Sierra

Blood's Jewels

Holy mother of God that is a lot of lore ... even enough to get me past the Lady A lite rules list there. I'm gonna need a hot minute to read all that, preferably after a good night sleep.

R.E.S.E.T. - Welcome to Fortuna

I would like to apologize for my relative silence. I have been busy. However, now everyone can behold the fruit of that busy period here: roleplayerguild.com/topics/175548-r-e…

R.E.S.E.T.

R. E. S. E. T.

^{Inspired by Cyberpunk 2077, Deus Ex, and Altered Carbon}

_{click image for full-res source}

Thank you for putting your trust in Eden Star Medical Technologies. As a valued member, we would like to introduce you to our latest offering, the Reimplantation and Excision System for Emergency Trauma, R.E.S.E.T. This state-of-the-art network allows instantaneous imaging, transmission, and imprinting of a subject’s neural state between cortexes. We provide a complementary cortex blank, complete with emergency imaging transponder already implanted, available as part of our cutting-edge service for prompt reimplantation. Our proprietary cellular resculpting therapy can guarantee full individualization of a blank in under two hours, getting you back to breathing in record time. We also offer pre-individualized blanks kept on standby as a supplemental service for clients with a need for immediate reimplantation and activation. Personal R.E.S.E.T. endpoint systems are also available on request. Contact sales today for a free consultation. Thank you again for trusting Eden Star, your only source for life insurance you can genuinely experience.

Everyone in Fortuna had heard the words shouted out over the herds from some hologram or another. Everyone knows what it claims to be. Yet so few have ever seen a shred of proof it works that it’s commonly called “rich man’s fools gold” on the streets. The rich who could afford such miracles live forty stories above the landings: the maze of bridges and balconies that support a whole city suspended in air. The upper landing still saw sun, but with sun comes easy access for C-Sec. A few levels down, the lower landing lives in its shadow. Most of the working class that hasn’t succumbed to gangs and crime lords or crippling injuries and rampant disease live here. The failures of urban planning left a cramped, poorly lit, poorly drained clusterfuck of bridges and overhangs and pathways branching from complexes and open-air plazas cut into the skyscrapers that stretch above the clouds themselves. The gangs, crime lords, crippling injuries, and rampant diseases were all that awaited those cast out to ground level. Such poor condemned souls could say goodbye to any form of law and order, health and sanitation, or safety and shelter. Ground level is home to the worst of Fortuna: a haven for everything the corporate overlords have effectively buried beneath dozens of stories of concrete and steel.

Welcome to Fortuna.

---

---

ROLEPLAY

PLOT

There are those who seek to dethrone the corporate overlords. Even the power of those who live like gods among men is not infinite. Chief among them was a resistance movement that called itself Fortuna United. Their existence was the closest the working class had ever come to holding real influence in Fortuna until the movement was driven underground. A ruthless C-Sec sting operation left resistance leadership nonexistent. What chain of command was in place was brutally killed in one fell swoop. The citizenry believe the Fortuna United movement to be a thing of the past, but those left who fly the banner will not go down without a fight.

You must pull the resistance together. You alone can rebuild what was and carry the flag to even greater heights. This defeat was a reminder of the power of those that you are doing battle with, but it is not your ultimate demise. Fortuna United is the underdog. It has been since its inception and continues to be so. You will have to fight smarter than your enemies to overcome insurmountable odds. In the face of a brutal smackdown, a bunch of Fortuna United rookies have to step up, take charge, and save the rebellion.

CHARACTERS

---

None of the player characters are particularly ranking within the resistance movement. They either escaped the raid early, or were simply not present. They may have a little bit of veterancy or be completely new recruits. It will be up to the players to re-establish a hierarchy and rebuild. The Fortuna United movement as it existed a week ago is gone. What comes next, even if it bears a familiar name, will be something new.

The resistance movement is in shambles. Characters will not be particularly well equipped or well trained. While the streets of ground level may be rife with gang warfare, that hardly passes for experience versus C-Sec troopers. Characters will grow with the rebellion; they are its new heart and soul ... if they can save it.

RULES

---

My rules as GM are always simple. Any submission of character sheets is an acceptance of my rules & expectations. I will not accept ignorance as a defense. I reserve the right to suspend or eject any participant at any time for any reason. That power reserved, I will refrain from taking action without a rules violation or a significant disruption to normal RP operation.

