HeyGayzelle
Member
Hey, everyone. So this is actually my first time throwing a pitch out here, but to make a long story short, I'm basically looking for a partner to run through an original action-based cyberpunk RP with. I myself am new to forum-based RP, so please be willing to have a little patience in that regard. I still have good availability with posting and am committed to making this work though. So without further ado, my pitch:
Plot
The year is 2134. The withering arcology of the now-defunct Zedat corporation looms over the lower tiers of Irinas City. This building now houses tens of thousands of blacklisters, the sociopolitical underclass of this new society, composed of individuals deemed unemployable by the megacorporations that dominate the regional economy and political system. Citizens may find themselves blacklisted by way of domestic crimes, political radicalism, contract defection, bankruptcy, contraband possession, corporate whistleblowing, espionage, theft, and various other offenses. The life of a blacklister is a meager one, filled with hardships both material and existential. Most struggle to provide a subsistence income for themselves scavenging, trading, stealing, dealing, or working a variety of other odd jobs within their confines of their slum communities. This is the story of two such individuals, (A) and (B). With their normal income streams starting to run dry and no hope of ever returning to the lives they left behind, the two now find themselves facing eviction with few options in sight.
However, (A) has acquired a network module which will allow them to connect to and register on ZEROGROUNDS, a new darknet marketplace which puts assassins, debt collectors, hackers, smugglers, saboteurs, weapons dealers, and a variety of other professional criminals in contact with clients who contract their services while providing minimum disclosure. The origins of the site are unknown, and many public authorities refuse to officially acknowledge its existence. But under this corporate plutocracy where the individual has no value beyond their immediate usefulness to the powers that be, the two may yet carve out a better a better life for themselves by surviving the deadly contracts of the ZEROGROUNDS.
Writing style:
I consider myself a reasonably skilled writer, but this is actually my first time at the forum RP rodeo and I figure a premise like this is fairly safe because even if an amazing plot arc or incredible character chemistry never develops, there's still room to have fun with some gritty sci-fi action scenes. Still, I enjoy a fairly well-rounded storytelling experience, so if we want to have some more downbeat scenes of the characters celebrating or laying low after a job, that could be cool too. I am completely fine with a partner who has a very "standard" or "commercial" writing voice, but I am going to request that any prospective partners should feel comfortable writing at a young adult level and are willing to deal with subject matter at a similar level. Please be willing to use third-person present tense in narration and descriptive prose. No onomatopoeia or action markers, please.
It seems that opinions on what this means vary, but I would say that we should be shooting for "casual" territory with respect to writing length. As an action-oriented story, this should have a fairly quick and brisk "call and response" feel at times, but I think that a paragraph or so of some nice descriptive prose can really breathe a lot of life into a scene. More detailed posts are welcome, but please try to save it for the bigger moments. Moments of altered perception like when a character's pain inhibitor cybernetics pump them full of dopamine after an injury, or when a character uses a neural jack to mentally interface with some piece of technology are good moments to slow things down and put some thicker imagery out there, but this isn't necessary. While I request that any prospective partners come with competent writing abilities, I still intend for this to be a relatively easy story to write. I'm also not particularly interested in there being a romantic dimension between the two player characters, but feel free to have a romantic aspect to your character backstory if you enjoy that.
Setting
So until this point, I've mostly left the setting intentionally vague so that my partner could have a hand in crafting some of the locales and other elements. In most respects, it's a fairly standard cyberpunk setting in the style of Neuromancer, Blade Runner, Snow Crash, Ghost in the Shell, etc. Notable social problems include overpopulation, pollution, rampant commercialism, declining workers' rights, economic and political instability, and growing ethical concerns over cybernetics, experimental biotechnology, telepresence systems (drones), information privacy, AI technology, public surveillance, and so forth.
While this isn't a worldbuilding-centric game, feel free to improv some background lore for the world using in-character dialog. For example, instead of providing a huge info dump about every political faction in the region, a character could just say something like "You know, I can buy into the Progressive Technocratic Party's policy on labor rights, but their AI spokesperson makes my goddamn skin crawl." Enough to provide a little bit of richness to the world without needing to get too rigorous.
Characters
This is another aspect of the RP I've decided to leave relatively open. So long as it's genre and stylistically appropriate, I'd say that I'm pretty open-minded regarding character concepts. Most characters in this world will have at least one form of cybernetic enhancement and will be technologically fluent in at least a few domains, so the character dynamic should be a little more nuanced than just "the fighter" and "the tech guy." If you would like to play a completely artificial character such as an android or robot, then that would be fine too, just try to have a loose background in mind that explains why they have found themselves blacklisted. And given the darker, more oppressive nature of the setting, a few weaknesses and character flaws are important to keep in mind too. Even characters from a highly-skilled background would still find themselves disadvantaged due to their economic hardships in this setting. For example, an ace hacker might still have to contend with cheap, low-end hardware, or a biker's motorcycle may usually be lacking some much-needed repairs.
Since obsolescence is a theme of cyberpunk, seriously consider integrating it into your character concept. A character who was once an elite corporate bodyguard fitted with experimental combat cybernetics that were immediately discontinued before the first commercial production run because of a design flaw is a much more nuanced character background than some generically overpowered elite cyborg super soldier. Vengeance-oriented backstories are welcome, but not necessary. Some relatively unsympathetic character flaws are welcome too, but not to the extent that it grinds the game to a halt or just makes it feel overbearingly spiteful.
