"Youth subcultures for a near-future/cyberpunk setting" Topic

Just wondering, has anyone thought up any "cool" youth subcultures for a futuristic gang war type setting? Like, more stuff in the same vein as the Slicks from East Riding's sci-fi range? I know there's the Rezolution range, much of which has an interesting vision of what the Harajuku style of fashion might look like a few years from now. And while goths have even become yesterday's news today, I wouldn't mind modelling a futuristic gang of them with some of the miniatures mentioned in the recent thread on goth chicks. But what else?

One idea I've had is a "communist admirers" subculture. Hardly a new thing in itself (Che Guevara T-shirts and all that) but I'm imagining the whole notion having become much more overt in the future, and solidified into a proper subculture not unlike goth, punk etc. I'd like to model a gang wearing old Soviet military attire (not worn as actual uniforms, but chic-ed up), long red scarves, berets with communist symbols on them, and so on. It's an idea I got a couple of years ago, when a guy I knew (a young twenty-something, like myself) had gotten hold of an old Soviet military overcoat and started wearing it as a means of expressing himself. I found myself wondering if maybe this was the next cultural undercurrent waiting to hit the surface, like goth did in the late 90's. Even if it isn't, it's still a cool idea for a gang in a near-future sci-fi setting.

So, a gang of kids all dressed as Soviet Generals?

It may be more of a North American phenomenon, but what about the shuffling rapper thug group?

For "good guys", I like the idea of organized bike messengers a la Dark Angel and Gibson's Virtual Light. Or maybe Parcour enthusiasts. Or maybe a band of mixed western and eastern Otaku who hacked one site too many and got themselves mixed up in someone's business…

Looking for some anarchal villain types? I was always fond of the Jokers from Batman Beyond. An old theme but a good one. Also check out the Panther Moderns from William Gibson's Neuromancer – one of Gibson's tour de force archetypes; you could have a gang of post-modern artists who film all their exploits as experiential street art, splice it and then web it with soundtracks. The ultimate in cyberpunk expression. Nice touch is that you can have a netjocky in the gang whose only job is to film and uplink the action – some good game objectives you could wrap around that.

There is a youth subculture RPG called Covert Generation.
link

It's actually very cool, and inexpensive as well!

I really like all of Yonderboy's suggestions. I think Parkour enthusiasts are a great option as well--ignoring terrain or moving d6" up walls or double moves, something like that.

I hate to sound like the National Council for Poofy Wigs, but what about people dressed up in 18th century costumes--tricornes and long coats? The Dandy Macaroni are devoted to expressing boredom in all circumstances. They inhale/snort/ingest/transderm all manner of recreational pharmaceuticals (the more adventuresome will also hold up banks), while trying very hard not to have fun doing it. Then they write the most cliched poetry about boredom and leave it places.

My Quiz Bowl team in High School all wore gray surplus East German Army overcoats. Brilliantly anticipating your Communichic!

In my neck of the woods, we've already gone through the dress-up-as-soviet guys phase. Thanks to the fall of the old regime, the nice coats were easy and cheap to pick up. Along with very nice East German border guard kit.

having seen The Warriors again at the weekend, I'd say just about anything you fancy really – although I find myself odd in that I found the dungeree farm boys were pushing it a bit, and was ok with the Baseball Furies and the clown faces in top hats….

There are all the gangs from "The Warriors":

o The Warriors themselves, shirtless with brown leather vests.

o The Rogues, wearing sleeveless black leather biker jackets with the sleeves cut off, and biker caps.

o The Gramercy Riffs, Cyrus's gang, wearing (mostly) orange

o The Baseball Furies, of course, in Yankees uniforms and zombie/KISS make-up, armed with baseball bats. How about a cricket version, armed with cricket bats?

o The Turnbull AC's, with their green school buses, armed with chains and planks of wood.

o The Orphans, in jeans and T-shirts, armed with razors.

o The Lizzies, an all-female gang.

o The Punks, wearing long-sleeve shirts and overalls, and wielding chains and baseball bats.

o The Spanish Harlem Hurricanes, in 50's-style straw hats

o The Harlem Boppers, wearing purple waistcoats, cream slacks, and fedoras

o The Soho Hi-Hats, dressed like mimes in red and black tops, suspenders, white face-paint, and top hats

o The Electric Eliminators, in yellow satin jackets

o The Savage Huns of Chinatown, Orientals wearing green martial arts-style shirts and brown Tibetan-style pointed hats

o The Pelham Moonrunners, in silver space suits and purple vests

o The Saracens, wearing black unitards with white trim

o Satan's Mothers, wearing biker vests

o The Jones Street Boys, wearing yellow and black in various combinations

o The Van Cortlandt Rangers, who wear black and white horizontal-striped tops and fedoras

