Thorough Thursdays : CYBERPUNK

This Thorough Thursdays entry was supposed to have gone out yesterday, but I came down with a terrible cold, and forgot to publish it. Gomen nasai!

Prior to this post, I have only tagged three posts with the label Cyberpunk.

Those posts refer to the Cyberpunk 2013/2020 Role Playing Game by R. Talsorian Games and the genre as a whole respectively.

Three posts labeled Cyberpunk by a Science Fiction fan who loves the concepts of artificial intelligence, robots, and Anime/Manga.

That's just wrong.

I first discovered the term Cyberpunk through my uncle, a brilliant fellow and an avid reader of Science Fiction. He was especially interested in SF works that address changes in Human nature, culture, and thought brought upon us by advancements in technology.

After reading a number of novels in the genre he recommended them to me, namely Hardwired and Voice of the Whirlwind by Walter Jon Williams, Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson, and Blood Music by Greg Bear.

I became quite a fan myself, and since I am influenced as much by cinema as literary works, I became further inspired by the film Blade Runner, and the often underrated TV series Max Headroom.

This all lead me to the R. Talsorian Games RPG Cyberpunk 2013, and its follow up, Cyberpunk 2020. I ran a lot of 2020, often altering it a bit to reflect more of a Blade Runner setting and feel. I also tried my hand at Shadowrun, 2300 AD, and other games with significant Cyberpunk elements.

Around 1990 I discovered the Japanese RPG Metal Head, a Cyberpunk RPG that also included space travel, mecha, and other elements that really appealed to me. I ran a few games of that as well.

Many of my Traveller campaigns contain heavy Cyberpunk influences in the way technology and corporate culture interact with the people of Charted Space and the Third Galactic Imperium. . 

Cyberpunk is a strange genre. It really should be jarring, thought provoking social commentary and sometimes it is, but it is just as easily an excuse for technology-porn, and non-stop action.

How many Cyberpunk stories have cybernetics? Most, if not virtually (pun intended) all.

How many Cyberpunk stories feature 'punk'? Not many.

Punk is traditionally a social movement born out of the frustration and angst of the working class. It bucks tradition, corporate culture, and celebrates freedom, non-conformity, and the establishment through acts of counter-culture rebellion.

Does Cyberpunk actually do that?

As noted, sometimes it does, but other times the main characters of Cyberpunk stories end up working with, or at the very least within, the confines of the established authories to take down other interests who aren't all that different in the grander scheme of things. For example, Major Motoko Kusanagi of Ghost in the Shell isn't some punk rebel trying to stick it to the man, but rather a kind of police officer - She is the man! Well...you know what I mean.

Wouldn't a true Cyberpunk hero, or heroine have no cybernetics, avoid the 'net', and try to dismantle the oppressive culture of megacorporate government control? Are Shadowrunners really Cyberpunk if they go on runs for one megacorporate patron against another? That's just facilitating the situation, not rebelling against it, which is the real definition of punk. 

For a time it seemed that Cyberpunk in the classic sense had fallen out of favor. Real world scientific advancements had shown that biological, not mechanical, improvements were the logical next step. Also, things stated to look less dystopian, and an oppressive corporate culture less likely to prevail. 

Now, things have swung back the other way. Between the current world political and social climates darkening yet again, and improvements in the fields of prosthetics and virtual reality, the outlook for our future seems more Cyberpunk then ever. Is it just a coincidence that Blade Runner is getting a sequel now, and they finally put together a live action Ghost in the Shell film (crappy and poorly handled as it was)?

Recently Age of Ravens started a Cyberpunk retrospective of sorts as part of his History of RPGs series. One of the podcasts he's involved with, Play on Target, released a recent episode covering Cyberpunk gaming as well. Check them out won't you?

In the end, I am going to say I am a fan of Cyberpunk, especially its presentation in games, Anime/Manga, movies, and television. At the same time, I see it in a fashion similar to how I see Fantasy. It's a guilty pleasure for me this genre, since I don't feel like most of the Cyberpunk we see is truly what Cyberpunk is, or what it could be. The Cyberpunk we get is over-the-top, sensationalized Cyberpunk, and that's the opposite of what Cyberpunk should be.

What are your thoughts on the subject?

