Campaign idea

[Mestopheles]

Hello all-

 

I created a login to talk to you guys, I've played HERO a bit but never been on these boards before (other than to lurk and browse). I wanted some feedback on a campaign concept that's been wandering about my head for a few weeks. I've found a few players who expressed an interest so I figure it's time to start laying the foundation.

 

My basic concept is a modification of the Shadowrun world, with cybertechnology, huge megacorps, and general dystopian societal backdrop with supers appearing as mutants (as in X-men, etc.) For those of you familiar with Shadowrun, I will not be including magic (unless we're talking mutant powers that manifest as "magic") and I won't be including metahuman races (Orcs, elves, trolls, etc.)

 

I'm looking at making both cybertechnology and mutant superpowers regulated by the national governments, megacorps, or both, with superhuman individuals being viewed as both a threat and a valuable resource.

 

The group would be supers, as I don't want them directly sponsored by a megacorp (and that'd be the way to get decent cybertech 95% of the time). They would be freelance talent running "black bag" ops in support of megacorps (or their subsidiary branches) to further corp goals in exchange for pay while providing plausible deniability to the hiring agency.

 

I’m asking for feedback in the form of opinions for how I might run this, what resources I ought to get besides the 5ER bible, and any links you folks have to cybertech and whatnot, since I know this idea is far from unique.

 

Questions, comments, opinions, and feedback are welcomed, thanks.

[Gadodel]

Re: Campaign idea

 

Star Hero has rules for using Cyberspace that you might find helpful.

[Remjin]

Re: Campaign idea

 

Well, as far as source material goes, the 4th edition Cyber Hero book may help. For setting, the Cyberpunk 2020 line had CyberGeneration which had a similar sort of setting. It was not a well received book, but could be useful and should be cheap since very few Cyberpunk fans liked it.

 

Outside of that, some of the Marvel comics had future stories that included some stories applicable though dissimilar in many ways.

 

Various Star Hero supplements may be useful, as well as Gadgets and Gear. The Dark Champions book will give you a lot on firearms and the like as well.

 

For cybertech ideas, obviously Shadowrun has a lot of info there, and I assume you know the gamut of their various books, and the Chrome Books frome Cyberpunk 2020 is another source as well as the main book and various others. Its a pretty big genre.

 

I also recommend William Gibson's various novels for inspiration as well. I know there are supposed to be other authors, but I don't know them. I was out of touch with casual reading for many years and lost track of the various authors.

[CorPse]

Re: Campaign idea

 

I'd think Dark Champions would be essential in helping you create a "dark" setting and putting a street-level feel into the game.

 

As for links, I'm guessing that some of the fan created Hero sites would have some Cyber-ish things.

[ayinde]

Re: Campaign idea

 

killershrik has made a setting called metacyber that you need to check out he has some great stuff there

[Dino]

Re: Campaign idea

 

killershrik has made a setting called metacyber that you need to check out he has some great stuff there

 

Link

[CorPse]

Re: Campaign idea

 

Link

 

Yes, this setting is great... very thorough...

 

cP

[UpChuck]

Re: Campaign idea

 

Sounds like a great setting.

[Alverant]

Re: Campaign idea

 

Well, as far as source material goes, the 4th edition Cyber Hero book may help. For setting, the Cyberpunk 2020 line had CyberGeneration which had a similar sort of setting. It was not a well received book, but could be useful and should be cheap since very few Cyberpunk fans liked it.

 

{snip}

 

For cybertech ideas, obviously Shadowrun has a lot of info there, and I assume you know the gamut of their various books, and the Chrome Books frome Cyberpunk 2020 is another source as well as the main book and various others. Its a pretty big genre.

 

I agree on the Cyberpunk books. But only for 2nd edition. The third edition has some nice ideas and a lot of bad ones. The rules have some major flaws (like how a standard person can improve your "DCV" by 50% by standing still and getting on one knee). The setting itself goes way overboard on the cyber-dystopia but still has some valid ideas. For instance instead of taking place in 2020, it's 203X because no one knows exactly what year it is. Someone unleashed a virus that screwed up all the electronic information in the world, including clock settings. The idea was no one can be sure anything they know is the truth, not even the date.

