In reply to Varsovian (msg # 98):

How characters what to disguise themselves would be up to them. I am figuring if they are on the lower economical scale, they would just disguise them selves some. Also, I was thinking there are not a lot of other hero's around and what there is more like batman and such. It would be up to the group to be more hero or more vigilante

I haven't played Shadowrun, so I can't tell :)

Basically, I often wonder: is it possible to run any kind of business ethically? And out of this wondering, there came this idea... See, in typical cyberpunk fiction, the protagonists are low-lives struggling to survive in a harsh world run by amoral corporations. How about doing the other side of the coin? To create a story about a near-future corporation that's actually relatively ethical, cares for its customers and employees etc.?

In such a game, the PCs would be people not unlike Luv from the recent Blade Runner movie... specifically, not unlike Luv *appears* to be in the initial parts of that film: an elegant, nice and helpful company representative / agent.



Ha! I once had an opposite idea: a story with a street low-life type who suddenly learned that she had family ties to a big megacorp - and was recruited to be an exec's assistant. It was an idea for a freeform social game, though.



Hmmm. Would neet to think about it...

In reply to Varsovian (msg # 103):

Lol, sound VERY like Shadowrun, which can be very effectively run using the GURPs system. Would suggest you look at the Shadowrun universe...though there are 2 (albeit very slow-moving) games based on that running at the moment.

This is one, which I am running, with a view to characters working for a small mining company that sort of cares for its employees, struggling against a much larger conglomeration that really wants to squash the last cent out of everyone... employees or not! So it is kind of both sides of that coin...

link to another game

There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Exploitation is the base nature of the employer/employee dynamic.

You'd have to run a co-op, where the employees are the owners, but then you run into ethical issues and exploitation in other parts of the supply chain.

Shadowrun with less moral certainty would be current and previous edition of Shadowrun. Catalyst abandoned and vilified the Neo-Anarchists.

Hah.  That's certainly a political way to view it.

It's also not true.  It is the tendency, the strong tendency, but it isn't a requirement of capitalism.

We're talking about the cyberpunk genre here. Exploitation is baked in.

It's never been my take on the genre.

Gotta keep the punk in cyberpunk, or all you have is cyber.

Really? I thought that Shadowrun was the usual "low-life characters doing shady stuff on behalf of corrupt corporations" variety of cyberpunk.



Thanks! I'll look into it, but... I admit I just have trouble buying into Shadowrun's concept of cyberpunk mixed with fantasy. Not really cup of tea, I'm afraid...



Okay, so let's say that I'd be interested in a cyberpunk-esque story that subverts the usual tropes somewhat... There'd still be the world infested with technology, society in crisis, big corporations wielding much power... but at least some of these corporations wouldn't be as corrupt as usual. And some of them would actually try making the world a little better with corporate social responsibility...

BTW. Right now, I work for a corporation (well, a bank) and I don't feel exploited :) I hope to keep this job for some time...

Do you know what the 'punk' is though?  It's the organized criminal underworld, the 'dispossessed' street level life, the rage against the 'man' (which takes form in both anti-government as well as anti-corporate anarchism), drug use, promotion of violence as a problem solution, etc.

None of which require or even delve into "(un)ethical consumption of capitalism or exploitation of the working class".


Indeed in some settings (Shadowrun for example) the megacorps are often shown as expending resources to protect their people (regardless of class).  The Characters in that setting are most often made up from the criminal underclass which aren't capable of working within the system, and thus they fall outside of it.  You can argue that by selling their talents and being expendable, the megacorps are somehow exploiting them, but that's a grasp.

Is capitalistic exploitation* of the under-class a thing in GURPS Cyberworld?  Probably†.  I'd argue that by having a legal underclass which has no protection under the law, that yes, it is implicit, if not merely implied, that this is case.  However, GURPS Cyberworld is pretty much the only setting I can think of that makes exploitation of the underclass a thing.


* Such as legalized slavery, wage-slavery, higher tax rates, reduced rations, etc.

† It's certainly a very Libertarian economic system portrayed in Cyberwold, which does implicitly require the exploitation of the working class.

All it is is struggle. Frequently class struggle, mixed in with a bit of anti-authoritarianism and a DIY aesthetic. What you've listed are echoes, manifestations, symptoms if you're unsympathetic. Trappings.

Depending on the era, it's class-struggle-as-consumerism, co-opted by marketers into easy-to-consume media.

Depending on who you ask, Punk is dead.

But sure, doing crimes and committing drugs are fun, so if that's how your struggle manifests, I'm not going to say it's not punk.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:47, Mon 04 June 2018.

Okay, so... if nobody wants to run monsters or (non-fantasy) cyberpunk, how about something like The Invisibles..?

You know what? I think I will run a near future sci-fi business game. Its not something I've got experience with , but we can make it up on the fly. As a warning, it may come off more transhuman than cyberprep.

Are you interested?

I'm always up for transhuman.

I'd also be interested :)

Ok, I'll start up a new game sometime tomorrow, and post a link here. I'm essentially doing this on a whim, so I don't have much prep right now, but this is PbP, so its easy to not get put on the spot.

In reply to Varsovian (msg # 117):

Its Up:

link to another game

This message was deleted by the player at 15:25, Fri 05 Apr 2019.

Thanks for those handy resources, Tortuga!

No problem! I copy/paste them from old games so often I figured I might as well put them somewhere centrally located for when old games are deleted by the system.

Ever get so tired of the shortfalls and constraints of attempted RPG video games that you end up thinking about the ancient practice of using our imagination? Naturally I think back to GURPS, especially after attempting to create a character in a Pathfinder video game and uninstalling it before finishing after remembering despising D&D's character creation, despite having spent so many years of my youth developing content for that franchise. When poking back towards the thought of a good old fashioned handbuilt RPG, I stumbled upon mention of something similar to GURPS called EABA, anyone familiar with it and have any comments?

I'd never heard of EABA, but it looks intriguing, in particular the character sheet that comes built in to the pdf and the way combat rounds telescope out, getting longer as a fight continues. I'd be down to try out a game if someone wanted to run one. I don't recall ever seeing a game for the system advertised in Wanted - Players.

In reply to Mad Mick (msg # 124):

I have never heard of it...what is it?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EABA