LDA - Cyberpunk Site

CYBERPUNK
The Roleplaying Game of the Dark Future

The View From The Edge

"I'm not a man / or a machine.
I'm just something in between. I'm all love / a dynamo,
So push the button and let me go."
Lovin' Every Minute of It
1984 Zomba Enterprises Inc. (ASCAP)

So you wanna be Cyberpunk? Or maybe just look like one?

Before you pitch off your sleepmat and jump in, there's a few things we need to tell you. First of all, the name. Cyberpunk comes from two wrods. Cyber - from the term cybernetic, or a fusion of flesh and machine technology. Punk - from an early 1980's rock music style that epitomized violence, rebellion and social action in a nihillistic way. The term was popularized in the Pre-Collapse days by a group of writers who specialized in writing science fiction with this kind of technomelange. Thier works featured a streamlined blend of rock, pop, sex, drugs and the highest, hippest technology - usually grafted onto your body somewhere. The archetypical cyberpunk heroes of the 80's ranged from technobarbarians roaming a Postholocaust world, to a cyberchipped jet setters with designer bodies.

Of course, from out enlightened view point here in 2020, this all looks pretty dated. After all, you probably acccessed this article from your personal datebase 'comp. You used a Kiyoshiru 1300A interface cable wtih a direct link from your wristplugs. You're used to hardwiring into the appliances to make coffee, "studding" into the 'Benz to drive down tot he corner store. But understand - in 1987, this was all considered pretty visionary stuff. No one had plugs. You couldn't dial Luna on the celluar. Designer plugs were illegal. You could walk down most city streets without an armor jacket. There wasn't even a Net.

Now we know better. History books can tell you in detail about the Crash of 1994, when the Euro-Combines established the World Stock Exchange and the economies of the United States and old Soviet Russia collapsed.

In those days, both were ranked as superpowers, instead of a couple of overarmed second-raters waving nuclear weapons around under the watchful eyes of the Euro Space Defense Agency. As long as the Tycho massdrivers are ready to throw rocks at Moscow and Washington, we'll probably avoid having the nuclear war everyone's been expecting since 1994. After all, rocks are cheap.

Now, of course, everything's more or less run by the Corporations, which are pretty much governments in themselves. You can go anywhere on on passport - one worldism at its best. Thec currencies of most nations are stabilized to each other, and the Euro dollar is a world currency. Hardly any one complains anymore about Corporate Lifetime Contracts or the abolition of unions. It's the price of living in a stable, safe society, right?

After all, you could be in the Projects, Sixteen people to an apartment, sharing ration chips every week to buy food, with eigth thousand apartments per city block? Sure, it isn't the best life, what with the boostergangs roaming the Malls and the major league crime problems, but it beats actually being on the Street. At least the mega-arcologies have cops (okay, rented Corporate copes, but its easier than fronting the euro for your own personal Solo!). Besides, the medianets make sure that every apartment has direct cable access to TV, radio and sesory feed, so there's always something to do on a Saturday night.

Where were we? Oh yeah - you want to be a Cyberpunk.

Here's more background for you to think over. When the grand old Masters of the Movement first started writing the cyberpunk genre, they assumed that most of the things they wrote about would either never happen or would happen in the far future. No one knew that the West Germans were already developing "organic" circuitry in the late 1980's, or that the United States Air Force was developing metnally cotnrolled weapons systems. Synthetic myomer muscle fibres were just starting to be used to control prosthetics, and very few people could project ahead into the 1990's when organic chipped arms and legs would be possible. There were a few primitive experiments with bioengineering - thinks like Frostban and a few new types of corn - nothing like the bioengineered animals that we'll use to terraform the MArtian colonies.

It took about fifteen years for the newtech to catch up with the vision. First, the military started using cybertechnology to create "perfect soldiers" and pilots. Some of the spin-off led to prosthetic limbds, eyes and other body parts. Organiz circuitry led to direct hookups between men and computers. Combined with advanced telecommunications technology and satellite downlinks, the bassi for the now planetwide Net, was established. As each new technological advancement slammed into place, a sort of cultural technoshock set in.

Technochock: When techonology outstrips people's ability to comprehend or fit it into their lives. Suddenly, people freak out. They get irrational; violent. Families shatter; relationships tear apart. People feel helpless in the face of the Universe. Eventually, the whole society grinds to a halt, the victim of a mass psychosis. That's what we now call the Collapse.

There were three major responses to technoshock. The vast majority of people, their lives uprooted and changed by the advancements, say passively waiting for their leaders to tell them what to do next. One smaller group tried to turn back the clock, founding the basis for what we call the Neo-Luddite movement. The remaining group - they decided to hit the future head on. With the old 1980's visionary writings as their guide, they established the movement we now call Cyberpunk.

Okay, so now you're ready.

As a cyberpunk, you grab techonology by the throat and hang on. You're not afraid to check out he newest in "enhancements", cybertech and bioengineering. You've got interface plugs in your wrists, weapons in your arms, lasers in your eyes and biochip programs in your brain. You become the car you drive, the gyro you fly, the guns you shoot. You dive headfirst into the Net, using your mind to hurtle at light speed all over a vast network of Data Fortresses and Artificial Intelligences. With cyborged fingers you pick computer locks; with enhanced senses, you see into the Future.

Cyberpunk is also an attitude. You wear the most "in" clothes, know the right people, and follow the right crowds. You plan your crimes in the most select clubs and bars; your enemies are Corporate armies, cyborg bike gangs, power-armored assassins and computer-wired Netheads. Your weapons are nerve, streetsmarts, bravado and the Minami 10 smartgun on your hip.

Are you ready now? Of course your are. You can't wait.

Now you're Cyberpunk.

Roles
Your occupation

Weapons & Gear
Getting fitted for the future

Cyberwear
Putting the Cyber into the punk

Netrunner
Your guide into the net

Trauma Team
Medical technology

Future Shock
All things dark & Cyberpunk

Never Fade Away
A Cyberpunk story/adventure

Night City
Encounters & Personalities

MegaCorps 2020
Corporate Profiles

Screamsheets
Information link of the future

[ Poetry Corner ] [ Short Story Forum ] [ Vampire Pub II ] [ Music Jukebox ]
[ Role-Play Forum ] [ Guestbook ] [ Other Links ] [ Return Home ] [ Credits/Copyrights ] [ Email ]

Wolf Pack Inc, Friday, August 29, 1997
Most recent revision Tuesday, September 30, 1997