Mosca Syndrome

Jade-

In addition to "Primitive Screwheads," somewhere on one of the cyberpunk websites are a couple of articles on GMing by someone called "M0n0lyth," also a female cyberpunk GM, that are pretty good.  If you can't find them, I have them saved at home and could send them to you.  

Which brings me to the next point.  You should get a free email somewhere (hotmail, or whatever)--you see, your b/f frequents this site, so any good ideas you get here as far as plots and whatnot are going to be easily accessible.  I have lots of ideas right now but nobody I know has any time to get a game going.  I also have a few short adventures that were intended for web publication but I decided it wasn't worth the trouble.  I'd be happy to send them to you, and I bet a lot of others here could send you ideas, too.  The idea isn't so much to use them verbatim, but as inspiration.

A couple of quick tips:

Big gunfights are easier to handle if you try one of a couple of approaches:

1.  Don't have big gunfights.  Keep the action small and limit the number of bad guys until you are really comfortable with it.

2.  Break it into two small gunfights--let them finish the first wave of bad guys off, then the second wave shows up while they are looking the bodies over for clues or money or whatever.

3.  If you have a lot of bad guys, set them into groups, letting two or three at a time operate under the same initiative roll.  

As far as the problem with them shooting their way through everything, that's a plot issue.  Yes, there needs to be some consequences to being a trigger happy psycho, but there are also more proactive ways to deal with this.  Give them a job that forces them not to kill someone--maybe they have to protect them, or have them cooperate in ways that threatening and roughing them up can't help.  Give them bad guys to kill because it's part of the fun, but an overall mission that is antithetical to shooting everyone will help with the homicidal mania.  Again, particulars aren't something you want to put up on a board that your players hang out on--but I have ideas if you want them.

You say the characters have a lot of money?  Well, that makes it harder to motivate them.  As someone mentioned, having it get stolen (by robbery and/or computer hacking) is a possibility, but there are other ways around the too-much-money hassle.  There are other currencies besides money.  Favors.  Loyalty.  Sex.  For instance:

The players have to have a certain rare piece of gear to perform the job they are working on.  Powerful Fixer X has the rare piece of gear, but WON'T ACCEPT MONEY AS PAYMENT (player characters with lots of money have a hard time with this one, but it's funny).  He needs a favor in return for the gear.  Now the characters have a quick job within their job that they have to perform.  It could be something as simple as whacking or intimidating Fixer Y (again, being told NOT to kill someone makes it interesting--the opening scene from the movie "The Professional" aka "Leon" comes to mind), or something dubious and strange, like, say, stealing a bunch of delicate and antique rose bushes out of some rich guy's greenhouse for Fixer X's psychotic girlfriend.  No roses, no gear.  Of course, this job alone could have its own repercussions.  Remember in this sort of deal that the piece of gear they need is the main issue and that's what they are working for.  The Fixer is in charge of the deal--don't let the characters try to bully him with demands related to the favor.  If they want the gear, they figure out the details and do the job.    

Loyalty is another currency.  A time honored background plot is the classic "Fixer Wars"...the local underworld is in turmoil over who gets to deal in what and where.  There are two main Fixers that everyone seems to be siding with or against.  Battle lines are being drawn, and people are choosing sides like never before.  Everyone knows (or thinks) that the people on the losing side are going to be bad off when it's all over.  What will the players do?  For people who are loyal to one side or the other, there are lots of dirty jobs to be done, and good pay to be had.   For people who stay independent, it's hard to find work as their loyalties are in question.  What will the players do?  "Sign on" with one group and go on a bunch of short, violent missions, and gain enemies all over the place?  Stay independent, get only the lousiest jobs, have trouble getting any deals made (oh, no--your weapons fixer is working for Fixer Y and if you aren't on his team, he isn't helping!), and end up being considered an untrustworthy  liability by everyone?  Try to "sign on" secretly with BOTH sides and play both ends against the middle and hope nobody finds out?  Every choice is loaded with repercussions that could last for years and justify every whacky thing you do to your players.

Anyway, hope this helps, and if you get one of those free email services (only a looney would give out their main email address on a public forum), I would be happy to send you some stuff or offer ideas for your campaign.  GMing isn't easy, though, and it's not for everyone...it may just be that your b/f needs an occasional break from GMing to let off steam....

Good Luck

Snow...

as far as the recorders go, it is sort of the "honor system"...the ban on recorders is more for the sake of appearances--it doesn't do a privacy bar any good to have people waving handheld recorders around the main area.  An implanted recorder or a hidden one could easily be used within the bar or the chambers themselves.  The chambers are more to keep what is said between two parties between those two parties and to ensure that even highly sophisticated eavesdroppers are going to have a difficult time listening in.  Whether those two parties betray each other is a whole other ball game....

