TESTING yet more TRASH

Hecatoncheires

un jour je serai de retour près de toi
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THE CARD SYSTEM
(Because GMing Is Hard And I Am Lazy)

Scenes that involve player characters having to take decisive action in order to overcome challenges are, in my experience at least, often where RPs stall out. It's a combination of analysis paralysis, not wanting to step on other players' toes and not wanting to hog the limelight, that results in players posting passively (ie. simply acknowledging events without moving the story forwards) or not wanting to post at all. I'm as guilty of this as the next guy, let me stress, but for this RP I wanted to try and implement something that will hopefully counter this issue.

The Card System isn't me trying to stealth-implement stats and other TTRPG mechanics, let me stress. Forum RPs work best when players have plenty of creative freedom, and I want to keep that in place. Instead, the goal here is to have a system that allows both players and the GM to collaborate on planning out a scene. It (hopefully) ensures that everyone knows what's happening, what the stakes are, and what challenges need to be overcome in order for things to progress. It will also (hopefully) ensures that every player character gets a chance to contribute, to have their character make a difference in terms of how the story progresses.

If all goes to plan, we'll have something that creates a framework, a scene outline that ensures we can use our characters in creative and interesting ways.

And if it doesn't go to plan, we can always just scream "fuck it" and do it the old fashioned way.

The basic system works like this:

  1. At the beginning of a dramatic scene (ie. when there are stakes at play, consequences for failure, etc), the GM reveals a
    'Threat Card', which describes the nature of the challenge and the different aspects that must be overcome in order to resolve it
  2. The players have access to their own cards, representing different aspects of their characters (some represent equipment, others skills, or powers, etc.)
  3. Before any posts are written, the players and the GM gather to discuss how the characters will go about solving/overcoming the challenges listed on the Threat Card, using their own Player Cards
    Players use their own cards, either on their own or in combination, to counter the aspects of the Threat Card
    1. For larger threats (designated as 'Potent' on the Threat Card), co-operation and coordination between different players will be required in order to succeed
  4. Once the Threat Card's challenges have been resolved in this fashion, both the players and the GM will have created a framework by which the scene will play out
  5. We get writing
  6. ???
  7. PROFIT
  • A way of codifying character traits and abilities so things are a little less freeform, without getting bogged down with stats and dice rolls (these don't usually work on forums, or slow things down even further).

    CARD TYPES
    • Gang Card: Stemming from the crew/juvegang that the character was running with. A Bosoganger's ability to do outrageous shit with a motorbike, or a BeaverBrat's skill at breaking into things.
    • Skill Cards: Characters are not solely defined by the subculture they belong to, and many will have interests adjacent to, or outside, their peer group. Skill Cards represent individual abilities not covered by the Gang Card that a character possesses. Perhaps an interest in computer programming, or a working knowledge of firearms.
    • Evolution Card: Defines the abilities that a character is granted now that they've survived the Carbon Plague. These cards come in three different forms, representing a character's development and understanding of their powers as the story progresses.
      • Basic: The character has recently joined the ranks of the Altered. Their powers are more rudamentary, as they do not have a full grasp of them yet.
      • Advanced: Having had time to get to grips with their abilities, to test things out and see what works, the character's powers are growing more potent.
      • Expert: Now one of the veterans of the Altered, the character has a full understanding of their powers and knows how to use them to their full potential.
    • Equipment Cards: Representing useful tech, gadgets, weapons and vehicles that the character has access to.
    • Complication Cards: Representing issues, impairments or difficulties that a character is facing. Can be temporary, or more permanent. During in-game events, I will trigger these Flaw Cards to add further challenges and conflicts to the story.
  • When the characters are deployed on a mission, they will encounter challenges, dangers and other obstacles. These risks will be defined by a Threat Card, describing the challenge the characters face.

    There will be several different aspects to a Threat Card, defining the nature of the threat and the different aspects to it. Some aspects are a particularly difficult challenge, and are listed as 'Potent'. These will often require characters to combine abilities/cards in order to overcome them. For example:


    Corporate Patrol
    • Well Organised (Potent): All four officers work well together.
    • Heavily Armed: These boys are packing heat, including automatic weapons.
    In order to overcome a Threat Card and progress the story, each aspect of it must be countered by a Character Card. Different combinations of skills, abilities and equipment must be deployed by the characters, and they must often work together in order to succeed against the Threat Card. Players offer to play specific cards and describe how the abilities/equipment these cards represent can be used to overcome this aspect of the Threat Card. The GM then accepts or disagrees with the card use. In some cases, the GM might choose to accept the offered card but declare that it comes with a complication (an injury, loss of equipment, etc).

    Using the example above, let's say we have three characters going up against the patrol. One player puts forward their Gang Card 'Urban Explorer' to counter the 'Heavily Armed' portion of the Threat (they've studied the environment and know how to get an ambush set up with plenty of cover). 'Well Organised' is a more significant challenge, but two players pool their Cards to overcome it (a mix of Evolution Card and Equipment). Once all the aspects of the Threat Card have been countered (hopefully this means everyone has a chance to contribute), we play out the scene based on what's been agreed and move on to the next.
 
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1990 to 1993
  • A secret ‘coup' launched by The Gang of Four, a coalition of government agencies led by the current Vice President, effectively ends federal democracy in the U.S. Many states begin ignoring federal authority, declaring themselves "Free States."
  • Start of First Central American Conflict. American Imperial ambitions, justified as part of the war on Communism, terrorism, and narcotics, kill hundreds of thousands. American veterans return home dismembered and maimed, driving the demand for cyberware.
  • Breakup of Soviet state. From this point, the old USSR begins a new era of rapprochement with Western Europe; by the 2000s, the "Neo-Soviets" are the EuroTheatre's most powerful allies.
  • EuroSpace agency launches the Hermes
    spaceplane.
  • CHOOH2, a potent new fuel source, developed by Biotechnica.
  • First arcology built on ruins of Jersey City; 16 "arcos" begin construction over the next 5 years, until the Collapse of 1996, leaving the huge structures half-completed, filled with squatters and homeless.
  • The Treaty of 1992 establishes the European Economic Community. A common currency unit (the Eurodollar) is established.
  • The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) develops and spreads several designer plagues worldwide, targeting coca and opium plants. Governments of Chile, Ecuador, and Afghanistan collapse.
  • A savage drug war breaks out between Eurocorpbacked dealers and DEA all over the Americas.
  • First use of high-energy laser-lift arrays. Simple mass driver established in Canary Islands by EuroSpace Agency.
  • First TRC biologic interface chips developed in Munich, United Germany.
  • AV-4 aerodyne assault vehicle developed to deal with increasing riots in U.S. urban zones.
  • In retaliation for U.S. attacks on Bogota, Colombian drug lords detonate small tactical nuclear device in New York. 15,000 killed.
1994 to 1995
  • World Stock Market Crash of '94. The US is caught manipulating European and American stock markets; a worldwide financial meltdown results from the news being made public.
  • U.S., European Community, and the Neo-Soviets start a new space race, seeking economic and military advantages over each other.
  • Kilimanjaro mass driver begins construction, under joint agreement between Euro Space Agency (ESA) and Pan-African Alliance.
1996
  • The Collapse of the United States. Weakened by losses in the World Stock Crash, overwhelmed by unemployment, homelessness, and corruption, many local governments collapse or go bankrupt. The USA government, snarled in a staggering deficit and the machinations of the Gang of Four, is totally ineffective.
  • Nomad Riots. By now, 1 in 4 Americans are homeless. Hundreds of thousands riot for living space throughout the USA, Nomad packs spring up on the west coast and spread rapidly through the nation.
  • First appearance of booster gangs.
  • U.S. Constitution suspended. Martial law established in USA.
1997 to 1998
  • Mideast Meltdown. A very limited thermonuclear war destroys much of the Middle East, radioactive fallout spreads around the world. World oil supply drops by half.
  • ‘Rockerboy' Manson killed in England. A legendary force in the "populist rock" movement, his stage name was adopted as the term for any musician or other artist who took up the gauntlet for political change.
  • The Drought of '98 reduces most of the Midwest to parched grasslands. Between agribusiness Corps and drought, the family farm all but disappears.
  • 10.5 quake shatters Los Angeles; Pacific Ocean inundates 35% of the city. An estimated 65,000 are killed.
1999
  • Millennium cults begin to appear, predicting an apocalypse on Jan. 1, 2000. Thousands migrate to isolated communes and temples to "await the end".
  • Tycho Colony established. A mass driver is constructed to provide raw materials for orbital platforms.
2000
  • Millennium cults run amok on January 1st in orgy of suicide and violence; most destroy themselves.
  • First "extended family" poser gangs established.
  • Crystal Palace space station begun at L-1.
  • Wasting Plague hits US, Europe, killing millions.
2001
  • The framework of the NET put firmly in place with construction of the WorldSat network.
2002
  • Food Crash. Mutated plant virus wipes out Canadian, Neo-Soviet crops. U.S. agribusiness crops survive due to new biological counter agent. Neo-Soviets accuse US of biological warfare.
2003
  • Second Central American War. U.S. invades Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela. The War is a disaster that costs many American lives and leaves thousands of troops to struggle home on their own.
  • WNS Media Tesla Johanneson exposes secret NSA transcripts of the 1st Central American conflict.
  • The remainder of the Gang of Four is swept away on a wave of reform. Elections resume, although heavily influenced by the Megacorporations.
2004
  • First cloned tissue growth in vitro. Micro-sutures, sterilizer fields developed.
  • Tesla Johanneson assassinated in Cairo.
  • First Corporate War (2004 to 2006). Commando raids and cyberspace attacks between EBM and Orbital Air introduce the world to the age of direct Corporate warfare.
2005
  • Cybermodem invented.
2006
  • First Human clone grown in vitro. Mindless, it only lives for 6 hours.
2007
  • Braindance developed at UC Santa Cruz.
2008
  • Second Corporate War (2008 to 2010). SovOil and Petrochem fail to negotiate with each other over newly discovered oil fields in the South China Sea and begin blowing each other up instead. Even cynical observers are shocked at the level of violence.
  • U.S. assault on Russian weapons platform MIR XIII. EuroSpace agency intervenes, and the Orbital War breaks out between the "euros" and the "yanks" until Tycho Colony mass driver drops a two-ton rock on Colorado Springs. An uneasy peace is reached.
2009
  • Corporations eradicate mob rule in Night City.
  • Abortive takeover attempt by US "terrorist group" of Crystal Palace construction. ESA discovers the Defense Intelligence Agency plot and drops a five-ton rock off the coast of Washington DC as a warning.
2010
  • Network 54 now controls 62% of all media broadcasting in the U.S.
  • Human clones are now viable, but no technology exists to implant personalities or intellect into them. They are primarily used to provide body parts for the super-rich.
2011
  • Crystal Palace is completed. ESA now has a permanent hold in High Orbit zone.
  • ESA/Soviet mission reaches Mars. After a landing, the mission returns, and Mars is abandoned for a decade.
2013
  • April 13, 2013. Johnny Silverhand concert spirals into a riot in Night City. The rioters kill 18, wound 51. Old Arasaka complex gutted.
  • Soulkiller virus developed. It is originally designed by programmer Altiera Cunningham of ITS as a way to implant recorded personalities into cloned bodies. The transfer technology is a failure, Cunningham mysteriously disappears shortly after it’s creation. Conspiracies abound, many blame Arasaka.
  • Netwatch, previously a private organisation, is established worldwide by a joint U.S./EuroTheatre treaty.
  • First true Artificial Intelligence developed at Microtech's Sunnyvale, CA facility.
2014
  • Ihara-Grubb (I-G) transformations redesign the NET. During this time, renegade Netrunner Rache Bartmoss plants the DataKrash virus into the architecture of the NET.
  • Black Swan Corporation is formed, focusing on research into emergeant intelligences.
2016
  • Third Corporate War (2016). Unknown cyber terrorists attack the networks of Corporations worldwide, causing billions of eb worth of losses.
2020
  • Chicago Rebuilding Project begins. Financed by visionary Dr. Richard Storm of Storm Technologies, the project joins Nomad groups under the unifying banners of the Aldecaldo and Jode Families.
2021
  • Euro Aquacorp CINO attempts to acquire bankrupt Aquacorp IHAG. Rival Aquacorp OTEC attempts to act as "white knight" in the hostile takeover. As both Corps line up allies, a dangerous war both on and below the sea begins.
2022
  • Covert operations expand as Arasaka Security and Militech spar to see who will control the outcome of the CINO/OTEC War.
  • Rache Bartmoss, Netrunner supreme, is killed in a Corporate raid. Two weeks later, the dead man switch for his DataKrash virus activates.
  • 4th Corporate War begins. Covert operations explode into a shooting war as Arasaka and Militech move front line troops into battle. The ensuing conflict involves operations all over the globe, with heavy combat in major cities worldwide.
  • The Chicago Rebuilding Project collapses as Arasaka Corporate factions detonate virus bombs in an effort to deny the city to the Militech side.
  • DataKrash virus now infests 78.2% of the NET. Aware of the virus' potential, Saburo Arasaka sets out to create a secure database of uninfected knowledge in the new Arasaka Towers facility in Night City.
  • Seven-Hour War. Fed up with the fighting, Highriders at O'Neill Two declare independence, using deltas and scavenged mass drivers to drop dozens of lunar rocks and other "ortillery" at key sites all over the planet, causing widespread death and destruction. U.S. and Japan officially recognise the new government.
2023
  • Total breakdown of international trade. Container ship and air travel have been totally disrupted. Supplies and food sit on the docks worldwide, unable to reach stores, factories, or suppliers. Many Megacorps totally collapse.
  • August 20th, 2023: Night City holocaust. A Militech-sponsored incursion team attempt to steal/destroy the Arasaka Secure Database in the Arasaka Towers facility. During the assault, an area denial nuclear device is detonated, which destroys most of central Night City. Over half a million people are killed, and another quarter million die in the resulting aftermath. Militech is nationalized by U.S. President Elizabeth Kress by the expedient of reactivating Militech CEO Gen. Donald Lundee's reserve commission.
  • Beginning of the Time of the Red. Atmospheric particles from the nuclear blast in Night City, as well as debris from orbital rock strikes, conventional explosives, and the wartime burning and annihilation of cities and agricultural areas creates an eerie red pall over skies worldwide. For nearly two years, skies are tinged with a bloody red colour, which eventually dies down to brilliant red sunrises and sunsets throughout the next decade.
2025
  • End of the 4th Corp War. This includes a three-year wrap-up as pockets of fighting are quelled by Militech and national armies. While there is only one nuke dropped during the war, the world's infrastructure is severely impacted, although not destroyed.
  • NET is officially abandoned by Netwatch.
  • Japanese government almost breaks down. By repudiating Arasaka, national face is saved. Arasaka is reduced to a Japan-only Corporation for the next decade. The European Union is mostly restored.
2026 to 2030
  • The Diaspora begins. Groups displaced from wrecked cities now set out to Reclaim nearby cities abandoned since the Collapse of the 1990s. They are supported by Nomads who set up convoys between cities.
  • There is massive looting of old tech and abandoned storehouses. Only scattered Corps are still functioning and only on a very reduced basis, local businesses are left to take up the slack, often with resources plundered from abandoned Megacorp facilities.
  • Very limited VPNs within Corporate parks. Strange entities are reported to be operating within the remains of the old NET, though this cannot be safely verified.
  • Arasaka breaks into three warring factions: the Kiji 雉 (Green Pheasant) Faction, headed by Hanako Arasaka; The Hato 鳩 (Dove) Faction, helmed by supporters of Michiko Arasaka, Kei's youngest daughter, who as a U.S. citizen, instead allies with the new U.S. government; and the Taka 鷹 (Hawk) Faction, led by Saburo's rebel son Yorinobu.
  • The remaining United States is now a functional dictatorship under President Elizabeth Kress' State of Emergency.
2030 to 2035
  • Resettlement of Suburban Night City. In time, Night City Central will be rebuilt, but for now, the foothills and the small cities around Night City are overpacked with refugees fleeing the radioactive ruins of the Corporate Zone.
  • Re-establishing of Nomad High Roads. Nomads now operate ports, container ships. Corporations are now mostly local, but as Nomads establish trade routes, Corps branch out regionally.
  • Start of CitiNets, local VPNs established in some of the Reclaimed Cities. These networks are usually "air gapped" with only limited (and strongly controlled) access between them. Netwatch oversees the development of this new series of networks, with Corporate backing.
  • Start of Night City Reconstruction. Gigatons of fill are shifted from the radioactive ruins of the central City. Much of the old Bay is filled in.
  • President Kress announces the creation of the New United States of America (NUSA), declares "we have no United States until we have a country again."
2036
  • First Wave Cities start Reclamation under support from local governments and remaining Megacorps. These First Wave Cities are ones that require only a limited amount of resources to rebuild.
  • President Elizabeth Kress suddenly announces her resignation, with immediate effect. Former Militech executive David Whindam is appointed as her successor, with Black Swan Corp president Arthur Scithe as his VP. Rumours of a "palace coup" within the White House abound, and are denied. With so much of America focused on rebuilding, few pay much attention.
  • The newly 'elected' President Whindam announces the formation of the Council for Economic Prosperity (CEP), declaring it an executive department with full powers. It's mission is to spearhead the re-development of cities and states willing to re-join the fold of the NUSA.
2037 to 2039
  • The efforts of the CEF have spread across the East Coast of North America, and many of its cities are recovering at an astonishing pace through "government incentive packages" and growing Corporate sponsorship. States and cities across the country are beginning to take notice.
  • Sporadic attempts by Netwatch to reclaim the Old NET end in complete failure. They are forced to seal the Nodes leading into the NET in order to prevent the spread of the R.A.B.I.D.S.
2040 to 2041
  • Establishment of first Data Pools, information servers and exchange systems designed for open use within the limits of a city. Data Pools produce free, open content created through the collaborative efforts of a community of users. In design, they're similar to the hyper-stack "page" system attempted and then abandoned for the NET in the early 90s.
  • The NUSA has re-established control over half the territory once held by the old United States, thanks to the continued success of the CEF and it's packages. Recovery is rapidly underway in these regions, although underground media reports heavy corporate and government oversight and control of citizens.
  • Rise of the first Mega Buildings to handle homeless population in Night City. These are "all-in-one" arcologies designed to rapidly create safe, habitable zones.
2042 to 2043
  • New factories begin to appear in Night City replacing, upgrading, or repairing old and scattered tech.
2044
  • The NUSA now holds 80% of the country in its grip, and opposition powetrs such as the Pacifica Confederation and the Free States are on their last legs. Reconstruction and recovery is all but complete in several East Coast cities. Although the rumours coming out from the NUSA paint life within it as increasingly totalitarian, there are many who see this as a reasonable trade-off for a return to normality.
2045
  • Establishment of the Blackwall. A collaborative project between Netwatch and Black Swan Corp, it creates a secure region of the Old NET for human use whilst keeping out the dangerous Rogue AIs unleashed after the Collapse. It is hailed as a global triumph... but access is restricted to those within the NUSA.
  • A corporate AV crashes in one of the Combat Zones of Night City. Less than a week later, the first cases of the Carbon Plague are reported.
2046
  • The Carbon Plague spreads rapidly across North America, and there are isolated outbreaks abroad. A global panic begins, travel to and from the NUSA is halted. President Whindam declares martial law across the country as thousands begin to die.
  • The NUSA quietly reclaims control of several more Free States, and the Pacifica Confederation collapses from the strain of the outbreak. Only the Republic of Texas and Night City remain outside of the NUSA's control within the former territories of the United States.
  • Reports of teenage survivors of the Carbon Plague begin to circulate, and there are unsubstantiated rumours that some of them possess strange abilities. The CDC is deployed to investigate, and the Bureau of Relocation (BuReloc) begin rounding the survivors. Few are ever seen again.
2047
  • Straining under the burden of the outbreak, global lockdown and increasing isolation, not to mention lured in by the promise of clearing much of the city's wasteground and Combat Zones, Night City's authorities agree to re-join the NUSA. BuReloc and other government agencies now have free reign to operate within the city. Popular resentment towards the move is widespread, but the new authorities move to clamp down on it rapidly.
  • June 2047: Present day. Present time.
 

