Thornhill - Casanova
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Cyberpunk
Streets of Fire
Overview
Quick Detes
Guidelines
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- Overview01OverviewNot backing down. Never backing down. Not backing down.
ForewordLet
“Night City… If you were to liken any place to a modern day Babylon, it would be the good old city of dreams. Rampant corruption, Crime statistics that ascend into the stratosphere, and a poverty rate that makes bombed out shitholes in the midwest look like pre-collapse New York city in comparison. But there’s one thing that keeps people from all over the globe showing up in droves to the urban sprawl. The promise of Night City, where your dreams can be reality.
Most bright eyed and hopeful dreamers don’t know that behind the mystique and glamor lies a maw of teeth sharper than any monomolecular edge or mantis blade. From the gangs of petty criminals, corrupt police, and unscrupulous corporate magnates, Night City chews them up and spits them out, turning otherwise good people into junkies, joytoys, and everything in between. But sometimes those of humble means rise to heights unimagined, the lowliest of intern’s in a corporation, gangoons meant as little more than meat shields for senior gang members, and even the every-man who has had enough of the rat race, and decided to take the path of the edgerunner. Lotta gonks have left their mark on the city, the (in)famous Johnny Silverhand, Morgan Blackhand, Adam Smasher, David Martinez, and the city's newest edition to its wall of legends, a merc who simply went by V.
But remember choom, for every success story, there are 10 others who failed, the price of that failure often being a life. And for most of those aforementioned names? They didn’t even make it in the end. Sometimes when the chips are down, it isn’t about saving the world… It's about saving yourself, metaphorically and literally. So go ahead and ask, what price are you willing to pay to be a legend?”
Life in 2078It
2078, hell of a year to be alive, Night City still reeling from the death of Saburo Arasaka and the assault of Arasaka HQ by the merc V, the first year of the Peralez administration seeing the poverty and homelessness rates decrease for the first time in years as well as the general lessening of the stranglehold that major corporations held over the city and its denizens. All seems well in the City Of Dreams, but it could be anything but.
With lessened corporate oversight and placation/strong-arming, many of the city’s criminal gangs have ramped up their more illicit operations as well as bolstering membership numbers with the disenfranchised with hopes of carving out a living outside the corporate ladder. Militech as well as the NUSA have begun to attempt to force their way into a position of power with the now weakened Arasaka still consolidating after the 2077 assault of Arasaka HQ, while Jago Szabo and the elusive Mr. Hands plot from within Pacifica’s quarantined district of Dogtown patiently. The status quo that had dominated Night City for decades has been toppled, and the stage is set for a new main player to take the center, but right now? None of that concerns a gonk like you.
Who are you exactly? A rocker looking for their first big break or just the next pair of legs to get in between? A drifter turned street samurai, selling your blade and gun to the highest bidder? One of the few honest badges trying to scrape through the muck to bring down Night Cities worst? A Netrunner diving headfirst into the blackwall for the first time?
Or perhaps you’re just a hapless Cyberpunk, caught up in the moment and tagging along for the ride.
The disappearance of Night City’s top dog V, has started an edgerunner renaissance, every gonk with C tier implants and shoddy iron wants to be the next living legend. Coincidentally not long after V vanished, those versed in the inner workings of the Net noticed an alarming uptick in activity around the blackwall, enough to have Netwatch shitting their pants and pulling major resources into investigating as well as moving multiple assets into Night City. Whether you were caught up in the fanfare of the surge of edgerunners in the city or had been pushed into it through other means such as necessity or desperation doesn’t matter, you’re here and you’re expected to perform, so don’t fuck it up, second chances are practically unheard of in the underworld and word of botched jobs as well as shady biz travels fast, In order to succeed you’ll need to be equal parts cunning, brutal, and most importantly, lucky.
But you already knew that huh? Get a grip, Samurai. You have a city to burn.
Fortune Comes CallingBurn“Hey Choom! I know you’re probably wondering how I found your email address, but that’s the beauty of having netrunners on the payroll right? Anywho, I heard from some chooms in low places that you’re in between a regular crew and fixer, luckily it seems we can both help each other out, I just so happen to need a group of talented edgerunners for a job that’s cropped up, real simple and easy eddies. If it sounds like something you’d be interested in, drop down to the Afterlife and ask for Eddie. We’ll be set for a respectable chunk of change (split fairly, of course) and if all goes well, this could be the beginning of a very profitable relationship.
I look forward to hearing from you : )”
- Nice Guy Eddie
- Quick Detes02Quick DetesCome join the dance of destruction. Valor, sweet as a kiss.Parts to Play001The landscape of Night City's underworld is equal parts diverse and esoteric, if you got the scratch, you've got the means to acquire virtually any object of one's desires. Responsible for the acquisition of a clients request is a fixer, a go between for the not-so-honest folks who work the job and the client. Despite a middleman seeming superfluous, fixers are much better suited to acquiring the necessary talent and material for the effective and expedient undertaking of whatever task the client is paying for and making sure that eddies change hands after a successful job.
