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- How to create a Sci-Fi city
- =Jeremy’s Guide to Writing Transmissions=
- Posted by Jeremy Keller (writer of Tech-Noir RPG) on June 8, 2011
- So a lot of people have been talking on twitter, forums, and blogs about writing their own
- transmissions for Technoir. This is amazing. This is exactly what I was hoping for. I want
- to help you as much as I can to do this. …and do this well. …so you will do it more. So I
- decided to write a brief guide explaining my process as I’ve written the Twin Cities and
- Los Angeles transmissions.
- =Exposition=
- Write three paragraphs about your city. One is about its unique take on technology, one is
- about the environment in the region, and the third is about its society—especially given
- the influences of technology and environment. Think of what themes you want to address
- with your transmission and talk about them here. This is the most wordy you get to be in
- the entire document, so enjoy that freedom while you can.
- =The Nodes=
- You’re going to come up with 36 nodes. Six connections, six events, six factions, six
- locations, six objects, and six threats. Each one is going to have a short, one-line
- description. Don’t write so much that you explain what the node is—write just enough
- that the GM reading is inspired to define what the node is herself as she connects it to
- other nodes on her plot map.
- =Connections=
- Come up with six connections. It helps if they’re part of the criminal underworld in some
- sense, because that’s what ties the protagonists into the seedy underbelly of the city. They
- should be characters who you can imagine as both best friends and bitter enemies with
- the protagonists depending on the context. They could very well start as one and quickly
- become the next.
- =Connections Stats=
- Connections are made to be on par with new protagonists or one step better. You can
- distribute 18 points among their nine verbs with three adjectives or your can distribute 21
- verbs and four adjectives if they should be a bit more powerful. Pawn shop owners, drug
- dealers, and scientists should probably be on par. Crime bosses and deadly assassins
- should probably be more powerful. Assign whatever objects seem to be appropriate.
- There isn’t a lot of space here to list out the object stats, I figure the GM can pop open a
- player’s guide for that and pick whichever upgrades seem appropriate at the time.
- Favors should be assigned to fit the connection’s character concept. There isn’t any
- formula to who gets what favors or how many. I would make sure that shark and splice
- are represented at least once. You don’t have to have all the favors in your transmission.
- Twin Cities doesn’t have chop. It helps create a meaningful difference between the
- transmissions. Want chop? Better head to L.A. or Detroit.
- You’re going to want to wait til your done creating all your nodes before you make the
- connections’ lead tables.
- =Events=
- Come up with six events. This one is the hardest section for me usually. Look at other
- transmissions for ideas. But try think of things that could only happen in your city as
- well. Crazy weather is good too as it makes a cover for other nefarious deeds. Keep them
- open so they can be things that have occurred, are occurring, or threaten to occur in the
- plot. Keep them open enough that many of your connections, factions, and threats can be
- responsible for them.
- =Factions=
- Come up with six factions. Here’s where you’re really going to nail down the theme of
- your city. Twin Cities is about cybernetics, so there’s two corporations here that are big
- on that. Here are the big categories I think of when I’m trying to come up with factions:
- corrupt government, heartless corporations, political activists, fringe religious groups,
- large gangs, organized crime, and secret societies.
- =Locations=
- Come up with six locations. Try to think of the most cyberpunk places in your city. These
- are set pieces for cool scenes to play out. What architecture in your city sets it apart and
- how can you represent that as a location? My favorite location in the Twin Cities is the
- skyways. They seem futuristic (even though they’ve been around as long as I can
- remember), and they’re awesome for chases and urban labyrinths. There are actually
- probably a lot more than six locations in your city that you want to talk about. So you can
- hide other locations in the other nodes by mentioning, in their descriptions, where the
- connections hang out, where a faction meets, or where an event takes place.
- =Objects=
- Come up with six objects. These are your classic MacGuffins! The things everyone in the
- story wants to get their hands on. Prototype tech, money, drugs, scary-ass weapons,
- doomsday devices, statues of birds. Some can be cool weapons, implants, vehicles, or
- other gear that are usable by the protagonists. These can be a cool way to add new
- technology into the setting. Twin Cities has a full cyberbody.
- =Object Stats=
- Just come up with the capabilities of your object and codify those as tags. Use the tags of
- the existing objects catalog as a guide. Add some cool story tags like stolen or
- fingerprints or tracking device.
- =Threats=
- Come up with six threats. These are teams of people that are designed to fight
- protagonists. Each one should have at least two heavies and anywhere from zero to four
- henchmen. Envision your favorite cyberpunk and hardboiled scenarios in your head and
- think of who the heroes would be fighting. Those are your threats. Security forces, teams
- of assassins, military units, gangs, and so forth.
- =Threat Stats=
- Make sure each threat has a name. Heavies should be made with 21 points distributed
- between the verbs and four adjectives (one step better than the protagonists). Henchmen
- are made with 18 points among their verbs and one adjective. Write a list of objects, fully
- statted out, that cover everything they have together. Then you can just name which of
- those objects each individual has in their own section. Just come up with whatever
- objects are appropriate for that group. You can even make up custom objects that aren’t
- in the object catalog or anywhere else (but try not to go to that well too often).
- =The Master Table=
- The master table is pretty easy to come up with. It’s just all of your nodes listed out in
- order. Each row is one category with the nodes listed across the columns alphabetically.
- There’s an equal chance of rolling any node, so the position doesn’t really matter as long
- as you list each node once.
- =The Connection Lead Tables=
- These tables are a bit harder to do. You’ll want to open an extra copy of your
- transmission so far so you can scroll through one copy while editing the tables on the
- other. Each node should be represented twice among all the lead tables. I try to make sure
- that a node is in the un-connected column of one table and the connected column of
- another table—that’s just something I shoot for, it’s not absolutely necessary. If you look
- at the existing transmissions, you will notice that each row of the table is a particular
- category.
- Other than those guidelines, I just try to think of what nodes in the city that connection is
- most likely to know about and fill the table with that.
- Fill the space by mashing up existing, modern cities with each modern city becoming a
- sector of your mega-city. Working from U.S. cities, you may have:
- - the government sector (D.C.) Large marble government buildings; lots of statues and
- monuments; no sky-scrappers. Government clerks and lawyers.
- - the business sector (New York) Very, very dense. Home of bank headquarters, stock
- market, publishing industry. Capitalists.
- - the entertainment sector (L.A.) Sprawling. Entertainment studios. Mansions of the stars.
- Celebrities.
- - the night-life sector (Las Vegas) Corporate owned casinos & pleasure palaces and very
- little else. Mafia.
- - the industrial sector (Newark). Factories, ports, pollution. Blue collar.
- - the struggling sector (Detroit). Half-built construction, deserted "downtown." No jobs.
- High crime. Struggling poor.
- - the ruins (News Orleans, post-Katrina). Neighborhoods in ruins or completely
- abandoned. Memories of better times.
- When it's time to tackle a sector in detail, just look at a map and borrow as necessary.
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