The Dumb-Box on his wrist buzzed. His food was on the counter—not enough fish and the noodles were stiff. It was enough to distract him before a voice chimed in his head—“Nathan. Michael is in danger.” He looked up in response his Net-Box’s warning, his AR Glasses highlighting in flashing red two figures running towards the Iannelli scion. Details scrolled alongside the highlighted figures. They were bioroids. Good ones and nobody traded in better bioroids than the Iannelli Neo-Costra crime family. Which raised a question that right now he had no time to ask. He pulled a gun. Eleonara made him carry it, so when this was all over, he hoped her family’s money had made it legit. It felt wrong in his hand, heavy and shiny in the rain. He hoped the recoil when he plugged the two bioroids running for his charge was not going to jar his fingers. He needed them for the keys at the Synth Jazz gig tonight. The rounds would not kill the bioroids. That was his deal for carrying the gun. Plus stunned, Eleonara Iannelli could get family muscle to persuade the bioroids to talk or track them. That was not part of his gig. His gig was being the coolest Synth Jazz cat in downtown New Beale for one more night…
This could be a scene from Crescendo of Violence: A Neon-Noir Roleplaying Game set in the near future of Neo York, 2093. A giant megapolis and technological marvel floating off the North American coast in world that has undergone ecological collapse and widespread flooding, tamed but only limited the overreach of the megacorporations, and seen the widespread adoption of cybernetics, Augmented Reality, and WETnet wireless energy and information networks, and granted rights to Clones and Bioroids. Neo York is a city of holographic neon and rain, of crime and corruption, of wealth and politics. Gilded mob bosses, flashy CEOs, and famous vid-stars hold sway as the masses live a life above the breadline—but not too far above it, the wealth of the richest top percent buying themselves security and the promise that the cops will look the other way. In between, there are men and women, bioroids and clones, who work in the glare of the neon rather than bask in it, down the grime and filth of the streets which the constant rain never washes away. Gangsters seeking redemption, hackers trying to reveal a truth, holo-stars with a secret to hide, the good cop in a corrupt system, the gene-modded musician trying to make it big, the suit who wants to see her corporation do some good, the ex-soldier who gets drawn into a situation he wanted to avoid… All these stories and more can be told as the Synth Jazz plays in Neo York.
Crescendo of Violence: A Neon-Noir Roleplaying Game is published by Osprey Games. It is a neo-noir—or rather a neon noir—roleplaying game which combines Casablanca with Le Samouraï, Blade Runner with Bird, and Hard Boiled with Ghost in the Shell. It incorporates elements of the cyberpunk genre too, but is not specifically about its anti-capitalist themes, the corporations having been tamed through a series of wars that prevented them from taking over nations—including the United Kingdom. Rather it is narrative roleplaying game that combines the heroic cinematic action of John Woo with the style and tone of Film Noir and hardboiled detective stories under a neon pall and to a Synth Jazz soundtrack.
A Player Character in Crescendo of Violence is defined by eight Paths—Cautious, Clever, Dramatic, Empathetic, Fast, Resolute, Sneaky, and Violent. These are rated between one and five and represent different approaches that a Player Character might take to overcoming a problem, interacting with an NPC, or taking down an opponent. He also has an Origin—Natural, Bioroid, Clone, Cyborg, or Gen-G, and a Profession—Criminal, Hacker, Holo-Star, Investigator, Musician, Suit, or Veteran. Humans start out weaker than other Origins, but have a higher Resolve and greater development potential. Bioroids are living machines which cannot improve their Paths, but instead spend Experience Points to purchase extra dice during the game. Clones are bred for one particular Path and when rolling it can reroll ones and roll a minimum number of dice for that Path. Cyborgs start play with cyberware, whilst Gen-G are genetically modified and have the greatest freedom of choice when it comes to assigning numbers to their Paths, but Cybernetics limit their Reserve. Each Profession provides increases to a Player Character’s Paths, assigns a Cred Rating, provides a choice of two Talents from a short list and a Special Ability, as well as setting three questions particular to the Profession. Lastly, the player selects a third Talent.
The process of character creation in Crescendo of Violence is not difficult or particularly lengthy. It does involve answering more than a few questions. There are the three for each of the Professions, but a player is encouraged to ask questions about his character’s background, look, how he makes his money, who he has hurt, how he feels about crime, what he feels wrong about Neo York, and so on. These of course require a fair bit of knowledge of the setting for Neo York. Some motivation comes from whatever reason the Player Character is on the ‘Out’ and has him to the fringes of society. Three options are suggested for each Profession. However, despite the Player Characters being hardboiled archetypes, Crescendo of Violence does feel as if it could do with some suggestions as to what choose if a player wants to play a particular character type. Perhaps a set of ready-to-play archetypes would have helped, not only in suggesting ideas to the players, but being ready-to-play, giving the Game Master a set of Player Characters for one-shots or convention play. At the very least, they would have served as examples of character generation, of which there is none in Crescendo of Violence.
