Suriel

Music is very mood related, but I don´t like to switch CDs too often.

Violent aggressive scenes: Atari Teenage Riot/Enter the Riot (Three songs are my personal favorites: Raverbashing, Riot, Cyberpunks are dead)

Depressive Death Tunes: Paradise Lost

Background: Any Industrial, not too loud. And of course Bauhaus, Einstürzende Neubauten, etc..

Btw, why not pack some free webspace with our all-time classics CD? We could use it as a virtual CD for game rounds. And we could pack it with some local stuff also, which is hard to get at. Anyone interested? (Only free downloads of course, Netwatch, yez yez...)

Well, I´ve played only 16 years by now, but I also try to play challenging characters, not standard ones. Which isn´t a matter of creating the ultimate introspection character but trying to switch to a different mindset as complete as possible. To try to imagine what the character would think, then adopt that way of thinking. All the characters I really love to play leave me with the necessity to switch back to my normal thinking after the game ends. And the most fulfilling roleplaying leaves me saying things my character really would say. If I feel this connected to a character he is no longer a stereotype, but a real character, same way it happens to them when I write a story. With female characters I just don´t feel I could delve that deep.

It´s a tracer. One has to keep track of these guys!

That too. In our group of six, with five boyz and a girl, most of the others play characters of the opposite sex regularly.

But I often even tend to forget they play women. Because they never behave as such.

I mean, we´re all mature players, the youngest in our group being twenty-three. We all had our share of sex and experience. So there´s nothing about describing a sex scene, for example, if it fits the mood. And the MALE characters always go for girl friends, too. But if they start playing girls, nono..., no talking about that guy having a nice firm butt or some of the other party- or pub-talk you witness when women are amongst themselves.

Also, no in-party relationships. So, your heroine has Attractiveness: 10, lives like a nun and none of us ever notice she´s beautiful.

Then I´d definitely say that women tend to evaluate certain situations in a different light than man do. Not INFERIOR, mind you, but different. I can see that when the girl in our group plays male characters,too. Her female characters are always smart and intrigant, in a convincing way. Her male characters are either of the dextrous thief kind (with many very female characteristics) or they are kinda dumb fighters.

As I can´t slip into that mind-set, I really don´t think I could play a good woman, so I don´t.

Worst woman any of us guys ever played was a lesbian Rockergirl. Though I love her in our online campaign now, I had to fight the urge to have her flatlined when we were playing it pen-and-paper.

Characteristics my Characters tend to have:

My fighters are often of the fast and dexterous type. Not the brutes.

I like to play military strategists.

Intelligence is often high or at least average, too. I seldom play dumb characters.

Normally change that to the kind of music they play at the real mass demonstrations that always lead to riots (every year. 1st of May, here in Berlin...) Atari Teenage Riot,etc.. Don´t think Madonna could lead the masses into anything but a sex orgy. Or Little Richards, Rockerboy...  

Ok, now for examples of "style over substance":

My own Solo character (yes, even I´ve got one) has grown up on the streets. No military service, but he was educated by an ex-commando in the martial arts. One day when he was young and stupid, that wasn´t quite enough anymore, so he went to a black clinic and got his Cyberware installed. His Cyberware is malfunctioning, though. If in a fight his adrenaline (and other biochemical) levels rise too much, they backfire, giving him an epileptic fit. As he´s a street killer, he doesn´t use state of the art weapons either. He could use them, but honestly, a pistol and his rippers do the trick.

Netrunner: My netrunner is a graphics freak. He is perhaps the best example for the style over substance thing. His programs are all fancy, with as much hype-graphics in there as possible. Goes on memory of course, so he can use fewer programs. He doesn´t know bullshit about fighting. Oh, I´m lying. He´s got melee:2 now. Some knife tricks he learned recently. He grew up in a nice neighborhood, so were would he have learned street fighting?

