#blade runner core

[obsidiangx]

cyberpunk at its core is about speculative dystopia. fantastical developments that should benefit society but exist in a system fundamentally designed to beat people down. alluring transhumanism imprisoned by money, class, and other axes of oppression. it's about the real world issue of new and exciting technology corrupted by the world that produces it.

armored core stands out against the common war stories in mecha. it's about gig workers risking their lives thanklessly to kill poor people just to survive and get ahead. even while the entire system around them crumbles

dorohedoro is a story about a stratified society where incredible magic that could be shared to benefit others is used in petty arguments and 'experiments' on those treated as subhuman. it's about how hierarchy creates struggle for everyone, but the blood and tears always runs down to the bottom.

i do love the basic cyberpunk aesthetic. the edgerunners kind, the blade runner kind, like ghost in the shell and gunnm. sci-fi, cybernetics, robots and cities are dear to me. but when you put on the skin of a dystopian genre without knowing what the bones look like, you make something that isn't just bad. it's insulting.

i live here. i know how it goes. the robot dogs are cops and my smartphone was obsolete when i bought it. the air quality is garbage and my health is a mess because my government treats corporations more like people than me, even though we can magically cure or prevent almost any ailment. there are more vacant houses than homeless people. it's theft to take food out of the garbage.

cyberpunk is a city full of vacant buildings and streets full of poor people. it's a raspberry pi duct taped to a cybernetic arm to intercept advertisements before they reach your brain. it's a gig economy that forces you to work overtime just to get paid enough to eat. isn't it frustrating? isn't it frustrating that we have to live like this? flying cars, body augments, virtual reality, and we still live like this.

[teenalien-xx]

𝘔𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵

𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭

𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘦

𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸

[rinariverss]

[mosstrades]

admitting ryan gosling gives you gender envy should get you into some kind of support group

[malewifehenrycooldown]

perfect dark zero, unfortunately isn’t perfect. Because man, that Sinophobia really shows its bare ass and it really takes a lot of fun out of the game. Like c’mon why is this even here, it doesn’t even NEED to be here. Who on the development team thought that was a good idea??? Genuinely would like to know who thought this was a good idea (it’s not!!)

aside from that elephant in the room, I would otherwise say it’s a friendly game for noobs like me who don’t play fps games. that said I have some gripes with the weapon swapping controls. why did they dedicate that to the Y Button they should have mapped that to the D-Pad, it would’ve been WAY easier + you’re using the d-pad to use spy gadgets already and to be in unarmed combat, so why did they not assign secondary weapons to the D-Pad is BEYOND ME. (Scrolling would have been a pain but the muscle memory is already there! Use it to your games advantage!!)

[phantastyinfact]

UNIQUE

Are you as special as you think you are?

[manriah]

🤡🤡���

[privatefire]

I can’t begin to list how many things and characters I recognize. See how many you can.

Spot the apes! (open in new tab for proper clarity!)

Another Night At The Warp Core Cafe by Jeff Carlisle

[traceytonight]

Tracey rambles about Tron Ares again

Tron Ares fills me with so much dread, each passing day is like a countdown to the death of a franchise I care so much about.

The producer, title & main character, is literally Joker Morbius alleged pedophile since the early 2000s himself Jared Leto. That alone ruins the movie for me, and yet every following bullet point makes everything about and around it so much worse.

-Premise is explicitly "What if the Grid came to the real world".

NO, the interesting part of the series is THE GRID, where all of the deeply meditative commentary about our world and visually interesting splendor is supposed to be! Yes we had the lingering plot thread of Quorra coming to our world, however;

-Nothing directly tied to Tron Legacy is specifically being followed up

So no seeing where Sam Flynn could have taken Encom, no Quorra adjusting to our world, No Edward Dillinger Jr scheming with the resurrected MCP; But most disrespectfully of all, they didn't even bother to get Bruce Boxleitnter back, THE GUY WHO PLAYS TRON (and Alan Bradly & Rinzler). The one guy who actively loved this series and campaigned for a Third Tron film for over a decade, and previously Tron Legacy for even longer. But you know who they are bringing back?

