Thumper

Must not be a bot because it's awefully hard to crucify a bot.

Yep, I would have to say we are all a bit out there!

Time for the bad joke of the day!

Yep, them people with eating disorders would be pretty slim!

I have used this in game before for player creation and it worked great!

It was and is shear brilliance.

Easy enough for begining players to understand yet fluid enough for vet to do whatever they wanted.

I had it on my website and will again once it's rebuilt.

Welcome everyone!

Don't mind all the Polsci stuff here just old members airing some greivances.

We all do get along relative good.

What would you do on Christmas, (assuming you were an "average player character", so please, don't invent some insanely costly ideas)?

First off this was supposed to be a in Character Ref, though I did extrapolate some feeling about a nice lady I know who sorta spun me Just a day ago and rejected me, slightly odd compared to others but well that's sorta my type.

I am sure when it gets posted in the SCA newsletter about how she tried to light my balls on fire with a lighter it will no help matters. ( Rumballs ) at the Xmas party.

Still, I do not own a gun and a crossbow lowpowered as it is would probably not do the same trick.

The Solo is just having a passing lapse of judgement as if he would kill himself why did he work so hard to saty alive to fight another day and just not give in the last firefight. Perhaps yet there is hope of justice vigilante style out in the world as dark and grey as it is!

The heavily Cybered contract Solo sitting in his burned out shell of a Combat Zone place, contemplating suicide, with his uber pistol in his mouth wondering why life is so horrible and why he can find no love in this wretched life!

As far As I have gotten response from RTal you can make any fanbased material you want for Cyberpunk 2020 as long as it is not sold for money.

Once you make it pay to play of a sort then you have to have Mike's permission which of course he never gives unless you give him the sole right and property of you works.

I have been down this road with Cyber City and with Edgerunner all of the Apo Stasis product line stuff.

It's just I don't wanna be sued or be sen as trying to rip them off in any way but still create a suppliment.

So build it and distribute it for free on PDF!

I understand the frustration one might have Wisdom, but what can be done?

Let the marketplace speak for itself, perhaps the few of us here are the one's that are old and outdated as to the way games are sold now.

This thread will get closed if we have to much fighting among each other here!

It might be one of those Mod only things but I changed it.

Mere poverty by itself does not seem a likely enough scenario to create a real combat zone, there are plenty of poor areas of America and while very high in crime do not possess the levels of criminal activitiy and utter lawlessness as seen in the Combat Zone of Cyberpunk. Additionally they are not so isolated as to not receive government aid.

But if the Government is bankrupt what government aid would they give if non was available? Also since money buys elections and they don't possesive enough cash power that make them kinda irrelevant.

As I said this does not happen overnight and some of the areas that are just basically poor might take 15 - 20 years before they reach a Media popular version of a Combat Zone. If they have yet to reach the point you would claim them to be a combat zone but are slowly moving there then what exactly are they??

For Katrina, I live in Houston where the brunt of these people still are staying no-where for them to go back home to. What if Texas did what some other states tried by sealing off the state borders at the major highways and refused to let them in.

It's a real nightmare in Houston now with all these 120,000 people still here with only 49% of them employed in some manner. The entire system of giving relief aid to even the people here for Medical and food is near the breaking point. Only with the Billions the Fed Gov sent so far has this not turned into a near riot situation.

So what if the situation was not handled so efficiently image that. Imange no-one wanted these refugee's.

Life Cycle Part I Birth

The life Cycle of a Combat Zone.

First you need to determine the style and reasoning behind the creation of this lawless area.Most Combat Zones do not occur overnight. There are several ways in which a zone comes into being in any urban area. A primary reason and the most obvious is from accelerated violent gang activity. This creates the most dangerous of the combat zones and the reason they came by their names in the first place. The reasoning behind the lawlessness getting out of hand can stem from many reasons, possible causes include but are not limited to the following:

Poverty of the individuals living in the area. This can lead to the lack of caring from whatever group is control of the city via the local government. Since we know that government power and the ability to get things done requires money, people in poverty just cannot raise the cash-flow needed to get good representation to field their needs. Slowly over time the governing powers will lose interest in those who cannot support their political needs and city services will diminish. Usually the first to go is the contract polic forces as the Police officer unions or the Corp in control of security for the city deem the area just to dangerous for regular patrols.

Everything cascades downwards from here as utility companies for power and telecommunications find they don't want to enter the area without some kind of policing force to protect them from harm. This will include all community services like bus transportation routes and social program groups run by the governing bodies like Community outreach centers and critical emergency care centers leaving... Even after all this government help has dried up some local and social groups not attached to governing agencies may try to stick it out to help the impoverished people with food pantries and job placement programs. Slowly over a few years even volunteers for these centers will dry up

Very seldom will the utilities services disappear in a short period of time. Areas will start seeing problems service disruption occurs from the following reasons: Extreme weather conditions knock down transmit lines, already overtaxed customers having service shut off from the home office, Gang fighting also destroying the utility poles and transmit towers though not intentionally. Slowly over time as the utility companies refuse to send worker to repair transmit lines service is dimished. The last service to go would be water service as it's not possible to remove all the pipes and sewage lines running into the area but even here no-one will come in to repair breaks and clear out the plugged sewage lines. Even in the early 2000's many urban poor areas had utility service due to the charity of others donations into special funds the checked off and paid to the utility companies to help the less fortunate. As time went on people have become less concerned with other people and more with just about how they will be able to pay their own bills. The reduction of the middle class whom paid for a major portion of these programs disappeared or have lost income to make them unable to assist others.

