Krav Maga – The Israeli Martial Art for Cyberpunk 2020

Krav Maga – The Israeli Martial Art to the World

Author: Hound. Used with kind permission.

Krav MagÃ?¡ is not a martial art. Krav MagÃ?¡ is the only style world-wide known as an art of self-defense and not as a Martial art. There’s no tournament competitions, rules or forms (katas or katis in some martial arts).The technique of Krav MagÃ?¡ is based on mind and intellectual force, no matter what the physical strength you have, and had as a goal the transference of weight as explosive force. As physics tells us, strength is equal to mass multiplied by acceleration. The strike brings to the target the striker’s body weight. The strike’s movement works as a spring released: the speed does not have continuous acceleration; it is released at maximum speed. Its like an explosion.

All the Krav Mag�¡ moves were created based on natural body movements and are all very simple, what makes their use easier on danger and surprise situations. The moves are short, and by consequence, fast. There are no rules. The technique was created for real-life situations application. The strikes are intended to body sensible targets, what makes the Krav Maga practitioner and his adversary even, independently from their physical strength, and makes the defense more objective. In short: Krav Mag�¡ is a simple personal defense system, fast and objective, accessible to anyone.

This art is also taught in a few major cities in the United States (Denver, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and several in the Los Angeles area) as well as Israel, Brazil, Finland, France, Norway, and Sweden. It’s taught as a means of self-defense, as well as a sport. Indeed, it’s particularly well-suited to purposes of self-defense; it’s full of counterattacks and ways to repel and subdue an attacker, including a lot of action to sensitive areas of the body such as the eyes and groin.

Among law enforcement agencies in the United States that use Krav Mag�¡ are the FBI; the US Coast Guard Tactical Unit, Park Service, and Treasury Department; the Texas Department of Public Safety; the State Police Departments of Alabama, Connecticut, Illinois, and Pennsylvania; the Beverly Hills Police Department; and many others. Thus this is a good martial art for PCs and NPCs alike who are members of those outfits.

Game Bonuses:

IP Cost x3
Strike +2 (with staff, knife, and rifles used as staves)
Punch +3 (most often to vitals)
Kick +1 (a few good kicks)
Escape +4 (advanced training is mostly in getting out of trouble)
Block +3 (same)
Grapple +2 (to achieve the next maneuver)
Choke +3 (a very effective way to subdue an enemy)
Disarm +2

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Be sure to check out www.kravmaga.com for more information

Juvenile Emancipation: An Idea for Cyberpunk 2020

Juvenile Emancipation: an idea for Cyberpunk 2020

Author: Mockery (Mockery’s)

I first read about this idea in Over the Edge, from Atlas Games. I filed it away in the back of my head and didn’t really think about it again until Cybergeneration came out. Now, I don’t especially like Cybergeneration, for reasons I won’t go into here, so the idea of playing a kid never appealed to me. But at some point in the last year or so, the 15-year-old juveganger from Cybergen collided headlong with the pubes from Over the Edge and the following concept was born.

In our games in 2020, any child between the ages of fourteen and eighteen (or sixteen, if you go by Home of the Brave) can be emancipated or declared a legal adult, with all the rights and privileges thereof.

The minor in question must meet the following requirements:

PSYCHOLOGICAL –
The minor must pass a battery of psychological exams which ensure that he (or she) has the emotional maturity to survive as an adult. This is weighted in favor of stability, so one must actually have slightly higher-than-average COOL (7+), but only an average EMP (6+). Continue reading “Juvenile Emancipation: An Idea for Cyberpunk 2020”

Cyberpunk Tech 3

Screenshot: Courtesy of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Via Wired: This Is The World’s Most Advanced Bionic Arm – this shiny little piece of tech. Its much like the cyberarm I envisioned in the games. The linked article gives more info about state of the art prosthetic tech, even nerve splicing to connect the limb to the body. Well worth reading.

Muscle and bone lace

Everybody has it, it gives you +2 on BODY, next to no humanity cost and probably works well against back pain, too. Almost to good to be true, right?

No: Via Trigram I found a report on nanotech. The researchers are close to finding a very similar stuff, usable for Muscle&Bone Lace as well as the much more cyborg-style hardness-improved bones.

Crime and Punishment in Cyberpunk 2020

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Author: unknown.

An age old problem for most GM’s is that, whether or not the PCs are working for the side of good, they always end up breaking the law. They expect the cops to take down every creep in town but when they are pulled over for speeding they just can’t see why the cops are picking on them. “After all, we’re the good guys!”

No way! When a cop sees half a dozen armed guys shooting up a place they arrest them. They don’t give a hoot whether it just happens to be the home of a gang boss.
So the answer is to arrest them for every crime, right? Wrong! The game wouldn’t go anywhere if the players had to go by the rules all the time. A bit of a catch-22 really! Continue reading “Crime and Punishment in Cyberpunk 2020”

TRINITY – A Cyberpunk 2020 Church and Corporation

TRINITY

Author: Gary Astleford

“What’s Trinity? Combine the worst of all the evil televangelist ministries on the planet (estimated net worth on the order of billions), throw in a dash of cutthroat corporate ethics (extraction teams who work for the Lord), mix in Valley Bible Death Camps and razorwire towers, a cruciform data fortress staffed by pro-level born-again netrunners, and you’re starting to hear the word of Jesus Christ. Can you say Amen, brother?”
— Jody Morris, aka Virtue

GM’s NOTES

Trinity originally started out as an enemy in an old campaign I ran based on Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime. After that, it became a very vague, yet compelling, presence in my Cyberpunk universe. I’d dismissed it for several years, not thinking anything more of it until the Coke Madness game, which happened sometime in mid-1994.

Most of my ideas for Trinity came from events in the news, including Jim Baker and the PTL. Lots of evangelical types added to my brainstorming. I mean, here you’ve got this completely screwed up society. Modern (ie, 90’s) Christians are thinking that it’s so bad now, the Rapture is coming any day. So what do these people do when things get worse? They can either turn away from faith, or they can grab onto it tighter, like a drowning man on one of those floating hot dogs. Continue reading “TRINITY – A Cyberpunk 2020 Church and Corporation”