Category: adventure

Cyberpunk Band Names?

The AV Club has a list of the worst bandnames of 2007

its great fodder if you need to compile some kind of Top 10 list or being asked by your players whats on the radio. Also, remember that Boosters are music fans gone hooligan. So they need bands to adore, too. I selected my top names, but check out the original post for lots more.

Snitch-Chip today its for pupils, tomorrow for the wage-slave

The ARCH Blog informs us about a projekt in a british secondary school where pupils have RFID chips in their uniform that transmits rather sensitive data:

The chip connects with teachers’ computers to show a photograph of the pupil, data about academic performance and whether he or she is in the correct classroom.

Well, next time you start your Cyberpunk 2020 game with the PCs flipping burgers somewhere, you know how to make them rebel… why wouldn’t they be chipped, too?

“Mr. Anderson, we noticed that your average toilet time is 0.4% higher then the average for male employees. This reduces your productivity and costs the company a lot of money. See to it that you come to terms with this problem!”

Its stunning what you would be able to learn about the person chipped.

With this amount of spying, its easy to rationalise why someone would feel punk enough to grab a gun and become an outlaw…

Zombie Drug

I found an article about Scopolamine on boing-boing. It’s a really scary drug, taking your free will away and allready available. Criminals love it – they can force the victim to give them all its money or use them sexually. Its also very likely to kill the user right away. That makes it instant cyberpunk 2020 game material for me. I figured I would need some hard game rules for the drug, so my first stop was Ocelots Drug Lab 101 and the wonderfully helpful Javascript Tool Night-flyer provided.

This is the result:

Scopolamine (Zombie Drug)

Drug Effects:
HypnoticUntimed Side Effects:
Death		 Drug Features:
Longer DurationTimed Side Effects:
Loss of Inhibition
Memory Loss		 Totals:
Strength: +5
Difficulty: 21
Duration: Long
(1d10 hours)
Legality: Type A Illegal
Drug Form: Powdered/Snorted
Time to Effect: 1d2 Min
Purchase Price: 0 (50eb)

Since Ocelots Rules are mainly aimed at creating game balancing rules, the drug ist without a purchase price – who would willingly take the drug? So I assigned a price tag of 50eb – seems reasonable to me.

[Scopolamine] is as close to pure evil as it gets, a tiny amount of the powder administered to the victim causes one of two effects, a) death, or b) complete loss of free will. Criminals are usually hoping for the latter, as it enables them to tell victims to empty their bank accounts, give away their car, perform sex acts, basically whatever the criminal dictates.

This is where Scopolamine has got its reputation as the “zombie drug”, victims appear completely sober and rational, but they’re really just automatons. (Source for the description: boing-boing)

Der Abenteuertrichter für Cyberpunk 2020

Doc Rotwang hat den Adventure Funnel (Abenteuertrichter) erfunden, um Gedanken zur Schaffung von Abenteuern und Kampagnen zu kanalisieren.

Da ich vom 26-28. 10 beim Rollenspielseminar in Plön eine Cyberpunk Runde leitete , brauchte ich ein Abenteuer. Ich hab den Tunnel angewendet, und hier die Schritte dokumentiert. Den Ruhm, das Tool als erster in deutsche übersetzt zu haben, steht aber Norbert G. Matausch zu. Meine Übersetzung im folgenden ist allerdings etwas werktreuer…

Schritt 1: Ziel

Schreibe einen Satz mit der Aufgabe der Spieler. Widerstehe der Versuchung, es kompliziert zu machen. Das kommt noch. (Außerdem erledigen das schon die Spieler für dich). Der Satz soll mit einem Verb beginnen.

Ziel: Verhindert ein Attentat. Continue reading “Der Abenteuertrichter für Cyberpunk 2020”

Leite auf dem Rollenspielseminar des RIP in Plön

Am 26-28. 10 findet in Plön beim RIP ein Rollenspielseminar statt. Ich bin eingeladen, eine Cyberpunk Runde zu leiten. Hier der Teaser:

Äh ja, Cyberpunk. Das Spiel der alten Säcke, die schon in den 80ern dabei waren. Ja, so wie Shadowrun, nur ohne diese coolen Elfen, Trolle und Orks… und ohne die Magie.

