Triton

IOMAX (Air Tractor) just released an artist's impression of their Archangel Block 3.

IOMAX offers Archangel light attack turboprop to the Philippines

Much more handsome than the Air Tractor AT-802U Archangel.

This is where playability/fudge factor has to come into it, as a DM & player the last thing you want is one player for what ever sat with his thumb stuck up his bum doing nothing in particular, I will as the DM always try & find a way of fudging the dice/the events so that it allows the player to still be involved, dosed up maybe on painkillers, wound coated in field dressings &/or Realskinn, combat drugs, whatever to get them to the next checkpoint so a bit of down time can be incurred without detriment to the game.

That sounds like a better solution to the issue to keep the player active in the game. Another idea that I had was to have the player play another character while his character was recuperating.

Forgive me if this has been discussed before, I was curious if anyone has used Cyberpunk 2020 as a gateway, or prequel, to the role-playing games Transhuman Space and/or Blue Planet. Used these materials to fill in the timeline from the where the Cyberpunk timeline ends? Moving from cyberpunk to a post-cyberpunk future? Thoughts? Adapting Transhuman Space and/or Blue Planet to Interlock Unlimited?

I like most of the Transhuman Space setting and the planet Poseidon. I was thinking of placing Transhuman Space farther into the future than the year 2100.

You gentlemen certainly seem to have done your research on the region. Very interesting links and reading.

I just can't resist redrawing the map in Africa in the Cyberpunk 2020 universe and have a place for Private Military Companies (PMC) and Solos to have campaigns. It also seems more futuristic to me to redraw parts of the world. New boundaries denoting the passage of time.

The documentary Blue Gold: World Water Wars and the book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke has also started me thinking about wars over potable water and the privatization of potable water. Considering that today bottled water tends to be more expensive than soda. Fresh water supplies are also being contaminated by industrial processes, hydraulic fracking, and in other parts of the world by poor sanitation. Perhaps in the future, most fresh water must be treated for waste contamination in order for it to become potable. A rise of Water Barons in the future? Nestlé Waters, Aquafina (PepsiCo), and/or Dasani (Coca-Cola), having monopolies over potable water and/or the privatization of potable water supplies and water utilities. In the future, water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink? Desalination of sea water also costs money. Maybe not as extreme as Water & Power in the movie Tank Girl, but close. We might be able live without gasoline, be we can't live without water.

Perhaps Nestlé (Nestlé Waters) making a fortune cleaning up water contaminated by ORG or PetroChem to make it potable for the people of Cabinda?

Or is this the flag of Republic of South Africa.

In your campaign, Cyberbear, did the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party (MPLA) or National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) win in the Angola Civil War?

UNITA flag, possible flag of Angola?:

Proposed flag of Angola circa 1996:

Flag of Cabinda?

According to the Cyberpunk 2020 timeline, this is what we know about the nation of the Republic of South Africa:

1990

 

Fall of South Africa. For the next 4 years, there is little or no communication, although terrible atrocities and genocidal wars are rumored.

Looks like South Africa erupted into civil war, rather than the release of Nelson Mandela and the mostly peaceful transition of power from the apartheid government. I presume in this timeline that South Africa did not voluntarily dismantle its nuclear weapons and sign the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Was Nelson Mandela a martyr? Was Winnie Mandela the first ANC government president of South Africa?

Do we imagine that entire country under the rule of the African National Congress (ANC)? Or are there Afrikaner enclaves in South Africa? Volkstaat? Cape Republic? Thembuland? Thoughts? Apocrypha welcome.

Is this the flag of the Republic of South Africa in the Cyberpunk 2020 universe?

For us we have already established a revitalized Commonwealth of Nations. Canada and New Zealand retain their connection to the British monarchy now headed by Queen Victoria II. In our world she has become a wise and much loved monarch. Pretty much every member of the old Commonwealth are members except Pakistan, but including India; yes, Singapore too! Reverence for the Queen is the glue that is binding the Commonwealth together for now. The welfare of all citizens of the Commonwealth rich and poor are her number one concern. The Republic of Australia has reversed it status and now recognizes the Queen. The Republic of West Australia is also a member of the Commonwealth but DOESN'T recognize Victoria II as their sovereign. The Queen does remain personally popular there.

