Cybernetic Jesus

I keep getting ads from real estate agents to buy multi-million dollar homes (as if I would).  They, however, can make great cyberpunk NPCs!  This one is based off of Idol's Tomorrow People.  He's a Corp., sick of it all and wants to bring down the system!

18 hours ago, Vile Traveller said:

 . . .it doesn't take much to turn utopia into dystopia.

That's what I like about his works the most!  I want to make a cyberpunk dystopia based off of his works, but instead of classic-Cyberpunk, which is based off of the '80s, I'd make it based off of '60's and '70's science-fiction.

I just found it; I did look before I posted, for the record. Move?

@Prime_Evil Yeah; I based that one off of Kenneth Copeland, a Texas televangelist after I saw his, sermon/rebuking of Covid-19.  I chick that knows nothing about Cyberpunk 2020, or even RPG-games said I should make him into a character. 

15 hours ago, Prime_Evil said:

Maybe the *real* Saburo Arasaka has been dead for years? Maybe Kei has had the power behind the throne for a decade or two, running the fake Saburo as a puppet?  

True: Maybe Kei IS Saburo!  

12 hours ago, senior officer Mikael van Atta said:

Well, for me the entire "bad guy" idea is so... '80's.

In my Cyberpunk stories, it was about corps being greedy. Rarely about having a personal agenda to take over the world. 

Sure, an individual CEO could have a few personal pet peeves. But, especially for the big megacorps, it was the market forces driving them. Not the ideas of "good" or "evil". Does it benefit the company and thus stockholders? If so, it is good and the company would do it.

Alas, that was my way of Cyberpunk...

Perhaps Saburo is just a bad Cyberpunk-badguy;  Perhaps he's greedy over world-power?  Greed is something young corporates have; a desire for something great is what CEOs have.   If it benefits their personal goals, which are usually greed, then it's good. If not, "Bad".  A true Cyberpunk bad would eventually surpass the good of the company for the good of themselves, or need to justify a decision to subordinates as, "Good for the company".  

There's a good chance Kei doesn't want any part of Saburo's scheme, and he may take steps to ensure the survival of the company because, after all, Kei is heir to it. 

Post your NPCs here!

17 hours ago, senior officer Mikael van Atta said:

"A ton of questions" is fine for the players.

However, I'm of the opinion that GM should have "all the answers" figured out.

That is true; I like having games open-ended for new ideas.  I've had an idea of creating a ruined-city with that Arasaka-Arco (the Hospital from Tiberian-Sun) for a few years now.  Until recently, I never thought of an Suburo Arasaka AI, a 280 YO Suburo-cyborg or Suburo losing his head over this.    I like to create just enough so I have an idea what's going on and be able to introduce new ideas.  With the leathallity rate so high, one bullet could end days of scenario-writing. 

11 hours ago, Prime_Evil said:

You could always treat the CPv3 version as the "official" version of events, but keep an AI version of Saburo in the background somewhere. Maybe what the Japanese government told President Kress was untrue. Maybe they wanted to get old man Saburo out of public sight and let everyone think he was dead. This avoids a public trial for war crimes that would have unpleasant repercussions on both sides of the Pacific Rim. The guy ordered the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction against civilian targets..but then so did US corporate leaders. Maybe the US government knows Saburo isn't dead, but isn't keen on opening up that particular can of worms. They might make it clear to the Japanese government that they are willing to turn a blind eye to Saburo's survival provided his influence is curtailed. They know the Japanese government is eager to rehabilitate the public image of Arasaka. Perhaps the lifting of sanctions against the corporation is conditional on a changing of the senior leadership. Maybe they think they can exercise more influence over Kei? 

So why would the Japanese government choose to keep Saburo alive in a secret location? Although he might be a valuable asset to the nation, he's a crafty old bastard and has planned for every eventuality. He has enough dirt on every senior Japanese politician to blackmail them. Even in defeat, the Japanese government is frightened of him. He has agents everywhere. His spies and informants are still around. He may still have enough covert influence to ensure his survival. I can easily imagine him cutting as deal to move into a new advisory role, influencing government policy from behind the scenes. I suspect he is arrogant enough to regard the defeat of the Fourth Corporate War as nothing more than a temporary setback. 

I like Suburo being the most excellent cyberpunk bad-guy, but at his age, he may not be up to it mentally and perhaps, someone else is pulling the strings.  His days of arrogance may be over and days of senile are ahead.  

Or perhaps, Arasaka is more of an idea or ideal than an actual corporation?  Perhaps there will always be an, "Arasaka Security Corporation".  Sure, it may fall, only to resurface a few years later with a, "Suburo Arasaka", running it.  

I've known about BP since it came out, but I never got it until I picked up the BP:2e Moderator's Guide at a used book-store a few years ago; then last Sept., I finally got BP, 1e, from Amazon and I read a lot of it in my break-room at work.  I see a lot of potential in the game.  Yes, there is a worm-hole, however, why not multiple worm holes; I was thinking of adding in other worlds similar to Heavy-Gear's chain of worlds connected by a worm hole (fitting as both games were published around the same time (IRL)).

I made that Arasaka-graphic years ago and recently another conversation on another forum led me to make that map.  I want to run it in BP because my players don't know that game or how to, "Character-Engineer", like they do with CP:2020.

