Torrid Thursday Cyberpunk - Stand On Zanzibar By John Brunner- A Surreal Old School Campaign Part III

Introduction 
 This blog entry is going to make a whole more sense if you read the first part right HERE and the second part right over HERE. Plus this little side venture right over Here
Frank Brunner was/is one of my favorite authors and combines lots of high weirdness into his novels. Stand on Zanzibar was his "tour de force" and its only now that I'm beginning to appreciate the impact its having. 

Its a six hundred and fifty page book of very disturbing ideas, weird interactions, and a very possible future created using some social science fictional glue.
This game combined some high weirdness. 

Please bare in mind that this was an adventure game and that the works of John Brunner are sociological science fiction. They were from a strange alternative Earth  late 60's perhaps early 70's akin to something from an episode of "Johnny Quest" on acid. There was a large dose of Moorcock and pulp thrown in as well. They were allies of the Blue Blazer Irregulars, went up against bizarre villains, the Cthulhu Mythos, and secured children from government agents. 

They used a combination of plane segrators, time displacement units, bizarre equipment, mental conditioning, downloaded personalities, and sheer fire power. 
 Major Spoilers Ahead 
"The Plot of Stand" according to Wiki: 

The story is set in 2010, mostly in the United States. A number of plots and many vignettes are played out in this future world, based on Brunner's extrapolation of social, economic, and technological trends. The key main trends are based on the enormous population and its impact: social stresses, eugenic legislation, widening social divisions, future shock, and extremism. Certain of Brunner's guesses are fairly close, others not, and some ideas clearly show their 1960s mind-set.

Many futuristic concepts, products and services, and slang are presented. A supercomputer named Shalmaneser is an important plot element. The Hipcrime Vocab and other works by the fictional sociologist Chad C. Mulligan are frequent sources of quotations. Some examples of slang include "codder" (man), "shiggy" (woman), "whereinole" (where in hell?), "prowlie" (an armored police car), "offyourass" (possessing an attitude), "bivving" (bisexuality, from "ambivalent") and "mucker" (a person running amok). A new technology introduced is "eptification" (education for particular tasks), a form of mental programming. Another is a kind of interactive television that shows the viewer as part of the program ("Mr. & Mrs. Everywhere"). Genetically modified microorganisms are used as terrorist weapons.

The book centres on two New York men, Donald Hogan and Norman Niblock House, who share an apartment.^[2] House is a rising executive at General Technics, one of the all-powerful corporations. Using his "Afram" (African American) heritage to advance his position, he has risen to vice-president at age twenty-six.

Hogan is introduced with a single paragraph rising out of nowhere: "Donald Hogan is a spy". Donald shares an apartment with House and is undercover as a student. Hogan's real work is as a "synthesist", although he is a commissioned officer and can be called up for active duty.

The two main plots concern the fictional African state of Beninia (a name reminiscent of the real-life Benin, though that nation in the Bight of Benin was known as the Republic of Dahomey when the book was written) making a deal with General Technics to take over the management of their country, in a bid to speed up development from third world to first world status. A second major plot is a break-through in genetic engineering in the fictional Australasian nation of Yatakang (which seems to be a disguised Indonesia), to which Hogan is soon sent by the US government ("State") to investigate. The two plots eventually cross, bringing potential implications for the entire world.

High Crimes And Treason

 

By this time the "Amerikan Irregulars" were hitting their stride with the campaign. Things were going very well after two side missions. They had adventured on two other alternative worlds and were ready for a "real challenge" so to speak. 

The mission was a simple extraction from an alternative world rife with high population, terrorist issues, and strange retro 70's technology. The world of Stand on Zanzibar. They downloaded into their brains the works of Chad. C. Mulligen and the HipcCrime Vocab works.Climbed into the "Plane Segrator" and were off 

"Quotations from books by Quotations from books by Chad C. Mulligan, a former sociologist turned iconoclastic social commentator,"^[3] appear throughout the novel to illustrate or contrast plot points. The books are:

• The Hipcrime Vocab, a satirical collection of dictionary pseudo-definitions similar to Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary. "Hipcrime" is one of Mulligan's neologisms; his definition in the book is: "You committed one when you opened this book. Keep it up. It's our only hope."
• You're an Ignorant Idiot — a series of pieces poking holes in "common sense" and received wisdom.
• Better ? than ?
• You: Beast — a "popular science" book, condensing the science of mob psychology, population pressure, and biological imperativeso that readers living in the increasingly populated world can better understand their own environment.

