How would you handle a cyberpunk game outside of a traditional metropolitan setting?

An interesting idea. Usually settings built after a disaster in cyberpunk settings are usually a result of war or dystopian takeovers.

Let's say Yellow Stone finally erupts or there is a massive earthquake that fucks the United States pretty hardcore. How can we re-organize things so people generally flee to the coast leave massive swaths of the midwest empty?

Hardwired, while a little more post-apoc than most cyberpunk what with the Balkanised US, did rural stuff fairly interestingly - farms are mostly corp-operated drones, but the space in between the big population centres is still valuable in that things have to be moved through it, so smuggling, border patrol and hijacking are big deals

Also the story, it's just good

...

>the actual farms are handled via drones and what not and are basically corporate gated communities except without the massive skyscrapers and cleaner smelling air.
Why would anyone have to live there at all? Apart from perhaps a skeleton crew for maintenance in case something breaks down. That could be your party, in fact.

I have a distant future setting where all the farms are run by drones,

The class of people who would be farmers are just mechanics instead, maintaining the drones and other equipment.

Rural "towns", or whatever left of them, are so woefully underdeveloped, and the rural-urban migration is so high at this point, that whoever's actually left in such areas is usually going at it Mad Max style for remaining resources. Even more so in desert areas like western USA or Saharan Africa where resources don't come through naturally. If farming is still a technique used in the setting, the inequality gap would look even higher in a rural setting than an urban one with a monopolized mechanical corp system that does all the agrarian jobs.

There's also usually some kind of catastrophic, nuclear event that has happened in some part of the world. A campaign set in the fringe areas of where such an event happened can lead to something STALKER-esque.

I also have to defer to one of my all time favorite video games series, System Shock for the idea of being trapped in a space station with a fluctuating but powerful and malevolent AI that has taken control of everything.

Or something set in a suburb where the tech used at homes like the equivalents of Amazon's Echo to send even more suspicious stuff than usual, leading into some sorta weird cult story like Shadow Over Innsmouth but with machines instead of fish gods and the extra bit of suburban creepiness.

Aside from people to maintain them I imagine you'll still have some hypercorp douche bag who wants to live closer to nature in their mansion out in the countryside with all the amenities one would find in their city home as well so you'd have these guys taking up prime real-estate because for them it would be worth nothing and then they can turn around and turn it into a luxury resort for their other rich buddies and then small town america either slighly benefits from it with business from them or they become ghost towns with abandon houses that poor squatters live in and maybe something akin to

> How would you handle a cyberpunk game outside of a traditional metropolitan setting?
Psychopass: The Movie, or the end of the first season.

Hard-bitten detective from dystopian cyberpunk London gets transferred to a ""quaint"" rural village where there seems to be a very minimal level of technology - he goes into the pub, no-one is playing on their smartphones, the GPS always wants to direct him out of town, the CCTV has a shit-ton of blind spots, and there's no Uber. Even something as simple as phone signal is very spotty.

Basically a clone of Hot Fuzz, but in the cyberpunk future. There may or may not be an AI instead of the Neighbourhood Watch

So, The World's End?

Maybe one of the bars patrons is a veteran of some sort who has clearly definable augmentations due to injuries sustained while on tour and retired back home to help his folks on their farm and with his considerable pension.

Maybe a business exe of some sort who is the only guy in town with the money to have the best communications equipment because he works remotely from there. And perhaps there is a mechanic who, at most, has an augmented eye that helps them when it comes to fixing people's stuff.

Oh, and the bar has some kind of neat holographic display that sits oddly in the corner out of place with the obviously rustic nature of the village pub that's probably been there for >100 years and probably only recently had some rework done inside.

Less robot clones, but yeah kinda.

I mean, you've got a full party there at least.
The suicidal rebel in a trenchcoat who's both an asshole and a charmer
The corp man who may or may not betray the party
The straight man who's secretly a barbarian beneath it all
The good man, who gets the girl in the end
The other dude (who had money maybe?)

>What is Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century
youtube.com/watch?v=Nkn8n18yS7A

>nostalgia

damn, I remember watching this as a kid.