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NAME: [goes here]
AGE: [goes here]
GANG: [goes here]
ALTERATION/CYBERGENUS: [goes here]

SKILLS: [goes here]
COMPLICATIONS: [goes here]

PERSONALITY: [goes here]
HISTORY: [goes here]
HOW WERE YOU CAUGHT?: [goes here]


EQUIPMENT: [goes here]

Character Creation
  1. Make sure to read all the dumb bullshit I've in both this thread and the Lore thread. That way you have an idea of the setting, and what will fit.
    1. If you want to clear up anything, or have any questions about the setting, feel free to shoot me a message.
  2. Use your incredible powers of making shit up to begin concocting a character concept.
  3. Determine name of character and age. I'd prefer you to aim for the 15-18 age range, but if you *really* wanna go for something else message me.
  4. Choose the gang that your character is a part of. This will determine the 'GANG CARD' you receive as part of your character sheet. Choose from the ones I've provided, or if you have a concept you really want to try out message me and we can arrange something.
  5. Choose the Alteration that your character has been imbued with upon surviving the Carbon Plague. This will determine the 'EVOLUTION CARD' you receive as part of your character sheet. The ones listed are the ones available.
  6. Choose two skills that your character has knowledge and experience in, representing interests and abilities they have outside of their gang pursuits. These will become the two 'SKILL CARDS' you receive as part of your character sheet.
    1. (OPTIONAL) Choose a single complication or hindrance/disadvantage your character has, representing an aspect of your character that might cause them problems or come back to bit them in the ass. This will become a 'COMPLICATION CARD' that the GM can bring up in-game to create further tension. If you choose to do so, you are allowed to choose a third skill that will become an additional 'SKILL CARD'.
  7. Determine your character's personality, so other players and the GM have an idea of what to expect from them in-game (and can start planning how characters might interact).
  8. Determine your character's history, which will outline their experiences up until the point they were infected with the Carbon Plague. How did they fall in with their gang? Where were they raised? Are they a child of Night City, or did they grow up elsewhere?
    1. It's recommended that your character have some sort of connection to Night City, since this is where the majority of the RP will be taking place, but if you've got a great idea for your character being an outsider I can make it work in one or two cases.
      1. If everyone insists on being from outside the city I will scream.
  9. As your characters begin the game in the custody of BuReloc (don't worry, that will probably change soon enough), determine how your character managed to land up in the hands of the authorities.
 
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setting_03sml-jpg.227127


Night City, 2047...

The sky is stained red, choked with the ashes and debris of the Fourth Corporate War. Your city is still largely wasteland, it's centre an irradiated Hot Zone from the nuclear detonation that destroyed the Arasaka Tower and claimed the lives of untold thousands. Gunfire crackles from the Combat Zones that have spread throughout the ruins, and even after two decades of reconstruction there is still so much left to be done.

You are the children of cyberpunks, the edgerunners and corporate agents who's shadowy war erupted into a conflict your world still hasn't recovered from. You have been raised in the Time of the Red, in the wake of societal collapse, your parents swept up by the rise of the New United States of America if they even survived long enough to raise you at all. Freedom has been surrendered for the promise of safety, of security. Even after they nearly ended the world, the MegaCorporations are more powerful than they ever were before.

Every year, they grow stronger. Every year, their territory expands. Inch by inch, city by city, they are clawing back what they once held a stranglehold over. They offer a return to the way things once were before the war. Before the DataKrash tore the NET apart and sent everyone back to the dark ages for a terrible few years.

All they ask in exchange is your liberty.

You have grown up watching society piece itself back together bit by bit, watching the full picture of your parents' generation and their failures be exposed on a day to day basis. You are young, angry, full of youthful optimism and convinced of your own invulnerability. Together you have built up a culture of risk-taking, fist-fighting and doing whatever you can to thumb your noses at all the things your parents valued more than leaving a world behind that you could live in.

Maybe you want to change the world. Maybe you want to get back at the people who fucked your city up. Mostly, though, you just want to be left alone.

They won't even allow you that.

For two years, the Carbon Plague has swept across the cities and ruins of the New United States. It has devastated whole communities, turning anyone infected by it into little more than half-dissolved mounds of flesh and hexite. No-one survives, that's what the authorities say. The only solution is to round up the infected, for everyone's safety.

Of course, you learned a long time ago that the new corporate masters of the world rarely tell the truth.

You were infected by the plague, but somehow you survived. You're not the only one, either. Anyone under the age of 21 has a chance to survive exposure to the disease. But you haven't emerged unscathed. You and your fellow survivors have changed. You have been Altered. Imbued with strange new abilities, the power to speak to machines or reforge your limbs into new shapes, to move faster than any human ought to be able to.

These changes mark you as a target.

They’re coming for you now, one way or another. A national emergency has already been declared, claims circulated that all survivors of the Carbon Plague are carriers who need to be detained for the safety of the public. Every government agency and MegaCorp wetwork squad is out to black-bag you, to rush you off to some lab where they’ll take you apart, piece by piece, to figure out what makes you tick.

There’s no place in this fucked up world you’ve inherited any more. Maybe there never was. You can either run from that fact, or you can do something about it. Take a stand, take the fight to the people who want to take you apart.

You have to make a choice.


Evolve or die.

cybergen_noologo-png.227124


'CyberGeneration 2047' is a story about angry teenagers versus the dystopian corporate state.

Also the aforementioned angry teenagers have superpowers.

Set in the Cyberpunk universe created by Mike Pondsmith and made insanely popular again by CD Projekt RED's janky but still fun 'Cyberpunk 2077'. Our cast has grown up in the wake of disaster: young, angry and disillusioned with the world their parents have left them. They've just been handed the keys to the kingdom in the form of a deadly disease that has imbued them with strange powers. Not to mention the incentive to use said strange powers, because you best believe the powers that be are less than thrilled by these developments.

CyberGen 2047 is a love letter to the X-Men, Akira and all the wonderfully deranged spin-offs that Cyberpunk has had over the years. Those familiar with the setting through any of it's incarnations (yes, even Cyberpunk V3.0) are welcome, as are those new to this deranged, wild world of high tech and low life.




Themes: Teenage Rebellion, Revolution, Transhumanism, Accelerationism
Style: Cyberpunk (as fuck), with a healthy dose of Near-Apocalypse and Dystopian Fiction
Aesthetic: Grungy, red-stained skies, retrofuturistic tech, grim-faced corporate overlords and scrappy teenage rebels (and their grumpy Edgerunner mentors)
Posting Speed: I am fucking incompetent but we'd be aiming for once a week, and I plan on using something I'm tentatively calling the 'Card System' (outlined poorly in the provided link) to help players co-ordinate and plan scenes


 

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NOKTURNE
THE CITY OF SHADOWS


UPPER CLASS DISTRICTSupperclass.jpg
  • Malinov Isle: Seat of power for the Goldbloods, divided into three sections that each House controls. Also the location of the Twlight Furnace, maintained by the High Ichor Engineers of House Nazehrov.
  • The Koronovat: Former seat of power of the human aristocracy. Where the noble houses and great industrialists can be found, and where House Vyrkodlak host their events.
  • Hanza Park: A smaller district that nonetheless plays a major role in the workings of the city, acting as a civic and administrative hub. Many government buildings and administrative offices can be found here, as well as embassies for the outside powers that Nokturne does business with.
MIDDLE CLASS DISTRICTS
  • middleclass.jpgThe Stride: Home to the great fashion houses and finest department stores in the city, as well as the most renowned tailors and dressmakers. The Stride is as upmarket as it gets, catering to the rich and powerful of Nokturne.
  • Chernilwell: A more upmarket residential district, given over to the homes of clerks, officials and other middle managers who staff the businesses, industries and administrations of the city. Named for the inky black waters of the park at it's centre.
  • Skuratov: The thespian, cultural heart of Nokturne, which still beats even in these dark times. In addition to the great opera houses and theatres, this is where you can find modern bohemians plying their trade in street shows and musical performances. Skuratov has a darker undercurrent, however, doubling as the red light district of the city.
WORKING CLASS DISTRICTS
  • slums.jpgVyrkodlak Docks: Beginning construction in the early years of the Goldblood adminstration, Vyrkodlak Docks is now the main artery to and from the city. A vast array of docks, shipyards and warehouses, rivalling even Plavlpot in terms of business and activity.
  • The Sticks: Skirting the edge of the city, and lying just outside the main clouds of the Twilight Furnace, the Sticks is a vast stretch of decrepit farmland that provides much of the city's supply of grains and other essential produce. What can be grown and raised within the Sticks is frail and malnourished.
  • Pekalstad Market: If you want good, you go to the Stride. If you want cheap, you go to Pekalstad. Home to secondhand shops, gin houses, cheap butchers and open-air markets, it's said that anything can be bought and sold here. Legal or otherwise.
  • Myrkside: A vast tenement district, home to many of the shipbuilders and dock workers of the city.
  • Brachford: Once a fine, upper class region of the city before the coming of the Goldbloods, it has fallen on hard times. Now home to the more well-off workers and craftsmen of Plalvpot.
  • Plavlpot: Known colloquially as 'The Pot'. Main industrial region, where the factories of Nokturne can be found. Production never stops, with goods and products being turned out at all hours of the perpetual night.
SLUM DISTRICTS
  • slums1.jpgThe Sink: A region of the city built long before the time of the Goldbloods, now reduced to sunken ruins. When you have nowhere else left to turn, when all other doors are closed to you, the Sink is about all a person has left. It is a place without sun, without home, the residence of desperate beggars and brutal gangs willing to kill over scraps. The Dawn Guard does not patrol here: it is a district left to fend for itself.
  • The Old Docks: Another district from the time before the Goldbloods, and once the primary port of the city. Since the opening of the Vyrkodlak Docks, the work has dried up. The ships have gone elsewhere. But the culture remains. The Old Docks are now a largely lawless district of drinking houses, pit fighting establishments and gang violence. Tread carefully.
 

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Nokturne.

A city of shadows.

Crimson ash chokes the skies, the perpetual output of the titantic Twilight Furnace cladding the city in endless near-night. It falls like rain, staining everything, changing even the water and the rain. Red fog hangs like a condemned man from the scaffold, tinging every district in grim hues. It is a city that has forgotten the face of the sun. As have it's residents.

A city of progress.

It is a city of high culture, the theatre houses of Skuratov open at all hours for attendees to witness their latest performances operating just streets away from bawdy music halls and alley performers. The great discovery of the Ichor Engine has unleashed a wave of new technology upon the city, with the skyrail allowing a journey of what should have been hours to be reduced to mere minutes.

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A city of industry.

Night after night, the furnaces and factories of Plavlpot are a hive of activity. The fire of production is tinged red, and will never stop. On the moorings and shipyards of the Vyrkodlak Docks, vast new ironclad vessels are produced every day. They join the ranks of those who would brave the Endless Black, the inky ocean stretching out to the city's north-west. It is a city of incessant work and toil, grease to the wheel of industrial excellence.

A city of sanctuary.

Over two million souls, clustered into one of the last bastions of humanity. The great and good, the great unwashed, all huddled together within it's streets.

But it is not a city that belongs to humanity.

Not anymore.

goldbloods-jpg.227349


For centuries, longer than anyone alive can remember, the Three Houses of the Goldenblooded have ruled the city of Nokturne. Their pale, deathless hands forged the first Ichor Engines and raised the vast monolith that is the Twilight Furnace. Their icy lips and beautiful whispers pit human noble against rising industrialist, dividing in order to conquer. Their terrible blades form the backbone of the city's security forces, who reap terrible vengeance upon those who would violate the city's laws or fail to pay the Red Tithe owed to their lawful masters.

Their power is a closely guarded prize. One shared fleetingly, yet desired by all. It was a power that was never meant to be yours.

