Tuesday, November 19, 2013

CYBER-PULP FANTASY CORE-Overview

CYBER-PULP FANTASY CORE
© Jerry Harris 2013
(This link will take you to the Fantasy Core Index.)


OVERVIEW
What do you get when you move a noir pulp fantasy adventure 20 minutes into the future? 

I’m not pretending this is an original RPG setting.  It’s quite derivative.  Those wanting a more complete and well-thought out fantasy Cyberpunk setting should seek out Shadowrun, a game that I have admittedly not played, only read about.  I don’t pretend to be well-versed in this particular setting, but I did buy the Omni issue featuring William Gibson’s “Burning Chrome” story new off the rack, Max Headroom was one of my favorite TV shows of the 80’s, and I revere the film Blade Runner.        

Here’s an easily available introduction to this setting, if you’re not familiar with it.

William Gibson short stories in Omni magazine
Johnny Mnemonic (Yes, they made a movie based on this) May 81

Other inspirational material 
William Gibson Novel "Neuromancer"
Neal Stephanshon “Snow Crash” The first two chapters of this book are the most entertaining I’ve read in any book.  Unfortunately, the rest of the book couldn’t possibly keep it up.
Max Headroom (“20 minutes into the future” was the show’s tagline, as well as this game’s design ethos.)
Rollerball (the one with James Caan and John Houseman from the 70’s, though the remake has its merits)

My take on Cyberpunk isn’t going to strictly follow any of these sources.  In fact, some of those takes on the future, as seen from the 80’s, may have been somewhat prophetic, but are downright quaintly naive compared to what has actually happened.  What this game will include is demi-humans, humanoids, monsters, and magic (not sure why, I guess just to provide more character classes and creatures to fight), highly skilled characters living outside of normal society doing questionable things to earn a living, and a smattering of sci-fi high-tech in a low-morality world. 

What this game will not include is an extensive backstory or a world gazetteer.  There isn’t going to be a master list of all evil corporations.  There will be no attempt at being exhaustive in cataloging future technology and it’s impact on society (not to say that this game won’t have a social satire angle to it). 

My take is that this game should be more episodic.  Characters will come into contact with some sort of novel technology or unearthed old magic and will have to deal with it and the people who’ve created it or want to obtain it or destroy it.  Exotic computers, dangerous programs, cloning, replicants, recreated dinosaurs, Total Recall memory manipulation, sentient AI’s, nano-tech, cyborgs, whatever, throw it all in.  Assume that anything really high-tech and exotic is a prototype or in very limited release for the super-wealthy.  Any rule set down here or that is made up in play for how a certain technology or magic works, is ripe for breaking with a new technology.  Combine the new technology with a villain, and you’ve got an instant plot hook.

Of course there should be recurring villains in the setting, but they shouldn’t be the point of it.  Corporate entities are ephemeral at best anyway.  The characters are just trying to get by and survive in a dangerous environment where they have no rights.  Most should be hoping to make a big enough score to retire safely.  They’d only want to seek vengeance on powerful enemies if there was a large profit in it and destroying them is the only way to ensure a safe retirement. 

One last thing this game won’t include is extensive rules for cyber-combat.  I love Tron and Reboot, the evocative symbolic combat of the Gibson’s Sprawl, and the avatars and virtual world of Snow Crash.  However, if I’ve learned anything from reading up a bit on Shadowrun, this is the main problem with the game.  I couldn’t come up with a satisfying solution that wasn’t, on some level, just plain silly.  Hacking is just going to be a skill roll.  If you want more, I suppose you could have your characters roll up virtual characters to take into cyberspace.  Don’t blame me if your head explodes from being too ironically meta. 

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