Terminal State

Now the lines are converging to the point of no return.

VX2, the publishing imprint my brother Chris and I operate, has launched our second Kickstarter campaign: Terminal State.

Terminal State is a cyberpunk roleplaying game that uses Free League Publishing's Year Zero Engine, popularized by games like Mutant: Year Zero, Forbidden Lands, and Tales From the Loop, as well as licensed RPGs like Blade Runner, Alien, and The Walking Dead. With detailed rules for hacking, cybernetic and biomorphic augments, and highly customizable weapons, vehicles, and drones, it adds a lot of new parts to the YZE rules engine. It also presents its own setting: a unique, vivid, and violent vision of cyberpunk.

Terminal State aims to put a more modern spin on the cyberpunk genre, one rooted in the present rather than the 1980s. Its characters are permanently online, connected to and surrounded by augmented reality. New forms of humankind live among their creators -- and suffer alongside them. Hyper-corporations supersede states and governments, and seek to surveil and control all aspects of life. Unless you stop them. 

"Maybe you'll change the fate of humanity. Or maybe you'll just blow shit up."

If you're intrigued, please check out the Kickstarter campaign. There's even a free QuickStart you can download to test drive it, if you like (also linked on the Kickstarter). 

Thanks.

(VX2's previous Kickstarter campaign was GRIDSHOCK 20XX, which I created and wrote. This time, Chris is in the creator's chair; I'm pretty much just an editor and advisor. The writing, rules, and graphic design are all Chris. He's been writing, playtesting, and refining Terminal State for years. I honestly think it's an impressive work, and I would love to see the campaign succeed.)

Revisiting GRIDSHOCK 20XX Zine 4: Reference

Gray would be the color.

GRIDSHOCK 20XX's fourth and final zine is "The Encyclopedia of Post-Shock North America" (or Reference for short). The back cover calls it "A glossary of everything you've wanted to know about the GRIDSHOCK universe - and then some - from A to Z" that includes "data about the world after the Shock and everything in it, cross-referenced with every other GRIDSHOCK 20XX zine." It's essentially an official guide to the setting, presented encyclopedically.

The Cover

• In keeping with the academic tone of the EnSHOCKlopedia (as I called it during development), I opted for a simple graphic cover that I hoped would evoke old science textbooks and the like. I think it works, and sets itself apart from the other zines. The idea was to communicate that Reference was somewhat less "core" than the other three zines -- strictly for those obsessive folks who enjoy digging far below the surface of a game setting. You know, people who can spend hours reading The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, or The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, or Wikipedia. The sickos, in other words.

The Contents

• The Reference zine itself is an encyclopedia. It's entirely made up of alphabetically organized entries describing the various elements that make up the the game's setting (or canon, or "lore," if you insist). Many are illustrated with sketches that Grey Wizard -- the co-creator of Break!!, which was recently released in print to great fanfare -- drew early in GRIDSHOCK's development. Back then, it was basically a bunch of scattered ideas I was blathering about on the now-defunct Google+.
• The alphabetical entries are written in an omniscient point of view. Their tone is fairly academic and perhaps a bit dry. If you've ever read the old Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe from the 1980s, you will understand what I was going for. Whether writing in that style was a good idea is an open question. Whenever a term that has its own entry in the zine is mentioned, it's written in bold face, so readers can look those up and get a more complete picture. 
• The idea is that you would naturally start to learn more about the world and history of GRIDSHOCK as you cross-reference those terms. I learned a lot of things this way as a kid, and still do today, but I'm a professional academic librarian. I will admit that this approach could be intimidating to some readers, particularly when you run into ten or more bolded terms in a single entry.
• Also, I am well aware that this kind of information-dense background is out of vogue in some circles of the hobby these days. "Anti-canon" is a buzzword that has gotten some traction recently. I feel like avoiding a huge info dump is usually a noble goal, particularly if one is playing with a genre that is well-established (like dungeon fantasy, for example). The thing is, GRIDSHOCK is a less familiar concept that takes a bit more explanation than that. Plus, some readers really enjoy "lore" and figuring out how it all fits together, as the success of publications like Vermis make clear. (Not to say that this zine is very much like Vermis in presentation.)
• My intention was to make it so that the Reference zine wasn't something that players or even GMs needed to be familiar with to enjoy GRIDSHOCK, but I wonder if having an entire zine dedicated to "deep setting lore" might act as a barrier, or something that scares off people who might otherwise enjoy it. It's a question I will definitely need to figure out as I work on GRIDSHOCK's next iteration.

