calling all cyberpunks

[J.K.Mosher]

including the "induction" would be useful . ..
like did you search out a way to join, did you get recruited by a crew,
or did you just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up
going with the flow . . .

[J.K.Mosher]

Just a quick scene linking to a character back story.

It was no place for the respectable, but the suited man was in desperate need. He knew someone,
was on to him, and he needed the help. A large burly biker type approached him flashing the prearranged
cryptic symbol on his mobile screen.

"Mr. Smith, I believe I have someone who can help you."
"Who?"
"His name is Recluse. He is the best at what your asking for."
"Where is he?"

The biker nodded towards the far corner of the dingy smoker's cafe. There slouched, draped in a shapeless
long coat and boonie hat was a figure. The man studied the motionless form, before returning his attention
to the biker.

"Recluse?" the suit takes a steadying breath before continuing, "You understand I must be very informed
about this man, due to the nature of the work I am asking for."
"I understand, you never can be too careful especially when contracting a neural-net wipe."
"You do understand. Great. So what can you tell me. His family?"
"You know, he's never mentioned them, and I've never thought to ask."
"I see. Training? Education?"
"Now this is all what, I has heard. So I can't guarantee it's validity. Before setting up shop here,
I understand he was up north. The cold parts, survivalist type stuff, and before then military,
deep off the books stuff . . . but then again he don't talk about it much, and we around here
don't really like to pry."

Showing his obvious unease the man starts to shift his wait, wringing his hands to use his
nervous energy. The biker eyes him, and then looks over his shoulder in the direction of
Recluse. Recluse looks up from under the brim of his hat before returning to his relaxed pose.
Closing his eyes he breaths deeply before initiating the "jack-in". With in milliseconds he uploads
his eye-cam image of the suit and matches it to an id through a backdoor in the DMV.

The Biker and suit continue to chat as Recluse shifts his attention from the floating repository
of information to any direct connections on the suit finding none he decides to do things the
"old fashioned" way.

The biker steps aside preparing to lead the suit towards the corner booth, when Recluse acts.
The suit moves, with speed a little fast for a corporate clerk but Recluse knew that from the
onset. The biker watches the blur of motion, and only seems to react when the bark of Recluse's
9mm Auto rips through the smoke filled air. Seven hollow point rounds slam home, right to left in
a climbing line up the suit's torso dropping him cold.

Recluse notices his front man the biker had pulled his own piece the instant he heard the shots.
The noise quickly returned to normal as the rest of the patrons returned their attention to else where
as Recluse moved closer.

"Hell of a mess." the Biker commented dryly. "Who was it this time?"
"A newbie. Wired to the hilt but dumb as a post."
"How'd ya id him?"
"DMV. Remind me to thank your sister for the router key."
"Shite man." the biker laughs as he grabs the suit's feet, "You know she likes you."
"Yeah what's not to like."
"If you is asking me . . . lots." The pair laugh as they cart the corpse off into the back. "So who sent him?"
"You know . . . that's something I aim to find out."

Again just a quick story, may or may-not have anything to do with the setting.
But I think I kinda understand the "back-story" creation idea. Just depends on how
deep it is going to be. Enjoy this "not so great" piece of 1am writing

[Onix]

z could be something along the lines of contacts and resources. Things along the lines of having a medium level access to the nation's medical/pharmacy record database. You can read and write. You can find out about medications a target is on, maybe find something to blackmail with or re-write his medical history, potentially cause medical problems.

Things that allow the player to quickly and easily explain immediate actions the character can take. For one, this might establish what a character's specialties are. The guy who can look up medical records can also hack into a bank but it will take him a lot of time and effort.

Incidentally low level access to a bank, maybe read only could be interesting. I was reading an article that talked about all the employees at a bank would do their banking at a rival bank because they didn't want their fellow employees to be able to look at their bank records and tell what they're doing. The first thing that will come to mind is looking for embarrassing purchases but that's not all you'd be able to find. If you look for patterns you can figure out when a target does things. When will they be away from their terminal (or not paying attention). You see that at 7:45 every morning they go to the local starbucks (or equivalent) and spend around $10. You now know one point where you may be able to access their systems without them noticing.

[kumakami]

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

Normally, I just like for its aviation encyclopedia. Some of the other articles - such as spacecraft propulsion are good as well, but I don't read the blog as often as I should. However, today I was reading that part of the site, and came across an about computer passwords that may be of some interest to your setting. A some of the older blog articles, as well as the "cybertechnology section" could be of assistance.

What sources are you using for technology research? While I'm never up to date on computer hardware, I want to learn a bit more about augmented reality. (At some point it might be nice to write the 2049 prequel to the AZ.)

How far in the future is setting, and is it necessarily our future? (Neuromancer had the "Crystal Palace" space habitat as you might recall.) Sure, Earth is familiar, but things get a bit more interesting when you can shut off the other guy's oxygen supply or tinker with the Mars habitat airlocks...

There is a running theme in cyber-punk media of the protagonists being loners that are forced into action due to outside forces. (Hiro Protagonist had a friend murdered, Case is blackmailed, Laney was kind of dragged in, Dekkard needed funds to go to Mars - at least in DADoES) Now you could either use this, or try to reverse it.

For the first option, part of character creation could be a questioner/choice of who is after you and what leverage do they have. There might be some rebate on costs for abilities as a tradeoff for accepting a more powerful enemy.

Going in the other direction, there are many ways to encourage connections and be part of a network. Skills might be cheaper is a family member teaches them to you, or equipment easier if friends loan you some cash.

[kumakami]

[Onix]

[kumakami]

[Onix]

Not only would it be long range, it would be untraceable. Have one communication hop with this kind of device and there's no way to trace it back to you.

[kumakami]

they could trance it to the trancfer point, the quantum comunications device, but after that its impossible to find you. You'd more likely be attacked by the systems through your own link or by some one brain-hacking you....