Campaigns

As the genre suggests, the future is not a happy time. (For the most part, a typical cyberpunk world: Corps control all; government either too weak to do anything about it, or being paid off to ignore it, depending on the area; most people are quite poor, a few middle-class, a few upper-class; environment is being shot to hell; police are more of an anti-corporate gang than an actual police force, though they do protect the innocent as they are supposed to; hacker clans are the primary anti-corp force; most cities are in a state of early ruin due to horribly negligent upkeep; etc. ...)

A brief rundown of what is and isn't there:

• Nanotech- no
• VR- yes (it's the primary interface for all but the simplest computers)
• advanced biofeedback tech- yes (the interface uses it, you CAN be killed via the net)
• other biotech- in development
• 'mechs- not really (large utility suits are used for moving heavy objects, but 'mechs with actual weaponry are unheard of except in fantasy)
• cloning- see "other biotech"
• advanced weaponry- some (railguns are in development, laser weaponry is only in the planning stages, 'clean' nukes aren't even thought of as a good idea except by those near potential drop zones)
• spacecraft- we haven't advanced far beyond the current space shuttles (think the same thing, more effiecent fuel, more powerful thrust, and a bit harder to destroy, nothing even close to a fighting craft)

Another thing, when using the VR interface for the 'net, everyone has an avatar that conveys their actions. Casual users have simple avatars, while advanced users have more complex ones (for abilities only, the appearance is customized by the user). Hacking is a much more involved process, with the advent and perfection of the VR interface, firewalls, viruses and anti-viruses, and ordinary files all have gained visual representations. Hacking is now more like an infiltration mission (or a battle, depending upon your style and how well the target is guarded) than hacking as it is now.

Anyhow, as for game mechanics, the avatar's abilities increase with the user's Computer skill. Use a base of 5 points, plus an additional 5 for every level of Computer. The avatar does NOT use Own Big Mecha, it works like a separate character. All of the applicable attributes and defects the user has, the avatar also has. (Ex: Sixth Sense- Empathy carries through, Personal Gear doesn't. All skills carry through, though most non-combat ones won't be used. Some defects are kinda hard to tell whether they should carry through or not, for example, Marked. Marked will carry through only if the player wants it to. However, defects that carry through from the character provide no extra points to the avatar. However, the avatar may have defects of it's own to provide extra points. Use common sense when determining what skills/attributes/defects an avatar will have. Also, an avatar must acquire it's own levels of Highly Skilled before it may have skills that the character does not.) The avatar has separate HP, but shares the user's energy points (Extra energy points for the avatar can be obtianed with Energy Bonus as normal.) Player's whose avatars reach 0 HP or below have their consciousness violently thrust back into the real world, causing them to be stunned the first round (no action, greatly reduced awareness of surroundings) and react slowly for 1d6 additional rounds (+2 penalty to all combat actions and any action requiring concentration). The avatar's reconstruction (the code will likely be damaged) will take half an hour for every point of damage the avatar took over it's limit (ex. if the avatar has 15 HP left, but is hit by a 25 damage attack, it will take 5 hours to reconstruct. This time may be adjusted as determined by the DM, also, a high computer rating reduces the time required as per the following: Comp. 4: 10%, Comp. 5: 25%, Comp. 6: 50%. These are complicated constructs, after all.) The exception, however, is Black ICE. If the avatar is destroyed by Black ICE, the user could be mentally injured. If just reduced to 0 HP, the effects happen as per normal death, but acting as if the avatar took 10 damage over it's limit. If the damage is over the maximum HP though, roll 2d6 and find the result:

2-4: no additional result, treat the avatar death as normal, but add 10 to the damage over the limit for the purpose of reconstruction time.
5-6: as above, but add 15.
7: as above, but add 20.
8: the effects of a 7, plus the user is knocked unconscious for 1d6 hours.
9: minor brain damage, correctible. -1 to the user's Mind stat, can be repaired by a competent brain surgeon.
10: minor brain damage, permanent. -1 to the user's Mind stat, can not be reversed.
11: moderate brain damage, permanent. -2 to the user's Mind stat, can not be reversed.
12: major damage/brain death. -3 to the user's Mind stat, can not be reversed. User is knocked unconscious for 1d6 hours, if proper medical treatment is not recieved within an hour, brain death will occur.

If you find harming the Mind stat a bit harsh, an alternative is to take away a certain number of points worth of skills (not attributes) per point of Mind that would have been lost. The penalty is supposed to be somewhat severe, plus, it's not that often that the most severe results happen.
This should send a warning: you can leave at any time (with a one round time delay, but the character can still act as normal during that round), if the battle is looking bad, leave it behind.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Obviously, if it's more advanced than something listed here as not being available, it's not available yet.

The PCs have no long term goal at the current time, for now it's resource and information gathering, though suspicious information worth checking into has been discovered. If you're interested in participating, let me know. Having knowledge of BESM is helpful, but not mandatory. It IS necessary that you're not new to RPGs, not to be hostile to newbies, but I really suck at introducing new people to RPGing.

Based on, guess what, Wild Arms and it's sequel. Don't remember too much about it, other than it was one of the funniest campaigns I can remember (due largely to "backstage" screwing around...). I never played the Wild Arms games, so I couldn't say how close to the game storyline we were, I do know that we sure as hell didn't follow it strictly. I'll add more to this soon.