Adam Powell (00:08.941)
Hello and welcome to Snyder's Return, A Tabletop Roleplay Podcast. My guest today has followed a life path which has provided the TRPG sphere an experience of a dark dystopian future, a city where people are on the edge. When not facing down hardened mooks, playing some stickball or checking out some Toon's Chrome, you can be found sliding on the jacket and telling tales from the red. It is a great pleasure to welcome R -Talsorian Games' line manager for Cyberpunk Red, J Gray, to the show. J, thank you for joining me.
J Gray (00:39.278)
Thank you for having me. That was a well -written introduction.
Adam Powell (00:43.085)
Thank you very much, but this is not about me. This is all about you and the fantastic things that you're doing at R Talsorian Games. So J, before we get into the meat of the interview, how did you yourself get into tabletop role playing games, please?
J Gray (00:58.67)
so I grew up in a small town in Massachusetts and we did not have a game store. We did have a comic book store. Not quite sure how it stayed in business for years because as far as I could tell, it's the only one who was ever in it. But this was back in the 80s and back then there was a company called TSR. They were eventually bought up by Witches of the Coast, but back then TSR put out a Marvel Super Heroes role playing game in box sets.
and the comic book store had it on the shelf and I was like, wow, I can get this, I can make my own superheroes. So I saved up my comic money and I bought it and I enjoyed it. I had no one to play it with, but I learned that role playing games exists from there because my school library had a copy of a book called Dicing with Dragons. Very good book, which told history of role playing games up until that point.
talked about some of the more common ones that are out there, which at the time the big ones were Dungeons and Dragons and Traveler. And I went from there. Eventually, I moved on from high school into bigger places and found people to play it with. By the time I was where people were playing, the big game at the time was World of Darkness, Vampire, Mage, Werewolf, Mage and Vampire mostly. And I played those.
Adam Powell (01:54.829)
Hmm.
J Gray (02:24.558)
And in 1994, I walked into a comic book shop in Albany, New York. Again, it was a comic book shop. And I found a copy of Castle Falkenstein, which was my first game from R .Talsorian Games. And from there, you know, I just kept going and kept playing. At one point, there was a move and I stopped playing for a while because I moved to someplace fairly rural. And then I ran into some people who wanted to play, but they had no idea how.
Adam Powell (02:47.949)
Hmm.
J Gray (02:53.934)
So I said, I'll run a game for you. And by that point, I was like, they want to play D &D, but it feels like what they want to play is Pathfinder because D &D was in the midst of fourth edition. And what they're describing was more of a traditional experience. And I was like, I'm making stuff anyway. I'm on the Paizo forums. They're doing a contest. I'll just throw some stuff up. And from there, I've kind of fell into, there's a...
Adam Powell (03:06.957)
OK.
J Gray (03:23.47)
circle there is a circle of third party publishers who do open license stuff for back then with Pathfinder now more with 5e was making stuff for them. And one day I talked to the owner of one of those companies, Rick Hershey, with Fat Collin Games. And I said, Hey, know what game I really like? I like Castle Falkenstein. And he said, Yeah, I like it too. I said, you know, I'd love to write it for it. He said, Okay, I'll go get the license. Didn't think about it. And a couple days later, he said, Hey, by the way, I got the license.
And I had to run all my stuff past Mike Pondsmith because the owner of R Talsorian Games and that forged relationship so that when they were looking for someone at the time to do media, because one of the big trailers for, not the Keanu Reeves trailer, but the year before had blown up for Cyberpunk. And as a result, they were getting way more business than they could handle on their own. And they needed someone to run their socials and they hired me.
Adam Powell (03:58.925)
Hmm.
Adam Powell (04:16.749)
Hmm.
J Gray (04:23.662)
And I kept working and growing my hours until this whole time. And then in a small company, you don't do one job. You do all the jobs. And somehow I kind of just one day woke up and they said, Hey, you know, you're managing this line anyway. So why don't we make you a line manager and we'll hire someone else to do social media. And I'm like, cool. And that's, that's my story. I just lucked into things over and over and over again.
Adam Powell (04:30.381)
Hmm.
Adam Powell (04:49.549)
Wow, that's amazing. And so it was during your time with R -Tale Zone, you got introduced to cyberpunk. Were you aware of cyberpunk 2020 before that point or sort of fill in the gaps of that? Yeah.