The mercs in question are all usually unique in manner, equipment, and competency, but in order to make finding suitable individuals less of a pain, most mercs classify themselves within certain roles and skill sets to differentiate from the common gonk.
Solo: The classic gun for hire. Well armed, well trained, and not particularly choosy about who they pull the trigger on, Solos are a mercenary's mercenary. A cut above the rest in terms of combat ability and skill that is usually enhanced by extreme amounts of cyberware, combat drugs, and plain old experience. Years of hard-bitten combat and fighting have left solos with almost a sixth sense for danger, as well as making them some of the most vicious and brutal fighters in Night City. No one is quicker on the trigger or as violent in close range as a solo, numerical superiority or another solo of equal skill often being the only thing that can stop a solo worth their salt, and even then if a solo is determined not even that could stand in their way. The lifestyle takes a toll however, the constant state of conflict lead most solos to develop deeply ingrained trauma and equally destructive addictions and coping mechanisms. It's no surprise most of the cyberpsycho population is made up of former solos who went over the edge after an op gone bad or installing more chrome than they could handle.
Netrunner: Individuals that surf cyberspace as simply as breathing, Netrunners are the hackers of the future made manifest. Able to access the deepest layers of the net that most normal people could only dream of, running extremely complicated interface programs, Netrunners are able to see, interact, and touch cyberspace like a normal person would reach out and touch a tree or rock. With cyberware that connects a cyberdeck directly to a runner's brain, they are able to execute hacks, counter-hacks, and a myriad of other programming wizardry with a thought and much faster than with an analogue medium. While Solos are considered the apex predators of meatspace, it doesn't matter how good the quality of your sub-dermal armor and sandevistan is when a Netrunner can fry your synapses like an egg in a matter of nanoseconds. Runners aren't usually the most overtly threatening or deadly individuals at first glance, but make no mistake, a runner has even more ways to kill you than a Solo or professional assassin, and no one would even know it was the original perpetrator unless they wanted you to.
Rocker: Known as Rockerboys or girls respectively, Rockers are the new age punks and rebels using music as a medium for their message, often being to cast down the corporate overlords and to resist the tyranny that has become so common in the modern day. Johnny Silverhand is a good representation of what most rockers aspire to be (Narcissistic and sociopathic tendencies withstanding) but being a rocker isn't exclusive to musicians. Performance artists, street poets, social leaders/activists, or even one of the few honest politicians left in the world all can qualify as rockers in their own rights, using charisma and force of personality to sway people to their side.
Lawman: The keepers of peace in a largely anarchic society, Lawman range from the humble beat cop, MaxTac operative, and detectives that operate within Night City. Charged with cracking down on the individual criminals and gangs, the harsh reality is that the NCPD is criminally (pun intended) undermanned, under equipped, and underfunded. Most badges grow disillusioned with the thankless and dangerous job of protecting Night City's law abiding citizens and innocents, corruption and apathy run deep in the department, but there are still honest men and women on the force who believe a badge still represents something greater than themselves and a gun is still a tool to protect and serve. Lawmen can use their status to coerce and intimidate in order to gain a multitude of things from information, to material, and favors. Although some badges have been known to use their authority for personal gain and more nefarious reasons...
Techie: If a Netrunner is a master of software, the Techie is a master of hardware. Tinkerers and engineers, Techies are most at home pulling a piece of machinery apart before reassembling it, often with additional features or functioning better than it had before. Due to the wide application of their work and need for someone who knows how to fix something as complicated as cyberware or the advanced weapons of today, good Techies are worth their weight in gold. Given time a techie can improve or upgrade almost any piece of modern day technology with enough resources, but if there is a pressing need, a techie can McGyver their way to success depending on their improvisational skills. Either way, that projectile launcher that the techie overclocked on the fly in the bed of your crew's pickup has an 80% chance of working as intended, the only question is if it will take your arm with it when you fire...
Fixer: The aforementioned masterminds that keep the wheels of biz grinding on schedule in Night City. You could cut out the middleman looking to keep more of the payout, but after getting hazed a few times or payed with lead instead of edds, a reputable fixer sounds about as good as a banana split sundae on a hot summer day. Most fixers are men and women of multiple talents, serving as information brokers, smugglers, agents for mercs, black bag men, often a combination of all three of these and more. The major fixers like Rogue Amendiares, Regina Jones, Dino Dinovic etc. have veritable empires of favors, contacts, connections, and hands in the smallest of dice games and largest street deals in the city. Other fixers operate at a much lower level than the major players of NC, often sticking to one enterprise at a time and only operating within a single block or neighborhood, but they nonetheless keep deals going and edds flowing, if there's one rule that EVERYONE in the merc world follows, it's don't fuck over the fixer.
