The Computer is your friend.
The Game: Neurocity
The Publisher: Gavriel Quiroga
Degree of Familiarity: I've read 1984 and I've played Paranoia, but otherwise none
Books Required: Just the one
Neurocity is from the same people (person?) as Warpland, and while it's similar in structure it has a bit more explanation of what it is and how to play it. In a dystopian cyber-future controlled by a computer called ISAC that claims that humanity just found it one day and it totally saved them ("very unsuspicious", as Coach Z might say), we play...well, good question, really.
Character creation lets us make characters across the social spectrum, and castes are a big thing here. What I did not get was a good understanding of what characters might be assumed to do in the setting, whether we're on the same team and so on. (I also got the feeling more than once that this is just Paranoia played completely straight and with the color drained out; you've got the mad computer, the highly stratified society, and you even get brought back as a clone if you die.)
Well, no worries. It's still a pretty quick process (that's why I picked this game; I initially started to do Battle Century G but then I realized it was point-buy and I don't have the brainmeats for that tonight).
OK, so I need a name and age. Well, I think I'm gonna make a Cardinal, one of the robed elite that can issue death certificates (and thus force Rebirths). I'm only doing that because I think they sound like cool characters, not because I think that one would actually fit into a group. We'll say my Cardinal's name is Ephraim Gilead, just to really hammer it home, and we'll say he's 50. Function is Cardinal, and that makes his social index Beta.
Axiom is a kind of motto, the character's philosophy summed up in a sentence. Ephraim's is "doubt is the mind's poison."
9 points into Attributes, and they start at 5. I have to put Logic to 9 and Technocracy to 6, so that's 5 of my points right there. I'll boost Personality and Instinct by 2 each, and leave Violence at 5.
Now I get two Contacts, so I'll say one is a Delta common-folk named VBF320 (nicknamed "Vera"). Vera informs Ephraim about ground-level stuff that might be of interest. For the other contact, I'll say Ephraim knows an Enforcer named Drummond. Drummond is thoughtful and methodical, not brutish and angry, and Ephraim thinks he might make a good Cardinal someday.
Possessions! I get one, and I will take a Vitaology Bible. Seems in character. I get a Medkit, too, because of my Function.
And that's pretty much it. Weird game. Some potential, but did not hook me like Warpland did.
