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Hi everyone, long time no chat! I'm David Jarvis, the owner of Gun Metal Games.
As some of you know, planning has begun for a third edition of Interface Zero. in this post, I'm going to discuss a few things, and open this up for discussion, because I really want to know a few things, like, what you did/didn't like about 2.0 in terms of BOTH RULES AND SETTING.
Rules Issues
It's been just a little over 4 years since 2.0 was published, and a great many people have expressed their love for the game. A great many people have also said the rules were too clunky, and decidedly NOT savage. I want any new edition I do to address these issues. I've talked with developers such as Sean Patrick Fannon about ways to streamline elements of the game and make them more Fast, Furious and Fun; things like totally revamping the hacking rules, addressing balance issues with cybernetics, and especially dealing with hacking.
The philosophy behind hacking was to make it as simple as possible, base it on skill use, and essentially make it a 2 or 3 step real-time process. Setting elements of Interface Zero were designed so that characters who wanted to hack wouldn't get into situations where they were off in some remote locale, totally separate from the group. I didn't want to have hacking play like a mini-game, and I think for the most part, the setting elements supported that. In practice, though, there were issues.
Most skills in Savage Worlds are based around a Target Number of 4, with raises increasing the effectiveness of what your character is attempting to do. This didn't work well with hacking, because in order to make certain things more (perhaps realistically, perhaps unrealistically) difficult, like hacking more secure systems and networks, I had to introduce penalties to skill rolls. The problem, is that it made things too hard because your skills can only rise to d12+3(?). Trying to hack into the most secure database or network had extreme penalties, and even having your skill maxxed out didn't make things easier, or even possible without acing rolls.
Definitely not FFF!
Hyper combat, while interesting as a concept, didn't work out well at all. In retrospect, I believe we were trying to do way too much at one time. There were other issues, like programs (called engrams), creating them, and keeping them balanced with everything else. I've had years to think about it, and I think there might be simpler ways to deal with this sort of thing mechanically, while keeping some of the setting elements.
There were other issues, like equipment bloat. The gear chapter alone was over 100 pages. Too big, too scattered, not enough support material for the gear chapter, like weapon calibers, the cost of ammunition, and other details that were missed.
Similarly, other elements, like Occupations, Skill specializations, Street Cred, and Drones need to either be cut, or revamped, again...I've had 4 years worth of feedback and discussions about this stuff. Some things—like occupations—were interesting in concept, but in play, they ended up bloating the game and added more levels of complexity to what really needs to be a very sleek game.
Archetypes could have been better. The high price of gear made it very hard to properly equip a character, and for me that was frustrating, because the last thing I wanted to hear was a player talking about not being able to do the_thing_her character was built for because she didn’t have the credits to purchase basic tools to do the job!
Setting Issues
I’ve always liked Interface Zero’s setting…for the most part. The history was written over a decade ago for the True20 system, and it wasn’t nearly as detailed as it is now, but there’s a reason for that. I don’t want you to think I’m throwing them under the bus, but the original (True 20) writers kind of phoned the setting in, and it seems like everything I’ve written or have had others write has been like putting a patch on the original work.
We’ve fleshed things out where needed, and obviously sourcebooks have been written by some really awesome, creative people, but the core setting elements (the destabilization and death of the United States, the war between China and Russia, the idea of limited nuclear conflict in a small geographic area of the world affecting the entire world for nearly a decade) were a bit cartoonish and adolescent. And if I’m being honest, the parts about The U.S. also felt too similar to Shadowrun.
It’s not that I believe any of those things can’t happen, especially over a period of 70+ years; I do. It’s just that I think the setting can be better if some—or even none—of these things never happened. So, I’m thinking about rebooting the entire setting and writing it the way I feel it needs to be; More William Gibson, Richard K. Morgan and Neil Stephenson, less apocalyptic disaster soup. I’ll keep the tech advances and zeeks just because I like the idea of psionics in a cyberpunk setting. Not pure cyberpunk, but that’s ok.
All of the source material will be addressed in either indexes or supplemental (free) pdfs, so the sourcebooks won’t be rendered worthless.
Conclusion
This is a pretty big job. I don’t anticipate it being completed until the late spring of 2019, but as work progresses, I’ll be posting updates.
