Welcome to the New and Revamped Edgerunner! The New Edgerunner Table of Contents New Edgerunner is a fanzine dedicated on Welcome to the first issue of the New supporting the Cyberpunk genre, mainly Edgerunner! Cyberpunk 2020 from R. Talsorian Games. It also takes and will publish general roleplaying Actually this is not the first issue, but rather the articles as well. third issue. The original Edgerunner, all two issues of it, were released back in '98. How- Edgerunner is a free fanzine, which is released ever do to complications, mainly involving gran- once a month. diose ideas of what it should be, it became a rather stressful project and fell apart because As a fanzine we rely on freely contributed ar- of the high degree of maintenance and profes- ticles by fans of the Cyberpunk genre. Be sure sionalism it needed. to read our submissions part to know what types of things we would like to receive. Nonetheless the new and revamped Edgerunner is here. So all I can say further is: The Old Edgerunner Enjoy! Old Edgerunner is still available online in its A Second Look at Roles: Nomads 2 original PDF format. You can download the by W.D. Bailey a.k.a. Dog Soldier two issues of the original volume from: MetaEvolutions 3 The Main Site: by Michael Wolf http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~exec/ The Mirror Site: Weekend 6 by Dana Jorgensen http://www.cyberpunkcontraband.com Cyberpunk in the 90’s 11 by Lauri Gardner Submissions 6 Edgerunner Magazine 1 A Second Look at Roles: Nomads by w.d.bailey aka dog soldier After a recent martial arts class one of the turning from war who were (and are) looking students made a wisecrack, "I got kicked out for that spirit of family. Likewise with some of of the Marines for fighting dirty.." I replied, the Militia groups that have formed in the US. "That's pretty good, I know Marines. The worst thing about Marines is that you can't fight just So what does this have to do with roleplaying? one." The reply to this was, "Yeah, that used Nomads would in all likelihood be the most com- to be the way it was with all the services." mon and numerous muscle. My online handle came from a character who was a Scout for Now you might ask, "What's the point to this the Luna Rojas motorcycle gang, a group con- story?" The point is that the Nomad special sisting primarily of Cubans from Miami. Never ability of Family is the trait most likely to be was never any time that a dozen other "Dogs" found in any member of an elite military unit. weren't in earshot. I feel that the Nomad role is Most characters created with a ex-military potentially one of the most powerful roles in background make no mention of this. If you the area of close combat. Yet in almost every ask the player about who his character served other CP 2020 game I've ever seen the No- with you'll get a blank stare and often get the mad is always alone in the group. Handling a mumbled excuse that "everyone in my unit was game with a group of Nomads will be very killed". In real life this is the most common story challenging to the GM but the opportunity for of fake veterans. excellent roleplay would make it well worth the effort. The Hells Angels motorcycle gang and many similar groups were formed from veterans re- 2 Edgerunner Magazine metaevolutions by michael wolf "Oh this is skip-dandy. First you little General, your efforts the bring pukes decide to run amok with the gifts this menace to an end are simply that MY pet nanites have bestowed upon not enough. your heathen souls, now it seems you don't think it's enough and have just We need proper intelligence on DECIDED to break programming and go these monsters if we are ever to and mutate without MY consent!!! That's find a counter-measure for this it! You cyber-twerps deserve what you plague. We only have theories so get." -GhostLord far, and have yet to find any proof of what one or our lab techs Source: Dr Margaret Tuere, CDC has named "Meta Evolutions". [NSecA@F... R&D_DBioP..TC1 Ok, so your CyberGeneration game is in full Destination: Lt Gen. Chris swing. You've got your players into the idea of Lacolucci playing snot-nosed little terrorists and culture- DoD@P..._Tac..JH1 jammers instead of railgun-toting maniacs. But (EYES ONLY--READ and DESTROY) now the revolution is heating up. The ISA is no Message Reads: longer pulling its punches and some of the Wiz- ards are getting wind of talk about a counter- General Lacolucci: agent