01/25/2020: Overview of the gm's Guide to 2095.
about 4 years ago – Sun, Jan 26, 2020 at 01:22:09 AM

Hi everyone,  I know I'm late getting this update in, but I wanted to give you a bare-bones outline of the GM's guide so you can get an idea of the content. Much of this has been written; I'm just fleshing out some areas.

Introduction

Building Your World

Narration Techniques

Campaign themes

• Cleaning Crew
• Cyberpunks
• Sector Cops

Building your own Campaign Themes

• Optional campaign themes

Various Elements of a city

Trappings

• City Trappings
• Organizational Trappings

Law enforcement

Lifestyles

Life outside the sprawl

The Streets

The underworld

Plot Point Campaigns

• Bane of Chicago PPC
• Evolve or Die PPC
• Hunting Leviathan PPC

Savage tales

Adventure generators

• Cleaning Crew
• Cyberpunks
• Sector cops

2095 revisited

• The world
• Corporations
• Gangs
• Organized Crime rings

threats

• Biohorrors
• biohorror generation tables
• Wild Cards and Extras

01/07/2020 update: IZ in 2020
over 4 years ago – Wed, Jan 08, 2020 at 12:58:15 AM

Greetings everyone, I hope all is well with you.

This update is to talk about where things stand, and what you can expect moving forward.

I’ve begun working on the GM’s Guide, and my goal is to get the PDF it in your inbox towards the end of the month, though if we’re being honest, I can see this bleeding into February. I’ll post another update in a week or so showing you the content overview to give you a voice on what goes into it. One thing I can tell you, is that Dark Pathways/Divergences is going to be folded into the GM’s Guide.

Preliminary work has begun on the Malmart Catalog, which is a top priority, and I hope to show you some previews for that soon.

The solar system book is next on the list, followed by the Europe/Asia sourcebook.

Corporate Profiles technically wasn’t reached, but I’m going to do it anyways, though to be honest, it’s pretty low on the totem pole.

As with everything, all of the books will likely (but hopefully not) have some errata that needs to be addressed, and I won’t print anything until all of that is resolved, which brings me to the player’s guide.

Errata has been ongoing, and I just watched a review of IZ this morning, which has prompted me to contact the person who did the review to see if he could give me more feedback. All of this will inform my decisions about what is being kept, and what is being cut. The review was not positive, and I totally respect this person’s views. So, before I print, I’m going to get with him and discuss some of the elements he feels could be better.

There was mention of gear porn (especially with augmentations), so I’ll likely be cutting stuff… I’m not positive yet, though.

Anyhow, that’s it for now.

Thanks for your patience and support.

12/31/2019: Auction Action!
over 4 years ago – Tue, Dec 31, 2019 at 05:56:03 PM

Hi everyone,  I'm happy to announce that I've sent out links via backerkit for the Introductory adventure; Auction Action, written by John Dunn!

The Adventure is written with all three campaign themes in mind, so if you are using them, then there are hooks to get you going.

Also, there's bonus content; A bunch of ready to play archetypes, a new Origin (unlicensed Zeek), new cybertech, and some new vehicles.

I hope you all have a happy new years wherever you are. More to come in 2020.

12/9/2019 update: Ongoing Revisions
over 4 years ago – Mon, Dec 09, 2019 at 08:35:53 PM

Hi everyone, I hope all is well with you.

So, as many of you know, we've been doing revisions to the book  based on the tons of errata we've received, and that's been going well. Thanks so much for pointing everything out. 

We've also been getting questions about rules that for whatever reason didn't exist, mainly with hacking. Because of this, I've decided to do extra writing to address your questions and comments. I'm going to be adding a few new hacking commands, make sprites more robust, and include programs. The new rules won't fundamentally change hacking, but they will add more "bite" to the system.  Here's a very small summary of what is being added.

Programs 

Programs are just powers with the Program Trapping, which is described as packets of code-lines. Damage is done by creating dangerous levels of heat that cooks the brain, causing aneurysms, strokes, etc. In the case of programs that attack a sprite or a computer system, programs infect the system and corrupt it.

Characters acquire programs by choosing the New Power Edge from SWADE. I don't see any need to write a new edge for this. There will be prerequisites which must be met before the new program can be chosen.

Programs deviate from (or agree with) Powers in the following ways. I'm still digging into it, so I'm sure there will be more discussion here:

• Power Points: Programs do not use Power Points. Any rules for a power dealing with the use of Power Points are ignored.
• Range:The Range of programs is always considered Self or Touch, even if the Power the program emulates has a Range.
• Synergy: Honestly, I'm not sure how programs will synergize with each other yet. I need to think about it. Suggestions are welcome.
• Activation: Programs take an Action to activate.
• Program Modifiers: Programs will have some basic modifiers. Fatigue, Lingering, Hinder/Hurry are some examples of existing modifiers which can be applied to a program. Characters can add these modifiers into a program if they have appropriate ranks in Hacking(Programming), and the Target Number for the skill check is modified by the number of Power Points casters would normally use to modify a power.

Sprites

Sprites now have a Toughness rating they use to resist the effects of malware. Unlike heroes who calculate Toughness using their Vigor die, a sprite uses Smarts. Smarts reflects the sprite’s natural understanding of programming languages, basic code structure, and how to defend against them. The higher the sprite’s Toughness, the better they understand how to defeat malicious code. A sprite’s Toughness is 2 plus half its Smarts die. There will be a virtual armor program that can modify toughness.

Other modifications to hacking

There was confusion about how much a Tendril Access Processor costs, and how to upgrade it. I've written some rules for that. I've also merged the Personal Access Network and Intrusion Defense System tables into a single table now. That should make it easier to reference everything. There was confusion as to what Tier  characters' TAPs are when they begin play. It's Tier 1.

Needless to say, this is going to push the page count (again) up, but since this is first and foremost a players guide, I believe you need all of this information, and you definitely deserve a book that isn't riddled with mistakes.

The Path Forward

I'm hoping to have the introductory adventure ready in a week or so. As for the GM's Guide to 2095, I'm waiting on some revisions to the plot point campaigns, and, to be frank, I need to go back through the content and be sure I have everything I want in the book. I don't anticipate the book being ready until January, but things may change.

Anyhow, That's all I have for now. Thanks for your patience.

12/5/2019: Errata and Hacking
over 4 years ago – Thu, Dec 05, 2019 at 10:44:13 PM

Hi everyone,

I'm jumping in real quick to get some specific feedback from you about hacking.  I've been receiving some great commentary about the system and, based on it, I'll be doing some revisions. 

Mainly I'm going to deal with confusion over costs and address things like what happens if you shut down your TAP, how you go about upgrading IDS and Personal Area Networks, and things like that. But, since I'm revising, I wanted to get some direct (even if it's brutal) input on the core system itself.

• Is it generally easy to understand? 
• what do you like most about it
• what do you hate about it
• How would you make it better?