Relief, Houston - A High Tech Low Life Cyberpunk Story

[Krash]

Houston, the shipping capital of the Americas, a city where almost a billion shipping containers from around the world make their first contact with American soil. The new Los Angeles as it came to be called with refugees from the dried and burnt California fled on the coattails of tech elite that spread like locusts from the barren wastes of decayed silicone valley to greener pastures in Austin, those that could afford the move. Or those so desperate to leave that they sold themselves to massive MNCs that would happily relocate a person to their designated employee cities but I’m getting ahead of myself.

While our story starts in Houston, it takes place in a very specific place. Southwest Houston there’s a parking lot, a very special parking lot, it belonged to a convention center that was flooded and abandoned because of Hurricane Whitney in 2034 before the massive ocean windfarm. This parking lot, situated beneath the S290 Skyway, fostered a new community, weeds that grew through cracked concrete away from the distracted eyes of society. It used to be part of a local city but it only borrowed its name and evolved it as the reason for the city block became its very namesake, Relief.

This tangles mishmash of stalls, vendors, illicit businesses providing whatever a person could need and Ripperdocs that formed originally as a way for Corpo slaves to remove their employee chips that now provide all manner of physical alteration and enhancement. Relief serves as its own city mostly ignored by Houston and run by local muscle that occasionally squabbles. Houston doesn’t care as long as the mess stays local and isn’t too bothersome, only occasionally sends a Blue to investigate when some Gonk bragged too loud about pirating a Corp Lootship. Relief is probably the closest thing to a grassroots collective in this hellscape of concrete and asphalt. And this is where your life begins.

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I enjoy writing stories where things are organic and it's just as likely for someone to add a lore element as myself and we collectively learn about the world together and what lore elements I have will spill out in bits and pieces as I add to the world and play NPCs. What you need to know about the world is that it's the near future and we are facing the results of climate change and technological advances. It's a cyberpunk story at it's heart as I draw from books and movies that I love while also trying to interpret a view of Houston, TX in the future. A bit difficult since I don't live there but I'll give it a try! I post slowly but will strive for a post every week/two and generally expect/encourage 2-3 paragraphs, this won't be a high speed thread and I don't know how long it will last just that I hope to have an interesting time :)

[RisingRobin]

Seems like this could be cool. Color me intrigued

[Gisk]

I may be interested!

And regardless of whether I join or not, I have some lore to offer. I wrote this for another game, but never got to use it, so I thought I'd posit it here.

Ronin

Transient street samurai, somewhat inspired by the Nomads in Cyberpunk 2077. They disdain both corporations and the rule of law, both of which they view as irredeemably corrupt. This obviously is not an uncommon attitude even amongst ordinary citizens. The Ronin set themselves apart with exactly how far they're willing to take their refusal to participate.

It is exceptionally rare for a Ronin to own land or property. More commonly they will squat in old buildings, or take up residence in out of the way places. They do not make use of banks for any reason whatsoever, to do so would be grounds for ostracization by any and all Ronin who still keep to their code. They sometimes carry cash out of necessity, but are known for being strangely careless with it; either they will lose it, or even just give it away when their need has ended.

They will only purchase anything from what they dub "Individuals," an ill defined term with nearly as many interpretations as there are Ronin. As a result, any corporate owned establishment(and many privately owned ones) will bar them from entry, under the assumption that they intend to steal. This is not an unfounded expectation.

Their survival depends on two abilities that corporations have discouraged in the general populace. The first is the knowledge of how to grow(and very occasionally hunt for) food. Ronin maintain secret gardens all over the world, and guard them jealously. Very few people outside of this group are even aware of the practice. And to this day not a single person has entered a Ronin garden and lived to tell about it.

The second ability is the repair and creation of their own equipment. Ronin can be spotted easily by their garb and gear. Everything they own is out of date, off-brand, or just plain homemade. They can be distinguished from your garden variety pauper by the cleanliness and good repair that they keep everything in. Gear is expertly repaired, their vehicles(though absurdly old in most cases) run like new, or even better sometimes. Their clothes are patched or darned artfully, often improving the look rather than detracting from it.
They also remove all brand logos or iconography from anything they own. It is not enough to cover or hide it, it must be cut away.

The Ronin have one of the few ongoing blade making traditions. Inspired of course by Japanese sword making, it is updated and improved with modern metallurgy. A Ronin sword looks much like a traditional katana(or wakazashi, tanto etc), though occasionally with some odd quirks in the color of the metal, or the construction of the hilt, owing to their penchant for using scavenged and recycled materials. Though their swords are unmarked(per the Ronin Code) most Ronin can spot one of their own swords by style, and may even recognize the smith who made it.

