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OCEANPUNK: THE PLAYERS GUIDE
Introduction Cargojock Comber Deep Miner Freeholder Pirate New Skills
Welcome to Oceanpunk: The Players Guide, a
freeware supplement for R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk 2020 role
playing game covering life on the high seas from the player's
perspective. Adventures in the near future world of ocean
colonization have been a staple of science fiction novels,
television programs, and movies for most of the genre's
existence, but haven't been touched on by many role playing
games. These rules are a guide for getting your own ocean based
Cyberpunk campaign up and running.
The first part covers optional new character
roles for players that find the existing roles in the basic
rulebook seem too limiting for an oceanpunk campaign. Each
listing includes a brief player introduction to the role,
description of the role's special ability, a standard career
skill listing, typical cyberware options, and some commentary
from the denizens of the future to help explain how the character
is viewed by the rest of the world. All of the roles have some
new skills in their initial career packages, but anything not
included in the basic CP2020 rulebook is fully described here.
Feel free to modify the career package if a skill you think is
appropriate to the role isn't listed here or can be found in one
of the supplements.
The second section covers new skills
appropriate to an oceanpunk campaign. You'll find descriptions of
some specialized neo- cetacean skills in addition to what your
character needs to live and work in a marine environment. The
skill descriptions use the same format found in the basic
rulebook and shouldn't be too difficult to understand, but the
final word on how appropriate they are to any situation is, as
always, up to the Ref.
The oceans of the world are still the
cheapest way to ship cargo in the twenty-first century. The high
priority stuff might make the trip by cargo plane or ballistic
carrier, but the bulk of global trade moves across the sea in
ships, zeppelins, and submarines. You're one of the men and women
that crew the big ships carrying the wealth of the world: a
Cargojock.
You can't even remember all the stuff you've
hauled since you first signed up. Machine parts for the huge
landcrawlers mining Antarctica. Boxes of bulk protein powder from
the algae lagoons of Pacifica. Questionable crates of "farm
equipment" destined for rebels in Matto Grande. No matter
what it is, or where it's going, you get paid to make sure it
gets there on time.
There are times when you wonder why in hell
you keep doing it. The money ain't that great, the working
conditions range from fair to horrendous, and sixteen hour days
are the norm. Add piracy and economic terrorism to the natural
hazards of the sea and you seriously have to wonder if it's all
worth it. That's when you remember the first time you saw a laser
launcher flinging cargo pods into the star filled sky over
Guantanamo or the drunken carnival of shore leave in Hong Kong.
It's not an easy life, but for the right
kind of person it's a dream come true. You're seeing the world up
close and personal and you know you can rely on your mates to
cover your back when things get heavy. More often than not you
run into old buddies in port and spend the night swapping lies
over drinks. Once in a while you really live it up with bonus
money from cargo on the far side of legal. You've got your
freedom, some cash in your pocket, and a network of friends to
get you through when times are tough. You're a Cargojock.
Special Ability: Fraternity. This is a variant of the Nomad special ability Family. It reflects your ability to call up the resources and manpower of the close knit fraternity of professional sailors when you need some help. Whether you need equipment, money, or raw muscle you can put out the word and expect your mates, or other sailors that owe them favors, to respond. Fraternity is applied to your Intelligence stat.
Typical Cyberware- Work related gear usually includes strength boosting mods and Machine/Tech or Vehicle links. Culture and Language chipware come in handy for shore leave in unfamiliar ports. Cargojocks have a tattoo fetish and commemorate significant events with ornate light tattoos.
"Whatever you do, don't mess with one of 'em when he's on shore. Chances are he'll come after you a couple of cybered up pals that can lift a full cargo pallet with their bare hands."
When you were a kid you used to spend hours
snooping around through other peoples junk. You could usually
find something pretty interesting for your cramped little room's
decor, but once in a while you'd come across something people
were willing to pay money for. It didn't take long for you to
make finding that kind of stuff your business.
Now you've built yourself a nice little
operation turning debris from the ocean into cold, hard cash. You
spend your day combing the beaches and open sea to recover goods
and refuse cast adrift by nature or misfortune. There are people
that say you're not much more than a glorified bottom feeder
living off of society's waste, but you prefer to think of
yourself as a shining example of success through recycling. Like
the cliché says, one mans junk is another mans treasure.
Most of the time you're reclaiming raw
materials the corps are willing to pay for: recyclable polymers
from the huge floating trash shoals out at sea, scrap metal and
alloys dredged from wrecks, and the increasingly rare scraps of
natural wood. Deforestation is a bitch for the environment, but
last year a Yak flew in from Tokyo with ten grand in cash for a
teak log you pulled up out of the silt.
Then there's all the other stuff you and
your crew have collected. A treasure trove of merchandise washed
off ships during storms, dumped as trash, or floating around as a
memorial to the brutality of pirates. Cyberware? You've got racks
of the stuff you've collected from dead bodies washed out to see.
