Clearly written, cogent, based on an easy to understand, rules-light framework. In this game, mecha are used as "war machines" that fight kaiju and it seems like the rules support this and only this (not a bad thing). Lots of useable tables, including ones to generate missions and enemies. I'd run a mission with it.

Seems like it would be pretty cool. Evocative setting details. The Endless desert, the abandoned city, the sultan's basement, the imperial sewers, the labyrinth, the caves, and the pharaoh's tomb. There's items, spells, monsters, and spells. Seems like it would include everything you'd need.

Physically, it's a large book and the binding is very tight. In later pages, it's hard to read because some text gets sucked into the gutter. You need to stretch them to be able to read it all. Might just be how mine got printed and shipped, with a weird binding. Still was able to read it, just slightly annoying and not a big deal.

I recently read this for the first time as I am writing a retro-future version of my own game, The Veil; with the goal of incorporating some cyberpunk lineage into the bones of the design work. I read the Cyberpunk 2020 in PDF form.

The writing is snappy and entertaining, with good flow. The game was clearly progressive in many ways so I can see why it is looked at very fondly. Having lifepaths and one of the first games to have actual classes and associated "feat" like bonuses (I believe before D&D did so even), along with the lifepaths. Where the players roll for every year over the age of 16 and generate history, good and bad occurrences up to die rolls.

Everything drives toward one of the opening headers and "rules" to keep in mind for good roleplaying of the game: "Style Over Substance".

I am not into traditional games and tend to favor storygames and indie games coming out presently, but came away quite impressed with this release. Good writing, lots of flavors. Lots of gear; all tonally consistent to help people imagine a dystopia and their subsequent cyberpunk character.

Aside from a few things that I am sure wouldn't be frowned upon in 1990, it was all great. But when you can roll a year of your life in which you were falsely accused of rape and the artwork in some places have little to do with the actual chapters, often with the 90's style of big breasts and sexualized female forms (unfortunately still plaguing us)... I was reminded repeatedly it's a product of its time; however cool and clever it may be.

Fairly crunchy with an interesting dice pool mechanic in which you look for the die you've rolled the most of. Doesn't matter if it's a 1 or a 6, you're looking for the number that reoccurs the most in a die roll, matching that number to the number of successes you need to complete a challenge. The physical conflict mechanic seems pretty neat, expending points to make a dynamic fight scene evocative of the genre.

There's numerous text describing the setting, the assumptions, and what your characters might be doing and how they fit into the world. Seems like it's pretty supportive in just 50 pages. The only thing that seems off is the generic stock art, which I don't think helps much of anything.

The Society of Dreamers makes use of procedures as mechanics to great effect. In a small number of pages, a set number of scenes with pacing cues throughout are clearly written. Evocative and interesting, the premise is that the players go into "dream dives" in which they explore the nature of creatures all but completely undefined, allowing for the group to craft them in emergent play. I'd love to get this to the table sometime.

I played my first session of this today and I think it does what it sets out to do. The mythology creation was fantastic fun, the flavor of the playbooks is great. I liked the incentive to use Honor moves and to hit entanglements. We ended up with a cool world we are invested in exploring and interesting characters.

The only things I'm not crazy about is highlighting stats, but that's just something I don't get much out of from the original Apocalypse World. The art is not my cup of tea and layout is so-so. But I rate tabletop games based on my first-hand knowledge of the game and the texts ability to convey how you take this to the table and get the desired play experience, which this did very well for us!

As I expected, being a 90s kid I like this setting much more. I think this book is also a lot more comprehensive from a GM stand point. The system being basically the same, hasn’t sold me on it. But I’m much more likely to try a few sessions rather than a couple one shots like Tales with this setting information. Gorgeous art, as usual. Sometimes the layout frustratingly breaks up paragraphs for no discernible reason other than to seemingly never modify the template. Otherwise, it’s stellar.

CW: Spoilers for Want, the prequel to Ruse.
Ruse is a continuation of Want, which I’ve written about before. This novel picks up right after Want, where the fallout of their heist against Jin Corp is felt amongst the group in different ways.
All grieving their friend in different ways, all fractured by the loss—they are given little time to cope. When Lingyi flies to Shanghai to helps an estranged childhood friend, the gang becomes embroiled in another corporate plot that centers Jason’s, now a girlfriend of sorts, Daiyu.
This culminates into a mystery with Jin corp somehow at the center, placing Daiyu in a situation where her loyalty and familial bonds are tested. Her father is up to no good yet again, and before the crew is able to heal fully, they must pull together to protect each other and, hopefully, deal another blow to Jin.
The move to Shanghai is compelling and a breath of fresh air (ha!), except not really, as it’s similarly polluted. Jin corp is building a superstructure meant to help with that pollution…. while also making a lot of money, of course. Storefronts and filters that clean the air, as well as new, high-end real estate, means that Jin and his company is poised to more than recoup their losses.
It’s another fun and subversive young adult story for cyberpunk, and, as the cover suggests, it centers some other characters, which was welcome. Lingyi and Iris are a bit more fleshed out as a couple, their dynamics more integral to the story. There are some heartstrings being played, their identities, including being a same-sex couple, are never performative or fetishized. My only lamentation is not having more time spent with them, in fact, as the story kept jumping back to Jason and Daiyu drama after the initial setup.
Cindy Pon knows her characters well, and they spill onto the page nicely. It’s a page-turner that fits in some critical questions about the environment while maintaining teenage drama and more heists, hijinks, and middle fingers to systemic oppression.

The writing is pretty clear, the backgrounds are all interesting, creative (sometimes absurd in a good way). I especially am curious about initiative. I’ve never heard of something like this, where everyone puts tokens in and they’re drawn. Dice hate me so maybe I’ve just been waiting for this. I like how skills are malleable as well. I’ll have to try it sometime.

Awesome, simple rules with quite a few innovations. My favorite being Groups and how classes are handled. Tight page count, presentation, and writing. The only gripe I have is still having pretty crunchy mechanics when free-form classes are so innovative and interesting.