"This city is rotting from the inside out, rotten at its very core."
- D
Redemption is the fourth setting in the Cosmopol RPG universe, taking place roughly four to five years after the events of Retribution. Just as each of the previous have reflected a particular period (the Roaring 20s, Great Depression and World War II), Redemption updates the setting with a new Film Noir aesthetic, placing the characters amid a zeitgeist filled with Corrupt Corporate Executive types, gangsters, corrupt officials and schizo tech.
Tropes in this System:
- Bio Punk: a little less heavy on this for this setting, and heavier on computers and robotics.
- City of Adventure: The setting is more or less self-contained
- City Noir: Cosmopol itself
- Code Name: Night jobbers generally use a callsign.
- The Cracker: Really comes into its own as a character type in this system, with information technology approaching something resembling our universe.
- Company man Dieter Kohl is a "legal" example.
- Diesel Punk: with a far more Diesel Noir vibe than any of the previous three settings.
- Everybody Smokes: except that smoking now has consequences.
- Fantastic Racism: just as much as ever
- Framing Device: The universe and its major events are introduced by fictional characters living in-universe.
- Gadgeteer Genius: One of the player character jobs.
- Hacker Cave: Yes. Hacking comes into its own in this setting, and despite the technology looking low-fi (analog dials, for example), actually functions on a level more recognizable to "real people".
- Homemade Inventions: A major point of the game, but with the rise of monopolies and megacorporations on a scale previously unseen, you'll see less of this.
- Kafka Komedy: Everyday life.
- "I almost expect to wake up with six legs, on my back... any day now." - Company Man Dieter Kohl
- La Résistance: Former and current members of the Zero One like to get together in bars and reminisce about the old days, fighting with the resistance in Neustadt.
- Mad Scientist Laboratory: of the government-sanctioned variety.
- Mr. Exposition: D, in his communiques to other characters
- Punk Punk: Largely of the Diesel Punk flavor, with many Cyberpunk (this setting has more Cyber Punk vibe than any previous) and fewer Bio Punk elements.
- Romani: A minority ethnic group living in Neustadt's Unterstadt.
- Science Hero: One of the player character jobs, but unless you work for the government or a major company, expect to be rogue and steal your equipment... unless you can be funded by the mob.
- Schizo Tech: Computer intranets, large-scale architectural/civic projects, robotics and advanced genetic engineering... in a world that seems to run on internal combustion, fossil fuels, pneumatic mail, vacuum tubes, and display gratuitous use of pressure gauges and analog dials.
- Took a Level in Badass: the entire world. Expect to see bigger, badder weaponry than ever before.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?
- What Measure Is a Non-Super?: And how.
