You don't actually need to assign states until you unlock them. So you can develop the character's emotion board as you play.
As far as the concept goes I think living liquid might be a bit high sci-fi for the setting. Though something that was like a mechanical shell that can move through water easily or adapt its shape based on it would probably work if you want to play up the aquatic side (which is a very good angle).
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
You don't actually need to assign states until you unlock them. So you can develop the character's emotion board as you play.
As far as the concept goes I think living liquid might be a bit high sci-fi for the setting. Though something that was like a mechanical shell that can move through water easily or adapt its shape based on it would probably work if you want to play up the aquatic side (which is a very good angle).
That works for me as I hadn't really nailed down whether the living liquid thing was... actually true? I like the aquatic angle as well, but I see them as an extremely unreliable narrator. One thought I had is that they're so connected to the Veil that their own image of themself is a projection
Maybe their body just looks like a full body wet suit with no eyes/mouth/etc but automatically uses the Veil to come up with a cover appearance. So only people not tapped in freak out at you?
So like, i have no idea how this system works, and I'm not sure i could donate the time, but this concept is seeming cool to me. Would there be any space for, or ability to make a dude that isn't in all that AR business. Basically your average wild eyed crazy guy. Like there have to be drifters of a kind, and other cities, folks that get by but have no money for all the tech.
Speaking of tech, someone noted that most of the net is from either satellites or a truly peer to peer network where each device is a bounce point for the overall network. Does this mean that they are still sending up rockets, and if so does that mean there are also underwater mining operations for all of the materials they'd need for that?
Satilites are mostly old tech but yes, there are still launch sites along with deep sea mining. In spite of the squalor most people labour under the corporate blocs (and China, the last nation) are still capable of producing high end goods and science projects. In a lot of ways the setting is a ‘near miss apocalypse’ where the apocalyptic event happened but humanity was saved from collapse by a string.
Also there’s absolutely a playbook for someone not hooked in: The Honed.
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RingoHe/Hima distinct lack of substanceRegistered Userregular
1) What's an app on your phone? Is it integrated heavily with the Veil? Is it widely used or more niche? Why does it hold that place in the culture? How does it generate revenue?
Tempted to answer this with a version of Pokemon GO. Hmmm...
1) What's an app on your phone? Is it integrated heavily with the Veil? Is it widely used or more niche? Why does it hold that place in the culture? How does it generate revenue?
Tempted to answer this with a version of Pokemon GO. Hmmm...
From a thematic sense that is like a perfect example. Pokemon GO is definitely some cyberpunk or at least proto-cyberpunk shit.
That's the trouble with playing cyberpunk games... our reality is getting awfully cyberpunky. We're like... some ubiquitous cybernetics away from most cyberpunk settings.
1) What's an app on your phone? Is it integrated heavily with the Veil? Is it widely used or more niche? Why does it hold that place in the culture? How does it generate revenue?
Tempted to answer this with a version of Pokemon GO. Hmmm...
From a thematic sense that is like a perfect example. Pokemon GO is definitely some cyberpunk or at least proto-cyberpunk shit.
That's the trouble with playing cyberpunk games... our reality is getting awfully cyberpunky. We're like... some ubiquitous cybernetics away from most cyberpunk settings.
The Veil's book actually goes into this and points out that the main thing we're lacking is the transcendent tech like deep VR or trans humanism. Stuff that allows us to detach or elevate ourselves from the world and it's problems.
So here is my seeker at the moment. I still need to fill in some background stuff and figure out the cyberware procurement. Ill be working on this as i can this week to fill out the rest.
States: Mad -1 / Peaceful +2, Sad 0 / Joyful +1 , Scared 0 / Powerful +1 Beliefs:
1: Speak truth and walk forthrightly in the world to make it a better place.
2: That which I need most is often found where I least want to go.
3: Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness of other people.
The Faith: The tenants of the Faith encompass Peace, Pragmatism, and Morality
-Part of meditation requires martial arts (Fists are now 2 Harm). The Faith strives for Peace, this does not mean that people should be helpless, passive, and weak.
-Confer with other seekers when you meditate. (Surplus +Insight, replace Want: penance with Want: obligation). To know yourself, it is helpful to have another reflect upon you.
-The Faith demands Charity (Surplus -1 Cred). The Faith does not ask charity for itself, but to help those you know within your own community. The Faith grows from the bottom up, not the top down.
-The Knowledge you Seek is vast and unknowable (Add want: Despair). The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely, but you become whole by doing so.
Description: The Faith is an amalgamation of Judaeo-Christian values, Jungian Psychology, and some Daoism. Most religions of the earlier centuries became dogmatic, inflexible, and intolerant of other belief systems and in turn, there was a counter wave of grassroots formation and an emphasis on individual and small community practitioners. The Faith recognizes the good and bad in everyone and that you must accept all parts of yourself to become a better individual and in turn, are able to help close friends and neighbors. In this way, everyone knows where their charity is going and provides the most good without the creation of a decadent priesthood.
Faith:
Surplus:
Want:
Cred:
Enlightenment:
The Questions:
Whenever you have 1 answers, spend them to ask one of the following questions. Until you change to another question, it will be understood that this, in tandem with your beliefs, is what you seek.
_How might I obtain generosity, giving of oneself?
_How might I obtain virtue, morality, proper conduct?
_What or who, if anything should I renounce?
_What Insight can you offer me? (Only on +Insight may you ask this)
_How might I achieve more energy, diligence, vigor, effort?
_Should I practice more patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance?
_Will truthfulness, honesty serve me better should I pursue it?
_What could make me have more determination, resolution?
_How might I obtain more love or kindness in my life?
Insight:
When you gain Insight, you ask your Faith what the best course of action is in relation to the question you are seeking and the MC will tell you. Take +1 Forward towards rolls in the pursuit of that information. This is the only way to achieve Insight in The Veil; though protagonists may obviously seek Insight from other characters as normal, this does not provide them with +1 Forward when acting on the advice.
Obligation Questions:
After you introduce your character, you may use the following bullet points to develop Obligation relationships with other players if you so choose, or develop relationships of your own.
-If someone saved you from a situation where you would have broken your tenets otherwise, they have 1 Obligation on you.
