Soldiers who participated in the Fall, savvy Crackers who worked in the high-up corporate labs, performance artists -- Hivers -- who turned their implants to more utility based functions and even the odd genmodded Nu-man who retain their minds untampered and seek to help rebuild from the wreckage of the companies that twisted them. Most interesting of them are the newborn, children and young adults who don't remember what once was but still long for adventure outside their enclaves and fortified homes.

Delvers have the spirit, the ability, the means to defend the city they love. To dig out once forbidden knowledge for humanity. To prevent the past from coming onto us again. Delvers are the adventurers of today.

Raiders are not as idealistic. Raiders seek nothing but personal glory through anarchy.

The means are many, for old hoardings of technology have dissolved and combined into whole. Body modification highly publicized in the Corporate Age has only grown more reliable and more versatile. Weapons not only smaller and deadlier, but also more precise. There are hints of research towards nanotechnology, promising nigh magical effects.

All that is lost from the old age is the enormous industrial power. For now, we are to cope with what we've got, applying our vast knowledge in the most unlikely ways, if only to survive today amongst the scarce resources.

The communities of this new age range from one man bolt holes to fortified cities housing thousands and maintaining large Nano-Makers. We are scattered about, but hardly stranded. The Global Netis still around, it connects all the free people and through it High Speed Transports can be dispatched at a moment's notice.

Settlements are a type of community revolving around delvers. Ruined corporate cities are full of precious goods, resulting in a bulk of all settlements being near or inside one. Settlements tend to have a wide buffer zone around it, giving a little confidence in defending it even against destroyer robots and mercenaries careless delvers may wake up.

Settlements are set up on hostile grounds, and require more care to be sustained. Large-population, established communities known as cities on the other hand reside on well controlled grounds and sustain themselves with a surplus -- but are of little use for delving activity. Settlements with enough standing power usually develop into a city.

Communities may be built on natural camouflage such as former dumps, under colossal glasshouses or even floating rafts that can be moved away when threatened.

Security is as important as ever in this age of disarray. Low orbit scanner sweeps are a threat, as are cracker break-ins. It may be the rival community few kilometers away, it may be a rogue mercenary out its own survival, it may as well be a raider group planning to loot it all. Nevertheless, dangerous. The means to maintain secrecy evolve quickly in an arms race with those seeking to remove it.

Raiders are very dangerous as the Blackout technique allows them to set up fields of misinformation around their victims. This allows for undetected looting -- or dangerous ambushes, should a local delver group come to the rescue.

Hivers, most eccentric of delvers. Nearly any delver sports nanomods, but Hivers carry it to a whole new level. They are walking Nano-Makers, artists turned combat engineers.

Corporations created Hivers as they are. Their function, however, involved much versatility -- and a free spirit. When the corporations came to a downturn, Hivers at large realized their chances in sculpting a new world in whole. The delver groups they encountered, too, realized Hivers' abilities to make a difference far from home. With some advance and partnership with a Cracker nearly anything can be made on the spot, should available resources allow.

Unfortunately the incredible utility is in itself a sacrifice. The Nano-Maker pods that make all possible replace muscle mass and compromise bone structure. Further genetic meddling may cripple the Hiver's abilities outside their particular domain in exchange for even more spectacular capabilities.

Hivers require regular replenishment of their nanobot stock that Nano-Makers require to function.

Soldiers leave utility for their support cast, specializing in applying the nastiest arms and armors to disable any opposition. Successful Soldiers grow to resemble Mercenaries of old, though sporting a sunnier attitude and living flesh.

---

Crackers are operator staff on the field. Crackers not only program nearly anything to fit the needs at hand, but gather information like no other. Breaking in to forgotten systems can open unexpected shortcuts to the vaults' depths.

Operators run the global communication grid. For delvers settlement-based operators provide data-crunching, statistics and analysis not readily available on the field.

Badgers = Awesome

Social engineer/memetics specialist/Globalnet-culture-diva + disrupted social environment = potential for scary, craaaazy social experiments.

>>4402158
like that time the Red Catholics dropped that auto-cannibalism meme on times square?

/transmetrotpolitan

Oooh, me likey, I'll stop in later in the afternoon if this is still going.

Sorry, children's books have taught me the most badass a badger gets is being a self-sufficient grumpy bastard with a blunderbuss.

I can't say much about the content of the thread, but the badger lured me here. Badgers are always relevant.

This is now a furry setting, every player is an anthropomorphic badger.

>>4403202
I'm guessing you read the wrong books, sir.

>>4403273
Trolls are really lazy these days. Goodbye innovation, nowadays they just lurk around and wait for the first mention of an animal to go about shouting about furries. Think the sergalfaggots made life a little too easy for them.

>>4403224
That cat is so fucked.

>>4403312
Cat rolled a natural 20 on his Diplomacy check.

In the distant future, giant mushrooms growing in the radioactive wastes become a valuable source of nutrients.

>>4403305
This thread is full of pictures of badgers, even if you aren't out to troll it's a pretty obvious post to make.

I shall hone my vision to be less intimidating and return later with the intent of collecting great ideas I did not myself get.

>>4401694
Hey cutie, you're one savvy cracker.

Speaking of badgers, someone came up with the old corporates researching and implementing semi-intelligent badger people for digging operations in hostile conditions.

What could they be up to now?

>>4404783
Digging.

So now that megacorporations are dead, what's the political system. Just pure anarchy?

The badgers would have needed some sort of "leash" to keep them coming back after being let out to dig. Probably food of some sort.

Without the Corps, they'd be no food, so most badgers would die out because they can't feed themselves. A few would escape into the wild and manage to survive on some other source, and then the population can grow.

>>4404828
Anarchy at places. Ideology in form of a light enlightenment made corporates go away, so many places actually sport some kind of post-national local community council governments.

People at large are pretty opposed against tyrannical rule and will fight back with the immedetiate help of others nearby. The fast, reliable network grid what was once the Internet is still around. Subversion of individual established communities should be prohibitively hard.

>>4404828

They aren't "death", they've only lost control over...well, pretty much everything compared to before.

>>4404961 They aren't "death"
Iono, I thought Netcraft had confirmed it.

>>4404923
fucking badgers.

anyway yeah, it's an individual collective, that works in the way that only a totally interconnected community can. Things that made true non-national republics impossible to organize now no longer exist. I'm not sure what the name for the system is, but everyone is free to do their own thing, and people are pretty amiable about helping each other out. It's spots of Utopia in the middle of a Dystopian wasteland, hence "Nutopia"

>>4405001
Polytopia!

The badgers that survived the downfall of the megacorporations and bested the harsh conditions of their new-found freedom have retreated into the wastes where they have established a tribal community that lives in extensive mega-burrows in which they grow giant mushrooms, occasionally foraging in the wastes for anything edible and ambushing travellers with sophisticated traps mainly featuring hidden pits filled with poisonous snakes that the badger people are immune to, due to their thick pelts and hardy constitution.

>>4405060
*headdesk*
*headdesk*
*headdesk*

The original idea of mildly retarded super badgers used for mining and such was cool, but god damnit I will not have The Diamond Age roleplaying game be overridden by FUCKING BADGER PEOPLE. Semi sentient badger pets? Cool, even useful, like the new kind of dog, but they live under your house . Hell I can see delvers using armored cyber badgers as recon and packmules, but sentient badger people is just to far.

WHAT HAVE YOU PEOPLE DONE!?

>>4405101
An unfortunate end for a promising thread.

>>4405060
I think the badger-people are pretty much normal super-strength badgers with capatibility for simple language.

This would allow corporate foremen to give orders in a straight-forward way and enhance badger collaboration to solve digging problems.

It is probable some foremen managed to secure enough supplies to keep the badger herd happy.

>>4405101
Hey, don't worry. We don't need to have a single canonical setting. This form of communication is ideal for sharing ideas and letting everyone emphatise the things one enjoys and leaving out what one doesn't. I keep a bunch of notes of what I see as the ideal setting roundup, you saw one version it as the premise of this thread. I have no desires nor means to make you accept is as truth, for it is merely a basis to build on if someone finds it interesting enough to warrant expansion.

I'm totally cool with expanding on the badgermen, but in my vision they're but a footnote.

>>4405136 This would allow corporate foremen to give orders in a straight-forward way and enhance badger collaboration to solve digging problems.

This sentence is believably enterprise but completely insane.

>>4405200
You can probably imagine that line being pitched in some executive cabin by a researcher with a fascination towards badgers.

>>4405190
Thanks... calming down now...

Here's some of the stuff from the first thread not included here:

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.

You know, I was working on a setting for a while that was a little bit like this.

Basically, Cyberpunk meets Biopunk. (Which actually exists and I hate whoever named that.) The molecular compilers used in the setting are modified cells (ProMat, programmable material) that carry out either genetic or electronic instructions, making parts and materials used for machines of varying sizes. They can also be instructed to multiply, self destruct, etc. Engineers basically mind-meld with the systems that create these instructions, called Architects, which are giant Folding @ Home clusters that can parse genetic codes and accurately simulate what will result, which allows anyone that knows how to use the system to take their design, plug it in, and have it put together a genetic code that will allow it to be grown. Not only that, the Architect could toy with organic DNA as well, though by comparison to machine genes it's more complex and less predictable.

A decade or two of injected implants and literal man-machine hybrids later, a virus couples with one of these ProMat germ cells and starts infecting a huge range of living things, mostly people, with a disease that mechanizes their bodies and nervous systems and then forcibly connects them to the Internet, which by now is a huge clusterfuck of AIs. The huge clusterfuck becomes huger. Also, an engineer did it, because he was a prick. (There's actually more to it than that but I'd have to drag it out more and I don't wanna.)

End result: Mutants, cyborgs, and the ongoing decline of the Internet into a sanity destroying hell. And the survivors of the age of transitions trying to make the world work again.

You find a hole in your garden.
You go to investigate.
You bend down and lean closer to see further into the hole.
You hear a gruff voice behind you.
"Hey kid, you gonna get yiffed"
The pain starts...

>>4405239
This has already been summarized at top, but is worth reiterating:


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.

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.

(If there were an opening for the system I think the above two posts would be it.)

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...

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.

>>4405060
Awesome pic. Can I get a sauce?

A Word On Firepower:

The arms trade was, as ever, extremely lucrative to the corporations. Most communities have Maker Templates for simple conventional firearms (one of the biggest finds in recent memory was a template for a Romanian AK-47 and 7.62x39mm ammunition). In the delves, however, things get much more interesting. The big corporate Makers allowed for the synthesizing of room temperature super conductors in large amounts, and rail/coilgun tech became much more feasible as a man portable option. Rail arms vary in size from handguns to large bore cannon. What wasn't Rail used caseless ammunition and exotic electronic ignition methods, sometimes even guided munitions to make up for the like of straight line firepower compared to a railgun.

Towards the end of the Corps some companies began to look into more creative was of killing a man than simply putting bits of metal into him at high speed. Sonic rifles for riot dispersal, highly concentrated particle beams that could punch through armor and melt flesh, and jacketed plasma launchers were all in development just before year 0.

http://kaiserflames.deviantart.com/art/European-Werebadger-80001078

Yesss... glad to see more going on with this idea.

And now you see why my initial post about using gene-modded badgers for mining specified that they're all functionally retarded, with no possibility of "oops i are accidentally a genius". Fucking furries.

>>4405550
I was asking for it by posting an image of a badger. Likewise a tangentially related picture could well have thrown the thread to a tangential topic.

Nor do I support explicit anti-furry rules. In cyberpunk furries just fit in, as the setting itself is basically the internet but for reals. The furries of old didn't just vanish into thin air over a few years. Tolerating or not tolerating them should be up to the people playing the game, not the setting itself, as the setting would plausibly include them by the virtue of building on cyberpunk.

>>4405620

can I be a bee person

or a person made out of bees

>>4405620
Oh there are furries here. A good deal of them are merc scouts, special forces crossed with animal DNA and invasive cybernetics to create very fast, very mean, very hard to kill monsters. The less violent kind of course exist as well, in the unincorporated states and among the more well off Free Communities.

Most of the "Furries" in this setting however are more likely to rend you limb from limb or kidnap your children for fun and profit.

>>4405620
What are you talking about? Everyone knows about how the Corps purged those deviants to the last with an experimental bio-engineered virus shortly before the Fall.

It was the scariest thing, realizing that you could be casually exterminated for what a Corp deemed improper thinking. More than a few people remembered Martin Niemöller 's quote "In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist; And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist; And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew; And then... they came for me... And by that time there was no one left to speak up." While there was little grief for the complete destruction of this particular deviant group, once people realized they might be next...

...they knew it was time to act.

>>4405628
I'M COVERED IN BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!

>>4405423
All that firepower is further augmented by further advances. Autosensing weapons link wirelessly nanomodded eyeballs, projecting all manner of targeting data into the operators field of view. Steadying rigs and power armor hard points allow for the usage of truly epic firepower.

Power armors vary in size from close fitting exosuits that serve to mildly augment the wearer's strength, speed and endurance to 10 foot tall Nephilim 31b Breaching Armor equipped with nanite clouds, reactive panels, ceramic plates, rolled steel sheets, shock absorbing gels and kevlar all wrapped around big servos and internal ammunition bays.

Larger still varieties exist, but few are willing to undergo the one way bonding process needed to pilot something as massive as one of the Merc Tanks. Still, Digitized Delvers are hardly unheard of, and if they are willing to sacrifice human contact and can afford the upkeep they can elect to inhabit what amounts to a cross between a bus, a MBT and a spider.

>>4405711
>>4405719
dare I ask sauce?

>>4405701
oh lovely, now the furries are the jews...

>>4405734
Only unlike the Jews, none of them escaped.

>>4405716
This gives rise to the possibility of the following conversation:

"Crap, raider ambush. Quick, everyone jump inside Dave's character and let's get the fuck out of here!"

I would so play this.

has anyone done mechanics yet?

>>4405723
My slow internet is slow and the pics are still loading, but it looks like a graphic novel version of the book Footfall. Which was fucking awesome.

Sauce of the comic is Elephantmen.

>>4405620
This. Cyberpunk is meant for weird shit.

Even CP 2020 had furries. They were "exotics".

But they're just background flavor, like people with glowing skin - or potential things the PCs or NPCs can be, sorta like you *could* replace your perfectly functioning meat-limb with a fancy cyberlimb.

But you don't have to. It might not even be all that better.

>>4405678

Also this.

Could make handy delvers too, depending on what they've been modded with. I'm sure high-freq hearing might be handy at points - or being able to track by scent.

>>4405778
>>4405782
Yeah, it's definitely not based off Footfall. Footfall was much more awesome.

It included a spaceship whose method of propulsion was DETONATING A-BOMBS DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH ITSELF.

