Hard Wired Island

No escaping it: the "Bestselling Titles" section of DriveThruRPG still offers some great finds. For the past few days, a certain Hard Wired Island has made its entry into the site's bestsellers. A priori little interested in its somewhat too anime aesthetics, I finally let myself be tempted after reading the game's manifesto: Cyberpunk, sure, but not just on the surface, to show off with cybernetic arms, sophisticated guns and dirty tank tops. Here, the authors promise us social criticism, for they contend that the soul of Cyberpunk lies in anticipating the excesses opened up by an unbridled technological advance.

My first reading left me truly enthusiastic, so that a proper first look should appear on this blog in the weeks (months?) to come. In the meantime, here is the adaptation of a character to the Hard Wired Island system, in order to test its flexibility. Warning, spoiler: the creation process is pretty cool.

Character concept

Initially created for Star Wars D20 Revised Edition, Aromée was a Noble (the class, that is), raised within a racist, pro-Palpatine industrial family, which she covertly opposed by helping the Alliance to Restore the Republic. At the start of our adventures, she suffered from a certain lack of wisdom (WIS 9) - a flaw ultimately with little impact, since her class bonuses absorbed this deficiency. D20 system obliges, the "social" part of the game was dispatched with a few skills I had obviously maxed out, making my character an all-terrain diplomat able to intimidate, persuade, charm, lie, smell out lies, trade, in short... do everything when it comes to sweet talk.

The goal of this character creation is therefore to transcribe a character who is:

• Charismatic;
• Rich;
• Superficial;
• Little combat-oriented (even pacifist);
• In conflict with her father and the capitalist industry;
• Among the "little extras": a well-stocked wardrobe, some computer skills, knowledge of international / galactic law, brain implants boosting reflexes.

Let us see if Hard Wired Island manages it.

Process

Hard Wired Island offers a 12-step character creation: some deal mainly with the background although they offer mechanical benefits, while others allow purely mechanical adjustments so that your character fits your expectations.

On a purely mechanical level, a character is defined by:

• capacities (characteristics, in most RPGs);
• specialties (skills, in the usual lingo);
• traits (benefits tied to the background);
• talents (benefits more tied to the profession);
• assets (various items and possessions);
• augmentations (cybernetics);
• a level of financial burden;
• a personal goal;
• a few alternate details.

Origin

Aromée is an earthling born in the Abdala pharmaceutical complexes. Considered a kind of crowning achievement by her parents, she underwent heavy in-vitro genetic modifications, then was educated to take over the family, should immortality prove out of reach for humans by the time of the patriarch's death. Steeped in neo-capitalist speeches from her earliest age, she joined the service of the Cartel and of Abdala Pharma at the end of her studies, but in truth leaks the company's secrets to activist movements. When the game begins, Aromée is therefore a Corporate Drone, which gives her an edge when it comes to understanding the Cartel's inner workings, along with her first two specialties: Bureaucracy and Cartel Politics.

Capacities

Hard Wired Island defines its characters by four capacities: Cool, Smart, Tough, Quick (homebrew translations). Aromée being eminently sociable, she therefore gets +3 in "Cool", then +2 in "Smart", +1 in "Quick" and 0 in Tough.

First trait

Freshly created characters are asked to choose two traits representing their background, the first trait depicting something "life instilled in the character". Aromée was privileged and destined to work in the Cartel's world from her earliest age, so she benefits from the "Work Housing" trait with Abdala Pharma. She therefore has a better standard of living and a comfortable company apartment, all of it with obligations towards her company.

Profession

In Star Wars, Aromée had studied economics and law, but her natural talent predestined her for diplomacy and contact with people. In Hard Wired Island, the ideal profession seems to me to be "Influencer", which gives her a plethora of mechanical benefits (like all professions). Aromée therefore specializes in Action: soothe (to defuse explosive situations), Corporate Security, and the talent "Paid", which gives her an implant for free: in this case, Abdala Pharma offered her a very handy Mood Detector to negotiate skillfully with her interlocutors.

Since this is her first profession, Aromée also receives a Trendy Wardrobe that gives her substantial social bonuses depending on the mood of a conversation (if she has time to change), an Official Account representing her celebrity on social networks (and which lets her mass-troll her targets by manipulating her fans), a specialty in speed to better defend herself, and finally, the "Big Mood" talent (the translation does not do the meme justice) for formal occasions.

Second trait

Time to choose a second trait, representing "the way the character approaches their problems". Aromée is a social character who plays on her influence, so the "Trendsetter" trait fits rather well, all the more so with the wardrobe from the previous step. She specializes here in the "friendly" mood, since this trait does not allow specializing in the "formal" mood (unlike Big Mood).

Specialties

This step offers three additional specialties. Law represents Aromée's curriculum in the world of contracts, Hacking represents her recent gains with the activists, and Cooking offers a "leisure" parenthesis to a character who has so far been very single-minded.

Assets

Two additional assets are given to Hard Wired Island characters. Here, Aromée gets a hacking suite (a computer allowing her to hack) and ghost protocols to reduce the risks of being spotted while she infiltrates a network.

Augmentations

Aromée does not benefit from other cybernetic augmentations. Acquiring one beyond the one paid for by Abdala Pharma would result in increasing her financial burden, and the character concept requires that Aromée be well provided for.

Financial burden

Thanks to her job, Aromée starts with a zero burden level. Such a feat shelters her from economic shocks (a rule that hits indebted characters every session), without making her filthy rich.

Personal goal

We finish the core of this creation with Aromée's personal goal. Transposing the Star Wars character to Hard Wired Island is quite simple: her family is a ruthless capitalist powerhouse exploiting the common man to generate profit. Aromée's goal is therefore to financially bring down her own family, her parents in particular.

Defenses and details

The last step computes the character's defense scores: suffice it to say that manipulating Aromée will be difficult (one would need to roll a double six in most cases), while going after her physically remains "accessible". As it should be, then: we find the character as it is meant to be.

An option offered to characters is to join an "app" to make ends meet, but the character does not need it: with a demanding job at Abdala Pharma, Aromée has no time for that.

Conclusion

I have rarely enjoyed a character creation this much. Guided without being constraining, the process ticks all the right boxes: you know where the character comes from, what they want, what they can do and what they own. These elements also translate on the mechanical level, whereas more classic games limit them to "accessory" information one easily forgets. The game's progressive, humanist outlook is also felt here: the funny little details, like the weight given to "social" assets (wardrobe, little puppy, etc), encourage players to adopt an original, non-violent approach, where the PCs are less the genocidal janitors of a dungeon crawl than true activists who want to change things for the better. The game framework fits the character so perfectly that an example ultimately very similar to Aromée is offered on page 32 of the book.

On the other hand, I regret that my character has practically only qualities, with the exception of the corporate job constraint. At bottom, the only way to saddle a PC with a weakness is to take a "double-edged" Trait, but they remain rather limited both in the number one can choose and in the range of available choices. Consequently, the character's "superficial" side does not really come out on the mechanical level. Moreover, as a Noble, Aromée was rolling in money: in Hard Wired Island, a character can at best be "comfortable". One cannot really call that an asset, since she merely avoids the financial pitfall that 90% of Hard Wired Island characters face. But hey, we are talking about trifles. On the whole, not only did the character adaptation go well, but I truly enjoyed the experience!