Hardwired Island, Cybernetic Revolution... In Space!
90s nostalgia isn't cool anymore, its all about that early aughts nostalgia, so I propose we have transparent plastic prosthetic limbs, like those bootleg PS2/Wii controllers
Touchstones: Bubblegum Crisis, 90s Cyberpunk Anime in general
Genre: Cyberpunk
What is this game?: Hardwired Island is a cyberpunk game about being broke citizens in the first space station city on earth
How's the gameplay?: Hardwired Island uses a 2d6+Bonus system, inspired by PBTA, but the game itself isn't exactly that. Hardwired's character creation is one of its big draws, being fairly simple but allowing many different character concepts, maybe you're an android street fighter, wanting to enter the big leagues, or an ex-military drone operator, wanting to atone for your crimes, character creation works by picking a background, Occupation, and 2 traits, which lets you get really flexible with your character! Backgrounds have misc abilities and determine your character's skills (which you get to create yourself, so if you want your character to be really good at niche internet drama, you can!), Occupations give you powerful abilities that make you really good at things that other people can do worse, and traits are just random abilities and events in your character's history. The Big Thing about Hardwired is its financial shock system, whenever your character makes a big purchase, such as for example a prosthetic, they might get more financial stress, which can end up leading them into a crisis, where they might need to reach out to a friend to get a place to stay, or move back with their parents, or make shady deals with the mafia, and so on. Hardwired's mechanics are Narrative-first, meaning they exist to create interesting drama for characters, and that makes it a very fun system for just making cool stories
What's the setting (If any) like?: Hardwired takes place in the far future of 2020, on a giant space station city, where the rich prosper and the poor toil. Hardwired is really keen on the "boring dystopia" aspect, there's definitely interesting stuff! but players are assumed to be common laymen trying their best to get by, of course this doesn't mean their ADVENTURES have to be boring! a package delivery gig could end with dealing with the strange Dreamers, bizarre AI with weird powers, or an investigation on an anonymous street artist could end in inciting a riot against a local bank, and so on!
What's the tone?: Hardwired will try to crush your players, it is not a pleasant world, there's kindness everywhere, and good people to be found, but the world is overwhelmingly against you
Session length: 1-2 hours is realistic enough
Number of Players: 4-6 is the recommended amount by me!
Malleability: Hardwired's mechanics are kinda rooted in its setting, but a crafty GM could likely do something interesting with them, I've been working on a hack for my own cyberpunk setting, for example!
Resources: a Google Sheet is available, and that's honestly kinda all you need, its not a very complex system. There's two or so expansions, one of them includes a playable cat occupation!
So I hesitated a lil on posting this game because i know people have Opinions on this game, but this game's great and im tired of pretending its not. It's a definite must play for any cyberpunk fan, in my opinion