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Thorough Thursdays: BLADE RUNNER

I know, I know. I said before that I wasn't going to add tags. The idea here is to go more in-depth about things I've already addressed at some point. Thing is, I've been thinking about this idea, on this one subject, for a while now. I also figure this is as good a place to talk about it as any other, since it is also related to this month's unofficial theme (Science Fiction).

To go a step further, I will be cross referencing this with a few other tags, so at least they will get some much needed love.

Thank you for indulging me.

***

Blade Runner

Original Theatrical Release Movie Poster, 1982

Art and Design by John Alvin

Prior to this post, I have never tagged, or mentioned in detail, the 1982, Ridley Scott directed, Hampton Fancher and David Peoples written, Warner Brothers Science Fiction-Noir film, Blade Runner, based on Philip K. Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, on this blog before today.

That's just wrong.



In one of my prior Thorough Thursday entries, I mentioned how few films had as massive a creative impact on me as did Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Meet the film that gives Close Encounters a run for its money.

So much of what I do in my Science Fiction games is inspired, and influenced, by this film, that I hardly know where to start in my adoration of it.

Blade Runner is, to me, much more than a great movie. It was my first glimpse into a different kind of Science Fiction than what I was used to, and what I previously enjoyed.

Prior to this film, my Science Fiction was always the relatively clean, and heroic, cooperative future of Star Trek, the campy, but lovable 50's-60's Sci-Fi of Lost in Space, or the epic Space Fantasy of Star Wars.

I had seen Planet of the Apes, and Logan's Run, but the concept of a dystopian, high-tech future, such as that portrayed in Blade Runner, was something completely new, and mind-blowing to me.

Science Fiction, it turned out, had a dark, seedy underbelly. It had people with big dreams, fleeting hope, and rain-soaked sorrows, all of whom were just trying to survive another day in a neon lit, smog covered canyon of glass, and steel.

This was Future-Noir, the predecessor to Cyberpunk. There was nothing else quite like it back then, and nothing exactly like it has come since, even to this day.

***

When the movie came out in 1982, I was 13 years old.

An advanced reader for my age, I had read a number of classic Science Fiction books by the time of Blade Runner's release, but the work of Philip K. Dick was not known to me. Following the movie, I snatched up a copy of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and marveled at the differences between the book, and the film.

While I find the book brilliant, it doesn't do to me what the film does. It shouldn't I suppose, what with them being  two such different forms of conveying a narrative. The book showcases the subject of what it means to be Human, and explores questions of morality, mortality, and empathy in greater depth than the motion picture. It does it well at that. However, the movie is positively drenched in atmosphere, and style.

One of the primary reasons for the films incredible visuals is the concept work of futurist Syd Mead. I believe I may have discovered Mead because of this movie. He, and his artwork, would forever forge a great deal of imagery I picture when imagining Sci-Fi worlds. His depictions of technology, and architecture are what I see in my mind's eye when I think about setting aesthetics for my Science Fiction RPG campaigns. From Traveller to Cyberpunk, and Shadowrun games, the look of the future (for me at least) looks a lot like the work of Syd Mead.

***

This is primarily a blog that discusses Role Playing Games, so it's about time I talked about the impact of Blade Runner on my gaming.

Where to start?

One of the games I ran very often in the late 80's was R. Talsorian Games' Cyberpunk (2013, and 2020). However, my impression of the genre was more heavily inspired by my love of Blade Runner.

Long before genetic engineering became a big deal in Science Fiction, and Science Fiction gaming, I was building Replicant NPCs. I 'built' them by using the rules for cybernetic parts, and just saying they were part of the design of the Replicant when is was grown/fabricated.

While PCs lost points of Humanity (and by association, Empathy) with the addition of cybernetic implants, Replicants started at zero, and their 'enhancements' added to their understanding of Humanity. Sounds crazy? I'll explain...

The idea was that as they gain experiences (not Experience Points, but life experience), Replicants develop a desire for more experiences. This often turns into a desire to live, to have more time. That's when they get a little desperate, and a little nuts (again, an inverse way of looking at Cyber-Psychosis from the Cyberpunk RPG).

What do you all think?

"I've...seen things you people wouldn't believe...

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.

All those...moments...will be lost in time,

like...tears...in the rain.

Time to die."



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