Partner wanted for dystopian cyberpunk crime duo

[Nogoodname]

Yeah, I have nowhere to be.
But thank you for providing all of that information for us. I didn't mean for any courtroom scenes, but just needed to know more or less about the working of that system because I'd planned for my character's father to be a very renowned corporate whistleblower, which is primarily why she was doomed to choose the path she chose into the business of weapon dealing. And it'd also come in handy as a punishing factor when she comes around people that are the whole typical "you-know-what-we-do-to-snitches-here-don't-you" demeanor, being relatively common knowledge what the 'Royce' name entails. I also envisioned a background for my character having been in and out of jail due to minor offenses, and not having the best of experiences in there because of the whistleblowing thing. But yeah, I didn't know how that worked exactly, so I wanted to be sure.


Also, something important: I think it's not very clear for me where exactly our characters are going to begin in terms of their interactions. Do they already know each other? Where do they meet if they don't already? Are our characters not associated with anything that has to do with ZEROGROUNDS, so we start where our characters are about whatever gig their have (weapon dealing in my case, Elise with transfers, etc.) and then we introduce them to ZEROGROUDNS?


I'm asking a lot of questions here because I'm basic af i hope you understand

I belive if I've read things correctly we'll have been working together for about a year (unless any one of us decides to be a new hire or something) and we'll start right in the middle of a big job. Correct me if I'm wrong.


Also on another note i was curious as to how combat will work in this.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

I don't really have a specific time frame in mind for how long the characters have known each other, so I'm agreeable to just about anything that anyone else would like to write into their character backgrounds. I figure at the very least, my character will already be familiar with the Zerogrounds and have access to it as part of their ring of connections. If anyone else would like to have their characters already be independently established on the site, then that would be fine too. Otherwise they could just be acquainted in-person or through mutual peers or what have you.


I don't have any specific rules for combat in mind or anything. If we decide we want to make things interesting later on, I could improvise some simple dice rules, but I figure we should start out doing things freeform since this is the first time doing a trio for most of us.


I think I am going to make my character relatively hands-off as far as physical combat goes, so if we need to, I could take the lead with narrating scene elements like NPC enemies. I anticipate playing more of a "troubleshooter" who will take the lead with hacking, negotiation and interrogation, first-aid, maybe vehicles (I figure all of us should at least be competent with common vehicles), etc. I'm thinking I'll have some kind of concealed suppressive weapon like an integrated taser built into a prosthetic arm, enough to defend myself and be useful in a few specific situations, but not enough to fight on a regular basis.


One piece of tech I was planning on writing into the last version of this story was a device for projecting semi-controlled hallucinations and illusions at a target by manipulating some combination of their cybernetics and biology, and I'm thinking of making my new character start with it in their possession. I wouldn't call it "mind control" or anything, but I figure in certain circumstances, it could be used to give my character a form of social/psychological control which is intrusive and combat-like in nature, and a different way of coercing non-cooperative individuals aside from just threatening to kill them. I understand that something like this has the potential to be way overpowered, but I imagine it as being a very delicate yet poorly understood process, not the sort of thing that can just be pulled off on anyone spontaneously. But basically I'm thinking something like this would create a dynamic where my character built around diplomacy doesn't become immediately useless once our cover is blown, and having my character succeed doesn't cut into your characters' abilities to use their skills and have good encounters. So in a way, I guess my niche could be thought of as "mind combat."

 

[Nogoodname]

I don't really have a specific time frame in mind for how long the characters have known each other, so I'm agreeable to just about anything that anyone else would like to write into their character backgrounds. I figure at the very least, my character will already be familiar with the Zerogrounds and have access to it as part of their ring of connections. If anyone else would like to have their characters already be independently established on the site, then that would be fine too. Otherwise they could just be acquainted in-person or through mutual peers or what have you.
I don't have any specific rules for combat in mind or anything. If we decide we want to make things interesting later on, I could improvise some simple dice rules, but I figure we should start out doing things freeform since this is the first time doing a trio for most of us.


I think I am going to make my character relatively hands-off as far as physical combat goes, so if we need to, I could take the lead with narrating scene elements like NPC enemies. I anticipate playing more of a "troubleshooter" who will take the lead with hacking, negotiation and interrogation, first-aid, maybe vehicles (I figure all of us should at least be competent with common vehicles), etc. I'm thinking I'll have some kind of concealed suppressive weapon like an integrated taser built into a prosthetic arm, enough to defend myself and be useful in a few specific situations, but not enough to fight on a regular basis.