The Talents in particular enforce the various genres blended in Crescendo of Violence. For example, Gun-Fu provides options such as Rapid Reload, Guns Akimbo (wielding two guns), Quick Draw, and Bullet Time (spend Momentum to gain extra actions), one of which can be selected each time the Gun-Fu Talent is purchased. Blind Luck allows one reroll per session per rank; Maverick forces the player to spend Reserve when he wants his character to do an action that an NPC has already told him is foolish or risky, but the Player Character starts each session with extra Reserve; and with Martial Artist, the player can select either Brutal Fury (for extra damage), Lightening Speed (gain an extra action after dropping a foe with an unarmed attack), or Flurry of Blows (attack an NPC again at a penalty and a successful first attack).
Nathan Spring
Origin: Cyborg
Profession: Musician
Cred Rating: 3d10
Special Ability: Access
Cautious 2 Clever 2 Dramatic 3 Empathetic 2 Fast 2 Resolute 2 Sneaky 2 Violent 2
Talents: Contacts, Focus, Smooth Talker
Cybernetics: Net-Box, Personal Fireaura, WETgloves, Repeltech Instrument (Rank 2)
Mechanically, Crescendo of Violence is primarily a dice pool system and will require ten ten-sided dice. In addition, though, each player requires two sets of tokens. The first set consists of a Green, a Yellow, and a Red token. These are Action tokens. The second set consists of five Momentum tokens. The core mechanic is the Test and is simple and straightforward. When a player wants his character to undertake an action, he selects the Path he wants the character to use, reflecting the approach that the character wants to take to the task. For example, if a Player Character wants to sympathise with an NPC in order to get her to open up, the appropriate Path would be Empathetic. This determines the base number of dice the player rolls, whilst any bonuses can add more dice and penalties reduce dice. The player rolls the dice against a difficulty set by the Game Master. This difficulty scale runs from one—‘Impossible to Fail’—to ten—‘Very Difficult, requires a lot of luck or a lot of skill’. If any of the dice results is equal to or greater than the difficulty, then the Player Character.
Failure can be just that, or the Game Master is free to offer a partial success. Combat consists of opposed rolls, one combatant rolling to attack, the other to avoid or to see which two of the combatants successfully attacks. Damage is then rolled and if any of the results are higher than the defendant’s Resolute Path, the defendant suffers Harm. Harm can be the loss of Momentum, the loss of the defendant’s Green or Yellow Action Token, or the defendant being knocked out of the action for the scene. Notably, a Player Character cannot die, surviving all of the heroic bloodshed until Act Three in the story when death indeed could be on the line. One action a Player Character cannot do is take cover and attack. In Crescendo of Violence, a Player Character taking cover is doing so to avoid damage. The aim here is push the Player Character to act and be heroic and be prepared to deal out the heroic violence as well as take it. Combat is designed to be fast and the outcome quick, the rules handled in under three pages, there are rules for initiative, and much is designed to be handled narratively rather than mechanically.
One obvious and immediate issue with Crescendo of Violence is Player Character competence. In a lot of cases, a Player Character is going to start play with ratings of two in his Paths, especially if a Natural Human. Talents, Cyberware, and equipment can increase the number of dice in a pool, but a player does have access to a number of resources that can put his character at an advantage and disadvantage. Fortunately, more of the former than the latter. The first are the Action Tokens. When the Green Action Token is spent, the player adds two dice to the roll, no dice when the Yellow Action Token is used, and deducts two dice when the Red Action Token is spent. A player always has an action Token to spend, representing his character’s good luck, no luck, and bad luck. However, in order to get the Green Action Token back, the player must use both of the other Action Tokens, so his character’s luck fluctuates back and forth over the course of play.
In general, Action Tokens have to be played, which will lead to fluctuating fortunes. When played, the player is expected to narrate how the Action Token gives his character the advantage if the Green Action Token or disadvantage if the Red Action Token. This can be down to luck, or it can be down to good planning—whether that of the Player Character or the NPC. However, NPCs do not have Action Tokens of their own and the Game Master only rolls for them in opposed tests, meaning that they serve as opposition narratively and mechanically throughout a story. Alternatively, the important NPCs and particularly villains, the Game Master can create them like a Player Character.
A Player Character has up to five Momentum. It is earned whenever a ten is rolled on the dice or can be purchased using Reserve. Momentum is spent on ‘Keep It Up’ to gain another action, to ‘Seize the Spotlight’ from an NPC, ‘No You Don’t’ to block the Game Master spending Momentum, to ‘Catch a Break’ and gain an Action Token back, and to use various Talents. The Game Master has her own Momentum, equal initially to the number of Player Characters and gains more whenever a player spends Momentum. In general, Momentum is intended to fuel the cinematic, gun-fu style of play at the heart of Crescendo of Violence.
A Player Character also has Reserves, again five. These have a value between one and ten, the number generated randomly by a roll of five ten-sided dice at the beginning of a session. They can be spent as a ‘Sure Gamble’ to use a Reserve’s value as a test result, ‘Second Wind’ to gain an Action Token back, ‘gain Momentum’ to gain extra Momentum, and ‘Take Cover’ to better resist damage. One problem with Reserves is that what they can do depends on their value. For example, ‘Second Wind’ gains an Action Token back, but only a Green Action Token if the value of the Reserve is nine or ten and a Yellow Action Token if the Reserve value is between five and eight. This is a bit complex for what is intended to be fast moving, action orientated game, and ideally, this should have been included on the Character Sheet for the players’ easy reference.
