Cybernetic Jesus

I'm envisioning a cyberpunk 2020 game that's not quite the usual game. It's a war-game and it takes place in a pseudo-cyberpunk world.

The conflict is between a future America and a future unnamed yet, Asian City-State created due to sea-level rise from global-warming.

The year won't be 2020, but more likely 2050 or even 2100 etc.

America is much like the America it is today; at some point in the not too distant (within living memory), future-past, there was a catastrophe that helped to bond and move America more conservative similar to something like the Great Depression or peak-oil.

Cybernetics is as it is in Cyberpunk 2020, but, it's not as widestream or heavy in the USA as in the book. It's culturally unacceptable to purposefully have elective surgery to get cybernetics. However, if you are wounded and lose a leg, that would be acceptable to have a cybernetic-leg.

The players will be USMC deployed to South East Asia before hostilities begin. They will witness the first genetically modified soldiers brought by a US corporation specifically made for combat (remember the movie Soldier?) and will be deployed with them.

The Asian-City-State: it is a cyberpunk society as envisioned in the books. Cybernetics and technology are widely accepted.

Their technology is equal to the USA's and there's no clear technological edge between either of them.

The City-State has just created an elite unit of FBC specifically made for combat. It already has several units of Cyber-soldiers: these soldiers have been "Upgraded" with specific cybernetics to enhance their combat effectiveness along with traditional military units.

The players will also play civilians of the Asian-City-State that will either be forced to participate in the war depended on their actions and the course of the war. They may be forced to become cyber-soldiers. They will be in a traditional cyberpunk game.

Technology: massive use of drones, C&C centers, computer-networks, hacking and cyber-warfare. This is an information-age war. The range of drones ranges from strike-fighters to bug-sized recons based out of Chrome 2.

This is a Corporate-War; the war is over resources and the winner, be it an American Corporation or an Asian Corporation will benefit from the acquisition of those resources. This is not a war of religion or national-pride (though, some fighting may believe that).

I'll probably use the vehicles from Maximum Metal and Solo of Fortune for the sake of brevity to Firestorm rules. The vehicles will mirror the vehicles used by the current USMC (Harrier=AV8, APC=Behemoth etc.). ACPAs will also be used by both sides.

It may seem that the USMC players may be at a disadvantage, given they may face cyber-soldiers and FBCs, but, there are many factors in war besides who has the sharpest sword. Cyber-soldiers are scary to face, but not so much after an 8" naval bombardment while they were out in open terrain. The USMC will have the same equipment (like IR etc.) as the cyber-soldiers. Time will tell.

Thoughts?

Has anyone done a good war-game in cyberpunk 2020 before?

I just use GM's discretion; if you have no armor and you get hit with 16 rounds from an UZI, you probably will have to roll up a new character.

I have been thinking of this for a while so forgive me if this is a repost.

An CP2020 alternate timeline in which the USA and the USSR nuked each other in 1984 thereby creating an apocalypse of sorts.

The game actually takes place in 2020 with enough time I hope, that a recovery of the USA can begin and still be, "Near-Future".

You have old ruined cities full of radiation and new ones built by Japanese investors.

N.America, USA, Europe, China and the USSR were all devastated by nuclear fire.

Japan was effected, but not as much and was able to recover faster.

Japanese corporations etc. were able to come to the USA and help the Americans recover, but at a price. Classic '80s cyberpunk. Sorry, no EU; in the event of the nuclear war, Europe would fair the worst.

Freeze-frame on technology; the '90s tech-boom never happened; no Windows 95, MP3s, Smart-phones or Youtube. The technologies of the 2020s in this alternate-timeline would reflect the technology at the peak of the '80s, but advanced to current CP2020 models.

If you're in a crowded and high-density city like NYNY, then of course you're going to hit people. Play the odds.

In Los Angeles and the SoCal area, I don't recall hearing about officers shooting people they're not aiming at. But apples to oranges; LA is urban sprawl. There's just not a lot of people packed together.

BTW, Buenos Aires has more people than NYNY and the federales are armed with UZIs. But I wasn't worried; if they shot someone by accident, the officer would be at their bed-side saying he's sorry. Americans however, like shooting each other.

Picked up a copy from the local used book store. Not bad. I like it. The concept is sound and I think Pondsmith had a good direction going.

So some people I know what to play an RPG game based on alien-conspiracies. I found an RPG book about that at a local book-store called, Alien-Invasion. I don't really want to learn a new RPG system so instead, I'm just using cyberpunk.

Here's the plot: in a cyberpunk world, sans popular cyberware (think Robocop etc.), a group of PCs find themselves themselves sore and with strange scars on them (yes, Gray-Aliens are experimenting on humans by implanting cyberware on them without their knowledge). Takes place in an Exec. suburb but also maybe in a Moderate or Combat Zone. Yes, the government is investigating in it and I haven't decided if they are co-conspirators or not. The PCs will most likely be teens or young adults (I just got Cyber Generation so I might use elements from that).

