"Harsh" is a fun word. It doesn't sound like what it means to me. "Harsh." Too many fricative sounds, no stops or bilablials, it sounds breezy. Anyway.
The Game: Harsh Generation
The Publisher: Sealbee Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one
I've tried a few times to read this game and my brain has just kinda slid off of it. I'm not sure why; it looks perfectly playable (though very much a dirty hippie indie game). It's nominally post-apocalyptic, there's a focus on religion and community interaction and cybernetics (and other mods) but I dunno, it just doesn't hook me. It uses cards to introduce plot twists and suchlike, and the resolution seems to be that players (called "Storytellers", which is another thing that's messing with me because my brain is still very much conditioned to read "Storyteller" as "GM", which here is called "Moderator" arrgh) state a goal, the goal always succeeds, but the roll is to determined whether there are consequences to that attempt.
And...I dunno. I've played a few games where failure isn't really an option, including Headspace, and I don't know that I like it. Players like to win (I even wrote an essay to that effect many years ago), but having it be a foregone conclusion seems like it strips out some narrative possibility.
Now, with that said, I haven't played Harsh Gen so I don't actually know how well it would work, and the game seems well-put-together and all. The back half of the book goes through setting and history and it's readable and not dry, so that's a big plus. So let's make a character.
Interestingly, this is another post-apoc game that involves the world getting taken over by a big forest (though not to the extent of Wildsea); the "Overgrowth" cuts off cities. No money, but people trade bioelectricity.
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| But wouldn't almost anything make a better battery than a human being? Like a potato? |
Anyway, first thing we do is pick a Template. Let's go with Modcrafter. There are three types of mods, so I'll have to pick which type I craft, I suppose, but I like the idea of being someone that can tinker with the cool cyberpunky stuff that people shove all up in them.
Right, next we pick name and pronouns. The book advises going outside one's comfort zone, and I'm good with that, though I think I'd rather do it with culture than gender. So my guy's, um, a guy, but what kinds of communities can one find in Philadelphia? (The game is set in Delphia, the remains of the City of Brotherly Love and Also M. Night Shyamalan's Movies.) The three most common nationalities, according to census data and a quick search, are Indian, Dominican, and Chinese. Since I've been replaying Assassin's Creed: Black Flag of late, I shall say that my character is of Dominican extraction, though it's been quite a few generations, of course. His name is Jasiel.
Tech ID, which basically describes what kind of body mods (if any). I'm gonna go with Electrogen, "modern mutants."
Religion! Religion is a big deal in this game, and there's a whole interlocking history for it. I like the Left-Hand Path, and specifically the Reconstructionists - very community focused and very appealing to modcrafters.
Street Smarts! (Stay alert out there!) These are trait-like thingies that give me bonuses on rolls. I get Electric Touch for free (basically I've built up an immunity to getting zapped, which is 100% how electricity works), and then I pick two more. I want Gallows Humor; I picture Jasiel as the kind of guy who's going to joke like "whoa, how'd that thing get in there?" when he's playing with your genetic code. And I shall also take Multitasking; I think Jasiel is the kind of guy who always has lots of irons in a fire.
Mods! I get three Electrogenetic splices (ooh, I should replay Bioshock). Hmm. If there's a theme here I'm not seeing it. Well, I'll take Base/Camp (I remember every place I've been), Bacchanaliver (I can drink literally anything), and Neurotransmitters (I can take a deep breath and heal Stress).
Favor! I start with two. That's...it.
And that's pretty much it! Jasiel is the guy you go to when your splices start mutating or acting weird, or you want to hack your skeleton into something a little more comfortable. I picture his setup in his shack having a bunch of jury-rigged computers, kinda like the setup in Darkman, and if you want him to work on you, you need to bring your own bioelectricity and a taco or something wouldn't hurt.
That'll do 'er.
