I personally know the author & helped play-test this.
I hate D&D and to varying lesser degrees it’s offspring like the OSR
So I personally had fun with it. If you’re trying to branch out from D&D’s gene pool and into other genres, this is worth a look. Especially if you’re interested in cyberpunk and supers.
The Behinder system allows for a wide variety of abilities, with some guide rails in the rules to re-balance them if they’re too powerful or lackluster. Also, while the Behinder system is central to the game, Behinder-less PC’s are not only possible, but quite formidable in their own right. Gaining the versatility of extra Omens in exchange for the lack of a Behinder.
Omens, normal spent to re-roll a die, can be permanently exchanged for other benefits such as a higher economic background and thus more starting cash and higher income. Cybernetics are gained on a one-to-one basis and add powers themselves: ranging from the boring extra hit points and stat increases, to the heel bearings that let you keep pace with vehicles once you accelerate to their speed. If money or Cybernetics don’t suit the PC’s fancy, extra Origin abilities can be bought with Omens.
The various Origins rang from normal humans to preternatural such as vampires and sapient animals to the downright weird: Cryptids and Emancipated Behinders. Each one has optional drawbacks and assets that make even a mono-origin party unique: Even a party of humans, though only on a technicality. Though the setting could justify any party composition, with a random table of possible reasons why the party would know each other.
Risen Cairo, though not as terrible as the dystopia as the one I am living in, is a city of haves and have-nots. A low economic class is an easy excuse for PC’s to get into trouble, and the regular Audits of Fate prevent them from just stock piling wealth. However, PC’s with high economic backgrounds will need other motives, such as vengeance, to run amok. Thankfully Morbo’s has a step in the city’s creation which has players name a location their character is familiar with: and once again a random table of possible threats to the named locations or the city as a whole.
