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.
About Dream Machine Productions: DMP is the design studio and publishing house owned and operated by Justin Alexander, who is also known for his work as Lead Developer for Modiphius’ Infinity RPG, the Alexandrian (home to the Three Clue Rule, Xandering the Dungeon, Node-Based Scenario Design, and other GMing classics), and a long list of freelance work for Atlas Games, Dream Pod 9, Steve Jackson Games, Fantasy Flight Games, and others. More information can be found at http://www.dreammachineproductions.net.
About Technoir: More information on Technoir can be found at http://www.technoirrpg.com, including a free Player’s Guide, the free Twin Cities Metroplex transmission, and other resources.
Hi!
That’s great (and unexpected) news.
Is there a chance we will see a POD version from Dtrpg?
The only hardcopies currently available are on IPR and shipping to Europe is crazy expensive.
Thanks and best of luck in this endeavor,
Luigi
Congrats Justin! Good luck on this new venture. I can only imagine how tough it was not to post a big celebratory article the second you got the rights, and how hectic it must have been to revive the project and address the abandoned stretch goals. Kudos for doing it right.
Awesome news, congratulations!
I kind of missed the boat with Technoir and still haven’t had an opportunity to actually sit down and play it. Hopefully your upcoming content will reignite the spark that drives me to give it a shot!
I also meant to say that your promise to finally give the original Kickstarter backers their rewards is laudable. So many Kickstarters just kind of dropped off the grid and never finished giving the backers what was promised.
It is great to see you pick up the torch and ensure that the backers are properly respected at last for their contributions that made the game possible.
“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.”
Awwww, you! (I’m not a backer, BTW, I’ve first heard of it in your blog, but awesome still)
Missed the kickstarter, but really enjoyed the one convention game I played of this. Where do non-backers go to make sure we’re up to date on what we can buy and when other goodies will be available to buy?
Great news! Looking forward to updates.
@Luigi: We’re exploring several options to get Technoir reprinted. Unfortunately, due to certain files being lost before DMP acquired the IP, we do not currently have a print-ready PDF or the ready ability to create a print-ready PDF. We’re looking at several solutions, but it may be necessary to redo the layout (which will, unfortunately, be quite time-consuming).
@John R.: Exactly. I didn’t want to get anybody’s hopes up until we were ready to actually deliver. Jeremy was a big help in getting us here, and I appreciate him being willing to trust me to shepherd Technoir’s legacy.
We’ve been quietly working behind the scenes for a bit: We got the printed book back into distribution. And we got the website back online so that people could find information on the game. And we’ve been spending a lot of time playtesting Hexnoir and refining it until it truly brings magic into the game. (Or, at least, we hope so. We’ll see what the verdict of the Kickstarter-playtest is.)
@Lisa: We don’t have a mailing list set up at this time. (Although that may change in the future.) I’ll post updates here at the Alexandrian. We’re also maintaining the Technoir Facebook page now: https://www.facebook.com/TechnoirRPG
As there has been some confusion, I should note that the base game is currently available from IPR, DriveThru, and your local gaming store: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/93378/Technoir?affiliate_id=81207
[…] fabularna Technoir zostaje przejęta przez Dream Machine Productions, która to obiecuje w pierwszej kolejności zakończyć wszystkie projekty, które nie zostały z […]
Hey Man!!!! This is your old EP forum battle brother, I actually gave up gaming, but a friend in need pulled a favor to get me to run cyberpunk… I didn’t wanna do a one shot so… Technoir here I come. Now I do plan on using night City (because I actually live just outside night City, aka Morro Bay, California, check the old sourcebooks) any tips on re-skinning?