Yet somehow, you have been afflicted by the same deathless curse as the masters of Nokturne.

You are a Blackblood. You have taken what was not yours, by accident or intention, and for this you cannot be forgiven. The Goldbloods will hunt you, from the highest echelons of the Koronovat to the lowest hovels of the Sink. They will tear the whole city apart to find you.

But you are not without hope just yet.

blackbloods_crew-jpg.227359


One of your own has found you. A patron, a benefactor. They have taught you the secret that will give you a chance to fight back. Though your black blood remains an enigma to you, the means by which you can empower it has been revealed. Power enough to turn the tables on those who would destroy you, to rip this city from their grip.

Blood is power. Power is blood.

So you must eat the rich.



 
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LIFE IN NOKTURNE

TECHNOLOGY
In terms of the technology available within 'Blackbloods', the general level is that of the mid-1800s. Industrialisation is rampant, progress is gaining speed, but there are still plenty of holdouts to an older era in terms of the things people use (and certainly in terms of attitudes).

Core to these advances is the Ichor Engine, a potent device forged from House Nazehrov's blood alchemy that is said to generate electricity from blood itself.

Weapons & Firearms
Weapons such as muzzle loading rifles and single shot pistols are a common sight amongst Nokturne's law enforcement, though newer advances such as percussion revolvers are beginning to make themselves known. Possession of such weaponry is illegal amongst the population of the city, however, who must make do with old-fashioned smoothbore firearms and melee weapons (the classics never go out of fashion). Some of the Goldbloods, most commonly amongst House Strygoi, hold a disdain towards modern contrivances such as blackpowder weapons. They prefer to stick to the weapons they have used for centuries.

Transport and Locomotion
Though the horse and carriage remains one of the primary means to get about the streets of Nokturne (if you can afford one), newer advances are beginning to make their presence known. In particular is the Skyrail, a network of cable cars suspended above the city streets that move people and goods all across the city at unprecedented speeds. Nokturne also possesses a vast canal system that allows barges to move through the city regularly.

For transport to more faroff locations, steam locomotion is making it's presence known. The authorities of Nokturne have established rail connections with a few allied states, such as the Ogre Khanate, though access to such transport links is highly restricted.

Being a port city, Nokturne is a hub for shipping and sea transport. Ironclad steamships are now able to traverse the Endless Black, opening up trade routes with the Brackish Ones. The sailors tasked with such merchant runs rarely speak of their experiences, however.


DAILY LIFE
[--TO BE ADDED--]

EDUCATION
The level of education available to a citizen in Nokturne is intrinsically tied to their social class. Amongst the working class, education is largely focused on the learning of trades: literacy rates are markedly lower amongst their number. For those who dwell in the slums and desperate dives of the city, things are even worse. The middles classes have access to higher rates of education, thanks to the many schools and finishing academies available to them, and for the upper classes a good education is of no issue.

Nokturne boasts several places of higher learning. The first is the City Academy of Natural Philosophy, which focuses on the theoretical and practical application of known sciences such as biology, chemistry and physics. Armitage Technical College is the premiere school for clerks, administrators and all those who seek to develop a career in business: it is a popular choice for the burgeoning middle class.

Finally, there is the more elusive and secretive Imperial University Nokturne. Even it's name is dangerous, hearkening back to a time before the Goldbloods. It is here that more distrusted disciplines such as history, philosophy and other humanist subjects are taught. It is also rumoured that the Imperial University is one of the few spaces where research into the arcane is permitted within the city's limits, albeit with heavy supervision by the authorities.


POLITICAL LIFE
Much of Nokturne's politics is conducted in the City Dyma, an assembly with advisory and legislative functions. In practice it is little more than a rubber stamp body, the matters it discusses pre-approved and any matters passed only acting as 'advisement' to the true rulers of the city. The Dyma is divided into three main parties:
  • The Crown Party (Crowns, Toffs), representing the old landed gentry and traditionalists of the city
  • The Tamworth Party (Tams, Gears), representing the growing body of industrialists and "modern men"
  • The New Eyes Party (Eyes, "Rats" by many in the slums), representing the petty bourgeoise and, supposedly, the "common people of Nokturne"
Working class movements have no place in the Dyma, and Trade Unions are actively "discouraged" by city-state authorities. A few worker's movements do exist within the city, but are closely monitored.

CRIME & PUNISHMENT
Under the rule of the Goldbloods, Nokturne keeps control of it's citizens through quiet, precise terror coupled with effiency. The Three Houses disdain overt displays of power and violence, such as mass executions, preferring instead the subtle disappearance of agitators and malcontents. No-one knows who might be disappeared next, but all know that those who vanish probably did something to deserve it. It's an insidious, but effective, means of control that has meant the city has seen few riots in the last century.

Nokturne's legal code is a framework written by the rich, to police the poor. It favours property over people, and the only people who are given much of a word edge-wise are those of wealth. The working classes are to be distrusted, and kept in line through harsh discipline. Day-to-day policing of these laws is handled by the Dawn Guard, the largest security force within the city. It is made up of humans, though it's superiors answer to the Goldblood authorities. They are the most common face of the law within the city, and are known to be enthusiastic in their application of "necessary force".

Within the Dawn Guard is a smaller, more secretive law enforcement unit known as the 'Serious Crimes Brigade'. Amongst the common people of Nokturne, however, they are known by a different name: "the Snatchers". Handling organised crime and more serious breaches of the law, they are believed to be the group responsible for making lawbreakers 'disappear' overnight in sudden raids. Even when they are rarely seen on the streets, their officers are hidden beneath masks.

Finally, the most elite of Nokturne's security forces are the Dusk Guard. Made up entirely of vampires, primarily recruited from House Strygoi, they act as both Honour Guard for the authorities and the nuclear option for problem solving. The Dusk Guard is deployed to handle organised seditionist groups, rioters and the rare outbreak of Blackbloods. Seeing them outside of Malinov Isle sends most citizens running, because they know things are about to get messy.
 
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JUVEGANGS OF NIGHT CITY

Below is a sample list of some of the youth gangs that can be found in and around Night City, circa 2047. Bear in mind that they represent broad brushstrokes, and that individual groups may have their own variations and mutations on the general formula. Some Bozugangs exclusively ride Hellfire bikes, for instance, whilst others wouldn't be caught dead on anything other than an Apache. You are not restricted to a specific formula, and are welcome to play around with things.

Please also bear in mind that these are only sample options, gangs that I've tweaked from the original CyberGeneration to give you an idea of the flavour and tone of the RP. If there's a concept that you really, really want to go in for (or if you're mad at me for not including the Goths), please message me and we can sort something out.

You're not playing a StreetFighter or a Tribal, though. There's only so much cringe that I can allow.



  • bozugangers-jpg.227513
    "I customised that bike for myself. It's too wild, you couldn't handle it."
    - Kaneda, 'Akira'

    For as long as motorbikes have existed, young people have been possessed by the urge to ride them in the most deranged and suicidal ways possible. In that sense, you and your friends are continuing a long and noble tradition. Taking your name from a portmanteau of the Japanese term for youth biker gang, you are the Huns of the inner city highways. If it's loud, fast and runs on two wheels, you can ride it. If it looks at you funny, you're ready to fight it.

    Bozugangers hold to a culture of reckless thrill-seeking, death-defying displays of ridership and casual mayhem. You never set out to cause a ruckus, but a ruckus invariably seems to follow you. You're a tight-knit bunch, suspicious of outsiders and ever ready to dispense a beatdown on others. Rivalries between Bozugangs are as fierce as they are deadly, with different sides competing to outdo one another in terms of skill and fearlessness. When they aren't kicking seven shades of shit out of one another, of course.

    GANG CARD: 'Hell On Two Wheels'
    Perform deranged, suicidal shit on a motorbike. Have an eye for bikes, how to fix them and how to steal them. Get into fights. Win fights through grit and dirty fighting. Generally behave like an intimidating hoodlum of the highest order.

  • ultras-jpg.227514
    "What we were after now was the old surprise visit. That was a real kick and good for laughs and lashings of the old ultraviolence."
    - Alex, 'A Clockwork Orange'

    When you live in a world that kicks you to the ground so often, sometimes it feels good to kick someone else.

    Ultras are bands of borderline psychotics who've come together to take on the dark future through the power of truth, friendship and unspeakable violence. You all learned a long time ago that life is a battle, that pain can make you stronger. You live to fight, to willingly delve into the Combat Zones of Night City to test your mettle. You want to get right in the face of your enemy, using feet, fists, knives, chains - anything that carries risk and danger. You'll use guns if you have to, but you disdain anything that doesn't carry some risk of death, where you can't feel your enemy's breath in your face and his blood on your hands.

    Gang hierarchy is absolute. There is only one leader in a mob of Ultras: the most dangerous and unpredictable guy or gal there. You dress loud, and you come armoured: subtlty has no say in your playbook. Some groups like yours are affiliated with existing Boostergangs like the Bozos and Maelstrom. Others are independent. Yet all of you are driven by the urge to test yourself against the worst that the city can throw at you, to feel the adrenaline rush that can only come from knowing every moment might be your last.

    GANG CARD: 'The Old Ultraviolence'
    Rip and tear. Fight to the death. Ignore pain that would overwhelm others. Understand how to operate weapons. Act like the most deranged psychotic in the room (and let's be honest, you probably are).
  • "La familia es todo (Family is all)."
    - Hector Salamanca, 'Breaking Bad'

    No-one came out of the Fourth Corporate War unscathed. But if anyone could be said to have "won" it, you and your fellow Nomads are a solid candidate.

    Two decades back, your family was considered the dregs of society. A band of homeless wastelanders riding from city to city in what were essentially roaming towns, scraping by through scavenging and odd jobs. No-one took you seriously. Then the nuke went off, society collapsed for a while, and suddenly all the skills you and yours had acquired? The ones that everyone else thought they didn't need anymore? Almost overnight, they were pretty relevant again.

    You have grown up in the Renaissance of the Nomad clans, with your family having become one of the only means of moving people and goods between cities reliably. You were raised to be self-sufficient, with a gun at your hip since you could walk. You and your kin can strip a car down to it's base parts faster than most people take a shower, navigate through the forgotten territories of what was the USA, and hold your own against anyone who's trying to take what's yours. Regardless of whether you grew up with the Aldecaldos or the Jodes, you were raised for survival in a world that thought it didn't need you any longer.

    GANG CARD: 'Wastelander'
    Jury rig an engine. Successfully navigate a dust storm. Scout the Badlands. Find food and water when everyone else is starving. Hunt wildlife. Hunt people, if you have to. Skin a carcass. Survivalist this shit up.
  • "Because it's there."
    - George Mallory

    To most, the ruins and wasteground left behind in the wake of the war is a space to be avoided.

    To you, though? It's an opportunity.

    You are a modern explorer, a delver into spaces that others fear to tread. The half-built arcologies, the bombed out office blocks, the miles of industrial wasteground? There's an allure to it all, even now. A beauty in laying eyes upon something that no-one else has seen in decades. You and your friends are the brave souls willing to venture into the dark, to map the ruins of Night City and all it has to offer.

    Thrillseeking, curiosity and an urge to see what's out there: these are what bring Tunnelkid crews together. You each have your specialisations, your shared interests that you focus on. Some groups venture up towers, other descend down into the abandoned underground systems beneath the city. All of you dream of being the crew that one day puts together the resources and equipment needed to venture into the Hot Zone... and live to tell the tale.

    GANG CARD: 'Urban Explorer'
    Navigate the urban environment; leap across elevator shafts, clamber through debris, crawl through ancient air vents without getting trapped. Sense dangers and instabilities in the environment way before anyone else. Know the routes that everyone else has forgotten.
  • "The big problem is that people don't believe a revolution is possible, and it is not possible precisely because they do not believe it is possible."
    - Ted Kaczynski

    When the NUSA talking heads and corporate executives first heard of the Radical PoliClubs being formed by teenagers in cities across the country, they were laughing. What could a bunch of kids reading Marx and handing out leaflets do, in the grand scheme of things?

    Then the bombs started going off and the blackmail incidents began. Turns out kids are pretty good at picking up on how the game of politics is played, these days.

    You and your fellow Radicals are acutely aware of just how fucked everything is, these days. Unlike the rest of your age group, however, you actually want to do do something about it. You are agitators, organisers and instigators, the children who grew up in the brief flicker of liberty and co-operation that flared up in the wake of the war and who are willing to do what it takes to keep that candle alive. And what it takes is sometimes a hefty dose of intimidation, bomb scares and blackmail. No-one made an omlette without breaking a few eggs, after all.

    Political ideology is a key unifying factor amongst your fellow Radicals. Some of you espouse a return to the tenets of democracy and liberalism, others advocate for more radical solutions, and then there's that weird kid with the 'RETURN TO MONKE' shirt. Arguments and fights between different PoliClubs are common enough, but when push comes to shove you all have a common enemy: the NUSA.

    GANG CARD: 'Rallying Cry'
    Cause a scene. Get people impassioned and angry. Canvass neighbourhoods, raise awareness, promote a cause. Find information through the political grapevine. Resort to more "extreme measures". Make an offer they can't refuse.
  • "I'm gonna have to science the shit outta this."
    - Mark Watney, 'The Martian'

    Cyberware. Microfabs. Smartbikes and aerodynes. Used to be they didn't let kids near this stuff. But then the world sort of ended for a while, and now all the rules are out.

    Say what you will about the Time of the Red, but the tech sure as hell is something.

    You were picking things apart and putting it back together again almost as long as you can remember. Forging your own strange, unstable fusions of scrap and wiring. Then you found your way into a group of likeminded techies, and you haven't looked back since. The wreckage from the Fourth Corporate War is a treasure trove waiting to be opened for your kind, rife with discarded and forgotten equipment you can scavenge for parts. Sometimes you can ask your Tunnelkid buddies to bring back some choice parts from the forgotten parts of the city, and then you're really cooking with gas.

    Each group of Tech-Heads has a focus in mind. Some of you focus on video systems and recording equipment, others on vehicles and propulsion. There's even that crew down in East Cargo Village telling everyone they've got a working rail gun. Whatever your interest, though, no-one can match you guys when it comes to tearing things down and building it back up into something even more awesome (and a lot more dangerous).

    GANG CARD: 'Kit Bash'
    Disassemble technology. Reassemble it into something weird. Work with limited tools to repair, deploy and operate tech that you really shouldn't have your hands on. Patch into existing systems. Divert power for your creations. Be a burgeoning mad scientist.
 
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THE CARBON PLAGUE
Genetic Metabolic Disruption Syndrome (GMDS, better known by it's nickname "Carbon Plague") is a deadly virus that has swept the world in the last two years. It can be transmitted through contact with any exposed object or person; no antiseptic or biological agent seems to affect it. It can also be spread on the winds of the jetstream. As much as the NUSA tries to deny it, the fact that the Carbon Plague appears to be some manner of nanotechnology. Yet there's more to it than that, the underground screamsheets declare. Although nanotechnology has been in common use since the early 2000s, the Carbon Plague is so much more highly advanced that it resembles everyday nanotech the way an AV-4 aerodyne resembles a Model T Ford. For one thing, it appears to be volitional, possessing a sort of machine intelligence similar to a computer AI. Normal nanotech is not volitional: it can only perform very simple tasks and cannot change its limited programming. The Plague appears not only to be able to perform very complex tasks that involve intuitional jumps, but also to be able to change its structure, programming, and overall functions at will.

In short, it's rapidly becoming the most transmissable pathogen known to man.

This would be bad enough, but when coupled with what the Carbon Plague does to people the situation only gets worse. The Plague doesn't just kill people. No, it changes them, in horrible, random ways. Among adults over twenty, about 80% are unaffected: they don't show signs of infection and appear to be immune. The remaining 20% die in screaming agony, their bones and muscles slowly powdering into sugary white crystals, or melting into formless goo.