Corporate Assassin: For our once-famous High Conspiracy-and-Akira get reborn campaign. (A friend of mine GMing it) He was a clone, somewhat like the Ninja in Neuromancer, but he had in many ways the mentality of a child.

I´m not a masochist, I like to play heroes, too. But then I like to have characters develope into them, not be them from the very beginning.

That´s right, there´s always something of us left in the characters.

The only thing I really don´t play is women. I couldn´t do it satisfying my own standard of playing a good role. I wouldn´t convince myself, though no-one else in our group would probably think of me playing bad.

I´ve seen too many others play the usual toughie just with "breasts on him" (Sorry, I´m not such a macho, but don´t know how to make my point clear otherwise.).

WARNING! IT GOT LONG AGAIN! YOURE NOT "FORCE"D TO READ IT! I´M NOT A JEDI!

Welcome to the club...

Could be to some degree, if the players don´t use it to as an excuse to go into the shop as YMCA and come out as Rambo and the Cyber-Gung Ho Grunts.

Some weapons are just more fitting for some roles. As Psychophipps already stated. So the Solo might take the Rockster and the Corp into that shop:

"An assault rifle? You crazy? Must go to a board meeting tomorrow and what if any of my colleagues see me with that cannon? I want some gun I can carry all the time."

"An assault rifle? Why not a mortar? Kevlar Armor? Skin Weave? Make music, not war!"

Now I can say I´m lucky with most of my regular players. They don´t even get such ideas. But you meet all kinds at my online campaign. There are guys that really make you consider quitting... NOT those already in the campaign, but guys applying to join.

Style SHOULD BE substance. And GMs need to remember style, too. Campaigns should be tailored to the player characters. It´s logical, too. Employers looking for a bunch of Special Forces guys don´t go to the Rippers Club, they go online and hire professionals.

Imagine Axel Rose, Dolph Lundgren and David Copperfield sitting at a table. Now think you´re the employer. Would you send them on a fighting mission? I don´t think so.

But there are places Axel could go in his clothes and people he could talk to.

What I mean is, that if GMs don´t offer plots to players where they are allowed to play out their characters style, they shouldn´t wonder. If there is a fight around every corner, usually with some Cybermonster with skinweave and heavy guns, people will try to make their characters all Solo-type toughs. I was playing a netrunner at a Con once. He never was able to connect to the Matrix. But he was great fun for the four other players (Nomad, Nomad,Solo,Solo) in our team, as he failed so miserably in a fight.

Also saw a player playing a Rockerboy once. Same thing, the plot didn´t leave him any chance to use his talents, although he played him really well.

All in all, the best scenarios I had with my group these last months, not a single shot was fired.

(Except for yesterday, when I had them create a team of Special Forces...)

OK, enough rambling...

Argh! The SUN! Must go to bed, guys.

Black and White? How could one take it to the extreme?

::looks into a mirror::

Hey, I never worked as a fixer!

Possibly another trick to distract the enemy. That super-armor is equipped with two extra-light oxygen-tanks, made to look like breasts so that they actually think they are attacked by a horde of wild cyber-chicks.

No, that project sounds gross, eh? Must add it to my list of new real-life based equipment&Cyberware ideas.

::Agrees with all his heart::

::Puts Nikita into VCR::

Wow, Nightflyer, after a quick pass at your list, I realized how many movies I forgot about.   Perhaps I´ve already done my due´watching movies for this life. Perhaps I won´t be reborn if I watch another!

::turns on TV::

Hope you got my email, Blitzkrieg...

Yes, I think rolling for attributes is stupid, too. Just when have you seen the last guy with strength 10 and body type 4 walking around?

It´s a D&D left-over that should have vanished a long time ago. I mean, it´s Role-playing game, not Roll-players gambling.

Problem is they only take over if the current leaders get killed. And besides... The members of the SG are secret, except for that NSA head thing. So once you´re in a position to know who they are, you already rule the US or you are god. Or both?

Now Dillweed summed up those movies I forgot. How could I forget Matrix? Lack of sleep, possibly.