For example, Nathan Spring has been alerted to the two bioroids running towards Michael Iannelli. His player tells the Game Master that he wants Nathan to draw his gun and shoot both of them. The Game Master agrees, but tells the player that each bioroid will have a roll to evade, but at a penalty because they are not aware of Nathan. She also asks what Path Nathan will be using. His player suggests Fast as being the most appropriate and the Game Master agrees. In game, Nathan pulls his RemCorp Model 9 from its holster, takes aim, and fires. The RemCorp Model 9 has the Quick Draw modification, giving a bonus die on the first attack and Enhanced Targeting Array, a WETnet modification which Nathan can link to his AR glasses, to add another die. These are added to his Fast Path of two and Nathan’s player also elects to use his Green Action Token to give him six dice to roll. The bioroid are basic combat models, so as NPCs have a combat rating of four dice. This is reduced to three because they are unaware of Nathan.A story or scenario in Crescendo of Violence is played out in a three-act structure, plus intro and outro. It is meant to be played like a film. In the intro, the Game Master asks the players questions about their characters, such as what they have been doing since the last scenario, who their key associates are, and how they start the scenario. Each player generates his character’s Reserves and the Game Master can spend Heat that might have accrued from a previous story. Heat represents the Player Characters coming to the attention of a crime family, the Neo York Police Department or city hall, a union boss, or a megacorp. It is spent to make the life of one Player Character difficult, such as damaging his Cred Rating, throwing red tape in his way, all the way up to sending a trio of torpedoes his way to rub him out… During the story, the Player Characters can take Downtime actions, actions away from the action, but just two per session. It might be to Connect to an NPC, Earn some money, Make a Friend, Relax, engage in a Vice, or even Shop. All have their benefits, but there are limits as to when they can be done. In terms of the three-act structure, almost all of them can be conducted in the intro and the outro, the Earn Downtime action can only be done in Act I and Act II, and no Downtime actions can be conducted in Act III. This is because, obviously, the Player Characters are going to be busy confronting the villain in the big finale as doors get kicked down, bullets fly, punches are thrown, and the bodies hit the floor.
Nathan’s player rolls one, four, five, six, seven, and eight. The Game Master rolls one, two, and three for the first bioroid. Nathan’s first shot hits and Nathan’s player rolls for damage, which is four dice for the pistol. The Game Master rolls four dice for the bioroid’s physical rating. Nathan’s player rolls three, five, five, and eight, but the Game Master only rolls two, three, five, and seven, which means that the bioroid takes Harm. Since Nathan is firing stun rounds, the Game Master rules that the first bioroid is down for the combat. For the second bioroid, the Game master rolls five, seven, eight, and ten, enough for the bioroid to realise that it is being attacked and evades the attack.
However, Nathan’s player decides to keep the initiative, spends a point of Momentum, and takes another action. For this attack, he has three dice to roll—two from his Fast Path and one from the Enhanced Targeting Array, whereas the second bioroid, aware that it is being attacked has its standard four dice for its combat rating. Nathan’s player chooses to play the Yellow Action Token, leaving the Red Action Token to take effect for Nathan’s next action. Nathan rolls three, six, and eight, but the Game Master rolls three, three, eight, and nine, which again is enough for the bioroid to avoid the attack. Nathan’s player looks at the situation and knows that Nathan has no immediate means to stop the bioroid, especially since he will have to use the Red Action Token on the next action. Nathan does have one other resource or rather Reserve. Rolled at the start of the session, Nathan’s Reserve includes a ten. So, Nathan’s player swaps it with the three he rolled for the attack on the second bioroid and ensures that it does not avoid his shot. There is still the matter of damage to be rolled and when all this is over, explaining it to Michael, his girlfriend, and the Neo York Police Department. That Red Action Token is going to cause Nathan trouble…
There is no scenario in Crescendo of Violence. However, there is a sample session which the Game Master can work up into a scenario. This follows the discussion of the three-act structure for the Game Master, who is also given good advice on her role and how to run the game. This includes how to run a safe game, since Crescendo of Violence obviously involves violence and adult themes.
Physically, Crescendo of Violence is breezily presented in swathes of brilliant pinks, blues, and purples. It is decently written, but it is lacking in places. The most obvious being the absence of an index or even a glossary, both of which would have been very useful. A proper scenario would have been good too, although there is one outlined in the book. Similarly sample archetypes would have been useful as well, and although the rules are not complex, they are not as well explained as they could be in places.
Crescendo of Violence transplants both the Jazz Age and the hardboiled, Film Noir genre to the future dystopia of Neo York, 2093, with its cool look, smouldering attitude, down and dirty heroes and heroines, and swinging tunes (but not, it should be noted, its social attitudes). It feels like it should have its own soundtrack. Crescendo of Violence: A Neon-Noir Roleplaying Game calls for players to really lean into its hard boiled, cool cat genre and storytelling—and if they do, the play is really going to be sharp and snappy.
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