Cyberpunk wargame discussion part 2 - Factions

[salcor]

So around Christmas me had a discussion about what people are looking for in a cyberpunk wargaming rules set.  I wanted to asked a follow up question. 

What would the factions be in such a ruleset?  Some games have tied the player factions to named groups like specific corporations, gangs, law enforcement agencies, or countries.  Since our earlier discussion focused on more generic over arching ideas, I was thinking of the following factions.

Military, Intelligence, Law Enforcement, Corporate, Organized Crime, Street Gangs, Activists/Terrorist, Freelancers.

Do these make sense as generic factions?  How would these factions differ? 

Salcor

[robh]

I already think there is little meaningful distinction between Corporate and Organised Crime.

You probably need to define the game background/setting before looking at which (if any) specific factions there are.

[Dezmond]

Twitter ThinkPol Strike Teams vs Milliant Anonymous Trolls

By 2017 posting opinions to social media not approved by the Twitter Thought Safety Committee requires guerrilla style operations and physical penetration of hardened 'acceptable media' facilities.

Vat grown Twitter Thought Assassins vs. hardened cybernetically enhanced veterans of the US intervention in the European Religious War of late 2016.

[Dezmond]

Mossad Cybergolems Vs ISIS Scuba Warriors in the flooded remains of a Paris depopulated by nuclear terrorism.

[Dezmond]

Natives battle Google backed Hipster Militias to resist gentrification of traditionally minority ethnic lower class communities

[Dezmond]

The massed panzer divisions of the Trumpian Empire vs. the (largely Mexican) Foreign Legions that fight the wars of the Progressive Elite of the United States of Canada

[sundayhero]

You need cyber enhanced contractors, and religious-spiritual activists too !

[Malebolgia]

I think the sky is the limit... Start by creating your own Cyberpunk world and the factions/contractors will follow from there. Just add what you think is cool

[Dezmond]

North African people smugglers use 3D printed stealth speedboats to try to run the naval blockade intended to protect Fortress Europe from the tidal wave of migrants driven north by global warming.

In 2030 President Chealsea Clinton's Neofeminist Socialist Democratic Party passes prohibition of Pornography and all Sexualised images of humans. Bootleggers make daring backcountry runs in specially modified vehicles past the Morality Police to carry third generation recasts of proscribed miniatures to wargamers desperate for tiny metal titties.

[Westfalia Chris]

Please take it down a notch regarding the political references. Otherwise, do continue.

[Dezmond]

Well, your main factions are the Eloi - the global elite who can afford CRISPR gene editing, and the Morlocks - the teeming masses of baseline humans who, abandoned by the elite who have no use for them, have splintered along religious and ethnic lines in to constantly warring tribes.

The Eloi live lives of ascetic gentility in walled communities protected by security drones. Outside these enclaves the Morlock tribes are locked in an endless struggle for status and resources. 

A typical game involves two tribes of Morlocks fighting over a resource while a small force of Eloi telepresence drone peacekeepers half heartedly try to keep them apart.

[salcor]

OK, I wasn't really expecting responses like that.  The one thing that stood out in the earlier discussion was that most people who were looking to player cyberpunk related wargames wanted a toolbox to create their own world, not a precanned setting.  Even HINT's Faction s kind of fall into some of these generic factions.  Freelancers, 2 corporations, law enforcement, and military.

Salcor

[Dentatus]

For my own imagined future universe, I figured both extremes of opinion on human modification would be present and active: the dedicated trans-humans (H+) as well as the devout anti-mod crowd, the Purity First faction (P1). Flavor according to ethnicity, technology, ideology, and region/nation, but the principle of embracing/rejecting technology as an evolutionary step remains, as does the aggressive pursuit of their respective agendas. This strikes me as the main point of friction in the future.

Then you've got the ubiquitous criminal element which will move into deeper and darker areas as old taboos are standardized, accepted and legalized. Which brings me to the regular overworked, underpaid law enforcement and diminished national military forces, who are still trying to protect and serve/uphold the law of the land. Each will have new departments/divisions dedicated to threats posed by advancing technologies.  (Blade Runners and the like) 

At the top are mega-corporate trans-nationals with their own security and/or private military forces. Smaller than regular law/military, these groups are the well connected, highly trained, better paid, hi-tech elite. Of course there would be an even smaller section of heavily modified, bleeding edge tech agents designed for extreme circumstances.

And of course you've always got fringers: lunar or martian colonists seeking independence, asteroid belt miners, Amish/Luddite groups, exploited clones in labor/sex/military industries, regular folk escaping the inanity,insanity of modern life...     

Looking over the above, it's really coloring in the same old lines with new crayons. The more things change...

[Cory]

I would prefer a toolbox approach with some sample factions built with it. A toolbox might come down to organization - do freelancers differ from a tightly organized unit in play, and wealth/equipment choices and options for example.

On the other hand many games balance game elements with list restrictions as much as with points. If the super cross table sniper weapon army can't win a hand to hand against kindergartners, points only have to reflect the number of such weapons the sniper army player chooses, not the balance of whether or not to pair that weapon to a close combat ninja.

[Muzfish4]

Maybe another generic faction, to be fleshed out by the individual player, could be religious fanatics of some description. Probably have less access to hi-tech stuff but much higher morale than corporate mercs who are just in it for a paycheque. Could also have infiltration abilities of some sort depending on the setting and how you perceive them.