And you're right, a table would help in some situations.  Maybe there can be a couple of slightly larger "conference rooms" that feature one.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Manu,

Yeah, there's always going to be a way to defeat it (and those are some clever ones), but like you said, it's not going to be cheap or easy and will require quite a bit of planning--almost an adventure in and of itself.    

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for the input!

(this one is inspired by the episode of the American TV series "The Simpsons," in which Homer is looking for a new car and stumbles upon a car lot filled with strange Eastern European cars--all this stuff is made up, and hopefully nobody will be offended by any of it.)

Vaclav Klavic was an entrepenuer in is homeland of (insert Eastern European nation here) until that nation was torn apart during a religious war a few years ago.  He emigrated to (insert game setting country here), and is now dealing in inexpensive used cars from Eastern Europe.  The corps have managed to deregulate environmental protection laws and vehicle safety codes, so getting them up to emissions and safety standards is a no-brainer.  Honest Vaclav buys older ones for almost nothing, has relatives assemble working examples from the best parts, and has them shipped here to sell for a profit.  He always seems to have 20-30 vehicles on hand, but there seems only to be a few models (which look identical no matter what the actual year of the vehicle is) to choose from:

Trabatka T125

A tiny four-door sedan with a wheezing three-cylinder engine.  It barely has the power to get out of its own way, but around the city it's enough.  Styling seems to be a grossly simplified version of early 60s American cars, with mild tail fins but a relative lack of trim elements--the only Chrome is the grille emblem, which looks like a circle containing a fly with lightning bolts radiating from it.   The interior is thin vynil and wood-grained contact paper with a plastic cupholder glued to the dashboard.  Top speed is 70mph and it's recommended that your character have some points in Basic Tech to keep it running for more than a week or so.  Price is $1199, usually available in bilious colors like brownish yellow, robin's egg blue, and mint green.

Elektrabatka!

Vaclav's own idea--replace the T125's engine with an electric powerplant.  Same "classic" looks, but much more reliable and tractable around the city.  Top speed is 45mph, and it will run for four hours total on a night's charge.  Price is $1999

Volotnik V3 "Troika"

A tiny two-seat, three wheeled runabout powered by a two-cycle three-cylinder engine.  Noisy and ugly, but pretty quick.  No room for luggage, and the cockpit design is awkward to get in and out of (almost like climbing into a fighter plane).  Top speed is 90mph--but the acceleration is good--and it costs $1999.  They only seem to come in a matte grey paint,  But Vaclav knows some kids who will gladly spraypaint it every color of the rainbow for forty dollars.  

Trabatka T250

A solid workhorse of a van, the T250 is a common government and military vehicle in Eastern Europe.  Vaclav often uses them as shipping containers for the Volotnik V3 mentioned above.  The typical T250 is a cargo setup--no windows along the sides or back of the van.  Like the T125, the overall design seems to be influenced by early sixties American cars.  It's really pretty gastly looking.  There is always at least one uncomfortable seat for the driver.  The rest varies, but most of them have a series of what seem to be coat-hooks along the inside of the van, tiedown points on the floor, and various stickers in foreign languages referring to some kind of radioactive cleanup procedure.  Vaclav claims that all vehicles are thoroughly decontaminated before being shipped here, and that any residual radioactivity in his vans is "perfectly acceptable for good health"....Some of them include a dash-mounted "radio pod" that seems to only receive one station, which is manned by a lunatic who plays the song "Hamburger Lady" by Throbbing Gristle over and over again--apparently the frequencies were different back in the old country or something.  One thing these vans are is reliable.  They'll take just about any abuse you can give them.  They are not fast (75mph) or pretty (they are usually painted the same sick colors as the T125, often in two-tone combinations with white), but they are tough.  They cost from $3500 for a beat-up example to $6000 for the rare nicely-appointed model with extra bench seats and passenger windows.  The grille features the same chrome fly emblem as the T125.

Vaclav himself is a cheerful, friendly man, but a schemer.  He has so far sold every vehicle he gets, and his repair shop for these vehicles does pretty well, too.  In other words, he doesn't haggle over the price of his vehicles.  He might take a trade, but only if he is certain he can sell the trade item for at least the price he would normally get on a car.  

Honest Vaclav's is a place for low-level PCs and NPCs to get some cheap wheels that won't leave them heartbroken when they get destroyed.   He may also have tentacles in other businesses, like smuggling immigrants, drugs, or guns from war-torn countries like his homeland.  These activities may make him somehow more useful to the characters than just as a used car dealer.  

