Changelog | NERVEJACK

June 24, 2026

Pay for what you get, keep what you pay for

FIX A ripperdoc only charges you when the chrome actually goes in, and a payment that does not clear costs you nothing. Before, agreeing to a price could pull your credits early, charge you twice when the real payment landed a turn later, or take your money even when the reader bounced and left you with nothing. Now your stick is only touched once the hardware is installed and the transfer goes through.
FIX Your cyberware is now simply a loadout, and everything you pay for sticks. Implants used to live in fixed sockets where a new piece could knock out chrome you already had, and a batch of upgrades could finish in the story but never land on your sheet. Now every implant sits alongside the rest, adding one never removes another, and buying several, whether one or five, brings them all in with their bonuses. Nothing merges, nothing drops.
IMPROVE Six implants is your body's clean limit, and pushing past it now has teeth. A ripperdoc warns you at capacity, and every implant beyond six brings on cyberpsychosis: a growing penalty to all your action rolls, shown right on your character sheet. You keep the chrome and its full bonuses, but your hands shake and your reactions drift. Stack past six only when the trade is worth it.
FIX The city's watchers stand down unless you earn them. A passive scan, reading a public or your own terminal, running your own deck, or searching an abandoned ruin used to summon a trace, an alarm, or a security daemon from nowhere. Now one only shows up when you actually breach a secured or hostile system, or an enemy was already watching that spot. Your own turf, and dead or abandoned places, stay quiet.

June 21, 2026

Go out on your own terms

NEW End your run when you're ready. Open the Journal and choose End Run to bring your character's story to a deliberate close. Write a line about how you want it to go, old age, a last stand, a quiet retirement, and the storyteller writes a final send-off to match, then seals the run with an epitaph. For a legend who has outlived every threat in Neo-Kowloon, this is a real ending instead of throwing yourself at the nearest gun to force one.
NEW A run you end your own way gets its own send-off card you can share. It stays off the public death feed: that wall is for the ones the city took, not the ones who chose to walk away.
FIX Credits move the right way when you pay someone while telling the story in the third person, using your own character's name. Before, narrating yourself handing an ally a cred-stick could register as money coming in instead of going out, turning a payment into a windfall. Now the game tracks which character is you, and credits leave your account when you pay.

June 18, 2026

One job, one payout, and home stays home

FIX Getting paid for a job pays you once. Before, when the story brought the payment up again a turn later, confirming it landed or repeating the amount, the credits could hit your stick a second time. Now a payout counts the one time the money actually changes hands.
FIX A ship, vehicle, or hideout you make your own stays exactly that. Before, on a long enough run the game could slowly lose track of what something was, and the ship you live on might turn into a generic 'structure.' Now the base you operate from and the things you own keep their identity for the whole story, however long it runs.
FIX Upgrades to your base are remembered. Before, improvements you made to your home could be forgotten a few hundred turns later. Now the work you put in stays part of it.
FIX Better chrome is actually better. Before, a higher-grade implant could give the same bonus as the one it replaced, so an upgrade felt like a sidegrade. Now an implant's boost scales with its grade, and upgrading in the same slot raises that stat instead of trading it sideways.
FIX A turn that hangs no longer locks you out. Before, if the connection stalled mid-turn the input could freeze and you had to reload. Now a stuck turn times out on its own, tells you to try again, and hands control back.

June 17, 2026

Credits set right, and strangers stay strangers

FIX Heard you loud and clear on credits. The issues many of you flagged since the recent update, money going the wrong way, balances not updating, double charges, and earnings that didn't land, are fixed. Money now moves the right direction every time it changes hands: buying takes the right amount off your stick, while selling, looting, and getting paid put it back on, and your balance stays correct across a whole run. Thanks for the detailed reports.
FIX The people you meet no longer know things they could not have learned. Before, a stranger might call your custom chrome by the private name you gave it, or know exactly who installed it, even if they had never laid eyes on you. Now a character knows only what they can see, hear, or scan, what someone told or showed them, and the reputation you earned out in the open. A stranger sees a runner with some kind of shock rig, not the name only you and your ripperdoc use.
FIX When you ask how someone knows something, the answer now comes from whoever is actually in the room with you. Before, the game could pull in a character from another part of the city to explain. Now the person in front of you answers from what they really know, and no one is dragged in from across town to do it.

June 17, 2026

What the cred-stick says

FIX Checking your credit balance no longer changes it. Before, asking the game how many credits you had could throw your total off. Now reading your balance just shows the real number, nothing more.

June 16, 2026

The chrome you paid for

FIX Chrome from a multi-turn surgery now always lands on your sheet. Before, when an install ran across two turns, paying and going under on one, then waking up chromed on the next, the implant could finish in the story but never register, leaving you paid up with an empty slot. Now the moment the doc seats it, it shows up in your implants and its bonuses count.
FIX Credits now move the right way whenever money changes hands. Buying takes the right amount off your stick, selling or getting paid puts it back on, and a price you are only quoted, flashed on a screen or said aloud, does not touch your balance until you actually pay.

June 15, 2026

Jack in, cash out

IMPROVE Tech is no longer a trap. Before, almost any terminal, chip, or device you touched could lock up, blare an alarm, and call down a drone swarm, so the safe play was to avoid the net entirely. Now most tech is safe and worth touching, jacking in is something you do on purpose, and only genuinely secured systems push back.
IMPROVE When a hack does go loud, the danger builds one step at a time and warns you before it climbs. Pull out or break contact and it cools back down. Armed response only arrives if you ignore the warnings and keep forcing the system, never as an opening move.
IMPROVE A successful hack now does something real in the scene: see through a camera feed, kill the lights or pop a lock, turn a security drone to your side, open a route, or pull data and credits straight out. Breaking in is the start of the play, not the end of it.
IMPROVE Land a clean hack and you can push your luck, going deeper for a bigger haul at steeper risk, with a way out always on the table. Greed is a choice you make, not a punishment the net forces on you.
IMPROVE The entire credit system has been rebuilt from the ground up, with a completely new approach to how the game tracks your money. Everything you earn, spend, stash, and steal now registers accurately and consistently, no matter how large the score or how tangled the turn. Your balance has never been this solid.

