 Making own game more Cyberpunk |
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 Aug 23 2010, 03:13 AM
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#1
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Target  Group: New Member Probation Posts: 2 Joined: 23-August 10 Member No.: 18,958  |
Hey guys,
Myself and a couple of friends recently started playing shadowrun amongst ourselves. None of us have really had much experience with the system or setting before this. We had a game last night and I couldn't help but notice that we weren't really using the setting to its full potential. Barring using a commlink instead of a mobile we could have been in real life today. So how would we make the setting more "cyberpunk" or futuristic? I admit that neither of our characters are particularly techno-savvy but still. |
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Aug 23 2010, 04:00 AM
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#2
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 558 Joined: 23-June 10 Member No.: 18,749 |
gridlink(autopilot) on cars.
drones. cyberware. exotic materials such as plasteel and ferrocrete, and monowire. even if your characters dont make use of these things, the NPCs will. |
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Aug 23 2010, 04:16 AM
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#3
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Target Group: Members Posts: 30 Joined: 28-March 08 Member No.: 15,824 |
Focus on the mega cities and the dominence of the mega corporations over everyday life. Have ther commlinks bombarded by advertisements, have convoys of corporate troops escort some big wig through their area of town. What about just making a point of mentioning how the kinds of things they do in this world are taken care of by fancy technology. Doors open automatically and greet you in a pleasant female voice,.
Become familiar with the different vehicles and drones...hell just drones themselves should give a pretty good image of how much technology has changed. They clean up garbage, hover in the air above intersections to control traffic. The gridlink is a system that monitors cars and prevents accidents as well as allowing for interesting hacking abilities,. Some things are fairly unique to shadowrun, like drugs being replaced by sim chips that stimulate the senses in ways that make real life seem dull and lifeless. Urban brawl, the sport of the future. Have the players have a meeting in an arcology (a self contained city within a city. Hovercars are almost as common as normal ones. The tint on the windows can be changed at will, and even be used as a TV while your car drives itself. You don't have to park your car, it can drop you off and find it's own way there. Call it when your done dinner. Nutri soy replaces alot of meals for poor people, let the players know how rare a good old steak is. People in shadowrun are walking talking facebook pages, everyones pan displays common info on them and stores nearby scan your comlink to find out if they have deals that you might be interested in. Everything can be hacked!! Get the players into the mindset of using the envirment to their advantage...Everything is a mini computer! Sunglasses, contact lenses, watches, tables, cyberware and even clothes! Plus, ther is all that magic, most building with any kind of security will have wards on them, which show up on the astral plane. It wouldn't be uncommon to see a spirit or two shooting accross the sky on some mundane task, or a more clandestine one. Find some viaul aids. When I thinmk of what the cities in shadowrun look like, I see new york in the movie 5th Element, or Bladerunner. Want atmosphere? Try your best to ignore the shitty acting and poor excuse for movie magic and watch Johny Mnemonic. |
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Aug 23 2010, 04:29 AM
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#4
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 516 Joined: 22-July 10 From: Detroit Member No.: 18,843 |
Strange Days is an excellent movie for the feel of a Shadowrun city as well.
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Aug 23 2010, 04:53 AM
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#5
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 111 Joined: 21-July 08 Member No.: 16,154 |
Plus, everyone knows everything about you if you have a sin.
