Do you dig sci-fi~cyberpunk~fantasy~dystopia? Playtesters Wanted!

[Dante Guano]

Game:
Halcyon: Dawn of Apocalypse

Synopsis:
The year is now 2115, and the world is still rebuilding from the great Cataclysm of three years prior. From the ashes of Manhattan Island, the new city of Halcyon is being constructed. The North American Consolidated Federation is dogmatic in its intent to rebuild the region and establish Halcyon as the new beacon of modern civilization, as a testament to the greatness of western civilization, and as the promise of golden years ahead for the billions of disenfranchised individuals. In this new city of opportunity, beneath the towering skyscrapers and the gleaming arcology, wars have begun over who will claim the spoils and rise to power in what is to become the keystone city of the Federation. The Federation and its military, foreign governments, megacorporations, organized crime syndicates, arms dealers, drug runners, fanatics, anarchists, and countless other factions all enter the fray to control the rise (or fall) of Halcyon and place their claim on the future of civilization. All eyes are upon this highly-coveted and contested megopolis. And for good reason. As Halcyon goes, so does the world.

System:
This RPG uses an entirely new gaming system using actual compound statistical probabilities to determine outcomes, only it's straightforward and relatively simple.  If you can muddle through comparing multiple success rolls and determining what they all mean (as seen in other systems), you'll whizz through resolutions using this system.  The character sheets are also straightforward and provide base target numbers on the front page so players don't have to flip through the rulebook.

Crux:
Whatever I post here is fair and well, but what matters is what you think.  After all, I am developing this RPG for you, the die-hard fans of sci-fi, cyberpunk, fantasy, and dystopia.

The source:
www.halcyonrpg.com

There you will find the Quick Start Guide, which shall serve as the Playtesting Handbook, as well as the Character Sheet.  Both are in pdf format.  Please feel free to download and distribute.  But, above all, have fun! 

Thanks for your interest.

[Miedvied]

Pretending the blind call for playtesters isn't against the Connections forum rules...

I was going to try and describe my look-over of their quick start guide in terms of "this crossed with that", and was trying to come up with a good description. I think a fast and easy one would be "shadowrun crossed with rifts." If this, then, strikes you as your basic cyberpunk-Heartbreaker RPG, well, it is. There isn't much more to say beyond that. I think the six column, sixteen row table for figuring out your initiative is probably a dead give-away. (Or the nine-step guideline on how to figure out your chance of success for shooting a gun.) There's also a full six (or seven?) pages of equipment shopping, and I don't think that included the cyberware.

So, yeah. If you're into Shadowrun, with a more Rifts-y mechanic, you should jump all over this. If those games aren't up your alley, you already know what to do with this one.

My only criticism (that is, that has nothing to do with pure subjective taste) is that (a) the system does /nothing/ to actually give you a cyberpunk feel, it's just a generic combat system with too much wargaming detail [I'm hoping it's just my oversight, 'cause I didn't even see anything in there about doing 'net runs], and (b) there's absolutely nothing in your guide to convey setting, mood, color, et al. Basically, your system's only concern with cyberpunk/dystopia is the mention of cyberware, but there's nothing cyberpunk/dystopian/etc. /in/ the rules, system, or text. One would be no more or less pulled into a cyberpunk mood if they were using GURPS, FUDGE, or any other generic system. If it weren't for the website proclaiming it was all about cyberpunk, the only thing out that entire text that would have tipped me off would be the cyberware comments (and the presence of fantasy races, but that only tipped me off because it was clear that you were coming from Shadowrun).

Constructive Criticism: Is there perhaps some method to introduce a mechanic that would tend to lead the characters towards actual cyberpunk play? I've always been interested in relating hit points to money, for instance, as a throwback to the line in /Neuromancer/ in which Case talked about the speed of biz' in the sprawl - where if you stopped moving and hustling for even a second, you'd be killed and cannibalized. Certainly gives some incentive to doing dirty business and runs left and right. Nothing else major jumps out at me, but it's an idea.

[Dante Guano]

Thanks for your thoughtful reponse.  Your feedback was insightful and of high quality.  You most assuredly know what you are talking about and I agree wholeheartedly with every point that you made.

It is important to point out that the only real material that you had to go off of was the Quick Start Guide.  That guide is meant to allow newcomers to the game an opportunity to learn the core mechanics of the system.  To anyone reading this post, the Quick Start Guide does NOT contain the following:
- Background narrative regarding the setting, time, or chronological sequence of events leading up to the instance that the game begins
- Rules regarding the use or availability of cyberware
- Rules regarding the use of magic
- Rules regarding earning & spending experience and character advancement
- Material that conveys any sort of mood or atmosphere
- the other 80% of the RPG as a whole

Again, the Quick Start Guide ONLY contains the mechanics of building a character and resolving combat and skill tests, along with a sneak peek at some gear that will be available in future releases.  The challenge that I was presented with was how to cram as much basic info into a small amount of space.  I was only able to convey the basic rules within 64 pages of text after widening the margins, reducing everything to 10-point font, and editing out some content.