J Gray (05:02.19)
No, I was. Yeah, I'd run into it before. I hadn't got it. Sure. So I hadn't gotten to play it that much. Back in the day, friends of mine like to play. Okay, I'm going to sound like a traitor here. Like to play Shadowrun, which by the way is a good game. And Mike and Jordan Weisman, who was one of the original creators, they get along very well. And I came across 2020 stuff at the time I was converting it for Shadowrun because I was like, I know it's not enough here. And this stuff is. But over time I got to appreciate.
2020 on its own, Cyberpunk 2020. It took me a while to get out of that everything has to be fantasy mindset. And once I did, I can appreciate cyberpunk for the for what it was and realize years later, after I got my first 2020 book was that it calls back to some of the stuff I loved as a kid or as a teenager, including the old Max Hedrum show, which people in the UK will probably be more familiar with than I am.
since Max comes from over there.
Adam Powell (06:05.517)
Absolutely. So having had this introduction and work through, sort of just all through the time period, you became a line manager within our tells or in games and effectively given cyberpunk read to sort of begin its journey. How, what was the sort of the genesis of cyberpunk read and to where we are now, because it is a very complete game and, and.
more so for things that we will discuss in a short while.
J Gray (06:39.566)
Sure. The short answer is, is Mike was working on new Cyberpunk material for a while. And then, you know, the video game took off. Even before the video game was out, it took off. And as a result, there was this feeling that, you know, we need something new. We decided to call it Cyberpunk Red. The original reason was not because the video game was made by a company called CDPR or CD Projekt Red, but because at the time,
When Mike first conceptualized it, he wanted to do it in black and white and red ink. And by the time it really got around to it, it was more of a, you know, full color become the standard. And so it was full color. And I was not line manager then I was the social media ambassador. And, but like I said, everybody does everything. And so we were all working together to finish first the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit, which was a starter box. And then the core rule book.
And about midway through Black Chrome, which was the second source book, Tales of the Red Street Stories was before it and then Black Chrome, not the second product though, there were some other products in between. I realized, you know, it was, you know, they were saying, well, Mike is busy, you know, he's...
running the company, someone needs to run the line. And so that's like, they said, you know, we want to offer that to you. And I was like, okay, I'm kind of leading this. And the next book was entirely my idea anyway, which was Danger Girl dossier. As it was my idea to start with, and I was putting it together. And I, as media ambassador, have been putting together our monthly DLCs, which are free PDS we offer every month. So I was like, yeah, yeah, I could do this, but you know, I can only do this and the media job so long together.
And we eventually hired Rob Barefoot to replace me there. And there I am. Now I'm doing this full time, working on the projects we're working on. Like I said, I fell into it. It was more of a case of I can't leave well enough alone. And when I see holes that need to be filled, I kind of do things. It's like, no one else is doing this right now. So I might as well. Cody was busy on Witcher. James was designing. And it's hard to design and to lead at the same time or to manage, I should say, because...
Adam Powell (08:52.877)
Hmm.
J Gray (09:05.294)
A manager just makes sure things happen. That's like a producer. I find out what the project needs and I make sure it happens.
Adam Powell (09:14.445)
Okay, so before I sort of scratch the surface with Cyberpunk Red a little bit more and again we will get to the sort of the headline of this interview but before I get to that would you mind telling everybody where they can find Cyberpunk Red and R .T .A .L .S .O .R .I .A .N .G .A .M.E.S and yourself if you wish to shout yourself out via social media or the internet.
J Gray (09:38.254)
Sure, it's R. Talsorian Games in the various places where one finds social media these days. Like it or not, Twitter is X whatever, is still the bigger place with the most people and so it's a good place to find it. We have a website, rtalsorian games .com, and we have a Discord, which I can't really link you to verbally.
But if you look for our social media, you'll find the Discord link. It's a nice active community and where we talk about all our games. And you can find me on, sorry, Twitter X as at J Gray, G -R -A -Y, J -G -R -A -Y creative.
Adam Powell (10:18.797)
I will make sure... sorry... yes please.
Adam Powell (10:30.445)
I will make sure those links are down in the description below this podcast, so please scroll down follow those links support everything that our tells Orion does plus the things that we're going to be discussing soon and potentially the things that we'll be discussing a bit later as well. So, Jay, with respect to Cyberpunk, Cyberpunk Red just as a core game for someone that's intrigued by it, maybe seen it, the game on one of the consoles or the TV.
series on Netflix or just send it in a local friendly local game store. What is cyberpunk and cyberpunk red as a as a world and what's the basic mechanic behind the gameplay place?
