No Cyberpunk CoG?

I am curious as to how it would work. I don’t know, school and cyberpunk just don’t seem to go together well to me. At least not at a first glance. Although thinking on it, it could be made to work…

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Hey yeah, I’m used to writhing future shocked and techno freaked stories, so I can defiantly see it working from my point of view. Maybe if you set it out by scenes from characters it could work :smile:.

Always wanted to write a cyberpunk detective story in ChoiceScript but I want to finish my current WIP first … and I’m way too busy with life to work on it now.
Someday, it will happen. Some day.

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My D&D group is going to play a cyberpunk campaign soon, and I wrote a bunch of lore for it, since I’m the DM. I even started something with choicescript but I got too intimidated and gave up.

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A high school cyberpunk game doesn’t seem that far fetched to me. When I think back to my school days, I mostly think of employees of an underfunded government institution devoting enormous amounts of effort to keeping working-class children in line.

There were homework assignments, guidance counselors, pep rallies, and dances, sure, but I don’t have much memory of that. (I didn’t even go to the dances. Why spend your free time at school?)

Here are some riffs on that theme that I do remember:

  • Administrators interrupting class to do random bag searches and confiscate all our aspirin and Tylenol—specifically prohibited under the school’s antidrug policy.

  • Kids getting sent home because their shoulder straps were too narrow.

  • Lifting a sheet of paperboard from art class, writing “I’M GLAD I DON’T HAVE YOUR JOB!” with a big black marker, holding it up in front of the security cameras while grinning like a doofus (the only way I knew how to grin), and feeling a strange sense of fulfillment.

  • Peeking at another student’s social security number while we were filling out paperwork, and memorizing it so I could use his login. He had more user privileges than I did.

  • A new policy requiring you had to submit to a bag search and metal detector sweep if you came to school late. If you wanted to bring a weapon to school, you had to arrive on time.

  • Teachers posted at the side entrances of the building to keep students from using them. They knew it was stupid, but rules are rules.

And the yelling. The adults were always yelling.

Drug dogs, bomb threats, dress codes prohibiting you from wearing the same color clothes as your friends, resource officers carrying pepper spray —that’s high school to me. Were I a bit younger, you might be able to add “school-issued laptops that spy on kids at home” to that list.

If I were to do a cyberpunk high school game, I would probably build on that atmosphere of paranoia and control that characterizes school policy, setting it against that aimless urge to rebel against authority that characterizes youth culture. Then take it to its extreme.

I’d probably look to Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother for inspiration regarding some of the technology involved. I might also rewatch a few episodes of Serial Experiments: Lain for examples of a stylized cyberpunk youth culture. That’s just off the top of my head. There is no shortage of sources.

I’m sure there are a lot of ways it could work, but that would be my starting point.

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I’m wondering what you would be tested on if you have multiple computers implanted into your body… Could you cheat? Would school be more about ethics and philosophy? Or physical hardware repair?

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You’d be tested on the things found in “Mr. Robot” and “Person of Interest” … morality, hacking, defending against hacking, rebelling against the machine, fighting for the machine, etc…

There have been two cyberpunk games (proposals/idea’s) around here that I can still recall beyond those mentioned already.
The one I personally liked best was “Cyber Renaissance” though it would be up to @Pilgrim if he/she ever wants to resume working on that one. The other was just a concept proposal called “Beyond Human”. A concept with some strong resemblances to that last one is now being worked on by @Wraith in their new game “Second Chances”. The author can correct me if I’m wrong there, but it seems to me like the world in “Second Chances” has at least some (strong) cyberpunk elements as well, though its (in my mind lavish) styling also reminds me of the world of FFVIII.

As for the finished games I have little to add, depending on your choices you can push the world of “Choice of Robots” into a cyberpunk-ish direction and both Metahuman Inc. (if you go the science path) and Ratings War have some (strong) cyberpunk elements to them.

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If students under 18 and had computers implanted in their bodies, I expect they would be remotely accessible by parents or the school authorities. Maybe school tests would incorporate some of the skills involved in using certain software or hardware features, the way calculators are allowed during math tests.

Of course, the school could disable any features that weren’t allowed on the test, and probably monitor the implants’ activites to determine how exactly students were using the tools available to them. It would probably factor into the test grade. The students might not even know how well they did until they got their scores.

And surveillance would be a pretty big part of the package, wouldn’t it? If you’re going to spend the money to augment your kids’ memory and retention abilities, why not include simple tracking systems so you always know where your children are?

Everyone worries about kids getting into trouble with sex, or drugs, or falling in with the wrong crowd, but it’s so hard to have a productive conversation about what’s going on in their lives. Why go through all that uncertainty when you can just check your children’s biometrics, streamed conveniently to your deck?

http://blog.semaphore-software.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mynino-track-your-child.png?dd3a3d

State-of-theart implants will tell you whether your teenager has been using illicit drugs, sneaking out at night, or engaging in troubling sexual behaviors. And for an extra charge, you might even be able to install preventative software.

Has your child been getting into fights at school? Download a subroutine that detects autonomic arousal in certain neural pathways, and activates the implant’s neuronal intervention system to disrupt those pathways, making your troubled teen suddenly averse to all forms of violence! It’s like medication, but more precise and a lot safer (terms and conditions apply).

Of course, that’s assuming your child doesn’t tamper with their equipment, do a little so-called “hacking” to subvert the computers’ intended use. Don’t do it, kids. It’s not just wrong. It’s illegal.

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@BabbleYaggle

Your posts are brilliant.

Ah yes, definitely this.

I think we’re already there with the ability to implant tracking devices in people.

I’ll admit I rather like these sorts of settings when children need to be 18 before they get permanent implants, or chosen for their career that will be their entire life, and that sort of thing.

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I have to admit that a Cyberpunk High school or College game sounds interesting. But if I had to choose I’d rather have a regular Cyberpunk game where you’re an adult. But I’m curious as to how a Cyberpunk College would work?

I agree with those ideas of paranoia and control, they’re great and essential piece of Cyberpunk, but the core question for me is why bother teaching children memorization type knowledge or math at all? Literally everything they could want to know would be within grasp as soon as they are off school grounds.

I’ve seen lots of “theory” about how it’s better to know HOW to find answers than the actual answer to a question. So yeah, like a calculator in a math class! I think that’s probably more like what they would have to learn; advanced research, navigation of public law depositories or court cases, maybe some statistical analysis and related software usage. Super fun stuff :joy:!

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