Now for some reassurance.  I presently have 216 pages of material, sans illustrations, that have been completed and they do contain a hefty amount of narrative that delves into the future history of the world, the rise of the Federation and martial law, megacorps, and all of the gritty details that give you a real feel for the setting.  There is also a hefty amount of cyberware, including my vision of what the prophesized mark of the beast shall be.  Furthermore, I have completed hacking rules, rules for magic use, shapeshifting, and summoning, along with extensive spellbooks, sample characters, common villans and NPCs, a GM guide, and all the other goodies that one would expect to find in a solid 350 page role-playing book.

At this moment, I am working on producing a Playtester's Guide that DOES contain the material that was edited out of the Quick Start Guide and which is obvoiusly of vital importance to interpreting the game.  I will be attending the Origins Expo in Columbus at the end of this month and my goal is have hard copies of the Playtester's Guide to distribute.  As soon as it is completed, it will be made available at the HalcyonRPG web site.  When not at work or sleeping, I'm working my @$$ off to get this project done.

You described the rules contained in the Guide as a "generic system."  Thank you for seeing it as such.  My key objective was to create a system that was equally balanced in power with regard to melee combat, ranged combat, firearms, and magic.  It should work equally well whether you are shelling a limousine with a gatling gun, casting the canonical fireball, or slashing your way through a vast subterranean dwelling.

You described the game as Shadowrun crossed with Rifts.  Thank you for seeing it as such.  I admit that I like Rifts for what it has to offer - great artwork and an interesting conceptual manifestation.  I have been a huge fan of Shadowrun ever since the first edition, back when I was still pedaling my bike around the neighborhood.  When I started composing the Halcyon RPG, I set out to rectify what I saw as shortcomings in both of the aforementioned games.  This is *off the record*.
1) The System: The Shadowrun system always irked me because of how counter-intuitive and convoluted it was.  It was really cumbersome.  On the other side, the Rifts system is grossly oversimplified and completely arbitrary.  Before I began writing a story for Halcyon, I began drafting a system that corrected those flaws and I did so using logic, intuition, and statistical analysis.
2) The Conflict: While there is potential for greater depth in both of the other universes, they can both be reduced to simple, unilateral conflicts.  In Rifts, it is the Coalition against everyone else.  In Shadowrun, it is the megacorporations versus each other using runners as paramilitary assets.  I wanted to widen the horizons a bit and add in an element of epic good versus evil and incorporate more international involvement.
3) The Relevance: The context of the other games is dated.  I wanted to introduce themes that are particularly relevant to everyone in 2006.

Again, nothing has been released that conveys the depth or expansiveness of the Halcyon universe.  This is certainly a work in process.  Please be patient and more shall come in due time.

Regarding the "Pretending the blind call" statement, I don't understand what you mean.  I'm a single individual intent on contributing something to the RPG community trying to gain some insight from others who probably know a lot more about role-playing than I do.  If I sounded too corporate in my posting, I apologize.  My aim was to be clear and well-spoken.  I realize that I write like a damn attorney.  Oh well, it's better than L337 ZOMG!!!!111, right?

In closing, I would like to state that you have done an exceptional job in your analysis with the very little that you were provided.  I will take your observations to heart and I hope to hear more from you in the future.  Thanks again!

[Miedvied]

Thanks for your thoughtful reponse.  Your feedback was insightful and of high quality.  You most assuredly know what you are talking about and I agree wholeheartedly with every point that you made.

It is important to point out that the only real material that you had to go off of was the Quick Start Guide.  That guide is meant to allow newcomers to the game an opportunity to learn the core mechanics of the system.  To anyone reading this post, the Quick Start Guide does NOT contain the following:
- Background narrative regarding the setting, time, or chronological sequence of events leading up to the instance that the game begins
- Rules regarding the use or availability of cyberware
- Rules regarding the use of magic
- Rules regarding earning & spending experience and character advancement
- Material that conveys any sort of mood or atmosphere
- the other 80% of the RPG as a whole

You're absolutely correct. I was just trying to give a heads-up based on what I could see. I had no doubt that those rules would be forthcoming, though I admit, I think putting in at least a rough outline of your cyberware and magic rules into the quick start guide would be a good idea. Mostly, because if someone's shopping around for a cyberpunk RPG, or a shadowrun-esque RPG, those are the two primary areas of mechanics they're going to be investigating.

