Well, since its been a day and I haven't gotten any angry "NO this has been discussed to death already" replies, and I did get a couple positive email replies, I'm going to go on to discuss some other problems I have with cybergeneration and my "fixes" for it.
This time I'm going out of the realm of mechanics and into social and political aspects(many of which can be adapted to any cyberpunk game). I'm breaking these up into seperate posts so you can read only the ones you like.
First off, I seriously question whether R.Talsorian games designers were awake when they wrote some of the descriptions of the yogangs. Many of the descriptions refer to the gangs commonly wearing leather/fur. I mean, WAKE UP guys. You have spent a long time explaining how most people eat kibble and other foods made exclusively out of vegtable products. You've talked about how for the most part, meat is vat grown. Where do you think leather comes from idiots? ANIMALS, mainly cows. If there is no meat industry, there is no leather industry. Perhaps some cows are still raised for the really rich, but not enough to provide all that leather for kids with very little money to be buying. So, scratch any remarks made about leather or fur(unless they are speaking of really wealthy charectors) and replace it with synth-leather. Synth-leather looks like leather and smells vaguely like leather, but real leather can be told apart from the fake stuff easily.
For the most part, other than the Tribals, the groups that are described as wearing leather and natural fabrics(I'm assuming cotton or wool) can be reworded as wearing imitations. Also, it makes sense for the ecologicaly conscious groups to avoid leather and other natural fabrics since the processes there damage the environment wheras plastics are theoretically safe. (Perhaps have cotton grown as an actual natural fabric source if you really want one. It doesn't depend on animals being there to produce it so its a possibility).
Next we come to autofactories and plastics. In the description of the ecoraiders they talk about how plastics are not recycled in the ISA. I feel this is a bad decision on their part. In MY ISA, plastics ARE recycled because even the companies that produce them know the resources are not inexhaustible. In my world, you have a few companies which produce plastic as raw materials for autofactories of all sizes. They also produce the autofactories. Coincidentally, their autofactories require a specific mix of chemicals in the plastic "cubes" their fed as raw materials to work properly(ie you have to purchase the raw materials from the company you purchased the machine from. Sweet, eh?). Plastic used in production, of anything from clothes to guns, come in balls which are fed to the machine. This way you can give it the exact amount neccessary. Different types of plastic are neccessary for different things(guns use "hard" plastics, clothes use "flexible" plastics).
When purchased, the plastic comes in little round balls. These vary in size so you can put exactly enough into the machine to create whatever you want. Mixed into the plastics are special chemicals. "Hard" plastics have chemicals which will make them assume and keep hard surfaces. "Flexible" plastics have chemicals which will bond to the plastic and keep it flexible (untill the chemical reaction dies down in about a year and you have to get new clothing....). All plastics have some chemicals in them that, when exposed to high temperatures will start a chemical reaction and cause the plastic to go from its solid state to a liquid state(so it can be molded). The chemical reaction starts at about 120 degrees(F). After the plastic has cooled down and formed its new shape, most of the chemicals are used up. The plastic will retain its general shape even under really high temperatures. (say 160F for the sake of arguement). Now, by general shape I mean just that, GENERAL. There are still some of the chemicals left in the plastic, so if it is exposed to temperatures above 120, it will melt slightly and become deformed. At really extreme temperatures, the plastic will burn(so you can't recycle it yourself by cranking up the temp really high). Firefighters and others who need equipment which won't melt at really high temperatures can purchase special heat resistent plastics. These heat resistent plastics are not recyclable at all.
How does one recycle then? Simply put, you don't. You return the plastic to the company and it has a special chemical treatment that lets them recycle it.(Of course, this produces some toxic byproducts but they don't care about that. To them, a few cannisters of toxic waste is worth it for them to be able to sell it again. Its better than letting the public be able to recycle it themselves.) In 2029 citizens are required to turn in their used plastics to be recycled(which is why many of them take a certain malicious delight in throwing them out when no one can see them, thus denying the corps the money for reusing it). There is no such thing as a deposit on plastic clothes, bottles, guns, etc. (Perhaps this could be a run for your group. Getting into a Plastic-Corp facility and getting the formula you need to recycle the plastic! Or modifying their production formula so plastic produced from this factory can be recycled by anyone[and of course erasing the evidence of the change so they don't realise it for a few months]).
