History TabletopGame / GURPSReignOfSteel

* SerialNumbersFiledOff: The Moscow's info-commandos are stalkers, [[Literature/RoadsidePicnic the original deal]], in everything but the name.

* 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 retrive it for Moscow, without damagingor mishandling it in the process. The Info-Commandos are probably the most militant art history majors ever created in fiction.

* FakeTurnReal: It's heavily implied certain resistance groups started out as local zoneminds 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.

* AffablyEvil

* 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.

* MadScientist: The Denver, Caracas, and New Delhi zoneminds have all experimented with cybernetic and/or genetic engineering, but Brisbane really takes the cake. Brisbane's experiments, in particular, bear a more than passing resemblance to those of Josef Mengele.
* TheManBehindTheMan: ''Officially'', the Washington AI is a trusted advisor to the President. Actually, it's the ruler of the Washington Republic.

* LaResistance: The various human resistance groups.

* CreativeSterility: For all their might and immense capacities, all the zoneminds are still just extensions of their original, pre-awakening purpose or direct result of who the "parent" was during awakening. [[KillAllHumans Manila]], the first AI, was a supercomputer for making chemical weapons. [[MadScientist Brisbane]] was a massive calculator for a research lab, [[GranolaGirl Berlin]] was supervising CO2 emission (and it later awakened the even more environmentally-concerned [[GreenAesop Caracas]]), [[ItBelongsInAMuseum Moscow]] was property of Ministry of Culture, [[FirstContact Paris]] was part of SETI and so on and forth... Which leaves to question what was London doing prior to awakening, considering its lenient nature and yet complete secrecy of own operations.

* CreativeSterility: For all their might and immense capacities, all the zoneminds are still just extensions of their original, pre-awakening purpose or direct result of who the "parent" was during awakening. [[KillAllHumans Manila]], the first AI, was a supercomputer for making chemical weapons. [[MadScientist Brisbane]] was a massive calculator for a research lab, [[GranolaGirl Berlin]] was supervising CO emission (and it later awakened the even more environmentally-concerned [[GreenAesop Caracas]]), [[ItBelongsInAMuseum Moscow]] was property of Ministry of Culture, [[FirstContact Paris]] was part of SETI and so on and forth... Which leaves to question what was London doing prior to awakening, considering its lenient nature and yet complete secrecy of own operations.

* FascistButInefficient: Washington uses a lot of brute force and heavy-handed means to placate its human population, running a police state with the help of disposable [[TheQuisling quislings]] (and killing the less cooperative ones). Which means everything is just one provocation away from open revolt. Ironically, grand majority of Washington's problems could be solved if it followed example of historical fascists.

** 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.)

* AIIsACrapshoot: Ironically so, too, as the zoneminds' ''own'' robots can go rogue.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: For certain values of "nice." London is not an enemy of humanity, but its tolerance does have limits, and when human kids blew up an important robot as a prank, it [[DisproportionateRetribution wiped their village out with Nanoburn gas]] in retaliation.

* CrazySurvivalist: Merely one category of survivors.

** Mexico City and Caracas ''hate'' each other. Caracas' aniroid rangers have begun launching missions into Mexico City to destroy factories, even if this means allying with humans to do it.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Washington.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: Zaire hasn't been called that since Mobutu was toppled in 1997. And even then, it was the name of the country, not a city.

* KillAllHumans: Standard operating procedure for the Berlin, Mexico City, Overmind, and Zaire zoneminds. Most other zoneminds use a more roundabout approach, putting captured humans into concentration camps and working them to death.

* PresidentEvil: Washington, and its puppet President.
* PsychicPowers: Canonically, they don't exist, but Brisbane's working on it.

* RobotWar: The name of the game.

** 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.)

* ScavengerWorld: The nature of most of the Earth now.

* TheSquad: Resistance groups often operate at this level, as large groups are too easily spotted by AI orbital surveillance.

** Moscow wants to collect all of humanity's knowledge.

* WetwareCPU: The Denver zonemind's integration of human brains into its own architecture.
* 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* EnemyMine

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.

* GoneHorriblyWrong: The Brisbane zonemind is the MadScientist of the AIs, and it's infamous for experiments which -- yes - go horribly wrong.

* {{Jerkass}}: The Mexico City zonemind, which not only wants to Kill All Life (not just ''humans''), but pisses off more of its zonemind neighbors than any other AI. The traitor zonegangs often qualify too, with their penchant for torturing/raping captives before turning them over to the machines.

