Setting

By the 23rd Century, there are only 112 cities left.

It's been 40 years since the eco-collapse. 70 since we Q-Bombed the last Artificial Consciousness to death.

Now worldstorms have settled to a record low, and they tell us that peak nano-fallout has passed.

They say things will get better now.

But who believes anything that comes from the megacorps? Anyone who can hope to afford a better life offworld is trying to get on an orbital or out to the colonies.

That's why we're all here, working the shadows as mercenaries. We want something better too.

We're just street-level operators, but not for much longer.

You're about to get a Cyber Knight's computer spliced into your spine.

It's illegal. It's dangerous. It will change everything.

The Megacorps created Cyber Knights as the first quantum-secure data couriers.

Soon, the corps adapted their cybernetic implants to fight their quiet wars of espionage, sabotage, and murder.

These upgraded Cyber Knight "quantum riders" offered unparalleled computer processing, coordination, and Q-warfare capabilities.

But after a few decades, hundreds of Knights had deserted or gone rogue. The corps outlawed their kind and started hunting them.

The surviving Knights became the world's elite shadow operators for hire.

You're about to get one of those implants. We're about to step up into a whole new game.

If we build the right team and back the right power players, we could earn enough to buy a reset for the rest of our lives, choppa.

It won't be easy. Who knows what we might get mixed up in - probably secrets the Syndicates or megacorps would kill for. But this is our chance.

Let's do this.

23rd Century Cyberpunk

• The year is 2231, the location is the New Boston Zone.
• A century and a half of worldwide industrial, military activity, deep sea mining, and atmospheric seeding left behind uncountable amounts of nano waste throughout the world. During the golden era of quantum and nano, nanotechnology was the solution attempted for every rising problem.
• The resulting environmental disaster and wars have laid the world to waste. Nano pollution is everywhere--a mix of semi-active nanites, dormant nanites that could become active unexpectedly, materials broken down or partially altered by nanites into who knows what, and the toxic remains of decaying nanites themselves.
• Outside of cities protected by massive domes, human habitation is impossible. There are 112 megacities left on the planet, each protected by a massive dome, shield or mountain.
• 2 billion humans are packed into these hyper urban sprawls or living in orbit (this averages 18 million per major city)
• Space race is in full swing with multiple corporate colonies and space stations from Venus to Saturn, but their inter-reliance with Earth is still very high. Many large scale space stations orbit Earth. Survival on Earth depends as much on orbital industry as survival in space depends on ground-based support.
• MegaCorps (Matsumoto, UltraTek, Warner-Braun, Jupiter Group, McKellen Heavy Industries, Rook Technologies) battle for supremacy over the world’s economy, space resources, and the matrix. In the shadows, everyone from corrupt MegaCorp agents to politicians, from the wealthy to the crime bosses, all employ elite mercenaries to do their dirty work and protect their interests.
• You are the leader of your rag-tag team. You have scraped together everything and pulled together to obtain an illegal spinal implant that transformed you into a Cyber Knight. With a quantum computer biochip (a Quantum Rider) implanted in your spine, you step overnight into the underworld as a top tier operator capable of handling the biggest and most dangerous contracts. You have a lot to prove but this is your all-in ticket to the top. There is no going back, there is no way to reverse the procedure -- you’re in it for life or death now.

New Boston Zone

Depiction of the New Boston Zone dome

The New Boston Dome was built over the crumbling infrastructure of old Boston. Construction started in a rush in 2174. By this point, the worldwide fallout from nano pollution was rising. The dome construction was controversial at that time but most of the cities that survived the nano fallout started their dome construction near this date -- early enough to be ahead when the worst of the fallout hit.

• The dome is a massive structure built to protect against nano-storms and deadly pollution that scoured the earth and reached its height in 2193
• Within the dome, the largest structures are the Towers which are immense, mile-wide buildings that also play a role as support pillars for the dome. Some of these are corporate headquarters or extreme luxury residences.
• Living space in the dome is extremely vertical. There are layers and layers of street level slices built on top of another lower street level slices - some districts there are as many as 16 covered levels in a crumbling pile.
• Of the habitable and usable space of the New Boston Dome, 40% of it is underground. Many citizens live underground, even though the farther you get from the surface the worse the living conditions become. In addition, much of the megacorporate industry, research and storage is underground. Beyond the sanctioned tunnels and inhabited structures begins “the Under” (about 300m below sea-level) a hostile, half-flooded network of construction tunnels and the vast structural components that anchor the dome to the earth’s crust.
• The Boston Harbor is accessible from the ocean through an extensive system of locks which can be opened to permit either submersibles or the rare surface cargo ship. As the 23rd century carries on, shipping is beginning to grow again.
• The dome is more than 10 mile in diameter and 1 mile tall at its peak and is segmented into many distinct districts by stacking layers, vertical barriers and the foundation superstructures required to support the immense shield.
• In a joint venture between McKellen Heavy Industries and Matsumoto Global that started 11 years ago, major new exterior sections of land have been reclaimed for habitation. They are called Wards and each measures roughly 8 square miles.

