When I Decided To Make A Game (again)

Hi, my name is Finnen Cerises. If this is your first time hearing that, please go buy my game, MARP, Minimal Additive Role Play:
https://salubriousbrew.itch.io/marp

Lots of this will make more sense, and more importantly you will be supporting me and the artists that worked hard and passionately to create these awesome docs.

Some time in 2021 I started working on a game that I’d start calling HyperLite. These diaries are not about that game. HyperLite is unreleased and may never go further than a fun little thing for friends. The important thing to note is that it emphasized several key ingredients.

• Relatively rapid start, character building session encouraged (probably necessary in hindsight).
• Creating characters that began at a competent power level, who did not suffer from Grizzled War Veteran Level 1 Warrior syndrome.
• Creating any skills and abilities that complemented your character. Furthermore, no reliance on complex requirements or constraining lists.

It will remain a curiosity in my mind, and MARP wouldn't exist without it. The curious problem that arose with HyperLite is that if one wanted to play a follow up session, could the characters be given Experience Points to advance them? Not really. Abilities started quite powerful even without heavy min/maxing.

For MARP I wanted to focus on a game that you could run a campaign with. Giving characters 1-3 experience points per milestone or even per session would allow them to grow. Thus for MARP my focus shifted:

• Relatively rapid start, character building session or session 0 encouraged.
• Creating characters that were starting their journey from a relatively humble power level.
• Enabling characters to grow, level up abilities with XP, and gain new abilities.
• Creating any skill, ability, attribute that you want.

These diaries are not a step by step look into creating MARP. They are meant to be an invitation to look at what I did during a playtest, what I learned, and how I challenged myself to add variety and have fun with the process of building a game. And if you would like to use any of these elements for your own games, these are not setting guides, they are my honest, mostly unedited, notes from the sessions I did run. Plus some lists and mechanics that were used in sessions, but not core to the MARP experience.

If you got this far, thank you! And I hope you have friends and family like those who aided me in playtesting this game. 

Ok bye love you, 

Finnen

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THE OVERMIND

Starting Questions

Where have you been eating?

Where have you been spending downtime?

Have you made any positive acquaintances?

Where are you living, sleeping? (Are the other characters your roommates for cost saving purposes?)

Setting and Concept Overview

Arc Cryptus, a hollow cavern in a minimally volcanic moon. Water vapor is collected above and siphoned in to create moisture, rain, and drinking water. On the ceiling of the cavern is THE OVERMIND, a massive server that bathes the city in a burnt orange glow. This entity is the administrator, civil engineer, exo planet maintainer and perhaps many other things to the people that have been fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to reside inside this subterranean urban sprawl.

Arc Cryptus is remote and though some think of it as a potential utopia to be claimed, it may serve as last resort, refuge, or prison.

City Entities 

• THE OVERMIND. Presumably created by the original colonists who arrived on this moon with their Colony Seed, one of many Arcs that the corporation of the same name created to spread humanity's influence, and their own, deeper into the galaxy.
• OBSERVER. The eyes and ears of THE OVERMIND. OBSERVER has face to orb communication with every citizen of Arc Cryptus and is often the entity they speak to first upon arrival. It offers wake up calls, updates on various openly observable information and news, or even to ferry requests to THE OVERMIND if you are late to the bus and need 4.78 more seconds to cross the street.
• LOADER. Responsible for running the spaceport dock and the various street warehouses and docks in the city. They are a hivemind intelligence, but not created by the Arc Corporation. It is unknown how they came to live and work within Arc Cryptus.
• ARTIFICER "Artemis". Artemis is a librarian and codex builder system that assists THE OVERMIND with acquiring data external to Arc Cryptus via spaceport travelers or datamining. It may also be interfaced with directly in the Archive building, where physical and digital data is collected. It controls simple frames capable of reading books and non-networked tablets for the purpose of data collection.
• CENTURIONs. Ten of these Centurion Drones were purchased by Arc Cryptus post-OVERMIND in order to keep the most uncivil activities to a minimum and to provide armed security outside at the docking port and around the surface. Nine remain. Rarely do these see action inside the city, however one or two of them often patrol the sky. They are fully sapient Artificial Intelligences that answer only to the OVERMIND and are often viewed as worryingly self sufficient. The lost Centurion was taken down during a surprise attack from a faction labeled as "Violent Anarchists". The drone was never recovered despite thorough searching.
• The Cabbi system. While THE OVERMIND controls public air and ground transportation, this system was introduced by the now defunct Faction Unlimited company, who sought to claim the private cab market on Arc Cryptus. They succeeded just before going bankrupt and directly after activating a fleet of 100 Cabbi units. What was not disclosed is that the processing and VI systems were already quite old at the time, and now they are a living relic that collects funds, where do the funds go? No one knows, but as every Cabbi will tell you: "Hi! Where are you going? Alright! Here we go! Here we are!"
• Cabbi-18 "Mo". Cabbi that displays more personality and vocabulary than others.
• Emulated Consciousness. For a long time it was illegal on earth to create true AI. And during that time it was nearly impossible to achieve the feat anyway. In the ESCB and various corporate labs enterprising minds found a loophole. By using the older "brain taping" method of capturing a human consciousness one could fine tune such an entity and deploy them onto various frames. Using this method has extreme risks to the emulated mind and even certain risks for the "donor". Developers of the technique discovered humanoid frames that simulate organic senses had the highest success rate. These Synthetic People were often then owned by the organization who created them. With the influx of True AI development many Synths have been able to lobby for their own rights or at least break contract with their creators.
• Networked Machine Symbiote. These systems are usually a hivemind of systemic operating protocols that perform a complex task, and excel at operating frames and drones or hacking into other networks. Due to the massive processing power and network infrastructure needs to maintain them they require substantial physical servers.

