Desensitization
With a constant stream of high
resolution visuals being streamed into lives of every single person
in a city there are bound to be negative consequences. The broadcast
of ratings grabbing ultra violence and stories of death, despair and
hopelessness coupled with high end subliminal technology and a
society that makes acts of barbarism famous has took this to a whole
new level.
While it drives sales through the roof
and gets people staring at the screen more and more the mental
affects are far more dire. At the best it has caused a good majority
of the lower and middle class to become apathetic to the plights of
others, causal empathy towards living beings is almost a thing of the
past. At it's worse the desire to actually physically experience and
create horrific events like shown on television has continued to
rise. So much that an entire subculture has been generated by those
who go down that deep descent.
More than ever violence goes
unreported, murders are something that just happen in the minds of
the masses. People will walk past a dead man on the street and not
call the police but will certainly snap a few pictures to share with
their friends. Missing persons lists grow so long there is no way to
investigate even a quarter of them. Sexual
assaults are increasing every day
across the entire divide of the classes. The crime rate is on a
steady tick upwards and nobody seems to really care about it anymore
as long as they get to catch a story about it on the news channels
later.
Packs of killers. Before most serial
killers acted alone in their acts. Knowing full well that nearly
everyone else would be horrified by their actions. Now they are fully
aware that there are others just like them so they seek them out as
somebody who will truly understand. This has led to killers working
in groups, planning, staging and the executing complicated killings
with a manner they hope will grab the attention of the news. These
groups of been named “Colligates” by the media and law
enforcement. While the individual members are being called “Kindred”.
The real dark web. As more and more
Colligates form across the country they began reaching out onto the
net as well. Forming their own private Data Fortresses hidden beneath
the cover of legitimate appearing locations or so deeply hidden that
most people would never venture there while jacked in. These are
where the Kindred can meet up and discuss their plans, brag about
their kills, exchange information and even set up real world events
for themselves.
Theater for the macabre. Colligates
that have been successful and generated their own dark reputations
have began to catch a bit of theatrical flair. They will plan out an
event centered around the torture and killing of several individuals
at once. For these they will invite other Kindred to come and watch
as an audience. They have found the remains of these such spectacles
in abandoned theaters, warehouses, parking garages and subway
tunnels. The dead left for the police to pick up after their trophies
have been collected. These events have been called “Clandestine
Spectacles” by the Kindred themselves.
Hooks on how to work this into your
games.
A corporate has had a family member
taken by a Colligate to be used in a Clandestine Spectacle.
Thankfully they had an implanted locator chip but the police are to
busy to look into it. So they have a Fixer quickly hire a group of
edgerunners to get their loved one back.
A Colligate has been killing members of
the neighborhood where one of the edgerunners lives. This is
attracting a bit of unwanted attention and making it harder for them
to get around easily because of the police presence cleaning up the
mess. So it's up to them to stop the Kindred involved to get their
relative peace and quiet back.
One of the edgerunners has become the
target or a Colligate. For the next few weeks they will be followed
at a distance, their home monitored and information about them being
gathered. Since they are not a normal drone the runner will get a
chance to notice this all going on around them before they are ready
to actually move in for the kill. If they don't... well they may
find themselves outnumbered in a well planned kill.
One of the kindred Datafortresses has
been hacked and the names of several members has been made public.
There are now rewards on the heads of many of them by those who have
lost family and friends to them. So time for the edgerunners to hit
the streets and earn as many of those bounties as they can.
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For more dark and twisted material to work into your Cyberpunk 2020 games check out Dark Metropolis from Dream Pod 9.
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