Brian Transplant

I was going to write this ahead of Thanksgiving, because I wanted to mention something I was truly thankful for. I've been actually thinking about writing this for a while, but for reasons that will become obvious, it's a hard subject to write about. This is something I've never mentioned before, and it involves opening myself up more than I usually do.

Last year, I released my first solo TTRPG, Cult of the Drive-in. That game was heavily inspired by Ken Lowery's VOID 1680 AM, as well as a few other solo TTRPGs and even a multiplayer one (Nathan D. Paoletta's World Wide Wrestling channeled fandom into art, which was something I was trying to emulate).

Cult of the Drive-in was the result of a lot of restless energy, due to a major crisis I was going through: Specifically, I was in the middle of bankruptcy. I didn't say much about it at the time. A few friends and relatives knew, but I had kept it from the greater internet until it was over. Since I couldn't sleep very well, I decided to pour my restless energy into something other than ruminating and scrolling through the same five social media tabs.

I'm hesitant even now to talk about my bankruptcy for a few different reasons. First and foremost I'd like to avoid any accusations of "pity marketing." This isn't that. I've given away a lot of copies of the game, and I've included it in charity bundles where I didn't make a cent. Also, I really feel like that was a low point in my life, and I try not to revisit it.

I had used as much free art as I could. I used the six-month free demo of Affinity Publisher to design it. The fonts were from Google Fonts. I had to be very careful with money, and basically justify spending a small amount of money on a Noun Project membership, and licensing the cover photo. For those of you playing along at home, this means two things.

The total art budget for Cult of the Drive-in was $22.

At that time, $22 was a large expenditure for me.

During the buildup to the game's eventual release, I had gotten some small buzz. Maybe a single-digit number of people knew about it. And that's where I had expected it to begin and end. I was being realistic about it. It was my first release of what was essentially a modified "hack," and so sales would be sparse, if I got any at all. In the midst of this, I emailed a free download code to Ken Lowery, along with a short "thank you" message for inspiring me to create my own game.

I need you, dear reader, to understand that I didn't email Ken out of any sense of self-promotion. I didn't ask or expect anyone else to plug my game. He had greatly inspired me to roll my sleeves up and create something. And my sole intent at the time was to thank him.

Back to bankruptcy: I was severely broke. I was the kind of broke where my paycheck immediately disappeared to cover last pay period's overdraft fees and bills, leaving me with nothing for groceries. I was seriously wondering how my wife and I were going to eat that week.

My phone buzzed. I made a sale. "Nice," I said. "Maybe I can get a loaf of bread and some--" My phone buzzed again. "Whoa. Two sales?" It buzzed again. And then a handful more times. All told, I was sitting on around $63. It wasn't much, but as long as we were creative, we could get gas and groceries for a week.

I was able to trace it back to a Bluesky post from Ken Lowery himself.

I fell apart. That's the only way to describe it. There was relief, joy, pride, and a sense of validation, all undercutting the dread I'd been dealing with for weeks.

I wanted to tell my wife we had enough money to hit up the grocery store. I wanted to explain that I'd sold a handful of copies of my game. But I had to take about five minutes to compose myself first.

For the record: The worst is behind us, and things are going better for us now.

I don't know if I'm ever going to have the budget or output to get a table at a convention, or catch the eye of an award panel. And I'm fine with that. The timing of that Bluesky post and those few sales meant the world to me.

Every year around late November, you'll find yourself inundated with videos and listicles chronicling the "best gifts for TTRPG players." But most of those lists are focused on that sword-and-sorcery game with the ampersand in the middle.

And hey. There's nothing wrong with medieval fantasy. If that's your thing, I want you to have fun playing it. So if you're looking a this as a "my stuff is better than your stuff" post, please don't. There's enough room in the gaming space for everyone.

All I'm saying is that there are those of us who prefer modern, near-future, or alternate future settings. We like the whole "high tech and low life" vibe of cyberpunk and its various subgenres. And gosh-darn it, we like getting (and giving) presents too, choom.

So here's a short list of gift ideas for that cyberpunk roleplay fan in your life.

NOTE: I have no affiliation with any of these companies or brands. None of these links are affiliate links. Nobody sent me any free stuff. They most likely don't even know who I am. My opinions are my own, based on stuff I bought with my own money (or would like to buy). We good?

Dice

This is the easiest and probably least-expensive thing you can do for somebody. And I have yet to meet a single TTRPG player who thinks they have "enough" dice.

DND Dice / King of Crits has four different sets of cyberpunk dice. Two of them are 11-die sets that come with two D20s, four different D6 designs, and a nifty custom poker chip. The other two are seven-die sets with only one D20 and one D6. I own the "Cyberpunk" set (pictured above) and it's pretty rad.

Q Workshop sells officially licensed Cyberpunk RED dice sets, and also has four designs, ranging from your classic red-on-black "Blood Over Chrome" to a black-on-yellow "Danger Zone" set, more evocative of the Edgerunners anime.

I'm sure many other companies are making bespoke cyberpunk-themed dice. If you can't think of anything else, snag these.

Miniatures

If you're doing the whole maps-and-minis thing, you're going to need something to represent your character. Sure, you could raid your board games, and have the Monopoly Shoe facing off against a bunch of Sorry tokens. But it's a lot cooler if everyone has something that looks (at least kinda) like their character.

ArcKnight has you covered with this 56-piece "Cyberpunks" flat-pack miniatures set. It comes with eight bases, and they store flat for easy transport.

If you'd rather have minis with three dimensions, We Print Miniatures can sell you four random sci-fi miniatures for $13 USD (plus shipping).