PLAYERS ORIGINS 

• Sol Citizen: Earth, Martian Domes, Jovian Emirates, Ganymede Silo, Titan Domes, Triton Station
• ESCB Colonist
• Arc Colonist
• MonoTreme Colonist
• Synthetic Emulated Consciousness, "Synth"
• Networked Machine Symbiote

ORGANIZATIONS 

• Sol Hegemonic Protectorate, AKA Sol System. Governed primarily from Earth, the original Solar System as humanity knows it is now grouped into interior colonies that are on or orbit the bodies of the system. Exterior colonies are not under the Protectorate unless they have been sanctioned and officially grouped into the following:
• Exterior Sol Colonial Bodies, "ESCB". Members of the ESCB are only inducted if a branch of the Sol Governance creates a colony seed.
• Arc Corporation. Specializing in subterranean, Silo, and Orbital habitats for worlds that may never achieve a breathable atmosphere, but will support controlled human habitats.
• MonoTreme. This company was founded by radical geneticists who wanted to adapt humanity to live in more extreme environments. That dream has not yet come to pass, however their company has developed advanced techniques and hardware to facilitate Light Terraforming in domes, and minor genetic alterations to allow new generations of humans to tolerate higher gravity or in more extreme cases; hold their breath underwater for extended periods of time. Currently their colonists are touted as those who dont need to compromise by living underground, instead getting to enjoy the natural beauty of new worlds. Or so they say.

Additional Materials

Menu for Megaspresso

• No one knows where they get their supply of coffee beans, but apparently it's good enough to readily sell cheap-moderately priced coffee drinks.
• Open from 10pm to 7am

Barista - Moris

O'Neil Cylinder 
Fruity and lightly herbal, it is the most expensive thing on the menu, the moat flashy, and the most expensive.

Flat Dyson
Creamy house blend of rice and various plant milks, coffee is suspended as a disc on top of the foam.

Klemp's Rosette
A delicious cortado with some brown sugar in the bottom.

Menu for Salvo’s Bar

Far Northerner
Cold, Sweet, Creamy, light artificial berry flavor
Not very strong, can be N-Alc

Low End Spacer
FAUX-RUM Flavor, FAUX-KOLA Concentrate
Choice of MushShine or Fermented Algae Water

Jovian Pipeline Injector
Starts with BluPom Juice, then the spicy fire mush liqueur, and finally a small hit of genuine Sol Ice Crystal Flash.

Karla's Favorite
Pickled Citrus, FAUX-KOLA
Can be made Alc at request

Added Mechanic: Cyberpunk Tarot Cards

FOOL
• Take a reckless action and be rewarded. (+1d6 to a that roll related to recklessness)

MAGICIAN
• Start with an extra piece of tech gear or upgrade one Tech gear item.

PRIESTESS
• Gain +3 to one Insight/Intuition check.

CHARIOT
• You won a Cabbi trip in some odd automated giveaway.

HIEROPHANT
• You have become acquainted with Artemis. He is willing to perform one remote search for you inside the Arc Cryptus Codex.

HERMIT
• The city may be sparse, but it provides. Summon one environmental detail or random passerby to assist you.

HANGED
• Break an item to turn failure into success.

TOWER
• Danger is inevitable.

JUSTICE
• If you are wrongfully accused you may invert this card to escape. You must then keep the card inverted until you have an altercation with the law.

