roleplay workshopping

[gorzek]

I'm working with a few other people to put together a roleplaying theme for the forums. Nobody has to participate in this if they don't wanna, it'll just be "vibes" for those who don't want to play.

The theme I have in mind at this point is cyberpunk, but not "high cyberpunk" like you usually get. The peak has passed. The Earth has been stripped. Megacities still exist. Some still even thrive. But the cracks are showing and the end may not be far off...

Proposed factions (subject to change):

• Scrappers - Scavengers who recycle and repurpose technology discarded from the cities. Resourceful and distrustful of authority. They live mainly in small communities in rural areas, often not far from cities. Some persist as roving bands, moving from place to place. They avoid contact with "organized" civilization, and are typically hostile to outsiders. Organizing principle: Autonomy
  
• Singularitans - Technology has become their god. They believe in the infinite potential of technology and that humanity's only role is to bring about artificial general intelligence so that humanity might submit to it and thrive under its guidance. These are people who take Roko's Basilisk a little too seriously. Neutral toward most people, but actively hostile to anyone who is anti-technology. Notably, they are a heretical offshoot of the Cybercult. Organizing principle: Unity
  
• Strivers - This faction is mostly late teens and young adults. Disillusioned with the way society has been run in the past, they want to build a better future rather than accept the decline that surrounds them. They believe they can reform society from within through agitation and rebellion, disband the megacorps, and bring humanity broad-based prosperity. This is the goody-two-shoes idealistic faction. Organizing Principle: Compassion
  
• Cybercult - People who have fully embraced cybernetic enhancements, even to the point of no longer being recognizably human. These are your ultra-transhumanists. Their beliefs are incredibly varied and often incomprehensible to outsiders. They tend to live in enclaves in or near massive tech complexes like autofactories, power plants, etc. They tend to want to be left alone though they will organize raids to acquire new technology if they can't obtain it legitimately. Organizing Principle: Change
  
• Podders - Isolationists devoted to rebuilding humanity after the collapse by collecting and preserving pre-cyber technology. They are something of a cross between Scrappers and Strivers, in that they are idealistic, resourceful, and anti-authority. Organizing principle: Survival
  

Certainly welcoming any thoughts on this. I'll post more as I think on it further.

[ScottyMcGee]

How violent are the Strivers? Because I feel like there's a certain conflict between seeing them as "goody-two-shoes" versus guerilla warfare-fuck-the-police-throw-a-molotov-cocktail-anywhere-you-can vibe. You know what I mean? Maybe they can be further divided between "those who are too idealistic and focus on reform" and "those who just fight and blow things up and don't really believe in a 'reform'"?

This post was last modified: 02-01-2025, 10:11 PM by ScottyMcGee.

[gorzek]

I think it's reasonable that there would be some ideological differences within each faction. In this context being "goody-two-shoes" would mean, at least, they don't hurt innocent people (or try very hard not to.) Blowing up cops is still ethical.

[gorzek]

Lore dump:

It's the late 21st century. The golden age for humanity promised by the techno-corps has predictably fallen through. After seizing and dismantling virtually every national government and instituting technocratic authoritarian rule, the CEOs promised prosperity for everyone, a future free of government inefficiency and regulation. In its place would be the freedom to innovate, to disrupt, to carve out a new path for the human race.

But this did not happen. True, there was a golden age for some. The megacities emerged as gleaming beacons of capitalist triumph, their towering spires and sprawling districts a stark contrast to the crumbling infrastructure of the countryside. Those who got to partake in this accumulation of wealth enjoyed benefits untold of prior generations: endless food and drink, long lives without serious malady, automated homes, robotic servants.

All of this largesse, however, was built on the backs on the poor, the disenfranchised, the marginalized--as it ever was. Only rampant exploitation could allow for such vast concentration of wealth, and in time there was simply no more blood to squeeze out of the lower classes. They struck, they rebelled, they disappeared into the wilds. The megacities fortified and militarized. The CEOs continued to pretend that all was status quo, and they could indeed continue squeezing those still eking out a living in the districts. Nevertheless, the peak has passed. Cracks are forming in the golden facade and the long-dismissed denizens of the hinterlands sense the impending death of neofeudalism.

Even now, factions have arisen to exploit and exacerbate these stressors, intending to hasten the collapse of the old order so that they might usher in the new.