• No godmodding
• No powerplaying
• No metagaming
• No disrespecting fellow players
• Be prepared for unnerving material (this will not be a romanticized version of a rebellion)
• Be prepared to maintain weekly posting frequency
• Notify GM in advance if you are unable to do so
• Notify GM if writing collab posts
• Collab posts are not an excuse to hold up the IC for extended periods of time
• Characters of departed players will be managed by the GM and cleanly removed from play as early as possible

DEATH

---

Death is not permanent. Before it was beheaded, the Fortuna United resistance had established a closed-loop R.E.S.E.T. network using stolen hardware. Unlike the next-generation globe-spanning equipment that Eden Star provides, the resistance’s system is severely limited in range and capability. When the Fortuna United leadership was assassinated, the wireless network was jammed by C-Sec, leaving them no escape options.

It is possible for player characters to be effectively resurrected from death by this system. The network the resistance controls is limited in area, with setup of a new node being an important step to preparing an operation. It is limited in its capacity to grow and individualize blanks, generic template bodies with no distinguishing features assigned, which limits the rate people can be brought back. Despite the ability to cheat death, the wait can be up to 48 hours for reimplantation per deceased individual.

The system is not infallible. The players will be made aware as the RP progresses when R.E.S.E.T. is not available. When this is the case, death is very permanent. There will be times when your safety net is taken away from you, though this will not be all the time. Be aware of this when deciding whether to take risks or not.

METAGAME

---

The actions of the player-run resistance will affect the world around you. Relations with locals, police, and the C-Sec groups of different corporations will change the course of events, affect your access to equipment and manpower, and shift the political landscape for or against Fortuna United on a day to day basis. While access to large amounts of military grade hardware is not available at the start of the roleplay, support from local arms dealers or even the occasional police officer will earn better equipment and valuable information.

The player characters may enlist the help of the recruits of Fortuna United as grunts on missions. When morale is high and the movement is popular, a steady stream of volunteers will pour in. But be wary, as heavy losses may hurt your recruitment and the supply of individuals willing to join the fight could even go into the negative.

The metagame components are handled entirely behind the scenes by the GM. All developments from such will be publicized. As a player, everything will be handled automatically. The most important takeaway is to remember the world is not static. Your actions will have consequences, for better or worse.

CHARACTER SHEET

---

Please send full character sheets via private message only. The subject line should clearly denote the message as a character sheet for R.E.S.E.T. to ensure proper prioritization. Please avoid posting full sheets publicly due to spoilers. As GM I need to be privy to more character details than other players in order to vet them (and the players behind them to an extent). However, I encourage redacting of all information not plausibly known to other characters before posting sheets publicly.

The party will ultimately have to work together in order to succeed, but that does not require the party to be fully functional, particularly in the wake of the events that precede the commencement of this RP. Characters will have to make hard decisions which include trusting their lives to someone they might not want to, or choosing between saving themself by screwing someone else or risking their life to be a hero.

The Fortuna United rebellion does not have plot armor. It will succeed or fail on the characters’ shoulders. I will not allow actively working against that goal. However, that does not mean that passive obstacles will not come up. Player characters will be in positions to be near-constantly afraid for their lives. That level of stress can easily override reason.

For GM:

NAME: Include real and aliases.

IMAGES: optional (please avoid anime if possible)

AGE: real

RELEVANT SKILLS: All skills pertinent to being a leader and fighter in a rebellion

MOTIVATIONS: Include all motivations including questionable intents

HARDWARE: Include all cybernetic augmentations. Bear in mind the resistance will be poorly supplied and military-grade hardware will not be readily available for now.

PERSONAL EFFECTS: Include all relevant possessions, including personal weapons. Be aware that military-grade hardware will not be readily available for now. This includes virtually all forms of body armor.

BACKSTORY: A relevant history of the character up to their relatively recent enlistment in the resistance. Include only events that contribute to explaining RELEVANT SKILLS and MOTIVATIONS and the character’s enlistment in Fortuna United.

