Credits Special Thanks

Credits Author: Travis Legge Artist: Chronicles of Darkness Art Packs Special Thanks To Rachel, Milena, Corey, and Hugo for an awesome one-shot!

© 2021 White Wolf Publishing AB. All rights reserved. World of Darkness, Vampire: The Masquerade, Vampire: The Dark Ages, Victorian Age: Vampire, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Werewolf: The Wild West, Mage: The Ascension, Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade, Wraith: The Oblivion, Wraith: The Great War, Changeling: The Dreaming, Hunter: The Reckoning, Demon: The Fallen, Mummy: The Resurrection, Orpheus, Exalted, Chronicles of Darkness, Vampire:The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken, Mage: The Awakening, Changeling: The Lost, Hunter: The Vigil, Giest: The Sin Eaters, Demon: The Descent, Mummy: The Curse, Beast: The Primordial, Promethean: The Created, White Wolf, Storyteller System™, Storytelling System™, and Storytellers Vault™ and their respective logos, icons and symbols are trademarks or registered trademarks of White Wolf Entertainment AB. All rights reserved. This work contains material that is copyright of White Wolf Entertainment. Such material is used with permission under the Community Content Agreement for the Storytellers Vault. ©2021 White Wolf Entertainment AB, Västgötagatan 5, SE-118 27 Stockholm, Sweden. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned. This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended for entertain- Samplement purposes only. Reader discretion is advised. file Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com

2 Bleeding Edge2�0 TableTable of ContentsContents

Introduction 5 Part One: Characters and Rules 6 Character Creation and Advancement 6 Merits 7 Part Two: Telling the Tale 11

Sample file

Credits 3 Sample file IntroductionIntroduction

The world we live in during the 2020s is not a far cry from the cyberpunk dystopias predicted in the 1980s. In some ways the technology is better. We are wirelessly connected to the internet thanks to minicomputers we carry in our pockets. We use text, voice, and video to talk to one another in real time across continents. We create and consume media constantly. Hell, late-stage capitalism has created a gig economy that makes a significant portion of the workforce into mercenaries, slinging their skills for hire to the highest bidder (or whatever bidder they can scrape together.) Sure, we don’t have the cool toys of cyberpunk fiction — no one is getting their bodies chopped up to add the latest wire-enhanced reflexes or subdermal armor — but there are biohackers the world over working on ways to en- hance the body with machines. Medical technology is constantly pushing “Information over- in the direction of better prosthetics, including nerve-controlled devices and neural to graphic interfaces. Beyond our personal experience, we are load! All the electronics living through a mass extinction as the environment dies due to the last around you poisoning gasps of wealthy industrialists who want little more than to burn the world the airwaves. Techno- down so they can die with the most toys. In short, we may not live in an actual cyberpunk dystopia, but if you squint logical fucking civiliza- while you look at the world outside your window, it sure looks like one. tion. But we still have As the Chronicles of Darkness have always been a dark reflection of our world, cyberpunk seems more fitting than ever for inclusion in the setting. all this shit, because we Mirrors: Bleeding Edge 2.0 seeks to update and expand the material pre- can’t live without it. Let sented in Mirrors: Bleeding Edge, both bringing it in line with the current Chronicles of Darkness ruleset and addressing some of the ways the core me do my work.” conceits of cyberpunk may hew a bit closer to our own reality than we are comfortable with. - Spider, “Johnny Mnemonic” How to Use This Book The introduction, which you are reading now, gives a brief concept of the core premise of Mirrors: Bleeding Edge 2.0 and a summary of what is to come. Part One: Characters and Rules discusses the rules permutations for this mirror universe, including ways to bring your existing Chronicles of Darkness character into Mirrors: Bleeding Edge 2.0. Part Two: Telling the Tale offers suggestions on incorporating new Chronicles of Darkness material into a cyberpunk game as well as a brief Samplelook at the two settings initially introduced in Mirrors: file Bleeding Edge.

INTRODUCTION 5 Part One: Characters and Rules Character Creation and Sample Long-Term Aspirations Advancement Prove my worth to my employers Mirrors: Bleeding Edge 2.0 relies on the Chronicles Clear my criminal record of Darkness character creation rules, or those presented in the God-Machine Rules Update, provided you are Move into a nicer part of town still working with the 1st edition corebook. Gather enough wealth to retire from mercenary work Bring down a megacorporation Aspirations Improve conditions for workers in my city Aspirations are a wonderful tool for conveying the Design and build a new augmentation conventions of genre in play. When creating charac- ters for a Bleeding Edge 2.0 story consider crafting Clear all my debt Aspirations that steer into elements of cyberpunk. A Start my own faction few recommendations are listed here, but these just scratch the surface of what is possible. Expose a corrupt politician Create a community resource (shelter, public garden, kitchen, etc.) Sample Aspirations Design a fully self-aware AI Earn my rent Hack the God-Machine Hack a secure system Upload my consciousness into an artificial body Break into a building without getting caught Evade contact with law enforcement Complete my current gig on time and to spec Create a new computer program Virtue and Vice Virtue and Vice follow the rules laid out in the Win a fight Chronicles of Darkness character creation rules, or Deliver a package those presented in the God-Machine Rules Update, including access to the Virtuous (••) and Vice-Ridden Acquire a piece of secret data (••) Merits. Acquire an augmentation Upgrade my augmentation Breaking Points Repair or replace my gear Bleeding Edge 2.0 uses Breaking Points and Integrity. Make sure my group has food When answering the five questions at character cre- ation, consider the cyberpunk genre and seek to emulate SampleGet clean water or subvert the tropes of that filegenre in your answers. A Increase my street reputation few examples are provided below. • What is the worst thing your character has ever done? Life in a cyberpunk dystopia is hard, especially

6 Bleeding Edge2�0 for the underprivileged and the downtrodden who are often the heroes in such stories. Chances Merits are good that your character has had to do some In addition to the Merits offered in Chronicles of shady shit just to get by. Often times such behav- Darkness corebook, or those presented in the God- ior is handwaved by the character engaging in it Machine Rules Update, characters for use with the as “necessary for survival” but the intent of the Bleeding Edge 2.0 may choose from the following question here is to find something your character Merits. truly feels guilt over. What is, in their mind, the worst thing they have done? Or, perhaps, what do they carry the most guilt over? Use the answer Mental Merits to define a breaking point. Cyberpunk places great emphasis on skills and knowledge. Protagonists in a cyberpunk tale are often • What is the worst thing your character can imagine extremely skilled, whether through extensive training, himself doing? The world presented in Bleeding technological upgrades, or trial and error with a huge Edge 2.0 is pretty foul and brutal. One of the helping of grit. To represent these aspects of the genre, tropes of cyberpunk is the concept that people are add the following Mental Merits to your chronicle. willing to pay good money to the desperate so that they will do horrible shit on their behalf. What would be too far for your character, regardless of Professional Training (• to •••••) the paycheck? What would be doable, if the price As presented in the Chronicles of Darkness core rule- was right? book and the God-Machine Rules Update, a rating in the Professional Training Merit confers benefits based • What is the worst thing your character can imagine on Asset Skills tied to the profession as well as some someone else doing? Given the harsh conditions of social benefit when dealing with others in the field. The the world around them, your character can prob- following Professions are added to, and where relevant ably imagine some pretty heinous shit, though supersede, those listed in he Chronicles of Darkness the answer to this question needn’t be especially core rulebook and the God-Machine Rules Update. terrible. Many characters in cyberpunk fiction If using the option to substitute Merit dots presented adhere to a strict moral code, just not a code that under each Profession’s Suggested Contacts, keep in is valued by the rest of society. If your character mind that the character must still meet the prerequisites has such a code, violations of that might belong for any substituted Merit. in the answer to this question. Celebrity • What has the character forgotten? Living among the Celebrities use fame to do things other people aren’t lower strata of society has probably put your char- allowed to. Bizarre and even illegal behavior is tolerated acter in contact with the supernatural, whether and expected from celebrities, even more so if they’ll they remember it or not. Augmentations bring just stop for a selfie... characters closer to the God-Machine, angels, Asset Skills: Socialize, Expression and demons whether or not they realize it. What Suggested Contacts: Retired mentor, Bitter peer, Arm contact has your character had, and how did it candy; May also substitute Contacts dots from this Merit affect them? What are they afraid of or compelled with Fame dots instead. to as a result? Courier While he may have started out as a simple delivery • What is the most traumatic thing that has ever hap- boy, things have gotten interesting over the years. All pened to the character? As mentioned above, you’re manner of cargo gets moved through bike messengers, kind of spoilt for choice here. Living in a dystopia bonded couriers, and delivery drivers — not all of it legal is like mainlining trauma. Its all around you. Even or moral. But the rent’s gotta get paid somehow, right? if your character has lived a relatively charmed Asset Skills: Drive, Athletics life, she’s no doubt got friends and loved ones Suggested Contacts: Racing rival, Trophy boyfriend, who have been through hell just trying to get by. Underground dispatcher; Secondary Traumatic Stress is a real thing, and Executive could well be the answer to your question here. When he was younger, the executive knew just when to smile, just when to say “yes, sir,” and if he didn’t plan Sampletoo far ahead, it was because he wasfile always focused on Experience that next promotion. Now, with authority of his own, Bleeding Edge 2.0 uses the experience system detailed he knows when and how to apply that authority to get in Chronicles of Darkness or the God-Machine Rules what he wants in and out of the office. Update.

Characters and Rules 7