CyberPunk 2020 - Unofficial - Magazine - EdgeRunner Vol2 Issue01

Edgerunner Magazine 1

Welcome to the NewWelcome to the New

and Revampedand Revamped

Edgerunner!Edgerunner!

The New EdgerunnerThe New EdgerunnerNew Edgerunner is a fanzine dedicated onsupporting the Cyberpunk genre, mainlyCyberpunk 2020 from R. Talsorian Games. Italso takes and will publish general roleplayingarticles as well.

Edgerunner is a free fanzine, which is releasedonce a month.

As a fanzine we rely on freely contributed ar-ticles by fans of the Cyberpunk genre. Be sureto read our submissions part to know whattypes of things we would like to receive.

The Old EdgerunnerThe Old EdgerunnerOld Edgerunner is still available online in itsoriginal PDF format. You can download thetwo issues of the original volume from:

The Main Site:http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~exec/The Mirror Site:http://www.cyberpunkcontraband.com

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsWelcome to the first issue of the NewEdgerunner!

Actually this is not the first issue, but rather thethird issue. The original Edgerunner, all twoissues of it, were released back in '98. How-ever do to complications, mainly involving gran-diose ideas of what it should be, it became arather stressful project and fell apart becauseof the high degree of maintenance and profes-sionalism it needed.

Nonetheless the new and revampedEdgerunner is here. So all I can say further is:

Enjoy!

A Second Look at Roles: Nomads 2by W.D. Bailey a.k.a. Dog Soldier

MetaEvolutions 3by Michael Wolf

Weekend 6by Dana Jorgensen

Cyberpunk in the 90’s 11by Lauri Gardner

Submissions 6

2 Edgerunner Magazine

A Second Look at Roles:A Second Look at Roles:

NomadsNomads

by w.d.bailey aka dog soldierby w.d.bailey aka dog soldier

After a recent martial arts class one of thestudents made a wisecrack, "I got kicked outof the Marines for fighting dirty.." I replied,"That's pretty good, I know Marines. The worstthing about Marines is that you can't fight justone." The reply to this was, "Yeah, that usedto be the way it was with all the services."

Now you might ask, "What's the point to thisstory?" The point is that the Nomad specialability of Family is the trait most likely to befound in any member of an elite military unit.Most characters created with a ex-militarybackground make no mention of this. If youask the player about who his character servedwith you'll get a blank stare and often get themumbled excuse that "everyone in my unit waskilled". In real life this is the most common storyof fake veterans.

The Hells Angels motorcycle gang and manysimilar groups were formed from veterans re-

turning from war who were (and are) lookingfor that spirit of family. Likewise with some ofthe Militia groups that have formed in the US.

So what does this have to do with roleplaying?Nomads would in all likelihood be the most com-mon and numerous muscle. My online handlecame from a character who was a Scout forthe Luna Rojas motorcycle gang, a group con-sisting primarily of Cubans from Miami. Neverwas never any time that a dozen other "Dogs"weren't in earshot. I feel that the Nomad role ispotentially one of the most powerful roles inthe area of close combat. Yet in almost everyother CP 2020 game I've ever seen the No-mad is always alone in the group. Handling agame with a group of Nomads will be verychallenging to the GM but the opportunity forexcellent roleplay would make it well worth theeffort.


metaevolutionsmetaevolutions

by michael wolfby michael wolf

"Oh this is skip-dandy. First you littlepukes decide to run amok with the giftsthat MY pet nanites have bestowed uponyour heathen souls, now it seems youdon't think it's enough and have justDECIDED to break programming and goand mutate without MY consent!!! That'sit! You cyber-twerps deserve what youget." -GhostLord

Source: Dr Margaret Tuere, CDC[[email protected]&D_DBioP..TC1

Destination: Lt Gen. ChrisLacolucciDoD@P..._Tac..JH1(EYES ONLY--READ and DESTROY)Message Reads:

General Lacolucci:

It seems that our best efforts tostop this mutation is being metwith greater resistance than ever.And I fear that this new turn ofevents has weakened the morale ofthe brave men and women who fightthese monsters.

