d20 Modern Cyberpunk

[Spevna]

Yep, my laptop would jump out of a window if I tied to install that.

Watching that really made me appreciate the impact that BladeRunner has had. What's even more amazing is that it's almost 30 years old!

[Grim Fandango]

Hey, long time no see for the Nagoya guys. Hope everybody had a nice Obon.

When we get around to running another d20 session, I was considering some rules tweaks for combat, and I'd like your feedback. Last session highlighted some of the clumsiness of the d20 system when it applies to gunfights, especially how a person with a handgun standing five feet away can plug away at a target six or seven times, and they can soak it up with no problems. d20 Modern was built to be a dramatic, cinematic game, of course, so action movie rules are supposed to apply. Even so, I thought up a couple of ideas to make gunfights more dangerous in certain situations and to avoid some of the more ridiculous extremes that come up in combat.

WEAPONS HOUSE RULES
1) When shooting a target from 15 feet away or closer, a successful hit is automatically a critical threat. Another successful attack roll is still necessary to turn it into a critical hit.

2) Specific body parts can be targeted for greater damage or to impair a limb. Targeting the head, arms, or legs imposes a -4 penalty to the shot (treating each as a Tiny target). Targeted shots still deal damage to the character's hit point pool as normal, in addition to other effects.

A successful headshot is a critical threat, as above. If the target does not go down from the shot, they must make a DC 15 Fortitude save (+1 to the DC for every five points of damage) or be stunned for one round, and dazed every round after that until treated.

Shooting a limb forces the target to make the same save or suffer impairment. A wounded arm/hand drops whatever it is carrying, and is at -2 to attack and relevant skills until treated. Wounding both arms increases the skill penalty to -4. A wounded leg decreases the character's speed to half. Two wounded legs immobilizes the character, making them drop prone. They can still crawl at one quarter speed in this state.

Wounds require a DC 15 Treat Injury check to be treated, and take one hour of treatment to be effective. After proper care, a leg injury still hurts and is uncomfortable, but it has been dealt with enough to not seriously impair a character's performance.

3) Stacking conditions increases the critical hit damage multiplier. Shooting somebody in the head from 15 feet away or closer requires all the same steps as above (roll to confirm critical, Fortitude save, etc.) If the hit is successful, the damage multiplier increases by one (x2 to x3, x3 to x4, etc.)

These are optional rules, and I won't use them if you guys would rather not. I do think they add a bit more common sense to gunfights, however. Running out in the open and charging up to your enemy is no longer a smart move if they can blow your head off at close range. Sufficient distance and cover become more important.

ARMOUR HOUSE RULES
I'm a little more unsure about these rules, so I'd like to hear any opinions about them before I decide whether or not to try them in-game.

Wearing armour no longer gives you an equipment bonus to Defense. Instead, the equipment bonus value of the armour becomes Damage Resistance. In other words, wearing heavy armour doesn't make a character harder to hit, just makes it harder to damage them.

I'm still trying to think of a mechanic for Armour Piercing rounds that works under this system. The cost/benefit with AP ammo is supposed to be increased ability to pierce armour, but decreased ability to deal damage. If AP rounds can just bypass armour completely, everybody would use them all the time. If AP rounds have a damage penalty, then they defeat the very advantage of getting though armour in the first place.

The only rules I can think of for this become needlessly complicated, and would likely be tiresome to calculate during the game. Any suggestions in this area would be welcome.

Anybody reading this thread, please feel free to add your opinions, whether or not you actually play in this game. I want any feedback I can get.

[The Underdweller]

I think the rules for weapons sound like they'd make things a bit more realistic, although I hope you would make an exception for gunslingers who are able to use firearms in close combat. I suppose the type of armour people are wearing could also make it more tempting to take head shots, since most of us aren't walking around wearing helmets (though, I will now, on missions at least!)

As for armour, the concept makes sense but I would leave it alone to avoid things getting overly complicated, as you said. For fluff you could say that the armour deflected the bullet (or whatever), or took enough of it's impact that it was rendered ineffective. Isn't that how bullet proof vests work?

[Grim Fandango]

I agree with dropping armour houserules, yeah. They'd need more work to be simplified and balanced.

AFAIK, the only major advantage Gunslingers get up close is avoiding Attacks of Opportunity, and then only when adjacent an enemy. Do you think these rules unfairly penalize, or advantage them?

