[1:09 PM]Jens D.: Okay, here we go: I’m Jens Durke (from Germany, if you are wondering) and the guy behind the little publishing endeavor called Disoriented Ranger Publishing. Started blogging when OSR was all the kids were talking about and somewhere in between I started publishing as well. ORWELL 2081 is my first complete rpg (I’m working on a couple more right now …) and could be described as 1984 but updated and it plays as a very dark humored cyberpunk anime series. Light rules with lots of options, and it tackles all the bad ideas our society discusses right now.
[1:11 PM]Jens D.: It is not per se a political game, but tries to be as objective as possible about some mature topics. It also comes with a complete subsystem for the DM to play with: random narrative generators, a currency that gives the game a different twist (in short: players can spend Pennies to buy dice, the DM can use Pennies to make thier lives harder). (done)
[1:12 PM]Jens D.: Can I share some examples?
[1:13 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Of course!
[1:13 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): And thanks, @Jens D.! The floor is open to questions!
[1:20 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Is that the character sheet?
[1:23 PM]Jens D.: Yes. Characters are basically blank sheets with potentials (High, medium and Low Potentials). They live in a world where everything is augmented and puberty is illegal. It is a bleak and oppressive world to live in. To counter this, players can come up with what they need by coming up with Skills, Gadgets or Contacts they might be able to use in a given situation. There’s lots of freedom in that. Once they established 10 slots, their character is developed for the season and when all others and the DM have 10 slots filled, a season ends. Damage or mental health problems might fill slots as well.
[1:24 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): How would you describe the tech level of the setting?
[1:26 PM]Jens D.: Full out cyberpunk world that is augmented to look like kids tv channel, with fully developed AI, geo engineering, gene editing … basically the full set of tech dreams we have right now, but with all the problems we have today in reagrds to availability and functionality.
[1:29 PM]Jens D.: Since it is quite free form in developing gadgets, people are free to create whatever they want, there’ll be a version of it, but it might come with limited print rights (first players describe/negotiate what they want, trhen they roll dice how well they have access to it).
[1:29 PM]Jens D.: Now that I think about it, teleporting and time travel, for instance, mihgt not be possible, but could offer interesting opportunities as well.
[1:30 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): So the basic tech level is cyberpunk with almost limitless “weird science”?
[1:31 PM]Jens D.: Yes
[1:31 PM]Jens D.: During playtesting people would come up with the weirdest solutions for the problems at hand. It ended up being a funny game because of that.
[1:33 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): You touched on this earlier, but how easy is it for PCs to access the “baseline” tech (cybernetic augmentation, genetic alterations, etc.)?
[1:36 PM]Jens D.: THere is a Social Credit System in place, so it depends how well The Family (the uni-party that is ruling the United States of Europe in this dystopia) likes you or not, BUT during character creation people are again as free as they want to create what they want, it just comes at a price: the more powerful they make their character, the more Pennies gets the DM … So we had everything from movie stars to hackers, furries that also were spies. One had wings (edited)
[1:39 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): When you say “furries”, I assume you’re referring to people who’ve been genetically altered to resemble animals in this context?
[1:39 PM]Jens D.: Here’s another example: one group lived in a district that was augmented to be a MMORPG, so people would travel there to do quests and all that, but the reality was that they hunted immigrants and rebels hiding in the area as well as doing some extermination work fighting some mutated critters … THey saw both versions at the same time, which woke them up.
@Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe)When you say “furries”, I assume you’re referring to people who’ve been genetically altered to resemble animals in this context?[1:41 PM]Jens D.: Yes. Well, it could be all of it, with everything in between. Wearing costumes, altered to be more like an animal … One would be “cheaper” than the other, so it’d be up to the players. In this case it’d been a girl in a fox costume (edited)
[1:42 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): You say one PC had wings. Were they functional wings? Also, what would you say is the most outlandish genetic alteration in the game?
[1:46 PM]Jens D.: We agreed that gliding was what he wanted to do, but it could have been something else entirely. It is more about the story you want to tell, I’d say. I guess as far as genetic alterations go, it could be evrything. The game has guidelines for creating items and skills ans such and how a power is expressed can come with several possible manifestations. So if you have cyberlges, for instance, or if you are genetically altered to have the equivalent of frog legs is, again, totally up to the player (as long as the DM plays along).
[1:47 PM]Jens D.: The sytem carries both solutions easily, so you can really go wild.
[1:48 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): So there are no lists of specific cybernetics or genetic alterations? They’re all player-devised?
[1:48 PM]Jens D.: There is a transhumanist angle in this where it explores the question what happens if you really can be everything you want to be.
[1:51 PM]Jens D.: Yes, the design choice was to make it as abstract as possbible to fit as many ideas as possible, so you get a structured analysis of what those things are at their core and then let the game go where it goes with it. There are examples and ideas what that could be, of course, but when you tell people they can do whatever they want, they get creative real fast about with what they could get away with And the DM at least will have a firm grip on what is possible or not after reading the book (I’d say).
[1:54 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): That being the case, let me ask you this: Is it more difficult to create gadgets that exceed the baseline cyberpunk tech level?
