Megacorps? Yeah. Zone 17 is replete with megacorps. And as you expect, they run the walled cities throughout the Zone. As a great power collapsed, modern princes leveraged unconscionable wealth to fill the power vacuum and build a new society. Of course, international corporations devoted to making numbers go up don’t make for a very stable basis for society.
A Dark Future
The world currently faces a clutch of serious challenges. Megacorporations. Climate change. The Singularity. Demographic collapse. Half of Zone 17’s background is extrapolated from current events. The remaining half comprises nudges made to bring everything into a cohesive narrative. Zone 17 is a TTRPG that has all the action and adventure to be a light ‘Beer & Pretzels’ game, but also includes the tools to explore some heavier narratives. Some of this exploration can take players to places some might find a bit dark. You don’t have to play using any scary stuff if you don’t want to. But let’s be real. You probably want to.
Cyberpunk...but not Cyberpunk
What does Cyberpunk but not Cyberpunk mean? Cyberpunk has several foundations: Dystopia. Cybernetics. High tech. Societal collapse. Zone 17 dabbles in a lot of these themes. But cybernetics? Not really. In the game, body mods are possible…but not recommended. Cybernetics are done for purely medical reasons, outside certain fringe subcultures. But modding carries extraordinary costs and risks (e.g., surgery, hacking). As such, only a small fraction of people get cybered-up without extraordinary medical reasons. Every street punk or mercenary being wired up with implants is something that just doesn’t happen in this world.
