#they need to invent a way for me to find a darker shade of orange that doesnt make me want to vomit over how brown it is.

[teabiscs]

theyre crazy in love, your honor.

(yuriy just doesn't realize it yet.)

[unikornu]

Page 12, The Gals Time, L&L,

The sun was slowly reaching a horizon casting a strong orange shade on the Nuka Town. Lucy and Gage were on the way back from another journey out into the dry desert, their spirits up as nothing seemed to disturb their routine of slowly getting the gangs under control. 

-Boss, are you sure you had nothing to do with that haunted little girl crap story? You seem pretty capable of causing mayhem from what i’ve seen. Gage joked and enjoyed the view in front of him as the boss was swinging her hips to the sides, puffing a smoke of his cigarette in the air. 

-Just because someone had a same name doesn’t mean its me, c'mon we know it was not even real. She kicked open the door to Fizztop and turned towards the elevator. - But i could show you something that is pretty fucking real..upstairs, if you catch my drift. She looked at him, biting her lips and leaned with her back to the wall at the elevator’s door. 

The more time they were spending together without arguing and fighting instead, pushing their plans onward the more deeper she seemed to fall into the rough raider and this post-nuclear lifestyle as it fitted her as well, even better than the one she had before. Gage wasn’t pushing her hidden suggestions away as often as he used to before, approaching her with his usual grin and looking down at her with certain satisfaction in his eye.

-Ohh…I bet you could start even on the way up hm? He punched a button next to her shoulder and as their lips were shortening the distance Gage suddenly stopped and pulled back up. 

- What now…? Lucy pouted and puffed at him, slightly annoyed by breaking the moment. 

- The elevator Boss…it is up, it never is as we leave. Something ain’t right. Someone else used it. They both backed off from the door with their weapons ready as the lift arrived down, its door opened, empty.

  -That someone might still be up there. Use the outside one and i will go from here. And take this, it might be a trap. She threw him a stealth boy and entered the elevator. 

- Ok Boss, just…be careful. They nodded at each other and as the door closed she crouched low and hugged the corner inside. Raider at the same time covered himself invisible and moved up from the outside.

 *ding* The door slide open, Lucy awaiting in the shadows for any sounds of steps from the room. Silence. She stood up and walked silently towards the patio eyeballing for anything suspicious around. Upon approaching the the two winged door she put her ear to the wooden rough structure of it, hearing just Gage arriving up. She opened the door slowly peeking through a small crack seeing just a dark tall silhouette. She gasped loudly and fell back as the bullet ripped through the wood right next to her cheek. - Fuck! He’s at the bar! Take this fucker down!

Gage heard the signal and as he was about to shove some lead into the man’s head his camouflage worn off. The man dodged the bullet, ducking behind the bar, answering the fire with the laser pistol. Using the distraction Lucy rolled towards the middle bar. She noticed the man wearing a long blue coat and a round classic hat, his face covered with a metalic mask and something that looked like a minuteman sign on his sleeve. As the men were exchanging bullets, shuttering everything to a pieces on their way she noticed that the stranger started heading towards the broken window pulling a stealth device from his pocket.

  - Oh no, you ain’t going anywhere sir. She threw her knife swiftly, its blade flying towards the man’s leg as he was about to make a long jump outside, losing his balance in a process and falling straight down to the hard concrete. The sound of body squashing upon the impact almost pulled the disgust on both of their faces but it turned fast into a chuckle. - Lets go see who the hell he was, maybe there is still something…scrapable. She ordered and rode down with the raider.

To their surprise the body was no longer down, vanished, only blood splattered around, her knife and a holotape, undamaged. She picked it up and shoved into the pipboy.

  “After a week her signal disappeared at the station. Next signal appeared almost a month later from the location…called..safari adventure? whatever, one of our bots managed to catch their plot. She wasn’t kidnapped or lost, neither she’s dead. Instead turned on us and the Commonwealth…traitorous bitch. We need to take her down before. When u finish, put the eyebot back on the patrol. I want to know everything so minutemen can prepare…”

-Oh my God…i forgot that Sturges installed that chip…in my pipboy in case of…. Fuck. Her face paled as she look back at Gage, her hands shaking.

-Boss…i will be fucking serious right now. Gage forehead wrinkled heavily as his eyebrows twitched into the anger. - You did not tell the fucking minuteman that you are done with them eh? You did not think for a single second that they might be fucking looking for you?! And that u have a fucking tracking chip in pipboy!  He approached her closer poking her chest with a finger, strong enough to make her lose balance. - You just endangered our whole plan with your stupid impulse thinking! And you know what? You gonna deal with it on your own this time because i will be busy setting up whatever shit i can at gauntlet and all over the Nuka Town to cover our fucking asses from being swarmed by minutemen or whoever was this guy. Good luck Boss. He moved her out of the way like a piece of furniture and stormed off deep into Nuka Town without even waiting to hear her back.

  -Gage wait…eh, shit.  She felt like their relationship resembled a sinusoid, going up and down so often but he was right this time, again…She stood confused thinking about her next move but it was first time she was on her own with a task at hand like that. Gage needed her in different matters but she relied on his advices so long that being now, without him made her feel helpless and unsure. After a moment of pondering it came to her mind that there is still one more person she can trust as much and that won’t judge her foolish actions, Lizzie Wyath.

