New: Multicorp Mafia (free, open-ended, www, human, modern, gui, economic, rpg)

From: donotreply@pbm.com (PBM List Autoposter)

Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 19:13:05 +0000

Name:		Multicorp Mafia
Costs:		Free
URL:		 http://www.playbyweb.com/scifi1.php?_b=6512
Frequency:		Daily
Email:		redskin89@hotmail.com
Type:		Near Future, Homebrewed
Last-Update:		2003Jun26
Keywords: free, open-ended, www, human, modern, gui, economic, rpg

Description:

It's 2021 and the world is consumed with money, power politics, and
technology. Gigantic multicorporations run the world, and the concepts of
nations and governments are farces left in place only to help the masses
sleep at night. Huge portions of the earth's landscape have been left
unihabitable by the unchecked rape of natural resources and the tactical
nukes of several multicorp conflicts. Society has coalesced into
multi-tiered city-states, most operating autonomously but still under the
banner of many long dead countries.

Terra-forming is being attemtped on a limited scale, funded by the
bottomless wallets of the multi-corp. But even these struggling off-planet
settlements are besieged by the petty squabbling of the three most
powerful companies.

Cybernetics is a reality, the human/machine gap having long been breached
by the unholy union of military and medical science. Anything organic can
be enhanced to superhuman proportions if you can afford the Yen to pay for
it.

World politics are the smallest of your concern however, because you were
born on the lowest level of Shang Hai, and your life is just one street
battle after another. Your lifestyle affords you the best available to the
lowest echelon of Shang Hai's society. You are a member of the Asian Tong
called the "Ghost Shadows." You are strapped every where you go and
frequently exchange limited small arms fire with other Tongs, vying for
turf and control of the various black market trades that are booming among
the poor. You are pushers, pimps, arms dealers and thugs. You know no
subtlety and you are subject to spot arrest with no reason from the
multi-corp security force that polices Shang Hai. In most cases you are
left to your devices, because most folks don't care about your ilk, and
your orginizations supply a certain kind of security to the cities lower
levels. You were born here, and like most, will probably die here... young
and unremembered.

But something is about to happen that will change all of this forever. You
will go further then anyone could possibly imagine, if you're smart and
brutal enough.

This is a homebrewed game based loosely on a system some friends of mine
developed in college. It does have rules and there will be no superheroes
here. If you don't work as a team, you will die. You will start with next
to nothing and rise in rank only based on your cunning and ability to plan
and then ACT.

I'm not looking for melodramtic queens trying to impress everyone with how
many polysyllabic words they can use, or heroes looking to consume a game
and act with impunity. If you don't act as a team, these missions will be
fatal for your characters. It is a skills based system based loosely on
Cyberpunk. And I promise you, there will be many surprises.

The game is new, looking to have 4 players to get started.  Hopefully, we
can handle character generation via realtime chat software (I have msn
messanger and icq).

[ This is a new entry for the PBM List. You can find the list
itself, and instructions for adding games or comments, at
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/pbm_list/ -- greg ]