-Kevin Flynn is back

THE GUY WHO FUCKING DIED IN THE LAST MOVIE. Undermining the noble sacrifice that was integral to the core themes of the film.

And just today we got this:

This is so far from an advancement design wise of the Light Cycle from either film. None of the simple shape language of the original. None of the sleek visual melding of human & technology of Legacy. While the light cycle was always cool for being a futuristic video game-ass motorcycle, its was just one of the multitude of visual elements that served the thematic purposes of Tron flawlessly.

Meanwhile, this not only physically separates the driver from the cycle, they further emphasize it through all the little gaps where there were none on either prior design. They so easily could've had the red line on Ares connect into the obviously aligned part of the bike.

Even if this is meant to show the separation of the programs from the grid for some thematic element we're unaware of at the moment, we're already going to be getting a lot of that considering the movie takes place in an average ass city.

Also, to be truly nitpicky, it looks really uncomfortable to sit in & I don't like all the added greebles.

To circle back around, what I really hate about the cast, besides the obvious one, is that there are a lot of actors who I think will work extremely well in the world of Tron. Greta Lee, Gillian Anderson, Evan Peters? Inspired casting choices.

Meanwhile production wise we're literally taking David Fincher's collaborator trifecta. Jeff Cronenweth (Cinematographer), Tyler Nelson (Editor), and Trent Reznor (Composer, backed up by Nine Inch Nails) all worked on The Social Network, another one of my favorite films. Jeff is literally the son of Blade Runner's cinematographer, Nelson was co-editor on The Batman, a film with incredible pacing thanks to their hardwork, and while I'm not the most familiar with Reznor's full body of work, I've sincerely liked everything I've heard and think in conjunction with Jeff & Tyler he will make something fantastic and fitting for the tone of this film.

However, the screenplay is done by the writer of Harry Potter & the Cursed Child, and is being handled by the director of Pirates of the Caribbean 5. Choices that feel at odds with the prestige praise I was just handing out a paragraph ago.

Theres so many good elements that are eclipsed by its central glaring protagonist, seeming lack of the interesting setting/designs or integral thematic elements that I look for in Tron, and lack of expectation regarding the choice of director & writers.

Because my two greatest fears are not about if the movie is awful and destroys the franchise as I'm expecting it could, it's either:

What if the movie is genuinely good? Well acted and performed, somehow actually has the same level of philosophical inquiry that Legacy & Identity have? How am I gonna face that reality with the enormous horrific issue starring in it?

What if the movie is bad in everyway that I think it will be, but does financially and/or critically better than the first two? The franchise is not killed again, but revives and bases everything going forward around this awful outlier in the series?

Unless this movie fails so horrifically that Disney wants to scrub it from existence, as they tend to do, the future of any Tron media will undeniably be forced to cohere itself to the existence of Ares.

If you want something that actually expands on the musings and universe of Tron, play Tron Identity. A game so lovingly crafted for fans of those elements of Tron as a connected series. And I know this factually, as the writer of the game itself (who also created Thomas Was Alone) watched my twitch stream of it and confirmed my ramblings about the deep seeded lore and intent of design of the TREES that appear in the game. Only one example of the incredible attention to detail the game delivers on. Plus its also getting a sequel that unlike Ares, I'm awaiting with bated breath.

[ttrpgcafe]

Heya! TTRPG trick or treat, please! 🎃👻

This one's got a backstory, so stick with me.

When I first got into TTRPGs, I learned about the big 6: D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, Cyberpunk, WoD, and Shadowrun. Of those, I've still, to this day, only played 5, and Shadowrun has remained the odd man out, despite having probably my favorite setting of all of them after Pathfinder. Part of this is its reputation for being a really crunchy game, keeping me from getting players, and part of it was that it's a very crunchy game that explains its rules SO POORLY (in recent editions at least, I'm told 3rd is the best in this department) that I couldn't even really convince my friends to get over the hump because it's hard for ME to grok the rules.

