{"id":25498,"date":"2012-08-11T14:00:43","date_gmt":"2012-08-11T19:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/?p=25498"},"modified":"2012-08-02T09:51:45","modified_gmt":"2012-08-02T14:51:45","slug":"designers-diary-accessible-games-psi-punk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/?p=25498","title":{"rendered":"Designer’s Diary: Accessible Games – Psi-Punk"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Psi-Punk<\/strong>
\nPsi-Punk is a complete roleplaying game powered by FUDGE and being published by Accessible Games.
\nBy Jacob Wood<\/em>
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Welcome to the fortieth Designer\u2019s Diary, a regular column where designers are given the opportunity to take readers on an in-depth ride through the design and development process of their system, setting, or product. If you\u2019d like to share your product in the Designer\u2019s Diary column, send a message to aaron@roleplayerschronicle.com.<\/p>\n

Support Psi-Punk here<\/a><\/p>\n

Designer’s Description<\/strong>
\nPsi-punk is \u201ca Fudge-based cyberpunk RPG with a psychic twist.\u201d In regards to what Psi-punk really is, that\u2019s the attention-grabbing way of saying \u201cit\u2019s complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the game is based on the acclaimed Fudge system, I have completely hacked and redesigned many elements from the ground up. Fudge was designed to be tinkered with, and I\u2019ve taken that notion to another level to deliver something that Fudge fans will still find familiar, but will need to read carefully to get the most out of. Everything you need to play (short of dice, paper, pencils, and friends) is contained in this one book \u2013 no additional Fudge material or experience is required.<\/p>\n

So what exactly do I mean by \u201ca cyberpunk RPG with a psychic twist?\u201d Lots of cyberpunk and near-future games feature psionics as a way to offer supernatural powers without trying to explain the existence of magic. However, Psi-punk brings a focus on mental powers to the forefront \u2013 together we\u2019ll explore what it means to be a gifted psychic in a mundane person\u2019s world and what the existence of psychic powers means for technological advancement.<\/p>\n

Psionics aren\u2019t just a character feature that gives players the power to set things on fire with their minds (though that is an option). It\u2019s integrated completely with the system and with the setting in a variety of unique ways. The entire world revolves around breakthroughs in psycho-technical devices, dubbed \u201cmagic\u201d by its creators. Through these magic devices, the state of technology has been completely changed.<\/p>\n

Purpose<\/strong>
\nPsi-punk began as a pet project, a way to play with the Fudge system and see what it could do. Over time, it developed into a full-featured, complex RPG with an interesting history. I seriously decided to publish the book when its page count in MS Word hit around 140 pages. I thought to myself \u201cthere\u2019s something special here; this isn\u2019t just a way to pass time anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps that doesn\u2019t paint the picture accurately though. I have always been a game designer at heart, and this isn\u2019t the first \u201cbig\u201d project I\u2019ve worked on. As part of a personal goal, I have always wanted to publish an RPG that I could share with others, and I have long been interested in making RPGs more accessible \u2013 especially for people with disabilities (that\u2019s where I get the company name, Accessible Games). By publishing a game based on the Fudge system, with its ease of entry for new players and its word-based system that keeps math to a minimum, I hope to offer a product that anyone can enjoy.<\/p>\n

Psi-punk is just the first in what will be a long line of great gaming products from Accessible Games. We already have a few others in the works, but this is our first major release and will hopefully set the tone for things to come.<\/p>\n

Influences<\/strong>
\nI have drawn on a lot of different sources of inspiration for Psi-punk. From early cyberpunk fiction such as Gibson\u2019s Neuromancer<\/em> to modern works such as Xenoform<\/em> by Mike Berry, I drew from ideas that I feel are important concepts to the cyberpunk genre. Then I threw half of them out and started fresh.<\/p>\n

I also looked at a lot of other cyberpunk games on the market today and took the same approach. I love Shadowrun<\/em> and Interface Zero<\/em>, but my goal was not to just make a Fudge variant of a proven system or universe. One of the most important aspects of an influential work, in my opinion, is its ability to demonstrate what doesn\u2019t need to exist in similar products.<\/p>\n

Research<\/strong>
\nOne of the great things about science fiction is that it\u2019s just that \u2013 fiction. It\u2019s easy to write about pseudo-science because it doesn\u2019t necessarily have to conform to known laws.<\/p>\n

That being said, there\u2019s also that pesky \u201cscience\u201d aspect, which demands a bit more detail. I found answers to a lot of questions, from \u201cwhat is the top lifting weight of Olympic athletes?\u201d to \u201cwhat sounds are made at a certain decibel level?\u201d\u00a0 I knew that I could get away with a certain level of abstraction, but that it was still important to keep trait levels and statistics realistic. When writing science fiction, it\u2019s important to know what your limits are before breaking them wide open with the appearance of supernatural abilities and super-tech advancements.<\/p>\n

Art Direction<\/strong>
\nI am currently raising money through Kickstarter so that we can hire Melissa Gay, renowned for her work on The Dresden Files RPG<\/em>, Part-Time Gods<\/em>, HERO<\/em> System<\/em> products, and Mermaid Adventures<\/em>. Melissa is a fabulous artist with a talent for capturing detail and realism even in a fantastical setting.<\/p>\n

Our promotional art shows you what you can expect out of Melissa for the upcoming Psi-punk core rulebook. Our goal is to have beautifully detailed illustrations that exhibit everything you\u2019ll expect to find within the book, from psionics and cybernetics to futuristic technology and sweeping cityscapes.<\/p>\n

We have chosen to go with black and white images to give the book an \u201cold school\u201d feel in contrast with its new world design. The cover art will be in full color, and will even feature the likenesses of our highest-level Kickstarter backers.<\/p>\n