Flag of the United Commonwealth?

I was planning to go wildly in the opposite direction, following through on all the news items over the last few years about downtown Luanda becoming the most expensive city in the world and the Angolan government basically trying to turn it into a new Dubai based on the oil money. Combine that with biofuels, the next big cheap labour zone for manufacturing, and various energy and feedstock production, it's all going to be booming African Lion economies and all the political chaos that usually comes with rising middle classes (because I'm bored of the "Africa is an irredeemable shithole" narrative ).

That's cool and something completely different from the narrative that we have been hearing over the years since Belgium, Portugal, United Kingdom etc. gave independence to their African colonies. I've read that Angola was in the process of purchasing the Spanish aircraft carrier Príncipe de Asturias.

Too much influence of Biafra Story, Dogs of War, The Wild Geese, Solo: The James Bond Novel and Private Empire on my part, I guess.

Oh, I can't wait to see what you guys do with Cabinda. Partly because I've been meaning to run an Angola set game for over a year now and shame at being second might drive me to actually start the bloody thing .

I can imagine that this area of Africa is still a mess. The Republic of Cabinda borders the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire. Currently, there are many active secession movements in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Not sure if these have been resolved by 2050.

The province of Bas-Congo, which shares a border with the Republic of Cabinda, has an active secessionist movement. There are also secessionist movements in Katanga, Kwili, Kivu, and Bukava. The People's Republic of China has leased seven million acres in the Democratic Republic of Congo to grow crops for biofuels. I presume that there would be forces of the People's Liberation Army in the region.

This map may give you more ideas for your campaign.

List of active separatist movements in Africa

Actually Bast Corporation doesn’t use the Alenia C-27 series for ‘nationalistic’ reasons. The C-27 is an Italian design, but the C-23 is originally from a Northern Ireland manufacturer. For our game purposes it is a Commonwealth product. The Bast Corporation is a New Zealand based company so it is also a Commonwealth company. The plane has been revised many times over as explained by Destecado previously. The one in the story here is stated out on a page on our group’s website: http://cyberpunkadventures.com/resources/vehicles/aircraft

Did you make Australia and Western Australia republics in your campaign per Pacific Rim? It made me wonder if Canada and New Zealand also became republics. I have been toying with a Commonwealth Union idea. The sixteen Commonwealth Realms, with Singapore, have created a customs union and defense alliance. Names I have been toying with are United Realm, Realm Union, the Dominion, Commonwealth Federation, or Commonwealth Union. I just don't see England wanting to be part of the European Union. The Dominion sounds sinister because they were antagonists in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Perhaps Canada will join this Realm Union and Quebec with Labrador will secede and become its own country and a member of the European Union. Thoughts?

As to which version of the C-130 the Bast Corporation flies, we never set exactly which (future) model they flew. However, the image of the C-130J Super Hercules with the winglets was very popular with the group here so we’ve replaced the engines with those that burn Aero-CHOO (it’s a hybrid fuel) to make a Model 130L and that’s the craft now we use (Thanks for the inspiration!). They’re still old in 2051, but the model has been manufactured for a while.

Cool! I am pleased that I made a valuable contribution to your campaign. Don't forget the work that has been done on algal biofuel. I understand that biobutanol and biogasoline can be used in unmodified engines. I was teasing about the C-23 Sherpa, just because something is old doesn't mean that it isn't being used. There are still Douglas DC-3/C-47 Skytrain aircraft still in use.

I wonder if there are Pilatus PC-6 TurboPorter STOL utility aircraft being manufactured under license at Beechcraft or Sierra Nevada in Cyberpunk 2020. The licensed versions manufactured by Fairchild Hiller were designated AU-23 Peacemaker for the United States Air Force and UV-20 Chiricahua for the United States Army.

There are artist's concepts by Lockheed Martin of the C-130J Super Hercules with winglets.

It's the same image that Wisdom000 used for the Military-Corporate Catalog, only bigger with some marketing information on it.

Onuk has been showing this model for the ONUK MRTP 42 Fast Patrol / Attack Craft.

rock, i think you're failing to see the big picture with that proposal. yes, it would be nice to throw off the yoke of the PRC leadership in Sacramento, but our gain would be the country's loss. if you divide California into 6 states, guess what happens... you add 10 senators in Washington. it's possible 1 or 2 of the breakaways might break light red in an election, but it's a proposal that would hand a permanent majority in the senate to the dems.