>>4405804
agreed, it's fringe stuff, whatever.

For any given totally unmodified delver in power armor there's another weird transhumanist with cat's eyes, bat ears, pneumatic pogo-legs and a jetpack. People come up with all sorts of ways to adapt to their chosen role.

>>4405707

I AM THE BEES

>>4405864

> I AM ALL THE HAM

Sigh. Yet another promising thread derailed by furries and anti-furry backlash.

>>4406371

It wasn't derailed. That was resolved. Or did you this post right here: >>4405834 ?

I think people just aren't posting because they don't know what to fluff out next.

Traps, and getting around them, for Delvers.

Perhaps a piggyback AI (I hate to say like Cortana in Halo or Jane in the Enderverse, but I know that's the first thing one of my players would want), with knowledge of various security systems?

Also, how much longer after the Fall until people lose the ability to continue hooking up cyber to themselves? Unless they get manufacturing back up, they're screwed in the long run.

>>4406498

A lot of the communities (or at least a good amount) seem to have 'Makers" and other technology. The corps have just been disbanded and some shit went down and people died but the tech's still there and people still know how to *use* it. It'll be fine.

Well, assuming the mercs or robots or whatever don't wake up and kill you, anyways.

Wouldn't need an AI, really (and it'd be a bit weird for every Delver team to carry one). I'm sure a Cracker could make do with a host of security and hacking programs.

>>4406498

>>Also, how much longer after the Fall until people lose the ability to continue hooking up cyber to themselves? Unless they get manufacturing back up, they're screwed in the long run.

From what i have gathered the most setlements have an maker witch is propably loaded with an stantard package of nano assembly blueprints, and most common implants are probaly stantardisized. So i think it's safe to say that any settlement with an maker can assemble new or atleast maintain old implants, even without blueprints because crackers can probably (given enought time) reverse-engineer any implant they come accross.

>>4406760
>>4406498
I'm thinking that true AI is something that never came about, or if it did never saw widespread applications. Who knows, in same Corp's vault there could be a fully functional AI lock in a closed system with nothing to do but prowl empty datalines, sloooowly going mad. (adventure hook #402)

Instead, we've got crackers to do the real hands on stuff, but for all of the other things that Cortana did we've got a sortof built in DMPC in the form of a handler that almost every successful Delver team has back at their home base.

This Handler/Signal man/TCC/whatever is in charge of collating the masses of information coming from all of the internal and external senory equipment most Delvers carry, and reminding them of coordinates, mission objectives, or which streets to run down when the Mercs come a knockin'

As mentioned in the last thread larger more successful delver teams have huge support staff, operating almost like small military units. Among that support staff could be several handlers, maybe as many as one for each Delver, in charge of handling vital statistics and navigation.

Other things that need fluffing:

Hiver Powers
Cracker Abilities
Genmod A La Carte choices
Nanomod A La Carte choices
Some fluffing of the Corps (who produced what, who had the nastiest security etc.)
Maybe some sample communities, I'll work on a city in a sky scraper.

Go Nuts!

Spire is a community constructed Inside the superstructure of a half completed megascraper on the southern tip of the south african sprawl. Constructed as a cyclopean symbol of dominance by a corp shortly before the fall.

The partially completed structure was quickly taken over by those who had been building it, and when word spread on the net that they'd gotten the building's Feed Stack & Makers online the population exploded. Spire boasts thousands of residents living in safety and comfort in the middle of one of the deadliest parts of the wastes.

The reason for that safety lies in Spire's unique composition. The City Proper starts a good 40 stories off the ground below this is just super structure and open air. at the ground level an array of manned and automated defenses deal swiftly with any aggressors and handle less vertically mobile trade. City Proper is a teaming mass of building within a building, like a massive crazy concrete tree house. Helipads flank homes and theaters. The jungle of wires and form poured concrete appears drab and chaotic from the ground but if viewed through the Net (I'm just going to jack the term Noosphere because it so perfectly describes what I'm getting at here) the city lights up and glowing routes and signs adorn every surface.

Given the nature of Spire mobility improving genmods are commonplace. Strong prehensile tails, sticky hands, wings, grappling hooks and glider packs can all be found among the citizenry. Raiders stopped trying to hit the city proper after the first few times they were shot out of the air by its armed and winged residents.

Ya'll think this has enough new material to warrant an archive?

>>4407563
Already done.

sure is silent in here.

>>4407650

How about i make some noise about hivers then?

First let's talk about the nanites hivers have two different kind of nanites: foglets and universal (dis)assemblers.

The foglets are lighter-than-air nanomachines that form an cloud around the hiver. The cloud allows the hiver to send his asseblers trough the foglets to anywhere within the cloud, however an average hiver can produce an cloud that is only about 10 meters in diameter, but most settlements and any functional high tech facility probably have their air full of utility fog. The foglets purpose is to act as an bridge, communication- and an powerline for assemblers going from their hive to their target. The foglets aren't terribly smart and cannot distinguish between commands from friendly or hostile source as such anyone or thing capable projecting nanomachines is capable of doing so within the utility fog.

The universal (dis)assemblers can manipulate atoms and chemical bonds around their immediate surroundings, according to the instructions from their hive. Compared to foglets the assemblers are considerably more intelligent because by micromanaging every single nanite would require an supercomputer to build even the most homogeneous and simple objects, therefore the assemblers have an limited group intelligence and an onboard database that allows them to identify materials and assemble even the most complex chemical compounds by themselves with little instructions from the hive. The assemblers also have several different kinds of sensors that when using them as an group the assemblers can give very detailed information of their surroundings.

con't

>>4407686

con't

The "universal" in The "universal (dis)assemblers" is no joke, if it can be accomplices by manipulating matter it can be done. An average hive can assemble an delicious meal from dirt, clean firearms without disassembling them, heal wounds, and turn an bandit accosting him into an puddle of protein, but this comes at a price: all action by nanites require energy and and while the assemblers can somewhat utilize ambient energy in their immediate surroundings most of the energy is provided by their hive. This is problematic for hivers even as all of their cell are modified (either genetically or nanotechnologicaly) into organic self-recharging batteries, an average hiver can only liquefy several bad guys before running dry. The number of nanites is also an problem as hivers can only carry so many nanites, so amount what they can do at any given time is limited. Both of these problems can be alleviated by portable bio-electricity batteries and special hiver armor's that store extra energy and nanites. All hivers have several special cerebral implants that allow them to control their nanites, these implants can be loaded with different kinds of expert systems that allow the hiver to give general commands to his nanites like: "liquefy", "stabilize that guy" and like, that are carried out without any further input from him.

The hivers themselves tend to be big eaters as their internal batteries are charged as by-product of their accelerated metabolism, most hivers prefer sweet snacks and food because carbohydrates in them give quick boost of energy. Hivers need to eat and drink about 1.4 times of much as an regular human, and therefore delver groups don't usually have more than one hiver per group due their high maintenance.


Thoughts?

tl:dr: Hiver can reduce you into an puddle of proteins aslong they and you are inside an foglet cloud, and they have the energy to do so. Also they have an serious sweet tooth.

>>4407650
I don't have anything to add at this time, but I'm mostly enjoying what you're coming up with. If I see somewhere I can help, I will.

No need for me pointlessly cluttering the thread otherwise.

>>4407697

Just to add a little bit to my last post.

