Lago, to answer your question:
here's an instructional video
right--o, it has been a while since I killed a whole bottle of wine myself and then kept going, so I'm on to the hungover phase - and that means hair o' the dog, so moving on with a breakfast beer:
this is from my 2nd favorite local brewery
Chapter 2: Create Your Hero
Chargen is given an ultra quickstart method here: pick one of these
classes archetypes, come up with a name, and a backstory which includes a melodramtic hook and start playing. That's an admirable goal, but it runs into a major roadblock as soon as any player is prone to decision paralysis. And by decision paralysis, I mean "wants to know what the fuck the numbers mean" or "thinks rules matter, even in a supposedly rules-lite system". Because at this point, due to KS stretch goal classplossion there are
36 different archetyoes to scan through in the basic book before you pick one. A lot of them overlap in minor to moderate ways, but a few have unique subsystems discussed in later chapters.
So at a rate of one minute to read flavor text and contemplate the basics of each
class archetype, each of your group's players is going to need over a half hour alone with the book. And If any of them want to go in depth and read the sorcery, or scroungetech subsystems before committing to a character who uses one it's going to be a lot longer than that. Even worse, these 36 archetypes are listed alphabetically, instead of by any sort of useful grouping like suggested junctures or primary attack type. So players can't break their decision into quicker steps like "I want to play a shooty dude, show me the guns characters" without reading everything in order.
Thus, people actually running this will be pirating copies of the PDFs and once again you have either a full session of nothing but chargen or you are handing out pre-game homework and the promise of leaping into the action
I would have learned that term faster if Kratos had taught my literature courses
is unfulfilled.
As another downside, this method means that players are strongly discouraged from playing the same archetype as any other player in this game. Since customization doesn't happen until after the first game session, two characters of the same class will be 100% mechanically identical. So the game doesn't quite support the trope of nearly-identical characters teaming up, which is a major failing considering the source material
open for images
So design wise things would have been better keeping to far fewer archetypes, but giving player one or three customization switches on each archetype than they are having a classplosion with locked options for classes.
But moving past the decision to go classplosion, we get an "archetype key" overview of what the terms on your character sheet will mean. Name and Catch Phrase are self-explanatory. Wealth is highly abstract and mainly flavor text. The stats and substats from the prior edition have been collapsed into just Attack (Primary), Defense, Toughness, Fortune, and Speed, with things that used to be stat based checks now using a default AV of 7.
Attacks come in 6 flavors: Guns, Martial Arts, Sorcery, Creature, Mutant and Scroungetech, and many archetypes have an alternate attack form they can use.
Defense has been decoupled from primary AV in this edition. You no longer dodge with your Guns skill, which always got into funny justifications for how you dodged after you'd been disarmed. Instead you have a DV that's fixed by archetype. This is an improvement.
Likewise Fortune comes in 5 flavors: Vanilla, Chi, Magic, Scroungetech and Genome. Terminology wise, those could be better: Guns should probably be Shooting since it covers Bows and the like, and Scroungetech should probably not run off of Scroungetech points when every other type gets a different name for the resource management game unit. Interestingly the removal of substats means that now the pool of points which powers your supernatural kung-fu, ancient magic or cyborg implants is the same pool that gives you luck points you can spend to roll an extra positive d6. This is a slight nerf to types with schticks that require point expenditure.
Speed is your initiative base. Depending on Archetype it can be as low as 5 (Big Bruiser) or as high as 9 (Killer, Scrappy Kid, Thief, Sword Master). Since you get extra actions for higher initiative rolls, and the roll is a single (non open ended) 1d6+Speed that's a striking amount of variance in how many actions characters will get in a typical fight, but I'll whine about that more when I get to the still-klunky initiative system. Speed is also nominally your movement rate, but as this game is anti-map and has an abstract car chase system, you will never ever use those numbers.
There's a decent section about personalization with player-side advice about what makes workable character concepts and melodramatic hooks and the concept of "buy-in" is introduced. That's where you get the authorship ability to explain why and how your character's motivation leads them to this fight.
Your GM might ask you to establish buy-in at any time. When she does this, she’s also helping you fnd a fruitful thread to pursue. The question “Why do you want to hunt for Stevie Tran?” clearly signals that there’s awesomeness waiting for you, in the general direction of Stevie Tran.
This is kinda railroady, but it at least emphasizes that it is a co-operative storytelling game where you get inputs to help build the rails. That's a thoroughly anti-Gygaxian sentiment and I can wish it had been advanced in a game 30 or 40 years ago.
Then we get into the Archetypes.
Archer -
Not this guy. But you can and should should name your archer "Spy"
you use a bow in ways that make you competitive with others using automatic firearms.
Bandit - strangely this is not the two-sixgun wielding dude who robs stagecoaches and stands up against the railroads' exploitation of immigrants in the 1850s that I would have expected the "bandit" class to be. It is instead a martial arts archetype likely based on the love interest dude from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Big Bruiser - You are big and slow and hit hard. Robin hyped how this class had been buffed to work better since 1st ed, but I'm skeptical.Your weak AV is partially balanced by getting a cumulative bonus to AV on each consecutive miss, but you have the lowest speed in the game, so the fight will be over before you get to miss much and the bonus is unlikely to matter. The aiming rules seem to be gone in this edition, so you can't even spend your few shots to increase your AV enough to hit.
Bodyguard. - Fortunately the tag line has nothing to do with I Will Always Love Yoooouuuuuu and instead you get
this as one of your schticks.
Bounty Hunter - you get Quarry abilities vaguely similar to the 4e ranger. You also start with Fast Draw, which increases your initiative result if and only if your first attack is a Guns attack. This sort of conditional on action initiative bonus is unworkable on first premises, since you roll initiative before combat and don't take actions until combat starts. But hey the schtick description in chargen and the schtick description under Guns schticks don't actually match, so hopefully this is in the process of being patched.
Cyborg - the rules here seem to imply a character who suicide bombers large numbers of enemies and then fails a death check. I'm baffled how this is supposed to represent movie cyborgs and why players are expected to play one.
Drifter - You're a Clint Eastwood character ( other than Dirty Harry ). You get an ability to show up in the middle of things after the other PCs have started a fight and reap bonuses. This is pwnsome if'n you're the guy who has to be late for the game session, but otherwise it encourages players to sit out the first 3 passes around the table before joining the fight.
Driver - You get vehicle schticks and abilities that matter in chase scenes. As the rules for those are in a future chapter and weren't in the old edition I have no idea what these numbers mean yet.
Everyday Hero - gender neutral renaming of the Everyman hero. A few minor tweaks to improve the play experience since 1e but basically you get a bunch of Fortune dice and bonuses for using random improvised weapons Jackie Chan style. You still get Info / Beer at +15.
like these guys have, sadly I am all out of their beer currently
Ex Special Forces - the concept is straight forward, but this class now gets minor buffing / healing schticks which is interesting.
Exorcist Monk - you're a martial artist who gets to revert transformed animals and banish spirits from the campaign. If some of these abilities were ever targeted at PCs of those types, they would be unfair, but probably okay with PC/Monster asymmetry -- aside from foes with redirection schticks.
Full Metal Nutball - you are the guy next to Ahnold here:
Gambler - You're Maverick. Otherwise not sure this needed it's own archetype.
Gene Freak - You get Mutant Powers. This was recently unlocked due to KS stretch goals, and the current messy Genome Point system shows just how recent. Conceptually supposed to let you do vaguely X-Menish super powers in an action movie context. But currently, I'm not even sure if you still can attack once you've spent your last Genome point.
Ghost - Largely the same as the old edition, except a whole lot less clear that you get both Srocery and Creature AVs and schticks.
Highway Ronin - You're The Road Warrior. You get a bunch of vehicle / chase schticks, which are still in a future chapter.
Karate Cop - you're the "good cop" archetype, you get Martial Arts and Guns schticks. Sadly you lose the non-combat "ally with a secondary foe for the session" schtick from the first edition
Killer - you are Chow Yun Fat's character. You are a master of Guns schticks. The change is that now you have a drawback where you take extra damage in climatic fights.
Magic Cop: You are Agent Mulder or Agent Cooper or the dude from Cast a Deadly Spell or somesuch. A nice take on integrating the game's magic elements into the assumed contemporary reality.
Martial Artist - You get a 15 martial arts AV and a mess of Fu Schticks.
and christ I'm only like halfway through afore I gotta go, damnnit but there are too many of these
Edit: ..continuing..
Masked Avenger - Still a mixed guns/martial arts character. The loss of stats means you can no longer start with max Body, but you get a strong toughness and a schtick to make armor actually useful.
Maverick Cop - you are Dirty Harry or reasonable facsimile thereof. The "bad cop" archetype. No longer the primary driving archetype due to classplosion and vehicle schticks, but still good at it.
