Zaibatsu is a successful cyberpunk setting. However, it was incomprehensibly cut. The original concept contained features that are missing in the current version. Most wanted: The Repo Man.

Mandatory update necessary: Hospitals are institutions that are often part of corporations. Their business activities are sometimes questionable. Where do they obtain transplant organs from, for example? This is where the organ legger comes in.

Well, transplants and artificial organs are not cheap and only the well-heeled can usually afford them. Corporations are profit-oriented. So why not implant organs on credit?

It is not uncommon for patients to find themselves in the precarious position of being unable to pay. This is where the Repo Man comes into play (see the 2010 movie of the same name).

Quote from the original concept: "REPO MAN You are an agent working for a genetics company that repossesses failed clones. Clone insurance gives the wealthy the chance to live again in young bodies, but the treatment is still experimental and there are many problems. All the clients require confidentiality, and the zaibatsu cannot afford its mistakes to be made public. Perhaps they got two minds mixed up, or the client died in an unusual place and his head needs to be returned to the zaibatsu so the mind can be scanned into the new clone. You know all about the clone business. SKILL: Meditech. GEAR: Riotgun or Riot Pistol."

Why wasn't the character concept adopted in an adapted form?

Zozer made a winner with this one. If you're looking for a game for playing agents in the shadows of the world of big money and high politics, you found it.

That's a really great cyberpunk setting! And it uses one of my favourite systems: Cepheus Engine - with simultaneous initiative, which I find a nice touch. But the best part of the game are the hacking rules, IMO. Cutting "ice" can now be fun!

I feel this game gets the genre gaming. Streamlined combat that captures the sense of cinema as oposed to simulation. Running around Cyberspace has been handled beautifully The 2D6 Cepheus engine has been streamlined. Character background tables are great. Love the authors writing style. Get the book on Lulu email author get the pdf free. Can't say fairer than that. Looking forward to picking up Hostile next

It's like those two books were made for each other. Zozer are doing Cepheus mechanics proud. If you're looking for exciting ideas fleshed out and ready to go keep it Zozer Five stars × 2 Looking forward to picking up more.

Really enjoying Zozer's books, and this and Hostile are my favourites, it's fast, furious, and light, most of my favourite Cyberpunk tropes here.

Combat is "simultaneous", but separated into hand-to-hand, and weapon rounds, hand-to-hand hits first, which gives a nice cinematic feel.

The world (Tokyo 2225) has just enough detail, but it's easy to incorporate material from any of the early Cyberpunk RPGs.

Light cyberspace rules, and vehicles, and 5 short adventures to boot, definitely worth the money.

I am consistently impressed by the quality of the sourcebooks Zozer puts out for the Cepheus Engine and other 2d6 Sci-Fi RPG lines, and this is no exception. There is a lot here that is relevant, not only to a Cyberpunk Japan/Earth setting, but also to shoddy downports anywhere. At 220 pages I was starting to wonder if it would never end, there being so much useful material delivered page after page. Compared to other publishers, you really get your moneys worth Zozer's products when it comes to detailed, in-depth, insightful and well researched material with cool, appropriate and occasional comical relief, graphical framing that translates easily into a one-off or a campaign. Even having lived in the Kanto area for a couple of years I am impressed with the Cyberpunk Japanese jargon and overall feel for the area portrayed, consistent with my own on-the-ground experience. This is a landmark work, Paul!

Neon lights, mirror shades, corporate warfare abound in Zaubatsu. Game is an awesome representation of Neuromancer-style cyberpunk. Highly recommend it and as a bonus, it synchs with Hostile perfectly.

I'm part of an experienced RPG group in Kazakhstan. I love the setting for this, and the game mechanic is easy and straight-forward. I enjoy crunchy games, too, but we used Zaibatsu for a 4-hour one-shot. By strategically selecting portions of the book to print, I was able to put together materials that the players could use to make their characters and play without prior knowledge of the game. PC generation took about 20 minutes. The game went great! I used the beginning mission included in the book. The players, as usual for our group, managed to completely avoid the direction they were supposed to go. But, with some ad hoc additions to the game, things went fine. I followed the designer's suggestion of keeping combat frequent and deadly. I also added new NPC's on-the-fly (I introduced the Makita assassin as a "femme fatale," and put her and her team earlier in the game, then had them have a shoot-out with the PC's for the climax). But, again, this was easy to do given the easy game mechanic. The players loved the setting and the fast-pace of the game!

Keep in mind that the game's modified Cepheus engine was easier for me than for some gamers in that I was already familiar with Traveller. The book has a few typos, but I'll address one of these on the discussion thread.

We're planning to use Zaibatsu for a local con on Saturday.

I do recommend this game!

Komban-wa, ronin. If you are a hardwired street samurai, if your eyes are always bathed in neon reflected from rain-slicked streets, if your skeleton is laced with titanium, or if you dream of electric sheep, this game is for you. Zaibatsu is a complete cyberpunk game based on the Cepheus Engine. The characters all work for a multinational conglomerate (nicknamed ‘zaibatsu’). As such, the character creation process is a bit different than usual for a Traveller setting -- characters have "concepts," not careers (street samurai, organ legger, maverick cop, ninja, etc.). Each concept comes with one skill and one piece of equipment. You get a few extra skills for a high Edu stat. The employer pays for retrogenics, cyberware or genetic alterations, which are detailed in the book. Finally, you start with a handgun and a radio headset and 4,000 yen. The standard PC here is a young, fresh out of training hired-gun or technician, solving problems for their employer.

The book includes a stripped down version of Cepheus Engine, meaning personal and vehicular combat is included, but ships and ship design are not. The focus is on street combat, with androids, robots, and vehicular combat getting a good treatment. These rank as Tiny, Small or Large and as Softskin, Light Armor or Heavy Armor. Three figures are given for a variety of vehicles; Armor Points, Disable Value, and Destruction Value. Armor points are subtracted from the damage of an attack. The damage is then inflicted on the vehicle (and added to previous damage suffered by it). When this total reaches the Disable or Destruction Value then the referee describes the consequences. There's stats for heavy weapons in the book, and the combat's go fast and lethal. It's very free-form, but also easy to use and fun. If things go bad, the PCs can be

The setting is in the Japan of 2100, a timeline much the same as the one outlined in Zozer's other game, Hostile. However, whereas Hostile deals mostly with the frontier worlds, Zaibatsu is about life in flashy, high-tech world of Japan. There are lots of details on the technology of the classic cyberpunk era, on money, and places to eat and shop. The author has created a setting that feels fast and claustrophobic, and though it focuses on Japan, the description works just as well for Los Angelos, say. Sa the book says, "take the broad brushstrokes that Gibson used to create that dystopian Japanese setting and create a living, vibrant world, detailed, immersive, exciting, dangerous, fashionable and also seedy" This a world without cellphones, using old school tech as it was envisioned in the 1970s and 1980s -- vidphones, no wireless computing, and instead of an internet, you have a datanetwork and cyberspace. And yes, the game includes rules for cyberdecks and playing in cyberspace, hacking, and so forth. The book includes descriptions of all the major zaibatsu and the yakuza.

If you are looking for something that is fast, easy to use, and captures the essence of the 80's cyberpunk books and films, this is it.