-If you conseled someone to undertake an action that would otherwise have resulted in Harm befalling them your you; take 1 Obligation on them.
-If you've convinced someone else to follow your tenets, you have 1 Obligation on each other.
Moves: Communion- Using your Enlightenment, your surplus and want all depend on what your Faith bestows upon you. At the beginning of the session, it is assumed you spent time to get in touch with your Faith. Roll+Enlightenment in order to see the outcome of this Communion. On a 10+, your Faith has Surplus. On a 7-9, it has surplus, but manifests 1 want. If their surplus lists Cred, like 1Cred or 2 Cred, this is your personal share. On a miss, you only generate the want of the MC's choice.
Exact- At the moment you inflict harm, you may choose to inflict any amount of Harm you like-less than, or up to, the Harm you'd normally inflict; you may choose to substitute it at any moment for S Harm as well.
The Seeker Special When the Seeker shares a moment of intimacy with someone, be it physical or emotional, you each gain 1 Hold. Spend the Hold 1 for 1 to cause the other person to think of that moment, Helping or Hindering them across distance and boundaries; you choose which.
Background Sketch:
Will makes a living on the
Setting details:
For religion, Id like to see it as something taken back by the common man. There are still the old institutions, but the popularity is heavily swinging to the newer sects and splinters that have surged up as amalgams, blends, and reformations that focus on the individual and what they can do for their community. If a congregation gets too big, they split so that everyone can know each other again. This has led to the death of televangelism and the megachurches.
Since there is so much water about, sanpan water taxis are a big thing to get around by, especially the west side Hudson shoreline that hooks into the confluence that goes east to the Long Island Archipeligo/Arcologies.
1) What's an app on your phone? Is it integrated heavily with the Veil? Is it widely used or more niche? Why does it hold that place in the culture? How does it generate revenue?
Tempted to answer this with a version of Pokemon GO. Hmmm...
From a thematic sense that is like a perfect example. Pokemon GO is definitely some cyberpunk or at least proto-cyberpunk shit.
That's the trouble with playing cyberpunk games... our reality is getting awfully cyberpunky. We're like... some ubiquitous cybernetics away from most cyberpunk settings.
The Veil's book actually goes into this and points out that the main thing we're lacking is the transcendent tech like deep VR or trans humanism. Stuff that allows us to detach or elevate ourselves from the world and it's problems.
For reals, I made a mushroom 'meatball' spaghetti sauce for my mom the other day. It was servicable, she liked it, but i need animal protein, man. I could not live on mycoprotein alone. Give me all the krill, fish, and chimera meat. Ill pay the price for it.
Okay, will be at pc soon to make big response post but:
A) I’m really stoked at how much you guys are actively engaged with the slightly silly concept and running with it. Especially people who are just naturally going ‘at this place which would obviously be called this like old New York’ because that’s the kind of knowledge I don’t really have.
jeez the seeker playbook could use a third sheet to breath or some better explanations. I think I had to read it like three times before I fully grokked it.
First of all, to help anyone on the fence, a list of every playbook and how well/how they fit into the setting:
Apparatus: Honestly comes down to the tech involved but almost certainly no problem unless we wind up with multiples running around.
Architecht: Probably corporate special forces or an experiment but also has no issues.
Attached: No problem unless the tech is something super weird.
Catabolist: Works fine.
The Dying: Works fine.
The Empath: Needs some sort of justification for how she causes the mood shifts and might not be as instant transmission as the playbook initially says. Also one of my faves so someone play one you butts
The Executive: Is practically made for this stuff
The Honed: Works fine, probably someone from the slums whose body rejects implants in someway. To explain why they haven't gotten a cheap deal on a neurochip.
The Honourbound: Obviously works fine
The Onomastic: The Asylum move might be a bit teleporty for the tech level but otherwise it will work fine. Even if it needs extra lore support.
The Seeker: Works fine
The Wayward: Almost certainly to do with regenerating the oceans and caring for it.
From the Cascade:
The Aesthetic: Absolutely functions in this setting. Also incredibly cool.
The Denotation: Using physical objects to penetrate the veil is honestly just how you can hack stuff anyway. Might not work with how the veil is rather scaled back for our setting.
The Mnemologist: Is very trans human. Would probably need specific lore support/re-jiggering for the setting.
The Percipient: is explicitly trans human in their mission but if you remove that works fine as an agent sort.
The Telepresence: Fuck yeah
The futurist: Is probably too sci-fi but could work with some mysticism and stuff.
Some setting stuff:
1) Food in the flooded world: short answer: Algae, seafood, rice and bread are your staples. Anything that isn't a high yield crop or which doesn't come from the sea is exotic and highly expensive. As far as fishable stock still being around at this point in history it's a mixture of both humanities highly diminished population giving them time to replenish along with one of the few acts of forwards thinking altruism the old world managed: The Ocean Regeneration Project (or ORP). A large ecological initiative focused on preserving and even reversing some of the damage humanity had done to the oceans.
2) The three major political blocs:
The ISA, or Incorporated States of The Americas, is the single largest powerhouse in the world. Made up of a significant military fleet scraped together from all the nations of both north and south America along with many others brought to heel under their might. It's a melting pot of nationalities and cultures with most of their population housed in the floating cities that the largest corporations commissioned for their elite. The ISA is governed loosely by a board of delegates from each corporation that makes up its ranks. With votes brought in credits that go to funding universally required infrastructure like C-Sec or expansion of cities to meet growing population needs. In spite of this it's important to remember that most cities and ships flying the ISA flag have a primary loyalty to the board of whichever company owns them. The ISA has seen the largest amount of infighting of any population on the planet. With the only real universal law being to not target or attack cities.
The Russo-Nordic Oil Pact: The world was still just about chugging along on fossil fuels thanks to efficient engines and deep mining techniques. However as the world flooded and the ability to mine more oil became tenuous in the carnage many countries failed. One nation with the stockpile to outlast the crisis was Russia who spent a large amount of time rescuing key personnel for the coming shift in power. The Russo Nordic pact proper was formed as Norwegian scientists perfected a synthetic bio-fuel that could easily supplement the dwindling oil. With Norwegian dignitaries bargaining the technology in return for safety among Russia's fleets and aid saving as many people as possible.
