Setting List v.2

1. Stalkhame - High Fantasy Western.
2. Touched - Supernatural Black Ops.
3. Zeerust - Monsters and Mecha in the Atomic Age.
4. Missing Numbers - Cyberpunk Magical Girls.
5. Diminishing Orbits - Post-Apocalyptic, Post-Human [Survival/Noir/Horror (we'll see where the fluff takes me)]
6. Abby's Setting - Gay Boy Slice of Life.

Setting List So Far

1. Stalkhame - High Fantasy Western.
2. Touched - Supernatural Black Ops.
3. Zeerust - Monsters and Mecha in the Atomic Age.
4. Missing Numbers - Cyberpunk Magical Girls.
5. Matt's Setting - Transhuman SPESS MAHREENS.
6. Abby's Setting - Gay Boy Slice of Life.
   

Missing Numbers Intro v.1

Overview

The year is 2084. It is a world interconnected by the intangible threads of the Net. Cyberware-enhanced street samurai walk the urban sprawls born from inner-city overcrowding. Console cowboys ride the invisible sea of information in the air with their phones. Data is power. The megacorporations control the data, high in glass and steel arcologies that have replaced the suburbs.

There are no police. Private security firms are hired by megacorps and city-states to keep the peace. But organleggers, hackers, drug kingpins, rogue human simulacra, and worse seek to pick apart that peace one moment at a time.

It is into this fray that the Missing Numbers have recently stepped..

Heroes

The Black Box

Nobody knows where the black box tech came from. Or even what it really is. The only people with any clue are the MorphoTech brass, and they aren't telling. In fact, they don't want anyone to know it exists. And they're willing to eliminate anyone standing in the way of that. Especially those who have accidentally come into possession of black box-infused cyberware.

In the summer of 2083, MorphoTech lab rats integrated black box tech into standard civilian cyberware as part of an undisclosed experimental procedure. The cyber was crated up to be shipped offsite.

Then Howie Johnson entered the picture. Night shift warehouse worker, new on the job, not quite used to the schedule, he got the shipping manifestos confused and sent the experimental cyber off to market.

It was forty-eight hours before the error was discovered. By then the shipment had been broken up, loaded on boats, planes, and maglev trains, destined for hundreds of different locations.

MorphoTech agents—mercenary individuals working as “deniable assets”--knew their first move. Every chunk of cyber in that shipment had a serial number associated with it. It would be a time-consuming but simple task to locate and retrieve the equipment.

Except the serial numbers were missing from the company database. The only indicator they'd ever existed was in the modification records. The deletion was attributed to a user simply named “Iris”. They considered a mass recall of all cyberware that had shipped out, but the guaranteed destruction of the megacorp's public image and the sheer monetary cost of that measure made it all but impossible.

So the lost black box cyber became the Missing Numbers, and the secret manhunt for its possessors began.

The Nature of a Missing Number

Each individual in possession of altered cyberware manifests it differently, if at all—sometimes, the black box tech remains dormant. But those in which it makes itself apparent are all extraordinary in some ways.

Alter egos are generally the first thing instituted by whatever force operates the black box. It wouldn't be of much use to the mysterious technology to have its owner exposed with each manifestation of its power, so some unseen sentience guides swarms of glittering nanomachines to change clothing, modify hair color, generate masks, and even in some cases alter sex. After all, a blond boy will never be suspected if the individual wielding flashy powers is a brunette girl.

Most Missing Numbers are blessed with special weaponry, skills, or powers. One may create an ornate spear out of thin air, another may gain mastery over an element or some other similar domain, and another may simply become stronger, hardier, and more agile. Or any combination of the above may appear.

Some Missing Numbers also have AI companions, personality constructs seemingly formed whole cloth by the black box. These companions offer advice and insight on their new master's strange situation. While the constructs can't offer any physical assistance, their vast knowledge and connection to some kind of centrally coordinating force can be invaluable in times of need.

The purpose of the Missing Numbers, if they have one, is a mystery. They manifest in equal numbers productive and destructive, and their only real match in the world are the alien Entities, with whom some clash on a regular basis. It remains to be seen why they exist and why “Iris” does not want them found.

The Masquerade

The Missing Numbers do have allies, though. Whispers hint of an organization operating in sharply defined cells called The Masquerade, whose Agents have been tapped to monitor and, if necessary, assist Missing Numbers. Agents are technologically unremarkable—they have none of the boons granted by the black box. They are mere mortals, but extraordinary ones: hackers, street samurai, con men, cyberdocs, riggers, anything and everything. They answer to one leader, known by the code name “Thespis”.

Lacking the alternate identities automatically fashioned for Missing Numbers, Agents must make do with more traditional methods of disguise: hats, masks, veils, and scarves are just a few of the items they use to hide their faces from the ubiquitous surveillance of the late twenty-first century.

