Eastern Cyberpunk
The system may have struck you, but as one of the few citizens you have the courage to disagree with it. Politicians, officials and the world they decorated have taken too much from you. You have decided that now is the time to get something for yourself. It is at this moment and in such circumstances that we will have the opportunity to begin our adventure in Neosibirsk, the Federation’s third largest city. The same Federation, known from the vision of the near future presented by Michał Gołkowski in the Siberian Punk trilogy. The writer is also a co-author of the textbook and is responsible for the narrative inserts taken straight from the series. Gołkowski also made sure that fans of his prose would not run out of flavors to discover. It is a certain Sasza “Chudy” Khudovec who will be our guide and will introduce us to the realities of this industrial plaything. He will tell us about God, Cara and the President in one person – the leader of the Federation, about his clique, that is, corrupt oligarchs holding power and wealth that our heroes cannot even dream of. He will talk about gang bosses, militia colonels, and secret FSB agents guarding what they understand to be order, and about slime-covered alleys and burrows that are a common sight for gray citizens, just like the heroes of our history.
Order like a federal bureaucracy
You know how it is, Vanya. When something breaks down, workers come and paint it thickly with oil paint, and if they have more fantasies, they will also add backlighting. Worse with the interior, it still remembers the times of the First World War … You will ask me how it relates to the textbook. Well, its layout is similar. At first glance, it is close to the ideal, first we have an introduction what paper RPGs are, then there is a chapter about the game world and still a hoot, unfortunately the closer to the center, the worse. From chapter 3 on, things start to happen that can only be explained by a federal design thought. In this part, we get 13 pages describing the character card and some general tips for creating a hero. However, it is followed by a cut and the next, literally written on two pages, is already a game master and contains some as general hints on how to write an adventure as possible. After which, however, we return to the process of creating a player avatar.
The worst thing is that the creators were very consistent in their federal design ideas and in the further part they also made a big mess. Chapter 9, which covers three pages, deals with the element of the represented world, which is the federal internet, the so-called stream. It is immediately followed by Chapter 10, “Compendium of the World”, which collects all the rest of the information about the game world. Why couldn’t one be part of the other as a subsection? I don’t know, but I can guess. Probably such a commandment came from above, and they are not paid to ask questions, but to obey orders.
Slavic soul
Nevertheless, despite the layout of the textbook, which Wania would delicately call a mess, the interaction with the book is really pleasant. Its pages contain an abundance of atmospheric illustrations that allow you to feel this heavy, but at times comic atmosphere of Slavic cyberpunk. In addition, the layout of the text was perfectly selected, reminiscent of the archival files of the security services, which perfectly fits the idea of what documents created in the Federation may look like.
The only clash I have with the element that very coherently reflects the Slavic technical thought, namely it works great, but only the first time. I mean the narrative inserts, most likely from Michał Gołkowski. You can feel the lightness of the writer’s pen in them and thanks to this, the whole thing is extremely pleasant and fast to read. On your first try, the content of SibirPunk is literally soaked inand sinks into his world. The images appear in the head by themselves and begin to live their difficult, gray life. However, the problem arises when we treat the manual according to the function it will serve most of the time, i.e. as a source of rules that allows us to quickly resolve ambiguities arising during the session. Then the content prevails over the form, and the poetic description of many elements does not necessarily facilitate their interpretation. This, combined with the chaos that prevails in the layout of the chapters, makes it difficult to find a specific record and judge it quickly.
Listen, Vanya, the rules are clear
… And it’s not just that we are plankton, which is food for the big fish, higher up the social ladder. No, that’s the rules governing SibirPunkthey are understandable, and the way in which they are written is at the forefront of systems with which I have interacted. We are dealing here with a mechanic based on exploding hexagonal dice, which means that for each six you can add another die to the pool. The tests are based on the traits and skills that determine the number of d6s that can be used in a given situation and what results ensure the character’s success. For example: with a trait developed to 3 and the underlying skill, trained to a level 4+, the player rolls three dice and all scores greater than or equal to 4 are a success point for this test. A mechanical engine has the chance to work just as well as a well-deserved faeces. It doesn’t have a lot of parameters and variables, but it’s tidy and sophisticated enough so that there is something to combine and with what to derive joy from. In addition, the game tries to refer to the rules of what Chudy tells us, saying that our Brigade is something more than a family and we stick together in the brigade. For this reason, the entire team has a pool of points designated for a given session, called Slavic souls. To better reflect the atmosphere, those attached to one of the frets on support. To look like matryoshka dolls. They allow you to support the player in his activities, but due to the fact that they are common to the entire gang, all its members must agree to reduce this resource. The same applies to the allocation of XP after the session. One of the ways to get them is to vote for the player of the meeting, during which everyone selects the most deserving hero in their opinion. This builds a sense of group integrity. Unfortunately, there are also a few other, weaker ideas, such as how to distribute XP as the game master decides. I would be much more likely to see something like an achievement questionnaire for a given session, straight fromBooks of Steel , where ticking off certain events provided you with extra experience points.
“There is a genius in all of us, it is a pity that he snores so loudly.”
SibirPunkis a great attempt to extend this fairly closed and precise genre of cyberpunk. After all, somewhere outside of America and Asia, it also has to look like somehow. That is why I am pleased with the release of a game set in realities such as the Slavic vision of the near future, and in addition, based on the quite pleasant prose of a Polish writer. The visual side of the manual is almost as high as the SibirTower itself. Both the illustrations and the graphic style harmonize with the leitmotif and help you immerse yourself in the specific atmosphere of the Federation Swamp. The mechanics of this system also look good, and above all, its transparency and accessibility to new users who might want to try RPG, encouraged by the work of Michał Gołkowski. But as in the Federation, there must be quite a mess under the facade of the thick oil paint. The textbook itself fares the worst as a source of rules and help for the game master during the session. Bizarrely arranged chapters, lack of links to pages and chaotically scattered topics seriously affect its usefulness and, consequently, significantly lower the overall assessment. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not worth givingSibirPunk a chance. When you learn the rules, and you reach for the book sporadically and rather outside the sessions, you will experience more than one amazing adventure in this not entirely serious vision of the Slavic cyberpunk.
