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So recently the primary book for Hypercorp 2099 came out from my Kickstarter rewards, which is nice because a lot of it goes in very well with the scifi campaign I've started to run a few months ago. And it is already starting to affect my campaign in the form of Hypercorporations.
In Hypercorp 2099 hypercorporations are exactly what they sound like. Huge companies that pretty much collectively control everything by having huge fingers into major services and resources. I liked the idea of having a space campaign with a lot of commercialism and weird capitalism so I started alluding to their existence since the beginning of the game, but only recently are the players actively involved with dealing with a hypercorporation and instantly became invested enough where I put it to a vote as to what kind of story they wanted to play;
1, My original concept where they would need to find a macguffin to stop the advance of a planet destroying robot powered by a dyson sphere. A more typical Pathfinder adventure of going on quests planet by planet to stop an ancient evil from coming out, or;
2, Get themselves involved with intrigue between hypercorporations, something that keeps them in civilized space and makes for less exploration and more getting involved with hacking, missions in cities and sabotaging evil hypercorporations.
They almost unanimously wanted option 2, so now I'm thinking of ways to adjust the original story to suit what they want.
Before this point I made it clear that Hypercorporations are a large part of everyday life. Rather than just deal with earth (There is no earth in this setting.) these hypercorporations span the entire galaxy influencing many aspects of space life with their wares. On terrestrial locations their influence is diminished due to it being cheaper to produce and deliver local products so there is much more planetary competition, but in space only the people with money can get anywhere so hypercorporations reign supreme. I filled out a lot with new homebrew Hypercorporations as well as some alluded to in the previews that Legendary Games/Mike Myler has put out. This includes:
Terra Pharma, a homebrew one that one of the players directly work for. and off shoot of Terra Firma these deal with and create biological appliances and weapons. They are the primary maufacturers of many of the pharmaceuticals found in the Technology Guide. Their interests are in new applications of xenobiology but have the foresight to sabotage projects that are deemed too dangerous.
Necromanagement, is from Hypercorps 2099 but has kind of evolved in this campaign. They deal with post-life insurance, capable of lobbying outsiders for preferential treatment in the afterlife, offer safe travel between the material plane and the outer planes which are rife with creatures that devour traveling souls, broker infernal soul dealing, and even offering up resurrection services for a steep price. Their activities alone has driven the price of magical regents to skyrocket even as they become more abundant and will actively sabotage rivaling sources of divine magic.
Safeserve is introduced because I also introduced the concept of the Hypernet. In this context a digital plane of existance that came into being once hyperspace travel became a thing. By sending signals through hyperspace they can bypass the normal limitations of electromagnetic data transfer. This has resulted in entire worlds full of digital constructs and media sharing. But the downside is that in the complex Hypernet plane hackers from across the galaxy can do a lot of damage from the safety of their own home and jacking in can be risky to one's mind especially since the hypernet resides on the same plane as Leng the otherworldly city of madness and other creatures native to the Hypernet. Luckily Safeserve specializes in technologies for surfing the Hypernet in a safe manner. In a Safeserve protected server you are free from the fear of being hacked, killed or even feeling pain as GMs patrol for threats and safeguards are in place to protect you while the rest of the Hypernet has way more freedom at the expense of limited safety With the exception of servers protected by other digital life hypercorporations.
Currently the players are aware of the above hypercorporations as well as R.I.P.E. (also modified to secretly be the front for a Jedi like group of psions), Fawkes Media (They've been getting galactic newsletters as handouts), Biospecs (Bioweapon manufacturer that they managed to piss off already) and Norrasan (The Food distributers that are the makers of Grey Goo [tm] 'Now with flavor!')
With that out of the way, what are some good plot points and prompts to get them into the world of Hypercorporation intrigue for the next ten levels?
Currently they are doing a job on a backwater planet where they will find a macguffin and a trapped R.I.P.E. agent (A Flumph by the name of Pyuut) who wants to take the macguffin back to R.I.P.E.. Originally said macguffin was the part of a complex living processor that essentially was a Wizard A.I. that could stop the Mechamen (Reptoids got taken over by robots they created which basically became the Borg bred with Daleks) from eating the galaxy. They would have to fight Mechamen and agents from hypercorporations that want to get their hands on the wizard AI. Now I'm trying to get away from that and figure out what the macguffin may otherwise be and what plot line to go with so that the players can start with corporate warfare.
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This all sounds awesome. I'm sure Savannah is going to squeal when she hears what you have Necromanagement doing in space! Also we are all stoked that you're enjoying the book and are extremely pleased to see what you're doing with it! FANTASTIC!
It sounds like the players are pretty comfy with the Hypernet, in which case I'd suggest making Xypher a part of the game (and later, maybe Datacorps too). It's a wonderful place to play around in AND has the added bonus of being a huge data dump -- who knows what sort of threads the PCs will come across while there?