While in the modern era the need for fuel has diminished to nearly nothing in the face of renewable energy efficiency the Russo-Nodic Pact remains a force. A highly militarized oligarchy that owns and maintains several outposts and cities built off of shallows in the oceans and rock outcroppings. Their small size is off set by their talented R&D divisions and reputation for every crew member carrying a firearm at all times. They are in many ways the pirate empire of the new world and engage in gunboat diplomacy with gusto.
China, The Last Nation: One nation that took the threat of climate change and the rising tides very seriously was Hong Kong: The small, semi-independent state placing a high priority on building a sea wall around themselves. A project that only grew in magnitude as the forecasts grew more and more dire. By the time the UK had being swallowed underwater Hong Kong existed, a miraculous dot with sky scrapers whose top floor could give you a beautiful, sea level view across the sea wall. New advances in materials and super structures allowing its continued development.
Unsurprisingly this utopia didn't last entirely without incident. Soon enough Chinese fleets occupied the neighbouring waters and ultimately took control of the city. Leaving a narrative of violent entitlement that still scars political discourse to the modern day.
In the modern day China is the single largest population center in the world. Building a huge, multi-tiered city on the foundation Hong Kong had left. Thirty million people housed along with some of the largest green spaces still remaining on the planet. China is, itself, the last traditionally recognized nation on the planet. Still possessing a government with elections along with strict controls of its neighboring waters.
This fact also means that, unlike most cyberpunk settings, the Asian influence in characters primarily comes from China, not Japan. For anyone who wants to lean into that.
Also got something reasonably big to write up about LnL because I've had some thoughts on them but I'll take a break first.
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
edited January 2018
I know almost nothing about agricultural tech, but I do know a little about land use. Bread as a staple seems off in the probable absence of the genuinely huge amount of space and fertilizer that goes into grain production nowadays.
I’m hoping to get my executive made sometime today or tomorrow, i’ve got ideas kicking around but I haven’t solidified them yet.
I’m thinking representing an external faction as part of their acquisitions branch, but there to get the things the Corp wants and establish a toehold.
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Hmm, well I'm willing to just go with 'farming tech got real fancy/crops are middle class' but I'm definitely up for semi practical suggestions.
Yeah, if I remember right rice is pretty space-inefficient as well, but it's easier to wrap your head around how something that grows in wet conditions might be useful in the circumstances of this game. It's probably worth a deeper look / conversation at some point unless we really just want to handwave "there is usually food," and move on from there, which would be fine.
I’m hoping to get my executive made sometime today or tomorrow, i’ve got ideas kicking around but I haven’t solidified them yet.
I’m thinking representing an external faction as part of their acquisitions branch, but there to get the things the Corp wants and establish a toehold.
My thoughts for you were more as a security specialist near the Caltech C-Sec board. Someone there to solve problems, negotiate contracts and make sure goods go where they're supposed to and people get paid. I figured part of the fun of the playbook would be to be someone of importance and influence on some level. So external might not be the best way to go for it. You should almost definitely be representing the suits in the central hub.
Hmm, well I'm willing to just go with 'farming tech got real fancy/crops are middle class' but I'm definitely up for semi practical suggestions.
Yeah, if I remember right rice is pretty space-inefficient as well, but it's easier to wrap your head around how something that grows in wet conditions might be useful in the circumstances of this game. It's probably worth a deeper look / conversation at some point unless we really just want to handwave "there is usually food," and move on from there, which would be fine.
'there is usually food, it is usually bad' is probably a good description. Starvation is an issue in the slums but it's not the usual case and not something we're looking to explore too much.
So apparently, if you are looking for the best calories per acre you are looking for yams and sweet potatoes. Lots of tubers as it were. Stuff like jicama or cassava would be likely as well. Corn is also good on an area to calories level as well.
I thought being a central power would be too much...oh man I get to be powerful. Muahahahahaha!
The whole point of the playbook is that you are someone important tied up in the machinations of a greater power. So you have access to a lot but also get tied up doing their work.
1) What's an app on your phone? Is it integrated heavily with the Veil? Is it widely used or more niche? Why does it hold that place in the culture? How does it generate revenue?
Tempted to answer this with a version of Pokemon GO. Hmmm...
Okay, so if instead of monster battling, it's some kind of farming/gardening simulator. A mostly forgotten app that originated in a family of apps designed to help humanity retain "lost" skills, TCG (Twentieth Century Gardening) slowly grew into a slums hit with players showing off their virtual gardening prowess in a weirdly social long-form performance art.
Today the rights holders to the app make money by creating new terrain "challenges" as well as rare types of flora and fauna to raise. The "Living Community Gardens" expansion is still in early access but Green Crews are already forming to demonstrate their ability to create cohesive harmony and retain expert soil management on a grand stage
I had a somewhat darker idea due to the food conversation: Labor Unions that are way closer to press gangs (or, for that matter, actual gangs), dedicated to agriculture and making sure that everything keeps floating. You can't really trust a for-profit entity to do that kind of thing, and it's probably on some level a scheme to funnel credits to the Union Bosses.
Labour unions probably aren't a thing or at least definitely not a significant factor. Anti capitalist activity is not encouraged and almost definitely a way to get C-Sec to harass the shit out of you.
Labour unions probably aren't a thing or at least definitely not a significant factor. Anti capitalist activity is not encouraged and almost definitely a way to get C-Sec to harass the shit out of you.
I would never make it a goal to strangle every budding labor union in the crib, no sir.
Now tell me again why for the record you hate the free market, and therefore freedom itself?
Labour unions probably aren't a thing or at least definitely not a significant factor. Anti capitalist activity is not encouraged and almost definitely a way to get C-Sec to harass the shit out of you.
I would never make it a goal to strangle every budding labor union in the crib, no sir.
Now tell me again why for the record you hate the free market, and therefore freedom itself?
"Where would we be without the glories of the free market?"
"Oh dry land?"
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that gutter trash,"
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Labour unions probably aren't a thing or at least definitely not a significant factor. Anti capitalist activity is not encouraged and almost definitely a way to get C-Sec to harass the shit out of you.