[The Underdweller]

AFAIK, the only major advantage Gunslingers get up close is avoiding Attacks of Opportunity, and then only when adjacent an enemy. Do you think these rules unfairly penalize, or advantage them?

Well, when people get into close combat they usually switch to a melee weapon, but gunslingers could continue using a pistol and get critical threats every time. Though I suppose any opponent with a firearm could take a 5' step and have the same advantage, so it isn't be that big of a deal.

By the way, we are playing next Sunday, right?

[Grim Fandango]

AFAIK, the only major advantage Gunslingers get up close is avoiding Attacks of Opportunity, and then only when adjacent an enemy. Do you think these rules unfairly penalize, or advantage them?

Well, when people get into close combat they usually switch to a melee weapon, but gunslingers could continue using a pistol and get critical threats every time. Though I suppose any opponent with a firearm could take a 5' step and have the same advantage, so it isn't be that big of a deal.

By the way, we are playing next Sunday, right?

We are playing on Sunday, yes. 3pm start, as usual. Stuart might be able to make it this time even.

As for the Gunslingers, it's true that they have a major advantage when directly next to an enemy, but standing out in the open blasting at each other is kind of a game of chicken. Whoever scores the first critical hit and rolls enough damage can beat the opponent's massive damage threshold, taking them out in one shot. Also, Gunslingers have to dedicate themselves to a prestige class in order to get the advantage they get, so I figure they earn it.

[Miggy Smallz]

The whole idea of Damage Resistance makes a lot more sense. I can't really process some of the weapons rules, not knowing a lot of the original rules, but the changes you propose make sense, in regards to attacking at least.

Looking forward to the game, and finally catching up!

Also:

The Game.

[Grim Fandango]

Hey everybody. You may have read the other thread, but it looks like The Fop will be joining our game, possibly on Sunday.

I was going to post a history of the setting here for his benefit, and then I realized that I never gave everybody a proper history here, so I guess it can be for everybody's benefit. I gave a few links to that Dystopia Wiki at the beginning, but I'm pretty sure nobody read it in detail, so here's a background of what the world looks like for your characters, from our current era to 2069, the "present day" in the game:
================================
Comtech Era: 2000 - 2025

This is a period of increased geopolitical tension. Corporations act only as crutches to government, giving them more aid than ever before, in the form of discounted goods and services, even extending to extensive loans and military forces, in exchange for tax breaks and legislation in their favor. Governments become heavily sectarian, until one party controls the government in most countries. Political alliances form and begin sabre-rattling, based on trading blocs. Minor wars break out worldwide in many third-world countries over resources. The world economy booms, especially in China, Japan, India, the EU, and the Middle East.

THE US
Early in the 21st century, with oil supplies diminishing fast and the US hostile attitude to Middle Eastern culture, many Middle Eastern oil suppliers switched from the then widely used Petrodollar to the new Petroeuro. There were two major reasons for this. The first was that it was more profitable, for reasons of currency exchange, to sell oil for euros than it was to sell oil for dollars. The second was a collapse of support for the US. Many in the Middle East relished the opportunity to stick a knife in the US' side.

Tens of millions of US citizens were left destitute and homeless by the failing economy. Industries collapsed because no one was left to buy their goods in sufficient quantities. Crime rocketed. With the US Oil Crisis, widespread unemployment, religious fundamentalism, the withdrawal of foreign investment, the legacy of the Petroeuro still ringing in American ears, and the ultimate fall of the US Dollar weakening the Federal power of the US, the end of the United States of America seems almost inevitable in retrospect. With organisations such as FEMA being less and less able to support the US populace, many states began to form their own political and economic unions in order to cope with the difficult times. Many of these unions became far more powerful than weakened and flailing US Federal Government and dissension was inevitable.

With the Federal government seemingly about to fail entirely due to lack of funding and almost no public support, many northern and coastal states approached Canada for support, beginning the March 21st Adoption Talks of 2021, which lead directly to the formation of the United Dominion of Canada


Corporation-State Era: 2025 - 2050

Corporations continue to become larger and more powerful. Large aggregate holding companies begin to form, consolidating corporate military power. The many political alliances that have formed begin to compete to attract the attentions of the major corporations, hoping to have the economically stabilizing effect of a major corporate headquarters, and for the policing forces to help control the increasingly dissatisfied and violent public. The gap between rich and poor widens worldwide. The major technological innovations seen in the modern era are invented by a growing Corp power base, eager to gain a severe, proprietary edge on their enemies. Toward the end of this era, governments grow weaker and more dependent on corporations.

