Dark Future Ahead 28 – News from the ‘Net of a Cyberpunk bent

How will the latest technological advances be used to advance the plutocracy?  Join me in reviewing some inspiration for cyberpunk gaming culled from my many trips into the matrix.  Enjoy the news:

Raytheon, that big defense contractor, is working on drone defenses for the US military working with various sorts of directed energy weapons, such as lasers and microwaves.

The Chinese Government is backing a Belt and Road Initiative, a new Silk Road, to build transportation and economic links from Asia to Europe and Africa, some of the giant machine used to build it are impressive in size and productivity.

A Swiss company, Energy Vault, has a design using cranes and concrete blocks to store energy.  If nothing else, it would be a great place to have a fight going on.

More ways to avoid facial recognition technology, some useful, others less so.

There are many ways to grow food inside using artificial light, LEDs are proving to be extremely flexible in such applications.  Who knows what harvest may come from such technologies?

For plants grown in the traditional methods, they are becoming increasingly vulnerable to diseases and other blights in our interconnected world.  Perhaps ironically, viruses may provide the best way to introduces defenses into plants to fight these dangers.

What visions of the coming dark future have you seen recently?

Notes: To my surprise, it has been nearly a year since my last Dark Future Ahead . . .

Image from Energy Vault and used without permission.

 

 

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Shadowrun Campaign Update with New Seattle Scream Prop (#62)

For various reasons Shadowrun gaming in our local groups has been slow for the last few months.  The monthly games at Tyche’s Games (every first Saturday every month, come and join) have been interrupted by Conventions (GenCon and Dragon*Con) and University of Georgia football games but we are back on track for October!  In support of that we have a new Seattle Scream (#62).

The Saturday game will be moving to the Sixth World Edition of Shadowrun which hopefully we will be seeing actual hard copies of in October.  Our other GMs are still debating if they want to adopt the new rules or stay with 5th Edition.  I suspect that eventually we will all shift over but it will take some time.

I have also built my first Shadowrun, 6WE, character: Elvis, a knight-errant of the Church of Elvis, traveling the highways and byways of North America bringing the good news and good music.

Our NorCal campaign just had a game this week and hopefully I will have a game report up soon.

Notes: Elvis Photo found on Wikimedia Commons and used under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Shadowrun Campaign Update with New Seattle Scream Prop (#61)

Shadowrun gaming is ongoing, but slowly.  The monthly games at Tyche’s Games (every first Saturday every month, come and join) continue apace and in support of that we have a new Seattle Scream (#61).  This month the team had to outwit devil rats to achieve their goal, not as easy as it may sound.

All of the primary groups I play with are excitingly waiting for the Sixth Edition, which we will see at GenCon in early August, and the monthly game will be transitioning to Sixth Edition soon after it is available.

Also excited to see the new version of Cyberpunk from R Talsorian which will be great inspiration for all cyberpunk styled games.

Our NorCal campaign has not had any more play since the last update, sadly.

Notes: Photo “Agnes and Eunice 5” by Sarah_Jones is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Review – Shadowrun: Better than Bad

Shadowrun: Better than Bad is a sourcebook for Shadowrun and provides support for characters “hooding” or helping the little guy. As that is a campaign style that has not seen much support for this edition, I was pleased to see this book as it is a style I like to see. If you are interest in that style of pay, or Azania which also gets explored in this product, it is a worthwhile purchase but probably not a priority.

Shadowrun: Better than Bad, is a Deep Shadows Sourcebook for the 5th edition of Shadowrun, this particular book covers the idea that Shadowrunners can actually do good in the Sixth World and not just be corporate stooges along with a visit to Azania (formerly South Africa).

The book begins with one of the ubiquitous fiction sections, then moves into A Light in the Darkness, talking about “Hooding” doing good for the community and striking against the powerful, named after Robin Hood (of course). Various of the organizations that oppose the corps are covered ranging from self-help groups to full on terrorist organizations, something for everyone and a bit more. It also includes a pitch to fight the power, rock on Opti (aka Old Crow, active NeoAnarchist and host of the NeoAnarchist podcast).

Shadowrun Campaign Update with New Seattle Scream Prop (#60)

Shadowrun gaming is ongoing, as we await the Sixth Edition of the rules later this summer.  Not sure if we will be switching out until we can actually get hold of the new rules and see what they are like.  But the Star Signs campaign, which has had one session, we might move over as the mechanical investment in the characters is minimal at the moment.  The monthly games at Tyche’s Games (every first Saturday every month, come and join) continue apace and will be moving the Sixth Edition, though maybe not immediately after release but certainly by Winter.

The Star Signs campaign is my attempt to move our campaign into a connected set of stories that will reveal aspects of my take on the Shadowrun world but time will tell is it works out, hopefully the new edition will not cause mechanics to distract from story and plot.

Our NorCal still manages about a session a month, the latest report from PinkCat can be found here.

The latest news from my version of Seattle, 2075, can be found in the Seattle Scream #60.

Notes: Photo “Quiet Night at the Terminal” by ashatsea is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Shadowrun Campaign Catchup and New Seattle Scream Prop (#59)

Shadowrun gaming has fallen a bit behind in our rotation due to a variety of reasons (such as playtesting a supplement for [redacted]) which has eaten up gaming time.  The monthly games at Tyche’s Games (every first Saturday every month, come and join) continue apace.

Still trying to decide where to move the focus of the campaign as the major villain has receded into the background and the primary organizer of runs they were working for has had to go on the lam.  One-off adventures are fine but I am looking for a greater amount of connective tissue between stories. but I have not found it yet.  Hopefully inspiration will strike soon.

Our NorCal game continues apace, the latest report from PinkCat can be found here.

The latest news from my version of Seattle, 2075, can be found in the Seattle Scream #59.

Notes: Photo by Matt Rubens and used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Shadowrun campaign news, heading into a new year, and a new Seattle Scream (#58) prop

Our various Shadowrun games continue on, not least monthly with introductory games at Tyche’s Games (every first Sat, feel free to join us), and the occasional game as part of our Thursday night rotation both the NorCal game and occasional one-shot adventure in Seattle.  I got to GM both a Halloween and Christmas themed adventure, with plague spirits for the former and rescuing stolen toys for the later, and play in a Christmas themed one in the NorCal campaign (“Secret Santa“).

The latest news from my campaign here in Seattle Scream #58, the EcoTerrorist piece is laying some (undeserved) blame on one of the player runner teams but that is corporate controlled media for you.  We will see what people make of the rest of them.

Now, be careful out there in the shadows my friends.  The world is dangerous so keep your wits about you and your weapons near to hand.

Photo by Kaleb Kloppe and licensed under CC BY 2.0.