New Gangs And Subcultures For Cyberpunk 2020

By Citizen X
Kruegers are masochistic body-mod freaks who get their name from the character of Freddie Krueger, usually due to their wolver claws or rippers. Their label was popularized by a Network 54 report by Sylvia Dawn, who coined the term. After the program, many more took on the name and lifestyle. Krueger.net is a forum web-ring that many of those members of the culture frequent. The philosophy of Kruegers is a simple one, society is ugly but they try to hide it. Most Kruegers eventually turn towards drugs and some even participate in underground fighting arenas. The most extreme Kruegers do their cuts without the use of pain killers. In a world where one can purchase beauty, Kruegers do their best to look ugly. Kruegers are mostly loners in the real world, only coming together as a community through the internet. #Members: Roughly 200+ (Mostly loners) Hangouts: The Slammer, The Afterlife Typical Tech: Wolvers, Pain Editor Juice Freaks are special kinds of weirdoes; usually they come from wealth or had wealth until they became heavily cybered. Many Juice Freaks are actually full cyborg conversions. A lot of them revere Nikolai Tesla and their primary web hangout is at BloodofTesla.net. The basic modifications for juice freaks, are capacitors that allow them to charge the exterior parts of their bodies, running current through cyberlimbs and similar. They use these charges to levitate items with magnetism or static electricity, or to shock a would be attacker. To charge their batteries, they must constantly full up from wall sockets, or even in some cases, by draining others with cybernetics. Many Juice Freaks have setups that allow them to interface to other peoples cyberware through a neural jack hookup. They can then draw out energy from that persons cybernetic systems, draining batteries and even absorbing an image of the other cyberusers neuralware or cybernetic systems. This stolen image can often be saved and hacked later to gain information from someone who theyve drained. Some wannabe Juice Freaks and bizarre groupies actually allow themselves to be willingly drained by them. Juice Freaks got their name from a Police Sergeant who described them as such; they often prefer to call themselves Brothers of Tesla or the Church of Tesla. Members have been known to commit crimes, even mugging people for their cyber batteries or draining power from them. A lot of Juice Freaks have stimulators built into their cyber ware that allows them to use electrical stimuli to activate the pleasure centers of their brains. #Members: 150+ Hangouts: Short Circuit, Raven Microcybernetics Clinic Typical Tech: Cybernetics or Full Borg Conversion, Electric Capacitors

Watchers are walking microphones and cameras, uploading their day to day lives to the net, just incase they catch something important. Some of them are budding medias, some are hobby reporters, most are just walking eyes and ears. They stay in contact with each other, constantly keeping their internet blogs updated with the news on the ground in Night City. They are a useful group of contacts for netrunners, medias, cops, and fixers alike. The primary watcher feedsite is called WatchNCU.edu, which is hosted by the Night City University mainframe. Its rumored that the Watchers use multiple back up feedsites and secured datafortresses to house the really juicy rumors and preserve their freedom should the university site get shut down. #Members: 650+ Hangouts: Everywhere (Primarily the University District) Typical Tech: Cyberaudio recorder, Cyberoptic recorder, Neuralware processor, Cybermodem

Stim Junkies are not one gang but have become an established subculture which many gangs share. Living a way of life in a society where stimulants and designer pills have been created to regulate every mood and destroy the need for sleep. Stim Junkies are all over the city and many are parts of other gangs, especially in the combat zone. They are constantly looking for enough money or drugs to feed their fix and keep them from crashing into days of sleep their bodies desperately need. Some of them turn to crime. Others turn to doing contract jobs with their large amounts of free time when others would be sleeping in the city. Stim junkies have become a way that the city continues to move at the pace it does, as NeoStim Cola bottles and designer drugs become fuel for the human engines that move packages and information across it. A recent gang of Stim Junkies called the Wings of Icarus have begun to hire their services out as couriers; many are skilled parakour runners and accept payment in the form of drugs, a luxury drug dealers have used to keep ahead of the cops, especially in the combat zone. Almost all Stim Junkies hope to achieve a level of income that allows them to operate on the elite designer drug, called Eden. Eden is the dream of all Stim Junkies and would kill their need to sleep almost entirely. #Members: 1,500+ Hangouts: Combat Zone, Totentanz, Night Owl Typical Tech: Biomonitor, Boosterware

In a war where casualties on the U.S. side were high and America eventually lost, those who survived the conflict have had to learn to depend on each other and have come out changed. Some have lost their humanity as well as parts of their meat. Night City specifically has become a haven for the ex-military crowd from the SouthAm war, particularly those wishing to be part of the security industry. Contractors like Militech and security companies like Lazarus and Arasaka have provide a big market for these veterans which flock to the West Coast. Several bars in the area have become hangouts for the SouthAm veterans, allowing them to share war stories and talk about the good times before the collapse. Their presence in the city has created a market for drugs which were in use during the war by soldiers, whether combat enhancers or traditional cocaine. Unfortunately the ugly end of the war means that the average veteran has not only a vendetta or two still dormant, but is also willing to take contract jobs on missions which might be personally motivated. Certainly a lot of veterans support the regime in Altantico Sur, which is not necessarily beneficial to the natives of that country. #Members: 2,000+ Hangouts: Atlantis, The Afterlife, Forlorn Hope Typical Tech: Any Old-War cybertech or new corporate security blackware.