The Dome Has You

Plots
The Admins create…
Players mold
Admins create the perfect clay...players shape what it becomes
Possibilites.
See it as a world, not a game. Learn to truly be your character.
No puppets. World of 65 million people, THINK OF IT THAT WAY.
GM's give aid, but players should be the ones creating plots.
Want to be a crime lord? Think about what you need to do, and do it.
You can feasibly become anything in SD. Just remember..cyberpunk. No ballerinas.
Take lessons from the legends...Devon, Lucifer, Moss. People still talk about them, their battles, their legacies that will keep being spoken about. Any one one of the players now can be the next Moss, or Lucifer, or Nicadeamus. Just make yourself worthy of note. This doesn't mean killing every person you come across. It's -who- you kill, -why- you kill, and -how- you kill them.
Talk to the GM's!
xhelp if you want to sit down and talk a little. Mail us. For the most part, we want to help to work with players to create fleshed, deep, unique characters. This doesn't mean we'll create 5 NPC's and plots related to you, give you a building or a car--but it means we'll be seeing your character as you see them, and that creates a million possibilities. Histories are wonderful for this to effect.
Most importantly:
The players make the game. The best RP I ever had was back in the days of Yahoo!'s chat room RPG's. We didn't have GM's, or skill and stat sets. You know what we had? A screen name, and maybe a tiny history. It ran completely on the players. We didn't have storylines. We just had players interacting on truly role-played levels, plots created themselves. Be on that level! Realize that where your character goes, what they become...it's all up to you. Admins see this so very clearly: we create SO MUCH for the characters, but we can't force them to see and use what we create. That's the purpose of my posting this. I want the players to realize...it truly is in your hands. Think Nike. Just.Do.It.

This is serious, people. This is Cyberpunk. It's fast, blazing, treacherous murders. It's backstabbing your friend to get ahead.
It's the corpies playing subtle wars with their cell-phones and holo-faxes. It's doing a dirty deed to afford a place to sleep
for the night. It's quiet contemplation, secret plotting, and hardcore execution. It's knowing which friends to keep, and which
to step all over. This a savage world, and you must be savage. But, most importantan to remember: this is your world. You decide
what happens. We've created the tools, you must use them.
There's more on the way.
Cybernetics are closer than most realize.
Vehicles are on the horizon.
The Matrix looms overhead.
Even more is alive and fighting.

So go. Log in. Look at this world through your character's eyes. Carpe' diem. Sieze the day.

Make it happen.

(Edited by Legba at 2:05 am on Jan. 3, 2003)

That's all nice and good, but to understand cyberpunk fiction, understanding it's own roots is almost necessary.

King[Fu] once mentioned westerns as prime cyberpunk material - "It's doing a dirty deed to afford a place to sleep
for the night." as Legba said….doesn't that remind you of 'For a fistful of dollars', or, for that matter, Kurosawa's 'Yojimbo' (on which 'Fistful' is based)?

If you stick to 'pure' cyberpunk material, with cybernetics, flying cars and superslick tech, you'll miss out on a lot.

Hell, look at Judge Dredd - originally, it was based on the Dirty Harry films.

Many movies and works of fiction would absolutely thrive in a cyberpunk setting with little to no changes- say, film noir - Bladerunner was, basically, a cyberpunk Film Noir. With a few changes, it could have been an old Humphrey Bogart flick. Try transplanting The Maltese Faclon or Casablanca to cyberpunk, what do you get? How about The Thin Man?

Hell, let's look to more recent flicks, how about that french film, Le Samourai, and it's 'remake', Ghost Dog?

Backstabbing, betrayal, the worst and best of human nature have all been magnificently exploited in non-cyberpunk works for thousands of years....and these works are where cyberpunk authors draw their inspirations. Shakespeare, anyone?

The base ideas will always remain the same, and not all pieces with potential will be 'translated' to the cyberpunk genre. One must watch/read them, and translate the base concepts and ideas, motivations, betrayals, to SD....and that's how you achieve the essence of cyberpunk. Instead of thinking, 'Is this cyberpunk?' when picking inspirations, one should think, 'Can this -be- cyberpunk?'. At least, that's my opinion.

Max, fantastic.