One piece of tech I was planning on writing into the last version of this story was a device for projecting semi-controlled hallucinations and illusions at a target by manipulating some combination of their cybernetics and biology, and I'm thinking of making my new character start with it in their possession. I wouldn't call it "mind control" or anything, but I figure in certain circumstances, it could be used to give my character a form of social/psychological control which is intrusive and combat-like in nature, and a different way of coercing non-cooperative individuals aside from just threatening to kill them. I understand that something like this has the potential to be way overpowered, but I imagine it as being a very delicate yet poorly understood process, not the sort of thing that can just be pulled off on anyone spontaneously. But basically I'm thinking something like this would create a dynamic where my character built around diplomacy doesn't become immediately useless once our cover is blown, and having my character succeed doesn't cut into your characters' abilities to use their skills and have good encounters. So in a way, I guess my niche could be thought of as "mind combat."

That sounds like a really cool idea, they sound very versatile which would be useful in our little group where the two of us seem to be a bit more specialized. I like group we have so far, it seems pretty well rounded to me and i can't wait to see what we'll be able to do with our combined abilities.


Free form combat seems like it would probably be the best since it would be easier to do as long as everyone feels like they can trust themselves to share the spotlight. I just wanted to ask now so i wasn't stepping on anyone's toes when we got into the thick of things.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Got a prospective character sheet. One or two details might change, but I'm more or less set on the general idea.


Character Sheet


Name: Sergey Bruhn


ZG Alias: Neon


Age:28


Appearance: Sergey’s body is lean and thin. A wavy fringe of brown medium-length hair covers most of his forehead while loose curls hang from the back and sides of his head. His eyes are semi-natural cybernetic prostheses with purple irises. His sensory and extended memory cybernetics are built into backswept angular head-mounted antennae-like casings colloquially referred to as “rabbit ears.” His prosthetic arms look relatively natural aside from the numerous ports lining their exteriors as well as the articulated joints that reveal a hint of chrome.


Enhancements: Sensory optimizer, Extended MRAM cache, Communications suite, Prosthetic forearms w/ integrated taser.


Occupation: Illicit automation (Revenue generation schemes utilizing bots, scripts, simple AIs, etc.)


Blacklist offense: Fraud, Contraband possession (drugs)


I figure this character's distinctive tech feature is that he has a large amount of RAM built into his brain which can be used to store information, skills, and behavioral heuristics that he hasn't committed to memory in the conventional sense. For example, he probably couldn't repair a vehicle or perform basic surgery under normal circumstances, but he might be able to if he decided to cache out all of his MRAM and fill it back up with reference materials about engineering or biology. Aside from limited storage space, the other constraints could be the amount of time it takes to load up new information (maybe it requires him to be asleep), the factual reliability of the information itself, and the ability of that information to be compromised through tampering, data corruption, hacking etc. This could allow us to introduce some more niche skills on certain jobs, and it would also put mental skills on similar standing with physical skills in the sense that someone who operates under this kind of system could have their mind "injured" in the same way that someone's body could be injured, doubly so if I'll be doing a lot of the hacking.


I don't plan on going like way overboard in the grisliness of this story, but does anyone have any subject matter that they'd rather not approach in this RP? I was thinking of having some casual drug use be a feature of this character since that seems like a thematically appropriate vice for a socially-connected individual who experiments with putting different things in their head, on top of the fact that he has a piece of tech that he can use to induce hallucinations. I don't anticipate it being the crux of some existential crisis where my character starts being an insufferable idiot or anything, but I feel like it ties into this idea of a character with an "open mind" who doesn't experience their sense of subjective self in the same discrete, contained sort of fashion that someone with a conventional memory might.

 

[Nogoodname]

Got a prospective character sheet. One or two details might change, but I'm more or less set on the general idea.
Character Sheet


Name: Sergey Bruhn


ZG Alias: Neon


Age:28


Appearance: Sergey’s body is lean and thin. A wavy fringe of brown medium-length hair covers most of his forehead while loose curls hang from the back and sides of his head. His eyes are semi-natural cybernetic prostheses with purple irises. His sensory and extended memory cybernetics are built into backswept angular head-mounted antennae-like casings covering his ears, colloquially referred to as “rabbit ears.” His prosthetic arms look relatively natural aside from the numerous ports lining their exteriors as well as the articulated joints that reveal a hint of chrome.