[CorPse]

Re: Campaign idea

 

For instance instead of taking place in 2020' date=' it's 203X because no one knows exactly what year it is. Someone unleashed a virus that screwed up all the electronic information in the world, including clock settings. The idea was no one can be sure anything they know is the truth, not even the date.[/quote']

 

Wait, does that mean I don't have to look at any of those goofy "theme calenders" that even now festoon the cubicles of the world when I get to the future.

 

 

Bring it on.

[Remjin]

Re: Campaign idea

 

I agree on the Cyberpunk books. But only for 2nd edition. The third edition has some nice ideas and a lot of bad ones. The rules have some major flaws (like how a standard person can improve your "DCV" by 50% by standing still and getting on one knee). The setting itself goes way overboard on the cyber-dystopia but still has some valid ideas. For instance instead of taking place in 2020' date=' it's 203X because no one knows exactly what year it is. Someone unleashed a virus that screwed up all the electronic information in the world, including clock settings. The idea was no one can be sure anything they know is the truth, not even the date.[/quote']

 

I had the original black and white cyberpunk books and enjoyed those, might still have them somewhere... but 2020 was okay. I bought it mostly because I liked the genre and little else had much support. I have no interest in the new edition, or in the many d20 versions, either. Even with Shadowrun, I have settled on 3rd edition as the final edition I'll use, and only when I skip some of the really screwey stuff. It used to be my favorite genre.

 

The newest edition of cyberpunk was just stupid in presentation (using dolls and action figures instead of illustrations?!) and a lot of the ideas were just silly. I couldn't even read it all.

 

Unfortunately, cyberpunk genre games seem to all be moving to a focus on just installing more crap into a person's body and less on the actual setting or game.

[Alverant]

Re: Campaign idea

 

The newest edition of cyberpunk was just stupid in presentation (using dolls and action figures instead of illustrations?!) and a lot of the ideas were just silly. I couldn't even read it all.

 

Unfortunately, cyberpunk genre games seem to all be moving to a focus on just installing more crap into a person's body and less on the actual setting or game.

 

I'll give him props for doing something different. I never saw an RPG book do something like that before. However I think the 10+ years between the editions is too quick for the changes that happened. If it was 50 years, or at least 2 generations, then I'd accept it more easily.

 

I haven't seen 1st ed cyberpunk but I think 2nd ed captured what cyberpunk is. It's attitude, it's atmosphere, it's haves vs have nots and life is as cheap as a bullet, it's technology intermixed with humanity in a future that's forgetten the past. (I concede that CP2020 is my first and one of a limited number of cypberpunk RPGs I have, so there could be something better).

 

3rd ed took a bunch of weird ideas and made them their own societies then put them against each other. So any campaign would have to be made of players from the same group. That's just too limiting for most players I know.

[Remjin]

Re: Campaign idea

 

I'll give him props for doing something different. I never saw an RPG book do something like that before. However I think the 10+ years between the editions is too quick for the changes that happened. If it was 50 years, or at least 2 generations, then I'd accept it more easily.

(snip)

 

1st edition cyberpunk was a boxed game like basic D&D, with tiny little books with maybe 30 pages. It wasn't a lot, honestly. 2020 did a lot to add a lot more meat to the game. The original was 2 books: the main rulebook with character generation (if I remember correctly, it was sparse) and Friday Night Firefight with a (at the time) somewhat complex combat system that broke the body up into zones and had all sorts of wounding rules and what-not. It wasn't a lot of fun to play, really, except for the genre and the flavor they gave.

 

2020 was much better for its entirety and the tons of supplements. I don't know if the 1st edition had much, I wasn't really that far "in" the scene and only had my local shop as a resource.

 

While I tried to give props for having an interesting idea in their art, in the end, it looked really bad and more about one of the makers being an action-figure nut rather than it being about a good look. I love the original classic art, it seemed to add a lot to the stylistic feel of the cyberpunk genre.

 

One of the (many) things I hated about Shadowrun was the muppet art. The only reason I bought into it was that all the D&D guys were more interested in it than Cyberpunk. This seems to be my eternal problem: finding good games but not being able to get people to break away from their chosen game (typically D&D or WoD). Luckily, I found a Hero group so its all good now.