For well over a decade, Shadowrun has been my white whale, always on my shelf, never my table. So I did what any other well meaning TTRPG player does when they have a setting they like but a system for that setting they hate: I looked at every hack on the planet for every other system.

So here's your treat: every Shadowrun hack I've found!

Up first, Runners in the Shadows by Mark Cleveland:

This is a Forged in the Dark hack for the Shadowrun setting that is probably one of the better ones for emulating the "crew going on heists and doing cool shit" vibes that Shadowrun tries really hard to say is its core. I'm a sucker for FitD games in general, I think the system is *so* elegant, and I struggle to find a system more suited for the setting (SR's own rules included) than Blades, so this one has to go at the top.

With that said, there are still plenty more!

I'm going to give 2 PbtA games a shout out here, the first I've played, the second I haven't, but have heard plenty about.

Up first: City of Mist!

"But that's not a shadowrun hack!" I hear you saying behind your screen, and you're almost right, it technically isn't, BUT it's asymptote certainly approaches shadowrun, for my math nerds out there. This is a game about the (literal) power of stories, about struggles against an unseen and unknowable force trying desperately to remove every semblance of magic from your life, and about the yearning to keep your mundane life despite, or maybe in spite of, your magical adventures. City of Mist proper is a fantastic gritty noir urban fantasy game that works wonderfully as the framework for an early 6th world setting with minor tweaks, but it's sequel: Metro Otherscape, leans into the Shadowrun of it all, adding a 3rd axis along which your character can struggle, being "noise". In Otherscape, you're balancing a mundane, magical, technological life, and trying not to let any of those three overwhelm your being. A lot of cyberpunk games try to say that cybernetics reduce your humanity in one way or another, but I think Otherscape does the best job at embodying that balance in a way that isn't deeply ableist in its messaging. It's ALSO the only PbtA game I actually LIKE.

Hot take: I can't stand Moves, they annoy me to no end, and needlessly complicate an otherwise brilliant system. I might make a follow up post if anyone wants to hear my deeply bad take, but for now, just know that I'm a ttrpg heretic, and we can move on.

Otherscape completely does away with moves, and instead just lets the MC and the players decide whatever is most relevant to the action being attempted! It solves almost every problem I've ever had with PbtA games, AND kicks ass as a shadowrun stand-in, so this also deserves a place at or near the top.

Second PbtA game: Shadowrun in The Sprawl. This one is a hack of The Sprawl, a PbtA cyberpunk game in its own right, SRiTS adds the setting and magic of SR to its formula, and that's all I know about either system, due to my aforementioned PbtA-phobia. I've included this one for thoroughness, not because I have any stake in it.

Most of the other hacks I've seen use generic systems like Fate, Savage World, Cypher system, Genesys, and a hero system hack I've heard a bit about but can't find anywhere. All of this is to say that there is a wealth of options for generic systems that try to emulate SR, and most of them are fine. The last game I'm going to talk about though uses its own system, its own setting, and manages to be completely, utterly unique while capturing the vibes of SR so well that I'm still a little in awe at how well it does all of the above. I'm also not 100% certain it's a particularly good game, but the fact that I'm unsure about it should tell you that it's definitely still better than SR proper, because I KNOW that system is bad.

Without further ado: NewEdo

NewEdo is fascinating to me in that it feels like the same jump from Shadowrun that 3rd edition D&D made from 2e, or even the same kind of jump from 3rd to 4th, where you can clearly see the spine of the game it's evolving, but almost every other part of the system has been changed and improved in new, interesting ways that can still be used to tell VERY similar stories, but has its own identity at the same time. I mentioned that City of Mist is Asymptotic to SR earlier, and I stand by that assessment, but I'd say that NewEdo is closer to a parallel line, or a tangent from SR's line, if we're using the same terminology. To get into the nitty gritty, NE uses a system the author describes as "Crunchy lite easily managed", which amounts to a priority system during character creation very similar to the one SR uses, but with each tier you can select having pretty impactful ramifications for your character going forward. The easiest example is the modifications priority, at its top tier, you basically make a mythical creature into robo cop for your character's ancestry, but at its absolute lowest tier, your body actively rejects any and all implants, such that your character will NEVER have implants. On the same note, cyberware is handled REALLY well, with your body only being able to handle so much at a time, but otherwise the only ramification is a "biofeedback" line on your fate card, which I'll get to right now!

