TECHNOIR FLIES TO HONG KONG
02/10/2019
A New Transmission for the Award-Winning RPG and the Return of Technoir Continues!
Strap on your airmask and take a deep breath: Technoir’s February 2019 release is Hong Kong: Special Administrative Unit, a transmission created by Mark Redacted.
Hong Kong: Special Administrative Region, a new transmission for the award-winning Technoir roleplaying game, has been released by Dream Machine Productions. In this dystopic cyberpunk future, Hong Kong’s fragrant harbor has become a fetid mess. Month-long acidic rains pour from the sky while triad and corporate corruption has enmeshed the city in debt and crippled its infrastructure. Most of the populace has been forced in warrens extending hundreds of meters into the bedrock and can escape only into the Immatrix broadcasts that allow viewers to feel the actors’ every sensation in real-time.
The release of the Hong Kong transmission also marks the continued success of 2019’s Return of Technoir! event. Originally kickstarted in 2011, Technoir won a Judges’ Spotlight Ennie in 2012, but ran into difficulty fulfilling its stretch goals. Since the beginning of the year, Dream Machine Productions has has successfully released a super-sized version of Morenoir, a supplement featuring advanced options and game master advice for the game, and also a full playtest draft of Hexnoir.
Additional supplements have followed, including Indianapolis Conplex, Kepler Station, and, now, Hong Kong: Special Administrative Region. Dream Machine Productions plans to release Hexnoir in April 2019, and continues work on a further slate of exciting support material for both Hexnoir and the original Technoir throughout the rest of the year.
TECHNOIR RETURNS!
12/14/2018
New Supplements and New Transmissions Coming Soon
The high-tech, hard-boiled roleplaying of Technoir has been acquired by Dream Machine Productions, the design studio owned and operated by Justin Alexander, and will be receiving active support — including new supplements, new transmissions, and new expansions — starting in January 2019.
Technoir, an exciting cyber-noir roleplaying game featuring a radical new mechanical approach and a revolutionary plot-mapping approach to improvised scenario design, was originally launched via a trend-setting and highly successful Kickstarter campaign in 2011. Designed by Jeremy Keller, the core rulebook was released in Fall 2011, with Mechnoir — an expansion player’s guide which took the game to Mars and introduced mechanics for running mecha-based scenarios — following in the spring of 2012. The game won a Judges’ Spotlight Ennie in 2012.
At that point, unfortunately, development stalled with several of the Kickstarter stretch goals still unfulfilled, and Technoir has lain fallow for the past six years. Having secured rights to the game, however, DMP has been quietly getting the core rulebook back into distribution channels via Indie Press Revolution, revamped the Technoir website, and begun development on a suite of new supplements for the game.
The first and most important goal for Justin Alexander and DMP has been to, at long last, fulfill the missing stretch goals which the original 600+ Kickstarter backers have been waiting for. We know that many of them have given up hope of ever seeing these stretch goals delivered, but we recognize that without them the game would not exist and we want to do right by them. Original backers of Technoir should return to the Kickstarter campaign page, where they will find an update explaining the steps they need to follow in order to claim their stretch goals.
All of this work culminates on January 1st, with a major relaunch of Technoir featuring:
Morenoir. The original 12-page PDF stretch goal has been super-sized into a 38-page supplement featuring run-time operations, advanced options for the game, a transmission creation guide, and Jeremy’s Guide to Writing Player’s Guides for Technoir.
Indianapolis Conplex. A brand new transmission for Technoir, featuring the 6×6 Master Table of connections, events, factions, locations, objects, and threats that lie at the heart of every Technoir scenario.
Kepler Station. A twist on the typical Technoir transmission, set in the space station atop the Kilimanjaro orbital elevator. Kepler Station is more than just a highway to the solar system. It’s a city in space, with a population of 20,000 lurking within its spheres of plascrete, rock, and steel.
In addition to immediately receiving their long-awaited copies of Morenoir on January 1st, the original Kickstarter backers will also receive access to playtest copies of Hexnoir, the Technoir magic supplement. These playtest materials will include the full text of the Hexnoir supplement plus three bonus transmissions, with final PDF versions to be released within a few months after the radical new mechanics have endured a proper trial by fire.
Although this will, at long last, bring the Technoir Kickstarter to conclusion, it’s just the beginning for Technoir. Dream Machine Productions and Justin Alexander are proud to have received this baton, and they have plans to carry the torch into the neon-drenched future.