QUOTE Operator:
Thank you for calling Pizza Shack. May I have your System Identification Number? Customer: Hi, I'd like to place an order. Operator: May I have your SIN first, sir? Customer: My System ID Number, yeah, hold on, eh, it's 6102049998-45-54610. Operator: Thank you, Mr. Sheehan. I see you live at 1742 Meadowland Drive, and the phone number's NA-UCAS/SEA-4942366. Your office number over at Lincoln Insurance is NA-UCAS/SEA-7452302 and your cell number's NA-UCAS/SEA-2662566. Which number are you calling from, sir? Customer: Huh? I'm at home. Where d'ya get all this information? Operator: We're wired into the system, sir. Customer: (sighs) Oh, well, I'd like to order a couple of your All-Meat Special pizzas. Operator: I don't think that's a good idea, sir. Customer: What do you mean? Operator: Sir, your medical records indicate that you've got very high blood pressure and extremely high cholesterol. Your Corporate Health Care provider won't allow such an unhealthy choice. Customer: Darn. What do you recommend, then? Operator: You might try our low-fat Soybean Pizza. I'm sure you'll like that. Customer: What makes you think I'd like something like that? Operator: Well, you downloaded "Gourmet Soybean Recipes" from the public library last week, sir. That's why I made the suggestion. Customer: All right, all right. Give me two family-sized ones, then. Operator: That should be plenty for you, your wife and your four kids, sir. Your total is ¥50 Customer: Just pull it off my credit balance. Operator: I'm sorry, sir, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay in cash. Your credit balance is over its limit. Customer: CASH?! Who uses cash these days?! I'll run over to the ATM and get some cash before your driver gets here. Operator: That won't work either, sir. Your account's overdrawn. Customer: Never mind. Just send the pizzas. I'll have the cash ready. How long will it take? Operator: We're running a little behind, sir. It'll be about 45 minutes. If you're in a hurry, you might want to pick 'em up while you're out getting the cash, but carrying pizzas on a motorcycle can be a little awkward. Customer: How the heck do you know I'm riding a bike? Operator: It says here you're in arrears on your car payments, so your car got repo'ed. Customer: @#%/$@&?#! Operator: I'd advise watching your language, sir. You've already got a July 2056 conviction for cussing out a Lone Star officer. Customer: (speechless) Operator: Will there be anything else, sir? Customer: Yes, I have a coupon for a free 2-liter bottle of Coke. Operator: I'm sorry, sir, but our ad's exclusionary clause prevents us from offering free soda to diabetics. |
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Aug 23 2010, 05:07 AM
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#6
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Great, I'm a Dragon... Group: Retired Admins Posts: 6,699 Joined: 8-October 03 From: North Germany Member No.: 5,698 |
Acid Rain. And it's constantly raining. In the rare times that rain doesn't pour down on the luckless citizens of a sprawl, smog blocks out the sunlight.
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Aug 23 2010, 05:23 AM
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#7
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,679 Joined: 19-September 09 Member No.: 17,652 |
QUOTE (Tiny Deev @ Aug 22 2010, 11:53 PM)  Plus, everyone knows everything about you if you have a sin. Annoyingly true. SR is a bit weird in that a SIN contains basically everything about your life, and yet you're expected to broadcast your SIN freely to anyone and everyone who asks (especially in certain areas where it is actually the law). Privacy? Is that a city in France or something? |
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Aug 23 2010, 05:30 AM
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#8
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Target Group: New Member Probation Posts: 2 Joined: 23-August 10 Member No.: 18,958 |
Cool thanks for the good ideas guys. I don't think our GM got the whole futuristic feel of the setting right so I'll give him a hand. I guess I'll head down to the video store and rent out The 5th Element then (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) .
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Aug 23 2010, 05:46 AM
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#9
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,679 Joined: 19-September 09 Member No.: 17,652 |
QUOTE (Trent243 @ Aug 23 2010, 12:30 AM) Cool thanks for the good ideas guys. I don't think our GM got the whole futuristic feel of the setting right so I'll give him a hand. I guess I'll head down to the video store and rent out The 5th Element then (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) . The thing with any setting is that it requires some part on the GM/players to make it non-generic. The truth is that SR is very easy to play as 'modern day with magic and cybernetics and drones' and it does require a certain touch to give it that cyberpunk feel. Take Ebberon for example from the other game. It is an amazing setting, but it is beyond easy to make it simply another generic D&D world because the actual rules for it aren't different (few new races/class/abilities, but not much else). SR could easily be changed to steampunk with a few simple rules tweaks and a large dose of new descriptions. So yeah, SR, like any RPG, is what you make of it. Hope that made some sense, way too late to be posting (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) |
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Aug 23 2010, 06:11 AM
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#10
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 542 Joined: 1-August 10 From: Occupied San Diego Member No.: 18,877 |
Don't get the 5th Element if you want it get a feel for a more cyberpunk setting. Get The Fifth Element because it is an awesome film.
If you really want to capture a cyberpunk feel, get Blade Runner instead. SR4 isn't very cyber-punky though. So TFE might be closer to its version of the future. |
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Aug 23 2010, 07:46 AM
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#11
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,405 Joined: 23-February 04 From: Honolulu, HI Member No.: 6,099 |
Bubblegum Crisis is a pretty decent cyberpunky vibe, if you ignore the hardsuits. Since it takes its own cues from Bladerunner, it makes sense. The AD Police files stuff is pretty good as it avoids the Knight Sabers hardsuit issue, but still has a pretty dark crazy feel to it.
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Aug 23 2010, 08:37 AM
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#12
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Prime Runner Group: Members Posts: 3,803 Joined: 3-February 08 From: Finland Member No.: 15,628 |
QUOTE (Tiny Deev @ Aug 23 2010, 06:53 AM) Plus, everyone knows everything about you if you have a sin. Except there's no reason for the pizza joint to access all that data, only think they need to know is whether you have money to pay them or not. SIN is nothing but a reference number for databases, what you can find out by getting someones SIN depends on what databases you have access to, for the corner pizza joint that isn't gonna be many. |
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Aug 23 2010, 08:48 AM
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#13
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 542 Joined: 1-August 10 From: Occupied San Diego Member No.: 18,877 |
"Your kids are starving. Carl's Jr. believes no child should go hungry. You are an unfit mother. Your children will be placed in the custody of Carl's Jr."
