Street Level: Intro

This is the new idea I have for a cyberpunk campaign. More corps, new guns, vehicles, etc. will come out of this later...right now, a basic idea.

The world's population has been growing quickly, and as a result, the government has been buying up land to use to grow foodstuffs and corn for ethanol processing. On the east coast, 100,000,000 people live within 100 square miles....
Or rather...5000 cubic miles. The majority of people have been moved into Astropolis, a massive city 100 miles square, that extends 10 miles up and anchors 40 miles down. This megarcology is filled with bustling streets, highways, shops, office buildings...but the majority of the population lives at lower levels. Due to the high density and high demand for space, the city is almost entirely controlled by a massive architectural development firm called Street Level Developments, Ltd. SLD has so much clout in city politics that it has its own police force, and it's own city officials which interact with the government there. Due to the cozy relationship with local government, high level corporate and government officials get preferential treatment for housing, while everyone else pretty much gets screwed. SLD is not the only powerful corporation in the game, and in the long run, it isn't the most powerful, either. Its clout is restricted to within city limits, and once you leave Astropolis, three gigantic agricorps rule the land. Valdez Energy Consortium, Federated Land Holdings, and Agricultural Management all hold some portion of the massive fields and forests taken by eminent domain for cultivation. Nearly all farmable land is farmed as such.
Past the Rockies, the story is a little different. There are small communities on the California coast that exist for managing the farms. This is different because whil the cornfields of the midwest are there for ethanol and Hydrol production, the fields and vineyards on the West Coast are for growing food. About 10,000,000 people live in about 2,000 small corporate-subsidized communities along the California, Oregon, and Washington coasts.
The rest of the world, with the exception of Russia, is dependent on either the American corporations or the independent Russian agridomes for food. The Russian agridomes are huge sealed communities of 2,000,000 or so, often holding 20-50 square miles of cultivation land around the central dome, which occupies 10 square miles above ground, and usually has a huge complex underground as well. Each dome community acts as an independent city state, as most of them were built before the Soviet Union was nuked by the United States and Europe. The massive hyperelastic domes that had radii of nearly 20 miles have long since collapsed under their own weight, but they lasted long enough to keep the cultivated land safe from radioactive fallout.
Life in Astropolis is unique. Space is at a premium, unless you live in a corporate penthouse, 45-50 miles above the ground. You could have your own bedroom and common room, and even a bathroom and kitchen, an amazing luxury considering that the majority of workers live in a cube or a small studio with a communal bathroom. Communal bathrooms and even unisex bathrooms are ubiquitous in most living areas, which has made rape an issue in some poorer areas. Many women now carry small stilettos in sheathes on their thighs, weapons that, because of their common use in bathrooms and locker rooms, are now known as "dick-slitters". In general, the small corridors are cramped, uncomfortable, and dangerous, but the majority of people have access to open-air walkways and pavilions. In the underground levels, there's actually a bit more room, though for the most part, underground is not residential, but the majority of people work at a workshop, warehouse, or factory below ground.
Transportation occurs mostly by massive elevators integrated into the huge support columns. Also, grav transport is common, with the average gravbike costing only 30,000 credits, affordable to someone living comfortably, or outside the law. The edgerunner economy is bustling, as transactions that happen at ground level rarely are known of by any authorities even 2 miles up.
Because of the lack of living space outside of Astropolis, almost no one is allowed to leave unless they can prove intent to return to their domicile. Despite this, nomads live in the forests that could not be converted to farmland, mostly around the Appalachians and the Rockies. The human smuggling rate is high, and next to drugs, one of the only forms of organized crime the corps care about.
In reality, the corps are generally too busy worrying about European markets...with genetic engineering getting more bizarre, it's possible that the agricorps will lose their market dominance. Who knows what happens to Astropolis if globalization resumes...

D&D Campaign and autre shtuff

I believe I have fallen irrecoverably behind with doing session transcripting...but that's all right. I wasn't having too much fun forcing out one or two paragraphs, so I'm going to try something different. I'm going to write some fiction oriented around the campaign...there's a fair enough of stuff happening outside of the direct scope of the campaign...I'll see what I can do. In the meanwhile, I have cyberpunk stuff and a story that's nowhere near done. This week is busy, though...expect my next entry next week over Thanksgiving break.

Cyberpunk v3!