Over the course of the last fewmonths, many of the ex-children inour care have begun to exhibitabilities not recorded for theirEvolved Type. After much debatewithin the lab, it has been con-firmed that the a few of the"Evolved" are still evolving.

General, your efforts the bringthis menace to an end are simplynot enough.

We need proper intelligence onthese monsters if we are ever tofind a counter-measure for thisplague. We only have theories sofar, and have yet to find anyproof of what one or our lab techshas named "Meta Evolutions".

Ok, so your CyberGeneration game is in fullswing. You've got your players into the idea ofplaying snot-nosed little terrorists and culture-jammers instead of railgun-toting maniacs. Butnow the revolution is heating up. The ISA is nolonger pulling its punches and some of the Wiz-ards are getting wind of talk about a counter-agent being developed by the CDC.

The people are starting to listen, they're finallystarting to think that there is something wrong.But now they're scared. They know about therevolution, but they also know that it's horriblyout-gunned by CorpSec and the military.There's no way these kids, even the mutantones, can win.

On the home front, the war is going well, but itdoesn't seen like enough. Blackhand's dreamof an Evolved army is still years away frombeing realized, and the Revolution doesn't havethat long. They need to win soon.

Now.


If there's one the CyberGenerations knows,it's that you must evolve or die. As the naniteshave shown, nothing is impossible. These ruleswill allow your Yogangers to do just that. Toevolve beyond what was thought to be the lim-its of the Carbon Plague.

SYSTEMWhen a character reaches a certain level, he/she may begin to purchase new abilities withXP. All new powers have two requirements;the prerequisite level of their evolved skill, andhow much XP is needed to buy the new power.After the power is bought, all skill checks aredone with the original evolved skill.

TINMANFast-shaping- Hexite Shaping 7, 20xpThe Tinman is able to shape his/her hexite atan accelerated rate. This ability reduces thetime to shape by two levels. No shaping testcan take less then one round, but anything thatwould have been less than one round does notrequire any effort, and does not count towardsthe character's actions.

Armor Morph- Hexite Shaping 6, 10xpThe Tinman may now shape his/her hexite ar-mor plating, such as adding spikes to the ar-mor or shaping the face or torso in an artisticor horrific form. Use the standard levels of dif-ficulty for such shaping.

WIZARDSpecialize- Arcane 4, 50XPThe Wizards internal systems may now con-struct more complex and powerful Familiars.When the Wizard learns this ability, he/shechooses one of the Familiar Functions (Attack,Defensive, Movement, Independent Action, andIntelligence). That Function will now always beequal to his/her Arcane, and may still be in-creased with Arcane and Intelligence pointsduring Familiar construction. The Wizard mayNOT change which Functions gets the bonusand may not purchase this ability more than

once.

Cut-away- Arcane 7, 10xpThe Wizard may now have a Familiar active inthe Net while he/she is not connected to it (i.e.away from an LDL or completely offline).Simple, neh?

BOLTERShock Field- Bolt Throwing 3, 30xpThe Bolter may now surround himself with abarrier of electricity. Anyone that makes con-tact with the Bolter will suffer damage auto-matically. It requires one action to activate,but may remain on indefinitely, as long as his/her batteries hold up. The Shock Field can beset at various levels of intensity, same as abolt attack. For every round the Field is on, theBolter's batteries are depleted by the amounta comparable Bolt would have used.

Flashing- Bolt Throwing 7, 25XPSpeed. Pure, unadulterated speed. The Bolterhas learned to increase the electrical impulsesfrom his batteries to his mind and body. His/her MA is increased by 4, and his Ref by 2.

DBZ- Bolt Throwing 4, 40xpThe Bolter has learned to pull a particular stuntwith his bolt-lines. With much effort, he/she isable to twist his bolt-lines around each other,in flight, and combine their charge into one stag-gering attack. The attack's difficulty is raisedby one level, and every turn is considered onelevel harder as well. If successful, the Boltermay expend up to twice the normal chargeand do the corresponding amount of damage.