This post-mortem examination of GRIDSHOCK 20XX took longer than I expected to finish, but I did move to a new state and start a new job in the middle of doing it. Thanks for reading.

Revisiting GRIDSHOCK 20XX Zine 3: Regions

My baby blue.

Somewhat delayed, here's the post-mortem for GRIDSHOCK 20XX Zine 3: Regions, which gives GMs "all the details on a world in the grip of super-villainy." Well, maybe not all the details, but a good deal of them, anyway.

The Cover

• Each region in GRIDSHOCK 20XX has its own unique "big bad" in charge of it. For the cover, I asked Steven De Waele for an image of Lord Thunder, the daemon-possessed former hero and head honcho of The Sanction, with his right-hand man Atramentus at his side. I think Steven understood the assignment. Lord Thunder looks like a nasty customer. In retrospect, Atramentus' visual design is too similar to the Omegas, an entirely different type of adversary, so I would give different guidance to the artist if I were to do it over. He still looks sinister and cool, though. I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
• You may have noticed that this zine is in landscape format, so pages turn vertically. I've heard a little bit of grumbling about that, but I think it worked well, particularly because it gave Steven room to provide a panoramic view of each region. We set up the PDF version to display those landscape format pages properly. I honestly don't regret that design decision.

Region Entries

• Descriptions of each of the eight regions of the GRIDSHOCK setting take up the entire zine; even the inside covers are used to convey setting information (except for the inside back cover, which the ICONS license required to be OGL information).
• I think the regions themselves are pretty cool. Each one is designed to present a distinct flavor of dystopia, each with its own issues, locales, and badguys for player characters to deal with (or have as part of their origin). The presentation of each region includes important NPCs, locations, etcetera in a standardized format with numbered lists. The intent was to provide enough information for GMs and players to have an idea of what the regions were about without bogging them down with tons of text. I think it worked, though my predilection for circuitous sentence structure is on display. I see a lot that should be tightened up, trimmed down, or made clearer.
• A few adversaries got full stat blocks. These are presented in the typical format for ICONS, which means that the GM would almost certainly need to look up what all their powers do. Ideally, I'd want the character writeups to be more immediately usable.
• Really, the map that was in Zine 1: Roadmap should probably have been included here instead.
• This is probably my favorite of the four GRIDSHOCK 20XX zines.

Fear not: The next blog post will wrap up this retrospective on GRIDSHOCK 20XX. It might be a little while before you see it, as I'm moving house and starting a new job this month. Thanks for your patience.

Revisiting GRIDSHOCK 20XX Zine 2: Roster

 

Pink noise, delicious.

My "autopsy" of the GRIDSHOCK 20XX zines I published a couple of years ago continues. This time I'll be looking at Zine 2: Roster, which "supplements hero creation with new templates and adversaries custom-built for dystopian world of toyetic assicking." You know, that still sounds pretty good to me.

I wanna get into it, man:

The Cover

• Steven De Waele turned in an illustration that I think does a good job of showing off the unusual types of characters players can create and play in GRIDSHOCK. The idea for the scene was a diverse group of Vector heroes watching as a psychic Free Agent telekinetically lifts a truck motor aloft. A truxorcist performs a mystical ritual, perhaps protecting it from daemonic possession. What's important is that I think the illustration is interesting to look at on its own. I think it gets across that trucking is important in the game, and that there are lots of interesting character options.

