Game Geeks  

Something else occurred to me. The Simulacrum are actually referencing the Replicants from Blade Runner.

I was wondering how this stacks up against Eclipse Phase?

Yes, while the game does offer the old-school VR type hacking and gameplay, the main focus is on Augmented Reality hacking. The idea is that in IZ 2.0 the entire world has been immersed in AR and people can see it ( and do some limited manipulation) via an implant everyone has (it is a Hindrance not to have it). The result is that almost every electronic object in the game can be hacked from guns, doors, turrets, cameras to even NPCs with the aforementioned implant. So the hacker will need to be with the group and can use his hacking in combat to jam guns and take control of turrets and the like.

Hacking only takes a declared action to intrude an object,vehicle or person, a target number(4+) and a d10 dice roll.Simple.

2.0 replaces most of the 1.0 rules. Hacking, and cybernetics have been completely revised. There are drone rules, gollemmech rules, better rules for street cred. lot's of good stuff. :)

If your group has a hard time thinking like criminal, I suggest you do something a bit different. Interface Zero has a Sector Sop archetype, and an Agent archetype you can use to play games where the characters are in law enforcement, or even spies. You could totally do something like Ghost In the Shell, or even Almost Human, with this game.

***** I've offered that, but they like the relative liberty of being "runners." And I can understand that. The rewards you get on your own merits is part of the appeal of games (not to mention D&D, where treasures are involved). What I've managed to do is boost their confidence. We've played under some pretty ruthless GMs, and I had to let them know that whatever they did they weren't going to get caught. Whereas before, if they so much as shoplifted a piece of candy they'd get nailed, not by me, but by those ruthless GMs. Unless the players are particularly stupid, when I run cyberpunk I let them pretty much get away with a lot.

I hope it works out for you!