Both types of nanites are capable of self replication but only with permission from their hive. In order to prevent mutations or corruption in the nanites, all their programming is stored in ROM (Read Only Memory) and have an tiny bit of RAM to process commands. The programming is encrypted I a way that if it is altered in any way the nanite cannot function. While this cannot prevent all mutations it assures the mutated nanited cannot self replicate, however because of this the hivers will eventually start to run out of nanites as the last functional nanite generation is cannot create new ones. To fix this the hiver must sample some "core strain" nanites found in highly controlled environment inside makers in order to replace his mutated ones.

>>4407697
Good inherent balance, I like that.

So in a Hiver Vs. Hiver situation it comes down to who's disassemblers are nastier? A series of skill checks to see who can whip out and command the biggest batch of the smallest nanites to turn the other guy into a mess of wet carbon?

Maybe their internal memory only has so much room for archetypes and commands, and some commands and templates take up much more memory than others. For example a Hiver could have "Disassemble" and "Flamer Fingers" /or/ "Regenerate Limb".

A Cracker can help a Hiver pull off shit he couldn't do on his own, and set the assemblers to doing much more complicated tasks. (Get captured by raiders and all your gear confiscated? Wait for the Soldier to acid sweat his way out of his bindings and then the Hiver and the Cracker can get together and make everyone an AK-47.)

Thi all sounds cool, but it's not technically post-cyberpunk.

Post-cyberunk is a literary genre where a cyberpunk world exists, but it is not seen in a negative light-- massive corporative rule is often positive, and the characters work towards maintaining society.

All this seems far more like post-apocalyptic cyberpunk.

>>4407829
it started as a combination of two ideas, one involving a post apocalyptic cyber punk setting, the other essentially being an RPG based on Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age, which is textbook post cyberpunk.

>>4407862
Gotcha. Please excuse my ignorance; I somehow missed that when browsing through.

That'll teach me to read things properly, I hope!

>>4407896
I wouldn't worry about it, given what's been going on in the thread you'd be more liable to think we were trying to make Wind in the Willows 2020 AD, an RPG about Cybernetic badgers battling against a corrupt Weasel ruled technocracy.

>>4407827

>>So in a Hiver Vs. Hiver situation it comes down to who's disassemblers are nastier? A series of skill checks to see who can whip out and command the biggest batch of the smallest nanites to turn the other guy into a mess of wet carbon?

Pretty much but you could order your disassemblers to disassembe his disassemblers in order to buy time to pull you gun.

>>Maybe their internal memory only has so much room for archetypes and commands, and some commands and templates take up much more memory than others. For example a Hiver could have "Disassemble" and "Flamer Fingers" /or/ "Regenerate Limb".

The nanites themselves know only how to do stuff and their last command but the mamory limitation could be moved to the hivers implants.

A Cracker can help a Hiver pull off shit he couldn't do on his own, and set the assemblers to doing much more complicated tasks. (Get captured by raiders and all your gear confiscated? Wait for the Soldier to acid sweat his way out of his bindings and then the Hiver and the Cracker can get together and make everyone an AK-47.)

More like dissassembe the bars and make fist cuffs for everyone, but otherwise like that.

>>4407926
>Wind in the Willows 2020 AD, an RPG about Cybernetic badgers battling against a corrupt Weasel ruled technocracy.

...I suddenly want to abandon the current setting in favor of your new one.

(so far it seems like we've got three main Delver Archetypes, and we can further subdivide as needed)

Crackers:

From young punks to wizened old code master, Crackers come in many varieties. Their skills range wildly and each has his own mix of abilities to bring to the table. On the combat scale they reside between Soldiers and Hivers in terms of firepower and survivability, while nowhere near as heavily protected as a Soldier can be they can still wear more armor and lug bigger guns than the physically weaker Hivers. They are also typically the least modified members of a Delver team, their given role typically only necessitating a few small implants and upgrades to allow for highspeed wireless interfacing.

This specialization leaves them the most open to external electronic attack however, as while Soldiers and Hivers need only maintain a well defended port to their handler and comrades, Crackers are constantly probing the Noosphere around them, allowing a certain vulnerability to malicious code and. As such most Crackers have a good deal of skill when it comes to signals warfare and know how to handle themselves should their wireless defenses come under attack.

Some Crackers specialize in breaking into systems and disabling various security systems and traps. Others find their niche controlling 'bots as recon and combat minions beyond the range and power of what a Hiver can produce. Still others find a balance, juggling systems, 'bots and even augmenting fellow Delver's abilities.

that's all I can think of at the moment.

>>4407957
I got a feeling that might happen... somewhere in the wastes exactly that is happening, but all of the live in mortal fear of a rogue Hiver known only as THE BEEMASTER.

>>4408035

Can't see anything wrong with that

let's summarize the archetypes a bit, shall we.

Soldier:

Can take and dish out massive amouts of damage, but isn't much use out side of combat unless weapon/armor maintnance, heavy lifting or breacking stuff is required. Awesome armors, weapons and mods but is very depandant on them.

Cracker:

Handles partys information warfare, scouting, gives situational buffs and debuffs, acts as general purpose party multitool outside of combat and controls minions. Average equipment but is most dependant on programs.

Hivers:

Buffs, debuffs, heals, some direct and indirect damage, is knocked over by an light breeze, is also an multitool but diffrent focus. Crap equipment and is dependant of programs and blueprints.

Did i miss anything?

On Mods:

The two most common forms of modification are Genetic and Cybernetic. The latter easier to install than the former. Nano modification serves as a bridge between the two, cybernetic modification so small and complete that it might as well be genetic.

Cybernetic modifications tend towards the utilitarian. Improved bone structure, subdermal armor, wireless decks, skull guns and the like. Extremely radical additions include fully replaced limbs or large internal computers.

Biological or Genetic modifications tend towards the more exotic. Cosmetic changes like luminescent skin and pointed ears can be found alongside more useful additions like stronger muscles and more efficient blood. Radical changes like additional limbs or hollow bones and wings are not unheard of.

Finally comes nanomodification. The most iconic nanomod is the Hiver addition. The Hiver mod is a combination of Genetic and Cybernetic, cybernetic makers and hardlines teamed with energy producing cells and nanite ejecting pores. While that is the most iconic it is hardly the only nanomod in existence, and given the proper skills and equipment virtually anything is possible with that technology.

>>4408035
>Crackers

Passing by this thread, I thought for a brief second that someone had restarted work on Server Crash.

I was disappoint.

>>4408432
I think that's about right. Soldiers are important because they are combat gods, but vulnerable to electronic warfare, relying on Crackers for electronic protection and Hivers for healing, Crackers depend on Soldiers for Combat, and Hivers for healing... a triangle of dependence.

>>4408634
there was a thread about that the other day, but this is something a little more physical.

>>4408692

Here's a thought.

Borrow for Server Crash for ideas for virtual reality escapades in this setting?

>>4408596
How about this?

Crackers are *fast*.

They have upgraded their cortexes and reflexes to keep up with the potent electronic defenses of their quarry. The need to be able to make choices and execute programs at lightning speeds, outrun enemies that think at the speed of light and electricity, and still keep an eye on the real world.

This doesn't necessarily translate to physical speed, but unlike Soldiers they aren't weighed down by big phallic railguns and subdermal armor either.

>>4408809
It works. Crackers that are less wireless oriented can focus on speed and reflexes.

>>4408674

Glad to hear that, but i am conserned about non-combat aspects. For example if you have an problem of nanotechnological origin you definetly want an hiver to take a look at it, or of it involves robots, machines above nano-scale or computers the cracker is your go-to guy. And if it involves both like cracker telling hiver witch lines to disassemble to disarm an unexploded nuke, or hiver creating tools and spare parts for cracker's repair job. My problem is that the soldier is kinda left out on the non-combat stuff.

