R. E. S. E. T.
Inspired by Cyberpunk 2077, Deus Ex, and Altered Carbon
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Everyone in Fortuna had heard the words shouted out over the herds from some hologram or another. Everyone knows what it claims to be. Yet so few have ever seen a shred of proof it works that it’s commonly called “rich man’s fools gold” on the streets. The rich who could afford such miracles live forty stories above the landings: the maze of bridges and balconies that support a whole city suspended in air. The upper landing still saw sun, but with sun comes easy access for C-Sec. A few levels down, the lower landing lives in its shadow. Most of the working class that hasn’t succumbed to gangs and crime lords or crippling injuries and rampant disease live here. The failures of urban planning left a cramped, poorly lit, poorly drained clusterfuck of bridges and overhangs and pathways branching from complexes and open-air plazas cut into the skyscrapers that stretch above the clouds themselves. The gangs, crime lords, crippling injuries, and rampant diseases were all that awaited those cast out to ground level. Such poor condemned souls could say goodbye to any form of law and order, health and sanitation, or safety and shelter. Ground level is home to the worst of Fortuna: a haven for everything the corporate overlords have effectively buried beneath dozens of stories of concrete and steel.
Welcome to Fortuna.
PLOT
There are those who seek to dethrone the corporate overlords. Even the power of those who live like gods among men is not infinite. Chief among them was a resistance movement that called itself Fortuna United. Their existence was the closest the working class had ever come to holding real influence in Fortuna until the movement was driven underground. A ruthless C-Sec sting operation left resistance leadership nonexistent. What chain of command was in place was brutally killed in one fell swoop. The citizenry believe the Fortuna United movement to be a thing of the past, but those left who fly the banner will not go down without a fight.
You must pull the resistance together. You alone can rebuild what was and carry the flag to even greater heights. This defeat was a reminder of the power of those that you are doing battle with, but it is not your ultimate demise.
- Choose your battles carefully; your enemies will react to your aggression.
- Be aware of your neighbors; local gangs and factions may support or despise you.
- The people are your life force; popularity will greatly affect your success.
CHARACTERS
None of the player characters are particularly ranking within the resistance movement. They either escaped the raid early, or were simply not present. They may have a little bit of veterancy or be completely new recruits. It will be up to the players to re-establish a hierarchy and rebuild. The Fortuna United movement as it existed a week ago is gone. What comes next, even if it bears a familiar name, will be something new.
The resistance movement is in shambles. Characters will not be particularly well equipped or well trained. While the streets of ground level may be rife with gang warfare, that hardly passes for experience versus C-Sec troopers. Characters will grow with the rebellion; they are its new heart and soul ... if they can save it.
DEATH
Death is not permanent. Before it was beheaded, the Fortuna United resistance had established a closed-loop R.E.S.E.T. network using stolen hardware. Unlike the next-generation globe-spanning equipment that Eden Star provides, the resistance’s system is severely limited in range and capability. When the Fortuna United leadership was assassinated, the wireless network was jammed by C-Sec, leaving them no escape options.
It is possible for player characters to be effectively resurrected from death by this system. The network the resistance controls is limited in area, with setup of a new node being an important step to preparing an operation. It is limited in its capacity to grow and individualize blanks, generic template bodies with no distinguishing features assigned, which limits the rate people can be brought back. Despite the ability to cheat death, the wait can be up to 48 hours for reimplantation per deceased individual.
The system is not infallible. The players will be made aware as the RP progresses when R.E.S.E.T. is not available. When this is the case, death is very permanent. There will be times when your safety net is taken away from you, though this will not be all the time. Be aware of this when deciding whether to take risks or not.
FORTUNA
The city of fantasies and nightmares. Massive high-rises pierce the clouds, punctuating a landscape that epitomises the phrase “urban sprawl.” The towers themselves are beacons, bastions, and fortresses of luxury in a world otherwise plated in concrete and glowing with neon and holograms. Hundreds of square miles of land have been conquered by the city marching westward, its eastward expansion only halted by running out of land. Its sheer area has been multiplied tenfold moving in the last direction finally possible: up.
The landings make up most of the city beyond the ivory towers. Roads, footbridges, plazas, balconies, and every manner of structure imaginable exists at every level of civilization built atop the last. The levels that can still see the sky are referred to as the upper landing. Rent is higher, but the city is tolerable, even nice, at this level. The inhabitants are mostly low-level corpo workers in suits and ties, filling out paperwork and punching keyboards day in and day out. Life is something close to comfortable in the naturally lit regions of Fortuna. The residents of the upper landing are unlikely to take kindly to a rebellion for now.
The topmost level of the landings is just the most recent construction. Many came before, now resting in the upper’s shadow. As one descends through the levels, construction decays. The city becomes darker, dirtier, wetter, more entangled. These structures define the lower landing. Each level down becomes more of a maze of bridges to get lost in, forced into places they never should have fit by engineers who never should have graduated. It's a grim place to live, but the vast majority of Fortuna’s residents are stuck here working on hourly wages in industrial areas or retail or some other poorly-compensated job. Street vehicles are less common and air traffic is banned. What little airspace there is gets reserved for C-Sec, whose presence is varied and enforcement is draconian. Fortuna United survived here for months under the nose of C-Sec.
The true streets of the original city, before it reached into the sky above, are now a hellhole. Law enforcement and security is basically nonexistent on ground level. Gangs and crime are rampant. Disease and crippling injury fuel black market augmentation businesses. Most permanent residents are more machine than man if they’ve survived any length of time. Even the resistance avoids a constant presence in this abyss.
CHARACTER SHEET
Please send all character sheets to me via private message only. Please note in the subject line that this is a character sheet for R.E.S.E.T. Please do not PM me WIP sheets.
You are allowed to post sheets publicly, but be aware that I am not responsible for spoilers. Secrecy around characters will be an important attribute early, and potentially late, in the RP. If you wish to post publicly, I strongly encourage you to redact all information that is plausibly unknown to other characters. You may share everything if you want, but you should do so at your own discretion.
This sheet is not exhaustive and I encourage flashy formatting (so long as it does not impede readability) and any additional information you feel is relevant to the character. I enjoy surprises, so I won't demand that all of your secrets be revealed to the GM, however be aware that some bombshells may be so big that I won't enjoy them being dropped. Here's a basic list of information I as GM will want. It also includes some (nonexhaustive) redaction guidelines.
