Hyper Life DEMO DISC (beta)

Hyper Life is a 90s-television-cinematic-universe ttrpg system. Want to play in a setting where both Frasier and Batman are real people? This has you covered.

That said, it's also very much still in development, so before trusting that this review is an accurate representation of the game, check its version number. This review is for v.2 .

Hyper Life's PDF is 63 pages, with a layout that is easy to read but has a very Microsoft Word feeling to it. Some elements of the text are color-coded, which is nice, and there are a few illustrations and a character sheet included with the text. The writing is also very conversational, which is refreshing.

The PDF does sometimes turn into a wall of words, but the font size is big and the text-per-page ratio is small, so it's not hard to get through.

Mechanics-wise, Hyper Life uses a very heavily modified PbtA as its core system. Moves are called Acts, and rolling consumes Bonus Points (which you allocate to your skills every day) or one of your two types of HP, and target numbers actually matter if you don't roll a success or failure outright, but you're still rolling 2d6 plus small penalties or small bonuses, and you'll automatically know what to do if you've played any PbtA before.

To match this, combat in Hyper Life is loose but clearly defined. You have to-hit checks, damage rolls, different ways to spend an action, assist moves, status effects, elemental vulnerabilities, ammo, weapon durability, spellcasting, and there's even a simple range system, but most everything else is theater of the mind. You don't have to worry about moving hexes or rolling limb damage, and the same systems that handle physical damage also handle terror or boring conversations.

For character creation, you build your PC out of Traits (attributes,) Sub-Traits (skills,) and a Special Sub-Trait (your defining area of competency.) You also have Health, Stamina, Bonus Points, and Inventory, which are calculated off of your statline. And you have a Concept, which is sort of a loose, player-created class.

Character improvement is done through Gifts, which are player-created tweaks to a character's statline. These are similar to Concepts, but more precise, and the book gives good guidance on how to design and balance them.

In fact, in terms of useability, Hyper Life does a consistently excellent job of explaining its game systems. If you've ever dipped your toes into rpgs, you'll be able to understand the rules here, even though they're of medium complexity.

For GMs, there's a lot for you to mechanically engage with (crafting NPCs, tracking time, keeping PCs balanced,) but the game doesn't try to force mechanics into places where mechanics don't need to be. It *does* tend to frame scenes (called Segments) as being about specific types of skill checks, but it's easy to ignore this if it clashes with your style. Also, the game has the players pick different ways to recover their characters' Health/Stamina/FreeB in between scenes, which I haven't seen in any other system but fits perfectly with Hyper Life's cinematic pacing.

Overall, this absolutely is the game I would use to run Dead Heat (1988,) but it's also just a really solidly built unisystem for cinematic rpgs. If you already enjoy stuff like Fate and Savage Worlds, or if you want something a bit more narrative-y and less miniatures-game-y than DnD, give Hyper Life a look. It's easy to learn, has a little mechanical heft, and could be the perfect pick for a mid length campaign or action movie oneshot.

Minor Details:

-I'm not sure I vibe with the way burning BP currently works. It has the potential to be a really engaging system, but as it stands it requires you to try and predict the types of skill rolls you'll be making during a given day. If you could do something positive with BP, like burning it to prevent damage from failed rolls with the skill it's assigned to, or burning it to boost a dice result, I would click with it a lot more.

-Stamina, Health, and FreeB being all 1-to-1 convertible kind of removes the need to have them at all. A big pool of HP equal to Stamina + Health + FreeB would fulfill the same function. Making them 2-to-1 conversions would change this. Alternatively, the combat rules seem to suggest that you can't convert Stamina, Health, and FreeB at any time---you need to use a Fighting Move to do it. You could also apply a limitation to when players can convert Stamina/Health/FreeB outside of combat.

-The yellow color for Personal Style is neigh on unreadable to me against the white background. I'm not sure if this is an issue everyone will experience, but I had to lean in and squint. Also the use of red and green as differentiating colors might be an issue for readers who are red-green colorblind.

-Ranged weapons not being able to attack Near definitely makes sense design-wise, but breaks verisimilitude really hard. Even having them unable to attack Close instead of Near would feel more natural, and the fact that they're ammo-reliant is probably already enough of a mechanical counterweight to keep them competitive with melee weapons.

-I really like that you can burn Durability from backpacks to block damage. It's a cool tactical option, and a meaningful gameplay choice.

-This might be polarizing, but I love how temporary death is in this system. You can straight up resurrect a buddy in between scenes, no narrative justification given, and that's bold and fun and fits the vibe of the system perfectly.