Again, the Quick Start Guide ONLY contains the mechanics of building a character and resolving combat and skill tests, along with a sneak peek at some gear that will be available in future releases.  The challenge that I was presented with was how to cram as much basic info into a small amount of space.  I was only able to convey the basic rules within 64 pages of text after widening the margins, reducing everything to 10-point font, and editing out some content.

A strictly personal nit-pick is that that much mechanics would drive me insane. But that's strictly personal; it's not a comment on your system, or Shadowrun's, that when I played SR I had a tendency to gut the system and use only its hollow, shambling shell for my games.

Now for some reassurance.  I presently have 216 pages of material, sans illustrations, that have been completed and they do contain a hefty amount of narrative that delves into the future history of the world, the rise of the Federation and martial law, megacorps, and all of the gritty details that give you a real feel for the setting.  There is also a hefty amount of cyberware, including my vision of what the prophesized mark of the beast shall be.  Furthermore, I have completed hacking rules, rules for magic use, shapeshifting, and summoning, along with extensive spellbooks, sample characters, common villans and NPCs, a GM guide, and all the other goodies that one would expect to find in a solid 350 page role-playing book.

I'm shooting blind here, but I just thought I'd make the pre-emptive suggestion that you really focus on pointing out (and hopefully, introducing a mechanic to coerce the results) how one can incorporate magic, and dwarves, etc. without diminishing the cyberpunk feel. I don't think SR ever succeeded in that (in fact, went in quite the opposite direction, and turned into earthdawn with guns). I imagine it's no easy task to incorporate fireballs and elves and still maintain a cyberpunk feel; it's probably important to try, though. ("Do Golems Dream of Theurgic Sheep?")

You described the rules contained in the Guide as a "generic system."  Thank you for seeing it as such.  My key objective was to create a system that was equally balanced in power with regard to melee combat, ranged combat, firearms, and magic.  It should work equally well whether you are shelling a limousine with a gatling gun, casting the canonical fireball, or slashing your way through a vast subterranean dwelling.

You could probably include some cyberpunk-mechanics without compromising its combat-balance. For one thing, if* you want the game to step away from being straight "runs", you should probably have as in-depth and emphasized a mechanic focusing on social conflict resolution as you do on combat. (* I emphasize that if, because maybe you don't - doing straight runs is fun, too.) Some social mechanic seems important, though, considering I can't imagine any other method of interacting with an AI, which probably can't be overlooked in a cyberpunk game. I certainly don't want to see what's left of the gibbering mess of a runner that tries to out-hack an AI and go in for combat resolution. I guess it all depends on the flavor of cyberpunk involved. For an SR-type of cyberpunk game, I'd be tempted to put in some sort of "life" token (like "lives" in an arcade game.) Considering how often it becomes very much like a small-party urban war-game, it seems like some sort of game resource that allows you to save your character from a bad roll streak would be appreciated.

Regarding the "Pretending the blind call" statement, I don't understand what you mean.  I'm a single individual intent on contributing something to the RPG community trying to gain some insight from others who probably know a lot more about role-playing than I do.  If I sounded too corporate in my posting, I apologize.  My aim was to be clear and well-spoken.  I realize that I write like a damn attorney.  Oh well, it's better than L337 ZOMG!!!!111, right?

Ah, sorry for being unclear. I was being snide, and I shouldn't have been. To explain, though; there's a sticky at the top of this forum, named "using this forum." It has the line:
"Exception: if you have a game in design and seek playtesting, then post in Indie Design with substantive discussion material. You'll get playtesters if there's any discernible reason why'd they'd want to. Don't post here with a blind call." I was making a reference to that. But like I said, I was being snide - sorry.

And I'm always glad to be of help.

[mediapig]

Actually, I can understand his confusion... I am looking for playtesters myself, and different stickies point to different forums... one spot mentioned to post here, so I did as well... sorry if this is the wrong place, I'll put one up on Indy Design as well.  Thanks!

[Dante Guano]

OK, hopefully I can clear this up.  Fact is, there are some conflicting posts.  The INDIE DESIGN forum was closed months ago, so posting anything there would be like posting it in a black hole.  The sticky comment made in the beginning of the CONNECTIONS forum, which stated that anyone who was looking for playtesters should post to INDIE DESIGN, was obviously posted when the INDIE DESIGN forum was still in active use.

Here is what I have taken as the definitive word on the subject.  Please refer to the Topic: Rules for the Playtesting Forum, which may be found in PLAYTESTING.  I present to you an abridged excerpt.

March 23, 2006
Thunder_God posted: "Where do we post material that we want others to playtest?"

March 23, 2006
Ron Edwards posted: "That'd be Connnections, as you describe it - 'Here it is, play it, thanks.'"

Even after reading that, I scanned the CONNECTIONS forum throughly to ensure that it was appropriate to post a notice for playtesters.  When I realized that others had posted such notices with impunity, I followed suit.  Hope that info helps out.