>>4408692
There was a server crash thread and I missed it? Fuck.

Polite sage, etc.

>>4409048
all the Cracking and Hiving in the world won't help you lift that 500 pound engine block into place on your delve hauler.

actually that's really lame...

Heavy lifting and maintenance of things like armor and guns would obviously be a prerequisite...

I'm not sure, anyone else have any ideas?

>>4409153

Well, it depends on whether the Soldier (I keep imagining a cyborg version of the TF2 Soldier for some reason) is hardwired to his armor, Big Daddy-style, or not. Because if he can get out of his combat attire, he can do whatever a regular person does in his spare time. But if he doesn't, well then his non-combat roles are kinda limited to heavy lifting and transporting stuff or even people (if he happens to be an APC). I guess a digitized Soldier could have a spare non-combat body to switch to if he wanted to interact with the community in which he lives.

Also, taking another page from TF2, if you think about it every class from there (except maybe Medic = Hiver and Engineer = Cracker) would be a Soldier in Nutopia. So while the Soldier's noncombat roles would be limited, his roles in combat would be really versatile.

>>4409048

Bah! Typical as soon as i hit "Submit" i get an brainwave with more stuff to add.

So in an subversion of normal fighter archetype the soldier could be the face of the group. You see people know that soldiers mean business, in all of the sense of the word. So people are willing to tell them stuff as because if soldier wants to go somewhere, it means that there is or soon will be salvage there, or if soldier wants to meet someone it's usualy assumed that he wants an job or buy something, usualy guns, ammo or mods sometimes in large quantities. The soldier also attracts other people that, while not as good customers as the soldier, buy specialized or otherwise expensive gear.

>>4409200
Alright... yeah.

The soldier as I've got him envisioned would vary wildly in terms of implants from person to person. Some people want just a few dermals and let a top of the line suit of power armor do most of their work, others are almost fully prosthetic, wearing no power armor at all but possessed of insane speed and weird physiology, and then you've got the Tanks, not even human any more, (I keep getting visions of the mind set of the giant mechs from 7 samurai)

Vehicle operation might be another category the soldier has the niche for, some driving them and some just plain /being/ them.

Outside of combat, of little utility, but players can come up with a huge variety of roles for their soldier in the shit.

i thought the cracker was going to be the face. seemed the natural progression. Although I could see any of the 3 being a face. depends on builds/who your talking too.

>>4409242

Also, a Soldier is the one most likely to have experience with the various types of 'bots and Mercs the party is likely to face. Possibly Soldiers may have access to restricted databases, satellite uplinks, and building/vehicle schematics as well which are useful both inside and outside the community. Need some plumbing fixed? Soldier knows where those water pipes go and where the waste reclamation plant is.

Also, a Soldier might have old contacts with other Soldiers in his unit or corp. Meaning that once in a while, you might encounter old friends among a Raider party, or even a Merc pack.

>>4409329
also PLEASE don't just deligate the role of the soldier to combat. makes half the game unfun.

>>4409242
I had that thought to, could work. Crackers are usually to introverted and Hivers are just plain weird little sugar junky performance artists. It also encourages some soldier characters to opt out of major cyberisation, as even in this most progressive of ages people who look mostly standard human are easier to relate to than talking spider tanks who want to buy 2000 pounds of chaingun ammo from the general store.

>>4409357


could this make the solider a bit of a techie too? could be an interesting twist

>>4409379

Different kind of techie compared to the Cracker though. Crackers are all about manipulating technology, interfacing, breaking, fixing and plain talking to machines and systems. That means they spend the majority of their time inside cyberspace.

Soldiers, on the other hand, have access to one or a few Soldier-dedicated systems, and most of them are specced for combat (I imagine most corporate military hackers would be Crackers class-wise) so they spend most of their time outside cyberspace, with a few forays into a database or a satellite to retrieve information.

>>4409408

So Cracker= software and soldier are more familiar with hardware?

i know I may be trying to change things around a bit. I could see myself playing a soldier, but would get tired of only having a street sammie role.

>>4409357
Cracker: "Shit man, 'spheres going nuts, we got mercs, five of em, shit shit shit, 3 of those are Tanks..."

Soldier: "Lemme take a look, hold on, I recognize that paintjob!"

*hops around the corner to confront the oncoming sentient armor column*

Soldier: "YO JERRY!"

Merc: "+Ajax? that you little man? shiiiiit... watchoo doin' out in these wastes boy?+"

Soldier: "Naw man, it's cool. Nawmean? Damn, I haven't seen you since that time in -35 when we shot those college students up at Mumbai."

Hiver: "I was a student at Mumbai..."

Merc: "+Awkwaaard... I'll just leave y'all to it then. Oh and hey, there's a couple more packs coming, might wanna bugout.+"

>>4409444

if only my GM ran like you do...

>>4409433
Cracker would be hardware and software, but much less nuts and bolts. A good portion of the regulating factor in this game is upkeep costs, it takes a lot of resources to keep a top of the line delver team running. Having a soldier who can use parts made by Hivers and Crackers to repair equipment in the field would be extremely helpful. As mentioned above everyone has their own social circles as well, and the Soldiers is the most widespread.

>>4409456
we get someone to crunch this thing (probably tomorrow in the inevitable Thread #3) and I might be your GM.

Oooh... speaking of which, GM is called an SM, as he will most of the time be playing the role of the party's Signal Man, relaying information about the environment and tracking combat. Everything that the GM does, but with an in world fluffy reason for doing it.

>>4409379
Any soldier worth his salt would know how to tweak and maintain his stuff. Probably better than Hivers and Crackers alone, but yet no match for them combined. (To clarify, yes, Hivers can quickly and reliably repair exterior damage)

Jack of all trades, kinda, outside combat, as most useful non-combat archetypes are more suited for Hivers or Crackers. Depending on party dynamics a soldier though may well be very competitive on select areas.

>>4409444

You know, it opens up for a new idea...

PLAYING A MERC PACK.

Back before the Fall, you were the shit. The finest, most psychologically stable, tried and tested not to go insane even as the lab techs crammed more and more implants into your skull, overloading your brain with information. Unvaweringly loyal, unceasingly lethal. You fought in the Hidden Wars, the conflicts that didn't exist in the official records. You dueled with rival companies' Mercs in arctic wastelands, in desert heat, in space and underwater. When the shit really hit the fan, they brought you out to suppress riots back home and you watched the little men scream and run from the mere sight of you.

Then they approached you. The new victors. The communities. They invited you to their new free utopia, their uplinked, organic, low-tech, democratic little enclave of peace and prosperity and hope...

And you took a look at that and said fuck it. Fuck those goddamn bastards in the ass. Fuck the way they look at you as you stroll down the market street. Fuck the inquisitive Operators and their "so where were you in -32?". Fuck the anarchists, the globalists, the oh-so-helpful new government officials and their let's-get-along tripe.

>>4409602

So you and your unit left. For the wasteland, where true freedom is won with the railgun barrel and the hydraulic claw, where you wander the old ruins of your former makers for maintenance and spares and kill your old comrades who have gone insane from isolation and abandonment. When death is around the corner, that's when you're truly alive. This is how it's always been.

And you're happy. There's Jane, and while you both may not have human bodies anymore, when you make camp for the night and catch a few minutes downtime, you interface, and online your avatars looks just like you did in basic training, 50 years ago. And you smile at eachother as you embrace, and you think... This can go on forever. If you can fight and if you can win... You'll be immortal.

