About Neurocity

 Neurocity is a roleplaying game by designer Gavriel Quiroga, who recently gifted me a copy.

The game surprised me quite a bit (think Orwell's 1984 meets The Matrix meets Paranoia!), so here I am to share my impressions.

But first, some facts.

• Neurocity was funded in August with a successful Kickstarter with more than 200 backers.
• It is a 105 pages book, available now on drivethrurpg both as a pdf and as Print on Demand softcover book.
• The pages are black & white (or rather: grey scale), with an occasional splash of red in the text, and (nice, in my opinion) b/w art.
• The game features a unique game system (2d6, roll under), strictly tied to the setting.
• As stated in the book, the game is meant for short campaign play of 3 or 4 sessions.

So what is Neurocity about? In the author's words:

Neurocity is a subterranean city complex crowned by a glitched digital sun ruled by an ever watchful supercomputer named I.S.A.C.

A closed society on the brink of collapse suffering an involution from digital to analog technology due to the scarcity of materials and constant recycling of components.

Neurocity is a tech-noir roleplaying game with an emphasis on psychology and existentialism.

Characters are citizens of a dystopian, closed society, where the individual has value only if he is "functional", i.e. obedient to the hierarchy, bureaucracy and technocracy of the city, and the A.I.'s teachings known as Vitalogy, which form a sort of philosophy of unquestioning obedience for the "greater good... and ultimately a powerful means of propaganda.

The technology level can be defined as "post-cyberpunk", as it features a super A.I. governing the life of the city (and deciding the life or death of "dysfunctional" citizens) and advanced bioengineering and cloning (which brings back to life "functional" citizens!) but, as components are continuously recycled, much of the daily life resembles the '80s.

It's Orwell's 1984, with an A.I. governing it all, and not even death can set you free from the dystopian nightmare, because you'll get cloned or repaired forever... unless your behavior proves dysfunctional. This, so far, is the Orwell + Paranoia, in a way. The Matrix inspirations? Keep reading...

What do players do in such a world and game? The characters can be from any of the different social castes and "careers" allowed by the A. I. governing the city, and their job, for the most part, will determine the type of stories you play.

The first twist in the setting is that (of course!) you have individuals and groups who have come to realize most of their life is a meaningless slavery, and suspect reality, history, and life itself is or should be different. They end up actively questioning authority and are therefore automatically considered dysfunctional terrorists. The second twist is the Trancers: people who experience bizarre perceptions (and occasionally display extraordinary abilities a la Matrix). Some of them choose to ignore the meaning and possible cause of their "trancing" and keep on with their functional lives, while others choose to question everything around them and usually join the "terrorist" groups mentioned above.

The A. I. of course tasks specialist groups to eradicate (and usually destroy) such people: both the rebel "terrorists" and the Trancers. The general assumption of the game is that you do not play such dangerous individuals... not from the start, at least: players begin as functional, obedient people, who are tasked with more or less common jobs, or specifically investigating and destroying rebels.

But the game offers plenty of opportunities for player characters to change sides (or point of view, at least): it is specifically designed to make it happen.

This is where I liked the game the most: first of all, it offers lots of tables with adventure seeds and random encounters and events (associated to specific areas or activities of the city, for example), meaning you can set the game going easily, AND as easily you have the themes and features of the setting come into play, including experiences which may push the characters (and players) to question the true meaning, value and purpose of the "Vitalogy" propaganda...  and their lives.

Moreover, the resolution system includes the possibility for player characters to become Trancers during play, in dramatic, stressful situations. Again, this is meant to open the possibility for the characters to change their point of view, and change the direction fo the campaign accordingly.

All in all it is a very neat game. The resolution system, more focused on narrative outcomes than "realism" or "simulation", is simple but effective, and wonderfully integrated with virtually all the elements of the setting. In this respect, Neurocity is a wonderful model of coherence of mechanics, setting and themes, (which I realize I've barely hinted at, as the game world really has a LOT going on, including the foundation of the city which is one of the mysteries the players may or may not unravel).

The coherence of game tools, mechanics, system, setting, and themes surely makes the game easier to run, and thankfully so, because it certainly is a game which offers a simple system, and a setting that can lend itself for action-oriented stories, but it can also become an opportunity for a deeper experience, as it can lead the players to question several facets of our society.

You can check it out on drivethru!

Guardians of Sol-Tau POD is available, and on sale for a week!

