Character Creation: Hack the Planet

FOR THE TENTH GAME OF XMAS, TWENTY-TWENTY-THREE,
TEN HACKERS HACKIN'
NINE GIRLS A-PLANTIN'
EIGHT MAIDS A-SHIELDIN'
SEVEN VIXENS VIXIN'
SIX MICE A-SQUEAKIN'
FIVE GOLDEN HAINTS,
FOUR UPLIFTED BIRDS,
THREE GODSENDS,
TWO DUSTY BOWLS,
AND CHUUBO'S MARVELOUS THINGIE DOODLE DOO!

I miss winters that were actually winters. That's nothing to do with this game...OR IS IT?!

The Game: Hack the Planet
The Publisher: Samjoko Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this game but it's basically Blades in the Dark with some knobs tweaked
Books Required: Just the one

Hack the Planet is cyberpunk Blades in the Dark. Like, Wicked Ones tweaked the game and the systems to make the game about the dungeon and bring home the feel of being monsters in a fantasy setting. I don't know if Hack the Planet managed to do enough to change the feel to cyberpunk or not (that's the kind of thing that would become apparently at the table). I suspect that the foundation of the game is firm enough (because Blades' is) that it would work just fine. 

My one real niggle is the title, and it's not a real niggle. "Hack the Planet" was a kind of battle cry from the 1995 movie Hackers, which weirdly enough I haven't seen (though reading the wiki summary, man, there are so many references to this movie that I missed over the years). I guess it's kind of appropriate to the game, especially since the ghosts in Blades have been replaced with "Acts of God" (extreme weather phenomena). But are you ever, in fact, hacking the planet? There's no internet in the game, so how much "hacking" gets done? (Again, this would require a closer read and actually playing it.) 

Or, put another way, the reason Blades worked for me was that it had enough structure and enough cool, juicy details to hook me. The eels and the electro-tech and the mushroom farms and the Leviathan Hunters and so on - it was easy to understand, but alien enough to make you go "ooh, cool." Does Hack the Planet manage that, given how well-tread the cyberpunk ground is at this point? I honestly don't know, and with the right group it wouldn't matter because you'd fill in the details as you go. 

Well, that's enough blabbity-blab. Let's make a character!

First up, we choose a playbook. I have the beginnings of an idea, and weirdly it hooks onto one of the names for NPCs on the Lens playbook, so I'm gonna pick Lens (mind, "tracker and sniper" is probably what I'd pick anyway). 

So, to jump ahead a little (to step 7, specifically), my character's rival is Nor. Nor is a sourcer, and looking that up, it means she looks for water (the Sourcers are a Forged faction, operating outside of Shelter 1, which is where the action really takes place). My character is her former partner, Neither. Neither/Nor (as they called themselves) came to Shelter 1 on some kind of mission for their faction, and Neither fell in with a different kind of crowd (i.e., the PCs, so if I were playing this I'd work something out with another player). Nor tried to keep him focused, but Neither got a little bedazzled by Shelter 1. Nor went home without him, so a reunion between them would be...a little strained. 

OK, with all that in mind, let's go back to the top. Got my playbook (Lens), step two is root, which is what kind of background Neither comes from. He's from a Forged community (specifically Cresting Grace), so his root is Forged taken by the glamour of Shelter 1. 

Step Three is background; what kind of education or work I had before becoming a Glitch. I think the clear choice here is labor (former sourcer). 

Action dots! I already have two assigned to Track and one assigned to Survey. I'm meant to assign one based on my root, one based on my background, and one wheresoever I choose. 

Well, Cresting Grace is surrounded by perpetual fog and it's prone to flooding. My first choice would be Survey, but I have a point there (I could take another but I kinda want to spread out a little), so let's say  Neither is used to sneaking around through fog and give him a point in Ghost. And since he's a former sourcer he's got some skill in rigging up pumps and testing rigs and whatnot, so I'll put a point in Modify. Finally, I picture Neither as being affable, if not especially sophisticated, so I'll put a point in Network. 

Step five is cybernetics. Basically I get a dot in an action that comes from a cyber modification, and I get to define what that is and why it helps (there are other mechanical dingles, too, but they don't matter for chargen purposes). I feel like Neither was a skilled hunter, but not really a killer, so when he got recruited it was mostly "this guy is decent but he's got potential." So the crew he hooked up with got him an adrenal pump - basically it jacks his reaction time and lowers pain response. Game terms, I get a dot of Combat.

Special ability! I believe I shall take Perseverance (I take Trauma when I exceed my stress, not fill it). I think it goes with Neither's country upbringing. 

Close friend and rival! Got the rival already. Close friend...let's say Raphelle, a hired Edge. Raphelle was the one that recruited Neither and basically seduced him into joining up, and they were probably the one that helped him get the adrenal pump. Raphelle is cool, charming, and utterly ruthless, but they see the long game. Neither probably likes Raphelle more than they like him.

Vice! How does Neither get down. Ooh, so many fun choices. I think for Neither it's gambling. He loves to hit Cerulean Downs and bet on cycle racing, and maybe someday join in? He's not that good a driver, though.

And finally, the finishing touches - name, pronouns, alias, look. Well, we know the alias (Neither). His real name is Bowen Laurent, his pronouns are he/him. When he's on the job, he dresses like a Forged - cargo pants or jeans, black tactical shirt, flak vest, hood. When he's not, he wears new, fancy-looking suits, but it's the kind of thing that someone who's not really hip would buy to try and look hip. It's nice, but it's off the peg, so to speak, right down to the mirrorshades. Neither's a bit of a tryhard. Neither has black hair but he's dyed it a couple of times, so it's got some blue and pink in there. He's got blue eyes that look like they're altered with contacts, but no, they're just kind of cool looking. 

That'll do it! Tomorrow, more ecoterrorist fun!