Corpo: An up and coming corporate operative or junior executive, Corpos are the amoral and driven cogs of the corporations that dominate the world. Sure a Corpo sold their soul, but face the facts, corps control everything from armies to markets, governments, and whole nations. Constantly harassed by those below them on the corporate ladder for want of the Corpo's position as well as stonewalled by their superiors out of fear of being replaced by their juniors, in a roundabout way life in the corp isn't all that different from life on the street. Most Corpos involved in street level operations do so at the behest of their managers and supervisors, completing projects for their respective department, whether it be leading a team of edgerunners to eliminate an operative from a rival corp, to infiltrating a rival's personal residence in real and cyberspace simultaneously to blackmail them, but all Corpos command resources and influence that only all but the most powerful of Fixers can dream of. Some join up with hope of promoting change from the inside, but the cutthroat nature of corporate politics have tarnished those ideals and ethics in favor of survival. Besides, that next report is due tomorrow, and it's looking like the girl from sales is going to try and zero you before you have a chance to deliver it, better get your crew of crack edgerunners on the case.
Medtech: With Solos, Nomads, Badges, and a whole gamut of edgerunners going out on gigs, someone is bound to catch lead or steel eventually, and its usually the job of the Medtech to keep the aforementioned gonks from flatlining during or after an op. Armed with surgical expertise and medical know-how, medtechs are the ones who will patch the holes and administer the proper drugs to alleviate pain and infection from wounds sustained by edgerunners who get a little too overconfident or unlucky. As well as operating as a nurse-practitioner Medtechs are (usually) trained to work with cyberware. while a Techie might construct and improve cyberware, the matter of installation and maintenance usually falls to the Medtech. Medtechs who are proficient in the trade often graduate from fieldwork and emergency operations into the ranks of the various ripperdocs, street doctors and surgeons who operate outside the health system, but that requires enough of said Medtech's patients to live in order to sing the Medtech's praises first.
Nomad: Free spirited and wild, Nomads are born survivors, eking out an existence in the wilds and badlands of post unification war America. Dealing with groups of bandits, hostile corps and towns, and other Nomad clans and families make each Nomad a skilled and resourceful combatant. More than that, a Nomad's greatest strength is the family and bonds they have within their tight knit group. Often traveling in caravans of vehicles upgraded to handle the demands of Nomad life, Nomads are experts in the transportation of goods as well as conducting lightning raids for whatever resources or objectives they require before fading back into the horizon in their vehicles. While not as dedicated to combat as a Solo or being speed demons like Panzerboys, Nomads always have a trick up their sleeve gained from experience or passed down from one of the elder members of their family, even if that trick is ambushing the aforementioned pair with a clan's worth of heavy weapons and high explosives.
Media: Reporters, investigative journalists, and photographers who shirk corporate filters and agendas and go straight for the ugly truth. Similar to the muckrakers of the 19th and 20th century, a Media works at the street level to find the grittiest and most controversial stories they can to bring forward to public attention, partly as a blow to those in power and to snatch whatever bit of freedom and justice back from the tyrannical forces that control the world, and partly for the ratings. A media's greatest asset is their credibility, building it through reporting on various stories and scoops to stay relevant as a journalist, a media with enough credibility and history of honest reporting can convince people of whatever they may even without concrete evidence. A media can lose their credibility just as quickly however if given over to sensationalism and demagoguery if they aren't careful.
Panzerboys: From street racers to stuntjocks and even Aerodyne pilots, Panzerboys and girls are the undisputed rulers of the road. Originally a term for the pilots of unification war armored hovercraft, the title of Panzerboy has come to represent any individual who can make operating a vehicle look like an artform. Often getaway drivers or the lead drivers of smuggling and convoy runs, Panzerboys can be counted on to dominate any encounter on wheels or in the air as well as using any nasty surpirses their often heavily customized ride has. Mastering their mode of transport also includes fighting from within their vehicle, whether it be pulling off death-defying manuvers to simultaneously dodge enemy fire and get a clean shot on their oppponent or setting up a co-pilot or gunner for a killshot, Panzerboys will have you wishing you could have one driving you wherever you go after you do a job with one, provided you aren't losing your lunch by the end of the ride.Landscape of Night City002Night City is a dangerous place, this is a given fact that even the gonkest of the city's residents know, responsible for most of it are the gangs of criminals that run the streets in absence of any real authority the NCPD or city government claims to have. Learning the hoods and blocks that these often violent individuals inhabit as well as what motivations the indivdual gangs have can be the difference between starting a shootout or being welcomed into their territroy, any edgerunner who wants to have a long career would do well to keep in mind what will get you on or off a hit list when it comes to inevetiable interaction with Night Cities organized crime groups.
