When looking over the Tabletop Scotland games online, I got so excited at the prospect of playing a game about cyberpunks that I immediately signed up for the Saturday game of Neon City Overdrive. I was glad I did!
This would be my first time playing with a table of complete strangers; normally, I’m surrounded by friends, or with a Girdy at my side, so signing up solo for this game was kind of a big deal for me (and I’ve written about the whole newbie experience at Tabletop Scotland right here).
My worries for this game included; would my inexperience annoy people? This is described as a fast-paced game, so what if I struggled to understand the rules/game mechanics and slowed people down? What if I fucked up the game? What if I struggled to come up with fun things for my characters to do?
Reader, I needn’t have worried about any of that. AT ALL.
Taking my place at the table
I sat down with Matt, the GM, and two other players who were both quite a bit younger than me, and wondered if anyone else would be coming along. After all, to me this sounded like an ideal game, and I anticipated it being popular. However, it was just the three of us, and lovely Matt, who got us settled in.
We all seemed excited to play, so it was time to get us acquainted with how the game was going to work, exactly.
A little intro to Neon City Overdrive
Matt read us a little of the blurb of Neon City Overdrive, along with the scenario we were actually playing. The general description featured on DriveThruRPG reads:
The rain-slick streets gleam like silver on a circuit board and holographic signs paint the metroplexes in a river of neon. The city stretches as far as the eye can see, from the toxic coast to the city limits where the walls keep the wasteland from encroaching. Despite advances in technology most people continue to live as cogs in a machine, distracted from their ineffectual lives by slick consumerism and invasive media.
You are a cyberpunk, a desperate individual with valuable skills, willing to put your life on the line in return for a little cash, reputation or leverage. With a lot of effort and a little luck you may survive the dangerous streets long enough to fulfill your goals and escape this life of violence and trouble.
NEON CITY OVERDRIVE is a fast-playing RPG of cyberpunk action. With a focus on story and action, character creation is fast and the rules are intuitive. Create any kind of cyberpunk character you want and throw them into the action within minutes.
The game is described as ‘player facing’, which I wasn’t entirely sure of at first, but I soon got used to it and learned it wasn’t that different from other games I’d played, really.
Character design
There were printed character We soon got to choosing our characters, and I was fairly happy with mine from the off, deciding to name her ‘Minerva Mischief’. She was an ex service bot and a ‘bidroid’, with good looks and ‘hail of bullets’ as one of her strengths. She was exceptionally badass.
One thing I really loved about Neon City Overdrive was getting to choose our own weapons.
They could be literally ANYTHING we imagined, and I had great fun using my imagination to come up with things like a laser gun, a short-distance teleportation device, a high-tech military grade machine gun, and an escape tank.
We had to roll for each weapon or piece of equipment to see if we got it, and I was fairly lucky in getting most of the things I dreamt up. Hell yeah, Minerva Mischief was ready to rock!
Game mechanics
Ahead of this game, I’d purchased what I thought were the perfect shiny to dice to play with. However, it soon became clear to me that I wouldn’t need any of them. I stubbornly still used the one D6 I had, along with the large bulk of white and black D6s Matt had brought.
Due to having a lack of actual game photos, here are my shiny new dice. Aren’t they wonderful?
The game mechanics themselves were incredibly easy and intuitive to follow. We basically chose the right number of white dice based on a number of factors, and then the correct number of black dice as our enemy dice. We’d then see which numbers cancelled themselves out.
We got used to the system in no time, and for the most part, things were going pretty damn well for Minerva. I was able to use lots of her skills to my advantage, gain extra knowledge for my team, and do some pretty heavy damage to enemies.
Editor note: I wish I’d taken some photos of the table, although to be fair there weren’t a lot of visuals. In fact, the only visuals we really had aside from our character sheets were the maps Matt drew for us on the hoof. That was fine, as it’s mainly about using our imaginations anyway.
The story aspect
We were thrown into quite an interesting scenario that required a lot of planning to make sure all the action ahead was going to go well.
I enjoyed the story we were given, which involved protecting a billionaire and one particularly priceless artefact in his possession, knowing that enemies were going to come and cause chaos in the high-security skyscraper where both were housed.
Our little team came up with a plan, sourced our weapons, did some scouting and reconnaissance, and generally worked well together.
Because we were aware that, at some point, shit was going to hit the fan and we had to be ready, we did our absolute damnedest to make sure we were going to be in as good a situation as we could be. Still, the game threw us some curveballs, and nothing felt *too* easy. It felt well-balanced.
Still, I was glad the game wasn’t as brutal as the likes of Dragonbane – Riddermund, which self and Girdy had played the day before. My character in that got absolutely pulverised!
Length of gameplay
This game lasted dead-on three and-a-half hours, which was the time we’d been allotted. It did feel a little rushed towards the end, and Matt had thought we’d be done a little quicker, and overall I was just glad we managed to get the game to a very satisfactory ending.
We had one break, and three and-a-half hours can feel like a long time to sit still, but honestly I had a really fun time and got really invested in the characters and story, so it never felt like a slog.
Overall
I had a great time playing Neon City Overdrive, and I’d love to explore more of this game with friends – or other people who like TTRPGs! It was a particularly good experience for me because it also helped get my confidence up as a newbie gamer, playing with a full table of strangers.
Matt, the GM, also added to my general feeling of ease, and made everything so simply and straightforward. This, added to the general intuitive gameplay mechanics, meant not overthinking, and just enjoying the game.
The story was fun, the game wasn’t as fast-paced when we first started – which I think was actually quite good as we spent a good bit of time preparing – but soon picked up speed, with lots happening to react to. So much fun!
Buy Neon City Overdrive: You can pick up your copy right here on DriveThruRPG.
Have you played Neon City Overdrive? What was your experience? Let me know in the comments.
