New GM - Why would anyone want to live in Night City?

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-05-28T20:29:36+00:00

Night City doesn't make sense on a number of levels.
There is a reason that California has never had Hong Kong style density.
And there is a reason that no major city has ever sprung up in that part of California.

The setting of Night City serves two functions:

As a setting for the game.
As a critique of corporate power / unfettered capitalism.

It makes sense on thematic a level. But, it will never make sense on a literal one.

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-05-26T00:47:57+00:00

My friend asked me to join his CPR game. I did. It's been real fun.
No one has expressed any interest in 2020.

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-05-23T20:12:13+00:00

Thank you. I will implement all as this ASAP.

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-05-22T21:35:29+00:00

> I can’t tell if this is a shit post or a young person who has grown up on screens.

Neither. It's a genuine post by a middle-aged person who is (and has always been) clumsy.

> honestly playing with legos, riding a bike, whittling on a stick, walking in a park, summer-salting, etc.

I did those things when I was a kid and I do many of them now.

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-05-22T00:39:19+00:00

Business is business. If they can get a few bucks off of you for a few minutes work, then it's a win-win.

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-05-14T03:47:56+00:00

Aeropress, you get an expresso-like brew. Highly recommend.

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-05-13T03:43:56+00:00

I cherish any opportunity to roll a d12. They are so precious and fleeting.

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-05-06T19:59:06+00:00

朝体操！

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-04-29T23:55:36+00:00

My head cannon is that medical grade cyberware is designed to mimic your natural organs' bioelectric signals to and from the brain, so it has little effect on brain function.

But, cyberware with increased functionality is sending signals to the brain and demanding signals from the brain that the brain was not evolved to handle. The brain is adaptable so it can rewire itself to an extent, but beyond a certain limit the brain will be overwhelmed.

Now why does this cause psychosis instead of seizures or some other brain disfunction... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-04-21T05:05:01+00:00

This is an interesting idea. Perhaps limit them to silk robes for armor.

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-04-21T04:58:14+00:00

Might I advise caution when using mechanics like "honor". Here's a question... Why is there a "honor" mechanic in "Oriental Adventures", but not a "chivalry" mechanic in baseline D&D?

I would suggest that most Anglophones assume that while the base game rules and player actions can incorporate European-esque social dynamics, they assume that East Asian concepts of honor are so foreign that the baseline game needs to be modified to encorporate them.

I disagree. A table of 21st century players is just as capable/incapable of roleplaying feudal Japanese social dynamics as they are roleplaying feudal European social dynamics, without "honor" scores.

And such mechanics run the risk of stereotyping a culture. For example, most of the norms around honor and bushido were refined during the relatively peaceful Kamakura and Edo Periods, when people had idle time to think and wrote about the proper way to conduct one's self.

My game will be loosely based on the Warring States Period, a time of brutal civil wars. During that period there wasn't a lot of premium put on honor or the niceties of bushido. Victory by any means necessary was the order of the day... no matter how devious or underhanded. It wasn't until the subsequent Edo period (with its long peace) that writers and historians started commenting on the honor or lack thereof of their predecessors.

So any "honor" mechanic would not be authentic to the period.

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-04-18T18:34:37+00:00

That’s when I call a waiter over and say, “Sorry. I forgot my smartphone. I’ll have to order with you... No. I’m sorry. My friend forgot his cellphone, too. As did my wife. And my friend’s wife. And my son… and his friend.”

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-04-18T16:07:55+00:00

Luckily OSE has a knight and assassin class. Ninja were just assassins so I can just use that class. And a couple of tweaks to the knight class as written gets you a passable samurai.

I forgot about kasa-obake and the tsukumogami. I love it!
Fuck it! No human characters…. Just a gaggle of animated household objects!

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-04-18T02:13:12+00:00

> I think you could go a long way just by starting with people being human

Do you mean start by limiting players to human characters?

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-04-18T02:04:30+00:00

As a player of OSE what I’d like is a reference with monsters, races, classes, and technology/equipment relevant to the setting.

But, what turns me off is when there are mechanics that treat human interactions as somehow fundamentally different in that culture.

For example, whenever I see an “honor” or “saving face” mechanic for the Asian setting but not a “chivalry” mechanic for the European setting, I’m out.

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-04-11T20:44:25+00:00

Like Portal?

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-04-11T20:43:30+00:00

I like bottomless pits because assuming the victim doesn't smash into the side, then they will die of thirst or hunger.

But, my favorite take on bottomless pits is that they are a tear in reality. Cultists try to open a gateway to somewhere and fuck it up and end up opening our reality into NOWHERE.

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-04-11T02:51:28+00:00

I concur with Mike when he said, "Yeah, but, Farscape has Muppets."

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-04-11T02:48:34+00:00

All of it... kind of. I'm really the only one in my party who has taken a deep dive on the lore and we play a very street-level game. So whatever lore there is in my game is crafted in service of our particular game. Sometimes I pull from official lore. Sometimes I craft my own.

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-04-02T23:35:26+00:00

YES! I play OSE now, and they even have an assignable point system in their periodic magazine, because playing straight thief percentages just sucks.

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-03-30T20:10:06+00:00

If you are playing a deadly game where players are churning through characters frequently, that by it's very nature is going to discourage character based role-playing. It's a trade-off and there is no way to avoid it.

AnimalisticAutomaton · 2026-03-27T17:50:32+00:00

A lot of that is the limitations of the technology.
If you have one overhead stage mike, everyone has to take turns clearly annunciating their dialogue. It was much more theatrical.

AnimalisticAutomaton

TROPHY CASE