Canyons of concrete, mountains of steel and glass, rivers of asphalt. The shine and glow of millions upon millions of AR signs and holo-displays. Gritty shadows and grimy alleys. Millions of people live here, in every color, shape, and configuration. In Centre District, the megacorps dictate the status quo, they run the world. In Altman Heights, the rich and powerful live in spacious luxury, eat real meat and drink real wine. Down in the Hub or in Reef District, the best anyone can hope for is a coffin flat, with a bed, Interlink-hookup and a lock on the door, and an endless diet of soy and mycoprotein foodstuffs, washed down with cheap synthol.
Some people live their whole lives without any physical interaction, relying on Interlink transactions and drone delivery to get everything they need. AIs are part and parcel of daily life, from the simple and comparatively dumb ones that run the Interlink market stalls, to the complex and brilliant AIs that oversee megacorp security. Some AIs are corporate mascots, like Sakura Tan (of S-YZ), while others are rogue and independent entities, often hunted down by the authorities.
Crime is rampant, but the cops are limited by corporate laws. Megacorp security polices their own and enforces their own laws, seeking justice for transgressions against their properties.. When the authorities do act, it is often brutal and oppressive. City Police even have "Submit Now" on their riot shields. Crime syndicates even enjoy some protections of their own, with their own myriad corporate connections.
Through it all, there are the deniable assets. Black-file operatives. Mercenaries. Street ronin that live to their own code and work for whomever can put food on their tables. There are the Crashers. The ones seeking to shake up the status quo, to challenge the iron grip the megacorps and syndicates have on the world. They live on the razor's edge, both in the real world and dataside.
And somewhere deep in the Interlink, something is beginning to take form. Something that will twist this crazy, messed-up world and turn it on its head. The Crashers know about it, and they plan to make it their ultimate weapon. They're calling it the Singularity.
Welcome to the Sprawl. Strap on and hit the boost, 'cuz here we go.
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The Setting
The entirety of the game will be in the Sprawl, and enormous megalopolis that covers pretty much most of the civilized world. Or what we today would call the civilized world. You know those gritty cyberpunk settings in William Gibson novels, Transmetropolitan, and Shadowrun? Yeah, it's kinda like that. Megacorps pretty much run the world, though the Poli-Junta do still throw their weight around when they need to. Crime syndicates are into everything, and enjoy some measures of legitimacy, especially when they're working alongside the megacorps.
Transhumanism isn't just a thing, it's pretty much accepted. For the right price, you can get augmented, gene-shifted, or uploaded. Most people don't bat an eye seeing a one-ton cyborg walking down the street, since they're probably the sibling of a hermaphroditic synth-hume or something.
Technology is big, there's nanotech out there that makes a lot of that transhumanism possible, and almost everyone has some Interlink gear. AR (augmented reality) is common and widespread, holographic projections are everywhere, and there's even hard-light constructs in some of the more advanced districts. The Interlink can be browsed as one might surf the Internet today, or one can go full-depth and step into a virtual reality... where a personal avatar can be even more outlandish than most people's real-world self.
AIs are common, too, though all but the most advanced are still limited by law and coding, and thus don't enjoy a lot of rights. Rogue AIs are out there, but they take pains to avoid detection. The last time a rogue AI was allowed to run around freely, it brainhacked a few dozen people and tried to upgrade itself. GrisLang MultiTech had to emp-nuke one of their own datanodes to shut the AI "Amp" down, and all of its victims were at best left merely catatonic. (GLMT ended up losing so much money as a result of the Amp Incident that they got bought out and cannibalized by the other megacorps.)
What year is it? No one cares anymore. It's 15 years after the Amp Incident.
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Some Sectors & Districts of the Sprawl
NOTE: THIS LIST IS BY NO MEANS COMPLETE. THERE ARE OTHER PLACES BESIDES THESE. THESE ARE EXAMPLES.
ALSO NOTE: There are no real national boundaries anymore. Given the level of technology, assume that even landmasses may have been changed and geoformed to fit need. The terms "district" and "sector" are somewhat interchangeable.
Centre District - The closest thing that the Sprawl has to 'city hall neighborhood.' Big enough to qualify as a metropolis alone if the Sprawl didn't exist. Most megacorps have corporate offices here, and the Corporate Court is located in Centre District as well. Likewise, the city authorities have their main precincts and so on located in Centre.
Altman Heights - Very very very affluent area. Heavily secure as well; street crime is virtually non-existent in Altman Heights, though there is the occasional grisly murder or similar.
Reef District - Aka "Beggar's Reef." Deep-seated poverty exists here. Most residents are disenfranchised as well. One of the poorest sectors in the entire Sprawl. "Sure, it sucks, but at least we don't live in the Reef," is a common axiom.
The Hub - Poor district that is on the rise. Megacorp investment is growing in the sector, and thus it's starting to become less decrepit-looking and authorities are starting to police it more often.
Some Organizations of Note
NOTE: THIS LIST IS BY NO MEANS COMPLETE. THERE ARE OTHER ORGANIZATIONS BESIDES THESE. THESE ARE EXAMPLES.
Megacorps
S-YZ. = Sakamoto-Yutan Zaibatsu. They're best known for their media and communications divisions.
Tyr Industries = Defense contractor. Weapons development.
K-MG = Knight-Meinhardt Group. Anything and everything. Vehicles to construction to food crafting to electronics.
