Even if you don’t know Rodney Thompson’s name you are likely to have played one of his games. He’s the designer of Lords of Waterdeep and has worked on several editions of Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars Saga Edition and many other role playing games. He started his own company, Scratchpad Publishing, in 2018. He’s tackled fantasy heists with Dusk City Outlaws and superheroes with Spectaculars. Now he’s bringing the third game using the same system, Neon City Outlaws to Kickstarter with the hopes that players will build their own cyberpunk dystopias to rebel against.
“Both Dusk City Outlaws and Spectaculars use the same core resolution system as Neon City Outlaws,” said Thompson. “With this being the third time around I have a lot of actual play feedback to lean on. This game certainly more clearly defines a lot of things that were more open-ended for Gamemaster interpretation in the previous games. For example, in my other two games I encouraged the person running the game to introduce “obstacles to the players’ success” in certain scenes, and left it up to them to decide what a suitable obstacle would be. For Neon City Outlaws, I’m trying to explain what a suitable obstacle is, in game terms and not just in terms of the narrative, but include language that still leaves it open if the person running the game wants to do something other than what the rules recommend. Another thing I learned from Dusk City Outlaws specifically is that when it comes to a heist game where the players come up with their own plans, some groups need a lot more guidance than others, especially players coming from very reactive games or traditional mass-market RPGs. Neon City Outlaws scenarios include a lot more guidance for what to tell the players up-front, including offering up a series of starter questions that they should be asking as they put together their plan. Who is the head of security? What kinds of anti-hacking software does the system have? What’s the layout of the building they are robbing? Experienced groups may not need these prompt questions, but it gives newer or less proactive players something to latch onto for the first few days of the job, giving them clear goals to pursue while they start formulating their overall plan.”
One of the appeals of the game is building a cyberpunk world that reflects modern anxieties about technology and the imbalance of power. Classic cyberpunk games often struggle with incorporating new ideas into their settings. Neon City Outlaws offers a fresh setting built together by the players and Game Master during Session Zero.
“When you’re flipping through the gear section of lots of games,” said Thompson, “you don’t just pick a pistol, a sword, a sniper rifle, etc. as your weapon, you pick an Ares Predator or an Arasaka TKI-20 Shingen. So, in the Neon City Outlaws setting book, I’ve got pages where you define the city’s preeminent weapons manufacturer, and those pages include a place where you get to take weapons that you found, created, or obtained during the game and then make that particular combination of base weapon and its keywords into a specific weapon that is now just a part of the setting. I know that those elements will be present, and I’ll know the broad-strokes shape of those elements since they use multiple-choice questions to guide the setting’s creation. When I’m designing a job where you have to steal the plans for a new combat robot from the Robotics Company, in the scenario I just need to reference the company by its setting book designation, and the players can then fill in the details with what they have created.”
It might seem strange but cyberpunk games are very popular at the moment. Some of that can be assigned to the success of Cyberpunk 2077, but games outside of that setting have also seen a resurgence. Some of that is wish fulfillment; in fictional cyberpunk worlds, players can fight back against corruption and power with guns and chrome.
“It’s very easy to feel powerless these days,” said Thompson, “to feel despair because the world is so big and so complicated and even if you try and do what you think is right it may not move the needle. So I wanted to create a game that, even for a brief moment of recreation, lets you feel like you can push back and have an impact. There’s a whole phase of play in the game, which my volunteer playtest corps is putting through its paces at the moment, called the Revolution where you sort of zoom-out to a city-scale perspective and make choices on behalf of the organization to which you belong, taking actions that have larger repercussions and can eventually result in districts of the city declaring their independence, corporations being toppled, nigh-immortal executives being brought to justice, etc. The Revolution is about doing the kinds of things that in other games you could build whole campaigns around, but allows you to evolve the city you have created a little more rapidly and see a bigger impact over the course of just a few sessions. On top of all that, I think there’s also some catharsis in the parody/satire that naturally comes from player-driven setting building. In my home playtest campaign, the city’s biggest fast food chain is called “Padsta” and they basically serve a mishmash of different noodle dishes from all different cultures, so you can order a bowl of ramen noodles and a plate of fettuccine alfredo and a side of pad Thai all in the same order, and the company’s slogan is “Suck It Down!” It’s clearly the kind of creation that is just at home in Idiocracy as it is in a cyberpunk city, but I think giving players a chance to skewer our current corporate cultures also acts as a kind of relief valve that people sorely need.”
Neon City Outlaws is crowdfunding from now through June 12th, 2025.
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