June 13, 2026

The street keeps score

IMPROVE Heat is now about how much attention you draw, not whether you threw a punch. Being seen is what raises your wanted level: a killing in the open, a firefight in a crowded market, even walking a packed street with your weapon drawn. Work done in secret barely registers, a silent kill with no witnesses draws almost nothing. The louder and more public you are, the hotter you run, and the longer you keep it up, the higher it climbs. A body count in the open is something you have to live down, while a quiet professional stays a ghost.
IMPROVE Lying low actually works. Heat comes down over quiet turns, resting, eating, keeping your head down, and a long sleep cools it more than a careful moment. It will not vanish in a turn: if you have made yourself a target, you stay one until the street forgets.
FIX Picking something up without agreeing on a price no longer empties your stick. Before, taking an item with no cost named could still pull credits from your balance. Now if no price is stated, no credits move.
FIX Moving through rough ground no longer trips you for free. Before, crossing wet floors, narrow ledges, or rubble, especially while injured, could make you stumble and drop your gear with nothing working against you. Now routine movement just happens. You can still lose your footing on a real risk you choose, where the dice decide.
IMPROVE Stacking chrome in the same stat keeps paying off. Before, a hidden ceiling capped how far implants could push any single stat. Now every installed implant's full bonus counts toward your total.
FIX Paying a ripperdoc to install chrome now always works. Before, a bad surgery roll could botch it, taking your credits but leaving the implant out or costing you health. Now a paid install is clean and certain: the chrome you pay for goes in, every time.

June 10, 2026

What you earn, you keep

FIX Drinking or using something you already bought no longer charges you twice. Before, an NPC restating the price while you consumed could quietly ring up a second charge. Now credits only move when you actually hand them over.
FIX Upgrading an implant now actually swaps it. Before, paying a ripperdoc to pull old chrome and slot a better unit in the same body part took your credits but left the new implant off your sheet, so you kept the old stats. Now the swap lands: the old chrome comes out, the new one goes in, and your bonuses update.
FIX When a crew member or contact moves credits for you, your balance keeps up. Before, if an ally wired a payment, settled a bill, or collected what you were owed on your behalf, the story said the money moved but your stick never changed. Now those transfers register like any other.
FIX Trivial actions no longer get a dice roll. Swiping a keycard you're already holding to open a door, riding an elevator, and other routine moves now just happen, instead of sometimes rolling and failing for no reason. The dice are saved for real risks: fights, hacks, sneaking, lockpicking.
FIX Big scores actually land in your account. When you pull off a major job, a heist, a liquidation, a drained corp account, the credits the story says you earned now hit your balance, no matter how large. Before, big payouts often refused to deposit and a hidden ceiling quietly capped how much you could hold, so a fortune you fought for could vanish. If the story says you got paid, you got paid.

June 8, 2026

Install chrome, change your odds

NEW Cybernetic implants. Visit a ripperdoc and install chrome that permanently boosts your stats. Six body slots: neural, optic, dermal, skeletal, cardio, reflex. Each implant adds a modifier to one or two action categories, stacking with your archetype and lifepath bonuses. Street-grade chrome runs 100-200 credits, corpo prototypes go up to 800. The implant section shows up in your character sheet under Inventory with the slot, name, and stat bonuses listed.
NEW Implant upgrades. If you outgrow your chrome, a ripperdoc can pull the old implant and install a better one in the same slot. The swap takes two turns: extraction, then installation. Your old stats drop and the new ones take over.
NEW Your character sheet now shows your stat modifiers. Open the Status tab to see your effective bonus for each action category, with a breakdown showing where each modifier comes from: lifepath choices, installed implants, or both.
FIX Paying an NPC for a service no longer triggers a dice roll. Transferring credits after agreeing on a price is a transaction, not a skill check. Before, the system sometimes classified payments as social challenges, rolled the dice, and narrated failures as the player trying to cheat the NPC. Now the payment goes through cleanly and the NPC delivers what was agreed.
FIX Trading items and storing them at a location now correctly removes them from your inventory. Before, handing a weapon to an NPC in a trade or leaving gear at your bunker kept the item in your character sheet even though the narrative said it was gone.

June 6, 2026

NPCs remember who they are

FIX NPCs keep their identity straight over long games. The bartender you met forty turns ago remembers her name, her pronouns, and her cybernetics when you walk back in. Before, details would drift or swap between characters the longer a run went. The system now locks each NPC's identity at first contact and feeds it back to the GM reliably on every revisit.
FIX The "Manage Subscription" link now shows up even if your plan lapsed. Before, if a payment failed and you got bumped to free, the billing link disappeared and there was no way to update your card. Now anyone with a billing account can reach the Stripe portal from the menu.

June 2, 2026

Second chance, cleaner sheet

NEW The first time you flatline, a street ripperdoc drags you back. You wake up on a stained operating table at 10 HP, alive but owing a debt. It happens once per account, and the game makes it clear: next time, you die for real. After that, permadeath works exactly as it always has.
NEW The Notes tab is now the Journal. It has three new buttons: share your last turn as a branded image, share a progress card with your stats, or download your entire story as a text file. All the sharing that was hidden behind a tiny hover icon now lives in one visible place.
FIX Faction reputation tracks more of what you do. Completing a job for a faction contact, sabotaging a rival's infrastructure, helping or betraying members: all of it moves your standing now. Before, only combat shifted reputation, so factions you worked with peacefully never noticed.
IMPROVE The character sheet now lets you filter out dead NPCs and completed quests. Long games were getting crowded. Toggle "Hide dead" on the NPCs list or "Hide done" on quests to clean up the view. Your preference sticks across sessions.
IMPROVE Dice rolls now read clearly. Instead of "10 (+4)" you see "6 +4 = 10": what you rolled, what your stat added, what it came to. No more guessing which number is which.
IMPROVE Turn count now shows in the Status section of the character sheet.

