While we love Shadowrun, the setting has become quite dated.  The Japanese are not going to take over the world.  If anyone is, it will be the Chinese.

Additionally, the cybertech of the setting seems goofier and goofier the more we learn about actual medical advancements.  If we even included it in a near-future setting, we would re-do it entirely in a much more realistic way.

If you were designing a near-future sci fi setting (or sci-fantasy setting, like Shadowrun), what would you include?  What would you not include?  Would you worry about whether the setting would soon be dated, or would you ignore that problem?  (We still have great fondness for the original Cold War version of Twilight 2000, for example, and we do not care how utterly dated it is.)

Post your ideas on whatever near future sounds interesting to you.  Despite our example of Shadowrun, we do not care if cyberpunk is anywhere to be seen in your setting.  We are fascinated by the possiblities of the future and wish to see other visions of it.  

We find it unlikely that any nation-state would manage to take over the world. their stories are all, at least for the moment, in decline, for they have failed to understand the more powerful story of the corporation.

We believe that the world groans under the massive number of individual stories, and that it will continue to do so for many years. Overpopulation is a sad story, but one which we must become intimately familiar with in order to create a near-future setting.

global warming. the planet's going to get hotter and wetter for a while, and the noon-day sun just about everywhere will make edena_of_neith's rantings seem like wishful thinking. skin cancers and other sun-related maladies are going to be common.

I don't think cybernetic implant tech is within reach for a near-future setting yet. the technology just isn't right - however, the continued miniaturization of technology when combined with body-modifications (piercings, specifficaly) is going to create something that resembles cybertech on a lot of levels.

barring a major war between nations, I forsee the rise of serious multi-national corporations, similar to those envisioned by Kim Stanley Robinson in his Mars Trilogy. the rich get richer and the poor get poorer - but it's a matter of location as well. The first world will always have a better technological base than africa or southeast asia, and it's going to stay that way. after enough time, once enough nations have been subsumed by the multi-national corporate model, then serious wars again become a posibility.

Data piracy will continue along current lines, making physical resouces (gasoline, steel, etc..) again more valuable than IP. countries like china and sweden will attempt to use this trend in economic warfare and knock the bottom out from under the corporations, but it won't work.

basicaly:

Hot, Wet, freely available information, miniaturized technology.

China and India will continue to grow in power, especially as the West divests itself of its manufacturing base.  If the West ever got in a war with either one, this would prove to be a crippling problem -- they would have not just more man power, but more production, allowing them to swarm us with superior numbers and almost as good (or as good) equipment.

The corporations could flex their muscles, but they are far weaker than they think they are.  It would take relatively little effort for any major power to wipe out any corporation at will.  I can't see this imbalance of true power changing at any point in the near future -- but I also can't see corporations being silly enough to directly challenge sovereign nations.

Cybertech seems out of reach to me, too, but computing power will continue to grow and grow.  I'm not fully sure what that will mean, however.

I could see one or more long term intractable wars occuring.  Suppose that China tried to invade Taiwan - they'd probably fail.  But, unless that caused a collapse of the Chinese gov., it could lead to a big stalemate, the Chinese refusing to give in, U.S./Taiwan not having the forces to invade China.  Nukes would give it a cold ware edge.  World economies would suffer from the lack of Chinese and Taiwanese production.  In the U.S. there would be a big economic drop.
 
You could see similar problems after India gets tired of Pakistan and takes them out but doesn't have the forces to deal with the inpouring of muslim guerillas and several restive provinces.  Throw in a brief nuclear exchange just for spice.  
 
In general, U.S., Japan, and Europe would have the tech edge over most other places but wouldn't have the manpower to occupy enemy countries beyond a few key sources of resources.  You would have a strengthening of the us vs. them and the rich vs. the poor, with the rich countries feeling much poorer than in the past and poor countries totally falling apart.
 
This might lead to the rich caring even less about the poor domestically as well.  Populations would acquire even more of an enclave structure, with gated communities having armed watchtowers.  There would be several instances of people finding out that they aren't as powerful as they thought - it doesn't matter how rich you are on paper when you're dealing with a mob who has fallen out of the system, living practically by barter.
 
Cool technical toys would increasingly become more important as sources of prestige than for any practical use.  The latest gadgets would be almost mandatory to fit in at the right places, with constant upgrades in place to create a slope that social climbers must work against.
 
There are two totally different ways I'd go with this.
 
1.  Gov agents trying to rebuild, characters doing missions that involve lots of moving between worlds, rich and poor, local and foreign.
 
2.  With high unemployment, many rich are living off of assets without much to do.  The poor scrape by as best they can on what they can find.  Everyone feels existential and depressed.  They all interact at the one shining beacon in the otherwise crumbling city - the huge super mall.  The world has gone to hell so everyone is reduced to hanging out at the mall.

Well I look at it this way.  What do you want in it.  A little realism can be a good thing.  But trying to make a game setting too realistic I think will destroy much of the fun in it.  If you want huge corporations controlling the world then do so.  If you want Chine, Japan, or India become a world power then do so.

As to what I would do.  I would go pretty much along the lines of Shadowrun.  Have China or Japan become a world power but have them controlled more by the corporations than the people.  Corporate espionage and warfare will become a fact of life.  Global warming will continue making the planet hotter and wetter.  Perhaps turning the streets of such cities like NYC into canals.

I would make it that there has been WWIII and through the numerous biological, chemical and nuclear weapons new strains of humanity have been created.  Some countries have been destroyed, new ones created, some are still a wasteland were awful mutants and monsters still roam.

The continued miinaturization of technology will introduce cybernetics, mostly as medical implants.  But money and power can get you some miltary grade cybernetics.  Another big advancement will be biotech.  Biological implants and body modifications.

I think any near-future setting is doomed to become dated and looking weird by their very nature.  My fav right now is Armageddon, which has a complete future history involving the rise of the Dark Prophet and the Church of Revelations, with a non-nuclear WWIII taking place, while the 'good guys' get sorcerous powers, half-angels, and other mystical powers.  I'm sure that in a few years, after the events have taken place, it will look as odd as CP or SR.

I always liked the setup of Dark Angel, where a high atmosphere nuke blast set off a massive EMP.  Turned the US into a 3rd world country overnight, though the elites and richest still manage to maintain a high lifestyle, as well as create genetically engineered supersoldiers.

I'm with Knightcrawler: it depends on what kinds of stories you want to tell.

I've been thinking about running a near-future world that has as one feature that some of the milder doomsaday "Peak Oil" scenarios play out--that energy prices climb, transportation becomes much more expensive, and resource wars become more costly and more necessary. At the same time, information technologies and communications are still functional. You could have a world where individual-level tech was good, but the ability of large institutions to dominate over distances was severely limited--a good setting for some types of adventures.

Quote from: willpaxI'm with Knightcrawler: it depends on what kinds of stories you want to tell.

I've been thinking about running a near-future world that has as one feature that some of the milder doomsaday "Peak Oil" scenarios play out--that energy prices climb, transportation becomes much more expensive, and resource wars become more costly and more necessary. At the same time, information technologies and communications are still functional. You could have a world where individual-level tech was good, but the ability of large institutions to dominate over distances was severely limited--a good setting for some types of adventures.

Interesting, would probably be a large increase in cyberterrorism since you can't afford to actually go there.  Perhaps horses come back into vogue.  Or coal burning and other sources of power become more prevalent.  THink of getting the old steam locomotives out but with tech advances.

My Urban Combat Mecha setting (not much of a setting at the moment, just a smattering of ideas and mechs and mercs) is a near-future setting.  It presents the world as we know it ending not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Urbanization has, by this point, affected nearly half the world's landmass.  Cities stretch from here to tomorrow thanks to indoor hydroponic farms and the ability to clone meat mass from a small sample of cells.  Populations skyrocket; the cities can fit them, but there are far too many people to be managed by even the most tyrannical forms of government.  Municipalities strike out on their own and become sovreign nations.  The Second American Revolution happens, and ends in the dissolution of the national government.  Local warlords rise up by the thousands, seizing control of areas sometimes no bigger than neighbourhoods, each self-sustaining.  No single city, area, or municipality has the population or the funds to raise a sizeable, well-armed army; thus begins the reign of the mercenary.

Combat in this world is frequent, oftentimes over resources, sometimes with such petty motivations as dominance and control of groups of people.  The fighting takes place mainly in city streets, where the versatility of a 12-foot mech is more valuable than a treaded tank or a company of infantry.

Cybernetics, nanotech, mech technology, all exist in this world, but only to those who can afford it; this is almost always the warlords and the mercenaries they employ.  Hundreds of mercenary organizations span the globe, from small squads to entire companies; they will gladly fight one another for pay, but they take it on principal not to mess with mercs they have no business to kill.  There is something of a code of honour among mercs; a very shakey code, but one that many uphold.

I think it would be foolish to do a future RPG, without thinking about the Arab states and the effects of muslim radicalism. There is loads of interesting stuff going on in that part of the world.

You have these massive resort islands being built out in the sea in Dubai, funded on oil money. So you will end up with the richest people in the world, living in decadence, a stone throws away from some of the poorest, and the growth of a radical muslim faith.

The drive for democracy in the Middle East will backfire. Countries like Iraq, Saudia Arabia, Syria and Lybia become more democratic but the people elect radical theocratic governments, and the west wishes they'd left the dicators in power, at least they could deal with dicators.

The gap between the haves and have nots increases, but the rich become increasingly paranoid, moving into fortress like archologies, or private islands with heavy security. The in the west the poor lose faith in democracy, which no mater who they vote for sees big business win at the expensense of the masses.

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Technology wise, while cyberware does get developed, it is not the form of big items like whole limb replacement (as in Cyberpunk and Shadowrun), since it is much easier and cheaper to grow a new arm in a vat from your own DNA.

Cyberware is more in the form of having your iPod/mobile/organiser/ID as an implanted so you carry it with you everywhere. Or so you can better control some automated device.

Bioware modification becomes popular it becomes fashionable in counter culture to get subdermal bone grafts to impant ridges in forehead. Or graft skin that has been genespliced with other animal DNA so it glows in the dark or can change colour like an octopus. The at the Olympics a scandel errupts after it is descovered that the 100m winner has had performance enhancing gene therapy.

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Environmental, avian flu kicks off and while it's not as bad in terms of total death toll as the WHO originally predicted the fact that it effects the young and healthy more than the old and weak, makes the paranoid young rich even more scared to go out. Worst hit are the US military based out in the Middle East where the diesease first appears, their effective strength is more than cut in half for a period. The insurgents and radical elements in the region take advantage of this and the US is forced to withdraw.

Global warming leads to localised cooling in northern europe drastically effecting the farming economies of those nations, on the plus side people are skating on the Thames in February.

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Someone nukes (smuggled in via boat) Israel, it responds against Iran, and a Middle East war kicks off. The US provides support but only via air, sea and intelligence assests it just doesn't have the man power available at the time to put troops in on the ground. It later turns out that the nuke actually came from a radical neo-nazi terrorist cell in former soviet block country. Unfortunately by this time the war is in full swing.
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Basically for a Cyberpunk setting I think you need the following.

1) A big ass war somewhere, that is all but over, but could kick off again once everyone is done licking their wounds.
2) Ultra rich and poor living in close together geographically, and yet worlds a part in culture and environment.
3) Weird tech but nothing that actually greatly improves the quality of life for all.
4) Terrorism, be it eco, techno or religious, better all three.
5) Corporations having equal if not more power than governments.
6) Private security almost equal to a government military, smaller in size perhaps but generally better equipped and trained.
7) The death of democracy.
Environmental collapse of one form or another (ideally multiple forms), plague, and once green areas turned into dustbowls or artic wastes for some of the year.

i think the three most important technologies will be:

- biological sciences including GM, organ replacement, gene-therapy, designer diseases etc
- advanced computer AI
- nanotech

any near future sci-fi should extrapolate out these three things, at least.