,^[3] appear throughout the novel to illustrate or contrast plot points. The books are:

• The Hipcrime Vocab, a satirical collection of dictionary pseudo-definitions similar to Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary. "Hipcrime" is one of Mulligan's neologisms; his definition in the book is: "You committed one when you opened this book. Keep it up. It's our only hope."
• You're an Ignorant Idiot — a series of pieces poking holes in "common sense" and received wisdom.
• Better ? than ?
• You: Beast — a "popular science" book, condensing the science of mob psychology, population pressure, and biological imperativeso that readers living in the increasingly populated world can better understand their own environment.
  
  The "Irregulars" found themselves in a nasty jungle war and up to their necks in an alternative island hopping world war.According to the plot and wiki : "A Vietnam-like jungle war is being fought in the Philippines between US forces and Chinese units based in Yatakang. The latter is described as being spread over more than 100 islands, the largest of which is Shongao, with an area of 1,790 sq mi (4,600 km²), described as being shaped like a sword. The description closely matches Palawan, which lies between the Philippines and Sarawak. The war is being fought by conscripted soldiers, and one of the subplots follows a draftee." 
  
  
  

So who were the Irregulars to snatch from this fire fight besides almost losing their lives against Chinese National troops? A Yatakang scientist working on that very genetic engineering project.  In the combat with the Chinese two of the PC's bought it! Shot and killed when their helicopter went down!

The replacement Irregulars came from the ranks of the African state of Beninia. A soldier/scientist called Varnralin and a former official of General Technics now a washed up drunk. 

Both were fed the memories of the dead adventurers to bring them up to speed and into the fold. The brain dance technology was ripped straight from the 1983 movie Brainstorm. 
 There was a large manhunt for the characters and even though they had recovered the scientist. Their plane segrator was hit by a stray bullet. They escaped into another alternative world and met up with their old foes from the "Green Brain". After a protracted fight over several days they made it back to their planar drop point.
They elected to return to fight the hivers even with a damaged plane segrator and vanquished them. There was a cost however. They could not return to their own world. They found themselves on a very modern and dark as well as dangerous world. A world of sheer darkness needing the help of adventurers. The "Amerikan  Irregulars" became members of the "Technocracy" from Mage The Ascension.
The campaign ended and I haven't made it back down to Manchester to see my former players since.
So ended the 

"Amerikan Irregulars " and "Club of Rome Quartet" campaign. 

Some Stray Thought And Overload  
According to Wiki: 

"Stand on Zanzibar was innovative within the science fiction genre for mixing narrative with entire chapters dedicated to providing background information and worldbuilding, to create a sprawling narrative that presents a complex and multi-faceted view of the story's future world. Such information-rich chapters were often constructed from many short paragraphs, sentences, or fragments thereof — pulled from sources such as slogans, snatches of conversation, advertising text, songs, extracts from newspapers and books, and other cultural detritus. The result is reminiscent of the concept of information overload." 

There is a lot of book packed into the 650 pages of Stand. Its a very complex and uneven at times read. The book has more going for it now then it did when it first came out. I'm a bit of a devotee to this book. In many ways it reminds me of "Naked Lunch" by orbiting its own narrative. 
The book is one of those that I'm possibly going to pick up for another Summer read and adapt into a campaign for Mage The Ascension or some other rpg. 
This is a good solid read but not one for everyone. The book is really nasty in places and sometimes seems like an episode of depression waiting to happen. That being said if your looking for science fiction social commentary that can be turned into straight balls to the walls Rpg action/adventure. This might be for you if: A. you don't take it that seriously. And B. Aren't adverse to committing a few Hip Crimes and such.
 Cheers. 

Resources for Gaming and Otherwise 

1. Here's the Wiki Entry On Stand HERE
2. An article about stand correctly sort of predicting our current political climate HERE 
3. Here's the TV Tropes entry for Stand HERE
   
   

Frank Herbert Saturday Cyberpunk - The Green Brain And Hellstrom's Hive - A Surreal Old School Campaign Part III

This post is going make a whole lot of sense if you read the other parts of this. Go to Part II right HERE

 Introduction 
The summers of the  90's for me were hot, chaotic, and full of part time temporary jobs. The weekends were a time when I worked partially in Boston and partially in Ct. I did a lot of role playing and spent time over the houses of friends in Manchester Ct. Most of the time staying over night and gaming till the wee hours of the morning only to drive home and go to work on Monday. The problem I had was jaded players. Vampires, Mages, Swordsmen, And the like they had seen it all. Everything with a capital letter and the driving forces to face them down.
 I ran a lot of the Stormbringer rpg & AD&D first edition back then. They were getting a bit sick of the usual faces of the lords of order. The small snip it in Deities And Demigods didn't do them justice. Stormbringer painted them in much the same light.
 That box of 60's and 70's science fiction books came to the rescue again. When I say Frank Herbert all I hear is Dune. Well he did write to very good books that get no attention today. The Green Brain And Hellstrom's Hive.
These two fit my criteria for this game. Mostly unknown, very well written, and freaky as all hell.
Into The Human Colony

These two books became the back bone for my alternative Overlords of Order. Were two books set in the near future and taking place over millennia, deals with themes such as human survival and evolution, ecology, and the intersection of religion, politics and power. Most of all the evolution of the insects and human ecology. 