J Gray (11:13.71)
Gosh, okay. So first we'll start off with the difference between Cyberpunk, Little C, and the genre, which is a genre, and Cyberpunk Big C, which is this game. Mike likes to say when he put the game out, Cyberpunk wasn't super well known as a genre, and so he wanted people to know exactly what they're getting in the game, because it was also one of the first games to step outside high science fiction, space opera, and Asimov and Heinlein.
in terms of science fiction games, because at the time that was really what was out there. So we wanted people to know that if you're buying this game, you're getting a cyberpunk game. But cyberpunk, Little C, is a kind of changes depending on where you are. British cyberpunk tends to be a little different from American cyberpunk. Both tend to be different from Japanese cyberpunk, but it generally looks at the near future and as an allegory for the pressures and stresses
and anxieties of a modern day world. Specifically, cyberpunk in this context, tends to look at how unbridled corporate capitalism affects the world. What happens when there are no checks and balances, when there's a weak government and corporations can buy everything. And also what happens when the technology, which we're very familiar with in the modern day, outpaces humanity's ability to adapt to it.
So you get something called TechnoShock. Cyberpunk Big C is a role -playing game started in 1988, I believe is when it first published. That was just Cyberpunk, now called Cyberpunk 2013 by fans. Cyberpunk 2020 came out a few years later in 91, I think. And then there was a third version, some side trips into a thing called Cyber Generations. And then Cyberpunk Red.
a few years ago. It is a unique world that splits off from our own roughly around 1990. So for example, they developed brain machine interfaces fairly early on. And as a result, they missed for a while the smartphone revolution, because they why do you need a touchscreen when you can think your phone into doing what you want to do? It takes place.
Adam Powell (13:12.493)
Hmm.
J Gray (13:40.302)
primarily in Night City, which is a California city on the coast midway between the top and the bottom of the state. And it basically explores at its most base level what it's like to live on the edge, which is the border of society where you are not allowing or listening to corporate propaganda and letting it dictate your life, but you're also not living in absolute abject poverty. Usually,
by doing some horribly illegally things for hire as an edge runner, which you see in the anime. It is a D10 system in that you roll one D10, you add a stat, you add a skill, you compare it to either somebody else's check, which is what we call dice rolls, or to a stack number, which is known as a DV or a difficulty value. That is almost all of it. In red,
Adam Powell (14:15.821)
Hmm.
J Gray (14:37.134)
Damage is determined by D6s. The more D6s, the more damage you do, you add them up. And dice explode up, you roll a 10. On a check, you roll again and add that to the 10. You roll a 1, you roll it again and subtract it from the 1. You earn that 1 on that roll, so you get to keep it. So you can go up as high as a plus 20 or as low as a negative 9 in addition to your stat and your skill.
Adam Powell (14:56.237)
Hmm.
Adam Powell (15:03.677)
Yeah.
J Gray (15:04.43)
The reason we use a D10 instead of a D20 is it's not a swingy. It emphasizes the stat and the skill. So it's often more about how good you are than how lucky you are. And in fact, you can get that one and still succeed. And you can get that 10 and still fail depending on how good your skills are.
Adam Powell (15:17.005)
Hmm.
Adam Powell (15:24.301)
I like it. I love it. I love it. So that is the core concept of the game and the gameplay mechanics. And thank you, Joe. That was wonderfully explained in a concise snapshot. So hopefully that's inspired a few people to go and check it out. It's available on our tells Orion, drive through RPG, friendly local game stores, all those sorts of good places. So please, please, please go and check this out. Not only is the game fantastic, the artwork is fantastic. The world is is is.
I'd say horrible, but you know what I mean. It's thematic. It's not the nicest place to be, is what I'm getting at.
J Gray (16:02.974)
No, it's great to play in, not so great to live in.
Adam Powell (16:07.117)
Yeah, yeah, thank you. That was a better way of phrasing that. That saved my blushes a little bit there. And you mentioned Edgerunners, the show, and that's kind of where we are now, depending on when you're listening to this, or currently where we're moving towards with this latest release that's been announced in support. So please, Jay, would you mind filling us in on how Cyberpunk Edgerunners now fits into the
the timeline and the...
the product line of cyberpunk.