Strangely, the Carbon Plague does not appear to be lethal to those under the age of 20. The vast majority, around 75%, appear to be entirely unaffected by contact with the disease. For the remaining 25%, however, things get a whole lot stranger. The Carbon Plague triggers some manner of metabolic alteration, re-writing whole stretches of their genetic code, replacing whole limbs or internal systems with a strange material known as hexite and leaving them as bizarre hybrids of nanotech and biology.

These 'Altered', as they are known by the authorities, seem to fit into several broad categories (though new 'CyberGenus' are being discovered even now).

  • Tinman: Tinmen are the most recognisable of the Altered, due to their shiny, black, supercarbon arms and legs. They can reshape these hexite limbs into nearly any form they can imagine, from blades to guns to tools. They can also extrude a layer of hexite through their skin to form an armoured coating over their entire body, making them incredibly formidable combatants.
  • Scanner: The most common CyberGenus, Scanners develop special receptors that allow them to perceive and interpret brainwaves, effectively reading thoughts and emotions. Their nervous systems are also hardwired, granting them the ability to boost their reflexes to inhuman speeds.
  • Alchemist: Alchemists possess nanites that can sample and reassemble matter on the molecular level. In practical terms, this allows them to physically reshape any nonliving material, even turning it from one matter state into another (e.g. solid to liquid) or changing it to another molecular structure entirely (e.g. turning coal into diamond).
  • Wizard: Wizards are the most adapted to the modern era with their ability to interface directly with the Net, Virtuality, and electronic devices. They can project themselves mentally into the Net, create their own "Familiars" (advanced programs under their control), and command computerised machinery.
  • Morph: The Morph is a rare CyberGenus with a subdermal layer of hexite under the skin that is capable of detailed topographical changes, allowing the Morph to alter their appearance. Even the skeletal system, vocal chords, and hair follicles can be replaced, allowing even greater ability to mimic and disguise.
  • Medic: The Medic is a more recently discovered CyberGenus who can operate as a walking, talking field hospital. Outfitted with medical nanites that can be administered to others via touch, a set of internal biochemical synthesizers and diagnostic senses, these Altered can treat even severe injuries simply by laying hands upon their patient.
  • Dragoon: One of the most dangerous of the recently discovered kinds of CyberGenus, the Dragoon is an organic missile system. Capable of generating and storing a malleable, sticky explosive substance, they can also launch this substance from their arms at increasingly fast speeds and long ranges. Thanks to the alterations needed to generate and store such substances, Dragoons are highly resistant to fire and other chemical attacks.
 
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MEGACORPORATIONS IN THE TIME OF THE RED

The 4th Corporate War briefly ended the age of Corporate domination. Even if they were not involved in the shooting parts of the War, many Megacorps found their operations fatally wounded through the breakdown of communications, NET information systems, global transport disruption, and collateral damage.

But the Megas weren't out of the picture entirely. In many cases, local or regional offices continued to operate in a reduced capacity if they could get the materials and funding to do so. These companies sometime renamed themselves but continued, where possible, to provide the services they were known for.

With the rise of the NUSA, and President Whindam's Council for Economic Prosperity, these surviving corporations have slowly but surely been on the rise once again. Those who bought in early on the CEF's reconstruction plans have seen a massive return on their investments, with massive contracts and deals being handed out to ensure that America recovers in just the right way. Less of the independent, self-sufficient model that was threatening to become prevalent in the Time of the Red, and more in line with corporate interests.

Night City's corporate scene, being far removed from the NUSA's plans until recently, has evolved in a different path. Driven onto a more even playing field with the surviving citizens and Edgerunners, and forced to play nice with new powers like the Nomads and their High Roads, the city has been a melting pot between the old and the new. The most determined Edgerunners can also field hardware and advantages often equal to those of smaller Corps. And there are even a fair number of Edgerunners using the open market to start their own "baby Corps" to take on the tottering "old guys." There's been a new and dangerous game playing out in the local marketplace.

The NUSA's arrival into the political and corporate worlds of Night City has everyone on edge. It represents a return to the old way of doing things, to the era of domination by a few vast economic entities with power to rival nations. For some, this is a welcome return to normality. For others, it's an unwelcome intrusion that must be strangled in it's cradle.


CORPORATIONS OPERATING WITHIN NIGHT CITY
  • arasaka.pngCorporate security, Corporate police, and various Corporate suboperations
    Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan
    Regional Offices: Offices throughout the world
    Chief Officer: Hanako Arasaka
    Employees: 1,000,000

    Although they were forced to shoulder the responsibility of some of the worst outcomes of the Fourth Corporate War, Arasaka are still far from gone yet. Though their operations are severely reduced and their headquarters are limited to the Japanese mainland, Arasaka has managed, even in defeat, to hold on to most of its assets thanks to its strong alliance with the official government of Japan. They may be barred from the NUSA, but their forces can still be found operating across the rest of the globe.

    Officially, Arasaka has no presence within Night City. Take this for what you will.
  • Genetic engineering, microbiological, and biochemical research
    Headquarters: La Jolla, California
    Regional Offices: London, Bonn, Paris, Seattle, Dallas, Night City, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro
    Chief Officer/Designer: Nicolo Loggagia
    Employees: 36,256

    When the fuel crisis really began to affect the industrialized community in the late 1990s, Biotechnica, then a small firm with only one office, came up with the answer: CHOOH2 TM (pronounced 'chew two'). CHOOH2 (not its actual chemical formula) is a complex grain alcohol produced by genetically engineered yeasts and wheat strains created by Biotechnica. The potential of CHOOH2 was realized almost immediately after it was introduced, and within a few years, all fuel-burning vehicles and power plants had converted to the new product.

    Although Biotechnica held worldwide patents, it lacked the production facilities to meet worldwide demand, forcing it to license production to several large Agricorps and PetroCorps. These deals made Biotechnica an extremely wealthy, but still not particularly large, company. Biotechnica is also probably the closest thing to a "good guy" Corporation in the Time of the Red. Its labs have provided much of the tech that enabled the Pacific Confed and the NUSA to develop new bio-engineered 'replacement species', and Biotechnica is active in restoring both animals and habitat throughout the blighted environments of this era.
  • continentalbrands.pngOrganic and synthetics food and drink
    Headquarters: Tulsa, Oklahoma
    Regional Offices: Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, Seattle, Dallas, Night City
    Chief Officer: Olivia Forsythe
    Employees: 147,000

    Distracted by the aftermath of the 4th Corporate War, the higher ups at Petrochem didn't pay attention as their subsidiary, Continental Agricorp, took steps to divorce itself from the energy MegaCorp. Continental made their move, forcing a spin-off of the subsidiary and buying out half of Petrochem's CHOOH-4U gas stations, thus Continental Brands was born.

    Continental rebranded their CHOOH-4U stations as Oasis stores and quickly rebuilt them into one of the few reliable places to buy their food products. They were one of the first corporations to buy in on the CEF's food supply contracts, and have benefitted nicely from the deal: they now dominate the food market across the NUSA. Continental's Oasis Community Loyalty Program rewards entire communities for being loyal customers by granting them prioritized food shipments and cheaper mega sized goods and punishes them with higher prices and scarcity for acting against Continental interests.
  • dangergal.pngPrivate investigation and security firm
    Headquarters: Night City
    Regional Offices: New York, Miami, Montreal, London, Rome, Zurich, Night City, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Toronto
    Chief Officer: Michiko Sanderson
    Employees: 1,800

    Danger Gal is something of an anomaly in the corporate scene. Founded by the youngest daughter of a dynasty who's name is mud in the NUSA, it has still somehow risen to become one of the premiere investigation and private security contractors across the country. This is thanks in part to the charisma and charm of it's founder and CEO, Michiko Sanderson (nee Arasaka). As the perky, unstoppable head, Michiko is a staple of parties and events from New Hollywood to the hot spots of recovering Europe. Good connections bring good contracts, and Danger Gal operatives (in their distinctive tactical gear) can now be seen guarding those well-heeled and socially prominent enough to pay their astronomical fees.

    There are those who raise questions about just how someone with such a bubbly, naive public persona as Michiko Sanderson could have pulled all this off. Not to mention those who point to rumours of private funding coming in from government sources.
  • militech.pngArms manufacturing and distribution, mercenaries
    Headquarters: Washington D.C.
    Regional Offices: New York, Miami, Chicago, Montreal, London, Rome, Zurich, Night City, Washington, Los Angeles, Toronto, Tokyo, Beijing
    Chief Officer: Gen. Donald Lundee, USMC (ret.)
    Employees: 350,000 (700,000 Contracted to the U.S. Military)

    Militech International Armaments is a megacorporation specializing in weapons manufacturing and private military contracting. Militech is one of the world's largest manufacturers of weapons and military vehicles, with facilities on every continent.

    Militech provides equipment for hundreds of nations as well as both private and governmental organizations, especially the NUSA military and police forces. This equipment includes but is not limited to personal firearms, drones, tanks, aircraft, ships, and Assisted Combat Personal Armor. An alternate branch of the corporation provides private military forces ostensibly for the purposes of defense, peacekeeping and nation-building missions.

    Donald Lundee, the elder war hawk and CEO, still leads the corporation, and there are rumours that he still harbours deep resentments over the end of the Fourth Corporate War. Had the President not stepped in and forced the conflict to a close, he is apparently convinced that he could have finally destroyed his archrivals at Arasaka. Despite these underlying troubles, however, Militech has done extremely well out of the rise of the NUSA. Not only is it's current President a former Militech executive, it has also gained most of the contracts relating to security and arms distribution. Slowly but surely, it is building itself back to it's former glory.
  • network54.pngNationwide broadcasting service
    Headquarters: Santa Fe, New Mexico
    Regional Offices: Atlanta, Chicago,New Orleans, Dallas, Denver, Arizona, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, with subsidiary stations in most major cities
    Chief Officer: Michelle Dreyer
    Employees: 62,000

    Network News 54 is a wavelength monopoliser, operating on the same frequency across the country. Accordingly, no matter where you go in the country, Network News 54 is on Channel 54, although in the wake of the War their reach into the broadcast markets did take a hit. Despite its name, News 54 offers many diversions in addition to news. Every regional office offers a slightly different schedule to its district, with syndicated series, non-prime-time movies, and independent local news programs. Certain elements of the broadcasting are universal nationwide, such as prime-time series and bi-hourly national and world news shows. Under the control of Michelle Dreyer, widow of the original founder, the actual Corporate offices are located on the vast prairie spread at Fifty Pines Ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico.
  • petrochem.pngPetrochemical products and agribusiness. Worlds' largest CHOOH2 producer
    Headquarters: Dallas, Free State of Texas
    Regional Offices: New York, Washington, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, Tokyo, London, Hamburg, Paris, Rome. Oil fields in many Canadian Territories, Texas, Alaska, California, and Antarctica. Agricultural areas in California and the Midwest and Southeast
    Chief Officer: Angus Youngblood
    Employees: 338,000

    With the collapse of most multinational fuel companies after the 4th Corp War, Petrochem is keeping the world running. Literally. They're the world's largest producer of CHOOH2 (under license), and control millions of acres of arable land across the un-incorporated United States—land chiefly used to grow the genetically altered wheat that is used to make the synthetic fuel known as CHOOH2. Petrochem is also one of the world's largest oil producers, but with the oil supply dwindling most remaining fossil fuels are used to make plastics and other synthetics. Petrochem also has more fertile oil fields than any other company. All of these assets are huge, and accordingly hard to protect from other companies that would like to usurp Petrochem's wealth. With such vast interests to protect—and due to recent loses to Continental Brands—Petrochem has invested huge amounts of money in protecting itself, maintaining an armed force worthy of a small country. Still chafing under its CHOOH2 license from Biotechnica, it is rumoured that Petrochem's wily CEO is seeking a way to absorb the smaller biotech company for good.
  • rocklinaugmentics.pngAmerican cybernetics and structural enhancements specialists
    Headquarters: Austin, Free State of Texas
    Regional Offices: Washington D.C., Chicago, Denver, Atlanta, Baltimore, Seattle, Dallas, Night City
    Chief Officer/Designer: Jacinda Hidalgo
    Employees: 125,000

    Founded in 2004 to supply artificial limb technology to the Veteran's Administration following the Central American Wars, Rocklin Prosthetics found itself quickly outpaced by leaner, more technologically advanced cybernetic companies, such as Dynalar Technologies and Kiroshi Optics. The company limped along as a small, local power until the Time of the Red when the founder's daughter, Jacinda Hidalgo, took control and hit the market with a catalog of bleeding edge cyberlimbs that emphasized unique aesthetics, being reborn in 2030 as Rocklin Augmentics.

    Rocklin's new enhancements refuse all pretense at organic simulation with open frameworks, unusual color schemes, and "inhuman" proportions and variations. Their most famous products include the Signature Cybernetic Series, designed by popular artists. These designs were all 100% human design (as the new advertising slogan "Cyberware for Humans, by Humans" proclaims), and any reports that illegal AI experimentation was used in their creation is slander.
  • sovoil.pngPetrochemical products and agribusiness
    Headquarters: Moscow, Russia
    Regional Offices: Toshkent, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Manila, Ho Chi Min City, Havana, Night City
    Chief Officers: Central Committee (actual membership unknown)
    Employees: 245,000

    By 1997, the Neo-Soviets had the capacity to recover only a fraction of the vast fields of oil lying under their federation. After a massive program of expansion and modernization, KeroSov, the previous state-run oil industry, became strong enough to break away from the oligarchs of the Federal Central Committee and become the Neo-Sovetskiy Neftyanoy Kombinat (Neo-Soviet Oil Combine aka SovOil). Now sitting on top of the world's largest remaining oil reservoirs, SovOil's oligarch leaders know that the oil won't flow forever. But they're still a wealthy and powerful Corporation, with unmatched access to an incredibly valuable commodity, plus a variety of other products and industries. Unfortunately for them, developments like Biotechnica's CHOOH2 have rapidly undermined their strategic dominance.

    Locked in a bitter rivalry with Petrochem, SovOil has recently seen it's bottom line hammered by the opposition joining with the NUSA (and snatching up all the best contracts). Shut out by President Whindam's 'America First' outlook on corporate partners, SovOil has nonetheless been able to build up a presence in Night City and other Free States... only for those independent areas to slowly fall back into the hands of the NUSA. Angered by these developments, SovOil is reportedly preparing to diverisfy it's interests across Europe and Asia (and resort to more drastic measures in North America).
  • traumateam.pngAmbulance and paramedic services
    Headquarters: Seattle, Washington
    Regional Offices: Most Major North American Cities
    Chief Officers: Carrie Lachanan and Bob Jones
    Employees: 15,000

    Still one of the largest private medical firms in the world, Trauma Team provides ambulance services and paramedic support for a client base of at least fifteen million people. Equipped with top-line AV type vehicles, Trauma Teams provide an essential service in the 2000s: recovering wounded clients from the field. Dispersed as needed among the offices are 1,305 AV-4 aerodyne vehicles, thirty Corporate jets, twenty-two Osprey II aircraft, and four C-29 heavy cargo jets. Each franchise office also has its own surgical-capable infirmary and arrangements with local hospitals for high-need patients.

    The Fourth Corporate War very nearly bankrupted the corporation, with demand for their services skyrocketing even as the resources they needed to operate dwindled. Even after the conflict came to an end, the collapse of general infrastructure made it increasingly difficult to restock and repair even as demand for rapid medical attention increased. By signing on with the NUSA, Trauma Team was able to find the lifeline they needed to start rebuilding their network.

    The War has also changed TT's Corporate look as well: in the past, their crisp blue and yellow uniforms were a comforting sign of their competence and capability. But endless street battles and the availability of surplus military hardware has forced the Trauma Team to armor up almost as heavily as the worst Psycho Squad. The uniforms are still blue, but the new helmets are mil-spec, heavy duty combat rigs, coupled with heavy armor, power armor support systems (yellow), and self-contained combat medipacs. This coupled with the lack of qualified Medtechs, has given Trauma Team a new face: harried, overworked, angry, and impatient.
  • The backbone of modern communications and data infrastructure
    Headquarters: Night City
    Regional Offices: Most North American Cities
    Chief Officer: UR (Pronounced You Are)
    Employees: 115,000

    Ziggurat seemingly appeared from nowhere in 2030 in Night City with a plan to transform the old fiber-optic Data Term network into a new system and restore cheap and reliable communication across the whole of the metroplex. With a grant from Night Corp and buy-in from the fractious City Council, the brand-new CitiNet was up and operational within months. Ziggurat further increased usability by overlaying the CitiNet with the first Data Pool, an open protocol for displaying and sharing data that anyone could use.

