Review of Night City Stories

After running the abysmal "Remember Me?" and "King of the Concrete Jungle" adventure modules published by Ianus Games and licensed for R. Talsorian Games' Cyberpunk 2020, I vowed never to play another licensed product ever again. For some reason, neither of those products were able to capture the mood and feel of the CP2020 universe. While this is due, in part, to the fact that they are billed as Alternate Reality Adventures I would still think that the author's would try to capture at least some of the tone. Besides, if I want to play with vampires and werewolves I'll pull out my Shadowrun books. But I digress, this isn't about Ianus Games' products, but rather a little gem of an adventure called "Night City Stories" (NCS) published by Atlas Games.

I was first introduced to this product a few months ago by one of my players during our "Land of the Free" campaign. RTG's mega-scenario ended up with the players (or at least most of them) making it safely to Night City with their extractee in one-piece, and after being on the road for months were now out of a job. The player suggested that we continue our campaign with NCS. Even before I opened the pages to take a gander, I rolled my eyes and whined, "Aw, come on. Not another shoddy licensed run..." Needless to say I was out numbered 6 to 1 and with a little arm twisting I agreed to read through the book before making a rash decision. I'm glad my players talked me into it.

Atlas Games has single-handedly renewed my faith in "aftermarket adventures". This set of four interconnected scenarios takes the players through the mean and dirty streets of Northern California's most infamous city. While each can be played separately I would highly recommend running them all in sequence for a very fulfilling campaign. Each one manages to take the GM and his players into a fully realized and frightening dystopian future complete with all the typical trappings: shady deals, dark streets, enigmatic fixers, and that fear of the bad guys always being one step ahead of the game. Conspiracies abound and playing it cool is the name of the game.

In addition, everything is laid out for the GM so he or she won't have to rummage through the rulebook looking for charts, difficulty numbers, and modifiers. When a certain situation warrants a skill check, it's provided for the GM along with difficulty numbers and the outcome depending on the level of success. All NPC's are fully mapped out with complete statistics, gear, and even personalities for added realism. No longer does the supporting cast consist of two dimensional cookie-cutter PC-fodder.

Area and building maps, player handouts, data forts, Net sub-grids, even hardcopy files pulled from a netrun are all included for an even more immersive experience. Netrunning is also handled quite well. In some places, the book offers suggestions to the GM as to what the other players can do while Joe Netrunner does his or her job.

The first scenario, "The Slow Boat From Chiba" introduces the players to the main storyarc and acquaints them with the mean streets of Night City. The team is contacted by a mysterious employer who tasks the players to locate a courier/fixer by the name of Fargo Wells (okay, so it's a cliché, but what the hell?) and deliver him to the employer. Wells has some "genetic data" that the employer wants. Sounds like a one-two extraction, right? Unbeknownst to them, however, is the fact that the genetic data is actually the world's first purely vat grown Andalusian stallion worth over $20 million!

As the team makes contact with Mr. Wells, of course after following up on numerous leads in the shadiest of Nigh City's corners, he is murdered right in front of them by an elusive group of Arab terrorists who also want the genetic data. With Mr. Wells dead, the team must now locate the pay-data on their own. Along the way they'll get to visit dilapidated warehouses, seedy night clubs, coffin motels, and hopefully, end up somewhere on the Night City dockyards searching for a boat with the data.

Next up is "Sweet Revenge, Part One". The PC's are hired by a braindance star's assistant to swipe some early braindance recordings of hers from Diverse Media Systems. Should the recordings be available for public consumption, well, it would prove disastrous for his employer's career. Again, all is not what it seems and their contact is not what he appears to be. It's dark corporate conspiracy at its best complete with a netrun against Net 54's Night City data fortress. Can you imagine what it would be like to be able to hack into the world's most powerful media corp? Dangerous is an understatement. Death can come quickly.

"Deadline" is the third scenario and it's probably the weakest one of the group. The players are hired by a contact they met in "Slow Boat From Chiba" to rescue her sister's boyfriend. Although the boyfriend, Spatz Marino, isn't quite himself anymore. He's dead, but his personality has been encoded on a corporation's data file and he's alive and well within the Net. Not entirely too original, but at least the continuity of the storyarc is kept up, and it has more to do with it than just the NPC tie in from the first scenario. "Deadline" is also the shortest of the four and can probably be played within a session or two. Again, nothing stellar.

"Sweet Revenge, Part Two" wraps up Night City Stories and does what every good final scenario should do: wrap up the game, answer any heretofore unanswered questions, and reward the players with a real sense of accomplishment. This last scenario is a bit more freeform as the ultimate bad guy will depend on who the team crossed in Part One. It actually might provide some re-play value to the campaign if you're so inclined to run it again.

Another noteworthy feature is the artwork by David Brown and David Douglas. All interior art is strictly black and white and both artists have done a fantastic job of re-creating NPC portraits. There's nothing I hate more than to see third rate drawings that resemble the Sunday morning funnies. Oh and the price! At $15 for 128 pages of non-stop adventure you just can't go wrong. Atlas Games and RTG should be commended for releasing top quality products at reasonable prices. NCS is well worth the price. All in all, Night City Stories is a great module with plenty of non-stop action, fear and all things dark and cyber.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)