Head(C/K)rash

Welcome to Head(C/K)rash (or C/K for short).
This is a supplement for the Heritage storytelling system. In its entirety, it's devoted to the true cyberpunk novels of William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and all other authors who write this kind of cyberpunk. I have said it on before, and I'll say it again: I won't present anything here that is suitable for Shadowrun. Why? Because this game is not a cyberpunk game. Period.

(C/K) will present all relevant data required for roleplaying in the world of true cyberpunk, ie., in the cyberpunk world described by Gibson and other founding fathers of the genre. Please note: (C/K) is not intended for the Cyberpunk 2020^TM rpg. Critical minds will have noticed that CP2020 is not very close to the original novels.

(C/K) is a roleplaying game in itself. All you need to play is the Heritage storytelling system, and of course, this supplement (called "Foil" for the Heritage game). Instead of listing up each and every bit of hardware, it takes a more universal path. (C/K) presents you quick and dirty rules of thumb for every cyberpunk aspect you can imagine, thus giving both the GMs and the players more freedom for ceativity and imagination.

How does this work?
(C/K) rates everything for its importance and how appropriate it is for the plot. The more important and powerful something is, the harder it is to get. If something is dramatically appropriate, then it is easier to happen than something that simply would not fit into the plot at that moment.
Of course, some hardware is really expensive, so it will take quite a while for somebody to access it, but generally speaking, the more powerful something is, the more complex must be the story of how the player character acquires it. This applies not only for the starting character's power, but also for later improvements ("experience", as some old-schoolers will call it).

. . . . . . . . . . . : : ! !

Welcome to the rules.

This section is not very large (thanks Odin), but there is definitely enough here to give you a tool for roleplaying in the harsh and inhuman world of real cyberpunk.

0. Creating a cyberpunk character
I know you want to know this ;)
To create your character, please go and read the Heritage rules. They contain really everything you need to know.

1. Cyberpunk is deadly
Yes. Cyberpunk is no superhero game. It's neither a munchkin game nor a cartoon series. The cyberpunk novels are full of it: brutality, aggression, sweat and tears. Cyberpunk is not a friendly world. People die every second, and nobody really cares (except maybe their closest relatives and their landlord). Remember that the player characters are people, too. It does not take much to pull a trigger. Even the best bodybuilder will simply say good-bye when hit in the head by a 9mm bullet. Even the toughest brawler will face problems when slashed by a bowie knife. The player characters are no heroes. They are normal people who might have some special experience that allows them to do certain jobs.

2.0 Hardware must be dramatically appropriate
Hardware is the catch-all for weapons, armor, cyberware, bioware, computers, and so on. Before explaining the different categories of hardware, here are the rules of thumb for acquiring it.

Question a) Is the character rich enough to buy the hardware? Maybe he is, but has so many expenditures that he has to save for months to buy it. Maybe he needs medicine, or maybe he's a drug addict. The point is that (C/K) doesn't need price lists. All the GM has to do is to decide, after careful consideration of the player character's assets, whether an item is affordable or not, and how long it will take the player character to actually get it. This will take you a while to get used to, but once you have the hang of it, you will see it's one of the best way of handling this problem.
Question b) How powerful is the hardware? How great an edge does it give the player character? How invasive is it to the human mind and body? Generally, the more powerful/invasive a piece of hardware is, the more complex and longer has to be the player's story of how his character will acquire it. For average items, a simple explanation is enough. For items that are better than average, the player must weave major complications into the story (maybe the item is damaging to the body). It gets really complicated if an item is so powerful that the character is by far the best around: then, the player has to come up with a really good and long story how the buy came to pass.

2.1 The different categories of hardware
2.1.1 Everyday items
The cyberpunk future is not very far away from us. Being an extrapolation of today's culture, the cyberpunk future will offer even more comfort and service, while you'll have to pay less and less. Fresh coffe in the morning? Say "Coffee!", and the automatic kitchen will make it. In the mood for jazz music? Say "Buck Pizarelli, medium volume, any song will do", and your chip player will play jazz music, audible in every room of your apartment (if you have one). What about a pizza? Throw an Insta-Italy^TM plastic can in your microwave, say "Start", and 15 secs later, you'll have dinner. Candle light ? Say "Dim: candle", and there you are. Other everyday items are fashion, or electronic tools, or vehicles of all sorts.

2.1.2 Weapons
Weapons have been described as utterly important by various CP2020 writers. Looking at the origins (the cyberpuink novels), one notices that this is not true. For instance, in Gibson's Neuromancer, there are only two or three scenes that describe combat. Of course, we at Matush Manhunt could take the same path, but this would mean to blow into the same horn. To make a long story short, weapons are an item that is easily available on the open market. Think of the USA today, and extrapolate the current situation. Handguns are as American as apple pie. It should be no problem to buy pistols and even rifles. It should be harder to buy automatic weapons or extremely dangerous ammunition. With armor, it's the same: kevlar vests should be readily available for anyone interested in buying them. Better protection is hard to get.

