One Thousand and One Nights and One Night
a role-playing game campaign design ’zine
Just a Mechanical Boy!
This issue I’m talking about the
cyberpunk genre. I’ve got a setting
background and design, some sad
personal news and a few other
things. Enjoy!
Sad News, Sad News, to
Fair London Came
Our beloved cat, Tess, passed away on February
20th after a short battle with cancer. She was 14.
As you can see by this picture, she was a
polydactyl cat (she had an
extra toe on each front
paw–6 toes total!). She was
quite the talker (sometimes
too much at night) but every
time I had a game at my
house, she would come out
and greet the guests, then
she’d come back later to check up on everyone.
She will be missed very much.
Cyberpunk Background
I’ve got a hard time doing a straight–up sci fi
game (as I’ve mentioned before). So magic is
going to be included in this game. But I’m not
going to follow the Shadowrun
(Catalyst) timeline. Since I’m
not totally familiar with it, it’s
not going to change my views
too much. Instead, I’m going to
mix bits of several other settings
into the cauldron. The bit of
GURPS Technomancer (Steve
Jackson Games), where magic
came back into the world during the Trinity
Test in 1945. At that time, elves and goblins
stepped back into the world, too (kinda a riff off
of John M. Ford’s The Last Hot Time). I’ll use
the standard Elves and Dwarves templates from
Savage Worlds! (Pinnacle), with the Dwarves
being mechanical expert goblins, with the
appearance of Brian Froud’s goblins.
(continued on Page 2, Second Column)
Content © Wooden Leg Named Smith Productions 2008
Website: 1001nightsand1night.110mb.com
Vol.: 2, Issue: 25, March 1, 2008
Cyberpunk Setting Design
I don’t believe that I’ve ever run a game of
cyberpunk, or even Shadowrun (Catalyst). And
that’s been an interesting lapse in my gaming
circle. I’ve got GURPS Cyberpunk and
Cthulhupunk (Steve Jackson
Games), and I’ve read through
D20 Modern Cyberscape
(WotC) from my local library. I
think I’ve been a player in a
cyberpunk game and I’ve read
most of William Gibson’s stuff,
too. Is it because it’s a dark
dystopian future that’s caused me to pause?
Maybe. I usually run hopeful games. But then
again, maybe dark is the change I need. I’m
sure I can get it going, I just have to answer
“how would I run a cyberpunk game?”
First, I’m going to cheat. I have to have the PCs
as a cohesive group (despite what may happen
later), so I’m going to set
the group up to follow the
cyberpunk setting from
GURPS Robin Hood (Steve
Jackson Games). It’s a
pretty neat thought–In the
future, a rich netrunner
decides to help the poor by
stealing from the rich
mega–corps around her.
She takes the handle of Robin Hood and
gathers a group of street samurai (whom she
pays very well) to help out. It’s got plenty of
opportunities for combat, netrunning, and
drama (always a good staple of the genre) as
well as the possibility of treachery! It gives me
plenty of leeway on some other stuff.
I’m not going to use GURPS (Steve Jackson
Games), though, nor D20 Modern (WotC).
Since my group really likes Savage Worlds!
(Pinnacle), that’s going to be the system of
choice. I checked out the various SW!
conversions available and found one for
Cyberpunk 2020 (R. Talsorian) that has
cyberware mods and some other rules
(continued on Page 2, First Column)
published in association with the Corvis Babbage Cliological Society
’zine art is either open source or through fair use of copyrighted works
One Thousand and One Nights and One Night
a role-playing game campaign design ’zine
Cyberpunk Setting (cont.)
conversions. I also have a few of the toolkit
PDFs from Pinnacle that may come in handy:
Sci Fi Gear Toolkit and Pulp Gear Toolkit
(Pinnacle). A big decision is whether to mix in
magic, like Shadowrun (Catalyst) or leave it
out. I’m going to buck the system and include
it, but develop my own setting background,
which I hope will be more evocative than that
(so I can add another PDF to the soup, the
Fantasy Gear Toolkit).
I’m going to start the PCs off as Novice + 2
raises, not quite to Seasoned, but close. Up–
and–coming Bad–Asses.
That should give them a
good start (especially if
they buy cyberware). I’ll
require they each take
Loyalty (minor Hindrance)
to their employer and
they’ll start with between
around $6K cash for gear.
That should get them some
cyberware without it going completely
overboard.
Since this is cyberpunk, another discussion
that’s got to occur is character–vs.–character
conflict, whether we want to have the option of
PC death(s) occur during play by the other PCs.
That’s an important bit of info, as I can see that
getting out of hand, with hurt feelings and such.
On a related note, I personally want treachery
to occur during the game (whether it will result
in PC death remains to be seen) and I plan on
coming right out and saying “One of you will
betray the others at some point during this
game. You’ll be faced with a situation that will
lead you to it.” This will be facilitated by
allowing that PC
to change their
Loyalty hindrance
to something else
and would add
some of the
grimness of the
setting to play.
Content © Wooden Leg Named Smith Productions 2008
Website: 1001nightsand1night.110mb.com
Page 2
Vol.: 2, Issue: 25, March 1, 2008
1-900-Nerd-Girl
Youtube has a pretty funny video
from the Monkey Box comedy
guys (www.themonkeybox.com)
that spoofs a porn call line. Just
go to Youtube.com and search
for “1-900-Nerd-Girl” and you’re
sure to find it. Please note: this
number is not real. It definitely
got a smile out of my gf (as
notorious a non-geek that ever
was). The Monkey Box group has
about 25 other videos that are
also pretty funny, so check them out.
Where’s the Duck Love?
Old school gamers probably remember the
Ducks from Glorantha when they first appeared
in RuneQuest (Chaosium, et al). There have
been unfounded and baseless complaints that
humanoid ducks are just plain silly and “how
could you have a serious game with a duck PC?”
Well, I’m a great big fan of the Duck and proud
to say it! Recently there’s a thread on RPG.net
about them. It’s a pretty interesting read.
Cyberpunk Background (cont.)
Half-orcs are going to be converted to a half-
demon breed. That’ll give some heaven–hell
stuff to the mix that I’ll exploit later. If demons
are real, then where are the angels? The game
year will be 2025 and I’ll include most modern
stuff. I figure that if it makes sense to exist,
then it should–both to the benefit and
detriment of the PCs, of course. History will
follow our world’s history except there will be
more magic (duh!) but on the whole, most of
what has already occurred has happened, the
specifics can be different (for example,
Kennedy was shot and killed by Oswald using a
new “magic bullet” spell). After about 2008,
mega–corps came into their own and the
introduction of cyberware in 2010 changed
everything. Since I’m starting the PCs in the
skids, some of them may remember better
times (if they’re old enough) when gas was $3 a
gallon!
published in association with the Corvis Babbage Cliological Society
’zine art is either open source or through fair use of copyrighted works