So that gives you a plausible place to open up your plot to go wherever.
As for where to go moving forward, bringing things into space is a pretty big bridge to gap -- part of the trick with Hypercorps 2099 has to do with limited resources on the world (that's kind of the crux for Skull Island). In space resources are a different monster -- scarcity isn't normally the issue, transport and access are.
Currently they are doing a job on a backwater planet where they will find a macguffin and a trapped R.I.P.E. agent (A Flumph by the name of Pyuut) who wants to take the macguffin back to R.I.P.E.. Originally said macguffin was the part of a complex living processor that essentially was a Wizard A.I. that could stop the Mechamen (Reptoids got taken over by robots they created which basically became the Borg bred with Daleks) from eating the galaxy. They would have to fight Mechamen and agents from hypercorporations that want to get their hands on the wizard AI. Now I'm trying to get away from that and figure out what the macguffin may otherwise be and what plot line to go with so that the players can start with corporate warfare.
If the macguffin hasn't really been revealed at all yet, I'd make it a prototype or better yet, part of a prototype that was a joint venture between various hypercorporations to some obviously nefarious end (mind control, tailored mass genetic mutation, something that could disturb the tachyon flux if that still happened in your Hypercorps 2099+ game, or another cataclysmic-disturbance level event). That way you can easily have multiple threads the players can find in Xypher and you can include all sorts of different hypercorporations that would be in a good place to contribute to the making of the hypnotic image waves/genetic bomb/tachyon inducer/etc.
Sometimes the players will be raiding the hypercorporations involved for information or to steal other parts of the prototype, sometimes they'll end up working for one of the involved hypercorporations to do so and maybe even ally with one, and so on. Ultimately though, they should end up getting doublecrossed in the end by whichever Grays|Greys they interact with.| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
What is the tachyon flux? I'm still reading Gonzo 2 so I've only been able to absorb a few concepts from Hypercorp 2099 so I'm not familiar with this yet. It may be relevant considering that what the party is currently doing is stopping something that's emitting tachyons. (Miners on a backwater planet discover a Grey ship [greys are malevolent here] underground and disturbing it has made it start emitting tachyon waves, which is bad for anyone who wants to use FTLs in the entire system. They're tasked with turning the thing off and dealing with the captured specimens that are on the loose from the grey ship.) Originally I was going to reveal that the FTL drive was broken but it could easily be the macguffin since they haven't even gotten in the ship yet and all I've established so far is that something down there is emitting tachyons.
I like the idea of a stolen Prototype. It puts them on a similar path that I already planned, i.e. getting them from planet to space station to RIPE, but for a different purpose and end goal. Think it would be too generic for the PCs need to gather the other prototype pieces to stop... something?
I did establish that a monster race (Witchwyrds) have ties to Leng and Cthulhu. Since I established Leng being in the Hypernet would it make sense that some group of hypercorporations is trying to harness the power of elder gods for some purpose? What purpose would make sense? What hypercorporations would likely be involved with corporate cthulhu things?
The players are comfortable enough with the concept of the hypernet that one has his own adventuring vlog. I also kind of normalized non-jacking browsing by making comsets from the Technology Guide basically smart phones capable of visual browsing the hypernet. (If they have access to a hypernet modem that sends out wifi).
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What is the tachyon flux? I'm still reading Gonzo 2 so I've only been able to absorb a few concepts from Hypercorp 2099 so I'm not familiar with this yet. It may be relevant considering that what the party is currently doing is stopping something that's emitting tachyons. (Miners on a backwater planet discover a Grey ship [greys are malevolent here] underground and disturbing it has made it start emitting tachyon waves, which is bad for anyone who wants to use FTLs in the entire system. They're tasked with turning the thing off and dealing with the captured specimens that are on the loose from the grey ship.)
The tachyon flux is what opens up Earth (or in this case I suppose, the universe) to other dimensions, introducing dwarves and elves and dragons and so on (it's in the beginning and end of the timeline in Chapter 1). Maybe it hasn't happened yet but is imminent unless the PCs can stop it!
Originally I was going to reveal that the FTL drive was broken but it could easily be the macguffin since they haven't even gotten in the ship yet and all I've established so far is that something down there is emitting tachyons.
I like the idea of a stolen Prototype. It puts them on a similar path that I already planned, i.e. getting them from planet to space station to RIPE, but for a different purpose and end goal. Think it would be too generic for the PCs need to gather the other prototype pieces to stop... something?
I did establish that a monster race (Witchwyrds) have ties to Leng and Cthulhu. Since I established Leng being in the Hypernet would it make sense that some group of hypercorporations is trying to harness the power of elder gods for some purpose? What purpose would make sense? What hypercorporations would likely be involved with corporate cthulhu things?
