The Cowboy Bebop Universe
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"Once upon a time, in New York City in 1941... at this club open to all comers to play, night after night, at a club named "Minton's Play House" in Harlem, they play jazz sessions competing with each other. Young jazz men with a new sense are gathering. At last they created a new genre itself. They are sick and tired of the conventional fixed style jazz. They're eager to play jazz as freely as they wish."
"Los Osos, or Valley of the Bears, is set between lush rolling hills
and sandy beaches. With a somewhat secluded atmosphere, it's just a
few miles south of Morro Bay."
--Late 20th Century Travelogue
Not anymore.
"Del Coronado: the city of confrontation, escalation, and crash evasion..." --Diana Hunter, Valkyries Boostergang
As with most groups, I run my game with a few House Rules. While none are major changes to the game, there are quite a few that have been developed over the years to help balance the game:
Cyberware:
Military Skinweave | A stiff grey-gold colored version of the regular skinweave. Provides SP18 and UV40 protection. Rare to find outside of the US and European Militaries. | |||||
Telepathy | A small vial full of silver nanite factories that are injected into the bloodstream. The factories attach inside the brain and create workers. The nanoworkers then weave an internal Interface port and link it to a multi-frequency radio transmitter in the brain. Using a combo of cyberdeck interfaces and military frequency hopping, a user of Telepathy can "think" a message to another user, even while being jammed. 2km range. |
Note: New Nanotechnology will be added here as it appears during the course of the campaign.
Weaponry:
Player-created items from my various campaigns:
Question: What's a Cyberpunk game without drugs?
Answer: A lot healthier...
Lunar Red-Eye
New electronic "drugs" will be added here as they are introduced in the campaign.
With the collapse of many national governments over the years, corporations have come into their own during the resulting chaos. No longer held back by archaic anti-trust laws, these new MegaCorporations guard and control their territories like small nations--with their employees as sometimes unwilling citizens. Fully promoting the Have vs. Have-not social situation that keeps them in power, the Corps are generally hated by the bulk of the general population. Only the rebellious Cyberpunks and Edgerunners stand a chance against their might, assuming they actually give a damn...
Valkyrie n : (Norse mythology) one of the maidens of Odin who chose heroes to be slain in battle and conducted them to Valhalla.
Machine-enhanced warriors on the verge of cyberpsychosis, Boostergangs are the terrifying menace hunting the dark streets of the Combat Zone. While most of the gangs are feral animals taking joy from the deaths of their fellow man, some have banded together to protect those that can not protect themselves.
Like the proto-gangs of the late 20th Century, the modern Boostergangs act as a sort of foster family to their members--both supporting them and occasionally controlling them. Most of the Boosters have a "theme", and will kill any who do not agree with their sometimes odd beliefs.
Thorn: "I know, Sol, you've told me a hundred times before. People were better, the world was better..." Sol: "Ah, people were always lousy. But there was a world, once." Thorn: [chuckles] Sol: "I was there, I can prove it! When I was a kid, you could buy meat anywhere! Eggs, they had real butter! Not this... crap!" |
The following article was originally published in the June 2003 issue of Maxim Magazine under the title Instant Expert: Jazz in a Box. While I have edited it slightly to make it viewable by audiences of all ages, the complete article can be found through either of the links provided.
Maxim, June 2003
Blue Note: A note “between notes” that adds immediacy, intensity, voice, and depth to a jazz riff, harder to pin down than Martha Stewart’s accountant. On a piano, plunk two keys and slowly lift one. See blue? Practice till you awaken in Chicago surrounded by smiling men with trumpets.
Improvisation: You know the word. It’s what you do when the boss says, “Perhaps Peters can explain the tequila stench around his desk this morning.” But in jazz, improv is more about makin’ new than makin’ do. Only a square plays a tune the way it’s written.
Roots: Take work songs and spirituals from the slavery era, Cuban and African rhythms, ragtime, even—mon dieu!—French military marches, then crush ’em all in turn-of-the-century Nawlins. Stew until 1920, ladle heapin’ helpings into Chicago, New York, Kansas City, and dig it!
The Swing: “Doctuh” Mike Woods, a jazz studies prof at Hamilton College, says swing is “a rhythmic phenomenon with a flexible feel and lots of syncopation.” “It’s Jessica Rabbit’s hips bouncing back and forth,” he clarifies.
Jamming/Cross-Pollination: Jazz musicians are sluts when it comes to band fidelity. All these cats jump from band to band. The constant camaraderie and one-upmanship leads naturally to shifting sounds and mutating musical forms.
The Man: Early on, he (the established music industry) recorded all the greats and paid them chicken feed, perpetuating slavery and unintentionally keeping the creative fountain of resentment flowing.
THE CATS:
Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong (1901–1971)
Miles Davis (1926–1991)
Charlie “Bird” Parker (1920–1955)
John Coltrane (1926–1967)
Stan Getz (1927–1991)
Benny “King of Swing” Goodman (1909–1986)
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899–1974)
Ella Fitzgerald (1918–1996)
Billie “Lady Day” Holiday (1915–1959)
Charles Mingus (1922–1979)
Max Roach (1924–still kickin’)
Feel Free to "Hep" Yourself!
Ella Fitzgerald
Jelly Roll Morton The Original Mr. Jelly Lord AVID
John Coltrane A Love Supreme GRP
Lee Morgan The Sidewinder Blue Note
Miles Davis Kind of Blue Columbia
Charles Mingus Mingus Ah Um Columbia
Ornette Coleman The Shape of Jazz to Come Atlantic
Cannonball Adderley Somethin’ Else Blue Note
The Quintet Jazz at Massey Hall Debut/OJC
The Dave Brubeck Quartet Time Out Columbia
Duke Ellington Duke Ellington's Finest Hour Verve
James Horner, Benny Goodman Swing Kids Soundtrack Hollywood Records
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