Cyberpunk2.0 Project Post -Cybershade

[BlaqueSaber]

EDITS:
I've made several, I'm still figuring this all out...

Like some of the others who've popped up to contribute with the cyberpunk project I've been lurking but REALLY want to participate.

GOALS
-Streamline the game so that a newb can pick it up and begin playing very quickly.
I have some very specific ideas of how to layout the game in order to get this done. In a broad sense it means that the deeper you read into the handbook the more you get but you can start playing after just a few pages...
-Figure out new ways of looking at/using tech in the story rather than just your typical implants and brain plug...

I welcome any feedback or constructive criticism that you may have:

OVERVIEW SETTING
The world has gone wireless. We've truly reached a world wide web that interconnects everyone and everything. Your home management system knows when there's only one egg or a cup of milk left in the refrigerator and can order more to be delivered. We go to school on line, we see our doctors on line, we vote on line, all of our entertainment is on line and accessible anytime anywhere on any device (if you need a device at all).

To do this communities were re-molded and re-directed to be larger and all encompassing. When you do need to see an actual real live doctor/lawyer/councilor in the flesh there are a few dozen of each located on the services level. When you do need to join your classmates for school there is an education level. Each community has a grocer, a general store and access to physical public transportation (even though there's not really any where to go but other super communities). Each community has local denizens who consider them selves artisans, performers, and nomads.

Unfortunately most of the super communities weren't planned out well enough to keep up with sprawl. Over crowding isn't just a problem, its a disastrous way of life. The problem is so large that the cities now have only one way to grow: up which provides power struggle over usage and availability of the sun's rays, our most powerful resource that we use to power nearly all major systems. As the super communities grow ever higher more and more of those who previously had and were nothing, are able to find a place in society only continuing the sprawl. It's so bad that the "middle" class really are interchangeable numbers without personality as far as the corps are concerned. The city thrives on three shifts, you work on one, play on another and then rest/sleep on the third. The thing is, there aren't enough apartments, domiciles, or bunks so you share an assigned unit...

Those that live in the sky rises and the residential decks have open sky and see the sun for at least a bit of time each day. Their power is reliable, their wireless is clean, their data streams swift. Those who live below the fog (yep the 5th Element) which sits at about 2000 feet above sea level don't see any true sunlight at all only cheap imitation light from lamps and other sources which provides substandard power that isn't reliable.

If you live on the street (at the bottom) you live in nearly complete darkness all of the time...

CLASSES
NOTE: One way that I plan on streamlining the game is to narrow the classes & grouping the type of character you can have...

STRIKER-rentacops, mercs, assassins, soldiers, investigators, detectives, saboteurs, & spy's
DIGGER-reporter, journalist, blogger, vlogger, podcaster, writer, councilor & *activist
TECH-hacker, programmer, mechanic, designer, engineer & *activist
LOOTER-dealer, agent, owner, representative, middle man, runner, investor
FREEMAN-citizen, denizen, regular folk, the unaffiliated,
SLICK-(professional) doctor, lawyer, network reporter, city police officer, ect.
TRUSTIFARIAN-farmer, fisherman, hunter, planner, designer, *activist

ATTRIBUTES
-Physical mods
-Genetic mods
-Neural mods
-Influence

SYSTEM
I was thinking of going with WUSHU OPEN:

Core Mechanics
Action movies have always been at odds with realism. Fortunately for us, their conflict is easily resolved with a series of savage kicks to realism's face! Impossible leaps, insane acrobatics, and victory against overwhelming odds are all staples of the genre... and the essential elements of action role-playing games.

Sadly, traditional RPGs have long been in league with realism. They penalize players who want to, say, kick seven mooks with one spin kick by piling negative modifiers onto their roll, which makes them less likely to succeed. The inevitable result is that smart players stick to simple, boring actions and take a tactical approach to combat. Wushu breaks up this insidious alliance with a core mechanic that rewards players for vivid descriptions and over-the-top stunts by making them more likely to succeed, each and every time.

Traditional role-playing games also alienate themselves from action movies by segmenting time into rounds of only a few seconds. In the movies, you get to see characters trade a whole series of attacks, defenses, and counter-attacks before the camera cuts away. In role-playing games, players are usually limited to one action per round, and they only get enough time for one swing, punch, or pull of the trigger before the next player's turn. This takes the back-and-forth pacing that's essential for exciting fight scenes and stabs it straight through the heart!

In Wushu, players are encouraged to make as many attacks, leaps, dives, parries, and ripostes as they like before any dice are rolled. Each "round” is divided into two parts, which everyone completes at the same time. First, the group Describes the scene; this is the important part because their narration determines what actually happens in the game world. Then, they Resolve their dice rolls to see how well it all worked.

Description
Wushu works its magic via a dice pool mechanic where the size of your pool depends on how elaborately you describe your actions. Each Detail you add to your description earns you a die. These could be separate stunts, witty one-liners, cinematic flourishes, pretty much anything that enhances your gaming experience. (You always get at least 1 die, just for doing something.)

For example, someone who says "I dodge to the side" gets 1 die. Someone who says "I dodge to the side / and grab his sword blade with my chopsticks / before punching him in the face" gets 3 dice. Someone who says "I catch his sword blade with my chopsticks / when it's chisel edge is less than an inch from my face, / then twist it around with one deft motion, / jam it into the bastard's gut, / and whisper 'Can't you see I'm trying to eat, here?'" gets 5 dice. Thus, anything that contributes to the atmosphere and energy of your game becomes a smart tactic.

NOTES
I'm thinking that I'll write the setting out as fiction and break it up into pieces that run alongside the rules when you first open up the book

What do you guys/gals think?

[Rob Lang]

Love the idea of vertical cities: a vertical unplanned sprawl. Sprawl in the horizontal plane is easy for us to understand - what with slums but in the vertical plane is equally important.

[Thought]

[SheikhJahbooty]

Hey, if we're stealing ideas from Wushu, I perhaps could blow my own horn a little in that I wrote this.



You have to register with RPG lab to download the PDFs.

My friends have read it and said, "Cool, we should try it." but we never do, so it isn't playtested yet which is why I haven't gotten around to releasing it on 1km1kt or making it explicitly public domain, but hey, just so you know, I never intend to enforce any copyright on it, so if any of you dig it, go ahead and use it, abuse it, etc.

[BlaqueSaber]

[BlaqueSaber]

[Thought]

[BlaqueSaber]

[Thought]

Just wanted to post some encouragement, as I am excited to see how this project turns out. You mentioned you had hit a brick wall on the project; were you able to overcome that?

[misterecho]

I spoke to Blaquesabre on twitter, he's said that he's very unlikely to finish I'm afraid.