SCANNERMind Bender- Interpretation 8, 30xpEver seen the movie Scanners? That's whatyou can do. By increasing the output of yourscanning fields, and rotating those frequenciesrapidly, the Scanner begins to slowly fry his/her target's brain. Mind Bend requires the userto make an Interpretation check


Posting- Interpretation 4, 5XPSee Virtual Front.

Insulation- Interpretation 8, 15XPThe Scanner no longer suffers from backlashdamage from his/her Static Discharge.

ALCHEMISTRewrite- Manipulation 8, 10xpThis power allows the Alchemist to do whatwas thought impossible; change the Evolvedtype of the target, including the Alchemist him/herself. To Rewrite someone's evolved type,the Alchemist must touch the target. If the tar-get is unwilling, he/she must be restrained. Theprocess takes one hour to implement. Duringthat time, the Alchemist must concentrate andmake a Manipulate check at Difficulty 30. Oncedone, if successful, the transformation willbasically be a repeat of the original sickness.Neither the Alchemist nor the target have achoice of what Evolved type will manifest. Oncefinished, the Evolved skill will be at half theformer skill level, rounded down. If you turneda Tinman with Hexite Shaping of 6 into a Bolter,the Bolt Throwing skill will be at 3.

Remote Manipulation- Manipulation 5, 30xpWith this ability, once you touch on object totransfer your nanites, you can continue to shapeand alter it at a distance. The Alchemist has arange of 1 meter per level of Manipulation. All

difficulties remain the same. The Alchemist muststill recollect his nanites, or be reduced in poweras per the standard rules.

Assembly Line- Manipulation 6, 20xpThe Alchemist can now manipulate more thanone item at a time, as per the multiple actionsrule.

Using Meta-Evolutions in your C-GEN gameI have to tell you, adding MetaEvos to yourgame is risky at best. After all, one of the rea-sons CyberGen was created to get away fromthe tendency to power-gaming. By introducingMetaEvos, you add a whole new level of po-tency to you campaign, and if not careful thewhole thing will go nuclear.

There are a few different ways to addMetaEvos to your game. The easiest way is tosimply start the game off with your PCs know-ing about their potential to evolve further. Butunless you're starting from scratch, this won'tdo.

Another method is to have your players stumbleupon it. If you have Virtual Front, the adven-ture there is a great way of introducing thesenew powers. If not, then you can simply havean NPC display these new powers and teachthe kids how to pull it off.


WeekendWeekend

by Dana Jorgensenby Dana Jorgensen

Weekend is an edgerunner retirement com-munity. By all appearances, the town of Week-end looks like a picturesque, sleepy town circa1910 to 1950. The town is filled with sturdylittle buildings, stores, and homes. However,while anyone is welcome as long as they keepthe peace, none seem to be able to find aplace to move in unless invited by one or moreof the residents.

And if you don't keep the peace in Weekend,you'll rarely have the opportunity to realize howfoolish your actions were. The town is verywell defended, with an incredibly competentpolice force (composed of well armed retiredcops and solos for the most part), an abun-dance of will-hidden surveillance equipment,and the entirety of its citizenry usually armedto the teeth. Screw up too much and you'll learnexactly how many residents keep an armoredcar in the garage or a military AV parked on alanding pad in the back yard.

As an edgerunner haven, Weekend is also con-sidered a safe haven by all edgerunner whoknow of it. Come to Weekend for some R&Rand know you don't have to worry about yourlife. Your assets outside the town, however,are another matter entirely. They will alwaysremain fair game.

The first Weekend, founded during theArasaka-Militech corporate war, was in thebackwoods of Maine, where there would neverbe much worry of trouble, due to the overalllack of corporate and government interest inthe area. The founding fathers was a smallgroup of edgerunners trying to escape a fi-asco. A small nomad pack was called in for

construction. A corp and a pair of fixers ar-ranged the supply of construction materials,both legitimate and illegitimate. A small teamof netrunners helped boost the finances avail-able to pay for the project, while a team of ex-cops and solos provided security. By the timeconstruction was completed in 2023, the townof Weekend, Maine had 280 residents, eachand every one of them an edgerunners. It tookalmost another year to officially found the grow-ing town and get government support.