Gaming Experience<\/strong>
\nPsi-punk was designed from the ground up to be a character-centric role-playing game. I recognize that doesn\u2019t say much by itself \u2013 after all, aren\u2019t all RPGs supposed to be character centric? Well, it\u2019s not always that simple.<\/p>\n

I mentioned before that Shadowrun<\/em> has been an influence, but one of the key issues that many people have with the system is the way in which the Matrix is handled. All too often players raise concerns about losing interest or going for food breaks when the GM and the Decker start going into their own little sub-game. I love how in-depth and detailed Shadowrun\u2019s<\/em> hacking system can be, but feel that its focus is more on the sub-system of hacking than on the characters.<\/p>\n

The design philosophy was to keep everything character-focused as much as possible, so players don\u2019t have time to get bored. This meant taking a step back and looking at every mechanic \u2013 and especially every sub-system \u2013 and looking at it from a player\u2019s perspective. The question \u201cis this fun?\u201d always trumped the question \u201cis this cool?\u201d There is certainly room for \u201ccool\u201d too, and while playtesting the game we\u2019ve found that \u201ccool\u201d often follows \u201cfun\u201d wherever it goes.<\/p>\n

Everything from \u2018Net hacking and carjacking to astral projection has been designed to add plenty of flavor to the game while getting the system out of the way. Even a vehicle chase scene can be resolved in just a few dice rolls so the non-drivers in the party can get back into the action quickly.<\/p>\n

What this ultimately means is a fast, simple, and fun gameplay experience. Psi-punk isn\u2019t as much a numbers game as it is a game about customizing your character and having fun with him (or her). Even the game\u2019s Wealth system uses words in place of numbers to explain the cost of goods, so you\u2019ll be able to put away the calculator and just put together what feels right.<\/p>\n

Comparison<\/strong>
\nOne of the great things about Psi-punk is that it\u2019s similar enough to be familiar but different enough to offer something new, even to long-time cyberpunk or Fudge veterans. Even Fudge enthusiasts have to re-think the way they look at the game\u2019s mechanics since it can be very different from the \u201ccore\u201d Fudge experience, but that\u2019s because our system changes were designed with that character-centric philosophy in mind.<\/p>\n

Likewise, cyberpunk fans will have the opportunity to challenge their concept of what \u201ccyberpunk\u201d means. Though I love the gritty, hardcore dystopian futures presented by Gibson and others, I took a slightly different approach to the setting. Megacorporations still rule and technology reigns supreme (and it still has the potential to leave a terrible imprint on humanity), but I abolished some standard tropes to offer a different viewpoint on many concepts that have become old or stale.<\/p>\n

For example, characters in this setting do not \u201cjack in\u201d to Virtual Reality, thereby leaving their real selves vulnerable to cyber-attacks. People wizened up to the dangers of VR when they realized that folks were actually getting killed in a virtual world. That simple shift in the way the \u2018Net is handled has a rather large impact on the way computers and hacking work for the general public.<\/p>\n

Psi-punk is accessible \u2013 both to genre or system veterans and to newcomers alike. It doesn\u2019t exclude anyone, but doesn\u2019t make compromises either. It offers a new and unique way to look at the genre and the Fudge system that current fans and newcomers alike can understand and enjoy.<\/p>\n

Development Process<\/strong>
\nWork on Psi-punk began a little over two years ago, but some of the setting\u2019s concepts have been alive and in the back of my mind for over a decade. A long time ago, I had an idea for a very basic game concept: what if \u201cmagic\u201d was just the name people used for technology that could do incredible things? Devices that could cause seismic activity and generate earthquakes powerful enough to level buildings, or other devices that could generate fire out of thin air. These devices could handle a wide range of powers and be either commonplace (for basic goods like \u201clighters\u201d and \u201clamps\u201d) to prototypes (for earthquake-causing super magic).<\/p>\n

The idea was shelved for years, but in the summer of 2010 it resurfaced when I started thinking about what I could do with the Fudge system. Frustrated that even the Fudge Psi system used power points, I began working on a Psi system that didn\u2019t have daily usage limits; after all, you never see comic book characters or people in movies \u201crun out\u201d of magic or mental powers. Once I had a psionics engine, the idea came to me to bring back the old \u201cmagic devices\u201d idea and blend it into the setting.<\/p>\n

I then focused on building the rest of the setting around the duality of psionics (innate mental powers that gifted individuals possess) and magic (technological devices that emulate psychic abilities). Everything after that, from the setting\u2019s story to the game\u2019s mechanics, was designed with those two core elements in mind. Even the decision to go with a cyberpunk setting was based on these principles; it wouldn\u2019t do to have high-tech devices that mimic supernatural powers in a modern (let alone pre-modern) era. It could have been done in a variety of other futuristic settings, but I\u2019ve always had an attraction to the cyberpunk genre, so it stuck.<\/p>\n

After that, I spent nearly two years writing, researching, and designing the game. Meanwhile, I began getting involved with the RPG community through websites like RPGGeek.com, Twitter, and Google+. Through RPGGeek I met Melissa Gay, the game\u2019s artist, and through Twitter I met Chris Perrin, the game\u2019s editor.<\/p>\n

The end of the design process is now in sight. We are running a Kickstarter campaign to raise money so we can finish paying Melissa and Chris for their work, and hire a local layout artist to put it all together and make it pretty. Meanwhile I\u2019m finishing up some of the final design details and thinking about the future \u2013 how we\u2019re going to package up the book, print it, and ship it to all of our backers and new supporters alike.<\/p>\n

There is still time to get involved with the Kickstarter and help make this game a reality. Visit the Kickstarter page to pledge your support and please share word of it with your friends and fellow gamers. http:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/accessiblegames\/psi-punk-a-fudge-cyberpunk-rpg<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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