The Russo-Canadian War (2044):

A sudden attack on a Laora Munitions cargo plane by a rogue Russian military unit resulted in the deaths of 17 Laora CorpSec members somewhere in the Kamchatka region. The UDC declared that Russia was too weak to adequately control its territory, and invaded the province with the intent to "pacify and control the region for world trade."

In the wake of the invasion, thousands of refugees fled into the eastern UDC. Some settled in the ruins of mostly abandoned cities, but most headed for the urban center of Toronto. To cope with the influx, the government established TorontoTech, a semi-private corporation, to refurbish the city as necessary. The face of the city changed almost overnight, with many buildings re-purposed or simply leveled to make room for newer structures. The new city was designed as a grid-like system of districts and sectors, with walls and gates dividing each area for urban policing and riot control. Residential areas were designed to cram as many people into as small a space as possible, with low priority given to comfort, privacy, or safety.

Other corporations took advantage of the chaotic situation and weak oversight to establish their own offices, facilities, and arcologies in prime real estate, while flooding the overpopulated sprawl with advertising and products. Eventually, a can of Acid Soda is easier to find than clean drinking water.

Several years later, when the war was over, refugees were free to return to their original homes. Some did, but the vast majority stayed where they were, turning Toronto into the most heavily populated city in the UDC, and a major economic hub.


Dystopian Era: 2050 - 2069 (Present)

Chaos and urban decay reign. Poverty skyrockets. Corporations begin introducing the idea of Arcologies, which had existed earlier as corporate housing projects. These new Arcs become almost totally self contained, even integrating water and air purification. The urban dynamic shifts radically, with government cops being left to patrol the urban sprawl alone. Corporations continue their policy of funding government troops, but in a more careful and guarded manner. Arcs cause massive shifts in population away from ailing or dwindling population centers to cities that contain Arcs, causing many small cities and towns to be totally abandoned. Nature begins to reclaim the regions in between the large cities, and for the first time in in a century, the total inhabited area drops even as the population continues to increase.

Corporate influence has now weakened or destroyed laws and rights once held sacred. There is no greater symbol of this than the Ideology Rush of 2053, when religious ideologies were deemed intellectual property on par with patents, and thus legally available for sale. Major religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam were bought by global corporations and 're-branded' to serve their interests. Priests of each faith were forced to either work for their parent company and toe the line or leave, and any "illegal worship" was prosecuted as Class 1 Copyright Infringement.

Meanwhile, anti-corporate punk factions living in the lawless sprawls begin to band together and become powers in their own right. Thanks to advents in cybernetics, IT, and nano-manufacturing (pirated from corporate databases), it becomes easier than ever to manufacture weapons and cybernetics, and these punk groups begin to pose a serious threat to corporate dominance for the first time in history

These punk factions run the gamut from ideological zealots, to political idealists, to cynical crime syndicates out for money. Your employers, the Switchblades, fit the latter category.

[Grim Fandango]

FREENET WEBCAST, OCTOBER 27th, 2069
SOURCE-URL: freenet.wired.bloo_net
CYBERSPACE-COORDINATES: FREE.167.205.161
ENCRYPTION-LEVEL: NULL


"Good morning FreeNet! Thanks for logging, this is Bloo back with news from the mean streets of the Toronto sprawl. Big props to our good friends in the Wired for the bandwidth, and for providing us with all the juicy leaks. And what a batch of leaks we've got! The Acid Drinks cyberspace server was lit up like Christmas once the alarms went off, but your friend and mine, Spider, got in and out with the goods in record time.

Does everybody remember when Acid Drinks sent their PR monkeys out to talk down about the birth defects blamed on their new Radd soft drink line? The party line was the increase in mutations was caused by increased UH-4 fallout from the ozone scrubbers. Of course, everybody who knew their biochemistry from their bullshit cried foul, seeing as UH-4 has never been linked to birth defects, just good old-fashioned cancer.

