ORWELL @2081 - the PDF is now available!

ORWELL @2081*, by my friend Jens, is now available on DTRPG in PDF format, as mentioned in his blog.

As I've mentioned before, this is an interesting RPG - one of a kind, really.

Maybe you could see it as the "current" version of the classic Paranoia* - once we were afraid once war, treason and constant vigilance, now we are threatened by social media, AI, infantilization, pharmaceuticals, fake news and, well, constant vigilance again.

It also reminds me of Misspent Youth* or Cyberpunk* somewhat. 

But these are just references - ORWELL (or Ø2\\‘3||) has its own thing going on.

The writing is provocative and enticing; it paints a very grim picture of the future (and present...). 

The art is dark and awesomely creepy, check this out:

The layout is clean and good looking.

The system is quite unique, using 3d12 and various twists that distinguish it from the D&D-like RPGs I'm used to. 

Anyway, here's the blurb:

    Welcome to a very dark world ...

    The setting is Europe in the year 2081, unified under one totalitarian party called The Family. The United States of Europe (USE, for short) are a playground for all the bad ideas this century has already come up with (and some of the classics from the last 100 years). Citizens are rated by an arbitrary and mean Social Status system, puberty blockers are mandatory for all but the Elites. All of this is shrouded through a huge media ruse: reality is hidden behind a fully augmented and gamified layer, maintained by an AI implanted at birth and controlled by The Family. Citizens never grow up, just grow older and if they aren't high in social status, they are bled and used for everything they have, most of the time without even realizing it. That veil is lifted for some, and with that comes resistance (or opportunity).

    It’s a game that assumes players are open to exploring all kinds of ideas and willing to put some thought into the stories they tell and experienced DMs who want to explore a system that challenges them as well. It is also a satire of a dystopian future that may not yet fall upon us …

I'd recommend you check this one out especially if you like:

- Tragic/satiric views of our possible futures.

- Very dark humor.
- Games such as "Paranoia" and "We happy few".
- Books like 1984 (Orwell), Brave New World, and The Futurological Congress, or anything by PKD.
- Black Mirror.
- Amazingly creepy art.

- An innovative, unique system.

* Affiliate links.

The Three-Body Problem trilogy (review)

I just finished reading the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy (AKA The Three-Body Problem trilogy; or TBP for short).

I'll write my impressions of the series without major spoilers. 

Which is difficult (and will seem kinda vague), but I think if you're going to read this one, it is better to find out as you go, as the first novel contains a mystery that will only be revealed halfway.

Also, there are some adaptations out there, and another one coming in 2024 - let's hope they're good.

Anyway, here is a small summary from Wikipedia:

Ye Wenjie is an astrophysicist who saw her father brutally murdered during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Later, she was conscripted by the military because of her scientific background and sent to a secret radar base in a remote region of China. Her fateful decision in the 1960s echoes across space and time to a group of scientists in the present day, forcing them to face humanity's greatest threat.

First things first: the trilogy is well worth the read, maintains a similarly decent quality throughout the three entries, and has a definitive and satisfactory (if not perfect) ending.

It contains aliens, spaceships, cryogenics, flying cars, lasers, anti-matter weapons... all the things you'd expect from a sci-fi epic (except, maybe, much transhumanism and AI).

TBP is both "hard" sci-fi, discussing physics and engineering extensively, with aspects of "soft" sci-fi, analyzing the political, sociological and psychological consequences of many catastrophic events on humanity.

Although the attention to detail and accuracy is noteworthy, the technology becomes more extreme and speculative as the novels progress (and the feeling of "deus ex machina" gets stronger as we go on) - to the point of being "indistinguishable from magic" to my eyes, especially in the third book (it might be different if you have any knowledge of theoretical physics; I wouldn't know).

More than anything, it is a epic tale spanning dozens of characters in multiple galaxies across millions for years, maybe more - from ancient China and Constantinople to the Cultural revolution and aeons of space exploration.

It reminds me of the Foundation series in this regard.

But TBP trilogy manages to be a lot scarier, dealing with war, genocide and mass extinction on a regular basis. The third book gave me existential anxiety as few books have before. Everything feels always at the brink of destruction.

The writing is slow at times - I often skipped technical details and lengthy description of places - but I never felt exactly bored (maybe anxious). There was just certain parts that felt unnecessary to the story.

The characters are well-written if occasionally a bit shallow, although this is not the focus of the books for the most part. I like the fact that here are few clear "villains", and even the protagonists manage to fail spectacularly at times.

TBP is full of big ideas - it discusses many difficulty questions but provides no easy answers.

All things considered, it is a page-turner - and I read the last book over a weekend because I was curious to finally get to the conclusion.

