Tag: cp2020

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)

Free Cyberpunk Novel Online

Rudy PostsingularRucker decided to publish his new novel online, for free. He even uses the CC-Licence! This summary is taken from his own site:

Postsingular and its sequels represent Rucker’s return to the cyperpunk style of his classic Ware tetralogy. But this is 21st Century cyberpunk; Rucker calls it psipunk.

Postsingular takes on the question of what will happen after the Singularity-nanotechnology takes on the power of magic?

A mad scientist decides it might be a good idea to create a giant virtual reality simulation that is running a copy of Earth and of most of the people in it. Fine, but in order to create this simulation, the mad scientist plans to grind our planet into a zillion supercomputing nanomachines called nants.

Ultrageek Ond Lutter and his autistic son Chu find a way to block the nants-but then Ond can’t resist infesting Earth with a congenial breed of quantum-computing nanomachines called orphids.

The orphids coat the planet, one or two per square millimeter, and now everyone is on-line all the time, and everything is visible in the orphidnet. Artificial life forms emerge in the orphidnet, these are helpful agents called beezies, and they pyramid together into a superhuman planetary mind called the Big Pig. People can mentally access the Big Pig and feel like geniuses-with the catch that when they come down they can’t really remember what they saw. Those addicted to this new kind of high are called pigheads.

The lovers Jayjay and Thuy begin as pigheads, but Thuy manages to kick the habit to work on a vast orphidnet-based narrative called a metanovel. Jayjay continues his sessions with the Big Pig in hopes of learning more about science-and this puts a damper on their love affair. But the mad scientist is still machinating to bring back the nants and destroy Earth, and Thuy and Jayjay reunite to save the world.

It helps that Jayjay has figured out how to do teleportation via the orphidnet. And that Thuy has made friends with a giant, ethereal man from a parallel world called the Hibrane. Jayjay helps Thuy teleport to the Hibrane for help. The Hibraners do have a fix for Earth’s problems, but it’s going to be a bigger change than anyone ever imagined. Earth is on the verge of a postdigital age, more postsingular than anyone ever imagined.

Nature will come alive.

(Via Boing-Boing)

Botnet Storm punishes its enemies

The first evil computer program that defends itself. Its so cool!

The worm can figure out which users are trying to probe its command-and-control servers, and it retaliates by launching DDoS attacks against them, shutting down their Internet access for days, says Josh Korman, host-protection architect for IBM/ISS, who led a session on network threats.

As you try to investigate [Storm], it knows, and it punishes, he says. It fights back.

As a result, researchers who have managed to glean facts about the worm are reluctant to publish their findings. They’re afraid. I’ve never seen this before, Korman says. They find these things but never say anything about them.

And not without good reason, he says. Some who have managed to reverse engineer Storm in an effort to figure out how to thwart it have suffered DDoS attacks that have knocked them off the Internet for days, he says.

As researchers test their versions of Storm by connecting to Storm command-and-control servers, the servers seem to recognize these attempts as threatening. Then either the worm itself or the people behind it seem to knock them off the Internet by flooding them with traffic from Storm’s botnet, Korman says.

Source: Networkworld

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”

Automatic Drug Generator

The result looks like this:

Kick-Ass

Drug Effects:
Attribute Increase: + 5 REF

Untimed Side Effects:
Slightly Physiologically Addictive
Slightly Psychologically Addictive

 Drug Features:
Longer Duration

Timed Side Effects:
Bloodshot Eyes

 Totals:
Strength: +5
Difficulty: 72
Duration: Long
(1d10 hours)
Legality: by Prescription Only
Drug Form: Pill/Tablet
Time to Effect: 2d6x10 min
Purchase Price: 180

Night-Flyer has a cool Javascript Drug Generator to easily create drugs using Ocelots Drug Lab 101.

Great Work, Night-Flyer!

Genetic Hallmark for Cyberpunk 2020

This is the tech Deckert used in Bladerunner to identify the snake…

Hallmark (10,000eb and up)

Also from SLA Industires, Hallmarks are incorporated into a subject’s gene structure and manifest as distinctive tattoos, birthmarks, logos, or other markings on the skin. They are functionally identical to a DNA tattoo, but Hallmarks manifest on the subject’s descendants, rather than on the subject himself. Implanting Hallmarks is an extremely difficult and expensive process (30+, requiring Expert: Genetics to even attempt it). Hallmarks are used to indicate lineage (in the case of genetically optimized corporate families) or place of manufacture (for bioengineered animals). HC=1D6/2, SC=MA.

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.

DNA Tattoos for Cyberpunk 2020

DNA Tattoos (1000eb and up)

From SLA Industries, the DNA tattoo is a design which has been permanently incorporated into the body’s skin structure. Like a normal tattoo, it becomes a permanent feature of the skin; unlike a normal tattoo, it will regrow if damaged. Extensive or major wounds which cause heavy scarring will distort the tattoos, but simple cuts, scrapes, or burns will not affect the design. Plastic surgery may be able to repair serious damage with a Difficult Med Tech roll. These tattoos require genetic modification and, like Exotic Skinchanges, have a small chance of causing skin cancer (5%). HC=2, SC=M.