Yesterday I was skimming through the pages of the Genesys rulebook and the Expanded Player’s Guide (EPG) whilst I was soaking in the bath (yep you now have that image in your mind, you’re welcome).

The section I was particularly paying attention to was the settings section that makes up part two of the rule book, and the start of the EPG.

Genesys is a generic RPG system, so it can be used with any genre you can think up for a setting. Hence the inclusion by FFG of these example settings to help fuel the imagination, and give a jumping off point for your own ideas.

One setting that appeals to me a lot is the Modern Day setting.

However it’s not to use it for the basis of some James Bond, super spy exploits, or crack spooks team chasing round the globe fighting threats to national security. Although they would be fun settings I’m sure. But more street level, the average dude fighting against the machine, the oppressive state.

The inspiration for this are books like Little Brother and Homeland by Cory Doctorow.

I’m also looking at films like Hackers and Blackhat. Also the graphic novel and movie V for Vendetta. Plus the truly amazing Mr Robot tv show. Throw in some 1984 and Brazil for good measure. Oh and that old nineties movie with Wil Smith Enemy of the State.

In away I see the Modern Day setting I’m interested in as a current day cyberpunk. Where the fringes of society, the disenfranchised, the poor, are struggling daily to survive. A society that is constantly under surveillance from the state, with civil liberties dwindling day by day. That somehow events have drawn the party into this very one sided struggle between the haves and have nots.

Words I’d use to describe or inspire this modern day setting are: gritty, realistic, dystopian, surveillance, Snowden, Wikileaks, privacy, encryption, drones, big business, one percent, police state, injustice, human rights, conspiracy theories, enemy of the state, Anonymous.

I’m a big fan of cyberpunk. I have been ever since I came across it in the late eighties with the writings of Gibson and the Shadowrun series of novels.

I loved the often gritty settings. How often the hacker had a prominent role in the plot, if not the hero. I loved where they saw technology going. The online virtual world. The interface between man and machine. The use of cybernetics to enhance people. And very often the stories were about those on the fringes of society taking on big corporations or corrupt governments.

So whilst Genesys would definitely allow me to run such a setting, and using the hacking rules from the Android: Shadow of the Beanstalk source book allow for hacking to be an integral part of the game. Are there other systems out there that would allow me to run the setting?

This won’t be an exhaustive list of systems. In fact it is rather short. It’s basically ones I’m aware of. So very limited indeed.

If we stick with the late teens side of the Little Brother book and Hackers as a starting point then I think the Tales from the Loop RPG could be used as a basis. I know the game is set in the eighties and is a take on the popular Netflix show Stranger Things. But skipping it forward in time to current day shouldn’t be that difficult. But take that statement with a large pinch of salt. Like the next system I’m not fully familiar with the rules, nor have I played the system. This system is geared towards you playing as teens, and has options that would allow you to easily have characters that would fit the Little Brother setting.

It should also be possible to use the N.O.W. rules from the W.O.I.N. RPG system. This too is aimed at the eighties and nineties, but also at those super spies, government agencies type roles. However it is a modern day setting that bringing more up to date shouldn’t be that hard or a difficult job.

Finally in these mini musings I think The End of the World RPG might be a good starting point. It’s a cut down Genesys system. But for me the big plus is players would be playing themselves. The realism would be through the roof. Especially if like in the rules you start the players off with the only equipment they start with is what is in their pockets and the room playing in.

None of the above RPG systems give hacking the emphasis that you would get from using the Genesys Android rules. The Android rules make the hacking something the hacker of the team can do during an encounter. So while the team are fighting, breaking in , whatever, the hacker is doing their thing with equal importance. So at the end of the day which of the above you use would depend on whether you want hacking to be an integral part of the setting.

There may be and probably are other systems out there that could be used. The Fate system for one comes to mind. But these are ones I’m aware of and have rules for. Even if I haven’t spent time reading the rule books.

At the moment even after writing this post I’m not sure which system I’d use for this modern day take on cyberpunk. I just know it’s a setting I’d love to play in.