Power Sources and Vector Templates

• I spent a page discussing where the different Vector (player character) types get their powers from, and why that's important. This may be a little over-exacting, but my hope was that it would help give players an idea of how their character fits into the world. There are a lot of things like that in the zines; whether they accomplish that goal is a good question. Some probably help, others might just make things more complicated than necessary.
• The bulk of the rest of Zine 2 consists of the twelve customizable Vector templates that GRIDSHOCK players use to create characters. Each has a two-page spread with an illustration taking up nearly half of it, and each has its own unique layout style. Steven did a great job with the art for each one -- he pulled off an impressive blend of American, European, and Japanese art styles that works really well for the subject matter, and each character has a lot of personality. I'm also glad that I gave Chris the chance to play around with layout and typefaces here. I might have him dial it down a little next time, since a couple of them are less clear as a result. (I think Chris agrees with this assessment.) Giving each template's name its own "logo" is fitting, I think, and I'd probably keep that.
• Although it might look intimidating to newcomers, I think giving three examples of how each template can be customized is a good idea, considering how much impact power selection has on creating characters. I think it's also useful for players who might be looking to play a specific type of character and don't want to do it from scratch.
• Next time, I might cut two or four templates from the initial range of options. Eight or ten would still be enough to choose from, I think -- again, choice of powers can completely change how a character plays and that provides a lot of customization.

Threats and Menaces

• This tries to boil two of the GRIDSHOCK setting's major adversaries -- daemons and Exhumans -- down to a couple of pages. It works, technically speaking, but it's a stopgap measure. It would be much better to provide at least as much detail on each of them as the Vector templates got, but space didn't allow for it. Ideally, each one would have had more flavor text, as well as suggestions on how the GM should use the powers I listed for them. Something to correct next time.

Next time, I'll dissect Zine 3: Regions, maybe the most ambitious one of the four.

Revisiting GRIDSHOCK 20XX Zine 1: Roadmap

 

It was all yellow.

I Kickstarted and published GRIDSHOCK 20XX as a set of four zines, each presenting a few chapters that, at least in theory, added up to "a post-apocalyptic setting for use with ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying." Zine 1: Roadmap provides "a crash course on the world of GRIDSHOCK 20XX and its history," and includes optional and variant rules for use with ICONS.

Since I worked on the world of GRIDSHOCK for years before I finally released it in this form, there's a lot for me to unpack. The temptation to blather on and on about my creation is strong, but I think the best way to resist that urge is to just tackle the zines section by section, as presented. (I will try not to be too hard on myself, but I also think it's important to point out when things don't work -- or do.)

The Cover 

• This depicts a motorig (basically a super-semi truck) smashing through a gate while fascist Supremacy goons blast at it. I always like Steven De Waele's art, but I feel like it's a little tough to tell what's happening on the cover at a glance. I probably asked for too many elements to be included for the price point, so I blame the art director (me) rather than the artist here.
• I still love the logo, but if I was to do it over, I would probably ask Chris to make it more horizontal, to make it clearer that it's "GRIDSHOCK" and not "GRID SHOCK" (which I have seen it listed as on several online retailers).
• I think having "You can make it if you run" to kick off the back cover blurb is cool. Your mileage may vary.
• Chris' map on the inside cover looks great -- if you got one from the first print run. The second run is too dark for reasons I have never been able to figure out, and that makes it hard to read, unfortunately.

Welcome to the Shock

• I'm proud of this chapter. I think it summarizes what the world of GRIDSHOCK is like pretty well, and without over-explaining. It effectively lets players and GMs know how it's different from other settings and gives a quick rundown of how it got that way.
• The "What Do Vectors Do?" section, which lays out exactly what the game is about, is solid. Next time, I will make it even clearer: GRIDSHOCK is about heroes driving around in big trucks, fighting stuff with superpowers, fixing problems, righting wrongs, and then getting the hell out of Dodge before the bastards in charge drop the hammer on them.
• Though I see some things that could be improved, I stand by this section, and will probably keep big chunks of it more or less intact in the next iteration. I'll tone down the discussion of how GRIDSHOCK fits into the superhero genre, though, because so many of its assumptions are not part of what most people consider that genre to be, especially now.

