MonSTeR

Naked Bob slurps the last of the can of Dr. Pepper and puts the can down on the desk.

"Yeah sure, I'll lock up from up here" he grins "and I'll get back to you on the runners by tonight. these guys don't take long."

He grabs an already opened bag of Doritos and still seated rolls his chair a couple of feet over to another PC and using an actual keyboard and screen setup, prepares to go online.

Well I don't think funk is really a musical style I'd want to roleplay, but having said that, most cyberpunk I play tends to be more jazz anyway Or that weird slightly anemic pseudo intellectual jazz-rock those in the know call... (and get this) fusion !!!

And as for the bio, well I dare say I use enough of that anyway, in my "normal" CP setting, a lot of nano-stuff is biological, I'm more in the know when it comes to genesplicing than I am about iddy biddy machines.

Bob shrugs and slups some more soda and takes Rat's deck. He rests the deck on the desk while he finishes readying the software for the transfer. He rests his hands on the keyboard for a while checking over the screen. then pushing the chair back a bit on its wheels he roots around under the desk in one of those plastic stackable storage boxes and produces a couple of leads with the appropriate plugs.

He rigs everything together and hits "enter" a couple of times, whilst absent mindedly scratching his beard.

In a few but seemingly endless moments the data transfer is complete. Bob unplugs the deck from his array of machines and hands it back to Rat.

LOL - Guilty as charged. I think it's just a curiosity to see what folks are looking at on the site, to see which bits are the most interesting. And to make sure I'm not missing out on them

I tend to play characters that I think suit the game that's going to be run. There's nothing worse than trying to shoe-horn a pre-existing character into a totally different type of game.

I think eraser is right though, there are a few "normal" CP games going on like my own and Thumper's, and then there's The Public's game which has a twist to it (the Cthullu stuff), you might want to try a different gaming style, if you were to start a new one. Maybe a backstabbing corporate game or something slightly off the wall would grab folks' attention.

Bob rubs his curly hair with his right hand, then scratches at his beard.

"Yeah there are a couple of guys I know who might be up for a little work against 'the machine'"

He pauses for a while and looks shiftily sideways. As quickly as his concentration left his, it returns.

"So yeah I'll put out a couple of posts, and see who's in and for what price."

His mind wanders again, then once more he's back with you. He pads over to the right hand side of the third floor apartment, as you watch him go, somehow dreading the sight, but unable to tear your gaze away, your attention is thankfully, but briefly turned to the decor. A single bed, a huge widescreen TV with a bunch of decks and even a classic 20 year old Sony PS1, big speakers and then as you follow his path it hits you.

Row upon row of tower cases, all networked together.

Bob sits at a monitor and keyboard setup, and his fingers blur. As his left hand still shoots over the keys he beckons you in closer with his right and then seemingly moving independently he grabs an already open Dr. Pepper and takes a noisy slurp.

He pauses for a moment, and then turns to offer the can around to the group.

Maybe you're just expecting them to have an emotional response to something that is serious to you, but has very little meaning to their character, or more likely, to them?

The third, and highest, floor landing follows the black and white tiled with wood fittings style of the entrance hall. There appears to be only on apartment on this level. As you come up the stairs on the right hand side of the landing, another set of double doors, similar in style to the ones at the entrnace, but slightly smaller are found on the left of the landing.

One of the doors opens slightly. Through the gap in the door  you can see the silhouette of a fuzzy haired man, pressed up against the door peaking out.

His demeanor relaxes as he recognises some of the group and he opens the door fully. He stands there, naked, sweaty and unkempt.

His voice is low and slightly unclear as if mumbling.

"Hey guys, how you doin'? Come on in"

He turns away leaving the door open and pads bearfoot back into his apartment.

Actually, it's quite conceivable that genemods can be performed at any time in an organism's life cycle. Especially given the extrapolated 2020 technology. Somatic gene therapy is already a technology, and I think it's quite acceptable to throw it into full usage in 20 years time. It's all about getting the retroviruses tailored correctly, of course if it goes wrong...

A lot of the time, I simply use the rules for stuff as they exist as their "biological counterparts".

Things like enhanced antibodies, or skinweave could probably more easily be explained using biological such as simply splicing a genes for other or more potent immune repsonses in for the antibodies, or having something along the lines of spidersilk made in the epidermis...

I think the best thing to do is steer your people to what you consider the "good stuff".

Personally I like some of the special abilities, but not all of them. So I'm trying to come up with a system that lets me get around the issue.

I don't like the netrunning rules and I've still not found a fun and simple alternative system.

Take what you want and ignore the rest.

Think of it as natural selection, the good stuff will get used, the bad stuff will sit and rot on an unvisited server

The trouble I have with thinking up questions here is that most folks these days know all the answers if they're into the game as it's a 10 year old system.