Books I will use;

Cyberpunk 2020

Deep Space (orbital mechanics etc.).

Night's Edge (psychic power).

Protect and Serve.

Also, does anyone have any good conspiracy theory books? I have little experience in conspiracy theories except to debunk them. I would like in my game to have plots within a plot conspiracy after conspiracy. My players are conspiracy-theory enthusiasts and I want to talk the talk, walk the walk.

Do the police enter this area at all?

A place like this is an utter failure in city-planning(if you rule a city, you should be able to rule all of it).

How old is this place? When it first is introduced, I guess it would be anarchy like the LA riots. Following basic anthropology, people will group together in gangs based on similarities (ethnic, biker, boosters etc.) and fight for control of resources (land, buildings etc.). How they fight can be anywhere from public speeches of law or all out heavy-weapons street battles. Eventually, the gangs will start forming alliances with other gangs and there will be two gangs fighting. How long this lasts can be anyone's guess, but eventually, one gang will win control of the CZ and that can will fight to maintain order and control. The violence will be significantly less and a sort of peace will develop allowing an economic system, such as shops etc. to prosper. When I say, one gang is in control, I mean one gang in the alliance is in control. Say the Italian mafia was able to form an alliance with the bikers, blacks and hispanics whom fought against the irish mob who had the poles and jews on their side(20th century, I know) that enabled them to win. The leadership of the irish mob and any resisting gangs would be removed and the gang either exiled, disbanded, annihilated or absorbed into another gang.

MC_Bolshie's genocide is not much different than my genocide in the Chrome Berets thread. In fact, mine is much more brutal. On the island of Dhurma, the ethnic Toung and exterminating the Kura not unlike NAZIs/Stalin. However, the big difference is that a google search for "Dhurma", won't produce such a nation for my nation is completely fictional. Though I used indonesia as a base, everything else is made up. That's where it touches tempers.

Awww, my little fictional nations I used to produce then work half way through them and find something cooler to work on!

If Tel Aviv got nuked by anything the Iranians could make in the next two decades, it would be in KT and will destroy a neighborhood, but not a brick-and-mortar city like that(the Japanese cities were made out of paper, yes, paper). The "Nukes" Israel is suspected of having (they most likely don't; there are few stupid enough to give religious-fanatics nukes, but you never know!). Even with the nukes Israel is suspected of having (KTs), they can take out Tehan, using about 20 nukes (that were able to hit their targets). Or they can seriously damage the country, but they won't be able to bring Iran to it's knees. Enough with the theorizing!

The greatest threat to Israel will probably be global-warming causing massive human migrations and the climate shifts. What are they going to due when millions of African Christian, Jews and Muslims refugees show up and want to live in the Holy lands in peace?

Also, I found a Japanese military model-site that had future Merkava's with what looks like two vulcans on the turret. Interesting!

Sounds a lot like Mage: the Ascension's coincidental magic in which the magical-effect appears as a coincidence,"the brakes just failed" or, "he accidentally got electrocuted".

I'm sure it is possible to hack into cyberware and shut it off or simply EMP it and make it look like a regular malfunction. If your victim is driving down the express-way and you shut off his cyber-eyes, he's in for some problems.

If you have Night's Edge, you can use psychic powers to cause effects such as attacking the mind (making it appear he went mad) or pushing a pallet on your victim making it look like a simple accident. Unless some investigating has psychic powers and can sense your presence, it will look like simple accidents!

True, it does restrict a lot of qualified people than could have valuable skills for the USAF, but that order was written on the political theory of, "Nobody controls space, but everyone thinks they do". Basically, a bunch of dirtrider, DC bureaucrats and politicians who have never been in LEO and making those decisions. And true, it only restricts Highrider-Revolts in the USAF.

I've tried to read Heinlein, but it's difficult for me to get interested in his stories. His stories are good, but it's his writing-style that I have problems with, like Philip Dick.

Since books are on the decline and RPG books are even rarer, I just download a PDF of the book I want. PDF's are great for storage; you can have all your RPG books on a small flash-drive and you can take your whole collection with you if you do something like move to a foreign-city! However, PDF's kind of suck for reading and there's nothing like a hard-copy. Most of the PDF's I've downloaded, I've brought hard-copies of during the rare instances I actually find one at a used book-store or at a book retailer.

As for clutter; I'm anti-clutter and everything I own can fit in the back of my truck. My RPG books consist of two milk-crates and my non-RPG books are about two boxes as well...

In an Aeon-Flux style game I had all the players as clones; when they died, they just started out as a beginning player as they did with the previous character as the same person, but with no xp or knowledge of their previous clones. One PC did go out of their way get occasionally "Upload" themselves into their next clone in case of death. But that involves a lot of "Friends in the right places", bribery and work on their part.

