Cyberpunk without the Nihilism. I need campaign ideas!

[shadow]

I'm trying to come up with campaign ideas for a d20 modern/future game. I want to do somewhat of a cyberpunk-style campaign. I've always been somewhat of a fan of cyberpunk-style technology. Grounded in a near future world, much of the tech featured in the cyberpunk genre seems at least somewhat plausibe.

However, my biggest complaint about the cyberpunk genre (especially cyberpunk rpgs) is the inherent nihilism. Characters are in it just for themselves. Every Shadowrun and Cyberpunk game that I've played in revolved around getting paid by Mr. Johnson to steal some technology or assassinate some rival. While this is fun for a session or two, it's hard to run a long term campaign on this. It seems that there is little goal beyond killing people and getting money and power. (Admittedly, many D&D hack 'n slash games are the same way!)

However, I'm wanting somewhat of a deeper and overreaching plot arc for my campaign. Additionally, I would like the PCs to be the "good guys" (this doesn't have to be a "black-white" distinction, but I would like to the PCs to be working for some cause.) Ideas that spring to my head are PCs playing as freedom fighters, fighting a corrupt dictatorship (This has been done a million times, though!), or the PCs playing futuristic cops, FBI, etc. going after terrorists. Come on, give me some campaign ideas!

 

[GMSkarka]

Isn't "cyberpunk without the nihilism" a bit like "wuxia without the kung-fu?"

The distopian view of the future is part-and-parcel of the whole deal, isn't it? Otherwise, you're just talking about near-future SF, not cyberpunk.

 

[shadow]

The distopian view of the future is part-and-parcel of the whole deal, isn't it? Otherwise, you're just talking about near-future SF, not cyberpunk.

True, perhaps I'm really thinking about a "near-future RPG". Still, some of the dystopian ideas of cyberpunk intrigue me. For example, the idea of a corrupt government, prevalent in the cyberpunk genre, could make a good opponent for the PCs. The Final Fantasy VII video game (while technically not cyberpunk per se) featured the oppressive city of Midgar ruled by the corrupt Shinra Corporation. The game started out with the characters fighting as freedom fighters/eco-terrorists against Shinra.

What it come down to is a desire for an exciting plot. All the cyberpunk games that I've played in involved little more than killing guys and getting money. Consequently, none of them ever lasted beyond a few sessions.

 

[GMSkarka]

All the cyberpunk games that I've played in involved little more than killing guys and getting money.

The problem there is unimaginative gamemastering, not the genre.

 

[Starman]

Make the plots personal.

Have the players give their characters backgrounds. You know, reasons for being 'runners other than "phat lewt."

Starman

 

[D'karr]

Take a look at the following two modules for Shadowrun.

Harlequin and Universal Brotherhood.

Both present a self contained module that can be greatly expanded to cover a whole campaign.

Universal Brotherhood can include many small adventures in which the players have no idea what they are dealing with and then they find out as they play through UB.

Harlequin is a complete mystery to the players because they don't even know that they are pawns in a game. As a matter of fact they probably never find out that they are.

The way to expand a "cyberpunk" game is to make it personal. The players need to create backgrounds that fit with each other. The GM has to make that happen or they will always be there just for themselves. Then use the characters' backgrounds to propel the action forward.

The first story might be for money. They have to eat after all. But link something in that story to the next. The motivation does not need to be monetary. If a PC's background is intruded on by an NPC, the motivation against that NPC is stronger and more compelling. As a GM for a long running campaign you will have to flowchart the connections ahead of time so you can advance the campaign agenda.

 

[Sejs]

Go watch Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

That should be a bit closer to what you're looking for.

 

[LoneWolf23]

BuyTranshuman Space, from Steve Jackson Games. A near-future setting without nihilism, and with more fancy technology then you can shake a stick at. But then, you don't need Nihilism when you're out exploring what it means to be Human in a solar system where technology allows to transcend the limits of the human form...

 

[James Heard]

Cyberpunk without the nihilism isn't cyberpunk at all. In fact the nihilism of cyberpunk is what defines it apart from simple "near future science fiction."

I think the idea of lack of personal involvement and nonsophisticated plots is perplexing though. Since the nihilism is the essential element, try looking for "modern" plots. Pick up just about any modern murder mystery and try to place it in terms of drugged out addicts slaving away in soulless corporations amid a smog-ridden city. If I were to run a Cyberpunk game these days I'd shamelessly rip the plots from CSI's and Law and Order shows, every far fetched government conspiracy plot I'd read about on the internet I'd give equal time as a corporate plot. One trick I've always used in my cyberpunk games is to introduce helpful, genuinely interesting characters - and then kill them. Murder them in a way that would make a horror author blush, and don't make a big deal about it. It just happens. It happens all the time. My motto and mantra for every cyberpunk game I ever ran is "You Can't Win." Even when you do win, the costs are going to be so high that you wish you didn't. The best possible resolution for most plots involves not losing and escaping, and of course looking really cool and having fun. Cyberpunk is one of those games that it's fun to die in.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

Both of the big guns of cyberpunk SF evolved away from nihilism in their later (and IMHO better) work; check out Gibson's Virtual Light and Sterling's Holy Fire for good examples. Neither is particularly game-ready, but it's a good proof of concept that what you're trying to do is not impossible.

Keep the core concepts of cyberpunk: transformative technology that blurs the line between human and machine -- superhuman entities (AIs and megacorporations) that don't care about the welfare of anyone else -- outlaw protagonists from misfit subcultures like computer nerds and S&M fetishists -- and the neverending quest to live faster and leave a better-looking corpse through better chemistry.

Ditch the nihilism by giving your characters a chance to be heroes, not just anti-heroes. They'll need a cause worth dying for and adversaries who can be defeated, instead of just burning themselves out fighting a hopeless battle against the very nature of modern existence.

Here's a campaign I'd like to play:

The PCs are eco-terrorists, fighting against the corporations who are planning to devote their last resources to get off the planet they've poisoned. They take the battle vs. the corporate forces up to the L5 dock where the starship/escape pod is being built. Here they meet bizarre inhuman masterminds - now it seems that the corporations are the pawns of aliens who are trying to "terraform" the Earth, using pollution to make it an enviroment they can colonize. The final twist is that these beings are actually the future selves of the PCs or their allies, who have become altered beyond recognition by their own bio-cybernetic alterations, and who have traveled back in time to shape events the way they are currently playing out - either because they have, in the future, gone over to the dark side, or because they believe the only alternate to this course of history is an even worse cataclysm.

Shorter answer: have each PC choose some ideal they believe in, and give them every opportunity to live up to this ideal (against a fully cyberpunk background).