Alpha State
This game system, and the setting in which it takes place, are both in active development. Everything on this site is subject to change. Please hard refresh pages when you visit to ensure you're viewing the latest versions.2.2 - Telling Stories
NeoNeuro is roleplaying game focused primarily on telling the stories of the main characters in dramatic fashion. The stories we tell here are less about saving the world and more about surviving it. Other roleplaying games will often ask the players to save the world from villains who want to tear apart the world as they know it, but in NeoNeuro the players are generally the ones out to tear things apart. This is a world of pain and misery disguised by smile filters and neuroholo beauty, where you can count yourself lucky if you manage to poke greater powers in the eye on your way out. These aren't stories about heroes who get more and more powerful so they can change the world, it's about people trying to hold onto who they are, and to each other.
There are many kinds of stories you can tell in the NeoNeuro setting, and many you can tell with the NeuroSystem rules, but there's always a few themes that run throughout. Whether you're running an officially published story module, or a third-party one, or you've created your own, try to keep these themes in mind. Not to say you should stress about it—especially since most published story modules and the game rules themselves have a lot of these themes baked into them—just think of these themes as inspiration whenever you're not sure what direction to take your story, or what should happen next.
Corporate Control
Corponations are exactly what the name implies. The concept of nation-states has been long lost; no one alive has ever known anything but corporate rule, and only the most highly educated understand there was a history wherein people were governed by non-corporate entities, let alone the idea they could be governed by themselves.
You can't save this world. Odds are good you can't save your neighborhood either, and you probably can't save yourself. But maybe you can save that kid down the street, or your best friend, or your partner. I'm not saying that you can't win, but in NeoNeuro every victory has to be fought for, and every win comes with a price. Sometimes that price can be high.
Fuck The System
The stories we tell here aren't about saving the world from some villain who wants to destroy peace. The villains here already won decades ago, maybe more, nobody can remember. The system they built is monstrous and it feels too big to ever destroy, too heavy and powerful to ever really harm. But that's why it must be fought.
When there's no hope left, the only real way to live is to tear down the walls, bring them down around you, and the only thing to hope for is that other people will build something better in the space you left behind.
Gang Warfare
In the Free Zones, where corporate power is at a low ebb, gangsters run the show. And gangsters, as a general rule, don't like it when other gangsters mess with their business. They run speakeasies, sell unregulated goods, and make a show of protecting the people in their territory—some even mean it. But on a fairly regular basis, one gang's operations will become a problem for another, which almost always leads to conflict.
It's important to note that the gangs in NeoNeuro are generally fashioned specifically after the bootlegging gangs of 1920s-30s United States. There are exceptions of course, you can find plenty of biker gangs, martial arts gangs, and more, but most are fairly close analogues to what we know from the prohibition era.
Queers and Cultures
Corpoganda would have you believe they embrace all differences and welcome free expression. They claim these things fairly loudly, but in truth they're only accepting of people who fit within their definitions of what's easiest for them to market to. Oddly enough, this does include a lot of LGBTQ+ people, and people of differing cultures, but only within strict corporate guidelines. If you're gay, you have to be gay in the appropriate ways. If you'd like to celebrate your cultural heritage, only do so in the appropriate places and at the appropriate times. Deviations aren't strictly illegal, but they can cost your job, medical coverage, housing, and more.
Free Zones are a complex subject, but at least within them you're truly free to express and explore. Entire neighborhoods are often dedicated to specific cultures, or you might find particular things celebrated across large portions of the zone you're in. Queer people are free (and encouraged) to go all out with self expression; utilizing fashion, cybernetics, and bio-sculpting, people of any type are able to explore everything they can imagine. In a Free Zone, exploring queer identity and cultural heritage are acts of rebellious life.
Moral Dilemmas
One of the reasons the existing system is so horrid is that it pits everyone against everyone. When you're in debt and you're worried the Adjudicators might be seeing your name on their lists, the bounty debts on your neighbors or even your friends start to look pretty enticing. When you're hungry enough, sometimes you don't quite care whose food you have to take. It's a world where people don't have much, and solidarity can be expensive.
Your home sucks. If you're lucky enough to have a job, it sucks and doesn't help much. You're in tremendous debt, food is awful, you're probably always cold. You've got multiple enemies. Anyone would crack under this much pressure, and most people eventually do. All you can do is try to hold yourself together and keep going as long as you're able. You can only keep fighting if you retain your humanity for as long as you can.
Bad Bets
Gangster's Rise
Everyone knows the archetype; street kids, hungry for power, join an outfit for money and power. They fight for their place in the organization, rising in status, making enemies along the way. Where they go from there, who can say, but it'll be bloody.
Telling This Story
This could be the story of one individual, earning their way into a gang or family—or starting as a member—and then rising through the ranks. Maybe they actively seek power in the outfit, or their goal is to break off and start their own, but power is their goal.
