Let's Play Neon Road, a Micro RPG!

 

"An 80's style solo game." TAKE MY MONEY!

I was born in 1982, so you could say I didn't "grow up" in the 80's, I mean, I was 8 in 1990, still just a pup. I beg to differ though, as my love of 80's pop culture is strong and when I point to what era I'm from, it's firmly established in the 80's. That said, when I saw Neon Road, I knew I had to put up the money to buy it. By the way, this can be purchased on Amazon in print form or DriveThruRPG in PDF format. The book is written by Noah Patterson, well known for his Micro RPG books.

The world of Neon Road is set in alternate 1985. In 1976, nuclear bombs were dropped and the world almost destroyed. Fast forward your Betamax to 1985, now you're struggling to survive in this dystopian world.

 

Character creation: Like most RPG's, this is where you choose your stats, class (scavenger, infiltrator, survivalist, socialite), origin (fallout child, wild waste walker, old soul, city slicker), sub-stats, and then flesh out your character. In the sub-stats, you roll for your character's radiation level because everyone in the world has some sort of radiation sickness.

I decided my character would be none other than Jack Burton from Big Trouble in Little China. Why, you ask? Because, that's why!

"It's all in the reflexes."

Here's what I came up with for Ol' Jack Burton:

This is my first character in this system, so not sure on the stat set up. I may adjust them but, I feel I have them right for Jack. I'm basing his stats off these two quotes "It's all in the reflexes" and "This is Jack Burton in the Pork Chop Express, and I'm talkin' to whoever's listenin' out there." I concluded he's not much of a fighter, as Eddie asks, "First time you ever plugged somebody?" to which Jack replies "Of course not!" Sure Jack, we believe you...You do get to roll 2d6 when taking a stat check in your "proficient" stat, which is charisma (CH) as he is a socialite.

Stat breakdown:

Strength (St), Dexterity (Dx), Wisdom (Wi), and Charisma (Ch). If you've played any sort of RPG, you know what these mean! Health is self-explanatory. You get to 0, you're dead. Willpower, however, needs an explanation. This you can spend or lose throughout your adventure. You spend willpower on failed rolls and can keep rolling until you're out of willpower. If you spend/lose too much, you become weakened, which incurs a penalty on your stat rolls. Your rad scores current/minimum is not how cool you are, it's your level of radiation sickness. Get too radiated, you get turned into a zombie (there's an expansion for zombies!). If your minimum gets to 20, you're a mutant (no expansion...yet).

Now it's time to visit the "equipment locker." I rolled up $15 cash and that bought me brass knuckles (1d2 damage) and some leather gloves (+5 life). Was hoping to get a gun, but those are pretty expensive and the guy didn't accept checks, so no "the check is in the mail" quote here...Or was there?

Exploration time! I chose the city, since he is a city slicker. You can also choose to live in the wilds or ruins. We'll call our city San Francisco. Now you need some graph paper. The procedure says roll up our home base by rolling 3d6, which is a 9. You can draw it in any shape you want as long as you put one box for each number rolled. I chose to draw a symmetrical square...I'm too creative, I know. Now, I roll for exits/doors, a 6. In your home base, you can recover willpower and hit points. You may also spend $100 to gain a single stat point.

Time for our first venture into the San Fran! I head east, but first I roll on the "city move chart" and get "gang controlled checkpoint." I can either pay them or roll a CH check...I have no money, so I am going to try and trick them. This is a good time to go over the stat check rolls, you want to roll equal to or below your chosen stat, which, in this case, would be a 2 for his CH stat. I roll a 1, automatic success (1 is an auto success and 6 is an automatic fail boat)!

As Jack made his way through the alley, he was stopped by three men wearing black outfits and red bandanas brandishing weapons. These guys were the Wing Kong gang, bad news for Jack!

"You give us five bucks, or else" said the short man, revealing twin pistols under his black jacket.

He had to think quickly, "Or else, what? Listen, I don't have time to chat. What's your name, buddy? I'll tell your boss you knuckleheads were holding up his latest shipment of pork that's waiting in my truck." He pointed back to the alley he had just come from.