May 31, 2026

Your hits land on them, not you

FIX Striking an enemy no longer wounds you. Pistol-whip a goon, put two rounds in a charging rat, open someone up with your katana, and the crunch, the blood, and the slump belong to them, not your health bar. The system now reads whose body actually got hit before it touches your HP, so the damage you deal stops registering as damage you take. Real hits that land on you still cost exactly what they should.
FIX Finishing off a downed enemy works. Knock someone unconscious and follow up with a kill shot, the shot lands, no random jam, no mysterious fumble. The system now recognizes that a helpless target can't fight back, so it skips the dice roll entirely. Your character sheet also stays in sync: an NPC who collapsed but is still breathing reads as unconscious, not dead, until you actually finish the job.

May 28, 2026

Long memory, straight story

FIX The GM stops inventing history you never lived. Ask about a name, a place, or a piece of your past your story never actually established, and it draws on what you've genuinely lived instead of conjuring a confident answer out of the smog and playing it as truth. When the story doesn't hold the detail, the GM admits the blank rather than filling it with something that only sounds right.
IMPROVE Long runs forget less. Deep into a session the city keeps a firmer grip on who you are: where you came from, the people you've lost, the oaths and debts you carry stay locked in instead of fading as the turns stack up. The GM also holds a wider window of recent events in view, so the last stretch of your run stays sharp.
IMPROVE The story-so-far recap stays true. The running summary the GM works from is now pinned to your established facts, so as it gets rewritten across a long game it can't quietly drift, soften, or contradict what you've already lived.

May 26, 2026

Services check the math too

FIX Service providers refuse work you can't pay for. Walk into a ripperdoc with 25 credits and ask for an 80-credit flush, the doc names the price and waits; if you consent, he checks your stick; if you're short, he pulls the offer and the probe never touches you. Repairs, hacks-for-hire, intel, transport, bribes, fees, all of it: the price gets named in one turn and consented to in another, and the deal only closes if the math says it can. No more starting a procedure and demanding payment after.
FIX Found credits land on your stick. Pick up a discarded cred-stick on a catwalk grate or loot a downed merc and the value transfers to your account immediately. Used to land in the narrative but not on the ledger; now both match.

May 26, 2026

Big payouts arrive whole

FIX Big scores land in full. When you closed a deal for more than 10,000 credits, the cred-stick used to cap what arrived at 10,000 even though the NPC narrated transferring the full amount. Now the transfer matches the scene: agree to 50,000 for a flooding map and 50,000 hits your stick. The number on top matches the deal.

May 21, 2026

Hacks bounce, not bleed

FIX Hacks no longer cost HP. A failed run against corporate ICE drops your daemon in the buffer, leaves a trace ping, sends you home empty-handed. It does not fry your nerves or sear your synapses. The body and the network are different surfaces; only physical hits land on the body now.
FIX Routine deck and device ops stopped dramatically failing. Checking your inbox, jacking into a kiosk, running a diagnostic, pinging a contact: the gear comes up working. If the op doesn't return data, the failure is on the network side (relay jammed, credential denied, no signal), not your deck. Opening scenes also stop glitching your gear for atmosphere.
IMPROVE Inventory, quest, and NPC caps raised. Long-running characters now hold up to 100 items, 50 quests, and 100 known NPCs in their save instead of the prior 50/20/50. And when you do hit a cap, the save layer keeps the newest entries instead of the oldest.

May 20, 2026

The cred-stick checks the math

FIX Vendors notice when you can't afford something. Try to pay 500 credits with 150 in your stick and the vendor names the shortfall and pulls the goods back, instead of silently taking everything you have. The game stops accepting deals the math says shouldn't close.
FIX Backed-out deals stop leaving orphan credits. When an NPC offers payment in a scene and walks it back in the next breath, the ledger doesn't move. Promises that never close stay promises.
FIX Quest payouts pay out exactly once. Completing a courier run for 200 credits adds 200, even if the NPC describes the same exchange across two turns. No more double-charges or double-payouts from re-narration.

May 19, 2026

Faces hold

FIX NPCs no longer drift gender, role, or signature features across long games. Once you've met someone, their pronouns and pinned physical details (the bartender's brass-plated jaw, the ripperdoc's multi-lens optic) lock in. Twenty turns later in a different sector, they're still the same person.
FIX Walking through a clear corridor no longer trips you. Opening an unlocked door doesn't summon a complication. Asking a question gets an answer, not an ambush. Safe actions in safe places resolve cleanly. Risky actions still roll dice; the GM just stopped manufacturing trouble on calm turns.
IMPROVE Response length tightened. Default actions get one or two short sentences instead of three. The closing flourish ("nothing follows you, the city's hum fades") is gone. The GM stops on the concrete beat.
IMPROVE Fewer recycled phrases. The "she didn't answer, she stared" contrast rhythm, the "his lens whirs" body-tic, and the "the air is thick with..." atmosphere filler all show up much less.

May 16, 2026

Pull up your sheet

NEW The drawer splits into three tabs: STATUS, INVENTORY, and NOTES. Status keeps the HP, credits, quests, NPCs, and factions readout. Inventory shows your gear with category pills. Notes is a 5,000-character scratchpad for clues, contacts, and plans, autosaved as you type.
NEW Tap the info icon next to any inventory item for its codex entry: what the item actually is in Neo-Kowloon, what it does, and who tends to carry it. Twenty-one of the most common items (encrypted drives, shock-batons, harvester knives, tactical vests, signal jammers, multi-tools, and more) now have canonical entries instead of the GM inventing them fresh each game.
IMPROVE The top-right account menu pulls together Options (text speed, font size, reduced motion), How to Play, Changelog, Feedback, Previous Deaths, and account actions. The BETA banner moved to a small badge next to your plan, reclaiming a row of vertical space.
IMPROVE Changelog opens inside the game now instead of a new tab, so you can read what's new without losing your scene.