-- -Badger gam@panix.com -- ___ / \ tierna@glia.biostr.washington.edu \___/ tierna@agora.rain.com >Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.cyber >Subject: Cybergen: changing weapons availiability and controls >Date: 18 Feb 1994 01:11:38 -0500
Next, after all their big talk about getting away from guns, in the MALL the kids are sent to is a shop which sells big, powerful guns. Strange, isn't it?
My I.S.A. would be a lot tougher. Maybe you could find big guns in the combat zone, but not in the mall. In the mall, you would find(legally sold), mainly little plastic disposable handguns. (Sort of like the disposable cameras of the late 20th century). They come with 3-9 rounds of caseless ammo(usually 7mm) already inside and no way of reloading them. If your lucky, you might find a light pistol(7mm) that is not disposable. If you have connections, you could find medium pistol or two, but nothing more powerful than that.
Also, all I.S.A. companies produce guns which only accept caseless ammo. They call the ammo by familiar sounding names(7mm, 9mm, .45, etc) but in actuality, all 7mm guns use ammo of very specific proportions(length, width, height, etc) and none of them is 7mm(though it may be close). Only ammo of that type will fit it. Ammo is the one thing autofactories can't make. The programs for ammo are carefully guarded(I.S.A. figures if they can't control the guns, at least they can control the ammo). In addition, each bullet contains its manufactors logo and production batch inside. Most bullets fired in a firefight will be smashed beyond recognition, but if it hits a soft target(like a human body) there is a chance that it will retain its markings. This lets the I.S.A. somewhat in investigation grey and black market sources of ammo. (If you know a shipment of Militech 9mm ammo was stolen in Night City, and all of the sudden a gang of megaviolents attacks and kills some cops, and the ammo is 9mm, Militech ammo from the same production run, chances are if you capture a megaviolent and make him talk, you can find out who pulled the job). This makes ammo harder to get than guns as it usually is stolen in one city and than has to be transported to another to be sold!
How does this affect the charectors? Well, unless they join the CyberRevolution it doesn't. The CyberRevoltion doesn't go into weapons and ammo the I.S.A. can track. Instead, they use older weapons(You know, all those weapons in the original book. A lot of late 20th century gear). They generally use weapons which use cased ammunition. They make their own ammo for its use. (There are also clip-adaptors they can use to make it possible for older weapons to use caseless ammunition. Its up to the GM on whether this decreases accuracy or not. In general, an old 9mm Uzi can be adapted to use either 7mm or 9mm caseless ammo but not 10mm).
Now, to handle these changes, simply photcopy the pizza parlor, white out all the texts and the names, photocopy the white-outed copy, and write your own text for guns and armor and such. I'd suggest no metalgear(heavy armor is frowned upon by the I.S.A. since they don't like people protected from their heavy weapons). Also, I don't like all the info they give(like the SP numbers for armor, or the stats for guns). Keep the info to what the charector would know. (The Eastwood is a disposable 7mm pistol shaped like a magnum with 6 shots that is supposed to be reliable. The Cobra is a disposable 7mm pistol shaped like a magnum with 9 shots that is rumored to jam or melt in your hand when fired. YOU, the GM decides if the rumors are true. Only give the player the accuracy mods after they have shot it once or twice, and never
-- -Badger gam@panix.com -- ___ / \ tierna@glia.biostr.washington.edu \___/ tierna@agora.rain.com
>Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.cyber >Subject: CyberGen: modifying and explaining the social aspects of 2029 >Date: 18 Feb 1994 01:12:29 -0500
Next, I really don't like Talorsian's view of the destruction of the family. If this was true, than corp goons would have no qualms about offing a few punks they caught "playing hide and seek" in a restricted zone. So, how do I explain the situation. Well, through 2013 there was the dissolution of the family and the disapperance of the middle class. The rights of 2015 however woke the corps up to an unpleasant fact. Take away a persons faint hope for the future, and take away his commitment to his family, and you have left a person with nothing left to live for. A person ready to kill the priveleged few in vengence. (And this person has lots of friends who think the same way). The corps started a massive propoganda campaign.