I've seen people post about boats earlier in the thread and I was wondering, SR had a semi-submersible category for boats. What does that even means? Are those supposed to go underwater or are they just partially submerged?

Also If one wanted to make a submersible HQ what type of craft would you go for? Do you think there would be a way to get one big enough to store motorcycles and cars in it on a runner's budget?

Are you talking about some kind of half submerged building where part of it extends into a body of water?

>Are you talking about some kind of half submerged building where part of it extends into a body of water?
That's what you'd expect from a real life semi-submersible like an oil drilling platform but books like deadly waves gives you picture of boats and calls them semi-subs

The movie Looper is cyberpunk and takes place partly in farmville America.

Granted I havn't watched the movie but it's mostly because it's convient to time travel a dude back to bumfuck nowhere with the assassin waiting at the pre-determined spot?

Speaking of the ocean, how about an Arcology?

Perhaps something like Brink (good setting, disappointing game) where you have the wealthy citizens having to deal with refugees and boat people.

Meant to add an image to that.

Turn Louisiana into a giant arcology where historic parts of various cities are moved, brick by brick, onto the elevated platform.

meanwhile shipping containers and old shrimping/fishing/cargo boats and ships are turned into a massive boat city underneath it.

You might want to take a look into Simon Stalenhag's artbooks: Tales from the Loop and Tales from the Flood. They're both really pretty with a fairly well written story go to along with them about a mysterious underground science facility, and the weird things that happen in the countryside around them from the perspective of a kid growing up in the 80s but with more advanced tech.

There was a ttg kickstarted awhile back for the setting, I've no idea what came of it but I know it got backed.

This is one of my favourite settings tbqh.
Like, rusted, old cybernetic limbs on just as old and rusty hobos, travelling across the country with a broken industrial exosuit they managed to rig into a sort of pack mule to reach the capital city where they've finally found the resources to start up the first train since the collapse, hoping that they can find an honest job to earn some honest food for once. Sitting around campfires with other like-minded travellers, singing songs and telling tall tales. Bumping into a raider gang and not immediately killing everyone on sight - just telling them that maybe they can be of use in the big city, and when they feel like it, they should meet him there.

Something with hope.

You could introduce tiers of augmentations at that point.

People with the money can afford the sort of augs built into the body and work with it like an arm with the nerves grafted into it so you have fine level of manipulation where as the hobo version is just a vastly better version of the sorts of prosthectis you see now where they are sophisticated enough to nearly mimic the old limb but lack the full range of sutbley.

People kit bashing John Deere(tm) exo-suits used for construction and farming/mining to do like you said.

Old fashioned villages built out of ghost towns where people have to pool money to afford solar panels and generators for their town to use with the bulk of the power going to drones and automated defenses to handle would be gangs who've staked out vasts swathes of land as their own.

Or finally being able to afford that smart scope because it makes hunting a little bit easier as your wife and kids help the community tend to the underground farm set up by everyone.

Incoming story cause I was bored.

Two thousand three hundred fifty two acres.
Two million, two hundred thousand kilocalories per acre per year.
Five trillion, one hundred seventy four million, four hundred thousand kilocalories.
Six hundred twenty thousand five hundred kilocalories per citizen yearly.
Eight thousand three hundred fourty citizens fed.

Numbers continued to drift through the suit's head as he past row after row of soy, wheat, potato, carrot. Acre after acre of green breezed by his window, dotted by the smal gray lumbering drones that maintained the fields. A soft, feminine, automated voice from the car's computer alerted him that they were arriving at their destination. He sighed, taking another breath as he cleared his thoughts. Food wasn't why he was here. His business was about something a little more immediate and sensitive.

The car slowed to a halt, seemingly in the middle of the road. His presumed destination of a house was still a small figure miles off. He was about to question the car's navigation when he turned and saw a man approaching. The farmer strode towards him on stilts, tall dirt and leaf caked extensions carried him above the stalks of corn he had been inspecting. The farmer took a long stride, stepping over one of the suitcased sized, tracked roavers that patrolled the fields, eliminating pests and gathering flora samples.

