Join The Department in a New Noir-Cyberpunk Miniatures Game
April 24, 2012 by brennon
We got to take a quick look at this game at Salute 2012 and had a chat with the folks behind it. Check out a new hybrid miniature/role-playing game called The Department which is on sale now...
"The Department is a tabletop miniature game set in a near future America where Fabricated Human Simulants, also known as fabricants, walk among us. Players take on the role of agents from the U.S. Department of Fabricant Management, a government department charged with policing fabricants and fighting the increasing instances of fabricant-related terrorism. The Department is meant to be the first tabletop police procedural game that requires no Game Master to play. Players will use sleuthing, investigation, interrogation, and combat to hunt down and stop fabricant terrorist cells.
The game draws heavily on the noir and police procedural dramas and blends in elements of robotic sci-fi. The Department is not cyberpunk: it’s Blade Runner meets Law and Order meets I-Robot meets American Gangster meets Mad Men meets The Maltese Falcon and more."
Hopefully we will be able to take a much deeper look into this game. The basis on goals and achieving objectives in a Noir setting mixed with a Blade Runner feeling means this could be something quite unique. We shall be keeping an eye on this one.
You can grab this online now.
Will you be giving this a try?
Definitely sounds interesting. The cover has a good ‘gritty anime’ art style like Ghost In The Shell as well. It’s too bad the players won’t live…but then again who does?
😉
I wonder how playing this game without game master works in practice considering how important role game master traditionaly has.
The NPCs use a set of quick charts based on what each can see, then a roll to see how they react.
Works well.
Lee
I met these guys at Salute and I’m looking forward to checking out their game. The idea that the game is cooperative and lacks a GM or referee, seems intriguing.
This sounds like a good theme for a RPG. As for the GM free game play. I can see it working if the main book has a scenario generater and one of the non active players discribes what is happening for an event. This could keep everyone in the dark and more focused on it being like a mystery.