Timeline of the GRIDSHOCK 20XX Universe

• This chapter doesn't hold up as well, unfortunately. It's just too much information. I think I was hoping to impart a sense that this is a rich, complex tapestry of a setting, and I went with a writing style reminiscent of the analytical (and often downright dry) presentation you get in something like the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. I think that what it ends up doing is feeling restrictive instead.
• If I was a GM coming to this setting cold, I'd be concerned that whatever cool stuff I thought could happen in GRIDSHOCK while reading the comparatively fun, evocative preceding chapter might not fit into this terminology-laden, intricate timeline. I think the history that is described in these few pages is cool, but it's so verbose and information-dense that it's overwhelming, maybe even boring at times. There are probably people who liked it, but in retrospect, it doesn't do what I wanted it to, which was to show off a rich setting.
• Looks cool, though. Using public domain photography was a financial necessity, but when combined with the flowchart layout, it imparts a textbook feel that I think is unique in RPGs and consistent with what's being presented. And the artwork that Grey Wizard made to introduce the section is fantastic. It just happens that what follows isn't a very inspiring read. If I keep the timeline at all, it'll be completely revamped next time. I suspect it may not be needed at all.

Rules Changes for GRIDSHOCK 20XX

• This chapter forces me to have a tough talk with myself. I think ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying is a great superhero game. It's my favorite. However, from the perspective of moving units and finding players, using it for GRIDSHOCK was probably unwise. The roleplaying game industry is one with a handful of big games that have long lifespans, and innumerable indie darlings which, while often deserving, don't attract long-term attention. ICONS made a splash when it debuted in 2010. By the time I published GRIDSHOCK, over ten years had passed, at which point it had a small but loyal fanbase, who largely use ICONS for its intended purpose: classic "animated series"-style superheroics, not genre-warping post-apocalyptic ass-kicking super-truckers.
• To be blunt, GRIDSHOCK is really "high concept" and would still face an uphill battle regardless of what system it used, but it should have been a standalone game. Releasing it as a modular supplement instead -- even for a really damn good game like ICONS -- limited its reach.
• All that having been said, I playtested all of the new rules presented in this chapter and they work well in ICONS. The alternate rules I wrote for things like specialties, qualities, and combat deliver the intended experience more effectively than the standard ones. Some of them are good enough that I have adapted them to an entirely different system, the Year Zero Engine, and after playtesting them again, found that they work well there, too.
• Let me be absolutely clear that none of this is said with any disrespect for ICONS or its designer, Steve Kenson. Steve is one of the industry's best, and is undoubtedly the most important designer of superhero RPGs working today. He has never been anything but supportive of GRIDSHOCK 20XX, which I sincerely appreciate.

Next week, I'll dig into GRIDSHOCK 20XX Zine 2: Roster, which details the various types of characters you can play in GRIDSHOCK.

A Look Back at GRIDSHOCK 20XX

In 2021, I launched a Kickstarter for GRIDSHOCK 20XX. GRIDSHOCK was a setting concept I had been writing about on Google+ until that social media site was rendered defunct. You can skim the Kickstarter page for a more detailed idea of what it's about, but the ad copy I used to sum it up works as an elevator pitch:

In 1945, superheroes saved the world.
In 1986, it ended.
In 20XX, supervillains rule what's left.
Welcome to GRIDSHOCK 20XX.

Though I had been messing around with writing a new set of rules specifically for GRIDSHOCK more or less since I first thought it up, when Kickstarter's second Zine Quest promotion rolled around, I impulsively decided "screw it" and chose to publish the concept as a set of zines for ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying, a game I like a lot. 

