Cyberpunk - Club Zero

                               

Club Zero

This is a club set up for a very specialized sort of clientele and not one for those who stray out of that narrow focus. It is designed from the ground up for Netrunners and only Netrunners. Thus in the end the look of the location in meatspace is nothing like that of a regular club that you would find in a major city.

Physical Location

The building was originally designed for an up and coming weapons design company called 'InLine Design' that went belly up when it's product designs were sniped and copied by several other major corporations. They had built their own onsite firing range and weapons testing facilities. This mean lots of heavy reinforced concrete walls, running through with re-bar, metal plates and even more concrete.

The entire parking lot is open and one can see various drones passing over head and those with a more keen eye can see automated weapons mounts in various places along the walls of the building. Any unwelcome visitors will be taken care of without question. The single entrance has a small led display above reading 'Club Zero'.

Upon entry you are greeted by two armed security personnel asking for your membership. If you do not have one you will be directed to a room with a sole laptop and card printer on a table. Membership costs 500 euro payable yearly and your card is printed off on site. If you aren't interested in a membership you are asked to leave.

Once your membership is verified you will be led down a series of hallway and through various scanners. All weapons, equipment and cyberdecks will have to be removed in placed in a steel lockbox before being allowed to continue on. Throughout this there are very visible cameras monitoring the area and several very obvious automated small arms weapon mounts. After you are deemed clean you are then led to what used to be the main firing range.

Inside are rows of recliners circling a massive rack of data terminals. Various other runners are jacked into cyberdecks built as part of the chairs. This is all connected to the single completely self contained network called 'ZeroSpace'. Only hard line log ins are available and the shielding of the room insures that any built in hardware inside a runner cannot send or receive an outside signal.

Some recliners are designated as long term units. So the runner can be fixed with a nutrient feed and be taken care of for a few days instead of just a few hours.

Inside ZeroSpace

First the runner enters their own personal ‘wardrobe’ area. Here they pick out an appearance for themselves. It’s all standard human fair with lots of 80’s and 90’s club fashions to pick from. Complete with an AI assistant who acts as an old school tailor making sure everything fits just right.

Then you step through a door into the club itself. Huge and sprawling with multiple levels. Each with it’s own style and music selection. Lots of private booths, arcade style games, video screens and holographic style displays. Filled with lots of people milling about, waitresses, bartenders, various dancers, and club goers. Most of these are AI constructs meant to give the feeling of a bustling busy club.

The runners themselves show up just a little bit clearer and brighter than the fake folks. So they can spot each other in the crowds. When privacy is needed the booths will seal off the outside environment and only those inside can see or hear what is going on. This is usually when information, data, programs, etc are often exchanged. Including a business card program that lets you exchange information into each other virtual Rolodex.

If the busy club scene gets to be a bit much there are also side rooms like private libraries, swimming pools and saunas, even bedrooms for those who like their romance to be virtual as well. Some runners can spend days in the club without leaving. Rumor has it the owner is a complete ‘Live In’ who never leaves the club, his body somewhere in the physical structure, hooked into machines to live.

Adventure Seeds

The most obvious use of the club in game is as a place for the netrunner of the group to meet contacts and friends. Exchanging information or getting that bit of code they need.

The club needs a problematic person taken care of. They have caused to much trouble inside the club and outside of it as well with regulars and patrons. So an example needs to be set. Your team is to eliminate the person in the most spectacular and painful way as possible.

A corporate feels the club is becoming a problem. They have a solution using nanobots. But they can only get so much in at a time. So they wish to hire the runner to enter the club various times each week while wearing a dusting of the special nanobots. Each time they are to choose a different recliner when they log in. Thus spreading the nano’s like an infection until there are enough inside to be activated.

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Cyberpunk 2020 - Superconsumer Part 4

The Police

Law enforcement still exists in Superconsumer, but like all things it's been twisted and changed by the media control and corporate enforcement. After decades of a continuous rise in crime despite a constant increase in funding and manpower the government just gave up trying. They handed over the running most law enforcement to private companies to handle. Giving them a frozen budget and simply told to do their best. If it failed the politicians had a scapegoat so they couldn't be blamed.

The three major corporations who handle running private law enforcement now are Peacekeep, The Badge Inc and Security Solutions. With Peacekeep and The Badge handling most major police departments across the nation while Security Solutions handles private police forces for gated communities and rural areas that were formerly Sheriff Departments.

First thing that was looked at was how to get around the static budget they were given. It was obvious there was no interest in giving them anymore than what the original contracts offered but there was also nothing limiting how to gain funds in other ways. Thus was born the idea of Corporate Sponsorship.

Various Corporations could now sponsor specific precincts for a tidy sum in the form of a donation to the department. Their logo would be slapped onto the patrol cars, uniforms and media presence for that specific precinct giving them mobile advertising that is also illegal to deface. This, of course, led to more influence by the corporations as time has gone on.

With a big enough donation officers could be told to turn a blind eye to specific activities being done in their patrol zone. If they are sponsored by Militech then they would be ordered not to interfere with a group of edgerunners extracting a corporate official from a rival in their jurisdiction. Other companies could order them not to report illegal dumping of chemicals or tell them to remove the homeless in an area with violent force.

Even the system that all on duty officers use for their weapon smart links has a list of 'friendly' targets loaded into them as designated by their sponsors. So in a firefight the police may not be able to return fire against a man shooting at them because he is a relative of old man Arasaka who is paying their bills.

On the other hand some use the police to test out new weapons and equipment. Arming them with the latest test run of smart gear and non-lethal technologies so they can get a better idea of how they work in the line of duty. What the police use one day may be the next big weapon trend a few months later. Or a sudden spike of weapon failures and officers killed in the line of duty could send something back to development or get it canceled altogether.

Of course this means there are place that nobody really cares about. The outskirts and slums around a city may be stuck with the bottom level of funding. Scraping by however they can. Maybe getting Slurps to sponsor them so they can put new tires on some of their barely running patrol cars. In these areas the police become less concerned about doing their job and focus on their own survival often looking away just to keep from being the next loss on a spreadsheet someplace.

Thus the crime levels in wealthier parts of the city and in areas around corporate assets have seen a dramatic drop in reported crimes. While the worst parts of the city continue to spiral down with criminal activity going completely unchecked. Or that if a corporation suddenly gets an interest in a specific section in a run down section of the city there could be a huge spike in funding over night.


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Cyberpunk 2020 - Superconsumer part 3

In the world of Superconsumer not everyone is happy with the current state of how the world is run. Some have grown tired of the constant televised stream of corporate influence on their lives. So they work to limit just how much they have endure and are constantly looking for more ways to separate themselves from the brainwashed masses and their masters.

They call themselves Slates in a reference to 'blank slate' as they wish to become clean of outside influence.

Of course different Slates have different levels of dedication. Many of them just want a break from the TV screen that is always going on around them. Others go to more extremes of separation by moving to the worst, least monitored sections of a city and having their data erased from the Net by some very sneaky netrunners. So not all of them are the same and you never know exactly what type of Slate you are dealing with.

Drowning out the Television.

Being creative is the key since the government doesn't like it when you don't get their propaganda streamed into your life. 'Mufflers' are the most common things used, these are heavy blankets made with light stopping fabrics that are draped over a television set in the home. Reducing the sound as much as possible and cutting the light emitted to almost nothing. They are also the most legally viable alternative since all one has to do is claim a medical reason such as headache, eyestrain or extreme fatigue as the reason why you 'temporarily' covered that screen.

The off switches and mute buttons are the next level up. While illegal they are still quite sought after as they completely cut off the set or just the sound. Commonly built in disguised shells so they appear as something else entirely. Such as older TV remotes, children's toys, ink pens, just about anything you can think of. Some have even gone as far as to have their home set up with fail safes such as the Television turning on whenever an entry door is opened or on voice control.

Blackout goggles have started appearing on black market stands as well. These are smart goggles tricked out so they whenever a television screen comes into view it gets blacked out in your field of vision. Although it doesn't do anything for the sound. While not technically illegal yet there are laws currently being pushed through and revised that will make them a criminal offense to possess.

Communities

In several places in the run down outskirts of modern cities you find communities of Slates living together. Occupying abandoned buildings and subway tunnels creating their own form of self reliance with each other. Some form gang like levels of hierarchy while others make democratic microgovernments to rule themselves. The further out from the center of a city they are the less likely they are to be bothered by the law. Mainly because it is not profitable to try and police such hostile areas and would cost more than they could ever be worth. On the downside if there is trouble in these communities they have to take care of themselves as nobody is coming to help.

One thing these communities are really good for is the black market selling of goods and services. Such as finding old tech and those who know how to repair or even build it. An endless variety of off and mute switches. Stolen property by the truck load. If you need to sell something that would get you put in jail for anywhere else, this is the kind of place you want to take it.