Alternatively, this could be about a group of people who all seek power together. Maybe they operate as a local crew for the outfit's benefit and slowly gain power. As with an individual, they might seek to take over the outfit or break off to form their own when the time is right.
You might also play the middle ground, wherein one of the players is destined to be a leader of an outfit and the other players are their most loyal crew. It can be tricky to give that kind of spotlight to one player among a group, but it's doable if everyone communicates and plays fair throughout the story.
The most important bit is that this story is about power; the players want it, and the bosses have it. Power helps survive the cyberstar wastes, it helps protect the ones you love, it lets you change things for the better.
The downside is cost: gaining power usually requires doing horrible things, sometimes to good people. You might not want to, and that's fine, but the streets are paved with the bones of wannabes who thought they could gain power without paying that price.
Gaining Power
The primary focus of a Gangster's Rise story should be gaining power. As an aid to track the players' power through the story, I've included a very generalized hierarchy of authority within an average outfit.
| Ranking |
Duties |
| Boss |
Organize the big picture and decide what direction the entire outfit takes. |
| Underboss |
Oversee multiple operations, ensuring they operate for the betterment of the outfit. |
| Captain |
Run a full operation for the outfit; speakeasy, drug operation, gambling hall, etc. |
| Lieutenant |
Organize soldiers and associates, aid your Captain in running their operation. |
| Soldier |
Guard deliveries, protect outfit leaders, put fear into anyone who fucks with the outfit's business. |
| Associate |
Make deliveries, carry daily messages, and otherwise do what you're told. |
Some outfits operate differently, but this is a starting point. Many have their own names for each of these positions, often originating from the primary culture of the outfit itself. Larger outfits, in particular, might have a greater number of ranks to climb before anyone is near the top. There are also lateral moves, such as being given a different operation to run that's roughly equivalent to what you were already running.
Most importantly, gaining any power within an outfit almost always comes with a price. You might need to kill to prove your loyalty or eliminate a rival, or maybe you need to demonstrate your ability to expand the gang's operations. Sometimes, it's as simple as making the outfit enough money to prove yourself as an earner. No matter what, it very often costs you something personally (often earning you more Apathy), and the price gets higher with each rank gained.
Crisis Points
There are times when any rising gangster has to put it all on the line. All of it. When there's multiple investigations into their operations, other outfits gunning for their territory, and probably a good number of old grudges being played out in the mix, all at once, that's when you sink or swim.
In a crisis point, the player or players have to face four challenges. Each challenge is its own event, with its own relevant checks and choices to be made. Negotiate with a rival, make a deal with the cops, come sideways at an opponent to gain control of an operation; each challenge is unique to the story being told.
Importantly, each challenge can be easily measured as a success or failure; they're not vague. You make the deal or you don't, you gain control or you don't; in a crisis point, things are defined in simple terms. The number of challenges that are succeeded determines what happens.
| Challenges |
Results |
| All failed |
Players lose almost all operations, power, and territory. At best, they end up with a single operation and a few soldiers. |
| 1 succeeded |
Players lose most of their power, resources, and territory. At most, they retain half their operations and soldiers. |
| 2 succeeded |
Things may change and shift around, but the players come out the other side roughly as powerful as they were before. |
| 3 succeeded |
When the dust settles, the players come out the other side with one or two more operations, and larger territory. |
| 4 succeeded |
After it's all over, the players end up with more operations and territory, possibly gaining power over another gang. |
Endgame Scenarios
The end of a gangster's rise often goes badly. Even if they manage to reach the top, it's usually at the cost of their humanity, or everyone they care about, or their own integrity. Sometimes, it costs everything. And sometimes, they don't make it at all, burnt out and left in an alley somewhere like every other story that nobody hears about. Some options for the end of a Gangster's Rise story are:
Meet The New Boss. One main character becomes Boss of the outfit, or an ensemble of main characters agree to share power. The outfit enters a new era, with either hope on the horizon or promise of a darker future. Often, this endgame comes with a terrible cost for other people in the main characters' vicinity; loved ones, friends, allies, all pay the price.
New Power In Town. The main characters' outfit achieves a level of power that it never had before. They've defeated the outfit's most powerful rival, established firm control over their territory, and probably expanded territory and operations across the board. Usually this type of endgame comes after bloody conflict, leaving the outfit's territory—and the people in it—suffering for this victory.
The Syndicate. Players successfully bring multiple families together to form a new Syndicate, or earn their outfit a place in an existing Syndicate. This is an unprecedented boost in power for the outfit as a whole, granting new opportunities and new dangers they can't yet imagine. Most often this endgame comes at the cost of multiple rival outfits, and many lives.
You Had It All. The main character dies, right when things should have been going their way. Either they're about to become the Boss, or they already did, but the consequences of their actions come back in ways they never saw coming. This kind of endgame is usually very violent, and often has tragic consequences for everyone.
Heist Crew
New Family
Street Gang