    Ziggurat quickly spread out from Night City to other metroplexes in North America, repeating the process. By 2040, most cities in the New United States, the Pacifica Confed, Canada, and the Free States had CitiNets and Data Pools courtesy of the company. Ziggurat also helped restore communication between metropolitan regions by providing simple and inexpensive city-to-city communication via hourly data-packet burst transfers along a cobbled together patchwork of reclaimed phone lines, free-space optics, and even Nomad couriers. This long-distance communication only works via text, voice, and video messages. Direct audio and visual contact still requires a contract with the more expensive WorldSat Comm Network.

    Almost immediately after the Night City Data Pool went online, Ziggurat published the first set of apps to make use of it. This allowed them to not only collect fees from the government for setting up and maintaining CitiNets and Data Pools but monetized their use by collecting and selling data, selling advertising space, and supplying users with in-app upgrades.

    Among Ziggurat's most popular app offerings are the Ask Alex Anything pseudo-AI data crawler, the BabelChat chat app, the ZPost electronic mail service, and the Ziggurat Editing Suite for text, audio, video, and app creation. While there are minor competitors, most content on North American Data Pools is created using Ziggurat Apps and consumed via the Garden, the company's one-stop platform for sharing content.

    Any Garden user can, at no cost, set up their own Garden Patch, a space on the Data Pool made specifically for sharing their text, audio, virtual, and braindance creations. Patches can be customized using a limited variety of free overlays or more functional - and thus more expensive - templates. Once setup is completed, users can populate their Patch with text, still imagery, audio and video, virtual, and braindance creations that other users can consume and comment on. Ziggurat runs targeted advertisements before, after, and during Garden content, cutting the creators in for ten percent of revenues. Most modern PopMedia stars in the Time of the Red get their start on the Garden and most performers and companies, no matter how big, maintain their own Patch in order to reach the broadest possible audience with their entertainment, commercials, and products.

    Ziggurat's stock has taken a beating with the creation of the Blackwall. They are working to integrate their own networks with the resorted NET systems, but are facing resistance from government agencies distrustful of the new corporation.
  • zhirafa.pngManufacturer of drone, autonomous robotics, and construction mecha
    Headquarters: Vladivostok, Russia
    Regional Offices: London, Paris, Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Singapore, Night City
    Chief Officer: Artyom Sokolov
    Employees: 225,000

    Zhirafa Technical Manufacturing was founded by its CEO, Artyom Sokolov, and his ex-Edgerunner friends with healthy savings built on mercenary work during the Fourth Corporate War. The Neo-Soviet Union after the Fourth Corporate War was weakened by antiquated technology and an unstable economy that had been entirely based on fossil fuels. The major economic power, SovOil, had managed to do very well during the war, however most people were already aware that sooner or later that the oil would run out or CHOOH2 would make fossil fuels obsolete and the Soviet Union's economy would collapse. Russia's ability to compete in the international tech market was still extremely limited. Compared to most other nations, the Soviets tech was often considered garbage.

    However in 2039, this changed with the GRAF3 tech entering the market. This construction robot had a reasonable price and proved itself to be durable and reliable as it could easily be repaired. The GRAF3 was the perfect product for cleaning the mess after the war. Due to the price local governments bought them in bulk, and small communities could also obtain one that would last for years. Zhirafa was able to snatch up several NUSA contracts relating to the supply of clearance robots. Zhirafa was never questioned on how it got founded or how it spread its influence so far across Russia so soon after completing their first project. Many believed Zhirafa's success could be attributed to the activity of the Bratva criminal syndicate and groups of allied Russian Nomads.

    After the GRAF3 broke into the market, the Zhirafa Corporation took on rocket Russian tech to new heights with the release of several lines of drones and robots. Besides the GRAF Line, the most notable and ubiquitous development of Zhirafa is the Savanna Line, a line of aerial and terrestrial combat drones for use by security and law enforcement.


OTHER CORPORATIONS
Not every Corp cuts so distinctive a figure in 2047, either because they're not as powerful or because they're more localised/secretive. Here are few of these "Other Corps" who don't always make the screamsheets.

  • Black Swan Corp: Electronics research corporation. Founded by former ITS Corporation staff, now with close ties to Militech.
  • Constitution Arms: Prominent arms manufacturer. Produces extremely heavy weaponry.
  • GunMart: Low-quality weapons manufacturer.
  • Kendachi Arms: Japanese arms manufacturer. Specializes in mono-molecular blades.
  • Kiroshi Optics: A leading Corp in Cyberoptics design. Still dominates the market.
  • Merrill, Asukaga & Finch: Highly exclusive investment/financial counseling firm.
  • Raven Microcybernetics: Once-powerful cybernetics Corp. Knocked down a peg by the arrival of Rocklin Augmentics.
  • Thornton Motor Company: Mid-tier vehicle manufacturer. Builds extremely durable ground cars.
  • WorldSat CommNet: International communications Corp. Still rules direct A/V communication between cities.
  • Zetatech: Software and heavy machinery manufacturing Corp.
 
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THE TIME OF THE RED: A HISTORY

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CHILDREN OF THE RED
You've heard the stories of the old days, sure. The wild era when the world fell apart, when corrupt government agencies tried to seize power only to wind up handing the keys to the kingdom over to the Megacorps. You've heard about the chaos, the collapse, the opportunity. The Edgerunners and Cyberpunks, chromed to the gills and ready to kill or be killed for the promise of fame and/or fortune. High tech and low life, that's what they talk about.

You've heard it all, but it means little to you.

For you are the children born in the Time of the Red.

In the aftermath of the Fourth Corporate War, atmospheric particles from the nuclear blast in Night City, as well as debris from orbital weapon strikes, continent-wide firestorms, conventional explosives, and the wartime burning and annihilation of cities and agricultural areas, cast an eerie red pall over skies worldwide. For years skies were tinged a bloody red, with the colours only just beginning to dissipate now. Then there's the "blood rains", triggered when rainstorms pulled the crimson particulate out of the skies and deposited it as a greasy crimson slime reminiscent of blood. This has been the backdrop, the hue, of your childhood.

You grew up in a world piecing itself back together, raised by shell shocked survivors and those willing to grasp at the opportunities created by the fall of the Megacorps. Individualistic self-interest and a focus on profit, once the staples of American life in the time before the war, had no place in your upbringing. People who had lost everything came together in order to survive, to pool resources and rebuild as best they could. A sense of community, of belonging, is something that stands out in many of your childhoods. The Nomad High Roads began to re-establish supply chains, giving you access to better luxuries and a better standard of living, but those early days of campfires and common interest stand out in many a childhood memory.

Then they came along to fuck it up.


THE RISE OF THE NUSA
When President Elizabeth Kress, the hard-nosed former military officer who was able to finally bring the war to an end, announced the formation of the 'New United States of America', you can remember people laughing. It seemed like such a delusion, a corporate pipe dream, that now was the time to be heralding the rebirth of the United States when cities were still largely rubble and running water was a luxury.

Then all of a sudden Kress wasn't the President any more.

You heard several different versions of the story. That she was forced out of office. That she went down guns blazing as an internal coup took place. All anyone knows for sure is that her sudden retirement was announced in early 2036, and that she hasn't been seen or heard from since. Due to the ongoing state of emergency the remains of the government appointed a new President "on behalf of the New American people": David Whindam. Given that he was a former higher-up at Militech, and that his new Vice President Arthur Scithe held a similar position at Black Swan Corp, he looked to be just another chip off the old block. Another suit to stand in front of a screen and announce the launch of a new executive branch called the Council for Economic Prosperity. He wouldn't last, or so everyone said.

Fast-forward a decade, and everyone would be eating those words.

Under Whindam and his Council, the NUSA has grown from a scattering of cities to almost total control of the territories once held by it's predecessor. The Free States have been brought back into line, with only the stubborn holdouts in Texas resisting further. Former federalist rivals like the Pacifica Confederation, that once held sway over Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Northern California, and British Colombia, have collapsed. It's success has been attributed to offering people an easy way out, a quick and dirty means of returning to the way of living that existed before the Fourth Corporate War. Comfort, jobs, and security. All they ask in exchange is subservience, and for people to turn a blind eye to the expansion of corporate power over their lives.

For many, that's a price worth paying.

In the last year, even Night City has been conquered. Sold out from under the people who had worked so hard to rebuild it and make it something more than it was before. A narrow vote by the heavily divided city council, with allegations of bribery being levelled at the previously toothless City Councilors, allowed the NUSA to make its triumphant return to Night City. They are still the new power in town, prone to overt displays of authority as they jostle with the local population. Tensions are high, bordering on reaching boiling point. A lot of people have grown used to the independent way of living over the last two decades, and they're none too pleased to see the self-proclaimed cavalry come riding in.

But they also have bigger things to worry about.


A NEW PLAGUE
It began as a few isolated incidents, downplayed by the corporate media as baseless rumours. Now it's a global pandemic, spreading across continents and killing tens of thousands. The Carbon Plague is a biowarfare nightmare seemingly unleashed upon the human population, rendering most of it's victims into screaming piles of half-dissolved goo before it finally kills them. Governments across the world are panicking, sealing off the NUSA from global travel networks right as it was getting ready to celebrate its final victory. In turn, the NUSA has gone full damage control and declared martial law across it's states. The Bureau of Relocation, who act as the Council for Economic Prosperity's personal door-kickers and skull-breakers, are out in full force. Anyone suspected of infection is at risk of being forced into one of the growing quarantine camps being established up and down the country. What goes on inside them is anyone's guess, because no-one's yet made it out alive to tell of it.

Then there's the rumours about the teenage victims of the Carbon Plague. Seemingly immune to the worst excesses of the disease, yet changed all the same. Altered into something other than human, possessing strange and potent new abilities as a result of their exposure to an illness that is so deadly to their elders. Unconfirmed footage of these so-called 'Altered' is doing the rounds on social media and the underground journalism circuit, though the authorities are keen to stamp it out. The official line is that these reports of children being changed by the Carbon Plague are unfounded rumours and nothing more. They stress that anyone exposed to the disease is a potential risk to their friends and neighbours, and should be turned over to the authorities for mandatory quarantine as soon as possible.

You of all people know that the official line is a load of horse shit, of course.

Given that you're now one of the Altered.
 
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NIGHT CITY: AN OVERVIEW

Night City is a city in the process of rebuilding even now. The old Neighbourhood Zones of the 2020 period have been rearranged, renamed, or even scraped off into the Bay if they're still too radioactive. Instead of neighbourhoods, locals now refer to these new areas based on the type of environment they're dominated by: Hot Zone, Rebuilding Urban Center, Executive Zone, Overpacked Suburbs, Reclaimed Perimeter, and The Open Road.

better_map_sml.jpg

▶ The Hot Zone ◀
Threat Rating: Combat
This is the area that used to be the central city Corporate Zone. While much of this area has been bulldozed into the Bay as fill, the remainder is still a haunted landscape of wrecked, twisted skyscrapers, burned-out vehicles, and entombed bodies of the unlucky. Although the radiation has subsided, it's still present, and most people have abandoned the area to the worst of the gangs. If you go here, you probably are either a ganger, suicidal, or driven there to find something that's hidden in the endless wreckage.

Old Neighbourhood Zones included in the Hot Zone Wasteland are:

  • The Old Bank Block: Housing all of the old banks of Night City, the Bank Block is mostly rubble but it was never cleared out officially.
  • The Old City Center: Only radioactive ruins remain of the once-bustling City Center.
  • The Old Corporate Center: Once the heart of the Corporations of Night City, the Corporate Center is a ruin of its former glory.
  • The Old Medical Center: Largely irradiated, the Old Medical Center houses many hospitals buried under rubble.
▶ The Rebuilding Urban Center ◀
Threat Rating: Corporate/Moderate
Not all of Night City was obliterated in the holocaust. Already heavily built up with skyscrapers and densely packed urban construction, a considerable amount of the urban centre has survived. But the detonation and subsequent destruction has damaged the seawalls and breakwaters that kept the Bay and the outer Pacific Ocean from overwhelming the fill the majority of the Central City stood on. Periodic flooding is a regular occurrence, and power and water are chancy at best. The NCART subway still runs, when it isn't flooded by the tide; the City planners are working to raise the majority of the track into a new monorail configuration, something the new NUSA authorities are promising to fund.

In the Rebuilding Center, cranes and construction gear (like the ubiquitous Zhirafa mechanoids) are everywhere. The looming skeletons of new corporate towers rise from the ruins of the Old City, patrolled by vigilant private armies and mechanical sentry drones. The work never stops, and the Center is always alight with the slam of heavy machines and brilliant with construction arc lights. Chief among these new constructions are the rising mega-buildings of the Watson Urban Reconstruction Zone; all-in-one mini-arcologies designed to house the millions of people who were forced to leave their homes when the Nuke went off.

Neighbourhood Zones included in the Rebuilding Urban Center are:

  • The Glen: A burgeoning new district which contains most of the important governmental buildings of Night City.
  • Little Europe: A divided district composed of tightly knit neighbourhoods made up of old brick buildings and tall sky scrapers alike.
  • NorCal Military Base: A heavily fortified military base north of Night City, staffed primarily by Militech soldiers. Mostly shut off from the rest of the City.
  • Pacifica Playground: A largely Corporate sponsored district built around the Playland by the Sea amusement park, which is in the midst of massive development.
  • Upper Marina: A bustling urban district with a mix of old industrial zones and gentrified "International" style neighbourhoods built around a well-maintained marina.
  • University District: A slim district on the edge of the Combat Zones which houses the city's only still functioning university.
  • Watson Development: A developing district where megabuildings and arcologies are being built to house the thousands of homeless from the War. Much of Night City's Asian population has moved to the Watson neighbourhood colloquially known as Kabuki.
▶ The Executive Zone ◀
Threat Rating: Executive
This area is a special gated and heavily defended community reserved for High Ranking Corporate Execs and their families. As well as luxury homes, this area has its own shopping and recreational facilities, including golf courses, private spas, and clubs. It is here that many NUSA officials are beginning to set up shop as well.
  • The Executive Zone: A new Zone with only one district for the safety and pleasure of the Corporate elite, carved out of the open hills surrounding the City.
▶ The Combat Zones ◀
Threat Rating: Combat
Gangs are the absolute rulers of the Combat Zones. Moving between the slums, tenements, and ruins of abandoned city blocks, the gangs and their allies divide up turf, control the limited resources, and kill anyone or anything that gets in the way. There's no reconstruction going on in the Combat Zones, although sometimes Corporate or City Lawmen drop down on the area like a ton of ferrobrix and start killing the gangers wholesale, a process the City likens to trimming back kudzu.

Neighborhood Zones included in the Combat Zones are:

  • Old Japantown: A once, popular Japanese cultural centre that fell into chaos and disrepair during the 4th Corporate War. Much of the population has moved to Watson and the area is now mostly empty save for the gangs.
  • Little China: A sprawling, dangerous Chinatown with many small communities fighting to stay alive and fend off the gangs of the Combat Zones.
  • Old Combat Zone: A district of the City long ago abandoned to the gangs and psychos, the Old Combat Zone is the seed that the rest of the Combat Zones grew from.
  • South Night City: An industrial sprawl, filled with trigger-happy gangs and abandoned warehouses repurposed into hide-outs and headquarters.
▶ The Overpacked Suburbs ◀
Threat Rating: Moderate/Combat
In the aftermath of the War, most of central Night City was uninhabitable, not because of residual radiation, but from the loss of power, sewer, and water services. The suburbs became host to a huge number of tent cities and unregulated refugee camps smack in the middle of what had previously been safe suburban corporate 'Beavervilles'. While huge mega-buildings are under construction to house the refugees, this region is crowded, crime-ridden, and on the edge of disaster all the time.