May 2, 2026

Not every NPC is on the run

FIX Civilians stay civilians. The kid scrolling a handheld is not a tragic survivor with hidden pursuers. The noodle cook is not a secret quest-giver. Random encounters hold ordinary stakes: lunch, sleep, gossip, money. They don't escalate mid-conversation into someone you have to dodge tailers for. Pursuers and tragic backstory stay attached to NPCs you've actually linked to a quest, faction, or fight.

May 2, 2026

Near misses are just near misses

FIX Shots that hit the wall behind you no longer hurt you. Diving for cover, suppression fire forcing a scramble, attacks that arrive after you've moved, and NPCs taking their own hits all stop charging damage. The system now checks the narrative for your body actually getting struck before deducting HP.

May 2, 2026

The world stays the world

FIX Installed AIs (home systems, personality matrices, voice-only assistants) hold their identity over long games. They stay disembodied, no body, no eyes, no hands, even when sharing scenes with embodied companions in the same workspace.
FIX Asking the GM about "the game" or "your memory" stays inside the fiction. Your home AI checks the terminal, an NPC pulls up the ledger, the canonical state gets cited in scene. The GM no longer steps outside the world to talk about itself.
FIX Transient combat state no longer sticks in canon. Injuries, hardware status, and post-combat aftermath get logged as events that pass. Canon stays focused on what actually defines you: family, alliances, things permanently earned.

May 2, 2026

The DM stops giving speeches

FIX Responses no longer end with a thematic wrap-up sentence that restates the stakes in abstract terms ("the foundation of your new empire is set," "you've successfully navigated the corporate legal labyrinth"). The DM ends on the actual scene: an NPC's line, a sensory detail, or the open situation you have to answer.

May 1, 2026

The deal closes clean

FIX Asking how you get paid no longer summons a disaster. Quoted business questions like "we talking creds or gear?" or "what's the rate on that?" get a verbal answer from the NPC, not an ambush, a power surge, or a structural failure mid-transaction. The world stays still while the deal closes.
FIX Buying at the posted price won't trip you over your own feet. Committing to a purchase ("I'll take both. 260 credits") no longer turns a bad roll into the GM puppeting your character into knocking merchandise off the counter. If the deal goes south, the vendor backs out. Your hands stay where they were.

April 28, 2026

Sharper memory

IMPROVE The world keeps better track of itself in long games. Recurring NPCs stay who they are, your safehouse stays your safehouse, and stale story details get retired instead of piling up over hundreds of turns.

April 25, 2026

Your crew has lives of their own

FIX Companions you walked away from no longer follow you forever. Tell an ally to hold a position and head off solo and they actually stay there — they don't quietly reappear at every new location you visit later. Walk back to where you left them and they'll still be waiting; ping them on a burner and they'll come meet you. Active companions traveling with you keep following as before.

April 24, 2026

Time and place

FIX The clock catches up to your sleep. Bed down for a few hours, wait out a patrol, or skip ahead to morning and the time in the header now jumps forward to match the narrative. Previously the clock drifted while the world moved on without it.
FIX Mentioning a place in dialogue no longer teleports you there. Saying "the meet is at the docks tomorrow night" or "we'll handle that after we eat" keeps you exactly where you are. The GM responds with NPC reactions and atmosphere instead of cutting to a new scene. Tip: if you want to actually move, type a first-person action like "I head to the docks" rather than wrapping it in dialogue.

April 24, 2026

Your body, your call

FIX Speaking is just speaking. Typing dialogue, a whispered aside, or a question no longer gets your character reaching for a lock, slamming a console, or vaulting a railing you never mentioned. Your body stays exactly where you left it until you type the next move.
FIX Verbal orders to NPCs don't puppet you. Barking "drone, power down" or "kess, scramble the panel" keeps your hands at your sides. The NPC hears you; your character doesn't suddenly lunge at anything.
FIX The GM won't jam a stim-pack into your thigh on your behalf. Consumables use only when you explicitly say "I inject the stim-pack."
FIX When you try a power your gear can't support, the failure is described from the world's side — the signal that doesn't connect, the system that stays dark — instead of puppeting your body into a reach that fails.

April 23, 2026

The last turn sticks

FIX What the GM wrote last turn is canon. A valve you cracked open stays open. A turret you hacked stays offline. A success doesn't quietly reverse itself into a catastrophic failure just because the next response wants drama.
FIX Cliffhangers actually resolve. If the GM ends a turn with turrets firing or a mechanism grinding open, the next response finishes the exchange. Rounds land, the grind completes, the outcome lands. The scene doesn't teleport to clean silence without resolving the threat.
FIX Surrender and retreat don't trigger invented attacks. When you type "raise my hands," you raise your hands. Nothing else. When you type "disappear into the crowd," you slip away cleanly. No invented shoves, kicks, or counter-strikes your character never chose.
FIX Ordinary enemies respect a clear surrender. Street gangs, hired muscle, bouncers, bounty hunters, and cops are reasonable. They reassess when you raise your hands. The "beyond listening" beat is reserved for genuine fanatics only.
FIX An enemy punch doesn't send your sword flying across the floor. When a hit lands, it lands on your body. Your weapon stays in your grip, even while you're on the ground. You lose it only when you say you drop it.
FIX Routine navigation is safe. "Head deeper into the tunnel" or "follow the corridor" no longer triggers invented floor collapses or surprise falls. If something's going to break, you see it first.

April 22, 2026

Your turn, your call

FIX Laying down doesn't put you to sleep. If you type "I lay down on the couch," you're on the couch with eyes open and the room quiet, waiting for you to decide what's next. The GM won't fast-forward through a nap or pull a blanket over you.
FIX Searching no longer picks things up. Pat down a body or scan a shelf and you see what's there: the stim-pack in the vest pocket, the cred-stick at the belt. Nothing enters your inventory until you explicitly pocket, grab, or take it.
FIX Examining a weapon mod doesn't install it. A scope on the workbench stays on the workbench. It goes on your rifle when you say "I fit it," not before.
FIX Reading messages on your cyberdeck is safe. The inbox is not a hack against you. A warning from an anonymous sender might be ominous, but the deck just displays it. No surge, no lockup, no HP loss.
FIX Looting a body doesn't spring hidden traps out of nowhere. If the scene didn't telegraph a pressure plate or tripwire before you reached, there isn't one. Cred-sticks come free cleanly.

April 22, 2026

Your story stays straight

FIX The GM no longer contradicts its own canon. Once something is established — who your sister is, where you stashed a body, what faction burned you — later scenes won't quietly flip that fact when it's narratively convenient. Contradictions and near-duplicates are now rejected before they can enter your story's permanent record.
FIX Long sessions stop drowning in ancient canon. The GM now keeps a tighter focus on recent events and established facts, so turn 800 isn't being steered by everything that happened on turn 50. The late game plays like the late game, not a crowded museum of every decision you ever made.
FIX Drones stay drones, humans stay humans. Each NPC now carries a body-type tag (drone, mech, android, cyborg, and so on) that the GM reads before every scene — so a drone named Lucy doesn't grow fingers, blink, or adjust her belt 200 turns later. You'll see the tag as a color-coded badge next to each name in the NPC drawer.

April 21, 2026

Your real save always wins

FIX Signing back in after clearing your cache now loads your actual cloud save, not a leftover guest run. If you logged out and played a bit as a guest on another day, that old guest session won't shadow your real account anymore.

April 20, 2026

Stop tripping me

FIX The GM no longer invents stumbles, slips, and fumbles during routine actions. Walking across a catwalk, handing someone an item, climbing a ladder — if there's no opposing force, you succeed. Your character is a capable survivor, not a slapstick comedian.
FIX De-escalation works. When you raise your hands, put down your weapon, or offer to leave peacefully, the GM respects your choice. NPCs reassess. You are never forced into combat you didn't choose.
FIX The GM no longer narrates your character attacking, drawing weapons, or taking actions you didn't type. Your body is yours. If you said "I set down my drink," you set down your drink — you don't smash it into someone's face.

April 19, 2026

Your gear is yours

FIX The GM no longer invents reasons your weapons were lost. If your inventory says you have a katana, you have a katana — no matter what the narrative claimed three turns ago.
FIX Vendors no longer auto-complete purchases when you ask what they have in stock. Asking "got any pistols?" now gets you a price quote, not a receipt. You decide when to buy.

April 15, 2026

Stop calling everyone Stitch

FIX Naming an unnamed NPC ("what's your name, choom?") now updates their existing entry instead of creating a duplicate. No more ghost "Bartender" sitting next to "Jax" in your NPC list.
FIX Doctors, cyberdocs, ripperdocs, and medical vendors get unique names. Every new medic is a new person — the GM stopped auto-reaching for "Dr. Stitch" whenever a clinic appeared.
FIX Bounty boards, job kiosks, ATMs, and other civilian terminals stopped shocking the player for interacting with them. Civilian infrastructure is background, not a threat.
FIX Installed app (PWA) top bar no longer hides behind the Dynamic Island and rounded corners on modern iPhones. Title, menu buttons, and the Upgrade link are usable again.
FIX Shortened the mobile input placeholder so it no longer wraps to a second line and gets clipped.
IMPROVE /gm now answers rules questions from an authoritative mechanics reference instead of guessing from generic RPG knowledge. It will no longer tell you that armor adds HP or that it can adjust your stats. If a rule isn't documented, it says so instead of inventing one. Also updated the How to Play page to explain /gm.

April 13, 2026

Your character sheet actually matters

NEW Archetype and lifepath now shape every dice roll. Actions sort into six categories (violence, tech, influence, infiltration, movement, grit) and your stats push the roll up or down.
NEW Each archetype has real strengths and real weaknesses. Off-type actions take a penalty, so picking an archetype is a commitment.
NEW Lifepath choices shift your stats. Preview badges show what each option costs before you pick it.
IMPROVE Rebuilt the action classifier. Routine walks no longer come back as risky rolls, and uncertain cases lean safe.
FIX Telegraphed lethal shots grant you a final action before they land.
FIX Environmental escapes resolve on the dice, not on invented equipment failure. Levers and hatches work.
FIX Floors, catwalks, and ladders stopped collapsing under the GM's imagination.

April 12, 2026

Dead-end jobs actually pay

FIX Working the same gig twice no longer stiffs you on pay. Shifts at a shop, recurring courier runs, repeat contract work all pay out every time you put in the hours.

April 11, 2026

Ordinary moments stay ordinary

IMPROVE Peaceful gameplay has been overhauled. Ordinary actions, quiet scenes, and non-combat moments now play out the way they should, without the GM spiking the tension out of thin air.
FIX Slot machines, phone calls, and civilian kiosks work like civilian devices. No sparks, no surges, no surprise HP loss.
FIX A new NPC's first reaction to a peaceful player is spoken, not physical. Say "no trouble, I'll leave" and you get to leave.
FIX A failed bluff or a cold room costs a closed door, not HP. Non-combat failures stop being beatings.
FIX Surrender, hands up, or evidence of innocence is read as exactly that. Reasonable NPCs stand down the same turn.
FIX Hits land on the body, not on your gear. Your katana, cyberdeck, and neural link keep working through every scene.
FIX The GM stops inventing a past to explain away gear you already own. If it's in your inventory, you reach for it cleanly.
FIX Answers from /gm are now binding on the scene that follows. The narrative honors what the GM told you.

