Proof of life!
I’ve been slowly plugging away at the next version of Neon Black. I’m hoping to have something finished by the end of this month.
It occurred to me that the publicly available version is pretty distant from what I’m working on now, so I wanted to tease some updated crew and character playbooks to give a sense of what the game looks like now and help motivate me to keep going. Below you will find the Hacker, previously known as the Click:
Neon Black is now available on itch.io!
Version 4.1 includes new and revised character playbooks: Hacker, Hustler, Rank, Splicer, Suit, and Synth.
New crew and revised crew playbooks: Hunters, Punks, and Start-Up.
A unique cyberpunk setting: Prime City, a corpo city state located anywhere in the world. Prime City has 36 factions, city districts, notable places and NPCs, everything you need to run a full campaign.
I finally got around to getting Neon Black and I like it. In addition to “ordinary” cyberpunk there’s potential for Mad Max and Alien/Expanse elements as well, which I think is neat.
Apologies if I missed it, but if you gain cyberwear for a particular action or attribute can you install more cyberwear for that same action/attribute? For example, can someone with Cyber Eyes also install Cyber Ears? I guess I’m leaning toward saying “yes,” with the proviso that you get only one extra action rank no matter how many cyberware pieces for the action have been installed. However, I’d say a PC can get all of the abilities granted by their cyberware. Just wondering if that was your thought as well!
Thanks for the kind words!
To answer your question: yes you’ve got it right. You can have as much cyberware as you like with all the special abilities that entails, but you only get the additional rating in an action/attribute once.
I’ll be sure to clarify that in future revisions.
This is sweet! Any chance I could get my mitts on this to run it?
Hey! Thanks for the kind words!
You can get Neon Black on itch.io
You can also get a free download code by subscribing to my work on Patreon at the $10 level. When you do that you’ll also get free download codes for my smaller RPGs like Spooky Action at a Distance and World Maker.
But if a money is an issue for you and you’d like to lead your friends in pretending to steal and redistribute wealth shoot me an email (michael@notwriting.net) and I’ll send you a free download code, no questions asked.
Neon Black is now version 4.2. I’ve updated the rule book, playbooks, and faction sheet. Mostly minor changes like rewording special abilities and filling in missing text.
Here’s a link to the devlog post for those interested.
What about anarchist for a crew type.
I like it. Currently I think the Punks mostly cover that in Neon Black, they get bonuses for targeting corporations, being at war with them, and finding alternate methods of income. I might lean more heavily into that area with their crew assets, but I think if folks wanted to play a group of anarchists the Punks would be a great place to start.
Hey folks!
I just wanted to note I see that people are still trying to access the older version of the game linked in the original post. I can’t edit that post to point to the proper space to access Neon Black. That version in the original post is no longer available, and all updates and releases of Neon Black are available on its itch.io page: https://sohkrates.itch.io/neon-black
Version 5.0, the Capitalism Sucks update, is now live on Neon Black’s itch.io page.
Engage in Capitalism to buy corporate products, Reach Out to your friends to get favours, and Reset when you’re off the clock instead of indulging in vices.
The complete change log can be found here.
Apologizes, maybe not the most correct place to ask this but did you run Neon Black last year at SHUX? I ask as I’ve been looking out for a Forged in the Dark Cyberpunk game and then remembered I played one at SHUX and this looks very familiar.
I did! I’ll also be running it this year at SHUX as well.
That’s good I found the right one then, i’ll go have a look at your ichio site in a bit. I’d love to have a game of it again this year but we can’t make SHUX this year.
The latest version of Neon Black will be at SHUX 2019 in Vancouver this October!
If you’re going to be there drop on by and say hello, or sign up to participate in a 2 hour-ish one shot!
Sign up is live on the SHUX forums.
Update 5.1 is live on Neon Black’s itch.io page!
This update changes some small things, and adds two new downtime mechanics. Credit Burn, where players suffer harm when they hoard too much money, and Burn Credit, a downtime activity that allows character to give money to other factions of Prime City.
Check out the full change list here.
Also a little while ago I added Community Copies to Neon Black and forgot to mention it here. If money is an issue for you for any reason and you want a copy of Neon Black, you can now get one for free.
I have been following along with your announcements on this game. I have been working through a few obstacles on my hack, Five Aces. It is mostly to see how these matters play out at the table. My question to you is how you have handled the playtesting aspect of this design? Do you have the advantage of a home group that will play with your designs and give feedback? Or do you look to demonstrations at conventions and game stores? Personally, I have been fortunate to call on a small group of people who play my game and give feedback. However, this has led me to a lack in amounts of people while get solid feedback from my players.
I would love to read your thoughts on this and share more of my design methods. Talk to you later.
Hey! Thanks for following along.
I test my games with a group who meets weekly, and by running the game at local conventions. When I test the games I pay attention to rules that confuse players, and rules or parts of the game’s text that don’t evoke the theme of the game, and then I try to fix that in the next version of the game. I also look for characters, places, or bits of lore that the players come up with that I like and incorporate that into the game, with their permission.
I wouldn’t worry too much about having a lot of players to test your game, just as long as you are playing it between versions and not just designing by yourself. Like John Harper says, play and iterate.
Excellent. That’s a very good reply on the elements to collect from playtesting. I have used similar points to help work through the feedback. I ask a few questions that find if a rule works, if a theme is explored, or if the players understand how the PCs work inside the game.
I have mined the groups that I have played with for the ideas that they want to explore. In this, the version that I have pulled together so far has been the ideas and creative energy of those playtesters. This has brought me to the point of ready to share it with the community.
So, I appreciate this community has provided by allowing designers to discuss the details for games that can be fun for everyone. If you ever want to discuss further on the details, let me know. Thanks.
