Wir akzeptieren nur den Wopper-Coin

Ist dein Dark-Future-Setting noch nicht abgefahren genug? Der Frikadellen-Brater Burger King hilft.

Die Schnellrestaurant-Kette Burger King geht in Russland neue Wege in Sachen Kundenbindung: Käufer sollen für jeden umgesetztem Rubel (umgerechnet rund 0,014 Euro) ein Kryptowährungstoken namens Whoppercoin erhalten.
(Quelle: Heise.de)

Hat man in dem Settingbuch “Hardwired” schon erkannt, dass staatliches Geld nichts mehr wert sein wird, so ist die Realität schon weiter. Mit dem Woppercoin sehen wir hier wohl den Beginn der ersten Konzernwährung.

Coole neue Sachen für Cyberpunk 2020

Es gibt ein paar sehr coole Sachen, die in jüngerer Zeit für Cyberpunk als Genre rausgekommen sind. Da ist zum einen eine Vornheim-inspirierte Settinghilfe namens Augmented Reality.

Awesome Setting Help for all kinds of Cyberpunk games.

Und dann bin ich über eine tolle Serie gestolpert, die Jobs auflistet, die für jene sind, die keinen gut bezahlten Konzernjob kriegen. Das Gegenstück zum Burger wenden beim Macces könnte es sein, die Drone zu polieren, die deinen alten Job macht. Mein Favorit:

Rental Smart-Car Attendant: across the city, travellers rent their driver-less smart-cars by the hour or subscribe to commuter vehicles. For all their efforts, the corporations have yet to create the drone that can reliably pick the used condoms and burger wraps out of the lining between the car seat and the door.

Es gibt drei Teile:

Cyb3rpunk | Style Trends 2035+

streetstyle.jpg

Hello and welcome to this month’s edition of streetstyle – the attitude guide that yo can’t afford to miss. We here at global style watch the trends. And ask the street: What’s hot? What’s not?

Digittoos – Artificial-looking body alterations are out. Leave those to the sad sods who still rant on about the glorious days when they were “Cyberpunks” in the 2020ies. Today’s look is all about self-evolution. About making a statement of progress right in Darwin’s wrinkled face. At first, I was a little surprised when I discovered that even “old” technologies like Philips’ Electronic Tattoos are now all the rage in the clubs. But like it is often the case with “revamped” tech, it’s not the tech that counts, it’s the style. Continue reading “Cyb3rpunk | Style Trends 2035+”

Stranger Than Fiction

Blade Runner Umbrella

Remember the kewl “glowing” umbrellas in Blade Runner? As I already wrote here in my blog, these are available NOW! from a company called Euroschirm.

Unfortunately, the umbrella isn’t shown or listed on their website, but as my readers began to suggest that this ad may be a fake I hunted down another address where YES you CAN order it directly, thanks to the guys at ThinkGeek.com. Here’s the link, and it costs 25$.

Meanwhile, I have found even weirder futuristic umbrella concepts – stuff that the makers of Blade Runner could never even have imagined …

(There’s also a variant to this theme: The Starlight Umbrella uses optic fibres to simulate a glimmering starfield above your head – with changing lights!)

RFID umbrella

Take the RFID umbrella, for instance. What’s that? Basically, it’s a “free to use” umbrella you can just take away and use in case you need it. The RFID chip will monitor your movement (and make sure you don’t steal the umbrella). The Corp that came up with this idea is named “Dutch Umbrella”, and apparently it was a barkeeper who had the original idea. The tech is there and the umbrella seems to be in use already. Click here for a German article from the Stern magazine.

Satellite Link Umbrella

But wait! There’s more! Americans AND Japanese engineers both had the idea to connect an umbrella with a weather forecasting service. While the American umbrella will display weather warnings and such by use of a small LED display, the Japanese umbrella uses the umbrella surface itself as a large projection surface, transforming the umbrella’s underside into a large computer monitor you can also use as a GPS screen or for video conference or whatever.

The main advantage of the US version is that it can already be ordered at – guess where – ThinkGeek.com. Here’s the direct link.

Here’s the website of the JAPANESE umbrella, and here is an (older) video of the umbrella’s 3rd gen prototype test:

[youtube mpHJBWUcpXM]

In case the video won’t play, try this link.

