So, based on the rate that these sheets are coming in along with the fact that there appears to be sizable interest, I have decided that the final date for posting character sheets will be the 2nd of September, GMT-5, Eastern Time.
I hope that this date will allow everyone a healthy amount of time to finish up their character sheets and brush up on any mistakes they may have made.
Affiliation: Former officer of the New Malaccan Authority, the official state sanctioned police force of New Malacca. Currently retired as a Char Kway Teow street hawker in the Canton Canal, albeit with some connections to some unsavory groups.
Appearance: More metal than man, Marcus is a curmudgeonly and ancient octogenarian who looks the part unlike most of his other contemporaries who've used gene editing and telomeric enhancement sessions to stave off the inexorable tide of time. He is distinct in a city where the old are rare and the young are plenty.
From an up close glance, it's easy to see that Marcus is indeed old. Liver spots dot his wrinkled face with sagging cheeks pulling away at his sun-tanned skin. His bloodshot eyes are speckled with dots with jagged grey scleroses and a minor twitch in his left. Most of his lower right jaw and right face has been haphazardly replaced by cybernetic counterparts that look as if they were bolted on to his skin. The rest of his body hasn't been spared either with ceramic plates and circuitry having been welded into him randomly with no pattern. In spite of this, Marcus looks spry as ever and possesses a stout, strong build for a man of his age.
In the public, Marcus favors a simplistic poly-ester singlet, an apron and moth-eaten sandals that give him a grandfatherly look. In his more private affairs, Marcus wears a beanie along with a long-sleeved dark business trench coat and grey slacks.
//YOUR SOUL
PERSONAL GOAL: Marcus is primarily concerned with the economic wellbeing, safety and happiness of his family in New Malacca, no matter the cost to himself or others outside his family. He has no illusions about the illicit activities that he participates in and makes no excuses for himself. However, this is at odds with his code of honour and decency which has been tempered and tested over many decades.
LIKES:
- Curry Laksa - Naps - Cooking - Professionalism - Hanging out with his grandchildren - Mahjong
REPUTE: Marcus has two reputations to uphold: one as a kindly, old grandpa who makes an honest living on the Canton Canal and another as a no nonsense cleaner and investigator who will do any job for the right price.
In the public’s eye, Marcus is one of the foundations of the daily lunch rush at the Canton Canal with numerous workers and corpos scrambling to get a plate of Char Kuey Teow from his stall.
In the eye of the criminal underworld and his clients, Zhang San is an efficient and reliable problem fixer that may stick to old habits and traditions but always gets the job done.
HEEL: Marcus harbors extreme love for his grandchildren and will sacrifice anything to provide for them. Family is the most important thing in Marcus’s mind and he will not settle for anything lesser other than the outcome that benefits his family the most. Threatening his immediate family is a good way to convince him to work for you up until he decides to put a bullet in your head.
CODE: Marcus is morally flexible and possesses a sense of understated compassion and honor that’s downright endangered within New Malacca. He’ll help those he feels that are in need. He’ll spare people even though they were witnesses. It’s a miracle that Marcus has managed to survive this long in New Malacca. Perhaps, it’s his way of making amends or to fulfill some twisted sense of redemption. Over the years, his compassion has evolved from a rarity to a nuisance that bites him in the back. The next person that he spares might shoot him in the back after all.
QUIRKS:Marcus is oddly fond of whistling dainty tunes in public to amuse himself. During long stakeout operations or when on the job, Marcus can always be found sipping from a hot thermos full of ginseng tea to pass the time.
//YOUR PAST
Part of the first wave of migrants that came to New Malacca, Xui Lin was part of a Taiwanese family that had come to New Malacca to escape the job insecurity and wage cuts that had befell Taiwan’s economy. Xui Lin worked in his father's syncrete paving business for most of his childhood and fled away from his nest to join the New Malaccan Authority, , a group of PMCs that had been given official jurisdiction to enforce the law in New Malacca. Xui Lin adopted the name of Marcus and began working as a officer, moving his way up to Lieutenant.
Over 30 years of faithful service came to an end one fateful Wednesday. During a patrol, a IED blew up in Marcus’s face when he opened up the back of a suspicious looking jet ski. Waking up in a hospital later, Marcus’s body was completely ravaged with most of his internal organs being perforated not to mention the fact that all but one of his limbs were completely mangled. His health insurance wasn't enough to cover the staggering cost of the implants. Appeals to his healthcare providers failed. Pensions couldn't cover the cost. He was expected to be another body in the pile that had built up New Malacca to its heights.
Therefore, Marcus eventually resorted to criminal means to settle his debts. His talents accrued from twenty years in the New Malaccan Authority served him well in the criminal underworld and thus the trademark of Zhang San was born, an alias for Marcus to use to shield him from any potential blow-back that he might suffer. For the last two decades, Marcus has been accumulating a trust fund for both of his grandchildren to receive when he finally passes away along with staving off the worse of his chronic illnesses caused by the degradation of his cybernetics.
//YOUR PERSON
ATTRIBUTES:
Getting Down and Dirty: Marcus is a skilled marksman and knows how to handle himself in a shootout as well as in close quarters brawl. Due to his advanced age, he usually relies on more dirty tricks to gain an upper hand on the more youthful.
A Hunch: Marcus is a skilled investigator, partly thanks to his training within the New Malaccan Authority and the fact that no one expects an old grandpa to be capable of such things like noting down the different shift times of a parking booth.
Do It By The Books: Being part of a law enforcement PMC doesn’t just teach you to shoot things first and ask questions later. Marcus possesses a wide encyclopedic breadth of knowledge about rules, procedures and the inner general workings of modern law enforcement within New Malacca along with a decades worth of knowledge on how to conduct criminal operations.
BODY MODS:
Haoyang 2040 Full-Body Enhancement Package - Haoyang 2040 Full-Body Enhancement Package - More for life support rather than functionality, this ancient suite of cybernetic augmentations, ranging from limb replacements, pacemakers, inbuilt artificial myofibers and respiratory assistors, is what has kept Marcus alive all these years. Marcus’s enhancements allow him to hit faster, move faster and take more physical punishment than a man of his age could without suffering severe damage. A disadvantage of these ageing augs is that Marcus is required to consume a heavy amount of immunosuppressant drugs in order to ensure that his elderly body does not reject his augmentations.