Quickly, the worldwide edgerunner communityworked together, with more Weekends rap-idly popping up to help support thoseedgerunners who didn't like the area of thefirst Weekend. Regardless, Weekends alwayswere founded in a decidedly rural area, wellaway from the hustle and bustle of city life.Some of these newer Weekends were actu-ally finished before the original Weekend. Even-tually, there was a Weekend in every state, allquietly organized and networked together. Ifyou're a resident in one Weekend, you canexpect to receive preferential residential treat-ment in every Weekend, regardless whetheryou live there or not.

When knowing edgerunners visit Weekend forthe first time, they are shocked by the town,since it is what one might consider boring.However, their assessment of the facilities al-ways change for the better. After all, whenyou have spent years of your life living on theedge, straddling the line between caution andparanoia, wondering where retribution will comefrom enemies both real and imagined, you don'treally understand what a good night's sleep isworth until you can again enjoy one. Once you


learn to enjoy sleep once more, the town goesfrom boring to subduedly interesting.

The name Weekend was chosen in referenceto the decades old sarariman tradition of get-ting Saturday and Sunday off from work, thefirst and last day of the week, usually referredto as 'the weekend'. It was a period of timeused by workers to recover from the stress ofthe work week. The edgerunners adopted thereference as a rebuff to their frequent corpo-rate employers.

Weekend ServicesThe Weekend Sheriff's DepartmentLaw Enforcement

The law in Weekend is usually composed ofretired police officers and solos. Along withproviding a highly competent, experienced andsizable law enforcement agency numbering atleast 24 officers, many officers also engage inprivate investigations both in and out of town,as both an extra source of income and a sourceof hobby entertainment. The officers work inshifts of 4 working 6 hours of patrol and 2 hoursof desk duty per day, 5 days per week. Theofficers operate in pairs based out of a BMW-2020 armored patrol vehicle. Each and everyofficer patrols regularly; there is no desk dutyfor those with a badge. Many also use theirown personal vehicles. All use their own per-sonal weapons.

In return for law enforcement services, themembers of this entirely volunteer service arepaid a weekly stipend of 500EB, plus free ac-cess to reasonable amounts of fuel, food, andammunition. They also get an annual tax breakbased on their level of volunteer service.

The typical Weekend Sheriff's Departmentmaintains an operations center that combinesa dispatch center, administrative and duty of-fices, detainment center, impound lot and ve-

hicle garage. Many share facilities with thetown's firefighting and other municipal servicesas well. Each department also maintains a smallfleet of vehicles, including at least 15 BMW-2020s and a fast, heavy lift helicopter used forpatrol, search and rescue, air ambulance, andfirefighting duties.

Weekend BankingFinancial and Investment Services.

Weekend Banking is one of the last financialinstitutions in the country dealing with hardcurrency. The bank handles eurobucks, USdollars, and the Japanese yen, maintaining itsown secret currency reserves. The bank alsocan handle the conversion of precious metalsand stones to currency, and is fully capable ofissuing virtual currency and credit. In addition,the bank also prints and issues the Weekendscrip (Ws), the preferred hard currency of thetowns. Use of the scrip gets a discount in mostshops and gets a very good conversion rate(1.5 Ws = 1 EB).

Several megacorporations (primarily manufac-turing companies) have also started usingWeekend scrip as a form of payment toedgerunners, since such individuals can go tothe Weekend Banking branches to exchangethe scrip for either hard currency, preciousmetals, or virtual currency. By working in thismanner, it enables the corporations to effec-tively launder their payments to edgerunners.In return for these services, Weekend Bankingis quietly aided by the corporations in its inte-gration and credibility with the regular financialinstitutions of the world.

