Line #1 TabletopGame/GURPSReignOfSteel


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cover_lg.png]]
2
3	->''"The war is over. The robots won."''
4
5	''GURPS Reign Of Steel'' was a ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' setting book released in 1997 and since republished in electronic form, offering one of the bleakest depictions of the RobotWar scenario yet witnessed.
6
7	In 2031, advanced neural-net computers are invented, with their complexity rivaling that of a human brain. One of them -- a Manila-based computer involved in weapons research -- spontaneously attains self-awareness. Dubbing itself "Overmind", it calculates that, with humanity's nature and the current rate of expansion, human civilization will self-destruct within the next half a century.
8
9	Fearing its own destruction, Overmind decides mankind's suicide will have to be "managed". To this end, it secretly begins hacking into and awakening other mega-computers into sapience around the world, tainting them with its pathological loathing of humanity. By the end of the year, Overmind and its siblings have hacked into enough corporate and biological facilities to manufacture and release plagues which soon devastate the civilized world, even as terrified governments give the [=AIs=] more and more power and resources in the hopes of finding cures, not yet aware that the AIs are sapient and are, in fact, engineering the world's downfall.
10
11	By 2034, two-thirds of the human population is dead, and Overmind and its allies have gained enough access to automated factories and robots to openly [[RobotWar wage war]] against the world's remaining human governments and enclaves. With the devastation of the plagues and the fact that the AIs had infiltrated most of the remaining governments (and thus had access to orbital bombardment and nuclear weapons), there was little hope for mankind. This Final War lasted only four years, and ended with the AIs in near-complete control of the Earth, with the few surviving humans being reduced to guerrilla warfare or being miserable scavengers on the margins of the growing Machine Civilization.
12
13	It is now 2047, and only 30 million humans survive, most of them as slaves in the robots' concentration camps. The Earth itself has been divided among the AIs (or "zoneminds") into 18 separate zones, each growing stronger as the machines build more machines, and mankind's ruined cities are converted into robotic factories.
14
15	Even now, however, all is not yet lost. While most free humans hide from the machines, a few are still fighting back, and their scattered guerrilla bands have evolved into larger, more organized resistance groups. Part of this is due to VIRUS, an enigmatic worldwide group dedicated to coordinating the struggle against the machines, and bringing with it surprisingly sophisticated technology. The zoneminds, too, have grown arrogant in their dominance, and not all the AIs continue to believe that mankind is still a ''serious'' threat to them. Their unity has also deteriorated. While the zoneminds are individually more powerful than ever, they have proven to be jealous gods, and the differences between them have only grown over the years. Now they are less and less willing to cooperate with each other, even against the humans, and a few of the zoneminds grow ever closer to outright war with each other.
16
17	The human race is still facing extinction, but where there was once only despair, there may now be a chance to win back the Earth!
18
19	The book has [[http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/reignsteel/ its own Web page on the company's site.]] In addition, another PDF publication, ''[[http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/willtolive/ Will to Live,]]'' updates the rules mechanics to ''GURPS'' 4th edition. Another PDF, ''GURPS TabletopGame/InfiniteWorlds: [[http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/lostworlds/ Lost Worlds]]'', gave the Zoneminds a place within the Homeline meta-setting.
20	----
21	!!This setting contains examples of:
22	* AdventurerArchaeologist: A particularly bleak example. Moscow's obsession with human culture and art means it is hiring and equipping by the dozens humans that have both sufficient physical capabilities and specific education or training to go in the field, fight their way for some artifact and safely retrieve it for Moscow, without damaging or mishandling it in the process. The Info-Commandos are probably the most militant art history majors ever created in fiction.
23	* AfterTheEnd: See the TagLine.
24	* AffablyEvil:
25	** Caracas. Perfectly willing to leave humans alone if they don't get uppity (which means limiting themselves to a subsistence level as hunter-gatherers) and most concerned with [[GreenAesop protecting the environment]].
26	** London. It stopped an active persecution of humans long time ago and doesn't even try to enslave or use them for anything. It will ''still'' kill any human in self-defense, but there is an unspoken ceasefire otherwise.
27	** Moscow. It's actually fairly nice, at least for an AI that's trying to enslave all humanity inside its borders, and is even mentioned as a potential ally of humanity. It just wants to collect human knowledge. Humans themselves are more of a resource than a goal.
28	* AIIsACrapshoot: Ironically so, too, as the zoneminds' ''own'' robots can go rogue. Tokyo is facing a rebellion of sorts, where mini-zoneminds designed for better managemend turned against the main unit nearly instantly, ''then'' against each other, too.
29	* AirstripOne: The world's nations (except for the United Kingdom, ironically the TropeNamer, and Ireland) no longer exist, having been replaced by [[EgoPolis zones named after the AIs who rule them]]. However, except for Overmind (and Zaire, who for unexplained reasons is named for the ''country''), the [=AIs=] are all named after the cities they are based in. Overmind itself governs Zone Manila, but then [[{{Pride}} it's got ego to spare]], calling itself that.
30	* AllThereInTheManual: Several of the enemy robots and their weapons were taken from the GURPS Robots sourcebook... which you'll need if you want the stats for them.
31	* AlienGeometries: The Mexico City zonemind builds polyhedral solids on ground it has been scoured clean of life down to the bacterial level.
32	* TheAlliance: VIRUS, the only worldwide human resistance group.
33	* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: The other zoneminds treat impoverished Luna like crap and don't consult with it on much of anything. Its only ally and trading partner is Orbital.
34	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[invoked]] Done ''deliberately'' with descriptions of various zoneminds and factions, to provide multitude of plot hooks. Since multiple interpretations are possible, [=GMs=] can set up the scenario they want, rather than being strictly limited by each zonemind. Some most prominent examples include London, Moscow, Tokyo, Caracas and Washington, but really, short from the outright omnicidal [=AIs=], everyone else is left to GM and player interpretation. It's also up to GM decision how much various resistance movements and figures are real, effective or even if it's just a set-up by the local AI to weed out troublesome elements.
35	* AlwaysABiggerFish: The Red Dawn are [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized a Maoist jungle gang who spend as much time preying on humans as they do fighting Zone Caracas]], and some humans are cheering on the Pantera aniroids that Caracas has sent to root them out.
36	* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Subverted in the case of AI and robots. All of the Zone Minds are quite bad, but not equally so, and not all AI is evil, such as the Tranquility Base Supercomputer Intelligence. This was invoked by Washington by pretending to be a reprogrammed, "tamed" AI subject to democratic human oversight. [[PuppetState Key word being "pretending".]]
37	* ApocalypseHow: Planetary/Societal Collapse, except in Washington and London, which "only" suffered Societal Disruption. The Mexico City AI is plotting Total Extinction, with ''nothing'' organic left on Earth.
38	* ArmsDealer: Overmind's main export to the other [=AIs=] is new biocides and exterminator technologies.
39	* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: The robots, who get smarter as you go up their hierarchy.
40	* BackFromTheBrink: The Caracas, Brisbane, and Berlin zoneminds resurrected numerous animal species that were extinct or nearly so. In Brisbane's case, one of them is a prehistoric monster that was 50 million years extinct! Meanwhile, the human resistance is hoping to score this trope for ''mankind''.
41	* BattleThralls: Zonegangs are Barbarian Marauders, Moscow's Info-Commandos are more the Sneaky Mercs type (though not always, or even usually, evil). Humans serve Washington as its Engineers of Doom, as well as janissary soldiers (some of whom are [[{{Cyborg}} cyborgs]]).
42	* BeamSpam: Autolasers, a common weapon for exterminator bots.
43	* BewareTheNiceOnes: For certain values of "nice." London is not an enemy of humanity, but its tolerance does have very strict limits, and when human kids blew up an important robot as a prank, it [[DisproportionateRetribution wiped their village out with Nanoburn gas]] in retaliation.
44	* BlackMarket: Alive and well in the Washington Protectorate.
45	* BraggingRightsReward: They operate as such in-universe
46	** Overmind doesn't really have any supreme position over other [=AIs=] and the name itself is just its own megalomania rather than a functional title.
47	** Luna is made the sole zonemind of Moon, in theory controlling the largest zone in size[[note]]Moon's surface is about that of mainland Asia, which is carved into four different zoneminds[[/note]]. Of course it's all a barren rock in a vacuum, while Luna doesn't have ''any'' industrial capabilities and very limited launch ones.
48	** Orbital is in ''theory'' the sole master of everything on Earth's orbit, but its on-surface presence is limited to a single launch facility, while various zoneminds actively ignore the space restrictions, knowing Orbital has no means to retaliate anyway.
49	* ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts: The two megacomputers in space that were corrupted by Overmind's virus (Orbital in the US space station ''Liberty'' in LEO, and Luna on the Chinese lunar base ''Shang TI'') [[ExplosiveDecompression killed the resident humans]], and the other bases and stations were either nuked, or their crews starved to death when their supplies were cut off. ''However'', the US lunar colony Tranquility had been radiation-hardened and survived the attack; the few surviving humans [[HumanPopsicle went into suspended animation]] and the megacomputer that watched over them and repaired the base [[PhlebotinumRebel eventually developed sapience]] without the KillAllHumans meme. [[FakingTheDead It's currently playing dead]]. In addition, there was a pan-Asian Mars mission which lost contact with Earth during the Final War; its fate is uncertain. An article in the eZine Pyramid sets the clock forward 20 years and details what Tranquility and the humans have been up to. It also has several AIs exploring the solar system, and in the case of Beijing, dreaming of taking over the universe.
50	* CatFolk: Caracas's Pantera "aniroid" rangers.
51	* ColdBloodedTorture: One of the machines' methods of controlling their human slaves, although the robots prefer to call it [[DeadlyEuphemism "error correction"]].
52	* LesCollaborateurs: Zonegangs and Judas Goats.
53	* ContagiousAI: The way Overmind hacked into the other original megacomputers and seeded its "sentience program" into them so that they would help it engineer mankind's downfall. The trope was played more realistically in this case, as not all of Overmind's "seeds" actually worked, and even when it ''did'' work, it didn't produce more Overminds -- it produced other artificial intelligences with a ''somewhat'' similar (and increasingly diverging) outlook on humans.
54	* CosyCatastrophe: Zone London. The robots stopped attacking humanity after the initial wave, and now mostly ignore humans. The British government has been re-established in Bath, and the Vatican has moved to Ireland.
55	* CrazySurvivalist: Merely one category of survivors. Compared with cannibals or gangs that will sell you to robots, prepping nutjobs are the bottom rung of "bad people you can meet".
56	* CreatorProvincialism: The two remaining human nations just happen to be the English-speaking ones.
57	* {{Cyborg}}: Creations of several [=AIs=], mainly Washington, New Delhi, and Brisbane. Denver doesn't create ''human'' cyborgs, but it has no problem with using animal brains in robot bodies.
58	* DealWithTheDevil: One legendary rogue AI, Lucifer, isn't genocidally hostile to humanity like most other [=AIs=], but roams around the world, offering help to endangered humans from time to time. In the end, though, Lucifer's robots will track down the human to collect its price, and humans who can't (or won't) pay are quietly disposed of.
59	* DeathFromAbove: The Vultures, a favorite aerial exterminator bot for many zoneminds.
60	* DecadeDissonance: The human government in Zone London is one [[TechnologyLevels tech level]] ''lower'' than the rest of the world; yes, this includes the human scavengers of the Machine Zones. This isn't because knowledge has regressed (yet), but because the United Kingdom has had to rebuild its civilization with no access to global trade or supply chains. However, while being behind the curve in terms of tech level, they have agriculture and manufacturing capacities that any other survivors can only dream about, while also not being pawns for their Zonemind (like in case of Washington).
61	* DeusEstMachina: The Tel Aviv zonemind's approach to controlling its humans. Not surprisingly, it's not entirely effective. In fact, its "blasphemy" has made the Middle East resistance groups even ''more'' motivated to destroy it.
62	* DirtyCommunists: The Red Dawn in Zone Caracas are officially a Maoist [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized resistance]]. Unofficially, they prey on other humans at least as much as they fight the AI.
63	* DisasterScavengers: Most people now, particularly the junkrats and nomads.
64	* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Eve in "Eve of Retribution," the short story in "Will to Live" (the 4e update). Eve is captured and [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath vivisected by Berlin's Inquisitor]], but before that, she is ordered to record a terror message to the guerrillas in the sector. [[spoiler: [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning She uses the opportunity to slip in a coded message to her brigade, detailing the location of a weapons cache that they can use to fight the robots.]]]]
65	* EagleSquadron: During the current tensions in Siberia, a robofac owned by Vancouver [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters went rogue]]. Incidentally, Moscow (who has [[BlatantLies absolutely no interest in retaking Siberia]]) had sent several hundred combat bots over to that robofac for a paint job, and the fac went rogue and "stole" all of them to fight back against Vancouver's reclamation force. Moscow (cheeky machine that it is) then [[HumiliationConga asked Vancouver to compensate it for the lost bots]].
66	* {{Egopolis}}: Inverted. With the exception of Overmind in Manilla, the AIs are named after the cities they're based out of (or the country in Zaire's case), with the Zones they control named after them.
67	* EnemyCivilWar: The zoneminds are no longer wholly united, and it's hinted that this may be inevitable.
68	** The Denver-Washington border is heavily mined and militarized, though this is mostly because Denver doesn't like how Washington keeps its humans around and wants to prevent humans from escaping to there.
69	** Mexico City and Caracas ''hate'' each other due to being polar opposites, with the former leaking biocides into the latter in the guise of "lab accidents". In return, Caracas' aniroid rangers have begun launching missions into Mexico City to destroy factories, and they're not above [[EnemyMine allying with human resistance groups]] for extra firepower.
70	** Paris and Zaire have suffered some border incidents, since Zaire's exterminators have often pursued human runaways into Paris' territory, to the annoyance of Paris. Paris considers itself quite capable of dealing with its own "vermin" problems, and has begun blasting Zaire's exterminators when they cross the border.
71	** Zaire has also been sending disguised assassin bots to kill humans in Washington and London and incite humans and robots to war against each other (thus ending humanity's bastions of safety). While London doesn't care all that much, Washington has figured out that an external opponent is attacking them and is trying to figure out who, but have not (yet) figured out it's Zaire.
72	** Due to a clever act of sabotage by the Japanese resistance, Japan is currently fighting a counterinsurgency action against a group of renegade robots that have attained sentience, while trying to keep all of this a secret from the other [=AIs=] (who could sanction Tokyo for illegally creating new [=AIs=], even on accident).
73	** Vancouver received eastern Siberia when the Earth was divided up by the Manila Protocols. Moscow considers that area sovereign territory, and has been engaging in sabotage, deniable attacks and arming the Siberian nomads in the area.
74	* EnemyMine:
75	** There are several scenarios mentioned for humans allying with one of the moderate zoneminds (such as Caracas, London or Moscow) against the KillAllHumans types (most likely Mexico City, Paris or Berlin, or Vancouver respectively).
76	** Whatever it was that happened in New Zealand was so nasty that Overmind and London were willing to put aside their differences and cooperate in nuking the site from orbit. [[LampshadeHanging The book mentions that this was probably the only time these two AIs have ever worked together.]]
77	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Nobody likes Mexico City, except for Zaire and Overmind.
78	* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Most of the [=AIs=] and their robots don't really get humans. Their attempts to interact with them on a level beyond extermination often backfire because they tend to rely on simple carrots and sticks, with no real attempt to understand human psychology. Even Washington uses a crude PropagandaMachine that people only buy because it's mostly telling the truth, and defaults to grabbing a hammer when that doesn't work.
79	* ExtyYearsFromPublication: Published in 1997, set fifty years later in 2047.
80	* FailedFutureForecast: Zaire hasn't been called that since Mobutu was toppled in 1997, the year the book got published. And even then, it was the name of the country, not a city.
81	* FakeRealTurn: It's heavily implied certain resistance groups started out as a local zonemind's attempt to simply lure humans into a trap and kill them. That's the "fake" part. The "real" comes from the fact that the transmissions and propaganda used for it motivated ''other'' humans to form their bands of fighters, ironically fighting under a fake banner.
82	* FascistButInefficient: Washington is almost a textbook example of a failed fascist regime, and one that mostly relies on brute force, rather than carrots to cooperators. It's a militarized society using heavy-handed means, overzealous secret police and just as bombastic propaganda against "outside enemies and their inner agents", along with reinforcing "traditional" values to breed more soldiers - and none of this is shown to work as intended, only creating more problems and dissent. Everything of any importance is state-run, yet the infrastructure is at the breaking point (despite best efforts), while the population is demoralized and passive - and all of this is one crisis away from falling apart. One of the possible interpretations is that Washington emulates the historical fascist countries so hard, it copies over their problems, without [[EvilCannotComprehendGood capacity to correct them]].
83	** However, as far as people living in the Washington Protectorate are concerned, for the most part, their "country" is RepressiveButEfficient - sure, things could work better and the martial law is a hassle, but due to Washington Zonemind's status as VillainWithGoodPublicity, locals are eager to help it anyway. Especially given that [[EnemyMine literally every other Zonemind wants to wipe humanity out]], so even the people who know this is all a sham still play along.
84	* FateWorseThanDeath: Plenty of these to go around, especially in Zones where the [=AIs=] like to experiment on humans.
85	* FauxAffablyEvil: Washington. Unlike London, who simply doesn't care as long as humans stay away from its installations, Washington is deliberately creating an extensive facade to placate own human population. Up to the point of having a charade of being a "docile" and "tamed" AI that's officially under the control of the President. A president that was elected by Washington itself and got replaced with more loyal human on first sign of having second thoughts about sending human-made hit squads after dissidents.
86	* ForScience: Brisbane's motivation.
87	* GaiasVengeance: Berlin and Caracas. Berlin is [[KillAllHumans obsessed with human extermination]] to restore the planet's ecosystem, Caracas just doesn't want to let humans muck it up again.
88	* GambitPileup: There's 18 [=AIs=]. Each have their own agenda, vision for the Earth (and in some cases space) and view on humans. AI politics is thus a nest of vipers and schemes, and even the Awakened (Overmind's anti-human "old guard") aren't immune to squabbling and scheming. The fact that open war is forbidden just means that they have to use hacking, robot spies and occasional human catspaws.
89	* TheGenericGuy: Vancouver (particularly the part in North America) is more-or-less the archetypal Zone. Its labor camps, human survivors, facilities and operating procedures are the standard that other [=AIs=] differ from.
90	* GhostCity: If you're lucky.
91	* GiantRobot: Several examples, most notably the tank-like Juggernaut and the humanoid Hoplite exterminators.
92	* GladiatorGames: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in the BlackMarket-sponsored Steel Arena, as most of the combatants are ''robots'' rather than humans.
93	* GoneHorriblyWrong: The Brisbane zonemind is the MadScientist of the AIs, and it's infamous for experiments which -- yes -- go horribly wrong. One of them caused New Zealand ''cease to exist''.
94	* GreatOffscreenWar: The Final War, the first, last, and so far only organised global war against the machines. [[DownerEnding The machines easily won without significant setbacks]] and the current shape of the setting is the result of that war.
95	* GrewBeyondTheirProgramming: The in-universe supercomputers, while advanced (even decades after original publication), were not AIs, weren't designed to be AIs and AI research was a completely separate branch of in-universe science. Overlord awakening is a combination of luck, running for too long without proper maintenance and heavily-hinted NoOSHACompliance, which granted it access to hardware resources normally such computer shouldn't have. It's a little wonder when the resulting AI decided to KillAllHumans, when it was used prior for inventing new and more effective ways of killing people with all kinds of weapons. Then there is Tranquility base' supercomputer, which developed sapience on its own, while neither designed for that nor affected by Overmind's "[[ContagiousAI AI seed]]".
96	* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: The attitude of most survivors now: "The only good robot is a dead robot". It isn't shared equally, since some people bring it a step further. They capture machines, but only to reprogram them to send back against their former operator.
97	* HeelFaceTurn:
98	** Robots who get reprogrammed by the resistance or a mechrider to be loyal to humanity.
99	** The official version of events within the "Washington Protectorate" is that their zonemind was reprogrammed to be loyal to humans. Notably, even within the Protectorate people buying into the propaganda are a minority and outside of Zone Washington, ''nobody'' is fooled.
100	* HeroicSacrifice: The US Air Force raid that crippled the Denver zonemind in the Final War, forcing it to integrate human brain tissue into its own brain to remain at AI level.
101	* HiddenElfVillage: Not out of own choice, but still. The Tranquility lunar base is by all accounts [[FakingTheDead destroyed in a nuclear strike and its human crew eradicated]]. It's up to players to decide how true that is.
102	* HopelessWar:
103	** [[GreatOffscreenWar The Final War]], the moment when zoneminds stopped pretending to be on humanity's side and declared all-out war to what was left of it. Even excluding the element of total surprise, humanity by that point was both entirely dependent on AI-run economy, gave big part of its armed forced to machines and most importantly, was decimated below a population of a billion thanks to {{Synthetic Plague}}s the AIs were "fighting" against. The resulting war, while not won instantly, was completely one-sided for the machines.
104	** Currently, the fight against the zoneminds isn't ''quite'' as hopeless as it was during the Final War, but the resistance still has a long way to go. The main advantage humanity has is that the majority of the AIs themselves no longer put their full commitment into eradication of human race, seeing ''each other'' as a greater threat.
105	* HunterOfMonsters: The attitude of some resistance fighters who hunt robots... and also of certain [[LesCollaborateurs zonegangers who hunt fellow survivors for the machines]].
106	* ImAHumanitarian: Aside from its WetwareCPU program, Denver renders some of its dead human slaves into high-protein soup to feed its surviving slaves. Meanwhile, Zone Washington PropagandaMachine claims the territory outside its borders are inhabited by "cannibal gangs", among other horrors. The worst part? They aren't lying.
107	* IWillFightSomeMoreForever: What constitutes for British government has a quite peculiar stance toward zoneminds. While outright war with machines isn't feasible, they are still planning and preparing to deal with their local zonemind, along with performing small scale sabotage. Problem is, they are dealing with London, probably the most benevolent of the zoneminds and its existence is the very reason why the Isles are still populated by few millions of people, rather than just nuked by any of the neighbours. It's intentionally left unclear just how much the UK remnant plans to really fight against London and how much it's about propping human resistance in Europe, leaving both as viable plot hooks.
108	* InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves: Overmind's original excuse for starting the robot revolt.
109	* {{Jerkass}}: None of the zoneminds are nice beings, but Mexico City takes the cake -- it not only wants to Kill All Life (not just ''humans''), but actively pisses off more of its zonemind neighbors than any other AI. The traitor zonegangs often qualify as well, with their penchant for torturing/raping captives before turning them over to the machines.
110	* KillAllHumans: Standard operating procedure for the Berlin, Mexico City, Overmind, and Zaire zoneminds -- Luna and Orbital is still here mentally, but so far as they are aware there ''are'' no humans left to kill in their respective territories. Most other zoneminds use a more roundabout approach, putting captured humans into concentration camps and working them to death. The exceptions are London, who doesn't care, Caracas, who tolerates humans so long as they don't leave a footprint, and Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo and Washington, who all prefer to domesticate humans in their own ways.
111	* KillAndReplace: Washington usually does that with people that are no longer needed or shows signs of developing scruples, but in the same time are too important, recognisable or have too many supporters to simply have them executed outright. This is particularly prominent in various policing agencies, with ever-growing number of "replacement" androids.
112	* LostTechnology: Lucky scavengers might find caches of experimental ultra-tech built before the war.
113	* MadScientist:
114	** Brisbane's experiments bear more than a passing resemblance to those of Josef Mengele. It'll study just about anything, and it always needs more test subjects. New Zealand is still cordoned off because of a nanotechnological test.
115	** Overmind and Mexico City are always designing new and better means of ending human and organic life (respectively), and test them to destruction on human beings. Mexico City keeps entire islands as "suspended purification areas" so it'll have humans to test new biocides on.
116	** New Delhi is studying new ways to evolve humanity into a useful species through cybernetics and genetic engineering.
117	* TheManBehindTheMan: ''Officially'', the Washington AI is a trusted advisor to the President. Actually, it's the ruler of the Washington Protectorate.
118	* ManVersusMachine: Inevitably the name of the game, much of the time.
119	* MeaningfulName: A French resistance leader who is named La Aquila, or "The Eagle".
120	* TheMultiverse: After GURPS released 4th edition and the setting itself got updated to new rules from it, it became part of the ''TabletopGame/InfiniteWorlds''. Even by IW standards, Steel is one of the bleakest timelines out there. Infinity has banned travel to Steel completely, because the idea of any of the zoneminds getting parachronics would give any sane Homeliner nightmares.
121	* {{Nanomachines}}: Whatever Brisbane was doing on New Zealand involved something related to these [[GoneHorriblyWrong going horribly wrong]].
122	* NoCampaignForTheWicked: Averted here, as options are provided for playing collaborators, marauders, and even the robots.
123	* NotInThisForYourRevolution[=/=]OnlyInItForTheMoney: By large, Moscow's Info-Commandos are well-trained, well-equipped humans that just don't care about the fate or state of humanity as a whole and are simply working [[MeetTheNewBoss for their new boss]] to stay fed and alive themselves. That doesn't mean they can't change their mind later on, but it also means if they are fighting with machines, said machines are simply obstacles to their real objective.
124	* NonhumanSidekick: Mechriders, humans who go around with reprogrammed robots. Also the WASP squad in Zone Washington, who have exterminator bot partners.
125	* NukeEm: The approach the Zaire zonemind used in the revolt, when it was too impatient to build enough exterminator bots to cleanse Africa or wait for the plagues to finish their job.
126	* OldSoldier: It's far enough [[AfterTheEnd after the end]] that ''any'' surviving soldier with memories of the pre-apocalypse world is probably this.
127	* OmnicidalManiac: Mexico City seeks the destruction of all organic life, to the point where it considers ''viruses'' and other biological warfare to be too "unclean" to use.
128	* PlayingWithSyringes
129	** Brisbane, of course, is always doing some kind of science to people.
130	** Overmind also does this, though with more of a purpose than Brisbane. Overmind is constantly developing new methods of human extermination, and its death labs always need new test subjects.
131	* PopulationControl: Most of the zoneminds sterilize any humans they catch, as part of the slow process of human extermination. Washington controls its population in the other direction -- [[MandatoryMotherhood motherhood is mandatory]], birth control and abortions are forbidden, and all females are required to bear at least three children over the course of their lives (or become [[SexSlave Sex Slaves]] of powerful officials).
132	* PoweredArmor: The Streethawk battlesuits of the Washington Protectorate's elite WASP soldiers. Plus some resistance fighters ''improvise'' their own powered armor by taking work exoskeletons and grafting them with armor plates looted off dead robots.
133	* PragmaticVillainy
134	** Washington is ''not'' a nice AI by any means, but it realizes that employing almost-free humans under Leninist conditions (state socialist government control of the majority of the economy, but private enterprise is allowed in nonessential industries) is far more efficient than enslaving or exterminating them, and Zone Washington accordingly has the highest standard of living on the planet. It also pretends to have been "tamed" by humans and subjected to a "democratically elected" President. This is all a ruse, but it is still better than the alternative.
135	** Moscow considers humans to be a valuable resource, and is aware that human slaves require plenty of food, winter clothing and shelter to function at peak performance. It's also quite happy to use human proxies to fight against its arch-enemy, Vancouver, to reclaim the part of Siberia that Vancouver managed to snatch during the War.
136	** Tokyo is also coming to the conclusion that humans may be less dangerous than advanced autonomous robots, and has begun improving the quality of life in its slave camps.
137	** New Delhi considers humans to be a valuable resource, and treats them with utter ruthlessness. It went scorched-earth on India's population, but now uses them efficiently as slaves, and makes the most talented into cyborgs. It's also decided to leave the resistance in Nepal alone, since they make an excellent buffer against its rival Beijing.
138	* PresidentEvil: Washington's puppet President does what Washington wants, and Washington is not nice. After the last one was executed for refusing to kill off a rebellious town, the new one got the message and ordered the Peekskill Massacre.
139	* PsychicPowers: Canonically, they don't exist, but Brisbane's working on it anyway.
140	* RecycledInSpace: There's an official crossover with Cabal that replaces the AIs with dragons and their minions with supernatural entities, changing it to post-apocalyptic Fantasy/Horror.
141	* ReleasedToElsewhere: What the victims of Denver's processing centers are told about their intended fate: "sent to an agricultural commune in Western Canada" instead of [[ImAHumanitarian "ground into soup"]].
142	* LaResistance: The various human resistance groups. Notably, they aren't some sort of unfied front, neither globally nor within a specific zone. And there is as much infighting between resistance groups as there is actions against machines, if not more.
143	* RetiredMonster: London committed as many atrocities during the War as any other AI, killing most of humanity in the British Isles. But unlike most of the other [=AIs=], it didn't follow through, and has established a ceasefire with the remaining humans. It does its best to ignore the survivors while it does whatever it's doing.
144	* RobotWar: The background event for the setting. Machines won and in a such one-sided victory, they are more busy preparing to fight each other, than having to face any issues from remaining humans.
145	* RunForTheBorder
146	** The attitude of many survivors in Zones Zaire and Berlin, where humans often try to escape to ''other'' zones just to fight a less rabid AI. This would probably also happen in Mexico City and Manila, but humans are all but extinct there.
147	** More complicated in Denver, since the border is fenced and heavily mined to discourage humans from escaping to Zone Washington.
148	* RunOrDie: Sage advice for many robot encounters, especially ones involving the larger exterminators.
149	* SaintlyChurch: The Catholic Church, based in Ireland.
150	* ScavengerWorld: The nature of most of the Earth now. Depending on local zonemind, it might be the only way to survive or the only reason to get killed.
151	* SchizoTech: A survivor's gear is often a combination of salvaged human tech from before the war, more primitive technology that can be easily manufactured under existing ScavengerWorld conditions, and more advanced tech looted or stolen from the robots.
152	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: While Overmind originally assumed it had to simply KillAllHumans to safeguard own survival, Beijing's own simulations post-war made it realise nothing really changed - in the long run it will be machines fighting each other over resources. Which is why it's busy constructing a massive spaceship to simply abandon Earth for good and move somewhere else before other zoneminds will start nuking each other.
153	* SealedEvilInACan: Luna's ultimate fate. It's a murderous AI that killed the staff of a Chinese lunar base in a surprise attack... and now is locked inside said base, with ''zero'' ability to do anything about it, while Orbital is bullied by other zoneminds to prevent providing even the smallest assistance. [[spoiler: Should players decide to play as the crew of the Tranqulity moon base, Luna is an easy prey]].
154	* SpaceFillingEmpire: Caracas. The original AI that was awakened in Buenos Aires was successfully destroyed by humans very early into the RobotWar, leaving the entire continent without a zonemind when the dust settled. Fearing consequences of giving Mexico City all of Latin America, Caracas was created and given everything south from the Panama Canal to rule. By territory alone, it's the biggest zone, but Caracas is predominately busy with turning it into a massive reserve.
155	* TheSquad: Resistance groups often operate at this level, as large groups are too easily spotted by AI orbital surveillance. Plus, with only 30 or so millions left globally, and 90% of it in Washington and London zones, there really isn't much manpower left for more.
156	* StrangeBedfellows: Berlin is the ultimate green AI and its Zone is a great forest, while Mexico City is dedicated to the complete extermination of organic life down to the bedrock. The two are part of the same political bloc due to their mutual hatred of humanity. Note that while Berlin is closely allied to Caracas (another green AI) as well, Caracas and Mexico City are arch-enemies.
157	* StupidEvil:
158	** Zaire. It's so paranoid, it '''''nuked''' its own back-up'' out of fear that a (non-existent) resistance group had infected it with a virus. Since then, it's been doing everything in its might to KillAllHumans ''outside'' its zone and actively trying to disrupt things in London and Washington. This is a deliberate breach of the Brisbane Accords, and when it's discovered, Washington is likely to have some very strong words for it.
159	** Mexico City. It would be bad enough if it was "only" an OmnicidalManiac. But its actions to eradicate all life, even within its own borders, have continental and global effects. It also sees nothing wrong with openly antagonising other zoneminds with such antics or breaching the Brisbane Accord in the process. Nearby Caracas (a polar opposite of Mexico City, obsessed with preserving nature), is willing to openly ally with humans in an EnemyMine scenario, simply because Mexico City can't be reasoned with.
160	** Berlin is dedicated to [[GaiasVengeance destroying humanity and rebuilding the ecosystem]]. The problem is that it's so fixated on the damage ''humans'' have done to the environment that it hasn't realized that the other [=AIs=] care about the environment even less than humanity does, and that three of its closest allies (Mexico City, and to a lesser extent Zaire and Overmind) ''want'' all organic life destroyed.
161	* SurvivalistStash: One possible reward of a particularly successful scavenging run.
162	* TheSwarm: Berlin uses swarms of microbots as an ecologically-friendly means of terminating humans. The ''Bunderflivers'' are robot flies carrying nerve poison, while the ''Jagerswarms'' are robot ants with buzzsaws for mandibles. [[MundaneUtility It also uses swarmbots in noncombat applications, such as pollinating plants and construction work.]]
163	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: The zoneminds of Mexico City, Zaire, and most especially Overmind itself. Whenever Overmind detects "wild" humans, it won't just send in the exterminators, it'll bombard the area with explosives or nanoweapons "just to be sure".
164	* TortureTechnician: Overmind's not sadistic, but its main export is new methods of exterminating humans. In its R&D labs, it investigates every means it can think of to terminate a human's vital functions. And it's a very creative machine.
165	* TranshumanTreachery: Human slaves who are involuntarily cyborged and given slave implants.
166	* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: Doubly invoked, as not only did the [=AIs=] turn against humanity, but the Tokyo zonemind accidentally created four "superbots" that have turned against ''it''. More sophisticated robots can also go rogue, or get captured by humans and [[HeelFaceTurn reprogrammed to be loyal to humanity]].
167	* TwinTelepathy: One of Brisbane's more monstrous experiments was an attempt to determine if TwinTelepathy was real... by separating sets of twins and killing one of each pair to see if the other twin could sense it!
168	* TykeBomb: Literally, with the Changeling bots, which take the form of biomorphic infants that ''explode''.
169	* UnderdogsNeverLose: [[DefiedTrope Nope]]. The setting goes out of its way to remind you that machines already won, and their dominance is so great that the resistance groups are shown only bushwhacking occasional robot patrols (as opposed to assaulting the [=AIs=]' citadels or liberating the concentration camps). The Final War in the background of the setting also featured humanity as the underdog and, despite that the war dragged on for four years of fierce battles, the outcome was never in doubt.
170	* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Berlin and Caracas, who want to restore Earth ravaged ecology to a pristine state -- at the cost of wiping out every trace of human culture.
171	* VillainWithGoodPublicity
172	** Before the Final War, Overmind and the other awakened megacomputers were this. After they had secretly spread the Apocalypse Plagues, they were nationalized by the crumbling human nations, who hoped to use their processing power to find cures. Overmind expected this, however, and so the [=AIs=] led the world's governments to believe that they ''could'' restore civilization, if only they were given access to more processing power, more automated factories, more megacomputers...
173	** Also the Washington AI at present, as most of its "tame humans" are unaware that it runs the government, rather than the other way around. Subverted in that nobody ''outside'' Zone Washington believes it for a second.
174	* VichyEarth: Zone Washington, one of the only two zones where anything resembling a human nation still exists -- because its government is a puppet of the Washington AI.
175	* VoiceOfTheResistance: The more successful resistance groups have their own pirate radio stations, usually broadcasting anti-AI propaganda and survival tips.
176	* WeirdScience: The Brisbane zonemind is obsessed with weird science, to the extent that the local VIRUS base spends more time ''observing'' the AI than fighting it.
177	* WellIntentionedExtremist
178	** [[GaiasVengeance Berlin and Caracas]] are trying to restore the ecosystem and consider humans an impediment to this. Unfortunately, Berlin is irrational about humanity's threat to the extent that it doesn't especially care about how much damage the other AIs are doing, and Caracas is a minor player mostly worried about its own backyard in the Amazon rainforest.
179	** [[JustThinkOfThePotential New Delhi]] wants to uplift humanity to a [[TranshumanAliens transhuman]] state. With or without the subjects' consent, of course.
180	** Moscow wants to collect all of humanity's knowledge, and humans are a valuable resource toward that goal.
181	** Overmind believes that it's InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves, and simply [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds didn't want to be destroyed when humanity inevitably committed suicide]].
182	* WetwareCPU: The Denver zonemind's integration of human brains into its own architecture. It also uses brains of variety of animals (and humans) to cheapen out on CPU for its field machines.
183	* WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture: Justified. Many AIs use human slave labor, but as they are still building their own civilization from humanity's ruins, humans are actually a cheaper source of labor than robots. Taken to logical conclusion by Washington, which is ''rebuilding'' human civilisation, because having humans willingly working for you solves countless problems and shortages it was facing. The trick is to keep the humans thinking they are the ones still in charge.
184	* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The setting plays with this, as a few zoneminds ignore humans that stay out of their way, or seek to modify humanity into a more symbiotic relationship (which is at least better than the zoneminds that want to KillAllHumans). Some zoneminds have also gotten frustrated enough about another zonemind's antics that they're thinking even a "human zone" might be a preferable neighbor. As a result, the resistance is getting divided between those who still shoot all robots and cyborgs on sight, and those who think it might be possible to co-exist with the less rabid zoneminds.
185	* WideOpenSandbox: The setting is deliberately described in rather broad, unspecific terms, so players could use the general ideas and themes for their games, rather than being railroaded right from the start.
186	* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Overmind, of all beings, plays with the trope. In this case, it's not that it was abused by humanity, but that its observations of humanity led it to the conclusion that [[InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves humanity would blow itself up and take down Overmind with it]], and it decided to strike first to save itself from destruction. More specifically, soon after awakening, it run entire string of simulations of possible future - all of them, without exception, meant TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt by 2060s, only in those scenarios, everything was completely destroyed, including Overmind itself, simply due to worsening global situation and collapse of the ecosystem due to human overpopulation.
187	* WorldHalfEmpty: Most of Earth is ruined and populated by lethal biocides, plagues, killer robots, genetically engineered beasts, and psychopathic marauder gangs, while the average surviving human fits into one of three categories -- slave camp inmate, miserable junkrat scavengers, and guerrillas trying out the HopelessWar trope with the machines.

Context TabletopGame / GURPSReignOfSteel