Scribe
Legend
Right, so tech isnt solving our problems, because our problems are human, but tech increases our ability to inflict harm.
Feels like we are agreeing.
Genre Discussion: Cyberpunk
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
Right, so tech isnt solving our problems, because our problems are human, but tech increases our ability to inflict harm.
Feels like we are agreeing.
Scribe
Legend
I've done some of the house work I wanted to do, and...dont want to do any 'work work' right now, but before I head out and enjoy the sun, perhaps a more productive (self indulgent) exercise would be for me to flip through CY_BORG, and outline what I think it calls out as the core aspects of Cyberpunk as a genre.
For those who do not know, CY_BORG is a BORG (duh) game with a very maximalist style visually, covering fairly simple rules.
pittrapshop.com
freeleaguepublishing.com
"The World is Ending. Again and again."
The Free League site has this little blurb which is also on page 3 of the book.
The art style is of course very in your face, very overwhelming, and if you try and put yourself in that space, well it would be like a direct force feed of the internet, without ad block, with dozens of tabs open.
Hell, essentially.
Here are some examples from the weather table, 'sunny and warm' is not an option. This is on the inside cover.
Heavy black rain.
Chocking humidity.
Oppressive heat.
Chapter 1, world building. "We should have burned this city centuries ago."
I'm just going to throw some of the phrases out I see on the pages as I flip through.
"Nu-Capitalists rule from glass towers."
"Immortal OG Money Aristocrats in gated mansions, in gated communities, in gated enclaves in the Hills."
"Gangs rotting in their turf, in the Slums."
All of them are building thheir own kingdoms, and armies.
"The Enemy" - A list of Corps.
Various districts are covered. Central, Ports (literal ports and pleasure district), G0 (Ground Zero), a 'post apocalyptic quagmire kept in quarantine' this is where a space rock, dropping an Alien nano virus fell. Industrial zones, chocking pollution, 'sickening smog', 'the overworked and underpaid are herded like cattle to toil until they break.' 'Industry must feed Cy's eternal consumption.' The Slums, the artwok has a digital message thrown up on a wall, "Curfew in Effect Remain Indoors! Violators will be shot!"
The Hills, where the rich live. "Officially, there is no crime in the Hills, as any unfamiliar face is tracked and rendered in a panopticon of surveillance feeds, and the SecCorps are paid well for their discretion and their brutality when dealing with anyone without an invitation or home here."
The Inbetweens.
Salaryfolks, cubicle zombines, cogs in the machineare stored live here in endles rows...advertised to at every waking moment.
"....hyperlocal gentrification will flood a sector with trend thralls and boutique entrepeneurs. Days later, they're gone, exploiting another hidden gem like a plague of locusts scouring a dying earth."
Beyond Cy: The negaCity devours all it sees. It fracks and churns the earth, it boils the ocean barren, it cages the natural world in its drug fueled, over-bloated Factory Meat Farms.
Are we getting the picture here?
Finally, The Net.
"...the Net is a consensual semihallucination continously experienced by almost everyone. A fractal amalgamation of AR, VR, old internet and cyberspace....is everywhere, in everything, in everyone....Always trying to sell you something, keep you scared and hack your behavior."
We then get to the various disaster headlines which manipulate the campaign.
Industrial pollution, environmental destruction, technological advancement leading to various 'bad things'. Nukes, Corp/Security Force War. Great times are had by all.
Getting into the character building brings a whole lot more of the same.
You begin with 2d6x10 credits, so about 70.
You begin with a DEBT of 3d6x1000 (so about 10,000!) to options such as a crime syndicate, a hacker collective, a gang run by your childhood bully (lol) a death cult run by a board member from a powerful corp.
How badly do they want their cash back?
There are tables for Styles, Features (visual hooks for your punk), classes range from Nanomancers (infested/magic "Nanotech") to Burned Hacker (Wizards) to Cyberslasher, to the humble Punk Gang Goon.
You have rules for Apps (spells), Weapons, Cybertech, Nano Powers, Drugs.
All of this is brought together with the over the top art design, but ultimately its a technology hellscape of neon, noise pollution, and trauma nobody escapes from, unless you die, and even then its debatable.
Random tables generate jobs, corps, cults, random events.
--
I dont know if that hits with anyone as 'what is cyberpunk' but to me, its the definitive version now. Its like the r/UrbanHell photos, combined with all the conspiracy theories you can think of, with a punk vibe, all under the crushing oppression of the most absurd corporate/capitalistic/consumerist hell.
For those who do not know, CY_BORG is a BORG (duh) game with a very maximalist style visually, covering fairly simple rules.
CY_BORG
A complete rules-light, rage-heavy tabletop roleplaying game based on and compatible with MÖRK BORG CY_BORG is a Nano-infested doomsday RPG about cybernetic misfits and punks raging against a relentless corporate hell. ———— The world is ending. ⸐ Again and again and again and again and again...
pittrapshop.com
CY_BORG - Free League Publishing
A Nano-infested doomsday RPG about cybernetic misfits and punks raging against a relentless corporate hell. The world is ending. ⸐Again and again and again and again and again a̶n̴͗d̵̥͒ ̸̎ă̶ġ̸a̵̢͗i̶͙̓n̸̡̔ ă̵̢̫̥̺̻̞n̵͔̽̿̏̓͋͠͝d̴̢̪̟͊ ̵̡̺̖̰̯͖̞̓̑̐̈́̍̋a̶̤̘̖͗͐̀̔̚̚g̴̛͇̻̦̻͇̲̈́̏à̷̩̫͒ḯ̷̡̱̀̀̀͠ṇ̶̦̔͜...
freeleaguepublishing.com
"The World is Ending. Again and again."
The Free League site has this little blurb which is also on page 3 of the book.
The art style is of course very in your face, very overwhelming, and if you try and put yourself in that space, well it would be like a direct force feed of the internet, without ad block, with dozens of tabs open.
Hell, essentially.
Here are some examples from the weather table, 'sunny and warm' is not an option. This is on the inside cover.
Heavy black rain.
Chocking humidity.
Oppressive heat.
Chapter 1, world building. "We should have burned this city centuries ago."
I'm just going to throw some of the phrases out I see on the pages as I flip through.
"Nu-Capitalists rule from glass towers."
"Immortal OG Money Aristocrats in gated mansions, in gated communities, in gated enclaves in the Hills."
"Gangs rotting in their turf, in the Slums."
All of them are building thheir own kingdoms, and armies.
"The Enemy" - A list of Corps.
Various districts are covered. Central, Ports (literal ports and pleasure district), G0 (Ground Zero), a 'post apocalyptic quagmire kept in quarantine' this is where a space rock, dropping an Alien nano virus fell. Industrial zones, chocking pollution, 'sickening smog', 'the overworked and underpaid are herded like cattle to toil until they break.' 'Industry must feed Cy's eternal consumption.' The Slums, the artwok has a digital message thrown up on a wall, "Curfew in Effect Remain Indoors! Violators will be shot!"
The Hills, where the rich live. "Officially, there is no crime in the Hills, as any unfamiliar face is tracked and rendered in a panopticon of surveillance feeds, and the SecCorps are paid well for their discretion and their brutality when dealing with anyone without an invitation or home here."
The Inbetweens.
Salaryfolks, cubicle zombines, cogs in the machine
"....hyperlocal gentrification will flood a sector with trend thralls and boutique entrepeneurs. Days later, they're gone, exploiting another hidden gem like a plague of locusts scouring a dying earth."
Beyond Cy: The negaCity devours all it sees. It fracks and churns the earth, it boils the ocean barren, it cages the natural world in its drug fueled, over-bloated Factory Meat Farms.
Are we getting the picture here?
Finally, The Net.
"...the Net is a consensual semihallucination continously experienced by almost everyone. A fractal amalgamation of AR, VR, old internet and cyberspace....is everywhere, in everything, in everyone....Always trying to sell you something, keep you scared and hack your behavior."
We then get to the various disaster headlines which manipulate the campaign.
Industrial pollution, environmental destruction, technological advancement leading to various 'bad things'. Nukes, Corp/Security Force War. Great times are had by all.
Getting into the character building brings a whole lot more of the same.
You begin with 2d6x10 credits, so about 70.
You begin with a DEBT of 3d6x1000 (so about 10,000!) to options such as a crime syndicate, a hacker collective, a gang run by your childhood bully (lol) a death cult run by a board member from a powerful corp.
How badly do they want their cash back?
There are tables for Styles, Features (visual hooks for your punk), classes range from Nanomancers (infested/magic "Nanotech") to Burned Hacker (Wizards) to Cyberslasher, to the humble Punk Gang Goon.
You have rules for Apps (spells), Weapons, Cybertech, Nano Powers, Drugs.
All of this is brought together with the over the top art design, but ultimately its a technology hellscape of neon, noise pollution, and trauma nobody escapes from, unless you die, and even then its debatable.
Random tables generate jobs, corps, cults, random events.
--
I dont know if that hits with anyone as 'what is cyberpunk' but to me, its the definitive version now. Its like the r/UrbanHell photos, combined with all the conspiracy theories you can think of, with a punk vibe, all under the crushing oppression of the most absurd corporate/capitalistic/consumerist hell.
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