The farmer still stood in the ditch, many yards seperating them, his stilts providing him the height to be eye level with the black van on his road. Long dingy jeans covered his legs but through a few tears the slight glint of metal was visible ocassionally from the rising sun. A strap slung over his shoulder suspended a thick blocky device at his hip, a control and management module for his veritable army of drone workers. The window of the car slid down

"Good morning." Called out the farmer.
"Good morning." The suit responded in a practiced, genial tone.
"What can I do for you?" The farmer asked, just the slightest hint of accent permeated his voice, those little linguistic spices had mostly dissipated but never seemed to die completely.
"I'd prefer if we talked inside." The suit said, gesturing to the house far down the road.
"And I'd prefer if you stepped out of the car." The farmer retorted, his beady eyes squinted from his rough face at the visitor.

A few moments of quiet follows and a soft clunk accompanied the door opening, shiny black shoes reached out of the car, finding the packed gravel of the road with a slight crunch, the rest of the man exiting the car soon after, standing tall as he adjusted his suit to comfort. The farmer responded by approaching closer, the stilts retracting with each step up the hill until they clicked flat against his feet, leaving him standing on the gravel as well, facing the suit. The farmer was shorter by about six inches, having to tilt his baseball cap slightly as he looked up to make eye contact.

"What can I do for you?" The farmer asked again, just the slightest hint of accent permeated his voice, those little linguistic spices had mostly dissapeared but never seemed to die completely.
The suit put on a smile as he looks around the area. "It's always a treat to visit places like these and see the efficiency and artwork that goes int-" As his gaze scanned back towards the farmer he caught just a slight, terse side to side shake from the farmers head.
The office had warned him that while most of the people in this are were relatively generous, they had no patience for being buttered up by strangers. Especially strangers who wanted something.

The suit quickly changed directions. "I'd like to talk about the use of the near-ground airspace over your land and some of the roads on your property. It would be only temporary of course, but with the option to become a more permenant deal. And it would be very lucrative for you. If you would like we could schedule a time to discuss this."
"I appreciate the offer, but I don't want to waste your time. We aren't interested." The farmer said flatly, not breaking eye contact with the suit.
The suit kept him composure and started again. "But sir, you haven't even heard what we-"
"Three hundred thousand to start, then fifty thousand per week." The farmer interrupted, causing the suit's brow to furrow in a hint of confusion. "That's what you offered our neighbors last week, isn't it? I'm going to tell you the same thing they told you, and you need to listen. It's not enough. Now please be on your way."
The suit clenched his jaw for a moment. "This is an incredible deal for you. We'll stay out of your way, not bother any of your drones, and you get paid for the use of your land. I don't see what you could find unagreeable abou-"
"What I find unagreeable is that you're still on my land." The farmer interrupted again, raising his voice slightly.
The suit fought to keep his cool. "I know the recent changes in farming regulations has been tough. So many rules are hard to follow. Any little mistake could cost you. Don't you want to provide for your family? Your sis-"
"You say one more word about my family and it might just be the last thing you say." The famer said in a nearly gravel growl, his face contorted into a hard frown, hand sliding down to hold the top of the boxy controller at his hip. "I won't be threatened by some monkey in a suit."
The suit's eyes flitted up and down the farmer's body.

Mistubishi Type-5a leg replacements, eight hundred pound lifting capacity.
Digit reconstruction on both hands, subdermal, estimated one ton crushing force.
Likely skeletal reconstruction, titanium most likely due to cost, capable of withstanding-

"Skeleton's actually nanotube reinforced Tantalum-Titanium if you were wondering. Sprang for the good stuff on that." The farmer speaks up, knowing what the suit was looking for.
The suit let a little smirk curl his lip.
The farmer stood still aside from a finger rubbing at the control panel at his side. "Yeah, nothing compared to the bio you suits get. But it's not me you should be worried about."
The suit looked aorund again, seeing the fields teeming with dozens and dozens of of the small survey drones. His pupils narrowed, the artifical lenses in his eye reshaping as he got a closer look at them.