As far as more modern weapons are concerned, there are some gunsmiths among them, but it is more common for Ronin to carry antique fire arms(with logos and serial numbers filed off).

No single group, no matter how well organized(and the truth is that the Ronin are barely organized at all) can produce everything that they need. As mentioned, they will use money when necessary, but greatly prefer to barter in goods and services.

Goods and services

Any given Ronin only knows so much, and won't be able to offer everything, but if one is polite(and not already known to be an enemy) they will usually try to find someone who can offer what you need.

Rice wine, typically made from rice they cultivate in their hidden gardens. It is generally considered to be quite good.

Good, real vegetables. It is actually quite rare that they will offer this, as they rely heavily on it for survival(they generally refuse to eat food produced by corporations), but if a crop produces a particularly good surplus, or if the need is great enough, it does happen sometimes.

Repair of just about anything.

Medical services(either home remedies or stolen medications).

If you are a true friend to the Ronin, they might offer a sword, but this is a great honor and quite rare. Generally speaking they try very hard to keep their swords out of outsider hands.

There are many clans within the larger Ronin community, and some(including the FBI) liken them to an alliance of gangs. The truth is that a clan is much more akin to an extended family, and while most Ronin are at least technically a criminal of some sort, few of them do more than petty civil disobedience, or just being a general nuisance.

Ronin will accept those who shun the corporate lifestyle, and as a result there are some Ronin from all walks of life. However, most are born into their clan. A born Ronin and a convert can often be easily distinguished as those born to their clan will only receive cybernetics from a Ronin ripperdoc.

Ronin cybernetics are simple and sturdy. They don't interface with any other computers as they use a wholly unique operating system not seen outside of the clans.

Ronin's Code

[notes made in brackets are observations and interpretations by Ronin elder Jin Corso]

First, we must never engage in the buying and selling of money. Neither borrowing nor lending.
Second, we exchange currency for nothing, except from Individuals.[there are some who ignore the second clause and never utilize money, but this isn't feasible for most, and the exception exists for a reason]
Third, we must not wear or hold the marks of those who created the things we use. Nor should we mark those things that we make with our own hands. [no one should hold ownership over a thing except the one who keeps and maintains it]
Fourth, we must not take from the Individual. [an "Individual" is one who acts only for themselves(excepting to help family, friends, or community), and so the property of a corporation is free to take and use as one pleases, provided they follow The Third when doing so]
Fifth, we must endeavor to cause as little harm to Individuals as we can.

Slang terms for the Ronin include "sword bum" and "rino." The latter being a portmanteau of rice and wino, a reference to the rice wine they commonly sell.

There are some Ronin who are militant even to the point of terrorist action, but the vast majority are more akin to strange, orthodox monks.

[Krash]

@TheNoCoKid
Appreciate the look! I really struggle with finding the balance of how much information to share during the OOC set up and in the IC itself, I really appreciate world building that asks the audience to really ask questions about what's going on... but not be so confused that they don't enjoy it. I'm a bit of a masochist lol.

@Gisk
Nice! Thank you much for sharing, idk how much of that I'll use as I'm trying to avoid some of the Nipponphilia that's prevalent in basic Cyberpunk but the core ideas match up well and make sense, even integrate into the core idea of Relief itself.

[Gisk]

Well if you want to move away from weeb stuff, they can pretty easily be converted away from there. Honestly, all you'd need to do is change the name and take out the katanas and we're already there.

EDIT: hell, this takes place in Texas, we can have them have a hard on for old school guns instead.

[Krash]

@Gisk

I'm trying to imagine a future refugee crisis and exodus from California, I know California has a pretty heavy Asian population as well with China, Japan, Korea, and even Taiwan having sizeable communities and wondering what some of that combining with Texas might be, there will definitely be some elements that come in and it won't be absent of Asian culture at all. I just don't want it dominating the scene for lack of a better word. I was def already toying with how that idea would change in story.

[Yam I Am]

>from the dried and burnt California fled on the coattails of tech elite that spread like locusts from the barren wastes of decayed silicone valley to greener pastures in Austin, those that could afford the move.

As someone who's lived in Austin for 24 years, I think it is very kind of you to think that this place won't go up in flames due to our severe drought cycles and like we didn't just have massive wildfires that ravaged the entire north side of town about 10 years ago.

Now as for the actual setting of Houston proper, I can give some decent knowledge of the place, owing to the fact that I have a ton of friends and some family who have lived there for a while.

@Gisk

I'm trying to imagine a future refugee crisis and exodus from California, I know California has a pretty heavy Asian population as well with China, Japan, Korea, and even Taiwan having sizeable communities and wondering what some of that combining with Texas might be, there will definitely be some elements that come in and it won't be absent of Asian culture at all. I just don't want it dominating the scene for lack of a better word. I was def already toying with how that idea would change in story.