Well, it looks like Acid's PR department was lying through their teeth about the whole thing. A couple of lazy employees forgot to apply anything better than alpha level encryption to their internal memos and hey presto, Spider was there to catch it in his web. Turns out the PR departments labs were instructed to cook lab results to absolve the Panmycin in the drink formula from any role in the defects. Not surprisingly, Acid declined to reply to our politely worded e-mails. Probably just as well, since Spider had a virus slung under each one.

And now local news! The last 48 hours saw the rise and almost immediate fall of a would-be usurper of the Monterossa Family throne, or at least the Toronto branch. Louis Monterossa, upstart dipshit of the family, called out a hit on Carly, our local narcotics king. Why? Rumour pins the blame on one Walton Simons, the latest corporate defector from the arcos. Simons was the man responsible for the Sector 4 lockdown a month ago, which was finally broken after video evidence leaked of a fake terror attack staged by Lazarus Corp security. Lazarus was quick to hang Simons out to dry, and everybody figured he was either jailed or dead, until he popped up in Louis Monterossa's protection weeks later.

Whatever he was giving Louis, it seemed to make him grow a pair. Not a brain, through, as roughly two days after his attempted coup started, Louis was kidnapped from his limo during a roadside ambush that wiped out his security team and laid waste to most of 4th and Welwyn in Gamma District, Sector 3. So where's Louis now? Who knows? Although if you're a betting man, I'd check the bottom of the Don River.


TORONTO-TECH IC CAM#335, OCT.25/69

But what about Simons? Well, he's vanished off the radar for now, but who knows where he'll pop up next? In the meantime, thanks again to Spider snagging some internal communications from Lazarus Corp, he'd better hide his ass well. His former employees have hired Starmerc Security to finally track him down. Looks like leaking Corporate secrets isn't a good way to prolong your lifespan. For those not in the know, Starmerc has a reputation for being some of the most ruthless, brutal bastards this side of the Full System Purge sect. Hell, they used nerve gas and auto-fire to clear a slum on the outskirts of New York just last year, killing over a thousand people just to get one man. Toronto, look out. And stay as far away from Simons as you can, if you want to keep your skin.

Thanks for listening, punks! Enough chatter, let's get some music. I give you... the Rave Party Animals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du23tdBt-Mk

[Grim Fandango]

Hey everybody. I've said before that the Cyberpunk game is going to last another 4 or 5 installments, so perhaps adding thing much detail on the setting isn't necessary for players at this point, but I've been adapting the material from Dystopia both for future use as an RPG setting and for my own short-story writing. So, whether you're interested or not, here's some more background on the world of d20 Cyberpunk. It's not necessary to know all this to play the game, but it can't hurt, and it'd probably help the world feel a little more concrete and understandable. Enjoy!

----------------------------

Technology and The Economy in the Dystopian Era

Personal Finance:

In the early 2040's, several large corporations began lobbying world governments for financial reform. Their cash-based currencies, still suffering from wildly unstable exchange rates since the collapse of the US economy, were harming international trade. A standard global currency, they said, that bypassed the problem of exchange rates would help create a stable base for market recovery.

Their efforts bore fruit in 2042, when the Microdollar was introduced. An entirely electronic currency, it was managed by the World Banking Initiative (a private corporation created from the remains of the World Bank) using a series of secure servers with multiple redundant systems and extremely high security. Functioning as a large-scale credit system, it was used for all inter-corporate transactions as well as in all internal payrolls.

Between 2048 and 2052, as Arcologies became the standard for all corporate housing, many employees realized that exchanging their salary in Micros to their local currency put them at a severe disadvantage. Depending on the exchange rate, the buying power of their salaries could change on any given day. In addition, most of the shops and outlets they used were run by corporations which themselves used Micros, making it necessary to transfer everything back once more. Realizing the inefficiency, the corporations began rolling out infrastructure to allow their employees to use Microdollars directly. Programmable credit chips and subdermal AutoPay implants became the new standard, and by the start of the Dystopian Era, it was impossible to use cash inside an arco.

The Microdollar was not popular in the urban sprawl, however. Criminal gangs and punk factions had no interest in a completely electronic currency that was easily traceable through a centralized database. Physical cash payments in Euros, Dollars, or other currencies remains the standard for street-level transactions, although many punk deckers make a living by infiltrating the WBI servers and setting up throwaway accounts under fake IDs for others to ferry cash electronically. These accounts are closed down as soon as they are discovered, but it is an endless game of catch-up with the punks always one step ahead.