o The Boyle Avenue Runners, who wear black tank tops with red trim

o The Gladiators, with jeans and black T-shirts

o The Panzers, who wear black T-shirts, woodland camo jackets, and black berets

o A gang wearing hawaiian print shirts

o A gang wearing shearling vests

Here's a full listing of all the gangs in the movie, from the original script: Alleycats, Amsterdam All-Stars, Baseball Furies, Black Hands, Blackjacks, Big Trains, Boppers, Boyle Avenue Runners, Charlemagnes, Colt 45's, Dealers, Delaney Rovers, Dingoes, E Street Shufflers, Easy Aces, Electric Eliminators, Eighth Avenue Apaches, Fastballs, Fifth Street Bombers, Filmores, Firetasters, Five Points, Gerrards, Gladiators, Go Hards, Gun Hill Dancers, Gramercy Riffs, High Hats, High Rollers, Homeboys, Hoplites, Howitzers, Huks, Hurricanes, Imps, Jesters, Jones Street Boys, Judas Bunch, Jupiters, Knockdowns, Knuckles, Lizzies, Locos, Magicians, Meatpackers, Moonrunners, Napoleons, Nickel Steaks, Nightriders, Ninth Avenue Razors, Orphans, Panzers, Phillies, Plainsmen, Punks, Queen's Bridge Mutilators, Real Boys, Red Hook Shooters, Roadmasters, Rogues, Romans, Runaways, Saracens, Saratogas, Savage Huns, Shanghai Sultans, Southern Cross, Speedwagons, Stevedores, Stilletos, Stonebreakers, Terriers, Turks, Turnbull AC's, Van Cortlandt Rangers, Warriors, Whispers, Xenophones, Xylophones, Yo-Yo's, Youngbloods, Zodiacs, Zulus.

If nothing else, those should give you some good ideas for names. Gotta love the Nickel Steaks!

holy crap dude…that is an impressive list, well done.

Of course you could go with the modern primitives:
totems…elements of furs, bone/teeth details, etc.
themed tatoos…look to New Zealand natives for look
common "color" or clothing that refreshes an old look

maybe an item that joins them together…they all have clubs made from parking meters…giving it back to the man

Read Hammerjack or Prodigal by Marc Giller for some Street Species. Good books BTW.

There's already a youth gang that wears Hawaiian shirts. They're called compsci majors.

28mmMan, I started pulling that list together years ago, based on numerous viewings of the movie and some Internet searches.

And I like your parking meter club idea. Is there a parking meter in any of the Clix sets?

Grenadier also did a few cool gangs in their first Cyberpunk series, years ago. Best of all, they were ahead of the curve – these minis are all 28mm: link

The Voodoo Boys are especially cool, especially when coupled with some of the dreadlocked minis in Foundry's Street Violence line.

I ma making a series of urban found weapons for my current project. These will be cast and made availible for sale very soon. As there will be 30 individuals I need lots of things for them to use.

Parking meters, stop/yield signs, fence posts (chain link type), and a half dozen other combined items.

Heh! That reminds me of "The Six Million Dollar Man" episode where Steve Austin rips an 8-foot galvanized fencepost out of the ground, including the concrete in which it was set, and hurls it like an over-sized javelin, destroying the bad guys' van.

Wow, that's a LOT of cool ideas.

Regarding "a gang of kids all dressed as Soviet Generals": Yes, pretty much
Not that they'd ALL be decked out in full greatcoats and oversized peaked caps, mind you. The way I imagine such a gang, they wouldn't really be going for uniformity.

Aside from 18th century dandies, there's also the idea of Byronesque Victorian dandies.

The "Samurai Punk Zombies" from Wyrd Miniatures give me the idea of a subculture that combines punk with Edo-era "kabukimono" (young out-of-work ronin living in the big cities, who began deliberately wearing their clothes askew and acting generally scandalous; in many ways they were the punkers of their age). Imagine kids wearing feudal Japanese-style clothing (with utter disregard for wearing it "right", and combining it freely with modern garments) together with the classic trademarks of punk, like chains and mohawk haircuts. Or even skip the punk and go for straight kabukimono. I'd love modelling a gang like this!

The old Dark Future novels had Jessamyn Bonney, aka Krokodil, being part of a commie juvenile street gang.

I use GW's Valhallans as neo-commies: link
other factions include copplestone's neo-sov partisans and normal suburban middleclass kids adorned in red shirts and stars and the likes.
Privateer press has some cool stuff in the Khador range.

I love Yonderboy's pomo-artist idea!

One of the Batman films, with batgirl iirc, has a scene with a lot of different streetgangs on a party.

MegaMinis does "street furniture", including parking meters, IIRC.

You're right, Farstar: link

Got me some ideas walking to work this morning… Not sure how viable they'd be -- viable as in "likely to happen" and/or "possible to execute well". Anyway:
* Neo-Indians, sporting hairdos and warpaint mix&matched from various North American Indian cultures, wearing ripped t-shirts and cut-up denims to model for bugskin leggings; given to do stuff like counting coup and cutting off hair of their victims.
* Gangs with serious body modifications such as full-body tattoos and/or extensive & excrusiating piercing. Possibly some "punitive" amputations. Maybe taking leads from Hellraiser movies. For farther future games, consider the possibility of actual fenotyping (c.f. "alien" gangs in Dan Simmons' "Hyperion").
* And if you don't want everything to be dead serious, how about a gang with a Games Workshop obsession, close shaving & bodypainting themselves green to try to dress up as Orks c.f. GorkaMorka's Diggas (-;)

"Neo-Indians"

GW's Necromunda Ratskins would work well for this – although many of them are wearing skins of Giant Rats and wielding those huge GW guns.

There are also futuristic Indians in Shockforce (figures still available through Shockforce Warehouse).

Another thought, although not one that's likely to work well in a miniature game:
The Drabs – These kids have fallen in love with the depressing, then-futuristic visions of books like 1984 and A Brave New World. In their typically dark, angsty way, they're convinced this is what the world should be like now. They'll deliberately wear the drabbest, dullest clothes they can find, and shuffle around in packs keeping up all the appearances of mindless automatons (on the inside, they're loving it, but the important thing is not to show it). Their "slang" is in fact the very lack of slang, emulating Newspeak. Tattooing fake lobotomy scars on their foreheads and barcodes somewhere on their body are popular forms of expression among Drabs. Basically, their mindset is "It's the future now; We're supposed to be robots. Get with the program!"

Wargamers are "Cool"!