First, the family. Corps really pushed the idea of the nuclear family. Their had 2 basic methods. 1, encourage people to marry. Forget about hetero or homo relationships, just get people to form commitments to 1 other person so you have something to hold over them. Legally, any 2 people over the age of 17 may get married. Marriage is a financial institution. 2 people who are married pay less taxes jointly than they would alone. To discourage casual marriages, the corps made divorce laws TOUGH. Even if both parties seek divorce, and its a friendly parting, the courts end up dividing the joint assets so as 1 person gets most of them and the other person is left with almost nothing. There is usually nothing "fair" about these judgements, and many divorce judges take bribes for favorable verdicts(and the corps encourage this by not doing anything to stop it unless forced to, by say a huge number of broadcasts about corruption by the vidiots). They also wanted people to have kids, so as to form more commitments and attatchments that could be used against them. In typical corp fashion, they did this by financial encouragement. If you have a kid, you get a tax break. If you have 2 kids, you get a bigger tax break. The size of the tax break increases with each kid under 17. Of course, so as not to be giving too much money away, as you have more and more kids, you get less and less tax breaks PER kid.
Their other problem was that, with no middle class and the majority of the people in the lower class, there was nothing for these people to hope for. No way they could ever improve themselves to the upper class. No way their kids could have a better life. So the corps restablished the middle class. Its a much smaller middle class, but it gives the lower classes a goal to hope for. A reason to work harder. And the middle classes have a reason to work harder also(to improve their position in the middle class). Other than fantastiv achievement(in science, entertainement, etc) no one in the middle class can reach the upper class. Unless of course you manage to win one of the I.S.A. sponsored lotteries. (Funny, no one you ever met has met a winner of those lotteries, the winner is always someone in another state.)
-- -Badger gam@panix.com -- ___ / \ tierna@glia.biostr.washington.edu \___/ tierna@agora.rain.com
>Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.cyber >Subject: CyberGen: last one, revamping international politics >Date: 18 Feb 1994 01:13:21 -0500
Lastly, for today, is international politics. This can be used for Cybergeneration or modified for normal cyberpunk.
First off, let me state I like to play reverses in the future. I'm going to describe 3 important places individually, and than I'll show you how they all are interrelated.
Texas:
First off, the key to understanding texas if something I lifted and modified from cyberspace. They had a corp which was basically a big bad evil Araska type corp, except instead of focusing on security it focused on a little bit of everything. They called this corp New Edison. I majorly modified New Edison for my world. The original New Edison is New Edison Trading. NET was a very capitalistic company, but it was also very patriotic. They had no qualms about taking over american businesses and weren't vindictative when other american companies beat them in business. HOWEVER, woe to the foreign(especially japanese) companies that took them on. While NET tended to refrain from black ops against other american companies, but they would go all out vs. foreign investors. NET grew, and formed many supsidaries. (such as New Edison Agriculture, New Edison Security, New Edison Energy, New Edison Entertainment, etc etc). Eventually, New Edison Trading was just called New Edison and was more of a directing company for its subsidaries. New Edison Entertainment and New Edison Energy were based out in california. New Edison Security was based in Chicago, New Edison the parent corp was based in Texas. New Edison Agriculture was based in Ohio. Other subsidaries are based in other states but aren't really important to this discussion. To explain the descrepiancies in my vision vs Cyberspaces, New Edison Security was given all the blame for the "bad" actions of New Edison.(With New Edison sometimes finding out what was going on and working against them).
Next, I'm pushing the timeline for CyberGeneration up to 2029 to give me time to work everything in.
Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. was placed, coincidently, in 2020. Ok, that's my starting point. I forcast continual dissillusianment with the country by the people, in addition to lots of corp infighting, led to the destruction of the U.S. in 2024. Many states, fed up with the inability of the federal goverment to handle the crime and warring corps(in their state) seceded from the union. Heading up this secession was Texas. When the I.S.A. was formed to solve these problems(in 2025) many states rejoined the union. Only a handful refused. The I.S.A. attempted force to bring these states back into the union. It worked with most of them, but Texas had been preparing since its secession and was ready. They managed to keep the I.S.A. at a standstill till 2027. At that point it looked like their resources were drying up and the I.S.A. was seriously considering nuclear weapons to break the resistence.
Incidently, New Edison fractured. Each segment of the corp was responsible for only itself. New Edison Security is part of the I.S.A. and calls its former parent corp a treasoness rebel. They are most vocal in the need to retake Texas. New Edison Agriculture is a relatively silent member of the I.S.A. Unknown to most, NEA feeds its former parent company with information of whats occuring in the I.S.A. This is part of the reason Texas held out for so long. NES suspects NEA but cannot prove anything. Other than the california based Edisons, the rest don't need to be mentioned.
Next, is Mexico:
Up untill the time the U.S. disintigrated, it had always claimed to be trying to help democracy in Mexico. Many members of the various secret services of the U.S. realised what was going on with the Corporations attempting to take over the U.S. Their hands being tied, they didn't see anyway they could stop it without going rogue, and if they went rogue they wouldn't have access to the equipment they needed. They joined forces with one goal in mind, to shaft the corporations which were destroying their country. To do so, they decided to help Mexico along the road to democracy. They reasoned that their superiors couldn't fire them from attempting to do what they had always been told the U.S. wanted to do. They worked hard with the mexicans to eliminate the corporate influence. (The mexicans accepted this help for a variety of reasons, the main one being patriotism. The fact the the U.S. was becoming worse than mexico, so they couldn't dream of escape to the U.S. may have also had something to do with it.). After suceeding inturning mexico around, most of the agents in the U.S. defected to Mexico, bringing with them a lot of embarrassing information about the corps in America. This information was used as blackmail to keep Mexico free. (Some agents remained behind to act as moles). Mexcio became a truely democratic company with very little corp influence in the year 2023 and has remained one ever since.
Lastly, we have California:
California also seceded from the union in 2024. Late in 2024 California suffered one of the worst earthquakes ever, followed by severe forest fires. Hurting and badly in need of help, California petitioned to join the I.S.A. as soon as it was formed. Seeing california as a weak state they didn't need, the I.S.A. refused. The only help California received was from Texas, through the 2 New Edison corps based there. It was no suprise to them when, in 2026, after they had rebuil everything, the I.S.A. attempted to take coopt them. Fortunately for them, New Edison Energy had been working tirelessly to make sure no earthquake ever devastated them again. They had come up with a method of triggering earthquakes. Using this, they could trigger small earthquakes at set times to releive pressure and they wouldn't have to worry about earthquakes ever again. They also had a steady source of income performing this service for countries such as Japan. In addition, they also had a nasty weapon that they could use to hold of the I.S.A. They could also cause DEVASTATING earthquakes. It took the destruction of NYC(and the sinking of Manhattan) to make the I.S.A. back off in 2027.
The Californians, knowing the I.S.A. would never give up, banded together with the Texans and Mexicans to form a new country. The Federation of Free American States. Together, their resources were a match for the I.S.A. In my world, for the sake of straight lines, I've also included New Mexico and Arizona(to connect Texas and California directly instead of going through Mexico). I'm also toying with the idea of Lousianna(for no other reason than to save New Orleans from the I.S.A.).
The I.S.A. and the F.F.A.S. are bitter enemies. They are engaged in an economic cold war. While they can't engage eachother directly, they have found a way to engage eachother indirectly. Its called, Central America(history repeats itself, ya know.) There's always conflicts going on there between FFAS freedom fighters and ISA backed troops. ESPECIALLY in Panama.
Strangely enough(history repeating itself again), not much has changed for Cuba. Castro is still in power there(aren't rejuvenation treatments just GREAT?). He retains his power by playing the ISA and the FFAS against eachother.
The only thing I'm not to sure of is what to do with South America and what to do with Canada. I'm not even remotely familiar with events in these areas. The only thing I could think of was to have Canada become a member of the I.S.A. and I was thinking of making South America controlled by ecoterrorists trying to save the earth(who are in constant combat with Corps in the area trying to exploit all the
-- -Badger gam@panix.com -- ___ / \ tierna@glia.biostr.washington.edu \___/ tierna@agora.rain.com
>Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.cyber >Subject: Cybergeneration: modifying those gangs so they fit and work better >Date: 18 Feb 1994 20:22:24 -0500
In the next of a seemingly never ending flow of articles, I'm tackling gangs(not yogangs, I hate 'slang' created like this. Why couldn't they just say "gang" if they meant gang?) This is a two part article, this post contains corrections for the gangs so they are more in line with my particular viewpoint. Also, some explanations of how to make gangs work for kids of all ages.
First off, a lot of these gangs they describe have 1 fatal flaw. While their fine for 15+ year olds, they really don't make sense for an 8 year old to belong to. Well now, that is easily fixed. What you have to understand is, when the gangs were described they described the IDEAL gang member. There is no such creature, but everyone in the gang THINKS of herself in that way. Next, initiation rites are usually relaxed on some of the really young kids. They usually join because they have an older brother/sister/cousin in the gang and the older relative wants to be able to keep on eye on the kid to keep her safe. For example, the 8 year old Megaviolent. She wasn't beat up as an initiation, she more or less tags along with the gang. The gang TREATS her as an outsider(an priveleged outsider, but an outsider) BUT if anyone messes with her the gang WILL defend her just as if she was a member. She will not have more than a 2 in the gang skill because she really hasn't been in the gang for too long. Also, she play the "immune to pain" games, she will still cry if she gets hurt(and woe unto the person who hurt her when the gang catches them - even if its another gangmember!) She also wears the typical gang uniform, but on her it tends to look cute rather than threatening. The gang lets her tag along for a variety of reasons, mainly because its an ego boost having someone watch your exploits and oooh and ahhh appreciatively to your stories. Lastly, she is USEFULL to the gang. Say, right after they beat up a horde of squats and a squad of police show up. Their tired, just had a rush of victory, and really don't want to fight a losing battle with the cops(Megaviolents may SAY they always want to fight but the truth is elsewise). Well, when the police ask what happens, she pipes up using her "Little Angel" routing 'My cousins were just escorting me to see the lates vid, you know the Littlest Mermaid in Paradise', and these horrid nasty squats attacked us! For no reason whatsoever.' 'We look like Megaviolents? You really think so??? That's great! We're going to a costume party tonight and the theme is gangs. I picked megaviolets for our group! Do you think I'm wearing too many chains? Perhaps another studded collar, what do you think?'. The amazing thing is, this strategy WORKS. Not only is she good of getting them out of trouble, but when theres a really good rumble, say with the Guardians, and the Guardians start kicking ass, for some reason the older Guardians tend to ignore her. Giveing her a chance to sneak up behind them and flail away with a garbage can lid.
Now, that's just one example of working an 8 or 9 year old into a gang. I picked the megaviolents because I figgured it would be one of the harder ones. It took me all of 20 minutes to work up this scenario. It shouldn't be to hard to do similiar things for Gogangs, Guardians, and whatnot, In some cases, it makes sense to modify the equipment slightly. For example. an 8 year old goganger wouldn't have a bike yet. Instead give him 2 or 3 more picks from the list.
Next, on to revamping the gangs:
ARCORUNNERS:
no changes
BEAVERBRATS:
modify gang skill, Ninja. Instead of Shadow/Track, since this skill is more for hiding or breaking into places, give them Basic Security Systems. This means picking locks, and some basics of bypassing computer security. (They don't know WHY it works, but the tinkertots showed them if you unscrew the panel for a number keyed lock, cut the green and red wires and rewire them together, and than punch in 6666, the door opens 50% of the time.)
BOARD PUNK:
no changes
ECORAIDER:
replace leather with synthetic clothing. They use plastics gotten through the black market that can be recycled easily at home in the microwave. They also have black mkt connections for getting natural fiber clothing (coton and bioengeneered plant fibers) which are grown in other countries and actually HELP the environment.
FACERS:
no change
GLITTERKIDS:
Two options for glitterkids. The standard from the book is the really big stars, they get celebrity as their skill. The other option are minor stars that hang out with the big stars. Their part of the gang or clique, but they don't have a BIG NAME. Their skill is connections: Your ability to get into the right places at the right time keeps you in this business. You know who to talk to for information, who to bribe to get into that exclusive club, basically how show biz works. You also know how to 'drop names' to cut through red tape in bureacracies and to get officials(like cops and corpsec) to stop hassling you.[This doesn't always work, especially if they check up on you.]
GOGANGER:
Replace leather with synthleather in the description (they don't have the cash for real leather, but are known to kill for it if they see it). >From the equipment list, some of the weapons are just too powerful. Replace Heavy Pistol with medium pistol. Replace submachine pistol with the more specific Light machine pistol. Add heavy chain(used as a club). Add repair kit for bikes. If the player desires(or its inappropriate for the charectors age) they get 2 more picks from the equipment list in place of a cycle. If they DO take the cycle, remember the cycle isn't new and has been heavily repaired(while you may have PICKED an Akira Cyberbike, its beat up and the engine is from a Hellfire Cyberbike).
GOLDENKID:
First off, this is one of the few places where when the books says fur and leather it actually still means REAL fur and leather!
Second, I don't like the skill because, if they get the plague there is a good chance that the contacts are worthless. Instead, I made their skill Manipulation: you know how to maneuver in the corporate world. You know when and who to bribe to get the information you need about the Vice President. You know how bureacracies work in detail, as well as a little basic security(both for when you have to break into someones office and to secure your own living space). Included in basic security is little stuff like, most executives write down their password and leave the note inside their desk. So, if you pick the lock on the top desk drawer, you can log into their account.
GOTHS:
No real changes here. Just wanted to say, I consider Goths to be more open than just 'creature of the night' followings. Instead, broaden this to include any 'cult' followings(think Rocky Horror Picture Show) and modify the skill as appropriate for each 'cult'.
GUARDIAN:
no changes
MALL BRAT:
Since mall brats operate in malls, they don't have access to BIG guns, their access stops at medium pistols and such. So they don't have big Solo's owing them favors. In actuality, its more of a 2 way street. An adult Fixer may gain access to a program for heavy pistols. He'll deal with the Mall Brats, he loans them the program chip for a few hours, they run off 100 copies of the pistol and split the run with the Fixer. This is the only way the get access to the big guns(and don't forget the store manager gets a cut for looking the other way). Next, Mall Brats do NOT operate as individuals. Their kids, remember??? They act in groups which make them harder to track. ex:Stacy, who works in a sporting goods store, accidently throws out a crate full of hard plastics and modifies the inventory records. Charlie, who hangs out in the malls, grabs the crate and transfers the hard plastics.
He then goes to the virtual reality arcade, drops the knapsack next to the hotest new game, plugs in his trodes and starts to play. Sam, who also hangs out in the mall, grabs the knapsack on her way out of the arcade and drops it in the dumpster behind the self defense store. Finally, there's John works in the store. While cleaning up after the mall closes, he grabs the knapsack from the dumpster, fires up the old autofactory(cuttin in the splice to disable the production counter) and cranks out 30 medium pistols. Which he places in the knapsack, tosses back in the dumpster, and than goes back to cleaning and locking up. At which point, Sam and Charlie grab the knapsack and head home. The beauty of the whole thing is, its almost impossible to track the whole thing. If the cops manage to track the new guns on the street to the self defense store(I'm assuming autofactories are programmed to mark their products so they can be tracked to the factory), no amount of checking of records will ever show any hard plastics missing from inventory so the guns couldn't have been made in this store and sold illegally. Someone must have modified a black mkt autofactory to leave the same mark as the one in the store. AND, if the inventory is ever noticed missing at the Sporting Goods store, the worse that happens to Stacy is that she is fired. No one will ever connect it with the illegal guns. I spent a little longer than I wanted to on Mall Brats but I wanted to get across how and why they operate as gangs and not, as the book implied, individuals.
MEGAVIOLENTS:
Again, equipment changes. The weapons in the book are too powerful. Instead, we have: Replace Heavy Pistol with Medium Pistol. Replace monokatana with machette[damage 3d6](makes more sense to me for them to have something lifted from a sporting goods store) Replace battleglove with all those options with a battleglove thats been so beat up, and damaged, the only working part is (pick one) 3d6 crush; 2d6 punch; 3d6 wolvers. Replace sub machine pistol with 3 disposable medium pistols. [Pistols are 8 shot. Each one, at owners discretion, may have been modified so that, instead of fireing single shot when you pull the trigger it fires ALL the bullets at once. Similiar to the machine pistols, but you only get 8 shots not 25.(if your really careful you can pull the trigger and let it go quickly enough so it fires 4 shots instead of 8)]
RADS:
no changes
SQUATS:
give the squats some contacts with a few Nomad packs which take pity on them when they come to town. Add to their equipment, 3 disposable light pistols. Normally 9 shot(roll 1d6-1 for each and subtract that from the 9 for how many bullets are left). If one of the pistols has been used(less than 9 bullets), assume it was found that way in a garbage bin. There is a possibility that this was a murder weapon thrown away after use. Depending on who was murdered, the police may still be looking for the murderer.