I'll try to respond/answer some questions from the other side of the curtain:

Economy: It isn't that money is 'hard' to get. There are many jobs one can do that are supported by code. You in theory could make up to 10k a week doing just coded jobs. Give or take mind. There are also loan sharks (coded and player run) available to use. That being said, there are a few more jobs on the way. It's slow going, we are short handed on coders.

A side note: Gear. There are a few key players out there who have a lot of 'gear'. Be it fire arms, knives, blunt weapons, electronics, or whatever you have. My suggestion, and I'm openly saying this because I think it can help move things along in many ways, is that characters with lots of gear can -RENT- this gear out on an hourly basis. I point to Neuromancer as an example. There is a scene right at the start where Case -RENTS- a gun from the fellow behind the Chinese food place. You can rent any kind of gear. QTs, Knives, Guns, Thermo-Optik Goggles, SHI Tracking devices. Anything.

PC ventures/businesses and support from the Player Base is at times what I would deam pathetic. I really don't know why it is like that at the moment. It wasn't always that way…but go out and support Player run events/occurances/businesses. Tis fun and potentially profitable.

The stat spread is not as large as you would think, baring a few examples. There are currently only 2-3 characters in the IC world that are older than 2 years. That being said, 2 years is an ungodly time for any character. Though what can we say to that? There are characters that have -really- put in time on the MOO. And stat/skill wise we take massive efforts to have it so that you can't get uber fast. Hence the UE Boost Curve. In other places, 3 years and you'd have all your stats maxed. Here, not so much. The point is not that you as a new or younger player go after the top dog. The point is that you scrap amoungst yourselves and out of that perhaps one raises/lives long enough to go on to the next level.

YES you should cherish your character, but -CHERISHING- isn't locking up in a gilded cage at New Rose. Cherishing is getting out there and hussling, breathing life into the character. You can't -GET- ahead if you don't -HUSSLE-. And you -DEFINATELY- can't get ahead if you don't fuck someone over. That one of the reasons we have a tight economy, to -FORCE- you to get into conflict over scarce resources.

Note also: Conflict is NOT Combat. That is for the newer generation of players to the MOO.

Bluffing does work. I just rarely see it. Moss was a fantastic bluffer. (Hes gone now, so I can tell you he -WASN'T- rich or strapped to the nines or uber-stats. He was just -DAMN- good at portraying that mystique.) It isn't that people are -CALLING- a bluff, it is that nobody is -BLUFFING-.

IC/OOC. If you have a situation where it is getting out of control, LET ME AND THE STAFF KNOW. We will and have voided, newted, blacklisted, and eliminated IC/OOC violators before. We -USUALLY- try to -TEACH- them how it works. Newbies are newbies, they will fuck up. Give em time and constant warnings/talking too. Be polite about it as players. If it is still happening after a week or so of steady play, and if an Admin hasn't addressed it, send an xhelp or email. ([email protected])

Things -ARE- forgotten -WAY- to easily. It is either that or the MAJORITY of the player base just BIDE THERE TIME WAY TOO LONG. It is insane. Someone crosses you, cross em out. Take em down. Take what they had and make it yours. CP is about grudges. It's about holding that hatred hot and firey because you -NEED IT TO SURVIVE-. Hard planning and -VICIOUS- Exicution.

Now, your questions:

You should generate conflict for many reasons:
1) Personal Gain. (Greed people)
2) Revenge
3) Because you are trying to climb into a higher bracket on the food chain.
4) Personal Entertainment. Not of your character, but for the controller. For you the person. This isn't to say you just go nuts and kill shit. This is to say that you take a look at the situation your character is in and -PICK AND CHOOSE- friends and foes. Who you can do away with, who you keep. Every single character has something in there IC lives that they can build on to lead to or generate some form of conflict.
5) Internal Conflict counts -JUST AS MUCH AS EXTERNAL- I personally love seeing players rip there characters appart emotionally or physically because they have something tearing them appart from the inside. But if you do this, do it in a manner that lets the rest of the player base get a -TASTE- for the internal anguish.

The UPSIDE to conflict vs. the risk.

Well, I would say the risk itself is often worth it. That 'heart-in-throat' feeling you get when you take your character, and because of some situation/the flow of the RP session, you end up in a situation that is -WAY- over your characters head. That's a joy in itself. There is one hell of a buzz to it.

IC benifits/upsides: Street Credit. Equipment. Money. Street Credit. More street credit. Chyen. Friends. FAVOURS OWED TO YOU!

