Synapse RPG

[GregChristopher]

Hello all,

I figured since I have made my own free RPG I am obligated to come on here talk about it with my peers. It is not creative common license, just free, so I assume I am posting this announcement in the right spot. If not, moderator please move me to the correct location.

I have actually gone back and forth with a few friends on writing the below pitch, so I would like to hear some thoughts on the effectiveness of the pitch in addition to the game, if anyone has any.

Here we go

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The Synapse experience is about providing an unparalleled level of detail and choice in designing the personality and mind of your character.

The game engine represents your mind as a seperate entity from your body. Your mind merely interfaces with your body. This allows you to run any game you want because you can change the interface. Your character can easily move in and out of their body and into cybernetic environments, giant war mechs, alternative forms such as ghosts or golems, or any other possibility that you desire. Of course, you can stay in your body just as easily, perhaps augmenting it with vampiric or magical powers.

Synapse models the influences that affect your mind throughout your life. Your mind is placed into a body which you define from over a hundred customizable options ranging from mandibles to echolocation. You are raised in a culture that bombards you daily with influences that mold and shape your mind. You grow up in a family that you define, live through opportunity and hardship that you choose, and on top of all this you add your own unique twist. What emerges is a character of enormous depth and nuance.

In addition to the normal hazards of an adventurous lifestyle, you must contend with mental dangers that accompany them. Your mind can be paralyzed by fear, overwhelmed by stress, and crippled with pain. When you are injured, you must take your next steps with blurry vision and scattered focus.

Don't just walk a mile in someone else's shoes. Enter the labyrinth of the mind.

[SheikhJahbooty]

I like it and will tinker with it.

I'm a bit of a system slut, so I was looking for a new system to toy around with. I've been getting annoyed that whenever I think something should be a RPG, I only think in terms of realizing it using Play it Cool, or FATE. For example, I watched the film Push, and all I could think of was how simple and fair it would be to set it up using FATE, especially with how I presented FATE in Cyberpunk Remix. (All combat is treated as attempts to add aspects to other characters, so a psychic power like Push, can add "you remember me as your friend" to an NPC, and the new aspect gets one free sitation [compel the recipient to treat you as a friend, and thereafter you can spend a fate point to continue to use the aspect], which reduces a godlike power like Push [the ability to control what someone perceives as real] on the same level as physical combat.)

But I see that your game has a system of motivations that could be used to similar effect, as well as using them for more ordinary social interactions, seducing, threatening, bargaining.

There are a bunch of things I would do to make it my own. Add some options to racial biology, add some options to cultures, change a few prices on items. The way it is now, if I wanted to create a near future asteroid miner that grew up on a space station, and has been genetically altered to not suffer from osteopenia, and have hands instead of feet, or more than two arms, I couldn't do that. None or Zero-G Only is not one of the movement options. And it's possible for Controlled Sleep to cost more than twice what the feature of never sleeping at all costs, which makes one wonder why the controlled sleep option exists at all. I'd probably just make controlled sleep cost 3 and be a less-sleep-requiring, storing-sleep-from-one-day-to-the-next version of metaturnal. That would make it a better option for genetically engineered soldiers and space ship crew.

I would probably also want a section for cyborgs and robots. Probably a mecha section could contain rules useful for cyborgs, robots, and mecha pilots. Hmmm, this makes me think it could be possible to create rules for characters that have more than one physical form. I mean, we all remember how awkward it was to run Mechwarrior RPG campaigns. This could provide an elegant solution. Simply give characters more than one physical form, a pilot, and a vehicle. Then the mecha fights will feel less tacked on.

Even the parts that I generally dislike were short, What Makes Synapse Unique was less than 1% of the game, which feels like an acceptable amount of trash-talking the way other games do things. Secret Rolls was really just a note. I dislike secret rolls because if I bothered to make up something as a GM, I'm eager to show it off. I never make players roll to discover something, they just discover it in the course of freeform play, because hiding it is less satisfying for everyone.