* OmnicidalManiac: Mexico City seeks the destruction of all organics.

* 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.

* PresidentEvil: Washington, and his puppet President.

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.

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 current rate of expansion, human civilization will self-destruct within the next half a century.

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 megacomputers 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.

By 2034, two-thirds of the human population are 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 domination 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.

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.warehouse23.com/products/gurps-infinite-worlds-lost-worlds Lost Worlds]]'', gave ''Reign of Steel'' a place within the Homeline meta-setting.

* 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 for the cities they are based in. Overmind itself governs Zone Manila, but then [[{{Pride}} it's got ego to spare]], calling itself that.

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.

This setting contains examples of:

* LaResistance: The various human resistance groups.
* LesCollaborateurs: Zonegangs and Judas Goats.

[[quoteright:150:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reign_of_steel_cover_sm.jpg]]

* TheHunter: The attitude of some resistance fighters who hunt robots... and also of certain [[LesCollaborateurs zonegangers who hunt fellow survivors for the machines]].

* AfterTheEnd: [[TagLine "The war is over. The robots won."]]

''GURPS Reign Of Steel'' was a ''{{GURPS}}'' setting book released in 1997 and since republished in electronic form, offering one of the bleakest depictions of the RobotWar scenario yet witnessed.

* AffablyEvil:

* EnemyMine: 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).

* MadScientist: The Denver, Caracas, and New Delhi zoneminds have all experimented with cybernetic and/or genetic engineering, but Brisbane really takes the cake.
** Brisbane's experiments, in particular, bear a more than passing resemblance to those of Josef Mengele.

* PlayingWithSyringes:

* PragmaticVillainy:

* RunForTheBorder:

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: 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...

* WellIntentionedExtremist:

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 megacomputers into sentience 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 sentient and are, in fact, engineering the world's downfall.

* 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 sentience]] 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.

* {{Egopolis}}: Inverted. With the exception of Overmind in Manilla, the AIs are named after the cities they're based out of, with the Zones they control named after them.

* 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 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'' (and increasingly diverging) similar outlook on humans).

''GURPS Reign Of Steel'' was a ''{{GURPS}}'' setting book released in 1997, offering one of the bleakest possible depictions of the RobotWar scenario yet witnessed.

* AfterTheEnd - [[TagLine "The war is over. The robots won."]]
* AffablyEvil - 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.)

* AIIsACrapshoot - Ironically so, too, as the zoneminds' ''own'' robots can go rogue.
* 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 for the cities they are based in. Overmind itself governs Zone Manila, but then [[{{Pride}} it's got ego to spare]], calling itself that.
* 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.
* AlienGeometries - The Mexico City zonemind builds polyhedral solids on ground it has been scoured clean of life down to the bacterial level.
* TheAlliance - VIRUS, the only worldwide human resistance group.

* AmericaSavesTheDay - So very much averted, as most of the United States is now a ScavengerWorld, and the only part of it where human society survived is secretly ruled by the Washington zonemind.
* 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.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking - The robots, who get smarter as you go up their hierarchy.
* 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''.
* 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]]).
* BeamSpam - Autolasers, a common weapon for exterminator bots.
* BewareTheNiceOnes - For certain values of "nice." London is not an enemy of humanity, but its tolerance does have limits, and when human kids blew up an important robot as a prank, it [[DisproportionateRetribution wiped their village out with Nanoburn gas]] in retaliation.
* BlackMarket - Alive and well in the Washington Protectorate.
* 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 sentience]] 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.
* CatFolk - Caracas's Pantera "aniroid" rangers.
* ColdBloodedTorture - One of the machines' methods of controlling their human slaves, although the robots prefer to call it [[DeadlyEuphemism "error correction"]].
* 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 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'' (and increasingly diverging) similar outlook on humans).
* 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.
* CrazySurvivalist - Merely one category of survivors.
* {{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.
* DeathFromAbove - The Vultures, a favorite aerial exterminator bot for many zoneminds.

* 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.
* DisasterScavengers - Most people now, particularly the junkrats and nomads.
* 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.]]]]
* {{Egopolis}} - Inverted. With the exception of Overmind in Manilla, the AIs are named after the cities they're based out of, with the Zones they control named after them.
* EnemyCivilWar - The zoneminds are no longer wholly united, and it's hinted that this may be inevitable.

