(IW) Cyberpunk Worlds

[arcanus]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

And as with all high tech worlds there is a danger they will invent parachronic travel themselves. So Infinity needs to monitor them to be ready to misdirect or intervene if necessary to keep the Secret.

Ah so this creates a great additional element where Infinity’s paranoia means they have to monitor a TL10 cyberworld just in case of parachronic research.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Of course, penetrating the research facilities of TL10+ megacorporations in order to do that might be quite difficult. These are installations hidden well enough and/or secure enough to avoid being compromised by their competitors, so Infinity might have difficulty a) finding out that they exist and b) successfully penetrating them.

So enlisting homegrown shadow talent would be the best route, I’m wondering if Net Runners would be a high priority group, use the VR/AR net or grid to gather intel, weak spots, rumours of mysterious visitors, black research.

One of the concepts of dystopian cyberpunk is the value of information and that even top secret Corp R&D finds its way out, the net is the most likely place.

There could be large areas of accessible data on the net, possibly recruit university net students or programmers.

[Tyneras]

You can learn a lot just by stealing a full TL10 dumpster and reverse engineering what you find.

Paying local Netrunners in unmarked gold would definitely be a viable, maybe prefered, strategy. Mystery men who don't appear in any facial recognition or fingerprint archive, without a single transistor or nanobot in their entire body, who show up with job offers paid for with unmarked gold bars with crazy isotope balances fit perfectly in a Cyberpunk story.

[AlexanderHowl]

A TL8 society cannot reserve engineer TL10 technology (maximum of +1 TL without gadgeteers). Patrolmen get TL9 gadgets because Infinity can reverse engineer those, but they would be hard to find in any advanced cyberpunk world (with planned obscelence and recycling, megacorporations would make sure that no one could get by on TL9 tech, as they want all the money). If Infinity wants TL9 gear though, there are probably safer timelines to infiltrate).

[awesomenessofme1]

There's really no feasible way that a late 2020s society that's had parachronics and high-tech worlds to ape for over 30 years is still TL8, even late TL8.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Of course, penetrating the research facilities of TL10+ megacorporations in order to do that might be quite difficult. These are installations hidden well enough and/or secure enough to avoid being compromised by their competitors, so Infinity might have difficulty a) finding out that they exist and b) successfully penetrating them. In the case of cyber/magic or cyber/psi, they also have to deal with megacorporations with divination and/or precognition that has been honed to a razor's edge through competition (while they might not know why the people arriving are interesting, they know that they are visitors with novel technology).

You're looking at it the wrong way. Homeliners don't try to penetrate the research facilities . . . they hire local teams to do it for them. After all, where do you think all those jobs you're getting in Cyberpunk come from?

[AlexanderHowl]

With what connections? You need connections with the local underground to find runners, and an Infinity agent is going to smell like a cop from a mile away to runners (and you should have a massive familiarity penalty to Streetwise because you are not familiar with the local culture or the local criminal scene). At best, the runners will avoid you. At worst, they will kill you and sell your nice health organs to organleggers.

[ajardoor]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

And as with all high tech worlds there is a danger they will invent parachronic travel themselves. So Infinity needs to monitor them to be ready to misdirect or intervene if necessary to keep the Secret.

Yeah, the Arasaka in the Cyberpunk world is already committing crimes against humanity routinely with their Soulkiller stuff. Add a potential parachronic to that, and Homeline may decide another nuke is in order.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by ajardoor

Yeah, the Arasaka in the Cyberpunk world is already committing crimes against humanity routinely with their Soulkiller stuff. Add a potential parachronic to that, and Homeline may decide another nuke is in order.

Staged to look like the act of some local competitor that absolutely deserves getting one back in return, of course.

[AlexanderHowl]

Now, one interesting possibility would be a criminal organization from Homeline infiltrating a cyberpunk timeline. They probably have plenty of members that they are willing to sacrifice in order to gain the connections and the familiarity with the local street scene. With access to money from the meat trade (most inhabitants in cyberpunk settings are forced to eat meat substitutes, so criminal organizations could make a killing smuggling hamburger from other timelines), they could purchase TL10 gear and TL10 drugs.

In that scenario, the first signs of anything weird happening would be the price of meat going up in TL7 timelines, followed by the appearance of strange new drugs on their streets. Eventually, Infinity agents would stumble upon criminals who are sporting TL10 cyberwear and using TL10 weapons. At that point, it is a race against time as Infinity agents try to shut down the criminal organization before it becomes too powerful and/or accidentally gives the mega corporations in the cyberpunk timeline the Secret.

[ajardoor]

Originally Posted by Rupert

Staged to look like the act of some local competitor that absolutely deserves getting one back in return, of course.

Militech.

Or perhaps the Chinese government, if we're officially not giving a shot about collateral damage.