STREETFIGHTERS:
no changes
TINKER TOTS:
no changes
TRIBALS:
Prefer natural fibers such as cotton and other plant fiber clothing. If they can't get it, they go for synth-leathers. While they are taught survival, and how to hunt in the wilderness, its considered dishonorable to kill a wild, and close to extinct animal(like a deer or rabit) if you have an alternative(such as a box of kibble in your pack). Instead of actually killing the deer, they stalk it and, when shooting at it, fire to miss in such a way that its obvious that they COULD of hit and killed the deer if they had been aiming to.
Expand warrior skill: longbow, coup, shadow/track, stealth, wilderness survival
Add another option, charectors can be warriors or shaman, so a different skill would be:
Shaman: coup(they still have to know a little bit about fighting), stealth, wilderness survival, first aid, and herbalogy/chemistry(or phaurmacuticals if you want to get specific. Since there aren't a lot of plants around, Shaman have to make do with some drugs that were produced in factories).
VIDIOTS:
No changes
Well, that's it for this post. I feel these midifications make the charectors more in line with the type of game this was supposed to be. Downgrading some of the weapons was my most important priority. Modifying some of the gangs skills(or adding the option of a choice for some of them) was the second. My next post will be about 2 new gangs, the normals and the Whiz Kids.
-Badger gam@panix.com Do you want to buy Magic Cards, gamer friend? I think you'll find their glow will never end. In fact they're rather nice, so just take my advice, You want to buy Magic Cards, gamer friend. -- -Badger gam@panix.com -- ___ / \ tierna@glia.biostr.washington.edu \___/ tierna@agora.rain.com
>Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.cyber >Subject: Cybergeneration: a couple of new gangs to round out the roster >Date: 18 Feb 1994 20:23:06 -0500
As I promised, here are 2 new gangs and 3 new gang skills. The Whiz Kids and the Normals:
WHIZ KIDS:
You are a Whiz Kid; one of the large number of kids who have grown up with the net and know just how to manipulate it. You know the geography of the net like the back of your hand and, whats more, you know how non-sentient computers THINK.
Basically, when describing this gang, think tinkertots with computers instead of mechanics. This gang may be better left as NPC's at the GM's discretion. Whiz Kids are generally very pale, since they spend most of their time indoors hooked up to computers. They hang out in the net, surfing into open systems and throwing lavish virtual parties. Prestige comes to those who perform the most daring hacks or provide the most realistic props for the parties.
AlliesEnemies:
Again, this follows the same pattern as the tinkertots. Almost everyone needs you eventually to break into the schools computer and fix grades, or show them how to modify the inventory totals(or better yet, write them a short program they can just slot and let do the work without thinking about it).
Yogang Skill:Phreaking
Your skill is one of the closest to an edgerunner skill, and consequently, you suffer for it the most. You can use your phreaking skill to break into computer systems or simply to surf the network. Against anything but an edgerunner, a wizard, artificial intelligence, or really advanced expert system, you get your full skill value for hacking. Against a really advanced(near sentient but not quite) expert system your skill is halved. Against a real netrunner, a wizard, or an AI you divide your skill by THREE for effectiveness. (You know how computers think, but really advanced systems, or worse people, are harder to manipulate). In addition, you can also use your phreaking skill to write programs.