Labour unions probably aren't a thing or at least definitely not a significant factor. Anti capitalist activity is not encouraged and almost definitely a way to get C-Sec to harass the shit out of you.
I would never make it a goal to strangle every budding labor union in the crib, no sir.
Now tell me again why for the record you hate the free market, and therefore freedom itself?
Yeah, you guys saw the words Labor Union and jumped to some conclusions I wasn't, not that you could tell given the brevity of what I posted. I probably should've put it in quotation marks.
This entity would be something closer to a chain gang or prison labor system with a controlling body that resembles a labor union, specifically the kind that operating engineers tend to be members of today. I'd guess it's probably "Hydro," in the vernacular. They're the guys who repair and maintain water-quality and the dependent agricultural systems, while also possibly organizing food doles, acting as unofficial police for those systems, and that kind of thing. Very territorial, almost tribal at the middle levels; kids talk about "joining Hydro," like it's a gang initiation, because it basically is.
The bosses would be older members who actually do know what they're doing, but are basically strongmen who are probably each tied up with and dependent on individual corporations and government entities they relate to. Think Frank Sabotka from season 2 of The Wire, if drugs were a totally reasonable side-line, he could have people shot, and he had Inquisitor's character asking him why the desalination numbers were so low and insisting that his guys needed to do overtime if they wanted to keep getting paid.
Depending on the state of the education system, which we haven't discussed, they might also be the ones who train people in their work.
They're probably dependent on / a not-quite-shell organization to funnel ISA credits aimed for infrastructure and agriculture to the corporations. The "union," designation is pretty much a euphemism for something a lot more corrupt.
Education is very class restricted but varies wildly due to the large amount of educational material available at varying costs online. Plus the Veil and AR integration means that most people (provided their data sphere has the right stuff to hand) can do technical work with step by step guidance.
In the slums it's a bit harder to get this stuff due to the shitty data spheres, lack of professional teachers and general need to work a grift of some sort to keep food coming in but you pick up whole new skill sets from living on a mass of barely functioning boats and helping with the communal effort to keep them afloat.
All this is to basically say that anyone from any background can be at wildly varying levels of competency. Though you do tend to slant towards specific skills based on where you grew up.
Also the Hydroponics are probably pretty tightly secured and privately owned. So yeah, you've probably got a wide range of mini fiefdoms compromised of private security, bio-engineers and blue collar workers from each facility that wield a not inconsiderable amount of political muscle as a collective group. They're just still tightly controlled by corporate overlords and are restrained from dominance by both the fishing industry and the continual raft of imports Pheonix York's size attracts. The city's one of the largest population centers in the world and actually moves about far more than other ISA installations because it's not got any particular tie to given installations (most other cities make a slow, multi-year long loop around key installations like CalTech owned SanFran2co's trips to pass near deep sea mining sites, R&D labs and production facilities).
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Also the Hydroponics are probably pretty tightly secured and privately owned. So yeah, you've probably got a wide range of mini fiefdoms compromised of private security, bio-engineers and blue collar workers from each facility that wield a not inconsiderable amount of political muscle as a collective group. They're just still tightly controlled by corporate overlords and are restrained from dominance by both the fishing industry and the continual raft of imports Pheonix York's size attracts. The city's one of the largest population centers in the world and actually moves about far more than other ISA installations because it's not got any particular tie to given installations (most other cities make a slow, multi-year long loop around key installations like CalTech owned SanFran2co's trips to pass near deep sea mining sites, R&D labs and production facilities).
More along the lines I was thinking, yeah. I'd argue that they're probably not tightly secured unless we're pivoting closer to Shadowrun territory, though. Security gets treated as an expenses line-item that needs to be as small as possible way more than you'd think in today's corporate world and I doubt it's any different in the future.
That's not to say there's nobody securing them, but there's probably one or more half-asleep guys in booths and another couple patrolling on any given night. If something's actually very important for some reason, that probably changes, but Pumping Station 2 is going to get quickly looked over every couple hours by someone working their second job.
Also the Hydroponics are probably pretty tightly secured and privately owned. So yeah, you've probably got a wide range of mini fiefdoms compromised of private security, bio-engineers and blue collar workers from each facility that wield a not inconsiderable amount of political muscle as a collective group. They're just still tightly controlled by corporate overlords and are restrained from dominance by both the fishing industry and the continual raft of imports Pheonix York's size attracts. The city's one of the largest population centers in the world and actually moves about far more than other ISA installations because it's not got any particular tie to given installations (most other cities make a slow, multi-year long loop around key installations like CalTech owned SanFran2co's trips to pass near deep sea mining sites, R&D labs and production facilities).
More along the lines I was thinking, yeah. I'd argue that they're probably not tightly secured unless we're pivoting closer to Shadowrun territory, though. Security gets treated as an expenses line-item that needs to be as small as possible way more than you'd think in today's corporate world and I doubt it's any different in the future.
That's not to say there's nobody securing them, but there's probably one or more half-asleep guys in booths and another couple patrolling on any given night. If something's actually very important for some reason, that probably changes, but Pumping Station 2 is going to get quickly looked over every couple hours by someone working their second job.
As far as the hydroponics goes... That shit is life. It's basically someone's gold mine. There's gotta be at least a few corps that basically use that as their money backbone, and they probably run everything from the desalination plant, and soil acquisition, all the way to retail on the food they produce, and you definitely protect that shit with guns, lots of well trained ones.
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Also the Hydroponics are probably pretty tightly secured and privately owned. So yeah, you've probably got a wide range of mini fiefdoms compromised of private security, bio-engineers and blue collar workers from each facility that wield a not inconsiderable amount of political muscle as a collective group. They're just still tightly controlled by corporate overlords and are restrained from dominance by both the fishing industry and the continual raft of imports Pheonix York's size attracts. The city's one of the largest population centers in the world and actually moves about far more than other ISA installations because it's not got any particular tie to given installations (most other cities make a slow, multi-year long loop around key installations like CalTech owned SanFran2co's trips to pass near deep sea mining sites, R&D labs and production facilities).
