The year is 2048. Humanity's technological advances have reached an all time high. Life threatening diseases which once plagued the world are cured through the use of expensive synthetic concoctions, organs are grown in labratories to be sold off to the masses, cybernetic limbs are becoming common place among the populace. The world is changing, adapting to the constant barrage of life changing innovation and mind blowing discoveries. Huge megacorporations hold influence to sway entire countries. The old world is falling apart, a new age upon the Earth. But is it truly for the better?

Companies wage wars against each other in the shadows, mercenaries and spies committing acts of espionage and outright murder to get a leg up on the competition. Street gangs run the streets of major cities with dangerous and bizzare robotic implants. The world's governments try to hold control while populations boom, resources run scarce and money stuffed businessmen subtly pull their inner strings to get what they want. Protests are becoming more frequent, people clashing over ethics of gene manipulation and other alternations brought onto the human body. Others question the corporations whose influences seem to be never ending, multinational entities who could match their homelands in wealth and military presence. The world really is evolving. Growing. Like a pile of gasoline soaked kindling, just waiting to ignite and turn the awe inspiring civilization that's come so far into a hell hole.

But you never cared about any of that. Or maybe you did. Maybe you still do. But as of now, money speaks to you more than those crack dreams of a perfect world without conflict. The world is rife with conflict now, conflict which people like you can make fortunes on. Be it working for a private security contractor as freelance muscle in some shit hole of a country, or being an elite hacker who cracks vaults and steals data like it's candy in a baby's grip, the world is your oyster. All you need to do is seize the opportunity, make a name for yourself and fill your bank account with credits. Then you can worry about the world burning while you sit on your throne and sip your fine wine. Or lay dead in the streets like so many others who tried to make it big in this game of pawns. Nobody said mercenary work was easy .

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Not the most impressive intro, but it gets the job done. Think of the setting as a mixture of Deus Ex, Metal Gear Rising and a variety of other cyberpunk media. GIant cities that never sleep, massive corportations with more money than most countries can dream of and armies of enhanced soldiers duking it out in the shadows as private mercenaries. Your character will be one such mercenary, an upstart in a rough game who, over the course of the roleplay, will grow to be a dominant force.

A few things on how the role play will work. First and foremost, dice rolls will be a thing. Now, stats won't come into play, but I find the level of challenge and random factor of the dice add something more to the game than just 'i walk in a shoot the guys'. Sometimes they'll screw you, sometimes they'll reward you, but overall they'll make you adapt and help develop the situations your characters find themselves in.

Secondly, a trait system will be in place. You'll start with a couple traits from a list I've made. Some proficiencies, maybe even some implants to get you going. As you progress in whatever you feel the need to do, you'll gain more and your character will grow more advanced.

Thirdly, I intend for no real overarching plot. Your characters are free to explore the world I've made. Wanna join up with another character and form your own mercenary group? Sure, go ahead. Wanna be a lone wolf who focuses on manipulating the underworld to his advantage, be my guest. You're free to craft your own story with your character. You do what you want, I'll tell you how the world reacts.

I've still got a lot to do, but I wanna garner interest before I continue on. Do I have any takers?

Hmmmmm....50/50

Sounds fun! I'd like to hear more about the dice rolls.

I have interest in this.

I have some interest in this. I'd like to see a lot more though before I make any decisions.

Well, depending on what you guys think the dice system will work either as

a) certain tasks have a certain rating to them. For instance, beating down a street thug would require you to roll a 25 or higher on a 1-100 scale. The harder the task, the higher the number for success is. Depending on how high you roll above or below the target number, the better success or worse failure you make. Rolling a 90 on a 50 roll to mow down an enemy with your heavy machine gun would likely result in you hitting one or two of his allies and killing them in the process. Rolling a 10 would likely mean your gun jams and you're forced to take cover to fix it.

b) no matter the task, I always roll a 100. The close to 100 you get, the better you do. The closer to 1, the worse you do. Gives a bit more wiggle room than the other system.

Regardless the system, your traits and cybernetics will always give you a bonus to your roll. Say you run into a guard while sneaking through a lab and he goes to pull his gun on you. You need a 50 to pull yours and shoot first. You roll a 48. But, you have a handgun trait which adds +5 to any rolls you make with a handgun. Your roll is boosted to a 53 and you manage to pull out your gun and shoot him in the arm.

Sound good?

Personally both systems sound fine to me, I'll leave my vote to the others!

Not bad! Reminds me a little of the Apocalypse World system where you roll 2d6 to accomplish something. On a 6 and below, you fail. Simple as that. 7-9 is a weak success. You might only accomplish part of your goal, or you might accomplish it and suffer some negative consequence. A 10+ is a strong success. You reach your goal and maybe even go above and beyond! Stuff like augmentations and traits can add +1 or +2 to your roll, and naturally some things can make you take -1 or -2 to a roll as well.

Both rolling styles would work reasonably well, so I'm cool with either. Rolling with a 100 would simplify things in my opinion. Which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

druple said
Both rolling styles would work reasonably well, so I'm cool with either. Rolling with a 100 would simplify things in my opinion. Which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

Agreed! As long as the modifiers from implants etc. are statistically significant, I'm game.

Another question, would you all prefer to start in one place or would you prefer being spread out? I'm not against focusing the roleplay in one city. Cities like New York, Hong Kong and London are more than huge enough in this timeline.

Focusing on one city would probably be the better option I would think. It makes for more character interaction early on creating rivalries/friendships.

I'm interested!

Interested. Not too much a fan of plot-lacking roleplays, but I'll expand my horizons here, I think.

Well, there's no grand plot, but I intend on throwing storylines at characters. Maybe 'quest lines' of sorts as the characters get more chummy with the corporations who hire them.

Seems interesting. I would love to see what we can do in this world.

I'm totally ready for this to start! (:

Working on a trait list now. CS is up if you wanna start planning a character.

This could be interesting, but I'm going to need a better idea of what's available for me to play. I have an interesting idea for something akin to a street samurai from Shadowrun, but I'm going to need to know how much stuff costs if it's going to be at all feasible.

I'm gonna bump this with a similar question: what's the style and power level here? Are we talking Neuromancer cyberpunk, where everything is dirty neon and cheap plastic or something a little more Shadowrunesque (AR ads everywhere, shiny monorails etc.)?