Ninja - ninja stuff. The interesting bits you get combat bonuses if you reconnoitered the fight scene beforehand and you get the benefit when you defensively Aid Another.
Old Master - You get a 16 Martial Arts AV. Why yes, that does stress the RNG of a +1d6/-1d6 system where the low end is 12. You get a low toughness and speed, but due to the collapsing of substats you can now use your maximum Chi for Fortune Dice. Only maybe held in check by the drawback that your DV drops from taking damage. maybe.
Private Investigator - A few neat noncombat schticks, but at the conceptual level I can't help bu wonder if this could have been folded into one of the 3 cop archetypes or something, as the archetype is more of a noir or thriller archetype that a shoot-em-up or chop socky archetype.
Redeemed Pirate - G'yar annat.
Scrappy Kid - You get a high speed, a Defense as high as anybody and a lot of Chi points. You have crap for Toughness so it hurts when you do get hit. And while you only have a moderate Martial Arts AV, you can still get the Distraction + Flying Windmill Kick combo at first customization opportunity and experienced players expecting to fight things which aren't mooks totally will do that all the time.
Sifu - Wait, how is that a different concept than the Old Master? Well you get Lower AV, and no toughness drawback, and your default schtick picks are healing and boosts. Also, doesn't have "old" in the name, which reminds me that my drink is empty.
(see also, writings of Steinbeck)
Sorcery - I think the book says all you need to know with
With the sorcerer’s versatility comes some additional complexity. You will want to own a copy of the book
to play it to the fullest.
Spy - Okay, screw that low-shelf Bourbon, instead this is where I get a Vodka Martini, mixed in Safe House shaker a contact brought me after a Gen Con trip. You know the drill. The interesting bit is where they are a Guns / Martial Arts character who gets a +1 to attack with whichever AV they didn't use previously - it's like literally the simplest possible design to limit movespam in a TTRPG.
Supernatural Creature - You get Creature Power Schticks. You get no skills and you can only be healed by Ancient Juncture medicine. For reasons, you no longer get a Martial Arts backup AV like you did in 1e, which kinda means that your ability to assume human form goes out the window in any fight. For similar reasons, your Creature Power AV is also 2 points lower than it used to be. But the creature Schticks are broad and flavorful enough that this is still a versatile archetype.
Sword Master - At the conceptual level, I'm unsure why this isn't just a flavor of Martial Artist. But at the mechanics level you tradea point or two each of AV, Defense. Toughness and Fortune for two more points of Speed and you trade away one Fu Schtick for "+2 to Martial Arts against multiple opponents" and then have all your default picks offn the new "Path of the Sword"
Thief - Conceptually just barely different enough from the Ninja to warrant a distinct class. Mechanically you get a 16 Defense and are a minor Martial Arts / Guns / Vehicle hybrid who gets the same Intrusion and Deceit values the ninja does.
Transformed Crab - this time around Transformed Animal is not a single archetype with its own Fu-Schtick like subsystem. (Although the current draft rules still have that subsystem, it is currently solely there as a set of advancement options for transformed dragons.) Instead each is an individual archetype with schticks in the class write up. This leaves more room to write and sell new classes in supplements later. And of course the core book goes with animals that have the most cultural traction in the source material :
Who cares about the Chinese Zodiac, when you can play one of these?
Transformed Dragon - The conceit here is "better than you" The mechanics are spend Chi to temporarily gain a Skill no other PC has or to use the schtick of a PC whose player didn't show up. The cost is that you can actually die from getting hit by a retro-mutagen ray
But since Shredder is an endboss, who really cares?
Also, it's not like you can play as a no-longer transformed animal, but it is totally like you can generate Mr. Long II, with the instant melodramatic hook of "out to avenge the death of his identical twin brother" in no time flat -- and you don't even lose a level doing that with the new advancement rules. It's almost as if that part was supposed to mean something, but I must still be too sober to see what. Congrats, Mr. Laws, you have outdrunk me this time.
Two Fisted Archaeologist - This class bugs me. Because it totally forgets that there is more than one precedent for the archetype and only gets a Whip Schtick without any incentive for dual-wielding pistols.
and that's chapter 2 - looks like I'm moving at one chapter per day, and that's on my off-from-work, drinkin days. So this review will not likely be finished before the KS campaign is, or I'll have to skip much of the entertaining nitty-gritty.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."