being developed by the CDC. It seems that our best efforts to The people are starting to listen, they're finally stop this mutation is being met starting to think that there is something wrong. with greater resistance than ever. But now they're scared. They know about the And I fear that this new turn of revolution, but they also know that it's horribly events has weakened the morale of out-gunned by CorpSec and the military. the brave men and women who fight There's no way these kids, even the mutant these monsters. ones, can win. Over the course of the last few On the home front, the war is going well, but it months, many of the ex-children in doesn't seen like enough. Blackhand's dream our care have begun to exhibit of an Evolved army is still years away from abilities not recorded for their being realized, and the Revolution doesn't have Evolved Type. After much debate that long. They need to win soon. within the lab, it has been con- firmed that the a few of the Now. "Evolved" are still evolving. Edgerunner Magazine 3 If there's one the CyberGenerations knows, once. it's that you must evolve or die. As the nanites have shown, nothing is impossible. These rules Cut-away- Arcane 7, 10xp will allow your Yogangers to do just that. To The Wizard may now have a Familiar active in evolve beyond what was thought to be the lim- the Net while he/she is not connected to it (i.e. its of the Carbon Plague. away from an LDL or completely offline). Simple, neh? SYSTEM When a character reaches a certain level, he/ BOLTER she may begin to purchase new abilities with Shock Field- Bolt Throwing 3, 30xp XP. All new powers have two requirements; The Bolter may now surround himself with a the prerequisite level of their evolved skill, and barrier of electricity. Anyone that makes con- how much XP is needed to buy the new power. tact with the Bolter will suffer damage auto- After the power is bought, all skill checks are matically. It requires one action to activate, done with the original evolved skill. but may remain on indefinitely, as long as his/ her batteries hold up. The Shock Field can be TINMAN set at various levels of intensity, same as a Fast-shaping- Hexite Shaping 7, 20xp bolt attack. For every round the Field is on, the The Tinman is able to shape his/her hexite at Bolter's batteries are depleted by the amount an accelerated rate. This ability reduces the a comparable Bolt would have used. time to shape by two levels. No shaping test can take less then one round, but anything that Flashing- Bolt Throwing 7, 25XP would have been less than one round does not Speed. Pure, unadulterated speed. The Bolter require any effort, and does not count towards has learned to increase the electrical impulses the character's actions. from his batteries to his mind and body. His/ her MA is increased by 4, and his Ref by 2. Armor Morph- Hexite Shaping 6, 10xp The Tinman may now shape his/her hexite ar- DBZ- Bolt Throwing 4, 40xp mor plating, such as adding spikes to the ar- The Bolter has learned to pull a particular stunt mor or shaping the face or torso in an artistic with his bolt-lines. With much effort, he/she is or horrific form. Use the standard levels of dif- able to twist his bolt-lines around each other, ficulty for such shaping. in flight, and combine their charge into one stag- gering attack. The attack's difficulty is raised WIZARD by one level, and every turn is considered one Specialize- Arcane 4, 50XP level harder as well. If successful, the Bolter The Wizards internal systems may now con- may expend up to twice the normal charge struct more complex and powerful Familiars. and do the corresponding amount of damage. When the Wizard learns this ability, he/she chooses one of the Familiar Functions (Attack, SCANNER Defensive, Movement, Independent Action, and Mind Bender- Interpretation 8, 30xp Intelligence). That Function will now always be Ever seen the movie Scanners? That's what equal to his/her Arcane, and may still be in- you can do. By increasing the output of your creased with Arcane and Intelligence points scanning fields, and rotating those frequencies during Familiar construction. The Wizard may rapidly, the Scanner begins to slowly fry his/ NOT change which Functions gets the bonus her target's brain. Mind Bend requires the user and may not purchase this ability more than to make an Interpretation check 4 Edgerunner Magazine Posting- Interpretation 4, 5XP difficulties remain the same.