Posts in category Glass Shadows: Game Aids
World Building: Drones
While they may not be considered a lynch-pin of the cyberpunk genre, it’s hard to talk about modern warfare and not mention Drones. Already, we see civilian drones being tested for various uses such as package and taco delivery. (http://tacocopter.com/)
Drones, in an Operator sense, are remote operated surveillance and weapon platforms. Drone [...]
World Building: BattleFrames
With BattleFrames, we diverge a little from classic cyberpunk tropes, and into Anime territory.
BattleFrames were first discussed here.
Cyberpunk-styled Anime, such as Ghost in the Shell and Mobile Police Patlabor, heavily inspired aspects of Glass Shadows. Additional inspiration came from reading about military exoskeleton projects. Thus wa [...]
World Building: The Datasea and Hacke...
Of all the Cyberpunk concepts one of the most iconic is cyberspace. Even cybernetics take a backseat to the way the net defined the genre.
We first talked about the Datasea here.
Glass Shadows ramps up the Net. Here, the Datasea is a ubiquitous, always on, wireless network which permeates all aspects of modern life. On the surface, the avera [...]
World Building: Genegineering
It’s time to look at alternatives to Cybernetics. We originally discussed Genegineering here.
Genegineering began with the concept of cloned bodies, available for sale or rent for digitized human consciousness. Thus was born the idea of the Kevin™ and Kate™ model clones, their faces representative of a generically wholesome brand name. Howe [...]
World Building: Cybernetics
Cyberpunk and Cybernetics have been a mated pair from the beginning. I had a number of goals when it came to cybernetics and Glass Shadows. In addition to the traditional chrome and steel, I wanted to offer an alternative to implanting hardware. We call it Genegineering, more on that next week.
We originally covered cybernetics here.
There [...]
World Building: The ECILAL
We introduced the ECILAL back in this post, and it has since become the expected default play area. The Easel, as residents tend to refer to it, grew out of my research into Megacities, megaregions, and feral cities.
For those of you unfamiliar with these terms:
Megacity: An urban area that exceeds 10 million residents.
Megaregion: A chain o [...]
Under the Hood: The Network in a Nuts...
In Glass Shadows, the players take on several personas. The first player role is the Handler, someone within one of four factions competing to control the future of humanity. These characters work behind the scenes to advance their faction’s goals.
At the start of a campaign, the player selects their Handler’s faction, motivation, interests. [...]
UPDATE: Where the heck have we been?
[SIGNAL ACQUIRED]
[DECRYPTING]
[TRANSMISSION BEGINS]
Hello again, faithful readers! After a year of hiatus to deal with my son, work, and attending University, Glass Shadows is back on track and barreling toward publication at a breakneck pace. In the last two weeks, we’ve completed the background setting material, completely re-writte [...]
Setting: The Datasea
The Datasea is an outgrowth of the Internet of the 20th and 21st century. As computer technology progressed, wireless access and storage became ubiquitous and inexpensive. With the advent of Angel technology, the majority of the population had a computer in their brains and Augmented Reality overlays on everything they saw. These technolog [...]
Setting: The East Coast Sprawl
Since the late 20th Century, the East Coast of the United States has been becoming more and more urbanized, as cities push their boundaries ever outward. Eventually, a tipping point was reached and the East Coast became one massive urban sprawl, an unbroken cityscape stretching from Illinois to Massachusetts, and all the way down to Alabama [...]