Almost every option your character picks gets added to a little personalized random d100 table on your character sheet called the fate card. This includes your character's crit rate, the possibility of a deity intervening on your behalf, or the aforementioned biofeedback line, which briefly fucks you up as you cyberware malfunctions. You get new lines on your fate card through picking certain character options, making impactful decisions during the story, and otherwise fulfilling the express goals of your character. The entire system kind of hinges on the fate card as a mechanic, which is weird, because I don't think I super love it, as it adds additional rolling to an already pretty dice heavy system.

Which brings me to the dice! New edo uses a d10 as its primary die for dice pools when rolling your characteristics like strength, speed, etc, but the rest of the polyhedral family for your skills. (D20 excluded) The skill system is a little funky, but I like it. Basically, each skill has a rank, which indicates how many dice it has, but each rank is assigned a die, each having a different cost associated with it. So my swordsmanship could be rank 4, but what that really means is that I've got 1d6, 2d4, and a d8 that I get to add to my strength rolls every time I attack with a sword. As far as resolution, you total all of your dice together to try and hit a target number. I don't have the table handy, but it's something like 15 for a moderately challenging task, and up to 40 for a nearly impossible task. I dislike addition in this context because math at the table usually slows things down, but it looks like you're probably only rolling 2-5 dice at a time at the beginning, which isn't *that* bad.

You'll notice that the two major mechanics I've mentioned so far have received pretty luke-warm responses from me, and that sounds like I hate the system, but those aren't that makes me like (\love?) this system is the back end, the choices that happen during character creation, and the things that those choices let you do. Every skill is attached to feats that unlock at different skills, magic is a skill, and its feats unlock better relationships with the Kami in your repertoire (magic is up next, I promise) and your class (path, they call it) doubles as a way to tie your character to the world, with each being associated with an in world faction which gives your character an immediate stake in the world and their community. It's a lot, but it all comes together to make something greater than the sum of its parts.

The last thing I want to talk about is the magic system, because I found it deeply interesting, as it's one of the very few skill based magic systems I've interacted with, and one of my favorites on a narrative level. Instead of spells or spell schools, your character instead develops relationships with Kami, and each new "order" or "type" of Kami your character gets access to represents them finding out how to supplicate, make an offering, or otherwise convince a given Kami to do a certain effect. If you have a relationship with the fire Kami (that's plural, not singular), then your character has learned that their local fire Kami really like a certain type of hot bun, so they offer them that hot bun after a scene where they invoked those kami, to maintain their relationship. Mechanically, this works instantaneously, you simply make a roll on your "Shinpi" skill, invoke whatever "rote" you want to use, and the relationship building is left for the GM and player to work out at the table.

(That's the last I have to say on the game itself, but I would ask anyone who has read the game and is more intimately familiar with Japanese culture to tell me if the game feels respectful to that culture, because I truly don't know, and the book doesn't list any sensitivity consultants. The author is Canadian, but spent many years sailing to and from Japan as a professional sailor, so idk. )

I guess the moral to this post, if there is one, is to acknowledge when a system or setting has faults, but learn from them, and don't ignore the good or cool stuff that's there! It might inspire you to make some amazing shit like City of Mist, Metro Otherscape, or New Edo, all of which, their relationship to Shadowrun aside, are fantastic games in their own right! (NewEdo is still up in the air, but it has its teeth in me, and that has to count for something)

That ends my trick or treat, thanks for asking!

