Update: Version 6.2 - Notoriety and Digital Playbooks
'Sup cyberpunks.
Today’s update includes lots of different changes. Lots of player and crew special abilities have been modified and reworded. Wanted Levels are now Notoriety, since that felt like it fit the them a bit more, as well as the possible repercussions in the entanglement table. There’s also a new timeline of events to help players situate themselves in the default world of Neon Black. Welcome to the year 2199!
There are also new digital playbooks! Neon Black has strayed far away enough from Blades that the Roll20 sheets weren’t really cutting it, and I saw what other creators were doing with Google Sheets so I made some playbooks for everyone to use on the 'Net.
Feel free to copy and modify for use in your own game of Neon Black.
This is a very special update so I’m basically just going to say here what I said on the itch.io page:
With this updated (v6.3) Neon Black is now text complete. What does that mean? Well as of right now, there are no major updates or missing pieces in Neon Black. Everything I want in the rules is present and accounted for. There may be fixes and updates in the future but as of right now everything that I’ve ever had on the to-do list to add to the game is completed. Does this mean the game is finished? No. I would like to hire people to work on my game to make it better: artists, graphic designers, sensitivity readers, etc. but all of those services are outside of my budget. Now I can pitch the game to publishers and see if they will carry me the rest of the way. If not, I may kickstart this game myself. We’ll see.
To help get me there if it comes to it, Neon Black will be increased in price on June 1st from $10 to $15 to reflect it’s increased size and near final state. $15 for over 67,000 words still seems like a deal to me.
I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has commented, bought the game, given me feedback, or even acknowledged that myself or this game existed. I would not have gotten here without you.
So the last time I updated the game I was confident that Neon Black was in it’s final stages and would be receiving no more major updates going forward. I recently sent the Neon Black manuscript to my first choice of publisher and received some really great detailed feedback. The feedback centered on two points:
This game does not build on or significantly change anything in the core blades experience.
The principles of the game “Capitalism sucks, community rules, etc.” are, by and large, not reinforced mechanically in the game’s rules.
I agree with this feedback. Right now Neon Black, as I see it, wants to address the evils of the rich, corporations, and capitalism, but paints the characters as grimdark scoundrels seeking their own ways to gain wealth. I would much rather this game be about stealing from the rich to help disenfranchised and marginalized people in the player characters’ community. This will require a lot of work on my part, and the next version of the game will look substantially different than the current version. I’m continuing to test the game as I make changes, but I want to be confident in a new framework before releasing anything here, so it may be a while before you see a new version of Neon Black.
As always, thanks to everyone who has supported me and the game. Couldn’t have gotten here without you.
I heard there was going to be a cool new cyberpunk RPG out today? One about stealing from the rich, building up a community, and a non essentialist view of humanity? No? Oh well.
How about a new update for Neon Black instead! You can download the latest version here, and I’ve copied the devlog for 7.0 below for your viewing pleasure. Thanks to everyone for their kind words, encouragement, and for providing feedback.
I’ve spent most of 2020 revising this game and all those playtest notes and edits are finally out in the wild with Neon Black 7.0. This update carries some pretty substantial changes from the previous version but here are some of the biggest:
New and revised character playbooks. Characters now have a max of 3 action ratings and 4 attribute ratings. This changed because I found most players didn’t feel incentivized to bother with cyberware to get an edge, so now you can only get 2 action ratings in any one action before needing to get chrome or take other risks. Players also now have the option to be employed or not, influencing what they can accomplish during downtime (and what they can steal from their corporate jobs).
Character milestones. Milestones replace special abilities. I wanted each character to have narrative justifications for their abilities and feats baked into the mechanics. So now in order to get these powerful milestones, you need to accomplish a certain story beat. For example, the Decker playbook has this milestone: “ADMINISTRATIVE PRIVILEDGES: You’ve successfully infiltrated a tier V faction’s network. When you successfully Hack a target, you also gain access to one connected network, target, or subsystem.” You get mechanical benefits and narrative permissions not by gaining XP, but by accomplishing things in the fiction.
Community playbooks replace crew playbooks. This is a pretty big and needed change. The last iteration of Neon Black was too focused on the personal accumulation of wealth. You needed money to gain more playbook items, and for certain downtime actions, and the crew only flourished if the players hoarded their wealth. Now Neon Black is about addressing the needs of the community that the characters are part of. The more you steal from the rich and help your friends, the more your community thrives.
Luck. In this version luck replaces stress. It works the same way, but instead of gaining ticks of stress, you start with luck already marked on your character sheet, and need to spend it to assist, push yourself, etc. The only way to gain luck is through CRITs and the engagement roll.
Calamities. When your luck runs out, your character suffers a calamity. This is a special kind of consequence that cannot be resisted and makes the current score and their lives much more difficult. Players select from 4 types of calamities, including additional heat and plot twists.
Conditions. These replace harm. Conditions cover a lot more ground than harm, including broken or faulty cyberware, awkward social situations, sudden fame or infamy, and loss of specific resources. You only have 3 places to mark conditions, and if you run out of space you suffer a calamity.
Bonds. Characters start with 2 bonds with other PCs. These are relationships or beliefs that help players define their characters, and can change over time. Bonds also determine who you can assist as a teamwork action, and how many dice you give when you do so.
There’s also changes to downtime actions, XP, and more. I’m so happy to finally get this version out the door, and more changes are coming in the future. But for now please enjoy this latest release of Neon Black.
Modified the Synth’s Network Intelligence milestone
Added various examples of game mechanics (scores, downtime actions, etc.)
Added flavour text
Modified community relationships
Edited text throughout
This will be the last update for a while until I figure out publishing for Neon Black. I want this to be a physical book one day, but it’s gonna take a lot of work to get there, especially if I can’t get a publisher to help me out