The Green Brain is typical seventies ecology science fiction. Themes of forced evolution, weird biotechnology and the acceleration of the human into humanoid. These books had much in common with the horror and science fiction films of the 60's and 70's. They didn't always end on a happy note or even a hopeful one. 
Plot According to Wiki : 

The book is set in the not-so-distant future, where humankind has all but succeeded in controlling all life on the planet and almost completely wiping out all insect life. The earth is divided into a "Green Zone" which humans totally dominate (or so they believe) and a diminishing "Red Zone" that is not yet conquered.

The "Green Brain" of the title is an intelligent organism that embodies and arises from nature's resistance to human domination. It is able to command social insects to form humanoid-shaped collective organisms which it uses to infiltrate the "Green Zone".

The book is about a small team sent in to the jungles of Brazil to investigate the problem, who find out that some of their assumptions were wrong.
The book is well written and brisk. This isn't Dune set in Brazil.  Things are not as they seem. On a weekend in October. I read this one. And began to make notes. 

Hellstrom's Hive is even more bizarre then the Green Brain. The book reads like a Call of Cthlhu adventure set in the near future minus Cthlhu or any Great Old one is missing from these but the implications are far more horrid.  Doctor Hellstrom is a "mad" scientist out to reshape humanity into something far greater and far less then what it already is. 

The plot according to wiki the simplified version: It is about a secret group of humans who model their lives upon social insects, and the unsettling events that unfold after they are discovered by a deeply undercover agency of the US government.
 Hellstrom's Hive is  more of a ecological spy thriller with overtones of a horror movie that becomes the future evolution of humanity gone horribly right. The book is quick and fast. It actually reads more like a 50's sci fi pulp then it does a 70's ecological science fiction novel.

The Insect Overlords 
Both books are written from two very different perspectives. The Green Brain concerns the continuing control of nature by man until the organized structure of the insects evolves into something completely different.
Hellstrom's Hive is the application of one man's order into the evolution of a very different branch of humanity into a insect humanoid hybrid race.
These became to competing classes of evolved hive mind God Minds competing across the cosmos for the resource that is mankind.
The Insect Overlords of Order
 Specialization:
Evolution
Resources
Biotechnology
Structure
Order And Life
One group is based on the absorbed humanity into the greater insect super organism. The so called Greens in point of fact.Which was starting to spread it notion of order among other planes.
The Hivers were an evolved group of humans who had spread colonies among the planes quietly and quite insidiously. They were becoming a nuisance in the plans of the Irregulars.
Encounter At Reservation Point 
A couple of months game time "The Amerikan Irregulars" had healed up and were employed to gather a downed alien probe upon an unknown alternative Earth. A combination of plane segrators, time displacement units, bizarre equipment, mental conditioning, downloaded personalities, and sheer fire power were used for this mission 
The adventurers came upon a simple small town America setting. Things got bad fast as they found themselves going against Hivers for the first time. In fact the mission almost ended badly if not for the fact that they found the probe outside of town by sheer luck.
One PC bit the dust due to the sonic weaponry of the Hivers. Town of Reservation point is still a sticking point in a group of six of my former players.
From Green To Red 
The second encounter this time with the Greens was at a terraforming station deep in the heart of the Amazon jungle when the PC's were supposed to grab another hard drive from a computer room.
The encounter became a running gun battle with one PC almost losing a leg. The encounter with an acid shooting insect ended badly for the PC. Critical thinking on the party's part saved their comrade. 

Hellstrom's Hive For The OSR 



There are a number of ways of using Hellstrom's Hive for your OSR games. For SWN Hellstrom's presents a unique spin. The alternative world of Hellstrom is going to be a lower technology level then the characters are going to be used to. For a game like Mutant Future Hellstrom is a group of specialty mutant who have evolved a rather unique life cycle and specialized mutations. They might be dimensional travelers such as I have used or given the full Hellstrom treatment with truly weird evolution at work.
 The humans of Hellstrom's Hive are evolved insect human hybrids specialty adapted to their roles in their respective society. They might be a uniquely alien colony of humans lost in the universe in a game of Xplorers or something far more alien.
These being's minds should be difficult to read telepathically and very dangerous because of the hive mind.
In Carcosa "The Hivers" have appeared as a group of a specialized men.A group of lunatics in a lost valley that the other races avoid like the plague unless they wish to end up within the vats of the Hivers.
Each member of Hellstorm's hive is specialized and bred to their roles. And selected for their traits. Their technology level in whatever game I've run has been 60's to 70's with very unique and weird biotechnological artifacts. Some of these have included their own people.
"Hellstroms" is also a mega front corporation for the Hivers in my Talon sector campaign and they are just as dangerous as they were in the 90's "Amerikan Irregular's" Campaign. 

