so I am working on a new game. I have been a gamer for almost 30 years, I have written a dozen or so unpublished games over the years. I recently divorced and i am distancing myself from the fantasy rule system i developed during that time in my life. Im making a near future sci-fi RPG, set 10-20 years from now. It is a more subtle take to shadowrun, cyberpunk, cybergeneration, bubble gum crisis etc.

rules are light, setting is heavy and Im writing a novel to go along side it. I am interested in some balancing and background as I go, mostly on guns and damage and that sort of thing.

Players are general outcasts, often downtrodden. Play is street samurai style with a lot of ex-mercenaries and the ilk.
Players chose from one of several base types, Technological Adepts, Psychics, Mutants and CyberAugmented. You can be Normal too. :)

Things are more subtle, Psychics arent throwing cars, they are barely using telepathy and maybe floating keys across a room. Mutants are likely to have catclaws, not full on wolvers, things are simple. Believability is pretty high on the list, wits and good roleplaying should get players through trouble, not techno-magic, but there is a little.

The game is tied to a series I have been building, this setting the early eras with another set of events taking place in about 30 years, then a post-technological setting after that, splitting those in space from those on the ground, this book, Silicon Children is about life before those powerful events and part of what leads up to it. Im interested in creating 'roleplaying for the modern generation' and Im incorporating things like calculators and phone based die-rollers. Im going to add a section on using a deck of cards to determine outcome so things stay nice and simple. Core rules are based aroiund a bell curve on a d100 percentile. Not using much besides that, with attributes putting base roles between 4-60% and difficulty or skill moving the other 40% either way.

Id love some help with balancing once i get a bit further underway and Im open to general questions and such as it goes. Im aiming to create the game as a hobby venture with the novel creating the bulk of sales.

so I wanted to mention Im not working on much besides the novel right now, but here is a link to the website I bought to house the IP

www.siliconchildren.com

Right now I have a basic timeline Im building, an intro and the start of a character development tree, Ill post the alpha rules once Im further along, again Im mostly focusing on the novel right now.