campaign overview

The campaign will be starting in Dallas (a megalopolis of 62 million souls), Texas, USA. A city of glass and concrete splendor, but heavily overpopulated and beginning to curl in on itself like a great, diseased beast. It's also a land of opportunity for shadow mercenaries, skilled couriers, corpses (corporate thugs), etc. Dallas is one of the few technological mecca of America, and is a breeding ground for corporate power plays.

The initial focus of the campaign will be on Dover, a small dregs town (less than a 25 thousand people) 20 miles outside Dallas. It grew up originally on a combination of the Hwy 20 Interstate West and an Aztechnology/Maris Lapis Combine production plant which provided several thousands of jobs.

Dover is essentially a Combine industrial waste with a landscape straight out of an ecologist's worst Detroit nightmare, with roaming gangs and car wars' style vigilantes in a vicious social contract. Trickle down from the plant keeps a few areas secure, but the rest of the area is largely a drifter's home, where you might find yourself accidentally stopping for gas.

Imagine rusty walls, unconcealed drugs and firearms, broken down cars (except for the Mercury-Lincoln sleekly oozing down the street), and desparate faces.

The structure of the town is pretty simple. It's about a quarter mile off the Interstate, on the access road, with slightly decrepit signs advertising food and gas. It stretches for roughly ten miles along the access road, with perpendicular streets every half mile or so leading deeper into the town. Most of the "tourist stops" like the truck diners and gas stations are along the access road. A heavier, more fortified road leads off to the plant near the end of the access.

If you follow the streets, they lead into several dirt roads cut into Texas desert and rock, with trailer houses, tents, and more spreading off into the distance. The entire town is about four miles deep.

The plant itself is buried in an oddly suburban desert, with little white houses. Delivery services from the town provide a lot of the basics; the rest is provided by Maris Lapis and Aztechnology.

governments

Regulating bodies are a seething mess. The line between corporation and government has blurred (not that it hasn't already today ;), with some corps owning autonomous land, running militaries, and being almost entirely extranational.

It is possible to make something of a living as a "tour guide" to law systems.

Most major government organizations (Japan of course, America, China, EU, United Africa, Canada) are still around. However, the superpowers of the human race are now China, United Africa, Aztechnology, Tetratech (in space only), Lunar City, and the Independant Belt States. A word on each.

Aztechnology (stolen from Shadowrun) - The Little Jack Horner of corps, with its greedy little fingers in every pie. Aztechnology is a rapacious corporation, held back only by the necessity of maintaining good public image. They are the most militarily powerful corporation in the world, with heavy stock in several major mercenary corporations and a small private army of their own. Aztechnology is the only successful generalist in the corporate world, but they literally own a bit of everything.

China - China is primarily a military superpower. It now owns much of the former Soviet Union, and with its own resource allocation technologies and methods, plus its immense population (which it allowed to expand during the 40s, 60s, and 80s to repopulate all of the new land), have turned China into an industrial superpower. Although their technology has lagged behind many other nations, they have an unmatched potential to field only slightly inferior units at a 100:1 ratio of the other nations.

Independant Belt States - Their technology lags a bit, because they absolutely will not work with buggy equipment. Their population is generally low. They have little or no coordinated government (a "state" in their mind is any 100 miners who agree about something for a few minutes). But they control the flow of 75% of the world's imported raw materials, whether it's aerogel wafers, nickel and iron, space-yield glass and steel, plastic, or more. And several nations have already discovered that attacking them simply does not work - they simply migrate through the belt, taking their o-so-valuable equipment with them (it would take nearly a generation to rebuild the equipment).

Lunar City - The most technologically advanced nation, period. However, also one of the more elitist, as well - natural-born humans only, and immigration is only for the brightest in the world. Ayep, dey got a nice li'l paradise goin' on up dere, if yer good enuf fer 'em.

Tetratech - The second most technologically advanced nation of any sort. Tetratech is primarily space-centered, focusing on maintaining and expanding the Webnet, improving computers, and funding research into Jumpspace. Tetratech has virtually no military - despite numerous bans from other countries, TT has maintained an almost entirely AI-driven defense satellite system for years.

United Africa - the second most technologically advanced non-corp nation, UA is at the absolute forefront of genetics and cybertechnology. They are the only nation to really be working on obsoleting the human race as a single species. The most experienced gengineers (and the main ones who can work TL 10 magic) are from UA.

