Tag Archives: RPG
Under The Hood 2: The Network
Before we talk about the Player Network lets look at the idea of contacts for a moment. The idea of trusted allies and contacts is nothing new to role playing or fiction in general. In fiction, contacts don’t sit around just waiting to be called. They have their own lives and stories. These peripheral characters […]
Character Narrative 3: Archemides
It couldn’t feel the nanites gradually transforming the last of the necrotic flesh that composed its host body into functional cybernetics. The original owner of its body, Tijo Velazquez, died weeks ago, leaving Archimedes to struggle with its owner’s busy schedule. Gradually, Archimedes expanded its own programming to cope with the increased needs of movement […]
Setting: Headcases and Zeroes
The human body is not fully equipped to deal with having pieces of it excised and replaced with cybernetics. There is always a period of adjustment while the mind comes to grips with the neural interface pathways required to use the new implant. This often causes a feeling of dysphasia, where the user’s mind does […]
Character Narrative 2: Vinzent Raskoph
His friends called him “The German,” but they were all unimaginative drones anyway. Locked away in the altered version of reality that the corp-controlled government fed them. Vinzent was liberated. Vinzent had long ago seen through the beautiful illusions to the dirty grey reality underneath. The first step was when he dove into an underground […]
Technology: Angels, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality
All but the poorest of people have headware modifications that house a semi-autonomous program called an Angel. This headware is installed via a nanite injection shortly after birth and the Angel grows with its user, learning what interests them and helping them through their daily lives. The Angel implants also come with a standard wireless […]
Under The Hood 1: The Open Action System
The rules used to create a role playing game, sometimes referred to as the engine, set up the dynamics of play and provide a structure for interaction. In a lot of cyberpunk fiction, what could be considered as traditional action is fast and brutal, often over before it even began. The threat of violence is ever present, but violence, when it […]
Character Narrative 1: Cyril Trinidad
The wind felt wild against his steel skin tonight as Cyril cut through the skies in his scout Dart. With the odd spatial awareness granted to him by the radar unit, he could sense the heavy transport carrying ground assault battleframes miles behind his nearly invisible body. Smiling inside, he nosed over and started checking […]
Technology: Vehicles and Frames
Civilian ground vehicles are sleek and streamlined futuristic wheeled machines, with very little wasted space. Cargo compartments are much smaller than modern vehicles, the average consumer has little need for cargo, almost everything can be fabbed at home. All civilian vehicles are electric, drawing supplemental power from a citywide grid embedded in the road surface. […]
What’s in a Name?
You may ask, “Where did you come up with the name Glass Shadows?” Dave actually suggested it, with the rationale that “You can see through both glass and shadows, but they distort what’s inside. You can never really be sure of what you’re looking at.” In Glass Shadows, the Player Characters interact with a world that […]
What’s this all about, then?
Welcome to the development blog for Glass Shadows, a Cyberpunk RPG that I am writing in cooperation with Dave Silva. Glass Shadows is heavily inspired by cyberpunk-style animes, such as Ghost in the Shell and its sequels, Appleseed, and Bubblegum Crisis, as well as the western movies Bladerunner, and Johnny Mnemonic. Literary inspirations include Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, and Diamond Age, and Charles […]
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