Who says the cops will be straight B)

I was more referring to what kind of agency we would have, and by what means we obtain that agency. Are we expected to fight the megacorps with nothing but a badge, a gun, and a few cybernetic limbs? Or will we have access to a wider array of high-tech gizmos and gadgetry? Also, what kinds of encounters will characterize our journey? Do hackers jack in their brains to terminals in order to break through potentially deadly ICE and steal corporation secrets worth big money? Are there high-speed vehicle chases with characters leaping from buildings onto hovercars and highjacking them to escape pursuers?

I just want to get a better idea of how my character potentially interacts with the world, especially given our starting occupation.

@Sierra@BushidoBantam
Nah I get it, part of the whole evolution of the genre (and with dystopias in general) is the appeal of fighting against the system. So becoming part of said system may be a little off-putting for some.

If it makes you feel any better though PubSec really isn't part of the system either at least as you'd imagine a regular police force. They are one of the only publicly funded organisations in which is essentially a libertarian version of an objectivist capitalist utopia, essentially because the big corporations really didn't feel like giving total control of the law over to just one of their competitors. So instead they hamstrung the entire operation so that it is equally ineffective for everyone. In this way they are still very much plotted against the "man" because its usually the corporations that are doing the bad shit as it were, and PubSec can't really get at them because of all the red tape and the fact that they provided most of PubSec's funding. A different kind of outsider if you may.

But to answer the other question tonally the story is more Bladerunner than it is Shadowrun. Don't get me wrong I really like Shadowrun, heck I DM a game of 5^th Edition, but the world it sets up tends to lead towards a campiness that doesn't really fit with the story I'm trying to tell here. So yes for the most part you are intended to take down the "Man" with little more than a rather worthless badge, a gun, your wits, and a few cybernetic limbs. PubSec isn't say Section 9 from Ghost in the Shell, they are more in line of Division 2 from Patlabor I.E just people trying to live their lives and maybe do something right in the world. Your characters aren't going to be super agent James Bond types or super L33t hackers they are going to be regular and more importantly flawed people nothing more and nothing less.

In terms of hacking well hacking is more along the lines of real life maybe a bit expedited because people can now carry computers in their brains. There is no matrix that you jack into at the best they might have an interface that is displayed upon their retinal implants to simulate a computer screen so that they don't have to lug around a laptop with them or anything. Other encounters well there aren't hovercars because as much as hovercars would be cool they aren't really practical in day to day use, they drive on the ground though many of them will typically be automated by this point. There will probably be a brawl or gunfight or two sometimes against hired guns and sometimes against rather angry robots. Cause remember the main focus of the story isn't just a day in the life thing, the plot that you will be following revolves around androids, and corporate intrigue, you aren't going to be chasing after too many kids for tagging a building, you got more important things to do.

Hopefully that helped out some. If you have any other questions feel free to throw them my way!

Hey look at that. A link to a thing! --> https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/165815-critical-space/ooc

@Skald It's not so much that as what I really enjoy doing in these types of worlds is telling the stories not of the people who fight against the system through some heroic motivation, but the people who fight the system every day just to keep food on the table and frienDS & family alive and out of prison. What does someoND like that do if they have the choice to do something greater? How do they interact with people wgo are battling to bring down the system? When the setting becomes sufficiently fantastical, it's kind of cool to come back to the everyday life type of plot to explore that. Its sometimes refreshing instead of the usual angle. That's just my own preferences on this kind of stuff. You've taken your oen spin to break the cliche which is also awesome.