Character Sheet (omit any details that might not be applicable)
Name:
ZG Alias:
Age:
Appearance:
Enhancements:
Occupation:
Blacklist offense:
And that's my pitch up until this point. If this sounds like something you might be interested in, please let me know below. I am totally open to OOC discussions about the direction of the plot or any other details related to the RP. Thanks for looking!
Plot
The year is 2134. The withering arcology of the now-defunct Zedat corporation looms over the lower tiers of Irinas City. This building now houses tens of thousands of blacklisters, the sociopolitical underclass of this new society, composed of individuals deemed unemployable by the megacorporations that dominate the regional economy and political system. Citizens may find themselves blacklisted by way of domestic crimes, political radicalism, contract defection, bankruptcy, contraband possession, corporate whistleblowing, espionage, theft, and various other offenses. The life of a blacklister is a meager one, filled with hardships both material and existential. Most struggle to provide a subsistence income for themselves scavenging, trading, stealing, dealing, or working a variety of other odd jobs within their confines of their slum communities. This is the story of two such individuals, (A) and (B). With their normal income streams starting to run dry and no hope of ever returning to the lives they left behind, the two now find themselves facing eviction with few options in sight.
However, (A) has acquired a network module which will allow them to connect to and register on ZEROGROUNDS, a new darknet marketplace which puts assassins, debt collectors, hackers, smugglers, saboteurs, weapons dealers, and a variety of other professional criminals in contact with clients who contract their services while providing minimum disclosure. The origins of the site are unknown, and many public authorities refuse to officially acknowledge its existence. But under this corporate plutocracy where the individual has no value beyond their immediate usefulness to the powers that be, the two may yet carve out a better a better life for themselves by surviving the deadly contracts of the ZEROGROUNDS.
Writing style:
I consider myself a reasonably skilled writer, but this is actually my first time at the forum RP rodeo and I figure a premise like this is fairly safe because even if an amazing plot arc or incredible character chemistry never develops, there's still room to have fun with some gritty sci-fi action scenes. Still, I enjoy a fairly well-rounded storytelling experience, so if we want to have some more downbeat scenes of the characters celebrating or laying low after a job, that could be cool too. I am completely fine with a partner who has a very "standard" or "commercial" writing voice, but I am going to request that any prospective partners should feel comfortable writing at a young adult level and are willing to deal with subject matter at a similar level. Please be willing to use third-person present tense in narration and descriptive prose. No onomatopoeia or action markers, please.
It seems that opinions on what this means vary, but I would say that we should be shooting for "casual" territory with respect to writing length. As an action-oriented story, this should have a fairly quick and brisk "call and response" feel at times, but I think that a paragraph or so of some nice descriptive prose can really breathe a lot of life into a scene. More detailed posts are welcome, but please try to save it for the bigger moments. Moments of altered perception like when a character's pain inhibitor cybernetics pump them full of dopamine after an injury, or when a character uses a neural jack to mentally interface with some piece of technology are good moments to slow things down and put some thicker imagery out there, but this isn't necessary. While I request that any prospective partners come with competent writing abilities, I still intend for this to be a relatively easy story to write. I'm also not particularly interested in there being a romantic dimension between the two player characters, but feel free to have a romantic aspect to your character backstory if you enjoy that.
Setting
So until this point, I've mostly left the setting intentionally vague so that my partner could have a hand in crafting some of the locales and other elements. In most respects, it's a fairly standard cyberpunk setting in the style of Neuromancer, Blade Runner, Snow Crash, Ghost in the Shell, etc. Notable social problems include overpopulation, pollution, rampant commercialism, declining workers' rights, economic and political instability, and growing ethical concerns over cybernetics, experimental biotechnology, telepresence systems (drones), information privacy, AI technology, public surveillance, and so forth.
While this isn't a worldbuilding-centric game, feel free to improv some background lore for the world using in-character dialog. For example, instead of providing a huge info dump about every political faction in the region, a character could just say something like "You know, I can buy into the Progressive Technocratic Party's policy on labor rights, but their AI spokesperson makes my goddamn skin crawl." Enough to provide a little bit of richness to the world without needing to get too rigorous.
Characters
This is another aspect of the RP I've decided to leave relatively open. So long as it's genre and stylistically appropriate, I'd say that I'm pretty open-minded regarding character concepts. Most characters in this world will have at least one form of cybernetic enhancement and will be technologically fluent in at least a few domains, so the character dynamic should be a little more nuanced than just "the fighter" and "the tech guy." If you would like to play a completely artificial character such as an android or robot, then that would be fine too, just try to have a loose background in mind that explains why they have found themselves blacklisted. And given the darker, more oppressive nature of the setting, a few weaknesses and character flaws are important to keep in mind too. Even characters from a highly-skilled background would still find themselves disadvantaged due to their economic hardships in this setting. For example, an ace hacker might still have to contend with cheap, low-end hardware, or a biker's motorcycle may usually be lacking some much-needed repairs.
Since obsolescence is a theme of cyberpunk, seriously consider integrating it into your character concept. A character who was once an elite corporate bodyguard fitted with experimental combat cybernetics that were immediately discontinued before the first commercial production run because of a design flaw is a much more nuanced character background than some generically overpowered elite cyborg super soldier. Vengeance-oriented backstories are welcome, but not necessary. Some relatively unsympathetic character flaws are welcome too, but not to the extent that it grinds the game to a halt or just makes it feel overbearingly spiteful.
Character Sheet (omit any details that might not be applicable)
Name:
ZG Alias:
Age:
Appearance:
Enhancements:
Occupation:
Blacklist offense:
And that's my pitch up until this point. If this sounds like something you might be interested in, please let me know below. I am totally open to OOC discussions about the direction of the plot or any other details related to the RP. Thanks for looking!