J Gray (16:44.206)
Sure. So Cyberpunk is a continual timeline in which the tabletop role -playing game, the anime, and the video game Cyberpunk 2077, they all share the same timeline. So the events of the tabletop role -playing game happened in the same universe as the events of the video game, allowing for player choice. The general events happen of an event or for example happened, but the...
way they happened may depend. And you can always look at almost anything that you experience or read as possibly fully true or like a bar story being that, you know, the media controls the truth and the media is owned by the corporations. So Cyberpunk Edgerunners is an anime put out by Trigger in Japan with
Adam Powell (17:19.773)
Hmm.
J Gray (17:37.326)
on Netflix right now in the US and probably around the world. I don't think anybody else has it. And it is an amazing anime. I was lucky enough to get an advanced preview of it and it was amazing to watch. And we are putting out the Cyberpunk Edge Runner's Mission Kit and that is a box set. So if you're a role -playing game fan, you're familiar with the concept of a starter set probably, which is the idea is you buy a box set. It's got a bunch of stuff in it and that stuff helps you play a...
version of the game, like a demo. How much depends on the kind of box that you have. The Cyberpunk Entry Under Mission Kit is first and foremost a new starter set, which is themed around the anime. And so you get it, and you could have enough rules to play. It's missing character generation, it's missing a more robust economy, it's missing character advancement, though it does have a life path system for the pre -generated characters inside. And it comes with one
fairly large, we estimate two to three sessions worth adventure called The Jacket, which is a epilogue or coda of sorts to the anime itself. And you will, I think we've said so far, you will take a job from a melancholy cowboy to retrieve some iconic items.
Adam Powell (18:58.317)
Hmm.
J Gray (18:59.93)
It's also for existing Cyberpunk Red players or people who have Cyberpunk Red are looking to get into it more fully. A source book for the 2070 era. It will give you some basic rules for playing in the era, small changes to roles and the economy because that shifts the world in 2045 is different than it is in 2077. New weapons, new weapon types, power weapons, tech weapons, the smart weapons, which are something from the video game.
Adam Powell (19:21.389)
Hmm.
J Gray (19:28.878)
And what a lot of people will be waiting for new cyberware, but also quick hacking rules, which is the ability to hack into someone's neuro port, which is in the 2070 era, everyone has at least one piece of cyberware, most everyone, which is called a neuro port. You see it in various places. It's the thing they slot chips into, into their neck. It is a central processing unit essentially for cyberware.
Adam Powell (19:29.709)
Hmm.
Adam Powell (19:44.205)
Yeah.
J Gray (19:58.094)
combined with a phone. And because everyone has it, everyone's hackable. And that's what QuickHacks allow netrunners to do, though that's not as easy a task as it might sound. There's a reason why people just go around quick hacking everyone everywhere. It's their security involved, and also it's difficult to do the really good hacks. You have to be a fairly competent netrunner to do them.
Those are the big things. Also, it is a new source of lore. You'll learn a lot about the world as it evolved from 2020 to 2045 to 2077. A lot of never before seen info regarding the world and its evolution and new backgrounds for the main characters in Edgerunners in the anime. Maine, David, Lucy, Rebecca, Pilar, Falco, Doria.
Adam Powell (20:48.173)
Hmm.
J Gray (20:53.774)
Kiwi. They all have backgrounds written by the original writer of the anime. For this specifically, all canon. Plus the pre -gens, all the art, there's seven pre -gens, seven characters free to play with your group and the art for the characters was created by the director of Cyberpunk Ed Runners for us, specifically for this. So CDPR was involved, we were involved, and Trigger was involved and it's the...
It's just really cool to have seen us all come together to create this product.
Adam Powell (21:26.893)
It's all come together and details are available on the website right now. And we'll probably say them into and beyond its release. But what amazes me and is astounding about this is the price at which that it is being sold for. This starter set contains so much and has so much for us to engage with.
GM's and players who want to run games within these worlds. It's such a fantastic price that it's up on the website for when it gets released of course in mid to late June I think is the current projected date.
J Gray (22:08.014)
the mid to late June on drive -through RPG and in our web store. It will take longer to filter out through distribution into stores. And for our overseas fans, even longer, I'm afraid it's just the way the world shipping process works these days. They'll get to you as soon as possible. And yeah, $35 for 120 pages separated over three books, seven MPs, seven P pre -generated characters, seven PCs, eight.