Wer bei mir spielen will, bekommt eine dunkle – aber einigermaßen realistische (eben orklose) – Zukunft präsentiert, eine Welt in der sich Gentechnik, Atomunfälle, Klimakatastrophen, Zerfall der westlichen Welt und eine unvorstellbare Menge an TV, Internet, Drogen und Gewalt zu einer hoch explosiven Brühe mischen. Diese Themen sind evtl. nicht für Spieler unter 16 geeignet. Tja, liebe Shadowrunner – ich werde zeigen, dass die Menschheit auch ohne Magie die Welt in eine Hölle verwandeln kann.

Zum Spielabend: Wir beginnen mit der Erschaffung von Charakteren, eigene können mitgebracht werden, wobei ich aber auf einen vergleichbaren Powerlevel achten werde. Gespielt wird, bis ich einschlafe, Kaffeeflash habe oder Nils wieder nackt tanzt.

Zum Abenteuer: Es beginnt als Counterspionage/Bodyguardjob. Er spielt sich im Milieu der Superreichen ab, der Powerlevel ist also nach oben offen. Chars beginnen mit REPutation 3 oder besser, nicht zu knapp Kohle und einem Standing in der Szene. Soziale Fähigkeiten erwünscht.

Cord hat Rattenmannverbot.

An old favorite rediscovered: Dan's Total System Technologies

I couldn’t find it on google at first, but now I rediscoved the link. The site is full of goodies and looks plain awful. Updated till 2004 Dan made some really cool stuff:

Snake Eye Patch
The original Snake Plissken had something happen to his left eye and consequently wore an eye patch. So you want the same look without sacrificing your depth perception. This we can do. With the Snake Eye Patch we make the fabric so you can see through it but other people can’t see through the other way.
But we don’t stop there. We also add a Times Square Plus and Targeting Scope HUD in the Patch so you’re enhanced while looking like your disabled. What about connecting it to a computer or your gun I hear you ask, well the connecting cables are part of the string that holds the patch in place so they won’t know that your enhanced.
Also available without HUD.
Cost: 1,000eb

For those who remember Snake Plissken in “Escape from New York”, he converted all the equipment from that movie to Cyberpunk 2020. He also has full borgs, cyberware, guns, huge amounts of vehicles and all kind of stuff

MAAS-NEOTEK GUIDES

MAAS-NEOTEK GUIDES
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE UNITS

In “Mona Lisa Overdrive”, William Gibson’s second novel, Kumiko has a AI travel guide that simply rocks. Here are rules to create one for your cyberpunk 2020 game. But beware – it doesn’t really fit the average tech level of the cyberpunk 2020 universe.

Author: Syberman
Taken from Datafortress 2020.

“The ghost awoke to Kumiko’s touch as they began their descent into Heathrow. The fifty-first generation of Maas-Neotek biochips conjured up an indistinct figure on the seat beside her, a boy out of some faded hunting print, legs crossed casually in tan breeches and riding boots. ‘Hullo,’ the ghost said.”

[ Mona Lisa Overdrive ]

GUIDE: BACKGROUND

The origins of the first artificial intelligence guide is unclear, the event was never recorded in the history books. In an unknown lab, in an unknown country, the first biosoft was developed, a device capable of storing hundreds of memory units. The technology was in its embryonic stage when the designer Janice Grubb first became interested in its applications. Since the creation of the I.G Algorithm in 2014 she had become increasingly worried about cyberspace and transcendental sentience. If her theories were correct she had not only created life, but trapped that same life in the endless bounds of cyberspace. The biosoft technology was the answer to her conundrum, how to free, that which could not be freed. It’s unclear how her Internet paymasters reacted to her idea’s on the future of cyberspace, what is clear, is that Grubb allowed herself to be extracted to the Maas Corporation. Continue reading “MAAS-NEOTEK GUIDES”

Mafia Hintergrundwissen

Wer sich mit der organisierten Kriminalität befasst (s. dazu auch das Mafia Job Starter Kit), dem sei folgendes Buch ans Herz gelegt.

Roberto Saviano: “Gomorrha. Reise in das Reich der Camorra”, Carl Hanser Verlag, München. 21,50 € (Bei Amazon bestellen).

Der Autor muss seit Erscheinen unter Polizeischutz leben. Es soll SEHR realistisch sein. Ich habs eben bestellt – eine Rezi folgt.