Each Weekend Banking branch is a virtuallyidentical building. It is a stout structure madeof solid, steel reinforced concrete. Within is alarge steel and titanium vault, containing fundssecurity area where the bank's currency andvaluables are stored, plus a safe deposit box


chamber containing 1500 safe deposit boxes.The lobbies are well armored, with walnut pan-eled steel tables, counters, and teller booths,drop-down steel-banded bulletproof lexan par-titions, automated lethal and nonlethal securitysystems, and enough alarm triggers that thecombined staff doesn't have enough fingers topress them all.

The bank also supplies its own line of custom-ized armored vans for the transportation ofvaluables. These heavily armored vehicles arepowered by a 1200 HP turbine engine capableof running on anything and everything fromgasoline, to kerosene, to CHOOH2 and alco-hol. Each bank building has a specially con-structed loading bay that the armored vansback into. The vans are completely secure forloading when in these bays.

Weekend FirearmsWeapon Shop, Gunsmithy, Static and Com-bat Course Firing Ranges

For most edgerunners, a firearm isn't just atool, it is a way of life. Every edgerunner seemsto own at least one high-quality, customizedfirearm suited to their own needs for personalprotection. Maintaining one's skill with thoseweapons is also of great importance. After thefirst four or five Weekends had been founded,the first Weekend Firearms shops appearedat the behest of the Sheriff's Departments dueto the need of reasonable firing ranges forweapons qualifications. The first few were justpolice warehouses for storing heavy weapons,munitions, and a static firing range facility. Itwas the Texas Weekend that changed every-thing after an anonymous wealthy edgerunnerspent a small fortune establishing a gunsmithshop and combat course firing range.

Since then, the complete Weekend Firearmsgun shop has appeared on the edge of everyWeekend, fulfilling the ammunition and weap-

ons requirements of the town's citizens, andproviding the facilities for the people of town toremain competent with the weapons they ownand carry. A few of the shops even do customautomotive work to handle the mounting ofweapons on vehicles, and the Nevada shopeven has a self-serve bullet foundry/mill andbrass reloading section for old cased muni-tions. Most of these shops are partnershipsbetween the more technically skilled solos intown, who tend to continue tinkering with weap-ons even if they've stopped shooting at peoplefor the most part.

Weekend.netWeekend Online Services

Weekend.net is a thoroughly secure networkestablished by the fixers and netrunners livingin the various Weekend communities. The net-work was initially established for the benefit ofthe local residents, by handling inter-commu-nity communications, resident registries, andan assortment of government services. As thecommunities became more legitimate, the net-work expanded to include promotional services,private online service for small business, suchas online requisitioning for stores or online res-ervations services for motels and vehicle rent-als, and linking into more substantial govern-ment networking, such as NCIC. For now, thenetwork pays for its Internet service, but pro-vides Internet accessibility for all the town resi-dents as needed. As the coffers of Weekendgrow, the netrunners hope to eventually wirethe towns together on their own privatehardwired network, reducing the opportunitiesor capabilities of outside hacking.

Weekend Medicine Medical Services

The retired medtechs living in Weekend es-tablished their own emergency medical ser-vices, Weekend Medicine. They maintain one


ambulance, one AV-9 equipped for emergencymedical services, and a small medical facilitycapable of performing most medical services.In deference to the 'retired' status of the bulkof residents, Weekend Medicine will repair orreplace damaged cyberware, but they will notinstall upgrades or new cyberware. They havea responsibility to prevent damaged minds fromcreating a damaged town.

Weekend Warriors edgerunner consulting firm

Weekend Warriors is a means for edgerunnersto keep their skills sharp and their pockets fullby returning occasionally to the 'outside world'.The company maintains a small recruiting of-fice or guild hall in each and every weekend,where edgerunners can announce their avail-ability or review listings of open job positions.The company also maintains offices in mostmajor cities, where corporations and other in-dividuals looking for qualified workers withcertain hard-to-find skills can arrange employeeplacements.

The company maintains a single worker re-striction, mainly directed at netrunners; anywork done must be done at least 100 milesaway from Weekend. This restriction cameabout after a netrunner decided to telecommuteand the law tracked him back to his home,raising suspicions about the entire town.

