CyberSphere is a post-holocaust cyberpunk role-playing game set in the battered fortress of San Diego, now officially known as New Carthage.  New Carthage is one of the few remaining strongholds of civilization in the wastes of the North American southwest.  The residents of this futuristic city have survived riots, global war, natural disasters, and full-scale invasion.  Between the towering walls of New Carthage are hordes of unwashed masses who would sell their mother for a good pair of shoes.

 

The class struggle that exists within New Carthage is more violent and obvious then many other so-called modern cultures.  Giant fortresses of steel and glass throw long shadows over the rest of the city, desperate forgotten members of society living their lives underneath the might of the megacorporations.  Street trash, violent gangs, deckers, and freelance mercenaries clash with each other and the corporate giants.  Often, they clash between each other as mere puppets, tools of their corporate masters.  What appears as a simple gang turf war is often a power clash between two megacorps, an opportunity to muck with each other's holdings and test out new products in action.  Gangs form and dissipate like beads of mercury, leaving wide paths of destruction like Sherman's March.  The dangerous streets of New Carthage claim victims by the minute, random citizens getting pulled into alleys or sewer tunnels, never to see the smog-clouded sun of New Carthage again.  The downtown streets are markets of flesh and Illegal wares, conflict and business rippling through the masses in waves.

 

In the northern part of town sits the mighty hulks of old factories and warehouses.  Hordes of corporate cogs march to work long shifts, the masses lining up to have their spirits and lives milked for the bare minimum to survive on.  They trod past the gangers, the drug dealers, and the alternate members of the Darwinian struggle for survival, the millions of people trapped within the square walls of New Carthage.

 

Above the lines that mark the official Northern border of New Carthage sprawls Nirvana, a dark den ofsmugglers and crime.  The drugs that supply New Carthage's desperate masses, that allow them to escape from their pathetic dreary lives, are grown and processed in the murky underground tunnels of Nirvana.  The surplus of Dreamweed is exported through the docks, funding the black markets independent from the noose of the megacorps.  Lurking in the shadows of Nirvana lie many dangerous and mysterious groups, from the Crosspatchers to the Massikim.  Shadowy deals are made, flesh and technology auctioned off by the shiphold.

 

Below the southern walls of New Carthage is the battered Old City, unrepaired since Zero Day.  The twisted remains of humanity and life exist on a day to day basis, easy prey to the downtow day basis, easy prey to the downtown gangs.  Hideous mutants from the atomic war hide underneath the streets, easy victims to those humans who seek to purify the race.

Even more devastated is the wastes that lie outside the walls of New Carthage.  Savage groups of nomadic wanderers brave the wastes, scavenging the goods needed for survival.  Beasts altered by the environment prey on unwary travellers, and strongholds of those who do not want to be found exist out in the radiated plains.

 

Behind the bulk of the mighty 'Money Wall', glistening towering monuments of power and wealth display the opulance of the megacorps.  Giant multinational corporations, the real controllers of the population beyond any remnants of government, fuel the economy that keeps New Carthage walking on the taught tightrope between complete anarchy and complete fascist control.  The manicured streets of the corporate sector is a completely different world, perfect lives with perfect corporate control.  From time to time, the violence of New Carthage breeches the Money Wall, causing disaster to the corporate crafted society.  The corporate reaction to such a personal offense is usually even more devastating, but not nearly as devastating to the corporate bottom line.

Beyond the conflict between humanity and humanity is the struggle between man and the machine.  Downtown ripperdocs slap in machine, replacing the weak flesh until the flesh is overpowered by  flesh until the flesh is overpowered by the force of the machine.  Hiding in cafes and cheap apartments, deckers scour the matrix, the internet hackers of the future.  They spend their lives in the virtual reality of the net, scouring the corporate databases for valuable data to support their addiction to technology and speed.

 

Thrown into this mix of humanity is you.  As a player on CyberSphere, you must direct your character through the streets and alleys of New Carthage.  There is no winning on CyberSphere.  There is no ultimate goal, save survival.  Whether you chose to make a decker, a thief, a scavenger, or a mercenary, you must find your own path and carve out your own niche for survival within the game.  There are many options within the game to make money, and those who are more creative can invent their own sources of income for survival.  Over the past years, characters have become therapists, pilots, cab drivers, shopkeepers, politicians, reporters, bartenders, and more.  Above all, remember this is a game.

You are here to enjoy the game along with the other players.  There will be ups and downs in the game.  You will spend years crafting a well-detailed character who is a major part of the city, only to have everything you care about and own torn away from you.  Remember, this is just a game.  Furthermore, other characters are players, living breathing people like yourself.  While this is a game, it is a role-playing game.  As you type your actions, remember that you are playing a character, representing their role within the game.  At all times you must act out your role within the world, acting as the character you have thought up would act.  Whether you chose to play a street bum, or a dealer in illegal goods shuttling back and forth between Bangkok and New Carthage, you must speak as that character.  Do what that imaginary character would do, keeping the theme and their personality in mind.

 

For more information about the game, please check out the CyberSphere webpage at http://cs.vv.com, Graye's newbie help page at http://www.geocities.com/area51/6022/newbie.html, and 'help world-history'.