8-Bit Dystopia

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The following article is a /tg/ related story or fanfic. Should you continue, expect to find tl;dr and an occasional amount of awesome.

Elegan/tg/entleman, I have an idea for a classic gaming roleplay. A homage to the 8-bit and 16-bit era with a grimdark retelling, much like that excellent 80s pop-culture setting we had a thread on a few nights ago. For Writefaggotry, see 8-Bit_Dystopia/Writefaggotry

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Imagine, if you will, a city stretching into infinity. The endless dark nights, bright skyscrapers dominating the skyline while chemical factories spew purple sludge into the river. A city dominated by crime syndicates, ancient clans, and high-tech conglomerates. From the tops of buildings high, the heroes and villians of the city watching the ant-like masses below them.

No More Heroes

One of the predominant themes of the setting is the fact that what we call a hero is gone. The world we know, Earth was destroyed and much of humanity with it. Those that survived fled to the very edges of humanities domain. One world, a former Mining colony becomes the City. Here the black and white of good and evil is gone. In its stead is a murky concept of shades of gray. Some of the most horrible atrocities committed are done for the sake of saving what remains. The heroes of this world are often no better than the monsters they fight and in a few cases, even worse.

This is not to say there is no hope. A few pure souls still stand against the encroaching darkness. Some are familiar faces others, unexpected and at times even shocking. These are the characters whom one plays.

Stats

Characters are defined by five basic traits, each one rated from one to ten; each one starts at 1, with a default of 12 points to distribute between them. The human average is about three. They also have several derived traits, Edges, Crutches, and skills.

Basic Traits

• TOUGHNESS - Your character's physical endurance.
• BRAWN - How much you can lug around and how hard you hit.
• GRACE - Your speed and agility.
• WITS - Your character's ability to think on his feet. Not equivalent to intellect - that's more a measure of how many ranks you have in your Scholastic skill.
• MOXIE - Charisma and mental endurance.

Derived Traits

• HP: Toughness times 10. The amount of hits you can take before you crumple.
• JUMP: The average of Brawn and Grace, plus any bonuses from Edges. In 8BD, jumping is an essential skill.
• ATTACK: The average of Grace and Wits. Your skill at hitting something with another thing.
• BULK: The average of Brawn and Toughness. How large your character is. Comes in handy when grappling - less handy when you're trying to shimmy through ductwork.
• SANITY: Moxie times 5, plus 20. The mental equivalent of HP.

History

The Invasion

Ten years ago, in the year 2000 Earth was invaded by aliens. The planet was overrun, but thanks to the efforts of corporations at the forefront of technology, most key cultural aspects of human culture were successfully teleported to a habitable planet called Hyrule. The nature of this teleportation ended up with many things near each other that logically would not have been had they been built independently.

Construction

The new world is very rich in minerals, though biological wealth was purely fungal, and early construction was relatively easy. This construction saw mass production of a group of L-class bioroids who became known as "Lemmings" for their disregard of personal welfare. The Lemmings worked in mines and in construction. However, they soon ecaped human control, and today their construction is undirected.

Light

Dr. Light, a visionary in the early days of the city, spent the greater part of the decade working for Wily. He recently left, however. They say he's starting a rebellion.

The Corps

The ruling powers in the City. These mega corporations bear little resemblance to ours. They rule almost every aspect of life. Setting high prices, low pay and few jobs. Of the Corps(Or Corpse as some call them) there are four major powers, each competing with the others and dealing with the constant nuisance of small timers trying to get in on the money. The Big Four are:

Egg Industries

Owned by doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik. Recently the good doctor has come under fire from environmental groups for alleged breaches of environmental safeguards and unsafe working conditions, but investigations by the state have turned up no evidence of any wrong-doing. So Doctor Ivo continues to steadily dominate, even deploying automatic armies to 'safeguard his assets' in less developed nations, which sometimes results in ruthless purges of surrounding areas. Recently the doctor has met stiff resistance to his campaigners of intimidation from a group of activists led by the mysterious 'Big Blue' of which nothing is known.

