Stuck at Home; Keeping myself sane

Author: Joseph McGuire

Publisher: Osprey Publishing

Reality’s Edge is a skirmish wargame set in a dystopian cyber punk setting. Players take the role of a shadow runners, basically mercenary hackers who lead a small band of operatives, each with specialist skills and abilities, all looking to drag themselves out of the slums. These are in tun backed by Shadow backers, who have their own agendas and designs. The shadow runners will accept jobs/tasks from unknown clients for profit, glory and street cred.

Battles take part in the city commonly known as the sprawl, but players must at all times be aware of locals and the constant threat from cyberspace. Hacking is an essential element of the game, that comes from robots, AI machines, other hackers, drones and data nodes.

Running a campaign within the world of Reality’s Edge as it will allow you to earn experience and better equipment which includes advanced weaponry, synthetics, biological enhancements and much more.

This is a hardback book published by Osprey, it’s nicely laid out with some great artwork littered throughout, something we’ve come to expect from Osprey. The game can be played as either one off scenario or as a long running campaign. I feel it works best in a campaign style of playing, as you can slowly build your band of operatives up with more advanced weapons, better equipment and more operatives to drawn on.

The book is well laid out making it a very easy read. What did surprise me was the lack of images of miniatures and terrain, something you normally expect to see in a modern rule set. Which is a good thing in my opinion as it allows you to re-create the world/setting the way you envisage it. At 320 pages its rammed full of information which includes the black-market list of all the possible weapons, apps, equipment and items for sale, each of which includes a short description. There are a number of scenarios included in the book to try, but it is quite quick and easy to modify these or create your own.

Campaigns are the best way to enjoy this game. It will allow you to slowly build your crew but remember operatives can ditch your crew if things have a tendency to wrong regularly. Everything costs hartd cold cash including fixing injuries. Captured operatives can be bailed or left to rot in jail, though it’s better to bail them out otherwise it’ll affect the crew’s morale, and low morale is the quickest way for operatives to leave.

The mechanics are really well thought out and are based the authors other ruleset ‘This is not a Test’. Though this version of the rules adds more depth to roster generation and equipment options. Fundamentally this is a quick, simple set of rules that’s easy to learn, fun to play armed with a touch of role play.

I like the fact that this game isn’t tied to a miniature line and I’m free to use whatever minis I want. Fortunately, there is a plethora of options out there in the marketplace for both miniatures and terrain. For my first crew I’ve picked up a couple of minis from Studio McVey, one from Infinity and another from a game now lost to the world called Rezolution. Players are free to choose from a wide of manufacturers miniature ranges that could include Corvis Beli Infinity, GW’s Necromunda, Star Wars Legion, Hasslefree, Foundry and Artizan just to name a few. This is the same for terrain as well, in the last few years the range of Sci-Fi buildings and scatter terrain has grown giving us a wide range to choose from.

I’ve been looking for a generic Sci-Fi/Cyber punk game for a while now. I did think I’d done that when I picked up another rules set from Osprey called Rogue Stars, but though enjoyable wasn’t perfect. Reality’s Edge definitely hits the mark where Rogue Stars failed.

I would highly recommend this set of rules especially if you’re looking for something completely different to the current crop of mainstream Sci-Fi games on the market. Anyone looking for a more narrative style game should also pick up a copy. Finally, if Cyberpunk is your thing then this will definitely hit the mark for you, as it has plenty to offer with cybernetics, hacking rules, high tech weapons and much more. It absolutely has an Altered Carbon and Blade Runner feel to the game.