Day and Night in the Dome

The verticality of New Boston is staggering. Entire districts are built on top of other districts. Even if natural light spilled in from above, only about 20% of the dome's layers would see it. Sunlight is piped in from above and from the dome’s sides through nano-filtered mirror shafts, bringing some true daylight to the upper and outer half of the city's total districts. For the rest, a much lower-light day and night cycle is simulated by the corporate, milsec or lesser powers that be. In places like the Under, there are no such luxuries.

When the dome was designed, there was no focus on aesthetics; the architects prioritized providing survival to the largest population possible. Mirror shafts, natural light and other luxuries were added later.

Society

Shareholders

All megacorporate stock comes in two forms - common and restricted.

In practical terms, all restricted shares of a megacorporation are held by old, rich families that have passed them down over generations. Only in the rare cases where a megacorporation has needed a massive budget for expansion has a stock split been offered, allowing new blood to enter the restricted shareholder pool. Of course, every mega-corporate citizen holds common stock and is rewarded for their labor, often with additional common stock options or stock gifts. but the true money and power lie in the restricted stock pool, so the rare act of selling any such shares is always extraordinary and ushers the recipient into the upper echelons of megacorporate power.

The true value of restricted stock is not in selling it - it is in holding it. The power of a restricted stock share lies in the voting rights associated with it, and its wealth is tied to the megacorporation's dividend it is owed. Powerful shareholders constantly work to gobble up shares from wherever they can, often using marriage or other legal tools to bring smaller pools of restricted stock into their empires. Notable examples include the Dumonde family, who own 11% of all Matsumoto restricted stock, and the Brauk clan, who own 7% of all Warner-Braun restricted stock.

In addition to seeking direct ownership of more restricted stock, larger shareholders constantly seek to carve out a sphere of influence that allows them to control lesser shareholders and direct their votes, exponentially increasing their power within the corporation through a mix of extortion, fear, and exorbitant rewards. For example, while Dumond family is estimated to hold 11%, they are believed to influence over 18% of the total voting shares within Matsumoto Global, making their family arguably one of the most powerful on the planet.

Blue Card

A Blue Dard is a tri-fold document, representing a work contract, temporary corporate citizenship, and a personal identification card within the realm of megacorporations. The elusive Blue Card, while granting an individual the opportunity to work within the sovereign territory of a megacorporation, offers limited security due to its revocable nature. These contracts can be terminated without cause and at a moment's notice, leaving the worker vulnerable to the whims of their corporate bosses and profits.

Blue Cards are most typically granted to work forces that require physical trade skills, such as those running NanoFabs, maintaining and cleaning equipment and facilities. Domains like security services are expressly never given to Blue Card holders. While the Blue Card allows the temporary citizen to emigrate into corporate territory for their employment, they are not provided housing on corporate property and may only be present during their assigned shift hours.

Despite the precarious nature of this citizenship, Blue Card holders have significant advantages in salary, services, and amenities when compared to the basic benefits provided to Grey Card holders under the United North America (UNA) services. Naturally, the benefits of a Blue Card vary depending on the occupation and, most crucially, the particular megacorporation that has granted the coveted Blue Card status.

Gray Card

The Gray Card is a citizen identification document for United North America. The Gray Card grants the holder the right to some basic services from the UNA. Denied access to jobs and services in the Corporations, Gray Cards live in a second economy, working businesses outside corporate territory. Though Blue Cards work in the Corporations, they cannot use many of the Corporate services and rely to some extent on the UNA economy for food, shelter, and entertainment. Shareholders, too, may visit the entertainment districts of the streets.

Undocumented

The Undocumented lie at the bottom of the city hierarchy. Lacking even a Gray Card through choice or history, Undocumented live at the edges of society, struggling to survive unless they can provide some needed service. The most well-off may live quietly among the Gray Card residences, but the desperate and the ones avoiding attention live in the Leans, the Under, the twisty passages between "legitimate" residences, and in the frequently toxic industrial zones.