Ethically speaking, using disassembler nanobots is the first chapter in the eventual extinction of the human race. Like a cancer-cell, all you need is one to, "Go bad" and you have problems, especially if they're dumb enough to have it self-replicate.

Only a persons born on Earth and an American-Citizen may join the USAF in space. Absolutely no "Highrider" or persons born in space, NEO or any other planetary body save Earth or non-USA citizen, my be enlisted in the USAF and its space-forces.

Gen. Stalon, USAF. 2026.

So they made an Eclipse FBC. Interesting...

A meat-hand makes him more people-friendly?

After I read Shakespeare's Macbeth in high-school, I ran it via cyberpunk 2020 rules sans cyberware etc. set in that era. My players were ignorant to the works of Shakespeare and they loved it. In they end, the players fought giants in a successive game. Twice as big as a human, twice as many health points (eight per level instead of four). Stats for monsters is well, trial and error. Do whatever is best for your players.

For magic, try Night's Edge and Grimm's Cybertales. Grimm's has magic, but it's ritual and involves a lot of stuff.

Also, try using White Wolf's stuff; they're pretty good in the monster dept. and having monsters based on literal myths, but be something else.

I can see a CP-cult movement were individuals have odd hairstyles just to remain anonymous.

Should composite armor be at 1/2? Should composite have a "Catch-all" properties since it's also effective against lasers?

Finally saw it; was OK.

Dredd in 3D was awesome.

However, the plot was predictable and I never liked the idea of "Judges"; too simplistic, but it was a total cyberpunk movie.

I loved the Mega-City; it was a combination of a cyberpunk-apocalypse. It was the old and the new. Note: in a Nat. Geo Mag. in the mid-90s, they stated a Mega-City from DC to Boston on the East-coast so there you go.

Also, Ma-Ma also plays Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones and Kay was Avon Barksdale from the Wire.

While reading Shockwave's new Max.Metal rules, I was thinking that depleted uranium would be at 1/3 armor vs. the standard 1/2 for normal AP. Perhaps maybe composite armor is at 1/2 vs. DU rounds? Composite armor is designed to stop HEAT rounds, but perhaps it can slow down DU rounds as well?

I make and use tons of maps for my games. I mostly use video-game editing programs better known as "Level-Editors"; if a game is remotely cyberpunk-ish and has a level-editor, I get it.

Here are the games I use to make cool CP2020 maps.

Tiberian Sun (war-game, LOVE the graphics)

Outlive (a future war-game)

Soldiers of Anarchy(game about a post-apocalypse)

It's a A LOT of work to create a map. Even a city-map. I try to make the 3D and it takes a long time; what most likely happens, is that I get bored of it or I think of another idea I want to try.

Right now, I am thinking of a huge cyber-city for TS: an Executive-Zone map for OL modeled after the city I live in, Irvine, Ca. (look it up: it just scream Exectuve Zone): an '80s city for SoA for a Cyperpunk 2020 Night's Edge game: a SoA "Nuked" city for a Red Dawn-like game(I can make a nuke crater and I have plenty of burnt out building graphics and bodies graphics I can use): and finally, an 1892 map of an Argentine city(SoA) for a V:tM game.

I've just got so many options that once I get inspired, I create, then I find another way to do something and follow that route, leaving the old idea behind and so forth.

For instance, the other day I was thinking that since Tiberian Sun has only two terrain-types, winter and desert, I can use winter cliffs to mimic glaciers and use water terrain to photoshop and smooth the two images together to get something you wouldn't find in the game, but I can create it!

I like those links!

Alright, I got my old CP2020 book out of storage and I was crunching the numbers with pay, living-expenses etc. Here's what I got;

The average "Good-life" (living in the Exec.-Zone with a family etc.) is out of the price range for everyone except Medi-techies with Special Ability of ten. If you're a have ability Corporate and you want to live in the Executive zone, you have to either find a cheaper place to live (nobody just sells one-room condos in the Executive-Zone or you have to get another source of income.

Living in the Corp. Zone is pretty much out of the limits for every starting character (Special Ability: one to five) except Solos, Corps., Fixers and Medtechies. This includes a diet of Prepak without health insurance.

In the Moderate Zone; life is relatively easy for your average Edge-Runner. With the pay per Special-Ability, there's more than enough EBs to go around...

The cheapest way of living is in the Combat Zone or outside the city. Virtually nothing. However, cost is subjective.

Some new concepts needed: for one, there are no mortgages; the Corporation(s) own everything. To live in a nice, "Traditional". American middle-class home in the Executive Zone(suburbs), you pay rent for it. Same as living in the Moderate-Zone.

Note: I have not factored in furnishings or vehicles into the equations; furnishings I expect are bought one-time with extra-cash and vehicles, I suspect they are owned, but I don't want to speculate auto-loans interests or payments.