Watch yourself bleed to death in slow motion

We’ve said it many times, and chances are we will keep on telling you: Cyberpunk’s not dead, it’s just turned into our present. Almost every day, we find stuff that most Cyberpunk authors may have once described in their visions of our future. And in a lot of cases, this future turned out to be a lot weirder than any SF author could have guessed.

So here’s another fine selection of weird and often quite inventive Cyberpunk stuff, this time from the incredibly imaginative website thinkgeek.com

Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt

The definitive add-on for each and every poser gang member. Don’t be satisfied by just looking like Kirk or marching like Vader. Let others hear your personal soundtrack in each and every situation. Catch more information and a funny video of the many uses of this piece of tech here. Available NOW! for 39.99$

Labyrinth Security Lock

Ever thought that security stuff that just slows down intruders (like Cyberpunk 2020 player characters) is unrealistic? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Even in 2020, there are geeks lurking behind every corner. They may even work in the R&D department of your next megacorporate target. Geeks LOVE labyrinths and puzzles. As you can see for yourself with this titanium labyrinth security lock. Available NOW! for 49.99$

Youtube Tazer

Big Brother is here. And chances are, he will never leave. Especially if he is so much fun to have around. Like when you taze that ‘punk that tries to assault you and instantly upload the video of your successful hit to Youtube. Or your security provider. Or the cops. Imagine all the fun you and your fellow Cyberpunks can have with Fashion Guncam versions of this idea. Watch yourself bleed to death in slow motion. Maybe even to your own soundtrack (check out the Soundtrack T-Shirt, above). Available NOW! for 99.99$.

Wii Pee Game

No. It’s not real. You have not just discovered that there is a peeing game for the Wii console. Super Pii Pii brothers? Give me a break. Sorry pal. No rest for the wicket. The peeing game is here (yes, there is a video as well). Available NOW! fpr 34.99$. Peeing controller included.

Snooze and Lose

This one gets a bonus point for creativity in getting the wage slaves off their fat asses and earning the megacorp even more money. Originally, this alarm clock is intended to donate money every time you hit the snooze button to a charity organisation you HATE – giving you a great incentive to get up immediately, instead of snoozing on. By 2020, this gizmos are bound to be installed in every wageslaves appartment. Hit the snooze button, and your employer will receive a payback from your bank account. Hit the snooze button three times, and you may receive the ultimate wakeup call by that tazer they built into your corporate appartment’s bed. They may even share your tazed early morning self via that handy youtube tazer application, feeding the vid directly into the megacorporate employees network. The original SnūzNLūz is available HERE for 39.99$

Have Fun At Thinkgeek.com

There are a lot of other nifty things available there, like the deadly annoying Sonic Grenade, the easily upgraded USB Webcam Rocket Launcher, the highly useful 1.3 Megapixel Spy Camera Glasses, The dream of every Orion Battlelord (see SSDC page for Battlelord RPG info – Orions are aliens that wear kilts) Utility Kilt, the amazing Ultimate Hoody with built-in Personal Area Network, the very first in Urban Flash jewelry, the uber-cool Aurora Borealis Mood Projection Lamp (how could anyone ever live without it!), a f**cking lot of High-Tech watches from Video to WiFi Detection, a top-of-the-notch RFID Experimentation Kit, the TOTALLY innovative Driving LED Emoticon with which you can show other drivers smileys, the TeleSpy Intrusion Detector that gives you a call if it spots any movement in your home, a (soon) very useful RFID Blocking Wallet and the likewise very useful Hidden Camera Detector

Cyberpunk Art 6: Tank Time

Always looking for a fashionable way to move through the post-apocalypse: The Tank!

Tank in the rain

Tank in the rain This armored scoutcar is the ideal urban tank. Fast and well armed, no punk can do better! Found as Vehicle concept on Gorilla Artfare
Click on the image for a larger picture.

Cyberpunk Art 4

marc taro holmes is a great artist and fellow wordpress.com user. Always on the prowl for some pics to help find the right mood in a cyberpunk 2020 rpg session, here are some very useful (and beautiful) ones:

Faces This picture can be found at art theft as exercise and immediately inspired several NPCs and a character concept. Great work!
China Town SF Chinatown is a cool background for Triad action! Some more pictures (and this one) in greater resolution are to be found at 17th international sketchcrawl! Chinatown SF