EQUIPMENT: Gao-Zhong Dragoon HA-12: Sometimes, actions speak louder than words, or in this case, getting your head blown off will. Once the standard issue sidearm of the New Malaccan Authority, the Dragoon has been phased out in lieu of more cheaper models of firearms. The Dragoon is a semi-automatic heavy pistol chambered to fire a custom modified 12mm teflon-coated gyrojet round capable of penetrating through most modern subdermal body armor. Marcus's model comes with an integrated silence to reduce the deafening noise it makes to manageable levels.
Monofilament Garrotte: When you need to strangle a fool stealthily, except no substitute but this 10 inch long boron-carbon hybrid nanotube garotte.
Disposable Burnerphones: The old school method of ensuring that someone doesn't trace you. Marcus has a pack of these to ensure that whatever call he makes will be private. Permanently private.
HongYang Vacuum Thermos: Able to keep any substance at room temperature for more than 24 hours thanks to its patented hydraulic seal vacuum tech coupled with a biometric security system. Marcus mostly uses it to store his favorite ginseng soups.
Very slight, pedantic nitpick but could you change your energy-based weapons to something more ballistic in mind? The majority of the population still wields ballistic weapons with direct energy weapons being in the prototypical stage.
How many hackers are we having? Our roles might overlap a lot...
You actually bring up a valid point. This roleplay does not have any predesignated roles that players fill. My message to everyone is not to focus on competing for a singular archetype and just focus on making your own character. My hope is that every character sheet posted will be distinct enough from one another.
On a side note, I've decided that the maximum number of players I will be accepting for this RP is approximately 6. The final due date for posting character sheets hasn't been decided as of yet.
Working on a street rat turned cat burglar. Where do you want us to submit character sheets? Here, or PMed to you?
In the thread, of course. If you feel uncomfortable, then, PM it to me. If you PM it to me first, then, you’ll just post it in the CS section if I’ve approved it.
The OOC is a little rough but if you wanna start building your characters, now's the time to do so. I've not made a formal date for character submission yet but by all means, please continue to ask questions if you are confused.
After decades of border disputes, military standoffs and proxy wars between China and the ASEAN coalition of South-East Asian countries, the Dark Crash of 2035 was the death knell of the Chinese mainland power structure. Having transitioned most of its infrastructure to A.I firmware, the massive EMP effectively knocked out most of China’s economic and social capabilities. The civil war between the ROC and PROC, along with internal strife and corruption compounding the rot, only served to sink the knife deeper. With their position untenable and most of South East Asia’s infrastructure left unscathed by the global cataclysm, China’s political bargaining power was a pinprick of its former self. All other options exhausted, the only choice left was that of a diplomatic route with ASEAN. The negotiations almost failed when Taiwan and the Autonomous Region of Hong Kong were involved as parties but the Chinese government reluctantly agreed.
In the year that followed, negotiations followed more easily given that China’s political power was fractured and the economic prosperity of ASEAN's member countries outweighing that of China. Therefore, the SESE (South East Special Economic) Free Trade Zone was drawn up to allow a single exclusive economic trade zone which every country had the ability to use. When China dissolved its disingenuous territorial and historical claims, the SESE was signed almost immediately with countries bound to never once again engage in direct warfare with one another. Unfortunately, having been moderated by parties bought out by corporate interests, the SESE gave a huge leeway. Thus, the wars in the SESE shifted from international tensions to outright corporate warfare.
The effects were immediate. Corporations almost immediately made investments in the region in the form of natural gas mining, oil drilling and the building of aquaplexes - new habitable cities that were the new trend given the irradiated nature of most major cities after the Dark Crash and the lopsided battle against rising sea levels. Now, the SESE is a landscape of corporate wars, floating aqua plexes and piracy, a darwinistic terrarium of growth and greed.
1) West Bengal Port - The primary docking and processing bay for all arrivals from the East Indian Ocean and one of the densely populated areas in New Malacca outside of the Tradeplex. The section is dominated by a large number of Indians and Pakistanis who fled the region during the Kashmir Inferno along with the odd Bangladeshi. Most of New Malacca’s blue collar workers and laborers live here due to the low income rent.
2) Hibiscus Lane - Serving as both a place of cultural heritage and a tourist trap, Hibiscus Lane is a slice of Indo-Malaysia directly in the heart of New Malacca. Hover rickshaws stroll along the pavements whilst floating markets travel along the banks, selling both legal and illegal wares of all shapes and sizes.
3) Canton Canal - Considered a parallel to Hibiscus Lane, the Canton Canal is its opulent and clinically perfect counterpart. Luxury, gambling, sin and vice can be found within their famous mahjong casinos. An old trick to remember around these parts is to never gamble on a game of Go. Considered to be the territory of the Triads.
4) The Triangle-What was meant to be an public ecological terrarium project by the Corporate Council has now secretly become the headquarters of the new and improved Golden Triangle. The former drug trafficking highway was hit hard by Filipino PMCs and the rise of cyber warfare. However, instead of being destroyed, it underwent dormancy, feigning death and waiting for the right conditions to proliferate once again. Ruled by an eclectic collection of Thai, Burmese and Cambodian diasporas, the Triangle is New Malacca’s center of its thriving underground synthetic drug trade, using the integrated hydroponics infrastructure to grow, manufacture and distribute their products across most of South East Asia.
5) Shin Ryushu Dockings -Although the nations of Japan and Korea survived the Dark Collapse and the climate storms well, the lower lying islands didn’t fare better during Typhoon Otachi. If you want to know a place where you can hire the best razors or street samurais, Shin Ryushu Dockings has your back. Be careful of walking around the wrong street light, lest, you wake up in the hands of a posse of Yakuza.
6) East Sino Corporate Tradeplex - Everywhere, you see holo-ads blotting out the sky, blurting out brand names. Tzu. Verge. Saewung. Tenaga Ultra. Welcome to the big leagues. This is the megacorp capital of New Malacca. Sleek, brutalistic spires of plexi-alloy and reinforced syncrete dot the skyline here. Gleaming plazas, overcompensating company buildings and crowded stock exchanges are populated by corporate stooges and beleaguered office mice, scuttering around mindlessly.
