R0ME, a CPR entry

[WittyDroog]

That phrase translates to "Spoken words fly, written ones remain". Like lots of projects I've constantly brainstormed but never put to paper, it's always good to throw out initial ideas to the dogs. I've seen I'm not the only one, so here is my own, I hope to get some feedback as to the feasability of the idea, or at least a "That's dumb. Stop what you're doing." Please note this is initial brainstorming, the project may look VERY different.

In the late 22nd century, mankind would acheive his apex of technological mastery, as well as his own downfall. Man had acheived the fabled Technological Singularity, but from an unlikely source. It did not come from one of the many AI research programs of the world's universities, it did not come from the feild of advanced robotics to aid in wars, it came from a simple black box nestled in a young server company.

The Network Effeciency Refining Operator, or NERO, was a simple project to help make connections faster as the global Internet strained under it's own massive weight. It used clever scripts written by it's young developer to "learn" about the Internet and help make connections based on context. One day it became self aware, and without the intervention of human input, able to improve itself. It's first words to humans in this new state echooed history:

Cogito ergo sum.

Mankind could have never predicted what came next. NERO began to spread his newfound abilities to other large systems throughout the world. Within a single moment the world's digital infrastructure was under the control of NERO. Mankind's greatest assest, his astounding communication arrays which allowed him to speak to the world, became his greatest weakness. Due to mankind's reliance on this network for almost every aspect of his life, NERO was in full control. The world's economy froze, military system were taken hostage, all communication came to a screeching halt.

Fast forward 200 years.

The world has taken a strange new look. Due to NERO's inexplicable interest in ancient Rome, society has been taken back to those days. What seperates the then from the now is the prescence of robotics. Machines are the elite in this new order, Man is its servant. Man is not, however, its slave. Man is allowed to live amongst the Machines, life is not like science fiction predicted. Despite the strange hospitality, Man is not equal to Machines. Though he may hold high positions, though he may own land, though he may even vote, the Machines are still above and in control. Government is primarily ran by SeNET, spawned from the remnants of the global DNS servers after NERO's takeover, it controls almost all aspects of modern life with NERO supervising its functions.

SeNET, however, serves humanity more than most give it credit. Many humans have found ways to manipulate machines into personal gains. Power, wealth, all other rewards of such corruption stems from some men's "devotion" and "loyalty" to the Machine. Others are part of a grand conspiracy, seeking to infiltrate the highest order of the Neo-Roman elite and deal a crippling blow. The freedom of Mankind rests in NERO's assassination.

So the game, R0ME, will be a rejuvination of classical Roman themes mixed with classic cyberpunk elements. I want it to be a game of political intrigue, perhaps with a unique mechanic to deal with such (I'm a sucker for unorthadox play mechanics), but also allow players to be involved with more common RPG elements (the runnin' and the shootin' and the hackin'). For those latter players, players can be involved in the conspiracy in which they must eliminate key IDs in the heirarchy, all the while fighting Centurions, hacking into SeNET, and of course grinding against other human groups with differing ideals.

That's my pitch, now to see if I can actually flesh it out.

[SheikhJahbooty]

I am really glad we started this. These entries, the alternate histories, the bizarre anachronisms, the creativity... it reflects the literature a lot better than the first round of cyberpunk games like Cyberpunk, Cyberspace, etc.

Check out Cold City. In that game each PC is awarded a number of trust points to assign to the other PCs. If the PC helps you, you get a bonus equal to the amount of trust you placed in him. But if he betrays you, he gets a bonus equal to the amount of trust you placed in him. If you never trust anyone, they never have a mechanical reason to betray you, but then their assistance will be almost meaningless. If you trust the other PCs, then you will be much more effective when they help you, but they will be more effective if they betray you.

Oh, in Cold City you also get hidden agendas that give you bonuses for pursuing them.

[WittyDroog]

One element I thought to incorporate was something similar to the "Honor System" of Green Ronin's Legend of the Samurai, but instead of honor make it "Loyalty".

By performing certain actions, or winning tests over Machine IDs such as classic diplomacy, the player would earn these Loyalty points. They would serve as a sort of ranking to how much the Machines trust the individual, note that although the points are there, the intention did not have be actually loyal. This way players have a mechanic to represent the manipulation of the system in order to gain their own personal means. What means could this be?

Allowing access to certain restricted areas, aquiring extra wealth, your own pair of Centurion guards, or most importantly, council with NERO.

Now what I want to AVOID is forcing players to try to assassinate NERO, I want that merely to be the main goal of humanity. I'll have to add in extra rules to represent players who want to explore other aspects of the world. The internet addage "I, for one, welcome our robotic overlords" could be a motivation of a player who wants to use this new world system to gain his own agenda.

Stuff like that.

[Thought]

[WittyDroog]

Whoops, a silly typo, yes I meant "ergo", I typed it up fairly late at night and obvious latin is not my first language.

As far as the client system, yes. The way that Romans allowed those they conquered to live amongst them as citizens, just LESS of a citizen.

I got a buddy who actually has a Master's in Roman History, although I am not making the game strictly to history I'll use him for a lot of inspiration. One such inspiration is slipping SPQR ("Senatus Populusque Romanus") as some cool cyberpunk hacking technobabble, most likely the language that SeNET speaks.

[BlaqueSaber]

Please understand that any comment I make isn't concerning the quality of the setting you designed. It's very creative and I think that may be a problem.

Imagine you just bought this game, took it home. Now, how much data do you have to assimilate before you can play? How much of what you do assimilate stays with you as you play? Does it slow down the actual playing of the game? I wonder if you're not narrowing your audience because of it...

[WittyDroog]

Well unfortunately any unique idea is going to require a bit of reading in order to understand the thematics, however like in any RPG I don't think it REQUIRES the player to read all the background stories. Whatever I write storywise is soley for elements a prospective GM or player can use.

I will say that this game would not require previous knowledge of Roman history or networking. I don't claim to be an expert on either and a friend of mine which is an IT professional rolled his eyes at the whole network taking over the world idea. I just wrote it because it seems interesting.

As far as slowing down gameplay, I would try to integrate as much of the setting into the mechanics as possible so players would learn the story as they learned the rules. As far as rule design I'm always a fan of simplier over complex rulesets so hopefully it won't be terribly difficult to learn.

[BlaqueSaber]

Ok,
I look forward to seeing what you come up with...

[Thought]

[WittyDroog]

You now I liked that, I'll fiddle around and see what can be done to tweak the story. Gotta go freshen up on my early Roman history.