Cavil
idgaf honestly
I posted this idea before, and I just sorta fleshed it out some more (boy it took forever) and now I would like some specific advice on what to elaborate on now. Also, some organization tips because it looks a mess to me.
REBOOTING...
ON BEHALF OF COMCO INCORPORATED, GOOD MORNING! YOU HAVE HAD A PLEASANT NIGHT SLEEP! YOUR HEART RATE WAS AN EVEN: 90 BPM NEURAL ACTIVITY WAS: NORMAL. PLEASE HAVE A GREAT DAY TODAY AND HAPPY SHOPPING.
logging in to the main server......
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It’s like a spiral: They keep making everything more basic so it will appeal to everyone. And gradually, everyone gets used to everything being basic, so we get less and less varied as people, more simple. So the corps make everything even simpler. And it goes on and on.
― M.T. Anderson, Feed
----------
!!Note Of Importance!!
This roleplay is supposed to be fun, interesting, and enjoyable. I actively encourage an open world dynamic. I'm not the kind of GM to tell people what to do. I don't believe in specific roles, but I will bring the hammer down if I need.
Primary theme: The potential for human apathy and hedonism as key to the success of evil
Secondary themes: Individualism vs. Collectivism, Authoritarianism vs. Liberalism
Basically, we are trying to see if ignoring societal issues cause them to intensify and, at the same time, we're dealing with the local authoritarian presence.
“I don't know when they first had feeds. Like maybe, fifty or a hundred years ago. Before that, they had to use their hands and their eyes. Computers were all outside the body. They carried them around outside of them, in their hands, like if you carried your lungs in a briefcase and opened it to breathe.”
― M.T. Anderson, Feed
Prosper is an international city that has gained increased prominence due to neoliberal reforms and a favorable corporate environment. The city has declared a state of emergency due to rising cases of corruption by a newly introduced drug that's spreading like wildfire throughout the dark quarter and places all real power into the hands of law enforcement. The current Police Commissioner, Anderson, accepts bribes in the form of velvet and is focused on keeping the peace between gangs, upper-class, and corporate powerhouses. Anderson seeks to peacefully resolve disputes between corporations before they turn violent. Armed vigilante gangs make up the unofficial core of law enforcement. These gangs are very unprofessional, but are highly dedicated to protecting law and order. The police blame linkers and their dealers for all that is wrong with Prosper, and continues to use them as justification for their constant presence in the dark quarters. The supposed "leader", or the most notorious dealer, is known as Zen, a non-confrontational figure. According to police records, Zen is being funded by [REDACTED]. The education system in Prosper focuses on economic dogma and consumerist values; employees can parrot meaningless slogans and recite corporate creeds by heart. Prosper is proud of its reputation as a source of cheap labor and boasts the largest power plant on the planet. The labor, on the other hand, agitates to be a bit more expensive.
Since this is supposed to be a cyberpunk roleplay, the large income gap is a thing. There's a very small middle class and as such parts of the city reflect that. The 'above ground', or the areas way up in the atmosphere, are extremely wealthy. These residents have stock in electricity and can change the weather of their sealed neighborhoods. The walls of their houses can be rearranged at will, and all working age humans have the latest feeds installed and the latest trends. These people own hover cars, so electric blue superhighways are woven across the sky. The 'dark quarter', the area on solid ground, is extremely poor. Dilapidated buildings are burnished with smog and rust, pavement is smooth and faded underfoot, and the smell of pollution and moisture is lain. Any middle class residents are mostly clustered together with the poorer groups. Inflation: $1 = $43 roughly. The dollar inflates almost constantly, another reason why the classes are so fucked up.
In this roleplay, anyone between the ages of 18 and 30 have had a computer hardwired into their brain at birth. It's a pill that is injected via needle into the brainstem, and as the child's brain tissue grows around it, the more wired the computer becomes into the brain itself. It's a direct line to the Internet. This allows marketing and advertisements from companies into the mind.
There's nothing but the feed telling you, This is the music you heard. This is the music you missed. This is what is new. Listen.