For Public:

NAME: Known aliases

IMAGES: optional (please avoid anime if possible)

AGE: apparent

RELEVANT SKILLS: publicly observed/commonly known abilities

MOTIVATIONS: commonly known motives, omit if necessary

HARDWARE: visible/commonly known cybernetics

PERSONAL EFFECTS: visible/commonly known personal belongings and weapons

BACKSTORY: commonly known historical events of the character, omit if necessary

WORLD

---

FORTUNA

---

The city of fantasies and nightmares. Massive high-rises pierce the clouds, punctuating a landscape that epitomises the phrase “urban sprawl.” The towers themselves are beacons, bastions, and fortresses of luxury in a world otherwise plated in concrete and glowing with neon and holograms. Hundreds of square miles of land have been conquered by the city marching westward, its eastward expansion only halted by running out of land. Its sheer area has been multiplied tenfold moving in the last direction finally possible: up.

The landings make up most of the city beyond the ivory towers. Roads, footbridges, plazas, balconies, and every manner of structure imaginable exists at every level of civilization built atop the last. The levels that can still see the sky are referred to as the upper landing. Rent is higher, but the city is tolerable, even nice, at this level. The inhabitants are mostly low-level corpo workers in suits and ties, filling out paperwork and punching keyboards day in and day out. Life is something close to comfortable in the naturally lit regions of Fortuna. The residents of the upper landing are unlikely to take kindly to a rebellion for now.

The topmost level of the landings is just the most recent construction. Many came before, now resting in the upper’s shadow. As one descends through the levels, construction decays. The city becomes darker, dirtier, wetter, more entangled. These structures define the lower landing. Each level down becomes more of a maze of bridges to get lost in, forced into places they never should have fit by engineers who never should have graduated. It's a grim place to live, but the vast majority of Fortuna’s residents are stuck here working on hourly wages in industrial areas or retail or some other poorly-compensated job. Street vehicles are less common and air traffic is banned. What little airspace there is gets reserved for C-Sec, whose presence is varied and enforcement is draconian. Fortuna United survived here for months under the nose of C-Sec.

The true streets of the original city, before it reached into the sky above, are now a hellhole. Law enforcement and security is basically nonexistent on ground level. Gangs and crime are rampant. Disease and crippling injury fuel black market augmentation businesses. Most permanent residents are more machine than man if they’ve survived any length of time. Even the resistance avoids a constant presence in this abyss.

C-SEC

---

Corporate security forces are not beholden to the laws and guidelines that local police are. They exist not to keep peace, or protect people, but to protect the interests of whatever corporation employs them. Many C-Sec groups are subsidiaries that act at the direction of their parent company. Many more are unaffiliated corporations of their own that work on a contractual basis.

While C-Sec can often operate extrajudicially or even illegally, they do so at the backing of entities too powerful for local law enforcement to dare challenge. They are better equipped, better trained, and better funded, bordering on private military rather than a security detail. As long as their actions fall roughly within the purview of their assignment, they are as good as untouchable. Down in the lower districts of Fortuna, even police can sometimes be an ally, but C-Sec is never your friend.

RESISTANCE

---

The idea of armed rebellion is a contentious topic in Fortuna, often for fear of retaliation. The Fortuna United movement has existed for less than a year. Many street gangs see a revolt as disruptive to the natural order they’ve come to thrive in. The working class simply cannot afford to take such a gamble of long odds. Low-level executives are at least comfortable enough to not want to rock the boat. The idea of rebellion was a hard flame to kindle, but will burn for a long time once lit. Fortuna United is that flame.

In its short life, it has worked to nurture a strong working relationship with the local populace of lower district 23. (The city districts are numbered for utility maintenance purposes and at some point, civilians stopped caring about the proper names the politicians used.) The former, now-deceased leadership believed in fighting the poor man’s battles, rather than waging a war on their own. They were the brave who dared to stand between civilians and C-Sec forces. The purely defensive strategy won them adoration and a spike in recent volunteers, but not much else. It notably attracted the ire of the C-Sec org whose work was stymied by their hand, and thus their subsequent downfall.

One thing is clear in the aftermath: the role of righteous defender didn’t work. It earned them legitimacy and the favor of the locals, but failed to improve conditions and only succeeded in getting themselves slaughtered. Fortuna United is hemorrhaging members in the wake of the beating. The loyalists who still wear the banner have been driven underground, with the streets being too dangerous to even speak the name until the storm blows over. It now falls to those volunteers ... the rookies of Fortuna United to take the reins and salvage the impossible situation.

