Review: Interface Zero 2.0

“If you’re looking for more detailed rules for cyberspace, check out Interface Zero 2.0 by Gun Metal Games.” – Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion

In a Nutshell: THE cyberpunk and near-future setting for Savage Worlds. ‘Nuff said. Published by Gun Metal Games.

CONTENTS

This is a 320 page PDF, so these are the highlights rather than a blow-by-blow account of each chapter.

Character creation follows the usual Savage Worlds approach, although the designers recommend using skill specialisations and giving PCs an extra 5 skill points to help that along. There are 16 archetypes for those like me who just want to jump in and play. As SF settings go, Interface Zero leans towards hard SF, so you’ll find no orcs here; but available races include hybrids, characters whose DNA has been spliced with that of various animals, and you can use those to match Shadowrun races or the Intelligent Gerbil races common in space opera. You can also play an android, bioroid, cyborg, simulacrum, vanilla human or genetically-engineered human, although the setting stops short of full-on digital PCs existing only as substrate-independent software. Psionics is permitted as an Arcane Background.

There’s the usual crop of new edges and hindrances. I tend to gloss over these as part of a conscious decision to stay as close to the core rules as possible (which simplifies the learning curve for the whole group, including me), but they cover everything I’d need to adapt any genre story I’m familiar with except Johnny Mnemonic’s amnesia; I suppose you could do that with Clueless, actually.

There’s a huge gear chapter, which includes flavour text on the various manufacturers. As you’d expect, this is heavy on weapons (ranging from knives through chainswords to particle beam rifles); cyberware (and there is a new derived stat, Strain, which limits how much you can install); and drones. There are also a small range of robots, various drugs, and both standard mecha and rules for building custom ones. More unusual is the section on entertainment products and fast food joints.

The chapters on The World and The Solar System are 160 pages of intricate, interlocking setting information that I’m not sure I’ve fully internalised even after several readings, dripping with plot hooks. I’m not even going to try to summarise them, other than to say they are very, very good.

The game master section has random adventure and gang generators, city trappings (tags which affect how the PCs’ skills etc operate in that area), and advice on how to run the game, notably what type of missions a group would be offered and how much they would get paid, both depending on the party’s rank; a group of Novices might be offered Cr 500 apiece to do some leg-breaking, while a group of Legendary characters might be offered Cr 125,000 each to assassinate a corporate CEO.

It’s worth noting that the Pinnacle’s own Science Fiction Companion refers to this as the go-to product for detailed cyberspace rules.

FORMAT

This is a layered PDF, meaning you can switch off the background layer to make it more printer-friendly. There’s a lot of full-colour artwork – I’m tempted to call it “lavishly illustrated”.

Flavour text is often written as if it were an online debate between characters in the setting, which works well, especially as a means to get across multiple views of the same topic, any of which could be the truth in your campaign.

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT

There are a few places where terms are used before they’re defined. This isn’t a huge problem, keep reading and in a few pages all is revealed. It’d be nice to have some sort of sidebar or appendix with a glossary, though.

CONCLUSIONS

When I started reading Interface Zero, I thought “This is the Savage Worlds version of Shadowrun,” and indeed it can be if that’s what you want; but it’s much more than that. Beyond its own lavish backstory and setting, this is a toolkit you can use for almost any near-future science fiction game – the one thing it doesn’t cover is starships. You could use it for Neuromancer, Judge Dredd, Mad Max, Shadowrun, Outland, Blade Runner, Deus Ex, System Shock, Dark Angel, and others; I’ve seriously considered adding starships and using it as the core of a space opera game in a similar vein to 2300AD.

This is a solid product, well-crafted and inspiring, the best science fiction setting for Savage Worlds I have seen yet, and it’s now the yardstick against which I will measure all the others. The main thing that stops me running it is that we also play Shadowrun occasionally, and I don’t want to tread on that GM’s toes.