2.2 - Telling Stories
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.NeoNeuro is roleplaying game focused primarily on telling the stories of the player 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 holoneon 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.
2.21 - Storytelling Themes
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.