As I've told a few people now, R. Talsorian has announced that Cyberpunk v.3 is going to presses, and should be in stores within 6 weeks. Assuming that they mean it (which I think they do), this is very exciting.
Many Talsorian fans have simply given up on this product, either going back to 2020, using another product, or just deriding every snippet from v.3 they see. I am not one of these people. Well, actually, I am...I, after about 6 months of ambiguous announcements, simply shrugged, and went back to using 2020. But now, I see no reason not to buy the product. Having played Champions, I know Fuzion and its architecture are quite solid, and should be a blast to build a campaign with. People saw RTal's new sample on their site, and immediately started bitching. I think that the altcults listed, while definitely not the standard schema introduced in 2020, are just that: a schema. RTal has responded to popular response about 2020, which is that the universe is very narrow-minded, which hurted some of the very interesting possibilities with the system. To me, it sounds like Cyberpunk v.3 has the variety to become the benchmark dystopian system, beating out not only other cyberpunk-esque systems like Shadowrun, but also systems like Rifts, d20 Modern, and others which go for the modern angle. One might not understand this, but to put it simply: modern roleplaying either falls on story or blazing gunfights. Or both, but either way, setting can enrich this greatly, but is not intrinsic to the order of play.
I have not seen a "bad" Talsorian product. Some were redundant, some were too short (my biggest gripe), but the information contained within was always great, and every supplement I bought for 2020 gave me a new angle to look at my games, my characters, and my writing. I think that's a good thing.
I am buying the core system, regardless of what anyone says. I will post a review after I get it, and hope to encourage people to do the same and buy this product. If the fanbase expands to a certain point, we can be ensured to get great publisher support, and get more great supplements.
And Mr. Pondsmith, if you chance upon my blog, which happens to have been started centering around your roleplaying system, I have two suggestions for you:
1. Release a 2020 update. You did great things with 2020. Even if interlock and Fuzion are cross-compatible, people will much appreciate either a conversion booklet or something similar. As much as we love trying new systems, the idea of dropping a campaign for it is not a very nice one.
2. Let third-party publishers release Cyberpunk products. Icarus did this with 2020, and now that Fuzion can be licensed, you have no reason not to encourage this. We know Talsorian isn't a big company, but people love the system, and would be more than glad to write stuff for it.

Fuzion seems to be an easy system to write new shit for, so I'm going to try and be a little creative about updating a setting. I love my Triurban setting, and it's evolving, but if I can do something completely new, both players and myself will probably get into it a lot. Don't know where to start, but hey, another reason to buy the book!

Talsorian's Website

Session 13

Our heroes, continuing their odd venture through the Underdark, meet up with a member of the Order of the Talon. Surprisingly, this man is not hostile, instead, asking our heroes to aid him in destroying the mind flayer city. Despite this apparently being suicide, our heroes comply, realizing it may be the only way to retrieve the glowy stick. Several bloody deaths later, the glowy stick has been retrieved. To make things even odder, Sorvel's sister, one and the same as the psychotic desert witch, is down in the city as well, searching for an immensely powerful artifact. And...yes. This artifact is the glowy stick. Through some intrigue, and more bloody deaths, Enkanthu's ax is retrieved, making Enkanthu's journey back from the afterlife ready, as he prepares to continue along the path of the warrior. And, they manage to keep the glowy stick as well. And now, Rei, Sorvel's sister, is prepared to use her powerful sorcery to let our heroes out of the caves of the Underdark...

Project Symbiote, Part 4

More gene-splicing, defenestrating action. Comments!

It was June who found me in a small bar outside of Oakdale about two hours later. I had gotten in with a fake ID, and was sitting silently, watching some football game and drinking horrible Iron City Lager because I had only three bucks in my pocket at the time. June walked in, and was stopped by the bartender. I guess she was much more clearly underage than I was, but seeing her inside the building had the right effect anyway. I downed the rest of the piss-booze and headed outside, not even buzzed.

“Dare I ask why you came to get me?”

“Dr. Davidson actually asked Liz and I to let you cool off. But I thought I could probably talk to you.”

“Well, I suppose you understand why I’m on edge about this. Despite my thought that you’d be annoyed at me being ticked off for you. You probably don’t need that.”

“Well, yeah, I suppose. It’s not that terribly annoying, considering what I deal with on a daily basis. But I thought it was you being moralistic about the whole experiment…you worrying about me is a sweet gesture.”

“Well, I was being moralistic. I suppose that’s what got me started.”

“Don’t be modest. You can have feelings for people, it happens.”

