[sic] Cyber Barbarians

[Anders Larsen]

Filip,
Thanks for the interest.

Yes, I should probably rename some of the implants, and going with a DitV type fallout is certainly an option I will consider.


Some more setting stuff

For simplicity I have reduces the number of corporations to three. Here are a short description of them.

Zela Corporation: People of the Zela corporation are very xenophobic. They try to isolate themselves in their territory and act extremely hostile if you threaten them.
Reesux Corporation: They are the corporation which try hardest to convert people to their AI. They have a set of wacky morals (lot of things you must not do, and things you should do in a certain way) which they will preach to everyone they can get close to.
Baladia Corporation: They are the most aggressive. They have a tendency to seek out conflict with other Corporations and especially the people of the pagan AIs.

The three corporations have had, for some time, an uneasy peace. There are still small skirmishes at street level, but all out war have not been seen for a few years. The people of the pagan AIs are viewed with a lot of suspicion by the corporations, but because they are so few and because they are somewhat feared (the pagan AIs gives their people more power than the normal street level person have) they are normally allowed to move around on the street as long as they do not wander to fare into gang territory.

When not occupied by own agendas, the cyberbarians normally take jobs as bodyguards, bouncers or even mercenaries in gang wars.

People of the corporations which can be seen on the street level can be put into the following groups:

Street Priest: They are the ones who preach the message of the corporations on the street. In many case the street priests are magicians (people who can manipulate the virtual world in powerful ways). The street priests have a lot of power over peoples mind and soul.
Cult/Gang Leader: Charismatic and unscrupulous people who are the masterminds behind a group of mostly mindless henchmen (gangs). They often  participate in the activity of stealing implants, and through obscure rituals converting the implants to the AIs of their own corporation.
Mystic: Lone magicians. Who know what agenda they have.
Gangs (Biker, Criminal etc.): In many cases just henchmen for some charismatic leader, but can also sometimes be a loose collection of criminal individuals.
Citizens: Just the normal people at the street level.

There will also be other types of people, but those are the most common.


The situation

Before the game, or in the first part of the game, the players should decide on a personal achievement (basically a kicker).  It is probably a good idea if the players try to tie their personal achievements together. A personal achievement should be written as one to two sentences which describe what the character what to do in the next part of the game.

A personal achievement should consist of three things: 1) An object of interest and what you want to do with it (this can be an item or a person). 2) Some complication which will happen when you strive for this object. 3) A person or some people who will try to work against you. Number two and three should not necessary be specified explicit, but have to, at least, be implied in some way.

It is very important that a achievement can be resolved. The thing you want to achieve should be very concrete so you know when it is done. A achievement should not be too complicated ether. It should be possible to resolve it in about a session of play.

Bad/Good Examples
"I want to get the girl" (bad). "I am completely taken by the daughter of a Zela priest, and want to make her my girl, even though my clan probably will be against it" (good)
"I want to kill the person who reaped my sister" (bad), "The son of a gang leader whom my clan is currently allied with has reaped my sister. I will have my revenge on him, even though it will course a war between the gang and the clan" (good)
"I want to kill the evil mystic" (bad). "A mystic has kidnapped children to work his magic on. I want to stop him, but he is protected by priests of Baladia (who normally don't protect mystics)" (good)


Now I think I have the setting and situation nailed down, so back to the system.

- Anders

[Vulpinoid]

I like the way this is developing.

..and like I've done for some of the other threads in this challenge, here's a few questions that I've been wondering about and my genre bending and paradigm shattering ideas. Use them if you want, bend to fit better with your vision, or feel free to ignore them totally.

My first ideas and questions are about the implants.
Are the implants physically implanted or are they grown by nanotechnology (eg. the Borg in Star Trek)?
If they are physically implanted, is this done at the clinical altars of the mega-corporations (where the technology is turned against it's former masters)?
Or is it implanted in secluded sanctums to the gods of the fallen ways (where the technology is symbolic of an underground resistance)?
If the implants are grown through nanotechnology, what causes new implants to develop? (This could link to an XP progression system)

The Bridge
This seems to be the fundamental implant around which all others are derived. Perhaps there is an intensity level for the Bridge, which roughly corresponds to an "experience level". The higher this is, the more power can be focused through the bridge. And the more control the character has over their implants.

If implants have a variable value in the physical and virtual worlds, maybe the total value of the implant cannot be greater than the Bridge intensity level. Bridge = 6,  so you could split the implant as 5 physical, 1 virtual or three of each. Once the character's bridge rating improves, they can fuel more energy to the implant and boost either physical or virtual level by 1.

Wounds
If the nanotechnology option were taken, wounds might not be much concern as they could continually rebuild the body, but this would then tie in with Filip's idea of consequences. Maybe an energy discharge causes the nanotech to lose aspects of it's programming and in turn the character loses access to certain implants until they are healed/reprogrammed. In this way physical wounds from mundane citizens don't have a lasting effect on them (maybe causing short term die roll modifications as the nanotech rebuilds the body), but damage from other cyberbarians is far more deadly because it has that built in energy discharge.

Quasi-mystic effects could even be created by shooting data that reprograms the opponent. This could be where the rebellion from the huge coroprations started???

I've got a few more ideas, but I've got to get to work.

V

[ja-prozac]

Inspiration and possible reference - adventure game called Dreamweb.

Kickers - would they fit in 10 minutes preparations among other stuff?
Perhaps they're set in the first scene of the game?

Blessings and trouble - perhaps using blessings gives you trouble?
You're so into virtual world that you forget about "the real one", while
using trouble also boosts you, but at the cost of fallout.

[Anders Larsen]

Vulpinoid,
There is unfortunately many details there have to be left out because of the four page restriction. But the questions you ask are certainly interesting, and if I find room for it I will try to include the information.

Just so you know what I am thinking I will give some of the answers here.

I see the implants as physical which have to be surgically operated into the body. This is because it seem to be the more brutal way, and it open up for the possibility that you can steal other peoples implants, by killing them and cut out the implants. For the ordinary people of the corporations it is the priest who make the operations. For the cyberbarians - well, I have really not though about this, but I guess they must have some shamans who get the knowledge of surgery from the rouge AIs. There is also others, like cult leaders and mystic, who work with implants, but they will more often than not kill the subject they are working on.

There are a lot of information I would like to work into the setting I just have to leave to the players and GM to develop. I may develop the game further after the competition, when there is no four page restriction

You other ideas are interesting and will be considered.


ja-prozac,
I think I will cheat a bit with the kickers, and say it is something you have to decide on after the game have started. The problem with this game is that it does not have a build in situation, so there have to be some situation mechanic (I could of cause leave it to the GM, but I am personally against such a approach), and it is very hard to make such a mechanic so it will take less than ten minutes to create the situation.

- Anders

[Vulpinoid]

I feel your pain Anders.

The four pages is enough to add a bit of good background detail into the game, but not enough to really flesh outthe concepts.

I guess that's all part of the challenge.

V