The first season of Netflixs Altered Carbon had everything you could want from a cyberpunk detective story; a twisty mystery, a hardboiled hero and fantastic technology that contrasts the haves and the have nots. Fans of the show and the series of books have two things to look forward to in February. The second season of the show drops at the end of the month and Hunters Entertainment is running a Kickstarter for an RPG set in the world.
I first listened to the Altered Carbon series shortly after college, said Ivan Van Norman, lead designer from Hunters Entertainment, when my boss at the time unloaded something like 75 audiobooks into my iPod. I enjoyed the rich and descriptive world that was described to me, and how unapologetically it dumped me into the world to fend for myself. It was a dystopian sci-fi world that I felt was gladly took the horns of what our world could turn into - and showed us the black shadows of 'what could be'. It also was just a damn good neo-noir book.
The curious have access to a quickstart guide that shows off elements of the game right away. Character traits are rated as die types; the lower the size of the die the better as players must roll under difficulty numbers to succeed. These elements will also change as players change their bodies in a process known as re-sleeving from Altered Carbon.
I really enjoy how we've done our best to make by default a really crunchy world really accessible for narrative play, said Van Norman. We've mixed some elements of Savage Worlds, Kids on Bikes and Outbreak: Undead to make something that really feels like you're given agency as a player - while still discardable enough to not get in the way of the story. Also, i'm particularly proud how we've approached 'Noire storytelling' where you may not even know the 'who dun it?' yourself when you start the game! Noir on its own is so easy to railroad in a Tabletop RPG session, but we wanted to break that mold and make something that felt really fun and unique in the Tabletop RPG world.
Both the show and the RPG come at something of a resurgent time for the cyberpunk genre. The video game Cyberpunk 2077 from the same team that made the Witcher a successful franchise is due out this year as well as a new edition of the tabletop game upon which it is based, Cyberpunk Red. The setting of Altered Carbon plays up the class struggle of the genre by highlighting the near-immortality of Meths, the ultra rich who can afford to resleeve and jump from body to body.
I think we're all in a place right now where we are really thinking about our future, said Van Norman, and what that means in not only the immediate - but 300 years from now. The world of Altered Carbon is as far away from us as the founding of our nation, and there is something both alien andfamiliarwith that. We're excited and terrified about what the future holds, and as we've always done as long as humans have existed - we tell stories to help us cope with that.
The Kickstarter for the Altered Carbon RPG runs through Wednesday, March 4th.
More:
Put Yourself In The Hard Boiled Sleeve Of Altered Carbon - Forbes
Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith
