Here’s some samples of the color pages for Mekton Zero; a General Information page, two Character Role pages, and a Mekton File page. Note that the pictures are placeholders, not the final art–that’s being worked on right now (Faster, Mark, faster!). We included these because we wanted to show some of the evolution between earlier editions of Mekton and Mekton Zero; for example, the expanded way in which we use Roles now (more like as in Cyberpunk), and the links between previously profiled meks and the new units never before seen in any Mekton project. First up are the General Information pages. Next are the Character Role pages. Finally, a Mekton File page. We’ll obviously be adding and tinkering with stuff as we continue laying the book out, but we couldn’t wait to show you how neat having all this color is!
We just thought we’d give you some warning. On October 1st, 2013 R. Talsorian will be raising its 1998 product prices to reflect our current (2013) production and distribution costs (stuff really does cost more in the Dark Future after all!). This increase in prices will include our online and eBay stores, all PDF format sales at DriveThru RPG, and sales via retail and distribution outlets. So if you’ve been thinking of buying that Cyberpunk 2020 supplement, this might be the time!
It’s 2013. And years ago, when I wrote Cyberpunk, I used to joke that by 2013, my son (who at that point was only a conceptual gleam in his daddy’s eye) would be lopping off limbs to be a fashionable teenager in the Dark Future.
Cyber-fashion. Up to now, the idea of “cyber-fashion” has been only a concept from science fiction. So imagine my delight when I stumbled across a TED talk by fashion model and athlete Aimee Mullins about prosthetic limbs–not as replacements for lost parts (Aimee’s been missing both her legs since childhood), but as fashion statements and desirable forms of body modification. People have often commented about the juxtaposition of sheer, smooth femininity and hard edged cyberware in ‘Punk for years–I’ve taken a bit of heat over the classic illustration of Alt Cunningham at the start of Never Fade Way (especially from the feminist side). But there was a reason why I commissioned that art. I wanted to show, in a totally IN YOUR FACE way, that in the Dark Future, sexy and cyber– augmented and attractive– beautiful and dangerous– are not necessarily oppositional concepts. Keeping that in mind, fold that picture of Alt with her shiny metal arm into this picture of Aimee Mullins with her supertech “cheetah” legs.
Fellow Cyberpunks; the future has arrived.
The title of this post is a reference to one of Ms. Mullin’s stories–when a friend of hers find out that Mullins has used a pair of augmented legs to add 6 inches to her height, she exclaims, “But that’s not fair!” And that, people, is how cyber-fashion gets started.
But I’ll let Aimee tell the story; and her vision of an augmented, no boundaries future, in her own words:
By the way; the legs she’s wearing are only one of her 12 pairs. And you think you have trouble deciding what shoes to wear when you get up in the morning. Wimp.