7) The Undertow - Within here are the only entrance points to the Undertow, a deep complex of underwater corporate facilities located deep underneath the superstructure of the city via elevator. The New Malacca City Council says that it's strictly being used for municipal purposes but everyone really knows that those underwater tunnels hide more than they let on......
8) Braziltown-Ah, those westerners just want to get their hands on everything, don’t they? Braziltown is an architectural tumor on New Malacca’s landscape, a shambling grotesque stack of haphazardly built containers, a reminder of the massive refugee crisis that occurred during the aftermath of the Dark Collapse.
9) The Flot Slums -The Great Flood and Dark Collapse shattered the back of most high income countries in two. Out here is No Man’s Land. An eclectic collection of minorities from every part of the globe live out here in light of the increasing lack of residential space within New Malacca. Considered to be the main location of the Temple By the Sea.
Straits of Steel is set in the gigantic, burgeoning aquaplex of New Malacca, the self-proclaimed pearl of South East Asia that’s on the precipice of sinking yet always managing to just float above the waves.
Situated south of the Paracel Line and the Spratly Islands, New Malacca started as a simple ImperialChem refueling station built for tanker ships in 2000. Slowly over time though, it evolved into a self-sufficient environment as more and more of the corporation’s tasks would be outsourced to the station for greater efficiency, ImperialChem continual remodelling transforming it into a miniature city.
During the Nine Mile Dispute in 2010, the refueling station fell into disarray as ASEAN countries forced strict economic sanctions on Chinese exports. This effectively resulted in ImperialChem selling the remaining assets of its refueling station over to an ambitious startup company specialising in land development known as Baharu Developments. Its CEO, Kwan Chen, envisioned it as a corporate haven for ASEAN, where trade would flourish, free from governmental bureaucracy or urban rot.
Kwan set to work straight away, offering lucrative corporate welfare packages to ensure investment. Like a pack of moths, every rookie startup and corp in the Pacific and South East Asia flocked over towards Kwan’s. Putting their stock into Kwan’s ludicrous idea, New Malacca became more and more of a reality with each buoyant hull, syncrete panelling and high-fibre cable installed into the superstructure. By 2025, New Malacca was officially booming.
As economic growth ensued, growth of urban inequality and crime increased. Cyber gangs, yakuzas, drug traffickers and more lurked and grew in power as more and more ships illegally entered the borders of New Malacca. Finally deciding enough was enough, the Malacca Corporate Committee assembled their private security forces and began a war to stamp out gang influence within New Malacca. This resulted in the establishment of corporate owned public institutions in New Malacca such as a police force, firefighting force and social support services.
Since then, corruption, economic growth and crime have bloomed within the confines of New Malacca. It’s survived all the way through the Dark Collapse, the Nine Mile Dispute and the South China corporate scuffles while still remaining what it is. A beacon to all those looking for an unattainable dream.
The People’s Republic of China
There is often a massive confusion of what the PRC exactly is. Some view it as an authoritarian regime looking to extend its hegemonic influence on the rest of the world. Some say it is a mire of corruption and instability, a bomb waiting to go off.
The truth, as always, is far more complicated than usual. The PRC is a region that is defined by war: war with itself and war with others. As of 2099, the PRC still remains the autocracy wearing the trappings of communism. that it is, although with a higher degree of capitalistic influence within its economic framework, more than the higher ups of the PRC would be comfortable with. Increasing privatization of China’s industrial and manufacturing services along with politicians lining their coffers with corporate bribery led to these incr
In the mid 2020s, China unveiled progress on the One Citizen Network publicly: an attempt to fully integrate government economic and social services together under a revolutionary A.I wireframe network that would span from the Gobi Desert to Shanghai. By the 2030s, the project was undergoing regional testing when the Dark Crash hit, sinking hundreds of billions of government funds into incomprehensible bytes of glitchy data. It had effectively put a stop gap in China’s plans of economic expansion through the southern hemisphere, their Neo-Silk Road project being put on halt as the world fell into chaos.
Following a decade of internal party purges, civil disputes and rooting out of corruption, the Chinese Imperial Government rose out of the muck and mire and plunged themselves yet into another bloody conflict for control of the South China Sea in 2049 during the Nine Mile War. Unfortunately, for them, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the rest of South East Asia had prospered during the Dark Crash. When it was clear that control of the South China Sea would be unattainable, the government settled for a detente instead and thus, SEAZO was born.
In 2099, China is the biggest and wields the most geopolitical influence with its sizable military. As such, most military and war-tech corporations nest comfortably by primarily selling to chinese buyers. A heavy rural-urban divide still remains in China’s society today, with most of the population making up a sizable labor force. Everyone knows that social engineering and Orwellian policies are China’s bread and butter but as long as you know who to bribe and where, you can live comfortably as long as you don’t end up in one of their ‘reeducation’ camps.
The Pacific Orient In 2099, Japan and Korea are the economic powerhouses of the Pacific and have become a near corporatocracy, dominated by family owned zaibatsus and chaebol in the aftermath of the Dark Crash. The Pacific Orient is the birthplace of cybernetics and the modern mega-corporation as we know it, with a census estimating that over 90% of its citizens from young to old are implanted with cybernetics.
Japan still maintains its constitutional monarchy, even near the advent of the 22nd century, but Korea’s politics have been a mixup ever since the Dark Crash. Pyongyang’s slow technological advancement had spared its population most of the ensuing chaos, although their forays into nuclear power resulted in an incident not seen since Chernobyl. Some historians theorised that sabotage by foreign powers occurred but no one seemed to care about pointing fingers enough. Reunification of the North and South happened but at a heavy humanitarian cost.
New ASEAN
It’d only taken 30 years for a new power bloc to rise up in South East Asia. The youngest contender and perhaps the most diverse, New ASEAN is a coalition of over 10 countries within South East Asia. The climate storms and the Dark Crash only strengthened the diplomatic ties of the coalition as they began to shift from becoming an intergovernmental organisation to a political and economic union similar to that of the EuroZone. This path towards a multigovernmental union accelerated further when Taiwan and Hong Kong, now fully autonomous from China’s influence after the Nine Mile Dispute, joined as members.
