[indent]The perfect description of cyberpunk is "high tech, low life". Cyberpunk is very much about the atmosphere as well as the cool body enhancements. It's about the grim, sprawling city streets, the humming neon lights, the steam billowing from manholes, the shifty stranger lighting up on the street corner. It's about mega corporations, shady deals, private police and general discontent. Cyberpunk breeds a certain kind of character – the anti-hero, which players will become. They are never rich, not in the beginning anyway. Characters are generally quite poor, living in squalid apartments laced with grime. They probably don't have a full time job, so must do whay they can to stay alive. Mechanics may fix vehicles for some pay while Cyber Ninjas may be hired as security detail at a local nightclub. This section gives you information on what you can expect in a USR Cyberpunk game.
MEGACORPS
[indent]There is little semblance of national government in USR Cyberpunk. There is still a seat of government but it has very little power anymore, with any bills it passes having to be passed by huge corporations called MegaCorps to make final decisions. MegaCorps are huge multinational private companies that have inherited the powers traditionally held by the government. MegaCorps are in charge of healthcare, police, military, urban regeneration, housing and social policy. The people are top of these corporations, even the smaller ones, are the richest people alive, many of them living indefinitely due to extreme life-prolonging enhancements. MegaCorps are amoral in nature, doing whatever they need to turn a profit. They will hire hitmen to take out high ranking executives from opposing companies, pay hackers to steal their opponents ideas, put out drug-laced products to placate the people on the streets. Some, like weapons manufacturer Armatech, will train terrorist cells in order to sell more weapons to security forces, controlling both supply and demand.
[indent]MegaCorps are the biggest employers of freelance workers, so they players will usually find themselves working for a MegaCorp in some way, whether it's to hack, murder, plant evidence, spy or anything else they may need doing.
STREET LIFES
[indent]Life is hard on the streets. The lower classes live near the street floor while the richer city inhabitants host parties in their 200th floor penthouses. It's not uncommon to walk one block and rub shoulders with vagrants, drug pushers, prostitutes and gangers. Street life is deadly, especially at night. Neon lights up the streets and huge video billboards advertise the latest energy drink, usually at high volume. Strange smells waft from food vendors selling genetically modified meat and synthetic drinks – organic produce no longer exists as farms have been replaced with factories. Humanity has been replaced with indifference.
HOUSING
[indent]80% of people living in the city live in apartment blocks that stretch miles into the sky. Characters will begin in squalor – a dirty, cramped apartment with space for a small bed, a kitchen unit, a bathroom cubicle and a TV on the wall. Even though this is the lowest of the low, technology has become so commonplace that even the tech in these little apartments would seem impressive to us. Lights are voice-activated and the TV is holographic and the temperature can be changed with a wave of the hand.
[indent]Once they start to earn more money character will likely be able to afford bigger and better apartments with retina-scanning security, immersive holo-simulations and clean water. Perhaps even one day they will host their own penthouse soiree for the city's elite – but that's a long way off.
THE BLACK SURGEGY
[indent]Implants are all the rage in the city, mostly due to boredom. Most people have to visit the Black Surgery in order to have an implant of any kind. This is a small hidden-away room where a surgeon of sorts fits clients will all kinds of implants. It's not the most hygienic way to do things but it gets the job done. Characters will use Black Surgeries for their own implants, as only the wealthiest can afford to go to a real surgeon.
STREET GANGS
[indent]The city is teeming with gangs, each of whom own their own territories and defend them with great hostility. Occasionally territory wars will break out with innocents caught in the firing line. Shopping malls wll be shot up, bombs will go off in plazas and hundreds of people will be slaughtered. Each gang has a feared leader who decides on their next course of action. Characters may get involved in a gang at some point – usually for a bad reason.
DRUGS
[indent]Drugs are a popular culture in USR Cyberpunk. Most aren't outlawed because drugs turn a tidy profit for MegaCorps. Drug pushers on the street deal only with illegal substances, ones that are usually stronger but from a more questionable source. Chemists are able to create their own drugs to use or sell on the street, however it should be noted that the penalty for possessing illegal drugs in the city is usually death.
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I'm grinding it out, n o o n e c a n s e e
the pressure's growing exponentially
- I'll carry the burden and take the strain -