 

so yeah, on second thought, let's NOT do that

If the measure passes on the November 2014 ballot, and is allowed by the Federal government, I believe that California would be the first of many partition and secession proposals. Wikipedia has a very interesting article about the various partition and secession proposals:

51st State

Anyways, this is what the Stars & Stripes would look like with 56 stars:

I wonder if the George HW Bush Administration deployed the MGM-134A Midgetman, also known as the Small Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (SICBM), via the Boeing/Goodyear Aerospace/Paccar Hard Mobile Launcher (HML).

There were also plans for a twenty-five train Peacekeeper Rail Garrison. Each train would have two LGA-118A Peacekeeper, aka MX Missile, missiles.

North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco

In 1987, the A-10 OEM Team and all A-10 assets were acquired by Grumman Corporation from Fairchild Republic Company. In Maximum Metal it is mentioned that the United States Army has taken over the Close Air Support (CAS) mission from the United States Air Force. The authors were inspired by the latter 1980s and early 1990s debate over the United States Air Force's plans to retire the A-10 and replace it with first the A-16 and then later the F/A-16 for close air support and battlefield air interdiction. In 1990, the Congress went so far as to have the A-10 and OV-10 Bronco transferred to the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps during 1991. However, in November of 1990 the Congress forced the United States Air Force to keep the A-10.

In the Cyberpunk timeline, it must have been decided that the Key West Agreement of 1948 and the Johnson-McConnell Agreement of 1968 that prohibited the United States Army from operating fixed-wing tactical aircraft was out of date.

I imagine that the A-01 Blitz is a Grumman or Northrop Grumman product based on its resemblance to the A-10.

Fairchild Republic also developed a A-10 Night/Adverse Weather (N/AW) variant of the A-10 Thunderbolt II in 1979. It had a second cockpit for an Electronic Warfare officer plus components for a laser ranging system, terrain-following radar, inertial navigation, a radar altimeter, and an electronic moving map display. External pods also housed a forward looking infrared (FLIR) system and a low-light television camera (LLTV).

I imagine that the A-10 and/or the A-10 N/AW was indispensable as a CAS and counter insurgency (COIN) aircraft in the First Central American Conflict.

Does anyone believe with the First Central American Conflict going on that President George HW Bush won a second term as President of the United States?

In that particular storyline? Dunno. It much depends on the events.

My apologies to Cyberbear. The temptation has been too great to throw out suggestions based on developments in our timeline instead of treating Cyberpunk as an alternate history. The Cyberpunk timeline deviating from our own timeline around 1988-1990 with the publication of the original Cyberpunk set in 2013. With the campaign occurring in 2051, the Short C-23 Sherpa operated by Bast Corporation must be pretty long in the tooth. Hopefully, Bast Corporation operates the newer Alenia C-27J Spartan as well.

The PBR-79 looks like a Chinese copy of the ONUK MRTP 33 Fast Patrol / Attack Craft. MRTP stands for Multi Role Tactical Platform.

I was able to find what a mulligan is, but wasn't so lucky with A-game. Could you please explain?

 

...looks pretty like my "you live only twice" rule

"A-game" or "bring one's A-game" is American idiom that means to put forth one's best effort. It is derived from the letter grades that are given to American's in school with the letter A denoting excellent progress.

It's interesting that R. Talsorian Games decided not to revise the Timeline in Cyberpunk 2020 Second Edition to include the Gulf War. Cyberpunk, set in 2013, was first released in 1988 so perhaps we can consider it to be an alternate history in which the Timeline deviated perhaps in 1988?

Perhaps the paragraph should read:

Start of first Central American Conflict. U.S. engages in interventionist actions in Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Honduras serves as a staging area for U.S. and allied forces. Military forces are sent to secure the Canal Zone from an ex-U.S. puppet dictator.

I presume that interventionist actions means aggressive actions rather than non-aggressive actions. Non-aggresive actions would be various sanctions like economic sanctions, embargo, boycott, trade sanctions, political sanctions, and/or international sanctions.

We know that in 1993, the DEA spreads a designer plague to target coca and opium plants.

Are we to assume that the Central American Conflict lasted a year? Or did the Central American Conflict last years? We know from the canon timeline that the second Central American War began in 2003. U.S. invades Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela. The War is a disaster that costs thousands of American lives.

Per the Timeline, we know the following about the First Central American Conflict:

1990

 

Start of first Central American Conflict. U.S. engages in interventionist actions in Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador. Military forces are sent to secure the Canal Zone from an ex-U.S. puppet dictator.

Do we know anything more about the First Central American Conflict?

The First Central American Conflict seems to be mostly military interventions by the United States against leftist governments and revolutionaries in Central America. The United States government feared that victory by communist forces would threaten the Panama Canal and other US strategic interests in the region.

I presume that the interventionist action in Panama mentioned was Operation Just Cause that occurred between December 20, 1989 to January 31, 1990. During this action, de facto Panamanian leader, general, and dictator Manuel Noriega was deposed and the Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) disbanded. By sending military forces to secure the Canal Zone, the President George HW Bush Administration abrogated the Torrijos–Carter Treaties. Shortly after, there was probably a resolution the Senate to declare the Carter-Torrijos treaties null and void. After eleven years, the Panama Canal Zone would again be a United States territory.

The interventionist action in Nicaragua would overthrow leftist President Daniel Ortega, born José Daniel Ortega Saavedra, and the dismantling of the Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government in Nicaragua. I also imagine action against the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN). Perhaps the George HW Bush Administration would support Adolfo Calero, president of the largest Contra organization the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (Fuerza Democrática Nicaragüense, or FDN) as the new president of Nicaragua.

During the 1980s, stable Honduras served as a key base for the Reagan Administration to response to the "Central American crisis." The United States military would hold large military exercises in the country. Salvadorans would be trained for action against the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMNL). The country also hosted bases for the Nicaraguan Contras. So I don't quite understand why there were interventionist actions in the country in 1990.

Interventionist action in El Salvador would be in support of the military-led government of President Alfredo Cristiani in the Salvadoran Civil War against the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or umbrella organization of five left-wing militias. The UN reports that more than 75,000 were killed during the civil war.

What's interesting is that the First Central American Conflict did not result in military intervention in Guatemala. The Guatemalan Civil War ran from 1960 to 1996. It was mostly fought between the government of Guatemala and various leftist rebel groups who formed the coalition Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (in Spanish: Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca, URNG-MAIZ or most commonly URNG).

The First Central American Conflict also did not have military intervention in Cuba to overthrow the Communist government of Fidel Castro. It seems odd that the United States would eliminate communist forces in Central American and yet leave a communist government in power in Cuba.

There is also a conflict between the government of the Philippines and the Communist Party of the Philippines and their New People's Army (NPA). This risk of the communist insurgency peaked in the 1980s when Ferdinand Marcos was in power.

I wonder if the C-130 mentioned in the campaign log could be this Lockheed Martin C-130 concept.

Lockheed Martin C-130 "NG" appeared in a presentation by Ralph Heath, executive vice president of Lockheed’s Aeronautics division, on 1 December 2011 at the Credit Suisse aerospace and defense conference in New York. The aircraft, which includes winglets and a redesigned nose and tail, will be offered after 2020 to replace the C-130H fleet.

Lockheed unveils two future C-130 variants

Lockheed Martin C-130L King Hercules? Ultra Hercules?

The name King Hercules is purely conjecture on my part as a follow-on name to the current C-130J Super Hercules and civilian LM-100 Super Hercules. The new Sikorsky CH-53K was named King Stallion and was an advancement of the previous Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion. The name King might be better than Ultra, which was used for the North American YF-107 Ultra Sabre. Maybe an aircraft for a revised Corporate-Military Catalog or Chrome Book?

The "51st state", in post-1959 American political discourse, is a phrase that refers to areas or locales that are – seriously or facetiously – considered candidates for U.S. statehood, joining the 50 states that already make up the United States of America. They can be external territories or parts of existing states which would be admitted as separate states in their own right.

Cyberpunk 2020 has two Californias. High-tech investor Tim Draper announced that he would be putting together a ballot initiative designed to create six new states out of the current state for the November 2014 election. It appears that Night City (Monterey) would be in the new state of Silicon Valley.

Six Californias