Your Character

Your character is your avatar in the game. At the beginning of the game, your character is a nameless drifter with no memories, coming in from the Badlands to the metropolis of Cinci. Your past, your abilities, your goals, and even your name and sex are all things that you will have to discover through playing the game.

Core Identity & Attributes

The fundamental building blocks of who you are. These define your innate capabilities and how you are perceived by the world.

• Traits - Your basic physical and mental abilities: charisma, strength, stamina, etc. These change slowly and only through extreme training, cybernetics, or substance use.
• Skills - Your learned abilities, from fighting to business. They are trained automatically by using them, and it's worth attempting difficult tests just for the training experience.
• Mutations - Inherent genetic modifications that grant unique abilities and challenges. This is a permanent choice made at the start of the game that will define your playthrough.
• Cybernetics - Implants and enhancements that can massively improve your traits and unlock new options. However, they increase your black shakes, and street-level surgery is always a risk.
• Quirks - Unique physical features about your body.
• Temperament - Four different approaches to the world. You can have two of them at a time.
• Morality - Your preference for "good" or "bad" actions, which affects how different people react to you.

Status & Survival

Cinci is a hard place. Looking after yourself is a full-time job. You begin with a grace period, but soon the city's dangers will ramp up to full blast.

• Wellbeing - Your wellbeing is represented by your sustenance, alertness, moods and other stats. If any of these move too far from the norm, you’ll start to experience increasingly serious negative effects.
• Threats & Hazards - Negative stats that build up over time. They include Injury (physical damage), Hardship (poverty, pollution), Black shakes (from tech), and Psychosis (mental trauma). High levels can lead to a doom loop and eventual death.
• Wounds & Injuries - Serious trauma that will take time to heal. Most major wounds won’t heal without medical attention from places like St Joe’s or the mercy crew.
• Need - Your character’s appetite for sexual pleasure. It rises over time and can be satisfied in various ways, though pain and exhaustion can be inhibitors.
• Perceived Temperature - Being too hot or cold can cause problems. Dress appropriately for the weather and use items like hot or cold drinks to manage your temperature.
• Substance Use & Addiction - Drugs and alcohol can provide temporary benefits but lead to increased tolerance and the risk of addiction, a vicious spiral that is hard to escape.
• Totally Crashed - Using stimulants like breathers or speed too quickly will crash your adrenals, preventing you from using them again until you recover through sleep and food.

Social & Crew

In Cinci, who you know is as important as what you can do. Your network of contacts and employees is a vital resource.

• People and Organisations - You can build relationships with many characters and factions. These groups also have relationships with each other—making an enemy of one might earn you a friend in another.
• Crew, Teams & Loyalty - Your Crew are people willing to work for you. You must pay them weekly and manage their loyalty. You can organize your crew into specialized Teams for different purposes.
• Close Companions - You can equip a companion in a special slot to have them by your side. This can be a named character for a specific story beat or a member of your crew on a given task.
• Trusted Sidekicks - Your most competent and trustworthy henchmen. They are more effective than normal crew but don't have the distinct personalities of full Contacts.

Equipment & Inventory

The gear you carry can be the difference between life and death. Your inventory is where you manage your weapons, clothes, vehicles, and more.

• Your Inventory & Strongbox - Your inventory holds all your items. A strongbox is essential for storing money securely, but you need to be in a living space to access it.
• Clothing & Preferred Styles - Clothing has mechanical effects, from temperature control to how dressed to impress you are. Consistently wearing a certain style will make it your preferred style, granting bonuses.
• Weapons & Wear - Firearms use ammo and are subject to weapon wear, which can cause jams or catastrophic failure. Always carry a blade as a backup.
• Vehicles & Wear - Vehicles are essential for some missions and alter your opportunities. They require fuel and suffer from vehicle wear, needing occasional service at a garage.
• Spikes - Artificial memories that boost your abilities, usable with a Neural Interface. They can be used or sold, though selling them can attract trouble.
• Breathers & Apps - Breathers are vials that provide a quick action refill but can cause a crash if overused. Your phone runs apps that must be managed against its security and performance resources.
• The Grey Market - You can buy cheaper goods on the grey market, but they are unreliable. They might be fine, they might harm you, or, on rare occasions, they might be even better than the real thing.

Gameplay & Progression

How you interact with the world and grow as a character, from taking actions to navigating the city's dangers.

• Actions, Cards & Decks - The core gameplay loop. You spend actions to draw cards from various decks, which represent your opportunities in the world.
• Routes & Familiarity - The backbone of discovering new content. You must first find a route to an area and then build familiarity there by exploring and gathering rumors to unlock new opportunities.
• Improving Yourself - Your core traits can be permanently increased through long-term training at places like a gym or dojo, which is one of the only ways to raise them.
• Making Money - A constant necessity. You can earn cash by working the streets, completing errands, or taking on bigger jobs.
• Chases & Hunting - You will often find yourself in chases, either as the hunter or the hunted. Your success depends on your skill and your familiarity with the area.
• Crime and Punishment - Different areas have different approaches to crime. A mounting body count, however, will earn you a bad reputation everywhere.
• Permadeath & Legacy - The game features permadeath. If you die, you can create a new character who can follow in the footsteps of your last, inheriting a head start and sometimes unlocking new content.