The hardware of the first trials (in the older characters, if you wish) of the chip have become obsolete, and as such those that have an older chip might have learned how to shut the ads off. Does this mean virtual reality exists? Yes, have a ball. "That's one of the great things about the feed--that you can be supersmart without ever working. Everyone is supersmart now. You can look things up automatic, like science and history, like if you want to know which battles of the Civil War George Washington fought in and shit. But the braggest thing about the feed, the thing that made it really big, is that it knows everything you want and hope for, sometimes before you even know what those things are. It can tell you how to get them, and help you make buying decisions that are hard. Everything we think and feel is taken in by the corporations, mainly by data ones like Feedlink and OnFeed and American Feedware, and they make a special profile, one that's keyed just to you, and then they give it to their branch companies, or other companies buy them, and they can get to know what it is we need, so all you have to do is want something and there's a chance it will be yours." - Feed
(sry for the big ol chunk of text but I'm feeling lazy. irony lol. also that screengrab was from the short cyberpunk film true skin. check it out, yo.)
People like to change themselves to fit in with society and whatever the latest trends are. Hairstyles and high fashion can change very frequently while low-tier trends stick around longer. If you can afford it, cybernetics and speech tattoos are always in style but speech tats are overly pretentious to underbelly dwellers. Generally, the upper-class populous is less accepting of individuality than lower-class. If you were born into the upper-class, then you probably like to blend in. This means sleek, on-edge fashion choices, shiny toys, and constant alerts from the feeds. Pretentiousness and downright mean to low class.
Lower-class inhabitants have more of a rebellious mentality: they don't want the feed. They have developed an arrogant, disobedient style of presentation. Their clothes are almost always out of style and few can afford the luxuries of chromed irises and silver fingertips.
There are a number of jobs your character or your character's family can do. Most of these are either typical food service jobs, retail, or anything comparatively simple like that. You can play them. Your characters can have family members who work corporation jobs.
There are many places to shop, peruse, and hang out. Most of your time is taken up by shopping. It's religion to stay hip and up to date on the current trends. The atmosphere is always dark to make sure the advertisements are brighter and stand out more than anything else in your peripheral. "Miles of suburban bubbles, the shafts, the tubes, the pods. Pennants advertising malls. Trailer parks on miles of concrete, with window boxes covered in ash. Upcars flashing past, their prices speaking to me in my head"
Important landmarks and points of interest above ground:*Marko's Bargain Bin: 'Quantity Over Quality!': The most inexpensive store in the city; a pair of jeans is just $445.99!
*Cafe 45: A usual and very normal eatery. Serves mainly diner food.
*Skyline Mall: 'The Next Generation Of Shopping': Biggest shopping haven in the city. Millions of visitors a day, upscale pricing but many more options than Marko's. Their ads of designer clothes are the ones most frequently heard and seen around alleys and billboards.
TransportationAround the city there are public tram stops, but most middle to upper class citizens have their own hover cars. The invisible roads that these sleek machines glide on are called skyways, and the paths are distinguished by two perpendicular glowing boundaries. Hover cars can come in any shape, size, and color but most are rather large and use heavy amounts of electricity, which is considered a luxury. Gas-run modes of transport still exist. Poorer civilians many have a fossil fuel burning vehicle as their main mode of transport. It's not very difficult to find an abandoned one in the industrial park.
Space travelYeah, you can go to the different planets in trams, but it's like, so last year.
Prominent places undergroundThe underbelly of Underglow City has it's own brand of characters and therefore it's unique set of shops. This district is called the Dark Quarter, as many of the above ground citizens stay away from it.
-Gordo's Gunnery: 'The Best Price For Slice and Dice!'
The usual gun shop, indoor shooting range included. Also sells knives.
-The Stuttgart Industrial Area:
Basically a huge industrial park used by vagabonds and a few poor youngers as a playground. Some people have taken up permanent residence here.
-Elden's Place:
A small, well-known but covert hangout for linkers to refuel and discuss the recreational benefits of the experience. Elden is a reliable and long time linker (NPC).
