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Overview
Remember Tomorrow is a literary cyberpunk genre roleplaying game written by veteran indie games designer Gregor Hutton (known particularly for the roleplaying game 3:16). The term literary cyberpunk derives from the game focusing on games in the style of the cyberpunk novels by authors such as William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Walter John Williams. It is presented in either PDF format, or 6"x9" hardcopy (48 pages). At the time of the review the PDF retails for $5, and the hardcopy $10.
The game is designed for group play without a specific games master. With four players, the game the reviewer played in lasted approximately three hours, and would have been completed in about four hours had we not needed to end play due to time constraints.
Content
The game does not contain any specific setting info; in fact the game goes as far as to set the game somewhere, a nebulous location that can be anywhere necessary for your game. There is a fair amount of implied setting in the game, such as brand names and example characters/factions, however players looking for a specific setting will not find one.
The general style of setting is that of an urban location in the near future, with players adding specifics to taste. For example, our game featured social decay, organised crime, and advanced medical science, but very little in the way of advanced weaponry or cybernetics.
Likewise, factions and characters are added to the needs of the players and no limitations or requirements exist. Each player creates one character and one faction at the start of the game, and can add more at any time as their action. More detail on the play sequence will follow. Again by way of example, our game characters and factions consisted of a British Policeman, a Chechen arms smuggler, an Indian med tech, a courier, a hit man, a people-smuggling charity, a news-oriented TV channel, and the Chechen Mafia.
Characters each have three statistics against which rolls are made (Ready, Willing, and Able), and two different types of conditions (Positive and Negative). During creation 12 points are distributed amongst the three statistics, and one of each type of condition is chosen. Conditions include things like Armed, Financed, Connected, Dying, Coerced, and so on. In addition each character has a selection of equipment, though equipment is used to provide colour and justify some conditions, and does not have independent game effect. Factions have only the Influence stat, but have conditions and possibly equipment like a character does. Each faction also has one or more 'face' NPCs; non-player characters that represent the faction in play.
Once characters are created play begins with an introduction scene for each character. These scenes are non-challenging, and both establish the character and provide a chance to advance the character in game before the challenge scenes begin. After the characters are introduced, each of the player-created factions is then introduced in the same way.
Following the introduction scenes the game begins in earnest, with players taking it in turns selecting type of scene, and the elements involved. There are three types of scenes: introductions, deals and face-offs. Introduction scenes allow that player to introduce another character or faction. Each player may 'hold' one PC for their own use and all other characters, and all factions, are in a central pool. Newly-added characters and factions go into this pool unless that player wishes to release his hold on his specific character in order to take up any other character from the pool. Factions may never be held.
A deal scene allows a player to make a deal between a faction and his held PC. This kind of scene always increases the Influence stat of a faction, and allows the character a chance to increase resources, though a character cannot advance towards goals in deal scenes. They allow a low-risk (for the character) way for a player to attempt increases to a held PC's capabilities at the cost of making factions potentially more powerful. Deal scenes featured quite heavily in our play tests game, though the associated faction Influence increase turned out to be a very dangerous side-effect because of how factions are used in face-off scenes. It is also possible in a deal scene to walk away with no benefit for your character. Deal scenes, like introduction scenes, are narrated by one player, though other players often suggest elements for inclusion.
Face-off scenes are the core of the gameplay. The player selects a character or faction from the pool, or his own held PC, and nominates a character held by another player. A scene is then framed by the nominating player and role-played between the two players. A face-off scene will end occasionally with no meaningful challenge (this type of scene is called a colour scene and can benefit both parties involved, though goals cannot be attained). Most will, however, arrive at a natural challenge point.
Challenges are the sole means of advancing play towards goals, though this is not a requirement. Each player declares a scene goal (advance a goal, add a positive condition to their character or faction, add negative condition, remove negative condition, etc). The winner in the opposed face-off roll gets their scene goal, and can potentially receive other benefits. In the event of the draw both parties involved get their goals.
Scenes of all types can sometimes involve other characters or factions, either by design or by way of narrative wandering. All involved parties can roll in a scene. In our playtest a bar fight-turned-gunfight involved one faction and three PCs, each of whom had different outcomes based on their own rolls. Scenes that are set up following a double or triple on the test (more on tests latter) have cross-over elements from the scene before, and is how the game recreates the slow entwining of narrative threads in cyberpunk literature.
The aim of each character or faction is to become Ready, Willing, and Able to complete the goal they were allocated at creation. A tick towards each area can be achieved as a scene goal, and when all three areas of the goal are ticked that character or faction has completed their goal and is narrated out of play on a successful note. Play continues until three characters or factions have exited play like this. Characters and factions that do not exit play can be brought into play in future episodes of the game with their goals partially completed. One of the characters in our game, a Chechen separatist, had the goal of 'buy armaments for his organisation'. After multiple scenes that character had ticks on two of the three areas, and through deal scenes and successful prior challenges, had increased his capabilities sufficiently to be able to almost guarantee a successful conclusion of his goal in his next challenge.