That would make sense -- maybe the tachyon bit is to grab at the old gods power when it was strongest, in the distant past, so they can use it to make more efficient sublight engines, or engines that can go from sublight to FTL within a moment's notice (or access a type of energy that allows for widespread mind control maybe).
Qui’Qqopoth Promotions would be down for Cthulhu things. Viztao is always getting their hands into divine business too, as are Draddi Innovations and Kalvahn.
The players are comfortable enough with the concept of the hypernet that one has his own adventuring vlog. I also kind of normalized non-jacking browsing by making comsets from the Technology Guide basically smart phones capable of visual browsing the hypernet. (If they have access to a hypernet modem that sends out wifi).
A la VR Rigs, or are they not at any kind of penalty with the comsets? Xypher doesn't require someone to be jacked in to get entry though, so either way they shouldn't have any trouble traversing there.
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Hmm...
Earlier, since I did not have the Hypercorp pdf at hand I established 'Weirdworld' (Marvel Comics related) as a kind of fantasy MMO on the Hypernet. Once I remembered 'Oh yeah Veranthea' it was too late because the players already had a strong idea of what it was so I started adding things to differenciate, particularly that it is rife with hackers making backdoors to private servers that allow you to jack in in a very unsafe manner but allows you to feel things as if they were real. Each session I try to sqeeze in a Fawkes News online newsletter with the narrative of there being a serial killer luring Weirdworld players into private servers with various types of enticements and killing them. The news has developed where there are governments attempting to take legal action but progress is slow due to net rights advocates and the general Nature of the hypernet as well as the company that produces Weirdworld lobbying to get their own way (I have not named the company or hypercorporation involved.)
Perhaps Weirdworld is the fantasy world, or at least an echo of it which holds artifacts that the company that produces Weirdworld wants. Or probably Weirdworld is the first step in causing the tachyon flux and getting the things that they need and the serial killings are just silencing people who find out the truth or find out that Weirdworld is real.
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Xypher is all about backdoors (Backdoors*: Entering or exiting Xypher requires a user to travel through a door. Constructing a door to travel into or out of Xypher requires a DC 20 Use Technology check and a full-round action.) so getting the players to stumble into or out of it from Weirdworld should be easy, and it offers an effective means for the serial killer to conveniently escape (sequences that can be vastly different each time with constructed prepared death traps waiting for anyone that follows after him).
The thing about the Veranthea Codex: Life & Death server is that magic works there because all of the circuitry for it has been enchanted (doing that with another setting is totally fine -- do what suits your story! :D)
Having the serial killer around sounds like a good way to hook in hypercorporations tied into the prototype -- "we need you to investigate this killing of an executive" when really they're either keeping the party busy or using them to suss out information and prompt the other hypercorps to act.
If Weirdworld is a real place (or even if it isn't) it can definitely also act as a hotspot for cthulhu baddies to latch onto, particularly if magic works there (though who's to say that to a native Hypernet creature, a digital ritual might as well be the same thing as a physical one).
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I read up on Xypher and it sounds like the perfect landscape to facilitate the activities of the serial killer. I also like the idea of the killer's targets slowly revealed to not be random which leads into the investigation which in turn reveals that its part of a much bigger agenda.
Weirdworld could be a bridge. Something that was built as an enchanted server to enable magic that they previously couldn't. I can also pull in the 'Wizard AI' concept in the sense that the AI was unique because it required magic, psionics and technology blended together in a unique way that was a mystery to anyone else. The psionic component would be the players, the magic the world and the technology the servers working together for a single ritual on a massive scale.
Although at this point I need to think of why three or more megacorporations would get involved with such a thing. I'm not sure if it would be a matter of resources because multiple planets and 3/4ths of an unexplored galaxy is on the table, so I guess it would have to be reach and influence with low risk. It could be Aethera that they want(The Aethera Campaign didn't come out yet but I've been hinting at it's existance with newsletters reporting that a new system had been contacted in the Aethera system and there were talks of building a Hypergate to make them a part of civilized space.) especially since there's more technomagic there. It could be a Cthulhu cult wanting power. It could be a faction rival to RIPE. I had adjusted RIPE to be a front for a Jedi-like group of psions that seeks order and justice and had established a Sith-like group of scions that vanished in their fluff hand outs so it could be a simple matter of galactic domination.
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I have an answer to why three or more hypercorporations are involved in such a thing -- because they aren't actually involved, specific (corrupt, amoral) executives are up to it on the sly, trying to keep their involvement a secret! :D
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Ah, that Necromanagement adaptation sounds -awesome- Go forth, my minions, and broker those souls! *shakes fist*