April 10, 2026

NPCs, deliveries, and safehouses play fair

FIX NPCs only know what you've told them. Small talk stays small talk, and contacts ask before they assume.
FIX Promised drops actually travel. Gear shipped to a locker or dead-drop shows up when you go get it, not the moment the call ends. In-person hand-offs are still immediate.
FIX Hideouts are safe on arrival. Pursuit stops at the door. Later threats still come, but from outside, with warning.
IMPROVE Opening scene overhaul plus a smoother hand-off from character creation into the game.
IMPROVE Dice rolls in the narrative log now show the number next to the die icon.

April 9, 2026

Early game breathes

IMPROVE The GM no longer treats the opening scene as an excuse to escalate. For the first stretch of a run, the city is big and mostly indifferent. A curious glance, a clumsy action, or a wrong look will not summon kill teams, corpo death squads, or station-wide alarms out of thin air. Stakes stay local and personal until you go looking for trouble.
NEW Each archetype now has three possible starting scenes, picked at random when you jack in. Some are quiet setups where nothing is wrong yet. Some have a hint of something off in the background. The original tense openers are still in the rotation for when you want to start at a sprint.

April 9, 2026

/gm no longer punishes you

FIX Asking the Game Master a question with /gm no longer gets your character ambushed or damaged on the next turn. OOC exchanges now stay out of the story log entirely.

April 9, 2026

The GM plays fair

FIX Paid services now deliver what was promised. When you pay a ripperdoc, mechanic, or informant, the transaction completes before any drama kicks in. No more "equipment malfunctions" that take your credits and your HP.
FIX Recon results hold. When you scan or scout an area and find it clear, that intel is reliable for at least one turn. Threats still appear, but they come from new directions, not from thin air in a room you just swept.
FIX Sleeping now actually heals you. A few hours of sleep in a safe spot recovers 5-10 HP, as it always should have.

April 8, 2026

Missing item freeze

FIX When you try to use an item you don't have, the GM now stops the scene and lets you choose a different action. Previously it would say "you don't have that" and then keep going, often with painful consequences. Now the world pauses, you see what you're dealing with, and you decide what to do next.

April 8, 2026

The butterfingers fix (for real this time)

NEW A pre-classifier now evaluates every action before the DM sees it. Safe actions (walking, talking, buying, examining, resting) skip the dice entirely. Dice only appear when there's genuine risk: combat, sneaking past enemies, hacking, lockpicking, bluffing someone who wants to stop you.
IMPROVE When risky actions do fail, the narration now follows a clear rule: your character is skilled, the opposition is just better. The guard's thermal optics spotted you. The lock's countermeasure fired a voltage spike. The enforcer read your approach. You never trip over your own feet.
FIX Items can no longer be involuntarily lost. Your gear only leaves your inventory when you deliberately use, sell, trade, or drop it. No more fumbled katanas, no more lockpicks clattering into storm drains.

April 8, 2026

/gm command hardened

FIX The /gm and /dm commands now work reliably even if your browser has a cached version of the game. Previously, a stale cache could cause your question to be treated as an in-game action — including taking damage. The server now detects /gm and /dm directly as a fallback.

April 7, 2026

Talk to the GM

NEW Type /gm before your message to ask the Game Master a question out of character. "What are my options here?" "How does hacking work?" "What do I know about Syn-Tech?" The GM answers directly, no dice roll, no turn spent. (/dm works too.)

April 7, 2026

Mobile input fix

FIX The action input no longer hides behind the home bar on iPhones with notches. The game now respects your device's safe area so every button stays tappable.

April 6, 2026

The DM respects your downtime

FIX Resting, eating, hiding, and laying low are now truly safe. The DM no longer sends a kill squad to your noodle shop or kicks down the door of your hideout after a few quiet turns.
FIX Asking a question ("What does this do?" or "How many guards?") no longer triggers alarms, traps, or combat. The DM answers what your character can see or figure out. You decide when to act.
FIX Removed several rules that were forcing the DM to generate threats during peaceful moments. Downtime is yours to take for as long as you want it.

April 5, 2026

Your gear stays yours

FIX The war on butterfingers continues. Items no longer slip out of your hands during trades, repairs, or inspections. You're a trained operative, not a cartoon character on a banana peel.
FIX Cyberdecks, neural links, and other core gear now survive black-ice, malware, and feedback surges. Software attacks cause temporary lockouts, not permanent destruction.

April 5, 2026

Smarter NPC relationships

FIX NPC allies no longer betray you out of nowhere. Betrayals now require warning signs: evasive answers, contradictory behavior, small lies. You can see it coming.
FIX An NPC who's been your partner for a dozen turns won't suddenly flip without proportional buildup.
FIX The DM uses a wider range of conflict (faction ambushes, system failures, moral dilemmas) instead of defaulting to "your ally was secretly evil all along."

April 4, 2026

Smarter DM, better state tracking

FIX "I examine the door" no longer means "I grab the handle and trigger the trap."
FIX Core gear (cyberdecks, katanas, lockpicks) can't be permanently destroyed without your say-so.
FIX The DM reads your inventory correctly. No more phantom empty stim-packs.
FIX Credit purchases no longer double-charge across turns.
FIX Bar rumors no longer spawn phantom quests. Only real job offers count.

April 4, 2026

Smoother movement

FIX Your character stops tripping over nothing. Movement between locations is clean — you go somewhere, you arrive. Trouble finds you at your destination, not in every hallway.

April 4, 2026

Memory improvements

IMPROVE The DM remembers more of your story — backstory details, companion locations, and plot developments persist better across long sessions.
IMPROVE Better companion tracking across locations.

April 4, 2026

Weapon handling & pacing

FIX Holstering, sheathing, and stowing weapons is now always smooth. No more fumbling your gun into a bouncer's fist.
FIX Combat failures are narrated as the enemy outfighting you — not your character tripping over floor plates.