Using The "Green Brain" In Your OSR Campaign 

Where in "Hellstrom's Hive" is humanity adapting into a specialized biological insect like social order and lawful structure. The "Green Brain" is insects adapting humans into their own alien agenda. They are interested in expanding out their own zones into expanding zones. For a game like SWN this means alien biotechnology on a scale not seen by many PC's. For Xplorers this means a whole different scale which breaks the usual "Star Ship Troopers" tropes. The book is a perfect way of presenting truly alien humanoids who have taken a completely different path then humanity. A  shadowy reflection of ourselves as we might become. The lawful god mind will really put the fear of a new Mother nature into Mutant Future players. They'll be seeing a group of mutated humans guided by a god mind of alien aspect. Specialized giant insect artifacts that will allow the DM to create some weird technology.


The Mega dungeons Of Frank Herbert

In the "Green Brain" mutated insect abound creating alien megadungeons throughout that world. Specialized mazes cut into the Earth and above the ground. These could be used as a template for designing some very unique and alien megadugeons where ecology and strangeness abound. I suggest taking a look at termite mound diagrams and more. 

Hellstrom's Hive is unique in the respect that it takes place within a Valley and the author takes pains to describe the entire set up of the place. There is some truly disturbing technologies within the hive society of the book however. These aren't for the faint of heart. There are miles of levels that run under a town and then into the heart of the Earth. They enable a DM to really go to town.
As I've said this isn't a nice book. These books have left folks that have read them uneasy, and are typical of the 70's speculative science fiction of the New Wave era. 

Weird Wednesday Cyberpunk - Shock Wave Rider - A Surreal Old School Campaign Part II

Introduction 
 This blog entry is going to make a whole more sense if you read the first part right HERE. John Brunner isn't a nice author or an author that is going to make you feel comfortable. I first encountered him back in the Summer of 90's something. I was just leaving college and going into the summer part time job thing. The weekends I would spend with friends in Manchester Ct. and role play one game or another. We played a metric ton of AD&D or OD&D along with a mix of Stormbringer and Mage The Ascension.
 I came across this book in a box, in the trash on the side of the road waiting for the for garbage man. According to the owner of the house her father had recently died and she was cleaning out his books. Take what you want. I did! Each and every last box. There were three boxes jammed with Science Fiction and new Wave Science fiction. This was the same year that earlier Squares of The City had come into my possession.
 My friends were getting sick of switching PC's and games. I had dungeon master's ADD pretty bad back then. I needed something quick elegant and fast.
Fortunately the solution was right there in front of me.
The Over The Edge  rpg presented me with the solution. Actually it was Annie one of my players who gave me the idea. I was reading Moorcock at the time and so. The characters were escapees from an alternative world. Mercenaries for a strange organization that roamed time and space exacting a weird hidden agenda even they didn't understand. They were time travelers, alternative world jumpers, and adventurers across the oververse.
Each agent could store not only a new persona but an entire set of skills that could be programmed into their minds. The catch was that they could only store seven of these personalities before they would crack up. Some did just that. That began the so called "Club of Rome Quartet" campaign with the adventurers known as the "Amerikan Irregulars ".  The Amerikans roamed through  the games Cyberpunk 2020, Over The Edge, And finally were retired in Mage The Ascension.
Riding The Wave  

First we had the legs race. Then we had the arms race. Now we're going to have the brain race. And, if we're lucky, the final stage will be the human race.

• Bk. 1, Ch. "The Number You Have Reached"

Please bare in mind that this was an adventure game and that the works of John Brunner are sociological science fiction. They were from a strange alternative Earth  late 60's perhaps early 70's akin to something from an episode of "Johnny Quest" on acid. There was a large dose of Moorcock and pulp thrown in as well. They were allies of the Blue Blazer Irregulars, went up against bizarre villains, the Cthulhu Mythos, and secured children from government agents. 

They used a combination of plane segrators, time displacement units, bizarre equipment, mental conditioning, downloaded personalities, and sheer fire power. 

Major Spoilers Ahead 

The novel is set in the weeks following Nick's recapture after several years on the run, alternating between moral arguments with his interrogator, who is trying to discover why the program's star pupil had absconded, and flashbacks of his career. The interrogator is Paul Freeman, a graduate of another secret installation known as "Electric Skillet", which focuses on weapons and defense strategy.

