Over the coming weeks I’ll be writing about different aspects of losing and regaining my gaming spark in 2022. Losing the drive to game happens to some players and GMs as life steals the ability to game. I hate that my joys are overtaken by needs, but in the hierarchy of existence, I put a lot of value on keeping a roof over my head. There are times that roof costs me more than money, it costs time. When it takes too much, I have to sacrifice my time at the gaming table to fulfill my obligations. But when I get back to gaming, I really like to dive in and make up for lost gaming session. In this case, it means I got into several games including Emanoel Melo’s CBR+PNK.
Why CBR+PNK? After an absence from the gaming table brought on by too much day jobbing and illness, I wanted to get back to slinging dice. But what should I play and with whom? My time was limited, so, as crass as this might sound, my significant other was the ideal player. Not that it’s a problem, just choosing someone close to hand sounds like you’re not doing your due diligence, but there’s a desire on both our parts to get back to gaming, so it worked nicely. As to genre, my significant other discovered a hither-to unknown sci-fi subgenre [to them]: Cyberpunk.
(I know, I know. The whole conversation of, “Oh, you’ve never seen Blade Runner? Oh, well, that’s okay because there are multiple versions and I’ve seen them…” <97 minutes later> “… and that’s why the voiceover is kinda both important and awful. Hey! Wake up! Did you catch all of that? Here, let me repeat!”)
With my gamer interested and a genre in mind, the next bit of luck was reading the CBR+PNK: Augmented Kickstarter from Mythopoeia and The Cabinet of Curiosities. I pulled it up for my weekly column at EN World and the concept and format grabbed me. CBR+PNK is a well-considered, fiction first, streamlined Forged in the Dark cyberpunk RPG. That’s all fine, but the winner was a double-shot of what I needed. First, the RPG is done as a pamphlet. That’s right, an RPG on a few pages. Second, to get more backers to eye the Kickstarter, Emanoel Melo made the first edition of the game free during the campaign on itch.io.
That combination of factors moved CBR+PNK to the top of the heap to play.
BLADE RUNNER, ZONE 414, MAX HEADROOM, IN OUR DREAMS AWAKE
My significant other had, by and large, missed cyberpunk. Sure, some cyberpunk films had bubbled up and been consumed such as The Matrix and Altered Carbon. Nevertheless, certain pieces, some seminal, some silly, had come and gone, unseen. After watching Blade Runner, it was a slippery slope to Blade Runner 2049, Black Out 2022, 2036: Nexus Dawn, 2048: Nowhere to Run, and Blade Runner: Black Lotus. Then Zone 414 and Possessor to Max Headroom and more between. The visual aesthetic, the challenges of this world, the freedom within decay, the acting and directing, all of it spoke to us. In those worlds, there exists a dystopian future that you can fight against. You’re not going to decapitate the head of the snake like so many dystopian works, you’re going to survive in a smaller, more personal way.
Cyberpunk has inspired me for decades. In fact, it’s inspired me so much that I have a dreampunk/cyberpunk comic book on Kickstarter right now. In Our Dreams Awake is illustrated by the talented Edgar (Stranger Things, Warhammer 40,000) Salazar and Rolands (Red Winter, Chicago Supernatural Defense Department) Kalniņš and co-written by John (The Gilded Age, The Crossing) McGuire and myself, this comic shares the tale of Jason Byron, a many whose dreams are reality and his reality is a dream. Is he a painter in a fantasy world where mages rule? Is he a cyberpunk drug dealer in flooded London? Is any of this real? Ideas such as these, blending different -punk subgenres spoke to me as much as gaming does, hence the comic book.
The desire to consume more cyberpunk led to the desire to play an RPG. Free League Publishing’s Blade Runner RPG isn’t out yet and R. Talsorian Games’ Cyberpunk 2020 or Cyberpunk Red and so many more are great games, but with limited time and a party of one, they aren’t exactly what we’re looking for. However, as luck would have it, that’s when I found a pamphlet length cyberpunk RPG.