I think Post-Apocalypse is definitely Cyberpunk. Take the "Cyborg" movie, the one with Jean-Claude van Damme, as an example. Not a good movie, but these guys looked very Cyberpunk to me.

Now Dillweed summed up those movies I forgot. How could I forget Matrix? Lack of sleep, possibly.

I think Post-Apocalypse is definitely Cyberpunk. Take the "Cyborg" movie, the one with Jean-Claude van Damme, as an example. Not a good movie, but these guys looked very Cyberpunk to me.

I´d readily disagree to that one. Sounds something like: "Keep up a front for the GM to be satisfied, but buy all the f*cking armor and weapons you can!"

I wouldn´t go for that. Not all the characters are Solos from some or the other war. Some are just street tough material. I don´t fall for the "Megacorp hires street toughies for BlackOp" trick. (Why the heck should they???) Though street people certainly can become specialists.

But then again, it´s probably only my own style of GMing.

There´s a Apocrypha text explains that Satan has created a creation before the human one. God had struck his creation dead, though, being dissatisfied with it.

Yes, Bookwyrm, you´re right. It´s quite surprising how much a translation can kill. I´ve had to translate some parts of the Old Greek bible texts and some Latin translations, too. Then, when I compared with a friend of mine, who knew the Hebrew texts, many things came out totally different.

Most famous error in translation is possibly the "Morningstar" thing, which originally did not mean Satan at all. Besides poor Satan wasn´t a bad angel in the old testament, either. Not even in Hiob (Job). Just the angel who acts as the accuser, sanctioned by god.

Anyway, I had to read the bible twice (philosophy...) and also read the Koran (Quran, whatever it´s called in english...) and many gnostic texts (Gnostic heretics appearing in ALL major religions, btw.).

That somehow purged the lust to discuss it.  

But I´ll happily discuss single questions.

Damn it! Got most of my favorites!

1. Bladerunner

2. Ghost in the Shell

3. Nikita (NOT the remake! BF is a doll! Cute, though...)

4. Leon

5. Strange Days

6. Mad Max II (NOT 3.)

7. Last Man Standing (No Cyberpunk, but big inspiration, as is Yojinbo, Akira Kurosawa´s original.)

8. Crying Freeman (Comic Series is better, but still... It´s fun.)

As I think about it, the list of movies inspiring me could go on and on and I would certainly find better examples, too. Main rule: The less obvious Cyberpunk they are, the more they tend to inspire me. Abstractions lead to fairly nice results sometimes...

Damn it! Got most of my favorites!

1. Bladerunner

2. Ghost in the Shell

3. Nikita (NOT the remake! BF is a doll! Cute, though...)

4. Leon

5. Strange Days

6. Mad Max II (NOT 3.)

7. Last Man Standing (No Cyberpunk, but big inspiration, as is Yojinbo, Akira Kurosawa´s original.)

8. Crying Freeman (Comic Series is better, but still... It´s fun.)

As I think about it, the list of movies inspiring me could go on and on and I would certainly find better examples, too. Main rule: The less obvious Cyberpunk they are, the more they tend to inspire me. Abstractions lead to fairly nice results sometimes...

Well, you know the address (**click homepage**). Plot suggestions are always welcome.

And miss the big chance to #### up another world? NO!

It was one assumption starting this topic, of course, that we had the technological standard to actually colonize Mars.

And I disagree that we just

I think the human race has shown it´s ability to be very adapt indeed many times on earth by now. Mars would be a far greater challenge but not an impossible one.

We humans have managed to build ourselves so many interesting traps. And we´re so far off living a satisfied life in many cases. I think trying something new could be healthy. But on Earth, there are no new roads. And if you feel the need to do something that falls out of a "regular" life, they keep telling you it´s a waste of time. Like travelling to South Africa. I saw it during Apartheid. I don´t think I would ever have known about the good sides of democracy, if I hadn´t seen that system first. Actually I think that being a stock broker or lawyer ain´t such a good life. But using society´s standards, they are the winners.