From strongest military to next strongest: China, USA, Aztechnology, Militech. The USA and Militech, despite having incredibly powerful militaries, are not considered superpowers because China generally bullies them too much.

psis and the government

"How is psi thought of? Is it regulated? Are psis forced to register with some agency?"

Depends on the country, corp or other power you're asking. There is estimated to be one true psi per fifty thousand people (it is an ability that has been showing up in humans in measurable levels only recently, about the time we started conquering land on other planets), and although they are generally considered to be valuable assets, their abilities are generally not earth-shattering.

Telepaths face the greatest social stigma, but also tend to net the highest paychecks and loyalty bonuses.

In America (where the campaign will be at least starting), psis are required to register their abilities in much the same way one must register a concealed handgun. Those judged unfit (criminal record, etc.) are put on a sort of permanent parole, the only requirement of which is that they take their daily psi suppressant drugs.

Jumpspace psis are a whole different kettle of wax. They tend to be a bit... eccentric, and net incredible paychecks. Many of them have additional psi abilities in other fields, and the older ones hear voices in Jumpspace (the current Big Theory is that the psi is filtering the electronic noise of his interfaces and attaching patterns to it). They tend to become loners, and although humanity desires their services badly, prefers that they remain a separated caste.

Science!

DEFAULT: Unless otherwise stated, the default is TL 9 verging TL 10, with cheaper TL 8 stuff still available. TL 8 is 1/2 cost, TL 9 is full cost, TL 10 is x20 cost (and experimental).

SENSORS: All sensors are half the weight and cost indicated. Bioscanners are touch range only. Some sensors will be modified for realism.

Even low security areas have millimetric wavelength scanners with expert computers that look for weapons - typically, if you come in with more than a certain amount of hardware, the police are automatically called. High security areas may have millimetric video cams hidden behind sheetrock, a handprinter that includes a bioscanner, thermal and imaging ladar face recognition systems...

BIOTECH: TL 7 is half cost. TL 8-9 is full cost. TL 10 is x10 cost. TL 11 is x100 cost. Proteus nanoviruses take around two months per character point of alteration to complete their transformation, with a minimum of two months.

For character creation, modifications that have existed since early childhood or earlier should be purchased during Phase I as a normal or "racial" advantage. Later modifications purchased with money or favors by the character in the course of her life should be taken in Phase II. For example, if you were genetically engineered as a Panora-mod genius, just take a high IQ, some eidetic memory, and a stutter, then wave your hands and transform these ads into "Pandora-mod genotype, courtesy of Aztechnology thinktank".

"Do governments/corporations do prenatal genetic manipulations, out in the open or in the closet (or even in the locked subbasement with a dozen guards outside)? What do they try to get: soldiers, jump psis, telepaths?"

Aztechnology owns some corps that do that stuff. They don't bother with it themselves. Mostly baby clinics where concerned parents with loads of cash can ask Aztech to make sure their muffin has musical abilities.

China certainly has the resources, but has a public policy of "humans only". It is possible that many of their soldiers are enhanced in some way...

Belters don't really have the resources, but many immigrants have begun to show up with genetic predispositions.

Tetratech employees are more likely than most to have manipulation of their children done. However, the corp culture still emphasizes human looks.

United Africa: Sure, all of the above. Why not? Are we not still human? Do we not still bleed? Well, okay, so the nanopharmaco makes sure I don't bleed, but I'm still human, okay?

On the other hand, psi abilities can not yet be switched on with genetics.

Also, supersoldiers built from birth generally don't happen. Despite what some science fiction authors may think, it simply isn't feasible to raise your army from children (and there is no forced-growth tech here). I mean "feasible" in both a political *and* an economic sense. The cost per soldier is too high on both levels, for a soldier who won't be around until the person approving the spending will be dead in the ground.

POWER: Uses GURPS Vehicles power source rules. TL 8 is half cost, TL 9 is full cost, TL 10 stuff is x20 cost and considered experimental (and thus somewhat less reliable).

Power cells exist, but can only discharge a maximum of 1% of their energy at a time. Thus, a power cell with 1,000 kilowatts stored in it could only provide 10 kilowatts per second. A power slug can discharge its entire amount in one second, but weighs twice as much as an equivalent power cell. Example - a laser beam requires 1,000 kilowatts per shot, and the designer wants to give it 10 shots. A TL 9 powerslug would have 10,000 kilowatts and weigh 0.336 kg. A power cell would need to have 100,000 kilowatts and weigh 1.7 kg (but would have 100 shots instead of 10).