11 by 17 maps, one of them is a really gorgeous map of Night City that you can hang right on your wall, honestly. And two D10s and four, I think, D6s, which are edge runner themed dice in the classic yellow with the cyberpunk edge runner screen. Lisa, our business manager, worked really, really hard to keep the price as low as possible because we know that when it comes to this thing, you know,
things are expensive and there's only so many things out there. We know that a certain other very large role -playing game will have a new player handbook going into pre -orders roughly around the same time. And we want to make it as attractive as possible and make it as easy as possible to get into the game through it.
Adam Powell (23:24.525)
Yeah, definitely. And I'm sure it will do that because everything about this project, yeah, everything about this, I had the back of my mind, their CD project, everything about the project, which it is, is fantastic. So as someone that's heavily involved in this as line manager and someone that sort of enjoys this, do you have particular favorites with respect to life paths or a favorite bit of cyberware that...
that you've gone through or of the many DLCs that, as you mentioned, release monthly. And there have been some, well, they're all fantastic, but some, some standouts for me personally. But, do you have a favorite within all of this that sort of stands out to you?
J Gray (24:09.486)
gosh. So I try not to pick favorites because when you pick favorites, everything else gets a little less shiny. But I'll say, Hey, I love our DLCs just because I just, I love being able to give something new and explore quirky things like roller derby or weather, which may not make it into a full book. Sort of like they hold sort of a similar place to the old Dragon magazine or white dwarf, where there are gaming articles about stuff that normally you wouldn't see in a source book.
Adam Powell (24:25.069)
Hmm.
J Gray (24:38.958)
So that's really exciting. I love that. My favorite piece of cyberware is the cyber pillow. And that is an arm, cyber arm supplement slot option. And basically your arm opens up and a pillow inflates and you're coming your head on it like this. And I love it. Not because it's practical, not because it really does anything, but because it's just an example of if something exists, some company out there will come up with some.
silly, weird use for it and try to market it. And it's just a perfect example of how you take this amazing thing, right? Cyberware, think about it. You give someone an arm who doesn't have an arm or a full arm or a fully functional arm, and it's fully functional. You can feel with it, you can manipulate with it, you can pick things up. It's amazing, right? And then you can add things to it. You can add weapon, sure, but other things like you can build in a text scanner. So someone has a...
someone who's an electrician has their tools right there, or a tool hand. So a carpenter can pull out their tools without having a tool kit. And then they make a pillow.
and they market it. And I'm thinking, follow the things you can do with it. It's just silly. Also, because you can use it for things like I've seen people upgrade them so that they are flotation devices. So they get a bonus swimming or to use them when they're grappling, they'll put the pellet and shove it right over someone's face for a quick knockout or assassination. And I like it when people come up with very useful creative uses for otherwise useless things.
Adam Powell (26:05.293)
Okay, clever.
J Gray (26:22.414)
It's like in a fantasy game, it's fun to come up with neat ways to use otherwise utilitarian or non -combat spells.
Adam Powell (26:32.777)
Yeah, yeah, definitely. No, that's amazing. I hadn't even considered that as one of the many potentials that you would have picked out. That's fantastic. I love that. So we have mentioned and gone through what's coming out in the, sorry, excuse me, in the Cyberpunk Edge Runner's mission kit, the mission, the jacket, and then all the accessories you'll get in the box, this new starter box. So that's the here and now.
or it will be if you're listening to this in the future. Cyberpunk Red is the here and now. The Edgerunners content is the near future. Is there more down the line for Cyberpunk Red, Cyberpunk content? Are there further expansions coming or is there another project that Art Hellzoring are working on that we can look forward to as well?
J Gray (27:26.606)
Sure. Well, for Cyberpunk Red, a free DLC every month, check our websites, check our socials. We tend to release it at the end of the month, which means, except for April, where we release it on April 1st. For example, we just, for April 1st this year, we did a crossover between Cyberpunk Red and Valhalla, the bartending visual novel video game, which was a lot of fun to work with Superbond Studios with. In...
September, October, we will be releasing Tales of the Red Forlorn Hope, which is our first, we've released an adventure book, Street Stories, Tales of the Red Street Stories, which was nine unrelated adventures. The last two are related to each other, but the others are not connected. This will be a campaign book, centered around the Forlorn Hope, which is a fairly famous edge runner bar in Cyberpunk lore. There was a Forlorn Hope mission book back in 2020.