The three men all looked nervously down the alley. Sure enough, a truck was parked the other side called "The Pork-Chop Express." The short guy stiffened a bit and eyed Jack up and down. "All right, get going then."

Now that I made it through, I roll 3d6 for the area as outlined above for the home base, I get a 14 and 6 more exits. Since I'm exploring a new area, I roll 2d6 on the city area chart, vendor market. Useful, if I had any money! I can always come back to this area, if I do have money. Now that we know what area we have, it's time to roll up the enemy. Each area has its own bad guy. In the city, there are two bad guys, criminal and scavenger, the latter of which I encounter. So now I go to the scavenger chart and see who I have encountered, "road warrior." Great, this guy sounds tough!

The combat sequence is as follows, Grit Step, Ranged Step, and Melee Step. I start by making a charisma roll to show no fear in the face of the enemy and fail both rolls (remember, he is proficient in CH so rolls 2d6). I check the road warrior's stats and see 1d3+1 W-Dmg (Willpower damage) and 1d6 H-Dmg (Health Damage). As I failed the CH test, I take 1d3+1 Will damage, 2 points. If I had succeeded, I would gain 1 willpower up to my maximum willpower of 23.

I skip the ranged step, as I have no ranged weapon. If I did, I would make a Dx check at this time and apply any damage if I hit.

Melee step is simply rolling against your St stat, mine is 2. I rolled a 6, automatic failure! Now, I see how much damage I take, 1d6 and I rolled a 1. These three steps repeat until your opponent is dead or you're dead. If you die, you get sent back to your home base with one weapon. Remember, you can spend willpower points to reroll until you run out or succeed.

Final result, Jack came out over the road warrior but was bloodied up with 6 hp remaining and 11 willpower. Ouch! Time to roll for rewards! Luck is with Jack Burton as he rolled a 6, which means I earned 6 bucks and a roll on the items table. I found a "Can of Cheap Beer." Nothing but the finest!

Jack made his way along the streets to have a look around. He perused the buildings for a while and patted his pockets, empty. A gruff looking man with a red turban walked up and pushed Mr. Burton to the ground. It was another Wing Kong! Jack stood up "Now look here, bub..." he couldn't finish as a bat came striking him. The fight lasted only moments but our hero was the one left standing. He rifled through the man's belongings, producing a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Looking down at the beer, wiping his face clean of blood, he uttered "it's all in the reflexes."

Now that we beat up our first enemy, it's time to go shopping! This particular market is half off all items!...That is, if you pass a Ch check. Jack's luck continues and he passes it with a 1! Now, what shall I purchase. I bought a pair of sunglasses (+5 will) and a leather hood (+10 hp) but we'll call it a trucker hat.

The store owner watched the man strut in like he owned the place, his face looked like it took the bad end of a meat tenderizer. He picked up a couple items and tossed a roll of dollar bills to him. "Keep the change, ya hear?" The owner looked down, to see there was the exact amount he owed and shook his head.

The next step is to go home and rest up. Thanks to Noah's swift answering of my question over on the Facebook page, he clarified a rule. You need to check on the appropriate move chart for each area you pass through, even if it has already been explored. Thankfully, there's only one connection between the market and the home base. I rolled up a "barricade" but it was no match for Jack's dexterity of 3.

Peeking down the street, he noticed the three Wing Kong men were gone but a barricade was in place now. "Lazy bums..." he thought to himself. Easily hopping over the blockade of wood and tires, he returned to his home to rest.

Well, that was quite an adventure for Ol' Jack! I can already see that willpower is going to be very strategic on when to spend it. Even though I only got into one area of the map, it was pretty exciting. Of course, you need money to upgrade your equipment and, eventually, your stats. $100 per stat seems a long ways away but, the good news is that you can keep the same map each game, adventuring further out each time. Now that I have that little market place, I can visit it for items to upgrade. Can't wait for more mission expansions to come out!

Thanks for reading!