-Hookah Heaven:
The local smoke shop. Sells flavored tobacco and other staples.
These shops will encouraged to be used for your own pleasures.
The police recently have been increasing presence in certain areas of the dark quarters, so it's best to keep your head down when travelling to high-risk areas. Elden's place has gained sufficient notice from law enforcement lately, and has been temporarily shut down.
Info on velvet
"A drug which gradually destroys a person's ability to think or perceive reality...deteriorates a person's mind, until they are obsessed only with the drug, and endanger themselves and others going after it. It seems to be made in only one place, but the narcs just can't seem to find that place or stop the flow."
-A Scanner Darkly's Substance D.
The virus is called velvet and those who indulge in it are called linkers. The act of using is called 'linking' or 'tripping'.
What exactly is velvet?
velvet is a virus that anyone with a computer chip can access. I's main purpose is to create more apathy within the mind of the user. In the older days, it was only available through the site. Innovative linkers have now found a way to extract copies of the virus and download it into huge databases, fit for multiple trips at a time.
How do I get to it?
Similar to a canadian pharmaceutical website, lots of searching and crossed fingers. Experienced linkers have a preferred site they like to use. The catch is this: you can only use one site at a time. When you log into a site, it captures your IP, dips into your bank account, immediately closes, and then you can experience the trip.
Okay, so what the fuck does it DO?
Hard to explain precisely since the effects are different depending on your operating system. In all trips, there are hallucinations and enhancing of senses. Some linkers even report out-of-body experiences. Everyone needs to reboot afterwards, though. It's effects are similar to that of heroin but you get blackout drunk afterwards.
-----------
Character Sheet is below. You can add things to it too, this is just a base:
appearance: (picture preferred, not required)
name: (keep it true to genre pls)
age: (18-30)
gender:
likes/dislikes:
personality traits: (at least 3 good, 3 bad. can be paragraph form or list form)
backstory: (for funzies)
other stuff: (if needed)
Need help with the genre?
Some common themes throughout cyberpunk literature and they all apply to this one
What are the settings like?
Cities. Big, dark cities. Loads of neon lights and dull surfaces. Glass, urbanism, downtrodden undergrounds and shady pubs. Small apartments. Everywhere looks like central Tokyo. Maybe a space station or an abandoned genetic factory.
I need some ideas for weapons.
Weapons. BFGs. Katanas. Go for cool as much as practical. A BFG is a piece of personal artillery used by an individual and chiefly defined by its, well, its incredible bigness.
What do the characters wear?
Trenchcoats, sunglasses, leather jackets, and the alike. Everything is in black or other dull colours, with small amounts of bright colours for emphasis, especially neon-green, neon-blue, neon-red, fluorescent orange and neon-purple.
Can I have some character ideas?
Think film noir. There are many film noir influences and similar character archetypes in cyberpunk.
REBOOTING...
ON BEHALF OF COMCO INCORPORATED, GOOD MORNING! YOU HAVE HAD A PLEASANT NIGHT SLEEP! YOUR HEART RATE WAS AN EVEN: 90 BPM NEURAL ACTIVITY WAS: NORMAL. PLEASE HAVE A GREAT DAY TODAY AND HAPPY SHOPPING.
logging in to the main server......
----------
It’s like a spiral: They keep making everything more basic so it will appeal to everyone. And gradually, everyone gets used to everything being basic, so we get less and less varied as people, more simple. So the corps make everything even simpler. And it goes on and on.
― M.T. Anderson, Feed
----------
!!Note Of Importance!!
This roleplay is supposed to be fun, interesting, and enjoyable. I actively encourage an open world dynamic. I'm not the kind of GM to tell people what to do. I don't believe in specific roles, but I will bring the hammer down if I need.
Primary theme: The potential for human apathy and hedonism as key to the success of evil
Secondary themes: Individualism vs. Collectivism, Authoritarianism vs. Liberalism
Basically, we are trying to see if ignoring societal issues cause them to intensify and, at the same time, we're dealing with the local authoritarian presence.