The proof copies of Guardians of Sol-Tau have just arrived, and they are awesome!

We decided to activate the Print on Demand option after considering all the available print formats on DriveThruRPG, and we settled for saddle stitched, comic-book size book. The pictures show the result.

The printed format perfectly matches the comic-book style of the cover, and you can enjoy the wonderful layout made by Matteo Ceresa with a book that you can actually spread open flat on the table.

The book is 48 pages and it feels really solid. It also looks neat because the cover sheet includes a section that functions as a spine, very much like a perfect bound book.

So we are completely satisfied with the proof copies... so much that we decided to have the print on demand version on sale for a week!

Until next Tuesday, you can get the printed adventure + PDF for $9.90.

We even set up a Print bundle with the GoST print + PDF and the Aces High PDF, priced $16.90... until next Tuesday!

Guardians of Sol-Tau: After the Adventure

Several players and GMs who have enjoyed Guardians of Sol-Tau have asked for possible follow-up adventures for the player characters, so I turned the question to Andrea Mollica, who wrote the story. This is what he had to say!

The conclusion of Guardians Of Sol-Tau leaves the heroes with a sense of accomplishment and fulfilling (assuming everything goes well and they defeat the Iods!), yet this does not mean their adventures are necessarily over.

If you want to see the shabby crew of the Astrid tackling new adventures, the finale of Guardians of Sol-Tau definitely offers room for further development.

Warning! Spoilers ahead! If you still haven't played GoST yet, I suggest you not to read on. Have fun with the adventure and check back here after that!

The Iod's defeat doesn't imply the entire destruction of their race. As described in the last chapter, several Iods die, but many of them still have the chance to start a new life in the Sol-Tau system - and they have no means to reach another solar system, anyway. How will the fare? Will they try to peacefully find a place to live, or their martial culture will cause violent conflicts? And how will the peoples of Sol-Tau react, now that the Iods have lost their military supremacy? It's entirely possible the surviving Iods will have to face distrust, hostility, or hate.

In both cases, our Heroes may be called upon to help. They may be regarded as the ones who can tell whether the Iods deserve a second chance, or where to deploy them. If the Iods behave aggressively, the PCs will be surely called to action, since they're the ones who destroyed their empire. Or, in an interesting turn of events, the group might be called for help by a group of Iods facing threats by people of Sol-Tau who don't want them as neighbors.

An entirely different lines of story development regards the new political assets of Sol-Tau system after the Iods' defeat. Most likely, a power vacuum occurs, and there may be someone who wants to exploit the situation in their favor, be they a criminal organization, a former rebel brigade, an entire people of one of Sol-Tau's planets or one of their governments.

Again, the heroes may be involved in several ways. Did they risk their lives against the Iods for nothing, just to see another dictatorship arise?

Since the PCs have acquired a huge fame within Sol-Tau, they are now considered an elite crew (even if their gaming stats may say otherwise...). There are many people willing to hire them for any sort of mission: transport, escort, smuggling, planetary research, body-guarding etc. Remember that, despite the dark years of the Iods, all the inhabited planets thrive with bristling life; many cities are huge and full of mystery and intrigue.

And, don't forget the Pilgrims. Who are they, after all? Whence the prophecy come from? What exactly was the supernatural power wielded by Hope? You can answer these questions in many different ways, and introduce more mysteries and conflict to involve the heroes.

But perhaps, the most interesting lead for a follow-up scenario would be answering the question: what's up with the Hrax? An impossible machine made of metal and dark energy, capable of killing suns! What's happened to it? Where has all that energy gone? What about the technology? What if a new villain of your choice found a way to tap into that energy and try to become the new ruler of Sol-Tau?

And all of those ideas could of course be mixed together into one scenario, of course. A Pilgrim gone rogue might trick the heroes into getting for him the means to use the residual energy from the Hrax, and the surviving Iods might become useful allies for another desperate battle against all odds!

All I can say to sum it up is, keep the Astrid flying!

About Robotech - A Macross Saga RPG

Robotech means a lot to me. It was by far my fav cartoon show when I was a kid. I was young enough to enjoy big transforming robots, but also old enough to understand the sentimental complications that were part of the show, as well as the depth and nuances of the strange war that went on between the humans on SDF-1 and the Zents.

 Robotech - A Macross Saga RPG is a Savage Setting published by Battlefield Press in spring 2019 and one of the first settings native to Savage Worlds Adventure Edition.