New ASEAN, in comparison to the South Orient and China, is wracked with corruption, infighting and diplomatic issues. Unlike the relatively mono-ethnic societies of the PRC and the South Orient, ASEAN society is extremely diverse with over hundreds of different and distinct subcultures, religions and ethnic groups within its borders. However, racial tensions are often a common occurrence within its territories.
//GROUPS OF INTEREST
Whilst New Malacca is essentially a de facto corporatocracy, the initial riots and the uncontrolled wave of crime that plagued New Malacca in its infancy made it clear to the NMCC that whilst public institutions were undesirable, a puppet was still needed. Thus, the New Malaccan Mayoral Democracy was born. The current mayor of New Malacca is Azman Yokgan, a member of the South Orient Party.
South Orient Party - Having been around since the inception of New Malacca in its early stages, the South Orient Party holds the most political power and are strictly allied to the interests of New ASEAN and the preservation of New Malacca’s sovereignty. Strictly speaking, the South Orient are the remnants of the original parties that founded New Malacca and have shifted heavily from their neoliberal policies in the inception of New Malacca’s government. The South Orient nowadays primarily operates on a platform of staunch protectionism alongside favoring pro-ASEAN relations and corporate regulation - or what counts as regulation in this day and age. Wary of the growing influence of the megacorps in New Malacca along with the fact that they are part of its foundations, the South Orient have attempted to reverse privatization of public assets, to limited success. Many have accused them of rigging the supposedly democratic elections in their favor, despite what their PR officials say.
United People’s Party - Still licking their wounds after the Dark Crash, the Chinese Imperial Government is still contesting their claims to the South China Sea through piecemeal treaties over scraps of land and oil reservoirs. Their latest dispute is New Malacca which they believe to have historical claim to. The United People’s Party advocates for close diplomatic ties with the Chinese government along with the possibility of making New Malacca a Special Administrative Region. However, the United People’s Party is distinctly fractured
Young Frontier Party - Contesting the South Orient Party for the most seats within the corporate council, the Young Frontier Party advocates for full deregulation of all illegal technologies and reexamination of all bioware and cyberware legislation to bring humanity to the next stage of their evolution. By far, their most dangerous goals are to explore the far reaches of the Deep and communicate with the rogue artificial intelligences still trapped beneath its depths which could have far reaching consequences not only for New Malacca but for the world itself.
Fisherman Party - Give a man a fish and he’ll be full for one day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll never be hungry again. The Fisherman Party is a anarchocommunist party that has gained ground thanks to the staggering socioeconomic inequality that plagues most residents of New Malacca. In spite of the secular laws in New Malacca, they have close ties with major religious groups ranging from Islam, Taoism, Christianity and Hinduism. The Fisherman Party have been suspected of corporate sabotage and organising the massive public demonstrations and protests that have risen in New Malacca in the last two decades, although they deny all accusations.
The NMCC or the Board of Seven, as they are known colloquially, are the eight governing mega corporations that are essentially the biggest fish in the pond, easily worth trillions in value and are Triple A rated. Representatives from each mega-corporation are chosen and occupy a chosen number of seats on a bi-annual basis. These eight corporations out of the dozens that occupy New Malacca’s trade zone have set the precedent for nearly 50 years.
Platine-Takahashi Cooperative - The conglomerate of an Italian fashion corporation and a Japanese zaibatsu, the media moguls of the Platine-Takahashi Cooperative owns the radio waves, TV programmes and VR sims. Platine Takahashi’s has its hands in the service industry, entertainment, social media, news, whatever it can use to drive the souls and minds of the masses. Whenever you tune in to listen to your favorite K-Pop, watch your Bollywood dramas or dive into a custom made VR film, the Platine-Takahashi Cooperative is responsible for it. Unlike most corporations, Platine-Takahashi has marketed themselves to the public as consumer friendly, using grandiose acts of philanthropy as their main method of calming the masses. In recent years,Platine-Takahashi has expanded towards fashion cybernetics, luxury automobiles, biotech and many other fields.
Hongyang Expansions - Soy cereal. Rust displacement sprays. Electromagnetic lifting weights. Almost every consumer good on the market is a product of one of Hongyang’s various subsidiaries. Although their products aren’t considered to be as high quality versus other megacorporations, the amount of startups, sub-corporations and assets that they have dwarfs every other megacorporation. It’s said that Hongyang Expansions isn’t a nation unto itself, it owns several nations. However, its size is its own weakness as corporate bureaucracy and scheming keeps itself from rising to the top.
Tenaga Ultra - Renewables. Nuclear. Fossil. Tenaga keeps the lights on in New Malacca and for a good portion of most countries within the ASEAN bloc, being one of the oldest corporations that has managed to survive to this day. Once a producer of palm oil, Tenaga Ultra has expanded into other energy industries as fossil fuels were shunned in favour of synthetic biofuels and renewables, particularly hydroelectricity and solar which powers New Malacca’s electric grid.
Saewung - Computers. Personal modems. Holo-displays. If it’s something high-tech and electronic, Saewung has your back. Although they lack the giant PMCs that other megacorporations wield like a blunt cudgel, their fearsome army of Deep Net security specialists, encryption software and combat droids are nothing to scoff at. Numerous famous hackers have met their end attempting to crack into their servers.
Paradigm Organics - Did you know that over 60% of New Malacca’s locally imported food is produced by Paradigm Organics? Of course, you didn’t know that. You’re too busy eating your algae udon to tell the difference. Paradigm Organics made headlines in the 2030s with its halophytic seaweed and algae crops that were perfectly made to survive their new saltwater inundated environments and they’re still making headlines today. Unlike most other corporations, Paradigm spends most of its budget on RnD projects, pushing the boundaries of genetics and biotechnology one crime against humanity at a time. The recent clone crisis has pushed Paradigm Organics into scrutiny by the media and other biotechnology competitors who are eager to push down their most biggest competitor in any way possible.