-----

  Lizzie was spending most of the time in her laboratory, down the stairs under the Parlor where no one would bother her brilliant shy mind. But she was always all ears and mouth when it came to Boss, turning into a chatterbox that seemed to have no end. 

-Boss, what a nice surprise! Came to check in on my latest inventions or…maybe you wanna test some on your own? She approached her excited about the visit holding a vial that was releasing a strong stinky cloud in the air.

- Actually, i was about to ask you out. For a…field trip. You and me. Secret mission. Lucy was waving the hand under her nose to push the smoke away from her nostrils and coughing a bit.

  - Out? No no…you know i hate field missions. I only agreed to come here because Mags promised me my own laboratory and that she will use me only when its reaaaaally necessary. Lizzie turned back to her shelf full of vials but was stopped by the boss grabbing her by the upper arms and turning back at her.

-It is necessary Lizzie. I fucking need you and your brain right now. I fucked up badly and i could really use your help, please? I promise that if u agree i will then sit with you whole evening and test whatever weird ass shit stuff you want. Lucy was desperate shaking her as she started explaining what happened. Lizzie released her arms and raised the palms of her hands towards the boss trying to calm her down.

  -Okay okay cool off, chip, robot, minutemen. I will….help but come on first, lets sit and explain me the plan of ours as i get that chip out of your pipboy.

  Lizzie was the second person that Lucy came clear in terms of trust. She almost didn’t fit to the whole place and raider style but beneath that delicate darker skin and tired eyes the inventions and mental arsenal she could deliver proved very useful and scary at times to the Operators. After all she was also like a family member for Mags and William. The deadly trio since the very teenage times. Her introvertic bobble was poping every time she had a occasion to spend some alone time with boss, filling each other with stories and gossip around the town, bringing back some memories on how it was nice to chatter late night and drink without worrying about the gun pulled to the back of the head.

-Aaaaand there it is, that Sturges seem to know his stuff. Well attached, and it didn’t burn after all that time. Lizzie pulled with tweezers very gently a small square piece of tech out of the pipboy, almost impressed. - So..what do you want to do with it? She asked, putting her tools back at the shelf below.

Lucy took a chip, humming under her nose and spinning it in her fingers. After a short thought process she threw it to the ground and smashed with a heel of her boot. - Well, that! Now grab your stuff and lets go to safari to find that bot before i will join the Gage’s club of having another half the town blame me for some shitty mistakes.

  -Oh boy, right behind you Boss. Lizzie pulled a goggles up and snatched the plasma pistol along with a small bag of tools from the drawer. They headed out in a rush through the back door to avoid Mags and William stopping them to asnwer as to whats going on as Lizzie going out was already a strange evenement.

----

  -Sooooo…..how is he? Hm? Lizzie broke a silence as they were on their way towards the Safari Park, the darkness of the incoming night surrounding them and only flickering lights of a distant buildings being their guide.

-Hm, who? Porter? She looked surprised by a direct question but seeing her relaxed face and corner of her lips raised slightly up she knew its a girl chit chat time. - Well…he’s not the most talkative man on the planet but he definitely recompense it with actions and uhm..looks. 

-Mmmm, what kind of actions? You like that rough bastard don’t ya? Lizzie soft corner smile turned into a grin pushing more personal questions upon her and seeing her blush more and more with each minute and her tongue tangling in words trying to explain that its nothing too serious.

- Oh, dammit Lizzie. I don’t even know if he would like….i mean, he said he cares about me, shit but..maybe in his own way. Fuck i don’t know. Lucy shook her head trying to get rid of the soft emotional thoughts slamming into her and get back on the task.  - We will talk it over once we are done and drunk enough for this crap, okay?

  -Sure thing Boss, lets find that flying can. Where was it last time? Up on a tree eh? Lizzie prepared her plasma gun as they entered the safari. The park belonged to the pack. They passed in silence, through the bushes, passing behind a patrol to avoid any unnecessary attention and discussions. Last thing she wanted is to word to spread out about the whole fuckupery. They managed to pass unnoticed into the labyrinth. On the last turn towards the elevator from behind the corner something or someone big bumped right into them pushing them both on their asses. 

-Boss? Lizzie? Now that is a nice surprise indeed, two lovely birds at the same time. Mason laughed and offered them both of his hands so they can pull themselves up. - So…what these two little birds are looking for around my turf hmm? He brushed and twirled the moustache in his fingers eyeballing them both. 

-Uhg, fuck, fine. We are looking for the eyebot, that was on the treehouse before. We kind of…need it for a special project. Lucy did what she could to sound confident in her half lie but Mason was a hard piece.

-Eyebot eh? U mean…that eyebot? He pulled a pile of scrap from behind and threw it down in front of them, one of pieces landing up on Lizzie’s foot.

  -Ouch, goddamit Mason - she squeaked and pulled her foot away. -Why did u smash it? It was kind of important. For my project. 

-Project ye……it wouldn’t let my boys sleep as it was bipping pretty loud as of late. Also if u excuse me i want to have a private chat with a Boss. Mason shooed Lizzie with a hand and as she disappeared out of view in the labyrinth bushes he turned his eyes to Lucy, with a suspicious glare.  

-So, Boss, what really is going on huh? And where is your golden boy, Porter? He approached her closer, taking a bunch of her hair and letting it slide through his palm. 