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Aug 23 2010, 09:25 AM
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#14
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,899 Joined: 29-October 09 From: Leiden, the Netherlands Member No.: 17,814 |
One of the interesting things about (somewhat Pink Mohawk) cyberpunk is the odd sense of freedom.
It works like this: there are thousands of laws, nobody understands them and they all contradict each other. You can't stay legit; everyone breaks the law. If the laws were really systematically enforced, society would collapse. In practice, law enforcement always has an excuse to arrest anyone they want, but they only do so if they really care. As long as you don't piss off the Powers That Be, you can do what you like. Society consists of drop-outs just as much as it consists of boring sararimen. So fashions go wild, people carry illegal arms, illegal implants, drugs, whatever. |
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Aug 24 2010, 05:10 AM
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#15
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,542 Joined: 30-September 08 From: D/FW Megaplex Member No.: 16,387 |
QUOTE (Voran @ Aug 23 2010, 02:46 AM) Bubblegum Crisis is a pretty decent cyberpunky vibe, if you ignore the hardsuits. Since it takes its own cues from Bladerunner, it makes sense. The AD Police files stuff is pretty good as it avoids the Knight Sabers hardsuit issue, but still has a pretty dark crazy feel to it. True. I can make the hardsuits though. QUOTE (Mäx Posted Yesterday, 03:37 AM ) Except there's no reason for the pizza joint to access all that data, only think they need to know is whether you have money to pay them or not. SIN is nothing but a reference number for databases, what you can find out by getting someones SIN depends on what databases you have access to, for the corner pizza joint that isn't gonna be many. Exactly. |
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Aug 24 2010, 08:07 AM
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#16
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,705 Joined: 5-October 09 From: You are in a clearing Member No.: 17,722 |
QUOTE (Kruger @ Aug 23 2010, 12:48 AM) "Your kids are starving. Carl's Jr. believes no child should go hungry. You are an unfit mother. Your children will be placed in the custody of Carl's Jr." "This particular individual is unscannable." (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sleepy.gif) I personally like the SINless in Seattle sort of low BP street-level game as an introduction to the setting. Bunch of poor, malnourished bastards drinking rat swill in a burned out shell of what used to be a city before the corps decided that they could just curl up into a prison/commune and leave the rest of the world to starve off slow. The cops, when they show, are all armored troops with attack drones and tactical software, giving them inhuman efficiency and coordination. Pompous jackbooted thugs who would kill you as soon as look at you. Then you introduce the tech and the layers of future awesome as they move up a little. Or you just roll up some higher BP characters. |
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Aug 24 2010, 01:02 PM
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#17
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Incertum est quo loco te mors expectet; Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,546 Joined: 24-October 03 From: DeeCee, U.S. Member No.: 5,760 |
Style over substance. Pink mohawk is more cyberpunk than black trenchcoat. Make sure pink mohawk 'plans' always have the right item at the right time, and black trenchcoat missions don't.
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Aug 24 2010, 04:23 PM
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#18
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 542 Joined: 1-August 10 From: Occupied San Diego Member No.: 18,877 |
Style over substance was from the Cyberpunk 20xx game. Not really the genre. I mean, look at the most common example of Cyberpunk in film, Blade Runner. That's hardly Pink Mohawk. Then look at the most common example in literature, Neuromancer. Also not Pink Mohawk. Sure both stories have some bizarre imagery, but neither Deckard nor Case were successful by being overly flashy. I'm not really even sure where the game Cyberpunk 20xx came up with that idea. Probably because it was a product of the early/mid 80s. The same decade that brought you rock stars with teased hair and tights and told you that was acceptable for a man to dress like. Few, if any of the good cyberpunk stories are Pink Mohawk, even if they might have some striking visual elements to them. Black trenchcoat is just an evolution of the neo-noir/tech-noir style that is the classic cyberpunk setting. The "black trenchoat" style of Shadowrun was just the way the game evolved to take the core concept of Shadowrun (cyberpunk setting corporate espionage and subterfuge) and make it more believable (updating the security tech and runner tactics) and thus a bit more immersive, story wise.
