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CYBERPUNK ROLEPLAYING POWERED by the APOCALYPSE the Text of the Veil Is Licensed Under the Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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CYBERPUNK ROLEPLAYING POWERED by the APOCALYPSE the Text of the Veil Is Licensed Under the Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) CYBERPUNK ROLEPLAYING POWERED BY THE APOCALYPSE The text of The Veil is licensed under the Creative Commons Share-alike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0). Some moves are either tweaked or lifted straight from Apocalypse World by Vincent Baker, and are used with his permission. Illustrations and all graphic elements in The Veil © 2016 Fraser Simons WRITING & DESIGN Fraser Simons ART Alessandro Rossi GRAPHIC DESIGN & LAYOUT Brennen Reece LINE EDITING Sarah Jane Keller ADDITIONAL THANKS Kyle Simons for development editing and creating the MC tools for question based campaign play. Jacob Rose for in-depth development editing of playbooks and mechanics. Kate Bullock for an inclusivity statement and for feedback that lead to making the Sway move sing, a much more inclusive game and the coolest look any protagonist could hope for. My eternal gratitude to the playtesters Thanks to Amber Hutchison, Jonathan Gallant, Kyle Simons, David Wyble Jr, Thomas Minser, Jacob Rose, Red Scare, Jake Currier, Ryan MacKay, Taylor Hall, Lawrence Hatez, Andrew Fish, Jojo Allen, Bob Bersch, Michael Kennedy, Kate Bullock, Rob Deobald, Rachelle Shelkey, Hannah McLean, Paolo Ian, Alex Dudka, Kai Poh, Ivan Tam, Nicholas Otomen Seoh, Edmund Wong, Joshua Nicholas Aeria, Navin Nathaniel Innasi, Luc Mahsun, Razzman Khaliff, James Ong, Ben “Flowers” Chong, Erik Isaac, the Technical Difficulties gaming podcast, and to anyone I may have missed, thank you! COMMUNITY SHOUTOUTS Special thanks to http://www.gauntlet-rpg.com community and podcast for creating a vibrant and inclusive community that talks about all games, including small press titles like this one. If you like to play tabletop games online, I encourage you to go play games with them, they’re wonderful! Once Upon a Game: https://goo.gl/pc6aGD Eric Vulgaris’s show where anyone can sign up and play with him live on Twitch! He’s also got an extensive library of actual play files filled to the brim with small press and indie tabletop games. CONTENTS PREFACE ...........................................................................7 Beliefs .............................................................268 Introductions .................................................270 INTRODUCTION TO THE VEIL ........................8 World Building ................................................271 What It’s All About ............................................12 Advancement ..................................................272 Why Play? ..........................................................13 Advancing Basic Moves ................................. 274 What You Need to Play .....................................14 The Tools At Hand ..........................................276 Terms ................................................................16 The Conversation ............................................20 THE MASTER OF CEREMONIES ...............278 Scenes ..............................................................21 Agenda ............................................................281 Hard Framing ....................................................22 Always Say… ...................................................282 What do You do? ..............................................23 The Principles ................................................ 284 Fictional Positioning ........................................23 The MC Moves ................................................293 Clarifying the Fiction ........................................24 Degrees of Moves ..........................................294 The X-Card ........................................................25 MC Basic Moves .............................................297 Moves Snowball .............................................307 BEFORE YOU GET GOING .............................. 26 Player Vs Player ..............................................308 Moves ................................................................28 Defining The Veil .............................................312 Making a Move .................................................32 Creating and Depicting NPCs ........................314 Forward .............................................................33 Motivations .....................................................315 Hold ...................................................................34 Fictional Flags ................................................320 Ongoing .............................................................35 Playbook Focuses...........................................322 Advantage/Disadvantage ................................36 Establishing Expectations..............................334 States ................................................................37 How to Begin ..................................................336 The Basic Moves ..............................................46 Keep It Simple ................................................338 Duels .................................................................66 Explaining The Veil .........................................340 Giri and Peripheral Moves ...............................72 One-Shots .......................................................341 Tags ...................................................................80 The MC First Session Sheet .........................343 Damage Types ..................................................85 After the First Session ...................................347 Cybernetics .......................................................86 Threats ............................................................348 Cred ...................................................................92 Creating a Threat ...........................................349 Emporium .........................................................96 Threat Types ...................................................350 Proxy .................................................................. 97 Custom Moves ................................................357 Creating New Tech ........................................... 97 Major Antagonist ............................................361 Creating/Customizing Weapons......................98 The Scenario Sheet ........................................362 Med-Tech ..........................................................99 The Questions That Drive Us ......................... 374 Harm ...............................................................100 An Example Scenario .....................................380 Additional Rules .............................................382 THE FIRST SESSION ..........................................106 Thoughts and Tweaks ....................................386 Inclusivity In The Veil ......................................110 BACKERS ......................................................................389 Choose a Playbook .........................................111 Elements of a Playbook .................................114 The Apparatus ...............................................119 The Architect ...................................................133 The Attached ..................................................147 The Catabolist ................................................159 The Dying ........................................................ 171 The Empath ....................................................183 The Executive .................................................193 The Honed ......................................................205 The Honorbound ...........................................219 The Onomastic ...............................................233 The Seeker ......................................................243 The Wayward ..................................................255 PREFACE YOU’RE HERE BECAUSE THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG with the world. The fact that it’s the future doesn’t matter. Not much has changed, but there’s still something here you can’t put your finger on, and it’s driving you mad. Everyone is connected through a technology called neurochips and it has pulled The Veil over everyone’s eyes. It is our new reality. Mixing our reality with the digital, we now traverse a new world. One where the digital and physical occupy the same space and interact with us as though they were one and the same. We see and feel our future emblazoned on our minds and on our skin as it holds or caresses or destroys the humanity we have left. Our reality is a hybrid one—full of possibility. Of more, yes; but, perhaps, of less too. When you wake. When you sleep. When you smell the air and when you taste your food. When you brush your teeth, when you strap your weapon to your hip, and, most of all, when you look into each other’s eyes; you can see it, lingering there. That feeling that the machines are out there, turning, using you for their own ends. Here’s the good news: you’re here to change it, and that’s what makes you different. There is no way to break free of the machine without becoming a threat to it—and make no mistake, you are. Whether you’re working against the system from the inside, upholding the only social contracts that keep us from tearing each other apart, pitting corporation against corporation, breaking into crystalline, technological towers full of secrets, diving directly into the digital world to put back what was broken, or searching for the only true words left in the world, you’re trying to break free and you’ll need help to do it. PREFACE 7 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO THE VEIL YOU WILL TAKE ON THE
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