But... friend computer?

Sounds like Indiana Jones, only with A GIGANTIC STOCK OF ANICENT AUTOAIM 'ROUND THE CORNER LASGUNS.

Anarchy and chaos happens as each man and woman tries to get their own status up fastest. This ends in war, death and other nasty things.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HATE FRIEND COMPUTER.

Just to clarify here for me, is this/is this not a post-alpha complex 'paranoia is no more' or a more traditional lack of paranoia?

>>4393664
The reference was unintentional. Addendum: This is the mindset of paranoia that has burnt out.

Cool story bro. First, the basics.

Mind powers?
Biotics?
Nano-Machines?
GURPS?
Genetic Engineered new human sub-races?

ITSUPTOYOO

Is the planet intact? All dead?

consolidating:
>Rules needed:
>Hoplite Combat
>Nano Crafting
>Hacking
>Ractering?

>>4393640
>>4393694
>>4393739
WE NEED ANSWERS

>>4393694
I do not myself have concrete experience on existing cyberpunk setting specifics. I merely had this instance of post-cyberpunk come to mind: The information-hoarding, profit-mongering entities that keep stranglehold over humanity find themselves defeated in some way. Only a shadow of their legacy remains.

Further development, if any, should be led by independent people producing useful bits and pieces based on interest.

>The information-hoarding, profit-mongering entities that keep stranglehold over humanity find themselves defeated in some way. Only a shadow of their legacy remains.
So, it's just sci-fi anarchy then?

I guess so. Maybe there can be two canon settings. One, the ruins of the giant cities. Two, the surrounding wastelands and the few places that still have life.

1 will be closer to standard cyberpunk, while 2 will be all Mad Max and shit.

2 will need vehicular combat rules though.

>that keep stranglehold over humanity

Make a...more realistic setting based on what's actually happening : People gave up on these informations on their own and made laws to regulate what those entities can do with all that info most of the time.
Now the system broke down all of a sudden: The information's still around but the infrastructure to use it is gone. Somebody's gonna try and create a new one/replicate the old one within the new parameters present.

>>4393820
Not necessarily. It could be more of a movement towards small-area governments or communes.

REQUIRED READING FOR EVERYONE IN THIS THREAD: GO READ DIAMOND AGE.

>>4393773
scratch that, we go with the more likely evolution.

nano semi-post-scarcity civ.

Rise of Legends?

CLOCKWORK MEN? MECHANICAL STEAM SPIDERS?

AAAAAIIIIIRSHIIIIIIIIIIIIPS!?

I LOVED THIS GAME

>>4393860
>People gave up on these informations on their own and made laws to regulate what those entities can do with all that info most of the time.

We're talking about censorship, not privacy infringement.

>>4393877

I have a shine dedicated to Neal Stephenson in my closet to which I sacrifice small animals, hoping his blessings will rain down upon me

Seeing as this open premise is a little too open to inspire (or walls of text are building up), I shall expand on my personal vision. Again, on here the ideal way to work is not on strictly organized projects but to build something one personally finds interesting on others' ideas and publishing that.

A grassroots movement representing the disappointment in supercorporations built up over a few decades.

In the last years Supercorporations saw many a merger.

A legendary cracker managed to deliver dangerously effective logic bombs to the merger-disarrayed corps' newly consolidated systems.

Not all corporates were hit. Many of those were sufficiently infested with the spirit of change, limiting their runtime. The few left ideologically and technologically intact found the world around them changed.

Frighteningly powerful mercenaries of old watched as their support dissolved.

>>4393896

Funny, so do I.

>>4393896
oh god I thought I was the only one.

Whatever we go with her we need rules for Ultima Ratio

Aliens should be an option for the endgame.

>>4393972
To get with the setting's spirit I say the aliens are neutral-friendly and, for instance, only now convinced humanity is able to collaborate in a constructive way.

>>4393999
Yes.

>>4393773

Si, the concept of nations rises again? in the ashes of a corporation controlled world?

So campaign hooks consist of dungeoneering through old megacorp vaults, dodging still active defenses in hopes of great riches and rewards. Stopping the old Uber Mercs from getting up to whatever mischief they deign to commit. Saving downtown from a giant rampaging combat bot that was activated by accident and sees everything with a pulse as a Communist Dissenter?

>>4393885

I love the concept of this game and principally it's story. I couldn't stand the gameplay until the end.

The same could be said about Arcanun except that I did finish it (but only one time).

Multiple timelines, like Star Wars RPG.

1. Directly after the end of Corporation. Clusterfuck, people have no idea what to do.

2. A few years later. Some civilizations, a bit more post-apocalyptic like fallout or something.

3. An alien convict ship crashes. They are friendly, and only want to hide from their home planet. Turns out their civilization is a brutal theocracy, and they're heretics.

>>4394020
Nations are so present day.

I'd go as far as having locally governed communities be the flavor of the century. This is, after all, a globally connected humanity (most of the high-tech networking is still there) that is completely fed up with global control corporations idealized.

Possible Genetic Variations

Lunarians-Created for the proposed Moon base. The moon base fell through, but the species remained. Skinny, tall, and grayer than normal. They have powerful eyes and quick reflexes, but are fragile and weak.

???-Designed for mining. They are strong and burly, but left with little intelligence.

>>4394138
>???-Designed for mining. They are strong and burly, but left with little intelligence.

meh, we have robots for that.

>>4394168
Right. Then how about for combat situations where robots would fail. Against foes with EMP weapons for example.

>>4394168
DEM DORFS - CYBERDORFS

>>4394176
EMP shielded suits.

In my mind a deliberately mentally inferior sub race is just too dystopian for what we're doing here.

>>4394176
Mining isn't combat.

>>4394217
The setting needs some Dystopian. The past is behind them, sure, but the people now need to fix what was fucked up. A stupid race would be a sad reminder of what was done.

>>4393659
>>4394042
I really like this idea.

Instead of the group fighting over +1 long swords or other magical gear, they are fighting over Tiberius Pattern Machine Pistols and such.

I've always liked having things explained through techno-babel, rather than "A Wizard did it!"

>>4394239

this is a nice idea. It would be a very sad reminder of the past

>>4394249
technobabble, especially good technobabble, has always been better since you can be held to it

>>4394168
>meh, we have robots for that.
Mook - Sir, why are we using bio-engineered demi-human slaves instead of artifical humans? With todays technology surely we could...
Boss - No! Do you have any idea how much those things cost? Plust the maintenance and those pesky engineers and their overprotective guild. Bah, I don't want to deal with them.
Mook - B... but sir, slaves have to be fed, otherwise they can't work. And they die fast so we need to replace them constantly, not to mention how much money we waste disposing those corpses.
Boss - Then waste not! We shall have the workers EAT the corpses, that way we save on both food costs as well as power costs for the incinerator... I'm a bloody genius!

>>4394239
The corporations used to have much research with little mind for ethics. People could be made to fit a specific place in the corporate machinely.

Suddenly there is no machinery around them. There's a lot of fish out of water out there, coping as well as they can.

>>4394239
hmm... yeah I can see that working.

This is a smidge dystopian but the essential Idea here is that most people in this era are actually good guys. We've grown out of Nations, Corporations, Religious zealotry is a thing of the past for the most part.

The only issue is that we fucked up a lot on the way to this realization, and there are still as ever a few who would rather revert or prey on the new era (ACE) So your party is a group of adventurers. People with the spirit, know how and equipment to retrieve needed resources and valuable technologies. It is you who help maintain humanity and fight off the outer dark.

This is a dystopia on the edge of hope, we are a pheonix just beginning to claw its way out of the ashes ans shackles of the last age.

Ok

So far we have dnd in space!

>>4394376
no, DnD with nanotech

very important distinction

>>4394376
>in space
Dohohoho

>>4394376
Yeah. Obviously.

I will return later with a condensed introduction to the setting.

>>4394138

Genetic variation could be handled as a rather generic thing. Think of how AFMBE handles zombies or [insert favorite game system here] handles the creation of monsters/factions/etc. No set things (though some might be common enough to warrant a template), but rather things that a player or DM could use to cobble together a dorf or dude with four arms or whatever.

Once you give people the tech to mod themselves any way they want, you're going to get a lot of shit. Trying to nail down every possibility would be unfeasible, so maybe there's templates for the most common ones - but there's certainly more out there, and a lot of it's probably some weird ass shit.

>>4394566
Not only did freelancers mod themselves, corporations modified unwitting people to be maximally useful for some narrow domain. This allows for plausible abominations. I agree that individual mods should be nigh arbitrary: elaborate bionics and genetech both are very plausible, nanoassisted weird stuff as time passes and vaults get raided.

However, most people are plain old humans, used to be employed somewhat normally in various corporations.

>>4394627

The corporations probably also modded people who would pay for it. I'd imagine there were multinational corps that were the cyberpunk equivalent of tattoo parlors.

Except instead of getting a tattoo, you got color-changing skin or pointy ears or HUGE FISTS WITH WHICH TO RIP AND TEAR.

>>4394627
I mean, employed kind of normally if not repressed and exploited ruthlessly as manual labor.

>>4394627
>>4394566
right, so gen modding and even more powerful/versatile nanomodding is done a la carte.

We can set up a tiered system, each tier requiring more extensive foundation modification. (i.e it doesn't take much rewiring of the genetic superstructure to get better eyes, but reverse jointed limbs with bigger feet made for speed and jumping are a much more major investment. A skull gun is easier to implant than an advanced ractor set or a Hoplite interface.

>>4394696
ITT: people who really need to read The Diamond Age

GET LATEST MODEL SKULL GUN AT MOD PARLOR
advice_bud.jpg
FIRE AT HIGHEST SETTING TO DECAPITATE YOURSELF.

>>4394832
GET FOUR SKULL GUNS
ENHANCE YOUR SPINE TO HANDLE RECOIL
or
MOVE BRAIN INTO THE CHEST CAVITY
BUY NEW SKULL CANNON

>>4394853
OH GOD TURNING YOUR ENTIRE HEAD INTO A WEAPON.

Already mentioned, but sauce for OP's pic is Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends. That is an ingame screenshot, I didn't realize such a RTS that old looked that good.

JOIN US UNDERWATER
advice_drummer.jpg
SANITY IS OVERRATED

>>4394882
Thanks for pointing it out, now that you say it's in-game I'm like "holy crap!" I missed most of last era's RTS games so I might download it.

>>4394884
JOIN IN NOW
advice_drummer.jpg
FREE LUMINESCENT CONDOMS

>>4394747

Sounds good.

The hardest stuff would probably be stuff you body doesn't have. Like a tail or wings or something. Especially if said wings are *funtional*, since they'd be fuckhuege (or/and you'd be a huge lightweight).

>>4394762

What is it and why?

>>4394866

I could see it happening.

Gunther would be proud.

Dream everyone's dreams
advice_drummer.jpg
Live life as one

>What is it and why?
It's Neal Stephenson writing what is essentially the most sound, feasible, incredible piece of post-cyber/naonopunk fiction ever created. It involves a lot of what we are talking about here (skull guns and "The Drummers" are both things featured in the book) Another fun thing is "Cookie Cutters" little nano bombs that get into your blood stream and create shockwaves that liquefy you internal organs.

This needs to come with a copy of the Ghost in the Shell S.S.S. OST for flavor.

>>4395009
The don't liquefy organs. They're two interlocked pieces spinning at high speed, and when they circulate throughout your bloodstream they are activated, disengaging the two halve which fly apart at high velocity, shredding you from inside. I think you either die of being gibed into lots of small pieces or from massive blood loss, depending on the extent of the damage. I can't recall how deadly Stephenson wrote them.

>>4395097
And by "how deadly" i mean it's instantly fatal either way, but one is even more instantly fatal.

>>4395009

I have read both Cryptonomicon and Quicksilver, and while I love his stories and writing style, his tendency to write out a quick page or three on the finer points of math does get to me from time to time.

It's not that I don't understand and appreciate that math, it's just that he's right in the middle of a compelling story and it stops dead in its tracks for mathtime, and damn near puts me to sleep.

So A La Carte Gen/Nano Modding is locked in, what else do we want to do?

I think Hacking and Crafting are vital components, and should probably have more depth than a simple skill test die roll.

>>4395112
I recall less math more action in Diamond Age. But you may want to go strait for Snow Crash, or if you don't enjoy technical details at all you may want to skip Stephenson.

>>4395112
crypto and the baroque stuff are easily his mathiest works, with diamond and snowcrash being the most adventure oriented.

Also there should most certainly be an Anathem show/movie/game/rpg/I-don't-give-a-damn-I-just-want-more-Anathem

>>4395119
Crafting should at least allow refitting scavenged bits into useful stuff.

Knowledge is legion, manufacture missing. Many materials might as well be finite as the means to refine them involve a colossal supply chain.

>>4395097
huh, I was a little confused by his description of them.

Regardless they kill you really fucking dead really fucking fast.

Idea for a nano mod:

"Hivers" portions of muscle in the upper back, arms and thighs are removed and replaced with limited capacity Makers. These makers have templates for all sorts of useful nanites, from defensive swarms to anti-nanite hunter/killer bots to chaff to camera clouds. The maker pods are connected via sub dermal feed lines to an external tank of atomic feed stock worn in a harness by the Hiver. Custom variants of the same idea are common.

>>Designed for mining. They are strong and burly, but left with little intelligence.

Mildly intelligent oversized badgers. Given an IQ of maybe 50 or 60, and metal/plastic/ceramic coated claws.

Them being functionally retarded keeps the furries away. A higher IQ "freak" is impossible, with a genetic suicide written into their DNA if it were to occur.

>>4395251
Dude, this RPG gives me the opportunity to play a guy who can randomly expel nanite constellations and has a pet retarded superbadger.

I would so buy this.

>>4395251
>>4395296
WHAT DIGS BETTER THAN A -BADGER-?!

>>4395238
Could I maybe... make, um... Mechanical er, Bees?

and maybe give them an electrical charge?

I guess what I'm saying is I would like to shoot bees and lightening out of my body at will.

can we do that?

>>4395251

Gene-modded animal ideas:

* Oryx and Crake pigoon- style pigs used for organ farming, now turned predatorial, feral and semi-intelligent (primate level), hunt in packs

* Bubastis - style feline engineered for bodyguard purposes

* Dolphins modded by government navies for underwater combat operations, take great pleasure in hunting and torturing humans.

>* Dolphins modded by government navies for underwater combat operations, take great pleasure in hunting and torturing humans.

they killed all the sharks.

>Dolphins
>take great pleasure

>>4395348
you can do whatever you like

>>4395362
>>* Oryx and Crake pigoon- style pigs used for organ farming, now turned predatorial, feral and semi-intelligent (primate level), hunt in packs
I can't believe I haven't thought of this at some point myself, when designing a world that had gene-modded predators. Everyone EXPECTS gene-mod dogs/tigers hunting them, but packs of boars? That's scary.

>>* Bubastis - style feline engineered for bodyguard purposes
Reminds me of Alpha Shade. Also awesome, especially if it's the size of a housecat, but with plenty of very compact muscle and enough intelligence to take down... a lvl 1 commoner.

>>* Dolphins modded by government navies for underwater combat operations, take great pleasure in hunting and torturing humans.
Pic fucking related.

>>4395238
The best part is not how deadly they are, but that they are not deadly until you activate them. If you shoot your partner instead of the perp you just don't activate the nanos that hit the good guy.

>>4395362

More animal ideas:

Dinosaurs - some crazy fuck modded lizards and birds to make dino-like creatures for use in themed zoos and pet stores. Some have been modified to spit acid by rogue geneticists.

Monkeys: enhanced and trained for dextrous tasks. Could work as "familiars" for techs and mechanics. To simulate monkeys from System Shock 2, equip them with skull-guns.

>>4395482
>>Dinosaurs

So... this?

>>4395482
I am now getting an extremely amusing mental image of a hacker's pet lemur firing it's skull gun and doing a back flip from the recoil.

>>4395453
Followup.

>>4395512

I was more thinking greasels from Deus Ex or similar small animals, but the potential for putting the party up against an armored T-Rex is kinda awesome so why not?

>>4395530
how long has Dr. McNinja been in color?

>>4395251

You shouldn't worry about the furries. It's a P&P RPG and as such you won't run into furfags unless you have them in your group. Especially since we're homebrewing this motherfucker.

Not to mention that realistically, since a cyberpunk (and thus post-cyberpunk) world generally comes out of the real world, you /would/ have furries around. People who've modded themselves to look like animals and all that jazz. CP 2020 even reflected that with "Exotics".

And well, they're not really a problem unless they subvert the game off into a cuddlepuddle/yiffpile/whatever. In which case you have a giant robot come over and stomp them into goo.

Blah blah etc.

You don't need to worry about the furry unless it's going to subvert the entire game. It doesn't even need to be used - the GM decides what's going to be in the game, after all.

>>4395552

Since two issues ago.

>>4393860
Your compliance and conformity are appreciated, citizen.

what are we gonna do this in? any existing systems that can be readily modified?

bumplelating

>>4396105
and /tg/ getting shit done peters out with its usual early evening loss of interest

>>4395731
Well, you could use Shadowrun, Savage Worlds, Unknown Armies... heck, I'd strongly consider going with Dark Heresy.

>>4396374
DH? really... well I guess the D100 system is pretty felxible, and the system does have robust crafting rules. Weird Nano power covered as psychic abilities... It could work...

>>4396220
It's not OUR fault the trolling thread went critical.

What about Storyteller?

>>4396434
Psycker powers refluffed to nanobots would give a whole new definition to Perils of the Warp.

>>4396539
on a 100 the Hiver accidentally creates a limited lifespan von neuman swarm and disappears with a sickening *splurch*

we need some meat and I am crunch inept, anyone up for the job?

>>4396649
Honestly, I think more fluff would be appropriate before going through the effort of applying crunch. As is, the setting doesn't feel original enough to bother--just run a scifi system and change the names of a few things, and then the rest is all setting.

Nutopia

It's 25 ACE, after the common era, after the Corps fell.

Well, they didn't fall, we toppled them. After a hundred years of toiling and striving we finally got back what we wanted. We got back our freedom, we became relevant again.

The Corps were ironclad. We were well and truly theirs. Those of us that weren't taken in the night and modded beyond recognition for some impossibly niche task were worked to death compiling data. We created and slaved and toiled for a system that existed to perpetuate itself. New skin colors and hair styles that none of us would ever see. Minds worn down for the pleasure of one tenth of a percent of the population.

They were well protected from all forms of attack. Their 'bots and mercs protected them from the few unincorporated nations and from each other, but they neglected their foundations. The Global Network was truly ubiquitous. Its transmitters float in the stratosphere and permeate the crust, our earth is a literal infosphere. The formulations of a rebellion flowed along the back channels. It allowed us to execute perfectly coordinated insurrection. One day the cogs, the gears that moved their massive industries and bureaucracies, Us, rose up. We moved outside their machinery and brought it down.

There were losses. In some places atomics were detonated in their silos as the last spiteful acts of newly irrelevant CEOs. 'Bots were given liquidation orders, Mercs set loose. 5 years of strife followed, and with it went 5% of the earth's livable surface. 1,201,372,459 people died.

>>4397118
We know because everyone was tracked. It was one of the first things we did away with. We've actually got kids being born now without transponder chips, and they'll never have them.

>>4397166
>>4397118
WIN DETECTED. PROCEED.

>>4397369
Please proceed?

>>4397569

Bumping for detected win and hopeful procession.

>>4398089
>>4397569
>>4397369
sorry ya'll, had comp trouble, thanks for keeping it alive:

The Unincorporated States still exist, and many ran to them after The Corps Fell. Some people simply couldn't handle a life without someone else determining its structure. A surprising number of us, however, stayed in the wastes.

We are creating something new amongst the wreckage of the past century. There are of course dangers, simple scarcity being the biggest threat. For this we have The Delvers, individuals of unique capability and motivation who dive into forgotten supply depots and ammo dumps, plumbing the treasures of the last age. Some protect our communities from still roving 'Bots and Mercs, and from those of us who find it easier to prey on isolated communities than contribute.

It is a new age, we are for the first time in the history of the species a globally connected collective of ture individuals. We are clawing our way out the ashes of the worst atrocity this planet has ever seen like a new born phoenix, and we are creating something wonderful.

We are, for perhaps the first time, Human.

>>4398803
The crimes of the Corps still remain. Demi humans, those taken in the night and twisted by sick minds to suit some fleeting need still exist in the dark places. I've grown tired of seeing people reunited with lost loved ones only to find their Husband or Daughter a hunched, lobotomized mockery of a human being.

The 'Bots are a mixed lot. many of them are quite useful and keep our holdouts and 'steads running. Some of the larger communities have crackers good enough to reprog a 'bot security force if Delvers bring them the parts. On the other hand you've got Kill Droids and Tanks of every make and model patrolling broken streets and lost armories that pour microgun fire at anything that moves.

The Mercs are a real problem. They were the heaviest, best enforcers the Corps had and most of them were hardly human by the time they were done "enhancing" themselves. Once you've seen a 7 foot tall four armed demon with reverse jointed legs, a cloud of flesh eating nanites and a 40mm Bofors cannon vaporize the guy standing next to you before leaping 30 feet up onto the side of a building and sprinting away you lose any appetite to run into those fuckers again. We were lucky, they usually move in packs...

>>4398907
Raiders and brigands exist as well, but they present a negligible threat in comparison to the other nasties out there.

The Delvers are a mixed and eclectic lot. Soldiers who participated in the Fall, Savvy Crackers who worked in the highest labs, Performance artist "Hivers" who turned their implants to more utility based functions and even the odd Genmodded Numan who retain their original minds and want to help rebuild from the wreckage of the companies that twisted them. Most interesting are the new births, children and young adults who don't remember what once was but still long for adventure outside their 'claves and fortified homes.

The treasures they bring back from their expeditions are incredible. Everything from autosensing railguns to hydroponics modules to functioning Makers and mod parlor arrays. One huge 20 man venture came out of the wilderness hauling an entire intact Feed Stack behind them on a grav sled.

>>4399007
>>4398907
>>4398803
please by all means jump in if you wish, I'm mostly making this shit up as I go.

Our communities vary in size from one man bolt holes to city fortresses of thousands. We are scattered about, but hardly stranded. The Global Net connects all the free people and High Speed Transports can be dispatched at a moments notice. The biggest problem is, as ever, resources. Most communities will have at least one Maker, but only the largest have Feed Stacks, and that's the reason for their size. Schematics are being created daily, but the best stuff resides in well protected data piles in the old cities, just waiting for the Delvers to move in and fish it out.

guess I took to long getting back on line.

No one out there?

>>4399292
Distracted by Skype, but enjoying. Proceed.

Information security is just as important now as it ever was. Mercs and bots, not to mention raiders and other oppotunistic scum are all pluged into the cloud as muc has we are, and someone, somewhere, is always listening. Codes and whole new languages have to be manufactured and discarded on a regular basis, just to keep the the 'others' from eavesdropping.

The larger settlements have to cover their homes and workshops, and shield them from thermal imaging - The Near Earth Orbit is still cluttered with satilites, corporate, national and merc, many still operational long after the fall of their masters. The best Crackers have been able to take over some of them, using their sensors and broadcasting arrays to protect homes and scout lucrative delves.

>>4399336
>>4399219
>>4399007
>>4398907
>>4398803
Oh! There's more! Excellent, and saved.

A deadly new phenomenon is Raiders who have created "Black Fields" It's something like the radar deflecting stealth technology of old, but for a much more sinister purpose. They'll find a weak community that relies on the protection of neighbors and set up a Black Field around the area. Faster than most can catch the whole area blinks off the Net, then back on. Signals go in, but not out, and the Raiders are free to pillage without worry of a team of HST mounted Delvers filling their hides with high velocity tungsten darts.

Our crackers are learning to look for the momentary blink, and we're starting to catch them in the act. This gave rise to an even more sinister permutation, Teams of raiders blacking out an area and the lying in wait, not interested in the community but in the Delvers themselves, looking to loot them and steal their transports. Every Delver team that volunteers to assist a community under siege runs the calculated risk of being the target of an ambush.

>>4399485
I love this. Very realistic. Just like the way things have been going between the Iranians/Syrians and Americans in Iraq.

A word on Hivers. These most eccentric of Delvers are an interesting lot. Most of us who wander outside the safer areas have some amount of nanomodification, but Hivers take it to a whole new level. They are walking Makers, in the past they used these mods to make beautiful art and exotic performances. Actors who generated their costumes on the spot and changed them to suit their character's every whim, artists who made paints sprouts from their fingertips or built kinetic sculptures seemingly from the air itself.

When the fall came these inherently free spirits sided with the rebels to a man. A simple switch in a line of code and a spray paint finger becomes a flamethrower, a kinetic sculpture turns into an assault rifle. As the years went on more and more creative applications appeared and the Hivers proved invaluable. They can project tight nit swarms that exist to eat up the kinetic energy of incoming projectiles, or little things with glittering wings that scatter once piercing lasers into nothing but a harmless light show. They can assemble weaponry, or given enough Feedstock/time, armor and vehicles. With the help of a Cracker they can make all manner of genius inventions, from clouds of tracker/camera bots to baseball sized remote controlled flying flechette grenades.

All that capability comes at a price though, the bone structure and muscle mass removed to make room for the Maker pods can be replaced and augmented by further genetic meddling, to a point, and expelling clouds of automatons through your pores can be less than pleasant.

>>4399724
Let's not forget that they'd need to replenish their stocks of nanobots. As time went on, reserve stocks would get more and more valuable as they got scarcer and scarcer...

Also, archived.

One of the main contributors early in the thread here, signing out.

I like the recent stuff a lot, and hope that it continues so that I can read it in the archive tomorrow morning. If your stuff continues at this current level, I'll be cheering/saving each post then. As much as you've got, I want--and I'll try to get a workable system adaptation up within the week.

>>4399748
excellent.

and yes, not only is the stock limited, warning against frivolous use, but they are more fragile and due to the nature of the Makers, unable to wear heavy full protection armors.

Soldiers on the other hand are free to take advantage of the nastiest arms and armors they can lay hands on. The most successful start to look like Mercs, albeit with a decidedly sunnier attitude. Heavy Power armors, all manner of cannons and lasers, and the mods... You strip away all the plate and servoes and guns and you're still left with a man who can hear you pulse, see far into both ends of the light spectrum, sweat a corrosive fluid designed to erode things like plastic zipties or handcuffs, and retractable claws on both his hands and feet.

That is if he hasn't already shot you with that submachinegun embedded above the obit of his left eye.

People keep referring to Mercs. Is this a Paranoia thing?

Either way, can we get some fluff on them?

>>4399826
not Paranoia related at all, despite the unfortunate unintentional reference in the OP.

To My mind the

>>4399826
not Paranoia related at all, despite the unfortunate unintentional reference in the OP.

To my mind the Mercs are the best of the best the Corps had in their private paramilitaries. They still exist int the ACE era. They no longer have employers, but some are still fiercly loyal to the Ideals of their non existent masters. Others have shadier motives and still others have no real goals at all. Their uniting feature is that they are all almost to the last blood thirsty motherfuckers who live for the hunt and the kill.

For an idea on their general appearance and behavoir, take the nastiest spetsnaz commando in the world, and cross him with a pitbull.

No, literally.

Now give that an enormous gun, some extra limbs, and some friends.

Scared yet?

In game terms they represent a force that is better evaded or fled. Bots and Raiders are the kinds of things players would face commonly, but if they met a lone Merc, it might be worth the risk of engaging him simply because of the value of his gear and information.

>>4399829
>>4399851
well that was odd, did someone just black field 4chan?

well kids, I'm off to bed, make me proud and let's get it going again sometime tomorrow afternoon.

so was all that fluff just two guys?

Fun Fact: Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie) is post-cyberpunk.

>>4399851
I imagine mercs as being something like Dreadnoughts - huge mechs with a shattered body or downloaded consciousness controlling them. While 'lesser' mercs might still be at some level human - or at least organic - the scary ones are modular walking tanks.

That said, mercs like this needed maintenance and infrastructure only the corps could provide, and are thus forced find old corps facilities that can keep them alive or go into hibernation.

Which gives me a great idea for a plot hook - a digitized merc could easily power down and roam the infosphere, listening for any useful finds and directing delvers to known caches, all the while biding its time until it powers up and collects the score.

Delvers might also come across a hibernating merc whose pilot has become lost in a virtual reality.

>>4400072

Suddenly playing a Merc seems a whole lot more awesome than any of the other options. I imagine at least a few of the older ones could still be reasoned with and compelled to join a party, in exchange for parts and maintenance... But mostly I just want to play a walking spider tank with the attitude of The Comedian.

>>4400111
>>4400072
I think this could work within the fluff of the game. Those Mercs would just be another kind of soldier, an alternate background. They'd need some kind of balancing factor other than simple roleplaying disadvantages (any community that has survived for a length of time probably has a Shoot On Sight policy towards sentient spider tanks.)

Another fluff Idea: Traffic Control Comms. Like a combination of Diamond Age's Ractors and Operators from the Matrix. These are people who live in the communities or in some kind of mobile command center and provide informational updates and support for a group of Delvers. Almost all Delvers hire a TCC, it's essential to success and survival to have up to date information on one's surroundings. The most successful Delver teams will have extensive support staff, including a TCC for each member charged with updating their HUDs, providing intel and monitoring various vital signs and statistics to ensure peak performance.

Ok, so so far we have:

Crackers - Hackers on crack. Probably partially modded with some sort of cyber or nanoware, useful as code crackers, security and systems specialists and in controlling and reprogramming bots and other systems. Probably have some sort of direct interface with the infosphere and digital reality too.

Hivers - Makers made flesh. Walking nano factories that can produce a variety of effects, from flamethrower fingers and new clothes and kinetic shielding. Also able to make stuff, given time and raw materials, but have a limited about of nanobot to work their magic, and thus need to delve for refills or find some advanced maker implant or maker system for their settlement that can make their nano juice. Physically weakened by the operations to install their implants, a possibly hurt every time they are forced to expel nanos from places they are not meant to. (As in, flame fingers has ports at the end of his finger to do that, but he can also do a FLAME ON! from his whole body, it just burns like hell.)

Soldier – who shoot things, and can eventually become quasi-mercs. They’re not going to be able to access the gene splicing, interface hard pointing crazyness they corps used to do for their guards, but they can get to powered armour, mech suits and crazy railgun shit.

Signals – com staff that keep you alive. Probably not going to be PCs, but important.

And there are options for backgrounds like:

Digital Entity – your consciousness is now digitized, living in the infosphere and controlling some kind of robotic physical shell. Highly upgradable, and technically immortal, but vulnerable to certain attacks like EMPs, hacks, system viruses, backdoors and signals warfare.

Genespliced – You, or your parents, were experimented and warped by the corps. You have something that makes you significantly different from baseline humans, like hollow bones and a muscle based digestive system (for space colonization) or an immunity to various types of toxic and hazardous environments.

Genemodded – You’ve been altered slightly, usually cosmetically, either willingly or unwillingly. This can happen both before and after 0 ACE, and might range from red skin to long spectrum vision.

Cybered – You’ve got some sort of cyber implant. This is something pretty big, that they had to physically put in your body, and might have any kind of use. A Hiver’s Maker Modules are, ironically, cyber implants.

Nanoed – You have some sort of nano modification. Maybe your blood clots really fast, or you have nano machines that repair your cells, or something else. The most common nano mods (I imagine) are going to be medical or cosmetic.

Settlements exist in or near the ruins of the major corps cities, to facilitate easy access to delves. The area directly around the settlement is likely fairly safe, with a wide buffer zone of ‘cleared’ streets and buildings that have been searched, made structurally sound and filled with all kinds of surveillance equipment. Beyond this is the ruins or wasteland itself, filled it all sorts of crazy shit.

In a wasteland based settlement there’s a lot of dead space around the settlement you could have zeroed on your cannons, but its a lot harder to camouflage yourself from satellite imagining and you don’t have ready access to lots of bolt holes if the mercs pay a visit.

“Wasteland” settlements might include a stilt town built over a former dump, that disguises all the buildings as large pieces of rubbish, and is probably built out of rubbish as well, a floating town built from a series of rafts and small boats that floats in the harbor, protected by the ability to up and leave if they see anything or a farming community hidden underneath the trees inside a cyberpunk central park, which is itself inside a huge glasshouse.

>>4393640

friend computer is eternal, and happiness is mandatory, citizen

>>4400556

Expanding on your idea, if a settlement still has functioning manufacturing facilities (nano-factory systems), and any large settlement should have at least one, it opens the possibility of a hacker attack on the factory controls, causing it to manufacture a berzerk combat drone swarm or other dangerous shit. Basically, it's like you're living on a volcano, which can be caused to erupt by enemy communes, raiders intent on weakening the settlement, and plain old malicious bastards. Monitoring the factory (further upthread it was called a Maker) is THE most important job for the community it supports. Also, convenient quest hooks.

Ruins settlements would probably be either underground or inside a series of interconnected buildings. Vertical settlements inside sky scrapers would be easily defensible from raiders, and offer great views and lines of fire, but would have no easy escape, and need to constantly maintain the building. Underground settlements could be sprawling, with multiple entrances and exits, lots of space and easily hidden, but also open to attack from all the entrances, as well as the prospect of ‘digging too deep’.

Settlement makeup would revolve around their position or what kind of stuff had been salvaged – if you’ve got a Maker, you damn well protect it, digitally and physically (thanks >>4400556 ). Tower settlements could market their views – keeping in contact with Controllers (or Operators, or Signal men or whatever you want to call them) high up would be an cheap way to get some tactical information, and possibly artillery support. Large underground settlements could provide safe passage around a city through a series of guides and cleared tunnels.

Primarily however, all settlements would be split between staying alive (defense and sustenance) and Delving. Wasteland settlements would probably be better at the former, and City ones at the latter.