Although he initially felt at home at Tarnover, Nick eventually becomes aware of experiments in genetic engineering being performed there. These produce monstrous deformed children who are disposed of when they are no longer needed for study. At this point Nick becomes determined to escape. He studies data processing, steals a personal ID code intended for privileged individuals who wish to live their lives without surveillance, and goes on the run. He uses the stolen computer access code to cover his data trails and create new identities for himself, easily adopting entire new personas. One is the pastor of a popular church, another is an idle playboy gigolo.

In this last role, calling himself Sandy Locke, he becomes the lover of Ina Grierson, a top executive at Ground to Space Industries, a powerful "hypercorp" known to all as G2S. Intending to use the computer facilities at G2S to ensure that his code is still valid after the six years he has been away, he signs on as a "systems rationalizer" with the company. This brings him into contact with Ina's daughter, Kate, who attracts him despite her plain appearance and simple lifestyle. At the age of 22, Nick's age when he left Tarnover, Kate is a perpetual student at "UMKC". She is perceptive enough to penetrate Nick's adopted persona, deeply disturbing him even though she fascinates him. He visits her at home, helping her to clean out some of her possessions, and meeting her tame cougar, Bagheera. Bagheera is the product of her late father's genetic research into intelligence. He died shortly after abandoning the research because the government was using it to produce animals for military uses.

The 21st-century lifestyle produces a symptom called "overload" in many people, and most, including Nick, take tranquilizers to some degree. However Nick collapses completely when told that a representative from Tarnover is coming to meet him at G2S. He returns to Kate and confesses that he is not what he seems, asking for her help. She conducts him to one of the "paid avoidance areas" in California, where people are paid to do without the full panoply of modern technology, as an alternative to spending billions to rebuild infrastructure after the earthquake. After Nick risks exposure yet again in one of these places, they move to the least known one, a town called Precipice.

Precipice turns out to be a Utopian community of a few thousand people. The nearest comparison would be an agrarian, cottage industry community designed by William Morris. Precipice is also the home of "Hearing Aid", an anonymous telephone confession service accessible to anyone in the country. Hearing Aid is also known as the "Ten Nines", after the phone number used to call it: 999-999-9999. People call the service and simply talk. Some rant, others seek sympathy, still others commit suicide while on the phone. Hearing Aid's promise is that nobody else, not even the government, will hear the call. The only response Hearing Aid gives to a caller is "Only I heard that, I hope it helped."

Nick and Kate settle into the community. The inhabitants include intelligent dogs that escaped from the projects that Kate's father worked on. These act as companions, guards, nannies, and even lie detectors, using their sense of smell. Nick rewrites the "computer tapeworm" that prevents the calls to Hearing Aid being monitored. While at G2S he became aware of massive backups of data being performed, clearly in anticipation of a major network outage. The Hearing Aid worm is designed to scramble network traffic if attacked, but Nick realizes that it could be destroyed if the authorities were prepared for the effects and ready to recover from them. His new worm, which he calls a "phage", cannot be removed without dismantling the entire network.

Possibly encouraged by the government, local gangs and tribes raid Precipice, burning down Nick and Kate's house before being overwhelmed by the dogs. Nick, suffering another overload, blames Kate for the incident, since she, following Hearing Aid policy, cut off a call from someone attempting to warn Precipice. He hits her, and then, filled with remorse, leaves the town. He finally reveals his location to the authorities when, encountering one of the "Roman circus" operations which broadcast live fights and other bloody exhibitions to the country, he responds to an "all comers" challenge by the father of the leader of one of the gangs, and cripples him in front of a nationwide audience.

At Tarnover, Paul Freeman takes charge of the interrogation. He was the representative whom Nick, as Sandy Locke, was supposed to meet at G2S. Freeman, a tall gaunt African-American, gradually comes to realize that he has more sympathy with Nick's views than his employer's, and eventually absconds himself, giving Nick computer access so that Nick can make his own escape. The precipitating event in this case is Kate's abduction by government agents, who bring her to Tarnover for further questioning and to threaten Nick.

With the code he gets from Freeman, he sets up an identity as an Army Major, with Kate as his prisoner. Once clear of Tarnover, they disappear together. This time around, Nick has another plan, and rather than running and hiding, he and Kate spend a number of months traveling the country, aided by an "invisible college'" of academics who are allies or former residents of Precipice. He creates a new "worm" which is designed to destroy all secrecy. (Brunner invented the term "worm" for this program, as a self-replicating program that propagates across a computer network - the term "worm" was later adopted by computer researchers as the name for this type of program.)

The worm is eventually activated, and the details of all the government's dark secrets (clandestine genetic experimentation that produces crippled children, bribes and kickbacks from corporations, concealed crimes of high public officials) now become accessible from anywhere on the network - in fact, those most affected by a particular crime of a government official are emailed the full details. In place of the old system, Nick has designed the worm to enforce a kind of utilitarian socialism, with people's worth being defined by their roles in society, not their connections in high places. In effect, the network becomes the entire government and financial system, policing income for illegal money, freezing the accounts of criminals, while making sure money (or credit) flows to places where people are in need. This will only happen fully if the results of a plebiscite, again conducted over the network, allow it.

