As I discussed over the last several weeks, tabletop gaming had to take a backseat to the day job, which is never awesome. But, you can’t keep a gamer down and with the love and neon support of cyberpunk, I’m back. But what was the spark that restarted tabletop for me?
ENTER SHATTER
Shatter was a random comic book series from the 1980s that I happened upon in the back issue bins while looking for Elemental comics. Shatter isn’t a mind blowing comic, just a short-lived series from First Comics. From 1985 to 1988, this full-color title managed a one-shot issue, a six-issue backup in Mike Grell’s Jon Sable Freelance, and fourteen issues under its own title, all packaged with the tag line: “The First Computerized Comic!” It’s a footnote in history, but this comic was managed to pioneer something new: Computer artwork in a comic. Drawn by Michael Saenz on an early Mac home computer; dot matrix artwork in a comic book was a unique concept in ‘85. This was the time when computers were glorified calculators and making art on one was more trouble than result. Yet, Michael rose to the occasion and did a first in comics. While no where as important to comics as the greats like Kirby or Eisner, Saenz’s efforts changed comics simply by adding digital to the artistic options.
With stories by Peter B. Gillis and artwork by Saenz before being taken over by Steve Erwin, Bob Dienethal, and Charlie Athanas, this was an interesting exercise in advancing digital tools and the comic book medium. Yet, as a series onto itself Shatter did not make a lasting dent in the industry, I say that because I found most of the run in the discount comic bin. Kapow! Comics and Games had a run including the standalone debut, the Jon Sable Freelance backups, and issues 1 to 11 of the regular series at a buck a book. On a lark, I provided them with $18 in cash. Yet, what I got was than a stack of comics, what I bought was the spark that would get me back to the gaming table. For my $18, I purchased an unexpected gift of early cyberpunk perfection that pulled me out of the funk of grinding to pay bills and put me in the mode to return to the wonders of comics and tabletop roleplaying games.
WHY CYBERPUNK?
I’m nose to the grindstone at the day job and it’s draining me. One of the reasons it’s a drag is the baseline of what I do: Work for corporate America. I’m grateful for the job, I’ve been there since Bill Clinton was in office, but it is the corporate grind. Cyberpunk is rebellion against, among other things, that very grind. Therefore, with so much riding on the day job, cyberpunk tales where the protagonist is just trying to make their way and bucking the system, was the medicine my soul screamed out for.
In Shatter, we follow Jack Scratch – that’s not his real name, it’s Sadr Al-Din Morales. Scratch is a temp, a subcontractor taking a cop job, and “Jack Scratch” is the name that the Daley City Police Corporation pays to. Jack’s preferred handle is “Shatter.”
Working for corporate police involves bidding to stop crime. In other words, the lowest bid gets the gig to risk their life fighting crime. That’s right, in Shatter, it’s a police gig economy. For a mere $20,000, you can get into the middle of a nasty fire fight. In our world, $20,000 doesn’t sound bad, but that’s Shatter’s rent and heat for the month. Temp enforcing corporate law is a low-wages gig that isn’t worth the effort or the downside of dying. In other words, Shatter’s life is grind for the corporate powers that be. It’s not too long before he opts out for another, riskier path.
Unlike many comics of the era, Shatter has an overarching plot tying the individual issues together. That narrative thread spins around a new frontier of capitalism, harvesting the brains of talented individuals and injecting the gathered RNA of their raw talent into those that can afford it. As the series progresses, the process expands to add evolving certain species to better partner with humanity. It’s not genius, but it’s fun and was the exact story I needed at that time.
Beyond the long-form story of working poverty amid dystopian science fiction, the world is a mix of technical advances and social declines. Flying cars, options on what gender you present as, bug bombs, injected knowledge, and other advances populate a world where the rich make the laws and the poor struggle. For a comic series sold on the novelty of its artwork, there’s an exabyte’s worth of cyberpunk goodness packed into those pages. I bought the books, read the intro one-shot, and felt the creativity flow from those pages, inspiring me to get my head back into something creative. Something tabletop and cyberpunk. The desire to get back to cyberpunk and gaming led to two games, one of which is Emanoel Melo’s CBR+PNK, which I covered a bit before.
CYBERPUNK TABLETOP
But, that’s not the only cyberpunk RPG to talk about so let’s talk about one that’s topped a million dollars on Kickstarter:
BLADE RUNNER – The Roleplaying Game from Free League Publishing
End Date: Thu, May 26 2022 3:00 PM EDT.
“Walk the neon-noir streets of Los Angeles 2037 in the official BLADE RUNNER RPG from Free League Publishing and Alcon Entertainment.”
Free League is putting their award-winning Year Zero Engine to good use with this project. Dealing in the dark and terrible themes of the world – “action, corporate intrigue, existential character drama, and moral conflict” – wrapped in an investigative RPG. As I loved their treatment of another Ridley Scott property with the ALIEN RPG, I have high hopes for this project. If you’re a fan of the movies and cyberpunk, this may speak to you.
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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