[1:59 PM]Jens D.: Hm … I’d take that on a case by case basis, for one, but as far as trhe system is concerned, you can tell the DM what you want, you agree on something, and when you roll the dice you’ll have it function within the parameters of the system. That is to say, you could claim you have printing rights a nano cloud that is able to restructure (idk) bones. So when you first create that, you roll 2d12 and see how strong that actually is. It could be that you just have access to a weak version of that (maybe specific bones, maybe not live threatening) or something that has lots of uses and functions as described. Free narrative translates to the system like that. Does that answer the question?
[2:00 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Hmm… Let me re-read that.
[2:00 PM]Jens D.: I mean, we can test this right now. Hit me with the weirdest thing you can come up with
[2:01 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Okay. I want to create a raygun that transforms any organic being into a aardvark.
[2:02 PM]Jens D.: Okay, that’s powerful Lets see …
1
[2:08 PM]Jens D.: First of all, I’d limit that as a DM somehow, saying it might be experimental tech to begin with and using it will come with difficulties, for instance could the process take time or needs the target fixed/paralyzed somehow (just from the top of my head). I might even try to convince you that you could claim you have a contact with access to tech like that, if I deem it too powerful for the game. Then you roll 2d12 and see how strong that is. Gadgets come with a Stage or with limited usages, so a low roll would give you what we agreed on, but you’d only be able to use it a couple of times, or it comes with a Stage, which means you can use it regularly within the limitations of the game, so it might need recharging, it might take time to use it, stuff like that. In the end, you will have what you wanted, although downsized to work within the game.
[2:11 PM]Jens D.: As far as stages go, you would be able to use a gadget within its power without “spending” it (a hacker drone stage 3 would hack everything up to a related difficulty, 12 in that case, without doing anything but stating it happens) or you could spend Stages to do womething more difficult.
[2:12 PM]Jens D.: It also could end up being a raygun that alters the digital or augmented versions of characters, although that’d mean someone tricked you
[2:13 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): So if I’m understanding you correctly, there’s no hard-and-fast rule that states the limits of contemporary technology in the setting — it’s all a judgment call on the part of the GM.
[2:15 PM]Jens D.: No, all tech is within what the roll determines (always hard numbers), the fluff is the judgement part.
[2:15 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Still, I’m assuming that it would be fairly easy for a tech-savvy PC to create a homemade version of contemporary technology, like a cyberlimb, and extremely easy to create something below the baseline tech level, like a basic pistol?
[2:16 PM]Jens D.: Yes, for sure. What I’m saying is that you can get a gun easily, but might only have limited printing rights, for instance.
[2:17 PM]Jens D.: It all maps to the system in a way that you can have what you want and it works within the system, if that makes any sense …
[2:17 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): I think so.
[2:18 PM]Jens D.: It’s like saying your fireball looks like a charging beholder. Doesn’t change anything about the rules for a fireball, but the fluff is very flexible like that
[2:18 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): I see. Very cool.
[2:19 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): You touched on this earlier, but can you describe the basic task resolution system? We like to use the basic example of a PC attempting to jump over a gap.
[2:31 PM]Jens D.: I’d love to When something comes up that justifies a roll, players uses 3 dice, base ine being 3d12 (high and low potentials) or 2d12 & 1d10. Those are rolled, then, versus a difficulty (say they attempt to jump from one roof top to another, but it’s raining and little drones try to hamper their movement). How the dice land gives you an optional die (the one to the left) and active dice: a leading die that is used against the difficulty (the higher of the two for high and medium potentials, the lower with low potentials) and a secondary die taht might be used for social media interaction, for instance. Now, let’s say we have a difficulty of 20 because of what I laid out above, the roll comes up with 4 as the leading die, 4 as the secondary and a weak 6 as the optional. A double always adds up, so that’s an 8 to begin with. The optional can be bought for a Penny, but that would still fall short … So you could invent something that would help you over the gap, a skill, for instance (say, the player claims that the character had some parcour training for some game he had played …) so we find out how good he actually is and see if that. With having a Skill, partial success is also possible, so that would mean he would somehow make that jump by getting to a 16 (difficulties are in 4s).
[2:32 PM]Jens D.: There are a couple more of ins and outs, but that’s basically it. You make a roll, the dice interact, you have buying options and beynd that you can negotiate what else might help you. Wkith that, a whole scene develops how you jump that gap (or not).(edited)
[2:33 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): How would you determine how good that PC is at parcour?
[2:36 PM]Jens D.: You’d also roll 2d12 and depending on the result you get a Skill and/or “Inspired Moments”, which are points you can spend to get a bonus on a roll, but limited. So a character may end up having parcour +2 and an Inspired MOment to burn for another +4 …which would make that roll, I think
[2:38 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): So all player skills are determined on the spur of the moment, not at character creation?
[2:38 PM]Jens D.: yes
[2:39 PM]Jens D.: as needed, up to 10 times per season
[2:42 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Ah, that was going to be my follow-up question.
[2:43 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): By “season”, do you mean “game session”, “adventure”, or something else?
