Edgerunners
“I used to think that cyberspace was fifty years away. What I thought was fifty years away, was only ten years away. And what I thought was ten years away… it was already here. I just wasn’t aware of it yet.” |
Impending world economic collapse brought on by greedy corporate fat-cats who it seems will never see the inside of a jail no matter what they do. Impending societal collapse catalyzed by that economic breakdown and only to be worsened by increasing global climate change, which will cause war, famine and disease on a truly global scale. Superpowers that aren’t super at anything anymore except bombing brown people and warrantless watching of their own citizens, run by politicians that in any case are all in the pockets of those corporate financiers.
The majority of people now earning below the “average” wage, which is only average because the billionaires skew the statistics – worldwide, that 1% own 99% of everything. Peak “cheap” oil heralding the end of the capitalist lifestyle for the 99% who own only 1% of the wealth, but the fat cats still want to wring the last red cent out of an obsolescent energy policy. Riots and revolutions by the disenfranchised, the disenchanted, against the elite – everywhere from Cairo to New York.
Sound familiar? It should. That’s the modern age, but it’s also pure cyberpunk. It’s as if the 1980s pioneers of the genre got the motifs right, but were off on the timeline by about thirty years.
That’s the starting point for this new imagining of cyberpunk for the GURPS 4th edition rules. In this dystopic setting Japan and Europe are just as much in the hole as America, cellphones aren’t the size of house bricks and the Net is for everyone. But other than that, this dystopic future looks a lot like the one imagined by the likes of Gibson, Sterling and Stephenson. Some inner city areas are combat zones filled with crime and poverty, the corporate elite rule the world from their glittering towers, and the foolish or brave few try to change their lives or the course of history. We’ll call those few Edgerunners.
The Corporations control the world from their skyscrapers, enforcing their rule with private cyborg assassins and insider deals at every level for politicos and police. The world economy has crumbled while global warming and environmental pollution have made many places, including large chunks of America, uninhabitable. On the streets, Boostergangs roam a shattered urban wilderness, killing and looting. In the hottest clubs and sleaziest bars it’s a perpetual party, as fashion-model beautiful techies rub biosculpt jobs with battle armoured roadwarriors. The Future never looked so bad.
But you can change it.
You’ve got interface plugs in your wrists, weapons in your arms, HUD targeting in your eyes, bio-chip programs screaming in your brain. You’re wired-in, cyberenhanced, bio-boosted and solid state as you take it to the fatal Edge where only the toughest and coolest can go. It’s dark, it’s raining – and you’re wearing shades, because looking good while you do your thing is almost as important as doing it.
Edgerunners is a setting for role-playing in a dark near future, packed with cutting edge technology and intense urban action. It deals with the horror of humanity mingled with machinery and the fear of what the machine society has become; with the greedy corporations that rule the cities and the corruption within; with just surviving on the Edge.
GURPS is a trademark of Steve Jackson Games, and its rules and art are copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games . All rights are reserved by Steve Jackson Games. This game aid is our original creation of and is released for free distribution, and not for resale, under the permissions granted in the Steve Jackson Games Online Policy.
Edgerunners Comments
Started a gurps cyberpunk game recently and stumbled upon this. Thanks for this inspiration! Great stuff here.
Still one of the standards for how it is done! Glad to see you all still “runnin”
Congrats Chris! Hope it pans out! I’ve considered the prospect of going into teaching, but I think I lack most of the social skills for it, let alone the ability. :P
And yeah, shit just got REAL as far as Mac concerned, and I just know that we would have had to get a mop and bucket for Candy’s mind.
Y’know? Considering it would have been BLOWN!!! :P
But enough laughing at my own jokes. Many congratulations from the whole gang and myself bro! :D
Man, too bad I was not there for Mac’s ascension to divinity. Candyman would have flipped his shit.
In other news, I got a job as a real teacher finally. High School Biology – woot woot!