-Let’s say that i forgot to…burn some last threads related to some people before i took this job and we are fixing it, separate ways this time tho. There was no point lying to him now as it was also one of few occasions they could talk business alone. She let him play with her hair and simply stood there without moving.

  -Well, that has been taken care of...kind of. You can take whatever is left of that scrap with your lovely operator, to be sure,  but…there is one more matter. He leaned towards her, grabbing her chin and pulling her face up. With Gage around he would probably get punched by this time but they were alone. - The parks seem to be running out and there obviously is too many of us. I can see you go into Mags favor, i can understand it, caps are tops but…what about me hm? How do we stand in your plan Boss? Lucy decided it was the best moment to reveal her future plan to Mason as there wasn’t a chance anyone would eavesdrop on them or see them talking in private. Pure coincidence right on the spot.

- Operators will have three parks, u will keep two…but…i will give you the pleasure of slaughtering and ripping apart the last gang that won’t belong anywhere, the disciples. Mason liked what he just heard and a wide grin grew on his face.

  - I knew you were a smart lady. I swear i could fuck you right here for what u just said. Mason licked his lips but the spiky tip of the knife between his legs gave him a fair warning to back off with his idea. He released her and moved on, chuckling under his nose and sending a wink to Lizzie as he passed her by.

  He seems to have a big....appetite. So…we are okay? Can we go back to my lab now? She approached the boss scanning carefully the pieces of the eyebot, looking for anything unusual and then back at her inpatient.

  -Lizzie, listen. You should know too at this point. I talked a bit with Gage about it but never got to organize any safe meeting. Lucy put the hand on her shoulder and shook it in reassurance. - There will be slaughter, we won’t avoid it. Not now but it will happen eventually. I can feel the tension gathering as we draw closer and closer towards the last park. The disciples will have to go, one way or another. I don’t trust Nisha one bit, hell i don’t even know if i can trust Mason but so far he proved a loyal and more reasonable than i would expect. You i trust Lizzie, okay? Tell Mags about the plan but don’t let it slip before it happens right?

  - Wow Boss, that’s…some freaking good news right there. You have my word, of course. And…you really trust me? Me? In this fucked up world, damn. Does it mean…we are…friends of sort?  Lizzie smiled widely at her as she could not refer to many people out there as friends and barely anyone was visiting her. 

-Yes Lizzie, we are friends now if you want but keep your mouth shut about the plan or i will end up on the spike before i turn around to make any further step. She smiled back as they started gathering the scraps together.

- I will make sure there is no single tracking device left in that junk. Or..i could actually rebuilt it and make some fake signals to discourage the minutemen from taking the actions now. Lizzie was scratching her chin pondering about what she could do with that tech.

-Sounds like a good plan. Lets head back. They packed all the parts into a sack and sneaked away towards the Nuka Town.

------

 It was middle of the night, anything crawling towards them was easily heard and eradicated with a bright splash of green plasma flying from Lizzie pistol. They approached an abandoned farm on their way, loud crunching noises coming from behind the house in the distance that made them both feel a bit uneasy but curiosity was stronger, as they walked closer and closer just to see what’s there. A deathclaw, feasting on the unlucky raider ripping his body parts with its claws. Lizzie froze and dropped by a mistake a sack filled with metal disrupting the silence. Deathclaw raised its head and looked right at them. 

-Great Lizzie, i hope you have good enough condition to run the hell out of here. Lucy was pulling her by the sleeve but to her surprise she stood unshaken and started digging in her bag.  

  -Why run Boss if we have these? And i think you gonna like it, my new invention. She pulled an awkwardly big grenade from her bag almost a size barely fitting into her hand with a long strap attached to it. Dozen of explosives power packed into this one baby….boom. The last word shined a spark in a her eyes. Oh she did love grenades indeed.

- The running part still stays tho, now get it Boss! Lizzie pushed the grenade into her hands and started running as the deathclaw thumped towards them. 

- Shit, you and your damn experiments on a go, ok fuck, lets do it. Lucy was no so far behind giving a good spin with a strap. As they could no longer keep the steady distance from the beast she turned abruptly and forced the grenade out, breaking the lock and letting it fly towards the deathclaw. The structure cracked as it got slashed with a claws, releasing smaller ones out that were tightly packed inside. The explosion was so big that they landed few meters ahead on their faces, getting some small burns in the process.

  -Holy shit, Lizzie. Grenade? Its a fucking nuke. Lucy pulled herself up as she noticed a small fire starting on her dress. She patted it repeatedly blowing air after at her hands to cool them off.  Lizzie was not looking any better, the dirt on her face as she managed to land in the puddle of mud, her hair sticking to a face but she seemed happy of the results. Deathclaw was….everywhere, literally, some of its blood on them aswell.

  - How about a drink Boss, in my lab? To a mission well done? And for our incoming future? I have some special stash waiting to be opened. Lizzie smeared the dirt from her face, smiling proudly at the results of her work.

-Oh yes please…Lucy sighted deeply but smiled softly at the thought that the job is done and future situation has been steered into the direction she wanted. Gage would be probably happy too..and the idea of having a drink, maybe two..or just gulping till the morning was certainly tempting as the stress slowly pumped out of her.

