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Johnny Mnemonic is the best SR movie ever made

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RickDeckard

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« on: <03-13-19/0842:34> »
Discuss.

PiXeL01

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« Reply #1 on: <03-13-19/0845:16> »
That and Nemesis (the first one) were the movies we always saw before SR sessions 25+ years ago.

Yes, they are cyberpunk, but SR? No magic or dragons so ...
If Tom Brady’s a Spike Baby, what does that make Brees and Rodgers?

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #2 on: <03-13-19/1014:35> »
That's an overly ambitious claim given Bright exists.
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Jayde Moon

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« Reply #3 on: <03-13-19/1019:25> »
That's an overly ambitious claim given Bright exists.

My man.
That's just like... your opinion, man.

Ajax

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« Reply #4 on: <03-13-19/1020:41> »
I’m gonna buck the trend and recommend Strange Days, a 1995 film that me and the other six people who watched it really enjoyed.
Evil looms. Cowboy up. Kill it. Get paid.

PiXeL01

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« Reply #5 on: <03-13-19/1025:03> »
Strange Days is a great movie too and often mentioned as inspiration worthy.
If Tom Brady’s a Spike Baby, what does that make Brees and Rodgers?

Beerhamut

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« Reply #6 on: <03-13-19/1142:06> »
Read the William Gibson Sprawl series. I swear Shadowrun is the nerd-baby of that, Lord of the Rings, and Walter John Williams "Hardwired".
Sprawl=Cities, street samurai, and matrix.
Rings=Dragons, magic, metaraces.
Hardwired=Riggers, and street samurai.

Johnny Mnemonic is actually from William Gibsons' Sprawl stuff so there ya go.

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Beta

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« Reply #7 on: <03-13-19/1159:03> »
Read the William Gibson Sprawl series. I swear Shadowrun is the nerd-baby of that, Lord of the Rings, and Walter John Williams "Hardwired".
Sprawl=Cities, street samurai, and matrix.
Rings=Dragons, magic, metaraces.
Hardwired=Riggers, and street samurai.

Johnny Mnemonic is actually from William Gibsons' Sprawl stuff so there ya go.
I'd add:
- George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails (and sequels) for the drugs, btl, and personality modification chips.
- less in SR than in the Cyberpunk RPG, Norman Spinrad's Little Heroes for Rockers

Beerhamut

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« Reply #8 on: <03-13-19/1206:29> »
I'll read those after I finish Snow Crash.
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JudgeMonroe

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« Reply #9 on: <03-13-19/1223:30> »
It's kind of endearing that the Johnny Mnemonic "data courier" archetype persists into the 5th Edition (specifically via the Iconic character Gentry and generally through the availability of the Data Lock augmentation) even though the rest of the evolved setting ought to make the concept entirely moot.

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #10 on: <03-13-19/1228:28> »
It's kind of endearing that the Johnny Mnemonic "data courier" archetype persists into the 5th Edition (specifically via the Iconic character Gentry and generally through the availability of the Data Lock augmentation) even though the rest of the evolved setting ought to make the concept entirely moot.

How so?  Securing something important inside a Host is just inviting some Decker or Technomancer to hack their way in and compromise it.

Hiding something inside a data courier might be an "easier" hack, but that's only after you A) learn which data courier the data you need is hidden inside and B) successfully grab him in such a way that the data isn't erased before you can put a data tap on his cyberware to hack it.
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Ajax

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« Reply #11 on: <03-13-19/1229:48> »
One also shouldn’t overlook Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett’s gritty noir crime novels. Sam Spade and Phillip Marlow aren’t cyberpunk at all — having been written long before the invention of both punk and computers — but they were undoubtedly influential on William Gibson and most assuredly influences on Blade Runner.

John le Carré‘s espionage novels, such as The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, Tom Clancy’s and Michael Critchon’s modern day techno-thrillers, and the original Ian Fleming novels about a certain dashing British secret agent, are also pretty good inspirational material for Shadowrun. Again, none of them are directly cyberpunk (although Jurassic Park comes kinda close to biopunk), but they all share tonal and thematic elements.

“Heist pictures” are also a great source of inspiration: Heat basically is a Shadowrun campaign set in the Fifth World. The Thomas Crown Affair, Ocean’s Eleven, Catch Me If You Can, and The Sting should be required viewing for any SR GM considering running a campaign that plans to make extensive use of the ‘Cutting Aces’ supplement.

Oh, and of course, we’d be silly not to mention the story of what happens when a retired Prime Runner gets his car stolen and his dog killed: John Wick.

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JudgeMonroe

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« Reply #12 on: <03-13-19/1237:55> »
It's kind of endearing that the Johnny Mnemonic "data courier" archetype persists into the 5th Edition (specifically via the Iconic character Gentry and generally through the availability of the Data Lock augmentation) even though the rest of the evolved setting ought to make the concept entirely moot.

How so?  Securing something important inside a Host is just inviting some Decker or Technomancer to hack their way in and compromise it.

Hiding something inside a data courier might be an "easier" hack, but that's only after you A) learn which data courier the data you need is hidden inside and B) successfully grab him in such a way that the data isn't erased before you can put a data tap on his cyberware to hack it.

Mostly because you can't use data at rest in a courier. The data originates in a host, and its destination is a host. The courier is merely the transport, and a Global Grid that supports hosts between which no physical distance exists means exchanging that data between them must be a trivial thing.  There are some edge cases involving offline hosts where things can get interesting, though. Additionally, the way Foundations and Skimming are supposed to work makes the "security" of information in the face of motivated opposition even less relevant.

RickDeckard

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« Reply #13 on: <03-13-19/1254:55> »
That's an overly ambitious claim given Bright exists.

I thought it was good, but it didn't give the SR feel the same way JM did. Did they use Cyberware in Bright? Don't recall seein it.
« Last Edit: <03-13-19/1316:33> by RickDeckard »

RickDeckard

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« Reply #14 on: <03-13-19/1255:59> »
Read the William Gibson Sprawl series. I swear Shadowrun is the nerd-baby of that, Lord of the Rings, and Walter John Williams "Hardwired".
Sprawl=Cities, street samurai, and matrix.
Rings=Dragons, magic, metaraces.
Hardwired=Riggers, and street samurai.

Johnny Mnemonic is actually from William Gibsons' Sprawl stuff so there ya go.

Gibson , unfortunately, has always claimed he does not like the connection between his novels and universe and that of Shadowrun.