Agamemnon

Nay, most definitely.

It is true that classless systems require time and that the player must come up with a character concept, but to me, the latter is a good thing.

Even D&D has moved away from a rigid class system. Cyberpunk should too.

I tend to think that AIs can deteriorate if not given proper maintenance (by the Netwatch Turing squad, of course). That means that "freelance" or rogue AIs will slowly become more and more ecentric.

I'm working on it. Maybe an 8-point pool would be better.

Let's see.

I do own a cellphone but so does 95% of the population of Finland.

The answers to the other questions: no, no, no and no. I guess I'm not cyberpunk.

Well, I'm not American, and I did not like Mad Max. The movie was so corny it made me change the channel in disgust. I'd rather watch Plan 9 from Outer Space.

In my stories, there have been several AI's, who have many things in common.

Curiosity, which served as their motivational tool to collect more information, as embodied in Agamemnon.

The need to evolve, which served as the reason why the Circle of Eight was trying to make bodies for themselves.

Self-preservation. An AI, in most cases, is willing to do anything in order to keep on "living", as embodied in Socrates, who hunted down the Netrunner who harmed it with his virus. This desire to preserve sometimes borders on a form of cruel, eye-for-an-eye justice.

Yes, they're mean. No, they're not completely alien. They are, after all, "imperfect beings created by imperfect beings," to quote Star Trek.

Nah, I just wanted both sides of the story.

I know I use a lot of music and sound references. I like many forms of music, and that usually creeps into my texts.

Vidoqcue was a rogue idea that crept to me from a novel (no, I'm not telling which one, you'll have to figure it out) and was deemed a good one. He used to be this immensely strong-willed and imposing figure, later doomed to a wretched existence and old age by his enemies. The Shrine was Vidoqcue's creation, and he also works in close correspondence with the Digital Librarians. He shall most definitely be included in other stories.

Markow actually isn't a Solo, since he is lacking in courage. As far as archetypes go, he's a low-level Fixer who has some contacts. I tend to dislike tough characters and like to use them as either background color or stereotypes.

Maybe I'll do a rewrite of The Spider's Web, maybe not. One thing I could not avoid was to include references to Stealing the Fire, which included four characters (Lobo, Saturday, Weaver and Villeroy) and references to the "Prometheus Run". Those who have not read it, it might be hard to understand why Jericho was called Spider, for example.

I personally like Markow. I originally wanted to concentrate on Markow and his relationship to his now-dead brother, but in the end decided to make the story a 100% action piece instead. Finch is just an overconfident Edgerunner-wannabe.

My favorite characters are Vidoqcue and Villeroy, however. I plan on using both again in the future.

This reminds me of the opening scene of the movie "Payback", Mel Gibson's only good flick (ok, Braveheart was fun too). The dude who sterilized his instruments in whiskey was a definitely ripperdoc.

All right, you can stop with the chest-beating contest.

Since I'm living in a country with armed forces that have the relative effectiveness of a bandaid against a severed limb, I have no problem with the Yankees acting as the global cops. That also means that every time a "peace keeper" dies, it's not one of us.

I propose that this discussion be dropped, as it is in the benefit of none and has the possibility to degenerate into a flamewar.

I'm thinking about putting an extra point or two on 'em. We'll see.

The point: As long as there are both Israelis and Palestinians, the war continues. When soldiers run out, they'll use kids. When weapons run out, they'll use rocks. When rocks run out... you got the idea.

There is no solution. Even Tom Clancy couldn't come up with a good one in The Sum of All Fears (which is a cool book otherwise).

I like it. I think I'll use it, with the "normal" point pool set at 10. Every point is worth 1000 euro and perks are bought according to Bookwyrm's suggestion.

You know, Cybrpunk 2025 is looking pretty good. I just finished an availability chart for cybernetics.

And not to mention the fact that because they're fighting a war on terrorism, they have an excuse not to intervene in Israel and Palestine, coz the Israelis claim they're fighting terrorists.

The Israelis are fighting terrorists. With genocide as their policy.

The best thing that could happen is that someone would start the Mideast Meltdown a bit early and get rid of the whole thing.

Hmm... Chow-Yun Fat and Jet Li as the main stars

As for the villain, how about the guy who played the shapeshifting alien bounty hunter guy in X-Files. He looks like a Russian mobster to me.

The plot: very bad but the action sequences look groovy

FYI, I have read the thread.

Using the perk pool as an independent variable... Like giving everyone 10 points, with which to buy Perks or money?

Interesting...

Thank you, that really helped. I'll guess a rewrite is in order.

BTW, was there anything you liked about the story?

I actually decided to use your idea. The points for Perks will be deducted straight from the Karma stat (formerly called Spirit).

That's actually a good idea. I'll give it some thought.

Another idea I had was that a character could take points from characteristics, multiply them by X and get "a perk pool" with which the character could buy Perks. Any points not spent on perks would be converted to cash.

Well my particular brand of the wheel (CP2025) is currently still a bit wobbly but getting better every day. It's in reality a mix of other people's ideas, but the sum total should be better than any of the parts alone.

I don't have a mechanic for Perks yet. My previous system had a lot of flaws and I can't really think of a better one just now.

It all boils down to the question of what they are bought with. Skill points? Character points? Some other kind of points?

Since my latest story is finished and a new one begun, I could use some constructive criticism.

Go and read The Spider's Web at cyber203x.cjb.net and tell me, honestly, what you think about it. Remember that praise, while nice to hear, doesn't really help making better stuff.

I'm not aiming to be the next Gibson, just an unofficial James Hadley Chase of the cyberpunk genre. ;-)

For CP2025 I'm using a mish-mash of different rule sets. I'll probably use Blackhammer's ammo listing and Ocelot's skillpoint system. That unfortunately means that distributing the system could become tricky, since it would mean asking permission of all writers, some of whom are not around any more.

The Body modifier to MA makes perfeect sense, even though the formula itself looks intimidating.

BTW, what can one do with the Body stat? What benefits does having a high Body (or Build in your system) have? I put the BTM thing there simply to make the stat look more useful.

It can be said that the problem with democracy is that it gives power to the people, and the people don't always know what they want.

It's like Tommy Lee Jones said in MIB: The person is smart, but the people are stupid.

As for right-wing, Finland has so far avoided sprouting any. Thank the gods for that.

Stupid question time: what the heck is a garcon?