Neighborhood Zones included in the Overpacked Suburbs are:

  • Heywood: A truly overpacked sector of the City, housing a large percentage of the City's population and already starting to divide based on wealth and power: the rich in the north, the poor in the south (who call the area Santo Domingo instead).
  • Heywood Industrial Zone: The largest industrial zone in the City, overflowing with warehouses, construction equipment, factories, and even some derelict cargo ships.
  • New Westbrook: An urban sprawl built in the remains of the original Executive Zone, still gleaming with glitz and glam, but now packed with homeless citizens who either fled other areas of Night City because of the War or who were pushed out more recently by the ongoing gentrification of the Rebuilding Urban Center.
  • Rancho Coronado: A vast stretch of old Beaverville style housing, taken over by tent cities and industrial zones that have grown out of the corpses of previous mini-malls.

▶ The Reclaimed Perimeter ◀
Threat Rating: Outskirts
While Night City was the regional hub, it was surrounded by a constellation of smaller towns and suburbs. Most of these were abandoned during the 2000-2020 period, as they were too far out to protect from the roving gogangs that plagued the area. Now, supported by Nomad Families and private security, the Reclaimers are attempting to make new homes for the dispossessed of the City in many of these abandoned places.

Neighbouring Cities included in the Reclaimed Perimeter are:
Atascadero, Avila Beach, Cambria, Los Osos, Paso Robles, Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo, and San Simeon


▶ The Open Road ◀
Threat Rating: Outskirts
In the 2020s, the Open Road was home to roving gogangers and well-defended Nomad caravans. But as the Nomad Families take greater control of the world's commerce and shipping, they're using surplus military hardware to drive out the gogangs and make the roads safe for travel. The roads are still open, wide, and dusty, with dead and burned-out vehicles littering some areas, but more and more the Open Road is looking a bit more like Route 66 than Mad Max.

Old Highways included in the Open Road Zones are:
California State Route 41, California State Route 46, California State Route 58, California State Route 99, California State 828, Interstate Highway 5, and Interstate Highway 101




AGENCIES AND AUTHORITIES WITHIN NIGHT CITY
(AKA: The Folks After You)

  • The first of the CEPs creations, the Bureau of Relocation was established as part of the Department of Health and Human Resources. Of course, the 'resources' that they were designed to relocate were squatters and indigents who had set up life where the corporations wanted to build. This federal bureau would sweep in and round up any and all, shipping them off to internment camps for "Vocational Training", i.e., unpaid work gangs. With the coming of the Carbon Plague, BuReloc has been given a new set of targets: the Altered.

    BuReloc's goal is to capture as many infected children as possible as quickly as possible, and export them to quarantine centres. Their tools are speed, surprise, fear, and the backing of the NUSA. They are ruthless, efficient and remorseless. Though they may not have the best training or equipment, compared to some of the other threats you face, what they do have are numbers, authority and a ruthless disregard for outdated concepts like "due process" and "proportionate force".
  • If the jackbooted thugs of BuReloc are the NUSA's hammer, then the Domestic Security Agency is the scalpel. Formed as part of the Council for Economic Prosperity's sweeping reforms to the federal authorities, they are made up of former Megacorp agents, assets and Edgerunners who came in from the cold. These people have decades of experience, access to the best equipment out there, and very little in the way of restrictions on how they can operate.

    As with many arms of the NUSA, their current focus is on the Carbon Plague and the Altered. They are reported to be investigating rumours that a resistance movement is forming against the new masters of the USA, made up of Altered children and those edgerunners not yet willing to lay down their weapons. Which means that sooner or later? They're coming for you.
  • The CDC is made up of some of the few idealists left in the government. Their goal is to isolate the disease and find a cure as soon as possible. They are hampered in this effort by the interference of other factions—corporate, private, and government—most notably BuReloc, who has access to all the information the CDC has.

    Of the governmental agencies, the CDC is the least heartless. They view the children as unfortunate victims of a terrible disease, and they work around the clock to try to isolate the virus and help the children. So far, nothing they have done has worked, although they have discovered that children can survive the plague, and thereafter appear to develop an immunity. The government and corporations have squelched this information, waiting until the disease itself has been isolated. The CDC itself is not concerned about leaking such information, so the word has started to hit the street.
  • Policing in Night City is an ad-hoc, district by district affair, far more reminiscent of the Old West and it's sheriffs than the modern, privately-owned departments that existed before the Time of the Red. Though the city has managed to re-establish a citywide police department, other areas just hire a Security force to protect key city buildings like the local Records Hall and Council Offices. For these guys (and others) law enforcement services are instead licensed to a variety of professional, corporate, private police, and local forces deputised to patrol/control a specific area by the owners of that area. The only real survivors of the old Night City PD are the members of MAX-TAC (aka "The Cyberpsycho Squad"). Incorruptible to the last and still led by their commander, Max Hammerman, this lone bastion of the old NCPD maintains an iron-fisted control over any and all suspected cyberpsychotic elements in the City.

    All of these different, and often competing groups, are dealing with the aftermath of the NUSA's return to Night City. Some are looking to buy in and join the apparent winning side, but plenty are bristling at the notion of outsiders swooping in and telling them how to run their city. As such, attitudes to the Altered are just as varied. Some police groups are willing to hand over captured kids to the NUSA authorities, but others are more likely to turn a blind eye when they encounter them.
  • Once a part of the Night City Police Department, MAX-TAC is now a fully independent organization in its own right. It contracts with neighbourhoods, governments, and even private citizens to take care of the most egregious assaults on the public: hostage situations, cyberpsychos, military class weapons, terrorists, etc. MAX-TAC is run by the incorruptible Commander Max Hammerman, late of the original Night City Police Forces. Hammerman is a man on a mission: to maintain law and order and protect the innocent. MAX-TAC has an impartial code that it follows to the letter—it ends fights, no matter who starts them. If you're a security service guy fighting a bunch of boosters, you'd better put your weapons down when MAX-TAC shows up or they'll open fire on you too. MAX-TAC doesn't hold prisoners; arrestees are remanded to the local Hall of Justice/Security Facility.

    The NUSA are currently seeking to re-integrate MAX-TAC with the NCPD. Whether Hammerman and his band of supercops will go in for this remains to be seen.




THE GANGS OF NIGHT CITY
The streets of Night City are alive and crawling with gangs. By day, The Street may still be the province of Corporate Execs and commuting Beavers. But at night, the predators slither out from under their rocks and trash heaps, and the City howls. Call them gutter-rats, night crawlers, trash, or street scum; the gangs are the ultimate rulers of the City's night. For decades, the city's authorities have been fighting a pitched battle against them for control of the streets. With the arrival of the NUSA, some are hopeful that the era of the gangs might be coming to an end. But one thing's for sure: before it does there's going to be a lot more bodies.

Whether it's a small pack of a dozen, or an army of two hundred, each gang in Night City is as diverse as The Street itself; guardians, chromers, dorphers, and freaks all thrown together in a lethal cocktail, mixed and sprinkled liberally with blood.
  • Born from the many veterans of the 4th Corporate War, the 6th Street is a vigilante gang which protects various neighbourhoods around Night City. Members of the 6th Street are generally well-armed and heavily cybered-up with armament from their days in the field. Recently, they have been forced to move into extortion and smuggling in efforts to pay their bills. While they operate all throughout the city, the 6th Street all are welcome protectors of the Holy Angels Church.
  • When they first appeared, the Bozos were a prankster gang. Biosculpted to look like circus clowns with red bulbous noses, wild red hair, and long flat feet (no, not shoes) and costumed to the part, the Bozos became impromptu slapstick. But soon the Bozos became the ultimate killer clown gang. People living on Bozo turf learned the hard way that if you see a pack of Bozos, just run. Bozos enjoy playing on people's greatest fears: lurking in apartments in the dark, locking victims in small spaces filled with rats, stopping elevators midway and filling them with water. They are not funny.
  • The Inquisitors are a cult gang; like the hate gangs, they center on a specific ideology, in this case, religious. The Inquisitors think cyberware is blasphemous, and think nothing of tearing it right out of your body. They consider this "saving" your soul. Not only do they believe that cybernetics are "evil," but they also have a war going on with every other gang in the city. Everyone hates these guys.
  • The Iron Sights are a relatively small, but surprisingly tough, combat gang of borderline cyberpsychos. Once funded by Arasaka, they fell on hard times after the War. But word on the Street is that they have a new benefactor and are once more flexing their Rippers.
  • This combat gang formed around the remnants of the old Metal Warriors; a gang virtually wiped out in one night by the Inquisitors. It later drafted members of the Red Chrome Legion and Iron Sights who also had violent personal grudges against the Inquisitors. Post-War, Maelstrom settled another long running feud with a smaller gang of cyberpsychos and began to adopt some of their old rival's meat-hating philosophies, leading to an almost exponential increase in visible and extreme cyberware among gang members. This, in turn, has only increased the number and intensity of the battles between Maelstrom and the Inquisitors.
  • The Vamps are a prankster gang who were dubbed the "Philharmonic Vampyres" a few decades ago when five members clad in tuxedos, capes, and vampire teeth flew up on wires behind the Night City Symphony on Halloween night. Are they artists, hoodlums, or social commentators? Are those teeth part of the costume or not? Who knows?
  • The Piranhas are a typical party gang. They party, drink Smash, take and deal drugs, and mug people, all as part of a "just because" lifestyle. To these guys, the Party is everything.
  • The Players are a poser gang who use biosculpting to look like members of old sitcoms and TV shows from bygone eras. They are an extended family gang which protects their neighbourhood and longs for a bygone time. The Players are broken up into a number of different factions based on various shows. They are territorial and fiercely protective of their members.
  • The Reckoners are one of several apocalyptic cults that sprung up after the War. They roam the streets, preaching the coming Harvest of Souls, recruiting from the homeless, and looking for donations, often taken from your unconscious body. A few are serious crazies who want to evoke the End Times right now with blood and C4.
  • The Legion is a neo-fascist hate gang; young people united around various hate group ideologies. Uniforms and militaristic slogans are the rule. The Red Chromers will attack anything that they think isn't 'right'.
  • Scavengers aren't a gang per se, but the desperate homeless who squat in the ruined City Zones left behind by the War. They scour the treacherous debris for saleable items such as copper, platinum, old tech, and even abandoned weapons. Many die doing so. Not least of all because these urban battlegrounds have been pretty picked over in the last seventeen years, and scavvers are constantly forced to dig deeper and deeper into unsafe terrain for anything of value.
  • A Nomad pack out of Salinas, their ragtag convoys make the coastal highway run from the Santa Cruz agriplots to the southern cities. They take in anyone who displays skill, dependability, and who can keep up. Smart and relatively honest, they have supply deals with several Reclaimer groups in Night City.
  • Once under the thumb of Arasaka, the Tyger Claws have broken away and become a dangerous protector gang for the Asian community of Night City. They have had a significant role in rebuilding the sections of Japan Town after the 4th Corporate War. The Tyger Claws are known for their fast bikes, enhanced reflexes, and killer martial arts.
 
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LIFE AS A JUVE IN NIGHT CITY

You grew up without running water or working electricity, raised by people still processing their experiences from the war (if anyone raised you at all). All around you was the wreckage of the world that was, crumbling monuments to corporate excess and personal greed that resulted in global conflict and nuclear devastation for your city.

In short, you grew up literally walking through examples of all the ways your parents had fucked up royally.

You've had to grow up fast, to learn how to pull your weight and hold your own. Even more affluent kids living in the Time of the Red are forced to get their hands dirty from time to time: you have grown up in an age where sharing and common purpose is all that has kept people alive. As such, you often have different attitudes to your elders when it comes to politics, belonging and community. Many of you hold dismissive views about the things your parents once valued; money didn't bring happiness, technology didn't save anyone, and individualistic pursuit of success and profit didn't do much other than end the fucking world for a while.

So you'll pass on all that, thanks.

EDUCATION
The world stalling out in the wake of nuclear catastrophe and social collapse isn't conducive to a good education, you've found.

Literacy rates amongst the generations born in the Time of the Red are plummeting, and there's no sign of this recovering even now that the NUSA is rearing it's ugly head. The education you received was spotty if it existed at all, done in cramped classrooms with limited equipment by teachers who had their minds elsewhere. Much of it focused more on the practicalities than the humanities: you haven't got a goddamn clue who Henry VIII is, but you can tune a car engine and wire up a generator pretty well. Those of you who possess more academic knowledge deliberately sought it out, more often than not, motivated more by a personal desire to learn than through educational encouragement.

Schools are beginning to reappear now that the NUSA is on the ascendant, but more often than not they're dumping grounds for "troublesome juveniles". Don't expect to learn much.

JUVEGANGS
Friends are everything to a kid. Your juvegang is an integral part of your identity, a reflection of the kind of person you are and the values that you hold to. The group you're a part of defines the people you hang out with, the people you hate, the things you're into. Be it a small social circle or a larger organisation, your juvegang plays a defining role in your life.

Some are little more than extended groups of friends who share a common interest (this is true of many Tech-Head crews). Some have more complicated initiation rituals. In the case of Radical PoliClubs, for instance, prospective members are quite literally tested on their knowledge, drive and commitment to the cause. The Bozugangers, meanwhile, have a much more straightforward approach to initiation. They just kick the shit out of would-be gang members, and the ones willing to stand back up and keep going eventually get patched in.

Alliances and rivalries inevitably develop between juvegangs. There are some you've got the time of day for, and others that you'll go for as soon as you lay eyes on them. Teenage politics is a vibrant, turbulent affair, however: the guys you were friends with last week might be your worst enemies the next.

THURSDAY NIGHT THROWDOWN
Violence and scuffles between groups are as inevitable as they are frequent. If you come across a rival ganger, you're expected to be ready and willing to throw down. Failure to do so leads to a loss of face amongst your crew, and many even exile if you fail to show heart often enough. Raised in a time of turmoil, when resources are scarce, most teenagers in 2047 have been able to develop some skills when it comes to the act of kicking the crap out of one another. Then there's the Ultras, who take it from mere act to high art form.

All that being said, you're not usually out to kill each other. Knock a few teeth out, sure. Maybe break a bone or two, just to show those other assholes who the real hoodlums are. But you've all grown up around enough death and casual violence to know when enough is enough. You've all had plenty of opportunities to see what a gun does to a living person, and most of you don't have any serious urge to do that to someone (not to mention the fact that guns are expensive).

That's not to say that deaths don't occur. Yet the majority of the time, the death of an enemy isn't something you set out to achieve. Death is complicated and messy. Death lingers. You're far better just breaking the other guy's jaw than you are stabbing him in the chest: that way he knows who's boss.


THE CODE
All of this has led to the formation of an unwritten set of rules that most juves of 2047 hold to, known colloquially as 'The Code'. Drawing from a variety of sources, including the code of bushido, a lot of old John Wayne movies, and superhero comics, the Code establishes certain basic rules of conduct between the juvegangs themselves and even with the outside world, since honour cannot have two standards. Various gangs have their own interpretations of these codes, and there isn't any central body which can enforce them. Nonetheless, if a juvegang seriously or repeatedly violates one of these principles, their relations with other groups will deteriorate rapidly, and if they continue, they may find themselves hunted by a coalition of gangs determined to clean their own house.