Choosing factions and characters to challenge is a balance of plot that makes sense, and ensuring everybody gets a fair amount of time in the spotlight. Different plots naturally come to the forefront and the game can often feature one or two factions much more than others. The climax of the play test game consisted of a small war between two families of the Chechen Mafia and a cop-gone-rogue from Manchester, England. There were antiaircraft guns, taxis, and strip clubs, too. In this game, scenes can go anywhere that makes sense. There is an incentive to choosing to play a face-off with a faction or pooled PC; that player receives an Edge die, which can be rolled alongside any roll.
The rules of the game are simple and direct. All tests involve rolling three ten-sided dice and comparing the results to a character's Ready, Willing and Able, or a faction's Influence. Before rolling, a player can cross a Positive condition off to get one automatic success point (crossing one off after the roll gives a re-roll). Every die that can be assigned rolling equal to or less than the value is one success.
In opposed rolls the winner receives a margin of success by taking the loser's successes from his own (the loser can choose to cross off a negative condition from the winner to reduce the success margin by one). The winner always gets his scene goal. Where opposed tests end in a draw both parties get their scene goal and other benefits. The number of successful dice typically indicates the number of benefits. Successful challenges can result in increased stats, added or removed conditions, or lowered faction Influence. All results are chosen by players.
-------- Example of a test:
Gregor has selected the Chechen Mafia and decided to challenge the much-battered cop Andy Lane to a face-off scene. When the role-play arrives at a suitable challenge point (in this case the temperamental windshield wipers on the taxi revealing a Russian towed anti-aircraft gun lining up a shot) the dice are rolled. Shane crosses of the Armed condition, representing Andy emptying his pistol at the AA gun to suppress the crew. Gregor also crosses off a Positive condition - Financed in this case. Both players start with one success before rolling.
Shane rolls a 5, 6 and 8. Comparing these to Andy's Ready 5, Willing 6 and Able 4, Shane is able to assign successes to Ready and Willing, so he has two more successes for a total of three. Gregor rolls 1, 1 and 1, giving him three successes against the Mafia's deal-boosted Influence of 8, for a total of four. Gregor, and the Mafia, wins the challenge. The win gives the Mafia their scene goal of assigning the Dying condition to Andy. In addition the Mafia gets four other benefits, which are used to remove negative conditions and add positive conditions. The triple on the dice indicate a strong cross-over into the next scene.
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When challenges are non-opposed, such as in deal or introduction scenes, the roll is identical, but made by only one player, and any successes result in benefits.
Aside from the game rules, the book also contains tables with example names, brands, motivations, and such. In addition it contains advice on playing this style of game.
Layout, Presentation, and Editing
The book is presented in black and white with a colour cover. The cover image is a distinctive, colourful abstract design with orange and black backing. Throughout the book there is a selection of photographic art, mainly of people and places. The fonts and art, and the attention to detail in the presentation are genre-appropriate and add to the feel of the product. The editing is tight and professional. One nice touch is a list of the fonts used in the game, allowing those creating resources for the game to match the look of the rulebook.
The writing throughout is clear, concise and easy to read. The play examples help a new player get an idea for how the game will run out, and even being slightly unclear on some parts before play began it took less than ten minutes for me to be completely comfortable with the whole game.
Summary
Remember Tomorrow is a tight, slim product that falls solidly onto the rules-light side of roleplaying games. There is very little wasted space in the book on anything that does not add to the game, which is delivered very well.
This game admirably lives up to the aim of allowing literary cyberpunk stories to be told, and the reviewer is happy to recommend it to any group happy to try games without the traditional GM/player roles.
Scoring
Style: a clear presentation style, and detail that is genre-appropriate and discrete earns the game a rating of 4.
Substance: the game contains a complete set of rules that are well-written and work very well in play, earning the game a rating of 4. Had I not had the opportunity to play the game before writing the review I would have been concerned the lack of advice on setting would hinder play, but play experience has demonstrated to me this is not the case.
A note on scoring:
A score of 3 should be considered a solid, professional product. In terms of the substance grade this would mean a game or supplement with at least half of the content having at-the-table or prep-time utility in a typical game as imagined by the game text (including well delivered setting content, where appropriate). In terms of style, this would be a professionally laid out product with decent editing, and good physical construction. The more a game exceeds these expectations, the higher the grade. The opposite is also the case. Every attempt has been made to grade a product objectively
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