Any system that lists "Rampancy" among the stats a character can have is one that is probably going to get my attention.
What is particularly interesting about a game where you're playing an AI is the way Transit separates the "software" from the "hardware". A lot of rolls are presented as a combination of AI and ship stats: AI-specific stats are helpfully listed in all-caps, while ship-specific stats are all lowercase. To use an example, to request a "PSYCHREP" - a psychological report, the AI equivalent of a Sense Motive check - Transit has us "Roll + UIsys". "UI" is the AI stat relating to the relative strength of your AI's user interface: how it interacts with other entities both within and without its ship. "sys" is a ship stat, representing the physical apparati it uses to handle that interaction. Most of transit's checks involve making rolls that similarly marry your ship's physical systems with the underlying AI's capabilities.
As a software developer, it's refreshing to see a sci-fi setting that better represents the infinite configurations of hardware and software that technology allows for. Many cyberpunk settings glaze over these details by relegating them to a separate subsystem that only certain characters will ever interact with (Shadowrun come to mind) but in Transit it's the bread-and-butter of the entire system.
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |