Cyberpunk RPG Opening
At dinner tonight, I made the following post onto Facebook from the restaurant...
I've never played or ran a Cyberpunk RPG. I have very little knowledge of the genre. But I feel I need to run one now with everyone starting with a similar set up. This popped into my head:
You take your seat inside the small booth, sliding behind the table. Your Contractor slides into a matching seat across from you. The circular room houses another seven near-identical booths, and you watch them fill up over the next few minutes - Pairings of Contractors and Data Jockeys in each booth, glancing around at the others and tapping at menu screens the same way you do. Five minutes go by while you're forced to listen to a pop song from five years ago remixed to a digital beat that could possibly have been sourced from the latest stock market feed. That's been the rage lately.
Your drinks are delivered, ushered into your booth by a team of serving staff wearing the most up to date fashions possible, which this week seems to be translucent bio-plastic wrap trimmed with fibre optic lighting that pulses in time to the Wall Street Pop Remix. One server seems to have butterfly wings tattooed onto their shoulder in digital ink; neon yellow and pink lines forming into flapping wings in time to the singer's voice. You lock eyes with the closest server, if only for a respite from the garish light display, and they smile, setting a course for your table.
Wordlessly, a small data-slate is presented to your Contractor (How do they always know which is which? Are they able to smell money or data to a greater degree on one of you?), and he waves a hand, confirming the list of credentials and talents displayed for the two of you. The food arrives shortly after, and is in far greater quantity and quality then you usually get from these kind of jobs, or this kind of establishment. Your Contractor has been picking some good jobs lately, but that's what he's paid for.
Not long after you finish your meal, a small plastic orb set into the centre of the table starts to glow blue. That's it. Work time. Rising to your feet, you pause. Two other Contractor/Data Jockey teams have also risen, each bearing similar looks of confusion. (When was the last time you had a three-team mission? Probably just before you left Akadam. But that was to prove how stupid that idea was!) With a shrug, you follow your Contractor out into the foyer, lining up with the other two teams. Contractors and Data Jockey start to size each other up, then the associates. Its all for show. No good Jockey walks around without a data-leech running, so each teams credentials had probably been picked up by the Jockeys as they ate. And anyone worth the credits to get them through the door wouldn't have risked not sending that data through a few automatic analytics to check out the competition. The looks are all for show.
A small metallic butterfly floats into the room in front of you all. the bio-plastic wings veined with bright yellow and pink circuit patterns. A light flickers from where it's head should be, and the hologram of a head blinks into life between you all. A speaker somewhere links up, and starts to play audio delayed a fraction of a second from the movement of the hologram's lips.
"Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen."
(No trace of a noticeable accent. Synth voice? Not hard to come by, but seems too smooth)
"We do hope you enjoyed the meal and entertainment."
(What entertainment? The light show?)
"Your three teams have been selected for a data retrieval assignment, at the employ of Lepidoptera Industries. If the Contractors would like to step forwards, we will begin the payment negotiations"
Yep. I have no idea what the aim of the game is, what system it could be, or anything like that. It was just a scene I had pop into my head that I thought would be fun. Not to say it couldn't use some polishing though.
I've never played or ran a Cyberpunk RPG. I have very little knowledge of the genre. But I feel I need to run one now with everyone starting with a similar set up. This popped into my head:
You take your seat inside the small booth, sliding behind the table. Your Contractor slides into a matching seat across from you. The circular room houses another seven near-identical booths, and you watch them fill up over the next few minutes - Pairings of Contractors and Data Jockeys in each booth, glancing around at the others and tapping at menu screens the same way you do. Five minutes go by while you're forced to listen to a pop song from five years ago remixed to a digital beat that could possibly have been sourced from the latest stock market feed. That's been the rage lately.
Your drinks are delivered, ushered into your booth by a team of serving staff wearing the most up to date fashions possible, which this week seems to be translucent bio-plastic wrap trimmed with fibre optic lighting that pulses in time to the Wall Street Pop Remix. One server seems to have butterfly wings tattooed onto their shoulder in digital ink; neon yellow and pink lines forming into flapping wings in time to the singer's voice. You lock eyes with the closest server, if only for a respite from the garish light display, and they smile, setting a course for your table.
Wordlessly, a small data-slate is presented to your Contractor (How do they always know which is which? Are they able to smell money or data to a greater degree on one of you?), and he waves a hand, confirming the list of credentials and talents displayed for the two of you. The food arrives shortly after, and is in far greater quantity and quality then you usually get from these kind of jobs, or this kind of establishment. Your Contractor has been picking some good jobs lately, but that's what he's paid for.
Not long after you finish your meal, a small plastic orb set into the centre of the table starts to glow blue. That's it. Work time. Rising to your feet, you pause. Two other Contractor/Data Jockey teams have also risen, each bearing similar looks of confusion. (When was the last time you had a three-team mission? Probably just before you left Akadam. But that was to prove how stupid that idea was!) With a shrug, you follow your Contractor out into the foyer, lining up with the other two teams. Contractors and Data Jockey start to size each other up, then the associates. Its all for show. No good Jockey walks around without a data-leech running, so each teams credentials had probably been picked up by the Jockeys as they ate. And anyone worth the credits to get them through the door wouldn't have risked not sending that data through a few automatic analytics to check out the competition. The looks are all for show.
A small metallic butterfly floats into the room in front of you all. the bio-plastic wings veined with bright yellow and pink circuit patterns. A light flickers from where it's head should be, and the hologram of a head blinks into life between you all. A speaker somewhere links up, and starts to play audio delayed a fraction of a second from the movement of the hologram's lips.
"Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen."
(No trace of a noticeable accent. Synth voice? Not hard to come by, but seems too smooth)
"We do hope you enjoyed the meal and entertainment."
(What entertainment? The light show?)
"Your three teams have been selected for a data retrieval assignment, at the employ of Lepidoptera Industries. If the Contractors would like to step forwards, we will begin the payment negotiations"
Yep. I have no idea what the aim of the game is, what system it could be, or anything like that. It was just a scene I had pop into my head that I thought would be fun. Not to say it couldn't use some polishing though.
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