“Hold the phone-“ She had wrapped her arms around me again. I couldn’t really argue with that. We held each other in the empty parking lot for about half an hour, until it started to get cold. She led me down the road, and we walked alone until we reached the turnoff. The night was clear, with the temperature almost like a silencer wrapped around thoughts and vocal cords. By the time we reached the lab again, I realized I was holding her hand. I headed back down the sterile corridors to my room, replaying the walk in my head. If anything, it was one more reminder that everything I knew had just been completely blown apart.

I was shaken out of bed by Liz the next morning.

“What’s up, loverboy?” Despite the playful comment, her facial expression made me fear for my life. I mumbled something about air temperature and tried futilely to put pants on. She relaxed a bit, and chuckled.

“Well. Dr. Davidson wants to see you. Apparently he wants to use your reflex coprocessors in some mission today.” I grinned meekly, and finally managed to pull on the rest of my clothes. I clambered down the corridor, as Liz rolled her eyes and walked in the opposite direction.

Dr. Davidson led me to a garage I had not seen before.

“Max, we’ve reconvened the subjects because of a severe aberration in this technology. We need you to bring the experiment back to its normal course. Or, at least, do some damage control.”

“Dare I even ask?”

“Well, there’s been a problem. Do you know of the black ops scandals?”

“A little. Corporations who flouted FTC regulations to import weapons and test illegal technology, stuff like that?”

“Kind of. More the use of government information for profit. So, there’s been an issue. Biovex was a company involved in the scandals. They bought nanite modules and thousands of lines of gene modification code from a mole inside this facility who was tried and convicted about 15 years ago. And, we thought we got them with everyone else.”

“So? What’s the issue?”

“Well, we think there’s been a leak. We want you to find out. How could are you at hiding from people?” In reality, my experience in hiding from people mostly involved vandalism and computer hacking in high school, but I’m sure it was worth something.

“Pretty good. Why?”

“Well, we want you to get to Philly and check out Biovex.”

“Uh…Philly is 6 hours away from here.”

Dr. Davidson went to a lump under a drab tarp, and slid the tarp off. The thing underneath looked like it had wheels and an engine. My interest was piqued.

“This is a Kawasaki Recumbent, modified for you to jack in directly. The steering controls are at your sides, though ideally, you shouldn’t need to touch them.”

“Uh…doc, how fast can this thing go?”

“If we told you that, you’d want to prove it, Max.” I suppose they knew me better than I thought.

“Anyways, we’re going to plug this in and teach you a reflexive routine for riding recumbent. I don’t assume you have before, but after the 6 hours you’ll log from Philly and back, you’ll be a master.” Dr. Davidson took what looked like a small USB drive and plugged into my arm module. He plugged the other module on my arm into a long cord extending from the sleek little bike, and took out my headphone jack.

“Hey!”

“We want you to be able to hear what’s going on. Dying won’t help you accomplish this mission, trust me.” The splitter plugged into my arm, my phones, and another plug connected to the bike. Dr. Davidson patted me on the back.

“You’re ready to go, Max. Do us proud. Make this up, and the lives of people like June will be innumerably improved.” The bastard knew where I bled. That was annoying.

“Wait. You said six hours both ways. That’s half the time it usually takes me.” Dr. Davidson grinned. Suddenly I was very scared of this bike. I had never rode before, let alone recumbent, and now this thing was, very clearly to me, not for beginners. Apparently my life lay in a small plastic thumb drive plugged into my arm. That was not the greatest confidence builder. I swallowed heavily, and then strapped into the bike. Sitting recumbent after the windshield was extended was like being in a jet fighter, though I could at least recognize the dials from my car experience. Shifter there, tach there, accelerator there…the reflexives were already downloading, and had shown me the instrument cluster, the physical controls, and even where the clutch point was. Dr. Davidson waved me off, and I slowly wheeled onto the road from the garage. I was doing 20, and balance was fine, even better than the dirt bikes I had occasionally ridden. I got onto the main road, and was feeling a little more comfortable. Being myself, I grinned, and dropped the clutch back to first. Letting it back in, I opened the throttle wide up. I was pushed back into my seat, as the tach roared to 6. Wait…it’s a motorcycle…that’s not right. Oh…the tach was at 13, about right for a 800cc engine going this fast. I clicked up to third gear, and had a realization. The tach didn’t peak at 6…that was the G-gauge. I was going to have a lot of fun with this demon-bike.