In a final atavistic attempt at revenge, the government orders a nuclear strike by a single aircraft from a local Air Force base. Warned by Hearing Aid, Nick is able to penetrate the military computers and manufacture a counter-order to stop the plane just before it reaches the town. The book ends optimistically, with there being no more privileged hiding of information, no more secret conspiracies of the rich and powerful.

 In The World But Not A Part Of It

 The Irregulars first mission on the world of Shock Wave Rider came during the "Electric Skillet" years of the book but even this isn't the same world of  Shock Wave. This is an alternative world with a much darker future unless the characters can recover a child from this program. Bring them to another world and return these kids at a critical junction to bring about the changes seen in the book. 

The adventure was one part "Mission Impossible" and one part "Naked Lunch" with a good dose of "Doc. Savage".
The players were jaded by that time having played every game up to that time but when the crippled kids were revealed from the book all bets were off.  Much of that section of the secret  base was destroyed and the kids taken back to the "Irregulars" employers.
 The PC's got another chance to get a bit of their own back when one of the PC's tried to store eight personalities. The results  of which being something out of Scanners. This wasn't before they were able to aid  the heroes of the book after their former employers  the "United Police States" who sent their own agents in to kill Nick and Kate. The PC's stayed for some months helping with the invisible college and setting up some of the technologies needed by the world. 
"This time around, Nick has another plan, and rather than running and hiding, he and Kate spend a number of months traveling the country, aided by an "invisible college'" of academics who are allies or former residents of Precipice."
 During an assassination attempt on Paul Freeman one of the PC's lost an arm against agents of "United Police Force. She had it replaced by a bio cybernetic one in "Night City". 

 The Mega Dungeons of Shock Wave Rider
 
At the end of the cycle of adventures the PC's had to recover a series of computer reels and a hard drive from a facility lost during the quakes in the Payment Avoidance Areas.
From Wiki: 

"The background to the story includes a massive earthquake laying waste to the San Francisco Bay area in California. Millions die and millions more are left to live on government handouts." 

They encountered one of the most deadly affairs in the campaign. One of the "Roman circus" operations which broadcast live fights and other bloody exhibitions to the country captured them. This gang of cut throats were out to capture and board cast the games the character's deaths. Things didn't go as they planned and the PC's escaped but not after the brave sacrifice of one of their own. He held off the entire gang with a shot gun, grenade, and chain saw. 

 The PC's bloody, wounded, and triumphant recovered the computer tapes and hard drive drum. They took over three months to heal their wounds. Then the biggest challenge lay ahead when they entered the world of  "Stand On Zanzibar" 

The massive ruins of the San Francisco have featured in a number of my games. Hundreds of museums, art galleries, and technologies lost to the earthquake have proved too much of a temptation for players in my games. The Bay as its called has been featured in everything from Gamma World first edition, Mutant Future, and even Mage The Ascension as my go to drop zone. Miles of ruins, weird life forms, and more prove a ready made crop of problems for dimensional hopping alternative Earth adventures. 

More "Amerikan Irregulars " and "Club of Rome Quartet" campaign coming up. 

Saturday Cyberpunk - The Squares Of The City - A Surreal Old School Campaign

 Introduction 

When I was in college this book was part of a book sale and I bought it for fifty cents.
Back then I was deep into the Prisoner television series and Squares was part of read while taking a train ride. This is thoroughly sociological SF, when that was still the Next Wave (originally published by Ballantine in 1965).

The  Plot According To Wiki:
It is a sociological story of urban class warfare and political intrigue, taking place in the fictional South American capital city of Vados. It explores the idea of subliminal messages as political tools, and it is notable for having the structure of the famous 1892 chess game between Wilhelm Steinitz and Mikhail Chigorin. The structure is not coincidental, and plays an important part in the story.
Plays an important part of the story? The game actually is the story. 

Brunner takes "subliminal domination" from advertising, the original fear, and explores its application to a city government  and city planning in this story. It is eerily prophetic of the future total dominance of politics by televised sound-bites, advertising, and mass persuasion. It predates the internet by an order of magnitude.

It was natural to combine it with this: 

The Hot House Chess Board

 

"The political atmosphere was of the hothouse kind. The least incident capable of being made to bear political fruit was being nurtured, protected from the frost [of contrary information] and fed with manure until it blossomed out of all proportion."

 John Brunner Squares of The City

What happens to a fictional South American country when its ultra modern city explodes into an orgy of violence and protests. When all of the chess pieces are put away and only the board is left standing? 

"Conformism is a slow death; anarchy is a rapid one. Between the two lies a control which [...] like a lady's corset is an advertisement  constricts and yet bestows a sense of freedom. We govern our country with a precision that would amaze you." (84-85)

The fiction Latin American country of Aguazul and more specifically to the capital city of Ciudad de Vados, a city envisioned and built by the man the city is named after--Vados. Vados lies abandoned in the jungles of Aguazul. So while riding the train and reading the book I took my copy of Cyberpunk 2020 and Over The Edge. Threw in a bit or two from Gurps Prisoner book then moved the action to an alternative 1969 -1970. 

Less cyber and more punk the adventurers are hired by the "United Police States" to recover a series of cutting edge mind control technologies imported in from else where. Namely the fictional country in Over The Edge. I freely admit to liberally stealing a few Prisoner references and throwing in some South African mercenaries. There were also a bit of a pulp vein running through the adventure when they encountered a few aquatic giant South American centipedes.
Out of the six people playing four survived but it was whom they found in the South American jungle that caused the most problems.
That began the so called "Club of Rome Quartet" campaign with the adventurers known as the "Amerikan Irregulars " .  The Amerikans roamed through  the games Cyberpunk 2020, Over The Edge, And finally were retired in Mage The Ascension. They made their way through the worlds of Stand on Zanzibar and Shock Wave Rider. I felt that Gibson was over used by the 90's and someone different was needed. 
You can read more about John Brunner Right over Here
 If your interested in the "Club of Rome Quartet" campaign and want to know more.Please leave me a comment.
 Part II coming up. Maybe? 

A Post Apocalyptic Vehicle for Your Old School Retro Future Campaign - The Ekranoplans

These incredible vehicles are perfect air air support for Mutant Future. They may be seen on less developed worlds in games like Human Space Empire or X plorers. Wherever they're used they'll make quite the impression on players. These planes might also make an excellent base for players depending on the campaign. One could see these used as full bases by a mercenary unit ala The Expendables. The uses are pretty much skies the limit. 

A game like Cyperpunk 2020 might have several roles where they might be used. Wrecked Ekranoplans might be the focus of a post Apocalypse adventure with cargo recovery being the center of the thing. Various powers, traps, monsters, etc. might make these things their home. Below is the original article from Dark Roast Blend. There are so many uses of these that I can't name them all. 

The Ekranoplans have a very strange retro pulp feel to me. There is definitely a sense of romance & mystery about them. They do have a sense of style & intrigue about them. Use them as one will! 

They hover and skim above the water surface at speeds of up to 250 miles an hour, they carry heavier loads of cargo and troops than any airplane - the Ekranoplans, or "Wing-in-Ground" (WIG) vehicles are possibly the most exciting and strange looking technology ever designed by men.
Developed mostly by Soviets during Cold Wars years (by Rostislav Alexeev's design firm) some of them were over 500 feet in length and had an estimated weight of over 500 tons! And yet they skimmed over the waves with grace, at high speeds, able to negotiate stormy conditions, unseen by radar - all thanks to an aerodynamic principle known as the "ground effect".


All pilots are familiar with this effect: when an airplane is about to land, it almost wants to "float" on air, moments before touchdown. The compressed air between the wing and the ground becomes a "cushion" that gives the plane smooth gliding ability. Over the sea surface this effect is even more noticeable.


1. KM - Russian "Caspian Sea Monster" Ekranoplan





It was the biggest ground-effect vehicle ever designed (100 meters long, weight: 544 tons, powered by ten Dobryin VD-7 turbojet engines). It still holds the record for lifting the heaviest load off the ground (more even than the largest modern cargo plane Antonov An 225 "Mriya" can handle). It also had an air of mystery around it for a long time, tested in secrecy on the Caspian Sea in 1966 and spied on by a US satellite. 


Although only one KM (Russian abbreviation for prototype ship) has been built, there were several variations, differing in length and weight. All were intimidating and weird looking, designed to use the ground effect to skim the ocean at high speed, undetected by radar. According to military sources, the Soviet government planned to built 100 of these monsters at the height of Cold War, then the number went down to 24.












(Images source: The WIG Page and Samolet)


After an accidental crash (due mostly to poor visibility in the fog), KM was abandoned in a shallow 20 meters of water, thwarting all efforts to recover it because of its weight; its high tail sticking out of the water like a funeral cross.
The next model to take its place will be "Orlenok" - a medium-sized ekranoplan suitable for military transportation duties.



SM-8 (smaller version of KM).


2. An Impressive A-90 "Orlyonok" ("Eaglet")







"The 140 tonne, 58 meter long aircraft had its maiden flight in 1972. The A-90 boasted two turbojets and one turboprop engine which propelled it to a speed of 400 km/h for 1,500 km at an cruise altitude of 5-10 m."
Source: warlib.ru


It could travel over land, if need be, and in rather spectacular fashion:









(images credit: A. Belyaev, The WIG Page)


It could carry 150 troops and 2 tanks (or rather, BTR-60), as evidenced by this picture:








(image credit: Airforce.ru)


The Soviet military planned to built 20 such vehicles, creating a whole new division in the Baltic Sea. The aircraft has been supplied to the military in 1979, and three A-90s reportedly were still operational in 1993. However, a couple of crashes prevented the full deployment; one crash was especially spectacular. The craft lost a whole tail section after striking a wave, but proved to be air-worthy enough to make it "gliding" to the shore. This amazing feat still did not impress the generals enough, and the program was mothballed. 


UPDATE: "Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the plant responsible for building the Orlyonoks has been privatised. Now called the Volga Shipyard, the Orlyonok is apparently still being developed as a commercial search and rescue craft. In fact, it appears that the Orlyonok can be ordered in either cargo-carrying (50 tons with a 1500km range) or in passenger carrying (30 people and a 3000km range) versions - the yard lists it as a production model!" (source)


3. Strange intermediate designs: VVA-14M


"VVA-14M" ekranoplan was essentially a conversion from the very strange-looking plane "VVA-14". Here it's seen before the conversion:





and after, cruising over water:






(image credit: Ronald Wong, The WIG Page)




4. "Lun (Spasatel)" (1987) - bigger than KM "Sea Monster" and way more dangerous!


"The 280 tonne, 74 metre long M-160 Lun was another ekranoplan developed from Alexeev designs. One was built in 1987, which entered service in 1989."









(image courtesy: Paul McDonell)


It's actually bigger than Boeing 747!


Size comparison:

(image credit: Peter C Losi - United States Air Force)





What's more, it was equipped with unparalleled to this day ZM-80 "Moskit" (SS-N-22 Sunburn) supersonic rockets, capable of sinking any enemy ship. This machine would've been a formidable threat to NATO if not for the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union. Insufficient funds for continuation of research and the overall decline had sunk this project altogether, even though some efforts have been made to convert "Lun / Spasatel" into a sea rescue vessel.



(images source: Airwar.ru)


Here is the "Spasatel" civilian version:



(image source)


Another interesting concept which almost made it into production:







All these and other variations of Russian ekranoplans you can see in this long video (10 minutes of great & rare footage):



(link)





That video also shows the current sad condition of Russian giant "Lun" craft, stored at the Kaspiysk naval base... Maybe some kind of a "crazy scientist" or an investor will turn out on eBay, pay the minimum bid and put this thing to use again??





The "swan song" of Rostislav Alexeev, the last considered concept was the "Rocket-2" river cruise ship design:

(art by A. Sukhov, courtesy rosevg.org)


----------------


AMERICAN WINGSHIPS


Steven Hooker, an aeronautical engineer, first observed the Caspian Monster in 1967 and went on to establish the "Aerocon" company - with a dream of making "wingship" ten times bigger, and truly trans-oceanic in range. Here is the proposed Aerocon Wingship concept from 1984:
(it is the size of twelve Boeing 747's !)


"Atlantis - 1":



Image courtesy: Popular Science


It still remains to be seen whether this gargantuan ship is going to be built; but for now US NAVY is considering another prototype:


Boeing Ultra Pelican -
American (belated) answer to the "Caspian Sea Monster"





Look at the size of that conceptual boat, or rather "Large Transport Aircraft" - it can easily carry 1,400 tons (as many as 17 tanks plus a few hundred soldiers) to distances over 16,000 km. This spectacular machine will have wingspan of 106 meters (about 350 feet) and length of 152 meters (longer than a football field). The craft would be 10 times faster than any modern container ship.





"The vessel will be able to travel in ground-effect at a height of about 20 feet above the water surface for its most economical mode of operation, but will also be capable of entering free-flight and flying at an altitude of 20,000 feet."


Sources: foxxaero, Popular Science, Boeing


If this craft's development proceeds unimpeded, then the military dream of "deployment of one division in five days anywhere in the world" would be realized. You can run but you can't hide. The Wingship's potential for strategic lift is almost unlimited. What's more, its operating efficiency (delivering cargo per consumed fuel) is44% better than modern cargo airplanes!


Wingship is an achievable technology, and even if a smaller but successful prototype will be built (perhaps with Russian / American cooperation?) - it might open a new era in transportation, the exciting blend of sea and air travel. For now, we only see larger and larger cruise ships and airliners being built, without much consideration for operating efficiency.


Further reading: 1, 2, 3
The best web resource available about WIG craft is The WIG Page. See many models there, and some most unusual concepts.