Vagrant
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More Nexus models and other ponderings.

Wed 18 May 2022, 07:48

So, there seems to be examples of previous models of Nexus replicants in existing media, notably the current Blade Runner: Origin series of graphic novels.
There doesn't appear to be much variance so I'll not be making use of those, they don't quite hit the mark for what I want in my games.

This is a rough draft of how I'll probably take the Nexus line in my alternate Blade Runner setting.

Nexus
A breakthrough in immunology and cell development allowed the creation of a processor from neurones.
Still little more than a PhD project when a coronal mass ejection caused significant damage to powergrids and silicon based processors.

Nexus 1
A hasty roll out to take advantage from the reeling silicon CPU suppliers. This was still effectively a prototype, housed in a large enclosure powered by biocells, and fed by biomass cartridges. Easily swapped cables allowed it to interface with a myriad of equipment.

Nexus 2
A refinement and miniaturisation of the previous generation. The core is small enough to be placed in a free roaming robotic chassis. While the core is standard the chassis styles are diverse.

Nexus 3
The first humanoid model, and also the first to integrate other organic systems, most notably sensory input, into the mix.

Nexus 4
The first model to be indistinguishable from a human at a glance. Several systems, most notably digestive and waste processing, are not yet organic.
Extremely prevalent in care and assistance roles.

Nexus 5
Fully organic, and the first model to incorporate hormonal regulation.
It has been observed that this model exhibits an abundance of quirks and can rapidly diverge from expected norms of behaviour.
Last edited by Vagrant on Mon 23 May 2022, 20:06, edited 1 time in total.
 
CitizenZero
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Re: More Nexus models

Wed 18 May 2022, 14:08

I like where you are going with this.
 
Vagrant
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Re: More Nexus models and other ponderings.

Mon 23 May 2022, 20:10

I appreciate home brews and alternate settings aren't to everyone's tastes. So, instead of cluttering the forum with random musings and thoughts on how I might be tweaking my Blade Runner setting I'll keep them located in this thread ;)
 
Vagrant
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Re: More Nexus models and other ponderings.

Mon 23 May 2022, 20:11

I'll have my world diverge from the 2019 point.
All real world Blade Runner media will be used as Game-World movie releases. So they will have an element of visual fidelity but the actual information they contain is less reliable.
So think along the lines of CSI with regards to real world forensics ;)

Blade Runner
A popular film that depicts a fictional romance story set around the collapse of the Tyrell corporation.
While it gets the visuals spot on, after all it's filmed on the streets of LA, some of the technical aspects are a little off.

I will probably lean into the disappearance of Tyrell and the subsequent stock crash of the corporation as the result of infighting. Off World divisions of Tyrell seeking to throw off the substantial oversight and financial drain by the Old World branch.
The result is a complete collapse of the monolithic Tyrell Corporation and a proliferation of the breakaway divisions. In the ensuing conflict as the Old World remnant of Tyrell tries to reassert dominance many of the proprietary technologies become widely available.
By the time my game picks up replicant technology can be found in seedy backstreet bodyshops, and there is a surging market for untracable Replicants.
An overstretched and under resourced civil Blade Runner department struggles to keep on top of the ever rising use of Replicants for crime, the corporate cold war, and the emerging memory core dependency.

A bit darker on tone, less glossy computer tech, a far greater diversity in competing tech companies, off-world colonies torn apart by old-world allegiances. The populations driven to cluster around the handful of cities with spaceports in the hope they can escape the dying planet. Cynicism, paranoia, the realisation that your place isn't among the stars, but amongst the debris of humanity
 
Vagrant
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Re: More Nexus models and other ponderings.

Mon 23 May 2022, 20:13

I was reminded recently that the term Blade Runner has no relevance to the actual film.

It was the title of another work that Ridley Scott thought sounded cool, he wasn't wrong.
That work was 'Blade Runner (the movie)' by William S Burroughs, a novelisation of an attempt to make the original source material into a movie.
The original source being 'The Bladerunner' by Alan E Nourse, a story set in a dystopian world where medical practice is under strict regulation and smugglers known as Bladerunners carry illicit medical supplies.

So, does it matter that it's just a cool name stapled on?
Absolutely not.

But, sometimes I feel I'd like to have a stronger connection.
Below is one of my attempts...

"Lukas, you trained up on those new fangled Voight-Kampff machines?"

"Yes chief"

"We've got suspicious behaviour down in sector 23 workshops. Go down there and run some Biodynamic Linguistic Assays for Discordant Empathy on the suspects."

"Doesn't really roll off the tongue does it chief?"

"I'm sure we'll come up with something catchier given time."
 
Vagrant
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Re: More Nexus models and other ponderings.

Thu 26 May 2022, 18:18

I can't help but think that there should be more competing agencies with regards to Replicant oversight.
I'm toying with a few options at the moment, not going to spend too much time on it till I see the core book.

Corporate
I struggle to believe a corporation can just put product out with no further followup, leaving all clean up operations to the government.
A corporation the size of Tyrell is likely to have many internal divisions, while several would be familiar to Blade Runners such as Public Relations and Legal (getting in the way of investigations) it is likely there would be a boots on the ground division tasked with product recall.
These teams might even be one potential origin for a Blade Runner.
Tasked with cleaning up situations before the official agencies become aware. They would be within the corporate security structure, elements that were notably absent from the first film, and pretty weak in the second.
Colloquially known as 'Tag & Bag' teams (aka teabaggers).