Glad to see more people contributing to this part of the forum!  Hopefully we can keep the ball rolling!

(this one's a little odd and may or may not be useful depending on how you approach the game.  If you have technical beefs with me over this, keep in mind that I don't really care about the specifics of the technology as long as it seems feasible in my vision of the 2020s.  In other words, I'm not getting into any technical discussions over this...MS)

We all know that the future has millions of eyes and ears.  It seems that everywhere you go there are cameras watching traffic, shoppers, pedestrians, employees, everything.  They're so small that you could never hope to see them--it always makes me laugh when players ask me "Are there any cameras?" when even today it's so easy to hide a camera that you only need to show them when you WANT people to see them.  The microphones are just as bad.  Your company could be spying on you.  Your ex could be spying on you.  Your enemies could be spying on you.  Even if someone is just trying to get marketing data by determining how many people are wearing brown coats as opposed to black ones this fall, every one of these viewing and listening devices is a possible threat to an edgerunner's security.  Where do you go when you absolutely need to guarantee a little privacy for a discussion or a meeting?   You could go to the typical abandoned-warehouse-in-the-combat zone, but it's dangerous and the other party may prefer somewhere a little more safe.  Instead, you go to "The Know" (the name is a pun on the phrase "in the know").

The front room of The Know is a well-lit but windowless bar with exits on no less than three sides of the building.  You can get any of the standard beers, wines, or mixed drinks here.  The Know is located near the corporate district and does a decent business on the bar service alone (though the drinks are a little pricey).  What separates The Know from other bars is that in the back area you can rent a guaranteed-private chamber for an important "hush-hush" business discussion.  Simply approach the attendant at the entrance to the back area and:

A>  Mention to him/her that you want to rent a privacy room, and

B>  Give him/her the "password" you want others to have to give him to be allowed to join you.  This allows parties to arrive at different times and makes it more difficult to figure out who is in what room.

You will then be "buzzed" through a locked door and can go through a hallway to the room in question.  People are not allowed to languish in the hallway (the attendant has an indicator on his/her desk that illuminates when someone is in the hallway--pressure pad switch--and only lets one person or party use it at once), so there isn't really a way to be sure who is in what chamber if you are trying to watch from the bar area.  

A typical chamber is a small, windowless room similar to a train compartment.  It can hold about six people.  It is fashioned in seamless beige plastic and features two molded benches facing each other.  The benches are more like smooth shelves built into opposite walls, the idea being that there is really no place to hide a bug.  Each chamber is insulated, acoustically deadened, and is fitted with a scanning device that illuminates a warning light if something in the chamber is transmitting radio waves.  Each chamber is swept for items left behind or other tampering (it's not hard to spot since it's a seamless plastic room) immediately after each use.  In short, there's no way to access what is said or done here without smuggling in a recorder of your own.  Yes, they have a ventiliation system, but they have some way of deadening that, too--white noise, whatever.  Since I don't want (nor will I take part in) a discussion about what technologies defeat this or what technologies defeat that, I am suggesting that there is no effective way to eavesdrop on a conversation in one of the privacy chambers from outside.

The staff is friendly and pleasant overall (and have had some training to spot ruses and con jobs aimed at compromising security), but there are a few "house rules" that will get you thrown out if you don't observe them.  They are posted just inside of each of the public doors and are :

1.  If you ask questions of the staff as to who is in The Know or where they are or when they were here, you will be denied service and immediately asked to leave.

2.  Absolutely no cameras or other recording devices are allowed.  If you are seen by any staff member with such a device, you will denied service and immediately asked to leave.

3.  Absolutely no designation or insignia tying an individual to a media organization is allowed.  If you are seen by any staff member with such designation, you will be denied service and immediately asked to leave.  Sorry, open declarations of media affiliation undermine the confidence of the patrons.

In addition, people who try to loiter around the attendant's desk will be asked to return to the bar area.  

Although The Know is a handy thing to have, the need for such privacy is itself incriminating to a degree.  Some corporations have listed being "In The Know" as a fireable offense...after all, if you were completely loyal, what would you have to hide?  The police, suspicious that criminals sometimes use The Know for meetings and plans, may try to stake the bar area out, but there's not really a way to be sure who is meeting whom.  Johnny X may have come and rented a chamber and Bobby Y went back there at one point, but they can't prove if or why they met.  In addition, the owners of The Know have successfully sued the police for harassment, and as a result they tend to tread lightly here.

Some uses for The Know:

A meeting place for PCs and NPCs who have reason to believe they are being followed and want to discuss the situation with a great degree of privacy.

A place for PCs to meet with prospective employers or employees for discreet meetings.