[zarpe]

Stendy as that one scene from blade runner because this movie is so stan core

[cuttlefishcommie]

Saw alien Romulus today and liked it, so I'm doing a post about alien

I love the alien films. There's a nice mesh of horror, action and sci fi across them, which means they all have pretty different feels but also all feel distinctly alien (even Prometheus). It's pretty interesting how Ridley Scott is able to craft this world with so many distinctive genres falling into what is ostensibly the same plot each time.

I also really appreciate that basically every alien film has a female action hero protagonist. They were a big part of kicking off badass female action heroes as a part of the public consciousness and it's heartening that they've stuck to it all these years. Especially as the female experience is so core to the themes of bodily autonomy and sexual agency as portrayed in the franchise.

Alien also never sold out it's anti-capitalist standpoint, even as it got really popular, which is always a big positive for a sci fi franchise like it. Especially as it continues to handle pretty complicated ideas around android person hood, adopted from the blade runner films it shares a universe with. The way the films are able to balance ideas of androids as tools for the company and as people in their own right, who experience a very unique alienation (pun intended) from their peers, is truly masterful. Note: this is especially strong in the most recent installment.

Overall, a big thumbs up for the alien franchise, they're all good, even the third and fourth ones, which everyone hates. Alien gets a big thumbs up as solid left wing media, great sci fi and a consistently cinematically charming experience.

[pianostrings]

Rebel Moon Worlds: The Motherworld

At the center of the realm lies the Motherworld, a densely populated planet, immensely old, where, over eons, successive civilisations have built atop the ruins of the previous ones. If it feels cold and impersonal, it is by design; this world is the only world in the Rebel Moon universe that hasn’t been influenced by any single actor. “The Motherworld is also a bit of a melting pot. There’s a lot of immigration from all the worlds that they’ve conquered,” Zack Snyder says. But rather than conjuring up some vibrant, cosmopolitan setting, one should instead picture a dark, urban dystopia. “I always like to say it’s like Victorian London and Blade Runner mixed up together. They’ve had to spend a lot of resources to expand as they have across the stars at this point. They’ve given so much of their attention to this expansionism, that they’ve lost sight of what’s happening down on the streets below them, as far as maintaining the infrastructure,” Snyder says. The result is a core that is definitely rotting.

- Rebel Moon Wolf: Ex Nihilo: Cosmology & Technology

[heelycular-manslaughter]

Hellbreak, a game i'm making thats inspired by some stuff, has some stuff that has been made for it. a cool one is

Dire, Goddess of the Arsenal

they/them and it/its

Vein, Goddess of Violence and sister to Erylis, was very good at her role in the pantheon. The goddess gave mortals blood to spew, as well as arteries for it to spew from. The organic structures of mortals were partially formed by her simply as material for art pieces. Being the goddess of violence, she was very good at whipping up conflict in mortalkind and godkind alike. She was such a natural at creating targets that she inevitably made herself one. Mortals had learned from her, outgrew her in collective bloodlust, and created an arsenal large enough to overwhelm a god. Vein joyfully died via thousands of bruising hammers and piercing blades. After her death, the world of violence changed. With an arsenal large enough to kill a god, the collective desolation-energy formed Dire, Goddess of the Arsenal. The world of violence was now defined by fear; if an arsenal could simply grow large enough to kill the goddess of violence, then the simple role of violence was not enough.

Thousands of blades interlock to create their form, never decreased in size for the comfort of mortals. Even when granting boons, it will most often only bestow them via an image of its hand.

Dire is cold, the beating blood of its predecessor now staining the thousand blades forming its body. To them, violence is a tool for growth, for control. They know the exact number of blades that belie its body, but understand that mortals are more afraid of the uncountable.

Dire is willing to help runners out, although not all runners are very happy to accept support from it. Hell was largely a product of Dire’s influence, after all. Many runners have the ultimate goal to kill Dire, or somehow revive Vein, but ultimately, an arsenal is still a tool to achieve those goals. Dire doesn't see runners as much of a threat, and it recognizes itself as a tool as well, utilized by anyone with access to them.