Along with the criminals in gang colors and combat gear are the ones in suits and ties, while not ones to get their and company assests dirty, multiple corporations employ criminals as well as edgerunners to do the dirty work that needs to remain deniable, one of the most common uses corps have for street goons is against rival corporations, targeted operations appear as just a plain heist of a corp by a gang, nevermind how the gang recieved the chrome, weapons, and knowledge of when and how to attack at the most opportune time. While ending up on a street gangs shit list is far from ideal, usually given enough time laying low will shift priorities away from the target when internecine conflict or more hated rivals from another gang take precedence over some random gonk. Corporations however, have much longer memories and much more resources to throw at whoever earns their ire, wether it be from actual external threat or sheer pettiness from whatever corpo's toes you stepped on (the latter is extremely common, funnily enough) being the target of a corporation usually ends in very ugly fashion. Going to ground would take a much longer time to drop off the corporate radar, as well as needing to have a damn good hideout and chooms who wouldn't sell you out for a quick buck. Alternatively, cutting the head off the proverbial snake has worked sometimes in the past, often with a deal cut between an edgerunner and rival of the corpo ordaining the manhunt or even going to a competing corp for help against a bitter rival, talk about enemie's of of your enemy being friends right?
An ugly truth of the biz is that there's a nonzero chance that you might have another group of edgerunners sic'd on you at some point and vice versa, there may come a time when you'll be contracted to zero a fellow merc. How you deal with these quandries is up to you, but weigh the options carefully, a merc who kills their own without reservation might quickly become a pariah among thier peers, and conversely easier to pull the trigger on if the shoe is on the other foot. Letting a target go, while possibly sparing you from a moral dilemma, may sour relationships between a fixer and give the perception of weakness, and in Night City, perception is often reality. How far will you go and what personal code or beliefs will you compromise to survive, or will you stand your ground, refusing to play Night City's game and gambling your life in the process? There is no right or wrong answer choom, only you decide what type of person you are and what the consequences will be as a result of your choice.Going over the edge003In a world where death and misfortune are around every corner no fate is as feared as becoming a cyberpsycho, a catch all term for an individual affected by any psychotic and anxiety related personality disorders caused by cyberware. Often caused by an excess of cyberware and psychopathic tendencies that were either pre-existing or developed, the extensive replacement of their body parts with cyberware cause a loss of identity, the affected individual may come to view regular people and living things as weak and inferior in the first stages, followed by a complete disregard for life, and eventually descending into complete disassociation from reality and extreme violence towards anything within arms reach. Cyberpsychosis isn't a well defined
Although it is possible to return to a semblance of normalcy after an episode of cyberpsychosis, with removal of implants and therapy, the psyche and personality of the afflicted individual is never the same after the fact. Those in danger of going over the edge are required to register as such, attending weekly therapy sessions and having implants that monitor their activity, as long as they don't do anything the registered cybyerpsycho can lead a mostly normal life.
Despite the decrease in frequency of cyberpsychosis due to medical and cyberware advancements, it still happens enough to keep people on edge about the subject, Cyberpsychos themselves are rarely afforded the chance to be non lethally neutralized, MaxTac doesn't have a particulary sterling record of taking their targets alive out of concern that even more bystanders could be harmed or killed by a rampaging cyberpsycho, but rumor has it most of the indivdual officers that make up the NCPD's specialized unit are former cyberpsycho's themselves, those that are aprehended and reconditioned in a remote facility before being pressed into service by the NCPD.
- Guidelines03GuidelinesA thing of beauty. will never fade away.Message001Hey friends! Thanks for giving the int check a read, i definitely spent way too much time writing this, but I had a craving for a cyberpunk rp set not long after the events of the game as a result of the new edgerunners supplement that just came out for RED (newest iteration of the tabletop version of cyberpunk) and decided to write this crack induced fever dream as a result of said craving Prior knowledge of the setting like cyberpunk 2020 or RED are not required and are mainly there for flavor and because I'm a nerd, knowing the background info on the video game or the anime will be more than enough for what i have plotted. I hope the check was wasn't a slog and hope to see yall in the replies!Rules002[1] Golden rule, treat others how you want to be treated and with respect.
[2] Art/Anime fc's only, just not a fan of realistic fc's.
[3] FOLLOW ALL RPN RULES.
[4] Communicate if a post, cs, or whatever else you may be working on will take an extended amount of time, i don't plan on having a concrete post schedule, just be respectful of everyones time if something takes longer than expected.
[5] 18+ members only.
Any questions, comments, or concerns? Feel free to ask in the thread or PM me!
Code by Nano
