History TabletopGame / GURPSReignOfSteel

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

* 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 resrouces 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.

** [[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 dependant 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.

** 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 could finally end, but due to Washington Zonemind's status as VillainWithGoodPublicity, locals are eager to help it enyway. Especially given that [[EnemyMine literally every other Zonemind is out there to wipe humanity out]], so even people who know this is all sham still play along.

* 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.

* StupidEvil: 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 discoverered, Washington is likely to have some very strong words for it.

** 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.

* 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. 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.

* 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 more than a passing resemblance to those of Josef Mengele.

* 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, an equally "second rate" zonemind.

** London. See this line? Don't cross it. Now off you go, do what humans do. You've crossed the line? Enjoy counter-attack that will make you and your entire kind reconsider ever again going after machines. After Brits learned to not mess with the machine installations and perimeters of those, British Isles turned into ''the'' safest place on Earth for humanity, with nearly half of total human population living there.

* 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 nobody really buys, and defaults to grabbing a hammer when that doesn't work.

* 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), and everything is just one provocation away from open revolt. It'd probably be a lot easier to keep control if Washington understood the concept of BreadAndCircuses.

* 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. The only notable exceptions are London, who doesn't care, and Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo and Washington, who all prefer to domesticate humans in their own ways.

* StupidEvil: 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 discoverered, Washington is likely to have some very strong comms for it.

* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Moscow's Info-Commaados are well-armed, well-equipped humans that couldn't care less about fighting against machines as some sort of resistance. Them destroying some robot or even facility? That's just to fulfill their objectives of grabbing an important artwork or artifact and get back home for payment.

* 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, Earth from Reign of Steel is one of the bleakest alternatives out there and everyone is advised to simply stay away, as there is nothing to look for there, while the sole concept of any of the zoneminds getting parachronics is enough even for [[LawfulStupid Homeworld]] to outright ban travel there.

* 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. The only notable exceptions are London, who doesn't care, and Washington, who decided to step-up the game by having humans willingly working for it to proportions that no other zonemind would even consider for a second.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Nobody really knows what London is up to - neither other AIs nor humans. It has only one requirement for everyone: stay at designated distance from my installation, or [[DisproportionateRetribution heavy retaliation]] will happen. This includes forces of other zoneminds trying to get into London's territory.

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

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Washington. The whole "let's give humans juuust enough food, safety and feeling of liberty" plan is simply to have few millions of manual workers and save on maintenance and complex manufacturing, putting far bigger emphasis on construction of war machines.

* 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, with BreadAndCircuses, propaganda and providing benefits to people, rather than trying to simply force them into compliance.

* 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.

* PresidentEvil: Washington, and its puppet President. Notably, the president is not only a powerless figurehead, but when the first one started to have just ''signs'' of scrupules, he got killed for his trouble and instantly replaced with new, docile puppet.

* LaResistance: The various human resistance groups. Notably, they aren't some sort of unfied front, neither globally nor within specific zone. And there is as much infighting between resistance groups as there is actions against machines, if not more.

* TheSingularity: A true AI arised. [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Nothing good came from it]]

* StupidEvil:
** Mexico City. It's campaign to eradicate ''all life'' is as practical and sensible as it sounds, especially since it's locked anyway with it's relatively small zone. By turning it's zone into a barren wasteland and continously scrubbing it from even micro-organisms, it created an environment that's hard even for the machines, due to non-stop dust bowls when it's dry and massive mudslides and sea of mud when it's raining. On top of that, it's affecting things globally by disrupting weather and climate patterns, which is against Brisbane Accords.
** Zaire, oh Zaire. Where to even start? It's so paranoid, it '''''nuked''' its own back-up'' out of fear it got infested by a virus by non-existing resistance. Then it's doing everything in its might to KillAllHumans ''outside'' its zone. To the point it's actively trying to disrupt things in London and Washington, breaking Brisbane Accords in a deliberate and intentional way, antagonising in the process other zoneminds, too.

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.