Character Creation: Interface Zero 3.0

June is winding down, I have a lot to do over the next couple of days, but I really do want to hit my 10 characters this month because if I do, I'm done with the games I have on PDF and I can start reading books again. So let's do this!

The Game: Interface Zero 3.0
The Publisher: Gun Metal Games
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game, but I know Savage Worlds just fine
Books Required: Interface Zero 3.0 and some version of the SW rules; I'll probably use SWADE unless there's a reason not to

So with the exception of maybe Vampire, this may be the game I own the most editions of - I made a character for the True20 version of this game way back in the Before Times, and I've made characters for the previous two iterations of the Savage Worlds versions. I feel like they've gotten better as they've gone; reading this one, I felt like the history was more readable and more interesting...

But actually, as I'm reading more closely, I'm not sure if it's actually better written (it's not bad by any means, of course) or if the concepts that it's tossing around are just more familiar. There's a lot of talk about disinformation, conspiracy via corporation, terrorism via meme, and so forth, and damn if a lot of it doesn't seem timely? And reading the Foreword to the book, that's precisely what the game is going for - making a cyberpunk game that represents the techno-shock of the current era, rather than that of the 80s and 90s. So I can get behind that. 

Let's see. The very first IF0 character I made was a hacker, the second was a simulacrum, the last was a street tough/cyber'd guy. Suppose we make a psi this time around? Or, what are they called, zeeks? 

The chargen section asks for a campaign theme, and it actually has some impact on mechanics, but let's assume we're doing a Cyberpunks game. I don't think any group I'd be in would be up for Protect & Serve, after all.

So first we need an Origin. There's a bunch of these - oh, right, the last time I did this, I mentioned that the "Ganger" Origin was written in faux-AAVE and it was kinda gross. That's been cleared up, fortunately; same basic info is conveyed, but without all the "I'm a white guy trying to write street, yo!" bullshit. Anyway, I think I'm going with Media Icon for my character, because I just finished playing Capes and Ignis is a fun character. Origins give you a free d4 in a Skill and then a choice of two that you have to take one or the other, but it's not clear whether that means you get that second one free or if it comes out of your Skill allotment. 

Well, I can't be here all day, so let's assume I get my Core Skills (Athletics, Stealth, Persuasion, Notice, and Common Knowledge) at d4, Performance at d4, and then either Research or Taunt. I'll take Research. I also get some assorted Gear, which I shall fill in on the sheet. Ooh, I get a car. Neat!

Moving along to Race! I can't be an android or a cyborg and a zeek, but that's fine. Let's just be Human 2.0. That gives me Overconfident, a d6 in Smarts and Vigor, and a Skill at d6 to start. Nice!

So with that in mind, let's think about concept just a little bit. My character was the 2095 equivalent of a TikToker, doing vids or streams or whatever they're called about how the government isn't all bad, the activists and whiners are just lazy or stupid, and really we're living in a paradise compared to how people used to live. And then somewhere along the way, they started developing psionic powers and getting flashes of people suffering, and came to realize that, no, there's actually a lot of evil and oppression, it's just not coming from "they." It's coming from millions of points of "they", if you will. They ripped out their TAP and has started doing more old-school recordings, and I think a fun first session would be them getting mixed up with whatever the PCs are doing. (I also think my character is largely agender, though it'd be fun to see if that changes post-TAP removal.) Their handle is Comet ("blink and you'll miss it!"). 

OK, so, Attributes! Let's bump Agility to d8, Smarts to d8, and Spirit to d8. Is that 5? Two for Agility, one for Smarts, two for Spirit, yep. That leaves Strength at d4 and Vigor at d6, but I can live with that.

Skills! I get 15, plus my Origin Skills, plus my free d6 in (something). I need to take some points in Psionics, of course. Let's just put three into that right now. Let's bump Research, Notice, and Athletics to d6. I'll bump Persuasion and Performance to d8. I'll put my free d6 into Driving, how about, and I'll put a d4 into Fighting and Shooting. Three more...let's put a d4 into Thievery and a d6 into Taunt.

Edges & Hindrances! I know I want Unplugged, which is Major. I'll take Magnet (Comet's got some fans still) at Minor, and I'll take Quirk (Records Everything), and that's that.

For Edges, obviously I want Arcane Background (Psionics), and I think I want Fame, maybe? Or Charismatic? I'll take Charismatic, I already have something like Fame via Magnet. 

I get three Psionic powers, and Farsight isn't available at Novice, dammit. So I'll take Empathy, Mind Link, and Illusion. 

Derived Traits! Parry is 4, Toughness is 5, Pace is 6, Street Cred is d6. 