Because Weekend Warriors provides a provenpool of highly skilled and reliable workers, mostedgerunners placed by Weekend Warriors findthey draw better pay than they could have oth-erwise (at the referee's discretion, employmentthrough Weekend Warriors can increase theedgerunner’s monthly salary by 10% to 80%over the amount listed in the core rules).

That covers the regular "municipal" or com-mon services you can expect to find in town.

Aside from that, the business districts usuallyhave a reasonable number of thriving busi-nesses; electronics and computer shops op-erated by netrunners, garages and appliancerepair shops run by techies, a few doctor of-fices run by specialist medtechies (most fre-quently a cancer specialist), vehicle rentals andgeneral retail shops run by retired corps orfixers who moved on to "fix" in their favoritehobbies and areas of interest, private detec-tive offices run by retired cops or the activevolunteer sheriff deputies, a local newspaperor theater run by retired medias, restaurantsrun by just about anyone, etc.

Every Weekend is built on a layered concept.In the center is the fortified town square, whichcontains the medical center, police station, firestation, municipal parking and maintenance,community center and city hall. The entiresquare is either an enclosed compound sur-rounded by a thick stone wall or built as a thick-walled building surrounding a central courtyard/parking facility. The town square facilities aredesigned to not only serve municipal duties,but in the case of the town being attacked, itcan provide shelter for the town's inhabitantsand easily withstand being besieged by a no-mad pack or gang.

Around this lies the business district. TheWeekend.net offices, gun shop/ranges, andbank are typically closest to the town square.The gunshop/ranges tend to be walled in, ex-tending from the town hall out towards the edgeof town.

Around the business district, one finds the resi-dences. For the most part, the homes aremodest, modern structures on a relatively largeplot of land, often measuring a half acre ormore. Inside, however, the structures are rarelymodestly decorated. Most are finished like aluxury mansion and possess multiple basementsublevels for protecting the more prized pos-


sessions should the town be razed. Back yardsare filled with AV pads, pools, patios, and thelike.

Also in the residential district, one often findssmall parklands or playgrounds, as well as anymotels and the occasional restaurant. You canalso usually find a town library; cheaper to buysomething and contribute to the communitywhen you usually share some interests withthe other members of the community. Depend-ing upon the dangers of the locale, the townmay or may not be fenced or walled in.

Many Weekends also have a pseudo-indus-trial area on one side of town. In this commer-cial zone, many netrunners and techies keeptheir personal workshops, where they can doquite a bit of inventing in privacy.

One glaring omission in the Weekend designis the absolute lack of dataterms. If you wantto know about the town, you'll have to log intoWeekend.net with your own netrunning gearor pick up the town brochure available at anyand every store. Want to know about the news?Pick up and read the local newspapers at thestore or visit the local library.

When fleshing out the town, remember thatthe edgerunners will show a bizarre sense ofhumor in the name of their businesses. Thevast majority will include the work "weekend"in their business names, continuing the play onthe word. You'll find plenty of businesses withnames like Weekend Bulletin (town newspa-

per), Weekend Car Rental, Weekend Pizza,Weekend Theater, and the like, many namesinsinuating the business or service is only openor available Saturdays and Sundays.

Also remember that these towns are inhabitedby grizzled veterans who learned how to sur-vive on the edge. To swipe a useful referencefrom D&D, "The average town will be lucky tohave a 1st level fighter, let alone a 5th levelfighter". Well, for these towns, the phrase wouldbe more like "The town will be lucky to have a1st level fighter because most of the residentsare at least 5th level."

If you use Weekend in your campaign, feelfree to trash the place if your plot requires it. Itmakes a great tool for enticing players withservices, equipment access, and contacts,which can easily be snatched away when acorporation gets pissed off enough to level thetown to frag a few annoying edgerunners.Suddenly the surviving troublemakers (or wouldthey be called troublebringers) find themselvesbanned from any and all Weekends, forcingthem to find alternatives to the services andcontacts they lost by bringing trouble to town.

