"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." -Arthur C. Clarke
You hit the ground running. That Ink-fueled maniac is chasing you through the sewers, black tendrils of made of thousands of nanobots lashing out at you. You skid to a stop and do a one-eighty and raise your shield. A protective bubble surrounds you and your ally, who raises up her glow staff and utters a command. "Run firestorm." You duck and lower the shield, deactivating the forcefield for a second to let a stream of fire fly from the staff. It's lights dim, soon it'll be out of power. No power means no technomancy, and this sword won't be able to do jack before you're ripped to shreds. You drop the shield again continue your mad dash to safety. Up ahead, the manhole is pulled aside and light from the street above filters in. You pale. Down the hole drops a man in riot gear with a shotgun and another technomancer dressed up in navy blue/black robes with the words "SWAT" stenciled on the front. "Execute flashbang," he says, holding up a staff in your direction. BOOM. You're blinded and your ears are ringing. BANG. Gunfire, you're bleeding, and soon the Inked up bastard they were probably after will be on you and you'll be dead in seconds. Maybe adventuring wasn't the best career choice.
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Welcome to Candle City, home to the Arcanotech and Vigilant megacorporations and the HQ of the Adventurer's Guild. You're (probably) and adventurer, whether you're a sword and shield wielding fighter, an ex-soldier with a rifle, a technomancer with your e-Tome and staff, or a thief with a HackTool and a stealth suit. Whether you're human, an Evolved Artificial Lifeform (or an EAL, pronounced eel), a hive, or a water-breather. You're here because you've heard the stories of treasure beneath the city, forgotten tech, vaults filled with money, fame to be had defeating whatever creatures live down there. You're here for adventure.
Dungeon 2.0 is an attempt at placing dungeon crawling fantasy like Dungeons and Dragons into the cyberpunk-ish future. It takes place in Candle City in an unspecified year on an unspecified Earth-like world. There are aliens, there's "magic" (in the form of nanobots, both in staves and as the "drug" Ink), there's a whole Adventurer's Guild, there's men with swords and shields (though they produce forcefield bubbles) fighting alongside men with shotguns and assault rifles, there's cybernetics and gangs and things to be found in the dungeons beneath and around the city. The RP focuses on our party of adventurers (or parties if we get enough people, possibly we'll have two rival groups) as we explore Candle City, both the dungeons deep below the city and the dangers that are out on the street. The Guild maintains a virtual bulletin board of sorts that keeps track of jobs (all mostly-legal, for less-than-legal jobs like assassinations or heists you need to use the Thief's Guild... If you can get an invite) as well as ranking adventurers by "Level" based on the number and difficulty of jobs they've done. Many adventurers also have a day job (accountant by day, dragon slayer by night!) as adventuring isn't always the most profitable occupation.
The Modern Mage
"Magic" is based on technology and often nanotechnology. Technomancers require 2 basic tools: a focus which lets them cast spells from whichever spells they have loaded and a tome that stores any extra spells that they own. Spells are cast through vocal commands, usually "run/cast/execute [spellname]", but there are more advanced spells (spells that charge before firing, multistep spells, long-duration spells) and many foci have more advanced functions (dispelling, detecting magic). Certain spells can also counter eachother, effectively stopping a spell before it can do any magic. Spells are organized into different categories, including but not limited to pyrotech, cryotech, electrotech, geotech, meditech, and the the illegal necrotech.
The Modern Warrior
Swords and shields are still common, though shields are almost always made with a built in force-field generator that can stop bullets, magic, and other projectiles though it isn't nearly as effective against melee attacks (though you can still use the actual shield part for that). Weapons like swords are often "charged". It's not uncommon to see a sword that can sheath itself in flames or a mace that electrifies at the touch of a button. Guns of all sorts are also common weapons (for anyone really).
The Modern Rogue
Conventional locks aren't as common (though the good thief still carries lockpicks around!), so HackTools are commonly used. The HackTool is a handy device that allows hacking on the go so you can unlock that door or grab those files from computer. For assassain types, sniper rifles can get the job done as well as compound bows and knives coupled with poisons. There are all sorts of handy gadgets that can help you in your stealthy endeavors, including stealth suits, grenades and explosives for every situation, and more.
The Races
So these are the only races I've come up with. I've tried to come up with non-traditional fantasy stuff, and here's what I have. If you have more race ideas, do tell. Most likely other races will be alien in nature.
Humans, duh. No explanation needed.
Evolved Artificial Lifeform (or the EAL. If you have a better name, please tell me), which are robots (usually humanoid) with an AI that has achieved sentience (or something close to it).
Hives, which are similar to EALs in a way... They are corpses brought to life with Ink (a nanotech "drug" that essentially gives the user superpowers, both normal and those with a Lovecraftian bent) rather than necrotech and develop into a sort of... Hivemind, thus the name. They often show a sort of multiple personality disorder, but that isn't quite the right term.
The Sil (or water-breathers as they're sometimes derogatorily called) are a race of amphibious humanoids from a mostly oceanic planet. Normally, they breath in water but they can go extended periods on land with a special pill or indefinitely with specialized breathing equipment.
So... Yeah. Is anybody interested in the clustercuss of an idea? Any questions? Ideas? Want to know how different "classes" would work in Dungeon 2.0?