Grats on making 100 followers!!!
Thanks, Twiggyleaf! We’re still working on cleaning up those few gaps in the main index, but we’re getting there.
Just arbitrarily followed the NEW UPDATES link to the LIGHT BODY ARMOR page and am reminded once again how slick and stylish this whole site is. Brilliant!
This looks great! I’m vaguely familiar with GURPS and I can’t wait to join, though I might need a little help. How do I sign up?
Awesome work! When the CSS went down, I went here first to confirm- that is how essential I feel this site is.
Thanks, Matteus. We’re enjoying how it is all coming together – pretty soon the players will be the ones driving the new scenario storylines based just on what’s already happened to them all.
I am loving how your campaing is being fleshed out =). Keep with the good work.
Thanks, Rusty! You were the very first person other than Langy and myself to fave Edgerunners and your support throughout with helpful comments has been greatly appreciated.
Just adding my humble praise for CotM.
Wow, high praise indeed, Lord_AO and Pils! Thank you. We’ve all been humbled by all the kind words and will-wishes.
I come here often just to silently bask in its coolness. Love the Page!
-Lord_AO
Deepest Darkness
Congratulation for your CotM! As stated by Leonidas300, it’s an awesome page!
Thanks, guys. We’re pretty stoked about the COTM thing ourselves. Now we’ll just have to shoot for COTY.
Thanks Leonidas and, of course, many thanks to my fellow Scotsman, Twigs, for all your support and kind words.
Hey Cernig and Langy
Well done on CotM. I have been admiring your site for some time and your really deserve the accolade. Nice chatty interview too.
twigs
Thanks, Stephen. As you can imagine, we’re entirely stoked about it! It’ll inspire us to try harder, I’m sure.
Loving the fact that you guys made CotM. Grats all around.
Hey man, I’m loving the design you’ve come up with, it’s simple and elegant, and looks great. Well done.
Looking better & better! Cannot wait for what you all do with the CSS rollout- hope that you will share with us hacks!
Best of luck as you start up the campaign. Your main wiki page looks amazing! Those links are about the best I have seen on OP!
Thanks, everyone. We’re living on the shoulders of giants – I stole the bits of code y’all have collected previously in order to get this working, innovating in only a few places. It’s because of you guys – and the people who made OP in the first place – that this site is able to look the way it does.
Any kudos for the site design has to go to my co-GM Langy, twiggyleaf. I write fluff and some crunch, he’s the guy who does the coding and writes the really good crunch. In play, we’ll be alternating the GM-ing between us too, so we both get some playing time and can run different but inter-connected story arcs.
Great looking site! Cool premise! And not just one, but two side navigation bars! Cernig, you are THE BOMB!
This is a terrific campaign page. Every time I think I’ve caught up with the state of the art on Obsidian Portal, someone like you comes along to set the bar even higher. Your images are crisp, the design is classy, and you’ve made the best use of the sidebar I’ve yet seen.
Sweet site design man!
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
You kewl a$$ looking campaign pages make me want to play GURPS, and I never have! Looking awesome!
Impressive! looks great. Much nicer than when I started out … and even though I have a tiny bit of time under my belt (about a month and a half now) I can already tell your’e zipping right past me in site layout.
Congrats, but I couldn’t find any lonks is that something special Steve?
This looks very promising. I will spend the next hour or so looking through all the lonks. Great visual on the homepage.
Have fun
-Steve
Hey Ryan, thanks for the kind words and the fave. Your own campaign looks like a lot of fun and yeah it would be good to exchange ideas. This wiki is a collaboration – myself, Langy and Crakkerjack as co-GMs, and most of the credit for the great looks should go to Langy. Eventually, we’ll be running a Skype game in this setting so if you’re interested in playing…
Regards, C
Thanks for becoming a fan of my campaign! Your campaign page looks stunning so far! Hopefully when we both start ours up soon we can bounce ideas off each other ;)
-ryan