Cyberpunk Fantasy Heartbreaker: Strange Places

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 4:31 am

zeruslord wrote:Xanadu should clearly be a kingdom of twisted decadent molemen or something living beneath Mongolia.

That's a question: should the entire After Sundown Leviathan cast just show up? Do people want mole men (Troglodytes) and Antarctic brain bugs (Mi-Go)? Because that could totally happen.

-Username17

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 4:46 am

FrankTrollman wrote:
zeruslord wrote:Xanadu should clearly be a kingdom of twisted decadent molemen or something living beneath Mongolia.
That's a question: should the entire After Sundown Leviathan cast just show up? Do people want mole men (Troglodytes) and Antarctic brain bugs (Mi-Go)? Because that could totally happen.

-Username17

I'm pretty much in favor of brain bugs.

But it depends on what their goals are for this. What do they want to do in a cyberpunk magicland?

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 4:58 am

FrankTrollman wrote:
zeruslord wrote:Xanadu should clearly be a kingdom of twisted decadent molemen or something living beneath Mongolia.
That's a question: should the entire After Sundown Leviathan cast just show up? Do people want mole men (Troglodytes) and Antarctic brain bugs (Mi-Go)? Because that could totally happen.

-Username17

I can see a number of good reasons for having troglodytes and migo as nasties, and even more reasons to significantly alter them to account for the different setting. The migo should probably be more of a terrifying infectious hive-mind, and the troglodytes should be more into eating living people for fun rather than dead people for power.

But, yeah, Leng and Xanadu probably want for troglodytes.

zeruslord · Post by **zeruslord** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 7:00 am

If you're doing antarctic bugs, I'd rather see something along the lines of D&D's Gelugon with a bizarre, alien science. Probably lots of stuff that is a bit more retro-futuristic than the rest of the setting: hovercars and rayguns and big tape reels as the primary data storage mechanism (tape is actually used for archival backup and certain specialised high-throughput stuff today).

If you're going with brain bugs, they need to be a fairly big deal in the setting - a hidden conspiracy no-one has heard of doesn't belong in the core rules. I'd either put them as a huge, violent menace at the center of one of the totally owned cities, probably somewhere lush and jungly, or have them be an insidious conspiracy discovered somewhere super public - a megacorp's vice president goes into violent siezures and explodes into a cloud of insects during a live press conference or something.

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 12:11 pm

The bug people should originate from one of the phased in terrorist states, possibly Xanadu. They should be isolationist, anti-tech and periodically launch magical acts of bioterrorism on other contries, with supernatural plagues of both germs and insects. Some of these insects burrow into people's brains and mind-control them, either as evil sleeper agents or as chestbursters of some description. The bug people can also be responsable for any local wastelands we want to blame on them.

Note that this does not actually preclude the inhabitants of Xanadu from being molemen.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 7:08 pm

I thought a global conspiracy of insect spirits was specifically off the table?

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 7:20 pm

Orion wrote:I thought a global conspiracy of insect spirits was specifically off the table?

These aren't spririts

.

Ganbare Gincun · Post by **Ganbare Gincun** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:45 am

FrankTrollman wrote:
zeruslord wrote:Xanadu should clearly be a kingdom of twisted decadent molemen or something living beneath Mongolia.
That's a question: should the entire After Sundown Leviathan cast just show up? Do people want mole men (Troglodytes) and Antarctic brain bugs (Mi-Go)? Because that could totally happen.

Sure. But why stop with just the Leviathan cast?

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 1:31 am

In fact, why not just release a list of cyberware implants that can be taken as alternate Discipline picks and call it a day?

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 1:52 am

Orion wrote:In fact, why not just release a list of cyberware implants that can be taken as alternate Discipline picks and call it a day?

That would work, and even be cyberpunk, but I don't think it's quite the way to do it in this case. Cyberware should be more purchasable and more hot-swappable (in some cases).

Almaz · Post by **Almaz** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 1:57 am

I am kind of seeing various possible local hazard zones that could crop up anywhere, though you might see more concentration in certain locations, like...

Abandoned AI Factory: The fears of every Luddite everywhere, this is a factory entirely given over to machines. Once, humans erected it, but since then it has become entirely self-operated, governed by an artificial design. While the majority of these function normally and are monitored on by various overseers, in the various disasters, government mires, and economic crashes, the rapid changing of hands of deeds and titles and rights has made it so that some of these factories are either disputed territory, or simply... lost. While they operated normally for a while, eventually they shut down to minimal capacity for want of either resources or instructions. It is in the quest for either of these that these factories can suddenly remind everyone that they exist, and worse... are dangerous. While the AI designers are often restricted from attempting to directly harm humans, sometimes their creations can disrupt society through side consequences, such as recklessly disregarding bystanders who might be intervening as they search for the last known overseer of the factory.