------- Well, on a one side Gage was happy as Lizzie skills managed to dump the remaining signal coming from the eyebot, replacing it with something else. He managed to pull some extra security at the gauntlet on his own and even convinced Mason to let some of his dogs for patrols at Town for any new, suspicious visitors. Lucy did scrape some plan together also informing safely the rest about it and succeeded on a way. What he was not happy is to find both of them at the operator lab, sitting drunk on the floor laughing like a couple of a teenage girls with their hair messed up and clothes too after some serious drinking. 

-Opss, i think…i will leave you with your grumpy man. hm? Porter. Lizzie pulled herself up, swinging to the sides and saluting the Gage as she left upstairs. He saluted her back and turned his eye back to the Lucy.

-Boss, were u drinking your asses the rest of the night? And what did u blow? Nearly whole town heard it, scaring the shit out of traders. He was stoic, with his hands crossed at his chest, awaiting answers. 

- Well…let me start by saying that the plan is now in knowledge of both sides, pack and the operators, without any other ears hearing it. She started to slowly stand up, rolling and putting her clothes back in a proper manner. And… we have the eyebot signal at our advantage now. She was blubbering but not stopping to explain. -Aaaand Mason almost wanted to…fuck me in the bushes aaaand we blew up a deathclaw, literally. Gage eyebrow twitched as he heard the part about Mason. 

-Pardon, fucking what? Mason? Fucking horn ass dick. He whispered and shook his head but decided to leave it without any further comment as nothing actually was established between them other than the plan and some occasional unprofessional incidents. 

-Well, i’m glad we have at least the situation back in goddamn control. You…okay boss or do i have to drag your drunk ass back to Fizztop? The thought of him carrying her in his strong big arms made Lucy dream for a moment but the remaining voice of the reason shook her back up. 

-No…u don’t have to Gage. I will tell Lizzy to get me something to sober me up a bit faster and we can meet at the top, plan onward, together, as we were about last evening. That work for ya, big man? She patted his chest and leaned against the table awaiting him to leave but he didn’t. He just stood and stared at her releasing his arms slowly, letting them fall to the side.

  -Ye…about that last evening. I remember you had something pretty fucking specific on your mind Boss and we got disrupted. Her amber eyes raised up as he approached her, grabbing her by hips and lifting up on the table.

 - And Mason..i don’t know what u think of him but he can shove off his rainbow dick somewhere else for now. Now thats what she liked mostly about him. Putting his actions or words right there when she least expected it with no further discussions and sudden wave of confidence that was leaving her snarky comments aside.

-Ya know what…just shut up and come here before something else ruins that shit we have right now. She pulled him by the belt and moved her legs aside allowing him to be right at her.

Lizzie saw them peeking from behind the corner, seeing the flasks dropping to the floor and breaking as they were caught in a wild kiss on her working station but she decided that ruining this moment was not worth some pieces of glass and the view was pretty good. 

 They were back on the upper line.    

[swipestream]

Android Shadow of the Beanstalk Review

I grew up in the 80s, but I was a latecomer to cyberpunk. I loved Blade Runner, and read a few Philip K. Dick short stories, because at one point in the 80s I think 98% of all movies were adapted from one of his stories (this figure may be slightly exaggerated). But I didn’t read Gibson’s Neuromancer, and I never got into the crop of cyberpunk RPGs that I saw popping up in Dragon Magazine over the years. Shadowrun was that game that my friends learned without me when they went off to college.

In fact, what finally got me into cyberpunk was reading collections of Transmetropolitan in my late 20s. When I later picked up on a few more of the staples of cyberpunk, what struck me about Transmetropolitan was that it could be very cynical and grim about its world, and yet have some glimmers of hope in the stories. Life could be terrible and strange, but it could also still be strange and wonderful.

Having set the parameters of my primary interface into the subsystem of science fiction indexed as cyberpunk, let’s plug into the specific coordinates of my vector for this review run, the Fantasy Flight Genesys supplement Shadow of the Beanstalk, a sourcebook for playing in their Android setting.

How Much Chrome Does It Have?

This review is based on both the PDF of the product as well as the hardcover. The product is 258 pages long, with a two-page index in the back. Both formats are in full color, and there are full page pieces of art introducing each chapter, as well as several half-page images, maps, and illustrations of gear throughout the book. Like other Fantasy Flight products, the artwork is high quality, and many of the images may be familiar, as they appear in multiple product lines associated with the Android IP.

Most of the pages are shades of blue, with darker “file folder” sidebars to call out special information. A few sections, such as the section on the net, have a different color scheme, with the net pages appearing almost black, and the adversaries’ chapter being largely in golds and orange.

Introduction

The introduction sets the stage for what this book is, what it details, and what else you will need for a campaign. As a supplement to the Genesys RPG, this product is assuming you will have a copy of both the core rules and at least a set of the narrative dice that Genesys utilizes (experience tells me that you may need more than one set).

Fairly early into the introduction, the book suggests that for a more detailed look at the setting, you may want to pick up a copy of the Worlds of Android art and setting book. This immediately made me wonder how “table ready” this book was going to be, but we’ll revisit that later.

The rest of the introduction outlines the core concepts of the setting. Some of this information is delivered as online articles complete with digressions from a character that is currently hacking into the site. The actual date is never mentioned, but the setting revolves around New Angeles, a mega-city in Ecuador dominated by multi-national corporations, and home to a massive space elevator that provides access to the lunar colony of Heinlein and allows for shipping to Mars.