(Be sure that you call in owed favours too people!)

The reward, monetary. What is the price of street cred? Or a favour owed? One can't really say. I know that if yours is a character that manages to take out 8 gangers, a judge, and fuck Nicadeamus over, yours would be a character (no matter -how old-) who would and -SHOULD- get respect. And feared. Fear is a valuable tool...

As to progression in life, that is a tougher one to tackle. Going to university is a wise option, open yourself to new horizons. Travel helps, and you can travel locally and still save some money up...wait, you mean in the game?

Oh. Heh.

Upward mobility. On the streets, it is a fairly basic thing. In a corp right now, that mobility is starting to be built up. It's slow going. Code vs. Building, Project vs Project. We are working to build a richer and richer environment.

Now, a final comment, it is about 'Player Groups'. I've seen them come and go, mainly because it hits what I call the 'Spoon-Feed Barrier'. Players at times expect that if they start a gang, or start playing the fixer or the dealer that the admin will suddenly pour chyen and gear at there feet. It won't happen. Ever. We'll help, but we sure as hell won't feed you.

The other problem is that the majority of players start 'groups' or 'aliances' or what evers to attack NPC and Admin Run groups. I am of two minds in this. One side says sweet, they treat the NPC's as players. The more dominant side says: fucking hell, they are just affraid to make enemies in the player base. A player group that tried to do something -other- than attack NPCs or try to do something ridiculous like 'Reform Dome Politics' or 'Save RED!' would be amazing.

We try to help PC groups as they form. But like I said, I -can't- really spoon feed the entire thing to you. Ruins your fun, and I only end up getting what -I- want, not what -You- want.

Same goes for jobs. Look to players that are starting up there own businesses. Kaial, Aikao and Nic are decent examples. Making something from nothing basically.

Well, hope that gives you all some grist for the mill. Toss it into the blender with what MAx, Legba, and Murphy said. Murphy has a great point to look at things outside of just the 'CP' definition of things. There is a lot of great ideas out there that can be worked into CP with a few easy tweaks here and there.

-Iga

Iga,

Thanks for responding.

I do have a few comments.

To me, it's not that money is tight. �You are absolutely correct in saying that there are many coded jobs. �Based on my own personal experiance, I can't say that I've seen the possibility to make 10k a week (give or take) but I'll take your word for it.

The loan sharks (coded) work well, and I've used them for a 'quick fix' much as I'm sure they were intended.

What I was referring to was the -exchange- of money or other valuables, mainly between PCs.

Your suggestion for those who have lots of valuables "be it weapons, chyen or whatever" to -rent- them ALA Neuromancer is an excellent one and one I had thought to make but did not.

I can only encourage those who have such items to rent them, and can say that I will be more than happy to support any PC effort in this area if you have something I need.

I can also only encourage PC businesses and hope that others will do the same. �I have, over the last few weeks, been asked to provide services a few times. �To those players, thank you and I hope I gave you some good RP for your chyen.

Now we get a bit more to the meat of it.

Many a character sit in their guilded cage, because they don't want to die.

They die, for several reasons that I've seen.

1) They -do- scrap it out with those of like ability and then appear to be (through no direct action of their own other than said scrapping) a threat to those in the next level up. �Those in the next level up then promptly find a reason to kill said sucessful scrapper. �No, maybe not permenantly, well, not always .. ;)

2) People thinking conflict=combat. �Folks, in the context of the game, think about it. �What's more fun? �Making life miserable for PC, twisting the knife and then easing up, only to twist again, knowing you have the life or death of that PC in your hands and that SOB owes you for -not- killing him (see comments regarding Moss later), or 5 minutes of (possibly) spectacular combat that ends with one of you dying. �Yes, the Dome is a rough place, and yes, death occurs. �But we must police ourselves to avoid deaths that have no -productive- purpose.
As Legba said earlier "This doesn't mean killing every person you come across. It's -who- you kill, -why- you kill, and -how- you kill them." �One well thought out, appropriately timed and planned murder, is far better than 10 senseless ones. �Style over substance …

