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~xFellWardenx~
2016-12-10, 03:26 AM
Hey, guys, popping in with a question from a close friend of mine who wants to run a rather specific kind of game. He got really interested in modern parapsychology and the idea of cybernetic hauntings due to things like the very recent Sara is Missing video game and the less recent Unfriended movie. So he wanted to try his hand at running a game based around that idea, but with more of a hacker theme, and has been laying down the groundwork of a setting for the past roughly two months. But while he's got the fundamentals placed now, he's not sure how much more he can do before he knows what system the setting's games ought to be run in.

And so I come to you, ignoble bearers of dark knowledge known as the Playgrounders. The primary thing being looked for is that the game can functionally model a more fun, cinematic version of hacking, ideally to a "modeled cyberspace" degree, but with the potential for the overall game to have a more World of Darkness-esque tone (or at least not actively resisting such a tone, the way something like a superhero RPG might). Beyond that, he wants the system to be malleable to the intrusion of supernatural horror into the hacking/cyberspace, with very technological routes through which the supernatural beings might affect the physical plane - in a perfect world these would come with the system to begin with, but as long as the game is easy enough to patch that sort of stuff into he can work with it.

Along with any systems you suggest, please explain why you think it would be a good fit, and in what ways it might present difficulties or fail to meet certain needs. A pro/con list of sorts.

Thanks in advance.

Grod_The_Giant
2016-12-10, 06:44 AM
Shadowrun? I've never played, but when someone says "magic+hacking" it's the first thing that comes to mind.

Satinavian
2016-12-10, 06:59 AM
Yes, Shadowrun seems the obvious answer.

Modifications would mostly be around leaving existing and too flashy stuff out, but everything you need should be there.

JellyPooga
2016-12-10, 08:35 AM
I don't know Shadowrun intimately, but what I've heard about it would seem to fit the bill.

Alternatively, Cyberpunk 2020 has a very detailed hacking/cyberspace system if you want to delve into it. Adding supernatural flavour shouldn't be hard and the system as a whole is pretty gritty; combat varies from unsurvivably lethal to "Your bullets cannot harm me! My wings are like a shield of steel!"...including the bulletproof wings, if you want them. It doesn't mechanically encourage it, per se, but it definitely has a style-over-substance feel to the game.

KillingAScarab
2016-12-10, 08:57 AM
And so I come to you, ignoble bearers of dark knowledge known as the Playgrounders. The primary thing being looked for is that the game can functionally model a more fun, cinematic version of hacking, ideally to a "modeled cyberspace" degree, but with the potential for the overall game to have a more World of Darkness-esque tone (or at least not actively resisting such a tone, the way something like a superhero RPG might). Beyond that, he wants the system to be malleable to the intrusion of supernatural horror into the hacking/cyberspace, with very technological routes through which the supernatural beings might affect the physical plane - in a perfect world these would come with the system to begin with, but as long as the game is easy enough to patch that sort of stuff into he can work with it.

Along with any systems you suggest, please explain why you think it would be a good fit, and in what ways it might present difficulties or fail to meet certain needs. A pro/con list of sorts.While the first thing which comes to mind would be Shadowrun, your friend has requested that the supernatural piece be mixable with the hacking piece. My experience with 2nd edition Shadowrun was that those two things didn't mix. I haven't played 3rd or 4th edition, so perhaps there is hope for that still. If your friend really wants World of Darkness, though, I don't see a better fit than Mage: the Ascension. Technocracy, Virtual Adepts, and the flexibility of the Spheres to represent things as varied as ghosts and magical machines and the spirits of normal machines. Alas, I didn't understand Mage until after The Matrix (http://www.clashingblack.com/alas/strip/2000-08-16). Past-me would have recommended Werewolf: the Apocalypse for the Glass Walkers, but there's a tendency for that game to turn into Big Furry Tanks rather than using the Umbra and their spiritual side to investigate a problem.

Satinavian
2016-12-10, 09:30 AM
There are options for this in Shadowrun. 3rd edition onward has Otaku or Technomancers which basically are people with supernatural hacking abilities. Late 3rd edition onwards has Ki-Adepts with technical abilities. And then there is the classical Shadowrun mage with a possible technocentric tradition.

But yes, Mage would probably also work. It is a bit magic-centric though and lacks in the normal cyber category.