Why is the setting called the Android setting? One of the defining aspects of future society is the invention of androids. Androids are a term used for competing technologies, fully synthetic mechanical constructs called bioroids, and genetically engineered, purpose-built clones, neither of which have full rights as citizens.

While the setting clearly has cyberpunk elements, including multi-national corporations and a world-spanning computer network, the wars, colonies on Mars and the moon, and social issues like clone and bioroid rights also remind me of science fiction stories like The Expanse series of novels.

Chapter 1: Character Creation

Character creation unfolds in a manner similar to the process outlined in the Genesys core rules, but this section addresses changes in the process. The main points of divergence are the setting specific archetypes, careers, skills, and talents, and the introduction of factions and favors.

Factions are important for the favor economy because they will determine who you owe, and who owes you. Favors are divided between small, regular, and big favors, and you can owe bigger favors to get more resources at character creation. It’s not entirely unlike Obligation in FFG’s Star Wars Edge of the Empire, except the discreet favors and their size are tracked, rather than creating an obligation score that can be triggered.

Archetypes include the following character types:

Natural (unenhanced humans)

Bioroid (synthetic constructs)

Clone (purpose-built biologicals)

Cyborg (mechanically enhanced humans)

G-Mods (genetically enhanced humans)

Loonies (humans native to the lunar colonies)

The careers specifically detailed in this book include the following:

Academic

Bounty Hunter

Con Artist

Courier

Investigator

Ristie (rich heirs to the corporate elites)

Roughneck (blue collar space workers)

Runner (people that stick their brains into computers for fun and profit)

Soldier

Tech

Since Edge of the Empire is my favorite expression of FFG’s Star Wars RPGs, I’m not surprised that I really like the concept of favors and the rules surrounding them. I did find it a little ironic that the rules note that you can reskin the Animal Companion talent from the core Genesys book to account for drones, but the rules also subdivide the core Genesys computer skill into Hacking and Sysops. While I realize that in the real-world computer skills are definitely more granular than a single skill, I’m not convinced that they need to be broken out for an RPG. There are a few more details on what each skill gets used for later on in the book.

Chapter 2: Equipment and Vehicles

This section has a few more details on the favor economy but also details a slew of cyberpunk style equipment for the player characters to interact with. This chapter is also the home of the single most 90s piece of equipment I’ve ever seen, the charged crystal katana. Most of the weapons skew more towards monofilament blades, flechette guns, mass drivers, and masers.

There is a section that details various substances that may have addictive properties. There is a sidebar that discusses treating this topic with care, and being mindful both of real-world issues and any concerns players may have at the table, and I appreciated that inclusion.

Because this is a Genesys game, various pieces of equipment have hardpoints that allow for equipment to be customized in various ways. If you are familiar with cybernetics from the Star Wars RPGs, one way that cybernetics differ in this setting is that strain threshold is very important to their installation and operation. Augmentations lower strain threshold, limiting the number a character can have. Additionally, various special effects are triggered by spending strain.

The good news is that Shadow of the Beanstalk avoids old school concepts like “humanity” or “essence,” and doesn’t imply that enhanced people lose hold of their humanity with too many augments. There is just a limit to how many major augmentations a character can reasonably utilize. Unfortunately, there are still a few lines of text that imply having an altered emotional state is “creepy,” and the tone feels overly harsh and judgmental.

Chapter 3: The Network 

Since a large portion of the setting is based on cyberpunk vibes, we have a chapter on The Network, and what it looks like to hack into various systems. This chapter gives a history of the global Network, as well as details on evocative things like God Code (programs that spontaneously write themselves in the Network), “ghosts” of runners that lost themselves while submerged in the Network, and religions that have arisen from these quirks of the virtual world.

There are also rules for hacking. This is not shocking for a cyberpunk setting. While they are a little more involved than I would like, a big benefit of how the rules work is that everything is framed in a manner similar to other aspects of the rules. ICE programs have a program strength that operates in a similar manner to character health. Icebreaker programs work in a manner similar to weapons in the “real world.” Remember earlier in the book where they split the computer skills up? If you are intruding on a system, you are using hacking. If you are defending against intruders or acting against someone entering a computer that you are “supposed” to have access to, you use sysops.

What I really appreciate is that there is a simplified version of hacking included in this chapter as well, which the GM is encouraged to use in situations where a more involved run would be cumbersome, which still gives benefits for having icebreakers and ICE installed.

Chapter 4: New Angeles and Heinlein

This section goes into more detail on the setting. While it briefly mentions a few areas outside of New Angeles, the Beanstalk, and Heinlein (the lunar colony of New Angeles), the main focus is on those core areas of the setting.

Each of the main districts of New Angeles is detailed, and each of them is essentially a small city in its own right. The various districts have information on the undercity, plaza, and penthouse levels of the area, and most of them follow a format of presenting general information, then providing a specific example location, and NPCs native to those locations, rather than giving exhaustive details on every major business and location.

In addition to the city districts on Earth, there are sections on Midway Station (the space station halfway up the space elevator that dominates the city), the Challenger Planetoid (a rock towed into geosynchronous orbit to facilitate the shuttles launched from the elevator), and Heinlein, the lunar colony that provides Earth with He-3 from its mines.

Despite mentioning the additional details in the Worlds of Android setting book, there are plenty of setting details in this chapter, with a ton of adventure hooks. There should be more than enough for multiple campaigns worth of material in what has been provided.