The Robinson novel´s: Yeah, that immortality treatment seemed a little off the theme as a whole. But he had to bridge a real big hole, too. It´s far-fetched but doesn´t much diminish the fun of reading, so I guess it´s ok.

Good Night!

I think we can agree on that power-gaming point. Let´s take the two examples I used in my article above: The Biker and the Special Forces type.

So I´d say both could be played with style, but style must be appropriate to character. If they go to the same guns shop, they would choose totally different weapons.

I imagine the Special Forces guy going in, with a complete list of what he wants in his head PLUS secondary options. Like the T800 in Terminator 1.

The biker would probably buy more stylish weapons or those he has seen in use on the streets or in the ads.

What I really hate is players first looking at the rulebook for hours, then deciding on the perfect weapon for them. Well, after they designed their perfect character, that is.

And woe to the GM who doesn´t allow them to buy these things, as they are not available in just about any corner store! (What I hate even more is their silly excuses as to why their ####### character is so perfect...)

Style can go a bit too far, too. Or let´s say too much individuality can hinder the game flow. I normally tend to make it easy for gamesmasters as my characters try to fit into the group. I know I could be a big nuisance if I played an anarchist-weirdo-loner type. So some in my group tell me, I´d play the same character, but it´s only another easy-to-handle character, for I know that at least three roles in the group are already gone:

1. The very dexterous and charismatic thief: ---who tends to always run away from any campaign/scenario where he does not get his will.

2. The freak: ---either suicidal, drug-addicted, etc... Problems: See above.

3. The leader: The one who always ends up as our brain.

Why make the GM/ST any more trouble when I hate it myself, while I´m GMing? Next campaign I´ll prove them wrong, though. I´ve promised that to myself.

Style, on the other hand, is what makes a character interesting. It sometimes leads to the old issue of in game/out game knowledge. What does my character know about the deadliness of various weapons? What would he dress like? Would his gang really accept him running around in a camouflage uniform and Spectra Shield vest? Another security sucker?

Quirks are important, too. It´s not just the way the character dresses. It´s the way he behaves. And yes, there are certain characters that do perfect streetsta slang in one scene, then suddenly switch to Yakuza Japanese etiquette the next.

All I can say is: Try to always stay true to your character´s knowledge, background and general idea. They may change with time (the biker learning from the Special Forces soldier about effective guns, the SF guy learning how to talk street slang, etc...) A GM that does a campaign where only those with the best Armor, Gun and MA survive is a brute, not a GM.

As for Best Armor, etc... No, I use what fits the character best and what he can get his hands onto.

And if my character is a biker and decides that any armor but leather is for sissies, he´ll go with that.

And if he is a Special Forces guy, damn, he gets all the little toys.

No. I can honestly say I don´t. Better to die in a blaze!

Mess with the best, die like the rest! And now that I´ve said it, there are some PCs whose arse is gonna be kicked! Arghh!

I think Cyberpunk can be a lot like a Cthulhu campaign. There is always the moment where death seems to be the coolest of options... Just for the flair of it. Then I go for that, too. It´s as GM that I sometimes use the velvet gloves.

Then again, some players surprise me. I had a group that was trapped in a mine they knew would be bombed soon. They had placed themselves in that shitty situation and I made a cut at that moment. When we met next week, I had a whole lot of ´last minute´ escape routes for them. First thing they told me that evening was they didn´t want their characters to survive. I thought they were pissed off, but, no. They told me they loved their characters but somehow it felt right if they died. They had secretly agreed on that behind my back via telephone line.

"So what, you wanna create new characters now?"

"No, we want to play out their last hours!"

So we set up an alarm clock and they gave me three hours of "we know we´re doomed..." talk. When the clock finally reached the five minutes to boom, they sat their and grasped each other´s hands. Wew, these guys scared me!