All posts by Darren

A First Look at the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit

Cyberpunk Red, first look, RPG

Over in the video game world they are eagerly awaiting the release of the next instalment in the Cyberpunk franchise (which just happens to have a guest appearance by Keanu Reeves in it).

In the meantime we in the ttrpg world get an early look into the world portrayed in the new Cyberpunk game with an updated release of the Cyberpunk RPG, called Cyberpunk Red. Before the main rule books drop for this update we got treated to a starter kit or as the publisher R. Talsorian Games call it Jumpstart Kit.

The Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit came out in the later half of last year. Since before Christmas last year this starter kit has been sold out in the UK. Every now and then I’d trying finding a copy. Hoping that it had been reprinted and sent out to stores. But nada. So a month ago I reached out to R. Talsorian Games over Twitter about it being out of stock in the UK. After a couple of interactions it came to light that there were copies winging their way over the Atlantic to Asmodee to distribute. Patiently I waited (pretty unusual for me I know) looking for Asmodee in their weekly new releases pdf to announce a restock of the starter kit. Sadly it did not appear.

I reached out again to the publisher and this time they pointed me in the direction of a retailer that had copies! You guessed it, I made use of this information and ordered a copy. Which brings us to this post.

So for your money what do you get in the Jumpstart kit?

For starters there is the cut down rule book. Remember this is a “taster” of the full experience. It’s meant to give you an idea what the system is like. Plus the full rules haven’t been published yet.

The other book inside is the world book. This gives you background info on the setting for Cyberpunk Red and adventures to run.

Two double sided maps.

Six dice – 2d10 and 4d6.

Six pre-generated characters that can be customised.

Cardboard standees.

Finally a rules reference sheet.

I really like the pre-generated characters that come with the Jumpstart Set. There are stats on one side (some of which are chosen at start of play by the player to help personalise the character). On the reverse side there is background info and art for the character. These are nice and the personalisation of them helps the player feel more connected to the character. That’s pretty cool.

Why other RPG systems don’t provide a rules reference sheet I don’t know. But this is a really nice and welcome addition to the contents. So you can guess I really really like this.

Another thing I like about this Jumpstart Kit is the battle maps and standees. Another addition that you would think other starter kits would have.

The one thing I dislike about the Jumpstart Kit is the included dice!

I just don’t like their design. I get that they wanted to produce something that would appear thematic. But these are literally unreadable for some of the numbers especially on the d10. These are a big let down and something I’ll never use.

As starter sets go I like this one a lot. It’d be nearly perfect if it weren’t for those dice.

The nice thing about this Jumpstart set is that if once I get it to the table and I don’t get on with the system for whatever reason I can re-use some of the content (maps and standees) with say the Genesys RPG and the Android setting.

Like the Android setting if you are looking for inspiration there are plenty of tv shows and movies that can be watched. I did a list a while back here for Android.

Some inspiration for Eberron Adventures

D&D, Eberron, RPG

I caved and got my grubby mitts on a copy of the D&D source book that came out last November Eberron: Rising from the Last War.

Eberron is “a war-torn world filled with magic-fueled technology, airships and lightning trains, where noir-inspired mystery meets swashbuckling adventure.” (quote from here) A kind of fantasy meets modern world type setting, almost steampunk like in nature, magicpunk!

When I found out about the lightning trains I instantly thought about two movies as inspiration for an adventure or two.

The first was obviously the movie based on the graphic novel of the same name, Snowpiercer (also now a tv series as well). This could almost be a campaign setting! Definitely this is multiple sessions to tell the story. Sadly the other movie that sprang to mind was the Steven Seagal sequel Under Siege 2.

Another couple of movies that came to mind after that were The Commuter and Murder on the Orient Express.

Another movie to watch is Captain America: The First Avenger in particular the train heist where Cap and the Howling Commandos attempt to capture Zola and Bucky dies.

I also thought of Firefly episode 2: The Train Job. Where the crew of Serenity are hired to pull off a heist on a train.

I’ve not even started to think about inspiration for the pulp adventure or noir intrigue. Although one or two of the above sources of inspiration could cross over into those descriptions as well.

The airships is something else to look into for inspiration and I have one or two movies that come to mind for them as inspiration but I’ll save that for another post.

Final Skeleton Dragon Post

D&D, miniatures, miniatures painting, RPG

So here it is the final post about the painting of the skeleton dragon.

The wash dried. Dry brushing applied. Ash grey flock applied to the rest of the base.

That’s it. Done.

I think the only thing I’d probably change about the base and how that’s turned out is to add some rocks/boulders also.

But pretty chuffed how it turned out.