Evening wear, however, is not strictly enforced.

Villains

There are two primary antagonists for Missing Numbers: Morphotech and the Entities. On top of those, however, any number of megacorps, state agencies, and private security firms want to capture these strange individuals for study, experimentation, and eventual dissection (if not vivisection). Many other lesser organizations—mostly criminal—seek to acquire the services of the morally dubious Missing Numbers and to neutralize those do-gooding types who aim to get in their way.

MorphoTech

The megacorp that started it all, MorphoTech wants to cover up and then harness the black box more than anything else.

The company CEO is a main named Damien Saint. He is in his fifties and has climbed to the top of the corporate ladder in an environment where promotion is usually borne from the deaths of superiors. In other words, he is not to be trifled with. He is aware of the Missing Numbers “issue”, and largely leaves it to his subordinate executives. Should he ever step in to the fray, his actions would be swift and surgical.

MorphoTech itself has a presence in most major cities across the globe, including several large-scale arcologies. These self-enclosed city-states are high-security closed circles. If necessary, the whole establishment can go hermetic. These precautions are mostly to protect the highly confidential pursuits nestled deep in the hearts of the arcologies, buried behind layers of surveillance and legit business practices.

In some ways, the best security is to have swarms of corp-loyal wage slaves masking the covert operations through sheer mass of numbers.

The corp's public enterprises cover a number of markets, from fast food to cyberware to loans and banking to convenience stores. As it might be surmised, cyberware is its bread and butter, the source of nearly forty percent of the company's income. Most of their research budget is angled in that direction; they have not, however, been able to replicate the black box cyberware, despite pressing efforts to do so.

The Entities

On the less mundane end of the antagonist spectrum rest the Entities. These creatures have relatively little in common with each other, but are all sufficiently bizarre so as to suggest something altogether alien.

Entities manifest in many forms—microbes, mangled cybernetic constructs, and building-sized monstrosities being only a sampling of their many shapes. Rumors abound that some have even assumed human form to move undetected among the population.

They have their different methods and tactics, but they have a universal, magnetic attraction to black box tech. It is this above all else that makes the Entities dangerous to Missing Numbers. Even if a Missing Number is in their civilian identity, the Entities are able to hone in on them with unnerving precision.

If an Entity manages to kill a Missing Number, reports indicate that it will cannibalize the corpse, absorbing the black box tech and becoming stronger in the process.

There is no known upper limit on their power. Luckily, they are subject to mortal wounds when in the lower echelons of their potential strength.

Other Threats

The other sources of antagonism for Missing Numbers hail from the criminal underworld: Japanese Yakuza, Chinese tongs, Italian mafia, North American mobsters, Mexican drug cartels...the list goes on. And they are jockeying for possession of black box tech with any number of smaller corporations and state interests. Even the remains of the Catholic Church have demonstrated discreet interest in the Missing Numbers.

Everybody and their deniable assets wants a piece of the Missing Numbers. It's up to each individual to keep themselves out of the labs and off the autopsy slab. With a measure of help from the Masquerade, if the person in question is a known quantity.

The World

Daily Life

For most people, daily life in the year 2084 goes on much as it has for the past few millennia. They wake up in the morning, go to work, have their leisure time, then they go to bed and do it all over again the next day.

There are, however, a few minor differences.

The Phone

Ever since its introduction in the late twentieth century, the cellular telephone has increased steadily in cultural importance. Now, it is an individual's primary personal computing apparatus, communication device, and central point of their Personal Area Network.

Each phone is registered to a single individual, and is all the identification necessary for most purposes. It has access to and contains copies off driver's licenses, birth certificates, social security records, and so forth. It even has replaced books, for the most part.

Emotive television, ETC, is the primary form of entertainment, accessed from the phone via an implanted datajack in the base of the skull. The same interface enables direct neural interaction with the phone's functions and the Net itself. Otherwise, a holographic alphanumeric keyboard would be necessary.

Augmented Reality and RFID

Most citizens of 2084 wear glasses, goggles, or contact lenses that display information about their surroundings. This information has been transmitted to their phones by one of three methods: direct wireless messaging, RFID (Radio Frequency ID) tags, or GPS data.

A lightpost might have virtual fliers tagged to it. A vending machine may offer a customized greeting. A restaurant could have reviews associated with it, and merchandise from shops have virtual price tags. All this information is processed and presented for perusal by way of a technology called augmented reality (AR).

Specific locations like restaurants, lamp posts, and places of business can have messages bound to their GPS coordinates. The omnipresent and wireless Net uses satellites to make sure the data continues to be associated with the correct location and also registers the data in other AR feeds for perusal by the public at large.