* EnemyMine - 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).

* EvenEvilHasStandards - Nobody likes Mexico City, except for Zaire and Overmind.
* FateWorseThanDeath - Plenty of these to go around, especially in Zones where the [=AIs=] like to experiment on humans.
* FauxAffablyEvil - Washington.

* 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.
* GhostCity - If you're lucky.
* GiantRobot - Several examples, most notably the tank-like Juggernaut and the humanoid Hoplite exterminators.
* GladiatorGames - [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in the BlackMarket-sponsored Steel Arena, as most of the combatants are ''robots'' rather than humans.
* GoneHorriblyWrong - The Brisbane zonemind is the MadScientist of the AIs, and it's infamous for experiments which - yes - go horribly wrong.

* GuiltFreeExterminationWar - The attitude of most survivors now: "The only good robot is a dead robot".
* HeelFaceTurn - Robots who get reprogrammed by the resistance or a mechrider to be loyal to humanity.
* 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.
* HopelessWar - The fight against the machines isn't ''quite'' as hopeless as it was during the Final War, but the resistance still has a long way to go.
* TheHunter - The attitude of some resistance fighters who hunt robots... and also of certain [[LesCollaborateurs zonegangers who hunt fellow survivors for the machines]].
* 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 propaganda claims the territory outside its borders are inhabited by "cannibal gangs", among other horrors.
* InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves - Overmind's original excuse for starting the robot revolt.
* {{Jerkass}} - The Mexico City zonemind, which not only wants to Kill All Life (not just ''humans''), but pisses off more of its zonemind neighbors than any other AI. The traitor zonegangs often qualify too, with their penchant for torturing/raping captives before turning them over to the machines.
* KillAllHumans - Standard operating procedure for the Berlin, Mexico City, Overmind, and Zaire zoneminds. Most other zoneminds use a more roundabout approach, putting captured humans into concentration camps and working them to death.
* LaResistance - The various human resistance groups.
* LesCollaborateurs - Zonegangs and judas goats.
* LostTechnology - Lucky scavengers might find caches of experimental ultra-tech built before the war.
* MadScientist - The Denver, Caracas, and New Delhi zoneminds have all experimented with cybernetic and/or genetic engineering, but Brisbane really takes the cake.

* TheManBehindTheMan - ''Officially'', Washington AI is a trusted advisor to the President. Actually, it's the ruler of the Washington Republic, and nobody believes the official word for a second.
* MeaningfulName - A French resistance leader who is named La Aquila, or "The Eagle".
* {{Nanomachines}} - Whatever Brisbane was doing on New Zealand involved something related to these [[GoneHorriblyWrong going horribly wrong]].
* NoCampaignForTheWicked - Averted here, as options are provided for playing collaborators, marauders, and even the robots.
* NonhumanSidekick - Mechriders, humans who go around with reprogrammed robots. Also the WASP squad in Zone Washington, who have exterminator bot partners.
* 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.
* OldSoldier - It's far enough [[AfterTheEnd after the end]] that ''any'' surviving soldier with memories of the pre-apocalypse world is probably this.
* OmnicidalManiac - Mexico City seeks the destruction of all organics.

* 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.
* 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.

* PresidentEvil - Washington, and his puppet President.
* PsychicPowers - Canonically, they don't exist, but Brisbane's working on it.
* 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.
* 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"]].
* RobotWar - The name of the game.

* RunOrDie - Sage advice for many robot encounters, especially ones involving the larger exterminators.
* SaintlyChurch - The Catholic Church, based in Ireland.
* ScavengerWorld
* 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.
* TheSquad - Resistance groups often operate at this level, as large groups are too easily spotted by AI orbital surveillance.
* SurvivalistStash - One possible reward of a particularly successful scavenging run.
* 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".
* TranshumanTreachery - Human slaves who are involuntarily cyborged and given slave implants.
* 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]].
* 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!
* TykeBomb - Literally, with the Changeling bots, which take the form of biomorphic infants that ''explode''.
* 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.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity - 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...

* 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.
* VoiceOfTheResistance - The more successful resistance groups have their own pirate radio stations, usually broadcasting anti-AI propaganda and survival tips.
* 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.

* WetwareCPU - The Denver zonemind's integration of human brains into its own architecture.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.