Perhaps a few questions could include sources of alternative rules for things like the drug rules, the netrunning rules, and what to do if you don't like the special abilities in your game.

I'm actually guilty of never having read this book!!!

I know it's on the to-do list, I just need some time, and some encouragement to order a load of stuff off of amazon.

I'll get there in the end.

I'm always interested in these sort of X vs Y military hardware celebrity deathmatches.

Battles aren't fought like that, sure it might be possible to take out a tank with a landmide or a bottle of sangria and a match or whatever, but it's also possible to shoot an infantryman who would be laying those mines from 600 yards away with a sniper rifle and so on.

All military kit has a role, and outside of it's role it's vulnerable. A lot of success is to do with correct usage of the kit in the appropriate time and place.

The topic of a stealth tank is something I find very interesting. I guess it's very effective against airborne radar at hiding it when it's stationary, it probably has plenty of IR baffling too, and possibly active stealth modules and all sort of things, but it's still vulnerable once it can be actually seen, just like any other tank.

The coolest thing about stealth though has got to be just how far ahead with it all the boffins must have got. The F117's been flying since the 70's, even the F22 has been around since the late 80s early 90's!!! The YF23 was said to be even more advanced, and is reputed to be in active service in "another role". I've even read that the main reason that the B2 spirit bomber is so expensive is that it's hiding ANOTHER black project's budget within it's own budget. I've also heard they're made out of balsa wood

"Hmmmmmmmm..."

There's a slight pause before a warm and somewhat mumbling voice goes on, slightly distorted by the electronic speaker.

"Yeah, okay"

There's a slight hum of servomotors, and the clunk of heavy bolts sliding back. It's quite possible that these doors are not made entirely of wood as their appearence would suggest.

The righthand door opens inwards electronically there's what looks like hydraulic or maybe pneumatic cabling leading to a ram on the top of the door. The hall seems pretty abandoned. The balck and white checked tiling on the floor hasn't be polished for a few years, and a large aluminium box painted in grey primer sites in the corner next to a hatstand. Naked Bob's voice seems to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time,

"You guys come up, third floor"

There's a staircase facing you on the right hand side of the hallway illuminated by the halogen lights Bob has installed. It appears to have a real oak banister. More than likely it contains various scanners, electronic surveillance gear and the like.

This area of the city has trees scattered at regular intervals down the streets. One such sycamore stands proud outside Naked Bob's building. The leaves are mostly gone, but a few flickers of red-gold remain everynow and then catching the suns rays.

The entrance over the road is set back from the street with wooden double doors complete with brass fittings.

You can make out a panel with what could be a speaker in set into the stonework by the door.

No doubt there'll be cameras too.

I'd need to know more, am I going to live for ever in a healthy body, or am I going to wither and fade and get more and more frail and my quality of existance get worse and worse as I lose control of my physical and mental faculties. Will I go blind, deaf...?

What about reparation of scars, regeneration of lost limbs and so on.

If I get to live like a comic book character, wounds healing without trace, such as Batman's broken back, then I might consider it, but I'd be looking for invulnerability, rather than mere immortality.

If it was corrective cyberware, like replacing lost limbs, then HELL YEAH I'm the first in line, otherwise probably not.

The one exception is for an adamantium skeleton and razor sharp claws, a mutant healing factor, and my own comic book series

The Van heads west through the afternoon sunshine. Earth's star is getting lower in the sky now, and whilst the sun won't be setting for a while, the sky is already starting to acquire a reddish hue.

The rays streak through the windshield into the back of the van, bathing everyone in a rich, warm golden light. The team is nigh on silent as the van heads west past Little Italy, past West Hill, past the University, the apartments blocks are older here but still good quality. Bloodbath pulls over opposite a sandstone faced apartment block, parking in the nearest available space.

This is it, Naked Bob's place.

Tony checks his watch again.

"Ok, 22-00 hours"

He smile, and shakes Rat's hand, then moves around the team, ensuring he says goodbye to each of them.

He then returns to make small talk with Rat until all the munitions have been transferred.

But in criminal society, killers are respected, sex offenders are scum. Films would seemingly be mirroring, and yes also perhaps glorifying the same code that criminals go by.

Yes most cyberpunk characters are killers or at least potential killers, That's more a reflection on the types of characters that CP stories tend to be about than anything else. Most CP stories are about edgerunners, and it's hard to run the edge and not be prepared to kill, you don't last long. Yes that's ok in a story which may be told by the author in a low violence setting, but for a PC in a game, it offers poor survival prospects unless ALL the PCs share that viewpoint.

