Author: Fraser Simons

APPENDIX N

Here’s some of my own touchstones and helpful media I use for when I run The Veil myself, hope people find it helpful!

In terms of what the world looks like through the eyes of those people with a Neurochip – I usually envision something like this video here: https://vimeo.com/166807261

When people take the HUD tag I combine this interface in which they also get tactical data they’re looking for. More fictional positioning and more information than other players who don’t have the tag.

The Apparatus is entirely inspired by Ghost in the Shell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uMNtOQOaLU

The Architect is a combination of Inception and Matrix to create a digital artist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm-nf1FZsWY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3-a58Wt2tk

The Attached is a broad approach that could accommodate The Mardock Scramble. In which, Rune Balot is partnered with a futuristic creature that can take any shape, including the weapons she needs to defend herself. Other times it/he? Is a loveable glowing yellow mouse that does his best to support Rune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG2yepeULbw

The Catabolist is sort of my take on a trope well known in cyberpunk literature, humans rejecting cybernetics. And in general the idea that technology is bad for humanity. Only the Catabolist can forge their own path creating their own cybernetics apart from everyone else who are able to have cybernetics. Media adjacent stuff to this idea could be Tetsuo, possibly just not as radical or intense. Where a man has a fetish that ultimately engulfs him entirely (not for the feint of heart).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uROMTzJsfOI

The Dying is the answer to two questions I had. One being an ideal playbook for people coming into a game for a short amount of time but having a big impact on the fiction, and the other being the supernatural/magic elements from Neuromancer being injected into the fiction while not actually doing “neuromancy”.

The Empath is another playbook that was inspired by Neuromancer as well as a playtest in which a friend of mine wanted a playbook that would manipulate the emotion spikes in the game. This is my version of “neuromancy” you could say.

The Executive is mostly inspired by Blade Runner’s megacorporations. Specifically Tyrell, then combining that with the Vanilla Sky board the seven dwarves hampering the protagonist and only viewed as an obstacle that eventually becomes more diabolical than we initially thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k09OX40NLUw

The Honed I would say now mostly is in line with the book Data Runners, where the protagonist approaches parkour in a holistic way and the philosophy is essentially used to separate the caste system in place, but also the idea that freedom is attainable by anyone, so long as they adhere to the principles and hone their body towards that purpose. At the time of writing though, it was meant to simply be the ultimate punk, shirking society and apart from the larger systems in place like the hybrid reality.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17838693-data-runner?ac=1&from_search=true

The Honorbound is mostly influenced by Blade Runner’s Deckard, in which you’re given a task meant only for you and you must do it. Only you have more agency and select what kind of task it is, you establish the organization, and define Giri in the world so as to be at odds with your very purpose, depending on what the enforcement of Giri looks like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eogpIG53Cis

The Onomastic is inspired by the idea in lots of cyberpunk literature in which entertainment is prioritized over information. Also making really kickass librarians who were also kind of like Jedi but not..kind of. Usually that idea is just ingrained in society, with the Onomastic though – it’s actively hunting you and you have to fight back.

The Seeker is my take on an exploration of faith in a cyberpunk world. It’s also a sort of reverse hocus from Apocalypse World. In one of the three Altered Carbon books he has to go into a completely digital world in which everyone there is a monk, abandoning their physical body completely. The conversation that ensued inspired the playbook. I think it was in Woken Furies but not 100%

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29397.Woken_Furies

The Wayward is directly inspired by the Sandman comics and what that might look like in a cyberpunk spin. It also embodies some solarpunk ideals I wanted to inject into the fiction – I believe while I was reading Suncatcher: Seven Days in the Sky – which was OK overall but solarpunk as a subgenre has some great themes.

After reading a lot more I would recommend the following books to hit on emotional play and post-cyberpunk themes and concepts:

The Windup Girl

The Summer Prince

Altered Carbon

Woken Furies

Tokyo Ghost

Escapeology

Data Runners

Necrotech

Cyber World: Tales of Humanity’s Tomorrow

Cyber World is an anthology curated with diversity and inclusivity, if you’re going to read only one book this one would give you the best idea of both what relevant themes are being explored in the genre right now, as well as a ton of fodder for your settings – since there is a lot of short fiction in it.

Television Media I would recommend in as far as the stuff I myself bring to the table for themes, imagery, or aesthetic:

Blade Runner

Serial Experiments Lain

The Matrix

Strange Days

Dredd

Ghost in the Shell / Innocence

Until the End of the World

Sleep Dealer

Renaissance

Tron / Legacy

Mardock Scramble

Cowboy Beebop

Akira

Gattaca

Fifth Element

Minority Report

Gunnm

A.I Artificial Intelligence

Psycho Pass

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29397.Woken_Furies

Some more music!

https://www.neondystopia.com/cyberpunk-music/cyberpunk-music-dossier-march-2017/

https://www.neondystopia.com/cyberpunk-music/cyberpunk-music-dossier-march-2017/