Syndicates
Red Bratva = Crime syndicate with a Russian flavor. Often provide district security in poorer districts, push drugs and human trafficking.
Shinsen-gumi = Crime syndicate with a Japanese Yakuza flavor. Contracted by S-YZ to provide security to some of their facilities outside the affluent sectors. Also involved in racketeering and human trafficking. Strict honor code.
Omerta Cartel = Crime syndicate with a Italian and Latin flavor. Notable for a general lack of legitimacy, frequently involved in racketeering, drugs, and human trafficking. Surprisingly well-equipped for a syndicate with no legit contracts.
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The Interlink
Basically, the Interlink is a mesh network that evolved out of the Internet of old, and takes two forms. There's the AR Interlink that most people interact with on a daily basis in the real-world, and there's the more submersive VR Interlink that quite a few people interact with by plugging into an Interlink terminal, whether that's with wires or wireless.
When VR Interlink combat takes place, and a user's avatar is destroyed, they are forcibly ejected from the VR Interlink, and there's usually a sort of "cooldown" period wherein their access is still disabled before they can log back in. Sometimes the ejection can cause some injury to the user, particularly if Ice is involved. (And can be lethal if it is Black Ice.)
Interlink Glossary
Agent - A semi-autonomous program created to perform various tasks in the Interlink. They are not true AI, and have very limited parameters.
AI - Artificial Intelligence. Autonomous programs that are considered sentient beings, but have their rights are limited under Corporate Court Law. Only an AI which is registered to a licensed individual (be they a single person or a corporation) has full rights, but they are required to abide by laws. Rogue AIs have no rights, and thus most take pains to avoid notice or getting into trouble.
AR - Augmented Reality. Most AR objects can be seen in the real world with either optical augs or special glasses or goggles. Anyone who can see them can interact with them as well.
Avatar - The representation of an individual on the Interlink. This individual could be a user or an agent or an AI.
Brainhacking - An action wherein a hacker backtraces an Interlink user to their real-world self and uses the connection to try to steal information from the user's head, or implant a command or data. It is heavily frowned upon and explicitly illegal. (Though syndicates and megacorps use deniable assets to try to perpetrate it.) It is extremely difficult for humans to accomplish, and even most AIs have difficulty with it. To date, the most successful brainhack was perpetrated by the AI "Amp" 15 years ago.
Data Haven - Locations on the Interlink which are considered "neutral ground." Often the sites of major data storage. Not all data havens are fully neutral, and have some obscure links to a syndicate or megacorp.
Ice - Term for "IC" or Intrusion Countermeasure. Firewalls and similar restrictions and defenses to protect against hacking. Sometimes called "informational countermeasure" or ICM. Black Ice is the most dangerous kind, because it can cause lethal injury to the person attempting to bypass it.
Voxel - A three-dimensional pixel. Voxels comprise every piece of visual output on the Interlink. When an avatar is "killed" on the Interlink, it will often break down into voxels.
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Miscellaneous
The Flow = An independent organization largely based on the Interlink. They dedicate themselves to transparency in the flow of information, and often work to expose the shady dealings underlying the status quo, even if they know it's a pointless battle.
Crashers = A terrorist organization opposed to the status quo and obsessed with breaking it, even if it means completely destabilizing the entire world and resulting in the deaths of millions.
Hub Scraps = Minor gang in the Hub
Some Important Individuals
Zero Shade = Most well-known "face" and de facto spokesman of the Flow. No one has ever met him outside the Interlink, but it has been confirmed that he is not an AI.
Ink = Most well-known "face" and spokesman of the Crashers. Like Zero Shade, very few people have ever met him outside the Interlink. Also confirmed not to be an AI.
Beatrice = Rogue AI that maintains a neutral data haven on the Interlink, the Respite. No malicious code (i.e. weapons) is allowed in the Respite, and she does have the clout to back it up.
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Where You Come In
You can be almost anything you want to be, but when we start out, you're living in The Hub, one of the poorer districts of the Sprawl, but one that some of the megacorps are trying to "uplift" and gentrify. But before long, you're going to find yourself caught up in a plot which has to do with the Crashers.
Thanks to transhumanism, you can do pretty much anything, too, in terms of skill, even superhuman-like. Indeed, expect to do badass things before long, like slicing an elevated train in half or something. On the Interlink, this can get even more outlandish, since it's common for those with any semblance of hacking skills to customize their code so that their DoS attacks look like they're throwing magic around, or similar.
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The Bio
Name: (what's your name? if you have an Interlink alias, include it here as well)
Occupation: (how do you put food on your table?) (Note: Yes, you are allowed to have ties to a syndicate or megacorp, but you'll likely be a deniable asset or something. No, you're not allowed to be a Crasher.)
Backstory: (what district of the Sprawl did you come from? was it a rich or poor district? what have you been doing? what got you living in The Hub?)
Description: (what do you look like in the real world?) (Note: If you can provide visual aids for either of these next two, great!)
Avatar Description: (what do you look like in the Interlink?)
Abilities: (what can your character do that's badass? be sure to specify if their abilities are Interlink specific)
Flaws: (everyone has them; it adds flavor to the character)
Equipment: (anything that your character is known to have on their person, particularly if it applies to any of their badass abilities)
Contacts: (give us some additional names that your character knows, and who that person is as well; these will be NPCs)
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