Personalized ads are issued by machines thanks to the unique ID of each phone, which allows vendors to access data on shopping habits and then heuristically produce deals and offers to match buying history.

And finally, all legitimate merchandise and cyberware are fitted with an RFID tag. This unobtrusive device broadcasts information about the product, including its price and any special features or notes that are relevant. When the merchandise is removed from the store, its value plus tax is automatically deducted from the individual's bank account.

The world, in brief, is wired for the wireless.

Cyberware

Cyberware—the incorporation of electromechanical components into a living organism—has, in some respects, become nearly ubiquitous. The most common sort is, of course, the wireless datajack, that godsend for gamers, media junkies, and hackers alike.

Less common varieties of cyber include replacement limbs and extremities, artificial eyes, reaction enhancers, skill software, and surgically-implanted phones.

All legal cyberware is RFID-chipped. Which is not to say unchipped cyberware is unavailable...it is simply difficult (and illegal) to locate.

The only parts of the human body that have not been successfully duplicated by cyberware are the brain and internal organs. Turns out balancing enzyme, acid, and oxygen levels is a real bitch for a computer that has not been programmed by millions of years of instinct to do so. It has been proven possible to create ROM duplicates of an individual's consciousness, however. The process is prohibitively expensive, extraordinarily painful, extremely dangerous, and banned by the Tripoli Accords for understandable legal and ethical reasons.

Full cybernetic conversion (referred to colloquially as “canned guts”), wherein the only organic components left of the individual are the brain and internal organs, is extremely rare but not unheard of.

The Net

Everything and everyone is connected by the Net. It started off in the late twentieth century as a less-than-overwhelming network of underpowered computers connected via phone lines, and has since turned into the omnipresent mass of questionable data, advertising, and porn we all know and love.

As a general rule, if you want to find it, it's somewhere on the Net. The only exceptions tend to be sensitive corporate and government data, which are kept on private networks layered with intrusion countermeasures—IC, or “ice” to console cowboys, network ninja, or whatever else hackers are calling themselves these days.

A fun fact for those who are thinking of picking a fight with a cybered-up street sam: all cyber is connected to the Net. And what the Net giveth, the Net can taketh away.

AI and the Tripoli Accords

Since the early twenty-first century, artificial intelligences have been mainstays of businesses looking to cut back on human resources in departments like customer service and support. For three decades they continued to be unobtrusive parts of everyday life for many people—virtual mannequins, hard-coded and designed for limited applications, equipped with only the most rudimentary ability to adapt and change.

In February of 2047, Thinking Engine Technologies brought online their most advanced project to date: the learning artificial consciousness Galatea. The test was meant to be quiet and under-the-radar. It instead turned into a worldwide fiasco as the Net staggered under the nascent AI's knowledge-hungry probing. In highly secure facilities, files were accessed, launch orders for nuclear weapons were issued and then redacted, and all over the world phones were overwritten, forming part of Galatea's sprawling presence.

The weight of the traffic brought the Net to its knees, and then...silence.

It took three months to bring the Net back up, carefully ensuring with each step that fragments of Galatea were purged before they could wreak more havoc. Phones had to be formatted, servers had to be restored from offsite, quarantined backups. It was all the world could do to keep itself together in the Downtime, as it came to be called. Used to a constant influx of social networking and information, people were at a loss for what to do in the virtual silence. Business ground to a halt. Riots erupted. Governments struggled to keep order. Faced with insurmountable odds, state-run police surrendered. Private security firms had to be called in to establish some semblance of control.

It was after all this had come to pass that a global summit was held in Tripoli, and the Accords decided upon there were signed unanimously, limiting once and for all the development of artificial intelligence to mere mouthpieces, Net-bound puppets with little or no ability to adapt. The world had gotten its first taste of true AI, and it would not be tolerated.

The companions sometimes housed in Missing Numbers cyberware are of questionable origin and capability. Whether they are of the same breed as Galatea or something else altogether is not certain. What is certain is that, were knowledge of their existence to become widespread, they would be subject to testing and analysis by governmental forces. Forces that would be altogether unkind in their approach and methods.

Base Skills v.1

Brains

Knowledge – Always taken with a specialization. Indicates the character's store of learned information about a particular subject. Good specializations are hobbies like philately and bird-watching, studies like history, geography, anthropology, or specific cities, cultures, or organizations.

Medicine – The ability to care for wounds or heal sickness over a long period of time. Can be used once a day on a character, and each success restores one health. Not useable in combat.

First Aid – The ability to see to a character's wounds in the midst of battle. One use per attack sustained in the current combat by the character being treated is allowed. Every two successes restores one health.

