Dog Soldier

Re: How (un)realistic are Street Samurai? If you are unfamiliar with Cyberpunk, before you make any further comments concerning the nature of "street samurai" please read http://project.cyberpunk.ru/lib/johnny_mnemonic/ Molly Millions in this tale is the original archetype of the Street Samurai and her opponent is the archetype of the Corporate Samurai.

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction? I must admit that I've never been able to make it all the way through a Jim Carey movie without wandering off to find something more interesting

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction?

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction? Fair enough, but I find the notion of omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence to be insulting to my intelligence

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction? Omniscience can best be classified as a "Santa Claus Gambit". something thrown out to stymie improper behavior in exchange for a promised reward to be given at a later date.

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction? So you have the power to see all things that not can but WILL happen. Do you have the power to change your mind? If no then you are not Omnipotent. If you have the power to do anything you please exactly when it pleases you then you will not be able to know ahead of time what is going to happen next, much less for all eternity. If you knew that doing this will cause that which you'd need to correct then the correction is a limiting factor

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction? Omnipotence and Omniscience are mutually exclusive

Re: How (un)realistic are Street Samurai? The term "Street Samurai" is about alliteration, not armament! Same for "Console Cowboy" or "Peter Parker" or any of the hundreds of other examples of alliteration in literature. The SS is an Apex street fighter, with the nod given to the '80's trope of a futuristic Japanese technological hegemony. The SS had the finest cyberware from the blackest labs in Chiba. Only full on cyborgs were more heavily chromed and those guys were wholly own tools of the Megacorps. It's got nothing to do with actual swordsmanship and it never did. Now if an individual PC wanted to keep a waikizahi slung in a special scabbard in his trenchcoat right down the his spine that's for the GM to deal with as he sees fit.

Re: How (un)realistic are Street Samurai? My point was that some here don't seem to see it as an option but as a necessity

Re: How (un)realistic are Street Samurai? This is totally ridiculous. Let's take another Cyberpunk trope, the "console cowboy", does this character carry a Colt SAA? No, because he's a computer hacker. In the movie Ronin was the audience dazzled by Robert DeNiro's fabulous swordplay? Of course not, as there wasn't any sword play. The Street Samurai may fancy making obscure references to the Hagakure and the Go Rin No Sho but there's no need for him to possess a katana for any reason at all besides a wall hanger.

Re: How (un)realistic are Street Samurai? Since the first time I recall ever hearing the term "Street Samurai" was way back when I first played Shadowrun I decided to dig out my (dusty) Shadowrun 1st Edition and look at the pictures. There was a short story in the introduction involving Ghost, the SS, Sally the Mage and Dodger the Decker. The Mage was the only one with a sword and that for magical purposes. IIRC in a later short story Ghost was carrying a "bowie knife" but it was intended more as a tool than anything else. In the cookie cutter pre-made Archtype section the SS has in his equipment list by way of weaponry an Ares Predator heavy pistol, an Uzi III with smartlink, partial heavy armor and a stun baton. The only blades listed are retractable hand razors as part of his cyberware. People tend to associate the katana with samurai but it's not there in the genre. Okay maybe I was wrong about where I first heard the term, there was a reference in one of Gibsons short stories to a "jumped up street samurai" who had a monofilament whip in his thumb and in Count Zero one of the protagonists whose name I can't recall at the moment was also described as a street samurai though he never touched anything with a blade in that story

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Bleach episode 222

Re: Organized crime in a world where "vice crimes" don't exist--what do they do? Perhaps things like this would be attractive to organized crime are well

Re: Organized crime in a world where "vice crimes" don't exist--what do they do? Legal and regulated Prostitution would imply some sort of licensing, taxes to be collected, inspectors and what not. That's all an overhead expense that could be going to professional criminals in organized crime. I'd imagine regulations carefully recording patrons as well, so prostitutes catering to a more discreet clientele would haved a demand as well. Gambling is much the same and as for drugs well there's going to be a market for people who for whatever reason don't wish to be entangled in regulations. Not to mention the fact that organized crime could and would sell recreational chemicals which obviously need no prescription as if they were in fact the legal version and keep the states cut for themselves Think of organized crime as working like organized tax evasion and all the old reliable enterprises are readily available. Don't forget to look into things like loansharks and the numbers racket which is really nothing more than a private lottery and you've got plenty of things to keep your goon squad occupied

Re: [Worst Ever...] Reasons to be a superhero "The voices tell me what to do...."

Re: Alternate Universe: No Industry, No Guns No industry or guns? Wouldn't that be sort like 10000 BC?

Re: Humans are "Special" How about humans taste and smell really bad to all non-Earth carnivores and are mildly toxic as well?

Re: Warhammer 40K report on Santa Claus "Must spread more rep...."

Re: How to end a dystopia...

Re: How to end a dystopia... This hits the nail on the head IMHO. Specifically the Cyberpunk 2013/2020 RPG's carry the baggage of the late 80's in spades. Japanese where buying up American landmarks etc. It also had a heavy dose of the publishers political views of Ronald Reagan and the Vietnam War tossed in for good measure. Whether or not you agree or disagree with the author on those subject they should not be the basis for ones understanding of the Cyberpunk genre.

Re: [Worst Ever...] Reasons to be a superhero I was looking for a job and found one working a booth at the Folsom Street Fair...the rest is history.

The downfall of Gizmondo should provide inspiration for some fun DC games.

Re: Vampires in Supers Setting In that case the PC is just dead and rerolls with the same name only as a vampire.

Re: Vampires in Supers Setting I suppose a lot of it depends on the nature of the Vampirism. If it's a virus that can be cured then there's a potential for a cure, old skills may be retained, implants and the like remain. But then I'd have to rule against having some of the genre powers. If the Vampire has actually died I have no problem with him magically having memories of things he'd have known how to do before but I have to draw the line at him actually using most technology. In other words the Mad Scientist turned Vampire Overlord never picks up a test tube or touches a keyboard but he'll know if his human minions are doing the job or not. As for the clothes, I would almost be willing to grant that as part of the illusion. In other words if you could see the vamp as he really is he'd be an animated skeleton though even he'd not realize this. It would be all about affecting the mind. My opinions of course YMMV

Re: Vampires in Supers Setting Vampire classically have shape shifting. Fog form and that sort of thing. Cyber doohickeys shouldn't do that. I guess it's my prejudice against having a character stack tons of nifty powers on top of each other.