3) Lack of shit going on. �Maybe it's just me, but I've not really seen a whole lot going on. �I realize I'm not on (over the last month or so) as much as I have been in the past, and admittedly, things have been better recently, but going back to risk vs. reward, unless there is a reward (chyen to be made, power to be gained, ie something going on other than getting harassed by gangers), given 1 and 2 above the risk doesn't seem to out-weigh the reward. �The feeling might be "I'll just site here and build UE and build my character until ..." I've had that feeling before, I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Getting ahead, requires Hustle, and screwing people over and all that, I agree completely. �But again, if folks are stuck in their cube all day ... �Yes, it is getting better, however, I remember not that long ago, when Max could walk into the Drome at just about any time, and there would be someone (or several someones) there, and RP was a good probability. �If people are hanging out somewhere than the bars and I'm just missing it, fine, thwap me and let me know where. �I want to party too!

As for grudges, again more encouragement to hang on to them and let 'em burn. �Max, to the day he last died, held a grudge against John because he knew that John had killed him once. �What did he do about it? �He buddied up to him in an effort to get close enough to him to -really- screw him over. �Did it work? �No, was it fun trying? �Yep.

Moss bluff? �Hell all he ever did was beat the shit outta Max (and purposely let him live, hell he even applied 1st aid once to make damn -sure- he lived. �You're smart folks, I'm sure you can see all the possible benefits to this.

One problem that I see, and again, maybe I'm just out of the loop, is that there is very little working together. �Max tried to start a criminal group, only to be betrayed by someone in the group pretty early on. �Yeah, I know, but let's at least get some shit started before we start screwing over people that are putting chyen in each others pockets. �Get those valuables exchanging hands and -then- go for the throat!

Groups: �I wan't looking for spoon feeding, more a base for PCs to have some decisions and choices. �Create say, 5 groups, gotta be an odd number. �3 is too few and dare I dream for 7? ;) �Give the responsible PC (possibly someone with GM potential as it would make a nice training) a 1 or 2 room building with nothing fancy, some chyen (not a whole lot, but enough to flash and be a nice target) for weapons (more exchange of valuables) and such, and give them a mission. �Off the top of my head, maybe TERRA is one of them, maybe a PC criminal gang is another. �Now we've got instant conflict because these two groups are -supposed- to hate each other. �The same could be done for competing crime -families-. �Maybe all the drug sales on Red get split up between two and now they need to fight it out to see who has the monopoly, or maybe they band together for mutual protection against TERRA, or the PC gang ... �Throw the existing coded gangs in, and loansharks ...

Player in GangX needs a loan to pay the rent
Only loanshark around hates GangX and won't lend chyen, and on the way back from nearly getting the $hit kicked out of him/her, runs into Chaim, which unbeknownst to the player (brownouts ...) �just got jumped by 3 other PCs in gang X ...

The more groups, the more permutations on possibilities, the more conflict, them more valuables get exchanged (voluntarily or otherwise) and I think, the more fun, people have, and it gives them and their PC a sense of purpose.
PCs need to decide who they join, or if they join at all, now we've got all kinds of insiders and out siders and allegiances and a messy freekin environment where not many people (if any) tryly know which way is up, who's a frien and who's and enemy. �In short, the chaos that -is- the combat zone of CP.

Making something from nothing is rewarding, however, making something from raw materials, get's it done faster, and with more for more people to do, and in my opinion, has a greater chance of lasting.
Just my .02 chyen.

Lastly, Internal Conflict. �I can't speak for anyone else, but my chars -always- are loaded with internal conflict, and some of the best RP I've had has been with others of the same ilk. �To avoid IC/OOC blurring, I won't reveal their names, but look at people and watch them. �You'll be able to tell.

As for Murphy, yes subtlety! �Unfortunately I don't think there are too many people here who wouldn't benefit from -learning- the fine arts of subtlety, treachery and the like. �Many here are new to CP, and would benefit (I believe) from being taken under a wing (another -great- reason for creating player groups) and learning from those in the know.

Yeah, Kenny's not at the top of my list, but he hit the nail on the head with that one!