If your GM allows you to program on the fly in the net, you get your full skill value[your programming specifically to defeat another system and automatically recognize weaknesses in the system]. If, on the other hand, you are trying to write more all-purpose programs to take with you on a surf, your skill is halved for the purposes of writing the program. Lastly, because you understand virtuality and computers so well, you mess up systems even without programs. For example: most Whiz Kids don't have a cybermodem at home and have to use a dumb terminal to do their surfing. This is severely limiting. Sharp Whiz Kids can get around this problem. First, they load all the programs they will need into their home terminal and attatch the terminal to the internet. Then, they go to the local virtuality arcade (usually in a mall). They go for one of the enclosed booth games so no one can see what they are doing. Then, they start to play. About 20 minutes after plugging in your trodes, you have played so well(by exploiting bugs in the game) that the computer running the game has had to keep increasing the difficulty level and eventually runs out of ways to increase the difficulty and crashes. This is were the fun begins. You then write a couple programs on the fly and have the computer access the phone line and call your home terminal. You copy the game onto your home terminal, and replace the game in memory with your hacking programs. You then use the game terminal as a cybermodem to surf the net. (the beauty of the whole setup is, even if your tracked YOU won't be busted since the signal originates from the arcade!). After your surf is over, you log back onto your home terminal, copy the game back into the arcade computer, sever the connections and reboot the game.
If your a Whiz Kid:
-Datatap (dataline wiretapper)
-Cybermodem (beat up, doesn't work 20% of the time)
-Pocket computer and 30 blank datachips
-10 datachips with surfing programs(pick now)
-extra set of trodes
-5 data chips with maps of local corp mainframes(pick corps now)
And now, for something completely different:
NORMALS:
while the beaverbrats and the Mallbrats claim to be normal kids, you actually ARE normal. Not every kid is part of a gang. You may be part of a clique of friends, but you don't have any special "down with society" skills or anything. Your still a kid though, and you still follow the code of the gangs(if nothing else, because you may sometimes need a whiz kid to do you a favor and fix a grade). Most kids fall into this category, they may occasionaly hang around the fringes of a gang, but they never actually pick up that gangs skill. Normals have their own special skill(why else would a player pick to be a normal). They can either be focused, or unfocused normals.
A focused normal has a special interest. You may pick any 1 REAL skill as your "yogang skill". The only limitation is, you have to have a good reason for picking it and it can't already be covered by a yogang skill. (You can't say your interested in computers and take netrunning as a skill, that would make you a Whiz Kid and Whiz Kidz get phreaking!) This interest could be a science, mathematics, computer programming(as long as its JUST writing programs and not hacking your GM may allow it), history(the real history, not the propoganda taught in schools), even medicine(you wouldn't know more than advanced first aid, CPR, etc. This is nominal a Shaman skill, but shamans only know basic first aid. You would know the really advanced first aid). Again, pick any skill and come up with a plausible reason for having it. As long as your GM doesn't feel its too close to an existing gang skill, you can have it.
An unfocused normal(most of them) has no special interest. Instead, your skill(call it general advantage) lets you be somewhat better than other juve's. For each point in you place in general, you may either add a point to any of your skillz or half a point to any of your stats. Your limited to raising any skill or stat by 2 points total.(Basically, this is used at the time of charector creation to raise a starting skill over the 8 maximum, or to give your abilities a boost(and possibly bring them over the 8 maximum). With the 2 point maximum raise per skill/ability the charector now has a potential maximum of 10 for skillz and stats. If you consider half a point to much for stats, modify it as you see fit. Say 3 general skill points can be turned into 1 stat point or 4 or how ever many you wish.)
If your a Normal:
Basically, the theory behind the above was as follows: The normals I started thinking about because, if EVERY kid belonged to a gang, there would be no way for parents not to know whats going on. With over half the kids being normals, it becomes easier to keep the real gangs secret. Then I started thinking, what if a player doesn't want to be a member of any of the gangs. What advantage would he have as a normal, and than I created the advantages. Of course, as soon as a created focused norhought was "what if he picks netrunning". So I decided on the no duplication of existing gang skills rule and created the Whiz Kids. Again, unless you want to deal with netrunning, Whiz Kids may be better left as NPC's.(In which case you also wouldn't have any wizards). If you do allow Whiz Kids, to really torture them, if they get the plague give them Tinman or Bolter, and give the Wizard advantage to someone else. Watch them drool over what the Mall Brat who could care less is able to do! Thats it for todays articles. Now that I've got the modifications and background finished, if anyones interested, I can go on to potential adventures.
-Badger gam@panix.com
Get your own Free Home Page