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| The full TIME SCAPE package |
TIME SCAPE is a 42-page full colour zine supplement for the CY_BORG roleplaying game, available on Itch.io, with physical copies released thanks to the Kickstarter campaign. My copy included three pamphlets and a folded card.
TIME SCAPE is a supplement that allows you to bring echoes of popular cyberpunk adjacent movies to the table; primarily the one with the killer time travelling cyborg infiltrator, but also the one with the trophy hunting alien, and the one with the xenomorph if you happen to have the pamphlets. TIME SCAPE lets you draw deep into the well of 1980s SF films, presenting stats and an adventure to allow echoes of the Terminator, Alien and Predator franchises. However, it’s primarily focused on the machine apocalypse, as you can probably guess from the cover artwork.
TIME SCAPE provides stats for hunter-killer cyborgs which progress through a number of states, starting with wet-ware encased, then moving to skin-peeled and exposed, before the final fleshless horror underneath is exposed. Your players will have to kill this thing several times to prevail, and it will feel relentless.
It also provides descriptions of four variant weather effects for the city of CY, ranging from the fog through to chemical snow. All will add a little variety.
The meat of the book is the adventure which includes four locations and enough randomness to do it again. The initial kick-off places the characters in media res, about to kill the CEO of a hated corporation which has debt data on much of the populace of CY (and who is ultimately responsible for initiating the machine apocalypse). Someone managed to get this hate figure’s itinerary as they visited the city and post it city wide. The characters got there first, and will likely prevail. Unfortunately, that provokes a response from the future, and after they succeed they’ll find themselves several hours later at a club as a relentless assassin is sent back through time to stop them killing the CEO and changing causality. The scenario becomes a mix of trying to escape or destroy the hunter-killer and trying to kill the CEO to end this, again. They’ll get help from the future, but exactly what motivates that help and how it manifests will be up to the GM.
The locations have just enough detail to bounce around but I found two of the maps challenging. There is a one on a boat which is coloured in pink lines on light blue water (just physically hard to read) and the penthouse layout takes some studying.
Overall, the scenario is fun and has hooks (QR codes) to initiate sequels.
The pamphlets present upgraded hunter-killers (for example liquid-metal nanotech ones), xenomorphs and alien hunters. These let you mix up the scenario or just take them and use them elsewhere. The folded card lets you design a K9k electrical pet to create fun and havoc.
Overall, I like TIME SCAPE. It’s perfect to add some 1980s SF movie fun and horror into your CY_BORG game, presented well, with an engaging scenario that has a degree of re-playability.
Recommended.
26 May 2023
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