@Krash

There are some pretty good-sized Chinese and Vietnamese communities in Houston. It's Chinatown is a decent size, but it's more of an "Asiatown" for the entire Asian-American diaspora than anything specifically related to Chinese-Americans (If you think racism might have something to do with that, congratulations for using your brain and welcome to Texas). Most of the Vietnamese came there during the mid-70s and have stuck around since. You get occasional groups of Koreans and Japanese, but again, nothing i'd really consider out of the ordinary for

About Houston's layout: It's fucking disperse. If you want cyberpunk-styled megacomplexes and giant concrete spires, Houston is not your place. All those pretty skyscrapers you see in those pictures of Houston's skyline? Yeeeeep, those are all office buildings. You aren't gonna find too many high-rises over in H-town: It's a lot of like 2 or 3-story apartment complexes that look like Motel 6's and then a bunch of neighborhoods from around there, all stemming off from the absolute congestion nightmare that is Houston's infrastructure. Seriously. Driving in Houston should be standard practice for measuring someone's blood pressure.

Now, there is a decently interesting take you could spin this all with Houston's economy: A huge part of Houston's historic economy was how all the refineries and petroleum companies were located there. But if there's a huge shock and the oil industry is going to shit with a huge push for electric stuff and alternative energy, then all of a sudden Houston's staying power is thrown immediately out the window and it becomes another Detroit. So you could do some cool stuff where like abandoned refineries are used as hideouts and marketplaces, and there's all these basically-abandoned office high-rises downtown that have been basically converted into squatters' communities, maybe run by the local slum lord.

[Dinh AaronMk]

Don't do Texas just do Minneapolis you goons. It's got a dope skyway making downtown navigable for harsh weather and is a major finance center in the mid-west already.

It's a low-key sleeper hit

[Krash]

@Yam I Am
I appreciate the input! I borrowed the name and general location from Alief just South of, what seemed to be, the focus of the Asian area. And my primary thought process was that, according to my Googling, the Houston Seaport handles the most foreign freight in all of North America if not the entirety of the Americas. I combined that idea with the failed Nicaraguan Grand Canal plan of 2020 and the proposed massive gulf windfarms that would help buffer hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. I'm going out on a real flimsy limb with the thought that buffered hurricanes would equate to increased rainfall. All of this is to kind of avoid the idea of Los Angeles Cyberpunk. I could see a hoard of warehouses and fresh buildings entering Houston similar to the endless farms of California logistics warehouses if LA/Southern California were to become practically uninhabitable over the next 20 years.

I could really boil all of this down to "non-LA." Last time I ran this it was in a fictional region. Maybe that would be best so I don't run into a situation where someone's reality conflicts with a fiction and it can't be compromised.

"... So you could do some cool stuff where like abandoned refineries are used as hideouts and marketplaces, and there's all these basically-abandoned office high-rises downtown that have been basically converted into squatters' communities, maybe run by the local slum lord. "

That is, at its core, the essence of this story more or less, rundown abandoned buildings being repurposed for new things.

[Gisk]

I agree that using a made up region might be better.

That said, this is the future, after a mass exodus from the west coast, so we can say just about any damn thing about what the area looks like now, you know?

Can I ask what kind of tone or style this game is aiming for?

Like, will there be a lot of action and violence, or will it tend towards more slice of life and drama?

[Krash]

@Gisk
Honestly might be for the best. Less Cyberpunk 2077 and more Blade Runner, Alita, Ghost in the Shell, Neuromancer etc. A balance of both while leaning more on slice of life. There will definitely be gunfire and explosions but that won't be the focus. I don't intend for everyone to be together as a single group but if that happens then I won't resist it. I don't want to hardline what people can and can't do and will try to accommodate all characters and ideas.

[Gisk]

Well that all sounds pretty great to me.

Can I ask what elements of 2077 you're steering away from?

[Krash]

@Gisk

Well I haven't played it since the first month it dropped so my memory goes back to that buuuuuut
-no nuance to the world outside of nonstop combat/gang violence
-no signs of a polluted world, sky is light blue, rain is light and pleasant. Closest thing was trash on the streets.
-dramatically oversexual. I didn't mind it but I just wished I could dial it down so other things could blossom more.

The nuggets of fun dispersed throughout were wonderful but not enough. I want to buy it again to revisit it now that it's been updated more and mods are available but... not yet lol.

[Gisk]

Gotcha!

I'd recommend the anime, but it's definitely a lot of the same. Though I do think it has a great story.

[Krash]

@Gisk I def want to check the show and am not against the violence at all. I just wanted more from the game lol.