The Code has the following basic principles:

  1. Your word is your bond, in whatever form it is given. If you make a promise or swear a truth, you have to back it up. In a hostile world, most of the time the juvegangs can count only on each other to get things done. And if you can't trust the word of a fellow 'ganger, then he isn't worth shit, period. Even outside the gang, this rule applies, since once you start making promises that you won't keep, it lessens you no matter who you do it to.
  2. Never betray a fellow juve to the authorities. This could be the lawmen, the NCPD, even BuReloc agents. Parents usually fall into this category as well. If another juve has screwed you, you go to your leader and your gang deals with it. Juvegangs take care of their own. If you turn over for them, the authorities will betray you next. This clause has saved many Altered who are also juvegangers from being traded for bounties.
  3. Money isn't worth blood. Money is the tool of the authorities, and if you buy into it, they have their hooks in you. There are more important things than money, and human life is one of them. Your word is another, community may be one, too (and to some juves, fun is worth blood, especially other people's, the Bozugangers and Ultras being notorious examples of this). The few juvegangs that have sold themselves to the corps have automatically voided this ethic and are shunned by others because of it. Not that they care.
  4. You never take from another juve without giving something back. Reciprocity is a necessary part of honour. Now, this doesn't mean that you have to give back something of equal value (that would be materialistic, right?), but you do have to acknowledge the transaction. As you might expect, not all groups adhere religiously to this particular guideline, but minor infractions are usually forgiven. Some juves also interpret this for negative values as well, meaning that if you are injured by another, you must pay it back. This eye-for-an-eye ethos has led to as many problems as it may have solved.
 
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THE CARBON PLAGUE
Genetic Metabolic Disruption Syndrome (GMDS, better known by it's nickname "Carbon Plague") is a deadly virus that has swept the world in the last two years. It can be transmitted through contact with any exposed object or person; no antiseptic or biological agent seems to affect it. It can also be spread on the winds of the jetstream. As much as the NUSA tries to deny it, the fact that the Carbon Plague appears to be some manner of nanotechnology. Yet there's more to it than that, the underground screamsheets declare. Although nanotechnology has been in common use since the early 2000s, the Carbon Plague is so much more highly advanced that it resembles everyday nanotech the way an AV-4 aerodyne resembles a Model T Ford. For one thing, it appears to be volitional, possessing a sort of machine intelligence similar to a computer AI. Normal nanotech is not volitional: it can only perform very simple tasks and cannot change its limited programming. The Plague appears not only to be able to perform very complex tasks that involve intuitional jumps, but also to be able to change its structure, programming, and overall functions at will.

In short, it's rapidly becoming the most transmissable pathogen known to man.

This would be bad enough, but when coupled with what the Carbon Plague does to people the situation only gets worse. The Plague doesn't just kill people. No, it changes them, in horrible, random ways. Among adults over twenty, about 80% are unaffected: they don't show signs of infection and appear to be immune. The remaining 20% die in screaming agony, their bones and muscles slowly powdering into sugary white crystals, or melting into formless goo.

Strangely, the Carbon Plague does not appear to be lethal to those under the age of 20. The vast majority, around 75%, appear to be entirely unaffected by contact with the disease. For the remaining 25%, however, things get a whole lot stranger. The Carbon Plague triggers some manner of metabolic alteration, re-writing whole stretches of their genetic code, replacing whole limbs or internal systems with a strange material known as hexite and leaving them as bizarre hybrids of nanotech and biology.

These 'Altered', as they are known by the authorities, seem to fit into several broad categories (though new 'CyberGenus' are being discovered even now).

  • Tinman: Tinmen are the most recognisable of the Altered, due to their shiny, black, supercarbon arms and legs. They can reshape these hexite limbs into nearly any form they can imagine, from blades to guns to tools. They can also extrude a layer of hexite through their skin to form an armoured coating over their entire body, making them incredibly formidable combatants.
  • Scanner: The most common CyberGenus, Scanners develop special receptors that allow them to perceive and interpret brainwaves, effectively reading thoughts and emotions. Their nervous systems are also hardwired, granting them the ability to boost their reflexes to inhuman speeds.
  • Alchemist: Alchemists possess nanites that can sample and reassemble matter on the molecular level. In practical terms, this allows them to physically reshape any nonliving material, even turning it from one matter state into another (e.g. solid to liquid) or changing it to another molecular structure entirely (e.g. turning coal into diamond).
  • Wizard: Wizards are the most adapted to the modern era with their ability to interface directly with the Net, Virtuality, and electronic devices. They can project themselves mentally into the Net, create their own "Familiars" (advanced programs under their control), and command computerised machinery.
  • Morph: The Morph is a rare CyberGenus with a subdermal layer of hexite under the skin that is capable of detailed topographical changes, allowing the Morph to alter their appearance. Even the skeletal system, vocal chords, and hair follicles can be replaced, allowing even greater ability to mimic and disguise.
  • Medic: The Medic is a more recently discovered CyberGenus who can operate as a walking, talking field hospital. Outfitted with medical nanites that can be administered to others via touch, a set of internal biochemical synthesizers and diagnostic senses, these Altered can treat even severe injuries simply by laying hands upon their patient.
  • Dragoon: One of the most dangerous of the recently discovered kinds of CyberGenus, the Dragoon is an organic missile system. Capable of generating and storing a malleable, sticky explosive substance, they can also launch this substance from their arms at increasingly fast speeds and long ranges. Thanks to the alterations needed to generate and store such substances, Dragoons are highly resistant to fire and other chemical attacks.
  • When the Carbon Plague was finished tearing you apart, you awoke to one hell of a surprise. As a Tinman, you're one of the most visually recognisable of the Altered. Each of your limbs has been replaced with a silvery black metal made up of hexite polymers, running all the way down to the bone. The polymer also runs underneath your skin, reinforcing your skeletal structure.

    You're never going to break a bone again, in all likelihood. But you're sure as hell going to break someone else's.

    In their normal configuration, your new limbs rank up there with the best that cybernetics can offer. They're incredibly durable and strong, capable of breaking steel and kicking down reinforced doors with relative ease. But that's not all they can do. Your limbs are malleable: by concentrating on them you can shape them into new forms and extensions. Thin tendrils for fingers, longer limbs, blades and clubs, even serrated weapons. There are reports of some of the more experienced Tinmen being capable of forming complex devices like firearms, but this requires considerable time and practice. The hexite layer beneath your skin can also be hardened on command, forming itself into an armoured coating that only goes stronger with time.

    The downsides? Unless you're hiding the skin on your limbs, it's apparent to everyone who claps eyes on you that you're one of the Altered. Furthermore, your new abilities require quite a bit of fuel to run: you need to be eating every eight hours or else your body will begin to stiffen and effectively statue-ise.
  • Surviving the Carbon Plague has turned you into a walking, talking nanofactory. As an Alchemist, you are capable of re-shaping and altering whatever non-living material you can lay your hands on. once you have a hand on it. You can change or rearrange the molecules of any inert material around. You can't change the atomic structure of lead to make gold like an alchemist out of a fantasy book. But you could take a lump of coal and change it into a diamond, with enough practice.

    The nanotech you've been imbued with comes in two forms: 'Samplers' and 'Assemblers'. Samplers reach out to the objects you're touching and report back to you on it's molecular structure. You experience the information the samplers bring back as 'tastes', 'sensations', and 'smells'. After a while you'll be able to recognize the composition of something just from these components, just like you can tell the spices in a recipe from taste. Assemblers take the information your samplers give you, and, working from your mental instructions, go out and rearrange the molecules of whatever you're touching to whatever you want. Initially, you will only be capable of re-arranging what's already there. Disassemble metal, turn a wooden object into steel. With enough practice, however, you'll soon be able to take materials from your environment and use it to forge new objects of increasing complexity.

    You are limited to what you can touch, of course, and your assemblers will require training and development before they can do anything complex. If you have to break contact with an object before you're done changing it, you're going to lose the assemblers you've already committed to the task; once you've lost them, you can't get them back. They recover with time, but you'll need to eat plenty to keep your internal nanofactory replenished. Finally, your abilities only affect non-living materials.
  • Congratulations, you didn't die from the Carbon Plague.

    You're also now an organic cyberdeck.

    With your central nervous system having been replaced by a long-chain polymer known as hexite, you're a modern communications array on two legs. You're capable of picking up a whole range of signals, from microwave to radio and, most importantly, the NET. With these new changes you can lock onto any part of the NET's transmission grid (for up to a mile). It can also transmit signals into the same grid up to a mile away, using a special nanotech supercapacitor wired into your nerves for power. With this modification you're always in Virtuality, linked to the NET, even when you're asleep.

    The things that Netrunners require complex code and advanced tech to achieve, like interfacing and creating programs? Those are things you can now do just by thinking about it. You won't need to program Boosters or string bits: you'll imagine it, concentrate, and it'll be there. Instantly. When you need to fight a Netrunner's Demon, you'll just conjure up a flaming sword. If you need a program to infiltrate a datafortress, you'll concentrate and whatever you need will be created on the spot That's why they call you Wizards. Because when you're in Virtual mode, you can do magic. Initially your abilities are limited. Simple shapes. Limited Virtuality ICONS. Later, with practice, you'll be able to create complex stuff equal to any programmer. The best Wizards even create Familiars: fully independent AI programs that work and fight for them.

    These broadcast powers don't just affect the NET, of course. Anything with a binary control unit is something a Wizard can interact with and manipulate. Furthermore, the re-writing of your nervous system has left you with heightened reactions and reflexes. Just don't go showing it off: BuReloc agents are trained to spot that kind of thing in kids.

    Like your other Altered brethren, you must eat regularly and well if you want to keep your abilities running properly. Furthermore, there are downsides to being wired into the NET 24/7. If you run into anything too big for you to handle out there, you can't just jack out like a Netrunner.
  • As a Scanner, you have the ability to convert very weak electrical impulses into meaningful data. You can do this because your entire nervous system has been rewired with a type of long chain polymer called hexite. Like your close cousins, the Wizards, your entire nervous system is now an unbelievably sensitive antenna, capable of picking up diffuse electrical impulses from the nervous systems of living organisms. There's also a special nanotech-constructed organ that is now hardwired into your brain designed to interpret these signals, so that you 'feel' them as glowing 'auras', 'hear' them as words, or 'see' them as visions.

    What this means, in practical terms, is that you can literally experience the emotional states and surface thoughts of other people, interpreting them as sensations and visual data. As your new abilities develop, and if you have enough familiarity with the subject, you'll be able to fine tune your ability to interpret those waves; what's just a glow to you now will later be interpreted as actual thoughts, even images, routed by your internal interpreter to the most useful of your senses. But it's going to take a bit of practice before you can master that. You can generally scan anywhere within a ten meter area and be able to pick up impulses from any single target in that area, even if you can't see them directly. The Carbon Plague has left you with a further advantage as well. With your nervous system replaced, you can react and move at speeds that rival move-by-wire boosterware.

    There are limitations of course. You'll find it tough-maybe impossible-to scan whenever you're in an area of high electrical static: lots of radios, NET ports, unshielded electronics, etc. There are reports that high-level NUSA operatives are beginning to carry personal static generators for this very reason.
  • When those in the know try to suggest that there is a purpose behind the Alterations that the Carbon Plague is bringing about, they point to Altered like you. Medics seem to have a very clear intent and purpose behind them, even compared to other forms of CyberGenus. Like the Alchemist, the disease has imbued you with an internal nanofactory. Unlike the Alchemist, however, who can only affect non-living matter, you're all about living matter.

    Specifically, ensuring it stays living.

    You're a mobile field hospital packed into teenage form, possessing a specialised form of 'Sampler' that acts as a diagnostic system and medical 'Assemblers' that can fix damage, clear toxins and repair trauma. Thanks to your samplers, you need but lay a hand on someone and they'll get to work figuring out what's ailing them, relaying this information back to you rapidly. Then your assemblers can get to work regenerating tissue within your patient, scrubbing any harmful substances, even mending bone if required. Initially your functions are limited: you'll need to focus on cuts and bruises for a while yet. But before long you'll be tackling complex surgeries, even removing and repairing cancerous tissue if you have to. With training, your assemblers will be capable of producing chemicals to aid in your work… or to disorientate someone who's made the mistake of laying hands on your skin when you don't want them to.

    Like your Alchemist cousins you are limited to touch, and if you break off the process mid-surgery any assemblers are lost. You'll need to eat plenty in order to ensure your nanotech is stocked up. Medics also face a further risk in the form of the NUSA authorities, who are known to disproportionately target your kind. Given your ability to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, you don't fit in to the image they're trying to project of the Altered: that you're all a bunch of dangerous mutant plague carriers. Expect them to aim for you first.
  • Sometimes the Carbon Plague works in loud, dramatic ways such as with the Tinmen. But it's capable of subtly as well.

    You're living proof of that.

    The disease has swept through your entire body, adding a subdermal layer of hexite polymers that are highly malleable. These polymers have also infused with your skeletal structure. Over the course of a few minutes you're capable of manipulating this subdermal layer in order to alter your physical appearance. This can be everything from facial structure to muscle tone, even the length of your limbs. With practice, the nanites in your bloodstream can even shift things like skin pigmentation and hair follicles: there are even reports of more experienced Morphs who are capable of manipulating their own vocal chords. At first, you will require tools like a mirror and an image of another person who you wish to mimic in order to achieve passable results. Over time, however, you'll be able to change your entire physical structure through muscle memory alone.

    It requires focus and concentration to maintain such alterations for any length of time. Distractions can cause your form to slip, and injury quickly causes significant disruption. Changing up your body modification too frequently can cause the subdermal layer to strain.
  • Many of the Altered are capable of destructive acts, but no-one does it quite like you. As a Dragoon, you're one of the rarest forms of CyberGenus around. Given what you're capable of, a lot of people are probably quite thankful of this fact.

    The Carbon Plague has altered you to become something akin to an organic weapons platform, moulding both your skin tissue and your internal systems. Not only are you armoured and largely chemically sealed, thanks to several layers of hexite, you've also now in possession of a new set of organs that produce a strange chemical substance. Viscous, sticky and highly explosive once released, you can project this substance out from your hands via an internal launch system. The substance is released in globules, formed in roughly the size of a hand grenade, that detonates explosively upon impact. Over time, you can increase the rate at which these explosive bursts are launched, and the size of the projectile. Right now you're playing with hand grenades. Before long, it'll be rockets.

    Like your Tinmen cousins, the disease has left you with a sublayer of armour that can protect you from attacks. Furthermore, you have a further layer of hexite polymers stretching throughout your body that acts as a chemical seal, protecting you from fire, smoke and other forms of chemical attack when activated.

    Subtly has very little to do with your abilities, and this is true of your downsides as well. Like the Tinmen, your Altered nature is very obvious. Your hands, which act as the launch point for your projectiles, are now metallic hexite replacements that have a scaled look to them. When your chemical seal is activated your eyes are sealed in for protection, giving a reptilian look that is extremely obvious to anyone watching you. You also have to consume a considerable amount of food in order to restock on your explosive substance. Failure to fuel your internal systems can result in your internal chemical seals starting to weaken. If left too long, the outcome can be rather explosive. And permanent for you.
 

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You are a death scream.

You are the last gasp of a broken species.


Your world did not end with a bang or a whimper. Instead the end came with an eruption… and a descending haze. You can see them even now. The Roots. Extradimensional protrusions forcing their way into your world. Leviathan growths on a scale your mind struggles to comprehend, towering above all, dominating the skyline. From them emanated the Mould. A choking cloud that has spread across the globe, inescapable and unrelenting. Whatever it touches, it changes. Plants. Buildings. Animals. People. As the Roots loom large, surveying the terror they have wrought, humanity has been warped and shifted into mindless horrors that dance to the tune of unseen puppetmasters.


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You did not escape it's influence. None have.

You do not remember how the end came. You were asleep. They sealed you away, a last desperate attempt at preserving a species that did not yet realise it was doomed. Deep down in hidden facilities, the powers of a dying world hoped they could bury you beyond the reach of the Mould. That you might one day awaken to reclaim what was once yours.

Your would-be saviours did not bury you deep enough. The Mould still found you. But it could not change you fully. Not as it has with the once-human monsters and mutated biomass that now roams the planet.

You are Aberrant. An anomaly. An outlier. Resistant to the influence of the Mould upon your mind… yet capable of wielding it. Your body has been warped, mutated, but you can use these changes to your own advantage. They might be all that stands between you and an untimely death. The world is blighted, choked with horrors. Alien creatures and terrifying biomass that serve the beings who sit at the Roots' spires.


the-last-of-us-zombies.gif

Your enemies are coming for you. The Invaders. Unseen masterminds of your world's demise, the fiddlers who have the infected dancing to their tunes. They know where you are buried. They know you are the only threat to their existence this world has left. And so they will destroy you… unless you destroy them first.

