What's your cyberpunk?

[afrodave]

What kind of society do you like for your cyberpunk setting?
Dystopian - The future everything is falling apart, life is pretty miserable for everyone, a dark shadow is cast over all things and not just the literal shadows of the Mega-corporations skyrakers (taller than skyscrapers)
Utopian - everything is great for the citizens; all the accepted members of society get access to pretty much anything they want. People are content if not happy, but for one reason or another it's all a lie... 
Megatopian - Things are pretty much the way they are now, only in the future everything is bigger, faster, more...

[Mister Andersen]

They all have their uses...

[spinningdice]

Dystopian is the one I think of when I think of the word Cyberpunk, but I'm quite happy with any of them.

[Black Cheese]

Dystopian - The future everything is falling apart, life is pretty miserable for everyone, a dark shadow is cast over all things and not just the literal shadows of the Mega-corporations skyrakers (taller than skyscrapers)

I'm sure this is most common. The whole Blade Runner thing, to a degree, dictates the genre.

Utopian - everything is great for the citizens; all the accepted members of society get access to pretty much anything they want. People are content if not happy, but for one reason or another it's all a lie...

…because if it weren't a lie, the PCs would have nothing to do. The classic Logan's Run scenario, however, only works once. Then, when the genre conventions are known, it's largely a matter of how to avoid them. Decent for gaming cons (c.f. Paranoia), but I can see a long-term campaign being… not so long.

The alternative is to really have a utopia and focus on rooting out corruption and exploration, such as in the GURPS Alternate Earths setting of Gernsback (Tesla tech meets art deco), Buck Rogers in the XXV Century, and, of course, Star Trek.

Megatopian - Things are pretty much the way they are now, only in the future everything is bigger, faster, more...

Is this the basis of Winninger's Underground, or is that closer to dystopian? Anyway, the best example of this would Ellis's Transmetropolitan, which if you've not read you're in for a treat. I think GURPS Transhuman Space would probably count, too.

I like all three, but I find the general neutrality of megatopian most to my liking.

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, not quite dystopian? Things are bad, likely to get worse, but have a chance of being turned around?

My tastes in such fiction is more along the lines of Tangled Lands, Svaha, and Point of Honor. All have grimmish futures, some more likely than others, but a glimmer that things may be turned around. Two (Point of Honor and Tangled Lands) deal with virtual reality, while the third focuses more on society. Zelazny's My Name is Legion has many of the tropes of Cyberpunk, well before the term was coined.

Gibson is not quite my cup of tea, though I did like The Difference Engine.

The Auld Grump
*EDIT* Hmmm, I seem to have gone from a Specialist to a Recruit with that post... seems backwards somehow....

[Mister Andersen]

I seem to have gone from a Specialist to a Recruit with that post... seems backwards somehow....

Yeah, I felt the same.

[mouthymerc]

*EDIT* Hmmm, I seem to have gone from a Specialist to a Recruit with that post... seems backwards somehow....

Specialists are outsiders hired for a specific job by the Agency.  Now, you are a part of the Agency, even if it as a lowly recruit.

[Maldroth]

I use a mix of the three in my cyberpunk setting.

Obviously society will continue to move and try to strive for better. How they reach that goal will change but you will still always have the privlaged, the working class, and the poor, with many shades in between.  Obviously the upper crust is living the good life from the fruits of others labor. The middle class is in the grind to live out their life with the unfortunate below them which can lead to crime and depravity (as you commonly see in many dystopian views) and the upper class as those in power with teflon, untouchable and out of sight unless they have to directly deal with them.

Then you have those that are the poor and the forgotten of society, they fell out of the machine and live on the fringes, perhaps doing whatever it takes to get their next meal, or drug hit, or whatever is the object of desire to temporarily remove them from their current situation.

[Crafty_Pat]

When I was younger, I was firmly in the Blade Runner/dystopian camp, and I still find that presentation fun, though if I were to build an original setting today, I'd probably call it "Muntopia." I'd start with the mundane, a near future version of our real world, without the unlikely leaps and improbable politics. Introduce just enough advances to capture the genre, just enough shift to contrast amusingly with reality, but keep things firmly in the issues of today because, ultimately, they'll also be the issues of tomorrow.

[Crafty_Alex]

I'm with Pat, though I'd say I lean more heavily towards Megatopian. As with all settings I develop, I tend to like the feet somewhat on the ground, so it's more easily accessible. In the case of Shatterpunk, I'm taking certain elements and blowing then through the roof - technology, sure, but not all technology; particular parts of society have become crazy extreme, while others have withered on the vine; modern cultural and poltical trends see their most extreme ends. That sort of thing. The setting will be firmly futuristic, and have the requisite cyberpunk bits (cybernetics, immersive virtual worlds, polticical and cultural strife), but stripped of the make-believe stuff it will be a more scathing look at the world we're living in today...just like all good cyberpunk lit (Jennifer Government, Snow Crash, TransMet, etc., etc.)

[Maldroth]

Alex are you going to be at GenCon this year? I'd love to talk about cyberpunk stuff and find out more about Shatterpunk, well that is willing to be leaked out at any rate.

I discovered Spycraft 2.0 last year when some guys at the Hyatt were playing it in the open tables. When I looked at the book it just screamed to me to play cyberpunk style.

[Crafty_Pat]

Alex are you going to be at GenCon this year? I'd love to talk about cyberpunk stuff and find out more about Shatterpunk, well that is willing to be leaked out at any rate.

I discovered Spycraft 2.0 last year when some guys at the Hyatt were playing it in the open tables. When I looked at the book it just screamed to me to play cyberpunk style.

The entire Crafty staff will be at GenCon this year, and we're hosting a seminar for just this sort of thing! Come one, come all, and bring your Crafty questions!

[Mister Andersen]

Can someone transcribe this for those of us unable to attend?

[Psion]

I discovered Spycraft 2.0 last year when some guys at the Hyatt were playing it in the open tables. When I looked at the book it just screamed to me to play cyberpunk style.

Heh... that might have been one of my GenCon games.

If it was the one I ran at the upstairs tables, Morg and Alex were playing in that one.

[Psion]

The entire Crafty staff will be at GenCon this year, and we're hosting a seminar for just this sort of thing! Come one, come all, and bring your Crafty questions!

Now that it's been announced the ENnies are way late this year, I may be able to make it!