If you like epic, hard sci-fi, this one is worth checking out.

Postapocalyptic Strahd

A long while ago, I've adapted Lost Mines of Phandelver to the Ravnica setting (before it was an official 5e setting). I really like this module, and I really like the Ravnica setting. It was a good fit and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Was other modules - and settings - could generate something similar?

Well, Curse of Strahd has a decent structure, despite its bad organization. And I've spent so much time reading and running it that I know it quite well by now.

The gothic feel of CoS is nearly perfect. It nails all the appropriate tropes. But what if...

Well, my favorite D&D setting is Dark Sun. Now, think of Barovia as a desolate valley, where resources are scarce, and a handful of small villages survive in walled cities despite the violence outside of the walls.

All fear the local Warlord...

...who controls the main source of water from his castle...

Source.

...and has an army of "ghoul" cultists...

...and a bunch of captive brides.

Of course, there are other tribes (or biker gangs?) in the valley. They call themselves "nomads", "werewolves", "savages", "blood brothers", and so on. 

Most tribes bow to the Warlord, except for the mysterious Raven clan.

There are also those weird witches... Well, that's what the folks call them, although elsewhere they'd be called "psychics". There are universally feared and respected.

Of course, it's hard to run CoS without magic.

Fortunately, I like my Dark Sun in a "kitchen sink" setting that includes mutants, wizards, psionicists, demons, and maybe aliens. I might avoid guns but I'd still have forgotten technology.

So, Dark Sun, plus Mad Max, Talislanta, Carcosa... you know the drill.

Sounds crazy enough... it might even work!

Ø2\\‘3|| is out. [Yes you've read it right]

Ø2\\‘3||, the new book by Jens  Durke* (The Disoriented Ranger) is out (at a discounted price as I write this).

While I do not fully understand the name choice, I've read the book in an earlier version (and gave Jens my impressions), so I cannot write an unbiased review (Jens is also a friend), but I think this is an interesting RPG - one of a kind, really. 

Maybe you could see it as the 2021 version of Paranoia - once we were afraid once war, treason and constant vigilance, now we are threatened by social media, AI, infantilization, fake news and, well, constant vigilance again.

It also reminds me of Misspent Youth* or Cyberpunk* somewhat. But these are just references - Ø2\\‘3|| has its own things going on.

The writing is good, and it paints a very grim picture of the future. 

Here is the blurb:

Welcome to a very dark world ...

This game is designed with the DM in mind instead of the next product to sell. You buy this, you’ll have all the content you’ll ever need to play this game for a very long time. We will offer supplements in the near future, of course, but what you get here is as complete as we could make it.

The setting is Europe in the year 2081, unified under one totalitarian party called The Family. The United States of Europe (USE, for short) are a playground for all the bad ideas this century has already come up with (and some of the classics from the last 100 years). Citizens are rated by an arbitrary and mean Social Status system, puberty blockers are mandatory for all but the Elites. All of this is shrouded through a huge media ruse: reality is hidden behind a fully augmented and gamified layer, maintained by an AI implanted at birth and controlled by The Family. Citizens never grow up, just grow older and if they aren't high in social status, they are bled and used for everything they have, most of the time without even realizing it. That veil is lifted for some, and with that comes resistance (or opportunity).

It’s a game that assumes players are open to exploring all kinds of ideas and willing to put some thought into the stories they tell and experienced DMs who want to explore a system that challenges them as well. It is also a satire of a dystopian future that may not yet fall upon us …

You will find in this fully illustrated tome:

• a completely free-form character generation that lets players create exactly what they want

• a character advancement that emerges in-game with play and for each character individually

• an original game engine that creates a base narrative for a DM to manifest their campaign on

• a unique cinematic combat system that mixes tactical gaming with storytelling freedom

• a point based economy that can empower players but will also strengthen the DM response

• tools to create a complete and dynamic dystopian sandbox for your players to explore

• 5 years worth of writing, researching, designing and play-testing
  

Reading it may depress or elate you, playing it will make you laugh and discuss. Or, as a friend of the game put so eloquently:

Start this game engine, it produces satire!

If all that sounds as if it could be for you, you should give this a shot.

All the work was put into making this the best book it can be, not a pdf. This is dead tree only.

I'd recommend you check this one out especially if you like:

- Tragic/satiric views of our possible futures.

- Very dark humor.
- Games such as "Paranoia" and "We happy few".
- Books like 1984 (Orwell), Brave New World, and The Futurological Congress, or anything by PKD.
- Black Mirror.
- Amazingly creepy art.

- A new, unique system (Jens writes about OSR stuff, but this is very much a modern system).

*Affiliate links.