And this one will be literally, you will be deciding and helping with the fate of the Forlorn Hope and whether it survives in the time of the Red. So it is, we really want to make a street level campaign where your actions have a specific impact on one location. You can't save the world, you can't save the city, but you can make this neighborhood or this place better. And that's the purpose. And it's going to be fun because in addition to your standard,
Adam Powell (28:52.781)
Yeah.
J Gray (28:57.55)
I've been hired for a job, I do the job, I fight the people, I get paid. There'll be some different gameplay loops. Excuse me, sorry. Including a heist. It'll be a mission which is entirely a heist from beginning to end. And written very well so that if you've never run a heist or if you've had trouble running heists in the past, because it can be very hard to pull off a tabletop, you should not have problems with it. That should be something that you as a GM will...
Adam Powell (29:21.805)
Hmm.
J Gray (29:27.022)
it'll take you through it and help you learn how to do a heist. And there'll be combat and in a lot of cases you'll have options other than combat to get around it. There's very few you have to fight solutions there. And it'll also be introducing new things. We've actually very cleverly, I think, introduced some of the new rule sets that'll be in this. It has free DLCs, so even if you don't get this book, you have access to them, like...
how to hack agents, which are basically smartphones. And the roller derby started off as a, there was a roller derby themed side quest. And so he took the rules for that and made that a full DLC. And you'll have those rules as well. Lots of new people, lots of new locations, couple of new gangs. It's gonna be fun. And then if you want to talk about not cyberpunk, we are putting together a game called Shadow Scar.
Adam Powell (30:20.845)
Hmm.
J Gray (30:24.174)
which I like to say is like ninjas meet stargate. There are multiple dimensions and there are only demons, monsters that travel through to the different dimensions and try to do horrible things. And there is an agency. I think it's called the Shadow Scar Agency. Though I don't know if Cody settled on that for the final name. And it sends operatives to these various dimensions through gates.
Adam Powell (30:27.533)
Hehe.
J Gray (30:54.062)
and they stop the bad oni from doing things. And each dimension is very unique. There is a more mythical Japanese dimension, which is where the oni come from and the Shadow Scar Agency starts. But there's also a more steampunk Victorian style dimension with animal form steam engines, gorillas, construction machines, shaped grown, construction machines, octopus shaped cranes. There is a
kind of prohibition world. There is a more advanced, as viewed from the 1950s science fiction world. And each one you'll have to adapt. And you can come from anyone, but you'll have to adapt and make sure you don't blow the agency's cover while you're there. That will be available on free RPG day as a quick start. Well, in your local store, if you're...
Adam Powell (31:29.709)
Mm.
Adam Powell (31:44.105)
Bye.
J Gray (31:52.174)
story is doing free RPG day, we'll try to have it digital as soon as possible afterwards. And starting at Gen Con in the beginning of August, the starter box for that will be available. And then we're looking at a core book release in the end of the year.
Adam Powell (32:09.229)
That sounds... I love those two words combined, ninjas and stargate. I've sold me on this already. I'm just going to be honest there. So I'm very... I'm looking forward to seeing how that develops and when we can finally get our hands on some of the material associated that you've mentioned there, free RPG day or following launch, depending on when you're listening to this episode, this interview. So with...
the Cyberpunk Red, Edge Runner stuff, the future releases, the DLC, you mentioned Shadow Scar and all the things sort of running out with that. There seems to be a lot of good things happening at R .T .E .L .S. Orion Games that you're involved with. Do you get time to sort of sit back and have some new time? Do you get to play games? Are you playing anything at the moment at a personal level?
J Gray (33:02.03)
gosh. Yeah. I don't have any campaigns running at the moment. I've been playing Outer Worlds on my PlayStation, which is from Oblivion. Sorry, my brain stopped for a second. It's kind of a, it's a neat take because it's a more retro science fiction take on many of the same themes. So it's neat to see it from a different point of view. That was fun. I spend time with my family.
We just went to see Little Shop of Horrors. That was fun. At our local, not at local, it was a bit farther away, but at a community theater. It's always fun because the play is a bit different from the movie. Not quite as big a happy ending. But yeah, no, our company's actually very, they hammer home, you know, what they call the life, work -life balance, where you work your hours. You don't overdo it.
you don't burn yourself out because you're no good to anyone. When you're burned out, you can't do anything for weeks. And then you suffer, the company suffers, the game suffers. It's more important, they're very generous with time off when it's needed. So I get to do lots of fun things like reading books, playing games, going to see things, spending time with my family. That's really nice.