[2:47 PM]Jens D.: When all players and the DM have established 10 slots each the game is wrapped up, It follows the idea of an anime series where the story develops for a certain time and then ends when certain conditions are met. So the developping narrative is strongly connected with the system that way. A triple, to give another example, creates a season highlight which is a slot for the DM. It also gives the players reason to be tactical about how they develop their characters throughout the game
[2:48 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): So what happens if both sides reach 10 slots right in the middle of the action?
[2:54 PM]Jens D.: It could be anything you could imagine happening in a series, up to a cliff-hanger where all the action stops right at that point and then for setting up the next season they would set the stage new by for instance telling how the fight ended . Setting up the stage is again something where the players can come up with whatever they want but again the more powerful they build up the stage to their advantage the more pennies the DM will have to use against them.
[2:54 PM]Jens D.: They might even decide to start season 2 with continuing the fight just to keep the DM out of pennies.
[2:58 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): So if things ended on a cliffhanger, the outcome could be resolved narratively?
[3:00 PM]Jens D.: Yes. But it will be a negotiation with the DM and all advantages players would give themselves for any given situation would create pennies for the DM to make him more powerful on the systemside.
[3:01 PM]Jens D.: I know it all sounds very high-concepts but it works quite well in my experience although it does need an experienced GM to run it.
[3:02 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Fair enough!
[3:02 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): I know we’re going a little over our scheduled time, but do you have time to cover how combat works?
[3:10 PM]Jens D.: Sure. FOr combat you have the same system but the roles are opposed and the higher the winning result is the more damage is dealt and here another feature of the game called ‘anger’ comes into play where depending on how angry a character is he might deal way more damage, be more aggressive about it or even use up all his anger and starts only supporting further fighting. So it’s all quite dynamic. For instance what dice the DM will role for the opposing result depends on how many pennies he has at that point. That’s the baseline. Opposing roles – higher result determines damage and within that you have the tweaks described above (doubles, triples, players can innovate tools they might need, for instance to protect themselves) there’s also initiative and order of combat and when fighting several opponents additional combat roles will be downgraded to lower dice. So a d12 might end up a d8 further down the line. Damage then also creates slots that might even override existing slots but could also fill up the ten possible slots.
[3:12 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): How do weapons and armor work?
[3:13 PM]Jens D.: They are gadgets you create and use.
[3:15 PM]Jens D.: Stage of armor would work as protection, stage of weapon would add to damage by raising the result. All of it can be invented as needed by creating slots or used if already extablished. My players told me that’s what they like best about the system.
[3:15 PM]Jens D.: Coming up with weird shit as they need it and it’s also a great counter-weight towards the bleak world the game plays in.
[3:17 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Cool.
[3:17 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Thanks very much for joining us, @Jens D.!
[3:19 PM]Jens D.: Thanks for having me! Is it okay to share a link to the game and a couple of pictures? I just have to bring the baby to bed first because it’s late here…
[3:19 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Usual reminder: If you’ve enjoyed this Q&A and would like to treat me to a coffee or two, you can do so at https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe. Anything’s appreciated! Ko-fiBuy Dan Davenport a Coffee. ko-fi.com/gmshoeBecome a supporter of Dan Davenport today! β€οΈ Ko-fi lets you support the creators you love with no fees on donations.
@Jens D.Thanks for having me! Is it okay to share a link to the game and a couple of pictures? I just have to bring the baby to bed first because it’s late here…[3:19 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Sure, please do!
[3:32 PM]Jens D.:Β
Here’s an example of the art in the book (it’s a “bias judge”, one of the meanest things the government can throw at you).
[3:33 PM]Jens D.:Β
An example of text and layout …
[3:34 PM]Jens D.:Β
A free teaser of the game: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/358976/O23–PDF-Collection–Book-Preview-for-the-Game
DriveThruRPG
[3:35 PM]Jens D.:Β
And the game itself (behind a mature content wall): https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/353636/O23–RolePlaying-in-a-Dystopian-Future
DriveThruRPG
[3:36 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe):Β
Very cool!
[3:36 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe):Β
If you’ll give me a minute, I’ll get the log posted and link you!
[3:37 PM]Jens D.:Β Very nice! I also have a link to a session report, if you are interested?
[3:39 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe):Β https://gmshoe.wordpress.com/2024/06/09/qa-jens-durke-orwell/The Hardboiled GMshoe’s Officesaintnexan[Q&A] Jens Durke (Orwell)[1:09 PM]Jens D.:Β Okay, here we go: Iβm Jens Durke (from Germany, if you are wondering) and the guy behind the little publishing endeavor called Disoriented Ranger Publishing. Started blβ¦
[3:39 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe):Β Sure! I can add that.
[3:39 PM]Jens D.:Β https://the-disoriented-ranger.blogspot.com/2021/07/23-little-play-report-with-notes-season.htmlΓ2\\’3|| – A little play-report with notes (Season 1, Episode 1: De…I had an opportunity to DM Γ2\\’3|| the other day, first session of a two-session gig (favor for a friend, nice people to game with). Other…
[3:40 PM]Jens D.:Β Very cool. I’ll share it on my blog as soon as I have the time to sit down for it! Thanks again. This was fun