Since it was a snap decision, I had to scramble to get the Kickstarter funded -- which it just barely did, with a bit over 100 backers. With the invaluable help of the project's other contributors, including Steven De Waele and Grey Wizard on art duties, Anne Hunter and Trey Causey editing, and my brother Chris Vermeren's layout and graphic design, I delivered the printed zines and PDFs in 2022 as promised. Not long after that, I inked a deal with indie RPG publishing juggernaut Exalted Funeral for a second print run of the zines.

None of that is meant to sound like bragging. On the contrary, while I'm quite proud of what my collaborators and I put together, I made a lot of mistakes -- both in terms of promotion and production, as well as in how I conceptualized and then presented this GRIDSHOCK thing. I'm planning to relaunch it as a standalone roleplaying game, so I've started re-reading the GRIDSHOCK 20XX zines for the first time since they were published. In the next few posts, I'll talk about what I think works in GRIDSHOCK, what doesn't, and what will change.

Dragonbane Kin: Underworld Otter

New illustration kindly provided by Jason Sholtis

Note: The Underworld otter originally appeared in the Operation Unfathomable Players' Guide and was created by Jason Sholtis.

I've already covered the citizen lich and woolly Neanderthal, so here's the Underworld otter, the remaining new race from Operation Unfathomable, reworked for use as a player kin in Dragonbane.

As described in the Players' Guide, Underworld otters are quite literally magically uplifted, semi-humanoid otters:

"Generations ago, the magic user responsible for their creation (Zaracanth, a noted Underworld celebrity) released the otters into the Black Ooze river valley, and callously washed his hands of all responsibility for their fate. The otters quickly adapted to their environment, dwelling in shore caverns and subsisting upon various river oozes and young basking sharks native to the Black Ooze river. Otters, strict carnivores, can and do enjoy the flesh of most animals, including those creatures warped by Chaos and those in an advanced state of decomposition."

Much like the other new player races presented in Operation Unfathomable, Underworld otters do not have a large array of special abilities. They are as comfortable moving on two legs as on all fours, and have some restrictions to wearing armor and learning to use weapons based on their unusual body proportions and lack of material culture. Their main ability is a resistance to the attacks of oozes, a type of monster that is common in D&D-derived games, but much less so in Dragonbane (aside from the Giant Amoeba presented in the Bestiary supplement). As always, the goal is to adapt the spirit of the original to the rules and assumptions of Dragonbane, so here goes.

___________________________________________________

Underworld Otter
Underworld otters are a magically created kin native to ooze-infested rivers. Comfortable moving on two legs or four, they look nearly identical to mundane river otters, save for being human-sized and having hands rather than paws. Underworld otters are a young kin who are as capable and intelligent as their older brethren, but who have not yet developed a material culture. While deadly warriors, they retain the fun-loving frivolity of their ancestors, and never miss an opportunity to propel themselves down an Underworld waterfall, douse themselves in the foulest smelling swamp sloughs, or sample the flavor of monster meats in advanced states of decay.

Ability: Slippery

Willpower Points: 1

By activating this ability, Underworld otters get a boon on a BRAWLING roll for avoiding or escaping a grapple (page 48 in the Rulebook) or other forms of physical restraint. They are immune to the corrosive and poisonous attacks of giant amoebas (page 78 of the Bestiary, no WP required), but not their bludgeoning attacks. In addition, Underworld otters cannot eat plants or fungi, but can always eat raw or even spoiled meat without falling ill (no WP required).

Ability: Webbed Feet

Willpower Points: --
This is identical to the mallard kin ability Webbed Feet (page 12 in the Rulebook).

GM Notes
As presented in the original Operation Unfathomable Players' Guide, Underworld otters can only wear armor specially designed for them at "exorbitant cost." Since they are described as strict carnivores, they can't eat plants, and therefore cannot benefit from foraging (page 103 of the Rulebook). Finally, I would automatically give an Underworld otter the Reckless weakness at the game's start (and regularly remind the player of it) to mimic their "save versus fun" habits from the original write-up.