Lost Woods: Not all "returned" zones are like Mu, being risen continents. Some are instead places where the land and life there remained the same, but Awakened... not just the people, but entire fields would suddenly burst into terrific mazes of brambles, or small stands of trees would sprawl into larger forests. It is impossible to be certain of just how big the interior of these "lost woods" are, as the ambient magic seems to cause the space it occupies to sit uncomfortably and restless in its place, sometimes twisting back on itself, and sometimes giant animals or even ancient saurians stomp through these distorted wildernesses. Needless to say, these can be somewhat uncomfortable to be in.

So, there you go. Yes, I am suggesting Dinosaurs vs. Robots the RPG. Shut up.

TheNotSoEvilNecromancer · Wed Jul 13, 2011 2:58 am

Seeing as the topic of incorporating elements from After Sundown has been broached, would incorporating alternate planes of existence like Maya, etc. fit into the setting? Or even magical planes at all?

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:08 am

I would prefer not.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:13 am

Yeah, in this setting you want to have blasted nuclear hellscapes and magical woods filled with crazy monsters that you can just fly a vectored thrust fighter plane to. No sense in making them "other worlds".

I could imagine making astral space more like the Gloom, though. If you wanted to have ghosts.

Vebyast · Post by **Vebyast** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:40 am

Speaking of Rlyeh, are there going to be any geographically disjointed regions? Islands that move to a new spot once a month, rivers that start out in the Himalayas and end in the Amazon, that sort of thing?

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 8:31 am

I briefly considered whether I'd like to see Heartbreaker literally be After Sundown But With Cyborgs, and quickly decided that no, the two concepts don't quite mesh that well. The different worlds is one of the reasons why. Having it all take place on Earth (and maybe a bit of space) helps keep things from getting too fantastic and not enough cyberpunk.

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:16 pm

Vebyast wrote:Speaking of Rlyeh, are there going to be any geographically disjointed regions? Islands that move to a new spot once a month, rivers that start out in the Himalayas and end in the Amazon, that sort of thing?

I would also prefer that that not happen either.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 2:44 pm

so, no flying islands ala gullivers journey either?

Almaz · Post by **Almaz** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:20 pm

Grek wrote:
Vebyast wrote:Speaking of Rlyeh, are there going to be any geographically disjointed regions? Islands that move to a new spot once a month, rivers that start out in the Himalayas and end in the Amazon, that sort of thing?
I would also prefer that that not happen either.

I think this kind of thing should happen in limited dosages, and honestly the disjunction should be a whole lot more local. As in the case of the lost woods which cannot be navigated by GPS without vast adjustments to the program because they do not map properly to a GPS system.

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:26 pm

There is something some what amusing of being on a Launch boat going up the Amazon, going through some fog, and finding yourself on the Congo River.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:29 pm

In general, I think that tech should be better at moving large amounts large distances. So magic shouldn't replace tankers or railroads with giant magic gates or omni-rivers. Magic should be better at sending small things small distances, so short-range teleportation or short duration time dilation is totally possible.

Similarly, Magic should not replace the need for sending data electronically, so it should never exceed tech's ability to send large amounts of data at the speed of light or less. It's OK if magic can send short messages instantly, such that magic becomes the way to communicate with the Mars colonies. Or stuff like that.

-Username17

Almaz · Post by **Almaz** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 4:04 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:Similarly, Magic should not replace the need for sending data electronically, so it should never exceed tech's ability to send large amounts of data at the speed of light or less. It's OK if magic can send short messages instantly, such that magic becomes the way to communicate with the Mars colonies. Or stuff like that.

-Username17

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Ganbare Gincun · Post by **Ganbare Gincun** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:26 pm

Chamomile wrote:I briefly considered whether I'd like to see Heartbreaker literally be After Sundown But With Cyborgs, and quickly decided that no, the two concepts don't quite mesh that well. The different worlds is one of the reasons why. Having it all take place on Earth (and maybe a bit of space) helps keep things from getting too fantastic and not enough cyberpunk.

I don't think that everything from After Sundown can - or should - be included in this new game. But I think that most of the creatures, organizations, protagonists, and planar elements could be re-implemented with a bit of re-imagining and tweaking. The real issue is determining which elements best would best integrate with the new game. Having the PCs face off against agents of the King Of Three Shadows or exploring the depths of the Gloom might be perfectly acceptable, whereas having Androids running around and Werewolves as party members may not be.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:49 pm

I don't think that the King with Three Shadows or The Shattered Empire are particularly appropriate. But I could see the Marduk Society getting ported over.

-Username17

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 9:38 pm

Well, the After Sundown cast could do with getting their "We are in a horror movie" sections replaced with "We are in an urban fantasy cyberpunk book" sections.

I'd like there to be Quantum Entanglement Communicators instead, because extremely valuable objects that are unduplicatable and can talk to their twin regardless of countermeasures are the perfect MacGuffin