4e Cyberpunk???

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

I struggle with the concept of Cyberpunk. Back in the 90's we played little else but the technology of that game world is rapidly becoming obsolete. It's an interesting genre but more as an alternate version of history that is coming to pass. Next year is going to be 2020, the beginning of the Cyberpunk timeline, close to a decade into Shadowrun's, and our world looks nothing like the one that turns into those games.

You could say the history diverged some time ago (probably before the Nikkei crashed in 91-92 if you want the 1980s-vintage Japanese dominated future). Or you could advance the timeline and change things to better match how society, politics, and technology has actually been progressing. Or you could handwave the matter and just run with "80s-style dystopian SF" just like you would run "50s-style Raygun Gothic SF."

[rkbrown419]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Just push the timeline forward and adapt some of the tech to match our better modern tech.

/dusts off hands, another job well done...



Heck, the last c-punk game I ran I didn't give out what year it was nor ever even alluded to it. Luckily the Players never noticed or pushed the issue.

Heck I've written near future sci-fi and deliberately avoided specifying a date because it's too easy for it to become outdated by current events.
The dating of any existing cyberpunk game will be overtaken by current events sure. Many of the thematic elements exist in the real world though. Everyone and everything is online. Large parts of the population feel disenfranchised. The environment deteriorating. True the Japanese aren't an economic superpower but switch things to the Chinese and it fits pretty well.
Just project current events and technology twenty or thirty years forward and it looks pretty cyberpunk to me.

[hal]

For what it is worth, I've taken timelines from other games and listed them in a spreadsheet. I then took the dates that the events occur in and placed them in one column. Then I adjust the date by the year the book itself was published.

Thus, if the book was published in the year 1998, and an event occurs in 2005 - that event was supposed to happen some 7 years from "today" kind of thing.

The year being 2019 - makes the event 2026.

Anything that already has occurred can be safely left in the grand history of things.

:)

I've done this for TERRADYNE, CYBERPUNK 2020, and TRANSHUMAN SPACE. I've also used the timeline for tech trees from TRANSHUMAN SPACE largely because I honestly don't think we've hit TL 8 as given in THS as yet.

[VIVIT]

I don't know about you guys, but I love the retrofuturistic approach to cyberpunk. The fact that '80s-era cyberpunk's predictions about the future were only about 45% correct just turns cyberpunk into an alternate history genre not at all unlike steampunk. The technology level can be considered TL8+1 -- or, if you're using the traditional TL timeline that puts the beginning of TL8 at Y2K, TL7+1 (not at all a bad fit for retrofuturistic cyberpunk IMO).

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by VIVIT

I don't know about you guys, but I love the retrofuturistic approach to cyberpunk. The fact that '80s-era cyberpunk's predictions about the future were only about 45% correct just turns cyberpunk into an alternate history genre not at all unlike steampunk. The technology level can be considered TL8+1 -- or, if you're using the traditional TL timeline that puts the beginning of TL8 at Y2K, TL7+1 (not at all a bad fit for retrofuturistic cyberpunk IMO).

One Cyberpunk (or, more like Psiberpunk) idea that I've been working on is pretty much that. It's the Future of the Eighties, and is set in an alternate 2010. (It's based on an idea that I considered for Five Earths, rejected, then decided was worth developing in case anyone might be entertained by it.) Is there interest in me posting the WiP here?

[Kesendeja]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

One Cyberpunk (or, more like Psiberpunk) idea that I've been working on is pretty much that. It's the Future of the Eighties, and is set in an alternate 2010. (It's based on an idea that I considered for Five Earths, rejected, then decided was worth developing in case anyone might be entertained by it.) Is there interest in me posting the WiP here?

I'd like to see it.

[VIVIT]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Psiberpunk

Akira is that you?

Also yes WIPs plz

[scc]

I've got some notes for Cyberware for DF and I really should go over, it more-or-less turns Cyberware into a Power.

[Prince Charon]

OK, here is the Work in Progress, mind the gaps:

Apocrypha: Psyberpunk 2010

(Before I finalized the arragement of the Five Earths, I considered including a Cyberpunk Earth. This is one possible version of it, taking inspiration from Shadowrun, BattleTech, the original Bubblegum Crisis, and possibly bits of GURPS Cyberworld, GURPS Technomancer, and Cyberpunk 2020, among others. TL9 or below equipment from GURPS Ultra-Tech (and High-Tech and Low-Tech) or Pizard's Equipment page should be available without magical enhancement unless otherwise noted, though the price may be quite different. Higher TL equipment will likely be magical and/or experimental, or basically unavailable, depending on the GM.)

In the 1980s, perhaps as early as 1983, but probably not much later than 1987, this Earth had a limited nuclear war. It wasn't so much limited by intent, as by the humanity of those involved: Many missile crews refused to launch, or bomber crews refused to drop, leaving a world that was a terrible mess, but mostly not a radioactive hellhole. In the USA, for example, most state capitals were hit, and most military bases, but many of the largest non-capital cities were spared, including both NYC and Chicago. Washington, D.C., on the other hand, was hit by two Soviet nukes, one from China, and one from France (the French nuked both Washington and Moscow, as a 'f--- you for killing us all' gesture), so the President when the dust settled was the 38th Governor of Florida, Bob Graham, who was in Orlando for a speech. Because the national and some state governments were unable to exercise control in many areas, some corporations chose to expand their security departments, thus serving as de facto government in locations important to said companies. PLACEHOLDER Some years later, following President Graham's retirement, the National Emergence Resource Control Commission (NERCC) was founded by President Matthew Johnston (a man who seems not to have been born, or perhaps just not become famous, on our world), who also coined the term 'Permanent Emergency' to describe the ongoing lack of proper democracy.

The combination of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons used had an odd effect on the population, causing many to develop strange abilities, seemingly psychic or even magical in nature. It also caused some humans, animals, and other lifeforms to be born with strange mutations, resembling creatures from mythology, fantasy, and science fiction. This pushes technology ahead rapidly, in odd ways. This Earth reached early TL9 in consumer technology around the year 2000 PLACEHOLDER <TL9^ cyberpunk+magitech; Cassette Futurism (WARNING: tropes site link)>

It is the Future of the Eighties. PLACEHOLDER <punk subculture and music more common than expected; battlesuits and big stompy robots (generally smaller than BattleTech's 'Mechs, due to practicality issues); android 'replicants' perform some service jobs, sometimes go nuts>

PLACEHOLDER

Welcome to the One-And-Twenty, chummer. Hope you survive the experience.


Thoughts?

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

In the 1980s, perhaps as early as 1983, but probably not much later than 1987, this Earth had a limited nuclear war. It wasn't so much limited by intent, as by the humanity of those involved: Many missile crews refused to launch, or bomber crews refused to drop, leaving a world that was a terrible mess, but mostly not a radioactive hellhole. In the USA, for example, most state capitals were hit, and most military bases, but many of the largest non-capital cities were spared, including both NYC and Chicago. Washington, D.C., on the other hand, was hit by two Soviet nukes, one from China, and one from France (the French nuked both Washington and Moscow, as a 'f--- you for killing us all' gesture) [snip]

Thoughts?

I'm having some serious SOD meltdown on NYC and Chicago walking away from a WWIII that glasses Albany and Springfield. Major centers of population, transportation, and commerce would be much higher priority as targets than bureaucratically-significant backwaters, enough to merit a lot of redundancy in the "Guys who could have an attack of conscience at crunch time" department, IMHO.