MetPharm

The world's best researchers in organ regrowth and augmentation... just last year they announced that, yes, they did use alien stock in their parts. They expected a huge backlash, but nothing happened. Maybe it was because the populace was so used to bionics. Maybe it was because the alien presence was "minimal", tiny bits of code from beings described as "smallish, floating, electricity-drinking jellyfish". Or maybe it's because the ones with the implants just... don't talk back when it comes to MetPharm. Just as well.

Mother Brain wouldn't let them, anyway.

Zebes

Zebes is a planet owned solely by MetPharm. It's where MetPharm gets their aliens.

Mother Brain

MetPharm has a leader folks don't talk about too much. A giant brain. The orchestrator of Zebes. An alien.

Chozo

The native inhabitants of Zebes. They work for Mother Brain, just like her human employees. Their technology is the foundation of the suits for Metpharm soldiers, and they designed the Metroids.

Metroids

All-purpose genetic instruments created by the Chozo. They can grow organs for transplant, produce retrovirii, and collect genetic material.

Foot

A series of generalist chains filling damn near every niche from food production to rodent control via their patented 'mouser' system. Their employees don't complain mostly because of their wonderful security guards. Rumor has it they were looking into genetic engineering sadly, nothing breaking has been developed yet.

Mousers

Mouser robots patrol the pipes, killing threats down there. Vermin, gangsters, you name it. They're a great thing, so long as you stay out of the pipes.

Drugs

The corporations are happy to make money however is convenient. The following are popular drugs.

E-Tank

E-Tank is an upper and a stimulant. It makes you no longer feel any wounds, and gets you operating at peak performance.

Ring

Ring speeds up your reflexes, and acts as a kind of neural buffer. When you actually get hit, you're dead sober again, but you won't go into shock. Ring is highly addictive.

Mushrooms

A confidence booster and hallucinogen. This is not produced by the corps, but grows in the pipes as a natural fungus.

Locations

These need more work here

The City

The City, referred to as 'The City of Light' and once as 'Omegon'. It dominates and stretches on forever, dark and decayed, the urban landscape jagged and shifting. The biggest players are indisputably Doctor Wily and Doctor Robotnik and their positronic brains / servitor-style bio-brain bots. MetPharm pretty much dominates everything medical, and spill out mutagens and bioroids left and right, taking up all the high-tech industry that Ivo and Albert haven't gotten too yet. Their leader is Mother Brain, but people don't talk about that much.

What business the Big Three haven't taken over, then Foot has. Foot runs the little stores, it gets you your groceries. It acts like the little guy even though all those little guys make for one hell of a corp.

Other factions lurk in the shadows: strange worshipers of lost deities, aliens, psychics, mutants, and the Syndicate. A massive criminal enterprise run by the enigmatic "Mr. X". The only reason they aren't legit is because the legit business market is cornered.

The Pipes

The underworld of the city, full of mutants, gangers, and bioroids. It's where the folks go to hide when the corps don't want to keep them, but don't want them to be seen in public. Hide in the pipes, you don't get killed and working folks don't see you. It's win-win. Of course, it's also full of that fungus that they say is native to the planet, but that's not really as bad for you as they say.

The Mushroom Kingdom

The Koopas, the Goombas, a few other creatures that the corps stopped caring about. They live down in the pipes now, and they've got their own kingdom. They've been there as long as the pipes, hell, without them, the pipes might not exist. They've got nothing much, but nobody tells them what to do, and if you're on the run from the corps, you can hide out with them.

• Dream Land / Fantasy Zone / Dark World / Giygas etc... : all different names for the same place; an incomprehensible alien dimension home to bizarre otherworldly monsters. The Dream Lands constantly seek to enter the world, but Kyr'be the Gatekeeper is always on hand to devour unwitting monsters and cultists.

• Galaxy Force HQ.

• Zebes: The secret hidden homeworld of the Chozo, a planet within the system, but deliberately hidden. It is the true birthplace of the Mother Brain, and the Chozo. No mention of the Metroids proper, or their homeworld SRX-388.