Enhancements: Sensory optimizer, Extended MRAM cache, Communications suite, Prosthetic forearms w/ integrated taser.


Occupation: Illicit automation (Revenue generation schemes utilizing bots, scripts, simple AIs, etc.)


Blacklist offense: Fraud, Contraband possession (drugs)


I figure this character's distinctive tech feature is that he has a large amount of RAM built into his brain which can be used to store information, skills, and behavioral heuristics that he hasn't committed to memory in the conventional sense. For example, he probably couldn't repair a vehicle or perform basic surgery under normal circumstances, but he might be able to if he decided to cache out all of his MRAM and fill it back up with reference materials about engineering or biology. Aside from limited storage space, the other constraints could be the amount of time it takes to load up new information (maybe it requires him to be asleep), the factual reliability of the information itself, and the ability of that information to be compromised through tampering, data corruption, hacking etc. This could allow us to introduce some more niche skills on certain jobs, and it would also put mental skills on similar standing with physical skills in the sense that someone who operates under this kind of system could have their mind "injured" in the same way that someone's body could be injured, doubly so if I'll be doing a lot of the hacking.


I don't plan on going like way overboard in the grisliness of this story, but does anyone have any subject matter that they'd rather not approach in this RP? I was thinking of having some casual drug use be a feature of this character since that seems like a thematically appropriate vice for a socially-connected individual who experiments with putting different things in their head, on top of the fact that he has a piece of tech that he can use to induce hallucinations. I don't anticipate it being the crux of some existential crisis where my character starts being an insufferable idiot or anything, but I feel like it ties into this idea of a character with an "open mind" who doesn't experience their sense of subjective self in the same discrete, contained sort of fashion that someone with a conventional memory might.

That's a really awesome idea, I can't wait to see him in action. He sounds really well balanced for what we're doing with an incredibly interesting and well thought out mechanic. I really can't wait to get started, I'm super excited for this.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Thanks! And yeah, I'm liking how this idea is coming along too. Not sure when I'll be able to put up a thread with a good intro post, but I have some ideas that I might be able to work into something with a little time.

 

[Nogoodname]

Thanks! And yeah, I'm liking how this idea is coming along too. Not sure when I'll be able to put up a thread with a good intro post, but I have some ideas that I might be able to work into something with a little time.

No problem, I'm still on vacation with the family so it'll be a day or so before i can get back to my precious computer. Also i forgot to say but i don't really have anything that I'm uncomfortable with, you'd have to go pretty far to upset me.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Sure thing, I didn't expect getting the thread up within a day one way or another. I'm not particularly squeamish either and cyberpunk does usually have some of those gritty crime noir moments, but I also like juxtaposing those with some more thoughtful moments and playing a character who isn't really a fighter might give more opportunities to play up those aspects of my writing style.


I tried to design my character's skill set around being compatible with the other two and being able to support them without making it feel like we're somehow competing with one another over a scene. I wanted to avoid making a character who is just a totally smooth negotiator who makes everything go off without a hitch because every time I use those skills to help us avoid danger, I'm sort of cutting into the ability of your characters to have good action moments. Something like this is a bit more open-ended and versatile in a heist scene, and it makes our character concepts distinct enough to get a good sense for direction and who should be doing what in a scene.

 

[Nogoodname]

Sure thing, I didn't expect getting the thread up within a day one way or another. I'm not particularly squeamish either and cyberpunk does usually have some of those gritty crime noir moments, but I also like juxtaposing those with some more thoughtful moments and playing a character who isn't really a fighter might give more opportunities to play up those aspects of my writing style.
I tried to design my character's skill set around being compatible with the other two and being able to support them without making it feel like we're somehow competing with one another over a scene. I wanted to avoid making a character who is just a totally smooth negotiator who makes everything go off without a hitch because every time I use those skills to help us avoid danger, I'm sort of cutting into the ability of your characters to have good action moments. Something like this is a bit more open-ended and versatile in a heist scene, and it makes our character concepts distinct enough to get a good sense for direction and who should be doing what in a scene.

That's good, i feel like with how different our characters are from each other we'll all be able to get good scenes. Honestly i kind of figured when i made the character that, in a prefect world she would be out of a job. I thought it could be kind of funny to have a scene where your character is all jacked into the system, diverting camera attention and preventing alarms. While Reed is carefully following your orders on coms sneaking through the facility. And then Elise is just kinda sitting there playing solitaire. When the alarm goes off she almost seems excited to finally have something to do.