The really big downside is that Slate communities also tend to attract a less savory part of society. Not because they want to escape the government televisions and brainwashing but to escape the police who are after them for what they have done. Career criminals will pass off as a Slate while continuing what they do on the side. Sex offenders sadly find this a preferred environment as well since they aren't known for what they are guilty of. Even the Kindred will live here just to escape prying eyes.

Adventure Seeds

The edgerunners have acquired a large quantity of military grade weapons. If they get caught with them there will be jail time so selling them is a better option. Following a lead they hear the best place to move them is in a Slate marketplace. What they don't know until they get there is that this particular Slate community is sat up more like a gang dictatorship and they see the PC's as potential threats.

The edgerunners are hired by a community to help track down a sexual predator who has moved in and is preying on their members. They don't know who it is but they want him removed from the community altogether. There may even be a reward for this person by the police after they skipped out of their registration.

A police officer who is partial to the Slates has caught wind of a large scale action being planned for one community. The abandoned city block they are residing in is being looked at by a corporation as a possible purchase IF the 'vagabonds' are removed from the structures there. He tells a friend who is with the edgerunners and they can chose to help. Either by finding another suitable location, fighting off the police action or they may end up having to run delaying actions so the people can get out in time.

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Cyberpunk 2020 - Superconsumer part two

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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Cyberpunk 2020 - Superconsumer part one

Superconsumer.

This is an article series looking at the consumer side of the dark future. When everything is about buying, selling, brand promotion and the ever forward movement of the capitalist machine. How it affect the characters, on a personal and professional level, from making money to being the product being sold. Of course this is highly inspired by many of the themes from the great cyberpunk series 'Max Headroom: Twenty Minutes into the Future'.

Television.

The number one tool for selling anything and for keeping the masses pacified. Corporations learned just how powerful it was early on and took measures to insure that it will be a constant in every single persons life. It provides a constant stream of propaganda, brainwashing and subliminal messages straight into the brains of all citizens.

Several years back after a long process of buying politicians through either hefty donations to their campaigns, under the table exchanges of cash and even blackmail the Corps made their move. Moving forth new laws under the guise of promoting the Emergency Alert System so that everyone can always be warned at anytime some big changes came forth. The off switch is made illegal, if they have a television turned off then the EAS can't be of use to protect the people. No more full mute on volume control for much the same reason. A television is required in every home, if you don't have a set one will be provided for you, granted one of very low quality but it's free. Finally it set up laws requiring the presence of television screens in businesses, on street corners, in churches, at schools, anywhere people may be. They made it an inescapable part of life from then on.

Punishments for trying to go against these new laws are as follows.

Possession of an 'off switch' for any television. 30 days minimum and 90 days maximum in jail for every remote in a persons possession.

Possession of a 'mute switch' for any television. 10 eb fine minimum and 100 eb fine maximum for every remote in a persons possession.

Destroying or rendering unusable a television. 90 days minimum and 180 days maximum in jail for every set destroyed.

A side affect has been a glut of new broadcast channels as nearly every corporation tried to get in on the deal. Thousands of channels are now available to everyone all day long. This has led to a lapse in quality programming as well since there is only so much money to go around in filling up that airtime.

Reality shows are at an all time high. Anything goes and every variation of a theme has been explored and re-explored, then rebooted and brought back over and over again. But they are cheap to make and there is never a lack of people volunteering to be in them for cheap prices as they hope for that five minutes of fame.

Live new channels. Lots of them. Every media out there is in constant contact with various operators trying to stream their footage of what is going on around them right now.

Lots of airtime is being filled with reruns of older shows. During the lowest viewer ship hours you will never see anything new. But instead you are fed the hit show from two years ago that everyone forgot about or something from the eighties for the really penny poor stations. Anything that has the least bit of popularity will be rented out to other channels the next year.

Working this aspect into your game.

Always point out where the televisions are when describing the area surround the PCs. Maybe a quick word about what is on if they are around them for any amount of time.

If things go south and guns are drawn be sure to mention that if they hit a television they may be held accountable by the law. If it's self defense then they may not be charged, or if they have a high enough reputation the prosecutor may choose not to press charges. But it's something they need to think about before pulling that trigger.

They also get hired by a network to track down somebody who is destroying televisions in various parts of the city. Or to track down a black market spot that sells off and mute switches.

Come back next week for another installment of the Superconsumer article series for Cyberpunk 2020.



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