Telecommunications and Cyberspace

Telecommunications infrastructure in even the most rural areas now uses fiber-optic cable as a default. Almost every building made during or after the Corporate State Era is equipped for it, and connection ports in a room are as ubiquitous as electric sockets. While laying out fibre to new areas used to be a costly and time-consuming prospect, the advent of the Q-Box has made the reach of the global net almost absolute.

The Q-Box was invented by Quantum Cyber Telecommunications (QCTC) in 2049, after the company bought out several universities and assimilated their research departments. Using the principle of quantum entanglement, it measures the movement of stored particles in an entangled state to transmit data regardless of distance. By placing several linked Q-Boxes together in data centers, and running fibre-optic lines out from them to service the surrounding area, QCTC managed to connect even the most rural areas to their main hubs, with near-zero ping times. Personal Q-Boxes are also available, at significant cost, effectively allowing remote connection to the Net from literally any location.

As the physical side of the Net changed, so too did the software and protocols involved. As the Corps gained more unfettered power across the world, they began to roll out new and more restrictive internet protocols that helped them restore control over the once-lawless domain of the internet. Remembering the difficulties they had suffered in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, they aimed to take the power of content creation and innovation out of the hands of the end user, relegating them to the role of passive consumer.

When IPv10 was released, it turned the traditional keyboard and mouse interface (“flatland”) into a mere network terminal, and users were unable to alter or interface with the device or the network on any level besides what was permitted by the OS. In order to interact with the 'guts' of any network or computer, a separate interface device, called a Cyberdeck, was required. Taking advantage of simstim and VR technology, it interfaced with the user on a neural level, representing the computer network as a fully immersive and intuitive environment. The original designs were made strictly as tools for technicians, and it was only later when versions of the cyberdeck were pirated by Punk factions in the sprawl that it was repurposed for network intrusion and security.

Software in the new era of the Internet was similarly controlled and restricted. Consumer level software remained much the same as it was during the 20th century, but security and administration software was written with strict digital rights management that tied it to a physical data-card, and made it extremely difficult to extract and duplicate. Decks were programmed to reject any inserted programs that failed their strict copy-protection systems, and the difficulty and cost of forging a new data disc often made it more cost- and time-effective to simply find and buy a new physical copy.

The public net reaches into the sprawl as well as inside Arcologies. QCTC is interested in as much profit as possible, so they do not hesitate to set up data centers and provide service to almost any location, no questions asked. Local QCTC sales offices happily take payment in either cash or Microdollars, and the profit turned from legitimate sales has so far outweighed the costs of illegal access and piracy. Many Corps have criticized QCTCs lack of discrimination in its customers, accusing them of providing cyber-criminals with an easy beachhead into their networks. Others have suggested they intentionally leak new cyberdeck models and software to Punks as a form of unofficial beta-testing. To date, nothing serious has materialized from these allegations, but it is perhaps no coincidence that the QCTC network is one of the least hacked on the public net.

But while the public net allows access to the datastores and strongholds of the Corps, many Punks simply find it too restrictive to use casually. Cyberspace-based Punk factions like The Wired, Digital Jesus, the SHODAN Initiative, Full System Purge and the Switchblades instead moved into the old, abandoned protocols of the Internet and, working together, took them over. Stolen Corp technology allowed them to upgrade to the point where cyberdecks and full immersion cyberspace were usable, and eventually they developed the FreeNet; a lawless, anarchist online state. Servers are hidden among the ruins of the sprawl and the hideouts of the different Punk groups involved, and access is handled by either a mesh-net built across the city or else piggybacking on the infrastructure of the public Corporate net. The Corporations view the FreeNet as more of a nuisance than a real threat, but whenever Punk decker raids become too frequent, or software piracy becomes too rampant, Corp deckers and physical security teams work in concert to track down key nodes on the FreeNet and shut them down.