Ford RoverBot model 300-2t. Capable of collecting fifty samples per hour and carrying thirty pounds of samples simultaneously.
Condition of wheels indicate operation of about two hours: estimated twenty point five pounds of samples.
Current reduction in operating speed indicates drone is at near max weight limit.
Approximately nine point five pounds discrepancy.
Magnetometric scan confirms non-structural metal object concealed under left side cover.
Weight of Sig-Sauer series-5 mounted anti-personelle rifle and fifty rounds of ammunition: nine point five pounds.

The suit closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath. "Thank you for you time then. Have a nice day." He said, turning stepping back into his car, the window rolling up. Without any other interaction the vehicle reversed a short way, turned around, and left. The farmer watched it go until it was out of sight, turning onto the highway that brought him here. The farmer squinted as he looked up into the sky. A tiny black dot hovered far overhead.

"Honeybee I told you not to watch daddy." He said to the empty air.
A young, girlish voice crackled to life inside the farmer's ear. "I'm sorry pa, we don't get many visitors from the city. I couldn't help it."
"I need you to ground that drone and get on your chores. It's friday and that means server maintenance tonight."
"But paaaa!" Cried the voice pleadingly. "I was gonna go fight drones with the Steadson's tonight! And you promised to help me with my counter-measures!"
The farmer couldn't help but smile at the voice of his child. "After." He said simply. "Dinner, server maintenance, then I'll help you finish your drone. Okay honeybee?"
There was a sigh after a few moments from the girl. "Okay pa..." And then the dot in the sky zipped down to a barn near the house.
"And tell your brother that he better have the crop yields done by dinner time."
"Yes sir..." The voice gave a final, slightly dejected affirmation before the line was cut

The farmer took a deep breath and looked over his farm, stilts clanking slightly as they extend while he started to wade back into a field. No one out here could afford enemies, especially the kind that suits would bring with them.

Nice, it takes the idea of back yard tinkering to a whole new level. Imagine those pumpkin chunkin guys kit bashing some construction equipment with ghetto rigged weapons and keeping them on hand to keep those pesky feds from running them off.

Today, Amazon has a patent on airship warehouses, with drone deliveries dispatched from the sky.

There's a lot of sky over the American Midwest.

Security would probably be automated. An IFF baffler of some kind would do the trick...

[Spoiler]Airship pirates aren't steampunk. They're cyberpunk.

Cyberpunk on a rural setting.

>THE MAN is attemptin to steal MY money from MY crops!

>Hey Wiz Kid, get me some of that what-you-call-em Manitor and get me some online organic Fertilizer (TM)

Huh, that just goes to show using drones to move things would become more of a thing. People moving illicit goods would obviously want to stay closer to the groun since the corporate guys will have control of the sky higher up.

Imagine getting your guns and ammo dropped to you by a friendly drone or the fact that out of the way communities would be reliant on them.

Big game hunting would be pretty rad

Nomad/MadMax/go-ganger stuff would also be pretty rad.

That's pretty cool, thanks.

In Japan, some gangs use drones to move illict stuff already. And the police use drone hunters to try and catch them. And then of course the gangs start using drone hunter-hunters.

Well they are already training falcons to knock down drones so it's a matter of time before you have falcons with augmentations of their own that will be doing that as well.

That said, having cybered up animals would be interesting. A dog with neural and muscle enhancements and used as couriers or guards.

Horses that had broken legs given cyber legs as well and artifical hearts and lungs and able to ride for days without rest.

bump

>training falcons to knock down drones
I had difficulties believing this, so I googled it, and holy shit:
>Dutch police have joined forces with Guard From Above, a raptor-training security firm based in the Hague
A fucking raptor-training security firm. I think that's the coolest shit I've heard all week

Apparently Japs use nets, and Brits have a RF disruption "anti-drone ray", while Boeing went for a big ol' laser (though I've seen USN testing footage of something like that on /k/, looks cool)

All this anti-drone stuff gets more relevant with reports of drones dropping contraband into prison yards, and news stories I recall from a couple of years ago about high-end sports games having issues with drones overflying stadiums and recording matches where the legit contracts to film are worth a shit-ton.