A place to confound PCs when the person they are stalking keeps meeting various strangers for private things that may have little or nothing to do with the reason they are stalking him or her.

That idea that other languages in the same family are accepted at half does seem a bit much, even when the languages are rather similar.  I have a Danish friend who could understand written communication from a Finn, but they could not understand each other when it came to speaking.  

I have always just worked languages like this when creating characters.  It's not the book's plan, but like that ever stopped me before:

Your skill in your (most) native tongue is equal to your INT.  You then have up to your INT in points to spend on other languages.  You can put all of those points into one language and be completely bilingual, or you can spread them around and have a smattering of languages.  If you want more languages, you'll have to dip into your skill points for them, and no language can surpass your native one in skill level.  If someone is speaking a similar language to one of yours, I might let your character hear a couple of key words, but that may not be enough to be sure about what they are saying.  Sometimes NOT knowing the language is better than knowing a little of it, because you instead pay more attention to gestures and expression than to figuring out individual words.

Dick Burnett's Scrap-n-Salvage

An enormous vehicle salvage yard on the outskirts of town, S-n-S is the place to go looking for obsolete parts.  Spread out over more than a few acres of land, the bulk of the territory is covered by rows and rows of dead vehicles--mostly ground vehicles, but there is a section for planes, gyros, Avs, and boats that are damaged beyond repair.  The place has an almost labyrinthine quality to it, and who knows what all could be hidden out there.  

The entire facility is encircled by a 4 meter sheetmetal fence topped with razor wire.  The only official entrance is at the front.  Customers enter here and are free to roam the yard on foot or, for a small fee, in small gas (or Chooh-2, if you prefer) engined-trucks with flat beds on the back.  These trucks are not fast but can get through the muddy, rutted aisles and haul a surprising amount of cargo back to the front, where it's appraised by Burnett employee and a price is quoted for the lot.

There are a lot of vehicles here, ranging from late-model wrecks to old cars that just "up and died"....the place smells strongly of oil and gasoline, and when it's open it's rarely quiet with the little trucks bouncing around and the tools being used to tear things apart.  Vehicles that are completely parted out and are just taking up space are usually recycled…metal ones are crushed into cubes in a large hydraulic press near the front of the facility, and plastic ones are just melted down and poured into cylindrical "logs" of plastic.  This scrap material is sold back to companies that produce more metal and plastic goods.

At the front of the facility are also a mechanic's shop and a machine shop, charging pretty much the standard service rates for such work.  No, they will not build a 20mm autocannon turret from your stolen plans--they are not interested in getting sent to prison any more than you are.

Security is pretty lax.  There is one tower with a small shack on it in the middle of the yard.  The shack is lightly armored and has windows that could be opened to allow a watchman with a rifle to cover the entire yard.  Sometimes someone is there, sometimes not.  It depends on how many theft problems there have been, but if someone is there they'll shoot first and ask questions later.  

Dick Burnett, an expatriate Texan, died of a heart attack almost ten years ago (too much Bar-B-Que).  His only daughter, Molly (age 34), has been running this place ever since in the same manner, and many consider her to be even more shrewd than her father was.  S-n-S has a staff of about thirty-five employees, few of whom are very educated or make much money.   Molly is rather well-liked among mechanically-oriented techies and particularly nomads, who frequently find themselves combing the maze of junkers in search of a part to get an RV or ancient musclecar running again.  She is a tough and somewhat cynical person (who isn't these days?), but seems to treat everyone fairly.

One addition Molly has made is across the road from the Salvage facility--she has opened an icehouse specializing in cheap beer, whiskey and Bar-B-Que (though the meat is usally vatgrown or some other substitute, the sauce is legendary--a family secret of the Burnetts).  What's unique about the icehouse (Unimaginitively named "Molly's Icehouse") is that it and the furnishings within it are entirely fashioned out of crushed automobile cubes and rubber tires--the seats, tables, the bar, the walls….almost everything here was once being driven around town and is pretty much indestructible...

It’s a good thing, too…Molly's is a rowdy place--a favorite hangout of nomads, local hardcases, bikers, and other rough-around-the-edges types.  As such, brawls are pretty common here.  If things start to get out of hand, a lot of the regulars also serve as bouncers as a favor to Molly.

The Scrap-and-Salvage can be used for many things in the campaign:

It could be a front for many things, the least of which is a stolen car operation the characters either work for or against.  Other ideas include a survivalist cult, a white slavery ring, a large scale drug-lab, or illegal pit-fighting.

It provides yet another quiet meeting place besides the stereotypical alley.

