[freeroleplay] Re: Speaking of a Cyberpunk Setting...
- From: "Timothy S. Nelson" <wayland@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: freeroleplay@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 00:52:14 +1000 (EST)
On 14 Aug 2003, James Mitchell Jensen II wrote:
> On Thu, 2003-08-14 at 05:17, Simo Kivistö wrote:
> > On Fri, Aug 08, 2003 at 10:45:47PM -0500, James Jensen wrote:
> > > While this is not the typical "cyberpunk" setting, I think it's an
> > > interesting take on the future, and who knows?
> > How would you describe a typical cyberpunk? I agree that it's not the
> > cliché
> > cyberpunk scenario but cyberpunk is a somewhat flexible definition too.
> >
>
> I was thinking more "cliché". Jumping off the Planet is closer to "1984"
> (minus Big Brother) than it is to "Blade Runner".
>
> I'm not a big fan of cyberpunk and even less a fan of cliché cyberpunk
> (except, as I said before, the Marvel 2099 comics, but that had a lot to
> do with the superheroes; I don't think I could have stomached a story
> just about teen punks with head jacks).
>
> However, now that I think about it, I've always liked Ray Bradbury's
> "negative utopia" stuff. That's not really "cyber", or "punk", though.
>
> > :) Part of my cyberpunk-enthusiasm comes from a collectible card-game called
> > Netrunner.
>
> Part of what interest I have comes from the old Shadowrun game for
> SNES... There's just something cool about having your first objective
> be to escape from the morgue.:-)
My Cyberpunk influences come almost entirely from Shadowrun the
paper-based RPG. Here's what I see in Cyberpunk:
1. Corporate dystopia (ie. corps more powerful than government).
2. Cybertechnology/biotechnology. To me, deckers/netrunners are a sort
of fringe group, with the physically enhanced being more mainsteam
(whether this be extra muscles (functional), or chrome-plated
eyeballs (decorative)).
In Shadowrun, unlike other cyberpunk genres, there's the whole
"Awakening" scene, especially the meta-humans in a technological setting. I
find this aspect cool.
Also, nanotechnology, while it appears, seems to be tacked on as an
afterthought, rather than core material (at least, that's my impression
comparing Eric Drexler's "Engines of Creation" with Shadowrun).
Our group never really used the Decking stuff in Shadowrun (well,
maybe once). My aversion to it stemmed from the fact that, as the decking
world was artificial, and had no commonly-understood real-world parallel,
people could not come up with creative plans. You went in through one of the
defined entrances, crunched the numbers, and saw what you got. No thinking
outside the box. That's why I eventually started designing a decking system
which required knowledge of real-world computer security; buffer overflows,
whatever.
Anyway, enough rambling...
:)
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| Name: Tim Nelson | Because the Creator is, |
| E-mail: wayland@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx | I am |
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