Hey everyone!

Hey everyone!

Hey everyone! I’m working on a cyberpunk hack of Blades right now that I am really pumped for. I’m designing Hack The Planet, where a cyberpunk future we typically might see in the genre was halted by changes in our climate.

Much of the landscape was changed due to what became known as Acts of God. As our climate became radicalized it resulted in more than just heavy weather. Earthquakes, tornadoes, rising sea water, and the changes in rainfall—to name a few—resulted in the destabilization of government and banks, and the halting of technological progress on the massive scale we enjoy today (and typically see in the genre) as everything that could be mustered by what was left of governments was hurled at the problem, too late.

The characters are folks living on the fringes of society. The crews I’ve got so far are: an Akira style biker gang, people who live on an aircraft carrier who dive to the surface to scavenge, mercs, people in a convoy who chase Acts of God for scientific value (think Twister), and vice dealers.

When you choose a crew you also choose how you interact with Acts of God, taking a starter move for the crew that represents that choice. Do you kill the weather? Refine it for fuel, or perhaps mine it for data? There is also an overarching clock that tracks when Acts of God hit, making them special jobs that need to be dealt with (and still earn you Credits). I’ll have tables to roll on for creating these.

I chose Blades because it maps to this concept so well. The system does what I want it to do, scale and magnitude are already there, and making a crew and playbook is as accessible as Powered by the Apocalypse, for the most part. A lot is tied to a setting… but I think since it’s a game where cyberpunk intersects with climate fiction and is so esoteric it benefits a lot from providing that information to the players anyways.

I’m super excited about it and wanted to share what I’m up to, as well as gush a little about finding a system that works so perfectly for this concept I’ve had for some time. Thanks John!

31 thoughts on “Hey everyone!”

  5. I’m planning on kickstarting in a month or two so I can get the artist working on it, otherwise I lose my window for them to work on the project for some time. I really lucked out finding them!!

  18. Thanks so much for the enthusiasm and warm reception, such an awesome community!

    In terms of fictional influences, Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling and The Windup Girl and other fiction by Paolo Bacigalupi would be some major ones, if you want some touchstones.

  28. Ariel Cayce There’s not too much of a drift. There’s the addition of cybernetics (essentially permanent stress on your body for an increase in a action rating), players still expand via crew sheets but it’s abstracted out further into covering larger landscapes. Factions are far apart, similar to S&V.

    Jonny Gray hah, I wish I could afford Nivanh, the artist is Fabio Comin.

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