Parts? Fifty years worth of tech salvaged from wrecks or found
drifting at sea in it's original shipping container. Drugs? Where
else can a smuggler dump his stuff when a delivery goes bad?
It's a lot of hard work getting the good
stuff, but that's what you do better than anyone else. You're a
Comber.
Special Ability: Comb. This is your talent for finding quality "stuff" in the flotsam and jetsam that collects on beaches and the open sea. It also functions as the Tech special ability of Jury Rig at half level. Finding bulk recyclables is Easy. Getting merchandise equivalent to the stuff you'd find at a cheap department store or flea market (clothes, housewares, bric-a-brac, etc.) is an Average task. Laying your hands on electronics and machine parts is Difficult. Obtaining drugs, ammo, watercraft, or weapons is Very Difficult. If you're willing to settle for stuff that needs a little repair work you can reduce the Difficulty of your skill check by one level. Comb is an Intelligence based skill.
Typical Cyberware- Whatever it is, it's probably used. Why pay for new when pick it up for free? Combers tend to load up on practical things like strength boosters, vehicle and equipment interfaces, and Expert level skill chips covering tech they're likely to run across. Quite a few sport an artificial hand or arm as the result of accidents.
"There's a comber about 300 km out from San Francisco with the biggest collection of ships and marine parts I've ever seen. He's got at least 200 ships filled with salvaged gear tied up to one of those old naval depot platforms from the war. Just floating out there in the middle of nowhere. A lot of it's out of date trash, but if you're looking to save money you can make some great buys on electronics and engine parts. He's also got a vapor distillery that cranks out the most godawful booze you've ever tasted. It's total swill. Sure made crawling through that maze of ships entertaining, though."
On land they've sucked the wealth of the
Earth dry. The few near surface mineral deposits left are
controlled by the corps, and they're at each others throats
fighting over even those tidbits. Unless you're suicidal there's
no way the little guy can make a living with competition like
that.
Things are a bit different out on the big
blue sea. Millions of square kilometers outside the control of
any national government haven't been surveyed, much less claimed.
The sheer size of it all guarantees you won't have any problems
finding a promising patch of real estate that might be holding a
fortune for the person willing to invest some time and work.
You've heard about guys doing it with gold, platinum, oil,
manganese...even a decent thermal tap. Get yourself a stake of
equipment, grab an exploration permit from the Seabed Authority,
ramble around doing surveys, and you just might find yourself
sitting on top of the mother of all strikes. You could also end
up floating with the fishes, but you have to take some risks if
you want to get the rewards, right?
You're one of the new breed of wildcat
miners working under the waves. Even with the latest satellite
imagery, seismic surveys, and deep core drilling techniques it
still comes down to trusting your gut instinct to find the
deposit that will put you on easy street. You've spent so much
time underwater trying to find it that you sometimes forget what
day it is, but you keep plugging along because you know it's out
there somewhere. Until you find it you're living a lifestyle with
more risks than you care to think about: crushing pressure, bad
weather, defective gear, rival miners, and the ever present risk
of the corps arranging for you to stay under permanently so they
can grab some easy pickings.
You know the risks. You've got the skills,
the equipment, and enough luck to keep the dream of that big
strike alive despite all the hardship and sacrifice. You're a
Deep Miner
Special Ability: Strike. This is your sixth sense for finding valuable minerals and gets added to your Geology skill when you're prospecting. If you locate a deposit it's value doubles for every point that you roll over the Difficulty to find set by the Ref. You can prospect once a month. Finding a deposit with a value of 1D6 x $1000 is Average. Locating a deposit worth 2D6 x $1000 is Difficult. A deposit worth 1D10 x $10,000 is Very Difficult. Finding a mother lode worth 1D10 x $100,000 is Nearly Impossible. Multiply your Strike level by $2000 during character creation to find out how much extra cash you have to buy mining gear.
Typical Cyberware- Vehicle and equipment interfaces are common, followed by cyberlimbs and internal communications equipment. Full borg conversions to an aquatic model are surprisingly popular with deep water miners looking to optimize performance. In coastal areas there's a tendency towards artificial gills and skinweave, with the true diehards using bioware to go totally amphibious.
"Had a woman named Ngor that used to come into my bar about once a month when she came in for supplies. What a wreck. You can always tell when they've been at it for years because of the arthritis- those deep dives build up nitrogen in the joints that makes 'em wince every time they move. After a few drinks and some poppers she'd start telling me how close she was to finding the big strike, how she'd be able to settle down once she did, what she planned to buy with it. She would talk like that for hours, even if no one was around to hear her. And you know what? Her suit gave out one day and she ended up smeared like jelly inside her helmet. So much for that mother lode."
The world has gone to hell in a handbasket.
The cities are bubbling cesspools of humanity and everything
outside of them is either barren wilds or owned by the corps.
Freedom? Get real. The world is owned lock, stock, and barrel by
the money boys living in the towering glass pylons that blot out
the sun over downtown.