My first concept for that map was a CyberGen-game;  but BP was on my mind.  It can be many things.  I want to leave the reason there are impact-craters to be a reason beyond Cyberpunk; in time, I can figure out how to convert CyberGen to BP 1e.  

With the AI, I'd rather have a ton of questions than all the answers; I'm basing the AI off of Silent-Universe (the long, lost Website, not the game) with AIs' limitations.  Maybe this AI survived vengeance because it was called, "Akasara".

Maximum-Mike is a bit nuts and his ideas go back and forth.  In Mekton, I see the 4th Corporate War being reenacted like the Civil-War is in the States.  However, I do like the idea of Suburo Arasaka getting, "There can only be one'd".   

No worries; any ideas are welcomed.  I am working on this and other RPG-worlds and may not even run this.  

 

It's not really a true cyberpunk book, but an architecture-book about acologies and the study of ekistics.  It's a really good book with view and gave me lots of ideas for arcologies.  However, the writing is difficult to comprehend and the constant use of five-dollar words (like Peripatetics), presents a problem, but it is interesting.  I picture the author, way out there.  

The peripatetic lifestyle is difficult, yes. 

It mentioned in the Arasaka Corp. Book that Saburo was going to have his personality uploaded to an AI upon death; I was going to keep him alive as a 280 year old cyborg and give him added abilities like psyche from Night's Edge, but an AI seemed more likely.  

There is no doubt Saburo made a lot, a lotta enemies, but once AI, it's just a copy/clone of his personality and may have been hidden in a vault on a chip for decades before resurfacing.  

I view this AI as an evolved form of Saburo; being AI, it can modify itself a bit and isn't not an exact copy of him; I view the compound as the remains of an Arasaka CyberGen., containment facility in which the CyberGens' overthrew and the AI had to find its niche; also, the Carbon-Plague doesn't age them.  They are still children?

I am merging CP2020 with Blue Planet, hence the focus on the sea for the map.   I recently acquired the first version and it's basically a cyberpunk-style game with hope of a better future.  And more lethal. 

This is the last of the Arasaka Corporation.

https://www.deviantart.com/toqo/art/Bp1earth-836420247

It's not quite certain what purpose the last, standing Arasaka structure held or why the city is in ruins; only known factor is the rise of the sea-level.  

The resident: 
Arasaka, Saburo AI:

INT: 12

Personality: Hostile, PARANOID: obsession with Japan.

Skills: Education & General Knowledge: 10, History: 8, Library Search: 9, English: 5,  Japanese: 10, Arabic: 5, Stock-Market: 2, Teaching: 10, Mathematics: 6, Accounting: 4.

Upon Saburo Arasaka's death in 2028*, his personality was transferred to AI; some skills were purposefully kept low to maintain the illusion of Saburo.  However, over time, certain skills the AI reduced to make room for other skills/programs.  This is probably not the exact one made, centuries ago, but a copy that has modified itself for its new reality.  

*If anyone knows a cannon-source to his death, please post it.  

People that make a lot of money spend more time worrying about getting more money.  

OP: Return to 2020; cyberpunk, the genre, is the '80's version of the future. 

And that's a no on Fuzion and Barbie-dolls. Fuzion is for anime.  

I maybe a few years late, but I have lived the nomad lifestyle IRL; it's not as fun as I thought and no matter where I travel, places/things/people are always the same.

The Real Cyberpunk 2020 Corporate

Latest version of IPhone.
Drives a hybrid.
Over-educated and knows more than his, 'Boomer-bosses.

Has Avocado-toasted sandwiches for lunch.
Rents, but tries to save for a condo.
Has six-figures in college-loan debt.
 

Any gun is better than no gun; I've ran games in which the PCs had only small-caliber handguns (they weren't happy about that).  

I choose not to see D20 Cyberpunk.

Anyone catch the latest Nat. Geo issue? I read it today while waiting for the #$ and it was interesting; I can't post a link because they want me to subscribe.

I've seen lots of forums I've posted at die over the years; as long as I like cyberpunk I will continue to post about it and create maps I never finish.

As of now, there's a population about the size of California's population of single Indian-males that will never be able to marry an Indian female given the disparage of males to females birth-rates due to society-standards. That's a large army of men with nothing to lose.

"Kima: Fighting the war on drugs... one brutality case at a time.

Carver: Girl, you can't even think of calling this shit a war.

Herc: Why not?

Carver: Wars end."

-The Wire.

It various in my city; it's a collection of agriculture communities that grew into a larger city; some cities have a grid, while others do not. I live in a part of town that was build during the Wild-West; it varies so much I can't say. Basically, each individual small-time farmer sold his land to a developer that made the blocks according to how many SFR they could put in that tract of land.

Some other cities I've lived in:

SLC: Planned city by the Mormons; each block is 10 acres.

Irvine, CA: Each large block is a mile with smaller suburbs within.

Buenos Aires, Ar.: 100m in size (and just about every other city in Argentina like Rosario and Mendoza).

Savannah, GA: 200 yards (designed centuries ago).

Chicago, IL: a mile grid with eight city blocks in each? Don't really remember this, as at the time I wasn't really counting.

I think I might have an old-DOS NPC generator somewhere.