Pink mohawk may be your favorite way to play Shadowrun, but it most certainly isn't "more cyberpunk" than black trenchcoat. And I know some of you will argue this to the death because you like Pink Mohawk games, but don't give the poor guy misinformation. |
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Aug 24 2010, 04:51 PM
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#19
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 516 Joined: 22-July 10 From: Detroit Member No.: 18,843 |
QUOTE (Kruger @ Aug 24 2010, 11:23 AM) Style over substance was from the Cyberpunk 20xx game. Not really the genre. I mean, look at the most common example of Cyberpunk in film, Blade Runner. That's hardly Pink Mohawk. Then look at the most common example in literature, Neuromancer. Also not Pink Mohawk. Sure both stories have some bizarre imagery, but neither Deckard nor Case were successful by being overly flashy. I'm not really even sure where the game Cyberpunk 20xx came up with that idea. Probably because it was a product of the early/mid 80s. The same decade that brought you rock stars with teased hair and tights and told you that was acceptable for a man to dress like. Few, if any of the good cyberpunk stories are Pink Mohawk, even if they might have some striking visual elements to them. Black trenchcoat is just an evolution of the neo-noir/tech-noir style that is the classic cyberpunk setting. The "black trenchoat" style of Shadowrun was just the way the game evolved to take the core concept of Shadowrun (cyberpunk setting corporate espionage and subterfuge) and make it more believable (updating the security tech and runner tactics) and thus a bit more immersive, story wise. Pink mohawk may be your favorite way to play Shadowrun, but it most certainly isn't "more cyberpunk" than black trenchcoat. And I know some of you will argue this to the death because you like Pink Mohawk games, but don't give the poor guy misinformation. Technically, the Tech-Noir of Neuromancer and Bladerunner is a sub-genre of cyberpunk. Of course, the entire list of cyberpunk work is so tiny that the idea of sub-genres makes me laugh (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) In any case, I do think you're right that "over the top" is not an integral element of cyberpunk. Actual cyberpunk elements: 1. High Tech and Low Life 2. Post-industrial Dystopia 3. Corporate power over governments 4. The uncomfortable mesh between man and machine - often literally |
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Aug 24 2010, 04:59 PM
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#20
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 3,179 Joined: 10-June 10 From: St. Louis, UCAS/CAS Border Member No.: 18,688 |
Snow Crash is a good representation of Pink Mowhawk cyberpunk. I don't think any of the characters got anywhere by being subtle.
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Aug 24 2010, 05:41 PM
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#21
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Prime Runner Group: Members Posts: 3,996 Joined: 1-June 10 Member No.: 18,649 |
QUOTE (Doc Chase @ Aug 24 2010, 05:59 PM) Snow Crash is a good representation of Pink Mowhawk cyberpunk. I don't think any of the characters got anywhere by being subtle. Wait you mean the guy with PIC tattooed on his forehead wasn't SUBTLE? |
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Aug 24 2010, 05:46 PM
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#22
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 583 Joined: 6-November 09 From: MTL Member No.: 17,849 |
QUOTE (Doc Chase @ Aug 24 2010, 11:59 AM) Snow Crash is a good representation of Pink Mowhawk cyberpunk. I don't think any of the characters got anywhere by being subtle. Oh come now. They all listen to Reason™ (IMG:style_emoticons/default/silly.gif) |
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Aug 24 2010, 05:49 PM
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#23
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 3,179 Joined: 10-June 10 From: St. Louis, UCAS/CAS Border Member No.: 18,688 |
QUOTE (Dr.Rockso @ Aug 24 2010, 06:46 PM) Oh come now. They all listen to Reason™ (IMG:style_emoticons/default/silly.gif) Don't forget when it comes to Rock-Paper-Helicopter, Skateboard always wins. |
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Aug 25 2010, 12:30 AM
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#24
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 944 Joined: 19-February 03 Member No.: 4,128 |
QUOTE (Doc Chase @ Aug 24 2010, 11:59 AM) Snow Crash is a good representation of Pink Mowhawk cyberpunk. I don't think any of the characters got anywhere by being subtle. I can't think of _anything_ more Pink Mohawk than a 750mph pit bull. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Raven with his NUKE on a biomonitor trigger is pretty PM though... On second thought nothing is more PM than a team of shadorunning neoanarchist hooders who moonlight (daylight?) as a synth band as a cover. |
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Aug 25 2010, 12:38 AM
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#25
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 252 Joined: 11-June 10 Member No.: 18,694 |
QUOTE (Ed_209a @ Aug 24 2010, 04:30 PM) Raven with his NUKE on a biomonitor trigger is pretty PM though... "Sidecar nuke" is something that would, if not in Snow Crash, be thought up and sent straight to the Pink Mohawk thread. Or the list of Things Not Allowed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) |
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 14th March 2025 - 01:55 PM |
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