Verge - Considered to be a direct competitor towards Paradigm Organics, Verge offers an annual line of cutting edge next-generation cyberware, cybernetic implants and personal exo-skeletons that’s always the number one priority on every punk and paddler’s shopping list. In spite of their popularity, Verge has suffered its fair share of storms that have plummeted their stocks. Numerous lawsuits have been lobbied against Verge and their products based on allegations of integrating spyware into their cybernetics which Verge always denies. I mean, it’s not like there’s a reason that all of their employees are required to integrate mandatory neuralware as part of their application process. Right?
Tzu Peace Solutions - Tzu’s trademark of death has seen action across numerous wars and civil conflicts that have erupted in the 21st century. Operating on a nationalistic slogan of jingoism and appealing to the public’s sense of insecurity, Tzu Peace Solutions has more defense contracts in Asia than any other defense corporation on the market. Now, they’re currently occupied with making in-roads into the western market which is dominated by their competitors. Primarily specialising in defense, Tzu has branched out into law enforcement, security, automotive, aerospace and robotics.
New Malacca’s corporate tradeplex has been a lucrative location for many venture businesses and startups to start running on their two legs, before they’re bought by a corporation. These startups are the hottest and most promising players on the market.
Kaleidoscope - Before Kaleidoscope, AR was virtually non-existent in New Malacca. After Kaleidoscope entered the market, AR emerged from its hibernation in small, underwater followings of AR graffiti artists and spread across its districts. In the 2040s, Kaleidoscope’s AR network blossomed with multiple corporations buying patents for AR adverts and chips to integrate within their technologies. However, many AR users argue that Kaleidoscope’s monopoly over the local AR market in New Malacca has driven all other competitors and stifled innovation. Kaleidoscope is known for showcasing public AR projects as publicity stunts to boost sales.
Poly-Fab Solutions - In an age where manufacturing has shifted from manual to automation, Poly-Fab’s proprietary 3-D fabricators take the once laughable concept of applying mass scale 3-D printing and pushes it to the next level. Headed by former Verge think tank member, Han Lewis, Poly-Fab’s 3-D fabricators allow a higher degree of efficiency and faster speed than most models with the ability to manufacture highly complex industrial parts in just a matter of minutes. The key issue preventing Poly-Fab Solutions is their lack of open source blueprints which 3-D enthusiasts say is preventing them from making landmark sales.
Chimera - Chimera is just another one of the many ‘splicing’ startups to have emerged in the 2080s after the discovery of base pair stabilisation. Chimera’s gene splicing and enhancement programmes are touted to be able to cure hereditary diseases, remove cancer cells and mutations along with the usual fare of body modifications that everyone is interested in. Chimera is currently undergoing a PR battle with alleged footage showing splicing users seemingly dying on the sidewalk mere hours after undergoing gene therapy.
The Poppy - The unofficial lords of the Golden Triangle district, The Poppy have a stranglehold over the illicit drug trade within New Malacca, holding a monopoly on production and trafficking of synthesised opiates, amphetamines and concentrated narcotics. All inbound drug flow from Japan, South Africa, Russia and China goes directly straight to them. Members of their gang are outfitted with cybernetic implants that directly inject stimulants and combat drugs intravenously. With the lack of automobile roadways in New Malacca, trafficking is mainly done through airborne delivery drones rather than in person exchange.
404 - In the aftermath of the Dark Crash, numerous hacker groups sought to take advantage of the chaos, pilfering through old government files and backdoors within encrypted corporate files. The most notorious of these groups is 404, styling themselves after the term used to describe dead servers in the pre-Deep days. 404’s main objectives are to reveal the truth of the megacorps and peel back away layers of corruption for the public by stealing and publishing top secret files online along with deliberately destroying and hacking corporate servers. Most mega-corps would have laughed them off as a minor nuisance if it wasn’t for the fact they were responsible for Armalance’s declaration of bankruptcy in 2060. Now, every megacorporation is out for their blood.
The Heralds - Whilst most gangs in New Malacca embrace transhumanism, only one actively goes against the grain. The Heralds are an outspoken group of militant vigilantes that are against the spread of cyberware and bioware, believing them to be a violation of the natural order. They are the criminals that all other gangs in New Malacca despise as they regularly declare war on gangs that they deem impure. The group has suffered a recent splintering with the more moderate elements excising themselves from the more extremist sects who believe that public campaigns and seeding distrust in cyberware products is the key to victory rather than just blowing a hole in any layman with a cybernetic implant.
The Ambassadors - Mercenaries. Wetworks. Assasination. Bounty hunting. When you need something done discreetly,The Ambassador’s network of spies and assassins will have you covered. Composed of ex-corporate security officers and retired soldiers from Cambodia, Ambassadors, as they are called, are willing to do any job for any price, as long as the client does not betray them and that payment is always provided after the job. Their main base of operations is in a luxuriant hotel known as Le Chateau De Ambassador, where their assassins are able to rest, relax and recuperate after every job. It is considered sacred ground in the criminal world.
Black Yangtze - Tracing their origins from Tokyo yakuzas and Chinese triads that initially populated New Malacca in the 2020s, the Black Yangtze operate multiple criminal fronts in New Malacca in the form of night clubs, casinos, cock fighting, prostitution rings and bars. The Black Yangtze operate on a strict honor system in an attempt to differentiate themselves from the rest of the rabble. Government and corporate officials alike are within their pockets and they occupy a considerable amount of territory in both the Canton Canal and Hibiscus Lane.
The Consecration of Salt - When the climate floods plagued the world, religious extremists and doomsday cults rose up in its wake to take advantage of the population’s gullibility. The Consecration is an example of just one of these groups. Universally condemned by the majority of Christian groups in 2099, the Consecration of Salt have found a new home in New Malacca, believing the next great flood to arrive soon and wash away the unworthy of this world, which is everyone except those who are part of their flock. Although their relentless hogging of AR ads and daily preachings of predictions about the next flood are little more than a nuisance, their recruitment methods leave a lot to be desired.
