D&D General Is Appendix N Still Relevant to D&D?

[Reynard]

Runaway starring Tom Selleck is another 80s B movie cyberpunk thing.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Runaway starring Tom Selleck is another 80s B movie cyberpunk thing.

Written and directed by Michael Crichton, no less.

 

[Reynard]

Written and directed by Michael Crichton, no less.

I did not know that! It was one of those movies my parents had on Beta because friends of their taped it off HBO and so we watched it endlessly when I was 10 or so.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Written and directed by Michael Crichton, no less.

Now you got me thinking: The Andromeda Strain is cyberpunk without the punk. (Probably why I like it.)

 

[Mannahnin]

Now you got me thinking: The Andromeda Strain is cyberpunk without the punk. (Probably why I like it.)

What about it is cyberpunk?

I read it, and I remember it being a very tense sci-fi thriller. Hard sci-fi of the sort where it's exactly our world, but with one technological breakthrough/speculation being real.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

What about it is cyberpunk?

I read it, and I remember it being a very tense sci-fi thriller. Hard sci-fi of the sort where it's exactly our world, but with one technological breakthrough/speculation being real.

It's very "what's the next step" in the context of green-screens-and-mainframes computing during the Apollo era. (And none of the -punk, which I really really dislike.)

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I did not know that! It was one of those movies my parents had on Beta because friends of their taped it off HBO and so we watched it endlessly when I was 10 or so.

That is a very specific experience shared by people of certain ages. Those worn-out VHS copies had a certain magic. Whenever I hear the old HBO theme, my brain still remembers the warble of sound it had on some of the tapes we watched.

Now you got me thinking: The Andromeda Strain is cyberpunk without the punk. (Probably why I like it.)

I'd say it's more a techno-thriller, like much of his work, than cyberpunk. The two do have plenty of overlap, mind you.

I remember the part where the corpses are all filled with red dust terrifying me as a kid.

 

[Mannahnin]

It's very "what's the next step" in the context of green-screens-and-mainframes computing during the Apollo era. (And none of the -punk, which I really really dislike.)

That still just sounds like mainstream "hard" sci-fi to me. Cyberpunk as a sub-genre has a number of common distinguishing qualities, and I don't remember any of them being in TAS. The closest common element is that they're both very near future rather than speculating farther out, but TAS isn't even really posited as the future, to my recollection. It's set in the present day, isn't it? As Ralif said, techno-thriller might be the best term for it.

Edit: I guess the cyber part to you refers to computers and the near-future advances for networked communications with them? Like how Neuromancer prominently features cyberspace and Snowcrash likewise with the Metaverse?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Think of what drones are doing to warfare right now. Then try to extrapolate what drones might be doing in 30 years. Are they Ed-209 from Robocop? That's kinda plausible now. But, really, it's just very hard to make any sort of prediction.

I think most folks who don't live in Ukraine would be shocked at how advanced drones are already. We're probably five years away from the "Metalhead" episode of Black Mirror. Thirty years from now? I don't think we have any good analogues to compare it to.

 

[Reynard]

I think most folks who don't live in Ukraine would be shocked at how advanced drones are already. We're probably five years away from the "Metalhead" episode of Black Mirror. Thirty years from now? I don't think we have any good analogues to compare it to.

Pfft. 30 years from now the survivors will be battling over guzzaline.