More along the lines I was thinking, yeah. I'd argue that they're probably not tightly secured unless we're pivoting closer to Shadowrun territory, though. Security gets treated as an expenses line-item that needs to be as small as possible way more than you'd think in today's corporate world and I doubt it's any different in the future.
That's not to say there's nobody securing them, but there's probably one or more half-asleep guys in booths and another couple patrolling on any given night. If something's actually very important for some reason, that probably changes, but Pumping Station 2 is going to get quickly looked over every couple hours by someone working their second job.
As far as the hydroponics goes... That shit is life. It's basically someone's gold mine. There's gotta be at least a few corps that basically use that as their money backbone, and they probably run everything from the desalination plant, and soil acquisition, all the way to retail on the food they produce, and you definitely protect that shit with guns, lots of well trained ones.
See, you would, but from who? The built-in assumption of Shadowrun that theft is just part of business, so guys need to be able to jump out of hovercraft and shoot people at any of your facilities with a few minutes' notice doesn't really apply here; there are very few places to run, from the sound of things, if nothing else. Which is not to say that espionage or sabotage don't happen, because of course they would, but some guy at a desk went "Why the hell are we paying these guys?" at some point about any such security in the absence of a threat.
So instead they're going to half-ass it, would be my guess, or let the blue-collar guys walk around with wrenches discouraging visitors.
Or maybe there's a threat and we just haven't imagined it yet.
Most threats are more subtle than out and out conflict and come from digital and social manipulation (it's part of the reason dataspheres are kept separate and quarantined even though you could just have one covering the whole city without a problem). So security is more in corporate specialists and so on. There's probably a few armed security guards at any given large facility and they're probably pretty heavily equipped but for the most part C-Sec is the non criminal entity with the highest amount of military force.
I imagine there are plenty of threats: pirates, corporate sabotage, terrorists, etc
The food chain is vital and lucrative.
I also imagine the corps want to keep their defensive budget to a minimum.
Why have high powered security at every location when you can have a rapid response team? Why have guards when you can have drones and cameras? Why let people know where the targets are in the first place? Etc
You can run everywhere, it's all open ocean. If I come in the night rob your food stores, and then hit the open ocean, finding me becomes far less viable. Heck it sounds like most folks live bouncing between giant moving flotillas as the work and resource availability dictate. Essentially in a society with such scarcity and inequality privateers and piracy would have to be rampant, and to make an unavoidable comparison, there's got to be some equivalent to the smokers from waterworld.
But also drones make a ton of sense so like 3 guys drearily watching automatic drone feeds, with smaller crisis response teams, sounds exactly like some shit a futuristic megacorp would do.
Also i may have missed it, what are population numbers actually like?
Oh shit, we are in water world? I was under the assumption it was like over hydrated Venice italy. Like, 200ft rise in ocean level, not cover the tops of the rocky mountains.
My impression was that most landmass was totally swallowed, and that Hong Kong was the last bit of dry land.
also lemme know if I'm getting annoying with talking about a game I'm probably not going to be able to play in. I like both post apocalyptic settings and cyberpunk settings. it's just super fun to think about the implications of this particular cyberpunk post apocalypse.
China is the largest population centre at 3 million and is very much the exception.
New New York is the largest ISA city and sits at around 100,000 once you count the slums.
Outside of ISA Cities there's RNP outposts and independent settlements that will rarely get bigger than 10,000 at the largest.
So all in all you're not looking at a huge population.
In general Hydrofarms in PY don't need excess physical security because the average person's access to a boat requires either harbour master permissions or ties to the kind of criminal organizations that tend to dictate the comings and goings of the fringe of the slums who are generally large enough to have the smarts not to pull something disruptive like that off.
Also I think tommorow I'll do a write up of the various kinda districts and extra detail into the LnL and how dataspheres work. Help establish a better feeling of the geography. Though would anyone with better knowledge of NY want to do some stuff about what the central hub is like? It should basically just be a glimmering, veil drenched corporate paradise with residential, business and comercial areas along with the green spaces used for hydrofarms.
Oh shit, we are in water world? I was under the assumption it was like over hydrated Venice italy. Like, 200ft rise in ocean level, not cover the tops of the rocky mountains.
Shit is so flooded that everything except mountains is so deep you can sail your fuck off huge cargo ship without having any risk of hitting the bottom and beaching yourself. There's still outcroppings and some islands and junk but usable land past 'place to build a facility or start a mining operation from' is probably down to a few square miles at this point.
My impression was that most landmass was totally swallowed, and that Hong Kong was the last bit of dry land.
also lemme know if I'm getting annoying with talking about a game I'm probably not going to be able to play in. I like both post apocalyptic settings and cyberpunk settings. it's just super fun to think about the implications of this particular cyberpunk post apocalypse.
As far as I'm concerned the lore stuff and all that is as much an act of play as being present for the live games. Plus a lot of the point of this game is to help me flesh out the setting for when I start doing homebrew system stuff. Though the Veil does tend to drag stuff a bit further into some directions than I'll probably stick with (usually in how advanced VR is and the abundance of cybernetics as anything except a luxury good).
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As far as the concept goes I think living liquid might be a bit high sci-fi for the setting. Though something that was like a mechanical shell that can move through water easily or adapt its shape based on it would probably work if you want to play up the aquatic side (which is a very good angle).
That works for me as I hadn't really nailed down whether the living liquid thing was... actually true? I like the aquatic angle as well, but I see them as an extremely unreliable narrator. One thought I had is that they're so connected to the Veil that their own image of themself is a projection
Speaking of tech, someone noted that most of the net is from either satellites or a truly peer to peer network where each device is a bounce point for the overall network. Does this mean that they are still sending up rockets, and if so does that mean there are also underwater mining operations for all of the materials they'd need for that?
Also there’s absolutely a playbook for someone not hooked in: The Honed.
Tempted to answer this with a version of Pokemon GO. Hmmm...
From a thematic sense that is like a perfect example. Pokemon GO is definitely some cyberpunk or at least proto-cyberpunk shit.
That's the trouble with playing cyberpunk games... our reality is getting awfully cyberpunky. We're like... some ubiquitous cybernetics away from most cyberpunk settings.
