Category: The Veil: Cyberpunk Roleplaying: Discussion

So, I lightly read The Veil earlier, but I’m currently doing a close read in prep for running a one-on-one. So, lots of little questions coming up – mostly rules clarifications, though some editing suggestions/things I found unclear are included in the spirit of being helpful, since I hear some folk continue to revise PDF editions post-publication.

According to DTRPG, I think I have the most up-to-date version; hopefully I’m not bringing up stuff that’s already been clarified:

Apparatus

“Rise,” pg 124. Choices on expending humanity include “gain advantage,” but the accompanying text (para 3) refers to “[using] humanity to take +1 forward.” Which one is correct?

“Terminal,” pg 129. “When you reflect upon humanity and come to the determination that… ” seems to describe the move as a permanent change in outlook, but the accompanying sample text seems to make it sound like something that comes on-and-off, with the character’s mood (“I’m going to activate terminal. Hopefully later I can see something that redeems humanity a bit…”). Of course, the latter text doesn’t quite say that it comes on and off – it could just be saying that the character wants humanity redeemed because what it’s witnessing is terrible. Which way does this go?

The Architect

Pg 133, “Most predominantly, the Architect injects finer lens on specific aspects of The Veil and directly injects the completely digital world. The manifestation of your own subconscious into the digital as well as being able to manipulate the digital and the ramifications thereof, are predominate

in this playbook.”

The first sentence is impossible for me to parse. An alternative phrasing, that may be clearer (I’m guessing at what was intended to be conveyed in the first sentence): “The Architect’s focus is on the Veil itself, and the direct interaction of the thinking self with the digital world. The Architect’s mastery of the Veil is such that his thoughts translate directly into digital dreams – and even his subconscious manifests itself in electric echoes. The manipulation of the Veil and the ramifications thereof are predominant elements of this playbook.”

The Attached

holy shit do I want to play one of these. Someone give me my lonely carnivorous 11th generation iPhone/brain prosthetic/completely externalized memory bank, in whose absence I am dull-witted and completely amnesiac, and whose hunger is for every scrap of private information.

The Catabolist

Junkware, pg 163. First question: is the function of the absorbed cyberware determined by the player (“modify it into cybernetics…”), or is this a fictional positioning thing (“You found a gun. You can have a gun. Maybe modify it into an electrogun. It’s not a satellite, though. It’s a gun”)?

Second Junkware question: “When you … to take your junkware and modify it into cybernetics you then incorporate into yourself, …. hold 2, or hold 1,” with the first choice being “you do so, and add one tag to describe it.”

Maybe this is just a move construction thing, but I’m a bit unclear: is it actually an option to “hit” on this move and not “do so”? What does it look like to “[not] do so”, while spending 2 hold to “not require a negative tag; not be harmed”? It seems like choosing the two harm mitigation options is weird, because you’ve “hit” without actually getting what the move does on a hit (which is “incorporate it into yourself”).

That is, does the rule as currently written mean something different from:

“When you… hit, you incorporate (the junkware) into yourself, and add one tag to describe it. On a 10+, it either doesn’t require a negative tag, or doesn’t harm you”.

Or, third reading, does the first choice actually mean “add a bonus tag”?

Or, fourth reading, does not selecting that first choice equal the 7-9 on “Assimilation”, and eventually your body rejects it?

The Empath

“Absorb,” pg 186. Target PC, “absorb all their spikes (for an emotion)”. Option 4 on the roll, “you completely clear out or fill up all their emotion spikes.” Is that to say, that if you choose option 4, you didn’t just clear out all the spikes for the targeted emotion, you cleared out all the spikes for all the emotions?

The Executive

Starting Capital: Because the player is choosing a +1cap and a -1cap Board trait at start, it’s correct to understand the Exec should have +0 cap until he’s managed to add on another Agenda by spending an advance?

Increasing Capital: There appears to be the move “get a new Board option”, and one called “pick one Agenda that can never be crossed out.” It seems like these are probably meant to refer to the same thing, but since the different terms abut right against one another on the character sheet I wasn’t sure if that was the correct reading.

Mandatory Contracts: These are listed as coming up with payment up front but, unlike paying contracts, don’t have any numbers attached. I get the impression our exec, on average, is supposed to finish his missions up just ahead of break-even, so he’s always spinning plates. If so, what is the “correct” number of creds to aim for here, so as not to strangle the player, nor to make the plate-spinning too easy and undermine the playbook’s style?

Honed

Lifting the veil, p205, lists that he’d need a device to lift the veil. I take it this refers to using “Lift the Veil” to “(search the) vast information database like the internet” (pg 52). Since Lifting the Veil is also “piercing the constant illusion”, I take it the Honed only needs a device for specific fictional positioning involving searching the Veil rather than seeing through it to the world underneath?

“Reprisal”, pg 215. Wording seemed unclear. I had to re-read a couple of times before I understood that it meant that, if I rolled a hit to Neutralize my (target of reprisal), I’d get one bonus hold on the Neutralize move.

Skilled, pg 230. “Skilled” is used in lower-case, which makes it look like an adjective instead of a reference to the actual move (“When you’re outnumbered and need to shift the odds…. use an improvement to choose the skilled move to level the playing field”, and again in the first sample MC paragraph, “already have 1 hold, since you’re skilled, if…”).

That’s as far as I’ve gotten today. Whew.

Fraser Simons Are there any interviews or articles around w/ insight into why you chose to go with Emotional States as the core mechanic for the Veil? What core gameplay texture was being aimed for, and what type of play to emerge vs. what you’d expect to see with stat-based play?

Or you could talk about it here, if you like 🙂