Maps

This is more for the GM in your life. You know what's better than giving someone a battle mat? Giving someone 62 of them all at once.

Loke Maps' Giant Book of Cyberpunk Battle Mats contains 62 pages of battle mats, that can be made to approximate 30-ish double-page spread maps, or 62 single-page maps. And this thing is huge, at 12x16 inches when closed, and 24x16 when fully open. It's spiral-bound, which makes it easy to open flat onto a table.

Loke has followed that up with The Cyberpunk Set, with is a pair of books that can be stacked on top of each other for all sorts of map variations. That's currently in preorder, so I'm not sure if it'll get here in time for that guy in the red suit to come down your chimney.

Terrain

This is more stuff for the GM in your life. As a "forever GM," I feel like we're often an afterthought in the gift-giving conversation. Also, this is my list. So I'm putting what I want on it.

Tenfold Dungeon has this amazing Cyberpunk City set of what basically amounts to a large amount of high-quality, high-resolution stackable boxes. If you flip them "lid" side up, they're buildings and terrain to navigate. If you flip them "lid" side down, they're rooms that your miniatures can inhabit. The boxes nest into each other, making storage easy. The set also comes with plenty of clips to keep things from moving around the table, as well as doors, walls, staircases, and barricades.

I'll be honest. I don't own and have not seen the Battle Systems Cyberpunk Core Set in person. But it does seem to have a lot of furniture and scatter terrain that might make it worth the purchase price. The downside is that it seems to have only a single "map" printed on the board, so a GM might have to get creative when coming up with variety.

And let's talk about this Tabletop Terrain Ramen Bar. I want this. A lot. I mean look at it. Your player-characters can sit there on a stool in the rain, bathed in neon light, shoveling noodles into their faces, just as Philip K. Dick intended. You can get it in various scales, from 15mm to 32mm (28mm would be the best for most TTRPGs). And it comes with either a vaulted roof or a rounded one. Just add some EL wire and some paint, and that's atmosphere!

Randomization

Sometimes a GM gets stuck and needs to come up with something fast. Rather than sitting there frozen, maybe give them a list of...

Oh, gosh. What's the word?

Right. That it.

The Book of Random Tables: Cyberpunk Edition from Dicegeeks also has a second and third volume, and are available digitally or physically. Need to fill up a room with loot, come up with a character name, have a random band of Rockerboys show up, or something else? Roll here.

And while Cyberpunk Single Player Mode is obviously meant for one player with a GM, the tables contained inside are great for running a group - or even having the dreaded "GMPC" as part of the party, who will be just as surprised by a plot twist as everyone else. Because the GM didn't come up with that - it was ordained by the Oracle (a fancy word for table in TTRPG speak).

Player resources

Do you want your TTRPG character to actually feel like a character and not a bunch of numbers on a page?

The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide: Expanded Genres Edition not only has a ludicrously long title, but really helps you flesh out your character without writing an entire novella about them. Author James D'Amato gives you a long list of prompts and questions to answer, but doesn't require you to answer every single one of them. Generally the guide will have you roll a die and answer only a few questions per category.

While Cyberpunk RED has "Lifepaths" that help flesh out your character nicely, other systems and settings may leave you in the dark when it comes to a backstory. This gives you a half-decent jumping-off point.

D'Amato also has The Ultimate RPG Gameplay Guide to keep you from being "that player" at the table.

Cred

Call it Nuyen, Eddies, Cred, or something else. But sometimes you just gotta leave someone to their own devices.

It's the ultimate way to say "I didn't know what to get you."

Gift cards can be nabbed from most big-box stores or online retailers. But let's get specific into roleplaying territory here.

HeroForge offers gift cards for their custom miniatures.

DriveThruRPG offers gift cards ranging from $5 to $100 USD.

Tabletop Bookshelf lets you gift between $10-100 USD.

While Itch.io doesn't do gift cards, they do allow you to purchase games as a gift, as long as you know your recipient's email address.

Dom and Brian are eating shrimp. Brian says something like "there's no way you paid for all that (stuff) in your car by selling groceries and doing tune-ups for old ladies."

All Dom would have had to say is "Uh, Brian, I do illegal street racing. You've seen me do it. Hell, you've even done it with me."

Pleased to announce "Cult of the Drive-in," a solo #TTRPG that puts you in the shoes of a drive-in movie theater curator. You'll select double features and handle special events over a summer moviegoing season.

Slated for release later this year, as a download or print-on-demand softcover book.

Spoiler: The album title "The Tortured Poets' Department" is not because Taylor Swift considers herself a poet enduring torture. It's actually a confessional, in which she admits she's been torturing poets in a dungeon for years.

There are so many poets, in fact, she had to hire more people to help torture them (the "department").

Here's Mark Dacascos as Eric Draven, dodging bullets with the "windmill" technique.

You’ve been jumping in these streets for a while now. A hotline called, giving you a hard ticket to somewhere with fast cars, sunglasses, palm trees, and vice. You make your way through the bad guy’s hideout, open the safe, and find the evidence you need to put him away for good. That’s what Arcade Tokens are all about.

This is a set of 24 pixel art tokens for physical or virtual tabletop role-playing games, set in the neon-soaked 1980s. Each token comes with one color variant, for a total of 48 items your players may find and use.

All are 128×128 pixels, in stunning VGA color.

Here are two different versions of my low-poly PicoCAD Interocitor. One has been rendered with PicoCAD, and the other was created using SpriteStack. As you can see, the SpriteStack render adds subtle colored lighting and shadows.

"More!" I yell. "More, now!"