Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post

ed_209a · 06-15-2009, 03:34 PM

I am working up a history for a Cyberpunk game I am running, and I'd love a little advice.

I want to start in 2009 with today's news and plot a believable course of events ending up in 2050 with weak governments and strong multinational corporations, at least in North America.

I am leaning towards a slippery slope to cyberpunk rather than a dramatic collapse. Not to say there won't be tragic bumps along the road. You can't call it a Cyberpunk RPG setting without a plague and a economic collapse. It's in the by-laws somewhere... ;)

For example, perhaps a corporation subcontracts a certain service with the government. Later, the corp renegotiates the contract so that, as part of a federal tax cut bill, the public will pay the corp directly, instead of being paid from tax dollars.

In this way, much of the services and tax base that state and federal government used to control is nibbled away by corporations.

Well-compensated politicians look the other way, until government is a shell of it's previous self.

What suggestions do you wise sages & mad geniuses have along these lines?

06-15-2009, 03:34 PM	#1
ed_209a Join Date: Sep 2004	40 years to Cyberpunk? I am working up a history for a Cyberpunk game I am running, and I'd love a little advice. I want to start in 2009 with today's news and plot a believable course of events ending up in 2050 with weak governments and strong multinational corporations, at least in North America. I am leaning towards a slippery slope to cyberpunk rather than a dramatic collapse. Not to say there won't be tragic bumps along the road. You can't call it a Cyberpunk RPG setting without a plague and a economic collapse. It's in the by-laws somewhere... ;) For example, perhaps a corporation subcontracts a certain service with the government. Later, the corp renegotiates the contract so that, as part of a federal tax cut bill, the public will pay the corp directly, instead of being paid from tax dollars. In this way, much of the services and tax base that state and federal government used to control is nibbled away by corporations. Well-compensated politicians look the other way, until government is a shell of it's previous self. What suggestions do you wise sages & mad geniuses have along these lines? __________________ “Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” - Robert E Howard, "The Tower of the Elephant"