In a classic fantasy rpg the dungeon would be the - so to speak - standard unit of play and a new game might reasonably start with the party in front of a dark, ivy-clad gate leading under the mountain.
In d e s e r t, as a Cyberpunk rpg, the unit of play is the city building. Usually, the game starts with the players rolling up a single building together or choosing a pregenerated one. I'm doing the latter and pick the Apartment complex.
As opposed to classic play, d e s e r t is not an adventure game per se. So while characters will still enter the game in front of the chosen building, they are not in a group and their reasons for being here can't be assumed adventurous. The goal for character creation is then to come up with someone who won't just pass by the building.
CHARACTER CREATION
I start off with rolls for >>look.
synthetic|arms
translucent|skirt
pictogram|suitcase
(the skirt probably has little, colourful images of suitcases on it)
I proceed to rolling up >>contacts.
Family|to remain silent with in restaurants of dark wood and brass
A few people|whose dogs I walk
Eureka|for the night off I'll have at some point
I could be on my way to the Apartment complex alone or with a contact. I decide on the third option which is another random table for >>convoy.
A bored student group.
That is who I'm with. All in all this character seems like someone young, busy, some kind of tutor or teacher. Maybe in architecture or environmental tech which is why I'm taking the students to the Apartment complex.
For >>place I roll a 1 which means I get a lone d6 to roll up the building I stay at. Skipped here. (1d) certainly points to the character living very differently than the people of the (6d) Apartment complex.
As to >>gear I start out with a phone. The stuff I have at home or in storage is skipped here.
Everyone can be a >>hacker in d e s e r t. In this case, I decide that my character isn't though.
I pick Jun(iper) for a name.
PLAY
My latest pitch for how d e s e r t plays is this:
d e s e r t is a GMless Cyberpunk roleplaying game focusing on interaction with an within a randomly generated city.
A token-based reaction system ensures that it makes a difference what districts and even individual buildings characters move through and how they do it. This tangibility comes from omnipresent security and surveillance systems of various types.
The city looks at you as much as you look at the city.
The city d e s e r t is set in provides a public access app that visualizes its entire security layout and the security systems installed in every building. Tool-wise this manifests as dice stacks, a building sheet and the viewer (see below).
Since I have the building sheet for the pregenerated Apartment complex, I set up the viewer for section 1 'Entrances'. The blue tokens indicate that a respective statement is required. I don't have to say what I feel - the orange token.
(Jun) Turning to my students, I ask their impressions of the place. Mumbling. Some are taking pictures of the cat on the info desk. I feel tired, maybe it's the building, too. The veinscan doesn't take my synthpalm, obviously, but does offer to download a free Leuven app. Students ask to go to the shops. I tell them they can if they input their findings as discussed.
At this point I have said something in all the required security categories and even in the optional one. Another player - I could as well - asks for a negative reaction draw. Juniper seems suspect. Since I didn't bypass or hack anything, five blue tokens plus the orange optional one go into a bag. I draw and, to my surprise, get the orange token.
So instead of the carefully escalated response of a blue token, the reaction is randomly determined: Building security is dispatched and arrives after 6 minutes. Overkill. Leuven, the corporation in control of the Apartment complex's security data, loses a point of trust (this is an element of campaign play where buildings may slip from corporate control and its profiteers.)
(Jun) I bluff and tell security "of course I called about this. I got this one time access thing - I flash the Leuven app I just installed on my phone - but it doesn't work. Could you please just let us in for half an hour so my students can finish their assignments?"
Someone improvises a quick draw for the security personnel's reaction (unmediated this time, so no viewer): 3 indifference tokens, 1 curiosity, 1 negative, 1 positive. I draw the positive one.
(Jun) I get temporary access, gather the students and we go to the courtyard first. I feel awake again. Students fan out in the sunlit courtyard. The Leuven app is superb in providing all kinds of data down to the potted plants here. I doubt the residents look at it much. An old man dozes on his balcony with a glass of wine.
The reaction roll for the section is requested. Positive this time. There's a red bypass token in the mix because of the temp access. I draw it.
(Jun) After 30 minutes spent in the courtyard security shows up again and we leave.
At this point play could switch to another character and their arrival at the building. In campaign mode, city creation follows and any characters could be played outward from there.
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