TECHNOLOGY

---

Human mechanical augmentation as a science has been around for decades at this point. Virtually any physical malady can be resolved with hardware that is as capable as the organic original, or better if the individual can afford it. “Enhanced” cybernetics, hardware with significant improvement of normal functions like extreme strength or speed, or with functions not considered normal such as concealed tools or weapons, are far more expensive and strictly regulated. An individual with enhanced cybernetics caught participating in illegal activities is subject to far more severe penalties.

Magnetic propulsion technology has revolutionized everything from transport to defense. Mag-rail trains to railguns all exist in plenty. Most weapons available are either pure magnetic acceleration in some variety or another, or a hybrid of chemical and magnetic propulsion. Modern firearm power supplies can last for as many as 600 rounds in rifles and must be reloaded far less frequently than the ammunition magazines.

Computerized Neural Emulations, the ability to digitize the human brain in fully dynamic real-time state, is the biggest breakthrough of the last 20 years. The development has fueled a quantum surge in brain-technology interfacing, including the titular R.E.S.E.T. system by Eden Star Medical Technologies. The skyrocketing availability of cybernetics directly interfacing with the brain more completely than ever before has led to some concerns over the security of such devices and the risk of “brain hacking.” Public trepidation has widely ignored the concept of long-term emulation, the potential risks of which are largely unknown.

Active Flow Support is they key to the sky-piercing constructs of the super rich that tower over the rest of Fortuna. Though the mechanisms behind it are engineering marvels, the principle is simply Isaac Newton's third law applied to high-rise construction. Matter gets launched up to the top where its stopped, and launched back down. The technology has enabled the construction of ornate skyscrapers whose shape could not exist under the strength of its building materials alone.

R.E.S.E.T. - Welcome to Fortuna

CHARACTER SHEET

---

Please send all character sheets to me via private message only. Please note in the subject line that this is a character sheet for R.E.S.E.T. Please do not PM me WIP sheets.
You are allowed to post sheets publicly, but be aware that I am not responsible for spoilers. Secrecy around characters will be an important attribute early, and potentially late, in the RP. If you wish to post publicly, I strongly encourage you to redact all information that is plausibly unknown to other characters. You may share everything if you want, but you should do so at your own discretion.

This sheet is not exhaustive and I encourage flashy formatting (so long as it does not impede readability) and any additional information you feel is relevant to the character. I enjoy surprises, so I won't demand that all of your secrets be revealed to the GM, however be aware that some bombshells may be so big that I won't enjoy them being dropped. Here's a basic list of information I as GM will want. It also includes some (nonexhaustive) redaction guidelines.

Basic Sheet

NAME: Include real and aliases. When posting publicly, include only known aliases.

IMAGES: optional (please avoid anime if possible)

AGE: Include real and apparent. When posting publicly, include only apparent.

RELEVANT SKILLS: Include only skills relevant to being a resistance fighter. Disclose all skills to GM and only known skills publicly.

MOTIVATIONS: Include any motivations, including malicious intents, for the GM. I encourage total omission of this section when posting publicly.

HARDWARE: Include all cybernetic augmentations. Bear in mind the resistance will be poorly supplied and military-grade hardware will not be readily available for now. When posting publicly, include only visible augments.

PERSONAL EFFECTS: Include all relevant possessions, including personal weapons. Be aware that military-grade hardware will not be readily available for now. This includes virtually all forms of body armor. When posting publicly, include only known possessions.

BACKSTORY: A history of the character up to their relatively recent enlistment in the resistance. This should plausibly explain your character's motivations. This is where you can keep secrets from the GM and it won't break game balancing. As long as the motivations seem plausibly explained, I won't pry for elaboration. When posting publicly, omit any information not publicly known or that your character would not have reasonably shared.

R.E.S.E.T. - Welcome to Fortuna

@Atrophy :D

Ezi showed back up to poke KF but uh ... let's call this a contingency plan. Also lemme survive the next 24 hours -- there being a distinct possibility I won't with projects bearing down on me -- and then I will throw a CS framework up for people. I was initially planning to push that with the OOC thread and just push OOC earlier this go-around than I did last time I GM'd something, though I'll get it out for convenience.