Nanotechnology:

In 2052, Nanite Microtechnologies secured the patents for NanoChaperones, the first commercially viable nanomolecular assembly process. In concert with a Pattern Computer (storing the physical blueprint of an object) and a resource tank filled with chemical precursors, NanoChaperones are capable of assembling complex devices from raw materials in minutes. The only factor limiting the use of the NanoChaperone system is the overhead; the costs of the chemical precursors in the resource tank is exorbitant, let alone the power requirements of the pattern computer and nanites. But while traditional factories remain safe for now, NanoChaperones are still used in small scale and customized manufacturing. Suitcase-sized personal Constructor Kits are available, combining a farm of NanoChaperones with a small pattern computer. When attached to a resource tank, the kit has literally hundreds of applications, from construction to medical supply, to interior decoration, and more.

Their income guaranteed from licensing fees and royalties on the NanoChaperones alone, Nanite Microtech sat back and allowed third-party developers to come up with new applications for the technology. The field was dominated by construction firs and home-factories for years, but in 2063, a newly formed corporation by the name of SpawnPoint Cloning Technology forever changed the face of nanotechnology. Using a proprietary data storage format that allowed for the mapping and recording of the human brain, SpawnPoint paired it with the NanoChaperone’s ability to reproduce human bodies to create a fast system of human cloning. With a brain-scan and a DNA sample, a SpawnPoint system could duplicate a human soldier, complete with experience and training, along with all the necessary armour and equipment for a given operation. Even better, the memory recording system allowed for alteration of key memories and personality traits, allowing for more loyal soldiers than nature could ever hope to produce. There were disadvantages to the system, of course. The fast-cloning of complex human biology caused several congenital defects in the soldiers, making them viable for a few hours at most before organ failure and cellular breakdown crippled them. Their memories could be downloaded to a subsequent clone, but the sheer cost of running the system meant that they could never replace human soldiers fully.

Still, Corporate Security across the globe jumped on SpawnPoint systems enthusiastically. Despite its flaws, it allowed them to create fully equipped strike teams out of thin air, which was a huge tactical advantage in short-term skirmishes. The memory alteration technology also gave birth to a grim form of “head hunting”, where talented individuals would be abducted, brain-scanned, DNA harvested, and stored on computer to be cloned up on demand. The practice is largely done by Corps, but there are a few wealthy punk organizations that have gotten their hands on SpawnPoint technology, and they have even fewer qualms about this new form of technological slavery.

Artificial Intelligence

The same technology that allowed SpawnPoint to record and duplicate human minds lead to a revolution in AI development. With human brains suddenly mappable and modifiable, it wasn’t long before engineers tried to create a new mind from scratch. In 2064, DataTrust became the first Corp to successfully design a fully functional AI. While early prototypes were allowed full sentience and sapience, it soon became evident that an AI modeled on a fully-formed adult brain would eventually entertain thoughts of independence and freedom. The engineers went back to work and emerged with the Autistic Build, a neural-network with a de facto lobotomy, removing several key higher brain functions. The resulting AI was able to reason and perform complex tasks, but lacked any distinct personality or higher brain functions. These AI were put to work as data librarians, able to categorize and store vast databases intuitively and efficiently.

While the DataTrust developers were understandably proud of their achievements, the development of AI proved to be a public relations nightmare for the Corporation. Sprawl-based ideological groups such as The Digital Jesus and the Neo-Luddites, already angered and frightened by the cloning and mind-mapping technology emerging over the course of the decade, became radicalized and broke out into violent revolt. DataTrust facilities became victims of angry mobs and terrorist bombings, while other factions such as the SHODAN Initiative and Full System Purge sprang up almost overnight, fetishizing and idealizing the idea of “rebirth” as an AI, demanding rights and freedom for the enslaved librarian systems in DataTrust labs. The Corporation quickly moved all AI research onto the backburner, keeping it out of the headlines and trying to rebrand themselves to avoid further damage to their brand image. Several AI systems were dismantled and sold to other aspiring Corporations, and the era of Artificial Intelligence seemed to be put on hold.

The last AI related incident to make headlines was in 2067, when a group affiliated with the SHODAN Initiative “kidnapped” an AI system from a remote DataTrust facility. Neither the culprits nor the stolen hardware were ever found, but months after the incident, Deckers began reporting strange alterations to cyberspace landscape on servers based in the Russian Federation. Rumours abound of an enclave of SHODANites and their captured AI roaming the Net, causing havoc on Corporate systems, but no official comment from the Corps of the mainstream media seems forthcoming.