Something the characters need might be hidden in the scrapyard somewhere and they have to sneak in there and find it.  For instance, they hear that a smuggler was involved in a car accident and the nobody found the contraband hidden in secret compartments...the car is at Burnett's--go get that cargo!

The icehouse is a great place to find some nomads, if you're looking.

Think about it…a firefight in an auto graveyard…how '70s exploitation film-like can you get?

Perhaps the target/criminal/cyberpsycho/whatever has run into the yard to get away from them and they are stuck hunting it through the maze of dead cars in the middle of the night, having to dodge fire from the watchtower the whole time.

If you're on Molly's good side, she might let you use some corner of the yard as a place to rehearse a complicated job, test a new weapon, or even just play a round of paintball to help non-combatant characters get a point of rifle.

Thanks.  I think that setting elements have always been my strong point, and I am thinking of contributing more ideas to this part of the forum.

I had always had them fixed, but given the layout it seems possible for them to pick up and move the place if they have to (I don't know if you have seen the huge inflatable tent they use for the current Cirque du Soleil, but it's pretty impressive).  A travelling version never occurred to me, but I like the idea.  If nothing else, the parent company (some insidious heavy industries concern with subsidiaries in the entertainment business) can use the travelling versions to see what locales might support such a place before committing to a permanent one.  It also offers a couple more game ideas, like nomad/solo characters hired by the parent corp to protect the caravan (or perhaps one of its performers) as it travels around or hired by someone else to rob or destroy it or something.  

Planet Circus!

Planet Circus! is a themed restaurant revolving around (you guessed it) old time circuses.  Patrons eat good quality food while all around them the typical circus perfromers dazzle and wow them with feats of skill and daring.  

The typical Planet Circus! facility is a large semi-rigid inflatable elliptical dome, with room for the aerial acts, three circus rings, and space for over 500-600 guests to sit and eat, with almost any table right next to one of the major acts.  In addition to the aerial (trapeze, highwire, tarzan-swinging) and "ring" (trained animals, large-scale floor acrobatics) acts, numerous performers (clowns, jugglers, caricature artists) are at any given time circulating the floor putting on impromptu shows for tips.  The atmosphere is Vegas-style glitz all the way, and the dizzying array of movements and distractions will put just about any paranoid character on edge.  

The food service is an "all-you-can-eat buffet"…you pay one flat charge and eat as much as you want.  It's relatively expensive, as this place is intended to be a mid- to upscale family eating experience (the bulk of the patrons will reflect this).  The food is not bad at all.  There is a coat checkroom, and all guests must pass through a scanning device to enter.  These scanners are monitored by the restaurant's security personnel, who use them to spot potential troublemakers before they can endanger the other patrons.  People who raise a "red flag" to the security staff (too many or illegal weapons, a lot of cyberware, heavy armor jackets, etc.) will be watched closely and may even be asked to leave if they seem like a potential problem.

Some regions instead have a slightly different version, known as "Planet Cirque du Soleil"--a classier, more animal-friendly version concentrating mostly on acrobatics and dance.  These are somewhat smaller and more expensive, and much less glitzy.  The best performers from the Planet Circus! restaurants are usually showcased in these establishments.

Planet Circus! can be used for lots of things:

1.  A loud, public place for some informant or other paranoid contact to meet the PCs to discuss information or make deals.

2.  The stereotypical "terrorists take over the restaurant and it's up to the PCs, who were dining there, to foil their plans to blow everyone up" plot.

3.  A place for performance-minded characters and NPCs to work to make ends meet (why not use that high REF stat for more than just shooting?).  

4.  A place for more criminally-minded characters to attempt to rob (lets see…average of 1000 patrons a night, 15 eb per head to get in, plus the tips the performers are getting….)

I have decided that I was NOT "just kidding" re: the dual nickel-plated pearl handled .25 autos.  But Snowtiger's Desert Eagle makes me think gold-plated with simulated leopard-fur grips might be even better.  

Other items in the arsenal:

A Daisy Red-Rider BB-gun with a 12-guage shotshell duct taped to the end so the BB strikes the primer when it's fired.

A three-shot, 12mm semi-auto designed from the ground up to look like a 17th-century pirate's flintlock.

An "alchohol hip flask" designed to fire a 9mm slug out of the mouth when a safety catch is released and the flask is tilted to a horizontal level.  "Here, pal...have a drink!"

A WWII vintage Schmeisser MP-40 with the "around the corner" barrel.

A .357 magnum revolver cylinder on a small custom "pepperbox" frame that is designed to allow all six chambers to be fired at once.

A chromed cybernose that flips up to reveal a two-shot 10mm derringer.  Keep the headache medicine handy.

Christmas in 2020!