As the conditions quickly deteriorate inside the zone the violence increases as even the regularly sedate population lacking the basic services they have come to count on have disappeared they tend to riot.

Other birth cycle begin after a major disaster has taken place in the area. From either Weather in the case of the Katrina effect or due to terroristic incidents. Rebuilding these poor areas is never a first priority and normally never gets completed leaving what remains as and already burned out husk of a Zone.

Life Cycle Part II from birth to mature Combat Zone:

At this point as the night news keep showing the destitute citizens destroying nearby property but still mostly stores in their own area Governing officials are forced to take a militant action by hiring a private firm to quell this violence. Unless inclined by certain bribes and ownership the governing powers will hire the most cost effective firms. The low cost firms recruits are filled with actual gang members from other cities looking for some training in battlefield weapons and combat knowledge. These people are not what you are looking for to bridge the social divide as they will likely use live fire weapons quickly escalating the whole situation.

Finally the dust from the inner city warfare settles a bit and the governing officials find that they have to come to the final solution. The final solution being to remove the unwanted problem from their city. The problematic areas know as Combat Zones just don't disappear on their own so they hire a security firm to watch over and protect a high end contruction firm to demolish building and whatever is in the way to create a freefire area all around the offending residents, next comes some temporary barricades and then a reinforced concrete wall. All the while when this is happening the residents will try to either escape or plead for a better solution. Many who try to flee with be gunned down as either looters or rioters.

Now we have what is considered the classic Combat Zone a walled off poor section of a city. Riots, and slaughtered residents have reduced the areas population and destroyed many of the local businesses. The governing powers now have a place where they can dump all the undersirables, like the homeless, mentally ill and common criminals. The former semi lawabiding population is now overwhelmed with the criminal element from the previous gangs and the newly rehabitated criminal element.

Yes I do see one kind of the combat zone like the Carter Apartments from New Jack City which is a very good movie if you can find it for what a combat zone might operate like.

I think you have the gang recruits a bit too old as now children as young as 8 and 9 are brought into gangs. They normally don't do anything to dangerous but are informers drug carriers, and lookouts.

Have too many children? Sell them off or have them work in sweatshop conditions.

Other topics about the Combat Zone I plan to cover before I am done.

1. Living in a combat zone the view from:

a. A gang member

b. Hard working citizen just trying to get by

c. Edge-Runner

d. Ripper-Doc

e. Tech living in the zone

f. Anachist/nilist

g. Homeless

h. Nearby Security Forces meant to guard the outside from the Zone.

i. Your Average Wage Slave/Outsider

j. The Media's View to the world/Outsider

2. The complex economics the keep the Zone viable for most people and why they continue to persist.

3. The types of Combat Zones from the walled in extreme to the Zones just lost in the government system.

4. The life Cycle of a Combat Zone how it comes to exist and Die.

maybe something else but I will have to think about it

I know I have been really out for a while and have not written anything but it occured to me that perhaps the most single important place in a Cyberpunk game is the combat zone.

The combat zone a place where the normal rules of life order and disicpline take a break. Rule of law is near to non existant. The prying eyes of the Government and the highest Corp tower are missing or infrequent. This is the place where perhaps the last true bastion of freedom reigns supreme, do what you want as long as no one else tougher can't stop you.

While you may think a Combat Zone from one city to the next is all the same, I beg to differ with you. Even different Combat Zones inside the same large city can vary widely from each other.

What is the real definition of a Combat Zone. They all seem to have a few things in common.

not necessarily in the following order.

1. Gang activity, usually several gangs all vying for territory though not all ultraviolent.

2. Breakdown of social and moral standards.

3. Lack of a police force enforcing the law.

4. A very dimished or no utility services run by outside companies. No running water electricty, or net services. Though small groups may provide power for themselves from solar /wind farms and collect rain water.

5. no, or little Corp store fronts. perhaps maybe some vendomachines near the edge of a non-walled off Combat Zone. In the mildest of Zones this occurs not really from the fact that it's to dangerous for the employees ( they would just hire some cheap zoneheads ). In actuality it's the lack of income and ability of the people in the Zone to either buy their products or the hatred from the Zoners for anything Corp.

6. Little or no public transportation, usually only on the outside edges of the milder Combat Zones where it's more docile residents leave to gather groceries or need to work outside the Zone in a sweatshop.