“I don't know when they first had feeds. Like maybe, fifty or a hundred years ago. Before that, they had to use their hands and their eyes. Computers were all outside the body. They carried them around outside of them, in their hands, like if you carried your lungs in a briefcase and opened it to breathe.”
― M.T. Anderson, Feed
Prosper is an international city that has gained increased prominence due to neoliberal reforms and a favorable corporate environment. The city has declared a state of emergency due to rising cases of corruption by a newly introduced drug that's spreading like wildfire throughout the dark quarter and places all real power into the hands of law enforcement. The current Police Commissioner, Anderson, accepts bribes in the form of velvet and is focused on keeping the peace between gangs, upper-class, and corporate powerhouses. Anderson seeks to peacefully resolve disputes between corporations before they turn violent. Armed vigilante gangs make up the unofficial core of law enforcement. These gangs are very unprofessional, but are highly dedicated to protecting law and order. The police blame linkers and their dealers for all that is wrong with Prosper, and continues to use them as justification for their constant presence in the dark quarters. The supposed "leader", or the most notorious dealer, is known as Zen, a non-confrontational figure. According to police records, Zen is being funded by [REDACTED]. The education system in Prosper focuses on economic dogma and consumerist values; employees can parrot meaningless slogans and recite corporate creeds by heart. Prosper is proud of its reputation as a source of cheap labor and boasts the largest power plant on the planet. The labor, on the other hand, agitates to be a bit more expensive.
Since this is supposed to be a cyberpunk roleplay, the large income gap is a thing. There's a very small middle class and as such parts of the city reflect that. The 'above ground', or the areas way up in the atmosphere, are extremely wealthy. These residents have stock in electricity and can change the weather of their sealed neighborhoods. The walls of their houses can be rearranged at will, and all working age humans have the latest feeds installed and the latest trends. These people own hover cars, so electric blue superhighways are woven across the sky. The 'dark quarter', the area on solid ground, is extremely poor. Dilapidated buildings are burnished with smog and rust, pavement is smooth and faded underfoot, and the smell of pollution and moisture is lain. Any middle class residents are mostly clustered together with the poorer groups. Inflation: $1 = $43 roughly. The dollar inflates almost constantly, another reason why the classes are so fucked up.
In this roleplay, anyone between the ages of 18 and 30 have had a computer hardwired into their brain at birth. It's a pill that is injected via needle into the brainstem, and as the child's brain tissue grows around it, the more wired the computer becomes into the brain itself. It's a direct line to the Internet. This allows marketing and advertisements from companies into the mind.
There's nothing but the feed telling you, This is the music you heard. This is the music you missed. This is what is new. Listen.
(sry for the big ol chunk of text but I'm feeling lazy. irony lol. also that screengrab was from the short cyberpunk film true skin. check it out, yo.)
People like to change themselves to fit in with society and whatever the latest trends are. Hairstyles and high fashion can change very frequently while low-tier trends stick around longer. If you can afford it, cybernetics and speech tattoos are always in style but speech tats are overly pretentious to underbelly dwellers. Generally, the upper-class populous is less accepting of individuality than lower-class. If you were born into the upper-class, then you probably like to blend in. This means sleek, on-edge fashion choices, shiny toys, and constant alerts from the feeds. Pretentiousness and downright mean to low class.
Lower-class inhabitants have more of a rebellious mentality: they don't want the feed. They have developed an arrogant, disobedient style of presentation. Their clothes are almost always out of style and few can afford the luxuries of chromed irises and silver fingertips.
There are a number of jobs your character or your character's family can do. Most of these are either typical food service jobs, retail, or anything comparatively simple like that. You can play them. Your characters can have family members who work corporation jobs.
There are many places to shop, peruse, and hang out. Most of your time is taken up by shopping. It's religion to stay hip and up to date on the current trends. The atmosphere is always dark to make sure the advertisements are brighter and stand out more than anything else in your peripheral. "Miles of suburban bubbles, the shafts, the tubes, the pods. Pennants advertising malls. Trailer parks on miles of concrete, with window boxes covered in ash. Upcars flashing past, their prices speaking to me in my head"
*Cafe 45: A usual and very normal eatery. Serves mainly diner food.