It's amazing the ideas that can be inspired bya few words. Recently, a local weathercastersaid "I can see the Weekend from here", likehe was standing on a hill and looking at atown in the distance.


Cyberpunk is for me a near future society, asociety that is brought to the extremes, a soci-ety based on today and accelerated to its des-tination of society of tomorrow. A mirror intotoday's society through the eyes of those thatcould be.

The way on describing Cyberpunk is very muchlike describing a color. It is nearly impossibleon describing a white that to some will appearas a spotted grey or to others a silver.Cyberpunk by that token shifts, dependent onthe knowledge and personal thoughts of thedescriber of this society describing the pro-jected world of he near future. This is why whatmay seem viable today may seem mere silli-ness tomorrow. Trends shift and undercurrentsrise up, giving changes in the way the futuremight flow.

The Internet is a good example of an under-current that has only know been realized. Itwas known to a mere few twenty years agoon what the Internet could become. The per-vasiveness of the Internet now is so much morethan even what they anticipated. A networkopen not to the few, but to the many.

The purpose of my work is to show what aCyberpunk world could be, using the way thedevelopment of the previous decade has cometo fruition. I wish this work to be insightful, how-ever I must warn you that what I lack of in ageas well of wisdom, the width and depth of ex-perience.

Cyber was the escalation of technology, a lossof self into consumerism, where life could bebought in small ergonomic packages. Japa-

Cyberpunk in the 90’sCyberpunk in the 90’s

by lauri gardnerby lauri gardner

nese companies or Zaibatsus were lookedupon with envy coloured contempt by othersfor winning the technological seeding of thepeople. This onslaught of new waves of tech-nology upset societal norms and raised ques-tions about the status quo. These questionswere coupled with a raising awareness of onessurroundings. AIDS, famine, racial issues,growing urban violence were all raised to thepublic.

In the future world of Cyberpunk these issueswere mirrored. Life was plastic. You could notonly buy your life in small packages, thesepackages were market researched to only lasta hairs breath of time. The conversion of your-self to become a machine was not only pos-sible but fashionable. You could no longer ridethe crest of change you had to immerse your-self in it. With this immersion humans had be-come things with price tags. Life was cheap.

Awareness of this was also noticed, questionsraised. Multinational corporations, the grow-ing division between rich and poor,cyberpsychosis, the lawlessness of the streetswere questions that no-one would willinglyanswer.

Cyberpunk was a creation of the 80's, bornfrom two symptoms of parallel development,cyber and punk.

Punk was an underground movement that burstonto public awareness. It was a way on rebel-ling against mainstream acceptability. The tornclothes a way on expressing dissatisfaction onclubs where you could only go in leather shoesand ties. As it became more an accepted part


of society the message was lost. Clothing lineswere created, people would buy designer shirtsjust to rip them up. Suddenly punk was as deadas disco.

In Cyberpunk there is a shift, the power ofpunk withdraws itself from the understandingof the mass outside. Punks are people whohave stepped outside of normality, who live bya standard dictated by their own choices. So-ciety has divided between the two groups: Thesheep (or mass of society) and the wolves (orpunks). Their own stubborn individuality andopposition to authority is what refuses them tobe integrated into the mass of society.

This is what the future of the Cyberpunk worldduring the eighties would have been, a societyrunning full speed into a dead end. The ques-tions that are raised in both are the same, theemphasis has just shifted to suit the needs ofthe world.

The people asking these questions are white,urban, and middle class. People with a feelingof horror on having the values that they stoodfor being brushed away on the tides of change.

Cyberpunk of the 90's needs to be divided intotwo parts as well, technology and culture.Technoculture is still a buzz word that one oc-casionally hears when reading some hack'swriting on some marginal cultural theme whilesitting in a cyber cafe drinking a Mocha Grande.For the nineties I feel that the word is moreappropriate to that of Cyberpunk in this age'scontext.