The Veil's book actually goes into this and points out that the main thing we're lacking is the transcendent tech like deep VR or trans humanism. Stuff that allows us to detach or elevate ourselves from the world and it's problems.
The Seeker
William Ward
Sheet
Jam: Boat Courier.
States: Mad -1 / Peaceful +2, Sad 0 / Joyful +1 , Scared 0 / Powerful +1
Beliefs:
1: Speak truth and walk forthrightly in the world to make it a better place.
2: That which I need most is often found where I least want to go.
3: Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness of other people.
The Faith: The tenants of the Faith encompass Peace, Pragmatism, and Morality
-Part of meditation requires martial arts (Fists are now 2 Harm). The Faith strives for Peace, this does not mean that people should be helpless, passive, and weak.
-Confer with other seekers when you meditate. (Surplus +Insight, replace Want: penance with Want: obligation). To know yourself, it is helpful to have another reflect upon you.
-The Faith demands Charity (Surplus -1 Cred). The Faith does not ask charity for itself, but to help those you know within your own community. The Faith grows from the bottom up, not the top down.
-The Knowledge you Seek is vast and unknowable (Add want: Despair). The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely, but you become whole by doing so.
Description: The Faith is an amalgamation of Judaeo-Christian values, Jungian Psychology, and some Daoism. Most religions of the earlier centuries became dogmatic, inflexible, and intolerant of other belief systems and in turn, there was a counter wave of grassroots formation and an emphasis on individual and small community practitioners. The Faith recognizes the good and bad in everyone and that you must accept all parts of yourself to become a better individual and in turn, are able to help close friends and neighbors. In this way, everyone knows where their charity is going and provides the most good without the creation of a decadent priesthood.
Faith:
Surplus:
Want:
Cred:
Enlightenment:
The Questions:
Whenever you have 1 answers, spend them to ask one of the following questions. Until you change to another question, it will be understood that this, in tandem with your beliefs, is what you seek.
_How might I obtain generosity, giving of oneself?
_How might I obtain virtue, morality, proper conduct?
_What or who, if anything should I renounce?
_What Insight can you offer me? (Only on +Insight may you ask this)
_How might I achieve more energy, diligence, vigor, effort?
_Should I practice more patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance?
_Will truthfulness, honesty serve me better should I pursue it?
_What could make me have more determination, resolution?
_How might I obtain more love or kindness in my life?
Insight:
When you gain Insight, you ask your Faith what the best course of action is in relation to the question you are seeking and the MC will tell you. Take +1 Forward towards rolls in the pursuit of that information. This is the only way to achieve Insight in The Veil; though protagonists may obviously seek Insight from other characters as normal, this does not provide them with +1 Forward when acting on the advice.
Obligation Questions:
After you introduce your character, you may use the following bullet points to develop Obligation relationships with other players if you so choose, or develop relationships of your own.
-If someone saved you from a situation where you would have broken your tenets otherwise, they have 1 Obligation on you.
-If you conseled someone to undertake an action that would otherwise have resulted in Harm befalling them your you; take 1 Obligation on them.
-If you've convinced someone else to follow your tenets, you have 1 Obligation on each other.
Gear: Ornate Katana (3 Harm, hand, valuable, armor-cutting)
Ornate wakizashi (2 Harm, hand, valuable, electric)
Antiquated fashion
2 Cred
Cybernetics: Arm, Stabilizers, Scarred
Chest Implanted Rebreather, Damaging
Leg Kinetic Recyclers, Unreliable
Moves:
Communion- Using your Enlightenment, your surplus and want all depend on what your Faith bestows upon you. At the beginning of the session, it is assumed you spent time to get in touch with your Faith. Roll+Enlightenment in order to see the outcome of this Communion. On a 10+, your Faith has Surplus. On a 7-9, it has surplus, but manifests 1 want. If their surplus lists Cred, like 1Cred or 2 Cred, this is your personal share. On a miss, you only generate the want of the MC's choice.
Exact- At the moment you inflict harm, you may choose to inflict any amount of Harm you like-less than, or up to, the Harm you'd normally inflict; you may choose to substitute it at any moment for S Harm as well.
The Seeker Special When the Seeker shares a moment of intimacy with someone, be it physical or emotional, you each gain 1 Hold. Spend the Hold 1 for 1 to cause the other person to think of that moment, Helping or Hindering them across distance and boundaries; you choose which.
Background Sketch:
Setting details:
For religion, Id like to see it as something taken back by the common man. There are still the old institutions, but the popularity is heavily swinging to the newer sects and splinters that have surged up as amalgams, blends, and reformations that focus on the individual and what they can do for their community. If a congregation gets too big, they split so that everyone can know each other again. This has led to the death of televangelism and the megachurches.
Since there is so much water about, sanpan water taxis are a big thing to get around by, especially the west side Hudson shoreline that hooks into the confluence that goes east to the Long Island Archipeligo/Arcologies.
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For reals, I made a mushroom 'meatball' spaghetti sauce for my mom the other day. It was servicable, she liked it, but i need animal protein, man. I could not live on mycoprotein alone. Give me all the krill, fish, and chimera meat. Ill pay the price for it.
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A) I’m really stoked at how much you guys are actively engaged with the slightly silly concept and running with it. Especially people who are just naturally going ‘at this place which would obviously be called this like old New York’ because that’s the kind of knowledge I don’t really have.
First of all, to help anyone on the fence, a list of every playbook and how well/how they fit into the setting:
Apparatus: Honestly comes down to the tech involved but almost certainly no problem unless we wind up with multiples running around.
Architecht: Probably corporate special forces or an experiment but also has no issues.
Attached: No problem unless the tech is something super weird.
Catabolist: Works fine.
The Dying: Works fine.
The Empath: Needs some sort of justification for how she causes the mood shifts and might not be as instant transmission as the playbook initially says. Also one of my faves so someone play one you butts
The Executive: Is practically made for this stuff
The Honed: Works fine, probably someone from the slums whose body rejects implants in someway. To explain why they haven't gotten a cheap deal on a neurochip.
The Honourbound: Obviously works fine
The Onomastic: The Asylum move might be a bit teleporty for the tech level but otherwise it will work fine. Even if it needs extra lore support.
