a gorgeous Cyberspace environment engage the GM and the player in a game as detailed as the Netrunner card-game (now in a FFG edition as Android: Netrunner). But that leaves other players to stand by.
Various Fate Core games treat it as a “Contest”: each side must be the first to get 3 successes. If the hacker gets 3 successes, they have broken in. If the corporation get to 3 successes first, they have pinpointed the hacker and locked him out, or inflicted some brain-damage, or sent the armored cops over to his house. It’s a contrivance to keep the cyberpunk stuff necessarily short.