Another Skeleton Dragon Miniature Update

D&D, miniatures, miniatures painting, RPG

For those that have been following the last couple of posts and my attempt to paint the Wizkids Rather Big Skeleton Dragon will know I wanted to do something outside of my comfort zone for the base.

I had the idea that the base would look cool with some skulls on it. You know like the remains of previous victims.

My memory recalled that there was indeed a product out there in the big wide world that was just skulls. I’d seen it on the shelf of my FLGS.

After a brief google search I found what I was looking for, and I had indeed remembered correctly. Within minutes the box of skulls was ordered and on its way.

With the skulls in my grubby mitts this morning (the joys of next day delivery) I knew I wasn’t going to do the base in a style similar to the box cover.

I chose a range of different sized skulls and therefore species that I glued to the base in some sort of “pleasing way”. Ok there was no real plan for their placement.

Once dry I applied a white primer, which then also had a skeleton bone colour base coat applied over top of that when that had dried.

The knowledge that I will eventually be applying a flock to hide the mess on the base is comforting.

Now I need to do some more waiting before I can do the wash.

Skeleton Dragon Update

D&D, miniatures, miniatures painting, RPG

I said I’d post with the next stages in painting the dragon skeleton. So here I am keeping my word.

After the wash had dried I dry brushed the bone with the skeleton bone paint. I then used a matt white to dry brush around the bone joints to bring them out more, plus along the spine. I also applied the white to the teeth.

I finished the painting off by applying a red tone wash to the teeth, and certain horns and claws.

The base needs flocking now. But I’d like to do something more than my usual primitive attempt.

Skeleton Dragon Rises From The Grave

D&D, miniatures, miniatures painting, Uncategorized

The latest addition to the skeleton horde arrived this morning.

Unusually for me within seconds of it arriving it was out of the box and having paint slapped on it!


Ok this isn’t the most complicated paint scheme for a model. The majority of it is Army Painter skeleton bone colour, and the skin on the wings I did as Army Painter leather brown that I made lighter by mixing in some white.

That lighter tone took it almost to the bone colour.
I now have to wait until the wash has dried to do the highlights.I’ll post again with the finished that.

Boom, Slash, Splash!

Funkoverse


The new Funkoverse sets are hitting stores (mainly US ones it would appear) and some crackers they are.

The movies Jaws and Back to the Future provide the characters for the two 2 pack sets, and the tv series A Game of Thrones provides the characters for the 4 pack set.

I was particularly after the Jaws set because it was going to provide the final part of the first team I wanted to play. But we know the AGoT one will join the collection at some point soon (particularly after you read below).
Next month also sees the release of the Wonder Woman 2 pack set. Which although not a big Wonder Woman fan I am looking forward to.

I think I’ve said previously the attraction to me with Funkoverse is not that it has a competitive scene like similar style games. But that it’s all about having fun, throwing your favourite characters together and playing.
And that’s the inspiration for the team I’m calling Boom,Slash, Splash!

I just thought it would be cool to play Jaws, along side the raptor and t-rex.
There had been some indecision about what item to use and which character would hold it. In an ideal world you’d use an item that synergises well with the abilities of one of the team.

But after reading the pdf rules of the A Game of Thrones set I may skip picking an item to use and use the new thing they introduced in that set companions.

Companions are similar to items, and you can’t have both on a team. You either have a companion or you have an item. In the actual set the companions are represented by tokens and not an actual figure. But this being funko and a popular IP the Ghost companion can be replaced with a figure (using the ghost model from the keychain funko do).

So just for fun this team will use the ghost companion instead of an item.  Which would technically add a woof/howl to the name of the team. But I’m not going to because ghost isn’t a main character.
I have no idea how this team will play. But it sure as hell will look cool on the table.

Some D&D Arrivals

D&D, magic, miniatures, MtG, RPG

Wow six days since I’ve posted on here. That’s nearly a record. But understandable considering the world we currently live in.

Over the last few weeks I have got some D&D related reading material in.

The first being Volo’s Guide to Monsters. It nearly was Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, but the chapter in Volo’s on monster lore for some of the more popular monsters like beholders, goblins, orcs, etc is what swung it for me. With the lair maps for the relevant monster these are instant adventures/encounters you can call upon at any time.

I’ve been a fan of The Monsters Know What They’re Doing blog for a while now. Being able to look up a monster and get some tactics for it that is not just attack until dead or run away, making them more intelligent, challenging and believable is a great thing to have.

And although this book is a collection of the blog postings that have been revisited, corrected, expanded and some new monsters, just having them in print and handy is a great reason to buy this.

