The basic setting

This is the basic background and almost completely paraphrased from the Cyberpunk V3.0 rulebook.

Once upon a time…the world had been taken over by Megacorporations. These had either taken over directly or by buying the Governments. For everything that mattered they were in control. Needless to say the majority of people did not live rich happy and fulfilled lives. But technology, cities and population increased dramatically. Unfortunately, and not very surprisingly, the Megacorps did not always get along. Even more unfortunately they mostly had private armies. In fact some of them specialised in being armies for hire. Wars were fought. Eventually a war was fought which escalated into a major war between the two largest military Megacorps. This was the Fourth Corporate War and it lasted for two years.

During the war a virus called DataKrash was released that systematically attacked the worlds computer net, which was essentially a monoculture. Due to the slow onset of DataKrash it wasn’t detected until after it was already present in the backups. This virus destroyed, altered or rendered suspect all of the data stored within the net forcing it’s abandonment. This took place against the backdrop of a war that rolled over most of the world, where the two combatants were likely to be neighbours used every weapon up to and include tactical nukes.

It was this last fact that forced the governments to act. They moved against the Megacorps brought them to heel, broke up or destroyed them, forcing an exhausted peace on the ruins and there were plenty of ruins.

Night City in Northern California had been especially hard hit in the fighting, a last stand had left the city centre a sea of radioactive ruins and millions of inhabitants in refugee camps. Dr Chiang approached the authorities with an idea to help them rebuild. Genius buildings, grown from experimental nanotech programmed to feed on rubble and create new self-sustaining architecture. These could be seeded and grown quickly, decontaminating the area as part of the growth process leaving behind a new rebuilt Night City.

Unfortunately, the system was a little more experimental than first thought. The new city sprouted from the rubble, and kept on sprouting devouring intact buildings and spreading ever further along the Pacific Rim Coast. The pacific ocean and the mountains have kept the city penned to the west coast of America but it now covers the entire west coast of America. Then the buildings began dying and were cannibalised by there neighbours or replaced by new buildings in an ecosystem that is still not fully understood. Dr Chiang hung himself from the highest tower in the city. Millions of refugees now call this place home.

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