And welcome welcome everyone else. Your enthusiasm is greatly appreciated. It quite literally decides my current list of priorities.

R.E.S.E.T. - Welcome to Fortuna

R. E. S. E. T.

^{Inspired by Cyberpunk 2077, Deus Ex, and Altered Carbon}

_{click image for full-res source}

Thank you for putting your trust in Eden Star Medical Technologies. As a valued member, we would like to introduce you to our latest offering, the Reimplantation and Excision System for Emergency Trauma, R.E.S.E.T. This state-of-the-art network allows instantaneous imaging, transmission, and imprinting of a subject’s neural state between cortexes. We provide a complementary cortex blank, complete with emergency imaging transponder already implanted, available as part of our cutting-edge service for prompt reimplantation. Our proprietary cellular resculpting therapy can guarantee full individualization of a blank in under two hours, getting you back to breathing in record time. We also offer pre-individualized blanks kept on standby as a supplemental service for clients with a need for immediate reimplantation and activation. Personal R.E.S.E.T. endpoint systems are also available on request. Contact sales today for a free consultation. Thank you again for trusting Eden Star, your only source for life insurance you can genuinely experience.

Everyone in Fortuna had heard the words shouted out over the herds from some hologram or another. Everyone knows what it claims to be. Yet so few have ever seen a shred of proof it works that it’s commonly called “rich man’s fools gold” on the streets. The rich who could afford such miracles live forty stories above the landings: the maze of bridges and balconies that support a whole city suspended in air. The upper landing still saw sun, but with sun comes easy access for C-Sec. A few levels down, the lower landing lives in its shadow. Most of the working class that hasn’t succumbed to gangs and crime lords or crippling injuries and rampant disease live here. The failures of urban planning left a cramped, poorly lit, poorly drained clusterfuck of bridges and overhangs and pathways branching from complexes and open-air plazas cut into the skyscrapers that stretch above the clouds themselves. The gangs, crime lords, crippling injuries, and rampant diseases were all that awaited those cast out to ground level. Such poor condemned souls could say goodbye to any form of law and order, health and sanitation, or safety and shelter. Ground level is home to the worst of Fortuna: a haven for everything the corporate overlords have effectively buried beneath dozens of stories of concrete and steel.

Welcome to Fortuna.

---

---

PLOT

---

There are those who seek to dethrone the corporate overlords. Even the power of those who live like gods among men is not infinite. Chief among them was a resistance movement that called itself Fortuna United. Their existence was the closest the working class had ever come to holding real influence in Fortuna until the movement was driven underground. A ruthless C-Sec sting operation left resistance leadership nonexistent. What chain of command was in place was brutally killed in one fell swoop. The citizenry believe the Fortuna United movement to be a thing of the past, but those left who fly the banner will not go down without a fight.

You must pull the resistance together. You alone can rebuild what was and carry the flag to even greater heights. This defeat was a reminder of the power of those that you are doing battle with, but it is not your ultimate demise.

• Choose your battles carefully; your enemies will react to your aggression.
• Be aware of your neighbors; local gangs and factions may support or despise you.
• The people are your life force; popularity will greatly affect your success.

These considerations and more will affect how the world responds to your rebellion and its actions. This is a strong metagame component that might make your life much easier with intelligent grand strategy, might punish you relentlessly for poor choices, or could do something completely unexpected. Always remember: Your actions have consequences.

CHARACTERS

---

None of the player characters are particularly ranking within the resistance movement. They either escaped the raid early, or were simply not present. They may have a little bit of veterancy or be completely new recruits. It will be up to the players to re-establish a hierarchy and rebuild. The Fortuna United movement as it existed a week ago is gone. What comes next, even if it bears a familiar name, will be something new.

The resistance movement is in shambles. Characters will not be particularly well equipped or well trained. While the streets of ground level may be rife with gang warfare, that hardly passes for experience versus C-Sec troopers. Characters will grow with the rebellion; they are its new heart and soul ... if they can save it.