April 3, 2026

Consequences & player agency

FIX Doing nothing in danger has consequences. Turrets fire. Muggers swing. The world doesn't wait.
FIX NPCs no longer rescue you repeatedly. An ally saves you once — after that, you're on your own.
FIX Security turrets and drones act like real threats instead of conveniently deactivating.
IMPROVE Cleaner opening scenes. One hook, one NPC, no walls of faction names.

April 3, 2026

New game engine & unique starting locations

NEW The game master runs on a completely new model with rewritten prompts. Tighter narratives, more distinct NPC voices, more accurate state tracking. Responses are shorter and punchier — less filler, more consequence.
NEW Each archetype now starts in a different location with a unique opening scene. Street Samurai start at The Pit. Netrunners jack in at Echo Station. Fixers meet Mama Sato. Chrome Rats wake in the vents.
NEW Players who complete character creation get a fully generated opening scene tailored to their backstory choices.
NEW Quest variety. NPCs now offer investigation, elimination, escort, sabotage, and mystery jobs — not just fetch-and-deliver.
IMPROVE Your archetype matters more. Fixers talk their way through doors that would stop a Chrome Rat cold. Chrome Rats sneak past guards that would spot a Street Samurai. Specialists succeed where generalists fail.
IMPROVE The city has more civilians. Vendors sell things. Doctors heal you. Noodle stands are safe. Not every NPC wants to kill you.
IMPROVE Better pacing. After a fight, the game gives you room to breathe — find food, visit a clinic, plan your next move.
IMPROVE The world breathes. News tickers scroll overhead. Funerals pass through the thoroughfare. Kids chase each other on catwalks. The city feels alive between the violence.
FIX Stim-packs always work. No more "faulty seals" or cracked injectors wasting your medical supplies.
FIX Your tools survive. Burner phones, cyberdecks, and lockpicks don't break from signal interference or jammed mechanisms.
FIX Delivery quests require actual delivery. Picking up the package is a waypoint — payment happens when the item reaches the recipient.
FIX Quest payment shows up in the narrative with exact amounts. No more silent credit transfers.
FIX Drawing a weapon or firing shots in public now correctly raises your heat.

March 28, 2026

Quest tracking & DM pacing

FIX Floors and catwalks no longer collapse under you. The city's danger comes from its people, not its architecture.
FIX Quests no longer complete prematurely when you meet the NPC who assigns the job. Meeting your contact is a waypoint, not the finish line.
FIX The DM no longer opens responses by repeating what you just said as quoted dialogue. Every response now starts with the world reacting to your action.
FIX Your weapon stays in your hand during combat. Missed attacks are the enemy dodging, not you fumbling your blade.

March 27, 2026

Character creation

NEW Choose your origin before you jack in: pick an upbringing, a defining event, a motivation, and a name. Your choices shape how the city sees you.

March 25, 2026

Exploration safety & item fixes

FIX The DM no longer generates collapsing floors, toxic dust, or slipping hazards during routine actions like climbing, crawling, and searching.
FIX Armor sold under ambiguous names like "rig" is now correctly tagged based on the narrative description, not keywords in the name.
FIX Theft attempts are now described in progress, giving the player a turn to react.

March 25, 2026

Better long-term memory

IMPROVE The game master is much better at remembering what you said and did earlier in your playthrough — names, promises, phrases, and personal details now stick.

March 24, 2026

Intimidation works & items stop vanishing

FIX Shouting commands at NPCs during combat ("FREEZE!", "On your knees!") now correctly targets the enemy you're fighting instead of spawning new hostiles.
FIX Picking up uncontested items (loot from bodies, vials, cred-sticks on the ground) no longer fails or rolls the item into a floor grate. Uncontested pickups always succeed.

March 24, 2026

Environmental hazards are now survivable

FIX Players caught in rivers, collapsing structures, or other environmental hazards can now escape if they try. Escape attempts are governed by dice rolls.

March 24, 2026

NPCs no longer double-charge you

FIX NPCs no longer charge you twice when you ask a follow-up question after paying.
IMPROVE The DM no longer re-narrates actions that already happened on a previous turn.

March 23, 2026

Lore refresh & item mechanics

IMPROVE Refreshed and rebalanced the entire lore database.
NEW Every item and weapon now has mechanical details: damage values, effects, durability, and usage rules the DM enforces during play.

March 22, 2026

Consistent travel & mobile app

IMPROVE Travel descriptions are more consistent. If you took "rusted catwalks over the floodline" to reach Sector 5, that's how the route is described on your way back.
NEW Installable as an app on mobile. Add NERVEJACK to your home screen from your browser for a full-screen experience.
FIX Fixed input box being hidden by the virtual keyboard on Android Firefox.

March 20, 2026

NPCs pay what they promised

FIX NPCs now pay the exact credit amount they promised for a job. Previously, the DM could "forget" the agreed price and pay less on delivery.
FIX If you dispute a payment, the DM checks the conversation history and corrects the amount instead of inventing excuses for why you earned less.
IMPROVE Quest rewards are now tracked in your quest log. When an NPC offers 500 credits for a job, that number stays visible so nothing gets lost in translation.

March 16, 2026

Gear stays in your inventory, exploration stops hurting

FIX Equipping or unequipping armor no longer removes it from your inventory.
FIX Routine exploration no longer causes phantom damage. Squeezing through gaps, climbing ladders, and picking up items are safe actions.
FIX Transit rides no longer deduct phantom credits.
FIX Gear can no longer be stolen offscreen. Your items stay in your pack unless an NPC takes them in a scene you can react to.