So you can imagine my happiness when a Robotech setting book was announced for Savage Worlds, I couldn't believe my eyes!

For a Robotech fan, the book is simply fantastic: full of amazing art by Fransisco Etchart and detailed information about the general story and its secrets, all the characters, and of course all the human and Zent vehicles, spacecrafts and mechs. 

The book met and exceeded my expectations, except for two things that I expected to find within its pages: the first was a detailed transcription of the events of the original show, episode by episode (which can be found in the other Robotech RPG... no, not the Palladium one, the one by Strange Machine Games), and the second was a dedicated system to run space battles, something deeper than Mass Battle rules, but lighter than the standard Chase rules of Savage Worlds Adventure Edition.

A few months after its release, I had the honor and pleasure of translating it for the Italian edition,  as well as running it here and there at several cons and events!

While translating it, I also prepped a scenario for those con games: the player characters were a squad of Veritech pilots (OF COURSE), chosen by Roy Fokker himself to perform an acrobatic show with their VFs during the celebrations for the SDF-1's first flight... If you know the show, you can figure how it continues! The scenario included

• A Quick Encounter scene with the pilots describing their acrobatic maneuvers in the sky above Macross Island
• A Dogfight against a dozen of enemy spacecrafts and mechs as the Zent fleet attacks the SDF-1
• An optional Interlude, ensuing when the SDF-1 folds into space along with part of the island, and pilots are temporarily stranded and floating into space
• A Dramatic Task to rescue the civilians within the island shelters, which must be taken onboard the SDF-1
• A final confrontation with a stranded Zent Ace emerging from the ruins of Macross city.
• An epilogue on the SDF-1 where the surviving pilots are informed of what is truly going on and where they are!

I think I've run this scenario about six or seven times, with little variations here and there, and it was always a lot of fun! It worked well with players who knew the story, because it was from a different angle than the protagonists of the show, and it worked just as well with players who just knew we were going to play a game with transforming mechs, because really I only had to explain very little of the setting before starting the game.

I must say I always played this scenario with the Aces High rules for the dogfight: after all, that's what I had designed it for!

Guardians of Sol-Tau

Sol-Tau is a solar system in a faraway galaxy, inhabited by technologically-advanced races who, for several centuries, lived in peace.

That is until the Iods came.

30 years ago the Iods conquered and subdued Sol-Tau and, after having established a military dictatorship and exploited all possible resources, they are ready to rip off all the remaining energy within the solar system with a mysterious mega-machine called “the Hrax” - a device that will be thrown at the system’s twin suns, snuffing it out, to fuel their gargantuan Arcaship and allow them to set sail towards another solar system to conquer and exploit.

The time for the final solution is, unfortunately, at hand. But a secret society, guided by an obscure prophecy, is at work to save Sol-Tau. All they need is a crew of unwitting heroes to do the most important part of the job!

Guardians of Sol-Tau is a sci-fi adventure for 3-6 Seasoned characters. It's a light-hearted space romp adventure, where unwitting heroes become involved in a desperate mission to save their solar system from destruction and possibly put an end the Iods’ tyranny forever.


The story unfolds through eight scenes with several different rules subsystems in action:

• Networking
• Social Conflict
• Chase
• Dramatic Task
• Quick Encounter
• Interlude
• and of course Combat!

...making it the perfect adventure for new players and GMs to explore or learn all the possibilities of the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition rules!

In order to stay true to its spirit of fast-paced action, Guardians of Sol-Tau makes use, optionally, of the Aces High supplement for the space dogfight scenes, and that is why Guardians of Sol-Tau and Aces High are also available together as a bundle.

GoST was written by Andrea Mollica, who built an awesome story around a generic adventure framework I designed, and I must say the final result was very satisfactory to me!

All the art is by Zaira Diana, while layout is by the egregious Matteo Ceresa.

The adventure has received some humbling praise by acclaimed designer Umberto Pignatelli, author of Beasts and Barbarians and lots of other games:

"This is a BRILLIANT scenario: the type of never-ending action I expect from a Savage Worlds adventure, with over the top situations and a glorious finale (if everything goes well!). The art and layout are fresh, and really help set the tone, which clearly is inspired to Guardians of the Galaxy, but maybe also Saturday morning cartoons, imho. This might become my go to adventure for introducing Savage Worlds to new or younger players, too!" [five out of five stars]

Guardians of Sol-Tau is available on Drivethru!