Thanks for your time.
As some of you know, planning has begun for a third edition of Interface Zero. in this post, I'm going to discuss a few things, and open this up for discussion, because I really want to know a few things, like, what you did/didn't like about 2.0 in terms of BOTH RULES AND SETTING.
Rules Issues
It's been just a little over 4 years since 2.0 was published, and a great many people have expressed their love for the game. A great many people have also said the rules were too clunky, and decidedly NOT savage. I want any new edition I do to address these issues. I've talked with developers such as Sean Patrick Fannon about ways to streamline elements of the game and make them more Fast, Furious and Fun; things like totally revamping the hacking rules, addressing balance issues with cybernetics, and especially dealing with hacking.
The philosophy behind hacking was to make it as simple as possible, base it on skill use, and essentially make it a 2 or 3 step real-time process. Setting elements of Interface Zero were designed so that characters who wanted to hack wouldn't get into situations where they were off in some remote locale, totally separate from the group. I didn't want to have hacking play like a mini-game, and I think for the most part, the setting elements supported that. In practice, though, there were issues.
Most skills in Savage Worlds are based around a Target Number of 4, with raises increasing the effectiveness of what your character is attempting to do. This didn't work well with hacking, because in order to make certain things more (perhaps realistically, perhaps unrealistically) difficult, like hacking more secure systems and networks, I had to introduce penalties to skill rolls. The problem, is that it made things too hard because your skills can only rise to d12+3(?). Trying to hack into the most secure database or network had extreme penalties, and even having your skill maxxed out didn't make things easier, or even possible without acing rolls.
Definitely not FFF!
Hyper combat, while interesting as a concept, didn't work out well at all. In retrospect, I believe we were trying to do way too much at one time. There were other issues, like programs (called engrams), creating them, and keeping them balanced with everything else. I've had years to think about it, and I think there might be simpler ways to deal with this sort of thing mechanically, while keeping some of the setting elements.
There were other issues, like equipment bloat. The gear chapter alone was over 100 pages. Too big, too scattered, not enough support material for the gear chapter, like weapon calibers, the cost of ammunition, and other details that were missed.
Similarly, other elements, like Occupations, Skill specializations, Street Cred, and Drones need to either be cut, or revamped, again...I've had 4 years worth of feedback and discussions about this stuff. Some things—like occupations—were interesting in concept, but in play, they ended up bloating the game and added more levels of complexity to what really needs to be a very sleek game.
Archetypes could have been better. The high price of gear made it very hard to properly equip a character, and for me that was frustrating, because the last thing I wanted to hear was a player talking about not being able to do the_thing_her character was built for because she didn’t have the credits to purchase basic tools to do the job!
Setting Issues
I’ve always liked Interface Zero’s setting…for the most part. The history was written over a decade ago for the True20 system, and it wasn’t nearly as detailed as it is now, but there’s a reason for that. I don’t want you to think I’m throwing them under the bus, but the original (True 20) writers kind of phoned the setting in, and it seems like everything I’ve written or have had others write has been like putting a patch on the original work.
We’ve fleshed things out where needed, and obviously sourcebooks have been written by some really awesome, creative people, but the core setting elements (the destabilization and death of the United States, the war between China and Russia, the idea of limited nuclear conflict in a small geographic area of the world affecting the entire world for nearly a decade) were a bit cartoonish and adolescent. And if I’m being honest, the parts about The U.S. also felt too similar to Shadowrun.
It’s not that I believe any of those things can’t happen, especially over a period of 70+ years; I do. It’s just that I think the setting can be better if some—or even none—of these things never happened. So, I’m thinking about rebooting the entire setting and writing it the way I feel it needs to be; More William Gibson, Richard K. Morgan and Neil Stephenson, less apocalyptic disaster soup. I’ll keep the tech advances and zeeks just because I like the idea of psionics in a cyberpunk setting. Not pure cyberpunk, but that’s ok.
All of the source material will be addressed in either indexes or supplemental (free) pdfs, so the sourcebooks won’t be rendered worthless.
Conclusion
This is a pretty big job. I don’t anticipate it being completed until the late spring of 2019, but as work progresses, I’ll be posting updates.
Thanks for your time.
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