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RSS So, I'm making a cyberpunk game (page 1 of 2)
Vega7285 around 9 months ago on Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 at 12:37 am (11:37 pm local)
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Not sure where else to put this, so it goes here. WARNING, this is very tl;dr.

For a while now, I've been working on and off on some terrible homebrew game. Well, games, now. I started with some sort of airplane girls game, because I happen to like mecha musume (and Strike Witches). Originally, it sucked. More recently, I did some fresh rules that suck a lot less. But, they're just rules ,which doesn't quite make much for a game. Add onto that that I'm pretty much expanding things immensely into a more general game, so it's not air combat only, and there we have the current state of affairs. Now, i doubt any of you care about the details of rules development for a tabletop game, so I'll not bore you folks with any exposition on what I plan to do there.

I will, however, describe some of the basics of things, as they will be relevant to what follows. Characters are assumed to be cyborgs who are mostly cybernetics. Or possibly androids. Either way, they've got modular limbs and a lot of interchangeable armor and gear. Stuff like flight packs or tank bits or giant back-mounted cannon. My major influences are Konami's busou shinki toy line (I collect them, and they're the sort of aesthetic I'd want to emulate), some mediocre MMO called Cosmic Break (it's only good for the mecha girl art), Infinite Stratos, and Armored Core. There's some underlying assumption that a majority of these cyborg characters are female, although there's no reason (yet) for it to be gender-exclusive (because I can never find a good justification for such things).

Now, finally, on to the meat of this post, which is setting discussion and development. I've been working lately on making a setting and such for the game to use, as that will help with some ideas for rules, and it's an important aspect of any RPG. So far, it's all pretty bare bones. Augmentations and cybernetics are a major part of the global militaries, because not only can they replace limbs lost in combat, but can be used to produce powerful, versatile soldiers. Something the size of a person ,with much greater strength and toughness, and abilities for flight or enhanced mobility is good. Add in powerful weapons ,and you'd be stupid not to field units of them. Unfortunately, as it's culturally seen that not being a robot is better, most people look down on cyborg-types. The unaltered human is the ideal, in other words. This might generate some conflict for characters to deal with. Cybernetics do not (yet) eat people's souls or make them go psychotic just by having them implanted. So the theme is less that cybernetics is bad somehow, and more that no matter what your body's made of you're still human.

The setting is currently split into several factions described by the theme they tend to embody. Though, don't let the names imply that one is designated "good guys," they're ALL jerks to each other. It's ideas for these factions, or the setting in general, that I need help with. So please do brainstorm in this thread. Anyhow, here's a quick breakdown of the factions.

Happy/magitech:
These guys...I don't like them too much. The standard Strike Witches sort of setting. Things are nice, people are nice, and they have magic. Which kind of is going against the tone of things, though I suppose magic-augmenting cybernetics or stuff that all runs off it might work. Especially if unagumented folks can do either little to no magic, period, or are limited to the unremarkable. Whatever paradigm these folks run off of might be true everywhere, they're just the most obvious about it. I'll have to see. And move it into the general setting section. The more important point is that this is an often pastoral place, with beautiful cities and is generally a nice place to live. People are decent, and the faction's "home" setting is decent.

Grimdark
The opposite of the above. This place is a harsher place to live. The people tend not to be very nice, and the place they live is tough on them. This is the land of the autocratic, militaristic dictatorship and police-state. The land of the amoral experiments, the homeless and downtrodden, and many cyborgs who probably weren't given any say in the matter, and are treated as property, eve if they're technically not. It's for the folks who need their games to be as soul-crushing and bleak as possible. This place is probably paranoid and distrustful of its neighbors, but also not as horrible as it seems, and certainly not Evil.

Ace Combat
Although the whole world is technically an Ace Combat otherworld, so the name loses some meaning, this faction is a more realistic one than the somewhat idealized other factions. It's probably composed of several nation-states that don't always get along, but aren't all ridiculous caricatures. A more complex web of politics and conspiracies resides here. Beyond that, it's kinda like the real world, though obviously in a Cyberpunk future. Just with a bit less dystopia.

The Megacorp
A technology-focused group, this faction is a corporation that's risen to global prominence in a variety of fields. It's also gained some form of near-literal independence and international political clout, despite being a corporation and not a country. It's got a private security force that's about the same as a standing army, and can leverage a lot of influence if it needs to. Mostly, this is a group that works on cutting-edge technology and supplying it everywhere. It's likely the most transhumansit of the factions.

...and that's finally it. Although there's been talk of a few smaller factions which are often a bit more humorous, and there may also be a good justification for some sort of odd, unifying threat that the rest of the world is fighting. As mentioned before, i could use some help developing the setting, or any general fluff for this game. Could also try roleplaying with it, but things never seem to work too well around here for that.
Nitrocosm around 8 months ago on Thursday, September 29th, 2011 at 7:11 pm (7:11 pm local)
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In the grimdark nation / setting, is there room for the possibility of zombies? Might make for some interesting side-quests to have a good old fashioned, cigar-chewing, toilet-beer swillin', Harley ridin', butt-problem-havin', zombie-shootin' good time.
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Vega7285 around 8 months ago on Friday, September 30th, 2011 at 4:58 pm (3:58 pm local)
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There probably will be zombies of a sort. Though there's a few ways to do them. They might be more ghouls, scavenging and picking apart the fallen on the battlefield, using their bodies for spare parts, whether organic or mechanical. Another could be corpses animated only by their extensive cybernetic implants in a sort of pseudo-necromancy. Still moving around, but no consciousness controlling them. This would probably be seen as completely horrible by most folks, of course. And probably would require some fancy systems to get it to work.
Nitrocosm around 8 months ago on Friday, September 30th, 2011 at 5:22 pm (5:22 pm local)
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Should the zombies be encephaloprophagous?
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Miroku around 8 months ago on Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 at 9:56 pm (9:56 pm local)
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Nitrocosm said:
Should the zombies be encephaloprophagous?


Say what, now?! huh???

It sounds like a fun setting and I miss the days when we did these really great RPs but I don't have much time for it these days sad
Waff-O! waffle
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