The Seeker: Works fine
The Wayward: Almost certainly to do with regenerating the oceans and caring for it.
From the Cascade:
The Aesthetic: Absolutely functions in this setting. Also incredibly cool.
The Denotation: Using physical objects to penetrate the veil is honestly just how you can hack stuff anyway. Might not work with how the veil is rather scaled back for our setting.
The Mnemologist: Is very trans human. Would probably need specific lore support/re-jiggering for the setting.
The Percipient: is explicitly trans human in their mission but if you remove that works fine as an agent sort.
The Telepresence: Fuck yeah
The futurist: Is probably too sci-fi but could work with some mysticism and stuff.
Some setting stuff:
1) Food in the flooded world: short answer: Algae, seafood, rice and bread are your staples. Anything that isn't a high yield crop or which doesn't come from the sea is exotic and highly expensive. As far as fishable stock still being around at this point in history it's a mixture of both humanities highly diminished population giving them time to replenish along with one of the few acts of forwards thinking altruism the old world managed: The Ocean Regeneration Project (or ORP). A large ecological initiative focused on preserving and even reversing some of the damage humanity had done to the oceans.
2) The three major political blocs:
The ISA, or Incorporated States of The Americas, is the single largest powerhouse in the world. Made up of a significant military fleet scraped together from all the nations of both north and south America along with many others brought to heel under their might. It's a melting pot of nationalities and cultures with most of their population housed in the floating cities that the largest corporations commissioned for their elite. The ISA is governed loosely by a board of delegates from each corporation that makes up its ranks. With votes brought in credits that go to funding universally required infrastructure like C-Sec or expansion of cities to meet growing population needs. In spite of this it's important to remember that most cities and ships flying the ISA flag have a primary loyalty to the board of whichever company owns them. The ISA has seen the largest amount of infighting of any population on the planet. With the only real universal law being to not target or attack cities.
The Russo-Nordic Oil Pact: The world was still just about chugging along on fossil fuels thanks to efficient engines and deep mining techniques. However as the world flooded and the ability to mine more oil became tenuous in the carnage many countries failed. One nation with the stockpile to outlast the crisis was Russia who spent a large amount of time rescuing key personnel for the coming shift in power. The Russo Nordic pact proper was formed as Norwegian scientists perfected a synthetic bio-fuel that could easily supplement the dwindling oil. With Norwegian dignitaries bargaining the technology in return for safety among Russia's fleets and aid saving as many people as possible.
While in the modern era the need for fuel has diminished to nearly nothing in the face of renewable energy efficiency the Russo-Nodic Pact remains a force. A highly militarized oligarchy that owns and maintains several outposts and cities built off of shallows in the oceans and rock outcroppings. Their small size is off set by their talented R&D divisions and reputation for every crew member carrying a firearm at all times. They are in many ways the pirate empire of the new world and engage in gunboat diplomacy with gusto.
China, The Last Nation: One nation that took the threat of climate change and the rising tides very seriously was Hong Kong: The small, semi-independent state placing a high priority on building a sea wall around themselves. A project that only grew in magnitude as the forecasts grew more and more dire. By the time the UK had being swallowed underwater Hong Kong existed, a miraculous dot with sky scrapers whose top floor could give you a beautiful, sea level view across the sea wall. New advances in materials and super structures allowing its continued development.
Unsurprisingly this utopia didn't last entirely without incident. Soon enough Chinese fleets occupied the neighbouring waters and ultimately took control of the city. Leaving a narrative of violent entitlement that still scars political discourse to the modern day.
In the modern day China is the single largest population center in the world. Building a huge, multi-tiered city on the foundation Hong Kong had left. Thirty million people housed along with some of the largest green spaces still remaining on the planet. China is, itself, the last traditionally recognized nation on the planet. Still possessing a government with elections along with strict controls of its neighboring waters.
This fact also means that, unlike most cyberpunk settings, the Asian influence in characters primarily comes from China, not Japan. For anyone who wants to lean into that.
Also got something reasonably big to write up about LnL because I've had some thoughts on them but I'll take a break first.
See for example: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1209_051209_crops_map.html
I’m thinking representing an external faction as part of their acquisitions branch, but there to get the things the Corp wants and establish a toehold.
Yeah, if I remember right rice is pretty space-inefficient as well, but it's easier to wrap your head around how something that grows in wet conditions might be useful in the circumstances of this game. It's probably worth a deeper look / conversation at some point unless we really just want to handwave "there is usually food," and move on from there, which would be fine.
E: preliminary looking-into-it turned up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_rice , which is neat.
My thoughts for you were more as a security specialist near the Caltech C-Sec board. Someone there to solve problems, negotiate contracts and make sure goods go where they're supposed to and people get paid. I figured part of the fun of the playbook would be to be someone of importance and influence on some level. So external might not be the best way to go for it. You should almost definitely be representing the suits in the central hub.
'there is usually food, it is usually bad' is probably a good description. Starvation is an issue in the slums but it's not the usual case and not something we're looking to explore too much.
The whole point of the playbook is that you are someone important tied up in the machinations of a greater power. So you have access to a lot but also get tied up doing their work.
Just because I can be a huge derp when it comes to time zones, Sunday evening GMT converts to like, early-ish morning Saturday PST right?
Because yeah that actually works pretty great for me.
Okay, so if instead of monster battling, it's some kind of farming/gardening simulator. A mostly forgotten app that originated in a family of apps designed to help humanity retain "lost" skills, TCG (Twentieth Century Gardening) slowly grew into a slums hit with players showing off their virtual gardening prowess in a weirdly social long-form performance art.
Today the rights holders to the app make money by creating new terrain "challenges" as well as rare types of flora and fauna to raise. The "Living Community Gardens" expansion is still in early access but Green Crews are already forming to demonstrate their ability to create cohesive harmony and retain expert soil management on a grand stage
Edit: I blame all of you for this
Oh my god yes
GMT is eight hours ahead of PST, so yeah.
Bobby grows some baller pumpkins, for sure.
I had a somewhat darker idea due to the food conversation: Labor Unions that are way closer to press gangs (or, for that matter, actual gangs), dedicated to agriculture and making sure that everything keeps floating. You can't really trust a for-profit entity to do that kind of thing, and it's probably on some level a scheme to funnel credits to the Union Bosses.