March 14, 2026

Shorter responses, HP accuracy & quest items

IMPROVE Shorter DM responses across the board. Most turns are now 2-4 sentences instead of long paragraphs, designed for reading on your phone.
FIX Fixed phantom HP loss. Existing wounds no longer drain health on later turns. If a razor-wire trap cut you three turns ago, it doesn't keep dealing damage every time the DM mentions it.
FIX Armor actually blocks damage now. Attacks that bounce off your armor no longer secretly cost you HP.
FIX Fixed double-counting injuries when the DM recaps why you lost health.
FIX Quest items can no longer be accidentally lost. NPCs won't take an item you need for an active quest, and critical items won't get destroyed by environmental hazards.
IMPROVE Quest targets are found faster. If you're in the right area, the DM delivers the objective instead of stalling with empty rooms.

March 13, 2026

Starting gear fix

FIX All archetypes now start with a Cred-Stick. Previously only the Fixer had one, leaving other classes unable to pay for anything at the start.

March 12, 2026

The DM remembers your story

NEW Long-term memory. The DM now recalls key moments from earlier in your run. Betray someone in Sector 4? They might come up in conversation ten turns later.
NEW NPCs reference your history naturally. Past deals, grudges, and alliances surface when they're relevant, not randomly.

March 10, 2026

World consistency & heat system

FIX Traders now remember completed transactions.
FIX Vehicles and property stay consistent.
FIX Quest completion no longer triggers on keyword similarity.
IMPROVE Heat now decreases when you lay low.
IMPROVE The DM acknowledges realistic time scales for large projects.
IMPROVE Tighter combat choreography.

March 9, 2026

Inventory protection

FIX Selling items no longer risks removing the wrong item from your inventory.

March 8, 2026

Location tracking & smarter DM

NEW The DM now tracks how locations connect to each other, keeping navigation consistent throughout your run.
IMPROVE Better rule adherence across combat, inventory, and NPC interactions thanks to expanded behavioral examples.

March 7, 2026

Smarter state tracking

FIX Credits no longer double-count when the DM recaps a previous reward.
FIX Multiple enemies of the same type (e.g. Cleaner-1, Cleaner-2) now stay as separate NPCs instead of merging into one.
FIX Friendly NPCs no longer get incorrectly marked as dead during nearby combat.
FIX Dead NPCs can no longer be overwritten by new characters reusing their identity.

March 5, 2026

A more dangerous world

FIX HP, credits, and inventory changes are more accurate. No more phantom damage or mystery charges.
IMPROVE The city fights back. Draw your weapon in gang territory and you'll meet gangers.
IMPROVE Quest objectives are easier to find when you're in the right neighborhood.
IMPROVE Broke? The city notices. Fixers offer work, enemies drop loot, and Jax always knows who's hiring.
FIX Background NPCs no longer clutter your Known NPCs list.

March 4, 2026

Inventory integrity and smarter combat

FIX The DM no longer lets you use weapons you don't have. Claiming a phantom gun now gets you "your hand closes on empty air."
IMPROVE Expanded context window. The DM remembers far more of your story before summarizing.
FIX Fixed duplicate NPCs appearing in your Known NPCs list.
FIX Quest completion timing is more reliable. No more quests stuck as "active" after you've clearly finished them.

March 1, 2026

New intro sequence

NEW Typewriter-style intro on the archetype selection screen.
NEW Jack-in transition effect when you start a game.
NEW The opening scene now types out line by line instead of appearing all at once.

February 28, 2026

Combat overhaul

IMPROVE Combat is now one action per turn: attack, reposition, use an item, or flee. No more doing five things at once.
IMPROVE Enemies are genuinely dangerous. They use cover, flank, and fight smart. Getting outnumbered is bad news.
IMPROVE Dice rolls now govern combat outcomes. A miss is a miss, no matter how cinematic your description.
FIX No more phantom damage when you initiate combat. Drawing your weapon doesn't hurt you.

February 26, 2026

The world remembers

NEW World persistence. Destroyed locations stay destroyed. Dead NPCs stay dead. Changes you make to the city are permanent.
NEW Each sector has a distinct personality. Sector 5 feels different from Sector 3, with unique NPCs, culture, and atmosphere.
IMPROVE The DM can now improvise freely. New bars, gangs, fixers, and neighborhoods emerge naturally as you explore.

February 22, 2026

Smarter DM

IMPROVE Completely rewritten DM prompt. More consistent, better pacing, respects your actions.
IMPROVE NPCs now have survival instincts, weapons, and agendas. They fight back, flee, or call for backup.
FIX The DM no longer puts words in your mouth or writes dialogue for your character.
FIX Travel is faster. Say "continue" or "keep going" and you arrive immediately.

February 18, 2026

Economy and inventory fixes

FIX Credits now track accurately. No more phantom charges or free money.
FIX Selling items properly updates your credits and removes the item.
FIX Items no longer randomly disappear from your inventory.
IMPROVE If you're broke, NPCs notice and offer work, loans, or trades. The economy stays alive.

February 14, 2026

Dice rolls and archetypes

NEW Hidden dice rolls determine action outcomes. Success, partial success, or failure, the DM plays fair.
NEW Four archetypes with distinct strengths: Street Samurai, Netrunner, Fixer, Chrome Rat.
NEW In-game time tracking. The city changes between day and night.
NEW Inventory items now have tags (weapon, armor, hacking, medical) that determine what actions are possible.

February 10, 2026

Death and consequences

NEW Death screen with your character's epitaph, a summary of everything you did and how you died.
NEW Share button on the death screen to show off your story.
IMPROVE HP now matters. Wounds affect your narrative. Below 50%, you're shaking and bleeding. Below 25%, barely standing.

February 6, 2026

Anonymous play and landing page

NEW Play without signing in. 10 free turns per day, no account required.
NEW Redesigned landing page with world lore, pricing, and FAQ.
NEW Contact form for feedback and bug reports.

February 1, 2026

Launch

NEW NERVEJACK goes live. A cyberpunk text RPG set in Neo-Kowloon, powered by AI. Every story is unique.
NEW 1,000+ lore entries (factions, locations, NPCs, history) that the AI draws from.
NEW Persistent game state: HP, credits, inventory, quests, and NPC relationships all tracked across your session.