Precipice - As technology advanced into the realm of transhumanism, superstition adapted to the present in the form of technopaganism or technoshamanism. Though their ideology varies from group to group, their core tenets involve believing technology is inhabited by spirits and that one must equilibrate themselves with technology in order to ascend to a higher plane of existence. Most tend to view technopagans as fringe groups and chem-crazed lunatics that got hopped up on one too many hallucinogens. However, in New Malacca, technopaganism has gained ground here in the form of a group known only as Precipice.
The followers of Precipice believe in shedding their physical bodies for ones made of ones and zeros: code in order to pass into the Deep and into a haven whereby all of their minds will be united in a single intelligence. Thus, most of Precipice’s followers are AR and VR addicts, slaving their minds away 24/7 to modems and AR goggles in an attempt to experience nirvana. However, their devotion to worship of the Deep has led to them developing a third eye or sixth sense for manipulating Deep code better than most hackers ever could. In spite of the seemingly unsettling nature of their ideology, Precipice followers are deeply pacifistic in nature and only harass the public in the form of AR grafitti murals that they spread across property.
//TECHNOLOGY
The melding of machines with man. Cyberware was first commercially available in the 2030s as a means of addressing the physical ailments of countries with severely ageing populations such as Italy and Japan, with the effort being mainly spearheaded by Vinci Dynamics. Due to this, the largest cyberware conglomerates are based in the Euro-Zone and Asia Pacific.
Cyberware can be used to augment the users physical capabilities, bestow them with technological weaponry, allow them to interface with the Deep and accomplish feats beyond the scope of human physiology. Unfortunately, the proliferation of illegal, cheap cyberware on the black market and spread of improper implantation practice has led to the surge of neural instability and psychosis among users who are unable to pay for top-shelf cyberware. Phantom pains, dementia and neural degradation are just some of the more common syndromes that these users face.
The new trend on the markets today are full-body conversions, otherwise, known as borging up. This involves the near complete conversion of a user’s body into a cybernetic equivalent, becoming the machine instead of interfacing with the machine. Only a few select corporations offer this process, though, and god knows what else they put inside you that you’re not aware of yet.
In the 2010s, CRISPR was the first brick in the golden road towards the dream of flawless genetic engineering. As pollution poisoned the environment and the world plunged into climatic chaos in the 40s, the agriculture industry was soon forced to resort to buying gene patents on genetically modified crops that could survive and thrive in this new world. Eventually, the multiple gene editing systems and techniques were categorised in one singular word: bioware.
Unlike cyberware, bioware isn’t just only found within organ transplants and splicing modifications. Algae vat farms are dotted throughout the landscape, supplying cheap and easy food for the growing populous. Muscle bound guard dogs, armed with the ability to detect a man’s blood type, guard entrances to pristine casinos. Gangers use aerosol-delivered viruses to assassinate specific targets. The use of self-enhancing bioware does come with a drawback however. The instability of most gene mods coupled with the high chance of cellular rejection means that users must consume a cocktail of hormones, nucleotide stabilisers and modified microorganisms to maintain themselves lest they die a slow and agonising death.
The current crisis with bioware is the clone crisis. Whilst corporate legislations have outlawed it entirely outside of research labs, there have been many reports of rogue clones managing to break out and assimilate into nearby cities.
In the 2020s, the World Wide Web as we know it began the step forward towards integration into city-wide infrastructure and the development of public A.Is that would supervise control of these networks. In 2030 to 2031, a series of coordinated virus attacks completely disabled these networks, splintering them into malformed chunks and scattering it behind a maze of unstable servers and broken computer systems. The virtual intelligences that once patrolled the net became berserk and insane.
In the aftermath of the Collapse, countries began to reorganise and reinvest the remnants of the Highway, forming large segregated Data-Zones. Countries took their own methods of building their own servers, most going the traditional route, some via underwater submersible servers, others via airborne hover servers. Most of the Deep is still locked off from the public via a series of layered encryption firewalls by megacorporations and various countries.
Analogous to the ascension of the Deep was the rise of Augmented Reality or AR. Cities began adopting AR like a second skin to disguise the decaying and rotting buildings of old. Broken remnants of old AR can be found moldering inside abandoned alleyways. The combination of AR and the Deep led to the rise of a new subculture of hackers, tech warriors , code shamans, digital cartographers and more individuals attempting to forge their own way in this broken world.
The land and the sea. Only fools believe them to be different and only bigger fools believe the sea to be more free than the land. Fools. They are both cages, with the bait of freedom, security and power in both of them.
And who has the key? People too powerful for you and I to imagine. The question is whether or not you have the guts to break your bars......
It begins with a date.
2099. The eve of a new century rising from the ashes of the old.
It’s been 60 years after the Dark Crash. 50 years after the Nine Mile War. 45 years after the signing of the SEAEZO Treaty. 15 Years After the Pan Pacific Agreement. It’s a miracle we’ve managed to make it this far.
2099. The twilight of the 21st century.
It is the age of the Cyber. Machine has consumed flesh and code has subsumed thought. Man and machine have become intertwined as one. Bone is shed in favor of reinforced titanium, eyes are replaced with fibre-optic camlenses and limbs with multi-axial nanotube assemblies. Fashion catalogues have been replaced with designer aug catalogues. Spider legged mercenaries march into the Congo to wage war. The head striker of the Palladium Posse shows off his new Mark 5 mechano-thrusters. The meat is obsolete whilst metal has become the new human.
The body is no longer sacred.
It is the age of the Gene. To fight back against the metal, life must be altered beyond its natural boundaries. The GMO fear-mongering of the twenties lacked imagination and in spite of the constant protests of gene purist groups, genetic engineering is now as commonplace as dollar store candy. The human genome and all of its possibilities are now a playground for alleyway geneticists and laboratory eggheads to tinker with. New varieties of New Babylon’s halophytic seaweed soy grow in the hydroponic gardens of soccer moms. Adverts for children’s kera-mods surge as halloween comes around the corner. Crowds part as a person screams out, his features half-man half-turtle, clutching a syringe of bootleg transcription stabiliser. The definition of human is quickly becoming more and more blurrier.
Life is no longer sacred.
