The point of this document is to outline my thoughts as a designer of the TTRPG "The Hand" as development progresses. Because everything in this game - or any game, for that matter - is an intentional design choice, I'm going to be rambling a lot. Besides me, you'll be seeing a lot of this character I like to call the "Rhetorical Reader". It's him talking in quotes, just down there, see?
"why make a game? aren't there, like, a million RPGs out there?"
Well, yes. But not this game. This game is mine.
For starters, let's take a look at this backcover text I wrote:
This is a cyber-fantasy RPG where outcasts take hold of their fates and navigate the conflicts that shape them as they would the circuits and creases of the only city that matters; Known through its gutters and streets, and in the hearts of its demons as The Hand.
What lies at the end of your path is anybody's guess – I wouldn't presume to tell you. Dare to step into these neon-covered alleys and you will, undoubtedly, find joy in exploring the fruitful void that waits beyond every turn.
I don't think art needs to justify its existence. But since I'm being put on the spot here, the first half of that block of text is my answer.
"what the fuck is cyber-fantasy"
Let's stay quiet for a sec and listen to an expert opinion - Ursula K Le Guin's opinion - on fantasy:
[It] …questions what heroism is, examines the roots of power, and offers moral alternatives.
Fantasy requires people making mistakes and people — other people or the same people — trying to prevent or correct those mistakes, while inevitably making more mistakes.
Fantasy is a literature particularly useful for embodying and examining the real difference between good and evil.
This framework encapsulates the core of fantasy literature; Everything else about fantasy is largely aesthetics. Tolkien's aesthetics came from fairy tales, in a sense; A perfectly exemplary framework for themes of good and evil, heroism and whatnot.
Note that this is a framework, not a rule. Nerds became rightfully obsessed with Tolkien, and now fantasy is largely synonymous with their interpretations of his ideas. D&D, for example, is absolutely NOT traditional fantasy. It's its own thing, borrowing some of the aesthetical framework, but little of its core. This is not a flaw. It's a fact, one I (and many others) very much enjoy. In particular, D&D's setting as interpreted through Planescape is by far one of my favorite fantasy settings.
I have no intention of capturing this aesthetic framework of fantasy, but rather its core. I supplanted the "traditional" aesthetics with the "cyber".
Now, we could talk about what is cyber, or cyberpunk even, but Tim Roger's excellent "Season of Trash" (Story #6 of Action Button Reviews Cyberpunk 2077) covers everything I or anyone could ever say about the topic.
In summary, he came to the same conclusion I did as a kid: Cyberpunk is, like, kinda whatever man. It's an umbrella term, capturing everything that's between Neuromancer and Snow Crash, filtered through the cinematic aesthetic of Blade Runner. It has no real thematic center but rather, many thematic threads, which are often ignored by any single take on the cyber. Unfortunately, those three stories are amazing, so I happen to be deeply enthralled with a genre that has become thematically still-water and aesthetically trite.
My take is that cyberpunk is now. To talk about cyberpunk is to talk about today, about neoliberalism and the politics of power, to talk about technology and our relationship to it. This is why I chose to mix the core of fantasy with the aesthetic shell of cyber. In a cyberpunk world devoid of meaning, hope and love; How can we save it? Why is it like this? What are the alternatives? To talk this talk and walk this path is cyber-fantasy.
"but doesn't fantasy have elves and stuff"
Yeah, it kinda does. Well, not really elves per se, but magic, as the essence of elvishness. On this topic, as Ursula herself once said:
Fantasy is true. It may not be factual, but it's a truth of this world.
The one throughline through all fantasy everywhere is, primarily, magic. And thus, magic is true (Alan Moore is right about magicians).
And so, because magic is true in our world, magic is also true in the cyberpunk. But, because now it's also fantasy, it manifests as factual. Hence, it's now cyberpunk with elves and stuff. Or it could be, because by "elves and stuff" most people mean the Tolkien aesthetic or the D&D aesthetic. When I think of "elves and stuff" as factual, I think of Hellblazer.
Hellblazer's idea of magic - shared by Sandman and its ilk - is one more rooted in "mystical tradition" or occultism; A reality where fairy tales, angels and demons are factual. Neil Gaiman writes in "The Books Of Magic #2":
Titania:
"You wish to see the distant realms? Very well. But know this first: The places you will visit, the places that you will see, do not exist. For there are only two worlds -- Your world, which is the real world, and the other worlds, the fantasy. Worlds like [the fae] are worlds of the human imagination: their reality, or lack of reality, is not important. What is important is that they are there. They give your world meaning. They do not exist; And thus, they are all that matters. Do you understand?"
Timothy:
"No."
My world of magic is one such world; A shadow of our reality, existing besides us at all times, one where fairies, angels and demons lie. A world where magic is real, chaotic and always has a price. These are my Truths of magic.
In this sense, magic abstracts the fantasy. It's raw, primordial, humanity - good and evil, heroism, archetypes. It's power with a cost. The rich paid for their power with the lives of others - what will magic cost you? To struggle with magic is to struggle with the fantasy, with ourselves and the consequences of our actions.
"why are we talking about this again?"
Let's go back:
This is a cyber-fantasy RPG where outcasts take hold of their fate and navigate the conflicts that shape them as they would the circuits and creases of the only city that matters; Known through its gutters and streets, and in the hearts of its demons as The Hand.
What lies at the end of your path is anybody's guess – I wouldn't presume to tell you. Dare to step into these neon-covered alleys and you will, undoubtedly, find joy in exploring the fruitful void that waits beyond every turn.
It took me 1000 worlds to explain cyber-fantasy here. I will not do so in backcover text. So, my only recourse is to be evocative - to abstract and awaken these feelings within you like a wizard casting a spell. I set myself up for the thematical alley-oop: "what the fuck is cyberfantasy" into, I hope, "i guess i get it??"
"wait, is it really cyberpunk with elves and stuff? isn't that just Shadownrun?"
The stuff above are the thematic guidelines of the game: That is what the game is about. If I did a good job as a designer, then its mechanics will reinforce this idea. And so, it's not Shadowrun, because Shadowrun has nothing to do will all this stuff. Dare I say, my take is kind of a new take on cyberpunk, which is why I have to make this game - I enjoy cyberpunk too much to let it rot as it is.
To make my job easier going further, let's summarize what the game is about into a couple points:
- It's about cyberpunk, and cyberpunk is now, so we talk about neoliberalism and technology, through the cinematic lens of action;
- It's about fantasy, so we talk about good and evil, the roots of power and moral alternatives;
- It's about people making mistakes in the process of heroism or self-actualization, struggling with the cyber and the fantasy;
- It's about magic; And magic is real, chaotic and pricey. It's the living world of our shadow, where fae, angels and demons exist.
Through these guiding principles, we will make further analysis.