Linguistics – Knowledge of languages. Each point placed here earns the character one understood language. Is used to decipher unfamiliar writings and speech.

Survival – The ability to track, forage, and otherwise maintain livability when in the wild.

Investigation – The ability to know who to talk to or where to go when looking into a mystery of some sort. Also useful to glean information from crime scenes and locations of interest.

Brawn

Athletics – The classic running, jumping, and climbing skill. Used for tests of strength.

Attack – Pretty self-explanatory. Used in combat situations to try to make the other guy dead. Can be used for any weapon or martial art.

Defense – Also self-explanatory. Used in combat situations to keep from becoming dead. Represents the character's ability to dodge, block, or otherwise avoid incoming hurt.

Stealth – Used for sneaking about. Use common sense when deciding when it's applicable. In a wide-open, brightly-lit room, stealth is damn near impossible. In a shadowy alleyway, however...

Acrobatics – Skill in balance and bodily dexterity. Walking a narrow stone path over a gorge or swinging on a rope? You probably want this skill.

Endurance – The ability to maintain strenuous action for a lengthy period of time.

Moxie

Persuade – Used to win someone over to your views. Generally applicable when you're telling the truth about the matter and are trying to enlighten them.

Perform – Always taken with a specialization. Covers anything from oratory to sleight-of-hand. If you can do it on a stage, it probably falls under this skill.

Thievery – The fine art of separating an individual from their stuff without them knowing. Lock picking and the ability to escape bonds fall under the purview of this skill.

Bluff – Used for when you're lying to someone and you want them to believe it's the truth.

Gambling – Represents aptitude for games of chance. If your character is fond of such things and doesn't want to lose their shirt, it's probably worthwhile to take this skill.

Intimidate – For when you absolutely must convince that asshole that you mean business.

Perception – Alertness of a character's surroundings. Successfully used, it can keep a character from being ambushed or can allow them to zero in on unusual facets of their environment.

Hero Points v.1

1. At the end of each player’s turn in combat, or when they do something spectacularly cool out of combat, they earn a hero point.

2. Hero points can be used to buy a number of extra dice (at one point per die) on a skill check up to the value of that skill, i.e. if a person has Attack at 3, they can only buy up to three extra dice for that skill check.

3. At the end of combat, the player’s remaining hero points are halved, rounded up.

Basic Rules v.1

Character Creation

1. Assign eight points among your attributes: Brains (intelligence, memory, cleverness), Brawn (strength, sturdiness, physical control), and Moxie (alertness, charisma, dexterity, luck). Attributes may not be lower than one or higher than five.
   

2. Initiative is the average of Brains and Moxie, rounded up. It is related to Moxie for purposes of skill checks.

3. Health is equal to 3 x [Brawn + Moxie].

4. Choose two skills your character has a natural aptitude for. Both those skills start at 2.

5. You get [10 + Brains] skill points to distribute among skills. All skills start at zero except for the two chosen above. Five is the max value for a skill.

Skill Checks

1. Roll a number of d6 equal to the value of the skill that you are using. If you have no ranks in the necessary skill, you get to roll one d6 versus [the appropriate attribute - 2].

2. All the dice that come up less than or equal to the skill’s related attribute are successes. One success is usually all that is needed to succeed in the skill check. Further successes can be necessary to succeed if the GM has determined the task to be more difficult than usual or can just indicate higher degrees of awesomeness.

Combat

1. Everyone performs an Initiative skill check. If people tie, the person with a die showing the lowest number goes first. If that ties, then have a roll-off Initiative skill check.

2. Turns proceed from the highest number of Initiative successes to the lowest. A full round (everyone having a turn) represents about six seconds.

3. You can do whatever you like on your turn, within the bounds of reason. Generally this will consist of one action.

4. Attacks are resolved by rolling an Attack skill check. The defender rolls a Defense skill check. The defender subtracts from their health an amount equal to [attack successes – defense successes]. If this amount is zero or negative, they take no damage.

This is a test to make sure that mobile posting works.

EDIT: Success! This way, if an idea comes to us of a sudden while we're out and about, we can shoot a text to the blog to remind us of it for later.

I Would Say, "First!" But...

I think that would make me kind of a dick.

Welcome to the Nightlongs Development Blog! Here we (being James and myself) will be chronicling the development of our bare-bones RPG system. The basic idea behind the system is that complicated rulesets suck, and you should be able to create characters and run a whole campaign in one night if you so choose.

That being said, we also figured there should be a helluva lot of variety involved as well, so we started coming up with various settings. The best part is, anyone can use this system - a seasoned GM or a complete newbie. It's for everyone!

Anyway, this is partially an introduction and partially a test post to make sure everything's working properly on the blog. So here goes nothing!

~sjh