Rome into cyberpunk

ought to be holograms with behavior based off their actions and data imprint

I remember a really stupid Command and Conquer 3 mod called Paradox. One of the less friendly factions was the Mediterranean Syndicate, a conglomerate of metaphors, mafia groups, and other money-grubbers that managed to take over most of the former Roman Empire's turf from the Alps on south with subsidiary sprawls (such as Detroit) around the globe. In addition to the usual cyberpunk shenanigans, they had a strong architectural and engineering focus. For example, they were the only faction that could build roads, and their walls were going to be made out of rows of ghetto apartments. Since the project was shitcanned, all that remains are unused statblocks, fluff, and really shitty artwork, much of which has been lost.

A good read for at least a modernized version of Rome is the following novel.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanitas_(novel)

It's an AU where Rome never fell. It's been about six or seven years since I've read it but it was a decent read. Might be up your ally OP.

Also, don't know how good it'd be for the assistance, but at least some good visuals might from the Corialanus movie. Which if nothing else is Leonidas vs Voldemort with knives so there you go.

If it's more a corporate style deal maybe the noble families of conqured areas can choose to send their children to be educated and trained to be properly patracian.

Seeing as this is cyberpunk in all maybe it implies some kind of augmentation or maybe genetic modication specific only to chosen people so if your cihld is selected they are now considered Roman and your family name can be considered worthy as they now free of barbarian genes and defects that can be carried onwards.

Even if they don't succeed they can still serve as high end servents of sorts to those that do in other capacities such as forming the bulwark of the non Patracian army as a sort of Auxiliary that will bear the brunt of most military action

I'd like to to see what the Cyborg Olympics look like.

Like in most cyberpunk settings, the earth turned to shit for some reason (WW3, meteorite crash, super volcano...). Overcrowded and anarchic cities. The countryside is ruled by local warlords. In the middle of all this chaos, there is one light of hope: Aequitas Corporation - a megacorporation, the last remnant of the American military-industrial complex. The cities ruled by Aequitas are safe and clean thanks to it's legions. Aequitas fights to reunite all the USA under its banner, fighting gangs, warlords and crazy cults.

The command structure of Aequitas is similar to the one of ancient Rome. All Aequitas employees are citizens. People not employed by the company would be slaves, though a more modern term should be chosen. Citizens are divided in two classes. There are the patricians which would be the executives who hold company shares, and there's the plebs, the blue and white collar workers who work for the company but have no shares. The patricians and plebs can elect a senate from a pool of patricians. Those people are the consuls (direction board). Finally, there's the CEO. He got elected by the senate to guide the company during a certain period of time. During that time he has all powers.

The Pax Aequitas is enforced by the company's Legion. Serving in the Legion for a certain period of time will grant full citizenship to outsiders. Of course citizens are worried that the Legion employs too many outsiders, which would pose a serious security threat.

Also, the increase the Rome feel, don't hesitate to give Roman names to pieces of equipment (Gladius-556 carbine, Hasta-308 sniper rifle, AH-99 Pegasus gunship, Gorgon Mk. III security bot, etc.), gladiator fights and other brutal/primitive entertainment are hugely popular and organized to keep the plebs happy and food rations are distributed freely to citizens (bread and circus), company headquarters are heavily influenced by Roman architecture, etc.

That's just some basic ideas.

Togas are back

Of course not everything is nice. Some plebs are not happy about their situation as they can only elect representatives from the patrician class and as such have nothing to say. Outsiders are not happy either because they get treated like shit. Patricians don't trust plebs or outsiders and want to keep their privileged position. The CEO trusts no one and many people hate him (a group of disgruntled citizens would like to get rid of him). Senat elections are a backstabbing fest. The Legion is necessary, but citizens don't trust it because it has "too many" outsiders. Crime syndicates rule the underworld (clandestine gladiator fights, slave markets, drug production, gambling, etc.) with the help of corrupt officials.

Sounds more post-apocalyptic than most cyberpunk

>I'd like to to see what the Cyborg Olympics look like.

Hopefully they're better funded than the Space Olympics:
youtube.com/watch?v=XVoBQqketHM

Im not speaking about TEOTWAWKI, but more about a SHTF that the current governments cannot handle. Mankind is not getting wiped out, but rather is struggling to survive (imagine Congolese-style situation in the USA or in the EU). I'm chosing this option because it gives an opportunity for an alternative forms of government to arise.

In my example Aequitas could as well be the UN, the NATO, or some other alliance.

All characteristics of cyberpunk are kept. High-tech/low-life, cyberware, Olympus computer network, megacorporations, oppression, struggle, rebellion, total surveillance, flourishing underworld, etc.

Extreme decadence was common in Rome (I think) and is a common attribute of cyberpunk.
Think of some kickass future drugs.

To make your Cyberpunk setting great you need to give the players options

So you want a Roman company? Make passwords and rank correspond with ancient Rome.

This company OWNS the senate of the city state that was built on the crest of Rome itself, make the CEO an ancient Roman figurehead only for it to be a puppet controlled by a dark sect of quasi-religious nuts who believe in a pantheon of Gods, so make your CEO Romulus and Remus, two brothers one smart other charasmatic, make the city state surrounded by city states who are warring with each other and are either other /not rome/ branches of the same cut throat company or other corporate entities who control their own city states, which could be built as /Not Constantinople / or / Not Vatican/ want more depression? Between each city state is the savage lands where barbaric hordes of inhumans live, I.E German Tribes or experimental Clones who are riddled with genetic mistakes and thrown out of civilisation to live as monsters.

Get a copy of Paranoia, look at how that encourages backstabbing and replace friend computer with your fake CEO, you NEED indoctrination in this world, up propaganda to 11, describe how every neon advert is followed by a "Senate" one describing civil duties, describe the way people Great each other, when people talk about food they don't say "Oh, this Mac and cheese is nice" or"Man, recycled human waste, packaged and pumped with chemicals to LOOK like Mac and cheese, what the fuck?" They first thank the company, for giving them work so they can buy the food from the company, they thank it for the shelter from the savage lands and finally they thank it for Rome Brand Mac and Cheese Shelf number 225, filled with enough nutrients so I.can be a happy and productive worker.

Why the linguistic hues? Because a player can get immersed in role-playing how much he LOVES that rebranded Mac and shit, because of he is heard NOT doing it, then he will be removed
(Cont)

And finally the players

(Cont)
And finally the players

Where do the start in this North Korean Quasi Rome Paradise which they love so much?..

Are they appart of the slave cast cacula? Who work back breaking hours for practically no money and need to escape /not rome/ ?

Maybe they are decurion bikers who travel the savage lands in look for cacula both escaped and which they can take/steal from the tribes, also resource hunting or spying on the tribes to make sure they do not become powerful?

Hastatus in the military industrial complex who have to work up from grunts and do morally questionable things and have a cruel/corrupt command?

Praetorian for a VIP who dies setting of a who dunnit to find the shadow council

Where do the players land in this Dystopia, what is the main plot hook, fill the corporate culture up to the max and work on the propaganda, also look up paranoia, so you have an idea on player psychology and how to make them useful to each other so backstabbing is better planned than a first session free for all.

Okay I lied
(Cont)

Make it a grand city state with an underbelly, glorious monuments and rome on top but in its gut horrible poverty and riddled with addicts who are indoctrinated slaves to the corprate machine and will tell on your players if they see them doing anything bad, there is also a CCTV state who watches everything and Latin is found in place of other words, give players a phrase sheet, which has the social norms on it and swear word replacements, because that's funny

Most of all have fun with making an evil society you horrible bastard, it's riddled with plot hooks and propaganda, with a lot of regulation and new speak.

Or you do what you want, desu I'm not your Dad. You build your horrible disgusting Corporate dictatorship however you like.

That certainly seems like it could be applied to cyberpunk pretty well.

It's not a cyberpunk setting, but an example from a space opera of sorts; to give the description used in the footnotes: The Plutorliament is a body of legislators representing the plutocracy. The seats are auctioned and sold, with the purchase price going directly into budgetary coffers.
And then there's an expression of just how expensive the seats are.
While such a body of legislators would be obviously aristocratic and self-interested (as opposed to having the smokescreen of the public good or something) there's probably an argument that when your personal/corporate wealth represents both a significant portion of the GNP, more than an entire region of the country, you should have a say in what the government is doing. And an official voice in government could be the price of banning things like official contributions to political parties and politicians (unofficial contributions, naturally, would continue. unofficially)

Tax Farming was a very cyberpunk-applicable Roman practice - not a great one, given that it's thought to have contributed significantly to the decline of the empire and was riddled with corruption, but it certainly fits the privatisation/capitalism gone wild ideas of cyberpunk

Bread and Circuses motifs might also help, and as mentions, aesthetic homages, such as what the architecture of Paris and Washington DC invoke, and the toga (anyone remember the look in San Angeles in Demolition Man?) could certainly be used

Its certainly a sterotype, and a fun one to boot.

