To pin a genre on a/state would be an unjust oversimplification. This assessment is based solely on the free 'lite' version.
a/state takes place in an unspecified time in a city known only as The City. It's got all the familiar cyberpunk tropes - crime, homelessness, corporations, computers -- but that's where comparison starts to stray. The detail that's gone into The City's history is what draws me in; it's Over the Edge's Al Amarja on smooth, mellow crystal meth. There are well-thought out organizations, politics, reasons for being, reasons for adventures. In reading it over, I thought Judge Dredd then thought no, Asimov's Trantor; decidedly not Coruscant; on further contemplation, possibly Dark City; finally, none of the above. The only fair assessment is that The City is The City.
I'm not sure a/state could be classificed as science fiction either; for all the tropes of that genre, The City is a living character all other characters will, nay, must interact with. The stories I envision being told are human ones, not particularly heroic or villainous. That's possibly just me.
Then there are the Shifted. Are they supernatural? Extradimensional? Alien? No one is quite sure, but every group within The City seems to have a theory or opinion. Are we suddenly in City of Lost Children, or Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within? Is a/state a setting for tales of horror? Maybe.
But maybe not.
Beyond a doubt, the setting is beautiful, terrible, and immersive.
Continuing the comparison to OtE, the rules of a/state are fast and simple. It uses a fairly straight-forward percentile vs. challenge rating system. On a contested roll, the player who succeeds by the widest margin (rolls the most under his stat) or fails by the least (rolls the least over his stat) wins the contest. As far as mechanics go, that's the all of it, at least in the light version. But who plays games for the rules these days?
The art is all computer generated. The good pieces are really, really good. The rest is passable. None of it particularly sucks.
The last demo version of a roleplaying game I fell in love with this much was GODLIKE. I have the same level of anticipation for the full version of a/state to be released. This is one I'll buy the moment it's released.
Better still, I like the attitude of the publisher, Contested Ground Studios. The credits of the lite version alone tell me that this is a company whose efforts I want to support:
"...if you are an upset parent who is reading this, maybe instead of blaming us, you might take a closer interest in what your children are doing whith their time, then they might not start downloading stuff that's going to get you upset, hmmm?"
I'm smelling the hot coffee now.
a/state lite can currently be downloaded from the Contested Ground website as a zipped PDF file. Read it yourself let me know what you think.
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(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)