Orwellian: RFID tags on everything allows secret services to monitor every move of cars, cell phones, valuables, laptop computers, etc. Biometrics are used to control access to most everywhere, leading burglars become kidnappers or gruesome murderers as well -- you gotta use the key even when the key is an eye or a finger. Centralized data banks process all this, but the AI are still not perfect, so overall it translates to a lot less personal liberties for a nigh-unnoticeable increase in safety.

Corporate nightmare: Most of said centralized data banks are owned and operated by private corporations, who uses them as well to profile their advertizing campaigns, find pretexts to eliminate their workers, and sometime hire new ones. Socially it's back to Steinbeck, Dickens, Zola, etc. in the way companies treat their employees. Corporations have started to build themselves fiefs by buying every shop, every house they could in the towns and cities they chose. Their employees pay their houses' rent to the company, buy their grocery shopping from the company, and so on. Only exception is online commerce, but even that is still subject to the whims of their company because postal services require now a subscription for being delivered things (other than official messages from corporations or the state, and of course advertizing is always spamming your physical mailbox even if you aren't a subscriber). The cost of life being far higher than the average wage, 95% of the population is deeply indebted; fortunately corporations have their own banks that have very interesting rates for those who work for the company, depending on "merit" and seniority. By the way, in various countries, lobbyists are pushing for "indentured slavery" laws -- except they don't use the word "slavery", of course, and just referring to them as such is ground for being fired.

The end of democracy: One journalist, who soon later died in a tragical car crash, found out that three of the four candidates to the presidential elections were actually the same eight persons, a group of comedian with several disguises and working for one of the largest corporation. During TV shows and on newspaper shots, the images were doctored to perfect the ruse. "The scandal of the century", however, was never published in the press or broadcast on TV, as all media belonged to said corporation. It was published on the Internet, and the site was included in a webring of kooky conspirationnist theories. An "uncut" version was later added to the site, while the journalist was driving on his way to his doom, that added the "missing" bits about the shapechanging lizards from Mars.

Paranoia: All the controls and espionnage by state and corporate police have failed to eliminate islamic terror. Worse, people rejecting the politico-economic trend are all lumped as terrorists, too. You're a hermit living alone in the woods, having fled society all along? Well, you may be a potential danger, so a small squad of cops are sent just beside you to watch you... Unfaillingly, they end up shooting you in self defense a few days later, and for your eulogy you'll have all the media revealing to the world you were making dirty anthrax bombs to sell to Al Qaeda but your traitorous ass got busted!
The possession of "unsecured" software or hardware is considered a crime; as only terrorists have something to hide, and just using one may let terrorists use your equipment as a proxy for their dirty deeds.

Political correctness: The Universal Tolerance Act forces everybody to wear prominantly a color-coded ribbon showing to which group they belong -- political and philosophical leanings, religious belief, sexual identity, hobbies... (You're exempted from this obligation when wearing a uniform, though.) Refusal to comply is considered rude and punished by fines. Any sort of aggressive or even unfriendly behavior against a ribbon-wearer is considered a hate crime.

Neurosis: Everyone suffers from them in this dystopia. Fortunately, happy pills are plentiful.

Overall, a system that is built on oppression, exclusion, elimination, and segregation. To release the stress, people rely on propitiatory scapegoats -- the rebels and oddballs that are labelled terrorists or criminals and shoot by cops (usually corporate mercenaries, by the way) in live-feed shows. This process allows to avoid having to actually arrest people and try them, which was a loss of time and money. Seeing outcasts tracked, hunted, and torn in bloody, pulpy bits by heavy fire every day soothes most people, and revolts a few others who'll be next year's stars...

That's the setting I see for the near-future. Of course, to make it interesting for roleplay, its dark sides are exacerbated. Wouldn't be fun otherwise.