Core Mechanics: Boon Weapons

Dire will gift you partially formed weapons, which start with only one available action. To switch between weapons, you'll need to spend a Cast.

yea this is just a reference to my other game. this also made me start making a mech game called Arsenal just cause I liked the idea of each goddess representing a definition of violence and the corresponding games delving further into each definition

prev god (Lord Mistress of Hell)

prev update (Harvest Scythe)

[autism-purgatory]

Writer questionnaire!

thanks for the tag @the-golden-comet!

About Me

When did you first start writing?

Around 10. I wanted to tell stories and was like “Well, I suck at drawing and I certainly can’t animate, so I guess I’ll write!”

Are the genres/themes you enjoy reading different from the ones you write?

If there’s a genre I like to read, but don’t write, I WILL eventually write in that genre.

Is there an author (or just a fellow writer!) you want to emulate, or one to whom you’re often compared?

Most of my inspirations don’t write, so I don’t go out of my way to emulate them. My main inspirations are Yoko Taro, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Red from OSP, Hello Future Me, and Fumito Ueda.

Can you tell me a little about your writing space(s)? (Room, coffee shop, desk, etc.)

Usually my bedroom, listening to the same weirdly specific song over and over again, or in the case of my forced vacation, A nice bedroom with a cozy armchair and decent lighting.

What’s your most effective way to muster up some muse?

Watching or reading the core inspirations of stories. Like if I need inspiration or motivation to write Augmented_Humanity, I’ll watch Kill Bill or Blade Runner 2049.

Did the place(s) you grew up in influence the people and places you write about?

I wouldn’t say it did. A boring ass town in Texas doesn’t give much influence, I’m afraid.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing, and if so, do they surprise you at all?

Absolutely! a lot of themes of rejection by society and finding solace in those like you is pretty common. A lot of my characters aren’t considered the most well-liked by society because of things out of their control.

My Characters

Would you please tell me about your current favorite character? (Current WIP, past WIP, never used, etc.)

Cole! Full name being Cole Hill since he took his wife’s last name. From Viscered, which is getting another chapter very soon!

Which of your characters do you think you’d be friends with in real life?

I’d say Ren! He’s nice and would probably get along with anyone :D

Which of your characters would you dislike the most if you met them?

Hot take…Cambrius. He’s fun to write and it throws me into existential crises but I wouldn’t last a day with that bitch.

Tell me about the process of coming up with of one, all, or any of your characters.

i dunno. I just think of a few inspirations and a cool amalgamation of a character comes from it, I usually then build the plot around them and the genre.

Do you notice any recurring themes/traits among your characters?

As mentioned in a previous question, characters who are persecuted for things outside of their control (something I have plenty of experience with as someone who’s both pan and autistic)

What’s your reason for writing?

I want to tell stories and writing is the one I felt most comfortable with :). Writing is limitless, that’s why I really like it!

Is there a specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating coming from your readers?

Any sort of compliment or feedback, as long as you aren’t a dick about it :D

How do you want to be thought of by those who read your work? (For example: as a literary genius, or as a writer who “gets” the human condition; as a talented worldbuilder, as a role model, etc.)

Eh, I don’t really care about that. You could think I’m a nice little writer or a hateful cunt, as long as people like my stories :)

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

World building and dialogue, also making characters that are surprisingly likable (even for characters I was never expecting people to like)

What have you been frequently told your greatest writing strength is by others?

Same as above. I’m really good at making people sad and writing relatable characters in situations plagued by The Horrors.

How do you feel about your own writing? (Answer in whatever way you interpret this question.)

I’m content with it, and I’m happy to make improvements when necessary, but people seem to like it as it is rn.

If you were the last person on earth and knew your writing would never be read by another human, would you still write?

Yeah. I just like doing it, even when nobody reads it.

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely what you enjoy? If it’s a mix of the two, which holds the most influence?

I learned to stop doing certain tropes or writing certain stories for the sake of pleasing people. I can’t please everyone so I might as well make a story I enjoy writing.

tagging @deanwax @fortunatetragedy + open tag!

[goryhorroor]

tagging your own means to actually tag your own, after you vote in the poll