The last campaign I really ran was a Ryotama campaign. Ryotama is a wonderful Japanese role -playing game, which was translated and brought up with the US. And it's very relaxed and fun. And it's almost like a hex crawler explorer adventure. But it's got some very cool and neat concept mechanics. I'm fond of the way it handles combat, which is you're in the front or you're on the back. And if you're in the front, you can reach the people in the front. And if you're in the back...
have the right weapons to reach the people in the front. And otherwise, it doesn't matter. And each area has so many objects in it, and you can use each object once, and then it goes away. And that's a lot of fun.
Adam Powell (35:14.445)
Hmm.
It is a wonderful game. So yeah, yeah, so it's special. But we are here to concentrate on our Telsorian games and the fantastic games that you have put out and continue to put out and have sort of in the pipeline to bring to us all in the future, which I'm very excited about now that you've told us about some of them. So.
J Gray (35:20.174)
It really is.
Adam Powell (35:46.477)
With respect to bringing it back to cyberpunk, red cyberpunk, the edge runner stuff, do you have any advice for, I guess, primarily game masters that are picking this system up for the first time? We mentioned there is the Jumpstart pack, Jumpstart kit.
J Gray (36:09.134)
The Jumpstart kit is out of print physically. You can still get it digitally. Actually, if you were wanting to start, go to DriveThruRPG and download Cyberpunk Red EZ Mode. That's free, first of all, which is always good. And it is a good summation of the basic rules, world lore, and it has a short adventure. You can run one to two hours. So it's a good way to get a taste for it and see if you like it.
Adam Powell (36:10.445)
Jumpstart kit.
Adam Powell (36:20.749)
Mm.
J Gray (36:38.414)
If you're a new GM, period. My biggest advice is always don't be afraid to make mistakes and don't worry if you make a mistake. If you make a mistake.
Go on, it's like what they say in theater. If you flub a line, just move on to the next one. Don't stop, don't try to say it again. Move on to the next one. If a rule comes up and you don't know the answer, what the rule is, say, I'm gonna rule it this way this time. Next time, I'll look at the book and we may change it. Just be honest with your players. Keep in mind the big thing is, is if you're used to Dungeons and Dragons, for example, where there's a certain number of combat.
Adam Powell (37:10.029)
Yeah.
J Gray (37:19.598)
encounters. There's almost a formula for determining what happens. Cyberpunk is much more open and broad. Combat can happen. It may happen. It even might happen, but it doesn't have to happen. You don't need to have so many combat encounters per session. You don't need to have... You don't have dungeons. It's much more open. It's more like playing an open world video game.
than it is like playing a dungeon crawling video game or a rogue video like video game. Take a look at plot lines from cyberpunk themed media, Robocop, Blade Runner, Max Hedrum, The Expanse. See how they do it? Steal shamelessly. Your players don't care and the people that own the copyrights and those don't care as long as you're not selling it, right? Don't be afraid.
to just bring whatever you need to bring into your game and run it that way. And you know, when all else fails, let the players tell the story. So, you know, one of the things I'll do is I'll set up, okay, you've got to, you're hired to go and steal the doohickey. The doohickey is in this building.
And then I sit back and I let them decide how they're going to seal the doohickey. I have no plans for what's between them and the doohickey until they decide, because I can come up with 30 different ways to get to the doohickey, right? But once they decide, okay, we're going to, we're going to, this company, they come to you and you say, hey, who does the cleaning for this company in this building? Someone has to do the janitorial services, right? And they say, yeah, you're right. And they contract it to an outside vendor.
Adam Powell (38:48.237)
Hmm.
J Gray (39:08.622)
So, okay, we're going to get the uniforms to the outside vendor. We're going to hack into the servers, we're going to get on their shifts. And we're going to be a crew going in. It's like, that's great. And then I have all I need to know to make up what they have to do next. I didn't have to plan it in advance, save myself some time and trouble. And then I just know because it's always, you're going against the DV, I just have to know, okay, the janitorial service is here. They can bribe someone for the uniforms.
And to get on the roster, they can literally do it the old fashioned way and like pay someone, pay a fixer to get them hired. They can sneak in and put themselves on the roster and steal uniforms. They have their way. And each step of the way, as they decide, I make things up. It helps to have something, a lot of maps, like I'm going to plug Loke Battlemats, which is a UK company. They make artificial maps and they make the giant book of Battle, Cyberpunk Red Battlemats.