7. Many building in a poor state of disrepair. In the roughest zones this will include lots of completely demolished buildings and rubble throughout what used to be streets. In the mildest of the zones it could just be the inhabitants just do not have the resources to keep up their homes and business go empty/abandoned with no one caring for what shape they are in.

I browsed it but since it's a bit large I have not had chance to read in depth.

It's not exactly what I personally go for but many people would find this useful.

I wonder about the reasoning behind some of the vehicles included ie the older ones how do they tie into what you are writing??

I would expand on the Corp to Combat zones perhaps including even a crude map of some type.

And what about some more info on those bridge habitats.

Heck I almost never game anymore. Only when I get real bored and can drop into a local gaming group. Still I can seldom find several hours together in a week to sit down and play an RPG.

Well there is always the SCA live action stuff!

Thats whats eating up my time now it takes almost as much time keeping my armor and weapons in shape a RPG's would.

All new members should read these rules!!!

http://vfte.cyberpunk.co.uk/index.php?act=boardrules

Kea finds the condition of his fellows to be rahter bad off as far as he can tell. He is of course not a trained medical professional.

Ben arrives with the gurney made to fit into a small space and of light weight but not exactly as usefull as it should be. Perhaps they were not expecting to have any medical problems while still in space.

The medical room is a good distance back up the airlocks and alongside the crew freezers in the round torroid section. Most of the equipment there is non mobile and very multifunction so as to be able to compress into the limited space of the ship.

Kea has plenty of time to accomplish his tasks and then just about fall to a heap on the floor of the cargo bay as Ben searches the ship for the items required.

ben finally finds the medical bay and figures out how to get the rolling gurney out of the tiny space it is in and then how to unfold it so that it can be usefull and rolled.

Seconds seem like minutes and time has lost it's meaning as all await the docking of the OTV's!

Even without checking most everyone is feeling the stress of sleepless days gone by. Out here in space time has little meaning except when it tells you you are both tired and hungry. Everyone other than Ben and Mayuki to a certain extent are litteraly exuasted from their work and effort of the past time from their defrosting to now.

Some rest and recoverery will be required of everyone before any more major undertakings are started.

Kea brings in the Two co-joined OTV's with a little problem but gets them inside with some slight damage and loss of paint on the outside of the OTV's and the inside of the Santa Maria!

Ben opens the doors causing a rush of air to be sucked back into the air vents in the unprotected portion of the Cargo bay as the inner set of blast shielded doors lift from the floor slowly. Some problems are apparent as their are some wierd sounds as water globs lodge theselves into the air vents where they were never expected to be.

Mayuki just barely has time to cross the huge Cargo bay to get into the protective enclosed shelter area where there is still oxygen and where Ben is operating the door controls.

As the outer doors open they can see visibly the twin OTV's struggling towards the Santa Maria and the open cargo bay doors.

Mayuki gets up from the floor a bit too suddenly, stumbles a bit and luckly her fall is broken by the wall close beside her. Damn she feels more like a large truck ran into her than anything else! Mayuki is capable of making her way down to the airlock and into the cargo bay but has to walk slowly to keep her head from swimming around and making her lose her balance. Hmmmmm. are those burnt out diodes and wires that she smells?!?

= = = = = = = = = =

Ben finds a first aid kit without must difficulty though it may be of little use except for some semi minor problems as it just mainly has band-aids aspirins and a roll of medical gauze. Nothing that would help too much for a major problem.

= = = = = = = = = = = =

Kea remembers that the cargo bay is a large open maw like the mouth at the front of some large ocean going creature that would swim in the expansive ocean that is Deep Space. A good deal of skill and stress still will be on him as he tries a manuever that was not in any kind of lessons he has ever seen and Kea even wonders if this problem has ever come up before and not been something of an international news item.

= = = = = = = = = = = = =

Ben failing to warn Mayuki of the current condition that is the area next to the door of the security room in the space dock area next to the cargo bay, gives Mayuki a bit to ponder as she sees a kinda gruesome combat scene played out before her of the ventilated Crewmember she remembers was supposed to be working on fixing the ventilation system and getting the Oxygen regenerating throughout the ship. Now perhaps the oxygen they gain from the cargo trips to the comet is their only hope to survive? But for how long, was the scrubbers fixed before Ben placed a large hole in Matti's skull? What about PAL who could have been crucial to the mission and seemed to act strangely when hooked up to the mainframe. What part did that play in the role of this strange puzzle they were trapped in dozens of lightyears away from any human colony's and any hope for help or assistance other than their own.

Sorry been out of the loop for a while. Air conditioning went out for 21 days. many things happening and such. Computer was disconnected for three days after attempting to move the desk it was on and the desk fell apart. half of our staff at work has gone to germany and such. Many changes in SCA officers as many fled the area after being ejected from their home and the others are busy with premeture baby needing blodd transfusions and constantly going to the hospital, they live just yards away so I have been helping alot. I have 25th year event I am preparing for and searching for a new car and getting creditors paid off, new armor and new SCA clothes made. Seriously hecktic.