Government
In similar vein I struggle to believe there wouldn't be a level of federal involvement as well.
Some sort of federal regulation and oversight would likely be tacked onto an existing Bureau, one of the most obvious being the BATFE.
The somewhat unfortunate renaming to Bureau of Replicants, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives, has led to the derogatory term ratfekers on the street.
Like most of the groups they are understaffed and overstretched struggling to meet oversight demands on an ever increasing market.
They tend to come across as arrogant and unsympathetic, but this is largely down to the heavy workload placed on them and not having time to soothe local egos.

Local
Traditional Blade Runners fall into the local law enforcement sector. Responsible for investigating crimes against or by Replicants. Quite often it's seen as a punishment posting.

Independent
There's money to be made in Replicant bounties and that gives rise to a wide variety of independent operators. From well organised security firms to borderline criminal gangs.
They are almost as hazardous to the Blade Runner as Replicants are.
 
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Re: More Nexus models and other ponderings.

Fri 27 May 2022, 16:30

I like many of your musings, and the direction they point in. Just to throw in a couple of variables:

The LA of Bladerunner seems a lot different from just a linear extrapolation of the cultural development anno 1980. The currency is altered. There are many more languages in use, forcing new ones to develop, apparently beginning to muscle out English. The Central European and East Asian cultures seem to be gaining a solid foothold. Spanish doesn’t even seem to be a factor.

So … what else has changed? IS there even such a thing as a “Federal” level of government any more?

In Europe, we have a thing where the State likes to maintain a solid monopoly on violence; especially the lethal kind. In the USA we know this doesn’t quite work that way, but how about the Northern Americas of Bladerunner?
Before you use the word "XENOMORPH" again, you should read this article through:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/aliens-throwaway-line-confusion
 
CitizenZero
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Re: More Nexus models and other ponderings.

Fri 27 May 2022, 17:39



Corporate
I struggle to believe a corporation can just put product out with no further followup, leaving all clean up operations to the government.
A corporation the size of Tyrell is likely to have many internal divisions, while several would be familiar to Blade Runners such as Public Relations and Legal (getting in the way of investigations) it is likely there would be a boots on the ground division tasked with product recall.
These teams might even be one potential origin for a Blade Runner.
Tasked with cleaning up situations before the official agencies become aware. They would be within the corporate security structure, elements that were notably absent from the first film, and pretty weak in the second.
Colloquially known as 'Tag & Bag' teams (aka teabaggers).
I believe this is part of the story in the Blade Runner: Origins comic. LAPD detective leaves/gets kicked off the force and gets hired by Tyrell to put down a rogue replicant before word gets out.

I agree, this seems like the type of thing that private security forces would be hired for.
 
Vagrant
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Re: More Nexus models and other ponderings.

Fri 27 May 2022, 18:29

I like many of your musings, and the direction they point in. Just to throw in a couple of variables:

The LA of Bladerunner seems a lot different from just a linear extrapolation of the cultural development anno 1980. The currency is altered. There are many more languages in use, forcing new ones to develop, apparently beginning to muscle out English. The Central European and East Asian cultures seem to be gaining a solid foothold. Spanish doesn’t even seem to be a factor.

So … what else has changed? IS there even such a thing as a “Federal” level of government any more?

In Europe, we have a thing where the State likes to maintain a solid monopoly on violence; especially the lethal kind. In the USA we know this doesn’t quite work that way, but how about the Northern Americas of Bladerunner?
I am torn by trying to stick to the book, sticking to the films, or trying to find a balance that sits well for my games.

From the original novel the Earth is dying, devastated by a nuclear war and still ravaged by radioactive dust storms. Nearly all that can afford to have left for the Mars colonies, those left behind are the stubborn. There is much made of the desolate ash covered and crumbling remains (from memory, I admit it's been a couple of decades since my last full read through).
This contrasts quite strongly with the imagery of the original film.
While the film explores very little of the world about it, it firmly established the Pacific fusion so strong in cyberpunk. It also ups the population density significantly, humanity pushed together in almost city state enclosures.

Without going too spoilery with Blade Runner: Black Lotus a senator is mentioned, this would suggest that some level of United States exists with a supporting government. But, it would be a fragile government struggling to find its way in a new world order with the vigorous expansion of the off world colonies.
It might even be weak enough to fray with some states breaking away.

If you take global warming as a major factor to the redistribution of population, many of the Pacific Islands would be submerged or have much of their habitable area lost beneath the ocean. An influx of Pacific cultures could feed into the already diverse population. However they have little power within the official structure and would sit at the very lowest tiers of status as the newest wave of immigration. This struggle to find a place would only be enhanced by the loss of jobs to a Replicant workforce.

The streets would be a melting pot of the disenfranchised. Languages flowing together to form something new, streetspeak. A flourishing economy separate from the state built on barter, favours, and a wide variety of unsupported scrips.

One thing I'm keen to develop for my games is a rich diverse setting with many layers for the PCs to find themselves strangers in.
 
CitizenZero
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Re: More Nexus models and other ponderings.

Fri 27 May 2022, 19:55

Two areas (and forgive me if I mentioned this in this forum already, I can't remember) that make sense to explore, especially in LA:

Entertainment industry. What does Hollywood look like? How would Replicants be incorporated?
Religion: LA has always been home to a diversity of religions, including stuff like Dianetics. Some sort of cult leader for those at the bottom of the social structure would be interesting.

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