I would never make it a goal to strangle every budding labor union in the crib, no sir.
Now tell me again why for the record you hate the free market, and therefore freedom itself?
"Where would we be without the glories of the free market?"
"Oh dry land?"
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that gutter trash,"
Yeah, you guys saw the words Labor Union and jumped to some conclusions I wasn't, not that you could tell given the brevity of what I posted. I probably should've put it in quotation marks.
This entity would be something closer to a chain gang or prison labor system with a controlling body that resembles a labor union, specifically the kind that operating engineers tend to be members of today. I'd guess it's probably "Hydro," in the vernacular. They're the guys who repair and maintain water-quality and the dependent agricultural systems, while also possibly organizing food doles, acting as unofficial police for those systems, and that kind of thing. Very territorial, almost tribal at the middle levels; kids talk about "joining Hydro," like it's a gang initiation, because it basically is.
The bosses would be older members who actually do know what they're doing, but are basically strongmen who are probably each tied up with and dependent on individual corporations and government entities they relate to. Think Frank Sabotka from season 2 of The Wire, if drugs were a totally reasonable side-line, he could have people shot, and he had Inquisitor's character asking him why the desalination numbers were so low and insisting that his guys needed to do overtime if they wanted to keep getting paid.
Depending on the state of the education system, which we haven't discussed, they might also be the ones who train people in their work.
They're probably dependent on / a not-quite-shell organization to funnel ISA credits aimed for infrastructure and agriculture to the corporations. The "union," designation is pretty much a euphemism for something a lot more corrupt.
In the slums it's a bit harder to get this stuff due to the shitty data spheres, lack of professional teachers and general need to work a grift of some sort to keep food coming in but you pick up whole new skill sets from living on a mass of barely functioning boats and helping with the communal effort to keep them afloat.
All this is to basically say that anyone from any background can be at wildly varying levels of competency. Though you do tend to slant towards specific skills based on where you grew up.
Also the Hydroponics are probably pretty tightly secured and privately owned. So yeah, you've probably got a wide range of mini fiefdoms compromised of private security, bio-engineers and blue collar workers from each facility that wield a not inconsiderable amount of political muscle as a collective group. They're just still tightly controlled by corporate overlords and are restrained from dominance by both the fishing industry and the continual raft of imports Pheonix York's size attracts. The city's one of the largest population centers in the world and actually moves about far more than other ISA installations because it's not got any particular tie to given installations (most other cities make a slow, multi-year long loop around key installations like CalTech owned SanFran2co's trips to pass near deep sea mining sites, R&D labs and production facilities).
More along the lines I was thinking, yeah. I'd argue that they're probably not tightly secured unless we're pivoting closer to Shadowrun territory, though. Security gets treated as an expenses line-item that needs to be as small as possible way more than you'd think in today's corporate world and I doubt it's any different in the future.
That's not to say there's nobody securing them, but there's probably one or more half-asleep guys in booths and another couple patrolling on any given night. If something's actually very important for some reason, that probably changes, but Pumping Station 2 is going to get quickly looked over every couple hours by someone working their second job.
As far as the hydroponics goes... That shit is life. It's basically someone's gold mine. There's gotta be at least a few corps that basically use that as their money backbone, and they probably run everything from the desalination plant, and soil acquisition, all the way to retail on the food they produce, and you definitely protect that shit with guns, lots of well trained ones.
See, you would, but from who? The built-in assumption of Shadowrun that theft is just part of business, so guys need to be able to jump out of hovercraft and shoot people at any of your facilities with a few minutes' notice doesn't really apply here; there are very few places to run, from the sound of things, if nothing else. Which is not to say that espionage or sabotage don't happen, because of course they would, but some guy at a desk went "Why the hell are we paying these guys?" at some point about any such security in the absence of a threat.
So instead they're going to half-ass it, would be my guess, or let the blue-collar guys walk around with wrenches discouraging visitors.
Or maybe there's a threat and we just haven't imagined it yet.
The food chain is vital and lucrative.
I also imagine the corps want to keep their defensive budget to a minimum.
Why have high powered security at every location when you can have a rapid response team? Why have guards when you can have drones and cameras? Why let people know where the targets are in the first place? Etc
It’s a fine balancing act to maximize profits.
But also drones make a ton of sense so like 3 guys drearily watching automatic drone feeds, with smaller crisis response teams, sounds exactly like some shit a futuristic megacorp would do.
Also i may have missed it, what are population numbers actually like?
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also lemme know if I'm getting annoying with talking about a game I'm probably not going to be able to play in. I like both post apocalyptic settings and cyberpunk settings. it's just super fun to think about the implications of this particular cyberpunk post apocalypse.
New New York is the largest ISA city and sits at around 100,000 once you count the slums.
Outside of ISA Cities there's RNP outposts and independent settlements that will rarely get bigger than 10,000 at the largest.
So all in all you're not looking at a huge population.
In general Hydrofarms in PY don't need excess physical security because the average person's access to a boat requires either harbour master permissions or ties to the kind of criminal organizations that tend to dictate the comings and goings of the fringe of the slums who are generally large enough to have the smarts not to pull something disruptive like that off.
Also I think tommorow I'll do a write up of the various kinda districts and extra detail into the LnL and how dataspheres work. Help establish a better feeling of the geography. Though would anyone with better knowledge of NY want to do some stuff about what the central hub is like? It should basically just be a glimmering, veil drenched corporate paradise with residential, business and comercial areas along with the green spaces used for hydrofarms.
Shit is so flooded that everything except mountains is so deep you can sail your fuck off huge cargo ship without having any risk of hitting the bottom and beaching yourself. There's still outcroppings and some islands and junk but usable land past 'place to build a facility or start a mining operation from' is probably down to a few square miles at this point.
As far as I'm concerned the lore stuff and all that is as much an act of play as being present for the live games. Plus a lot of the point of this game is to help me flesh out the setting for when I start doing homebrew system stuff. Though the Veil does tend to drag stuff a bit further into some directions than I'll probably stick with (usually in how advanced VR is and the abundance of cybernetics as anything except a luxury good).