 

[furo]

Yeah, I agree, I really like the prospect of how it's gonna come along. Please do forgive if by any means you were waiting for a reply of mine. The first week after this short winter break was hefty, but I should be having the same availability that I mentioned.


I'm eager to start whenever it's possible. Again, please do excuse all of my ignorance of the subgenre, because it's really my first experience with it. I think the only cyberpunk story I've involved myself with has got to be Psycho-Pass, and it doesn't even focus all that closely on the typical cyberpunk tropes.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

It's cool, I understand. I've got a slightly heavier RP idea in the starting stages which is eating up some of my time, but I imagine I should be able to get rolling on this within the next few days (probably within the weekend at least) if we're mostly ready. I have a few intro ideas we might be able to work with, but I'll wait until I have them drafted out before pitching them so I don't bias the decision.


And if genre-awareness is kind of a concern, I'll try to drop some clues and direction to pick up on in the prose. It might be a little clunky, but I may also just resort to just dropping genre/setting details and cues about the setting in parentheses so the improvisational aspects of the RP might can remain relatively open-ended. We can also utilize revision and chat OoC about genre/setting stuff if need be, so don't stress over getting it 100% correct on the first go or anything. This is a setting that is definitely more about hitting the right style and attitude than talking the technobabble with complete fluency.


I can help guide us along at first if necessary, but I'm hoping over time we can each get a good enough sense of the story to throw ideas out there and trade off some control between scenes.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

@Nogoodname


@TheCreator


So I've been brainstorming intro ideas, but I sort of fell into my own trap of focusing on one idea and putting myself into a box, creatively. My idea basically has us starting near the climax of a mission and then getting killed a couple of rounds in, then there's a scene shift that reveals we were testing someone's (probably one of Sergey's peers) security system in a VR simulation. This kind of "false" intro really works best in novels or film, or basically any medium where people aren't actively playing as the characters like an RP, but it will give us a low-stakes environment that we can use to practice writing more an action scene that doesn't need to be followed up with a denouement or make a perfectly smooth segue into the story or anything. It would also give us an opportunity to introduce an NPC contact and possibly work on the details of our first "real" job in the RP.


Does anyone else have any intro ideas they'd like to pitch? Ideally, I would have brought a few, but I'm reluctant to let this get held up much longer given that I do have a workable intro idea at the moment.


I'll be occupied for a few hours today, but I might be able to get a thread up later tonight (or possibly Monday) if we can settle on something. Just let me know.

 

[Nogoodname]

@Nogoodname
@TheCreator


So I've been brainstorming intro ideas, but I sort of fell into my own trap of focusing on one idea and putting myself into a box, creatively. My idea basically has us starting near the climax of a mission and then getting killed a couple of rounds in, then there's a scene shift that reveals we were testing someone's (probably one of Sergey's peers) security system in a VR simulation. This kind of "false" intro really works best in novels or film, or basically any medium where people aren't actively playing as the characters like an RP, but it will give us a low-stakes environment that we can use to practice writing more an action scene that doesn't need to be followed up with a denouement or make a perfectly smooth segue into the story or anything. It would also give us an opportunity to introduce an NPC contact and possibly work on the details of our first "real" job in the RP.


Does anyone else have any intro ideas they'd like to pitch? Ideally, I would have brought a few, but I'm reluctant to let this get held up much longer given that I do have a workable intro idea at the moment.


I'll be occupied for a few hours today, but I might be able to get a thread up later tonight (or possibly Monday) if we can settle on something. Just let me know.

I like that idea, and i feel like it could work really well. I have a few ideas of my own but I'd be prefectly fine running that starter.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

I like that idea, and i feel like it could work really well. I have a few ideas of my own but I'd be prefectly fine running that starter.

Cool, well I think I should be able to work with this intro if you're feeling it. I'm interested in hearing other ideas as well, but no pressure if you'd rather hold onto them for now. Having some good fodder for mission and conflict ideas to draw from later could be helpful.

 

[Nogoodname]

Cool, well I think I should be able to work with this intro if you're feeling it. I'm interested in hearing other ideas as well, but no pressure if you'd rather hold onto them for now. Having some good fodder for mission and conflict ideas to draw from later could be helpful.

I think I'll hold on to them for now, it's probably best not to do everything in the starter

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Checking in with @TheCreator. Are you still on board with this idea?