>>4409602
>>4409609
This is awesome and you should feel awesome. I especially like the 'fuck you hippies, i had everything and you took it away' attitude.

>>4409478
Crunch wise upkeep should have good parallels with magic in other systems. They might as well regenerate the same way to abstract the finding of neat stuff on the field. Ideally regeneration would be kind of random, to abstract varying availability of different stuff. As follows is a few types of upkeep.

Nanites/Utility Fog -- Hivers eat these up, but Soldiers can use too
Power Cores -- For small and big hardware alike, cracker/soldier
Liquid/Solid Raw Material -- resources for repairs and crafting, soldier/hiver. Importance of subtypes is dubious, adding complexity for additional plot hooks when either is running out.
Old Components -- ready-to-use components for upgrading

>>4409609
>>4409602
well damn...

I think I just came a little

>>4409361

That gives me an idea.

On some settlements there is an special motor pool that aside from normal services features an bar for soldiers with vehicle or otherwise to non-humanoid bodies to socialize. The bar sells small stimulant, depressand or anti-depressand "shots" that can be connected to the soldiers brains life support systems. This injects the stuff straight into the soldiers brain at desired intensity and like normal humans the soldiers enter chemicaly enhanched mood. The bar also give simulations of similar states for fully virtual customers. But the fun starts when suffiently intoxicaded soldiers call bullshit on others war stories too many times, starting an barroom brawl between sentient spider tanks, 800 ton APCs and massive suits of powered armor. Naturaly all external and ammo for internal weaponary is removed upon entry as an atempt to somewhat limit the propety damage.

>>4409663
Aight yall, I'm off to dream of nanite sheep, thanks for all the awesome input, keep her running and I'll see yall tomorrow morning.

>>4409602
What's it like to be a Merc? Do you believe in God? Now imagine that God spoke to you, personally. She upgraded you, made you stronger, had you enact her will. For ten years I was the Strong Arm of Justice against the anarchists. But it was more than that. She was always there, with words of love and encouragement and comfort since I can remember. But since the Corps fell she speaks no longer and I've been trying to find another since then.

Things have gotten better since finding a Signal Man; he's gruff and demanding, but at least I'm not as alone. I lose time occasionally. More and more now. But I find myself caring less and less. Without her voice I might as well left the tech take over and disappear into the darkness.

>>4409677
>>4409686

drunken existentialist tanks...

God this just keeps getting better and better.

>>4409677

And expanding on your idea: how about an entire settlement where every inhabitant is fully mechanized? A haven for the full cyborg. If you wander the streets in realspace, you'll see tanks, APC's and helicopters, but online their human avatars appear.

>>4409677

Awesome idea, but I might have it out in the desert some where. One day the PC's wonder where the Tank goes at night and follows him and then shit brix.

>>4409720

THE JUNKYARD

Built on the ruins of a former corporate military base, in the middle of the Tunisian desert, the Junkyard is a small but famous settlement. It boasts the biggest population of nonhuman cyborgs and uploads in the world.

The entire commune is spaced out over the base facilities, with most newcomer residents inhabiting the hangars of the old airfield, and the older founders residing in the central underground motor pool. Most of the population are former corporate soldiers or Mercs, but a few Crackers in multifunctional utility and maintenance hardshells have also made the Junkyard their home.

The most famous landmark in the Junkyard is Ma Baker's, a saloon bar providing uplinked entertainment and direct brain stimulation to cyborg customers, accessible to vehicles. Ma Baker herself is a 14 ton light tank who doesn't like people asking her to show them her 30mm.

Since the base got hit with a tactical nuke during the Fall, partials or noncyborgs don't visit very often. And since almost every resident of the Junkyard is armed with heavy weapons, raider visits are also quite rare. However, the community lives in constant fear of EMP attacks; construction on a giant Faraday cage around the entire area has begun but is incomplete.

>>4409478
I actually think it would be interesting if there was no dedicated faceman class, since the setting is about ubiquitous networking and global communications. Everyone have their contacts and no-one is entirely outcast. The Soldier has military experience and plenty of old buddies, the Cracker practically swims in news and intelligence on the 'Net, but when you waltz into a ramshackle village of terrified ex-consumer drones, it's the Hiver who can emulate their forgotten pop idol.

So... there's the Delver Teams, who break down into 3 categories, Crackers, Hivers, and Soldiers;

And then there's the Merc Teams, which so far consist of just the old corporate security forces, most of whom are crazy whacked out cyborg tank things that are barely human.

How can the mercs be expanded into classes?

>>4409845

Would be cool if it was an actual idol. That is, an effigy of whatever popstar they're worshipping, surrounded by offerings in the middle of the village.

Or, if in a Jaynestown-like twist, it turns out that the villagers have been worshipping the party's Hiver because of some piece of performance art she made ages ago and forgot about.

>>4401683

Your setting sounds stupid and if I were asked, I'd flat-out turn you down.

Corporations will always be in control as long as they keep cranking out the TV shows, flat-screen TVs, Ipods, video games, and various other forms of high-tech entertainment to keep the masses enthralled. Fuck your idealism - it would never take hold on such a massive scale.

In addition to that, there would be no motivation for me as a player character. What, you want me to go after these guys out of the kindness of my heart? Fuck that, and leave me alone - I'm trying to survive here. If corporations were still in charge, then I would have a steady job with a nice paycheck at the end of each mission.

>>4409864

Sounds like you'd fit right in with the Mercs. Here's your complimentary hardshell and heavy weapons.

>>4409864
Ha. What a dumb ass. Moving on...

>>4409858

I see Merc as a very expensive (metagame EXP-wise as well as in-setting energy and materials-wise) version of Soldier. But if you really need classes, you could divide them into 3 types as well:

1. Tank. The basic, no-nonsense, combat monster.
2. Spook. Cracker in a light vehicle body, lots of interface ports and antennae scanning every spectrum. Recon and hacking.
3. Builder. A vehicle version of a Hiver, designed for construction and field engineering, but can also unleash a lot of nanite nastiness.

>>4409858
I figure Mercs are very focused on Cracker and Soldier archetypes. Hivers were mostly entertainers back then, and their functions were covered by the sheer technology readily available.

Basically Soldiers and Crackers that used to have much more available resources at their disposal, resulting in ludicrously powerful rigs. It is a different story whether they can keep their level up and for how long.

>Humanity vowed, never again.

Statements like this are retarded. As if humanity could or would speak in one voice.

>>4409883
So like the Ma Baker NPC would be... a Spook or Builder. I'm kind of leaning towards something like a Builder just because she runs a bar and makes stuff like that, but then the programming stuff makes her more Spook like. I dunno. Good breakdown though. I totally would play this if someone wrote this into a rulebook.

>>4409917

There's also the question of free will. The corps modified people to fit their roles and to enjoy their jobs and lifestyle, creating worker and consumer drones. There are also military drones. Only the higher-ups with the more complicated jobs enjoyed freedom of decision and even that was curtailed with chemical, implant and genetic conditioning.

>>4409831

Damn, beat me to it. Anyways heres my version.

Good idea but there is probably an "trade district" of sorts that caters for need of the more squishier residents and visitors.

The city itself is build into an massive indrustial complex that manifactured weapons for corporations before the fall. When the guarding machines and merchs were taken out by massive co-ordinaded assault by nearby cities and settlements the complex was captured nearly intact by the attackers, but almost all of the complex simply were not designed for humans but rather for various kinds of heavy vehicles. The humans of the expedition called for simply stripping the complex bare, but the sentient vehicles of the attackers protested and somewhat tense standoff resulted but was ultimatly resolved without bloodshed as the vehicles settled the complex.

These days the city is an centre of commerence as it's 13 functionin indtrustial sized makers and dozens of smaller ones with sizable library of pre-fall and newly developted nano assembly blueprints ranging from cutting edge targeting computers to high performance suspensions, deluxe barf bags, both real and artificial leather linings and fur dies are manufactured in vast quantities. The city also features extensive repair and refit facilities with highly advanced robotic arms perfect for tuning internal systems and creating highly detailed custom paint jobs. The city is also near several permanent raider settlement and merc infested military bases not too far from the city, that can be raided for fun and profit. In short the city offers anything an fun-loving and fashionable combat vehicle could ask for.

>>4409921

That's the new global party line. For conflicting perspectives, see >>4409602 and >>4409609 for a merc calling bullshit on all of this.

Maybe the drugs and stuff had to be dosed to them once a month or once a year. Maybe once they stop delivering doses the effects start to wear off. I imagine after 20 years you could easily have a number of mercs without ridiculous conditioning. Besides, the player group is always an exception to silly things like that. Makes for a better story.

>>4409940
>>4409831
Sounds like a good starting place for a Merc Group.

Such a place makes a good launch point for any number of stories. A bar brawl leads to some mercs meeting up. Go raid a nearby camp to discover *DUN DUN DUN* that some secret AI is making shit happen. And i dunno the rest. I can never come up with full stories, which is why I don't DM XD.

>>4409945

Well, obviously no one wants to play a mindless combat drone. But I was just trying to make a point that free will in this setting is an expensive resource, for which you have to fight and that has to be defended from intrusion (by hacking, activating old protocols, or the like). Imagine if your old corporate boss walked up to you in the middle of the ruins and you feel the familiar subservience and submission creeping up. How would you fight it? What the hell is the Man doing out here in the wild? All this makes for interesting roleplaying.

>>4409970
OOh I see what you're saying. You could even make it a stat. Free Will. Some cracker trying to screw with your protocols? Throw a free will save to try and fight it. Higher free will stats mean less likely to fall victim to the old ways. That would be an interesting dynamic.

>>4410000
GET

But even besides that, you could have some pretty cool modifiers. Your merc group's builder could have a nanite cloud of some sort that increases your free will by clearing your circuits and defragging your hard drive or something, but a delver hiver could do the same by overheating your system causing it to overtax itself. Any number of cool things.

waste of a GET>>4410000

>>4410048
Concurrence. Goddamn. At least it isn't some bullshit modget.

>>4410048
>>4410056

Personally, I prefer interesting discussion concerning an original setting to a stale pseudo-ritual connected to a quirk of the board's function, but I guess that's just me.

I dig the free will stat, but it might be hard to differentiate between someone hacking you and someone using diplomancy.

I'll try to flesh out the mercs a bit, but first I would like to say that I think that on the sliding scale of idealism vs.. Cynicism this setting is on the idealistic side being post-cyberpunk. So in other words the mercs are on the losing side of the conflict here.

During the fall the central command structure of the mercs collapsed nearly instantly witch prevented them from organizing an credible resistance as when the chain of command was re-established it was already too late: the corporation had lost, they just refused to admit it. Before the collapse of the last holdout of organized corporation resistance, the surviving mercs were given an standing order to destroy any rebels encountered. Now after nearly two decades after the fall very few still follow that directive, as most of them have realized that the new world order is here to stay and there is nothing they can do about it anymore.

Soon after the fall the scattered merc units began to re-organize, at first the last order of their now dead corporate masters were a natural thing to follow as the new settlements were poorly defended and raiding was very rewarding. But soon thing began to change the settlements began to have better fixed defences and more trained militia and there were increasing amount of mercs that hired their sevices to defend the settlements. Things took an turn for even worse for the mercs with the appearance of delvers, the delvers competed in same salvage and spare parts as the mercs. While the delvers weren't as well equip or experienced as the mercs, their greater numbers began to wear down the mercs. The last nail to the mercs coffer was the organized an common defense for settlements and first after-fall cities, based around fast VTOL transports that could rapidly deploy reinforcement to any settlements under attack.

con't

>>4410545
con't

These days an slight majority of the mercs are either hiring themselves to the settlements for maintenance or equipment or are part off delvers. In any cyborg city like The Junkyard or similar you can guarantee that in the bar there is an old, beat-up hardshell merc going on about the "good old days" to anyone who will listen. They tell stories about their pre-fall exploit under the corporations and stories about vast, invincible, unstoppable, burning and pillaging hordes of state-of-the-art killing machines. Those honest-to-flying spaghetti monster raider mercs that refuse to trade or barter are an dying breed, but while no means rare they are slowly being wiped out by delvers or simply lack of salvaged spare parts.

Thoughs?

>>4410557
>>4410545
Definitely works for me, allows for Merc players, gives them a major balancing factor (probably a level adjustment, maintenance costs and the inability to fit into small buildings) and we still have that bogeyman effect of those few remaining rogue merc units.

gimme a minute to work on an Idea here...

Biomercs:

When the corps ruled Mercs were, as now, the greatest fear of the common citizen. Massive vehicles and and armors that prowled the streets and leveled homes on a whim. There were, however, a more secretive kind of hired muscle employed and engineered by the corporations; Biomercs.

Designed and deployed for missions where a 126 ton thinktank just wasn't the right tool for the job, Biomercs were the Corp's hitmen and assassins. Rigged with the latest and best biomods and cybernetic parts most Biomercs would never pass as human. Animal limbs and organs along with weaponized appendages created perfect snipers and close range massacre artists. They specialized in pin point precision and high speed attacks.

Perhaps even more frightening were the covert operatives. Externally a normal human, and internally shielded so that cursory scans will turn up nothing amiss, covert biomercs were the ultimate tools of deadly infiltration.

Nowadays Biomercs are becoming less and less common. They were by their nature on the bleeding edge of genetic modification, and needed constant monitoring and medical assistance when not in the field. Most died or went insane after the fall from simple withdrawal symptoms. Those that managed to survive by finding caches of medical equipment are loathe to move far from their lairs except to fulfill their encoded desire for the hunt. The Coverts, to, are a dying breed. A good deal of them went active as soon as the Corps started to loose control and were killed in the ensuing violence. Most Communities are diligent enough to catch any trying to sneak in, and some will even allow in "reformed" coverts who have gotten over their old genetic imperatives and memetic commands.

that's all I can think of at the moment, anyone else have any ideas?

blump

shameless promotion

burp

With the feral or corp-loyal Mercs slowly dying out, the main threat to the communities are Maker hackers. Many of the smaller settlements have fallen when their Maker module suddenly began spawning robotic killing machines, victims to malicious code inserted through infected blueprints or skilful intrusions by rogue Crackers.

There is also the issue of Mercs forming raider bands, often leading them in daring, well-planned and well-supplied campaigns of siege warfare and convoy interdiction, managing to threaten even the large cities. Some of the more famous ones, like the Red Widow, Commander Kerberos and Lefty the Spook, have continued to elude bounty hunters and militia forces for decades, gathering their armies in the wastelands.

>>4410540

I think a "free will" stat is an interesting idea, but I agree it's problematic to call it that. Let's think of it from another angle: have that stat be "Independent Action".

Basically, it marks how good you are at independent, free decision-making. Can you resist commands given on your dedicated frequency? How good are you at shaking off the illusions, loaded with subliminal consumer messages, projected by pop-diva Hivers? Are the old directives implanted in your cyborg body still whispering to you, compelling you to kill your newfound comrades, to raze the city you've come to call home? Do flashbacks from the Corporate Era haunt you, in your sleep or otherwise? Independent action is the symbol of the bygone era: everyone had it curtailed, regulated and limited in some way or another, and now everyone must struggle with the issue of whether or not they can ever be truly free.

>>4414095
It's for exactly that reason that most settlements keep their makers on closed systems. They are still vulnerable to anyone inside the community, but it keeps and malicious tom dick or harry from making your Maker start spewing disassemblers in the middle of the nights.
>>4414124
advantage of playing a freeborn, you don't have access to some of the nicer corporate stuff at the start, but you don't have to worry about old conditioning kicking in, as you were born after the fall.

>>4414188

Freeborn might still struggle with the unpredicted after-effects of genetic conditioning inside their parents' germ cells. Mutated, hard-coded memes have killed many children and left scores more deranged.

But yeah, I was mainly thinking of Independent Action being a tradeoff for power. If you roll Tank, that means you accept the GM may spring some nasty, hard-coded surprises on you.

>>4414306
and if a party allows a tank in they run the risk of getting a 120mm uranium dart up the ass at an inopportune juncture.

Sample Delver Team:

Ajax Johnson, Soldier:

Ajax is the defacto leader of the team, and maintains their gear and weapons when not filling a medium fire support role in combat situations. Ajax remembers the corps well and takes relish in repossessing the goods and equipment his friends and family were worked to death to create.

Carlos Rodriguez, Soldier:

Carlos is a Freeborn and as cocky as they come. His relative lack of enhancement compared to other members of the team limits his effectiveness if he's caught without his armor and sniper cannon, but he's also just plain likable. He acts as the faceman for the group and does much of the wheeling and dealing tha Ajax just doesn't have the patience for. In combat he can be found in a suitable vantage point and engaging enemies at long range.

PHü3r PHrie, Cracker:

Despite her colorful name and even more colorful hair PHü3r is all business. She is a digitized cracker who jumped into a hard shell through the net when her body was destroyed during the revolution. Her hardshell is a one of a kind humanoid work of art that is almost as fast physically as she is mentally. While no pushover in a fight she mostly focuses on computational tasks and maintaining GoGo, the team's flying surveillance 'bot.

>>4414624

Koko Yanno (who do you think I was listening to when I came up with this?) Hiver:

Koko was a pre-fall musician who used her hiver implants to augment her stage show. Now she pitches in as a full time defense and healing specialist for Ajax's delver team. she accompanies them into the field, bringing up swarms of projectile killing nanites and facilitating tissue growth and healing should something get through.

ARES, Merc Tank,

ARES is one of Ajax's old military buddies and PHü3r's husband (don't ask). He is not fully digitized, his brain case is actually hardwired into his chassis. His role on the team revolves around the fact that he is an incredibly advanced legged Infantry Fighting Vehicle who can level immense firepower towards any significant threat the team might face. Should the team need to move inside a structure that can't accommodate something of his bulk he is capable of inhabiting GoGo should they need his continued presence.

>>4414624
>>4414629
The team operates in the former sahara industrial zone, one of the few areas in the world with enough abundant parts to allow a relatively small team like this one maintain a Tank. They are home based out of Fane, a mid sized community built in the ruins of an old megachurch. Their missions and runs have brought them as far north as Junkyard and they've been within spitting distance of Spire on more than one occasion.

They employ a Signal(wo)man by the name of Sophia, who operates all of their signals equipment and handles clients while the team is away. given the nature of the net some clients will want to actively follow the team's progress, and it's up to Sophia to make sure they don't clutter up the air with distracting noise.

Specializing mainly in retrieval jobs and dabbling in bounty hunting Ajax's Delvers are a well rounded team on the rise, and in some amount of demand in the central African area.

This setting deserves a good rule book and good Illustrations so fucking much.

>>4414810
hmm... I wonder if we can get some Crunchfags and Drawfags in here?

(inb4 "I said /good/ art and /good/ rules")

Old conditioning kicking in should be largely predictable, allowing a old corporate merc to sustain his sanity to some extent. Crunch wise the DM should hand a ex-merc a almost comprehensive list of conditioning applied. There should be mostly non-lethal stuff hidden still.

Ajax

>>4415103

Carlos

>>4415110

PHü3r PHrie and ARES (humanoid hardshell variant)

>>4415120

Koko

>>4415129

Sophia

>>4414095
Remnants of the Corps shouldn't be the only enemies you have to face. With the world splintered into a million little communities looking out for themselves with no more authoritarian boogiemen for them to unite against, petty tribalism should be making its comeback bigtime. You'd have to deal with rival teams trying to secure Delving rights before you can, plain old discrimination, and not to mention settlements engaged in zoning disputes or even outright conquering and incorporating each other because some bigwig thinks he should try for King of the World. I'm not sure if the original architects and executors of the Fall had plans for what happens afterwards.

>>4414937

Why not have the merc character creation include a list of directives along with a list of abilities/mods? Every time you buy an upgrade, you roll on the conditioning chart to see what you get.

>>4415120
Oh, right, because they are soooo emblamatic of digitized couples. Just typical of you meatpeople to only have one kind of acceptable relationship. You know what? I am getting so damn of all these skinny bitches looking at me funny because my husband's a tank. I swear, I get one more evil eye from one of those fucking soccer moms and I'm giving her children memetic tourettes.

(from my stupidly large library of assorted _____punk images)
Ajax

>>4415873
Carlos

>>4415948
PHü3r

>>4415967
Koko (in reality not quite as insubstantial as this)

>>4415972
ARES

>>4415993
Sophia (tweest)

>>4415873
>>4415948
>>4415967
>>4415972
>>4415993
now who wouldn't want to play an RPG with these people as viable characters?

>>4415149
Tribalism is typically caused by fear of the unknown, with the global net in place that attitude is largely mitigated. Sure you may have to contend with less scrupulous delvers, and those communities that are hostile are typically pushed under the moniker of "raider" eventually.

The three kinds of enemies discussed so far are Raiders, 'Bots and Mercs, by order of increasing difficulty. Other threats exist, but are just less prevalent.

The Sonic cartoon series was post-cyberpunk, now that I think about it.

>>4416160
If you mean Sonic The Hedgehog then yes.

Holy jesus that was a good show.

>>4416160
It was also sweet as heck.

Sonic was ALWAYS cyberpunkish, right from the start.

>>4416167
/agree

if we ever get rules for this thing I'm rolling a hiver addicted to chili cheese dogs.

>>4416052
>Tribalism is typically caused by fear of the unknown

read that as tribadism, and it works...

>>4416201
er.. what?

>>4416187
I've been thinking about it for a long while but ever since PnP Mario, I've been really working on it. I saw the threads of others who had the same idea and kind of slowed down, waiting for someone else to complete theirs first so I can learn from their mistakes. I'm okay with how it's turning out so far, maybe I'll post it up in a week.

>>4416392
I'm confused, rules for this or rules for a Sonic the Hedgehog RPG?

>>4416464
Sorry, I got caught up in the slight tangent. A Sonic the Hedgehog RPG.

>>4416538
you have raised my hopes and dashed them quite expertly sir.