• Lylat System: Largely destroyed by the Sinistar's robot followers 20 years ago. Corneria and Katina are confirmed destroyed, the fate of other locations and planets remains a mystery.

• The wastes: King DD resides here, along with Donkey Kong and the Kongs. No mention of Kremlins.

• Mentions of Ninja Gaiden imply that the Demon World still exists, but no actual mention has occurred.

• Earth: Abandoned when overrun by the Invaders.

Augmented/Robotic Persons

This being in the distant future of the year 2010, there have been vast advances in robotics technology. As such, individuals can be made. Most are made for combat purposes.

Bioroids

Bioroids are people made primarily from robotic parts, but with certain key elements, primarily portions of the nervous system, remaining biological. Wily Corp makes these, growing the biological parts in a lab. Egg Industries uses donated parts.

Mechaniloids

Full robots. Most are Non-sentient, as sentient machines are difficult and expensive to make. They are used for purposes where human endurance is insufficient, or when the ability to be mass-produced trumps the need for thought.

Animal Men

Also known as Morreaus, these are gene splicing experiments. As taking genetic material from animals is easiest and cheapest, they often have many animalistic features.

Get Shit Done

The following contains information to be categorized and integrated into the wiki.

External links

• archived first thread
• second thread
• third thread
• The Protomen

Summarized points

Please remove things from this list once they are integrated.

   >The Chozo are lovecraftian bird men from Zebes. Samus's suit is going to fuck her up
   >Slick from River City Ransom is dead.
   >Janken the Great from Alex Kidd in Miracle World is dead, Alex Kidd is currently one of the Princes of Aries.
   >Nobody has ever seen Sonic the Hedgehog, nevertheless, rumours of 'big blue' persist.
   >Cut Man has just been destroyed, most probably by Megaman, possibly by Sonic (unlikely)
   >The cast of Streets of Rage 3 are in jail.
   >Joe Musashi has teamed up with the Syndicate from SoR to take down Neo Zeed.
   >Ryu Hayabusa is in the house, both Wily and Robotnik have one of 'the statues'. Expect dismemberment to commence shortly.
   >Captain Commando is dead.
   >Blaster Master is an unwitting pawn of Dracula.
   >Shredder is running the assassination contest from No More Heroes, intent unknown.
   >the Lemmings - out of control L-Class construction biodroids hellbent on performing the last task assigned to them. The builder ones are the reason the city is so sprawling.
   >Vectorman is an OCD robot trying to sterilise the planet of life.
   >Wily is possibly not as evil as in other incarnations; Robotnik probably is.
   >suggestion that Mother Brain ISN'T actually a huge brain in a jar.
   >Bombman and the White Bomberman had a fight
   >Dr. Tongue from Zombies Ate My Neighbours unleashed a bioweapon, nobody has seen him since.
   >Galaxy Force patrols the space above the City, self-funded, effective it's own micronation.
   >various alien fleets may or may not be incoming.
   >the Star Fox system is nearby, and has been dismantled to build Sinistar.
   >the Tanks from Space Invaders lie in lost warehouses, somewhere.
   >a shadowy resistance movement controlled by the remnants of XCOM operates within the City
   >there is some doubt as to whether any of the rumoured rebels are real or products of Robotnik's mindpolice.
   > Worms are remote control combat mutants designed for warfare - water is there one weakness
   > Space Invaders destroyed Earth
   > The Planet is protected by a space faring defence force called Galaxy Force
   > Galaxy Force have salvaged the Great Fox in Meteo
   > Falco and one other have survived
   > Corneria has been destroyed by the Sinistar's robots
   > Sinistar is 'nearly complete'
   > Katina was turned into a Gradius style war-planet, it has been destroyed by the Galaxy Force
   > Galaxy Force command thinks that their R-Types will be able to take on the Sinistar
   > They can't
   > Mario is plumber with a grudge against Robotnik and badly addicted to Toadstool, a psychotropic drug.
   > Kirby is an elder god
   > So is the Wind Fish
   > As is Gigyas
   > We are all highly worried by the amount of Lovecraftian monsters created by Nintendo.