Run the sprawl, push your chrome, and dare the Wake to answer.
image slot · Neon Wake, the world
The world
Where it happens
The megacorps own the sky: Halcyon Dynamics sells the chrome in your bones, Mercer-Vael sells the soldiers who hunt you, Kestrel Biotics grew the vat-stock in the labor blocks, Ohmnet runs the Grid you live on, and Saint-Auber owns the dreams you buy. Below the arcology spires the city runs in layers, from neon-soaked Lowmarket to the off-grid Hollows where the desperate vanish. You are a crew working the gap between corp law and street survival.
A run is a job: infiltrate a corp node, pull a data package, extract a person, burn a rival facility. The fiction breathes between the numbers, with relationships built and burned and heat rising on a clock. The Wake bleeds through the neon: street magic born from something the Surge left behind, unpredictable and brutal and useful when you need a miracle. A good run ends with everyone out and the cred confirmed.
image slot · the pressure that drives play
What drives it
Strain, the toll of the chrome
Every piece of cyberware you push past its rated spec adds Strain, the engine corruption meter reskinned for chrome and flesh. Strain climbs from clear through stressed and frayed to fractured, and at 10 the chrome wins: the GM resolves your fate as a flatline, a forced retirement, or a cyberpsycho turned NPC. The only limit on what you can do is what you can stand to lose.
image slot · Neon Wake, how it plays
How it plays
The systems you can ask for
These mechanics are original to Neon Wake — you will not know them from any rulebook. Read them here, then simply ask your gamemaster for any of them at the table; the engine enforces every number.
Chrome & the ripperdoc
Install cyberware on the table — surgery has DCs, botches reject, and Strain can be paid back down.
Overclock
Once a scene, push an augment past spec for a surge — and risk overheating for it.
The Grid
Netruns are a real mini-game: race the Trace clock, fight ICE, spend daemons you bought or brewed.
Heat
Every job has a wanted level — go loud and response teams come; go quiet, scrub the trail.
The Score
Legwork before a heist banks real assets: floor plans, inside men, clean exits.
Drones & wheels
From a recon drone to an armored van — priced, statted, and yours to field.
“Everything in this city is for sale. The trick is noticing what you just sold.”
image slot · the lineages of Neon Wake
Who you can be
8 lineages
image slot · the roles in action
What you can do
10 roles
Street Samurai
The chromed gun-and-blade, wired for combat and speed.
Netrunner
Pure Grid hacker: ghosts networks, cracks ICE, runs the data.
Fixer
The face who knows everyone and deals in favors and secrets.
Nomad
Road-hardened wheelman, the wastes are home and escape is a gift.
Hexer
The Wake mage: street magic, hex slots, and arcane backlash.
BruiserPremium
Heavy-augment brawler built to absorb punishment and dish it back.
WrenchPremium
Drone rigger and vehicle specialist, commands machines as allies.
ChannelerPremium
Body-mystic channeling the Wake into flesh, no slots, pure martial force.
MedtechPremium
Combat medic and ripperdoc, keeps the crew alive and installs chrome.
AgentPremium
Corpo operative: infiltrator, face, and spy with a corp at their back.
image slot · the arms of Neon Wake
The arsenal
Arms, and what they cost
Real rows from the engine's own tables: the dice are the dice, the prices are the prices. Your gamemaster cannot fudge them, and neither can you.
Heavy pistol1d10
Corp-grade stopping power, eight rounds of it.
Mono-katana1d10
An edge ground to a single molecule. It does not snag.
Railcarbine1d12
Magnetic spite; walls are a rumor.
Wired reflexes800 Cred
You move before you decide to. That is the problem.
Stealth daemon250 Cred
A ghost you spend. The Grid forgets you were there.
Combat drone1,800 Cred
Loyalty with a gun mount and no payroll.
… and 55 more priced pieces in play.
image slot · what hunts you in Neon Wake
The opposition
What hunts you
Every foe is statted before the fight starts; what your party learns about them is recorded, hunt by hunt.
Corp riot officerHP 20
Insurance made flesh, shield first.
Hunter-killer droneHP 28
It files you under pending.
Black ICEHP 28
The part of the Grid that bites back, through the jack.
CyberpsychoHP 40
What is left when the chrome wins.
Wake-horrorHP 65
The Surge left doors open. Something uses them.
Razor saintHP 48
A street legend with monofilament fingers.
… and 46 more in the bestiary.
Begin a Neon Wake campaign
Connect lorewend to your AI, make a character, and tell the gamemaster you want Neon Wake. The free tier plays a full campaign.