WIRES
• Bonus to Tech

VIALS
• Bonus to Social

ARMS
• Bonus to Combat

AGENT OF ARMS
• Acquire a weapon if you are unarmed.

ZENT
• Currency and Bartering

ACE OF ZENT
• Use a cheap item or purchase one incidentally. Take a +1 when using that item for the first time.

MARP Playtest 1: OVERMIND Session

Meetup, at Megaspresso or Salvo's
(Salvo often has low level ops for people)

OMEN
Machine Symbiote
Luck: 3
Defense: 11 (+1 from Firewall)
+5 Hacking
+3 Cloaking
+2 Coordination
+1 Useless Knowledge
-3 Social Skills

Firewall Software
- Modifier: Hostile Code Injection
Eye Bot Drone
- Modifier: Perceptive
- Modifier: Infrared Scanning (From Mining Drone)

Edison Lockeley "Eddy"
Local Technician
Luck: 3
Defense: 10
+5 Tech Repairs
+3 Scavenging
+2 Tech Design
+1 Conflict Avoidance
-3 Bad With Money
Tech Tool-kit
- Modifier: Cutting Torch Included

Goals:
Discover more about origins
Personal stability

There was a theft from one of the Agriworker townhouses. An affluent scientist, Tolland Howard, had an auction box taken from his home. He will not disclose what was in the box, however he saw who took it.

Light skinned man under 6' with a modded right arm and connectors going to his neck, temple, and possibly base of skull. He wore a spacer jacket with metal-lock seals and shoulder pads. The jacket had a finger gun logo. His face was scarred.

(Goren Killen, known to many as an unsavory mercenary, though he has been missing from the scene for weeks.)

He is a secret associate of E9 who was hired to steal Elizabeth Lazarus' auction box.

E9 is a humanoid body with a holographic head. Essentially a drone being piloted by someone who is very well connected or extremely well outfitted. (E9 is the emulated consciousness of Elizabeth Lazerus who wants what was technically hers)

The OVERMIND has been alerted to this theft and always tries to take care of the needs of the Agri Union and Miner's Union. However OBSERVER notes that this is not a high priority as it does not pertain to Agricultural work directly. The OVERMIND has authorized a bounty be placed on the Thief.

If Goren's trail is followed it will inevitably lead them to his body. Before or after E9. He was spotted, wounded, wandering Bulk Housing. E9 will say this man also stole something from her and she was taking this opportunity to track him down. She paid him for a job and he never delivered "he was sent to fetch something from off world". Regardless, she is determined to find where he hid her goods and suggests this other stolen parcel would be there too.

Clues 

• Goren's singular Cabbi use can focus them to a district (Pill) 
• Goren's favorite place to eat is noted in his encrypted PDA and is also in the same building as his cache. 
• His PDA contains many notes about previous jobs, all with generic codenames: SaucyMinx, Spitfire, and LagrangePoint are the latest ones.
• SaucyMinx seems to be stealing minor components from topside equipment. 
• Spitfire is E9, and is very careful with not disclosing information. 
• LagrangePoint (Clarissa Night) was waiting at the Starport but says the deal is off since Gorin never showed.

There is one slip up from Gorin that can lead to E9's lab, but it is tough to isolate. He mentions it being "too dark over there, maybe add a few lights" to which Spitfire replies "this channel isnt for pointless complaints, do your job". And later "ETA to wall 10 mins" to which "Stop informing me" was received in reply.

E9 may also mislead them to the cache or mislead them if they have the trail to the true Hideout.

• EXTRA NOTES
  SnyderDalia, the brainchild of ex-rival to business partners to current rivals Laurence Snyder and Terri Dalia. Genius engineers who briefly put aside their differences to undercut the market with reliable middleware products. 
• KingDogs, Morris Barthelemy Tantalon, sells fine street "meat", street fungus, and vegetoid hot dogs with plenty of toppings. Fit for a true king! He relishes in exposing false food for what it is. Pointless frivolity!

Secrets of Arc Cryptus 

• THE OVERMIND was created when the original colonists tried to network their minds into a super intelligent computer. The goal? Become their own immortal hive mind. The result is that the Computer was flooded with information and processing power as the bodies of the colonists died and their consciousnesses scrambles into an odd melange of memory inside what is now THE OVERMIND.
• LOADER was a failed corporate experiment that gained sentience and escaped. It was offered refuge by THE OVERMIND and chose to become LOADER.
• Cabbi-18 was a human man, Maurice. Who upon being assaulted in the street was almost saved by Cabbi unit 18. Unfortunately they both nearly lost their lives. They were taken to THE OVERMIND where they attempted to emulate/upload Maurice into Cabbi-18.