2.1.3 Cyberware - Bioware - Nanoware - Chipware
These 'wares enhance the body's or mind's capabilities. Become faster, tougher, smarter. What's the difference between those 'wares?

Cyberware consists of robotic or otherwise mechanic parts to enhance the human body or mind. Examples are the cyberlimb, the cybereye, or the mnemonic enhancers.
Chipware is a special breed of cyberware. Chipware contains the neural structures of a broad variety of skills. These skills can be easily be inserted into slots (chipslots), the character thereby benefitting from the info stored on the chips.
Bioware does basically the same as cyberware, but it takes a different approach: bioware consists of vat-grown, genetically designed biological material. It is faster and less prone to damage or malfunction than its electronic counterpart. The downside of these advantages is that it takes the human body longer to adopt to it. The first activation of a bioware device usually knocks out user. Once he is accustomed to it, this side effect is gone.
Nanoware is mentioned not very often in cyberpunk literature. Imagine nanoware as tiny robots working on cell level inside your body. Nanoware is capable of performing all those tasks which cyber/bioware can do.

Nota bene: according to various commercial cyberpunk rulebooks, cyberware is cheaper than bioware is cheaper than nanoware. This is interesting. In the novels, you won't find any hint that confirms these claims. To repeat a sentence that I said before: the more powerful/invasive a piece of cyber/bio/nanoware is, the more complex and longer has to be the player's story of how his character will acquire it.
To give you a guideline: every piece of cyber/chip/bio/nanoware is invasive to the human system. The more powerful a piece of hardware is, the more invasive it is. How damaging the ware is to a player character depends on the story the GM wants to tell.
Cyberpunk literature does not tell how invasive cyberware is. All we know is that it exists - and we know, indeed, that cyberware is definitely not as common as commercial games tell us. All we know is that certain person have cyberware, and certain persons have very high-tech cyberware, but this is it. Commcon sense might suggest that headware (cyberware implanted into the brain or the eyes or the skull) is more invasive than, let's say, a cyberhand. But no one knows what near future will bring us. Maybe there's a major scientific breakthrough just around the corner. But such musings are pure speculation, so let's leave it up to others. (C/K) is a cyberpunk game based solely on the cyberpunk inventors' writings, and they matter-of-fact did not write anything to answer such questions.

3.The Net
The net is the near-future version of today's internet. Like today, the net offers many opportunities to anyone willing to use it. The net as presented by Gibson et al. is a vast, world-spanning computer network, just like the internet we know as of now. There are cyberjockeys, or console cowboys, people who surf through the net or hack it. These persons use software that enables them to connect to the virtual, three-dimensional reality of the net. Net surfing requires a so-called cyberdeck (a kind of special net computer) and dermatrodes which are put onto the console cowboy's temples. Via electrical impulses, the hacker is able to give mental commands to the keyboard, which in turn translates them into code and sends them to the net. Certain commands must be typed manually, like "exit the net", or "connect".
Net computers come in many different models. As with all hardware, the more powerful a net computer is, the more complex and longer has to be the player's story of how his character will acquire it, and the more it will cost.

There are different kinds of software available:
Legal software are programs like today's browsers, or simple robots and webcrawlers to gather information. This software is available to everyone who wants to surf the net.
Illegal software are programs that are built to hack into other computers or computer networks. You can either buy them at a fixer's, or write them yourself.
Anti-intruder software is a special breed. This kind of software is written to knock off intruding hackers. There are programs that simply kick you out of the network, forcing you to reboot your computer and try it again. Then, there are programs who scramble the electric signals of your deck, thus looping your software, rendering you helpless and catching you in an ever-repeating program loop. This is when it gets serious. When nobody is around to help you, you can't free yourself. Other anti-intruder software lures you into specially designed virtual realities and then loops your programs. Definitely, no software is able to send electrical shocks through your deck into your trodes. A hacker can't be killed this way.
The only way to kill a net hacker via the net, is to loop him till his brain goes bananas, or he simply dies of hunger or thirst. Of course, locating his position in real life ("We know where your meat body is"), and then sending out some troopers to fry his ass is always a possibility.
As with net computers, the more powerful a program is, the more complex and longer has to be the player's story of how his character will acquire it, and the more it will cost.

You will have noticed the lack of software lists, and a gallery of the different net computers. As I have mentioned before, (C/K) doesn't need this kind of stuff. Re-read the Heritage rules, and you will see that all that really is important in a roleplaying adventure is to tell a good story. Let the player describe how he finds the piece of software or hardware, and make it difficult enough. After all, roleplaying is playing a role, not equipment lists. If your player wants to have the top-notch cyberdeck plus according software, so let him suggest a way of how his character could get it. Don't accept stories like "I go into the next computer store and buy it", because this is neither complex nor long, nor interesting. He wants a really good cyberdeck? Okay, his character has heard of some fixer somewhere in Chiba who deals with hot stuff. Tough luck that this fixer is mighty hard to find, and that he wants a 50-percent share of all money the character makes with the net hack. Not to mention the former owner's killers are on the character's track. Cyberpunk is not Disneyland.

This is the end of the (C/K) rules. Have fun, and watch your back.
.