While I really like these details, I would much rather have a few more out of setting sidebars discussing potential issues with introducing topics like war, labor disputes, and slave labor that is a constant part of the setting with bioroids, clones, and even AI. Players may even be playing characters that don’t have full rights as people, or characters that are marginalized as being on the losing side of a war, so a little more discussion on safety would have been appreciated.

Chapter 5: Adversaries

The adversaries chapter gives a whole range of stats for security guards, drones, cyborgs, gang members, animals, and criminals that PCs might run into in the course of a game. These are organized in the standard Genesys groupings of minions, rivals, and nemeses, meaning that the NPCs work better in large groups, are fairly similar to PCs, or are more formidable than any single PC, in broad terms.

By far, the best entry is the teacup giraffe. Not because it’s a fearsome beast, and not just because it’s adorable. The Too Cute and Way Too Cute abilities are just too good not to enjoy.

Chapter 6: The Game Master

The Game Master chapter opens by explaining the mindset of people that live in the setting, and how that mindset changes based on the character’s position in society. It also includes advice on descriptions, the importance of social encounters and capitulation, referring to the social encounter rules in the core Genesys rules. It then wraps up with the Android Adventure Builder, a section that has several base jobs, escalations, and climaxes. While the hooks have a fairly linear outline, the escalations and climaxes can be mixed and matched with different hooks to create different adventure progressions.

I normally like a setting book to have a sample adventure, but in this case, I think the Adventure Builder is a solid toolkit for outlining what adventures should look like in the setting, with enough flexibility that it can be used multiple times. What I do think was lacking in this section was a discussion on how groups get together. Most of the hooks broadly assume PCs that are sort of outlaws, maybe mercenaries, but I would have loved to have had a few group templates to give examples of how the disparate archetypes might come to work together.

There is also some discussion on how there isn’t much discrimination based on nationality or ethnicity in the setting, with the exploration of similar topics being focused on android and clone rights, and societal stress between loonies and humans on Earth. That said, there are definitely some nationality-based stereotypes that echo in the setting, including Russian, German, and Japanese companies and neighborhoods that both feel a little too one dimensional in places, and belie the concept that only the manufactured prejudices are present in the setting.

There are a handful of paragraphs about creating micro-cultures in the setting, neighborhoods that are based on cultural backgrounds, religious affiliations, or other signifiers. There are examples of these in the setting chapter, and the book encourages players to use those as examples to make more, but three paragraphs of discussion feel really thin to fully convey the care you would have to use in creating a micro-culture based on any existing modern-day signifiers. I feel like this section would have been better served with advice on keeping these micro-cultures based on unique setting elements or exercising care and collaboration with those that understand the real-world foundations of such cultures.

Strong Signal

 While the setting draws heavily from cyberpunk tropes, it also draws broadly and allows for a wide variety of campaign styles. 

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While the setting draws heavily from cyberpunk tropes, it also draws broadly and allows for a wide variety of campaign styles. The setting information is concise enough for campaigns, but evocative enough to inspire further research. In general, rules for limiting cybernetics avoid some of the pitfalls of other cyberpunk games, and the mechanics for gaining benefits give similar items in this setting a different feel than, for example, cybernetics in the FFG Star Wars games. There is some very solid advice on structuring jobs in a manner appropriate to the genre, and while the opening scenarios are very specific, the twists to be introduced later are broadly applicable. This is a deep mine for campaign material.

ICE

The only real content warning in the entire book is about addiction, but the setting has many points that could cause safety concerns, including politics, religion, class, and national origins coming into conflict. The section on creating micro-cultures introduces the concept of creating a micro-culture and is especially thin and potentially fraught. While it is great that the setting is wide open for many kinds of stories, there isn’t much time spent examining how to bring together disparate character types, or examples of what different teams of player characters may look like, beyond assuming they will be criminals doing jobs, defaulting to one of the most common cyberpunk tropes.

Qualified Recommendation — A product with lots of positive aspects, but buyers may want to understand the context of the product and what it contains before moving it ahead of other purchases.

The setting really speaks to me. It manages to be grim and dystopian without being so cynical that it doesn’t allow for some feeling of hope. It leaves room for more heroic goals, instead of painting a life of endless jobs for the sake of survival. It does fall into the same pattern that many setting books fall into, presenting the setting without diverting enough to discuss how the various parts can be used at the table.

The GM advice is solid but could be fleshed out more, and for a cyberpunk setting, there isn’t nearly enough discussion on safety and the potential problems that could come up when introducing elements of the setting at the table. Because of that, anyone bringing this to the table should know that they will be doing the safety work on their own.

What are your favorite cyberpunk settings and games? What cyberpunk media informs your enjoyment of the genre? We would love to hear about it in the comments below!

Android Shadow of the Beanstalk Review published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[kommahana93]

Just A Dream C3.P1

The rest of the school day was utter agony to the staff of Koula Military Academy, starting with the fact that none of said teachers wanted orange-stained chairs. There was also the matter of the janitors standing guard outside of the auditorium and refusing to let any of the stained students pass. Their weapons of choice: Mops and brooms. They even threatened the few teachers who got caught in the orange-explosion. The only way for anyone orange to leave the auditorium was if Emma handed over the cure to the orange-gas. Needless to say that Silva had a great time watching the guards string said blonde upside down from one of the metal beams overhead. No one believed in the ‘I’m keeping you safe from the mob’ excuse that Owl used, at least not after seeing the end result. It took about a minute before Emma caved.

“Alright, already!” Emma whined, “Baking soda or flour! That’s all you need!”

“Seriously?” one of the cooks snarled, furious that their kitchens would be ransacked.

“Well if someone hadn’t let the rain in, you wouldn’t need them! The powder becomes sticky with water! If you left everything alone you could’ve just swept everything away!” Emma snapped back. everyone looked at Owl in irritation, who could only shrug carelessly back at the looks of his superiors. “Now let me down!” The janitors, cooks, and gardeners grumbled and complained as the guards helped them out a window of auditorium. Two hours, two long, miserable hours later and there was an elaborate wall directing men from women; even the guards separated for the children’s benefits. While everyone was separating, Silva traced down her friends or more specifically Muirenn. Much to her relief, Muirenn had tracked down her own sibling. Nereus Acquafreda was a navy haired boy with mismatched eyes of blue and green, his skin was the color of caramel coffee, the same shade as Muirenn’s. Despite being the same age as Silas and was already a well known ‘hatchling’ of the elementary school, the young blue-haired boy had always had the strange arura of some sad spirit of the past. Nereus wasn’t particularly kind nor was he especially mean. Much like the status of his never changing face, Nereus rarely took sides with anyone and even rare still were the moments where he chose to speak his mind. Eight years old, never seen an ounce of the war front, never even see real battles and he already had the mind set of old generals.

“Alright Nereus, can you keep an eye on Silas for me?” Silva asked, crouching to be eye level with the blue haired boy. Dispassionate green-blue eyes stared back at her, no expression on his round caramel face. “I need you both to stand close to the end of this wall, okay? Right where I can hear you two. This way if something happens I can protect you two, okay?” the smallest shift on his face, the slight lift of a navy brow over his jade eye, like he didn’t quite believe her words.

“Hahahaha! That’s my baby brother!” Muirenn laughed, wrapping her arms around Nereus’s neck, lifting him into the air and pressing him against her ample chest. Just like his face morphed, a look of horror, panic, terror etched his caramel face as he began flaying about, trying to free himself from Muirenn’s embrace. Again Silva wasn’t surprised with Muirenn, of course only the bubbly red head would be able to make her brother change his facial expressions. Though seeing a blank-faced mask shift into a look of utter horror was not quite what she was expecting to happen between the siblings.

“Please?” Sitara asked, leaning out from behind Silva like a whisper. Nereus stopped struggling in Muirenn’s arms, his mismatched eyes locking on Sitara, studying her as if trying to decide if she was a trick of the light. Muirenn let go of her brother, remaining close enough to keep a hand on his shoulder as she grinned mischievously down on Silva. The reigning demon of seventh year, the feared Nanece, smirked back at her friend; finding great amusement in the most recognized hatchling being distracted by her own baby sister.

“Fine,” Nereus huffed, his face turning away as the tips of his ears turned color. Again Muirenn and Silva shared amused looks, their smiles only growing when Silas dived forward to stand in front of Nereus and pointed a finger at his baby sister.

“I don’t need protection! Worry about yourself creature!” Silas bellowed loudly, his dark cheeks even darker in his embarrassment.

“Silas, what did we say about name calling?” Silva asked evenly, not moving from her crouch as she stared passively at her brother.

“To save it for the house,” Silas pouted as he dropped his hand and slumped his shoulders. Nereus shrugged out of his sister’s lose hold and moved towards the edge of the cloth wall, glancing back once just to make sure Silas was following. Silva and Muirenn remained side-by side, cleaning their hands off and shrugging out of their jackets and vests before turning towards Sitara expectantly. The little girl remained standing where she was left, staring up at them curiously. Silva groaned as she realized that her baby sister appeared to have received the worst of the orange-gas, she had forgotten that Sitara’s hair was stained orange as well. Muirenn and Silva shared stressed looks, with a heavy sigh Muirenn trudged her way towards one of the adults, already intending to explain the problem to them. To Silva’s annoyance Olivia Fable, the middle school nurse, returned with Muirenn with Emma at her side and a large bag of baking soda in her arms. Olivia was in her late twenties with neon pink hair and gentle apple-green doe eyes, her skin was a little pale compared to others of their city but not unusually so. She was dressed in a tight throat button up, long sleeved teal dress that reached her ankles, her black boots clicked across the marble, her apron covered her dress with a cute little frill at the bottom. If Silva was honest with herself, the middle school nurse looked more like a maid then a nurse but that was just her. Each of the staff members were free to adjust the school uniform to their liking but only within reason; most were too lazy to come up with their own versions.

“Good afternoon Mrs. Moriyama,” Olivia smiled gently as she stooped down to Sitara’s level. “Do you mind if I do your hair?” Sitara frowned, her lips pursing in displeasure, before she ducked behind Silva’s legs, glaring up at the pink haired woman. “Please?” Olivia asked, her gentle smile never falling. “I promise I won’t hurt you.”

“But,” Sitara mumbled, eyes narrowing untrustingly. “I won’t… look like sissy then…”

“Oh dear,” Olivia giggled, her amusement shinning in her pale green eyes. “I supposed that’ll be quite the problem, huh?” Sitara nodded seriously, relaxing a little bit now that the nurse understood the problem. “I promise you won’t look any different then your sister,” Olivia reassured. “I have to get the powder out of her hair too.” Sitara stared dully the older woman, making her tilt her head to the side curiously, realizing that she was missing something.