Join us on Channel 273 for "A Christmas Miracle," a soul-stirring TV Movie about a lovable child who teaches a grouchy old C-Swat cop the true meaning of Christmas!  (The original plot was to have a grouchy cyberpsycho learn the true meaning of Christmas, but he kept eating the kids)

And over at the Spendy Acres Mallplexaganza, a new shipment of MAX ROBOTO! AI-driven "action companions" have arrived.  IT'S THE TOY EVERY KID NEEDS!  Now your child will always have a active robotic friend, half a meter tall, that never seems to run out of energy!  MAX ROBOTO!  dances, plays games, and can be programmed to chase alley cats away from your front stoop!  (MAX ROBOTO! also spies on your family's consumer habits and informs the children of new and exciting products that they are "total retards" if they don't have.  If you and your edgerunner buddies plan on turning one into a mechanized hitman, it's recommended that you disable this feature.)

In an effort to prevent further terrorist attacks, spectators will have to watch the annual holiday parade from no less than 100 meters away.  We recommend bringing binoculars, or better yet just staying at home and watching it on TV.  In addition, flamethrowers and firearms have been banned as tools in the yearly ice-statue carving contest in the park as a result of last year's rash of tragic incidents.

(in a token attempt to stay on topic, I have to add that the other senses do help add a new dimension to the game.  Especially when characters have tactile and olfactory boosts.  It seems to me that the last thing you want in a polluted urban environment is an olfactory boost.)  

Oooh!  I wanna play!

I sit down a million chimpanzees at a million typewriters.  Eventually, one of them will type out the perfect battle plan to defeat all of you with an army of, say, a million chimpanzees.  The banana budget will have to be high, but hopefully one of them will also type out the greatest novel of all time and the royalties will cover that.  

MS: "Commander Zippy!  Have our forces captured Generals Hanns, Phipps, and Dragooncav yet?"

Zippy:  "OOOK!  OOOK!"

MS: (steepling fingers a la Mr. Burns)  "Excellent!  It's all falling into place!"

Maybe I'll go back and try again with that in mind.  

Heh...yeah, I used some elements of the doll-plague thing, too, but stayed closer to its formative stage.  A large gothy-sort-of vampire gang had come into a lot of money lately (a couple of netrunners within their ranks were quite good and quite lucky), and their matriarch had hooked up with a completely misanthropic nanotech and genetic-engineer who, with the proper funding, managed to make the first-generation bugs to start the whole thing rolling.  One of the netrunners saw the insanity of this plan and decided to try to find some to help to stop this thing.  She was a criminal to begin with, so she didn't think going to the cops would help.  Healthcare organizations dismissed her as a conspiracy nut.  Enter the player characters, who after numerous low-level thefts, cash-grabs, hits, extractions, and other bottom-feeder runs found themselves charged with the task of literally "saving the world."  Even worse, the thing they were saving it from was so far-fetched and weird that nobody would believe them enough to give them any credit for it if they were to succeed!  Fortunately, a few of the characters were heroic enough in nature to take on the task.  There was also some financial compensation and professional favors to be had from the netrunner, so it wasn't completely altruistic.   The odds were against them, but they figured at the very least that every infected person they killed or sterilized would push back the epidemic for years.  One of the player characters even got infected at one point, and the debate among the others on whether or not to kill him "for the good of mankind" was very entertaining.  

All in all, that book is inspired and inspiring.  I left out the quantum magic, too...was trying to keep it more along the lines of the game's normal setting.  

I have read most of the trilogy, but honestly the second and third ones became too much effort to keep my interest.  Lilim this, Elohim that, Mars, Dagon--really...  

That said, the first one (Dead Girls) is my favorite C-punk(ish) book of all.  I'm a sucker for doomed romances, and there is none more doomed than the one between Iggy and Primavera.  Calder is a bit florid at times (I like this, personally), but man, does he ever have a finger on the very pulse of perversity, which has already in our culture surpassed that of most of the cyberpunk "classics."

However, the people I have turned on to this book have had two reactions based on their nature.  Logical, down-to-earth, stable types called it "too weird" and didn't seem to care for it.  People with a somewhat self-destructive and romantic nature seemed to like it a lot more.  Perhaps I do not lean far enough to the latter to truly enjoy the second and third installments of the trilogy.  Your results may vary...

Perhaps I read it too long after the era it was supposed to appeal to ended, but I found Little Heroes to have too much cheese in its nature to make up for all the good setting elements and concepts...I mean, showing people the true meaning of rock and roll is about as cliche as showing them the true meaning of Christmas.  Also, few novelists should be trying to write rock lyrics, and this book is a good example of why most shouldn't.  A niggling argument, maybe, but the idea of the characters writing or enjoying such things really crippled any chance of my connecting with them.