And that's all but the shouting (and the description). So let's say Comet is blond, blue eyes, thin and kind of twinky, used to dress much flashier on their stream but has gotten less obvious since going offline. They've kind of kept the "things aren't what you think" attitude, but it's shifted focus, and Comet still doesn't have a good sense that talking shit about powerful people is likely going to get them shot at some point. 

That'll do it!

Character Creation: IF02

Now that the hustle n' the bustle of Oscars is over, and I've actually managed to get some sleep, let's make a character!

The Game: Interface Zero 2.0
The Publisher: Gun Metal Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: The IF0 book and Savage Worlds core; this game uses Explorer Edition, I think

I haven't done a Savage Worlds game in a while - not at all this year, in fact - and the last one I did was Broken Earth as part of the 12 Games of Xmas. So I thought, why not do one, and hey, whilst I'm at it, tick another version of this game off the list (since I had three on there - 1.0, 2.0 (this one), 3.0 (the most recent one) and that's not even counting the d20 version I did way back in 2011). 

This version isn't honestly all that different than 1.0. It's got the same huuuuuuge history section, the same diversity of options (psychics! interplanetary stuff! cyberpunk street level shenanigans! hybrids!), and it grabs the Savage Worlds rules and tries to stretch them to be more like Shadowrun or Cyberpunk or something.

And I dunno. It just was not hooking me. Maybe it's because of this:

When you use the term "politically correct," it immediately makes me think you're trying to fulfill an obligation rather than actually considering whether the language you're using is appropriate and non-harmful. Like, dude, no one cares if you say "fuck." That's not a harmful term. It's (considered) profane, but it's not offensive to anyone in particular. But if you start using, say, any given racial or ethnic slur, that shit is harmful, that shit is offensive, even if, in context, it would be appropriate to use given a game's setting. 

Also, the little disclaimer there claims that the book is going to "talk politics" and "talk religion." Does it, though? There's a page, written in-character, that talks about tolerance and -isms, but it's not clear to me what point it's making, and it closes with the old fallacy (again, in-character) that atheism is an 'ism' too. Thanks, South Park. 

Anyway. If there's a larger and more challenging philosophical point here, I think it gets lost in the biomass. But whatever, I'm just gonna make a character. I said last time I did an IF0 character that I was going to cyber the hell out of the next character I made, so let's do that. 

As is typical in SW games, I start out picking a race. In this case, my race is cyborg. I want to play a character who kinda went all-in on replacing bits of himself with machines, perhaps because he's very into the whole "I hate my meat-suit" outlook. That means I get: 

Whew, that's a lot. Let's flip ahead to Augments since I get a free one. Has to be Strain 1 at Streetware level, but that gives me some options. One of them is a smartgun system, which raises my Wild Die on Shooting rolls to a d8, but nowhere in the book is a "smartgun" defined. Sure, from the context I can suss it out, but c'mon now. I do want that, though. I think I'll just lean in to my cyborg being a killing machine, and in Savage Worlds terms, maybe I make him good at clearing out mooks since they just require one hit.

Right, moving on. Traits! The usual in Attributes, everything gets a d4 and then I have five more points to throw around. Well, if I'm thinking I'm gonna be shooty, I'll dump three points into Agility, one each into Smarts and Vigor. That leaves Spirit and Strength at a d4, but I might shore up one or both of them later. 

Skills! This game has a specialization system that I'm going to ignore. This is also pre-SWADE, so I don't get the basic Skills, just 15 points straight up.

Well, 4 points into Shooting gives me a d10. Driving d6 sounds appropriate. Fighting d6, sure. I want a d8 in Notice. That's 11 points spent already. Two each into Stealth and Streetwise, I think. 

Occupations! Basically just that; they're your job between runs and give you credits from your "normal" work. Pizza delivery driver is on here, because of course it is. 

Well, Ganglander appeals, but then there's this:

Must be some of that "politically incorrect" stuff they were talking about. Bleah. 

Christ, this is annoying. Most of the occupations have Edges as prerequisites, but then the Edges also have prereqs. Folks familiar with SW rules know that we only get one free Edge...maybe not even that, I don't know if Cyborgs count as human. Nope, they don't. Fuck. So basically most of the listed occupations aren't gonna work. You know what, screw it. I'm taking Layabout. My guy just doesn't have a job between jobs, so he's pretty much gonna go gig to gig. No prereq there, but no bonus either, so just a wasted step. Moving on. 

Edges, Hindrances, and so forth. I can take the usual 4 Hindrances (1 Major, 2 Minor) and then use the resulting "points" on Edges or Skills or Attributes. Well, I'll take Bad Reputation as a Major Hindrance, because clearly my guy has a criminal record already. I'll take Bad Street Cred as a Minor Hindrance, probably tied in with the Bad Rep Hindrance. I think my guy got pinched and plea-dealed his way down to something manageable, and clearly didn't snitch on anything too important (or else he'd be dead), but he's still wet paint to a lot of folks. 

Ooh, and then how about we take Nano-Virus? That lowers the Wild Die with a particular Skill to a d4. Let's say it's Fighting. My guy is skilled at gun-play, and he's ok in a hand-to-hand fight, but the software tends to glitch. 

Cool, got my four points. I know I want Chromed; I get 15,000 credits I can only spend on Augments. I'll spend 2 and bump my Strength up to d6, and I'll spend the other two on Skills (d4 in Repair, d4 in Intimidation). 

Ugh, now I gotta shop. I get a varying number of credits depending on where the GM would want to put me, and heaven help me, I think this character - unemployed when not chasing gigs - makes most sense as a gutter punk. I think he's the definition of a big fish in a small pond; better equipped than some folks at his pay grade but still very much at his pay grade. So that means I get 5000 credits and nothing free for Augments (though I do get the 15,000 from my Edge). 

Well, armor is useful, so I'll blow 3500 on an Urban Punk Gecko suit. Feels like I oughta have a gun or two, huh? Problem is, I'm very low on cash. So let's say he's got WT Long Barrel and a Street Talker 6mm, both handguns, for now. That leaves me with 100 credits, which is pretty sad. On to Augments!

I have 15,000 credits here, and the cost is a base amount (depending on the quality of the gear) x the Strain. I shouldn't go over 6 Strain, so there's that. Streetware grade augments are 5000 per Strain, so basically I can take 3 Strain worth of stuff at that grade. Sounds good. 

Well, I want a Cyber-arm, I think? That gives me strain equal to the number of modules. Do I just wish to dump all three there? Eh, I'll just take two. His right arm is completely cyber'd, and for the modules, I'll take cyber-tools (+2 Repair, useful for fixing myself up) and a Firearm (doy). That leaves me one more augment at 1 Strain. I'll take Personal Airbags, because it halves damage from falls, and if you're going to climb walls, it's wise to have a way to avoid the worst of gravity's retribution. 

And that's actually it! We'll say my guy's street name is Possum - falls out of trees and plays dead, y'know. He was kind of an up-and-comer in the world of street assassination and gang-clearing, and then there was that whole "botched job" thing. He played dead, plead down, didn't really snitch (but it depends who you ask), and now he's trying to claw his way back up, but it's slow going and there are probably people out there who would shoot him if they had a chance and a spare bullet. 

Possum, for his part, is a boring-looking white guy white brown hair, brown eyes, and the standard off-the-rack cyberlimb. He hasn't customized it much because he's trying to get shed of his reputation before he builds too much of a brand, but that might not work well. And he'll take basically any job he's qualified for if it'll help build up the ol' street cred. 

That'll do it! 

Character Creation: Interface Zero 1.0

Some days, my "do a character for every edition of a game" policy comes back to bite me.

The Game: Interface Zero 1.0
The Publisher: Gun Metal Games
Degree of Familiarity: Not much
Books Required: The IF0 book and some edition of Savage Worlds; I think it's written for the Explorer's Edition

See, now, this is an instance in which the phrase "dog's breakfast" would not apply because it's not a confused mess. There's just a lot in this game and I think some darlings probably could have been killed at some point. But, then again, there are also at least three editions of this game in this rules set alone, so maybe it gets tighter later on? 

Anyway, Interface Zero is a cyberpunk game and it follows most of the usual tropes you find in such games. If anything it leans a little more on the 'punk side of things, because there's a great deal of attention paid to the quality of your cyberware and what that means for you as the poor schmuck that had it implanted. And that's cool. But you can also play a robot, or a simulacrum (different thing!) or a person with animal DNA spliced in (a "hybrid"), or an AI, I think? (I mean, technically a robot is an AI.) 

Unlike a lot of Savage Worlds games, which are into the whole brevity thing, IF0 has twenty pages of history, a full chapter of rules changes and additions from standard SW, and then later another twenty pages of "this is the world we live in." It's a lot. It feels like a lot to read. Like any RPG that deals with geopolitics on any level and was written pre-Trump years, it's amusing to read the history, although in this game the USA succumbs to a second Civil War and fractures into five nations, which, um. You guys better not have gotten this right.