COMPUTERS: TL 8 is 1/4 cost. TL 9 is 1/2 cost. TL 10 is full cost. TL 11 is x10 cost. Ghostcomps are treated as TL 11. Different kinds of computers can be extrapolated from these rules.

"Artificial Intelligence is possible at the computer TL you specify; are there any sentient computers out there?" Yes, AIs do exist; however, they tend to be fairly rare as they are very expensive to build and the corps with the resources to build them prefer more... controllable computer resources. Especially when an expert system is about as useful as an AI, without all those pesky meaning-of-life questions.

AIs do not think faster than humans, although they often have dedicated subcomputers that they can access easier than a human could. The recursive logic systems that allow them to be sentient also slow down their processing immensely. It is concievable that a corp might build a supersystem AI that can think faster, but Frankenstein phobias generally prevent the corps from doing that.

In most regions, AIs have no legal rights whatsoever.

ARMAMENTS: Beam weapons appear +2 TL later than indicated (any weapon over 10,000 kilojoules appears only +1 TL later). Chemical lasers appear at their normal TL. Generally, most beam weapons use power slugs rather than power cells due to the poor discharge rates of power cells. Armor is treated normally. I use BTRC's Guns, Guns, Guns to build all weapons (you can still pick one out of the books - I will just reconstruct it with G3G, and in most cases it comes out very similar).

MEDICAL: Chrysalis machines are available, but cost $1.5 billion dollars and are the size of a single story house. A micromed is treated as TL 10 and is doubled mass. Forced-growth cloning is not possible without a chrysalis machine.

CYBERTECH: Cybertechnology follows a combination of the default tech, medical tech (for biomods and availability of certain kinds of surgery), and computer tech for certain kinds of implants. Also, the GM has decided to build all replacement limbs and whatnot with GURPS Robots... Regardless, anything which must be designed for use in the human body costs five times as much as the same item that hasn't been designed for such an interface.

Let me re-iterate here: cybernetics do not cost points. Yes, this allows characters to "munchkin" a bit by taking "One Arm" in Phase I and then buying a cyber arm in Phase II. However, keep in mind that cybernetics have some disadvantages (such as being stopped at airports, maintenance problems, etc.) which I will be bringing to your attention during game play.

VAPORWARE: Several technologies which Ultratech and such include, but which is not possible in this campaign, are free-standing 3D holograms, force fields, distortion belts, and similar Superscience technologies. The exceptions are listed below.

REACTIONLESS THRUST: Reactionless thrusters are possible, but are extremely weak: they get one kg of thrust per 150 kg of engine weight. Yes, they are basically unusable in any kind of gravity field. However, they provide their own energy and use no fuel -- they are essentially free energy.

Reactionless thrust is rarely used in most aspects of the game world - the only time it becomes particularly efficient is for extremely long journeys, such as the recent exploratory mission to Alpha Centauri. Its primary advantage is that it does not require the storage of fuel; it provides its own power and its own thrust. If the fuel required for a mission is less than 100+ kilograms per kilogram of thrust, it is simply more efficient to use fuel.

JUMPSPACE: Certain cyber-enhanced psis can drag a ship (and themselves) into jumpspace and guide it using gravity wells in realspace as landmarks. Jumpspace distances are smaller, and indeed, seem to become "smaller" the deeper a psi goes. Stronger psis can allow bigger ships to travel faster. Jumpspace essentially multiplies the ship's effective speed by gobs, while the psi sucks gobs of power per second from the ship's power source. Although some exploration of other star systems has occurred, these are largely scientific expeditions, and have not yet had a serious impact -- even at FTL speeds, those other systems are a long ways away.

PSI: There are two types of psi in this campaign: realspace psis (telepaths, telekinetics, astral projectors, etc.) and the cyber-enhanced psis of jumpspace. The two primary cyber-enhancements include a direct neural link into a ship's computer (which acts as a sort of math coprocessor for the psi's brain) and another quasi-physical link into the power grid of the ship -- jumpspace requires more power than can be supplied by the psi's own body. Astral projectors are essentially operating in VERY VERY SHALLOW jumpspace. While in jumpspace, distances are shortened, allowing the psi to travel much faster than normal and sense things farther away (only gravity wells and other objects in jumpspace can be sensed, however). However, jumpspace may warp one's mind slightly (jumpspace psis say it "opens" their mind), and psis have been known to begin hearing voices while in jumpspace. Realspace psis are considerably less well developed technologically.

Psi in general has a few house rules that you should be aware of: