[K5pbem] My Thoughts On Restarting the K5 PBEM

[Logan Darklighter]

Mike Surbrook wrote:

> Let's presume it's 2039.
>
> What has changed?
>
> Well, Jinsei has had 5 years to pacify the Zone. I'd like to see what 
> Max has to say about that. Based on the end results, it is likey most, 
> if not all, of the old Zone NPCs are dead. This includes Ayane and 
> Andre, Nami, Gordon, Sylvie, and so on. A very few may have escaped -- 
> Tetsutenshi is one possibility, but I doubt she'd return to Hong Kong.

I think I would want to see at least Ayane and Andre make it out alive. 
Maybe not unscathed. But alive. I'd like to think so anyway. Sure, the 
universe isn't fair, and this universe more unfair than most, but even so...

> On the PC side, Shoko may have succumbed to biological breakdown, 
> since she's going on what now? 8? (This presumes replicated humans 
> have short life-spans ala "Blade Runner" -- I do think some have 
> shorter life spans than normal, if only because of such things as the 
> hyper-iummune systems and the like and to keep them managable). Of 
> course, upgrades have the same and live to be around 200... so planned 
> obselesence is probably a better explination.

True - but Shoko was a prototype, was she not? Would they have planned a 
breakdown in? They certainly seemed not to have done so for Anna and Uni 
Puma. Besides, she's a PC, if we need to, we can explain her survival 
any number of ways, should the player want to update her.

> Shion & Aoi are probably no longer partners, unless Kami never made it 
> back out of the Zone, then you never know. By the same token, Aoi & 
> Shion are both 5 years older, and if Aoi isn't a genetic upgrade, that 
> 5 years might start to show. Shion, OTOH, still looks the same, which 
> some may find more than a little annoying (for the record, Shion is 37 
> at this point and doesn't look a day over 25).
>
> Marta is 35 and is starting to show her age to an extent (but as she 
> works out on a regular basis, it's not that bad). Ling Ling is in her 
> early 40s and doesn't seem to have changed much -- and this is 
> probably when many upgrades start to wonder about the whole aging 
> process -- are they immortal??? (Testing should show greatly reduced 
> aging, but not immortality.) Marta & Ling Ling have been married for 5 
> years now, and if we go with one possible future, have 5 more years 
> before Marta is killed by a Triad hit squad (said Triad is then 
> visited by a certain white-haired esper weapon who then activates the 
> "nuclear option").


Lora looks the same as well. Her shell doesn't age. She still looks like 
she's twenty or so, though she'll almost be 30. She may have needed some 
way to upgrade her systems, though. Acceleration of the tech curve would 
render her 2034 shell definately behind the curve by 2039. She may have 
been transplanted into an entirely new body by then.

Although one idea I had for "booting her forward" had her seemingly 
dying during the Jinsei Zone assault, only to be found as the campaign 
starts again as her upper torso and head is being brought up from the 
bottom of the East River, where her life system had put her brain  in 
emergency hibernation. Yeah, it's inspired by Battle Angel Alita a bit 
there. Although memory loss wasn't part of the scenario. Maybe Raven 
finds clues that lead her to rescuing her friend? Or even dreams where 
Lora is calling out for help? Espers have weird connections to each 
other sometimes. And although she has no active powers, Lora _is_ an 
esper as well.

> Oh, and Ran is still alive (one presumes), provided he wasn't blasted 
> into a smear by Jinsei somehow. (Nightsky Dragons armed with WP 
> rockets, napalm bombs, ion cannon, microwave projectors, and lasers?) 
> If alive, he's gone missing, and no one knows where he is. Joy.

I suggest sometime during the campaign. Not necessarily at the start, 
but _sometime_, finding out what happened to him, one way or the other. 
Whether by his reappearance, or perhaps (echoes of the original Kazei 5 
campaign here) clones of him start appearing?

> The Zone is now a vast industrial park, or a Jinsei super-arcology in 
> progress.
>
> Sarah J Ferrari is still alive and still looking just the same. She's 
> about 30 now.
>
> One presumes that Sandra and David are still together. In fact, David 
> might be more "combat capable" and the pair might work togehter as 
> free-lance black ops team. One street sam, one decker, reasonable rates.

I always liked their team up and style together. I'd like to see a 
somewhat more combat capable David as well.

"Hmmph... Upgrades!"

^_^

> Kitten and Shina haven't changed -- Kitten is a cyborg, Shina an 
> upgrade, so there you have it.
>
> Other HK NPCs never really showed up much, so can still be used as 
> written with no real changes..
>
> Oh, if you are going to keep your PC, consider how time has changed 
> the character. If an esper, do they have better (or worse) control? 
> New powers? If a street sam, new wire? New toys? The biggest thing to 
> consider is new skill and new contacts. The latter is important, 
> actually, and Sandra, for example, could be heavily revised to reflect 
> 5 years in HK -- a AK or two, a CK: Hong Kong, a KS: HK Underworld, 
> some Chinese, and some contacts -- everyone from Ling Ling to Rinn-fa 
> to anyone else Alex fancies.
>
> Changes in technology and politics are not all that important. Why? 
> Well, we didn't do much with it at the time, so it's not like a lot of 
> stuff was set in stone. Africa is (or was) a charnel house, China is 
> in anarchy and/or sub-divided into smaller warring states, and so on.
>
> New characters can start fresh of course.
>
> Oh, something to keep in mind for new PCs -- the whole idea of 
> campaign themes. KAZEI 5 has two major ones:
>
> 1) Humanity: "What does it mean to be 'human'?" Cyborgs, cybernetics, 
> upgrades, repliacted humans.... will the real "human" please stand up? 
> As seen in "Ghost In The Shell," "Silent Mobius" (to an extent), and 
> "Blade Runner," the question what makes someone "human" is under 
> examination.
>
> 2) Esper Arms Race: Espers are here to stay. They have been around in 
> force for well over 40 years or more, and they aren't going to go 
> away. Companies want them, as guards, as weapons, as deterrents. They 
> are K5's answer to the nuclear arms race, with people instead of 
> missiles.
>
> And, let's not forget:
>
> 3) Futureshock: This is a common cyberpunk theme -- also known as 
> "information overload." Things are changing too fast for anyone to 
> really be able to stay on top -- there are replicated humans, espers, 
> cyborgs, the internet, orbital habitats, and what have you -- how does 
> one cope?


Time for the introduction of Nanotechnology perhaps?