WEIRD CYBERPUNK PLOT NODE GENERATOR

This generator is designed for use with Chromatic Shadows, my in-progress weird cyberpunk RPG. 

In Chromatic Shadows, the missions you run your for the megacorps don't happen in a vacuum. Other events are taking place in the weird-haunted Sprawl that impact you and the people you know. As your character reaches out to their contacts and engage with various NPCs they become embroiled in the numerous plots and intrigues running behind the scenes. This generator provides the tools to quickly create those plots, and to draw the lines of connection between them.

PLOT NODES

• Determine 2-3 starting Plot Nodes. These are large-scale adventure hooks. They don’t need to be introduced all at once. They exist as areas of focal interest, optional exploration, additional layer of texture/ detail/ context to your campaign. They say “hey there's something going on over here, come take a look if you want!”.

• Connect a character contact to each of these nodes, in order to create a "personal connection". When the contact is activated, reveal bits of the “sub-plot” when relevant. Give glimpses and teases of events happening behind the scenes to draw player interest.

• Create continuity & connect things together. As the story is being built sandbox style, tie new discoveries, & NPCs back to these nodes as makes sense. 

• As old nodes are being dealt with, and as the characters organically pursue their own agendas, introduce new nodes and story hooks. Find ways that large nodes connect to each other and the influence of one relates or comes into conflict with another. 

 

PLOT NODE DETAILS TABLES

• Plot Nodes contain various associated details that can be chosen or randomly determined. The following tables can used whenever a relevant detail comes into play.
  

Megacorps

1. SinCom
2. CortX
3. Biodyne
4. Aerotec
5. Citadel
6. Reroll

Sprawl Zones

1. Metroplex
2. Fortress Estates
3. CorpSec
4. The Barrens
5. The Slags
6. Arcologies

Shadow Facility

1.  R&D lab/ black site/ bunker
   
2. Concealing alien structure/ vessel/ energy source
   
3. Containment unit/ prison
   
4.  Mystical/ cult based (temple, ritual chamber, ceremonial space)
   
5.  Portal (remote location, extra-dimension)
6. Matrix based/ VR construct
   

Factions

1. Criminal Cartel/ Gangs
   
2. Hand of Moloch
3. Sentinel
4. Matrix Daemons
5. Order of Typhon
6. Neotribes

Neotribe

1. Ferals
2. Leather Angels
3. Nils
4. Paladins
5. Satans
6. Borgs
7. Proteans
8. Clowns
9. Iron Men
10. Draculas
    

Large scale city events

1. Political upheaval, protests/ riots
2. Plague, drug epidemic
3. Terrorism, law enforcement/ surveillance lock down
4. Urban renewal projects
5. Crime wave, looting, fires/ arson,
6. Disaster (flood, hurricane, displaced populations, resource scarcity)

Outside Entity

1. Bio-engineered hybrid/ chimera
2. Extra-dimensional horror
3. Animal uplift
   
4. Matrix daemon
5. Alien entity
6. Spirit/ ghost/ poltergeist

Black Market Assets

1. Cyberware
2. Drugs, stims
3. Weapons
4. Drones/ machines, vehicles
5. Matrix/ DNI tech, software
6. Biotech, organ legging

Esoteric Assets

1. Hypertech machinery
   
2. Weapons
3. Inter-dimensional portals
4. Psychic assets (remote viewing, telepathy, telekinesis, precognition, dream-tech, emotion/ compulsion)
5. Alien artifacts
6. Biological assets

Reality Warping Effects

1. Physical forces (fire, electricity, nuclear, temperature, gravity, magnetism, time)
2. Space (connections between places/ locations, inside vs outside space)
3. Perception (mind, senses, illusion, compulsions, emotion)
4. Physical matter (natural and artificial substance)
5. Life (human biology, animals & plant life)
6. Void (extra dimensions, alien life forms, spirit)

PLOT NODE GENERATOR TABLES

• Roll 1d6 to determine node type, and then roll 1d6 twice more to determine the features of that node category. Consult the above "node-details" tables to determine other attributes/ textures as necessary.
  

1. FALLOUT FROM RECENT CYBERRUN UPON A ZONE

• Roll for Sprawl zone effected & Megacorp targeted
  

Area Effected:

1. Neighborhood block
2. Residential pods/ apartments
3. Industrial area
4. Physical infrastructure (energy/ transportation/ water/ sewer)
5. Digital infrastructure: AR Nodes, Matrix hosts, VR construct server farms
6. business/ commercial/ public services

Actions:

1. Cover Ups/ disappearances/ mind-wipes/
2. Damaged property, explosions, fires,
3. Injured people, death, disease
4. Eye witnesses, stories, rumors
5. Occult asset somehow got loose, being actively searched for
6.  Heightened law enforcement & media attention
   

2. UNCANNY INFLUENCE UPON A SITE

•  Roll to determine the Sprawl zone of site.
  

Type of influence:

1. Esoteric Creature (cryptid, hybrid chimera, bio-experiment, extradimensional entity, matrix daemon, spirit/ ghost)
2. reality warping effect (psychic phenomenon, space-time distortion,
3. Extra dimensional breach/ dimensional portal (site connected to another location or dimension)
4. Haunting, possessions,
5. Physical or psychological effects (deformity, disease, transformation, odd behavior)

How is influence being delivered:

1. Abandoned shadow war facility (R&D lab, production facility)
2. Occult asset in play (misplaced and lost, being kept somewhere secretly by an agency, being used leveraged somehow for gain, being used but unwittingly)
3. Hidden lair/ hive/ tunnel/ dungeon
   
4. Ley line, vortex/ focal point of occult energy
5. Effects anchored to/ influenced by a person or an object
6. Through a digital medium/ node/ matrix

 

3. MAJOR FACTION ACTIVITY WITHIN A ZONE

• Roll to determine Sprawl zone and Factions involved
  

What type of activity?