It is the age of the Corp. Transnationals, mobile enterprises and startups permeate every facet of our lives, a capitalistic ecosystem of shadow warfare and trade deals. Though government institutions hold strong, corporate greed will soon erode it away like tides against a cliff. Your blue-collar livelihoods are dictated by the rise and fall of Lee-Platine’s stock values. Offers for university scholarships offered by a number of fast food industries dot the e-papers. Your package deliveries are sent over by an Iridium Heavy Industrial sky-bird, bristling to the teeth with anti-personnel smart guns. For your protection, of course. To be an individual underneath the yoke of the Corp is a paradox and the only way out is to fight dirty.
Your personhood is no longer sacred.
It is the age of the Deep. Everything and everywhere is interconnected by an ocean of encrypted servers and data transmissions ranging in the gigabytes. The physical and virtual worlds have melded together in two, forming a symbiosis of abstract and concrete. AR addicts doze off in the streets, trapped in a constant cycle of chip abuse and sensory deprivation. Poachers surf the forbidden territories of the Deep, hunting down wild malware to capture and reuse for their own purposes. Hidden deep within, remnants of malfunctioning intelligences roam around like lost children, enslaved to their own subroutines. Those who desire can sink deeper to search for the truth but at what cost?
Reality is no longer sacred.
Let’s take a closer look at the situation.
The South China Sea. An ocean of red and riches. It has been fought and contested over by countries in South East Asia since the beginning of the First IndoChina Wars. It’s not hard to see why. It’s the hub of maritime trading in South East Asia, worth more than the Suez Canal in asyuan. Borders have been drawn up, agreed upon, re-negotiated and destroyed more times than history can count. It’s best not to ask too many questions about who started it since finger-pointing is the usual response. SEAEZO is the only thing keeping the region from becoming the battleground for World War 3.
Where are you now?
New Malacca.
If there’s one word to describe New Malacca, it’s maze. It is a haphazard ramshackle arcology of docking harbors, hollowed out ships and hydro tunnels shifting in size and shape. Along with the ever changing assembly of warships and merchant vessels that come in and out every second, no sight in New Malacca is ever the same.
It is a land of the lost. The Great Flood spared few and sunk many. Those who remained either succumbed over time to the Corps or went on a pilgrimage of their own. Splintered sects of Buddhist monasteries live out a meek existence on shanty boats. In the hustle of the wet markets, you hear Tagalog, Hokkien, a zoo of endangered languages forming a creole. On the docks, you see a crew of Burmese pipe spanners play a homebrew version of Poker on shipping containers. When all other options are off the table, New Malacca is what remains.
It is a utopia of the illicit and illegal. Crime, poverty and gangs wrack those who float above on water whilst the corps lurk underneath the offal, biding their time to pull strings and influence the state of power in the floating city. Trafficking routes for black ganja and Hype Out can be found all throughout the city. Gang wars are the city’s morning alarm clock. Just last week, an Armalance convoy was robbed and assaulted by full body cyber-loons. Violence and lawlessness are a constant within its rusting walls whilst duplicity and caution are as essential as oxygen.
To be a part of New Malacca is to navigate this slippery maze. Most give up trying.
You didn’t come here to surrender, though.
You came here to rise.
//PREMISE AND PLOT
June 15th 2099. 7:00 PM. Dead of the night.
Suraiboshen. Best five star omakase this side of the Indian Ocean.
That’s not why you’re here, though. You aren’t here because you got lucky on the ten thousand reservation list, nor did you have some fat cat pull some strings for you.
You’re here because you got hired for a job. Top secret. A job that promised a 500,000 asyuan payout. Just the thing needed to propel you back up this world.
Whether you were a discharged lawkeeper, a wanted script hacker or a news anchor stretching the bounds of investigative journalism, your background doesn’t matter. Your desperation and needs mattered more than your skills and now, you’re here.
The two guards standing by the side of the door cough and nod towards you, the ancient hinoki oak door sliding open. You walk inside to take a seat...........
Straits of Steel is a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk ® roleplay set within the region of SouthEast Asia. Players will be taking the role of a group of savory and unsavory individuals that find themselves wandering around in the floating aquapolis of New Malacca. Your adventure begins when an unknown power broker contacts you about a one-time job offer that promises high risk but high reward. With nothing to lose, you accept it and find yourself waiting at the entrance of a seedy sushi bar to meet your man. Too bad no one told you that this wasn’t going to be a solo operation…….
The roleplay will be a hybrid-sandbox linear group roleplay that revolves around a collaborative tight narrative centered around the personal interactions of the players with each other and the natural environment interspersed with sections that allow for limited open world exploration, albeit with certain caveats. This approach is meant to allow for a sustainable level of player freedom without compromising the cohesion of the RP. The actions of the player will determine their influence and position within the landscape of New Malacca along with their relationships to each and every faction. Every decision that you make will have consequences or repercussions further down the line if you do not think carefully.
//RULES
一 )If you’re seriously considering god-modding, powerplaying or metagaming within a play-by-post roleplay, don’t make me the target of wasting your time on the internet. It’s rare enough around these parts as it is. If an attempt at any of these aforementioned actions is made within the IC, then, repercussions will follow. Depending on the severity, this can range to a stern warning to permanent removal from the RP.
二 )The genre of cyberpunk and adult themes are inextricably linked together. Therefore, this will be considered an 18+ RP in which adult and mature topics can be discussed and explored within the confines of the setting. However, all CS applications, IC posts and OOC posts must fall within the guidelines of RPGO’s terms of service. If you are seriously considering to engage in explicit NSFW behaviour with another poster, take it to the PMs. If not, I’m going to force you to take it to Pornhub via banning you from my RP.
三 ) Start shit, get hit. Wheaton’s law applies here in this RP, both within the confines of the OOC and the IC. There will be absolutely no toleration for any bigotry, assholery, harassment or bullshit within this RP. When the GM tells you to stop, you stop. If you have problems with how this RP is being run, discuss it within PMs with me. If you have problems with another poster in this RP, discuss it with me in PMs. If there is any way to approach a situation without escalating conflict, do so.
四 )When creating your character sheet in Straits of Steel, overpowered is not optimal. You are expected to create dynamic and fleshed out character concepts that fully embrace the nature of this world. You are not a former wetworks supersoldier packed with miniaturised thermonuclear weaponry. You are not the CEO of a Triple-A corporation. You are essentially a schlub near the bottom of the rungs of the socio-economic totem pole, attempting to claw your way up the food chain.