DEATH

---

Death is not permanent. Before it was beheaded, the Fortuna United resistance had established a closed-loop R.E.S.E.T. network using stolen hardware. Unlike the next-generation globe-spanning equipment that Eden Star provides, the resistance’s system is severely limited in range and capability. When the Fortuna United leadership was assassinated, the wireless network was jammed by C-Sec, leaving them no escape options.

It is possible for player characters to be effectively resurrected from death by this system. The network the resistance controls is limited in area, with setup of a new node being an important step to preparing an operation. It is limited in its capacity to grow and individualize blanks, generic template bodies with no distinguishing features assigned, which limits the rate people can be brought back. Despite the ability to cheat death, the wait can be up to 48 hours for reimplantation per deceased individual.

The system is not infallible. The players will be made aware as the RP progresses when R.E.S.E.T. is not available. When this is the case, death is very permanent. There will be times when your safety net is taken away from you, though this will not be all the time. Be aware of this when deciding whether to take risks or not.

FORTUNA

---

The city of fantasies and nightmares. Massive high-rises pierce the clouds, punctuating a landscape that epitomises the phrase “urban sprawl.” The towers themselves are beacons, bastions, and fortresses of luxury in a world otherwise plated in concrete and glowing with neon and holograms. Hundreds of square miles of land have been conquered by the city marching westward, its eastward expansion only halted by running out of land. Its sheer area has been multiplied tenfold moving in the last direction finally possible: up.

The landings make up most of the city beyond the ivory towers. Roads, footbridges, plazas, balconies, and every manner of structure imaginable exists at every level of civilization built atop the last. The levels that can still see the sky are referred to as the upper landing. Rent is higher, but the city is tolerable, even nice, at this level. The inhabitants are mostly low-level corpo workers in suits and ties, filling out paperwork and punching keyboards day in and day out. Life is something close to comfortable in the naturally lit regions of Fortuna. The residents of the upper landing are unlikely to take kindly to a rebellion for now.

The topmost level of the landings is just the most recent construction. Many came before, now resting in the upper’s shadow. As one descends through the levels, construction decays. The city becomes darker, dirtier, wetter, more entangled. These structures define the lower landing. Each level down becomes more of a maze of bridges to get lost in, forced into places they never should have fit by engineers who never should have graduated. It's a grim place to live, but the vast majority of Fortuna’s residents are stuck here working on hourly wages in industrial areas or retail or some other poorly-compensated job. Street vehicles are less common and air traffic is banned. What little airspace there is gets reserved for C-Sec, whose presence is varied and enforcement is draconian. Fortuna United survived here for months under the nose of C-Sec.

The true streets of the original city, before it reached into the sky above, are now a hellhole. Law enforcement and security is basically nonexistent on ground level. Gangs and crime are rampant. Disease and crippling injury fuel black market augmentation businesses. Most permanent residents are more machine than man if they’ve survived any length of time. Even the resistance avoids a constant presence in this abyss.

CHARACTER SHEET

---

Please send all character sheets to me via private message only. Please note in the subject line that this is a character sheet for R.E.S.E.T. Please do not PM me WIP sheets.
You are allowed to post sheets publicly, but be aware that I am not responsible for spoilers. Secrecy around characters will be an important attribute early, and potentially late, in the RP. If you wish to post publicly, I strongly encourage you to redact all information that is plausibly unknown to other characters. You may share everything if you want, but you should do so at your own discretion.

This sheet is not exhaustive and I encourage flashy formatting (so long as it does not impede readability) and any additional information you feel is relevant to the character. I enjoy surprises, so I won't demand that all of your secrets be revealed to the GM, however be aware that some bombshells may be so big that I won't enjoy them being dropped. Here's a basic list of information I as GM will want. It also includes some (nonexhaustive) redaction guidelines.

Basic Sheet

NAME: Include real and aliases. When posting publicly, include only known aliases.

IMAGES: optional (please avoid anime if possible)

AGE: Include real and apparent. When posting publicly, include only apparent.

RELEVANT SKILLS: Include only skills relevant to being a resistance fighter. Disclose all skills to GM and only known skills publicly.

MOTIVATIONS: Include any motivations, including malicious intents, for the GM. I encourage total omission of this section when posting publicly.

