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[Synik]

Architecture

One of the staples of cyberpunk literature - other than the 'Net and cybernetics - is the urban sprawl. If domes did come into being then wouldn't the architecture get denser? No more sprawling 2 story houses and shops. They'd be ripped up and replaced by high rise buildings or sub-subbasement housing.

Crowds would be packed in the poorer ends of town whereas the rich kids get to wander around parks and atrium style shopping arcades. Too bad you don't earn enough to be let in eh?

Blown Away

This is more likely to affect the Americas that Europe, but there's no reason why it wouldn't screw up the climate good and proper. The other day I read somewhere (probably The Register) the possibility that given enough heat and energy, in theory it would be possible for a permanent hurricane to exist in the Atlantic. Something akin to the red spot on Jupiter, but right here in our own back yard.

Deep sea aqualogies are suddenly more interesting when you're so far down the weather doesn't bother you. Also, a giant waves become more of an issue, would more shipping firms change to sending cargo via submarine rather than giant ship. What affects would their be on air travel?

The Ice House

Cyberpunk backgrounds are a little trite now, we've been over the same ground over and over again. Global warming, hurricanes, etc. Nothing particularly new. What did strike me as some a little different was what happened if the climate swung the other way? What if there's an experiment or some unthought of reset switch that pulls us back into an ice age? No more sweating like a pig in cheap kevlar, now you're main concern is not getting frost bite if you're out after 5pm.

Nothing but a sea of sand....

As all of this is fictional you could distend the global warming to allow the desertification of large parts of Europe and America. Here you'd seen citydomes rising against the sands, their occupants kept safe under cool air and reflective glass.

Disease Control

There's been a number of reports in the media about "the next SARS". Avian flu keeps rearing it's head but so far we're still here. If you domed a city, could you control access to the whole city with chokepoints? Sure the logistics would be very hard, but if there were life threatening illnesses out there - would you do it?

Enemy Without?

The previous topic brings us nicely round to terrorism. If *all* your population has to enter via specific points then it puts the Security Services in a rather nice position. By no means would this perimeter prevent terrorists acts, but it making it very hard to get in and out of the city afterwards might put a few people off. Conversely, it might push people too far the other way and then you'd only get martyrs.

What's your number Citizen?

In the Dark Age setting I banded the idea around of corporate sponsorship. Basically, you agree to represent your patron's ideals during the next election and they bribe you with cheap food and somewhere to live. This was called COLA - cost of living allowance.

What if you go a step further and offer COLA to anyone who'll take an ID chip? The chips can be read at a certain range and the city rulers will know who was where and when. Of course, you need never bother with an ID card and you don't need to worry about carrying money anymore, the chip takes care of it all. Personal freedoms? Well, does it really matter? There are cameras everywhere and only a guilty person has something to hide, right? smile.gif

Product Control

If you're running a city state then to some extent you may be able to control what comes in and what goes out. I'm not just talking about information or people, there's products too. Perhaps the major corporations in the city have banded together and (mostly) leave each other alone. However, if a rival starts trying to encroach on this gentleman's agreement, the others will join forces and see them off.

Exclusion

If you don't fit in to the laws and social acceptance of the city, then you might get thrown out. For someone who has only lived in the domed environment this may come as a hell of a shock. It might be a useful social tool compared to prison. In prison you need to feed and staff the jail. With exclusion? You can just kick them out into the cold night air. Nasty, but then we're talking dark future.

If severe weather curtails air travel and disease makes people insular, who is left on the outside? Here you've got the opportunity for Mad Max style roadgangs. Travelling clanfolk wandering from citystate to citystate looking for work. Apart from the key transport links, I would have thought most road would be in a very bad state.

There may be a few communities hanging on in there, but depending on how harsh your climate - or the government - is, eventually they may have to join the city people.

The Wall

Each citystate may have it's own laws and customs, but one thing they all have in common is a mechanism for keeping their people safe on the inside and keeping the scum outside.

Toughened rockcrete walls rise out of the dirt and looking to the top of them makes your neck ache. At the top is a collection of anti-intruder equipment (bots and auto-weapons) before the flexiglass surface rises high into the sky protecting the city.

Really paranoid citystates may also have a satellite defense system. Basically this means that the ground outside the city are under electronic watch. Anyone camping outside the designated zones will be moved on. "Moved on" as in told to move out or moved on by the security systems.

Smugglers

The above brings us nicely to smugglers. I always felt that riggers or thrashers were left out in the cold in lots of games. Somehow I could never work an armour plated hovercraft into the game without thinking: "how the hell did this get by traffic control?".

Now, it doesn't matter. Only the big boys and girls get to play outside. You need some serious hardware to want to risk the roads or the sea-marshes. Panzers, ground effect craft and low flying grav-lift skiffs will be popular. While the corporates stick to armoured convoys, the smugglers get in the spy-in-the-sky blackspots and avoid the security checkpoints.

Smugglers shift alsorts of gear for alsorts of clients. Sometimes it's refugees; people fleeing one citystate for a new life in another. Other times it's hardware and othertimes it's slaves; chipless people destined to work in the city's fastgrow food-barns.

Dead Cities

No quite Romero territory but in a world where the climate is against man, cities that didn't protect themselves may find themselves under attack. Perhaps London and Manhattan are underwater now, too slow to organise their dams and drainage. Venice is a rotten pile of buildings poking sadly out of the lagoon. Home only to the dispossessed and the desperate.

Dead Cities would be the combat zones in this environment. Warlords, criminals and the crazies vie for space in the every failing ruins. These are the types of place that sensible edgerunners would be keen to avoid. Of course, they'll also be the areas most likely to employ them.