A Spinrad book I really liked was Children of Hamelin.  It's not cyberpunk at all--in fact it is set in NYC in the mid-sixties--but the main plot has some punk-ish mind control overtones.  A cynical ex-junkie tries to save the minds of his friends from a (figuratively) soul-eating self-help cult.  Lots of great dialogue, and although the first few pages seemed a bit cheesey, you gotta admit that's a whole lot better than the last few seeming cheesey.  Spinrad shows off his perceptive nature throughout.  If you can find it (it's out of print) and you like Spinrad, try it out.  

Even the longest campaign I have been involved with did not cover enough time in the game world to consider improving a stat as a viable option.  It's pretty tangled when you try to justify it, anyway...I mean, if you work out so you are healthier and stronger (BOD), odds are you'll be better-looking overall (ATTR), run faster (MA), have better control over your muscles (REF), and be more confident (COOL).  

I usually don't make a map beforehand unless the placement of things is critical.  However, if we need a map and miniatures (or some other tokens) to show who is where, I like to use:

A medium-sized whiteboard laid flat on the floor--scale is usually kept to around 1/2 inch=1 meter (ranges are easy to determine--just use a ruler), which sort of jives with most character minis I have ever used.  Things can be added or erased with ease.  Just make sure everyone knows what markers are safe and what aren't-otherwise you end up with permanent lines on your board!

A corkboard with a piece of (blank) newsprint over it.  Numbered or colored pushpins can be used as markers for characters.  Scale is about 1/4 inch=1 meter.  Not as convenient as the whiteboard, but you don't lose the scene every time you have to draw a new one (you just change out the newsprint).  It can also sit vertically or hang on the wall.  

Actually,  it strikes me that the applications for this stuff are numerous beyond just bulletproofing.  In a recent game, a character's car had an engine made out of what I just realized must be the same stuff.  I had heard the idea in Popular mech. or some other magazine and liked it.  The thing handled heat well enough to not need coolant, a big plus for durability and environmental concerns (and made it impossible to shoot up the radiator).  And the orbital types would probably LOVE this stuff for making stations and vehicles, as it would better deflect things like tiny meteors and such (or would it...how fast DO those things travel?).  Anything with this many good points must be high on someone's list of things to perfect.  It's hard to ignore, really...

I dunno....I might just consider this to be the technology everyone is using anyway in the CP2020 armors and consider AP bullets to just be whatever the latest technology is for defeating it.  Seems easier this way....

Wow.

A>  So, would energy weapons be the next step to defeating this kind of armor?  Or would it be even more effective against them?  Perhaps bombs consisting of some kind of nanite that eats or weakens this special composite?  

and

B>  What kind of glaze do you put on ceramic armor?  I want to be able to keep my suit in my china hutch and have it match my Wedgewood tableware.  

Okay....maybe I used the wrong terminology.

COMPUTER VIRUS IN MY NEURAL PROCESSOR!  HELP!

....Isn't most or all cyberware going to be controlled in part by the Neural processor, which is a highly sophisticated computer in its own right?  Any linking to the net or the outside world or plugging in a compromised chip has the POTENTIAL to contract something ugly.  If a tampered Neural unit can override and CAUSE the cyberware to do funny things, now we're talking.

Even virus programmers today are coming up with ways to exploit current features that never occurred to the people who originally programmed them.  As many safety devices as you have, there's probably SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE out there who can hack it.

And as far as lawsuits go, I would imagine that corporations as powerful and corrupt as those in the CP2020 world would have long worked out legal ways to limit their liability in the case that an irresponsible person used their products without taking care to make sure they did not become infected with malicious programming (as was detailed on the numerous waivers and instruction forms they signed and dated when they had this stuff installed).  Cyberware manufacturers would have to be pretty much invulnerable to tort law just to get off the ground in the first place.  

I'm not saying that there would be mass hysteria in the streets as guys run down the street under assault from their own cyberarms, while others rip their own ears off in a futile effort to stop the endless repitition of "Waterbed Phil" soundbites, and still others shriek and flail wildly at the rabid bats that keep swooping down at their eyes.  But one little instance of it happening to one character would crank the paranoia up a notch when it comes to jacking in, chipping in, or linking up.  And might be another way to separate them from some cash for a regular anti-virus update and clean-up.   And perhaps they might even consider "cybernetics liability insurance," which covers them in the unlikely event it does go haywire...

I dunno....just thinkin' is all...  

Quote from Archangel, posted on Nov. 02 2001,09:05

...having actually been called an arrogant pretty-boy (they used the word "smug" instead of arrogant) before, I can see what you mean about the EMP-ATTR connection.  

IT'S NOT FAIR, I TELLS YA!  

Phipps brought up that a quality bodysculpt would be, for all practical purposes, indistinguishable from the real thing.  While I think that would certainly be the case for people with low EMP scores, and high school/college boys, I still believe that most halfway perceptive adults, especially in a society flush with people who have gone under the knife, are still going to be able to tell the difference when shown natural vs bought beauty at the same ATTR level.  

Depends on the GM, I guess.  If the GM doesn't support the concept, it truly is useless to worry about it.  I had a long drawn-out argument with a GURPS c-punk GM because I wanted the expensive "extremely attractive" appearance benefit (for my swingin' drug-dealing cop character) and he seemed to think I should buy it with money instead of spending the character points.  I tried to explain my point and his computer-programmer brain just could not seem to wrap around the idea.  He had no problem putting magical omniscient SQUIRRELS in his game, but the idea of natural beauty was beyond him.  He finally relented, but I didn't bother with that game for much longer.  He probably tells people equally pointed stories about what an idiot I am.

However, I think the next step would be much harder to notice:  Genetically engineering the "ugly" out of your children.  I mean, good-looking kids get lots of breaks that the ugly ones don't.  This is probably the generation that is being born during the CP2020 time period.      

Has anyone here done this to a player?  Like had their cyberarms suddenly start punching them in the head or grabbing their genitals, or their cyberoptics superimpose a picture of a madman with a gun pointing at them over some innocent guy on the street, or advertisements for laundry detergent in Chinese playing in their cyberaudio 24/7?    

Man, would that ever suck.  So how much would it cost to get anti-virus software or hardware for your gear?  How much to maintain?

The worst I have ever done was to put a trap in a cyberbike's alarm system.  A PC tried to steal it and fumbled the elec. security roll.  He then had a car alarm noise playing in his cyberaudio that was punctuated by messages asking him to supply the disarm password, and if he couldn't do that he could only get the alarm shut off by going to the police.  He eventually had another party member rip out the implants, causing considerable and expensive damage.

So, has anybody done anything like this?

Does anyone else here have a beef with EV penalties for armor?

I for one think that the EV should affect the MA stat as well as REF.  I mean, try and run the 100 meter dash in a flak suit and see what it does to your times.

Or is MA intended to mean your character's speed in regular street clothes?  

Man, this board is dead.  Maybe I will start some threads

1)How do you treat ATTR in your games?  Is it just the face, or the way they carry themselves, their poise, and outward confidence?

2)How about natural vs. "bought" ATTR?

3)Do you allow characters to buy theirs up through cosmetic surgery?  If so, do you let them do it at the 600eb per point listed in the book?

Fair's fair, so I'll give my answers...

1)I consider the ATTR stat to be 1/10th the percentage of people who are into the character's sex/race/whatever that would consider that character a physically appealing person.  It's a combination of facial characteristics, body shape, the way a person carries themselves, and the body language they use.  

2)Natural always wins out.  Why?  Because people who grow up attractive have always been that way.  They are more aware of it and how to use it.  Someone who has bought theirs up is would be like a kid with a new toy and is prone to use it ineffectively or even foolishly.  Yeah, your face is pretty, but you have still spent your life being treated like an ugly person and are still going to be full of habits, like walking hunched over, not making a lot of eye contact, and such.

3)I let characters buy it up, but the pricing scale is different.  If a character is hideously ugly, it costs a lot more to make them pretty in the first place--you have to re-shape the skull and jaw, straighten a bunch of things out, maybe move the eyes.  If they are already very pretty, it's harder to enhance it without making it worse--you need a very artistic specialist.  Here's a chart I use.  On the left is the current ATTR, on the right is the eb cost to buy it up a point.

0-1--9600eb

2--4800eb

3--2400eb

4--1200eb

5--600eb

6--600eb

7--1200eb

8--2400eb

9--4800eb

10--9600eb (using my "percentage idea" above, you can't have a higher ATTR than 10.  But trust me, some people would be vain enough to pay it anyway in hopes of it happening).

This scale also discourages "Dump jobs" in character creation--where the player dumps on ATTR in order to crank up the other skills, then buys it back later.  

Anyone else have input?

Baron...

KP95s are cool.  Mine has NEVER jammed, no matter how much I mistreat it, and pre-ban 15-round clips from other P-series guns work just fine in it (I have a couple).   It is a little bulky, but rock reliable, inexpensive, and holds a lot of bullets?  I'd carry it if I were a Cpunk character...

I want a .45 someday, but only if I can keep the Ruger, too.