You were hanging out with some out of
towners when you first heard about The Line. Hop on a ship, head
straight out for 200 klicks, and you'd cross an amazing,
invisible line in the ocean. Inside of it the Man would say
"Jump!" and you'd say "How high?"- or get a
nightstick across the head. Beyond it? Miles and miles of open
water that you could turn into anything you damn well pleased if
you were willing to pay the price in blood and sweat. You packed
up everything and hopped on a cargo zep that weekend.
After drifting around for a while you found
a Freehold that had the same ideas you had about what it meant to
be free. Now you're helping to build a community where the people
matter more than money and you can live your life any way you
damn well please. Hard work is slowly turning an old industrial
platform into a thriving city on the sea with it's own schools,
economy, culture, and laws. Nobody's getting rich yet, but the
money from aquaculture, freelance pharmaceutical manufacturing,
mining, and a little smuggling is helping the community buy a
better quality of life. And that's what it's all about, isn't it?
Life in the 'hold has been pretty good, but
now the corps are setting up shop on the ocean and they don't
like the idea of competing with a bunch of misfit independents
with delusions of grandeur. Some of the recent
"accidents" don't seem very accidental, and there's
talk of mounting a pre-emptive raid to show the big boys that it
ain't going to be business as usual. You ran away from them once,
but you're going to make a stand this time because now they're
not the ones in control. They can't mess with your people and get
away with it. You're a Freeholder.
Special Ability: Community. This is your ability to call on other members of your Freehold for assistance. Square your skill level to find out how many of them will show up when you put out the call. It also functions as the Fixer ability of Streetdeal at half level for the purpose of acquiring goods or information from your contacts in the group. Community is an Intelligence based skill.
Career Skills- Community (Special Ability) Aquatic Survival Awareness/Notice Basic Tech Brawling Education Diving Handgun Marine Tech Pilot Watercraft or Sailing Typical Cyberware- Anything goes. About half the population of the typical Freehold has been there a year or less and is carrying whatever they had before joining the community. Long term members might invest in minor pieces, but most of the group's money goes into major improvements for the community.
"Building a relationship with a Freehold is good business. They can throw some work your way if you've got skills they need and you'd be amazed how much money they've got on hand. Hell, they don't have to pay taxes to anyone! Establish corporate citizenship and you won't have to worry about hiding your ill gotten gains from the tax man anymore."
In the old days you would have practiced
your trade with a swift ship crewed by cutlass armed blackhearts.
Today you ride the waves in a state-of-the-art composite hulled
hydrofoil mounting military grade sensors and heavy weapons. The
props are different, and a whole lot more lethal, but the basic
business of nautical hijacking and robbery is still the same.
You make your money by ripping off valuables
from ships at sea and selling them off on the black market. How
you do it is a matter of taste. Some guys like to prey on refugee
flotillas, others prefer playing smash-and-grab with the
Freeholds, and a couple are able to make a living with high risk,
high pay hits on commercial vessels. In the end it's all boils
down to using your wits and your firepower to take what the other
guy has.
Pirates have a nasty rep, but just because
you're a thief doesn't mean you're a cold blooded murderer. Robin
Hood was a thief too, right? Half the challenge of pulling off a
heist is doing it without getting everybody killed, and the other
half is doing it with style. You get the goods, insurance pays
out for the theft, and if people would just do what they're told
and keep calm nobody has to get hurt. Things get really hairy
when some security goon takes his job too seriously or some
passenger thinks a trinket is worth dying for, but that's the way
the business is. The big bang-bangs aren't just for show.
There are even times when you get paid to
pull a job. Make the right kind of deal and you'll get ten grand
in an untraceable account and the coordinates of your target in
exchange for passing a particular piece of merchandise along to
the right people. You might even pull a totally legit gig running
"revenue patrol" or "blockade duty" for some
third world junta that can't afford a real navy.
You're literally the last of a dying breed.
It's pretty tough to hit a ship and disappear when a satellite
starts tracking you the second somebody triggers the
anti-hijacking system. Even dinky little pleasure boats are
starting to carry weapons, and the ships worth stealing are
mounting miniguns and grenade launcher. It's getting tougher to
make a living everyday, but until you retire you've got your
ship, a reliable crew, and a network of fences to move your
merchandise. You're a Pirate.
Special Ability: Band. This is your ability to call on like minded individuals to help you hit a target. You have a number of associates equal to the square of your ability that you can rely on to help you out, but they have to be paid appropriately for the risks involved to insure their reliability. Band also operates as Streetdeal at half level for the purposes of buying and selling goods through the black . At the discretion of the Ref you can receive a boat or a discount on the purchase of one during character generation.
Typical Cyberware- Pirates tend to outfit themselves like junior Solos: lots of combat and stealth oriented mods. Reflex boosts and smartgun links are typical, followed in popularity by vehicle links, enhanced senses, and strength boosts. Taste dictates whether the gear is made to appear as intimidating as possible or hidden to prevent detection till it's too late.
