I've just re-read this and it does come across as negative, I want to stress that the feedback below is meant constructively and we did enjoy characater generation!
The evening started with fits-and-starts because I couldn't connect my fecking laptop to Aggro's network. I wasn't feeling great (suffering from a cold), so that didn't please me at all.
I explained the history of the game. Ecological disaster, EMP blast, then a war, then the Event - the players remarked how the setting is unique in its repeated hammering of humanity. There was nothing too complicated in there so we moved onto character creation.
Who am I?
The first difficulty that struck me was that there weren't any example character concepts. When setting the attributes, it's good to do so with a charcater example in mind. I explained enough about the system to suggest that certain attributes were handy for certain things. However, that doesn't tell you what sort of people are wandering around the Anarchy Zone.
This does depend on the type of campaign setting you're going to play. However, for the starting GM, there should be some example character types of your bog-standard Anarchy Zone scavenger/raider/"farmer"/hunter/builder. Government/military campaigns aren't the first kind of campaign that comes to mind when you read the setting because the AZ is more interesting.
We need some archetypes with example stats at the front of rules creation.
Secondary stat naming
There might be language difference issue here but we had some confusion (me included and I've read three versions of the rules through now) between the stats.
Tech is confusing. I know it's a shortened form of technique but it means technology to everyone else. Needs to be 'Skilled' or something.
Deadening doesn't really describe what it's for, which I believe is physical energy. As you get tired, your deadening drops off. It's really more of a Vitality attribute.
Pack feels more like what is held in your backpack than Uprise does. This was very confusing. I think Uprise would be better off as 'Pack' and then pack renamed to something else, such as "To Hand" or "Kit" (which is taken from multiplayer online games).
Skills and special abilities need work
Skill lists are the bane of most games. You need them because not all players can free-think a setting-specific skill list out of their heads for a game they've not played. I think the D&B Skill list need some updating.
Firstly, we know that the characters are all competent people. Therefore, you can assume that they can drive, use computers, ride motorcycles, know how to operate basic machinery and so on. However there is still a drive skill in there.
I'd rework the Skill and Special Abilities such that they represent the things that most charcaters will want to do in the game. Some of the Special Abilities (such as Drone Operator) are very military specific, which doesn't fit with a default AZ inhabitant. Skills need to be obvious in their use and if they're not (Herbology?) then you need descriptions with them. Given they are competent then skills should be those things that if you don't have it, you can't do it.
For typical AZ characters, Skills might include (riffing off the existing ones):
Buglary - expert in lock picking, spotting traps, safe cracking etc.
Construction - building shelters, repairing buildings, detecting structural problems, sorting out drains, wiring, heating and running water
Demolitions - using explosives to blow stuff up in a controlled way
Freerunning - Moving through a difficult environment without slowing down, include tumbling
Hacking - Using whatever data network there is to hunt for secret information
Medicine - Healing people at a faster rate rather than natural speed (and helping replenish Deadening). Should require a medical kit of some sort.
Navigation - using natural indicators, the stars, geology and so on
Oration - perusasion, negotiation, bartering and getting your way. A support to roleplaying.
Psychology - the brain version of medicine (help to improve lucidity - you can't do it to yourself, though).
Repair - Mending electromechanical things. Fixing cars, building gadgets, repairing guns.
Scavenging - knowing where to look for X
Stealth and Camouflage - hiding, moving without being noticed and blending into crowds.
Survival - staying alive by living off the natural world
Then for special abilities, there should be game affect with each one to make them special. Surgery is a good example, because you don't suffer a penalty if you have it (although I think surgery should be a skill). These special abilities can be the biproduct of latent nanites or just genetic luck. Some examples...
Thick skulled - double Deadening.
See in the dark (no modifiers for dark places).
etc. You're free to rip off the Icar psychotheatrics because I think many of the positive ones (after 50+) will work for D&B
Questions to answer
I like posing questions to the players but I think there needs to be a game around it. I tacked on a simple rule that they each take a question that they have either answer, pass on or answer in secret. Giving players a list of questions isn't very interesting when you're round a table because it's not interactive, it's a survey. Instead, make a game out of it or have them roleplay their first meeting with a zombie or something. This fleshing out process needs to be thicker.
Didn't like the character sheet
I'm going to make a better one. Fortunately, there was not a lot of stat-writing to do, so it's cool to get the players to rewrite them.
What do the aliens look like?
I couldn't answer that, must have missed it.
Everything else...
The group liked. The speed track was correctly identified as clever and I nearly made the mistake of getting a player to record ammo. Doh! We corrected that and I explained scarcity. I think the players generally have a feel for the setting (ish) and their characters. We have a sniper (The Deer Hunter), a skilled chap
Then we blew up our home town
Once we got over the shock of drawing on map (which is something we always were told not to do). I think my destroy-you-home-town list is OK but it could do with some more interesting ideas in the big list.
Ran out of time
We didn't get a chance to start, which is a mixed blessing as I wanted to get the combat going. However, I also get another week to do some more prep.
Looking forward to the next session!