You have but one task left to you, now, as you are dumped from sleep into a waking nightmare. You must seize the Roots. Seal off the Invaders.


For you are a death scream. The last gasp of a broken species.

And it falls to you to write humanity's final chapter.



frame.jpg° Tl;dr, 'Aberrance Root' is an apocalyptic horror story about the last mutated survivors of the human race trying to survive a fungal-infested hellscape that was once their home, all the while striving to get back at the things responsible for humanity's demise.

° Should this garner any interest I'll certainly be expanding upon the lore, but the goal is for the world to be mysterious, dangerous and there for players to discover.

° Key themes include Body Horror, Despair and Survival in the face of seemingly impossible odds. There will be blood, ultraviolence and grossness. There will be desperation, endurance and fire-forged friendships.

° My main influences for this story are 'Kingdom Death', 'Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead' and 'Nechronica'. There's also a healthy dose of 'The Last Of Us' and 'Resident Evil' thrown in for good measure, because I just cannot help but add zombies.

° I'm aiming for fish out of water characters, people who must adapt to both the terrifying world around them and the horrifying powers the Mould has imbued them with. Key themes for these powers are Trajectory and Progression. I don't just want weird, gross fungal superpowers from the get-go, I want you to think of how those weird, gross fungal superpowers are going to grow. That's what mould does, after all.

° The only posting expectations I've got are for everyone to work together to keep the story's momentum going, and to stop me from overthinking myself into a corner like I always do. I welcome people of all writing abilities and styles. All I ask is you bring me some weird, fucked up powers and be willing to get into the vibe of the story.

° It's going to get weird, I'm going to make this weird.
 
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IC | OOC | Lore | Interest Check
  • ooc_banner_05-jpg.236722

    Aberrance Root is a Post-Apocalyptic Body Horror RP, about the last mutated survivors of the human race trying to survive a fungal-infested hellscape that was once their home, all the while striving to get back at the things responsible for humanity's demise. You take the role of survivors who have been sealed away from the world as it ended, each of you infected by the Mould that has overrun everything and yet somehow capable of resisting it’s mind-controlling effects. The mutations it grants, or inflicts, are now yours to control. They are the only thing between you and an early grave. For the new world you have awoken to wants you dead. Your only recourse is to follow the call you feel within you. Seize the Roots. Seal off the Invaders.

    The story will lead you across an unrecognisable world, face you off against warped mycelial horrors, and above all else ask you a specific question.

    How do you want the end of the world to be written?

    You've got my body, flesh and bone
    The sky above, the Earth below
    Raise me up again
    Take me past the edge
    I want to see the other side
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    RULES
    • Players will take the role of an individual caught up in a strange Project that has seen them kept in stasis as the world ended, awakening to find themselves one of the Aberrant.
    • New characters begin at Stage 1 of the Mould infection.
    • At this time, I am allowing only one character per player: I don't want the cast to be overly extensive.
    • Please read through the OOC and Lore threads before joining.

    RP EXPECTATIONS
    • I have no demands in terms of Posting Expectations. All are welcome in this RP, so long as you want to tell a cool, disturbing story.
    • In a similar vein, I make no demands in terms of Post Frequency. I would be a hypocrite if I did, for I am a notorious flake. All I ask is that we all work together to keep the story’s momentum progressing forward. This may involve poking me every now and then to ensure I haven’t disappeared up my own ass through overthinking. It’s a serial vice of mine, I apologise in advance.
    • This is quite specifically a Body Horror RP. It will get gruesome, and this is encouraged, though bear in mind that this is not a Star RP. Keep your grotesque horror classy, or something. I dunno.
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    Name: (Please also list any nicknames your character might have.)
    Age: (Candidates aged 16 and over were considered for the project your character has been caught up in.)
    Appearance: (Images and pictures are preferred, if not then brevity is appreciated.)
    Five Words: (Give us five specific words that encapsulate the nature of your character, and don't elaborate on them further.)

    Notable Skills: (Give us 3-4 skills and/or areas of expertise for your character, feel free to elaborate on them a little further but keep things brief.)

    Remnant Memories:
    (Your character has been asleep. For how long, they do not know. The process has affected their memories, making it difficult to recall much of their life before their sudden awakening. However, a few key memories still linger on, for good or ill.

    Please list three Remnant Memories that have stuck with your character through stasis. These are likely from defining moments in your character's life, be that positive or negative. They represent the few vestiges your character has of their old life as they awaken into this strange, disturbing new world.)


    Hidden Memories:
    (Not all that is lost will remain so forever. As your character progresses through the story, memories will begin to re-surface. Choose three more Memories that will emerge throughout the game. Ideally, these Hidden Memories will be tied to the Remnant Memories already chosen, perhaps adding further clarity to past events or new twists.

    DO NOT LIST THESE REMNANT MEMORIES PUBLICLY. Instead, please message them directly to the GM.)


    Aberrant Power:
    (Describe and outline your character's Aberrant Power, the manifestation of the abilities and powers that they can wield due to infection by the Mould. For full guidance and advice on putting such an ability together, please consult the 'Aberrant Powers' tab.)
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    ‘Post Apocalypse’ conveys different things to different people, so I want to set the tone right out of the gate. Aberrant Root is not a story about survivors coming together to form settlements and rebuild what was lost. Instead it is a tale of people being dumped into the unknown, of being compelled to venture out into a strange, disturbing new world. Think ‘Journey To The West’, although stories like Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’ or Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’ might be more fitting. By having the cast of this game be explorers, voyagers, I hope to be able to reveal the details of this world to you organically rather than simply relying on an info dump of lore.

    ‘Body Horror’ is not just something I want to pay lip service to. I want to really lean in, make it disturbing, uncomfortable. Just plain gross. Your characters’ bodies are being warped and shifted into grotesque mockeries of the human form, and its only going to get worse as the story goes on. Key inspirations include movies by David Cronenberg and ‘Tetsuo: The Iron Man’ (which is more metallic in it’s body horror than fungal, but it still works uncomfortably well).

    There is an end state for Aberrance Root that I have in mind, but nothing is set in stone. Your characters have agency, and the choices they make on their journey will have consequences.

    How the world ends is up to you.
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    'Aberrant Powers' refers to the abilities that these strange, outlier individuals infected by the Mould can wield. Much like the fungal infection coursing through them, these powers are as varied as they are bizarre.

    Creative control remains with you, the player. I don't wish to set too many parameters and restrictions, because frankly you are all far more imaginative than I ever could be. Instead I want you to keep a few key motifs and themes in mind when designing these powers. Mycology is your guiding star in terms of imagery. The Mould builds. It destroys. It shifts perceptions. But always, it changes.

    Aim for these abilities to be something that can expand and develop over the course of the game. The best analogy I can think of is that of a Tech Tree, if you've ever played a 4X game, or the Perk Tree you see in RPGs (you're thinking of Skyrim, I'm thinking of Skyrim, even the person who proofread this OOC thought of Skyrim). Start out simple and light then grow more complex and heavy. Like a mycelial network, growing ever outwards. I'm not saying you have to plan a full Tech Tree for your character's Power, let me stress. It would be cool as hell if you did, though.

    Aberrant Powers will develop in stages, as the story progresses. As your characters fuel and develop the Mould within them (or even take on new forms of the Mould and incorporate it into their own network), their abilities will grow. For the sake of gameplay mechanics, I have broken these stages down below:
    • Stage 1: Chrysalis - At this stage, your character's abilities will be nascent, only just beginning to manifest. Powerful, certainly, but in their early stage. Associated growths and fungal mutations will not be as obvious, and the character will still look mostly human.
    • Stage 2: Imago - The Mould is now fully manifested inside your character, and the abilities it conveys have solidified. Infection is now far more obvious, however, and gruesome.
    • Stage 3: Symbiosis - A quorum between human and Mould has been achieved. Your character is now extensively mutated by the infection, and the abilities stemming from this have grown all the more potent. They are quite obviously no longer human at this stage, however, with the growths and protrusions reaching grotesque proportions even when powers are not manifest.
    • Stage 4: ██████████ - you keep what you kill
    • Stage 5: ███████ - non habes mentem

    SAMPLE POWER: Calcite Armoury
    The Aberrant draws Mould to the surface of their body, calcifying it into hardened matter that can act as armour and/or weapons.
    • Stage 1: The Aberrant can form calcified armour in limited regions of their body, specifically the extremities such as arms and legs. These formations can be serrated or spiked in places to double as blunt or slashing weapons, but nothing refined. Patches of skin on the arms and legs are hardened even when the armour is not formed, and close inspection shows fungal protrusions. The process of manifesting this armour is agonising.
    • Stage 2: Calcified armour can now cover the chest and arms/legs of the Aberrant, acting as a form of breastplate. Formations on the arms and legs can be extended and formed into crude slashing and bludgeoning weapons. Half-formed sections of hardened material still linger even when the armour is not being used. The pain of manifesting it has lessened.
    • Stage 3: The armour can now coat the entire body of the Aberrant, including the head, forming a suit of bio-organic plate armour. More complex and enlarged extensions can be formed, appearing as longswords and shields. Obvious sections of bracket fungi now protrude from the Aberrant's body at all times. It doesn't hurt any more.

    SAMPLE POWER: Fungal Hive
    The Aberrant has become a living host to a nest of vicious insect-like fungal lifeforms, which they are capable of controlling and directing at will. It nestles subcutaneously, against their spine. Always, it stirs. Always, it hungers.
    • Stage 1: Emerging through pores and pushing their way through skin, the Aberrant can call forth a small mob of fungal insect life to swarm around them. These insects are not large, about the size of a human fist, but are equipped with vicious stingers and jaws that can bite and stab. They cannot venture far from their host, and have a limited lifespan. Having insects burst out from beneath skin is hardly a fun experience.
    • Stage 2: The subcutaneous tunnels that the insects buzz through are growing more permanent and wider, allowing the Aberrant to spawn forth larger numbers of small insects or a few hardened, weaponised forms. These fungal horrors are now capable of travelling further from their Hive, and the Aberrant can get a vague sense of what they see when doing so. But their body is never still. Never quiet. Always they skitter about inside. Scraping. Buzzing.
    • Stage 3: The Aberrant is a warren now, a true hive. They almost vibrate with activity. A small cloud of fist-sized insects can emerge on cue, and the larger variants are now equipped with dangerous poisons. The insects’ lifespans have increased, and the Aberrant receives a much clearer picture of everything they experience. Their body is riddled with porous holes, pock-marked by honeycombs of crawlspaces.

  • Let me stress that it is absolutely not necessary for you to join the Discord server: I'm aware it's not everyone's jam. I just want to ensure that players have an easy means to contact me, discuss the game and collaborate on ideas.
 

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IC | OOC | Lore | Interest Check
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    "To call the organism 'fungus' is akin to calling a quantum computer an abacus. Though it certainly bears a significant resemblance to the mycological forms known to man already, the difference is in the sheer scale of it. The mutability. Preliminary tests have yet to discover what, if any, chemical structure it is not capable of grafting itself on to. The scientific ramifications of this fact alone would be enough to send a Nobel Prize committee into hysterics, and that is before one even considers what this organism does once attached to another structure.

    In my time studying mycology, I have encountered all manner of fungal infections. Ones that alter the host. That break down the host. That influence and warp the mind of the host.

    But this organism is capable of all of that, and more. I believe we are only just scratching the surface of what it is truly capable of.

    Truth be told, it terrifies me. Our containment procedures are holding firm for now, and the Project continues apace, but these nights I find myself lying awake. Wondering what might happen if it ever escaped.

    They will not tell us where the Alpha Sample was acquired from. At this stage, they do not need to. The whole team has heard the rumours, and based on my own observations? I believe them. We have taken to calling it "the Mould" informally, but the Project has accepted the official designation that I suggested. 'Xenomycilia'.

    If nothing else, I will be the man that named the organism that killed us all."

    - Journal Entry, Dr Jonas Carter
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    EARHART-13A: This is Earhart-13A, approaching drop zone.

    CONTROL: Be advised, AV equipment on your jet is currently receiving interference. Please describe what you see when passing over the drop zone.

    EARHART-13A: Am I reading these co-ordinates right, sir? The marker would put us over--

    CONTROL: You're reading them right, Earhart-13A. Stay your course.

    EARHART-13A: ...understood, sir. Coming into visual range of-- Jesus fucking Christ…

    CONTROL: Earhart-13A, please describe what you see. In detail.

    EARHART-13A: Sir, whatever on God's earth that thing is, I don't think Hellfires are gonna be enough to stop it.

    CONTROL: Describe it, Lieutenant.

    EARHART-13A: It's like… a tower, sir. Six hundred metres at least, comprised of some sort of black substance. Sir, it's moving.

    CONTROL: Earhart-13A, please repeat.

    EARHART-13A: It's expanding. Growing. I can make it out even from here.

    BANDSAW-3E: Weapons coming into range, ETA ten seconds.

    EARHART-13A: [panicked breathing]

    CONTROL: Earhart-13A, what else do you see?

    EARHART-13A: ...I was wrong, sir.

    CONTROL: Repeat last?

    EARHART-13A: It's not a tower.

    CONTROL: Earhart-13A, take a breath and please tell me what you see in detail--

    EARHART-13A: --It's not a tower, sir. It's a tree. And it's alive. God help me, it's alive, and it knows we're coming. It--

    - Blackbox Recording of EARHART-13A, United States Air Force

    GREAT HOLES SECRETLY ARE DIGGED WHERE EARTH'S PORES OUGHT TO SUFFICE
    AND THINGS HAVE LEARNT TO WALK THAT OUGHT TO CRAWL
  • ooc_banner_aberrant-jpg.236719

    With respect, sir, why in the hell are the three of them even still alive?

    Your objections have been noted. Several times. Now please update me on the status of the patients.

    Patien-- sir, they are walking time bombs! You saw what the rest of the lab staff did after they were exposed--

    Kristen. The report.

    ...very well. At present time, none of the three are exhibiting any strange or aggressive behaviours. They’ve cooperated with attending medical and research staff fully.

    Any unusual signs?

    All three are running a high temperature.

    How high?

    50 degrees Celsius, sir.

    Without any indications of fever or delirium?

    None. Emma-- that is, Patient #02 actually complained her room was too cold.

    Consistent with heat generation recorded in other exposed matter, yet somehow the host is adapting… fascinating. Go on, please. Did you perform the tests I requested?

    We did. Results were… concerning, but consistent with what we expected.

    So you have confirmed the presence of Quorum Sensing behaviour in the patients?

    A fresh sample of the Mould was brou--

    --Xenomycilia, please. This meeting is being recorded.

    Apologies. A fresh sample of Xenomycilia was brought into all three patients’ rooms during tests. We have video footage of the infection in all three of them manifesting. These strange, purple colours flaring up across their skin, like veins...

    Or like a network. Anything else to report at this time?

    Sergeant Echols, Patient #01, kept asking why we haven’t liquidated him yet. He knows, sir. And I don’t know what to tell him. By all accounts, we should have. We--

    --Have you ever wondered what it would be like to speak to an infection, Kristen?

    ...Sir?

    Most pathogens and diseases are silent entities. Insidious. Unknowable. But what we are dealing with in this Project is different. You saw what it did to most of the research staff exposed in Linnaeus Lab. Yet it seems to have spared these three patients. Infected them, yes, but still permitted them to retain their faculties. Why do you think that is?

    I’m hardly qualified to answer that, Director.

    It’s reaching out. All fungal lifeforms do it, so it is only natural that this organism would do it on a grander scale. I believe it is trying to speak to us. And it has chosen these three souls as it’s medium.

    ...Infections don’t communicate, sir. They consume. I would like my opposition to this course of action to go on record--

    --I assure you, your concerns have been noted. And I will keep them in mind. In the meantime, begin scheduling patient interviews. Let’s see what the organism has to say to us.
 
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