Well, although it is a good idea, and I certainly can take something from it, i dont think that is going to be my thing, you putting cyberpunk in Rome while I want to put Rome into cyberpunk.
For example: companies would control populaces but they would pretend they didn't, there wouldn't be an actual war and fight between cloned and shit, but more of an imperialistic company dispute. If there is any war besides that it will be faction fights/commies or punks trying to do shit with the companies since I really want to make social differences a thing

Given that plunder was a legitimate income source for both the soldiers and (much more so) the Legate (who was also usually a Senator/appointed from senators of wealthy families) and that PMCs are a common feature in cyberpunk there's probably a few ways to give corporate armies a roman feel - be it titles, Executives having military command or just equipment names and styles

Still not my thing, I mean, just because you have the name of Rome on your back it doesn't mean you are worth for having it, you know, I would like to know how can some Roman strategies be implemented in a big company

Nah mate. The Chinese Empire had organization and bureacracy down to a science. Rome had what amounts to Mafia families with spheres of influence and private armies. The Chinese had public service exams, ministries, sub committees etc that we still see today. They revere bureaucracy so much that they think Heaven is also run as a bureacracy. China was fielding and moving armies of a million people, a number not seen again until WWI. The Treasure Fleet of Admiral Zheng He carried 27,000 troops and sailors asianhistory.about.com/od/china/p/Zheng-Hes-Treasure-Ships.htm

That's kind of what I was going for with the Executives as force leaders, and the fact that commonly positions as legates/governors (the most senior legate in a province was also a governor) were not uncommonly used as a position to gain wealth from plunder.
A cyberpunk version of that could be something like a resource company/division invading some territory to gain access to an oil or mineral field, claiming and holding it under their corporate authority.

Another idea you might look to incorporate might be something like corporate citizenship - you might work for the company without being a citizen, in a contractor-like state, or you could become a full corporate citizen, granting you more rights but also more obligations - there might also be different levels of citizenship: the romans had full citizens, allies, associated allies and barbarian allies, as well as slaves.
The right to sue the company would probably be a distinct right of only certain levels of citizenship, as would be holding certain positions (magisterial in rome, executive in a corperation).
Earning your way up/into certain levels of citizenship through dangerous employment would be a good way to mimic the way the Auxilia allowed people to become roman citizens.

I just get it from /co/, really.
desustorage.org/co/search/text/lazarus http
If you can't get them all from there, ask in the Win'O'Thread.

Sounds like the roman one is more cyberpunk, though big, faceless bureaucracies can work too

Maintaining high-speed shipping/freight train services, good logistical/population management AI, and probably local divisions for the sort of management the divvying up of land represents

>the privatisation gone wild of cyberpunk
One can't forget Marcus Licinius Crassus, the wealthiest person in Roman history with a personal net worth equal to the treasury of Rome, who made a whole load of money with a private fire department, and especially from buying entire neighbourhoods that were on fire and putting them out, letting them burn if the owner didn't sell.
I definitely think you could apply that sort of logic to a roman-ish cyberpunk corp, along with insurance fraud and things

Maybe the return of blood sports?
Seems likely in classic-style cyberpunk, less so in modern cyberpunk

bump

...

Any more ideas?

Already mentioned

Clones modified for specialisations and obedience might be a good slave stand-in Jinteki from Android Netrunner does it pretty well, though they also go full on down the cyberpunk Japanese megacorp route

You have companies ruled by a dictator CEO, you have companies ruled by a senat. Maybe they are different branches from the same company. Orgies, gladiator and maglev chariot races are hugely popular.

Are we talking "dictator" in its original form - an actual position of considerable power, but still granted powers by the senate, generally as a measure for emergencies (and with a term limit) - or in the way it has become to be used.
Most original roman dictators were just the guys the senate trusted to sort shit out when there was a crisis (usually war in italy, occasionally an election or plague or something)

Direct "democracy" via cryptography and online voting. Mandatory to vote lest the corporate thugs find you. Rigged elections

Bloodsport as the opiate of the masses

Decadence and decay

Sounds awesome desu

The first one. But once he's in power he might not want to give back his powers. Using his influence on the legions and his popularity among the plebeians, he decides to keep the powers. Consider this as an hostile takeover.

>trusting chinese sources about chinese history
Spoilers: Chinks lie compulsively.

>Consider this as an hostile takeover.
I didn't like it particularly until this line - someone using "emergency powers" to seize control and become a tyrant has gotten a bit old hat and is basically what you expect from someone given them these days, which is kind of lame, especially seeing how rare it was for the roman dictators IRL, but I do like it when you frame it like that - you bring an expert consultant/executive in to save your company, suddenly hostile takeover and you belong to him

Funnily it's pretty much what happened to the ASUAG watch group. The group was in trouble and the board hired an external consultant. The guy also happened to be the boss of Swatch, a relatively new brand then. With the knowledge he got from the inside, he managed to take control of the group and then, using some intrigues, managed to take over the whole group and merging it in what is nowadays the Swatch group.

Huh, that IS pretty funny