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> 2060 in SR4A Terms, 'Decks, Drugs, Rock & Roll?
Nifft
post Aug 25 2010, 07:22 PM
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How would the world of 2060 look in SR4A terms? I'm thinking of starting a street-gang game based in 2060, then playing through the Almanac events leading up to 2072, by which time the PCs will be big-time movers & shakers. This will allow lots of downtime for training, surgery, and other medical treatments.

The few things I can think of immediately:
- Fewer & less effective Bioware & gene therapies.
- Fewer & less effective drugs & nanoware.
- Simsense modules would be BIG (and called "cyberdecks"), and there would be no AR: you'd need screens, and the interface would be generally sucky compared to AR hacking.

I'm planning on playing it that the events of Emergence are what allowed simsence modules to become so miniature (the new tiny 2072 ones were basically reverse-engineered from otaku / TMs) and AI design is what allowed AR to become so efficient (Renraku arcology experiments).

So, what other changes do I need to make? Hopefully simple stuff like just removing certain gear until it becomes available at a certain date.

Thanks, -- N
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Synner667
post Aug 25 2010, 07:39 PM
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QUOTE (Nifft @ Aug 25 2010, 08:22 PM) *
How would the world of 2060 look in SR4A terms? I'm thinking of starting a street-gang game based in 2060, then playing through the Almanac events leading up to 2072, by which time the PCs will be big-time movers & shakers. This will allow lots of downtime for training, surgery, and other medical treatments.

The few things I can think of immediately:
- Fewer & less effective Bioware & gene therapies.
- Fewer & less effective drugs & nanoware.
- Simsense modules would be BIG (and called "cyberdecks"), and there would be no AR: you'd need screens, and the interface would be generally sucky compared to AR hacking.

AR exists now - it'll def be around in 50 years.

You got vid screen glasses for watching iPhone movies on, so AR glasses won't be far away - it's just waiting for the tech to connect cameras, software, screen and wireless connection...
...10 years or less I reckon.

You're talking about a bunch of streetpeople - why would they have bioware, geneware, nanoware, "modern" gear at all ??
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Nifft
post Aug 25 2010, 07:48 PM
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QUOTE (Synner667 @ Aug 25 2010, 02:39 PM) *
AR exists now - it'll def be around in 50 years.

Sold. AR hacking stays.

QUOTE (Synner667 @ Aug 25 2010, 02:39 PM) *
You're talking about a bunch of streetpeople - why would they have bioware, geneware, nanoware, "modern" gear at all ??

They won't at first. They'll start out with basically drugs as their only option for an extra IP.

But they'll make money, especially as they suddenly yet inevitably betray their organization and strike out for themselves, and they'll get access to certain gear -- particularly used cyberware -- as they do off-the-books favors for certain street docs.

Basically, I want to roughly map out the state-of-the-art over time, even for stuff that WILL be beyond the PC's reach, for the same reason Deltaware stats are in the core book: you should know what the highest peak in the world is, even if you can't reach it yet, both so you can have a goal to aim for, and so you know what the MOST BAD ASS PRIME RUNNER might have.
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Kruger
post Aug 25 2010, 08:05 PM
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AR "exists" today, but the Shadowrun canon always stated that what made cyberdecks important was the direct melding of the mind and the machine. The commlinks, even with VR rules, don't mesh with that idea. A cyberdeck equipped person connecting directly with a datajack was lightning fast compared to a terminal user or someone using VR trodes. AR hacking makes no sense in those terms, especially when you think about the kind of bandwidth overloads the future would have connecting that many devices at the same time.

As far as augments go, most cyber and bionetics were available by 2060. The tech scene wouldn't look that much different, except perhaps in terms of the Nanotech which was relatively new in 2060. Advanced gene theraping was a construct of 4e. I don't really know how much of a tech progression you're going to see over just ten years. Most of the things that are staples in Shadowrun had been in development for decades by 2070

And I'm not sure how you would reverse engineer the brains of otaku and technomancers into usable electronics.
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imperialus
post Aug 25 2010, 08:09 PM
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You want to be careful with low powered though and make sure that by limiting technological gee-gaws you don't end up overpowering awakened characters. Mages and PhysAds are powerful enough already. By taking away the mundane's cyber and bioware they'll underperform significantly compared to awakened.
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sabs
post Aug 25 2010, 08:20 PM
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Don't allow a magic score over 3 or maybe 4
Don't let the mage buy a full complement of spells
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Dwight
post Aug 25 2010, 08:36 PM
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QUOTE (Nifft @ Aug 25 2010, 01:48 PM) *
Sold. AR hacking stays.


Definitely. Reduce the wireless access though. I think mechanically make the default for an area wireless-free, wireless is only in very specific locations or on limited number of vehicles (make it an expensive option to add to a vehicle). So they have AR but they normally have to jack to get it (and maybe give the fluff for AR as a bit clunky).
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Nifft
post Aug 25 2010, 09:02 PM
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QUOTE (imperialus @ Aug 25 2010, 03:09 PM) *
You want to be careful with low powered though and make sure that by limiting technological gee-gaws you don't end up overpowering awakened characters. Mages and PhysAds are powerful enough already. By taking away the mundane's cyber and bioware they'll underperform significantly compared to awakened.

Yeah, my way to handle that is nobody starts Awakened. They can Awaken fairly soon after the campaign starts, but they'll be buying up their Magic with Karma.

QUOTE (Dwight @ Aug 25 2010, 03:36 PM) *
Definitely. Reduce the wireless access though. I think mechanically make the default for an area wireless-free, wireless is only in very specific locations or on limited number of vehicles (make it an expensive option to add to a vehicle). So they have AR but they normally have to jack to get it (and maybe give the fluff for AR as a bit clunky).

Right! That totally makes sense. Hacking requires a lot more application of the Hardware skill in 2060.

Thanks, -- N
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hobgoblin
post Aug 25 2010, 09:53 PM
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QUOTE (Synner667 @ Aug 25 2010, 09:39 PM) *
AR exists now - it'll def be around in 50 years.

You got vid screen glasses for watching iPhone movies on, so AR glasses won't be far away - it's just waiting for the tech to connect cameras, software, screen and wireless connection...
...10 years or less I reckon.

You're talking about a bunch of streetpeople - why would they have bioware, geneware, nanoware, "modern" gear at all ??

thing is, SR diverted from our timeline back in the 80s somewhere. And it only became more divergent as time passed.

for instance, the whole computing concept of SR got basically reset during crash 1.0, as renraku used it to push a new kind of storage system or something. This allowed the corps to basically reset things back to pre-internet levels, geared to behave somewhere between the analog phone system and cable tv. In essence, SR1-3 deckers where phreaks rather then "crackers".
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Dwight
post Aug 25 2010, 10:26 PM
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Connecting tortoise style was not entirely unlike AR. I've always viewed AR mode as a cleaner description of the distinction between Joe Public, especially the ones that didn't have jacks, and how the wiz deckers did it.
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CanRay
post Aug 25 2010, 11:45 PM
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QUOTE (hobgoblin @ Aug 25 2010, 04:53 PM) *
In essence, SR1-3 deckers where phreaks rather then "crackers".

Better than the ScriptKiddies around now (IRL and 2070.).
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