Also, yes, cybered up police animals would be great - anything from reienforced joints and enhanced circulatory organs to a cyborg horse where you can give it a "skillsoft" of the training from a professional race/show horse, without actually training it, or even assume direct control if shit got really nasty

>airship warehouses
That's cool - airships are pretty cool in general, and there's been talk of "future" airships for years now.

Incidentally, the biggest live project in that area, the Hybrid Air Vehicles Airlander, has fixed all their damage from the crash last year, fitted more landing gear, and is beginning testing again as of literally this month. The similar Lockheed P-791 is also due to fly next year (both HAV's have their origins in a lockheed project that got mostly cut in the drawdown from Afghanistan)

Oh, and supersonic passenger flight is being looked at again - Boom technologies (who are working with Virgin Galactic and co.) have their plans for a ~50 seater mach 2.2 jet, and unveiled their tester "baby boom" last year, so if the idiots whining about sonic booms fuck off and let it run profitable routes then that could be a thing by the end of the decade (or, as these things usually go, in a decade's time)

Check out William Gibson's The Peripheral, the segments in pre-Jackpot America are very much that.

Not bad, though those farmers have clearly got a fair bit of cash if they can resist some corp man coming along and waving a suitcase full of money under their noses - my first thought would be that someone, maybe a while ago, paid them off well enough to tool up like that, and has a big enough stick to have them keep the skies clear in the area. Even with such a big farm (~ twice the size of most modern US farms, but those aren't usually owned by corporations directly)

My thoughts with the story was that it was a lot of inherited land, bought from brothers and sisters who didn't want to live on it, and even bought from neighbors who couldn't cut it in the business. It would be a farm that slowly upgraded from flesh workforce to drone workforce.

This would also be a future where government regulations and over-reach has hit an all time high. Property/land taxes, cost of certifications, and regulations would thin the margins by more and more every year, coupled with degrading land quality via pollution makes life beyond sustenance more and more difficult.

It's private land, outside any reasonable right-of-way, owned by people who have been squeezed of every spare cent by the government. They would leave them alone personally to prevent a Bundy-styled stand-off a hundred times worse.

The idea for saying no to a corporation is that you may tick them off, and they may not like you, but it's safer than buddying up with them and having the enemies of your friends become your enemies. And for a corp that seeks nothing but profits, harassing an armed farmer miles from the city he helps feed would not be a path to increased share value.

I cut the story a little short because it already felt like it was rambling and dragging on, but I had intended to reveal that most of the 'armed drones' were actually armed with nothing more than decoy 'guns'.

Ah, that makes sense - though interesting the government is the big force there, rather than the corps.

Though I guess the corps might have lobbied for the regulation, seeing as they can comply without anything like the difficulty of a small farmer, they can ignore it if they want and just pay a fine (I recall something or other, in banking iirc, where the company found it was cheaper to pay the fine than make a change), or they might even be so tight that they get to write the regs that they would have to adhere to, and basically fix it to what they were already doing

So you're trying to deny that your picture depicts the ultimate setting for any campaign?

Why is Watson a cyborg but Sherlock and ladycop are organic?

Sherlock was frozen in ice and thawed.
Watson is an android created in his likeness.
Lady is from the future.

Yeah, the corps would lobby for big hoops regulations to jump through for subsidies/tax breaks and such that a private farmer couldn't really manage. The private farmers would only be able to live beyond subsistence with just a sheer volume of farm. That would still likely be dwarfed by a big corp farm.

Kind of a BIG GOVERNMENT but the corps are the only ones who really have a voice outside of elections (of which they would have the candidates in their pocket). Intended to be the kind of the modern state of politics but VERY amplified.

Hey, thanks user

I was just about to start looking for a pdf when I saw the next post!

Yeah I never understood why people assume the government would get swept away by corporations. If anything I would imagine megacorps proping up a government because they don't want to deal with the responsibilities that comes with being one.

At most, governments like the US would just become even more of an oligarchy or at least make no attempts to hide that fact at worst or we could turn into Russia where even the mob are deep in with the government (or maybe an extension of it)