五 )As Straits of Steel is an advanced level RP, posting quality and length are of the utmost priority. A minimum of three-four paragraphs is required for a post along with a reasonable level of descriptive writing. Quality over quantity is best but when quality goes hand in hand with quantity, it’s even better.
六 )The rules for posting frequency are undecided as of now but a minimum requirement that all players must follow is to inform the GM of any discrepancies or possible IRL events that may interfere with post writing. The RP will be a mixture of regular cyclic posting order, collaborative Google docs posting and an experimental ‘free period’ posting where fast posting is allowed and there is no set order.
七 )Discussion about storybuilding and worldbuilding is not only encouraged within this RP but to be promoted. Forging your own possibilities in this setting and writing out the backstories of new factions is always welcome.
八 )Any questions or queries that have not been resolved after reading these rules can be followed up if you believe it to be necessary in the OOC or privately.
//MECHANICS
• In Straits of Steel, an emphasis will be placed on creating a closed sandbox environment for players to interact in within the confines of the narrative. To help accentuate this, interactive objects and NPCs in the environment will be highlighted with specific colored text.
• The status of objects and health of NPCs will also be illustrated at the end of an GM post as such below.
Yikil Borosky: Minor concussion, perforated femur, dislocated shoulder joint, in severe distress
//CHARACTER SHEET
Keep in mind that the format and style of your character sheet can vary, but it must include all the essential details listed in this example character sheet.
//YOUR SELF
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Affiliation: (The faction you are affiliated with. A list of avaliable factions will be present within the OOC. Alternatively, you can make your own homebrew faction.)
Appearance:
//YOUR SOUL
PERSONAL GOAL: (What are you trying to achieve in New Malacca)
LIKES:
DISLIKES:
REPUTE: (We've been asking a lot about how your character looks at the world, so, let's reverse it around. How does the world view your character? What status does your character have in the world?)
HEEL:(Heels are basically an over-riding character flaw that exemplifies the type of person your character is. It's what other people know your character for being. Examples of Weak Spots can be: Hubris, Selfishness, Naivety, Easily Angered, Inferiority Complex, Napoleon Complexes, Vengeful, Sadistic, Paranoia. A Heel is different from just another normal character flaw because they are an essential part of your character that makes your character who they are. They can never escape from a Weak Spot.)
CODE: (Codes are a deep sentiment, passion or virtue that a character holds dearly to, well, as much as they can in New Malacca. It's a trait that someone would have if they lived in a sane world outside the Wal. Soft Spots can be: Valuing freedom, A Hero Complex, Social Justice, Friendship, Honesty, Being Protective of your Family, Protecting the Weak, A Pact that You Abide By, Veganism, Empathy.)
QUIRKS:(Unique traits that your character is known for doing such as collecting ears off their dead enemies, always ordering their drinks with a single cube of ice, whatever strange things that immedietely makes them distinct from everyone else.)
//YOUR PAST
(Can be a short biography or a writing sample detailing their past. I do not expect a didatic summary of each and every event in your characters lives but only the most important ones.)
//YOUR PERSON
ATTRIBUTES: (A list of the most prominent skills that your character has picked up over the years. You have a maximum of 3.)
BODY MODS: (Cyberware or Bioware that your character has integrated into their body. No limit.)
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[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZwzbA91Yno[/youtube][/center]
[b][u]ROLEPLAY BUCKET LIST[/u][/b]
[indent]
- [s]Walmart Apocalypse Roleplay[/s]
- [s]Nightmare Gas Station[/s]
- Underrail/Fallout/Post Apocalyptic Roleplay. Codename: Clausterclysm
- Anthromorphic Grimdark Animal Fantasy Roleplay. Codename: Fallowbrook.
- Eldritch Abomination Garfield Roleplay. Codename: Lasagna.
- Infinite IKEA Roleplay. Codename: God Morgon
- Roleplayerguild High School RP. Codename: Highschool Roleplay
-[s] Cyberpunk South East Asia RP. Codename: Straits of Malacca. [CURRENTLY HAPPENING][/s]
[/indent]
[b][u]CURRENT PROJECTS[/u][/b]
- FRAYED TAPESTRY - AN EPIC FANTASY RP (WIP)
- THE LAST DEPRESSION - A RED MARKETS QUEST/PLAY BY POST RP (UNDECIDED)
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><div class="bb-center"><img src="https://66.media.tumblr.com/7a64638c692ce98d06043791ae728d6b/tumblr_njtqxjDtIf1tqptlzo2_500.gifv" /></div><br><br><div class="bb-center"><iframe src="//youtube.com/embed/uZwzbA91Yno?theme=dark" frameborder="0" width="496" height="279" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><br><br><span class="bb-b"><span class="bb-u">ROLEPLAY BUCKET LIST</span></span><br><div class="bb-indent">- <span class="bb-s">Walmart Apocalypse Roleplay</span><br>- <span class="bb-s">Nightmare Gas Station</span> <br>- Underrail/Fallout/Post Apocalyptic Roleplay. Codename: Clausterclysm<br>- Anthromorphic Grimdark Animal Fantasy Roleplay. Codename: Fallowbrook.<br>- Eldritch Abomination Garfield Roleplay. Codename: Lasagna. <br>- Infinite IKEA Roleplay. Codename: God Morgon <br>- Roleplayerguild High School RP. Codename: Highschool Roleplay<br>-<span class="bb-s"> Cyberpunk South East Asia RP. Codename: Straits of Malacca. [CURRENTLY HAPPENING]</span></div><br><br><span class="bb-b"><span class="bb-u">CURRENT PROJECTS</span></span><br><br>- FRAYED TAPESTRY - AN EPIC FANTASY RP (WIP)<br>- THE LAST DEPRESSION - A RED MARKETS QUEST/PLAY BY POST RP (UNDECIDED)</div>
Mixtape Ghost N
Charley
Antlers
Shu
Marik
Shoopuf
LimeTime966
Archazen
Cyrania
ClocktowerEchos