Finally as promised Mythic Odysseys of Theros has finally hit the FLGS. The alt art FLGS exclusive cover is gorgeous. And foil! Sadly the promised double sided Theros map didn’t make it to the FLGS at the same time. With no hint of when it will arrive. Which as far as I can see means extra cost to the FLGS to send them out to customers. I knew WotC would manage to screw things up for this somehow.

With the new wave of Wizkids minis hitting stores I took the opportunity to buy a miniature to add to my undead horde now it was a reasonable price to get. I’ll reveal more about that mini in another post once it’s here and painted.

At the same time I ordered another Minotaur skeleton by Wizkids. Which I didn’t realise was pre-painted.

A bit of a result that. Saves me the job of doing it.

But the amount of packaging was ridiculous. So much waste. Wizkids could easily have used half of the amount. It’s instantly gone in the recycling bin.

Go ahead and jump!

magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

I’ve not written anything for more than a couple of days. Even with the easing of lockdown, the opening of shops etc, I’m still observing it as much as possible to minimise the risk of bringing anything back that could be passed onto Nan or Mum.

There have been no plans yet discussed about holding club game sessions again. Our hosts aren’t open yet for instance.

So in reality there hasn’t really been much to write about. There is not a lot of gaming going on with others.

Although I did play a couple of games of MtG using a Core Set 2021 Prerelease kit Monday afternoon with a couple of friends using webcams. Or in my case a cobbled together setup of my iPhone showing my play area. And viewing my opponents play area on my iPad. The magic glue was a discord server, and for me two discord accounts!

That almost felt strange writing about MtG. I haven’t done that it a while.

Hitting the UK any day (hopefully, although I do believe WotC may have pushed the date back for reasons) is Jumpstart.

I think the easiest way to describe Jumpstart is WotC do Smash Up! for MtG. Or as WotC describe it “…mashes together themes from throughout the history of the game and lets you skip the deckbuilding part. … Grab two boosters, shuffle them together, and you’re ready to go.” So you can see why I compare it to Smash Up! Which builds its decks in the same way.

So what can you expect in a Jumpstart booster? “Each booster contains 20 cards centered on a theme. What theme each booster contains is randomized, but each themed 20 cards will be sealed inside the pack and labled.” Apparently “One in three boosters includes an extra rare.” But there are nearly 500 reprints, 37 new cards, and it also shares cards with Core Set 2021 but is a separate product. “Every pack includes one basic land with art that matches the pack’s theme. A few of them use thematically appropriate lands from M21, but most of them use brand-new themed land art created for Jumpstart.”

Some Jumpstart packs are out in the wild because they were given away with Core Set 2021 booster box purchases from stores. Reports have the print quality of the cards being poor. I’ve also seen it reported Jumpstart is not a limited run product and that WotC will keep printing it as long as there is demand. So as long as you are patient there is no need to pay through the nose for this set.

I like the idea of this set. It’s great for new and returning players. Buy two packs and play! It makes getting started very accessible. Like ninjas and dinosaurs? But the packs and go. Doesn’t get easier than that. I’m hoping it pushes Rhystic Studies prices down, and I pull one. There are certain themes I’m interested in as Commander deck material.

All I want to now is get some boosters and play some casual MtG.

Paranoia Friend Computer

Paranoia, RPG

I may have started repeating myself. Forgive me if I have I’m getting old and my memory isn’t what it used to me.

In the past when talking about the Paranoia RPG I may have mentioned possible influences to use when as the GM you play friend computer.

For me there are four famous or infamous computers that come to mind that can be channeled when playing the computer.

Those being GlaDOS from the Portal games, Eddie the computer from Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Max Headroom from the tv series and the most obvious of all Hal9000 from 2001.

Choosing any of them as the inspiration for playing friend computer would be cool. But even cooler mashing up the personalities during a session. I like the idea of a multiple personality computer. You could use a die roll to choose which one makes an appearance when friend computer has to interact with the troubleshooters.

I think having a sheet or two of appropriate quotes for which one(s) you are using as inspiration is a good idea. For instance this website has all the lines of dialog for GlaDOS. Go0gle is your friend here, as is watching/reading the source material.

If you are a patreon of Matt Colville you can get a pdf of the computer dialog he wrote for the introductory mission [YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE IS NOT HIGH ENOUGH FOR THE TITLE OF THIS ADVENTURE]. Which was by the way inspired by Eddie the computer. I’ve also included the streamed play through below. There aren’t many streamed play throughs of RPGs I can watch, but this is one of the few I can.

Mongoose publishing have an official product the RAM deck that is full of wisdom from friend computer for a GM to share with the troubleshooters.

Which ever way you decide to play friend computer, wherever you get inspiration from, it’s an opportunity to have fun.