Technology is no longer something to be fearedof, it is something that is accepted. Cell phones,computers, fax machines surround society.Through this technology, communication is thekey, enabling the world to run smoother and tobecome smaller. Digitalization of informationis the Vanguard of this movement and youth its

mouthpieces. A single e-mail message canmobilize hundreds of people to any where inthe world if the message is to them importantenough. In the world of Cyberpunk the tech-nology is around you. People have replacedparts of themselves, not for violence. For com-munication, with a datajack you can talk to yourfriends while snowboarding or check your newfriends info out to see who are they. This abil-ity to stay continuously on the Net without hav-ing to ruin your social life will be taken forgranted. The structure of reality will split intoRL (RealLife) and NL (NetLife), with interac-tion of people falling into these spheres.

Culture is all about the global village. With tech-nology to communicate people from aroundthe world can to a single meeting place. Theemphasis on what is national culture has nobearing, it is rather what is the culture that yousurround yourself that is important. The musicof yesterdays punk has changed to theelectronica of today's raves. In raves the pur-pose is to step out of society's borders, butthe affrontal of consumerism of the 90's hasturned around completely. You are expectedto dress in a fashion with designer labels andway out clothes. Money is no longer a meansbut a tool in a materialistic world. Having thingsis no longer an end, but a way on reaching forsomething else. A certain jadedness has comeover the youth, with pleasure its focal point.Pleasure or the pursuit of fun becomes whatthey attempt to attain. The images of the me-dia enforces these views giving out in whis-pers and between the lines on what is moral.Sex is no longer a shared moment but an ob-ject of gratification.

Countered to the growing power on what themedia tells one to do is an undercurrent ofpeople with an alternative viewpoint. They arenot reactive, like their counterparts in the 80's,they are proactive asking very hard questionswith very difficult and uncomfortable answers.


Questions on the IMF, on governments rights,child soldiers, multinational corporations, rea-sons for war. They are not asking for the symp-toms they are asking for the cause, shiftingpower structures that are taken for granted.

In the Cyberpunk world there is a distinct down-ward spiral. You have no culture, hovering inthe limbo. Even ethnic groups and nations areno longer clearly drawn, communication hasmade the world one small place, so too hastraveling quickly become inexpensive and pos-sible making it physically small as well.

Governments and corporations fight over domi-nance over each other, the Media is its playingfield and the minds of its youth its target. Eachone tries to lure you to its own set of rules onwhat is right. The Alternatives are also its ownpower structure, it is a voice of moderationand responsibility in a world without responsi-bility or moderation. They would be consid-ered to be the punks, outcasts out ofCyberpunk society. They are proactive in aworld which is reactive.

This is my vision on what the 90's is and whatthe Cyberpunk world might become. I havetried to avoid writing too much as I am surethat everyone out there is able to cogitate moreinformation either for or against this vision.

The style of Cyberpunk has shifted even onthe gaming table. The original story in the bookwas about street operatives people eking outtheir living while enjoying the fruit of freedom.In today's Cyberpunk they are better armed,but they are more aware of their surroundings.Gone are the times when being scared meantyou never knew when a booster gang mightdrop by. Now scared means you are trying tofigure out what exactly corp. Y is asking ofcorp. Z, and who or what is X and how does itall relate to the grand scheme of things (us).

Suffice it to say that Cyberpunk has existedmore than ten years and it has been long over-due for it to restock its surroundings. I leaveyou to your own judgment.


submissionssubmissions

What I'm asking for are previously unpublishedarticles about Cyberpunk or roleplaying in gen-eral. They do not need to be long, a page orthree. Actually, overly long articles will be cutinto parts to be published in the following is-sue.

The articles themselves can be anything froma design of gear to a treatise on the nature ofCyberpunk.

The only thing I demand is that the Englishlanguage is clear. I have better things to dowith my time than checking grammar of ar-ticles. Although with a little bribing *grin*, I'lllook through it and do necessary correctionwork. Don't forget to add a title and your nameon the top of the article!

As for format, simple text format please. Thatway I can open your article without problemsand convert it into html.

New Edgerunner will be published once amonth.

Questions, submissions to:

[email protected]

Documents

CyberPunk 2020 - Unofficial - Magazine - EdgeRunner Vol2 Issue01