Anyway, I think we made characters for this game as part of a playtest once upon a time and then for whatever reason didn't wind up playing. I also seem to recall that none of us were terribly enthused by the idea, but I don't remember why exactly. It's by no means the worst cyberpunk game I've ever seen, it just doesn't do much to excite me, but it looks perfectly playable. Ah, well, let's do a character.

Chargen is a lot more involved that most SW games, despite IF0's insistence that they kept things "lightning fast." We start off with race, which is basically "human or robot" but there are some variations to both. I want to make a Simulacrum, because I read the races yesterday and that's the one that stuck in my brain. Simulacra are vat-grown humans, but (here's the weird bit), they're implanted with fake memories and histories. My question is why. Like, if you can implant a human being with a fake history and therefore the memories and the experiences that come with it, then why not be up front about what the sim is and avoid the trauma of it discovering that later? My guess is because it makes better stories this way (and it's undoubtedly more in-genre).

Well, I'm gonna say my sim was a laborer, working off-planet on a mine (oh, add "solar system colonization" to the shit this setting includes - like I said, it all fits but it all feels very busy), and somewhere along the way discovered he was a sim. He quit the job and got back planetside, and has kind of slid into a downward spiral of depression and existential dread. You know, a real fun guy to be around. 

So, anyway, as a simulacrum made for labor, I start with a d6 in Vigor but I also start with the Loyal Edge (since labor sims are made to be steady workers). Otherwise I'm just human. Groovy! On we go.

Attributes! The usual deal, 5 points and a d4 in everything (except Vigor, in my case). Given his history, we're gonna put a d8 in Strength, a d6 in Agility, a d8 in Vigor, and a d6 in Smarts. The d4 in Spirit is, perhaps, due to the recent soul-crushing discovery that everything he knew was a lie.

Skills! I get 15, and this being an old edition I don't get the "base" Skills. I do get a free d4 in Hacking, however.

Climbing d4
Fighting d6
Guts d4
Knowledge (Mining) d4
Notice d6
Piloting d4
Repair d6
Shooting d6
Streetwise d6

That's 15, damn I'm good. I speak three languages plus English, so I'll say he speaks Hindi, Mandarin, and Portuguese (the three most common languages in this brave new world). No place to write that, however, so I'll just have to remember it.

Aaaaaand now the book wants us to do derived traits, even though that's like icing a cake while it's still baking. Yes, I am gonna bitch about this every time I do an SW character. Skipping for now.

Edges! I get a free one for being "human," of course. Oh, but I like to take Hindrances first, actually. Let's do that. I'll take the Glitched (Major) Hindrance; cyberware is more likely to fuck up with me. I think that's probably something my whole batch had in common, hey GM, there's your plot hook. I'll take Death Wish and say that he wants to die after he figures out where he was created and meets whoever it was that programmed his memories. And, one more Minor. Hmm. Let's take Poverty, why not.

OK, on to Edge(s). Oh, wait, hang on, I forgot I have to pick an occupation. My guy isn't really skilled for much of it, but I'll be a Sanitation Worker, how 'bout. Normally that would give me 10,000 credits, but as I'm poor, I only get half. Also, I think I get the shit end of the stick (lol) because I'm a sim, and the union isn't sure whether I count as an android or not. 

Right, back to Edges. None of the new ones in the IF0 book enthuse me, so we'll stick with SW classic (that is, Explorer's Edition). Well, let's take Quick (I throw back anything lower than a 5 in initiative draws). Figure that he's got good reflexes built in. That one's free, though, and I don't see any other Edges that intrigue me, so I think I'll boost Agility to d8 and bump Piloting to d6 and Fighting to d8. 

So now can I do derived traits. Parry and Toughness are 6, Pace is 6, Charisma is usually 0 but -2 if I'm acting outside my function as a laborer, which is...weird. I mean, that simulacra are meant to stay in their lane, sure, but how often would I apply a Charisma mod? I guess if I were doing social stuff, but I'd be shit at that anyway. 

I could go shopping, but eh. I don't have enough money for cyberware, really, and it'd be glitchy with me, so I'll stick with the standard TAP array that all characters get. I do need a name, though. I'll say his name is Ashvin Patel. He's named for the seventh month in the Bengali calendar, and lately he's begun to wonder if he's got 11 more siblings...

Ashvin is has brown skin, black hair, and a kind of surprised expression a lot of the time. Not "surprised" like "here's a puppy!" but more "your boss wants a word with you." I picture him as morose, but not angry, and he keeps to himself. He obsesses over his origins and his implanted memories, and he's picked apart everything that he can remember for clues as to where he was created, but he's afraid to actually do any real digging because what if he's defective and they render him down for parts? 

I think that'll do it. Whenever I get around to doing 2.0, I'll made a character that's cyber'd all to fuck, for a change.

Character Creation: Interface Zero

Another cyberpunk sort of game? Sure, why not.

The Game: Interface Zero
The Publisher: Gun Metal Games, formerly Reality Deviant Publications
Degree of Familiarity: Some with True20, none with the game itself.
Books Required: The Interface Zero book (or pdf, in my case) and the True20 book.

We start out with a lengthy timeline, explaining all of the rises and falls in governments and technology that led us "here" (which is 2088). There's some good stuff in here, but as is typical for these sorts of chapters, it's hard for me to keep track of what's then and what's now. OK, so China invades Russia, but what are the nations looking like today? Hopefully there's a map.

Anyway, character creation starts off with 20 questions, though not literally. Basically it just asks us to conceptualize. OK, let's do that.

I'm never crazy about cyberpunk settings, really. But there are some aspects of this game I do like. I like the notion of floating city/states, and I like that you can play a rover (someone from there). I like that the web is called the Deep, and there's ocean metaphor all through it.

Heck, let's play someone who does "Deep archaeology" - basically Indiana Jones of the future Net. He goes looking for stuff online that's been lost, locked behind security doors never meant to be opened. He doesn't go after government secrets or the like, because that way lies madness. He's in it for the money, not trying to further the cause of personal freedom or any of that shit.

I picture the guy as most effective in the Virtual space. I might take a "sidekick" edge or something to give him a bodyguard. He's thin, but not unhealthy (he's happy to genesplice to make up for his shortcomings). Physically average, mentally proficient, socially kind of gruff, but endearing enough and professional. His name is Savir McMahon (his mother was Indian, and while she wasn't a traditionalist on most matters, she'd always wanted to name her son "Savir"; his father, an Englishman, was fine with that). Savir is, obviously, half Indian. His features favor his father, but his skin tone and hair come from his mother - dark skin, black, thick hair, brown eyes.

Online, he's known as "Severe." Mostly that's from people misspelling his name, but he tries to remain dour and hyper-focused and professional, just to give himself some badass cred.

OK, good start. Now, on to Basic Mechanics. I get 6 points to distribute between my basic abilities, which start at 0 (True20, you'll recall, does away with the useless, arbitrary "12 means you get +1" of d20 and just uses the bonuses). Well, I know I want Savir to be smart and wise, so I'll put +2 into Intelligence and Wisdom right off the bat. I'll put +1 into Charisma and the other +1 into Dexterity.

For Background, I'll say that Savir was born in Mu, but grew up with his father doing salvage runs on derelict ships and sunken cities (like New Orleans). I take Rover as my Background. That gets me Endurance and Uncanny Dodge as bonus feats, Climb and Swim as bonus skills, and some favored feats that don't matter as much right now.

For role, it's pretty obvious I'm a Hacker. I get 6 skills, plus Climb and Swim. I take Computers, Gather Information, Knowledge (Deep), Notice, Research and Stealth. Factoring in my bonuses, that's:

Computer +6
Climb +4
Gather Information +5
Knowledge (Deep) +6
Notice +6
Research +6
Stealth +5
Swim +4

OK, feats. Now, it says in the True20 book that you get feats based on your role, but the number of feats isn't listed in the Interface Zero book. Mind, I'm not fully versed in reading True20, so maybe there's some way to determine this that anyone who knows any incarnation of d20 knows, but seriously, argh. Hang on, let me do a little reverse engineering. Oh, wait, you get 4 as a level one character. Why would it have been so hard to say that in the Interface Zero chargen section? Argh.

Anyway, I pick Skill Training (+4 Skill Ranks), and then put two into Diplomacy and two in Languages. Then, for my next feat, I grab Etiquette (never need to make a Diplomacy check to avoid faux pas in social situations). I'll take Firearms Training, and finally I'll take Upgrade.

And, holy crap, they want us to make rolls during chargen to afford shit. How stupid. No. I know I want some tricked out hacking gear, though. So I'll just assume I can have the basics - clothes, gun, bedroll, 50' of rope and that kind of bullshit - and go shopping for my TAP (nano-computer dealie in my brain). I can use my Upgrade points to buy an Advanced TAP, and I think we'll call it a day there. I got dinner to cook.

Oh, wait, gotta do Languages. OK, I speak 5 languages. English (native), Portuguese, Mandarin, Arabic, Swahili. Basically the trade languages of the 2088 world.

Also, Virtue/Vice. Weird, not in the pocket player's guide. But just personality traits, anyway. Savir's Virtue is Fair. He's in it for the money, but he cuts a square deal. His Vice is Greedy. He is in it for the money, after all.

Right, good enough!