1. Seeking asset (esoteric, black market)
2. Consolidating strength
3. Dramatic falloff of influence/ power vacuum
4. Trying to gain foothold in contested area
5. Moving in on a “tainted” zone,
6. Seeking information

Secondary characteristic

1. Uncanny influence (Y/N?)
2. Underground/ black market assets (drugs, weapons, cyberware, stims, electronics)
3. Social asset in play (important group of people involved/ contested, gang, neotribe, neighborhood)
4. Physical asset in play (residential building/ commercial/ industrial, infrastructure, natural feature)
5. Digital asset in play (AR node/ Matrix host/ VR construct server farm/ telecom station/ broadcast towers)
6. Economic asset in play (business, high profile club, bank, real estate/ property)
   

 

4. EXTRA FACTIONAL CONFLICT

• Megacorps (roll) and/ or factions (roll) in conflict with a large scale Sprawl event (roll zone)

Large-scale Sprawl event

1. Politics, Protests,
2. Terrorism, riots, looting fires/ arson,
3. Renewal, infrastructure projects
4. Rampant crime, drug epidemic,
5. Disaster (flood, hurricane), plague,
6. Immigrant wave, displaced populations

Type of Conflict

1. Over physical territory
2. Over a contested asset (esoteric or otherwise)
3. Competing sphere of influence (economic/ PR/ political)
4. Corp responsible/ implicated in negative situation
5. Caught in the crossfire through no fault of their own, but now involved
6. Trying to actively help situation, but causing unintended consequences/ complications/ harm

 

5. SHADOW WAR SHAKE UP

• Major events are shaking up the Shadow War, the megacorps & the cyberrunning community (roll for which corp is being affected)

1. Merger. Megacorp absorbs another, becoming more powerful and expanding their sphere of influence.
2. Economic downturn, Bankruptcy, financial vulnerability
3. New corp enters war
4. Legal exposure, high profile lawsuit, wide scale crime comes to light
5. Alliance between rivals
6. Event causes major loss of key public infrastructure/ asset (fire, sabotage, malfunction, quake)

How is cyberrunning community affected

1. Contracts drying up/ runs are less lucrative/ more competition between runners. Runner bars becoming hostile.
2. Sudden surge of contracts. Contracts paying more. More cash flowing. Scene is blowing up. Runners getting more access to drugs, cyberware & stims. Drug and cyber-addiction increasing.
3. Anonymous identity of contracts slipping. Mission details reveal too much in light of recent events. Runners gain knowledge of corporate sponsor or target. Corporate retaliation possible.
4. Black-market drying up. Stims/ drugs/ cyberware becoming scarce. Withdrawal from scene. Fewer runners coming around looking for contracts.
5. Vigilance. Paranoid. Proxies extra cautious. Kicking crews off contracts for slightest perceived unreliability. Corporate investigation of the slightest perceived indiscretion
6. Runner crews disappearing. Individual runners dropping off the map. No clear knowledge of who or what is going on. Crews are laying low until answers can be found.

 

6. INTER-FACTIONAL CONFLICT

1. Shake up/ redistribution of power within a single faction (leadership, resources, infrastructure, territory,)
2. Rivalry between two closely related factions (rival neotribes/ cultists/ criminal/ daemon)
3. Triangulation: Alliance between disparate factions, against a third faction (common enemy)
4. Faction losing power in zone, being killed, mass defection of members, loss of resources, or otherwise diminished influence (external event/ power vacuum or rival faction/ being supplanted)
5. Massive power consolidation within zone. (due to esoteric asset, seized physical/ digital infrastructure, political alliance with another faction, community, government)
6. Transformation of faction into something else. Identity shift from one state to another. Fashion is behaving different, caging its core beliefs, and actions

Secondary Interest

1. Piece of unique architecture, neighborhood building pivotal
2. Members of one (or more) the factions are being influenced by an uncanny/ supernatural.force (creature, asset, effect)
3. A demagogue/ cult of personality like figure has emerged, and his influence is part of these events
4. Radical new belief system is influencing things (restatement of old beliefs or a new system)
5. Disillusionment within the ranks is influencing things
6. External event is influencing things (sudden wealth/ healthcare/ economic stability or its opposite disease, drug addiction, poverty. Also environmental factors such as weather, climate, environmental livability, law enforcement) 

 

CHARACTER CONTACT INVOLVEMENT

1. Being targeted/ pursued by X for something they (did, know, have, etc)
2. In need of something desperately (advance position/ upward mobility, revenge, money, information, drugs, cyberware, medicine, information) . Pressuring you to do something risky.
3. Acting erratic/ strange behavior. Not in control of own actions. (possessed by outside influence, being drugged, behavior induced through digital interface, hypnotized, being pressured/ leveraged/ extorted).
4. Victim of an attack (themselves or someone they know). (cult, ritualistic, cyberware theft, scarrifiation, kidnapping, etc) may require medical assistance, retribution. (The attacker was under some kind of outside influence. What was it? Connections to the occult world?) Could also be an attack against an asset (theft/ arson/ extortion)
5. Involved in a complicated relationship (business, romantic, needs help getting out). Third party might be willing to bargain, but the price is something very risky to achieve.
6. Experiencing meteoric success (business, relationship, wealth, personal beauty, status). Comes at a personal cost (health, business relationship, esoteric asset, drug, occult involvement ) or at the cost of another (extortion, theft, harm)