HARDWARE: Include all cybernetic augmentations. Bear in mind the resistance will be poorly supplied and military-grade hardware will not be readily available for now. When posting publicly, include only visible augments.

PERSONAL EFFECTS: Include all relevant possessions, including personal weapons. Be aware that military-grade hardware will not be readily available for now. This includes virtually all forms of body armor. When posting publicly, include only known possessions.

BACKSTORY: A history of the character up to their relatively recent enlistment in the resistance. This should plausibly explain your character's motivations. This is where you can keep secrets from the GM and it won't break game balancing. As long as the motivations seem plausibly explained, I won't pry for elaboration. When posting publicly, omit any information not publicly known or that your character would not have reasonably shared.

The War of the Shadow

I have a character coming, I promise. I really think you'll like him too. But I'm struggling to reduce the guy's backstory to something manageable. Pretty much everything in recent years hinges on the Escape from Dawnguard and I actually have that story partially written out in my own documents. It's at 3,000 words and growing ... You see my problem there. :P

The cyberpunk RP I took part in also went bust so I'm pushing forth on running one of those myself and that's more work. Sheet is coming, 48 hours tops. Or else you may have my head on failure to deliver if you so wish.

Sierra's Crap Vault

R. E. S. E. T.

^{Inspired by Cyberpunk 2077, Deus Ex, and Altered Carbon}

_{click image for full-res source}

Thank you for putting your trust in Eden Star Medical Technologies. As a valued member, we would like to introduce you to our latest offering, the Reimplantation and Excision System for Emergency Trauma, R.E.S.E.T. This state-of-the-art network allows instantaneous imaging, transmission, and imprinting of a subject’s neural state between cortexes. We provide a complementary cortex blank, complete with emergency imaging transponder already implanted, available as part of our cutting-edge service for prompt reimplantation. Our proprietary cellular resculpting therapy can guarantee full individualization of a blank in under two hours, getting you back to breathing in record time. We also offer pre-individualized blanks kept on standby as a supplemental service for clients with a need for immediate reimplantation and activation. Personal R.E.S.E.T. endpoint systems are also available on request. Contact sales today for a free consultation. Thank you again for trusting Eden Star, your only source for life insurance you can genuinely experience.

Everyone in Fortuna had heard the words shouted out over the herds from some hologram or another. Everyone knows what it claims to be. Yet so few have ever seen a shred of proof it works that it’s commonly called “rich man’s fools gold” on the streets. The rich who could afford such miracles live forty stories above the landings: the maze of bridges and balconies that support a whole city suspended in air. The upper landing still saw sun, but with sun comes easy access for C-Sec. A few levels down, the lower landing lives in its shadow. Most of the working class that hasn’t succumbed to gangs and crime lords or crippling injuries and rampant disease live here. The failures of urban planning left a cramped, poorly lit, poorly drained clusterfuck of bridges and overhangs and pathways branching from complexes and open-air plazas cut into the skyscrapers that stretch above the clouds themselves. The gangs, crime lords, crippling injuries, and rampant diseases were all that awaited those cast out to ground level. Such poor condemned souls could say goodbye to any form of law and order, health and sanitation, or safety and shelter. Ground level is home to the worst of Fortuna: a haven for everything the corporate overlords have effectively buried beneath dozens of stories of concrete and steel.

Welcome to Fortuna.

---

---

PLOT

---

There are those who seek to dethrone the corporate overlords. Even the power of those who live like gods among men is not infinite. Chief among them was a resistance movement that called itself Fortuna United. Their existence was the closest the working class had ever come to holding real influence in Fortuna until the movement was driven underground. A ruthless C-Sec sting operation left resistance leadership nonexistent. What chain of command was in place was brutally killed in one fell swoop. The citizenry believe the Fortuna United movement to be a thing of the past, but those left who fly the banner will not go down without a fight.

You must pull the resistance together. You alone can rebuild what was and carry the flag to even greater heights. This defeat was a reminder of the power of those that you are doing battle with, but it is not your ultimate demise.

• Choose your battles carefully; your enemies will react to your aggression.
• Be aware of your neighbors; local gangs and factions may support or despise you.
• The people are your life force; popularity will greatly affect your success.