*Skyline Mall: 'The Next Generation Of Shopping': Biggest shopping haven in the city. Millions of visitors a day, upscale pricing but many more options than Marko's. Their ads of designer clothes are the ones most frequently heard and seen around alleys and billboards.
Space travelYeah, you can go to the different planets in trams, but it's like, so last year.
Prominent places undergroundThe underbelly of Underglow City has it's own brand of characters and therefore it's unique set of shops. This district is called the Dark Quarter, as many of the above ground citizens stay away from it.
-Gordo's Gunnery: 'The Best Price For Slice and Dice!'
The usual gun shop, indoor shooting range included. Also sells knives.
-The Stuttgart Industrial Area:
Basically a huge industrial park used by vagabonds and a few poor youngers as a playground. Some people have taken up permanent residence here.
-Elden's Place:
A small, well-known but covert hangout for linkers to refuel and discuss the recreational benefits of the experience. Elden is a reliable and long time linker (NPC).
-Hookah Heaven:
The local smoke shop. Sells flavored tobacco and other staples.
These shops will encouraged to be used for your own pleasures.
The police recently have been increasing presence in certain areas of the dark quarters, so it's best to keep your head down when travelling to high-risk areas. Elden's place has gained sufficient notice from law enforcement lately, and has been temporarily shut down.
Info on velvet
"A drug which gradually destroys a person's ability to think or perceive reality...deteriorates a person's mind, until they are obsessed only with the drug, and endanger themselves and others going after it. It seems to be made in only one place, but the narcs just can't seem to find that place or stop the flow."
-A Scanner Darkly's Substance D.
The virus is called velvet and those who indulge in it are called linkers. The act of using is called 'linking' or 'tripping'.
What exactly is velvet?
velvet is a virus that anyone with a computer chip can access. I's main purpose is to create more apathy within the mind of the user. In the older days, it was only available through the site. Innovative linkers have now found a way to extract copies of the virus and download it into huge databases, fit for multiple trips at a time.
How do I get to it?
Similar to a canadian pharmaceutical website, lots of searching and crossed fingers. Experienced linkers have a preferred site they like to use. The catch is this: you can only use one site at a time. When you log into a site, it captures your IP, dips into your bank account, immediately closes, and then you can experience the trip.
Okay, so what the fuck does it DO?
Hard to explain precisely since the effects are different depending on your operating system. In all trips, there are hallucinations and enhancing of senses. Some linkers even report out-of-body experiences. Everyone needs to reboot afterwards, though. It's effects are similar to that of heroin but you get blackout drunk afterwards.
-----------
Character Sheet is below. You can add things to it too, this is just a base:
appearance: (picture preferred, not required)
name: (keep it true to genre pls)
age: (18-30)
gender:
likes/dislikes:
personality traits: (at least 3 good, 3 bad. can be paragraph form or list form)
backstory: (for funzies)
other stuff: (if needed)
Need help with the genre?
Some common themes throughout cyberpunk literature and they all apply to this one
What are the settings like?
Cities. Big, dark cities. Loads of neon lights and dull surfaces. Glass, urbanism, downtrodden undergrounds and shady pubs. Small apartments. Everywhere looks like central Tokyo. Maybe a space station or an abandoned genetic factory.
I need some ideas for weapons.
Weapons. BFGs. Katanas. Go for cool as much as practical. A BFG is a piece of personal artillery used by an individual and chiefly defined by its, well, its incredible bigness.
What do the characters wear?
Trenchcoats, sunglasses, leather jackets, and the alike. Everything is in black or other dull colours, with small amounts of bright colours for emphasis, especially neon-green, neon-blue, neon-red, fluorescent orange and neon-purple.
Can I have some character ideas?
Think film noir. There are many film noir influences and similar character archetypes in cyberpunk.
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