On an unrelated note I'll be working on the OC, and updating the lore bits a bit. Tbh I like the location as it's forming in my mind but it will no longer take place in Houston but in a fictional location allowing for people to break from their preconceptions on the location and help in developing the world a bit more uniquely.

I would say I'm aiming for the weekend but I still feel like crap from whatever non-Covid virus got me so we'll see.

[False Prophet]

Ok, as a native Houstonian and scifi lover, I gotta join-

[False Prophet]

>from the dried and burnt California fled on the coattails of tech elite that spread like locusts from the barren wastes of decayed silicone valley to greener pastures in Austin, those that could afford the move.

As someone who's lived in Austin for 24 years, I think it is very kind of you to think that this place won't go up in flames due to our severe drought cycles and like we didn't just have massive wildfires that ravaged the entire north side of town about 10 years ago.

Now as for the actual setting of Houston proper, I can give some decent knowledge of the place, owing to the fact that I have a ton of friends and some family who have lived there for a while.

<Snipped quote by Krash>

There are some pretty good-sized Chinese and Vietnamese communities in Houston. It's Chinatown is a decent size, but it's more of an "Asiatown" for the entire Asian-American diaspora than anything specifically related to Chinese-Americans (If you think racism might have something to do with that, congratulations for using your brain and welcome to Texas). Most of the Vietnamese came there during the mid-70s and have stuck around since. You get occasional groups of Koreans and Japanese, but again, nothing i'd really consider out of the ordinary for

About Houston's layout: It's fucking disperse. If you want cyberpunk-styled megacomplexes and giant concrete spires, Houston is not your place. All those pretty skyscrapers you see in those pictures of Houston's skyline? Yeeeeep, those are all office buildings. You aren't gonna find too many high-rises over in H-town: It's a lot of like 2 or 3-story apartment complexes that look like Motel 6's and then a bunch of neighborhoods from around there, all stemming off from the absolute congestion nightmare that is Houston's infrastructure. Seriously. Driving in Houston should be standard practice for measuring someone's blood pressure.

Now, there is a decently interesting take you could spin this all with Houston's economy: A huge part of Houston's historic economy was how all the refineries and petroleum companies were located there. But if there's a huge shock and the oil industry is going to shit with a huge push for electric stuff and alternative energy, then all of a sudden Houston's staying power is thrown immediately out the window and it becomes another Detroit. So you could do some cool stuff where like abandoned refineries are used as hideouts and marketplaces, and there's all these basically-abandoned office high-rises downtown that have been basically converted into squatters' communities, maybe run by the local slum lord.

@Yam I Am

you hit the nail on the head with this one. Houston is definitely a very spawl-y city. It has weird pockets of suburbia meshed right next to office buildings and strip malls, but they're really nothing impressive to look at. I don't currently live there (sometimes I visit for a few months), but you can really go forever and a day without setting foot in downtown if you don't work there. It does, also, take fuckin' forever to drive everywhere despite the absolutely massive highways/freeways/whatever.

It also does have a pretty decent asian community. There's probably several, but I'm familiar with the Bellaire area. However, it also has a sizeable Indian population, as well, which might actually be pretty interesting. Of course, it being Houston the other predominant culture is Latino/hispanic (I'm one of them).

This actually gives me an idea...I have a southeast asian-latino character who is affectionately known as "Tex". He's also a street racer. From personal experience of formerly living by busy roads, Houston has a street racing problem. I think he'd work pretty well in this setting

[Gisk]

I think we might be dropping Houston as the setting, to avoid it being too different from what locals might know.

Though the game will be so far in the future, and after major disastors drive people east, I think it could still work.

[Krash]

@False Prophet@Gisk

You're not wrong. I still like the core idea of Houston but to get away from the problems associated with differing beliefs on the future of a city I'm moving away from it to a completely fictional location which will brutally plagiarize the limited scope of what I imagine Houston to look like in 20 years following multiple climate disasters that are being exploited for continued profits.

Prophet, our understandings of the night life are very similar and I honestly feel like the sprawl would still work. If anything it integrates with my idea as more buildings simply fill the expanse of suburban sprawl that needs to be rebuilt following fictional Hurricane Whitney and the downtown core becomes something of a corp sector, hardened and heavily policed.

[False Prophet]

I think we might be dropping Houston as the setting, to avoid it being too different from what locals might know.

Though the game will be so far in the future, and after major disastors drive people east, I think it could still work.

@Gisk

I'm personally not a huge stickler. You get something wrong, whatever. Hell, I'm not even an expert on my own city. I like the idea of Houston, though, mostly for nostalgia sake. Houston isn't a city you'd think of when somebody mentions "cyberpunk", but that's what makes it so interesting. Also, you're right about the whole future thing- tines change.