These considerations and more will affect how the world responds to your rebellion and its actions. This is a strong metagame component that might make your life much easier with intelligent grand strategy, might punish you relentlessly for poor choices, or could do something completely unexpected. Always remember: Your actions have consequences.

CHARACTERS

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None of the player characters are particularly ranking within the resistance movement. They either escaped the raid early, or were simply not present. They may have a little bit of veterancy or be completely new recruits. It will be up to the players to re-establish a hierarchy and rebuild. The Fortuna United movement as it existed a week ago is gone. What comes next, even if it bears a familiar name, will be something new.

The resistance movement is in shambles. Characters will not be particularly well equipped or well trained. While the streets of ground level may be rife with gang warfare, that hardly passes for experience versus C-Sec troopers. Characters will grow with the rebellion; they are its new heart and soul ... if they can save it.

DEATH

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Death is not permanent. Before it was beheaded, the Fortuna United resistance had established a closed-loop R.E.S.E.T. network using stolen hardware. Unlike the next-generation globe-spanning equipment that Eden Star provides, the resistance’s system is severely limited in range and capability. When the Fortuna United leadership was assassinated, the wireless network was jammed by C-Sec, leaving them no escape options.

It is possible for player characters to be effectively resurrected from death by this system. The network the resistance controls is limited in area, with setup of a new node being an important step to preparing an operation. It is limited in its capacity to grow and individualize blanks, generic template bodies with no distinguishing features assigned, which limits the rate people can be brought back. Despite the ability to cheat death, the wait can be up to 48 hours for reimplantation per deceased individual.

The system is not infallible. The players will be made aware as the RP progresses when R.E.S.E.T. is not available. When this is the case, death is very permanent. There will be times when your safety net is taken away from you, though this will not be all the time. Be aware of this when deciding whether to take risks or not.

FORTUNA

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The city of fantasies and nightmares. Massive high-rises pierce the clouds, punctuating a landscape that epitomises the phrase “urban sprawl.” The towers themselves are beacons, bastions, and fortresses of luxury in a world otherwise plated in concrete and glowing with neon and holograms. Hundreds of square miles of land have been conquered by the city marching westward, its eastward expansion only halted by running out of land. Its sheer area has been multiplied tenfold moving in the last direction finally possible: up.

The landings make up most of the city beyond the ivory towers. Roads, footbridges, plazas, balconies, and every manner of structure imaginable exists at every level of civilization built atop the last. The levels that can still see the sky are referred to as the upper landing. Rent is higher, but the city is tolerable, even nice, at this level. The inhabitants are mostly low-level corpo workers in suits and ties, filling out paperwork and punching keyboards day in and day out. Life is something close to comfortable in the naturally lit regions of Fortuna. The residents of the upper landing are unlikely to take kindly to a rebellion for now.

The topmost level of the landings is just the most recent construction. Many came before, now resting in the upper’s shadow. As one descends through the levels, construction decays. The city becomes darker, dirtier, wetter, more entangled. These structures define the lower landing. Each level down becomes more of a maze of bridges to get lost in, forced into places they never should have fit by engineers who never should have graduated. It's a grim place to live, but the vast majority of Fortuna’s residents are stuck here working on hourly wages in industrial areas or retail or some other poorly-compensated job. Street vehicles are less common and air traffic is banned. What little airspace there is gets reserved for C-Sec, whose presence is varied and enforcement is draconian. Fortuna United survived here for months under the nose of C-Sec.

The true streets of the original city, before it reached into the sky above, are now a hellhole. Law enforcement and security is basically nonexistent on ground level. Gangs and crime are rampant. Disease and crippling injury fuel black market augmentation businesses. Most permanent residents are more machine than man if they’ve survived any length of time. Even the resistance avoids a constant presence in this abyss.

Technology:

Cybernetics, body augmentation, and medical hardware have reached a new state of the art. Virtually every part of a human body can be replaced with machinery that does the job just as well, or better if the parts are quality.

Spam bots megathread?

roleplayerguild.com/users/mrshroud44

The furniture. Its always about the freaking furniture.

Shadows in the Dread City- A Cyberpunk RolePlay

I know it took Atrophy and I three weeks (in our defense that was a 5,000 word post) but cmon people. It's time to kick it into gear, especially with holiday break here in the states. This goes double for the GMs.