An Endzeitgeist.com review

This teaser for Hypercorps 2099 clocks in at 12 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 8 pages of content, so let's take a look!

So, there we go - Hypercorps 2099's rendition of the matrix - so what do we get? We get No or light gravity, time passing on a 5 rounds equals 1 in regular time, infinite size and unreliable magic and ambient lighting. The Hypernet substitutes mental ability scores for physical ones and creatures sans a virtual rig take a penalty. When in the hypernet, robots are treated as eidolons and gain an array of interesting qualities - so yes, this kind of acts as a plane - an interesting decision!

After a short piece of fluffy writing, things get interesting - from digital traps and haunts, we are also introduced to the legend of Jarrikol - god of death in the machine - evoking this name spells doom for any foolish enough to do so....Is Deus out there? Beyond the hazard of server crashes, a gigantic Robo-Rex native digital T-Rex construct with full stats to unbound proxies, there are nice sample creatures that have quite some narrative potential.

A new feat for better spellcasting in the hypernet and a hyperjack are also provided before we are introduced to various servers - from the dangerous depths of the Darknet to decadent Thrillville and Datacorps, we also have a nice nod to Mike's last big setting, Veranthea -fun idea!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to a 2-column full-color standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked and with some solid artworks. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Mike Myler's little look at the Hypernet is the first of the teasers that really gets me excited - I'm looking forward to seeing whether the Hypercorps 2099 rules can make simultaneous Hypernet/real life combat work without being as boring as in comparable cyberpunk systems (Can I get a groan from every Shadowrun player who has to wait for hours until the decker got done with his job?) - so yeah, this is interesting. Quoting anonymous and providing an array of different ideas, this also caters to Mike's strengths of a playful, inspired and unconventional writing style - and even if you do not plan to use it, you can still scavenge this content for other games - and that, imho, makes this a great teaser - one I hope will be expanded further in the final book! My final verdict for this one will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.