WHAT THE FIRE BRINGS: CBR+PNK
This led to the return of gaming. But, there is a catch: Just because I wanted to get back to gaming didn’t mean I suddenly had more time. I needed something simple, easy to read, and easier to conceive. Enter Emanoel Melo’s CBR+PNK.
Before I go any further, there are two editions of CBR+PNK, the original pair of 3-panel pamphlets and the new CBR+PNK: Augmented boxed set of pamphlets campaigning on Kickstarter from Mythopoeia and The Cabinet of Curiosities. For this article, I’m talking about the first edition presented as a pair of pamphlets.
Wait. Pamphlets?
Yes, CBR+PNK comes as two 3-panel pamphlets culminating in 12 pages total, all easily read from your phone. Make no mistake, Emanoel Melo created something complete while engaging that embraces an economy of space. He started with the familiar dystopian setting of cyberpunk, then hacked and streamlined the Forged in the Dark system to craft a complete RPG in a great format. There’s a reason Polygon named CBR+PNK one of the best indie RPGs of 2021.
The setting is left to your imagination, there are only a few notes about making it your own cyberpunk. The gaming system is core Forged in the Dark done in one of the best ways I’ve ever played. No playbooks, no complexity to the rules, just simplicity and action.
In CBR+PNK you’re a runner on their final mission. One last job to clear your books and retire, or die. To support that story, this streamlined Forged in the Dark option keeps the rules lean. Set the scene, set the conflict, and let the fiction carry the story forward. When conflict arises, the GM shares the threat and the player shares what they’re going for as well as how they’re aiming to achieve their goal. There’s a negotiation as each side presents their enhancements that can raise the effect and threat or lower them. The situation set, the player adds their Approach plus their Skill and some other options to build a d6 dice pool, which I love because of Shadow Run. Roll the pool and, with Forged, you pick your highest single die. A 6 is a clean success, 4 or 5 is a messy success where you have to take a consequence, while a 3 or less is a failure and bad things happen. The player handles all of the rolls, the GM co-narrates. There’s more to it, but the core is simple and open to player input.
TIME
Because I’m limited time-wise and because we’re coming at this as a two-player/GM and player adventure, I skipped Cyberpunk 2020 (which is great fun), Shadow Run (also fun), Altered Carbon RPG (fun, yet too complex for the time we have), Coyote & Crow (again, complex compared to time), The Veil: Cyberpunk Roleplaying (Powered by the Apocalypse), and Hack the Planet: Cyberpunk (Forged in the Dark, which means this may end up playing the odd job of being a sourcebook for CBR+PNK) for a simpler option that had the narrative tools to support a duet. Intended for one-shots, but workable for short campaigns, CBR+PNK nails the mix of gaming and time I can allocate for it.
Time and mental investment were huge concerns when thinking of what we’d play. I needed something that was easy for me to rule and easy for my player to follow. With the character creation rules listed on the Runner File 3-panel pamphlet, it proved a breeze to create characters (a human and a robot to cover all of the approach and skill options). As a GM, the rules were short and punchy, just requiring some interpretation. The rules were simple, the RPG has an FAQ with some additional details, but little is needed.
Playing a Forged in the Dark or Powered by the Apocalypse RPG is a different experience than playing Dungeons & Dragons, Cyberpunk 2020, or Shadow Run. The work is more about the broader fiction than the blow-by-blow of every moment. The engines don’t speak to everyone, but they they’re perfect for quick games with zero prep. Taken as a whole, all of which leads to CBR+PNK and the CBR+PNK: Augmented Kickstarter from Mythopoeia and The Cabinet of Curiosities. There’s no point in regaining your spark without something to ignite and this is the RPG for me.
If you’re interested, Itch.io has the original version of CBR+PNK as does DriveThruRPG. CBR+PNK: Augmented from Mythopoeia/The Cabinet of Curiosities is on Kickstarter until April 7, 2022.
If you’re like to learn more about the dreampunk/cyberpunk/fantasy comic book, In Our Dreams Awake by Edgar Salazar, Rolands Kalniņš, John McGuire, and myself, check out our Kickstarter here.
Egg Embry participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, Noble Knight Games’ Affiliate Program, and is an Amazon Associate. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG, Noble Knight Games, and Amazon.
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