But I agree the player should think about how his character reacts to it. It might be nothing, it might be the start of a nervous breakdown, that'll vary from character to character but the player should play it accordingly.

To think about the "would I like them" bit, I say go watch the movie Heat again. (I say every 'punker should watch it at least every couple of weeks ) Think of the characters from that movie as characters from an average CP game. The characters in that movie have lives beyond the killing, some of them even have families. If you met them why shouldn't you like them? They're great guys, with families, they tell jokes, they go to the movies etc. It's only when you find out what they do in the course of making their living that the average game player might judge them differently.

Tony shakes his head and smiles

"Don't worry about it, these are a gift from Mr. Vito"

He hands the KT card back back to Rat without furthur ado.

"Besides, if you're out there hunting these guys down, it means I don't have to. Mt. Vito is anxious for you to arrange a errr "business meeting" with the gentlemen responsible, or at least close the deal."

Tony laughs a little before continuing,

"So like I said, these are a gift."

Meanwhile Shrap and Thumper peruse the grenades, most of it seems to be militech "surplus", there's cases of 20 hand grenades, both Flashbangs and Frag grenades as well as a case of smoke grenages. There's also a box of 12 fragmentation grenades and 12 HEP rounds for the militech 25mm Grenade Launcher.  

Neko reaches past the two men after another case of 12mm rounds and starts to load a few clips for his new Ingram.

I think Thumper's right, most of these are great ways to instill paranoia in the players' characters. Paranoia.

But the thing is Gringoleader asked for ways in which "a certain internationally feared and reknown black ops group" might "revenge themselves on the players".

Now I ask if an "internationally feared and reknown black ops group" that's out for revenge is going to waste time setting up surveillance for weeks, and leave subtle clues then not so subtle clues and so on. or is an "internationally feared and reknown black ops group" just going to go in there and get the job done?

I think I'm trying to say that you don't get to be "internationally feared and reknown" by leaving messages on the answering machine that say "I'll get you next time Penelope Pitstop" and leaving a business card with a silhouette of the "Hooded Claw" on them

I think all themes can be adult if they're handled from the perspective of an adult.

Characters who suffered from child abuse need not let it affect them in adult life, it doesn't have to be a trauma central to the game. I know abuse victims who handle life fine and don't have hangups about it. That's perhaps a far more "adult" way of  portraying a character who has to deal with an "adult" theme.

Like Karsten says, if you can't emote to a character with a certain trait, don't play that character. That's perhaps the best way to handle these things in an adult fashion, don't overdo the melodrama just to try and make out like your game has "adult themes"

To take each of Chrysalis' points in turn...

Personality:- Roleplay it. A game system isn't a crutch to make a personality, it's a tool to help you in the right direction. In many cases the more personality you can inject into a character, the less "personal" stuff the system needs to provide.

Morality:- I've seen characters with no morals, and some with dubious morals and some with fantastic upstanding morals. The latter don't tend to fit in too well in a cyberpunk world, or often have to realise that to succeed in the shadowy world of the edgerunner they're going to have to compromise thier morals. I think that's the most adult theme there is to be with morality. When a player actively plays that his character is going to break their moral code and plays that the character realises this, that's an adult theme. Acting outside of the character's moral code, whatever that may be, isn't adult, it's just poor roleplaying.

It's very easy to say infanticide is an adult theme, it's not really, just a sick one. It's how that theme is played by the players that makes it adult.

Sexuality:- Yes I feel uncomfortable roleplaying sex, it's my greatest weakness as a roleplayer. But I've played characters of various sexualities, straight, gay and bisexual (nothing outside of those regular three though;) ) Ironically when playing CP2020 with other men I find it easiest to roleplay homosexual sex, probably because it's furthest removed from my real life orientation and that eases things for me to play "in character" and I don't feel so embarrased about my feelings being so easily equated with those of the character. Here I don't think it's sex that's the adult theme, it's intimacy.

Emotions:- Yes,character the key to a good character. I'm lucky enough to play MonSTeRPunK with some of the best roleplayers I've ever encountered. I'm not gonna sit and blow sunshine up these guys' asses, but I feel honoured to play with these guys Every character is a real character, and each of them shows a different range of emotions, from lonelyness to paranoia to ...

I'm lucky that my players can take their characters to such depths as having infighting that is a real plot point and killing time going for food with friends in their own neighbourhood or having some games with the NPCs. It's this range of emotion from happy to sad, angry to worried, that is the best part of any game. I'm lucky to have them in mine

A good pair of sunglasses is about as gadgety as I get.

I have a cell phone, but that usually lives in one of my boots somewhere. Or gets left in the car.

I try to minimise the ways the government has to track my every move Ok, no I'm just not a gadgety person.