Adam Powell (39:47.085)
Hmm.
Adam Powell (40:03.725)
Yeah.
J Gray (40:08.302)
Fantastic, because I have that's for just about any situation in a giant size, I can put them down. Or if I'm digital, I can buy them on DriveThru and put them up on my VTT. But really, let the players do the work for you. It saves you so much trouble. The <|tr|> <|translate|> <|notimestamps|> call there to that is what I call death of planning.
Adam Powell (40:18.477)
Hmm.
J Gray (40:31.278)
which is when they try to account for everything and they plan and they plan and they plan and the session ends and the next session begins and they plan and they plan and they plan and plan. So there has to be a point where you have to say, guys, it's okay.
You got enough. Go do the thing. At least do part of the thing. Do the first step and then worry about the next step. And that's okay. You're allowed to talk out of character to your players and say, you know, you're having fun right now, but I'm kind of just sitting here. So why don't we do the next step and then you can get back to planning. And that's nothing. You're a game master. You're allowed to have fun too. In fact, we require you to have fun. If you're not having fun, something, you know,
Adam Powell (40:46.892)
Hmph. Yeah.
Adam Powell (41:05.197)
Yeah.
J Gray (41:13.39)
maybe you don't need to be the Game Master.
Adam Powell (41:18.349)
Yeah, there. No, that is fantastic advice, Jay. And I will take some of those points on myself, especially for Cyberpunk and edge runner games that I'll be running in the future. Now, I feel even more inspired to run games in the world of Night City and the sort of the cyberpunk genre. So I will make sure and I'll put a link to the maps.
that you mentioned there for the Cyberpunk maps so people can can find that and go through and pick them up for themselves if they're so true. So thank you so much for that. Jay, we... well, thank you. So we have covered your introduction to TTRPGs, Cyberpunk, Cyberpunk Red, Cyberpunk...
J Gray (41:58.094)
You're welcome.
Adam Powell (42:13.197)
edge runners and the mission kit and the jacket and all the DLCs and things that are coming down the pipeline with the campaign book you mentioned as well. Is there anything at this point of the interview that we haven't talked about that you want to bring up now?
J Gray (42:27.31)
mm. No, I think it just will be a GenCon if you happen to be going to that this year. We will have a game room. Our events are, as of this time, up and running and visible on the events page at the GenCon website. I don't think they're open for sign up yet. We will have short demos of all our games, of Edge Runner's Mission Kit, of...
Shadow Scar and of another game called Fossilized Violence, which is not coming out this year, probably. But it is a game by James Hut, our senior designer, about cavemen and dinosaurs. And that will also be running demos there too. That is, yep, we'll have a room. You'll be able to find us. Our name will be prominent on it while the booth. Mission kit will be on sale there as will the Shadow Scar box set.
Starter set so stop by please. Yes
Adam Powell (43:27.181)
more. Just so people can stop by and find you and support R .Talsorian Games and your good self. Would you like to remind everybody where they can find yourself R .T. Zoranian Games and Cyberpunk content please J.
J Gray (43:43.214)
Sure, yeah. Our website's rtalsoriangames .com. Our social media is generally rtalsorian, or rtalsoriangames, some derivation you're of. If you search for it, you'll find it. I am at JGRAY, J -GRAY Creative on Twitter. Pretty much nowhere else, really. My other social medias tend to be more private, but that's my open public social media.
Adam Powell (44:15.373)
Thank you so much. As I said before, I'll make sure the links are down below this podcast, so please scroll down, follow those links, support Jay, support R -Talsorian Games, support all the wonderful things, and enjoy Gen Con if you're going, and I'll listen to this prior to it, or enjoy it if you're going next year, depending on when you listen to this, but you know what I mean. Jay, it's been such a pleasure to get to spend some time and chat with you about Cyberpunk.
and all the things associated with that and our Telsorian games as well. So I'd love to get you back on the show in the future if you'd be willing to come back and join me, of course.
J Gray (44:53.974)
absolutely. That's nice. It's fun. And you are a wonderfully pleasant interview.
Adam Powell (45:00.589)
Well, thank you very much. I look forward to having another wonderfully pleasant interview in the future, Jay. Thank you so much for joining me.
J Gray (45:02.862)
You're welcome.
J Gray (45:08.622)
Thank you.