Considering it seems like all my posts are (for the most part) long, can I start getting 2 credits for them? �;)

I'm just gonna through in the thoughts nad oppinoins of a newbie.  Those of us who are on the lower level of the food chain have reason to be afraid.  I've yet to have a lasting character.  But with my multiple newbie types, I've noticed a few things.  First of all, Red is -too- safe.  You look at the ambient population messages and you see murders going unnoticed, yet if something happens on Red between players, you have people calling judges and them rushing down there.  I thought it was supposed to be a lawless, no mans land or something.  An Art and a Sinner get in a fight in the Drome, and within five minutes, you've got -two- judges down there investigating.  I have never been afraid to walk down the streets of red.  I don't run around shouting, hey, I'm rich, but I generally feel pretty safe that I can just call in a judge and everything will be all right.
Another thing I've noticed, is the newbies are too scared to scrap among each other, not only because will the olderbies start seeing them as a threat, but that a lot olderbies care -too- much about nwbies.  Sometimes it's good to help newbies out, but at the mere mention of me thieving someone, I had an olderbie threatening and intimidating me.  Sure makes me want to run out and pick some pockets.  That's why you have people sitting in there guilded cages trying save up ue.  There is a -lot- more risk involved in any type of crime than there is reward.
Starting a player gang isn't as easy as it sounds.  If I were to walk around asking people if they wanted to join a gang, most would laugh in my face, a few my even just kill me.  So you gotta go around and find like minded newbies and try to organize, without oldbies getting wind and picking you off one by one.
Maybe because I've only seen things from the low end, my view is distored, but that's what I see, and what I bet a lot of newbies see.  I don't see much reward for all the risk that it would involve to get that reward.
So, there you go.  Maybe if we were to have gms help start some player gangs, maybe with an oldbie heading things up, that would be better.  An oldbie isn't gonna be as afraid to recruit, and you always know you'll have the oldbie there to help if things go bad for the gang.

The key thing here is this: You live on Red. You are poor wretches. Scum. Dirt. Things can't go on like this. You can't stand it anymore. Whatcha gonna do 'bout it?

Well said, that is the (greatly over simplified)  essence of the cyberpunk attitude.

And the answer, for many here, is nothing, but to sit in guilded cages and -survive- if only as the pathetic beaten, demoralized soul who hides from the world is, for another day.  Cut your losses and run.

And in a way, that is almost expected.  If you play the game commanding the character to do the things that they would do if they were a real live living breathing flesh and blood entity, then in the face of overwhelming odds, I think -most- real life folk would just curl up in a ball.

Ask -yourself- if you, the human behind the character were suddenly (as all our characters are) thrust into the Dome, what would -you- do.

Would you brazenly walk down the street and pick someone's pocket?

Would you try to start a gang?

Would you try to do -anything- that -needs- to happen in the Dome.

I'd be willing to be that a majority of the honest answers, would be no.  They'd simply hole up and try to -survive-  Fight or Flight, and in the case of the overwhelming odds against someone living in red, I think human nature is to (for the most part) just say F*ck it.

Where am I rambeling to?

Folks, treat your character as though they were alive, but don't have the option of sitting in a room all day.  

A while back Ty played a game with herself, where she purposely didn't use the ooc command.  And do you know what?  ooc usage seemed to drop right after that.

Do the same thing.  As soon as your character wakes up, play that same game and refuse to stay in your room.

Go out into the streets.

Go out into the bars.

Ride the lev for hours on end, whatever.

Just get out there!

Maybe someone will get into an argument with you.

Maybe someone will offer you a job.

Point is, if you're not there, none of that can happen.

Even if you do nothing while you're there, you open up the possibilities.

You gotta know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em …

Damn you!

I haven't been able to get that song out of my head since I read your post!

Just because you start talking with someone at SHI or the Drome doesn't mean you have to be friends with them. Knowing people and listening to them is just a good way to pick out the ones you want your character to hate, and which ones you want on your side.

What's with all the 'I know this guy, I won't kill/main/screw him over?'
Find a reason, a concrete goal, a modus operandi, for your character. Then, acquaintance or not, so what ya gotta do to get your character there. Have this(these) reason(s) take precedence over everything else.

There are certain things a person -wants-. Except buddhists because they know your desire will cause you suffering. So stop being such freaking buddhists and go out there and get what your character wants!

Au contraire, I enjoy making enemies out of the morons who talk to Ty in bars. You don't have to be friends with someone cause he talks to you. I love dishing it out. =P

I don't give out what I don't expect back! :cool:

Indeed you admin are, and hard as hell from what I've been shown.

I played a Zen Buddhist. He had a Japanese style apartment that Nicadeamus simply gushed over.
*cries on his pillow*