“I’m a natural ginger.” Silva said, biting her bottom lip to keep from smiling. “The only powder that’s on me is from my siblings smearing it on me.” Olivia hummed in understanding, her eyes sliding to examine Silva before sliding back to Sitara. Slipping down onto her knees fully, Olivia’s smile changed from gentle to welcoming, her aura turning from expectant to mothering.

“Mrs. Moriyama, would you feel better if your sister and I placed the cure into our hair as well?” Olivia asked, surpassing Silva with the question. At this point most adults would turn stern and begin demanding things from Sitara, not making suggestions and coaxing Sitara to do something they want. They just ordered her and then expected her to do what ever it was they wanted. “If you’re worried about not continuing to look like your sister then you needn’t worry.” Olivia continued, as if she expected Sitara to continue to stare back at her. “You have her face.”

“Face?” Sitara asked, her own paling as she quickly looked up to Silva, examining the preteen’s face closely.

“Mrs. Moriyama,” Olivia chuckled warmly. “You and your sister share the same eyes and nose and the curve of your jaw and the tilt of your ears… why if we straightened your hair and dyed it orange, you could pass for her twin.”

“Straightened? Dyed? What are you talking about?” Silva asked in confusion. “since when could we change our hair colors or the way they look on us?”

“Since your mother brought the inventions over from the civilian world decades ago,” Olivia replied, smirking at Silva.

“Mom knew of a way to make Sitara’s hair less of a nightmare and she never told us?!” Silva screeched, her face red with fury. Olivia only chuckled at the teenager, watching how Silva snapped around to address Sitara quickly.  Something about the promise of taming the younger girl’s wild black locks; before Olivia knew it Sitara was crying as the flour got into her eyes and Silva was scrubbing the orange powder out of the orange mass. Before long Silva was being over run in orange clouds and Sitara’s back was starting to hurt. One of the guards came over with a low chair for Sitara to sit in and slowly but surly moved Sitara into the seat so that her head was tilted back and her hair was rolling over the back. Seeing the mass of blinding orange, Olivia moved to take a section of hair for herself. After five minutes Muirenn moved to help by taking up a section of the orange locks. More and more flour and baking soda was poured into Sitara’s hair, more time passed and the only thing the group succeeded in doing was staining their hands and floor.

“What’s taking you guys so long?” a guard asked as he walked over, “The others are changed already what are you—what the hell is that?” his question was dropped in favor of stating with utter horror the mass of orange that seemed to be slowly consuming the four females working on the child’s hair.

“Sitara’s hair is surprisingly long,” Muirenn grinned, “I’m fairly sure its longer then she is tall.”

“…I thought that when you wash hair, you start at the roots and work your way down?” another girl asked, staring at the group coated in orange dust. The group stopped to stare at each other, groaning loudly together they all looked at Sitara’s head; said child was sleeping peacefully against the chair.

“To hell with this,” Silva grunted as she pushed herself onto her feet. “Hey! Anyone got a towel?!”

“And hair clips!” Muirenn shouted, several students turned to look at them but most quickly turned away. “Seriously?! You all suck!”

“We are not starting a fight.” Tamiko ordered more then suggested, she tugged at her long black hair, pulling out her white hair tie and the few bobby pins she used to keep the shorter strands back. “Sy, just use these. Not like we have anything else to use.” Silva took the hair pins, used her previously sullied coat pat out most of the dust from Sitara’s hair and began the arduous task of pinning Sitara’s hair in place. A feat that took six hands, three hair ties, too many bobby pins too count, Muirenn’s shredded vest, and Silva’s jacket. The last of which was wrapped disastrously around Sitara’s head, looking odd and misshapen. Once the disastrous black curls were confined in the thick wrapping, Silva carefully lifted her sister into her arms and proceeded out of the auditorium. They were the last ones out, even Silas and Nereus had long since left their sisters alone with Sitara’s unruly locks.

“So what are we going to do now?” Muirenn asked as they excited the dome, looking down on Sitara’s slumbering face. “Won’t she want to take that thing off her head.”

“Who says we’re staying at the academy?” Silva questioned, “I know my sister. When she wakes the first thing she’s gonna do is freak out over the new weight on her head.”

“Okay so we’re are we going?” Tamiko asked, raising a curious brow at her friend. Silva stopped walking to address her three friends, noting how Emma was trying in vane to hide behind Tamiko.

“When I said ‘we’ I meant Sitara and me.” Silva explained, “I don’t care what you two do but Emma is gonna fix the mess she made.”

“What mess?” Emma asked, poking out from around Tamiko with a red-freckled face. “I didn’t make a mess and besides that the janitors are already cleaning up the auditorium!”

“I meant we’re going to your lab to fix what you did to my baby sister’s hair!” Silva snapped at the blonde, “Now hurry up! We need to go! Preferably before school lets out and Silas is sent home on his own!” by the end of the argument between Silva and Emma, Muirenn decided to tag along to annoy Emma and Tamiko walked away, explaining only briefly that she would take notes for everyone in their remaining classes.

And so the first day of the new school year ended… with irate teachers and orange students.

[issacm904658-blog]

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